You Can Do It | Joshua 17:7-18 | Pastor Diego Mesa

Praise God. Yes, you guys, would it be as you know?

If you don't know, you would be extremely proud of

our ministry. How we are more than a church off

a foothill boulevard just ministering to this community. We really

have a global, international presence of how we touch so many,

so many thousands, whether they are related to children, or

devastations in this world, or just simple needs. That's why

we challenge you to give so that we will as

a church always be in a position to meet the

opportunity of broken and hurting people.

And so that's what you allow us to do.

When you give, a dollar goes here, the other dollar

goes here, the other dollar goes here, and I'll me

recognize there's so many hurting people out there and needs.

We're able to do that, so we will never be

able to share with you all the things we do.

When someone knocks on a door on this church and

its needs a meal or needs a place to stay,

we can offer them prayer and say may the Lord

bless you and keep you hallelujah. We're Christians, But that

don't go too far when they've got to tell me

that needs to be fed, and so We've got to

go to our spiritual warehouse called the called the the

you know.

What's the word I'm looking for? Huh No storehouse.

So you bring all the money into the storehouse so

that distribution can be made. The storehouse is God's spiritual

bank account, so that when you give, we put that

money in the storehouse so that we could give to

those needs. So want I want to thank you for that.

Are you ready for the word? Are you ready to

grow tonight?

Are you? Are you hungry? Yeah?

We want to put we want to put this belief

into a lifestyle and a behavior. So Father, thank you

for the next few moments that we can dive into

your word and hear the gospel speak to us, O God,

so that when we leave this place we could better

represent you in Jesus' name.

A men, let's stand on our feet. We're going to read.

I want to come alongside my colleagues, the individuals teaching

staff that has been preaching every week about the Book

of Joshua, and we are going to continue to complement what.

Has been said over the last few weeks.

And we're just going to center in on Joshua seventeen

and now verse number twelve. Yet the children of Manasa

could not drive out the inhabitants of those cities. But

the Canaanite were determined to dwell in that land. The

Canaanites were the arch enemy of Israel. And it happened

when the children of Israel grew strong, which basically means

they multiplied, they began to increase in numbers, that they

put the Canaanites to force labor.

There's a big butt. You got to see this big butt.

But did not utterly drive them out. So they still

had Canaanites. They still had opposition, they still had hindrances,

they still had sin or whatever you want to think

of when you relate to the Canines. They allowed them

to stay. Then the children of Joseph, which are Manassa

and Ephraim, that were tribes, and it says then the

children of Joseph spoke to Joshua, which is again Ephraim

and Manassa. Why have you given us only one lot

or one share to inherit. Why have you only given

us this territory, these amount of acres, That's what he's saying.

Since we are.

A great people, or we have a lot of population

within us, inasmuch as the Lord has blessed us until now.

So Joshua answered their complaint the problem.

God always has an answer.

God always has an answer to your complain, to your problem.

So Joshua answered them.

If you are a great people, you got so many people,

then go up to the forest country and clear a place.

Come on now for yourself.

They're in the land of the parasites and the giants,

since the mountains of Ephraim are.

Too confined to you for you.

But the children of Joseph said, the mountain country is

not enough for us. And all the Canaanites who dwell

in that land in the valley. How many of these

didn't recognize it sounds a little bit like Numbers thirteen

when they said, we cannot go out and possess the land.

They're too mighty, they're too strong for us.

And all the Canaanites who dwell in that land the

valley have watched this.

Underline this, remember this word.

We can't do it, because they've got chariots of iron.

Both those who are at beth Shean and in the

towns and those who are in the valley of Jezreel

and Joshua spoke to the house of Joseph, which again

are his sons, Ephraim and Manassa, saying, come on, now,

come on now, stop all this complaining.

I can't do it.

Too hard to have a tough marriage, good marriage, hard

to raise a family, too hard to be a Christ.

Shut up, He says, you are a great people and

have great power. You shall not have only one lot

or one little space.

But the mountain country shall be yours.

Although it is wooded, you shall cut it down, and

it's far this extent shall be yours. You shall drive

out the Canaanites, though they have iron chariots and are

strong a men.

Sit down, got to listen to you. You'll tolerate your.

Complaints for a minute, and then he's gonna swap okay,

thank you, and then he's gonna remind you who you

are in Him and what the promises of God are like.

So I just simply want to title this you can

do it. Notice the statement that's gonna go on the screen,

which kind of talks about you can do it no

matter what you are facing today, because God said it.

That's why you can do it. Second principle, you can

do it if you believe it because God has promised

it to you. And the third reason why you can

do it, you can do it. So don't be fearful

or scared because God is with you. Thank you, Praise God.

You're rejoicing already.

Amen.

From verse number seven to verse number eleven, we see

Manassa and Ephraim again, the sons of Joseph, and this

allotment of territory of the Promised Land is it's being divided.

But then we scoot to what we just read where

they're complaining that they're growing too large and multiplying and

have children, having children, and now they're in a confined space.

They're in a crowded space. Today, I'm gonna tell you

four stories, and i'm gonna drive what you just read

by four stories. Story first of a family of four

that were living in a one bedroom home and it

was really really crowded. They were bumping into each other.

There was one sink, there was one toilet.

I mean you.

Virtually could you couldn't go through the hallway.

It was just very, very small.

And a friend heard about them in this crowded little house,

and he said, you know what, down the street is

a great deal on a house that's a four bedroom house.

I heard that is just like a little bit more

than your pain. And the guy said, sounds like a

great deal. I'm gonna go ahead and investigate. Sometime later,

they bumped into each other and the friend asked him,

how's it going with you in that new house? He said,

it's very very crowded. He said, what do you mean,

it's very very crowded. Have you added more children, have

you gotten larger?

What's going on? He said, no, it's.

Just very very crowded because the previous owners have not

left the house, and now it's really really crowded.

That's what you just read.

It's their lives are miserable and it's crowded because they've

allowed the Canaan Kites to stay in that land, and

if they would have driven them out, it would have

been plenty of room.

So here's what you and I can learn from this story, and.

It's going to be driven in all that I'm gonna

talk about today. You're gonna hear this word questioning. We're

gonna question why there's failure sometimes and why there was

failure in this story that we read, and we'll carry

that theme throughout what we're going to talk about today.

Question say this with me. Why is their failure? I mean,

everybody wants to know that, whether it's related to someone

else or whether it's related to you. Why is their failure?

Why am I failing? Well, the first thing you learned

from this story is this, there's failure because they failed

to drive out something that God wanted driven out of

their life. They failed to kick out something that God wanted.

Them to kick out.

They were living beneath their privileges, and so many times

God will say, I want you to eliminate this. No more,

no more getting high, no more, no more loose, Lucy,

no more wild, Javier. I want you to get rid

of them now, But you don't want to get rid

of them. No more debt now, don't be eating out

all the time. Let's save money. Let's get out of debt.

Let me know when I'm offending you a little bit

or stepping on your toes. But we don't want to

do that, or like the children of Israel, we just

want these things to stay in our lives. I know

they're hurtful, I know they're harmful, and I know they're

making my life harder, But I want them to stay,

and I'm not going to enforce the authority to take

authority over the enemy that is making my life a

havoc or difficult.

Reason why there's failure.

It could go like this, How did these unfortunate situations

or unfortunate predicaments that we are now living in.

How did they happen?

Well, they happened in this story because they were fearful,

and they happen in our lives.

Because we get scared.

They happen because we want to be popular and we

want to be liked. So I don't want to have

to make the tough call. I don't want to offend nobody.

I don't want to ask them to leave. I don't

want to separate myself from them. I don't want to

stop calling them because I want to be popular. I

don't want to tell them they can't act that way

around me. I don't want to do that. I want

to be liked.

I know I should be doing it, but.

I'm just kind of procrastinating.

I'm hesitating.

I'll do it someday, and that's why we're in the predicament.

Or maybe it's just simply I.

Don't want to change, and I like them in my life.

I like how they make me feel, and I like

the lifestyle, so I don't want to.

Give it up.

That's why Jesus asked the man at the pool of Bethesda,

do you.

Want to be made well?

And you're going to have to answer Jesus because he

can alter your circumstances, he can deliver you, and he

can save you out, but you have to answer the

question do you want to be made well? And now

has this now put us this predicament that we are

in in a place where they're at where now we

have excuses and reasons and blaming others. It's not my

fault that I'm where I'm at today and I have

an excuse.

How many of you.

Know there are professional people that have doctorates in excuse theology.

Today they got an excuse for everything, But it's never

their fault.

It's always the man I'm waiting to meet.

The person that comes up to me and says, I

want to introduce myself. I'm the man that has made

the world a living hell and difficult. The predicament people

are in now as they're complaining and frustrated, full of anxiety,

or they're showing a level of ingratitude of saying it's

not fair and it's not my fault.

Have you ever been.

Walking somewhere or hiking somewhere and you just are walking

along and you see some dog poop in the road

or the sidewalk or the path and you're walking there,

and I mean, it's a healthy one if I could

be descriptive for a moment. It's not like a little

poodle or chihuahwah that you hardly can see it and

throw a little dirt on it. I mean, how many

It's like a gopher mound that you're looking at.

It's like a cow patty and you're thinking about it.

Not the owner see their dogs squat and dump this thing.

But now they expect me to pick up their dog crap.

And people always want someone else.

To pick up their crap instead of cleaning up their

own crap for their life.

Let me tell you a story, story number two.

When I was a junior in high school, I had

finally got my driver's license and my parents gave me

a nineteen seventy LTD.

So the first story is about the house.

The second story is about the car.

It was avocado green, just like that.

It was as big as from this stage to the

back of this church.

Man.

I had a lean to myself. I'm a pastor. Adam

over their crew. I don't know where he was cruising.

I was cruising down Whittier Boulevard. Your story, that's where

I cruised down Whittier Boulevard, and you know, and I

could my friends could get free rides and I could not.

Have to hitch a ride.

Do you remember did anybody hit you a ride like this? Well,

that's in my day. That's what you did when you

wanted to go. Do you want to take the bus?

You just hitch the ride.

You put it out there was a safer time where

you could do that hitchhike.

Well, I'd have to do that anymore. I had my

own wheels. Now I had freedom. I was liberated. We

go to the drive in theater, we could go out

to eat, I could take my friends wherever.

We could have all that.

Well, that lasted about two months and then the engine

blew up. So I went to my parents and I said, listen,

you did me wrong.

You ripped me off.

It's your responsibility now to give me a new car.

They looked at me and they laughed. And said the

first car was free. The second car you will earn

and work for. I spent the whole summer working at

a mechanic shop. I earned twelve hundred dollars to buy

nineteen sixty five Volkswagen.

That's what that's what you just read. Give me, give me, gimme.

My name is Jimmy. You gave me the land, but

I want more, more and more and more. How do

you like it? How do you like it? I don't

want to work for it.

I don't want to earn it someone else. I want free,

be free, be free, be free, mee free medical, free

checks in the mail, free out, free out. I don't

want to work for nothing, to earn nothing. And Joshua said,

shut up. If you want it, go drive them out,

Go clear the forest. God gave you the strength to

do it. He's giving you the resources to do it.

He's blessed you. And I learned a lesson that day

that I needed to take responsibility now for myself.

So again, the question of.

Why there's failure in this story as it relates to

what we're saying today, is this that just because the

first time came easy doesn't mean every other time is

gonna come easy in your life. And the opposite is

just because it's hard doesn't mean that God's not in it.

We have a generation that runs from hard, runs from work,

runs from labor, runs from difficulty.

We want everything to be easy.

We want our marriages to be easy, We want our

relationships to be easy.

We want our careers.

To be quick, successful and easy. But usually if you

don't have the character to back that up, it will

be lost and stolen just that quick. And so there's

nothing wrong with work, there's nothing wrong with laboring. There's

nothing wrong with that. But this seems as though the

children of Israel didn't want it that way.

The failure comes this way.

It's what we see as a disadvantage, It'll say on

the screen.

It's what we see.

As a disadvantage can actually turn out to be an advantage.

It's gonna become now your motivation.

Okay, you only have a twelfth grade education. Okay, you

got you know, some autistic things in your life. You're

dyslexic in your life. There's some disability that you have

that looks like a disadvantage. But in the hands of God,

God can make it an advantage. That now you will

stand out amongst all the other people, and you will

be You'll drive harder, you'll be motivated, you'll be passionate

to prove everyone wrong that wrote you off. So what

looks like a disadvantage is actually an advantage. I can

hear Zach shouting.

Who's up here in the wheelchair?

Yeah, I got a piece of Zach's art.

Hanging on my wall.

You would think, can guy who's got cerebral polesy do artwork?

Yeah, it's hanging on my wall.

I don't know what you're complaining about. I don't know

what lack you didn't have and what you didn't grow

up with.

But you know what. God is bigger and God is

greater than And let me be a poster boy for that.

That God can turn your disadvantage absolutely into advantage that

brings motivation at least. I think about my life that

I have had to learn more with my eyes and

learn with my ears.

I've had to learn more from my heart than my head.

But once I discovered that my heart is just as

strong as my head, if not stronger.

And once I learned that my eyes are just as

powerful as my ears.

See because my ears couldn't comprehend what you're saying because

I could remember it.

You talk over my head. I don't do it. I'm

gonna get an f I.

Can't retain what you said. I don't understand what you're saying.

You can say it a thousand times, but let me

see it.

Let me see it, and it's logged in and I

got it.

So what turned out to be a disadvantage actually can

become an advantage in your life.

And the reality is because.

You drove out and conquered and achieved and believed, Now

you have a confidence that you didn't have before. Now

you have a courage that you didn't have before. Now

you have character that you didn't have before. Now you

have competency that you didn't have before. Now you have

a story that you didn't have before. Yes it was tough,

Yes it was difficult, but by faith, you work through

it and you trusted God and you did your part

and God did his part, and now you're where you're

at today. I remember there would be times in the

ministry when I felt the need to give large sums

of money like we're doing to a nonprofit or a

mission or a need that I heard and I knew

that we didn't have the capital nor the money to

give a ten twenty five thousand dollars whatever it was

at that time, And I remember saying, Lord, if you

really want me to give this ten thousand of this

twenty five thousand to this need that I heard, then

I ask you because I knew how much we needed

to bring in every week, just like you know what

you need to bring in monthly to run your household.

It's the way the ministry runs.

Thank God for the hallelujahs, so thank you Jesus and

the praises to God. But how many of you know

the electricity don't a collector don't care about the Hallelujah

and the.

Praise God and the thank you Jesus.

The mortgage company don't care about your hallelujah praise God.

They just want your denaro your money.

And so we have to We had to run run

the ministry through a budget and through stewardship and all that,

but this need would come up, and I say, Lord,

if this is of you and you want me to

give it, then I believe you for ten or twenty

five thousand dollars above what we need to come in

and if you grant that, I promise you that I will.

God's my witness. Every time I prayed that prayer.

God gave the ten, the fifteen, the twenty, and the

twenty five thousand dollars.

What does that mean.

I'm in a position now where I know how to

believe God for income. I know how to believe God

for finances. Would look like a disadvantage. Actually put me

in an advantage now, which develop my faith, develop my

prayer life, develop me stepping out in obedience to do

what God told me to do. Let me tell you

another story, the story of where I grew up and

I live next to a friend of mine who's name

was and we were buddies, Lucho, me and him.

But the problem with Lucho's.

Side by side, Holmes, this is the story of the rat.

I told you this story was the first story, the house.

Second story is the ford, the LTD Car. This is

the story of the rat. Now, when I talk about

the rat, I'm not talking about Mickey Mouse rat. I'm

not talking about Ratatuy rat for I'm gonna date myself.

I'm talking about Willard Ben Rat. Come on now, Michael Jackson, Ben.

The two of usked me, look.

Nor more, we have found what we were looking for.

Excuse me, I flashed back. Anyways, ain't ain't nothing that.

Ain't nothing cute about the bens in that house.

Listen, I'm not exactly. It was infested with rats. Infested

with rats.

One day, Ruchel asked me if i'd spend the night.

It was my buddy.

I said, okay, I'll spend the night, all right. He said, well,

before we go to bed, you want some cereals. Yeah,

every kid likes cereal breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

Let's have cereal. I'm not Jesus. I opened that where's cereal?

He said? That upper cabinet.

I opened it up, and a rat jumped out of

the cabinet and.

Over my shoulder.

You know how the cartoons are when that guy goes

through the wall and there's an image of him.

That's what I did. I ran home, like Booker t

I'll never go into that house again.

They had the ability to call an exterminator, but they

tolerated their rats.

They learned to live with their rats.

Their rats became pets, Their rats became friends. They shower,

there goes a rat. They go to bed, there goes

a rat. They just lived their life as normal around

the rats. That's the children of Israel what they did.

As long as the rats don't bite us and we

don't get poison and sick, it's okay.

We brought them under submission. They now work for.

Us, but we're not going to ask them to leave.

And so there was a form of compromise in their lifestyle.

That happened.

And so I grew up with a neighbor that compromised

and could have easily exterminated all those rats, but chose.

Not to do it.

So here's the question of the failure that we're going

to look at today through this story that I just

shared with you about the rats.

We think we can handle it better than getting the help.

Sometimes passor Kinney runs what we just described today to

help people with bad habits and hurts and hang ups.

People I need to go to not therapist. I don't

need no no go to no counselor. I don't need

no help. I could do it on my own. That's

the story of the rats.

The neighbors. Lucco didn't want to call help for help.

And the failure is is that if you can't solve

the problem and it's ongoing and it's reoccurring, then you

need to go get help, whether that's whether that's the

help of a man, but ultimately the help of Jesus

to come into your life and help and rescue you.

The failure in the story is the fact that we

think it's not as bad and I can live with it.

So we tolerate it and we ignore it. It's not

that bad. And then the problem is is we think

we've done it. Oh, I've already done that.

You know how many of us have heard people that

have trouble and you bring counsel and wisdom. I've already

done that. It doesn't work. I've been doing that a

long time.

And that's the way the people I confronted them.

I talked to them, I disciplined, I forced, But you

didn't complete the job. Children of Israel, you force them

to labor, but you tolerated them when you should have

droven it out when you should have just that's it,

when you should have put the consequences in place, or

whatever it might look like. You think that you you've

done enough, and sometimes God always has a one percent

of one percent that says, no, you didn't do enough

how quickly people in a divorce, And I wish I

could fight for people not to end. They don't even

understand that. And no condemnation to anybody, but from here

on out, don't.

Divorce no more. You can't God forbid that an.

Affair takes place, or physical abuse takes place, or abandonment

takes place.

Then you're gonna come and talk to Pastor.

Kenney and he'll counsel you through that and give you

wisdom on that. But not just because I got a

toilet seat issue or my mate is getting fat. There's consequences,

and I honestly believe that there's consequences from a spiritual perspective.

When you break the holy Covenant of God.

And I'll leave that alone because this isn't the place

to talk about that. But the reality is this is

that we think we've done enough to stay married. I've tried,

I've done everything I could so many times be and

Pastor can you have compare notes. I don't know that

they've done. They've done enough of what they in their

flesh want to do, but they've not submitted to God

and done what God asked them to do.

And then, last of all, we allow the.

Obstacle and the opposition to wear us down and to

warry us down, and because of that, we begin to compromise,

and we begin to conform, and we begin to actually

become complacent in that situation. Here's the last point, the

last story I want to talk about.

I've talked about him before.

This is the story of the bully and the failure

in the children of Israel and the failure in the story,

I had a neighborhood kid. His name was Kenny, and

Kenny was the neighborhood bully.

Not like our pastor Kenny.

Pastor Kenny's sweet. But everybody knows who Kenny is because

Kenny is this little kid who's got peach fuzz on

his face as a little kid, Kenny is this guy

that has definition and muscles as a little kid. When

you and I have baby fat, anybody know who I'm

talking about today.

And Kenny is very, very intimidating.

He has already he got his changed voice, and he

already talks like a man. And so Kenny has a

little bit of a reputation. And Kenny is strong, and

Kenny is big, and Kenny is scary for us.

And that's the way Kenny was.

If Kenny wanted my lunch money, he got my lunch money.

If he put his fist in my face, I trembled

because his fist was.

In his faith. If he told me.

To go do something like that. What's that movie called Friday?

When that guy that bully shows up and they don't

act like you don't know it.

See somebody's yelling at his name right away. I'm a Christian.

I don't watch movies like that. I know what the

hecker are talking about. Hallelujah, Praise the Lord. Take you

g what's his name? Yeah?

See what's the name of that the guy in the

Bible that Jesus minister that night and got saved.

You don't even know Nicodemus, but.

You know devo devo evo, devo divo, didn't know Nicodemus.

You're gonna be a great altar call today.

People are gonna get saved and delivered today. I'm messing

you up.

You're never gonna watch Friday again, and you'll never be

the same.

You'll never be the same. That's the way Kenny was.

He intimidated everybody. When Kenny, when when he had a fight,

he won it was a massacre.

You You didn't You couldn't put a hand on Kenny. Okay, Well,

I just simply got frustrated with Kenny that he was

making my life miserable. And I just didn't think it

was right that I would be so scared of a

guy that was my age. And so I finally got mad.

I got mad at myself. So I asked my dad

to buy me a punching bag and put it in

the garage and teach.

Me how to throw a punch. I asked my dad.

To buy me a little weight set and to teach

me how to do like militaries curls.

And I spent weeks and literally.

Monks hitting the bag and building a little bit of muscle.

And I'll never forget the day that Kenny showed up

again like a little duck. On the outside, I look cool,

but on the inside, my feet underwater.

We're going a.

Thousand miles an hour, as my heart was going a

thousand miles an hour.

And Kenny came and he challenged me again. I said, Kenny,

I'm not as scared of you. Kenny.

Do what you're gonna do, Kenny, but I'm not gonna

listen to you anymore.

I'm not your puppet, I'm.

Not your toy, and I go ahead and throw the

first blow.

Go for it.

He looked, I get out of here, diego and walked.

Never had a problem with Kenny for the rest of it.

He tormented everybody else in the neighborhood. And all of

a sudden, I became Kenny's best bud.

Put his arm around me.

Let's go places together, Diego because I stood up to Kenny.

They finally stood up to the to the to the

opposite that was keeping them from growing. When Joshua said,

come on, now, you're bigger, you're stronger, You're better than

what you're telling yourself.

You can do.

So as I close with this, here is where they failed,

and here's what we can learn. And they'll be on

the screen, and I'll finish this with these last statements

that we'll.

Look at today.

When we look at these, is this we fail because

we think that the obstacle or the opposition is greater

than God's ability in us.

I can't do that.

I have a friend, he's sixty years old. I rode

bikes with him. And what's going on, Matt, He says,

Man I'm going to Chafee Collge.

What are you doing at sixty years old?

Going to JV College because I want to learn how

to write a book.

So I'm going through a book writing class. Man.

Good for you, buddy, good for you at sixty years old.

I mean, he's a successful, big exec gut panda in

making good money, and he's over there doing something like that.

So you and I have to recognize, no matter what obstacle,

no matter what hindrance, no matter what opposition, the God

in me is greater than He's gonna help me to

get through that. The other failure that we might look

at as this is that when we are doing things

alone and without others. Manasay from you, if you're if

you're gonna do the if you're the only one that's

you're not gonna do this, get all those people that

I told you you have a number of them, work together,

clear the forests out.

And take the land.

And so things are always gonna be tough, and you're

gonna failure fail when you're trying to do things alone

rather than incorporating a team. The strongest people are not

the strong strongest because they're individuals. They're strongest because they

have a team around them, A team of accountability, a

team of cheerleaders, a team of counselors, a team of encouragers,

a teas of intercessors, a team to help me to

be a better father and a husband. It's the team

and not the loneness. I don't need nobody attitude. I

could do this myself. I've heard so many men say,

you know what, I just come to church, but I

don't have no friends in that church, And what's wrong

with you?

It's a lot of people, a lot of people.

I want to challenge you, what is your longest friendship relationship.

That you have? Mine is the ninth grade. His name

is Robert Sierra.

I still maintain that if your relationships are only a

few years old and you only got a two or

three of them, there's something wrong with your personality because

you don't want people to see the real you. So

the moment they see you the real you, you cut

them off.

You back off.

Now, success is that you do life with others. So

the reality of this is this, we fail. Here's the

next one, two more and we're done.

Fail. When we have unhealthy growth. They had growth in.

Numbers, they had growth in numbers, but they didn't have

growth in their faith. And there are people I got

a big house, I got a big income, I got

big positions, I got this, I got that. But are

you growing in your faith? That's unhealthy growth. There are

a lot of pastors who have big church megachurches, but

they fall by the wayside. That's unhealthy growth because you

don't have the character to back that up. You don't

have the behavior, you don't have the lifestyle. You're caught

up into the popularity, the glamour, the glitz, styling and profiling.

Not pastors alone, but you and I.

So you don't want unhealthy growth. You want balanced growth.

I want to grow in my office, but I want

to grow in my house with my family. I want

to just grow in one area of my life. I

want to be able to grow in the areas that

are challenging for me. I want to have three sixty

growth in my life. And the last point and we'll be.

Done, is this.

When there is more available. But we settle, we compromise,

we're complacent. He said, Man, there's so much more land.

You're living beneath your benefits, You're living beneath your priv

your your potential. Don't settle you can you can do more,

You can have more, you can be more with the

grace of God that's in you and with you and

for you. Don't settle, single, lady, for a man.

That that that that can't push you forward.

That don't settle for a for a man that's not

already where you are where you want to be. Don't

don't settle for a man uh that that you have

to be whatever his sugar daddy or sugar mama, not

sugar dad, sugar mama.

But we settle.

Because I don't know if I'll get another date, So

you settle, and vice versa. Men do it all the

time too, they do the same thing. So don't settle

for that. The enemy's lies that you're going to be

sick and you're going to die before your time. And

your grandmama died of breast cancer. Your mama died of

breast cancer, so you're going to die of breast cancer.

Well you know what that curses under the blood of Jesus.

And there's the law found in one Peter two twenty

four that says, by Jesus strives your heel.

And I don't care how many failures of your fathers

and grandfathers and the genealogy of men that curses under

the blood of Jesus, and your daddy is Jesus. Christ

is God the Father, and you have the ability to

make a new.

Pathway in your life.

I don't care about nobody ever renting in your life

and never owning. You're going to break that curse and

you're going to have an inheritance because the Bible promises

you for your children's children. And you're gonna come out

of debt. Even though your grandmama my daddy left you

with all dead and all the kids had to come.

Together to bury them.

You're going to live in a place of prosperity any

good stewardship, and you don't settle. Father, I thank you

for the message today. And we learned a lot from

a simple story God, from Ephraim and Manassa and how

you challenge them through the words of Joshua.

Don't settle.

God has so much more and greater is He that

is in you, that He that is in the world,

and that you could do all things through Christ that

strengthens you. Father, I thank you today that spirit of

a conqueror is on the people today. The spirit of

an overcomer is on the people, and the spirit of

somebody that triumphs against adversity rather than bows down to it.

May they rise up against the challenge of the life

of this life and drive out things that could scare them.

God.

The children of Israel were intimidated by these iron chariots.

God.

They saw these iron chariots just like they look at

the kinneys of life, and they're so scary, they're so threatening,

they're so intimidating, O God. Iron chariots are heavy. Iron

chariots make a lot of noise. Iron chariots are indestructible.

But through you, O God, we can even drive out

the most horrendous iron chariots.

That are in our life. In Jesus' name, Amen, As we.

Get ready to leave this church, thank you for coming

to church today. When I was thinking about my friend Charlie,

I thought about me and I said, Lord, I want

to live a lot longer, but it's okay. Should that

time come earlier, I'm ready. You're the greatest joy in

my life. You are my Lord, you are my Savior.

The Bible repeats the is that our.

Life is just a vapor how long do you think

a vapor is? The Bible says your life is a miss.

How long do you think a miss is?

Your Bible says that your life is just a one

single breath. Your Bible says that your life is one

single raindrop.

Whether that's eighty years, ninety years, one hundred years, that's

all it is. Booming, you're gone, You're.

Gone, But eternity is forever, and people can do everything

in their life to prepare to live long. You know

how we do it. I'm going to get botox so

that I look young.

That's great.

I don't have no problem with you getting botogs and

being eighty years old, but looking thirty. I don't have

a problem with that. But eventually you're gonna die. You'll

just be the best looking person in the tombstone.

It's that's all it is.

And you could be like me. I monitor everything that

goes into my body. You could eat as healthy as

you can be, but one day you're gonna die. Diego

and everyone's gonna die. And you could work out and

you can exercise all you want, but one day, at

ninety or one hundred, you're not gonna be able to

move those bones.

Anymore. What are you going to do? Then? What are

you going to do? Then?

It's amazing how you look at all these people that

were superstars and celebrities and athletes whatever. They were the

goat of their athletic and you look at them now

as seventy and eighty and they're, you know, five inches

six inches shorter.

Than they were and they could hardly walk.

But man, they stood proud and we were intimidated by them,

but age.

Got the best of them.

I just my favorite uncle died just not too long ago.

My god, what an ultra athlete he was. I remember

as it as a twenty year old racing him and

he could beat me. And I was a pretty good runner.

This guy was. And I looked at him, he was

a shriveled old, ninety three year old man.

Where did it go? Where did your strength go? Where

did your beauty go? Where do your fame? We're all

going down that road. We're all going down that road.

I just want you to be ready, man, if it

happens one hundred years from now, or it happens tonight,

no regrets, no remorse, no mystery, no uncertainty, no wish

here and no hope and I know what's going to happen.

The day after I die, I will be in the

presence of the Lord. I will rejoicee He will be

my Lord, my Savior, my God.

Not a stranger to me.

He's not a religion, he's not a philosophy, he's not

a fear.

He is my God. If you're ready to make that

commitment or rededicate.

Your life one two three, raise your hand up for

Jesus right now, ask him to save you.

Right now. Stand on your feet, wherever you are, wherever

you are, stand on your.

Feet for Jesus. Come on, don't be ashamed. Who cares,

who looks at you? Right now, just say this with me,

Dear Jesus. I want you, I need you. Save my

soul and deliver me. Fill me full of your Holy spirit.

Radically change my lifestyle, my attitude, my beliefs. Forgive me

of my sins. As now I commit my life to

you in Jesus' name.

Come on, Church, rejoice. You may be seated. Pass Sammy.

Come on, can we put our hands together one more time?

Come on, we can do better than that.

Evan's rejoicing for every singing prayer. Let's put our hands

together one more time for everyone who stood up and responded.

You just made the greatest decision of your life, and

we want to give you some resources. So if you

want to pull your phone out or you want to

remind yourself, you could go to growdaf Faith written by

our founding pastor to help you with these next steps

of what to do after you make that decision. I'm

gonna release you in a second. But wasn't that incredible

word by Pastor Diego? Can we just thank Pastor for

delivering that message. If you need additional prayer, our prayer

team elders deacons will be up here.

I'll pray for us.

Generally release you, and if you need prayer, please come

to the altar.

We would love to pray for you. Let's pray together. Lord.

We thank you so much for that timely word, and

we thank you so much for what you did in

this room and across everywhere whoever's watching. Lord, we just

thank you so much Jesus for what you're doing. We say,

have your way in Jesus name, and everybody said amen

and Amen, God bless you Church. We will see you

this weekend.