SPEAKER_00: Hello everyone, I'm Dr.
SPEAKER_00: Steve Holt.
SPEAKER_00: I want to welcome you to the Road Church podcast.
SPEAKER_00: Each week we go into God's Word.
SPEAKER_00: We teach chapter by chapter and verse by verse.
SPEAKER_00: And we are here to build the Kingdom of God revolution through empowering people to change the world.
SPEAKER_00: So we pray this will minister to you at your heart level and change your life.
SPEAKER_00: Today, be encouraged by our guest speaker.
SPEAKER_02: Well, good morning.
SPEAKER_02: Welcome to the Road Church.
SPEAKER_02: My name is Pastor Josh.
SPEAKER_02: I'm uh over the prayer and worship ministries here.
SPEAKER_02: Uh we're gonna continue our study in the book of Joshua today, which is fun because that's who I was named after.
SPEAKER_02: I'm the first Josh in my family.
SPEAKER_02: Uh so I've read this book a lot of times, just like I think any of us have.
SPEAKER_02: And Joshua 1 has been really formational for me in my walk with the Lord.
SPEAKER_02: And we're gonna continue the story today in Joshua chapter 2, starting in verse 15, and we're gonna cross the Jordan today, which is really fun.
SPEAKER_02: I'm like, man, who thought that I'd be able to preach on crossing the Jordan out of Joshua?
SPEAKER_02: Like, I'm I'm tickled pink about that.
SPEAKER_02: So before we start, let me pray and uh we'll dive in.
SPEAKER_02: So, Lord, thank you for your word.
SPEAKER_02: Thank you for your word that is like a sword that cuts to pieces the lies of the enemy.
SPEAKER_02: Thank you for your word that's like a sharpened arrow that pierces hearts.
SPEAKER_02: Psalm 45 says, Your arrows are in the hearts of your enemies and uh makes us into your friends.
SPEAKER_02: Thank you for the polished spear of your word.
SPEAKER_02: And God, I ask that your word would run swiftly to every heart this morning, including mine, fill us with courage to possess your promises, fill us with hope to dream again, fill us with faith as you speak.
SPEAKER_02: I know that faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Rhema word of Christ.
SPEAKER_02: So, Jesus, I invite you to speak today.
SPEAKER_02: If you've got to shut everybody's ears so that they don't hear anything I say, uh that'd probably be good if they can hear you.
SPEAKER_02: So uh help me to not say anything stupid or heretical, and help me to represent you well this morning.
SPEAKER_02: In Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: Okay, well, let's dive in.
SPEAKER_02: Joshua 2, verse 15, and uh I'm just gonna read through some of these passages and give some remarks, and we'll have a good time.
SPEAKER_02: Verse 15 of Joshua chapter 2.
SPEAKER_02: Then she, she being Rahab, let them down by a rope through the window, for her house was on the city wall.
SPEAKER_02: She dwelt on the wall, and that's pretty common.
SPEAKER_02: You have a city like Jericho, which is really the oldest city in history that we know of, that they would have this really thick wall, and then they would build houses into the wall.
SPEAKER_02: So she had one of those houses that was built into the wall.
SPEAKER_02: She lets them out the window.
SPEAKER_02: Verse 16, and she said to them, Get to the mountain, lest the pursuers meet you, hide there three days until the pursuers have returned, afterward you may go your way.
SPEAKER_02: So the men said to her, We will be blameless of this oath of yours, which you have made us swear.
SPEAKER_02: Unless when we come into the land you bind this line of scarlet cord in the window through which you let us down, and unless you bring your father, your mother, your brothers, and all of your father's household to your own home, so it shall be that whoever goes outside the doors of your house into the street, his blood shall be on his own head, and we will be guiltless, and whoever is with you in the house, his blood shall be on our head, if a hand is laid on him.
SPEAKER_02: And if you tell this business of ours, then we will be free from your oath, which you made us swear.
SPEAKER_02: Then she said, According to your words, so be it.
SPEAKER_02: And she sent them away, and they departed, and she bound the scarlet cord in the window.
SPEAKER_02: So Rahab didn't really know it, but the scarlet cord would be her family's salvation, and it would lead to this scarlet bloodline of King David, and ultimately to King Jesus, the Savior of the world.
SPEAKER_02: And this scarlet line symbolizes the blood that ran down the hands, the feet, and the side of our Lord, the blood that takes away all sin.
SPEAKER_02: And though the walls would crumble, that scarlet cord would remain.
SPEAKER_02: And uh, you know why scarlet?
SPEAKER_02: You know, maybe the spies were thinking back to the Passover when the homes marked with scarlet blood were spared.
SPEAKER_02: And in this case it was just one home, but the principle remained.
SPEAKER_02: And uh it's a pretty cool image for us this morning that all you need is the scarlet cord.
SPEAKER_02: You don't need a dissertation.
SPEAKER_02: She didn't have to submit a resume to be accepted into Israel.
SPEAKER_02: She didn't have to put a scarlet cord and then pray really hard.
SPEAKER_02: Um she didn't have to put a scarlet cord and then say, I believe, I believe, I believe, I receive, I receive, I receive.
SPEAKER_02: She just trusted the scarlet cord.
SPEAKER_02: And that's pretty cool for us this morning that we can do the same thing.
SPEAKER_02: Rahab was asked to put her faith in her salvation through a scarlet cord, just as God asks us to put our faith in his salvation through the blood of Christ.
SPEAKER_02: And nothing.
SPEAKER_02: That's enough.
SPEAKER_02: His blood is enough.
SPEAKER_02: Her faith was just like ours.
SPEAKER_02: She said in verse 21, according to your words, so be it, and immediately bound the scarlet cord in the window.
SPEAKER_02: She didn't, you know, she didn't waste any time and she didn't try to argue, well, why scarlet?
SPEAKER_02: Why not?
SPEAKER_02: I've got better colors.
SPEAKER_02: Why not purple or blue or green?
SPEAKER_02: Something like that.
SPEAKER_02: She just said, okay.
SPEAKER_02: And immediately, I mean, immediately, bound the scarlet cord to the window.
SPEAKER_02: She had plenty of time.
SPEAKER_02: They were gonna stay for three days before they even got back to Israel, and then, you know, three and a half million, two, three, three and a half million Israelites were gonna have to cross the Jordan and then travel to Jericho, and then they were gonna take seven days to march around Jericho.
SPEAKER_02: I mean, she had plenty of time.
SPEAKER_02: She could have thought about it, she could have weighed out her options a little more.
SPEAKER_02: Well, you know, Yahweh seems pretty powerful, but um, you know, there's this guy, Buddha, too, or um Muhammad that I could put my faith in, or Joseph Smith, or I mean, she didn't she didn't weigh her options, she didn't delay, she just tied the scarlet cord around her household.
SPEAKER_02: And uh I think it's pretty awesome that it wasn't just her that was saved, but it was her entire household.
SPEAKER_02: I think that speaks to us today as well that when you put your faith in Christ and you tie the scarlet cord, the bloodline, around your windowsill, it becomes a breakthrough that's not just for you, but it's also for your family.
SPEAKER_02: It's also for your spouse, it's for your children, it's even for your parents.
SPEAKER_02: My uh mom has a pretty cool testimony of getting saved when she was 19 and she went home and led her three siblings to the Lord, and later on would introduce both of her parents to Christ, and later on she'd meet my dad and introduce him to Christ, and then he would introduce his siblings to Christ and his son and his ex-wife to Christ.
SPEAKER_02: I mean, it's a pretty cool, my family has a pretty cool heritage of one 19-year-old girl's faith impacting our entire family.
SPEAKER_02: And that's still available for anybody here today.
SPEAKER_02: You know, you might feel like you're by yourself, you might feel like you're the only one out of an entire city of people that knows the power of God.
SPEAKER_02: You know, that was Rahab.
SPEAKER_02: All of Jericho was seeing the fire.
SPEAKER_02: The fire by night and the cloud by day, which is pretty cool.
SPEAKER_02: I don't know if you've ever heard this before, but this thought came to me, and then I heard somebody else say it, so it felt legal.
SPEAKER_02: Um, but that think about the goodness of God and his provision, that at night in the desert, you know, it's pretty cold, right?
SPEAKER_02: And I always thought as a kid, well, he's this pillar of fire to scare these Israelites straight.
SPEAKER_02: You know, these children of Israel, they need to get their act together, so I'm gonna be this big pillar of fire to scare them straight.
SPEAKER_02: And I'm sure it was pretty scary, and even when they crossed the Exodus, you know, he was a barrier behind them that kept Pharaoh from approaching while they crossed the Red Sea.
SPEAKER_02: But also, it just kept them warm at night.
SPEAKER_02: You know?
SPEAKER_02: Like they didn't freeze to death in the middle of the desert because they had this giant bonfire.
SPEAKER_02: And then during the day, it's really hot.
SPEAKER_02: So, what do you want in the middle of the desert on a really hot day?
SPEAKER_02: A cloud.
SPEAKER_02: Isn't that cool?
SPEAKER_02: Anyway, that's not in my notes.
SPEAKER_02: That just popped into my head.
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, this scarlet cord, according to your word, so be it.
SPEAKER_02: So don't waste any time.
SPEAKER_02: Be like Rahab.
SPEAKER_02: Just if you haven't put your faith in Jesus, do it right now.
SPEAKER_02: Don't even wait for me to quit preaching.
SPEAKER_02: Grab a hold of the blood of Christ today and watch it impact more than your life.
SPEAKER_02: Hebrews 11 31 said, By faith the harlot Rahab did not perish with those who did not believe when she had received the spies with peace.
SPEAKER_02: By faith, it's it's just trust.
SPEAKER_02: It's just saying yes.
SPEAKER_02: It kind of blows my mind that she's the only person in Jericho that put their trust in God when they all saw the same stuff that she said, and it convinced her to faith.
SPEAKER_02: You know, I think it kind of reminds me, I think it's in Matthew 9.
SPEAKER_02: It's in, I think it's in all the gospels, but it's for sure in Matthew 9, when Jesus is eating with all these sinners and tax collectors.
SPEAKER_02: And uh the Pharisees, I can't remember if it was their thoughts he perceived.
SPEAKER_02: We don't have time to go there, but he says to them, because they're all bent out of shape that he's hanging out with tax collectors and sinners, and he says, Well, it's not the well that need a doctor, it's the sick.
SPEAKER_02: And how many of you know he wasn't telling the Pharisees that they were well?
SPEAKER_02: Right?
SPEAKER_02: Like, here's the thing the Pharisees thought they were well.
SPEAKER_02: They didn't know they were sick, they didn't know they needed a doctor.
SPEAKER_02: See, that's the difference between Rahab the harlot and all these other, I don't know what you call somebody from Jericho, Jerichites, Jerichoites, whatever.
SPEAKER_02: That's the difference between her and them.
SPEAKER_02: Is she was very in touch with her brokenness.
SPEAKER_02: She was very in touch with her depravity, and that qualified her for the scarlet cord.
SPEAKER_02: See, Jesus just needs us to be aware of our brokenness.
SPEAKER_02: Blessed are the poor in spirit.
SPEAKER_02: Those are the ones that inherit the kingdom from God.
SPEAKER_02: Those are the ones that will receive things from the kingdom.
SPEAKER_02: It's those that really don't think they're rich.
SPEAKER_02: You know, it reminds me of Laodicea, where they say, he says, you think that you're wealthy, you think you can see, you think you're clothed, but really you're blind, you're naked, and you're poor.
SPEAKER_02: And you would be much better off if you viewed yourself that way, because then you could come and buy gold refined by the fire from me, and I salve for your eyes to see, and linen garments to cover the shame of your nakedness.
SPEAKER_02: See, all you need is an awareness of your depravity, and you are now qualified for the gospel.
SPEAKER_02: And that's faith.
SPEAKER_02: That's faith.
SPEAKER_02: When we come to Jesus and we say, you know, Lord, I don't have it all figured out.
SPEAKER_02: I'm pretty messed up and broken.
SPEAKER_02: I've got these things going on in my life, I've got this sin struggle, I've got these fears, and he can meet you there.
SPEAKER_02: Where he can't meet you is I've got it figured out.
SPEAKER_02: So that's that's pretty cool.
SPEAKER_02: I think.
SPEAKER_02: Let's keep going.
SPEAKER_02: I've got a lot to get through.
SPEAKER_02: I'm just chatting away, blah, blah, blah.
SPEAKER_02: Verse 22 They departed and went to the mountain and stayed there three days until the pursuers returned.
SPEAKER_02: The pursuers sought them all along the way, but did not find them.
SPEAKER_02: So the two men returned, descended from the mountain, and crossed over, and they came to Joshua, the son of Nun, and told him all that had befallen him.
SPEAKER_02: And they said to Joshua, Truly the Lord has delivered all the land into our hands, for indeed all the inhabitants of the country are faint-hearted because of us.
SPEAKER_02: Well, how do they know they're faint-hearted?
SPEAKER_02: They didn't talk to anybody but a harlot.
SPEAKER_02: Why are you gonna trust her word?
SPEAKER_02: She's a prostitute.
SPEAKER_02: But there was something in her faith that quickened their faith.
SPEAKER_02: There was something in her belief in God.
SPEAKER_02: She never even met God.
SPEAKER_02: But she believed, and her belief spurred on their belief, which is gonna spur on a nation's belief.
SPEAKER_02: That's what faith can do.
SPEAKER_02: When you choose to have faith, your faith can inspire someone else's faith.
SPEAKER_02: She told them the hearts of Chericho were melted and faint from last week, and they returned with faith in their hearts because of the faith in her heart.
SPEAKER_02: That's pretty cool.
SPEAKER_02: Rahab's alright.
SPEAKER_02: The word Rahab, by the way, that just means broad.
SPEAKER_02: And I don't mean like she was abroad.
SPEAKER_02: Right?
SPEAKER_02: Like my I used to say, I wanted to study abroad in college.
SPEAKER_02: I could never just pick which one I wanted to study.
SPEAKER_02: That was a bad joke.
SPEAKER_02: I'm sorry.
SPEAKER_02: But uh her name just means broad, and uh when you look into the etymology, is that the right word of her name?
SPEAKER_02: Um, it doesn't mean broad as in like she had eaten too much.
SPEAKER_02: It means that she was the the word basically means proud or haughty.
SPEAKER_02: I'm like, dang, this this gal got the short end of the stick twice, you know?
SPEAKER_02: Like the proud prostitute.
SPEAKER_02: Like, man.
SPEAKER_02: But God doesn't really care what your resume is, and he doesn't care what your name is, and he doesn't care what your heritage is.
SPEAKER_02: He's looking for those whose hearts are loyal to him, so that he can show himself strong on their behalf.
SPEAKER_02: I love that God's not ashamed to be our God in Hebrews 11:16.
SPEAKER_02: He looked at Rahab, a Canaanite harlot, and was proud of her faith, and he even chose to send his son through her lineage.
SPEAKER_02: That's pretty cool.
SPEAKER_02: So let's go into chapter three.
SPEAKER_02: 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.
SPEAKER_02: 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.
SPEAKER_02: Yet there shall be a space between you and it, about two thousand cubits, that's about a half a mile, by measure.
SPEAKER_02: Do not come near it, so that you may know the way by which you must go, for you have not passed this way before.
SPEAKER_02: So they're to follow the Ark of the Covenant, which is very important because this is new for their generation.
SPEAKER_02: All their lives they followed a pillar of cloud by day and fire by night, and now they're supposed to follow the ark from a distance because they've never gone this way before.
SPEAKER_02: So there's no there's no fire anymore.
SPEAKER_02: There's no cloud anymore.
SPEAKER_02: They're following the ark, they're following the priests, they're following the presence, they're following the covenant, God's word.
SPEAKER_02: And that's what we do.
SPEAKER_02: You know, we don't see God the way that they saw God, but Jesus said, Blessed are those who didn't see and still believe.
SPEAKER_02: So this is an upgrade.
SPEAKER_02: It seems like it's a downgrade to everybody else, but it's actually an upgrade.
SPEAKER_02: Because in order to walk into the promised land, they're gonna have to follow his word and his presence more than what they see, hear, touch, taste, or smell.
SPEAKER_02: And that's still true for us, too.
SPEAKER_02: We're called to walk by faith and not by sight.
SPEAKER_02: So this is really important.
SPEAKER_02: This is a this is a change for the Israelites because only two of them have known anything other than walking around in a circle around a mountain their whole life.
SPEAKER_02: Just Joshua and Caleb.
SPEAKER_02: The rest of them have been walking around in the wilderness for the last forty years.
SPEAKER_02: And everybody else died because of their unbelief, is what Hebrew says.
SPEAKER_02: So let's go to verse five.
SPEAKER_02: And Joshua said to the people, Sanctify yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you.
SPEAKER_02: Then Joshua spoke to the priests, saying, Take up the Ark of the Covenant and cross over before the people.
SPEAKER_02: 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.
SPEAKER_02: 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.
SPEAKER_02: So Joshua said to the children of Israel, Come here and hear the words of the Lord your God.
SPEAKER_02: And Joshua said, By this you shall know that the living God is among you, and that he will without fail.
SPEAKER_02: Wow, everybody say, Without fail.
SPEAKER_02: Drive out from before you the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Hivites and the Perizzites and the Gergeshites and the Amorites and the Jebusites.
SPEAKER_02: So the instruction wasn't go sharpen your swords or carboh load.
SPEAKER_02: You guys remember carboh loading?
SPEAKER_02: Was that just when I was in high school?
SPEAKER_02: Before a football game, they'd always say, Okay, you need a carbo load tonight.
SPEAKER_02: Like eat a bunch of pasta so that you have those, all the glycogen in your muscles for tomorrow.
SPEAKER_02: He didn't say, go eat a bunch of pasta.
SPEAKER_02: He didn't say, you know, sharpen your swords.
SPEAKER_02: He didn't say do some extra push-ups tonight.
SPEAKER_02: He said, Sanctify yourselves.
SPEAKER_02: Set yourselves apart, consecrate yourselves.
SPEAKER_02: 2 Chronicles 16, 9 says, the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth to show himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to him.
SPEAKER_02: See he's saying, you're not going to need much strength.
SPEAKER_02: You just need loyalty.
SPEAKER_02: You just need your heart to be in the right place, and God will show himself strong.
SPEAKER_02: So you might feel weak, you might feel disqualified.
SPEAKER_02: I feel very weak and disqualified.
SPEAKER_02: I do not feel qualified to be standing up here and talking to you guys from Joshua.
SPEAKER_02: I'd rather listen to Pastor Steve preach.
SPEAKER_02: But God doesn't really need me to be good at this, He just needs my heart to be loyal and He can show Himself strong.
SPEAKER_02: He can show Himself powerful.
SPEAKER_02: You know, I just I figure if He can talk through Balaam's donkey, I'm okay.
SPEAKER_02: I can do it.
SPEAKER_02: I can just be a cult of a donkey that the King of Glory can ride in on.
SPEAKER_02: So God's not looking for great personalities.
SPEAKER_02: He's not looking for people with clean shirts or influence or talents.
SPEAKER_02: He's looking for loyal hearts fully committed to him.
SPEAKER_02: So we've got this pillar of fire, the smoke, that's all stopped.
SPEAKER_02: The children of Israel are following the Ark of the Covenant.
SPEAKER_02: They're following His word, they're following His promise instead of their senses, instead of what they see.
SPEAKER_02: And Jericho is seeing the same thing from across the river.
SPEAKER_02: So I feel like if I was in Jericho, I'd go, oh, well, their fire went out, so maybe we're safe.
SPEAKER_02: Maybe we're good to go.
SPEAKER_02: All of Jericho knew about Yahweh, but only a prostitute and her household would be saved.
SPEAKER_02: So it's one thing to know about God, but it's really another to truly know him.
SPEAKER_02: So let's read on.
SPEAKER_02: Verse 11.
SPEAKER_02: Behold, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth is crossing over before you into the Jordan.
SPEAKER_02: Now therefore, take for yourselves twelve men from the tribes of Israel, one man from 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 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 as a heap.
SPEAKER_02: 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 in a heap very far.
SPEAKER_02: Way at Adam, the city that is beside Zaraton.
SPEAKER_02: So the waters that went down into the Sea of Erabah, the Salt Sea, failed and were cut off, and the people crossed over opposite Jericho.
SPEAKER_02: Then the priests who bore the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord stood firm on dry ground in the midst of the Jordan, and all Israel crossed over on dry ground until all the people had crossed completely over the Jordan.
SPEAKER_02: So I love this in verse eleven, he says, Behold how cool I am as the leader of this people and taking over from Moses.
SPEAKER_02: He doesn't do that, right?
SPEAKER_02: He says, Behold the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord of all the earth is crossing before you.
SPEAKER_02: He didn't point to himself or his ability, but to the Ark of the Covenant, the word, the promise, the presence of the Lord.
SPEAKER_02: It kind of gives us this understanding in verse 15 that this is flood season.
SPEAKER_02: So the Jordan's over its banks.
SPEAKER_02: And if I'm a priest, I'm looking at this huge body of water that's rushing by.
SPEAKER_02: I used to, I'm Swiftwater Rescu certified.
SPEAKER_02: So I used to do a bunch of river stuff down in Pueblo when I was in college, and I taught kayaking and practiced river rescue things and throw ropes and pegging people in the head with a throw rope bag and all that fun stuff.
SPEAKER_02: And uh rivers are dangerous.
SPEAKER_02: Rivers are very scary.
SPEAKER_02: People die in rivers all the time.
SPEAKER_02: And uh most of the time, the way you die in a river is exactly what they're gonna do.
SPEAKER_02: You put your foot down.
SPEAKER_02: Did you know that?
SPEAKER_02: Because there's this thing called foot entrapment.
SPEAKER_02: So you put your foot down, and then there's this big rock, and the current of the water pushes you against that rock, and your foot gets stuck, and then you end up all the way on the bottom of the river, and you can't even move.
SPEAKER_02: And that's how people die in rivers.
SPEAKER_02: So, what does God tell them to do?
SPEAKER_02: Do exactly what's gonna kill you.
SPEAKER_02: They really have to put their faith in God.
SPEAKER_02: And everybody's watching them for half a mile before they even follow.
SPEAKER_02: Can you imagine being half a mile into this river and you're looking behind you and you're like, boy howdy, we are we're cooked.
SPEAKER_02: We're cooked, priesthood.
SPEAKER_02: It's pretty scary.
SPEAKER_02: But it's cool because not only did the Lord pull up the waters, as soon as they stepped into the water, as they're walking in, the water starts piling up all the way to this city called Adam, which is 16 miles upstream.
SPEAKER_02: So we're talking, we're not talking about like a little gap.
SPEAKER_02: If they only made enough space for the Ark of the Covenant, which is probably this wide, and then a priest on either side to walk through, you know how much time it would take for two, three, three and a half million people to pass through that space?
SPEAKER_02: Like weeks.
SPEAKER_02: So God backs up the water all the way to Adam, and you've got this huge pile of river water.
SPEAKER_02: I mean, I don't know, I have no comprehension of what that would look like.
SPEAKER_02: Because it probably took them eight to twelve hours, even with this 16-mile gap, for two, three million people to cross the Jordan River.
SPEAKER_02: And it's on dry ground too, which is cool.
SPEAKER_02: So there's not like fish flopping around and they're not muddy getting their shoes all dirty.
SPEAKER_02: But it's dry, which is also pretty.
SPEAKER_02: Do you guys think this way?
SPEAKER_02: I'm like picturing it in my mind and going, This is wacky.
SPEAKER_02: This is cool.
SPEAKER_02: I don't really understand it, but it's pretty cool.
SPEAKER_02: So you guys know the Jordan, it goes from the Sea of Galilee all the way down to the Dead Sea, which is the lowest place on the face of the planet, which I feel like that's kind of symbolic, you know.
SPEAKER_02: If you got swept away by the Jordan, you'd end up just floating around in the Dead Sea.
SPEAKER_02: And also, I think it'd be really tempting to just cross the Jordan and then just camp out there on the other side.
SPEAKER_02: You know, I think a lot of us charismatics do that.
SPEAKER_02: We get baptized in the Holy Spirit and we start speaking in tongues and we're like, all right, I'm good, I got it.
SPEAKER_02: It's like, dude, there's a whole promised land.
SPEAKER_02: There's a whole inheritance for you to investigate, for you to conquer, for you to overcome.
SPEAKER_02: But most of us are just like, all right, well, I got I got my gift of tongues and now I'm hanging out.
SPEAKER_02: And eventually, if you're not careful, you could end up just floating on down the lazy river to the Dead Sea, which is like 34% salinity, which is 10 times more saline than the ocean.
SPEAKER_02: And even the word Jordan means descend.
SPEAKER_02: So I just think all that stuff is cool.
SPEAKER_02: I think it's a it's a cool imagery.
SPEAKER_02: It's kind of like faith without works.
SPEAKER_02: Right?
SPEAKER_02: Like James 2 talks about faith without works.
SPEAKER_02: Have you ever talked to somebody that say they believe in hygiene but they smell really bad?
SPEAKER_02: That's faith without works.
SPEAKER_02: Like, oh yeah, I believe in personal hygiene.
SPEAKER_02: Brother, you haven't touched a bar of soap in months.
SPEAKER_02: You don't believe in personal hygiene.
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I believe in prayer.
SPEAKER_02: Brother, you haven't been to a prayer meeting in months.
SPEAKER_02: What do you mean you believe in prayer?
SPEAKER_02: You know, there's a lot of things that we say we believe in.
SPEAKER_02: I remember in college, I used to watch hours and hours and hours of uh videos of guys sharing their faith and uh doing apologetics and praying for the sick.
SPEAKER_02: And I never did any of it, but I sure felt like an expert on it.
SPEAKER_02: And I think we do that in the church a lot.
SPEAKER_02: We listen to sermons, we read books, and then we do squat with it.
SPEAKER_02: And we just sit and camp out right by the Jordan River with our fly fishing rods.
SPEAKER_02: I wish I could fly fish, I'm not very good at it.
SPEAKER_02: So we grew up with horses, and I can't turn off that buggy whip thing.
SPEAKER_02: So don't take me fly fishing because you'll lose all your flies because I'll whip the end off of them.
SPEAKER_02: It's just not good.
SPEAKER_02: So I have to spin cast.
SPEAKER_02: But so many of us as Christians, we just sit there on the banks of the Jordan, we crossed over, all right, we're good to go.
SPEAKER_02: It's just chapter three.
SPEAKER_02: We gotta possess the promises.
SPEAKER_02: And yeah, it takes courage to do that.
SPEAKER_02: It takes courage to possess the promises of God.
SPEAKER_02: So one day I started, you know, stepping out in faith, and we used to do this fun thing when I was in college.
SPEAKER_02: We called it the name game, and we'd go to a restaurant and we would ask the Lord to tell us either the name, if they weren't wearing a name tag, or the middle name of our server.
SPEAKER_02: And most of the time we got it dead wrong.
SPEAKER_02: But it was a it was a cool way to break the ice.
SPEAKER_02: Hey, what's your middle name?
SPEAKER_02: Or we would we'd say, Hey, we're playing this game where we're asking Jesus what your middle name is.
SPEAKER_02: And we've got like three different options, but how cool would it be if one of them's right?
SPEAKER_02: So they're like, wow, you're crazy.
SPEAKER_02: But every once in a while we get it right, and it opens the door to a conversation, and you know, eventually we got pretty good at it.
SPEAKER_02: We got pretty good at hearing God's voice out in the public place.
SPEAKER_02: It's really easy to hear God's voice in church, right?
SPEAKER_02: Especially with all these great singers we have up here.
SPEAKER_02: I can just listen to charity sing, and I'm like, it's God's voice.
SPEAKER_02: Wow.
SPEAKER_02: But it's different to hear God's voice in Texas Roadhouse.
SPEAKER_02: But but we started seeing people some of these waiters get healed.
SPEAKER_02: We'd see these waiters come to church on Sunday.
SPEAKER_02: I remember this one guy.
SPEAKER_02: Um, I don't remember his name, but I remember his middle name was Michael.
SPEAKER_02: I won't forget that.
SPEAKER_02: And uh he was so blown away, he was like, I can't believe that God would tell you guys my middle name.
SPEAKER_02: And I think we had three guesses, too, so it wasn't even that supernatural.
SPEAKER_02: But just that was enough for him.
SPEAKER_02: And uh we said, Well, let it let's just bless you, let's pray for you.
SPEAKER_02: And we find out that he hadn't been to church in a really long time.
SPEAKER_02: And uh, while we were praying, I saw this picture in my mind of his left shoulder highlighted red.
SPEAKER_02: So I said, Hey man, is there a problem with your left shoulder?
SPEAKER_02: And he's like, He told you that too.
SPEAKER_02: What the bleep, bleep.
SPEAKER_02: And I guess he'd fallen off of a ladder and hurt his shoulder.
SPEAKER_02: So we prayed for him.
SPEAKER_02: God healed his shoulder, and he came to church that next Sunday, and he was at the altar, snot and tears and everything.
SPEAKER_02: But it took a long time for us to actually get the courage to step out, to do more than just cross over, but actually inherit, actually possess.
SPEAKER_02: You know, there was a whole generation before Joshua took the Israelites across the promised land.
SPEAKER_02: You know how long it takes to get from the Red Sea to the Jordan River?
SPEAKER_02: And they came up around the east side, right?
SPEAKER_02: So they came across the Red Sea, then they went around the Dead Sea, and they came up to the east side, and they're crossing from the east to west into what is now modern-day Jordan.
SPEAKER_02: And uh, you know how long it takes to get from the Red Sea to the Jordan River where they crossed?
SPEAKER_02: 11 to 13 days.
SPEAKER_02: Do you know how long it took them?
SPEAKER_02: 40 years.
SPEAKER_02: I don't think that God would have had them pilgrimage, an 11-day pilgrimage, for 40 years, if his original intention was for it to be 40 years long.
SPEAKER_02: I think God's heart was for that generation to inherit the promises that he promised them.
SPEAKER_02: And because of their grumbling, because of their complaining, because they believed 10 spies instead of two spies, the only people that got to cross over were the two spies that crossed over and believed God's word.
SPEAKER_02: I don't know about you, but there's areas of my life that I still feel like I'm just walking around Mount Sinai.
SPEAKER_02: I feel like I'm probably grumbling too much, complaining too much, which, according to Hebrews 3 and 4, is unbelief and failing to mix the Word of God with faith.
SPEAKER_02: Isn't that crazy?
SPEAKER_02: As I was doing this study, I think I realized for the first time that complaining and grumbling is unbelief.
SPEAKER_02: It is a failure to mix faith with God's words over my life.
SPEAKER_02: And I don't want to live that way.
SPEAKER_02: You guys want to live that way?
SPEAKER_02: I don't want to live that way.
SPEAKER_02: I want to believe God.
SPEAKER_02: I mean, I've got prophetic words over my life that seem entirely impossible.
SPEAKER_02: I remember when I was a school teacher, I got probably two to three different times prophetic words about being a worship leader and uh about being in ministry, being a pastor.
SPEAKER_02: And I did not believe that because of my background.
SPEAKER_02: I was like, nope, I don't think anybody would want me to be a pastor.
SPEAKER_02: I don't think anybody would want me to be leading other people because I mean, look at what I've done.
SPEAKER_02: But here I am, kind of, kind of surprisingly to me, and there's still a lot of words over my life that are very, very uh hard for me to believe.
SPEAKER_02: But your other option of believing God is grumbling and complaining about his leadership.
SPEAKER_02: And then I think that a lot of the things that he promised you, he has to wait and give to your kids.
SPEAKER_02: But on the flip side, I think when we actually possess the promises of God, it's a pretty cool thing because we get to give it away to anybody that we want.
SPEAKER_02: I've got all these things in my notes that I'm not gonna have time to talk about.
SPEAKER_02: But I just I just think that God wants us to use faith to believe Him, follow His leadership, and actually possess what He's promised us.
SPEAKER_02: I remember probably 10 years ago I heard Randy Clark say this, and it changed my life.
SPEAKER_02: And uh he was talking about back in the day when he was a vineyard pastor, and and he was teaching the Mark 16, these signs will follow those who believe, all of that stuff, and he'd be like, They'll lay their hands on the sick and the sick shall recover because they'd been seeing people get healed, and then he said, and they'll cast out demons and they'll raise the dead.
SPEAKER_02: Because he hadn't seen that, hadn't even heard of it.
SPEAKER_02: Or if he had, he didn't really believe it.
SPEAKER_02: And the Holy Spirit said to him, You don't like that part, do you?
SPEAKER_02: And he's like, No, I sure don't, Lord, because why would you put something so impossible in there as a standard just for a believer?
SPEAKER_02: I mean, you didn't even say these signs will follow the apostles.
SPEAKER_02: You said these signs will follow anybody who believes.
SPEAKER_02: Well, I've been a believer my whole life.
SPEAKER_02: I'm not seeing people raised from the dead, I'm not seeing demons cast out.
SPEAKER_02: Like, why would you put this in the scripture?
SPEAKER_02: Why would you raise the standard so high and so unreachable?
SPEAKER_02: And the Lord stopped him and he said, Don't you dare become an experience-based Christian and lower the standard of my word to the level of your experience.
SPEAKER_02: You preach the standard of my word, you believe the standard of my word, you teach the standard of my word, and watch your experience rise.
SPEAKER_02: That changed my life.
SPEAKER_02: I probably think about that every week.
SPEAKER_02: Lord, you said that you're a good provider.
SPEAKER_02: And right now, my experience does not match up with that truth, but I'm gonna believe your word.
SPEAKER_02: I'm gonna hold on to the scarlet cord.
SPEAKER_02: I'm gonna cross over and put my foot into the river, even though I know that that's dangerous.
SPEAKER_02: I'm gonna go against this impenetrable city silently, even though that seems illogical.
SPEAKER_02: Lord, I know that you say that you're my healer, but my experience is chronic pain for years.
SPEAKER_02: But I'm not gonna define you by my experience.
SPEAKER_02: I'm gonna believe what you've said about yourself.
SPEAKER_02: You said, I, the Lord, am your healer.
SPEAKER_02: You said that by your stripes I was healed.
SPEAKER_02: So I'm gonna believe that instead of what I'm experiencing, and I believe my experience will change.
SPEAKER_02: You know, not all at once, right?
SPEAKER_02: Exodus 23 said, I'm not gonna give you the promised land even in one year, but you're gonna grow in stature and you're gonna progressively possess the promises of God.
SPEAKER_02: And if anything, today, if that's what you hear, I want you to hear that God is pleased by your faith.
SPEAKER_02: And before I got up here, I was thinking about Psalm 100 during the first worship song, and it says to enter God's gates with thanksgiving in his courts with praise.
SPEAKER_02: And uh, you know, thanksgiving is really when you're thanking God for something that he's done.
SPEAKER_02: So it's related to the works of his hands, right?
SPEAKER_02: We thank you, Lord, for what you did.
SPEAKER_02: Something that we've seen, something that we've experienced, something that's in the past that we've walked out of.
SPEAKER_02: Lord, thank you that you set me free from sexual addiction.
SPEAKER_02: Lord, thank you that you healed ten years of digestive problems.
SPEAKER_02: But praise is when we thank him for who he is, regardless of what he's done.
SPEAKER_02: So we enter his courts with thanking him, we enter his gates with praise.
SPEAKER_02: And I think that's faith, and I think that's the faith that pleases God, and I think that's the courage and the faith that possesses his promises, is when we, in spite of our circumstances, in spite of what we're seeing, in spite of our track record, in spite of our list of sins, you know, you might be the chief of sinners, but God can still use you as an apostle to the Gentiles.
SPEAKER_02: In spite of those things, we choose to praise God for who he is, regardless of what we've seen him do.
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SPEAKER_01: We pray today's message has empowered you to make a difference in your world.
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