Join me in the Book
of Joshua chapter I-- Joshua chapter I for
a message that I'm calling rite of passage-- rite of passage. Joshua is a book that follows
the story of the children of Israel coming out
of Egypt and attempting to go into the Promised Land. And that didn't
work out so well, and so they ended up distracted. They weren't paying
attention to the GPS. They were not great
with directions. And they ended up
wandering in the wilderness for almost 40 years. And then the entire
generation that came out, except for
two individuals, died in the wilderness. And a whole new
generation comes about. And the Book of Joshua opens as
they're getting their mulligan. They're getting another go
at crossing the Jordan River. And it all begins with
this incredible speech that God gives to
a man named Joshua. And I feel like
God would have us focus our attention this
Father's Day on these words. It says, "after
the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord,"-- man, right there--
there's his eulogy. By the way, that's
all he ever gets. And I just wonder
what's going to be written on your tombstone. I wonder what's your eulogy. You know, like,
what is it that you hope by the end of your
life is said of you? Let me just suggest
that you can't do better than the servant of the Lord. And I love that Moses did
a lot of incredible things. He had a lot of accomplishments. If you just were pulling
stuff from a resume, parted of the Red Sea-- casual. Part of bringing food down
from heaven, called manna. Stared down the most powerful
person in the world, a pharaoh, and wasn't scared, saw
a burning bush one time. That's not abnormal. I've seen burning bushes, but
the burning bushes usually burn up. This one did not burn up,
but instead began to speak. And that is where my story
and Moses' story diverge. And yet out of all the
incredible things that can be written about him,
the one-sentence eulogy is that Moses was the
servant of the Lord because at the end
of the day, that was the important
thing about him and nothing could be
more important than that for any of us-- that we are
God's servant, willing to do what He's called us to do. "And it came to pass after
he died that the Lord spoke to Joshua, the son of Nun,
Moses' assistant, saying, 'Moses my servant is dead. Now therefore arise, go
over this Jordan, you and all this people, to the
land which I am giving to them-- the children of Israel. Every place'"-- listen to this-- "'that the sole of your foot
will tread upon I have given you, as I said to Moses. From the wilderness and this
Lebanon as far as the great river'"-- the River Euphrates--
"'to the land of the Hittites, and to the great sea toward
the going down of the sun, this shall be your territory. No man shall be able to
stand before you all the days of your life, because
as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave
you or forsake you. Be strong and of good
courage, for to this people you shall divide
as an inheritance the land which I swore to
their fathers to give them. Only be strong and
be very courageous, that you may observe to do
according to all the law which Moses my servant commanded you. Do not turn from it to the
right hand or to the left, that you may prosper
wherever you go. This book of the law shall
not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate
in it day and night, that you may observe
to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make
your way prosperous, and then you will
have good success. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage. Do not be afraid,
nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is
with you wherever you go.'" Come all ye thankful for
the greeting of God's Word. I'll tell you why. In all the things we read,
all the things we see, there's just something so
different about Scripture, about how what came
from God's mouth hits us when it
comes into our heart. And I'm praying that God will do
something powerful in our midst as we consider this text. In this passage, as
it opens up, Joshua-- and the entire nation, really-- is-- they're reeling. Reeling from the
sudden departure of one of the most significant
leaders that ever lived. I mean, you simply cannot find
a more powerful leader than Moses, who God was cool
talking face-to-face with, like you would talk
to your friend. He would just get a stroll
up on top of the mountain that even animals would
die if they came near. And yet, Moses was able
to just go up there. And Moses spoke to God. Moses walked with God. And he was used by God to
give us so much of the Bible. And so consider how
intimidating it would be to follow in his footsteps. That's bad enough, right? You don't follow
up after a leader. I mean, that is just such
an intimidating thing. Imagine being Tim Cook and
following up after Steve Jobs. That is just-- those
are huge shoes to fill. And to think about the
difficulty of that-- but that's not even really
the end of the deal, because he wasn't just
following up after Moses, he was trying to do something
Moses was never able to do. Let that sink in. He's not just the follow-up
back now to Moses, taking the baton from
him, but he's also his first assignment is to
do the one thing that Moses was never able to do. Someone say, good
luck with that. I mean, that is a tall
order if there ever was one. And so if you think
about what was going through his mind,
and just the self-doubt and the insecurities, and
that these people are never going to listen to me. There is a reason so
many empires in history crumbled after-- you
know, Alexander the Great died, after the death
of a key leader, it's so challenging
to unite people because everyone wants
now to be in charge. And so that's exactly what
Joshua would have thought would be happening. He does not-- let me tell you. He does not think he's the man
for the job, I guarantee you. He does not think
that he's going to be able to crack the
code now and fulfill these 500-year-old promises
going all the way back to Abraham. If Moses wasn't
able to do it, how am I possibly going
to stand a chance? And it's exactly for those
reasons that at this moment, God chose to come
and speak to him and to give him his
own rite of passage. This was a somber,
serious ceremony. This was a
soul-wrenching ceremony in which God spoke to Joshua
and imparted something to him in this moment,
in this conference, in this interaction,
that left him different for the
rest of his life. The Joshua that came into
this story and the Joshua that comes out of this story
are two different people. Joshua the assistant
to Moses was the one who we find as
the Book of Exodus closes. But after this interaction
that took place at the shore of
the River Jordan, after this conversation, Joshua
now becomes a man of God. This was a rite of passage,
which tragically we don't really even have much
of a frame of reference for as we contemplate that. A ceremony set aside for seeing
someone take a step forward from being a boy to being a man. And were distinct in our country
for a lack of such a ceremony, for such a rite, a
coming of age opportunity to come around and
celebrate that. Most cultures around the
world place a strong emphasis on just such a thing. In fact, if you
look into it, there are cultures around
the world that are deliberate about
now saying to someone, you were a boy in
this tribe, you were a boy in our population. But now we accept you into
the ranks of adulthood. We're accepting
you in as a woman. We're accepting you in as a man. And it's fascinating if you
look into it, so many of them have adrenaline as a
common denominator. I found one tribe where--
and I'm not saying we should do this. I'm just saying
it's interesting-- where to graduate into being a
full-fledged man in the tribe, they are forced to wear a
glove full of bullet ants. Now, please google
bullet ants later. Because supposedly to
get stung by a bullet ant feels like getting
shot by a gun. And they fill the
glove with bullet ants and then the young man has to
put his hand into the glove. And apparently it can
leave his arm completely paralyzed for wearing this. And for days this goes on. But after this ceremony, let
me tell you, he's never going to forget that day, right? It's like graduation day. Never forget that. He became Ant Man on that day. Yeah. It's just deadly. And so after this Paul Rudd
ceremony, now he's a man. You're ready to be a man. But you know what's
cool about that? All the rest of the
men of the tribe know what it felt like that
day, when their day came to put their hand in that glove. There's a tribe
somewhere in Tahiti that they build towers that go
a hundred feet tall out of wood and they build bungee
cords out of vines. And before you're
ready to become a man, first you must take
the leap of faith. And they literally jump-- google it-- they
jump off this tower. This is a real thing. And before they're ready
to be celebrated as a man, they first have to
not break their neck. Now, the key is they try and
build the length of the vine just so, that the top of their
head just grazes the ground and they rake up the soil. So you can see them diving
with these vines attached to their ankles, and
their heads just-- the goal is to graze the soil. And then when they
come up rolling, they're just celebrated
and piled on. There's another tribe
that they take-- these are ridiculous, right? In the old Aztec
world, you had to go kill a member of another tribe. It's like being jumped into
a gang, which, by the way, would be probably one of
the closest examples of what we could point to in our
culture for an equivalent of a ceremony. Jumped into a gang. You have to do this to be a man. You have to do this
to be one of us. You're now, as you go
through this ceremony, however dark that might be. It just shows you people are
looking for, are searching for. Why? Because for most of
us, the only equivalent would be the day you got
your driver's license, which how
underwhelming was that? Maybe you do all the work, and
they say, oh, there you go. You're an adult. Good job. Congratulations. Now please get out of here. Right? That sterile
government environment is the closest
equivalent we have to a rite of passage ceremony. Now, that slip of
paper can tell you that you are authorized
to drive a motor vehicle, but it does not tell you where
you fit into in the world, and what your place
is, and who you are, what your worth is,
what your identity is, what it even means
to be an adult. What it even means
to be a participating part of a community, to
have a place in the world where you belong. One article I read
online about-- that was just puzzling over the
lack of such a ritual, which still, of course, does exist in
quinceaneras and bar mitzvahs and that sort of thing. And perhaps in our
decadent society, we do have our sweet 16. So, yay us, right? But to think of the
fact that specifically boys, young men in particular,
have a need of something crazy, of something dangerous
that they begin to want to do during this time. This is why it's such a
volatile time, the teen years. One person said, it's because
they have a need for a ritual to mark a passage to manhood. And if they don't have
one in their society, they will invent their own if
one is not provided for them. And tragically, this
does end up leading to things like needing to
lose your virginity to somehow be celebrated as a man. Or needing to get into a fight. Or, as we mentioned,
the things that are-- the steps that are taken
to get into a gang. John Eldredge writes
in one of his books, "Until a man knows
he is a man, he will forever be trying
to prove he is one, while at the same time he
will shrink from anything that might reveal that he is not." And perhaps such a lack
of a rite of passage or a value placed on such
a thing in our culture is the reason there are
so many boys out there who are in adult bodies. Those who are living with no
one ever having taught them how to be a man. In the weeks as I've been
preparing to preach this and readying my
heart for it, I've been asking friends
of mine as I've traveled the country
and just texted friends. And asked them, how
did you become a man? What was it for you? Was there an accompanying
rite of passage? Was there a moment? And it was unbelievable how the
common denominator, regardless of whether I was talking to
Christians or non-Christians, is that they felt rather
unprepared for that transition. They felt like there
was no high moment. There was no, this
was when I felt like it all was crystallized. It came to a point
here at this moment. For so many of them
it was, my parents did the best they could. They tried to get us
to church and they tried to give us good advice. But there was no, here, my son. You are a man now. This is what it
means to be a man. Here, this is what
it looks like. There was there was
no moment in time. To some of them, as I
was asking this question, I saw such sadness
in their eyes. It would have been
a thing where if you had asked them to put their
hand into a glove full of ants, it would have been a
welcome thing, as opposed to the silence
that they received. One person said
when I asked them, when did you finally
discover you were a man and begin to search for it? He said, it took years. It took years of
lots of mistakes, of being a boy in
an adult body, where I was desperate for something
that would help shape me into a man that I longed to be. Another person said
when I asked him, well, then, how did you eventually--
because he's a pastor now and he played college
football and he eventually got his life together. I said, well, when did
you, then, become a man? He said, it wasn't until
I'd made some mistakes that landed me in prison. And there someone discipled me. And there someone who had
come to faith in prison as well took me
under their wing. And there finally I was
given the mentorship that I didn't get growing
up in a single father-- single mother-- parent home. And to think about
what this is doing to us, this lack
of attention given to such a vital and
important transition. And really, I feel
like the reason God would have me to have us
spend some time on this is two reasons. I feel like this weekend,
this Father's Day weekend at Fresh Life, God
wants for some of you who never received
it, for this to be a bit of a rite
of passage moment. For this to be a moment
in time where you can hear God speaking through. It's a ricochet shot through
Joshua, bouncing off Joshua, and landing these words on you. And what's perfect about God the
Father as He speaks to Joshua and so now as He speaks to
you, son and daughter alike, as He sort of takes him
from Moses' assistant to Joshua the man of God,
as he tries to take you from being what you were
to what you're meant to be, is that God is the
perfect parent. Because what we find in
here is a high standard and a high warmth conversation. High standard, high warmth. And this should be, all of us
as parents, what we aspire to-- high standard, high warmth. Tragically, some of
us, we settle for high standard and low warmth. Meaning it's all rigid, all
rules, all authoritarian, never can do good enough. And where the standard is
high but the warmth is low, there's a desperation. There's almost a
feeling of like, I'm only as good as my GPA. I'm only as good as
if I'm on the team. I'm only as good as what
I've done for you lately. Similarly, there can
be a low warmth-- or a high warmth
and a low standard, which is where I just love
you, no matter what you do. No matter what, there's-- but there's never a
calling out to anything. There's never a
calling up to anything. There's just complete
permissiveness in the name of love. No discipline in
the name of love, no correction in the name
of love, no consequences. But the Bible says, if you
spare the rod, you actually spoil the child. You hate your child
and teach them nothing good by not disciplining them. And of course, there
can be any number of subcategories in there. But what God gives to
Joshua, I think you'll agree, and what God wants to give
to you, is high standard. He's calling you to something. He's calling out the
potential in you. He's calling, you can do better. Come on. There's more inside of you. There's that high standard,
but there's also a high warmth. You just read this,
you feel love. You read this, you
feel tenderness. And that's how
God speaks to you. It's with love and
with tenderness, but it's also, at
the same time, He's not going to allow you to settle
for less than what's inside of you, what He put
inside of you, what he wants to do through you. There's a love, but He's
the coach who's saying, you can do better. Come on, let's
get back in there. Let's work on that. Let's practice that. And so that's the first reason I
feel like God spiritually wants to deposit something of a
rite of passage ceremony into our midst. Just as Joshua was
called up to something, I feel like in this moment,
God is going to call some of us up to that. The second is, I want to beg you
who are fathers specifically, but parents ultimately, and
part of a community corporately. I want to beg you to
know and understand the power of the father
to confer blessing on the son and daughter. I want you to understand-- not only this weekend-- that you need to
receive a blessing, but I also want
you to understand that it is your right
and your privilege and your responsibility. And where there's lack, OK, our
responsibility, then, right? For some of you who did not
have a parent, do you know, I stand in their stead
as God's messenger to give to you His blessing
that you craved and never got. To give to you what has caused
you to spin your wheels out for years. And the reason some of you are
finding such a lack of traction is you're living as a little
girl in a woman's body. You're living as a little
boy in a man's body. And in this world,
you've been craving what God wants to give you. And so this moment
is not only for you to receive that
blessing, but you to also now pivot and understand
the responsibility to then give that blessing to your kids. And as a church community,
because there are not all perfect little families
where everyone has everything as it should be, and there's
kids in this church who don't have that, we then
corporately accept that responsibility
to give that blessing. I want you to understand-- this weekend, if I've
done my job right, you'll understand that
God wants to take you through a rite of passage
where you need it, and that you then are meant
to give that blessing. Because the ultimate
problem for so many of us in having never received what we
needed to get from our father, from our parents,
from God ultimately, is you can't give a
blessing you never received in the first place. And you'll never be able
to extend and give out the blessings that God
intends for you to, if you never received
those in the first place. You can't call out
the king in your child when you can't see past the
wounds in your own soul. And where there's the
deficit, where there's the lack, where there wasn't
the clarity, where there wasn't the vision, where there wasn't
the revelation, where there wasn't the strength, where there
wasn't the integrity, where there wasn't the character,
where there wasn't the presence, where there
wasn't the responsibility. And to the extent that you've
been limited and set back by those things that were not
given to you or were taken from you, or the ways that you had
to grow up too fast and too soon to figure things out for
yourself and so you've been living out of those
limitations, to those extents, you cannot then be positioned
to give those things out without seeing those things
healed inside of you. And make no mistake
about it, the blessings of God in your life are
meant to be passed on. We are meant to, one generation
to another, give those things. And I'm living proof
of the fact that God can break those chains. God can absolutely. Seeing in my family
how my father before me was intentional about
taking me on trips alone, taking me on little things
like little fishing trips, on little opportunities
where he specifically quieted the conversation and
didn't allow it to be just about school and sport,
but he intentionally spoke to the God-given
potential inside of me, spoke to prayers that
he had prayed over me and took a defining moment like
opportunities to get me aside. Now, I was one of five. Lots of kids, lots of
stress, lots of bills, lots of difficulty. And let me tell you, my dad, not
a perfect person, a godly man. And his father before
him was murdered when he was very, very young. And so his mother
remarried and the man he grew up with as his father-- I mean, this is gnarly. I mean, he had to testify at
his own stepdad's murder trial. I mean, just very,
very challenged. No relationship with
his biological father. And the stepfather who
was like a dad to him was the one murdered. And so I've never known neither
my biological grandfather on his side or the one
who my dad called father. But the situation he
grew up in, volatile, and his parents
would have parties and he would be
getting drunk at them, and they were fine with that. He almost drowned
from being inebriated at one of these situations. And so when he
came to Christ, he had to figure out
from God what it meant to be a man that
he was never given. And so for him, he found
his way through that and taught me to be a man
and spoke over my life that I was to be a man of God. Took me away before I
began dating Jennie, for a day in Mount
Hood in Oregon, and encouraged me
in the relationship. Told me to pray for Jennie
before our first date and set the pace for
our spiritual life. And so we're living testimony
that what was handed to you doesn't have to be
what you hand forward. You can give something
different to your children than you saw modeled
in your parents. There can be a blood line in
the sand that stops anything from getting through
the generations that God wants to
break and disrupt. I believe that. I'm living proof of that
and I'm grateful for that. And as I talk to my friends
who felt like they didn't have that intentional
rite of passage, I felt so grateful that
I did receive that. And I plan on continuing that
with my daughters and my son and continuing to be intentional
and fighting for there to be not just one
moment at a certain age, but continual deposits in that
bank, continual investments, continual opportunities
and conversations and an investment of love. And I intend to do
all that's in my power to give the blessings
of God to my children and then to my grandchildren,
and believe God for 500 and a thousand years. And listen, God promises. I just want to encourage
you to have a bigger vision. God keeps His promise to
a thousand generations. And so, could you enlarge your
faith a bit as you parent? Could you believe
God for bigger things as you lead in your home? Andy Stanley once said that
your greatest contribution to the Kingdom of God
may not be something you do, but someone you raise. And I wonder if you're
aware of the fact that if you live
a faithful life, everything God does through your
kids is fruit to your account. And if you live
that faithful life and do what God's
called you to do, everything God does
through your grandchildren is fruit to your account. The Bible says that Enoch
walked with God, and guess what? His grandson, Noah,
was the one who built the ark that saved the
entire population of the world. And humanity as we know it
owes a great debt of gratitude to Noah, yes. But every time you tell that
story of Noah, remember, Enoch walked with God. Enoch, Noah's godly
grandfather, walked with God. And we see that
positive impact made in Noah's life because
of the value of the way that Enoch walked with Him. All right, so I speak-- everything I'm about to say both
to you and through you, then. And this weekend, I
just feel so strongly in the message I'm
bringing to you. I feel like this is not a
message I'm here to preach, but an assignment
that I'm here to obey. And so I speak to you
and I speak through you, as you will then be positioned
to give these blessings on to those coming after you. Number one, you are not alone. God speaks to your heart. Wherever you go, whatever you
do, whatever the call of God is on your life and
wherever you find yourself, that you'll always
remember you're not alone. And so many times in this
world, we can feel alone. We can feel all alone. We can feel like no one
knows and no one cares and no one notices. And Joshua could relate, as
he felt just in this moment. It was always, what do you
want to do next, Moses? You know, and he would
have initiative and, hey, let's do this, and here
is something I notice. But at the end of the day,
he was Moses' assistant. And so now Moses is dead,
Joshua's like, oh, crap, right? And feeling all alone. And there's a sense to which
you can feel it, really. What do they say of leadership? It's lonely at the top. There can be a
sense in which, when you carry something, when
you're the primary one responsible for something,
that can really weigh heavily on you. And so here, God
knowing the whole "heavy lies the head that
wears the crown" thing, He swoops in and reminds him. How many times do you
count it in the Scripture? Jot it down later on. Every time you read it, put
a little check mark by it. But over and over
and over again, the most common, consistent
theme to this passage is, you're not alone, baby. I'm with you. I'm with you. I'm with you. I'm with you. I'll be with you at Jericho. I'll be with you picking
up the pieces after Ai. I'll be with you after
you blow it at Gibeon. I'll be with you. I'll be with you. I'll be with you. I am with you. I am with you. You are not alone. You might feel very
alone in your parenting. You might feel very
alone in trying to juggle all the things you
have to juggle, and work, and this, and the
spiritual life, and pastoring in your home, and
all of this in the small group. And then sometimes you
feel like, well, now I've got to volunteer. And just to think,
sometimes you just feel very alone,
making ends meet and putting food on the table. And God speaks to you and just
says this to you, quietly. He says to you,
you are not alone. I am with you. Verse 5. "As I was with Moses, I
will be with you also. I will not leave you. I will not forsake you." Jesus' last words in
the Gospel of Matthew, "I am with you always." Remember, because it's easy to
forget because He's invisible. "I am with you always, even
to the end of the world." And so what He's-- He's calling Joshua to lean into
and to find His power from-- listen to me-- is the presence of God. And if I could just
encourage you on one thing, it would be that you
fight to stay around the presence of God. And where the presence
of God is the thickest is always where
the people of God are praising the name of Jesus. That is where Jesus
said, I am powerfully present in the midst. Live a life cultivating
your secret devotional life, absolutely. Pray to God on your own. Seek God on your own. Get in the Word
of God on your own and let God in those
moments build you into a person of character. But as we come together,
there's just something about being in the house together. There's something about
the two or more together where God inhabits the
praises of His people. That passage actually literally
means He pulls up a chair. When God sees us
gathering together to strengthen each other,
to worship Him together, He pulls up a chair because He
enjoys the praise of His people so much that he's
there in the midst. Live a life like
David, who said, "For just one day of intimacy
with You is like a thousand days of joy rolled into one. I'd rather stand at
the threshold in front of the gate beautiful,
ready to go in and worship my God, than
to live my life without you in the most beautiful
palace of the wicked." So live your life surrounded
by the presence of God. Some of the most defining
moments of my entire life have been in the
presence of God, worshipping together, singing. There's something about it. And if you're new
to all of this, it seems weird, I'm just telling
you, just give it a minute. Just give it a second. Just keep showing up. You will watch God begin to
intersect into your normal with something
that's supernatural. And He'll deposit
things into your life that will give you strength. And there have been moments
even just this past week, where in challenging,
fear-filled moments, there's just been
something just given to me in the
presence of God that has been able to sustain
me in the difficult moments of this life. So you are not alone. And we're able to speak
that, not only receiving it, but also to those through us. Secondly-- jot this down-- God says to you, you are
not to stay here anymore. You are not to
stay here anymore. This was a commencement. This was a graduation ceremony. This R-I-T-E, rite of passage
was also where God gave him a right of passage,
R-I-G-H-T. And if you look in the dictionary, the
difference between a rite of passage and a right
of passage is enormous. A rite of passage is a
ceremony to celebrate something and to say, hey, you're now
stepping into a new season. But a right of
passage is permission to sail into uncharted waters. Permission to go
through somewhere else. Permission to pass
through this area. Permission to buzz the
tower, Top Gun style, right? This is what God was saying. This is great, Joshua. Be a man. You're going to be courageous. I'm never going to leave you. I'll always be with you. But it's time to cross
that Jordan River. It's time to do what Moses
never was able to do. It's time to go into
that Promised Land. It's time to take some areas. It's time to go
fight some battles. It's time to move on. You've been here long enough. 40 years is long enough. It's time to go somewhere new. But the Promised Land, as
we read the New Testament, is not just an actual country. It's also a metaphor
for this abundant life of blessing and following
God, and growth and maturity, and seeing God-- listen-- help us to
possess our possessions. To possess our possessions
because we've been given everything in Christ. It's infinite in scope. It's limitless in potential. But we have to by faith
possess our possessions. So now to cross over, verse 2. Go to this Jordan. Take these people with you. Go to the land which I am giving
to them and to the children of Israel as well. Now, what does that
mean for you and for me? It means that the gulf
between where we are today and where God
intends for us to go is something we need
to be moving towards. And right now, there are
things holding you back. There are things in your life. And really what it comes
down to for all of us is immaturity and selfishness
and pride and ego. And there are things
in our habits. There are things, the
dysfunction that we've allowed. There are responses
and patterns that we-- and strongholds of the enemy. Ways of thinking
that we're trapped in that we don't even see
anymore, that we're blinded to. And there are things
that God is saying to us. It's we've been
here long enough. Come on, 40 years
is long enough. You've been responding
this way every time you get triggered, every
time you get mad, every time you get paid, every time-- that's long enough. It's time to rise up and
take the Promised Land. It's time to grow. 1 Corinthians 13:11. "When I was a child, I spoke as
a child, understood as a child, I thought as a child. But when I became a man"-- rite of passage-- "I put away those
childish things." Now, what does that
look like exactly? Well, He tells us in
just two verses' time. He says, "now abide
faith, hope, love. These three. But the greatest
of these is love." You see, when we stay on the
other side of the Jordan River, we just love ourselves. But when we cross that
river and enter in, true maturity looks like a love
for God and a love for people. It looks like a putting
away of the childish things, of just reacting based on
what we want and what we think and how it impacts us. But growth is to
care of other people more than we care
about ourselves. Growth is to feel something, but
not to respond in that emotion until we process, is
this the right thing to do in the moment? And God says to you, you are
not to stay here anymore. You've been there long enough. It's time-- listen. God's calling. He's warm, but He's also
got a high standard. Because He knows, He knows
what's inside of you. The third thing I
would say to you-- is this encouraging you
at all this weekend? All right-- is, you have
power in your footsteps. You have power in
your footsteps. Your feet-- if you
look down, just look at your feet for a moment. Your feet have power. Because your feet--
listen to me-- they make footprints. And those footprints are what
the people coming behind you have to follow, for
good or for evil. All powerful things
can do great harm. But the flip side of that is,
all powerful things can also do great good. And your feet have the potential
to do what Joshua's feet were given the instruction. Look at verse 3. "Every place that you
put the sole of your foot and you tread upon, I
have given you already." So if you are willing to go
and step on these places, you're willing to
leave a positive trail, I'm going to bless you
wherever you go, is the idea, so long as you don't veer
to the right or to the left, but you only do the things
that I've called you to do. There is blessing promised. There is blessing guaranteed. There's blessing built in. And God wants you to be
blessed wherever you go. God wants, in all the things
you do, in all the things you try, in all the
things He calls you to. An ode to God that you
make it to the highest levels of business. In Hollywood, you have a
film in your heart, great. May God bless you
as you go there. May your feet, as you
go to those places, in the will of God, as long as
you're not turning to the right or turning to the
left, as long as you're staying faith, hope,
and love, you're doing what God's
called you to do. Everywhere you put
the sole of your foot, He's going to prosper you. God is going to bless you. I believe that on your life. So long as you keep putting
Him first, seeking Him first, living your life out
of that revelation that can only come from
the presence of God, as long as you seek to honor
Jesus and love Jesus and be a witness for King Jesus, as
you see your life as a mission and He sends you out into the
highest levels of government, or wherever you go, whatever
your hand finds to do, I'm telling you, God's
going to bless you, so long as you keep
your mind on Him. You have power in
your footsteps, but the greatest power you'll
ever have is your example. The greatest example
that you can give is a person who, like Moses,
is a servant of the Lord. And that in what you do that
your family says after you, they're a servant of the Lord. You think about what
James Baldwin said. He said, "Children
have never been very good at listening
to their elders, but they have never
failed to imitate them." And so to think about the
power of your feet, the power of your-- where do you walk? Where do your steps go? One person said, every time
we as parents do something, we should ask ourselves, would
I want my kids to do this? Would I want my kids to
speak to their wife that way? Would I want my kids to
speak to their boss that way? Would I want my kids to
honor money in this way? Would I want my kids
to watch this movie? Would I want my kids to think
this way, to speak this way, to act this way? What would I want my
grandchildren to do? If you've ever been trying
to build something from Ikea, I pray for you. But can you imagine if you
weren't given a picture? Imagine just having a mystery
box full of stuff from Ikea. And you're given
all these steps. Rules, rules, rules,
but no picture. Let me tell you something. If you're giving your kids
just nothing but rules, but not living what you're
telling them to do, you're just giving them a box
of stuff with a bunch of rules and you're not giving
them a picture on the box. Let your life be the picture. May what you live
out be the photo on the box for the instructions
and the rules that supposedly mean so much to you, for
the things that we're trying to impart to
them in those moments. There's power in your footsteps. Let me say this to you. Number 4. You have what it takes. You have what it takes. I know it's-- a lot of times,
it can feel like it's too much. And we can feel
like such failures and it can feel so hard, and
it can be so intimidating. Life can be. And yet, God says to Joshua,
who's shaking in his sandals, listen to Me. You have what it takes. So be strong and courageous. Be strong and courageous. Be strong and very courageous. You will take this land. You will take this country. You will divide the
inheritance out. You will fulfill the
promises God gave to Abraham. You are the man for the job. I didn't make a mistake
when I came to you. I didn't make a mistake
when I called you. You have what it takes. So you be strong and
you be very courageous. You show up as a father. You show up as a mother. You show up in your home. You show up next week. You show up at-- you have what it takes. You have what it takes. God didn't make a mistake
when He called you. God didn't make a mistake
when Jesus died for you. You have what it takes because
God put it inside of you. And God's going to give it
to you when you lack it, and when you feel afraid,
and when you feel anxious, and when you want to quit. You have what it takes. So be strong and
be very courageous. I love this, too, because
God's telling Joshua, don't fall into
the passion trap. The passion-- don't fall
into the passion trap, where you only do what you
feel, because you'll never do very much. He's saying, you're going
to feel scared a lot. He said, no one's going to be
able to stand up to your face. That doesn't mean
they're not going to try. There's lots of people who
are going to try and step to Joshua, all right? But He said, I'm
going to be with you. I'm going to be with you. I'm going to be
with you, so you can be strong and be courageous. He didn't say, you're
going to feel strong. And you're going
to feel courageous. And I've found I seldom feel
what God's telling me to be. Because we walk by
faith and not by sight. And so we have to
step out of-- don't fall into the passion trap. Passion trap is where you
have to feel it to do it. I think we make a mistake when
we tell people stuff like, find what you love to do
and it'll never be work a day in your life. That's bullcrap. I'm telling you, we love
the idea of passion. And now that's going
to be my sweet spot. Because I love it, it's
never going to be hard. That's so wrong. All the best things I've
ever done are really hard. All the best things I've
ever done in my life-- it was just challenge. There's great aspects to them,
but there's hard parts as well. Someone's good at
something we all, you should make-- you
should do that on Etsy. You can make a killing on Etsy. That's your passion? Well, you should just go
into business on that. Passion has to now
be the connection. One problem with that
is once that's your job, you're got to go find
a new passion, right? Sometimes it's nice to have a
passion that's not for money. Sometimes it's nice to let your
passion just be your passion and let work just be your work. Who said you have to
be passionate for what you've been called to do? Tony Hsieh, who started Zappos,
he owns two pairs of shoes. Guy sold his shoe company to
Amazon for a billion dollars. And I heard this new
interview with him recently, go, how many
shoes do you have? He goes, two. I don't really like shoes. You don't like shoes? Yeah, I don't really
care about them. Not passionate about shoes. Not passionate about shoes. He started a company because
he saw an opportunity and he has gifts in his life. It was hard work, he built
this great company, he sold. I'm just telling
you, you don't have to be passionate for what
God's called you to do. You've got to be obedient to
what God's called you to do. And when you don't feel
passion, be strong anyway. Be courageous anyway. Don't let your life only be
guided by some perception of your passion. No. Live your life on mission. Lead your family on mission. And when you don't
feel it, do it anyway. I just encourage you fathers,
have a vision for your family. I encourage you dads, have
a vision for your marriage. What's the vision
for your marriage? What's the vision
for your family? Where are you going? Where are you heading? What's the point? What's the goal? What's God called you to do? What's God saying
to you right now? What's God saying
to your family? What's the purpose, right? And that'll make
sense of it all. And when you don't
have passion, you can be courageous
anyway, because you're following the mission. How are you going to
get that, the vision? You know what? See back to point number
1, the presence of God. In the presence of God,
He's going to steer you. In the presence of God, He's
going to whisper to you. In the presence of God,
He's going to speak to you. In those moments you just know. You just hear Him. You just hear Him
saying, that's for you. That's the nudge. That's it right there. And we miss out on that
opportunity when we're not planning in the house of God. We're not hearing those. We weren't there to receive it. So you need to remember,
you have what it takes. And then lastly, your strength
lies in your weakness. I wanted to encourage you that
the greatest thing you'll ever give to God is your
inability, is your weakness, is your failure. The greatest thing you can
lean into as a dad and as a mom is the repentance that you're
willing to show when you make a mistake, and when you're
willing to own it and say that, I blew it there. I need to work harder. I blew it there. I need to try harder at that. You see what I just said there? That was not what I want. That's not my best moment. That was not the version
of me that I want to be and I'm sorry about that. And I repent and I'm
asking God's forgiveness. We'll tell our
kids all time, hey, you saw Mom and Dad
having a marriage moment? And they'll go,
you mean a fight? Yep. But you know what? We love each other
enough to fight. We love each other enough
to work out the fight. We love each other enough to
repent when the fight's done, and we love you
enough to tell you we want to treat
each other better. And we love each other
enough to be committed to a mission that's bigger
than us, even when it's hard, even when it takes
work, even when it takes difficult conversations. But we love each other enough
to fight with each other and move through it with
grace and forgiveness and to look at Jesus. Your strength lies
in your weakness. When you only praise your
kids for what they're naturally good at,
you make the mistake of teaching them that
everything is just going to be easy in this life. Your strength lies
in your weakness. And that's why he was told,
just keep trusting God. Keep coming back to God. Keep your heart on God's Word. And no matter what
happens, it's all going to be all right
at the end of the day. This passage points
us to Jesus, every bit of it, because as we look
at Joshua, whose name means salvation, standing at the
edge of the Jordan River, we can't help but
think of Jesus, who when He came
to this world, He stood at the edge
of the Jordan River. And in obedience
to His father he crossed the River
to get baptized, fulfilling the righteousness. And in that moment, God the
Father spoke out from Heaven. He said, this is My beloved
Son in whom I am well pleased. And because of that Jesus, that
Joshua, that one whose name means salvation,
God looks to you, men of the Fresh Life house. Church online family, God
speaks to you because of Jesus. This is My Son, so in
you I am well pleased. This is My Son. Now in you I am well pleased. Because of Jesus, son and
daughters of the King, God is pleased with you. So lean into that love. It'll change your life.
