Episode Transcript
[00:00:05] Good morning, Village Church.
[00:00:08] My name is Ryan Chaney and I am the youth pastor here.
[00:00:12] If you're new or if I haven't met you before, I'll be down here in the front after the service. And I'd love to chat with you, but I have a question for you.
[00:00:21] Have you ever had to go somewhere that you've never been before?
[00:00:26] And you plug in the location into your GPS, and your GPS along the way suddenly says, Continue for 47 miles. And you go, okay, little navigation system that I'm trusting with my life, but I have absolutely no idea where I'm going.
[00:00:42] You can see the little blue line on the screen, and you know there is a destination and you know the GPS knows where you're going, but you don't.
[00:00:51] And there's something really uncomfortable about moving forward when you can't see what's ahead.
[00:00:57] Maybe you've experienced this in a much more significant and bigger way. You're standing at the edge of a new job and you don't know how it's going to work out.
[00:01:07] You are walking into a difficult conversation and you have no idea how that other person is going to respond. In that conversation.
[00:01:16] You're making a decision about your family, your future, your finances, your health, your relationships.
[00:01:23] And you know you need to move forward, but you can't see what's on the other side.
[00:01:29] Sometimes faith isn't difficult because we don't know what God has promised. We know what His Word says. Faith is difficult because we don't know what's going to happen next.
[00:01:39] And that's exactly where we find Israel. In Joshua 3, they finally arrived at the place God promised them.
[00:01:48] Well, almost.
[00:01:50] They've seen God work, they've heard God's promises, and they've watched him provide. But there's still a problem.
[00:01:56] There is a huge river in front of them, not just a little stream they can casually step across. The Jordan is overflowing its banks. It is flood season, and God is asking them to move forward before they can see how he's going to make a way.
[00:02:15] So what do you do when God is calling you forward but you can't see the way forward? And Joshua 3 gives us the answer.
[00:02:22] We move forward because God's presence is with us.
[00:02:27] Open up your bibles to Joshua 3.
[00:02:30] I'm going to put a picture of a map on the screen that if you were here last week, you saw this, Pastor Michael showed us this map. And this gives us a little bit of idea of what we're looking at now. This is Not a Google Earth image. Just so we're all clear, this is an AI rendering, but it's really helpful for scale and scope and the context. And you can see the Jordan river running right through the middle, and the nation of Israel is on the east side of the river and the Promised Land, Canaan is on the west side. And normally the Jordan river is anywhere from 3 to 8ft deep. It's really not that deep. It's not like the Red Sea or an ocean, depending on where you are. But when the Israelites come to the banks of the river, this is the season when where it's flooding so the, the snow on the mountains is melting. And every year this rhythm happens where the river overflows its banks. So the water level would have likely been much deeper, maybe as much as 10 to 15ft deep in certain parts. So with that context in mind, let's look at verse one.
[00:03:32] Says then Joshua rose early in the morning and they set out from Shittim and they came to the Jordan and he and all the people of Israel and lodged there before they passed over.
[00:03:43] Now this is carrying on the narrative of chapter two. So if you weren't here with us last week, or maybe you just don't remember last week we heard about the two spies that went from the people of Israel across and they were going to spy out the land of Jericho and Canaan and they were supposed to report back and they had an interaction with Rahab who hid them, protected them, lied for them, and then after the people came looking for them, she released the spies out after she showed her faith in Yahweh and they're able to get out of the city. But they've actually, the passage tells us they've been hiding for three days and now they're finally returning back and they're coming back to tell Joshua that God is going to give them the land and that the people of the land are actually afraid of them.
[00:04:30] Now look how eager Joshua is to follow through and take hold of the promise God has made. It says he rose early in the morning, which I don't know about you, but rising early in the morning about something means I'm either really excited or I have to catch a plane or something like that. So it tells us he's excited. But imagine what he is feeling after reliving his own experience as a spy 40 plus years before. He was one of those 12 spies that was sent out before and he brought a good report back. Yet he still experienced the same consequences that as the rest of the Israelites for their lack of faith. The only consequence he didn't experience was that he didn't die with the rest of that generation in the wilderness. But he is now an older man.
[00:05:15] Finally, though, the nation is getting it right and they are ready.
[00:05:20] What a redemptive arc for Joshua personally.
[00:05:23] But it's interesting how in chapter two, it's a direct callback to the narrative of the 12 spies from numbers, chapter 13, and today's passage in chapter three, it's a direct call back to the narrative of Israel crossing the Red sea in Exodus 14. And you're meant to see these parallels. You're meant to compare and contrast what's happening. You're meant to ask the question, is this generation going to get it right and are they going to trust Yahweh? And so far, so good with the spies and their good report. But what will happen now that there is another body of water between the Israelites and where they're trying to go, as we saw last week with Rahab and the spies, having the right fear, appropriately placed fear, and transferring your allegiance to Yahweh makes all the difference.
[00:06:14] And this week we're going to see with Joshua that God's presence makes all the difference.
[00:06:19] There's five truths about God's presence that we're going to talk about today. And truth number one is that God's presence goes before you.
[00:06:27] He will lead you.
[00:06:29] Verse 2 Back to the narrative. It says, at the end of three days, the officers went through the camp and commanded the people. As soon as you see the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord your God being carried by the Levitical priest, then you shall set out from your place and follow it.
[00:06:45] Now, the Ark of the Covenant, this is the first time it's mentioned in the book of Joshua, but it's very important.
[00:06:52] It was actually mentioned a lot in the books of the law, the last five books, but it hasn't been mentioned in Joshua yet. But there's some really important facts, and if you're new to the Bible or you might not know about this, the ark we're talking about here is not the same as the ark with Noah and the Ark. This ark is a box essentially that was built to hold certain things. It's a very significant box, but it was built to hold certain things. So some quick facts about the Ark of the Covenant. Fact number one is it held the stone tablets that contained the ten Commandments.
[00:07:25] So very interesting that the very word of God was held within this box. And depending on what part of the timeline of Israel's history. There was also Aaron's rod, or staff, through which God did miracles when Aaron and Moses were leading the people. And then there was also a golden jar of manna. But it holds certain things that are significant to Israel. Fact number two is that the tribe of Levi was responsible to carry it. This is really important because only the priests could carry this. And there are situations where people got too close or touched it or tried to carry it, and there was severe consequences for those people.
[00:08:02] But that's fact number two. Fact number three, this is what the people of Israel follow now.
[00:08:07] So they no longer follow the pillar of cloud. They now follow the Ark of the Covenant of God. And then the last fact number four is the most important.
[00:08:17] It symbolized God's very presence. It's where God's presence actually dwelt his glory dwelt above the Ark of the covenant.
[00:08:27] Verse 4 tells us more about this. And it says, yet there shall be a distance between you and it, about 2,000 cubits in length. Do not come near it in order that you may know the way you shall go, for you have not passed this way before.
[00:08:42] Now, again, if you're not familiar, as modern Americans, 2000 cubits is not a normal unit of measurement we use. So how far is that? Well, it's approximately 3,000ft, which is over half a mile. That's a long way. And God is telling them, you're not going to come closer than half a mile away from this Ark of the Covenant. And it was mainly to show them the way we see in verse four, for you have not passed this way before. But it also shows the sacredness of God's presence.
[00:09:10] There's a reverent distance that people need to keep, because God's glory is a serious thing.
[00:09:16] It's something you want to be in the presence of God, but when his presence is physically dwelling there, it's also incredibly dangerous if you come in an unclean or unworthy way, but he says, you've not passed this way before. Israel needed God's presence to go before them because this was uncharted territory for them. Which brings us to truth number two about God's presence. God's presence sets you apart.
[00:09:41] God's presence requires holiness.
[00:09:44] In verse five, Joshua said to the people, consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you.
[00:09:52] This phrase, consecrate yourselves. The people of Israel knew exactly what that meant. It's from the book of Leviticus. And anytime God commanded the people to do that, it meant extensive and rigorous ritual preparation, including thorough washings and fasting or abstinence from food or sexual relations.
[00:10:12] So when he commanded the nation of Israel to do this, it is because there was something unique or special that he was going to do. So in Exodus 19, he tells them to consecrate themselves. And this is where Israel's preparing to meet God at Mount Sinai. It's a really monumental moment for the nation. Or numbers 11, he tells them to consecrate themselves because he's going to provide meat for them in the midst of their complaining and their wandering in the wilderness. And then in first Samuel 16, Samuel tells the people of Israel to consecrate themselves, to prepare themselves for a sacrifice.
[00:10:47] So the people are commanded to do this and to prepare themselves. And they've got to be asking the question, what is God going to do?
[00:10:55] There's questions, there's maybe excitement, maybe they have doubts about what God's going to do. And on this side of things, we know what's coming because we've read this narrative before. But I'm not so sure that they knew what was coming, but they knew what it meant to be consecrated. And this is not just an Old Testament thing or an Old Covenant thing. God commands New Testament Christians. He commands us to be consecrated, or the word we use is holy or set apart. But it looks different now because of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. We're called to live differently than the world because the Holy Spirit lives inside of us.
[00:11:34] So what does this look like for you now?
[00:11:37] Just think about that here and now. What does it look like to be consecrated and set apart? Are you living differently because of God's presence?
[00:11:46] Is your heart prepared on a regular basis to see God do wonders?
[00:11:51] Notice in verse 5 he says, Consecrate yourselves, because the Lord is going to do wonders among you.
[00:11:58] This is a monumental moment. This miracle and wonder of God was going to be for the new generation. And God wanted them to be ready to be anticipatory of what he's going to do.
[00:12:09] Truth number three is that God's presence works through you. He empowers his people.
[00:12:17] Verse 6 says, and Joshua said to the priests, take up the Ark of the Covenant and pass on before the people.
[00:12:24] So they took up the Ark of the Covenant and went before the people. The Lord said to Joshua, today 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.
[00:12:38] And as for you, command the priests who bear the ark of the covenant. When you come to the brink of the waters of the Jordan, you shall stand still again. This is a really incredible redemptive ark for Joshua personally. In Joshua, chapter one, just a couple chapters before, the people are talking to Joshua and it says, and they answered, joshua, all that you've commanded us, we will do. And wherever you send us, we will go.
[00:13:03] Just as we obeyed Moses in all things, so we will obey you. Only may the Lord your God be with you as he was with Moses.
[00:13:12] That phrase, just as we obeyed Moses in all things, so we will obey you. That's a big deal. That's a big commitment they're making.
[00:13:19] And at this point, there's no Joshua miracle yet that Joshua can say, like, God worked through him. And God's going to use this to validate Joshua as God's chosen instrument. He would be the conduit of God's power through whom God was going to show his power.
[00:13:36] But the children have to be thinking, are we going to see the same stuff that our parents saw?
[00:13:41] Is God going to use this man like he used Moses?
[00:13:45] It's kind of like electricity, right? Let's say I'm an amateur diyer, because I am an amateur diyer and I want to do some electrical work in my house. Now, I have had zero training with electrical work. I am not licensed, but I have watch some YouTube videos.
[00:14:06] So I know, or I can learn in theory how electricity works.
[00:14:12] Now, I could learn everything there is to learn about voltage, circuits, breakers, wiring, all of that stuff, but none of it means much if I don't actually know how to connect it to the power source. And none of it means much if I'm not actually connected to the power source.
[00:14:30] And this is kind of what it's like for Joshua. In theory, he knows God's power because he's seen it in action, but he's never personally been the conduit through whom God is going to show his power and validate him. And the people are wondering, is Joshua connected to the power source like Moses was?
[00:14:50] It's a big moment.
[00:14:52] This is not just any miracle. This is the first miracle specific for this generation. It's the first miracle specific for Joshua. It's the next chapter of God's power over everything. And the ark symbolized this. The Ark symbolized God's sovereignty, his power, his rule. And the point of the crossing of the Jordan led by the Ark was that God was the same in his power on this occasion as he had been earlier when the people crossed The Red Sea under Moses.
[00:15:23] Truth number four about God's presence is God's presence is among you.
[00:15:28] He is the living God with ultimate authority.
[00:15:33] Verse 9 says, and Joshua said to the people of Israel, come here and listen to the words of the Lord your God. And Joshua said, here's how 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, the Hivites, the Perizzites, the Girgashites, the Amorites and the Jebusites.
[00:15:56] Here is how you shall know that the living God is among you.
[00:16:02] Translation, in contrast, not like the dead gods that the Canaanites serve, who don't actually have any power, this is the living God. And that word or verb, to know, in the Hebrew to know. This means to know by experience, to have an intimate awareness.
[00:16:24] You don't just know it mentally or cognitively. You know it personally, you know it experientially to the core of who you are. You know it to be true.
[00:16:35] Yahweh is the living God, the only one who is alive. He's not some dead idol.
[00:16:42] He works, he has power, he has authority. And the interesting thing is that God's presence has been among them the whole time.
[00:16:50] But now Joshua's saying, you're going to know experientially that God is among you, because he's going to use Joshua and his presence went before them and the Ark of the Covenant, they are plugged into the power source to use that analogy. It's like Joshua saying, when you see this, you will have no more doubts anymore about what God is capable of.
[00:17:14] And it's interesting that their fear must have been substantial because over and over these people keep needing assurances about God's presence and what he could do and what is the antidote to their fear.
[00:17:28] I was reminded of this last week when a friend was teaching and she asked this question. She said, do you know what the opposite of fear is?
[00:17:36] So village church, do you know what the opposite of fear is?
[00:17:41] A lot of us would probably be tempted to say faith or courage or confidence or not fear, whatever that is, right? But the opposite of fear is love.
[00:17:55] You might be like, okay, Brian, where are you getting that from? I thought the opposite of hate was love. That's a good question. I get it. One, from our experience as humans, but two, more importantly from scripture. First, John 4:18 says, There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear.
[00:18:16] For fear has to do with punishment. And whoever fears has not been perfected in love.
[00:18:21] You see, when we fear something, it often leads to hate. We often, as humans, we fear what we don't know or understand and it can lead to hate.
[00:18:32] But love, that casts out fear.
[00:18:36] And intimately knowing the living God and experiencing his love and his power and presence firsthand, that casts out fear.
[00:18:46] And Joshua's saying, you're going to know and experience firsthand who this living God really is.
[00:18:54] Back to verse 11. He says, Behold, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth is passing over before you into the Jordan.
[00:19:01] Now therefore, take 12 men from the tribes of Israel, from each tribe a man.
[00:19:07] And when the soles of the feet of the priests bearing the ark of the Lord, the Lord of all the earth shall rest in the waters of the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan shall be cut off from flowing and the waters coming down from above shall stand in one heap.
[00:19:23] This phrase, the Lord of all the earth, is repeated twice in those verses, which usually means, pay attention. There's something that's being communicated that's really important.
[00:19:31] And there is. It's about Yahweh again, showing his sovereignty over creation and nature itself, his superiority over the false gods of Canaan, just like he showed his superiority over the false gods of Egypt. And he's shown his superiority over the false gods of all the nations they've encountered so far. Think back to Rahab in chapter two, telling the Israelite spies about how the people of Canaan feared Yahweh and Israel because of the parting of the Red sea that happened 40 plus years before.
[00:20:04] She says, basically, their gods couldn't do that.
[00:20:08] Yahweh is the living God. Village church we serve not just a God. We serve the living God who is Lord of all the earth.
[00:20:19] For the New Testament believer, we serve a living God who's living inside of us in the person of the Holy Spirit.
[00:20:26] It's not just that he's among us, he's actually inside of us.
[00:20:31] And how often do we forget that maybe you're here today and you're a Christian and you just need to be reminded of that.
[00:20:39] Maybe we all need to be reminded of that, that we have the presence of God with us 24, 7 and we have direct access to the living God. Direct 24, 7.
[00:20:49] And now we get to the climax of this whole incredible account. And this is truth number five about God's presence. God's presence makes anything possible.
[00:20:59] He will make a way.
[00:21:02] In verse 14, it says, so when the people set out from their tents to pass over the Jordan with the priests bearing the Ark of the Covenant before the people.
[00:21:12] And as soon as those bearing the Ark had come as far as the Jordan, and the feet of the priest bearing the ark were dipped in the brink of the water. And now there's a note put in here that you're supposed to pay attention to. It's probably in parentheses in your Bible. It says, now the Jordan overflows all its banks throughout the time of harvest. And the author wants you to pay attention to the fact that this was intentional, that this was a season of flooding where the river is much wider and deeper than it normally is. And God intentionally brought them to the river at this point to show them what he is capable of and what his presence is capable of.
[00:21:50] But it says the waters coming down from above stood and rose up in a heap very far away at Adam, the city that is beside Zarethon. And those falling down toward the sea of the Arabah, the salt sea, were completely cut off.
[00:22:06] Now imagine for a second what this scene might have looked like. The city of Adam that's being talked about. It's roughly 18 to 20 miles north of Jericho, if you think back to our map. So from where the people of Israel are, they can't see 18 miles north, and they can't actually see where the waters are piled up.
[00:22:27] But this is a large break in the water. So 18 miles away. So where the river was, there's 18 miles of dry riverbed by the time they are going through. And then a couple miles also south of that, this is a large break in the waters. And even though they can't see where the waters are piled up, picture again, they are half a mile away from the Ark of the Covenant where the priests are. So if it's flat ground, you can see half a mile, they're pretty far away. But they could see, and they could see as the priests, as soon as they put their feet in the water, the water starts to recede slowly, it starts going upstream, it's reversing course, and it just keeps going up and up upstream. And they're watching this happen, and you can only imagine the look on their faces. And it says, and the people passed over opposite Jericho.
[00:23:18] Now, the priest bearing the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord stood firmly on dry ground in the midst of the Jordan. And all Israel was passing over on dry ground until all the nation finished passing over the Jordan.
[00:23:33] So the people walk around the Ark, and this is something I missed before as I read this passage before, but it says the priests Planted themselves firmly in the midst of the Jordan river or where the river used to be. They stand right in the center and the people pass around them. And remember, the people are supposed to stay half a mile away.
[00:23:53] This is a huge undertaking.
[00:23:56] It's likely hundreds of thousands of people. And some scholars estimate it's as much as 1 to 2 million people.
[00:24:03] And it likely took 6 plus hours by most estimates to get all these people and their children and their things and belongings and cattle all across it is a huge undertaking. And they're going around the priests who just stand firmly planted. Can you imagine what this looked like?
[00:24:21] Remember, the people of Jericho heard about the parting of the red Sea from 40 years before and they were melting in fear. And now the Israelites are only five to six miles away. And I don't know if they could see from the walls of Jericho five miles out. Maybe not, but I imagine you can see a horde of hundreds of thousands of people if you're high enough up. And also remember there are spies from Jericho that were sent out to find things and report back. So there are likely reports coming from spies who are witnessing this and they're reporting back.
[00:24:54] Like, I can only imagine what that was like. Like, you guys remember when we heard about the Red Sea being parted in front of the Israelites? Well, you're never going to guess what happened again.
[00:25:06] All of this possible because of God's presence going before Israel. They're finally, finally west of the Jordan and in the land of Canaan, in the promised land. I feel like we should have like a cheer or a shout of celebration that after all this time we finally see the Israelites west of the Jordan. But there's still a lot of work to be done and more on that later.
[00:25:31] But what do we do with all this? Right? What, what's the next step? What do we do? And in village church we like to talk about. So what's like, so what do I do with this? What, what does this mean for me? So I have a few so what's. And so what? Number one is step into, into the river.
[00:25:48] Do the thing that is risky and requires the supernatural presence and power of God to do it.
[00:25:55] Some people have said that faith is spelled O B E Y.
[00:26:01] Faith is spelled obey.
[00:26:03] Being obedient even when it's scary or difficult. Especially when it's scary or difficult because you'll never know intimately know and experience the true power of God until you actually step into the thing that only God can do.
[00:26:20] And I cannot name what the next situation is. That everyone in this room is going to be called into, but it will require the supernatural power of God.
[00:26:32] If you're here and you're a non Christian, maybe for you it's stepping into trusting in Jesus for the first time.
[00:26:39] Because you're never going to truly know the power of God until you actually step into the thing only God can do, which is to save you from your sin.
[00:26:47] So the high schooler, maybe it's having the hard conversation with that friend that you know you need to step into, but you need God's power to do it for you.
[00:26:59] For the person who's experienced, maybe hurt, relational hurt as a child and now you're an adult.
[00:27:04] And for you it might be forgiving someone who really hurt you, even though they didn't ask for forgiveness.
[00:27:11] For the working professional, maybe it's embracing change. It's a job change, it's a location change, it's a relationship change, and you need the power of God to actually do what you can't do and you need to step into that. For the village church attender, maybe it's saying yes to a ministry opportunity and you know that outside of the power of God, you're not capable of it. Someone shared with me that doing the risky thing might mean doing something as practical as actually scheduling it in your calendar, right? You've been putting off that hard conversation and you're like, I'm gonna text that person, I'm gonna set up a meeting and I'm gonna put it in my calendar and I'm gonna commit to it. I'm gonna prepare myself for it, I'm gonna consecrate myself for it and trust God with it.
[00:27:58] But you'll never know the power of God unless you step into it. You need to be plugged into the power source, if you will. That's the only way to know God's power actually works. So what? Number two, don't confuse God's presence with the absence of obstacles.
[00:28:15] Sometimes we think, if God is with me, this should be easier.
[00:28:20] If God is with me, why is this relationship so difficult? If God is with me, why am I walking through this season of doubt or uncertainty? If God is with me, why is there still a river in front of me?
[00:28:32] But Joshua 3 reminds us that God's presence doesn't mean there won't be a river.
[00:28:37] God's presence means the river doesn't get the final word.
[00:28:41] When there is a promise waiting to be claimed on the other side.
[00:28:45] We assume we should only experience material blessing, at least as we define it and never experience hardship.
[00:28:54] Have we become people who presume upon God's blessings, but we don't actually want his presence?
[00:29:00] Some of us are waiting for the obstacle to disappear before we believe that God is actually with us. But Israel had to learn something different. They learned that the presence of an obstacle is not proof of the absence of God.
[00:29:14] In fact, sometimes the place where you most clearly discover God's presence is standing at the edge of something. You cannot cross on your own.
[00:29:23] And you need a miracle.
[00:29:26] You're waiting for God to show up.
[00:29:29] Village church. Do you realize that he is already with you? He has already shown up. You might just need to pray for eyes to see, and then you step forward in faith and obedience.
[00:29:43] So what number three, the first Jeshua, points us to the second Jeshua.
[00:29:50] If you're wondering, that's not a typo. I didn't spell Joshua's name wrong. That was intentional. So there's an alternative spelling of Joshua in the Hebrew Bible, and instead of an O, it's an e and it's pronounced Jeshua, which is basically the same name, Yeshua. And that's actually really important, and there's a significant connection. But I want to fast forward from the account we read about today.
[00:30:10] 1400 years later, we're introduced to another man with the same Hebrew name, Jeshua or Yeshua.
[00:30:19] They both come. They're derivative of the Hebrew name yehoshua.
[00:30:24] And Matthew 3 tells us that this man named Yeshua, which is Jesus in our English translations, goes to a guy named John the Baptist to be baptized. And where does he go? Where is John baptizing people?
[00:30:38] The Jordan River.
[00:30:41] Yeshua. Jesus steps into this same river to be baptized. And while the river does not part in front of him, there is a miracle that happens and a miraculous moment as soon as he comes out of the water after being baptized. Matthew 3 says, the heavens were open to him, and he, John, saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him, on Jesus. And behold, a voice from heaven said, this is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.
[00:31:10] Jesus is affirmed right then and there as the Son of God who is on a mission to save and redeem. And as if that was not enough, do you know what Jesus did in a different body of water on the Sea of Galilee?
[00:31:24] He calms a storm by simply speaking to it.
[00:31:28] Matthew 8 says, he rose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm.
[00:31:34] And the men marveled his disciples, saying, what sort of man is this, that even winds and sea obey him.
[00:31:42] The authority that God showed over nature itself when he parted the Jordan river and the Red Sea is the same authority that we see Jesus have over nature, over water when he calmed a storm, not to mention walking on the water.
[00:31:59] See, water in the Bible often represents chaos and disorder and death.
[00:32:04] But when God's presence shows up near water, even chaos and disorder and death bend to his will. He is the king and Yeshua means the Lord saves or Yahweh is salvation. And John the Baptist later said of Jesus, behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
[00:32:28] You see, the second Yeshua came to do what the first one could never do.
[00:32:33] Joshua, he was a great man, he was a great leader. But he failed and sinned just as we all do.
[00:32:41] But Jesus was fully God and fully man, yet never sinned.
[00:32:46] He came to truly save, to redeem, to, to bring freedom, to fulfill the promises of God, to bring blessing to all nations and to save us from our sins and from ourselves.
[00:32:59] He lived a perfect life. He died a substitutionary death and he rose again, conquering sin and death.
[00:33:08] Today you can trust in Jesus. You can finally step into the river, put your faith in him and and cross over. Not cross over from the east to the west side across the river, but cross over from death to life, from darkness to light, and from despair to hope.
[00:33:30] Let's pray.
[00:33:32] Heavenly Father, thank you that you were the same yesterday, today and forever.
[00:33:37] The same power and presence that parted a river for the Israelites and is the same power and presence that we have access to because of Jesus finished work and your Holy Spirit.
[00:33:49] We know your word does not return void. So we ask that you take the word from today and accomplish what you need to do, to convict, to rebuke, to encourage, to challenge and help us, to step into what you have for us with faith and obedience.
[00:34:05] We pray all this in Jesus name. Amen.
