Hello and welcome to the Middletown Baptist Church podcast,
where we are proclaiming the truth to the world.
My name is Pastor Josh, and I want to thank you for listening to
this podcast.
I hope that this podcast can be a blessing to you and strengthen
you in the word of God.
Now come along, let's look into the Bible and see what God has
for us here today.
So on Sunday morning, we're in Romans.
On Sunday night, we're in Joshua.
If you come out Wednesdays, we're studying Second John coming
up here.
And so just wanted to give that as in a little bit of a plug
there before we get started here this evening.
So we're in Joshua, chapter three.
And obviously you understand that in the context of Scripture,
Joshua is taking over, leading the nation of Israel, and he's taking
over for a guy named Moses.
Most of you know Moses and his story.
Probably most of you know the story of Joshua.
But this is a large endeavor for Joshua to undertake because of
the fact that all the people had their eyes on Moses.
They.
They had their eyes on God in some cases.
In many cases, they had their eyes on Moses.
And so it would be a struggle for Moses to, you know, obviously
to pass it along to somebody.
And it takes Moses dying, right?
We know that Moses dies, and now Joshua is coming on the scene.
He's been there.
And God's promise to Joshua was that the same way I was with
Moses, I'm going to be with you.
And so we saw in Joshua chapter one a promise from God.
And it was the promise of God's power, God's provision, and
ultimately the.
The presence of God in the life of Joshua and the life of the
Israelites.
And he explains spiritual prosperity.
He says, you want to be prosperous in the Lord, follow His
Word.
He talks about that in verse number seven, verse number eight
in chapter one.
And ultimately he concludes it all with the thought there in verse
nine about having courage and having confidence in God through
the promises of His Word.
And so I want you to think about this in your life as a believer.
God has given you promises according to His Word, and those
are promises that we need to not only read, but heed word.
He means to take in and apply to ourselves and ultimately apply
to our spiritual walk.
So God's made many promises.
We're not going to go through all those promises here this evening.
But we have to understand that God has made his promises.
But in his promise comes a plan.
So what's the plan for Joshua?
He says, here's the promise.
I'm going to Be with you as I give you this plan.
What's the plan?
To go into the promised land.
To, to cross the Jordan river, to face off against the Canaanites
who were living in these places that they were to take.
And we know that with the story of Jericho, we looked at this
last week with Rahab, that God had promised Jericho to the Israelites.
He had promised the victory to Joshua.
And so the promise comes with a plan.
And as God has made promises to us as believers in his word, he
has given us a plan, and that is the plan to live out those promises
in our life, to live out service to him, to live out obedience,
to live out the gospel.
And, and we as Christians must understand that as God promises us
his presence and his power and, and ultimately those provisions,
we.
We know that we're not just to take those as selfish things and
say, yep, I've got the presence of God.
I've got the power of God.
I've got the provisions of God.
Now I can just live a comfortable life.
No, he says, here's the plan.
Here's.
Here's the, here's the provision.
Here's the power.
Here's my presence.
Now go do it.
Now.
What does it mean for a Christian to follow the plan of God?
Well, all of us have different routes to get there, but ultimately
it's to make disciples.
It's to be salt and light.
It's the honor and glorify Him.
And so we as believers have to understand that God has made promises
to us with his plan and with a purpose.
What's the purpose for the Christians?
The purpose for Christians today would be to glorify God and
ultimately be reunited with the Lord one day and to honor him
in the time that he gives us.
The purpose for the Israelites was to reclaim the land, to have
the land that God had provided for them.
And so when God makes promises to us and God gives us his plan and
God gives us his purpose, we.
We are called to live with patience.
For, for them, it was a time of waiting.
They.
They had to wait until God told them to move.
And for us, sometimes there is the struggle of patience.
None of us want to deal with patience in our flesh, patience is
a very difficult thing.
But biblical patience is not just waiting, but it's enduring.
It's being active in that process of waiting.
And so when God tells us to do something and he.
And he allows us to know that that's his heart, and he allows us
to be a part of it, and we pray for it sometimes that Takes
some time for it to come to pass.
And so I want you to think about that.
Patience.
But I also want you to think about how sometimes there's going
to be roadblocks, sometimes there's going to be things that get
in our path that we think, lord, you've called me to do this.
Why have you put this here?
Why have you allowed this obstacle to come up in my path?
And that's what we see happening here in Joshua chapter
3.
So God's made a promise to Israel.
You're going to cross the river.
You're going to go into the promised land.
You're going to have it.
You're going to have the victory.
And he gives them his power, his presence, his.
His provision.
And he says, look, you got to go.
Be patient, but follow me.
But now we get to chapter three, and we see that there's this
huge river and they've got a cross with this big nation of Israel,
millions of people, they got to cross the river and go into the
promised land.
And even then, when they cross the river, it's not like the people
are going to just give them the land.
There's going to be battles, there's going to be struggles.
And so in chapter three, I want us to think about what.
What should happen when we face obstacles in our way, when we're
trying to serve God.
Because you will face obstacles, and those obstacles will
look different to different people.
I know there's times in my life where I very clearly understand
what God wants me to do.
I can tell you that there's times in my life where I know exactly,
exactly how God wants me to do it.
But then something happens and I go, what, Lord?
That doesn't make a lot of sense.
You told me to preach the word.
You.
You told me to lead this church, and now you've allowed this
to happen.
This doesn't make sense.
What do I do?
Well, Joshua chapter three tells us exactly what we are to do
when obstacles come in our path.
In this case, the obstacle is the Jordan River.
But we're going to see what they do, and we're going to see how
we can follow this as way of example.
So look at with.
Look at with me there in verse one of Joshua chapter three says,
and Joshua rose early in the morning, and they removed from Shittim
and came to Jordan, he and all the children of Israel, and lodged
there before they passed over.
Okay, so this is that waiting period.
This is the time of patience.
And so God told the people of Israel to wait three days.
They were going to go to the, the shore of the Jordan river, and
during that time they were to prepare to get their provisions ready.
And I can't help but think about how the individuals, they're
getting the provisions ready, they get up to the river and they're
looking at this rushing river.
How can we cross with everything that we have across this
river?
How can we do this?
There were probably some individuals that were questioning,
doubting, and, and so after three days, they're going to go across
this river.
It says in verse two.
And it came to pass after three days that the officers went
through the host and they commanded the people, saying, when
ye shall.
When ye.
When you see the Ark of the covenant of the Lord your God and
the priests, the Levites burying it, then ye shall remove
from your place and go after it.
And so essentially what they're telling them is, hey, be
ready for the move of God.
Be prepared for the move of God.
There, there is a, a seemingly impossible obstacle in front of us,
blocking our way.
But basically it's this.
Get ready for God to do the things that God does.
Get ready for a miracle.
Get ready for God to display his power.
And that's what they were commanded to do to remind the people.
He says, when you see the Ark of the covenant of the Lord your
God.
And in this story, I believe the Ark of the covenant is a symbol
or a picture of keeping our eyes on the power of God, keeping
our eyes on the work of God, ultimately keeping our eyes on God
himself in the midst of that obstacle.
So he says here, when you see the ark of, of the Lord your God,
and it's moving, and the priests and the Levites bearing it,
then you shall remove from your place and go after it.
Basically this.
Wait on the Lord, wait on him, wait for his move and follow when
he moves.
There's a time to be patient.
There's a time to rest, there's a time to wait on the Lord,
but there's also a time to move when the Lord moves.
And so there's going to be times in our lives as Christians
that we want to move.
And God is saying, stay, rest, wait, be patient, go through this
trial.
But there's also times when God is moving and calling us to move.
And, and there's fear and trepidation to the fact that, you
know what?
I can't do it.
I'm not going to do it.
And God says, move when I Move, verse 4.
Yet there shall be a space between you and it, about 2,000 cubits
by measure.
Come not near unto it, that ye may know the way by which ye must
go, for ye have not passed this way hither for.
Hitherto.
For some, basically, you haven't gone this path before.
And for some of us, when we're facing struggles in our life, the
reality is, is that we haven't faced something like this before.
Maybe some of you have even said this out loud.
I've never had to deal with something like this before.
But let me tell you, God has.
God has seen all the struggles of this world, and he understands
our struggles, and he has a way through the struggles.
And so when you get to those times in your life when you feel,
I don't know what to do because I've never faced something
like this before, the idea would be, well, keep your eyes on
God, because he's going to navigate you through this.
And so the idea that Joshua and the people of Israel have is
essentially this.
Rely on God because you are in many ways helpless.
You're helpless to cross the River Jordan on your own.
You can't do this.
This is beyond your comprehension.
This is beyond your knowledge.
This is beyond your power.
And so Joshua could have sent a lot of people first across the
river.
But what does he do?
He sends the representation of God's presence, right?
The Ark of the Covenant at that time was the representation
of God's presence with his people.
So what does he send first?
The presence of God.
And keep your eyes on the presence of God.
Joshua understood that this was a spiritual problem and not just
a physical problem.
Even though we could have very easily looked at the situation and
said, well, of course it's a physical problem.
We need to start building a bridge.
We need to start coming up with all of our ideas of how to leverage
what we have as our resources.
But Joshua understood, and I think we as Christians must understand
that those struggles that are ahead of us, though they might seem
like physical problems, ultimately, at the end of the day,
many of the struggles that we're facing with can't be faced
with material, physical things.
It must be a spiritual battle, even though there are going to be
some physical elements along with it.
When we face obstacles in God's plan for our life, we must
face it with a keeping our eyes on him and understanding that
it's a spiritual problem and not a human problem.
And so God requires them to stay back.
As it says here, all these cubits, it's about a thousand yards
behind the ark.
And I believe, and many commentators believe, that there
was multiple reasons for this, but one Was the respect of the power
of the ark itself, but also to make sure that everyone, everybody
in the nation of Israel had a clear view of the ark being moved,
that everyone can see that this is a work of God and not a work
of Joshua and not a work of the people, but this is a work of
God.
And so essentially it's this.
And.
And I know that this is kind of a basic way to put it, but get
us out of the way and let God do the work.
And there's some times in our life where we have to do that.
We just have to get out of the way.
Lord, we want this work to be so obviously your work, that nobody
could ever be tempted to think that this is one person or a group
of people.
My prayer is obviously for Middletown Baptist to grow and to
see major things happening.
But if we could explain what's happening in a Middletown Baptist
church with, oh, we have a great leader or we have a good program,
or we had a lot of money donated to us or whatever, if we
could try to explain it in human terms, maybe it's not a work
of God.
We want to step back and say, this can only be done by the power
of God, by the work of God.
So get out of the way.
We have to get out of the way sometimes.
Sometimes what we do as humans is we try to get in the way of God
working.
We try to get ahead of him.
We try to do our own thing, our own path.
Remember there was a guy named Abraham that God gave him a promise.
And what was his promise?
Well, I'm going to give you a son.
I'm going to give you, you know, you're going to have a son
of promise.
And that son is going to bring you great joy.
And that son is going to bring blessings to not just your people,
but to the people all over the world.
We know that that ultimately was the promise that the messiah
would come from the line of Abraham.
But what did Abraham do?
Well, I know that God has a plan.
I believe that God is good, But I. I think he means this.
And he tried a couple of different paths, right?
And he.
He in the process, tried to get his way to God's way and caused
a lot of issues.
His disobedience caused a lot of issues.
Now God redeemed and restored all of that and continued with his
word.
But sometimes we're like, Abraham, God, you, you.
I know you have me doing this, but let me do it my way.
Let me.
Let me figure it out.
My path.
And so what do we see here in verse four, he says, okay, stand
back, watch God work.
Verse five.
And Joshua said to the people, Joshua shows great wisdom here.
I think it's all wisdom that we can take as God has a plan for
us and as we're waiting and as we're about to.
About to take step into an obstacle.
He says, sanctify yourselves.
Prepare yourselves for tomorrow.
The Lord will do wonders among you.
And so, because this was going to be not just a physical battle,
but a spiritual battle, Joshua tells the people, be spiritually
prepared for what we're about to do.
Prepare yourself.
Sanctify yourself.
And folks, I'm going to tell you here the same promise of God
saying this.
Hey, I'm going to bring you here.
I'm going to do this thing.
I'm going to allow you to have this opportunity here.
We have to be spiritually prepared for the battles that are
coming.
We need to be spiritually prepared for the power of God in
our lives, but we need to be spiritually prepared for the battles
that are to come.
And God gives us all the things that we need.
Remember, read.
Read the book of Ephesians.
He gives us the armor of God.
And he says, prepare yourself for the battle that's at hand.
He.
He doesn't pull any punches.
God doesn't say, hey, life's going to be easy.
On the actual opposite side.
He says, life is going to be very difficult.
When you live for me, truly, there's going to be spiritual battles.
There's going to be people that oppose us.
But he says, don't worry about the people that are opposing, because
really they're opposing you because they're opposing him.
It's a spiritual battle.
It always goes down to the spiritual.
So he says this.
He says, sanctify yourselves.
This means that they were to remember that word.
Sanctify means to separate themselves from the common things
of the world, to separate themselves from their focus, from
their focus of the things of this world and focus on the things
of God.
And he says, do that.
Why?
Because the Lord's about to do wonderful things.
He's about to work a miracle.
And you want to be part of this?
I'm going to tell you, God is at work today in this world.
God is at work in America.
God is at work around the world.
People are getting saved.
People's hearts are changing.
The plan of God is coming to pass.
But do we, number one, believe that?
Number two, are we willing to be a part of it?
God's work is going to get done.
I'm Going to tell you, we cannot limit God.
There is no way that me, you know, one time I. I was talking to
somebody about some of the spiritual struggles that I've had.
And by the way, pastors have spiritual struggles.
I'm going to tell you that.
Wish I could tell you that everything's easy.
That once you become a certain Christian for a certain amount of
time, that all the problems go away.
And if some of you have faced that and reached that, come talk
to me after the service.
I'd love to have you give way of testimony, but I was talking to
a pastor and I've used this statement before, and I said, you
know, I feel I'm.
I'm afraid.
He says, what are you afraid of?
And I said, I'm afraid I'm going to let God down.
He goes, I didn't know that you were holding him up.
So, yeah, you're right.
He said, he's holding me up and he's not going to let me down.
I think so much, so much of our fear and concern with what we're
doing is man, I'm going to fail.
I'm not going to be good enough.
But that's really what we're seeing here is he says, no, get ready.
Prepare yourself to be used by God.
Be a part of this.
He understands that we're flawed, but he still uses the people
that are marred by sin.
It doesn't mean that it's a justification for sin, but.
But God is using flawed human beings for his plan.
And so the way that I would frame it is this.
We don't need to be used by God.
God can do his work without us, but he wants us to be a part
of it.
I want to be a part of it.
I'm sure you want to be a part of it.
So what do we do?
We sanctify ourselves.
We.
We set aside our desires, our plans, our.
Our ways, our.
Our pleasures, and we say, lord, okay, this is what I want,
but it might not be what you want.
So I want to set aside myself to you as a spiritual sacrifice and
say, lord, you take over.
There's a lot of passages of scripture in the New Testament that
say that sacrifices are not enough.
The blood of bull and goats cannot save us.
We know that.
So God doesn't ask us to do animal sacrifices anymore, but he
does ask us to sacrifice something.
It says that we are to give ourselves a living sacrifice, wholly
acceptable unto God, which is our reasonable service.
So sanctify ourselves means this.
Prepare my heart, prepare my mind to be used By God.
I'll never ever forget a sermon that my pastor preached in
Florida.
He got up, he says, are you ready to be used by God?
And my answer at that point was, no, I'm not ready.
I've got too much that I'm holding on to in this world to put
anything in my hands for the cause of the gospel.
I was clinging too tightly to the things of this world and to the
hopes and dreams that I had for my life.
And, and I had to realize that I have to empty myself to be filled
by God's spirit and his plan.
And so the Bible says here that they were to sanctify themselves.
Why?
Because God is about to do an amazing, amazing work.
And he says, you want to be a part of this?
And so what, what is holding you and me back today from being
a part of God's amazing work here in 2025?
Revival could break out in America today.
Where does revival start?
Well, it starts with someone else.
No, starts with me.
If I want to see America change for the gospel, guess what?
I've got to be changed for the gospel.
If I want people to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ, what do I
need to do?
I need to tell people about the gospel of Jesus Christ.
If I want to see morality in the country change from a man centric,
selfish morality to a God morality, what do I do?
Well, I live out the truths of God and, and I fight for the cause
of the gospel.
Hey, you know what?
I'm going to tell you this, and I say this a lot because you
know why I.
What I preach on a lot is usually what I struggle with.
Just going to be honest.
I struggle with complaining.
I struggle with just commiserating with people around
me how bad everything is.
Oh, you know what, it's just so bad.
These people have gone too far.
We can't get this back.
And the idea is this.
I am not going to change anything in this world by me just
complaining about things.
I need to stop complaining and be content with what God has blessed
me with and bless this world with and get busy for the cause of
the kingdom.
And that's what we're seeing here.
He says, get ready.
Stop.
Stop being distracted with everything else.
Sanctify yourself.
Verse 6.
Here we go.
Joshua is going to take a step of faith and the nation of Israel
is going to take a step of faith.
And I'm going to tell you, when God gives us a promise and he
gives us a plan and he gives us a purpose, and when there's a
roadblock there's always going to be a step of faith.
There's a book out there, it's called Experiencing God.
And some of you have read it, some of you have studied it.
And it speaks directly to this idea that everybody that lives for
God is going to have a crisis of belief moment.
What do I mean by a crisis of belief moment?
Well, not me.
The author, Blackaby, said that every single person that was
used by God in scripture has a moment.
That we have to make a decision to be completely given over
to God.
Okay, am I going to choose me or I'm going to choose him?
If I choose me, I think that might be safe.
If I choose Him, I'm stepping out in faith.
But folks, if we want to be used by God, we have to be willing
to take that step of faith and go into the unknown.
To go to a place where I'm not sure what's going to happen, but
I believe and trust that God is going to preserve me through this.
And so verse six and Joshua spake unto the priest saying, take
up the ark of the covenant and pass over before the people.
So he says, now we're going, now we're trusting.
We're going to put feet to our belief.
We're going to move in what we've already been confirmed in.
And so faith starts in the heart, but it's proved through our
actions.
Actions aren't our faith.
Let me be clear about that.
But, but true faith will be produced by what we do.
And so it says here that Joshua says, let's go, let's pass
over before the people.
And they took up the ark of the covenant and went before the
people.
And so Joshua is following God's plan.
Joshua is saying, hey, you know what?
We crossed the Red Sea, we're going to cross the Jordan River.
Just as God was faithful to us years and years ago, so he's going
to be faithful to us today.
And to see a work of God, we need leaders and Christians to be
willing to say, you know what, I'm going to be a part of initiating
this process.
I'm going to demonstrate my faith.
So that's contagious for other people around me to believe in what
God has already done.
Joshua says, God was faithful to us back then, he's going to be
faithful for us today.
That's the same thing we do, folks.
God has been faithful to you.
If you doubt that, go back and re record and think about all those
things that God has been faithful in in your life.
And if God has been faithful to you before he's going to be faithful
again.
You know why?
Because God is faithful.
The Bible says that he is.
We're going to talk about this in the book of Hebrews later on.
But he says, let us hold fast the profession, our faith.
Why?
Because the one who has promised us is faithful.
Not because I'm faithful, but because he's faithful.
So Joshua says, we're going to go, we're going to be.
We're going to believe, we're going to trust.
And so we see in verse number seven, it says, and the Lord said
unto Joshua, this day will I begin to magnify thee in the sight
of all Israel.
That they may know that as I was with Moses, so I will be with
thee.
So Joshua's faith is rewarded.
Remember Hebrews 11:6.
If you can remember a verse about faith, I'd have you remember
Hebrews 11:1 and Hebrews 11:6.
Hebrews 11:6 says, he is a rewarder of them that diligently
seek him.
So Joshua is rewarded because he's the one that initiates that
faith.
And as others are going to follow, it says here, it's very interesting,
it says that he is going to magnify Joshua in the sight of Israel.
Now, at first glance and out of context, we could say, wait, God's
going to lift up a man so that they can keep their eyes on a man?
Well, not completely, though.
Joshua is the leader.
It says here that.
That God is going to magnify or exalt Joshua in the sight of all
Israel so that they may know, as I was with Moses, so I will be
with thee.
So Joshua is the example or the demonstration of God's faithfulness
to a person so that people can see Joshua and not say, wow, Joshua
is great.
That they can see Joshua and say, wow, God is great.
And that's really what it means for us as Christians.
It's.
We don't brag about how good God is so that people can look at
us and go, wow, that's an amazing Christian.
We testify of the power of God in our life so that people can say,
well, just as God has been faithful to so and so over here,
so I believe he's going to be faithful to me.
So for a person to be exalted is essentially this.
A person is to be magnified or put into the spotlight.
And.
And when the spotlight is put upon someone who has faith, God is
always going to shine.
God is always going to be the one who is elevated.
And ultimately our faith should be for the Lord and for other
people to trust in the Lord.
And we see that in verse eight, he says, and thou shalt command
the priests that bear the ark of the covenant, saying, when ye
are come to the brink of the water of Jordan, you shall stand
still in Jordan.
Joshua said unto the children of Israel, come hither and hear the
words of the Lord your God.
So Joshua doesn't take this as well, you know what, God's going
to exalt me, so come hear what I have to say.
And, and that's sometimes what happens within churches and organizations.
And, and because as human beings, we are tempted to keep our
eyes on a figure, a man who we can see, who we can experience.
But what the Bible says is God is using Joshua so that people will
see the power of the Lord.
And Joshua immediately deflects any praise and says, let's
come together and let's hear what God has to say.
And so if you're following a teaching of an individual or a group
or a church, be cautious.
Because if an individual absorbs the praise and doesn't deflect
the praise and give it to God, there's a huge red flag there.
Because as God give.
God gives gifts to certain people.
Obviously, God gifts different people with different things.
And sometimes God does gift individuals with the gift of leadership,
with the gift of public speaking, with the gift of, of.
Of administration.
And those typically are the gifts that people look at and exalt.
You don't really see people really praising people that have
the gift of hospitality or the gift of mercy.
Right.
Because that's something that goes on behind the scenes.
And though that should be celebrated, what we do in our culture
is we usually lift up the one person who is the mouthpiece.
But I'm going to tell you here that the person who is gifted by
God in this way hand twists that gift to be used for that specific
person.
But Joshua says, no, come and hear what the Lord of God has to
say.
What does the word of God have to say?
And so what does God do?
God encourages Joshua as he takes that step of faith.
So, so really all we see there in verse number seven is God encouraging
Joshua, saying, I'm going to be there with you.
I'm going to encourage you through this.
People are going to follow you as you follow me.
And so Joshua takes a step of faith.
God encourages him.
God always wants to encourage and help those who are taking steps
in faith.
Sometimes we close our ears to encouragement for whatever reason.
And, and what, or sometimes what we do is we are seeking after
the encouragement of man more than the encouragement of God.
I, I can speak of testimony after testimony about this.
I remember as a pastor starting out, I wanted everyone to
like me.
I still want, I still want everyone to like me, but it's not
my driving force anymore.
Because there was a time when if, if someone had a question or
if someone didn't like what I said, or if someone didn't tell me,
hey, I just really appreciate you.
I would be like, well, what's wrong?
What did I do wrong?
And I would go home all day stressing about it, going, how can
I please those people?
You know, first of all, you're not going to please everybody in
your Christian walk.
There are always going to be people that are going to be naysayers.
There's always going to be people that have questions.
There's always going to be people that have a better path, a
better thought.
And the idea is this.
I want to serve other people, but ultimately I'm serving God.
I want his encouragement.
His encouragement is so, so much more fulfilling than the encouragement
of man.
The encouragement of man fades away and it fades away quickly.
Now, I'm not saying don't encourage one another because that's
not an excuse to say don't encourage people.
We should encourage people.
But when we serve only for the man centric encouragement and we
forget that God's encouragement is everlasting, we've
missed the point.
And so what I'm going to tell you here is that God encourages Joshua
in the midst of his faith.
But then further on we see that, that God makes Joshua the leader
and, and so he's going to lead the people through the difficulty,
but it ultimately is God.
And so after Joshua obeys, he then gives specific instructions,
and that would be the instruction.
First and foremost is listen to the Lord.
He says, he says, here, hear the words, hear the truth of God.
And Joshua says, hereby, so.
So he says, this is why you need to listen to what God is saying.
Hereby ye shall know that the living God is among you and that
he will not fail.
He will, without failure, drive out from before you the Canaanites
and the Hittites and the Hivites and the Perizzites and the
G, the Girgashites and the Amorites and the Jebusites.
He says, this is why you should listen to God, because as
it says here in verse 10, you will know that the living God is
with you.
You read his word, you understand his presence, you understand
that he's with you.
But further on, he says that when you Hear His Word, you'll know
that he will not fail to do what he has said to do, that he is
faithful, that he will overcome your obstacles.
You think the Jordan river is an obstacle?
Wait till you get to the Canaanites.
Wait till you get to the Hittites.
Wait till you get to the Jebusites.
Wait till you get the Amorites.
He says God is going to be faithful not just with this little
thing called the Jordan river, but he's going to be faithful through
all of your options, all of these people that are coming after
you, all the people that you're going to be facing.
And that's a promise for us.
You want to know the presence of God and the power of God.
It's very easy.
Read His Word, stay in His Word, study His Word, believe His
Word, be sensitive to His Word.
So as an individual, as a.
As a believer in Jesus Christ, the best remedy to find encouragement
in him is, is to go to His Word.
And that's what he's saying here.
He says, you want to find this type of encouragement, go to His
Word.
And so.
So Joshua's encouragement for them would be to listen to what the
Lord has to say.
And that's my encouragement for you.
Obviously, there's going to be a lot of things that we hear, a lot
of distractions, a lot of chatter in this world.
And the best advice that I can give you is try to eliminate the
chatter, eliminate the noise, eliminate the distractions, and say,
okay, what does the Bible say?
Let's.
Let's be very particularly clear, let's be specific.
Let's not go into vagueness.
Let's not drift into a place in our life where it's all just emotions
or it's all just.
It's all just the distraction and the whims of this world.
The Bible likens false teaching to the winds that blow of
the chaff back and forth because.
Because trends will happen.
I don't want to be a trendy Christian, actually.
I want to, like, never be trendy, because trend, by definition,
trends go up and trends go down.
And if we ride that wave of trends, there might be an immediate
blessing, but that trend is going to fall.
And now we've got it.
We got to what's new, what's different.
And I'm not saying we can't modernize.
I'm not saying that we can't adapt to the culture around us.
But what I'm saying is, is that if we are only following the
trends of this world to dictate to us How God is working.
We're missing the point.
God works with the same power as he did back in the time of Joshua.
There's different stages and there's different ways that God speaks
to people.
Back then there wasn't the revealed word of God.
So God spoke through prophets.
He spoke in different ways.
But what we're seeing here is that the same power that allowed
them to cross the Red Sea, to cross the Jordan river, to get and
to the promised land is the same God that's working today.
And so many times we try to modernize God and say, well that's,
that's, that's not really something that I expect him to do.
Well, you know what God does the unexpected.
There's times in my life where I don't know how I'm going to deal
with this.
I don't know what the outcome's going to be.
I don't know if you've ever said this.
I've said this.
I just don't see how God is going to give me victory in this.
Just don't see it.
But good thing God's plan is not limited by my, my limitation.
And so what happens here is that Joshua says he's going to be
with you through this.
He encourages and Instructs Israel.
Verse 11.
Behold the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth passeth
over before you into Jordan.
He says the God is not just God of Israel, he's the God of all
the earth.
Now therefore take you 12 men out of the tribes of Israel, out
of every tribe of man.
And it shall come to pass as soon as the souls of the feet of
the priest that bear the ark of the Lord, the Lord of all the
earth.
I love how he keeps repeating that the Lord of all the earth shall
rest in the waters of Jordan, that the waters of Jordan shall be
cut off from the waters that come down from above and they shall
stand upon.
And he.
He's describing to them what God is going to do.
He believes it.
He believes it so much that he's speaking so confidently that
it's already happened, basically.
And so Joshua's outlooked what, what he believes about God.
He communicates to the people.
He believes that God is going to do this.
So he communicates that to the people.
He says God's going to do the impossible.
Even though we can't see it right now, even though this doesn't
make sense to us, this is an opportunity to see God work.
That's how we should see obstacles and trials.
That this is an opportunity for God to do his work.
This is an opportunity for us to get to a place in our life where
we can't describe this outside of a miracle.
So we fear those types of things.
We fear things that are outside of our control.
But actually on the other side of things, I think we should say
this.
I welcome things that are out of my control.
Why?
Because that's going to show that God's in control.
I've used this analogy before.
There.
There have been times in my life where I felt like I was super
in control, like I have complete control of the situation.
And God has quickly reminded me that I have no control over my
situations very quickly.
And I have to rely on God in a miraculous way to say, lord, I look
to you, I don't even know what to pray for right now.
Have you ever been there?
You ever been to a place in your life where you didn't even know
specifically what to pray for?
Other than, I need salvation, I need victory, I need you to intervene
right now.
I remember one time just praying, lord, I don't know how to
pray, but just do your work, do your work.
Do what you do.
Be the God of the universe in my life.
I welcome that right now.
That's a.
That's.
That's a comforting prayer, but it's also a scary prayer because
when you pray that prayer, God's going to do things that maybe
you didn't expect.
I remember there was a.
There was a preacher preaching one time, and he said, if God is
going to use you, he's going to stretch you.
And if God stretch you, stretches you sometimes, that's going
to hurt.
I said, what?
I don't want to be stretched.
I remember leaving that service that night with the wrong
attitude.
I was like, lord, I'm content with where I am.
Do not take me any further.
I don't want to be stretched.
But I'm going to tell you that the greatest blessing that God has
ever given me in my life was not in those times of comfort.
It was in those times of stretching where I was reliant on
him completely.
That's what gives us that confidence and peace in him.
So he says, here, get ready.
I'm about to show you what God is going to do.
And he tells him, the water is going to stand up.
It's going to be dry land.
As we walk through verse 14, we're going to see, do the people
follow?
Do they have faith?
And it came to pass when the people removed from their tents to
pass over Jordan, the priest Bearing the Ark of the Covenant before
the people.
Remember the Ark of the Covenant, the presence of God moving
before them.
And that's how God works.
God moves before us.
There's no surprises for God.
He knows what's happening tomorrow.
He knows what's going on in four years.
He knows what's going on in our struggles.
He knows our struggles before we even get to them.
I remember there was.
It was about three years ago, I was talking to another pastor friend,
and I was in the midst of a trial, and I said, I just don't know.
I'm struggling.
I was crying.
I was all over the place.
And he's like, let me tell you something.
Maybe he'll give you peace.
He says, in a year from now, you're gonna.
We're gonna come back to this very same place and you're not gonna
be crying about that problem.
That problem's gonna be resolved.
He's like, you're gonna be struggling with a new problem.
And I was like, yeah, you know what?
And it was so true.
The problem that is weighing me down so much right now and causing
me fear God is going to take care of that in some way, and there's
gonna be another trial ahead.
And so instead of being consumed by the trial that I'm in
right now, just look to God through it.
And so he says here it came to pass when the people removed their
tents and the Ark of the Covenant before the people.
And as they that bear the Ark were common to Jordan, the feet of
the priests that bear the Ark were dipped into the brim of the
water.
For Jordan overfloweth all his banks all the time of harvest.
So this is not so, some people would argue this is the time of the
year.
Of course, I've been to the Jordan River.
This is the time of the year that it was probably just like a
few feet wide.
No, this was the rainy season.
This was the season when it's rushing through and over in Israel,
you have the dry season, you have the rainy season.
Different seasons than we have.
And so it says here that this was the time when it was overflowing
on the bank.
So this is how God works.
He always takes it.
And it's the extreme.
Like, it's not an easy task that he's doing, but nothing's too
hard for him.
Verse 16.
That the waters which came down from above stood and rose above
up upon a very heap far from the city of Adam that is beside Ziratan,
and those that came down toward the sea of the plain, even
the Salt sea failed and were cut off.
And the people passed over right against Jericho.
And the priests that bear the Ark of the covenant of the Lord stood
firm on the dry ground in the midst of Jordan.
And all the Israelites passed over on dry ground until all the
people were passed clean over Jordan.
So God kept His word.
The miracle happened.
He did it.
He proved it.
It's kind of like the.
Kind of like when Elijah was on Mount Carmel and all the prophets
of BAAL are trying to do everything to conjure up some fire,
like something, Please, please.
They're cutting themselves and dancing around.
And Elijah has his chance and he says, okay, now we've got the
sacrifice.
Pour water on it.
Pour more water on it.
Just showing that there's nothing too big for God.
And I think so many times we just doubt him because we think like,
well, that's too big.
Well, it's too big for someone powerful on earth, but it's not too
big for the one who is all powerful.
And so they cross the river and the priests begin with the Ark
of the Covenant.
Everyone else follows behind about a thousand yards back, and
they walk into the river and miraculously, the water splits and
they cross the river.
And it says there that it was dry ground.
What an amazing miracle that is.
And so the miracle obviously is.
Is connected to the miracle that they had 40 years ago in this
time frame when they crossed the Red Sea.
And so that original parting of the Red Sea was them leaving the
bondage of Egypt and coming to the new land.
And this is God confirming that promise that was there 40 years
before and continuing on in his faithfulness to them as they
get closer and closer to victory.
And so literally, the Ark of the Covenant cleared the way for
Israel.
And so what does that mean for us?
That means that in the spiritual sense, God's power in his
presence is the key to our spiritual victory that we face.
So when we face impossible challenges, what do we do?
Well, for the Israelites, it was to look to the Ark, it was to
look to Joshua, who was a type of Christ there.
For those people, their.
Their Savior, their leader.
For us, as we talked about this morning, eyes on Christ.
We, we know, keep our eyes on Him.
He's going to clear the way, just as they kept their eyes on the
truth of God.
We keep our eyes on the truth of God.
And the river that you're facing, I don't know what your Jordan
river is right now that's in front of you, but God's going to
get us through it.
He's promised us to get through it.
He's going to continue in that promise.
And so when I went to the Jordan river, you know, one of the
things that I thought about when I was at the Jordan river, obviously,
is Jesus's baptism.
Like, that's the forefront of your mind.
But this story came to my mind as well when I was there.
And what do the Israelites do?
Well, the Israelites, after this, you, you would think they'll
never forget this.
This will be passed on for generation to generation.
But the temptation would be that they would forget.
So God tells them to make a memorial, to make a testimony of
what God has done.
We're going to talk more about that next time, and we're going to
talk about that next week.
And the idea that as God does things in your life, replay those
things to the next generation, build those memorial stones.
Because it only takes one generation to forget the powerful
work of God.
I, we, we try to tell our kids over and over again the miracles
that God has done for, for Alicia and I, I, I, I, I have a lot
of nostalgia tonight.
I don't know why.
I'm just going back to a lot of things.
Maybe it's older.
I just think about more stuff in the past.
But when we were a couple years ago, many of you know, we got
in a pretty serious car accident after the church service.
And we got home, and I remember kids might not even remember
this because it was a couple years ago.
It's pretty traumatic.
We, like, sat in a circle on the living room floor.
I don't know why we sat on the floor.
We have furniture at our house, but we sat on the floor and
I just told the kids, I'm like, guys, we just experienced a
miracle.
It's like we, we should not be like, okay, we should have some scratches
on us.
Now, God doesn't always do that for everybody.
I'm not saying that every car accident that someone gets hurt in
that means that God isn't with them, but for that, for whatever
reason, God preserved us through that evening.
And I don't know, you know, what his purpose was, but I said,
guys, this was a miracle.
We experienced this miracle.
And they were like, yeah, yeah, yeah.
But they don't.
It's very easy for us to.
It's easy for me to forget.
It's easy for me to forget the miracle of my salvation.
It's easy for me to forget how God led us to a new land and moved
us to a new position.
And it's so easy for me to forget because of the busyness of
this world.
So next week, we're going to talk about how we can memorialize
the work of God in our life so that the next generation can pick
up the torch and move forward and to not doubt, because, unfortunately,
the Israelites didn't remember, like, they got into the
cycle of the judges very, very, relatively speaking, shortly
after this.
And I'm going to tell you that it's so easy, if we are not careful,
to allow the next generation to just drift.
Allow us.
We could drift.
And so we just have to be careful about that.
So I hope that you understand when those obstacles come, God's
already given you the promise.
God already gave them the promise.
God already gave them the power.
God already gave them the purpose.
God already gave them the provisions.
But when those obstacles come, it's easy.
They could have turned around and said, well, the Jordan river
is, like, far enough.
We're fine.
We made it.
We made it far enough.
No, God had a plan to go the other side.
God has a plan for you.
He always should be stretching you.
One of the prayers that I have for our church is I pray that everyone
takes the next step, what God has for them.
The next step for some people is the first step of just getting
saved.
People in our church services don't assume everyone in our church
services on Sunday morning, Sunday nights, or Wednesday nights
is a believer, but someone needs to take a.
Some people might need to take a step in faith and trust in Jesus,
but many people in the church might need to take that next step
of whatever it is.
I don't care if you've been saved for 50 years or 50 minutes.
There's a next step.
So pray about what God has for you, and he's going to be there with
you through it.
I'm.
I'm ready.
I'm ready to see people grow.
I'm ready to grow.
There's nothing more joyful than seeing people within the body
of believers taking steps and then failing.
Guess what?
If you take a step in faith in the human sense, there might be failures.
You might get up.
I can tell you this, Micah, I won't embarrass him.
But a little while back, he had to say something publicly, and
he said the wrong thing.
And he was like, oh, man, everyone's going to judge me.
I said, micah, I get up and say the wrong thing all the time.
Okay.
I remember the first time I got up in front of people and I,
like, got lost in my notes, and I'm going, where am I?
Even at what am I going to say?
That was devastating.
So embarrassed.
But like I say, embarrassment's sometimes an underexplored
emotion.
And so we have to just, like you have to embrace your limitations
and say, you know what, I'm gonna mess up, but God's gonna be
bigger than that.
And that's the idea for, I think, for all of us is like, we've
got, like, I could never teach a class.
Well, maybe God doesn't have you teaching a class, but if God
calls you to teach it, do it.
Do it all.
Do it all out.
Maybe God has me doing something else.
Maybe.
Maybe God has me serving in this capacity.
I don't think I have the capabilities of doing that.
Just go for it.
Go for it all out.
He'll get.
He's got you.
He's gonna catch you.
He's going to catch you.
When you stumble, the just man falls, but he's going to get you
back up.
Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down because the
Lord upholds him with his hand.
And so I'm encouraging you to think about what God's the next step
for us is.
What's.
What's your.
What's the Jordan river that's holding you back from the promised
land?
Okay, push forward.
And I encourage you to think about how that.
That looks for you.
Well, I'll go ahead and close this with a word of prayer here.
And after that, I'll have a few announcements and then we'll
be dismissed.
Lord, I thank you for this time that you've given us.
I thank you for the opportunity to study your word here
this evening, to look into the book of Joshua and see your hand
of blessing upon the people and how you can overcome those obstacles
in our way.
So, Lord, I pray that you can give us the wisdom and the strength
and the power to trust in your work in our lives and not our own
work.
Lord, I pray that you be with the folks that are here tonight,
Lord.
Keep them safe as they go about their work this week, go about
their service to you, Lord, and just help them to keep their
eyes and their hearts fixed on you.
So, Lord, I just pray that you bless us as we go our separate ways
this evening.
In Jesus name, Amen.
Thank you again for listening to the Middletown Baptist Church
podcast.
I hope that this sermon has been a blessing for you.
If you would like to find out more information about our church
or this sermon, you can find us at middletownbaptistchurch.org
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You can also email me directly at Josh Massaroiddletownbaptistchurch
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Thank you so much.
God Bless.
Have a wonderful day.