← Red Rocks Church Weekend Messages
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- [00:04]
A
How do you feel? Oh, you sound good. No matter where you're watching this from, we have a few really fun announcements today. The first one is we are broadcasting to you live today from Austin, Texas. Austin, Texas, make some noise. What's up? Littleton, Lakewood, Arvada, Park Meadows, Brussels, Belgium. Men and women at our Colorado and Texas correctional facilities love you so much and every single one of you that are joining us online. And look, we like to say this up top just in case you're checking this thing out for the first time. We're just a bunch of messed up, imperfect people, but we love to get together like this right here and pursue a perfect God. And so no matter what you're going through, no matter what you've been through, maybe you've had really good church experiences in the past, maybe you've had really rough church experiences in the past, maybe you have no church experience in the past. Whatever the deal is, and this. This place, we're going to do everything we can to make sure that you feel loved and welcomed and valued. You've already been prayed for. So welcome home and welcome to Red Rocks Church. All right, let's see. Yeah, go ahead and have a seat. Have a seat. Have a seat. And then I'll have you stand up here in just a second and go bananas when I introduce my amazing wife as she's coming to bring the message this week. But before I do, because we're celebrating Mother's Day weekend, our three boys have a have a message for their mom. So, babe, watch the screen.
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B
All right, Ethan, what do you love about your mom?
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C
How much she models what a powerful relationship with Jesus looks like. And I love how often she reminds me that I'm her favorite son. So how kind and forgiving, but especially how patient she is with me all the time.
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D
Something I love about my mom, just how caring she is. Like, every day she asks, like, how can I be better? And it just shows, like, how much she truly cares and loves on us.
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B
What does your mom do best?
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C
What my mom does best is make people feel loved and cared for. And she's never late to anything. She's always on time. I think one thing my mom does best is the way that she prays
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D
for people, the way she prays over people, the way she loves the church, loves everyone that is just here and just people in general. And she's just. Yeah, she's awesome.
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B
What's something your mom has taught you?
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D
Something she's taught me is to just never give up on what I believe. In and what I want to do. And she's just always supported me in everything I've done.
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C
How to listen to others intentionally and care for people. My mom has taught me how to be a leader and led from example on my relationship with Christ. Happy Mother's Day, Mom.
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D
We love you.
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C
Love you so much. You're the best.
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D
I'm your favorite.
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C
Okay,
- [03:21]
A
Red Rocks Church, at every single location. Will you get on your feet and help me welcome my best friend, the love of my life, the one and only Pastor Jill Johnson.
- [03:40]
B
Well, hello, Red Rocks Church. Red Rocks Church, Austin. You guys are incredible. Thank you for such a warm welcome. You can go ahead and have a seat. I love this house. I love this place. It's been a while since I've actually been to Austin because the one kid who said, I love to be on time and then rolled his eyes, that one, he's about to be a senior. And so I am trying to hold on for my dear life. And every day he's the last one at home. So it's like, okay, bud, what are we going to do? What do you want to do? What do you want to. And mom, I don't want to do anything. Let's just leave me alone. But I'm holding on for dear life while I can. So thank you for inviting me into the house here. I love it here. I love this place. I love your pastors. Pastors Doug and Sam. They are incredible. And you are surrounded by an incredible team. I know you know that? Yes. If there are two words that I could use to describe Pastor Doug and Sam, it would be joy filled. They truly are joy filled and so wildly creative and fun. And it's no surprise to me that the entire team here just walks in joy. You guys just have it. And it's just a really special place to be. In fact, Sean and I had a chance for a little while as Doug and Sam were getting ready to move here. They lived with us for a short window of time. And so I watched them. Them walk through some really hard, hard times just as Sam was pregnant with their first. First little one. And then they were leaving, like getting ready to pack up their whole lives and, and leave the people and friends and family they love to. To start something new. And I watched them carry themselves with. With joy through it. There were tears for sure, but always with a smile. And never once, never once did I hear either one of them complain. Sam, you made the whole move so much better than I did. When it was time for us to move to Denver. All those years ago, and I just. I honor you. You carry yourself with such beauty and grace. And Doug. Doug is the guy. When he was back in Denver as young adults pastor, I used to. We used to do a conference at Red Rocks church for all the ladies of beloved. So how many of you girls have been to be loved girls in the house guys? And some of you have been there because you just show up and you help and love that. But there was a moment I went to Doug and I said, hey, Doug, I need your help because there's this window of time right before lunch that. Right after lunch that all the ladies are, like, on the bridge going into a carb coma. So I need you to come and do something fun to liven up the place. So wouldn't you know it, right after lunch, I start to hear the Aladdin song, I can show you the world. And in comes Pastor Doug on a flying carpet. I don't even know. They were, like, pushing it down the aisle, how they got this carpet to fly. Flying carpet on wheels, singing I can show you the world as a beloved Disney character, which we know how much Doug loves his Disney characters and so, so fun. But he can actually really sing and a lot of fun. But anyway, this is. It's an honor to be here with you, Red Rocks. And I have labored. I have labored over this message today. It truly has felt like I have been trying to, like, give birth to a message baby. And I apologize for that mental picture. But Mother's Day weekend, I guess it works. So picture maybe C section, okay. But I have labored. That's probably. Maybe even worse. I don't know. I will stop. I have labored over this message, and for whatever reason it has been, and I'm like, why, God? It's been in my heart. This has been in my heart for the people of this church. Why has it been so hard to get it out and on an iPad? And I think part of it was I was trying to make it all pretty. I was trying to have all the fun, you know, fun, but the points that rhyme and the alliteration. I actually really love alliteration. So you'll see a little bit of it. But it wasn't working for me. And so today's going to be a little different. It'll be a lot of storytelling. And my hope is that as I tell some stories, you'll pick out pieces that you can take home with you and say that meant something to me. Because the whole purpose of this weekend is that each one of you. Each one of us would encounter Jesus in a most personal and real way and in such a way that we'd want to go home holding onto him. That's what this is about. And I know with it being Mother's Day weekend, it is hard for some because some of you are grieving. Grieving a loss or grieving a promise maybe that you have not yet received. But what I love about Jesus, he thinks of everything. And he is all we need. There's a picture of him actually in the New Testament where he. He says he's speaking to his. His children. And he said, I. I'm like a mother hen who just wants to draw you in and keep you close and protect you. And so if you are here in the room or listening online or watching and, and you say, I need that type of. I need to know that God cares. I need to know that God is for me. I need to know that he is with me. You're here at the perfect time. So let's pray and we are gonna jump right in. Father, I thank you for this church. I thank you for the plans and the purposes that you have for this church. I thank you for who you are. I thank you for your kindness, your compassion, your presence. We love you. We need you. And I pray that you would speak as only you can do in Jesus name. Amen. So a couple months ago, Sean and I had the opportunity to go out to dinner with a couple. And I don't want to say their names or anything like that, so I'm going to call them Sally and Bill. But Sally and Bill travel the world. They have all kinds of really cool opportunities. They travel the world and they share Jesus with many and they, they get invited to all kinds of cool places to go and to just share, share the message of Jesus. And they were telling us this story about an opportunity they had to, to go into and, and speak at a country where it's illegal, Christianity's illegal. It's. You can't even say the name of Jesus without potentially being thrown into prison. But one of the leaders of this country had actually seen Sally on YouTube and he liked what Sally was saying. And then so he figured out how to get in touch with Sally and he said, hey, would you come? Would you come? And then he invited a worship team that he had also seen on YouTube that he knew she was connected to. And he said, will you come? And I want you, Sally, to do a leadership talk. And I want your team to do a concert. Your musicians, they can do a Concert. And so Sally, she said, well, okay. But she also said, I just began to pray because I was like, God, I don't even know how to do this. How do I go give a leadership talk without mentioning the name of Jesus? Because it was a serious situation. She was saying they have religious police everywhere, that if at the mention of Jesus name, you can be taken to prison. And so she began to pray, and she said, well, God, we're just gonna see. See what happens. So they go, and the worship team, who is not supposed to necessarily be a worship team, they're just supposed to give a concert. They start singing. Now, I don't know how many songs they had done, but at one point, maybe this was the only song they had a chance to do. But at one point, they sang part of a creed that we might know. And they mentioned in. As they were singing Father, Son, Holy Spirit. Well, as soon as they mentioned Father, Son, Holy Spirit, the power was cut. Whoever the. Whoever powers that be, they said, oh, no, no, no. They, they. They knew what power. They knew what Father, Son, Holy Spirit meant. So they shut the power, pulled them off stage. They took Sally, put her in a room, they took the worship team, put. Put them in a room. And they. They just said, gather your things. You need to wait. We'll be back. And Sally said she was sitting there and just began to pray. And she said. It was in that moment I realized, oh, this is not a game that we are playing. And what she meant by that was the enemy of God, the very real enemy of God is out to kill, steal and destroy from the people of God. And not only that, he is out to stop the word of God from going forward to reach people who need it. And she said that to me. And I could not get that statement off my heart and out of my head that she said, this is not. This is not a game that we're playing. And we know that. We feel that. And you know how I know that? I know that because many of us, Many of us are fighting really hard things. We're being hit really hard. Hard situations, hard circumstances. Some of you are suffering cancer, terminal illnesses, mental health issues, anxiety, depression, divorce, betrayal. Your heart is breaking over a child that's far from God. Some of you, you've lost a job or financial stress, burnout, exhaustion. I keep naming the list on and on because I want you to know you are seeing, you are heard. God sees where you're at and what you're going through. And life is really hard, really hard. And while we do have hope. Hope is often hard too. So that's where the heart of today comes from. And if you are a note taker, like I said, I did put some little notes in here and points and all the things. But if you are a note take. Today's talk is called Trusting God with Promised Places. But to everyone who's here, everyone who's listening, if you find yourself where right now, hope feels really hard, I want you to hear this. Know. Know that the Lord is near. He's near to the brokenhearted, and he saves the crushed in spirit. That's Psalm 34:18 and also Psalm 55:22. He says that we can. We can cast our burden on the Lord, and He will sustain us. He will never allow the righteous to be shaken. And so that means that the burdens we carry, the hurts, the suffering, the longings, we can cast them on the Lord again and again. We can give it to him again and again and again, one minute at a time, one day at a time, and find that his mercies are new every morning. We can trust God with promised places. And there's a story I want to highlight because again, it's just. It's a story that's been so meaningful to me. And a little background on this story. There's the people of God, the Israelites. They were in Egypt for over 400 years, and they were being treated harshly as slaves. And finally God says, enough is enough. I want to take you out of that place. I have a better promised place for you. And so God called on a man named Moses. You've probably heard of Moses and the burning bush. He said, moses, I want you to go. I want you to take my people and I want you to travel and lead them into this promised place that I have for them. And that's where our story picks up. Exodus 6, 6, 9. Therefore, tell the Israelites, I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from the forced labor of the Egyptians and rescue you from slavery. To them. I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and great acts of judgment. I will take you as my people, and I will be your guide. You will know that I am the Lord your God, who brought you out from forced labor of the Egyptians. I will bring to you. I will bring you to the land that I swore to give your swore to give Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. And I will give it to you as a possession. I am the Lord. And what I love about these places. We know these promised places. God made promises to his people. He made promises to them. But the fulfilling of those promises was on. It was God's job. He said, I'm going to get you to that place. Let's look at this. We're going to break that verse down. Freedom. He said, I will bring you out from the forced labor. Salvation. I will rescue you from slavery. To them, restoration. I will redeem you presence. He promised to be with them. He promised to be close and personal. He said, I will take you as my people. I will preserve be your God. He gave them a home. He gave them a place to belong. That's who he is saying he would be proximity. He was going to be close and not far off. He said, you will know that I'm the Lord your God who brought you out. You will know me because I will be there with you. He promised protection. I will bring you to the land. And then finally provision. I will give it to you as a possession. We know these promised places, or at least we want to know them, right? Like we know our heart longs. Our heart longs to belong. Our heart longs to be loved unconditionally. Our mind longs to have self controlled, sound thoughts, peace. Our physical bodies need healing and health and wholeness. Our soul, our soul craves and needs life, life to the full and joy and purpose. So we know, we know all of these promises that God has made possible for us. But we need his protection and his provision. And it only comes from God alone. And while God will do it, he will take us to these promised places. There is a partnership involved. Okay? It's not like we just get to say, okay, God, here I am. And he does, he does it all for us. There's a partnership involved. My son will, you know, he's like, I'm gonna pray and hope for the best when it comes to my tests. And that doesn't work that way. It doesn't work that way. There's a partnership involved and the partnership looks like this. It looks like first and foremost engaging in a personal, personal, real rich, active relationship with Jesus. God wants to journey with us. There's just no other way. And then it comes to trusting, trusting God as you go. So we trust God with promised places by first and foremost engaging in a personal relationship with Jesus. So I know this has started like a lot of heavy, a lot of heavy. But I promise there is some fun here. So I am going to another story. This story actually happened when Doug and Sam lived with us for a short little period of time before they moved here. And Sam and I, they also had their fun and Rambunctious dog Luna Black Lab, who, lots of fun, caused all kinds of chaos, but it was amazing. And so Sam and I happened to be standing, watching Luna out in the backyard, and we saw her, like, jumping, jumping and darting at something, flying around. And we quickly realized, oh, my goodness, she is playing a catch me if you can game with a bunch of bees. And we knew that Luna could win this game, but we knew that winning would quickly mean losing because. Right. She's going to get stung. And so we had to do something. Something had to be done. And so I call a beekeeper, and I learn that what is going on in our backyard is actually called a swarm. Okay. I don't know if you know what a swarm is, but a swarm. I've learned so much about honeybees since this incident. A swarm is essentially, you have a group of bees that they left home, they left the hive. There wasn't enough space. And so they're going, and they're looking. They take their queen, and they're going, and they're looking for a new place to build a hive. So let me show you this picture right here. This is called a bee swarm. And that was in the backyard in one of our trees. And so let's look. Let's look a little closer at that bee. Okay. Thousands of bees. Swarms can be thousands of bees. So I call this beekeeper, and I'm like, okay, here's what we've got going on. Can you help us? Well, I learned so much. Again, you can learn a lot from bees. And anyway, I learned so much. Well, he's there, and he is. Essentially, I'm learning that beekeepers, they love these things because it means free bees. And free bees means. Well, if they find the queen and catch the queen, they can build a new hive. And new hive means honey. And we all know how honey, how good honey is. And so this guy really wanted this swarm. So he comes out, this beekeeper comes out, and he said, okay, I'm here, but the land underneath your trees, a little unsteady. Would you be willing to hold the ladder for me? And he said, I have a jacket. You can put this jacket on. And all you need is, like, jeans, big, wide jeans, no skinny jeans and boots, and you'll be fine. And so I go in, and I'm telling Shawn what's going on. He's like, you are not going to hold the ladder. He's like, the guy can figure out his own ladder. And it might surprise you to know this, but I do have a little. A little bit of a stubborn side. And so I was like, oh, no, I'm doing this. I'm gonna go. I'm gonna go out there, and I'm gonna show you and everybody else that I'm not afraid of bees. And so I get all ready to go. Let's see if we have a picture here. There's me, me and the bees. And the beekeeper told me. He said, okay, now, as long as you. I think we have a picture, too, of him. And so you can get a good idea. Okay, so there's the ladder. There's the tree. It's up there. And he essentially said, now, bees will. As long as they feel safe, you're safe. So no sudden movements, no swatting at them, and you're good. So. All right. Okay. Well, I pulled down. I had this. You know, that bee jacket on. I pull it down over my hands, and. And because I forgot gloves, and I'm holding this ladder, really, with just, like, my thumb and my first finger forefinger and thinking this. I'm barely holding this ladder. And I kept thinking, stay calm. And the sound. The sound was wild. But I kept thinking, just stay calm, stay cool, stay collected. And I held onto that statement, if the bees feel safe, you're safe. And so I'm sorry. Seeing, like, bees just landing on me, and they're buzzing all around, and I'm trying calm, calm, calm, but I kept saying. I was praying. I'm like, okay, God, tell the bees I'm safe. I wasn't saying that out loud. That would have been weird. But I just kept saying it over and over in my head. God, tell the bees I'm safe. Tell the bees I'm safe. Tell the bees I'm safe. And so Guy cuts down the swarm, puts it in a box, and we made it. And so I, like, tiptoe. I'm tiptoeing away from the tree. Tiptoe, tiptoe, to get as far as I can until I. Cause I'm still seeing bees around me. But I thought, okay, I'm probably safe. And then as soon as I could, I just went shake off all the bees. And so the rest of the bees. And so I just want you for a minute, though, to hear what was going on. I have a little video here for all of you to enjoy. This was the. See if you can hear the sound. Wow. Very cool. Thank you for letting me see all this. You're welcome. So that was the sound. Thank you. Thank you. That was the sound. It was wild. And I. You're like, why? Why did you tell us that story? Why did you show us? That video is awful. I'm going to have nightmares about bees. I read this Psalm 118, 10, 13. All nations surrounded me. In the name of the Lord, I cut them off. They surrounded me, surrounded me on every side. In the name of the Lord, I cut them off. They surrounded me like bees. They went out like fire among thorns. And in the name of the Lord, I cut them off. I was pushed hard so that I was falling. But the Lord helped me. And I love this picture because what we can hold onto, God goes after the enemy on our behalf. When the enemy comes at us, God says, stay back. When the Lord is walking with us, we can experience peace like we never experienced before in the middle of chaos. We can experience supernatural strength when we feel incredibly weak and confidence when we're worried or afraid. And this is the God. This is the same God who came to Moses and to the Israelites and said, I want to walk this journey with you. I want to take you from this hard, hard, harsh place, and I want to take you to this promised place where I will be there. And the people of God, they saw God show up in all kinds of miraculous ways. They saw him walk with them. He led the way. And what was so interesting, he. When. When they first left Egypt, God actually took the people of God the long way rather than the most direct, quickest route to the promised land. And the reason he did that was because he knew the people weren't ready. And he knew that the quickest route would lead them right into the Philistine army. And if you know anything, if you ever heard maybe David and Goliath, we know Philistines, enemies of God. And so God didn't want to do that. So he protectively led his people the long way to keep them from stepping into a place where they would get afraid and turn around and run. He had their best interest in mind always. He was ready to fight their battles. And here's the thing. Sometimes we think, well, I don't want to go the long way to get to that place. But honestly, sometimes the long way is the best way because it's in that place where you encounter an experience. It's a desperate place sometimes where you encounter and experience the most high God. It's that place where you can sit and scream and cry or laugh. We, Sean and I, had a chance not too long ago to have dinner with a group of pastors. And one of the pastors said he wanted everyone at the Table to go around and name a moment in life where they just knew God was in it. And he called it a marking moment. What's a moment in your life where you have felt marked by God? And I all of a sudden was like, don't call on me. Let me go last. And I had to go third. And so I had this moment because I was in this mix of. I want to think of something good to say because there were a lot of pastors who do this kind of thing all the time and have really good things to say. And then I also wanted to listen to what other people were saying because I didn't know some of these people. So anyway, it comes to me and I just go, well, when I was seven years old, and all of a sudden I know Sean is going, oh, no, Joe, there's a lot of people here. You cannot tell your whole life story. But I finally. I sped it up real quick when I said I was 7 years old. I'm like, what's coming out of my mouth? What am I talking about right now? Shh. So I sped it up. But I said, you know what a very marking moment has been? It's been the last several years where Sean's been really honest about a struggle with anxiety and panic attacks. And I said, but you know what? This last season has been such a sweet season, so to speak. It's been a marking moment. The suffering moments, while it's felt long and dark and hard, they've been so sweet because the Lord has been in that place. And I wouldn't trade it. I wouldn't trade it. I wouldn't trade those moments with Jesus. Because it's sometimes on the long way that you see God face to face and he shows up and you get to know him in ways you never dreamed possible. The long way is not always a bad way. So the journey continues, to see the people continue to carry on. And God does all kinds of miracles. All kinds of miracles. He parts a red sea so that the people could walk through it. He rains down, literally rains down, down. Food from heaven he brings every day. They've got meat. He brings in quail with the winds Every day. He takes care of their needs. Miraculously, he gives them water in desolate places. It said he was in a cloud. By day, he would offer them shade. By day, his presence, and he would lead them. And then by night, he was a pillar of fire so that they could have light and so that they could travel every, every day as he would lead. And the Bible says he Never left his place, ever in front of the people on this journey. He was with them. He cared. He took care of them. Their lives mattered and every step of the way. So they had been on this journey for two years. And something hit me as I was reading their journey. Moses, their leader, had been praying a prayer the entire time they would go. Numbers 10, 35, 36 says, Whenever the ark, the ark represented God's presence. Whenever the ark set out, Moses would say, arise, Lord. Let your enemies be scattered and those who hate you flee from your presence. And when it came to rest, he would say, return, Lord, to the countless thousands of Israel. This was a powerful, powerful prayer. Moses was praying. It was a bold prayer. He believed that God would honor his prayer. He believed that every place they put their foot on this journey, that the Lord would scatter the enemy like bees. And I love this prayer. It's a trusting God prayer. It's trusting God will fight for you. It's trusting God will take the enemy out on your behalf. And then it's a prayer of being completely reliant on God's presence. And there's so much power in our prayers, so much power. And it's part of one of the ways that we participate in this promise, participate in this process of getting to the promises God has for us. We trust God with promise places by engaging in personal relationship with him and by engaging in powerful prayers. And again, this is not a game we're playing. We wrestle, not scripture says against flesh and blood, but against principalities of darkness. And so I will never forget in that season, the long way through anxiety, in that season, Sean and I went to visit one of his pastors. And I'll never forget, he gave us a document, and he said, these are your warfare prayers. And essentially what they were, just a list of prayers personalized to scripture. And while I don't believe you have to pray a specific formula to. To. To. To God to get what you need to get what you want, it's not like that at all. But sometimes when you have no words and your heart is broken and devastated, and you're like, I'm just at the end, God. I've got nothing. Sometimes it's really awesome to have a prayer, God's word that you can fight back and read and push back on the enemy with. And so I'm going to give you a prayer. So I want you to take a picture of this because this is a prayer I want you to pray when you're in that place of moving toward a promise that you know God has for you. But life and hope is hard. I want you to say this. Arise, Lord. Let the enemies called cancer, sickness, infertility, addiction, anxiety, depression, rebellion, division, despair, discouragement, lies that say I'm not enough, lies that say I'm not loved be scattered in Jesus name. And Lord, return to us, be with us every single minute, every single hour, every single night and day. We trust you. Amen. That's the prayer. That prayer you take into your battle. God has promised places for you. It was that prayer and Moses and the mighty miracles of God that got the people to the promised land. After two years. Two years they leave Egypt. And two years later, here they are standing on the outskirts of the promised land. And in that moment, Moses said, okay, I'm going to send some spies in. I want you to check it out. I want you to see what we need to do. And I want you to go in and I want you to be bold as you stand. Survey the land. I want you, I want you to bring back some of the fruit and give a report. So he sent out 12. 12 men, 12 spies. They were there 40 days. Let's read when they got back from this journey, this 40 day journey of scouting out the land. Numbers 13:27. They came back. They reported to Moses. We went into the land where you sent us. Indeed, it is flowing with milk and honey. And here is some of its fruit, which I think is kind of funny. They didn't bring back a bee swarm and all that land of milk and honey they needed to bring back the bees. Anyway, sorry, I like sugar and honey and all the things. So that's why I'm like all over this honey thing. Anyway, here's some of the fruit. However, the people living in the land are strong and their cities are large and fortified. So all of a sudden they look at their circumstances and fear sets in. And for whatever reason, they could not look past the situation and their limitations. It was like where, where like they were on the journey with God. Had they forgotten all the miracles they'd done? And suddenly fear sets in. What they were saying was, this is impossible. But do you know what? Red Rocks Church. Our God, who is for us, our God, does amazing with impossible situations. He is the God of impossible. So with man it might be impossible, but not with God. With God, all things are possible. And so when we start to feel these feelings of I can't do it, we say, oh, no, no, no. In faith, this financial hardship will change because God is for me. My marriage is a mess. But it will get better in Jesus name, because God is for me. My children are far from God, but they will return. They will come close in Jesus name. This anxiety and depression will not always rule my life because my God is for me. We can trust God. We can trust God with the promised places. And I love it because there were two spies. Two of them, Joshua and Caleb. They were like, what guys? Numbers 14, 9. Here's what Joshua and Caleb said to the group. They said, people, don't rebel against the Lord and don't be afraid of the people of the land, for we will devour them. Their protection has been removed from them and the Lord is with us. Do not be afraid of them. I love that attitude. They were like, God has got us. Let's not fear, let's not doubt. God has got us. And he said, it's time. I love that Joshua and Caleb, they spoke life. We can learn so much from them. If we say, you know what? I am going to choose, despite what my circumstances, despite what my situation say, I'm going to choose to speak life. The power of life and death is in the the tongue. There's power in our words, our power. Our words have power to create. We trust God with promised places by engaging in personal relationship with Jesus, engaging in powerful prayers, speaking life, and taking God at His word. I want you to think for a minute. When you're in a tough, hard situation, what are you telling yourself about your situation? What are you telling yourself about who you are and who God is? Think about who God says you are. Think about who God is and what he can do. And as you get into the Word and begin to take him at His Word, you will see. 2 Corinthians 12:10. It says, so I take pleasure in weakness. I take pleasure in insults, hardships, persecutions, and in the difficulties for the sake of Christ. For when I'm weak, so then I am strong. So sadly for the Israelites, their inability to look past their limitations and situations, their inability to trust God in the moment, it cost them something. It cost them 40 more years. They could have been there in two years had they just said, God, what do we do next? Where do we go? Had they just trusted God with that promised place, But they couldn't do it. And so God said, okay, well, you're not ready yet. You're not ready yet, so turn around, you've got more time. And it took them 40 more years traveling in the desert before they could actually step into that promised land. And I think why this story has been so Meaningful to me is because I've lived this story, I've known this story, and I want you to hear this story because I heard. Ryan. Ryan. I was talking to Pastor Ryan about this message, and he said, doug always says you have permission to learn the easy way. Like you have permission to learn lessons the easy way. We don't all have to do it the hard way, but even in the hard way, there's beauty, the kindness and compassion of God says that, well, even a prolonged promise is still a promise. And when you look back, you see, oh, God, you've been in the process the entire time. He's so compassionate. I have. I wish. I have spent so many. I've danced so many days in the wilderness of insecurity, in the wilderness of timidity, in the wilderness of. I don't like myself and I'm not enough. And so it's been this. Okay, this is not a game we're playing. This is not a game. God has a plan. God has a purpose. And I want. I want to walk in the fruit of his promises, the fruit of his faithfulness. And if you are here and you're saying, okay, well, what. What happens if I have missed the promise or if I have prolonged that promise, is it too late for me? No, never. God's so kind. One of the things that I beat myself up the most about, I think, in life sometimes, is the way I've parented my boys. So that video you all saw means more than you'll ever know. But I spent a whole lot of time beating myself up, often over mistakes I've made. And I feel like I remember the moment God said, jill, you're going to make mistakes, but am I not bigger? Am I not bigger than the mistakes you've made? And what I noticed as I read this, this story of the Israelites again and again, while the. The parents, they didn't get to experience the promised land. It was part of the consequence of their. The choice they made. But God let the children in. So if you're in the room and you're beating yourself up, no more guilt, no more shame. The Lord has you, the Lord has your children. And your children will experience God. Children, young people, if you're hearing this message, learn the lesson the easy way. You don't have to wander in the wilderness. You were born for such a time as this. God has a plan for your life. Because we are not playing a game. It's not a game. Going back to that story of Bill and Sally, who are traveling the world and in this country where Christianity is illegal, they're in their rooms praying, going, God, what do we do? When all of a sudden, one of the leaders came in and he said to Sally, okay, the, the. The musicians, they're done. No more. They, they. They have to leave. But you, you have 12 minutes. Say whatever you want. So suddenly, this situation, this impossible situation, God scattered the beast. He said, go. And you take that 12 minutes and you tell the world I sent my son Jesus from heaven. He left his throne for you. He lived a perfect, sinless life and gave the gift of grace. When he gave his life on the cross for you, he paid the price. He closed the gap between us and God so that we could do life with him forever. She preached the message. She left. God made a way. He made a way. God will make a way for us. And I want us to close with this verse. This is like a closing, a closing prayer for us. A closing. This is who we are as Red Rocks Church. We're going to read this together. It's Psalm 62, 1 2. Because this is who we are, Red Rocks Church. This is who we are, people of God. So read this with me. Here we go. I am at rest in God alone. My salvation comes from Him. He alone is my rock. Red Rocks Church. He's the rock we are built on. And my salvation, my stronghold. I will never be shaken. That's who you are. That's who we are as the people of God. I love you. Red Rocks Church. I'm going to close in prayer, and before I do, I do want to ask if there's anyone in the room. You say, I hear. I've heard you talking about having a relationship with Jesus, but I'm not there yet. I haven't engaged in that personal, personal place with Him. I want the promises, but I also know I have sinned and I need to tell Him I'm sorry and I want to do life with him. If that's you, would you be so bold as to raise your hand? Awesome. Thank you. We'll close together in prayer in a minute, but I also want you to know, I want. I want to just see if you say, you know, I'm going through a really hard, hard time, hard situation, would you also raise your hand so that I can pray for you? Yeah, many. Okay, let's pray. Father, I thank you. I thank you for who you are. I thank you that you sent your son Jesus because you love us so much. I thank you, Jesus, that you gave your life for us. I thank you for the one who said, God, I want you to be lord of my life. Father, I thank you that you are the God who forgives. You're the God who forgets. You're the God who moves us to promised places. And God, we give you all of us. We give you our heart, we give you our soul. We give you our mind. We give you our life. Lord God, would you. Would you scatter the bees on our behalf? Where the enemy comes in like a flood, would you set a standard against him? We need you, God. You and you alone are our help. And we will choose to trust. Trust you. Help us to be bold, help us to be brave. And help us to be a blessing in this world of people who need you desperately. We love you. In Jesus name, amen.