It's Mine To Manage

our theme is game Changer. I think one of the most exciting things that God is doing in our ministry is to open the doors of our ministry beyond our walls. What I mean by that is we are amazed at the thousands and thousands and thousands of you who are letting us know that you're impacted by this ministry in another zip code, in another state, in another country, maybe eventually on another planet. But what I wanted to mention to you is that you can be a part of

this beyond just consuming. Many of you have been blessed by God to be a blessing. Now I wanted to ask today, would you be willing during this special time of year to make a one time donation to the ministry or maybe partner with us on a monthly basis through recurring giving. I believe God could use your gift to enable this ministry to continue to reach, to continue

to break paradigms, to continue to lift up Jesus. And I wanted to ask you personally to go to Elevationchurch dot org and you can see the ways to give there. But most importantly, know that we feel a tremendousness of responsibility to minister the word of God, not only to you, but to challenge you to partner with us in reaching people for the Gospel. I believe your gift today could be a game changer, so don't put it off right now. Elevation Church dot org you can find all of the details.

I hope you enjoy this message and thank you for being a part of the family. I want to share with you from a scripture that really demonstrates something that I think is difficult to do in our lives will

be so helpful to us. We're in a season called Game Changer, and so year in series, we're taking a moment to pause, reflect and respond to God's goodness in our lives, and so from the scriptural foundation today, I want to help you see something that I think will help you to carry forward with you into the next season of your life momentum. For what God has already done is something significant, and what he wants to do

is even greater. And I believe that, believe that with all of my heart for myself and my family, and for you and your family, and for our church. And so with that spirit of faith, today let's go to the Word of God Joshua, chapter four, verses one through nine. And as I read this story to you over the next few moments, I want you pay attention to the details of it. Okay, because on the surface, the story is really very simple. The people of Israel are crossing

into the Promised Land. They haven't fought any battles yet, but it's already theirs because God has promised to give it to them. So they're coming to realize what God has already revealed, and he showed it to them for many generations. But now they're coming into that moment where they're having to actually believe that what God spoke in their lives, and what God spoke that they haven't seen

come to pass yet is about to happen. And so I think this is an appropriate scripture for where we are as a church, and maybe for where you are as well. And I pray that God will help me deliver it today. Are you excited? I'll be honest, it's not very convinced him, but I am. I'm excited enough for all of us, So we'll do it anyway. Joshua

Chapter four, verse one. When the whole nation to finished crossing the Jordan, the Lord said to Joshua, what choose twelve men from among the people, one from each tribe, and tell them to take up twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan, from right where the priests are standing, and carry them over with you and put them down

at the place where you stay. So Joshua call the twelve men he had appointed from the Israelites, one from each tribe, and said to them, go before the ark of the Lord your got into the middle of the Jordan.

Each of you is to take up a stone on his shoulder, according to the number of tribes of the Israelites, to serve as a sign among you in the future, when your children ask you, what do these stones mean tell them that the flow of the Jordan was cut off before the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord. When it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. These stones are to be a memorial to the people of Israel forever. So Israelites did as

Joshua commanded them. They took twelve stones in the middle of the Jordan, according to the number of the tribes of the Israelites, as the Lord had told Joshua, and they carried them over with them to the camp where they put them down. Joshua was set up the twelve stones that had been in the middle of the Jordan at the spot where the priests who had carried the arc of the Covenant had stood, and they are there

to this day. Would you look at the person next to you and give them my sermon title, tell them it's mine to manage. Look at your other neighbor. I know they were your second choice, but they're important to the Lord as well, and tell them it's mine to manage. It's mine to manage. How many of you have children, How many of you have children who have a phone

or an electronic device with a data plan. It's a big debate around my house, when will our children be old enough to be entrusted with data real first world problems. I get it, but you know, parenting is challenging. It's a great privilege, but I find it to be challenging, and I find it to be exhilarating, and I find it to be exhausting. And one woman rod me on YouTube and said, I think you had kids too soon. You're always complaining about them, And I prayed for her

in tongues. But you know, the more of a privilege you see something to be, the more of a responsibility you feel toward it. So complaining isn't always a sign that you don't care, you're not grateful, you'd have an attitude of gratitude. Gratitude is not an attitude. Gratitude is an action. And then the action of being grateful leads to a feeling of gratitude. But God would not command you to be grateful if gratitude was a feeling, because you can't command a feeling. Doesn't work that way. God

instead instructs you to praise him. Once ps Alma said it this way. He said, Ah, this is the day that the Lord has made I will rejoice and be glad in it. This is the day that the Lord has made. I will rejoice and be glad in it. Oh, this is the day. This is the day that the Lord has made. Hey, this is the day. This is the day that the Lord has made. Now who made it? Who made it? Now? I will rejoice. I will rejoice and be glad in it. So God made it, But

I get to manage it. Touch somebody say it's mine to manage. And what I do with this day is up to me. So when I gave my oldest kid his phone, I said, I wrapped it. It was his birthday, and I rapped it, and I said, this phone has data, and this phone is is yours? Not really for your birthday. I am giving you my to use, which means that this phone, the contents thereof, and the communications that shall

be initiated thereby, are under my jurisdiction. One good parent clapped when I said that, And I dare you to put a pass code on that phone that I don't know. I dare you to put a pass code on that phone. You change your passcode, and I will change your destiny. But it was a principle in the modern age of stewardship. That is really the same principle. You know that God has been trying to teach us all along that it's

his to give and it's ours to manage. And the moment you begin to understand that about your life, your money, y'all don't like this sermon already. This is a motivational part. It takes some of the pressure off to realize that it's his to give, it's mine to manage. Say it out loud, it's his to give, mine to manage. So I didn't make the day, but I will rejoice in it. So he gave me the day, and now it's mine

to manage. That's a really powerful distinction to know that there are certain things that God has given you under your jurisdiction. One of those things is your joy. I will rejoice and be glad in it. And so this is the day that the Lord has made, I will rejoice and be glad in it, regardless of if the traffic is congested. I don't manage the traffic, but am i am. I like it this way. My joy is my job. No matter what happens when I get to my job, no one can steal my joy because my

joy is not under anyone else's jurisdiction. See what I'm saying. It's mine to manage. And one time I made the mistake of saying that somebody stole my joy, and the spear of the Lord really corrected me on that, like they stole your joy, your joy is not their job. And if they stole it, you should have done a better job locking the door so they couldn't get to it.

You need a better security system. If someone else can steal your joy, then you've got your joy hiding out there in the open where anybody can see it and snatch it. And so this principle emerges in the Book of Joshua. Can I tell you a little bit about this historic incident. I'm so thankful for the gift of your attention today. I find it a great privilege that you would lean into the word of God and allow

these words to be spoken. I think it's amazing. I want to make it worth your why I want to tell a little bit about this passage of scripture is really amazing. What God is doing for his people here because the nation of Israel is under new management, under new management, and this promise that God began making generations ago, is now about to come to pass. This land that they are going to possess is going to become theirs, but it's really God's, but it's theirs. It's theirs to possess,

but it's God's to give. So it's Gods and it's theirs, and Joshua is the person God is using to bring it to pass. Now. Moses was the leader that brought the people out of Egypt, where they spent several centuries en slave to the systems of that nation. And now they're no longer just wandering around in the wilderness like they did under Moses for over forty years. But they're coming into their own land. They're coming into their own

spacious place. They're coming into their own homes, and they're coming into their own community that God has been in the process of forming. But it's going to require a different mindset because up until this point in their life, they have existed on the miracles that God provided, Like God gave them mana when they were in the wilderness because they didn't have quail like they had in Egypt, that their masters would give them to feed them. But now they're coming into their own and the mana that

used to fall from the sky. It was miraculous how it came down. They would just walk out their front door and there it would be Amazon Prime on the doorstep. The drone would drop it off and they would have enough for the day. But the thing that's about to happen to them in just a moment is that they're going to cross over into this land where the mana is going to stop coming, and they are going to have to learn to manage in a different way. So

they're going to have to mature in their mindset. And I guess one way that you could say it is they're having to learn how to manage their miracle. And this is something you don't hear taught enough in settings like these, because we often tell you to expect a miracle and to believe for a miracle, and to receive for a miracle. But how many know that you are responsible to manage your miracles. I'll prove it to you from the text, because you're acting kind of suspicious, and

I don't blame you. It sounds weird because a miracle is something that God does. It's something that God gives. But the cooperation between Heaven and humanity has always been this. It's God's to give, but it's mine to manage. It's my father's to give, but it's mine to manage. And so God is bringing his people through the Jordan River. How many of you have something God has brought you through this year? Did God bring you through it? I'm gonna give you twelve seconds to praise Him for something

that he brought you through. We all have a Jordan that we came through. And the interesting thing about the Jordan River is it's mentioned a lot in scripture, but not because it's a big body of water. It's only like fifteen yards wide at its widest points, and it's not the deepest body of water. That's not what makes it significant. What it symbolizes gives its biblical significance in that the people of God saw the Jordan River as

representing transitions and new beginnings. You see it a lot in the prophetic record, like Elisha God Elijah's mantle in the Old Testament, and he crossed the Jordan River. It's not a big river, but it's symbolic. It's significant not because of its size, not because of its scope physically, and not because of its geographical implications. But because of what God did there. Now they're standing at this place, this body of water, and God does something amazing and

does it in a very particular way. He tells the priest to stand in the middle of the Jordan with the arc of the Covenant. That's where they kept the Ten Commandments. It represented the presence of God. And when the priest put their foot in the water, the water stopped flowing to provide passageway for the people to cross through. God did not carry his people across the Jordan. He

enabled his people to cross over. This is how a lot of us live, our lives waiting for God to carry us over something when He is waiting for us to cross you see me, def Leppard, It is true. My kids one time, when they were real little, we were at a public restroom and they were washing their hands and they had their hands out like this, and nothing was happening, because I realized they were used to the fawcet being automatic, and it wasn't an automatic faucet.

And I watched, and I stood back to see how long they would stand there with their hands under the faucet, waiting for something to happen without turning the fascet on and finally, in compassion, I told I told my oldest child, I said, this is not an automatic faucet. I know that you're used to the water just coming on like this, seeing when you've had Man'm falling out of the sky for so many years, You're used to just something falling down out of the just because you put your hand there.

But it is going to require an action. It's gonna require So the water didn't stuff flow until people start walking, And when they start walking, the water stuff flowing. And the people passed through, and the priests stood in the middle of the Jordan, which must have taken faith for them to stand in the middle of the Jordan, not knowing if it was going to continue to pile up in a heap or if it was going to flood over them. But the leaders had the faith to stand

in the middle of the Jordan. In't that significant that it said it was in the middle of the Jordan. Isn't that the hardest thing in life to do is to manage the middle? Because I understand that God has made me promises and that he knows the end from the beginning, But I don't I don't know the end from the beginning. I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord plans to pross for you and not

to harm you, plans to give you hope and future. Well, I'm glad that God knows the plans he had for me, but I don't know the plans He has for me. And so the challenge isn't believing that he knows how this is going to end. My challenge is standing in the middle and believing that what he spoke is indeed significant. It's different when you're in the middle. It's a lot different. It was. It was weird. A few weeks ago, they had a baptism testimony on the on the screens, and

I love the baptism stories. Do you love those stories that they tell? If it was your child, you might love it, you know what I'm saying, Like if it was somebody that you knew and loved. I try to always picture like I always picture if that was my brother or if that was my sister. And when I hear somebody share his testimony, I always listen for the details. And one thing that I noticed that they normally share

in their story. They'll share a sermon that where God spoke to them, and a few weeks ago, the young lady sharing the sermon that she shared shared a sermon that I remember preaching and thinking that it was the worst sermon that I ever preached, because it's different when you're doing it. Now, it was a year later and she was talking about that story, that sermon, and in her story she referenced that sermon as a turning point in her relationship with God. And here's what I remember.

I remember how I felt while I was doing it, and I realized that even though I felt nothing while I was preaching it, she was sitting somewhere in that room, maybe not even in the room where I was preaching it, and she was having a completely different experience hearing it than I was preaching it. But it's different when you're in the middle of it, Huh. It's different when you're raising your kids believing that they're receiving the values that

you're trying to impart to them. Because when you are teaching your kids' responsibility, they do not thank you and recognize you for being a voice of wisdom and an encouraging force of good in their lives. Is different when you're in the middle of it and see. The reason that we can sometimes look at the biblical miracles and experience them and celebrate them is because we know how they end. But it's different when you're in the middle

of it. It's different when you're in the middle of it, when you are having to stand in the middle of something and say, no, God, I know that you're faithful, and I know that you're good, but I don't feel that you're faithful, and I don't feel that you're good right now. That's called a sacrifice of praise. That's where you have to dig somewhere deeper than your feelings or your knowledge, or your certainty, or your circumstance or your bank account. God, show me how to manage the middle.

I have a hard time with that. I don't have a hard time being excited about the beginning, and I don't have a hard time celebrating the end. But this middle. Teach me how to manage the middle. Ooh, ooh. One of my best friends pastors of big church, and they had three years where they didn't grow. In fact, they went backward. I said, what was the problem in those three years when you didn't grow? He said, middle management.

We got so large the organization got so big that there was a layer of people in the middle who started to block the values that were a part of the organization in the early days. And it was middle management. It wasn't the people that were executing the job. It wasn't the vision had changed. It was what happened in the middle that almost cost us the momentum of what God was doing. I wonder is that how it happens

in our lives. I wonder if sometimes the reason that joy stops flowing, the reason that faith stops growing, the reason that sometimes we lose our sense of perspective about who God is, is not the end. It's not the beginning. It's middle management. We don't know how to manage the middle. We don't know how to deal with Monday. So we shout good on Sunday. But I need a sermon. I need an mma sermon. I need some Monday morning application. I need something to help me manage this middle because

I'm not fighting the devil on Sunday morning. I'm fighting him on Tuesday at three point thirty seventh. So the key to this, Joshua says, take twelve stones. Twelve stones. January February March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December, twelve months, twelve stones, twelve tribes, twelve disciples, twelve everybody say twelve, take twelve, Pile them up. And in the future, when your children ask you, what's up with these stones?

Or like my kids ask me, what's up with these cassette tapes? I still got some. When your children ask you, tell them what the Lord did. Tell them, tell them, take them to the show the stones and tell them, we didn't know if we were going to make it through. But God did something only he could do. He made it. Somebody shot, I made it. Tell the person next to you you have no idea what I've been through. Look at them right in the eye and say, and God

brought me over. And look at them one more time and say, how about you ask them, have you been through anything? Imagine this? Imagine this. They come through the Jordan. Let's play the story out for a moment. They come through the Jordan. God brings them through. They set up the stones. God does a great miracle. They go on to fight battles, but they set up the stones to remember what God did in that moment. It's very beautiful. And then they go forward into the land and they fight.

They fight many battles, and God gives them any victories. But every once in a while, maybe they come back with their kids and they show them the stones, because they left the stones in Gilgal, and then they moved on to conqurecate it. And you know how it is when somebody is reflecting on something and they get nostalgic. Maybe the parents start telling the children. We didn't know if we were going to make it. Joshua was our new leader, and we had never we'd never been this

way before. And he told us. He told us that if the priest would stand in the middle, the waters would stand at attention until the people passed through. So we hurried through as fast as we could. We ran through. The Bible says in Joshua, chapter four, verse twenty one. They hurried through. They didn't have a whole lot of faith, just enough to get through it. They were dancing through

the middle. They were running through the middle. Let me tell you something, when you got the devil chasing you, sometimes all you can do is get through it. You don't look flashy, you're not shooting, you're not flossing. You're not doing nothing but running for your life. So they got through it, but they say, God got us through it. That was amazing, amazing because we didn't know. It was amazing and the arc was there and it represented the presence of God. Oh I wish you could have been

their son. It was just so amazing and we didn't know if we were going to be able to do it, but we did. God did it. God it wasn't us. Say God did it, okay, and they and they say that. And then so maybe a few years go by, maybe they go back to the place again and they look at the stones, but you know, maybe maybe the stones are they're still there, they haven't gone anywhere. But the story starts to get lost a little bit, and maybe

a few years later they're telling their children. They're like, oh, yes, it's pretty cool. I mean we got through it. I mean God did it, but we were the ones who had to walk because you know, like God didn't. God didn't carry us through. But but we got through it. And then a few more years passed and maybe they're telling their kids again, making another trip and they're telling them, yeah, those stones they're they're cool. Joshua made us get'm out the middle of the Jordan. It was weird. We were

ready to move on. But Joshua, let me tell you how I know that the story stopped being told because when you get to the end of Joshua's life, you read in Judges chapter to verse ten, just as verse, just as verse. I want to show you, and I want you to think about the space between when Joshua led the people through the Jordan and when the next

generation arose. Says it. After that whole generation, Joshua's generation had been gathered to their ancestors, another generation grew up who knew neither the Lord nor what he had done for Israel. Joshua's generation set up the stones. The next generation didn't even know the story. What happened. Somewhere along the way between Joshua Chapter four and Judges chapter two, they stopped telling the story. Something changed about the story

somewhere in that space. And God, if I'm just preaching this for one person, help me to do it now, because they have been telling themselves the wrong story, and now their faith is feeling feeble, and now their worship has been weakened, and they are in a cycle of dependence on false gods because they stopped telling the story. The story of salvation is this. I was lost and dead in my sin. I had no hope in myself. I could not save myself. I could not help myself.

I could not lift myself. I would not have made it if He had not reached down and with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, he died for me. He came into my life, intersected me at the point of my sin, and while I was still a sinner, Christ died for me. Why are you screaming? Because I've got a story that didn't start with me. It started with the mercy of God. And the enemy doesn't want you to tell this story. See he wants He wants

you to lose your testimony. They kept the stones, the stones are still there to this day, but they stopped telling the story. You know, you can have all of of the the monuments of religion but lose your relationship with God. You can have all the stones in the world. You can come to church, you can you can still live a a live this between the lines. But if the truth we're told today some of us have stopped telling the story, We've lost our testimony. You have a testimony.

There are things that God has done for you that only He could do, and nobody else can tell it for you, and nobody else can tell it like you. It can happen. It can happen in your own heart. It can happen in a generation. It can happen within a lifetime. It could happen within three years. You can actually have God do something amazing for you and have the stones to prove it. Some of you are sitting next to the woman that you ask God to give you, but now you want out of your marriage. The problem

is in your marriage. It's your management. I'll go back here because I'm not scared to say this stuff. We need to manage our miracles. God has been good to us. God has been more than enough. He is a provider, He is the hope of Tyr. He did bring you through, He did bless you, he did make a way. He is more than enough. He is else to die. He is a great king. He is a good father. Touch somebody, say, manage your miracle. It compsta can't put us yours to manage.

I told Elijah, if you crack the screen, I'm not replacing it. It's yours to manage. If you crack the screen or if you here's here's what happens to me, let me tell you something. Say so that's tall. I sometimes I stopped telling myself the testimony because to me sometimes it seems small. You know, something happened between when they crossed the Jordan. I don't know exactly what it is.

I think there's evidence to support this hypothesis. They fought a lot of battles between Joshua before and judges too. And I wonder if the battles became bigger in their minds than the blessings. And I wonder if they started telling themselves the stories that centered around their struggles rather than God's sovereign hand that saw them through the struggles. I wonder if they got in survival mode to the

point that they stopped telling the story. And I wonder if when they saw God do all these other things, I wonder I wonder if they just didn't go back to the stones they were placed on the bank of the Jordan, back where they started. And sometimes when you don't go back where you started and remember what God did where you started, you lose perspective. When you get where you're going, Oh, man, I feel so guilty preaching

this point. It is so easy for me to get caught up and consumed in my own convenience, my own drama, my own insecurities, my own dysfunction, and a lot of times, I'll be honest with you, I don't share what God is doing in my life because it doesn't seem big, because I can compare it to something else and it seems small. It seems small like these stones. You know, at one point in your life you're really grateful for it, but then at some point it can lose its significants.

I was asking somebody the other day if I could hear their testimony, and it's a church word, right, testimony. People don't really talk like that except in courts and church, you know what I mean. Like it's just a real churchy thing to say. And they were like, well when I was twelve and they were fifty three, I was like, not that testimony. I know, you can't fight today's devils if you don't have today's testimony. There needs to be

a current work that God is doing in your life. Yet, Yes, he saved me, and I want to talk about that, but what is he doing in my life today, another generation that knew not the Lord nor what he had done for Israel. This is your testimony. You know, it can be a tiny testimony. It doesn't have to be a big rock. You can fight the devil with a little rock. Ask David, you can fight a big giant with a little rock if you know how to throw it. I said, you can fight depression with a little rock

if you know how to throw it. You can fight discouragement with a lid, a tiny lid, a tiny testimony. I don't have a big testimony. I do pretty much on my life. I've been serving the Lord. I never was owned the drugs and women and running around pretty much grew up and come on, man, you don't have to have a met lab in your garage to have a testimony. You don't have to be fresh off death row to have a testimony. You don't have to have

fourteen children by fourteen women to have a testimony. A testimony, it can be the smallest thing. Like a few weeks ago, I's getting ready come out and preach. I don't want to tell you this because Joshua said, tell them, tell them what God did for you, tell them him tell them about it. Preach it, teach it. You overcome by the blood of the Lamb and the word of your testimony. There is power in your personal testimony. So a few weeks ago, I was getting ready to preach. I didn't

feel like preaching. Wo I love the Lord, I believe his word, and I believe he's coming again. I just didn't feel like preaching. On that Saturday night weather's nasty. I didn't feel like preaching. So I was having a little pity party. I hate to tell you this, but I was. I was being so childish, and but then

I had this moment. I was like, FaceTime one of your friends and get him to pray for you, because the service was about to start, so the staff was out doing staff stuff so they couldn't come pray for me. So I was gonna facet one of my friends who didn't have a Saturday night service, and he didn't answer. Apparently, Judas Smith, I had better things to do than pray for his friend. Pray that the Carolina Panthers will wreak havoc upon the Seattle Seahawks today to punish him for

not being there. In my time of FaceTime, need you don't want to FaceTime forerdict. I hope you go down today royally. Then I called Craig Groschell, that's my pastor, that's my guy. And he didn't answer, and he always answers. He didn't answer, and I was running out of time because I needed to get out there and preach. So I said this little pitiful prayer, you know, not the kind I pray in front of people. I was like, oh Lord, since nobody wants to pray for me, I'm

always praying for everybody else. I guess I'll go out free, shall I pray for myself? And I start praying. You know, this real mumbly, grumbly, grumpy prayer, A little bad attitude prayer, A little like kids going to make up to bed fun that kind of prayer. Have you ever had that level of faith where it's like, fine, faith, fine God, Fine, I pray for myself. So I start praying Father in

the Images out loud. I say that when I said Father in the name of Jesus the moment I got it out of my mouth, Father name of my phone rang my phone hardly ever, rang rings my phone. I mostly communicate my text I don't do a lot talking on the phone, and my phone rings and it hardly ever rings. It never rings at that time of day. And it said no caller id I but I'm not making this up. I said, I should answer this. I said, Hello, there's deep voice comes on the phone. What are you doing?

The voice of none other? It could only be Bishop TD Jakes. That's like my favorite preacher. Since I'm like this big, since I started wanting to be a preacher, this was my favorite preacher. And here he is calling me, what do you deal with? And I was like, hey, mis Jakes knows he is going on the preacher from Saturday night service. He said, oh, well, since this is a bad time, let me just pray for you before

you go out there and preach real quick. Father, in the name of Jesus, but knowing him with your spirit and fill up with your wisdom, give him words to say from him. I'm telling you, I'm telling you, I'm not waiting until something to me. I need to fight the devil. Sometimes with a phone call. There are little

things that God has done for me. Moments where I called his name and there was nobody there to add sir, And then all of a sudden something from heaven with no caller id and God reached out, and God dried my tears, and God strengthened me, and God upheld me who in a mighty hand in and out stretched arm. You need to tell these stories. You need to tell

these stories. Stop telling yourself the story that nobody cares about you and that you're alone, and that it doesn't matter another generation who didn't know what the Lord had

done for Israel because they stopped telling the story. And when you stop preaching the gospel to yourself and reminding yourself that the Son of God accepted and chose you, and brought you out of Egypt, and brought you out of sin, and brought you through the Red Seat, and brought you through the Jordan, and brought down the Jericho walls, and brought you out of bondage, and brought you out of fear. Please hear me. When you stop telling that story,

you lose your strength. The children of Israel went through fifteen cycles of disobedience to God. And not only did they go through fifteen cycles of disobedience to God through fifteen different judges, but they went through four hundred and twenty years of dependence on gods that could not save them because they stopped telling the story. What story have you been telling yourself? What story have you been telling your children? What story? You know? What? I was thinking,

what story is our church telling in this day? Because God has done amazing things for us. But sometimes it really rips my heart out when I see a campus pastor giving an invitation in our church and people get up and start leaving so they can beat traffic out the parking lot while somebody's soul is on the line.

That really hurts my heart because when we started the church, we weren't starting the church to have a Christian entertainment center where we could give people a little anecdote and a little song and a little goosebump and they could get to lunch. Is that the story we're telling that we gather together when it's convenient and we consume spiritual food,

but we never contribute. This is why I think it's important that we have traditions like our year end offering, because God is inviting a new generation to tell the story. And it's so vital in this moment that you realize that the gospel is God's story, but it's ours to manage we are stewards of the story that God is telling in the world today. What a privilege it is. Come on, can we praise Him for the privilege? Do

you do? You know the hemn? This is my story, This is my song praising my avery, this is my sor this is my crazy mis say, stand to your feet. I want to pray with you. Now, just give me a path. You're in the middle of a story right now that God is telling through your life. You're in the middle of it. The priests stood in the middle. The stones came from the middle. Everything good that God does in our life comes from our ability to recognize it in the middle. And sometimes what happens, I know,

you feel like you've come to the end. You feel like is this for you? You feel like you get to the end of something, You get to the end of your own strength. You get to the end. And sometimes the season shifts in your life, and and something is always ending as something else is beginning. The Jordan is both it's it's their egg, it is from the wilderness, and it's their entrance into Canaan. It's happening all at the same time, right, and so you think you're at

the end of something. Your ability to manage that emotion in the middle of it determines what happens next in your life. Remember this, Moses died on Mountain Nebo looking at the promised land. Joshua led the people into the land that God had promised Moses. The difference wasn't what God had promised. God promised Moses and Joshua the same result. The difference wasn't the promise. The difference was how they

managed the miracle in the middle of it. God gave Moses a miracle, he parted the Red Sea, but Moses stayed stuck in what other people said, Moses managed according to his fear, not his faith. God gave Joshua the same promise, and Joshua said, even in spite of our fear, even in spite of our failures, even in spite of the fact that they're more out there than there are in here, we're going forward in the name of the Lord,

with his presence as our banner. And we are standing in the middle, and we will stand in the middle until everything that God has spoken comes to pass. I wonder, is there anybody who's willing to get in the middle of it and take your stand and declare, I will see the goodness of the Lord in my generation, in my life. That's what I want to pray for you about. And if you lift your hands right now, I'll do

it because the Lord is in this moment. The Lord is very present even in your pain, and I believe that God is even present in some of the mistakes that you've made. Lord, right now, would you visit the heart of each of your sons and daughters with a reminder, maybe, like those twelve rocks that the people piled up, give us a rock of remembrance today that we can build on the firm foundation of your faithfulness. The victory is

yours to give, but it's mine to manage. God, remind me of the responsibility that you have given me, and teach me to lean on your grace as I do. Give me the faith to stay standing in the middle with the waters all around me, and to worship You in this moment, with our heads bowed and our eyes closed. I wonder if there's somebody here today who needs to receive the grace of God for the salvation of your soul,

the forgiveness of your sin. I wonder if there's some one here today who needs to begin a relationship with God, or maybe you want to reconnect in that relationship with God. You've been feeling for a long time like you're far from him, but it's not true. He's near and if you call on his name, he is in this moment, and he longs to come and live inside of you. He longs to allow you to follow him, even when you don't know what's next. It's very simple what the

Bible says about salvation. It is by grace that you are saved through faith. It's the gift of God. It's not of works, so that no one can boast that. If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. As the promise of God doesn't require good works. You can't stack enough stones to climb your way to heaven and it doesn't work like that. God's not watching your behavior to see whether or not

he will relate to you. He's already done through the person of his son Jesus. All that needs to be done for you to have a right relationship with Him. And right now, in this moment, I want to pray with you. At every location. We're going to pray out loud as a church family for the benefit of those who are coming to God or coming back to God. But we'll all pray out loud together. Repeat after me, Heavenly Father. I believe in Jesus Christ is the Son of God. And today I make Jesus the Lord of

my life. I believe he die to forgive my sin and rose again to give me life. I receive this new life. This is my new beginning. On the count of three, if you just prayed that prayer, shoot your hand up. I want to celebrate with you. One, two, three, come on as a testimony. Shut your hand on. That's a lot of hands. That's a lot of hands. Let's praise God for it. Come on, let's praise God for it. I said, let's praise God for it. Today is today of salvation. Said, let's praise God for it. Well, I

hope you enjoyed the podcast today. If you did, there are just a couple things I'd love for you to do. Number One, subscribe to our show. That way, the most recent episode will always be in your feed, waiting for you ready when you are. And Secondly, if this ministry has impacted you, and you'd like to help us continue to reach others. You can click the link in the description and you can give now and I'll see you next time on the Elevation podcast.