Crossing Over (Joshua 3) - Pastor Daniel Fusco

[Music] [Music] [Music] all right everyone let's open up in our Bibles to the book of Joshua chapter 3 Joshua chapter 3 as we continue this study through the book of Joshua we're calling this first series in the book of Joshua conquests because all of the hopes and dreams of the children of Israel since the time of Abraham are coming into fulfillment in the beginning section of the book of Joshua see really tonight we're gonna see this great climactic event in the book of Joshua the crossing over of the Jordan River you have to realize that this is the big event sure there's all sorts of battles that need to take place after they cross over but the children of Israel for the very first time are gonna be walking in the inheritance that God had promised them all the way back in the time of Abraham Isaac and Jacob now what's important about this I think for us is that we have to remember that in order for us to experience God's inheritance we have a part to play and what you learn if you read your Bible is that the part that we play is in comparison quite small but it's not inconsequential see what the children of Israel bring to them experiencing the inheritance that God wants to give them is they trust that God is gonna do what he said it sounds simple right but it's not simple because each one of us in the lives and the situation's we find ourselves in we have to choose am I gonna trust God if God says that this is what he wants to do am I gonna believe that and step out in that or am I gonna say you know I don't think that's possible my god it's all great that that's what you said you're gonna do but I don't really believe that you're gonna do it because for the children of Israel what was going on was that some 38 years earlier God said I'm delivering you from Egypt I'm sending you the promised land and they didn't trust him they didn't take him at his word and that now delays what God was planning on doing whole time anyway and I think that's an important part because I don't believe that we should make an idol out of faith like I don't really believe we need to say Lord I need more faith because if you read the Gospels Jesus said that if you have the faith of a mustard seed which was a very small seed so we don't need to have great faith we need to have faith in a great God and that is not like a little like cute saying that's just like reality that really we don't need to say Lord give me more faith but it's Lord give me faith in your greatness that you can do anything that you have a plan and a purpose and that when you say I want to do something instead of us saying well Lord you know we need us to be your advisors on this thing because you don't really know what's going on and no there's be all these things going on we just say Lord okay let it be according to your word and we step out I think one of the biggest lessons that I am constantly learning is my only job is to step out in faith that's my only job when God says this is what I want to do we just say okay Lord is what I'm gonna do that simple stepping out in faith but what's beautiful is in this message we see that it's time for the children of Israel to step into the inheritance that God has for them so picking up verse 1 Joshua chapter 3 and says this then Joshua rose early in the morning and they set out from acacia Grove and came to the Jordan he and all the children of Israel and lodged there before they crossed over and so it was after three days that the officers went through the camp and they commanded the people saying when you see the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord your God and the priests the Levites bearing it then you shall set out from your place and go after it yet there shall be a space between you and it about two thousand cubits by measure do not come near it that you may know the way by which you must go for you have not passed this way before and Joshua said to the people sanctify yourselves for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you then Joshua spoke to the priests saying take up the Ark of the Covenant and cross over before the people so they went up so they took the Ark of the Covenant and went before the people so right away we find that Joshua is a man of action it's one of the things that we love so much about who Joshua is see that member in chapter 2 he sent out these two spies and these two spies one on out and they came on back and they said listen God has given us great favor the people of Jericho are already scared Joshua here's report as it came time to go and I love that we call this simply responding to Jesus here at Crossroads that is like something okay let's go do it and what's beautiful about is because Joshua was a man of action notice he rose up early in the morning I don't want you to miss this because I don't want to overstate the text but the fact that Joshua was a man who got up early in the morning I think is important I always think of a quote that I heard by a Charles Spurgeon who was a preacher in England he's known as the Prince of preachers or English features if you've ever read Spurgeon sermons um he's really quite extraordinary in his eloquence but Spurgeon attend and I'm gonna butcher the quote because he's eloquent and on me and so I don't do eloquent you guys know this you know but I enjoy Spurgeon's eloquence and he said in effect I will not look into the eyes of any other man before I first look into the eyes of God his thing is that if I don't seek God first thing if I don't connect with God and and pray and get myself centered on who the Lord is I don't want to see anybody else I think it's important because what you're doing when you're doing life that way is you're saying I want to make sure that my eyes are on Jesus before they're on anything else now I realize not everyone's a morning person and God knows I am NOT a morning person you know but what I've learned is that if I don't get my devotional time personally in the beginning of the day oftentimes the day gets away from me am I the only one who's like that it works like it's like it's just like if I don't get it done in the morning the chance of me getting to it later on as strong at all and I want to connect with the Lord so Josh was up early and it says that they set on out from acacia Grove now for those of you who read the King James Bible I said they set on out from shittim and that's why you know it's a case of Grove now anyway it's it's coming you'll get it you'll get it later so what never mind I'm just gonna move past that anyway I'm just reading you the Bible so what happens is that they come to this area and they're now they're right on the edge of the Jordan River like they're right there and and sure enough it says in verse 2 so it was after three days that the officers went through the camp so they moved from where they were and they spent three days there know someone is bound to say you know what's the significance of the three days because if you think about your Bible obviously Jesus died and he was buried for three days there's lots of three days Jonah was in the belly of the whale for three days and so I don't want to overstate the three days but I think if you're one of those people who like to track down ideas in the Bible do an exhausted Bible search on three days and see what you come up with because the Bible is amazing that way I've been joking here lately if you've been around cross as I say you know if you think the Bible is boring you're wrong you're boring you know because the Bible is pretty awesome you know and and it's inexhaustible in what you can learn from it and every time and some of you're like yeah I do you think the Bible is boring know you're boring that's why I tell my kids all the time when my kids say dad I'm bored I said no you're boring that's why you're bored there's some infinite things to do and I'm here so you get a fun all day you know what I mean and so so the idea is that if you're if you're one of those people and I really want to encourage you to have fun with the scriptures I mean it's God's Word but there's so much for us to learn in it so look at three days look at all the different instances of three days and how it plays and why it plays that way I don't want to overstate it they could have traveled they just needed a couple days just to rest it could be something as simple as that but I do think that the fact that it was for three days I was important now when that happens the officers went through the camp and they commanded the people saying verse three when you see the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord your God ah and the priests the Levites bearing it then you shall set out from your place and go after it so the idea here is that Ark of the Covenant is one of the most prominent features of the next few chapters because the Ark of the Covenant if you remember if you were with us back when we studied the book of Exodus from chapter 20 and following you know you find that the Ark of the Covenant was a piece of furniture it was a box that had poles on it it was completely overlaid with gold right and in that Ark went the two tablets of the of the law and went Aaron's rod that budded to prove that he was God's chosen priests and it went a little jar with the manna so they saved some Twinkies for the promised land just we don't I mean sorry I can't resist anyway you know that and they had that Joe charm at and then they had that covering which was called the mercy seat right and then there was these two cherubim that were facing one another that their wings were touching over it and it was meant to be the sign for the children of Israel of the very presence of God now within the tabernacle that mobile worship tent that they had that ended up giving way to the temple at the time of Solomon it's at what was called behind the veil in the Holy of Holies and the only person who ever got to go in once it got stationed in Jerusalem was the high priest once a year with that blood offering first he made atonement for himself and then for the people now the reason I tell you all this is because everything about the Ark of the Covenant points to Jesus because Jesus is the visible presence of God in the midst of the people how do I know well listen so it's beautiful about this is that the though the Ark of the Covenant what was inside of it the law the Ten Commandments Jesus the only person ever kept the law Aran's budded rod why because people didn't believe that Aaron was God's chosen priests and God said when he put all your rods together you know in the tabernacle of meeting which every one buds overnight that's the one I've chosen why because Jesus is the high priest who God has chosen the manna was in there why was the manna in there well simply because Jesus is the bread of life right and what's beautiful is all of the was covered up all of this glory is covered up and then you have these two angels overseeing it and John's Gospel is very powerful because at the death of Jesus right you got to imagine so Jesus was brutalized on the cross right and then they wrapped him in a and they and they laid him on the slab and when when they looked and choose that tomb that was empty there was two angels sitting there you could imagine these two angels on either side with this blood-soaked slab it's the most powerful picture of the mercy seat that the lid of the Ark of the Covenant and you guys know which is so powerful that when Jesus died that veil in the temple that separated the holy place where any priests would go from the Holy of Holies that was torn from top to bottom not from bottom to top all these details are so perfect why because God is saying look even though this was reserved for only the high priest with the blood sacrifice now everyone can come everyone can come so the Ark of the Covenant was designed for the children of Israel that until the Ark of the Covenant goes they're not allowed to go why is that important because my friends if Jesus is the Lord you want him to lead your life you don't leave you lead your own life and this is important because no what happens for all of us am I the only impatient person in the house guy get a Amen ha ha that's right like we're people we want to get things done and so what happens is we have a tendency to run out ahead of the Lord but there's like no until the Ark of the Covenant goes until then you have to wait why because we want Jesus to lead our lives I'm always reminded what it says in Romans chapter 8 where it says for as many as are led by the Spirit of God these are the sons of God or the sons and daughters of the children of God and we do not want to lead we want to be led and the greatest leaders are those who are willing to be led by the king of kings and the Lord of lords are you getting out ahead of Jesus today now I know nobody ever wants to yeah I am but but like if we say word mi had ahead of you we don't want to lag behind him either we want to walk as Jesus would have us walk but until the Ark of the Covenant went the people were meant to stay put why because God wants to make sure he's leading this processional now not only that in verse 4 we learned something really fascinating he says yet there shall be a space between you and it's about two thousand cubits by measure do not come near it that you may know the way by which you must go for you have not passed this way before so what we find here is that they're supposed to be once the Ark of the Covenant goes no one is supposed to get too close to it now a cubit is not a unit of measure we use today but since you'll find all of your Bible and explaining to a cubit was this is long before they had rulers and metric and all this these these different things so uh norm all of the different units of measure were often common things so a cubit was the distance between the tip of your middle finger and the crook of your elbow so it's about a foot and a half so when you see two thousand cubits it's about three thousand feet right so they're supposed to keep this distance why there's probably a couple of reasons first notice that in the text it says do not come near it that you may know the way by which you must go for if you have not passed this way before see what he's saying is that you don't know where you're going you've never been here but the Lord knows where he's taking you so make sure you don't miss where God's taking you this is why it's important not to get out ahead of the Lord so to wait on him and say Lord I'm gonna let you lead and I'm gonna follow you but also I think that there's this need for distance because I believe that God always wants to remind us of the sacredness of who he is and his holiness see they were not to have a casual or a careless intimacy with God but they're meant to walk with a profound spirit of respect now I think this is important because Jesus invites us not just to be servants but to be friends but we also have to remember who were friends with and I think that in our casual culture as become really common for people to talk about Jesus who's like yo Jesus is my homeboy you ever see that little guy with the thumbs up some you guys have that on your windshield now I think it's cute culturally but Jesus is the king of kings and the Lord of lords so even though he's your friend he's so much more than just your bro that you hang out with does that make sense so we want to make sure that we experience all the intimacy and the deep friendship that we get to have but we also realize who he is you know and it's funny I like I'll give you a great example of this so so my dad is my dad right and so so you know I'm 41 my dad's in his early 70s and I remember when my dad first came to visit crossroads he's like so do I have to call you pastor when I'm there and I started laughing and I'm like well I am your pastor you know you know and so and I was talking about my gift of sarcasm and so it was you know coming out and and and and I remember and and I'm like that no it's like I'm your son you know and and but it was funny when he was here and he met people he's like well you know pastor Daniels my son and I remember hearing beyond Michael oh you know and I'm like I heard you call me Pastor Daniel he's like well I realized that you're one of the pastors at Crossroads and so I wanted to honor that office but you know I still change your diaper so I'm not gonna call you bastard at all you know and so it was just a great moment because there's an intimacy of a relationship but there is also the reality of who somebody is and so so you realize that often times relationships exist in different spheres and so we want to have the deep friendship and intimacy like I've been thinking a lot about that where Jesus says I don't just call you servants I call you friends because when I read it it really grabbed my heart because I started thinking to myself when was the last time I heard someone say I'm a friend of Jesus because one thing to be a follower of Jesus another thing to be a friend of Jesus and I started thinking Jesus is like no I don't just call you servants I call you friends and so I'm like so why don't we why do I consider myself a friend of Jesus and it made me rethink the relationship a little bit because it's one thing to be a follower of Jesus other thing I'm a I'm a friend of Jesus and so in this case we they're meant to be reminded that God is the sovereign and holy creator and sustainer of all things and that there is a separation now obviously this is before Jesus came and tore the veil and so the relationship exists a little bit differently as now we get to call ourselves children of God redeemed by the blood of Jesus but that distance is important now and what's powerful is that Joshua that first the commanders go the captains and the officers win and then in verse 5 Joshua speaks sanctify yourself for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you and that word sanctify literally means to be set apart as Holy you could use the word Holy Phi with an h hol I FY I don't think that's a real word I just made it up but the idea is that word sanctified it comes from the Latin word Sanctus which literally means to be set apart and we have to realize that you and I because of who Jesus has have been set apart set apart as distinct as unique as uncommon I always use this example of this because I find it to be really powerful especially as a parent of small kids some of you have a fine dining china at your house like the nice plates anyway know what I'm talking about I remember someone's I do want China I'm like no you know because I would not do it I'm gonna find dining kind of guy just stick the food on I don't care what it's on I'll you'd off the table right anyway but but it's like so like if you're having like your six-year-olds birthday party right do you serve pizza and hot dogs and cake on your fine china why not because it's fine China right you give them the paper plates sometime you get them with a little character on it or whatever why because you know that if you give them something nice they're gonna break it and you don't want to ruin something that's special in the same way if you are a friend of Jesus if you're a follower of Jesus you are set apart for a specific usage that china is designed for special occasions for special meals not for the common things and the problem is today as many of us don't think of ourselves that way we don't think ourselves I am NOT paper plates that get used once and tossed away I am a son or daughter of God and I'm set apart by him for very specific reasons not just to be normal I am NOT normal because I am filled with the Holy Spirit and that's why as the followers of Jesus we live differently because we realize we are not common anymore and he says look I want you to set yourself apart why because God is gonna do wonderous things among you when I read that started to think to myself I wonder if many of us don't experience the wonders things that God wants to do in our lives because we're not setting ourselves apart we're not choosing to say I'm just not gonna be like everybody else I'm not gonna think about myself the way everyone else does I'm gonna let the Bible inform I'm gonna like Jesus and form that in my life and when you choose to set yourself apart you end up like Moses who instead of setting up his tent within the camp everyone's within the camp and Moses of setting up outside the camp but Jesus and the Lord is meeting himself not inside the camp but outside the Amen I was watching the glory of God come over Moses his tent and they're all being like wow but Moses is not where everyone else is he's outside I know what I want to encourage you is I want you to live your lives set apart in the midst of this world because I believe that Jesus wants to do a work in this generation unlike anything the world has ever seen why because we are one day closer to his return than we've ever been before and I believe that unless we set ourselves apart we will never be able to be in step with what he's doing too many of us want to think of ourselves as just like everybody else and I'm here to tell you if you are fill with the Holy Spirit you are completely set apart but we have to live that way we have to make decisions to be different we have to be willing to be ridiculed and maligned we have to be willing to be thought of as weird in some ways but God did tell us that we are his peculiar people so get on with that with your bad selves in verse 6 Joshua says then Joshua spoke to the priest saying take up the Ark of the Covenant and cross over before the people and so they took up the Ark of the Covenant and they went before the people in verse 7 and the Lord said to Joshua this day I will begin to exalt you in the sight of all Israel that they may know that as I was with Moses so I'll be with you you shall command the priests who bear the Ark of the Covenant saying when you have come to the edge of the water of the Jordan you shall stand in the Jordan so Joshua said to the children of Israel come here and hear the words of the Lord your God and Joshua said by this you shall know that the Living God is among you and that he will without fail drive out before you the Canaanites and the Hittites and the hittites and the perizzites and the girgashites and the amorite and the jebusites behold the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord of all the earth is crossing over before you into the Jordan now therefore take for yourselves twelve men from the tribes of Israel one man from each tribe and it shall come to pass as soon as the soles of the feet of the priests who bear the ark of the Lord the Lord of all the earth shall rest in the waters of the Jordan that the waters of the Jordan shall be cut off and the waters that come down from upstream and they shall stand as a heap okay now you start to get that there's there's a there's a crescendo that's coming this thing is is building in a certain direction right the offers go through everyone say listen man okay you know when all kind of coming it goes you got to go but state stay far away and all the stuff is going on and Joshua was explaining it to the people right and now it says the Lord comes and speaks to Joshua he says look I'm gonna exalt you in the sight of all Israel that they may know that just as I was with Moses I'm gonna be with you see what's going on now is the crossing over of the Jordan that's gonna happen is gonna solidify in the lives of the people that just as God was working in the life of Moses now their new leader is anointed - alright and so he tells them command the priests who bear the ark saying when you come to the edge of the water of the Jordan you shall stand in the Jordan so the idea here is that when you get to the Jordan River they're very supposed to walk on in now again so um the Jordan River was not like like a little stream that you pass over when you're hiking right and so they were literally supposed to get into the Jordan River right and then Joshua tells the children of Israel that this is what's supposed to happen and what I love about the way Joshua speaks to the children of Israel as I love all the names of God I'm one of those people because the Bible is not primarily just a book about people it's really a book about the Lord who God is and I love when I see all these variations on the name notice what it says verse 9 the words of the Lord your God verse 10 the Living God verse 11 the Lord of all the earth verse 13 the Ark of the Lord the Lord of all the earth see Joshua is a good leader because he tells the people who the Lord is no notice the Lord your God that was the first one right notice the word Lord capital L capital o capital R capital D right when you find Lord with all capsules that literally means the personal name of God what we know is Yahweh in more the Shakespearean time they called it Jehovah what is it these four letters are you - hey above and ahead go look at your neighbor say good hey love the hey look at the other person to say your hey bouquet guy go you didn't know you could speak in tongues but now you know now the idea is that it's these four Hebrew letters now people today would say it was Yahweh but back in the day they didn't know what the name was because the Jewish people wouldn't say the personal name of God because they smell that was too holy they really wanted to honor you know the the commandment don't take the Lord's name in vain so they would call this personal name of God that you're the hey the vovan hey they call him Hashem which literally means the name because I didn't want to say his name right so what they did was they would take this these four letters they put the vowel pointings for the word Lord or Adonai you put it that's how you get Jehovah right so everyone write all that down you got that and press your friends anyway so the personal name of God is God revealing himself as the I am Who I am who revealed himself to Moses at the burning bush so you have this idea of Yahweh Elohim the Lord your God right and then by this you shall know that the Living God is among you so this is a God who is alive not a God who is this is not a God who is dead the the the philosophers at the end of the 19th century into the 20th century still many people say God is dead we don't need God because we have science right people say that stuff that's when science becomes a religion when it's not based on fact it's based on someone's desires to control you with information you have to know that don't ever be somebody who is anti science you know I could science it's the it's based on observation so science is humanity's attempt to understand what God has done but we should always reject when science journeys into religion right because really what that is that's a power play to control use use their own ideas its user right well this used to power play you're saying that what I really want is I want to have power I don't want the the Lord to rule over me I don't have to pretend that my life or I don't my life to be accountable so intent like God isn't real but know what the Bible calls God the Living God and what I want to tell you is God is just as living today as he was in the days of Joshua he's just as alive today as he was in the days of Elijah and David and Jesus and the disciples and the book of Acts Jesus is alive today God is the Living God and he is at work in your life I always loved that verse in the psalm that says I would have lost heart if I did not believe I would see the hand of the Lord and the land of the living I've once heard it said that if you can't see God in everything then you won't see him in anything God's fingerprints are all over everything in your life he is doing work and we know him as the Living God let the Living God breathe fresh life into your life that's what God is inviting us into I want to share my life with you that's what he says that's what he wants to do so he calls him the Living God and he says listen you will know that the Living God is among you and that he will without fail drive out from before you all the i'ts the Canaanites and the jebusites hittites perizzites gege cites amirite s-- that's how you know that god's in the hip pipe right there oh never mind you'll think about I can't even say anyway the idea here is that God without fail will do what he's promised to do even though he hasn't done it yet see you what you want to understand faith faith is believing in the present what hasn't happened as if it's already happened faith is living right now that God will do what he said he would do even though you haven't seen him do it yet I love this that without fail he'll do it not maybe if you're good he'll do it no God is absolute evil though they haven't even stepped foot in the promised land they haven't had one of these battles yet without fail cots gonna do it that's what faith is faith is believing in the present what hasn't happened as if it already has you know in the Hebrew language there's actually a whole verb casing called the prophetic perfect where somebody acts as if something is the present test that hasn't been in the present tense yet it's prophetically already happened although you haven't seen it lived out and that's where hope comes in that's where faith comes in and that's where trust in the Lord comes in when you believe right now that God will do what he said he would do even though it hasn't even remotely happened yet and you live with that settled faith in who the Lord is now not only that verse 11 behold the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord of all the earth so now he's not just the Living God now he's the Lord of all the earth now what does the word all mean in the Bible oh you guys are so brilliant give yourselves a golfclap good you guys in Southwest Portland internet campus you guys to give yourself a golf clap good all means all the Lord of all the earth is there any part of this earth that's not the Lord's what's the answer no you know the psalm say the earth is the Lord and all of its fullness it's all his he is God of all things right how this is so powerful I mean I just love the Bible does that does that just make you happy that he's the Lord of all the earth that everything it's all his it's all in his and in him we live and move and have our being it's all Lorde's right and it says that the Lord of all the earth is crossing over before you into the Jordan now therefore take for yourselves first twelve twelve men of the twelve tribes of Israel one man of every tribe and it shall come to pass as soon as the soles of the feet of the priests who bear the ark of the Lord the Lord of all the earth shall rest on the water of Jordan that the waters of the Jordan shall be cut off and the waters shall come down from upstream and they shall stand as a heap didn't something like this happen for Moses remember when God parted the Red Sea as we know what commonly to sea of reeds right now the priests are gonna step in and God is gonna stop the waters so God goes back to acknowledge to show them that God is with Joshua just as he was as Moses by stopping the waters once again now Allah says in verse 14 says so it was when the people set out from their camp to cross over the Jordan that the priests 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 priests who bore thee are dipped in the edge of the water for the Jordan overflows all its banks during the whole time of harvest that the waters which came down from upstream Stood Still and rose in a heap very far away at a domme the city that was beside Zahra ten so the waters that went down into the Sea of Arabia the salt sea failed and were cut off and the people crossed over opposite Jericho 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 that crossed completely over the Jordan Wow what we have here everybody at the stage is set when the priests get up to the Jordan River it says they dipped in the edge of the water so they put but then there's this little note notice for the Jordan River overflows all its banks during the whole time of the harvest so what that says is the Bible saying listen it's not like it was the dry season and the Jordan River was like a little thing it's like this is the point it's in the middle of the barley harvest the river is at flood stage so then crossing over the Jordan River at this time was the least strategic time for them to cross over this would have been a foreboding sight for the people this was very much like they come to the Red Sea all of a sudden the Egyptian armies are behind them and all of a sudden like uh-oh what's gonna happen then going to cross over the Jordan River and the midst of it being an overflowing season was really bad but right as they dipped their feet in the waters which came down from upstream Stood Still and rose in a heap very far away so what this means is that God wanted them to act in faith walking up dipping their toes in the edge of the water and God stops the waters way far away not right next to him but way down the road and they end up walking in on dry ground now the idea of dry ground it's not meaning to say that like not only did the water stop but all dried up and it was like scorched ground the idea is that they weren't walking on the water they were walking on normal ground because you everything about what would have happened if they never dip their toes in you know what have happened they would have stood on the other side waiting for the waters to stop see remember what I told you that God asks us to add something that is important but small the children of Israel had to respond the priest had to be willing I mean could you imagine being appreciate airing the Ark of the Covenant I mean they had never been in the Promised Land before and you can imagine someone thinking of themselves you know if we dip our feet in we might get swept away in the Jordan and what are the people gonna think about who God is and well in Joshua 1 you know you but they were willing to simply trust what they heard and dip their feet and then everything stops and it says that not only did the priests Passover on dry ground and all Israel cross over on dry ground until all the people had crossed completely over to Jordan not only did the priests expand but everybody got a chance to walk where they had never walked before as I draw this message to a close what I want to ask of each one of you is simply to be willing to put your feet in the water see the idea is God is asking you to take a step into something that you've never experienced before that you've never understood before and to do something that sounds like it probably won't work but here's the question will you put your feet in the water are you willing to say okay Lord I'm willing to fail I'm willing to look foolish I'm even willing to potentially make God look weak but nobody would have known what the Lord would do until you take the stuff and I believe that God is inviting all of us no matter if you've been walking with Jesus for decades or if you're gonna say yes to Jesus for the first time here today he's asking all of us to take steps of faith he's asking all of us to take him at his word and to dip our feet into the edge of the water get your feet wet just a little bit I realized that for some of us just putting your toes in the water is gonna be a huge dip of faith you know it's like it's fine it's it's you know as I'm talking right now you guys know it's summertime right and and and so my oldest son over died is 12 he's been swimming since he was like three years old and Annabelle she's three and she's still new at it and so you know when we go to a lake obadiah is like in the water the whole time and Annabelle's like on this shore just being like we hold my hand yeah I hold your hand we walk down and we got close to four feet in and splash her a little bit just squeal and run away you know for Annabelle just putting her feet in it's a big step and she's now she's been doing it for a while so now she just goes running in because she knows that it's safe and I think for some of us what God is simply asking of you right now is to just dip your feet in you know whether it's you're dipping your feet into serving the Lord so excited here at Crossroads with our connected service so many people taking these fresh steps of faith in I don't know what's gonna happen god I hope I don't mess it up it's gonna be Graham I know you're great just dip in your feet in because you know that the Bible says that we're called to serve so many people are saying how can I serve in our community why because God called us to be a blessing with the blessings he's given us and so just take that just put your feet in the edge of the water and see what God's gonna do I realize for some of us we've been in the water so long that your job is just to go deeper in the water like Jesus told Peter he said what launch out into the deep Peter was a fisherman didn't need to be closely to be out in the deep waters there's some of you right now you walk with Jesus so long sure it's not all perfect but Jesus saying I want you going to the deeper end of the pool I want you take the next steps and all I want for us as a church family whether you're in our Southwest Portland campus who we love so much and in our Vancouver campus if you're part of our internet campus or or on Facebook live or how every year you're you're hearing this right now Jesus is inviting you into the water just take the step and see what he wants to do roast our heads that our hearts and pray together

Channel: Crossroads Community Church

Views: 6,296

Rating: 4.9058824 out of 5

Keywords: Crossroads

Id: sbK-CAmHcvQ

Length: 42min 26sec (2546 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 09 2017