In Joshua 3:1, the message centers on step into the water before the path opens. Explore Joshua 3 and discover how faith often requires stepping forward before the path opens, trusting God as He leads into unfamiliar territory. Rather than treating the passage as abstract theology, the sermon traces what these truths reveal about God, the gospel, and the way followers of Jesus are called to live.
The sermon follows the biblical text into practical discipleship, connecting doctrine with identity, character, and daily obedience. It challenges listeners to examine the assumptions shaping their lives and to allow the truth of Scripture to renew the way they think and respond. The emphasis is not merely on understanding the passage, but on becoming the kind of people whose lives are formed by it.
Along the way, the message engages themes including Joshua 3:1, step into the water before the path opens, before, need. These ideas help place the primary passage within the larger story of Scripture and show how its theology speaks to real spiritual formation. At its heart, the sermon helps answer questions such as: What does Joshua 3:1 teach about step into the water before the path opens? It also considers how should step into the water before the path opens shape the way Christians live?
For someone studying this passage, exploring the Christian faith, or looking for practical biblical teaching, this sermon offers a clear path from the text to everyday discipleship. The invitation is to hear what Scripture says, receive it with humility, and take the next faithful step in following Jesus.
What does Joshua 3:1 teach about step into the water before the path opens? | How should step into the water before the path opens shape the way Christians live? | How can believers apply Joshua 3:1 in everyday life?
Joshua 3:1, step into the water before the path opens
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It's just been so heavy on my heart because the Lord wants to do something so amazing here and he's preparing us for what's to come and uh all I think I was crying like all day yesterday uh because of what's in this text. And so can we can we just enter in? Can I pray for you before we get into this word because I I just believe that that that God is going to move your heart to a place you've never been to before. Father, we love you. We thank you for your presence here in this place. Would you prepare our hearts? Would you purify our motives today? Would you bring us into a place where we can hear clearly from you, Holy Spirit? Would your kindness lead us to repentance? And would would you call us higher? Would you call us to live worthy of the gospel every single day? Lord, let this word speak volumes to us. Not not hurt us or or beat us down, but lift us up to a place where we say, "God, I want everything you have for me." In Jesus name we pray. Amen. >> Amen. >> Come on. It's going to be it's going to be kind of a prophetic day um in in in my opinion because God sees you today. God sees where you're at. The promise promises that he has for you and for your family are real. and powerful to our faith. And I and I really want to challenge everyone here in this room today like I've been challenged uh in studying this and and some of it's going to feel a little bit familiar um because we I am going to talk about consecration a little bit more um but the Holy Spirit is here today and I just wanted to speak to you. All right. Joshua 3:1 it says, "Then Joshua rose early in the morning and set out forim." I said it the right way. Okay, I'm just saying that again. That is how you pronounce it. I looked it up. Uh, and they came to the Jordan and he had all the people of Israel and he lodged there before they passed over. So, just giving you the setup, okay, the 40 40 years in the desert, the whole generation of Israelites that were fearful and didn't get to go into the promised land, they're all dead. They're all gone. But Joshua remains. Joshua is now the Moses, the leader of of of the people of Israel. and they're about to cross into the Jordan or or into uh into the promised land, but they have to cross over the river of Jordan, the Jordan River there. And so, this is really cool because I I I just love it's almost like a formula for us that he rose early in the morning. It's it's it's hard to replace a a morning meeting with the Lord. When we create time, we create space for him. It allows him to speak to us and guide us. And then it's really interesting. It goes into here and it says that he lodged there before they passed over. They stopped at the edge of the promise and they rested before they crossed over the river. Sometimes God will have you in a season of lodging and rest. A season of rest before he does something new in your life. Right, church? >> And that's okay. It's okay to be in a place of rest. It's okay to be a pl in a place of preparation for what's to come. Sometimes we get too excited and we rush into the thing because we go, I can I can see it on the other side there. Like I'm ready. I'm ready to step into it. But God calls us to rest. I mean, if you want to get real real Old Testament, like there's there's a Sabbath. Sabbath was was created for man, yes, but man was even more so created for the Sabbath to be able to rest and spend time with the Lord. If we're just going, going, going constantly, we're going to get exhausted and we're going to get burned out. But again, this is a season of consecration. This is a season of being set apart for God's glory. God is doing something in you, in the resting, and in the waiting before he does something through you. Amen, church. And I and I feel today like as a church, as a people, even in my own family, in my personal life, I feel like I'm just on the edge of the Jordan River. I feel like we're just on the edge of crossing into something that that is bigger and greater than we ever could have imagined. And I and I don't just believe it for this church. I believe it for you and your family. You are just on the edge right now of stepping into something beautiful and powerful and amazing. There's this is stirring in my spirit. And this is really why I wanted to study Joshua because when we're in transitional seasons and periods, this is a beautiful formula for us to follow before we step into the promise. Like I I I can see the promise for our church, for our families to walk in the fullness of God. The fullness of God. Not just what we're excited and passionate about, but everything that God has for us. that we would know the the height, the depth, the length, and the width of his love for us, that we could experience him, that we could truly begin to walk and live worthy of the gospel. Like my my this is where my heart has been at for for the last nine months in this whole transition that we would be a church that lives axios, that lives worthy of the calling, worthy of repentance, and worthy of the gospel. that we would walk in ALL THAT HE HAS FOR US, that we wouldn't settle for the crumbs, that we wouldn't settle for religion, that we wouldn't settle for what every other church may be pursuing or after. God, we just want the fullness. We want everything that you have for us. And I can see it. I can see it not just for the church. I can see it for Franklin, Tennessee. I can see it for you today. And it it's right there. But again, it's beautiful because even though I can see it, I'm not rushing into it because God is preparing. We're resting. We're lodging. We're consecrating. We're getting ready and set apart to step into this. Our kids are having so much fun back there. It's awesome. Verse three. We're waiting for the signal here. So Joshua, he commanded the people. He said this, "As soon as you see the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God being carried by the Levitical priest, then you shall set out from your place and follow it. Yet there shall be a distance, look at this, there shall be a distance between you and it about 2,000 cubits in length. Do not come near it in order that you may know the way you shall go. For you have not passed this way before, church, where we're going, where you're going in your life, you have not been there before. And the Lord is leading you to that place. And what I love about this verse again, it just it paints this this picture of don't move until you see God move. >> Don't don't step into the waters. Don't step into the river until you see the Lord go before you. And and it even even hits me with this of like I'm not trying to rush ahead of God. There's that distance that they needed to keep when crossing the river. And I don't know about you, but I get excited when God begins to move and I just want to take off. I just want to run. I just want to step into the thing that I'm that that that moves my heart that I'm passionate about. But he says, "Don't rush. Let God go before you because he's the one that's preparing the way. Don't leave until you see God leave. Don't take a step until you see God take a step. Don't get in front of God. He has a pace that he's going at. And if God isn't in it, I don't want to be in it. If God hasn't gone before us, I don't want to rush God. There's this holy fear of the Lord of God, I don't want to do anything without you. That's holy fear. >> It's not God, I'm afraid of you. No, it's God, I'm afraid of being without you. >> Really quickly, the the ark of the covenant, we can throw this photo up here. This is the ark of the covenant. And they're they're holding this. They got they there's a little spot for the poles. This is where the presence of God would dwell. Now, the beautiful thing for us is when Jesus died on the cross, the veil was torn. And now we all have access to his presence. But in that day and age, Oh, yeah. Indiana Jones definitely had the Yeah, he found the ark, guys. Yeah. Yeah. Um, can you imagine Indiana Jones just walking into the Jordan River with the Ark of the Covenant? Be awesome. Um, but they're carrying this and this is where the presence of God dwells at this time. But here's what I love. He dwells in every single one of you today. >> Amen. Look at this. When we know that God is ahead of us, we keep our distance because he's leading us into places that we've never been to before. It doesn't mean like, oh, I can't be close to God. It's like, no, no, no, no. He's leading and he's guiding. And I don't ever want to step in front of him or try to kick down a door that God doesn't want me to open. So, make sure that God goes before you in whatever you're about to to step into. Before I can possess the promise, I got to make sure that the presence of God goes before me. And then Joshua said to the people in verse 5, "Consecrate yourselves for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you. And I'm believing that your time is coming. >> I'm believing that my time I'm believing our our time is coming for us as a church to be a witness to the wonders of the Lord. >> I mean, we're already seeing it. Like it's it's like stirring within us. Like it was so beautiful during worship. Like I I want to clap back at Hannah for a second. Like I was in the front like preparing to come up and close and I'm just like the spirit of God fell in the room and she begins to pray and I'm just like I don't have to do anything because God has anointed our people. Yes. Amen. >> There are people in this church that are prophetic and move in power and they hear from the Lord. And and I I said this to someone earlier today. Don't disqualify yourself from being used of God. >> You don't need a platform. You don't need a microphone. You don't you don't need any of it. Let God use you because he's going to do wonders within your life. But the key in this is if you want him to do wonders in your life, you have to consecrate yourself. We have to be set apart in our our walk. Joshua said to the priests, "Take up the ark of the covenant and pass on before the people." So, they took up the ark of the covenant. They went before the people again on on the poles. They're carrying this. The water was actually really high. I've been to the Jordan River before. Like you you take 10 steps in and it's it's above your head. It's it's deep. It's wide. And and many times the current moves very quickly in different places. That's probably why I don't want to get baptized there because I feel like I'm going to get I'm going to float away. But again, they're thinking about all these things like how are we going to carry this ark into the river? How are we going to carry this in and and the current not push us away? Again, here's what's cool. The river is in front of you, but you don't always realize how God is going to make a way. Like like Old Testament, he parts the water. New Testament, Jesus walks on the water. And this is what I love. We serve a creative God. >> He's going to make ways for you and your life that are creative, that are different than what you're expecting. And we and we we it's so much fun to serve a creative God like this because I just get to be in awe and wonder of look what he's doing. This is awesome. Here we go. But the Lord said to Joshua, "Today I will begin to exalt you in the sight of Israel that they may know that I, as I was with Moses, so I will be with you." This is powerful. There's this pattern of generational blessing passing from one to the next. It's found all throughout scripture. There's so many examples of this. God's favor and blessing being passed from one faithful generation to the next. And I love this in Joel 2 that our sons and daughters shall prophesy. Old men will dream dreams and young men will see visions. I'm believing that for us today as a church that just as you have been faithful, that faithfulness will be passed down to the next generation again and again. Verse 8, Joshua 3. And as for you, command the priests who bear the ark of the covenant, when you come to the brink of the waters of the Jordan, you shall stand still in the Jordan. Again, the water was very high at that time. They're having to think through all these things. And he said to the people of Israel, "Come here and listen to the words of the Lord." And Joshua said, "Here is how you shall know that the living God is among you, and that he will without fail drive out from before you the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Hivites, the Perizzites, the Gegosites, the Amorites, and the Jebusites. Behold, the ark of the covenant, and the Lord of all the earth is passing before you into the Jordan. Now, therefore, take 12 men from the 12 tribes of Israel, each tribe, a man. I love that there's 12 tribes and there's 12 disciples. Sorry, that's just a fun foreshadowing there. Verse 13. Come on, somebody. When the souls of the feet of the priests bearing the ark of the Lord, the Lord of all the earth shall rest in the waters of the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan shall be cut off from flowing, and the waters coming down from above shall stand in one heap. Remember, they came into the desert when the Red Sea crossed. And now he's going to do do it again and cross into the promise. Verse 14. So when the people set out from their tents to pass over the Jordan with the priests bearing the ark of the covenant before the people, and as soon as those bearing the ark had come as far as the Jordan, and the feet of the priests bearing the ark were dipped in the brink of the water. Again, now the Jordan overflows all its banks throughout the time of the harvest. This is like high tide season. The waters coming down from above stood and rose up in a heap very far away at Adam, the city that is beside Zerathan. And those following down toward the sea of Araba, the salt sea, were completely cut off and the people passed over opposite Jericho. This is so good. Like what what a great visual for us that as soon as the presence of God goes before you and touches the waters that you're wanting to to cross or the chaos in your life and the uncertainty and all these things, as soon as the presence of God touches it, the waters part. >> And I want to declare this over your life today. Can I can I just like can I pray and prophesy over you? I declare in your life today that nothing will go against the current in your life. I declare that it will stop in Jesus name. >> I declare that every river that God has called you to cross will cease and part in Jesus' name. I pray right now that every mountain that the Lord has called you to conquer will be yours in Jesus name. that every battle that you face, whether it's in your mind, in your spirit, in your heart, in your soul, will be won in Jesus' name. That the blood of Jesus would cover your life today. I declare all this in Jesus name. Now the priest bearing the ark of the covenant of the Lord stood firmly on the ground in the midst of the Jordan and all Israel was passing over on dry ground until all the nation finished passing over the Jordan. They stood firmly on the ground. The presence of God went before the people. They stood in the middle of the river and hundreds of thousands of people. Some scholars say maybe a million people crossed over the Jordan. Every single one of them. An entire nation was moved into the promise of God. Can we can we just like pray that for our nation for a second? >> Amen. >> Like I don't know if you saw the news, but there was another assassination attempt last night. >> Can we pray for our nation today? That we would cross over into the promise that he has for us. that we would pray whether you like him or not. Pray for your president. >> Pray for the leadership. Pray for the the senators, the governors. There's so many things that are that are shifting in the natural, but God is moving in the supernatural today. >> I want to get this this image, this story, 17 verses stuck in your head today. Visualize it today. If you're taking notes, I believe there's there's four areas that [snorts] we serve God in these in these different dimensions of our life. The first one, number one, Christ is the head. Joshua submits to the leadership of God's voice constantly. Like Joshua was in charge, but Joshua was not in control. Hear that? You may be in charge of your life or in charge of your family, but how many you know you're not in control? >> As the pastor, I'm in charge, but I am not in control. God is in control. This church belongs to God. Christ is the head of the church. And we are the hands and feet of Christ, but he is the head of this church. [snorts] I may be responsible. You may be responsible. I'm in charge. But the spirit is in control. Christ needs to be in control. Spiritual leadership begins with divine direction. If Christ is not the head of your life, it's hard to fight without a head. It's hard to fight blindfolded today. And I don't want you to live your life in such chaos and craziness that you don't submit to the lordship of Jesus Christ. And that [snorts] there's one thing that I want to be said about my life is that I was not the head of my life, but instead that Christ is the head. I want to go where he says to go. When he says pray, I want to pray. When he says fast, I want to fast. I want to follow his leading. When he says grow where you're planted, steward the space that God has given you. I want to be faithful. >> When he says go, I'm I'm releasing you into this hour. I I want to pick up and I want to go. I want to I want to do everything that he's calling me to do. And and the problem I would say with the with the western church, like my gosh, I feel like one of those pastors right now um on on TikTok, we have so many of celebrity style leaders. We have this mindset. We put pastors up on this pedestal above everybody else as they're the only people that can hear from God. I said it earlier. There are some prophets in this room that are hearing clearly and being and downloading from the Lord. Be active in it. Move in it today, church. The pastor is not the head of the church. You're not the head of your life or your family. We need to be making Christ the head. that if we're not careful, if I'm if I'm the only decision maker here in this church and there's not a seat at the table for the Holy Spirit or for elders and leaders and people of God, there's not a seat at the table for the word to guide us. We're just doing what we want to do and not what God wants us to do. If we don't allow the Holy Spirit to speak to us, we're just living as chickens with our heads cut off running around in circles. I love this. Colossians 1:18. He is the head of the body, the church. Speak again, speaking of Jesus. Sorry, my notes are all funny. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeeminent. I love this word preeminent. Everybody say preeminent. >> Preeminent. >> It's the Greek word protos. It means first. That we would make Christ first, the first seat preceding all others. And so my prayer today for for us as a as a church is that every small group, every kids class, I I my prayer is that the presence of Christ is preeminent. That it's first. That he's the head of the church. That he's the head of every coffee meeting and every gathering when we gather together as a church. Bible says where two or three are gathered, there he is in our midst. And so God, we make you the head of our lives. [snorts] And you may notice this, but our team and leadership has been very calculated about our worship and and I love our worship team. >> They're an incredible incredible God. I mean, my goodness, I could cry. >> The anointing that is upon their lives. [snorts] But we've made it. We've made many decisions as a team to only choose songs that are worshiping God. >> Amen. >> I'm not trying to knock, you know, CCM radio or anything like that, but there's a lot of worship songs that are all about me, me, me, me, me, me, right? But we've made it a a purpose and and a goal of making our worship vertical, making it about Christ being the head of our lives and and him being the one that we lift up in prayer and praise and worship. Not Lord, woe is me or this is all about me or come fill me up, come fill me up. We sing songs like that here and and again, but if we're not worshiping God and we're just here to catch a vibe, if we're just here to feel good about ourselves, what are we doing? >> We're here to worship him. We're here to lift him up. If if we're if we're coming to pray, our prayer shouldn't just be, "Oh Lord, would you do it for me?" Our prayer needs to be, "God, would you do it for someone? >> Would you would you move in our nation? Would you move in our church? Would you move in this city? Lord, I I I I want to challenge you today. If you if your prayers can stop being so much about yourself, the Lord will meet you in in greater ways than you ever could have imagined. Like I I I spent I won't tell you how long, a lot of time yesterday praying for this moment. Praying for everyone that is here. Many of you I called out by name. And even if you're new here today, I I didn't call out your name. I didn't know your name. I'm not that prophetic. But I prayed that the Lord would come and meet you today. And I'll tell you what, the the greatest moments of encounter in my life have rarely been when I've been praying for myself. It's when my heart is so for others. It's so for the Lord. It's so for him moving in other people's lives and in other places. That's when the Lord the spirit comes quickly to me because my motives are not for myself. And so I just pray for you today. God, would you purify our motives? Would we can we truly make you preeminent in our lives that our prayers and our our worship would truly be about you and not trying to feel good about ourselves? Because it's honestly in those moments where he fills me to overflow because my motives aren't for myself. And he says, I'm going to fill you up because of where your heart is. Again, instead of let me receive from God, we need to shift to a place where we say, let me bring a sacrifice and offering of worship to God today. And this I think this is really powerful because when God is in control and when he is first, he invites us into moments of discomfort. Yes. Sacrifice. Yes. Less of me, more of him. But but again, I want to challenge you today. Many times we let our passions lead us to places that God never meant for us to go. Our impatience with God, our impatience with the situation can move us many times because we're excited. And here's the thing. I want to be an excited church, but I don't want to be excited about me getting to do the thing. I want us to be excited about God moving and doing only what he can do. I can remember, I don't know if my mom remembers this story, but my dad [snorts] probably does. I remember being at the lake. We rented like a big old pontoon boat. We were borrowing my uncle's jet ski and uh we're out in the middle of the water and we're we're we're kind of coming up to shore and uh we're dropping anchor. We're just going to hang out, eat some sandwiches, go hit the jet ski and try to water ski or kneeboard or I don't know what we were doing, but I remember looking out and seeing this island in the middle of of the lake. And I'm I'm a I'm a kid at the time and I'm thinking that's like 50 yards away. Like I could probably make that swim, you know, as a as a kid. Like I could swim out to this like I'm looking at the island and I'm like this is so cool. Like what an adventure that I get to have today and go out to this and and I go to my dad. I'm like, "Hey, can we like jet ski over to this island and check it out?" And he's just like, "I got to get this anchored. Let me get everything situated, all the stuff." And I'm just fired up. I'm excited. And so what do I do? I jump in the water and I start swimming out to this island. And I'm going I'm going. It was way more than 50 yards. I mean, it had to have been at least 100 yards swimming to this island. And I'm getting there. I'm going and I'm exhausted. And at this point, you know, you know when you go like halfway and you think, should I just turn around? But it was one of those things where it's like, but I'm going the same distance anyways, right? So, I just kept swimming. I just kept going. I get to the island and it was just trashed. I mean, there was trash everywhere. There were snakes like slithering around like w water snakes and stuff. And it was really gross. And again, from a distance, I thought, "Wow, what an adventure this is going to be. Like how cool is I get to go out to this island on the lake and like maybe I'm the first ever to be there. Like I was very Louiswis and Clark at the time, you know? I thought I was awesome. But I get to the island and I'm sitting there and I realize I'm too exhausted to even swim back. I'm too I' I've spent all of my excitement, my passion, my energy on getting to this thing and now I'm exhausted. And so now I have to call out to my dad with boats crossing noise and all the things. And I don't know how he discovered that I was there, but it was like 15, 20 minutes later, he pulls up on the jet ski and gets me. Listen, seasons of pause, preparation, and presence. Even though I can see the promise, sometimes God is calling us to a place of patience. Because when his presence goes before you, it's going to open up a pathway for you to step into it. And many times we can rush into something because of our passion and our excitement rather than putting God first and preeminent in our lives and letting him prepare the way. And how do we do this? We pray. We fast. We prepare ourselves. We consecrate our lives. Again, that means being set apart. That means if there's sinful activity within our lives or there's temptations that we're allowing to remain, we need to separate ourselves unto the Lord. Like if you if you'll take time to go into a a quiet place and just spend time with the Lord and and read your word, even if the presence of God doesn't show up in fire and power in the moment, that consistency and that passion for the Lord will begin to stir within us a patience and a readiness for when God pulls the trigger. It's going to happen and you're going to be able to step into it without this overexhaustion of energy. Again, there's a lot of decisions that we have to make. There's dreams, there's visions, there's there's shifts in our lives. And if we aren't fasting, praying, and consecrating our lives, we're going to open ourselves up to be led by our passions and impatience. Like, I I have a I have a big decision. And I've talked to a couple people here in this church. This is like a personal thing. This isn't like a everyone thing, but I've told my wife like, "Hey, leading up to this meeting that I'm going to have, I need to I need you to fast with me for like 3 to 4 days, maybe longer as we get closer to it. But I I I need more of him and less of myself in the decision that I'm about to make." Y'all hear me today? >> Like, like I I I don't need my ideas and my excitement and passion because my passion has led me to do some really stupid stuff in the past. Hey, I'm I'm just I'm just testifying of my stupidity here. But if I can get myself my flesh out and have more of his spirit within my life, things are going to become more clear. Again, this is this is practical and it's supernatural that we would humble ourselves. Let God be the head of our lives and make Jesus first. The second thing is we need to carry his presence on our shoulders. I'm going to move quick. I promise. I'm just getting too I'm getting too excited. you know what God is doing. Again, the ark of the covenant was on the shoulders of the priest, but when the veil was torn because of Christ, the presence of God now becomes something that's accessible to all who believe. And the presence of God needs to be on our shoulders. And what I've discovered in a lot of our lives is instead of carrying the presence of God, we actually have dislocated shoulders. Has anyone ever dislocated their shoulder before here in the room? It's pretty painful, right? Instead of carrying joy, maybe you're carrying sorrow. Instead of carrying dancing, you're carrying mourning. Instead of carrying the love of God, maybe you're harboring bitterness and carrying resentment. Instead of peace, we carry anxiety and worry. Instead of carrying the presence of God, again, we carry our passions, emotions, and we're often carrying our comforts with us. Your shoulders should only carry the presence of the Lord. In Matthew 11:28 it says, "Come to me all you who are weary and burdened burdened and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am gentle and humble in heart. You will find rest for your souls for my yoke is easy and my burden is life." If your shoulders are hurting today with whatever you're carrying, you're probably carrying the wrong thing. If you're if you're exhausted, you're probably carrying the wrong thing. We cannot carry a spirit of abandonment, but we need to carry a spirit of adoption. Many of us, including myself, are carrying idols in our lives. Instead of the ark, we're carrying an idol. We carry success and striving, strategy, our intellect. We carry selfish gain. What is in this for me? We carry a pressure to perform. We carry an image of what we think people in the church want us to look like. And so we we carry the the facade of everything's okay. I'm so happy. I'm so excited. Jesus. Yay. Even though we're broken inside. And it would be great to have a brother or a sister come alongside us. We carry these idols many times so we can get something from them. That's what idol worship was. I'm going to go to the the the the calf of Baal or this God that oversees the rains to bring me a harvest or this I'm going to sacrifice my child for this or this or whatever it is so that I can gain money, wealth, prosperity in some way. And this is what it was in that day. But but how many of us are trading and sacrificing things in our life so that we can gain something apart from God? We can serve idols, [snorts] but in the process of doing this, we're actually carrying an orphan spirit. What do you mean? A father creates sons and daughters who know who they are. They have all that they need. But an idol creates orphans desperate for approval and affirmation for their efforts. Look what I've done. Look at all the things that I've stepped into and I've I've worked so hard on my life and I've been hustling in this area and that area. And I and I know for myself personally there have been many seasons in my life where God was not my father and I was chasing after all the other daddies. Sugar daddies is what I call them, you know, because what what can this daddy give me? Can this daddy make me feel good about myself? Does this daddy make me feel like a son? Does does this daddy over here does this God have have some kind of motive that's positive for my life? You know, we we we hear from so many spiritual fathers or people and leaders in our life and they speak life and value into you in the moment and then we go somebody sees me. And it's in those moments we start following after a father and we abandon our heavenly father. >> Cuz it's funny. I was just I was just in a meeting the other day. I was telling somebody about this and this guy was saying like, "Man, Nick [clears throat] Serban, I've got plans for your life." And I was just like, "Yeah, I don't care." Why? Cuz God already has plans for me. And they're so much better than the plans that this guy has. Like, I love him. He's a friend. He's a good dude. But I know who my daddy is. And I know I'm a son. I'm not an orphan. I'm not an orphan. Someone needs to say that over your life today. I'm not an orphan. I'm a son. I know who I am. >> Come on. >> He's my father. He's the only affirmation that I need. He's the only truth that I need to carry. [snorts] Again, we don't carry an orphan spirit. We carry a spirit of sunship. Again, many times we can feel this pressure [snorts] that we need to carry the presence of God into these places. Again, I know we we we carry him him on us, but but many times we need to allow God to make a way for us rather than us trying to jump into the river carrying him into a place that he hasn't made a way for us yet. Many times we'll we'll we'll get really smart and we'll think, you know what, we need to start preparing. We need to build a bridge. Like like if God doesn't part the waters, see what I just did there? If God doesn't make a way, I need to make a way. Maybe we need to build a boat, build a b
