Get Ready | Joshua 5

Good morning. I was wondering if I was going

to make it like a, there's like a that feels powerful, you know,

And it's like, so I walked up here and I'm like, that pumps me

up more than I probably should. Good morning.

If we haven't met yet, my name is Preston.

I get to serve on staff here, specifically with our college

ministry called the Salt Company.

It is a joy and a privilege. Hey, if you didn't know, St.

City Chapel, we are a church plant.

OK. Our church, actually, our staff

team was just at a conference called Vintage Mission, OK, Vcon

is what we call it, Vintage Con. That's how cool people say it.

So we're there. It's hosted by a church, you

might know, called Christchurch. And Christchurch is actually one

of the sending churches of us here at Saint City.

So when we walk in there, like honestly, it's like you're the

favorite child, which I've never experienced before, but I go

there. That's a joke.

My parents are here. So we're there.

That's fun. And and I see Manu, you guys

know Manu. He's in our church, guys.

Incredible testimony. Manu has guy's an incredible

work in his life. You should ask him anyways.

Yeah, like I said, salt company, we meet Thursdays at 8:00.

That's my job, what I do here. Last week, I alluded to

something that our church got to be a part of.

It's called the Collegiate Night of Prayer put on by ASU United.

So our church, these guys back here, I really did nothing.

And they hosted almost 300 college students to come worship

and pray to Jesus on the campus of ASU.

So we, yeah, have clap for that, guys.

God is on the God is on the move.

Just it's so cool, honestly. Like there's people's to us,

some strangers, some other college students that we don't

know, a part of some other ministry that are following

Jesus at ASU, just crying out to the Lord crying because the

Spirit's meeting with them as they're praying to Jesus.

And so that was incredible. So if you're part of this

church, you are part of that. So thank you for being a part of

that. That's why that's why we're here

to see that happen. So thank you.

OK, enough for that stuff. Joshua 5, Joshua 5, That's where

we'll be. If you have a Bible, we can go

ahead get there. But here, here's a quick run up

on it. So I don't know if you guys are

in a community group here. My wife and I are.

Honestly, if you're here and you're not in a small group,

whether it's with the salt company or with St.

City, you're actually in the minority.

Most of us are in a group, which is amazing.

So you should join one. Tuesdays, 8:00 PM or 7:00 PM at

my house. You should come plug there.

It'd be great. And so in that group, just a

couple weeks ago, maybe you guys can relate.

We're going through Joshua too. You know, we kind of talk about

the sermons there and this, I like this, this question about

God's power. Like it keeps coming up week

after week. And this is like, I feel like

I've been talking about this forever.

I talked about this at song Company 2 weeks in a row, but

here it is again in this group. There's a gal, she brings up

this question. She goes, hey, is the reason is

the reason why we're not seeing God move powerfully is the

reason why we're not seeing God move powerfully around us?

Is it because we're not ready for him to this is this is a

question. It's been really been a rock, my

shoe for the past three weeks. And we come to a text like this.

And guys, this is the question we have to ask is it is the

reason why I'm not seeing God move powerfully is it is the

reason because I'm not ready because guys, think about it as

our church, we want to be a church who's ready for when God

moves powerfully to be right there with him.

And so in this text in Joshua 5, it is the perfect question for

this text because in in Joshua 5, if you remember the last

couple weeks, God's moving the people.

They're out of the wilderness now.

They've crossed the river, right?

The 12 Stones from last week. And God is getting them ready.

He's getting his people ready to move on a conquest, a physical

conquest to go get land. Now, God doesn't do that in the

same exact way today. That'd be crazy.

If you have some people trying to conquer land for God, It's

like, oh, question, not a political statement, just an

observation. But today God does move in a

spiritual conquest. Like today, I believe that we're

here, that God is playing with this church, not so much to

conquer land, but to conquer hearts for Jesus.

And so us, as we sit in our seats and as we go through

Joshua 5, we're asking the same question.

How can we get ready for God to move powerfully?

And so there's the question. We can throw it on the screen.

How can we be ready for God to move powerfully?

And, and guys, I believe God will do it.

I believe he's going to do it. And whether we're ready or not,

it's not necessarily a question for the staff team of Saint

City. It's the question for us as a

people because, guys, we can preach it, but the question

isn't whether we preach or not. The question is, do we practice

it? That's a question for all of us.

OK, Joshua 5 about to go on this conquest of Canaan.

Let's read about it. Chapter 5, verse 1, Chapter 5.

So that's the big #5 the little #1 Here we go.

Sorry, I'm lost in my notes. I'm finding my place.

Here we go, Joshua 5 first one, if you got it, let me hear you

say got it. People are making fun of me

already. Didn't even start yet.

Verse one, Sorry, I'm a little nasal.

I'm getting over being sick. So here we go.

Verse 1. As soon as all the kings of the

Amorites who are beyond the Jordan to the West, and all the

kings of the Canaanites who were by the sea, when they heard that

the Lord had dried up the waters of the Jordan for the people of

Israel until they had crossed over, their hearts melted and

there was no longer any spirit in them because of the people of

Israel. OK, you got to think about this.

These guys, right? These other kings, these other

nations, like they're, they're anticipating the nation of

Israel coming over. And, and literally, I, I mean,

just in my, you know, interpretation, they literally

crapped their pants, right? It says their hearts melted and

there's no longer spirit in them because of the people of Israel.

Like there's just a, a thing happening here, this

anticipation for God to move powerfully.

They see these people crossing over.

They're like, this conquest is about to happen.

So there's anticipation here, but that's not the point

entirely. Look at verse 2 with me.

We'll read a bit of a text here. Verse 2 At that time the Lord

said to Joshua, make Flint knives and circumcise the sons

of Israel a second time and I'm going somewhere with this.

OK, just buckle up. Verse 3.

So Joshua made Flint knives and circumcised the sons of Israel.

I should practice Gilbieth Heyoralath.

That's it's a verse 4 and this is the reason why.

Hey, if you have a pen, this is important right here.

Let's get serious. Verse 4 And this is the reason

why Joshua circumcised all the mail of the all the males of the

people who came out of Egypt, all the men of war, sorry, all

the men of war. Let me just restart.

OK, I got way thrown off. Verse 4 if you have a pen, I

want you to underline this. It says this is the reason why.

OK, so we're talking about circumcision here.

Verse 4 this is the reason why and I'll restart.

Verse 4 And this is the reason why Joshua circumcised them.

All the males of the people who came out of Egypt, all the men

of war, they had died in the wilderness on the way after they

had had come out of Egypt. Though all the people who came

out had been circumcised, yet all the people who were born on

the way in the elderness, wilderness, after they had come

out of Egypt, they had not been circumcised.

Verse 6. For the people of Israel walked

forty years in the wilderness, until all the nation, the men of

war who came out of Egypt, perished.

You can underline this too, because they did not obey the

voice of the Lord. So the Lord swore to them that

He would not let them see the land that the Lord had sworn to

their fathers to give to us, a land flowing with milk and

honey. So it was their children who God

raised them up in their place and that Joshua circumcised for

they were uncircumcised because they had not been circumcised on

the way. OK, said that word more times

than I thought I would, but here we are.

There's a there's a lot happening here in this text.

There's a couple things we just pointed out underlined, but a

couple things I really hope you noticed was that God had a plan

from the very beginning to bring his people into the promised

land. That was his plan for the very

beginning. If you read all the, all the

books in the Bible, like the, the, it's a little bit

chronological here in the beginning, if you read these

books, you'll see it's been God's plan from the beginning to

bring his people into the promised land.

But you got to understand there's a generational thing

that's happening here. So there's an older generation

that God made the promise to in an older generation that God

brought out of Egypt, but that's not the generation that went

into the promised land. And maybe you noticed it.

Why was it? Why was it that they didn't

bring them out? Well, it says it.

It literally says This is why. And then it says in verse 6

because they did not obey the voice of the Lord.

Literally in verse 6, it tells us that this older generation

was a disobedient to God so much so even think about it so much

so they stopped circumcising their kids.

And why is that important? Well, circumcision.

It was a sign of of the covenant of God that they were were

entering into the covenant with God and that they were basically

taking their children and saying, Hey, we will raise them

up in the way of the Lord. But their hearts this

generation, this crooked generation, this older

generation that grew cold against God.

Like think about it, they had this this apathetic faith like

that, whether it was like they just stopped trusting God slowly

over time and it built in a build it was they just became

apathetic. There's some blatant

disobedience, probably some some carelessness to hear God's

voice, hardness of heart, maybe a lack of conviction.

They don't feel bad when they disobey God.

There's no conviction there because God called them to to be

set apart. But the hearts grew calloused,

the feelings there, it became numb.

There was calloused. It was lack of conviction.

And guys, I think this, I think we know what this is like.

We know what it's like to have an apathetic faith.

We know what it's like to just be blatantly disobedient towards

God, to feel the carelessness for what God has to say.

We don't care what this book has to say.

A hardness of heart, maybe a lack of conviction, That's an

important one. It's the Holy Spirit who

convicts us and maybe we lack of that feeling of conviction

because these people, I mean, they, they, they forgot the

covenant. They forgot what God had done

for them. They forgot what the Lord was

doing in their life. They forgot the power of the

Lord. They forgot what what God was

wanting to do not only around them, but what God was trying to

do within them. And ultimately they forgot what

the conviction of sin felt like. Their hearts were so calloused,

they stopped feeling bad for their disobedience.

And so God needed to remind his people in this new generation

about the covenant that he had made with them.

So think about this anticipation, right?

These other kings right there in verse one, they're like, dude,

God's people are coming. They're freaking out, doing all

the things. Hearts are melting.

Imagine the people of Israel, bro, they got to be ready for

this conquest, right? They got to be like, oh, bro,

the momentum's going right. The front lines are getting up

there. They're probably got their

swords ready. Like they're, they're ready for

battle. And God's like, hey, before you

take a sword against them, go make Flint knives and put it

against yourself. And remember the covenant that I

made with you, Remember the promises of God that God's like,

hey, I'm going to bring you into that land.

But you got to get ready first. You need to remember the

covenant. Look with me in verse 8 it says

when the circumcising of the whole nation was finished, they

remained in their places in the camp until they were healed,

which makes sense. Verse 9 and the Lord said to

Joshua, if you have a pen, this is important.

Today I have rolled away. Look at that roll, at that

rolled away, the reproach of Egypt from you.

So the name of that place is called Gilgal to this day,

Gilgal right there. My Bible, it's got a little #3

next to it. It's a little footnote.

It tells you Gilgal. It sounds like the Hebrew word

to roll away or to roll. They literally called that place

to roll away. So when God, he doesn't do

something strategically, physically to his people, like

I'm not a a warrior, but that doesn't sound like the most

effective thing to do to get your men ready for battle.

But I think God's doing something very intentionally

spiritually here, that he's doing the most important thing

for anybody who is ever going to go on a conquest for the Lord, a

spiritual conquest. The first thing that we have to

do is remember the covenant. And for them it's this painful

mark, this painful reminder of the promises of God that he is

rolling away the reproach of Egypt, the place of slavery, the

place of sin, the place of captivity.

God rolls away the reproach of Egypt and he's like, we're going

to call this place roll away because from now on, you guys

have renewed the covenant and I'm rolling your sins away.

And so the issue for us today, it's not anything about

necessarily circumcision, but there is still a reminder that

we need of the covenant, perhaps even a painful reminder of the

promise that we've made with Jesus, maybe even like being

grieved by our so the conviction.

Because the issue I think for us today, it's not that we've

forgotten circumcision, it's that we've ignored our

convictions. We've ignored what it feels like

to grieve the Holy Spirit. So there's this book I had a

friend give me, but Doctor Martyn Lloyd Jones, if you want

to read something dense, you can read this one.

It's called Spiritual Depression, which it's an older

book, so it's not necessarily about depression, but it's kind

of about apathetic faith. And I haven't finished it yet,

but there's this chapter that I was reading.

And so he talks about, he talks about this, this gal in their

church that she grew up going to church and, and she's like,

like, serves there, does all these things.

But then she sees these guys who live these crazy lifestyles,

they're drinking, they're partying and they're doing all

the things. And then they come to faith in

Jesus. And now these guys, they have a

joy in Jesus, a powerful joy in Jesus that she wished she had.

And so she looks at these guys and she's like, man, I just

wish, I almost wish that I grew up like them so that I could

have the joy of Jesus like them. And Doctor Martin Lloyd Jones, a

great pastor that he is, he goes, the issue isn't

necessarily your upbringing. The issue is being convicted by

sin. And So what he's saying is that

this woman's never truly been convicted for her sin, that her

heart is actually calloused as if just like those men who lived

the way they lived before Jesus. And he goes on to say that to

feel the joy of Jesus, you actually need to feel the

conviction of your sin. And so like these men who had to

take the Flint knives to themselves first to feel the

pain of the covenant, I think this Holy Spirit is often

reminding us the pain that we have when we grieve God of our

sin. Our sin breaks the heart of God.

And I think we've forgotten that.

And so if we want to go on this spiritual conquest for God, to

see God, like change hearts here in Tempe, to see God change

hearts here at ASU, we need to remember.

We need to remember what God has done for us, Jesus on the cross

and for some of us here, right? They mean you've never felt the

conviction of sin. And that's simply just because I

mean, you're not a Christian and you wouldn't even say that you

are. And, and hey, this is what I

would say to you, this word, Gilgal, the Bible would go on to

say, there's, there's, there's this other place, Golgotha.

It's another Hebrew word to sound like roll away.

This is the hill that Jesus died on.

There's a connection here in the words with Gilgal and Golgotha

that Jesus would go. He'd live the life we could

never live. He'd die the death that we

deserve to die. But then he would raise again

from the grave, rolling the stone away and rolling our sins

away with it. That's the truth of the gospel.

That's the truth that we can have and believer.

If you're here and you're like, man, I just haven't felt the

conviction of the Holy Spirit for a while, you need to

remember that truth that God wants to do something not only

powerfully through you, but he wants to do something powerfully

within you. And you need to remember the

covenant that your sins are rolled away, that yes, there's

conviction of sin. You're doing things you

shouldn't do. You know you shouldn't do it,

but you need to realize there's a joy on the other side and that

Jesus has rolled those sins away on the cross in the empty grave.

And so I don't know what else to say but come to faith in Jesus.

OK, usually they put that at the end of the sermon, but here it

is for you. So a conclusion here, I know we

spend a lot of time on that, but I think that's most important.

But what God does conclusion to this point is that God readies

His people for conquest by renewing the covenant.

That's what He does. And so if we want to be ready

for God to move powerfully to take us on this spiritual

conquest, first we must remember and have this freshness in

ourselves, the covenant that we have through Jesus.

That's what we must remember. OK, so I got two more points.

I'm supposed to tell you that early up conviction, communion

and commander, and so sorry, covenant.

And so we just talked about the covenant.

But there's something more I want you to see here in the text

where God, after he renews the government covenant with his

people, he restores communion with them as well.

It's right here in verse 10. Let me read it 1st 10 While the

people of Israel were encamped at Gilgal, they kept the

Passover on the 14th day of the month in the in the evening on

the plains of Jericho, and the day after the Passover on that

very day they ate of the produce of the land, unleavened cakes

and parched grain in the manna ceased on that day.

That's important in the manna ceased the day after they ate of

the produce of the land, and there was no longer manna for

the people of Israel, but the ate of the fruit of the land of

Canaan that year. OK, So that's important, right?

Let me show you a couple things here.

We're pretty aware at this point that there is a generation in

the wilderness that wasn't very obedient to God, right?

They stopped circumcising. Their kids up to that point and

and also they did a bad job of keeping the Passover.

There's really not a lot of of stuff in the Bible that would

show us they kept the Passover every week.

I think there's like another text perhaps in numbers.

But God's people, they were very disobedient.

They didn't keep the Passover. They didn't do these things and

so on. God, he's like, hey, get ready

for conquest. First, let's renew the covenant

and now let's re establish the Passover or communion to keep

the seas alliterated, you know, to commune with him.

But if you think about the Passover, what was this meal?

What was the Passover meal? Well, in Exodus it would tell us

they would sacrifice a lamb. They'd eat this great BBQ,

right? They'd gather around the table

and they'd remember the promise of God.

And so at the Passover meal, they would do two things.

The first is they would commune with God.

They would remember what God has done, these promises.

So for these guys sitting down here, Joshua's time, they're

probably thinking, bro, I swear that river was dry inches deep.

I bet they're like a foot deep. They probably they were metric

system, you know, so you know, a meter, half a meter.

That was a joke because you guys said they didn't create the

metric system yet. You guys, you're with me.

They're thinking about what God has done.

And so they're communing with God, but not only that, they're

doing it with each other. So this Passover meal, they

would commune with one another as well.

They would they would eat food together, right?

And here it's very important to see that they that the manna

cease. Do you guys remember what manna?

Do you just remember that perhaps in, in, in Exodus, God

starts giving his people food in, in the wilderness.

So going through the desert, whatever, he starts dropping

stuff from this. They call it manna.

The literal word for like manna is what is it?

They're like, oh, what is this? And so that's what they called

it. They call it the, what is it?

That's what mana means. That's what the Hebrew word

means. They're called what is it?

So don't even know what this is. These are like travel food,

right? So it's not even good food.

But now they enter into the promised land and God's like,

hey, let's have the Passover meal, but eat from the land.

You don't need this stuff that I've been providing for you.

The promise of provision, it's here.

It's in the land. The promise is being fulfilled.

You can now eat from the land and have communion with one

another, share a meal with one another.

And So what God is doing here is he's saying, hey, before you go

on this conquest, first you must spend time not only with me, but

spend time with one another. Hey, guys, this is an important

truth for us today that we want to be people.

Like if God's about to go on the spiritual conquest, we're about

to go with him. We're about to see people come

to face like crazy, which I actually, I think we are.

If we want to be a part of that man, we need to be commuting

with God. We need to be a people who are

commuting with the Lord that we're spending time with him.

And not like this old generation who forgot the voice of the

Lord, but this generation who's going to remember the words of

God. And I don't know what it is for

you, but like, I've, I've talked to some guys, some some college

guys, they've come up with some pretty great substitutes for

God's word. Some of them are honorable, some

of them not so honorable reasons why they're not going to read

the Bible or they're trying something else because I just

don't know. I'm not that educated, but I'm

pretty sure there's not a good substitute for this.

Like this is what we need. We need to know the voice of

God. We need to know his word.

And so the question for you, are you spending time with God?

Are you communing with him daily?

Like do you have a daily devotion to God in his word?

And maybe for you, you're like, man, I don't know where to

start. There's, there's so many great

resources. My favorite is just the ESV

study Bible cross way. Great publisher.

They got to study Bible, man, it's great.

You can pick that baby up. They got the Bible up on top.

They got some notes at the bottom.

They call that commentary that you can read.

It explains everything. They explain what the book is

before you get there. Man, it's a beautiful thing.

I, I use it. Anybody can use it.

It's written really well. ESV study Bible.

Maybe you need to find a great Bible reading plan.

Maybe you need to buy a book on prayer man learning the Psalms.

There's the the Psalms that's right in the middle of your

Bible and it could just teach you how to call out to God.

It's beautifully written. It'll teach you how to pray.

Learn how to pray. I don't know what it is for you,

but we need to be people who can, who can commune with God

and learn how to do it. We all have a next step in that.

Maybe you need to learn how to pray.

Maybe you need that study Bible. Maybe you just got to put a time

on the calendar because you've done it before you.

You were great at reading your Bible before, but now you've

been in one of those seasons. Hey, get back into it.

We need to be people who commune with God.

And so, you know, not only did they commune with God, but they

communed with others. And now we've talked a few about

generations here, and it's pretty obvious to me we have an

easy divide in generations in this room.

We got 24 year olds to 18 year olds and we got everybody else.

So let me, let me speak to the, the older generation, if you'd

let me. I won't make you stand up, you

know, because you're older. But that's a joke, guys.

As as the younger generation, we need your wisdom like we need

your wisdom. We, we need what you guys have.

Like you guys have walked seasons in in front of us.

You know what it's like literally, you know what it's

like not to have a cell phone, which go with me here.

We and our generation, guys, we wake up and it's just instant

gratification after instant gratification after instant

gratification. And it does something to us.

And we need people who, to be honest, set the pace on what it

looks like to follow Jesus in adulthood.

Like we need you guys in our church to show us what it looks

like to live radically for Jesus outside of your college years.

That's what's going to make this church a beautiful church.

We need you guys to run, run the race.

We need you to run the race so that we can see you run it too.

And, and let me say this too, this this might sound a little

arrogant, but I'm just going to say it anyways.

I'm convinced that this is the most strategic church for you to

follow Jesus at and be a part of from ages 28 to 85 and maybe

beyond. Just had to pick a range.

And I'm not trying to be arrogant, but I just think guys,

the, the, the spiritual battle, the front lines, the spiritual

conquest, the front lines of the battle is the public university.

And God doesn't say raise up assault company and the gates of

hell shall not stand against it. No, he says it's the church, us,

the local church to push back the gates of hell.

And I believe that this is the spiritual, it's the lies of the

enemy. Where do they flourish the most?

Where are they put at? Where are they cultivated?

Where are they sent out from? It's the public university.

And there's so many amazing churches in the valley.

We know them, we love them, but I just don't know of a church

that's trying to reach the campus as hard as we are with

the gospel. And man, we need you.

And I hope you see that, that you actually have a big part to

play here. And it's not just giving us

money, although that'd be nice it you guys have a huge part to

play like we need you to be a part of this mission with us.

And so here's a couple of things I was thinking like how, how can

you guys, how can you guys help us reach, teach and and send

college students? How can you be a part of it?

This is how the older generation can help the younger generation

within our church. There's a little tangent from

the sermon, but I'll loop it back in.

First, this first thing, two things.

First thing, say hi, OK? It's not that hard, but say hi

to college students. If you're here and you're like,

I'm definitely not a college student.

Say hi to the other college students that are here and don't

be like, oh, it's going to be weird.

I'll just wait for them to initiate.

Guys, we're addicted to our phones.

We're not going to initiate. OK, You set the pace on that.

Like talk to us. I know what's happening, but

like, there's my invitation. This is how you can be in our

lives within our local church. But here's the other thing.

This will loop it back for us. Invite us in, invite us in, like

invite us into our lives, into your lives.

Invite us into your house and invite some college students to

come get lunch with you after this.

Invite them to your home. Sure, you can go to like Pei Wei

or something, but invite us into your house.

Let's just see how you raise your kids.

Let us see the chaos of your life and how you're following

Jesus or how things are like the authenticity of that man.

That's going to go so far for us.

Invite us in, invite us in, you know, to conclude this point of,

of communion, right? I kind of went all over the

place there, but man, we want to be a people who is ready for God

to move powerfully. But first we need to commune

with God in the way that we can commune with one another is

sharing meals together with you guys.

So we'd like that. Here's the last thing.

This will be really fast. Then we're done.

Joshua 5 verse 13. So when Joshua was led, or

Joshua 5:13

sorry, when Joshua was by Jericho, he lifted up his eyes.

Imagine this. And behold, a man was standing

there before him with his drawn sword in hand.

And Joshua went to him and said, Are you for us, or for our

adversaries? And then he said, No, but I am

the commander of the army of the Lord.

Now I have come. And Joshua fell on his face the

earth, and he worshipped. And then he said to him, What

does my Lord say to his servant? And then the commander of the

Lord's Army said to Joshua, take off your sandals from your feet,

for the place where you're standing is holy ground.

And Joshua did so right. There's a lot to imagine here

going on. 1st, this commander of the Lord's Army, that's the last

point. Commander, this commander of the

Lord's Army, like Joshua, he's probably strapped for battle.

Like he's ready to RIP. One commentator says that he

actually thinks that Joshua had his sword drawn and he basically

was like, Hey, who goes there? As if Josh was ready to go to

battle with the the commander of the Lord's army.

And he just says, no, You imagine that like, Hey, who are

you with us? Are you with them?

It's just no. It's like, oh, what do you say

to that really is he's saying neither.

I'm not for you. I'm not for them, but I am the

commander of the Lord's army. And then he tells Joshua to take

his shoes off. So I think about home alone,

like off, Why don't you take your shoes off?

That's what I think about. It's, it's not great, but more

commentaries like what people will say, like what's really

happening here? Is this just some Angel, a part

of God's army or what is this? People will call this a fancy

word, Christophany. So Christophany, right, kind of

fancy word just to say Jesus in the Old Testament.

So people will say this is Jesus and there's much more we could

go on with that. And where you fit that out, not

too big of a deal, but the commander of the Lord's Army is

here. So think about it.

Joshua's ready for this conquest.

First you got to do circumcision, then you got to do

communion, and then you got to do what?

Like, he's ready for this battle.

So why is it so significant that the commander of the Lord's Army

is in front of Joshua in this moment?

Well, he's telling Joshua he's like, hey, you might think

you're in charge, but you're not in charge.

The commander of the Lord's Army is here.

It's the commander who's leading this conquest.

You're not leading this. I am.

And for us, we need to know it's Jesus who leads us.

It's Jesus who leads this church.

It's not us up on stage, it's not Ronnie, it's not Brandon.

It's definitely not me. It's Jesus.

Jesus leads this church. Jesus is the one who's leading

us on this spiritual conquest in Tempe at ASU.

He's the one who wants to go after the hearts.

We're just praying before this like God's not after just the

99. The 99 is not enough for God.

God's going after the one. He's going after the one like

God is the one who's came to seek and save the lost.

And so if we want to be ready, ready for God to move

powerfully, is Jesus the one who's going to lead us there?

Jesus is the one who leads this church.

And so we got a final slide for us.

Jesus leads this church. And guys, this is where our

confidence comes from. This is where confidence comes

from. Our expectation comes from that

God is going to move powerfully here, that he's going to make

Tempe as it is in heaven. I believe he's going to do that.

And this is how he's going to do it.

Because if we want to be a people who are ready for God to

move powerfully, we must renew the covenant.

Remember Communion and then Revere the commander.

Like some of us, you're lacking conviction in your sin because

you haven't fallen on your face before the Lord that you don't

even fear God. But you got to Revere the

commander because God wants to do holy things in you, but he

also wants to do holy things around you.

So let me pray that we'd be these people.

So Jesus, Lord, help us, Lord, help us be a people who are

ready, God, ready to be a part of what you want to do here.

God, we truly believe, God, this is the place that you want to

make more like heaven. God, that Tempe is a place that

you're ready to to take ground in the form of hearts.

God that there are souls that are ready to fall in love with

Jesus, that the harvest is actually plentiful.

And God that we've been praying that you'd raise up laborers to

reach that harvest, to reach Tempe, to reach ASU.

God, we believe that you want to do that.

And God look at the laborers. God, look at us.

God, we desperately, we want to be a part of it.

And God we, we're going to, we're going to preach like we're

part, we want to be people who renew the covenant who are

pursuing you. God that we let us be people who

are sensitive to your Holy Spirit that as your word is

proclaimed God that it would Pierce our hearts and God we'd

be convicted, but that conviction would lead to joy in

Jesus. We would not just sit in that

and it Stew around in the guilt and the disobedience, but that

would motivate us to follow you more deeply.

And so God would you do that Lord, would you help us commune

with you Lord. So Father, even ready our hearts

now is before we take the Lord's Supper later.

And God, would you call us Lord God, would you even compel us

got to spend time with one another to spend time with you?

God, I pray that we get all the dust off our Bibles.

God that we'd mark in our Bible. God, we'd just be people of your

word communing with you. And God teach us to Revere you.

God, you lead this church, you lead this church.

We do not. And so, God, it's in your name

we can pray. Amen.