God’s Up To Something Upstream!

God's got my back. He's fighting for me. You understand what I'm saying. Oh, you can't curse what God is blessed. He's a defender of the week. Yes he is. Come on, how many of you said that a few times this week? God is not against me. I gave you this prescription. Did you take it? Last week? The verdict pharmacy on behalf of doctor God? And I gave you something to take a new meditation for your heart. Just take that swing out and let's sing that real quick. He's in

it with me, working through me. He's fighting for me. God is not against me. He's in it with me, working through me, fighting for me. God is not against He's in it with me. He's working through me, fighting for me. Do you feel that with me? He's working through me. God, it's not a gast me sitting with me. He's working thro me. He spotted for me, God, he said, agast me, sitting with me. He's sing to me, spotty for me. God, it's not okay, you gotta numb me. Oh,

come on, he's sitting with me. He's fucking to me. You starting for me? God, He's not a cast me. He sending with me. He's he started pulls casting the gods, not me. Isn't that good to know that he loves you, that he's with you? God Me. So the next time shame tries to tell you to put your head down because you made some mistakes, plead the blood of Jesus

and say, he's not against me. And the next time depression tries to wear you out down to a nub where you have nothing to give to the world, look back at depression and say, and if he before me, who can mean against me? Now? I know, God Me, I came to preach the Gospel to every tribe, nation and talk today just to let you know what the good now said God, he's not me. He loves me, that he's for me, that he's a friend of tenors in his righteousness. I'm found on his friend. I'm founding

out of the beloved God. He's not against in with me. He's in it with me, working through workbody, home, he fight God. He's not against me. He's in it with me. He's starting for me. God, he sut against Steve. Come on, let's lift up a mighty shout of praise to our kid, get our friend, our savior, the only wise God. I feel like preaching and prophesy him and calling you up higher today, because God is up to something. Believe that if you don't believe anything else. If you don't believe

in balloons, does it fly over? Or you don't believe in anything else, you don't have to believe any of that. If you don't even believe in the flu believe this

God is up to something. I'm telling you. Even if you don't believe this is a real church and you just came to check it out because you heard it was weird, or there were girls here and you're single, or anything like that, Even if you don't believe this is the Great Church, believe that God is up to something, absolutely so, So I am so so thankful for this opportunity to minister to you today. Remain standing for a moment,

I'm going to share with you a scripture. As we continue on in this I call it a series, it's really just a flow. I asked the Lord for more flow of the Holy Spirit, and I asked him to give it to me in the name of Jesus for his glory and to build his people up. And be careful what you ad ask for, because God, God's been going so quick with showing me stuff. Every time we write a song, I send Chris another one, another one. And I feel the spirit of Dj Khalid on this

church these days. Oh man, But he just keeps speaking, he just keeps moving, he just keeps making ways. He just keeps on keeping on keeping us alive. And he has us here for a purpose. So I announced that I was going to teach there's so much more to the story, and just been steadily walking with Joshua in the Old Testament book and as I go through the Bible myself in my personal life, just sharing from the overflow of what God is speaking to me. Well, this one,

this week. I have been holding for a little while, and all I've been praying all day is, Lord, don't let me scare him. I don't want it to come out too quick. And they have to hold on. Holly said, let's go. But she's already warmed up, you understand, and you're not. She's used to me. She knows how to put up with me, but you don't. But maybe just for a little while, we can enter into his presence and forget the distractions and just see what if he speaks,

What if he shows you? What if he does something for you that you couldn't do in five years of your own effort, but he just does it. What if he uses you in an amazing way? And I'm believing that he will. So go with me to Joshua chapter three Joshua chapter three. In an effort to conserve my energy for the part of this sermon where I really want to preach, I'm just going to do one verse right now, and that's verse thirteen. Joshua three, Verse thirteen.

And as soon as the priests who care the ark of the Lord, the Lord of all the Earth, set foot in the Jordan, set foot in the Jordan, that means I'm stepping into this. That means I'm not waiting for it to happen. No, I'm stepping into this, stepping into this moment, stepping into this pulpit. I'm stepping into this day. I'm stepping into this worship service. Somebody say I'm stepping into it. Tell them might step on your toes today, so watch out. I hope you didn't wear

your clean shoes. Wear those beaters to church, all right, he said. As soon as they set foot in the Jordan, it's waters flowing downstream will be cut off and stand up in a heat. So see how this works. When you step in it, the waters stand up and the word the Lord gave me for today. You ready for this, he said, to tell you God's up to something upstream. God is up to something upstream. I won't make you talk to your neighbor one more time today, but just

tell them before you take your seat. God is up to something. Tell him. Notice I didn't say God was up to something, not just what he did in the past. I appreciate what he did in the past, but put it in the present and say God is up to something upstream. Now in the chat, put a bunch of exclamation marks after that. Oh, thank you Lord, he's up to something upstream. You may be seated. He's up to

something upstream. He must be up to something. Thatcher Bob Lohman said, when you're down to nothing, God is up to something, and that good news. Oh put in the chat as we go where you are watching from. Give me city and state or city and state, country, whatever the case may be. But be specific. So don't just put United States or South America. Put Brazil, or put put something in the chat that lets me know where you're watching from. And I'm gonna pull that up as

we go. As we do that, if you live in any of the following cities, come join us at elevation nights. I never miss an opportunity to promote y'all while I'm waiting for those, because there's twenty second delay. Austin, Texas, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, Minneapolis, Minnesota, Kansas City, Missouri, Denver, Colorado, Saint Louis, Missouri, Fort Wayne, Indiana. That's going to be the best one. I felt it when I said it. And Toronto, Ontario, April eighteenth through twenty seventh, and you

can go to elevation nights dot com. If you live within twenty miles of any of those cities, I'd show up if I were you, and just expect God to do something. And we're going to preach and release the sound of this house. And come on, she said, Holly said, twenty two hundred miles. Get there. She said, it's worth buying a plane ticket. And she's right. But you didn't have to fly in today, did you. God brought you

right here to the house. All right, We got Nashville, Tennessee, Allentown, Pennsylvania, l Paso, Texas. Somebody said, Jacksonville, North Carolina. Put it in the chat. Put it in the chat. Put it in the chat. Manila, Philippines. And they're going too fast. You'll think I can't read, but they're just really going fast. And I thank God for that that we're reaching that many people. That's amazing. Sometimes I like to do this. You'll think I'm just stalling, but I have a reason

for it. I want us to take a moment and consider that God is up to something, not just in this room, but all over the world. In Richmond, Virginia, San Antonio, Texas did already say San Antonio, Kenya, but be specific San Juan, Puerto Rico, Tempa, Florida. Now, one thing I'm noticing, all these are places I've heard of before, the ones that i'm naming, and there's a lot going by, so I'm skipping ones that I never heard of because

I can't pronounce them. And if you went through them, though, if you went through them real slow and you ask the person you're from Tampa, they may say yes. They may say, well, I'm kinda from a town near Tampa. And I understand that because I grew up in one of those towns that when you told somebody the town, you had to tell them another town to tell them what it was near. Because when you say I'm from Monk's Corner, South Carolina, they don't usually say, oh, I've

always wanted to visit there. I don't know why. It's a beautiful place, but you usually don't get that response, yeah, man, that's on my bucket list. Oh yeah, we did our honeymoon there by unless they did it not by choice. And it's a good place though, and I love it. But I usually learn to tell people around about the time I was sixteen that I live in a little town called Monks Corner, South Carolina, thirty miles north of Charleston.

Oh yeah, I know Charleston. And you just learned because the frame of reference, you know, for Monk's Corner had to be identified by putting another place behind it. So you just learned to say overtime like, yeah, I'm from Charleston. Now I notice myself, I'll just say South Carolina. I'm just from I grew up in South Carolina. I just say the state now. But when I really want to identify it, we're at in South Carolina, a little town about thirty miles north Charleston called Monk's Corner. I got

it memorized. I could say it in my sleep. Little town thirty miles you know, I just said it so many times. I know where I'm from. Hmm. I col appreciate that, couldn't I I know where I'm from, even if you don't know where I'm from. I have food to eat that you know not of. My father in heaven has called me by his name. But that's not what I want to preach about today, although I could.

When we look at this scripture here from Joshua, chapter three, for us, it may be difficult to locate the miracle because we don't know the geography of the Old Testament, at least I don't, and I went to school for it, so I read about places where things happen, Like the Jordan River always felt like a really big body of water to me, but it's not. I went to Israel and I'm like, this is it. Yeah, it is it, But I know that I thought it was huge because

it's so significant in scripture. Jesus got baptized there, the people of God crossed over into the Promised Land. There so many amazing things happen there. But it's not necessarily that it's that big. It's just that significant, and that will preach too. Just because it isn't big doesn't mean it's not significant. You got only two hundred and twenty followers on Twitter, but you're significant if you got something to say. There's a lot of people with two hundred

and twenty million they don't have anything to say. Size doesn't indicate significance. I'm not trying to preach that today, though. Cap preach that at a men's conference, but I won't. Okay, men are weird, That's all I'm saying. Let's go back to the text. Back to the text. Back to the text, God is up to something. What was I going to say, where you're from the town? Oh yeah, that's what I

was going to say. In this particular scripture, they are crossing over into a particular place which would have been known and relevant to the readers of Joshua. They would have gone, oh, I know that town. Oh yeah, my uncle's from there. Oh yeah, I pastored there one time. Oh yeah, that's where we wanted to do our honeymoon. But for us, places like Copernaium, where Jesus did his miracles, I'm where he based around the Sea of Galilee, we

don't really know. Copernium to us is a great place. Galilee, where Jesus did his miracles, was known as the land of darkness. But to us it's beautiful because it's Galilee, and we've heard about it, and it even sounds lyrical when you say it. Now, with that in mind, I want you to consider that as they were taking physical steps physical steps, you have been taking spiritual steps, either toward God's purpose for your life this week or away from it. And I want to know which one, because

I'm nosy and I want to know. Have you been stepping into the true self that God sees that is strong and courageous, the one that he calls by name, Or have you been retreating into discouragement? Who's been in your headset this week? And how have you been living? Because I gave you this prescription last week to say to yourself, God is not against me. He's in it with me, working through me, fighting for me. And then I wrote you a song for it, because I'm that

serious about you getting this in your heart. But one thing I said last week that I'm not sure if it came across, is when you find yourself uncertain, when you find yourself discouraged, when you find yourself lonely, when you find yourself tempted, do the thing that you would do. I'm gonna have them put that sentence on the screen so we can pick it up and make sure we understand that I'm not trying to sound like Yoda. Then that sound kind of like Yoda. Something Yoda would say,

do the thing that you would do. But the Lord spoke that to me as I was praying about, Hey, I don't feel like I am enough to do this. I don't feel like I have enough to do that. I don't feel like I will ever be if I'm not that by this age, and it came to me, do the thing that you would do if you believed that what God spoke is true. When you don't feel that what God spoke is true, that it's totally normal. So you don't wait for a feeling. You act as

if it's true because it is. Even though you don't see the truth, do the thing that you would do. Steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord. Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Lean not on your understanding, but all your ways. Acknowledge Him, and he will direct your paths. God does not always bless your good intentions or your abstract thoughts toward him, but he will always support a step that you take toward His grace, his mercy, his kindness, and his calling on

your life. I don't know who this is for, but you're stepping into it even now. By being in church, you're stepping into it. Even now by listening to a podcast about Jesus, you're stepping into it. As you lifted your hands in worship today, you were stepping into the you that God sees. That's the you You've got to do. Put my sentence back up, but this time put it up a little different. I told him to break it down like this, and I'll teach it for the first

part of this seminar next slide. Look at it in these phases. Do the thing that you would do. Let's break it down. One part of that speaks to faith. If you believe that God was with you, if you believed that God was for you, if you believe that God wanted to help you, what would you do? Then do that whatever you would do if you knew He was with you. Do that so I can open the coffee shop because the Lord's gonna I don't know about

the coffee shop. You might be horrible at business and your coffee might not taste good, so I don't know all that. But I'm talking about the attitude you show up for with it, uh huh, and so do the thing you would do if you felt like God was

with you. So I thought it was brilliant when you were telling me the other day, Graham said, when I'm in an awkward environment at group setting, I pretend like I'm a character in Madden, but not a main character, like I pretend like an NPC, and I jump He said, because it's better than feeling awkward. So I just start and I'm like, dude, there's like Ted talks about that that even if you take a confident posture or an excited posture, you're not as smart as you think. You

can trick yourself into a better mood to start. You can you can smile sometimes before I come preach to you all, I'll just start going and start moving my muscles in a way that reflects what I need to do for my message. Because I need to love you to be up here. Sorry, look like I love you. So I just start smiling. Oh it's a fake smile. No, it's a faith smile. It's a faith smile. It's a faith smile. It's a faith praise. Oh you got a new car this week. Oh my car's in the shop.

The brick pads wore off two weeks ago. But it's a faith praise. Oh you know it's gonna work out. Oh you know your kid's gonna end up in a good place. Oh you know you're gonna get into college. No, I don't feel it, but I just want to step it. So that's one way that I mean that sentence is do the thing that you would do if you felt it. Do the thing by faith that you would do if you had the feeling that God was with you. Can I move on? I'm gonna go backwards. Do the thing

that you would do. Now. When I say that you would do, I'm talking about that you, not the other you we taught at the beginning of the year. There are at least two yous in your seat today, so we would really be in overflow at Valentine. If all the youths showed up, we would need a hundred times from campuses. If every you that showed up this week in your situation showed up at church today, we couldn't

build the buildings big enough. Am I right? Okay? Because don't make me prophesy by the spirit of the Lord, I will. There is a choice that is to be made the strong and courageous youth that God calls. What would that you do? Do it? Give some away today? Why? Because I want to be more generous. Well, do the thing that you would do. The generous you y'all don't want this. Y'all don't want this over on this side.

They'd like good preaching. So this is where I must spend the rest of the day, y'all let me down bad. You know that you the one that you get glimpses of, the one that God calls strong and courageous and leader, that you the one that's able to be selfless, the one that's able to trust him, the one that doesn't have to figure everything out to move forward in faith. So when you feel stuff and paralyzed and discouraged, you have to learn to do the thing that you would do.

When you don't have enough resources to do everything you want to do, do the thing that you would do with more resources, with less resources. Five loaves, two fish to a Schmorgasborg in the wilderness, Do the thing, the thing, the thing, one more time, the thing. Paul said, This one thing I do. Why because if I try to do all five things at once, I'm gonna get discouraged

and give up on all of them. So I remember an older minister told me when I was a young man like you, my favorite scripture was I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me. He said. But now I'm sixty five, my scripture is this one thing I do. That's wisdom because you learn how to focus and not get overwhelmed Joshua is doing it, and the people are doing it. The thing that the previous generation wouldn't do. They're doing it, and so are you. So

are you. You don't give God enough credit for how far he's brought you. You don't give the Holy Spirit enough credit for how much he's strengthened you. Well, I don't want to be prideful. I don't want you to be prideful either, but I do want you to be praiseful and give God praise for the progress that you've made. And here they are on the brink of an amazing thing that God is doing. God is up to something.

They are about to cross over the waters, and the Lord is doing it in a very different way than he did a generation ago when they crossed the Red Sea. Remember that one At the Red Sea, Moses took his staff, stuck it out, waters parted, they went through, Pharaoh drowned, all the chariots, wheels rusting off in the middle of the water because God was setting his people free. This time, however,

is going to be a little different. And I'll stop right here and just pause for whoever this is for, God is going to make you do it a little bit different. In this season, not to repeat the same routines that you saw from the traditions that you were handed, but to evaluate them and say, does this line up with God? Does this line up with who He's calling

me to be right now? And that means sometimes that the me that God is bringing into this season has to embrace certain limitations and say goodbye to certain things from the season before. The important thing is to keep stepping forward, and with every step he makes you stronger. With every step he shows you something. Joshua gets the people ready and says, in three days, we're crossing over. In three days, we're crossing over. In three days, we're

crossing over. They don't even have their marching orders yet for Jericho, because if he told them we're gonna blow trumpets at the walls, they might have turned around. God doesn't tell you everything. He knows what would make you turn around. He knows if he said, Hey, I'm gonna take you to Jericho and you're gonna start blowing trumpets, we send in the marching band in boys, he knows you turn around. So that's why sometimes he will trick you into trusting him. Y'all didn't like the way that

sounded you thought I meant God was deceptive. I don't mean he's deceptive. I mean he's selective. He shows you what you need to know to do what you need to do today, and that's it. So he tells him, let's go toward the Jordan. Now, imagine the conversations they have as they're walking, because as they're stepping, they're stepping towards something that they see no way through. The Bible

says something in the next verse. I read Joshua three thirteen, but verse fourteen is important to it says when the people broke camped across the Jordan, the priest, carrying the ark of the Covenant went ahead of them. Now, the ark of the Covenant represents God's presence. You have God's presence, not on the shoulders of a priest, but you have the great High Priest Jesus, who lives inside of you.

So you are never without his presidence. He's in it with me, what else, working through me and fighting for me. So they carry this arc of the Covenant ahead of them. The whole passage is filled with anticipation about a certain situation that is very uncertain for the people who are walking into it life feels like that. I told Holly the other day that a lot of times I will say I'm anxious when I'm really excited because I don't always know the difference, and I get excited and I

label it anxiety. But what I really am is excited, just uncertain. That's what I think we're stepping into. In this text. They're excited, their faith faith filled, but they also have an incomplete picture of what's going to happen next. And the Lord says through Joshua, when the priest's feet touched the waters, this is what he said, when they priests carrying the ark of the Covenant when ahead of them verse fifteen. The Jordan is at flood stage all

during harvest. Yet as soon as the priest who harried the art the presence of God reached the Jordan. Not prayed about the Jordan, not study three books about the Jordan, not took a class about the Jordan. But when they reached the place, when they got to something that they had no idea how we'd get through it, it was in walking toward it that they demonstrated their faith for it. And it says that as soon as their feet verse fifteen, y'all got it. As soon as their feet touched the

water's edge, the water from upstream stopped flowing. Now, when I say faith, we should take a moment and clarify what we mean by faith in the context of a Christian church. Faith means almost anything you want it to mean. If you say it in a generic way, I have faith in you could just be a nice way of saying that I love you, I love you, I have

faith in you. Well, if that's what we mean when we say faith, if we have that kind of faith in God that we have in the friend, that we would say I have faith in you, or if we just mean I have a good feeling that it's going to turn out all right, that's not the kind of faith I need when I'm going through and overflowing Jordan. Because I'm gonna tell you what I don't have when I'm going through and overflowing Jordan, a good feeling about this.

So I need faith that will help me step through something that I don't have a good feeling about anybody else. I need faith that can take me to the brink of something that is a breakthrough. But in the absence of the information that I need about it. I need the faith to help me step into it, even at the moment that I don't see how it's going to be moved out of my way. The nature of Christian faith, the nature of Christian faith, it is distinctive from any

other kind of faith. And here's why most versions of faith are generated from within the person and then placed upon the object. You sat in that chair today because you had faith in it. So you were in that chair because of your faith in that chair. Well, in the sixteen hundreds in England, these theologians got together in Westminster Abbey and there was a civil war happening in the country, and they were trying to boil down the

faith to the distinctives. Now, this Westminster Confession came to be one of the core documents for many denominations, especially in the Reform tradition. What do we really believe? And one of the things that they said up about faith was this that by imputing the obedience and satisfaction of Christ unto you, and you receiving and resting on Him and his righteousness by faith. Watch this which faith you have,

not of yourself. It is the gift of God. Now let me give you the monkst corner version of that you're ready. It doesn't come from you. So if you've got dried up faith, if you've got weighed down faith, if you've got broken down faith, but you've got a great, big, full God, who is heavy with blessing, who is sovereign over the affairs of men, then you don't put your faith in your faith as you walk through this life, sometimes up, sometimes down. The good news of the Gospel

is even my faith doesn't come from me. So God says, I'm gonna give you grace for your life. I want to give you grace for your situation. I want to give you grace to save you from your sin. But you need faith to receive grace. So guess what God's gonna do. I'm not just gonna give you the grace because you need the faith to get the grace. But I know you and you don't even have the faith that it takes to get the grace. So what I'm gonna do is send my son in the likeness of

a sinful man. And when he dies and the blood runs down, and when they bury him in Joseph's tomb, I feel like preaching. And the Angel rolls the stone away and he gets something that sinds into heaven and sends the spirit down. Guess what he's doing. And he's sending you faith from another place. He's sending you trust from another realm. He is sending you the gift from another dimension. And it doesn't come from you. And if it doesn't come from you, it doesn't depend on you.

And if it comes from God, they cannot run out. It'll be like that wine at the wedding in Kanov Galilee. It'll just keep coming because God is enuf to something upstream. My faith flows from him. Don't put them on two different levels. Oh, grace comes from God. Faith comes from me. You need the faith to get the grace. So what they were saying in England, I'm saying in Charlotte, and

somebody's watching it in England too, somewhere in England. First time I went to England, they were telling me about all the towns and everything. We got there. We landed one day. I was preciated in London. We landed at six am and Heathrow, Heathrow at six am is Heathrow is hell? That place they said, is only twenty miles to the hotel We got in a car in London from Heathrow Airport three hours to get twenty miles twenty

miles where I'm from. If you don't respect the Lord or the law, you could do that in fifteen minutes where I'm from, and and and so it's it's relative. What That's what I'm saying. It's it's it's relatives. It's relative. The amount of faith that you have in your steps relates to the amount of faith that you have in his sovereignty. When I tell God all the reasons he can't use me, I get this sense that He already knew that. So I step into it anyway. As I step,

he makes me strong. I see you in the spirit steping towards something right now. I see you steping toward a better version of the parent that you wish you would have had, and you didn't. But you're stepping into it, even though you don't have a frame of reference for it. But you're stepping into it. You're stepping into it. We got an upstream God who knew you'd be in the situation you were in before you were in the situation, and prepared you for the moment before you got to

the brink. The Bible said that when they're when their feet touched the water's edge, the water stood up. I love that picture. So that means they had to step all the way toward the Jordan, and only when they're big toe got wet did a break apart. But y'all know something, Apparently I still don't know how to read the Bible. In my imagination, I always pictured this just like the Red Sea. They step at the Jordan. He's overflowing, boom step. Always pictured it like that. What's that Kevin

Costner movie water World? Always pictured that on the Jordan. But remember Jordan's small. And also that's not what the Bible says. The Bible says the water flowing verse thirteen downstream will be cut off. That's where they saw the miracle,

when they stepped toward the uncertainty. That's where you're going to see the miracle as you step into it, awkward and uncomfortable, as you step into it, as you move toward it, as you keep moving toward it, as you keep praying, keep believing, keep trusting, keep coming, keep digging, keep going, keep flowing, keep showing up, keep scheduling. Stuff that feels fruitless, because you know, God told you to do it, keep coming, keep going, keep moving. And when

they got there, they saw it. They saw it when they got there. When did they see it when they got there? They got there when they saw it. You know, God says, you know, are we there yet? No, you're not there yet. You'll know that you are there when it happens. But I'm not going to show you anything until you step into it. And yet that's not really the point that I want to make, because it's true they did not see it until they stepped into it. That's when God cut off the waters and enabled them

to cross. When they did it. But watch what the Bible said in verse sixteen. It says the water from upstream stopped flowing. It piled up in a heap a great distance away, had a town called Adam in the vicinity of Zarathon. You ever heard of Zarathon? Let me tell you about Zarathon Xarathon is about twenty miles from where they crossed the Jordan River. You know the Jordan River. You've heard of that. Okay, twenty miles away, you've heard

of Charleston. Okay, about thirty miles away you've heard of You've heard of Charlotte about twenty miles away, and a place that they still call Indian Land. I don't know how long that one's gonna last to y'all have renamed that soon. I'm sure. Hey, you heard of Charlotte. You heard of the Jordan. Yeah, let me tell you about the Jordan. That's where we crossed over, but that's not where the miracles started. Don't do it, don't do it. Don't do and play a single note, because I gotta

teach this. Somebody say twenty miles away. I studied it out. I asked chat gpt, where is the town called Adam in Joshua three? And the thing came back and I

looked it up in a real book. It said it's twenty miles away, which means watch this that for good to time it this right, that for them to get to the edge of the Jordan River, that for the priest big Toe to touch that water at floodstage, carrying that arc after forty years in the wilderness plus five after that, for this to happen at this moment, for the water's downstream to be cut off at this moment, that means God must have been up to something on

the stream hah, before I got here. Before I got here, God's not walking with you, He's going before you. He not sucking ball. He Sobrin's sister, He's sovereign brother, He's sobrin baby. Yeah. God got there about three hours earlier to Adam. He said, hey, waters of Adam, I need y'all to stop real quick. Why because about three hours from now, the priest's feet are about to hit the Jordan River. About three hours from now, they're about to

come into the brink of the promise that I made Abraham. See, this thing didn't start with Joshua. God was up to something upstream before Joshua. Oh, God ever got to this moment. As a matter of fact, it goes further back from that. The Bible says in the beginning, God made the heaven and the earth, and he got down in the dirt and he made a man, and the man's name was Adam. Now we've progressed a few hundred years, and Joshua is leading God's people into the promise. Y'all help me, preacher.

We'll be here till one o'clock. I said, God was getting started in the garden. What has been started in this moment of your life. Didn't start in this moment of your life. God was twenty miles ahead of you. Yeah, yeah, they say, raising kids, you gotta say one step ahead, God said, I'll beat that. How about twenty miles ahead. How about I get there and I handle the situation with your kids. How About I get the friends out of their life and tell them run, devil, don't you

ever come back. How About I get this thing started so when you get there, you can cross over, You can make it through. How about if I give you the faith to believe me. Okay, you got a mustard seed faith. Let's put it up against that mouth real quick and see which one wears greatest, Lord, Now, nona give me the Flawlord. I want to preach to everybody in this room who's having to trust God with something

that's twenty miles away. Stuff you can't see, stuff you can't control, stuff you can't affect, stuff you can't move. Not the stuff you can do. Just do that stuff. Wear your own seatbelt. Don't ask Jesus Christ to buckle your seat belt. He's a busy guy. You do that. But for the other stuff that's overflowing the banks of the Jordans. You step into that just believing. What would you do if you believe that God was twenty miles away already doing what you're praying about. Wherever you see

a problem, Heaven has a plan. Wherever you have a problem, Heaven has a plan. I'm gonna say it again, wherever, wherever you have a problem, Heaven has a plan. Turn that thing over to the Lord and leave it there. I said, wherever you have a problem, Heaven has a plank, good chord, Scottie, turn that thing over to the Lord and leave it there. Yeah, you want me to finish that song. I'll finish it and get somebody good to sing it to you next week if you come back.

Because God is up to something, but you won't see it because it's twenty miles away. Can you trust him with the twenty Can you trust him that you can't get them to talk to you about it, but he's talking to them about it. Can you trust him? Can you trust him with something twenty miles away? Upstream? I always pictured that the water stood up where they stood. No, they didn't see it piled up. It had been piled up for hours. You have no idea what God is speaking.

We ask God for blessings, and we should we also need to ask him for damns, because he got to a town called Adam and he built a dam. It's too much, I know, it's too much. All is too much, just too much. I'm gonna save it for the base. And I'm gonna save it for the base. It's a it's it's a it's a mirror what he did. He said, waters pile up. He remember, they can't see this on

the live feed. If it was today, word would have spread. Right. Oh, y'all, don't worry, cause just keep walking because in and and and Adam, there's there's a there's a big pile of water. So won't be long. The water's going into the dead sea, and the one that's flowing down has completely stopped, so it will be dry in five four three two one. Now, Nope, no God, he's the god of the upstream. He's the

god of the unseen. That's the nature of faith. In case all of the Westminster Confession stuff was a little abstract and theoretical, let me give you the picture. And in case the picture in the Old Testament is a little too physical for you, let me bring it over to the New Testament, this same Jordan River would be the Jordan River, not that Joshua crossed, but that Jesus was baptized in God is up to something upstream for Joshua.

This moment represents the end of a wilderness experience when Jesus was tempted in the wilderness for forty days and forty nights. He came out of the wilderness and came into the Jordan River to be baptized by his cousin John the Baptist, which is not a denomination, it was his occupation. And he said, I can't baptize you. You need to baptize me. You are the savior. Jesus says, shut up and do it. Jesus had the spirit of Nike before phil Knight was ever a twinkle in his

mama's He said, just do it. Boom, gotta get baptized, Boom, to fulfill all righteousness. Boom, just do it. So he did it. And guess what happened to John for his obedience. He was thrown in prison for preaching to a king named Eric. And he was in prison about to be beheaded, and he sent messengers to ask Jesus, are you the one. Now, how did we go all the way from your baptizing Jesus to you our doubting if he's the Messiah? Everybody has doubts downstream, me, you, the Pope, the bishop, the

attorney general, you're praying grandmother, all have doubts downstream. When God speaks something to you, or when you feel a possibility, and I hope you feel least a little bit of it today. I hope you feel at least a little bit of it today. Well, Sunday is upstream. Sunday is upstream. Sunday is where you get that dose of God is in and with Me working through me, fighting for me. Where I have a problem, Heaven has a plan downstream that devil is waiting. Ask John the Baptist. He said,

are you the one? Or should we wait for somebody else? Now, I want to give you a word from Jesus. Don't doubt downstream what God showed you upstream. For that to make any sense in your life, you will need to spend more time upstream this week, because if you're not getting it from God, you will be stepping into situations you're not ready for. The better. I am when I get to the brink of the Jordan is the more time I spent in his presence and staying in touch

with him. Hey, I need time with God. Upstream in business terms, the term upstream doesn't have anything to do with rivers. In business terms, upstream is where the product is created and made and manufactured. Downstream refers to all of the activities around marketing and selling the product. Why do we live in a world where people spend so much more time downstream marketing who they are than upstream with God? So he can show you who you are in the light of who He is and what he

has for your life. So you're never going to be able to do the thing that you would do if you don't know that you, and you will not know that you if all you do is spend time broadcasting those downstream distractions. Do you know what they are? In your life? Those downstream doubts disappointment can put you in a place where downstream, Oh, now I'm here, Now I'm at this moment. I cannot appropriately embrace or seize this moment because now I know God did some wonderful things

back there. I believe God is doing some wonderful things. But like John, the Baptist. You find yourself in a downstream situation and even the one who heralded Jesus Christ begin to ask are you really him? That means downstream distractions. You have to really be careful, especially if you are one of the people that God said I'd be speaking to that you are stepping into a season of your life where you are becoming the true version of yourself, and you are willing to let some things die now

that you used to cling to. If that is you, and if you are walking through something in your life and twenty miles away is an issue of situation that you can't even really talk about or figure out. If that's you, you have got to spend more time upstream. There are so many Bibles on your phone right now, it's not even funny. For free in the app store. Put in Bible. I don't like to read. Hit the little speaker, it'll read to you. I want to listen to a man read to me. They got a woman too.

I found one yesterday, was talking in a Scottish accent. I bought it. Tell me you can't spend time upstream, you better make that car at church so when you get there, I said, when you get there. I said, when you get there, you gotta be ready for what God is going to do downstream. And you gotta believe that God built a damn where you came from. And he said, your past will I remember no more. Now walk into it, Flow into it, Steak into it, Pray into it, serve it to it. Step in to it

because he's up to something. I saw your nikes and I wanted to tell you step into it. Now step into it again. Somebody made those nikes that was upstream. Somebody else sold them that was downstream. But when the product is good enough, the sales can be whatever they need to be. Because if the product is good enough, God said, in this season, I'm building your character. I'm getting you ready for some things. People aren't gonna call

you as much. That's all right. Don't worry about the downstream. I'm the god of the upstream. And when his time is time, and when his right is right, and when it's mine, it's mine, and he can use me how he was because he sucked to something about twenty miles away. About twenty miles away, I was writing songs with Brandon Lake this week. Y'all love Brandon. I told him to come to church. He said he had to keep his kids because I wanted to tell y'all what he told me.

He said, past, we've written so many times together, and we wrote some some this week that I can't wait to share with you too. And we've written with Chris and others and Boom and all my people, and we're sitting around he said, I never told you this, but I want to tell you today. Did you know that about twelve years ago I emailed Elevation and said, can I come learn something about songwriting? And they said, no,

we don't offer that. And he told me the name of the staff member, and the staff member didn't here anymore. And it's a good thing too, because they did a lot of bad things. They were a downstream staff member. Let me tell you, right out to the dead sea. They were a dead sea staff member, is what they were. He said, I'm gonna help you. I'm gonna help you. I'm gonna help you. I'm gonna help y'all, he said twelve years ago. Now, when I thought about that, I said,

that's crazy, because now here we are eating sausage. And we wrote three songs together over the last two days and we wrote Craves into Gardens and my testimony, and me and you and Chris wrote Rattle, and we did all this stuff. And inn't that crazy that you were living in Mount Pleasant while I was living in Monk's Corner? How far is Mount Pleasant? Actually, it's about thirty eight, But for the sake of the illustration, let's call it twenty.

Let's call it twenty. Let's call it twenty. Let's call it twenty. Let's call it twenty. Did you ever read your Bible to see how far was the Jordan River the place they crossed that we know about, from the place where God did the miracle? It's twenty miles. Did you ever read your Bible? The Bible says when Jesus left Nazareth to go live in Capernaum, how far was the place where he went to live and do his miracles from the place where he was raised? Twenty miles?

When he got to Galilee for his ministry. Matthew quotes the prophet Isaiah in Matthew Chapter four. Y'all got five minutes for me to tie this up. Come on, if you got five minutes, I'm gonna make it worth your time. Because the Bible says in Matthew chapter four, somebody shout, God is up to something. Prophesy to your neighbor. God is up up to something. God is up to something. God is up to something. God is up to something. Put it in the chat. God is up to something upstream.

Can't see it, can't prove it, don't need to. I know him, I see the problem. Heaven has the plan. God is up to something in my life. I emailed and they said no. Twelve years later, here we are write music and of touch the world because God is up to something. Now. The Bible says in Matthew chapter four, when Jesus give me my verse, y'all, God is up to something. When Jesus heard that John had been put in prison, he withdrew to Galilee verse thirteen. Leaving Nazareth.

He went and lived in Copernaum, twenty miles away, which was by the lake in the area of Zebulen, and left holly places like Monk's Corner that we don't know but God did. And watch what God was doing to fulfill what was said through the prophet Isaiah. Some of the things that you are going through right now are not about you. They are to fulfill God's purpose. Don't be selfish, don't be myopic, don't get buried in self pity. That's exactly what the devil wants to get you downstream.

Let him deal with that you walk toward it. Let him deal with your enemies. Let him deal with the people who talk bad about you. Let him deal with their ignorance. Let him straighten it out. Let him deal with the things you can't deal with as you do the things He's called you to do. I feel like I'm preaching right to somebody's dry riverbed today. God is up to something upstream is started in at him and moved through Joshua. And here's Jesus go into Galilee to

fulfill what was said through the prophet Isaiah. Land of Zebulin verse fifteen. Now and land of Neftali, the way of the sea beyond the Jordan. You recognize the Jordan Galilee of the Gentiles. The people living in darkness have seen a great light on those living in the land of the shadow of death. Somebody has been living in the land of the shadow of death. But watch this, it's not death. It's just a shadow. Because the light

is coming. Because God is getting the light ready, and it will shine, and it will dawn, and it will break forward. A light has dawned in Galilee. And I believe that God, while Jesus was twelve years old working under his father, who was a carpenter in Nazareth, was getting ready for what he would do twenty miles away when he came to Galilee the first time. As I mentioned, he turned water into wine at Cana, and then he

went back. He went back to Cana, and I could tell you what Jesus told John the Baptist when he had downstream doubts. He said, Hey, the blind, see the lame walk the deaf hear, go back and tell John the good news is preached to the core, to the poor, and chains are being broken. Go tell John blessed us. He who doesn't fall away downstream and holds to what God spoke upstream. He doesn't say those words. But that

was the spirit of the message. And you know what of all those miracles Jesus did that we know about. So many of them happened in Galilee. But when the Holy Spirit led me to for you before we close this service, and I don't know if you're twenty miles away or two thousand miles away. I don't know where this word's going to reach you, but I believe that it has. I believe that it is. I believe that right now God is up to something in your life. It's upstream. Some of the things that he is blocking

in your life are for your blessing. Will you trust him with the twenty Will you not stress for this next two weeks while you wait for the results, while you wait for the MRI appointment. Will you just put that in his hands? Because where you see a problem, Heaven has a plan. You can't see it, you're not supposed to. You can't know it. You have to believe it by faith. Drive into situations that you don't know how to deal with. Twenty miles away, God was getting

a light ready for Galilee in Nazareth. And then the Bible says in John chapter four, and this was the very last scripture that he showed me for our sermon today, it says that after he left Samaria, y'all, remember when he met the woman at the well, Samaritan woman. Yeah, my favorite story. Right after that, he stayed two days in Samaria. He left verse forty three for Galilee and Jesus himself had pointed out that a pphet has no honor in his own country. And when he arrived in Galilee,

feel the pregnancy in the potency in that sentence. When he arrived in Galilee, the upstream prophet Isaiah said, a great light is going to dawn on the people in darkness, and now it's happening. It's happening. It's happening now. That's why God sent this word to you today. Is happening now in your life. It's happening now. It's a generational consequence, and he's doing it now. And when he got to Galilee,

the Galileans welcomed him. They'd seen all he'd done in Jerusalem at the Passover festival, for they'd also been there. And once more he visited Cana in Galilee, where he had turned the water into wine. And there was a certain royal official whose son lay sick at Capernaum. When the man heard that Jesus had arrived in Galilee from Judea, he went to him and begged him to come and heal his son, who was close to death. I can't do anything about that. I can't heal him. I can't

buy it, I can't do it. I need you to help me with this, Jesus said, unless you people see signs and wonders, you'll never believe in. The royal official said, sir, come down, I need you to come. Come to Capernaum. Leave Cana come with me to Capernaum. And Jesus says something that's very prophetic for this moment in your life verse fifty go your son will live. The second part of that depends on the first part of that. Walk

toward it and watch what he did. And this is what you must do with the situations in your life that are beyond your control, that you don't understand, that you can't figure out. The man took Jesus at his word and departed. I watched this. While he was still on the way, his servants met him with the news that his boy was living. And when he inquired as to the time when his son got better, they said

yesterday at one in the afternoon. And when they said one in the afternoon, the father realized this was the exact time at which Jesus had said to him, give me a wide shot. Your son will live. As he's walking back to Copernaum from Cana. As he's walking they interrupt him, said he's better. We came all this way to tell you he's better. When did it happen. It happened at one pm, he said, that's the exact time,

and he trusted Jesus. But I want to suggest to you that the most significant thing about this text isn't the time it happened at It was how far they traveled. For Gana is twenty miles from Combernium, and that means that the words from Jesus reached all the way back to that sick boy and didn't even need the dad to make the journey. You are not even going to have to do everything you think you're gonna have to do. God's just gonna do one of these. Watch this twenty

mile turnar rolphs twenty mile. I declare a twenty mile turnar rout depression. Let the daughter go, addiction, let the sun go. I call you fourth, I call light to your situation. I call strength to your ankles. I called joy to your spirit, to every pairing room, I prophasia a new soul. He did it twenty miles away. And you think he can do it for you, He can do it for you. He will do it. For you. He has done it for you. The God who fights your battles stands at your a dom and tells the

waters he's still here, comes my child. Now give him that situation, give him that praise, Give him the praise that you would give him if you believed he was able to do. If you believe there are four with us, then with him. He's up to something. Touch seven. People say he's up to something. He's up to something in the unseen. He's up to something in the unsuspecting. He's up to something in the hidden place. He's up to something in the shadows. He's up to something. Get ready, Galilee,

Get ready, Galilee. There's a cofferenter in Nasareth. He's not building tables. He's getting ready for a cross. And when he dies, it will flow to you and you will walk into the rest of your life as a new creation in his name. That time is now Wrever you see a problem, Heaven has a plan. Turn that thing over to the Lord and leave it there twenty miles away. Like Bianca said to me at Barnes and Noble, she came over. I never go to Barnes and Noble. I

went that day. The only reason I was there at that moment is because somebody had interrupted me earlier, and then I ran out of time to go where I wanted to go. Susa, I'll just go to Barnes and Noble. I was one around like a homeless man in Barnes and Noble, not intending to buy it anything. I said, let me go over to the Christian Living see if I can at least rip off somebody's title and put it in a sermons sometime soon, little downstream sermon preparation

happened in that day. But she walked in and started crying when she saw me. She said, Pastor Steve, that I never met you. I moved three years ago to go to Elevation, but then I had two miscarriages. I quit coming to church. I turned on the sermons once a while, but I don't even like the way it makes me feel, because I know I'm not where I'm supposed to be. But lately God has been doing something.

So today I decided I would go and get my facial appointment because I've just been sitting around not doing anything, and that I would go to the bookstore and buy a book that God led me to. And is it random that you're here. I said, I don't know, Bianca, the way my brain works. Your feet hit this Barnes and Noble at the same time as mine for a reason. Now, she cried. We talked, and then I said, I'm gonna buy you some books. You ain't gonna have to buy them.

The Lord wants you to know he sees you. I said, but I get to pick him if I'm gonna pay. And no, I did not buy one of mine. I am not that so I get the royalties. No. I bought her two books, and I said, let's make your husband a video and let's send you forward believing that God is not done with you. And she said, can I ask you one more thing? I'm like, dang it, I bought you a book when you made the sales. Stop talking. God sees you. You know, we gotta go

say one more thing. What would you say to me after all that I've been through, when I struggle doubting if God is done with me, and I believe the spirit of the Lord gave me this thing to do, I'm like, I can't give her the Westminster Confession right now? What I could do? And I grabbed I grabbed the first book I saw, and I said, you're only this far in, You're only this far in, You're only this far in. There's so much more to your story. And

I speak it prophetically over you. I speak it prophetically over you. God sent us here at this moment so that you could have this reminder. They're twenty miles away. God is working. Father. What an amazing, amazing moment this is.

I thank you in advance for testimonies that I will receive, for people who turned it over to you in this moment, for people who gave up on their trying and trusting in their own ways in this moment, who put their big toe in the Jordan river, who called a counselor this week and said, I'm coming to work on my issues, who said, I'm going to make the call this week and I'm gonna apologize for that thing. I'm going to get up this week, and I'm going to go forward

in the name of the Lord. Because you're in it with me and through me, fighting for me. God is not a gift. No, He's in it with me, working through all Right, sing it two more times. We send this word twenty miles to your home. We send it to your copernaile. We send it to your sick child. We send this work to your depression, We send it to your situation. Sing it again, Chris, We're getting the revelation. We're getting the revelation. He's fighting for God is the guess.

Oh now lift your hands. I want to hear your voice saying I want to hear your voice. Come on, come on, starting, Come on, come on starting. Kids. Things are happening at your house, Things are happening in your spirit right now. God is working this thing out right now. You gotta believe this. Never before I call you forward. I'm calling you forward, and I call you forward, my grigs in the name of Jesus. Now on to him who is able to do measurably. Mor He's work to

hivy glory in your life. Listen to you. He's not again. Well. If you enjoyed today's podcast, there are a couple of things I'd love for you to do. Make sure to subscribe, rate, and review this podcast. You can also help us reach others by investing today at Elevation Church dot org. Slash give and thanks again for joining us on the Elevation Podcast.