2026-02-08 - Big Steps Aren't About Bold Personalities, They're About Obedient Hearts

[SPEAKER_00]: Welcome to the Sermon Podcast from Church at The Well and Telsin, Maryland.

[SPEAKER_00]: To learn more about Church at The Well, visit our website, Thewellboltmore.com.

[SPEAKER_00]: And now, here's today's Sermon from our pastor, Dane Carreway.

[SPEAKER_01]: Um, hey, there we go.

[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.

[SPEAKER_01]: Um, so Anna, um, this week got me really good.

[SPEAKER_01]: She was like, hey, Dan, I wanted to know how you're feeling because, uh, this Sunday is the season finale of your favorite show.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I did not know what she meant.

[SPEAKER_01]: I was, I was like, who would have their season finale on Super Bowl Sunday?

[SPEAKER_01]: She's like, it is, that is the season finale of your favorite

[SPEAKER_01]: So we're praying for purpose for people like me after this past Sunday, we're praying for that that we could find God's purpose in our lives for the rest of the year, you know.

[SPEAKER_01]: But now I'm excited.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think it's going to be a good game.

[SPEAKER_01]: I did not remember that it was the Seahawks.

[SPEAKER_01]: I was picking the Seahawks today.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's why I was going with.

[SPEAKER_01]: I now I feel I need to be a patriots fan, which is weird to say, it feels kind of dirty.

[SPEAKER_01]: Ravens fans, we could agree on that, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: Like it feels kind of like, you know what I'm saying?

[SPEAKER_01]: Like, you signed up for something sac religious?

[SPEAKER_01]: It just doesn't, you know?

[SPEAKER_01]: on his honorist sister and her husband living Boston.

[SPEAKER_01]: And this is when you know, you went too much.

[SPEAKER_01]: Did you know that the Patriots have the least amount of fan-to-fan altercations out of any team in the NFL?

[SPEAKER_01]: They went so much that one of another teams in a fan, they're like, welcome.

[SPEAKER_01]: Thanks for coming.

[SPEAKER_01]: Appreciate you being here.

[SPEAKER_01]: They've won so much that they do not care if you come to the other stadium.

[SPEAKER_01]: They're just like, well,

[SPEAKER_01]: We win, you know, if we even if we lose this game, look at all the trophies.

[SPEAKER_01]: So, um, I don't know, I think I'm below the game.

[SPEAKER_01]: So, I'm excited about today.

[SPEAKER_01]: We are starting a brand new series called Big Step In.

[SPEAKER_01]: Um, so I want to, I want to be clear that the, the theme for our year is that it's time to take big steps.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so it, it leans in, um, well with this idea, um, there is a song by a Christian rapper named Miles Minnick that, you know, I thought for a second that if we do a bumper video we

[SPEAKER_01]: But by February or March you would be picking a new church how many times you would have heard this song so I thought maybe we shouldn't do this But I um, I wanted this idea For us because I think and we'll get into this.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think it is popular.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think that most of our evangelism

[SPEAKER_01]: conferences and even things like momentum and things like that where like we get in a room with believers and our idea of taking steps of faith or idea of doing what God calls us to do almost feels like a pep rally.

[SPEAKER_01]: It almost feels like we have to convince ourselves, where the guy about to lift our PR and the gym, and we have to pump ourselves up.

[SPEAKER_01]: You ever see one of these guys where you just see them over in the corner, like I don't know what supplement he took, but he's lifting the whole gym, you know?

[SPEAKER_01]: It feels like that.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I think if we actually look at the story of Joshua,

[SPEAKER_01]: that that is not the same tone.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think that as God is going to talk to Joshua, this story starts with a divine conversation.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I don't know about you, but all the divine conversations that I've had with God have not been during the pep rallies.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's been in the times when I felt that my lowest, it's been at the times when I needed his encouragement or I would not have moved.

[SPEAKER_01]: It would have been in the moment where I would have felt like I'm not the beach in the waves and I'm being tossed side to side by the way, I'm telling you this isn't my version of what we're going to read.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm telling you what I would have done if I was in Joshua's shoes.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I think like when we read Joshua, we think about the coolness and like the leadership, you can't talk about Joshua without talking about courage and about being brave and things like that, and we almost like a sign personality to him, and find like, you got to, you know, we want to love God's word.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think what we're going to read is what happens when we allow God to live in through us.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's got stuff you want.

[SPEAKER_01]: He got stuff he wants you to do.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's got things that he wants you know, you to walk in and become, but it's going to take big steps and I don't think there, I don't think big steps means big personality change.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think it's kind of like, it's like, hey, listen, here's where I'm meeting you at, are you willing to meet me there?

[SPEAKER_01]: Are you willing to go there with me?

[SPEAKER_01]: Sometimes when I preach, I'll say this, like, hey, would you be willing to enter, enter, enter into this with me?

[SPEAKER_01]: So, here's what I want to do.

[SPEAKER_01]: Our big idea for the whole series, you'll see this, we got about maybe like 10-11 weeks in Joshua, we're going to go quick if you're somebody that's like, I love to make my devotions when I'm reading daily, to match up what we're reading on Sundays.

[SPEAKER_01]: this is actually going to work out pretty well because we're going to move through Joshua pretty pretty quick.

[SPEAKER_01]: We're going to look at the themes and things so you'll be able to kind of keep up like you know like almost a week at a time so this week I'm doing the first nine verses in Joshua 1.

[SPEAKER_01]: Next week we're going to expand that out.

[SPEAKER_01]: We're going to move all the way to like probably mid.

[SPEAKER_01]: of Joshua chapter three, so you'll be able to, you know, almost kind of measure it out if I get time, I'll kind of like let you know where I'm going, book and chapter wise so you can I'm stretch it out, but we're going to, we're going to, between now and Easter is when we're going to try to tackle the book of Joshua.

[SPEAKER_01]: Our big idea for the series is this, trusting Jesus requires following the direction wherever that may lead,

[SPEAKER_01]: But sometimes, that requires taking big steps.

[SPEAKER_01]: And big steps, they're not about bold personalities.

[SPEAKER_01]: They're about obedient hearts.

[SPEAKER_01]: So our big idea of big steps is not about bold personalities.

[SPEAKER_01]: You can take big steps as an introvert.

[SPEAKER_01]: You could take big steps if you've never, like if you don't know anything about the Bible or know anything about following Jesus,

[SPEAKER_01]: Big steps is about you being obedient.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's about having a connection with the divine and being able to say, I'm going to follow what you want me to do.

[SPEAKER_01]: Every day before my kids leave school, I say, go do what you're supposed to do.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's the direction.

[SPEAKER_01]: It used to be, sometimes I got more time.

[SPEAKER_01]: When we were not late, I'm like, what are the three things?

[SPEAKER_01]: Listen, obey and be respectful.

[SPEAKER_01]: Cool, could probably repeat that.

[SPEAKER_01]: But when I don't have time, I just yell at them, do what you're supposed to do.

[SPEAKER_01]: Because that's the direction, if you do what you're supposed to do, you're in a line with being obedient.

[SPEAKER_01]: Are you willing to follow and lead in this way even when it's uncomfortable?

[SPEAKER_01]: The moments

[SPEAKER_01]: in life we're standing still feel safe but staying still is actually disobedient like I'm willing to stay here like this is where we get caught in a lot I remember one time when we were getting ready to to plan our church and we were going through a lot of vision and direction conversations and I was talking with some of the leaders from the church we were planted out of and I was talking

[SPEAKER_01]: Discipleship pathway.

[SPEAKER_01]: How are we actually going to reach somebody?

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't think that you can be a private church that doesn't have some sort of plan of like this is where if we meet somebody who doesn't believe Jesus Do we have any sort of pathway for that person to go from being far from God to being someone who's like following Jesus and leading in a capacity Maybe not in their church, but maybe in their home or their community like we do we have a pathway to be able to get people from there to there

[SPEAKER_01]: And one of the gentlemen said to me, guy who loves Jesus was like serving a big role at our church, said me, he said, well, Dane, you have to be prepared for if people don't wanna be disciples, they just wanna be Christians.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I, about, like, you know, blew a gasket.

[SPEAKER_01]: I was like, I, like, there's, those things are the same.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like, like, you'll notice I don't say a lot of Christian stuff.

[SPEAKER_01]: You gotta be a Christian.

[SPEAKER_01]: You gotta be a believer.

[SPEAKER_01]: Believer, I love that, you know?

[SPEAKER_01]: Believer, believe in what?

[SPEAKER_01]: Sains a believer, like he, he believes in Jesus, probably more than a man you do, like he, he believes in him.

[SPEAKER_01]: And you got to be a follower of Jesus, like, and here's where I would kind of like, as it relates to Joshua, I think that you can be somebody who stands in belief of who God is.

[SPEAKER_01]: All of Israel at this point would have been.

[SPEAKER_01]: They're convinced that who God is.

[SPEAKER_01]: They're convinced because they were to be the kids of a generation that was under a curse of God.

[SPEAKER_01]: Imagine, like, growing up, imagine being born and sent.

[SPEAKER_01]: And like, and wondering why were desert people?

[SPEAKER_01]: And I said, the reason why you were born in a desert is because of the sins of your mom and dad, they are not allowed to go into the land that you will go into.

[SPEAKER_01]: So God's literally has us living in the desert until all of the sin that we all agreed to do, that we all participated in, that we all decided to worship God's stuff instead of God.

[SPEAKER_01]: You guys are gonna inherit the promises that we're originally given to us.

[SPEAKER_01]: Because we just stood and recognition of God, but we didn't walk out what he called us to do.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like, like, when you think about Israel's sin, like that, like that's what it is.

[SPEAKER_01]: that they understood like they were willing they like they would have heard the stories cross the red sea they would have experienced all they did in Egypt and see those things and whether it's those folks or the generation after those folks like they'd have to like see all of these things and then say you know what we still rather have got stuff other than God and then Josh was generation comes.

[SPEAKER_01]: You see, I'm saying, it sounds like this great, like, story at the beginning of Joshua, we're gonna read here in a second.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm giving you a long lead in.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm getting to it two minutes.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like, but you have this amazing, divine conversation between God and Joshua.

[SPEAKER_01]: But this isn't Coach Dane talking to Ivan in Korea before a game.

[SPEAKER_01]: We had a reference in that guy's.

[SPEAKER_01]: You know, like, before a game, like, we can go and do it, guys, hands in.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now, this is God saying, hey, Joshua,

[SPEAKER_01]: we got to start differently than the last generation.

[SPEAKER_01]: The best leader that said for Lift Moses, he couldn't get people on this road.

[SPEAKER_01]: He could like, as grace he was, like he literally died with the generation but he loved so much that would not follow him in this.

[SPEAKER_01]: They could not do it.

[SPEAKER_01]: They could not walk out the promises that I had for them.

[SPEAKER_01]: So we're gonna do this differently.

[SPEAKER_01]: We all love the idea of God's promises, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: So why we like reread the promise books before, and the bed we love the idea that God promises us stuff.

[SPEAKER_01]: We just don't always love the process of walking in them.

[SPEAKER_01]: We like, you've heard people like a big thing that keeps people away from God.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's like, how does a good God allow all this negative to happen?

[SPEAKER_01]: You've seen it.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like the story of Exodus is this.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like the story, even what Joshua and God are talking about.

[SPEAKER_01]: You see what happens is that we love one God promised to stuff, we hate the requirements to experience them, comes with it.

[SPEAKER_01]: We're like, he's a good God, but if he's so good, why do we have all these things?

[SPEAKER_01]: Because the ground is cursed.

[SPEAKER_01]: Because from the first generation, we keep doing things to violate the agreements that God has made with us.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like, let's not be clear, it's a contract.

[SPEAKER_01]: God makes a cup in it with us.

[SPEAKER_01]: He makes one with Joshua, and he tells him what to do, and Joshua understood something that we all would do while to understand that.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like, we will do well if we keep our end of the contract and he promises that's what will happen outside of it.

[SPEAKER_01]: He exists outside of time and outside of our experience.

[SPEAKER_01]: He tells us what's gonna happen.

[SPEAKER_01]: Israel's standing at the edge of the promised land, but this isn't a hype moment.

[SPEAKER_01]: Moses was dead.

[SPEAKER_01]: The connection to God was literally dead.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like, go back and read Exodus.

[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe that's something you do.

[SPEAKER_01]: And like, remember, like, they were kind of depending on Moses having the voice of God.

[SPEAKER_01]: Moses was the prophet before the prophets.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like, at one point, God and Moses were like, had in conversation, and Moses, like, God's voice just sounded like thunder cracking and the earth would shake when God would speak to Moses.

[SPEAKER_01]: And the people were so scared, they were like, hey, Moses, can you tell God that just they were literally telling God to be quiet because they were too scared.

[SPEAKER_01]: They can handle the fact that, like the sovereign was on this mountain, and it changed like the atmosphere.

[SPEAKER_01]: Most of the spent time with God in his face glowed because of him being in the presence of God.

[SPEAKER_01]: That guy was dead, like the guy that had led them out of captivity for hundreds of years because of his connection with God, able to perform the supernatural was now dead and

[SPEAKER_01]: The leader was gone, and the future feels uncertain.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, there was a plan, they would have heard the promise that Moses said, this was going to have a generation, but it still feels uncertain, because the God has led us to this point was gone.

[SPEAKER_01]: And that's where the series is going to live.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think we too often talk about our faith, and talk about big face steps with the cheerleader sort of encouragement.

[SPEAKER_01]: Big step in isn't about hype faith.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's about obedient faith.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's about what looks what it looks like to move forward when you don't feel quite ready.

[SPEAKER_01]: You don't feel qualified.

[SPEAKER_01]: You don't feel strong enough brave enough loud enough.

[SPEAKER_01]: But here's the truth.

[SPEAKER_01]: God really gives the full map.

[SPEAKER_01]: He gives the next step.

[SPEAKER_01]: And before God ever calls Joshua to conquer land, He calls him to be someone.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm going to start in Joshua chapter one.

[SPEAKER_01]: We're going to look at verses one through nine if you got a Bible.

[SPEAKER_01]: The reads like this, after the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord, the Lord said to Joshua the son of none, Moses assistant.

[SPEAKER_01]: Moses my servant is dead.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now therefore rise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people, into the land that I'm giving to them, to the people of Israel.

[SPEAKER_01]: Every place that the soul of your foot will tread upon, I've given to you, just as I promised to Moses.

[SPEAKER_01]: from the wilderness into this Lebanon and as far as the great river that river you fratees.

[SPEAKER_01]: All the land of the Hittites to the great sea towards the going down of the sun shall be your territory.

[SPEAKER_01]: No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life.

[SPEAKER_01]: Just as I was with Moses, so I will be with you.

[SPEAKER_01]: I will not leave you or forsake you, be strong courageous for you, show causes people to inherit the land that I swore to their fathers to give them, only be strong and very courageous, being careful to do according to all the law that most of my servant commanded you.

[SPEAKER_01]: Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left that you may have good success wherever you go.

[SPEAKER_01]: This book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to it all that is written in it.

[SPEAKER_01]: For then, you will make your ways prosperous, and then you will have good success.

[SPEAKER_01]: Have an eye-commanded you, be strong and courageous, do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord, your God, is with you wherever you go.

[SPEAKER_01]: So God doesn't speak vaguely to Joshua.

[SPEAKER_01]: He lays it out.

[SPEAKER_01]: He says, hey, listen, I'm like, here's promises, here's commands, here's how they mix together.

[SPEAKER_01]: Here's what I am promising you, and here is your responsibility.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm going to talk about that more here in a second, like he gives him the agreement.

[SPEAKER_01]: He tells them, like, this is how you're going to find success.

[SPEAKER_01]: Here's how you're going to be able to walk out what I want you to do.

[SPEAKER_01]: Here's how you're going to be able to lead people well.

[SPEAKER_01]: I've given to you now a rise and go.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like God provides provider, but there is a character, and there's action steps that come with God's provision.

[SPEAKER_01]: God promises the land, but Joshua still has to take the steps.

[SPEAKER_01]: We see that this is the intersection, I like to say, of God's sovereignty and the human responsibility.

[SPEAKER_01]: God's able to do what he wants to do, God's able to provide for you.

[SPEAKER_01]: He wants you to do it, but He wants you to be the person that can handle his gifts to you.

[SPEAKER_01]: He wants you to be, he wants to take care of us.

[SPEAKER_01]: He has a plan.

[SPEAKER_01]: This is his people.

[SPEAKER_01]: This is the folks that he wants to take into the land that he always meant for them to have.

[SPEAKER_01]: But it's going to take like some some faiths that remember like the what would it just happen and happen in generations before there was there was this loose connection even what happens after Joshua once they get corrupt leadership this cycle amongst the Israelites where sometimes we trust God.

[SPEAKER_01]: Sometimes we do what we want to do.

[SPEAKER_01]: Once we get tired of doing what we want to do, we realize how deplorable we are, we realize the depravity of our own choices.

[SPEAKER_01]: And we get tired of doing this.

[SPEAKER_01]: Remember the protocol's somewhere.

[SPEAKER_01]: He had lost all that he could.

[SPEAKER_01]: He could not lose anymore.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's when I get back to the point where they went God again.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so they've cry out to God.

[SPEAKER_01]: God is sure and faithful to meet people in their depravity.

[SPEAKER_01]: And then once they get tired of following God again, they're back to doing the same cycle over and over and over again.

[SPEAKER_01]: you see it in the Old Testament, you see it in the New Testament, you see it in us.

[SPEAKER_01]: Sometimes we get tired of it.

[SPEAKER_01]: Sometimes God's promises aren't on good enough.

[SPEAKER_01]: We say, well, God, you've provided what I need, but the world's got a lot of what I want.

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know if you've realized this, but the best football that you could watch actually happen two weeks ago.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like we got a mint like like the NFC like in ASC temperatures that's probably the best is everywhere.

[SPEAKER_01]: The Super Bowl isn't the best football.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's about the advertisements.

[SPEAKER_01]: I bet you can't name like you know much would happen in less Super Bulls but I guarantee you remember some of the first time you saw the trailer to the movie you were coming out with.

[SPEAKER_01]: Most of y'all are Star Wars fans.

[SPEAKER_01]: I guarantee you one of those Star Wars movies like the trailer to a debut during a Super Bowl.

[SPEAKER_01]: Right or wrong.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like I mean, like they create moments, they create things, it's all about the advertising, it's all about the connection to it, but it's not always like what's on the field, that's the best.

[SPEAKER_01]: The intersection between God's sovereignty and human responsibility, verse three says, every place that the soul of your foot touch would try to pawn, I have given to you.

[SPEAKER_01]: just as I promised to Moses.

[SPEAKER_01]: I love this is going to be one of the first kind of like reference points that God gives to Joshua, especially back to Moses or things that he did with Moses.

[SPEAKER_01]: You're going to see another one spoiler alert coming up in two chapters with what happens at the Jordan River.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's really similar to what happened at the Red Sea with one slight difference.

[SPEAKER_01]: But God is like, he's showing Joshua.

[SPEAKER_01]: Hey, listen, you were an apprentice to this guy, and I loved him, and I took care of him.

[SPEAKER_01]: And one of the things that I love that God did with Joshua in getting to look at Moses is that Moses wasn't the perfect leader, especially at first.

[SPEAKER_01]: Remember, every time God told Moses to do something,

[SPEAKER_01]: Moses was like, nah, I can't do it.

[SPEAKER_01]: Find somebody else.

[SPEAKER_01]: Look at Aaron.

[SPEAKER_01]: He talks a lot better than me.

[SPEAKER_01]: I can't do it.

[SPEAKER_01]: I doubt you.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like, I don't know if this is true.

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know if anybody argued with God as much as Moses did.

[SPEAKER_01]: But when God is talking about Moses to Joshua, he's saying, man, I was with him.

[SPEAKER_01]: I didn't need his perfection in order to use him and to lead people to bring you to where you are now.

[SPEAKER_01]: God promised land, but Joshua has to take the steps, verse seven.

[SPEAKER_01]: We're 7 through 9.

[SPEAKER_01]: It says only the strong courageous is the command.

[SPEAKER_01]: It gives only the strong courageous being careful to do according to the law that Moses, my servant, commanded you do not turn from it from the right hand or to the left that she may have good success wherever you go.

[SPEAKER_01]: The book of the Law should not depart from your mouth.

[SPEAKER_01]: but you shall meditate on it day and night so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it.

[SPEAKER_01]: For then you will make your way prosperous and then you will have good success.

[SPEAKER_01]: The purpose of studying God's Word is to grab the instructions and be successful in doing it.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like, I hope that you, you see that, I hope that you believe that, like, it's not about being a better Christian or being able to have something to talk about it.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think that if your father Jesus, your convinced that God's got a plan for your life and he wants to use you to do your purpose while you're still here on earth.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think we do wrong when we don't look at the book that he gave us to help live that out.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think we miss it if we're saying like I can be a follower of Jesus without having interaction with God's Word.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think you're mistaken.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think that you are out there trying to build something without the instruction manual.

[SPEAKER_01]: I grew up with a Jamaican grandfather who has never ever used anything, any instruction manual that ever came with it.

[SPEAKER_01]: And it was passed down.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's a generational curse, like my Camilla's or was it the boy's bunk bed?

[SPEAKER_01]: The boys, we got the, we got a bug bed for B.J.'

[SPEAKER_01]: 's, and my uncle Charles and my uncle Ian, I hope they'd ever listen to this.

[SPEAKER_01]: They came over to build the bunk beds.

[SPEAKER_01]: They got there at 7 o'clock in the morning.

[SPEAKER_01]: We served them breakfast lunch and dinner.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's how long they were at our, our, our, our old house.

[SPEAKER_01]: And the, the instruction manual never left our living room.

[SPEAKER_01]: And we just heard bumps,

[SPEAKER_01]: curse words, like, you know, we thought they were coming through this, so for the feelings, and did that one point like after like eight o'clock, they're like, Dane, they didn't give us all of the parts.

[SPEAKER_01]: We'd go to Home Depot tomorrow and get all the parts.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm like, you know what, guys?

[SPEAKER_01]: You don't even worry about it.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so I did what you're not supposed to do.

[SPEAKER_01]: They were mad at me for over a year, did talk about over a year.

[SPEAKER_01]: I called a task rabbit to fix it.

[SPEAKER_01]: And this was like young, like, 20 something year old, Towson student.

[SPEAKER_01]: He was in our house.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now, it's all put together because he read the instructions.

[SPEAKER_01]: Well, August came back there, we're so bad that he's talking for a year.

[SPEAKER_01]: But the boys are still alive, and that's what's important, you know, they can sleep.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think that one of the things that we consistently miss as believers is that God's handed you the book to help you be successful in living the life you want you to live.

[SPEAKER_01]: And if we disregard it, if it's not a part of our day, if it's not a part of our week, if it's not, if it's not something we interact with, I'm not just, I don't want you just to be the Bible scholar to argue with the atheist, et cetera, like that, that has a deafness to you.

[SPEAKER_01]: Fine, cool, do it, you know?

[SPEAKER_01]: You probably can find a YouTube video that could do it better than you can.

[SPEAKER_01]: At the same time, like, for you, for you to have confidence, for you to have peace, for you, to be able to live out.

[SPEAKER_01]: You know, like, I told folks that when you read God's Word, I don't know another book.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm not a big reader, but I've never read Harry Potter and felt like somebody was reading me.

[SPEAKER_01]: I have done that when I've opened God's Word.

[SPEAKER_01]: I have experienced that that is I'm interacting with God's Word that it feels like somebody's searching me and searching my intentions and my thoughts and my heart.

[SPEAKER_01]: I just think it's what we need in order to be successful and follow in Jesus.

[SPEAKER_01]: If we think about, I'm sorry, I didn't even say this before.

[SPEAKER_01]: Question we're going after today is how do you know when the steps are worth walking out?

[SPEAKER_01]: Number one is that the calling is clear and it's full of promise.

[SPEAKER_01]: Let me say that better.

[SPEAKER_01]: How do we know when the steps are worth walking out?

[SPEAKER_01]: It's because the calling is clear and it's full of promise.

[SPEAKER_01]: We see that like God is calling Joshua into something.

[SPEAKER_01]: And the promises are found not just in what God has called us to do, but it's also found in his word, it's full of promise and the calling is clear.

[SPEAKER_01]: Second one is this, the leader is worth following.

[SPEAKER_01]: How do we know when the steps are worth walking out?

[SPEAKER_01]: How do you know that when God is calling to, it's worth you living your life behind, it's worth being a part of who you are.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's when the leaders are following.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's when the person, remember, I told you, like, Moses is, you know, um, resume, people like, well, that guy's been with God.

[SPEAKER_01]: That guy turned a stick into a snake.

[SPEAKER_01]: That guy, like, stood toe to toe with the superpower of the world.

[SPEAKER_01]: He went up against Pharaoh.

[SPEAKER_01]: And Josh was resume so far as he was there too, you know, he was vice-moses, you know, uh, but right, that was going, um, he, he, he, he was there too.

[SPEAKER_01]: Also, do you remember like the whole thing, like you need to go back and look at this and in Exodus when Joshua was one of the spies that went into the land?

[SPEAKER_01]: And remember, like you guys know this story, so before they got to Jericho, before all this happened before, Moses and all of them died, he sent some spies out.

[SPEAKER_01]: Everybody else went over there, they saw the scouting report, they looked at those guys and they were like, yeah, we're about to lose this battle.

[SPEAKER_01]: I know our God is big, we cross the whole sea, we beat Pharaoh, but we've been on the desert, all we've been having is manna from heaven.

[SPEAKER_01]: We're not ready to go and fight these steroid, driven, big old gargantuan's over here.

[SPEAKER_01]: We need to turn back.

[SPEAKER_01]: In Joshua,

[SPEAKER_01]: Him and one other guy came back and said, oh yeah, they're big, but have you not seen the God that we serve, we got this, we're good.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's somebody worth following.

[SPEAKER_01]: Joshua didn't audition for leadership by the way.

[SPEAKER_01]: He was formed in obscurity, Moses laid his hands on him, but God shaped his heart over years.

[SPEAKER_01]: I believe that, you know, like that, especially when it comes in terms of our like spiritual leadership, that God has built spiritual leadership always.

[SPEAKER_01]: You know, I think about some of the young adult guys like, God's making beds and husbands now.

[SPEAKER_01]: And we need to think about that.

[SPEAKER_01]: And we need to think about, like, you know, I think we need to think about people in those terms that they're not just what they are now and they apply for the job.

[SPEAKER_01]: And once they get the job, they have to hurry up and get all the leadership responsibilities.

[SPEAKER_01]: No, God's doing that over time.

[SPEAKER_01]: that he's building end leadership things like, you know, before they, before you ever get there, for some folks, it's a matter of being a leader before there's ever a position available.

[SPEAKER_01]: Moses laid his hands on him, but God shaped his heart.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think a big thing when it comes to leadership positions, you can use this here in our church.

[SPEAKER_01]: You can use this in your homes and your jobs.

[SPEAKER_01]: A lot of people think, well, I think I'm in a leadership position, but how do I get people to buy in?

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't think anybody sees me that way.

[SPEAKER_01]: If you find yourself in a position, a leadership,

[SPEAKER_01]: You will experience the buy-in from people you're leading when they're convinced the vision for where you're going is a bigger mission than the Build your ego.

[SPEAKER_01]: And it's not about, it's not about you getting wins.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's not about you being seen as the best things in sliced bread.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think when people understand where you're going and why it's worth it, and that it's more important than you just being built up with your ego, people will not follow you.

[SPEAKER_01]: Deuteronomy 34-9, this is how the story of Moses' ends is what it said.

[SPEAKER_01]: Joshua the Son of Nun will full of the Spirit of Wisdom, from Moses had laid his hands on him, so the people of Israel obeyed him and did as the Lord had commanded Moses.

[SPEAKER_01]: So I want you to think about that, like that whole imagery of laying your hands on somebody.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's like the like most sincere endorsement.

[SPEAKER_01]: That is someone saying, I recommend them to take my place, I recommend them for the position that I am putting my hands on them for.

[SPEAKER_01]: So you just don't put your hands on everybody.

[SPEAKER_01]: You know what I mean?

[SPEAKER_01]: Like recently I was asked for to recommend somebody's son to something for internship.

[SPEAKER_01]: I know the kid.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I was like, well listen, I'll

[SPEAKER_01]: I can tell you who to go when talk do.

[SPEAKER_01]: I can give a recommendation for somebody that I don't.

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, what if he's crazy?

[SPEAKER_01]: I can't just be telling crazy people for a job.

[SPEAKER_01]: It doesn't make sense.

[SPEAKER_01]: I tell you a better one.

[SPEAKER_01]: There was a kid that was on a loves every kid.

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know if you know my wife, but there's no such thing as a bad kid.

[SPEAKER_01]: There's no such thing of a kid that.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm like, on a disc is bad, they didn't go to jail.

[SPEAKER_01]: There was a kid that was in that category.

[SPEAKER_01]: And once our school came to youth group sometimes graduated, didn't hear from again.

[SPEAKER_01]: I get a call one day from the people that like call and do investigation when they're trying to, it takes about to do a hiring process for a police.

[SPEAKER_01]: This is the capital police.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm getting called for a recommendation for this kid.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm like, he's going to be what now?

[SPEAKER_01]: Oh yeah, blah, blah, blah, I'm applying to be a capital policeman, and he puts you down as a recommendation.

[SPEAKER_01]: What was your last interaction with him?

[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm like, how do I tell the truth when the last interaction I had with him?

[SPEAKER_01]: was literally, like, dancing behind me, like, on the floor to stay straight, I was trying to give the gospel, and he's dancing a little John.

[SPEAKER_01]: You know what I'm saying?

[SPEAKER_01]: Like, I don't know if I was supposed to be the person that he called for the recommendation for Capitol Police.

[SPEAKER_01]: What, what, what, you don't just put your hands in everybody with, if that's like, that's like,

[SPEAKER_01]: like American, I'd like recommendation and a lot of the time signs are like, well, if somebody asks for recommendation, you just tell them that you like them and they're great, blah, blah.

[SPEAKER_01]: But Moses is doing something here.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's like, I'm going to die.

[SPEAKER_01]: And because I love these people, because like, this is God's plan for them, whoever's in this spot has to be somebody who's going to be able to listen to the voice of God and lead in that capacity.

[SPEAKER_01]: I wonder if every, like, that or husband in the room, if you recognize that when God gave you your wife and God gave you your family to leave, he put his hands on you for that.

[SPEAKER_01]: Some of us, like, we experience, like, a father of our wife to like hand their daughter over to us.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think it's like almost a symbolic of putting his hands on you.

[SPEAKER_01]: I wonder if we've ever, like, like, if you've ever, like, been in a, um, managerial role at your jobs or you're over people, people report to you.

[SPEAKER_01]: that the owners of the company, maybe you're the owner of the company, investors, however it works, you know, school capacity that admin, like those are people's kids in your classroom.

[SPEAKER_01]: Got what you're like?

[SPEAKER_01]: There's not a better investment.

[SPEAKER_01]: There's not anything more precious than people.

[SPEAKER_01]: Some of us work for big companies.

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know, Dan, I work for 4,500 companies.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's, I got a lot of assets to take care of.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, but that also represents people in their lives.

[SPEAKER_01]: You lose the money, you lose people's jobs.

[SPEAKER_01]: Hear about that in the Washington Post, this past week that, um, uh, uh, Bezos cut a, uh, cut a lot of jobs at the Washington Post.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I was listening to what he had to say about it.

[SPEAKER_01]: And he said, um, I don't know how to make money with this.

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know how to make money with the way that it's always been set up.

[SPEAKER_01]: And instead of hiring somebody to do it, he just said, I don't know, I don't know if anybody does, but that's what I read.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's like, I don't know how to make money with this.

[SPEAKER_01]: So I've got to cut these people.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I don't know, like, if we ever, like, can see that if you have any influence in somebody's life, I talked about this earlier.

[SPEAKER_01]: If you have influence in somebody's life, he's called you to leadership.

[SPEAKER_01]: And part of what, of the people that are depending on you, they're looking to see if your somebody worth following.

[SPEAKER_01]: that if your lifestyle and your connection to something and your connection to the mission is bigger than your own ego, or bigger than your own concerns.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I wonder if we've ever been able to experience like the buying that even if it's got himself.

[SPEAKER_01]: And his hand was put on in order to do that.

[SPEAKER_01]: Men and women, old and young, you get given the ball.

[SPEAKER_01]: How do we, how do you know when steps are worth walking out?

[SPEAKER_01]: It's when the leaders were following.

[SPEAKER_01]: Last one, the followers are worth leading.

[SPEAKER_01]: How do we know when the steps are worth walking out?

[SPEAKER_01]: It's when the leaders are worth the followers are worth leading.

[SPEAKER_01]: The followers, the people are worth leading.

[SPEAKER_01]: God doesn't just call Josh to a conqueror land.

[SPEAKER_01]: He calls him to care for people.

[SPEAKER_01]: And if you don't love people, you can't be a leader, point blank.

[SPEAKER_01]: A lot of people love position over people.

[SPEAKER_01]: You cannot love position over people.

[SPEAKER_01]: You have to love people over position.

[SPEAKER_01]: At least not good leaders.

[SPEAKER_01]: So one of the great marks of good leadership is when those who are leading encourage you to keep leading them well.

[SPEAKER_01]: In verse 18, we'll get there.

[SPEAKER_01]: Um, the people, um, actually say to Joshua, like, so you keep being strong and courageous Joshua word with you.

[SPEAKER_01]: We're going to see like later in the chapter that like, there's this like affirmation that Joshua tells me what here's what we're going to do.

[SPEAKER_01]: Get your stuff together.

[SPEAKER_01]: We're headed into the Promised Land and people are like, yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: We're going to be with you just like we're with Moses, but it's kind of fun because they weren't always with Moses, but they're like we're going to trust you.

[SPEAKER_01]: We see that your guys, man, you can be in strong and courageous because that's going to encourage us to keep being strong and courageous.

[SPEAKER_01]: The encouragement doesn't come from God.

[SPEAKER_01]: It comes from people sometimes.

[SPEAKER_01]: Down in verse 16, it says, whoever rebels against your command shall be put to death only be strong and courageous, that there's people that are with him.

[SPEAKER_01]: Why?

[SPEAKER_01]: Because Joshua loved them well.

[SPEAKER_01]: He was with them.

[SPEAKER_01]: The leadership reality is, if you don't love people,

[SPEAKER_01]: You can't leave and you can't do it well.

[SPEAKER_01]: Authority is not demanded, trust is earned and for us, questions that we have to think about are, do the people you're leading feel like a burden or they're blessing?

[SPEAKER_01]: Are people scared to come and ask you a question?

[SPEAKER_01]: They're like, I don't want to burden you with something.

[SPEAKER_01]: Or do you see yourself being trusted with phone calls and text?

[SPEAKER_01]: In ways that people aren't scared of you?

[SPEAKER_01]: I wonder if you can think about who has got place under your influence that needs courage from you and not just instruction.

[SPEAKER_01]: Find yourself tell them people do a lot of things, but you can't find your way to use your influence to encourage them to help build this.

[SPEAKER_01]: You ever think about that word encourage, encourage like being linked more than we do, that one of the ways you help build the boldness in people is by encouraging them to have courage.

[SPEAKER_01]: Three times in that passage, God says, be strong and courageous.

[SPEAKER_01]: Why?

[SPEAKER_01]: Because stepping in a what God calls you to will always feel intimidating.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think one of the ways you know that God's calling you to do something that you're kind of questioning as if it feels bigger than you.

[SPEAKER_01]: If it feels like, you know, it's barely at a reach.

[SPEAKER_01]: Anybody else have fun chipping at Ice this past week?

[SPEAKER_01]: Anybody else do it?

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm going to shout out to Micah Perry, because he told me about my favorite new winter tool, which is like a big old ice pick.

[SPEAKER_01]: I felt like one of the guys at the beginning of the Frozen movie, you know, it was fantastic.

[SPEAKER_01]: It changed my whole shoveling experience.

[SPEAKER_01]: And what I was I got I got more confident.

[SPEAKER_01]: I got anybody else get more confident in shovel then you probably should have been like you were feeling good and then it got got got got little you know Got a lot of hand so I was doing was I was staying on the edge of whatever I had and shoveled yet or

[SPEAKER_01]: like ice picked and I was like reaching as far as out my arms would go and I was like reaching in there and like chipping at it with the ice pick and then I would just work on that section and then when I realized was that I was taken on way more than what I could handle.

[SPEAKER_01]: I remember looking at the big pile, if you look at my house now, maybe you just need to ride by.

[SPEAKER_01]: I made this huge ice wall, and I realized I'm like, man, if that thing falls, that new car we just got on is going to be in trouble.

[SPEAKER_01]: But when you don't have the tools, when you don't have like what you need like stuff like shoveling ice or stuff like whatever you can you think of whatever you can deal with just seems like out of reach.

[SPEAKER_01]: And for some of us and we need to go back to how to eat an elephant like you take the step that you need to just do a bite of the time you need to just go into it.

[SPEAKER_01]: But if you look at something and it feels scary, especially when it has to do with who got it's calling you to be, it's probably the right direction.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's intimidating for someone to start up a Bible reading plan.

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, as I already talked about this, it is rough to say, like, I'm going to read the Bible this year.

[SPEAKER_01]: Because it's 66 books in Psalms is in there.

[SPEAKER_01]: And it's like a hundred of them things.

[SPEAKER_01]: You know what I mean?

[SPEAKER_01]: Over a hundred.

[SPEAKER_01]: Good job Keith.

[SPEAKER_01]: You know?

[SPEAKER_01]: You know?

[SPEAKER_01]: There's a lot of them.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, but if it's going to help you better understand the guy to the universe, something we're stepping into.

[SPEAKER_01]: You know, we spend a lot of time towards the end of the year and even like I've been going to year, like challenging and putting it on people, like God has put you around the people, God has put you around the people that you live around, that you work around, that you're a part of their family for a reason if they don't know Jesus and that's so that you can help them love Jesus, you're the best blessing for them.

[SPEAKER_01]: And it feels intimidating and it's hard and it's probably the right way to go.

[SPEAKER_01]: We are geared as Americans to do things for our comfort and for our best quality of life.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I don't see a lot of quality of life versus in the Bible.

[SPEAKER_01]: You wake up in the morning and you look at the weather and the news and the traffic.

[SPEAKER_01]: Because the traffic is trying to tell you the best way you can get to work.

[SPEAKER_01]: That sometimes your steps are going to be bumper to bumper six inches at a time.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think that for some of us, as we think about our year and even as we're going to learn in Joshua, that some of these moments are going to feel like big victories like the battle of Jericho being knocked down with little to do with us in our own ability to fight the city.

[SPEAKER_01]: but just God just doing God like stuff.

[SPEAKER_01]: And then sometimes it's gonna be like us standing on the brink of the Jordan River and God saying, oh yeah, I'm gonna, I'm gonna move this water for you, but you gotta go get your feet wet first.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm gonna see if you're willing to trust me in it.

[SPEAKER_01]: Sometimes God makes us put in first.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think sometimes it's like the conversation that Jesus had with Peter on the beach where he's like, hey, Peter, do you love me?

[SPEAKER_01]: You're gonna have to live this out for the rest of your life.

[SPEAKER_01]: Even when it gets hard, even when it gets tough and I promise you you will.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think a lot of us like when we think about the promises that God promises, we're kind of like, yeah, like God, I'll do the commands until it starts to hurt a little bit.

[SPEAKER_01]: Until it starts to mess with me a little bit.

[SPEAKER_01]: There's testimonies of people in this church that in order for them to realize what God's called them to do, it costs them their health, that the appointments that God had for them were in the hospital to the nurses and doctors that needed to know about Jesus.

[SPEAKER_01]: I want to be honest, that big step taking to cross the goal line into the end zone.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's a gross Sunday.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm going to use them all the day.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's not always like the victory.

[SPEAKER_01]: Sometimes, big steps are going to feel like big steps back in your progress.

[SPEAKER_01]: I wonder if you recognize that for some of you, God's gonna take you back around the lab where it been in some places in your life where you thought that you had already dealt with.

[SPEAKER_01]: That God's saying, I've got places where I want you to go in 2026.

[SPEAKER_01]: I've got things that I want you to do.

[SPEAKER_01]: I've got big things I want you to do in your life, but first we gotta deal with some stuff that we thought we buried.

[SPEAKER_01]: We got to deal with some sin that we that we thought we had killed and we got to deal with that.

[SPEAKER_01]: We're going to see this in this passage by the way that like before they go into battle and before they go into things like Josh was like you guys got to purify yourself you got to like we can't expect to take big steps with God we can't except for for God they use this in the way to do a on a holy mission if we haven't gone back and take care of some things.

[SPEAKER_01]: God will not use us.

[SPEAKER_01]: God will not use you if you're not who you're supposed to be.

[SPEAKER_01]: He will not.

[SPEAKER_01]: He didn't tell Joshua to go practice Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's not what he did.

[SPEAKER_01]: He told him he's like, you know, like, stick with me, be strong and courageous, like, like, learn my word, like get involved in it.

[SPEAKER_01]: This is command form.

[SPEAKER_01]: Courage isn't the absent of fear, Courage is obedience in the presence of it.

[SPEAKER_01]: God doesn't promise ease.

[SPEAKER_01]: He doesn't promise Joshua, that it's gonna be an easy job taken over for Moses.

[SPEAKER_01]: He does promise his presence in it.

[SPEAKER_01]: So as we close, I want you to think about this.

[SPEAKER_01]: I want you, I want to slow this down.

[SPEAKER_01]: This isn't about land, it's about identity.

[SPEAKER_01]: Before Joshua ever takes a step, God settles something in him, he says, I'm with you.

[SPEAKER_01]: He says that I'm with you, this is when a kid's learning how to swim, and he's standing on the side of the pool and dad or mom is in the pool saying, you can jump, I'm here.

[SPEAKER_01]: I will not let you drown, I will not let you fall.

[SPEAKER_01]: By the way, parents, if you do that, you better know how to swim.

[SPEAKER_01]: He says that I'm with you.

[SPEAKER_01]: So here's the two questions I want you to sit with, and I want you to rush past it.

[SPEAKER_01]: Number one is, what step have you been delaying because you're still living as who you were instead of who God's calling you to be?

[SPEAKER_01]: What's the step that God's calling you to take?

[SPEAKER_01]: But you're still standing in where you were instead of where God wants you to be?

[SPEAKER_01]: I wonder if you're ready to not live in what you used to be, not who people label you are, label you as.

[SPEAKER_01]: I wonder if you wanna take this step into who God says you are now.

[SPEAKER_01]: Question two, where has God already promised His presence, but you're still waiting for certainty.

[SPEAKER_01]: Where's God already promised His presence, but you're still waiting for His certainty.

[SPEAKER_01]: I want to tell you that you don't need any more signs.

[SPEAKER_01]: You just need to take the steps.

[SPEAKER_01]: We sing a lot of songs about firm foundation.

[SPEAKER_01]: We sing a lot of songs that I trust in God, things like that.

[SPEAKER_01]: And you got to walk in that.

[SPEAKER_01]: I hope as we spend time in this book, that confidence can be built.

[SPEAKER_01]: and not in the, not in like a price is right, like look at the showcase, look at all of these great things if you trust God, I hope it's confidence that you're still doing, like you're still able to run in it when it's horrible.

[SPEAKER_01]: You're still able to walk in it when it's dark.

[SPEAKER_01]: You know, a lot of us like we have navigation systems on our phones or in our cars.

[SPEAKER_01]: And that is not a better use than when you're on a road, you don't know especially when it's dark outside when you got to depend on it.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I don't know if you've ever been like this where the map doesn't really match the road where you're like, I think I'm supposed to turn here and you're like looking at the thing and looking at the road and you're doing this because you're like, I think it's now.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think that's when the commitment to take a big step happens because you got to trust in it.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's not that the road's not there, it's not letting you in the right direction.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's just hard to see sometimes.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think that's what you got to walk in.

[SPEAKER_00]: You just listen to a message from Dan Careaway, the pastor of Church at the Well and Telsen, Maryland.

[SPEAKER_00]: To learn more about our church and to support what we're doing in the greater Baltimore area, visit our website, TheWelthBaltimore.com.

[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you for tuning in to the sermon podcast from Church at the Well.

[SPEAKER_00]: May God bless you.