["In the Hall of the Mountain King"]
Page number 121, we're gonna sing
Like a River Glorious.
Page 121, Like a River Glorious.
Let's go ahead and sing it out on the first verse.
Like a river glorious
It's God's perfect peace
Over all victorious
In its pride increase
Perfect yet it floweth
Fuller every day
Perfect yet it groweth
Deeper all the way
Satan upon Jehovah
Hearts are fully blessed
Binding as he promised
Perfect peace and rest
Hidden in the hollow
Of his blessed hand
Never folk and follow
Never trade or stand
Not a surge of worry
Not a shade of fair
Not a blast of hurry
Touch the Spirit there
Satan upon Jehovah
Hearts are fully blessed
Binding as he promised
Perfect peace and rest
Page 121, let's finish this song on the last verse.
Every joy or triumph
Hallway from above
Traced upon our diode
By the Son of God
We may trust him wholly
All for us to do
There you trust him wholly
Find him wholly true
Satan upon Jehovah
Hearts are fully blessed
Binding as he promised
Perfect peace and rest
Great singing.
Amen, and we welcome you, of course, to this final service here at this property.
And we appreciate all of you being here tonight.
Let's take our bulletins. We'll look at some announcements real quickly.
If you do not have a bulletin, just raise your hand,
and one of our ushers can get one for you.
If you need a bulletin, just put your hand up.
And we'll get one for you. The verse this week, Ephesians 3, 20,
Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think
And that's a good verse there. We like that.
If you open up your bulletin, you'll see our service time,
Sunday morning service, 10 30 a.m.
And we do invite you to be with us on Sunday morning
on the Lord's day for church that will not be here.
That will be on the new property.
All right. So make sure you remember that.
And don't forget about that.
We'll be meeting at the new location on Sunday morning for the Sunday morning service.
And the evening service, of course, will be all the services will be over there going forward.
Wednesday evening Bible study over there.
So many times our main sewing times on Saturday mornings at 10 a.m.
And we do want you to know that this Saturday morning, we will be meeting here.
We'll be meeting at this building on Saturday morning.
So not the new building will be meeting here for the Saturday morning
soul winning challenge. So just make plans to be here.
And we probably won't have any chairs, so we'll just stand.
It won't be a long service. I won't I'm not going to preach anything like that.
We'll just sing a couple of songs and get you out for soul winning.
So just make note of that. And then, of course, we are a family integrated church.
Children and infants are always welcome in the service.
We do not separate children from their parents for any reason.
We do have mother baby rooms and daddy rooms available for your convenience.
So please make sure you use those as needed.
If you need to be baptized, you can let us know on your communication card.
If you look at the announcements and upcoming events, of course, we've been talking about it.
Today's the last service. This evening's the last service here at this building, at this property.
And then the first church service will be on Sunday, February 25th on the new property.
So you're not going to want to miss that. And then, of course, this week is moving week.
And we've already had some great days on Monday and Tuesday.
I will tell you, these ladies are amazing. And we've had about we had about 30 ladies show up on Monday.
We had about 30 ladies show up on Tuesday and they were supposed to clean and pack.
And they actually cleaned and packed and they moved almost everything that wasn't big and bulky and major.
So they left all the big and bulky stuff for the men.
But the ladies took care of a lot. That's the good news.
The bad news is we've got about four to six guys who signed up to move.
So we may need to have the ladies help us with the big bulky stuff. I don't know.
But if you're a man and you can help us, we would really appreciate your help on Thursday and Friday at 9 a.m.
And I understand you guys need to work, but, you know, after work or whatever, if you could help us, we would appreciate your help with that.
We'll be starting tomorrow at 9 a.m., Friday at 9 a.m. and Saturday at 2 p.m.
We have a lot of ladies. If you go by the clipboard, you'll see there's a lot of ladies.
They signed up for Thursday and Friday as well, which is fine.
There's still a lot of cleaning and organizing that needs to be done over on that side and over on this side as well.
But we could use help with men that could actually just help us move couches and furniture and all these chairs and all of that.
So if you could find it in your heart, men, to put in some time, we would appreciate your help with that.
Nine chapters a day. Of course, we've got the clipboard back there as well. Make sure you see that.
Choir practice. There's practice at 5 p.m. That'll be on the new property.
So don't forget about that.
And there's other things there for you to look at.
Please don't forget to turn your cell phones off or place them on silent during the service.
It's not a distraction to anybody. Of course, you've got the vision offering flyer there.
Make sure you look through that and make sure that you are aware of those things coming up.
If you look at the back of the bulletin, birthdays and anniversaries for the month of February.
Of course, this week we had brother Vijay and Miss Joyce's anniversary on the 19th.
Christian Chesick had a birthday on the 20th.
Brother Luis Mendoza had a birthday on the 20th.
Today is Miss Esther Davidson's birthday on the 21st.
And then we have Brother Serge's birthday on the 24th.
Praise report, money matters, all those things are there for you to look at.
And I do have a baptism certificate to hand out.
And I'll go ahead and read this real quickly.
This certificate of baptism is awarded to brother Tim in recognition of his baptism on the 29th day of November of the year 2023.
With the verse there, Romans 6.4, Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death,
that like us Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we should walk in the units of life.
And we have pictures here for Tim to remember the day of his baptism.
And we'll go ahead and hand him that.
And let's give him a round of applause.
And I think that's it for all of the announcements.
Let's go ahead and sing page number 356.
Page number 356.
And we're going to sing I Must Tell Jesus as we prepare to receive the offering tonight.
356.
And let's go ahead and sing it out on the first.
I must tell Jesus all of my trials.
I cannot bear these burdens alone.
In my distress he kindly will help me.
He ever loves and cares for his own.
I must tell Jesus.
I cannot bear my burdens alone.
I must tell Jesus.
Jesus can help me.
Jesus alone.
Page number 356. Sing it out on the second.
I must tell Jesus.
All of my troubles.
He is a kind, compassionate friend.
If I but ask him, he will deliver.
Make of my troubles quickly an end.
I must tell Jesus.
I cannot bear my burdens alone.
I must tell Jesus.
Jesus can help me.
Jesus alone.
Tempted and tried, I need a great Savior.
One who can help my burdens to bear.
I must tell Jesus.
He all my cares and sorrows will share.
I must tell Jesus.
I cannot bear my burdens alone.
I must tell Jesus.
Jesus can help me.
Jesus alone.
Good. Sing it out on the last.
Oh, how the world to evil others fear.
How my heart is tempted to sin.
I must tell Jesus.
And he will help me over the world of victory to me.
I must tell Jesus.
I cannot bear my burdens alone.
I must tell Jesus.
Jesus can help me.
Jesus alone.
Amen.
All right, we'll have the guys come up and help us with the offering at this time.
And let's go ahead and bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Heavenly Father, the Lord, we do love you.
We thank you for allowing us to gather together tonight.
Lord, we pray that you'd bless this last evening service here at this property.
And we pray that you'd bless, of course, the new beginning over on the new location.
And we ask that you would just continue to meet our needs and help us.
In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
Amen.
All right.
Well, let's take our prayer sheets tonight.
If you did not get a prayer list on your way in, just raise your hand and one of our ushers can get one for you.
If you need a prayer sheet, just put your hand up and we'll get one for you.
And, of course, the way you add a request through your prayer sheet is through your communication card on the back of the card or as a place for you to write down your request.
Make sure you mark whether it's private or public.
If it's private, only I will see it.
If it's public, we'll put it on the prayer sheet.
If you don't mark it, we'll do our best to figure it out.
But we usually don't add those and they are added in the order that they are received and they are removed after a couple of weeks.
And let's go ahead and take these requests to the Lord.
I'll pray out loud and I ask that you would follow along in your mind and your heart and let's pray together.
Heavenly Father, Lord, we come to you tonight asking for these requests from our church family.
And, of course, we begin with this request from Miss Rebecca Garcia, praying for her husband Danny and his upcoming parole hearing on March 1st and asking that your will be done.
Regarding that, also Charles Ma, praying for his friend Tim, who's dealing with a difficult family situation.
And Miss Maria Kudalima, praying for Roma's victory over drug abuse as well.
Brother Salvador, praying for his family as well.
Lord, we ask for these individuals. We pray that you would help them and be with them and guide them.
And then we also pray for these that have health requests.
Miss Liliana, praying for her auntie Jeannie and for her health and recovery.
And Brother Graham and Miss Michelle, praying for Brother Graham's father's health, Joe, and for his cancer that has returned.
And praying for healing there, of course, and for help with that.
And then also Miss Michelle's friend Cheryl and for her recovery from surgery.
Miss Maria, praying for Anna's liver to heal.
And Kenneth, praying for complete recovery after being treated in the ICU.
Brother Scott Scroggs, praying for health and for complete healing of a medical condition that he's been dealing with.
And Miss Christine Ortiz, praying for her health.
And her sister Judy's health as she battles cancer.
Also her nephew and his recovery in the hospital.
Miss Dogma, praying for her pain.
Brother Edgar Misalina, continuing to pray, of course, for Urezi that she'd be healthy and strong.
And we're praying for our missionary, Dave Camuntala's wife, Miss Angel, and for the treatment, for her breast cancer treatment.
Lord, we ask for these individuals, we pray that you would help them and be with them.
And Lord, we pray that you would just give them strength.
Lord, we ask that you would heal if it's your will, that you'd relieve pain, that you'd give wisdom to the doctors that are dealing with them.
Also pray for the ladies in our church that are expecting Miss Julissa, Miss Ruby, Miss Taylor, Miss Esther, and Miss Ariel.
Ask that you give them healthy pregnancies with no issues, no complications.
Lord, we also pray for these that have requests regarding salvation.
Charles Mott, praying for the salvation of his parents and his sister.
And also Miss Dogma, praying for her daughter and her family's salvation.
Miss Christine Ortiz, praying for her family's salvation as well.
And Lord, we ask that you would be with them and help them.
Also we ask for these that have requests regarding their walk with God.
Miss Ermalisa, praying for her walk with God and continue faithfulness to church.
And Miss Christine Ortiz, both Salvador, praying for their faith and their walk as well.
And Lord, we pray for these that have financial requests, for their brand and praying for job prospects and housing situation.
Both Salvador, praying for finances and work as well.
Lord, we ask that you would help them and be with them.
And then of course we pray for these that have unspoken requests.
Miss Kimmy Kessler, having an unspoken request.
Miss Ruby Roldan, Miss Andrea McQueen, all having unspoken requests.
Brother Salvador and Miss Dogma as well, having unspoken requests.
And Lord, we pray that you would answer their prayers and that you would help them and be with them.
And then of course we continue to pray for our ministry and our different ministries within our church.
We pray for the prison ministry, that you would help it to continue to go well.
We pray for our mission of the work in Phampong and Bicol and Manila and for Pastor Stuckey and his family.
And then of course we pray for all the things going on here.
And we pray that you would help us this week as we move.
We thank you, Lord, for just all the work that got done on Monday and Tuesday.
We pray that Thursday and Friday and Saturday would also be just productive days.
And Lord, help us to get everything done that we need to get done.
We thank you for this upcoming vision offering for the Easter service and Next Generation Youth Rally.
We just pray that you would help us with all these things and help us to be able to get everything done that we need to get done.
That it would all bring honor and glory to your name.
And Lord, we pray of course for our church that you just continue to help us and strengthen us and be with us.
In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
Please open up to Joshua 3.
Joshua chapter number 3. If you do not have a Bible, please raise your hand.
And I know you can read your Bible.
Joshua chapter number 3. Just keep your hand up unless you want to come by.
Joshua 3. We read the entire chapter as our custom.
Joshua 3 beginning in verse number 1.
And Joshua rose early in the morning, and they were moved from Shittim and came to Jordan.
He and all the children of Israel, and lodged there before they passed over.
And it came to pass after three days that the officers went through the host.
And they commanded the people saying,
When ye see the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, and the priest of Levites bearing it,
then ye shall remove from your place and go after it.
Yet there shall be a space between you and it, about two thousand cubits by measure,
Come not near unto it, that ye may know the way by which ye must go.
For ye have not passed this way heretofore.
And Joshua said unto the people, Sanctify yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you.
And Joshua spake unto the priest saying, Take up the ark of the covenant, and pass it over before the people.
And they took up the ark of the covenant, and went before the people.
And the Lord said unto Joshua, This day will I magnify thee in the sight of all Israel,
that they may know that as I was with Moses, so I will be with thee.
And I shall command the priests that bear the ark of the covenant, saying,
When ye are come to the brink of the water of Jordan, ye shall stand still in Jordan.
And Joshua said unto the children of Israel, Come hither, and hear the words of the Lord your God.
And Joshua said, Hereby ye 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 passeth over before you into Jordan.
Now therefore take ye twelve men out of the tribes of Israel, out of every tribe of man,
and it shall come to pass, as soon as the souls of the feet of the priests that bear the ark of the Lord,
the Lord of all the earth, shall rest in the waters of Jordan,
that the waters of Jordan shall be cut off from the waters that come down from above,
and they shall stand upon and heap.
And it came to pass, when the people were moved from their tents to pass over Jordan,
and the priests bearing the ark of the covenant before the people.
And as they that bear the ark were come unto Jordan,
and the feet of the priests that bear the ark were dipped in the brim of the water,
for Jordan overfloweth all his banks all the time of harvest.
That the waters which came down from above stood and rose up upon a heap very far from the city Adam,
that is beside Zeratim.
And those that came down toward the sea of the plain, even the salt sea, failed and were cut off.
And the people passed over right against Jordan.
And the priests that bear the ark of the covenant of the Lord stirred firm on dry ground in the midst of Jordan,
and all the Israelites passed over on dry ground, until all the people were passed clean over Jordan.
Let's pray.
Heavenly Father, thank you for this evening God, I thank you for your word for our church, and for this building God.
And I just thank you for the future Lord, for our new building.
God so you can meet with us tonight God, we love you.
In Jesus' name we pray, amen.
Amen.
Alright, we're there in Joshua chapter number 3 tonight.
And of course tonight is a very special service here.
It's our last service in this building, on this property.
And so we're going to take a break from our Hebrew study that we're normally in on Wednesday night.
And tonight I'm preaching a special sermon.
It's actually a sermon that I've preached several times over the years.
I doubt that any of you will remember it, maybe some of you will.
But I've preached this sermon under a different title every time.
It's been the same passage of Scripture, the same thoughts, the outlines have changed over the years.
And even this sermon, I've revamped it and redone it.
So don't worry if you have heard it, I'm sure it will be different.
But this is a sermon that I've preached.
The first time I preached this sermon, I entitled it, Sanctify Yourselves.
And I preached it on July 1st, 2012.
And I preached it as we were getting ready to move out of the house.
We had started, my wife and I started Very Baptist Church in our living room on September 5th of 2010.
And we were there till, the last service there was actually in the house was July 4th, 2012.
4th of July fell on a Wednesday.
And that was the last service we had in the house.
And we had fireworks out in the front lawn.
And of course I think there was like 30 of us or something, 36 of us I think is what we had that night.
But I preached this sermon the Sunday before that.
And I preached this sermon in preparation of getting us to move as we were getting ready to move
from the living room to our first building, 800 square foot building.
And of course for those of you that don't know or if you haven't heard our story,
we spent one year in that 800 square foot building.
That 800 square foot building was not really honestly much bigger than the living room slash dining room
we were already meeting in.
But the big victory there was that we got the church moved out of our house.
And I'll tell you, that was a huge sacrifice to have, you know, meet in your house.
Obviously three services a week, setting up chairs and all these things.
I was working a full-time job and a lot of it, I would say the vast majority of it was put on my wife's shoulders.
And it was a time.
And we were happy to get the church out of our house.
It was always interesting when the service starts at 1030 and somebody decides they want to get to church at 830.
You know, we like it when people show up to church early, but not that early and not when it's your house.
So anyway, I preached this sermon.
And that was my first, that was one of my first indications that people are not normal.
And that my job is to make them normal.
But I preached this sermon back in July.
Sanctify yourselves.
Of course we moved out of the 800 square foot.
We spent one year in the 800 square foot building.
Then we transitioned from the 800 square foot building to a 1600 square foot building,
which was just pretty much, it was just right next door in the same parking lot, same facility.
It was pretty much just taking two of the 800 square foot buildings.
We put them together, took a wall down and made it a 1600 square foot building.
We were in that building for seven months, if you can believe it.
And we actually grew so fast in those seven months that we had to pay to get out of our lease and move into a bigger,
because we just grew, in those seven months we grew so much.
You could comfortably put probably, I don't know, my wife would remember better,
but you could probably put about 70 people in that building.
And then there was, I remember there was a Sunday morning where we broke 100
and tried to put 100 people in 1600 square feet.
And there was literally, and that building had these big windows where you could see into the parking lot.
And we literally watched people pull up to the church building, get out, start to come in,
realize how full it was and then go back in their vehicle and drove away.
And it was that Sunday that my wife and I decided we need to just get out of this building.
So we raised money, I think it was a vision offering, we raised money, paid to get us out of the lease early
and moved to the notorious Northgate building.
And we went from 1600 square feet to 4600 square feet.
And the reason that we jumped that much is because at that point we'd already moved once a year later,
then we're moving again seven months later.
And I remember telling my wife, I don't want to move again for a long time.
So we went from 1600 square feet to 4600 square feet.
And when we moved into that Northgate building, those 4600 square feet, they just seemed so massive.
We didn't have these chairs back then, we just had the folding chairs.
And I thought to myself, we will never fill this building, we'll never fill this building.
And of course we grew there as well.
The spring of 2016, believe it or not, the spring of 2016 our church grew.
In three months we grew by 50 members.
From January to April of 2016 we grew by 50 members.
Then I preached a sermon that went viral and we lost 50 members.
And so it's just kind of the way it goes.
And then of course, December 21st of 2016 I preached this sermon that I'm going to preach tonight.
And when we were getting ready to leave the Northgate building and to move into this building.
The first time I preached it in July of 2012 it was entitled Sanctify Yourselves.
The second time I preached it in December of 2016 it was entitled Tomorrow the Lord Will Do Wonders Among You.
And tonight I'm going to preach it to you again.
I hope that's okay.
And I've entitled it On the Brink, On the Brink.
I want you to notice that I think this is a fitting chapter because tonight we end a season or a phase of ministry.
And we're getting ready to enter into a new phase of ministry.
And this is where we find the children of Israel in this story.
Notice there in Joshua chapter 3 and look at verse number 1.
I don't know, I doubt that any of you will remember the sermon.
Although some of you, Brother Ray and Ms. Denise, they've been with us since the first day.
Obviously my family has been with us since the first day in the house.
So this is now the third time they're going to hear this sermon.
I hope, third time in 13 years.
I hope they'll forgive me.
But we see here the children of Israel.
Joshua chapter 3 verse 1.
The Bible says, And Joshua rose early in the morning, and they moved from Shittim and came to Jordan.
He and all the children of Israel and lodged there.
I want you to notice the words here.
Before they passed over.
And the idea is that they were getting ready to cross the Jordan River out of the wilderness into the Promised Land.
They're right there at the edge of the water.
And it's right before, the Bible tells us there at the end of verse 1, they passed over.
And notice this will be a new phase for them.
This will be a new territory that they'll be going into.
They'll be facing things they've never faced before.
Notice there, skip down to verse number 4.
The Bible says, Yet there shall be a space between you and it, about 2,000 cubits by measure.
Come not near unto it, that ye may know the way by which ye must go.
Notice the last part of verse 4.
For ye have not passed this way heretofore.
That word heretofore means before this time.
And God is telling them this is going to be new for you.
You're going to pass over into the Promised Land and ye have not passed this way heretofore.
You have not passed this way before.
This is a new phase.
It's going to take you into new territory.
Notice verse number 8 of the same chapter.
This is where I get the third title for this sermon.
Joshua chapter 3 verse 8.
And thou shalt command the priests that bear the ark of the covenant saying,
When ye are, notice the words, come to the brink.
Come to the brink of the water of Jordan.
Ye shall stand still in Jordan.
Now I'm going to tell the sermon tonight on the brink.
Here God is specifically literally talking about the fact that the children of Israel
were going to cross from the one side of the Jordan River onto the other side of the Jordan River.
They were literally on the brink of the water of Jordan.
But that is a term that is often used.
People will use this term on the brink.
And what they mean by that usually and oftentimes is when somebody says you're on the brink of something,
it means that you're just about to do something.
You're just about to experience something.
You're about to go into some sort of new adventure or phase or thing in your life.
And oftentimes people say you're just right on the brink of this new area of your life.
And this is where we see the children of Israel.
They're on the brink of the Promised Land and they're getting ready to cross into the Promised Land.
And in the same way we again find ourselves on the brink,
getting ready to enter into some new territory, things that we've never experienced before.
On Sunday morning, Verity Baptist Church will experience something we've never experienced before.
We will for the first time hold a church service on property we own
in a building that we aren't renting.
And this will be new for us.
And I think what I'd like to do tonight is give you some thoughts from this passage
regarding what we can do when we find ourselves on the brink.
I'd like to give you four thoughts tonight.
And if you'd like to take notes, I encourage you to take notes.
The first thing I'd like you to notice here in verses 1 through 5 is the exhortation.
I want you to notice that there's an exhortation given to the people.
There are some instructions.
They are encouraged and exhorted to do certain things.
Notice there, Joshua chapter 3 and verse 1,
The Bible says,
Notice the Bible says,
Now this is fitting that I would preach this sermon,
and again I preached this sermon years and years and years ago,
more than one time,
but it's fitting that we would preach it again tonight
because of the fact that we've actually been studying the Ark of the Covenant,
and the tabernacle.
We understand these things.
And here Joshua's telling the people,
and the officers are going through and communicating to the people,
that they commanded the people, verse 3, saying,
When ye see the Ark of the Covenant,
and if you remember, the Ark of the Covenant,
this box that is made out of shidam wood,
and it has gold overlaid all over it,
and it's decorative.
It has all these things in the box,
the tables of the Ten Commandments and the manna.
And Aaron's rod, that budded, and all these things.
This box represents the presence of God,
and it represents the fact that God is dwelling with the people,
and among the people,
and it represents the Word of God, of course.
And here Joshua says,
And I want you to notice, here's the exhortation.
Notice what he says.
He says,
He says when you see the Ark of the Covenant,
which represents the presence of God,
and represents the Word of God,
he said when you see it,
I want you to go after it.
And the exhortation that Joshua gives the children of Israel here,
as they find themselves on the brink,
and on the edge of something new,
they're ready to go forward into something new.
And the exhortation he gives them is to go after God,
to go after it,
to go after, the exhortation is this,
to follow God and the Word of God.
Notice there, verse 4.
He's talking about the Ark.
He says,
Here's why I want you to go after it, verse 3.
Here's why I want you to keep a space between you and it,
about 2,000 cubits by measure,
come not near into it.
Why?
Here's why.
And the exhortation that Joshua gives the children of Israel is this,
as you find yourself on the brink of some new territory,
a new phase in life,
he said don't forget to go after God,
to follow God,
to be closely connected to God.
And the Word of God,
and the exhortation I want to give Verity Baptist Church,
is that as we transition over to this new building,
let us always remember that our goal is God.
Our goal is the Word of God.
It's to go after God.
Why?
That ye may know the way by which ye must go.
Psalm 119, verse 105,
you don't have to turn there,
the Bible says this,
Thy word is a lamp unto my feet,
and a light unto my path.
So it's interesting, he says go after it.
He also says don't get ahead of it.
Notice there again in verse 4,
Yet there shall be a space between you and it.
A space between you and it.
And it's interesting to me that he says that.
He says look,
when you see the ark that represents God,
then I want you to move,
and I want you to go after.
He said keep enough space
so that you can see which way it's going.
He says that ye may know the way by which ye must go.
But then he tells them,
don't get ahead of it.
Don't get ahead of it.
And I have learned in ministry,
and I've seen it in the lives of individuals,
that we get ourselves into trouble
when we get ahead of God.
When we try to make,
when we try to lead God,
you know the great psalm says this,
He leadeth me.
And we ought to always remember
that it's God who's leading us.
And what got us here is us going after it.
Us going after God.
Let's never get ahead of it.
You know there are opportunities.
My wife and I were driving,
we happened to be driving in south Sacramento
earlier this week,
and we were talking about,
remember when we almost,
not almost, but remember when we came
to look at a building over here,
and there was a building that was for sale,
and there was a situation where we could rent it
and buy it and whatever,
and of course we chose not to do that,
and I believe the Lord led us in that way.
But over the years,
there have been opportunities for us
to maybe try to manipulate things
and move things forward.
But honestly, we would have just been
getting ahead of God at that point.
One thing that I've said about the situation
we find ourselves in now,
one thing I was expressing to my wife
even this week is that I feel like,
I feel like all of these things
that have happened,
the purchase of that property,
the remodel of that property,
all these things,
I feel like it's happening around us
or around me,
and I'm just kind of being carried along
with this current,
and it's just God opening these doors
and God opening these opportunities,
and we're just walking by faith,
just going at it,
but we're definitely not getting ahead of God.
I can honestly stand here tonight
and say I believe that God has opened the doors
for this next step in our ministry,
and God led us here,
and we should always remember
that the goal is God,
to go after it.
Follow him.
Don't get ahead of him.
Don't try to get,
and look, in every area of life,
young people don't get ahead of God.
God has a plan for you.
God has a purpose for your life.
God has someone he wants you to marry.
God has someone that he wants you
to have a romantic relationship with
and in the bounds of marriage,
a physical relationship with,
and he wants to bless you with children.
He wants to bless you with all these things,
and people often mess things up
when they try to get ahead of God.
We should always remember the exhortation here.
Go after it.
Don't get ahead of him.
Go after God.
Don't get ahead of him.
Thy word is a lamp unto my feet,
and a light unto my power.
So you see, the first exhortation is go after it.
Then I want you to notice there's a second exhortation.
It's found in verse number five.
It's actually the title of the sermon,
the first time I preached it in 2012,
and it is this.
And Joshua said unto the people,
here's the second exhortation, verse number five.
He says, sanctify yourselves.
Sanctify yourselves.
Before they cross the Jordan River,
Joshua exhorted the children of Israel to sanctify themselves.
The word sanctify means to separate,
to set apart for the use of God.
He says, sanctify yourselves.
Say why.
Here's why.
For.
You see the word for?
The word for means because.
He says, sanctify yourselves.
Here's why.
Because.
Because of why?
Because of what reason?
Notice.
Because for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you.
Joshua is looking at the people and saying,
look, tomorrow.
Now they're literally going to cross the Jordan River tomorrow.
But the term here tomorrow is being used of the future.
He's saying, I believe that God is going to do something great
for the children of Israel in the future.
And he said, if God is going to use us
and if God is going to do something for us,
then we must do something in preparation
and we must sanctify ourselves.
We must always remember this,
that sanctification is the key to being used of God.
If you've ever wondered, how can I be used of God?
Why do some people seem to be used of God
more mightily than others?
Why is it that some churches seem to be more blessed
than maybe other churches
and some soul owners seem to be more effective
than maybe other soul owners?
And some preachers seem to have the touch of God
upon their lives maybe more than other preachers.
And the truth is that God is no respecter of persons.
And it's not that the blessing of God
or the power of God or the help of God
is given on individuals or churches
because God likes them more than others
because God does not respect any person more than anyone else.
So then what is the difference?
The difference is this.
The key to being used of God is to sanctify yourself.
Sanctify yourself.
This is not the first time the children of Israel had heard this.
Go back with me, if you would, to Exodus chapter 19.
You're there in the book of Joshua.
If you go backwards,
you go past the book of Deuteronomy,
past the book of Numbers,
into the book, past the book of Leviticus,
into the book of Exodus, Exodus chapter 19.
Exodus chapter 19, this is something that Moses
had actually told the children of Israel earlier.
Exodus chapter 19, precisely 40 years earlier,
when the children of Israel found themselves at the brink of another sort,
at the beginning of a new phase.
This, in Exodus 19, as the children of Israel had just came out of Egypt,
and they were getting ready to enter into a new phase
where there were no longer going to be slaves and bond men
and bond women in the iron furnace of Egypt,
but there were going to be free people
in the nation of God and the people of God.
In Exodus 19 and verse number 10,
in preparation for that new phase,
here's what Moses said to the children of Israel.
Exodus 19 and verse 10,
And the Lord said unto Moses,
Go unto the people, notice the words,
and sanctify them today and tomorrow,
and let them wash their clothes.
Be ready against this third day,
for the third day the Lord, notice the words,
will come down in the sight of all the people upon Mount Sinai.
We can read there, of course,
and we read of the fact that God came down on Mount Sinai
and there was thunderings and lightnings and all these amazing things,
and then in verse 14 the Bible says this,
And Moses went down from the mount unto the people,
and sanctified the people, and they washed their clothes.
Notice the emphasis is, sanctify yourselves,
prepare yourselves, be ready, set yourself apart,
be clean, wash your clothes, be ready. Why?
Look at verse 17,
And Moses brought forth the people out of the camp,
notice these words, you've got to underline these words in your Bible,
to meet with God.
To meet with God.
And they stood at the nether part of the mountain.
The only way that you and I can be close to God
and be used by God is to sanctify ourselves,
is to cleanse ourselves,
is to separate ourselves and be ready,
because the key to be used of God is to be sanctified.
It's interesting to me because here in Exodus 19,
I'd like you to look at verse 4.
I want you to notice what the Word of God,
what God says to Moses in preparation for this meeting,
the children of Israel are going to meet God.
He says in verse 17 that to meet with God,
they're going to meet with God on Mount Sinai.
And if you keep reading the passage there,
we read of the fact that the children of Israel
actually heard the audible voice of God
as God gave them the Ten Commandments.
And if you remember the response of the children of Israel,
they were so afraid and scared at hearing the audible voice of God
that they actually said to Moses,
from now on you speak to God and you tell us what he said.
They were so afraid to meet God and to hear God's voice
that Moses had to go up to the mountain
and meet with God privately
and bring the Word of God to the children of Israel.
God had told them,
sanctify yourself because I want to meet you.
God had told Joshua,
sanctify the people because I want to use you.
Notice there in Exodus 19 and verse 4,
notice what the Bible says,
ye have seen,
this is God speaking to the children of Israel,
ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians.
Notice these words, please.
And how I bear you on eagles' wings.
I love the wording there and the terminology.
He said you may not have realized it
and you may not have understood it,
but everything that you have gone through, God says,
has actually been by the providential hand of God.
He said I have borne you
or I have bare you on eagles' wings.
He's referring to the fact that they were in Egypt.
He said ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians
and isn't it true that even the hard things,
look, Egypt was not a vacation for them.
Egypt was not a nice memory for them.
Egypt was a time of slavery and bondage and murder.
It was a time when they were oppressed
and when many of them were depressed
and here God says,
that was a time when I bare you,
look at it,
bare you on eagles' wings
and brought you unto Myself.
I want you to always remember
and I want always to remember
that the goal is always God.
And the things that God does in our lives
are meant to bring us unto Himself.
You see, even the times of difficulty
and the times we spend in Egypt,
even in those times we can say
that God has borne us on eagles' wings
to bring us unto Himself.
The goal is always God.
The goal is always for us to get close to God,
to draw near to God,
to meet with God
and to be used of God.
So for that reason, Joshua says,
to the children of Israel, sanctify yourselves.
And I'm here to say to you, Verity Baptist Church,
if you wouldn't mind go back to Joshua,
but go to chapter 7 if you would.
If we're going to be used of God,
if we're going to continue to be used of God,
we must sanctify ourselves.
2 Timothy chapter 2 and verse 20,
you have to turn and I'll just read this for you.
The Bible says, but in a great house,
I actually preached recently about this
on Saturday morning at a soul winning,
at one of our soul winning rallies,
but in a great house there are not only
vessels of gold and of silver,
but also of wood and earth
and some to honor and some to dishonor.
Here Paul is giving an illustration.
He says, in a house,
in a physical house,
there are different types of vessels.
Think of dishes,
or pots and pans,
or cups or plates or bowls.
Vessels, he says, some of gold and silver,
some of wood and earth.
He says, some are for honor and some are for dishonor.
Just like in our households today.
If you were going to have somebody over for dinner,
you wanted to, maybe they were an important individual,
you wanted to impress them,
you would bring out the fine china.
But if you were just going to have
maybe just kids over
or a kid's party or something like that,
you might just use paper plates.
And some vessels are for honor
and some for dishonor.
2 Timothy 2.21 says this,
If a man therefore purge himself,
the word purge means to cleanse,
to get rid of, to free up of,
to purge himself from these,
he shall be a vessel unto honor.
And here's the point I want you to hear.
You go to John chapter 7,
but here's what I want you to hear from 2 Timothy 2.21.
Sanctified and meet
the Master's use.
The key to be used of the Master
is to be sanctified.
The word meet means suitable.
Sanctified and suitable
for the Master's use.
So you and I are going to be used of God.
We're going to continue to be used of God.
We must not only go after it
because the goal has always been
to be brought unto God.
But we must sanctify ourselves.
And here's, let me just say it plainly,
we cannot afford to have sin in the camp.
Joshua chapter 7 and verse 1,
I want you to notice this story.
The children of Israel
have now entered into the promised land.
They fought their first battle
against Jericho and they've been successful.
But they fought their second battle
against Ai which was a smaller enemy
which should have been defeated easier
and they lost.
Thirty-six men died.
And it's revealed to Joshua
that the reason for this is because
Achan has taken the accursed thing.
And I won't take the time
to go through the whole story
but if you're familiar with it,
you know God had told the children of Israel
that as they went to these different cities
and they conquered these lands
that they would be allowed to take
the spoil of the land
and it would be their reward.
But Jericho, the first city,
they were not allowed to take anything.
Why? Because God always wants
the first fruits.
That was a picture of tithing.
And they were not to take anything
but Achan had stolen something for himself.
As a result,
God could no longer bless
the children of Israel.
Notice Joshua 7 and verse 1.
Joshua 7 and verse 1.
The Bible says this.
But the children of Israel,
I want you to notice
the way that it's worded here in the Bible.
The children of Israel
committed a trespass
in the accursed thing.
And if you're paying attention,
you would ask the question,
what do you mean, the children of Israel?
Don't you just mean Achan?
Look at it.
But the children of Israel
committed a trespass
in the accursed thing
for Achan, one man,
one individual,
the son of Carmi,
the son of Zabdi,
the son of Zerah
of the tribe of Judah,
took of the accursed thing.
So one man, Achan,
took of the accursed thing
and God says,
the children of Israel
committed a trespass.
He took of the accursed thing.
Look at the last part of verse 1.
And the anger
of the Lord
was kindled.
Don't miss it.
Look at it.
Against Achan?
No.
Against the children of Israel.
You say, well, wait a minute.
Why not Achan?
Well, we actually talked about it
on Sunday night, if you remember.
No man liveth to himself.
No man dieth to himself.
Your sin will affect others.
Your sin will hurt others.
And here, though it was one man
who decided to sin against God,
to be covetous and to take,
and to take of the accursed thing,
there was sin in the camp.
As a result,
God could not bless
any of the children of Israel.
Look at verse 11.
Same chapter.
Joshua, chapter 7, verse 11.
This is the Lord speaking.
Notice what he says.
Israel.
Israel hath sinned.
And you say,
what do you mean Israel?
Don't you just mean Achan?
And they've also transgressed
my covenant,
which I commanded them for.
They.
What do you mean they?
Don't you mean him?
Don't you mean he?
Have even taken of the accursed thing
and have also stolen and dissembled also.
And notice the plurals.
They.
Don't you mean Achan?
Don't you mean just one man?
No, they have put it
even among their own stuff.
And the children of Israel
could not stand before their enemies.
Turn their backs before their enemies
because they were a curse.
Achan took of the accursed thing
and they were a curse.
Neither will I be with you anymore
except you destroy the accursed thing
from among you.
And then this should sound familiar to you.
Look at verse 13.
Up, sanctify the people.
And say, sanctify yourselves against tomorrow.
For thus saith the Lord God of Israel,
there is an accursed thing
in the midst of thee.
O Israel, thou canst not stand before thy enemies
until ye take away the accursed thing
from among you.
To me this is a very sobering
and this is a very scary passage of scripture
because it tells me
that though the leader
could be doing everything right,
the pastor could be doing everything right,
the pastor's wife could be doing everything right,
all the leaders of the congregation
could be doing everything right,
the staff could be doing everything right.
Here the Bible tells us that
one man, Achan, could bring the curse of God
upon an entire congregation
because of sin in the camp.
God does not hold us responsible
for the sins of others.
God does hold the leader responsible
to remove the sin
and to not allow it within the congregation.
But this ought to be a sobering thought
that we could get to heaven one day
and find out and learn
that God had so much more
for Verity Baptist Church,
that God had so much more
that this church could do and accomplish,
that there were so many more people
that could have been saved
and lives transformed and changed,
but God was not able to bless us
because of your secret sin.
So I say to you tonight,
we must sanctify ourselves
and prepare
as we follow the Lord
into the next phase of ministry.
Let's say number one,
we saw the exhortation.
I'd like you to notice
tonight the expectation.
Notice in verse number five
the Bible says this,
and Joshua said unto the people,
sanctify yourselves.
Notice the expectation.
For tomorrow the Lord
will do wonders among you.
I believe the greatest days
of Verity Baptist Church
are ahead of us.
I believe that tomorrow
the Lord will do wonders among you.
Maybe not tomorrow,
depending on how many of you guys show up,
but Sunday,
and Wednesday,
and the next Sunday.
For tomorrow
the Lord will do wonders among you.
The idea is this,
that when we expect
great things from God,
then we should attempt
great things for God.
Look at verse six,
and Joshua spake unto the priest saying,
take up the ark of the covenant
and pass over before the people.
And they took up the ark of the covenant
and went before the people
and the Lord said unto Joshua,
notice the words,
he says,
this day will I begin
to magnify thee
in the sight of all Israel,
and that they may know
that as I was with Moses,
so I will be with thee,
and thou shall command the priest
and bear the ark of the covenant,
saying,
when ye are come
to the brink of the water of Jordan,
ye shall stand still in Jordan.
And here they're ready,
and what God is saying,
Joshua says,
tomorrow the Lord
will do wonders among you,
and as a result of them believing
that God will do wonders among them,
then they go
to the brink of the Jordan River,
and they stand still
getting ready
to attempt something great for God.
And the idea is this,
that when we expect great things from God,
we should attempt great things for God.
The great missionary of yesteryear,
William Carey, said,
attempt great things for God,
expect great things from God.
Our bulletin has the verse,
Ephesians 3 20,
now unto him that is able
to do exceeding,
abundantly,
above all that we ask or think,
according to the power
that worketh in us.
So we see the exhortation,
go after,
sanctify yourself.
We see the expectation,
tomorrow the Lord
will do wonders among you,
and when we expect
great things from God,
then we ought to attempt
great things for God,
and we ought to attempt
to do something great for God.
And listen,
God is always advancing,
God is always going forward,
God is always moving forward,
and as a result,
if God is going forward,
and we are going after him,
then we should also
be moving forward.
We should have
a great expectation,
great things for God,
expect great things for God,
and attempt great things for God.
So we see the exhortation,
we see the expectation.
Now like you notice
thirdly tonight,
we see the examination,
the examination of the people.
Look at verse 9 there,
the Bible says this,
And Joshua said unto the
children of Israel,
Come hither.
I love this phrase,
this is always a good phrase
for a leader to tell his people,
and hear the words
of the Lord your God.
It's a good phrase
for a spiritual leader
to tell people.
Hear the words of the Lord.
And Joshua said,
look at verse 10,
Hereby ye shall know
that the living God
is among you,
and that he will
without fail.
Now here's what's interesting,
look at this.
He's giving us some
encouraging thoughts,
some encouraging words.
He says,
Tomorrow the Lord
will do wonders among you.
He said,
God is going to do great things.
We are expecting
great things from God
and we are therefore
going to attempt
great things for God
and we're going to know.
He said,
Hereby ye shall know
that the living God
is among you.
And then,
while giving them
this encouraging stuff,
he says something
that is not so encouraging.
He says,
And he will
without fail
drive out from before you.
And then he begins
to list all their enemies.
The Canaanites
and the Hittites
and the Hibites
and the Persites
and the Gergashites
and the Amorites
and the Jebusites.
And let us always remember this,
that when you try to attempt
things for God,
there will always be
those who oppose us.
There will always be the enemies
that we have to fight.
It reminds me of the verse
in the New Testament
where the Apostle Paul says
that there is a great door,
a great door of opportunity.
He says,
There's an open door.
And then he says this,
And there be many enemies.
It's interesting to me
because the way
that I would have said it
if I would have said it
is that there's a great door
of opportunity,
but there be many enemies.
That's how I would have said it.
I think that's how
most of us would say it.
We would say,
Well, there's a great door,
but here's the problem.
There's a great door,
but here's the contrast.
There are enemies.
That's not what Paul said.
Paul said,
There's a great door.
He says,
And there be many enemies.
So what's the difference
between the but and the and?
The but is a contrast.
Here's the great opportunity,
but here's the problem
with the opportunity.
There's enemies.
Paul says,
No.
Whenever there's an opportunity,
there's enemies.
He says,
There's a great door,
and there be many enemies.
We should always remember
that when we step out by faith,
because that's what they're doing,
there will always be those
who try to oppose us.
There will always be the enemies.
Can I just be honest with you
for a couple of minutes?
I'm looking forward
to getting moved over there
and being done
as much as possible
with this building stuff.
Obviously, I know
that the building's not done,
and there's still lots to do,
and I understand that.
But I'll be honest with you.
The last several months
at Verity Baptist Church,
if I could say this
without giving any sort of details,
my wife and I have talked about
the fact that
there's been so many issues
and problems.
Don't misunderstand me.
Not within our church.
I'm just saying
people going through things,
and sometimes it's sin,
and sometimes it's not sin.
It's things that are
out of their control,
but just going through things,
and it just seems like
one thing after another
after another,
and especially historically
here at Verity Baptist Church,
the month of January
has always been
such a peaceful time
because we're reading
nine chapters of eight together,
and it's a peaceful time
and a happy time,
and usually
during the month of January
when I get text messages
and phone calls,
it's always interesting to me
because there's people
asking questions
about the Word of God,
and it's just
showing the fact that
the people of God
are in the Word of God,
and this January
was not that peaceful.
And since October,
it seems like it's just been
one thing after another
after another.
One night,
my wife and I were talking
and just kind of
came to the realization
there's an intensifying
of spiritual warfare here.
We're attempting
great things for God.
There's an open door!
And there be many enemies.
You cannot attempt
to go forward for God.
You cannot attempt
to do something great for God
and not expect God,
not expect the devil,
excuse me,
to resist you,
to try to stop you.
So just understand
that once you cross the Jordan
and you enter into
the new phase of ministry
and with the power of God
and the expectation of God
that right on the other side
will be the Canaanites
and the Hittites
and the Hivites
and the Persites
and the Gergashites
and the Amorites
and the Jebusites.
It's just the way it is.
Look, you try to raise
your children for God,
someone's going to fight you.
You try to have a marriage
that is honoring to Christ,
someone's going to fight you.
You try to preach
the Word of God,
someone's going to fight you.
It's just the way it is.
As we seek to step out by faith,
as we seek to walk through
this great open door,
let us always remember
that there is an open door
and there be many adversaries.
So we see that
they step out by faith.
They go to the brink of the water.
Look at verse 11.
Behold, the ark of the covenant,
the Lord of all the earth
passes over before you into Jordan.
Now therefore take you
twelve men out of the tribes of Israel,
out of the tribe of a man.
And I want you to notice verse 13.
And it shall come to pass.
Look at this.
If you're in the habit of marking your Bible,
I would underline these words,
as soon as.
And it shall come to pass,
as soon as.
Why would you underline that?
Why would you mark that?
Why would you underscore that?
Why would you bring that to our attention?
As soon as.
And here's why I want you to see it.
It says, and it shall come to pass,
as soon as.
Maybe you can mark this
and you put an arrow next to those three words,
as soon as.
Put a little arrow and then write this,
not before.
Not before.
And it shall come to pass,
as soon as.
Notice the words.
The souls of the feet of the priests
that bear the ark of the Lord,
the Lord of all the earth,
shall rest in the water.
When?
Not before.
As soon as.
As soon as the feet rest in the waters.
Look at the last part of verse 13.
That the waters of Jordan shall be cut off
from the waters that come down from above,
and they shall stand upon and heap.
Of course, this is similar to the parting of the Red Sea,
but it's different than the parting of the Red Sea,
because the parting of the Red Sea,
the Red Sea was a sea,
and therefore it was parted,
walls of water on both sides
of the children of Israel as they crossed.
This, the Jordan River,
is a river that flows in one direction,
so God stops it from flowing in one direction.
He cuts off the waters from down from above,
and they shall stand upon and heap,
and the children of Israel cross over on dry ground.
When does it happen?
It happens as soon as.
They step out by faith.
Why is that impactful?
Here's why it's impactful,
because you know what you and I want
is we want to see all the ducks in a row
before we take a step.
We want the plan, and we want God to tell us,
well, here's how it's going to happen,
and here's how it's going to work,
and here's how it's all going to play out,
but that's not how God works,
because God has called us.
Remember, we're saved by faith,
but God has also called us to walk by faith.
Faith is a substance of hope for the expectation,
the evidence of things not seen.
We walk by faith and not by sight.
If God told us everything, how it's going to work out
and how it's all going to play out,
that would require no faith,
but without faith, it is impossible to please Him,
for He that cometh to God must believe that He is
and that He is the rewarder of them
that diligently seek Him.
God wants us to step out in faith.
He wants us to step out by faith,
and oftentimes it is the case
that first we step out by faith,
and then God makes it way, not before.
You want to make some big decision for God
and make some decision and say,
I'm going to trust God and believe God in the Bible,
and I'm going to do this.
Oftentimes we preach the Word of God,
and we tell people this is God's will for your life.
This is what God desires.
God desires, man, that you be the provider in your home
and that your wife not go to work,
and some individual says,
I think I'd like to step out by faith and do that,
and they want God to show them,
well, how are you going to provide?
And God says, no, no, it doesn't work that way.
You step out by faith and then watch me provide.
You take the first step and then watch me work.
That's faith.
First we step out by faith,
and then God makes Himself known.
As soon as, not before.
The soles of the feet shall rest.
That's faith. That's trust.
That's putting your weight on something.
Shall rest in the waters that the waters of Jordan
shall be cut off.
You've heard me preach on this in the past.
I won't have you go to the verses,
but there's other passages in the Scripture
that help us understand this.
Remember the four leprous men in 1 Kings 7?
The Bible says, and they rose up in the twilight.
You don't have to turn there.
2 Kings 7, if you'd like to write it for your notes,
I'll just read it for you.
You go to Luke, if you wouldn't mind, Luke 17.
2 Kings 7 and verse 5, the Bible says this,
and they rose up in the twilight
to go into the camp of the Syrians,
and when they were come to the uttermost part of the camp of Syria,
behold, there was no man there.
Remember the four leprous men?
They said, why sit we here till we die?
If we stay here, we'll die.
If we go there, we'll die.
They said, let's try to do something great for God.
We're going to die anyway.
And the Bible says that they rose up in the twilight.
When they got there, there was no man there.
Verse 6, for the Lord had made the host of the Syrians
to hear a noise of the chariots and a noise of horses,
even the noise of a great horse.
And they said one to another,
lo, the kings of Israel had hired against us,
the king of the Hittites and the king of the Egyptians,
to come upon us.
Wherefore, they arose and fled.
Here's what the Bible says, they arose and fled.
2 Kings 7, verse 5, they, the four leprous men,
rose up in the twilight.
2 Kings 7 and verse 7,
the great host of the enemies arose and fled in the twilight.
When did God disperse the enemy?
When did God send the noise
to drive out the enemies, to clear out the camp
for the four leprous men?
When did God do it?
When they stepped out by faith.
Not before.
That's how it works.
First, we step out by faith.
Then God makes a way.
Luke chapter 17 and verse 14.
Luke 17, 14.
I've got about five minutes.
It's the last service.
Might take a little longer.
Luke 17, 14, the Bible says this,
and when he saw them, he said unto them,
remember these were the ten leprous men,
ten were healed, nine go off,
one comes back and Jesus says,
where are the nine?
That's the story we're looking at.
What one should focus on is when these men were healed.
He said unto them, go show yourselves unto the priest.
And it came to pass.
Jesus said, go show yourself unto the priest.
They weren't supposed to go to the priest.
They weren't supposed to go to anybody.
They were leprous men.
They were supposed to stay away from people.
In fact, when anybody happened to be coming down the road in their direction,
they were supposed to yell,
unclean, unclean, so that people would avoid them because they had leprosy.
But here, Jesus says to them,
go show yourselves unto the priest.
And here's what you and I and someone with an unbelieving attitude would say.
Why would I go show myself to the priest?
I have leprosy.
The priest doesn't want to see me.
The priest isn't going to see me.
They won't let me near the priest.
Jesus says, go show yourself unto the priest.
And it came to pass.
So you're there.
Look at it.
Luke 17, 14.
And it came to pass that, don't miss it,
as they went, not before, as they went,
they were cleansed.
Imagine if they would have never gone.
Imagine if they would have said, well, I'll go once I'm cleansed.
They would have never been cleansed.
But when Jesus said, you go, when they said, we'll go by faith,
we'll step out by faith, we'll start walking in that direction by faith,
believing the words of Christ.
The Bible says, as they went, they were cleansed.
And look, there's lots of things over in that building that I don't know how they're going to,
how it's going to work out.
We need an air conditioning system that's going to be anywhere between $100,000 and $300,000,
and I don't know how it's going to work out.
And I can tell you this, God has not promised us an air conditioner.
We're a bunch of squalid Americans.
I believe that the vision offering will be good, and I think we'll do what we can.
What I'm telling you is this, there's lots of things over on that new property,
a lot of questions, and people have questions, and they ask me questions.
What about this, and what about that, and I think that's a good question.
And I don't have an answer for the question.
I just know this, that as we step out by faith, God makes a way.
We step out by faith, God parts the waters, and God opens doors,
and yes, there are many adversaries.
So we see the exhortation.
We see the expectation.
We see the examination.
God was examining them to see, will you step out by faith?
And the sad part is this, that many Christians come to the brink of their water,
the limit of their understanding, where they then must step out by faith,
believing in God, and believing that God is going to make a way,
and that's where many, as far as many Christians go.
They never see the wonders of God, they never see the great work of God,
because they never step out by faith.
So we see the exhortation, what is it?
Go after it, sanctify yourself.
We see the expectation, tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among us,
and because we expect great things from God, we're going to attempt great things from God.
We see the examination that we first step out by faith, and then God makes a way.
I mean, look, we put an offer on that property without having financing.
And somebody said to me, let's put an offer, and I said, we don't have financing.
And they said, well, let's just put it anyway, and I said, okay.
And we didn't have the financing, and I knew we weren't in the place to get financing.
God just made a way.
I never heard of self-financing $3.6 million that God made a way.
This is the story of the Bible, you just step out by faith.
You just say, let's try it.
You see, God will do what God will do.
So we see the exhortation, we see the expectation, we see the examination.
And then lastly tonight, I'd like you to notice the exoneration.
Look at verse 14.
I love these words.
This is how stories often begin in the Bible, and I like it.
I think it's very poetic.
And it came to pass.
See, up to this point, nothing has actually happened yet.
This is just God telling Joshua, and Joshua telling the elders, the elders telling the people,
tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among us, and we need to prepare and sanctify and go after it.
Don't get ahead of it.
We're going to go to the brink, and then the priests are going to have to, by faith, put their foot in that water.
And when they step out, not before, but as soon as they step into that water,
God's going to part the river, and we're going to go up to this point.
It's all preaching.
It's all illustration, no application.
But then they did it.
They trusted God, and it came to pass.
When the people were removed from their tents to pass over Jordan,
and the priests bearing the ark of the covenant before the people,
and as they bear the ark were come unto Jordan,
and the feet of the priests that bear the ark,
those are the words I love, were dipped in the brim of the water.
By the way, this wasn't just some little flowing river,
some little calm stream.
The Bible says here in parentheses,
for Jordan overfloweth all her banks at the time of harvest.
This was a rushing, mighty river.
If I were the priest that would be looking at Joshua,
you want me to put my foot in that?
You want me to start stepping out in that?
Just start walking in that with this thing?
Remember, God kills people for touching this thing.
They stepped out by faith.
They trusted God.
You know what happens when people trust God?
The Bible's full of this.
The Bible's full of these stories, all these stories.
They're all the same.
Different stories, different people, different characters,
different villains, different heroes.
They all say the same thing.
When you trust God, God always comes through.
Look at verse 16.
That the waters which came down from above stood and rose up upon a heap.
Very far from the city Adom, that is beside Zeratim,
and those that came down toward the sea of the plain.
Even the salt sea failed and were cut off,
and the people passed over right against Jericho.
We see that the people are exonerated.
Exonerated.
I use that word because it means that they've been justified.
They've been validated.
They've been vindicated.
See, up to this point, people have said these are slaves,
and God has done a great work in getting them out of Egypt,
and of course, we had the plagues and the parting of the Red Sea,
but even the enemies could have said,
well, that was just Moses.
Moses was a great man,
but look, it proves that these people are not great
because they've now spent the last 40 years wandering in the wilderness,
but now God does it again.
Not with Moses, but with Joshua,
and they're vindicated.
They're validated.
They're exonerated.
Look at verse 17.
And the priests that bear the ark of the covenant of the Lord.
I love these words.
Stood firm on dry ground.
Stood firm on dry ground in the midst of the Jordan,
and all the Israelites passed over on dry ground
until all the people were passed clean over Jordan.
They stood firm on dry ground.
They stood firm.
When we say somebody is standing firm, they're standing firm on firm ground,
we mean that is the opposite of standing on shaky ground.
Opposite of standing on shaky ground.
When we first came here, talking about this building, in 2016,
many of you were not yet with us.
For many of you, I asked for a show of hands on Sunday.
For many of you, this is the only home of Verity Baptist Church you've ever known.
But for those of you that moved into this property with us,
it seems like a lifetime ago.
You may remember that when we came here to 2016,
I think we all felt like we were on shaky ground.
And honestly, I sometimes wondered if we were even going to make it.
It's hard to explain to someone what we were going through.
Of course, many of you know that we were on the news.
We were being protested.
We were being sued.
Our insurance had dropped us.
Our landlord had chosen to not renew our lease.
Our line giving was being shut down every other week.
And our enemy swore that they would not rest until our church had been destroyed.
The difficult part of that time,
though there was all sorts of things going on,
was the rental situation.
Our church was fine as far as financially.
We had a good crowd back then.
We were running about 100 to 120.
We had a lot of money in the bank.
We had a congregation with about 100 to 120 people in it.
We had lots of money in the bank.
Nobody would rent to us.
Our landlord said that he would not renew our lease.
And literally, this is not an exaggeration when I say it,
and if you were with us during that time, you know I'm telling you the truth.
In the months of July to the end of December,
myself and my wife and Brother Stuckey and some of you men that were with us,
I'm not exaggerating when I say this.
I literally looked at every possible building in this city.
I think I've been in every commercial building in this city.
This week, my wife and I were driving in South Sacramento,
and as we were driving,
she said, do you remember we looked at this building over here?
And it was a beautiful building,
and it was this rent-to-own situation,
and it seemed okay except we got there,
and it was some real charismatic African-type church, which is fine.
We were like, okay, well, they're going to leave,
and we're going to get this building.
Obviously, it was in South Sacramento, and we live in Natomas,
and it was going to be this drive,
but we were literally like, there's nowhere for us to go.
I was contemplating, are we going to have to move the church back into the house?
Back when we were meeting in the house, we started with four people.
We grew it to about 30 people.
Now we're running like 120 people,
and I was thinking like, okay, well, we have like seven services on Sunday,
and we just rotate people through or something.
That's literally, I mean, because they weren't going to let us meet in the park anymore,
and I remember this place.
They were like, oh, yeah, we'll take you guys,
and you can rent, and you can own it, whatever,
and then they had this weird, they're like,
the only thing is that the pastor, you know, he lives in the office,
and you're going to have to rent him the office to live,
and we're just like, yeah, I don't think this is going to work.
And there was all these locked doors and people living in places and whatever,
and it's like, yeah, I don't know.
It was a bad situation.
No one will rent us.
Even this place denied us.
And the only reason that this place took us is because eventually
we kind of came back around to this location,
and I mean, honestly, obviously, we've renegotiated since then and all of that.
We actually have a very good deal now,
but at the time we offered to pay them an additional $1,000 a month for this place
for the hazard of having us,
and it was either that or there was nowhere for us to go.
Of course, we took this building on.
We went from a 4,600-square-foot building to a 5,600-square-foot building,
so it gave us an additional 1,000 square feet.
Then we would obviously expand.
I don't even remember.
We expanded this way and that way and that way,
and we expanded over there and over there,
and every time we expanded we kept renegotiating the deal
and got it better and better and better.
But we were on shaky ground.
It was a very stressful time, a very scary time.
What's interesting, though, is that all those people who said,
You're going to fail.
You can't do this.
We're going to stop you.
There's no test for the rest of your life,
and we're never going to drop this,
and we won't quit until you've died.
I feel like now we're crossing over,
and we've been exonerated.
We've been vindicated.
We've been validated that God was with us.
I would say over the last many years,
and certainly this last week,
I feel like we're standing on firm ground,
dry ground, ready to move into the new phase of ministry.
Our church is not a huge church.
It's not a small church.
Our last Sunday morning service here will go in record
as having 250 people in church on Sunday morning.
That's including the fact that we have several families
in the Philippines on a mission strip.
The last Sunday night service,
I don't remember what the number was,
but I think it was somewhere in the 180s, 190s.
Tonight, our last service on a Wednesday night
in this building, we have 200 people in church.
But we're getting ready to move into a 400-seat auditorium.
I can only imagine what will happen
when we move over in that building and this church,
by God's grace, begins to grow more.
One day, by God's grace, we'll run 300 and 400
on a Sunday morning.
One day, we won't have 120 soul winners.
We'll have 220 soul winners.
We'll continue to grow and continue to expand
and continue to advance forward for the glory of God.
And people will find out.
What I love about that building is it's really iconic.
Every time I bring it up to somebody,
they're always like, oh, yeah, I know exactly.
When I'm like, you know the church building on Norwood
right across from Starbucks?
They're like, I know exactly what you're talking about.
And I just can't wait till that sign goes up.
Verity Baptist Church.
And when people begin to drive down that road
or stop at that Starbucks,
we know how much sodomites like Starbucks.
And as they go down that drive-through,
because when you cross that drive-through
and you're in that Starbucks line,
which could oftentimes be a very long time,
all you can see is that building.
And one day as they look up at that building
and see Verity Baptist Church,
I hope they remember,
wasn't that the church we were going to kill?
Wasn't that the church that was going to die?
Wasn't that the church that was going to die
wandering in that wilderness?
Whatever happened to that church?
I feel like we've been exonerated.
But let us always remember
that God doesn't owe us anything.
So sanctify yourselves.
We can't afford to have sin in the camp.
Go after it.
The goal is God.
The goal has always been God.
I have great expectations.
I believe that tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among us.
And because we expect great things from God,
we ought to attempt great things for God.
But to attempt great things for God,
let's remember that there will always be,
there's an open door,
but there'll be many adversaries.
We'll have to step out by faith,
not before, but as soon as God will make a way.
And God will continue to show who are His people.
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Heavenly Father,
Lord, we do love you.
And Lord, I do thank you for this very Baptist church.
Lord, I pray you'd help us.
I believe that
the greatest days of this church are ahead of us.
I believe that tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among us.
Lord, I pray you'd help us to sanctify ourselves.
Help us to go after the art and the word of God.
Help us, Lord, to love you
and to love your word.
I pray that you'd bless the next few days
as we move, as we prepare to go.
I pray that you'd help us,
that the right people would show up
and help and get things done.
Lord, I pray that you'd continue to bless and help our church.
In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
If it's okay with you, if it's okay with you, Moses,
I'd like to lead the last song in this building,
if that's okay with you.
Let's take our Bibles,
and Miss Julia gave us the option
to sing my wise favorite song,
I Must Tell Jesus,
and to sing my favorite song, It Is Well.
So we'll go ahead and sing page number 145,
if that's okay,
and we'll sing It Is Well with my soul.
And if you remember the ladies sing that first It Is Well,
the men sing that second It Is Well.
Let's sing it out one last time on the first 145.
When peace, like a river,
Attended my way,
When sorrows, like sea,
Bellows roll,
Whatever my lot,
Thou hast taught me to say,
It is well, it is well,
With my soul.
Good ladies, sing it out.
It is well, men,
It is well, with my soul,
With my soul.
It is well, it is well,
With my soul.
145, sing it out on the second.
Though saints and shut,
Though trials should come,
Let this plus the show run's control,
That Christ hath regarded
My helplessest thing,
And hath shed his own blood
For my soul.
Good ladies, it is well,
It is well, with my soul.
It is well, it is well,
With my soul.
Good, sing it like a mighty army on the third.
My sin, all the bliss,
Of this glorious life,
My sin not in part,
But the whole,
Is nailed to the cross,
And I bear it no more.
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord,
O my soul.
It is well,
With my soul.
It is well, it is well,
With my soul.
Good, sing it out on the last.
And Lord, praise the day,
When my fate shall be signed.
The clouds we roll back,
As of storm,
The trump shall resolve,
And the Lord shall be sent.
Even so,
It is well, with my soul.
It is well,
With my soul.
It is well,
With my soul.
Amen. God bless you. Thank you for being here tonight.
Let me just give you some real quick announcements, if you don't mind.
Tomorrow begins the move.
The ladies have already done an amazing job, Monday and Tuesday.
They cleaned, they packed, and they themselves moved.
I didn't expect them to do that. I didn't ask them to do that.
I think they must know their husbands, and they're like,
If somebody's gonna, we just need to get this done.
So they moved a lot.
But there's a lot of big bulky things, all right?
So we need some big strong men, all right?
And if you could come tomorrow, we'll be here at 9 a.m.
You just tell us, what do you need?
You need Krispy Kreme donuts?
Just tell me what you need.
Or maybe you just love the Lord. That'd be good.
9 a.m., if you could help us.
I understand. If you have to work, look, I get it.
But you can go by the clipboard and let us know.
I'll be here after work. Give us the time.
I know some of you guys have commitment issues, but just help us, please.
And we'd appreciate that.
9 a.m., we'll be here till 9 p.m. Thursday, moving, getting things out.
The staff guys will be here, the two staff guys that I've got right now,
and my teen boys will be here.
If you got a teen boy, put him to work.
That'd be a great thing for them to help with.
I would appreciate it if you men could show up and help us.
9 a.m. Thursday, we'll be here till 9 p.m.
So you can come whenever you get off of work.
Some of you guys act like, oh, I don't have time.
Like, really? When we work from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.,
you mean to tell me you work 24-hour shifts?
Really? That's amazing. That's impressive.
You're literally at work every minute of the day.
I don't think so. I don't think you are.
So if you could help us, that'd be great.
9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Friday.
2 p.m. to whenever, Saturday, probably 9 p.m., maybe later.
And if you could help us, we'd appreciate it.
We've got the clipboards back there. Please go by and sign up.
Ladies, you did a wonderful job. Thank you very much.
Many of you ladies sign up for Thursday and Friday as well.
And thank you. We have a lot of cleaning still to do
and organizing to do, and my wife will lead the ladies in regards to that.
I appreciate you, and we love you.
My wife and I love all of you very much. We pray for you.
And I just want to thank you for this great ride we've been on
called Verity Baptist Church this season in this building.
I don't think it's the longest time we've spent in any building
has been this building.
Some of you, this is the only building you've ever known.
I know for my kids, it's not the only building they've known,
but for a lot of them, it's the only building they know,
and for a lot of them, it's the building they mostly remember.
And we're excited about what the Lord will do.
I believe that tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among us.
So we appreciate you. We appreciate you being here.
I'm going to ask Brother Moses to lead us in the final prayer.
And if there's anything we can do for you, of course, please let us know.
God bless you. Thank you for being here tonight.
Father God, thank you so much for this church, Lord.
Thank you for this building and the stuff we've been able to accomplish,
the great memories that we've had here.
I pray that you'd bless us as we move, Lord.
I pray that you'd bless us as we move into our new building.
I pray that you'd bless the next service, and I appreciate it coming.
In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.
In Jesus' name I pray.
.