going to have to share the microphone this morning yeah three questions our three questions this morning and we're not going to mention fruit today uh yeah stu would you mind sharing with us your most embarrassing moment if if you can this is getting close to it right here let me tell you yeah well we don't have enough time matt i i could tell you something i'll just tell you one that happened to me a month ago we were we were having a memorial service where my wife's mother passed away earlier this year and the family couldn't get all together until just about a month ago and some of the granddaughters were supposed to do the scripture reading and none of them were willing to do it at the last minute they just said no no we don't want to do it so someone asked my son's wife my son and his wife been married five years now and they asked jennifer if she would do it and she she agreed that she would and then they asked me to introduce her and i got up and i was trying to explain to everybody who jennifer was and i said well she's kind of a member of the family but not really a member of the family you know she's married into and then everybody started to go oh she is a member of the family and i felt so bad and i've been introducing her ever since as a member of the family and i'm it was terrible i felt i love her so much and i what was your most embarrassing moment matthew that's easy yesterday pete peterines yeah yeah now i i'd have to say that that would have to be one of my most embarrassing moments um but probably boy that's he's a tough one i didn't know you were going to ask me these questions too i'll have to think about that i'll tell you tomorrow okay stu if you could change anything anything about yourself what would it be um you know what i would really like to change about myself is that i'm really a very shy person i'm an introvert i i don't meet people easily and a lot of people seem to be surprised because i love to preach and i i love to get up and and talk to people like this but but after the security of standing between you and the pulpit i mean the pulpit between us then then when we have to meet new people it's a it's a bit of a a challenge for me and i wish i was like have you all heard emmanuel escortio this week wouldn't i love to have his personality you know he was in the youth tent last night and he was he was doing this thing about deep sea diving and he was going like just making a fool out of himself i'd like to be able to do that a lot better i think talk about pizzerians and it works too stew on a more serious night before we have a word of prayer this morning what does prayer mean to you as an individual i wish we had time to talk about my prayer journey it's been an interesting one i'm many years ago my mother passed away after her husband who was an adventist pastor retired his wife had died of cancer and he married my mother and then he told me that my mother was going to get better because he had been praying about it claiming all the promises and then she died and i began to really study what prayer was and it's mean so much to me because i've come to understand that prayer is our opportunity to open up our heart to god and tell him what's really on it and i think the challenge that we have in prayer is not to tell god what we think he wants us to say not to tell him what we think he wants to hear but to tell him what's really on our heart in fact i'm subscribed to a theory that i read in a book that says that opening your heart to god in prayer is the only real religious issue there is being honest with god and that's what i think prayer is and we need to do a better job at it i think thank you for sharing those thoughts with us stu we're really enjoying your studies that you're conducting with us in the mornings and also the ministry that you're providing in the youth tent so we can be thankful that stu is with us can't we let's have a word of pray together before we start our study our gracious father in heaven we thank you so very much for this new day we thank you lord that every new day reminds us of what a wonderful god you are a creator the sustainer of life the redeemer of our lives and the soon to come king well we thank you that you mean just so very much to us we thank you for your mercy your grace and your justice this morning lord we also want to thank you for your word and this morning as pastor stuart tyner opens your word to us we ask that you will help us to learn lessons that will help us in our daily daily walk with you in jesus name we pray amen well we're trusting that the airplanes are not going to circle and i've been promised that the kindy tent will stay in the kindy tent this morning that's good thank you for coming why it seems darker in here today but the sun is out and the rain stopped for a little bit felt a little bit warmer to me today so thank you for being here in this time of the day as we open god's word and study some great episodes in the history of god's people from the old testament i want to remind you again that the hero of the bible stories is god not all the other people that we study about they were very human people just like we are and one of the inspiration one of the the proofs of inspiration of the bible to me has always been how real and human the people are that are there uh we looked yesterday at at moses writing about his brother the things that his brother said i just threw that gold in the fire and out came the calf that's an inspired evidence to me god is the hero not the humans that the bible is god's voice speaking to us today everything that was written in the past was written to teach us we need to hear what god wants to speak to us today about and finally that every bible story teaches about salvation so as we approach the bible with those three presuppositions in mind if you'd like to open your bible to the first chapter of joshua and the last chapter of the book of deuteronomy we're going to look today at the story of the children of israel crossing into the promised land from the east of jericho coming into the promised land from the east crossing the river and going to the land that god promised them before we get to the actual crossing of the river though let's look at the setting you know on a clear day from the top of mount nebo to the east of jericho today you can see the promised land not quite like moses saw it just as he climbed that mountain for the last time looked to the north and the south all the way over to the sea god opened up his vision so clearly that he could see not only the geography of the land but the people inhabiting the land moses's people his people that had given up so much for in egypt the people that he had led through all those years of the wilderness wanderings we talked about yesterday his people inhabiting the promised land the land of milk and honey that god had promised them all the way from abraham and isaac and jacob god had promised this land and now moses sees the people inhabiting the land but he didn't just see geographically but he was able to look forward into the future and see the great events that would take place in that land clear down to when jesus would be born in bethlehem just over there to the south jesus would be born there in that little village and he would see the great events of what was going to happen there in the land god repeats his promise deuteronomy 34 verse 4 to moses that he's been saying all along this is the land i promised to abraham and isaac and jacob when i said i will give it to your descendants and then moses looks for the last time and he closes his eyes and dies at 120 years of age and deuteronomy 34 7 says yet his eyes were not weak nor his strength gone 120 years a few years ago i attended my grandmother's 100th birthday party in houston texas she was a remarkable woman her parents had crossed the united states and covered wagons and yet she had seen people land on the moon what a lifetime she had 100 years old she lived in a apartment building walked down to the elevator took the elevator down to the bottom floor where the dining room was ate with people she didn't do a lot of cooking in her apartment at 100 but she had a kitchen and she did feed us from time to time in her own apartment it was a great birthday party planned in the apartment building and when i arrived from california greeted the family that was there and went over to see my grandmother she said stuart you're going to sing a song at the birthday party you're going to sing how great thou art and i'm going to play the piano for you and i said yes ma'am if that's what you want that's what's going to happen and sure enough from the day of her birthday party i got up and i said now my grandmother is going to play how great thou art on the piano and i'm going to accompany her vocally that's really how i felt my grandmother was a remarkable methodist woman on her 100th birthday she got up in her church and read the scripture reading to her congregation between her 100th birthday and the year that she died she began to to feel like she had lived a good enough life and she was ready to go and she used to say to me i wish god would just leave me alone and let me die i'm ready finally she died just two years ago this month at 108 years old what a remarkable woman she was didn't quite live as long as moses he died at 120. but i believe that we haven't seen the end of my grandmother can't wait until the great resurrection morning to be reunited with her in the heavens and in fact we haven't seen the last of moses even in this earth's history the first of the human race to be resurrected we believe by jesus himself moses appears in the pages of the new testament not on mount nebo the mountain of his burial but on the mount of transfiguration given the great privilege of encouraging jesus for his final earthly crisis you can read about it matthew 17 what a privilege it was for moses to come back to the promised land to meet jesus there on the mount of transfiguration before we go on to talking about how moses's people crossed into the promised land let me add just a footnote to the life of moses there are some among us as there always are who believe that the biblical doctrine of salvation by grace alone by faith alone in jesus christ alone is only half of the story that we must somehow balance what god has done for sinners while they were dead in their transgressions with what our response to god should be to these people the story of moses stands in sharp contradiction for not even the one whom the bible says the lord knew face to face not even this one who did all these miraculous signs and wonders in egypt not even with the inspired eulogy that no one has ever shown the mighty power or performed the awesome deeds that moses did not even this man can meet the requirements for entrance into heaven perfect obedience perfect motivation perfect righteousness the lesson should never be forgotten says ellen white in the chapter on this story in the book patriarchs and prophets god requires exact obedience unquote and remember steps to christ page 62 which we read on sabbath it was possible for adam before the fall to form a righteous character by obedience to god's law but he failed to do this and because of his sin our natures are fallen and we cannot make ourselves righteous since we are sinful unholy we cannot perfectly obey the holy law we have no righteousness of our own not even moses had a righteousness of his own with which to meet the claims of the law of god but christ has made a way of escape for us he lived on earth amid the trials and temptations such as we have to meet he lived a sinful a sinless life he died for us and now he offers to take our sins and give us his righteousness if you give yourself to him if you accept him as your savior then sinful though your life may have been for his sake you are accounted righteous christ's character stands in place of your character and you are accepted before god just as if you had never fallen amen to that what always surprises me about people who want the other half of the story told is not that these people underestimate the power of sin which to a great extent all of us do from time to time but that they so clearly undervalue the power of god's grace listen to these words from the writings of ellen white nothing but the grace of god can convict and convert the heart testimonies to the church volume 4 page 552 it is the grace of christ alone through faith that can make us holy steps to christ page 60. the gospel of his grace alone can cure the evils that curse society that's from mind character and personality volume 1 page 66 god's grace alone can work a reformation testimonies the church volume 4 page 378 it is the matchless grace of christ alone which will triumph over the rebellion of the heart testimony is the church volume 3 page 321 it is god's grace that gives us the power to obey the laws of god it is this that enables us to break the bondage of evil evil habit ministry of healing page 115 his matchless grace alone can save our feet from falling that's manuscript 122 from 1897.
do you get the point it is god's grace and god's grace alone that makes us overcomers not a focus on what some people love to call the other half of the story it is the first half of the story which is the entire story that gives us the power to overcome the reality is clear it is god's saving grace and nothing else that penetrates the stubborn casing of our rebellious resistant heart and transforms us it is grace that makes us desire grace it is grace that makes us want to grow in jesus like ii peter 3 18 says well i'm sorry i'm often a tangent aren't i i wanted to talk about entering the promised land and the only people that do that are people that accept god's grace by the way while i'm talking about god's grace there are two books i want to call your attention to in the abc this lovely compilation of ellen white's writings called god's amazing grace the daily devotional for this year is a reprint of the 1973 of the 1973 book the same way and you will find here all kinds of quotations about god's amazing grace this is a wonderful book i've read it through and through and through over and over again and there's some things you'll find in print here that you won't find anywhere else and william johnson's new book glimpses of grace scenes from my journey is a lovely book i looked at it again last night stories that bill talks about and from his own growing up people that he's run into that have influenced him for grace i know this family and i know them to be grace oriented people and if you haven't read what bill johnson has to say about the glimpses of grace stop by the abc and pick those up well joshua 1 god meets with joshua moses is dead the children of israel have mourned him for the requisite number of days they stand to the east of the jordan river to the east of jericho they look into the promised land and joshua says get ready in three days we're getting in there god meets with him as the captain of the lord's hosts he meets with him and he gives them the promises again you and all these people joshua chapter 1 verses 2 and 3 you and all these people get ready to cross the jordan river into the land i am about to give them and i will give you every place where you set your foot as i promised to moses the promise is clear you and i have heard them before this week we studied god's promises to abraham and jacob and isaac and all of his people throughout the ages god is the one who gives the land we don't earn it on our own he gives it to us and so joshua gets ready tells the people to be strong and courageous he tells them exactly how it's going to happen he sends a couple of spies into jericho to hear the news about what the people are saying about the israelites crossing into the land and the is and the spies find out that the people who are inhabitants of jericho and all the people in the land are so fearful that their hearts are melting in fear because of what's about to happen joshua tells the people it's time to go in now here's what we're going to do we'll have an armed guard that goes first and then we're going to have seven men with trumpets they're going to blow the trumpets and then the ark of the covenant will pass into the jordan river and then you keep a distance joshua chapter 3 verse 4 keep a distance of about a thousand yards i found studying for this morning that the note in my bible says about 900 meters stay back that far from the ark and watch what happens and he says to the priests who are carrying the ark of the covenant you are to go down to the edge of the jordan river and put your feet into the river and then watch what god happens oh there's some interesting theories about this crossing of the jordan river i know you've heard of them too one theory goes that the jordan river at this time was just a little uh trickle of water in bef in between a few pebbles was not a difficult thing at this place where the jordan was to just step over the petals and step over the trickle of water and walk right into the promised land interesting some people have tried to find places where the jordan river was the narrowest place as close to jericho as they could find and think it really wasn't too far they could just wade through this narrow little passage of the river if you go up to the north in israel to uh caesarea philippi and find the jor the source of the jordan river it's not too wide at that point it's clear and cold and on a hot day in israel it feels good to stick your head into that cold water and drink as much as you can but people say it was just a shallow tiny little place where they crossed some people have looked for a sand bar submerged just below the surface of the jordan river and said the the children of israel walked across on the sand bar and you have to walk out into the river and you don't know that it's there and all of a sudden you don't go any deeper and you're walking it looks like your your ankles are under the water and and then it looks like you're walking almost on top of the water at that place you can walk clear across the jordan river on a sandbar but the bible is very clear isn't it that that's not the case chapter 3 verse 15 says now the jordan is at flood stage all during harvest like god did when he brought the children of israel out of egypt he waited until the jordan river that last barrier between where the people were and where they wanted to be when that barrier was at its biggest its largest its most threatening when the river was running at its swiftest god doesn't perform miracles on little trickles of water in between the para the pebbles he performs miracles on mighty rushing rivers nothing that you and i face in our daily life can be too big for god to overcome no challenge that we face no barrier between where we stand and where the promised land is no barrier is too big for god to help us by parting the water for us god doesn't wait for the tiny little things he waits until we're helpless we can't do it because the challenge is so big he says to us my power is made perfect in weakness not in your strength one of the theories is god waited until it was a trickle not what the bible's picture is the other interesting theory that's contemporary today is a rabbinic theory that the priests who carried the ark of the covenant on their shoulders followed joshua's advice and went to the edge of the river and looked at this huge rushing river ahead of them and turned around and said to joshua are you sure this is what we want us to do get into the river and joshua said yes god's instructed for you to step into the river and so the priest with the ark of the covenant on their shoulders stepped into the river until all of them who had the ark and their shoulders were had their feet in the river and then the rabbinic theory goes nothing happened and they waited they waited and then they turned around and looked at joshua and said now what do we do and joshua says keep walking and so the priest according to the theory walked into the river until the water was up to their knees and then they stopped and they looked upstream to see the water stop and it continued to course and nothing happened and they looked to joshua and said now what and joshua this time just points forward into the river not a word just keep going and so the priests waded in now the water rose up their legs and it was up to their waists and they stopped and they looked to the upstream and the water was still coming and they looked just ahead of them and the water was obviously deeper and more swift and they were waiting to see what happened now and one of the priests looked over his shoulder and joshua who's still pointing straight ahead and so the priests waded in until the water was up to their chest and they knew if they turned and looked at joshua he would still be pointing and they waited until the water was up to their chins and they knew they had to keep going and they kept going into the deeper part of the water until the water was up to their noses and they had to tilt their heads back to keep their nostrils above and they took one more step until their nostrils were under the water and then the water finally separated that's not the way the bible says it happened you see what happens if you believe the rabbinic tradition or the rabbinic telling of the story the heroes of the story are the priests who waded into the river until they couldn't even breathe trusting god all the way that he would save them that's not what happened god didn't make the priests the heroes of the story the hero of the story is god who separates the waters not the humans who wade in until they can't breathe it was interesting this morning early i was looking at this passage again and remembering the words that god promised to joshua back in joshua 1. get ready to cross the river into the land i am about to give you god says to joshua i will give you every place where you set your foot even the jordan river was theirs now but the people had to set their feet in the river to prove that they were not the ones that were crossing that were parting the waters put your feet in the water it's not you that does it all we have is the ability to take god at his word and walk into the water that's all we can do you and i do not part rivers god parts rivers you and i did not make the waters dry up and the muddy ground underneath the rivers be so dry that people can walk on it i took a picture yesterday out in front of your caravan stephen of the pathway just after a few days of rain and all the all the grass in the pathway is turned to mud i'm trying to walk in those little clumps of glass grass where there's no mud and the children are walking around barefoot stepping in the mud just enjoying themselves but the children of israel however many hundreds of thousands of them there were imagine what would happen if just god had stopped the flow of the water and they tried to walk across on the muddy bottom of the river how many hundred thousands would have gotten through before the mud was impassable it wasn't just the stopping of the water that was a miracle the the river bed was dry and firm enough for hundreds of thousands of people to walk across it was god who parted the waters he did it at flood stage he did it to prove that he parts the waters we don't do those kinds of things and so the priest walked into the middle of the river and the river receded upstream a ways and it stood there and it continued on down until they couldn't see the river on the downstream part and then all the people began to cross into the promised land every last one of them crossing over one after another one after another family after a family the day that they had been waiting for since the moment they left egypt had finally come and they were going into the promised land the next day i'm going to come back to the middle of this just a moment but the next day a couple of important things happened do you remember that the next day the first day inside the promised land they were camped there at gilgal on the plains of jericho the next day the israelites celebrated the passover chapter 5 verse 10.
