July 21, 2023 • 29 mins
Not sure how things are going to work out? God’s getting you ready for what’s next. While you wait to see it, keeping moving forward in faith and do what you would do if you believed that God was with you. If you’ve just made a decision for Christ, please respond HERE: http://ele.vc/tIepfr
To support this ministry and help us continue to reach people all around the world click here: http://www.elevationchurch.org/giving/ Scripture References: Joshua 3, verses 15-16 Matthew 4, verses 12-17
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Pure primetime in the basin today. One thing only that
we're focused on with the teaching today, and that's priming
the pump, cleaning out the pipes for the word that
God wants to bring on Sunday. It's been an amazing
flow in my life this week, and I thank God
for it. Things that He has spoken to me and
(00:24):
shown me and enabled me the experience, and I'm full
of gratitude about it, and also the things that I
believe He's, you know, getting ready to speak through me.
There's so much that I want to share, and trying
(00:44):
to get it all in would be ridiculous. But let
me go to Joshua three sixteen, because I'm pretty sure
that this week I'm going to work from the text
that I shared weeks ago when I was kind of
getting this teaching bit by bit, chapter by chapter, reading
through the Bible. And I'll go visit that and study
(01:06):
it out as the weekend progresses. But particularly verse sixteen.
The water from upstream stopped flowing pot up in a
heap a great distance away the town called Adam in
the vicinity of Zarathan, where the water flowing down to
the sea of the Araba, that is the dead Sea
was completely cut off, so the people crossed over opposite
(01:28):
Jericho and starting the teaching here for you and kind
of continuing what I taught Sunday in the pulpit was
this phrase, do the thing that you would do. Now.
Taking that phrase at a surface value, it's kind of
like an incomplete sentence, feels a little yoda. Do the
(01:52):
thing that you would do. What tell me what to do?
Do the thing that you would do. I saw the
phrase in a double meaning. I saw the phrase as
being a strategy to break out of lethargy. I saw
(02:13):
the phrase as a focus in times where we feel conflicted.
I saw the phrase as a challenge to come up higher.
And I saw the phrase as a summons to faith.
I saw all those things in that phrase. Do the
thing that you would do. Now, Joshua is leading the
(02:33):
people to cross the Jordan River. That's not something that
they would do if they didn't believe God was with them.
So it takes faith. And one of the things that
I want to speak about on Sunday and today is
the nature of faith. Faith has a very peculiar nature.
(02:54):
In the Westminster Confession, where they met in Westminster Abbey
during the Civil War in England in the sixteen hundreds,
and they gathered the theologians to write out the doctrine
of faith. They came away with a document that was
referred back to by a lot of different denominations, especially
(03:15):
in the Reform theological tradition, as a basis for what
they believed. You know, we say faith these days. It
can mean anything like it's going to turn out okay,
I have faith. I don't really think that's faith. That's
just optimism or maybe delusion. When we say faith it
can mean anything, you know, like I have faith in you,
(03:37):
and that means that I have confidence in you as
a person. But faith in God is different. Now we're
not going to get into some deep dark theological hole here,
don't worry. But it says that by imputing the obedience
and satisfaction of Christ to you, God saves you in
the Westminster Confession, and it talks about our heart in
(04:01):
being saved and our part in having a right relationship
with God. It's not that our faith is so great,
it's that God is so great and that Jesus is
so faithful, and that the faith of Jesus is living
in us. Look at this it says they receiving and
(04:21):
resting in Him by faith and His righteousness, which faith
they have, not of themselves. It is the gift of God.
So I love that distinction that faith isn't something that
I have to work up. Faith isn't something that I
have to manufacture. Faith isn't something that I have to formulate.
(04:42):
Yes I have to stay in faith, and yes I
have to walk in faith, and yes I have to
grow in my faith, and yes I have to nurture
my faith. Because I thought last week faith is a focus.
But the nature of faith is that it was given
from someone else, that's someone being God. That my faith
(05:04):
is in what already happened because of Jesus' death for me,
his resurrection, and his presence in my life. All of
that is something that has happened for me, is something
that God is doing in me, and it results in
what God is doing through me. That's the nature of faith.
(05:29):
And the nature of faith in a physical sense is
seen in Joshua three. Amazing the nature of faith because
the waters were cut off, remember in Adam, twenty miles
away from where they crossed. So the nature of faith
(05:50):
is illustrated here by the Jordan River. Not a big river,
not impressive river, not a mighty river, but a significant river,
is very significant in scripture. So get this in your heart.
As Joshua is leading the generation that will inherit the
land to cross the Jordan River, Jesus is gonna be
(06:13):
baptized in that Jordan River by John the Baptist in
the future. But that's not yet. That's not yet. That's
not yet. That's still to come. That's still to come.
And as they're going across, the Bible says that the
waters that were flowing upstream from upstream were cut off
in a great heat. And that's the part that drew
(06:35):
me to this text. And I have been holding myself back,
especially when I first saw it, from preaching this for
a couple of weeks now and saving it so I
could move through the journey the way that I felt
like God wanted me to. And so now I'm just
days away from being able to preach it. God is
up to something upstream. God's up to something up say that, Lord,
(07:01):
God's up to something upstream. Uh. I can barely contain
myself as I think about it. How that God did
something in Jesus that now flows to me that God
put his wrath anger on Jesus and satisfied the justice
(07:29):
of his holiness when Jesus died for me. And his
faith is now the basis by which I relate to God.
Not my faith. My faith is kind of fickle. I
wish it was, I wish it weren't. I wish it weren't.
But it's not always firm. But Jesus' faith is firm.
(07:53):
So I lean on him, I build on him, I
rest on him. I come to God through him. And
now see how this works. So upstream to downstream it
flows the nature of faith. It flows from Jesus to
me through me. Doesn't come from me. It's the gift.
(08:15):
It flows from him to me. The grace of God,
the gifts of God flow to me from Jesus and
then flow into my life. And then I walk in
it and I move in it. And that is the
nature of faith. In Jesus Christ, biblical faith, and in
(08:37):
the Book of Joshua. Of course we have a picture
of how Jesus is our leader. But Joshua, being an
imperfect leader, has to really believe what God spoke to
him that nobody else could see that I'm going to
bring you across as Jordan. And yeah, the people knew
(08:58):
that God was bringing them into the price, I mused, land,
but Joshua had to believe that and lead the people
watch this to cross over something that God had not
changed yet. And here they are standing at the Jordan River.
And I probably even break this down because if I
go too fast, it will be confusing and it won't
(09:20):
have the full meaning. And I really want to bring
it across. How it says that the people had to
follow the arc of the Covenant and go across the Jordan,
and the water from upstream stopped flowing, piling up in
(09:41):
a heap a great distance away at a town called Adam.
I already mentioned it, but that town is twenty miles away.
I'll probably saved that little detail. Maybe I'll just mention it,
but and then come back to it. Because is significant
(10:01):
is that what God was doing twenty miles away was
not visible to these realized. In other words, they couldn't see, Hey,
the water is stopping in a dump, so we can
cross now. Because the water's stopping up here, They saw
(10:24):
no visible proof that God was going to do it
until the moment their feet touched the water. Now the
moment think about the timing of God. The moment that
their feet touched the water, the waters stopped flowing where
they were. But but in order for that water to
(10:51):
stop flowing where they were, it had to be cut
off upstream hours before they got there, and God was
up to something in a place they couldn't see. You know,
we like to think that God is going to give
(11:13):
us a good feeling and then we can obey him.
We like to think that God is going to show
us on paper how everything's going to work out, and
then we can trust him. We like to think sometimes
that God is going to take a certain desire away
from us and then we will walk in freedom. But
the nature of faith is the ability to believe that
God is up to something upstream where I can't see.
(11:37):
And the key for me to experience that is to
walk toward the thing that stands between me and what
God has called me to. Now, this could be anything.
This could be walking toward freedom, recovery, service, purpose, discipline.
We could name a lot of things that God is
(11:59):
calling you to, a lot of things that God is
calling you to do today. Last week I said, what
do I know God spoke that I can obey today.
What has God said? What did God say that I
can obey today? And do the thing? One thing that
you would do if you knew God was with you,
(12:22):
in it, with me, working through me, fighting for me.
If you believe that, what thing would you do? Now?
The double play on the phrase do the thing that
you would do is when I talk about that you
do the thing that you would do, I'm saying that
there are at least two yous in scripture. There's the
(12:43):
old you, which is programmed by the patterns of sin.
There is the new you, which is created to be
like God in true righteousness and holiness. Remember, that's the
true you. That's the one that flows from upstream. That's
the youth that was spoken by the mouth of God
before you were formed. He knew you that you. So
(13:06):
when you're caught between the two, like, this is what
my selfish desires want, This is what the part of
me that knows God and hear's from God wants do
the thing that you which one the new one, the
one that God is speaking to, the one that God
is flowing through, the one that's in harmony with him,
the one that is kept the one that is sustained,
(13:27):
the one that is full of the faith of Jesus Christ.
Do the thing that you would do, and you got
to sometimes do it when you don't feel it, when
you don't see it, when you don't understand it, when
you can't explain it, but you gotta do it. You
got to walk toward the Jordan believing that God's presence,
(13:49):
like the Ark of the Covenant, was with them in
the middle of the Jordan. God's presence is with you,
guiding you. But I'm not certain how it's going to
turn out. We'll do that thing that you would do
if you were certain that God was with you. Are
you saying I could just start anything and assume that
God is with me. No, I'm not saying that at all.
I'm saying you have to be guided by His presence
(14:11):
and you have to do the thing that you would
do that you would do in spite of the fact
that you can't see the waters cut off twenty miles away.
When Jesus baptized or was baptized by John the Baptist
(14:32):
in the Jordan, John never could have imagined, never could
have seen, never could have dreamed that he would end
up in prison. John would John ended up in prison. Jesus,
of course, gave his life for our sin. But John
was in prison hearing about the great things that Jesus
(14:53):
had done, and he sends the messengers to ask Jesus,
is it true that you're the one should we expect another?
Because he heard about all the great things Jesus was doing,
but he himself was in prison. And really the kingdom
that Jesus was preaching was a little bit different than
the one that John had expected, because, hey, the healing
(15:15):
blind eyes is great. But He's like, man, you know,
you got to separate the wheat from the chaff. I'm
in here because of a wicked king, and you know,
the judgment of God has got to come. And Jesus said,
go back and tell John what you see the blind here,
or the blind here, the blind seed, the death here.
(15:37):
The Kingdom of God is come, and blessed us he
who doesn't fall away on account of me. He was
telling John, you got to believe in what I'm doing upstream.
You got to believe. In business, the term upstream means
something different than what it means in nature. In business,
(16:01):
if you talk about marketing upstream refers to the activities
and strategies associated with creating and developing a product, while
downstream refers to activities and strategies associated with promoting and
selling a product. You see the difference the upstream stuff
in marketing. I mean, you want to market a shoe, well,
(16:26):
the activities and strategies associated with creating and developing it
that's upstream. Downstream is promoting and selling. I think we
live in a culture where we're all doing downstream things
to try to market and protect and promote ourselves, rather
than focusing on the upstream stuff, which is being like God,
(16:52):
developing character so God can work on us. We're so
busy trying to am I is he trying to market
myself that I'm not spending time with my maker. That's
a downstream distraction, you see, that's a downstream distraction. But
I got an upstream god. I got a God who
(17:15):
sent his son Jesus, who sent his son Jesus not
from twenty miles away, but he sent his son Jesus
from eternity, and he spended the distance between his holiness
and my sin. I got a God who is an
(17:36):
upstream god. And Jesus was born in a town called Bethlehem,
and raised in a town called Nazareth. But he didn't
stay in Nazareth. He didn't stay in Nazareth because he
had to go to Galilee so he could begin to
preach and teach. Now, listen what it said in Matthew
(17:59):
chapter four, verse twelve. When Jesus heard that John had
been put in prison, he withdrew to Galilee, leaving Nazareth.
He went and lived in Capernaum, which was by the lake,
in the area of Zebulen and Naftali. To fulfill what
was said through the Prophet Isaiah, land of Zebulen and
land of Naptali, the way of the sea beyond the
Jordan Galilee of the Gentiles. The people living in darkness
(18:25):
have seen a great light. On those living in the
land of the shadow of death, a light has dawned,
and from that time on Jesus began to preach repent,
for the Kingdom of Heaven has come near. God is
up to something upstream. He left Nazareth verse thirteen, lived
(18:46):
in Capernaum, which was in the area of Zebulun by
the lake, to fulfill what was spoke by the prophet.
Think about this, Think about this you may not know this.
I didn't know this. I had to look it up.
That Nazareth is about twenty miles away from Capernaum. Copernaum
(19:11):
is where Jesus did most of his ministry. It was
his base. You know. He healed a lot of people
in Capernaum. By the Sea of Galilee, he opened blind eyes.
I wonder did the blind people whose eyes he opened
in Galilee have any clue that twenty miles away, ten
(19:35):
years earlier, God was up to something upstream. While Jesus
was sawing logs into bedside tables for lamps alongside his father,
the carpenter, God was up to something upstream twenty miles away,
getting Jesus ready for Galilee, getting him ready for Galilee,
(20:01):
getting him ready for miracles, getting him ready for signs
and wonders, getting him ready. God is getting you ready
twenty miles away. Do you have the faith to trust
him that he's up to something twenty miles away? I
wrote a song with the guy this week whoa so
(20:22):
excited about the song, and his name is Brandon Lake.
Y'all know Brandon, y'all know Brandon, y'all love Brandon. He
told me a story that I never heard before, because
he grew up near Charleston, South Carolina, and went to
a church called Seacoast. Oh my god, I'm just getting
this revelation, he said, I never told you this before, Pastor.
(20:43):
We just wrote a song. We written a lot of
songs together, me and Chris and Brandon and also with
other people, but we wrote a song this week. I
can't wait for y'all to hear it. Oh man. We
wrote three songs this week. I can't wait for y'all
to hear all of them. But it's amazing because he
said to me, I never told you this story before.
But when I was a teenager, I sent an email
(21:05):
to Elevation saying I would love to come learn, and
somebody that was responding to the email said, ah, now
we don't really do that right now. You could come
move here or whatever. I thought it was so funny,
and it's so funny how somebody else told him, no,
you can't do that. And here we are today, working together,
(21:26):
and God is using you in a great way, and
we've written some really cool songs together, like Graves into
Gardens and Rattle and talking to Jesus and lie in
and the Water is wild and might get Loud and
million little miracles and oh my God, we've had some
amazing times together, make away and oh man, all these songs,
(21:50):
some news, some old we're writing songs together. I never
knew when I was growing up in Monk's Corner, South Carolina,
that thirty miles away, it's almost twenty there was a
boy named Brandon and we would get together and write
music together. You know, Chris, I had no idea that
(22:15):
you were in Hampton, South Carolina. God was getting us
ready to write songs like Oh, come to the altar
and do it again. God was getting us ready to
go to arenas all over the world. God is up
to something upstream. I had never met Brandon. I didn't
(22:36):
know Chris until I was a teenager. I had no
idea that God was up to something. And you don't either.
You don't know what God is up to upstream. That's
why you can't die downstream. That's why you got to
cross that, Jordan.
Speaker 2 (22:49):
That's why you got to do the thing that you
would do if you believed that victory, healing, breakthrough, second
chances and new beginnings were on the other side.
Speaker 1 (23:03):
I'm telling you, God is up to something upstream. Let
me go a little deeper with this. When Jesus heard
that John was in prison. That is the significant event
that I mentioned where John was doubting downstream in the
prison what he knew upstream when he baptized Jesus into Jordan.
We're all gonna come to these moments. We're gonna have
(23:25):
downstream doubts. I can't see God doing it. I can't
feel God doing it. I don't even know if He's
going to do it. There's some thoughts going through my
mind making me think that maybe I'm crazy for trusting God. Ah,
but God is up to something twenty miles away. It
might not happen in the next twenty minutes, it might
not happen in the next twenty days. I'm not one
(23:46):
of these weird preachers who thinks I can tell everybody
the timeframe. That is God's business. But if you can
obey him and do the thing that you would do,
if you believe that He was with you, You're gonna
see it. You're gonna see it. When did they see it?
When their feet touched the water, when they did the thing,
(24:08):
Nike said, just do it, just do it. When they
did the thing. When they did the thing, When they
did the thing, when they did the thing, Look at
verse fifteen. As soon as the priest who carried the
art reached the jordan in their feet touched the water's edge.
(24:30):
When their feet touched the water's edge, that is when
they saw what God had already done upstream. I believe
that there are some things that have you distracted today. Downstream?
How are you going to get across this? Do the
thing that you would do if you knew God was
with you. Do the thing, Do it like you would
(24:54):
do it. Walk in the room, you know. I was
telling Graham last night. He said that when he's in
a crowd and it's awkward, like a event, and he
doesn't know how to stand or anything, he said, he
starts jumping up and down like a player, excuse me,
like a like a character on Madden. Some people use
the term n PC. I don't like that term the
(25:16):
way kids use it. A non playable character. I don't
like that term because I think sometimes I hear it
used to say that some people are like in PCs
and like I'm the main character in life. No Jesus
in the main Jesus is the main character God is
the main character. The Holy Spirit is the main character.
And Graham said, sometimes I just start doing like this,
(25:39):
boom boom boom, jumping up and down. And I think
that's good to do in church too, when you don't
know how to stand, when you don't know what to do,
start doing the thing that you would do if you
were excited about God's promise. You're not gonna always feel it.
Do the thing, Move toward the thing that you know
God spoke that you can obey today, and we'll apply this.
(26:02):
I'm going to keep this stirring. I got it. I
think you can feel it. I got it fresh now.
So God is good. I'm excited to preach it that
he's up to something upstream. And as I work this
sermon together, I'm going to be praying, or as God
(26:22):
works this sermon together in me, to preach it through
me for others, I'm going to be believing that whatever
you're walking into today, this season of your life, that
you would have the accompanying faith to know that far away,
(26:47):
far far away, long ago, no, not long ago, right now,
in a place far far away, God is piling up
the waters. He had to do that hours before they got.
God does things sometimes years before we get there. We
don't see it until we step into it. I'll stop now.
(27:11):
I don't want to stop, but I feel like I should,
because hey, I go all day. Thank you Jesus for
the things you're doing upstream. Thank you Jesus for dying
for me. Thank you that my righteousness comes from upstream.
It comes from you. It flows from you only you.
Thank you, Jesus. Say thank you Jesus for blessing me,
(27:37):
for letting your mercy flow, your grace flow. It flows
from you enough for me. It flows from you enough
for me. You're not against me, You're not counting my
sins against me. You give me the righteousness of Christ.
I believe that is the gift of God. Even my
faith is a gift. And now by faith I step
(27:57):
toward this water, just like Jesus told y'all the Baptist.
Blessed is he who does not fall away on account
of me. Blessed is he who believes, in the downstream
of doubt and disappointment what I spoke in the upstream
of revelation. Believe that thing, do that thing, continue to
(28:17):
do it. And when their feet touched the water, Ah
they saw the result. You don't see the result till
you take the step. You don't see the result until
you make the commitment do the thing that you would do.
I know there are two us talking right now. One
you that is talking is the one that's saying I can't,
(28:43):
and the other one that is talking to you says
that God will do the thing that you would do.
Bless you. I can't wait to share this with you,
flush it out and see how it goes. But I
know it's good to me cause I could say God
(29:05):
is up to something up stream in my life right now.
Then I hope you feel the same way too. If
you don't feel the same way, I pray you will
believe it by faith and go forward in Jesus name. Amen.
Pure primetime in the basin today. One thing only that
we're focused on with the teaching today, and that's priming
the pump, cleaning out the pipes for the word that
God wants to bring on Sunday. It's been an amazing
flow in my life this week, and I thank God
for it. Things that He has spoken to me and
(00:24):
shown me and enabled me the experience, and I'm full
of gratitude about it, and also the things that I
believe He's, you know, getting ready to speak through me.
There's so much that I want to share, and trying
(00:44):
to get it all in would be ridiculous. But let
me go to Joshua three sixteen, because I'm pretty sure
that this week I'm going to work from the text
that I shared weeks ago when I was kind of
getting this teaching bit by bit, chapter by chapter, reading
through the Bible. And I'll go visit that and study
(01:06):
it out as the weekend progresses. But particularly verse sixteen.
The water from upstream stopped flowing pot up in a
heap a great distance away the town called Adam in
the vicinity of Zarathan, where the water flowing down to
the sea of the Araba, that is the dead Sea
was completely cut off, so the people crossed over opposite
(01:28):
Jericho and starting the teaching here for you and kind
of continuing what I taught Sunday in the pulpit was
this phrase, do the thing that you would do. Now.
Taking that phrase at a surface value, it's kind of
like an incomplete sentence, feels a little yoda. Do the
(01:52):
thing that you would do. What tell me what to do?
Do the thing that you would do. I saw the
phrase in a double meaning. I saw the phrase as
being a strategy to break out of lethargy. I saw
(02:13):
the phrase as a focus in times where we feel conflicted.
I saw the phrase as a challenge to come up higher.
And I saw the phrase as a summons to faith.
I saw all those things in that phrase. Do the
thing that you would do. Now, Joshua is leading the
(02:33):
people to cross the Jordan River. That's not something that
they would do if they didn't believe God was with them.
So it takes faith. And one of the things that
I want to speak about on Sunday and today is
the nature of faith. Faith has a very peculiar nature.
(02:54):
In the Westminster Confession, where they met in Westminster Abbey
during the Civil War in England in the sixteen hundreds,
and they gathered the theologians to write out the doctrine
of faith. They came away with a document that was
referred back to by a lot of different denominations, especially
(03:15):
in the Reform theological tradition, as a basis for what
they believed. You know, we say faith these days. It
can mean anything like it's going to turn out okay,
I have faith. I don't really think that's faith. That's
just optimism or maybe delusion. When we say faith it
can mean anything, you know, like I have faith in you,
(03:37):
and that means that I have confidence in you as
a person. But faith in God is different. Now we're
not going to get into some deep dark theological hole here,
don't worry. But it says that by imputing the obedience
and satisfaction of Christ to you, God saves you in
the Westminster Confession, and it talks about our heart in
(04:01):
being saved and our part in having a right relationship
with God. It's not that our faith is so great,
it's that God is so great and that Jesus is
so faithful, and that the faith of Jesus is living
in us. Look at this it says they receiving and
(04:21):
resting in Him by faith and His righteousness, which faith
they have, not of themselves. It is the gift of God.
So I love that distinction that faith isn't something that
I have to work up. Faith isn't something that I
have to manufacture. Faith isn't something that I have to formulate.
(04:42):
Yes I have to stay in faith, and yes I
have to walk in faith, and yes I have to
grow in my faith, and yes I have to nurture
my faith. Because I thought last week faith is a focus.
But the nature of faith is that it was given
from someone else, that's someone being God. That my faith
(05:04):
is in what already happened because of Jesus' death for me,
his resurrection, and his presence in my life. All of
that is something that has happened for me, is something
that God is doing in me, and it results in
what God is doing through me. That's the nature of faith.
(05:29):
And the nature of faith in a physical sense is
seen in Joshua three. Amazing the nature of faith because
the waters were cut off, remember in Adam, twenty miles
away from where they crossed. So the nature of faith
(05:50):
is illustrated here by the Jordan River. Not a big river,
not impressive river, not a mighty river, but a significant river,
is very significant in scripture. So get this in your heart.
As Joshua is leading the generation that will inherit the
land to cross the Jordan River, Jesus is gonna be
(06:13):
baptized in that Jordan River by John the Baptist in
the future. But that's not yet. That's not yet. That's
not yet. That's still to come. That's still to come.
And as they're going across, the Bible says that the
waters that were flowing upstream from upstream were cut off
in a great heat. And that's the part that drew
(06:35):
me to this text. And I have been holding myself back,
especially when I first saw it, from preaching this for
a couple of weeks now and saving it so I
could move through the journey the way that I felt
like God wanted me to. And so now I'm just
days away from being able to preach it. God is
up to something upstream. God's up to something up say that, Lord,
(07:01):
God's up to something upstream. Uh. I can barely contain
myself as I think about it. How that God did
something in Jesus that now flows to me that God
put his wrath anger on Jesus and satisfied the justice
(07:29):
of his holiness when Jesus died for me. And his
faith is now the basis by which I relate to God.
Not my faith. My faith is kind of fickle. I
wish it was, I wish it weren't. I wish it weren't.
But it's not always firm. But Jesus' faith is firm.
(07:53):
So I lean on him, I build on him, I
rest on him. I come to God through him. And
now see how this works. So upstream to downstream it
flows the nature of faith. It flows from Jesus to
me through me. Doesn't come from me. It's the gift.
(08:15):
It flows from him to me. The grace of God,
the gifts of God flow to me from Jesus and
then flow into my life. And then I walk in
it and I move in it. And that is the
nature of faith. In Jesus Christ, biblical faith, and in
(08:37):
the Book of Joshua. Of course we have a picture
of how Jesus is our leader. But Joshua, being an
imperfect leader, has to really believe what God spoke to
him that nobody else could see that I'm going to
bring you across as Jordan. And yeah, the people knew
(08:58):
that God was bringing them into the price, I mused, land,
but Joshua had to believe that and lead the people
watch this to cross over something that God had not
changed yet. And here they are standing at the Jordan River.
And I probably even break this down because if I
go too fast, it will be confusing and it won't
(09:20):
have the full meaning. And I really want to bring
it across. How it says that the people had to
follow the arc of the Covenant and go across the Jordan,
and the water from upstream stopped flowing, piling up in
(09:41):
a heap a great distance away at a town called Adam.
I already mentioned it, but that town is twenty miles away.
I'll probably saved that little detail. Maybe I'll just mention it,
but and then come back to it. Because is significant
(10:01):
is that what God was doing twenty miles away was
not visible to these realized. In other words, they couldn't see, Hey,
the water is stopping in a dump, so we can
cross now. Because the water's stopping up here, They saw
(10:24):
no visible proof that God was going to do it
until the moment their feet touched the water. Now the
moment think about the timing of God. The moment that
their feet touched the water, the waters stopped flowing where
they were. But but in order for that water to
(10:51):
stop flowing where they were, it had to be cut
off upstream hours before they got there, and God was
up to something in a place they couldn't see. You know,
we like to think that God is going to give
(11:13):
us a good feeling and then we can obey him.
We like to think that God is going to show
us on paper how everything's going to work out, and
then we can trust him. We like to think sometimes
that God is going to take a certain desire away
from us and then we will walk in freedom. But
the nature of faith is the ability to believe that
God is up to something upstream where I can't see.
(11:37):
And the key for me to experience that is to
walk toward the thing that stands between me and what
God has called me to. Now, this could be anything.
This could be walking toward freedom, recovery, service, purpose, discipline.
We could name a lot of things that God is
(11:59):
calling you to, a lot of things that God is
calling you to do today. Last week I said, what
do I know God spoke that I can obey today.
What has God said? What did God say that I
can obey today? And do the thing? One thing that
you would do if you knew God was with you,
(12:22):
in it, with me, working through me, fighting for me.
If you believe that, what thing would you do? Now?
The double play on the phrase do the thing that
you would do is when I talk about that you
do the thing that you would do, I'm saying that
there are at least two yous in scripture. There's the
(12:43):
old you, which is programmed by the patterns of sin.
There is the new you, which is created to be
like God in true righteousness and holiness. Remember, that's the
true you. That's the one that flows from upstream. That's
the youth that was spoken by the mouth of God
before you were formed. He knew you that you. So
(13:06):
when you're caught between the two, like, this is what
my selfish desires want, This is what the part of
me that knows God and hear's from God wants do
the thing that you which one the new one, the
one that God is speaking to, the one that God
is flowing through, the one that's in harmony with him,
the one that is kept the one that is sustained,
(13:27):
the one that is full of the faith of Jesus Christ.
Do the thing that you would do, and you got
to sometimes do it when you don't feel it, when
you don't see it, when you don't understand it, when
you can't explain it, but you gotta do it. You
got to walk toward the Jordan believing that God's presence,
(13:49):
like the Ark of the Covenant, was with them in
the middle of the Jordan. God's presence is with you,
guiding you. But I'm not certain how it's going to
turn out. We'll do that thing that you would do
if you were certain that God was with you. Are
you saying I could just start anything and assume that
God is with me. No, I'm not saying that at all.
I'm saying you have to be guided by His presence
(14:11):
and you have to do the thing that you would
do that you would do in spite of the fact
that you can't see the waters cut off twenty miles away.
When Jesus baptized or was baptized by John the Baptist
(14:32):
in the Jordan, John never could have imagined, never could
have seen, never could have dreamed that he would end
up in prison. John would John ended up in prison. Jesus,
of course, gave his life for our sin. But John
was in prison hearing about the great things that Jesus
(14:53):
had done, and he sends the messengers to ask Jesus,
is it true that you're the one should we expect another?
Because he heard about all the great things Jesus was doing,
but he himself was in prison. And really the kingdom
that Jesus was preaching was a little bit different than
the one that John had expected, because, hey, the healing
(15:15):
blind eyes is great. But He's like, man, you know,
you got to separate the wheat from the chaff. I'm
in here because of a wicked king, and you know,
the judgment of God has got to come. And Jesus said,
go back and tell John what you see the blind here,
or the blind here, the blind seed, the death here.
(15:37):
The Kingdom of God is come, and blessed us he
who doesn't fall away on account of me. He was
telling John, you got to believe in what I'm doing upstream.
You got to believe. In business, the term upstream means
something different than what it means in nature. In business,
(16:01):
if you talk about marketing upstream refers to the activities
and strategies associated with creating and developing a product, while
downstream refers to activities and strategies associated with promoting and
selling a product. You see the difference the upstream stuff
in marketing. I mean, you want to market a shoe, well,
(16:26):
the activities and strategies associated with creating and developing it
that's upstream. Downstream is promoting and selling. I think we
live in a culture where we're all doing downstream things
to try to market and protect and promote ourselves, rather
than focusing on the upstream stuff, which is being like God,
(16:52):
developing character so God can work on us. We're so
busy trying to am I is he trying to market
myself that I'm not spending time with my maker. That's
a downstream distraction, you see, that's a downstream distraction. But
I got an upstream god. I got a God who
(17:15):
sent his son Jesus, who sent his son Jesus not
from twenty miles away, but he sent his son Jesus
from eternity, and he spended the distance between his holiness
and my sin. I got a God who is an
(17:36):
upstream god. And Jesus was born in a town called Bethlehem,
and raised in a town called Nazareth. But he didn't
stay in Nazareth. He didn't stay in Nazareth because he
had to go to Galilee so he could begin to
preach and teach. Now, listen what it said in Matthew
(17:59):
chapter four, verse twelve. When Jesus heard that John had
been put in prison, he withdrew to Galilee, leaving Nazareth.
He went and lived in Capernaum, which was by the lake,
in the area of Zebulen and Naftali. To fulfill what
was said through the Prophet Isaiah, land of Zebulen and
land of Naptali, the way of the sea beyond the
Jordan Galilee of the Gentiles. The people living in darkness
(18:25):
have seen a great light. On those living in the
land of the shadow of death, a light has dawned,
and from that time on Jesus began to preach repent,
for the Kingdom of Heaven has come near. God is
up to something upstream. He left Nazareth verse thirteen, lived
(18:46):
in Capernaum, which was in the area of Zebulun by
the lake, to fulfill what was spoke by the prophet.
Think about this, Think about this you may not know this.
I didn't know this. I had to look it up.
That Nazareth is about twenty miles away from Capernaum. Copernaum
(19:11):
is where Jesus did most of his ministry. It was
his base. You know. He healed a lot of people
in Capernaum. By the Sea of Galilee, he opened blind eyes.
I wonder did the blind people whose eyes he opened
in Galilee have any clue that twenty miles away, ten
(19:35):
years earlier, God was up to something upstream. While Jesus
was sawing logs into bedside tables for lamps alongside his father,
the carpenter, God was up to something upstream twenty miles away,
getting Jesus ready for Galilee, getting him ready for Galilee,
(20:01):
getting him ready for miracles, getting him ready for signs
and wonders, getting him ready. God is getting you ready
twenty miles away. Do you have the faith to trust
him that he's up to something twenty miles away? I
wrote a song with the guy this week whoa so
(20:22):
excited about the song, and his name is Brandon Lake.
Y'all know Brandon, y'all know Brandon, y'all love Brandon. He
told me a story that I never heard before, because
he grew up near Charleston, South Carolina, and went to
a church called Seacoast. Oh my god, I'm just getting
this revelation, he said, I never told you this before, Pastor.
(20:43):
We just wrote a song. We written a lot of
songs together, me and Chris and Brandon and also with
other people, but we wrote a song this week. I
can't wait for y'all to hear it. Oh man. We
wrote three songs this week. I can't wait for y'all
to hear all of them. But it's amazing because he
said to me, I never told you this story before.
But when I was a teenager, I sent an email
(21:05):
to Elevation saying I would love to come learn, and
somebody that was responding to the email said, ah, now
we don't really do that right now. You could come
move here or whatever. I thought it was so funny,
and it's so funny how somebody else told him, no,
you can't do that. And here we are today, working together,
(21:26):
and God is using you in a great way, and
we've written some really cool songs together, like Graves into
Gardens and Rattle and talking to Jesus and lie in
and the Water is wild and might get Loud and
million little miracles and oh my God, we've had some
amazing times together, make away and oh man, all these songs,
(21:50):
some news, some old we're writing songs together. I never
knew when I was growing up in Monk's Corner, South Carolina,
that thirty miles away, it's almost twenty there was a
boy named Brandon and we would get together and write
music together. You know, Chris, I had no idea that
(22:15):
you were in Hampton, South Carolina. God was getting us
ready to write songs like Oh, come to the altar
and do it again. God was getting us ready to
go to arenas all over the world. God is up
to something upstream. I had never met Brandon. I didn't
(22:36):
know Chris until I was a teenager. I had no
idea that God was up to something. And you don't either.
You don't know what God is up to upstream. That's
why you can't die downstream. That's why you got to
cross that, Jordan.
Speaker 2 (22:49):
That's why you got to do the thing that you
would do if you believed that victory, healing, breakthrough, second
chances and new beginnings were on the other side.
Speaker 1 (23:03):
I'm telling you, God is up to something upstream. Let
me go a little deeper with this. When Jesus heard
that John was in prison. That is the significant event
that I mentioned where John was doubting downstream in the
prison what he knew upstream when he baptized Jesus into Jordan.
We're all gonna come to these moments. We're gonna have
(23:25):
downstream doubts. I can't see God doing it. I can't
feel God doing it. I don't even know if He's
going to do it. There's some thoughts going through my
mind making me think that maybe I'm crazy for trusting God. Ah,
but God is up to something twenty miles away. It
might not happen in the next twenty minutes, it might
not happen in the next twenty days. I'm not one
(23:46):
of these weird preachers who thinks I can tell everybody
the timeframe. That is God's business. But if you can
obey him and do the thing that you would do,
if you believe that He was with you, You're gonna
see it. You're gonna see it. When did they see it?
When their feet touched the water, when they did the thing,
(24:08):
Nike said, just do it, just do it. When they
did the thing. When they did the thing, When they
did the thing, when they did the thing, Look at
verse fifteen. As soon as the priest who carried the
art reached the jordan in their feet touched the water's edge.
(24:30):
When their feet touched the water's edge, that is when
they saw what God had already done upstream. I believe
that there are some things that have you distracted today. Downstream?
How are you going to get across this? Do the
thing that you would do if you knew God was
with you. Do the thing, Do it like you would
(24:54):
do it. Walk in the room, you know. I was
telling Graham last night. He said that when he's in
a crowd and it's awkward, like a event, and he
doesn't know how to stand or anything, he said, he
starts jumping up and down like a player, excuse me,
like a like a character on Madden. Some people use
the term n PC. I don't like that term the
(25:16):
way kids use it. A non playable character. I don't
like that term because I think sometimes I hear it
used to say that some people are like in PCs
and like I'm the main character in life. No Jesus
in the main Jesus is the main character God is
the main character. The Holy Spirit is the main character.
And Graham said, sometimes I just start doing like this,
(25:39):
boom boom boom, jumping up and down. And I think
that's good to do in church too, when you don't
know how to stand, when you don't know what to do,
start doing the thing that you would do if you
were excited about God's promise. You're not gonna always feel it.
Do the thing, Move toward the thing that you know
God spoke that you can obey today, and we'll apply this.
(26:02):
I'm going to keep this stirring. I got it. I
think you can feel it. I got it fresh now.
So God is good. I'm excited to preach it that
he's up to something upstream. And as I work this
sermon together, I'm going to be praying, or as God
(26:22):
works this sermon together in me, to preach it through
me for others, I'm going to be believing that whatever
you're walking into today, this season of your life, that
you would have the accompanying faith to know that far away,
(26:47):
far far away, long ago, no, not long ago, right now,
in a place far far away, God is piling up
the waters. He had to do that hours before they got.
God does things sometimes years before we get there. We
don't see it until we step into it. I'll stop now.
(27:11):
I don't want to stop, but I feel like I should,
because hey, I go all day. Thank you Jesus for
the things you're doing upstream. Thank you Jesus for dying
for me. Thank you that my righteousness comes from upstream.
It comes from you. It flows from you only you.
Thank you, Jesus. Say thank you Jesus for blessing me,
(27:37):
for letting your mercy flow, your grace flow. It flows
from you enough for me. It flows from you enough
for me. You're not against me, You're not counting my
sins against me. You give me the righteousness of Christ.
I believe that is the gift of God. Even my
faith is a gift. And now by faith I step
(27:57):
toward this water, just like Jesus told y'all the Baptist.
Blessed is he who does not fall away on account
of me. Blessed is he who believes, in the downstream
of doubt and disappointment what I spoke in the upstream
of revelation. Believe that thing, do that thing, continue to
(28:17):
do it. And when their feet touched the water, Ah
they saw the result. You don't see the result till
you take the step. You don't see the result until
you make the commitment do the thing that you would do.
I know there are two us talking right now. One
you that is talking is the one that's saying I can't,
(28:43):
and the other one that is talking to you says
that God will do the thing that you would do.
Bless you. I can't wait to share this with you,
flush it out and see how it goes. But I
know it's good to me cause I could say God
(29:05):
is up to something up stream in my life right now.
Then I hope you feel the same way too. If
you don't feel the same way, I pray you will
believe it by faith and go forward in Jesus name. Amen.
Host
Steven Furtick
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