It's Time To Cross Over | Daniel Bentley

Real faith is stepping into the unknown because you're confident in the God you know. It's trusting his certain plan even in uncertain times. It's getting into the wheelbarrow. And that's what these priests demonstrated. Now they had wet feet, but you'll notice with me that everyone else got to cross on dry ground. The dry ground is mentioned a couple of different times in our text, including at the end of verse 17. And he brings that up repeatedly to drive home the point that this was a true miracle.

Well, this story is here to remind us that we serve and worship a God who is hard at work, and he's working upstream from your life. Perhaps out of sight, but he's doing that in order to affect your downstream life. You see, if God has brought you to this place, it's not to defeat you, but it's to deliver you. It's not a problem to crush you, but it's a pathway to further you in your faith journey. He has a plan to get you through it. He has upstream solutions for all your downstream situations.

The thing to note is there is this correlation between the power we walk in and the purity we cultivate. There is a connection between power and purity. When there's mixture in the life of a believer, when there's compromise, it inhibits the flow of God's power through you in the same way that a clogged artery inhibits the flow of blood through a person's heart. But if we would decide today to consecrate ourselves to the Lord, surrender all that we are to him, you'd be amazed by the things that God would do through you tomorrow.

Yet sadly, just like those Israelites who found themselves camped on the wrong side of their destiny, there are many Christians who never get to experience that full and victorious life that Jesus talked about. Some Christians spend their whole lives wandering around in a spiritual wilderness. They're forgiven, but they're not walking in freedom. They're saved, but their path is marked by continual struggle. They're delivered, but they're still dry. They're going to heaven when they die, but their life is filled with defeat on earth. And what I feel like the Lord has brought me here to share with you today is God has more for you.

He's gone before you, and he's preparing the path for you as you prepare to enter the next stage of your life. He's three quarters of a mile before you, three quarters of an hour before you, three quarters of a month ahead of you. He's already gone before you. And what that means is wherever you find yourself and whatever you find yourself confronting, that is a circumstance and a situation that God has already prepared you for, and he's tailor made it and crafted it to bring you into greater victory.

It appeared as though their newly appointed leader, Joshua, had just led them into a dead end. I wonder if Joshua was wrestling with similar thoughts. Lord, why did you bring us here? But as they were about to discover what they saw as a dead end, God was about to turn into a doorway. Let that be the word of the Lord to someone in the house today. You see, God had a plan, and he was about to unfold that plan.

Your only job is to fix your eyes on Jesus. They fix their eyes and their focus on the ark. We put our eyes on Jesus who the Bible says is our author and perfecter of our faith. And when he moves, we follow. It really is that simple. Now it was particularly important for the Israelites to keep their eyes focused on the Lord because in verse four, he says, then you'll know which way to go since you've never been this way before.

What a beautiful promise that is. God's gonna do amazing things tomorrow, but it starts with getting your heart right today. There's a powerful principle embedded in what Joshua says here: if you want amazing tomorrows, then consecrate yourself to the Lord today. Now consecrate is not a word that we use often, so let's pick it up and dust it off. To consecrate something is to set it apart for God's use.

Notice when Israel experienced the miracle. When did it occur? It happened when their feet touched the water's edge and not a moment before. Why? It had to do with what God was wanting to build in his people. He was wanting them to demonstrate their faith before he sent the miracle. There are so many different ways to please God, but none apart from faith. For according to Hebrews eleven six, without faith, it is impossible to please him.

You see, biblical faith means far more than just believing the right things. It means acting on those truths. Faith isn't a noun. It's a verb. It's an action word. And so we don't want dead faith. Here's another kind of faith you certainly don't want, demonic faith. Can we all agree we don't want to build demonic faith? What is that? Well, it's James who tells us. This is James two nineteen.

Again, what James is saying is it's not enough to just hold the right truths and believe the right things. If you think about it, demons have surprisingly good theology. They know that Jesus was God's son, that he left heaven, that he came to the earth, that he possessed all authority, that he died on the cross, and that he rose from the dead. But no demon is going to heaven. Why? Because they've never personally surrendered to Jesus.

And that leads us into this third kind of faith. This is the kind we see illustrated in our story, and it's the kind God is wanting to build in each of our hearts: dynamic faith. It's dynamic principally because it is evidenced through our actions. This kind of faith reaches beyond the intellect. It's more than adherence to a creed or a belief that God exists, but rather it goes beyond that into active trust.

And this is what God is looking for. Dynamic faith is what led Noah to build the ark. It's what led Abraham to leave everything and everyone he knew and set out in an adventure going to an undetermined place. It's what led Peter and Andrew to leave behind their fishing business to embark on this journey of faith with Jesus to become fishers of men, and it's what led these priests in our story to step into the waters of the Jordan and be willing to get their feet wet.

It may just be that he's working right now behind the scenes, out of your line of sight. And all he's waiting for is for you to step out in faith, to move forward in confident assurance that the God who brought you to this place has a plan and a purpose to bring you through it. If you'll step out, if you'll just get your feet wet, I'm confident that God will do amazing things for you. You step out in faith, and then you watch him work.

You feel trapped on the wrong side of your destiny. Yes, you're a Christian. Yes, you've seen the Lord move just like those Israelites had, but it's been a long time and you feel like you're still in the wilderness. And that life of promise, that life of abundance, that life of victory that God sent his son Jesus to bring you into, that remains elusive, just beyond your reach. And today you're sensing that God is leading you out. He's calling you to get your feet wet.

And yet when Joshua relays the information to the rest of the Israelites, what he says is, as soon as the priests set foot in the river, God's gonna cause the waters to be cut off. Now Josh is just riffing here. God didn't say that. But what's happening? His faith is growing as he exercises it. And when he does that, what formerly had been muddy suddenly becomes clear.

He realizes in this moment, oh God, you have a plan, and this is what you're doing. And his eyes are being opened. He realizes right here in real time: God, you didn't lead us to a dead end, but you have a plan and a purpose. You're gonna show yourself strong. You're about to reveal your glory and your power. You've brought us to this problem to reveal a pathway.

Each new day leads us into uncharted territory. None of us knows what tomorrow is going to bring or what tomorrow holds, because we've never been this way before. And so what happens is when we find ourselves in unfamiliar territory, our tendency is to stay put. We don't wanna move out, and we're reluctant to step out until we have all the answers and the full plan and we know exactly what God is doing.

But what this story reveals is God rarely leads us like that. Instead, he often gives us just enough light for us to take the next step, and then he waits for us to move out in faith. We see this illustrated all throughout the scriptures. One instance would be with Abraham. Let's go ahead in Hebrews eleven eight, what it says about Abraham. Let's read this out loud.

He doesn't give him all the details. He simply tells him in Genesis twelve one, go to the land that I will show you. Just start going, and then I'll show you. Now, Abraham didn't fully understand where he was going or what he was doing, but he sets out anyways. And that, friends, is the very heartbeat of faith. And God wants us to walk by faith.

You see, there are many parallels that can be drawn between the journey that the Israelites made on their way to the promised land and the journey that we take as followers of Jesus. Their story begins with their dramatic rescue from bondage and slavery in Egypt, as they took the shed blood of an innocent lamb and applied it to the doorposts of their home. Similarly, our story as Christians begins when we take the blood of Jesus—the Lamb of God—and apply that blood not to the doorposts of our homes, but to our hearts, and we're set free from bondage and slavery to sin.

Similarly, there is a promised life that the New Testament describes that God has designed for us to walk in. It's a life of purpose and meaning, of peace and joy—it's described as the Spirit-filled life. It's a life of victory and flourishing and abundance. Jesus said, "I've come that they might have life and have it to the full." This is the life that Jesus left heaven and came to this earth and bled and died to procure for you and I: this life of blessing.

And so God knows they need to tell their own stories. They can't rely on the faith of their parents. This story would give them a new beginning—handles and their own experience with the Lord. And by the way, God is wanting to tell incredible stories through you. I'm so thankful for the faith that has been handed down to my generation by those who've gone before me, like my parents and the Jesus movement. I watched the Jesus Revolution movie, and it causes my heart to cry out, Lord, would you do it again?

And this really is the prayer of each successive generation: Lord, I've seen what you did there—would you do it again for me? In fact, listen to the words of the prophet Habakkuk: "Lord, I have heard the news about you. I'm amazed at what you have done. Lord, do great things once again in our time. Make those things happen again in our own days."

You know, sometimes, I think we're sitting around waiting for God to share something or to do something, and the whole while, God's waiting for us to take the first step. And we realize that because as soon as Joshua takes the first step, the Lord gives him the next step. And here's the next step. He says, have the priest stand in the river. Now what's interesting is that's all that God says to Joshua.

A little story helps illustrate the point I'm trying to make. Back in 1859, the most famous tightrope walker on the planet was a guy by the name of Charles Blondin. He's famous because he became the first man to walk on a tightrope over Niagara Falls—without a harness, without any safety nets—270 feet above the raging waters, stretched 1,100 feet from America to Canada, with tens of thousands watching this spectacle unfold.