Getting Ready - Part 2

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Please make your donation today at vision.org.au. How real are God's promises in your life? Do you just acknowledge them or do you act on them in faith? Today on Turning Point, Dr. David Jeremiah returns to the book of Joshua with encouragement to step out in faith as you step into the new year. If you're finally ready to put your faith into action, listen, as David introduces the conclusion of his special New Year's message, Getting Ready. You know, friends, one of the wonderful things about the Bible is that it is so timely, it is so pertinent to what we need.

These stories and these principles that were written down on parchment so many years ago come alive in our life. And I can't think of a better story to explore as we get ready for the new year than Joshua chapter 3, 1 through 6, how we are promised to sanctify ourselves for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among us. That's my hope and prayer for the new year.

I hope it's yours. And our whole mindset, getting our attitude right as we enter into the new year is so important to us. That's why we devote these five days to try to encourage you and strengthen you and motivate you and lift you up and speak into your heart these encouraging words to help you get going for the new year. The Lord knows we need to leave the old year behind and we need to look to the new year and be encouraged and strengthened as we face 2021.

Well, let's finish up our discussion of getting ready. The first thing you notice as you think about this story is the provision of God behind us. What had God done for these people? Well, for 40 years, God's people had been wandering in the desert, but God had not forgotten about them.

He had miraculously cared for them. Their journey in the desert was one miracle after another. They entered the desert by way of the Red Sea crossing, which was a miracle. And every day for the entire 40 years they were in the desert, they were supernaturally led by God. God faithfully supplied every single day for these people. He supplied their water in a miraculous way. In fact, the basic needs of the Israelites did not fail one time during a period of four decades.

Every single day in their wilderness wandering, God met their need. So now they're standing at the bank of the Jordan River and their hearts are filled with fear. It's flood time. The river's overflowing.

There are three million of them. What are we going to do? But behind them was the memory of the provision of God that he had made for them for 40 years. Sometime over this next week, write down ten things God provided for you last year.

Keep that list in a place where you can get it when you need it. When you get a little discouraged or you wonder if God is involved in your life, go back and see what he's already done for you. He hasn't changed, and he's not going to change.

You can count on it. The provision of God behind us. Then add this, the presence of God beside us. Read with me the first three verses of Joshua chapter 3. Then Joshua rose early in the morning, and they set out from Acacia Grove and came to the Jordan.

He and all the children of Israel and lodged there before they crossed over. So it was after three days that the officers went through the camp, and they commanded the people, saying, When you see the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God and the priests, the Levites bearing it, then you shall set out from your place and go after it. Now, the central focus in Joshua chapter 3 and 4 is the ark of the covenant. Now, what's the big deal about the ark of the covenant? In the desert, the pillar of cloud and fire were visible signs of God's leading his people.

They were not to move until the sign was evident. But the presence of God with his people was always symbolized by the ark of the covenant. The ark of the covenant was a box of about 45 inches long and 27 inches deep and wide.

It was made out of Acacia wood, and it had a lid on it, and there were gold rings on each of the four corners of the box. They were in place so that poles could be inserted into those rings, and the ark of the covenant could be carried on the shoulders of the Israelites. Inside the ark of the covenant was a copy of the law of God that had been given to Moses on Mount Sinai. Also in the ark was a portion of manna from the desert and the rod of Aaron that budded. Those were the contents of the ark of the covenant. The ark was associated with the light and glory and direction and presence of God. If you know the story of the Old Testament, you know that when the ark of the covenant was removed from the people of God as it was once by the Philistines, defeat was experienced. But when the ark was brought back, victory returned. Now you will see this referenced in verses 10 and 11 of chapter 3.

Watch carefully as I read these verses. And Joshua said, "'By this you shall know that the living God is among you, and that he will without fail drive out from before you the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Hivites and the Perizzites and the Gergashites and the Amorites and the Jebusites. Behold, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth is crossing over before you into the Jordan.'" The people of Israel looked at the ark of the covenant, and it was to them the presence of God. When they saw the ark, they were reminded of God's presence with them.

And don't miss this. The people of Israel were getting ready to cross the Jordan River. They were given very specific instructions about the distance they should keep between themselves and the ark of the covenant. Look at verse 4, "'Yet shall there not be a space between you, and two thousand cubits by measure, do not come near it, that you may know the way by which you must go, for you have not passed this way before.'" May I just imagine with all of us that that's a good phrase for us, we have not passed this way before. How do we walk into an area where we have never been?

How do we look at a time that we've never experienced? Well, the people were told by God and by Joshua that they were to keep the ark a certain space away from them. Now let's unpack that for a moment.

Two thousand cubits is a distance of about 3,000 feet, or one-half mile. In other words, the ark of the covenant was to stay far enough out in front of this horde of people so that all of them could see it. If the ark was too close to the people at the front end of the march, it would be hidden from the people at the rear end of the march. The ark had to be seen by everyone, not just by the leaders at the front.

Almighty God was teaching a lesson. Leaders are important, but each of us individually needs to keep our eyes on God. It's not enough for us to see God through the eyes of others. We need to see God through our own eyes, especially when we're going into the unknown. If we don't do that, the raging waters of the Jordan rivers in our lives will fill our hearts with fear and discouragement. Like Peter walking on the water, when we take our eyes off of him, we begin to look at the waves and we sink into our own circumstances. I want to show you three more things about God's presence with us in these times of transition.

The best way to do it is just to read three passages in a row and then comment on them. Joshua 3, 6, then Joshua spoke to the priests saying, "'Take up the ark of the covenant and cross over before the people.' So they took up the ark of the covenant and went before the people." Joshua 3, 17, and then the priests who bore the ark of the covenant of the Lord stood firm on dry ground in the midst of the Jordan and all Israel crossed over on dry ground until all the people had crossed completely over the Jordan. And Joshua 4, 11, and it came to pass when all the people had completely crossed over that the ark of the Lord and the priests crossed over in the presence of the people.

Now watch. As the Israelites were preparing to take this journey through the Jordan River, the priests who carried the ark of the covenant, representing the presence of God, were told to go ahead of the people. But they weren't to go all the way through the riverbed to the other side. The Scripture says that they went to the middle of the riverbed and they stood in the middle of the Jordan River while all the people, all three million of the people of Israel passed before them and the ark of the covenant came in behind them and followed them up onto the banks of the Promised Land. God through his ark was going before them. God was staying with them in the middle of their journey and he was following up behind them when the journey was over.

And that is how God works, my friends. He goes before us. He's the captain of our salvation.

He goes with us. He is our Emmanuel, God with us. And he follows after us, protecting us from behind. What a wonderful picture of the presence of Almighty God in your life and in mine. I think Isaiah was thinking of this when he wrote these wonderful words, but now thus says the Lord who created you, fear not, for I have redeemed you. I have called you by your name.

You are mine. And when you pass through the waters, I'll be with you. And through the rivers, they shall not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned, nor shall the flame scorch you. For I am the Lord your God, and I have loved you.

Fear not, for I am with you. When you face the uncertainty of a new year, you not only have what God has done for you in the past, you have the promise that he's going to be with you in the experience. Let's add the third promise, and that's the promise of God before us. As soon as the priests bearing the ark put their feet into the river, the Scripture tells us that the water stopped flowing and stood like a wall, like 20 miles away upstream.

The wall of water was probably in place for an entire day so that the soft bottom of the river could become dry. The Israelites walked through the Jordan River on dry land, and they didn't have to clean their shoes off when they arrived on the other side. The crossing of the Jordan River mirrors what happened to the Israelites on their way into the wilderness as they came through the Red Sea. God was sending a message to them by making these two experiences very similar. The God who had begun this journey with them 40 years ago was the same God who was going to deliver them at the end of their wilderness experience.

So how do we take this teaching ourselves and apply it to our own lives? Well, let me describe for you what the people of Israel were told to do at this particular time. First of all, it was to be a time of consecration. A time of transition is a time for consecration. Notice verse 5, and Joshua said to the people, sanctify yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you.

Let me pause for a moment and say if you want to have a great new year, listen carefully to this part of the message. God wants to do wonders among us, but it is not unconditional. His promise, in terms of his blessing, is conditioned upon our willingness to sanctify ourselves.

Now, I know that's not a word we use in our language today. I remember growing up as a boy in the church, a little old lady used to get up and give a testimony about every Sunday night when we had testimony time, and she would stand up and say, I'm so thankful I'm saved, I'm satisfied, and I'm sanctified, and she'd sit down and I didn't know what she meant, and I don't think anybody else did, but she felt better when it was over. What does it mean to be sanctified? What did Joshua mean when he told the people through his leaders, sanctify yourselves for tomorrow God is going to do wonders among you?

Well, the word sanctify is a very interesting word. It means to set apart. The word means to set something apart like the seventh day, the Sabbath day, was sanctified unto God. It was set apart unto God.

It belonged to him exclusively. Or a certain kind of people among the Israelites were sanctified to God like the Levites were sanctified to lead worship. So to sanctify means to set something apart, to set it apart uniquely for the Lord, to dedicate it to him, and to make it his completely. When Joshua told the people to sanctify themselves, he was commanding them to prepare their hearts, to get ready spiritually.

He was telling them to confess their sins, to put away their foreign gods, to get out of the bad habits that they may have cultivated while they were in the wilderness, and to begin walking with God in purity of heart. And as we stand at the beginning of this new year, what better thing could we do than to take some time to examine our own lives and make sure that everything is right between us and God? God wants to do great things in our lives, but he will not pour out his blessing if we are not prepared to receive it. If you want God to honor everything you do in the new year, if you do want this to be the best year you've ever had and to see his blessing poured out on you, I can't promise that that will happen, but I can promise this, if you don't get ready, it will not happen.

You can't determine if this is the year that God has determined to totally bless you, but you can determine that you will be ready if such a time comes. On the night of his graduation from medical school, Dr. Howard Kelley, a world-famous surgeon wrote this in his diary, I dedicate myself, my time, my capabilities, my ambition, my everything to God. Blessed Lord, sanctify me to your uses. Give me no worldly success that will not lead me nearer to my Savior. Dr. Kelley prayed that God would protect him from any success that would draw his heart away from Jesus Christ. You don't want to hear prayers like that much anymore, do you? We pray for the success, we pray for the blessing, we pray for the honor, we pray for the prestige, we pray for the wealth, but he understood that if God is going to bless us, we have to be bless worthy by sanctifying ourselves before him.

Not only was this a time of consecration, but it was also to be a time of courage. Before God piled up the waters of the Jordan River in great heaps and left a path wide enough for three million people to cross over, he gave the Israelites these instructions. And it shall come to pass, as soon as the soles of the feet of the priests, who bared the ark of the Lord, the Lord of all the earth, shall rest in the waters of the Jordan, that the waters of the Jordan shall be cut off. The waters that shall come down from upstream, and they shall stand as a heap. Now if you don't read that carefully, you'll miss the giant condition in that text. But I can't allow you to miss it because I couldn't miss it, and since I couldn't miss it, I don't want you to miss it either because it's very troubling and frustrating.

Here it is. The priests were to rest the soles of their feet in the waters of the Jordan before God would part them. That would have been a day when you would have wished you were not a priest. Almighty God was not going to do what he promised to do until the people obeyed him. Their obedience probably didn't make a whole lot of sense to them at the time, but the Bible says they walked down to the river, and when the priests put their feet in the swelling Jordan, at the moment they exercised their faith, God performed his miracle. Many people hit a dead end in their faith journey because they are waiting for God to go first.

If they had waited for God to part the Jordan River, the Israelites would still be standing there. Faith is taking the first step before God parts the river. Someone was once asked what they did with the promises of God in the Bible, and they answered, I underlined them in blue. Well, if God is going to bless your life, you have to do more than underline his promises in blue. You have to believe them, and when you believe them, you act on them. That's how you get the blessing of God. You take his Word at face value, and whatever he says for you to do, you do it, and you do it before you see the evidence that will support your having done it. Once again, God's promises are not for underlining. God's promises are for obeying, and when we obey God's promises, he works wonders in our lives.

You want this to be a great year? Sanctify yourself before God and determine to do whatever he tells you to do. I became quite aware of something as I finished this message. I don't think I've ever heard this.

I know I've never said it, but listen carefully. Our God is a start-over God. He created his world so that every 24 hours we get to start over with a new day, and every seven days we get to start over with a new week, and every four or five weeks we get to start over with a new month. Did you know that God could have just run all those times together in one package with no breaks and no places to start over? But in his great wisdom, God placed us on a planet that orbits the sun one time every 365 days, so once a year we come back to the starting place and we start over.

That's why the first of the year is always kind of a start-over place, even for people who don't understand anything of what we've talked about today. I always have wondered, is that right? That's not what we should do.

Shouldn't every day be a—no, no, no. God knew what he was doing. He put this world into sections because God is a start-over God. Jesus Christ came into this world so that you and I could start over. The Bible says if any man be in Christ, he's a new creation.

When we accept Jesus Christ into our hearts, we call it being born again. And when we follow Jesus Christ in our lives, old things pass away and behold, all things become new. What an opportunity we face as we stand at the edge of a new year.

It doesn't matter what we started out to do last year and failed to accomplish. We can start again. Some of you meant to get right with God last year and the days slipped away and here you are in the same place and you still need to start over. God is waiting for you. Jesus loves you. On this New Year's Day, you can begin again with the Lord.

You can begin for the first time or the second time or however many times it is because your God and my God is a start-over God. Jesus is calling you. He wants to bless you. He wants to use you and fill you with a sense of purpose in joy. The Bible is filled with promises he wants to fulfill in your life, but promises are not for underlining.

Promises are for believing and obeying. So I'm going to ask you as we all gather and we're ready to cross over, are you really willing to start over? You know the interesting thing to me is that when time was organized, time is a creation of God, as you know, God gave us minutes and hours and days and weeks and months and years and decades and millenniums.

God divided time up for us and one of the great time sections is the year. And I know that many of you are saying, I'm not going to get into this year-end resolution stuff. I'll have it all messed up by the time the 15th comes along. You can do that if you want to, but years are made for us to stop and reflect and to set goals and move forward with a new sense of hope and determination. I hope you will do that. And these messages during this final week of the year are meant to encourage you to do that. Tomorrow, we're going to talk about the journey inward.

You need to know and understand that we not only move forward on the calendar, we move inward. We have to ask God to create within us a new heart, a new and clean spirit, a new determination to follow Him. That's my prayer for myself and I really suspect it's your prayer as well. We'll see you tomorrow. Today's message came to you from Shadow Mountain Community Church and Senior Pastor, Dr. David Jeremiah.

We'd love to hear your story of Turning Point's impact on your life. Please write to us at Turning Point, Post Office Box 3838, San Diego, CA 92163, or visit our website at davidjeremiah.org. Ask for your copy of David's 365-day devotional for 2021.

It's called Strength for Today. It's filled with biblical truth for each day of the year ahead, and it's yours for a gift of any amount. You can also download the free Turning Point mobile app for your smartphone or tablet or search in your app store for the keywords, Turning Point Ministries, so you can access our programs and resources. Visit davidjeremiah.org forward slash radio for details. I'm Gary Hoogflit. Join us tomorrow as we continue our special messages for the new year. That's here on Turning Point with Dr. David Jeremiah.