STOP AND START

0:00 Hey, what's going on, everybody? Thank you so much for listening to this week's message from Zoe Church. We are studying the life and the book of Joshua. Open up your Bible and go with me to Joshua chapter 3. We're going to jump in as we talk about being prepared for the promise. Thank you to everybody that gives to and through our church. We had I Love My City last Saturday, and we're able to make a difference in three different locations. something cool that we just started it's called fueled by faith where we were able to help people who can't afford gas for their cars so thank you for your generosity if you'd like to give go to our website click the top right corner it'll drop down hit give and you can give your tithe or your offering there thank you for your generosity but let's jump into this week's message called stop and start. Go to Joshua chapter 3, verse number 7. We are in part 3 today of a series. We are studying the life and the book of Joshua. In Spanish, Josue. And we're studying Joshua together, and I've been loving this series. If you missed out on the first two weeks, go back and check out those services, those messages. But I'm excited. I want to jump in. This is, If you're new, this is right when Joshua is about to lead the Israelites into the promised land.

1:26 And this has taken a long time to get here. In fact, the OG leader was a guy named Moses. Moses passed away. Joshua is the new guy in charge. And Joshua is taken over and they are on the brink. They are on the one yard line. They are on the precipice. Great word. they're about to enter into the land. And watch what God says to Joshua. He says this, chapter 3, verse 7, And the Lord said to Joshua, Today I will begin to exalt you in the eyes of all of Israel, so they may know that as I was with Moses, I will be with you. In fact, I want to preach a message today. Write down the title. It's called Stop and Start. And I just love this because a lot of times in your faith journey, you're going to be ready to start.

2:24 You're going to be ready on the one yard line to enter in. You're going to be ready to go. And a lot of times before God says start, he oftentimes says stop. And you got to be careful to know the difference when God is saying go. And when God says slow down. And right before they enter in the promised land, God is giving the Israelites and Joshua a massive stop. I'll never forget the first time we had a kid, first time we had a child because we have four. First time we had a kid, I was so excited. You know, we, you know, praying over the baby every night and we're about to have this girl. We named her Georgia and I was so excited. And, and I'll, I'll never forget. I was preaching on a Thursday night. We had a young adult ministry called UGYP, United Generation Young Professional. And so stupid, right? and I was preaching on a Thursday night and Julia was about to have our first baby.

3:18 I was so excited. And I get off stage and one of the team's like, your wife went into labor. It's about to go down. I said, thank you, Jesus. I got in my car. I drove like a bat out of hell trying to get to our house. I drove up to our house. I got out the car. I ran into the side of the house. I said, it's going down. She goes, yep, tonight's the night. So here's what I need you to do. I need you to eat this pizza I just ordered and take a nap.

3:47 I said, yes, ma'am. Hallelujah. Those are two things I can do. Eat pizza and sleep. Hallelujah. I'll do whatever you ask, Lord. But I just love that because I was ready to start and she was saying, stop. Sometimes with God, before you enter into a breakthrough, before you enter a next season, God oftentimes will say, I need you to stop so you can understand what you're about to walk into. I love this because I'm going to give you four things to write down. The first thing Joshua hears from God is I am about to exalt you. I am about to promote you. Write down point number one today. Promotion comes from the Lord. And I just want to remind you that if you self-promote, you got to self-sustain. but if God promotes you, no man can cancel it. No man can stand in the way of it. Come on, everybody clap and thank God. My promotion comes not from me. My promotion coming from the Lord. Put it on the screen. I love this scripture. Watch what he says.

4:52 Psalm 75 for promotion cometh neither from the East. It comes not from the West nor from the south, but God is the judge. He putteth down one and he setteth up another. He puts down the cowboys. He exalts the Seahawks. Hallelujah. He says, remember, Josh, how I elevated and I made Moses a big deal? And remember how I promote? Your alarm's going off. Remember, remember, remember. That's all right. Ain't nobody in LA mad at that. That's parking. You hear an alarm in LA, that is not for sleep purposes. That is for parking purposes. He says, remember how I exalted Moses and I made Moses a big deal? Buckle up, buddy. I'm about to make you a big deal. And I just want to remind you that the way that you get promoted in this kingdom is not by promoting and exalting yourself. When God sees humility, when God sees submission, when God sees surrender. Oh, I love what the Bible says. Those that exalt themselves, they will be humbled.

6:01 But those that humble themselves, they will be exalted. You do not want to be in the business of trying to tell people you are a big deal. Let God handle that. Let God be the promoter and the marketer of your business and your life. Come on, clap and give him praise. he says, Josh, remember how I exalted Moses? Buckle up. I'm about to exalt you. So funny. A few years ago, I was preaching in Dallas, Texas, and I took my dad and my brother with me. And when we were going out to Dallas, my brother would go like, he's like, yeah, I'll go. I would love to go to Dallas with you, but only under one condition that I get to go to this barbecue place because he's really into barbecue. He's like, if you let me go to this barbecue place, then a hundred percent, I'll come with you. I was like, bro, it's Dallas. What are we going to do? Yes, of course. Let's go get barbecue. A hundred percent. So we're there. We're at a conference.

6:57 We're having a great time. And in the middle of the afternoon, we snuck out to this barbecue place and we go there. And my little brother, cause he's into barbecue. He does all the ordering. He gets all the stuff ready for us. And we're sitting there, my dad, my brother and I are sitting at this lunch, just enjoying this great Texas barbecue. And then all of a sudden I see my brother look over and he sees somebody. You ever see someone get starstruck? He sees this guy and he's like, he turns to us he's like There he is. And I look over, I see a normal dude.

7:37 And I was like, there's who? He's like, that's the guy. I was like, what guy? He owns the place. And my brother, I mean, he's like, excuse me, excuse me real fast. And he walked up to the guy and he goes, I know who you are. And then my brother, grown man, he says, can I take a photo with you? You see the photo. I took it. They're like this. My brother's like this. because in my brother's eye, he was a big deal. Remember, you cannot work with people that don't like you. You cannot work with folks where you don't got favor. In life, always follow your favor. In fact, never sit at a table where you are tolerated and not celebrated. If you don't find a table that you're celebrated, go find another table and find where you got favor from God.

8:34 He is saying to Joshua, I'm about to exalt you. Some of us need to start preparing for when God changes your life with success. Stop counting on failure. Stop trying to calculate what do you do when it all goes bad. What happens when God scales your business? What happens when God shines your star? What happens when God exalts your name? He says to Joshua, buckle up, buddy. You're about to experience what I did with Moses. I'm going to make your name great. I am going to bless you. I'm going to exalt you. Clap today if you're willing to humble yourself under the mighty hand of God and allow God to exalt you. Too many people today are planning on failure when you should be understanding what it's like to walk in success. The Bible says a man is tested by the praises he receives. God is trying to warn Joshua, I'm about to make some weight on your name. I'm about to exalt you and promote you. Oh, I'm just encouraged today because the Bible says promotion doesn't come from social media. It doesn't come from man. It doesn't come from self. Promotion cometh not from the east nor the west. Promotion cometh from the Lord. So he says to Joshua, you think you're a big deal now. Just wait until you win a championship.

9:52 you. Wait until you enter in the promised land. Wait until you cross the Jordan River. In fact, that's the next thing that's about to happen is now that he's got favor from God because of his humility and his surrender, they walk through the Jordan River and where they're about to enter in the promised land of Jericho. They are entering into what God has promised them. It's taken over 40 years to get there. And as they walk through the Jordan River, God says to them, I want you to grab 12 memorial stones and I want you to set them up for all the tribes of Israel. And I want these stones to be symbolic. So much of our faith is symbolism. I want these stones to represent not stones, but in the future, when you walk by them with your kids and your kids say, what are these stones here for? I want you to tell them about how good and faithful and kind God has been.

10:57 I want these stones to tell a story about how I did for you what you could not do for yourself. Oh, write down number two today. Before you step into your next miracle, let's thank God for your last one. He's saying before you walk into Jericho and you walk into the promised land, I want you to let a praise break. I want you to celebrate. I want you to take time to remember how awesome and good I've been. Is there anybody here today that has experienced the faithfulness and the goodness of God? Oh, come on, clap and give him a praise. The problem with humanity is we get one miracle, we're on to the next.

11:40 God does one thing, we're like, all right, next one. God does something great, we're like, all right, that's great, God, but next. I wonder if your prayer life goes from one miracle to the next miracle. And what if your prayer life looked like miracle, pause, and praise? Remember, the Bible said when you pray, you ought to pray like this. our father who are in heaven, hallowed be your name. You know what he's teaching us? Praise God for everything before you ask God for anything. And a lot of times what we do is we get our miracle and we're like, God, I need the next miracle. And he says, no, I know how you humans work. I want you to set up these stones so that every time you walk by these stones, you can tell your kids, kids, we didn't always have it like this. Kids, we didn't always have this much money. Kids, our marriage wasn't always that good, but God has been greater to us than we ever imagined. He's been better to us than we ever deserve.

12:34 And these stones just represent, come on, clap if God's been faithful, kind, generous, compassion, slow to anger. Rich, come on, just give him a praise right now for the goodness and the faithfulness of God. These stones are symbolic of not what God's about to do. They represent what God has already done. We've got to get to the place where God doesn't have to do one more thing for you, for you to give him your best praise. He's trying to condition them. No, no, don't think that Jericho is the big time. Right now, here today, is the big time. Read with me Psalm 113. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord, you his servants. Praise the name of the Lord. Let the name of the Lord be praised both now and forevermore. from the rising of the sun to the place where it sets, the name of the Lord is to be praised. He's trying to teach Joshua, don't wait for Jericho to praise me.

13:33 Let every miracle along the way be an opportunity to tell the next generation of how kind and faithful I've been. Don't go from miracle to miracle. This last week, I found myself praying and I was believing God for great things for Zoe Church, for our church. Anybody love our church, by the way? Love our church?

13:55 And I was praying for South Bay. I was praying for Highland Park. I'm believing God that we're going to pay off this building in Jesus' name. I was just praying for, you know, West Adams, all the things God's doing. I was praying for miracles. And I found myself just praying and believing God for great things. And as I was praying, I heard the Holy Spirit say to me, you didn't thank me for the last thing I did. and I said say what I really felt God say, hold on, you're believing me for more miracles. You didn't even thank me for the last miracle. Just this last week, another church felt led to give Zoe Church $50,000. did y'all hear what I just said come on clap and thank God God'll God'll give you a miracle out of nowhere come on give him praise today and here I am asking God for next okay great next no he's trying to teach Josh Josh before you move on to your next miracle Stop and thank me for the last miracle.

15:08 Come on, some of us, we need to give God a better praise because God pulled you out of a pit. God delivered you from that season. God healed your body. God elevated your name. Somebody thank God today. If he's been greater to you than you deserve and better than you can imagine, give him a shout of thanksgiving and give him a shout of praise.

15:30 We just sold next. I want the next one. He's like, no, I brought you out of slavery. I put fresh manna on your plate. I put fresh Nike sandals on your feet. I had a pillar, a cloud and a fire by night. I brought you from the Jordan River. I brought you out of Egypt into the promised land. Do you know what that's like? That's like going from the Inland Empire back to LA. Rancho Cucamonga Highland Park.

16:01 Hallelujah. He said, when you cross this Jordan River, and this crossing represents another level. This crossing represents my faithfulness and goodness. I want you to set up these memorial stones so that every time you look at these stones and your kids say, what are these stones?

16:23 You be careful when your kid's like, Why don't we go to church? Why are you always reading your Bible? Why are we always listening to worship music? Why are we always going to I Love My City? you know why I tell my kids? Because you need Jesus. I'm kidding. I'm kidding. I'm kidding. Because I need Jesus, but so do you. It's an opportunity to tell the next generation, maybe you weren't here to witness it, but I was. And God has been kind and gracious and loving and compassionate. And we have to give him praise and tell of the wonders and the works of our God. Now remember, in the Old Testament, they set up stones to remember the faithfulness of God. In the New Testament, we receive communion to remember what Jesus did for us on the cross. In the Old Testament, the stones represented salvation from Egypt. In the New Testament, the bread and the cup represent salvation from a greater enemy, which is sin, death, and hell.

17:23 Come on, anybody thankful today to remember what Jesus has done? that's why that's why the bible says put this up in luke chapter 22 verse 19 do this in remembrance of me old testament stones new testament we receive communion and we take the bread in our context it's like a cracker in our context it's a cracker that's four years old the most stale thing you've ever put in your mouth by far but it represents jesus don't complain we take the bread and we take the cup and we do this to remember the cross to remember the sacrifice of jesus to praise god for great things he has done before you ask god for your next miracle, why don't we go back and thank God for our last miracle? Thank you for salvation. Thank you for your blood. Thank you for the cross. Thank you for the empty tomb.

18:32 Come on, Zoe, give Jesus some praise. Do this in remembrance of me. So he says, Joshua, I'm about to exalt you. I'm about to make you great like I did Moses. You're getting ready for promotion. This is how I work. Remember, Jesus was promoted and exalted because he humbled himself to the point of death. He says, by the way, before you ask God for the next miracle, I want you to go back. Thank God for the last miracle, the memorial stones. And now they're getting ready to enter into the promised land. And it's about to go down. They're on the one yard line. Seattle Seahawks, New England Patriots, one yard line. They're about to hand the ball to Marshawn.

19:12 Hallelujah. the devil's a liar and God says, okay, stop before you start. Before you enter in, I want you to consecrate your life. Read here, Joshua chapter three, verse five. Joshua told the people, consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do amazing things among you. Write down point number three today. Before you conquer, consecrate. he's saying before you take down the walls of jericho before you step into your promise i want you to set your life apart for the purposes of god if you don't know what the word consecrate means put it on the screen to be consecrated means to be set apart from ordinary or sinful use so you can be devoted to god for his purposes watch this put this next one up god isn't saying if you consecrate yourself, I'll give you a miracle tomorrow. He's saying because I love you and because of the promised plan, your response should be consecration and obedience.

20:23 In other words, I don't set my life apart so that I could get a promise. I set my life apart because God's been already good to me. I'm not going to pray, read my Bible, come to church, and give my tithe because I want a miracle. I am going to do these things because I have a miracle. I want to live in the purposes of God, not so that I can get something, but I want to do that because I already have something. Oh, I love this. Put this on Romans 12 verse one, put this on the screen. Therefore, I urge you brothers and sisters in view of God's mercy to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God. This is your true and your proper worship. Do not conform to the patterns of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is.

21:16 His good, pleasing, and perfect will. So he's saying to the Israelites, hey guys, before you step into this thing, it's gonna be amazing. I just wanna make sure we're on the same page, that your life is totally consecrated from sinful use. It is now used for godly use. I want to just remind you today that your life does not belong to you. Your life belongs to God. I want to remind you today that you were purchased at the high price of the blood of Jesus. Your body is where the Holy Spirit lives. God no longer lives in temples. God now lives in man. And your life is not yours. It belongs to somebody else. And God says, consecrate your life away from a life that lives for pleasure, away from a life that lives for sin, away from a life that lives for money, that lives for fame. I use my life now to live for, oh, come on, clap if that's your prayer. And most of us, we just want conquering.

22:16 Few of us, we want consecration. But God always works with setting your life apart for a greater purpose, preparing you set apart for something bigger than you could ever ask, bigger than you could ever imagine. It was so cool. Yesterday, one of the OG youth legends in our church, she goes by to one letter, twice. Took me a long time to be able to say that. I'm trying to tell you her name is Gigi. Anyways, wow. And I'll be here all day. And Gigi got married yesterday. She's been a legend around here for years and really helped disciple so many of our youth, especially a lot of the young ladies in our church, can we clap and honor Gigi who got married yesterday? And if you've ever met Gigi, she's a force and she's amazing. And she has been telling everybody about her wedding for five years. And she just like, if she met you, you were invited to her wedding. I think she got married in Johannesburg yesterday or wherever she got married. But she has been preparing for this day. She has been getting ready for this moment. It's so cool this last week, my nephew, he was born on the same day of our anniversary. And so he just turned 16 and he got his license this last week. Did he fail his first test? I don't want to get into the details here at church.

23:51 My guy got his license. Okay. So don't be a hater. Okay. and he had been preparing he's been taking the test studying driving with somebody else both of these people had been preparing for this moment and I want to just let you know the reason why we're consecrated is because I know God's called me to conquer but before I can conquer I've got to consecrate I've got to get ready I've got to get rid of some some deviant behavior, some lies you've been living in, some people you might need to block or cut off, whatever you got to do, whatever you got to do to set your life apart for God. But I just want to remind you, you will never regret living for Jesus. You will never regret living in purpose. You'll never regret. Come on, clap if you believe that. You're never going to regret going all in on God.

24:52 2 Corinthians 7, put this up. Dear friends, let's make a clean break with everything that defiles us or anything that distracts us, both within and without. Let's make our entire lives fit in holy temples for the worship of God. Come on, let's make a clean break. Let's get rid of that stuff. Come on, no compromise. No little lies. No little, I got some world in me. I got some God in me. I got some things going on in me that nobody knows. I got some church in me. No, no, no, I'm all in. He says, Joshua, you go tell these people, I'm about to do something that's going to amaze them. And in order for them to walk in it, they got to consecrate. In fact, he even goes a step further from consecration to all the men. He said, I want you to circumcise them. Circumcision in the Old Testament was a physical thing. Circumcision in the New Testament is a hard thing.

25:45 In the Old Testament, they would cut them physically. In the New Testament, God cuts out the stuff from our heart that shouldn't be there. All that bitterness, all that resentment, all that greed, all that selfishness, all that insecurity. Is there anybody thankful today that God can do a mighty thing in your life and do a mighty thing through your life?

26:07 I just love this. He says, Josh, get ready, man. Get ready. I'm about to exalt you. and I don't know if you're ready for when I exalt somebody when I press go when I elevate you I'm the God that sets people down I'm the God that lifts people up by the way what I've learned in life don't fight when God promotes somebody don't fight it partner with it I learned early on if you got a Tesla I'm trying to get in Cybertruck or not.

26:44 You think you're going to stop God's promotion or God's hand? They tried it with Joseph time and time again. What did God keep doing? Potiphar's pit, prison, promotion. Because when God's favor is on your life. By the way, where does favor come from? Grace is in Jesus. Grace is undeserved blessing and unmerited favor. The favor of God. He says, get ready, Josh. You watched me do it with Moses. You watched how I used that man. You watched how when Moses walked in a room, people went. There he is. That's the God. I'm going to do the same with you. And I want you to, before you go into this next miracle, I want you to pause and tell everybody about the great things I've already done. Don't wait till you get the one you've been praying for and look past the one I've already provided.

27:38 He says, I'm about to do crazy things, amazing things. You're going to be stunned by what I do, but you're not going to be ready for it unless you're consecrated and prepared for the day and the hour. And the last thing that he says, this is my favorite part. Worship team, you come join me. In fact, let's read that and I'll tell you the point. Look at this. This is the last thing that happens. It says, now when Joshua was near Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him with a drawn sword in his hand. And Joshua went up to him and asked, are you for us or are you from our enemies?

28:21 Neither, he replied. But as commander of the army of the Lord, I have now come. Then Joshua fell face down to the ground in reverence and asked him, What message does my Lord have for his servant? Then the commander of the Lord's army replied, Take off your sandals for the place where you are standing is holy. And Joshua did so. Write down the last point today. Faith steps are daily decisions. comes up to the guy with a sword getting ready to conquer Jericho he's like what's up bro you for us are you against us and the commander of the army says neither God sent this commander to remind Joshua, before I deal with what's in front of you, I'm going to deal with what's inside of you.

29:27 I'm not trying to come to get on your team, but I've come to remind you you're on our team. See, we got to understand that today, the battle is a battle within before it's a battle on the outside. And it's a battle of surrender. And Joshua, before the commander, bowed his face down to the ground and went low. And he said, take off your sandals for the place is holy ground. In other words, right before Joshua steps into victory, God reminds him that it's about surrender before it's about the victory. It's about your life going low and being humbled in the eyes of the lamb before you walk in great victory and great success. Oh, I just want to encourage somebody today. Come on, let's bow low before the Lord. let's surrender our life to God before God wins the external battle come on let him win the internal battle God I am a worshiper I am a follower I am a servant you are God and I am not so Lord here I am It reminds me of another man who was in another moment just like this.

30:35 And before Jesus hung on the cross, he was found in the Garden of Gethsemane. And in the Garden of Gethsemane, he also bows low with his face to the ground. And he says, not my will, but your will be done. And I'm just telling you, if you want to walk in your purpose, you've got to surrender your life to God. If you want to walk in the promised plan, you got to yield all of your dreams, all of your agendas, all of your desires before God and say, it's not that you get on my team, it's that I'm getting on your team. Oh, come on, clap today if you believe that God's got something better than you could ever imagine. Come on, stand to your feet. I'm going to pray over us today that before we start, we stop. Before we walk into breakthrough, we stop and we thank God for all the great things that he's done. Come on, let's pray today. God, we thank you for your grace and we thank you for your favor.

31:28 We thank you for the steadfast love of the Lord. We thank you that we're not consumed by your wrath. Your mercies are new every single day. So we consecrate our life to set our lives apart from the world all for the purposes of God. We bow low and we say, God, it's all about your name. It's all about your kingdom. It's all about your renown. Help me to stop living for me and living for you. I remember all the miracles you've done in my family. I remember all the miracles you've done in my life. And I give you the honor and I give you the praise. Oh, come on, if you believe it today. Come on, give God some praise. Again, thank you for listening to today's message. We pray that today brought you great strength, great encouragement and built up your faith. Don't forget to hit subscribe so you don't miss out.