Bridge Over Troubled Water

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Morning, CCW.

Amen.

Turn your Bibles to Joshua chapter 3.

Joshua 3 · chapter mention

We're continuing our forward series there.

And as you're turning, Joshua 3, just want to make one uh reminder today.

If you if you have the opportunity after church service, we used to have lunch together every week when we started in uh COVID shut all that down.

But, anyways, we we uh try to do it about once a month, and so today is our lunch day.

You can travel, follow the pathway over to our previous building.

Um, and we're having a good fried chicken, and there's some grilled chicken for the people who don't like the fried chicken that need saved.

Um, but we're having we're having God's chicken.

Um, and then there's some healthy stuff.

So we would love to have you.

Um and I do have a prayer concern.

I just want y'all, everybody kind of knows Thomas around here.

I don't see Thomas right now.

He's he's somewhere with his roll tied on.

And uh Thomas lost his brother a few weeks ago.

So be in prayer for him.

He mentioned that in our men's night Monday, and I know that he's uh just he's asked for prayer, so pray for him and his family.

But exciting to have baptism.

That's the first time we've had that in service, and so man, that was fun.

It was a good part of worship.

Thank you, all those that uh were involved in that.

In Joshua chapter 3.

Joshua 3 · chapter mention

So we've been trying to get to a place, and we've been talking about how, what we need to gear up with to get to that place, and so now we're getting into going from Acacia Grove, which is where they were camped at the last place of homelessness for the Israelites, going in to Jericho.

Um, but the first thing we'll look at this morning, number one, there's an obstacle to God's people.

And so as we drive in, there's an obstacle.

It seems like everything should just be easy, street, right?

40 years in the wilderness, and now God said, Let's go in, let's take the land.

Joshua's the new leader.

Let's go.

But right away we're gonna run into an obstacle.

Let me pray, Father.

We just pray that uh people of God this morning would hear your voice.

Lord, I pray that um anything that's an agenda, anything that doesn't need to be said would just be pushed out of the way.

Help the minds of people today.

I know we come in carrying a week's worth of goods.

And I pray that for the next few minutes that we'd unpack that and just be in your presence.

Move us, change us in Jesus' name.

Amen.

It says in Joshua chapter 3, then they rose up early in the morning, they sent out from Acacia Grove and came to the Jordan.

Joshua 3 · chapter mention

He and all the children of Israel and lodged there before they crossed over.

Verse 2.

So it was after three days the officers went through the camp, and they commanded the people, saying, When you see the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God and the priests of the Levites bearing it, then you shall set out from your place and go after it.

So we see immediately this obstacle.

He says, You gotta go, but you're gonna go across the Jordan.

That's interesting, because that sounds like a river.

And I'm not sure how good everyone's swimming is, but listen to me.

God calls us to something, and now there's a hindrance to progress.

That's called an obstacle.

Have you guys ever seen these orbit soccer balls, like the inflatable kind that people get into?

All right?

You've seen teenagers uh get into these things.

Now, I don't I don't mean to brag, really, I don't.

But to 12 to 15 year olds in an orbit soccer ball, me and mine, I'm an obstacle.

I want you to know that.

I am a living obstacle.

In fact, I found out at Camp Gotell a few years ago as I suited up into this thing that I'd never been in before.

New felt power.

And as 12-year-olds came running my way, they went flying into outer space the other direction.

I felt strong.

Listen, no 12 to 14-year-old.

Now, I'm not talking about the high schoolers.

I'll mess with them, okay?

I'm not trying to get hurt, but I was an obstacle to junior high students, and they kept running at me and they kept flying away.

In fact, I was kicked out of camp soccer for throwing kids too far into the air on these things.

I was an obstacle.

Uh, we played some flag football a few years back, Dave, Derek, myself, and I'm not lying, right?

We were an obstacle to teenagers, right?

Am I telling the truth?

That really couldn't stop us.

12, 13, 14-year-olds.

Okay?

And so when you think of coming into a place that you're trying to get to, sometimes you've got to face obstacles.

To get to God's promise, he doesn't say you're gonna get there without a challenge, that it's all gonna be easy, street.

You're gonna have to face some obstacles.

I want you to look at the person next to you and say, face it.

Look at your second choice, because that's what they are, the other person, and say, face it.

We have to face obstacles.

See, Israel's gonna have to face their past.

They're gonna have to face the giants that they didn't want to face, they're gonna have to face walls, and now they've got a river, floods.

And so this is an obstacle.

But the first obstacle I want you to recognize is this there's a 40-year problem.

There's a 40-year problem.

In fact, if you want to see about it in Joshua chapter 5, verse 6 and 7, it breaks it down.

Joshua 5:6

It says, For the children of Israel walked forty years in the wilderness till all the people who were men of war who came out of Egypt were consumed because they did not obey the voice of the Lord, to whom the Lord swore that he would not show them the land which which he would have sworn to their fathers that he would give us a land flowing with milk and honey.

Then Joshua circumcised their sons, he raised up, and they had gone on in this way.

So we see there's a 40-year problem.

That's an obstacle, folks.

Forty years.

There they are, because of their choice.

Remember?

Ten over here.

I don't know why they've always been on this side, but if you're on this side, the ten were over here.

The two were over there, but I every every week they've been over here.

Ten were over here.

We can't do it.

We can't take the land, they're too big, they're too much, we cannot do it.

And the two said, yes, we can go in.

But because of the ten, 40 years in the wilderness.

Have you ever been tent camping before?

Tent camping, listen to me.

You pay seven dollars to come to a place, it's cheap for a reason, you unload your stuff, then you build your home in the wilderness, your musty cold, or musty hot, either way, it's musty vinyl covering, and then you unpack water, you cook your water so that you can cook some beans, and then you eat.

This is vacation.

Or, right, that's tent camping, okay?

No shower, right?

You stink, unless you're like me.

I bring some soap and find a nearest sink and I do my best, okay?

No shower, you're okay.

Or there's RV camping, right?

How many RV campers are in the house?

Oh, look at these people.

This is glamping, okay?

It's not camping.

They pull a house up to a spot of dirt and pay$17.

There's an upcharge.

They hook in their electricity, they've got a shower, a TV, direct TV for their TV, a microwave, probably a dishwasher.

They press a button and the walls expand, a living room and a couch.

Like, couldn't you stay home?

Like, what are we doing?

And so they pull this thing up.

And that, look, I'm gonna be honest, you're more my people.

That sounds more like vacation, right?

Well, I had an in-between experience one time.

Went with there and he sent me pictures this week.

It's crazy.

So I got the proof.

And we they say, Oh, they're so-and-so, they have a uh they have a pop-up.

You can just you can use their RV.

They called it an RV.

Have you seen a pop-up?

Okay, so we pull this thing.

I'm looking at it, I'm like, where is it?

The RV is hidden somewhere in this box.

We pull it up to the tent site, and I'm telling you, I don't know nothing about this, but they they pulled out a real lever, and it's like a jack in a box.

It goes, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, boo.

I'm waiting for a clown to pop out.

And we we slept on a mattress this thick.

These people are over there living in their luxury.

They wake up, they look good.

He sent me a picture.

I look like I didn't sleep one minute.

Right?

Got all my kids on me.

They're like, camping is amazing.

I'm like, this is horrifying.

Oh, forgot about that.

It got so cold in our camper.

I think theirs was heated.

I don't know what happened.

At four in the morning, I went to Walmart and bought a space heater to provide for my frozen people.

Blew out the electric sockets.

The whole listen, this is supposed to be a good time, Israel are tent camping for 40 years.

That's the result of 10 no vision negatives.

40 years.

Make another fire, eat some more manna, another day.

You want comfort?

This is the dream, right?

Get old, retire, and do the same nothing day.

This is what they were doing.

And they're another day, taking it easy, bored out of their minds, another day, clock ticking like prison.

40 same boring years.

Listen to me, 14,600 days of the same tenth camping, over 350,000 hours.

I'd rather take a beating from a big giant taking my shot.

I'd rather he maim my leg off and I hop around for the next 39 years.

I'd rather take my shot, same boring robotic day.

Robotic day.

And here's what happens.

There's some people here that have been doing some similar things for 40 years, and here's what we call it.

We dignify it.

I'm setting my ways, Pastor.

I know who I am, I know what I do, and I'm pretty set.

Let me tell you about one of the most ungodliest lines you can say.

I'm setting my ways.

You can't teach an old dog new tricks.

God's real big on change.

The world, by and large, is living that same robotic day.

There's eight billion people on planet Earth, and six billion estimated are lost people.

Six billion people are living in that robotic day after day, wandering in the same wilderness as everyone else.

It's called hedonism woods.

They're in that wilderness.

Same robot saying, I must have money.

I must have trophies.

I must have cars.

I must have a house.

I must have sex.

I must have media likes.

I must, I must, I must, and they're robotically living the same aimless life.

And to achieve the highest heights that humanity has to offer, to get to that place, they'll cut themselves, they'll starve themselves, they'll drug themselves.

Listen to me, church.

They'll drink themselves, they'll oversport themselves, they'll sex themselves.

Six billion different individuals living the same existence.

Robots! Sad, church.

Let me ask you a question for you to think about.

So, well, I'm not, I'm not living that.

How many of your friends do you ever hear say a phrase like this?

Hey, I gotta tell somebody about Jesus today.

How many times a week do you hear a friend of yours say a phrase like, I got to tell somebody about Jesus today?

300 people here today would say, I believe totally in this book.

But how many of you have had to tell people about what's in it?

Robots.

If so many believe that it's true, why are we not dying to tell that truth?

How many people do you know that you come and say, I can't wait to worship this week?

Maybe a little more on that.

I can't wait.

I need it.

And you're telling people, your co-worker, I can't wait to serve.

I can't wait to help somebody.

Here's what I understand from the Bible.

Matthew 7, 13 says, Wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction.

And many.

Six billion many are walking towards that destruction.

It says, but narrow is the way that leads to life.

It's narrow.

There's a few, there's a few that are gonna get all in, that are gonna burn them boats, and they're gonna say, I'm in, I'm in, I want what's in front of me.

Doesn't matter the obstacle, I'm in.

It says, narrow is that way, and I don't know what's in store for you, church, for your next 40, but I'm begging you.

I'm begging you, don't be another robot.

Not a robot like the lost.

Don't be a Christian robot.

We're walking around Christianity, and it's like God says the Holy Spirit brings us life and it's vibrant and vivacious, and we're like, well, praise the Lord, that was a good service.

I almost felt like I almost almost got my hand up.

Like, what are we doing?

Robotic.

Jude 22 says, and some have compassion making a difference.

You see, there was this 40-year problem, I'm telling you, if you've been here and you came, there's people that came in, and this was your preconception.

God, if you can do something, you can go ahead, but I kind of I know who I am.

I know how I'm gonna respond.

And there's not a whole lot that's gonna change about that.

That's a problem.

A 40-year problem.

Tank camping, wandering, wilderness, boring.

Well, there's a second problem that they have to face.

Letter B is this, the flood problem.

I want you to go down chapter 3, verse 15 in the second part of the verse.

Says for the Jordan, I want you to see this part, we'll come back to the other, but for the Jordan overflows all its banks during the whole time of harvest.

During fall, which is when they're going, the Jordan banks overflow.

It overflows.

There's a flood problem.

So they're going into the promised land, and God says, cross the river.

By the way, the river's going to be really full, really flooded, but you're going to cross that river.

I want you to understand some uh statistics here.

Genesis 1, you hear heaven mentioned three times, earth mentioned four times, light and day mentioned eight times, water ten times.

75% of the earth's surface is covered by water.

Many miracles in the Bible mention water.

When God talks about water, I want you to pay attention.

It's usually something real important.

And so God is going to use water, which by the way, was the same miracle that he did for the Israelites as they crossed out of Egypt.

And he says, As I did with Moses, so I will do with you, Joshua.

That's important because God's about to show them what he did.

But you got to pay attention.

It was fall, and during fall, waters flooded.

And God said, Cross the river.

Okay.

The engineers are all back here, right?

Well, 20 miles long, two miles wide, 120 feet deep, and and their brains are beginning to smoke, and here's what we find out.

This is an obstacle.

It's a problem.

But it's not a problem for God.

God is teaching a lesson, and he says, tomorrow, you guys are going to see.

You guys are going to see something.

And you'll have to face it.

Your fathers wouldn't fight their obstacle.

They turntail, they hid, and so what they were rewarded with was 40 years robots.

You want something new, you say you want something new, church.

You say you want to be different.

You want to experience God new.

You want revival.

You have to do something different.

Don't run from it.

Don't go around it.

He says, face it.

Look at your neighbor and say, face it.

Second point this morning is this we see an observance that brings God's presence.

I want you to look at verse 3.

He said, and the command of the people saying, When you see observance, when you see the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord your God and the priests of the Levites bearing it, then you shall set out from your place and go after it.

When you see the Ark of the Covenant.

We're going to talk about that in a second.

But it's an observance.

When you see something, go after it.

Get near it.

You ever saw something, men, that you wanted, and you decided you had to go after it?

Hopefully you got a lady next to you, and maybe that was it.

Some of y'all are like, I saw some fishing lowers this weekend, and I had to go back.

We got a group of people that like fishing around here, so I'm joking, but I saw Heather.

I wanted to get close to her.

I did some recon work.

I was not very close to her friend group when I met up with them at Steak and Shake.

I've told you that story.

And so we met up and I saw who was in the group.

I had one friend.

There's about 15 people.

Well, you know what I had to do with my recon work?

All of a sudden, that dorm rooms at night, all of those guys that were at that table became some of my close buddies.

My friends.

I started liking what they liked.

I was getting close.

I was getting intel.

I was getting on the inside.

And they became my good friends.

All of a sudden, they were at the lunch table.

I was at the lunch table.

I was buddying up with her buddies.

And so she, if she was there, if Heather was there, Rick was there.

And I'd find and then we started going out to lunches.

Couple of couples.

I'm hanging out.

We're not a couple.

Okay, but I'm making it seem that way.

I keep showing up, keep making her laugh, just keep depositing my deposits.

Right?

After a while, it's just two of us couples hang out.

Before long, that couple couldn't make it to the China moon one day.

I'm like, you still want to go?

Yes, she did.

And so my reconnaissance worked.

Sadaka Hall told me a quote the other week.

He's uh one of our church members, and I'm gonna start using it from now.

He says, Shooters gotta shoot.

Shooters gotta shoot.

We gotta take our shot.

He said he had to take several before Rochelle said, Yes, but shooters gotta shoot.

I had to take my shot to get close.

I had to take my shot.

This is what he said.

When you see the Ark of the Covenant, the Ark of the Covenant represents something.

Letter A this morning is this the closeness to the Lord's work.

The Ark of the Covenant is a picture of God's presence.

It's a symbolization.

It went before the Israelites and it carried with him in it the two tablets, the Ten Commandments.

It had golden posts and it was carried before them.

But it was a picture of God's presence to his people.

It was a picture to them of his glory.

It was a physical object, it was a symbol.

But when they saw the Ark of the Covenant go before them, it was God's power is in our midst.

In fact, the Ark of the Covenant was so serious in 2 Samuel 6 3, there's a man named Yuza.

There was certain people allowed to touch it.

Yuza died because he touched it.

Literally, right before he died, David quoted M.

C.

Hammer.

He said, You can't touch this.

That's not true, but it was funny.

The point is, if you want to see the power of God, you're gonna have to do something different.

To be close to God, to be this close to God, you've got to do something different than the 40 years have been doing.

40 years of fear cause Israel to be robots.

God has promises awaiting you, church.

And my question this morning, are you close to God?

If he was at work, would you know it?

He could be right in your midst.

Are you close to him?

Are you near his presence?

Verse 5.

Because to be close to God, Joshua tells him something.

And Joshua said to the people, remember, the Ark of the Covenant's gonna come by, then you'll know where to go.

Verse 5.

And Joshua said to the people, Sanctify yourselves.

For tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you.

Letter B is this the cleansing of your life's weakness.

He says, clean, sanctify yourself.

He says, consecrate.

That means for Israel, that meant to eliminate sinful practices.

And they would wash themselves and they would put on clean clothes and they would be ready.

In my house, when company is coming, Heather might as well say, sanctify the house.

Because we clean the living room, we clean the dining room, we clean the bathroom, we clean the kitchen.

I can be caught cleaning the garage that nobody goes in.

We clean, we sweep, we mop, we vacuum, and I'm telling you, there's pieces of the floor that I have swept so good that there's barely floor left.

Okay?

So when company is coming, we want it to be nice.

Why all that, Pastor Rick?

Well, one, because she wants it, most important.

But we want to be ready for the company that we keep.

We want it to be nice and fragrant and welcoming.

What would kill my wife is if somebody walked in and said, This place stinks.

I can't be here.

This is disgusting.

Right?

This must have disgusting people.

Joshua said before the ark of the covenant, before the presence of God, listen to me, church, before he comes in this place, we say we want revival.

Before we experience the presence of God, he says, You gotta consecrate.

Now, listen, don't mishear me.

He didn't ask you to come as a lost person clean.

Psalms 42 says that he brought me up out of a terrible pit, out of miry clay, that he set my feet on a rock and he established my goings and gave me a new song to sing.

God finds me lost in my mess and he's not shocked by my lostness and my mess.

When I'm lost, he says, I'll save you.

I'm not trying to clean you up to catch you.

I'll catch you, then I'll clean you, okay, fishermen.

And so he catches us, and then the second part happens.

The child of God, there should be a progression.

There should be sanctification.

He says, Sanctify yourselves.

Okay, if you've been a longtime Christian, there should be, in other words, betterment, right?

Like in the school world, you're a lifelong learner.

There should be betterment.

And it's not the Bible says, be ye holy, for I am holy.

Doesn't mean that we're going to be perfect when we get to heaven, but we sin less.

We're not sinless, but we sin less and we become more like God, and it's a progression.

I desire more of his word.

I desire more of his fellowship.

I am changing and bettering.

He says, cleanse yourself.

In order to be close to him desperately, we need cleaning.

Say, cleaning from what, Pastor Reeves?

I'm clean.

Church, hear me.

We need cleaning of sin.

We need cleaning of our words, our unkind words, our jealous words, our lewd words, our gossiping words.

What about our thoughts?

Impure thoughts, sexual impurity, lustful thoughts, motivations, actions, envying, greedy.

We need cleansing today.

And by and large, though, the church and America and the two billion that are saved in general will robotically say, I'm good.

I want the presence of God.

But if you ask me to confess, now you're getting personal, Pastor.

Now you're digging.

Confess.

He says that we need to be clean.

The ark is coming tomorrow.

And hear me, church.

We make light of what Jesus has done on the cross.

He died to absolve all that sin.

We don't have to kind of live as a halfway Christian or robotic Christian.

We can live in this freedom and have that vivacious, vibrant life in Christ.

But we have to be cleaned up.

His presence will be here.

We'll totally miss it because we're not clean.

And it blocks that.

It is sin that separates us from a holy God.

And so if we're not cleaning it, then we're keeping ourselves just separate.

And he'll clean it.

He's already worked for it and done it.

And so Joshua says, out of reverence for my God's work that is coming tomorrow, you guys got to be clean.

He says, consecrate yourself, clean up, put on a fresh pair of clothes, and get your sins absolved before him.

Because when you get close to God's presence, I want to tell you, church, a natural byproduct of being in the presence of God is confession of sin.

When God starts coming into a place, it's a natural byproduct to clean up.

You cannot be close to God and be full of sin.

Isaiah said, Woe is me.

I'm a man of unclean lips.

I am weak and undone when the presence of God got in his place.

He says, God, I'm not good enough.

I'm not enough.

And he's worshiping, but he's saying, Lord, forgive me.

I'm close to your presence.

God, forgive me and cleanse me and make me clean.

Hear me.

One of the most important things you can do today is confess.

I was thinking about this in five, I don't know, seven times in my life in ministry, I've seen the presence of God show up.

And it was as if God had a throne and he was sitting in the room.

You could feel it.

I don't know how to explain it, but his presence was in a place.

And I started trying to think back through those different scenarios.

And what was a common tie?

Now, one, I was always with teenagers, a group of a few adults and teenagers.

And here's what happened every time.

Bar none.

And it never even started this way.

But people begin to confess.

Usually one kid, one random kid that you didn't think of squirrely kid over here, you see a little tear start in their eye, like, oh no, what's he gonna say?

And you're scared over, I'm scared over what in the world's about to happen.

He says, I've been really mean to my sister.

And just tears flowing from a kid's face, broken over what we say.

It's like, well, that's kind of like a normal sin.

You shouldn't be that upset about that.

We're all mean to our sister.

And he's just pouring sister and brother unite in an embrace across the room.

And you're like, that's it! Broken about sin.

Because Psalm says I can work with a broken and contrite heart and that spirit.

And I've speculated after seeing that time and again, why I've never seen it happen in a group of adults.

He wants to take us somewhere we've never been in 23.

But hear me, adults, you've got to clean up.

The secret to revival is shared in 2 Chronicles 7:14.

2 Chronicles 7:14

He says, if my people who are called by my name will confess, will turn from their sins, will turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven.

But somewhere in our churches, we become so proper that we cannot confess.

I'm here today, I've got my Bible, I've got the children here, and I'm a good Christian.

I'm gonna give later and I'm gonna serve.

And when someone says to confess, we go, no, Pastor.

The people down the road, the people across the aisle.

No.

And we become too proper.

We care too much about what people think instead of what God says and our mental process of others, their opinion is crippling to the work of God.

The church in USA is being incrementally lulled asleep by accepting sin.

We come in and go, that was motivational, but we leave the same.

And we've accepted it.

We become quiet in an effort not to offend, in an effort not to be politically incorrect.

We don't want to be intolerant, so we just quiet about sin.

And we become too full of pride to confess it.

We become too set in our ways.

We're robots.

Let me tell you what Revelation says.

If you got time, you can turn.

Revelations chapter 2.

Revelation 2 · chapter mention

It's a sobering thought.

Revelations 2, 2 through 5.

Speaking to the church at Ephesus, he says, of that church, this is a church.

He's not speaking to a group of lost without God people.

He says, I know your works, church, your labor, your patience, and that you cannot bear those who are evil, and you have tested those who say they are apostles and are not, and have found them liars, and you have persevered, and you have patience, and you have labored for in my name's sake, and you've not become weary in it.

A lot of serving.

Nevertheless, I have this against you.

You've left your first love.

He says, Remember therefore from where you have fallen, repent.

That's clean up.

Confess, repent, and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place.

He says, Repent, or I'm going to remove your candlestick.

You know what that is?

Your candlestick, that's your blessing and your protection.

And I'm telling you, as Americans, we're on the precipice and we're right there.

We're on the banks, and we can go through and see God if we get through the Jordan, the other side, and maybe God will bring revival to our people.

But I'm telling you, evil is trying to infiltrate what is ours, our religious freedoms, our very own constitution.

The enemy wants religious tyranny.

What we even have a constitution for.

The enemy wants to take away.

We came here fighting all of the religious attacks, and we came here saying, give me our freedom.

And the enemy is knocking at the door.

And if we don't do what 2 Chronicles and Revelation says, it says he'll remove our blessing.

Church, today is the day to confess.

We cannot get to the new place if we don't clean up.

If my people humble themselves and pray and turn from their wicked way, then and only then will I hear from heaven.

Then and only then will I forgive their sin.

Then and only then will I heal their land.

That means today all of us need to be humbled.

In just about eight, ten minutes, we're going to have an altar call, an invitation.

And I want to tell you this from my heart to yours.

Revival doesn't start with anybody else but the person who's in your seat.

It starts with you.

Eight weeks ago, I spoke this same message to a group of students.

Let me tell you what happened in the room.

Presence of God fell.

Did it not?

Students?

God came into that place.

There was weeping, there was embracing in the presence of God.

You know why?

Because students will get vulnerable with their heart.

It's hard when you've lived 40 years this one way.

You say, I'm set, I can't do it, but you can.

But will you?

The Bible says, 1 Corinthians 11, let a man examine himself.

Let's look at the last thing.

It's an obedience that brings God's promise.

Isaiah 1, 19 and 20 says, If you're willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land, but if you rebel, you shall be devoured.

See what happens.

So Joshua lays out this plan.

He tells the people.

It takes a commitment.

To do what I'm saying today, it takes a commitment.

You're committed to some things in your life.

How committed are you to engaging in God's plan for your life?

We've got our missions coordinator here, Deeja Brown.

She's going to be sharing at lunchtime about missions trip opportunities.

There's several.

Maybe today is a day where you say, God, I know that you've got something for me in this realm.

What is your commitment level?

You see, Joshua and Caleb, they were two of 12 that were different from the crowd.

Two of 12.

I started thinking about that.

And, you know, numbers sometimes make some sense to me, but that's 16% of the crowd.

Two of 12.

I don't know why.

16% didn't get it done.

God from heaven looked down, and maybe it was more than 84% that were dissenters, but 16% he looked down at.

This is what I want to do.

If you are a staff member of the church or a council member of the church, or a wife of a staff member or council member, I want you to stand up.

Just stand up.

Alright?

Luke's excited about you.

Okay.

I want you to pause there a second.

Just take a look.

We're going to assume that this counts as 16%.

God saw their hearts, and there's all kinds of factors involved that we don't know.

But it wasn't, listen to me.

This wasn't enough.

And I don't know why it wasn't enough, but God looked at Joshua and Caleb and I think he was pleased with them, but he looked at the 84 and he said, I can't believe what I've showed you.

And it wasn't enough.

And I got thinking about that 16%, and it wasn't enough.

What if what if the 16% just had an impact on one more?

So those of you standing, I need you to get somebody near you to stand up.

Go ahead, get them up.

Get them up one more.

And we got one more.

And that group stood up with them.

And then they got to their feet.

And what if that person then went to work and they got one more?

So I need you that are now up, get one more person next to you.

And now while you're getting up, I need you to look at the person that's way across the way.

I am right now.

Get that eye and say, You gotta get up too.

Because I'm reaching people over here, but you over there, you ain't doing it.

Listen to me, we could keep going on and on, but what I want you to understand, you see how quickly one mattered?

If we kept this up, these guys are all standing, they go to work, they reach one, and you know what's gonna happen?

They're standing, and they come back to church next week, and you guys that are sitting are like, man, I'm tired, I'm tired of these people being all in, and look at me over here just sitting.

It looks like they're having more fun standing than I am sitting.

And guess what?

Everybody somewhere who wants to stand up, go ahead and stand up.

Just stand up.

You see them doing it.

Look, look, look at what you see.

People start seeing people standing, and they go, I want in two.

It's not long before the minority is now a majority.

And there's Christians everywhere.

Y'all have a seat.

Thank you very much.

And we take it to work, and all of a sudden it matters.

You think, Pastor, I really I'm just one.

It really doesn't matter.

You matter.

The thing that's going on in your heart this morning that needs to confess, it matters.

One matters.

Look back at verse two.

I don't want you to miss an important detail.

Don't miss the weight of this detail.

So they get to that point.

He says clean up.

They they're about to be, they have this commitment, and they're about to see it all unfold.

But look at this.

I don't want to miss this.

We could miss this.

Verse 2.

So it was after three days that the officers went through camp.

Don't miss the weight of this detail.

They get there, they're about to go in, and he says, three days.

Three days, God forced them to stand and watch the torrents of the Jordan River at fall time.

Can you imagine?

40 years you've been waiting for something.

It was like getting out of the house at COVID.

Like, please don't tell me I'm stuck for another week.

Please let me out.

Right?

And they're like, 40 years.

And we had what?

You know, some months.

40 years.

And then he says, All right, guys, we're going in three days, just three, right?

It's like putting off Christmas for three days for your kids.

Three days.

And they're watching.

And there's this river, and there's these waters, and the torrent is unabated, and all they could do was look across at the rising waters of the Canaan.

And this is what they thought, I'm sure.

This is utterly impossible.

Their long journey to the promised land, and now it appears it has just ended short of the goal.

This is impossible.

He's just gonna kill us.

Why did God bring them and compel them to look with longingness at the land that he had promised their forefathers?

I'll tell you what I think.

I think God wanted them to see the impossibility of tomorrow.

Now you can come today and make a decision.

And I've taken kids to camp all over this country, and you can make a decision, and I want you to understand the impossibility of tomorrow looms.

My spirit says, I need cleaned, I gotta change.

My flesh wakes up on Monday and it's still Monday and it's still raining for the last six weeks.

And you know, I wake up me and I go, why didn't I wake up something else?

The impossibility, God compelled them, wait three days and allow the feelings of hopelessness, I believe, to reach its highest measure.

Why?

Because at the end of me, Jesus can work.

Hear me, church, the end of me, that's where Jesus can be found.

At the end of my feelings, at the end of my hope, at the end of my natural lean, I'll find Jesus.

But we are all too often our worst enemy.

This type of commitment is rare.

For somebody to have this type of commitment is rare.

Look at verse 14.

It says, so it was.

I'm gonna say that again.

It says, so it was.

It happened.

And today I'm hoping for a so it was in our church.

We talk about burning the boats, we talk about what it takes to get in and be all in.

But I'm hoping today is a day of so it was.

The type of commitment gets clean.

And here's what happens.

I talked about it a second.

This type of commitment goes home.

They're crazy.

They go home and they decide together.

The two of you that were standing, you get in contact with your friend across the room, and you decide on a person.

And you call that person and you bother that person in the name of Jesus.

You catch them at work, you catch them at Publix, you catch them at the ball field, and you catch that person, and you know what?

Next Sunday, guess who shows up to church?

Because 15 all-ins wouldn't leave them alone.

Well, if 15 people are all about that thing, I must gotta find something out about it.

Right?

Have you ever seen teenagers?

If four of them get together on something, 27 will come.

Because if they're just a buzz, it's gonna be amazing.

It's gonna be awesome.

We're gonna play kickball.

They'll just start showing up.

And because you go after these people, they show up, and guess what happens to them?

Well, they come, they hear the gospel, and they're like, I gotta burn some boats.

I don't know what this burn the boats is, but somebody give me a match.

I got some.

And they get saved, and then they come back, and our church begins to get all in.

You know what that commitment has turned into?

The Bible calls it revival.

When for a place and a time a people will be real, and we're not halfway, we're not willing to robotically live through it anymore.

There was a secret to their commitment, though.

Look at verse 4.

They had to wait that three days, get to the end of themselves, then verse 4.

Yet there shall be a space between you and it, talking about the Ark of the Covenant, about 2,000 cubits by measure.

Do not come near it that you may know the way which you must go, for you have not, listen to me, you have not passed this way before.

That's something new.

You have not gone this way before.

You want something new?

This is a new way.

And he says, You're gonna have to, here's the secret the ark, the presence of God is going to go before you.

It's about 2,000 cubits.

2,000 cubits is about a mile out.

You're gonna be able to see it.

And this is what I want you to know.

When it hits that water and the priests are in that water, you will know that that's when you go, because before you I have set my presence.

And if you'll keep your eyes focused on my presence about a mile ahead of you, if you'll stay right there, not left, not right, if you'll stay on my presence.

You'll get through this.

And the secret to their commitment is there.

He says, if you'll keep your eyes focused on me.

I thought about this.

We always talk about Peter as if Peter was the first person called out on water.

But Moses and Joshua were caught out on water too.

And you know the same thing that was said to Peter.

He said, Peter, if if you want to come out, come out.

What happened to Peter?

When he took his eyes off Jesus, guess what happened?

He started sinking.

And Jesus said, if you just keep your eyes focused about a mile out, my presence is going to be right there.

And you know what?

If you'll keep looking at me and you start walking towards me, it won't matter what's below you.

It don't matter what's beside you or who's beside you.

It's definitely not going to matter what's behind you.

But you got to keep focused on my presence because where I go, if you focus on me, you go.

If you want to go a new way, that's what he says.

So we see to get to that new place, it takes cleaning and commitment.

And let her be.

We see what is happening.

A crossing that enacts God's performance.

Look at verse 16.

The waters which came down from upstream stood still and rose up in a heap very far away at Adam, the city that is beside Zaratan.

So the waters that went down into the Sea of the Arabah, the Salt Sea, failed and were cut off, and the people crossed over opposite Jericho.

So the priests took the ark, they marched their envoy right towards flooding waters.

Onlookers, if they were around and they weren't Israelites, would probably say, This is suicide.

What are these guys doing?

And I don't know who that first priest was, but I bet when his feet touched the water and he looked down and he was wearing his magic aqua socks.

He said, Woo! And he looked down, water is rising and receding.

And we see a real live miracle of God.

And the Jordan got out of the way.

It was like nothing anyone had seen.

And it moved in reverse.

And so he stepped and the water moved.

And he stepped, focused on God, and the water got back, and he stepped.

And I'm telling you, church, if you just step, focused on him, the obstacle will move.

Or you'll be able to walk right through it, one of the two.

And so they began walking.

And I bet they're Israelites at first.

I bet at first they were in wonder.

They see it.

And then I began, they looked at it and saw what was going on.

Then I think they probably began to strut.

Woo! Look at this.

And then one of them, I don't know which one, he looked down and he said, He said, It ain't no mud on my shoe.

What about you guys?

This was wet a second ago.

He said, No mud.

Woo! And then he said, Woo! Moonwalk.

And then he started, I don't know, macaron, I don't know.

Probably the he didn't do it a robot.

I'm gonna tell you what he didn't do.

He didn't do it a robot.

But they began to walk over that place seeing the works of God.

Do you want to see the works of God, church?

I think a lot of people say yes.

But their life, their day-to-day, what happens today, will it say yes to?

When you do it God's way, water runs.

And this is what I understand of God.

God works in another dimension, heaven's dimension.

We work in this two dimension.

We work in this world.

And God can build from his dimension, from heaven, from all he sees on earth, an invisible dam.

We can't see it.

But God's over here going and the dam is moving the water back, it's rising in a heap.

And God, that's not a problem for God.

And when you do it God's way, soaking wet sand is not wet because God can put an invisible bridge over wet sand.

When you do it God's way, he sees in a different dimension.

He says, I can do exceedingly abundantly above all you ask or all you can even think, imagine.

Anything that can come in here, I can do much bigger than that.

And so he says, I'll throw this.

Furthermore, we're gonna see in later in Joshua, God from his dimension, he can use a trumpet to throw a heavenly wrecking ball that nobody sees.

It's gonna knock down some walls, right?

God works in a dimension that we can't see, but he sees it.

And so all of the Israelites, look at verse 17, they cross over this invisible bridge of dry ground.

The priest who bore the ark of the covenant of the Lord stood firm on dry ground in the midst of the Jordan, and all Israel crossed over on dry ground until all the people, all the people had crossed completely.

Jesus Christ built them an invisible bridge.

Dry ground.

They all walked across.

I was thinking about that this week, and I'm finishing up with this.

Church Jesus and what he did for you and me created a bridge.

God the Father, in his holiness and his justice and his wrath against sin, cannot be touched by sin.

And we are over here in our sinfulness, wanting hopefully to get to God the Father.

And what Jesus did on the cross, bearing our sin and shame, was create a bridge from being left alone, desolate, dying in a real place called hell, to get to the Father through Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ enters into many burdens with a bridge.

You see it all through the New Testament.

Messes.

There's lame people.

He walks in and he puts them on this bridge to healing.

Deaf people walk in and change their life, a bridge to healing.

Blind, possessed, dead people come back to life.

He puts them on this.

Well, I come across this scripture again.

John chapter 5.

John 5 · chapter mention

Listen to this.

Verse 4 says, For an angel went down a certain time into the pool and stirred up the water.

Then whoever stepped in first after the stirring of the water was made well of whatever disease he had.

This is a miracle of itself.

An angel would come, touch this water, people could get in and be healed of a disease.

Verse 5.

Now a certain man was there who had an infirmity.

I wish it was 40.

38 years.

It would work better.

But 38 years he had the same infirmity.

And when Jesus saw him lying there and knew that, he had already been in that condition a long time.

Listen to look at what he says to him.

38 years.

And Jesus asked him a penetrating question that I want you to think on.

38 years, same way, same math, same routine, robot, nothing better, nothing.

And he asks him a question.

He says, Sir, do you want to be made well?

I'll be alarmed at his response in a second.

The question, do you even want to be well?

Church.

Look at what he says.

He the sick man answers him.

Verse 7.

And he doesn't say, Yes.

He says, Sir, I have no man to put me in the pool when the water is stirred up, but while I'm coming, another steps down before me.

Do you want to be well?

Do you want to be well?

And he says, I can't get up.

I can't get out.

Nobody will pick me up.

There's no way for me to do it.

38 years, same thing.

Somebody always gets in front of me.

Nobody cares about me.

Nobody wants to help me.

I don't have the help.

I can't do it.

I'm stuck.

I cannot do it.

I've been in this way.

And I kind of like my mat.

My mat's warm, my mat's cozy.

I've gotten used to my mat.

I've been here.

I got a nice view.

I've finally gotten the view that I want to turn my head sideways.

I can look over.

And he gives him a lot of excuse.

He starts with why he can't be well.

Student, do you want to be well?

You gotta clean up.

You gotta confess.

He says, Do you want to be well?

Well, I love my Matt.

This man is in the worst place he's been, in troubled waters, 38 years watching other people get healed.

He's a paralyzed robot.

Gotten used to it.

I sat in this chair for week after week.

Look, I'm gonna tell you, I got in trouble as a youth pastor for saying this, but I don't even care.

When I was at this other church, I said, I've been to this church.

I looked in with all my fire.

I said, I've been here for seven years.

And some of you folks, if you start equating services, I said, it's been like 8,000 services I've been in.

Some of you have never moved.

How can you come to a place of God and his presence be there?

And you go, I'm in, I'm out, same thing.

Never ever been moved by the God of all creation.

This heart is stone.

Gotta move that stone.

Listen, he says, Do you want to be well?

I'm so glad that it didn't end there.

Jesus, in about as imperative of voice as I think he has, looked at him after he said, I can't.

And Jesus said to him, Rise, take up your bed and walk.

And the man got up.

Whoo! And he walked off.

And he ran off.

Jesus found him in another temple down the road later.

So this man walked off.

He rose.

And I don't think he took time to roll up his mat and say, I gotta take my comfort.

Well, I'm still gonna carry this in.

He rose and he walked.

And listen, you don't miss it, you miss this in what Jesus said.

He didn't need the water.

Oh, you don't even need that.

You're in Jesus' presence.

All you gotta do is say it.

He said, Rise, get up and walk.

40 years and the tie across all of them, the Israelites, pointless, boring, robotic, same mat, same thing.

Jesus enters and he brings a bridge.

It didn't matter the Jordan River was flooded.

When God touched the ground, the foot of his servant holding his presence, it caused an invisible bridge.

When Jesus went to that man on the mat, he empowered him to get on that bridge.

Church, I want you to know he got my mess so that I could get to the other side.

And I'm finished with this.

Today is your day.

And he's saying, get off your mat.

No excuses, no looking back.

You better get up.

You better get up.

You don't want to get what you've got the last 38 years.

You better get up.

You don't want these last 40 years.

You want your feet to work?

Get up.

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