Cross Over and Possess It

Transcript

Week 5 of the series God's Crossover. Transcribed from the service recording and lightly edited for readability.

Welcome: The Final Week

Here we are, the final week of the series God's Crossover. This week we're going to talk about how we cross over and possess it. Let's start with our declaration statement, and then I'm going to jump right into it.

Declaration Statement

I am a Christ chaser. I am here to be transformed. I am here to hear the voice of God. God, clear my mind and open my heart to receive Your word. Jesus, do not let us leave the same way we came. I am ready to be changed. Amen.

Scripture Reading: Joshua 1:1–9

So here we are in the book of Joshua, chapter 1, verses 1 through 9. At this point in the Israelites' journey, they've left Egypt, they've been wandering through the wilderness for about forty years, and now they stand before the Jordan River, ready to go into the land God promised them. I'm reading from the NIV this morning:

After the death of Moses the servant of the Lord, the Lord said to Joshua son of Nun, Moses' aide: "Moses my servant is dead. Now then, you and all these people, get ready to cross the Jordan River into the land I am about to give to them — to the Israelites. I will give you every place where you set your foot, as I promised Moses. Your territory will extend from the desert to Lebanon, and from the great river, the Euphrates — all the Hittite country — to the Mediterranean Sea in the west. No one will be able to stand against you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you.

"Be strong and courageous, because you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their ancestors to give them. Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go. Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go."

— Joshua 1:1–9 (NIV)

Let me read that one again: No one will be able to stand against you all the days of your life.

Don't Stop at the Crossover

There's a difference between going somewhere and living somewhere. Imagine you buy a house. You saved up a lot of money. You've got a nice down payment, your credit is right, so the interest rate is right. You search and find the exact house you want. You go to the office, submit all the paperwork they asked for, and sign on the dotted line. They give you the keys. You go to the house, unlock the door, look inside. And then that night you go out and sleep in your car. Matter of fact, for the next few years, you sleep in your car. Doesn't that sound crazy? It's the same thing: if you cross over and don't possess all that God has in store for you, you might as well be sleeping in your driveway instead of living in your house.

A New Generation at the Jordan

Moses has died, and Joshua has become the new leader. Now remember, we had the crossover where Ephraim got blessed over Manasseh. Joshua is from the tribe of Ephraim, and now he's leading God's people into the promised land. The new generation is standing at the banks of the Jordan. The older generation has faded away, and this generation has another opportunity. God tells Joshua, "Arise and cross the Jordan. Go into the promised land." The land was already theirs by covenant, but they still had to take it. They still had to take it.

Faith Doesn't Stop at the Crossover

Crossing over is only the beginning. Many believers celebrate what God has delivered them from but never possess what God has delivered them to. God didn't bring Israel to the Jordan River just so they could stand on the riverbank and say they made it out. He brought them to what He called the promised land. Faith doesn't stop at the crossover. Faith continues until we possess everything, everything, that God has promised.

Crossing Over Requires Courage

But here's the thing: crossing over requires courage. Webster defines courage as the mental or moral strength to venture, persevere, and withstand danger, fear, or difficulty. Courage is not the absence of fear. It's moving in the face of fear. But fear keeps a lot of people standing on the shoreline.

Ten Spies Saw Giants, Two Saw God

When they originally sent twelve spies to scout out the land, ten spies saw giants and two spies saw God. They came back with evidence, with fruit, with proof of what was possible on the other side. Yet fear set in: "They're bigger than us." Even though they had just escaped the Egyptian army, they still saw giants, and they saw fear.

What opportunity does God have before you right now where all you can see is fear? Maybe it's a business venture God is putting in your way, but all you see is failure. You hear the statistic that nine out of ten businesses fail, and you're afraid of being one of the nine. I'm telling you, we have to take courage and figure it out. Guess what? I did the math. If I start ten businesses, one of them should succeed. And if the first ten don't succeed, now I go for twenty, and two of those should succeed. Why? That's the statistic. That's the math. And going through all those steps, I should be learning something that gets me closer to where God wants me to be. It doesn't mean I'm not going to fail. It just means I've got to pursue what God has promised me.

That's the thing about God: He never promised an obstacle-free future. He didn't. He told Joshua he was going to cross into Canaan, but He also told him it was other people's land. He named the people who were already there. "You're not walking into an empty field. There are going to be people there you have to defeat." But He also told him, "No one will be able to stand against you. Wherever you put your feet, it's going to be yours."

Some of us are married, and marriage isn't obstacle-free either. It doesn't mean you won't face challenges. But God partnered you with somebody to help you through those challenges. And as the body of Christ, that's what we're here for. We're all different people from different walks of life, with different abilities, skills, and agility. But when we come together for the glory of God, He can do some things. When we work together, we overcome those obstacles together. And when we overcome them together, guess what? We celebrate together.

Courage Grows Through God's Presence

Here's where we get mind-boggled sometimes: courage grows through God's presence. It says, "Be strong and courageous, for the Lord is with you." Sometimes God has to train us for some stuff.

I've told this story several times. I had a buddy in the Marine Reserves, and during 9/11 I said, "Bro, you need to go hide somewhere. Don't answer your phone, because they're going to call you and send you overseas." He said, "No, I'm ready." "What? What are you talking about?" He said, "I've trained for this."

When your house is burning down, you call 911 and they send the firefighters. And the firefighters aren't scared of the fire, because they're trained to go into the fire. You call the police when you've got a situation you don't want to deal with yourself, because they're trained for that. God is training you to go through some things.

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego could step into the fire because they knew who they were walking into the fire with. The king looked in and said, "Didn't we throw three men in? I see four, and the fourth looks like a son of the gods." They didn't have any fear, because they knew that when they went into the fire, they were walking in with the Lord Himself. Daniel could go into the lions' den and sleep on lions, because he knew who he was going in with. He wasn't going by himself. He had the Lord Almighty on his side.

Who are you going into battle with? The problem is we go into the fire without the presence of God with us. But when you've got the presence of God with you, you can go into battle without fear, because you know God is with you. The reality is, our confidence is not in ourselves. It's in God.

That's what God has to work on with me, because a lot of times my confidence is in myself. I don't have a problem betting on myself. I know what I'm capable of. I know what I can do. If it's got something to do with a computer, I've got this. So often we get caught up in our own skills and our own abilities, and our confidence is in us. But our confidence has to be in God, because we know He will walk with us.

Be Strong and Courageous: It's Not a Suggestion

Verse 6 says, "Be strong and courageous, because you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their ancestors to give them." When I read this, it's a command. It's not an option. It's not a choice. God is saying, be strong. Be courageous. Some of us act like it's a suggestion.

Pursue God's Promises

We can be strong and courageous when we understand point two: we have to pursue God's promises. God lays out all these promises in His word, and we have to begin to pursue them.

• God promises wisdom in James 1. How do I pursue it? By asking God, studying His word, and believing what He directs you to do.
• God promises His presence, right here in Joshua. How do I pursue it? By moving forward courageously instead of letting fear keep you stationary.
• God promises peace. In Philippians He says the peace of God will guard your hearts and your minds. How do I pursue it? Through prayer, thanksgiving, and surrendering your anxiety to God.
• God promises spiritual strength in Isaiah. How do we pursue it? By waiting on God rather than depending exclusively on our own strength.

You want to pursue peace? That song we sang earlier says, "I give my life away." And the song before that (some of y'all were in here lying, because I know we were) said, "Break me, shake me." Y'all sang it. So this week, when you get broken, when you get shaken, don't come back complaining. That is how we pursue.

Seek First the Kingdom: Matthew 6:33

God promises to provide what we need. Matthew 6:33: "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." So how do I pursue it? By putting God's kingdom first and trusting that He's going to provide everything I need.

Step Into the Water

God's promises require obedient action. He told Moses to stretch out the rod, and the sea split. Now we get to the Jordan, and He tells the priests to step into the water. "Dang, what about what You did last time, God? We walked through on dry ground. Our feet didn't even get wet." He said, "Step in the water." And they had to step in. And they had to be in the water for a minute, because when they stepped in, the water began to be held back some ways upstream. So they had to step in with confidence: "All right, we're in here now, Lord. What You got?" Sometimes you have to get in the water and not know where it's going. But while you're in the water, you have to step in knowing that, guess what, He's about to dry it up. He's about to make provision.

All right, let me try to clear this up a little bit. Say I'm praying for God to help me with my health. How do you step in the water, D? I start eating right. I start exercising. I start drinking more water. I can't pray for God to fix my health while I'm drinking soda and eating Cheetos and candy all day with no fruits and no vegetables. You can pray all you want, but it doesn't matter.

Let me get closer to home. "God, I want more money." "But D, what are you doing with the money I'm giving you? Are you managing it right? Matter of fact, do you even know where it's going? You've got a hole in your pocket and don't even know it. I can't give you any more money until you plug the hole, because whatever I give you is going to go."

Every promise comes with responsibility. The land was theirs, but they had to conquer it.

Somebody's Gonna Possess It

I can say all day long, "I'm going to win the NBA championship." Not from this seat. God could have promised me that, but if I don't get up and play the game, I don't get anything. There could be a million dollars sitting in that chair right next to Brother Johnson, but it isn't mine until I go get that suitcase. I can tell everybody in the world, "I've got a million dollars over there next to Brother Johnson." Guess what? It isn't going to be mine for long, because somebody is going to go possess it. If this fool is going to sit here and wait, I'm going to go get it.

It takes responsibility. It's something you have to do. You can go to college and get all the degrees you want, but unless you get a job to back it up, it doesn't mean anything. Salvation is free, but spiritual growth requires everything. It costs you something to become a true disciple of Christ. A lot of us just jump in, but we don't do anything, and then we wonder why we're still in the same place next year, and the year after that, and the year after that. "Why am I still in the same place?" Because what have you done? Faith keeps moving.

Caleb's Faith

Caleb was one of the original twelve who went in and scouted out the promised land. He was one of the two who came back and said, "I believe we can take the land." Yet God said no to His people. But Caleb still believed God had called him to that land, so Caleb kept pursuing. And at eighty-five, Caleb received the land God had promised him. He went through forty years in the desert. You know me; I'd have been salty: "God, I believed the land was mine, and now I've got to wait another forty years because of these people?" But he believed what God said.

Sometimes you're going to make a move, make a switch, and it's going to come later in life than you ever expected. You know me, I told you, I'm about that paper. I'm trying to figure out how high I can stack it. And what I realized is that most millionaires are fifty or sixty when they hit that mark. Most of them didn't get it from somebody giving it to them. They worked for it, or they saved and invested and let their money make money on top of money. So what does that mean? As long as you keep pursuing what God has called you to do, it doesn't matter how long it takes. He will get you where He told you He was going to get you. You just have to get off your timeline and get on His.

We can never stop pursuing God's purpose. It doesn't matter how old you are; you have to keep pursuing God's purpose. He gave you a promise, and God is going to keep His promise.

Leave Memorials for the Next Generation

Lastly, leave memorials for the next generation. We don't just remember what God has done; we tell others what God has done. We have to tell our children the stories of what God has taken us through and where He's brought us from.

That's another thing about some of these rich people. Y'all see it and think it's crazy, but a lot of them are giving their money away and leaving none to their kids. Why? Because their kids didn't go through the grit to get it, so they won't be able to handle it. Part of how you handle that is letting your children go through some of what you went through, so they can see God moving in their own lives. We want to intervene. We want to cushion things and make them soft and easy. But they have to go through what God has for them to go through so they can get where God wants them to be. Don't let your children inherit your blessing without hearing your testimony.

Celebrate Every Crossover

The other thing we have to do is celebrate every crossover. If you're addicted to a substance and trying to get off it: one day, celebrate. Two days, celebrate. Three days, celebrate. You've got to celebrate. When David was bringing the Ark of the Covenant back to Jerusalem, they took a few steps and celebrated, took a few more steps and celebrated. We have to celebrate what God is doing. You turned off a few of those subscriptions? Celebrate. You skipped a Starbucks run? Celebrate. You cooked at home instead of eating at a restaurant? Celebrate. When God answers your prayer, celebrate. Gratitude strengthens your faith. And like the song says, when the praises go up, the blessings come down.

Help Others Cross Over

Live so others can cross over too. Joshua led the entire nation across. Sometimes we've got to help somebody else. We've got to mentor some people. And it costs you something, because most of us don't want to be bothered. "I ain't got time for that. If I call them, they're going to complain. They're going to talk about all their problems. I want to check on them, but I don't want to hear all that." But when God puts somebody on your heart, you've got to call them. You've got to check on them and see what's going on. You might say, "Hey, I only have a minute, I'm running somewhere, but I wanted to check on you and see how you're doing." Even a simple text message. I'm learning more and more that we have to let go of what we want and what we've got going on, and really lead others to the place where God would have them be.

I was having a conversation with a gentleman recently, and I was sharing my thoughts on his situation. In the middle of sharing my thoughts, God stopped me. He said, "You're telling him wrong. How you interpret the situation and how you feel about it doesn't matter. You need to point him to Me." So after I shared my thoughts, I said, "Hold on. You know what? That's not right. You need to figure out what God wants for you. You need to figure out how God feels about this situation and how God wants to move in it."

We interpret some things real good sometimes, but sometimes we're straight wrong, because we don't know the whole situation. We only know what they told us. But if we usher them into the presence of the Almighty, He's going to take them exactly where they need to go. Because when you were in your situation, you listened to a whole bunch of people, and most of them told you the wrong thing, didn't they? It sounded good. Some of it was what you wanted to hear. Some of it was chastisement, and sometimes we got chastised for stuff we didn't even do. "Whoa, whoa, you're putting stuff on me I didn't do." Why? Because we don't always tell people the whole situation. So we have to point people to God and show them that if they let God sit in the situation, marinate in God's word, and let Him speak into it, things will change.

Your crossover wasn't just for you. It was for you to share with somebody else, so they can see your obedience to God in the midst of whatever you're going through. They can watch you walk that journey and take that path, and He will take them where they need to go. Your greatest legacy isn't what you leave behind. It's who you help cross over.

So for the last five weeks, we've watched God make crossover after crossover. He crossed the Israelites through the Red Sea. He crossed Jacob's hands over Ephraim. He crossed Paul's travel plans. He crossed humanity from death into life through Jesus Christ. Now the question becomes: what are you going to do with the crossover? Will you stay standing on the edge, or will you possess everything God has promised?

The greatest tragedy isn't missing the crossover. The greatest tragedy is experiencing God's miracles but never walking into His purpose. God didn't bring you this far to leave you here. It's time to cross over. It's time to move forward. It's time to possess all that God has promised. This is it. God crossed over. He changed the game. The question is, are we going to possess the land?

Weekly Challenge

• Reflect: What promise from God have I been standing beside instead of stepping into by faith?
• Act: Take one courageous step this week toward the purpose God has placed before you.
• Pray: "Father, thank You for every crossover You've made in my life. Give me the courage not only to celebrate Your miracles, but to possess every promise You have prepared for me. Help me live boldly, faithfully, and obediently, so that my life points others toward You."

Closing Prayer

Most gracious and heavenly Father, we just come before You saying thank You. Father God, thank You for this word. Thank You for this reminder that not only are we to cross over, but we're to step into everything You have promised us. Lord, open our eyes so that we can see, open our hearts so that we can receive, and give us the courage and the faith to step into all that You have in store for us. Father God, we love You and praise You. In the precious and powerful name of Jesus Christ, Your Son and our Savior, we ask it all. Amen.