Harrison Faith Church
Crossing Over | Pastor Scott Brandon | Dec 29, 2024
- Well, happy belated Merry Christmas. If you could say something like that, I'm not sure. And at the same time, I had the early New Year's Eve, and New Year's Eve day, and all that wonderful stuff that comes, how many of you guys are ready for some normalcy, again, in your life? How many of y'all, I think it's safe to say, how many of you are ready for the kids to go back to school? How many of you are ready for that? You know, there's a song that talks about the joy of the kids going back to Christmas song. And I realized it was a parent that wrote that, it said, I thank God when they go back to school, and they're not at home, trash from my house, and doing things, God knows what, and I come home and realize, I'm not talking about my kids, I'm talking about y'all's kids, all right? Y'all's kids. I love this time of year, but man, at the same time too, it's nice to be in some routine to get back to some normal stuff. New Year's is that day and that time, where every time we get close to it, we're ready to look into the next year, and I don't know about you, but you know, there's always this idea of resolutions that come around, and I don't like resolutions because those are the things that I guarantee you, we all share in common as failures, right? We always have these things that we just have, these big goals to do, and we start out huge, I think they said that the gyms, obviously you know, gyms will incur about a 75% increase in gym membership, and they'll only see about 30% of those people actually show up, and of those 30%, who knows how many actually stay, you know, because you didn't last that long either, like myself, but I was motivated in the very beginning to stay connected to it. I think one of the things that we look at, when we talk about New Year's, is we try to be reflective, right? We want to look back on our previous year and say what things can we do better, what things can we change, and it should be a part of the Christian lifestyle to always look forward to growth, to always come into a place where we want to move from here to there. That should always be in the pattern, and it should be in the DNA, until you and I see Christ face to face, we are always in the process of becoming like Him. And so my question to you today, as we start out is, is what is it that you have many years in many attempts, in many hopes, tried to come close to getting, or becoming, or establishing some kind of routine or discipline in your life, and you've never got there, you've come close to it, and you can look on the other side and say, right there, I got my plan, but you never actually kind of cross over, into what you're hoping is gonna happen in your life, or what's going to, or maybe you've not crossed over into who is coming into your life, right? Maybe it's an opportunity. I think for many of us, sometimes what we look for is not always an area of growth, maybe it's just restoration. Lord, this is gonna be the year that I established the priority in my home again. This is gonna be the year that my family actually lives out our faith. This is gonna be the year that I get my marriage back. This is gonna be the year I get out of debt. There's so many things we can look at and we hope to cross over into and long for, but for some reason in our life, we can never actually cross over, we come close. That was the situation with Israel. Israel was in the wilderness for 40 years, and as they circled the wilderness for 40 years, they come close to the Jordan River, they come close to the promised land, they come close to God's promises, and even God's will for their life, but for 40 years, they never actually came into the promise that God had made for them. And I don't know what it is for you that God has promised you or that you have asked God for and you're pleading the promises of God concerning your life, but today I wanna talk to you about crossing over. Maybe the reason why you've never crossed over is because you have not seen these three vital things. So today I'm just gonna be reading out of Joshua chapter three. Let me just go ahead and forecast that today, we're gonna have a little bit of the extended period of time and prayer before we get into the New Year. And so I'm not gonna preach a whole long time. I'm gonna keep it short because the really the emphasis today is the response to God's word. And Lord, we need you to help us to cross over. These are the things that we know God has for us. These are the things that God has created for us. These are the promises that God has given us, and we wanna partake of those things. We don't wanna just spend all life almost, almost or nearly coming close. We wanna actually cross over to them. Read Joshua chapter three, verse one, I'll go through six. It says, "Then Joshua rose early in the morning "and they set out from Chittim. "And they came to the Jordan, "he and all the people of Israel. "And Lord's there before they passed over. "And at the end of three days, "the officers went through the camp and commanded the people. "And 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. "Yet there shall be a distance between you and it, "about 2,000 Cubans 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." Then Joshua said to the people, "Consecrate yourselves. "For tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you." And Joshua said to the priest, "Take up the Ark of the Covenant "and pass on before the people." So they took up the Ark of the Covenant and went before the people. Father, in heaven, I pray today, Lord, you have for us each and every person. God, I pray you would bring it to focus. Lord, that thing that's on the other side of the river for us. That thing we've prayed for and we've longed for and we've failed at so many times, God. So many times our heart has been pure. So many times, God, our desire, Lord, has been strong, but something came in the way. Father, as Jesus said, that the spirit is willing, but Lord, our flesh is weak. And so, God, I pray that today you would bring it to focus that thing which you long for the most to be in our life. And you would show us, God, how to cross over this river, this boundary, Father, that's never been crossed over before and how to receive the promises of God. Lord, we don't ask for you to fulfill the promises of God so we can have a better life, a more quality life. Lord, that's usually not the case. Lord, if we remember, God, there are always giants on the other side. But Lord, I know that this thing that you have for us is best for us. And so I pray, Lord, bring it into our understanding, bring it into our mind, Father, this thing that you have for us that will benefit us most and by doing so, give you glory. And Jesus, in my prayer, amen. So I want you to think about how the scene, the setting is. I've actually got a picture of the Jordan River, the best way or the best picture I've found. It's not easy to find Jordan in the springtime where it's the rainy season. And this is a smaller part of the river, but you can kind of see how fast the rapids are moving. And so we're talking about the river Jordan. We're talking about this type of river. It's a bit wider, but it's definitely fast. And that's the most important thing. As you guys know around here, when it rains, it only takes a little bit of water to push that car into the ditch that thought I could get past that, you know? I've seen that a few times around here in some of these low passing slabs and I'll draw a pass there and there's this car halfway off. They got the bonus, but they didn't have the wisdom, you know, and that's how it works out. And so here is this river, no less, that it seems to be passable. It seems to be something that you could just swim over, get past. In fact, let me just kind of help you understand the difficulty of swimming past this river is found in first chronicles, where it talks about that the kings were talking about how the heroes of the captains of 100 and 1,000, how they were displaying their heroic acts by swimming across the Jordan River and to do so was something that would leave a legacy, I guess, to some degree. So this was no easy river at all. And so Joshua, we find himself, he's on one side, he's on the east side of the bank of Jordan and he's looking on the west side. The west side is where we see the hills and the plush greens and he's on the desert side, he's on the wilderness side. And as he looks onto the other side, he knows he's never, he's been there, Joshua has been there. He's 80 years old, about this time, 80-ish. Him and Caleb have been there. The last time they were over there is when Moses sent out the spies, right? The spies came back with the negative report and when they came back, now you know that they were walking in the wilderness for 40 years and so Joshua was here remembering, man, the last time I was in the wilderness, we were this close to the promised land. And so now it's different now because that's when Moses was leading and Moses is dead. They're at the place, the city calls your team and this place is the place where Moses went ahead and went up to the mound and met with God and God says, all right, now you know the deal, you did what I told you not to do and so therefore you're gonna have to end here. And so now Joshua is in control. Joshua is leading the whole nation of Israel, maybe a million, two million people, maybe three million people. And so he's since spies across to figure out what's on the other side, they come back and they realize that the city is ready for them but people are waiting for them as well. And so as Joshua looks across the border, it's not a problem of says taking a two or three people, it's taking a whole nation with them. It's taking the elderly, it's taking the sick, it's taking the lame, it's taking the women and the children and the animals and all the equipment, all these things are difficult. So he's not just worried about himself but he has to bring everybody across with him. And so here he's facing this thing and I want you to see is that it says that after three days, in verse one, I'm sorry, in verse two, after three days. So imagine being Joshua and he's at the bank side and as he's at the bank, he's looking at this river for three days, thinking how, because the Lord hasn't given his plan just yet. The Lord hasn't told him what he's gonna do. And so he's thinking how in the world am I going to cross over that? Don't you know, if it was me, I don't know about you but I'm a problem solver. So if you put me in front of a river for three days, I'm gonna be thinking about how to cross this river. The Lord did not bring me this far to abandon me. So surely there's a reason and a way, he's not spoken to me yet to tell me what to do. And so I'm standing there, figuring out how I'm going to lead all these people. But at the same time too, you're one of the people who is traveling in Israel. And for three days, you're looking at that river saying how are we going to cross this river? How are we going to take everybody with us? How are you know, you know Ethel with her prosthetic leg is not going to cross over this river? How are we gonna bring people over? How are we going to swim across? And so for three days, God allows Israel to stare their problem, to stare their problem in their face. Have you ever been there before? Where you're looking at your problem and it's day after day after day and you're trying to problem solve but everything you come up with in life is no answer. It's just no way, it's impossible and it's impassable. And this is where we put ourselves in and there's three things I wanna talk about today, maybe I can get to all of them. But three things today I wanna talk about that's going to help you cross over. The goal is to help you cross over. I want you to see the very first thing this is just tremendously significant. And today, I just wanna share out of my heart today. I just want you to know, because we're going next year, it's gonna require these ingredients. It says in verse two, or actually verse three, command the people as soon as you see the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, being carried by the Levitical priest, then you shall sit out from your place and follow it. 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. So Joshua tells the priest and the priest are telling the people, when you see the ark of the covenant passed by, then it's time to rise up and follow it, but when you follow it, you need to tell you about 1,000 yards, 2,000 cubits, about 1,000 yards away from it. Don't get too close to it. Why? So that you may know how to follow it, that you may know where to go, because you've not been this way before. And then he says, no, that's it right there. We'll stop right there. You've not been this way before. What I want you to see is that Israel for 40 years has had the ark of the covenant. They've always had the ark of the covenant. And in case you know what the ark of the covenant is, the ark of the covenant is the representation of God's presence. In fact, if you look at the contents of the ark of the covenant, what was inside was the 10 commandments, that's the two tablets of the law. They also had a jar of manna, and they also had Aaron's rod that budded. Those three things represent God's provision, God's guidance, and God's authority. God's provision was found in the jar of manna that never spoiled, that never, now if you were taking of manna back in the days of the execute of your traveling, it didn't last overnight. But this one in the ark of the covenant represented God's faithfulness to continue to provide. And so we see that jar of manna reminded that God is a God of provision, but also God as a God of guidance. He gave us the law. He showed us what we're supposed to do. He showed us how to please him, and how to walk in his statutes and be upright before him. And then we have Aaron's rod, and Aaron's rod is the time when there was a dispute about who had the authority to lead and to govern God's people. And then God used Aaron's rod to bud out of note. It wasn't connected to a tree, it was cut off. They laid it before the 10th of meeting the tabernacle, and God caused this dead stick to bloom. And obviously it was life, and it had flowers, and it gave fruit as well. And so these three things are in the ark of the covenant. The ark of the covenant also is the place that God said, when you come to this place, when you come to the holy of holies before the mercy seat, he says these things. He goes, there I will meet with you. So the ark of the covenant is God's representation. It's saying that he is with his people. But Israel has always had the ark of the covenant. Israel has always had this treasure in God's presence with them, and they've never been able to cross over until now. So what is the difference? We see it here. It says this. When the ark of the covenant is to go past before you, it says you shall set out from your place and follow it. Yet there should be a distance between you and it, and about 2,000 cubits in length do not come near it. Why? In order that you may know the way you shall go. You see, the ark of the covenant was to be, to have reverence as well. You couldn't go into the tabernacle. You couldn't, you couldn't entertain that because you had to be a high priest on one day Yom Kippur when you could walk in and observe the ark of the covenant. But while it was traveling, God was saying, you can't come near it. But here's the other thing too. Don't come near it because everyone's looking to me to lead the way. What I want you to know this morning is simply this. If we're going to cross over, then Jesus is represented by the ark of the covenant. Jesus must be in position, not just position. Let me say this because it's really easy for you and I to think that we're able to do things in gold places because we have Christ in our life. And that is good. I'm glad that you have a devotion. I'm glad that you give. I'm glad that you serve. I'm glad that you have a church attendance record. I'm glad for all those things. That just says that Christ is in your life, but Christ is not, He's not worried about it. Do you have the ark in your life? He's not asking if Christ is in your life. He's not asking if you possess Him. He's asking where He's at in His position. Because our position tells us our reliance upon Him, our dependence upon Him. If you were to crowd the ark, what we would find is simply this, now I don't know about you, I'm a fast walker. Imagine that. Imagine me being a fast walker. I know some of y'all are like, "There's no way, Pastor Scott. "As slow as you live life." I'm a fast walker and I'll tell you what really gets me is when one of my kids want to walk my speed, you know? I'm thinking, what are you up here for? I'm the one that's lead. Do you know where you're going? I could make a move and a heartbeat and you're still there trying to figure out where Dad went. You could be looking over this way and I'm over here and you're over there. Don't walk so close to me. I'm leaning, you're following. And so as I thought about this real life illustration of my life, I realized how many times do we get so close to God's leadership that we're really just looking to him to correct our mistakes and decisions and not really disencing ourselves from him, for him to lead us so we can follow him. But really what happens is, is we come close to his word and we know enough of his word for us to start making decisions and then when things feel off or out of tune that we look to his word to correct us and God is saying, no, no, no, if you'll make me first, if you'll let me lead you, if you'll back off a little bit and try not to make all the decisions and try to be preemptive in what I'm trying to do in your life that I'll lead you and you'll not have all those mistakes. Better yet, if you're not crowd me, then other people will see me as I lead you. But because you're making all the decisions and you're up there and you feel like you have some leadership guidance and wisdom and knowledge on where I want to take you, then you're not allowing people to see God in your life. He's trying to lead you, but all people can see is you because you've crowded so close to me. God wants to know not if you have him in his possession or possession of him, he wants to know, where is he in position with you? Where is he in position with you? You said, pastor Scott, how do I know what the position of God is in my life? I mean, I thought I could do the right things. Well, here's how you can know where he's at in your position. What does your bank account say? What does your calendar say? What does your pleasure say, your personal time? What do those things say? What does your daily routine say? What does your decision-making process say? It's not just, okay God, that wasn't the best thing I should have done. Now, I need you to come along and help me fix that. God say, no, no, no, I need to know that I'm first, that I'm first. And is that something that you can truly say that man, pastor Scott, and all things I always put Christ first? He's always leading me. He's always out in front of me. And I'm paying attention to him, and as he moves, I move. But see, when we crowd God with our wisdom and our knowledge and our understanding and our aspirations, right? And our dreams, we crowd him because there's places that we wanna go. And so, since we're trying to go there, he can't lead us the way he wants to go. He's having to spend all the time pulling you back on the path, pulling you back on the way. But you're so busy with you, so busy with what you want, so busy with what I want, that I forget that he knows what's best for Scott Brandon. He knows what's best for you. There's something in our spirit that desires for us to assert our knowledge and our equality with God. We would never say that out loud, but our life says that. Our spending says that. Our schedules say that. Our decisions say that. We long to possess him, but not to position him. So where is it in your life that you've not been able to cross over to what you've been asking God for? You've been praying for? And God says, I would love, man, I would love to answer your prayers. The problem is you keep praying to yourself because you ask for things and then you expect you to give yourself those things. You say, I would never say that, yes, yes, we do, because when we ask for God and he does not answer them on our timetable, what happens? We go, oh, now I'll make this work. I'll figure this out. I might preach it to myself only, that's fine with me this morning, because Scott Brandon does that. I have to fit God into my schedule. I have to come back to him. You see what I'm saying? Instead of saying, Lord, okay, here's the day. Here's the decision. Now, you going out there in front of me. What do you want me to do? Because I quickly admit that I don't have what it takes to take me where I need to go. Do you have what it takes to take you where you need to go? The only thing I have in me is the ability to recognize that he can lead and I can follow. And if I can do that and allow him to do just that, we'll actually get to the place that I've been wanting to go my whole entire life. The place of promise, the place of peace, the place of rest. So how do we continue to get there? Well, let me just share. It's not just letting him lead and us following, but notice what Joshua says. Joshua says, then Joshua said to the people, consecrate yourselves, verse five. For tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you, consecrate yourself, consecrate yourself. The word consecration simply means to set yourself apart, to make yourself holy, to set yourself apart from common things and to be an uncommon people. We saw this many times. Matter of fact, if you look back in Genesis chapter two, I think verse three or something like that, is when Jesus says, or when God says Jesus was, he created all the things by him without anything it was made, so it's him. He says, when I made the Sabbath day, I called it holy because it was my day. God called the Sabbath day holy because it was a day set apart under him. It's not your day, it's his day. And so when we use his day, like it's our day, we've profaned his day by making it a common day of the other six days he gave to us. So when God says for us to be holy, to be set apart, to sanctify ourselves, or to consecrate ourselves, what he's simply saying is this, set yourself apart from the common things and live as if you live unto an uncommon God. And so Joshua is saying, we need to consecrate ourselves. We need to be uncommon, and the reason why it's simply this, is because they were leaving the place of Chateem. Chateem was a city where not only did Moses die, but it was also a place of compromise. It was this place that Balaam, he came, and he showed, I think it was Balaam, right? Balaam, how to lead people, lead Israel into adultery by worshiping Balaam. And so at this place, they got comfortable. At Chateem, they got comfortable. And as they got comfortable, they begin to intermarry other people who had different religions and different understandings. And next thing you know, that compromise, which compromise always comes from a place of comfort. You hear what I'm saying this morning? If you're comfortable, you're already prone for compromise. And so they're at the place of Chateem and they're comfortable. They've been traveling and Chateem is comfortable because it's almost to the other side. It has that same geographical feeling, that same greenness of grass, it's not the desert anymore. And so they're sitting down and putting up roots. They're not in the promised land, but it feels good enough. And so now they're sitting down, they're getting comfortable, and now there's compromise in their life. And with compromise, always comes consequence. Because now they're in a place that they're worshiping Balaam, and they're marrying women and men, they're not supposed to be having them. And so God's wrath pours out against them, and 24,000 people die. In fact, to stop the wrath of Phineas, he's in the Levitical priesthood, and he grabs the spirit, he runs it through a man, a woman who or sinning because of the relationship. And he quenches the wrath of God, and God stops, but 24,000 people died because of the compromise. So what we see in this city of comfort is a place of compromise. And a place of compromise always yields consequence. And consequence always breaks our back to the point that we come to a place of consecration. Oh, God, I pray you would deliver me from what I'm going through, what I'm struggling with. And God says, all right, I will, but set yourself apart. And so I don't know where your art may be. And I pray this is not true, but at the same time, I pray it for you, that if you're comfortable in 2024, I pray God would bring consequence to your life. I do, because whatever consequence that God gives to you right now is grace in your life. It's grace in your life. You may have lost that marriage, but it could be grace in your life, and you don't even realize it. You may have lost a child, and you can't explain that, but it may be grace in a way you can't even understand it. You may have lost a business. You may have lost everything that you possibly know, but there could be grace in a way, because grace is any action that God commits that keeps you from you committing an action that you cannot recover from, that you go down a road that you can't come back from. God says, I'll act now in consequence. I'll act now in a way that does not feel like I love you, but I'll do it because I know it'll keep you going to the end of the road from which you can't come back from. That is the grace of God. And God is acting right now in consequence because of their compromise. And I'm praying that you're not comfortable. Matter of fact, as a stress on my life, as a pressure on my life, I have to manage the balance of how do I lead a church to never be comfortable, to never be comfortable, but to lead us in a place that we don't always feel like we're under consequence. Pastor Scott, I feel like we're seeing it going to hell every Sunday. That would not be a church you want to go to, but neither are you want to go to a church where I'm paying you a little behind. God loves you, he cares for you. Let me just encourage you. No, no, you came to church because you know that your lifestyle is not enough. You came to church to be changed. You came to church to be challenged. And so there was a balance in that. There's a balance in our life. And so your team is the place where now it's a time for consecration. You know, many times we want to cross over to what God's given us, but we can't because of the guilt of what we've done. God will never give us that. God will never give us that promise land because I look back and I realize the compromises I've made in my life. And God says, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. If you'll just consecrate yourself, then I will perform. I will act. I will obey the word I gave you. And what I want you to know is this next month, we're gonna focus on consecration as a church. Before we get into what God has pointed us in the direction for 2025, we're gonna spend a month just consecrating ourselves before God. And let me just help you just, if you need this much preparation, the last week of January, we're gonna fast. I'm gonna talk about fasting. And can I just tell you right now, if you don't like fasting, you're not the only in the room. Can I tell you the person that probably hates fasting the most is the one telling you we're gonna fast, okay? Do I look like I fast? I do not. I do not. And so I'm already trying to get geared up in my mind and think, boy, how can we do this? But there's importance in consecration because consecration has a power. You see, consecration unlocks God's demonstration. Consecration releases God's power in our life. What it actually does is this, if we want God's uncommon power in our life to finally cross over, then you have to be willing. You have to be willing to leave common pursuits. If you want God's uncommon power, then you have to leave common pursuits. And just so you know, consecration is not something that is tremendously unique in scripture. Your whole life is a consecration under God. And as a matter of fact, we read, and I think it's 1 Corinthians chapter six where it says it's such where some of you used to be that way, but you were washed and you were sanctified. That word means you've been set apart under God, holy under God. Paul says this is our spiritual worship that we present our bodies as a living sacrifice under God. Our lifestyles should be that of consecration that you and I should always be leaving, always walking away from what God has shown to us to be too common. We are not a common, you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a people who have been called out of darkness into his marvelous life that you might proclaim the exorcist, the exorcist of him who has called you. That's who you are. And so we cannot settle, we cannot get comfortable because when we get comfortable church, you compromise. When your marriage gets comfortable, it compromises. When your finances get comfortable, you compromise. When your convictions get comfortable, you compromise. And compromise always precedes consequence. So if we want to further our journey with the Lord and crossing over, we have to be willing to leave common pursuits for God to show us his uncommon power. And lastly, today, as the worship team comes back up. Verse six says, "And Joshua said to the priests, take up the ark of the covenant and pass on before the people." So they took up the ark of the covenant and went before the people. In fact, we read down to verse 13, we see this, is that as they did exactly, notice there's no separation there, right? Verse six says, "Take up the ark of the covenant and pass on before the people." He's telling the priests to do this. And what's the following sentence? So they took up the ark of the covenant and went before the people. There was no questioning, there was no, are you sure? Like there's a raising river, Joshua. There's a raising river. And you want us to pick up the ark of the covenant and just to walk out there, just to, just to, just to, he hole on out there in the middle of this river. Then there was no question, there was no questioning. There was no questioning. Is that true of us? The Lord is finally trying to bring us into a place that we've been asking for. And then when he tells us to do something that seems to be uncommon, something that is uncommon, as the power he's about to unfold in our life, to bring it into fruition, we say, but Lord, is that, is that what you want me to do? Is that your true desire? There was obedience, there was obedience. And so we read on verse 13. It says, "And when the souls of the feet of the priest, 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." Verse 15, "And as soon as those bearing the ark had come as far as Jordan, the feet of the priest bearing the ark, were dipped into the brink of the water." Verse 16, "And the waters coming down from above, stood and rose up in a heap very far away." What I want you to see is this, is that we got God in position, we got God in position in our life. We know where he belongs, we understand our relationship to him, we've consecrated ourself, we've looked at our area of compromise, and we've taken our licks of consequence, and now we're consecrating ourself, we're shoving off the things that are common in our life, we're following God, and as we're doing those things, the last thing is simply this, is to obey. It's to specifically obey. But that is a difficult thing for us because we have an independent spirit, we have an independent mindset, you and I, we don't look for other people to help us, we'll do it ourself. That's just our culture, that's just something about us, that even when we need something not, I can't tell you the number of times people have been in the hospital, or been sick, or been down, or whatever it might have been, and to say, "Hey, can I help you?" Their first answer is, "No, I'm good, I got it." We don't need, and they're not saying we don't need you, they're just simply saying, "I don't know how to do for myself, "I'm independent in that way." But man, we forget that we belong to a body, we belong to a body, and no part of your body would ever say, "I'm good, I got this, I'm gonna take care of it." But this is how you and I think, and we wanna rival God's directions in our life, and say, "You know what I got, I think I got this part." I appreciate navigating all the things I couldn't do, but this part, I got, I know how to navigate this part. The Lord says, "Isn't your position to be back there, "aren't you supposed to be back here? "How did you get up here again? "Get back to the place where I am in the right position, "and when I tell you to walk, walk, "and when I tell you to stop, stop, "and when I tell you to speak, speak, "and when I tell you to be quiet, be quiet." We get frustrated because God has a plan for us, and God reveals His plan to us like this. We wanna see what's in His hand, and God goes, "I'll show you what's in my hand." Lord, look, Lord, when you just open it up, I just wanna see, where am I gonna go? Why is it that we wanna know? Why is it that we can't be patient? Here's the reason why, because we wanna look at it and go, eh, eh, eh, that ain't worth my time. That ain't worth my investment. That ain't worth my sacrifice. That's not worth my passion. That's not worth my dream. That's not worth, that's not worth it for me. The Lord says, if you'll just follow me, and I open my hand one thing at a time, then you might mature to appreciate what's about to come out of my hand, but because you're so immature and not understanding, I have to bring you along the journey so you can appreciate the place that I've been promising you the whole path along. But the reason why you can't get there is because this requires obedience, and this requires obedience, and this requires obedience. It's not, this requires judgment and discernment. It's not, judgment and discernment, it's obedience. One step at a time. And then it's faith to do what God called you to do. And notice this, God didn't say, go in the middle of the Jordan when you're about to drown. He didn't say that. He says, just walk out until your feet get in the walk, just your feet, just a little bit of works, right? To declare that your faith is real. It's a little bit of action to let me be who I am, so I can show you who I think you are. So where is your obedience today? Where is your obedience in 2025? If you can focus on one thing next year, focus on obeying God. How would you rate yourself this year? Have you been obeying Christ? Have you been doing what He's told you to do? Have you harbored those attitudes and those feelings? Have you been judgmental and holding it back? Have you been unforgiving and not told anybody else and trying to deny that before God, knowing, knowing that you've not been obeying before Christ? The whole time you're praying, asking for God for this provision and healing and guidance and direction. And God's like, what about the things? Even now you hear Him telling you, what about this? What about this? Have you been obeying in this? Why are we always back to this thing? See, that's how we're like Israel. We see the Jordan, we always wanna go there. The fact of the matter is that there is a nature inside it, us and me, that longs are just circled. And we have become so okay with getting close to what God wants for us. What we've been praying for, that that's been our pleasure, to become close to it, but to never really have it. We've developed a lifestyle out of, we've normalized it. God said, if you're just obey and you're just took your feet in the water, if you're just risk the embarrassment, if you're just put action to your faith, and I'll show you who I am. Today, I want you to remember the last thing as we, before we pray, is that if you're going to cross over, we must see that obedience is the fruit of faith, right? It's not payment for God's intervention. Just because you're obeying doesn't obligate God to show up, but in fact, what obedience is, is the fruit of your faith. It's the fruit of your faith. Imagine that, if what if I could inspect your faith to know what it is, by looking at its obedience? If you're not obedience, do you really have faith? Do you really have faith? Because that's how salvation starts, right? That we have faith in Christ, and what's the next thing we're supposed to do? Get baptized, that's the obedience part of it. The whole relationship we have with God is to have faith in Him, and then to do what He says to do. What are we supposed to do? Then that's what we're gonna go do. And so if we cannot be obedient, by producing the fruit of our faith, then our obedience is gonna show up as a contractual agreement between you and God. They say, Lord, I did this now. I did it. I did what you said. I gave up you said to give. I said those words. And God says, I'm not obligated to do anything. I'm still the sovereign Lord. And so this is how we want to end service today. I want you to ask God, Lord, what is it? That I have become comfortable in becoming close to, but never having. It's something that you know I need. It's something that I want. And I have even, I have even said that other things are more important because those things were attainable, but really God deep, deep down. This is what I truly want. This is what I truly desire. But I'm just okay with coming close every year, setting my goals every year, but never really having what I truly desire. God says, put me in the position. Set yourself apart from common things, consecrate yourself and then be obedient. When I tell you to move, you bow your hiss with me. Father in heaven, we come to you today. Oh Lord, you see my heart. Now you know how you've, you know how you've dealt with me. Oh God, my heart today for these people, for your people, is Lord, they would be honest before you and be real, Father, with their lack, with their compromises, with our comfort. And at God, we would consecrate ourselves today. We would submit our lives to you, that we would embrace obedience to the smallest detail. God, that we would not be comfortable with possession of your son in our life, but we would be looking forward and hope for him to have position, but he is the head of the body. So Father, we align our heart with him. We align our passions and our desires. We align our will because that's what Jesus did when he said not my will, but your will be done, Father. He was consecrating himself to your mission for him. And I pray today, Lord, as we take this time of prayer, that you will guide us and knowing how to pray, but what my greatest prayer is this, is that we are real with ourselves, that we are real with our prayer. God, we don't have to come to you with God, old English, God, or some elaborate vocabulary. You already know the things that we're trying to say. So I just pray, God, that our speech and our prayer today, be authentic, be transparent, be real. Show us, Lord, how you want us to walk into what you have for us on the other side of the river. I ask it in Jesus name, amen. As the worship team sings, would you just find some time with its 11th team, we got quite a few minutes. They're gonna sing a couple songs. We're not rushing, we're gonna be here for a bit. I want you to take some time and just sing God, pray to God, ask them to show the things in your heart and he wants to teach you. We pray. (gentle music)