This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

Hi everyone, welcome to week two, day two of our look to the book of Joshua. And
let me begin today by reading for you what happens in chapter three, verses six
to seventeen, this story of what God does. Listen to what happened.

Joshua said to the priests, "Take up the ark of the covenant and pass on ahead
of the people. " And they went up and they went ahead of them. And the Lord said
to Joshua, "Today I will begin to exalt you in the eyes of all Israel, so that
they may know that I am with you as I was with Moses.

Tell the priests who carry the ark of the covenant, when you reach the edge of
the Jordan's waters, go and stand in the river. " Joshua said to the Israelites,
"Come here and listen to the words of the Lord your God. This is how you will
know that the living God is among you and that he will certainly the Canaanites,
the Hittites, the Hivites, the Perizzites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, the
Jebusites.

See, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth will go into the
Jordan ahead of you. Now, then, choose twelve men from the tribes of Israel, one
from each tribe. And as soon as the priests who carry the ark of the Lord, the
Lord of all the earth, set foot in the Jordan, its waters flowing downstream
will be cut off and stand up in a heap.

So when the people broke camp to cross the Jordan, the priests carrying the ark
of the covenant went ahead of them. Now, the Jordan is at flood stage all during
harvest. Yet as soon as the priests who carry the ark reached the Jordan and
their feet touched the water's edge, the water from upstream stopped flowing.

It piled up in a heap a great distance away at a town called Adam in the
vicinity of Zarathon. While the water flowing down to the Sea of Ereba, the salt
sea was completely cut off. So the people crossed over opposite Jericho.

The priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord stood firm on dry
ground in the middle of the Jordan while all of Israel passed by until the whole
nation had completed the crossing on dry ground. This is an awesome story of a
miracle that God worked. But in an even deeper way for you and I today, it's a
story of faith.

It's a story of how faith works on a daily basis. It's a story of what to do
when you're on the edge of God's promise, of beginning to live out God's
promise, and it's the story of what to do when you're in the middle. The middle
of a decision of faith, the middle of living by God's promise.

What do you do when you're on the edge of faith and in the middle of faith? What
do you do when you're on the edge of a dream, a vision from God? And what do you
do when you're in the middle of that vision from God?

What do when you're on the edge of beginning a ministry, and what do you do when
you're in the middle of that ministry. What do you do when you're on the edge of
a relationship that's going to be glorifying to God, and what do you do when
you're in the middle of that relationship? We learn both of those truths in this
story of what God did.

What do you do, first of all, when you're on the edge? What do you do when
you're on the edge of faith? Two words, "Step in.

" Step in. They marched right to the edge of the Jordan River, and then God
asked them, these priests who were carrying the sark, they walk up to the edge,
and God says, "I want you to step in. " In chapter 3, we just read, verses 15
and 16 says, "It was not until their feet dipped into the waters that He split
the waters.

" Why did God do it that way? Why didn't He split it earlier? Have you thought
about just how foolish those priests would have looked if God hadn't split the
waters, just standing there getting their sandals wet, just standing there in
the water with all of Israel standing behind them waiting for something to
happen?

What are you guys doing? Are you going for a wade in the water? What's going on
here?

See there's a principle here. There's a principle of why God waited until they
stepped into the water to split the water. The principle is, unless you're
willing to get wet up to your ankles, you'll never cross a Jordan on dry ground.

They had to bring themselves to a place of complete trust and commitment before
the wonder occurred. They had to bring themselves even to a place where they
would have looked foolish if the wonder had not occurred. They had to bring
themselves to a place where their trust in God was greater than their trust in
themselves or their concern about how they might look before others.

Here's the important principle here. God does not split Jordan rivers to get you
to have greater faith. He splits Jordan rivers because you've trusted Him with
the little faith that you have.

That's what faith is all about. I don't know how many Christians I know. They
are waiting for some Red Sea to split in front of them, for some Jordan river to
split in front of them, for some miracle to happen.

And if that miracle happens, they say, "Then I'm going to really have faith in
God. " It doesn't work that way. You take whatever little faith you have, Jesus
called it a mustard seed, and you put it in God.

You put it in God in a way that will make you look foolish if God doesn't show
up. You do what God's told you to do by having integrity at work. You do what
God's told you to do by speaking to people in a different way.

You do what God's told you to do by trusting Him with your money and tithing.
You do what God's told you to do by taking that vision that He's put into your
mind and sharing it in a humble way with other people. You do that.

You take that step into the water, and that's when God shows up. Every time,
that's when God shows up. That's what you do when you're on the edge.

You take the first step because that's the step of faith. So they step in, and
then they go to the middle. And they're standing in the middle, and the people
are crossing over on dry ground.

But the priests aren't crossing over. They're just standing in the middle the
whole time. So what do you do when you're on the edge?

You step in. What do you do when you reach the middle? Two words here.

You stand firm. You step in when you're on the edge, and you stand firm when
you're in the middle. Now, standing firm, that sounds so simple until we look at
it from the perspective of their reality.

In chapter 4 verse 10, we're told that when the people went across, they hurried
across. Well I would too. Here's this water just all piled up, ready to come
down on me at any moment.

I don't know what's going to happen. So they got across as quick as they could.
But not the priests.

They had to stand in the middle every moment, trusting God that the waters
wouldn't rush down upon them, that something wouldn't happen. Now, if you're a
worrier at all, you can understand how they could have worried in that moment. I
bet some of them did.

But instead of letting their worry overwhelm them, instead of doing that, they
stood firm in the middle. For some of them, maybe they weren't worriers, but
they just had to stand there the whole time that the whole nation walked by.
Some of them must have thought, "Why can't I get to the other side quicker?

Why do I have to stand firm here in the middle? " There are some times in our
lives when trusting God means you don't go anywhere. Some of you, you love to go
everywhere.

And to really trust God, to stand firm and keep trusting Him where you are is
the hardest thing you're ever going to do. That's what you do when you're in the
middle. I know a lot of people, they're okay at stepping in.

They'll step in. I'll try this. I'll try that.

I'll try that. I'll try that, I'll try that, I'll try that. I'll try that.

I'll try that. I'll try that. I'll try that.

I'll try that. They only step in, and they step out, and they step in, and they
step out. Where does God have it for you to stand firm?

What relationship? What ministry? If you tried 100 different ministries and none
of them have worked, maybe it's because you keep stepping out and you're not
standing firm.

If you're going through relationship after relationship after relationship and
none of them are working, maybe you love stepping in, getting started, but the
standing firm is difficult. You see, stand still in the middle. Stand firm in
the middle of the river.

There's a principle here also. The principle is the principle of disciplined
obedience. Standing still when everything in you says run, get across the river.

Standing still when everything in you says run, I don't like standing here
anymore, I want to do something. And let's just be frank with our own hearts for a
moment about this. The reason that we don't cross Jordan rivers is our own
doubt, our own temptation, our own fear that God maybe isn't strong enough to
show up for us.

And all too often, because of that fear, we're not willing to follow. All too
often, because of that fear, we're not willing to be obedient. And sometimes,
even if you've stepped out and you're in the middle, and there you have time to
think.

The excitement, the initial excitement has worn off. Now you have time to think
about what it's going to mean to serve God like this the rest of your life. Now you
have time to think about what it's going to mean to have that kind of integrity the
rest of your life.

And it scares some of us. We don't think we can do it. And the truth is you
can't.

You can't live the Christian life even any more than they could hold the Jordan
River at bay by their own hands. You're trusting God all the way through. But
sometimes in the middle of the river, we think it's up to us.

And the moment you begin to think that, you're going to run right back to the other
side. So if that fear is a part of your life right now, just take this picture
and realize they couldn't hold the river at bay and you cannot live the
Christian life on your own power. You're trusting in his power.

Now what helped these priests? What helped them to have a disciplined obedience
to stand firm in the middle of that river? Well, if you look through the
passage, there really are three things.

They had the word of God, they had the presence of God, and they had the people
of God. And you need those three things. They had the word of God, God commanded
them to do it.

They had the presence of God, they were carrying the ark, and they had the
people of God. Everybody was walking across. There was a positive peer pressure.

If they dropped the ark and run, God would have judged them in the moment, but
they also would have been in front of all the people shown to have doubt. There
are people in your life that will expect you to have faith. They will encourage
you to have faith.

So as we pray today, I'd like to pray for you and I both, that those three
things would encourage us as we step in, as we stand firm. Lord, we ask together
that your word, that your presence, that your people would be an encouragement
in our lives. That those places in our lives where we need to step in, we're on
the edge of faith, we're on the edge of trusting you for salvation or for a
ministry or for a dream or for a stronger relationship or for a new kind of
integrity or for letting go of a sin in our lives.

We're on the edge of trusting you. Help us to step in. And then once we reach
the middle of it, help us to stand firm through your word, through your
presence, through your people.

We recognize we cannot do this on our strength, so we lean on your strength. In
Jesus' name, amen. Tomorrow, we're going to look together at the way to finish a
step of faith that will keep faith growing in your life.