Go Already

Grab our Bibles and make a confession together.

Let's say Heavenly Father, you have my attention, you have my heart, you hold my heart.

It's all about you.

My heart's desire is to please you in every way, every day, and I understand faith, and it's faith that pleases you and it's faith that moves your heart.

And so I'm lockstep in with you.

I'm teachable, I'm moldable and I'm excited to receive all that you have for me in Jesus' name, amen.

Well, it really truly is an honor to get to preach and teach and stand at this pulpit and I'll never forget, you know, my parents taking me out to dinner for lunch, rather on a Sunday afternoon.

I grew up working at Lakewood and my dad was John Osteen's right-hand man for many years and did all the weddings and funerals and so forth at Lakewood.

But I was a teenager and I worked with Pastor Joel in the television ministry, so I worked on Sundays.

So that was a big deal to ask off.

And he sat me down and he laid out the vision of this church and asked me to be a part of it and I kind of didn't get it all in that one meal.

You know, I was thinking of all the things that I would have to give up at Lakewood.

Do I really want to do that?

And obviously I did, and here we are, and, but I just, I love my parents and I love the sacrifices that they've made so that the next generation can be taught the word of God, amen.

Excuse me so if you'll turn with me in your Bible to Joshua, chapter one, and we'll start in verse one and read a really familiar story, everybody's going to know it, everybody's will have read it a hundred times maybe, but let's pull some new nuggets of truth out of it.

And it says on read out of the New King James version, joshua one, starting in verse one.

And it says after the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord, it came to pass that the Lord spoke to Joshua, the Son of Nun, moses assistant, saying Moses, my servant, is dead.

Now, therefore, arise and go over this Jordan, you and all this people, to the land which I'm giving to them, the children of Israel, every place that your soul of your foot will tread upon, I have given you.

As I said to Moses Lee, don't worry about it, but I'm going to read that one verse just out of the New Living translation One more time.

Verse three, because it's a little bit clear.

It says I promise you what I promised Moses wherever you set foot, you will be on the land I have given you.

Amen, verse four, from the wilderness and in Okay, so then here are the meetings, the meets and bounds of that land.

Right, this Lebanon, as far as the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites and the great sea towards the go down of the sun, shall be your territory.

No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life.

As I was with Moses, so I'll be with you.

I will not leave you nor forsake you.

We have that same promise, don't we in the New Testament.

Be strong and of good courage, for, for to this people you shall divide as an inheritance the land which I swore to their fathers to give them.

Only here it is again.

Be strong and very courageous.

How many of you realize it's not optional.

You must be strong and very courageous that you may observe, to do according to all that, the law of Moses, which Moses, my servant, commanded.

You Do not turn from it to the right hand nor to the left hand.

That you may prosper wherever you go, in other words wherever you set your foot, that's the land that God's given you, and wherever you go, you're going to prosper.

Right, let's keep reading two more verses.

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, not just some, that is written in it, for then you will make your way prosperous and then you will have good success.

Isn't it funny, like the world is always trying to come up with leadership seminars, that how to prosper and how to have good success.

But it's laid out really clear.

All we have to do is know what's in the, in, what's in God's word, and obey it, and observe to do accordingly to all of it, and you're going to prosper in all your ways and you're going to have good success.

One more verse, verse nine.

Have I not commanded you to be strong and a good courage?

There it is the third time.

Right, do not be afraid, do not be dismayed, for the Lord, your God, is with you.

And then you know it didn't just end right there.

It says one more time wherever you go.

So wherever you go is in there twice.

But also verse three wherever you set your foot.

That's the land I've given you.

So, in other words, wherever Joshua was, it was going to lead them, he was going to be, he was going to have good success and he was going to prosper, and the Lord was never gonna leave him nor forsake him, right.

And so you know, I just wanted to preach a message entitled go already.

Go already.

Like, have you ever been behind somebody at a red light and it turns green and they don't go?

That's really like it's a terrible phenomenon going on in our society.

Just a quick public service announcement regarding road rage and all seriousness, road rage issues are way up in our society right now and it's just not worth it to engage in any of that behavior.

So I just encourage you to encouraging myself and the Lord Cause if I don't encourage myself, nobody else is gonna encourage me Amen to do the right anyways.

So, but seriously, we need to be careful.

So I was like, you know, I was behind somebody.

You know, Selina and I were coming home and the light turned green.

They didn't go and I was like I don't know if I should honk, especially, you know, and I, just the person behind me honked, but that's all it took and he got behind me and started following me, but not for long, praise the Lord, anyways.

But no, I didn't, I wasn't an idiot, I didn't just drive straight home, right, I passed up my neighborhood and just kept going the hybrid of speed anyways.

But any like God protects this.

But you know how many of you really you're behind somebody and they should go.

The light is green.

I don't know if they're afraid, I don't know if they're distracted, but it's all in our society and I'm telling you, there are things, there are dreams and visions and desires that God's dropped in your heart.

You've got a green light and you're sitting there and you don't have to fast and pray and wonder about it and no, you just need to go.

You need to just step out in faith and the feeling that you have when you, after you step out in faith and you know that you're obeying God, I'm telling you you're invincible.

And I keep saying that same quote over and over.

It's kind of the quote of my life this year is a quote that Mark Hinkins says of F F Bosworth, who was in a you know man of God, evangelist way back before the 20s, I think, and it says if you want what God wants for the same reasons that God wants them.

You're invincible and it really.

It allows me to check my motives when I think that way hey, I want exactly what God wants, but I don't just want it, I want it for the same reasons that God wants it.

And then, boom, I can check my motives right then and right there.

Hey, am I being real, am I being sincere?

Do I really want this to happen, for what God wants it to?

You know, it's beyond not my will, but your will, be done.

It's kind of beyond that prayer and it's also beyond, you know, it starts with a prayer of consecration, but it goes beyond that, right.

And so I believe that, oh, I'm just gonna say it for me, I refuse to sit at the green light and not move any longer.

I'm moving, I'm stepping out, amen.

And so you know, like we prayed over our pastor tonight, I'm a man under authority and I just see some lands that you know, we just read about Joshua, right, he's gonna lead the children of Israel into the promised land, into new lands, and he's gonna lead them across the Jordan that they didn't want to cross.

And you know, I see our pastor leading us into fresh opportunities, fresh lands, and I see myself as a man under authority doing my part to play a part in that right.

And so we're gonna possess, and so we're gonna possess our land.

And so recently, a couple of weeks ago, selina and I actually my whole entire family was in Mark Hankins' camp meeting and I just had a small, a short clip of that.

Lee, whenever you're ready, if you can just roll that, you don't have to dim the lights or anything.

It's pretty short.

Which man will it be on?

Amen?

Almost every time I'm preaching I'll say Dad Hagan laid his hands on me, place some of his honor upon me to carry the glory, to carry the message of faith.

He laid his hands upon me.

He laid his hands upon me.

You need somebody to tap you on the head and slap you on the head, amen, and say I believe I received the anointing of the Holy Ghost.

I can stand in the office God called me to stand in, no matter where I came from and who else thinks I'm qualified or not qualified.

I've received the anointing.

God sent me here for such a time as this and the hand of the Lord upon my life and the word of God's in my mouth.

I am well able to possess the land.

I'm well able.

God has equipped me and anointed me for his plan and purpose and I received the anointing.

Ha ha, what do you say about that?

Ha ha, ha ha.

So we are well able to possess the land.

I got bopped on the head, so did Selena I think Selena got bopped in the head stronger than I did, but, hallelujah, we're still here to tell about it.

But I'm telling you, we are well able to possess the land.

And so, in order to possess, we've got to go.

We've got a green light to possess, right.

And so you know, I'm not going to preach all about possession, but to possess also means to dispossess.

So there's going to be, I'm telling you, in order for you to go into new lands and experience new opportunities, you might end up being your boss's boss.

You're going to pass people up.

You're going to have so much favor upon your life that you're going to skip steps, and you're going to look back a year from now and be like, oh, my goodness, how in the world did I make it from you know, so far, so quickly?

Right, and that's because of possession, the law of possession and the law of dispossession.

You're taking it by force, right?

And so I just wanted to.

Let's start with a story that we've.

You know another one in the Bible Jesus walking on the water.

If you'll turn with me to Matthew 14, and I don't think I'm going to read it, I think I'm just going to.

We all know the story, right?

So Jesus is walking on the water and the disciples are in the boat, right, and they think they don't recognize that it's Jesus.

They think it's some kind of a ghost, right?

And Peter was the first to say anything.

And Jesus is that you.

And Jesus answered be of good cheer, it is, I do not be afraid.

Verse 28.

And Peter answered him, said Lord, if it's you bid me come, I'll jump right out of the boat.

And so what does he?

What does Jesus say?

He says come on.

And do you think, how, do you think it really happened?

Do you think at that moment that Peter just leaped out of the boat?

Or do you think maybe he looked around first and he was like James, your feet are bigger than mine and kind of got those, those web toes, and maybe you can I'm kidding with my brother over here Maybe you swim a little bit better than I do, maybe you'd be better at this.

And you know, maybe he looked at John.

Maybe, you know, I don't know, maybe I've enjoyed some fish tacos too much and am I really going to be able to walk on this water.

And so what does he do?

He does, he does walk.

And so let's see, in verse 29, it says and when Peter came, had come down out of the boat, he walked on the water to go to Jesus.

So how many of you realize that little faith walked on the water?

Little faith walked on the water.

He did do it.

But then, in verse 30, what happened?

He got really concerned with the wind and the waves and boom.

What really happened is he allowed fear to take over.

And the moment that he allowed fear to take over, boom, he started sinking.

Save me, save me.

Then he kind of freaked out, right.

And Jesus, what did Jesus do?

Did Jesus let him drown?

No, he saved him right.

But this is an interesting part of the story too.

Let's see verse 32.

And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased.

And I just that statement I've just gone on, you know.

And when they got into the boat, like it takes faith to get back into the boat, you know when all the rest of the disciples are going to laugh at Peter.

Were they going to give him a hard time?

I really do see that that's a problem in the body of Christ.

You know, here Peter had the.

He was the only one that had the faith to get out of the boat and I don't believe that happened, first of all.

But secondly, I see that when other people are down, we like to shoot people when they're down, and that's not the character of God, obviously.

But if we would rally around people, especially in this body, in this church especially, you know, people are gonna fall, people are gonna fail, people are gonna trip and we need to be right there to lend them a hand and lift them back up and pray them back in to happy fellowship here at Glorious Way Church.

You may do a TV ad anyways.

So they got back into the boat and so you know just a few things that we can learn about this story, and then we'll go on.

And number one we need to recognize and discern when it's actually the Lord.

You know they had a hard time recognizing Jesus walking on the water.

Right, how many of you, myself included, I know I have a lot of times I will just misinterpret the situation and not realize that was God until, boom, the situation went right past me and I'm like, oh, that was God.

Well, it's too late now.

Then I'll have to pray, lord, please forgive me If there's any way to bring that situation back or that opportunity back around.

You know, put me right back there, I'll do the right thing.

I'll say the right thing this time, you know, but we don't always get a second chance, do we?

We need to be quick to discern and recognize when it is the Lord, and then we need to be quick to obey to get out of the boat right.

And so number two is just having the faith to get out of the boat.

It's not comfortable, is it?

It can be a little bit scary if you look at it in the natural, but you're looking at it with supernatural eyes, you're not.

It doesn't really matter how big the waves are, don't you think?

If his faith was enough, he would have just walked on the water?

Jesus was doing it.

Jesus wasn't concerned at how, you know, the wind is what produces the waves, but it didn't matter to Jesus how strong the wind was, right, and so the wind didn't cease until they got in the boat.

So Jesus had you know.

So the storm might be brewing all around us, but we're gonna obey to jump out of the boat right when God tells us to, and then to get rid of fear, doubt and discouragement.

That's number three.

We need to get rid of fear, doubt and discouragement.

And I'll just quote, second Timothy 1, 7,.

The Lord hasn't given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind right, a sound mind.

And so what does fear do?

Fear is a thief and it freezes us in place.

It really is the number one reason why we're stuck on a green light, why we're not going.

I have all kind of driving examples, but you know like you just have to be patient.

I think when that's us, god is patient with us, you know.

You know, peter was a little bit of a slow learner in this situation.

I kind of I have a lot of talking to Peter to do when I get to heaven, because I seem to relate a lot to Peter Because, like more than any other disciple man, his mistakes are just all laid out, aren't they?

And man, he denied Jesus three times, and so on and so forth.

I use them in so many different examples when I'm preaching, because I've had so many things in my own life where I was slow to recognize, and so, but we're working on it, how do we improve our recognition.

It starts by faith, right, and faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

So we need to fill ourselves up with faith, and so fear is what freezes us, right.

And so two big things that the devil uses to stop us from possessing our land is fear and doubt, and so fear is at the root.

All fear is centered in the fear of dying.

Right, I think this was Peter's center issue as well.

He was afraid of drowning, and so as soon as he was afraid of how big the waves were, how strong the wind was blowing, he was basically afraid of for his life, right?

And so we must resist that fear.

And the way to do that, you know it could be fear of injury, fear of pain, fear of people, fear of what people think, fear of defeat, fear of embarrassment.

You know, resist all of that fear, resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

And you know, it really is the devil.

All discouragement, it comes from the devil, it really is born of the devil.

And so if we would come against that as strong as we come against sin, right, you know, obviously we need to come against sin, all sin, all sin is wrong and is bad, and you know we tend the LGBTQ movement and all of the mess right there.

We tend to be really vocal against that movement.

But I'm telling you, we need to be equally as vocal against the discouragement that the devil tries to bring in, depression, because that's also just never it's at a huge level in our society is people being depressed, the spirit of suicide, and people walk in here with real problems they're facing and they don't see the real solution.

And it's our job, every single one of our jobs, not just the person standing here preaching, but every like, literally from the first person that they meet when they walk in the door, to everybody that they come in contact with, should be full of love and full of the power of God and recognize that that's an opportunity to pull somebody out of that depression before they ever really reach the altar, before they really have an opportunity to respond to an altar call right.

Obviously we provide an atmosphere where they can receive deliverance, where they can receive freedom right, and there's an anointing here amen, so.

But all discouragement is from the devil, and so we must fight discouragement as strong as we fight sin.

And then the last is doubt, and the biggest thing that come against doubt is the Holy spirit, and because we have the greater one that lives on the inside of us, we can crush doubt.

Right, amen.

So we have the power to crush doubt.

And so Hallelujah, let's see.

So, just you know.

I have one more point before I get to it just discovering your passion, discovering your fire.

Again, let's just go ahead and turn to 1st Timothy.

1st Timothy, 1,5, and I will have to act like an old person get my glasses.

I can get my glasses, except I'm in.

Did I write it down wrong?

Is it 2nd Timothy?

It's 2nd Timothy in it.

Oh, it is.

That's what I did.

All right, simple mistake.

2nd Timothy, 1, verse 5,.

When I call to remembrance, this is Paul encouraging Timothy.

We're talking about possessing our land, we're talking about moving on a green light.

Paul is encouraging Timothy when I call to remembrance the genuine faith that is in you, which dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and I am persuaded.

In other words, there is evidence, I have seen the evidence that it is in you also, and so it's good to have a spiritual father that recognizes your faith.

You know all.

Tonight we've talked about how faith pleases God, and without faith it's impossible to please God, and so it's by faith that we move his heart, it's by faith that we please him.

And so here is Paul I didn't say Peter, did I it's Paul recognizing that faith in Timothy.

And so, therefore, I remind you verse 6, to stir up the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of hands, for God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, of love and a sound mind.

There's that scripture again.

But it's you know, we've all had hands laid upon us.

We believe in laying on of hands around here, right?

And so Pastor, just this morning, laid his hands on me and you saw me in that clip getting my head bopped a little bit.

But you know, again, with the ministry of laying on of hands, and I'm telling you we need to honor supernatural relationships that God's given us.

And so I consider my dad, our senior pastor, my father, in the faith, and I had kind of a grandfather in the faith, you know John Osteen.

And so I have a heritage, similar, we all have a heritage.

We could talk for days, we could pass the microphone around all week long and talk about the heritage of faith that we have in our lives, and in Timothy's case it happened to be his mother and his grandmother, but in your case it might be others, it might be your pastor or a former pastor or wherever you got saved, that poured into you, that laid hands on you.

But now we're under authority of our pastor and he recognizes the faith that we have, and so we need to speak faith and we need to be an example of that faith in all that we do, and not just when we're here at church on Sundays, right, and so we need to follow their example of faith as well.

So I think that's in Hebrews 13, if I'm not mistaken, about following after their example of faith, and so that is the way to possess, that is the way to step out in faith.

So we don't have to be afraid, we don't have to doubt.

You know self-doubt and being critical of our.

You know your mistakes.

You just gotta get over that mistake by forgiving yourself.

It starts by forgiving yourself for your past mistakes.

And don't be afraid, the next time the light turns green, you're gonna go.

Another thing, not in my notes, just but unforgiveness.

Unforgiveness holds people back so much.

That's a green light.

Right there you have a green light to forgive.

You don't have to sit there and wonder about it and pray about it.

No, you can forgive someone that's wronged you by faith, and you do it by faith and through faith and then you go on.

Amen.

So I hope this helped you tonight.