Get Your Feet Wet | Good Plans

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Sign up at harvest.org. Some people dismiss the idea of faith. They live by facts and logic. Well, Pastor Greg Laurie says, consider this. We apply faith each and every day.

You board a 747 weighing 900,000 pounds and trust that that giant heap of metal is going to get up off the ground, take you to your destination. That's faith. But we already have faith. And here's the key.

It's faith in God. That's where the power is. When we go to a restaurant we've never been to before, do we test the chair before we sit down? Do we send the main course for chemical analysis before we take a bite?

When we give our credit card to pay, do we follow the server to the register to make sure it's not charged inappropriately? We exercise a certain amount of faith every day. And coming up on A New Beginning, Pastor Greg Laurie helps us exercise our faith in the God of the universe, the one who loves us and only has plans for good and not to harm us. We are going through the book of Joshua subtitled A Book of Promises. And we are in Joshua chapter three. So I want you to turn there with me today.

Joshua chapter three. And the title of my message is Get Your Feet Wet. That will make more sense in a few moments.

Get your feet wet. Let's pray now. Lord bless this time as we open your Word. Help us after we hear this message to have a desire in our hearts to take bold steps of faith and to trust You even when we are facing great obstacles and difficulties. Help us to see how this applies to us. And we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. So let's read now Joshua chapter three as the Israelites come to the point of entry of the promised land and they face the Jordan River.

I am reading from the New Living translation. When you see the Levitical priest carrying the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, move out from your positions and follow them for you have never passed this way before. You might underline that phrase.

I'm going to come back to it. You have never passed this way before. They will guide you. Stay about a half mile behind them. Keep a clear distance between you and the ark.

Make sure you don't come any closer. Then Joshua said to the people purify yourselves or tomorrow the Lord will do great wonders among you. In the morning Joshua said to the priest lift up the ark of the covenant and lead the people across the river.

And they started out and went ahead of the people. The Lord told Joshua today I'll begin to make you a great leader in the eyes of the Israelites. They'll know that I'm with you just as I was with Moses. Give this command to the priests who carry the ark of the covenant.

When you reach the banks of the Jordan River take a few steps into the river and stop there. And here's point number one. If you want to enter the land of promises you must be bold and strong.

Let me say it again. If you want to enter this land of promises you must be bold and strong. Look at verse four. They had never passed this way before. They were making history.

The problem with the people in the book of Joshua is they had never read the book of Joshua. They didn't know what happened next. They just saw this incredible obstacle before them. But they were experiencing this all real time.

And by the way this is a whole new generation. Because you might say well wait didn't they see the parting of the Red Sea. Actually they didn't. Those were their parents that saw it. And that generation was gone. They died in the wilderness.

The only survivors of that first generation were Joshua and Caleb. They heard about it but they didn't see it for themselves. Now they need to see their own miracle. Reminding us that every generation needs to have their own encounter with God. Habakkuk 3 2 says, Lord I've heard of your fame. I stand in awe of your deeds. Lord repeat them in our day and our time.

Make them known. And in judgment remember mercy. That should be the prayer of you who are younger.

Lord we've heard about what you've done in the past and it's awesome. But we want to have our own spiritual awakening. We've heard about the Jesus movement but we want our own Jesus revolution. That's a prayer that you should all be praying.

Point number two. If you want to live in the land of promises keep your eyes on God. Keep your eyes on God. The key for the Israelites was the ark of the covenant. Look at verse four. They had to keep their eyes on the priest and the ark leading the way. Verse four it says when you see the Levitical priest carrying the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God move out from your positions and follow them. And that visible symbol of God's presence was to be at the forefront of what they are doing. So the people of Israel are told keep your eyes on the ark and keep your eyes on the priests who are leading the way.

And the same is true for us. When you're going through life following Jesus keep your eyes on the Lord. Don't put your eyes on people because people are going to let you down. People are going to disappoint you.

Guess what? You're going to disappoint someone right. And so keep your eyes on the Lord. As the author of Hebrews 12 says looking to Jesus the author and finisher of your faith. Lay aside the weight and the sin that so easily besets you. He says before that and keep your eyes on the Lord. I don't want to go anywhere if God isn't going there first. So we need to keep our eyes focused on the Lord and be looking to Him as we're going through our challenges.

Point number three. If you want to live in the land of promises you need to take risks. Here was their challenge. You have to cross the Jordan River. This is flood season. This river moves at about 10 miles per hour. There's no way you want to cross this river with your little kids and your livestock and and your belongings.

It's not possible. So they're standing in front of this rushing river. There were no bridges. It reminds me of a story of three men who came to a powerful rushing river and they needed to get across. So their first one prayed God give me the strength to cross this river. Suddenly poof he had bulging biceps and he got into the river and started to swim it. Oh he almost drowned two times but after about three hours he made it to the other side. So the other man one of the other men saw him do that and he prayed Lord give me the strength and the tools to cross the river. Boom he too had bulging biceps and a massive chest but he had a boat and he got in his boat and he began to make his way across. He capsized two times but he did get to the other side. The third guy watching this said Lord give me the strength and the tools and the intelligence to cross the river.

Poof he became a woman. She walked about 30 feet up and walked over the bridge to the other side. But there were no bridges here for the Israelites to cross.

There was just an impassable river as I said in flood season. But they yet began to walk. Bringing me to point number four. If you are called to lead you must go first and set the pace. If you are called to lead you need to go first and set the pace. God made a promise to Joshua in Joshua 3.7. He said today I will begin to make you a great leader in the eyes of the Israelites and they will know I am with you just as I was with Moses.

Wow. I am going to make you a great leader in their eyes. King James says I am going to magnify you. But it is interesting that Joshua doesn't go and say that to the people. He didn't say hey by the way God just spoke to me and said he is going to magnify me and make me a great leader. He says something different.

He says to them instead in verse 10 you will know now that the living God is among you. No pride or arrogance about it. You know sometimes it is best to keep your dreams to yourself. Let me explain. God revealed to Joseph that he was going to be the second most powerful man in all of Egypt. He had this dream.

This vision of his future. And he went and told his brothers and it did not play well in Peoria. They were angry. They were jealous.

They were resentful. And you know that story how they betrayed him and sold him into slavery and all the rest. And then ultimately Joseph's dream came true and he was exalted to be this man of influence and power. But sometimes the Lord might reveal something to you but that doesn't mean you need to tell everybody else. Just wait on the Lord and trust in the Lord and be humble before the Lord. And if it is meant to be it will be.

And it will happen. And so Joshua is humble about this. And I think if you want to be used by God you need to be humble. Now you can act like you are humble. You know when you are not humble at all. You know you can talk so much about how humble you are. You know I am just so humble. You are so humble you drop the H. I am just so humble. Now you are British too. You are Cockney actually. But you know you are not really humble.

You can talk so much about being humble it becomes prideful. Just do your job and do what God has called you to do. And the Lord will guide and the Lord will direct.

Pastor Greg Laurie will have the second half of his message in just a moment. Hey everybody I want to encourage you to check out the new Harvest Plus app. It's on Roku, Apple TV and Google Play among others. And you can stream incredible content on all major platforms for free. You are going to find live events, our evangelistic films like A Rush of Hope, Johnny Cash The Redemption of an American Icon, Steve McQueen The Salvation of an American Icon, and our newest film Fain. Plus our TV programs, our podcast Harvest at Home and a lot more.

Stream it all on any device for free using the new Harvest Plus app. Well Pastor Greg is bringing a powerful message today called Get Your Feet Wet. Let's continue this study now in Joshua chapter 3.

Point number 5. Joshua and the people of Israel moved in faith. It took faith to put their feet into the water. Oswald Chambers said and I quote, faith enables the believing soul to treat the future as present and the invisible as seen.

That's a great statement. Faith enables the believing soul to see the future as present and the invisible as seen. Reminds me of a story of a woman who came to a pastor and said pastor my husband is not a believer and he does not like me coming to your church. And he said to me if I come here again he's going to kill me. The pastor said now trust in God. Have faith. You'll be fine. The Lord will protect you.

She came back a couple days later pastor my husband said if I keep coming to this church he's going to kill me. Now now just trust the Lord. He'll protect you.

He'll take care of you. Have faith in God. She came back a couple days later and said pastor my husband just said if I keep coming to this church he's going to kill you. The pastor said you know I heard about a great little church on the other side of town.

You might want to start going there. See it's easy for us to tell someone else to have faith. Have faith.

Trust God. Then it comes to our doorstep and now we have the physical problem. We have the financial crisis.

We have problems with the kids. We have whatever it is we're facing it all of a sudden our faith collapses. But we already have faith and here's the key. It's not just have faith. I don't have faith in faith. Faith is a power.

Speak things into existence with the power of faith. That's not what faith is. It's faith in God.

That's where the power is. My faith is in God. What is faith? Hebrews 11 says faith is the substance of things hoped for. It's the evidence of things not seen. Whereas the New Living Translation puts it faith is the confident assurance that what we hope for is going to happen. It's the evidence of things we cannot yet see. So I put my faith in God.

Now you say well I don't know. I believe in this scene. I have to see something before I believe it. Oh shut up. You apply faith in the most random things each and every day.

Right? You board a 747 weighing 900,000 pounds. You know nothing about the rules of aerodynamics but you trust that that giant heap of metal is going to get up off the ground take you to your destination and land. And if it's even a bumpy landing you're upset about it. But what did you put faith in? Well I put faith in the aerodynamics and then the pilots.

I hope they're not on drugs or something you know. And I have well see that's an application of faith. You get into an elevator. You push that button. That's faith.

You go to the drug store and the pharmacist fills your prescription. If you take those pills you don't know your faith that they did their job. We apply faith each and every day. And then we say it's hard to have faith. You live by faith effectively.

And now what does the Bible say? Have faith in God. What better place to place your faith than God himself. So they needed to have faith in God and we need to have the same. Here's the thing with faith. Faith gets stronger through use. Faith is like a muscle. The more you use it the stronger it becomes. The less you use it the weaker it becomes. If you don't use your faith it will atrophy. You need to apply it.

We treat faith like it's a museum piece or something to talk about and admire. Where it's like an egg. Don't drop the egg. Why is it whenever I go to the market I have three or four bags filled with groceries. If I drop one it's not the bag with the cans in it.

It's the bag with the eggs in it. And they crack and that's faith. Oh we have to be careful.

No faith needs to be used. And the more you use it the stronger it becomes. Point number six. If you're called to be a leader then lead. If you're called to be a leader then lead.

Notice the priest had to take point and do this first. Now maybe God is calling some of you to be a leader. You think well that's very prideful to say I want to be a leader. Well I think it's it's prideful to not obey God. If he's called you to lead then lead.

I can guarantee this. He's called everyone to do something. We all have certain spiritual gifts that God has placed in our life. Romans 12 7 to 8 says if your gift is serving others serve them well. If you're a teacher teach well. If your gift is encouraging others then be encouraging.

If your gift is giving then give generously. If God has given you a leadership ability take that responsibility seriously. If you think that maybe God has called you to be a leader here's a good way to find out. Just lead and see if anyone follows.

Hey everybody come on let's go. If you're by yourself maybe you're not a leader. You know leaders when you see them they just have that ability.

They have that gifting. They have that something that makes you want to listen to what they say. Follow them where they tell you you want to go.

One definition I heard of leadership is a leader is someone who takes people where they don't necessarily want to go but when they get there they're glad they went. I think that's a good definition. So you got to get your feet wet and I would encourage you to get your feet wet. You go what do you mean get my feet wet?

Well the Israelites had to put their feet in the water in the Jordan before it parted. Okay so we need to do the same. There are so many opportunities to serve the Lord. You need to find a place where you can use the gifts that God has given you. Now you say well how do I know what God has gifted me to do? Here's the answer. Volunteer for everything.

Literally volunteer for everything. One person agrees thank you. I'm going to call on you later and I know who you are. Black hat black shirt got you but thank you. I took his hat off. Bald guy with beard. Bald guy who put his hat back on.

Okay only bald people can call out bald people okay I'm just saying. Anyway so here's what I mean by volunteer for everything. It's like process of elimination. Sometimes though find out what I'm good at I have to find out first what I'm not good at. Pastor Greg Laurie making a great point about what we can do to serve the Lord. To find out what we're good at volunteer for everything. Now there's more to come from the message called get your feet wet and Pastor Greg has a final comment before we go today here on a new beginning. But before we go any further Pastor Greg let's speak to the person who wonders where they fit in to God's plan.

Okay. They're intrigued by the prospect of receiving God's promises but wonder what they can do to begin a life of faith. Well they just need to hear more. They need to hear what the essential gospel message is and I've got a great resource for you. We've set up a web page that's called knowgod.org. You go there I have a video presentation of how you accept Christ leads you in a prayer and then it links to other spiritual resources that will help you grow spiritually. So just go to knowgod.org.

Do it right now. Well Pastor Greg this month we're releasing a brand new animated cartoon series called The Adventures of Ben Born Again and Yellow Dog. Yes. It's based on a gospel tract you designed years ago.

Yeah. Now you've mentioned before that you corresponded with Charles Schulz when you were young. Now maybe some don't remember who he was although the name may sound familiar. Who was he? Well Charles Schulz was the creator and the writer and the artist for the extremely popular cartoon strip Peanuts.

It's still out there today. I think it's the greatest cartoon strip ever written because Schulz wrote with intelligence with wit with some profound insights as well. In fact Schulz even wove biblical narratives into his cartoon strips.

A lot of folks listening right now may be familiar with A Charlie Brown Christmas which is a perennial favorite and you remember in the story that is in that animated cartoon Linus reads from the Gospel of Luke. So I love reading the Peanuts comic strip and I also thought that Schulz was such a great artist. It was a very simple style he developed but he developed it to perfection. The way he drew the little characters. So much personality. So beautifully done. So he was my hero and so when I was a kid I don't know where this came from but if I wanted to meet someone I would just try to meet them and so I just one day decided I'm going to write him a letter and so I wrote him a letter and I sent him my cartoon strips and I was bold enough to ask for his critique like what do you think of my cartoon strips and I'm writing like the greatest cartoonist of all time and asking him to review my cartoon strips like he doesn't have other things to do and but he was so gracious he wrote me back and then I wrote him again and I kept writing him and soon I'm asking him for free things I said hey could you send me one of your cartoon strips I mean what a ridiculous thing to ask for and he sends me one and by the way you know in the paper they're very small but in real life they were quite large I had an original Charles Schulz cartoon strip and I lost it and I was in some hotel a number of years ago and they had a gallery of original art by Schulz and they were selling those strips it was worth thousands and thousands of dollars and I lost it but he was he was so kind and would write me these little letters and when I would get one of those letters in my mailbox it had a little picture of Charlie Brown and Snoopy on the outside of the envelope to me it was like getting a letter from heaven and and it helped me and encouraged me on my little path as I was finding my way to hopefully one day becoming a professional cartoonist so I was able to realize my dream in many ways and publish a lot of my work in the early days of my ministry in fact it was sort of my version of sewing tents you know how Paul would sew tents when he was out doing his apostolic work I would sort of make ends meet a little bit by doing artwork here and there I did some album covers I did little posters and I also did my cartoon adventures that's what I was really passionate about but as my ministry began to grow and I was speaking more I didn't have as much time to do my art as I used to so I just kept doing it for fun I mean if there's a piece of paper and I have a pen I will start drawing I can't help myself and it's really something I really enjoy doing my brain sort of goes into a different place when I'm drawing or when I'm doing anything artistically but so fast forward now 50 years and we had this idea of bringing these characters to life via animation so it was very exciting for us to find a way to do this and find a team that could help us do this and now it's become a reality that there's an animated version of my character I've been drawing for years named Ben Born Again that's a play in words in case you didn't notice Ben Born Again as in I've been born again and Yellow Dog not as profound of a name and so now we have a series of these cartoon adventures available for our listeners to watch they can watch them on the Harvest Plus streaming platform and by the way if you haven't downloaded our Harvest Plus app do it right now just go to your app store on your android phone on your iPhone or on your streaming platforms you can download the Harvest Plus app for your television for your tablet for your phone and you can start watching the adventures of Ben Born Again and Yellow Dog as well as our other films we've done like Steve McQueen The Salvation of an American Icon or Johnny Cash The Redemption of an American Icon or our film A Rush of Hope or our newest documentary film that we call Fame and a lot more of course my messages and podcasts and all kinds of things lots of great material there for you to enjoy for free so go download that now and that is where you will find the adventures of Ben Born Again and Yellow Dog and to give you an idea of what it's like I wish I could show you but I can only play some audio for you here's a little teaser if you will of what you'll find when you watch Ben Born Again and Yellow Dog ah man sweet waves today you said it I only wiped out nine times by the way are sea urchins poisonous whoa dude I'm gonna say yes well these two have a lot of fun and get themselves into and out of some pretty challenging situations each episode is just the right length to match a child's attention span and there are so many biblical insights conveyed in between the action and humor it's scriptural truth in cartoon form thanks for recognizing our commitment to bring the gospel into new settings so we can reach more and more people and that's only possible through your support partner with us so we can keep touching lives for eternity and pastor Greg wants to thank you tangibly with a newly redesigned living water tract in comic book form it's the resource that launched it all so get in touch with your donation today call 1-800-821-3300 call anytime 1-800-821-3300 or go online to harvest.org and remember you can watch this first episode for free there at harvest.org or through our new harvest plus app well next time pastor Greg comes back to complete this message called get your feet wet but he's been talking today about finding out what we're good at by saying yes to the opportunities that come our way he closes this way I remember back in the early days of the Jesus movement the bands were starting every week this new Christian band every week and they'd put them up on the stage and they'd play and I was at some little home bible study and we were singing some song one guy wrote a song he's a good songwriter singer and another guy played a beautiful flute and and I was sort of keeping beat on a on a coffee table and they they said let's form a band and all of a sudden we had a name and we went over to Calvary Chapel we're a brand new Christian band we want to play tonight okay you can play tonight and next thing I know I am on a stage with a conga drum I've never played a conga drum before but because I kind of kept beat on the tabletop I was in the band I did it it was one of the worst experiences of my life and I said I never want to do this again I don't have any skill here whatsoever sometimes finding out what you're not good at so here's what I would encourage you to do volunteer for everything everything the preceding podcast was made possible by harvest partners helping people everywhere know god learn how to become a harvest partner sign up for daily devotions and find resources to help you grow in your faith at harvest.org