Feet‑First Faith — Stepping Into the Jordan (Joshua 3)

Every believer eventually stands at a river they cannot cross on their own — a diagnosis, a decision, a calling, a transition, a grief, a moment where God says, “Move,” but the waters are still raging. In Joshua 3, God gives Israel one of the clearest pictures of faith in all of Scripture: step in first, then watch the miracle.

In this message, Chaplain Marc walks through the moment when the priests carried the Ark of the Covenant to the edge of the flooded Jordan. God didn’t part the waters ahead of time. He didn’t clear the path early. He didn’t wait for the river to calm. He said, “When your feet touch the water, I will act.”

Joshua 3 reminds us that faith is not waiting for the water to part — faith is stepping in while it’s still rising. God leads us to places we’ve never been, asks us to trust Him in ways we’ve never tried, and proves Himself faithful in ways we never forget.

Key truth:
God doesn’t part the waters until your feet get wet.

"This is Chaplain Marc.

Stand firm, stay faithful, and keep moving forward.

God restores what failure tries to destroy.

Until next time - one more day, one percent better."

Transcript

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SPEAKER_02 3:11

Hey man, thank you, Robert. Do what? Somebody who might be song.

SPEAKER_03 3:26

Well, good afternoon.

unknown 3:27

Good afternoon.

SPEAKER_03 3:30

And uh this time I don't have to apologize to Chase because he didn't hear me a second time today. Beacon Heights has asked me to do their homecoming in a few weeks. And Gerald and I got mixed up, and we agreed next time I'll call him because he thought it was today. So luckily he he missed us this morning and I found out. So I went to Buckhead today with D. But turn, if you will, to Joshua. Or excuse me, yeah, to Joshua chapter three. Joshua chapter three. And I know I went through Joshua chapter four last week, but this was this is such a poignant part of the of the Bible. You know, it's just it's it's this is a very important thing, and I hadn't really dug into it very much. So, but you know, uh, yeah, stepping into the Jordan or feet first faith. And here's the thing is is all of us, every single one of us, I want to get into what what this means, and maybe y'all already have some context on Joshua and on what was going on. They were being told to take the promised land. So I'll back up in just a second. And they were they were being told by God to take the promised land that that they could take it. Moses was told to stay back because he, you know, he struck the rock instead of uh speaking to it. And and if y'all remember that from Sunday school, God told him he couldn't go to the promised land. And but now Joshua is taking over for Moses, and so he's leading them into the promised land, and they're about to go. And none of it makes any sense to me. As far as a military man and planning and all this other stuff, it doesn't make any sense. Here's people with no weapons, they're gonna take on one of the greatest cities that is on the earth at that time, they're gonna cross the waters. It even mentions it in here during the flood season when the the banks are just overflowing, they're gonna cross right over. And the reason why, if you end up looking in your maps, is where they crossed the Jordan, the folks who were on the wall at Jericho could actually see them crossing the Jordan. I think that's the reason why. And they had heard stories of the Israelites who God parted the Red Sea for and then closed it up on the Egyptian army. They'd heard those stories for 40 years while they were wandering through the desert. So now they're they're a little bit afraid. I can't figure out any other reason that they would have not come out and attacked them. But here they're about to go in, man, and but they're about to do something that just seems just crazy. And every single one of us is gonna stand at a river that we can't cross on our own. I don't know if you've been there or not. It might be a diagnosis that's been made from the doctor. It could be a decision that you have to make. It could be a calling from God to do something. I've been there. It could be a season of transition where you move from one thing to another thing. A moment in your life where God says, move, but you see that water still raging. All of us are gonna come to those times. So we're gonna go through this this whole chapter, and I'll do it as as quickly as I can, hopefully before the rain comes. And uh we will we will take a moment and take a look here, and I'm gonna read all of Joshua chapter 3, one through verse 17. But this is a clear picture of what it means to walk by faith. And and this time it's not being figurative, this is a literal walk by faith. Israel staring at the Jordan, the river, swollen, overflowing, impossible to cross. And God says to step in. So here we go. Chapter chapter three, starting at verse one, it says, Then Joshua rose early in the morning, and they set out from Acacia Grove, and then came to the Jordan, he and all the children of Israel, and lodged there before they crossed over. So it was after three days that the officers went through the camp 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 you shall set out from your place and go after it. Then there shall be a space between you and it, about two thousand cubits by measure. Do not come near it, that you may know the way by which you must go. For you have not passed this way before. And Joshua said to the people, Sanctify yourselves. For tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you. Then Joshua spoke to the priest, saying, Take up the Ark of the Covenant and cross over before the people. So they took up the Ark of the Covenant and went before the people. And the Lord said to Joshua, This day I will begin to exalt you in the sight of all of Israel, that they may know that as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. You shall command the priests who bear the ark of the covenant, saying, When you have come to the edge of the water of the Jordan, you shall stand in the Jordan. So Joshua said to the children of Israel, Come here and hear the words of the Lord your God. And Joshua said, By this you shall know the living God is among you, that he will without fail drive out from before you all the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Hivites and the Perizzites and the Gergeshites and the Amorites and the Jebusites. Behold, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth is crossing over before you into the Jordan. Now, therefore, take twelve tribes, twelve men from the tribes of Israel, one man from each tribe, and it shall come to pass as soon as the soles of the feet of the priests who bear the ark of the Lord, the Lord of all the earth, shall rest in the waters of the Jordan, that the waters shall be cut off, that they will come down from upstream and they shall stand up in a heap. So it was when the people set out from their camp to cross over the Jordan with the priests bearing the Ark of the Covenant before the people. And as those who bore the ark came to the Jordan, and the feet of the priests who bore the ark dipped in the edge of the water, for the Jordan overflows all of its banks during the whole time of harvest. But the waters which came down from upstream stood off stood still and rose in a heap very far away. Adam, the city that is beside Zaratan. So the waters that went down to the Sea of the Arabah, the Salt Sea, failed and were cut off, and the people crossed over opposite Jericho. Then the priests who bore the ark of the covenant before the Lord stood firm on dry ground in the midst of the Jordan. And all Israel crossed over on dry ground until the people had crossed completely over the Jordan. Heavenly Father, I thank you so much for your words. I thank you so much for the miracle performed in the middle of Jordan that day, in the middle of the river Jordan that day. Lord, may we stop and see the miracles that you place in our lives. May we know that you are still with us, that the God who parted the Red Sea and made the Jordan stand up in a heap is still the God of today. We love you, Lord. We thank you, we praise you. I pray that we put our trust and our faith in you in the midst of everything we may be going through. We love you, we thank you, we praise you. In your name of Jesus, we pray these things. Amen. Amen. And amen. There's a preacher talking about being able to stay up one night for TV on July 20th, 1969. I do not remember that day. Some of y'all may, I don't. But the reason they let him stay awake that night instead of going to sleep was because Neil Armstrong was going to be the first man on the moon. And so he got to hear that one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind. Must have been scary to take that step. They were talking about the, and they still talk about that, that if the earth was billions of years old, there should have been dust higher than this building on the moon. But there was only about this much. So but uh but nonetheless, and that's a whole another thing on creation that we could talk about. But so they were talking about what's gonna happen when they get there. In fact, if you look on the Apollo, the uh the the the you'll if you watch the ladder is actually cut off halfway because they thought, and they gave them big shoes because they thought they were gonna step into you know minimally 18 inches, if not three to seven feet full of dust on the moon. And it didn't because there wasn't that much there. But nonetheless, seeing that, you know, he Neil Armstrong was the first man to walk on the moon, and but there was here's here we read about some men who took another small step, but I feel like it was even a more important step for mankind as those priests walked in into the Jordan. Now, understand that this was 40 years that they had been walking around the desert. They left Egypt, they saw the power of God park the Red Sea and close it back up. They saw the power of God give them manna every day, they saw the power of God to give them quail when they asked for it, and yet it wasn't good enough, and God had to let one whole generation die out. So for 40 years, they wandered through the desert. Now comes the time they're crossing over the Jordan and taking the promised land. Everything was about to change with the step of faith. They're about to march across the Jordan at flood stage, and without a miracle, this couldn't happen. And here's the thing that God said there's Jordan 3 is excuse me, Joshua 3 is one of the clearest pictures in scripture of walking by faith, not after the water parts, not after God's miracle shows up, not after the path is clear. God says, step in first. He wanted their feet to touch the muddy Jordan first. He that's faith. That God said, when you step in, that's when you're gonna see the miracle happen. Can you imagine being imagine there's a raging river? Listen, years ago, up in Cherokee, I could see we were we were at this park in Cherokee, and I think about it every time that I go there. We're at this park, all right. You you had to walk, go down and walk over a walkway and then come up, and and there we were playing in the park, and you could walk into the river and out of the river, and it's pretty all right. Um, but I needed to get something from the car. I don't want to go all the way down there because I could see the car right here. So I tried to cross that river. I don't know if y'all ever tried to cross a river while it's raging, and and it wasn't that deep at first till about halfway across, and I got at first I got to my ankles, then I got to my knees, then I got to my waist. I know that's not as much for me as it would be for you, Mark. I know it'd be a lot taller, but nonetheless, but I think I got more weight holding me down too. So anyway, but uh, but I got about halfway and it got past my my knees, and I'm going, but the car is right here. And then and then I stepped in a little further and got a bite up to my waist, and it was rushing a lot stronger than I thought. And I said, I just need to step out of the river and go all the way out to the car because I didn't want to get washed downstream. So I think of that, whenever I think of these guys, then God said, You're gonna go to this raging river and step in it, then I'll show up and do a miracle. Now that took faith on the part of the priests, in my opinion, for them to look at the raging river and said, What'd he say? And he said, Walk in. Okay, I guess we'll walk in. You know, so here they are, but then as soon as they stepped in, as soon as their feet hit that water, and that's I'm trying to figure out because it said after they stepped in. I think they actually had to touch the water and then God put it up in a heap. I think their feet actually got a little bit wet and then they stood in there. So this is this is just an amazing story to me, and because God says, step in first. Step in first. When you cross the Jordan, when you have a miracle that's gonna go online, you need to put your faith before what happens. Step in first. I have learned when you're in church leadership that not everybody has that same mentality. Because I used to say as a youth minister, I'm like, yeah, let's just get up to Gatlinburg, and then I know that all of our reservations and stuff will be up there. I'm not really concerned about it. Well, a lot of youth parents are very concerned about what's going on when you get up there. But I knew, I'm like, as soon as we get there, everything's good. In fact, I used to really enjoy it. There was a conference we used to go to called Extreme, and people would say, Well, where are we, where is my child going to stay? I don't know. What motel are you gonna be at? I don't know. Because the thing is they had a packet there for you and your church. You didn't know until you got there and opened the packet. So I love telling all the parents, don't know. We'll tell you that afternoon. But I need to know where my child, they're safe with me. I'll tell you where we are that afternoon. Yeah, but you need to know, and like what I know is we're gonna pick up the packet and they're gonna tell us that afternoon. Because I had full faith in this ministry that they were going to have us a place to stay once we got up there. But a lot of parents, a lot of very anxious parents, didn't like that very much. But but it's interesting how that goes, and God will lead you to places that you have never been. And though Neil Armstrong did walk on the moon, God led these folks to some place that they had been waiting 40 years to go. They'd been waiting 40 years to go somewhere. So the first is that you know, down there at verse 3, starting at verse 3, that God is going to lead you to places you've never been. And it says, 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 you shall set out from your place and go after it. So the officers in the camp had an important thing. They said, When you see the ark, it's time to go. So stay here, but when you see the ark move, you move. That's what he said. No ifs and andts or buts. No, have everything, just have be ready to move when the ark moves. That was what they said. And he went on to say, Yet there shall be a space between you and it, about two thousand cubits by measure. Do not come near it, that you may know the way by which you must go, for you have not passed this way before. I had to look that up because I was I was wondering why. A cubit's about 18 inches. It's it's from your elbow to the tips of your fingers. So it's about 18 inches. Again, Mark's is probably longer than mine, but you know, but nonetheless, that's a cubit. So you figure about 3,000 feet. But uh a few things, you know, when God's moving, you need you need a visit a visible visibility, you know, you need to be able to see see him moving, you know. But uh also holiness needs a little bit of reverence. If y'all remember, there was a fella in the Old Testament that said he had gotten really familiar with the ark, it was kept at his his basically his parents' house, and he wasn't a priest. And there was one day that David was carrying it, not the way he should. He put it on a cart. David thought he was doing good. God said, have four priests carry it with poles. And David said, I'm gonna put it on a brand new cart. David could have said, I'm putting it in a Lincoln Town car. Doesn't matter. God said, have four priests with poles carry it. David thought he was gonna get a brand new cart. Guess what? The cart broke, and that fellow said, I got it. If y'all learned that story in Sunday school, that guy died right there on the spot. Holiness needs some room. And that's why the next thing they said was to sanctify themselves. But holiness needs some room. And we need to have dependence on God. So they needed to see the priests go, and then they were supposed to go. They were supposed to stay about 3,000 feet back. But but they needed to see the ark go first. So the thing is, yeah, again, God leads you to places that you never met. The officers went through the camp with a simple instruction when you see the Ark of the Covenant, you shall move from your place and follow it. Israel is on the edge of the promised land, they're almost there, but the path's unfamiliar. And previously, when they sent people in, they said, Oh, the people are too big. There's no way we can win this fight. See, because sometimes the path that God wants you to go on is not one that you've traveled before. And it can be kind of scary. Maybe it's that diagnosis from the doctor that can be kind of scary. Maybe as I was thinking about when I had saw Susan at the hospital and her blood pressure was so low, I was wondering how the heck she was still talking to us. You know, that's I I literally slapped the machine, but she still laughs about that because I was like, something's wrong with this machine. Because either Susan shouldn't be sitting up talking to us or her blood pressure should be higher. But uh sometimes stuff happens, you don't know the way, but when you haven't passed that path before, it's it's unnerving, you know. And Israel's right there, but this is an area they've never walked on before, you know. But unfamiliar doesn't mean it's unsafe. If God tells you that's the way to go, then it's safe. Unfamiliar means God is leading the way, just like the Ark of the Covenant led the way. God doesn't ask you to know the way, God asks you to follow the one who does. I thought about that with I had left a bad church situation, and I um so I went to uh after that, I got out of ministry and I sat at a church, and I remembered what worship was supposed to be like. And I remembered what it was like to feel the worship. I remembered what it was like to to go to Sunday school and go to church, and and what it was to be part of the conversation, part of the discussion, and then start to lead people. And and I kept asking God, I said, Do you want me to get back into ministry and God's? Said nope, hold on, just wait. And I when I told a preacher recently, and I saw him when I went to fireworks last week, he understood it completely. Because another minister gets it. God will tell you sometimes it's time to rest, but keep your tennis shoes by the door. Because when I call you, it's time to go. Just like the officer said, when you see the ark move, it's time to go. The minister understood exactly what I meant when I said that. And so after a year, suddenly I got a call. And what it was was Susan Higdon saying, We could use a preacher to child. I knew at that point I would say, God, do I go somewhere? Nope. God said, Nope. Stay right here. Became an active part of the church that I was at. Showed up for Sunday school. I preached occasionally here and there, but for the most part, God said, sit and wait. And then as soon as Susan called, God said, This is it. God said, I'm moving the Ark of the Covenant. It's time for you to go. That's why I always say keep your sneakers by the door, because even if God has you resting for a season, it's not going to be for long. So people know this field. Sometimes it's maybe it's a new job, maybe it's a new diagnosis, maybe it's a new responsibility, maybe it's a new grief or a new beginning in some way, shape, or form. And I hate that I always bring it up, but Brother Johnny, I know you have talked about that, that that happened in your life. God said, I'm changing your life. And yet it seems to be an area you are loving and are very comfortable with now. But you said it was a transition for a minute. And God said, This is a path, and it was an unfamiliar path, you know. But I just I love your testimony, brother. I do. I love it. And I love hearing you sing every week. So, but new path, you know. When you haven't passed this way before, you don't need a map. What you need is the presence of God. When you have the presence of God, you don't have to be nervous, you don't have to be worried. You may not know this path, but you know it's going to be okay. And the other thing they said to do is they went on there in verse 5. Joshua said to people, sanctify yourselves. Tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you. Sanctify yourself. Consecration. So God leads you to new places. But he said, Sanctify yourself, consecrate, consecrate yourselves. Sometimes that means, and I think the time that we do it in a Baptist church more than other churches is right before the Lord's table. Because the preacher, usually me or Brother Robert or whoever, will say to purify yourself, sanctify yourself. Don't take this if you feel like you've got some kind of problem. We had a pastor, he was so contentious, he was always causing so many problems. There was more than once, right before he took the ultimate breath, he would walk over and apologize. He'd be like, Brother Chase, I'm so sorry for the words that I said to you. Then he'd come over and he'd be like, Brother Robert, are we okay? I'm sorry for the words I spoke to you. Now, I got I have found an issue with almost every time before communion, you have to apologize to at least two people. But nonetheless, I want to say for his heart, he wanted to make sure his heart was right before he took it. Consecrated himself, sanctified himself. And uh it sanctification or consecration prepares you. Sometimes that means staying up and praying all night. Sometimes that might mean just repenting of something that may have gone along in your life. Sometimes it means uh it could mean something different for you, but before it was time to go, God said, consecrate yourself. Consecration is personal before it's public. Does that make sense? So often in churches we're so worried about what the exterior looks like that we don't take time to focus and consecrate and bathe our hearts with the blood that Jesus shed for us at the cross of Calvary. That's where the altar is now. It's not the Ark of the Covenant anymore. Now it's right here. And sometimes before we need to go follow the Ark of the Covenant, we need to consecrate it, consecrate ourselves. It's it's not about being perfect, it's about being ready, it's about clearing space or making room for Jesus, for God to work in your life. It's it's about saying, Lord, whatever you want to do, I'm available. I'm here. Sometimes the greatest miracle in the river party party, and this is what I think about prayer. Prayer is so important. Prayer with prayer, we don't move God. God is already who God is. But a lot of times prayer changes our heart. I don't know about y'all, there have been people in my life who I didn't like, and I've had good people in my life who always said, start praying for. I'm like, I don't want to pray for that person. I really don't. But as you start praying for somebody, even if you don't like them, your heart starts to soften towards them. You start wanting something different for their lives. It's clearing space and making room. Repentance, obedience, letting go what clutters up the soul. And and the other thing is that God confirms to his leaders, God confirms who his leaders are when they step out of faith. Verse 7, the Lord said to Joshua, this day I'll begin to exalt you in the sight of all Israel, that they will know that as I was with Moses, I will be with you. He didn't say you're Moses 2.0. He said, You're Joshua. But I want the people to know that I'm with you as much as I was ever with Moses. Sometimes we feel like, and people do this, you know, the the preacher has more Jesus in him than anybody else. Rao, have you found that to be true? I don't think I got any more Jesus in me than you got in you, or any of the rest of you have in you. But but sometimes we we feel like that, you know. But God is very clear, you know, God confirms his leaders when they step out. Joshua didn't promote himself, Joshua didn't campaign, Joshua didn't try to be Moses to you can say, I'm as good as Moses. He just obeyed God. God said, I'll handle the rest of that. Leadership is is is presence, not personality. It's obedience to the Lord, it's not your charisma. Um, and I and I think of that that uh our our new leader in the uh our new commander who is who was I worked with years ago at my unit, one of his things is is maintenance. Maintenance seems boring. Okay? When you just do maintenance, say for instance on a car, just doing your oil change and doing this, making sure everything's okay, making sure you use the right gas, making sure the things are maintenance is something that in the military we do it every week on our vehicles. You know why we do that? So that it's prepared and that it's ready. Because if you don't do maintenance, that's when they start breaking down. Maintenance seems boring and mundane. A mother taking care of her kids seems boring and mundane. A father going to work to earn his pay, whatever he's doing. For years I drove a forklift. Sounds mundane. But I was always happy because I said, I am doing what the Lord wants me to do while I'm trying to provide for my family, or I'm going to school so that I can learn more about Jesus, so that I can be in ministry one day. Whatever it was, I knew I was doing what the Lord wanted me to do. Maintenance seems mundane, but it's so necessary. The job is obedience. God's job is to magnify you. Maintenance seems boring, but it makes you incredibly effective. And then the uh the the fourth thing in 13 to 17 God doesn't part the waters until your feet get wet. God doesn't part the waters until your feet get wet. The Jordan's at the flood stage, the word even says it. Worst possible time to cross. And God chooses the hardest moment to show his greatest power. He chooses the worst time of year to cross this river to show his greatest power. The priests carry the ark, and it says that the presence of God is with the Ark of the Covenant. So the priests carry that into the water. And as soon as the soles of the priest's feet touched the water, that's when the water stood still. Wasn't before, wasn't ahead of time, wasn't when they prayed about it, wasn't when they discussed it, wasn't when they decided they were gonna make it form a committee and decide when are we gonna cross the River Jordan and somebody bring a casserole. It wasn't when they decided they were gonna have a church business meeting two weeks from Thursday, and folks showed up for the church business meeting who you hadn't seen in the past six months at church, and they show up to vote. We're not crossing the Jordan today. It wasn't then. That was not it. God said, when your feet hit the Jordan, when the priest's feet hit the Jordan, that's when I was showing up. Not that he wasn't there, that's when the miracle was going to happen was when their feet touched the water. I don't know if you all remember that. I think it was the third Indiana Jones move. And he was he had in his book where they were supposed to cross, and he's standing there. And he says, There's no bridge. And it says it's a bridge of faith. And he said, There's no bridge, you can't cross here. And all the people said, We'll just turn back. And Indiana Jones said, Nope, I believe in it. And he closed his eyes and he stepped out. And then when he stepped, he saw that the bridge was painted to look like the rest of the wall. And that's what I think of when you take that step of faith. When you when you just say, Lord, I'm just gonna trust you with this and step out on faith and and and know that God's gonna be there. The priest didn't they didn't stand on the edge, they didn't stand there waiting. Hold on, is God gonna hold up the waters? Because I really don't want to get my feet wet because I might wash away in the Jordan. No. They stepped right into the Jordan and then God halted the waters. God doesn't meet you halfway. He stands in the deepest part of the obstacle of what's going on in your life. He holds back what should drown you and overwhelm you. He makes a path where there isn't one. I was remembering Howard Pickett, and I told this story before, Howard Pickett, and he was he was a man that lived by faith. What his grandkids said, his grandkids said, one thing I can say about what'd they call him? Was it Papa Howard? I can't remember. But nonetheless, they said what we know about him is he is a man of faith. And he was telling me about a time when he's going down to New Orleans seminary to go to a Bible college. I think I've told you all this before. And he he drove down 10 hours, no cell phones at the time, down to New Orleans. It was a Sunday night, everybody was closed, but he runs into a professor that says, You know what? I'm moving out, but I'm here till the end of the month. You take my place. He had no idea when he left. He just knew the Lord was telling him to go right then. If he had gone several hours later the next day, things would have been different. But that day, he ended up having a nicer place to live than he would have. He paid nothing for it, but it was because he waited on the Lord. He knew the Lord was going to take care of him. God stands in the middle until you make it through. And the other thing about God is he does not leave until you're done. The water stayed up in the heat while all the people crossed over until the priests took the Ark of the Covenant at it. Sometimes we feel like we're stuck in the middle, like we're not where we used to be, and we're not quite to where we're going yet. But I promise you, sometimes we feel like we're stuck in the middle, or maybe you're stuck in a rut. God's still with you. God hasn't moved, God hasn't forgotten you. God is gonna hold back the waters until you reach the other side. God stays there until you're through. There was a little kid who was swimming, and he was new to swimming. He was, and so when they had to swim meet, he swims about halfway through as he gets past that shallow part, suddenly the deep part scared him, and he panics and he grabs the rope. His dad had come in from work to watch him, and his dad walks around to the other side of the pool and said, Son, be brave. He didn't say hurry up, he didn't say get out of the water, he said be brave. And he stands there. The kid took whatever he said, son, just be brave. He said finally the kid starts to swim. It took about three times longer than anybody else. The kid starts to swim, finally gets to the end, finishes. And he said, No, finish. So got there, he said, Daddy, you stayed. You stayed the whole time. He said, I don't want to leave till you're done. That's the Lord. Lord's not gonna leave until you're done. Lord did not stop the waters from holding up until they were all the way across. So when we step in, we gotta stand firm. Gotta step in, stand firm, and walk through. Joshua teaches us that God's gonna lead us to new places. God's gonna prepare us for wonders and new things in our life. If you'll trust in him, he may take you down a path you've never been, but I promise you, it'll be the place that you should go. He's gonna confirm your steps when you get there. If you'll watch, God will confirm where you are supposed to be. And then God's gonna stand there with you till you're done. You may feel weak, you may feel beat down, whatever is going on, it may feel like it's wearing you down, but God's gonna stand there with you till you're done, just like he did with the priests in the middle of the Jordan. The river might be higher, the timing might be terrible, and then the path may be unclear and one that you've never been on before. Scary even. But the God who parted the Jordan is the God who wants to part your obstacles. Feet first. Faith for your feet, feet first, faith. Step in. The miracle is waiting on movement. God stands in the middle of your Jordan, whatever you're going through. So, whatever your Jordan might be today, whatever that is, I promise you, God is standing there in the middle of you. He has not left you, He's not forsaken you, He's standing right there with you. Let's go to the Lord in prayer this afternoon. Almighty and eternal God, Lord, I thank you so much for. Lord, I thank you so much for showing us over and over how important our well-being is to you. How important it is that we trust you, that in the kingdom of God, that you will you look at each and every one of us individually and you care about it. Just like that Father, you said, I'm not leaving, I'll be right here with you. But sometimes we feel like the the river's gonna wash us away. We feel like that everything is gone. We feel like everything is bleak, but you're saying, I'm right here with you at all times. Hold on. Lord, may we be able to step into the water and get our feet wet first. May we not be afraid to step into the Jordan. May we be have the faith that we could just step out and know that you're going to be with us. Whatever is going to happen, we love you, Lord. May we hold on to you, may we trust you. May we be like those priests who step into the Jordan, be like uh each and every one of the Israelites who walked across there. And when that happens, just like Mary, Queen of Scots, was afraid, John Knox. When our feet hit the ground, may the devil say, Oh no, there they come again. Lord, may we be strong enough to be willing to step into the joint of our lives. In your name, Jesus, we pray these things. Amen. Amen and amen. And what are we singing this afternoon, Brother Robert?

SPEAKER_02 37:44

300. I have decided to follow Jesus. First, second, and last.

SPEAKER_03 37:49

Let's uh let's stand and sing as we close out this afternoon. I have decided to follow Jesus. I have decided to follow Jesus. No turning back, no turning back. Would you close us out in prayer this afternoon?

SPEAKER_00 39:53

Revival next week.

SPEAKER_03 40:12

Invite two or three people to revival next week. Uh I will try to make it back for the dinner on Sunday, but tell somebody you're willing to stand in the Jordan with them this afternoon before you leave.