Mother's Day | Give Them Courage

Give Them Courage

Joshua 1: 2b - 3 NKJV Now therefore, arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people, to the land which I am giving to them—the children of Israel. 3 Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given you, as I said to Moses.

Joshua 1: 5 No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life; as I was with Moses, so I will be with you.  I will not leave you nor forsake you.

Courage is not the absence of fear but obedience in the middle of it. 

Joshua 1:6–9
Be strong and of good courage, for to this people you shall divide as an inheritance the land which I swore to their fathers to give them. 7 Only be strong and very courageous, that you may observe to do according to all the law which Moses My servant commanded you; do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may prosper wherever you go.

8 This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you[ shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. 9 Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”

Three Keys to Courage:

1.Go : Before You Feel Ready

Joshua 1:2 “Now therefore arise…”

2. Lean : Into His Presence, Not Your Power

Joshua 1:5 “I will be with you… I will never leave you nor forsake you.”

3. Listen : Let the Word Get Louder Than Fear

Joshua 1:8 This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night…

Fear rehearses disaster.   Faith rehearses truth.

There is this moment where GO —> LEAN —> LISTEN —> all collide into one decision:      Step!

Joshua 3:13 And it shall come to pass, as soon as the soles of the feet of the priests who bear the ark of the Lord, the Lord of all the earth, shall rest in the waters of the Jordan, that the waters of the Jordan shall be cut off, the waters that come down from upstream, and they shall stand as a heap.

God always attaches miracles to movement! 

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Transcript

Welcome And Opening Prayer

SPEAKER_00 0:12

Well, well, well. We all made it this morning. I'm so proud of you. You made it. I do want to speak to a group of people that today maybe is not as easy for you. And I understand that and I honor that. For coming to your community today and being with your people, I always tell my sisterhood, even on hard days we show up. Even on hard days we show up. And so look around today. Notice. Hold someone's hand in their moment. It's okay. You don't have to make it better. Be present. It's okay. It's okay. Let me pray for your heart today, Lord. If today is difficult, give them peace. If today is full of loss, give them hope. If today is full of wanting, give them the desires of their heart. Be with us today. In Jesus' name.

unknown 1:11

Amen.

SPEAKER_00 1:12

Give the band a hand. I'm excited to be with you this morning. I feel like I have a message. I've been working on it all week, but I need to tell you that I didn't really know what I was gonna preach at all. And I thought, uh, I could do Ruth. I mean, that's Mother's Day, right? I could do Esther, that's fun. And last Sunday morning,

Why Courage Feels Hard Today

SPEAKER_00 1:40

standing right here during worship, I felt the Lord say, give them courage. And I thought, okay, I can do that, I think. We'll do it together, Lord. And so I started really researching courage. What does courage look like? And see, when we think of courage, we think of bravery, we think of doing hard things, we think of all the things. And when we were kids, courage looks like uh riding the bike with no hands, right? Or jumping off the high dive for the very first time. My favorite thing in the summer is to go in our neighborhood pool and watch the little kids jump off the high dive. You would think that thing was 13 foot tall. It's it's not that high. But they're acting like it is, and we're cheering. We are, I'm with them. We're cheering. You can't do it, buddy. How about when we were younger? Now the kids these days don't understand, but how about calling your crush on the landline? Do you remember? And their dad answers only happened to me one time. I never called again. But adults, courage looks a little different. In fact, fear looks a little different. How about the time you uh put your password in and they say wrong password? And then you reset the password and it says it can't be the same password as last time. Come on. How about for the parents in the room, when that kid calls and says, Hey mom, don't be mad. I need a little courage. Or when the check engine light comes on and you just paid the last payment on the car. Come on, somebody. Seeing a spider, then not seeing the spider. It's terrible. In fact, just this week, me and Jake were laughing. Jake, he no, my children no longer live with me. It's fine. I'm going through therapy, it's okay. But he was telling his meme, because I traded my kids for my mother. Excellent decision, by the way. She's much cleaner. She loads the dishwasher, she takes out the trash. It's amazing. He was telling his meme that uh he would come in to the kitchen and there would be a coffee cup on the floor, and he would know there was something in the coffee cup. Because I don't kill bugs, but I catch them. I just not my problem. Someone else will kill him. He can live in there for a little while. How about trusting people with important things? I need a little courage for that. See, adulthood is tiny acts of courage, even when you're exhausted. We live in one of the most anxious generations in modern history. In fact, the American Association of Psychology says that half of Americans feel isolated, emotionally overwhelmed, and completely unsupported. They actually said, these Americans that they pulled said they are more anxious now than they were this time last year. We have more technology, more convenience, more information, more security than we ever have, and somehow less peace. And I think the title, Give Them Courage, fits perfectly. Because I couldn't know last Sunday that aliens would be proved this week. Come on, somebody. Who knew? I was when I saw it, I was like, well, thank you. Now we all need a little courage. The green men are real. And they look just like what they told us they would. I don't know. I didn't look at the pictures, I don't care. What you need to know is that I have always battled fear and anxiety. In fact, when I went to third grade for one whole year, I was homeschooled most of my other uh educational career, but the one year I did go to third public third grade in public school, they called me Anxious Angie. That's what they named me. Can you imagine calling a kid Anxious Angie? The 80s were wild, wasn't it? It was a wild time. And that stuck, it stuck in my heart. It stuck in my mind. In fact, I remembered when I was preparing this lesson that when I was a kid, uh, does anybody remember the garbage pill kids? Thank you. Welcome, my people. There was a card called Nervous Nelly, and they gave it to me in my third grade class, and they had crossed out Nervous Nelly and wrote anxious Angie. Why didn't I keep that? I should have. Wouldn't that have been it? What if I would be like, and it's right here? We don't keep stuff like that. I carried that through my entire life, marked, and I went through freedom, and I know that the God and the Lord did work in me. But this February of this year, I went to a church service just like this one, and my pastor's wife preached a message, and my life was changed. And in that moment, I found freedom from fear and anxiety. And I know that there is someone in this room that's whole life is about to be changed. Because if he did it for me, he'll do it for you. Will you open your hands? Let me pray for you. Lord Jesus, we know fear is not of you. We know anxiety is not of you. Lord, hold us close, help us hear, help us understand, connect the broken places, put the puzzle pieces together, Lord. Let your Holy Spirit fill this room that we would be freed from our anxious fears, and that you would give us courage in Jesus' name. Amen. You see, fear parks people on the edge of not necessarily brokenness, but it's more like it delays you. Like you want to do the thing you know you're supposed

From Anxious Angie To Freedom

SPEAKER_00 7:55

to, you wanna do those, say the thing and call the person and go for that job. You want to do all those things, but it's like you just can't. That fear just blocks you. And I want to camp out in Joshua chapters one and chapter three today, because I just love this story, and I can see so many parts that will encourage you today. So before we get to our scripture, I want to kind of bring you up to speed of what our good friends, the Hebrew children, the Israelites, are up to in the wilderness. And so, if you don't know, they were slaves in Egypt for a long time. And then a deliverer was born named Moses, and he went through it, y'all. He went through it. He had to go through all these plagues, and you can read it for yourself. It's good reading. It's the whole book of Exodus. You should read it. And so the thing is, is they went out into the wilderness. They're freed from slavery, they took all the riches of Egypt and they started walking in the wilderness, and they walked, and they walked, and they walked 40 years of walking. And they almost got there, and Moses died. Their leader, their deliverer, the one who was cast in vision. Come on, guys, we're going to the land of milk and honey. Get your stuff, let's go. Your shoes aren't wearing out. I know you're sick of manna. I know you're sick of all, but we're gonna get there. Gone. And in his place, he left his assistant named Joshua. And I think about poor little Joshi Pooh, just a kid. I mean, I think he was 40. But you know, in the Bible times, they all lived till forever. And so he's like a kid. He's got to lead two million people this last little bit of the way. And I will remind you as we read the scriptures that this land of milk and honey was not empty waiting for them. It was full of people, full of vicious people. In fact, if you read the scriptures, it wasn't just people, there were giants in the land. And there were other things in the land. I'm not going to tell you because I want you to read your Bible. It's very interesting. There were other things, giants and others. These were not skilled warriors, these are not people that had grown up with army understanding. They had walked for 40 years. They were good at walking. They could put up a tent, they could get manna off the ground. That's a and complained. You know what? They were really good at complaining and not doing what they were supposed to do at all, like ever. Like, ever. I'll never forget. I was teaching this story in kids' ministry, and one little kid said, Again. I said, I know, buddy, they just can't get it. He's like, but for real, again? I'm like, I know, I know, it's a crazy thing. And you're gonna learn you're just the same. And you're gonna look at yourself at 45 years old and think, again? I'm still learning this one thing. So we catch up to Joshua. Joshua 1, verse 2, it says, Now therefore arise. They were grieving Moses in this moment. Go over this Jordan river, you and all this people, to the land which I am giving to them, the children of Israel. Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon, I have given you. As I said to Moses. Remember, this land is not empty, just waiting. It's full, full of people who are not ready to give up their lands,

Joshua Steps Into Leadership

SPEAKER_00 12:10

by the way. They're not preparing for this two million people onslaught. It's like a whole nation just moving in. Joshua 1.5 goes on to say, No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life. Come on, somebody, that'll preach all by itself. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you nor forsake you. You see, God didn't tell Joshua how brave he was. He didn't tell Joshua how smart he was. This wasn't one of those moments where he was like, You is smart, you is perfect, you is good. I can't remember the quote. I'm working on it. You is good. Y'all get the point. God is telling Joshua, I'm with you, buddy. It didn't matter. It didn't matter, you have no idea how to fight. It doesn't matter you don't really have any weapons or know how to use the swords, you don't have any chariots, you don't have any horses. I am with you. And if you were here Wednesday night, Pastor Sean preached a killer message. If you if you weren't, you missed it. Sorry, I can't. They wasn't even recorded. Sorry. But that there was more than meets the eye. And that's the same for the Israelites in this moment. Josh is looking at these two million complainers. There's a reason they're referred to as children and thinking, I don't know, God. I don't know. But the Lord was with him. Courage is not the absence of fear, but the obedience in the middle of it. You see, God wasn't telling old Josh, you don't have to be fearless. You just have to go forward. You just have to move. And he goes on to say, be strong and of good courage, for to this people you shall divide as an inheritance the land which I swore to their fathers to give them. Remember, 40 years, it's a whole generation later. They don't even remember Egypt, which is funny because a little side note, remember they're complaining about onions and garlic? They had never eaten that. What? Complainers, children. Only be strong and courage and very courageous. Second time he said it, by the way. Anybody feeling that, mothers? It's the second time. That you may observe to do according to all the law which Moses, my servant, commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may prosper wherever you go. Twice. Maybe Josh wasn't getting it. He had to say it again. The book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, then you will have good success. Have I not commanded you be strong and of good courage. Do not be afraid nor dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go. He doesn't say, Okay, Josh, good luck. Go, go. Go ahead. He gives him three keys to courage in this passage. He gives them three ways to push past the fear and anxiety of taking this land, of getting this job, of getting married, of paying bills, of just being a parent in 2026. He gives them three ways to have courage in the face of adversity. The first key is go. Before you're ready, Joshua 1, 2 says, Now therefore arise. Remember, old Joshi Pooh was untrained. He was grieving. He was worried.

Key One Go Before Ready

SPEAKER_00 16:36

Will they even follow me? Will they do what I say? Will they believe me? Who am I to lead these people? And see, God's first instruction to Joshua was not understand everything or feel confident or just stop being afraid, Josh. It was go. Because courage starts with movement. Last summer I had this bright idea that I wanted my family to go ziplining to pray for Pastor Sean, because he just wakes up to a new world every day. And I thought, in fact, I built our entire vacation around this one place to go zip lining. So us, Jake, Jackson, Grace, and Mimi, my mom. You guys call her Pastor Gayla, but she's mom. We all go to this place to zip line. And I can quickly tell that one of us, Mimi, is not going. She's not with the plan. I can tell. She gets she gets a pass. Okay. You don't have to. No one else gets a pass. We're all going ziplining. So we climb the stairs, everyone. No, it's worse. We get in the golf cart and go up the mountain. All the way, all the way. I'm good. I'm happy. I'm excited. First time I've ever ziplined. Jackson and Grace had ziplined before. They they knew what was coming. They didn't share with their mother. I'm going through it. We get up there and we pair off. It's me and Jake. Jackson and Grace, and then poor Sean didn't have a buddy. He went by himself. He's fine. So somehow it's me and Jake first. So we're in the harness. I didn't know about that, by the way. That's weird. If you've ever been ziplining, I'm not going into detail. It's weird. We go up to the thing, we're standing on the edge, and I look down and I think, oh no. Nope, not doing this. Not even a little bit. I'm telling you right now, I thought to myself, this is the stupidest idea I have ever had. I look over to Jake. He is pumped. He is pumped. And there he goes. Kirsten, you got a picture? Goodbye, Jake. And I hear the lady say, Your buddy is leaving. You've got to go. And I say, what? Huh? And I was gonna show you the video, but it's a little shameful. I literally step back from the edge, because you can clearly see with my face, what? Jake's gone. He is gone. Alive or dead, I have no idea. In fact, I have a picture. The next one? I'm stepping back. And I cannot make my body move forward. I've never felt, I swear to you, I have never felt like that before in my life. I cannot make myself go. I am afraid. And I hear the lady, and that's really why I can't show you the video, because she is shrieking at me like a banshee. Go, your buddy needs you. And somehow your buddy needs you gets into the back of my mama brain, and I think, Jake needs me. Like he's two years old. I promise you, I wish I was making this up. This is real life for me. And I think for that moment, Jake needs me was bigger than my fear. And I took a step and then I went.

SPEAKER_01 20:29

Go.

SPEAKER_00 20:31

And I didn't even pee my pants. And it was a, it was, it took us a long time. Everybody else, fine. No one else had an issue. Only mom, whose bright idea it was. But what struck me about the whole thing was how scared I was. Because people scare. I already told you, I I've I've been labeled anxious since I was a kid. People get me, new situations get me, but this was a different kind of fear. This is where I had to do something stupid that really didn't matter. I could get out, but my kid needed me. The future needed me. I heard her say it. Your buddy needs you. And the thing is, is right now you need to do something that your friends, your community, your family needs you to step and go. Josh could not just set up camp in the wilderness and say, you know what? I'm not ready. We're gonna stay here for a while until I get ready, until I feel ready. They had to go before they were ready, before they were trained, before they understood really where the zipline ended. Come on, somebody. Some of us are waiting to feel ready, but see, readiness is overrated. Obedience is what moves the kingdom. It's time to go. Host a small group. Go for that job. Ask that girl out. Get married for some. Come on, somebody, get married. Go to college. Did I say host a small group? Do that. Meet someone new. Shake someone's hand. Stay a little longer after church. Come a little earlier. Join the coffee team. You're welcome, Grace. You can pay me later. You know what to do. Do it. Scared. Do it. You see, because the Jordan didn't disappear because Joshua obeyed. It was still there. The raging river was still there. The enemies did not disappear because Joshua said yes. Fear doesn't magically evaporate when we are obedient. We just push past it. We think obedience should make us feel confident, but the thing is, is you can be obedient and still feel nervous. Because it's not about you. Because the Lord is with you. Because God told Joshua to go. And then he taught Joshua how to lean. The second key to courage is to lean. It's his presence, not your power. Joshua 1 5 says, I will be with you. I will never leave you or forsake you. Joshua's courage wasn't coming from his winning personality, his dashing good looks, his ability to spin a hundred plates. It was because the presence of God was with him. That's the game changer. Some of us are so exhausted because we are trying to carry God-sized assignments in our own human strength. Especially today, as we focus on women. Women are notorious to try and do it all on their own. I got it. Today, my sweet Jackson came up to me and said, What can I take off your plate? You know, and I said, Nothing, I'm good. And then I went and did 45 things that he could have done 100%. Because it's in us. I don't need your help. I got this. I got it. How are you doing? I'm fine. When really we're anxious, we're overwhelmed. We need support from a community, but we can't get past the ability to say, I'm not okay. I could really use a friend. I could really use a prayer partner. I could really just use a scripture verse. Hey, would you be my accountability partner and let's read the Bible every single day and just check in with each other? We could never. Because it's all about us. How could we allow people

Key Two Lean On Presence

SPEAKER_00 25:10

to believe that we don't have it all together? That's why I couldn't show you the video of the zip lining incident. Because I didn't have it, took me, those pictures look pretty fast. It took me way too long to figure out that Jake needs you. All the way in my back of my brain, it took a long time. Lots of steps. Listen to me. God is not asking you to carry this without him. He is asking you to lean on him. My favorite part of this entire scripture is God doesn't tell Joshua, don't feel fear. He says, Do not fear. I am with you. It's because we don't have a true understanding of the presence of God. That you know what, whatever happens, God's gonna work it out. Whatever, whatever this looks like, I'm gonna be obedient and he's gonna do the rest. That is the game changer. Your courage is not built on the absence of fear, it is built in the presence of God. And the time that this really stuck out to me is when, I mean, what's a Mother's Day without a pregnancy story? Can I tell you? When I was pregnant with Grace, she was quickly labeled as a failure to thrive pregnancy. And I went, and I and I'll just tattle on myself. The reason being is because uh I took 85 teenagers to youth camp, very pregnant, and was never the same after. And went came right home with ankles the size of watermelons and went to bed rest. And I'll just remind you that Jake Mooney was still in diapers. So she, it's fine, it's fine. So I was weekly, weekly doctor's appointments, just me and Grace going to the doctor's, and every week the doctor told me you need to prepare for the worst. You need to, she's fine today, you need to prepare for the worst. Every single week they spoke fear and death into my heart. And every single week I would get in my car and blast worship music because it was the only way that I could battle the fear that was spoken into my heart. As you can see, it turned out fine. She's fine, she's alive and well, and she's my last child for a reason. A joy since the moment she was born. But can you imagine? Can you imagine being told every week this is not viable, this is not gonna work out? That's when you have to lean on the presence of God because my body was not enough. The systems in my body was not doing what it was supposed to do. I had to lean on the Lord. God, I don't know. I can't fix this. Only you can fix this, only you can make sure that this child comes to fruition. Only you. You see, when fear starts preaching in your brain, it's real hard to shut it up. When it starts telling you you can't do this, you're not supposed to have this baby. You should have never taken those kids to youth camp. This is your fault, this is your fault, this is your fault. You gotta shut it up and say, you know what? I may have done what I did, but the Lord is good and he is strong, and he will not fail because he is with me. Heart take courage. You see, Joshua had to go, he had to get up and move, and then he had to lean on the Lord. I don't know how to lead two million people. I don't know how to fight what we're going into. I don't know even what to do with a giant. The grapes are the size of my head. He saw them himself, remember? He knew what they were up against, remember. The third key to courage is to listen. Joshua 1 8 says, This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night. If you've read the Bible, you know that the Hebrew children were complainers. They constantly criticized and critiqued and had a problem and all the things. He had to get the word of God louder in his mind than the people around him. And it's crazy to me. In fact, Pastor Susan and I were just talking about this yesterday, that people can tell you a million good things, but it's one negative that will stick and it defines you. In fact, just before I walked up here this morning, Pastor said, Oh, let me go get your stand. And I said, No, it looks too messy. Remember, you told me that last time. He said, I don't remember saying that. I said, Oh, you did. Stuck in my brain. He also told me how good I preached. I'm sure he did. I don't remember, but I remember that. That's how the human brain works. But the thing is, is you have to put the word of God in you that it's louder than the complaints of men. Then it's louder than the running fear commentary that happens in your brain. And God connects what Joshua is listening to directly to his courage. He tells them, meditate on my word. Now, meditate is not the empty your mind weird stuff. Okay. Let's let's be real clear. Pastor Angie said to go meditate. No, I said to focus on the on the word of the Lord. Rehearse. When you look at meditate, repeat, rehearse, mutter quietly to yourself. This is me. God vindicate these people. My favorite is to put it on a post-it note. If you're struggling with something, a post-it note with a scripture written right on your bathroom mirror is a game changer. How about on your coffee maker? How about in your car? How about just all over you? Just wear a suit of post-it notes. Because the thing is, is it really wasn't the giants or the worst-case scenarios or the opinions of people, all those things were rolling around in Joshua's head. But God had just told him, I am with you. Meditate on the things that I have said. But if you don't know what God actually said, what do you meditate on? If you know every news headline and you know everything that the president has tweeted, but you don't know any scriptures to battle the fear that those two things beget into your own brain, we have a problem. The voice you give the most attention to will eventually have the most authority over you. And you think about it, most of us we wake up and the first thing we grab is thank you for being honest, your phone, because it's your alarm clock. And then your finger scrolls, and then you read you open an email. The other day I got up at 2:30, opened an email, and I was awake. And here we are. For the rest of the day, I got that email in the wet cement of my brain. And then we go to the coffee maker, and what do we do? We scroll, we turn the news on. And then on the way to work, we take five minutes and say, Lord, help me pass this. Or the cop pulls up behind you and you're like, Lord, give me grace. Better things to do. He's got better things to do. Favor and grace. Is that just me? You see, we give fear every microphone, but we just give God a minute. And then we're shocked when fear is the loudest thing in our brain. See, I love the thing that we do. And if you didn't get the sermon notes, uh the printed sermon notes, we give you a weekly Bible study every week that goes with Pastor Sermon because we want to make it easy for you to research and know the Word of God for yourself.

Key Three Listen To Scripture

SPEAKER_00 33:55

Because I love you, but a 35-minute sermon on Sunday is not enough to battle the fear that comes at you every single day of the week. It's not enough. It's like eating one time a week and fasting the rest of the week. That's crazy talk. I mean, if you do it, God bless you, but that's the Lord would have to speak to me. This reading plan helps you know what God said, not what we tell you he says, not what Pastor Sean thinks it's it says, what you read, what you understood, what God spoke to you. Do you know that two people can read the same scripture and get two separate things out of it? That is mind-blowing to me. That could only be the presence of God, but you have to actually pick up your Bible and read the scripture. You have to actually control the amount of content that is coming into your brain. And is it the same? Is it balanced? Fear rehearses disaster, but faith rehearses truth. And the thing is, is that when fear says you're alone, there's a scripture that says he will never leave me or forsake me. In fact, I got a bunch of them. You can take a picture. Maybe you're going under. God is with me wherever I go. You can't handle this, his grace is sufficient for me. Now, this is what I got from these scriptures. You should look them up. In fact, Pastor told us a couple of months ago that if you are going through something, if you'll just pull out your Google, oh man, I just made myself sound real old. I don't care. If you'll pull out your Google, look up scripture and whatever you're going for, bam. You have every capability at your hand. We're stuck in a cycle of fear and anxiety because we don't know what God has already done for us. We don't know. We can't remember. Because remember, it's harder to remember the good things than it is the bad. That's why we have to meditate on those things. We have to put them in there when we don't need them, so they'll be there when we do. So that's what comes out of you. Fear has become a primary voice in our brain. God has so much more for you. He's ready for you to go, he's ready for you to listen, and he's ready for you to lean. But the thing is, is all of this collides into step because we have to move. We can know what we're supposed to do, we can make the plan, we can make a list. Come on, list makers. Are there any list makers in the house? We can make lists of lists, but until we actually step, nothing happens. And this is where Josh and the gang are. The gang, two million people, the gang. Joshua 3 13 says, and it shall come to pass. Hold on, let me set it up for you. They're standing on the banks of the Jordan River. He has to get everybody over this raging river without losing anyone. Guys, I go to the river every summer of my life. It's a little touch and go every summer of my life. And I'll let you know that I have watched my children float down a river and been like, good luck. I'll meet you at the pass. I hope you're safe. It would be so incredibly difficult to not lose someone over a raging river. And it shall come to pass as soon as the soles of the feet of the priests who bear the ark of the Lord, the Lord of all the earth, shall rest in the waters of the Jordan. They had to step into the water. The waters of the Jordan shall be cut off, and the waters that come from upstream shall stand as in a heap. The risk was real, but they had to step into the water before the miracle happened. If you want to be free of your fear, you want to be free of your anxiety, you have to make a step. Because God always attaches miracles to movement. Think about all the times that Jesus healed someone, they had to do something. They had to move. They had to step. Many of us are standing at the edge of a Jordan River, waiting for God to move first. And he's waiting on us to trust him enough to step into the water. Because he reveals himself in the step. I believe there are people in this room that have been held so tightly by fear their entire life. And when you wake up in the morning, you are clutched by anxiety. You are nervous. You don't know how you're gonna do what you need to do. And I'm here to tell you that you don't have to do it on your own. You are not alone. The Lord is with you. And I want to create a space in this service for you. The prayer team is gonna come, the worship team is gonna come, and we're gonna make space because I believe there are three types of people in this room. There are the hesitators, the ones who know what they're supposed to do, just like me on that zip line. I know I'm I just have to step off. I just have to step off. But you can't get yourself to go. Prayer team is coming. Second kind is the exhausted. You have been trying to carry everything on your own. You have been lifting and moving and shoving, and you are exhausted. But you know what? God has called you to lean. There's a prayer partner right here that's gonna help you lean on the Lord. There's a prayer partner right here that's gonna help you take the step towards your calling. There is freedom from fear in this altar. And that third group of fear uh of people is the fear-filled. You are the ones that are stuck. You are just like how I was in February. Paralyzed, broken by fear. And I'm here to tell you, you don't have to be. We're gonna worship for a few

Step Into The Jordan

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minutes. This altar, whether you make an altar in your chair, there is freedom in the room! And we are ready! For God! What will you stand with me? Let's welcome the presence of the Lord! Jesus, I think for God, that even now we are taking the steps towards freedom. Even now, people are coming to the altar. Or even now they are free from wear and exciting for Jesus. I think that you are making a way where there is no way. I think you that you are moving where we cannot move. Lord, I think you that even now you are free.

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The Lord is with me. The Lord is with me. The Lord is with me. The Lord is with me. Every place in our hour of me. The Lord is with me.

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There's another group of people. Maybe the step is salvation. Maybe it's time to renew your walk. Maybe today, on Mother's Day 2026, you finally say,

Altar Call And Closing Blessing

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okay. It's not working. It's not working my way. It's not working the Lord the world's way. It's not working by the skin of my own power, my own teeth. I can't do this alone. I want to pray with you. And your brothers and sisters are going to repeat after this can be the moment that you say yes to Jesus. Let's pray together as a church family. Jesus, I give you my life. I surrender my fear, my control, my sin, and my future. Forgive me. Make me new. Fill me with your spirit. Teach me to follow you. I trust you. I belong to you. In Jesus' name. Amen. Let's celebrate. Let's celebrate. My goodness. We're gonna worship a little bit more, but if you gotta go, I know you do. Be blessed. Have a blessed week. Happy Mother's Day. If you need to pray, the prayer team will stay for a few minutes later. Be blessed.