Beyond Part 2 I Pastor Joshua Gay

[SPEAKER_00]: High Praise Podcasts.

[SPEAKER_00]: Hey everybody, this is Pastor Josh.

[SPEAKER_00]: We'll leave Pastor here at High Praise and I want to thank you for downloading today's podcast.

[SPEAKER_00]: We know that this message is going to encourage and bless you.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I want you to open up your heart and receive with the Lord as for you today.

[SPEAKER_00]: Grab your Bible, go to Isaiah 55, and then we're going to go to Josh with three.

[SPEAKER_00]: Josh with three is kind of our main text, but I want to refresh us on Isaiah 55 before we get there.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're going to continue this series on Beyond.

[SPEAKER_00]: How many of you here last week and got something out of what we administered last week?

[SPEAKER_00]: Amen.

[SPEAKER_00]: Amen.

[SPEAKER_00]: A few of you.

[SPEAKER_00]: I got something out of it.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that was the one preaching it.

[SPEAKER_00]: Praise God.

[SPEAKER_00]: Listen, I really do believe God is bringing us into a season of Beyond.

[SPEAKER_00]: beyond your hope, beyond your expectation, beyond what you can see right now, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: Beyond what the report is, beyond what you feel, but this starts with understanding that he is so much further beyond what we can comprehend.

[SPEAKER_00]: Right?

[SPEAKER_00]: And we see this in Isaiah chapter 55.

Isaiah 55 · chapter mention

[SPEAKER_00]: We read it last week, but I want to read it again.

[SPEAKER_00]: Isaiah 55 verse 6, it says, see the Lord while they may be found.

Isaiah 55:6

[SPEAKER_00]: Call upon him while he is near.

[SPEAKER_00]: Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man, his thoughts.

[SPEAKER_00]: Let him return to the Lord, and he will have mercy on him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon.

[SPEAKER_00]: In verse 8 is what we're getting started to get really familiar with.

[SPEAKER_00]: For my thoughts are not your thoughts.

[SPEAKER_00]: nor are your ways, my ways says the Lord, and verse 9, for as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now I said this last week, but in the case you weren't here at bears repeating, we have oftentimes heard this, the verse 8 back up for me, if you will.

[SPEAKER_00]: We have heard this part that my thoughts are not your thoughts.

[SPEAKER_00]: Nor are your ways, my ways, and we have heard that, and we have thought that God is cruel.

[SPEAKER_00]: We have thought that he is distant.

[SPEAKER_00]: We use the Scripture to excuse whenever awful things happen to go, well, it was all just part of God's plan, but his ways are not our ways and his thoughts are not our thoughts, but that is not what the Scripture is communicating, because to understand verses eight and nine, you gotta go back to verses six and seven.

[SPEAKER_00]: And when you read verses six and seven, you'll see what he's talking about.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's his mercy and his goodness and his pardon that he gives

[SPEAKER_00]: And then he says, because my ways are not your ways.

[SPEAKER_00]: In other words, whenever you're vengeful, unmerciful, whenever you want destruction, I give mercy.

[SPEAKER_00]: Whenever you want everybody just to go to hell in a hand-basket and on there, I'm not really all that concerned about it, because I'm said, God goes, I am concerned about it.

[SPEAKER_00]: His ways are not our ways, and his thoughts are not our thoughts.

[SPEAKER_00]: And for that, we should say, praise God, because some of you, if your thoughts, if his thoughts were your thoughts, you would have already been in hell, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: And so it would have been the person who cuts you off in traffic that one day, or that person who posted something on Facebook that you didn't like.

[SPEAKER_00]: Aren't you glad that his ways are not our ways?

[SPEAKER_00]: And that his thoughts are deeper than our thoughts.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's what he's saying.

[SPEAKER_00]: Isaiah 55 is not God's distant and he's impossible to understand because he's just so cruel and he's outside of morality.

[SPEAKER_00]: Every people says, God's outside of morality.

[SPEAKER_00]: No God is morality.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's not outside of morality.

[SPEAKER_00]: God is perfectly moral.

[SPEAKER_00]: Right?

[SPEAKER_00]: And that's it.

[SPEAKER_00]: But what we're seeing here is that God is good.

[SPEAKER_00]: His purposes are good.

[SPEAKER_00]: His mercy is abundant.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't care where you're at this morning.

[SPEAKER_00]: You've not exhausted his mercy.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't care what you did last week or last month.

[SPEAKER_00]: His goodness, you've not outrun his goodness.

[SPEAKER_00]: You can still return to him and there's abundant pardon.

[SPEAKER_00]: The plan of God is good because his heart is good.

[SPEAKER_00]: God's plan for you is good because his heart towards you is perfect goodness, which means this that you can trust him with your yes.

[SPEAKER_00]: Right?

[SPEAKER_00]: It's kind of funny, Pastor here.

[SPEAKER_00]: He didn't know what I was preaching about today and he was kind of half free to my message.

[SPEAKER_00]: Just like stop it.

[SPEAKER_00]: Get it?

[SPEAKER_00]: Come on now.

[SPEAKER_00]: You can trust him with your yes.

[SPEAKER_00]: We don't just trust him with our lives.

[SPEAKER_00]: We also trusted it in some nebulous sense, but we

[SPEAKER_00]: Right?

[SPEAKER_00]: We don't just say, yes, Lord, I trust you're going to take me to heaven one day.

[SPEAKER_00]: But we say, Lord, I'm going to trust your word right now, and I'm going to trust what you say right now.

[SPEAKER_00]: And when even when things look cloudy and even when I don't understand,

[SPEAKER_00]: And even when it seems that things are going opposite of the way that I wanted them to go, I can still say yes and walk in obedience to what you've called me to do.

[SPEAKER_00]: But there are a lot of believers that talk about his goodness, and they talk about obedience, and they talk about his plan, but they're not willing to get their feet wet.

[SPEAKER_00]: They're not willing to take that step that they need to step into the unknown.

[SPEAKER_00]: I want you to get a picture in your mind, and this will make sense.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's going to seem weird, but I want you to get this picture in your mind.

[SPEAKER_00]: It'll make sense when I get there.

[SPEAKER_00]: Don't you get a picture in your mind of somebody, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: It's Florida.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's still hot.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's an ear month, but it feels like it's the middle of July.

[SPEAKER_00]: You got your sweater ready to go, but it's still 97 degrees outside.

[SPEAKER_00]: Which means in Florida, even in the ear months, we're still hitting the pool.

[SPEAKER_00]: Anybody know what I'm talking about?

[SPEAKER_00]: Right?

[SPEAKER_00]: And I want you to picture somebody at the pool, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: Swim suit, sunglasses, towel, got their floaties on, sunscreen smeared on their face, ready to go.

[SPEAKER_00]: And they're telling everybody how great the pool is.

[SPEAKER_00]: And they're telling everybody how refreshing the pool is.

[SPEAKER_00]: But they stand there for an hour later, they're so completely dry.

[SPEAKER_00]: Everybody else is in the water.

[SPEAKER_00]: But they're standing there still bone dry, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: Probably getting burned.

[SPEAKER_00]: You with me?

[SPEAKER_00]: This is a picture I want you to have.

[SPEAKER_00]: They have all the equipment, but none of the water.

[SPEAKER_00]: They can tell everybody how refreshing the water is, but for some reason, they won't get in in the experience it for themselves.

[SPEAKER_00]: They can tell everybody the benefits of getting in the water whenever it's hot outside.

[SPEAKER_00]: But for some reason, they refuse to get in and listen, this is the picture of a lot of believers in the church today.

[SPEAKER_00]: They can tell you about God's goodness, but they won't get in any experience it because they're scared.

[SPEAKER_00]: right?

[SPEAKER_00]: They can tell you how whenever you get in his presence and whenever you're obedient to the Lord it just changes your life and they're that person who also refuses to be obedient to the word and thusly they are like the person who's standing by the side of the pool going it feels real good and it's real refreshing and they look apart but they won't get in and swim.

[SPEAKER_00]: They won't get in and actually begin to move forward.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I believe in this day, God is calling you to go be on what you have done previously.

[SPEAKER_00]: And not just to talk about his goodness, but to experience his goodness, not just to talk about his mercy, but to live in his mercy, not just to talk about purpose, but even when it's a little bit unclear to go ahead and say, God, if you said take the step, guess what I'm gonna do?

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm gonna take the step.

[SPEAKER_00]: God, if you say, get in the pool, I'm gonna get in the pool.

[SPEAKER_00]: God, if you said, it's time to cross the Jordan, I'm gonna cross the Jordan.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that brings us to our text today in Joshua chapter three.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I wanna set the stage a little bit.

[SPEAKER_00]: Moses is gone.

[SPEAKER_00]: Joshua is leading Israel stands at the Jordan.

[SPEAKER_00]: God has promised in the land that's on the other side, but there's a river that stands in the way.

[SPEAKER_00]: They're facing real water

[SPEAKER_00]: The river is real in the story, but so is the God who is standing with them.

[SPEAKER_00]: Last week, I encourage you to lift your eyes, like Abram, whenever you feel like the promise is afar to look again to the promise and believe, and today I'm not just encouraging you to lift your eyes, but I'm encouraging you to move your feet and get your feet wet.

[SPEAKER_00]: Joshua chapter 3 verse 1, then Joshua rose early in the morning and they set up from a case of grove and came to the Jordan.

Joshua 3:1

[SPEAKER_00]: He and all the children of Israel and they lodged there before they crossed over.

[SPEAKER_00]: So it was after three days of the officers went through the camp and they commanded the people saying, when you see the arc of the covenant of the Lord your God and the priest, the Levites bearing it, then you shall set out from your place and go after it.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yet there shall be a space between you and it about 2000 cubits by measure.

[SPEAKER_00]: do not come near it, that you may know the way by which you must go.

[SPEAKER_00]: We could stop and preach for a minute there.

[SPEAKER_00]: It goes on to say this, for you have not passed this way before.

[SPEAKER_00]: And Joshua said to the people, sanctify yourselves for tomorrow.

[SPEAKER_00]: The Lord will do wonders among you.

[SPEAKER_00]: Then Joshua spoke to the priest saying, take up the ark of the covenant and cross over before the people.

[SPEAKER_00]: So they took up the ark of the covenant and went before the people.

[SPEAKER_00]: And the Lord said to Josh, what this day, I will begin to exalt you in the side of old Israel, that they may know that as I was Moses, so I will be with you.

[SPEAKER_00]: You shall command the priest to bear the arc of the covenant saying, when you have come to the edge of the water of the Jordan, you shall stand in the Jordan.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is a wild thing.

[SPEAKER_00]: We read these things and we're just like, okay, go stand in the water.

[SPEAKER_00]: Not a big of a deal.

[SPEAKER_00]: Just gonna go wait a little bit.

[SPEAKER_00]: And the place they're going is on the other side.

[SPEAKER_00]: And you're going to tell the priest, y'all go just stand in the water.

[SPEAKER_00]: So Joshua said to the children, if you'll come here and hear the words of Lord your God.

[SPEAKER_00]: First him.

[SPEAKER_00]: And Joshua said, by this, you shall know that living God is among you.

[SPEAKER_00]: that he will without fail drive up before you, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Hivites, the Parasites, the Gurgershites, the Emirates, and the Jebysites.

[SPEAKER_00]: Behold, the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord of all the earth, this crossing over before you into the Jordan.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now, therefore, take for yourselves 12 men from the Jobis Visitorial, one man from every tribe, and it shall come to pass as soon as the souls of the feet of the priest who bear the awful Lord of all the earth, shall rest in the waters of the Jordan, that the waters of the Jordan shall be cut off.

[SPEAKER_00]: The waters that come down from upstream

[SPEAKER_00]: So it was when the people set out from their camp across over the Jordan with the priest bearing the ark of the covenant before the people, and as those who bore the ark came to the Jordan and the feet of the priest who bore the ark dipped in the edge of the water for the Jordan overflows all this banks during the whole time of harvest.

[SPEAKER_00]: So the Jordan is not just full, it's overflowing.

[SPEAKER_00]: At the waters which came down from upstream, they did what?

[SPEAKER_00]: They stood still and rose in a heap very far away at a dom, the city that is beside Xeritan.

[SPEAKER_00]: So the waters that went down into the sea of Arabah, the salt sea failed and were cut off and the people crossed over opposite Jericho.

[SPEAKER_00]: Then 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 had crossed completely over the Jordan.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now, if I want to sum this entire passage and what I want to communicate in it today in one succinct statement, it is this, that they couldn't stop the river, but they could take the step.

[SPEAKER_00]: They couldn't stop the river, but they could take the step.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I want you whenever we really read this, I want you to see that the first instruction God gives them is not about the river at all.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's about the ark.

[SPEAKER_00]: Right?

[SPEAKER_00]: And the art represents the covenant relationship they have with God, it represents the presence of God.

[SPEAKER_00]: And there's so much to be said in this passage, how the Lord tells Joshua, you let the ark go first and you follow.

[SPEAKER_00]: There's a lot of people who feel like they're just walking and they are just walking because they're not following his presence.

[SPEAKER_00]: They're following their own desire, they're following their own will, but what God is telling Joshua is, hey, as long as you follow my presence, it's all gonna be okay, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: And I firmly believe one of the reasons that they even, he gives the space, is it some mystical thing?

[SPEAKER_00]: It's the fact of he wants to make sure that they never lose sight of his presence.

[SPEAKER_00]: He wants to make sure they see exactly where it's at and they know what to follow, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: We as the people of God have got to get back to following the presence of the Lord again.

[SPEAKER_00]: We have to get back to following the word of the Lord again.

[SPEAKER_00]: We have to get back to actually, and I know a heartburn all the time, we gotta get back to actually knowing the Scriptures and then being obedient to them.

[SPEAKER_00]: And not just the ones we like.

[SPEAKER_00]: Not just the stuff that we're like, yeah, I can agree with that.

[SPEAKER_00]: Right.

[SPEAKER_00]: I love how we did.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I agree with that.

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, I'm glad you agree with it.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's called being a Christian.

[SPEAKER_00]: Should be, but we want to pick and choose what we're going to believe and what we're not going to believe.

[SPEAKER_00]: Right.

[SPEAKER_00]: We want to pick and choose what we're going to stand on and what we're not going to stand on.

[SPEAKER_00]: And at the end of the day, if we're believers, we just have to take the whole counsel of the word and say yes and amen, even when it offends our flesh, even if we not want to do it, even when it's not what's popular in culture.

[SPEAKER_00]: which I don't know, even in culture, there are subcultures, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: And there are some things that we will stand on below.

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, that's not popular with culture, but I believe the truth of the word and we're going to stand on it.

[SPEAKER_00]: But then if the word offends our subculture that we're a part of, or not, it's quick to believe that.

[SPEAKER_00]: All right?

[SPEAKER_00]: You've never been this way before.

[SPEAKER_00]: So you have to follow my presence.

[SPEAKER_00]: They're following a living God who has spoken.

[SPEAKER_00]: They're not just following where religious object with magical power.

[SPEAKER_00]: They're following a living God.

[SPEAKER_00]: And verse four tells him why this direction is important, and why it matters.

[SPEAKER_00]: He says, because you've never been this way before.

[SPEAKER_00]: You've never been down this path before.

[SPEAKER_00]: You've never been this way.

[SPEAKER_00]: And the only way you're going to get to the place I have for you is to follow my presence.

[SPEAKER_00]: The only way you're going to get to where I have for you is you're going to have to follow me because if you go out for a walk on your own, you're going to drown.

[SPEAKER_00]: Or you're going to get to the water and you're going to be too afraid to cross.

[SPEAKER_00]: But if you follow me, I'm going to take you every step of the way.

[SPEAKER_00]: I want you to hear me, just because your situation feels unfamiliar, doesn't mean you've been forsaken.

[SPEAKER_00]: They had never been that way before, but God didn't forsake them.

[SPEAKER_00]: Listen, you may have never been this way before, but you aren't going alone.

[SPEAKER_00]: You have the presence of the Lord that's going to lead you in every step.

[SPEAKER_00]: Some of you are in the seasons right now, where you are navigating a season that you've never lived through before.

[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe it's a new responsibility, maybe it's a difficult transition in life, maybe you're rebuilding after a loss, maybe you have a new job,

[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe you're just facing some giants that you've never faced before.

[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe there's some internal things God's doing within you that you've never been through before.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I have good news for you today.

[SPEAKER_00]: You have to stop saying I've never done this before, but you do have to say I'm not doing this without him.

[SPEAKER_00]: I've never done this before.

[SPEAKER_00]: I've never been this way before.

[SPEAKER_00]: Has to turn in.

[SPEAKER_00]: I refuse to do this without him.

[SPEAKER_00]: I refuse to do it in my own power, in my own strength and not follow him and his presence.

[SPEAKER_00]: I believe if he's taking me somewhere I've never been before that he will be faithful to bring me through into the promise.

[SPEAKER_00]: Everybody, anybody who's older than 35, or probably younger than that, has at least been through some season in life where you go, I've never gone this way before.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I don't know what to do.

[SPEAKER_00]: Everything in life was easy.

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, I'm glad for you, but in my life, everything hasn't always been easy, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: And sometimes it's big things, it's done, there's just little things, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: Sometimes it's, you get laid off and you don't know what you're gonna do and you don't know what's gonna happen, you don't know how you're gonna pay the bills, you don't know how you're gonna provide for your family.

[SPEAKER_00]: And those are big things.

[SPEAKER_00]: And sometimes it's just like the surprise pregnancy,

[SPEAKER_00]: We were recounting the story, our story about Eva to Pastor's brim and Nancy, and Pastor Eber, who's ministry today in our Hispanic ministry last night, and whenever we found out Miranda was pregnant with Eva, she called me.

[SPEAKER_00]: I wasn't there.

[SPEAKER_00]: She went to the doctor, she went and feeling great.

[SPEAKER_00]: And when the lady poked her head in the door, after she took her bloodshed, did you know you were pregnant when you came in here?

[SPEAKER_00]: And y'all know my wife, if you know her, she's very kind, very even killed.

[SPEAKER_00]: And she said she about tore that lady's head off.

[SPEAKER_00]: What?

[SPEAKER_00]: She said, I'll check again.

[SPEAKER_00]: All right, and had no intention to go that way, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: But, and there was moments, I remember, I'm going somewhere this, I remember the first time we went out as a family for, first outing, which we were really brilliant, we were living in Orlando at the time, we were really brilliant, we said, let's go to Disney Springs, mistake, with two strollers, and then Eva's a newborn, so she wants to be held and carried,

[SPEAKER_00]: And how was Josiah Babes 11?

[SPEAKER_00]: Josiah is 11, so he's pushing one stroller, which became a battering ram.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's your main to dizzy, that's just what you do anyway.

[SPEAKER_00]: She's wrong with it, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: Just run somebody over.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm sorry, I'm sorry.

[SPEAKER_00]: We get back to the car.

[SPEAKER_00]: I felt like it took an hour to load the car.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I remember getting in the car.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not, this is not a preacher story.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's a real story.

[SPEAKER_00]: I were getting in the car and sitting by my wife and going, we're never leaving the house again.

[SPEAKER_00]: I told them the truth.

[SPEAKER_00]: They were never leaving the house again.

[SPEAKER_00]: We had never gone that way before.

[SPEAKER_00]: But the Lord was faithful.

[SPEAKER_00]: All right?

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know that seems silly, and it seems trivial.

[SPEAKER_00]: But for all of us, we have these moments in our life, whether they're bigger, small, we're like, I don't know what I'm doing.

[SPEAKER_00]: And now how this is going to pay now?

[SPEAKER_00]: But you know what, when you follow the presence of God and you follow His Word and you follow His will and you do what He says, He will bring you through every single time.

[SPEAKER_00]: Just because you haven't gone that way before, doesn't mean that you have to go that way without Him.

[SPEAKER_00]: Right?

[SPEAKER_00]: The same God that was faithful to them that brought them out of Egypt, the same God that was faithful to them to feed them every day.

[SPEAKER_00]: The same God was going to be faithful to bring them across the Jordan.

[SPEAKER_00]: They had seen His faithfulness before and His faithfulness before is what's going to give them the strength to walk through into His faithfulness now.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not doing it without him.

[SPEAKER_00]: You may be a new territory, but God is not new to faithfulness.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's been faithful to his people across time, and he will still be faithful to you today.

[SPEAKER_00]: Your lack of experience in whatever is going on right now does not cancel his presence.

[SPEAKER_00]: And the Lord even assures Joshua, I'm just, you know how is with Moses?

[SPEAKER_00]: You remember all the times that you said, because Joshua was Moses' assistant.

[SPEAKER_00]: Do you remember all the times that you said and you watched me be faithful to Moses?

[SPEAKER_00]: You remember all the times you said and you watched me be faithful to these people?

[SPEAKER_00]: Listen, I haven't changed.

[SPEAKER_00]: Just because your experience is changing doesn't mean that I've changed.

[SPEAKER_00]: Just because the culture has changed doesn't mean that God has changed.

[SPEAKER_00]: Just because your job change doesn't mean that he changed.

[SPEAKER_00]: Just because some relationships change doesn't mean that he's changed.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's the same yesterday, the same today, and he will be the same forever, and whatever difficulty, whatever struggle, whatever unknown you're facing right now.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's still good, he's still the same, and he's still going to bring you through.

[SPEAKER_00]: Your yesterday might have ended, but his faithfulness did not.

[SPEAKER_00]: And listen, all of us in this room have tests, or most of us, hopefully, all of us, in this room have testimonies of his faithfulness.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I believe the word of the Lord to you this morning is remember how was with you then, I'm going to be with you now.

[SPEAKER_00]: Some of you younger people in the room, you watch God be faithful to your parents,

[SPEAKER_00]: You watch God be faithful to a pastor or a leader.

[SPEAKER_00]: And you know what the word of the Lord over your life is?

[SPEAKER_00]: Today, just as I was with them, so I'm gonna be with you.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's not just a God of your mom and dad, and your grandma and grandpa.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's your God, too.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm so thankful.

[SPEAKER_00]: I've got grandparents on the front row.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm just so such a blessing to have my grandparents on the front row every single week.

[SPEAKER_00]: RL and Wanda Gay, which they're such a blessing.

[SPEAKER_00]: I post grants and grandma, they were here on Thursday, so grants is 84, he'll be 85 years old next year, grandma, how old are you?

[SPEAKER_00]: 81, and they were here on Thursday, bagging groceries and doing and working and going and all that good stuff.

[SPEAKER_00]: They cook for CR on the regular, they do all kind of stuff.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm so thankful for that.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know what I'm most thankful for?

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm most thankful that he's just, he's not just the God of R.L.

[SPEAKER_00]: and Wanda.

[SPEAKER_00]: And he's not just the God of Robert and Stacey, but the same God that was faithful to them has been faithful to Joshua and Miranda.

[SPEAKER_00]: And the same God that's faithful to Joshua and Miranda will also be faithful to Josiah and will also be faithful to Hanna Lee and will also be faithful to Eliza and will also be faithful to him.

[SPEAKER_00]: because he's the same God and generation to generation.

[SPEAKER_00]: His faithfulness does not run out.

[SPEAKER_00]: Season to season.

[SPEAKER_00]: His faithfulness remains just because you're facing something new.

[SPEAKER_00]: Doesn't mean that God doesn't have the answer already.

[SPEAKER_00]: He already has, listen, before Israel ever knew the Jordan was there.

[SPEAKER_00]: God already had a plan.

[SPEAKER_00]: Before they knew that there was gonna be a flood season and they were gonna be called the cross.

[SPEAKER_00]: God, I already orchestrated and had a plan.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you just do what I say, I'm gonna bring you through.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't wanna get too deep down this road because it's Sunday morning.

[SPEAKER_00]: But our problem oftentimes is not that God is not faithful, because God is always faithful.

[SPEAKER_00]: He said, we're not faithful to His word.

[SPEAKER_00]: We don't work the word.

[SPEAKER_00]: Because if you work the word, the word will work.

[SPEAKER_00]: period.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's not sometimes it doesn't.

[SPEAKER_00]: Sometimes it doesn't.

[SPEAKER_00]: The word works.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's not well at works for Castle, but it doesn't work for Andy.

[SPEAKER_00]: And it works for Paul, but it's not going to work for for Garrett.

[SPEAKER_00]: It will work works if you work the word.

[SPEAKER_00]: Does it work in the whole ways as fast as we want it to?

[SPEAKER_00]: Most of the time no.

[SPEAKER_00]: But it works.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's yesterday, man.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now, notice what happens.

[SPEAKER_00]: You also say, with me, in verse 9, Joshua gathers the people to hear the words of the Lord.

[SPEAKER_00]: Before their feet move, their ears here in instruction.

[SPEAKER_00]: Woo.

[SPEAKER_00]: Before their feet move, their ears here in instruction.

[SPEAKER_00]: Oftentimes, we want to move without listening first.

[SPEAKER_00]: We want to just go, go, go, do, do, do.

[SPEAKER_00]: Especially, I can mention, I think I mentioned it on Wednesday night.

[SPEAKER_00]: In today's world, we are constantly busy.

[SPEAKER_00]: Anybody know what I'm talking about?

[SPEAKER_00]: Right?

[SPEAKER_00]: What is free time?

[SPEAKER_00]: Right.

[SPEAKER_00]: Right.

[SPEAKER_00]: What does that mean?

[SPEAKER_00]: Right.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're constantly busy, constantly going, constantly active.

[SPEAKER_00]: And sometimes God is all the time.

[SPEAKER_00]: God is saying, before you move, listen.

[SPEAKER_00]: I want you to move your feet, I want you to do something, but first you need to hear my instruction.

[SPEAKER_00]: First you need to hear the word.

[SPEAKER_00]: Biblical courage always begins with listening.

[SPEAKER_00]: Biblical courage always begins with listening.

[SPEAKER_00]: Listening to his word, listening to his instructions.

[SPEAKER_00]: The priest are not daring God to rescue them.

[SPEAKER_00]: They're listening to his voice and saying, we're gonna do whatever you tell us to do because whenever we're faithful to do what you tell us to do, then you're gonna make the way, whenever we don't see a way.

[SPEAKER_00]: God had already told them what to do and what he would do.

[SPEAKER_00]: Understand this in our next step of what God is calling us beyond.

[SPEAKER_00]: It must be an agreement with Scripture and the character of Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: If your activity is causing you to act differently than the character of Jesus, we're not following the presence of God because He is God.

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, it got real quiet.

[SPEAKER_00]: I said, if our activity is not causing us to reflect the character of Jesus, then we're not following the Lord.

[SPEAKER_00]: If your activity is causing you to defame people, hate people, to slander, to hate, I was,

[SPEAKER_00]: Some of us are next steps are already clear, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: You don't need an angel to come unfurl a scroll for you to tell the truth.

[SPEAKER_00]: If I'm just waiting for the Lord, the word of the Lord is already clear, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: And I believe God is still speaking.

[SPEAKER_00]: I believe in prophetic.

[SPEAKER_00]: I believe in rainbow words for right now.

[SPEAKER_00]: But you don't need a spectacular dream to turn away from the sin that you know you're living in.

[SPEAKER_00]: Right.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is pretty simple, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: Some of you, oh boy, some of you are in, all right, and I'm not talking about marriages, I'll make sure I'm clear.

[SPEAKER_00]: Some of you are in relationships right now, that you know you're not supposed to be in.

[SPEAKER_00]: And you don't need an angel to appear at your bedside and tell you that you don't need to be linked to the person who's not saved and doing drugs and having all sorts of issues and problems and as abusive, you don't need a word.

[SPEAKER_00]: You already have a word.

[SPEAKER_00]: Don't be unequally yoked.

[SPEAKER_00]: There's your word.

[SPEAKER_00]: The youth pastor is shouting me down from the front row.

[SPEAKER_00]: You don't need an angel to be like, let me tell you something.

[SPEAKER_00]: That person's bad for you.

[SPEAKER_00]: You already know it.

[SPEAKER_00]: You don't need an audible voice to know that you need to love your neighbor.

[SPEAKER_00]: Even if you disagree with them, even if they think differently than you.

[SPEAKER_00]: Even if they have a different disposition and view of life than you.

[SPEAKER_00]: You're still called to love them.

[SPEAKER_00]: When Jesus said, love your neighbor as yourself.

[SPEAKER_00]: He didn't just mean the person you go to church with.

[SPEAKER_00]: That word is, it's the Greek word, place he on.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know what it means?

[SPEAKER_00]: Anybody?

[SPEAKER_00]: That's literally what it means.

[SPEAKER_00]: Anybody you come into contact with?

[SPEAKER_00]: You want to hear your neighbor is?

[SPEAKER_00]: Anybody you meet?

[SPEAKER_00]: Anybody, you come not just the person who lives next to you.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's a matter of fact, a lot of us, your neighbor is less your neighbor than your coworker.

[SPEAKER_00]: We have to get to a point because just with them, tell them, sanctify yourselves, set yourselves apart for God.

[SPEAKER_00]: Prepare your, they're, they're, they're, they're preparing their hearts.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not purchasing a miracle because God's already told them what they're going to do.

[SPEAKER_00]: But they're preparing their hearts for where he's taking them.

[SPEAKER_00]: God will do wonders when we just surrender ourselves.

[SPEAKER_00]: Lord, have my heart, have my habits, have the way that I think, have my whole, yes.

[SPEAKER_00]: A lot of us will give God our hearts, but we won't give them our minds.

[SPEAKER_00]: We'll give them our hearts, because we think that's going to get us to heaven.

[SPEAKER_00]: But we won't want to give them the way that we think, because then we're going to have to crucify our flesh.

[SPEAKER_00]: All right.

[SPEAKER_00]: Listen, you don't need to see the whole road to take the next step.

[SPEAKER_00]: You just need to follow the God who leads you.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now, this way I really want to get to, 30 minutes in.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you go back and read in verse 15, you'll see this that the Jordan is overflowing its banks.

[SPEAKER_00]: God doesn't tell them, wait for the river to be manageable to step in.

[SPEAKER_00]: The river might be overflowing, but God is not overwhelmed.

[SPEAKER_00]: Oftentimes, we feel overwhelmed by what we see, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: We know the condition of our lives, you know the conditions of what we're facing.

[SPEAKER_00]: We can see the conditions of the thing that we wanted to change, but hasn't changed yet, and we feel like it's just getting worse, and we get overwhelmed.

[SPEAKER_00]: But I promise you this, no matter how overwhelmed you feel, he's not, no matter how unmanageable you think it is, he doesn't think it's unmanageable.

[SPEAKER_00]: Our preferred order is this.

[SPEAKER_00]: If we had it our way, every single one of us in this room, every single one of us.

[SPEAKER_00]: Me, include our preferred order of this story.

[SPEAKER_00]: If we were the children of Bizarre, it was like, okay, God, I need you to stop the water.

[SPEAKER_00]: I need you to part it.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then I'll take the step.

[SPEAKER_00]: God, you show me.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then I'll do.

[SPEAKER_00]: But that's not what God tells them to do.

[SPEAKER_00]: While the Jordan is still overflowing, he says, and I want you to see this.

[SPEAKER_00]: He says, while it's still overflowing, you introduce my presence into the mess.

[SPEAKER_00]: You introduce the ark into what seems unmanageable.

[SPEAKER_00]: You introduce my presence into the thing that seems a mess and watch what I do.

[SPEAKER_00]: Our problem is not the mess.

[SPEAKER_00]: Our problem is we don't let his presence enter it.

[SPEAKER_00]: But the moment his presence enters it, things start shifting and changing, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: Before the priest have a word from God, before they have a bit of a cup and say this way.

[SPEAKER_00]: Before they have a road through the water, they have a word from God, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: This is the same thing we talked about with Abraham last week.

[SPEAKER_00]: Before he has Isaac, he has stars.

[SPEAKER_00]: Before you have dry ground, you have a word.

[SPEAKER_00]: Before you ever even step into the waters, he's already told you what he's gonna do.

[SPEAKER_00]: We just have to actually believe that God will do what he said.

[SPEAKER_00]: Some of you have words that you're hanging on to right now and the waters look like they're unmanageable, but I'm telling you they're not because if God gave you the word,

[SPEAKER_00]: It's not even you that has to see it through.

[SPEAKER_00]: You just have to be obedient to do what he says and let him take care of the rest.

[SPEAKER_00]: You just have to be obedient to take that next step and then let God supply the power.

[SPEAKER_00]: You can't stop the river, but you can't take the step.

[SPEAKER_00]: Oftentimes, we make the river lower and more than we make God lower.

[SPEAKER_00]: We make the circumstance God and we make God subject to the circumstance.

[SPEAKER_00]: But there is no circumstance in your life that you're facing and that God is subject to.

[SPEAKER_00]: Right?

[SPEAKER_00]: God is not subject to your mental health struggle.

[SPEAKER_00]: God is not subject to your financial woes.

[SPEAKER_00]: God is not subject to the way we're son or daughter.

[SPEAKER_00]: God is not subject to the marriage that feels like it's on the ropes.

[SPEAKER_00]: God is Lord over all of it.

[SPEAKER_00]: And he has a good ending intended for you.

[SPEAKER_00]: He has a good purpose.

[SPEAKER_00]: Why?

[SPEAKER_00]: Because his ways are higher.

[SPEAKER_00]: Because his mercy is deeper.

[SPEAKER_00]: Because he's better than we could have ever imagined.

[SPEAKER_00]: We have made God morally nebulous.

[SPEAKER_00]: Sometimes he's good, sometimes he's bad, sometimes he's indifferent.

[SPEAKER_00]: But that's not who God is.

[SPEAKER_00]: Right?

[SPEAKER_00]: God is good.

[SPEAKER_00]: We say this in the old church.

[SPEAKER_00]: God is good.

[SPEAKER_00]: Come on, somebody, and all the time.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we don't really believe that.

[SPEAKER_00]: We believe he's good.

[SPEAKER_00]: Some of the time, and occasionally that God is good.

[SPEAKER_00]: But if we really believe God is good all the time that he has nothing but goodness for you, then that means, which by the way, that's what fathers are.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now, I make sure I'm clear.

[SPEAKER_00]: That doesn't mean that God doesn't reproove, review, correct.

[SPEAKER_00]: Because how many, how many moms of dad you've ever had to reproove, review, or correct your kid.

[SPEAKER_00]: Right?

[SPEAKER_00]: If they're older than about three months old, at some point, you've had to reproove, review, correct.

[SPEAKER_00]: But why do we do it?

[SPEAKER_00]: Because we love them.

[SPEAKER_00]: Because that is goodness expressed to them, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: How many ever had your kid like try to stick something in the electrical outlet?

[SPEAKER_00]: Right?

[SPEAKER_00]: Probably everybody who's got a kid for some reason, those things are magnets for children.

[SPEAKER_00]: Right?

[SPEAKER_00]: And especially the first time one of your kids does that, you're like, no!

[SPEAKER_00]: Don't do that!

[SPEAKER_00]: Is it because you're bad?

[SPEAKER_00]: No, why?

[SPEAKER_00]: Because you're good!

[SPEAKER_00]: That is goodness expressed to them.

[SPEAKER_00]: But what you don't do is go, yeah, that's right.

[SPEAKER_00]: Stick that fork in there and see what happens.

[SPEAKER_00]: See, your kid running in the road, stop!

[SPEAKER_00]: Because that's goodness, you know what you don't do?

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, that car hit him, unless you say that's, they'll learn.

[SPEAKER_00]: We do that with small things.

[SPEAKER_00]: We don't do with big things, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: You know what I mean?

[SPEAKER_00]: But we think God is worse than us.

[SPEAKER_00]: You wouldn't want your kids to get hurt and go, yeah, serves you right.

[SPEAKER_00]: But we think God does that, but God doesn't do that, because he is good.

[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus says it.

[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus says he's better than us, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: If you being evil desire good things for your children, how much more so does your heavenly father?

[SPEAKER_00]: That's what Jesus said.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's better than you are.

[SPEAKER_00]: If God is morally inferior to us, that's a problem.

[SPEAKER_00]: All right, the river doesn't get the final word.

[SPEAKER_00]: The Lord of all the earth does.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now, let me close with these thoughts, okay?

[SPEAKER_00]: Because I hear you, you know, you want, okay, past our heads to my time and the next step.

[SPEAKER_00]: What does that mean?

[SPEAKER_00]: It's a little different for everybody.

[SPEAKER_00]: For some of you, it's that conversation that you've been postponing, or you need to forgive somebody.

[SPEAKER_00]: All right, you can own your part without controlling someone else's response.

[SPEAKER_00]: All right, for somebody, the step isn't asking forgiveness for some of you, the step is forgiving someone else.

[SPEAKER_00]: And once you hear me, you have to release revenge to God, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: Now, you don't have to pretend the wound was small.

[SPEAKER_00]: For a given this doesn't require unsafe access, I'm not saying any of those, or instantly your stored trust.

[SPEAKER_00]: But you do have to release and let God.

[SPEAKER_00]: For somebody, the next step is that hidden struggle that nobody knows is going on, you need to bring it

[SPEAKER_00]: Right?

[SPEAKER_00]: For some of us, it can be asking somebody to stand with us in faith for an area where we've conceded defeat.

[SPEAKER_00]: For some of you, it's being obedient to that word that you know God gave you and taking that step.

[SPEAKER_00]: For somebody to step as serving whenever you felt unqualified.

[SPEAKER_00]: For somebody to step as turning away from a life of compromise.

[SPEAKER_00]: Right?

[SPEAKER_00]: You can't ask God to lead your feet while refusing to change direction.

[SPEAKER_00]: Your past does not have to own your next step.

[SPEAKER_00]: God's grace and mercy is at work in you and you can change the way you are headed.

[SPEAKER_00]: And you don't even have to understand it all.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's a matter of fact, most of the time, whenever I'm obedient,

[SPEAKER_00]: But I've taken steps of obedience with trembling hands, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: Just because you don't feel confident doesn't mean that God is not.

[SPEAKER_00]: Oftentimes taking that step is like Lord, I know this is what you're saying and I don't understand it, and I'm scared down to how this is gonna go.

[SPEAKER_00]: Let's ride, let's roll, God.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're just gonna take the step.

[SPEAKER_00]: I have to think those and people when they came to that Jordan, they saw it overflow and they're like, I hope Joshua heard from God.

[SPEAKER_00]: Cause if not, we're in trouble.

[SPEAKER_00]: The pressure like, I hope this is the word because if not, we about to get swept away by the Jordan.

[SPEAKER_00]: But the good news is this, you don't have to fully understand.

[SPEAKER_00]: You just have to be obedient.

[SPEAKER_00]: I can give you accounts in our lives.

[SPEAKER_00]: Probably the biggest one being when we move back here, or it's like, Lord, I don't understand.

[SPEAKER_00]: But I'm just gonna be obedient.

[SPEAKER_00]: God, this isn't like, wasn't on my bingo card.

[SPEAKER_00]: But I'm just gonna be obedient.

[SPEAKER_00]: Hear me, a trembling yes is still a yes.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so as you have to take that step.

[SPEAKER_00]: Just because the road is hard doesn't mean that God is absolutely come on with.

[SPEAKER_00]: You can have questions and still have a yes.

[SPEAKER_00]: You can feel fear and still follow Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: And at the end of the day, this is one of the, this is one of the things I really want you to, to resonate, and I don't have time to read it today.

[SPEAKER_00]: But your obedience will make a way for others.

[SPEAKER_00]: God didn't open the door just for the priests when they cross, but all of Israel crossed because of their faithfulness, because they were willing to take the step.

[SPEAKER_00]: The miracle is bigger than the people who first stepped in.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I think more of the things you need to understand is everything God is doing in your life, isn't just about you.

[SPEAKER_00]: But other people is about God making a way for your family.

[SPEAKER_00]: Hear me, Mom and Dad, you don't know what your quiet, yes, sometimes with shaking hands that your kids are watching.

[SPEAKER_00]: And one day, they're not gonna be kids.

[SPEAKER_00]: They're gonna be adults and they're gonna be forced with the choice of following God or doing what's easy.

[SPEAKER_00]: You don't wanna think taking her, remember?

[SPEAKER_00]: I remember when my parents followed God when I didn't even seem like it was a smart decision.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're everything seemed difficult, but there, yes, brought them into promise.

[SPEAKER_00]: And if God did it for them, he'll do it for me.

[SPEAKER_00]: I can't tell you the amount of times I've ever missed back on what I've no God did for my parents.

[SPEAKER_00]: The stories I heard about what he did for my grandparents.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I go this, he's the same God.

[SPEAKER_00]: the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob.

[SPEAKER_00]: And if God did it for my parents, and if you did it for my grandparents, then he'll do it for me now.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I know one day there will be days where my kids stand and they go, God, I'm gonna do what you said because if you did it for Mom and Dad, he'll do it for me.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you did it for my family, you do it for me.

[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe you don't have that, let me say this.

[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe you don't have that lineage.

[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe your parents weren't those people.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's fine.

[SPEAKER_00]: You can be the first ones.

[SPEAKER_00]: Then one day, your kids, you go, I know what Mom and Dad did.

[SPEAKER_00]: And it didn't exist before them in our family, but you know what, they started something, I'm gonna continue it.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm gonna be faithful.

[SPEAKER_00]: Your courage, your obedience, may give courage to somebody who's already given.

[SPEAKER_00]: His people are watching your story.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we see this every Tuesday.

[SPEAKER_00]: We have people who come to our celebrate recovery ministry that have been cleaned for 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20 years from addiction.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we have people who have been claimed for a year, or six months, or three months.

[SPEAKER_00]: And you know what happens?

[SPEAKER_00]: Whenever they hear the testimonies of the people who have been doing this for 20 years, come on somebody.

[SPEAKER_00]: They go to the same God who did it for them, is the same God who can do it for me.

[SPEAKER_00]: And if he's been with them for 20, he's been with me for three, but he'll walk me through the rest of the way.

[SPEAKER_00]: your testimony, your yes, your faithfulness is about more than you, stepping in the river is about more than you.

[SPEAKER_00]: Somebody else can find courage in your yes.

[SPEAKER_00]: Once you set up your feet.

[SPEAKER_00]: Thanks again for downloading this podcast.

[SPEAKER_00]: We trust that this message has blessed, encouraged, and identified you.

[SPEAKER_00]: Make sure you subscribe so you never miss a message here from High Braise.

[SPEAKER_00]: Also, you can follow us on social media, on Facebook and on Instagram, and don't forget to go subscribe to our YouTube channel.

[SPEAKER_00]: We'll be back soon with another incredible message.

[SPEAKER_00]: God bless you and have a great week.