FBCPS
Sermons, teachings, and podcasts from First Baptist Church in Powder Springs, Georgia.
FBCPS
God's Secret to Your Success | Joshua 1:6-9
What happens when you follow the wrong leader? Pastor Chip opens with a harrowing tale of getting lost in the Canadian wilderness after following his canoe partner Bert down the wrong trail. This misadventure brilliantly illustrates a profound truth: the success of your life depends entirely on the leader you choose to follow.
Drawing from Joshua chapter 1, Pastor Chip reveals three transformative keys to unlock God's success for your life. First, believe God's promises to you. Joshua wasn't exceptional – he was born in slavery, served as an assistant for 40 years, and took leadership at age 80. Yet God used this ordinary man to accomplish extraordinary things because Joshua believed God's promises. "God loves to use ordinary people like me and you," Pastor Chip emphasizes, "so people don't see our greatness; they see His greatness through our averageness."
The second key is receiving God's power through His Word. True biblical success comes from marinating in Scripture until it permeates your entire being. Like warming yourself by a fire on a freezing day, we must stay close to God's Word consistently to experience its transformative power. "We don't want drive-through Christianity," Pastor Chip declares. When we carefully obey Scripture, God gives us wisdom to make fruitful decisions – the essence of genuine success.
Finally, perceive God's presence with you. Using touching stories about his children calling for "Daddy" when afraid of imagined lions or dinosaurs, Pastor Chip illustrates how God's presence transforms our response to life's challenges. The same challenges that paralyze us with fear become conquerable when we recognize Emmanuel – God with us.
Throughout this message, Pastor Chip redefines success according to God's standards: obedience to His Word, following His will, making godly decisions, and allowing Him to open doors. This isn't prosperity gospel; it's biblical prosperity – being in the center of God's purpose for your life.
Ready to experience true success? Fill out a Next Step card today and discover how following Jesus – the ultimate leader – will take you exactly where you need to go.
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Amen. Well, aren't you glad you came to church this morning. Put your hands together one more time. It's just so good to see everybody, all of our first-time guests. Thank you for being here. And man, god is just, he's just with us in a really powerful way. We're so thankful for his hand in our lives, his hand on our church. If you're a first-time guest here, just a little bit about us. We're one church. We meet in two different worship services the 930 and the 11,. Two different worship languages, choir and orchestra our modern worship here, but we are all about one vision. We're all about one thing, one person, and his name is Jesus. Can I get an amen? And that's why we are one church, all together and literally like our mission. What God calls us to do is to worship him together, to get into his word, for us to be in group, together, in relationship with one another, for us to be able to be using our spiritual gifts the Bible talks about as pouring it out or using them in his church so that we can all be on mission in our community together. The church should be the one place where all the community comes together, multi-generational, multi-ethnic, all under one name, the name of Jesus and that's why we do what we do. So thank you for being a part of this.
Speaker 1:I want to ask you a question. You can turn to Joshua chapter one with me right now. Joshua chapter one have you ever followed the wrong leader in your life and it took you where you did not want to go? You ever followed the wrong leader and you ended up where you didn't want to be.
Speaker 1:I remember I was doing a mission trip in Canada many, many years ago and in Canada we were in the Algonquin National Park. It was in my college days. I was with some buddies. We went and took an official trip. We were literally canoeing across these massive lakes. We would portage, which means you take your backpack, you put your canoe on and you portage from lake to lake. Sometimes it was a few hundred feet, sometimes it was a few miles of portaging. We were camping out at night. We saw all the wildlife. It was an unforgettable trip in that Algonquin National Park of Ontario, canada, and I remember it was late in the week and we were tired.
Speaker 1:And my canoe buddy for the day his name was Bert. Everybody say Bert. I just love that name. Bert, right, maybe you grew up with Bert and Ernie, like I did, and his name was Bert and he looked kind of like Bert too, to be honest with you, and I remember he was real tired that day, like Bert was not cut out for this trip, just to be honest with you.
Speaker 1:And so, bert, he had nothing left and he was really slowing me down, just to be honest with you. And so I said, bert, I'll tell you what. I'm going to wear my backpack. I'm going to wear your backpack, I'm going to take the canoe and you just lead us where we're going, right on these portages, to go to the next lake. So we just got off this one lake and I had my backpack, I had his backpack, I put the canoe on my shoulders and I had the nose of the canoe pointing down towards the ground. I said, bert, I'm just going to follow your feet, you just lead me where we're supposed to go. It was only supposed to be a few hundred feet around the corner where we're supposed to just put our canoe back in and go.
Speaker 1:Well, a few minutes went by and he couldn't find it. About 15 minutes went by, he couldn't find it. About 30 minutes went by, couldn't find it. I take off the canoe, I take off the backpacks. I'm like, bert, what have you done? Where have you led us to? We're out in the middle of the Canadian forest. He said, man, we're not there yet, we just gotta keep going.
Speaker 1:I said, well, look, I'm not keeping on going with the backpacks and the canoe, I'm gonna leave it all here. I'm gonna run ahead, I'm gonna go find them. You stay here and I'll come back and get you. So I ran ahead. I probably ran about 30 minutes, probably three, four miles or so, ran out and so realized what was going on, that here I am, I ran for 30 minutes, and I am three to four miles in the middle of a Canadian forest, all by myself, with a bright yellow life jacket, screaming to wild animals around me come and eat me, okay. So there I am, and so I'm like freaking out oh my gosh, I'm all alone.
Speaker 1:So I run back and I'm like I'm gonna go get Bert. We just gotta go back to where we started. So I'll run back to where Bert was and there were the two backpacks and there was the canoe and there was no Bert and Bert I was like he has gotten eaten. He has gotten eaten by the animals, bert, you know he's anyways. So I put him back on, I put the canoe on my shoulders and I go back to where we had first started and there it was. Just a few feet away from where we came off, the lake was a little fork in the road where everybody else was. We had just missed it. It was right off of where we got off the canoe, off the lake.
Speaker 1:And so I go to the people and I'm freaking out. I'm like man, bert got eaten, bert's dead, bert's gone, right. And so I go and I start to tell everybody, we tell everybody, we gotta go, we gotta find Bert. And I look at everybody and there is Bert standing with everybody else and I'm like what are you doing here, right? And he said, oh, he said well, you didn't come back. So I just decided to leave everything here and go back and find everybody else. I said, bert, I thought you died and you're going to die here. We go, right. And I mean, I just remembered I followed the wrong leader and I ended up in the wrong place.
Speaker 1:And this is a biblical principle that I have to remember, that you have to remember, because in life it is so easy to follow the wrong leader in life and we end up in the wrong places. We achieve and accomplish the wrong goals and we don't achieve or accomplish what God has called us to do. And that's why God has given us the book of Joshua. The book of Joshua that we are calling follow the leader. Look at somebody and say, follow the leader, follow the leader. And so it's all about how God is calling his people, the people of Israel, but the people like you and the people like me, calling them out of the wilderness and into the promise that God has for them.
Speaker 1:So, as we study Joshua, chapter one this morning, what I want you to see this morning is I want you to see God's secret for your success. You realize that God, he's a good God, he's a good dad and he loves his kids, he loves you and he wants you to be successful. He wants success for your life. But if we don't understand how to be successful, if we don't understand what success actually is from the word of God, then we will never get to experience the success of God. The success of your life is determined by the leader that you follow. So this morning I wanna give you three keys to unlock God's success for your life. Three keys to unlock God's success for your life.
Speaker 1:Here we go. Number one is believe the promises of God to you. You believe that God has made his children. God has made you if you are saved in Jesus Christ. He has made a promise. He has made promises to you, promises that will make you successful in his life. I will show it to you from his word this morning, starting with Joshua, chapter 1, verse 6.
Speaker 1:Joshua 1 6 says this says Be strong and courageous, for you shall cause this people to inherit the land that I swore to their fathers to give to them. This is God. This is God speaking to Joshua. Joshua is this new leader in this new generation of Israelites, of God's people, and often we get God's leaders wrong in the Bible. Often we think I could never be like them, I could never do what they did.
Speaker 1:But the issue is is that Joshua was no different from you or than me? Joshua is some average ordinary Joe Schmo in life, but yet it was. Joshua was just simply someone that God called to do someone, something great in him and through him. He's not a superhero, he's an average Joe. You realize that Joshua was born as an Israelite in Egyptian slavery, but he did not let that stop him.
Speaker 1:You realize that, joshua, his position, he was Moses' assistant for 40 years, but he did not let his position of being just an assistant stop him. You realize that, joshua, he was one of the spies that went and checked out the promised land, canaan, and what he saw with his eyes was impossible for the children of Israel to go in and conquer. But he didn't look with his physical eyes, he looked with his spiritual eyes and he was one of two spies that came back with a positive report saying yeah, they're big, yeah, they're strong, yeah, there's a lot of them, but we have God on our side and we can take them. He didn't let his physical sight stop him. Do you realize that Joshua took over for Moses when Joshua was 80 years old. He was 80 years old at this point where God is calling him to lead his people, but he did not let his age stop him.
Speaker 1:God had called a king Josiah at the age of eight. God is calling Joshua at the age of 80, which means God's will has no age on it. If you're not dead, god's not done with you, no matter what your age is, no matter how old you are, no matter how young you are. God has got a will. God's got a plan for your life that he alone is going to accomplish through you. Can I get an amen? So the question is, what are you letting stop you from accomplishing God's will through you? What are you letting stop you to accomplish God's will through you? Joshua wasn't a special man. He was just a man filled with God's spirit. And how do you get filled with God's spirit? You don't have to be special, you just have to be surrendered.
Speaker 1:Joshua's name meant salvation. Actually, joshua's name, his Hebrew name, is the same Hebrew name for Jesus. You realize that you have a name. If you believed in Jesus, if you've given your life to Jesus, you have a name, a nickname, a title, a position, and that is Christian. You know what Christian means? It means little Christ. It means that Jesus is in your life and Jesus is leading your life and Jesus is guiding your life, and the call on your life is to follow the leader, who is Jesus Christ. Here's why Because God loves to use ordinary people like me and like you, god loves to use average people to accomplish great things, so that people don't see our greatness. People sees his greatness through our averageness. You know what I'm saying. God loves to use people like us. So Joshua is this new leader of this new generation of God's people. And make no mistake, god is doing something very special here in our church, in our midst, in the next generation. It's actually very remarkable, it's miraculous, what God was doing.
Speaker 1:We just had KVX KidVenture Extreme, which is our vacation Bible school. In this past week we got to experience six salvations. Six kids gave their life to Jesus. Two more want to be baptized. We had 130 different volunteers involved, 238 total kids involved and all those kids raised over $2,000 for our Uganda mission trip. Put your hands together for what God did just this past week. Now here's what makes it so awesome. 7% growth is healthy church growth, but this past week, from last year, we were 27% up. In our KVX week from last year, 49 are going to our student camp. This year that's 58% more. And just a couple of weeks ago we had a young adult worship night and we had 44 young adults at that worship night. We are seeing God work and move in the next generation. Put your hands together one more time. God loves it when we have a church full of great-grandparents, grandparents, parents, kids, grandkids and great-grandkids. God is glorified in all of the generations, just like he's glorified in all of the ethnicities, all of the nationalities.
Speaker 1:So here's what we see in Joshua, chapter 1, verse 6. God told Joshua be strong and courageous. Be strong and courageous. And God is telling you this morning that you need strength and courage, but not your strength and courage. God isn't calling you to dig deep, to be stronger and more courageous. God is saying to believe his promises on you and for you and to you, which gives you his strength and his courage.
Speaker 1:What does strength mean? Strength is the Hebrew word kazakh, and it means to take hold, to grasp. In other words, what is it that God has put in your life that requires his strength? That you must take hold of it and you must grasp. God, this is what you have for me, god, this is what you've called me to do. God, this is what you've called me to accomplish. God, this is what you've called me to do. God, this is what you've called me to accomplish. God, this is what you've called me to achieve. God, I need your strength or courage.
Speaker 1:Courage is the Hebrew word amets. Amets means that you are determined. Even when you are challenged. You're determined even when you're challenged, meaning that God called Joshua to something greater than him, and God calls you to things greater than you, not to show you what you can accomplish, but to show you what he can accomplish in you and through you. And what was it that he was calling them to accomplish? Be strong and courageous, for you shall cause this people to inherit the land that I swore to their fathers to give them. What was he calling them to accomplish? That they were going into the promised land that God had promised them 500 years prior, but the promised land was filled with all these other nations, and God is saying go in, and I want you to conquer, I want you to take the land, and that is going to require God's strength and courage. Now let me catch you up for a second, because one of my favorite things to do as a pastor and a preacher is just to preach through the entire Bible.
Speaker 1:In 2024, january 24, last year the very first part of the year we started in the book of Genesis, and in the book of Genesis we talked about the beginning and we talked about how God was promising Abraham a land and a people and a blessing in their life. So God is promising him this land. In Exodus we see how the people of God became slaves in another land, in the land of Egypt, how God delivered them out of slavery and they were on their exodus through the wilderness and they were going to the promised land that he was giving them In Leviticus. The book of Leviticus was all about being set apart, being holy, or, in other words, once you get to the land, this is how you're called to live.
Speaker 1:In Numbers we talked about how to be breaking free from sin. They were wandering through the wilderness for 40 years, not because they couldn't find their way, but because they kept sinning and they weren't ready for the land that God was bringing them to. And then we saw in Deuteronomy late last year that they were called to stop right before they got to the land on the other side of the Jordan River, where God said I wanna stop and I wanna remind you how you're supposed to live when you go in, because God is saying I've got promises for you, you realize that God has promises for your life and your promises that he has for you are the very same promises that he had for them. Those three promises he had for them were blessing and people and land, what God had promised Abraham. He said look, I'm going to bless you and your family is going to become a nation and your nation is going to be a blessing to the rest of the world. And what is that blessing? That blessing is that Abraham and his family had a relationship with God if they believed in him. And he's saying I want you and your family to become this great nation so you can be a light to all the other nations. Why Hear me, so all the other nations could have a relationship with God too.
Speaker 1:God is blessing you in the same way. You understand the greatest blessing in your life is not how much money God can give you, is not how much happiness God can give you, is not how much comfort God can give you, is not how close in your seats that God can give you on your season tickets, is not how much family God can give you. God's blessing on you. Ultimately, the greatest blessing is his relationship with you, that you get God in your life. And then he blesses us with people. He blesses us with people and that people that God is. He says he's blessing us is actually look around, is with each other that we are brothers and sisters in Christ. We are all part of the same church. Together we get to do life in ministry, in mission, in worship, in community, together.
Speaker 1:That God is saying I'm going to give you blessing, I'm going to give you me, I'm going to give you people, I'm going to give you each other. And he says I'm going to give you a land. And what is the land that God has given us? A land? And what is the land that God has given us? Our surrounding communities, as they were called to go in and to conquer the land, because that's the land that God had given them. We're not called to go in and conquer. We're called to go in and serve. We're called to go in and love. We're called to go in and share the gospel of Jesus Christ. We're called to go in and love. We're called to go in and share the gospel of Jesus Christ. We're called to go in and speak the name of Jesus. God has given us a promise that defines our success.
Speaker 1:This week, michelle and I, we get to experience, get to celebrate our 11th wedding anniversary and we're just so thankful, right? I'm so thankful for my wife, I'm so thankful for our kids that he's given us. And I was just reminded this week of the vows that we said to one another and we wrote our own vows, and this is a part of the vows that we said to one another. Babe, I just want to say this to you publicly here on year 11, this is the last part of our vows that I vow to live my life following Jesus. I vow to love you as my wife, like Jesus. I vow to lead you spiritually toward Jesus and I vow to love you as long as we both shall live for Jesus. I love you and I continue to vow my life to you, and that's exactly what Jesus has listened to me, what he's done to you, what he's done for you, his vow to you is his promise to you over your life.
Speaker 1:You want to unlock the key of God's success for you. It starts with believing the promises of God to you. Next is receive the power of God for you. Everyone say power. Receive the power of God for you. It says in verse seven.
Speaker 1:God tells Joshua again only be strong. A second time now that he's telling him this Repeats the same words only be strong A second time. Now that he's telling him. This Repeats the same words Only be strong and very courageous, being careful to do according to all that the law of Moses, my servant, commanded you. So he's commanding him again Be strong and courageous. Be strong and courageous to do what we would think. Be strong and courageous to fight no. Be strong and courageous to fight no. Be strong and courageous to lead no. Be strong and courageous to stand no, he says. I want you to be strong and courageous. He tells him the one thing that takes the most strength and the most courage in this life be strong and courageous to be careful to do all that the word of God tells you to do. Because you know as well as I do we live in a dark, depraved, sinful world who do not love, who do not honor and who do not desire the word of God. And it takes strength and courage of God on your life to be careful to do all that the word of God tells you to do, not what the world tells you to do. Can I get an amen? It takes strength and courage to be a Bible-believing, gospel-living, jesus-worshiping Christian. It takes strength and courage to be a Bible-believing, gospel-living, jesus-worshiping church.
Speaker 1:God told Joshua, and I don't want you to turn from my word to the right hand or to the left, that you may have good success wherever you go. He's saying don't divert from my word, don't drift from my word, don't redirect from my word, no matter what you experience, if you experience fear, if you experience pressure, if you experience temptation, if you experience comfort, if you experience culture coming up against you, he's saying do not turn from my word, because if you don't, if you continue to carefully do, to obey, to honor my word, he says that you will have good success wherever you go. What does success mean? Success is the word sakal, which means God's wisdom to make fruitful decisions. Here's what success really means. It means that God fills you with his Holy Spirit so that you get the wisdom of God, so that you know what to do in any circumstance or any situation, according to the word of God and according to the will of God. That is true success. The word of God and according to the will of God. That is true success.
Speaker 1:What I need you to understand this morning is God is not redefining success here. God defined success thousands of years ago. The world is who falsely redefines success. Rather, what we're doing is we are rediscovering what real, what true, what godly success looks like. Because here's what he says.
Speaker 1:If we go back in verse 7, verse 8, it says the book of the law shall not depart from your mouth. So what do we do with the law? What do we do with the word of God? This is what we're talking about is the scriptures? Notice, it's so interesting to me, he doesn't say so that the word of God should not depart from your lap. He didn't say so. The word of God should not depart from your study. He didn't even say so. The word of God should not depart from your heart.
Speaker 1:Now, all of those are very important that you study the word of God, that you read the word of God, that you memorize the word of God. But here's what he's saying. The point is this so that you are speaking the word of God, do you study the word of God in such of a way that it becomes your very vocabulary? Do you study the word of God in such of a way so that it changes your conversation? He says if you want to be successful, then the book of the law, the scripture, should not depart from your mouth, but you should meditate on it day and night so that you can be careful to do all that is written in it, to meditate on it. I've heard meditation compared to like being freezing cold and walking up to a warm fire to be warmed by the fire, and I've heard people say what you're not gonna do if you're freezing cold is to walk up to the fire for a second and walk away, because it will do you no good. No, rather, if you're freezing cold, you walk up to the fire, you get as close to the fire as you can and you stay at the fire as long as you can so that it warms your body, and that's what we're called to do with the word of God.
Speaker 1:I've heard about meditation compared to like marinating a steak. Some of you men need to hold on. Right now. You're gonna get a steak for Father's Day. It's coming. It's coming and there's something about like you just put a plain steak on the grill. It don't matter how good you cook it If you don't marinate it, if you don't add those spices, if you don't add that seasoning, it's just kind of bland, it's kind of plain. But every dude's got their private, personal secret marinade right your secret spices, your secret seasonings. You know how you like your steak and there's something about when you marinate that steak and that marinade and all that flavor seeps into that steak and it becomes a part of that meat. So when you put it on the grill it's not all pouring out. So when you put your teeth into it, man, you can taste all of that flavor because it's within the steak.
Speaker 1:In the same way, we are called to marinate in the Word of God. Can I get an amen? We are called to allow the Word of God to sink deeply within us, because we don't want some drive-through Christianity, like we don't want some drive-through steak. We want to make sure that we are marinating in the Word of God. We want to sit in the Word of God, we want to soak in the Word of God. We want the Word of God to pour into us so that the Word of God will pour out from us in the way that we live our life for the Lord. Can I get an amen? So that's what he says. He says when you do that, you will be successful. And here's what's fascinating, he says and when you do that, you realize the Bible is telling you, you will be prosperous.
Speaker 1:What is God's secret to your success. It's the word of God. He says, and when you are doing the word of God, careful to do it. Not only will you be successful, not only will he give you your wisdom for decision making, but he'll give you prosperity, which means this that God is the one who's advancing you. That God is the one who's opening doors for you. You don't want to advance yourself, you don't want to open doors for yourself. Jesus said seek first my kingdom, and all of these things will be added to you. You want the will of God for you. You don't want your plans. You don't want your agenda. You don't want your dreams, you don't want your hopes, because you sell yourself short. God is a bigger God than you are a person, and he's got bigger dreams for your life than you have for yourself. Can I get an amen? Let God be the one who makes you prosperous, because that is what real, true prosperity is. So what is success? Godly success, real success, true success is when you obey God's word. True success is when you follow God's will. True success is when you're able to make godly decisions. True success is when God is the one who opens the door for you.
Speaker 1:And number three, and finally, not only are we believing the promises of God, are we receiving the power of God, but, thirdly, when you are perceiving the presence of God with you. This is what God told Joshua three times in a row be strong and courageous, be strong and courageous. Be strong and courageous. Why, I wonder, if Joshua struggled with fear and anxiety? I had three meetings this week with three different people, three people, and all three of them told me something very similar. They said Pastor Chip, I struggle with stress. Pastor Chip, I struggle with fear. Pastor Chip, I struggle with anxiety. Pastor Chip, I struggle with doubt. Can I just say right now, if that's you is, I believe that represents so many of us here today.
Speaker 1:I believe that fear, anxiety and doubt and stress is a common weapon of the evil, one today that Satan is using against us to experience the success of God in your life. I think that Satan, uniquely in our season, he's using anxiety as a weapon. In fact, what God tells Joshua, he says look, I don't want you to be frightened and I don't want you to be dismayed. To be frightened the Hebrew word aratz means to be physically shaken or paralyzed by fear. It is a physical fear, but dismayed. Dismayed means to be mentally shattered or emotionally broken.
Speaker 1:So here's what God is telling Joshua I know you, I know your weaknesses, I know your struggles, I know what you're going through. I know your weaknesses, I know your struggles. I know what you're going through, I know what you feel, I know what you think, I know what you battle, and God's not letting him off the hook, just like he's not letting you off the hook. He's not taking it easy on him, like God's not gonna take it easy on you, because that's not what I need and that's not what you need. Rather, here's what God is saying I don't want you to fear and I don't want you to be dismayed. He says because I am with you, the Lord, your God, is with you wherever you go. Here's what God is telling Joshua I have something bigger for you than you could ever dream for yourself In your 80s. I want you to take over for one of my greatest servants, moses, and I want you to lead two to three million Israelites, my people, out of a wilderness into a land that I promised them some 500 years ago. And you don't have anything coming out of this wilderness for 40 years. And you're gonna go in and you're gonna fight and you're gonna battle and you're gonna conquer and you're gonna win and you're gonna secure this land, because I'm the one that promised it to you, I'm the one that's given it to you. And so just watch what I can do through you. And here's the difference. The difference is that God said I am present with you.
Speaker 1:There are nights that our little six-year-old girl, brooklyn, she, sees a lion, a lion in her room. Some lion just keeps visiting her room, revisiting her room all the time, right, and she tells us about it kind of during the day and it's just a part of her dreams, it's a part of her psyche going on. And so in the middle of the night we'll just hear her scream, but she doesn't scream lion, lion, because we'd probably all go run lion, that's not what she screams. She screams daddy, daddy, daddy, daddy and I run in and everything's okay Because when Daddy is with her she is safe.
Speaker 1:Our little boy, cruz, two and a half years old you've heard me tell it a little bit before he loves some dinosaurs. He calls them Dino-roars, dino-roars, which I think is very appropriate. He's just a lot smarter than we are Dino-roars, dino-roars, which I think is very appropriate. He's just a lot smarter than we are Dino-roars. And there have been nights that he has run into the room where I am and he says Daddy, dino-roar, he's out of breath, dino-roar, dino-roar. And he's pointing at another. He saw a shadow, he thinks it's a dinosaur, he's terrified, he's dismayed. Right, he's shattered, he's broken, he's scared, he's frightened. And so I'll take him with me and he'll go with me and I'll show him. It's a shadow, it scares him to death. There are some days you've heard me tell that I'll take him on a hike Lost Mountain Trails and he thinks it's a dinosaur hunt and he will call out Donnarore, I'm coming, donnarore, where are you? What's the difference in a terrified little boy and a fearless dinosaur hunter, daddy? What's the difference for you Is that your heavenly father is with you through his son, jesus Christ, in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Speaker 1:I don't know what God is calling you to. I don't know what you're going through, but here's what I can tell you Be strong, be courageous To do all that the word of God is telling you to do, because God wants you to experience good success in his prosperity. That is found in his word, that is according to his will for your life, and so I encourage you to get in the word of God so that his strength and courage gets into you to accomplish what God has called you to. Can I ask us all to bow our heads and close our eyes? With every head bowed and every eye closed, I just wanna encourage you right now just to be thinking about, be praying about, even be asking God.
Speaker 1:God, what is it, what is it that you have for me? You can tell God right now. God, I believe your promises. God, I receive your power. God, I perceive your presence. God, just show me your will. God, just show me what you want, and you can just tell him. God, and I will obey you, I will follow you. You are my leader, I will follow you.
Speaker 1:Maybe you're here this morning and you can't do that because you haven't given your life to him yet. It all starts with salvation. It all starts when you believe in Jesus. It all starts when you make him the Lord of your life. So if you've never done that, then right here, right now, I just wanna encourage you this morning to give your life to Jesus, and I can't do that for you, but I can help you pray that to God and help you give your life to Jesus.
Speaker 1:Today, you can pray something like this to him right now you can say dear God, I love you, god, I love you God, I need you, god, I believe in you. And you can say God, I believe in Jesus, your son, from your own heart and your own words. You can tell him God, I believe that Jesus died on the cross for my sins and I ask you to forgive me all of my sin, my past, my present, my future sin. And you can tell them to say God, I believe that Jesus rose from the dead, he's alive, he's real. So, god, I call on him to be the Lord of my life because I want to follow him with my life.
Speaker 1:And the Bible says that if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe with your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. God, we believe that. We thank you for that truth. I thank you for every person that prayed that this morning. And God, thank you that you are a God who continues to save people today for eternity. We love you in Jesus' name.
Speaker 1:And all God's people said would you put your hands together right now for anybody that gave their life to Jesus. We just wanna say welcome to the family. We're so thankful for what God led you to do today, and there is a next step card in front of you and I wanna encourage you. If your decision this morning is salvation, or maybe you need to strengthen the courage to be baptized, maybe you need to strengthen the courage to be baptized, maybe you need to strengthen the courage to join a group or to serve in one of our ministry teams, or to live your life on mission or just to come to our Next Step Lunch and learn more about what God is doing in our church, what God wants to do in your life. You indicate that you can turn it into our Next Step Station right outside in our lobby, and we would love to just walk alongside you in your journey with Jesus.
Speaker 1:Can we all stand up right now, as this whole series is called Follow the Leader. Our leader is Jesus. I just want to encourage you. This morning we're going to worship the leader. We're going to worship our Lord, jesus Christ. He's the one that is leading you to your promised land, the land of heaven. So let's worship him right now with all your heart, with all your spirit. Give him all the praise, because he's the one that's given you good success in your life. Let's worship Jesus.