Among His People | Joshua 3

It's good to see you guys. Hey, I want to start like this.

I want you to turn your Bibles to Joshua chapter 3.

Joshua 3 · chapter mention

If you don't have a Bible, we have one in the seat nearby in

front of you. It's just on the ground in front

of you. It's on page 179.

I'm going to meet you there in just a moment.

And while you're turning there, I want you to imagine with me

this moment. Imagine a man standing next to

the roaring Rapids of a river. He's sitting there and it the

calming, soothing sound of the river, it's just the best.

It's serene. It's nature.

And as he's standing there, he's looking out into the water and

he sees a school of tilapia going by.

And he thinks to himself, man, I wish I brought my fishing pole

today. Then behind him, he overhears

the chatter of the people behind him.

He hears some people gossiping, talking about the weather.

He's like, oh, man, it's just another day.

But then he snaps back into the nature scene, and he sees the

sunrise coming up over the slope.

And he's like, man, the last time I was here was 40 years

ago. And it wasn't like this.

See, 40 years ago, he felt a little bit younger.

His back hurt a little bit worse, his jaw was a bit

stronger, his hairline a bit better.

But he also remembers not just feeling younger and being

younger. He remembers the fight that

happened between him and his friends.

You see, this wasn't the first time he's at this river, but 40

years ago. He remembers the great argument,

10 on one side, 2 on the other. And they're debating whether or

not that they can get across this river and get into this

place and say, hey, we actually belong here.

And on one side with the 10, there's panic and hysteria and

fear. And him and his buddy Caleb, all

they sense is confidence and peace.

But on that day, 40 years ago, in that argument, he wasn't

enough. He wasn't strong enough,

compelling enough, persuasive enough.

He felt the haunting memory of not being the leader he wanted

to be. And if you're there in that

moment in your mind right now, you're imagining not just a

story, you're putting yourself in the shoes of Joshua Chapter

Joshua 3 · chapter mention

3. That this was a man who's

stepping into not just a chapter of a story, but he had a real

life with real decisions, with real stories behind him.

And as he once again, Joshua the the the title character of the

book of Joshua, as he steps to the Jordan River once again, you

can't help but wonder and imagine what it must have felt

like to be him on that day, to come back to this river that he

and his people didn't get to cross.

They had to stay wandering in the desert for 40 years.

And I bet he'd be asking a question like this.

How do I know? How do I actually know God is

with us this time on this? If God is truly among us, what

is that going to look like? That's a question Joshua must

have been asking himself. It's a question the text is

going to answer, but I think it's also a question that many

of us find ourselves asking as a church family, as people in a

city. Hey, if God is really here

amongst Saints City, if he's really actually with us, what's

that going to look like? What's that going to feel like

and sound like? What does it look like for God

to not just be with us in presence, but for us in power?

That God is behind us, He's the one carrying us forward.

What does that look like? Because like Joshua, I'm sure

many of us are concerned with our life.

Like what does it look like for God to be behind me and my

family? How do we know His hand is upon

us? He's blessing us.

Another word for it would be favor toward us.

What do we know? When do we know, excuse me, that

God is with us? I think Joshua chapter 3 is

Joshua 3 · chapter mention

going to show us. But before we get into Joshua

three, I just want to take a moment as a church family.

I want to pray. I want to bring our eyes and our

hearts before the Lord and say, God, would you speak to us?

Would you move? So would you join me as I pray

right now, Lord, we believe that you are actually among your

people. You're a living God.

You didn't stay dead, but you rose three days later and you

are alive, ruling and reigning right now.

And you want to speak to your people.

You want to build your Kingdom. And so, God, we are crying out

to you as your people to speak to us through your words, that

we would know what it looks like to have the living God, the holy

God with us and for us, and we'd have that confidence in Jesus

name, Amen. Amen.

Before I read the text, I just want to give you one quick Bible

study tip. If you are reading your Bible,

you're going through your devotional plan and you're like,

hey, how do I like get into the Old Testament?

How do I read a book like this so that I understand what to do

with it for my life? I'm going to give you a quick

little acronym. It's called speak FPEAK, and

it's this. When you're reading the Bible,

you're trying to apply it to your life.

The first one is speak, which is mean.

Hey, is there a sin to confess in this chapter that I'm getting

out of the text? Sin to confess.

The P stands for promise to believe.

That's like Joshua chapter one that be strong and courageous

for I am with you. That's Joshua one.

It's a promise to believe 3, which is what we're in today.

An example to follow. We're going to follow the

example of the Israelite people and of Joshua A stands for

actions to obey. That's like in the New Testament

when it's saying, hey, go love your neighbor.

That's like go do that. You don't have to follow an

example. You just go do the action that

the Bible said to do. And finally a knowledge to grow

in. That's like Colossians 115.

He is the image of the invisible God.

You're learning something about God and you need to grow in

knowledge of God so you can love Him and people more.

So that's a way to read your Bible.

I just want to give you that. Start here before we get into

Joshua one, and then we're going to get into this big idea that

the living God is among his people.

I get that from verse 10, which we'll get to in a moment.

But if you're taking notes and you'd like to take notes, jot

that down. That's this story, chapter 3.

It's what God wants us to know is that the living God is among

his people. And here's what the text says.

Joshua chapter 3, verse one. Then Joshua, the leader of

Joshua 3 · chapter mention

Israel, he rose early in the morning and they set out from

shitham and they came to the Jordan and he and all the people

of Israel and lodged there before they passed over.

At the end of the three days, the officers went through the

camp and commanded the people. As soon as you see the Ark of

the covenant, go ahead and underline that.

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

As soon as you see the ark of the Covenant of the Lord your

God being carried by the Levitical priest, then you shall

set out from your place and follow it.

Yet there shall be a distance between you and it, about 2000

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. 1st 5 Then Joshua said to the people,

consecrate yourselves for tomorrow.

The Lord will do wonders among you.

Stop there. 4 signs that I want to give you this morning If

you're asking yourself the question if God is truly among

us, what will it look like? I want to give you 4 signs today

that you can be sure, you can be certain that God is with us as a

people at Saint City and you personally for your life.

The 1st is this 4 signs that God is with us is set apart lives

you can know, you can trust, you can believe.

God is with you. God is with us when one of the

signs, one of the markers of the people is that their lives are

set apart for God. They're consecrated before him.

In fact, if you're taking notes, write that word now and

consecrate, because that's where it's getting the point.

Consecrated just means dedicating your life to a sacred

purpose. And the Israelites are commanded

by Joshua here to do that, to set their part their lives apart

for him, to dedicate their lives to, for a sacred purpose of

knowing and loving God. And so Joshua, they're about to

cross the river, and the first thing he does to prepare his

people is he says, hey, stop for a second before we do anything

else and let's consecrate ourselves before God because

Joshua's lived through something pretty hard already.

You see, it only took him about 40 days to get out of Egypt,

where he was enslaved, but it took 40 years to get Egypt out

of the Israelite people. Joshua has lived through the

reality of people who will not give their lives set apart for

God, who don't listen to him, who don't take him at his word.

Joshua knows what that's like and he's now leading a

generation of people to once again at the Jordan River, say,

hey, God, we're setting apart our lives.

We're setting apart this land for you.

And what I think is interesting about this is this generation of

Israel, they've heard about the parting of the Red Sea.

Now they did not watch the Prince of Egypt like we did to

experience it. That, you know, 2000 nineties

classic, great soundtrack. By the way, that's an excellent

movie. You should watch that.

Not exactly accurate. Sorry, I digress, but these

Israelites, those were their parents and their grandparents

who lived through that moment of the parting of the Red Sea.

And instead of like a vicarious, hey, I'm going to hear the story

about God being able to part water like this.

God's about to do basically the exact same thing for this

generation, basically the greatest miracle they'd ever

heard of, they're about to experience for themselves.

I think that's interesting. It's one thing to hear about

God's working power. It's another see it with your

own two eyes. When I was a kid, I grew up in

Chicagoland in the 90s. I was born in 93, which means I

missed peak Michael Jordan era. That's what it means I missed.

It means I was too young to fully appreciate the greatest of

all time. If you're a LeBron fan, the

doors right over there. No, I'm kidding.

But it was one thing to hear my dad, to hear my uncles talk

about Michael Jordan and his greatness.

It was another when I got old and I began to be able to watch

highlights of just how fantastic of a basketball player he was.

To hear reports of somebody's greatness is not the same as

seeing it in person. In fact, Job the author of a

book in the Bible, he says my ears had heard reports of you,

but now my eyes have seen your glory.

There is something different on being a visual learner about God

and these Israelites are about to experience first hand just

how powerful and mighty God is. That's why the second-half of

verse 5 says consecrate yourselves for tomorrow.

The Lord will do wonders among you.

That word wonder in the Old Testament, it's just how we

would say miracle there. Whenever they're saying wonders,

it just equals miracles. In the Old Testament they're

saying, hey, when God does awesome miraculous things, that

is a wonder. That is crazy.

That's astonishing. And God's about to part A river

before their eyes. But before he does that, Joshua

leads the people to consecrate themselves, to purify

themselves, because guess what? God himself is holy and pure,

therefore His people ought to be as well.

One of the signs of God being with us is that we set apart our

lives for Him, because guess what?

That's what God is. He is set apart from everything

else and all creation. And God will not be with us if

we do not have the reverence for His Holiness and His purity like

the Israelites did here. He will not be with us St.

City if we do not care about the holiness of God.

And I think I can hear some of you even objecting in in your

heart and your mind right now, if that like hey Brandon, are

you saying that God is not with me if I'm not living dedicated

to him if I'm not consecrated to him?

Not necessarily. Here's what I would say at that.

I would say that the sense of God being with you is what you

would feel. That God is not with you, not

that he's not actually with you, but your sense of whether or not

God is with you changes whether or not you are living dedicated

to him. That if you are drawing away

from God, it's not God who moved, it's you.

That as you draw near to God, he draws near to you.

And you might sense that God is far away, that he's distant,

that he is not with you, he is not among you.

If you are a Christian, you might get that sense, but it's

because you have not had a value for purity and holiness.

It's not because God changed or moved away from you.

It's because you moved away from Him.

We call that wandering in the Christian faith.

We call that wandering because you are moving from the

trajectory in the direction God has set for you, and you're

going the wrong direction for your life.

But there's good news for the wanderer here today.

If you find yourself wandering, if you find yourself lost, guess

what, today you can do this very verse 5, you can consecrate

yourself, you can set apart your life to God and he is right

there with a hug saying welcome home, welcome into relationship

with me. This is God.

He is a loving father who welcomes home every person who

has not lived their life fully to God.

He's saying, hey, guess what, You can live your life fully to

me now. It's OK.

You can turn from that and you can turn towards me.

You can no longer be a wanderer. You can be a worshipper, and

maybe you find yourself here today.

You're not actually wandering, but you're a worshipper of God.

This verse ought to give you gratitude.

Thank God that I know this God, that I love this God, that I can

walk with this God, that I can worship this God.

That's what it pulls out of you Every time you read a story like

this, you're like, wait a second.

I'm among the people who've heard the good news about Jesus.

I'm among the people who God is among.

How can that be? That's a miracle in of itself.

That's a wonder in and of itself.

It would you never lose the childlike wonder of what it is

to be adopted into God's family, worshipper of Jesus, the reality

that you are a son or daughter of God.

He looked into the spiritual orphan and he said I want that

one. And he called you by name,

consecrating yourself, setting your life apart from God.

Apart for God. Excuse me?

It's just a natural response of the grateful heart.

So we don't have to wander. We can worship because hey, we

want to see God with us. And we as God's people will live

lives set apart for him. That's the first thing.

That's the first sign. There'll be people everywhere

set apart for Him. The second one to look for is

spirit LED leadership. Spirit LED leadership.

God is the ultimate leader of his people and he is now setting

the plan for Joshua. In verse 3.

He's setting the plan for how 1,000,000 people are going to

cross the river by foot. I don't know if you've ever been

a crowd of 1,000,000 on foot before.

Crowds like that don't move well, they don't move fast.

They don't move organized. Every single time I see a parade

like that, you know, a victory parade for like the Seahawks, by

chance, shout out, Bo. Bo, where are you?

I don't know. I'll see you.

He's probably serving somewhere, always in the back.

Thank you, Bo. Seattle Seahawks fan,

congratulations. But there's a victory parade

when you're walking in that parade, guess what?

Those people don't move. Well, every time I'm at a parade

like that or see it, I just say man, they need a leader.

They need somebody to help them get through this.

These people need to move somewhere.

God saying, hey, I got you covered, Joshua, here's what I

want you to do. I want you to do 2 things before

we cross the river. First, I want the Ark of the

Covenant to go 1st and I want you Joshua, to know that I'm

with you. Both of them are important.

The first, the Ark of the covenant, verse three, look back

at your Bible with me. He commanded the people.

As soon as you see the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord your

God being carried by the Levitical priest, then you shall

set out for your place and follow it.

Now if you're new to following Jesus, you might be reading the

Ark of the Covenant as Noah's Ark.

Not the same thing. You're like, wait a second, were

they carrying that boat? No, they were not.

They were not carrying the ark that is in Noah's story.

This is a different ark. This ark is only about four feet

long and about 2.75 wide and tall.

So this is much more manageable than a floating zoo.

OK, much more manageable. And they're carrying this ark.

It is made of pure gold and what it represents and what the

Israelites actually believed was it was the actual throne where

God lived and dwelled among them, that this ark of the

covenant was a sign that their God was keeping his promise to

their forefather, Abram, Abraham, His name, it means the

father of many nations. And so they would carry this

with them and where they went as a symbol that we are God's

people and He is with us. He dwells among us.

He is alive. He is not dead.

He is not silent. He is here at this Ark of the

Covenant. So what that meant was the

people of Israel would look at this thing.

I mean, like how Indiana Jones looked at it, right?

I mean, just like, do not touch that.

That's dangerous. That's holy, that is set apart.

The Ark of the Covenant was the greatest artifact of the

Israelite people. It was their holy.

It went into the Holy of Holies. When the temple gets built, it

is their most precious, precious piece of worship.

And God says, hey, I want that to go first into the Jordan,

carried by the worship leaders of God's people, the Levites.

They're going to go first, symbolizing you're not just

following Joshua, you're following me into this river

spirit LED leadership. The Ark of the covenant actually

gets outdated in the New Testament.

Here's why. Because we have a better ark of

the covenant now that Jesus has come.

The reason that's not around anymore, the reason why we don't

need it is because Jesus Christ came to earth.

He died on a Roman cross. He rose again and by grace

alone, through faith alone in Christ alone, guess what?

God can live in you, that God the Father sent God the Son, so

God the Holy Spirit couldn't dwell.

Humans, normal, regular human beings, not just the priest, not

the leader of the people, Joshua, normal, regular,

ordinary people like you and I God can live inside of.

He can dwell among us. Isn't that mind blowing?

God lives in you. The same spirit that raised

Christ and the dead lives in you and is at work in you right here

right now. That is the promise of God.

And now God the spirit isn't just on a leader or on a people.

He is inside of him. He indwells people.

The spirit LED leader is the spirit filled leader.

Keep going in the text you'll see Joshua in verse 6, Joshua

says the priest take up the ark of the covenant pass on before

the people. So the priest take the ark.

They go in front of the people before them.

In verse 7, the Lord said to Joshua, today I will begin to

exalt you. I'll begin to lift you up, to

elevate you in the sight of all Israel that they may know, that

the people may know what that as God was with Moses, so I will be

with you. And As for you command the

priests who bear the ark, when you come to the brink of the

waters of Jordan, you shall stand still in the Jordan.

See, Joshua's leading the people now, and the Spirit of God is on

him, that just as God is with Moses now, he is with Joshua.

And the Spirit is not only leading through the ark of the

covenant, He's leading through a leader in the people's life.

And the Spirit LED leader that you need in your life, the

Spirit LED leadership you need in your life is no different.

You need a Spirit LED leader, not a self LED leader in your

life. Self LED leaders, Here's the

Bible's word wording for it. They follow their flesh.

That just means they go at what they feel is best or what they

want most or what they're driven by where their instincts may go.

Sometimes that lines up with God teaches in His word.

Most the time it doesn't win. Some lose most with that kind of

category, right? The problem is with being a

spirit. Having spirit, excuse me, having

self LED leadership in your life is that inevitably that will

point you in the wrong direction.

For example, you're wrestling through a job offer and if you

were to get a self LED leader in your life telling you why or why

not you should take that job, you might be wondering to

yourself, hey, what are they going to say?

How they're going to advise me? And they might be considering

things that the Bible doesn't actually care about.

They might be worried way more about how it affects your

budget. They might be worried way more

about how it affects your status at work.

They might be consumed with, hey, guess what?

That makes you get to here so you can get to there.

The strategy of it, the Spirit LED leader in your life is going

to go, hey, how's that going to affect your marriage in your

home? Is that going to affect your

ability to be a father and a husband?

How is that going to affect your ability to be generous to the

Kingdom? How is that going to affect your

ability to be connected to a local church?

That's what a spirit LED leader considers because the spirit LED

leader considers what God has said matters most.

We all need spirit LED leadership in our life, myself

included. Every single one of us is in

desperate need of real, influential, powerful spiritual

leadership in our hearts because we make decisions every day

about how we're going to parent the kids, how we're going to

love our spouse, how we're going to navigate our dating lives,

our careers. We need spirit LED leadership.

Let me ask you this question, Is the leadership in your life

spirit LED or self LED? Is the advice you're getting for

the decisions you're making week in and week out?

Is it coming from God and His words that coming from somebody

who's just telling you what they think you want to hear?

There's a difference and it can be grave in consequence.

Don't take advice. Don't take spiritual advice from

self LED leaders. Is God with your marriage?

Is God with your parents? Is God with your most trusted

advisor? These are people you get counsel

from, but just because they have a role doesn't mean they should

have a voice. The advice that you're getting

spiritually has to come from people who are grounded and who

are rooted in God's Word. And that's, you know God is with

you because God is with you if you're receiving His words and

applying them to your life through His people.

In fact, that leads us to our Third Point.

One of the best ways to know that they're a spirit filled

person is our God's words with them.

Do they have what I'll call a scripture fed vocabulary?

They're not just a spirit LED leader, they are a scripture fed

talker. Their vocabulary, they're slang,

they're jargon. Is it biblical?

Does it come from the Bible? Is it scriptural?

Like do they feed their reality based on what God has said?

Look at the Bible with me in verse 9.

And Joshua said to the people of Israel, come here and listen to

the words of your living God. And Joshua said, here is how you

shall know that the living God is among you.

He's making it clear. Here's how you know.

He's putting a flashing light and saying, hey guys, tune into

verse 10. Here's how you know God is going

to be with you and that He will without fail drive out from you

a bunch of Ites, Canaanites, Hittites, Hittites, Perizzites,

Girgashites, Amorites, and Jebusites.

That seven types of people that the rest of the book of Joshua

they're going to conquer. Here's how you'll know before

you beat all these people. Behold verse 11.

The ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth is passing

over before you into the Jordan. God's presence is gone 1st and

you are now listening to his words, and you are trusting his

words and acting upon it. You listen to God.

Verse then verse 12 and 13, you're going to take 12 men and

appoint them for each tribe. Verse 13 And when the soles of

the feet of the priest bearing the ark of the Lord, Lord of all

the earth, shall rest in the waters of the Jordan, the waters

of the Jordan are going to stop flowing.

He is going to part a river that is a football field wide and say

just walk across it on dry ground and they the waters

coming down from above shall stand in one heap.

God loves to keep His word. He is built different when it

comes to keeping His word. The sun doesn't get tired of

shining. A fountain doesn't get sick of

flowing. God doesn't get exhausted by

keeping His word. In fact, in Jeremiah it says

that He is watching over His word just so that He can perform

it. You might not be a good keeper

of your word. You might struggle to say

something over promise and undelivered.

Never God. Every promise He has made He

will fulfill. He will keep.

He is the promise keeping God. And so when our lives are built

around God's words, guess what? We have God with us because His

words stick with us wherever we go.

It's like He's with us because His words are with us.

That's how powerful His words are.

They never return empty or void. They always have an effect on

the situation. Every single time someone's

words sticking with you like that, it is a unique and fun

experience. I remember the power of

somebody's words. When I was a kid, I was the

oldest of four and at times I would go into the basement

because my brothers were playing NCAA Football 2008 and I wanted

a turn. And so I had my mom keeping a

clock and being the older brother, I had to listen to what

mom said. But it it was a fun moment being

the older brother when he went downstairs and you said, hey,

it's my turn. And what's the question every

sibling asks who said that? Right?

Who said, who said you get to have a turn?

Because if it's on your authority, it doesn't matter if

it's your words, Brandon, they're irrelevant.

But when I had that magical phrase behind me, Mom said it.

Mom said it's my turn. The whole conversation shifted

because her words, being with me, carried a different

authority, carried a different power, carried a different

confidence and comfort for my heart in that moment.

I think God's promises are intended to be the exact same

way for us, that there are promises all over this book

intended to comfort you, to give you confidence that God is

actually with you, that you have power in your life over sin.

You can have faith in the midst of fear.

You can have courage in the midst of hard work.

You have God with you, Christian.

His words are with you. So I'm going to give you 5 quick

promises that should stick with you this week.

OK, five quick promises. I'm going to give you the

references for them and read a few of them.

Isaiah 4110. So do not fear, for I am with

you. Do not be dismayed, for I am

your God. I will strengthen you and I will

help you. I will uphold you with my

righteous right hand. Do you have that promise on your

lips? Do you repeat it in your mind on

the moments where you feel like God has left you?

I am with you, do not be dismayed, I am your God.

Isaiah 4110, Second Peter 1/3 and four.

His divine power has granted to us all the things that pertain

to life and godliness through the knowledge of Him who called

us to His own glory and excellence, by which He has

granted to us His precious and very great promises, so that

through them you may become partakers of the divine nature.

Have escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of

sinful desire. Second, Peter 1/3 and four, we

have great and precious promises.

Deuteronomy 31 eight. It is the Lord God who goes

before you. Deuteronomy 31 Eight.

He will be with you. He will not leave you or forsake

you. Do not fear or be dismayed when

you're going into that moment, that hard conversation with your

mom. What are you going to say?

God is with me. I do not need to be afraid or be

dismayed. Romans 828 And we know that for

those who love God, all things work together for good.

For those who are called according to His purpose, God is

working out things on your eternal behalf.

Believer, this is all going somewhere good and planned and

perfect. Do you have Romans 828 on your

lips? First Corinthians 10/13?

No temptation is overtaking you. That is not common to man.

God is faithful. Listen to His promise, and He

will not let you be tempted beyond your ability.

But with the temptation, He will also provide the way of escape

that you may be able to endure it.

God is with you in the midst of temptation.

You're going to need to turn to Him for strength and power, but

you have a promise right there as a weapon to wield against the

ways of the world. Do you have a scripture fed

vocabulary in your life? You need promises to have that.

You got to talk Bible. You don't have to talk all weird

about it. You can be a normal person

talking about the Bible for sure, but are they in your bones

that when you're bumped is what spills out of you the scripture?

Finally, undeniable miracles. We have 4 signs today.

Lives set apart for God. Spirit LED leadership, Scripture

fed vocabulary. Finally, undeniable miracles.

Y'all, this is a miracle. And you might have heard this

story before. You might have glanced over in

your Bible plan. You might have never heard this

story. But rivers stopping from

flowing. I've never seen it.

Not just like a snap like that. And God spoke and it stopped.

That is a miracle and undeniable.

No explanation except there is something bigger, stronger, more

powerful than me that stopped that too big, too strong, too

powerful for a river to say no to it.

And that's God. That's a miracle.

I mean, this is a football field wide of a river.

And it stopped, verse 16, towards the end of the chapter,

the waters coming down from above stood and rose up in a

heap very far away. Like they're looking down the,

the, the banks of the river Adam, a city that is besides

Aerithan. And they're looking downstream

and like, wow, the river stopped so far that a million people

could get across it. God did that.

And now the priest, verse 17, bearing the ark of the covenant,

stood firmly on dry ground, a place their feet shouldn't have

touched, a land that they should not possess was given to them

because God, who gets to decide where people get to go, made it

happen. They stood on dry ground in the

midst of the Jordan River, which is still there today.

And all Israel was passing over on dry ground until all the

nation finished passing over the Jordan.

I want you to underline that word nation.

This is really interesting. I learned this this week in

study that even earlier in the chapter, if you look back at

verse 1 and 2, verse one, they came to the Jordan, he and all

the people of Israel. In verse 2, they're the people

of Israel and verse 17 to the nation of Israel.

This is the first time in all the Bible that they're called a

nation. This is so cool to me and here's

why. Because in Genesis chapter 12,

Genesis 12 · chapter mention

God promised that they would become a nation.

And up until this point, they've just been a people.

But the moment that they stepped out in faith, the moment that

they obeyed God, that they after wandering the desert for forever

and consecrating their lives, following their leader, actually

honoring him and obeying the words of God, guess what?

Now they are a nation. Israel is passing into the

Jordan, not as a people anymore, but as a fulfillment of God's

promise to their forefather Abraham.

They are now a nation, a great nation, a million people big,

and they're crossing over this river as a nation.

That is a miracle that we who are not a people are now a

people of God called a nation, a holy nation.

First Peter 2 calls the people of God the church.

Now that is us. We are a chosen race, decided

and handpicked by God to be the people of God wherever we go.

A nation waving the flag of Jesus Christ.

And that's why one of the reasons why we're called St.

City, or just one little outpost in this nation saying, hey, you

can come here and you can experience what life in the

Kingdom of God is like. You can experience what it's

like to be somebody who was not a person who lived for God.

And now you are set apart unto him.

You are a St. that you could Once Upon a time you lived a

life living for yourself and for the things of this world, self

LED, self reliant, self dependent, thinking that you

could get yourself to heaven. But there was a moment in your

life you realize Jesus Christ crossed the gates of death to

life for you so you could have eternal life.

And you now follow the leadership of Jesus Christ and

you're saying, hey, he's my new ark of the covenant.

He's the presence in my life that I need and I'm not going to

lead my life anymore. Jesus Christ is going to lead my

life. Not only that, you now have a

vocabulary that has totally changed because you live totally

different. God Himself has given you words

that shape your mind and your heart, and you are living for

Him. This is what it means to be a

part of the Holy nation. We have a tongue, we have a

language that we talk, and it comes from the Bible primarily.

And those are miracles is my point.

The gospel started in the Middle East and you are here right now

hearing the good news of Jesus Christ, that He came 2000 years

ago to die the death you should have died.

He paid for the death of your sin with His blood, with His

life, so that you could have eternal life with Him.

He's the better. Joshua is the whole point of the

book. That name Joshua, the name Jesus

comes from the same Hebrew name, Yeshua.

This is the Bible putting up for you with foreshadowing.

Hey, a better version of this is coming.

And his name is Jesus and he is still going to work wonders and

miracles in the world. St.

City's evidence of that. We're here today as an evidence

that God is still a wonder working God.

This time last year, 37 people were part of Saint City, 37

people who would just come and get in a coffee shop in the East

Valley and say, God, would you do more than this?

Would you meet with more people than us?

Would you shine your light in the darkness of Tempe and look

at us today? God is still doing miracles and

wonders. In fact, just during the meet

and greet just now, I'm hearing a story of somebody who's been

coming to our church since September and God has been at

work in him and changing his life.

In fact, he said God has changed my life completely.

God is still doing that. He's not done.

And if we want to see God continue to work wonders at

Saint City, guess what? We have to be these kinds of

people, people who are have lives set apart from him, who

are led by God's leaders, spirit LED filled leaders, spirit LED

leaders and who teach the Bible who we ourselves are.

People who are feed our souls with God's words.

We want God with us, St. City.

We don't want to be proud because guess what?

God opposes the proud. It's like playing football.

Sorry for sports analogy, Phil, you hate it.

It's literally like lining up against God and you're saying,

you know what? I can get past you offensive

lineman God, and I'm a 5 foot 9 nothing burger of an athlete.

He's going to oppose you. Because if we're proud as a

people, that's what God does. But he lifts up the humble.

So we're not going to rely on ourselves.

What are we going to do? We're going to expect God to be

God. We're not going to lower

expectations. We're going to ask God to still

move mountains, to still part rivers, to let miracles still

happen, to keep his good and precious promises for us.

And so I want to close with this for us today as an undeniable

wonder, undeniable miracle for us is I want to pray for God to

do 1 impossible thing together as a church.

In fact, I want you to right now be thinking in your mind, what's

1 impossible thing I want to see God do in 2026?

And we as a church are going to pray for that together in a

moment. What's the one impossible thing

that you have in your life? The one impossible person that

you're like, there is no way that person could know and love

Jesus or one impossible relationship that you're like,

man, there's never a chance that we could be reconciled that one

impossible thing because what's impossible with man is possible

with God. What's the one impossible thing

you're going to be asking God for in 2026?

Is it a victory over a sin pattern?

It's more than likely related to the prayer request.

You want to pray, by the way, either people or land, because

that's what's happening here. I'm praying.

My impossible prayer request for 2026 is that God would give us

land as a church family. I'm praying that and it's

impossible. Why?

Because I actually think it's impossible.

I actually believe that. But I also believe God is the

God of the impossible, that if he can give the people of

Israel, Canaan, he can give us real estate here in this

incredible city. Do I love this school?

Yes. Will we be at the school as long

as God blesses us? Of course.

But could God give us land? I'm going to pray for it.

So I want you to. I want you to do it if you can.

If you can get out of your seats, turn around and face your

chairs. I always want a moment as a

church where we pray and ask God for the impossible thing in our

life. Yeah, we're having a moment as a

church. Israel had a big moment crossing

the Jordan River. Thankfully, you don't have to

cross the river right now. You got to get up out of your

seat, turn around and pray. I want you to call to mind the

thing that's impossible this year, the miracle, the wonder

that you want to see God do in your life among you this year.

What is the wonder? What is the miracle that you're

asking Him for delivery? Delivery from a diagnosis.

Restoration of relationship, Provision of a prayer that

you've been praying for years but given up on.

Salvation of a friend. I'll let you sit with God for

just a moment in silence, and I'm gonna pray for us in just a

moment. God, here we are once again,

praying as your people for you to do impossible things.

You don't owe us anything else, we know that.

But you delight in doing the impossible, in demonstrating

just how good you are keeping your word.

Not even one promise of yours has failed.

Show us that you're strong. Show us that you're with us.

Show us that you're for us by answering these prayers.

God, would you pour out your grace upon this church, that as

we consecrate ourselves now, will you do wonders among us in

this next chapter at Saint City, Not just as a church, but as

individual people. God, we are crying out to you

with real prayers, real burdens, and for the person Even so beat

up by not seeing you answer the prayer, would they not lose

faith in this moment to pray once again for the impossible

thing? Because God, we can't count on

one thing, that God, you never fail, you've never missed a

promise, and you never will. So God, we worship you when we

ask in faith for you to give us what we're asking for.

And as the pastor of this church, I ask for the impossible

thing of land in 2026. God, I believe it.

Could you do it? Would you do it for your glory

and our good in Jesus name, Amen.