Taking Territory | Joe Sims

Hallelujah. And then we'll get some lights. Hallelujah. Let there be light,

creative power come. Thank you Lord. Well you excited about Jesus hallelujah.

Well I want to I want to just say, you know, Pastor

asked me to fill in this morning just he wasn't feeling great this week,

so we just declare health over he and Pastor Joel. But I'm excited to

be able to bring the word to you this morning. And and and I

want to say, you know, Pastor Joel had such a strong prophetic word

their vision. I love the fact that God is going to surprise He's a

god of surprise us, and He's going to do some things in all of

us that we didn't expect. And things are going to look like you didn't

expect them to look. You might have a vision of how you think things

are going to look in this season that we're coming into. But I'm telling

you, God is shaking the nations, He's shaking leadership, He's shaking things

that have never been shaken before, like they're being shaken right now. And

it is really his way of reminding us that he's in charge. We might

have thought a man was in charge. But no, no, no,

God's in charge. And so this morning, as we dive into the word

Lord, we just declare that we're open to your Holy Spirit. We say,

Holy Spirit, Come fill this room, fill our minds, fill our

hearts. God show us your ways. God, Your ways are higher than

our ways, and Lord, we lean into that. Today. We lean

into that in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen, we God bless you.

Glad you came this morning. I'm Joe Simms, one of the elders

here at the church, and I love to be able to be here and

share with you this morning. And today I want to I want to just

continue with kind of the themed pastor has been on about creative power, and

today we're going to talk about taking territory. How many of you are ready

to take some territory? Been feeling like, you know, it's time to

expand, time to move forward in some things. And so this morning I

want to talk about that with you for a few minutes and let's just see

where God takes us. Amen. Let's start in Deuteronomy thirty four, and

I want to just start with this. It's verses seven and eight says so

Moses, the servant of the Lord, died there in the land of Moab,

according to the word of the Lord, and he buried him in a

valley in the land of Moab, opposite Bethpoor. But no one knows his

grave until to this day. Moses was one hundred and twenty years old when

he died. His eyes were not dim his natural vigor was not diminished.

And the children of Israel wept for Moses in the planes of Moab thirty days.

So the days of weeping and mourning for Moses ended. Wow. Think

about this for a moment. The Israelites that were alive then, all but

two, had only known Moses as the leader outside of Egypt. They weren't

in Egypt. They didn't know slavery, they didn't know all those things,

never experienced that. They're in the wilderness. They've heard tell of all these

great things that he had done to get them out of Egypt. And then

they had seen things happen at his hand in their forty years, some of

them much younger, obviously, but he died. They know of the Promised

Land, and they've heard about it from two spies, Joshua and Caleb.

But they are now leaderless. In their minds, it's like, Wow,

Moses is dead. What are we going to do? What's going to happen.

Moses had made it very clear to them that Joshua would be the next

leader. He had demonstrated that, he told them that. And so now

we turn our attention to Joshua and we look and we think, here's a

guy who has been thrust into power of leading this people just like that.

Because Moses died, there was no transitional team where he had months and weeks

to prepare and he would get up and share his vision for leadership, and

where he would get up and do all of these different things, and the

people can kind of get used to his leadership. No, no, no,

Moses died, and now Joshua gets to be in charge. You go

one day from being mentored by Moses, from being his right hand man to

now you're in charge of one million people. Anybody here been thrust into leadership,

anybody here been thrust into leadership of a million people. And if you

read the accounts in the Bible of the Israelites, they were like herding cats.

You would leave, you thought you had it whipped. You left Sunday

service. It was amazing power of God fell. Everything went great, and

you went off to seek the Lord, and all the people went like,

weird on you sound like pastorship. It happens, you imagine. I mean,

so, now Joshua was in charge, it's his job. I can

only imagine what he felt like. I led a company with two hundred people.

That was tough. I cannot imagine a million. Just can't even imagine

that. But there he was. And so when you get thrust into leadership,

lots of things happen to you. You know, you can step up

to the plate. Sometimes a leader can become stagnant. They can stand still,

they can just freeze. They don't get things done. And so here's

Joshua and then God shows up. That's good. If you get thrust into

leadership, you hope God shows up. Tell me, amen, one you

get thrust into leadership, you want God to show up. Pastor's been teaching

us about creative power and how that our words and how we think and how

we respond to things. That makes a difference. Would you agree? And

so God shows up in Joshua one verses one and two, and he says,

and it says, and after Moe's is Yahwey's servant died and Yahways spoke

to Joshua and he said, Moses. He says, my servant, Moses

is dead. Now get up. So that would indicate that Joshua hadn't taken

it very well. Maybe he was just you know, maybe he was who

knows, We don't know. Doesn't really say much about that, but you

got to tell him. Now, God's saying, listen, you've mourned.

You've mourned for thirty days. You guys have hung out, you've been depressed.

It's over with. Moses is dead. He's not coming back. Get

up, now, get up. How many of you have somebody in your

family or somebody that you know who likes to read the obituaries anybody, well

you laugh, But there are people who do this. Sometimes. I think

it's because they're checking to see if they're names in it, you know.

But you know, when my mom was alive, I would call her and

check on her, you know, and she lived surrounded by older people,

and so I would call her and she'd be a little depressed, and she'd

go, oh, Joe, it's the worst thing, and already knew what

was going to follow, and said, well, what happened, Mom,

David from the seventh floor he died, and she'd be like really bummed about

it. She didn't even know him, but it's like he died. And

I'd be like, well, Mom, how old was David? Eighty seven?

Eighty seven? That's a good life. And so I would kind of

end the phone call with, you know, well, Mom, you outlived

another one. Good job. Kind of break her out of it, you

know, get her attention off of it, you know. And so you

know, it's one of those things where you know, we've all had that

person. Well, here's God's showing up doing it. He demonstrated this.

The only thing I was surprised that when I read this was that he didn't

say, hey, Margaret Simms called me and said that Moses died. But

you know, God announces this to Joshua. It's like, Joshua, Moses

is dead and he ain't coming back. Get up, get going. We've

got some territory to take. I'm here to tell you today, God has

some territory for you to take. And the thing that you've died, that

died, that you've been mourning, God saying, get up, get over

it. It's time to move forward, Thank you Jesus. We have to

stop mourning and wondering and start getting ready for what God's got next. It's

time to trade our disappointment for our next DiscId signment. Come on, trade

your disappointment for your next assignment. Come on, trade your disappointment for your

next assignment. Somebody say, I'm trading my disappointment for my next assignment.

Come on, come on. That's what we've got to do. We have

to the children of Israel had to trade their disappointment in the death of Moses

for the next assignment that God had for them. They couldn't move forward without

that thing dying. And some of us we've got some stuff that needs to

die so we can move forward. We're hanging on to the things that are

dying far too long. Continues in Joshua one two. It says this is

God said this. He said, prepare to cross the Jordan River. He's

talking to Joshua now. He says, prepare to cross the Jordan River.

You and all the people lead them into the land that I am giving to

the Israelites. Every part of the land where you march, I will give

you as I promised Moses. Your borders will extend from the southern desert to

the northern mountains of Lebanon, and from the great River Euphrates to in the

east to the Mediterranean in the west, including all the land of the Hittites.

Joshua, no one will be able to defeat you for the rest of

your life. I want you to hear that, Joshua, no one will

be able to defeat you for the rest of your life. Put your name

in there. Come on, your name, John. No one will be

able to defeat you for the rest of your life. Joe, no one

will be able to defeat you for the rest of your life. Come on,

we got to lean into this, and he says, I will be

with you as I was with Moses. I will never fail you. I

will not abandon you. You must be strong and brave. One version says,

courageous. Come on, you will lead the people to acquire Come on,

you will lead the people to acquire and a portion the land that I

promised their ancestors that I would give them. Want to imagine hearing those words,

prepare to cross over. Come on. Courage is starting to build in

Joshua as he hears this. God is speaking to him. He says,

prepare to cross over. That time has come, that that you've heard about

is now upon you. You promised, your promised land is right in front

of you, Joshua. Everywhere you march, it's yours. Come on,

if your feet touch it, it's yours. Come on. Would that change

the way you walk? Would that change what you're wearing? Would that change

the way you think about things? Come on? Come on, My feet

are gonna go, and that's my territory. Your borders are gonna extend as

far as you can see. And he says, I love this. No

one will be able to defeat you. No demon, no person, nothing

can get in your way because I'm with you. I won't abandon you,

and I will not leave you. Wow. Come on, he says,

you're going to acchoir and you're going to a portion. It's your territory,

I'm telling you, God saying over us today, get up, get ready.

I've got territory for you to take. Get up, get ready.

I've got territory for you to take sacrifice. Thinking about the things that you've

been thinking about. God's saying, get up, get ready, I've got

territory for you to take it. Continues in Joshua three, and it says,

then Joshua rose early in the morning. How many of you rise early

in the morning. Come on, says Joshua rose early in the morning.

And they set out from the acacia grove and came to the Jordan, he

and all the children of Israel and lodged there before the crossing. So it

was after three days that the officers went through the camp, and they commanded

the people, saying, when you see the ark of the Covenant, and

the priest the Levites saying, bearing it, then you shall set out from

your place and go after it. The ark of the Covenant represents the presence

of God. Then you shall set out from your place and go after it.

Yet there shall be a space between you and it. Do not come

near it, that you may know the way by which you must go,

for you have not passed this way before. That acacia forest, the acacia

tree in that day represented divinity. It represented strength, that represented protection.

All of the things that they thought they had inside that grove, God's calling

them out from among it, and he's saying, that thing that you thought

was protecting you, no, no, no, no, no, I'm

your protection. I'm your protection. When you see the ark of the Covenant,

which by the way, was made of acasha wood. When you see

that and it represents the presence of God, he says, follow it,

Follow the presence of God. Follow it. Can you imagine the excitement that

day. For forty years they've heard about these things. They've heard about this

promised land. There were two spies still alive, Joshua and Caleb, and

they could tell them about what they saw in that promised land, how it

flowed with milk and honey, how large it produce, was, how fertile

this land? And was how that in that land, In that land there

was blessing and there was abundance. And they didn't tell them that there were

giants, because Joshua and Caleb didn't see the giants. They just saw the

territory. They saw what God was giving them. We've got to be able

to look past the circumstances that say no, you don't, and say yes,

I will. Come on. Look past those things, look past those

giants, look past all that, and see what God has prepared for you.

Imagine you're Joshua boy. He probably woke up really early with some adrenaline

pump in that day, because this is the day that he knows is coming.

This is our day to start stepping foot into our territory, into our

promised land. No longer do we live in tents, but we get to

live in houses. No longer do we have to move around all the time.

We get to set up some roots. We got some stuff that we

can do. We're coming out of Remember all those people that were following him,

they had lived only in the in the wilderness, so they might have

even been comfortable. They had come to terms with it, and now they're

getting ready to break out, says they broke camp. They got some things

to do. You know. For those of you that know Sandy and I

well or even a little bit, you know, I like she's she's wonderful,

and she has hung with me for forty two years, and you know,

plus some time before when we were dating. But but you know,

we've been married forty two years. I like stability. I really, it's

like one of my core values. If you boil my core values down,

one of them would be stable. Like I like stability. You know,

same wife, same kids, you know, show up at a restaurant,

they start cooking before I walk through the door, you know, those kinds

of things. I like stability. I'm dependable. You know. I used

to say I was boring. My wife decided, she said, stop saying

you're boring. You're just steady, dependable, Like, okay, I can

be that. And you know, I mean, we've been here twenty eight

years, We've known our pastors almost thirty loved them to you know, we

just we love these guys. But I like stability. And so you know,

when God begins to move, how many of you know, he likes

to mess with your stability. And so you know, while a few years

ago, the Lord began to stir our hearts as to what things might look

like as we move into when I moved into my sixties, and so we

made a decision that I would sell the part of the business I owned that

i'd been involved. I've been for almost thirty years. Can I just tell

you that will mess with you. That will mess with you because you've done

something for a very very long time, been in the same business forty two

years. It's a long time. And I'm not that old, only forty

one, but you know, same business forty two years. And so we

make this decision, and so we did this thing. We finished it,

and we wrapped it all up in December, like two months ago, three

months ago now. And can I tell you it's caused us to have to

live with faith that we we've never really in a way we've never had to

live before. Like stretches you because I remember as we were getting close to

this thing, like one night, probably more than one night, but one

night in particular, I woke up at like three am. And it wasn't

because adrenaline and excitement was pumping through me. It was fear, in trepidation.

It was like, what have I done? Moment? I'm just being

real with you, you know, because I stood here and told you everything

was great, wonderful, you know, case arras Rah, that wasn't what

it was. I was. I absolutely I can't say I had a panic

attack, but I was close. And I woke Sandy up and I was

kind of freaking out, and we just began to pray and seek God,

and the Lord just you know, his Holy Spirit filled the room and began

to calm my nerves. But I want to tell you this because if you

can think like that for a moment, how many of you been through some

transitions and they freaked you out a little bit. God's saying, this morning,

we're stepping out of something. But it's into the better, it's into

the calling, it's into the thing that he's promised you. It's into those

things. That's what God's saying. Most of us would choose security over risk

because risk equal being uncomfortable. How many of you like to be uncomfortable?

I don't see any room. I don't see you very many hands. Okay,

like some of us, you know, I don't like to be uncomfortable.

Like if it's too warm, I want the air on. If it's

too hot, I want the heat on, you know, the if I

want I want the air on, or I want the heat on if it's

too cold, you know. And sometimes it's like, you know, I

want to I want to I want to change the thermostat. I'm telling you

God is changing some thermostats and he's going to make you uncomfortable because He's got

some stuff for you to do. Hallelujah. Come on. I want you

to know something that God didn't bring them out of Egypt to leave them in

the desert, and he didn't bring you out of your last situation to leave

you where you're at now. It's really important that you understand you weren't just

saved from something, but you were saved for something. And you weren't saved

from something. You were saved for something. Because if all it was was

you're saved and God puts you over here and says, thank you, you're

saved. I'll see you in heaven, that sounds terrible. We had some

stuff to do, we got some places to go, We've got some things

to conquer. So God saying I didn't save you just to save you.

I saved you because I've got something for you to do. Back in the

nineteen nineties early ninet times, anybody alive in the nineteen nineties, some of

you, okay, good I was. And there was this guy who's still

around a little bit, Stephen Curts Chapman, You guys remember him. And

he had a song out, you know, and it was all about seeing

the future. Remember, saddle up your houses. We got a trail to

blaze. Remember that song. Well, somebody was singing with me. I

heard you, all right, yeah, you know, through the wild blue

yon earth. God's amazing grace. Yeah, come on right, that's it.

That's it. Come on, that's all about seeing the future, because

he says in the song, I woke up this morning and started my day,

my routine day, and then I read the Bible and I read about

me, and I discovered that God had a purpose and a destiny for me

that didn't include just setting around and waiting on stuff to happen. He said,

saddle up your horses. You've got a trail to blaze. Come on,

God saying to all of us in this room today, you've got a

trail to blaze. We got some places to go, We've got some territory

to break through, We've got some territory to take down. I want you

to see this again, it says in Joshua three to two and through five

says after three days, I could go there's so many layers to this,

you guys, it's crazy. After three days, the leaders of the people

went throughout the camp, giving orders to them, watch for the priest of

the tribe of Levi to lift the ark of the Covenant of Yahweh, your

God. When it starts moving, follow it so you will know which way

to go, since you've never marched this way before. Follow the presence of

God. Because you've never marched this way before. It's unfamiliar territory. It's

going to be uncomfortable. There's going to be some challenges. There's going to

be some things. But keep your eye on Jesus, keep your eye on

the ark of the Covenant, keep your eye on the presence of God.

Run after his presence. Coming out of the wilderness, where it was predictable,

where it was familiar, where it was comfortable. And now God's saying,

get ready, because I'm going to take you into a new territory.

You might not be comfortable immediately. You might have some things that you've got

to look at and wonder about and think about and pray about. Amen with

God's saying to us today, I've got some new territory for you. I've

got some places for you to go that you don't know, and i want

you to pursue my presence. That arc was a wooden box made out of

acacia wood plated in gold with all of these different things in the polls where

acasha would and it represented the presence of God, and they were told stay

behind it, keep your eyes on it. Your job. Your job is

to pursue his presence. Craig Cooney says this. He says, the greatest

enemy of the new is the known. Well, the greatest enemy of the

new is the known. The greatest enemy, the greatest enemy of keeping you

right where you're at is what you already know. In my case, it

was comfort. I'm like, I like what I do. It's cool.

A couple hundred people, you know, things are fun, We're good.

I like this. And God says, no, no, no, no

no. What you've known was good. Well, what you're being called into

is great, So you need to pursue my presence for the great. I

want you to see this, and Joshua three, it goes on and says

this. In verse fourteen, it says, now it was time for the

early harvest. Come on, can I just tell you it's harvest time.

It's harvest time. It's harvest time. God's calling us up and out of

what we've been doing. He's saying, get out of your comfort zone and

get ready because it's harvest time. I got some things for you to harvest.

I've got souls for you to harvest. I've got territory for you to

take. I've got things for you to do. This church cannot be the

same as it is today tomorrow, and it won't be. We got to

get out of our comfort zone. You know what we come in. We

came in here a couple of weeks ago or last week. We got here.

We were late because of something beyond our control. And we got here

at eleven o'clock on Sunday morning. It was uncomfortable. You know why,

I couldn't find a parking place like this is a good problem to have,

But God wants us to be a little bit uncomfortable because it causes us to

run after his presence. It goes on, and it says, and the

river was overflowing at flood stage. When the people broke cramp to camp to

cross the Jordan. The priest went in front of them, carrying the Ark

of the Covenant on their shoulders. But I want you to see this.

The very moment the priests with the arc dipped their feet in the river's edge,

the water coming downstream toward them stopped flowing and piled up in a solid

wall. We could go on here, but I want you to understand something.

If you want to get to your promised land, you got to start

walking. You got to start taking territory. You've got to put your boots

on. You've got to be looked beyond what you don't have. Don't look

at we don't have a bridge. Don't look at we don't have a boat.

Don't look at we don't have waiters. Don't look at those things.

God says, start walking. And the moment that the priests put their feet

in the water, boom, the river parted, the water stopped, and

they walked through on dry gown. Come on, come on, That's what

God has for us. He's saying, come on, start walking, Start

getting yourself ready to go into that next territory. Your inheritance and the plans

and purposes of God lie ahead. It can't be where you were, and

it can't be where you are. God's calling us into His great abundance,

into that great place. Thank you Jesus, We just stand. I want

you to see something this morning, because you might be saying, you know

what, this is resonating with me. I've been in this place of stagnation.

I've been hanging out, comfortable, just observing. This morning, God's

saying it's time to step out, come out of the acacia growth. Break

camp. You say, pursue me, because what I have lying ahead of

you is great, beater than anything you've ever known. Our job is to

pursue his presence, run after him. When he moves, we move.

Jeremiah one to five says this says, before I formed you in my in

the womb, I knew you and approved of you as my chosen instrument.

And before you were born, I consecrated you. I have appointed you as

a prophet to the nations. Can I just tell you this morning, some

of you, the world has told you that you aren't approved. The world

has told you that you can't do something, and some of us have bought

into that. And when we look at ourselves, we see the shortcomings,

we see the things that we can't do. But God tell you this morning

that you're approved, that you're anointed, that you're consecrated, that you've been

set apart for his purpose, that you've been set apart to do something.

That He didn't just save you from something, but he saved you to something.

So this morning, as we close, I want you to allow the

Holy Spirit to just work in you. And for some of this that means

we're gonna have to make some decisions to leave the things that we've been mourning

behind so we can move forward into what God has for us. It's going

to require us to make some tough decisions maybe, but can I just tell

you there it They're worth it. Walking in his peace, walking in his

abundance, walking in pursuit of his presence, Walking in his presence is so

worth it. So this morning, as we close, I just want you

to decide, God, I'm gonna run after your presence. I'm gonna leave

behind all the things that I've been mourning. Those dead things are over with

and I'm moving forward in you. That's what I believe God is saying,

and he's saying this morning, would you just take that first step? Would

you just start walking? And as your feet touch the ground, I'm going

to make the path light for you. You're gonna see where you're going.

Thank you, Jesus Father. We thank you for your goodness. We thank

you for your word. God, and Lord, we're a people who want

to pursue your presence more than anything, who want to pursue what you have

for us. God. We say, Lord, take us out of our

wilderness into the promised land, into the things that you have for us.

God, we thank you for it today in Jesus. Then come on,

we got you. Give him a shout of praise. Thank you, Lord,

so worthy, so worthy. Prayer Warriors Prayer Team. Would you come

and just line the front and those of you that would like prayer, you

want to seal this with God this morning, we would encourage you to come

forward, just some prayer this morning. Hell, Loly, God bless your church.