God is with You

Good, good. I'm so glad that you are here with us this morning. I hope you're doing all right in this stormy weather. And I also want to say hello to all of you that are joining us over in venue today, or perhaps you're tuning in online or on public access television. Just want to say welcome one and all. And I'm going to invite you to grab the message notes that you have in your bulletins here or download those if you're watching us on the Internet.

And we are continuing in our series, Promised Land Living, which is a study in the book of Joshua. Today we're going to be in chapters three and four. And I want to set the stage for us so that we can appreciate the events that we're going to be looking at. The book of Deuteronomy immediately precedes the book of Joshua. And right at the very end, those events are important for us to understand what follows immediately on the heels. Again, some of the events that we're going to look at today.

So it says this at the end of Deuteronomy, the last chapter, it says, "The people of Israel mourned for Moses on the plains of Moab for 30 days." For 30 days, they grieved, they wept, they wondered what next, and they remembered. And man, there were so many stories to tell. Like when God first came to Moses and said, "Moses, I'm going to take you out of this desert and you're going to go back to Egypt and you are going to lead my people out." And Moses says, "Yeah, I think you got the wrong guy. You know, I don't speak so good and they're not going to believe me anyway."

And God says, "Take that shepherd's staff in your hand, Moses, and throw it on the ground." And what he does, it becomes a snake. And Moses is like, "Wow!" Never seen that before. God tells him to pick it up, but he doesn't want to because it's a snake now, but when he does, it turns back into a staff. And he's thinking, "Man, I cannot wait to use this trick. This is pretty awesome." And just a little bit later, he would take that same staff and he would thrust it into the waters of the Nile and they would turn to blood. And man, that turned just a few heads. You know what I mean?

Or best of all, there was that moment when they're at the edge of the Red Sea, the waters in front of them, Pharaoh's army's behind him. Moses holds up his staff and his hands over those waters and they part. And the Israelites pass through on dry land. Wow! That's the kind of leader Moses was. And even when he didn't have that magic snake, he could take his hand, he could put it into his cloak, pull it out and it would be all white and leprous. Put it back in, pull it out, and now it's fine again.

I mean, you think he ever did that to freak out his nieces and nephews? You know, just kind of for fun. It's like, "Ah, it's the hand!" Put that away Uncle Mo. Maybe best of all is when he would come down from Mount Sinai and his face would be glowing because he had been talking to God. I mean, the point is this, Moses is what we would call a real life superhero. He came equipped with amazing powers, so no wonder they mourned for him for 30 days on the plains of Moab.

But now Joshua is in charge. And if you think about it, it's kind of like going from Batman to Robin. You know what I'm saying? I mean, Batman, he's got all the cool stuff. You know, he's got the Batmobile, the Batcave, the Batcopter, the Batutility belt with every cool Bat gadget in the world. What does Robin have other than, like, the lamest costume ever? I mean, just those shorts. It's like a green pair of depends. It's not right. Robin's only claim to fame is that he's Batman's sidekick. Kind of like it is for Joshua to Moses.

So are you getting a sense of how daunting it was at the end of those 30 days? God doesn't even give Joshua his own special stick. No stick. No miracles to his credit, at least not yet. The only thing that God has given Joshua so far is a promise. It's a promise that we saw at the beginning, chapter 1 of Joshua, where in verse 9, God says, "This is my command. Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the Lord your God is," what? Let me hear you. "With you." Wherever you go.

And you know, that's the same promise that God offers to you and to me. This is the promise that we are going to zero in on today. God is with you. Now, if you're a church person and maybe you've heard this, you know, a couple hundred times, might not move you the way that it once did. On the other hand, maybe you're here for the very first time. You're just kind of checking it out. What are these crazy Christians actually thinking? You've never actually considered that the God of all the universe offers to be with you always.

Like, he wants to be with you all the time. You don't even want to be with yourself all the time, but apparently God does. Now, there are some of us that are here today. You desperately need to know that God is with you because you're hanging by a thread. Perhaps just like the Israelites, you're in a period of mourning and while the funeral that you went to, it didn't last a whole month, when it comes to the grief, there's no end in sight as far as you're concerned. It feels like it will never end.

Well, one of the great truths to come out of this story, it's right at the very front end, and it's this. God is with you even when you think your best days are behind you. I want you to write that down. I know it's a long phrase, not a lot of space, but you'll manage. I'll wait. God is with you even when you think your best days are behind you. And again, those first days of the post-Moses era, anxiety had to be off the charts.

In fact, right after it talks about the end of Deuteronomy, the 30 days of mourning, right after that, Deuteronomy basically ends with just a little bit more of Moses' biography. The book ends with this. Check this out. It says, "Since then, no prophet has risen in Israel like Moses, for no one has ever shown the mighty power or performed the awesome deeds that Moses did in the sight of all Israel. Congratulations, Joshua. You get to follow that."

I mean, how can their present day, how can tomorrow ever compare with yesterday? I mean, it was just amazing. And if you've ever lost something or someone that you dearly loved, you know exactly how these people are feeling. Because all you can really see is what's missing. It's pretty hard to be optimistic about what's next. And in fact, the larger the loss, the more likely you're to think that your best days are indeed behind you.

Which is why you need to hear the very same words that God said to Joshua when he said, "The Lord your God is with you wherever you go." Now, let's just answer this in your heart. Do you believe that? Do you believe that God is with you? Not just as some kind of abstract concept, not as some sort of positive affirmation, but that God mysteriously by his Spirit is actually with you.

And you know, this is not some sort of minor teaching in the Bible. This message runs throughout Scripture. In fact, perhaps most notably is after Jesus rises from the tomb, and he's been with his disciples, he says, "Look, here's the nail marks. It touched my side." He's eaten with them. He's hung out with them. And now he's ascending to heaven. And this is the very last thing that he says. He says, "Behold, or surely I am with you always." Even to the end of the age. It's the same promise right there.

So I want you to remind yourself today. Remind yourself, "God is with me today." Not just yesterday, not back in the glory days alone, but God is with me today, right now. And you might be thinking to yourself, "Well, you know what? Actually, I believe that with all my heart. I really do, but here's the truth, Mark. The best that life has to offer is behind me." I mean, I had a pretty good run. I had some great moments, but I'm kind of past my prime. You know, and I'm being very careful where I look when I say that, okay?

But the truth is, you know, you live long enough, you know, and they can tighten and tuck, but you know, the clock just keeps going. And eventually, as your health fails, or as most of the people that were dear to you have passed on, it's a reality that perhaps the best that life has to offer is truly behind you. But don't mistake the best life has to offer with the best God has to offer, because God has so much more.

In fact, hey, He may just surprise you. Maybe in, you know, the autumn of your life, He may surprise you and fill your life with more joy than you even expect. But one thing's for sure, in the life that awaits you, there is more joy than we can even begin to imagine. So whatever happens between now and then, however He works in your life, He promises to be with you every single step of the way.

And not only that, but God is with you even when you don't know the way forward. Some of you are here today because you want a clean start, you want a fresh start, you start over in your life, and that's a great thing. But the fact is, you have no idea how to do that. You've got the will, but it's like, where do I even begin? Well, again, this is exactly where the Israelites were at, at this stage of the game. Promised Land? Sounds great, bring it on. How did we get there again?

And not only that, but bear in mind, their parents, if you know this story, a generation earlier, about 38 years prior to this moment, they were at the edge of the Promised Land, and you know what? They blew it. They screwed it up. And so there's this epic fail in the collective memories of all of these people. And now Joshua says, "I want you to gather at the edge of the Jordan. We're about to go over." And then, you know what happens next? Nothing.

For three days, they just sit there looking at the water, wondering when the boats are going to show up, or when the bridge builders are going to start doing their thing. Three days, basically, asking the same questions of themselves. "Now what? We have no idea how we're going to go forward." And then Joshua sends out his lieutenants, and they tell the people, starting in chapter 3, verse 3, they say this, "When you see the Levitical priests carrying the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord your God, move out from your positions and follow them. Since you've never traveled this way before, they will guide you. Stay about a half mile behind them, keeping a clear distance between you and the Ark."

Now thanks to Indiana Jones, we all have a concept of the Ark of the Covenant. It doesn't really melt your face off, but based on the biblical descriptions, it was this wooden box clad with gold with the two cherubim, the angels on the top. And they called it the Ark of the Covenant because it had the stone tablets of the Ten Commandments inside, among other things. And it served kind of as God's throne. He would manifest his presence in and around the Ark in a very powerful way.

And so they're told to keep a half mile between themselves and the Ark, perhaps because it's so holy, only the priests can come near it. But there's also a very practical reason. This is not a small crowd. Scholars estimate two million plus people. So if they're all kind of, you know, hovering around the Ark, the only people that can see it are the people that are right next to it. But you put that golden box half mile out in front of you, then it's like a beacon for every single person to follow.

In verse 11 it says, "Look, the Ark of the Covenant which belongs to the Lord of the whole earth will lead you across the Jordan River." And it's really a great picture of obedience, isn't it? You know, God leads, we follow. Which sounds very simple, but in truth, it's actually really hard. Because if you're like me, I kind of like to say, "God, you know, I got a seat for you here on my board. You know, you could be one of my advisors." Or if you want to live in that gold box, we got a place in the luggage compartment. That's where we keep the boxes.

But out in front, you lead, I follow. Reminds me of that old bumper sticker. Remember that? The bumper sticker that said, "God is my co-pilot." Remember that? I think it's well-intended. You might have had it on your car or something like that. But if you think about it, it's actually quite ridiculous. Because if God is your co-pilot, you need to switch seats. Following necessitates God is out in front. God is the leader.

In fact, the Ark is mentioned 16 times in these two chapters. 16 times. Pretty clear who the star of the show is, right? And along these lines, if you go back to verse 7, the Lord said to Joshua, "Today I will begin to exalt you. I'm going to elevate you in the eyes of all Israel. And if God said that to me, I'd be like, 'Sweet man, bring it on, God. Prompt me up, man. Make me the big boss, man. Huh? You may be done to be according to your word, whatever.' But God's not done talking.

He says, "I will begin to exalt you in the eyes of Israel. Why? So they may know that I am what? With you as I was with Moses." In other words, you know what, Joshua's not really about you. It's about the fact that God is with you. That's what makes all the difference here. And the same thing is true for us because look, you have no idea what's around the next curve. You might not want to know what's around the next curve, but that's okay because God knows and He will lead you.

So our job is to simply follow. In fact, every day remind yourself this, remind yourself, "God will lead me. God will lead me." When you wake up in the morning, "God, I know that you will lead me. Help me to follow one step at a time, one moment at a time, one surprise at a time." You know, that's why Val was talking about the first steps class that we're going to be offering. And then if you look in your bulletin, there's information about other things, you know, Bible studies, small groups, our Wednesday night program, Sunday morning programs.

You can go online, get all sorts of information at tlc.org about all those things. Why do we do that? Because we just want to like invent all this activity and stuff. We do that so that wherever you are in your journey of faith, you will have the opportunity to learn and understand and experience what it means to actually follow the Lord in your life.

Now you might be thinking, "Well, wait a moment. You know what, Mark? Time out." Because I actually have a pretty good idea where God is leading me. Just as I read His word, as I pray, as His people reflect back to me, I think that I know where God wants to lead me and that's what terrifies me. Because I can't do it. You know, I don't have the resources. I don't have the will. I don't have the energy. I don't have the, you know, you fill in the blank.

And that may all be true, but there's a truth that supersedes all of that. And it's this, God is with you even when the next step seems impossible. You know, whatever that next step is in your life, whether it's healing or restoration or repentance, whether it's living free of your shame or your worries, your bitterness, your addiction, whatever that thing is that's coming to your mind right now, I want you to hold on to that because we're going to jump back into this story and I think this is very relevant.

It says, picking up at verse 8, "Give this command to the priests who carry the Ark of the Covenant. When you reach the banks of the Jordan River, take a few steps into the river and stop there." Now, are you picturing this? These priests, they it's like, okay, it's time to go. Priests, go do your thing. They pick up this metal box and they start marching and they're told, just keep going until you get into the river. All right.

Oh, and by the way, you read just a few verses later in verse 15, it says, "It was harvest season and the Jordan was overflowing its banks." Isn't that the way that God does it? Right? I mean, most months out of the year, the Jordan River is more like a creek. You can walk right through it. Maybe the water comes up to your knees at most, but on the day that God picks for them to cross the Jordan River after a generation, that day, it's flooded. It's overflowing its banks.

Kind of like we've seen with our own San Lorenzo River here a couple days in the not too distant past. In fact, I took this footage, I took this from the Tannery Arts Complex just a couple weeks ago. Yeah, whoa, indeed. I mean, it looked like it was about a quarter mile wide. Those trees are not typically out in the river, and I'm standing at the upper parking lot. The lower parking lot is flooded, and as you watch, I pan down there, down by the lower end of the complex, the water's already up against the buildings.

There's sand bagging the doors, and just past that is central home supply. And when I saw that about a third to half of their lot was underwater, I thought to myself, well, good thing most of their inventory is rocks. Otherwise, it would all be gone. But that's the not... That's not the time you want to go wading in that river, and the same thing was true of the Jordan. These priests, they step in and again, they've got a heavy metal box that has stone tablets inside. They probably can't even swim.

Do you think that that's just a little counterintuitive? You know, just a little bit. Everything inside them has to be going, well, no, this is not a flotation device, Lord. This is an anchor. This is impossible. But again, let's apply this to our own lives. This is a penetrating question I've been asking myself all week. Now you get to ask it of yourself. What is God asking you to do that's counterintuitive?

Is it possible that God is calling you in a direction or to towards something or to make a change that is counterintuitive? Like, Lord, I don't know if I get that. You know, you let's say just, you know, you've been in a lane and it's whether it's a morally, ethically, financially, relation to whatever, you've been in the same, you know what, you're okay with that lane. You know, it looks okay to you, but somewhere along the line in your journey of faith, God confronts you and says, "No, I actually want you over here." And it's challenging and it's stretching and you might not like it.

But if you've never experienced that tension between where you are and where you know God wants to bring you, if you've never experienced that, if your God, if all He ever does is agree with you, I've got news for you, that's not God. That's you and the God that you invented. Because the God of Scripture does not always agree with us. In fact, He sometimes, He loves us. I mean, He loves us just as we are, but too much to leave us that way. And so sometimes He will call us to do things that are counterintuitive.

In fact, they seem impossible. In fact, they are impossible apart from His power, His presence, His grace in our lives. Or maybe it's just some kind of practical thing. Maybe you are right now, you're struggling to make ends meet. Maybe you're a single parent and you worry about your kids all the time because try as you might. I mean, you knock yourself out, but it is just not physically possible for you to cover as many bases as two people can. And so you just, sometimes you find yourself in despair. This next step just seems impossible.

Well, whatever that is, whether it's a decision, change, your circumstances, remind yourself of this. God will provide. God will provide. Not always in the ways that you think He should, but He will provide. In fact, the same God that we're reading about in Joshua who promised to be with Him always wherever He went is the same God that makes that promise to you and to me.

And again, to be very clear here, I am not saying or suggesting that God will always give you what you want. In fact, I promise you He will not do that. He won't. But He will give you what you need. He will provide. And what the story reminds us is that ultimately nothing is impossible for God. I mean, if you go back to these priests, you can't even call that next step where they're just hovering over the water. You can't really call that a sink or swim moment. It's a sink moment. They are going to sink. They are not going to make it. They're going to be goners unless God intervenes.

And continuing at verse 15, it says, "But as soon as the feet of the priests who are carrying the ark touched the water at the river's edge," you know, they just got their first big toe. As soon as they touched it, "the water above that point began backing up a great distance away." Now, we don't have time to read every verse of two chapters, but if you read this for yourself, you'll see that the water starts backing up near a city called Adam, which is 20 miles upstream from where they're at. And the text just starts to pile up in a heap.

Like there's some invisible dam there or whatever. How God did it, who knows? How does God raise his son from the dead? We can't, you know, find some sort of natural cause for that. He just does what he does because nothing is impossible for him. And then the cool thing is now that the water stopped, the water in front of them, it just kind of drains out like a bathtub. It just keeps going until there's no more water left. And the priests, they walk in, this is kind of nice, not what they expected at all.

They're told to stop in the middle of the ark while all the nation passes across on dry land like their parents did when they crossed the Red Sea. Kind of deja vu all over again. And let me ask you something. Do you think, do you think if you were there that day, if you experienced this, if you saw this with your own two eyes, you stopped, you walked through that now, that empty riverbed, if you experienced that, do you think you could ever possibly forget that?

Well, apparently you could. You could forget. Because if you know the story, you know that when their parents, the generation before, when they passed through the Red Sea, three days later, what are they doing? Oh man, God brought us out here to kill us, right? This is horrible. I want to go back to Egypt, man. It was so awesome back in Egypt. We love being slaves back there. That was just the best. And God was with us back then, but out here, He just brought us out here to die.

And by the way, we're going to starve to death. And so God sends with the manna, this mysterious bread-like stuff that would form with the dew in the morning. And they're like, "It's a miracle. It's the bread of heaven. This is wonderful. Oh man, I can't stand this manna. It's awful. It's terrible. If we only had meat to eat, then we would be happy." God sends quail just in huge droves flying just a couple of feet off the ground. You just open up your grocery bag and it's full.

What happens? They go from, "God, you're awesome. We love quail." Oh, if I have to eat one more drumstick, I'm going to die. Hey, how about us? Oh Lord, this drought, we hate it, man. It's not to minimize the inconvenience, the trees. I don't minimize that. But when it's all said and done, it's a blessing. You see, knowing this, God tells Joshua, while the river is still being held back, He says, "Hey, pick 12 guys, one from each of the 12 tribes of Israel. I want you to have them go into the river, pick up a big stone, each of them."

And they do haul it over to the other side, the Promised Land side, drop it down. Eventually, Joshua makes a memorial out of these 12 stones. And then it says at chapter 4, at the very end, starting at verse 21, it says, "Then Joshua said to the Israelites, 'In the future, your children will ask, 'What do these stones mean?'" Like, "What do you mean, what do these stones mean?" Didn't we tell you that story? Oh, I guess not. "Then you can tell them, 'This is where the Israelites crossed the Jordan on dry ground. For the Lord your God dried up the river right before your eyes, and He kept it dry until you were all across, just as He did at the Red Sea when He dried it up until we had crossed, we had all crossed over.'

See, here's the thing, we're no different than them. No matter how God provides, it could be some huge way. We have really short, small memories. And so in closing, I want to give you two things to apply. The first thing is this, you know, it's like, "So what? This is an old, cool story, but how does it apply to me?" Well, the first thing is this, find ways to remember God's faithfulness. Find ways. It's like you have to remember not to forget. You know what I'm saying? And it doesn't have to be complicated or cost money. I mean, Joshua, he just used 12 rocks, okay? No budget required.

It can be very simple. My wife, one of the ways she does this, Elora keeps a little gratitude journal, is what she calls it. It's just a book with empty pages, and in it, every day she tries to write one thing that she's grateful for in that day. Sometimes it's just one word, or sometimes it's just a name. Mark. Mark. Mark. At least I tell myself that. Sometimes, you know, she writes more, sometimes she forgets she doesn't write it all, but the point is she's found a way to, you know, somewhat regularly remind herself of God's goodness, God's faithfulness.

Another great way is by personalizing your Bible, by highlighting verses that kind of jump off the page to you or speak to you where you're at in your life. And, you know, I'm all for digital devices, but this is where they fall short. You got to kind of go old school if you're going to write notes or highlight things. And I was reminded of this this week because Valerie was kind enough to help me kind of go through some stuff in my office and get it better organized. I'm lying because Valerie did all the work, and not because it's in her job description, but because she's a dear friend, and it was just a gift to me to help me get things better organized.

And Valerie discovers in the debris a Bible I have not seen for over 10 years. This is my dear old brown Bible right here that I thought I'd lost. I call it brownie. My old brownie here. This is the Bible I had in my 20s and my 30s. This is the Bible I had all my years up at Camp Hammer, or when I started here at Twin Lakes, I went to brownie. And as I started to open up the pages, I saw things that I had highlighted and underlined 20 and 30 years ago. And I started to read through them, and my eyes felled at Psalm 34, one of my favorites, where I highlighted, "I sought the Lord, and He answered me, and delivered me from all my fears. This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles."

You know what? I can tell you exactly what was going on in my life when I highlighted those pages. It just came back in a flash. So much so that I was having so much fun with this, and then I said to Valerie, I said, "You know, man, I wish so much that older Mark could go back in time to younger Mark and say, 'You know what, Mark? Those verses that you're highlighting right now that you are clinging to, I just want to tell you that God was so true to His Word, that God showed up. He was faithful in ways you didn't even imagine. He was there, and He is there.'

So remember God's faithfulness. However you do it, find a way." Finally, in speaking of remembering, remember that God wants to use my story to reflect His glory. I know it's kind of cute at rhymes, but God wants to use my story to reflect His glory. I mean, why did God tell Israel to cross the Jordan on the day when it was flooded? Did He do that just to show off? No. Look what it says in verse 24, chapter 4. It says, "He did this so all the nations of the earth might know that the Lord's hand is powerful, and so you might fear the Lord your God forever."

In other words, He's saying to Joshua and all the rest of them, "You know, your story is bigger than just you. I'm going to use your story so that the world will know who I am, and this is going to be a powerful reminder for you to walk with me in fear, which doesn't mean, 'Oh, he's going to get us.' It means, 'Wow, God is amazing. He's awesome. We had to revere Him and honor Him in our lives. Keep Him out in front."

And you know what? It's not just your parents' story or your grandparents' story that God is going to use to demonstrate who He is to the entire world. It's their story. It's your story. It's our story that God will use to reveal His glory. And while our personal stories may not be as dramatic as crossing the Red Sea or the Jordan River at flood stage, truth be told, God invites us to share in the greatest miracle of all, because there was a chasm, a divide much greater than the Jordan River or even the Red Sea between us and the God who loves us.

It was one that was created by our sin and our rebellion, and there was no way we were ever going to get across that gap. Absolutely impossible. So what does God do? God becomes one of us so that He can go before us. When Jesus is born, Scripture says they will call Him Immanuel, which means God with us. And when Jesus Christ, when He took up the cross, He created a bridge into God's promise and into the life that He has for us that we can just follow into.

We are reunited with the God who loves us because Jesus has bridged that gap forever. You don't have to live in the wilderness anymore. God says, "No, I am calling you into the ultimate promised land." And by the way, the entry into that land, into that promise, into that life, into that future is still wide open for all who care to enter in. And I pray that's you today. Would you bow your heads as we close in prayer together?

Heavenly Father, we thank You for Your goodness and Your grace. We thank You for allowing us to be here today. And I pray, Lord, that through Your word and Your spirit, that You will touch our lives in a meaningful way. And Lord, I'm thinking of the folks that are in this room right now and they are carrying a heavy burden. Or maybe this every day just seems defined by what's missing. Lord, I pray that You would fill their hearts with hope, with a sense that You are there in a very powerful way.

Lord, be their shepherd according to Your loving kindness. Provide for them, Lord, in ways that they would even be reluctant to ask or imagine. And Lord, for those who, you know, they actually have never really taken that first step. But they know that Lord Jesus, You're calling them. You have been doing that for some time. And maybe they don't have it all figured out, but they know that Lord Jesus, You died for them. That You lived the life, they could never live. You died the death that we were destined to die.

And now, Lord, You have provided a way through this by being risen from the dead. You prove that You've conquered the greatest enemies we have, sin and death. And You call us to the life that we have in You, life eternal. And so, Lord, I just pray that if I'm describing anyone's heart or mind right now, that that person would simply just be able to say, "Yes, Jesus. Yes. I want You. I receive You. I want to follow You. Show me how to do that from this moment forward."

And Lord, be with those folks every step of the way. We know You will, because that's Your promise. That's Your assurance. You are with us. Wherever we are, Lord, meet us, encourage us, give us what we need, and we trust You for these things. It's in the marvelous, strong name of Jesus Christ that I pray all these things. And all God's people said, Amen. Amen.