Wet Feet & God's Glory

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From Joshua 3 we see two foundational principles for bold Christian living. If we desire to live bold Biblica lives, we must Consecrate Ourselves & Get Our Feet Wet.

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Introduction

Opening Illustration

How does a person grow? How does a person change? How does godliness get formed in a Christian’s heart and life? There are many facets of Christianity, many disciplines that are vital to develop if you want to grow. Community. Friendship. Prayer. Study. These habits are tried and true habits of the heart, that if you commit your life to developing and strengthing these habits, the Lord will develop fruit in you. Inward fruit of a life lived honestly for Christ, and outward fruit of many others around who are lifted up and brought deeper into fellowship with God because of your influence.

There is one rather neglected element of growth that I would like to lazer in on today. And that is the willingness to be stretched beyond your comfort for the sake of the glory of God. I’ve shared with this Church many times, that one of the greatest changes in me as a person and in my life as a follower of Christ was the decision of my wife and I’s to listen to the Spirit’s prompting and step into the world of becoming Foster Parents and eventually Adoptive Parents of two beautiful little girls. I remember thinking at the time, “We already have one of our own. Life is sweet. Why would I bring the challenges that I know are associated with Foster Care and Adoption into our life.” And over and over again, the Lord’s response was the same. “Because I’ve called you to it.” Stepping into those challenges, over the last five years, has been both some of the most difficult and challenging life work I’ve ever done. In foster and adoptive care you enter into a world of lawyers and judges, of trauma, of attachment difficulties, of long nights and many prayers for help. At the same time, it has been some of our greatest joys and deepest growth in Christ. Some of our deepest reflections on the grace of the gospel. Some of our greatest opportunities to witness for Christ.

Personal

My point in sharing that is to make the simple but often neglected case that the God of the Bible has not called us as Christians to a life of complacency. Rather he has called us to a life of sacrifice and adventure, that if we are willing to follow will produce an eternal fruit. As we begin today I want to ask you a poignant question. Is there any sacrifice in your Christianity? Is there any stretching in your Christianity? Is God ever asking you to step boldly out of the places and spaces where you already feel confident? If the answer is no, I pray today He the Lord might this message to stir the pot of your life a bit, and to call you into something a bit more radical. Regular Biblical Christianity is bold. It is not passive or weak. But many of us have never experienced the boldness and wonder of it all.

Context

We’re going to be studying an interesting little passage today out of Joshua chapter 3. In this passage, the people of God in the Old Testament have escaped from slavery in Egypt, and because rampant sin and grumbling God has made them spend 40 years as a people wandering through the desert, until the entire first generation that were part of the crowd that had walked out of Egypt passed away. Now, they have a new leader — Joshua who has replaced Moses. And they’re standing on the brink of the Promised Land. For forty years they have heard that God would lead them to this land. For forty years they had prayed for the day when they would arrive in the land that flowed with milk and honey. And hear they are, an entire nation of wanderers and escaped slaves, now standing at the shore of the Jordan River. The Jordan River, depending on the season can roar like the Mississippi or trickle like backyard creek. On this particular day, it was roaring like the Missisippi. We read in verse 15:

Joshua 3:15 “…(now the Jordan overflows all its banks throughout the time of harvest),”

So our context, the Jordan River is raging, and God has called them to cross the river as an entire nation, and go conquer the Promised Land. Their eager for God’s promises, but there’s no simple way to cross the river. Two principles for bold Christian Living

Principle 1: First, Consecrate Yourselves

Let’s pick up our story as the Israelites are camped out on the shore of the Jordan River. We Read:

Joshua 3:1-6 “1 Then Joshua rose early in the morning and they set out from Shittim. And they came to the Jordan, he and all the people of Israel, and lodged there before they passed over. 2 At the end of three days the officers went through the camp 3 and commanded the people, “As soon as you see the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God being carried by the Levitical priests, then you shall set out from your place and follow it. 4 Yet there shall be a distance between you and it, about 2,000 cubits in length. Do not come near it, in order that you may know the way you shall go, for you have not passed this way before.” 5 Then Joshua said to the people, “Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you.” 6 And Joshua said to the priests, “Take up the ark of the covenant and pass on before the people.” So they took up the ark of the covenant and went before the people.”

Here are the people of God preparing to do something that will certainly be a major change in their life. But their first obstacle is that they need to get across the roaring Jordan River. And before the Lord has them do anything, they are told to “consecrate themselves.” What did that mean? For the Israelites there were certain practices that they would have done to prepare themselves for a profoundly spiritual event in their life. It would have involved rituals like cleaning, and praying, and reflecting on God’s Word. The exact details of what they did to prepare for this great work of God are unknown. But the point is that each individual, each family, the religious leaders and civic leaders, were communally preparing themselves for God to do the extraordinary among them.

Mistake 1: We Want to Do Great Things for God

I think we make two mistakes on this front in our modern day, and they’re related. Some of us in this room want to do great things for God. We have it in our minds that we want to rush ahead and build ministries, go out and get do extraordinary things. I find myself in that category often. That heart has all sorts of zeal inside of it, but it is untrained in the things of God. It is not our job to do extraordinary things for God. Rather, it is God’s perogative to do extraordinary things for us. That is precisely what he is doing for Israel in this passage. He is going to lead them across the Jordan River and into the Promised Land where they will overcome every enemy. But notice their role is not utterly passive. They don’t sit and do nothing and just expect miracles to happen around them. They first consecrate themselves. I read one pastor this week who said, “Consecration means dethroning yourself and enthroning Christ.” I like that. Whatever this process was that they went through, it involved a process of mentally and prayerfully submitting their hearts and their minds to their God.

Practically We Must Consecrate Ourselves

Practically this means that if you want to live a life that experiences the fullness of Christ working in you and through you, you must make a habit of consecrating yourself. You must work at those age old fundamentals of studying your Scriptures in order to know God. Of setting aside time to commune with God, to pray, to reflect on God’s goodness and His character. One of the great failures of the modern Church is that we forsake prayer for action, not realizing that all the power in our action is built through our prayer.

Illustration: Praying Missionary Article from Dave Start of Covid

I recall when Covid began I read an article from a missionary who told the story that years ago he was ministering to a village way up in remote mountains. One winter was incredibly snowy and dangerous and the missionary got cut off from the entire village, for the entire winter. He immediately began preparing to make very dangerous, perhaps deadly, trip through the snow in order to get to the village. But the Lord stopped him. And instead he committed that entire winter to praying for that village. He said that when the snow melted and he made his way to the village, the little Church he had planted had multiplied exponentially. The power of our ministry is in the prayer.

Mistake 2: We Fail to Live With the Urgency of Scripture

The second mistake is related. Many of us fail to see the urgency in the work Christ has called us to. And our neglect of Consecration, or prayer, and chasing hard after Christ, is a neglect that is mostly driven by an attitude that says, “I’ll get to it later.” But look at these Israelites. They know the mission at hand. Tomorrow they cross the river. Why not wait until the flood season is over? They’ve already waited 40 years. Why can’t they wait another few months? Because the Lord instructed them otherwise. They cannot wait until tomorrow to consecrate themselves, because tomorrow a miracle’s going to happen. Today is the day for consecration, in order that they might properly be able to wait expectantly on the Lord.

Church — We must live with a hungry urgency for the issues at hand. If you are a follower of Christ, the call on your life is to find yourself wrapped up in the Mission of God. Jesus established the Kingdom, and it is growing right now by the power of His Spirit. But across the globe there remains over 1.5 billion people who do not know the name of Jesus. Here in this city of Chicago, the statistics are not good, the need for an urgent spirit is now. The Israelites mission was to enter the Promised Land and to take it, and trust the God would give them victory, and to do it with urgency. Likewise, our mission is build the Kingdom of Christ, by winning souls to Christ, by discipling people into mature walks with Christ. There is no time to waste in this. Jesus warns us:

John 4:35-36 “35 Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, then comes the harvest’? Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are white for harvest. 36 Already the one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together.”

Principle 2: Second, Get Your Feet Wet

The second principle of living a faith filled life is that every step of faith is filled with unknowns.

Joshua 3:7-13 “7 The Lord said to Joshua, “Today I will begin to exalt you in the sight of all Israel, that they may know that, as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. 8 And as for you, command the priests who bear the ark of the covenant, ‘When you come to the brink of the waters of the Jordan, you shall stand still in the Jordan.’ ” 9 And Joshua said to the people of Israel, “Come here and listen to the words of the Lord your God.” 10 And Joshua said, “Here is how you shall know that the living God is among you and that he will without fail drive out from before you the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Hivites, the Perizzites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, and the Jebusites. 11 Behold, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth is passing over before you into the Jordan. 12 Now therefore take twelve men from the tribes of Israel, from each tribe a man. 13 And when the soles of the feet of the priests bearing the ark of the Lord, the Lord of all the earth, shall rest in the waters of the…”

I’ve always found this passage fascinating. The leaders of Israel are commanded to go down to the Jordan River and wade into the roaring rapids of the Jordan River. God commanded them to get their feet wet. And it was only after they would step into the river and get their feet wet that God would do a miracle in their midst. God did not tell them to rest in their tents while he performs the miracle. He did not tell them to stand on the shore. God instructed them to get in the water.

Why Did God Instruct This?

Why did God work this way? Well I’m not God, but I have a guess. What God is about to do is he is about to remind the people of God that the very same God that parted the Red Sea under Moses’ leadership, is the very same God who leads them now. He hasn’t changed. He was able to part the Red Sea, and He is able to part the Jordan River. The challenge of course is that all of the people who had walked through the Red Sea and seen that miracle with their own eyes have all died off in the wilderness. And there is a generation now that only knows the stories, they never saw it with their own eyes. And so God is about show them His strength, His awesome power. And so they’re instructed to demonstrate their faith and trust in God. In other words, Joshua is looking at a generation that is living on the faith of the stories that they haven’t seen with their own eyes and he says, “If you want to see it with your own eyes, then you have to step out in faith the way your parents did.”

They Didn’t Know

Notice — they didn’t know exactly how this was going to work. All they knew was the command. “Go, step into the Jordan River. Be faithful. Trust God. He will work.” They didn’t know how it would work. All they knew was that God was asking them to be faithful with knowing all the details.

Joshua 3:14-17 “14 So when the people set out from their tents to pass over the Jordan with the priests bearing the ark of the covenant before the people, 15 and as soon as those bearing the ark had come as far as the Jordan, and the feet of the priests bearing the ark were dipped in the brink of the water (now the Jordan overflows all its banks throughout the time of harvest), 16 the waters coming down from above stood and rose up in a heap very far away, at Adam, the city that is beside Zarethan, and those flowing down toward the Sea of the Arabah, the Salt Sea, were completely cut off. And the people passed over opposite Jericho. 17 Now the priests bearing the ark of the covenant of the Lord stood firmly on dry ground in the midst of the Jordan, and all Israel was passing over on dry ground until all the nation finished passing over the Jordan.”

I believe that God was teaching them a very great lesson that they were going to need on their future journeys. And the lesson is one that we need desperately today. It’s a lesson about utter dependence on God. By making those Israelites step into the murky waters of the Jordan River they were stepping into a scenario which they could not control. They were stepping into forces and currents much stronger than their legs could withstand. These steps into the Jordan River were the first steps they would be taking into the Promised Land, and God would not have them take those steps in any other way than utter dependence on His might and His power to provide. He needed to get their hearts to a place where they said, “Unless God goes before us and does something remarkable, we are doomed. We cannot do this on our own.” Every great spiritual work in our lives requires total dependence on God.

God Regularly Works This Way

This is How God Consistently Deals with his People

The Bleeding Woman: Consider the woman who had the issue of bleeding for twelve years. For twelve years she cried and cried and spent all of her money on physicians to no avail. When she was bankrupt and hopeless, she did the only thing she could imagine could possibly help her at that point, she touched the fringe of Jesus’ robe, hoping that somehow He could do what she could not.

Abraham’s Dagger: Or shall we talk of Abraham as he held the dagger to sacrifice Isaac his son in obedience to God’s Word. It wasn’t until the dagger was above his head ready to plunge that God said, enough, leave the boy.

Cultural Lie: Risk-Free Christianity

Modern Christians hate to get their feet wet. We hate to actually step out in faith and not have all the answers, but just cling to God’s Word and say, “He’s enough.” We hate to feel the current against our feet, a current that if we were left by ourselves would drown us. And so we stay out altogether. Oh Church! We stay out of the water. You have heard me preach against this so often but it bares repeating over and over again. Most modern Churches are designed to embrace Risk-Free Christianity. No risk. No sacrifice. No blood. No sweat. No early mornings. No late nights. No tears. We don’t step into the water. And then we wonder why we never see any miracles.

Do You Ever

Do you ever read the Bible and read the stories and say, “Why don’t I see anything like that in my life?” Do you ever read the stories and say, “There seems to be a big disconnect between what the Bible says this ought to look like, and my experience.” And what I want to tell you today is that if you never get you never truly consecrate yourself, and you never get your feet wet, your never going to experience all the Lord has called you to. You don’t need all the answers. There will always be unknowns, such is faith! But I will say it again that Every major instance of growth in my life has come when I was willing to get my feet wet.

Illustration: Older Gentleman at Men’s Group

Recently I spoke at a Men’s Breakfast to a group of men out in the Suburbs. When I was done, one older man (probably close to his 60s) raised his hand. He said, “I came here to this group today after decades of walking away from my faith and neglecting my faith.” He said, “But seeing this group of men and the hunger you have for your faith, I don’t want to waste one more second. I want to be all in.”

The Gospel

Perhaps you’re in here this morning thinking similar thoughts to that older man. You’re saying, “I’ve wasted so much time living a timid Christianity. I’ve never really commited myself to prayer and stepped out into the water.” Some of you might even know the specifics of the step of faith God has been inviting you to take for a long time. Let me tell you some good news. The moment you placed your faith in Jesus Christ, your sins were forgiven you in full. Every moment of weakness and every failure had its full payment paid by your savior Jesus Christ on the cross. If you’re a Christian, God is not looking at you thinking ‘What a disapointment.’ He is seeing in you the blood of Jesus Christ which covers every sin. And the beauty of the gospel is not only that your sins are forgiven in full, but that, “His mercies are new every morning.” The remarkable news for that 60 year old man I told you about, is that there is a seat at the table, and a vital role in God’s Mission assigned for him today. He’s not too late. He’s got a commissioning from the King. And so do you.

Application

I want to close with three very simple applications that are relevant to today, and the start of summer.

Adoption: First, I mentioned it at the beginning, but I will mention it again now, this Church is a Church that believes deeply in the work of adoption and foster care. We have had many families step into this process. Currently we have a number of families taking steps. If the Lord has been calling you, and you’ve been thinking about it, here these words. You can never say, “Yes” to a baby who needs a home, until your certified. You can always say, “No” once your certified. If you’re thinking about it, go get your feet wet by getting certified, and see what God does. He’ll probably do a miracle, as He did for us.

Spiritual Conversations (June 8): Second, we as a Church are doing this 100 days. The challenge is that every person will stretch themselves to have a Spiritual Conversation with at least one person over this summer. For some of you, that is the easiest thing in the world. For others, it’s the scariest thing in the world and you wouldn’t know where to begin. How do you turn a conversation in a direction that could possibly discuss spiritual things. And if a conversation does go there, how do you share truth with people without ruining a friendship? Well, there are really practical simple steps to those things. In one week, we’re hosting a one night class where we’re going to equip you with incredibly simple tools. Come get your feet wet by registering for this class. Better yet, don’t leave this room today until your feet are wet by registering.

Commit: Lastly, an issue that I see plaguing especially young Christians. Commit. Many young Christians I talk to are afraid to commit to a local Church, to really invest their hearts and their talents. They attend a Church on and off for years without becoming a member. And the reason they won’t become a Member is because they don’t want to be tied down. They like the ease of coming and going as they please. And so they never get their feet wet. If you want to experience Christianity to its full, it must be done in the context of a local Church where you are grounded in Biblical community, vulnerably commited to one another. There is no other way.

My prayer for you as we leave today is not that you would run out these doors and think, “How can go take a risk for Christ.” That would have it all backwards. Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will work wonders among us.

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