Episode Transcript
[00:00:03] So I'm going to present to you the opening talk. Our theme of the conference was Eyes of Faith.
[00:00:09] And I believe that there's an opportunity for us to see something fresh in the Lord. And I'm going to just unpack that introduction and apply it into our context here in Rediscover. Today, I want to talk about do not camp at the edge of the promise, as Danique kindly introduced.
[00:00:34] See, there's a place that looks spiritual, it sounds responsible and it feels safe, but it's actually a dangerous place.
[00:00:48] It's the place between Egypt and our inheritance.
[00:00:54] It's the place where you can look across the border and see the Promise, where you can talk about the Promise in small groups, where you can study about the Promise in the Scriptures, but still never step into it.
[00:01:10] And I believe, as I share this at the conference, that there are leaders, there are churches, there are movements, and there are congregations that have unintentionally begun to camp at the edge of the promise.
[00:01:29] And when you camp at the edge of the promise, you're close enough to talk about revival, you're close enough to discuss mission, you're close enough to admire what God is doing, but you're not moving.
[00:01:50] And there's a story in the Old Testament we find in Numbers 13.
[00:01:54] And this story highlights the tragedy of camping at the edge of the promise.
[00:02:02] Because the nation of Israel didn't reject the promise outright, they stopped at the edge of it.
[00:02:13] Let's look at numbers 13 together. Just a few verses.
[00:02:16] It says this.
[00:02:19] The Lord now said to Moses, send out men to explore the land of Canaan, the land I am giving to the Israelites.
[00:02:31] Send one leader from each of the 12 ancestral tribes.
[00:02:36] So Moses did as the Lord commanded him.
[00:02:39] He sent out 12 men, all tribal leaders of Israel. From their camp in the wilderness of Paran, 12 leaders were sent into the land.
[00:02:53] And we need to understand this really clearly.
[00:02:56] They were not sent to decide whether they should enter the land.
[00:03:02] God had already spoken to them.
[00:03:06] He had already promised them. In those verses we just read, it says, the land I am given to the Israelites.
[00:03:15] God had already spoken.
[00:03:17] It wasn't just that he'd spoken that moment. He'd spoken. Generations earlier, the promise had been given to their forefathers, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob.
[00:03:27] Generations earlier, these words had sat in their spirit.
[00:03:33] And of course, this was now. Hundreds of years later, there would have seemed like a long delay in their fulfillment.
[00:03:41] But God was not absent. God was preparing them for this moment. He was forming them as a nation.
[00:03:49] He was causing them to be ready to step into the promises.
[00:03:53] And now, at this moment, God instructs them to go and spy out the land. And everything had aligned for the fulfillment of this promise.
[00:04:04] The people had been delivered from the oppression of the Egyptians, while they had been released from that, they'd been formed not just as a subgroup, but they'd been formed as a nation.
[00:04:18] And the promise was active for hundreds of years, waiting for the moment of maturity.
[00:04:26] And this was. Was it.
[00:04:29] This was not about a possibility of stepping into the land. This was about fulfillment of stepping into the land.
[00:04:37] And yet, in this moment of fulfillment of generations of promise, they camped at the edge of the promise.
[00:04:49] Fear changes all sorts of questions when it's put into the concoction of our thinking.
[00:04:56] You see, the spies, they return and they say essentially two things.
[00:05:02] Firstly, the land is good.
[00:05:07] Secondly, yes, the land is fruitful.
[00:05:17] But.
[00:05:22] That word has killed more movements, more fulfillments of promises than opposition ever has.
[00:05:35] Because when you put the word but on the end of a promise of God, the question shifts.
[00:05:44] The question shifts from what has God said?
[00:05:49] And it shifts to, can we really do this?
[00:05:55] And the moment that you and I begin evaluating what God has already spoken, fear has entered the room.
[00:06:06] You see what they did at this moment? They turned a promise into a proposal.
[00:06:15] And we do this today.
[00:06:18] God asks us to go into all the world and preach the gospel. But we say, is that really realistic?
[00:06:28] God says, the harvest is plentiful.
[00:06:31] But we say, but the culture is difficult and hard.
[00:06:36] God says, I will build my church.
[00:06:40] But we say, well, our resources are limited and finite and slowly.
[00:06:48] But after. But after. But we begin to camp on the edge of the promise.
[00:06:57] You see, the same land was seen by 12 different people. But there were two reports that came back because they saw the same things, but they looked with a different lens.
[00:07:11] The 10 spies who came back with their negative report, they weren't dishonest.
[00:07:19] The giants were real.
[00:07:21] The walls were real.
[00:07:24] But they interpreted the moment wrongly.
[00:07:28] Because fear, when fear comes into our thinking, it comes into our conversations with or comes into our planning.
[00:07:37] It begins to reshape how we perceive the moment.
[00:07:43] Fear narrows our vision.
[00:07:46] It magnifies obstacles.
[00:07:49] It makes giants look even bigger.
[00:07:52] And then fear convinces you and I that caution is wisdom.
[00:08:01] So they didn't come back and say these words. They didn't say, we are afraid.
[00:08:08] And rarely do God's people come back and say, we are afraid.
[00:08:13] But they did come back and say, we can't do it because they were afraid.
[00:08:21] I found this that fear rarely sounds emotional in leadership.
[00:08:28] It just sounds sensible.
[00:08:31] Fear rarely says, don't trust God in our lives.
[00:08:38] It usually says something a bit more like, let's just be careful.
[00:08:46] But Joshua and Caleb, I'm glad they were in this story because they saw the same land, the same giants, the same walls and the same moment, but they had a different lens.
[00:09:05] The ten saw giants and concluded defeat.
[00:09:09] Joshua and Caleb saw giants and concluded opportunity.
[00:09:15] You see, faith doesn't deny reality.
[00:09:20] It interprets reality through the lens of God's promises.
[00:09:27] I thank God for the times in my walk and in my journey where the promises of God have been my strength.
[00:09:37] You know, in your life, times and testimony where the promise of God has been your strength, when your heart has been breaking and aching and you remember that the Lord is the strength of your heart, that promise you claim, and you begin to interpret your pain in a different way because you know that the Lord is the strength of your heart. It doesn't deny the reality of what you're experiencing, but it shares it through the lens of a promise that God has given you.
[00:10:12] I'm so glad that God has spoken. Many promises over this church.
[00:10:17] There are promises that go back years, that the Lord would bring us into a spacious place.
[00:10:24] This is not it.
[00:10:28] And I know that some over the past weeks we've been praying, God, will you open the door for our new building, for our plan and consent?
[00:10:37] Do you know we're gonna get it?
[00:10:39] Do you know why I know that?
[00:10:42] Because God has spoken.
[00:10:45] And when you see.
[00:10:48] I know the press, they picked up a phrase the other week, the angry church leaders.
[00:10:59] We're not angry.
[00:11:01] We're not even frustrated.
[00:11:05] We're just waiting for the Lord to fulfill that which he said, that's what we're doing.
[00:11:13] And I love it when God gives you a foretaste. You know, around eight weeks ago, when our planning consultants were saying, this is going to be okay, you're going to get this. And you know, they're the experts. And I just felt this little niggle. I was reading one day the story of. Of the Apostle Paul in prison.
[00:11:31] And I was reading that story and seeing how it looked like a disaster, but actually God was putting him in places of influence that he was going to share the gospel.
[00:11:43] And I felt at that moment, and I hoped I was wrong because it would have been so much easier if I was wrong. But I felt at that moment that we weren't going to get planning permission first time round because. Because there were places of influence we needed to sit in and we needed to present the gospel in environments that currently weren't here in it. You see, the planning consultants were of the view that we would get the permission through a small group of the council, a delegated authority of professionals that would say yes, and it would make it all so straightforward. But actually, I felt, no, we're going to have to go before all the counselors and share the glory of God in that environment and the gospel of Jesus Christ.
[00:12:26] So I shared it with a team at the time. I said, listen, I hope I'm wrong because it would be so much easier if I am wrong, but I think this is what God's going to do. And then I began to think of some other things that I felt God wanted to do. Secondly, he wanted us to make some friends that we weren't going to make if it was given a simple yes in a side room. There are some contacts we need to make that that we wouldn't have made if we'd had a straightforward yes. There are some friends that God is going to bring into our life that are not just going to help us get planning permission. They're going to help us into the future promises of what God's going to do in the years that are ahead.
[00:12:59] Already in the last couple of weeks, there have been some connections made with counselors that have looked like these could be friends that could be with us for a while. I was on Radio Devon and Cornwall this morning talking about the church rising up and the faith growing in society and intrigue in the gospel and how the church is growing and expanding. And I would never have had that opportunity if we'd not been turned down on our planet. Permission, you see, I'm committed that we're not going to camp at the edge of a promise. We're going to walk right in and we're going to go in with the promise of God in our lives.
[00:13:33] And thirdly, I believe this council. I don't want to get political this morning, but I believe there are some policies in place in this council but that are bad news for the city.
[00:13:42] There are some restrictions in this city that are bad news for the city. And I believe that we are going to play a part in bringing around some policy change in this city that's gonna be good news for the city. There's gonna be more than us getting a building. It's gonna be a blessing to the city of Exeter.
[00:14:01] See, but what often happens is people have this wrong theology that if God is in something, it's gonna be straightforward.
[00:14:08] There's not Going to be giants. There's not like, what Bible are you reading?
[00:14:12] Oh, I thought God spoke to me, but things began to go wrong and he clearly wasn't in it. Wake up and read the Bible.
[00:14:19] I don't see anybody in here stepping into a promise that says, oh, it was obviously the Lord because it all went forward so easily.
[00:14:28] It isn't in there. You read in the wrong Bible.
[00:14:31] You're reading the self help manuals, not the scriptures.
[00:14:35] God's word. There's always a battle to step into the promise.
[00:14:40] And we need to be courageous and bold.
[00:14:43] We need to know that God's word is greater than the reality of anyone else's word.
[00:14:49] I don't listen to the no other. I respect the council and I respect their authority and we're called to pray for our leaders. But listen, I respect God's promise more than any other promise. And we need to be ferocious and fear fearless and stepping into what God's got for us.
[00:15:05] So, church, we need a new boldness because some of you have been camping on the edge of the promise because it's hard.
[00:15:11] You've stepped into it and you felt the enemy.
[00:15:15] Ooh, I'm not going there.
[00:15:18] It's quite nice here singing about revival.
[00:15:21] It's quite nice singing about songs of deliverance and victory. It's quite nice just in our cozy camp, obviously. I got little starlights around my tent. It looks lovely. Got a campfire. I've learned how to make fresh bread on the campfire.
[00:15:37] And we live. Do you know the church in the UK is living on the edge of the promise, but God's called us to step into it.
[00:15:50] You know, I don't think I'm.
[00:15:54] I'm bemused, if I'm honest with you, by the doors God's opened for me over the years.
[00:16:00] I stood in front of thousands of leaders last week at a conference that I organized with a team that's world class.
[00:16:08] And I'm thinking, how am I here?
[00:16:12] I've never looked for this.
[00:16:14] I've never felt that I'm the best at this. How am I here?
[00:16:19] Well, I know, let me tell you how I know I'm there because God's opened the door. And let me tell you why he has.
[00:16:26] Because I believe in me. He has found someone that's never said no to anything he's asked me to do.
[00:16:36] I believe in the promises of God.
[00:16:42] I believe his word is final.
[00:16:45] I believe his word is the ultimate authority on our lives.
[00:16:49] And when it disagrees with us, we have to yield to his word.
[00:16:57] As uncomfortable as it is, we have to yield and surrender because if we don't, we won't see the fulfillment of what he's wanting to do in our lives.
[00:17:07] But if we will surrender, he will do exceedingly, abundantly, above all we can ask, think or imagine. He cannot do exceedingly, abundantly, above all we ask, think or imagine if we're camped on the edge of the Promise.
[00:17:19] So anyone we step in that we can see that.
[00:17:24] You know, a number of years ago I remember here just sensing that we had a call on this church to plant churches.
[00:17:38] Not because we were carrying anything better than any other church, but when I look around the southwest and I see millions of people that live across the counties of Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Somerset, Wiltshire, and I look and I see millions of people.
[00:18:02] Some of you travel big distances to come here because you can't find a spirit, life filled life witness in your place.
[00:18:11] The lots of church planters are concentrating on cities.
[00:18:15] I believe we need churches in villages and towns and they're not going to maybe look like this on a Sunday. They're going to be groups of people meeting in homes or meeting in village halls or meeting in pubs or coffee shops. It doesn't really matter where.
[00:18:30] But I believe we need the gospel to be spread abroad in every village, town, hamlet, city across the southwest. And I felt this nudge of the spirit that God wanted us to plant out to share what we have.
[00:18:48] Because I'm not in this to entertain you on a Sunday.
[00:18:57] If you come here because you like the music and you like the preaching and you like the atmosphere, well, that's good.
[00:19:05] But that's not why I come here.
[00:19:08] I'll tell you why. I come here because I believe as I look out at you, you are an army waiting to march.
[00:19:18] And I want to give everything in my life to help you out, to put one foot in front of the other.
[00:19:25] Left, right, left, right, left, right. Let's get into the promised land.
[00:19:30] Let's step into the promises. Let's pack down the tents.
[00:19:33] Left, right, let's pick up our weapons. Left, right. Let's pull down every high thing that opposes the promises of God. Let's go. Come on now. Come on. Let's not just sing songs about victory. Let's walk in victory. Come on, let's pick up our swords. Let's not just memorize this so we can feel better about our lives, so we can deal with our depression and we can deal with our challenges. Let's pick this up because it's an offensive Weapon.
[00:19:58] It's a weapon that takes the promises of God into the lives of others who don't know him.
[00:20:04] That's why I come.
[00:20:06] That's why I'm here.
[00:20:08] And there's a promise over this church to plant.
[00:20:14] Now, in the last three years, we planted four of the churches.
[00:20:18] That's okay.
[00:20:21] But a number of years ago, I felt God speak and say, you're going to plant a hundred.
[00:20:28] So it's an okay start, 96 to go.
[00:20:34] Who's going to lead those?
[00:20:36] I tell you what, let's just sit and let's pray that God will send in the leaders.
[00:20:41] Where are they going to come from?
[00:20:43] Other churches?
[00:20:45] Where are they going to be made?
[00:20:48] They? You.
[00:20:50] It's you. It's you packing your tents up and saying, I'm not going to live on the edge of the promise.
[00:20:57] I want to step into the fullness. Oh, but it's hard, Mark.
[00:21:02] Yes.
[00:21:05] I cannot tell you some of the dark battles that I have to fight in my life to step into the promises of God.
[00:21:14] I can't tell you what it takes behind the scenes to step into the fullness of what God's got for us, but it's worth it.
[00:21:26] Don't camp at the edge of the promise.
[00:21:29] In fact, we, in response to that, in response to, how do we plant 100 churches? We don't have any spare money, we don't have any spare buildings. We don't have any spare leaders. We're all absolutely maxed out.
[00:21:43] And I felt I saw ordinary people just like you and I stepping into the promises and the fullness of God.
[00:21:51] And then the question was, how do we help them prepare for that?
[00:21:55] And it was on the back of that that we started what's now called the Church Planting Academy. You can go on the website churchplantingacademy.com and it's a 12 month or it's an 10, 11 month program that you can do one evening a week online and you meet church planters from all over the country.
[00:22:16] In fact, I say church planters, some of them don't even believe that they're going to do that even when they're on the course.
[00:22:23] Some finish the course and don't think they can do that.
[00:22:26] And then they give it a go.
[00:22:29] Norman and Allison, who leading a wonderful work in Cranbrook, they were two people that said at the end of the course, we don't think we can do this.
[00:22:38] And now they lead in a great work where they came up 80 people in Cranbrook on a regular basis.
[00:22:44] And they're doing it.
[00:22:48] What could that look like? For you to step into the promises of God?
[00:22:52] You say, mark, have you seen my past?
[00:22:56] Have you seen my Savior?
[00:23:01] It's either grace and forgiveness or its works. It can't be part one and part the other.
[00:23:08] All of us are only called.
[00:23:11] All of us are only able to be bold. Because of his finished work on the cross, because of his empowering of the Spirit, Peter on the day of Pentecost, there he is, stood up in the upper room, leading this time of prayer. And not so long previously, he had denied his Savior at the most vulnerable moment of his life.
[00:23:33] Think of the shame.
[00:23:35] He didn't stand up in shame, though. He stood up in new clothes of righteousness that had been given to him by Jesus. That's the merit that you and I stand in the promises of God.
[00:23:46] The most dangerous place to camp is the edge of the Promise. It's not Egypt.
[00:23:53] Egypt is obvious bondage.
[00:23:56] We see its impact. We feel its oppression.
[00:24:00] But the Edge of the Promise feels more spiritual, but it's actually more dangerous because you still have the language. You still have the meetings. You still talk about faith. And maybe this describes you perfectly. Maybe you love being in this environment because of those things, because of the courage and the boldness that we talk about. Maybe you love it because of that.
[00:24:22] But unless you're moving, we're on the edge of the Promise.
[00:24:29] You see, for 40 days, these 12 spies walked the land. But those 40 days didn't reveal the land.
[00:24:37] They revealed the leaders.
[00:24:39] It revealed that in 10 of them there was fear, and in two of them there was faith.
[00:24:46] Time doesn't automatically build faith. It exposes what is already governing your heart.
[00:24:51] For 40 days, the 10 reinforced their fear, while two reinforced their trust.
[00:25:01] See, the movement that I'm leading in Elim, we've called it the Elim Movement for years. It started out 111 years ago as a movement, started from nothing. And in the first two to three years, it grew by 300% per year.
[00:25:19] And then the next few years, it grew by 150%. And then you go, future. And it now grows about 1.7% per year.
[00:25:30] We're now 500 churches across the nation in 53 nations of the world. It's okay, but we stop moving.
[00:25:41] God looks for multiplication and growth and movement in our lives.
[00:25:46] There's a whole bunch of people in this room. You've stopped moving, and you need your movements back.
[00:25:54] You need to be able to fulfill the promises of God upon your life.
[00:26:00] Just as we conclude in a few moments time, I want to talk to you about the fear that disguises itself in our lives.
[00:26:09] Because fear really jumps up on your shoulder and says, hi, I'm fear. I'm going to interpret your world for you.
[00:26:16] It usually comes dressed in disguise.
[00:26:22] Let me just tell you some of the most common expressions of fear in leaders.
[00:26:29] And I believe that you're a leader.
[00:26:33] I don't come here to be the leadership of this church so that you can all be the followers. We are all leaders. We are all people of influence in our life.
[00:26:45] First one. Fear comes disguised in these words. We've tried it before when we say that history becomes our ceiling.
[00:26:56] We say that what didn't work once will never work in the future.
[00:27:01] This statement is used to close the door on so many things that God might want to do.
[00:27:08] Who in this room passed their driving test on the second time?
[00:27:16] Why did you take it a second time? You'd already tried it once.
[00:27:21] Well, you hope that there's something in the timing of it, that maybe you've learned a few things since your last test.
[00:27:28] Maybe the examiner is going to be a bit kinder than the last one was.
[00:27:32] Maybe the environment of the day, maybe the road condition is going to be better.
[00:27:37] You hope that even though it's the same thing, something will have changed.
[00:27:41] But fear says, you've tried it before, don't try it again. You fail once, don't fail again.
[00:27:46] That needs to be broken in our lives.
[00:27:49] Second way, the fear disguises itself. It says we need to be realistic.
[00:27:55] I've sat in lots of leaders meetings over the years, not many in this place, if I'm honest with you, because this is a great group of leaders in this church that are full of faith, that are ready to step out in the purposes of God.
[00:28:09] But I've heard many leaders over the years say we just need to be realistic here.
[00:28:14] Some of you in this room have said that about a whole range of situations that you felt God calling you into something.
[00:28:20] But you said, I need to be realistic.
[00:28:23] And you're right to be realistic. Realism matters. The giants are real, the walls are real.
[00:28:30] But God's promise is bigger.
[00:28:33] When realism consistently talks you down from the promises of God, it has become an expression of fear in your life.
[00:28:41] At that point, it is no longer wisdom. It is fear set in the limit.
[00:28:47] Third way that fear disguises itself is it says, we don't want to overextend.
[00:28:54] Ask yourself honestly, has stewardship quietly become preservation in your life? Are you managing what you have or moving towards what God has already spoken.
[00:29:05] Preservation and obedience are not the same thing.
[00:29:09] There are all sorts of organizations and ministries over the years that are no longer moving forward, they're no longer advancing. They're just protecting what they've got.
[00:29:19] And if I completely honest, I believe the denomination that I'm leading has been a part of that for a number of years we've been more focused on protecting what we've got.
[00:29:30] But not anymore.
[00:29:32] Our conference this year, we have begun to dream together what the promises look like. Let me tell you what they are raising up 100 plus leaders every year across the nation.
[00:29:45] Planting a thousand churches in 12 years across the nation and moving from 53 nations of the world to 193 nations of the world.
[00:29:54] And we all have a part to play in that.
[00:29:58] And we're discerning as a movement whether that's what the Lord is saying. Because if it is what he's saying, then we're not going to camp at the edge of it. We're going to step in with courage and boldness.
[00:30:07] And that's going to be not just our leaders, that's going to be all of our churches. It's going to be you, all of us together.
[00:30:16] Fourthly, fear disguises itself. We need more clarity.
[00:30:23] Well, I like clarity, don't you? I like it all tied up.
[00:30:28] You know, a couple, just probably about 18, 19 months ago, we decided that we were going to move house.
[00:30:36] The 13 years we've been here, that's what it is now, 13 and a half years. But back when we first came here, we moved into a house that's fairly close, the city center. And it served us really, really well. But my offices now are in Malvern, in Worcestershire.
[00:30:53] I don't know if you know much of your geography, but that's not just up the road from the city centre of Exeter. And it was taking me ages to get out of the city, to get onto the motorway, to get to my offices. And I thought if I could just get a little further up near the M5 if I could maybe. And we looked and we drew a sort of a map and drew on the map and we thought Tiverton might be a good location. It just gets me a little closer, takes half an hour off the journey. So traveling there and back in a day, it's an hour saving and traveling, that seemed like a good thing. So we looked around Tiverton and we found a house and we bought a house. We had agreed to buy it. Someone agreed to buy our house and Then there was a chain of people, as there often is in moving all this chain of people connected to together. And then all looked like it was really sorted and everything was ready to go, except one thing. The person buying our house hadn't confirmed that they had the money.
[00:31:47] And then everyone's ready to go, we've all got the removal people booked. And he contacts me and he says, I can't quite get enough of the money.
[00:31:57] It's off.
[00:31:59] That was a Friday afternoon, I think I was ministering over in Spain at a conference and I get this phone call in Spain and he's saying, it's off, I can't raise all the money. And he told me how much he was short. He was short, I think about 25K.
[00:32:13] And I thought, well, I can't fund that.
[00:32:20] It's a lot of money to give to a stranger and I wouldn't have enough to buy the house I'm buying if I do that. So it's off.
[00:32:28] And I thought, I'm not going to phone up the agents and say anything about it. I'm just going to pray.
[00:32:34] On Sunday, I'm sitting up in bed after I'd been speaking somewhere that day and I get this idea.
[00:32:44] If everyone in the chain lowers their price by 5k, we can do it.
[00:32:52] Add them all together, all the 5Ks.
[00:32:55] He gets a bargain.
[00:32:58] And we all get our removal companies not needing to be cancelled.
[00:33:03] So I phoned up the agent and said, I know this is a bit of a strange one, but I'd like you to go to everybody in the chain and ask them if they donate 5k, lower their price by 5k.
[00:33:15] And they all said yes.
[00:33:18] And the move happened.
[00:33:21] Why do I say that?
[00:33:24] Because sometimes when things are not clear, it's an invitation of the spirit to lean in and to find some wisdom in God.
[00:33:34] We can't just have it all nice and neat and clear in our own thinking. We have to rely on the Lord.
[00:33:42] Don't let fear rule that in you.
[00:33:46] Oh, there's so much more I can say. You can watch the video or ask Danique, she'll preach it to you later on.
[00:33:56] How do I conclude this? With pages of notes still to go.
[00:34:00] I was bang on time on the conference.
[00:34:10] I believe we're in a once in a generation moment.
[00:34:16] Faith and openness to faith in the nation is at a level that I've never seen before in my lifetime.
[00:34:26] And we get quite excited about what's happening because people are just turning up a church because they've had a dream or because they've been inquisitive or they've been watching things online. We like that because they are coming to faith without us doing anything.
[00:34:47] That is like a dream revival for the church.
[00:34:51] Lord, we'll just sit around on the edge of the shore and watch the fish jump into the nets.
[00:34:57] That's perfect for us in a consumer comfort driven world.
[00:35:05] But God hasn't called us to that world.
[00:35:08] And what if this unique moment, this unique season that we're in, what if this is the first fruit signs of the spies coming back and saying, the land is good but we need to pack up our camp and we need to advance.
[00:35:24] You see, this was a once in a generation moment in this story because because of their fear, everyone in that generation, for one year, for every day that they visited the land for 40 years, they didn't enter into the promise because fear ruled their hearts church. Wouldn't it be awful to stand before God one day and he said, I gave you the possibilities and the promises, but you camped on the edge and church personally, in your lives, in your families, in your vocation, in your calling. I believe your work is a place of calling. It's a place of honor for the Lord. It's not secular and this is spiritual. Everything in our life is the Lord's.
[00:36:27] This is a moment to consecrate and commit our lives and say, God, I'm not going to camp on the edge.
[00:36:36] I'm not going to let fear win.
[00:36:38] I'm going to step into the fullness of all you've got for me.
[00:36:43] And I believe this is where we are now.
[00:36:46] Resistance may be increasing, but I believe this is the moment.
[00:36:52] Let's not play it safe, let's not be careful.
[00:36:56] Let's recognize that God is inviting us into that moment and let's contend.
[00:37:04] Can I be honest with you?
[00:37:07] I think there's another reason why we've not got planning concerned yet.
[00:37:12] Because I think our prayers have been too nice.
[00:37:16] Oh God, give us the building.
[00:37:22] There needs to be.
[00:37:25] Scripture says we wrestle not against flesh and blood.
[00:37:30] There needs to be contention.
[00:37:34] I will not let you go till you bless me.
[00:37:38] It's not just, oh, let's have a nice day of fasting and prayer and let's pray about some things.
[00:37:43] Get in the place with God, lock in with him and fight in the spirit.
[00:37:49] Contend.
[00:37:51] Trust that God is more than able.
[00:37:56] Let's pray together.
[00:38:04] To get the full sermon. You can go and watch online and maybe we can put the link of that up later this week on our email But Lord, I pray that not a single one of my sisters and brothers in this place will camp at the edge of the promise.
[00:38:30] I pray that you place within us not fear, but love.
[00:38:37] Perfect love. Cast out fear.
[00:38:42] May love, power and a sound mind be ours as we remember all the things you've spoken over us, all the things you've spoken into us.
[00:38:54] And we contend, no matter how big the giants, we contend for a hundred churches across the Southwest.
[00:39:02] We contend for this new building.
[00:39:04] We contend for every promise you've spoken over our sisters and brothers in this place. We contend to see the fullness of God released and raised up in this place. We contend to see everything fulfilled. That you have spoken over us in the name of Jesus.
[00:39:20] I contend for those promises over your life. Those things the Lord has spoken specifically to you. And you have stepped back because of fear. You stepped back because there's been a giant. And God says, be bold, be courageous. I am with you. I've prepared you for this moment.
[00:39:38] The weapons of your warfare, they're not the weapons of this world. They are mighty to the pulling down of strongholds.
[00:39:45] Rise up church into the fullness of God.
[00:39:51] So we will not be intimidated, we will not be afraid, we will not be careful in a way that is disguise of fear.
[00:40:00] But we will stand.
[00:40:03] Come on. If you're prepared to stand and fight, why don't you stand for a moment? Our time has gone. The next group will be waiting to come in in a moment. But come on. Would you lift up your hands? Would you lift up your voices and say, God, here I am, here I am. I want to follow you. I want to go where you lead. I want to step into the fullness of your promises.
[00:40:24] Come on. It needs to be more sound than that in the room. There needs to be a battle here. Now come on, grab a hold of your purposes in the Lord. Grab a hold of the promises of God over your life.
[00:40:35] We will not let you go, God, till you bless us, till you lead us, till you guide us, till you empower us. We go in your strength, in the power of your might. This is not our strength. This is not our gifting. This is. This is your strength and purpose. And we thank you God for your power which is made perfect in our weakness.
[00:40:54] In the name of Jesus, I pray all fear will be broken on every one of my sisters and brothers in this place. Fear be gone in Jesus name.
[00:41:03] Timidity be gone in Jesus name. May courage rise up in you. May the strength of God be your strength.
[00:41:10] May his mind be your mind.
[00:41:13] In the name of Jesus, I'm speaking in tongues. That's a gift that God gives in my life. And I find it such an amazing, helpful gift in my life when I don't always know what to pray in English.
[00:41:42] If you've not been. If you've not received the gift of tongues, then in a moment, when we close this service, I'm going to ask you to come to the front and some of us are going to get around you and pray for you. Because we believe it's an important gift that can make a big difference in your life. And we wouldn't want you to be losing out on that.
[00:42:00] But now, Father, as I look around this room, every precious young and old woman and man, new believer, mature believer. As I look around and I see the matrix and the variation, I see people that have got the spirit of a victor in them.
[00:42:23] He that is in you is greater than he that's in the world.
[00:42:27] And I pray that victory will fill your heart with the song of the Lord, with the courage of the Lord, with the strength of the Lord, Lord.
[00:42:36] So, Lord, we reconsecrate ourselves to you to be the people of God.
[00:42:41] And help us to pull those 10 pegs up and help us to step into the fullness of what you got for us.
[00:42:49] Come on. If you're committed to that, why don't you lift up a shout of praise to the Lord? Come on. Let your voice rise. A shout of victory.
[00:42:56] A shout of victory. A shout of triumph.
[00:43:00] Come on. Break intimidation.
[00:43:02] The Lord will lead. The Lord will guide. The Lord will provide.
[00:43:07] He is our Savior, our victor.
[00:43:10] He is our redeemer. He is the one who invites us into the promises.
[00:43:14] We thank you, Lord.
[00:43:16] In Jesus name all God's people said, amen. Amen. The Lord bless you.
