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Crossing Over: and 4
We are five days into the new year of 2020.
It is a time for new beginnings, new resolutions, and new commitments.
I am going to start dieting again, exercising more, and trying to be more disciplined overall.
This new year is an opportunity for us to pause and take a look at our lives and determine what areas need to be strengthened, what priorities need to be reordered, and what directions in our lives need to be changed.
It is an opportunity for us to cross over into new, uncharted territories.
To cross over into the unknown and the unexplored as two churches united as one asking God to show us His preferred future.
One critical moment characterizes most human endeavors - the moment of crossing over.
When Alexander the Great crossed over Hellespoint to invade Asia, the face of civilization changed forever.
When Julius Caesar crossed the Rubicon in his march to Rome, Roman history moved from republic to empire.
When George Washington crossed over the Delaware River, it instilled confidence in the beleaguered revolutionary army that had never tasted victory.
When Christopher Columbus crossed over the Atlantic, he discovered a whole New World.
When Apollo 11 crossed over to the moon, intergalactic history was made.
When the allied invasion forces crossed over onto the Normandy coast on D-Day, the most decisive invasion in history saved western civilization.
When the apostle Paul cross over to Macedonia from Asia, the direction of Christianity moved west rather than east.
But sometimes we forget that before the moment of crossing over, there is preparation and anticipation.
Just as a sanctuary has an atrium, a symphony has an overture, a speech has an introduction, or a book has a forward, there is a time of preparation for crossing over and then the crossing over happens.
Our text this morning is from Joshua chapters 3 and 4. Please stand with me this morning, in honor of God’s Word as I read .
The time of crossing over is exactly where the people of God are in this passage.
They are crossing over from their many years in the wilderness into Canaan, the land of promise.
Our congregation has gone through a period of preparation and anticipation.
This crossing over began at the Black Forest Campus with a vision over a year ago to multiply itself in other areas of El Paso County in order to have more vibrate gospel communities.
The crossing over began here at this Palmer Park Campus last year when the church leadership began to meet together and consider next steps.
We have now come to the day of crossing over.
Now is the time to cross over from 2019 into 2020 with renewed faith, sacrifice, and unity; to crossover into the faith dimension.
And what does this crossing over look like?
Please stand with me this morning, in honor of God’s Word as I read Joshua 3:1-5
Joshua
Crossing Over Requires God’s Direction
God led His people in the wilderness for 40 years.
So it’s not that as if the people of Israel hadn’t moved around a lot.
They had.
They crossed over many different lands, climates, and areas to get to the promised land.
The verb used to characterize these “crossings” and goings was nasa - translated “set out” or “go forward.”
The word occurs 89 times in the book of Numbers during the Israelite’s time in the wilderness, but only 3 times in Joshua.
A new verb takes its place - abar meaning to cross over (vs.6) used 21 times in .
This verb emphasizes the decisive nature of this moment in the history of the Hebrew people.
It describes a peak moment, an event with epic significance.
This crossing then of the Jordan River marks a decisive transition for the people - that they were now entering and inheriting new territory.
God has brought them to the Jordan intentionally at the very worst time of the year – when the river was swollen by the spring rains and the melting snows from the Lebanon Mountains.
The river was impossible to cross by normal means.
To cross now at flood-tide would be unthinkable.
So God makes them wait for three more days (vs.2).
Why not just move ahead?
Why not cross right then?
Because as they waited, they realized more and more the human impossibility of what God was asking them to do.
It became apparent that they needed God’s direction.
They needed to know God was leading them, that His presence was with them and going before them.
For this reason, the priests held up the Ark of the Covenant - a sign to the people of God’s presence and power with them.
It was held high for all the people to see and the people were commanded to “keep a distance from it.
Don’t go near it, so that you can see the way to go, for you haven’t traveled this way before (vs.
4).”
The Hebrews were told to keep their distance, stay a bit back from the Ark of the Covenant, so that they could see where God was leading them, where God was directing them.
I went to college at Southwest Baptist University in Bolivar, MO and I often drove the long drive through Kansas in order to get home for the holidays.
If you’ve ever driven Kansas on I-70 I think you might have a feel for what eternity might be like.
Eternity is driving through the never ending flatlands and fields of Kansas.
It seems to take forever.
But then right around Limon you begin to see the Rocky Mountains.
You see Pikes Peak in all its grander off in the distance.
And what happens?
You begin to hope again.
You soon realize the trip will come to an end.
You will be home soon.
The mountains in the distance are directing you home.
You may have been on I-70 many times, but the Hebrew people had never crossed the Jordan before.
They had never seen Jordan at flood stage and the walled cities of the Canaanite fighters.
Verse 4 says, “they haven’t traveled there before.”
They had never seen Jordan at flood stage and the walled cities of the Canaanite fighters.
The following letter was found in a baking powder can wired to the handle of an old pump that offered the only hope of drinking water on a very long and seldom-used trail across the Amargosa Desert in Nevada.
The following letter was found in a baking powder can wired to the handle of an old pump that offered the only hope of drinking water on a very long and seldom-used trail across the Amargosa Desert:
"This pump is all right as of June 1932.
I put a new sucker washer into it and it ought to last five years.
But the washer dries out and the pump has got to be primed.
Under the white rock I buried a bottle of water, out of the sun and cork end up.
There's enough water in it to prime the pump, but not if you drink some first.
Pour about one fourth and let her soak to wet the leather.
Then pour in the rest medium fast and pump like crazy.
You'll git water.
The well has never run dry.
Have faith.
When you git watered up, fill the bottle and put it back like you found it for the next feller."
- Desert Pete
"P.S. Don't go drinking up the water first.
Prime the pump with it and you'll get all you can hold."
If you were a lonely traveler shuffling down that parched desert trail with your canteen bone dry, would you trust this guy, Desert Pete?
For all you know he is a lunatic.
What if it is a mad hoax?
There are no guarantees to what he claims is true.
And what would motivate you to prime the pump with the water in the bottle, perhaps the only water available.
But you understand the fact that old pumps have to be primed.
It's a gamble.
A risk.
An adventure.
What do you do?
Church, we have received direction from the Lord to cross over.
We are on the brink of our own Jordan.
The decisions we make in the next months will determine much about God’s work in this place and in this city for years to come.
We need God’s leadership and direction.
None of us knows what rests on the other side.
Only God knows.
But one thing we do know: we cross over certain of God’s direction.
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