Transcription
Joshua chapter 1. Got 30 minutes. We're going to sing a song that I really want you to hear tonight. How good is God? Isn't it just so good being in? I just love these nights, bro. I just, I want to, just can we just sleep here and do prayer here in the morning? Is it pink or salmon? My daughter's favorite colors. Pink. I'll wear pink. All right, let me give you a verse that I gave you two weeks ago that I can't, I can't shake. I can't shake this past summer. One of the, uh, Board of, uh, board of directors, uh, from our church, Mark Pettis, came and taught our staff. Some of our staff's in the room tonight. Some of the things you might hear me say, you might go, "I think I heard that this summer." You did. I stole it. He's an elder. That means, uh, I'm a licensed dealer because he's dealing it to us. And so, um, there's some things that he shared with us that I think was so on time for all of us in the room. And, uh, I tried to get Mark to come, but it wasn't going to work out. So I'm like, "I'll just take some of this stuff." And, um, I think it's going to help you, but you're going to see right away that this is a word from the Lord for all of us.
I want to take you back to Joshua chapter 1. Let me read it tonight from Eugene Peterson's, um, translation. That's the Message translation. I think that's much more of, of a supplementary source. Um, I think that he uses kind of everyday vernacular and language. And so, I'd be careful with the Message in terms of making it your everyday substance, but it's a great, great text, I think, to supplement things that you've read. I've read Joshua 1 two weeks ago. I think you know the literal translation. Let's, let's hear some everyday language. And I think there's something that's going to speak to Joshua chapter 1, starting in verse one.
"After the death of Moses the servant of God, God spoke to Joshua, Moses's assistant. Moses my servant is dead. Get going." Someone say, "Get going." "Cross the Jordan River, you and all the people, cross to the country I'm giving to the people of Israel. I'm giving you every square inch of the land you set your foot on, just as I promised Moses. From the wilderness and this Lebanon, east to the Great River, the Euphrates River, all the Hittite country, and then west to the Great Sea. It's all yours. All your life, no one will be able to hold out against you. In the same way I was with Moses, I will be with you. I won't give up on you. I won't leave you." Strength. Courage. Someone say, "Strength." Someone say, "Courage." Someone say, "Strengthen." Someone say, "Courage." "Courage. You are going to lead this people to inherit the land that I promised to give their ancestors. Here it is. Give it everything you have. Heart and soul. Heart and soul. Heart and soul."
I want to take a few moments. Going to try to set this clock. Put it at 30 so I don't go too long. People got kids. Do we have V kids tonight? Kai, is your kid in kids tonight? No. You're a good parent. Praise God. Um, Kylie, that's awful. Sorry. Tough crowd. Um, I know it's hard. I vacillate from really serious moments like, "I don't know, he's got a pink sweater on and he's making jokes about us bringing our kids to church." That was a bad idea. This guy's delusional. I kind of him anyway. Um, I, I want to talk for a few moments, if I can, from this thought: Everything we have, everything we have. Look at your neighbor. Say, "Neighbor, this next season, give it everything you have." Look at your other neighbor. Come on, no introverts tonight. I might just do this all night. Other neighbor, other neighbor. 2024. 2024. Give it everything you have. Everything you. Other, other neighbor. No, I'm kidding too much. Ask Greg how much I lost my mind today.
We started a collection two weeks ago, and normally I don't do this on Heart and Soul, but I just feel like I'm still so in it that it's hard for me to depart from where we're at, just on our conversation on Sunday. And the collection that we're in is this, this phrase: "Mature me." "Mature me." And that's my prayer for this year. I'm even asking some of you that are, are a part of this, this community to say, "I'm going to make it my prayer. God, mature me. God, I want to mature." But it's also a question, and it's a dangerous question. What would the mature me do? You start asking yourself that question. You got to start apologizing to people. You got to start forgiving people you don't want to forgive. Because the reality of it is, is that sometimes if we're not careful, we can kind of think that this church thing can just be a part of our life instead of it actually being in our life. And sometimes we can come to church and we can behave and speak in Christian needs, and we can shout and we can holler, but then we can go right back out into the world, live like hell, live just like the world. What separates us? I think sometimes, you ever met somebody before? It's like they know a lot about the Bible. They can quote the Bible. They know a lot of things about God, but you're like, "You're so mean." It's like, that's only. It's like what I've learned is that all of us have to go on the journey of growing, confronting, challenging ourselves. I'm not going to make you raise your hand, but I'll start first. There are areas of my life that are immature. Like, I'm not going to make you tell me yours, but like, I am. I could do a whole sermon called "The Immature Me," you know? Because he's in there, and he, and he shows up, and he says stupid stuff, and, and he pouts about silly things, and he gets worried about things that God has already shown up so many times. It's, it's immaturity. And here's what I know: It's impossible to be spiritually mature but remain emotionally immature. It's impossible to be spiritually mature but still remain emotionally immature. Meaning, like, if what we're doing in here doesn't actually show up in our lives out there, it's a waste of time, dude. Like, I don't want to do that. Like, sometimes I kind of get scared as this thing grows because I'm like, "Yo, I don't want to be like the cool thing that's like, like there's cooler things." You know? Like, I don't know if Soho House is still cool. Some of y'all are just finding out about that. I don't, that's kind of, I think it's, I think it's kind of whack. But anyways, I'm just saying, like, go to Soho House. You know, I don't, is Wynwood cool? Adrian doesn't know, he's got three kids. Nick hasn't been out of his house in five years. What, Jerry, Dan, Mall, is that cool? I, I just think that if we're going to gather, if we're going to make effort, if we're going to load into venues, if we're going to buy properties, man, let's make sure that our gatherings are defined in such a way that what happens in this room spills out onto those streets, and that we live different, we live mature, that we grow, that we actually have life.
This is a really big moment in Joshua's life. I, I've already shared a lot of the context, but it's good if you're just coming in tonight. Joshua chapter 1 is this massive pivot. Moses, the great leader of Israel, has died, and now Joshua, his aid, is stepping in to fill his shoes. This is a massive, massive moment. This is a maturity moment because all of maturity is defined and seen in moments of transition. It's when you transition that we can decide what is the level of your maturity. Many times, it's in transition that we are prone to wander. It's in transition that we're prone to disobey. It's in transitions that we're prone to throw our values away. So watch people's lives in transition because it's always a good indication of the maturity level. And here is Joshua. He has to mature. He has to grow. And what does God do? God comes and he doesn't give him a perfect plan. Instead, God gives him a promise. So it is with your life that God, he doesn't always give you like a, a book with, you know, page after page of every step of the journey. I could invite the Grams up here right now, and if you heard their whole journey of coming to Miami, leaving Miami, coming to Miami, none of it was perfect. None of it was this beautiful, beautiful plan. In fact, if God would have given them that book five, six, seven years ago, eight years ago, something tells me they wouldn't have signed up. And God knows the same thing about you. You're like, "Yo, if you would just give me a plan." No. If God gave you the plan, you would run in the other direction. God says, "I'm not going to give you a plan. I'm going to give you a promise, and I'm going to see if you're willing to walk in faith." Are we faith people or not? And faith requires us to step out on water, which is liquid, but rest assured that His word is solid. I don't need a plan. I got a promise. Come on, anybody in the house tonight know you, you got a promise from God? God promises His presence. God assures him that if he'll obey the word, that he will be successful. God even promises him land. I read it out of the Message version, but go and read it out of the ESV version. It's pretty fascinating because one time he says, "I'm going to give you this land," and another phrase, he says, "Every place your foot touches, the land I have already given you." Given, like it's already happened. What it tells me is, there are promises that God has already established that are already done. The question is, will you step into the thing that He's already given you? Oh, I feel like preaching at Heart and Soul. You already got peace. Step into it. Come on, somebody. You already got joy, but you got to step into it. He's already given you a purpose. Step into it. What has God given you that you haven't stepped into? "Every place you're it touches, I have already given you the land." God says, "Obey this word." That's the whole book of Joshua, by the way. It really is a great picture of obeying the word of God. Do you understand that Joshua, when this is written, maybe I don't know if they even have the Torah all the way. I got to go back on some of my. Is Greg Burgess in the house? He can tell me. We were studying today, but like the Torah, that's Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. The first five books of the Bible. Moses is the author of that. Watch this. Joshua gets into the promised land with just the Torah. You call it silly, but I think it's good. How much more? What more can you do? You got 66 books. You got from the start to the finish. You don't just have the Old Covenant. Come on, buddy. Anybody thankful for the New Covenant? Anybody thankful for grace? Come on. You got the whole Bible. Something tells me you can walk into your promise. You got the whole thing.
So Joshua, he steps up, and Joshua is chosen out of some two million people to be the next leader. And I can't help but think as I read the story and as I see it, what is it that Joshua did to be chosen? Was he the most talented? Was he the most skilled? Was he the most humble? Was he the funniest? Did he have the best strategic mind? What is it that, that stood out when it comes to Joshua? I suppose I just want to work with this question for the next 21 minutes. I got to go quicker. What do I have to do to be the kind of leader God chooses? I mean, God is no respecter of persons, but I do think there's always this tension of the sovereignty of God and the responsibility of man, that I want to position myself in a way that God, if you could use anything, you could use me. Here, here's the good news. Like, I'm here tonight, and I always use this moment to just do this. And maybe it means something to you, maybe it doesn't mean something to you. I'm not, I'm going nowhere. Hey, Vu is not going anywhere. In a time right now where churches are closing doors, I'm not coming against churches, I'm for churches. But in a time when churches are declining and people are running and people aren't going to church, in a time when churches are selling real estate left and right just to stay afloat, we're not selling, we're buying. Come on. I got to preach to you tonight. We're not slowing down, we're speeding up. We're not stuck, we are running. We're not walking, we're running. I said it this way a couple weeks ago, "Yo, rockets don't have reverse. We are only going upward and onward." And we're following Jesus. Anybody grateful tonight? We're not going anywhere. We're putting a stake in the ground. We're not going anywhere. We're not going anywhere, but we are growing somewhere. We are growing somewhere. And when it comes to growing, understand that growth brings all sorts of challenges. Some of y'all have been on this journey for eight years and you've never come to this night. Whether it was here, packed out, or if it was all the way back at the rescue mission or JDD with just three rows filled, every time we come into this space, you've never heard me get up here and say, "Well, the plan is, maintain. See a next season. Just chill out. Do very little and let's see how it goes." Goes. Sit down. Exhale. Do nothing. It's never been that. When there was no staff, let's get going. Hey, step up. Let's make it. Let's get better. Let's grow. Because we're, we're, we're growing. And as Vu grows, you have to grow. As Vu matures, come on, somebody, you got to mature. As Vu transitions into four locations, come on, you got to transition and you got to step into everything that God has promised you. So what do I got to do? What do I got to do to be the leader that God uses at Vu? I think he tells it to us right there. He says, "Give it everything you have." Someone say, "Give it everything you have." Tonight, I want to show you five things that you have, because this next season, it's going to be everything that we have. If we're going to see God do something this year, it's going to be everything we have. And maybe that you've walked in, you go, "I ain't got much." You've got a heart and you've got a soul. You've got a heart and you've got a soul. Give everything you have. So, what, what, what do we have? Let's see five things that Joshua, before he's chosen in this moment, let's see five things that he had and that he gave.
Number one, let's look at Exodus 33:7. "Now Moses used to take a tent and pitch it outside the camp, some distance away, calling it the Tent of Meeting. Anyone inquiring of the Lord would go to the Tent of Meeting outside the camp. Whenever Moses went out to the tent, all the people rose and stood at the entrance to their tents, watching Moses until he entered the tent. The Lord would speak to Moses face to face, as one speaks to a friend. Then Moses would return to the camp. But his young aid, Joshua son of Nun, did not leave the tent." The first thing that you have, like Joshua, is the ability to follow. The ability to follow. We see this picture here in the book of Exodus that Moses used to go to this place called the Tent of Meeting. It was there that he would meet with God face to face. Joshua would follow Moses to the tent. See, everybody wants to be a leader, and very few people actually want to be a follower. What you have to realize is, before you lead, you must first follow. In fact, a lot of times in our church, we use the word servant leadership. We talk about leadership a lot, but let's all be honest, what we're all working on is followship to Jesus. There is only one head of this body, His name is Jesus, and we got to be connected to Him and we got to follow what He says. You know, it's really, really scary because if you cut the head off of a snake, how many you know the body still moves? And there are some places of worship that are actually disconnected from the head, but the body is still moving. But make no mistake about it, just because there's movement doesn't mean that that thing is alive. Doesn't mean that that thing has a purpose. Doesn't mean that that thing is actually on mission. We follow one. His name is Jesus. Before you lead, you follow. And you have the ability to follow. Do not underestimate it. Where Moses went, Joshua went. What Moses did, Joshua did. Moses gave Joshua a picture of maturity. That's what I love about church life is that there's examples all around. That's what I love about pastors and leaders and team leaders and crew leaders. It's giving you a picture, not that they're perfect, it's giving you a picture of a sign of maturity. How many you all know that more is caught than taught? My form of discipleship since I've been in the ministry for over 16 years has always been the model of Jesus. It is, is learning by doing. I feel like my life metaphorically is a moving van, and the door is open. You want to get in the van? We're not stopping. We're going to keep moving. You just got to jump on the journey and discover what it is that we're doing. Some of you are coming to this church. I'm just telling you, the best way you step into leadership here is become a really good follower. Learn what's happening. Get underneath something. It's underneath authority that you actually begin to discover your own authority. I firmly believe in a principle. It's called the first to follow. Everyone say, "The first to follow." Follow. That the power is not in what I'm teaching up here. Here is the power. I can give a principle, but it's not until Adrian behaves and operates in that principle, it's when he actually follows the very thing that I'm describing. Guess what happens? As I describe it, he's the first to follow it. And then guess who really is the leader in that moment? It's not me. It's Adrian behaving according to what I'm describing. And then people start following Adrian. It's called first to follow. And if you want to lead, you got to recognize you got the ability to follow. Here's Joshua. Joshua, he goes everywhere Moses goes, and he sits outside the tent. And the Bible says that Moses would leave, but Joshua would stay. What's he doing staying there at the tent? Why is he still there? Is he worshiping? Is he praising? Is he reflecting? Is he journaling? Is he cleaning? Maybe some people are going to be here tonight cleaning. Understand that that is powerful. Understand that that's supernatural and that's spiritual. Understand that's part of being a part of the body. I think as you look at the text, the point about it was not that he was staying back at the tent. It wasn't about his assignment. It's about his attitude. And when it comes to following, it's always about this word: patience. Do you know how to wait on the Lord? Lord, do you know how to wait on God? Because we all get different assignments, but what is the attitude that you carry with that assignment? Patience is not the ability to wait. Come on, somebody. Patience is how you wait. And if you're going to be here, come on, why not wait on the Lord with a happy attitude? With a positive attitude? Why not serve unto the Lord? What we quickly discover about Joshua in this text is that he has the ability to follow. And what we see is, is that Joshua is a part of the community, but he's not a part of the crowd. Very good. Vu is a community, but I also know there's some crowds up in Vu. And when you begin to follow correctly, you're a part of the community, but you're not a part of the crowd. Not a part of the gossip crowd, not a part of the negative crowd. "Who is me." I don't know what that is, but crowds are dumb. But a community requires people to lay their life down, to have values, to lean in and say, "Before I lead, I will follow." If you believe it, somebody give God some praise. You have the ability to follow.
Number two, let's look at Numbers chapter 11. Let me hurry through this. This is Numbers 11:28. "A young man ran and told Moses, 'Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp.' Joshua son of Nun, who had been Moses's aid since youth, spoke up and said, 'Moses, my lord, stop them!' But Moses replied, 'Are you jealous for my sake? I wish that all the Lord's people were prophets and that the Lord would put his Spirit on them.' Then Moses and the elders of Israel returned to the camp." Let me tell you what Joshua has and what you have. We have the choice. Choice to submit. This is one of those, like, massive moments that happens to everybody who's in a community, in anybody who has somewhat of a drive, anyone who has a vision or ambition. There's these guys prophesying, and Joshua doesn't like that they're prophesying. In many ways, he's, he's jealous for Moses. He thinks it's taking Moses's glory. And so he actually tells Moses, "Moses, tell those people to shut up." And what does Moses do? Moses, like Jesus, says, "Get thee behind me, Satan." Remember that story of Peter? Remember Peter's like, Jesus describes, "I am the Messiah and I must suffer and die." And Peter thinks he's doing a good thing. He's like, "No, over my dead body. You're not going to suffer." And you want to talk about a bad day. Jesus like, "Yo, Pete, get thee behind me, Satan." But the most powerful thing about Peter, and the most powerful thing about Joshua, is that when they were corrected, they didn't quit. Listen, how you respond. Watch this. This is important. How you respond to correction or, or celebration. How you respond to correction or celebration will impact your dedication. I don't know what poison is yours. Some of you, anytime you get corrected, you get offended. "Oh, I was trying to do a good thing. Nobody knows my heart." Or someone celebrates you. "Wow, you're great." And it's called an Absalom spirit. Remember David stopped going to the gate, and he stopped going to the gate because he was in a season that he was tired. So his son, his very own son. Be very, very careful because you can be loyal today, and then with a little bit of a misstep, pride can start to get to your heart, and you can start to sow division. And so Absalom, the very biological son of David, guess what he did? He started going to the gate. And when he was at the gate, he started fielding the questions, and with it, he started winning the hearts of people. And people would say, "Oh my goodness, Absalom, your hair is so beautiful, and you're better than your daddy. We wish you were king." He's like, "Well, yeah, yeah, keep telling me more." So it's correction and celebration. Very good. How do you handle these things? Who, who are you doing it for? There is no way for us to accomplish, just logistically, operationally, what we're doing every weekend if we don't have a culture of improvement and confrontation. Oh, I feel like preaching to someone in this room. We're going to need some people that make a decision: submit or quit. I, I wouldn't preach this on Sunday, by the way. Bring your friends. I promise I'll be nice again. But like, genuinely, like, I know this, like I know the Bible. Don't I? I'm okay. Like, David is in a cave, and Saul has thousands of men, and they're trying to kill him. And David gets an opportunity with one of his mighty men, his name is Abishai. And Abishai is like, "I've got Saul in my sights. He's beneath my spear. Let me run him through." And what does David say? "Don't touch the Lord's anointed." I'm trying to, I'm trying to mature our church. I'm, I'm trying to bring some maturity because David has a revelation of submission to an angry, diabolically crazy, bipolar, schizophrenic, demon-possessed, arrogant king who has a thousand men trying to kill him. What's your excuse? You're ready. I didn't get to sing the solo. I don't know if I can get with this vision, bro. No one lets me sing a solo. Are you crazy? The church hurt me. I hear you. That's a real thing. But let's also be reminded that there's nobody who has greater church hurt than Jesus, and He keeps showing up. Come on. I'm trying to preach to a mature audience. I'm trying to build a group of people that would understand, "I got something to give. I got the choice to submit." It's a choice. It's a choice. It's a choice. Submission doesn't mean that you're weak. Submission doesn't mean that you don't have an opinion. Submission means that you're willing to lay down your ambition for the greater good. Listen to me. Submission will take you further in God's kingdom than ambition could ever dream. This is the upside-down kingdom. This is not the American dream. In the kingdom of God, it's upside down. When I submit, I have an opportunity to show my heart once again that it's unto the Lord. I'm not suggesting that you should be around toxic leadership or crazy people abusing you, of course not. We don't believe in any of that. I just want to make sure that we are developing a community that has thick skin and soft hearts. There's more to no. Yes is great, but when you hear no, no, that's a golden opportunity because no grows our humility. No demands our courage. No reveals our conviction. I know, I know, I know, I know I'm supposed to be here. Come on, somebody. Give God some praise in this house. It's going to take everything we have. Everything we have.
You don't just have the choice to submit. As the worship team comes up, Exodus 17:10. You'll know this story. "So Joshua fought the Amalekites as Moses had ordered. And Moses, Aaron, and Hur went to the top of the hill. As long as Moses held up his hands, the Israelites were winning, but whenever he lowered his hands, the Amalekites were winning. When Moses's hands grew tired, they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat on it. Aaron and Hur held his hands up, one on one side and one on the other, so that his hands remained steady till sunset. So Joshua overcame the Amalekite army with the sword." What is it going to take? It's going to take me giving everything I have. Everything we have. I'll tell you what we have. We have to have a willingness to fight. I love this story. I'd love to preach it from Moses' perspective because I know what it's like to try to lead something, and I know the blessing that it is to have brothers in the Lord that hold up your arms when you're tired and when you're fatigued. I know for me, I don't think I'm Moses, but man, I do know that I need people like Aaron and people like Hur that can help me lead and stay the course. Most of the messages are always about Aaron and Hur and Moses, but yeah, let's be honest, the real hero is Joshua, who's down there in the valley fighting. There was a willingness and a grit to fight. This is not Sunday morning. This is Wednesday night leadership night. Listen to me. Ministry is messy. It's just messy. Messy pastoring people is messy. Why? Because people are a mess. So many problems at Vu Church, you better believe it. There were 7,500 problems here this past Sunday. They all got a story. They all got hurts. They all got hang-ups. They all got issues. They all got dreams. They all got desires. And ain't nobody in here Jesus. All we can do is be willing to get in the fight, be willing to get in the mess, and say, "I won't quit. I won't leave. I'll put my hand to the plow." It's messy, bro. It's messy. Nelson Ruiz is in the house right there. My man. I was thinking about you. I said, "Adrian, make sure Nelson's in the room." Stand up real quick. This my friend, Nelson. And like, I know some of you like are new to church, you're like, "Bro, these guys are really emotional. They cry a lot." Um, I think it's just really cool when you've been walking with Jesus for a while and you've been getting to pastor and be in people's lives, just to watch their journey of faith. I've known Nelson. When did we meet? What year do you think it was? Probably '08, '09. Gave your life to Jesus at that Advance Camp. Remember that? You were a mess, bro. Yeah. Praise Jesus. I remember Nelson. We went to, we did this camp. D-Tree, and I led this camp. In fact, actually, Jerry Denta, who worked at Alpha and Omega, she was one of our first friends we met in Miami. And we had to call Alpha and Omega, great church in our area. And Jerry picked up the phone. We're like, "Yo, we're trying to do a camp for like young people." She's like, "Oh, I know the right place." And so even like way back then, 15 years ago, Jerry was blessing us, and she still does. Um, but I remember Nelson going to this camp and like just getting radically transformed. And like, you got to know Nelson. Like, um, he's a huge part of Trinity. And about a year and a half, maybe two years ago, the Lord really led you back into Vu. We didn't know at that time that Trinity and that building would become part of our place of leadership. But when I think about you, I just think about like the willingness to fight. I remember the first time really meeting you and talking to you. You started like serving at church, and it was a really beautiful thing, like watching this guy. But like, if you meet Nelson, like I was joking with him today, I was like, um, you know, no one's gonna believe if Nelson's like, you know, "That person bullied me." I don't believe you because you're scary, bro. And, um, this is a true story. First time I remember him meeting me, he's like, "Yo, Pastor, trying to talk to you after service." I'm like, "Yeah, where's security?" And, um, and like, yo, I've just been preaching the same stuff for like, I just do it with a pink sweater on now. But I had preached a message called, um, "Stack a Chair, Change the World." Look at Adrian. Goes, "That's good. I'm going to use that." Team night. And it was just trying to enlist people like we used to change the room around, like stack, you know, stack the chairs. And nobody's called to stack chairs. No, they like, "You know, I heard more speak to me. I have got a burden to stack chairs for Jesus." But that's how I preached it, bro. I was like, "You stack these chairs, you're going to change life." So I've been preaching that, and Nelson's like, "I got to meet with you, man." I was like, "I was scared." I was like, "All you, all right, up." And he was like, "Uh, hey, man, um, I'm tired of you calling it the chair stacking ministry." I'm like, "Okay, I think you missed point number two, submit to authority." Uh, but I was actually so scared. I was like, "Yeah, yeah, man, sure. What's up, bro? Yeah, what's up?" You know, armor bearers, where's up, you know? And he goes, "No, man, I'm on that team, and we're trying to make it something." I was like, "Oh, that's cool." He's like, "But bro, you can't keep saying that from the stage." I was like, "Okay, I'm just trying to help build the team." He goes, "That's great, man. I just want to let you know, we changed the name." I was like, "Oh, yeah?" He's like, "Yeah, we're the seating engineers." I was like, "Much better name." And, uh, "Next time we meet, can we make sure we have a mediator?" No. And man, I just watched this man serve, and I've just watched this man fight. I watched this man get in the valley, serve, and do whatever it takes. And you're looking at a man who's not perfect, who's on the journey of becoming. But I'm just grateful for a community, the Rendezvous Trinity, that was willing to get in the mess with guys and say, "Let's lean in together." God could use you, and God could use me if you'll just give everything you have. Amen. This is a great man of God, and I was thinking about you tonight, and I love you. I love you.
I want to sing. I got way more message, but I'll give it through their time because we have everything. It's going to take everything we got. You see these moments of Joshua's life. Joshua, you had the ability to follow. You got that. You made the choice to submit. You got that. Had the willingness to fight. You got that. Numbers chapter 14. He goes into the promised land. Only him and Caleb, Joshua and Caleb, the only ones that looked at it and said, "Yeah, there's giants, but it's flowing milk and honey." I think it's the desire to see. You got the desire to see leaders. See more leaders. See. Before our outlook determines our outcome, I've never needed you more than ever to actually begin to develop in this area called vision competency. Don't just look at this room, bro. God wants to use us for such a time as this. But we've got to look at giants, and we've got to look at obstacles, and we have to see more than what everyone else sees. We have to see it before everyone sees it, and we have to have the right outlook. Vision competency is when it's internalized, contextualized, verbalized, and actualized. Do I know the vision? Do I understand the vision? Do I communicate the vision? Do I produce the vision? Give it everything you have. Everything that we have. Lastly, we're going to sing. Joshua had the call to stay. Call to stay. Joshua is most likely 40 years old when he goes into Canaan on that spy mission journey. We know that it's only him and Caleb that have a good report. And God gets so upset, He says, "Because of your immaturity and doubting me, until all of you have died, none of you will enter the promised land. The only ones that will are Joshua and Caleb." We know that it's 40 more years before they enter into the promised land. So let's be honest, I think Joshua is probably anywhere from 70 to 80 years of age when he takes his leadership post. Bible tells us, I think it's in Joshua 24, we'll preach about it in a couple of weeks, when he makes that famous speech, "As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." And the Bible says at the age of 110, he died. Look at this. 80 years of following, 80 years of serving, 80 years of plowing, 80 years of fighting, 80 years of just getting the vision, finally 30 years of leading. What I want, I want you to see is that he dies at 110 years of age. Guess what? He was with the same people, in the same community, with the same tribe, with the same values, with the same book, for 110 years. I know God leads us in different places. I'm speaking about something even just bigger than Vu, but I am talking about Vu. My prayer for you is that if you move to Atlanta, or if you go to LA, that you would find a community, that you'd be a Jesus person, that you'd plant in the church of Jesus. Bro, we're bigger than just move. Come on. Like, you got to stay. It's a call to stay. But some of you in this room, like, my prayer, like for the next year, is that you would get a call to stay. Yeah, in this big city, where the housing market's going up, in this big city that this agenda from New York or LA's coming in, this big city that could be so scary, that looks debaucherous and dark. We need a remnant of people that would say, "I got a call to stay." That's Heart and Soul. I'm here. I'm here. I'm here. I'm here. I'm staying. I'm staying. I'm staying. I'm here. I'm here. I'm here. Everyone's talking about leaving. Have you ever considered staying? Come on. Have you ever considered that eight years from now, if you just stayed put, who knows what God might do? Who knows how God might use you? Who knows what God might do through us? Wow. I look at this room, and we're walking through this room. In 2017, I thought we would do Vu Conference here, and I wasn't sure if we could fill the floor. On now, didn't think we could afford it. Didn't know how to put sound up right. We got nobody that knows how to turn the lights on. There's no way this could work. But I like what Albert Einstein said. He said, "It's not that I'm so smart. It's that I stay with problems longer." Your marriage isn't broke. Your business isn't finished. Your kids are coming back. You just got to stay in the problem just a little bit longer. Stay.
Stand up. Your feet. Stand up your feet. What does it mean to be the leader that God chooses? God, I'm here. If you can use anything, Lord, use me. Use us. Not for our glory, but for Your glory. How we want to be used by You. We're desperate for You, Jesus. And God says to Vu Church, "Give it everything you have. Heart and soul." I'm not playing with 2024. I'm coming into 2024 believing that every giant that is in our way is coming down. I'm believing that every location is flowing with milk and honey. I believe there are new promises and new miracles around every corner. I got the ability to follow. Yeah. Good. I ain't got to be the leader. I'll follow. I'm making a choice. You can't make me submit. I choose to submit. You can't take my life like Jesus. I willingly lay it down. I'm a person of submission. I'm willing to fight. You want me to stack chairs? I'll stack chairs. Part cars? Let's part cars. I'm part of the seating engineers, bro. Don't play with me. We're launching a location. What do you need? You need to paint the ceiling? Gotcha. You need me to sweep the floor? You need me to teach kids? Gotcha. You need me to hang out afterwards on Wednesday night? Gotcha. I can see more. I can see before. And I have a desire and a call to stay. I feel it so deeply in my spirit tonight.