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Men, this morning I'm preaching on the subject of the parting of the Jordan River, the parting of the Jordan River. This is the less known miracle because we more often think about the parting of the Red Sea and that's as it should be because the parting of the Red Sea is the bigger miracle that's brought up more often in Scripture. But today we're going to talk about the parting of the Jordan River. Now first of all let me point out some of the differences between the parting of the Red Sea and the parting of the Jordan River. When the Red Sea was parted, if you think about it, the children of Israel are fleeing from Pharaoh's army. They've left Egypt after the ten plagues. They've left Egypt and Pharaoh changes his mind and sends his army to pursue after the children of Israel and to destroy them. So the children of Israel get to a point where they're up against the Red Sea and they have nowhere to escape. The wilderness has hemmed them in and they are literally just with their back against the sea, enemy coming toward them, facing certain doom and God parted the Red Sea providing them with a way of escape, a way of salvation, you know, a way of not being killed. And so God of course parts the Red Sea, they cross the Red Sea and then when the Egyptians follow them they end up being in the middle of the sea when God brings the waters back down and drowns Pharaoh and his host. Now the difference with the parting of the Jordan River is that the enemy is not pursuing them when they cross the Jordan River. In fact their enemy is on the other side of the road. They're actually going to the enemy. They're going on the offense. They're crossing the Jordan River to go into the promised land. So one way that you could think about this is that the Red Sea represents salvation because of the fact that they're saved from their physical enemies but you can tie it in with a spiritual salvation of being saved. Of course we're saved through the blood of Christ and the Red Sea, obviously the color red is significant in the Bible. It is often picturing the blood of Jesus Christ that saves us. And so if you think about it, it makes sense that the Red Sea is the bigger miracle because getting saved is the bigger miracle. I mean you want to talk about something that's truly impossible. It's people like us getting into heaven. That's impossible because we have so much sin. We've sinned so much there's none righteous, no not one, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. And the Bible says if thou Lord shouldest mark iniquities, oh Lord who shall stand? But there is forgiveness with thee that thou mayest be feared. If you think about it, when faced with the Red Sea there is absolutely no way that they're getting across that Red Sea without a miracle. Not happening, totally impossible, just as it is completely impossible for us to be saved without a miracle. It has to be a divine act. It has to be the blood of Jesus Christ, his death, burial, and supernatural resurrection that saves us. That's the only way we can be saved. If you think about the Jordan River, you could think of maybe other ways that they could have gone around or even just swim across because even when the Jordan River is overflowing all of its banks, it's not the Mississippi, it's not the Amazon, okay? God still performed an amazing miracle and he got them across on dry ground. But again the Red Sea is the much bigger more tremendous miracle because it represents the bigger more tremendous thing which is being saved. So we never want to de-emphasize the gospel or de-emphasize salvation because that is truly the main thing. You know our job here on this earth even after we're saved is to go and preach the gospel to every creature. So even after we've already got salvation taken care of in our own lives, we're supposed to spend the rest of our lives taking care of that for other people and pointing them to the Savior and getting them across that Red Sea as it were, getting them saved by the blood of Jesus. Now crossing the Jordan River on the other hand represents the victorious Christian life, actually being in the will of God. That's what the promised land represents because if you remember the children of Israel even after they left Egypt, even after they've been saved from Pharaoh and his host and they're out in the wilderness, they're not necessarily happy in the wilderness. They don't want to stay in the wilderness and in fact because of their disobedience they have to stay in the wilderness longer as a punishment. So leaving the wilderness and going into the promised land is living a blessed Christian life, living a Christian life in the will of God, the victorious Christian life because the promised land is a land flowing with milk and honey. It's a land where the grapes of Eshkol grow whereas the wilderness was a place where they're just kind of getting by, just kind of surviving. So you can see what these two different things represent. Now obviously most of us here are already saved and so therefore this is important to us, that crossing of the Jordan River in the sense of living the victorious Christian life, being blessed by God, being in the will of God. That's what we want so we want to cross that Jordan River. So let's look at some things about this miracle and actually before we look down at Joshua 3, let me just point out this as well. Later, centuries later, Elijah is going to part the Jordan River and then Elisha will also part the Jordan River. So this is a miracle that actually takes place on more than one occasion but look down at your Bible there in Joshua chapter 3 verse 1 it says in Joshua rose early in the morning and they were moved from Shittim and came to Jordan. He and all the children of Israel and he 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 you see the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord your God and the priests the Levites bearing it then shall you remove from your place and go after it. Now what is the Ark of the Covenant? It's basically a box or a chest that was created from wood and covered with gold and it has these two staves coming out the sides of it and it was carried on the shoulders by the priests. It's obviously very heavy. Now it's not solid gold or it would be impossible to carry but it's made out of wood and it well you know Joseph Smith could have carried it you know but anyway because he could carry he could carry gold plates that weigh several tons but anyway so they're carrying this thing on their shoulders. It's obviously hard work and they carry the Ark of the Covenant. What's in the Ark of the Covenant? Well the main thing that's in there is the tablets of stone the Ten Commandments right and and so it represents the Word of God okay because of the fact that's why it's called the Ark of the Covenant. What's a covenant? You know covenant is an agreement made between two people and the covenant between God and Israel known as the Old Covenant. This is the Ark of the Covenant so it represents the Old Testament of the Old Covenant so it represents the Word of God. God's Word is his covenant that he made with the children of Israel that's why we call the two halves of the Bible we call it the Old Covenant and the New Covenant Old Testament New Testament because covenant and testament mean the same thing you could call it the Ark of the Testament the Ark of the Covenant the same thing. So when he says when you see the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord your God and the priests the Levites bearing it then ye shall remove from your place and go after it. The first thing that we want to see here because want to apply this to ourselves in 2021 living in the New Testament if the Ark of the Covenant represents the Word of God the Bible is saying that we need to follow the Word of God right so when we see the Ark of the Covenant move forward then we need to remove from our place and follow it. See God's Word calls us to a change a change in our geography a change in our position you know we're sitting in one position and when the Ark moves we need to move and so we might have certain beliefs or certain practices in our life where we sit spiritually God is calling us to change to move to follow the Word of God not to just stay still in our place well well it's just what I've always believed well this is it you know it's just how I've always lived my life God says no you need to move your backside because the Ark is going that way you better go that way so God is calling us here to follow his word and when we see the priests bearing the Ark we think of people that are lifting up the Word of God holding up the Word of God exalting the Word of God this is what every Christian is supposed to be doing because the priest in the Old Testament was only a certain group of people among the Israelites but in the New Testament every single believer is a priest yes you heard me right every single believer is a priest you know sometimes I've been asked like oh are you a priest by people that aren't familiar with being a Baptist you know they're thinking Catholic or whatever and so they ask are you a priest I always say yes I am but the difference is that it's not just me that's a priest because I'm a pastor every church member is a priest if they're saved and that could be male female old young you know we have a street right down the street here that's called priests drive and so he's like oh that's so Catholic I'm like no this is my street you know this is all about us as believers we're the priests because we as Baptist believe in the priesthood of the believer God has made us into a nation of priests and he has made each of us into kings and priests unto God and his father and we shall reign forever and ever and so the priests lifting up the Word of God you know that that's Christians lifting up and exalting the Word of God so that other people can see it and follow it you know if the ark's moving we need to be able to see it moving so that we can know which way it's going right and so that's why I have to lift it up high part of the reason why they're supposed to carry it on their shoulders it's a little bit higher so that people can actually see it that they might follow it and so we want to lift up the Word of God so that other people will be able to follow it we want to let that light shine so the Bible says in verse number four yet there shall be a space between you and it about 2,000 cubits by measure 2,000 cubits is approximately 3,000 feet or a thousand yards okay so we're talking about approximately a kilometer speak American right so you know about two it's like two-thirds of a mile okay but anyway the point is that you know this is they're saying don't get too close to it right when you see the Ark of the Covenant it says in verse 4 there shall be a space between you and it about 2,000 cubits by measure so supposed to stay like think about it a little more than a half mile away from this thing come not near unto it that you may know the way by which you must go for you've not passed this way heretofore now why is he saying to keep this distance he says keep the distance so that you'll know which way it's going the idea here is that if you were following right up real close to the Ark and the thing turns or moves you know you might not catch that right away and you might start getting off on the wrong path right so you know if you're farther away from the thing he says you'll be able to see and know which way you must go because you see the the Ark moving and you can kind of get the big picture of where the Ark's going as opposed to being right up on the Ark and it moves and and you don't catch the turn in time you miss the switchback as it were now what does this represent well he says you've not passed this way heretofore he's saying you're going into uncharted territory you're going somewhere you've never been and so you need the Ark to guide you you don't know which way the Ark's gonna go so stand back far enough to where you can kind of see a big picture of what the Ark's doing so that you can follow it and go to the right destination well I was thinking about this in regard to the future you know the future for us as Christian because this all has a spiritual application the future is unknown it's somewhere that we've never been we don't know the Bible says what a day is gonna bring forth we have no idea and so therefore we need the Word of God to guide us in our lives and to show us where to head now what does this represent this distance that we're supposed to have because you know you think to yourself well shouldn't I want to be as close to the Word of God as I could possibly be shouldn't I want to be as close to the presence of God and and and follow hard after God and just be right there well sure you know that's other symbolism somewhere else but this symbolism means something too what does this represent I'll tell you what I believe it represents I believe it represents the idea of getting the big picture of the Word of God and not getting so close to it that you can't see the forest for the trees what am I talking about I'm talking about churches where literally they'll spend several months studying one chapter and then they're leaving 99% of the Bible unpreached okay and and here this is the biggest mistake people make in their Bible study I believe is that they don't read the whole Bible cover to cover so they don't get the big picture you know and I'm so thankful that when I was a young person my pastor gave me this advice he said read the Bible five times cover to cover before you even think about studying the Bible and today everybody wants to study the Bible they all want to do the deep dive and study and and get into all this deep stuff they want to talk to you about the Greek and the Hebrew they haven't even read the thing in English and they're talking about Greek and Hebrew and and they're talking about all this deep stuff it's like hold on a second have you even read the Bible once and so what they're trying to do they're getting right up against the Ark of the Covenant looking at it with a magnifying glass but they don't even see which direction is going they don't even see the big picture the forest for the trees they're just so focused on the minutiae and I'm telling you when I was in liberal churches this is what they do I'd go to these liberal Bible studies and you would literally spend months or even years in a chapter and they're just going over it like word by word you could spend a whole sermon on one verse with these people it's like I remember I remember going to a 13 week series on Psalm 23 each week was half a verse and we talked you know because there's there's six verses so one verse was kind of an over one week was like an overview or intro and then you literally had each week being a half a verse next week you get the next half of the verse so it took 13 weeks to study Psalm 23 but and you say well that's so great you know to go so deep but people are missing vital nutrients that they need elsewhere in Scripture because you're literally leaving 99% of the Bible and preach while you just go so deep in this one passage in this one thing and and this is what people often do in their Bible study and this is why I recommend that the best kind of Bible for you to own is a Bible that's just the text of Scripture without a bunch of notes and helps in it because I'll tell you this when I was a kid I would read my Bible and it was filled with notes it was a Scofield reference Bible and so it's filled with all these notes and let me tell you something I read every single note I read every single note because what happens is you read along and you're constantly being sent to these notes and then the notes send you on this rabbit trail and I talked to so many people that said like oh you know I can never get through the Bible because you know I I read I get like two verses in and then I have a question then I Google something and then I'm looking up this you know next thing you know it's 2 a.m. and you're on some you know Hebrew Israelite website or something you're listening to some rabbi at 2 a.m. or something and I'm telling and it's funny some people have even said this to me like it was a good thing like oh man I never get very far in my Bible reading because you know it's just there's so much cool stuff to chase it's like whoa there tiger because if you don't see the big picture how are you gonna put things in context you've got to get the big picture and I think that's one of the things that helped me the most as a young person to get the right doctrine was just reading the whole Bible so I took my pastor's advice he said read it five times I said that's what I'm gonna do so I door I was just finishing up my first time so I was like okay next year I'm gonna read it four times covered ever I got to the end of the fifth time and you know what I said at the end of the fifth time I did not say all right now let's study you know I was like I need to read it five more times before studying because it's you know it shows you how much you don't know and how much you don't realize the more you know the more you realize that you don't know that's why some of the most prideful arrogant people are the most ignorant people because the more you learn the more you realize how much there is to learn and how the subject is so big and our lives are so short and we've got to learn all this material you know it's just like whoa it humbles you and so I highly recommend you to read the Bible cover to cover and if you're one that's easily prone to distraction man get yourself a Bible that's just the text of Scripture so it's just you and the Holy Spirit and and no no outsiders now look I'm all for Bible teaching I mean here you are right now on Sunday morning sitting and listening to some Bible teaching and I hope that this is helpful to you I hope that it edifies you and builds you up but here's the thing you need some time in your life with you and the Word of God without Pastor Anderson okay I'm glad you're here with me I'm glad we're all together we're all looking at this together but you know what there needs to be some times where we are by ourselves with the Word of God and not with the internet not with any pastor not with any notes or anything just you and the Word of God reading I didn't say studying I said reading and look even me to this day you know I do way more reading than studying way more reading than studying even at this late date in my Christian life I do a lot more reading than studying because I'd rather get the big picture and read things in context and get what God's saying rather than just start looking at one you know verse with a microscope for weeks and weeks and weeks and lose the big picture I mean think about how many things in life have you ever seen these games or puzzles where they show you a picture of something super duper up close and you have to guess what the object is does anybody know what I'm talking about at all you know what I mean it's like it like super duper up close like what is this and it's it's like a basketball or something but when you zoom in on it it looks nothing like a basketball it's just like these weird bumps or something or they'll you know it'll be the cells of an organism or something and you got to guess what this is you know it's pretty hard to understand what things are when you're you know I mean though it's like the way it's the it's like the way sometimes the Jews read the Bible right they really yeah they hold it too close to their face all right you know you got to put a little space there all right see the big picture but I'm telling you you know that's an important Bible study tip and I believe that's part of what's being signified here you know get get far enough away from the ark to where you can actually see which direction it's going so that you know where to go I would say you know get far enough away from the Bible to where you actually see the whole page we actually see the whole book we actually see the whole Bible and get the big picture because here's the thing you can take verses here and there out of context to teach a work salvation but guess what when you read the whole New Testament you're not gonna walk away thinking salvations by works no way because it just it's so many times the message is being hammered that it's all through faith in Christ that we cannot be saved by our deeds and so forth so you know you got to put a little space there and get the big picture read the entire Word of God everybody's excited about studying the Bible for the same reason why a kid might want to go to a basketball practice and he wants to learn how to dunk right away he goes to a martial arts class and he wants to learn a spinning back fist he hasn't even learned the left jab and the right cross but he wants to do some kind of a spinning jump kick but you know what that is it's childish it's immature mature people understand that everything works off the left jab amen and so that you know that's what a mature person understands and so therefore we know that when you're reading the Bible you know we need to get the basics the big picture and not just be a child that's bored we're bored by the by the Bible but it's like oh you know the Nephilim or you know we get all excited about some internet subject you know or some deep dive into one thing that's you know yeah Ezekiel chapter 1 you know is it is it UFOs and get you know doing a deep dive on the the UFOs of Ezekiel chapter 1 or doing a deep dive any and look hey I'm for you doing a deep dive but come talk to me when you've actually read the Bible five times cover to cover I mean come on you've got to get the big picture at some point you got to see the forest for the trees before you start you know going through all of your numerology and and and Gemetria and all this crazy stuff and you know you'll you'll end up realizing that a lot of that stuff doesn't pan out anyway so let's keep going here in the story it says and Joshua said in the people verse 5 sanctify yourselves for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you now again sanctify what does sanctify mean it means make yourselves holy sanctify yourself sanctify means make holy all these place names in California that have San or Santa in them right Santa Barbara San Diego you know what that means is st. Barbara or st. Diego right so Santa Biblia in Spanish is the holy Bible right so a saint is a person who's holy so sanctify means to make something holy so he says sanctify yourselves for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you you know if we want to see God do wonders in our lives we've got to be holy if we are living an unholy unclean unwholesome life is God gonna do wonders among us no the prerequisite for God doing wonders among you is that you sanctify yourself okay so follow the Word of God and sanctify yourself is what we've seen so far in this passage and follow the Word of God from a distance meaning get the big picture see the actual trajectory of the Ark what you know what's the whole book of Joshua even about what is the New Testament about rather than just hey we're okay week 17 on the Good Samaritan parable alright so here we go it says in verse 6 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 this day will I begin to magnify thee in the sight of all Israel that they may know thee that as I was with Moses so I will be with thee so so God says to Joshua today I'm going to begin to magnify you in the sight of all the people now after God miraculously parts the Jordan River and they cross on dry land look what the Bible says in chapter 5 or sorry chapter 4 flip over to chapter 4 chapter number 4 the Bible says in verse 14 this is after the fact it says on that day the Lord magnified Joshua and the sight of all Israel and they feared him as they feared Moses all the days of his life and the Lord spake unto Joshua saying command the priests that bear the Ark of the testimony that they may come up out of Jordan and so forth and then jump down if you would let's see is that that you know what that is the verse I was looking for so the Lord magnified Joshua in the sight of all Israel and they feared him as they feared Moses all the days of his life okay now here's what's so interesting about this idea of Joshua being magnified in chapter 3 and then again in chapter 4 retrospectively God magnified Joshua in the eyes of all the people and as a result of this event of crossing the Jordan River on dry land they feared Joshua for the rest of their lives just as much as they feared Moses they feared Joshua what's interesting about this is that Joshua didn't really do anything here in this story because if you think about it when you know Moses parts the Red Sea you know he holds up the rod and then the Red Sea parts whoa you know God parted the Red Sea Moses held up the rod if you think about Elijah he smites the Jordan River and it parts you know Elisha takes the mantle of Elijah and smites the river and says where's the Lord God Elijah and it parts and when people saw that with Elijah when they saw that with Elisha when they saw that with Moses they had great respect for these men of God because they wow look at this amazing miracle that God used them to perform what's interesting here with Joshua is that he doesn't actually do anything the way that this miracle actually takes place is that the priests are carrying the ark on their shoulders and remember the ark is the leader they're supposed to stay back from the ark you know about a thousand yards or whatever we calculated approximately stay back a thousand yards from it and the way this miracle actually took place is that the priests carrying the ark on their shoulders they walked into the Jordan River they had to take a step of faith as well because when they stepped into the river it hadn't been parted yet and the Bible says the moment that the soles of their feet touched the river boom that's when it parted away from them so they stepped out in faith carrying the ark the water parts and then the Ark of the Covenant is carried halfway into the river and they stop with the ark okay because basically the water is parting for the ark and so as long as the ark is in the river the water remains parted as soon as they take the ark out the water comes back so basically the priests they carry the ark into the river on their shoulders they get halfway across the river and they stop and then everyone else passes by them you know everybody else walks by while they stand firm in the middle holding the ark everybody's flooding by them on both sides until all the people get across and once the entire nation is across I mean it's probably took many many hours of standing there and holding this thing as everybody crosses and then once they get across then the Levites themselves leave with the ark and as soon as the ark leaves the water comes back okay so that's how this miracle took place but what's interesting is that Joshua doesn't have any dramatic role to play here you know he's not the one that actually puts his foot in the water it's not like Joshua you know walked on water or something or Joshua put his foot down and then it parted it's actually someone else it was the priests that went into the river so how does this magnify Joshua in the side of all the people well here's why because of the fact that Joshua is the new leader Moses is the old leader he died and now they've got new leadership Joshua and it's just simply the fact that God performed this great miracle while Joshua's in charge even though he's not the one actually doing it just the fact that he's their new leader and he's giving orders and then this happens it's sort of like God putting his stamp of approval on Joshua showing just as I was with Moses I'm gonna be with Joshua and that's what we saw in chapter 1 of Joshua I preached about it a few weeks ago about how you know Joshua was told I'm gonna be with you just like I was with Moses and that's what the people said they said look we want to follow you just like we followed Moses but just be courageous and so Joshua is magnified in the side of the people simply by the miracle that takes place on his watch even though he's not really the one who does it and the thing that I would take from this is that when it comes to godly leadership the person who is the leader or the personality isn't really the most important thing he's not the focus right so you know I'm the leader of this church in the sense that I'm the pastor of the church I'm the overseer I'm the bishop as the Bible will call it and so I'm the pastor of the church but here's the thing this church is not about Stephen Anderson okay and the greatest works that are done in the church may not necessarily even be done by Stephen Anderson right there could be other great works that are being done by other members of the church by other members of staff by laypeople they might take trips and do great exploits for the Lord and and day in and day out all of us are doing works for the Lord everybody's got a role to play it's not the Stephen Anderson show okay it's about the Lord it's about the Word of God it's about the Ark of the Covenant and really anyone who's lifting up the Word of God has a key role to play so it's not about Joshua's personality his charisma he doesn't have to say anything cool and and slap the water with a with a rod or a mantle or hold something up or do something big because it's not about the man but that being said we must have godly leadership so Joshua is important I don't want to downplay Joshua here he's important but he's not important because of his personality or because he's Joshua or whatever because here's the thing Joshua can be replaced just like Moses could be replaced Moses is replaced with Joshua same God same mission same Ark of the Covenant so the point is that leadership is vital to the work of God we must have godly leadership but we don't want all of the emphasis to be on that godly leader we just need to have that godly leader follow that godly leader but don't make it about him and this story is not about Joshua but still people walk away with the right attitude toward Joshua saying hey this is our godly leader that he gave us we know Joshua is legit things are happening according to God's promise and so Joshua has the stamp of God's approval but it doesn't mean that it's all about him personally it's more about the position that he's in or about the role that he's in it's sort of like the Apostle Paul said these words I magnify my office notice he didn't say I magnify myself you magnify himself he's magnifying the Lord but he magnified his office you know he understood that the position that he filled was important it was critical and he needed to take it seriously and do a good job and look today my friend we need to understand that godly leadership is essential because today we live in a world and in a nation where people are rebellious today they have just a rebellious attitude books and movies are constantly teaching them to be rebellious and therefore people are rebellious when they go to their job they're rebellious when they go to school and guess what they're rebellious at church too because they just have this nobody's gonna tell me what to do kind of attitude and let me tell you something it's not biblical rebellion is as a sin of witchcraft and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry you have people that are rebellious against their parents because they don't like being told what to do you know mom I don't need you to tell me what you know what you need to respect your mom and dad and not talk back to your parents about you don't need them to tell you this and you don't need them yes you do and you know what we all need leadership in our lives and our country today is starving for leadership spiritually you know there's so many just weak leaders and weak pastors and nobody knows where to go nobody knows what to do because they're getting an uncertain message from the trumpet they don't go to battle they don't know which way to head because everything's so vague and unclear we need strong leadership in the homes of America we need men who will stand up and lead their family spiritually and inspire them to want to serve God we need pastors that will lead the church and inspire the church to want to serve God we need men who will stand up and be a Joshua that would lead people into the Promised Land and lead people into the victorious Christian life and today people say like oh you know I'm getting away from churchianity you're an idiot if you use that word you're complete idiot because God is the one who ordained the local church and purchased it with his own blood so here's God purchasing the church with his own blood and your churchianity it's blasphemy to mock God's institution because you want to be at home eating chips off your chest watching a live stream doing a deep dive on UFOs and Ezekiel chapter 1 instead of actually joining the local church and doing some real work for God hey we need to be serving God in God's institution the local church Christ purchased the local church and you say well church church in the building I know church in the building it's us and church is an assembly the word church it's so easy to prove this all day long church means congregation church means assembly guess what is an assembly a building no is a congregation a building no but is a congregation us when we're all separate by ourselves no so when people are like well we're the church that could be misunderstood right now are we assembled right now so are we the church right now yeah we're the church right I mean here we are we're congregated where the church not the building it's us but here's the thing if I'm out at the lake next week and I'm not here I can't just be out on the lake with my fishing pole like well you know hey this is church right here man I'm in the church right here churches the people man I mean I knock on people's doors out soul-willing and I invite them to church like well we're in church right now man because we're talking about Jesus wrong nowhere will you find that definition of church in Scripture people talking about Jesus at a doorstep is not church you say well what are two or three are gathered together okay please show me the verse in the Bible that says where two or three are gathered together it's church is that what it says no it says where two or three are gathered together there am I in the midst of them does that make it church though hey you know what Jesus was with Shadrach Meshach and Abednego in the fiery furnace was that church no that wasn't church was it that's quite that's some red-hot preaching that's a church that church is on fire for God that's not church Christ is in my heart that's still not Church Church is assembly and let me say this if the assembly doesn't matter then why did God have two whole chapters in the New Testament talking about qualifications for pastors and deacons if church is just a couple of guys hanging out and talking about the Bible and I see these dumb memes on on Facebook it's not even worthy to be called a meme it's not even a meme it's just a dumb picture on Facebook it shows like a picture of like seven adults sitting around in chairs in a circle and then it shows a picture of like something like this what we have going right here and it shows a picture of what we have here like a congregation with hundreds of people and it says this is not church and then it shows that the people in a circle it says this is church so you know I saw somebody who's one of our type of people made a response to it they showed a picture where it was flipped around it said this is an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting and this is church okay and they'd flipped it around and I'm thinking myself it's so accurate because it's so dumb I mean they literally people post those pictures they've got like seven adults around in a circle or like it'll be like six dudes in a living room and I'm thinking like where are the women where are the children where are the families how is this church just six dudes sitting around the coffee table hey look I'm all for people getting together and studying the Bible amen you know hey you want to get together with your buddies and study the Bible hey it sure beats going to the bar and getting drunk every night go study the Bible as much as you want and get together and study the Bible with other people as much as you want but don't say that that's church or that that's a substitute for church because it's not in the local church you've got leadership right God spent all this time telling you about the bishop and the deacon well so that we could not have one it doesn't even make sense okay we gather together as an assembly and we are greater than the sum of our parts because all of us would be doing less for God if we were not a part of this church if I were out on my own I would be doing less for God if you were out on your own you'd be doing less for being in church makes us do more we are greater than the sum of our parts by coming together in God's institutional local church leadership matters I just realized there's no clock on the wall so I better pay attention here I could I could just get carried away you know I could just keep going but but the point is that godly leadership is critical especially in the day we're living 2021 I mean we've got to have leaders we need some strong leadership but in 2021 America the spirit that prevails is one of rebellion it's one of rebellion it's just I'm gonna do my own thing nobody's gonna tell me what to do I'm my own man and and this is permeated into Christianity like well I don't follow anyone I just follow God I only follow Christ you know what that's a foolish and immature attitude because the Apostle Paul said follow me as I follow Christ he said be followers of me he and then he tells one church in Thessalonica he says ye became followers of the churches of God which in Judea are in Christ Jesus you know the church in Thessalonica are following the churches in Judea so one church is following another church's example you know they're following their lead one man following another man's lead Titus is following Paul and Timothy's following Paul that's good we need leader and look oh and again if you actually read the whole Bible cover to cover you'd know this because what do you see when you read the Old Testament leaders it's a story about leader leadership Lee I mean you got leaders like Abraham leaders like Jacob you've got leaders like Moses leaders like Joshua and then what's the book of Judges about might as well be called the book leaders somebody you know every time there's a good leader things are going good bad leader things go bad that's what the book of Judges is about and then what happened what happens when you get into first second Kings for a second Samuel those type of books now we're talking about leaders Kings different kind of leader and then we get into the prophets and here's what I noticed about the books of the prophets are all named after somebody Isaiah Jeremiah Ezekiel Daniel oh you're putting too much emphasis on man quit falling bill Hosea Joel Amos church the entity a you're falling pastors a fallen man Jonah Micah Nahum Habakkuk these are the names of the books of the Bible what Bible are you reading God uses leadership now we don't want to make it about the leader we don't want to worship the leader we don't want to lift up the leader want to lift up the Word of God but the leader plays a part in our lives leaders have a role and you know what a humble person has no issue following someone else's example or following a leader following their parents and you know it shows how mature you are when you can actually start listening to and obeying your parents you think you're showing how mature you are when you start calling your parents by their first name and doing what you want and telling them that you don't have to listen to them no you're showing the opposite mmm you're showing how immature you are you're showing how insecure you are you have to prove some point you know I'm all grown up you know it's funny I'm 39 years old so I don't go around saying I'm a grown-up dang it you know I know it's I'm not little is now that's what kids say don't they isn't that what kids say say I'm not little I'm not a baby I'm not a child right so I'm 39 I'm just like I'm not little I'm not a baby I'm not a child and you know what's funny is that you know little kids they enjoy little kid stuff and then when they get a little older they're kind of too cool for that stuff you know but then like once you're an adult you can kind of enjoy that little kid stuff again because you don't really care what people think so you know you'll take your kids and you take them to like the little fun the little part of Legoland that's for little kids yeah you're having fun you're playing with the little kids and stuff and you're not just kind of like oh I mean I'm just doing this for them you know you're secure enough to say like hey I enjoyed that I was fun I like that because you don't have anything to prove and here's the thing it's it's immature spiritually when you have this attitude of I don't need to listen anybody I don't need five I'm just following Jesus you know that's it no you're not because Jesus gave you pastors teachers evangelists you know the Bible says God gave those gifts to the church those are gifts from Jesus to help edify you so you don't have to always prove how independent you are people are constantly proving how independent they are it's probably because they're not independent you know the these pastors are oh we're independent now worried about so independent we gotta be independent you know what let me just tell you something it's because they're not independent it's because they're depending on someone else and they don't like the fact that they're depending on someone else they don't like the fact that they're reliant upon someone else so then they have to make some big deal about how independent they are whenever people just walk up to you out of the blue and tell you what they're not doing unsolicited it'd be like if I walked into my house and one of my kids said I didn't need any cookies you know what I mean it says people that are insecure they have to make this big deal and and and make a big show about how independent they are folks let's just be mature let's let's be secure and understand that godly leadership has a role in our lives and it we don't want to go too far in either direction we don't want to lift up the leader we don't want to worship the leader we don't want to exalt the personality or the person himself but we do want to understand the importance of having a leader and that's what I think we get from the chapter because of the fact that Joshua isn't the star of the chapter he doesn't really do anything he doesn't really participate firsthand in the miracle but yet the miracle happens and people acknowledge we should follow Joshua because following Joshua got us to this point where we could see this great miracle even though it wasn't Joshua doing it we got here let's keep following him so I think that's a great thing to learn from this passage so God magnifies Joshua on the side of all the people so that people would know at the end of verse 7 there in chapter 3 that they may know that as I was with Moses so I will be with thee we don't even really know that much about Joshua's personality I mean we got a book called Joshua but how much do we really know about Joshua's personality not not much we know a lot more about Moses right because we we get to see a lot more intimate things with Moses you know praying and and it's just a much longer story Joshua we don't I mean we know we know some things about him but it's not really that important what his personality was it's it's more just the pattern of following the Lord following God's Word having courage that's what we need to do we don't need to wear our hair like Joshua or eat the foods that Joshua enjoys but what we need to do is just have the faith and the the spiritual components that Joshua had so let's let's finish this up here quickly it says in verse number eight and thou shalt command the priests that bear the Ark of the Covenant we're in chapter 3 of Joshua saying when you come to the brink of the water of Jordan you 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 Girgashites and the Amorites and Jebusites behold the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord of the of all the earth passeth over before you into Jordan and so again it's the Ark that's crossing Jordan and it says in verse number 15 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 overflow with all his banks all the time of harvest that the waters which came down from above stood and arose up upon and heap very far from the city Adam that is beside Zeratim and those that came down toward the sea and of the plain even the salt sea failed and were cut off and the people passed over right against Jericho and the priests that bear the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord stood 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 and so this is the miracle that God does but the actual actors here are not Joshua but rather the priests that are holding up the Ark and the Bible says that they stood firm they stood on dry ground they stood in the midst so that everyone else could pass by and you know what I guarantee that was hard work to do that because just holding something on your shoulders that one and and you know I was talking about this earlier and somebody said well maybe they did it in shifts but even if they did it in shifts that's still hard work because you still got to do a shift and you know just standing there and holding something heavy like that and here's the thing lifting up the Word of God today in 2021 nobody said it was gonna be easy it's simple it's so what you know what I do what we do as a church here it's not complicated you know sometimes people have you know asked me like what's the secret you know it's just like it's not complicated it's just hard you know what I mean it's it's simple you'd all you got to do is just stand there but you got a big heavy ark on your shoulders that's the Christian life you know you got to stand your ground you got to endure you got to keep going but it's it's really not complex what you have to do and so these priests that are lifting up the Word of God you know they picture every Christian every man woman boy or girl who steps out in faith right because the first thing I do is put their feet in the water we step out in faith we decide we're gonna live the Christian life we lift up the Word of God and we stand our ground because as soon as you lift up the Word of God then there's gonna be a challenge there you know it might a challenge might come from friends it might come from family but they're gonna be challenges to try to get you to stop you know that you can think of it as the the cramp or the charlie horse or the you know just just the fatigue of standing there holding that weight but we as Christians need to stand our ground endure and lift up the Word of God and why are we lifting up the Word of God is it for ourselves we're already there man we're already on the dry ground we lift up the Word of God so that other people can get across right so you know if I'm if I'm standing in the midst of Jordan holding up the Ark of the Covenant it's because I want other Christians to live a victorious Christian life I want other Christians in the Promised Land I want other Christians being blessed I want other Christians being in that land of milk and honey not just like well I'm on dry ground see you suckas and we just cross and just walk across and just you know and just leave everybody else back there no we want everybody to get across right and so we hold up the Word of God we endure the pain we endure the toil and the sweat of holding up the Word of God in 2021 so that other people can be blessed so that other people can grow that other people can learn the Word of God we need to be like those priests of God in this chapter lifting up the Word of God and you know what who told them to go into the river Joshua so what are they doing they're following leadership you know they're following the commandments here they're following and and what are they lifting up they're lifting up the Word of God they're exalting what needs to be exalted God's Word and today and today even Baptists are sometimes criticized for making too much of the Word of God we're guilty we're guilty because we do make a big deal about the word you know I just gave somebody the gospel the other day and and then they literally said to me like well I just don't think that you know I'm just not gonna base everything I believe on a book and you know what I said to that I said I am I'm gonna base what I believe on this book I mean is this all in that book yes it's all in this book and we're following a box we're following a box on two sticks yes we are because it's got God's Word in it represents God's Word God's Word is the authority and look the pastor is not the final authority the Word of God is the final authority it doesn't mean we don't need pastors it doesn't mean pastors don't have a role in our lives but at the end of the day this is the boss and this is the real source of the miracle and even when Elijah did do something dramatic and smite the water and what this was still the source of the miracle every single time let's buy it's not what a prayer father we thank you so much Lord for this great story about parting of the Jordan River Lord we all have a Jordan River in our lives that's that's keeping us out of the Promised Land keeping us from that victorious Christian life keeping us from the blessings that you have for us Lord help us to have the faith to follow those who are lifting up the Word of God and to step out in faith so that we can enter that Promised Land by following your word Lord help us to be standing far enough away to where we can actually see the direction that your word is pointing us Lord and help us to go that direction and follow people that are taking us in that direction in Jesus name we pray amen