Becoming | Get Your Feet Wet

[Music] hey everyone i'm justin and i wanted to say hi real quick and let you know we're going to get started in just a few minutes if you're in one of our lobbies grab a free copy from our great team in the main lobby if you're new to canvas welcome and thanks for joining us today if you have a question or need help with anything simply ask anyone wearing a red lanyard we want to make sure you have a great experience here at campus [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] hey again in case you don't already have it be sure to download our canvas app you can get a link by simply scanning that qr code on the seat back in front of you that page has a lot of great info on it so be sure to check it out also if you would like prayer for anything at all head to our prayer room in the breezeway at any point today we have a great team of people that would love to pray with you [Music] [Music] do [Music] [Music] [Music] okay we're about to get started if you're in the lobby you should probably head toward your seat in the auditorium again we're excited that you're here let's get ready for a great gathering [Music] well good morning campus church let's stand together happy father's day we're going to start with a new song this morning that declares the power of god let's sing this out let's remind our souls that god can move [Music] the fighter for the weary [Music] you know the glory of the father [Music] the power of the undefeated name the king of every kingdom [Music] the champion of heaven hope is [Music] the lamb [Music] hope is [Music] [Applause] king of the impossible [Music] [Applause] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] uh we believe the world is [Music] hope is so great [Applause] [Music] time to wonders [Music] [Applause] breathe hey good morning church my name is rob and i just want to take a moment and say if you are new to canvas welcome we're so excited we're so glad that you're here with us as a matter of fact we've got a team of people out in our lobby that are ready to meet you and we even have a free gift we want to give you just to say thanks for being with us today one thing i want to encourage all of us to do each and every week is to fill out a connection card the reason why we fill out connection cards is it's a practical way for us to respond to the truth of god's word and and we have a group of people that that read those prayer requests that they want to hear what god is doing in your life you can celebrate wins on those connection cards so don't miss this opportunity to fill out a connection card you can grab the paper copy out of the seat back in front of you fill it out put it in the red bin on your way out or you can grab your phone and scan the qr code and that'll send you a digital link as well but one thing i'm really excited about happening june 30th everybody needs to mark your calendars because we are putting our lead pastor kevin gear back on the hot seat if you don't know what a hot seat is it's where we we get a chance to ask kevin any question that we want and and and we we want to hear your questions so you can scan that qr code you can hit the hot seat link and then you can fill out your questions any question you want but one of the questions he's going to ask is why and one of the ones he's going to answer is why do bad things happen and so you're not going to want to miss it it's a wednesday night mark your calendar is june 30th it's going to be great well as we continue on with worship this morning i want to encourage us that the bible says where two or more people are gathered god is there also and so i believe that god is in this room this morning he's in this place and so as we worship him let's let's give him our all let's lift our hands let's let's sing let's sing let's give him everything that we have this morning let's worship [Music] what i [Music] one like me [Music] set me free you are you just begin to lift him up in your prayers and think about how serious it is in this moment that we get to lift up the king of the universe that we get to acknowledge what he's done for us on the cross it's jesus you're so worthy of our worship and our praise we want to take this moment to acknowledge you and lift you up and worship you for all that you are jesus [Music] oh [Music] mercy [Music] [Music] [Music] i found in you my jesus that my soul should answer your greatness it should be [Music] no [Music] should [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] praise jesus should this life violate and hold nothing but the cross where jesus took my shape and with ourselves wide my head he'll hide my every breath will sing again [Music] where jesus took my shape [Music] again [Music] jesus [Music] we'll see [Music] jesus [Music] is you [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Music] [Music] always [Music] still get them how we praise you always we know that you're the god who moves come and breathe miracles welcome your presence crashing over every day god of mercy please come rescue me [Music] [Music] is [Music] peace oh again [Music] is [Music] oh shake the mountains break the walls aboard open the heavens almighty god you this is who he is we get to thank him this morning for his power [Music] [Music] shake the mountains [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] there will be [Music] yes thank you lord you're the god who moved i'm convinced that when we sing that song that every single one of us in this room can think of an area where [Music] this morning that's why we have jesus that we can call out to him we're going to sing another song called jesus i need you and as we make this declaration would you remind your soul that you can do nothing of yourself that you need the power and presence of jesus right now in your life to come to move mountains to break strongholds we're gonna call out to him come on jesus i need you [Music] you stand beside me and give me a song in the night jesus i need [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] beautiful ashes [Music] and carry it into the night [Music] jesus [Music] forever [Music] jesus [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Applause] remember love remember mercy christ before be christ behind me your loving kindness has never failed me christ before me christ beyond me remember love remember mercy cries before [Music] christ [Music] me [Music] christ fear [Music] jesus [Music] is [Music] is [Music] can i just tell you why i love that psalm so much i think there's something powerful when the people of god come together and simply say jesus we need you because often i think how we approach that song and that phrase of jesus i need you is that when we're in a place of desperation of the god we need you to show up but here's the beauty of that declaration it's in every season that we need him when life is at the highest of highs we need jesus when life is at the lowest of lows we need jesus and when we come together and declare as a church that we need jesus we lift up faith together we're putting our faith in the right place that jesus we need you it doesn't matter if you've been following jesus for five minutes or 55 years we need jesus so let's go to the one let's put our faith in the right place as we get ready to open up his word and i i don't know where every heart is in the room but here's the thing he does and maybe as i pray today you simply need to say jesus i need you every moment every second i need you so father we come to you with a heart of gratitude that while we were still sinners you sent your son jesus to die for us that it's not anything that we have done in our own strength our own power our own goodness that makes us right with you it's simply believing that jesus you died on the cross the third day you rose again and when we believe in you we're made right by you and that we get to be used for your kingdom so lord i pray today as we open up your word would you give us ears to hear the truth that you would have for us lord that you would give us hearts to believe the truth that you're going to speak to us today and lord more importantly you'd give us the feet to live it out to be the hands and feet to the world around us so that the world may know jesus through the way that we live so we give you the glory we give you the honor and we lift up the name of jesus in your name we pray amen can we just give him a shout of praises can we just thank jesus for how good he is why don't you go ahead and grab a seat and say hello to somebody as you sit down before we jump into this father's day uh first things first i want to welcome our online people thank you so much for being here all of our campuses tuning in billings we love you happy father's day billings cup bank we love you happy father's day and my personal favorite yes i am biased columbia falls i love you i missed you today i hope you guys have a great gathering um but kalispa i'm pumped uh can we just thank all the dads that are here today and say happy father's day i'm reminded of last week's message when kevin preached to dads that he said be strong and courageous and lead i just want to remind you dads that what you do matters i know often i can find myself as a dad feeling like what i'm doing isn't working like i feel like sometimes parenting is taking three steps forward and 15 steps back and i'm like what am i doing but what you need to know dad is that your impact is significant that your presence means something that your leadership is needed in your home so i remind you from last week to be strong and courageous and lead and watch what god does in your family i'll tell you this if you're a dad and your kids aren't in your home guess what your kids still need you i'm 30 years old and i still need my dad in my life i need his wisdom i need his encouragement dad's what we do matters and so i want to just remind you that that what you do matters that you're loved and you're needed but we're going to continue on in the series that we've been in the last two weeks which is looking at the character of joshua and i love looking at old testament characters because it's when you begin to understand because often how we view bible characters and their faith it's like man these guys are superheroes like you begin to read and we've been encouraging you to read the book of joshua and you read joshua and he does crazy things for god he does like unbelievable things that we haven't seen in our time that god uses him in unimaginable ways and you can begin to think like man i just need more faith like joshua but when you begin to look at bible characters what you begin to see is that they're real people and they have real um flaws just like you and i have and then but god despite our flaws uses him and wants to use us in unimaginable ways for his kingdom so that he gets the glory so that what we've been looking at in this series is how do we position our hearts to be used by god like joshua positioned his heart to be used by god and we've been looking at how joshua had a faith that don't quit that was week number one and if you love grammar that's message absolutely grinded your soul because kevin kept saying we need to have a faith that don't quit and you're like that's not correct but guess what you remembered what he was talking about so what we did actually worked you're welcome the second week we talked about being strong and courageous that there's three areas that when god commanded joshua to take over leadership of the people of israel he said i want you to be strong and courageous and i want you to lead be strong and courageous and stay connected to jesus stay connected to his word because we can't do all god's calling us to do without staying connected to him and lastly it was a call to resilience that there's going to be obstacles that come our way but we need to be strong and courageous and be resilient and keep stepping forward and really today's message is a continuation of joshua being resilient the very first thing that god calls joshua to do as the leader of israel is to finally lead the people of israel to the promised land that god told them 40 years previously that he was going to take them uh we've been all year long we've been looking at the story of the israelites i feel like as a communicator i have walked through the desert with the people over and over and i'm here to tell you today we finally get to take them into the promised land i can't wait i'm so excited for what god's going to teach us as he leads his people into the promised land and i want us to hear this message this way because often we think we can get to a place in our faith where we've arrived so we can think that hey they're finally getting into the promised land like it's about time can i just remind you that the promised land was the beginning of where god wanted to take his people not the end but because of their disobedience there was a delay to where god wanted to lead them and we're going to talk about what is the role that we play in god using our life for his glory if god's going to do unimaginable things in our life and through our life how do we need to learn how to position our hearts what's the role that god's asking us to play and so we pick up the story just to recap for all of us um if you've missed any or you're new to church the the people of israel were in slavery for 400 years in egypt and god told moses to go back to egypt and god led the people out of slavery after 400 years and they go out into the desert and god provides for them and he says i have a land for you that's flowing full of milk and honey and but because of the disobedience of the people they had a delay to where god wanted to lead them and only two people joshua and the other spy caleb said we can take this land in fact week one was this that if the lord is with us we have nothing to fear the confidence of if god is with us that we can go and do unimaginable things for him that we can face the giants in our life and go conquer what god is calling us to do and so we pick up the story in joshua chapter 3 and the people are on the banks of the jordan river and they're about ready to enter the promised land and they get to the river and the river is at flood stage this isn't some little dainty mountain stream that you have the confidence to step across for us in the valley this is like flathead river right now at flood stage you are not setting foot in that bad boy and you are not getting across by walking across for those of you in billings it's like the yellowstone river cup bank i don't know what you have over there i've never been there i'd imagine there's a creek at flood stage you don't want to cross but they get to the river and of course there's another obstacle in the way it just can't be easy for them to get where god wanted to take them and they get there and in joshua chapter 3 verse 7 we see this whole idea this idea of becoming all that god's created us to be we see what this process begins to look like for joshua that god has a plan for joshua just like he has a plan for our life and we begin to see what the process of becoming looks like and when god says this to joshua in verse 7 he says the lord told joshua today i will begin to make you a great leader in the eyes of all the israelites they will know that i am with you just as i was with moses this is so important because in the process of becoming we just need to know something that we will never arrive until we see jesus face to face on the other side of eternity that he will always call us deeper to go with him and faith that he wants to move as far and when we look at this i think it's important when we look at verse 7 to understand this the one that does the work through us the power that changes the people around us the power to have faith and confidence to move forward and trust that god's going to do what he says he's going to do comes from him because often we wrestle with trying to do what god's called us to do in our own timing in our own understanding in our own confidence in our own strength and we get worn out and we get defeated and we want to give up on faith because it doesn't feel like it's working the process of becoming is learning how to surrender to the one who says i have a plan for you watch what i'm going to do through your life and when god uses us in unimaginable ways it's not for our glory and it's not by our own strength it's by his strength by his spirit and he gets the glory for it the process of joshua becoming who god wanted him to be was today i will begin to make you a great leader that god's going to be the one doing the work in and through us as he leads us to where he wants to take us the process of becoming a man or woman of faith that god wants us to be and the simple reminder that he's going to be with us along the way i don't know how many times that god needs to remind us through this series that when he calls us to do something with us the promise always attached to it is that he's going to be with us so joshua is getting ready to tell the people that getting ready to lead the people into the land and god says joshua here's what i want you to do because i don't want you to come up with your own plan i don't want you to go out and try and build the raft i don't want you to go in survival mode i just want you to listen to what i'm about to tell you in verse 8 we begin to see god unravel his plan for how the people are going to enter the land that he had for him we see this in joshua chapter 3 verse 8. this is what he says give this command to the priests who carry the ark of the covenant when you reach the banks of the jordan river take a few steps into the river and stop there so here's what god wants them to do god wants joshua to pick 12 priests to carry the ark of the covenant which seemed like was the symbol of god's presence with the people of israel and he wanted them to get to the bank's twelve priests carrying the ark and he wanted them to get to the river at flood stage and he wanted them to step into the river and here and god doesn't even tell joshua what he's going to do yet he simply says i want you to take a step of obedience what i'm telling you to do and then you're going to see what i'm going to do you might be like what is god trying to do is god just like god's testing the faith of the israelite people because up unto this point we see how the people of israel have been disobedient over and over and over again to what god was commanding them to do so god was trying to instill in them a new way of relating with god he was trying to show them what faith looks like in fact he was trying to point them back to the father of the israelite faith which was was abraham and in genesis chapter 12 god told abraham i want you to pick up everything that you own and i want you just to start walking and i want you to walk until i tell you to stop and i'll show you the land that i have for you and moses had or abraham had faith in god and trusted in god and because of that he says through you all nations will be blessed through you you will have descendants like that of the sand on the seashore because of your faith in god but the people had lost that kind of faith in god when you begin to look at the people in the wandering and why they wandered god would command the people he says i have a land for you i want you to go after it i'm giving you the green light to go into the promised land and the people were like god i know you said that you wanted us to go in the promised land but 10 out of 12 like that's a pretty good ratio of those who agree that the people living in the land are too great for us and we can't overcome it and then god's like okay well if you guys want to be a disobedient i'll just have you guys wander and then they get out in the desert and they're wandering and they're starting to get hungry god's like i guess i will give you some manna and he says don't collect any more or else it's going to rock guess what they do they pick up more than they should and it rots and it's like over and over like they get to a watering hole and the water's bitter and it doesn't we can't drink it and god's like fine i'll make it sweet enough for you to drink and here is the process of how god related with the israelites god would command the israelites to do something they would complain about it they would wrestle with it and they'd be disobedient so god would have to do the supernatural first before they'd be obedient to what god was calling them to do we see it over and over and over it's this cycle of god would command them to do something the people would wrestle with the command i don't know if we can really do that god is this what you really want us to do like it seems like there's too many obstacles and they wrestle for control with god and now as they're getting ready to enter the promised land god's saying no no no faith is no longer going to be you seeing me move first it's that you are going to be obedient first and then you're going to see me move and i think for most of us this is where our faith gets stopped at the green light because we don't understand and we're waiting for a sign we're waiting for god to move we're waiting for god to do everything before we take a step of obedience to where he wants to take us and in fact he's actually waiting on you and he's waiting on me i remember the first time i ever got in a race with my car when i was in high school my first car was a 19 nine get ready for this this is amazing a 1997 eagle vision it is such a classic car they discontinued the entire eagle brand um it's a fantastic car it was my first car i bought it for my sister for a thousand dollars my parents pitched in 500. that's how it works in high school but that baby had a v6 and it purred i loved that car i remember the first time i pulled up to a stoplight in town and my best friend pulled up next to me in his 2007 jacked up chevy chevy silverado truck and i'm like it's on we this is going down like if you've ever had if you've ever raced from a stop a stop like you know it's about to go down when your best friend shows up next to you and so i throw my car in neutral and i'm giving it every cylinder that eagle vision had at the stop light and i'm you felt the power um and then so i'm getting excited and like the light turns green and i floor it and i'd see my friend just take off because i forgot to put my car in drive and that was my racing career and that's when i knew that i wasn't a car guy and i don't have it all figured out but often that's how we treat our faith we're wondering why we're not going anywhere with god we feel like we're putting all the power and all the effort into it and we're revving it and the light's green and we're wondering why we're not going where we're not even spinning tires it's because our faith is in neutral and it's not in drive and we're trying to do it in our own faith in our own understanding and we're wrestling for control god did you really ask me to do this i want to remind us how we started this year in the do it series of going after the god-given dreams that he's placed inside of our heart i can't tell you how many people i've had a conversation with in the last six months that god laid something on their heart but they haven't done it yet they haven't gone after the god-given dream and they're feeling like and they're wrestling i don't know if this is really what god wants me to do god is this really what you want me to do god is this the right timing god are you going to provide for me financially and we're wrestling for control of all of the details and god's like i'm not asking you for have all the details figured out i'm asking you to take a step of obedience to what i'm leading you to do and then i want you to watch what i'm going to do that's what god's doing with the israelite people the israelite people didn't need more faith they needed their faith in the right spot often we are wondering god god just give me more faith give me more faith god i need more faith to do what you're calling me to do but in fact you just need to put your faith in drive instead of putting in neutral which is putting in your own strength and your own understanding you need to learn how to put your faith and drive and watch what god wants to do in and through your life as you surrender a life of obedience to him that's what god was asking the israelite people to do i want you to get to the river and before i split it like i all moses had to do was put a staff in the water at the red sea and god parted it and they walked through on dry ground but now god is asking them to do something they hadn't done before and we see in joshua chapter 3 verse 13 that the people the priests get ready to go up and they had to walk a half mile ahead of the rest of the people and so the people are watching the priests get closer and closer to the river and we see what god's going to do when they get to the river it says the priest will carry the ark of the lord the lord of all the earth as soon as their feet touch the water the flow of water will be cut off upstream and the river will stand up like a wall so the twelve priests pick up the ark of the covenant and they begin walking ahead of the people and they're marching up to the waters can you imagine the emotions that these priests are feeling at this moment why couldn't somebody else get picked for this job you ever feel that way with god could you just pick somebody else like somebody else has a better story somebody else has more gifts some like how was i one of the 12 priests that got picked to carry it into the water nobody's ever done this before in our generation nobody's had this kind of confidence in god before we've just seen god move and we're obedient because he made it clear to us and now he's telling us that we have to get to the water at flood stage and step in before we see what he's going to do i'm like i'm hoping that i'm like in the back of the carrying the ark i'm hoping i'm the guy in the back and i'm watching the guy in the front i'm like you go for it buddy you step in first i'm going to watch you i don't want to go first or if i'm in the front i'm like you you know you do this if you get if you're over 30 years old every body of water feels cold now okay and you dip your wall like you're like oh he's got to make it's got to make sure it's warm enough for me god like god if you could just like god how many cubit feet per second is this river moving at is this safe for us to step in are we going to get washed away i would have all of these questions if i'm getting ready to step in and trust what god's going to do and god was asking the people to do something they hadn't done before which was take a step of obedience to what he was telling them to do and then watch what i'm going to do in and through your life when you take a step of obedience if we're going to do extraordinary things for god we have to learn how to have a heart that's positioned that when the voice of god speaks that we would be obedient to the commands that he has for us that we would step for that we would have a kind of faith that gets our feet wet even when it doesn't make sense even when we don't have it all figured out that we would take a step of confidence to what god is leading us to do and we see that god is getting ready to demonstrate his faithfulness to the people of israel once again we see in joshua chapter 3 verse 15 and 16. here's what happens it was the harvest season which means it's flooded and the jordan was overflowing its banks but as soon as the feet of the priests who were carrying the ark touched the water at the river's edge the water above that point began backing up a great distance away at a town called adam which is near zerathan and the water below that point flowed on to the dead sea until the riverbed was dry then all the people crossed over near the town of jericho let me just paint a picture for you what god is trying to show the israelite people the priests i don't know what they were like but they stepped into the water and it says as soon as their feet hit the water god did what he said he was going to do and often the question that we wrestle with is god going to do what he says he's going to do we're questioning god god if i step out in faith are you going to be faithful to do what you say you're going to do and it says as soon as the feet of the priest i don't know if it was the priest in the front or if all 12 priests had to have their feet in the water but the priest stepped in and as as soon as they did what god asked them to do when they took a step of obedience and faith to what god was looking to do god did what he said he was going to do and he stopped the water like a wall like he did at the red sea and it says they walked through on dry ground i don't know if you're getting the picture of what god's trying to show israel and what he's trying to show us what he's trying to show us is that god has been faithful in the past he's faithful in the present he's going to be faithful in the future that we serve a faithful loving god who when we step forward in obedience he does extraordinary things through our faith that we would have a confidence to step forward in obedience that when god commands us to do something he's going to be with us that when god commands us to do something that when we're obedient he's going to do extraordinary things through our faith and through our obedience the small part that god wants us to play in being used in extraordinary ways is simply being obedient to what he's calling us to do i think for us this is a moment to reflect on where we're at in our faith for us to slow down and take stock god am i really being obedient to what you're calling me to do or am i at the green light and i'm stuck in neutral and i'm revving my engine and i'm not going anywhere and i'm tired could you imagine this moment for the israelite people 400 years past in slavery 40 years in the desert to go to the land that god wanted them i imagine some of them they had been told by their fathers man when you enter the promised land think about dad we're not going to be able to see it because of our disobedience but god says he's going to lead you into it think about the emotions i think this was a faith building moment like they could step on the in the water and that god showed up and did what he said he was going to do it was a confidence booster like remember when god did that you ever had those moments where you stepped forward in faith and god did extraordinary things in and through your life that he provided for you he led you he did simple he did amazing things through your simple obedience uh imagine the israelites some of them were so excited they were getting to enter the promised land but i think for some of them they're like and i think some of us here today were just like god if i'm going to do what you want me to do i'm just going to dip my toe in first and you're standing on the shore on the other side of where god wants to lead you and you're waiting for god to paint you the clearest picture before you move i want to tell you to put your faith in action and move forward to where god wants to take you and watch what he does in and through your life i think for some of us we're like the israelites we've stepped into the water and god moved before but now we're not operating in faith we're operating in fear because we see in other translations that the people hurried across the river it's as if they were like god i know you did it before but are you going to crash the water down on us like you crashed the water down on the egyptians and they rushed into the other side i think often we don't operate in faith we operate in fear we're just trying to go because we're worried that god's going to punish us if we're not obedient but you need to know this that god's more interested in your direction than he is your perfection and he wants you to take another step forward of obedience you're going to mess up you're going to fall down there's going to be moments where you're not perfect but all he cares about are you going to take the next step of obedience are you going to choose to trust in me when i speak and for some of us you've been in the water so long you need to be reminded that when you step farther and farther where god wants to take you it creates room for the people to come behind you on dry ground that the way you live out your faith it matters not just for yourself but for the people around you which is how we're going to close out this message but i i think for a moment we need to look at our own faith as i feel like god is calling our church to go deeper with him to trust him in deeper waters to take steps of obedience to not just stay where we're at we'll allow god to take us deeper in trust and obedience to where he wants to lead us but i think for some of us if we're being honest our faith is stuck in it with a 20 20 mindset our faith is quarantined our faith is stationary it's not moving forward it's at the green light revving the engine but we're not going anywhere and we're frustrated we feel like god's not moving we're feeling like god's not being faithful and we're stuck in our faith it's about going through the motions you know how to show up to church you know how to sing the songs because they're on the screen you listen to the word and you check the box of faith and you go through the motions and you're wrestling with god is this really what you're leading me to is this really all that faith is about and your faith feels stuck and if we're some of us are truly being honest our faith feels dead and we're wondering god is this all there is are you really going to do what you say you're going to do god are you really are who you say you are in canvas i want to paint a picture of what i think god's been trying to teach us as a church in 2021. i think he's made it clear from the very first series of what god is leading our church to in 2021 and in the future you look at what god's been speaking to us in 2021 we started it with the do it series to go after the god-given dreams that god has placed inside of your heart to have a faith that is alive to have a confidence through the power of the holy spirit to go after what the lord has placed in front of you and put inside of your heart and we talked about how to do that the second series was our galatian series we talked about how faith is the only way to be made right with god it's believing in jesus it's not in your own goodness it's not in your own strength it's not in anything that you can do other than faith in jesus that you're made right you begin to look at the other things that we've talked about in this week four weeks ago kevin preached a message called red light green light that the mission of jesus is to go and stop when he tells you to stop but he says to go into the world and make disciples that the light isn't red we're not supposed to wait for a clear sign we're not supposed to wait for the whole picture but we're supposed to go and watch how the holy spirit leads us we look at the click track series and throughout the whole click track series it was living out the rhythms of faith the first week of this series was a faith that don't quit when life gets difficult continue to trust in him and trust in his timing last week it was a call to be strong and courageous canvas i don't know if god needs to paint a picture over my head or lay a banner down in front of us but i think in 2021 god's tired of stationary faith and i think it's time for us to wake up as a church and i think it's time for us to not live life in neutral but live life and drive and watch what god does through our simple steps of obedience when we choose to trust in him because it's not in our own strength it's not in our own power that we wrestle for and try and get all these things done for god to say god look at all i've accomplished it's simply saying god here i am use my life what do you want to do with it and when god speaks to us to do something that we would take the small steps of obedience and we watch how god uses our small steps of obedience to do great things for his kingdom because it's his power it's his love it's his grace and it's for his glory that we would be a church that is alive people god is on the move he is not dead we know we we sing about that god is alive we need to have a faith that is alive and a god that is alive and we need to start moving forward in obedience to where he is leading us to go last week kevin said we want to be a church where god is moving so the question is do we have a faith where god is moving or do we want a wandering in the desert type faith that we're waiting for god to do a miracle first we're waiting for god to do it all first so then we can step forward in obedience or are we gonna have a get your feet wet kind of faith that says god i'm all in god i want to go where you're leading even when it doesn't make sense that i would step in a river at flood stage i know that you've been faithful in the past i know you're faithful in my present and i know you're going to be faithful in the future because that is the god that we serve and where we often find ourselves is living life like this you've seen this illustration of often we hold on to life like this with a closed fist and the plans that god has for us and becoming all that god wants us to be like god if i could just speak into that for a second god if i could just give you some ideas for the timing of my life but but god you know all the things that i have going on god you know i have a family god you know that i'm wrestling with this and and we begin to make our list of excuses of god why this isn't working out and why i can't be obedient to what you want me to do and we're holding on to life like this and god's not asking us for us to control and have it all figured out he's simply asking us to let go and say i surrender and when he speaks to us that we would step forward in obedience to what he's leading us to do this week pastor alan warnicky who's our care pastor here he's getting ready to transition out of ministry after 54 years in full-time vocational ministry this guy is a legend in the faith and he spent two hours this week pouring into our staff of wisdom of things that he's learned in 54 years of ministry i i it was i was like a sponge everything he said is just so amazing i just want to look i could just hours i could listen to pass around but there was one thing that he said that he had to relearn he said i learned this early in ministry but i had forgot it until this last season where god was asking me to step out of full-time ministry to go be with my family more and the quote that he said is this that god can do more with our surrender than we can with our control because often what we want to do is i want to control it god i want to do i have an idea i have a plan god if we can do this and god's like i'm not asking for your control and all i want is a heart of obedience to say yes and watch what i'm gonna do through your surrender god can do more with our surrender than we can with our control if we want to do extraordinary things for the kingdom god it's not in our own timing in our own understanding in our own strength it's through the power of the holy spirit who lives inside of us and the spirit of god that lives inside of us is not a spirit of fear but it's a spirit of power love and self-control if we want to do extraordinary things for faith we have to allow the holy spirit to be the one who does the work which i go back to joshua chapter 3 7 which god tells joshua in the very beginning of the story i'm the one who's going to do the work today and all he was asking the people to do is be obedient to his commands god says this the lord told joshua today i will begin to make you a great leader in the eyes of all the israelites they will know that i am with you just as i was with moses that i am with you wherever you go i'm reminded of joshua chapter 1 verse 5 that wherever his feet hit the ground was land that god was giving him and all joshua had to do to win the battles that were ahead of him was simply be obedient to what god was commanding him to do so church what is it that god's speaking to you right now what is it that the voice of the lord is commanding you as we learn how to position our hearts to hear the voice of god speaking to us so that we can step forward in obedience to where he wants to take us and all the unimaginable things for his kingdom that he wants us to do for him are we going to step forward in faith in confidence or are we going to wander waiting for a sign because i don't know if you know this or not but the way that we live out our faith that matters in fact that's the only point i have for this message is this that the way we live out our faith it matters it matters it doesn't just matter for you it matters for the people around you it matters for your kids it matters for your grandkids and in fact i know that that joshua didn't just wasn't focused on we made it that's not how the story of them crossing into the promised land ends joshua's not like yeah that's it now we're just going to enjoy life and do nothing else no that battle was actually just beginning when they entered the promised land and there were so many more obstacles to come his way the crossing into the promised land was the beginning of becoming all that god wanted his people to do and it started with a small step of get your feet wet obedience but here's how the story ends joshua grabs 12 people and he says i want you to grab 12 stones in the middle of religious joshua chapter 4. he says i want you to grab 12 stones and i want you to pick them up out of the river where the priests are standing and i want you to go on dry ground and where the people crossed over in the promised land i want you to set up 12 stones as a memorial to remind the people of the faithfulness of god and he says in joshua chapter 4 verse 21 he says in the future your kids will ask you what do these stones mean he says it's an opportunity when your kids ask what this memorial means to tell them that our god he was faithful to take us out of egypt out of slavery and he led us through the red sea on dry ground and we wandered 40 years in the desert because of our disobedience but then again he led us into the promised land and right here just like he did at the red sea god led us into the promised land on dry ground because we serve a faithful god the memorial stones weren't to remind the the israelites of the desert wandering it was to remind them of the faithfulness of god and we're supposed to tell the generations to come about the faithfulness of god i'm reminded on this father's day weekend what are we sharing with the generations to come about the faithfulness of our god what hope are we sharing with them what faith are we passing down because you might be here today and you're a first generation christian you might have changed the course of your family forever you're the first to believe and the ones that are coming behind you your kids and your grandkids they're going to walk through on dry ground because of your faith some of you you're like me i'm here today because of the faithfulness and obedience of those who have gone before me and i stand on the shoulders of faithful servants of jesus for generations to come in my family and my goal and my heart is that it would get better for the generations to come our faith may our faith not die in our generation like it did with the israelites before joshua and the israelites after joshua but may we have a faith that is passed down from generation to generation and may our faith grow because i believe the best days of the church of jesus are ahead of us but what it's going to take is a church that puts our faith in drive and watches what god does as we step forward in obedience to him and we watch what he does so i challenged us with this when was the last time you shared a story of the faithfulness of god with those behind you because your faith as you step farther and farther is making way for the next generation to go in fact this series god's been challenging me to pray bold prayers for our church so each week at our columbia falls campus i've been sharing a prayer that god's laid on my heart for our church that we would step forward and be obedient and become that kind of church this week as i was praying about having a generational faith i prayed this may the incredible move of god we are seeing at canvas church far surpass the generations in this room the way that you live out your faith matters matters for your kids matters for your grandkids it matters for the generations to come that they would know the faithfulness of our god that when we step forward when we put our feet in the water it says as soon as our feet their feet hit the water god did what he said he was going to do billings what are you going to tell the generations to come about this season at your campus that you launched your campus in the middle of a pandemic and it didn't make sense and four months in your campus pastor got diagnosed with cancer again but through the entire thing god has been faithful your campus is growing last week you baptized two people are you gonna tell the stories of the faithfulness of god cup bank what are you gonna tell your kids what are you gonna tell your grandkids about the faithfulness of god see falls we're just getting started i can't wait for all god's gonna do cowspell what are we gonna tell our kids and our grandkids about the faithfulness of our god that he has been faithful in the past he's faithful today and he's gonna be faithful tomorrow that it would continue to get better from generation to generation as we step forward in obedience and just take the next step saying god you can do more with my surrender than i can with my control and i choose every step of the way to trust in you and when we position our hearts to hear from him and step forward in obedience god does unimaginable things through our faith in him and we watch how he changes the world and the generations to come dads i end with this my prayer is a dad and this is not my quote i take no credit for this i stole it from andy stanley i'm sure he stole it from somebody else he says may the greatest thing i do for the kingdom of god not be a message that i preach but may it be the people that i raise in my home dad's may the greatest contribution that we have to the kingdom of god not be our job but may it be the people that we're raising to be generation changers world changers of faith and may we lead with steps of obedience to what god is leading us to do may we be strong and courageous and lead and watch what god does in and through our life would you grab that connection card we believe here at canvas that truth demands a response and maybe you're here today in that first box says i choose to follow jesus maybe you've been coming to church for a while maybe you've been dipping your toes in the water maybe you're testing god are you who you say you are god are you going to do what you say you're going to do can i just tell you that god we serve a faithful god then when you choose to trust in him it is the best decision you'll ever make it is not going to be easy but we're here to walk with you through it and you can check that box i'm ready to take a step of all in in my faith today the second one maybe as i've been talking today you've been evaluating where you're at in your faith and you feel like you're stuck at a red light and you've been revving the engine it's time to put your faith and drive and take steps of obedience to go after the things that god has for your life third i will share a story of god's faithfulness in my life here's what you're going to find and when you share stories of god's faithfulness in your life with those around you it builds up their faith but guess what it also builds up your faith lastly it's a declaration that our faith my faith won't end with my generation it's going to continue to get better as we continue to follow jesus would you stand with me let me pray for you we're going to end in worship [Music] father i thank you for every heart that's in this room and in columbia falls and cup bank and billings those watching online lord as i've been preaching this message i'm believing that you're speaking to people about their next step may we be a church that doesn't wrestle for control of what it looks like but lord may we take a step of obedience to what you're calling us to do and watch what you do through our surrender lord may we choose every day to be obedient to what you're calling us to do and may we live a life of surrender and watch how you prove yourself faithful over and over again and may we be a church that it continues to get better from generation to generation lord we love you and we give you our lives in jesus name amen let's worship together god [Music] you [Music] is [Music] is [Music] there's nobody like [Music] there's nobody [Music] i'm reminded of something kevin said a couple weeks ago when he asked his dad on his birthday god dad share me share some wisdom with me and kevin's dad said there's nothing better than obedience to what god calls us to do so may we be a church that steps forward in confidence that our god is faithful that we would be obedient to his leading and watch what he does this week as you step forward in obedience to him canvas we love you dads we have a beef jerky stick for you out in the lobby we love you grab one of those as you leave and have a great week we'll see you next week [Music] so [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] so [Music]

Channel: Canvas Church

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Id: dGYbTxLjKgs

Length: 77min 19sec (4639 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 20 2021