By: Dr. Wayne Barber; ©2004 |
I don’t know about you, but the hardest lessons I’m having to learn are the ones I thought I already knew. You see, it’s interesting, God can do great things in our life, and then we turn right around and act as if He doesn’t even exist. |
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The Need to remember (Joshua 4)
I want you to turn with me to Joshua 4. We’re going to talk tonight about the need to remember; the need to remember, as we cover this whole chapter. It is so awesome to be in the Old Testament because it’s a narrative and you can get in the current and let it carry you. It’s a great flow. The word “remember” is used 168 times in Scripture. Think it might be important? The word “remind” is used 9 times, so 177 times from Genesis to Revelation, God uses that very thought; to remember, to be reminded. I don’t know about you, but the hardest lessons I’m having to learn are the ones I thought I already knew. You see, it’s interesting, God can do great things in our life, and then we turn right around and act as if He doesn’t even exist. Well, last week we saw how the Israelites stepped into the water of God’s will. They crossed over, they finally crossed over the Jordan River; the flooded Jordan River. They were now in the land God had given to them. Now God’s unchangeable will for them to be able to get over there was that if they’re going to possess what they already have, if we’re going to possess what we already have, it’s going to have to be two things: 1) we must focus on Him—“Jesus, be the center of our life. Jesus, be the fire in my heart, Jesus be the wind in my sails.” That’s what we just saw. We focus on Him, and once we focus on Him, then 2) we must learn to consecrate ourselves to Him. I don’t believe it comes the opposite way. I’m glad that’s the way it’s taught us here, that you focus on Him first and then the consecrating of yourself to Him. The Israelites were instructed to put the Ark 3,000 feet in front of them so that everybody could see it. But why: because it was symbolic of the presence of God. Now, did God dwell inside that Ark? No! But that Ark was very special to them and it symbolized His presence with them. As a matter of fact, it was stolen from them later on in their history and they kept thinking that something was mystical about that Ark. No, it’s God’s presence with them, but they needed to focus on that. It’s just like with us, we have got to learn to focus on Christ. He is our Ark, and we went through this last time together. We cannot look at the circumstance; we’ve got to learn to look at Him who is our provider in the midst of that circumstance. Then Joshua told the people to consecrate themselves unto God. Once they saw the Ark, now it comes time to consecrate. In Joshua 3:5, “Then Joshua said to the people, ‘Consecrate yourselves for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you.’” Once we have our focus on Him, I honestly believe that it’s only then that we begin to understand why it is that we need to consecrate ourselves to Him, to yield our lives to Him. Because once you get in His presence, everything pales to nonexistence, and you begin to realize that there’s nothing else you could turn to. That’s why you’d want to consecrate yourself unto Him. Only He can take us into His will. But not only is His will unchangeable, His works are unexplainable. You see, when we begin to focus on Him and consecrate ourselves to Him, then we begin to experience and we partake of what He says is already ours. I honestly believe this. I had a man say this to me years ago, “If we can explain what’s going on in our lives, then obviously, it’s not Him.” Because when God moves, it’s really unexplainable. You try; you do the best you can; but you really can’t take someone to that level where you have met with God. In 3:14 it says, '“So when the people set out from their tents to cross the Jordan, with the priests carrying the Ark of the Covenant before the people,” it goes on to say in 15-16, the priests put their feet into the water and that water backed up 17 miles, or 17 miles away it rose up in a heap and refused to flow. The bottom of the river bed dried up with the priest standing out in the middle of it so that the people could cross over it. What a day! The thing I love about Joshua is, Joshua didn’t ask Him how they were going to cross it. Joshua just did what He told him to do. Joshua knew that He had already parted the Red Sea, so He knew that whatever God said, you just stepped out on it. That’s His word and it’ll carry you through. He just trusted God to do it. The water stopped flowing at 17 miles away. Can you imagine the wall of water that was? Well, maybe Mel Gibson will make a movie on that one day and we can get a picture of it. What an overwhelming circumstance though, that they faced. Let me ask you this question and let’s just get into the message tonight. What is it this week—because I asked you this last week and it changes from day to day sometimes and sometimes the situation you face just gets bigger—what is the overwhelming circumstance that you’re facing right now in your life? God says, “My life is within you. I don’t want you to experience My land; I want you to experience My life. I’ve created this circumstance to teach you to trust Me. Are you willing to step into the flooded rivers of My will?” Simon Peter was out in the boat—you know I love Simon Peter—the only time he ever opened his mouth was to change feet! He’s one of my favorite people in the New Testament. I mean, impetuous is not even the word for it. And when they were in the storm crossing the Sea of Galilee that time, the Lord Jesus came walking out across the water and He was intending to go right on by them. The interesting thing was that Peter yelled out, “Lord, is that you?” And Jesus said—my way of saying it—“Yes, it’s Me!” “Well, if it’s You, bid me come to You.” “Well, come on, son.” And Peter got out of the boat. Have you ever thought about the fact that he didn’t step on the water? “Oh, he did too, Wayne.” Now wait a minute! Think about it for a second. He didn’t step on the water, he stepped on the Word. Jesus said, “Come,” and he stepped out. And everything that was over his head was under his feet. There’s an incredible picture. The only time he sunk was when he got his eyes off the One that he had stepped out upon His word and His will. Then he sunk. But thank God he got out of the boat. That’s what I love about him. At least he got out of it. Well, there’s no fear when we trust God; no fear whatsoever. Joshua had no fear; the people might have, but he did not and the priests that went out did not. When we trust God, as John said in one of his epistles, “perfect love casts out all fear.” Well, not only was God’s will unchangeable—focus on Him, consecrate yourself to Him; and God’s works are unexplainable—you can’t explain a river stopping flowing 17 miles away, there’s no way to explain that to anybody; but His wisdom was unsearchable. I guarantee it says in one verse, and we’ll read through it tonight, we won’t really stop to comment on it, said they “hurried” to get across. Would you hurry to get across? The water is 17 miles back, the priests are out in the middle and it’s a mile across. At flood time it was a mile across. In normal days it was 100 feet, but it’s a mile flooded out. Well, in verse 17 He had the priests to stand in the middle of the river Jordan. That was such wisdom! He had them stand in the middle; they couldn’t cross over, they couldn’t complete their journey until everybody else had crossed. They held the Ark for the rest of them to go over. And that Ark, again, being the Ark of God’s presence; it was God holding that river back. And as long as they could see that Ark, and as long as they could see those priests, the fear diminished, and buddy, they got across that river. Such wisdom that God has. I shared with you last week, I really believe this is the way He works in body of Christ. People that have gone on in the journey and you see them in the midst of their terrible circumstances standing on the Word and the Will of God and God holding them up gives us courage to go on and cross the waters that God puts before us. Well, with them was the Ark. This is where we pick up our story. The priests are still standing in the middle of that river bed holding the Ark and the people now have crossed over, they’re on the other side. Now, why would God do this? The only thing separating them from what God said was theirs was that flooded river, and yet He made them go through it, and He did it in such a miraculous way. Why would God do that? What is it about that experience He wanted them to remember years later in their life as they faced a different test in the land? Well, there are three things that I want to talk to you about tonight that came out of chapter 4. You know, when I study these chapters I just meditate on them for days and just read it over and over and over again, and just let it soak. And finally, I just love it when you sit down and don’t know really where you’re going and then it just starts coming together. And this is what God put on my heart: three things.- A lesson that was to direct their life
- A lesson that was to exalt their leader
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