April 29, 2025 • 49 mins
In this powerful message, The Sacred Path, V1 Church Executive Pastor Josh Hamstra challenges believers to move beyond mere belief into true discipleship. Following up on last week's Easter message, Pastor Josh breaks down what it means to walk the narrow, sacred path of following Christ—highlighting the difference between believing in Jesus and actually following Him.
Whether you're a new believer or have been saved for decades, this word will reignite your passion for steady, faithful growth in Christ. Pastor Josh exposes the pitfalls of sprinting without wisdom and stalling out in fear—and he calls all of us to a life of consistent, rooted, Spirit-led discipleship through the local church.
Key Takeaways:
- True salvation leads to a path of active discipleship, not just belief.
- Sprinters (overzealous believers) risk burnout without wisdom and rootedness.
- Stallers (hesitant believers) miss out on their God-given purpose through fear and passivity.
- The sacred path requires steady, faithful growth through the local church community.
- Discipleship is not about doing more—it’s about deepening relationship with Christ and others.
- You already have a gift from God at salvation—and it’s time to activate it!
Get ready to be convicted, encouraged, and launched deeper into your calling!
🌎 Learn more about V1 Church: www.v1.church
🙏 Give to support the movement: https://donate.overflow.co/v1
Mentioned in this episode:
Give to support the movement!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Foreign.
I'm excited.
My name is Josh Hamster.
I'm the executive pastor hereat V1 Church.
It is an honor to be able tohave this platform today.
Pastor Mike is in an apostolicjourney right now in Italy.
(00:23):
And so let me just sharesomething real quick.
We've been getting someamazing, amazing testimonies from
Apostle Mike out in Italy, andthat's where he is right now.
And what's amazing is he isactually preaching right now.
And so we are preaching hereat V1, but he is preaching to thousands
right now in Italy.
And the testimonies that arecoming out of that, it's like it
(00:47):
is an honor and a privilegefor us to be able to send the apostle
out.
That's what apostle means.
It's sent one.
And so he is there right nowministering to thousands of people
in Italy.
And so shout out pastor andApostle Mike Signorelli.
So today, this is going to bea part two from last week.
(01:10):
Who here was at Easter last week?
Come on.
Such an amazing sermon byPastor Mike.
And today is a part two.
And for every single personthat came last week, new and you're
here today.
I just want to welcome youback to V1 Church.
And today's message is calledthe Sacred Path.
(01:32):
The Sacred Path.
And what I want to speak toyou about today, and I'm going to
do a little bit of teaching,and then I'm going to preach.
Okay?
Is that okay?
Is that all right today?
But when we talk about theSacred path and we talk about people
giving their life to Christand someone becoming a new believer,
(01:55):
immediately you enter thekingdom of heaven, the kingdom of
God, and there's somethingthat takes place in you, and you
immediately receive a newidentity in Christ.
And so today, when we talkabout this path that the Lord has
us on, what we're talkingabout is not only believing in Christ,
(02:17):
but following him, because alot of people believe in him, but
not that many actually follow him.
So when we talk about a path,a path is meant to be walked on.
It's meant to move.
It's not meant to look at thepath and say, that looks.
That's really cool.
Those people get to do thatand look at the path from a distance
(02:41):
and say, no, the Lord iscalling me to that path.
And so this is what it means.
And before we get into some ofthe pitfalls that many Christians
get into, let me just share.
What does it actually mean tobe saved?
Like, what is salvation?
Salvation is the free gift ofGod to man.
(03:04):
It is given by God's gracealone, and not through any work or
merit on our behalf.
We say it this way.
By grace alone, through faithalone in Christ alone.
Can everyone say that one moretime with me?
By grace alone, through faithalone in Christ alone.
(03:28):
Come on now.
It is Christ.
It is Christ.
He is the cornerstone, and hebrings us into his kingdom, and he
calls us to Himself.
And he came on this earth, andhe lived a sinless life, and he died
on that cross.
And that's what we celebratedat Easter, that there was a death,
(03:50):
but then three days later,there was a resurrection.
And now he calls us into thatresurrected life.
And when we receive that, thatis what salvation is.
But I'm here to tell you todayit's not just about believing in
it.
It's about us saying, lord,what does it mean to actually follow
(04:13):
you now?
Which means we begin thesanctification process.
And there's something thatmany Christians don't understand,
especially new believers.
But I'm here to tell you Iknow this message may sound like
it's geared to.
To new converts, newbelievers, but there are many people
(04:34):
in this room at every singlecampus, and you've been saved for
10, 20, 30, 40, 50 years.
This message is for you.
It's for you.
And so don't be thinkingabout, oh, I wish this other person
was here to hear this.
No, this message is for you.
If you can hear my voice, thisis for you.
(04:54):
And it's more than justbelieving in Christ.
It's following him as abeliever, as a follower, and not
just getting saved, butsaying, lord Jesus, what do I do
now that I am saved and how doI work this out through.
What's the word?
Discipleship.
(05:15):
I'm still just teaching.
Okay?
I'm about to preach in just a second.
I promise.
So we have salvation throughChrist and sanctification with Christ.
And being a follower of Christmeans that we will walk the narrow
path, the sacred path.
(05:39):
And when we start talking likethis, what happens is we begin to
look at what does it actuallymean to be a disciple of Christ?
What does it mean to take mybelief in Christ and that salvation
moment?
What does it actually mean nowfor me to walk this faith out in
(05:59):
fear and trembling like the.
Like the Word says.
And to be a disciple, it trulymeans to be a Christian.
It's like, what is a Christian?
You look at Acts 11:26 really quickly.
It says, and when he had foundhim, he brought him to Antioch.
For a whole year, they metwith the church and taught a great
(06:23):
many people.
And in Antioch, the discipleswere first called Christians.
And this is the first timethat you actually hear this phrase,
this terminology, inscripture, in Acts, and it says that
they were called Christians.
Why?
(06:45):
Not just because they believedin Christ, but because they lived
and followed Christ on a pathwhich is discipleship.
It is a verb.
It's action.
It's not just belief.
It's not just head knowledge.
It's not just knowingsomething about Christ.
It's knowing Christ on thepath that he has called us to.
(07:12):
And so I'm going to break downthree different ways that people
follow Christ.
And the two are the mostcommon that we see, especially in
people that just get saved,but also people that have been saved
for 50 years.
There's two kinds.
One that jumps right in andover does it.
(07:35):
This is what I call the sprinter.
The second one is they stayback and do nothing.
This is what I call the staller.
So I'm gonna break down whatit means to be the sprinter today
and to be the staller.
And there's actually goodattributes to both of these things.
(07:55):
But I promise you, there'speople in this room that are stuck
in both of these.
And a lot of times whathappens is there is a cycle and a
cycle and a cycle of these two things.
And I've met with people intheir 60s that got saved at seven
years old, and they're stuckin these two things.
And so let me break this down.
(08:15):
Number one, the sprinter, theoverzealous believer.
How do I describe this?
They jump into everything,everywhere, all at once.
How many people have been here?
Especially when you first getsaved and you're so passionate about
this new thing that you justfeel like you just signed up for,
(08:38):
and you don't reallyunderstand it completely, but you
know that Christ saved you andthat you were dead and that he raised
you up, and now you have life again.
And you're like, how manyconnect groups that does this church
have?
And they're like, 35.
And then they're like, sign meup for every one of them.
How many serving.
How many serving opportunitiesare there?
And it's like, okay, let me doall of it.
(08:58):
I want to go from parking toushering to prayer team.
And it's like, these peoplewill literally sign up for every
single thing.
And it's not three zooms aweek, it's three zooms a night.
This is the sprinter.
What are the strengths of the sprinter?
Because these.
These strengths are actually good.
They're passionate, they'reexcited, and they are willing to
(09:21):
serve.
Who here Wants to be passionate.
It's like, I want to be passionate.
But without wisdom, thatpassion will turn to pain and hurt.
And so we gotta have wisdom.
So what are the dangers of this?
Number one, burnout.
(09:43):
And I know this word.
At some churches, it's like,you can't say that word.
It's a bad word.
At other churches, everyonefeels it, but they don't say it.
But let me.
Let me just break this down.
Galatians 6, verse 9.
It says, do not grow weary indoing good.
(10:04):
What does that mean?
As believers and Christiansand Christ followers, we are meant
to do good the moment wereceive salvation, all the way onto
the other side of eternity.
So I believe that you couldget saved at 7 and be in your 70s
and never experience burnout.
(10:26):
I believe it.
But it requires wisdom fromheaven, from God.
How?
On your discipleship journey,on the sacred path.
So let me tell you, if youhave been in a cycle of feeling like,
you give everything, giveeverything, give everything.
(10:46):
And then you get to this placeof utter exhaustion and you don't
know what to do, and you feellike, I can't go on another day.
I promise you.
There is something that theLord needs to teach you today in
terms of the sacred path, theways that he is calling us to, the
ways that he calls his bride to.
Number two is there is a lackof wisdom.
(11:10):
And this is what I mean interms of the overzealous believer.
Usually they try to doeverything on their own strength.
Not from the strength fromGod, not from the strength that he
gives us as a believer.
Because it says in the Wordthat it's actually in our weakness.
But a lot of times believersare like, I just gotta put my bootstraps
(11:33):
on.
I just gotta try to will myself.
It's like, no, I come withfilthy rags.
You know what I bring?
I bring filthy rags to Christ.
And he washes me white as snow.
And he resurrects something inme, and he moves me and he pushes
me, and he allows me to walkthis path without burnout and with
(11:53):
wisdom.
Come on, don't make me startpreaching to you guys today.
There is a sacred wisdom.
It's wisdom, the third thing.
And this begins to get into pride.
So usually the sprinter islike, I'm so exhausted.
They're not using wisdom.
And then what happens?
Pride comes.
(12:17):
Pride comes.
And I Love this.
In First Timothy 3, verse 6,it says, he must not be a recent
convert or he may becomepuffed up.
Guess what?
I've been puffed up in my life.
There were Seasons.
When I was younger, in highschool, in my.
In my early 20s, I lacked awisdom from heaven.
(12:39):
And my head began to getbigger and bigger.
And I was like, I'm the man.
And I could preach and I could prophesy.
And the Lord's like, josh,what are you doing in your own strength?
Because our strength will onlyget us so far until we absolutely
quit.
It's like, you see a bunch ofdeconstructing Christians, it's because
(13:00):
they're trying to do things intheir own strength.
And it's like, I just have todo this.
I have to do this.
And the Lord's like, come tome on your hands and your knees.
As a child, we are meant to be childlike.
And so we come to him and say,lord, in my weakness, your power
is made perfect.
(13:22):
What's a biblical example of this?
You look at the life of Peter.
Matthew 26:33.
Jesus is speaking to hisdisciples again.
That was Matthew 26, verse 33.
And Jesus is talking to hisdisciples, and he's like, all of
you are gonna fail me.
And Peter's like, listen, ifall fall.
(13:42):
And this is his quote, if allfall away, I never will.
Guess what?
Peter does that.
Before the rooster crows, hedenies Christ three times.
Peter lacked wisdom.
But guess what?
Peter also did.
Come on now.
Because this is wheresometimes the enemy will make us
(14:03):
think.
Well, just because you deniedthat one time, that he doesn't have
a plan for your future.
But the entire Christianchurch was built upon Peter.
He saw thousands saved andbaptized at Pentecost, and he became
one of the greatest disciplesand apostles.
And we're still talking abouthim this day, 2000 years later.
(14:25):
So, yes, Peter messed up, butit's time to get back up.
Come on.
If you feel burnt out rightnow, the wind of the Holy Spirit
is in this room, and he's atyour campus, and he's about to start
a fire in your life.
He's about to start a fire inyour family.
Because we serve the God whodoes the impossible things.
(14:47):
The impossible.
So what's the remedy to this?
You're like, man, there wasjust a bunch of problems.
The remedy, learn to walkbefore you ever run.
And this is to every singleChristian, because I meet with people,
they've been saved for 20years, and they've been running and
(15:07):
sprinting, and they neveractually stopped.
Stopped and slowed down.
To learn the word of God, it'slike, come on, we need the word of
God.
And sometimes the enemy willpush us and push us and push us and
we stop being discipled, andwe just get busy.
It's like, come on, we have tolearn to walk before we ever run.
(15:33):
I remember in 1999, I was ineighth grade, 1999, and there was
this conference called Day One.
And it was put on by Acquirethe Fire.
Whoever's Acquire the fire.
Any 90s Christians in here,come on now.
At every campus who went to.
(15:53):
I know Pastor Julie right nowis in New Jersey.
Like, yes, yes, yes.
Acquire the Fire.
Come on, let's go.
But there was this thingcalled the choir, the Fire.
And it was in Pontiac,Michigan, at the Silver Dome, which
no longer exists, but theybrought 71,000 students to the Silver
Dome in 1999.
(16:15):
And I was like, man, this isthe time for me to get all of my
friends saved.
And I'm in eighth grade, okay?
So I invite 50 of my friends.
40 of them go.
Cause they're like, hey, it'son a weekend.
So I'm telling you guys,people just need an invite.
Everyone's like, it's so hardto evangelize.
It's so hard to invite them to something.
(16:38):
Hey, come on.
Come to church with me.
Come to you.
Come on.
Every single youth that couldhear my voice, invite your friends.
And they will come.
They will come.
And so we get there.
Amazing.
I mean, 71,000 people.
Worship was incredible.
And I remember the last night,and we're there, and Ron Luce, who
(17:03):
is.
He led Acquire the Fire.
Amazing man of God.
And he's giving this sermon onthe cross of Christ.
He's giving this gospelpresent, one of the best gospel presentations
I've ever heard.
And he's talking aboutclinging to the cross of Christ.
And I remember there's thismoment where he says.
(17:24):
And this is towards the end ofit, he says, if you want the cross,
I want you to stand up rightnow in front of all of your peers
and scream at the top of yourlungs, I want the cross.
And he literally just.
He said that.
And then he just did this.
(17:45):
And in a room of 71,000people, you could literally hear
a pin drop.
And I remember thinking, lordJesus, please, please.
I mean, I was a Christian.
I got saved at a very young age.
And I've been trying to getthese kids saved for years.
And I've been praying for them.
My mom's been praying for them.
And I was like, lord Jesus, please.
And I remember sitting.
(18:05):
It felt like two minutes thatit was just dead quiet in this massive
stadium.
And all of a sudden, one of mybest friends that I brought with
me that I knew since I was ayoung kid.
I felt like his knees were,like, shaking.
And I was like, come on, Lord.
Come on, Holy Spirit.
Get him up, get him up, gethim up.
(18:26):
And all of a sudden, he standsup and he lifts his hands and he
says, I want the cross.
And it reverberated in thismassive stadium.
And that kick started 15 to 20minutes of kids all around this entire
stadium standing up saying, Iwant the cross.
(18:47):
I want the cross.
And I saw all 40 of thosefriends stand up and do that.
Now, I'm telling you thisstory for a reason, because I know
it's like, wow, that sounds amazing.
But guess what?
They were a little overzealous.
And so we get back from thatthing and we're in eighth grade,
(19:09):
and now I'm like, the leaderof these friends, and so I'm trying
to, like, rally them, and it'slike, hey, Josh, every single one
of them broke up with their girlfriends.
The next night, we had a CDburning party.
You remember that?
You get the big bonfire, andyou're like, every secular thing
I've ever owned.
Come on.
I know there's people at everycampus who are like, yes, I went
(19:31):
to those parties when I was inhigh school, especially in the 90s.
It's like, we get this bigbonfire and we're like, we had the
huge CD case and even secular clothing.
I mean, it was like throwingeverything in there.
Like, whatever is connected toanything evil in my life, I'm burning
it.
So we were having thoseparties, and then on that Monday,
(19:52):
they were like, josh, we haveto pray for the lunch during the
lunchroom.
And so I was like, okay, I'lldo this, you know, So I literally
stand up on the table in thelunchroom, and I'm like, hey, there's
about 300 kids in the lunchroom.
I'm like, hey, everybody, justso you know, I'm going to be praying
over the food from now on.
And people look at me like,what are you talking about?
And I was like, come on.
(20:13):
And we were so passionate.
We were so excited.
And we.
And we began to pray overlunch, and more people started to
join the table, and morepeople began to get saved.
But here's the thing.
Little by little, the Enemystarted to pick these kids off.
(20:36):
And little by little, itdidn't happen in the first week,
it didn't happen in the first month.
But three months later, sixmonths later, these kids began to.
All of a sudden, the Enemystarted to feel a little bit more
appetizing.
The things of the world felt alittle bit more appetizing.
Alcohol, drugs, cigarettes,all those things, they felt a little
(20:57):
bit more appetizing.
Do you know why that happened?
Because they never learned howto actually walk before they tried
to run.
And it's.
We have to learn to walk first.
And me, I was in eighth grade.
I don't know how old you arein eighth grade.
12, 13 years old.
I was basically their mini shepherd.
(21:20):
Like, I was like their pastor.
But here's the thing.
I wasn't a pastor, and Iwasn't meant to be one at that age.
What they needed was the local church.
What they needed was the brideof Christ to walk them through discipleship.
They didn't need just anotherBible study.
They didn't need just another thing.
They needed the local bride ofChrist that they submit to, that
(21:43):
they have a covering over,that they're able to actually walk
out on the sacred path thatChrist has for them.
And so the second thing is wehave to be rooted.
We have to learn to walkbefore we run, and we have to be
rooted and built in him.
(22:04):
So let me just share a littlebit more about the local church,
because I know it's like, hey,Pastor Josh, you're a pastor of a
church, and of course you'regoing to talk good about the church.
If you leave the church, youleave Christ.
You cannot leave Christ'sbride and not leave him.
(22:26):
And I'm speaking to everyone online.
You cannot leave the churchand also not leave Christ.
You can't.
That's his bride.
That's who he died for.
Yes, it is every.
It's his plan A.
(22:47):
There's no other plan.
There's no other thing.
There's no other second.
Well, if you also, if you dothis, it's like, no, he's coming
back.
What, for a spotless bride,the church.
And we have to be rooted inthe church.
And so I see all of theseChristians and we're going to see
(23:09):
more of it as time goes on.
This is why we got to be boldwhen we say these things and warn
people.
Yeah, there will be morepeople that are like, well, this
thing just wasn't for me.
I'm just going to try to be asolo Christian by myself.
That it's not the OldTestament anymore.
We live in a new covenantwhere the church was built for God's
people.
(23:30):
And of course, it's not just a building.
Because you might hear thisand be like, oh, well, everyone just
wants me to go to a building.
No, the church is the peopleof God.
You were meant to be incommunion with the people, people
of God, and that's what he'scalling us to.
So if you're watching rightnow online, if you're even at a.
(23:50):
At a service right now, andmaybe you've been hurt by a church
in the past, and you're like,I'm just kind of testing this thing
out.
The Lord's plan for you is tobe rooted in a church, even if it's
not V1 church.
We have a card in the back ofthe seat with five other amazing
churches in your area.
But get rooted the church.
(24:11):
And that's what those kidsdidn't have.
They had the passion, they hadthe excitement.
They were willing to do everything.
But what they didn't have wasthe grounding and the rooting of
the bride of Christ.
Is this good for someone today?
(24:32):
Are you being ministered to?
My prayer during this is,Lord, not my words, not my will,
but your will be done.
Lord, I pray that my vocalcords wouldn't even be the thing
that saves or changes people,but it would be the spirit of God
moving at every single campus.
Okay, let's go to type two.
(24:53):
Okay, that's the first one.
The first one is the sprinter.
Type 2 is the passive believerin what I call the staller.
The staller.
They hang back, they'rehesitant to engage, and they're very
afraid of failure.
(25:18):
It's like they always take astep back when everyone else is taking
a step forward.
They're like, I don't know.
And what's amazing about thisis when you look at the strengths,
the strength that they have isactually the thing that's causing
them to pause.
Let me say this before I saythat the strengths are thoughtfulness,
(25:41):
they're cautious, and they are discerning.
You know what discernment does?
It causes you to pause.
Do you know what wisdom does?
It causes you to move.
You can't just havediscernment and not have wisdom.
Discernment is the thing thatsays something's not right.
(26:01):
I don't know what it is aboutthat person, but I just feel something.
I don't know what it is aboutthis ministry, this thing.
And what it causes is a pausein you.
But what we have right now inmany churches is only discerning
people, but not wise people,because wisdom is actually applied.
Come on.
What's wisdom in the Bible?
(26:22):
It's like knowledge isreceived, but wisdom is applied.
To apply something is action,it's verb, it's moving.
And so we can't just havediscernment and be like, everything's
bad.
No one do this, no one do that.
It's like, what.
What ends up becoming in.
In discernment is religious spirit.
(26:43):
And it judges and it judgesand it judges.
But it's like, tell me what Ishould do.
Don't just tell me why, whereI should stop.
Because we have a bunch ofpeople that will literally just go
on in their discipleshipjourney, and they will pause, and
they will live in that pauseuntil they're 80 years old.
And it's like, the Lord wantsus to move.
(27:05):
The Lord is moving us on thissacred path.
What are the dangers of thepassive believer?
Spiritual stagnation.
Hebrews 5:12.
It says this.
By this time, all of y'allought to be teachers.
(27:27):
But what are you?
You're not teachers.
And it's like, wait a minute, Lord.
I've been on this discipleshipjourney for 10 years, 15 years, and
I'm still concerned aboutthese little petty things.
And I still don't reallyunderstand my word, and I still am
not faithful to the church.
And it's like, come on, come on.
(27:49):
The enemy is trying to stopyou from engaging with the discipleship
journey that God has for you.
Because there are people inour church.
There are people watchingright now.
And the Lord has a greaterplan and purpose for your life, and
you have teaching ability.
I believe there's pastors inthe room.
(28:10):
I believe there's ministers.
I believe that there's evangelists.
I believe that every singlegood and perfect gift he has for
you is yours.
But it will not happen if youare standing back in the wings waiting
for something.
You know what God's waitingfor is you.
A lot of times we're waitingfor someone to come up to us and
(28:33):
be like, hey, here's yourwhole purpose.
Here's the next 40 years ofyour life.
Here's the whole roadmap.
And the Lord's like, I'm notgoing to give you any of that stuff.
I want to be like Isaiah,where he calls Isaiah out.
And even before the Lordtelling Isaiah what he's going to
do, I say, isaiah, what doeshe say?
Lord, send me, Lord, send me.
(28:53):
It's like, we want to be Christians.
That even before we hear theplan, before we hear the roadmap,
before we hear every singlething that the Lord's going to do,
it's like, if the Lord is init, I am going.
If the Spirit is there, I am there.
I don't need the roadmap.
And what's amazing is, as youbegin to move, what happens?
(29:18):
Your calling and your purposeand everything that the Lord has
for you begins to unfold.
And there's so many Christiansright now literally waiting in the
wings, waiting for someone toactivate them, waiting.
And it's like you have theHoly Spirit inside of you, and he
is the activator number two.
(29:43):
Missed opportunities.
And let me say this.
It's not missed opportunitiesthat you're missing for yourself.
It's missed opportunities tobless others.
You not living your purposeand calling means other people also
don't get to actuallyexperience the gift that God gave
(30:06):
you to activate them.
It's missed opportunities tobless and love others.
And then the third thing isthere begins to be a fear over faith,
and people become paralyzed by insecurity.
(30:28):
And the longer you sit backand the longer you wait, the more
the enemy begins to lie to youand bring insecurities to you and
say, you don't have it.
You can't do it.
You don't sound right.
Look at.
What's the.
What's the biblical example of this?
Moses.
In Exodus 3, God calls Mosesto go to Egypt.
(30:49):
And what's the first thingthat Moses says?
Lord, who am I?
I can't go.
I have a speech impediment.
I don't know what Moses wasdealing with, but he said he couldn't
talk right?
And he was like, I can't do it.
I don't have the strength.
And God was like, exactly,because you know who I am.
(31:10):
What does he say?
I am who I am.
I am the creator of theheavens and the earth.
I am the alpha and the omega.
And if I want to do it in you,I will do it through you.
And all that you have to sayis, lord, send me, Lord, I will go.
And it's.
And this is why I said this inthe beginning.
(31:30):
It's in our weakness.
It's in our weakness.
So you don't have to have thedegree and every.
You don't have to have all ofthis stuff.
And some of you are listeningto me right now.
And.
And it's like the enemy hasstopped you, installed you, because
you're like, I don't have theright singing voice.
I don't.
I don't really know.
I can't sound like PastorMike, and I can't sound like Pastor
(31:51):
Josh.
Guess what?
You were never meant to soundlike us.
You were meant to sound like you.
And the Lord is giving you avoice, and the enemy will stop you
and stall you, and you willget Insecurities.
And you will.
All these things will end upin your life.
And all of a sudden you'll be70, 80 years old, and you'll say,
(32:13):
what have I done with my life?
Come on, hear this sermon.
Today.
Today is the day.
Today is the day that you stepup, stand up and begin to walk on
the sacred path that he hasfor you.
(32:33):
So what's the remedies for this?
Take the first faithful step.
It's time to get out of the boat.
It's time to get out of the boat.
So there's a lot of people inthe boat right now, and it's storming
and it's raging, and theLord's like, come to me on the water.
(32:54):
If you keep your eyesight onme, you could walk on water.
I mean, I couldn't imagine theother disciples in the boat when
Peter steps out and they'relike, wait, is that him on the water?
What's going on?
I wonder if they were like, Iwish I would have stepped out first.
I wish I would also had thefaith to do it.
(33:15):
Because even when Peter beginsto sink, the Lord's like, I got you.
It was just stepping out ofthe boat.
And even when you feel likeyou're sinking, he pulls you back
up and puts you on, what, thesolid rock of the church.
(34:26):
So get out of the boat.
The second thing is trustGod's strength, not your own.
Philippians 2:13 says, for itis God who works in you.
It is the Holy Spirit workingin you.
It is the Spirit of God movingthrough you, not your own strength,
(34:50):
not your own might, notanything that you could bring.
And I don't care if you have aspeech impediment.
I don't care if you can't talk right.
The Lord wants to use you.
Are you guys tracking with me?
And I just feel.
(35:11):
Just even prophetically rightnow, I just feel like the Lord is
speaking to people.
I believe that whatever campusyou're at right now, that the Lord
has been even speaking to youas I've been going through this.
And you may be like the onethat was sitting next to me, where
it's like, I want to stand upand shout.
I want the cross.
But I don't know if I have thestrength to do it.
(35:32):
I don't know if I have what it takes.
And the Lord says, I am what I am.
And all that we have to do isrely on the strength that comes from
Christ.
So let's talk about the third way.
(35:53):
So those were two ways thatmany people get in cycles over and
over.
And when I said cycles, what Imean is people will run a thousand
miles per hour and thenthey'll get burnt out and they will
stop.
And then they will sit in asitting waiting season for a year,
two years, three years, 10years, 15 years, 25 years.
(36:21):
And it's like, what have youbeen doing?
Well, I just been waiting, youknow, I'm waiting for the Lord to
speak to me about what he hasfor me.
I'm here to tell you this isyour sign.
This is your sign today.
If you've been saying that,Lord, I've just been waiting for
(36:41):
a sign.
Here is your sign.
The Holy Spirit, if you are abeliever and a Christ follower, entered
into you at salvation, andthat spirit convicts you, moves you,
that.
That spirit of God is thepower that we need in this earth
(37:02):
to go out and preach thegospel, to go out and do the kingdom
work that he has for us.
Because I don't want to be theChristian in my 80s that.
That's living in.
In.
In Scottsdale or in Boca Ratonor whatever it is, driving my golf
cart and being like, these aregoing to be the next best 10 years
of my life.
I've been working my.
(37:22):
It's like, no, I want to goout in the mission field.
I want to go out in my 90ssaying, Lord Jesus, I gave you everything,
Lord, I gave you everything.
I gave you everything, Lord,for every day of my life, every year
of my life.
And I wasn't stalled, and Iwasn't trying to sprint too fast.
(37:42):
I learned how to walk on thesacred path.
And so what is the Lordcalling us to?
What is the third way?
There's just three things.
And then I'm going to just getinto a couple practicals, and then
we're going to be done.
(38:06):
What is the third way?
First, start withrelationships, not activity.
Start with.
And I'm speaking to Christiansthat have been saved a long time.
This isn't just for newbelievers, because they're like,
hey, what do I do?
Start with relationships.
It is about the people.
(38:27):
It is about the people.
And Pastor Mike says this allthe time.
He's like, it's not about the systems.
It's not about the procedures.
It's not about all of theforms and the best practices.
It's about us showing peoplethe God that we have given our life
to.
It's about people coming intoour campuses and not being so busy
(38:48):
that you don't even look themin their eyes.
And guess what?
I do this sometimes.
I'm the exact pastor of V1Church and I'm.
And, and on a Sunday, talkingto all the campuses and I could just
walk through a hall andcompletely miss someone who's hurting
and dying.
And it's like, take theblinders off.
(39:09):
I don't care if you're on theworship team.
I don't care if you're on theprayer team.
I don't care if you have themost important job on a Sunday.
Take the blinders off and lookpeople in their eyes.
It's not about the activity,it's about the relationship.
Number two, grow steadily, not sporadically.
(39:33):
Hebrews 12.
What does it talk about?
Running the race that he hasfor us.
And here's the thing, youguys, I just, I just talked about
this in the school.
The prophets shout out schoolthe prophets.
But, but Hebrews 12 startswith a therefore, which means if
there's a therefore, you haveto ask, what is it there for?
(39:58):
And so you go back to Hebrews11 and everyone quotes Hebrews 12.
But it's like, what is ittalking about?
If there, if it's a therefore, it's.
It's saying.
All of this that I just saidis leading up to this one point about
running a race.
What is, what is the entirechapter 11 about?
The faith that the, that everygeneration since Adam, all the way
(40:19):
until Christ, had for the impossible.
It talks about rivers being parted.
It talks about Jericho going down.
Guess who saw Jericho's wallscoming down before they came down?
It's like sometimes we gottasee them coming down prophetically
then.
This is why the gift ofprophecy is so crucial in the local
(40:40):
church.
And this is why Paul saysevery believer should be doing it,
not just people that have beensaved for 20 years.
Not just pastors, not just,oh, they're just very prophetic.
So they prophesy.
The Lord is wanting all of usto prophesy because there are walls
in your life that you not yethave seen.
Come down prophetically.
(41:00):
And the enemy has sent.
Stopped you from going there.
But the moment you see them godown, you say, lord, they're not
down yet.
But I know they're coming down.
That river has not parted, butI know it's going to fart.
That the water is coming outof the rock and he's calling us to
see it.
(41:25):
The third thing, serve withwisdom and humility.
I love this.
First Peter 4.
It says, use whatever gift youhave received.
To what?
To serve others.
You know, when you, when youbecome a believer in Christ and get
saved, every single Persongets a gift.
(41:50):
You know, the Bible says thatevery single.
It's not like, well, I justgot to say enough prayers.
I just got to be saved forthis long.
Then the gift is going to come.
The moment at salvation, itsays that he is a good and perfect
father who loves his children,that gives gifts freely.
(42:11):
Freely.
And so you may be watchingright now, you may be at a campus
thinking, I don't know whatgift I have.
The Lord has given you one andhe wants it to see activated today.
And I've been sent here as aprophet, as a man of God, and as
a pastor to see that gift comealive and the faith in the room to
(42:31):
rise in the name of Jesus.
Everyone step to their feet.
Come on, on your feet.
At every single campus.
Because the Lord is doing something.
And I believe that all thosewho have been sitting, all of those
who've been in the wingsaying, I don't know what to do.
I don't know where to go.
The Lord is going to speak toyou now, not by my voice, but by
the voice from heaven intoyour life, into your destiny, into
(42:54):
your purpose.
And he's going to see itactivated in the name of Jesus.
You guys feel his presence.
You guys feel him working?
I feel it so heavily right now.
(43:16):
And in my prayer time, I havefive things.
I'll say them real quick, butI just feel prophetically.
It's like in my prayer time, Isaw people in pain, I saw people
hurting.
I saw people like, no one sees me.
Nobody knows what I've beengoing through.
And the Lord says, daughter,son, I've heard your prayers.
(43:41):
I've heard your cries.
I've heard.
I've heard.
I've heard the Lord says toyou today that he is a good father
and he doesn't want yousitting and sitting and sitting.
Yes, there.
There's seasons of rest.
There is seasons.
(44:01):
Seasons of sitting.
There is, okay, but I'm hereto tell you at some point that season
ends and you begin to go onthat sacred path that he has for
you.
And you begin to go on thatsacred walk that he has for you.
(44:23):
Let me just share five.
These are recommendations.
This isn't for every single church.
This is for V1 Church.
This is how we know how todisciple you.
Five quick things.
Start reading your Bible everysingle day.
We have the Daily Grow journal.
If you don't have one, get one.
Read your Bible every single day.
Commit to learning and growing.
(44:44):
Number two.
Pray every single day.
Prayer is not just for theprayer team.
I think a lot of times it'slike, oh, we gotta get this to the
prayer team so that they cango pray for it.
Guess what?
We have one of the best prayerteams in the entire world.
Shout Out Evelyn in Brooklynand all the Laverted Sharita, every
single campus.
(45:04):
But I'm telling you, the Lord,he wants you to be a prayer warrior.
He wants you to be an intercessor.
He wants you to partner with.
So maybe today it's time foryou to join the prayer team, because
you've been praying in your closet.
And the Lord says, come outtoday and shine your light upon all
men.
(45:26):
Number three, sign up forpassport and breakers.
This is a commitment to discipleship.
Can I just say something?
I just.
I didn't even plan on sayingthis, but I just feel it prophetically.
If you believe that thediscipleship process that we have
put in place at this church isto control you, it is actually to
(45:50):
deploy you.
And I believe that the enemyhas gotten into some people's minds
where, like, oh, they're justtrying to control me.
They're just trying to tell mewhat I can and can't do.
No, I'm trying to see you liveout your purposes.
I'm trying to see the spiritof God move in your life.
And usually the people thatsay no to that are the ones that
are in the cycle and cycle and cycle.
(46:12):
And it's like, come on, jointhe sacred path with me.
Join the sacred path of discipleship.
Number four, join the ground crew.
Commit to serve in the church.
Number five, join a flight crew.
Commit to connect with other believers.
(46:35):
Commit to connect with other believers.
Because this is what we'rehere for, to connect with God and
to connect with each other.
What else are we here for?
This is why the church exists,for us to connect with him and to
bring people in.
Oh, man, come on, you got mepreaching now.
(46:56):
I said I was gonna preach.
Can I say a prayer?
I need to close this out, buteveryone just close your eyes.
I.
I didn't plan on doing this either.
Could everyone close theireyes at every single campus?
I believe that as I wasspeaking, the spirit of God was moving
(47:20):
in your living room in NewJersey, in Long island, in Brooklyn,
in Miami, here in Indiana,every single person online in Canada,
in the United Kingdom andPuerto Rico.
And I believe that there is aconviction that has come come over
you.
And even as I've beenspeaking, it's like, oh, man, this
is me.
He's been talking about me.
(47:41):
I don't know what else to do.
This is what I want you to do.
If you, if, if.
Either.
If you feel like you've beengoing too fast and you.
And you don't even know whatto do and you want to get disciple
deeper, or you've been waitingin the wings and you're like, I don't
even know if I could speak.
I don't know what to do.
And you've been in the cycle.
I want you to raise your handat every single campus.
(48:02):
I want you to raise your handand say, lord Jesus, sign me up for
whatever you have for me.
And this is the Isaiah call,the one that says, I'm not gonna
give you the blueprint.
I'm not gonna give you the map.
I'm not gonna tell you theentire destiny and the future and
the business ideas and the strategies.
I'm looking for people thathave been touched by the coal from
heaven, by the precious bloodof Jesus, willing to be like Isaiah,
(48:26):
where we say, lord Jesus,Jesus, if it's your will, then I
say yes to it.
If it's your call, then I sayyes to it.
So with every hand raised,Lord Jesus, I pray right now, I pray
right now, Lord Jesus, thatyou would move mightily at every
single campus, that you wouldstart to convict the hearts of the
people, that as we begin tosing out, just in a second, that
(48:50):
we will sing out witheverything that we have, that we
would bring a worship in atongue and we would bring a praise
to the mighty name of Jesus.
Amen.
(49:19):
It.
Foreign.
I'm excited.
My name is Josh Hamster.
I'm the executive pastor hereat V1 Church.
It is an honor to be able tohave this platform today.
Pastor Mike is in an apostolicjourney right now in Italy.
(00:23):
And so let me just sharesomething real quick.
We've been getting someamazing, amazing testimonies from
Apostle Mike out in Italy, andthat's where he is right now.
And what's amazing is he isactually preaching right now.
And so we are preaching hereat V1, but he is preaching to thousands
right now in Italy.
And the testimonies that arecoming out of that, it's like it
(00:47):
is an honor and a privilegefor us to be able to send the apostle
out.
That's what apostle means.
It's sent one.
And so he is there right nowministering to thousands of people
in Italy.
And so shout out pastor andApostle Mike Signorelli.
So today, this is going to bea part two from last week.
(01:10):
Who here was at Easter last week?
Come on.
Such an amazing sermon byPastor Mike.
And today is a part two.
And for every single personthat came last week, new and you're
here today.
I just want to welcome youback to V1 Church.
And today's message is calledthe Sacred Path.
(01:32):
The Sacred Path.
And what I want to speak toyou about today, and I'm going to
do a little bit of teaching,and then I'm going to preach.
Okay?
Is that okay?
Is that all right today?
But when we talk about theSacred path and we talk about people
giving their life to Christand someone becoming a new believer,
(01:55):
immediately you enter thekingdom of heaven, the kingdom of
God, and there's somethingthat takes place in you, and you
immediately receive a newidentity in Christ.
And so today, when we talkabout this path that the Lord has
us on, what we're talkingabout is not only believing in Christ,
(02:17):
but following him, because alot of people believe in him, but
not that many actually follow him.
So when we talk about a path,a path is meant to be walked on.
It's meant to move.
It's not meant to look at thepath and say, that looks.
That's really cool.
Those people get to do thatand look at the path from a distance
(02:41):
and say, no, the Lord iscalling me to that path.
And so this is what it means.
And before we get into some ofthe pitfalls that many Christians
get into, let me just share.
What does it actually mean tobe saved?
Like, what is salvation?
Salvation is the free gift ofGod to man.
(03:04):
It is given by God's gracealone, and not through any work or
merit on our behalf.
We say it this way.
By grace alone, through faithalone in Christ alone.
Can everyone say that one moretime with me?
By grace alone, through faithalone in Christ alone.
(03:28):
Come on now.
It is Christ.
It is Christ.
He is the cornerstone, and hebrings us into his kingdom, and he
calls us to Himself.
And he came on this earth, andhe lived a sinless life, and he died
on that cross.
And that's what we celebratedat Easter, that there was a death,
(03:50):
but then three days later,there was a resurrection.
And now he calls us into thatresurrected life.
And when we receive that, thatis what salvation is.
But I'm here to tell you todayit's not just about believing in
it.
It's about us saying, lord,what does it mean to actually follow
(04:13):
you now?
Which means we begin thesanctification process.
And there's something thatmany Christians don't understand,
especially new believers.
But I'm here to tell you Iknow this message may sound like
it's geared to.
To new converts, newbelievers, but there are many people
(04:34):
in this room at every singlecampus, and you've been saved for
10, 20, 30, 40, 50 years.
This message is for you.
It's for you.
And so don't be thinkingabout, oh, I wish this other person
was here to hear this.
No, this message is for you.
If you can hear my voice, thisis for you.
(04:54):
And it's more than justbelieving in Christ.
It's following him as abeliever, as a follower, and not
just getting saved, butsaying, lord Jesus, what do I do
now that I am saved and how doI work this out through.
What's the word?
Discipleship.
(05:15):
I'm still just teaching.
Okay?
I'm about to preach in just a second.
I promise.
So we have salvation throughChrist and sanctification with Christ.
And being a follower of Christmeans that we will walk the narrow
path, the sacred path.
(05:39):
And when we start talking likethis, what happens is we begin to
look at what does it actuallymean to be a disciple of Christ?
What does it mean to take mybelief in Christ and that salvation
moment?
What does it actually mean nowfor me to walk this faith out in
(05:59):
fear and trembling like the.
Like the Word says.
And to be a disciple, it trulymeans to be a Christian.
It's like, what is a Christian?
You look at Acts 11:26 really quickly.
It says, and when he had foundhim, he brought him to Antioch.
For a whole year, they metwith the church and taught a great
(06:23):
many people.
And in Antioch, the discipleswere first called Christians.
And this is the first timethat you actually hear this phrase,
this terminology, inscripture, in Acts, and it says that
they were called Christians.
Why?
(06:45):
Not just because they believedin Christ, but because they lived
and followed Christ on a pathwhich is discipleship.
It is a verb.
It's action.
It's not just belief.
It's not just head knowledge.
It's not just knowingsomething about Christ.
It's knowing Christ on thepath that he has called us to.
(07:12):
And so I'm going to break downthree different ways that people
follow Christ.
And the two are the mostcommon that we see, especially in
people that just get saved,but also people that have been saved
for 50 years.
There's two kinds.
One that jumps right in andover does it.
(07:35):
This is what I call the sprinter.
The second one is they stayback and do nothing.
This is what I call the staller.
So I'm gonna break down whatit means to be the sprinter today
and to be the staller.
And there's actually goodattributes to both of these things.
(07:55):
But I promise you, there'speople in this room that are stuck
in both of these.
And a lot of times whathappens is there is a cycle and a
cycle and a cycle of these two things.
And I've met with people intheir 60s that got saved at seven
years old, and they're stuckin these two things.
And so let me break this down.
(08:15):
Number one, the sprinter, theoverzealous believer.
How do I describe this?
They jump into everything,everywhere, all at once.
How many people have been here?
Especially when you first getsaved and you're so passionate about
this new thing that you justfeel like you just signed up for,
(08:38):
and you don't reallyunderstand it completely, but you
know that Christ saved you andthat you were dead and that he raised
you up, and now you have life again.
And you're like, how manyconnect groups that does this church
have?
And they're like, 35.
And then they're like, sign meup for every one of them.
How many serving.
How many serving opportunitiesare there?
And it's like, okay, let me doall of it.
(08:58):
I want to go from parking toushering to prayer team.
And it's like, these peoplewill literally sign up for every
single thing.
And it's not three zooms aweek, it's three zooms a night.
This is the sprinter.
What are the strengths of the sprinter?
Because these.
These strengths are actually good.
They're passionate, they'reexcited, and they are willing to
(09:21):
serve.
Who here Wants to be passionate.
It's like, I want to be passionate.
But without wisdom, thatpassion will turn to pain and hurt.
And so we gotta have wisdom.
So what are the dangers of this?
Number one, burnout.
(09:43):
And I know this word.
At some churches, it's like,you can't say that word.
It's a bad word.
At other churches, everyonefeels it, but they don't say it.
But let me.
Let me just break this down.
Galatians 6, verse 9.
It says, do not grow weary indoing good.
(10:04):
What does that mean?
As believers and Christiansand Christ followers, we are meant
to do good the moment wereceive salvation, all the way onto
the other side of eternity.
So I believe that you couldget saved at 7 and be in your 70s
and never experience burnout.
(10:26):
I believe it.
But it requires wisdom fromheaven, from God.
How?
On your discipleship journey,on the sacred path.
So let me tell you, if youhave been in a cycle of feeling like,
you give everything, giveeverything, give everything.
(10:46):
And then you get to this placeof utter exhaustion and you don't
know what to do, and you feellike, I can't go on another day.
I promise you.
There is something that theLord needs to teach you today in
terms of the sacred path, theways that he is calling us to, the
ways that he calls his bride to.
Number two is there is a lackof wisdom.
(11:10):
And this is what I mean interms of the overzealous believer.
Usually they try to doeverything on their own strength.
Not from the strength fromGod, not from the strength that he
gives us as a believer.
Because it says in the Wordthat it's actually in our weakness.
But a lot of times believersare like, I just gotta put my bootstraps
(11:33):
on.
I just gotta try to will myself.
It's like, no, I come withfilthy rags.
You know what I bring?
I bring filthy rags to Christ.
And he washes me white as snow.
And he resurrects something inme, and he moves me and he pushes
me, and he allows me to walkthis path without burnout and with
(11:53):
wisdom.
Come on, don't make me startpreaching to you guys today.
There is a sacred wisdom.
It's wisdom, the third thing.
And this begins to get into pride.
So usually the sprinter islike, I'm so exhausted.
They're not using wisdom.
And then what happens?
Pride comes.
(12:17):
Pride comes.
And I Love this.
In First Timothy 3, verse 6,it says, he must not be a recent
convert or he may becomepuffed up.
Guess what?
I've been puffed up in my life.
There were Seasons.
When I was younger, in highschool, in my.
In my early 20s, I lacked awisdom from heaven.
(12:39):
And my head began to getbigger and bigger.
And I was like, I'm the man.
And I could preach and I could prophesy.
And the Lord's like, josh,what are you doing in your own strength?
Because our strength will onlyget us so far until we absolutely
quit.
It's like, you see a bunch ofdeconstructing Christians, it's because
(13:00):
they're trying to do things intheir own strength.
And it's like, I just have todo this.
I have to do this.
And the Lord's like, come tome on your hands and your knees.
As a child, we are meant to be childlike.
And so we come to him and say,lord, in my weakness, your power
is made perfect.
(13:22):
What's a biblical example of this?
You look at the life of Peter.
Matthew 26:33.
Jesus is speaking to hisdisciples again.
That was Matthew 26, verse 33.
And Jesus is talking to hisdisciples, and he's like, all of
you are gonna fail me.
And Peter's like, listen, ifall fall.
(13:42):
And this is his quote, if allfall away, I never will.
Guess what?
Peter does that.
Before the rooster crows, hedenies Christ three times.
Peter lacked wisdom.
But guess what?
Peter also did.
Come on now.
Because this is wheresometimes the enemy will make us
(14:03):
think.
Well, just because you deniedthat one time, that he doesn't have
a plan for your future.
But the entire Christianchurch was built upon Peter.
He saw thousands saved andbaptized at Pentecost, and he became
one of the greatest disciplesand apostles.
And we're still talking abouthim this day, 2000 years later.
(14:25):
So, yes, Peter messed up, butit's time to get back up.
Come on.
If you feel burnt out rightnow, the wind of the Holy Spirit
is in this room, and he's atyour campus, and he's about to start
a fire in your life.
He's about to start a fire inyour family.
Because we serve the God whodoes the impossible things.
(14:47):
The impossible.
So what's the remedy to this?
You're like, man, there wasjust a bunch of problems.
The remedy, learn to walkbefore you ever run.
And this is to every singleChristian, because I meet with people,
they've been saved for 20years, and they've been running and
(15:07):
sprinting, and they neveractually stopped.
Stopped and slowed down.
To learn the word of God, it'slike, come on, we need the word of
God.
And sometimes the enemy willpush us and push us and push us and
we stop being discipled, andwe just get busy.
It's like, come on, we have tolearn to walk before we ever run.
(15:33):
I remember in 1999, I was ineighth grade, 1999, and there was
this conference called Day One.
And it was put on by Acquirethe Fire.
Whoever's Acquire the fire.
Any 90s Christians in here,come on now.
At every campus who went to.
(15:53):
I know Pastor Julie right nowis in New Jersey.
Like, yes, yes, yes.
Acquire the Fire.
Come on, let's go.
But there was this thingcalled the choir, the Fire.
And it was in Pontiac,Michigan, at the Silver Dome, which
no longer exists, but theybrought 71,000 students to the Silver
Dome in 1999.
(16:15):
And I was like, man, this isthe time for me to get all of my
friends saved.
And I'm in eighth grade, okay?
So I invite 50 of my friends.
40 of them go.
Cause they're like, hey, it'son a weekend.
So I'm telling you guys,people just need an invite.
Everyone's like, it's so hardto evangelize.
It's so hard to invite them to something.
(16:38):
Hey, come on.
Come to church with me.
Come to you.
Come on.
Every single youth that couldhear my voice, invite your friends.
And they will come.
They will come.
And so we get there.
Amazing.
I mean, 71,000 people.
Worship was incredible.
And I remember the last night,and we're there, and Ron Luce, who
(17:03):
is.
He led Acquire the Fire.
Amazing man of God.
And he's giving this sermon onthe cross of Christ.
He's giving this gospelpresent, one of the best gospel presentations
I've ever heard.
And he's talking aboutclinging to the cross of Christ.
And I remember there's thismoment where he says.
(17:24):
And this is towards the end ofit, he says, if you want the cross,
I want you to stand up rightnow in front of all of your peers
and scream at the top of yourlungs, I want the cross.
And he literally just.
He said that.
And then he just did this.
(17:45):
And in a room of 71,000people, you could literally hear
a pin drop.
And I remember thinking, lordJesus, please, please.
I mean, I was a Christian.
I got saved at a very young age.
And I've been trying to getthese kids saved for years.
And I've been praying for them.
My mom's been praying for them.
And I was like, lord Jesus, please.
And I remember sitting.
(18:05):
It felt like two minutes thatit was just dead quiet in this massive
stadium.
And all of a sudden, one of mybest friends that I brought with
me that I knew since I was ayoung kid.
I felt like his knees were,like, shaking.
And I was like, come on, Lord.
Come on, Holy Spirit.
Get him up, get him up, gethim up.
(18:26):
And all of a sudden, he standsup and he lifts his hands and he
says, I want the cross.
And it reverberated in thismassive stadium.
And that kick started 15 to 20minutes of kids all around this entire
stadium standing up saying, Iwant the cross.
(18:47):
I want the cross.
And I saw all 40 of thosefriends stand up and do that.
Now, I'm telling you thisstory for a reason, because I know
it's like, wow, that sounds amazing.
But guess what?
They were a little overzealous.
And so we get back from thatthing and we're in eighth grade,
(19:09):
and now I'm like, the leaderof these friends, and so I'm trying
to, like, rally them, and it'slike, hey, Josh, every single one
of them broke up with their girlfriends.
The next night, we had a CDburning party.
You remember that?
You get the big bonfire, andyou're like, every secular thing
I've ever owned.
Come on.
I know there's people at everycampus who are like, yes, I went
(19:31):
to those parties when I was inhigh school, especially in the 90s.
It's like, we get this bigbonfire and we're like, we had the
huge CD case and even secular clothing.
I mean, it was like throwingeverything in there.
Like, whatever is connected toanything evil in my life, I'm burning
it.
So we were having thoseparties, and then on that Monday,
(19:52):
they were like, josh, we haveto pray for the lunch during the
lunchroom.
And so I was like, okay, I'lldo this, you know, So I literally
stand up on the table in thelunchroom, and I'm like, hey, there's
about 300 kids in the lunchroom.
I'm like, hey, everybody, justso you know, I'm going to be praying
over the food from now on.
And people look at me like,what are you talking about?
And I was like, come on.
(20:13):
And we were so passionate.
We were so excited.
And we.
And we began to pray overlunch, and more people started to
join the table, and morepeople began to get saved.
But here's the thing.
Little by little, the Enemystarted to pick these kids off.
(20:36):
And little by little, itdidn't happen in the first week,
it didn't happen in the first month.
But three months later, sixmonths later, these kids began to.
All of a sudden, the Enemystarted to feel a little bit more
appetizing.
The things of the world felt alittle bit more appetizing.
Alcohol, drugs, cigarettes,all those things, they felt a little
(20:57):
bit more appetizing.
Do you know why that happened?
Because they never learned howto actually walk before they tried
to run.
And it's.
We have to learn to walk first.
And me, I was in eighth grade.
I don't know how old you arein eighth grade.
12, 13 years old.
I was basically their mini shepherd.
(21:20):
Like, I was like their pastor.
But here's the thing.
I wasn't a pastor, and Iwasn't meant to be one at that age.
What they needed was the local church.
What they needed was the brideof Christ to walk them through discipleship.
They didn't need just anotherBible study.
They didn't need just another thing.
They needed the local bride ofChrist that they submit to, that
(21:43):
they have a covering over,that they're able to actually walk
out on the sacred path thatChrist has for them.
And so the second thing is wehave to be rooted.
We have to learn to walkbefore we run, and we have to be
rooted and built in him.
(22:04):
So let me just share a littlebit more about the local church,
because I know it's like, hey,Pastor Josh, you're a pastor of a
church, and of course you'regoing to talk good about the church.
If you leave the church, youleave Christ.
You cannot leave Christ'sbride and not leave him.
(22:26):
And I'm speaking to everyone online.
You cannot leave the churchand also not leave Christ.
You can't.
That's his bride.
That's who he died for.
Yes, it is every.
It's his plan A.
(22:47):
There's no other plan.
There's no other thing.
There's no other second.
Well, if you also, if you dothis, it's like, no, he's coming
back.
What, for a spotless bride,the church.
And we have to be rooted inthe church.
And so I see all of theseChristians and we're going to see
(23:09):
more of it as time goes on.
This is why we got to be boldwhen we say these things and warn
people.
Yeah, there will be morepeople that are like, well, this
thing just wasn't for me.
I'm just going to try to be asolo Christian by myself.
That it's not the OldTestament anymore.
We live in a new covenantwhere the church was built for God's
people.
(23:30):
And of course, it's not just a building.
Because you might hear thisand be like, oh, well, everyone just
wants me to go to a building.
No, the church is the peopleof God.
You were meant to be incommunion with the people, people
of God, and that's what he'scalling us to.
So if you're watching rightnow online, if you're even at a.
(23:50):
At a service right now, andmaybe you've been hurt by a church
in the past, and you're like,I'm just kind of testing this thing
out.
The Lord's plan for you is tobe rooted in a church, even if it's
not V1 church.
We have a card in the back ofthe seat with five other amazing
churches in your area.
But get rooted the church.
(24:11):
And that's what those kidsdidn't have.
They had the passion, they hadthe excitement.
They were willing to do everything.
But what they didn't have wasthe grounding and the rooting of
the bride of Christ.
Is this good for someone today?
(24:32):
Are you being ministered to?
My prayer during this is,Lord, not my words, not my will,
but your will be done.
Lord, I pray that my vocalcords wouldn't even be the thing
that saves or changes people,but it would be the spirit of God
moving at every single campus.
Okay, let's go to type two.
(24:53):
Okay, that's the first one.
The first one is the sprinter.
Type 2 is the passive believerin what I call the staller.
The staller.
They hang back, they'rehesitant to engage, and they're very
afraid of failure.
(25:18):
It's like they always take astep back when everyone else is taking
a step forward.
They're like, I don't know.
And what's amazing about thisis when you look at the strengths,
the strength that they have isactually the thing that's causing
them to pause.
Let me say this before I saythat the strengths are thoughtfulness,
(25:41):
they're cautious, and they are discerning.
You know what discernment does?
It causes you to pause.
Do you know what wisdom does?
It causes you to move.
You can't just havediscernment and not have wisdom.
Discernment is the thing thatsays something's not right.
(26:01):
I don't know what it is aboutthat person, but I just feel something.
I don't know what it is aboutthis ministry, this thing.
And what it causes is a pausein you.
But what we have right now inmany churches is only discerning
people, but not wise people,because wisdom is actually applied.
Come on.
What's wisdom in the Bible?
(26:22):
It's like knowledge isreceived, but wisdom is applied.
To apply something is action,it's verb, it's moving.
And so we can't just havediscernment and be like, everything's
bad.
No one do this, no one do that.
It's like, what.
What ends up becoming in.
In discernment is religious spirit.
(26:43):
And it judges and it judgesand it judges.
But it's like, tell me what Ishould do.
Don't just tell me why, whereI should stop.
Because we have a bunch ofpeople that will literally just go
on in their discipleshipjourney, and they will pause, and
they will live in that pauseuntil they're 80 years old.
And it's like, the Lord wantsus to move.
(27:05):
The Lord is moving us on thissacred path.
What are the dangers of thepassive believer?
Spiritual stagnation.
Hebrews 5:12.
It says this.
By this time, all of y'allought to be teachers.
(27:27):
But what are you?
You're not teachers.
And it's like, wait a minute, Lord.
I've been on this discipleshipjourney for 10 years, 15 years, and
I'm still concerned aboutthese little petty things.
And I still don't reallyunderstand my word, and I still am
not faithful to the church.
And it's like, come on, come on.
(27:49):
The enemy is trying to stopyou from engaging with the discipleship
journey that God has for you.
Because there are people inour church.
There are people watchingright now.
And the Lord has a greaterplan and purpose for your life, and
you have teaching ability.
I believe there's pastors inthe room.
(28:10):
I believe there's ministers.
I believe that there's evangelists.
I believe that every singlegood and perfect gift he has for
you is yours.
But it will not happen if youare standing back in the wings waiting
for something.
You know what God's waitingfor is you.
A lot of times we're waitingfor someone to come up to us and
(28:33):
be like, hey, here's yourwhole purpose.
Here's the next 40 years ofyour life.
Here's the whole roadmap.
And the Lord's like, I'm notgoing to give you any of that stuff.
I want to be like Isaiah,where he calls Isaiah out.
And even before the Lordtelling Isaiah what he's going to
do, I say, isaiah, what doeshe say?
Lord, send me, Lord, send me.
(28:53):
It's like, we want to be Christians.
That even before we hear theplan, before we hear the roadmap,
before we hear every singlething that the Lord's going to do,
it's like, if the Lord is init, I am going.
If the Spirit is there, I am there.
I don't need the roadmap.
And what's amazing is, as youbegin to move, what happens?
(29:18):
Your calling and your purposeand everything that the Lord has
for you begins to unfold.
And there's so many Christiansright now literally waiting in the
wings, waiting for someone toactivate them, waiting.
And it's like you have theHoly Spirit inside of you, and he
is the activator number two.
(29:43):
Missed opportunities.
And let me say this.
It's not missed opportunitiesthat you're missing for yourself.
It's missed opportunities tobless others.
You not living your purposeand calling means other people also
don't get to actuallyexperience the gift that God gave
(30:06):
you to activate them.
It's missed opportunities tobless and love others.
And then the third thing isthere begins to be a fear over faith,
and people become paralyzed by insecurity.
(30:28):
And the longer you sit backand the longer you wait, the more
the enemy begins to lie to youand bring insecurities to you and
say, you don't have it.
You can't do it.
You don't sound right.
Look at.
What's the.
What's the biblical example of this?
Moses.
In Exodus 3, God calls Mosesto go to Egypt.
(30:49):
And what's the first thingthat Moses says?
Lord, who am I?
I can't go.
I have a speech impediment.
I don't know what Moses wasdealing with, but he said he couldn't
talk right?
And he was like, I can't do it.
I don't have the strength.
And God was like, exactly,because you know who I am.
(31:10):
What does he say?
I am who I am.
I am the creator of theheavens and the earth.
I am the alpha and the omega.
And if I want to do it in you,I will do it through you.
And all that you have to sayis, lord, send me, Lord, I will go.
And it's.
And this is why I said this inthe beginning.
(31:30):
It's in our weakness.
It's in our weakness.
So you don't have to have thedegree and every.
You don't have to have all ofthis stuff.
And some of you are listeningto me right now.
And.
And it's like the enemy hasstopped you, installed you, because
you're like, I don't have theright singing voice.
I don't.
I don't really know.
I can't sound like PastorMike, and I can't sound like Pastor
(31:51):
Josh.
Guess what?
You were never meant to soundlike us.
You were meant to sound like you.
And the Lord is giving you avoice, and the enemy will stop you
and stall you, and you willget Insecurities.
And you will.
All these things will end upin your life.
And all of a sudden you'll be70, 80 years old, and you'll say,
(32:13):
what have I done with my life?
Come on, hear this sermon.
Today.
Today is the day.
Today is the day that you stepup, stand up and begin to walk on
the sacred path that he hasfor you.
(32:33):
So what's the remedies for this?
Take the first faithful step.
It's time to get out of the boat.
It's time to get out of the boat.
So there's a lot of people inthe boat right now, and it's storming
and it's raging, and theLord's like, come to me on the water.
(32:54):
If you keep your eyesight onme, you could walk on water.
I mean, I couldn't imagine theother disciples in the boat when
Peter steps out and they'relike, wait, is that him on the water?
What's going on?
I wonder if they were like, Iwish I would have stepped out first.
I wish I would also had thefaith to do it.
(33:15):
Because even when Peter beginsto sink, the Lord's like, I got you.
It was just stepping out ofthe boat.
And even when you feel likeyou're sinking, he pulls you back
up and puts you on, what, thesolid rock of the church.
(34:26):
So get out of the boat.
The second thing is trustGod's strength, not your own.
Philippians 2:13 says, for itis God who works in you.
It is the Holy Spirit workingin you.
It is the Spirit of God movingthrough you, not your own strength,
(34:50):
not your own might, notanything that you could bring.
And I don't care if you have aspeech impediment.
I don't care if you can't talk right.
The Lord wants to use you.
Are you guys tracking with me?
And I just feel.
(35:11):
Just even prophetically rightnow, I just feel like the Lord is
speaking to people.
I believe that whatever campusyou're at right now, that the Lord
has been even speaking to youas I've been going through this.
And you may be like the onethat was sitting next to me, where
it's like, I want to stand upand shout.
I want the cross.
But I don't know if I have thestrength to do it.
(35:32):
I don't know if I have what it takes.
And the Lord says, I am what I am.
And all that we have to do isrely on the strength that comes from
Christ.
So let's talk about the third way.
(35:53):
So those were two ways thatmany people get in cycles over and
over.
And when I said cycles, what Imean is people will run a thousand
miles per hour and thenthey'll get burnt out and they will
stop.
And then they will sit in asitting waiting season for a year,
two years, three years, 10years, 15 years, 25 years.
(36:21):
And it's like, what have youbeen doing?
Well, I just been waiting, youknow, I'm waiting for the Lord to
speak to me about what he hasfor me.
I'm here to tell you this isyour sign.
This is your sign today.
If you've been saying that,Lord, I've just been waiting for
(36:41):
a sign.
Here is your sign.
The Holy Spirit, if you are abeliever and a Christ follower, entered
into you at salvation, andthat spirit convicts you, moves you,
that.
That spirit of God is thepower that we need in this earth
(37:02):
to go out and preach thegospel, to go out and do the kingdom
work that he has for us.
Because I don't want to be theChristian in my 80s that.
That's living in.
In.
In Scottsdale or in Boca Ratonor whatever it is, driving my golf
cart and being like, these aregoing to be the next best 10 years
of my life.
I've been working my.
(37:22):
It's like, no, I want to goout in the mission field.
I want to go out in my 90ssaying, Lord Jesus, I gave you everything,
Lord, I gave you everything.
I gave you everything, Lord,for every day of my life, every year
of my life.
And I wasn't stalled, and Iwasn't trying to sprint too fast.
(37:42):
I learned how to walk on thesacred path.
And so what is the Lordcalling us to?
What is the third way?
There's just three things.
And then I'm going to just getinto a couple practicals, and then
we're going to be done.
(38:06):
What is the third way?
First, start withrelationships, not activity.
Start with.
And I'm speaking to Christiansthat have been saved a long time.
This isn't just for newbelievers, because they're like,
hey, what do I do?
Start with relationships.
It is about the people.
(38:27):
It is about the people.
And Pastor Mike says this allthe time.
He's like, it's not about the systems.
It's not about the procedures.
It's not about all of theforms and the best practices.
It's about us showing peoplethe God that we have given our life
to.
It's about people coming intoour campuses and not being so busy
(38:48):
that you don't even look themin their eyes.
And guess what?
I do this sometimes.
I'm the exact pastor of V1Church and I'm.
And, and on a Sunday, talkingto all the campuses and I could just
walk through a hall andcompletely miss someone who's hurting
and dying.
And it's like, take theblinders off.
(39:09):
I don't care if you're on theworship team.
I don't care if you're on theprayer team.
I don't care if you have themost important job on a Sunday.
Take the blinders off and lookpeople in their eyes.
It's not about the activity,it's about the relationship.
Number two, grow steadily, not sporadically.
(39:33):
Hebrews 12.
What does it talk about?
Running the race that he hasfor us.
And here's the thing, youguys, I just, I just talked about
this in the school.
The prophets shout out schoolthe prophets.
But, but Hebrews 12 startswith a therefore, which means if
there's a therefore, you haveto ask, what is it there for?
(39:58):
And so you go back to Hebrews11 and everyone quotes Hebrews 12.
But it's like, what is ittalking about?
If there, if it's a therefore, it's.
It's saying.
All of this that I just saidis leading up to this one point about
running a race.
What is, what is the entirechapter 11 about?
The faith that the, that everygeneration since Adam, all the way
(40:19):
until Christ, had for the impossible.
It talks about rivers being parted.
It talks about Jericho going down.
Guess who saw Jericho's wallscoming down before they came down?
It's like sometimes we gottasee them coming down prophetically
then.
This is why the gift ofprophecy is so crucial in the local
(40:40):
church.
And this is why Paul saysevery believer should be doing it,
not just people that have beensaved for 20 years.
Not just pastors, not just,oh, they're just very prophetic.
So they prophesy.
The Lord is wanting all of usto prophesy because there are walls
in your life that you not yethave seen.
Come down prophetically.
(41:00):
And the enemy has sent.
Stopped you from going there.
But the moment you see them godown, you say, lord, they're not
down yet.
But I know they're coming down.
That river has not parted, butI know it's going to fart.
That the water is coming outof the rock and he's calling us to
see it.
(41:25):
The third thing, serve withwisdom and humility.
I love this.
First Peter 4.
It says, use whatever gift youhave received.
To what?
To serve others.
You know, when you, when youbecome a believer in Christ and get
saved, every single Persongets a gift.
(41:50):
You know, the Bible says thatevery single.
It's not like, well, I justgot to say enough prayers.
I just got to be saved forthis long.
Then the gift is going to come.
The moment at salvation, itsays that he is a good and perfect
father who loves his children,that gives gifts freely.
(42:11):
Freely.
And so you may be watchingright now, you may be at a campus
thinking, I don't know whatgift I have.
The Lord has given you one andhe wants it to see activated today.
And I've been sent here as aprophet, as a man of God, and as
a pastor to see that gift comealive and the faith in the room to
(42:31):
rise in the name of Jesus.
Everyone step to their feet.
Come on, on your feet.
At every single campus.
Because the Lord is doing something.
And I believe that all thosewho have been sitting, all of those
who've been in the wingsaying, I don't know what to do.
I don't know where to go.
The Lord is going to speak toyou now, not by my voice, but by
the voice from heaven intoyour life, into your destiny, into
(42:54):
your purpose.
And he's going to see itactivated in the name of Jesus.
You guys feel his presence.
You guys feel him working?
I feel it so heavily right now.
(43:16):
And in my prayer time, I havefive things.
I'll say them real quick, butI just feel prophetically.
It's like in my prayer time, Isaw people in pain, I saw people
hurting.
I saw people like, no one sees me.
Nobody knows what I've beengoing through.
And the Lord says, daughter,son, I've heard your prayers.
(43:41):
I've heard your cries.
I've heard.
I've heard.
I've heard the Lord says toyou today that he is a good father
and he doesn't want yousitting and sitting and sitting.
Yes, there.
There's seasons of rest.
There is seasons.
(44:01):
Seasons of sitting.
There is, okay, but I'm hereto tell you at some point that season
ends and you begin to go onthat sacred path that he has for
you.
And you begin to go on thatsacred walk that he has for you.
(44:23):
Let me just share five.
These are recommendations.
This isn't for every single church.
This is for V1 Church.
This is how we know how todisciple you.
Five quick things.
Start reading your Bible everysingle day.
We have the Daily Grow journal.
If you don't have one, get one.
Read your Bible every single day.
Commit to learning and growing.
(44:44):
Number two.
Pray every single day.
Prayer is not just for theprayer team.
I think a lot of times it'slike, oh, we gotta get this to the
prayer team so that they cango pray for it.
Guess what?
We have one of the best prayerteams in the entire world.
Shout Out Evelyn in Brooklynand all the Laverted Sharita, every
single campus.
(45:04):
But I'm telling you, the Lord,he wants you to be a prayer warrior.
He wants you to be an intercessor.
He wants you to partner with.
So maybe today it's time foryou to join the prayer team, because
you've been praying in your closet.
And the Lord says, come outtoday and shine your light upon all
men.
(45:26):
Number three, sign up forpassport and breakers.
This is a commitment to discipleship.
Can I just say something?
I just.
I didn't even plan on sayingthis, but I just feel it prophetically.
If you believe that thediscipleship process that we have
put in place at this church isto control you, it is actually to
(45:50):
deploy you.
And I believe that the enemyhas gotten into some people's minds
where, like, oh, they're justtrying to control me.
They're just trying to tell mewhat I can and can't do.
No, I'm trying to see you liveout your purposes.
I'm trying to see the spiritof God move in your life.
And usually the people thatsay no to that are the ones that
are in the cycle and cycle and cycle.
(46:12):
And it's like, come on, jointhe sacred path with me.
Join the sacred path of discipleship.
Number four, join the ground crew.
Commit to serve in the church.
Number five, join a flight crew.
Commit to connect with other believers.
(46:35):
Commit to connect with other believers.
Because this is what we'rehere for, to connect with God and
to connect with each other.
What else are we here for?
This is why the church exists,for us to connect with him and to
bring people in.
Oh, man, come on, you got mepreaching now.
(46:56):
I said I was gonna preach.
Can I say a prayer?
I need to close this out, buteveryone just close your eyes.
I.
I didn't plan on doing this either.
Could everyone close theireyes at every single campus?
I believe that as I wasspeaking, the spirit of God was moving
(47:20):
in your living room in NewJersey, in Long island, in Brooklyn,
in Miami, here in Indiana,every single person online in Canada,
in the United Kingdom andPuerto Rico.
And I believe that there is aconviction that has come come over
you.
And even as I've beenspeaking, it's like, oh, man, this
is me.
He's been talking about me.
(47:41):
I don't know what else to do.
This is what I want you to do.
If you, if, if.
Either.
If you feel like you've beengoing too fast and you.
And you don't even know whatto do and you want to get disciple
deeper, or you've been waitingin the wings and you're like, I don't
even know if I could speak.
I don't know what to do.
And you've been in the cycle.
I want you to raise your handat every single campus.
(48:02):
I want you to raise your handand say, lord Jesus, sign me up for
whatever you have for me.
And this is the Isaiah call,the one that says, I'm not gonna
give you the blueprint.
I'm not gonna give you the map.
I'm not gonna tell you theentire destiny and the future and
the business ideas and the strategies.
I'm looking for people thathave been touched by the coal from
heaven, by the precious bloodof Jesus, willing to be like Isaiah,
(48:26):
where we say, lord Jesus,Jesus, if it's your will, then I
say yes to it.
If it's your call, then I sayyes to it.
So with every hand raised,Lord Jesus, I pray right now, I pray
right now, Lord Jesus, thatyou would move mightily at every
single campus, that you wouldstart to convict the hearts of the
people, that as we begin tosing out, just in a second, that
(48:50):
we will sing out witheverything that we have, that we
would bring a worship in atongue and we would bring a praise
to the mighty name of Jesus.
Amen.
(49:19):
It.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.