Speaker 1: Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick.
Speaker 2: I'm the pastor of Elevation Church and this is our podcast.
Speaker 2: I wanted to thank you for joining us today. Hope
Speaker 2: this inspires you. Hope it builds your faith. Hope it
Speaker 2: gives your perspective to see God is moving in your life.
Speaker 2: Enjoy the message. Well, thank you, worship team. I want
Speaker 2: to go into the Word of God today. I spoke
Speaker 2: to you last week on the subject of confidence, and
Speaker 2: I'm going to continue along those thoughts. From what I
Speaker 2: could tell, the sermon help some people. I'm not saying
Speaker 2: it helped everybody.
Speaker 1: Some of y'all are beyond help.
Speaker 2: No, I don't really believe that, but it resonated with
Speaker 2: some people. So in a similar vein today, I want
Speaker 2: to bring a message of encouragement. Let's look together at
Speaker 2: Joshua chapter one. Normally I have you stand for the scripture,
Speaker 2: but I kind of have a few scriptures today, so
Speaker 2: I thought you could just sit there and I read
Speaker 2: it for you and Joshua chapter one, verse six through nine.
Speaker 2: And this message that God gave me is a little
Speaker 2: bit of a practical thing and something that's been helpful
Speaker 2: in my life. And so I hope that it'll be
Speaker 2: helpful to you. Very simple message. This is an epic text.
Speaker 2: I can't speak for the sermon. The sermon may be good,
Speaker 2: it may not be, but this text is legendary.
Speaker 1: And we're going into the locker room where.
Speaker 2: God is giving Joshua a halftime talk, and he's telling
Speaker 2: him what he must do and how he's going to
Speaker 2: do it, because Joshua has big shoes to fill, and
Speaker 2: Joshua has a job to do, and Joshua has a
Speaker 2: purpose to accomplish. And so God is getting his men
Speaker 2: ready because how many know that God will never give
Speaker 2: you a purpose, that he will not prepare you for
Speaker 2: all of your life up until this point, the parts
Speaker 2: that you like, the parts that you didn't like, the
Speaker 2: parts that you understood, in the parts that you're still
Speaker 2: trying to understand, you can know this that they were
Speaker 2: all preparing you for God's purpose. The moment that you
Speaker 2: believe that you can really embrace whatever comes into your life,
Speaker 2: knowing that if God didn't send it, he'll still use it.
Speaker 2: Anything that comes against you can become a weapon in
Speaker 2: the hands of God fighting for you.
Speaker 1: So God is telling.
Speaker 2: Joshua in a period of transition for the nation of Israel,
Speaker 2: that the job is too big for him, but the
Speaker 2: God who is with him is bigger than the giants
Speaker 2: that stand before him. In convincing him of this, he
Speaker 2: tells him in verse six of Joshua chapter one, be
Speaker 2: strong and courageous, because you will lead these people to
Speaker 2: inherit the land I swore to their ancestors to give them. You.
Speaker 1: Notice how good my eyesight is.
Speaker 2: I can read my Bible from all the way back here.
Speaker 2: How many of you over forty five verse extremely jealous?
Speaker 1: Right now?
Speaker 2: I'm going to employ my good eyesight while I've got it.
Speaker 2: He said it again, be strong and courageous. This we
Speaker 2: already said that God, remember in verse six. Yeah, but
Speaker 2: I'm saying it again because I know how you are,
Speaker 2: and I know how quickly your courage evaporates. I wish
Speaker 2: rad Straup were here. He's on staff with our students,
Speaker 2: and he asked me a profound question the other day.
Speaker 2: He said, why is it that no matter how much
Speaker 2: people encourage me, I can't keep myself encouraged. I'll find
Speaker 2: some way if somebody compliments me, to disqualify the compliment
Speaker 2: or to cancel it out. I'll tell myself. Well, they're
Speaker 2: just being nice. They're saying that because they have to
Speaker 2: say that. They're just saying that to make me feel good.
Speaker 2: And so maybe there's something to the repetition factor here.
Speaker 2: That God knows that between verse six and verse seven
Speaker 2: something happened to make you discouraged, and so he encourages
Speaker 2: you again, be strong and courageous, Be careful to obey
Speaker 2: all the law my servant Moses gave you.
Speaker 1: Don't turn from it to the right or to the left.
Speaker 2: I know there's a lot of things trying to get
Speaker 2: you off track and get you off course, but.
Speaker 1: Don't beat this. You got a job to do.
Speaker 2: I want you to be successful wherever you go. This
Speaker 2: is God's heart for you, and in order to do it,
Speaker 2: you got to keep this book of the Law always
Speaker 2: on your lips. Meditate on it day and night, so
Speaker 2: that you may be careful to.
Speaker 1: Do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous
Speaker 1: and successful.
Speaker 2: Have I not commanded you be strong and courageous, Do
Speaker 2: not be afraid, do not be discouraged, For the Lord
Speaker 2: your God will be with you wherever you go.
Speaker 1: You're looking for something to write down, Write this down.
Speaker 2: God's presence is guaranteed, but his promises are optional. I
Speaker 2: will be with you wherever you go, But how far
Speaker 2: you want to go is up to you. Even if
Speaker 2: you don't go into the things that I have prepared
Speaker 2: for you in your life, I'll be with you.
Speaker 1: You make your bed in hell, I'll be with you.
Speaker 2: Belly of the fish, I'll be with you. Hide out
Speaker 2: from Jezebel in a cave. I'll be with you. Murder
Speaker 2: an Egyptian and run to the desert.
Speaker 1: I'll be with you in Midian.
Speaker 2: So the fact that God will be with you, his
Speaker 2: presence is guaranteed, it is not conditional.
Speaker 1: But the way that you.
Speaker 2: Experience his promises, well, a lot of that is up
Speaker 2: to you. And so God mentions to Joshua with two things.
Speaker 2: Can I teach you a little bit today? He says,
Speaker 2: don't be afraid, don't be discouraged. Don't be afraid, don't
Speaker 2: be discouraged. I'll talk to a friend the other day,
Speaker 2: and we were laughing at each other about how we
Speaker 2: insert ourselves into biblical stories and shrink down the magnitude
Speaker 2: of the stories to fit our situations, which are sometimes
Speaker 2: not that big of a deal.
Speaker 1: Do you know what I mean.
Speaker 2: It's like David killed Goliath and.
Speaker 1: You can lose fifteen pounds too, do you know what
Speaker 1: I mean?
Speaker 2: Like Goliath just becomes whatever you need him to be. Right,
Speaker 2: Goliath can be your student loan. He's no longer this
Speaker 2: life threatening nation defying giant. Now we've got Goliath representing
Speaker 2: your car payment. You can take him down in the
Speaker 2: name of the Lord. That's what we do in the
Speaker 2: case of I don't know. I could use a lot
Speaker 2: of examples and't I was talking to a friend the
Speaker 2: other day and he was negotiating a real estate contract
Speaker 2: and he was comparing himself to Moses and the guy
Speaker 2: who owned the land to Pharaoh, and he said, I
Speaker 2: feel like Moses going before Pharaoh and it's just a
Speaker 2: little thirty thousand square foot building, you know. But he's
Speaker 2: now got this contonstruct where in his mind he's kind
Speaker 2: of like put himself in the biblical story.
Speaker 1: It's easy to do that with Joshua.
Speaker 2: So now God's telling Joshua, I'm gonna lead you into
Speaker 2: this land. You're gonna have to lead millions of vagabond
Speaker 2: nomadic people who love to complain and forget what I
Speaker 2: do for them.
Speaker 1: The moment I do it.
Speaker 2: So I want you to go get them ready and
Speaker 2: go do that, okay, and by the way, don't be afraid,
Speaker 2: don't be discouraged.
Speaker 1: And it's easy for us.
Speaker 2: To make the jump because we want to personalize the
Speaker 2: Bible and all of a sudden, now instead of taking
Speaker 2: over the land and leading millions of people, it's just
Speaker 2: symbolic of.
Speaker 1: Whatever we need to do in our lives.
Speaker 2: So it's like the apartment that we hope we get
Speaker 2: or the college we want to get into, and so we.
Speaker 1: Can shrink it down. But I think part of that
Speaker 1: is good.
Speaker 2: Maybe sometimes I go too far with it because I
Speaker 2: have a passion as a preacher to make it personal.
Speaker 2: I feel like I failed if all of that did
Speaker 2: is teach you a history lesson about somebody who lived
Speaker 2: a long time ago called Joshua. So there's a part
Speaker 2: of me that wants to make it personal. Perhaps sometimes
Speaker 2: I take it too far, and we forget the magnitude
Speaker 2: of the miracles that the Bible illustrates.
Speaker 1: That Joshua going.
Speaker 2: Into the Promised Land wasn't like you asking a girl
Speaker 2: out on a date.
Speaker 1: But we can do that in our.
Speaker 2: Desire to personalize the Bible, which I think is a
Speaker 2: good thing. We can well, we can miss the point
Speaker 2: or loose the perspective, and so I just want to
Speaker 2: bring it into perspective here that Joshua.
Speaker 1: Must have been terrified. You know what, I read that scripture.
Speaker 2: That feel while I was reading it that you're like, yeah,
Speaker 2: get over it, Joshua, go do it, you know, just
Speaker 2: get up and do it. Get up and do it,
Speaker 2: Get up and do it. I got to defeat the Jebusites,
Speaker 2: the Hitsites, the Parasites, the Canaanites, the Cellulites, those most
Speaker 2: dreadful enemies of all. And God tells him to do something.
Speaker 2: He tells him to do something in the face of
Speaker 2: all of these enemies that he knows he must encounter.
Speaker 2: God says, be strong and courageous. Then he tells him
Speaker 2: what not to do.
Speaker 1: Do not be afraid, do not be discouraged.
Speaker 2: Something within me rises to Joshua's defense. I can't help
Speaker 2: it if I feel afraid. I can't help it if
Speaker 2: I feel discouraged. How can you tell me not to
Speaker 2: feel afraid? God, when all of these battles that I've
Speaker 2: never fought before waiting in front of me, How can
Speaker 2: you tell me not to be afraid when I'm leading
Speaker 2: people who have only known.
Speaker 1: The wilderness into warfare. How can you tell me not to.
Speaker 2: Be discouraged when I have to go in under resource
Speaker 2: then may be overwhelmed.
Speaker 1: How can you tell me.
Speaker 2: Not to feel afraid and not to feel discouraged? But
Speaker 2: God didn't say don't feel afraid, and he didn't say
Speaker 2: don't feel discouraged.
Speaker 1: I think the.
Speaker 2: Essence of what God wants to say to you is
Speaker 2: just because you feel afraid doesn't mean you have to
Speaker 2: be afraid.
Speaker 1: Just because you feel.
Speaker 2: Discouraged doesn't mean you have to be discouraged. Just because
Speaker 2: you have fear doesn't mean fear has to have you.
Speaker 2: Come on, talk to me somebody. And for most of us,
Speaker 2: our default setting is fear and discouragement.
Speaker 1: Our default setting.
Speaker 2: In the situations that are unfamiliar to us is anxiety
Speaker 2: and discouragement. You see, God has given you a destiny.
Speaker 2: I want you to believe that, even if you can't
Speaker 2: see it right now, even if it's not your destiny
Speaker 2: to lead millions of people into the Promised land, God
Speaker 2: has given you a destiny as a parent. God has
Speaker 2: given you a destiny on your job. It's part of
Speaker 2: your destiny. God has given you a job to do.
Speaker 2: And know you're not Joshua, but you have a job
Speaker 2: to do. I would like for you to repeat after
Speaker 2: me the following declaration, I have a destiny all right now.
Speaker 2: I need you to know that the bigger the death,
Speaker 2: the bigger the enemies.
Speaker 1: That was helpful for me to.
Speaker 2: Realize because in seasons of my life I was hard
Speaker 2: on myself, feeling like there was something wrong with me.
Speaker 2: And it's because God's promises in my life, while they
Speaker 2: seemed attractive, sometimes aren't so automatic as we think that
Speaker 2: they should be. In the text that I read to you,
Speaker 2: God is telling Joshua that the real enemies to your
Speaker 2: destiny are not the Canaanites. The real enemy of your
Speaker 2: destiny are not the Hittites.
Speaker 1: The real enemies of.
Speaker 2: Your destinies are not the Jugsites. These are all the
Speaker 2: people that he would face as he moved forward in faith.
Speaker 2: But God wants Joshua to know that your real enemy
Speaker 2: is not another person.
Speaker 1: Your real enemy is not even a situation.
Speaker 2: Because if you don't know this, you'll spend your whole
Speaker 2: life fighting the wrong things. God says, let me tell
Speaker 2: you what to fight. Fight your fear. Let me tell
Speaker 2: you what to fight, fight your discouragement. If you can
Speaker 2: fight discouragement, you can fulfill your destiny.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna say it over my shoulder, to the left
Speaker 1: side of the room. If you can fight your fear,
Speaker 1: if you.
Speaker 2: Can face your fear, you can move forward into your destiny.
Speaker 1: And this is important for Joshua to know. See, because
Speaker 1: Joshua has been around a while.
Speaker 2: By the time that God is calling him Bible background,
Speaker 2: he's already.
Speaker 1: Served under Moses. He served under Moses as.
Speaker 2: A commander, and he won some great battles under Moses,
Speaker 2: and he did some great things under Moses. But now
Speaker 2: Moses has left the building, and so God is talking
Speaker 2: Joshua into Now.
Speaker 1: God is very persuasive, Okay, So when.
Speaker 2: God tries to talk you into something, as we've already seen.
Speaker 1: He'll use repetition.
Speaker 2: But he also knows how to locate the thing that
Speaker 2: is keeping you from doing what you're called to do.
Speaker 1: Now the people of.
Speaker 2: God are standing at the edge of something. They are
Speaker 2: out of Egypt, but they are not yet into Canaan.
Speaker 1: That's where so many Christians live.
Speaker 2: I've come out of some things, but I haven't moved
Speaker 2: into the things. I've made some progress, but I have
Speaker 2: not fully possessed the promise. I've become aware of God's presence,
Speaker 2: but I haven't fully accessed his promises. And that's where
Speaker 2: Joshua stands. And he's been here before forty years ago, and.
Speaker 1: Moses was in a position to possess the promised land,
Speaker 1: and he sent some spies into the land.
Speaker 2: A lot of people don't know this part of the story,
Speaker 2: you know. I mean, they may have heard a little
Speaker 2: bit about it, but they don't know the details, the
Speaker 2: details that kept them from experiencing their destiny, the details
Speaker 2: that caused hundreds of thousands of them to die in
Speaker 2: the desert looking at promises that they could have possessed,
Speaker 2: The details that keep you from being the dad that
Speaker 2: God called you to be, doing the things God called
Speaker 2: you to do, enjoying the life that Christ himself.
Speaker 1: Died to give you. I feel a.
Speaker 2: Holy burden on this message today because somebody is looking
Speaker 2: at a promise that you're not living in. And the
Speaker 2: reason that you're not living in it has nothing to
Speaker 2: do with creditors, and it has nothing to do with
Speaker 2: seventh grade teachers and it doesn't even have anything to
Speaker 2: do with what you experienced in your past.
Speaker 1: It is your fear and discouragement.
Speaker 2: And so Joshua goes into the land forty years ago.
Speaker 2: Remember he was serving under Moses at this time. And
Speaker 2: he goes into the land and he looks at it,
Speaker 2: and there's eleven other spies. There's Joshua and Caleb and
Speaker 2: ten other spies. And they go into the land and
Speaker 2: they look around. They come back and it's interesting. I
Speaker 2: want to show you this. Can I show you? Look
Speaker 2: at numbers Chapter fourteen, The Bible gives a recording of
Speaker 2: the report that the men brought back, and this is
Speaker 2: kind of sad to me. It says in numbers thirteen,
Speaker 2: thirty one and thirty two that the men who had
Speaker 2: gone up with him said, we can't attack those people.
Speaker 1: They are stronger than we are. And they spread among the.
Speaker 2: Israelites a bad report about the land they had explored.
Speaker 2: And they said, the land we explored devours those living
Speaker 2: in it. All the people we saw there are of
Speaker 2: great size. Let me point out something to you that
Speaker 2: you may miss on the surface. They were being realistic.
Speaker 2: Most of what they're saying is true. They are bigger,
Speaker 2: They are stronger.
Speaker 1: We can't do it on our own.
Speaker 2: On our own, but Joshua knew something that those spies
Speaker 2: had forgotten.
Speaker 1: We're not on our own. We have a promise.
Speaker 2: We have a promise of God's presence, and if he's
Speaker 2: with us, he's more than the.
Speaker 1: World against us.
Speaker 2: And so these spies are trying to talk Moses out
Speaker 2: of the very thing that God brought them here for.
Speaker 2: These spies are trying.
Speaker 1: To, let me ask you a question.
Speaker 2: What have you talked yourself out of that God.
Speaker 1: Is trying to bring you into?
Speaker 2: What are you talking yourself out of right now that
Speaker 2: God is trying to bring you into in your relationships?
Speaker 2: What are you talking yourself out of that God is
Speaker 2: trying to bring you into in your personal life? And
Speaker 2: I don't care what category you use. We've all got
Speaker 2: something that we're talking ourselves out of.
Speaker 1: The message God gave me today is that.
Speaker 2: You can talk yourself into it. Just like you've been
Speaker 2: talking yourself out of it, you can talk yourself into it.
Speaker 2: One thing I noticed about myself from an early age
Speaker 2: is that I can be persuasive when I need to be.
Speaker 2: And so sometimes in school, when I would need an
Speaker 2: extension on a paper I knew I could usually get
Speaker 2: one because I have this way of talking myself out
Speaker 2: of things.
Speaker 1: To understand. It comes in handy as a preacher to
Speaker 1: be persuasive because you have to get people.
Speaker 2: To do things that they need to do that they
Speaker 2: don't want to do. And so you're trying to tell
Speaker 2: people to trust God and their finances. And problem with
Speaker 2: that is they already feel broken. So now that you
Speaker 2: tell them that they want to trust God with their finances,
Speaker 2: if they need to trust God with their finances, they
Speaker 2: don't want to trust God with their finances because they
Speaker 2: don't have many finances. But you want to get them
Speaker 2: to see that the reason you don't have any finances
Speaker 2: because you're not trusting God in your finances. And if you
Speaker 2: trust God and your finances, it would open your eyes
Speaker 2: to the supply that He has available for you. And
Speaker 2: if you see Khi first as his kingdom and his righteousness.
Speaker 1: All these things. I'm preaching. My watch off my wrists.
Speaker 1: That's how excited I am about the Word of God.
Speaker 2: Just hold it rus so I don't even want it back.
Speaker 2: I don't even care what time it is. I might
Speaker 2: preach through lunch, because there's some things in your life
Speaker 2: that you've been talking yourself out of. One time, my
Speaker 2: senior year of high school, they put me in an
Speaker 2: ap English class with Eunice Cox, and Eunice Cox was
Speaker 2: rumored to be a tough teacher. But it's no problem
Speaker 2: for me. I got this because I got the gift.
Speaker 2: And so I came upon my first book report and
Speaker 2: I wasn't going to finish it on time. I knew
Speaker 2: wouldn't fish it on time, but I wasn't worried about
Speaker 2: it because I could talk my way out of it.
Speaker 2: I've always talked my way out of things, speeding tickets
Speaker 2: and all kinds of things I've talked myself out of.
Speaker 2: Why not this paper too. But Eunice Cox was waiting
Speaker 2: for me at the door and she said, I noticed
Speaker 2: you didn't turn your assignment in. And I smiled real
Speaker 2: sweet because I got some southern charm. I grew up
Speaker 2: in a small town. I know how to talk to people,
Speaker 2: I said, miss Cox, I said I was going to
Speaker 2: talk to you about this, and she said, I don't
Speaker 2: want to hear it. And she said, she said, Stephen Furdet,
Speaker 2: you have met your match in Eunice Cox, I said,
Speaker 2: but miscop.
Speaker 1: She said no.
Speaker 2: I said, but I was gonna no, And I said,
Speaker 2: I said, well, what can I do? She said, well you,
Speaker 2: if I were you, I'd try to get a good
Speaker 2: gread one on the other ones, because you did a
Speaker 2: zero on this one, and you might want to bring
Speaker 2: up your average.
Speaker 1: So now I want you to understand something.
Speaker 2: When God called Moses, Moses was reluctant to do what
Speaker 2: God had called him to do. And Moses had a
Speaker 2: million excuses, and so do you Why you can't be it,
Speaker 2: why you can't do it, why you can't go forward?
Speaker 1: And it come on, how many of you are good
Speaker 1: at talking yourself out of things?
Speaker 2: How many of you, by the time I get done
Speaker 2: preaching sometimes and you've even had your lunch, you have
Speaker 2: forgotten what the sermon.
Speaker 1: Is e than about. Shame on you. And I'm just kidding.
Speaker 1: It's how it works.
Speaker 2: We are so quick to talk ourselves out of things.
Speaker 2: But when Moses started telling God, you know, I can't speak,
Speaker 2: and I can't do it, and I'm not eloquent, and
Speaker 2: I'm not trained, and I'm not equipped, and I'm not able.
Speaker 2: God said to Moses, you have met your match in Eunus.
Speaker 2: Cos you have met your match in the Lord your God.
Speaker 2: Have I not commanded you? I don't even want to
Speaker 2: hear it out of your mouth. Why you can't. I
Speaker 2: am the greater one, I am the power within you.
Speaker 2: I am the one who calls you by name. I
Speaker 2: know what's in God because I put it in you.
Speaker 2: I know what you don't have because I left it out,
Speaker 2: and I command you.
Speaker 1: To be courageous. So it occurs to me.
Speaker 2: That maybe the reason that God is speaking to Joshua
Speaker 2: on this level is because Joshua has seen firsthand the
Speaker 2: devastation that it causes when God's people talk themselves out of.
Speaker 1: What God is trying to bring them into.
Speaker 2: You know, those spies said to Moses, we can't do it.
Speaker 1: They're stronger, they're bigger. And Joshua spoke.
Speaker 2: Up and he got everybody's attention. The Bible says in
Speaker 2: numbers fourteen six that he tore his clothes and said
Speaker 2: to the entire Israelite assembly, Hey, come.
Speaker 1: On, guys.
Speaker 2: The land we passed through and its lord is exceedingly good.
Speaker 2: If the Lord is pleased with us, he will lead
Speaker 2: us into that land, a land flowing with milk and
Speaker 2: honey and will give it to us only.
Speaker 1: Do not rebel.
Speaker 2: Don't do this, don't die outside of your destiny. Don't
Speaker 2: let your fear keep you from your future. Don't be discouraged,
Speaker 2: don't rebel. If the Lord is pleased, he'll leave us
Speaker 2: in land us sloan milkod out even give it to us.
Speaker 1: Only.
Speaker 2: Do not rebel against the Lord, and do not be
Speaker 2: afraid of the people of the land. And stop get
Speaker 2: forfeiting your future for your fear of people. Stop forfeiting
Speaker 2: your future, for your fear of failure.
Speaker 1: You hear me, stop.
Speaker 2: Forfeiting your future because of what they might think about you.
Speaker 2: Their protection is gone. But the Lord is with us.
Speaker 2: I mean, you gotta believe down deep in your soul
Speaker 2: that God is with me in this moment. He's with
Speaker 2: me when I'm feeling, He's with me when I don't.
Speaker 2: He's with me when I'm faithful. He's with me when
Speaker 2: I'm faithless. He's with me when I'm right. He's with
Speaker 2: me when I'm wrong. He's with me when I'm a whole.
Speaker 2: He's with me when I'm broken. Somebody shout, God is
Speaker 2: with me. Touch your neighbors say he's with you too.
Speaker 2: He's with you too. No matter how hard Joshua tried,
Speaker 2: he couldn't talk Moses into it.
Speaker 1: You know why, because nobody.
Speaker 2: Can talk you into your destiny. But you touch your neighbors,
Speaker 2: say talk yourself into it, talk yourself into it.
Speaker 1: It is interesting that when God speaks.
Speaker 2: To Joshua, he tells him what to do, lead these
Speaker 2: people to inherit the land. Now, the problem with a
Speaker 2: lot of us is that we have shrunk our lives
Speaker 2: down to the size of our own personal interest. We
Speaker 2: don't have anything bigger than us worth fighting for, so
Speaker 2: it doesn't take much to discourage us. If I didn't
Speaker 2: preach every time I don't feel like preaching, you would
Speaker 2: hear from me three times a year. You know how
Speaker 2: I preach every week. I talk myself into it, and
Speaker 2: I tell myself, there's somebody come into church today who's suicide.
Speaker 2: There's somebody coming to church today whose kid is on drugs.
Speaker 2: There's somebody coming to church today that has been told
Speaker 2: all their life they're workless, and you get to tell
Speaker 2: them God loves them, and maybe you can smile at
Speaker 2: them and make them feel through your countenance that God
Speaker 2: has not forgotten them, that he.
Speaker 1: Knows them by name. But by the time I stopped.
Speaker 2: Talking to myself, I'm ready to talk to you. Now.
Speaker 1: We can preach, now we can do it. Now we
Speaker 1: can go.
Speaker 2: But see, you've got to talk yourself into your purpose.
Speaker 1: I have a purpose.
Speaker 2: I don't need to ask God to give me a purpose.
Speaker 2: I have a purpose. You have a purpose to glorify God,
Speaker 2: to be transformed into the image of Christ, to be
Speaker 2: conformed into the image of Christ.
Speaker 1: It's not that you don't have a purpose, is it.
Speaker 2: Every time God truest to bring you into it, you
Speaker 2: talk yourself out of it.
Speaker 1: And so he says, this is not just a value, Joshua.
Speaker 1: There are people to you.
Speaker 3: Your destiny is connected to something much bigger than you.
Speaker 1: So go do it and be strong and courageous.
Speaker 2: But God is a good coach, and a good coach
Speaker 2: doesn't just motivate you. He instructs you.
Speaker 1: Wow yea. And so he gives him the mechanics. And
Speaker 1: this is what I was excited about. I mean that part.
Speaker 2: I was excited about that part too, But I really
Speaker 2: wanted to.
Speaker 1: Show you this. He said in verse A.
Speaker 2: Keep this book of the Law always on your lips.
Speaker 2: This this stood out to me in Deuteronomy thirty one,
Speaker 2: I told you I have a lot of scripture today.
Speaker 1: Isn't that kind of what you came for? Though? Okay,
Speaker 1: us are.
Speaker 2: In don me thirty one Before Moses died and climbed
Speaker 2: up on Mountaineebow, and he died. And God didn't let
Speaker 2: the Israelites find his body because he knew that if
Speaker 2: they found his body, they would continue to worship his bones.
Speaker 2: Because sometimes the only way for God to get you
Speaker 2: to move past something in your life is completely taken away.
Speaker 2: Before he died, he called the nation together, he said,
Speaker 2: and he gave him a little speech. He gave him
Speaker 2: a little talk. He gave him a little uh. He said,
Speaker 2: I'm not going into the land, but you are. Joshua's
Speaker 2: gonna lead you. He pulls Joshua beside him, and he
Speaker 2: tells him be strong and courageous, for you must go
Speaker 2: with this people on the land. The Lord swore to
Speaker 2: their ancestors to give them, and you must divide it
Speaker 2: among them as their inheritance.
Speaker 1: Not you may, but you must. Not you should, but
Speaker 1: you must, and you must do it.
Speaker 2: And as you do it, know that the Lord himself
Speaker 2: goes before you and will be with you.
Speaker 1: He will never leave you, nor forsake you. Do not
Speaker 1: be afraid. Do not be.
Speaker 2: So. When God speaks to Joshua after the death of Moses,
Speaker 2: Joshua has heard.
Speaker 1: This speech before. It's not his first time here yet.
Speaker 2: But when God gives the speech, he adds one thing
Speaker 2: that Moses left out. See, Moses told him what to do,
Speaker 2: told him why to do it. God showed Joshua, how
Speaker 2: would you like to know how to keep yourself encouraged?
Speaker 2: Because you need to know they aren't always going to
Speaker 2: text you encouragement when you need it.
Speaker 1: That's part of being a grown Christian.
Speaker 2: You need to learn to encourage yourself.
Speaker 1: I gotta tell you.
Speaker 2: Touch your neighbor and say, I can encourage myself. If
Speaker 2: you encourage me, I appreciate it. If you're nice to me,
Speaker 2: I appreciate it. If you say kind things to me,
Speaker 2: that's cool. But I need you to know that even
Speaker 2: if you don't, if you get too busy, or if
Speaker 2: you forget about me, or if you don't know what
Speaker 2: to say to me, I need you to know I
Speaker 2: can encourage myself.
Speaker 1: Greater is he that is in me than he that
Speaker 1: is in the world.
Speaker 2: I learned to encourage myself because I can't always count
Speaker 2: on a text, and I can't always count on a hunk,
Speaker 2: and I can't.
Speaker 1: Always count on a man, and I can't always even
Speaker 1: count on my own friends.
Speaker 2: But I can encourage myself. So God, God tells Joshua,
Speaker 2: He says, I'm not always gonna speak to you like this.
Speaker 1: You know you have moments in.
Speaker 2: Your life where God himself will speak to you, and
Speaker 2: they're awesome.
Speaker 1: One time, I was.
Speaker 2: Coming home to Charlotte when we were first starting the church,
Speaker 2: and I was nervous, and I was afraid and discouraged.
Speaker 2: I was discouraged because people weren't showing up yet, and I.
Speaker 1: Was afraid because I didn't know if they ever would.
Speaker 2: And so I was afraid and discouraged. And those are
Speaker 2: two states. You cannot fulfill your destiny. And let me
Speaker 2: show you something. If you are afraid right now, it
Speaker 2: is not because the devil is making you afraid. There
Speaker 2: is somebody on your road that has more to be
Speaker 2: afraid of than you, and yet the confession of their
Speaker 2: life is I have fear, but fear to doesn't have me.
Speaker 1: If you are discouraged. It is not.
Speaker 2: Because of your conditions or your circumstances. They may have
Speaker 2: been a contributing factor, but they are not the deciding factor.
Speaker 2: Discouragement is a decision that I make. Discouragement is a conversation.
Speaker 1: That I have with myself.
Speaker 2: Discouragement is that thing inside of me that says this
Speaker 2: is the way it will always be. See it's not
Speaker 2: getting any better. See that woman right there doesn't like
Speaker 2: your sermon.
Speaker 1: Look how she's looking at you, and that guy's asleep.
Speaker 2: Discouragement is a little voice inside of your head that
Speaker 2: you listen to. And our problem Doctor Martin Lloyd Jones,
Speaker 2: the great Welsh preacher, once said, our problem is that
Speaker 2: we spend too much time listening to ourselves and not
Speaker 2: enough time talking to ourselves. Now, y'all are about to
Speaker 2: think I'm crazy, but I talk to myself all the time.
Speaker 1: How many of you talk.
Speaker 2: To yourself all the time? Well, sure you do.
Speaker 1: You've been doing it since you were three mm boom
Speaker 1: boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom
Speaker 1: boom boom boom.
Speaker 2: But somewhere along the way between putting together legos and
Speaker 2: the big one Gules hit and the widowing Gules hit,
Speaker 2: and you talked yourself through it.
Speaker 1: Now somewhere along the way.
Speaker 2: You turned against yourself wood, and.
Speaker 1: So now you're.
Speaker 2: Listening to yourself like the sawmistead. He was having a
Speaker 2: bad day, and so he started talking about the day
Speaker 2: he was having. And he said in Psalm forty two,
Speaker 2: verse four, he said, these things I remember as I
Speaker 2: pour out my soul, how I used to go to
Speaker 2: the House of God under the protection of the mighty
Speaker 2: one shouts of joy. You know, right before this, he said,
Speaker 2: my tears have been my food day and night. And
Speaker 2: he's he's in this cycle. But he did something in
Speaker 2: verse five. It's kind of a strange technique. And and
Speaker 2: and if you do this, people might think that you're crazy,
Speaker 2: but if you don't do it, you really will be crazy.
Speaker 1: So you can decide.
Speaker 2: Whether you want people to think you're crazy or whether
Speaker 2: you really want to be crazy. Because he's been listening
Speaker 2: to himself for four verses, he's been listening to his tears,
Speaker 2: he's been listening to his trials, he's been listening to
Speaker 2: his past. But in verse five he totally shifts and
Speaker 2: instead of listening to himself.
Speaker 1: He starts preaching to himself. It's very powerful. Why my
Speaker 1: soul are you so downcasted? What did you see the shift?
Speaker 1: He's like, I'm done with this. If I wake up
Speaker 1: in the morning and ask myself how.
Speaker 2: You feel, I'm gonna be fifty to fifty at best.
Speaker 2: So I'm gonna wake up in the morning and tell
Speaker 2: myself this will change your life, and tell myself today
Speaker 2: we're gonna be blessed today. We're going to be favored today.
Speaker 2: We're going to be a blessing today. We're gonna take
Speaker 2: new ground today. We're gonna encourage somebody else today, we're
Speaker 2: gonna see the goodness of the court morning, the land
Speaker 2: of the living today. Why are you so downcast on
Speaker 2: my soul? Why so disturbed in me? And then he
Speaker 2: does something very powerful. He puts himself in his place.
Speaker 2: Puts your hope in God, for I will yet praise him.
Speaker 2: Sometimes you gotta put yourself in your place.
Speaker 1: Sometimes you gotta.
Speaker 2: Make discouragement bow its need in the presence of God,
Speaker 2: and fear must battle.
Speaker 1: To faith in the presence of God. Somebody give him
Speaker 1: a praise right now, Hey, Joshua, here's how you do it.
Speaker 2: Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips.
Speaker 2: There's a land I'm taking you to. There's a promise
Speaker 2: that I'm leading you to, but you're going to have
Speaker 2: to talk yourself into it. Meditate on the Law day
Speaker 2: and night. The Law was five books of the Bible
Speaker 2: that we have now, Genesis, Exodus, Levic as numbers do
Speaker 2: run me Torah. It was a bible that Joshua had.
Speaker 2: God said, your life will follow the direction of your conversation.
Speaker 2: Your courage comes from your conversation, so does.
Speaker 1: Your fear, So does your discourage.
Speaker 2: Man, not just your conversations with others, but your conversation
Speaker 2: with your self. So keep this Book of the Law
Speaker 2: on your lips, not just in your mind, on your lips.
Speaker 2: The Hebrew word for meditate is haga, and it means
Speaker 2: to mutter, because there was a Hebrew tradition that while
Speaker 2: they studied the text and reflected upon it.
Speaker 1: They would mutter love the Lord. You go your heart.
Speaker 2: See, it's not enough to read the Bible. You have
Speaker 2: to rehearse the Bible. Come on Gaston Campus. It is
Speaker 2: not enough for you to hear this word. It is
Speaker 2: not enough for you to listen to me. Speak if
Speaker 2: you are going to live in that place.
Speaker 1: What place? I'm not going to the land of Canaan. No, no, no.
Speaker 1: But God has promised you his peace.
Speaker 2: If you are going to have his peace in your life,
Speaker 2: you're going to have to talk yourself into peace. God
Speaker 2: has given you his If you are going to live
Speaker 2: in courage and fulfill your purpose, you're going to have
Speaker 2: to talk yourself into your purpose.
Speaker 1: Keep it on your lips.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So what you need and I'm going to get
Speaker 2: very practical now, because what good is all this screaming
Speaker 2: and shouting if the moment it leaves my lips, it
Speaker 2: leaves your heart. The way that you keep it is
Speaker 2: you need a phrase to fight with.
Speaker 1: Hear me.
Speaker 2: Your mind is always going to be murmuring and muttering.
Speaker 1: Have you noticed that? Okay, it's always going to be
Speaker 1: doing it.
Speaker 2: So what you want to do is take control of
Speaker 2: the conversation by the spirit of God. And the way
Speaker 2: you do that, you need a phrase to fight the
Speaker 2: devil with. Here's my current phrase to fight the devil with?
Speaker 2: This How I fight fear because I have a lot
Speaker 2: of fear. I know I'm not supposed to. I know
Speaker 2: I'm the pastor of the church. But I get scared sometimes,
Speaker 2: scared of big stuff and scared of stupid stuff. But
Speaker 2: I have learned that if I'm in a state of fear,
Speaker 2: the reason I'm there is because I talk myself, And
Speaker 2: if I talk to myself, then I can talk myself.
Speaker 2: There are really only two fears. They all fall under
Speaker 2: these categories. It's the fear of falling short and the
Speaker 2: fear of running out. Any fear you have in your
Speaker 2: life falls into one of those two categories. If you're
Speaker 2: scared to lose a relationship, it's because you're afraid of
Speaker 2: falling short in someone's eyes, or you're afraid of running
Speaker 2: out of love, and if they're not there, you won't
Speaker 2: have love.
Speaker 1: Every fear that you've ever had in.
Speaker 2: Your life falls under those two categories. Fear that I
Speaker 2: will fall short or that I will not be enough,
Speaker 2: and fear that I will run out, that I.
Speaker 1: Will not have enough. So, since I know.
Speaker 2: That the key to me person and encourage and in
Speaker 2: strength and in purpose is to fight.
Speaker 1: Back, somebody say fight back.
Speaker 2: You are not going to take the land automatically, and
Speaker 2: you are not going to live in peace and purpose automatically.
Speaker 2: So I've got a phrase that I do, and his
Speaker 2: four syllables on the front and his four syllables on
Speaker 2: the back, and I did it in four.
Speaker 1: Because you can breathe in four times and breathe out
Speaker 1: four times. So I do it all the time. And
Speaker 1: the devil doesn't like it. He really really hates it.
Speaker 2: So I'm doing it more and more because I like
Speaker 2: to make it mad and I like to fight back.
Speaker 2: I like to let him know he can't just push
Speaker 2: me around and keep me stuck in the wilderness. And
Speaker 2: he's not going to have my destiny and he's not
Speaker 2: going to disrupt God's dream for my life with discouragement.
Speaker 2: And anytime he rolls up on me and tries to
Speaker 2: make my soul downcast, I got some for him because
Speaker 2: he's trained my fingers for war and my hands for battle,
Speaker 2: and he will not keep me out of the land
Speaker 2: God's promise. He will not keep me out of the purpose.
Speaker 2: I am going to raise my kids to love God.
Speaker 2: I am going to serve God and my generation. I
Speaker 2: am going to complete the calling that God has placed
Speaker 2: on my life.
Speaker 1: I am going to go forward in Jesus' name. I
Speaker 1: am going to.
Speaker 2: Build the kingdom on earth as it is in heaven.
Speaker 2: I am going to see it come to pass.
Speaker 1: So I just do this. I say Christ is in me.
Speaker 1: That's the first half. I am enough.
Speaker 2: Why don't you try it? You know, if you send
Speaker 2: in a restaurant and so I says, here, taste this,
Speaker 2: taste this, taste this, you try it.
Speaker 1: Say Christ is in me. I am enough.
Speaker 2: Tell them to your neighbor, tell them Christ is in you.
Speaker 1: You are enough. I love people who absolutely refuse to
Speaker 1: participate with anything you do in church.
Speaker 2: Do they have a secret meeting before church? Where does
Speaker 2: this happen in the lobby?
Speaker 1: When he says, touch your neighbor, do nothing, It's okay,
Speaker 1: it's okay. Let's go for ninety seven percent participation. Okay,
Speaker 1: I think we're about eighty. Touch your neighbors.
Speaker 2: Say Christ is in you.
Speaker 1: You are enough.
Speaker 2: Now you gotta get it in that order, because if
Speaker 2: you start with you are enough, it's just a matter
Speaker 2: of time before you find out that is just not true.
Speaker 2: They're stronger than we are. Yeah, but didn't you hear
Speaker 2: the verse.
Speaker 1: Level Christ is in me, I am enough.
Speaker 2: Let's take the volume up a little bit. Christ is
Speaker 2: in me, I am enough. Think about that.
Speaker 1: Fear that you have. Look at it and say Christ
Speaker 1: is in me, I am enough.
Speaker 2: Think about what was discouraging you last night, robbing you
Speaker 2: of your sleep, robbing you if you're tolling, robbing you
Speaker 2: of your peace, robbing you of your purpose, and shout
Speaker 2: it out last say Christ is in me.
Speaker 1: I am enough. Now, now break it down.
Speaker 2: If you walk around shouting like that, it's gonna cost
Speaker 2: some trouble for you at your job.
Speaker 1: So God tells Joshua. He says, keep it on your.
Speaker 2: Lips, as the background, as the soundtrack.
Speaker 1: And take it into any situation that you face.
Speaker 2: I love it because God at once gives him a
Speaker 2: big destiny. How many of you believe that God has
Speaker 2: a destiny for you? How many of you want to
Speaker 2: believe that God has a destiny for you.
Speaker 1: It's kind of hard sometimes because.
Speaker 2: I thought i'd be there by now, and I'm not
Speaker 2: there by now. Well, well, he gives him a big destiny,
Speaker 2: but he gives him a small direction. He said, for
Speaker 2: you to fulfill your destiny, you're going to have to
Speaker 2: talk yourself into it. So I was flying into Charlotte.
Speaker 2: You can stand I'm closer. I was flying into Charlotte
Speaker 2: one time. Did you get blessed by this word at all? Today?
Speaker 2: I was, I was flying into Charlotte one time, and
Speaker 2: I started to tell you the story how I was
Speaker 2: discouraged and afraid.
Speaker 1: And while we were landing, I opened my window.
Speaker 2: And I remember it real clearly because the guy next
Speaker 2: to me had been sleeping and he was kind of
Speaker 2: mad when I opened the window. But I opened the
Speaker 2: window and looked out and it was a perfect setting,
Speaker 2: like the sun was setting. And remember I was afraid
Speaker 2: and discouraged. And I'm not comparing myself to Joshua. Why
Speaker 2: I don't have some kind of grandiose idea of what
Speaker 2: God put me.
Speaker 1: In the earth to do.
Speaker 2: But you know, for my calling, for my part to
Speaker 2: play in the kingdom, I take it very seriously. And
Speaker 2: I believe that God has given me a promise, and
Speaker 2: I believe that God has given me a purpose, and
Speaker 2: I believe that He desires me to live in peace
Speaker 2: as I fulfill that purpose and possess that promise. And
Speaker 2: so I was we were landing, and it was like men,
Speaker 2: like a scene out of Thomas Kincaid. You know what
Speaker 2: I'm saying? Like that, do you know that the guy
Speaker 2: who paints all this stuff.
Speaker 1: It was like the.
Speaker 2: City of Charlotte was bathed in the orange sunset.
Speaker 1: And orange was our.
Speaker 2: Church color, and it's also the color of God's team,
Speaker 2: the Clemson Tigers. And so these two things served to
Speaker 2: confirm to me that God, God was speaking.
Speaker 1: I just felt something.
Speaker 2: I got my notebook out that I had and I
Speaker 2: just wrote down, just fast as I could write the
Speaker 2: impressions that I was receiving.
Speaker 1: As we were landing in Charlotte. And it started with
Speaker 1: this idea, this is your city.
Speaker 2: I have given it to you for influence, not that
Speaker 2: it is in other people's city too, but just that
Speaker 2: God had called me here. You made the right decision,
Speaker 2: you did it, and I want to give it. And
Speaker 2: it was about a page and a half of stuff
Speaker 2: that I wrote down, and a couple of days later
Speaker 2: I read it to our team. It's very encouraging, very inspiring.
Speaker 2: The reason I told you that story is because I
Speaker 2: have landed in Charlotte many times since then. Almost every
Speaker 2: time I'm landing, I opened my window just in case
Speaker 2: that can happen again. And you know what, It's never
Speaker 2: happened like that again ever ever.
Speaker 1: I mean I've even put my notebook out and gotten
Speaker 1: my pen.
Speaker 2: Ready, and what I see is, but see, you can't
Speaker 2: live in a place where you're depending on God to
Speaker 2: always give you a sunset and a poem. And the
Speaker 2: since I get from the Lord is I've already spoken my.
Speaker 1: Promise to you.
Speaker 2: Now you've got to speak it to yourself. There are
Speaker 2: some promises in your life that you have not yet possessed.
Speaker 2: And you're waiting on somebody, or you're waiting on God,
Speaker 2: or you're waiting on a circumstance to a line.
Speaker 1: It's not going to happen that way. If you are
Speaker 1: going to experience the.
Speaker 2: Peace of God, it won't be because God gives it
Speaker 2: to you. He's already given you peace. In John fourteen
Speaker 2: twenty seven, when.
Speaker 1: Jesus, like Moses, was preparing his followers for his departure
Speaker 1: and telling them about the Holy Spirit that was coming
Speaker 1: and not only to live with them, but to live in.
Speaker 2: Them, God told Joshuah, I'm with you, but God tells
Speaker 2: you something even better. He says, I'm in you, Christ
Speaker 2: is in me, and I'm more than enough. And he
Speaker 2: tells his followers peace I leave with you my peace.
Speaker 2: I give to you. I don't give like the world gifts.
Speaker 2: Don't let your hearts be troubled. Don't let them be afraid.
Speaker 1: You see it, You see it. Don't let your heart
Speaker 1: be troubled. Don't let it be afraid. Why are you
Speaker 1: so downcast? Stop listening to.
Speaker 2: Your situation and start preaching to your situation. In the
Speaker 2: name of the Lord, tripones will live in the name
Speaker 2: of Lord.
Speaker 1: The promise will come to pass.
Speaker 2: So Jesus said, I have given you my peace. I'll
Speaker 2: talk yourself into it day and night, the refrain of
Speaker 2: my heart. You need a phrase to fight the devil with.
Speaker 2: I'm not afraid anymore. I feel fear, but I'm not afraid.
Speaker 2: He didn't say I couldn't feel it. He just said
Speaker 2: I had to face it. He didn't say that the
Speaker 2: fear wouldn't come upon me. He just said that it
Speaker 2: shouldn't define me. Come on, I'm preaching to somebody. You've
Speaker 2: been stuck, you've been afraid, you've been terrified, you've been
Speaker 2: worried about it.
Speaker 1: You've been stressed.
Speaker 2: But lift your hands in the presence of the Lord,
Speaker 2: and say, Christ is in me.
Speaker 1: I am enough. Say it again, Christ is in me.
Speaker 1: I am enough one more time.
Speaker 2: God said it three times to Joshua.
Speaker 1: I want you to say it three times too. Christ
Speaker 1: is in me. I am enough. Now.
Speaker 3: Clap your hands and thank God. Clap your hands and
Speaker 3: praise God. Open your mouth and speak, pray, speak peace.
Speaker 3: I will yeah, pray so my God and my God.
Speaker 1: Thank you for joining us.
Speaker 2: Special thanks to those of you who give generously to
Speaker 2: this ministry. Is because of you that this ministry is possible.
Speaker 2: You can click the link in the description to give now,
Speaker 2: or visit Elevation Church dot org slash podcast for more
Speaker 2: information and if you enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe.
Speaker 1: You can share it with your friends.
Speaker 2: You can click the share button, take a screenshot and
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Speaker 2: Elevation Church.
Speaker 1: Thanks again for listening. God bless you.