In this sermon, the preacher discusses the events of Joshua chapters 3 and 4, where the Israelites crossed the Jordan River. He compares this crossing to their previous crossing of the Red Sea, emphasizing the importance of not looking at the obstacles but keeping their focus on God. The preacher also highlights the significance of Christ's death on the cross, which fixed the mess caused by Adam's sin. The sermon concludes with the idea that by keeping their focus on God, the Israelites experienced victory over their enemies, symbolizing the victory believers can have in their lives.

This is our fifth sermon on this series, and we titled this one, In His Presence. Let's pray. Lord, we are open to you, and we'll never soar on eagle's wings until we learn to soar by faith. Holy Spirit, we yield ourselves to you right now to be the Lord in this service. You take our hearts, and you break them where they need to be broke. You melt them where they are hard and calloused. You just make us into the Lord Jesus Christ, or like Him. We want to be conformed into His image, and we know that that conforming takes some shaping and some chipping and some breaking and some molding and rebuilding, and we know that you can take your word and do that in our lives. Lord, I'm open before you. My heart is just full. I thank you for all the blessings that there are that we have not even begun to realize. There's just so many blessings in Jesus, but I know that one of the greatest blessings is living in your presence, and this passage zeroes in living in your presence. Holy Spirit, take now and teach us things that you want us to learn, for it's in Jesus' name that we pray. Amen. I've got some different things here. First of all, I just want to make some comments on introduction. Then I want to just give you an outline of this chapter, then maybe make some comments on some of the things in the chapter. First of all, I want you to realize that it's one thing, and it was one thing for Israel also. It was one thing for them to leave the Egypt of sin and go through the Red Sea and then come out into the wilderness where God didn't intend them to wander 40 years, but just stay there a couple years with Him and get to know Him while He gave them the law, and then to come back and enter into the land. Well, it's one thing to go through out of that Egypt of sin and into the Dead Sea, which represented the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. It's one thing to do that, and then it's something else to enter into Jordan and go through the Jordan, which is another type of the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ, except the other one represented death to our old self and burial and entering into our salvation life with Jesus Christ, whereas this, going through this Jordan, represents death to our old life and a resurrection into the life of victory. Resurrection into the life of victory. It's interesting that He gave us these two things so similar, but yet they have different aspects. And I wrote this down. It's one thing to leave the Egypt of sin, to enter the waters of the Red Sea, representing salvation, but it is something new to enter the waters of the Jordan, representing death to the old life, the flesh life, and walk the faith life of victory. Now, even though they're two different events, you could just put them right side by side and you can draw out your different lessons from each one, but yet you can put them together. Now, when they went through, Joshua chapter 3 is talking about getting ready and going through. Joshua 4 is getting on the other side of the Jordan. Now, when they went through the Jordan or across the Jordan on the dry land and they got on the other side, it's just like when they left the God brought the waters back together in the Red Sea and on the Jordan River, He let the waters go. And what that meant was there was no turning back. When you receive Jesus as your Savior, the waters are closed. There's no turning back. He is your Savior. There'll never be any way that He will not be your Savior. You can't lose your salvation. You can lose the joy of your salvation. On the same way, when we go through the waters of the Jordan, which is representing the deep cross life, once you go through there, there's no turning back. You are into a battle. Now, someone shared this and maybe you'll follow this and maybe you won't, but they shared this that once somebody understands the cross and really understands the power of the cross life, they never turn back from that cross. So, if you see somebody that turns away or seemingly has turned their back on Christ and they go back to backsliding or whatever, they have not understood the cross. Now, someone said this that is among a lot of people and does a lot of work and revival work nationally and internationally. They said that once they never known of anybody to turn back from the cross once they learned the power. Well, this is showing us the power. And as the waters closed and saying that there's no turning back, no escape, they stepped across to face the enemy head on and they had everything they needed to face the enemy. Now, something else, this event represents the death and resurrection of Christ and his work on the cross. This event just shows it very clearly to reveal to us the life of victory. The Canaan life was a victory life. Another note, our main focus will be on the ark. Our main focus will be on the ark. I have in my Bible, Joshua chapter 4, 3, I've got a bunch of little blue marks which represents deity. Blue represents deity. And I've just got it marked everywhere ark is mentioned or it is mentioned. It referring to the ark. And I'll share these as we go through here with you. So, our main focus will be the ark. You see, they had the ark with them 40 years. 40 years in the wilderness. The ark was the center of Israel. They camped all around it. 40 years they camped around it. Now, the ark is going to go ahead of them. Ahead of them and they're to follow the ark or to follow Christ. Now, Christ went ahead of us in death. Christ went ahead of us in burial. And Christ went ahead of us in resurrection. And Christ went to give victory over death and life. Now, let's move into the outline quickly. Chapter 3, verses 1 through 3. I'll be reading from New King James. I'll read a little bit different. Verses 1 through 3, there's one main thought here. And that's watch the ark to move. Watch for the ark to move and move with it. And there's a key word and the key word is watch. Now, let's read the verses. Then Joshua rose early in the morning and they set out from the Achaia Grove. I think if you're King James, you've got Chitim. And they came to the Jordan. He and all the children of Israel and lives there before they crossed over. So it was after three days that he that the officers went through the camp and they commanded the people saying, when you see the ark, when you see the ark of the covenant, and by the way, ark of the covenant is a very meaningful term. The covenant refers to the law or the word. When you see the ark of the covenant, and I'm not going to deal with the covenant aspect of it. That's a whole nother aspect that we could share with you. But he says, when you see the ark of the covenant of the Lord, your God and the priests, the Levites bearing it, then you shall set out from your place and go after it. By the way, also the priests that bear the ark. I've got that highlighted all the way through here. That's another whole subject. Did you know that there is a special burden and a special privilege for those that would exalt Jesus Christ by their life? We call them ministers, even though we're all ministers. The Bible refers to them as the pastors and the prophets, the teachers. They have a special area in bearing the ark and bearing Christ, and you have felt this yourself. Do you know what it's like? You do? To bear Christ in your life? There's a weight, even though it's a weightless weight, but there is a weight of bearing Christ. When you go to work and everybody gathers around to listen to a dirty joke, you bear the weight of the presence of Christ because you do not gather with him. When you teenagers are together and all the kids say, hey, we're going to go down to the river and we're going to get a keg and have a party, and you say, I'm not going, you bear the ark. You bear the weight of Christ on your life. You feel the weight of his presence. And they laugh at you and say, oh, goody, goody, two shoes, oh, holy, roly, and all the stuff they'll say. They are laughing at Jesus and not you. So there is a weight that we carry. Now, this is a special subject I'm not going to go into yet on the priest bearing the ark. The key word there is watch. And the key lesson, just a simple lesson is when you go through life day by day, watch the ark, watch Jesus go as he goes, move as he moves. I shared this, I don't know where it was earlier or this morning or whatever. There's going to be many people that are going to have you do things. Hey, pastor, would you go see so-and-so? Would you go pray for so-and-so? I've learned something in the last couple of weeks from another preacher, I've been listening to his tapes, that he learned from God to be very careful and to do only what God wanted him to do, not what everybody else wanted him to do. And I have seen preachers, and I've been there myself, that are just run ragged. They're doing everything everybody wants them to do. Who told them they had to do everything everybody wants them to do? It's the same way with us, with you too. You don't have to do everything everybody wants you to do. All you have to do is what Jesus wants you to do, and it simplifies things awful, just terrible. It makes things so simple, you may not be able to stand it, just to have Jesus and move with him. I'd like to take you over to the New Testament, I'm not, and just do a study on Jesus as he moved as the Father wanted him to move. And as you look at all the other people that wanted him to do stuff, feed us, feed us, come over here, do this and that. Sometimes he did, and sometimes he didn't. Those with evil intentions and selfish intentions, he just kept on going. Now, there's another thing, look at 4 and 5. 4 and 5, I'll read the verses and then I'll give you the principle and the key word. Yet, as you move, he said, Yet there shall be a space between you and it, a space between you and the ark. This is teaching us to respect the Lord Jesus Christ. Even though he is your Savior, he lives within you, yet we're to have a holy, reverent, fearful respect of him. We do not get so buddy-buddy with Jesus. Oh, he's my buddy. He is your God. He is your friend and he is your companion. But he's not your buddy like another buddy. He is still God. And they're saying, you keep your distance. He is a holy God. Even the holy men of God fall on their face before God, broken with a consciousness of their own sin. If you've got this, oh, the old man up in the sky attitude, you've got a devilish attitude. He is God Almighty to be respected. And they said, yet there shall be a space between you and it, about 2,000 cubits. You measure 2,000 times 18 inches. Maybe, I don't know how much that is, but it's a pretty good distance. And that was also so all of Israel could see the ark as it moved. When it was right up there against them, they couldn't all see it. But as it was out way out in front, they could see the ark move. You keep Christ clearly visible. Yet there shall be a space between you and it, about 2,000 cubits by measure. Do not come near it that you may know the way by which you must go. For you have not passed this way before. And Joshua said to the people, sanctify yourselves for tomorrow. The Lord will do wonders among you. Key thought here is to respect and prepare yourself to follow the ark. Respect the Lord Jesus Christ. Prepare yourself to follow Him. Do you know that you cannot follow Him unless you've prepared yourself to follow Him? How do you prepare? Prepare. Well, they said sanctify. That's the key word. Set yourself apart. Maybe one of the problems that you're having in following Jesus and knowing what He wants for you to do in this area and that area, you just say, it's just not so clear to me. I struggle. It's because you have not set yourself apart. There is maybe some sin in your life. There is something you have not dealt with that the Spirit of God says, hey, you remember you did this back and back? You've got to go make that right. There is sin in the camp. Set yourself apart. Joshua gave them time to set themselves apart. Verse 5, Joshua said to the people, sanctify yourself. Don't sanctify your neighbor. Take care of your dirty laundry, your dirty garbage. Take it out. For tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you. The key word is among. Among. Matter of fact, that's the key thing for this whole sermon is among. Okay. Well, excuse me. I'm going to give you the key word there for sanctify. We'll come back to the word among. I gave you that for a key word in a second. All right. Verses 6 through 8. Here's the instructions to the priest. 6 through 8. Then Joshua spoke to the priest saying, take up the ark of the covenant and cross over before the people. So they took up the ark of the covenant and went before the people. And the Lord said to Joshua, this day I will begin to exalt you in the sight of all Israel that they may know that as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. You shall command the priest who bear the ark of the covenant saying, when you have come to the edge of the water of the Jordan, you shall stand in the Jordan. Okay. There's the instructions to the priest. We won't get down into the details right now on that. Now, the key word is bear. I have that for the priest. I've mentioned that before, but now they have this responsibility of bearing the ark. The ark was carried with a pole on their shoulders, probably for priests, I would imagine. Maybe more. I don't know. But anyway, they could not touch the ark. They would run that pole through some rings on the side, on each side, and they would lift it up. And on top of the ark was the mercy seat. To take and just study the ark itself and study the details of the Lord Jesus Christ would be another tempting bunny trail for me. Maybe another time we might give some more details on the ark. And what was inside of the ark? Well, one of the things was some stones, probably some heavy stones. The Ten Commandments were in there. One of the things, among some other things that were in there. Anyway, that was the instructions to the priest. The key word was bear. They bear the weight of the Lord Jesus Christ on them as they lead. Anybody that's going to lead others in the path of following Christ is going to bear the weight of Christ on their life. The more you lead, the heavier you bear the burden of Christ, of his presence. Now, verses 9 through 13. Here's the instructions to Israel. So Joshua said to the children of Israel, Come here and hear the words of the Lord your God. And Joshua said, By this you shall know that the living God is among you. That's the key word. That's the key word. And the key thought for this whole sermon is among. He says, By this, by what you see, you're going to know that Jesus Christ is among you. Joshua said, By this you shall know that the living God is among you. What was it said about Jesus? His name was Emmanuel, which means God with you. And that he will, without fail, drive out from before you, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Hivites, the Preserites, and the Yerushites, and the Amorites, and the Jebusites. Behold, the ark of the covenant. Look at the ark of the covenant. Behold, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth is crossing over before you into the Jordan. Watch the ark. Don't take your eyes off the ark. When you go through the Jordan, you keep your eyes on the ark. Now, there's a lesson there. We'll come back to it. Watch the ark. Behold, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth is crossing over before you into the Jordan. Now, therefore, take for yourselves 12 men from the tribes of Israel, one man from every tribe. In verse 13, And it shall come to pass, as soon as the souls of the feet of the priest, who bear the ark of the Lord, the Lord of all the earth, shall rest in the waters of the Jordan, that the waters of the Jordan shall be cut off, and the waters that come down from upstream, and they shall stand as a heap. The waters are going to stop and back up. And by the way, it was harvest time. It was flood time. The waters were already over the banks. But God just stopped it, and the water backed way back up all the way to Adam. There's a lesson there too. The death of Christ on the cross goes all the way back to the Adam of the beginning, and it takes care of what he did to get us into a mess. His death on the cross, His burial, and His resurrection took care of what Adam messed up, and he fixed it up by his death. All was made right. The only thing left was to get rid of this body, which he leaves us in until he comes for us or he calls us home. Now, instructions to Israel. The key word and the key thought is among. And I want you to notice that in that verse, he said that as they watched the ark, they would know that the living God is among them. And what did it mean? It meant victory in their life over all their enemies. All right? Now, 14 through 17, the water stands still and the priest stood firm. Let's read that, the rest of the chapter. So it was when the people set out from their camp to cross over the Jordan with the priest bearing the ark of the covenant before the people. And as those who bore the ark came to the Jordan and the feet of the priest who bore the ark dipped in the edge of the water, for the Jordan overflows all its banks during the whole time of harvest, that the waters which came down from upstream stood still and rose in a heap very far away at Adam. The city that is beside Zeritan. So the waters that went down to the sea of the Araba and the salt sea failed. It means the salt sea began to go dry and were cut off and the people crossed over opposite Jericho. Then the priest who bore the ark of the covenant of the Lord stood firm on dry ground in the midst of the Jordan and all Israel crossed over on dry ground until all the people had crossed completely over the Jordan. Dry ground is meaningful. By the way, that's the key word here. The water stood still and the priest stood firm and the key word is on dry ground. We have a bloodless death to die. Christ shed his blood for us and then we are able to die to self, which is a bloodless death, unless he calls us to be a martyr. But they went on dry ground. Christ made the way passable. There was no struggle through mud. There was no works to accomplish for salvation and there were no works to accomplish for victory in your life. It was dry ground at the Red Sea. It was dry ground at the Jordan. No struggle through your own works and effort to get saved at the Red Sea. No struggle and effort on your part for victory. It was all accomplished. All you have to do is keep your eyes on the ark. Now, the rest of the time I'm going to give you some comments on it. Number one comment. First comment. Jordan was the symbol of death. Let me say something about that. No one enters to the Canaan side or the victory side without going to the cross. It's the emblem of death. It's the emblem of shame. It's the emblem of suffering. It's what we're talking about in Luke 9, 23. Jesus said, No one is going to come after me and follow me unless he takes up his cross, the emblem of death to self. You know, it's only when Abraham realized and Sarah also, it's only when they realized that all hope within themselves was gone for them having a son. And they completely gave up on themselves. And they said, Okay, God, if it's going to be, it's going to be done by you. There's nothing we can do. And after they were completely through with self and realizing that they couldn't do anything to have the son that God promised, that God was ready to move in. And maybe it just could be that maybe today somebody is here and you're ready to move into the life of victory, the life of the cross. You're ready as Abraham to say, God, I can't do it. I just can't live a victorious Christian life. And God says, That's what I've been waiting for. The victorious Christian life is not you living the victorious Christian life anymore than it was you saving yourself. I'm just going to move in and do it. As he did for him. Now, listen, here's a principle. Abraham experienced victory when he learned to watch the ark. Victory is no mystery. The power of Christ in your life is no mystery. It's just a simple thing of realizing that he is among you. And when we get down, I'm going to share something with you about that word among. Interesting, interesting. I didn't get it out of the dictionary. I asked God last night, I was over here getting this sermon put together and finished. God, what's that mean, among? What's it mean that you're among us? Can you give me something that will be practical? And it's just like the Spirit of God gave me just the right thing. It's so simple you'd think it's done, but it's so practical I don't think you'll ever forget it after I share it with you. I don't think I will. 2 Corinthians 1.9, on talking about death, Josh Jordan was a symbol of death, got off track here. Says, we have the sentence of death in ourselves that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead. Write that verse down and meditate on it, would you? We had the sentence of death in ourselves. You see, when you have Christ and you have Him in your life, you have the sentence of death, death to self. He says that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead. Watch the ark, just watch the ark. Here it is, 2 Chronicles 20, listen to this verse. Verse 12, this is good. Oh our God, will you not judge them? Talking about the enemy, this is Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir, and they were defeated, they were having their warfare, and they cried out, Oh God, will you not judge them? For we have no power against this great multitude that is coming against us. Nor do we know what to do, but our eyes are upon you. That's 2 Chronicles 20, verse 12. That's good, isn't it? We don't have any power. That's where it's at. When you say, God, I can't do it, but my eyes are on you. I'm going to watch the ark. I'm going to watch the Lord Jesus. I'm going to see what you're going to do. I'm going to watch you. You know, by nature, here's a principle. By nature, the nature, our human nature, we are self-confident and self-reliant. We are, by nature. As long as we practice and live by our nature, we experience no power in our life, no victory. Think about Peter, going along, rowing against the winds. Oh, man, it's hard. Oh, man. The Lord said, go to the other side. We're going to get there. You mean we have to die? We're going to get there. You know, pretty soon, he said, Hey, look, there's a ghost. Well, they put her in high gear. And here comes Jesus. And he's walking. And the Scripture says he's going to walk by them. And he would have walked by them, the Scripture says, except they hollered out to him. And he said, what are you hollering about? It's just me. I said, meet you on the other side. He said, you take the boat and I'm going to walk. But Peter said, Lord, if it's you, bid me to come to you. He said, come. He jumped out and he went walking across the water. Of course, Lord, and what happened? All of a sudden, the old world was turning. We've heard this so many times. He's waving, I can't walk on water. What am I doing out here? And he began to sing. All of a sudden, he remembered that he couldn't do that. Self-reliant and self-confidence. Whenever you get self-reliant and self-confidence, you get to thinking about what you can do and what you can't do. You're going to start to sink. And all they had to do was keep his eyes on Jesus. See, keeping your eyes on Jesus is not just a physical thing. It is a spiritual thing also. It was physical also with Peter. But for us, we can't see Jesus, can you? So, it is your spiritual eyes as you walk through the day. You keep your eyes on Jesus. That's the lesson of this passage. Now, as you cross your Jordan this week, will you watch the wall of water that's stacked up against you? You see, this is what's happening. Here they are walking across this Jordan. Out of the corner of their eye, they can see that water. But as soon as they look out of the corner of their eye at the water, what are they not looking at? The ark. The spiritual lesson is, as you walk through life, don't watch the wall of water that threatens to engulf you. Do you ever feel like you're just going to sink? Life gets so depressing down. You've got so many things to do. There's so many responsibilities. That's the wall of water. He's just saying, watch the ark, will you please? I eat straight ahead. You know, if you were in the military and you're marching along and they teach you to keep your eyes straight ahead, you know, you've got to look out of your eyes, out of the side of your head, and just about the time you do, the old sergeant sees you and he comes over there, he busts up the whole parade just to get over you. What are you looking at? You know, you keep your eyes straight ahead. What are you looking at? He said, what are you looking at this problem for? I've got a reason for that. You watch me. You watch me. You watch the ark. Now, here's another lesson. The first one was Jordan was the symbol of death. The ark is the symbol of life. Jesus is the life. Hebrews 12 says, He is the author and the finisher of life. You're life. 1 John 5, 11, 12, He that has the Son has life. Galatians 2, 20, he says, I'm crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. That's life. Life is Jesus. It's always Jesus. For me to live is Christ. Life is Jesus. Life is not you pretending to be like Jesus. Life is not for you knowing something about Jesus. Life is Jesus Himself living His life through you. The reason that maybe you're not saved is because you don't have Jesus in there. Salvation is you having Jesus. Victory is you letting Jesus live His life through you. That is the normal Christian life. The average Christian is not living the Christian life. He's not demonstrating it by his presence. He is demonstrating a counterfeit Christianity by claiming to have Christ, and he may very well have Christ, but trying himself to live the Christian life. That is a counterfeit Christianity. And so the lesson is Jesus Himself is life. Here's the principle. The ark was to Israel what the indwelling Christ is to us. He is everything you need. Now, let me give you some practical illustrations so you can take this from home and use it. Suppose you're lonely. Anybody here ever get lonely? Well, if you experience loneliness, I know what it's like to be lonely. I lived apart from my family for a year and a half one time, and it got really hard sometimes. You just couldn't hop on a Greyhound bus and run across the ocean and see Mom and Dad. They were 10,000 miles away. Couldn't even talk to them on the phone. All you had was a letter. I did get to call them from Germany when I got up there once. Dad got two calls from me. One cost, I think, $40 and one $60. He said, don't call anymore. Right. Call and collect. Anyway, are you lonely? What about this? If you're watching the ark, He's always with you. How can you be lonely if you've got Jesus? Watch the ark. How about, do you feel inferior? Boy, I really went through this. Do you feel inferior? That's because you're not thinking about Jesus. How does Jesus feel about you? Does He feel like you're inferior? I don't think so. You know why? Because it says that He made you just the way that He made you. And so you think about this. Well, if I feel inferior, He accepts me just as I am. Lord, I love you. Thank you that you're with me, that you accept me. Maybe nobody else accepts you. What's it matter if nobody else accepts you? If He accepts you, He does. You ever want to be like somebody else? You want to be taller or shorter or, you know, or built like Atlas or whatever. You're always going through looking at other people. Oh, if I could just be like them. Or if I could just have what they have. All you're doing is going through your life with your eyes off the ark. And it always produces what? A dissatisfaction. We're never satisfied with ourself whenever we're looking away from the ark. Whenever you look to Jesus, you're always satisfied and content. How about pressure? Do you have pressure? Man, I felt some pressure this week. I don't like it. I had some real pressure on me a couple, three days this week. I don't know. I think it was just satanic pressure on me. Trying to crush me. Get out of here. Quit. Give up. What about it? Well, He's calmness. Pressure is the opposite of calmness. Well, Jesus is calmness. You just keep your eyes on Him. Boy, He's calm. You keep your eyes on Him, guess who else becomes calm? You do. He's calm. I'm calm. What about fear? He's peace. Well, you keep your eyes on Him, you have peace. He's peace, you have peace. What about if you're poor? Well, He's rich. If you're rich, you have all you need, right? Well, I keep my eyes on Jesus. And pretty soon you see, I have riches too. I have Jesus. I'm rich. What about pride? Pride. You look at Jesus, He's humility. You follow the ark and you'll follow Him in humility. Pride. Oh, what about you're getting old? Anybody getting old? Huh? Well, you look at Jesus and what is He? He's eternal life. Eternal youth. How's that for a term for eternal life? Eternal youth. How about you? Are you homeless? Did anybody ever lose a home or don't have a home? Most of us have a home. When I was in Omaha and Denver and even around here, we get these people, they have no home. What's your address? Main Street, USA, Highway 1. That's my home. But we have no home here on this earth. The scripture says He is home. He's in heaven. He's home to us. What about rejected? Well, He knows how you feel. You look at Him. Was anybody more rejected than Jesus Christ? There's been nobody in this whole world that's ever been rejected more than Jesus Christ. From the time He came into this world, He was rejected. Herod rejected Him. The priests and scribes rejected Him. All the way through His life, He was rejected. Rejected at a cross. When He came back from the dead, He was still being rejected. And even today as He lives in your life, He's still being rejected. Don't feel it's strange if you feel rejection. That's bearing and watching the ark. Well, Colossians 3.3 says, You died and your life is hidden with Christ. Are you downcast? Jesus is joy. Are you dirty? Jesus is cleansing. The blood of Christ cleanses you from all sin. Are you lost? He's salvation. Ask Him to save you. Ask Him to be your Savior. Let me share a third thing with you. Jesus, or the ark, represents victory. Now, verse 10, as I shared with you, was the key verse. Now, look at that. And Joshua said, By this you shall know that the living God is among you. His presence guaranteed them victory over their enemy, right? Right. Now, here's a principle. How can you lose if God is on your side, on your team? Or better yet, how can I lose if I'm on His side? You know how it is as kids? You go out, let's go play football. And you try to stack your team, you know? Get all the big guys on your team. Well, with God on your side, the team is stacked. You got a problem at work or whatever? What's your problem? Your problem isn't that you have a problem. Your problem is that you're worrying about your problem and not keeping your eyes on the ark. Keep your eyes on the ark. Now, what does among mean? Does it mean in you? The scripture says, being cognizant of this very thing, that He which is in you, that began a good work, He will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. Or does it mean like Colossians 2, 13, where the scripture says, was it Colossians or Philippians 2, 13? It says, for it is God who works in you. Does it mean, does that what among means, in you? For it is God who works in you, both to will and to do of His good pleasure. Or like Colossians 1, 27, says, for it is God, to them, God will to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you. The hope of glory, is that what it means? Or does it mean with you? Does among mean in you? Or does among mean with you? Jesus says, go into all the world and preach the gospel. He says, lo, I am with you always. How about, does it mean with you or in you? How about in Hebrews 13, 5, He said, I will never leave you. Does it mean that He's by you? If God is among us, does it mean that He's in us? Or does it mean that He's with you? Or does it mean that He's by you? What's it mean? He says, that by this you shall know that the living God is among you, by the ark. Here's what it means. I need some professional advice or an answer. How much of me, Dr. Santos, Dr. Oswald, Dr. Carolina, Dr. Van Hoos, those of you that have the chemistry classes, how much of me is there? If you took me and struck me down to size, how much of me is there? You'd say right now there's a lot of iron. How much of me by percentage would be air? Just lost 5%. Any way of telling? Any wild guesses? Or wild creatures? Probably a pretty good percentage of us is in air. We've got air in our lungs. We've got air in our blood. We've got air in our brain. Maybe a lot of us, there's a lot of air up there. You know, big air space. But what about air? Where is air? Is it around you? Yes. Is it by you? I got some here by me, see. Is it in you? Yeah. That's what air is. It's among you. Air is around us. It's by us. It's in us. And this is exactly what God said when He said He would be among us. He would be around us. He would be by us. But then when the Holy Spirit came at Pentecost, He would be dwelling in us. The Old Testament concept was missing something that we have. And that is His very presence right inside of us. Now, I haven't made my point yet. God's presence is like air. But my point is this. The presence of God and a consciousness of God are not the same thing. The presence of God and a consciousness of His presence are not the same thing. Now, when you sat down and you listened to this sermon today, were you conscious of air? Were any of you conscious of breathing air? You'd say, no, I wasn't conscious. Are you conscious of it right now? Think about it. Just quit breathing. You're pretty good at it. You'll want to be conscious about it. I remember the time when I was drowning. That was my only thought. As I bounced up and down, I went off a ledge just like this. I was walking out to go out to somebody and I jumped. Well, it just so happened the time that I stepped off that ledge, I had just went, and then I went down. Oh, here we are down here on the bottom of the lake. We don't have any water and I can't swim. I was just about six years old. All of a sudden, I became air conscious. And as I hit the bottom, boy, I just sprung as hard as I could to get back up. And I just got up there and I just got some air and I went back down. But I didn't have time to get air and holler at the same time. And it seemed like an eternity that I did that. Up and down. Finally, somebody saw me bothering me. Come over there and got me some friends. To be God conscious is the difference. The presence of God and a consciousness of his presence are not the same thing. To have air around you, by you and in you, and to be conscious of air around you, by you and in you are two different things. So as you walk through this day, as you walk through this night, as you walk through this week, to become God conscious, as you would become air conscious, is where we begin to realize that the arc, I'm keeping my eye on the arc. And this is where victory lies, in being God conscious. If you're God conscious, you're taking your mind off of problems and not being problem conscious or people conscious. And so everything is in relation to the presence of the arc that's with you. Victory in any part of life is simply realizing Jesus, my arc, is here. He's in me. He's present with me. He's around me. He's just present. As I'm preaching to you today, I am conscious of Christ being right here. Are you? Now this takes practice, but I want you to get it. As I went through the day yesterday, I was conscious of Christ's presence. Now sometimes it gets very hard. I've been doing some carpenter work, where you've got to really concentrate on what you're doing or you're cut off 12 or 13 of your fingers, you know. But always, as you're working, you're aware there's a presence with you. That's God consciousness. The key is consciousness. I don't believe you can be Christ conscious and self-conscious at the same time. I had such an inferiority complex, it just almost crushed me and destroyed my life. But as I have learned, to be Christ conscious is taking care of that old sin problem of being self-conscious or conscious of my own inferiority, according to my own standards, by the way. Inferiority complex is a complex that's really bad, just like a superiority complex. You're just self-conscious, you've got your own standards, but you're building up your own little self-kingdom. Your own prison. Let's bow for prayer. Now as we close in prayer, I want to ask you a question. Do you want to soar on the eagle's wings? Do you want to enjoy life? Do you want to enjoy the ark? You know, there are two ways, if you think about all those people going over that Jordan, there were two ways to go across. They could have went across in tremendous joy and hope and faith. Boy, God has given us this land. We're going to go in and whip these people. We're going to beat them. God's going to really do the work. Look at this wall of water. Look at what God's doing. Man, he's holding up this water. Or they could have went across. Man, there's problems over there.