Tip of the Spear-Pastor Kipp Penrod

Thank you for listening to this message from Life House Church.

Good morning, Life House.

Happy Father's Day.

Come on.

Happy Father's Day.

Yeah.

It's one of my favorite days of the year because I am a father.

No, it's good to have you at Life House.

Thank you for being with us.

It's good to be back.

We were on vacation last week.

It's good to be back in the house.

And I got to be honest, being a father is one of the greatest privileges of my life.

I have wonderful children, wonderful spouses to my children, wonderful 2B spouses to my

children.

I've got grandchildren.

I am a blessed man.

And I am grateful.

And it is truly an honor.

And as I thought about Father's Day this year and the message I was going to speak this

morning, I started thinking about guy things.

And I thought, what better way to do a message than to bring a weapon to church?

I was like, yeah.

Yeah.

Come on, give me a whoo-hoo.

Yeah, there it is.

All right.

And so I brought a spear.

And I really wanted to do a message on the tip of the spear.

And a spear is really one of the most ancient weapons probably in all of time.

It's a very simplistic weapon, right?

It's a very simplistic tool that was used.

It's really just a rod or a shaft.

And they would take it and they would have fixed something to the end of it.

Now this one's made out of steel and they would sharpen that tip.

And it could have been glass.

It could have been rock.

It could have been steel of some kind.

And they used this for various things.

If it was a hunter, right, they might spear a fish.

They might get some kind of game that they're after.

That would be dinner that evening, right?

If it was a warrior, this would be taken out onto the field against the enemy.

If it was in a competition or where they were competing, they would be throwing this to

try to hit some kind of fixed target that was out beyond them.

But whatever the reason, the tip of the spear is the most important part of this simplistic

weapon, right?

Because without the tip of the spear, all you're doing is throwing a stick.

Okay?

Without the tip of the spear, you know, if the hunter, all he's doing is scaring the

game.

He's going to bounce off of the game.

Without the tip of the spear, the fish is going to keep swimming.

Without the tip of the spear, right, the athlete is just going to have a stick bounce off the

target.

And without the tip of the spear, a warrior is in a whole bunch of trouble, right?

It is the tip of the spear.

And it is the tip of the spear that makes this weapon effective.

It makes it what it is.

It makes it fly straight.

It's part of what makes it fly straight.

And it is the tip of the spear that God is calling men of God to be.

He's calling us to be the tip of the spear.

He's calling us to be the head.

He's calling us to lead.

He's calling us to cut through the air.

He's going, now listen, he didn't call you to take somebody out.

I got to clarify that, all right?

That's not what I'm talking about this morning.

He called you to be a weapon in the master's hand against the enemy who is seen.

We don't wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities and power.

And this morning, I really want to take you into the book of Joshua and talk about a man

who really was the tip of the spear.

He really functioned as the tip of the spear.

If you got your Bible, you can begin to turn there.

Joshua was a great, great leader in scripture.

He was a warrior.

He was basically a king.

He was a leader.

He functioned as the head of a country.

And he was one of those men who never, ever lost sight of what God's calling was in his

life to be the tip of the spear.

And I believe that every man, I believe that every woman, every teenager in this house

can learn something from Joshua about what it is to be the tip of the spear in God's

hand.

So if you got your Bibles, again, Joshua one, I'm going to put this down so I don't harm

myself or anybody else this morning.

Please keep your children from playing with that after church.

Okay, we don't want any stories for next year.

Joshua chapter one verse one says this, after the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord,

he came to pass.

The Lord spoke to Joshua, the son of none, Moses' servant saying, Moses, my servant

is dead.

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.

Every place that the soul of your foot will tread upon, I have given to you.

And as I said to Moses, from the wilderness and this Lebanon, as far as the great river

Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites and to the great sea toward the going down of

the sun shall be your territory.

God speaks to Joshua and installs him as the new leader of the children of Israel, the

Israelites and nation.

Moses was the former leader.

He is now passed on.

He's now dead.

And God is calling Joshua to lead.

He's calling him to be the tip of the spear.

And his job is not a simple one.

Because God calls Joshua at a time when this nation that God had pulled out of slavery,

it is time for them to go in what they call, or what God called, the Promised Land.

It's a time for them to cross over the Jordan River and to head into a place called the

Promised Land.

Now that sounds really nice, but you have to understand something.

In the Promised Land were people who were already established in that land.

And God said this is going to be your land.

And they weren't going to give it up without a fight.

So there were fortified cities across the Jordan River.

They were literally walking into hostile enemy territory.

They were not going just to pass through.

They were not going there for a vacation.

They were not going there to get a little rest and R&R.

They were there to take the land.

So this so-called Promised Land boundaries, if you looked on a map, Egypt would have been

to the south of it.

Mesopotamia would have been to the north.

And it was this area or region between the two that God promised to this nation, to this

group of people.

They were really nomads.

They were traveling around in tents.

And where they were going into really didn't have one leader, but actually 31 different

fortified cities with kings of their own that they would have to go in and conquer.

So Joshua as a leader, as the tip of the spear, the stakes were high, really high.

He was leading into a place where there was enemy territory.

He was leading a nation of a million plus people into this spot.

And he was responsible for the lives.

And he didn't know, if he failed in this mission as he went in, his people could either be

enslaved or they could all be annihilated from the face of the earth.

He had to lead.

And he had to lead well.

He had to hear from God.

He had to be sharp.

He had to know that God was with him in all this.

And Joshua does.

He leads well.

And one of the first things that I noticed is I read about Joshua and the story of Joshua

and how he went in and conquered the land and led a group of people is that Joshua was

coached by a man who was the tip of the spear himself, Moses.

Anyone who wants to become the tip of the spear should be coached or mentored by someone

who already is the tip of the spear.

People was an apprentice of one of the godliest men in history, Moses, long before he ever

became a leader.

Moses was a great leader.

Moses led the children of Israel before they actually became a country, before they became

a people, they were slaves.

And he led them out of slavery to become a nation and really wandering around in a wilderness.

And Moses was a great leader in many, many different aspects.

We could really take time to unfold that.

But one of the great things about Moses is that Moses heard from God.

Actually Moses spoke with God.

The word of God, if you read about Moses, when the children of Israel were traveling

around in the wilderness and they all were living in tents, the people would set up camp

in a certain manner according to the tribes of Israel.

And they would sit, of course, sleep in their tents.

And it says that the word of God says that there was one tent that was outside the area

where they would camp.

It was Moses' place and it was called a Tabernacle of Meeting.

And Moses would go out on a daily basis to the Tabernacle of Meeting.

And he wasn't going out there to meet with different leaders in the community.

He was not there instructing leaders with people of Israel.

He went there to meet God.

And it said in the morning when they would get up, they would literally go outside, they

would open up their tent doors.

I don't know what kind of doors they had.

I'm thinking flaps, right?

They pulled the flaps back and they would watch Moses as he went out to the Tabernacle

of Meeting.

And they said that they would literally worship God during that time.

Because when Moses got to the Tabernacle of Meeting, the word of God says that a cloud

would descend upon it and it was God's presence.

God would literally meet with Moses in that tent.

He would come and he would speak face to face with God.

That's amazing.

That's incredible.

He would literally hear God speak to him in this cloud.

And God would give him instruction in leading these people.

And Joshua mentored, right?

He was mentored by Moses.

He was Moses' assistant.

Moses was coaching him.

Moses was there.

And Joshua saw what was taking place.

Now I think it's super important to point something out at this place in the story because sometimes

when we see these Bible characters, we're like, you know, for me anyways, a pastor like Moses.

It's like, oh, you know, it's just amazingly, you know, tip of the spear.

He's incredible.

But Moses didn't start out that way.

Moses had a pretty rocky beginning actually because he murdered a guy in Egypt and the

Egyptians were after him.

He buried this man in the sand and he actually fled to the backside of the desert.

This is how he started out.

He's hiding out in the desert for 40 years.

God calls him to lead these people and calls him out of a burning bush.

And when God finally meets up with him and calls him after he's hiding out for 40 years,

Moses says, I can't do it, God.

I'm so sorry.

I can't do it.

Not today.

All right.

And he comes up with a whole bunch of excuses that I don't got time to go into.

And this is how Moses starts.

And Moses begins to come up with excuse after excuse and God kind of finally rattles his

chain and he accepts that the position of going and being the leader, bringing people

out of Egypt.

And I say all that to say this, God's not looking for utter perfection in you and I.

Do you know that?

He doesn't care about your checkered past.

He doesn't care about if you've got struggles and anxieties because Moses did right.

He's telling God, I can't talk very well.

So you really can't send me.

He had struggles.

He had anxieties.

God doesn't care about only that.

All he's looking for, somebody they'll submit and say yes.

All he's looking for and God will raise that person up.

Man, woman, child, teenager, he will raise them up to be the tip of the spear.

He will make them a leader and that's exactly who Joshua spent time with.

Somebody who was submitted to God.

Joshua was by his side.

He was one of his right hand men.

He listened, he watched, he learned, he participated in.

And I think Joshua picked up on a thing or two.

I think he saw, I think he saw Moses at his highest and at his lowest.

I think he saw Moses when Moses was all stressed out because at times the children of Israel

would run into problems like they couldn't find any water and he'd have to go and pray.

And I think he saw the stress and he saw how the tip of the spear would go meet with God

and God would give him a plan and God would give him an answer and the answer would come

and God would just establish Moses one more time as a leader.

God's looking for people who are gonna coach and be coached by other tips of the spear.

Proverbs 27, 17 says this.

As iron sharpens iron, so a man sharpens the countens of his friends.

Men, ladies, teens, get this verse in your head.

Get it in your heart.

Adopt this in your, I talked about this a couple of weeks ago, adopt this into your

belief center.

You gotta believe this.

Iron sharpens iron.

You gotta live this.

Make sure that you are rubbing up against a godly individual of some kind.

Somebody that's mentoring you.

Somebody that's an influence in your life.

You know, somebody that can sharpen you.

Dad, the mom, can I talk to you for just a second?

Can I tell you that you will not be your child all in all forever?

Some of you young parents are in here.

We got newborns in the house this morning.

Some are on the way.

Some of you got children of various ages and when they're little, they're looking to mom

and dad for everything, but I'm telling you they're gonna grow up.

They're gonna hit 10.

They're gonna hit 11.

They're gonna hit 12 and they're gonna start looking at other people.

You better make sure who they're rubbing up against.

You better make sure there's some godly influence in their life because they're not just listening

to you anymore.

They're listening to others.

Get them rubbing up against, rubbing it.

Find somebody that is more tempered in God than they are.

If you're gonna find a mentor, you gotta find somebody that's more tempered.

Somebody that's been through the fire.

Somebody that's been through the struggle and has come out the other side.

How do you sharpen a knife?

I didn't bring a knife up here.

I've heard I had enough sharp objects.

This is a sharpening rod, right?

And how do you sharpen a knife?

You take it and you slide it down this side and you bring it back and you slide it.

You rub up against something just harder than the knife and there's friction, right?

Come on, friction is not always a bad thing.

There's friction.

There's rubbing.

There's leaning in to someone that's more tempered than you are.

If you're gonna be the tip of the spear, go find another tip of the spear.

Don't rub up against something that's soft in Jesus.

Come on.

You can.

You can go find somebody that's soft in Jesus and you can rub up against them.

They're gonna make you feel all good.

They're gonna tell you you're doing just fine.

Go find somebody that's tempered.

Find somebody that's tougher than you are in Christ and somebody who shoots straight

with you and tell you the truth.

Amen?

It's true.

It's true.

Find that person.

Just start rubbing up against them.

Find out who they're and what they're about.

You know what happens when you rub up against somebody that's soft?

Softer in Jesus than you are?

Absolutely nothing.

Okay?

You ever, you rub a knife up against a piece of wood all day long.

It's not gonna get any sharper.

Right?

You can stick it in.

Matter of fact, less than nothing will happen.

You can stick a knife in the ground.

You ever stick a knife in the ground a couple of times when it's soft?

You know, and it's soft and it's gushy.

You can stick a knife in there and then you go try to go cut something with it.

All right?

It's dull, right?

But Joshua spent a significant amount of time walking, watching, learning, and listening

to Moses.

So you gotta ask yourself this morning, who's the tip of the spear in your life?

Spiritually.

I'm talking about spiritually.

This happens out in the world all the time, physically, right?

But if somebody's gonna train you, they never put you with somebody that knows less than

you do about the job.

They always put somebody that's more experienced, right?

That's more tempered.

Who's more tempered in your spiritual walk?

Who you robbing up against?

Who you leaning in on?

Who's leaning in on you, right?

It makes all the difference.

How many of you have ever heard of a man who sings, named Lecrae?

Anybody over here, Lecrae?

Yeah.

Very good.

Okay.

Three of you.

Awesome.

Okay.

I read a little something about Lecrae.

It says this, God met me where I was at.

Baggy jeans and an earring.

With these words, the celebrated hip hop artist Lecrae Moore begins his story.

Growing up without a father, he experienced a childhood of abuse and neglect.

He filled his life with drugs, theft, alcohol, sex, and gang activity.

He was so wild that his friends nicknamed him Crazy Crae.

What it took to bring him to Christianity was someone who was not afraid of the subculture.

Who knew that the real problem with Lecrae was that not his culture, but his sin and

brokenness.

Lecrae, a man named Joe, loved his teenager enough to enter into the culture and to speak

his language.

Today, Lecrae is the president and co-founder of Reach Records and is the winner of several

double awards and a Grammy Award.

His album Anomaly was the first album ever to top the gospel albums and Billboard 200

chart.

Lecrae said the key turning point in his life was when he grasped what comes after conversion.

When he understood that Christianity is not just religious truth, it is total truth.

In other words, the real transformation came when he realized that Christians are called

to roll up their sleeves and work out the implications of a biblical worldview for justice, for politics,

for science, for scholarships, for art, for music, and all the rest of life.

We've limited Christianity to salvation and sanctification, he said, but Christianity

is the truth about everything.

If you say you are of a Christian worldview, that means you see the world through the lens,

not just how people get saved, but what and just what you stay away from, but Jesus first

and everything.

This is what happens when iron sharpens iron.

Lecrae had somebody in his life who was willing to walk in his culture and begin to talk to

him about Christianity, begin to talk about what it is to follow Christ.

You got to have somebody temperate in life.

You should be mentored.

You should be mentoring, right?

And I know what some of you are thinking.

Some of you are thinking, well, the Holy Spirit mentors me, right?

Some of you Bible scholars are like, well, that's why Jesus sent the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit's mentoring me, right?

That's true.

Jesus did send the Holy Spirit.

But do you know what some of the last commands of Jesus was?

One was that the Holy Spirit would come, the promise would come and he would coach you

and he would mentor you.

But do you know what another thing he said?

Go make disciples.

Do you know what discipling is?

That's mentoring and being mentored.

He said it's both.

You got to have that person in your life.

You got to be that person in someone's life.

Can I tell you, you are not good enough to do this on your own.

Can I shoot straight with you this morning?

Come on, it's God's days.

I got spears up here.

I'm shooting straight.

You are not good enough to do this on your own.

You need the Holy Spirit and you need other people in your life.

It's not optional according to Scripture.

Let me read a little more about the man who was the tip of this spear.

Joshua 1, verse 5 says, No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life.

Joshua 1:5

As I was with Moses, so I will be with you.

I will not leave you or forsake you.

Be strong and of good courage.

For to this people you shall divide in adherence the Lamb which I swore to their fathers to

give them.

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.

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 all according to what is written in it.

For then you will make your way prosperous.

You need to catch this part.

And then you will have good success.

That's God's success by the way.

That's different than the world's success.

Have I not commanded you?

Be strong and of good courage do not be afraid nor be dismayed.

For the Lord God is with you wherever you go.

What makes a spear effective in hitting the target is that you do not veer to the left

or you do not veer to the right.

The tip of the spear is going to hit the bull's eye if it doesn't veer to the left or to the

right.

God instructed Joshua, he said, listen, do a couple of things that I'm telling you to

do and you're not going to veer.

You're not going to miss the target.

You're not going to miss the bull's eye.

You're going to be effective on the battlefield.

You won't die on the battlefield.

You won't get confused.

You'll accomplish what I placed in front of you.

You won't veer.

And I could ask this question, how many of you have ever shot a bow and arrow in here?

A lot of you, most of you, okay?

All right, rednecks, awesome.

All right, you know, bow and arrow.

You know, maybe you were at camp.

Maybe you're a hunter.

If you shot an arrow, that's a small spear.

You know what I'm talking about because the smallest of things will make that arrow veer,

won't it?

A poor release will make that arrow veer away from the target.

A small twig or a branch just brushing against that arrow as it's released will make it veer

from the target.

The smallest of things.

The tip of the arrow being the proper weight will make it veer.

The fletching on the back, the feathers on the back, the slightest imperfection there

can make an arrow veer.

I see some of you nodding.

I like it.

It is, this is a redneck group, all right?

God told Joshua, do things my way.

Get this right.

Follow my commands and don't veer left or right from them.

Stay focused.

Because if you don't veer, you're going to hit the bullseye.

You're going to accomplish exactly what I'm telling you you're going to accomplish, right?

How many of you know when you're driving a car?

Maybe you didn't shoot a bow and arrow.

How many of you know when you're driving a car?

If you look out the side window and you get gawking at something, right?

You start to veer.

I've got a co-pilot in my car.

Her name's Dixie.

Okay?

When I veer, she doesn't say anything.

She grabs my right arm and squeezes and I know what that means.

Get focused, boy.

Look ahead.

Right?

Come on, straighten up.

God told Joshua, if you stay focused on it, if you think, come on, y'all laugh because

it happens to you, too.

All right?

Don't get looking around.

Don't veer left or right.

Come on.

It's some of the things that He said.

You're going to hit the bullseye.

Secondly, He said this, understand the fact that I will never leave or forsake you.

God told Joshua, I'll never leave you or forsake you.

God will launch you further and faster in life unless the idea or if you understand that

God is always with you, that He will never leave you or forsake you.

If the God of the universe who is bigger and more powerful than anything in your life, anything

you can conjure up, anything that ever has been conjured up is with you personally, how

can anything be against you?

Right?

You want fear to start mowing away from you?

Just understand this.

Get this in your belief.

God's bigger and faster than anything you can imagine.

If He's with you, He said that to Joshua.

He says it to those who follow Him, I am with you wherever you go.

There's no place you can try that He's not there.

Understand this.

He'll never leave you or forsake you.

Not only does it accomplish that, what it accomplishes, it relieves the fear and begins

to launch you forward.

The other thing is if you understand that God never leaves you or forsakes you, it also

keeps you accountable.

Do you know that?

If God never leaves you or forsakes you, that means He's with you all the time.

If He's with you all the time, you do know that God knows all things and that He can

read your thoughts.

You don't even have to verbalize it.

He knows what you're thinking.

He knows what the motives of your heart.

How many know that keeps you accountable?

How many know it?

He knows the secret thing that you thought yesterday that nobody else is ever going to

know.

That thing that crossed your mind, that thing that you entertained, the only one that knows

is God.

Here's how He keeps you from veering to the left and to the right.

One, you know that God is always with you and He'll never leave you or never forsake

you.

What should empower you to launch forward?

It should make you go forward without fear.

The other side of that should create great fear because God knows what you're thinking.

He knows what you're doing.

He empowers you to go forward and He also keeps you on the straight and narrow because He knows

what you thought.

He knows your motives.

He knows what's going on.

He told Joshua, just know I am with you wherever you go.

I'm with you, right?

So you should be like, yes, God's with me.

You're like, at the same time, you should be like, oh snap, God's with me all the time.

It's both.

It really is.

It keeps you going straight.

It keeps you from veering.

He told Joshua this.

Joshua, big stakes.

Man, he's walking into enemy territory.

He's walking into people who are going to want to take him out and every person that's

with him out.

The last thing he says, and I'm going to be closing up with this, be strong and of good

courage.

God repeats to Joshua over and over again, be strong.

If you read about the story of Joshua, be strong and be of good courage.

Be strong and of good courage.

Be strong and step out.

Be strong and step in, right?

Be strong and go to the destination that I placed in front of you.

Be strong and tackle the thing that nobody else will tackle.

How do I muster up that kind of courage?

How do I get that kind of courage to rise up inside of me where I am willing to walk

into hostile enemy territory?

Is it a matter of just stiffening my resolve?

You know, or psyching myself up?

You know, the players out on the field, right?

All players smacking their helmets, psyching each other up, slapping each other, right?

Is it a delusional sense of pride that I just need to keep building up so I get enough courage

to go do what God called me to do?

Do I study till my intellect carries me to a spiritual utopia where I all of a sudden

achieve courage because of everything that I know?

Does it happen automatically if I have the right mentor in place, the right person speaking

into my life?

How do I become courageous?

How did Josh would do this?

Courage, spiritual courage comes from somebody who has radical confidence in God.

Your courage will rise when you have radical confidence in God.

I'm not talking about lazy confidence in God.

I'm not talking about Sunday morning confidence in God.

Everybody can have confidence in God Sunday morning.

Amen?

It's easy to come here and have confidence in God Sunday morning.

I'm talking about radical confidence in God.

Confidence that whatever you go, I think Joshua, I don't know how he attained this kind of

confidence.

It doesn't really tell us.

I don't know if it was because he walked beside a man who was the tip of the spear and he

witnessed over and over again just how God brought Moses through.

It could be that testimony that did that and that's a part of that mentorship.

I'm not sure how that comes, but somewhere along the way, somewhere in the mix, Joshua

got to this place where this deep, deep confidence in God began to rise up with him because he

took a nation, walked across a river with tents and probably spears into fortified cities

with trained warriors and he walked right through and in.

He had supreme confidence in the God who spoke to him.

See here's the, that's how courage comes.

If you don't have spiritual courage, what you will do is you will settle.

You'll settle.

You'll settle for this much.

And here's the thing about settling.

Nobody calls you unsettling.

I don't know if you realize it or not.

If you settle in your spirit, nobody, unless you have a really close mentor, they might

call you unsettling, but otherwise nobody else will.

Everybody else will look at you and say, you know what, they're not pretty good.

Right?

They're going to church, right?

They've been following God.

They're saved.

You know, and you can settle and everybody's like, yeah, high five, you're doing awesome.

You're doing great.

But God knows when you have no spiritual courage, when your confidence in him is lacking and

everybody else will cheer you on.

But God sees you.

He sees you.

Come on.

He sees you.

He sees you.

He knows if you settle.

He knows if you've only given this much.

If your confidence only goes that far.

I want to be the tip of the spear.

I do.

I really do.

Both statement, I know.

But I got to have confidence in God.

I don't have confidence in me.

Some of you, some of you need to understand that God is so powerful that you can have confidence

in what God's going to do in you.

Some of you are plenty of confidence in God, but you don't have confidence in you as because

you're looking at what you got.

I'm here to tell you, God can take you anywhere you need to go.

He can run you over any mountain that you need to leap over and it's not confidence in

yourself, it's confidence in him.

Amen?

That's a different kind of confidence.

I'm going to ask you to stand.

Where's the team if you'd come?

Dads, I want you down front this morning.

I'm going to ask if the dads would all come and stand in front.

I'll put the spear down.

We're getting people saved this morning.

If you'd all come down front and we're just going to pray over you.

And while you come, I want you to reach over, go over there by that offering bucket by this.

I want you to grab one of those tips of the spear.

We got a tip of the spear for every dad here this morning.

I want you to grab a hold of that.

Somebody bring me one of those please.

Sometimes we forget.

Thank you.

Sometimes we forget when we leave.

What's been spoken and I don't want you to forget.

I want you all just to stand, line up across the front here because we're going to pray

over you.

I want the fathers furthest in the front.

I want the other men in the house to come in behind them.

If you're not, fathers move up.

Come on, move up.

Get up close.

Fathers, come on up.

Okay.

I want other men in the house that are not fathers at this point.

I want you to come in behind them and then ladies and teenagers, anybody else I want

you in the house, I want you to come in behind there because we're going to pray over you.

I wanted to give you a reminder this morning and you can hang this on your mirror of your

vehicle.

You can place it somewhere where you see it on a daily basis.

But I wanted you to have something in your hand to remind you that God has called you

to be the tip of the spear.

That he's the one that will call you.

I want you to remember that you need a mentor in your life.

You need somebody that's harder, right?

Somebody that's rubbed up against God a lot more than you have.

You need somebody speaking into your life.

I want you to, some of you that are tempered, some of you that have been through the fire,

some of you that have walked for God.

And listen, this doesn't have to do with age.

This has to do with how long you've been with God.

Some of you need to start mentoring someone else.

Somebody, I'm constantly reminded this.

People die and go to hell because I don't do my job sometimes.

You know that?

That's not just me.

That's you.

Because I don't mentor somebody.

They don't take time with someone.

Be the tip of the spear.

Have confidence in God.

Your courage will rise.

You will do things that you never thought you could do.

The job you're in got me a place to you there.

You're there for a reason and purpose.

But I'm telling you, the thing, the job that you're doing is not your only reason for being

there.

There are deep spiritual implications for wherever you're placed.

And it could be the job.

It could be the position.

It could be the place.

Whatever, wherever God's put you, wherever He's placed your feet.

If you're a dad, this is especially true.

You have people in your household, little people.

Okay?

You have to be the tip of the spear.

If you aren't, somebody else will be in their life.

And you'll be the wrong spear.

So we're going to pray this morning.

I want you to lay hands on these dads.

I want to change.

Just hands laid on top of shoulders the whole way up through.

All right?

I don't want anything unbroken here.

I want hands laid on top of shoulders.

This is biblical.

Laying on hands.

We're going to pray.

We're going to pray.

I want courage to rise up.

I don't want you to settle.

I know if you settled, don't settle.

Nobody else is going to know this but you.

Don't settle.

God knows.

Father, we come to you today.

God, you see each man that's in the house?

You see each father that's in the house?

Lord God, I pray right now.

God, that your hand would be upon them.

God, that you would guide them.

God, that you would direct them.

Lord, that you would call them out.

God, I don't want one spirit in this house.

God, to be a spirit of settling.

God, to be an okay, we're just going partway with you.

They're not having complete confidence in your hand.

Complete confidence in you you are.

Complete confidence in your power.

God, when that happens, God, courage will rise up in these men.

Courage will come to the surface.

And God, they'll step into positions and places and spaces.

God, that they never dream.

God, you can take them.

Lord, to where they need to be.

Lord, I ask right now, God, that you would touch them.

God, that you would minister to them.

God, that you would be around them and surround them.

God, let them see, Lord, the power of a mentor in their life.

Holy Spirit, we thank you for your coaching

and your guidance and direction.

But Jesus, we're going to follow what you said.

And you said, Lord, one of the things we're going to do

is disciple.

We're going to have to have a coach.

And we've got to be coaching.

Lord, in Jesus' name, in Jesus' name,

I pray for each man in this house.

God, I pray that your spirit would surround them.

God, I pray that they would stand in the authority.

God, that you've given them and placed upon their lives.

And Lord, we just give you praise.

And we give you the Lord and honor in Jesus' name.

And amen, and amen, amen.

In Genesis, you can go into the book of Genesis.

And when God created man, he put man on the earth.

And he did not just say, go wander around the earth.

He literally told him to subdue the earth,

to have authority over all the earth.

And he placed woman by his side and said the same thing

to her.

We are to rule over everything.

We don't rule over God, but everything on this earth,

you rule over.

You rule over your head.

You rule over your heart.

You rule over what you've got around you.

Tip of the spear.

Tip of the spear.

Amen.

Stand firm.

We need men of God.

We need men of God.

Amen.

Ladies, we need you as well.

Amen.

Ladies, tip of the spear.

There's matriarchs in this house.

It really is.

God bless you.

You need some beef jerky.

You need some ribbed beer floats.

Pastor Eric's coming off.

He's going to say one word, short word.

If you're listening online, thank you

for being here this morning.

If you need prayer, the prayer team

will slide over here to the left.

I know there's going to be lots of activity in the back.

They'll slide over here to the left up here in the front.

If you need afterwards, just come up.

They'll pray with you.

They'll pray over any need that you've got.

You've got something specific.

Pastor Eric.

Thank you for tuning in to this message from Life House Church.

We pray that you were impacted powerfully by this message.

If you have been personally affected by our ministry

and you would like to partner with us as we love God,

love people every day, visit our website at www.lifehousecog.com.