Crossing Over Together

0:01 But why do pastors make good gardeners? Dawn wouldn't agree with that because she knows my gardening skills. They are good at planting seeds. So do you remember if you raised kids and most of us have had kids at home what did they love to do when they would come along a mud puddle?

They jump right in and get their feet wet, right? Is it because they don't know better yet? Or they're just having fun? Now I come up across a mud puddle and I may look at it for a little bit but I can stay at the edge and try not to get my feet wet.

Take the shoes off now. But because I'm a grown man I sort of sidestep around the puddle and I stand at the very edge I may look at the puddle, you know, where did that come from? You know, tomorrow it may get a little bit smaller. If it's raining it may get a little bit bigger.

But I will avoid getting my feet wet. But today I want to share with you that today is the time for us to get our feet wet. It's time for us to get our feet wet. Well you don't have to take your shoes off, but you may want to. But we've all been here for, some have been here for 30 plus years

others maybe not so much and this may be your first time here. But I'm here to say today that God's waiting for us to step into the water. We've been standing at the very edge for so very long that I think we have become comfortable there. But God's speaking to us today that it's time

to move past the edge and get our feet wet. Ecclesiastes 3.1, to everything there is a season and they tie to every purpose under the heavens. Hey, that looks like a teleprompter. But for everything there is a season. And you know, in our own lives I think we go through that. In our natural world we go through

winter, spring, summer, fall and right now we're in the midst of summer. Just remember a few weeks ago when we had the 90 degree temperature, the 98 degree temperature in January you're going to find those days where it's 10 below. So you be thankful on either side we still know that God's in control. Sometimes it's hard to understand

3:11 what are you teaching us God? I haven't thought I was up at the campground this last weekend and I like to take the dogs out for a walk on the golf cart trail and because it's been so wet the mosquitoes have been terrible. And I could help thinking in my mind and asking God, why did you create

the mosquito? I don't know the answer for that. And even if God created the mosquito, why did he have to enjoy human blood? I understand you've got to feed the chameleons, you've got to feed the lizards you've got to feed the snakes, but they don't need to feast on me. But there's a season. Have you heard

the little quote that people come into your lives? Some will come into your life for a season and some will come into your life for a reason and some people come into your life for a lifetime. Many times in a lifetime are family members I've had a lot of friends I've had over the years and some I

remained close with, some I lost contact with and some I found contact with many years later. But they're still very good friendships. But you realize that people, we all come into each other's lives, some for a season some for a reason and some for a lifetime. For me that's how Pastor Williams is, even though he's not here, he's in my life for a lifetime.

And if you've been here for a while, he's affected your life in some way or form. A season is not by mistake. A season ending is not a failure. As we transition from an old season to a new season, it often depends on how you have your perspective. Is the cup half full or half

empty? Are we moving from a season of summer to fall, fall to winter, or winter to spring? It's all in our perspective. I'm very excited because it's given me an opportunity to do something that I believe that God had called me to do many years ago, but you know we get busy with life and we put things on hold

and we don't do it when God calls us into it and says he may have to wait until you're old and then he'll get you to go. Now that's a bad thing, I think everyone, I mean if you look in the Bible, how old was Moses? How old was Noah? And they did mighty things for God. But then you got David?

5:54 David was just a shepherd boy. So it doesn't matter how old you get, you can still be purposeful for God. You can still do the things that God has called you to do. One thing that happened, at least for me, because when I first came here I was very I give my life someplace else, but it gave me

footing here. I was able to root myself here in this ministry, in this church, in this sanctuary. And I use that word root because it's very, very important for us. What does the root do? It supports the tree. And what does the tree do? Well if it's a fruit tree, well I want to focus on

an apple tree or an orange tree or whatever, but that tree bears fruit. And if that tree does not have a strong root, it's not going to bear fruit because it's not going to withstand the storm. We are all well rooted in the word of God, we are rooted into this ministry, we are rooted into this sanctuary

into Outpouring Worship Center. The name may have changed a few years ago, but the spirit of God had never changed. But we have roots, and we have roots in this sanctuary, in this ministry, and it's also nice, you know, we're not too far away from the apple orchards, and you can drive right through the apple orchards, do you

only see one tree? I mean if you have one tree you may be able to get enough fruit for your own family or maybe your immediate family or maybe share it with, if you love people at church you may share it with them, which I know we all love each other, but a single tree does not bear

enough fruit to feed a whole community. But together if we have many trees we can share and feed the families that we come in contact with. The same guy who finished the years behind us will be faithful for the years ahead of us as well. I keep going back to the ladder glory will be greater than the former glory. I don't know if that's something

God has given me, and we've also talked a lot about expectedly waiting, because if we wait without expectation we really will become weary. This morning is a doorway, we are people who remember, who are blessed, and who are moving forward with what God has for us to do. We are no longer going to

8:57 sit on the edge of the water, we are going to start pressing into the water, we are going to start getting our feet wet, and as we get our feet wet that anointing of God is going to begin to flow through us, over us, and it's going to be like air and the oil run down our beard and into

our vessels and will overflow onto everybody that we come in contact with. The Spirit, I keep telling you that the Holy Spirit is not just for us. We are not here to hoard the Holy Spirit. We are here to take the Holy Spirit and share it with those we come in contact with, because there's a lost

dying world out there that needs to know Christ. We are going to be praying about Iran on Friday night, but the most important thing you can do is pray for them. Pray for them individually, pray for them corporately. The easiest way to solve the war is for everybody in Iran to be touched by God and changed. That would end the war.

That actually would fix the entire world, the whole world, every nation on this planet would turn to God and let God minister them, let God change them, let them know that we serve a loving God, we don't serve a God of hate, we don't serve a God that wants to kill, steal, and destroy us.

Christianity is the only religion in the world that actually loves people, that actually wants to have a relationship with you, and we don't have to do anything other than give our heart to God. That's the only requirement. And we do that and He loves us for that. We don't have to jump hoops, we don't have to go knocking on the doors,

we don't have to, not to mock them because I don't know, we don't get, of course I haven't been home a lot during the day, but we don't get very many Mormons or Jehovah's Witnesses come knocking on our door because it's always an opportunity to minister and preach to them. When I was leaving

my full time job, they had a little going away party with a cake and stuff, and another lady was retiring the same day that I was, and she was speaking to the people that were there, my coworkers, and she said, Tim, you got anything to say? I said, well I can, but I'm a preacher.

11:19 But I've been sharing all those, even for today's service, I think we need to learn that the little things really matter. I was giving Carrie a hard time today, I said, you know, we need just to learn to start on time. There's a lot of things that we need to change for the people

that are going to be coming through those doors. We have become familiar with each other and we've accepted some of the things that we've done, but we're going to change all those things. It's not going to happen overnight, we didn't get to where we are overnight, but we are going to start making the little adjustments we need so that we are welcoming

to the people that come through these doors. Joshua 3.5 Look at what Joshua says, sanctify yourselves for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you. Are we preparing ourselves for the mighty rush of wind that God has promised us? Are we preparing ourselves to be lit on fire for God? I know that's something John has spoke about when we were

in our Bible study, that there's ready to be on fire to be lit under each and every one of us so that we are prepared for the influx of people that God is going to bring to us. And it's not just, I want to rephrase that, it's not about the people coming through the doors, it's about the

lost souls that God's going to send to us. Are we preparing ourselves to minister and change the lives of people that need desperately to be changed? They don't even know yet. Many of them don't even know what's wrong with their lives. Or they're afraid or they've been hurt in a past experience in church. Those are really all just become excuses but they still

need to understand that there is hope. Without hope we have nothing. Sanctify yourself for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you. Not that we can't do it today, and we watched him do it yesterday, but tomorrow is going to be a new anointing from God. And again we don't hoard that anointing or that Holy Spirit for

ourselves, we bring it to the table so that others that we come in contact with, not just so that we come in contact here but when we're out and about. We want people to be able to see you, we want people to be able to see inside you. Something's changed inside Rita. Amen. Amen. Yeah.

14:10 And also get excited about that. We want people to drive by here. I bet you at least 10,000 people drive by here every day. A month or so ago I was talking about we need to start making ourselves presentable. I don't know what it is about this community and this church. I think that the enemy is in a big

war time against this church. It doesn't matter who's here. I know this church started downtown and it's been out here in this area for well since 75. I don't know how to conquer it. I think that's 51 years. But he has put us here for a reason. He has put us here for a purpose. He has not put us here

to decline and fall away. He has put us here for a new thing. It's time for us to have a recalibration of our hearts. To sanctify yourself simply means I'm setting myself apart. I'm giving God a fresh yes. Are you going to say yes today with what God wants to do? Not because the old yes was bad, but because the new season

deserves a fresh yes. I have before me a whole stack of papers that most of you guys have signed about being members to our church here. Some have been members for very many years. This isn't about being a new membership, but it's about a new commitment and a new saying to the word yes. I want to be a part of what God is doing.

And if you're here for the first time or you haven't been here in a while you may not be a member yet, but it's coming. My goal is to let God use me to guide people so that they may have the ultimate in God experience. Our mission statement is to create an atmosphere for God to move. And that's why we're here.

To create an atmosphere for God to move. You also need to do that within your own holy temple. You need to build an atmosphere so that people see and they notice that there's something changed about you. And you want them to start asking the questions. Say, hey, tell me about it. You always seem to be happy. You always have a smile on your face.

You always have that joy. You don't get, nothing seems to bother you. Your sickness, your poverty, the lack. Well because once you start through with God long enough, I remember when I first came to Christ it was like I had all these things that I didn't really want to give up. We've all been through there. But over a period of time you don't give them up

17:11 since God has a way of just making them go away. Sometimes it's difficult because you have to deal with friendships that you've had for many years and those friendships may not be the right friendships for you, but God will replace them with people that will love you and help you become all that Christ has called you to be.

But I don't want us to be a people just standing at the edge. We're going to look a minute, a little bit more into Joshua Joshua 3. And we're going to see that they come upon the river Jordan and what it took for them to cross the river. I can tell you that they did not stand at the edge

and watch the water flow by. They made it for a little bit but it wasn't long. Joshua 3, 13 through 17. And they shall come to pass as soon as the Lord and the souls of the past of the priests bear the ark of the Lord. They are also carrying the ark of the covenant at this time.

And we read in the scripture 1, we'll find out that verse 15 will tell us that you know, and I know Carrie's family, they just went through this whole flood experience that wasn't very pleasant for them, but when the water is raising at the river at the shoreline, what are you going to do? What's your natural being going to do?

You're going to move away from that water. You're going to get away from that river's edge. You're going to get away from that shoreline. But here we are, we're in the floods and the river's already over at banks and God's telling you to move in the midst of the storm. Move in the midst of that rapid.

Move in the midst of that current. Why would you want to do that in your natural being? But God had a way. God had a plan. The priests were told to step into the water. They could have just sat here at the river's edge and well, once that water moves, I'm going to go across.

Does that sound silly? Isn't that how we do in our own minds, even here at the church? I'll move when God moves. We got it backwards folks. We have it backwards. What happened to Joshua? The priest stepped into the water. Again, if you're going to go against the raging river, are you going to carry all the weight with you?

20:26 But they're stepping into the midst of the mighty flowing river and they're bringing the ark of the covenant with them and they continue and as they step into the water, the water parts. And it doesn't part. It's sort of like the Red Sea. The Red Sea didn't part 100 feet wide. It was a mile. When the river parted

it stood a wall all the way up to the next city called Adam. It parted the water there and stayed there and all the water from there flowed down into the Red Sea. And even you know, if you have a pool or a pond and you drain that pond, does it immediately dry? Can you walk across it

immediately? You got all the muck and the dirt and you got to they didn't even get your feet wet. When God makes our way, he makes it completely. He'll take what the enemy managed to put and he'll give us the clean water to walk us. Don't give our ground to walk us. Don't give us a place where we can plant our feet and the roots

will spring up trees and from those trees we'll spring fruit. That's what God wants. He doesn't want us to be one tree in the wilderness. He wants us to be an archer of fruit. The water did not part before they stepped in. They had to step in and let the water part for them.

The priests got their feet wet but nobody else did because they just had to follow. The priests stood there in the middle of the river. They stood there with the ark of the covenant. They stood in the middle of that river. Dry land and all the people passed. They didn't just cross over because the river would have dried up. They would have left

people behind. We are not leaving people behind. We keep reading about all these things that's happening in the world that are happening. We just had those tubers got lost in the Mesquite River and they got lost there and they were found. That's like Jesus is for the lost. He's always there. He will rescue you. He will save you. He

loves you and He does not want you to die and go to hell. There is a real hell, folks. God doesn't want anybody to go to hell but He has sent you and I to rescue them. We're just fishermen. We can lead them to Christ but I can't save them. There's nobody in this room that can save the lost souls but we do

23:12 have our witness. We have our testimony. We have our experience of what God did in your life and you can share that with others and I know in my life when I ran into some friends that I knew 40 years ago they said we thought you'd be dead. My friends thought they were surprised I even found them because they imagined

I was dead because I had a time in my life that it wasn't very nice. We did die. I did die. I died to self. But no man is going to be left behind. We are going to cross this river as a church family and God's going to take us. So what we signed here, we made our commitment that we are going to cross

that river together. These are all membership forms for those who don't know and if you want some I'm happy to get you some. We are all committed together to take this journey together. I don't know exactly where God's taking us and I know none of you do either but we have been promised

glimpses of it and when we signed this we said yes God I want to move in that same direction we've been going to. I make a brand new commitment this day that we're going to together as a family. The Bible also talks about the body being heaven many members, the hand and the

feet and the mouth. We are all members together because we all have been given unique talents and I am for one a peculiar person. Why is my wife nodding her head? But we all are peculiar people because we decided not to live as the world lives but to live as the Holy Bible

says and has prescribed for us to live. We are peculiar to the world. We run into people every day and not me so much in the workplace since I retired but we run into people in the workplace, in our schools, in the grocery store, at the car lot at the mechanic. I have a mechanic

he's a wonderful mechanic but he just can't get the parts to fix my truck. It could be sitting on the lot for another four months I don't know but I need those funds to pay you know when you become retired I don't know if you saw my post this last week but we

25:58 got some new furniture and really that was a blessing as well because we needed some new furniture, the old furniture, you know how you sit in the old furniture and the back doesn't give you the support it used to or you try to pull up the lounger, the foot rest it doesn't work anymore so you got to hit it with a hammer or pull it with a waste

grip. We had all those things happening to our furniture. But when I left work they gave me a gift card and then I got $200 from another source that I wasn't finding on so by the time we left the store with our furniture cost us $14 and some odds. But that's how God works.

And I guess on top of that we got I don't know $140 in rebate so they actually paid us to buy the furniture. And God we know Ruth has her own testimony on that, she got a new van and he's a new van for her but it was something she prayed for and you know what it wasn't just the new van she'd always wanted one

that was red. And it has all the handicapped stuff, it has the chair lift you know that was a miracle for Ruth and we can all look at that and maybe take it for granted but I can tell you it changed her life and that kind of a testimony should be changing all of our lives.

We should be having that same witness, a testimony to share with everybody we come in contact with and say I guess there is something about this guy that you serve. Today we made a proclamation that our church is moving forward and for each of us that have already made the commitment to Christ we know what God has done for us, we've watched it over

and over again. But today I want to ask a very important question today. One that we are going to be doing weekly whether you like it or not. Sometimes I'm just not going to give you the choice because God knows what has to be done. With every eye closed, every head bowed, if you're here today you don't

know this Jesus that I'm talking about. If you don't know, if you're struggling alone and you're tired of being alone Christ is here to meet you where you are. He wants every one of us to become family members. Not just in this body but become brothers and sisters in Christ and let Jesus guide you. If you don't know this Jesus I'm talking about

29:10 all you have to do is say yes I believe that Jesus died for my sins and he was raised and born again and raised again. If you don't know Jesus today I give you the opportunity to accept him into your love. I give you the opportunity to be a part of something bigger than yourself.

If that's you today God's telling you yes I need to change. I've been going through a tough thing in my life and I need more than just a human touch. I need a Godly touch. If that's you today will you be brave enough to raise your hand and let us pray with you and let your

heart be changed and let God enter into your life. Let Jesus come in and set you free from your sin. We've all had to make that commitment at one point in our life. It's not what you have to give up it's what you want to go and strive for. No handles raised but that's ok.

Like I said when I first started my message today pastors are really just gardeners because they love to plant seeds. But again I can only plant so many seeds together we can plant many seeds. And those seeds will never grow unless they get some water or they get some nutrition, some fertilizer, some sunshine. Those seeds can become roots, those roots become trees, those trees

become fruit and we are an orchard full of fruit. And each and every one of you are important.