Crossing the Jordan

20/20 Vision

Two boys were fishing on the bank of a river. The one boy remarked that being a visionary must be very difficult. He went on to say much more and added that visionaries are seldom understood in they're life time. The other boy replied, "Then you must be a visionary, cause I have no idea what you’re talking about!"

This morning our message is going to be a little unusual, more like a vision meeting than anything else. An opportunity to consider the past and what we have in store for the future. And, hopefully with greater clarity and understanding than the boy in the story fishing.

Past

Fresh in our minds

On Sunday mornings we have been studying through the book of Hebrews and the last couple of chapters has reflected on the journey of the Israelites from bondage in Egypt to the Promised Land. We could summarize what we have studied in the words of Paul:

Romans 9:6 (KJV 1900)

..... For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel:

And we see that just as not all Israel is Israel. Not all of the church is the church. Just like the unfaithful who travelled with Israel, the unfaithful, regardless of their presence within the assembly of God today, the church, will not enter into God’s rest.

Josh

Faithful Israel did enter the promised land. It took work, and it took perseverance, and it took a generation to pass. They did enter, but not without challenges.

The people had their instructions

Joshua 3:1–3 KJV 1900

1 And Joshua rose early in the morning; and they removed from Shittim, and came to Jordan, he and all the children of Israel, and lodged there before they passed over. 2 And it came to pass after three days, that the officers went through the host; 3 And they commanded the people, saying, When ye see the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, and the priests the Levites bearing it, then ye shall remove from your place, and go after it.

But there was a challenge to these instructions. A great big challenge. The Jordan River. And once more, it was Harvest season and the end of verse 15 tells us

Joshua 3:15 (KJV 1900)

...... (for Jordan overfloweth all his banks all the time of harvest,)

The Jordan is a 156 mile long river, starting north from mount Herman, through the Sea of Galilee and down to the Dead Sea. Unless Isreal planned to travel around this river they were going to have to go across.

What is important to note about this generation is that they did not complain or wring their hands at this obstacle as the generation before then did. Thy were faithful. And God provided a way. Look with me in Joshua 3:11-13

Joshua 3:11–13 KJV 1900

11 Behold, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth passeth over before you into Jordan. 12 Now therefore take you twelve men out of the tribes of Israel, out of every tribe a man. 13 And it shall come to pass, as soon as the soles of the feet of the priests that bear the ark of the Lord, the Lord of all the earth, shall rest in the waters of Jordan, that the waters of Jordan shall be cut off from the waters that come down from above; and they shall stand upon an heap.

And so they did just that. When they reached the other side they set a remembrance. Joshua 4:5-7

Joshua 4:5–7 KJV 1900

5 And Joshua said unto them, Pass over before the ark of the Lord your God into the midst of Jordan, and take ye up every man of you a stone upon his shoulder, according unto the number of the tribes of the children of Israel: 6 That this may be a sign among you, that when your children ask their fathers in time to come, saying, What mean ye by these stones? 7 Then ye shall answer them, That the waters of Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord; when it passed over Jordan, the waters of Jordan were cut off: and these stones shall be for a memorial unto the children of Israel for ever.

Our message this morning is entitled Passing over the Jordan

Let’s Pray

Beginnings

It has been a year since we launched Harvest. Kate, the kids and I crammed all of the basic equipment that we had in the back of our minivan and drove to the gymnasium at Elda Elementary not knowing what to expect. We knew that the Doty family would be there, and we knew that the Ancell family would be there but not much else.

It was a good meeting. God had provided for our needs better than I expected but there were certainly a few bugs to work out. But that is what we did. As time went by we worked the kinks out. We were able to acquire a trailer which was a huge blessing. Carrying gear up and down our basement steps and into our van each week was difficult.

We have had opportunities to reach out to the community and to have our name known. It has finally gotten to the point that when I mention Harvest to people that live in Ross, they have heard about us, the church that had been meeting in the elementary school gym.

Challenges

We have had some challenges in reaching the community.

Pandemic

I joke often that we enjoy a challenge so much that it would be fun to add in the challenge of starting during a pandemic. But, I am glad that unlike a year ago we aren’t all wearing masks and hopefully the COVID-19 issues will be completely behind us before too long.

Meeting Place

Without a more permanent place to meet, meeting in a gym was a bit of a challenge. We made it work, but on top of the setting up and tearing down, it has made it difficult to attract people to our church.

The Present

Today we stand in an exciting place. The comfort of the space as things are is so much greater than what most of this past year has been, but in short time we will have:

Walls built for a classroom and nursery/cryroom

A more attractive stage area up here.

More comfortable chairs

And Hopefully signage before too long

We are a church solidly grounded in the Bible, we are made up of people who care about each other.

I believe we are truly blessed.

Memory

It is important for us to not forget from where we came. I’m not asking asking us to go out to the river and stack stones up in front of the door....That is probably against our lease anyway.

It is important to remember that for a time we didn’t have building or space to meet in and our concern has been primarily for Christ, one another, and for reaching people for the gospel.

We don’t cross over to whatever God has for us next without being faithful and trusting God to guide us. And when God blesses we need to mark it, if not in stone, in our hearts.

I feel like in a way this 1 year mark is like crossing the Jordan. We haven’t arrived yet, but God has shown his power and grace on us and we need to not forget.

Vision

Looking to the future of Harvest I want you to consider what Proverbs 16:3 says

Proverbs 16:3 KJV 1900

3 Commit thy works unto the Lord, And thy thoughts shall be established.

What this is saying is that if our work is committed to God then our plans will succeed. This is our first focus and it has to drive everything else. We need our efforts to be committed to the Lord. If our drive is for the Glory of God then God will see His measure of success in His time.

Psalm 127:1 reiterates this point

Psalm 127:1 KJV 1900

1 Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it: Except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.

To that end we must rededicate ourselves to prayer in the year ahead, and prayer that asks God to guide us in the right direction for the work.

We are going to get new invite cards made up and I personally am going to make every effort to go out weekly (At least while it is warm enough to do so), house to house to invite people in our community to church, you are certainly invited to join me. The app we are using will always have streets available and we can make this effort even without something being organized.

We are working on, now that we have this space something called The Hour of Code as use as an evangelistic outreach. I am hoping this is something we can begin this winter. By my math we can seat around 20 kids in here on 10 or so computers or tablets at a time for an introduction to computer programing. We know that this is something that parents want their kids to be familiar with in the technology driven world we live in today and we can use this as a vehicle to present the gospel.

This past week I reached out to the township trustees asking for opportunities where our church can be a blessing in the community. I haven’t heard back yet but it is my hope that we can identify a need, respond to it in the love of Christ, and ask our community to come along side us as we do.

I have said from the beginning that we need to reach out to the PTO of the schools and find out how we can help them in their fundraisers at Strickers grove. I think that now that we have a permanent space to meet in it is time to push in that direction.

And of course caroling is right around the corner. We recieved a ton of positive feedback for this and this year, I am going to invite the community to help us.

The Future

Each of us only has so much bandwidth. Lately I have to admit that most of my church bandwidth and really our church finances have been tied up in this building, getting the network going, designing the layout for this space, and doing a bit of a juggling act with the finances as we make our transition from the gym to where we are now. Late this month or in early November we should be able to begin building out this space and that will be very exciting because not just because it will make this a more comfortable place to meet but because it means our focus will be able to be more dedicated to evangelism.

52 Challenge

I want to begin closing today by inviting you to participate in the 52 challenge. You are going to be hearing a lot about this in the weeks to come. Beginning in January of next year, I am challenging you to invite one person to church each week for 52 weeks. That is one person per week for the entire year. Put that person’s name in your personal Calendar and commit yourself before God to making it happen.

It’s going to take a little time to think of people that you would like to invite. We all have friends and family and co-workers. Neighbors on your street, people who you used to worship with but no longer do.

It’s sometimes difficult to invite people to church, to break the ice....but starting by saying something like…hey, we have this 52 Challenge thing at church…that can make it easier.

Close

Today is a strange message. More of a vision casting meeting than anything else, but what I want to ask is that before we close in prayer today, that we take a couple of minutes to pray on your own. Pray for our church to reach the lost, pray we have success in our efforts and pray that we are doing all things with our eyes on Christ. But then please make a commitment before God that you will come up with 52 people to invite and that when we begin in January that you. It’s a challenge for you to be active in evangelism.

Moment of Prayer

Close in Prayer