Speaker 1: Hasn't He been wonderful and kind and merciful? Haven't his
Speaker 1: blessings been bountiful in your life, exceedingly abundantly above anything
Speaker 1: you can ask or imagine. The presence of the Lord
Speaker 1: is in this place. Would you just tell the person
Speaker 1: next to you, the presence of the Lord is in
Speaker 1: this place. Tell him what I taught you last week.
Speaker 1: Tell him God is in it with me. Tell him
Speaker 1: God is working through me. And tell him God is
Speaker 1: fighting for me. Tell him don't pick on me, because
Speaker 1: God's got my back. He's fighting for me. You understand
Speaker 1: what I'm saying. Oh, you can't curse what God is blessed.
Speaker 1: He's a defender of the week. Yes he is. Come on,
Speaker 1: how many of you said that a few times this week?
Speaker 1: God is not against me. I gave you this prescription.
Speaker 1: Did you take it? Last week? The verdict pharmacy on
Speaker 1: behalf of doctor God? And I gave you something to
Speaker 1: take a new meditation for your heart. Just take that
Speaker 1: swing out and let's sing that real quick. He's in
Speaker 1: it with me, working through me. He's fighting for me.
Speaker 1: God is not against me. He's in it with me,
Speaker 1: working through me, fighting for me. God is not against
Speaker 1: He's in it with me. He's working through me, fighting
Speaker 1: for me. Do you feel that with me? He's working
Speaker 1: through me. God, it's not a gast me sitting with me.
Speaker 1: He's working thro me. He spotted for me, God, he said,
Speaker 1: agast me, sitting with me. He's sing to me, spotty
Speaker 1: for me. God, it's not okay, you gotta numb me. Oh,
Speaker 1: come on, he's sitting with me. He's fucking to me.
Speaker 1: You starting for me? God, He's not a cast me.
Speaker 1: He sending with me. He's he started pulls casting the gods,
Speaker 1: not me. Isn't that good to know that he loves you,
Speaker 1: that he's with you? God Me. So the next time
Speaker 1: shame tries to tell you to put your head down
Speaker 1: because you made some mistakes, plead the blood of Jesus
Speaker 1: and say, he's not against me. And the next time
Speaker 1: depression tries to wear you out down to a nub
Speaker 1: where you have nothing to give to the world, look
Speaker 1: back at depression and say, and if he before me,
Speaker 1: who can mean against me? Now? I know, God Me,
Speaker 1: I came to preach the Gospel to every tribe, nation
Speaker 1: and talk today just to let you know what the
Speaker 1: good now said God, he's not me. He loves me,
Speaker 1: that he's for me, that he's a friend of tenors
Speaker 1: in his righteousness. I'm found on his friend. I'm founding
Speaker 1: out of the beloved God. He's not against in with me.
Speaker 1: He's in it with me, working through workbody, home, he
Speaker 1: fight God. He's not against me. He's in it with me.
Speaker 1: He's starting for me. God, he sut against Steve. Come on,
Speaker 1: let's lift up a mighty shout of praise to our kid,
Speaker 1: get our friend, our savior, the only wise God. I
Speaker 1: feel like preaching and prophesy him and calling you up
Speaker 1: higher today, because God is up to something. Believe that
Speaker 1: if you don't believe anything else. If you don't believe
Speaker 1: in balloons, does it fly over? Or you don't believe
Speaker 1: in anything else, you don't have to believe any of that.
Speaker 1: If you don't even believe in the flu believe this
Speaker 1: God is up to something. I'm telling you. Even if
Speaker 1: you don't believe this is a real church and you
Speaker 1: just came to check it out because you heard it
Speaker 1: was weird, or there were girls here and you're single,
Speaker 1: or anything like that, Even if you don't believe this
Speaker 1: is the Great Church, believe that God is up to something,
Speaker 1: absolutely so, So I am so so thankful for this
Speaker 1: opportunity to minister to you today. Remain standing for a moment,
Speaker 1: I'm going to share with you a scripture. As we
Speaker 1: continue on in this I call it a series, it's
Speaker 1: really just a flow. I asked the Lord for more
Speaker 1: flow of the Holy Spirit, and I asked him to
Speaker 1: give it to me in the name of Jesus for
Speaker 1: his glory and to build his people up. And be
Speaker 1: careful what you ad ask for, because God, God's been
Speaker 1: going so quick with showing me stuff. Every time we
Speaker 1: write a song, I send Chris another one, another one.
Speaker 1: And I feel the spirit of Dj Khalid on this
Speaker 1: church these days. Oh man, But he just keeps speaking,
Speaker 1: he just keeps moving, he just keeps making ways. He
Speaker 1: just keeps on keeping on keeping us alive. And he
Speaker 1: has us here for a purpose. So I announced that
Speaker 1: I was going to teach there's so much more to
Speaker 1: the story, and just been steadily walking with Joshua in
Speaker 1: the Old Testament book and as I go through the
Speaker 1: Bible myself in my personal life, just sharing from the
Speaker 1: overflow of what God is speaking to me. Well, this one,
Speaker 1: this week. I have been holding for a little while,
Speaker 1: and all I've been praying all day is, Lord, don't
Speaker 1: let me scare him. I don't want it to come
Speaker 1: out too quick. And they have to hold on. Holly said,
Speaker 1: let's go. But she's already warmed up, you understand, and
Speaker 1: you're not. She's used to me. She knows how to
Speaker 1: put up with me, but you don't. But maybe just
Speaker 1: for a little while, we can enter into his presence
Speaker 1: and forget the distractions and just see what if he speaks,
Speaker 1: What if he shows you? What if he does something
Speaker 1: for you that you couldn't do in five years of
Speaker 1: your own effort, but he just does it. What if
Speaker 1: he uses you in an amazing way? And I'm believing
Speaker 1: that he will. So go with me to Joshua chapter
Speaker 1: three Joshua chapter three. In an effort to conserve my
Speaker 1: energy for the part of this sermon where I really
Speaker 1: want to preach, I'm just going to do one verse
Speaker 1: right now, and that's verse thirteen. Joshua three, Verse thirteen.
Speaker 1: And as soon as the priests who care the ark
Speaker 1: of the Lord, the Lord of all the Earth, set
Speaker 1: foot in the Jordan, set foot in the Jordan, that
Speaker 1: means I'm stepping into this. That means I'm not waiting
Speaker 1: for it to happen. No, I'm stepping into this, stepping
Speaker 1: into this moment, stepping into this pulpit. I'm stepping into
Speaker 1: this day. I'm stepping into this worship service. Somebody say
Speaker 1: I'm stepping into it. Tell them might step on your
Speaker 1: toes today, so watch out. I hope you didn't wear
Speaker 1: your clean shoes. Wear those beaters to church, all right,
Speaker 1: he said. As soon as they set foot in the Jordan,
Speaker 1: it's waters flowing downstream will be cut off and stand
Speaker 1: up in a heat. So see how this works. When
Speaker 1: you step in it, the waters stand up and the
Speaker 1: word the Lord gave me for today. You ready for this,
Speaker 1: he said, to tell you God's up to something upstream.
Speaker 1: God is up to something upstream. I won't make you
Speaker 1: talk to your neighbor one more time today, but just
Speaker 1: tell them before you take your seat. God is up
Speaker 1: to something. Tell him. Notice I didn't say God was
Speaker 1: up to something, not just what he did in the past.
Speaker 1: I appreciate what he did in the past, but put
Speaker 1: it in the present and say God is up to
Speaker 1: something upstream. Now in the chat, put a bunch of
Speaker 1: exclamation marks after that. Oh, thank you Lord, he's up
Speaker 1: to something upstream. You may be seated. He's up to
Speaker 1: something upstream. He must be up to something. Thatcher Bob
Speaker 1: Lohman said, when you're down to nothing, God is up
Speaker 1: to something, and that good news. Oh put in the
Speaker 1: chat as we go where you are watching from. Give
Speaker 1: me city and state or city and state, country, whatever
Speaker 1: the case may be. But be specific. So don't just
Speaker 1: put United States or South America. Put Brazil, or put
Speaker 1: put something in the chat that lets me know where
Speaker 1: you're watching from. And I'm gonna pull that up as
Speaker 1: we go. As we do that, if you live in
Speaker 1: any of the following cities, come join us at elevation nights.
Speaker 1: I never miss an opportunity to promote y'all while I'm
Speaker 1: waiting for those, because there's twenty second delay. Austin, Texas,
Speaker 1: Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, Minneapolis, Minnesota, Kansas City, Missouri, Denver, Colorado,
Speaker 1: Saint Louis, Missouri, Fort Wayne, Indiana. That's going to be
Speaker 1: the best one. I felt it when I said it.
Speaker 1: And Toronto, Ontario, April eighteenth through twenty seventh, and you
Speaker 1: can go to elevation nights dot com. If you live
Speaker 1: within twenty miles of any of those cities, I'd show
Speaker 1: up if I were you, and just expect God to
Speaker 1: do something. And we're going to preach and release the
Speaker 1: sound of this house. And come on, she said, Holly said,
Speaker 1: twenty two hundred miles. Get there. She said, it's worth
Speaker 1: buying a plane ticket. And she's right. But you didn't
Speaker 1: have to fly in today, did you. God brought you
Speaker 1: right here to the house. All right, We got Nashville, Tennessee, Allentown, Pennsylvania,
Speaker 1: l Paso, Texas. Somebody said, Jacksonville, North Carolina. Put it
Speaker 1: in the chat. Put it in the chat. Put it
Speaker 1: in the chat. Manila, Philippines. And they're going too fast.
Speaker 1: You'll think I can't read, but they're just really going fast.
Speaker 1: And I thank God for that that we're reaching that
Speaker 1: many people. That's amazing. Sometimes I like to do this.
Speaker 1: You'll think I'm just stalling, but I have a reason
Speaker 1: for it. I want us to take a moment and
Speaker 1: consider that God is up to something, not just in
Speaker 1: this room, but all over the world. In Richmond, Virginia,
Speaker 1: San Antonio, Texas did already say San Antonio, Kenya, but
Speaker 1: be specific San Juan, Puerto Rico, Tempa, Florida. Now, one
Speaker 1: thing I'm noticing, all these are places I've heard of before,
Speaker 1: the ones that i'm naming, and there's a lot going by,
Speaker 1: so I'm skipping ones that I never heard of because
Speaker 1: I can't pronounce them. And if you went through them, though,
Speaker 1: if you went through them real slow and you ask
Speaker 1: the person you're from Tampa, they may say yes. They
Speaker 1: may say, well, I'm kinda from a town near Tampa.
Speaker 1: And I understand that because I grew up in one
Speaker 1: of those towns that when you told somebody the town,
Speaker 1: you had to tell them another town to tell them
Speaker 1: what it was near. Because when you say I'm from
Speaker 1: Monk's Corner, South Carolina, they don't usually say, oh, I've
Speaker 1: always wanted to visit there. I don't know why. It's
Speaker 1: a beautiful place, but you usually don't get that response, yeah, man,
Speaker 1: that's on my bucket list. Oh yeah, we did our
Speaker 1: honeymoon there by unless they did it not by choice.
Speaker 1: And it's a good place though, and I love it.
Speaker 1: But I usually learn to tell people around about the
Speaker 1: time I was sixteen that I live in a little
Speaker 1: town called Monks Corner, South Carolina, thirty miles north of Charleston.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I know Charleston. And you just learned because
Speaker 1: the frame of reference, you know, for Monk's Corner had
Speaker 1: to be identified by putting another place behind it. So
Speaker 1: you just learned to say overtime like, yeah, I'm from Charleston.
Speaker 1: Now I notice myself, I'll just say South Carolina. I'm
Speaker 1: just from I grew up in South Carolina. I just
Speaker 1: say the state now. But when I really want to
Speaker 1: identify it, we're at in South Carolina, a little town
Speaker 1: about thirty miles north Charleston called Monk's Corner. I got
Speaker 1: it memorized. I could say it in my sleep. Little
Speaker 1: town thirty miles you know, I just said it so
Speaker 1: many times. I know where I'm from. Hmm. I col
Speaker 1: appreciate that, couldn't I I know where I'm from, even
Speaker 1: if you don't know where I'm from. I have food
Speaker 1: to eat that you know not of. My father in
Speaker 1: heaven has called me by his name. But that's not
Speaker 1: what I want to preach about today, although I could.
Speaker 1: When we look at this scripture here from Joshua, chapter three,
Speaker 1: for us, it may be difficult to locate the miracle
Speaker 1: because we don't know the geography of the Old Testament,
Speaker 1: at least I don't, and I went to school for it,
Speaker 1: so I read about places where things happen, Like the
Speaker 1: Jordan River always felt like a really big body of
Speaker 1: water to me, but it's not. I went to Israel
Speaker 1: and I'm like, this is it. Yeah, it is it,
Speaker 1: But I know that I thought it was huge because
Speaker 1: it's so significant in scripture. Jesus got baptized there, the
Speaker 1: people of God crossed over into the Promised Land. There
Speaker 1: so many amazing things happen there. But it's not necessarily
Speaker 1: that it's that big. It's just that significant, and that
Speaker 1: will preach too. Just because it isn't big doesn't mean
Speaker 1: it's not significant. You got only two hundred and twenty
Speaker 1: followers on Twitter, but you're significant if you got something
Speaker 1: to say. There's a lot of people with two hundred
Speaker 1: and twenty million they don't have anything to say. Size
Speaker 1: doesn't indicate significance. I'm not trying to preach that today, though.
Speaker 1: Cap preach that at a men's conference, but I won't. Okay,
Speaker 1: men are weird, That's all I'm saying. Let's go back
Speaker 1: to the text. Back to the text. Back to the text,
Speaker 1: God is up to something. What was I going to say,
Speaker 1: where you're from the town? Oh yeah, that's what I
Speaker 1: was going to say. In this particular scripture, they are
Speaker 1: crossing over into a particular place which would have been
Speaker 1: known and relevant to the readers of Joshua. They would
Speaker 1: have gone, oh, I know that town. Oh yeah, my
Speaker 1: uncle's from there. Oh yeah, I pastored there one time.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, that's where we wanted to do our honeymoon.
Speaker 1: But for us, places like Copernaium, where Jesus did his miracles,
Speaker 1: I'm where he based around the Sea of Galilee, we
Speaker 1: don't really know. Copernium to us is a great place. Galilee,
Speaker 1: where Jesus did his miracles, was known as the land
Speaker 1: of darkness. But to us it's beautiful because it's Galilee,
Speaker 1: and we've heard about it, and it even sounds lyrical
Speaker 1: when you say it. Now, with that in mind, I
Speaker 1: want you to consider that as they were taking physical
Speaker 1: steps physical steps, you have been taking spiritual steps, either
Speaker 1: toward God's purpose for your life this week or away
Speaker 1: from it. And I want to know which one, because
Speaker 1: I'm nosy and I want to know. Have you been
Speaker 1: stepping into the true self that God sees that is
Speaker 1: strong and courageous, the one that he calls by name,
Speaker 1: Or have you been retreating into discouragement? Who's been in
Speaker 1: your headset this week? And how have you been living?
Speaker 1: Because I gave you this prescription last week to say
Speaker 1: to yourself, God is not against me. He's in it
Speaker 1: with me, working through me, fighting for me. And then
Speaker 1: I wrote you a song for it, because I'm that
Speaker 1: serious about you getting this in your heart. But one
Speaker 1: thing I said last week that I'm not sure if
Speaker 1: it came across, is when you find yourself uncertain, when
Speaker 1: you find yourself discouraged, when you find yourself lonely, when
Speaker 1: you find yourself tempted, do the thing that you would do.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna have them put that sentence on the screen
Speaker 1: so we can pick it up and make sure we
Speaker 1: understand that I'm not trying to sound like Yoda. Then
Speaker 1: that sound kind of like Yoda. Something Yoda would say,
Speaker 1: do the thing that you would do. But the Lord
Speaker 1: spoke that to me as I was praying about, Hey,
Speaker 1: I don't feel like I am enough to do this.
Speaker 1: I don't feel like I have enough to do that.
Speaker 1: I don't feel like I will ever be if I'm
Speaker 1: not that by this age, and it came to me,
Speaker 1: do the thing that you would do if you believed
Speaker 1: that what God spoke is true. When you don't feel
Speaker 1: that what God spoke is true, that it's totally normal.
Speaker 1: So you don't wait for a feeling. You act as
Speaker 1: if it's true because it is. Even though you don't
Speaker 1: see the truth, do the thing that you would do.
Speaker 1: Steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord.
Speaker 1: Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Lean not
Speaker 1: on your understanding, but all your ways. Acknowledge Him, and
Speaker 1: he will direct your paths. God does not always bless
Speaker 1: your good intentions or your abstract thoughts toward him, but
Speaker 1: he will always support a step that you take toward
Speaker 1: His grace, his mercy, his kindness, and his calling on
Speaker 1: your life. I don't know who this is for, but
Speaker 1: you're stepping into it even now. By being in church,
Speaker 1: you're stepping into it. Even now by listening to a
Speaker 1: podcast about Jesus, you're stepping into it. As you lifted
Speaker 1: your hands in worship today, you were stepping into the
Speaker 1: you that God sees. That's the you You've got to do.
Speaker 1: Put my sentence back up, but this time put it
Speaker 1: up a little different. I told him to break it
Speaker 1: down like this, and I'll teach it for the first
Speaker 1: part of this seminar next slide. Look at it in
Speaker 1: these phases. Do the thing that you would do. Let's
Speaker 1: break it down. One part of that speaks to faith.
Speaker 1: If you believe that God was with you, if you
Speaker 1: believed that God was for you, if you believe that
Speaker 1: God wanted to help you, what would you do? Then
Speaker 1: do that whatever you would do if you knew He
Speaker 1: was with you. Do that so I can open the
Speaker 1: coffee shop because the Lord's gonna I don't know about
Speaker 1: the coffee shop. You might be horrible at business and
Speaker 1: your coffee might not taste good, so I don't know
Speaker 1: all that. But I'm talking about the attitude you show
Speaker 1: up for with it, uh huh, and so do the
Speaker 1: thing you would do if you felt like God was
Speaker 1: with you. So I thought it was brilliant when you
Speaker 1: were telling me the other day, Graham said, when I'm
Speaker 1: in an awkward environment at group setting, I pretend like
Speaker 1: I'm a character in Madden, but not a main character,
Speaker 1: like I pretend like an NPC, and I jump He said,
Speaker 1: because it's better than feeling awkward. So I just start
Speaker 1: and I'm like, dude, there's like Ted talks about that
Speaker 1: that even if you take a confident posture or an
Speaker 1: excited posture, you're not as smart as you think. You
Speaker 1: can trick yourself into a better mood to start. You
Speaker 1: can you can smile sometimes before I come preach to
Speaker 1: you all, I'll just start going and start moving my
Speaker 1: muscles in a way that reflects what I need to
Speaker 1: do for my message. Because I need to love you
Speaker 1: to be up here. Sorry, look like I love you.
Speaker 1: So I just start smiling. Oh it's a fake smile. No,
Speaker 1: it's a faith smile. It's a faith smile. It's a
Speaker 1: faith smile. It's a faith praise. Oh you got a
Speaker 1: new car this week. Oh my car's in the shop.
Speaker 1: The brick pads wore off two weeks ago. But it's
Speaker 1: a faith praise. Oh you know it's gonna work out.
Speaker 1: Oh you know your kid's gonna end up in a
Speaker 1: good place. Oh you know you're gonna get into college. No,
Speaker 1: I don't feel it, but I just want to step it.
Speaker 1: So that's one way that I mean that sentence is
Speaker 1: do the thing that you would do if you felt it.
Speaker 1: Do the thing by faith that you would do if
Speaker 1: you had the feeling that God was with you. Can
Speaker 1: I move on? I'm gonna go backwards. Do the thing
Speaker 1: that you would do. Now. When I say that you
Speaker 1: would do, I'm talking about that you, not the other
Speaker 1: you we taught at the beginning of the year. There
Speaker 1: are at least two yous in your seat today, so
Speaker 1: we would really be in overflow at Valentine. If all
Speaker 1: the youths showed up, we would need a hundred times
Speaker 1: from campuses. If every you that showed up this week
Speaker 1: in your situation showed up at church today, we couldn't
Speaker 1: build the buildings big enough. Am I right? Okay? Because
Speaker 1: don't make me prophesy by the spirit of the Lord,
Speaker 1: I will. There is a choice that is to be
Speaker 1: made the strong and courageous youth that God calls. What
Speaker 1: would that you do? Do it? Give some away today? Why?
Speaker 1: Because I want to be more generous. Well, do the
Speaker 1: thing that you would do. The generous you y'all don't
Speaker 1: want this. Y'all don't want this over on this side.
Speaker 1: They'd like good preaching. So this is where I must
Speaker 1: spend the rest of the day, y'all let me down bad.
Speaker 1: You know that you the one that you get glimpses of,
Speaker 1: the one that God calls strong and courageous and leader,
Speaker 1: that you the one that's able to be selfless, the
Speaker 1: one that's able to trust him, the one that doesn't
Speaker 1: have to figure everything out to move forward in faith.
Speaker 1: So when you feel stuff and paralyzed and discouraged, you
Speaker 1: have to learn to do the thing that you would do.
Speaker 1: When you don't have enough resources to do everything you
Speaker 1: want to do, do the thing that you would do
Speaker 1: with more resources, with less resources. Five loaves, two fish
Speaker 1: to a Schmorgasborg in the wilderness, Do the thing, the thing,
Speaker 1: the thing, one more time, the thing. Paul said, This
Speaker 1: one thing I do. Why because if I try to
Speaker 1: do all five things at once, I'm gonna get discouraged
Speaker 1: and give up on all of them. So I remember
Speaker 1: an older minister told me when I was a young
Speaker 1: man like you, my favorite scripture was I can do
Speaker 1: all things through Christ, who strengthens me. He said. But
Speaker 1: now I'm sixty five, my scripture is this one thing
Speaker 1: I do. That's wisdom because you learn how to focus
Speaker 1: and not get overwhelmed Joshua is doing it, and the
Speaker 1: people are doing it. The thing that the previous generation
Speaker 1: wouldn't do. They're doing it, and so are you. So
Speaker 1: are you. You don't give God enough credit for how
Speaker 1: far he's brought you. You don't give the Holy Spirit
Speaker 1: enough credit for how much he's strengthened you. Well, I
Speaker 1: don't want to be prideful. I don't want you to
Speaker 1: be prideful either, but I do want you to be
Speaker 1: praiseful and give God praise for the progress that you've made.
Speaker 1: And here they are on the brink of an amazing
Speaker 1: thing that God is doing. God is up to something.
Speaker 1: They are about to cross over the waters, and the
Speaker 1: Lord is doing it in a very different way than
Speaker 1: he did a generation ago when they crossed the Red Sea.
Speaker 1: Remember that one At the Red Sea, Moses took his staff,
Speaker 1: stuck it out, waters parted, they went through, Pharaoh drowned,
Speaker 1: all the chariots, wheels rusting off in the middle of
Speaker 1: the water because God was setting his people free. This time, however,
Speaker 1: is going to be a little different. And I'll stop
Speaker 1: right here and just pause for whoever this is for,
Speaker 1: God is going to make you do it a little
Speaker 1: bit different. In this season, not to repeat the same
Speaker 1: routines that you saw from the traditions that you were handed,
Speaker 1: but to evaluate them and say, does this line up
Speaker 1: with God? Does this line up with who He's calling
Speaker 1: me to be right now? And that means sometimes that
Speaker 1: the me that God is bringing into this season has
Speaker 1: to embrace certain limitations and say goodbye to certain things
Speaker 1: from the season before. The important thing is to keep
Speaker 1: stepping forward, and with every step he makes you stronger.
Speaker 1: With every step he shows you something. Joshua gets the
Speaker 1: people ready and says, in three days, we're crossing over.
Speaker 1: In three days, we're crossing over. In three days, we're
Speaker 1: crossing over. They don't even have their marching orders yet
Speaker 1: for Jericho, because if he told them we're gonna blow
Speaker 1: trumpets at the walls, they might have turned around. God
Speaker 1: doesn't tell you everything. He knows what would make you
Speaker 1: turn around. He knows if he said, Hey, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: take you to Jericho and you're gonna start blowing trumpets,
Speaker 1: we send in the marching band in boys, he knows
Speaker 1: you turn around. So that's why sometimes he will trick
Speaker 1: you into trusting him. Y'all didn't like the way that
Speaker 1: sounded you thought I meant God was deceptive. I don't
Speaker 1: mean he's deceptive. I mean he's selective. He shows you
Speaker 1: what you need to know to do what you need
Speaker 1: to do today, and that's it. So he tells him,
Speaker 1: let's go toward the Jordan. Now, imagine the conversations they
Speaker 1: have as they're walking, because as they're stepping, they're stepping
Speaker 1: towards something that they see no way through. The Bible
Speaker 1: says something in the next verse. I read Joshua three thirteen,
Speaker 1: but verse fourteen is important to it says when the
Speaker 1: people broke camped across the Jordan, the priest, carrying the
Speaker 1: ark of the Covenant went ahead of them. Now, the
Speaker 1: ark of the Covenant represents God's presence. You have God's presence,
Speaker 1: not on the shoulders of a priest, but you have
Speaker 1: the great High Priest Jesus, who lives inside of you.
Speaker 1: So you are never without his presidence. He's in it
Speaker 1: with me, what else, working through me and fighting for me.
Speaker 1: So they carry this arc of the Covenant ahead of them.
Speaker 1: The whole passage is filled with anticipation about a certain
Speaker 1: situation that is very uncertain for the people who are
Speaker 1: walking into it life feels like that. I told Holly
Speaker 1: the other day that a lot of times I will
Speaker 1: say I'm anxious when I'm really excited because I don't
Speaker 1: always know the difference, and I get excited and I
Speaker 1: label it anxiety. But what I really am is excited,
Speaker 1: just uncertain. That's what I think we're stepping into. In
Speaker 1: this text. They're excited, their faith faith filled, but they
Speaker 1: also have an incomplete picture of what's going to happen next.
Speaker 1: And the Lord says through Joshua, when the priest's feet
Speaker 1: touched the waters, this is what he said, when they
Speaker 1: priests carrying the ark of the Covenant when ahead of
Speaker 1: them verse fifteen. The Jordan is at flood stage all
Speaker 1: during harvest. Yet as soon as the priest who harried
Speaker 1: the art the presence of God reached the Jordan. Not
Speaker 1: prayed about the Jordan, not study three books about the Jordan,
Speaker 1: not took a class about the Jordan. But when they
Speaker 1: reached the place, when they got to something that they
Speaker 1: had no idea how we'd get through it, it was
Speaker 1: in walking toward it that they demonstrated their faith for it.
Speaker 1: And it says that as soon as their feet verse fifteen,
Speaker 1: y'all got it. As soon as their feet touched the
Speaker 1: water's edge, the water from upstream stopped flowing. Now, when
Speaker 1: I say faith, we should take a moment and clarify
Speaker 1: what we mean by faith in the context of a
Speaker 1: Christian church. Faith means almost anything you want it to mean.
Speaker 1: If you say it in a generic way, I have
Speaker 1: faith in you could just be a nice way of
Speaker 1: saying that I love you, I love you, I have
Speaker 1: faith in you. Well, if that's what we mean when
Speaker 1: we say faith, if we have that kind of faith
Speaker 1: in God that we have in the friend, that we
Speaker 1: would say I have faith in you, or if we
Speaker 1: just mean I have a good feeling that it's going
Speaker 1: to turn out all right, that's not the kind of
Speaker 1: faith I need when I'm going through and overflowing Jordan.
Speaker 1: Because I'm gonna tell you what I don't have when
Speaker 1: I'm going through and overflowing Jordan, a good feeling about this.
Speaker 1: So I need faith that will help me step through
Speaker 1: something that I don't have a good feeling about anybody else.
Speaker 1: I need faith that can take me to the brink
Speaker 1: of something that is a breakthrough. But in the absence
Speaker 1: of the information that I need about it. I need
Speaker 1: the faith to help me step into it, even at
Speaker 1: the moment that I don't see how it's going to
Speaker 1: be moved out of my way. The nature of Christian faith,
Speaker 1: the nature of Christian faith, it is distinctive from any
Speaker 1: other kind of faith. And here's why most versions of
Speaker 1: faith are generated from within the person and then placed
Speaker 1: upon the object. You sat in that chair today because
Speaker 1: you had faith in it. So you were in that
Speaker 1: chair because of your faith in that chair. Well, in
Speaker 1: the sixteen hundreds in England, these theologians got together in
Speaker 1: Westminster Abbey and there was a civil war happening in
Speaker 1: the country, and they were trying to boil down the
Speaker 1: faith to the distinctives. Now, this Westminster Confession came to
Speaker 1: be one of the core documents for many denominations, especially
Speaker 1: in the Reform tradition. What do we really believe? And
Speaker 1: one of the things that they said up about faith
Speaker 1: was this that by imputing the obedience and satisfaction of
Speaker 1: Christ unto you, and you receiving and resting on Him
Speaker 1: and his righteousness by faith. Watch this which faith you have,
Speaker 1: not of yourself. It is the gift of God. Now
Speaker 1: let me give you the monkst corner version of that
Speaker 1: you're ready. It doesn't come from you. So if you've
Speaker 1: got dried up faith, if you've got weighed down faith,
Speaker 1: if you've got broken down faith, but you've got a great, big,
Speaker 1: full God, who is heavy with blessing, who is sovereign
Speaker 1: over the affairs of men, then you don't put your
Speaker 1: faith in your faith as you walk through this life,
Speaker 1: sometimes up, sometimes down. The good news of the Gospel
Speaker 1: is even my faith doesn't come from me. So God says,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna give you grace for your life. I want
Speaker 1: to give you grace for your situation. I want to
Speaker 1: give you grace to save you from your sin. But
Speaker 1: you need faith to receive grace. So guess what God's
Speaker 1: gonna do. I'm not just gonna give you the grace
Speaker 1: because you need the faith to get the grace. But
Speaker 1: I know you and you don't even have the faith
Speaker 1: that it takes to get the grace. So what I'm
Speaker 1: gonna do is send my son in the likeness of
Speaker 1: a sinful man. And when he dies and the blood
Speaker 1: runs down, and when they bury him in Joseph's tomb,
Speaker 1: I feel like preaching. And the Angel rolls the stone
Speaker 1: away and he gets something that sinds into heaven and
Speaker 1: sends the spirit down. Guess what he's doing. And he's
Speaker 1: sending you faith from another place. He's sending you trust
Speaker 1: from another realm. He is sending you the gift from
Speaker 1: another dimension. And it doesn't come from you. And if
Speaker 1: it doesn't come from you, it doesn't depend on you.
Speaker 1: And if it comes from God, they cannot run out.
Speaker 1: It'll be like that wine at the wedding in Kanov Galilee.
Speaker 1: It'll just keep coming because God is enuf to something upstream.
Speaker 1: My faith flows from him. Don't put them on two
Speaker 1: different levels. Oh, grace comes from God. Faith comes from me.
Speaker 1: You need the faith to get the grace. So what
Speaker 1: they were saying in England, I'm saying in Charlotte, and
Speaker 1: somebody's watching it in England too, somewhere in England. First
Speaker 1: time I went to England, they were telling me about
Speaker 1: all the towns and everything. We got there. We landed
Speaker 1: one day. I was preciated in London. We landed at
Speaker 1: six am and Heathrow, Heathrow at six am is Heathrow
Speaker 1: is hell? That place they said, is only twenty miles
Speaker 1: to the hotel We got in a car in London
Speaker 1: from Heathrow Airport three hours to get twenty miles twenty
Speaker 1: miles where I'm from. If you don't respect the Lord
Speaker 1: or the law, you could do that in fifteen minutes
Speaker 1: where I'm from, and and and so it's it's relative.
Speaker 1: What That's what I'm saying. It's it's it's relatives. It's relative.
Speaker 1: The amount of faith that you have in your steps
Speaker 1: relates to the amount of faith that you have in
Speaker 1: his sovereignty. When I tell God all the reasons he
Speaker 1: can't use me, I get this sense that He already
Speaker 1: knew that. So I step into it anyway. As I step,
Speaker 1: he makes me strong. I see you in the spirit
Speaker 1: steping towards something right now. I see you steping toward
Speaker 1: a better version of the parent that you wish you
Speaker 1: would have had, and you didn't. But you're stepping into it,
Speaker 1: even though you don't have a frame of reference for it.
Speaker 1: But you're stepping into it. You're stepping into it. We
Speaker 1: got an upstream God who knew you'd be in the
Speaker 1: situation you were in before you were in the situation,
Speaker 1: and prepared you for the moment before you got to
Speaker 1: the brink. The Bible said that when they're when their
Speaker 1: feet touched the water's edge, the water stood up. I
Speaker 1: love that picture. So that means they had to step
Speaker 1: all the way toward the Jordan, and only when they're
Speaker 1: big toe got wet did a break apart. But y'all
Speaker 1: know something, Apparently I still don't know how to read
Speaker 1: the Bible. In my imagination, I always pictured this just
Speaker 1: like the Red Sea. They step at the Jordan. He's overflowing,
Speaker 1: boom step. Always pictured it like that. What's that Kevin
Speaker 1: Costner movie water World? Always pictured that on the Jordan.
Speaker 1: But remember Jordan's small. And also that's not what the
Speaker 1: Bible says. The Bible says the water flowing verse thirteen
Speaker 1: downstream will be cut off. That's where they saw the miracle,
Speaker 1: when they stepped toward the uncertainty. That's where you're going
Speaker 1: to see the miracle as you step into it, awkward
Speaker 1: and uncomfortable, as you step into it, as you move
Speaker 1: toward it, as you keep moving toward it, as you
Speaker 1: keep praying, keep believing, keep trusting, keep coming, keep digging,
Speaker 1: keep going, keep flowing, keep showing up, keep scheduling. Stuff
Speaker 1: that feels fruitless, because you know, God told you to
Speaker 1: do it, keep coming, keep going, keep moving. And when
Speaker 1: they got there, they saw it. They saw it when
Speaker 1: they got there. When did they see it when they
Speaker 1: got there? They got there when they saw it. You know,
Speaker 1: God says, you know, are we there yet? No, you're
Speaker 1: not there yet. You'll know that you are there when
Speaker 1: it happens. But I'm not going to show you anything
Speaker 1: until you step into it. And yet that's not really
Speaker 1: the point that I want to make, because it's true
Speaker 1: they did not see it until they stepped into it.
Speaker 1: That's when God cut off the waters and enabled them
Speaker 1: to cross. When they did it. But watch what the
Speaker 1: Bible said in verse sixteen. It says the water from
Speaker 1: upstream stopped flowing. It piled up in a heap a
Speaker 1: great distance away, had a town called Adam in the
Speaker 1: vicinity of Zarathon. You ever heard of Zarathon? Let me
Speaker 1: tell you about Zarathon Xarathon is about twenty miles from
Speaker 1: where they crossed the Jordan River. You know the Jordan River.
Speaker 1: You've heard of that. Okay, twenty miles away, you've heard
Speaker 1: of Charleston. Okay, about thirty miles away you've heard of
Speaker 1: You've heard of Charlotte about twenty miles away, and a
Speaker 1: place that they still call Indian Land. I don't know
Speaker 1: how long that one's gonna last to y'all have renamed
Speaker 1: that soon. I'm sure. Hey, you heard of Charlotte. You
Speaker 1: heard of the Jordan. Yeah, let me tell you about
Speaker 1: the Jordan. That's where we crossed over, but that's not
Speaker 1: where the miracles started. Don't do it, don't do it.
Speaker 1: Don't do and play a single note, because I gotta
Speaker 1: teach this. Somebody say twenty miles away. I studied it out.
Speaker 1: I asked chat gpt, where is the town called Adam
Speaker 1: in Joshua three? And the thing came back and I
Speaker 1: looked it up in a real book. It said it's
Speaker 1: twenty miles away, which means watch this that for good
Speaker 1: to time it this right, that for them to get
Speaker 1: to the edge of the Jordan River, that for the
Speaker 1: priest big Toe to touch that water at floodstage, carrying
Speaker 1: that arc after forty years in the wilderness plus five
Speaker 1: after that, for this to happen at this moment, for
Speaker 1: the water's downstream to be cut off at this moment,
Speaker 1: that means God must have been up to something on
Speaker 1: the stream hah, before I got here. Before I got here,
Speaker 1: God's not walking with you, He's going before you. He
Speaker 1: not sucking ball. He Sobrin's sister, He's sovereign brother, He's
Speaker 1: sobrin baby. Yeah. God got there about three hours earlier
Speaker 1: to Adam. He said, hey, waters of Adam, I need
Speaker 1: y'all to stop real quick. Why because about three hours
Speaker 1: from now, the priest's feet are about to hit the
Speaker 1: Jordan River. About three hours from now, they're about to
Speaker 1: come into the brink of the promise that I made Abraham. See,
Speaker 1: this thing didn't start with Joshua. God was up to
Speaker 1: something upstream before Joshua. Oh, God ever got to this moment.
Speaker 1: As a matter of fact, it goes further back from that.
Speaker 1: The Bible says in the beginning, God made the heaven
Speaker 1: and the earth, and he got down in the dirt
Speaker 1: and he made a man, and the man's name was Adam.
Speaker 1: Now we've progressed a few hundred years, and Joshua is
Speaker 1: leading God's people into the promise. Y'all help me, preacher.
Speaker 1: We'll be here till one o'clock. I said, God was
Speaker 1: getting started in the garden. What has been started in
Speaker 1: this moment of your life. Didn't start in this moment
Speaker 1: of your life. God was twenty miles ahead of you. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: they say, raising kids, you gotta say one step ahead,
Speaker 1: God said, I'll beat that. How about twenty miles ahead.
Speaker 1: How about I get there and I handle the situation
Speaker 1: with your kids. How About I get the friends out
Speaker 1: of their life and tell them run, devil, don't you
Speaker 1: ever come back. How About I get this thing started
Speaker 1: so when you get there, you can cross over, You
Speaker 1: can make it through. How about if I give you
Speaker 1: the faith to believe me. Okay, you got a mustard
Speaker 1: seed faith. Let's put it up against that mouth real
Speaker 1: quick and see which one wears greatest, Lord, Now, nona
Speaker 1: give me the Flawlord. I want to preach to everybody
Speaker 1: in this room who's having to trust God with something
Speaker 1: that's twenty miles away. Stuff you can't see, stuff you
Speaker 1: can't control, stuff you can't affect, stuff you can't move.
Speaker 1: Not the stuff you can do. Just do that stuff.
Speaker 1: Wear your own seatbelt. Don't ask Jesus Christ to buckle
Speaker 1: your seat belt. He's a busy guy. You do that.
Speaker 1: But for the other stuff that's overflowing the banks of
Speaker 1: the Jordans. You step into that just believing. What would
Speaker 1: you do if you believe that God was twenty miles
Speaker 1: away already doing what you're praying about. Wherever you see
Speaker 1: a problem, Heaven has a plan. Wherever you have a problem,
Speaker 1: Heaven has a plan. I'm gonna say it again, wherever,
Speaker 1: wherever you have a problem, Heaven has a plan. Turn
Speaker 1: that thing over to the Lord and leave it there.
Speaker 1: I said, wherever you have a problem, Heaven has a plank,
Speaker 1: good chord, Scottie, turn that thing over to the Lord
Speaker 1: and leave it there. Yeah, you want me to finish
Speaker 1: that song. I'll finish it and get somebody good to
Speaker 1: sing it to you next week if you come back.
Speaker 1: Because God is up to something, but you won't see
Speaker 1: it because it's twenty miles away. Can you trust him
Speaker 1: with the twenty Can you trust him that you can't
Speaker 1: get them to talk to you about it, but he's
Speaker 1: talking to them about it. Can you trust him? Can
Speaker 1: you trust him with something twenty miles away? Upstream? I
Speaker 1: always pictured that the water stood up where they stood. No,
Speaker 1: they didn't see it piled up. It had been piled
Speaker 1: up for hours. You have no idea what God is speaking.
Speaker 1: We ask God for blessings, and we should we also
Speaker 1: need to ask him for damns, because he got to
Speaker 1: a town called Adam and he built a dam. It's
Speaker 1: too much, I know, it's too much. All is too much,
Speaker 1: just too much. I'm gonna save it for the base.
Speaker 1: And I'm gonna save it for the base. It's a
Speaker 1: it's it's a it's a mirror what he did. He said,
Speaker 1: waters pile up. He remember, they can't see this on
Speaker 1: the live feed. If it was today, word would have spread. Right. Oh, y'all,
Speaker 1: don't worry, cause just keep walking because in and and
Speaker 1: and Adam, there's there's a there's a big pile of water.
Speaker 1: So won't be long. The water's going into the dead sea,
Speaker 1: and the one that's flowing down has completely stopped, so
Speaker 1: it will be dry in five four three two one. Now, Nope,
Speaker 1: no God, he's the god of the upstream. He's the
Speaker 1: god of the unseen. That's the nature of faith. In
Speaker 1: case all of the Westminster Confession stuff was a little
Speaker 1: abstract and theoretical, let me give you the picture. And
Speaker 1: in case the picture in the Old Testament is a
Speaker 1: little too physical for you, let me bring it over
Speaker 1: to the New Testament, this same Jordan River would be
Speaker 1: the Jordan River, not that Joshua crossed, but that Jesus
Speaker 1: was baptized in God is up to something upstream for Joshua.
Speaker 1: This moment represents the end of a wilderness experience when
Speaker 1: Jesus was tempted in the wilderness for forty days and
Speaker 1: forty nights. He came out of the wilderness and came
Speaker 1: into the Jordan River to be baptized by his cousin
Speaker 1: John the Baptist, which is not a denomination, it was
Speaker 1: his occupation. And he said, I can't baptize you. You
Speaker 1: need to baptize me. You are the savior. Jesus says,
Speaker 1: shut up and do it. Jesus had the spirit of
Speaker 1: Nike before phil Knight was ever a twinkle in his
Speaker 1: mama's He said, just do it. Boom, gotta get baptized, Boom,
Speaker 1: to fulfill all righteousness. Boom, just do it. So he
Speaker 1: did it. And guess what happened to John for his obedience.
Speaker 1: He was thrown in prison for preaching to a king
Speaker 1: named Eric. And he was in prison about to be beheaded,
Speaker 1: and he sent messengers to ask Jesus, are you the one. Now,
Speaker 1: how did we go all the way from your baptizing
Speaker 1: Jesus to you our doubting if he's the Messiah? Everybody
Speaker 1: has doubts downstream, me, you, the Pope, the bishop, the
Speaker 1: attorney general, you're praying grandmother, all have doubts downstream. When
Speaker 1: God speaks something to you, or when you feel a possibility,
Speaker 1: and I hope you feel least a little bit of
Speaker 1: it today. I hope you feel at least a little
Speaker 1: bit of it today. Well, Sunday is upstream. Sunday is upstream.
Speaker 1: Sunday is where you get that dose of God is
Speaker 1: in and with Me working through me, fighting for me.
Speaker 1: Where I have a problem, Heaven has a plan downstream
Speaker 1: that devil is waiting. Ask John the Baptist. He said,
Speaker 1: are you the one? Or should we wait for somebody else? Now,
Speaker 1: I want to give you a word from Jesus. Don't
Speaker 1: doubt downstream what God showed you upstream. For that to
Speaker 1: make any sense in your life, you will need to
Speaker 1: spend more time upstream this week, because if you're not
Speaker 1: getting it from God, you will be stepping into situations
Speaker 1: you're not ready for. The better. I am when I
Speaker 1: get to the brink of the Jordan is the more
Speaker 1: time I spent in his presence and staying in touch
Speaker 1: with him. Hey, I need time with God. Upstream in
Speaker 1: business terms, the term upstream doesn't have anything to do
Speaker 1: with rivers. In business terms, upstream is where the product
Speaker 1: is created and made and manufactured. Downstream refers to all
Speaker 1: of the activities around marketing and selling the product. Why
Speaker 1: do we live in a world where people spend so
Speaker 1: much more time downstream marketing who they are than upstream
Speaker 1: with God? So he can show you who you are
Speaker 1: in the light of who He is and what he
Speaker 1: has for your life. So you're never going to be
Speaker 1: able to do the thing that you would do if
Speaker 1: you don't know that you, and you will not know
Speaker 1: that you if all you do is spend time broadcasting
Speaker 1: those downstream distractions. Do you know what they are? In
Speaker 1: your life? Those downstream doubts disappointment can put you in
Speaker 1: a place where downstream, Oh, now I'm here, Now I'm
Speaker 1: at this moment. I cannot appropriately embrace or seize this
Speaker 1: moment because now I know God did some wonderful things
Speaker 1: back there. I believe God is doing some wonderful things.
Speaker 1: But like John, the Baptist. You find yourself in a
Speaker 1: downstream situation and even the one who heralded Jesus Christ
Speaker 1: begin to ask are you really him? That means downstream distractions.
Speaker 1: You have to really be careful, especially if you are
Speaker 1: one of the people that God said I'd be speaking
Speaker 1: to that you are stepping into a season of your
Speaker 1: life where you are becoming the true version of yourself,
Speaker 1: and you are willing to let some things die now
Speaker 1: that you used to cling to. If that is you,
Speaker 1: and if you are walking through something in your life
Speaker 1: and twenty miles away is an issue of situation that
Speaker 1: you can't even really talk about or figure out. If
Speaker 1: that's you, you have got to spend more time upstream.
Speaker 1: There are so many Bibles on your phone right now,
Speaker 1: it's not even funny. For free in the app store.
Speaker 1: Put in Bible. I don't like to read. Hit the
Speaker 1: little speaker, it'll read to you. I want to listen
Speaker 1: to a man read to me. They got a woman too.
Speaker 1: I found one yesterday, was talking in a Scottish accent.
Speaker 1: I bought it. Tell me you can't spend time upstream,
Speaker 1: you better make that car at church so when you
Speaker 1: get there, I said, when you get there. I said,
Speaker 1: when you get there, you gotta be ready for what
Speaker 1: God is going to do downstream. And you gotta believe
Speaker 1: that God built a damn where you came from. And
Speaker 1: he said, your past will I remember no more. Now
Speaker 1: walk into it, Flow into it, Steak into it, Pray
Speaker 1: into it, serve it to it. Step in to it
Speaker 1: because he's up to something. I saw your nikes and
Speaker 1: I wanted to tell you step into it. Now step
Speaker 1: into it again. Somebody made those nikes that was upstream.
Speaker 1: Somebody else sold them that was downstream. But when the
Speaker 1: product is good enough, the sales can be whatever they
Speaker 1: need to be. Because if the product is good enough,
Speaker 1: God said, in this season, I'm building your character. I'm
Speaker 1: getting you ready for some things. People aren't gonna call
Speaker 1: you as much. That's all right. Don't worry about the downstream.
Speaker 1: I'm the god of the upstream. And when his time
Speaker 1: is time, and when his right is right, and when
Speaker 1: it's mine, it's mine, and he can use me how
Speaker 1: he was because he sucked to something about twenty miles away.
Speaker 1: About twenty miles away, I was writing songs with Brandon
Speaker 1: Lake this week. Y'all love Brandon. I told him to
Speaker 1: come to church. He said he had to keep his
Speaker 1: kids because I wanted to tell y'all what he told me.
Speaker 1: He said, past, we've written so many times together, and
Speaker 1: we wrote some some this week that I can't wait
Speaker 1: to share with you too. And we've written with Chris
Speaker 1: and others and Boom and all my people, and we're
Speaker 1: sitting around he said, I never told you this, but
Speaker 1: I want to tell you today. Did you know that
Speaker 1: about twelve years ago I emailed Elevation and said, can
Speaker 1: I come learn something about songwriting? And they said, no,
Speaker 1: we don't offer that. And he told me the name
Speaker 1: of the staff member, and the staff member didn't here anymore.
Speaker 1: And it's a good thing too, because they did a
Speaker 1: lot of bad things. They were a downstream staff member.
Speaker 1: Let me tell you, right out to the dead sea.
Speaker 1: They were a dead sea staff member, is what they were.
Speaker 1: He said, I'm gonna help you. I'm gonna help you.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna help you. I'm gonna help y'all, he said
Speaker 1: twelve years ago. Now, when I thought about that, I said,
Speaker 1: that's crazy, because now here we are eating sausage. And
Speaker 1: we wrote three songs together over the last two days
Speaker 1: and we wrote Craves into Gardens and my testimony, and
Speaker 1: me and you and Chris wrote Rattle, and we did
Speaker 1: all this stuff. And inn't that crazy that you were
Speaker 1: living in Mount Pleasant while I was living in Monk's Corner?
Speaker 1: How far is Mount Pleasant? Actually, it's about thirty eight,
Speaker 1: But for the sake of the illustration, let's call it twenty.
Speaker 1: Let's call it twenty. Let's call it twenty. Let's call
Speaker 1: it twenty. Let's call it twenty. Did you ever read
Speaker 1: your Bible to see how far was the Jordan River
Speaker 1: the place they crossed that we know about, from the
Speaker 1: place where God did the miracle? It's twenty miles. Did
Speaker 1: you ever read your Bible? The Bible says when Jesus
Speaker 1: left Nazareth to go live in Capernaum, how far was
Speaker 1: the place where he went to live and do his
Speaker 1: miracles from the place where he was raised? Twenty miles?
Speaker 1: When he got to Galilee for his ministry. Matthew quotes
Speaker 1: the prophet Isaiah in Matthew Chapter four. Y'all got five
Speaker 1: minutes for me to tie this up. Come on, if
Speaker 1: you got five minutes, I'm gonna make it worth your time.
Speaker 1: Because the Bible says in Matthew chapter four, somebody shout,
Speaker 1: God is up to something. Prophesy to your neighbor. God
Speaker 1: is up up to something. God is up to something.
Speaker 1: God is up to something. God is up to something.
Speaker 1: Put it in the chat. God is up to something upstream.
Speaker 1: Can't see it, can't prove it, don't need to. I
Speaker 1: know him, I see the problem. Heaven has the plan.
Speaker 1: God is up to something in my life. I emailed
Speaker 1: and they said no. Twelve years later, here we are
Speaker 1: write music and of touch the world because God is
Speaker 1: up to something. Now. The Bible says in Matthew chapter four,
Speaker 1: when Jesus give me my verse, y'all, God is up
Speaker 1: to something. When Jesus heard that John had been put
Speaker 1: in prison, he withdrew to Galilee verse thirteen. Leaving Nazareth.
Speaker 1: He went and lived in Copernaum, twenty miles away, which
Speaker 1: was by the lake in the area of Zebulen, and
Speaker 1: left holly places like Monk's Corner that we don't know
Speaker 1: but God did. And watch what God was doing to
Speaker 1: fulfill what was said through the prophet Isaiah. Some of
Speaker 1: the things that you are going through right now are
Speaker 1: not about you. They are to fulfill God's purpose. Don't
Speaker 1: be selfish, don't be myopic, don't get buried in self pity.
Speaker 1: That's exactly what the devil wants to get you downstream.
Speaker 1: Let him deal with that you walk toward it. Let
Speaker 1: him deal with your enemies. Let him deal with the
Speaker 1: people who talk bad about you. Let him deal with
Speaker 1: their ignorance. Let him straighten it out. Let him deal
Speaker 1: with the things you can't deal with as you do
Speaker 1: the things He's called you to do. I feel like
Speaker 1: I'm preaching right to somebody's dry riverbed today. God is
Speaker 1: up to something upstream is started in at him and
Speaker 1: moved through Joshua. And here's Jesus go into Galilee to
Speaker 1: fulfill what was said through the prophet Isaiah. Land of
Speaker 1: Zebulin verse fifteen. Now and land of Neftali, the way
Speaker 1: of the sea beyond the Jordan. You recognize the Jordan
Speaker 1: Galilee of the Gentiles. The people living in darkness have
Speaker 1: seen a great light on those living in the land
Speaker 1: of the shadow of death. Somebody has been living in
Speaker 1: the land of the shadow of death. But watch this,
Speaker 1: it's not death. It's just a shadow. Because the light
Speaker 1: is coming. Because God is getting the light ready, and
Speaker 1: it will shine, and it will dawn, and it will
Speaker 1: break forward. A light has dawned in Galilee. And I
Speaker 1: believe that God, while Jesus was twelve years old working
Speaker 1: under his father, who was a carpenter in Nazareth, was
Speaker 1: getting ready for what he would do twenty miles away
Speaker 1: when he came to Galilee the first time. As I mentioned,
Speaker 1: he turned water into wine at Cana, and then he
Speaker 1: went back. He went back to Cana, and I could
Speaker 1: tell you what Jesus told John the Baptist when he
Speaker 1: had downstream doubts. He said, Hey, the blind, see the
Speaker 1: lame walk the deaf hear, go back and tell John
Speaker 1: the good news is preached to the core, to the poor,
Speaker 1: and chains are being broken. Go tell John blessed us.
Speaker 1: He who doesn't fall away downstream and holds to what
Speaker 1: God spoke upstream. He doesn't say those words. But that
Speaker 1: was the spirit of the message. And you know what
Speaker 1: of all those miracles Jesus did that we know about.
Speaker 1: So many of them happened in Galilee. But when the
Speaker 1: Holy Spirit led me to for you before we close
Speaker 1: this service, and I don't know if you're twenty miles
Speaker 1: away or two thousand miles away. I don't know where
Speaker 1: this word's going to reach you, but I believe that
Speaker 1: it has. I believe that it is. I believe that
Speaker 1: right now God is up to something in your life.
Speaker 1: It's upstream. Some of the things that he is blocking
Speaker 1: in your life are for your blessing. Will you trust
Speaker 1: him with the twenty Will you not stress for this
Speaker 1: next two weeks while you wait for the results, while
Speaker 1: you wait for the MRI appointment. Will you just put
Speaker 1: that in his hands? Because where you see a problem,
Speaker 1: Heaven has a plan. You can't see it, you're not
Speaker 1: supposed to. You can't know it. You have to believe
Speaker 1: it by faith. Drive into situations that you don't know
Speaker 1: how to deal with. Twenty miles away, God was getting
Speaker 1: a light ready for Galilee in Nazareth. And then the
Speaker 1: Bible says in John chapter four, and this was the
Speaker 1: very last scripture that he showed me for our sermon today,
Speaker 1: it says that after he left Samaria, y'all, remember when
Speaker 1: he met the woman at the well, Samaritan woman. Yeah,
Speaker 1: my favorite story. Right after that, he stayed two days
Speaker 1: in Samaria. He left verse forty three for Galilee and
Speaker 1: Jesus himself had pointed out that a pphet has no
Speaker 1: honor in his own country. And when he arrived in Galilee,
Speaker 1: feel the pregnancy in the potency in that sentence. When
Speaker 1: he arrived in Galilee, the upstream prophet Isaiah said, a
Speaker 1: great light is going to dawn on the people in darkness,
Speaker 1: and now it's happening. It's happening. It's happening now. That's
Speaker 1: why God sent this word to you today. Is happening
Speaker 1: now in your life. It's happening now. It's a generational consequence,
Speaker 1: and he's doing it now. And when he got to Galilee,
Speaker 1: the Galileans welcomed him. They'd seen all he'd done in
Speaker 1: Jerusalem at the Passover festival, for they'd also been there.
Speaker 1: And once more he visited Cana in Galilee, where he
Speaker 1: had turned the water into wine. And there was a
Speaker 1: certain royal official whose son lay sick at Capernaum. When
Speaker 1: the man heard that Jesus had arrived in Galilee from Judea,
Speaker 1: he went to him and begged him to come and
Speaker 1: heal his son, who was close to death. I can't
Speaker 1: do anything about that. I can't heal him. I can't
Speaker 1: buy it, I can't do it. I need you to
Speaker 1: help me with this, Jesus said, unless you people see
Speaker 1: signs and wonders, you'll never believe in. The royal official said, sir,
Speaker 1: come down, I need you to come. Come to Capernaum.
Speaker 1: Leave Cana come with me to Capernaum. And Jesus says
Speaker 1: something that's very prophetic for this moment in your life
Speaker 1: verse fifty go your son will live. The second part
Speaker 1: of that depends on the first part of that. Walk
Speaker 1: toward it and watch what he did. And this is
Speaker 1: what you must do with the situations in your life
Speaker 1: that are beyond your control, that you don't understand, that
Speaker 1: you can't figure out. The man took Jesus at his
Speaker 1: word and departed. I watched this. While he was still
Speaker 1: on the way, his servants met him with the news
Speaker 1: that his boy was living. And when he inquired as
Speaker 1: to the time when his son got better, they said
Speaker 1: yesterday at one in the afternoon. And when they said
Speaker 1: one in the afternoon, the father realized this was the
Speaker 1: exact time at which Jesus had said to him, give
Speaker 1: me a wide shot. Your son will live. As he's
Speaker 1: walking back to Copernaum from Cana. As he's walking they
Speaker 1: interrupt him, said he's better. We came all this way
Speaker 1: to tell you he's better. When did it happen. It
Speaker 1: happened at one pm, he said, that's the exact time,
Speaker 1: and he trusted Jesus. But I want to suggest to
Speaker 1: you that the most significant thing about this text isn't
Speaker 1: the time it happened at It was how far they traveled.
Speaker 1: For Gana is twenty miles from Combernium, and that means
Speaker 1: that the words from Jesus reached all the way back
Speaker 1: to that sick boy and didn't even need the dad
Speaker 1: to make the journey. You are not even going to
Speaker 1: have to do everything you think you're gonna have to do.
Speaker 1: God's just gonna do one of these. Watch this twenty
Speaker 1: mile turnar rolphs twenty mile. I declare a twenty mile
Speaker 1: turnar rout depression. Let the daughter go, addiction, let the
Speaker 1: sun go. I call you fourth, I call light to
Speaker 1: your situation. I call strength to your ankles. I called
Speaker 1: joy to your spirit, to every pairing room, I prophasia
Speaker 1: a new soul. He did it twenty miles away. And
Speaker 1: you think he can do it for you, He can
Speaker 1: do it for you. He will do it. For you.
Speaker 1: He has done it for you. The God who fights
Speaker 1: your battles stands at your a dom and tells the
Speaker 1: waters he's still here, comes my child. Now give him
Speaker 1: that situation, give him that praise, Give him the praise
Speaker 1: that you would give him if you believed he was
Speaker 1: able to do. If you believe there are four with us,
Speaker 1: then with him. He's up to something. Touch seven. People
Speaker 1: say he's up to something. He's up to something in
Speaker 1: the unseen. He's up to something in the unsuspecting. He's
Speaker 1: up to something in the hidden place. He's up to
Speaker 1: something in the shadows. He's up to something. Get ready, Galilee,
Speaker 1: Get ready, Galilee. There's a cofferenter in Nasareth. He's not
Speaker 1: building tables. He's getting ready for a cross. And when
Speaker 1: he dies, it will flow to you and you will
Speaker 1: walk into the rest of your life as a new
Speaker 1: creation in his name. That time is now Wrever you
Speaker 1: see a problem, Heaven has a plan. Turn that thing
Speaker 1: over to the Lord and leave it there twenty miles away.
Speaker 1: Like Bianca said to me at Barnes and Noble, she
Speaker 1: came over. I never go to Barnes and Noble. I
Speaker 1: went that day. The only reason I was there at
Speaker 1: that moment is because somebody had interrupted me earlier, and
Speaker 1: then I ran out of time to go where I
Speaker 1: wanted to go. Susa, I'll just go to Barnes and Noble.
Speaker 1: I was one around like a homeless man in Barnes
Speaker 1: and Noble, not intending to buy it anything. I said,
Speaker 1: let me go over to the Christian Living see if
Speaker 1: I can at least rip off somebody's title and put
Speaker 1: it in a sermons sometime soon, little downstream sermon preparation
Speaker 1: happened in that day. But she walked in and started
Speaker 1: crying when she saw me. She said, Pastor Steve, that
Speaker 1: I never met you. I moved three years ago to
Speaker 1: go to Elevation, but then I had two miscarriages. I
Speaker 1: quit coming to church. I turned on the sermons once
Speaker 1: a while, but I don't even like the way it
Speaker 1: makes me feel, because I know I'm not where I'm
Speaker 1: supposed to be. But lately God has been doing something.
Speaker 1: So today I decided I would go and get my
Speaker 1: facial appointment because I've just been sitting around not doing anything,
Speaker 1: and that I would go to the bookstore and buy
Speaker 1: a book that God led me to. And is it
Speaker 1: random that you're here. I said, I don't know, Bianca,
Speaker 1: the way my brain works. Your feet hit this Barnes
Speaker 1: and Noble at the same time as mine for a reason. Now,
Speaker 1: she cried. We talked, and then I said, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: buy you some books. You ain't gonna have to buy them.
Speaker 1: The Lord wants you to know he sees you. I said,
Speaker 1: but I get to pick him if I'm gonna pay.
Speaker 1: And no, I did not buy one of mine. I
Speaker 1: am not that so I get the royalties. No. I
Speaker 1: bought her two books, and I said, let's make your
Speaker 1: husband a video and let's send you forward believing that
Speaker 1: God is not done with you. And she said, can
Speaker 1: I ask you one more thing? I'm like, dang it,
Speaker 1: I bought you a book when you made the sales.
Speaker 1: Stop talking. God sees you. You know, we gotta go
Speaker 1: say one more thing. What would you say to me
Speaker 1: after all that I've been through, when I struggle doubting
Speaker 1: if God is done with me, and I believe the
Speaker 1: spirit of the Lord gave me this thing to do,
Speaker 1: I'm like, I can't give her the Westminster Confession right now?
Speaker 1: What I could do? And I grabbed I grabbed the
Speaker 1: first book I saw, and I said, you're only this
Speaker 1: far in, You're only this far in, You're only this
Speaker 1: far in. There's so much more to your story. And
Speaker 1: I speak it prophetically over you. I speak it prophetically
Speaker 1: over you. God sent us here at this moment so
Speaker 1: that you could have this reminder. They're twenty miles away.
Speaker 1: God is working. Father. What an amazing, amazing moment this is.
Speaker 1: I thank you in advance for testimonies that I will receive,
Speaker 1: for people who turned it over to you in this moment,
Speaker 1: for people who gave up on their trying and trusting
Speaker 1: in their own ways in this moment, who put their
Speaker 1: big toe in the Jordan river, who called a counselor
Speaker 1: this week and said, I'm coming to work on my issues,
Speaker 1: who said, I'm going to make the call this week
Speaker 1: and I'm gonna apologize for that thing. I'm going to
Speaker 1: get up this week, and I'm going to go forward
Speaker 1: in the name of the Lord. Because you're in it
Speaker 1: with me and through me, fighting for me. God is
Speaker 1: not a gift. No, He's in it with me, working
Speaker 1: through all Right, sing it two more times. We send
Speaker 1: this word twenty miles to your home. We send it
Speaker 1: to your copernaile. We send it to your sick child.
Speaker 1: We send this work to your depression, We send it
Speaker 1: to your situation. Sing it again, Chris, We're getting the revelation.
Speaker 1: We're getting the revelation. He's fighting for God is the guess.
Speaker 1: Oh now lift your hands. I want to hear your
Speaker 1: voice saying I want to hear your voice. Come on,
Speaker 1: come on, starting, Come on, come on starting. Kids. Things
Speaker 1: are happening at your house, Things are happening in your
Speaker 1: spirit right now. God is working this thing out right now.
Speaker 1: You gotta believe this. Never before I call you forward.
Speaker 1: I'm calling you forward, and I call you forward, my
Speaker 1: grigs in the name of Jesus. Now on to him
Speaker 1: who is able to do measurably. Mor He's work to
Speaker 1: hivy glory in your life. Listen to you. He's not again. Well.
Speaker 1: If you enjoyed today's podcast, there are a couple of
Speaker 1: things I'd love for you to do. Make sure to subscribe, rate,
Speaker 1: and review this podcast. You can also help us reach
Speaker 1: others by investing today at Elevation Church dot org. Slash
Speaker 1: give and thanks again for joining us on the Elevation Podcast.