Mensa Otabil - Get Ready to Crossover (10/30/2025)
Going to look at how Joshua and Israel crossed over the Jordan into the promised land, and we’re going to draw pointers from that for our own lives. We start from Joshua chapter 3, verse number 1: «Then Joshua rose early in the morning, and they set out from Acacia Grove and came to the Jordan, he and all the children of Israel, and lodged there before they crossed over.» After 40 years in the wilderness, Joshua led Israel into the promised land. Their journey to the promised land required that they cross over the Jordan River, and for 40 years, that had seemed like a very difficult thing for them to do. This crossing over into the promised land, crossing the Jordan, required a lot of preparation. So today, we are going to learn from them as they prepare to cross the Jordan.
People might wonder what is special about a new year. In a sense, a new year is a day like any other day. When the clock changes and a new year starts, it’s just like another day that has been born. But it’s also a very special year. It’s like your first day at school. Your first day at school, if it was a Monday, is a Monday like any other Monday. It’s just an ordinary day, or the day you graduated from school is like an ordinary day, or the day you got married is an ordinary day. But they are not ordinary to you because they were special moments in your life. The day you went to school, the day you graduated, the day you married, the day you started your first job-these are ordinary days, but we celebrate them specially because of the impact they have on our lives. That’s what a new year is: it’s like every other day, but it is unlike every other day. It is special because the first day of the year sets the tone for the rest of the year, and the way we enter in is so important.
That’s why we have to be mindful to prepare ourselves. As Christians, we don’t enter the new year lightly. Some believe, because it’s like any other day, that it doesn’t matter-just propose a toast, sing a song, have a drink, meet with friends, and have fun. But as Christians, we believe that God holds the times and the seasons. The days, the weeks, the times, and the seasons are in God’s hands, and God has tied purposes to times and seasons for every purpose because there is a season. God ties purposes and intent to times and seasons, so when we enter a certain season, or a certain year, or a certain moment in time, God has a purpose for it. That is why every year we discern what we think God’s purpose is and walk along with that purpose of God. Because we believe the days and the years are purposeful, we need to prepare to enter the year, just like you’re prepared to go to school on your first day, you’re prepared to graduate, and you’re prepared to marry because those days and events are very important.
So how do we prepare? Just two things I want to mention, and then we will close. First, we need to prepare our minds. For Joshua and Israel, they lived for 40 years in the wilderness, and they had to start thinking of a new land they were going to and the adjustments they needed to make. Then, we need to prepare and position ourselves right. If you look at the passage we read, Joshua and Israel moved from Acacia Grove and came to the front of the Jordan because that was what they were going to cross over. So they set themselves in preparation to take the actions they had to take. Prepare your hearts and minds, and position yourself right. These are the preparations you need to make as we think about crossing over into the new year.
Let us pray. Say with me, «Heavenly Father, thank you for guiding us to live in line with your purposes. In Jesus' name, Amen and Amen.»