April 26, 2024 • 46 mins
God has a plan and a purpose for our lives, but often times fear and discouragement get in the way. What have you talked yourself out of that God is trying to bring you into?
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
I'm the pastor of Elevation Church and this is our podcast.
I wanted to thank you for joining us today. Hope
this inspires you. Hope it builds your faith. Hope it
gives your perspective to see God is moving in your life.
Enjoy the message. Well, thank you, worship team. I want
to go into the Word of God today. I spoke
to you last week on the subject of confidence, and
(00:23):
I'm going to continue along those thoughts. From what I
could tell, the sermon help some people. I'm not saying
it helped everybody.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
Some of y'all are beyond help.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
No, I don't really believe that, but it resonated with
some people. So in a similar vein today, I want
to bring a message of encouragement. Let's look together at
Joshua chapter one. Normally I have you stand for the scripture,
but I kind of have a few scriptures today, so
I thought you could just sit there and I read
it for you and Joshua chapter one, verse six through nine.
(00:56):
And this message that God gave me is a little
bit of a practical thing and something that's been helpful
in my life. And so I hope that it'll be
helpful to you. Very simple message. This is an epic text.
I can't speak for the sermon. The sermon may be good,
it may not be, but this text is legendary.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
And we're going into the locker room where.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
God is giving Joshua a halftime talk, and he's telling
him what he must do and how he's going to
do it, because Joshua has big shoes to fill, and
Joshua has a job to do, and Joshua has a
purpose to accomplish. And so God is getting his men
ready because how many know that God will never give
(01:43):
you a purpose, that he will not prepare you for
all of your life up until this point, the parts
that you like, the parts that you didn't like, the
parts that you understood, in the parts that you're still
trying to understand, you can know this that they were
all preparing you for God's purpose. The moment that you
believe that you can really embrace whatever comes into your life,
(02:07):
knowing that if God didn't send it, he'll still use it.
Anything that comes against you can become a weapon in
the hands of God fighting for you.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
So God is telling.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
Joshua in a period of transition for the nation of Israel,
that the job is too big for him, but the
God who is with him is bigger than the giants
that stand before him. In convincing him of this, he
tells him in verse six of Joshua chapter one, be
strong and courageous, because you will lead these people to
(02:41):
inherit the land I swore to their ancestors to give them. You.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
Notice how good my eyesight is.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
I can read my Bible from all the way back here.
How many of you over forty five verse extremely jealous?
Speaker 1 (02:53):
Right now?
Speaker 2 (02:54):
I'm going to employ my good eyesight while I've got it.
He said it again, be strong and courageous. This we
already said that God, remember in verse six. Yeah, but
I'm saying it again because I know how you are,
and I know how quickly your courage evaporates. I wish
rad Straup were here. He's on staff with our students,
and he asked me a profound question the other day.
(03:17):
He said, why is it that no matter how much
people encourage me, I can't keep myself encouraged. I'll find
some way if somebody compliments me, to disqualify the compliment
or to cancel it out. I'll tell myself. Well, they're
just being nice. They're saying that because they have to
say that. They're just saying that to make me feel good.
And so maybe there's something to the repetition factor here.
(03:38):
That God knows that between verse six and verse seven
something happened to make you discouraged, and so he encourages
you again, be strong and courageous, Be careful to obey
all the law my servant Moses gave you.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
Don't turn from it to the right or to the left.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
I know there's a lot of things trying to get
you off track and get you off course, but.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
Don't beat this. You got a job to do.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
I want you to be successful wherever you go. This
is God's heart for you, and in order to do it,
you got to keep this book of the Law always
on your lips. Meditate on it day and night, so
that you may be careful to.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
Do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous
and successful.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
Have I not commanded you be strong and courageous, Do
not be afraid, do not be discouraged, For the Lord
your God will be with you wherever you go.
Speaker 1 (04:43):
You're looking for something to write down, Write this down.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
God's presence is guaranteed, but his promises are optional. I
will be with you wherever you go, But how far
you want to go is up to you. Even if
you don't go into the things that I have prepared
for you in your life, I'll be with you.
Speaker 1 (05:08):
You make your bed in hell, I'll be with you.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
Belly of the fish, I'll be with you. Hide out
from Jezebel in a cave. I'll be with you. Murder
an Egyptian and run to the desert.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
I'll be with you in Midian.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
So the fact that God will be with you, his
presence is guaranteed, it is not conditional.
Speaker 1 (05:28):
But the way that you.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
Experience his promises, well, a lot of that is up
to you. And so God mentions to Joshua with two things.
Can I teach you a little bit today? He says,
don't be afraid, don't be discouraged. Don't be afraid, don't
be discouraged. I'll talk to a friend the other day,
(05:50):
and we were laughing at each other about how we
insert ourselves into biblical stories and shrink down the magnitude
of the stories to fit our situations, which are sometimes
not that big of a deal.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
Do you know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
It's like David killed Goliath and.
Speaker 1 (06:03):
You can lose fifteen pounds too, do you know what
I mean?
Speaker 2 (06:07):
Like Goliath just becomes whatever you need him to be. Right,
Goliath can be your student loan. He's no longer this
life threatening nation defying giant. Now we've got Goliath representing
your car payment. You can take him down in the
name of the Lord. That's what we do in the
case of I don't know. I could use a lot
(06:28):
of examples and't I was talking to a friend the
other day and he was negotiating a real estate contract
and he was comparing himself to Moses and the guy
who owned the land to Pharaoh, and he said, I
feel like Moses going before Pharaoh and it's just a
little thirty thousand square foot building, you know. But he's
now got this contonstruct where in his mind he's kind
of like put himself in the biblical story.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
It's easy to do that with Joshua.
Speaker 2 (06:51):
So now God's telling Joshua, I'm gonna lead you into
this land. You're gonna have to lead millions of vagabond
nomadic people who love to complain and forget what I
do for them.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
The moment I do it.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
So I want you to go get them ready and
go do that, okay, and by the way, don't be afraid,
don't be discouraged.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
And it's easy for us.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
To make the jump because we want to personalize the
Bible and all of a sudden, now instead of taking
over the land and leading millions of people, it's just
symbolic of.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
Whatever we need to do in our lives.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
So it's like the apartment that we hope we get
or the college we want to get into, and so we.
Speaker 1 (07:17):
Can shrink it down. But I think part of that
is good.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
Maybe sometimes I go too far with it because I
have a passion as a preacher to make it personal.
I feel like I failed if all of that did
is teach you a history lesson about somebody who lived
a long time ago called Joshua. So there's a part
of me that wants to make it personal. Perhaps sometimes
I take it too far, and we forget the magnitude
of the miracles that the Bible illustrates.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
That Joshua going.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
Into the Promised Land wasn't like you asking a girl
out on a date.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
But we can do that in our.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
Desire to personalize the Bible, which I think is a
good thing. We can well, we can miss the point
or loose the perspective, and so I just want to
bring it into perspective here that Joshua.
Speaker 1 (07:59):
Must have been terrified. You know what, I read that scripture.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
That feel while I was reading it that you're like, yeah,
get over it, Joshua, go do it, you know, just
get up and do it. Get up and do it,
Get up and do it. I got to defeat the Jebusites,
the Hitsites, the Parasites, the Canaanites, the Cellulites, those most
dreadful enemies of all. And God tells him to do something.
(08:31):
He tells him to do something in the face of
all of these enemies that he knows he must encounter.
God says, be strong and courageous. Then he tells him
what not to do.
Speaker 1 (08:39):
Do not be afraid, do not be discouraged.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
Something within me rises to Joshua's defense. I can't help
it if I feel afraid. I can't help it if
I feel discouraged. How can you tell me not to
feel afraid? God, when all of these battles that I've
(09:12):
never fought before waiting in front of me, How can
you tell me not to be afraid when I'm leading
people who have only known.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
The wilderness into warfare. How can you tell me not to.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
Be discouraged when I have to go in under resource
then may be overwhelmed.
Speaker 1 (09:28):
How can you tell me.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
Not to feel afraid and not to feel discouraged? But
God didn't say don't feel afraid, and he didn't say
don't feel discouraged.
Speaker 1 (09:40):
I think the.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
Essence of what God wants to say to you is
just because you feel afraid doesn't mean you have to
be afraid.
Speaker 1 (09:49):
Just because you feel.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
Discouraged doesn't mean you have to be discouraged. Just because
you have fear doesn't mean fear has to have you.
Come on, talk to me somebody. And for most of us,
our default setting is fear and discouragement.
Speaker 1 (10:11):
Our default setting.
Speaker 2 (10:13):
In the situations that are unfamiliar to us is anxiety
and discouragement. You see, God has given you a destiny.
I want you to believe that, even if you can't
see it right now, even if it's not your destiny
to lead millions of people into the Promised land, God
(10:34):
has given you a destiny as a parent. God has
given you a destiny on your job. It's part of
your destiny. God has given you a job to do.
And know you're not Joshua, but you have a job
to do. I would like for you to repeat after
me the following declaration, I have a destiny all right now.
(10:58):
I need you to know that the bigger the death,
the bigger the enemies.
Speaker 1 (11:08):
That was helpful for me to.
Speaker 2 (11:09):
Realize because in seasons of my life I was hard
on myself, feeling like there was something wrong with me.
And it's because God's promises in my life, while they
seemed attractive, sometimes aren't so automatic as we think that
(11:29):
they should be. In the text that I read to you,
God is telling Joshua that the real enemies to your
destiny are not the Canaanites. The real enemy of your
destiny are not the Hittites.
Speaker 1 (11:47):
The real enemies of.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
Your destinies are not the Jugsites. These are all the
people that he would face as he moved forward in faith.
But God wants Joshua to know that your real enemy
is not another person.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
Your real enemy is not even a situation.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
Because if you don't know this, you'll spend your whole
life fighting the wrong things. God says, let me tell
you what to fight. Fight your fear. Let me tell
you what to fight, fight your discouragement. If you can
fight discouragement, you can fulfill your destiny.
Speaker 1 (12:25):
I'm gonna say it over my shoulder, to the left
side of the room. If you can fight your fear,
if you.
Speaker 2 (12:30):
Can face your fear, you can move forward into your destiny.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
And this is important for Joshua to know. See, because
Joshua has been around a while.
Speaker 2 (12:39):
By the time that God is calling him Bible background,
he's already.
Speaker 1 (12:42):
Served under Moses. He served under Moses as.
Speaker 2 (12:44):
A commander, and he won some great battles under Moses,
and he did some great things under Moses. But now
Moses has left the building, and so God is talking
Joshua into Now.
Speaker 1 (12:53):
God is very persuasive, Okay, So when.
Speaker 2 (12:55):
God tries to talk you into something, as we've already seen.
Speaker 1 (12:57):
He'll use repetition.
Speaker 2 (12:58):
But he also knows how to locate the thing that
is keeping you from doing what you're called to do.
Speaker 1 (13:02):
Now the people of.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
God are standing at the edge of something. They are
out of Egypt, but they are not yet into Canaan.
Speaker 1 (13:08):
That's where so many Christians live.
Speaker 2 (13:10):
I've come out of some things, but I haven't moved
into the things. I've made some progress, but I have
not fully possessed the promise. I've become aware of God's presence,
but I haven't fully accessed his promises. And that's where
Joshua stands. And he's been here before forty years ago, and.
Speaker 1 (13:36):
Moses was in a position to possess the promised land,
and he sent some spies into the land.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
A lot of people don't know this part of the story,
you know. I mean, they may have heard a little
bit about it, but they don't know the details, the
details that kept them from experiencing their destiny, the details
that caused hundreds of thousands of them to die in
the desert looking at promises that they could have possessed,
The details that keep you from being the dad that
(14:07):
God called you to be, doing the things God called
you to do, enjoying the life that Christ himself.
Speaker 1 (14:12):
Died to give you. I feel a.
Speaker 2 (14:14):
Holy burden on this message today because somebody is looking
at a promise that you're not living in. And the
reason that you're not living in it has nothing to
do with creditors, and it has nothing to do with
seventh grade teachers and it doesn't even have anything to
do with what you experienced in your past.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
It is your fear and discouragement.
Speaker 2 (14:39):
And so Joshua goes into the land forty years ago.
Remember he was serving under Moses at this time. And
he goes into the land and he looks at it,
and there's eleven other spies. There's Joshua and Caleb and
ten other spies. And they go into the land and
they look around. They come back and it's interesting. I
want to show you this. Can I show you? Look
(15:01):
at numbers Chapter fourteen, The Bible gives a recording of
the report that the men brought back, and this is
kind of sad to me. It says in numbers thirteen,
thirty one and thirty two that the men who had
(15:22):
gone up with him said, we can't attack those people.
Speaker 1 (15:27):
They are stronger than we are. And they spread among the.
Speaker 2 (15:32):
Israelites a bad report about the land they had explored.
And they said, the land we explored devours those living
in it. All the people we saw there are of
great size. Let me point out something to you that
you may miss on the surface. They were being realistic.
Most of what they're saying is true. They are bigger,
(15:57):
They are stronger.
Speaker 1 (15:59):
We can't do it on our own.
Speaker 2 (16:04):
On our own, but Joshua knew something that those spies
had forgotten.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
We're not on our own. We have a promise.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
We have a promise of God's presence, and if he's
with us, he's more than the.
Speaker 1 (16:18):
World against us.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
And so these spies are trying to talk Moses out
of the very thing that God brought them here for.
These spies are trying.
Speaker 1 (16:26):
To, let me ask you a question.
Speaker 2 (16:29):
What have you talked yourself out of that God.
Speaker 1 (16:32):
Is trying to bring you into?
Speaker 2 (16:38):
What are you talking yourself out of right now that
God is trying to bring you into in your relationships?
What are you talking yourself out of that God is
trying to bring you into in your personal life? And
I don't care what category you use. We've all got
(16:59):
something that we're talking ourselves out of.
Speaker 1 (17:04):
The message God gave me today is that.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
You can talk yourself into it. Just like you've been
talking yourself out of it, you can talk yourself into it.
One thing I noticed about myself from an early age
is that I can be persuasive when I need to be.
And so sometimes in school, when I would need an
extension on a paper I knew I could usually get
(17:28):
one because I have this way of talking myself out
of things.
Speaker 1 (17:31):
To understand. It comes in handy as a preacher to
be persuasive because you have to get people.
Speaker 2 (17:36):
To do things that they need to do that they
don't want to do. And so you're trying to tell
people to trust God and their finances. And problem with
that is they already feel broken. So now that you
tell them that they want to trust God with their finances,
if they need to trust God with their finances, they
don't want to trust God with their finances because they
don't have many finances. But you want to get them
to see that the reason you don't have any finances
because you're not trusting God in your finances. And if you
trust God and your finances, it would open your eyes
to the supply that He has available for you. And
if you see Khi first as his kingdom and his righteousness.
Speaker 1 (17:58):
All these things. I'm preaching. My watch off my wrists.
That's how excited I am about the Word of God.
Speaker 2 (18:05):
Just hold it rus so I don't even want it back.
I don't even care what time it is. I might
preach through lunch, because there's some things in your life
that you've been talking yourself out of. One time, my
senior year of high school, they put me in an
ap English class with Eunice Cox, and Eunice Cox was
rumored to be a tough teacher. But it's no problem
for me. I got this because I got the gift.
(18:26):
And so I came upon my first book report and
I wasn't going to finish it on time. I knew
wouldn't fish it on time, but I wasn't worried about
it because I could talk my way out of it.
I've always talked my way out of things, speeding tickets
and all kinds of things I've talked myself out of.
Why not this paper too. But Eunice Cox was waiting
for me at the door and she said, I noticed
you didn't turn your assignment in. And I smiled real
(18:48):
sweet because I got some southern charm. I grew up
in a small town. I know how to talk to people,
I said, miss Cox, I said I was going to
talk to you about this, and she said, I don't
want to hear it. And she said, she said, Stephen Furdet,
you have met your match in Eunice Cox, I said,
(19:11):
but miscop.
Speaker 1 (19:12):
She said no.
Speaker 2 (19:14):
I said, but I was gonna no, And I said,
I said, well, what can I do? She said, well you,
if I were you, I'd try to get a good
gread one on the other ones, because you did a
zero on this one, and you might want to bring
up your average.
Speaker 1 (19:31):
So now I want you to understand something.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
When God called Moses, Moses was reluctant to do what
God had called him to do. And Moses had a
million excuses, and so do you Why you can't be it,
why you can't do it, why you can't go forward?
Speaker 1 (19:48):
And it come on, how many of you are good
at talking yourself out of things?
Speaker 2 (19:53):
How many of you, by the time I get done
preaching sometimes and you've even had your lunch, you have
forgotten what the sermon.
Speaker 1 (19:59):
Is e than about. Shame on you. And I'm just kidding.
It's how it works.
Speaker 2 (20:04):
We are so quick to talk ourselves out of things.
But when Moses started telling God, you know, I can't speak,
and I can't do it, and I'm not eloquent, and
I'm not trained, and I'm not equipped, and I'm not able.
God said to Moses, you have met your match in Eunus.
Cos you have met your match in the Lord your God.
(20:27):
Have I not commanded you? I don't even want to
hear it out of your mouth. Why you can't. I
am the greater one, I am the power within you.
I am the one who calls you by name. I
know what's in God because I put it in you.
I know what you don't have because I left it out,
and I command you.
Speaker 1 (20:45):
To be courageous. So it occurs to me.
Speaker 2 (20:56):
That maybe the reason that God is speaking to Joshua
on this level is because Joshua has seen firsthand the
devastation that it causes when God's people talk themselves out of.
Speaker 1 (21:11):
What God is trying to bring them into.
Speaker 2 (21:15):
You know, those spies said to Moses, we can't do it.
Speaker 1 (21:18):
They're stronger, they're bigger. And Joshua spoke.
Speaker 2 (21:21):
Up and he got everybody's attention. The Bible says in
numbers fourteen six that he tore his clothes and said
to the entire Israelite assembly, Hey, come.
Speaker 1 (21:35):
On, guys.
Speaker 2 (21:37):
The land we passed through and its lord is exceedingly good.
If the Lord is pleased with us, he will lead
us into that land, a land flowing with milk and
honey and will give it to us only.
Speaker 1 (21:49):
Do not rebel.
Speaker 2 (21:50):
Don't do this, don't die outside of your destiny. Don't
let your fear keep you from your future. Don't be discouraged,
don't rebel. If the Lord is pleased, he'll leave us
in land us sloan milkod out even give it to us.
Speaker 1 (22:09):
Only.
Speaker 2 (22:09):
Do not rebel against the Lord, and do not be
afraid of the people of the land. And stop get
forfeiting your future for your fear of people. Stop forfeiting
your future, for your fear of failure.
Speaker 1 (22:20):
You hear me, stop.
Speaker 2 (22:21):
Forfeiting your future because of what they might think about you.
Their protection is gone. But the Lord is with us.
I mean, you gotta believe down deep in your soul
that God is with me in this moment. He's with
me when I'm feeling, He's with me when I don't.
He's with me when I'm faithful. He's with me when
I'm faithless. He's with me when I'm right. He's with
(22:43):
me when I'm wrong. He's with me when I'm a whole.
He's with me when I'm broken. Somebody shout, God is
with me. Touch your neighbors say he's with you too.
He's with you too. No matter how hard Joshua tried,
he couldn't talk Moses into it.
Speaker 1 (23:01):
You know why, because nobody.
Speaker 2 (23:03):
Can talk you into your destiny. But you touch your neighbors,
say talk yourself into it, talk yourself into it.
Speaker 1 (23:19):
It is interesting that when God speaks.
Speaker 2 (23:21):
To Joshua, he tells him what to do, lead these
people to inherit the land. Now, the problem with a
lot of us is that we have shrunk our lives
down to the size of our own personal interest. We
don't have anything bigger than us worth fighting for, so
it doesn't take much to discourage us. If I didn't
(23:42):
preach every time I don't feel like preaching, you would
hear from me three times a year. You know how
I preach every week. I talk myself into it, and
I tell myself, there's somebody come into church today who's suicide.
There's somebody coming to church today whose kid is on drugs.
(24:04):
There's somebody coming to church today that has been told
all their life they're workless, and you get to tell
them God loves them, and maybe you can smile at
them and make them feel through your countenance that God
has not forgotten them, that he.
Speaker 1 (24:16):
Knows them by name. But by the time I stopped.
Speaker 2 (24:19):
Talking to myself, I'm ready to talk to you. Now.
Speaker 1 (24:22):
We can preach, now we can do it. Now we
can go.
Speaker 2 (24:26):
But see, you've got to talk yourself into your purpose.
Speaker 1 (24:32):
I have a purpose.
Speaker 2 (24:33):
I don't need to ask God to give me a purpose.
I have a purpose. You have a purpose to glorify God,
to be transformed into the image of Christ, to be
conformed into the image of Christ.
Speaker 1 (24:46):
It's not that you don't have a purpose, is it.
Speaker 2 (24:50):
Every time God truest to bring you into it, you
talk yourself out of it.
Speaker 1 (24:56):
And so he says, this is not just a value, Joshua.
There are people to you.
Speaker 3 (25:00):
Your destiny is connected to something much bigger than you.
Speaker 1 (25:08):
So go do it and be strong and courageous.
Speaker 2 (25:11):
But God is a good coach, and a good coach
doesn't just motivate you. He instructs you.
Speaker 1 (25:15):
Wow yea. And so he gives him the mechanics. And
this is what I was excited about. I mean that part.
Speaker 2 (25:21):
I was excited about that part too, But I really
wanted to.
Speaker 1 (25:24):
Show you this. He said in verse A.
Speaker 2 (25:25):
Keep this book of the Law always on your lips.
This this stood out to me in Deuteronomy thirty one,
I told you I have a lot of scripture today.
Speaker 1 (25:37):
Isn't that kind of what you came for? Though? Okay,
us are.
Speaker 2 (25:46):
In don me thirty one Before Moses died and climbed
up on Mountaineebow, and he died. And God didn't let
the Israelites find his body because he knew that if
they found his body, they would continue to worship his bones.
Because sometimes the only way for God to get you
to move past something in your life is completely taken away.
Before he died, he called the nation together, he said,
and he gave him a little speech. He gave him
(26:06):
a little talk. He gave him a little uh. He said,
I'm not going into the land, but you are. Joshua's
gonna lead you. He pulls Joshua beside him, and he
tells him be strong and courageous, for you must go
with this people on the land. The Lord swore to
their ancestors to give them, and you must divide it
among them as their inheritance.
Speaker 1 (26:26):
Not you may, but you must. Not you should, but
you must, and you must do it.
Speaker 2 (26:36):
And as you do it, know that the Lord himself
goes before you and will be with you.
Speaker 1 (26:40):
He will never leave you, nor forsake you. Do not
be afraid. Do not be.
Speaker 2 (26:49):
So. When God speaks to Joshua after the death of Moses,
Joshua has heard.
Speaker 1 (26:54):
This speech before. It's not his first time here yet.
Speaker 2 (26:59):
But when God gives the speech, he adds one thing
that Moses left out. See, Moses told him what to do,
told him why to do it. God showed Joshua, how
would you like to know how to keep yourself encouraged?
Because you need to know they aren't always going to
(27:19):
text you encouragement when you need it.
Speaker 1 (27:22):
That's part of being a grown Christian.
Speaker 2 (27:25):
You need to learn to encourage yourself.
Speaker 1 (27:30):
I gotta tell you.
Speaker 2 (27:31):
Touch your neighbor and say, I can encourage myself. If
you encourage me, I appreciate it. If you're nice to me,
I appreciate it. If you say kind things to me,
that's cool. But I need you to know that even
if you don't, if you get too busy, or if
you forget about me, or if you don't know what
to say to me, I need you to know I
(27:51):
can encourage myself.
Speaker 1 (27:53):
Greater is he that is in me than he that
is in the world.
Speaker 2 (27:57):
I learned to encourage myself because I can't always count
on a text, and I can't always count on a hunk,
and I can't.
Speaker 1 (28:04):
Always count on a man, and I can't always even
count on my own friends.
Speaker 2 (28:08):
But I can encourage myself. So God, God tells Joshua,
He says, I'm not always gonna speak to you like this.
Speaker 1 (28:18):
You know you have moments in.
Speaker 2 (28:19):
Your life where God himself will speak to you, and
they're awesome.
Speaker 1 (28:23):
One time, I was.
Speaker 2 (28:24):
Coming home to Charlotte when we were first starting the church,
and I was nervous, and I was afraid and discouraged.
I was discouraged because people weren't showing up yet, and I.
Speaker 1 (28:34):
Was afraid because I didn't know if they ever would.
Speaker 2 (28:37):
And so I was afraid and discouraged. And those are
two states. You cannot fulfill your destiny. And let me
show you something. If you are afraid right now, it
is not because the devil is making you afraid. There
is somebody on your road that has more to be
afraid of than you, and yet the confession of their
life is I have fear, but fear to doesn't have me.
Speaker 1 (29:01):
If you are discouraged. It is not.
Speaker 2 (29:03):
Because of your conditions or your circumstances. They may have
been a contributing factor, but they are not the deciding factor.
Discouragement is a decision that I make. Discouragement is a conversation.
Speaker 1 (29:16):
That I have with myself.
Speaker 2 (29:17):
Discouragement is that thing inside of me that says this
is the way it will always be. See it's not
getting any better. See that woman right there doesn't like
your sermon.
Speaker 1 (29:26):
Look how she's looking at you, and that guy's asleep.
Speaker 2 (29:28):
Discouragement is a little voice inside of your head that
you listen to. And our problem Doctor Martin Lloyd Jones,
the great Welsh preacher, once said, our problem is that
we spend too much time listening to ourselves and not
enough time talking to ourselves. Now, y'all are about to
(29:50):
think I'm crazy, but I talk to myself all the time.
Speaker 1 (29:54):
How many of you talk.
Speaker 2 (29:55):
To yourself all the time? Well, sure you do.
Speaker 1 (29:58):
You've been doing it since you were three mm boom
boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom
boom boom boom.
Speaker 2 (30:06):
But somewhere along the way between putting together legos and
the big one Gules hit and the widowing Gules hit,
and you talked yourself through it.
Speaker 1 (30:15):
Now somewhere along the way.
Speaker 2 (30:18):
You turned against yourself wood, and.
Speaker 1 (30:23):
So now you're.
Speaker 2 (30:23):
Listening to yourself like the sawmistead. He was having a
bad day, and so he started talking about the day
he was having. And he said in Psalm forty two,
verse four, he said, these things I remember as I
pour out my soul, how I used to go to
the House of God under the protection of the mighty
(30:44):
one shouts of joy. You know, right before this, he said,
my tears have been my food day and night. And
he's he's in this cycle. But he did something in
verse five. It's kind of a strange technique. And and
and if you do this, people might think that you're crazy,
but if you don't do it, you really will be crazy.
Speaker 1 (31:06):
So you can decide.
Speaker 2 (31:07):
Whether you want people to think you're crazy or whether
you really want to be crazy. Because he's been listening
to himself for four verses, he's been listening to his tears,
he's been listening to his trials, he's been listening to
his past. But in verse five he totally shifts and
instead of listening to himself.
Speaker 1 (31:27):
He starts preaching to himself. It's very powerful. Why my
soul are you so downcasted? What did you see the shift?
He's like, I'm done with this. If I wake up
in the morning and ask myself how.
Speaker 2 (31:47):
You feel, I'm gonna be fifty to fifty at best.
So I'm gonna wake up in the morning and tell
myself this will change your life, and tell myself today
we're gonna be blessed today. We're going to be favored today.
We're going to be a blessing today. We're gonna take
(32:09):
new ground today. We're gonna encourage somebody else today, we're
gonna see the goodness of the court morning, the land
of the living today. Why are you so downcast on
my soul? Why so disturbed in me? And then he
does something very powerful. He puts himself in his place.
Puts your hope in God, for I will yet praise him.
(32:33):
Sometimes you gotta put yourself in your place.
Speaker 1 (32:36):
Sometimes you gotta.
Speaker 2 (32:37):
Make discouragement bow its need in the presence of God,
and fear must battle.
Speaker 1 (32:43):
To faith in the presence of God. Somebody give him
a praise right now, Hey, Joshua, here's how you do it.
Speaker 2 (32:59):
Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips.
There's a land I'm taking you to. There's a promise
that I'm leading you to, but you're going to have
to talk yourself into it. Meditate on the Law day
and night. The Law was five books of the Bible
(33:21):
that we have now, Genesis, Exodus, Levic as numbers do
run me Torah. It was a bible that Joshua had.
God said, your life will follow the direction of your conversation.
Your courage comes from your conversation, so does.
Speaker 1 (33:40):
Your fear, So does your discourage.
Speaker 2 (33:43):
Man, not just your conversations with others, but your conversation
with your self. So keep this Book of the Law
on your lips, not just in your mind, on your lips.
The Hebrew word for meditate is haga, and it means
(34:06):
to mutter, because there was a Hebrew tradition that while
they studied the text and reflected upon it.
Speaker 1 (34:11):
They would mutter love the Lord. You go your heart.
Speaker 2 (34:22):
See, it's not enough to read the Bible. You have
to rehearse the Bible. Come on Gaston Campus. It is
not enough for you to hear this word. It is
not enough for you to listen to me. Speak if
you are going to live in that place.
Speaker 1 (34:43):
What place? I'm not going to the land of Canaan. No, no, no.
But God has promised you his peace.
Speaker 2 (34:50):
If you are going to have his peace in your life,
you're going to have to talk yourself into peace. God
has given you his If you are going to live
in courage and fulfill your purpose, you're going to have
to talk yourself into your purpose.
Speaker 1 (35:09):
Keep it on your lips.
Speaker 2 (35:12):
Yeah, So what you need and I'm going to get
very practical now, because what good is all this screaming
and shouting if the moment it leaves my lips, it
leaves your heart. The way that you keep it is
you need a phrase to fight with.
Speaker 1 (35:31):
Hear me.
Speaker 2 (35:32):
Your mind is always going to be murmuring and muttering.
Speaker 1 (35:35):
Have you noticed that? Okay, it's always going to be
doing it.
Speaker 2 (35:39):
So what you want to do is take control of
the conversation by the spirit of God. And the way
you do that, you need a phrase to fight the
devil with. Here's my current phrase to fight the devil with?
This How I fight fear because I have a lot
of fear. I know I'm not supposed to. I know
(36:00):
I'm the pastor of the church. But I get scared sometimes,
scared of big stuff and scared of stupid stuff. But
I have learned that if I'm in a state of fear,
the reason I'm there is because I talk myself, And
if I talk to myself, then I can talk myself.
(36:25):
There are really only two fears. They all fall under
these categories. It's the fear of falling short and the
fear of running out. Any fear you have in your
life falls into one of those two categories. If you're
scared to lose a relationship, it's because you're afraid of
falling short in someone's eyes, or you're afraid of running
out of love, and if they're not there, you won't
(36:45):
have love.
Speaker 1 (36:46):
Every fear that you've ever had in.
Speaker 2 (36:47):
Your life falls under those two categories. Fear that I
will fall short or that I will not be enough,
and fear that I will run out, that I.
Speaker 1 (36:54):
Will not have enough. So, since I know.
Speaker 2 (36:58):
That the key to me person and encourage and in
strength and in purpose is to fight.
Speaker 1 (37:05):
Back, somebody say fight back.
Speaker 2 (37:07):
You are not going to take the land automatically, and
you are not going to live in peace and purpose automatically.
So I've got a phrase that I do, and his
four syllables on the front and his four syllables on
the back, and I did it in four.
Speaker 1 (37:19):
Because you can breathe in four times and breathe out
four times. So I do it all the time. And
the devil doesn't like it. He really really hates it.
Speaker 2 (37:27):
So I'm doing it more and more because I like
to make it mad and I like to fight back.
I like to let him know he can't just push
me around and keep me stuck in the wilderness. And
he's not going to have my destiny and he's not
going to disrupt God's dream for my life with discouragement.
And anytime he rolls up on me and tries to
make my soul downcast, I got some for him because
he's trained my fingers for war and my hands for battle,
and he will not keep me out of the land
(37:48):
God's promise. He will not keep me out of the purpose.
I am going to raise my kids to love God.
I am going to serve God and my generation. I
am going to complete the calling that God has placed
on my life.
Speaker 1 (37:59):
I am going to go forward in Jesus' name. I
am going to.
Speaker 2 (38:01):
Build the kingdom on earth as it is in heaven.
I am going to see it come to pass.
Speaker 1 (38:06):
So I just do this. I say Christ is in me.
That's the first half. I am enough.
Speaker 2 (38:18):
Why don't you try it? You know, if you send
in a restaurant and so I says, here, taste this,
taste this, taste this, you try it.
Speaker 1 (38:23):
Say Christ is in me. I am enough.
Speaker 2 (38:28):
Tell them to your neighbor, tell them Christ is in you.
Speaker 1 (38:32):
You are enough. I love people who absolutely refuse to
participate with anything you do in church.
Speaker 2 (38:41):
Do they have a secret meeting before church? Where does
this happen in the lobby?
Speaker 1 (38:45):
When he says, touch your neighbor, do nothing, It's okay,
it's okay. Let's go for ninety seven percent participation. Okay,
I think we're about eighty. Touch your neighbors.
Speaker 2 (38:58):
Say Christ is in you.
Speaker 1 (39:01):
You are enough.
Speaker 2 (39:02):
Now you gotta get it in that order, because if
you start with you are enough, it's just a matter
of time before you find out that is just not true.
They're stronger than we are. Yeah, but didn't you hear
the verse.
Speaker 1 (39:11):
Level Christ is in me, I am enough.
Speaker 2 (39:17):
Let's take the volume up a little bit. Christ is
in me, I am enough. Think about that.
Speaker 1 (39:25):
Fear that you have. Look at it and say Christ
is in me, I am enough.
Speaker 2 (39:31):
Think about what was discouraging you last night, robbing you
of your sleep, robbing you if you're tolling, robbing you
of your peace, robbing you of your purpose, and shout
it out last say Christ is in me.
Speaker 1 (39:44):
I am enough. Now, now break it down.
Speaker 2 (39:50):
If you walk around shouting like that, it's gonna cost
some trouble for you at your job.
Speaker 1 (39:59):
So God tells Joshua. He says, keep it on your.
Speaker 2 (40:03):
Lips, as the background, as the soundtrack.
Speaker 1 (40:10):
And take it into any situation that you face.
Speaker 2 (40:13):
I love it because God at once gives him a
big destiny. How many of you believe that God has
a destiny for you? How many of you want to
believe that God has a destiny for you.
Speaker 1 (40:24):
It's kind of hard sometimes because.
Speaker 2 (40:26):
I thought i'd be there by now, and I'm not
there by now. Well, well, he gives him a big destiny,
but he gives him a small direction. He said, for
you to fulfill your destiny, you're going to have to
talk yourself into it. So I was flying into Charlotte.
You can stand I'm closer. I was flying into Charlotte
(40:51):
one time. Did you get blessed by this word at all? Today?
I was, I was flying into Charlotte one time, and
I started to tell you the story how I was
discouraged and afraid.
Speaker 1 (41:10):
And while we were landing, I opened my window.
Speaker 2 (41:14):
And I remember it real clearly because the guy next
to me had been sleeping and he was kind of
mad when I opened the window. But I opened the
window and looked out and it was a perfect setting,
like the sun was setting. And remember I was afraid
and discouraged. And I'm not comparing myself to Joshua. Why
I don't have some kind of grandiose idea of what
God put me.
Speaker 1 (41:34):
In the earth to do.
Speaker 2 (41:34):
But you know, for my calling, for my part to
play in the kingdom, I take it very seriously. And
I believe that God has given me a promise, and
I believe that God has given me a purpose, and
I believe that He desires me to live in peace
as I fulfill that purpose and possess that promise. And
so I was we were landing, and it was like men,
(41:56):
like a scene out of Thomas Kincaid. You know what
I'm saying? Like that, do you know that the guy
who paints all this stuff.
Speaker 1 (42:01):
It was like the.
Speaker 2 (42:02):
City of Charlotte was bathed in the orange sunset.
Speaker 1 (42:06):
And orange was our.
Speaker 2 (42:07):
Church color, and it's also the color of God's team,
the Clemson Tigers. And so these two things served to
confirm to me that God, God was speaking.
Speaker 1 (42:15):
I just felt something.
Speaker 2 (42:16):
I got my notebook out that I had and I
just wrote down, just fast as I could write the
impressions that I was receiving.
Speaker 1 (42:21):
As we were landing in Charlotte. And it started with
this idea, this is your city.
Speaker 2 (42:25):
I have given it to you for influence, not that
it is in other people's city too, but just that
God had called me here. You made the right decision,
you did it, and I want to give it. And
it was about a page and a half of stuff
that I wrote down, and a couple of days later
I read it to our team. It's very encouraging, very inspiring.
The reason I told you that story is because I
have landed in Charlotte many times since then. Almost every
(42:46):
time I'm landing, I opened my window just in case
that can happen again. And you know what, It's never
happened like that again ever ever.
Speaker 1 (42:55):
I mean I've even put my notebook out and gotten
my pen.
Speaker 2 (42:57):
Ready, and what I see is, but see, you can't
live in a place where you're depending on God to
always give you a sunset and a poem. And the
since I get from the Lord is I've already spoken my.
Speaker 1 (43:19):
Promise to you.
Speaker 2 (43:21):
Now you've got to speak it to yourself. There are
some promises in your life that you have not yet possessed.
And you're waiting on somebody, or you're waiting on God,
or you're waiting on a circumstance to a line.
Speaker 1 (43:42):
It's not going to happen that way. If you are
going to experience the.
Speaker 2 (43:47):
Peace of God, it won't be because God gives it
to you. He's already given you peace. In John fourteen
twenty seven, when.
Speaker 1 (43:55):
Jesus, like Moses, was preparing his followers for his departure
and telling them about the Holy Spirit that was coming
and not only to live with them, but to live in.
Speaker 2 (44:04):
Them, God told Joshuah, I'm with you, but God tells
you something even better. He says, I'm in you, Christ
is in me, and I'm more than enough. And he
tells his followers peace I leave with you my peace.
I give to you. I don't give like the world gifts.
Don't let your hearts be troubled. Don't let them be afraid.
Speaker 1 (44:28):
You see it, You see it. Don't let your heart
be troubled. Don't let it be afraid. Why are you
so downcast? Stop listening to.
Speaker 2 (44:38):
Your situation and start preaching to your situation. In the
name of the Lord, tripones will live in the name
of Lord.
Speaker 1 (44:48):
The promise will come to pass.
Speaker 2 (44:53):
So Jesus said, I have given you my peace. I'll
talk yourself into it day and night, the refrain of
my heart. You need a phrase to fight the devil with.
I'm not afraid anymore. I feel fear, but I'm not afraid.
(45:18):
He didn't say I couldn't feel it. He just said
I had to face it. He didn't say that the
fear wouldn't come upon me. He just said that it
shouldn't define me. Come on, I'm preaching to somebody. You've
been stuck, you've been afraid, you've been terrified, you've been
worried about it.
Speaker 1 (45:35):
You've been stressed.
Speaker 2 (45:36):
But lift your hands in the presence of the Lord,
and say, Christ is in me.
Speaker 1 (45:41):
I am enough. Say it again, Christ is in me.
I am enough one more time.
Speaker 2 (45:48):
God said it three times to Joshua.
Speaker 1 (45:50):
I want you to say it three times too. Christ
is in me. I am enough. Now.
Speaker 3 (45:56):
Clap your hands and thank God. Clap your hands and
praise God. Open your mouth and speak, pray, speak peace.
I will yeah, pray so my God and my God.
Speaker 1 (46:13):
Thank you for joining us.
Speaker 2 (46:15):
Special thanks to those of you who give generously to
this ministry. Is because of you that this ministry is possible.
You can click the link in the description to give now,
or visit Elevation Church dot org slash podcast for more
information and if you enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe.
Speaker 1 (46:32):
You can share it with your friends.
Speaker 2 (46:33):
You can click the share button, take a screenshot and
share it on your social stories and tag us at
Elevation Church.
Speaker 1 (46:39):
Thanks again for listening. God bless you.
Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
I'm the pastor of Elevation Church and this is our podcast.
I wanted to thank you for joining us today. Hope
this inspires you. Hope it builds your faith. Hope it
gives your perspective to see God is moving in your life.
Enjoy the message. Well, thank you, worship team. I want
to go into the Word of God today. I spoke
to you last week on the subject of confidence, and
(00:23):
I'm going to continue along those thoughts. From what I
could tell, the sermon help some people. I'm not saying
it helped everybody.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
Some of y'all are beyond help.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
No, I don't really believe that, but it resonated with
some people. So in a similar vein today, I want
to bring a message of encouragement. Let's look together at
Joshua chapter one. Normally I have you stand for the scripture,
but I kind of have a few scriptures today, so
I thought you could just sit there and I read
it for you and Joshua chapter one, verse six through nine.
(00:56):
And this message that God gave me is a little
bit of a practical thing and something that's been helpful
in my life. And so I hope that it'll be
helpful to you. Very simple message. This is an epic text.
I can't speak for the sermon. The sermon may be good,
it may not be, but this text is legendary.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
And we're going into the locker room where.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
God is giving Joshua a halftime talk, and he's telling
him what he must do and how he's going to
do it, because Joshua has big shoes to fill, and
Joshua has a job to do, and Joshua has a
purpose to accomplish. And so God is getting his men
ready because how many know that God will never give
(01:43):
you a purpose, that he will not prepare you for
all of your life up until this point, the parts
that you like, the parts that you didn't like, the
parts that you understood, in the parts that you're still
trying to understand, you can know this that they were
all preparing you for God's purpose. The moment that you
believe that you can really embrace whatever comes into your life,
(02:07):
knowing that if God didn't send it, he'll still use it.
Anything that comes against you can become a weapon in
the hands of God fighting for you.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
So God is telling.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
Joshua in a period of transition for the nation of Israel,
that the job is too big for him, but the
God who is with him is bigger than the giants
that stand before him. In convincing him of this, he
tells him in verse six of Joshua chapter one, be
strong and courageous, because you will lead these people to
(02:41):
inherit the land I swore to their ancestors to give them. You.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
Notice how good my eyesight is.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
I can read my Bible from all the way back here.
How many of you over forty five verse extremely jealous?
Speaker 1 (02:53):
Right now?
Speaker 2 (02:54):
I'm going to employ my good eyesight while I've got it.
He said it again, be strong and courageous. This we
already said that God, remember in verse six. Yeah, but
I'm saying it again because I know how you are,
and I know how quickly your courage evaporates. I wish
rad Straup were here. He's on staff with our students,
and he asked me a profound question the other day.
(03:17):
He said, why is it that no matter how much
people encourage me, I can't keep myself encouraged. I'll find
some way if somebody compliments me, to disqualify the compliment
or to cancel it out. I'll tell myself. Well, they're
just being nice. They're saying that because they have to
say that. They're just saying that to make me feel good.
And so maybe there's something to the repetition factor here.
(03:38):
That God knows that between verse six and verse seven
something happened to make you discouraged, and so he encourages
you again, be strong and courageous, Be careful to obey
all the law my servant Moses gave you.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
Don't turn from it to the right or to the left.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
I know there's a lot of things trying to get
you off track and get you off course, but.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
Don't beat this. You got a job to do.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
I want you to be successful wherever you go. This
is God's heart for you, and in order to do it,
you got to keep this book of the Law always
on your lips. Meditate on it day and night, so
that you may be careful to.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
Do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous
and successful.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
Have I not commanded you be strong and courageous, Do
not be afraid, do not be discouraged, For the Lord
your God will be with you wherever you go.
Speaker 1 (04:43):
You're looking for something to write down, Write this down.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
God's presence is guaranteed, but his promises are optional. I
will be with you wherever you go, But how far
you want to go is up to you. Even if
you don't go into the things that I have prepared
for you in your life, I'll be with you.
Speaker 1 (05:08):
You make your bed in hell, I'll be with you.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
Belly of the fish, I'll be with you. Hide out
from Jezebel in a cave. I'll be with you. Murder
an Egyptian and run to the desert.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
I'll be with you in Midian.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
So the fact that God will be with you, his
presence is guaranteed, it is not conditional.
Speaker 1 (05:28):
But the way that you.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
Experience his promises, well, a lot of that is up
to you. And so God mentions to Joshua with two things.
Can I teach you a little bit today? He says,
don't be afraid, don't be discouraged. Don't be afraid, don't
be discouraged. I'll talk to a friend the other day,
(05:50):
and we were laughing at each other about how we
insert ourselves into biblical stories and shrink down the magnitude
of the stories to fit our situations, which are sometimes
not that big of a deal.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
Do you know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
It's like David killed Goliath and.
Speaker 1 (06:03):
You can lose fifteen pounds too, do you know what
I mean?
Speaker 2 (06:07):
Like Goliath just becomes whatever you need him to be. Right,
Goliath can be your student loan. He's no longer this
life threatening nation defying giant. Now we've got Goliath representing
your car payment. You can take him down in the
name of the Lord. That's what we do in the
case of I don't know. I could use a lot
(06:28):
of examples and't I was talking to a friend the
other day and he was negotiating a real estate contract
and he was comparing himself to Moses and the guy
who owned the land to Pharaoh, and he said, I
feel like Moses going before Pharaoh and it's just a
little thirty thousand square foot building, you know. But he's
now got this contonstruct where in his mind he's kind
of like put himself in the biblical story.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
It's easy to do that with Joshua.
Speaker 2 (06:51):
So now God's telling Joshua, I'm gonna lead you into
this land. You're gonna have to lead millions of vagabond
nomadic people who love to complain and forget what I
do for them.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
The moment I do it.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
So I want you to go get them ready and
go do that, okay, and by the way, don't be afraid,
don't be discouraged.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
And it's easy for us.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
To make the jump because we want to personalize the
Bible and all of a sudden, now instead of taking
over the land and leading millions of people, it's just
symbolic of.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
Whatever we need to do in our lives.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
So it's like the apartment that we hope we get
or the college we want to get into, and so we.
Speaker 1 (07:17):
Can shrink it down. But I think part of that
is good.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
Maybe sometimes I go too far with it because I
have a passion as a preacher to make it personal.
I feel like I failed if all of that did
is teach you a history lesson about somebody who lived
a long time ago called Joshua. So there's a part
of me that wants to make it personal. Perhaps sometimes
I take it too far, and we forget the magnitude
of the miracles that the Bible illustrates.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
That Joshua going.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
Into the Promised Land wasn't like you asking a girl
out on a date.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
But we can do that in our.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
Desire to personalize the Bible, which I think is a
good thing. We can well, we can miss the point
or loose the perspective, and so I just want to
bring it into perspective here that Joshua.
Speaker 1 (07:59):
Must have been terrified. You know what, I read that scripture.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
That feel while I was reading it that you're like, yeah,
get over it, Joshua, go do it, you know, just
get up and do it. Get up and do it,
Get up and do it. I got to defeat the Jebusites,
the Hitsites, the Parasites, the Canaanites, the Cellulites, those most
dreadful enemies of all. And God tells him to do something.
(08:31):
He tells him to do something in the face of
all of these enemies that he knows he must encounter.
God says, be strong and courageous. Then he tells him
what not to do.
Speaker 1 (08:39):
Do not be afraid, do not be discouraged.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
Something within me rises to Joshua's defense. I can't help
it if I feel afraid. I can't help it if
I feel discouraged. How can you tell me not to
feel afraid? God, when all of these battles that I've
(09:12):
never fought before waiting in front of me, How can
you tell me not to be afraid when I'm leading
people who have only known.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
The wilderness into warfare. How can you tell me not to.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
Be discouraged when I have to go in under resource
then may be overwhelmed.
Speaker 1 (09:28):
How can you tell me.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
Not to feel afraid and not to feel discouraged? But
God didn't say don't feel afraid, and he didn't say
don't feel discouraged.
Speaker 1 (09:40):
I think the.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
Essence of what God wants to say to you is
just because you feel afraid doesn't mean you have to
be afraid.
Speaker 1 (09:49):
Just because you feel.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
Discouraged doesn't mean you have to be discouraged. Just because
you have fear doesn't mean fear has to have you.
Come on, talk to me somebody. And for most of us,
our default setting is fear and discouragement.
Speaker 1 (10:11):
Our default setting.
Speaker 2 (10:13):
In the situations that are unfamiliar to us is anxiety
and discouragement. You see, God has given you a destiny.
I want you to believe that, even if you can't
see it right now, even if it's not your destiny
to lead millions of people into the Promised land, God
(10:34):
has given you a destiny as a parent. God has
given you a destiny on your job. It's part of
your destiny. God has given you a job to do.
And know you're not Joshua, but you have a job
to do. I would like for you to repeat after
me the following declaration, I have a destiny all right now.
(10:58):
I need you to know that the bigger the death,
the bigger the enemies.
Speaker 1 (11:08):
That was helpful for me to.
Speaker 2 (11:09):
Realize because in seasons of my life I was hard
on myself, feeling like there was something wrong with me.
And it's because God's promises in my life, while they
seemed attractive, sometimes aren't so automatic as we think that
(11:29):
they should be. In the text that I read to you,
God is telling Joshua that the real enemies to your
destiny are not the Canaanites. The real enemy of your
destiny are not the Hittites.
Speaker 1 (11:47):
The real enemies of.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
Your destinies are not the Jugsites. These are all the
people that he would face as he moved forward in faith.
But God wants Joshua to know that your real enemy
is not another person.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
Your real enemy is not even a situation.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
Because if you don't know this, you'll spend your whole
life fighting the wrong things. God says, let me tell
you what to fight. Fight your fear. Let me tell
you what to fight, fight your discouragement. If you can
fight discouragement, you can fulfill your destiny.
Speaker 1 (12:25):
I'm gonna say it over my shoulder, to the left
side of the room. If you can fight your fear,
if you.
Speaker 2 (12:30):
Can face your fear, you can move forward into your destiny.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
And this is important for Joshua to know. See, because
Joshua has been around a while.
Speaker 2 (12:39):
By the time that God is calling him Bible background,
he's already.
Speaker 1 (12:42):
Served under Moses. He served under Moses as.
Speaker 2 (12:44):
A commander, and he won some great battles under Moses,
and he did some great things under Moses. But now
Moses has left the building, and so God is talking
Joshua into Now.
Speaker 1 (12:53):
God is very persuasive, Okay, So when.
Speaker 2 (12:55):
God tries to talk you into something, as we've already seen.
Speaker 1 (12:57):
He'll use repetition.
Speaker 2 (12:58):
But he also knows how to locate the thing that
is keeping you from doing what you're called to do.
Speaker 1 (13:02):
Now the people of.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
God are standing at the edge of something. They are
out of Egypt, but they are not yet into Canaan.
Speaker 1 (13:08):
That's where so many Christians live.
Speaker 2 (13:10):
I've come out of some things, but I haven't moved
into the things. I've made some progress, but I have
not fully possessed the promise. I've become aware of God's presence,
but I haven't fully accessed his promises. And that's where
Joshua stands. And he's been here before forty years ago, and.
Speaker 1 (13:36):
Moses was in a position to possess the promised land,
and he sent some spies into the land.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
A lot of people don't know this part of the story,
you know. I mean, they may have heard a little
bit about it, but they don't know the details, the
details that kept them from experiencing their destiny, the details
that caused hundreds of thousands of them to die in
the desert looking at promises that they could have possessed,
The details that keep you from being the dad that
(14:07):
God called you to be, doing the things God called
you to do, enjoying the life that Christ himself.
Speaker 1 (14:12):
Died to give you. I feel a.
Speaker 2 (14:14):
Holy burden on this message today because somebody is looking
at a promise that you're not living in. And the
reason that you're not living in it has nothing to
do with creditors, and it has nothing to do with
seventh grade teachers and it doesn't even have anything to
do with what you experienced in your past.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
It is your fear and discouragement.
Speaker 2 (14:39):
And so Joshua goes into the land forty years ago.
Remember he was serving under Moses at this time. And
he goes into the land and he looks at it,
and there's eleven other spies. There's Joshua and Caleb and
ten other spies. And they go into the land and
they look around. They come back and it's interesting. I
want to show you this. Can I show you? Look
(15:01):
at numbers Chapter fourteen, The Bible gives a recording of
the report that the men brought back, and this is
kind of sad to me. It says in numbers thirteen,
thirty one and thirty two that the men who had
(15:22):
gone up with him said, we can't attack those people.
Speaker 1 (15:27):
They are stronger than we are. And they spread among the.
Speaker 2 (15:32):
Israelites a bad report about the land they had explored.
And they said, the land we explored devours those living
in it. All the people we saw there are of
great size. Let me point out something to you that
you may miss on the surface. They were being realistic.
Most of what they're saying is true. They are bigger,
(15:57):
They are stronger.
Speaker 1 (15:59):
We can't do it on our own.
Speaker 2 (16:04):
On our own, but Joshua knew something that those spies
had forgotten.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
We're not on our own. We have a promise.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
We have a promise of God's presence, and if he's
with us, he's more than the.
Speaker 1 (16:18):
World against us.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
And so these spies are trying to talk Moses out
of the very thing that God brought them here for.
These spies are trying.
Speaker 1 (16:26):
To, let me ask you a question.
Speaker 2 (16:29):
What have you talked yourself out of that God.
Speaker 1 (16:32):
Is trying to bring you into?
Speaker 2 (16:38):
What are you talking yourself out of right now that
God is trying to bring you into in your relationships?
What are you talking yourself out of that God is
trying to bring you into in your personal life? And
I don't care what category you use. We've all got
(16:59):
something that we're talking ourselves out of.
Speaker 1 (17:04):
The message God gave me today is that.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
You can talk yourself into it. Just like you've been
talking yourself out of it, you can talk yourself into it.
One thing I noticed about myself from an early age
is that I can be persuasive when I need to be.
And so sometimes in school, when I would need an
extension on a paper I knew I could usually get
(17:28):
one because I have this way of talking myself out
of things.
Speaker 1 (17:31):
To understand. It comes in handy as a preacher to
be persuasive because you have to get people.
Speaker 2 (17:36):
To do things that they need to do that they
don't want to do. And so you're trying to tell
people to trust God and their finances. And problem with
that is they already feel broken. So now that you
tell them that they want to trust God with their finances,
if they need to trust God with their finances, they
don't want to trust God with their finances because they
don't have many finances. But you want to get them
to see that the reason you don't have any finances
because you're not trusting God in your finances. And if you
trust God and your finances, it would open your eyes
to the supply that He has available for you. And
if you see Khi first as his kingdom and his righteousness.
Speaker 1 (17:58):
All these things. I'm preaching. My watch off my wrists.
That's how excited I am about the Word of God.
Speaker 2 (18:05):
Just hold it rus so I don't even want it back.
I don't even care what time it is. I might
preach through lunch, because there's some things in your life
that you've been talking yourself out of. One time, my
senior year of high school, they put me in an
ap English class with Eunice Cox, and Eunice Cox was
rumored to be a tough teacher. But it's no problem
for me. I got this because I got the gift.
(18:26):
And so I came upon my first book report and
I wasn't going to finish it on time. I knew
wouldn't fish it on time, but I wasn't worried about
it because I could talk my way out of it.
I've always talked my way out of things, speeding tickets
and all kinds of things I've talked myself out of.
Why not this paper too. But Eunice Cox was waiting
for me at the door and she said, I noticed
you didn't turn your assignment in. And I smiled real
(18:48):
sweet because I got some southern charm. I grew up
in a small town. I know how to talk to people,
I said, miss Cox, I said I was going to
talk to you about this, and she said, I don't
want to hear it. And she said, she said, Stephen Furdet,
you have met your match in Eunice Cox, I said,
(19:11):
but miscop.
Speaker 1 (19:12):
She said no.
Speaker 2 (19:14):
I said, but I was gonna no, And I said,
I said, well, what can I do? She said, well you,
if I were you, I'd try to get a good
gread one on the other ones, because you did a
zero on this one, and you might want to bring
up your average.
Speaker 1 (19:31):
So now I want you to understand something.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
When God called Moses, Moses was reluctant to do what
God had called him to do. And Moses had a
million excuses, and so do you Why you can't be it,
why you can't do it, why you can't go forward?
Speaker 1 (19:48):
And it come on, how many of you are good
at talking yourself out of things?
Speaker 2 (19:53):
How many of you, by the time I get done
preaching sometimes and you've even had your lunch, you have
forgotten what the sermon.
Speaker 1 (19:59):
Is e than about. Shame on you. And I'm just kidding.
It's how it works.
Speaker 2 (20:04):
We are so quick to talk ourselves out of things.
But when Moses started telling God, you know, I can't speak,
and I can't do it, and I'm not eloquent, and
I'm not trained, and I'm not equipped, and I'm not able.
God said to Moses, you have met your match in Eunus.
Cos you have met your match in the Lord your God.
(20:27):
Have I not commanded you? I don't even want to
hear it out of your mouth. Why you can't. I
am the greater one, I am the power within you.
I am the one who calls you by name. I
know what's in God because I put it in you.
I know what you don't have because I left it out,
and I command you.
Speaker 1 (20:45):
To be courageous. So it occurs to me.
Speaker 2 (20:56):
That maybe the reason that God is speaking to Joshua
on this level is because Joshua has seen firsthand the
devastation that it causes when God's people talk themselves out of.
Speaker 1 (21:11):
What God is trying to bring them into.
Speaker 2 (21:15):
You know, those spies said to Moses, we can't do it.
Speaker 1 (21:18):
They're stronger, they're bigger. And Joshua spoke.
Speaker 2 (21:21):
Up and he got everybody's attention. The Bible says in
numbers fourteen six that he tore his clothes and said
to the entire Israelite assembly, Hey, come.
Speaker 1 (21:35):
On, guys.
Speaker 2 (21:37):
The land we passed through and its lord is exceedingly good.
If the Lord is pleased with us, he will lead
us into that land, a land flowing with milk and
honey and will give it to us only.
Speaker 1 (21:49):
Do not rebel.
Speaker 2 (21:50):
Don't do this, don't die outside of your destiny. Don't
let your fear keep you from your future. Don't be discouraged,
don't rebel. If the Lord is pleased, he'll leave us
in land us sloan milkod out even give it to us.
Speaker 1 (22:09):
Only.
Speaker 2 (22:09):
Do not rebel against the Lord, and do not be
afraid of the people of the land. And stop get
forfeiting your future for your fear of people. Stop forfeiting
your future, for your fear of failure.
Speaker 1 (22:20):
You hear me, stop.
Speaker 2 (22:21):
Forfeiting your future because of what they might think about you.
Their protection is gone. But the Lord is with us.
I mean, you gotta believe down deep in your soul
that God is with me in this moment. He's with
me when I'm feeling, He's with me when I don't.
He's with me when I'm faithful. He's with me when
I'm faithless. He's with me when I'm right. He's with
(22:43):
me when I'm wrong. He's with me when I'm a whole.
He's with me when I'm broken. Somebody shout, God is
with me. Touch your neighbors say he's with you too.
He's with you too. No matter how hard Joshua tried,
he couldn't talk Moses into it.
Speaker 1 (23:01):
You know why, because nobody.
Speaker 2 (23:03):
Can talk you into your destiny. But you touch your neighbors,
say talk yourself into it, talk yourself into it.
Speaker 1 (23:19):
It is interesting that when God speaks.
Speaker 2 (23:21):
To Joshua, he tells him what to do, lead these
people to inherit the land. Now, the problem with a
lot of us is that we have shrunk our lives
down to the size of our own personal interest. We
don't have anything bigger than us worth fighting for, so
it doesn't take much to discourage us. If I didn't
(23:42):
preach every time I don't feel like preaching, you would
hear from me three times a year. You know how
I preach every week. I talk myself into it, and
I tell myself, there's somebody come into church today who's suicide.
There's somebody coming to church today whose kid is on drugs.
(24:04):
There's somebody coming to church today that has been told
all their life they're workless, and you get to tell
them God loves them, and maybe you can smile at
them and make them feel through your countenance that God
has not forgotten them, that he.
Speaker 1 (24:16):
Knows them by name. But by the time I stopped.
Speaker 2 (24:19):
Talking to myself, I'm ready to talk to you. Now.
Speaker 1 (24:22):
We can preach, now we can do it. Now we
can go.
Speaker 2 (24:26):
But see, you've got to talk yourself into your purpose.
Speaker 1 (24:32):
I have a purpose.
Speaker 2 (24:33):
I don't need to ask God to give me a purpose.
I have a purpose. You have a purpose to glorify God,
to be transformed into the image of Christ, to be
conformed into the image of Christ.
Speaker 1 (24:46):
It's not that you don't have a purpose, is it.
Speaker 2 (24:50):
Every time God truest to bring you into it, you
talk yourself out of it.
Speaker 1 (24:56):
And so he says, this is not just a value, Joshua.
There are people to you.
Speaker 3 (25:00):
Your destiny is connected to something much bigger than you.
Speaker 1 (25:08):
So go do it and be strong and courageous.
Speaker 2 (25:11):
But God is a good coach, and a good coach
doesn't just motivate you. He instructs you.
Speaker 1 (25:15):
Wow yea. And so he gives him the mechanics. And
this is what I was excited about. I mean that part.
Speaker 2 (25:21):
I was excited about that part too, But I really
wanted to.
Speaker 1 (25:24):
Show you this. He said in verse A.
Speaker 2 (25:25):
Keep this book of the Law always on your lips.
This this stood out to me in Deuteronomy thirty one,
I told you I have a lot of scripture today.
Speaker 1 (25:37):
Isn't that kind of what you came for? Though? Okay,
us are.
Speaker 2 (25:46):
In don me thirty one Before Moses died and climbed
up on Mountaineebow, and he died. And God didn't let
the Israelites find his body because he knew that if
they found his body, they would continue to worship his bones.
Because sometimes the only way for God to get you
to move past something in your life is completely taken away.
Before he died, he called the nation together, he said,
and he gave him a little speech. He gave him
(26:06):
a little talk. He gave him a little uh. He said,
I'm not going into the land, but you are. Joshua's
gonna lead you. He pulls Joshua beside him, and he
tells him be strong and courageous, for you must go
with this people on the land. The Lord swore to
their ancestors to give them, and you must divide it
among them as their inheritance.
Speaker 1 (26:26):
Not you may, but you must. Not you should, but
you must, and you must do it.
Speaker 2 (26:36):
And as you do it, know that the Lord himself
goes before you and will be with you.
Speaker 1 (26:40):
He will never leave you, nor forsake you. Do not
be afraid. Do not be.
Speaker 2 (26:49):
So. When God speaks to Joshua after the death of Moses,
Joshua has heard.
Speaker 1 (26:54):
This speech before. It's not his first time here yet.
Speaker 2 (26:59):
But when God gives the speech, he adds one thing
that Moses left out. See, Moses told him what to do,
told him why to do it. God showed Joshua, how
would you like to know how to keep yourself encouraged?
Because you need to know they aren't always going to
(27:19):
text you encouragement when you need it.
Speaker 1 (27:22):
That's part of being a grown Christian.
Speaker 2 (27:25):
You need to learn to encourage yourself.
Speaker 1 (27:30):
I gotta tell you.
Speaker 2 (27:31):
Touch your neighbor and say, I can encourage myself. If
you encourage me, I appreciate it. If you're nice to me,
I appreciate it. If you say kind things to me,
that's cool. But I need you to know that even
if you don't, if you get too busy, or if
you forget about me, or if you don't know what
to say to me, I need you to know I
(27:51):
can encourage myself.
Speaker 1 (27:53):
Greater is he that is in me than he that
is in the world.
Speaker 2 (27:57):
I learned to encourage myself because I can't always count
on a text, and I can't always count on a hunk,
and I can't.
Speaker 1 (28:04):
Always count on a man, and I can't always even
count on my own friends.
Speaker 2 (28:08):
But I can encourage myself. So God, God tells Joshua,
He says, I'm not always gonna speak to you like this.
Speaker 1 (28:18):
You know you have moments in.
Speaker 2 (28:19):
Your life where God himself will speak to you, and
they're awesome.
Speaker 1 (28:23):
One time, I was.
Speaker 2 (28:24):
Coming home to Charlotte when we were first starting the church,
and I was nervous, and I was afraid and discouraged.
I was discouraged because people weren't showing up yet, and I.
Speaker 1 (28:34):
Was afraid because I didn't know if they ever would.
Speaker 2 (28:37):
And so I was afraid and discouraged. And those are
two states. You cannot fulfill your destiny. And let me
show you something. If you are afraid right now, it
is not because the devil is making you afraid. There
is somebody on your road that has more to be
afraid of than you, and yet the confession of their
life is I have fear, but fear to doesn't have me.
Speaker 1 (29:01):
If you are discouraged. It is not.
Speaker 2 (29:03):
Because of your conditions or your circumstances. They may have
been a contributing factor, but they are not the deciding factor.
Discouragement is a decision that I make. Discouragement is a conversation.
Speaker 1 (29:16):
That I have with myself.
Speaker 2 (29:17):
Discouragement is that thing inside of me that says this
is the way it will always be. See it's not
getting any better. See that woman right there doesn't like
your sermon.
Speaker 1 (29:26):
Look how she's looking at you, and that guy's asleep.
Speaker 2 (29:28):
Discouragement is a little voice inside of your head that
you listen to. And our problem Doctor Martin Lloyd Jones,
the great Welsh preacher, once said, our problem is that
we spend too much time listening to ourselves and not
enough time talking to ourselves. Now, y'all are about to
(29:50):
think I'm crazy, but I talk to myself all the time.
Speaker 1 (29:54):
How many of you talk.
Speaker 2 (29:55):
To yourself all the time? Well, sure you do.
Speaker 1 (29:58):
You've been doing it since you were three mm boom
boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom
boom boom boom.
Speaker 2 (30:06):
But somewhere along the way between putting together legos and
the big one Gules hit and the widowing Gules hit,
and you talked yourself through it.
Speaker 1 (30:15):
Now somewhere along the way.
Speaker 2 (30:18):
You turned against yourself wood, and.
Speaker 1 (30:23):
So now you're.
Speaker 2 (30:23):
Listening to yourself like the sawmistead. He was having a
bad day, and so he started talking about the day
he was having. And he said in Psalm forty two,
verse four, he said, these things I remember as I
pour out my soul, how I used to go to
the House of God under the protection of the mighty
(30:44):
one shouts of joy. You know, right before this, he said,
my tears have been my food day and night. And
he's he's in this cycle. But he did something in
verse five. It's kind of a strange technique. And and
and if you do this, people might think that you're crazy,
but if you don't do it, you really will be crazy.
Speaker 1 (31:06):
So you can decide.
Speaker 2 (31:07):
Whether you want people to think you're crazy or whether
you really want to be crazy. Because he's been listening
to himself for four verses, he's been listening to his tears,
he's been listening to his trials, he's been listening to
his past. But in verse five he totally shifts and
instead of listening to himself.
Speaker 1 (31:27):
He starts preaching to himself. It's very powerful. Why my
soul are you so downcasted? What did you see the shift?
He's like, I'm done with this. If I wake up
in the morning and ask myself how.
Speaker 2 (31:47):
You feel, I'm gonna be fifty to fifty at best.
So I'm gonna wake up in the morning and tell
myself this will change your life, and tell myself today
we're gonna be blessed today. We're going to be favored today.
We're going to be a blessing today. We're gonna take
(32:09):
new ground today. We're gonna encourage somebody else today, we're
gonna see the goodness of the court morning, the land
of the living today. Why are you so downcast on
my soul? Why so disturbed in me? And then he
does something very powerful. He puts himself in his place.
Puts your hope in God, for I will yet praise him.
(32:33):
Sometimes you gotta put yourself in your place.
Speaker 1 (32:36):
Sometimes you gotta.
Speaker 2 (32:37):
Make discouragement bow its need in the presence of God,
and fear must battle.
Speaker 1 (32:43):
To faith in the presence of God. Somebody give him
a praise right now, Hey, Joshua, here's how you do it.
Speaker 2 (32:59):
Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips.
There's a land I'm taking you to. There's a promise
that I'm leading you to, but you're going to have
to talk yourself into it. Meditate on the Law day
and night. The Law was five books of the Bible
(33:21):
that we have now, Genesis, Exodus, Levic as numbers do
run me Torah. It was a bible that Joshua had.
God said, your life will follow the direction of your conversation.
Your courage comes from your conversation, so does.
Speaker 1 (33:40):
Your fear, So does your discourage.
Speaker 2 (33:43):
Man, not just your conversations with others, but your conversation
with your self. So keep this Book of the Law
on your lips, not just in your mind, on your lips.
The Hebrew word for meditate is haga, and it means
(34:06):
to mutter, because there was a Hebrew tradition that while
they studied the text and reflected upon it.
Speaker 1 (34:11):
They would mutter love the Lord. You go your heart.
Speaker 2 (34:22):
See, it's not enough to read the Bible. You have
to rehearse the Bible. Come on Gaston Campus. It is
not enough for you to hear this word. It is
not enough for you to listen to me. Speak if
you are going to live in that place.
Speaker 1 (34:43):
What place? I'm not going to the land of Canaan. No, no, no.
But God has promised you his peace.
Speaker 2 (34:50):
If you are going to have his peace in your life,
you're going to have to talk yourself into peace. God
has given you his If you are going to live
in courage and fulfill your purpose, you're going to have
to talk yourself into your purpose.
Speaker 1 (35:09):
Keep it on your lips.
Speaker 2 (35:12):
Yeah, So what you need and I'm going to get
very practical now, because what good is all this screaming
and shouting if the moment it leaves my lips, it
leaves your heart. The way that you keep it is
you need a phrase to fight with.
Speaker 1 (35:31):
Hear me.
Speaker 2 (35:32):
Your mind is always going to be murmuring and muttering.
Speaker 1 (35:35):
Have you noticed that? Okay, it's always going to be
doing it.
Speaker 2 (35:39):
So what you want to do is take control of
the conversation by the spirit of God. And the way
you do that, you need a phrase to fight the
devil with. Here's my current phrase to fight the devil with?
This How I fight fear because I have a lot
of fear. I know I'm not supposed to. I know
(36:00):
I'm the pastor of the church. But I get scared sometimes,
scared of big stuff and scared of stupid stuff. But
I have learned that if I'm in a state of fear,
the reason I'm there is because I talk myself, And
if I talk to myself, then I can talk myself.
(36:25):
There are really only two fears. They all fall under
these categories. It's the fear of falling short and the
fear of running out. Any fear you have in your
life falls into one of those two categories. If you're
scared to lose a relationship, it's because you're afraid of
falling short in someone's eyes, or you're afraid of running
out of love, and if they're not there, you won't
(36:45):
have love.
Speaker 1 (36:46):
Every fear that you've ever had in.
Speaker 2 (36:47):
Your life falls under those two categories. Fear that I
will fall short or that I will not be enough,
and fear that I will run out, that I.
Speaker 1 (36:54):
Will not have enough. So, since I know.
Speaker 2 (36:58):
That the key to me person and encourage and in
strength and in purpose is to fight.
Speaker 1 (37:05):
Back, somebody say fight back.
Speaker 2 (37:07):
You are not going to take the land automatically, and
you are not going to live in peace and purpose automatically.
So I've got a phrase that I do, and his
four syllables on the front and his four syllables on
the back, and I did it in four.
Speaker 1 (37:19):
Because you can breathe in four times and breathe out
four times. So I do it all the time. And
the devil doesn't like it. He really really hates it.
Speaker 2 (37:27):
So I'm doing it more and more because I like
to make it mad and I like to fight back.
I like to let him know he can't just push
me around and keep me stuck in the wilderness. And
he's not going to have my destiny and he's not
going to disrupt God's dream for my life with discouragement.
And anytime he rolls up on me and tries to
make my soul downcast, I got some for him because
he's trained my fingers for war and my hands for battle,
and he will not keep me out of the land
(37:48):
God's promise. He will not keep me out of the purpose.
I am going to raise my kids to love God.
I am going to serve God and my generation. I
am going to complete the calling that God has placed
on my life.
Speaker 1 (37:59):
I am going to go forward in Jesus' name. I
am going to.
Speaker 2 (38:01):
Build the kingdom on earth as it is in heaven.
I am going to see it come to pass.
Speaker 1 (38:06):
So I just do this. I say Christ is in me.
That's the first half. I am enough.
Speaker 2 (38:18):
Why don't you try it? You know, if you send
in a restaurant and so I says, here, taste this,
taste this, taste this, you try it.
Speaker 1 (38:23):
Say Christ is in me. I am enough.
Speaker 2 (38:28):
Tell them to your neighbor, tell them Christ is in you.
Speaker 1 (38:32):
You are enough. I love people who absolutely refuse to
participate with anything you do in church.
Speaker 2 (38:41):
Do they have a secret meeting before church? Where does
this happen in the lobby?
Speaker 1 (38:45):
When he says, touch your neighbor, do nothing, It's okay,
it's okay. Let's go for ninety seven percent participation. Okay,
I think we're about eighty. Touch your neighbors.
Speaker 2 (38:58):
Say Christ is in you.
Speaker 1 (39:01):
You are enough.
Speaker 2 (39:02):
Now you gotta get it in that order, because if
you start with you are enough, it's just a matter
of time before you find out that is just not true.
They're stronger than we are. Yeah, but didn't you hear
the verse.
Speaker 1 (39:11):
Level Christ is in me, I am enough.
Speaker 2 (39:17):
Let's take the volume up a little bit. Christ is
in me, I am enough. Think about that.
Speaker 1 (39:25):
Fear that you have. Look at it and say Christ
is in me, I am enough.
Speaker 2 (39:31):
Think about what was discouraging you last night, robbing you
of your sleep, robbing you if you're tolling, robbing you
of your peace, robbing you of your purpose, and shout
it out last say Christ is in me.
Speaker 1 (39:44):
I am enough. Now, now break it down.
Speaker 2 (39:50):
If you walk around shouting like that, it's gonna cost
some trouble for you at your job.
Speaker 1 (39:59):
So God tells Joshua. He says, keep it on your.
Speaker 2 (40:03):
Lips, as the background, as the soundtrack.
Speaker 1 (40:10):
And take it into any situation that you face.
Speaker 2 (40:13):
I love it because God at once gives him a
big destiny. How many of you believe that God has
a destiny for you? How many of you want to
believe that God has a destiny for you.
Speaker 1 (40:24):
It's kind of hard sometimes because.
Speaker 2 (40:26):
I thought i'd be there by now, and I'm not
there by now. Well, well, he gives him a big destiny,
but he gives him a small direction. He said, for
you to fulfill your destiny, you're going to have to
talk yourself into it. So I was flying into Charlotte.
You can stand I'm closer. I was flying into Charlotte
(40:51):
one time. Did you get blessed by this word at all? Today?
I was, I was flying into Charlotte one time, and
I started to tell you the story how I was
discouraged and afraid.
Speaker 1 (41:10):
And while we were landing, I opened my window.
Speaker 2 (41:14):
And I remember it real clearly because the guy next
to me had been sleeping and he was kind of
mad when I opened the window. But I opened the
window and looked out and it was a perfect setting,
like the sun was setting. And remember I was afraid
and discouraged. And I'm not comparing myself to Joshua. Why
I don't have some kind of grandiose idea of what
God put me.
Speaker 1 (41:34):
In the earth to do.
Speaker 2 (41:34):
But you know, for my calling, for my part to
play in the kingdom, I take it very seriously. And
I believe that God has given me a promise, and
I believe that God has given me a purpose, and
I believe that He desires me to live in peace
as I fulfill that purpose and possess that promise. And
so I was we were landing, and it was like men,
(41:56):
like a scene out of Thomas Kincaid. You know what
I'm saying? Like that, do you know that the guy
who paints all this stuff.
Speaker 1 (42:01):
It was like the.
Speaker 2 (42:02):
City of Charlotte was bathed in the orange sunset.
Speaker 1 (42:06):
And orange was our.
Speaker 2 (42:07):
Church color, and it's also the color of God's team,
the Clemson Tigers. And so these two things served to
confirm to me that God, God was speaking.
Speaker 1 (42:15):
I just felt something.
Speaker 2 (42:16):
I got my notebook out that I had and I
just wrote down, just fast as I could write the
impressions that I was receiving.
Speaker 1 (42:21):
As we were landing in Charlotte. And it started with
this idea, this is your city.
Speaker 2 (42:25):
I have given it to you for influence, not that
it is in other people's city too, but just that
God had called me here. You made the right decision,
you did it, and I want to give it. And
it was about a page and a half of stuff
that I wrote down, and a couple of days later
I read it to our team. It's very encouraging, very inspiring.
The reason I told you that story is because I
have landed in Charlotte many times since then. Almost every
(42:46):
time I'm landing, I opened my window just in case
that can happen again. And you know what, It's never
happened like that again ever ever.
Speaker 1 (42:55):
I mean I've even put my notebook out and gotten
my pen.
Speaker 2 (42:57):
Ready, and what I see is, but see, you can't
live in a place where you're depending on God to
always give you a sunset and a poem. And the
since I get from the Lord is I've already spoken my.
Speaker 1 (43:19):
Promise to you.
Speaker 2 (43:21):
Now you've got to speak it to yourself. There are
some promises in your life that you have not yet possessed.
And you're waiting on somebody, or you're waiting on God,
or you're waiting on a circumstance to a line.
Speaker 1 (43:42):
It's not going to happen that way. If you are
going to experience the.
Speaker 2 (43:47):
Peace of God, it won't be because God gives it
to you. He's already given you peace. In John fourteen
twenty seven, when.
Speaker 1 (43:55):
Jesus, like Moses, was preparing his followers for his departure
and telling them about the Holy Spirit that was coming
and not only to live with them, but to live in.
Speaker 2 (44:04):
Them, God told Joshuah, I'm with you, but God tells
you something even better. He says, I'm in you, Christ
is in me, and I'm more than enough. And he
tells his followers peace I leave with you my peace.
I give to you. I don't give like the world gifts.
Don't let your hearts be troubled. Don't let them be afraid.
Speaker 1 (44:28):
You see it, You see it. Don't let your heart
be troubled. Don't let it be afraid. Why are you
so downcast? Stop listening to.
Speaker 2 (44:38):
Your situation and start preaching to your situation. In the
name of the Lord, tripones will live in the name
of Lord.
Speaker 1 (44:48):
The promise will come to pass.
Speaker 2 (44:53):
So Jesus said, I have given you my peace. I'll
talk yourself into it day and night, the refrain of
my heart. You need a phrase to fight the devil with.
I'm not afraid anymore. I feel fear, but I'm not afraid.
(45:18):
He didn't say I couldn't feel it. He just said
I had to face it. He didn't say that the
fear wouldn't come upon me. He just said that it
shouldn't define me. Come on, I'm preaching to somebody. You've
been stuck, you've been afraid, you've been terrified, you've been
worried about it.
Speaker 1 (45:35):
You've been stressed.
Speaker 2 (45:36):
But lift your hands in the presence of the Lord,
and say, Christ is in me.
Speaker 1 (45:41):
I am enough. Say it again, Christ is in me.
I am enough one more time.
Speaker 2 (45:48):
God said it three times to Joshua.
Speaker 1 (45:50):
I want you to say it three times too. Christ
is in me. I am enough. Now.
Speaker 3 (45:56):
Clap your hands and thank God. Clap your hands and
praise God. Open your mouth and speak, pray, speak peace.
I will yeah, pray so my God and my God.
Speaker 1 (46:13):
Thank you for joining us.
Speaker 2 (46:15):
Special thanks to those of you who give generously to
this ministry. Is because of you that this ministry is possible.
You can click the link in the description to give now,
or visit Elevation Church dot org slash podcast for more
information and if you enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe.
Speaker 1 (46:32):
You can share it with your friends.
Speaker 2 (46:33):
You can click the share button, take a screenshot and
share it on your social stories and tag us at
Elevation Church.
Speaker 1 (46:39):
Thanks again for listening. God bless you.
Host
Steven Furtick
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