You Have Not Passed This Way Before

Introduction

Michael Jordan is the greatest basketball player to have ever lived. And if you disagree, it’s ok to be wrong, just don’t drag everyone else down with you.

He was asked a question about the new era of professional basketball. He said, “Today, players receive the rewards before they prove their worth.” He goes on…“Most young kids that come in now, we don’t know how good they’re gonna be, yet they got five-year guarantees and millions of dollars”

Now, very simply, you cannot live off of “spiritual potential.”

Providence Baptist may have “potential” to be the church you’ve always dreamed about…but unless the people are willing to work towards that potential, we will never reach it.

Even more crucial, if the leaders will not go in before the people, the people will never follow.

So, whether you are a leader or a new Christian, this message is for you. I want to teach you tonight how to live each and every day in spiritual victory.

I. Allow God’s Truth to Light Your Path

Psalm 119:105 NKJV

Your word is a lamp to my feet And a light to my path.

Now, God has already told Joshua, “You will cross the Jordan.” and He also told Joshua, “Meditate on my Word and do not depart from it…then you will be prosperous and have good success”.

This is not simply worldly success, but it is spiritual success.

Look how Joshua allows God’s word to light his path…

Joshua 3:1 NKJV

Then Joshua rose early in the morning; and they set out from Acacia Grove and came to the Jordan, he and all the children of Israel, and lodged there before they crossed over.

God has already commanded the children of Israel to cross the Jordan river. He has already commanded them to enter into the Promised Land…so what Joshua does is he leads the nation to the border of the Jordan.

Now doesn’t that makes sense? He already knows where the Lord wants the nation to go…he may not know exactly how it all happens, but he does know that he’s supposed to do it.

So many Christians get trapped in their life because they feel as if they have no clear direction from God. But the root of the issue is not that they don’t have a direction to move, it’s that they are actively ignoring what God has already commanded them to do.

So, if you want to clearly see God’s path forward….

1. Obey what you already know

How would Joshua ever cross the Jordan if he didn’t move in the direction of the Jordan?

How do you expect to have spiritual victory in your life if you don’t move in the direction that God has already told you were going?

You say, “Preacher…I don’t know who you think I am…but God hasn’t given me a direction.”

Sure He has!

1 John 2:6 NKJV

He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked.

The purpose of your Christian walk is to actively become more like Jesus each and every day. Each and every day until you are standing before Him in your glorified body. That’s the direction for every Christian.

But we get so distracted that we don’t even live out the basic tenants of our faith.

Some of you live this, others will have to imagine it…but just think if you owned a business, and every time you hired an employee you gave them your basic standards for employment.

1. Show up on time

2. Be clean and presentable

3. Be prepared to accomplish your job

4. Communicate your goals every day.

Now, you have an employee…he hardly ever makes it on time…he usually has his shirt untucked or his hair isn’t brushed…he is always asking to borrow things because he left his things at home…and he can never seem to tell you what he did the day before or what he’s going to get done today.

But you hired him, and you believe in him, and you’re not going to give up him.

Now suppose that he walks into your office one morning, and says, “Boss, I’ve been a loyal employee. I always show up, I am friendly, I work hard from the time I clock in to the time I leave, what I want from you is a pathway for growth in the company. I’m ready to earn more and I want to move up.”

What will you say? You’ll say… “Well, alright…I can give you some pathways on how to move up. But before I do, I need you to do what I asked you to do when I hired you. Don’t just show up…show up on time! Don’t just be friendly, dress in a way that presentable and reflects professionalism. Don’t just work hard, make sure that you are working appropriately. And, will you please start communicating with Me before there is a problem?”

Now, what God says to you when you ask Him for direction is this…

“Before I give you a pathway on how to spiritually mature, I need you to do what I asked when I saved you. Don’t do things for Me because you’re obligated, do them for Me because you love Me. Don’t just be a better person, present yourself as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to Me. Don’t just be busy and work hard in the church, be sure to honor Me in the church. And…will you please start communicating with Me before there is a problem?”

The reason that so many feel so little when it comes to presence of God is because they don’t do what they already know they should.

Now, look again in v. 1. The Bible says that when they got to the edge of the Jordan, “they lodged there”.

Don’t just pray once and say, “God, you said if I’d pray then you’d open my eyes! Why hasn’t it happened yet?”

that’s like someone eating a salad then stepping on the scale to see if they’ve lost weight.

Spiritual maturity takes times, it takes seasons of obedience and dedication to God.

Once you have begun to live in the obedience that God has already called you to…

2. Wait for Further Instructions

Joshua 3:2–3 NKJV

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.

Now, God has already used Joshua to communicate the truth that they will enter into the Promised Land, if they are obedient to do what God has already commanded.

Here is what God has already communicated to you.

James 1:4 NKJV

Let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.

You need to be patient in your life as God works out the details.

If you will daily walk with the Lord in the disciplines that He has already commanded you to perform, in your patience, and by your dedication, you will be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. That’s the Bible’s way of saying you’ll be mature.

So, sometimes God is causing you to wait to develop patience in your life.

If you tithe one time and have a hard financial week after that…and you give up…you haven’t learned patience.

If you pray one time and it goes unanswered…and so you give up…you haven’t learned patience.

If you read your Bible one time and say, “It’s too hard, I don’t get it”…and you give up, you haven’t learned patience.

God cannot give you more unless you learn to live in obedience to Him, and you also learn to patiently wait on Him.

Psalm 27:14 NKJV

Wait on the Lord; Be of good courage, And He shall strengthen your heart; Wait, I say, on the Lord!

Listen, God will work it all out in your life. You don’t have to manipulate the situation. You don’t have to worry about the outcome. Worrying about the outcome will drain your heart, but the Bible says that waiting on the Lord with strengthen your heart.

So, to clearly see God’s Path Forward…you need to obey what you already know…and then wait for further instructions…

3. Make Room for God to Work

Joshua 3:4 NKJV

Yet there shall be a space between you and it, about two thousand cubits by measure. Do not come near it, that you may know the way by which you must go, for you have not passed this way before.”

Have you ever had someone ask you to describe something that could only be understood if they experienced it themselves?

Well, that’s what God is telling His people.

“You don’t know how to enter in the Promised Land because you’ve never done it…now stand back and watch this.”

Now, here are some practical ways that you can make room for God to work in your life…

Practical Ways to Make Room for God to Work

a. Make room in your heart

Psalm 9:1–2 NKJV

I will praise You, O Lord, with my whole heart; I will tell of all Your marvelous works. I will be glad and rejoice in You; I will sing praise to Your name, O Most High.

There is something about prayer and musical praise that frees the heart and allows God to put His truth in you.

Prayer and musical praise is a time for repentance, for worship, and for reflection.

Repentance

Now, you already know that you cannot be in fellowship with God if you have not been cleansed from sin. If you are a Christian that has sin in your life, God cannot work until that sin is dealt with and cleansed. That’s what repentance is for.

1 John 1:9 tells believers that God stands ready to forgive our sins.

1 John 1:9 NKJV

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

See there? The way to cleanse your heart is to confess your sin in prayer. The Bible says that once you do that, He is faithful and just to forgive.

Worship

Once God forgives us, or once we have fellowship with God again, it’s time for us to speak and to sing praises to Him.

That’s what the Bible means when it says meditate on the word. It means to sing it, speak it, and to churn it in your mind.

Now, I’m not being legalistic, but the music that you listen to greatly impacts your heart. If your ears are filled with music that promotes the message of the world then you’re allowing the message of the world into your heart. Instead of singing and meditating on words that honor God, you are singing and meditating on things that worship sin.

Reflection

Then there is reflection. The music that you sing and the words that you speak should always cause you to reflect on what Jesus has done and is doing in your life. That’s called living with a spirit of thanksgiving.

Answer this…when are you most thankful for the blessings in your life? When you’re thinking about them. If you will make it a priority to think of everything God has done and is doing then your heart will be free and clear to receive His instruction

b. Prioritize Godliness in your life

James 1:22 NKJV

But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.

You can’t just sing and pray all the time and never do anything for God. Our faith is an actionable faith.

But in order to do for God, we have to be available to God.

Now, we live in the land of prosperity…and we have tons of things to distract us from Godliness and personal holiness.

You know why you don’t have the time to pray and study God’s Word? Because you don’t make time to pray and study God’s word.

Some of you right now are thinking, “easy for you to say when you only work one day per week.”

But, I think you’d be surprised how many pastors I talk to that don’t actively study God’s word and pray daily.

Listen here…availability to God has nothing to do with an empty schedule. Availability to God has everything to do with prioritized schedule.

There was a man named Ivy Lee. He was known as a strategist. What he did was consult with major companies and teach them how to function correctly.

There was another man named Charles M. Schwab, not the investment firm you’re thinking of, but the owner of a steel company in 1918.

When Schwab hired Lee, he asked him how to make his steel plant operate efficiently.

Here’s what Lee told him,

“Write down the six most important things you need to do tomorrow. Rank them in order of importance. Work on #1 and nothing else until it’s complete…then move to #2 and do nothing else until it’s complete…and so on and so forth. And no matter what you get done..you’ll have accomplished the most important thing for that day.”

It worked so well, Schwab wrote Lee a check for $25,000! (About half a million today).

If you want God to work in your life, you have to prioritize godliness.

So, giving God room to work means making room in your heart and prioritizing Godliness in your life.

4. Follow the Leaders that God has Established

Joshua 3:3–4 NKJV

and they commanded the people, saying, “When you see the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, and the priests, the Levites, bearing it, then you shall set out from your place and go after it. Yet there shall be a space between you and it, about two thousand cubits by measure. Do not come near it, that you may know the way by which you must go, for you have not passed this way before.”

Now, you can’t know where you’re going if there is no one to follow. Plainly, I have said that you need to follow Christ…however, that can get…confusing…so God sends out His appointed leaders to lead the people

…in this chapter it is the priests and the Levites.

So what God does is He places spiritual leaders in your life to teach you how to live in Godliness.

Ephesians 4:11–13 NKJV

And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ;

God has established leaders in the church for the people to follow.

Paul says this to the church at Corinth.

1 Corinthians 11:1 NKJV

Imitate me, just as I also imitate Christ.

Just like a church needs a pastor to equip the saints, you need someone in your life that shows you the way to go. Some one who is actively following Christ.

If you want to clearly see God’s Path Forward, obey what you already know…wait for further instruction…make room for God to work…and then follow the leaders that God has given you.

II. Prepare Yourself for God’s Blessings

When we think of blessings, we always go straight to material and physical blessings. But there are blessings that far surpass material and physical blessings.

King Solomon had all that life could ever give…wisdom, women and sexual pleasure, riches untold, and anything else you could think of…and yet he wrote these words…

Ecclesiastes 2:4–11 NKJV

I made my works great, I built myself houses, and planted myself vineyards. I made myself gardens and orchards, and I planted all kinds of fruit trees in them. I made myself water pools from which to water the growing trees of the grove. I acquired male and female servants, and had servants born in my house. Yes, I had greater possessions of herds and flocks than all who were in Jerusalem before me. I also gathered for myself silver and gold and the special treasures of kings and of the provinces. I acquired male and female singers, the delights of the sons of men, and musical instruments of all kinds. So I became great and excelled more than all who were before me in Jerusalem. Also my wisdom remained with me. Whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them. I did not withhold my heart from any pleasure, For my heart rejoiced in all my labor; And this was my reward from all my labor. Then I looked on all the works that my hands had done And on the labor in which I had toiled; And indeed all was vanity and grasping for the wind. There was no profit under the sun.

Physical and material blessings are good, but they are unprofitable…

The blessings that I am talking about are spiritual blessings…these are things that we must be prepared to receive if God will give them.

1. Your Responsibility to Prepare for God’s Blessings

Joshua 3:5 NKJV

And Joshua said to the people, “Sanctify yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you.”

For these Israelites to be “sanctified”, that means that they took baths, they changed their clothes, and the husbands and wives abstained from one another.

We like to think that people then were as people now concerning their hygiene, but they didn’t have indoor plumbing and water heaters. Bathing wasn’t an everyday occasion.

What this symbolizes in your life is that you do have some kind of personal responsibility in your spiritual walk. Some people believe that they can behave irresponsibly, and that God will act like a maid and clean their mess up. But that’s not Who God is. God tells them, “cleanse yourselves, so that when I perform My miracles, you can be blessed by it.”

Not that they were doing something to earn God’s blessing, they were simply preparing to receive it.

Imagine that I am walking into your office or I am calling you for advice and I say…

“I have a problem. I’m having a hard time preaching. When I get into the pulpit, it’s like there’s nothing there…I am barely making it every week, you think you could help me?

You might be thinking, “I’m not a preacher but I’ll give it a shot.”

So, you ask your first question.

You ask me, “Dylan, is there any sin in your life?”

“No, no, no major sin.”

“Well…are you and Elizabeth getting along? Are ya’ll having marriage or finance trouble?”

“No, my home is great, it’s just the preaching.”

“Well…I mean…are you reading your Bible?”

“No? I mean, how will reading my Bible help me preach? I’m asking for your help, not for you to lecture me.”

“You’re preaching the Bible right? I think reading the BIBLE would help you preach the BIBLE.”

“Do you pray?”

“No”

“Do you listen to other sermons at least?”

“No”

“Well, Dylan, I mean, I think I know your problem man, there isn’t any effort on your part, that’s why you can’t preach!”

You’d think I was crazy.

Because it would be crazy for me to wonder why I didn’t have any spiritual authority; or why I couldn’t effectively preach the Word of God if I never read or studied the Word of God.

The reason for that is because even in spiritual matters there are practical applications that have to be made. There are things that I have to do to fully experience the fullness of God’s presence.

So, don’t expect to experience the blessings and the rest God wants to provide if you’re not working to experience that in your life.

2. Your Ability to Restrict God’s Blessings

Joshua 3:5 NKJV

And Joshua said to the people, “Sanctify yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you.”

Now, very quickly, there is nothing you can do to earn God’s blessings, but there are plenty of things you can do to limit God’s blessings.

This always comes in the form of disobedience or apathetic Christian living.

In the case of these Israelites, an entire generation died because they were disobedient when God commanded them to go into the Promised Land.

In the final book of the Old Testament, God brings a charge against their apathetic living.

Malachi 1:7–8 NKJV

“You offer defiled food on My altar, But say, ‘In what way have we defiled You?’ By saying, ‘The table of the Lord is contemptible.’ And when you offer the blind as a sacrifice, Is it not evil? And when you offer the lame and sick, Is it not evil? Offer it then to your governor! Would he be pleased with you? Would he accept you favorably?” Says the Lord of hosts.

They stopped revering the Lord. They were going through the motions and then one day they stopped observing the law all together. They eventually, because of their apathy, started sinfully offering lame, blind, and stolen sacrifices to God.

And, yet, even in their disobedience and apathy, He planned to send a savior.

Did you know that God is willing to bless you?

He’s so willing, and He’s so able.

Matthew 7:7–11 NKJV

“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!

If you will sanctify yourself, and ask God for His spiritual blessings of life and of contentment, then He will give it to you. And once you have developed that contentment in your life, you will have gained more than you can ever imagine.

1 Timothy 6:6–9 NKJV

Now godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and clothing, with these we shall be content. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition.

Listen…if comparison is the thief of joy…then a lack of contentment is the catalyst to restricting God’s blessings.

That doesn’t mean not to be driven. That doesn’t mean not to hard working…because you still have your personal responsibility. It simply means that when you reach spiritual maturity, you are content with the blessings of the Lord and don’t desire the riches of the world.

Luke 12:15 NKJV

And He said to them, “Take heed and beware of covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses.”

It would be better to be a poor man devoted to Christ than a rich man going to Hell.

If you don’t believe me, then ask the rich man.

Luke 16:19–31 NKJV

“There was a certain rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and fared sumptuously every day. But there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, full of sores, who was laid at his gate, desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man’s table. Moreover the dogs came and licked his sores. So it was that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s bosom. The rich man also died and was buried. And being in torments in Hades, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. “Then he cried and said, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.’ But Abraham said, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things; but now he is comforted and you are tormented. And besides all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed, so that those who want to pass from here to you cannot, nor can those from there pass to us.’ “Then he said, ‘I beg you therefore, father, that you would send him to my father’s house, for I have five brothers, that he may testify to them, lest they also come to this place of torment.’ Abraham said to him, ‘They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.’ And he said, ‘No, father Abraham; but if one goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ But he said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rise from the dead.’ ”

He should have listened when Jesus said, “What good does it do to gain the whole world but to forfeit your soul?”

3. Spiritual Leaders are God’s Catalyst to Spiritual Blessings

Joshua 3:6 NKJV

Then Joshua spoke to the priests, 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.

Joshua communicated God’s plan, but it was the priests of God that had to, by faith, walk into the water ahead all Israel. This took faith in the Lord and trust and confidence in Joshua.

When God moves His people, there are always those that have to go “first.” These will always be the spiritual leaders.

If the leaders of a church will not get their feet wet in the rivers of the Jordan, the people will never cross into the Promised Land.

III. Trust Confidently in God’s Authority

1. His Spoken Authority

Joshua 3:9–10 NKJV

So Joshua said to the children of Israel, “Come here, and hear the words of the Lord your God.” And Joshua said, “By this you shall know that the living God is among you, and that He will without fail drive out from before you the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Hivites and the Perizzites and the Girgashites and the Amorites and the Jebusites:

a. Notice they gathered because of God’s authority

They came, not simply because Joshua called them, but why he called them. He called them to hear the words of the Lord their God.

This was a call for the people to congregate. A congregation is a community of believers bounds together by a covenant. They have sworn to obey the law of the Lord, and now, under the authority of God’s law, they will gather to receive instruction.

However, spiritual leaders and congregations that simply “receive a word from God” don’t make an impact. Once the word from God has been recieved, it must be obeyed; and obedience requires action.

Concerning action, when God requires action in response to His command, He will always prove His presence with a sign that He is working. However, the confirmation is not to generate obedience…confirmation is not necessary to obey the word of God, only His word. The confirmation or sign will always come after the obedience takes place.

Moses was ordered to put his staff in the Red Sea. The confirmation of God’s blessing came after the action of placing the staff in the Red Sea was completed.

Moses was instructed to strike the rock…the water didn’t flow until the rock was struck.

A job doesn’t pay you on a Monday. They pay you on a Friday. You don’t get paid for what you might do, you only get paid when you do it.

2. His Anointed Authority

Joshua 3:11 NKJV

Behold, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth is crossing over before you into the Jordan.

Joshua 3:13 NKJV

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.”

Now, God has His men that He has selected to be the anointed leaders of His people. They will always have to go first.

They are His authority and they are His catalyst for blessing. Not because they are special, and certainly not because they have done something to earn it…but it is strictly God’s Holy Spirit anointing according to His will.

Now, Joshua had confidence in them because the Lord said it was so…and the people had confidence in them because Joshua had confidence in them. And when the waters stopped, it was obvious that they were anointed.

3. His Sovereign Authority

Joshua 3:14–16 NKJV

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 away at Adam, the city that is beside Zaretan. So the waters that went down into the Sea of the Arabah, the Salt Sea, failed, and were cut off; and the people crossed over opposite Jericho.

This is obedience. This is the confirmation that follows obedience. This is a picture of Jesus Christ parting the raging river of death and judgement.

Jordan means “descent.” It was named Jordan because it descends into the sea we know as the Dead Sea. When you think of descending (go down) you think of death. When you think of judgement, you think of being swept away by an overwhelming current.

When Christ stepped into the place of death and judgement, He made a way for us to enter into the fullness of life. He released us from the bondage of sin.

The Jordan is normally 100 ft wide. When it floods, it is over a mile wide. The water stood still about 20 miles away to the north.

I like what Wiersbe says, he compares this miracle to the Red Sea parting and he writes, “This time it was the obedient feet of the people, not the obedient arm of the leader that won the spiritual victory. Unless we are willing to step out by faith to obey His word, God can never open the way for us.”

God will never part the waters for a disobedient people. And in the Christian life, we claim victory and live in fullness through walking by faith.

Conclusion

Joshua 3:17 NKJV

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.

Imagine if one priest began talking and said… “I think I saw the water shift…I think I saw it moving…maybe this isn’t the right way to do it…I know that at first I believed this is where we were supposed to go…but I think we need to get out now.

That one spiritual leader causes doubt in the lives of the other leaders…and now they start yelling at the people telling them, “the water is moving again! We need to leave and we need to leave now!”. In a panic they run every which direction, and because of their fear and their lack of trust in God, the waters really do begin to move again because the spiritual leaders have vacated their positions.

The people would have drowned and suffered defeat, the name of God would have been shamed, and the people and the priests who caused doubt would say, “See! We told you it wouldn’t work! Now look what you’ve done!”

As the people of God…as spiritual leaders, we must be sure to “stand firm” until our task is complete. If we get scared and turn back it doesn’t disprove God…it just proves that we never fully trusted God in the first place.

Are you ready to stand firm in the promises of God? Are you ready to have spiritual victory in your life?

Allow God’s Truth to light your path

Prepare to receive God’s Blessing

Trust in God’s Authority

Of course, you cannot do any of these things without a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

You may need to take the first step of spiritual victory and accept Jesus as your savior.

You can do that by praying to Him and asking Him to forgive you of your sin.

So, if you’d like to do that tonight…pray this prayer with me.

“Dear God,

I know that you love me. I know that you want me to be saved. Please forgive me for my sin. Right now, I am trusting in Your Word. I believe that Jesus is Your Son, and I believe He rose from the dead. Save me, Lord. Cleanse me, Lord. I’m Yours. Amen.”