0:01

Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick.

0:02

I'm the pastor of Elevation Church and this

0:05

is our podcast. I wanted to thank you for joining

0:07

us today. Hope this inspires you.

0:09

Hope it builds your faith. Hope it gives your perspective

0:11

to see God is moving in your life. Enjoy

0:14

the message.

0:17

Well, thank you, worship team. I want to go into

0:19

the Word of God today. I spoke to you last

0:22

week on the subject of confidence, and I'm going to continue

0:24

along those thoughts. From what I could tell,

0:26

the sermon help some people. I'm

0:28

not saying it helped everybody.

0:32

Some of y'all are beyond help.

0:35

No, I don't really believe that, but it

0:38

resonated with some people. So in

0:40

a similar vein today, I want to bring a message

0:42

of encouragement. Let's look together at Joshua chapter

0:44

one. Normally I have you stand for the

0:47

scripture, but I kind of have a few scriptures today,

0:49

so I thought you could just sit there and I read it

0:51

for you and Joshua chapter one,

0:54

verse six through nine. And

0:57

this message that God

0:59

gave me is a little bit of a practical

1:02

thing and something that's been helpful in

1:04

my life. And so I hope

1:06

that it'll be helpful to you. Very simple message.

1:08

This is an epic text. I

1:11

can't speak for the sermon. The sermon may

1:14

be good, it may not be, but this text

1:18

is legendary.

1:19

And we're going into the locker room

1:21

where.

1:22

God is giving Joshua a halftime

1:24

talk, and he's

1:26

telling him what he must do and how he's going to

1:29

do it, because Joshua

1:31

has big shoes to fill, and

1:33

Joshua has a job to do, and

1:36

Joshua has a purpose to accomplish.

1:38

And so God is getting his men ready

1:40

because how many know that God

1:43

will never give you a purpose, that he

1:45

will not prepare you for all

1:48

of your life up until this point, the parts

1:50

that you like, the parts that you didn't like, the parts

1:52

that you understood, in the parts that you're

1:54

still trying to understand, you can know this

1:57

that they were all preparing you for

2:00

God's purpose. The moment

2:02

that you believe that you can really

2:04

embrace whatever comes into your life,

2:07

knowing that if God didn't send it, he'll

2:09

still use it. Anything

2:11

that comes against you can become a weapon in

2:13

the hands of God fighting for you.

2:16

So God is telling.

2:17

Joshua in a period of transition

2:20

for the nation of Israel, that

2:22

the job is too big for him, but

2:24

the God who is with him is bigger

2:27

than the giants that stand before

2:29

him. In convincing him of this,

2:31

he tells him in verse six of Joshua chapter

2:34

one, be strong and

2:37

courageous, because you

2:39

will lead these people to

2:41

inherit the land I swore

2:44

to their ancestors to give

2:46

them. You.

2:47

Notice how good my eyesight is.

2:48

I can read my Bible from all the way back here. How

2:50

many of you over forty five verse extremely

2:52

jealous?

2:53

Right now?

2:54

I'm going to employ my good eyesight while I've

2:56

got it. He said it again, be

2:58

strong and courageous. This we already said

3:00

that God, remember in verse six. Yeah, but I'm

3:02

saying it again because I know

3:05

how you are, and I know

3:07

how quickly your courage evaporates.

3:10

I wish rad Straup were here. He's

3:12

on staff with our students, and he asked

3:15

me a profound question the other day. He

3:17

said, why is it that no matter how much

3:19

people encourage me, I can't

3:21

keep myself encouraged. I'll

3:23

find some way if somebody compliments me,

3:25

to disqualify the compliment or

3:28

to cancel it out. I'll tell myself.

3:30

Well, they're just being nice. They're saying that because they

3:32

have to say that. They're just saying that to make me

3:34

feel good. And so maybe there's

3:36

something to the repetition factor here. That

3:38

God knows that between verse

3:40

six and verse seven something happened to

3:43

make you discouraged, and so he encourages

3:46

you again, be strong and

3:48

courageous, Be careful to obey all the

3:50

law my servant Moses gave you.

3:52

Don't turn from it to the right or

3:54

to the left.

3:55

I know there's a lot of things trying to get you off track

3:57

and get you off course, but.

3:59

Don't beat this. You

4:01

got a job to do.

4:03

I want you to be successful wherever

4:06

you go. This is God's heart for you, and

4:09

in order to do it, you got to keep this book

4:11

of the Law always on your lips. Meditate

4:14

on it day and night, so that you may be

4:16

careful to.

4:17

Do everything written in it. Then you

4:20

will be prosperous and successful.

4:22

Have I not commanded

4:26

you be strong

4:29

and courageous,

4:33

Do not be afraid, do

4:36

not be discouraged, For

4:38

the Lord your God will be with you wherever

4:41

you go.

4:43

You're looking for something to write down, Write

4:45

this down.

4:46

God's presence is guaranteed, but his promises

4:48

are optional. I

4:52

will be with you wherever

4:55

you go, But how far you

4:57

want to go is up to you.

5:01

Even if you don't go into the things

5:03

that I have prepared for you in your life,

5:06

I'll be with you.

5:08

You make your bed in hell, I'll be with

5:10

you.

5:11

Belly of the fish, I'll be with

5:13

you. Hide out from Jezebel in

5:15

a cave. I'll be with you. Murder

5:18

an Egyptian and run to the desert.

5:19

I'll be with you in Midian.

5:21

So the fact that God will be with you, his

5:24

presence is guaranteed, it is not

5:26

conditional.

5:28

But the way that you.

5:29

Experience his promises, well,

5:32

a lot of that is up to you.

5:35

And so God mentions to Joshua with two things.

5:37

Can I teach you a little bit today?

5:40

He says, don't be afraid, don't

5:43

be discouraged. Don't

5:46

be afraid, don't

5:48

be discouraged. I'll talk to a friend the other day, and we were

5:50

laughing at each other about

5:52

how we insert ourselves into biblical stories

5:55

and shrink down the magnitude of the stories to fit

5:57

our situations, which are sometimes not that big of a

5:59

deal.

6:00

Do you know what I mean.

6:00

It's like David killed Goliath and.

6:03

You can lose fifteen pounds too, do

6:06

you know what I mean?

6:07

Like Goliath just becomes whatever you need him

6:09

to be. Right, Goliath can

6:11

be your student loan. He's no longer

6:14

this life threatening nation defying

6:16

giant. Now we've got Goliath representing

6:19

your car payment. You can take him down

6:22

in the name of the Lord. That's

6:25

what we do in the case of I don't

6:27

know. I could use a lot of examples and't I was

6:29

talking to a friend the other day and he was negotiating a real

6:31

estate contract and he was comparing himself

6:33

to Moses and the guy who

6:36

owned the land to Pharaoh,

6:38

and he said, I feel like Moses going before

6:40

Pharaoh and it's just a little thirty thousand

6:43

square foot building, you know. But he's now

6:45

got this contonstruct where in

6:47

his mind he's kind of like put himself in the biblical

6:49

story.

6:49

It's easy to do that with Joshua.

6:51

So now God's telling Joshua, I'm

6:53

gonna lead you into this land. You're gonna have to lead millions

6:55

of vagabond nomadic people who love to complain

6:57

and forget what I do for them.

6:58

The moment I do it.

7:00

So I want you to go get them ready and go do that, okay, and by the way,

7:02

don't be afraid, don't be discouraged.

7:04

And it's easy for us.

7:05

To make the jump because we want to personalize the

7:07

Bible and all of a sudden, now instead of

7:09

taking over the land and leading millions of people, it's

7:11

just symbolic of.

7:11

Whatever we need to do in our lives.

7:13

So it's like the apartment that we hope we get or

7:15

the college we want to get into, and so we.

7:17

Can shrink it down. But I think part of that is good.

7:18

Maybe sometimes I go too far with it because

7:20

I have a passion as a preacher to make it personal. I

7:22

feel like I failed if all of that did is teach you a history

7:25

lesson about somebody who lived a long time ago called Joshua.

7:27

So there's a part of me that wants to make it personal. Perhaps

7:29

sometimes I take it too far, and we

7:32

forget the magnitude

7:35

of the miracles that the Bible illustrates.

7:39

That Joshua going.

7:40

Into the Promised Land wasn't like you asking

7:42

a girl out on a date.

7:46

But we can do that in our.

7:47

Desire to personalize the Bible, which I think is a good

7:49

thing. We can well, we can miss

7:51

the point or loose the perspective,

7:53

and so I just want to bring it into perspective

7:56

here that Joshua.

7:59

Must have been terrified. You

8:02

know what, I read that scripture.

8:05

That feel while I was reading it that you're like, yeah,

8:07

get over it, Joshua, go do it, you know, just

8:09

get up and do it. Get up

8:11

and do it, Get up and do it. I

8:14

got to defeat the Jebusites, the

8:16

Hitsites, the Parasites,

8:19

the Canaanites, the Cellulites,

8:24

those most dreadful enemies of all. And

8:29

God tells him to do something. He tells

8:31

him to do something in the face of all

8:33

of these enemies that he knows he must encounter. God

8:35

says, be strong and courageous. Then

8:37

he tells him what not to do.

8:39

Do not be afraid,

8:45

do not be discouraged.

8:48

Something within me rises to Joshua's

8:51

defense. I

8:55

can't help it if

8:57

I feel afraid. I

9:00

can't help it if I feel

9:03

discouraged. How

9:05

can you tell me not

9:07

to feel afraid? God, when

9:10

all of these battles that I've

9:12

never fought before waiting in front

9:14

of me, How can you tell me not to

9:16

be afraid when I'm leading people who have

9:19

only known.

9:19

The wilderness into warfare. How

9:21

can you tell me not to.

9:23

Be discouraged when I have to go

9:25

in under resource then may

9:27

be overwhelmed.

9:28

How can you tell me.

9:30

Not to feel afraid and not to feel discouraged?

9:32

But God didn't say don't feel afraid, and

9:37

he didn't say don't feel discouraged.

9:40

I think the.

9:40

Essence of what God wants to say to you is

9:43

just because you feel afraid

9:46

doesn't mean you have to be afraid.

9:49

Just because you feel.

9:51

Discouraged doesn't

9:53

mean you have to be discouraged. Just

9:56

because you have fear doesn't mean

9:58

fear has to have you. Come

10:00

on, talk to me somebody. And

10:03

for most of us, our

10:05

default setting is fear and

10:08

discouragement.

10:11

Our default setting.

10:13

In the situations that are unfamiliar to

10:15

us is anxiety

10:19

and discouragement. You

10:22

see, God has given

10:24

you a destiny. I

10:26

want you to believe that, even if you can't see

10:29

it right now, even if it's not

10:31

your destiny to lead millions of people into

10:33

the Promised land, God has given you a destiny

10:37

as a parent. God has

10:39

given you a destiny on

10:42

your job. It's part of your destiny.

10:45

God has given you a job to do. And

10:47

know you're not Joshua, but you have a

10:50

job to do. I would

10:52

like for you to repeat after me the following

10:54

declaration, I have a destiny

10:57

all right now. I need you to know that the bigger the death,

11:00

the bigger the enemies.

11:08

That was helpful for me to.

11:09

Realize because in seasons of

11:11

my life I was hard

11:14

on myself, feeling like there was something

11:17

wrong with me. And

11:20

it's because God's promises

11:23

in my life, while they seemed attractive,

11:26

sometimes aren't so automatic as

11:29

we think that they should be.

11:32

In the text that I read to you,

11:35

God is telling Joshua that

11:38

the real enemies to your destiny

11:40

are not the Canaanites. The

11:43

real enemy of your destiny are

11:46

not the Hittites.

11:47

The real enemies of.

11:48

Your destinies are not the Jugsites. These

11:50

are all the people that he would face as he

11:52

moved forward in faith. But God

11:55

wants Joshua to know that

11:57

your real enemy

12:00

is not another person.

12:01

Your real enemy is not even a

12:03

situation.

12:05

Because if you don't know this, you'll

12:07

spend your whole life

12:10

fighting the wrong things. God

12:13

says, let me tell you what to fight. Fight

12:16

your fear. Let me tell you what to

12:18

fight, fight your discouragement.

12:21

If you can fight discouragement, you

12:23

can fulfill your destiny.

12:25

I'm gonna say it over my shoulder, to the left

12:27

side of the room. If you can fight your

12:29

fear, if you.

12:30

Can face your fear, you can move

12:33

forward into your destiny.

12:35

And this is important for Joshua to know.

12:37

See, because Joshua has been around a while.

12:39

By the time that God is calling him Bible background,

12:42

he's already.

12:42

Served under Moses. He served under Moses as.

12:44

A commander, and he won some great battles under

12:46

Moses, and he did some great things under Moses.

12:49

But now Moses has left the building, and so God

12:51

is talking Joshua into Now.

12:53

God is very persuasive, Okay, So when.

12:55

God tries to talk you into something, as we've already

12:57

seen.

12:57

He'll use repetition.

12:58

But he also knows how to locate the thing that is keeping

13:00

you from doing what you're called to do.

13:02

Now the people of.

13:03

God are standing at the edge of something. They

13:05

are out of Egypt, but they are not yet

13:07

into Canaan.

13:08

That's where so many Christians live.

13:10

I've come out of some things, but I haven't

13:13

moved into the things. I've

13:16

made some progress, but I have not fully

13:18

possessed the promise. I've

13:20

become aware of God's presence, but I haven't

13:22

fully accessed his promises.

13:26

And that's where Joshua stands.

13:30

And he's been here before forty

13:33

years ago, and.

13:36

Moses was in a position to possess

13:38

the promised land, and

13:41

he sent some spies into the land.

13:44

A lot of people don't know this part of the story, you

13:46

know. I mean, they may have heard a little

13:49

bit about it, but they don't know the details,

13:51

the details that kept them from experiencing

13:54

their destiny, the details

13:56

that caused hundreds of thousands of them

13:59

to die in the desert looking at promises

14:01

that they could have possessed, The

14:04

details that keep you from being the

14:06

dad that God called you to be, doing

14:08

the things God called you to do, enjoying the

14:11

life that Christ himself.

14:12

Died to give you. I feel a.

14:14

Holy burden on this message today because

14:16

somebody is looking at a promise that you're

14:18

not living in. And

14:22

the reason that you're not living in it has nothing

14:24

to do with creditors, and

14:26

it has nothing to do with seventh grade teachers

14:29

and it doesn't even have anything to do with what

14:31

you experienced in your past.

14:33

It is your fear and discouragement.

14:39

And so Joshua goes into the land

14:42

forty years ago. Remember he was

14:44

serving under Moses at this time. And

14:46

he goes into the land

14:49

and he looks at it, and there's eleven other

14:51

spies. There's Joshua and Caleb

14:53

and ten other spies. And they go into the

14:55

land and they look around. They come back and it's

14:57

interesting. I want to show you this. Can I show you? Look

15:01

at numbers Chapter fourteen,

15:06

The Bible gives a recording of

15:11

the report that

15:13

the men brought back, and

15:14

this is kind

15:16

of sad to me. It

15:18

says in numbers thirteen, thirty one and thirty two

15:20

that the men who had gone up with

15:23

him said, we can't attack

15:26

those people.

15:27

They are stronger than

15:29

we are. And they spread

15:32

among the.

15:32

Israelites a bad report

15:35

about the land they had explored. And

15:38

they said, the land we explored

15:40

devours those living in it. All the

15:42

people we saw there are of great

15:45

size. Let me point out something to you that

15:47

you may miss on the surface. They were

15:49

being realistic. Most

15:52

of what they're saying is true.

15:55

They are bigger, They

15:57

are stronger.

15:59

We can't do it on our

16:01

own.

16:04

On our own, but

16:06

Joshua knew something that those spies

16:08

had forgotten.

16:09

We're not on our own. We

16:12

have a promise.

16:13

We have a promise of God's presence,

16:16

and if he's with us, he's more

16:18

than the.

16:18

World against us.

16:20

And so these spies are trying to talk Moses

16:22

out of the very thing that God brought them here

16:25

for. These spies are trying.

16:26

To, let me ask you a question.

16:29

What have you talked yourself out of that

16:31

God.

16:32

Is trying to bring you into?

16:38

What are you talking yourself out

16:40

of right now that

16:43

God is trying to bring you into in

16:46

your relationships? What

16:49

are you talking yourself out of that God

16:51

is trying to bring you into in

16:53

your personal life? And

16:56

I don't care what category you use.

16:58

We've all got something that

17:00

we're talking ourselves out

17:03

of.

17:04

The message God gave me today

17:06

is that.

17:07

You can talk yourself into it.

17:11

Just like you've been talking yourself out

17:13

of it, you

17:16

can talk yourself into

17:18

it. One thing I noticed about myself from an early

17:20

age is that I can be persuasive when

17:22

I need to be. And so sometimes

17:24

in school, when I would need an extension on a paper

17:27

I knew I could usually get one because

17:29

I have this way of talking myself out of things.

17:31

To understand. It comes in handy as a preacher

17:34

to be persuasive because you have to get people.

17:36

To do things that they need to do that they don't want to do. And

17:38

so you're trying to tell people to trust God and their finances. And problem

17:41

with that is they already feel broken. So now that you tell them that they

17:43

want to trust God with their finances, if they need to trust God

17:45

with their finances, they don't want to trust God with their finances

17:47

because they don't have many finances. But you want to

17:49

get them to see that the reason you don't have any finances because

17:51

you're not trusting God in your finances. And if you trust God and your finances,

17:53

it would open your eyes to the supply that He has available for you.

17:56

And if you see Khi first as his kingdom and his righteousness.

17:58

All these things. I'm preaching. My watch off

18:00

my wrists. That's how excited

18:03

I am about the Word of God.

18:05

Just hold it rus so I don't even want it back. I

18:07

don't even care what time it is. I might preach

18:09

through lunch, because there's

18:11

some things in your life that you've been talking yourself

18:14

out of. One time, my senior year of high school,

18:16

they put me in an ap English class

18:18

with Eunice Cox, and Eunice

18:21

Cox was rumored to be a tough teacher. But it's no

18:23

problem for me. I got this because I got

18:25

the gift. And so I came

18:27

upon my first book report and I wasn't going

18:29

to finish it on time. I knew wouldn't fish it on

18:31

time, but I wasn't worried about it because I could talk

18:33

my way out of it. I've always

18:36

talked my way out of things, speeding

18:38

tickets and all kinds of things I've talked

18:40

myself out of. Why not this paper too.

18:43

But Eunice Cox was waiting for me at the door

18:45

and she said, I noticed you didn't turn your assignment

18:47

in. And I smiled real sweet because I got

18:49

some southern charm. I grew up in a small town. I

18:51

know how to talk to people, I said, miss

18:53

Cox, I said I was going to talk to you about

18:55

this, and she said, I don't want to hear it. And

18:59

she said, she said, Stephen

19:02

Furdet, you have met your

19:04

match in Eunice Cox, I

19:11

said, but miscop.

19:12

She said no.

19:14

I said, but I was gonna no, And

19:18

I said, I said, well, what

19:20

can I do? She said, well you, if I were you, I'd

19:22

try to get a good gread one on the other ones, because you did

19:25

a zero on this one, and

19:27

you might want to bring up your average.

19:31

So now I want you to understand something.

19:33

When God called Moses, Moses

19:36

was reluctant to do

19:38

what God had called him to do. And

19:41

Moses had a million excuses,

19:43

and so do you Why you can't

19:45

be it, why you can't do it, why you

19:47

can't go forward?

19:48

And it come on, how many of you are good

19:50

at talking yourself out of things?

19:53

How many of you, by the time I get done preaching sometimes

19:56

and you've even had your lunch, you have

19:58

forgotten what the sermon.

19:59

Is e than about. Shame on you. And I'm just

20:01

kidding. It's how it works.

20:04

We are so quick to talk ourselves

20:07

out of things. But when Moses started

20:09

telling God, you know, I can't speak, and

20:11

I can't do it, and I'm not eloquent,

20:13

and I'm not trained, and I'm not equipped,

20:15

and I'm not able. God said

20:17

to Moses, you have met your match

20:21

in Eunus. Cos you

20:23

have met your match in the Lord your

20:26

God. Have I not commanded

20:28

you? I don't even want to hear it out of

20:30

your mouth. Why you can't. I

20:32

am the greater one, I am

20:34

the power within you. I am

20:37

the one who calls you by name. I

20:39

know what's in God because I put it in you. I

20:41

know what you don't have because I left it out,

20:44

and I command you.

20:45

To be courageous. So

20:54

it occurs to me.

20:56

That maybe the reason that God is speaking

20:59

to Joshua on this

21:01

level is because

21:03

Joshua has seen firsthand the

21:05

devastation that it causes when

21:08

God's people talk themselves out of.

21:11

What God is trying to bring them

21:14

into.

21:15

You know, those spies said to Moses, we can't

21:17

do it.

21:18

They're stronger, they're bigger. And

21:20

Joshua spoke.

21:21

Up and he got everybody's

21:23

attention. The Bible says in numbers

21:25

fourteen six that

21:27

he tore his clothes and

21:30

said to the entire Israelite assembly,

21:34

Hey, come.

21:35

On, guys.

21:37

The land we passed through and

21:39

its lord is exceedingly good. If

21:42

the Lord is pleased with us, he will

21:45

lead us into that land, a land flowing with

21:47

milk and honey and will give it to us only.

21:49

Do not rebel.

21:50

Don't do this, don't die outside

21:53

of your destiny.

21:56

Don't let your fear keep you from

21:58

your future. Don't

22:02

be discouraged, don't

22:05

rebel. If the Lord is pleased, he'll leave us in

22:07

land us sloan milkod out even give it to us.

22:09

Only.

22:09

Do not rebel against the Lord, and do not be afraid

22:11

of the people of the land. And stop get

22:13

forfeiting your future for your fear

22:16

of people. Stop forfeiting

22:18

your future, for your fear of failure.

22:20

You hear me, stop.

22:21

Forfeiting your future because of what

22:23

they might think about you. Their protection

22:26

is gone. But the Lord is with us.

22:28

I mean, you gotta believe down deep

22:30

in your soul that God is

22:33

with me in this moment. He's

22:35

with me when I'm feeling, He's with me when

22:37

I don't. He's with me when I'm faithful.

22:40

He's with me when I'm faithless. He's with

22:42

me when I'm right. He's with me when I'm wrong.

22:44

He's with me when I'm a whole. He's with me

22:47

when I'm broken. Somebody shout, God is with

22:49

me. Touch your neighbors say

22:51

he's with you too. He's with you too. No

22:56

matter how hard Joshua tried,

22:59

he couldn't talk Moses into it.

23:01

You know why, because nobody.

23:03

Can talk you into your destiny.

23:06

But you

23:13

touch your neighbors, say talk yourself into

23:15

it, talk

23:17

yourself into it.

23:19

It is interesting that when God speaks.

23:21

To Joshua, he tells him what to

23:23

do, lead these people to inherit the land.

23:26

Now, the problem with a lot of us is that

23:28

we have shrunk our lives down to the size of our

23:30

own personal interest. We

23:34

don't have anything bigger than us worth fighting

23:37

for, so it doesn't take

23:39

much to discourage us. If

23:42

I didn't preach every time I don't feel

23:44

like preaching, you would hear from me three

23:46

times a year. You

23:48

know how I preach every week. I

23:51

talk myself into

23:53

it, and I tell

23:55

myself, there's somebody

23:58

come into church today who's suicide.

24:00

There's somebody coming to church today whose

24:02

kid is on drugs. There's somebody

24:04

coming to church today that has been told all

24:06

their life they're workless, and you get to

24:09

tell them God loves them, and maybe you can

24:11

smile at them and make them feel through your

24:13

countenance that God has not forgotten

24:15

them, that he.

24:16

Knows them by name. But by the time

24:18

I stopped.

24:19

Talking to myself, I'm ready to talk

24:21

to you. Now.

24:22

We can preach, now we can do it.

24:24

Now we can go.

24:26

But see, you've got to talk yourself

24:29

into your purpose.

24:32

I have a purpose.

24:33

I don't need to ask God to give me a purpose.

24:35

I have a purpose. You have a purpose

24:38

to glorify God, to be transformed

24:41

into the image of Christ, to be conformed

24:43

into the image of Christ.

24:46

It's not that you don't have a purpose, is

24:50

it.

24:50

Every time God truest to bring you into it, you talk yourself

24:52

out of it.

24:56

And so he says, this is not just a value,

24:58

Joshua. There are people to you.

25:00

Your

25:03

destiny is connected to something much

25:05

bigger than you.

25:08

So go do it and be strong and courageous.

25:11

But God is a good coach, and a good coach doesn't

25:13

just motivate you. He instructs you.

25:15

Wow yea. And so he gives

25:17

him the mechanics. And this is what I was excited about.

25:20

I mean that part.

25:21

I was excited about that part too, But I

25:23

really wanted to.

25:24

Show you this. He said in verse A.

25:25

Keep this book of the Law always on your

25:27

lips. This

25:30

this stood out to me in

25:33

Deuteronomy thirty one, I

25:35

told you I have a lot of scripture today.

25:37

Isn't that kind of what you came for? Though? Okay,

25:41

us are.

25:46

In don me thirty one Before Moses died and climbed

25:48

up on Mountaineebow, and he died. And God didn't let

25:50

the Israelites find his body because he knew that

25:52

if they found his body, they would continue to

25:54

worship his bones. Because sometimes the only way for God to get

25:56

you to move past something in your life is completely taken away.

26:00

Before he died, he called the nation together,

26:02

he said, and

26:05

he gave him a little speech. He gave him a little talk. He gave him a little

26:07

uh. He said, I'm not going into the land, but you are. Joshua's

26:09

gonna lead you. He pulls Joshua beside him, and

26:12

he tells him be strong and courageous,

26:16

for you must go with this people on the land. The Lord swore

26:19

to their ancestors to give them, and you must divide

26:21

it among them

26:23

as their inheritance.

26:26

Not you may, but you must.

26:30

Not you should, but

26:32

you must, and

26:35

you must do it.

26:36

And as you do it, know that the Lord himself

26:38

goes before you and will be with you.

26:40

He will never leave you, nor forsake

26:42

you. Do not be afraid.

26:46

Do not be.

26:49

So. When God speaks to Joshua

26:51

after the death of Moses, Joshua

26:54

has heard.

26:54

This speech before. It's

26:56

not his first time here yet.

26:59

But when God gives the speech, he adds

27:01

one thing that Moses left out. See,

27:05

Moses told him what to do, told

27:07

him why to do it. God

27:10

showed Joshua, how would

27:12

you like to know how to keep yourself

27:14

encouraged? Because you

27:16

need to know they aren't

27:19

always going to text you encouragement when

27:21

you need it.

27:22

That's part of being a grown Christian.

27:25

You need to learn to encourage

27:27

yourself.

27:30

I gotta tell you.

27:31

Touch your neighbor and say, I can encourage

27:33

myself. If

27:36

you encourage me, I appreciate it. If

27:38

you're nice to me, I appreciate it. If

27:40

you say kind things to me, that's cool.

27:42

But I need you to know that even if

27:44

you don't, if you get too busy, or if you

27:47

forget about me, or if you don't know what to

27:49

say to me, I need you to know I

27:51

can encourage myself.

27:53

Greater is he that is in me than he

27:55

that is in the world.

27:57

I learned to encourage myself

27:59

because I can't always count on a text,

28:01

and I can't always count on a hunk, and

28:04

I can't.

28:04

Always count on a man, and I can't

28:06

always even count on my own friends.

28:08

But I can encourage

28:11

myself. So God,

28:13

God tells Joshua, He says,

28:16

I'm not always gonna speak to you like this.

28:18

You know you have moments in.

28:19

Your life where God himself will speak

28:21

to you, and they're awesome.

28:23

One time, I was.

28:24

Coming home to Charlotte when we were first starting the church,

28:26

and I was nervous, and I was afraid

28:28

and discouraged. I was discouraged

28:31

because people weren't showing up

28:33

yet, and I.

28:34

Was afraid because I didn't know if they ever

28:36

would.

28:37

And so I was afraid and discouraged.

28:40

And those are two states. You cannot fulfill your destiny.

28:42

And let me show you something. If you are

28:44

afraid right now, it is not because

28:46

the devil is making you afraid. There

28:50

is somebody on your road that has

28:52

more to be afraid of than you, and

28:55

yet the confession of their life is

28:57

I have fear, but fear to

29:00

doesn't have me.

29:01

If you are discouraged. It is not.

29:03

Because of your conditions or your circumstances.

29:06

They may have been a contributing factor, but they

29:08

are not the deciding factor. Discouragement

29:11

is a decision that I make. Discouragement

29:14

is a conversation.

29:16

That I have with myself.

29:17

Discouragement is that thing inside of me

29:20

that says this is the way it will always be.

29:22

See it's not getting any better. See

29:24

that woman right there doesn't like your sermon.

29:26

Look how she's looking at you, and that guy's asleep.

29:28

Discouragement is a little voice

29:31

inside of your head that you listen

29:33

to. And our problem Doctor

29:36

Martin Lloyd Jones, the great Welsh preacher,

29:38

once said, our problem is that

29:40

we spend too much time listening

29:43

to ourselves and

29:45

not enough time talking to ourselves.

29:49

Now, y'all are about to think I'm crazy, but

29:52

I talk to myself all the time.

29:54

How many of you talk.

29:55

To yourself all the time? Well, sure

29:58

you do.

29:58

You've been doing it since you were three mm

30:01

boom boom boom boom boom boom

30:03

boom boom boom boom boom boom

30:06

boom boom.

30:06

But somewhere along the way between

30:09

putting together legos and the big

30:11

one Gules hit and the widowing Gules

30:13

hit, and you talked yourself through it.

30:15

Now somewhere along the way.

30:18

You turned against yourself wood,

30:23

and.

30:23

So now you're.

30:23

Listening to yourself like the sawmistead.

30:26

He was having a bad day, and

30:28

so he started talking about the

30:30

day he was having. And he said

30:32

in Psalm forty two, verse four, he

30:35

said, these things I remember as

30:38

I pour out my soul, how I used

30:40

to go to the House of God under

30:43

the protection of the mighty one shouts of joy.

30:45

You know, right before this, he said, my tears

30:48

have been my food day and night. And

30:51

he's he's in this cycle. But he

30:53

did something in verse five. It's kind

30:55

of a strange technique. And

30:58

and and if you do this,

31:00

people might think that you're crazy, but

31:03

if you don't do it, you really will be crazy.

31:06

So you can decide.

31:07

Whether you want people to think you're crazy or

31:09

whether you really want to be crazy. Because

31:12

he's been listening to himself for four verses,

31:15

he's been listening to his tears, he's been

31:17

listening to his trials, he's been listening to

31:19

his past. But in verse five he

31:21

totally shifts and

31:24

instead of listening to himself.

31:27

He starts preaching to

31:30

himself. It's very powerful.

31:33

Why my soul

31:36

are you so downcasted? What

31:40

did you see the shift? He's like, I'm

31:43

done with this. If I

31:45

wake up in the morning and ask myself

31:47

how.

31:47

You feel, I'm

31:49

gonna be fifty to fifty at best. So

31:52

I'm gonna wake up in the morning and tell

31:55

myself this will

31:57

change your life, and tell

31:59

myself today we're

32:01

gonna be blessed today. We're

32:03

going to be favored today. We're

32:06

going to be a blessing today.

32:08

We're gonna take new ground today.

32:10

We're gonna encourage somebody else today,

32:13

we're gonna see the goodness of the court morning, the land of the

32:15

living today. Why are you so

32:17

downcast on my soul? Why so

32:20

disturbed in me? And then he does

32:22

something very powerful. He puts

32:24

himself in his place. Puts

32:28

your hope in God, for

32:30

I will yet praise

32:32

him. Sometimes you gotta put yourself

32:35

in your place.

32:36

Sometimes you gotta.

32:37

Make discouragement bow its

32:39

need in the presence of God, and

32:42

fear must battle.

32:43

To faith in the presence of God. Somebody

32:45

give him a praise right now, Hey,

32:55

Joshua, here's how you do it.

32:59

Keep this Book of the Law always on

33:01

your lips. There's

33:04

a land I'm taking you to. There's a promise that I'm

33:06

leading you to, but

33:09

you're going to have to talk yourself

33:13

into it. Meditate

33:17

on the Law day and night. The Law

33:19

was five books of the Bible that we have now,

33:22

Genesis, Exodus, Levic as numbers do run me Torah.

33:26

It was a bible that Joshua had. God

33:28

said, your

33:30

life will follow the direction of

33:33

your conversation. Your

33:35

courage comes

33:38

from your conversation, so does.

33:40

Your fear, So

33:42

does your discourage.

33:43

Man, not just your

33:45

conversations with others, but

33:47

your conversation with your

33:50

self. So

33:52

keep this Book of the Law

33:54

on your lips, not

33:57

just in your mind, on

33:59

your lips. The

34:01

Hebrew word for meditate is

34:04

haga, and it

34:06

means to mutter, because

34:08

there was a Hebrew tradition that while they studied the text

34:10

and reflected upon it.

34:11

They would mutter love

34:15

the Lord. You go your heart.

34:22

See, it's not enough to read the Bible. You

34:26

have to rehearse the Bible. Come

34:30

on Gaston Campus. It

34:34

is not enough for you to hear this word.

34:37

It is not enough for you to listen to me. Speak

34:40

if you are going to live in

34:42

that place.

34:43

What place? I'm not going to the land of Canaan.

34:46

No, no, no. But God has promised you his peace.

34:50

If you are going to have his peace in your

34:52

life, you're going to have to talk

34:55

yourself into peace.

34:58

God has given you his If you are

35:00

going to live in courage and

35:03

fulfill your purpose, you're going to have

35:05

to talk yourself into

35:07

your purpose.

35:09

Keep it on your lips.

35:12

Yeah, So what you need and I'm going to get

35:14

very practical now, because

35:17

what good is all this screaming and shouting if

35:21

the moment it leaves my lips, it leaves your heart.

35:26

The way that you keep it is you need

35:28

a phrase to fight with.

35:31

Hear me.

35:32

Your mind is always going to be murmuring

35:34

and muttering.

35:35

Have you noticed that? Okay, it's

35:37

always going to be doing it.

35:39

So what you want to do is

35:41

take control of the conversation by

35:43

the spirit of God. And

35:45

the way you do that, you need a phrase to

35:48

fight the devil with. Here's my

35:50

current phrase to fight the devil with? This

35:52

How I fight fear because I have

35:54

a lot of fear. I

35:57

know I'm not supposed to. I

36:00

know I'm the pastor of the church. But

36:03

I get scared sometimes,

36:06

scared of big stuff and scared of stupid

36:08

stuff. But I have learned

36:11

that if I'm in a state of fear, the reason

36:13

I'm there is because I talk myself, And

36:16

if I talk to myself, then

36:18

I can talk myself.

36:25

There are really only two fears. They all fall

36:27

under these categories. It's the fear of falling

36:30

short and the fear of running out. Any

36:33

fear you have in your life falls into one

36:35

of those two categories. If

36:37

you're scared to lose a relationship, it's because

36:39

you're afraid of falling short in someone's

36:42

eyes, or you're afraid of running out of love,

36:44

and if they're not there, you won't have love.

36:46

Every fear that you've ever had in.

36:47

Your life falls under those two categories.

36:50

Fear that I will fall short or that I will

36:52

not be enough, and fear that I will

36:54

run out, that I.

36:54

Will not have enough. So, since

36:57

I know.

36:58

That the key to me person and

37:01

encourage and in strength and in purpose

37:03

is to fight.

37:05

Back, somebody say fight back.

37:07

You are not going to take the land automatically,

37:10

and you are not going to live in peace and purpose

37:12

automatically. So I've got a phrase that

37:14

I do, and his four syllables on the

37:16

front and his four syllables on the back,

37:18

and I did it in four.

37:19

Because you can breathe in four times and breathe

37:22

out four times. So I do it all

37:24

the time. And the devil doesn't like it. He

37:26

really really hates it.

37:27

So I'm doing it more and more because I like

37:29

to make it mad and I like to fight back. I

37:31

like to let him know he can't just push me around and keep me

37:33

stuck in the wilderness. And he's not going to have

37:35

my destiny and he's not going to disrupt God's

37:38

dream for my life with discouragement. And

37:40

anytime he rolls up on me and tries to make my soul

37:42

downcast, I got some for him because he's

37:44

trained my fingers for war and my hands for

37:46

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.

37:51

I am going to raise my kids to love God.

37:53

I am going to serve God and my generation.

37:55

I am going to complete the calling that God has

37:57

placed on my life.

37:59

I am going to go forward in Jesus' name. I

38:01

am going to.

38:01

Build the kingdom on earth as it is in heaven. I

38:03

am going to see it come to pass.

38:06

So I just do this. I say Christ

38:09

is in me. That's

38:11

the first half. I

38:13

am enough.

38:18

Why don't you try it? You know, if you send in a

38:20

restaurant and so I says, here, taste this, taste this, taste this,

38:22

you try it.

38:23

Say Christ is in me. I

38:26

am enough.

38:28

Tell them to your neighbor, tell them Christ is in

38:31

you.

38:32

You are enough. I

38:34

love people who absolutely refuse to participate

38:37

with anything you do in church.

38:41

Do they have a secret meeting before church? Where does

38:43

this happen in the lobby?

38:45

When he says, touch your neighbor, do nothing,

38:51

It's okay, it's okay. Let's

38:54

go for ninety seven percent participation.

38:56

Okay, I think we're about eighty. Touch your neighbors.

38:58

Say Christ is in you.

39:01

You are enough.

39:02

Now you gotta get it in that order, because if you start with you

39:05

are enough, it's just a matter of time before you find out

39:07

that is just not true. They're stronger

39:09

than we are. Yeah, but didn't you hear

39:11

the verse.

39:11

Level Christ is in me, I

39:15

am enough.

39:17

Let's take the volume up a little bit. Christ

39:20

is in me, I

39:22

am enough. Think

39:24

about that.

39:25

Fear that you have. Look at it and say Christ

39:27

is in me, I

39:29

am enough.

39:31

Think about what was discouraging you last

39:34

night, robbing you of your sleep, robbing

39:36

you if you're tolling, robbing you of your peace,

39:39

robbing you of your purpose, and shout

39:41

it out last say Christ is in me.

39:44

I am enough. Now,

39:48

now break it down.

39:50

If you walk around shouting like that, it's

39:54

gonna cost some trouble for

39:56

you at your job.

39:59

So God tells Joshua. He says, keep

40:02

it on your.

40:03

Lips,

40:05

as the background, as

40:08

the soundtrack.

40:10

And take it into any situation that you face.

40:13

I love it because God at once gives him

40:16

a big destiny. How many of

40:18

you believe that God has a destiny for you?

40:21

How many of you want to believe that God has a destiny

40:24

for you.

40:24

It's kind of hard sometimes because.

40:26

I thought i'd be there by now, and I'm not there by now.

40:29

Well, well, he gives him

40:31

a big destiny, but he gives

40:33

him a small direction. He said, for

40:36

you to fulfill your destiny,

40:39

you're going to have to talk yourself into

40:42

it. So I

40:44

was flying into Charlotte. You can stand I'm closer.

40:50

I was flying into Charlotte one time. Did

40:53

you get blessed by this word at all? Today?

41:01

I was, I was flying

41:03

into Charlotte one time, and I

41:06

started to tell you the story how I was discouraged

41:08

and afraid.

41:10

And while we were landing, I

41:12

opened my window.

41:14

And I remember it real clearly because

41:16

the guy next to me had been sleeping

41:18

and he was kind of mad when I opened the window. But

41:21

I opened the window and looked

41:23

out and it was a perfect setting, like the sun

41:25

was setting. And remember

41:27

I was afraid and discouraged. And I'm not comparing

41:29

myself to Joshua. Why I don't have some kind of grandiose

41:33

idea of what God put me.

41:34

In the earth to do.

41:34

But you know, for my calling, for my

41:36

part to play in the kingdom, I take it very seriously.

41:40

And I believe that God has given me a promise, and I

41:42

believe that God has given me a purpose, and

41:45

I believe that He desires me to live in peace

41:49

as I fulfill that purpose and possess

41:51

that promise. And so I

41:53

was we were landing, and it

41:56

was like men, like a scene out of Thomas Kincaid.

41:58

You know what I'm saying? Like that, do you know that the

42:00

guy who paints all this stuff.

42:01

It was like the.

42:02

City of Charlotte was bathed in the orange

42:05

sunset.

42:06

And orange was our.

42:07

Church color, and it's also the color of God's

42:09

team, the Clemson Tigers. And so these

42:12

two things served to confirm

42:14

to me that God, God was speaking.

42:15

I just felt something.

42:16

I got my notebook out that I had and I just wrote down,

42:18

just fast as I could write the impressions that

42:20

I was receiving.

42:21

As we were landing in Charlotte. And it started with

42:23

this idea, this is your city.

42:25

I have given it to you for influence, not that it is

42:27

in other people's city too, but just that God had called

42:29

me here. You made the right decision, you did it, and I want

42:31

to give it. And it was about a page and a half of stuff that I

42:33

wrote down, and a couple of days later

42:35

I read it to our team. It's very encouraging, very

42:37

inspiring. The reason I told you that story is

42:39

because I

42:42

have landed in Charlotte many times since

42:44

then. Almost

42:46

every time I'm landing, I opened my window just

42:48

in case that

42:51

can happen again. And you know what, It's never happened

42:53

like that again ever ever.

42:55

I mean I've even put my notebook out and gotten my pen.

42:57

Ready, and what I see is,

43:03

but see, you can't

43:05

live in a place where you're depending on God

43:08

to always give you a sunset and

43:10

a poem.

43:15

And the since I get from the Lord is I've

43:18

already spoken my.

43:19

Promise to you.

43:21

Now you've got to speak it

43:23

to yourself. There

43:32

are some promises in your life that

43:34

you have not yet possessed. And

43:37

you're waiting on somebody, or you're waiting on

43:39

God, or you're waiting on a circumstance to a line.

43:42

It's not going to happen that way.

43:45

If you are going to experience the.

43:47

Peace of God, it won't be because

43:49

God gives it to you. He's already

43:51

given you peace. In John fourteen

43:54

twenty seven, when.

43:55

Jesus, like Moses, was preparing

43:57

his followers for his departure and

43:59

telling them about the Holy Spirit that was coming

44:02

and not only to live with them, but to live

44:04

in.

44:04

Them, God told Joshuah,

44:06

I'm with you, but God tells you something even better.

44:08

He says, I'm in you, Christ

44:11

is in me, and I'm more

44:13

than enough. And he

44:15

tells his followers peace

44:18

I leave with you my peace. I give

44:20

to you. I don't give like the world gifts.

44:23

Don't let your hearts be troubled. Don't

44:26

let them be afraid.

44:28

You see it, You see it. Don't let

44:30

your heart be troubled. Don't

44:33

let it be afraid. Why are

44:35

you so downcast? Stop

44:37

listening to.

44:38

Your situation and start

44:40

preaching to your situation. In

44:43

the name of the Lord, tripones

44:46

will live in the name of Lord.

44:48

The promise will come to pass.

44:53

So Jesus said, I

44:56

have given you my peace.

45:00

I'll talk yourself into

45:02

it day

45:05

and night, the refrain

45:07

of my heart. You

45:10

need a phrase to fight the devil with. I'm

45:13

not afraid anymore. I

45:15

feel fear, but I'm not afraid. He

45:18

didn't say I couldn't feel it. He

45:21

just said I had to face it. He

45:24

didn't say that the fear wouldn't come upon me. He

45:26

just said that it shouldn't define me. Come

45:28

on, I'm preaching to somebody. You've been

45:31

stuck, you've been afraid, you've

45:33

been terrified, you've been worried

45:35

about it.

45:35

You've been stressed.

45:36

But lift your hands in the presence of the Lord,

45:39

and say, Christ is in me.

45:41

I am enough. Say it again,

45:43

Christ is in me. I

45:46

am enough one more time.

45:48

God said it three times to Joshua.

45:50

I want you to say it three times too. Christ

45:52

is in me. I am

45:55

enough. Now.

45:56

Clap your hands and thank God.

45:59

Clap your hands and praise God. Open

46:02

your mouth and speak, pray, speak

46:04

peace. I will

46:07

yeah, pray so my God

46:10

and my God.

46:13

Thank you for joining us.

46:15

Special thanks to those of you who give generously

46:17

to this ministry. Is because of you that

46:19

this ministry is possible. You

46:21

can click the link in the description to give

46:24

now, or visit Elevation Church

46:26

dot org slash podcast for more information

46:29

and if you enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe.

46:32

You can share it with your friends.

46:33

You can click the share button, take a screenshot

46:36

and share it on your social stories and tag us

46:38

at Elevation Church.

46:39

Thanks again for listening. God bless you.