Step Into the Water - April 26th, 2015 sermon

By Pastor Greg

There's a man trying to cross the street.  As he steps off the curb, a car comes screaming around the corner and heads straight for him.  The man walks faster, trying to hurry across the street, but the car changes lanes and is still coming at him.  So the guy turns around to go back, but the car changes lanes again and is still coming at him.  By now, the car is so close and the man so scared that he just freezes and stops in the middle of the road.  The car gets real close, then swerves at the last possible moment and screeches to a halt right next him.  The driver rolls down the window.  The driver is a squirrel.  The squirrel says to the man says, "See, it's not as easy as it looks, is it?”

By now, I hope you realize that there is a difference between knowing the path and walking the path.  Walking the path is not as easy as it looks.  An excellent example of walking the path of faith can be seen in twelve ordinary men who were told to carry God’s Ark into the Jordan River.  We read the story in Joshua 3:12-17.

¹² Now choose twelve men from the tribes of Israel, one from each tribe. ¹³ The priests will carry the Ark of the Lord, the Lord of all the earth. As soon as their feet touch the water, the flow of water will be cut off upstream, and the river will stand up like a wall.”

¹⁴ So the people left their camp to cross the Jordan, and the priests who were carrying the Ark of the Covenant went ahead of them. ¹⁵ It was the harvest season, and the Jordan was overflowing its banks. But as soon as the feet of the priests who were carrying the Ark touched the water at the river’s edge, ¹⁶ the water above that point began backing up a great distance away at a town called Adam, which is near Zarethan. And the water below that point flowed on to the Dead Sea until the riverbed was dry. Then all the people crossed over near the town of Jericho.

¹⁷ Meanwhile, the priests who were carrying the Ark of the Lord’s Covenant stood on dry ground in the middle of the riverbed as the people passed by. They waited there until the whole nation of Israel had crossed the Jordan on dry ground. 

I can just imagine what these twelve priests must have thought.  Through Joshua, God commanded these men to step into the water.  They were to pick up that Ark and wade out into the Jordan River while it was flooding and while the water was rushing downstream.  They were supposed to stand out there, holding a 500-pound chest while 2 million people just walk on by.  Faith is not as easy as it looks.  As these men stood next to the raging river, they had been assured the water would stop, but it happened after they took the first step, not before.

Once we become a believer, God will often command us to take a step of faith before His promises are revealed.  God’s promises happen after we get started.  And I tell you the truth; this is where we see genuine faith.  We would rather God stop the water before we take that step, but that’s not faith.  We would rather God solve the problems before we get started, but that’s not faith.  We would rather have all we need before we start a project or a ministry, but that’s not faith.  Faith happens when we take that first step placing our confidence in the Lord’s command and His promises.

Becoming a Christian involves confession and repentance.  However, it also involves surrender.  We allow Jesus to be the Lord of our life.  We become His servants.  We allow ourselves to be the Lord’s hands and feet.  We serve where He calls us to serve.  We speak as He directs us to speak.  We go where He sends us.  This is what it means to call Jesus Lord.  This is what it means to walk the path.  It means that if we are serious about our relationship with Jesus, there will come a time when He sends us to do His work or calls us to speak His words.  However, sometimes what the Lord commands gives us the “heebeegeebees”.  We want to look at the Lord and say, “Seriously, you what me to do what?”  This is where faith takes over.  This is where we start moving mountains.