The Book of Joshua chapter 3:1-11 and 14-16. I want to preach a message this morning that I believe will be historic in the life of this church. There are many messages that we simply speak in the house of God that build but there are some that help us to realize what God wants to do in us corporately as a church. How many of you believe that God has great plans for this place?
I want to speak a message entitled "Before the Next Level". I believe that not only will this message affect us as a body but I believe that it will challenge you in your heart as an individual in your walk with Jesus Christ.
Joshua 3:1, "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 lodged there before they crossed over. So it was after 3 days that the officers went through the camp and they commanded the people saying, "When you see the Ark of the Covenant that the Lord your God, the priests and the Levites bearing it, then you shall set out from your place and go after it. If there shall be a space between you and it about 2000 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. Joshua said to the people, "Sanctify yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you". Then Joshua spoke to the priest saying, "Take up the Ark of the Covenant and cross over before the people". So they took up the Ark of the Covenant and went before the people. 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 will be with you.
You shall command the priest 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, hear the Word of the Lord your God, "By this you shall know that the living God is among you and that He will without fail drive out from before you the Canaanites, the Hittites, and the Hivites, the Perizzites and the Girgashites and the Amorites 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 the Ark of the Covenant is a symbol of the presence of the Lord.
Look at verse 14, "So it was when the people set out from their camp to cross over the Jordan with 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 priest who bore the Ark 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 up upon a heap very far away at Adam, the city that is beside Zeratan. So the waters that went down into the sea, even the salt sea, failed and were cut off and the people crossed over opposite Jericho".
Father, we thank you today that you are in this place, that you are the God of breakthroughs and the God of the crossover. So Father, today, we ask for your presence to continue in this place, having your will in our lives that you might be glorified. May we decrease and you increase, in Jesus name. Amen
I believe that in these days that we live which are the last days before Jesus comes back, that we live in the greatest time of history. I believe that we are on the threshold of something unique and special from the Lord within the body of Christ. The Bible talks about a great end times harvest and the blessings he will pour out on His people. The Lord promises that His church, his people, the people of God will have impact in this world that will change it for Him. How many of you are looking forward to see that come to all its fullness? There's a hunger and I believe a desire for more of God among His people, a desire for His presence, a desire for His works, a desire for His majesty and a desire for His will. There has been a time when the body of Christ has slumbered and slept, when apathy has come and has taken over the people of God, when there has been such a settledness with life and for things and in prosperity that many times they have forgotten to desire His presence more than His provision.
I believe there has been a hunger stirring in God's people for more of Him. How many of you have sensed that stirring in your heart? Maybe you're here this morning thinking that you don't feel that then I want to challenge you, it is time for the body of Christ to want the presence of God more than ever before, to want His work and His will in their life. How many of you know that it is more important for the presence of God than for the provision of God for the people of God?
It is essential, it is vital, and when we can come to church and have our times at home, and we can pick up the Bible and have our prayer time and still be apathetic and do this thing as a religion and as a thing that's good because we should be Christians, we believe that He is God but there is no urgency to have the promise of God fulfilled in our life. I have talked to so many Christians who have said they've witnessed that in the church but many have said they have sensed God stirring something in their spirit, for more of Him. I believe that God is preparing His people personally one by one for what He wants in their life. I also believe that He's doing a work in His church corporately as a whole on a world basis. I also believe, as your pastor, that He's doing a work in the life of Harvest Community Church and it's vital that He does.
I want to speak to us as a church because for years we have been praying that God would do something great for this local church to reach this city for Jesus. How many of you believe that it's His will and His desire to do so? If you don't believe that then I would ask this, "Why do you come? Not because that's a battle cry or a line drawn in the sand but the truth is don't we all want to see God do something great? Don't we all want to see His heart? Don't we all want to see His purpose? I believe that like the children of Israel, we at Harvest Community are standing on the edge of our own spiritual Jordan about ready to cross over into the promises.
Listen to me, I know as your pastor that when I stand here and say that today, that it could be a dangerous thing but I do know that God always backs up His Word. I would rather dare to trust the Lord than to doubt His faithfulness. I believe that we're going to cross over into the promise that God has for us but before we can, God is doing a preparing and a priming in us so that we are ready to obtain the promise that God has.
The following letter was found in a baking can wired to the handle of an old pump that offered the only hope of water in the desert over in Arizona. The letter said, "This pump is alright as of June 1932. I put a new washer into it and it ought to last 5 years but the washer dries out and the pump has got to be primed. Under the white rock I buried a bottle of water out of the sun and cork end up. There's enough water in the bottle to prime the pump but not if you drink some first. Pour out one fourth and let her soak to wet the leather, then pour the rest medium fast and pump like crazy, you'll get water, the well has never run dry. Have faith. When you get watered up, fill up the bottle and put it back like you found it for the next fella, signed desert Pete. PS: Don't go drinking up the water first, prime the pump with it and you'll get all that you can hold.
Listen, I believe that the Lord is priming his church. When we've been thirsty and dry He's coming to meet with us. God is priming us so that we'll be able to walk in His promise. He's priming us personally as a church but I believe that he's also priming us personally as individuals.
He's priming us through cleansing us and making sure that we are free from sin and clean for Him. How many of you know that the people that God will use need to be clean vessels for Him, without sin? The Bible says that God is coming back for a church that is spotless and without wrinkle, a church that is pure and clean. I believe that he's priming us by healing each one.
The truth is that as your pastor, I know that within this church there have been so many hurts and so many battles that people have been fighting personally. How many of you know that God wants to make sure that you know that He has His best for you? Before you ever set out to do miracles, he wants to make sure that you know that you are His miracle and that he's doing a powerful work in you to heal you from all the hurts, to heal you from the failures, to renew your spirit when you've been dry. He's doing a powerful work in the life of His people. He's strengthening us.
How many of you know that if you're going to set out on a journey, you'd better be strong, well fed, well exercised and ready for the challenge? I believe He's strengthening and maturing. The truth is the only limit to what God can do in the life of the believer is how far that believer or how far that church is willing to follow and obey the Lord. Listen to me, I'm not talking about some new revelation or something different from what you've seen in the past. How many of you know God is the same yesterday, today and forever? God is doing a fresh work and a new thing, the methods change but not the message. He's a faithful God. We need His Word and we need Him to work in the church.
I want to ask you this morning, Are you willing today to stand before God and say, "I am willing and ready for a fresh touch from you, I am ready for a fresh encounter with God, I am ready for a fresh vision and I'm ready to dedicate my heart to the work that God has planned for my life"? There comes a point in every Christian and in every church where you must move beyond sitting and learning and growing to actually step out and doing the work of what God has called His people to do.
The truth is that all of us want the real thing. I'm excited about what God is doing in people's lives and what He's doing in our church and in our nation and I'm not talking politics, I'm talking about those things that God wants to do in the life of every believer, an awakening like we've seen in the past where we've seen the Spirit of God touch people and people are saved out of sin and a nation is changed because of the work of God and the life of His people and the life of a city.
When the great awakenings took place in this nation crime went down. It was noticeable that when God changed a life that people were saved and people had to take notice that God was actually doing something real in this country. How many of you believe that it's time for something like that to happen again in this nation? I want to challenge you that there will be a time when words will be spoken like that and I won't have to ask you to clap. There will be a time when something will stir in your spirit and I believe that God is doing that now.
Listen, I'm not asking you to applaud for a preacher that is saying something and you're stirred by words, I'm not asking you to be stirred by emotion, but I believe that God is stirring the heart of His people. Can I just challenge you right now, God is priming this place and when we are ready and when we have accepted His work in us and we truly have that passion for more of Him, we will cross over and see what the Lord is going to do. Passion is not demonstrated necessarily by the way that we act and clap and shout but it is demonstrated by the way that we pursue what God has for us. I believe that God is going to do a work in this country like we've never seen before.
Haggai 2:9 talks about something that took place in the Old Testament. The old temple had been destroyed, God's people had been held captive but then they had been set free and were gathered together and they were building a new temple. They were laying a new foundation, a new place where they could worship, a new place where the glory of God could be declared, a new place where His presence would rest and where the work of the ministry could be accomplished. God said this, "The glory of this latter temple shall be greater than the former, says the Lord of Hosts, and in this place I will give peace". This temple that the governor Zerubbabel was having built was going to challenge that generation because they had grown up in captivity, only knowing hardship and now God was going to meet with them and I believe that each work of God is sweeter and sweeter that He does. It may not look like the last move of God but it will be a good move of God.
In Ezra it talks about how the group responded as this temple was being built, as God was allowing His presence to be seen. It tells us as the elders, those who had known what had happened in the first temple, began to see the 2nd temple being built after the first one had been destroyed, and they began to weep. I want to speak to you, those of you who have remembered what it was like to see a move of God before, those of you who have been praying that God would do something fresh and new, are beginning to see that being laid right now in this generation. How many of you believe that it's about time.
The Bible says that the elders began to weep. I want to tell you why they began to week because they saw something they had prayed for coming to pass. I want to speak to those who are older in this church who have watched God move and have been praying that God would do a work now, Listen, God has heard your prayers and He's going to do something special. The elders also began to weep because they saw that the new temple wasn't quite as ornate as the old temple, it was a little bit simpler and scaled back, it wasn't quite as formal. God said to them, don't worry, the glory of this temple is going to be greater than the first. You have to understand that there is something that God is doing that is so precious and so real and the issue is not about how ornate it is but about how much His presence is there. How many of you know that distinguishes a move of God from a false move of God? God's presence, God's glory, and that's what needs to happen.
Before the Israelites could cross over to the promise, they had to make camp right across from God's destination for them. They had to be separated from God's promise by an obstacle. I want you to look at chapter 3:1, "Then Joshua arose 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. God let His people camp out across from the promise so they could get familiar with it and want it bad enough. The Jordan River at that point was swollen, it was at flood stage, no one would think of going in for a swim.
When we were up in Tennessee a couple years ago we went swimming in one of the rivers and were climbing on the rocks and jumping off into the waterfall and that night it rained about 5 hours straight, they got about 3 inches of rain. Two days later we went back to that same river to go swimming and there was no way I was letting my kids in and there was no way I was going in either. Why? Because something had fallen and the river was so much stronger then. I remember the generation before, these people had seen God part the Red Sea, they had known what it was to cross over on dry ground and now that next generation was standing waiting for the move of God and God had them camp out to become familiar with it.
A holy discontent began to settle and a desire to move from survival in the wilderness to success and this promise began to capture the heart of His people because they could see the promise and all they needed to get across was a word from God and a miracle from God and they would obtain all that God had.
Listen to me, I believe that God has things in store for this church and He's letting us begin to see the promise but I want to tell you that I believe that God has things in store for us personally. The truth is that many times before we receive God's promise we face obstacles or trials that we think are insurmountable before we're able to cross over but that gives God the opportunity to prove that He is faithful and that He is God and that He is in control and that He is able no matter what it looks like is standing in your way to receive what God has for your life, no matter what seems to be standing in the way of this church to receive the promise that God has.
All He wants us to do is know that there is the promise and that He is God and let that desire well up so strong within us that we would dare to even get our feet wet in a raging river to know that He is the Lord. Before they could cross, they had to wait. They had to wait for God to work in them. That generation had waited 40 years for the promise and God said, "Just a little longer".
Listen to me, waiting is the hardest part of trusting. How many of you have ever found that to be true? Some of you right now are about ready to receive your promise from God, there have been things that God has spoken over your life and spoken over your family. God has spoken things over this church and they are going to come true but there is that time that we must wait for what God is going to do because He is accomplishing something in us and through us so we can receive it.
As Americans, our adage is, "Don't just stand there, do something". Sometimes God says, "Don't just do something, stand there and wait for Me". Waiting is God's way of seeing if we will trust Him before we move forward. Sometimes if we would move we might be too tired in the journey and He let's us camp and rest. Sometimes He let's us see the promise so that we're so ready, when it's time to move we're tired of standing and we're ready to go so that we'll dare to trust Him. Church, I want to tell you that we must not run ahead of God or run from God but we must trust Him. I want to tell you that as a person God cares for you very much and the things that He has promised in your life you will receive but you must wait and trust Him.
Before we can cross over into God's promise we must make sure that we are clean. In Joshua 3:5, Joshua says, "Sanctify yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you". What he was saying to the people is this, each of you individually, "Know where you are at with God". You know where you are in your relationship with Him, you know if there is hidden sin in your life. To sanctify means to set yourself apart for God, that's what makes it holy. The truth is that If I am anything for God, as your pastor, is because a long time ago God called me and I agreed with Him. I said, "Lord, I will set myself apart for you".
Listen, the only reason any of us is anything for God is because we will say, "God, if you will use me, I will set myself apart for you and you only. I give you my life, not the world, I don't want it, not the devil, I don't want it, not things, I don't want it, what I want more than anything is you God and I will sanctify myself and set myself apart for you, I will make sure that I am clean and I will make sure the sin is gone and that I am worthy to receive the things that you have for my life so that what you use is a pure vessel". Listen to me, purity comes before promotion, holiness before honor and cleanness before youthfulness, and repentance before power.
I believe that God is calling His church, Harvest Community, to repent of sins, hidden sins, attitudes, apathy, hearts that are distant from Him. Only holy people can occupy the holy land, the promised land. The promise that God will do wonders tomorrow is dependent upon us sanctifying ourselves today.
You know you can sense the presence of the Lord in this place today. How many of you recognize what the Lord is saying is true? I know you're hearing and you're listening intently and I'm not saying, as your pastor that I believe there is something totally wrong. What I do believe is this, I believe this as a church that has so much light in it, that has a heart for God and wants to be used by God and has been longing for the promise in your personal lives and corporately.
I have listened to you talk, I have heard your heart concerning your walk with the Lord and concerning your desire to see what God wants to do in the church and the first step before God can ever do wonders through His people, before the miracle happens tomorrow, before we see the glory of God is that His people get clean today. That must happen. A sensitivity and an openness to the Lord, sanctification involves purity and separation for use for God. Something that distinguishes those that can be used by God is not only that they are holy and that you would look at their life and know that they're living for Jesus but the second mark is that you know that the most pre-eminent thing that they do with their life is living for Jesus and that nothing else matters but Him. That makes the difference in a person and that makes a difference in a church.
When the people corporately make a conscious decision to say, "We set ourselves apart for God and God alone". I've heard you say that you want God to use this church to be a great church in this community. I believe He's doing that but how many of you believe that there are greater things? But it takes us saying "We've set ourselves apart for you". God has always used the local church to affect the local community and the church is not just a building, it is the people. It is more than people coming in and sitting and saying, "I'm glad what I got out of it today". It is the people of God saying, "I'm thankful for what God has done in me but now I want Him to do something through me to touch the world". That makes a difference when that becomes the desire of a church.
Before God's people could cross over they had to see the promise and God camped them out there so they could see what was possible, so they could see what He wants to do and accomplish. They had to have a vision. The Bible says, "Without a vision the people perish". They cast off their strength and just do whatever, whenever and however. I want to tell you that this church has a vision.
Can I just speak to you for a little bit? You see, this is family time right now. The prayer that I hope is that you don't just come to church and say, "Preacher, don't just deal with me so that God touches my life but how many of you know we've got to do family time as a church so that God can do stuff in us as a people"? This morning when you came in I wanted to make sure that you had a copy of the church's vision and direction. Without a vision the people perish. This just isn't your preacher's vision but I believe it's a vision taken from the Word of God and condensed in a way that we can be used for His glory. I want you to read over this. Probably when you came in you should have also received a prayer card. No matter how professional you look and how polished you are, you are nothing without the presence of Jesus.
Our vision statement is to be a church that equips and trains Christians to do the work of the ministry, to win the lost on a local and worldwide scale, to challenge Christians to have a deeper walk with Christ, to actively and practically demonstrate the love of Christ to those who are hurting or in need. We will impact every segment of our community with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Have a vision to do it. Understand, it's not just the pastor's job to win the lost. As a matter of fact, the Bible says that God gave pastors, evangelists, prophets and teachers to equip the saints to do the work of the ministry. We all do the work of ministry together.
Part of that is our church stepping out so that we will do what God has called us to do as a people of God, so that we'll have that vision for Him. I want you to read over those things in this pamphlet, "The church that I see". I hope it's the church that you see: six ways to accomplish the vision, our five main purposes. The first one is worship but it's not about song. How many of you know that worship is our life being lived to the glory of God? It is a lifestyle that we live for Jesus. Of course when we come to church we get to sing and worship the Lord through our giving of ourselves to Him. Our prayer is how do we fulfill that vision? By being a praying church.
How many of you know that any move of God was always preceded by people getting on their face before God? Can I ask you, are you praying for God to use you everyday? Have you moved beyond just asking God for your needs and your wants? Because God already said He would give you those things. He already promised it and if you don't believe it read Matthew chapter 6. Pray for your church, pray that God would stir your heart. Have fellowship, some of the most vital and glorious friendships you will have in the world are with the people of God. When I was growing up, I'm going to be honest with you, my friends weren't at school. Most of my friends were at church. I love seeing my kids out here now playing with the other kids in the church, it's fun. Some of them fight nice together, some play nice together but its all part of growing up in a family. Have fellowship but teaching is foundational, the word of God will have its pre-eminence in every area because its how we learn. Evangelism, how do we accomplish it? To bring people to Christ by sharing the good news of Jesus Christ every chance we get.
There are some things that I see God doing in this church over the next 5 years and I want to share them with you. Number one is that there will be a sensitivity and openness to the presence of God in our meetings, that people would come ready and expecting. Can I challenge you? Pray for your church services before you come. Pray that God would use you, pray that God would use me. I believe that if you pray for me, not one of you will fall asleep unless you stayed up way too long last night. I believe that if you'd pray, God will do miracles in the life of the children.
The truth is that people come hurting into this place, you have no idea. The marriages that are hurting, the children that need a touch, people that have been diagnosed with cancers, people that have fierce financial struggles. How many of you know that if we will pray that God will do the miracle that they will be able to meet with the Lord not only in their personal time but when they come to the house of God you will see a difference when you see God touching lives on a weekly basis. It should always happen and some days it will feel very powerful and some days it won't but the presence of God is not about feeling, the presence of God is about Him showing up and that's what matters.
I see our church being a praying church. In the next five years when we have prayer meetings, more than just 8 or 10 people will come and seek the face of God. I'm asking God to double our attendance in the next 5 years but I believe that it could happen in 2 years, it could happen in 1 year if we would just share our faith. Listen, not so we can say, "What a big church we have" but because a growing church is a healthy church because something that stops growing is dying. We grow not for our benefit but because as long as there is one more person out there who needs Jesus as their Lord and Savior, as long as there is one more person who needs to know that God loves them, as long as there is one person that has never heard the message that Jesus died on the cross for them, that God loved them so much that He did it for them and it becomes so personal and real.
As long as there is one more person that is going through a trial in their life and they don't know that they can call on their God and that he will answer them. As long as there is one more then this church should always be growing as people get to know the power and the life of God in their own lives. That's why we'll grow. I don't want us to become the hip, fad church where people leave other churches and come to this one. I really don't. I pray that other churches would be doing the same thing we're doing.
There's variances and ordinances that Jupiter has, they'd rather build businesses than churches. I pray that so many people are getting saved that the township will have to deal with some issues that has to go before council members saying, "We have to make variances because people are getting to know God, they're being saved and they need a place to meet and they're not afraid to do it". Listen, the church is the body of Christ and if the church is doing its part, if we are doing what God has called us to do it will be so evident in our society that they will sit up and take notice on so many levels, they'll have no choice and people will know that it's God.
In 5 years, what I'm believing God for is to see is at least 75% of our church involved in a small group or active in a ministry of outreach. The truth is that God has put some things in your hearts that you are supposed to do for Him. As your pastor, God doesn't give me all the answers in all the ministries that need to be done but there are things that God has birthed within the life of this church, there are things that need to be done that God will show me but there are other things that God has called you to do. Maybe you have a passion for children, maybe you have a desire to reach the elderly and just love them and help them. Maybe you have a ministry to feed the needy and that's something you want to do and God has stirred your heart.
We live in a very educated, wealthy community and there are some of you who know how to minister to people like that, they need Jesus but they're so formal and so locked up in that they have everything that they need and you know how to reach out and let them know through all that stuff that they know and as accomplished as they are, whether they're doctors or lawyers or builders, they need Jesus. Some of you have a passion for gang members. I want to tell you, I pray that we'll see some of the wealthiest people put their arms around some dude walking in with baggy britches, his underwear sticking out the back and just walking into church having been high the night before and one of us will walk over to him and love him for Jesus.
Can I just challenge you for a minute, if you'll just go to your next door neighbor, maybe you don't have a passion to reach the rich, the poor, you just have a passion to reach someone in your neighborhood. When a church is making an impact, people just don't know that you are a Christian because you're out working on your car and you're listening to 88.1 The Way FM, but these people know that you know the way, the truth and the life because you talk to them. They say 20% of the people in church do 80% of the work. I'm believing for 100% of the people doing 100% of the things for God.
Here's the truth, that can't always happen in a church because if the church is doing its job there will always be about 20% of the people coming in that are getting to know Jesus and are being discipled before they can be released into the ministry that God has. Therefore, 80% of the people will be doing 100% of the work. If we do that, you won't have people being burned out as Sunday school teachers or because we're doing an activity or an outreach. Everyone will be doing their part.
Already in this church we've begun to start doing things. One of the things that I see is our youth group being as strong or stronger than our children's ministry. Its already begun to happen. This last Wednesday night there were 18 young people just loving Jesus right in that house. Pretty soon that house is going to be too small for them and we're going to need a bigger place. We're already in the process of making it happen.
You know that we're in the process of finding another building and we've already started some ministries with the outreach to our Spanish brothers and sisters in the community. As a matter of fact, this afternoon at 4:30 the Spanish church is going to meet here and they've grown from 17 people to 65 people. They're just growing and growing and we're talking about people that go back and forth because they have to go back to Honduras or Guatemala or Mexico, they've been here working and they're sending their money home. Listen, I don't care if they're illegal, I'm not called to be a politician and neither are you, we're called to be Christians and I understand as Americans we may need to vote but God has sent the mission field to our community and we need to love them for Jesus Christ. I believe this is so vital for the life of our church.
I see a thriving seniors ministry, a young adult ministry that's going strong and a new building where we have room to accomplish God's best for our church. I want to say this again, there are ministries that you want to be birthed and God has called you to do it. You need to let us know. The truth is, I may have many gifts in the Spirit but I am not a mind reader or a psychic. If you're thankful for that, say a good amen. God may show me many things and there may be many things that God births in my heart but listen, what about your heart? All the finances may not be there at the beginning but we will trust God together and those ministries will grow and they will become something powerful for God. We just need to step out and start them and then God does the provision and we'll work at it together.
What has God laid on your heart? This vision is going to unfold week by week, month by month, how we're going to accomplish it. Some things I can tell you right now the things that I see, and you may say, "Pastor, do you know how we're going to get there all the time". I just know we have to cross over, but I'll tell you what, when we begin to step out, the Jordan begins to part and you begin to walk over on dry land. God does the miracle and step by step, day by day, week by week, month by month, that entire vision unfolds.
When the Israelites entered that land, the first thing they faced was a giant, they faced Jericho and God said, "You have to march around that thing, I want you to get to know your enemy. You see that thing, it's really, really big and you don't have what it takes to go through but I am God , I am your God and if you will just obey me, If you will do what I say, the walls will come down and you will defeat the enemy". It's a powerful thing. God is faithful, and church I want to tell you, in your life personally and the life of this church, God will do miracles.
Watch, before God would do the miracle of parting the Jordan so that they could cross over, they had to be committed to do it. I want you to listen to me, the step of faith means that you need to have a miracle to have what God has and the people of God had to get their feet wet before God would act. Casual Christianity has never changed the world, convenient Christianity has never changed the world, comfortable Christianity has never changed the world, only committed Christians have changed the world through Jesus Christ.
Joshua 3:13-16, you need to read this and let it sink in. "And it shall come to pass as soon as the souls 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, the waters that come down from upstream and they shall stand upon a heap. So it was when the people set out from their camp to cross over the Jordan with 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 the Ark 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 up upon a heap very far away".
The step of faith brought the miracle of God. When the generation of God's people took the risk, God did the miracle. Their faith allowed God to do a work so that they could cross over. Their parents had seen the Red Sea part and now they were getting ready to see the Jordan part. Listen, without risk there is no faith. For faith to be faith, we must step out beyond our own abilities and our resources and step, then God will act. The truth is, we must count the cost. I want to ask you, will you be committed? Will you pray? Will you keep your life free from sin? Will you seek the Lord? Will you start a ministry? Will you come to church ready, prayed up, for God to do a miracle? Will you host a home group or be part of a home group? Will you come ready to encourage someone? The truth is God has great things for us.
