Crossing Impossible Boundaries

Joshua 3-4

Stuck at Dinner

My menu as a cook doesn’t get very creative. I have a few winning meals that my kids like and those are the standards. But I mix it up occasionally.

And one tiny human in my family, if it isn’t mac and cheese, he is going to complain. So Dylan doesn’t get a vote when it comes to food.

But last week I tried something crazy and exotic: I made meatloaf and mashed potatoes. Logan loved the meatloaf, but the mashed potatoes wasn’t his favorite. Arabelle loved the mashed potatoes but suffered her way through the meatloaf.

Dylan fell apart.

He puddled in his chair, slipping to the floor bonelessly. He cried and he literally screamed. Logan finished his food and got dessert. Arabelle finished her food and got dessert. Brownies. Dylan puddled and screamed and there we sat alone at the dinner table.

Some say we are still there today. I had one rule: he had to take one bite of his meatloaf and one bite of his mashed potatoes. Then he could go away hungry if he wanted. If he ate half of each he could get dessert.

But Dylan simply couldn’t take that first step. He was stuck. And so we sat at the dinner table long after everyone else had left. Unable to take the first step.

Stuck in Life

Are you stuck? In your walk with God, are you moving forward?

Some of you, I see you, are taking next steps, learning new things about God, serving God in new ways, or serving faithfully in the same ways, but right where God wants you. Beautiful, maybe this sermon is for you down the road, or you can just pray for some of the rest of us.

Some of you are stuck!

Or are you in the same place you have been for years? Asking the same questions. Maybe you even know what God wants you to do... but you just can’t. It’s too big, too scary, too impossible, the circumstances aren’t right, the opportunities aren’t there.

Are you stuck? Sitting in front of a plate of meatloaf and mashed potatoes.

Why? What is it that is keeping you from moving forward? Really, what is it? Fear, doubt, questions, lack of opportunity, lack of motivation, lack of passion?

Crossing the Jordan

Joshua and all the people have been camped across the Jordan in a place called Shittim. (Make sure I say that right 😊 ). This is the place of their previous failure. Jono shared that story last week. Last time they were too afraid to go forward.

But this time the spies went out and hear from Rahab (the prostitute) that the peoples’ are melting and they are the ones who are afraid now. They are ready to cross over.

Now rivers are an important strategic resource. They are sources of water, of course, but they are natural boundaries. The river Jordan is, today, the natural eastern boundary of Israel. For the people in Canaan at the time, the river is their best defense against this invading army. There are few places for that many people to cross that large river. There are no bridges, but there are places where you can ford, where the river spreads out and it gets shallow enough that men, women, children and livestock can cross.

The huge advantage militarily is that you can just wait with your army where the other army is about to cross and, ideally, attack them when they are in the middle of that process. It makes them predictable and vulnerable.

God is not predictable or vulnerable. The closest Ford is about 18 miles to the North near a city named Adam.

He commands his people to do something completely different.

Joshua 3:1-5

1 Then Joshua rose early in the morning and they set out from Shittim. And they came to the Jordan, he and all the people of Israel, and lodged there before they passed over. 2 At the end of three days the officers went through the camp 3 and commanded the people, “As soon as you see the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God being carried by the Levitical priests, then you shall set out from your place and follow it. 4 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.” 5 Then Joshua said to the people, “Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the LORD will do wonders among you.”

Oh MAN, get ready! Get ready! God’s about to do something crazy!

They are going to follow the Ark of the Covenant. For those who remember either our sermons in Exodus or who have seen Indiana Jones, the Ark of the Covenant is the this powerful symbol of the very presence of God. It is the Ark that sits in the Holy of Holies. The lid of the ark has the seat of mercy, the place where God himself sits. Within are the ten commandments, the rod of Aaron and a jar of mana.

This is the presence of God, and the people have been following it in march for 40 years. So it sounds familiar, but God says “You have not passed this way before.” “You have not walked this road before.”

Buckle up.

He proclaims that he is about to do something amazing, to drive out the inhabitants of Canaan, and to show the people that God is with Joshua just like he was with Moses.

Verse 8

8 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 in the Jordan.’”

You are going to come to the edge of this impossible boundary… and then you will stand in the middle of it.

How is it going to happen?

Verse 13

13 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.”

The soles of their feet. They are going to stretch out their feet… and the waters of the Jordan shall be cut off.

And this is exactly what happened.

14 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, 15 and as soon as those bearing the ark had come as far as the Jordan, and the feet of the priests bearing the ark were dipped in the brink of the water (now the Jordan overflows all its banks throughout the time of harvest), 16 the waters coming down from above stood and rose up in a heap very far away, at Adam, the city that is beside Zarethan, and those flowing down toward the Sea of the Arabah, the Salt Sea, were completely cut off. And the people passed over opposite Jericho. 17 Now the priests 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.

4:10

10 For the priests bearing the ark stood in the midst of the Jordan until everything was finished that the LORD commanded Joshua to tell the people, according to all that Moses had commanded Joshua.

The people passed over in haste.

Dramatization of the Crossing

Imagine being that priest that first steps into the water.

The river Jordan is in flood. Out above its banks. So the shrubberies and stuff along the side are under foot, this is not a crossable location, this is not easy footing. And a flooded river is a fast river, the water is higher and faster and the footing is treacherous.

But those first two priests stretch out their feet… and the soles of their feet touch the water. What an act of faith. Carrying by poles the most precious artifact of their people and their guard, they step out on to the impossible barrier… and it melts away beneath their feet.

Verse 16 says the water piled up far out of their sight. In fact, 18 miles away near the city of Adam. Where was the passable ford, by the way? At Adam. Divine irony. The easy path becomes impassable, the impossible path becomes possible.

And if the water started lowering when the priest stretched out his foot… when did the blockage start?

Hours before. God prepared the way, his timing perfect, precisely calculating even, perhaps, the hesitant outstretched foot of that first priest.

Now there are many ways for a river, even a river in flood, to stop downstream. Perhaps a mud-slide loosened the side of the hill and the hill flowed down, sealing the valley and stopping the downstream flow. The area is geologically unstable and experiences earthquakes, perhaps an earthquake blocked or diverted the flow for a time.

But people who have experience with water flow, especially in areas with deep valleys like the one the Israelites are in, they get worried when the water flow slows or stops. Why?

Because all that water is heaping up somewhere. And it will all flow downhill eventually.

So I don’t imagine they think it is safe. But every person that crosses must know that the river could come tearing back down the riverbed with renewed force and power. But in faith they cross. In faith the Priests stand firm on firm ground in the middle of the riverbed.

10 For the priests bearing the ark stood in the midst of the Jordan until everything was finished that the LORD commanded Joshua to tell the people, according to all that Moses had commanded Joshua.

The people passed over in haste.

Yeah they did. That water is coming back down. But the priests stand boldly in the middle of the danger zone, God’s very presence creating a road across this impossible barrier.

He said they hadn’t walked this road before. It is an impossible road… made possible

The Nexus where the possible and impossible meet: The Possimpible.

God created a path through the impossible barrier

Success

15 And the LORD said to Joshua, 16 “Command the priests bearing the ark of the testimony to come up out of the Jordan.” 17 So Joshua commanded the priests, “Come up out of the Jordan.” 18 And when the priests bearing the ark of the covenant of the LORD came up from the midst of the Jordan, and the soles of the priests’ feet were lifted up on dry ground, the waters of the Jordan returned to their place and overflowed all its banks, as before.

The people of God in the land of the Promise, led by the presence of God by an impossible path.

Your Next Step, Your Impossible Path

What is your next step? Is it into an impossible boundary?

We get stalled. We are walking along in our journey with God… until we aren’t making forward progress anymore.

Sometimes it is that we don’t know what the next step is. We are waiting on God’s direction. We are asking, we are praying, God seems silent for the moment. That is a good place to be, by the way. It doesn’t feel good, I understand, but God is teaching you in the Waiting. The people of Israel had to wait 40 years! God had brought the people out of Egypt, then he needed to get the Egypt out of the people and it took a whole generation! Then they waited at Shittim. Then they waited three days at the edge of the Jordan, consecrating themselves.

But then God calls you forward.

Here at Next Step our mission is to “encourage and equip one another to take the next bold step into Christian belief, maturity and ministry.”

Maturity isn’t a destination, by the way, it is the process of maturing. It is cyclical: belief leads us into ministry, and ministry challenges our belief. James calls this faith and works and one leads into the other always.

Are you maturing? Or are you stuck?

We get stuck in our belief.

Right belief in what God says about himself… and right belief in what God says about me.

God is love… and he loves me. He even likes me. God created me… and He created good works for me to do… and He is accomplishing good things in me.

I can get stuck in believing some of those things. Are you stuck in believing what God says about Himself and what God says about you?

We get stuck in our Ministry

We are all called to serve. Some of us serve in the church. Some of us serve overseas. All of us serve in our neighborhoods, in our workplaces, in our schools, in our families. Everybody serves. Everybody is a ministry. Every one of you has a ministry.

Are you stuck in ministry? Do you know what God wants you to do… but it’s too scary, too intimidating, it’s impossible!

I hear you. I get stuck. I get intimidated and seek out easier paths. I get nervous and dive into an excess of entertainment and distraction rather than maturity. Because it’s intimidating and scary and things could go wrong!

Are you stuck on the edge of a river, afraid to take a step forward in belief or in ministry?

Are you stuck?

If God has called you to step forward in belief, in maturity, in ministry… no impossible barrier can stand. No river can flow. No mountain can stand.

Dylan LOVES Meatloaf and Mashed Potatoes

I want to share a miracle with you.

After more than an hour of screaming, Dylan asks me: what does the meatloaf taste like? Well, it’s kind of like burger meat with catch up. A bit peppery? You like pepper.

And, miracle of miracles, the kid puts a microscopic bite of meatloaf. Then he gags… then he looks thoughtful for a moment… then he puts in a larger bite. He destroys the meatloaf.

“What do mashed potatoes taste like?” It’s kind of bland, almost like bread with lots of butter. You can put salt and pepper on it, would you like that? He does. He tries it. He eats all the mashed potatoes.

Dylan says: “it’s not my favorite… maybe my second favorite meal.” This week he asked if we could have meatloaf and mashed potatoes again.

God’s More Preferable Future

God has a more delicious meal set out for you. Dare I say: a more preferable future. And when God leads us to a barrier… and He tells us to cross the barrier… then the more

We can’t let our fear make us hesitate. We can’t let the sight of the rolling flood waters make us panic. We can’t let the knowledge of the “impossible” stop us from following God

You are the Ark of the Covenant.

Our mission is to encourage and equip one another, let me speak courage over you this morning, speak courage into you.

Be strong and VERY courageous: hazaq ames!

Who are you in this story? You aren’t the priests, you aren’t the people, you aren’t Joshua. You are the Ark of the Covenant. The Shekinah glory that inhabited the ark has taken up residence within you.

The very presence of God dwells within you. What is a barrier? What is a river, what is a mountain, what is your doubt, what is your fear? What is your hesitation.

Walk up to the edge of the river and step in!

Go cross some rivers, in the name of Jesus, step into God’s more preferable future! Into his victory. Forward for His Kingdom!

Communion

The Jordan Valley is the deepest valley on planet earth… but there was a deeper gulf separating us from God. A more impassible and impossible boundary. Sin and death separated us from God in his holiness.

But Jesus, the presence of God made flesh, the incarnation of God of which the Ark of the Covenant was only the palest shadow: he stepped into that barrier. He entered into death and took us with him, so that when he emerged back into resurrected life we would still be with him.

And he commanded us to remember. A bridge from his death and resurrection. A covenant in his flesh and blood.