This Is Going To Be Different - Week 8 - Tomorrow - Damon Moore - August 2, 2026

Welcome to the City Place Church podcast.

My name is Josiah Williams, and here is my challenge for you.

As you're listening to the message, I challenge you to remove as many distractions as possible, to write out a few notes and things that stand out to you, and afterwards, share what you've learned on one of your social media outlets.

We level up by giving a level 10.

Thanks again, and enjoy the message Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Y'all ready for the word? Yeah.

I leaned over to Taisha and was like, "I almost forgot.

I'm supposed to be ready to preach."

I was like, "Man, these are great announcements.

I need to sign up for prayer."

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

All right, if you have your Bibles, let's lock in.

Let's lock in.

My name is Damon.

I, along with my wife, Tyesha, we have the privilege of being the senior pastors at CityPlace, and we welcome you this morning.

It's an honor to have you.

Uh, we have been in a series all summer called This Is Going To Be Different, and, uh, I'm excited today.

Uh, let me give two shout-outs.

Um, one, I wanna give a shout-out.

Last Sunday, uh, I had someone teach with me.

We had Angel teach with me and Annabelle, one of our students, teach with me, and, uh, it was just a life-giving Sunday.

And I love what God is doing through the communicators, not just on the platform, but what's happening in kids ministry and student ministry and all over the campus to see God raising up leaders and small group leaders, which you'll be hearing about over the next couple of weeks for you to be able to plug into community.

God's just doing some really exciting stuff here, uh, at CityPlace Church.

W- I also wanna celebrate the fact that we had seven additional people baptized last Sunday.

Yeah.

Isn't that awesome? And so, uh, we, we, we celebrate those moments.

Um, but we've been in this series called This Is Going To Be Different.

And, uh, as we were coming into this weekend, we spend...

If you were checking out church news and got lost in it like I did, uh, next Sunday kicks off 21 days of prayer at our church.

At the start of the year, we take 21 days to pray and fast.

And at August, as we're going back into the fall season, we take another 21 days to pray.

We start off our services with pre-service prayer at 9:30, and it goes to about 9:55, and we join together, and the place is, is full and, and we're praying intensely, uh, for our church, for our community, for the needs that you may be believing God for.

And so I wanna invite you next Sunday at 9:30 as we kick off 21 days of prayer.

Uh, it'll be guided.

We'll have worship music.

Uh, some of our leaders will pray, and we'll just have the information on there.

So it's not a quiet moment in the church.

It's guided.

But it's a great time for us to lean in together as a church, as a people that pray.

And then we also take Wednesday mornings at 6:00 a.m.

to pray every single Wednesday.

It's a life-giving time.

We have people who are listening and praying as they're going to work or, you know, they're dropping kids off or whatever it may be.

I wanna encourage us as a church to lean in together.

Is that all right if we do that? Let's lean in together.

So if you have your Bibles, go with me to Joshua chapter three.

Joshua chapter three.

Joshua chapter three We're gonna read the first...

Let's read the verse, the first six verses.

We've been in here the last few weeks, and Joshua chapter 3 verse 1 says this: "Then Joshua rose early in the morning, and they set out from Acacia Grove and came to the Jordan, he and all the children of Israel, and lodged there before they crossed over.

Joshua 3:1

So it was after three days that the officers went through the camp, and they commanded the people saying, 'When you see the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God and the priests, the Levites, bearing it, then you shall set out from your place and go after.'"

Somebody say, "Go after it."

Go after it.

"Yet there should be space between you and it, about 2,000 cubits by measure.

Do not come near it, that you may know the way by which you sh- must go, for you have not passed this way before."

And verse five is where we're gonna lean in today.

It says, "And Joshua spoke to the people and he said this: 'Sanctify yourselves for tomorrow.'"

Somebody say, "Tomorrow."

Tomorrow.

"For tomorrow the Lord will do wonders amongst you."

Then Joshua spoke to the priests saying, "Take up the ark of the covenant and cross over before the people."

Back to verse five, "And Joshua said to the people, 'Sanctify yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders amongst you.'"

Let's pray.

Father, in Jesus' name, we thank you for an atmosphere of worship that we can sing unto you with our voices.

Now, God, as we lean into this moment of worship around the Word of God, God, I pray that you will speak to us so that we can apply what you say to our lives so that we can fulfill the purpose and calling that you've called us to.

I pray, Lord Jesus, that, uh, what you wanna say today, we'll sit on the edge of our seats, and not because someone is speaking your Word, but because you're speaking to us.

Receive all of the glory and all of the honor.

Let every aspect of Cityplace's service today, whether it's in kids ministry, in our nursery, our student ministry, God, let every person here today encounter you in a fresh way.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Can you say amen? Amen.

Amen.

Thank you, Jay.

I appreciate you.

Isn't it good when you have really good music behind you? Man, how many of y'all would love to take Jay home with you? You know what I'm saying? You wake up in the morning, you hear, I appreciate you.

We're good, we're good, we're good.

Man, I appreciate- Next Sunday, y'all gonna walk in and Jay gonna have a tip jar on him.

Ah, Pastor Damon, I took what you said.

Any suggestions? Any suggestions? Any suggestions? I love it.

I love it.

Joshua chapter 3, um, verse 5 says to sanctify yourselves for tomorrow.

Joshua 3 · chapter mention

Um, since the beginning of the year, as a church, we've been leaning into what the Lord has been saying to us.

Uh, at the beginning of the year, our focus during our 21 days of prayer and fasting was that anything could happen.

God was speaking to us and He was like, "Hey man, just prepare yourself, church, because anything Can happen.

In February, all the way through the month of March, we started spending our time in Joshua, the Book of Joshua, Joshua 1.

And the Lord spoke to our church that this was the year that we would move from being cautious to being courageous.

Anybody having to walk through some courageous moments? We started leaning in, and one of the verses that we've been declaring as a church is Joshua 1:9, "Have I not commanded you to be strong and courageous? Do not be afraid or dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go."

Joshua 1:9

We, we, we said that God meets us in our comfort, and when God meets us in our comfort, He begins to challenge us to be courageous.

And normally, our first step is a cautious one, but the more we are connected to Him, we move from being cautious to being committed or consistent.

And then that consistency, as we remain connected to Him, turns into being committed, and being committed, as long as we're connected, turns into us walking in courage.

So since January, we've been challenged.

God's been speaking to us.

We, we dreamed about two courageous steps for CityPlace Church.

Jacob mentioned one, that we wanted to impact 1% of the five communities around CityPlace Church, 160,000 people.

We said, "God, would you just allow us to impact 1,600? Would you just allow us to be able to minister to people, see them baptized, pastor them, disciple them to become who you would want them to be?" The second thing is that we said that we would begin to take a courageous step in our generosity so that CityPlace could find our permanent home.

And what's so exciting about that is so many of you took that courageous step and began to trust God consistently with your giving and committed to your giving.

And that was just us dreaming.

We put up vision photos about what our facility could look like.

Like, just taking simple, courageous steps.

In the month of April...

Trust me, I'm going somewhere for the message, just so you know.

Just taking you back before we go forward.

In the month of April all the way through May, we were in a series called Built to Last.

We said that God's given us a foundation that He wants to build our life upon, and He is the only one.

In fact, the verse that we used was, "Unless the Lord builds the house, we labor in vain as we try to build it."

We took our time and we talked about how God wants to build our life, build our family, build our finances, so that when we look back over time, we have something that will last.

In fact, if I could celebrate a couple of things that we've been able to see God do.

We've been able to renovate and move into our headquarters.

We have our own office, fully funded and renovated, all because we took a courageous step.

We saw over 500 people on campus for Easter.

We've seen 29 people baptized, over 100 salvations.

We've given, in cash dollars, over $25,000.

The Dream Team have served thousands of hours.

Our city groups are growing spiritually and naturally.

Yes.

I talked about the commitment that we made together.

As a church, we committed $405,000 to our two-year, uh, project to move into our property.

Yes.

We've been taking our courageous steps.

And so as I'm thinking about this year, I'm thinking about the fact that we also gave seven days during our Impact Week to impact so many lives.

I think about the 20-plus students that went and gave one week of their life so they can encounter Jesus- Yeah fully.

Yes.

And so all I'm thinking about is what God has already done- That's right while I'm thinking about tomorrow.

Yeah.

That's good.

The focus of today's thought is simply tomorrow.

Joshua said this, he said, "Sanctify yourselves for tomorrow.

God will do wonders in your life."

And as I was thinking about all of the different things that God has done, I couldn't help but think about what God's been doing in our sisterhood ministry.

I couldn't think about what God, ab- ab- uh, about how God has been blessing our man cave.

Yeah.

How God's been blessing our young adults.

I was thinking about, "Man, if God's gonna do something amazing tomorrow, what has He been doing today?" Yeah.

Like, if I'm gonna see wonders tomorrow, surely He's been doing something today.

Yeah.

Like, I kept thinking about how I've been watching kids ministry.

Your kids love Jesus.

Sometimes I sneak in right after here sometimes, and I watch them leaning in, and they'll be jumping around doing praise and worship, and I'm like, "Wow.

If God's gonna do wonders tomorrow, I wonder what He's been doing today."

Yeah.

So often we spend so much time thinking about tomorrow, and we can miss what God's doing today.

Have you ever been there? Yeah.

God speaks to Joshua in Joshua chapter 1, and He gives him this parameter of everything that He's going to do and everything that He's going to give them.

Joshua 1 · chapter mention

He is echoing the promise that He's already given to the people of Israel.

Yeah.

Joshua in chapter 2 sends out two spies, and the spies come back and say, "God has given it to us."

In Joshua chapter 3, he's like, "Hey, now it's time to go, but what I want you to do is I want you to sanctify yourselves, because tomorrow your mind is going to be blown."

Joshua 3 · chapter mention

Yeah.

So I was thinking as we get ready to write some things down on your notes.

I was thinking about the fact that before we think about tomorrow, we're gonna have to celebrate and find Jesus in today.

Like before we think about tomorrow, we're going to have to celebrate and find Jesus in today.

Well, PD, you don't understand.

All Hades is broken loose in my life.

Before we think about tomorrow, we're going to have to celebrate and find Jesus in today.

He is still there.

He is still in our moment.

The question is, is can we see Him in the moment? Can we see His faithfulness? Can we see His goodness? Or are we just thinking about tomorrow, not being able to celebrate today? Yeah.

Y'all trending okay? Yeah.

Joshua tells the people, "Hey, listen, tomorrow's a big day, but before tomorrow, I want you to spend time in today."

He tells them, actually, he says this.

He says, "I want you to sanctify yourselves for tomorrow."

Yeah.

Y'all, y'all, I, I, I think, I was thinking about last week and, and, and I wrote this down.

When God had given Joshua the command to be strong and courageous, and he said this, he says, "Do not be afraid or dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go."

He was giving him a command for today and tomorrow.

But watch, but it was also the metric for when Joshua can look back to yesterday.

Because he could see the moments where fear and doubt and worry may have been present.

But watch, like Annabelle said la- last week, faith made the difference.

Yeah.

So I give you this instruction, this is what I'm going to do, so I can apply it to today, I can apply it to tomorrow, but if I look back over my shoulder, I see that actually you gave me courage in moments of faith.

Yeah.

And so before we look at tomorrow, we have to look at not just today, but we should also take a look back at yesterday So with faith making a difference, we were able to stand.

"Encourage," Joshua would say, and then he looks at the people and he says, he says, "Hey, sanctify yourselves."

I looked up the word sanctify.

I want you to write this down.

The word sanctify means this: to make holy, to set apart as sacred, to consecrate, to render legitimate or binding.

Set yourself apart.

Make yourself holy.

Make this day holy before we step into tomorrow.

Just in case your flesh wants to journey in this moment, make sure that we deal with that now.

Yeah.

Just in case any part of us wants to lead the way, let's actually make this day holy.

Mm-hmm.

Before our eyes see any wonders, before we start looking at His hand, let's make sure that we're binded to His heart Like before we ever doubt again, let's make sure that we sit in the place that He has legitimately spoken, that He will do what He said He will do.

Yeah.

Before we walk out any of the magnificent and the awe, let's settle in the fact that He is holy.

Yeah.

And wherever He is- Yeah is holy.

Yes.

So He says, "Set yourself apart.

Consecrate yourself for tomorrow."

Yeah.

So as we lean into God's Word today, I want us to think about these next couple of weeks as we get ready to head into prayer.

But I also want you and I to have, before we head into prayer, this week to be able to thank God for the things that He's already done- Yeah watch now, that we may not have focused on.

Yeah.

I, I, I want us to have this week to be able to thank Him for the pain.

I, I, I want us to be able to have this week to thank Him for the times when we were sitting in worry, but now we're sitting in faith.

Yeah.

I want us to be able to take this week and go into 21 days of prayer, not just thinking about the wonders of tomorrow- Right but being able to celebrate Tomorrow.

Tomorrow.

We, we, we, we gonna celebrate tomorrow, I promise you.

But what about today? I wrote this down, and I want you to write this down.

Before we enter tomorrow, we have to spend intentional time with the Father today.

Yeah.

Sounds deep, particularly if I add words like that, right? It's like, no, like Joshua's like, "Hey, listen.

Before we enter tomorrow, let's be intentional about spending time with the Father today."

This is the reason why I love Joshua.

I love Joshua because Joshua is not just giving them instruction for tomorrow.

Joshua's like, "Let me tell you what I've experienced personally" Because if I had the time, and if you've been in this series, you'd know if you've been here over the last, you know, six, seven months, when we talked about Joshua, Joshua started off as a warrior in a valley when we meet him in Exodus.

Yeah.

And then Moses pulls him as his assistant, and then Joshua finds himself being able to listen to the conversations that Moses is having with God.

Wow.

He is seeing God encou- or, or Moses encounter God face to face, but he's on the outside.

And then it switches in Exodus where it says Moses would leave the mountain, but Joshua would stay and go into the presence of God.

Yeah.

Like, so when Joshua's like, "Hey, sanctify yourselves for tomorrow," this is not just some sort of pastoral moment.

Yeah.

This is like, "Let me tell you what's worked for me."

Yeah.

"Let me tell you what's gonna work for us to not end up like the previous generation.

It's not just gonna be the leader going into God's presence, it's gonna be you going in as well."

And so in order for all of us to be able to encounter the Father, we have to be intentional about setting aside, setting ourselves apart, and de- deeming that spot holy.

Yes.

For us committing to the time, and it's binding.

I don't care if my phone rings.

I don't care if the appointment is supposed to be.

If this is the time that I've set with the Lord, I'm not changing it.

Why? Because this is holy.

That's right.

I'll get to tomorrow when tomorrow comes.

But as for today, I've got to celebrate, and I've got to find Jesus in today.

Yeah.

And so he tells them, he's like, "Hey, listen, before we enter into tomorrow, let's be intentional."

About going after the Father today.

Now, we're gonna pray next week, the ninth.

Unless Jesus comes back, we're gonna pray.

Amen.

But this week, before next week, matters.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I'm challenging us- Yes to look at today, and then look at yesterday, and find Jesus in those moments.

Yeah.

So that when we get to tomorrow, and we see the wonders, it's like, "Oh, this is amazing," but you've already been wonderful So next week starts our 21 days of prayer, and I wanna invite you.

We're gonna have prayer journals available where you can download to help us grow throughout the week.

You will not be left alone.

I already started talking to the team.

We're gonna get you some worship playlists so that during those weeks of prayer, we will begin to enjoy the opportunity to connect with the Father.

Yeah.

Why? Because prayer is intentional communication with God.

But watch, if you've heard this be- been here before, you know that it's also intentional warfare with the enemy And so I'm not just gonna look at tomorrow, I'm going to look at today.

Write this down.

Joshua is also instructing the people to prioritize quality time- Yeah with the Lord.

That's good.

Quality time with the Lord.

Do you know what Joshua could have done? Joshua could have said this, and this...

I, I've been guilty of this, "Hey, everybody, three days has passed."

'Cause when you read chapter one, he tells them, "Hey, we've got three days."

Three days have passed, everybody.

Everybody packed.

Here's what we're gonna do.

We're gonna gather in a circle, and we're gonna pray.

Before, before we, uh, leave our driveway, uh, we always pray before we get on the road.

We thank the Lord.

We dispatch angels around us to get us from where we're going, to get us to where we're...

You know, get there safely.

Joshua could have done that.

He could've been like, "Hey, guy, time to go.

All right, uh, you know, Jamal, you're praying.

You pray for the whole group, Jamal.

Everybody ready to go? Let's go."

But no, he says, "No, actually, we're actually gonna prioritize the quality time that we have with the Lord."

Yeah.

In all of our days, there is quality time- Yes that we could have with the Lord.

And I know if you're like me, your life is full.

Your schedule is packed.

All of us in here, 24 hours a day, we all have quality time- Yeah that if we're intentional with the Father, we can spend with the Lord.

Amen.

How many of y'all have ever said this, "I just don't have any time"? Nobody wants to admit that.

Look at y'all.

Father, in Jesus' name, this is our altar call.

Like, we've all said, "I just don't have time."

I'd like to argue that we do.

I'd like to argue that maybe we just haven't prioritized our time well.

And so Joshua's like, "Hey, before we see tomorrow, let's prioritize our time with the Lord today."

And in fact, as your leader, Joshua's like, "For the rest of the day, sanctify yourselves.

This moment is now holy."

So guess what? All of the work that you may have had to do, guess what? Focus on the Lord first, because tomorrow your mind is gonna be blown by what you see.

See, here's the thing, y'all.

When, um, when we really prioritize our time and we make this intentional, when we see the wonders of God, we won't take credit, and we won't give credit away to something else.

It'll be from Him and Him alone.

Y'all trending all right? Yeah.

Right.

Let's go, l- l- let's go a little deeper.

Psalm 63 verse one says this, "O God, you are my God.

Early," first thing, "will I seek you.

My soul thirsts for you.

My flesh longs for you in a dry and thirsty land where there is no water.

So I look for you in the sanctuary to see your power and your glory."

The writer says, "Hey, listen, I prioritize this, Lord, so it's gonna be early in the morning where I'm gonna come and find you.

Like, I'm gonna wake up early.

First thing in the morning, I'm coming to find you.

And when I come into your house, I expect you gonna be there.

Like, when I'm dry, when I'm thirsty, before I even reach in the fridge, early in the morning, I'm looking for you."

Like, so there is a value to prioritizing the moments that we will have with the Lord.

What if this week we spent the time, we looked at what God's been doing today and yesterday, and heading into 21 days of prayer, which is tomorrow, what if we said, "Man, during this sacred time, I'm gonna prioritize the time, and I'm gonna have quality time with the Lord."

Let's keep going.

Luke 11:1, it says this.

Luke 11:1

This is about Jesus.

It says, "Now it came to pass, as Jesus was praying in a certain place, when He had ceased," He just kind of stopped, I'm gonna take a break, "that one of His disciples said unto Him, 'Lord, teach us how to pray,' as John also taught his disciples."

Even Jesus, the Savior of the world, the miracle worker, was like, "Hey, you know what, fellas? Give me a moment.

Give me a moment.

I'm gonna take a break so that I can pray."

Yeah.

Quality time with the Father.

If anybody could've just gone for broke- Yeah and could've just kept His pace, wouldn't it have been Jesus? I don't think Jesus needed a Gatorade.

Anybody else? I mean, He's the Savior of the world.

Yeah.

But actually, Jesus is like, "Wait a second.

Let me model because there are times when I will pour out, but my soul will still need to be full-" Yeah with the Father."

Yeah.

He valued His time with His dad above what He was pouring out.

He knew that He was gonna die, yes, but the fact that He could remain connected to the Father was important to Him And so we wanna prioritize quality time with the Lord.

Could it be that Joshua was also teaching the people that the wonders of tomorrow occur in the spiritual first? That was one of the questions I was asking myself as I was studying, was like, could it be that Joshua was going, "Hey, everybody, before we see the wonders in the natural, we will see them in the spiritual first."

Like, if we're spending time, if everything flows from the spiritual first, and then it happens in the natural, then I have to spend time in the spiritual.

I have to, I have to know that God is moving on my behalf.

I have to know that the quality time that I spend with the Father produces the wonders.

And so we value the time that we get to spend with the Father.

You and I are challenged to value the time that we get to spend with God the Father.

The wonders are a part of His benefits, y'all.

Like, those are the natural things that we see, but in the spiritual, God is doing so much more.

I looked at this, guys, and I found that there's, all throughout scripture, there's a common trait for all of the spiritual giants that we love, all of the people that we read about, and it was this: that they were intentional about their pursuit, love, communication, and trust with God.

Every person that we read about, you name them, they were very intentional that they were gonna pursue God like crazy.

They were gonna communicate with Him as close as they could possibly be, that they were gonna pour out their love and trust like no one had ever seen.

And then all of a sudden, when we read about them, it looks like they're doing impossible stuff.

But to them, it was normal.

It was normal.

I have no clue what it's like to walk on water.

Anybody else? Anybody ever try that at your kid pool as a, as a kid? Like, I have no clue.

I have no clue what it's like for your shadow, like the apostles, for you to be walking down the street and people moving sick people into a alleyway because of a shadow.

That does not happen without you spending time- Yeah intentionally with the Father and prioritizing quality time Like, y'all, I, I have no clue what it's like to have a lunch and you feed 5,000 people.

Come on.

And the Lord puts it back in your hand.

I, I, I don't know what it's like to go, "Hey, all right, um, we've only got this amount.

Um, okay, you get some, and then you get some.

Oh, wait a second, that was seven.

Oh, okay, well, there's...

the basket's still full."

And then you go to the next seven and that...

"Oh, that's full."

Okay? Like I ha- I have no clue, but something happens when we're intentional.

Something happens with...

But it starts with today, and being able to look back and go, "Wow, Jesus was in that moment then, so then when I get to tomorrow, He'll be there as well."

Yeah.

And worship team, you can come back up.

I'm getting ready to close.

Are you blanks filled in, by the way? No.

No blanks are filled in? Not at all? I know some.

Some are, some are, some are.

Yeah.

Four more.

Wow, y'all are talking back more than the amens.

Number two, PD, number two.

Is, is that the word before the? You got four more.

Let the Lord use you Now think-- I, I, I want us to think about this as we're heading into prayer.

What if we asked the Lord, because we said that we want...

Joshua said, "Sanctify yourselves for tomorrow."

What if we just prayed, just, "Lord, allow ourselves to get out of the way so that you can be yourself"? Like, what if we, as we're setting ourselves aside, what if we just say, "Lord, allow myself to get out of the way so that you can be yourself.

Allow this moment in time to be holy."

What if we looked at every time that we got with the Lord as holy, not as some sort of relig- you know, religious moment in time? What if we said, "No, when I step into my devotional time, I'm in my devotional time because my heart is devoted to Him, not because I have, I have to do it."

No.

What if I'm intentionally going, "Dad, this matters to me because I know it matters to you as well"? Like, if we had just a different perspective of, "Lord, I just wanna set aside what belongs to you because I need you as well."

I, I wonder about this.

Write this down.

Maybe this, this should be in your notes.

There's also this moment, because I read it in, uh, chapter three.

It says that Joshua looks at the people and he says, "Hey, listen.

You shall carry the Ark of the Covenant, and you're gonna go ahead of the people."

I feel like in this moment, Joshua's also instructing the priestly, um, leaders on how to carry the presence of the Lord.

He's instructing the priestly leaders how to carry the presence of the Lord.

Here's, here, here's the thing, is that God has called all of us to lead in the context where we are, and at times we will try to give our spiritual leadership away to others, and we will sometimes relinquish our responsibility of carrying the presence of the Lord.

Paul actually says this: "Know ye not that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, and that the Spirit of God lives within you?" And at times we will try to kinda hand that responsibility away, but no, actually, you and I are called to carry the presence of the Lord.

If you are a husband, you are called to cover your family.

If you are parents, you're called to cover your children.

In your workplace, you're there for a reason.

Like, we are called to carry the presence of the Lord properly.

See, when you read that, that was not some sort of just instruction, "Hey, move it from here to there."

No, the priests had to carry the weight of the Ark of God, which carry- which kinda represented carrying the presence of the Lord.

They had to carry it on their shoulders.

They had to carry the weight of His presence on their shoulders, and they had to carry that weight for as long as it took, watch now, for hundreds of thousands of people to cross the Jordan River.

This ain't seconds.

They're having to carry the weight.

And here's the thing, they have to do it in alignment.

Can you imagine one priest wanting to go to the left, the other priest wanting to go to the right? No.

They had to get aligned with each other, and then they had to move in sync, carrying his presence.

See, you and I in this season, for tomorrow, we have to carry God's presence with respect- Yeah and alignment.

Yeah.

We can't go, "Okay, I'm going this way."

Sorry, carrying the presence of the Lord requires me to go, "Where does he need to go?" Yeah.

The weight of carrying him is heavy.

So Father, I need your instruction.

You're going from here.

You're gonna stand in the Jordan.

The people are gonna cross.

You're gonna follow.

The presence of the Lord, this is what Joshua says, has to be carried on their shoulders.

Watch, because the people will watch because they've never been this way before What if God wanted to shift your company because you were in the room? You're asking God to set you free.

Or what if God was like, "I placed you there so that my presence can be invited there."

Have you prayed differently? God, what do you wanna do in this company? I'm asking for an exit strategy.

What if you're trying to invoke a divine strategy? Have you done that for your family? Oh, Hades is breaking loose in your family.

Have you said, "God, is our family aligned or is mama going this way, daddy going this way, the kids going that way?" What if we had the responsibility? We need to carry the presence of the Lord right So Joshua's also going, "Hey, leaders, I want you to know that you play a part too.

And this is how we carry the presence of the Lord How you and I carry the presence of the Lord matters.

He told them, "Take up the ark And lead from the front.

I wanna challenge us as a, uh, as a group of people, you live in your context.

But I wanna challenge all of us to lead with the presence of the Lord being carried well, well I want y'all to write these couple of things down, and maybe this, Sean, will fill in your four blanks.

Write this down.

Misalignment to God's presence doesn't produce wonders.

Misalignment to God's presence doesn't produce wonders.

So often we, we want to be out of line, but we're still asking God to do the impossible things in our life.

Yeah.

And then we get mad at God.

I don't know if y'all have ever been there.

And then we start giving God our resume.

"God, I'm a good person.

God, I do this.

God, I do that."

And God's like, "Um, actually, the way you're carrying me is you're going to the left, and I'm just trying to go in this direction.

You're misaligned the way you're carrying me.

You're carrying me in a comfortable way.

Instead of feeling the full weight of how much I love you, you're trying to just push me around on a cart because it's easier."

You're spending time with me as if I'm a drive-thru You're not intentional.

It's not quality.

You're asking me for this, but you and I aren't bound.

The moments that we have, you haven't made sacred.

All I'm asking is that we spend that time together to where we're linked together.

Y'all can start playing Y'all look good.

Sometimes they, they were like, "Yo, PD, we don't know if you serious or not."

We want to be aligned to God's presence He says this, he says, "Hey, sanctify yourselves.

Bind yourself to Him because tomorrow, tomorrow He will do wonders."

Like, when Joshua's th- you know, talking, he's not just giving some sort of instruction.

That's the reason why we love searching the scriptures, is because when you look at the words and what they mean, it's so much deeper than just, "Have some time."

No, it's like, no, bind yourself to who God is before we start seeing Him do crazy and mind-blowing things, because He's already been doing it in your today and in your yesterday.

Write this down.

Alignment to His presence produces clarity, promise, closeness, sacred spaces and moments.

Alignment See, his presence produces clarity, promise, closeness, sacred spaces and moments.

I love it because Joshua got to, got to see Moses do his thing, and in Exodus chapter 30, I'm gonna paraphrase.

Exodus 30 · chapter mention

I don't know if we can put up some of the verses.

It was in Exodus chapter 33, um, Moses is having this conversation with the Lord.

Exodus 33 · chapter mention

They're getting ready to go and, and advance, and, uh, Moses has this big conversation with God, like, like just straight open and honest.

He's like, "God, you're- you, you said you would send someone.

You haven't told me.

Uh, I don't even know what your plan is.

It's not clear.

Um, I just need something from you."

I'm paraphrasing.

You can read it on your own.

And he says this: "Now, if I've found favor, just please let me know."

And God's like, "You've found favor with me."

He's like, "Okay, well, am I going by myself or are you coming with me? Because if your presence doesn't go, I'm not going anywhere.

Like, I'm not leading this people.

We're not gonna pursue something that, you know, you, you know, we've heard has our name on it, but if you're not there, I'm not going."

And God says, "My presence will go with you."

And then Moses gets really bold.

After God's told him, "You've found favor.

This is what's gonna happen.

You have my presence," Moses goes like this, he goes, "Now, since that's out of the way, for me and me by myself, will you show me your glory?" Like, Moses is like, "Hey, okay, so this is for what I do.

Now this is for who we are together.

Can you show me more about you that I've never seen before?" And God's like, "I will."

He says, "Here, come here.

There's this little secret place for you and I on this little rock."

And Moses is like, "I wanna see your face."

God's like, "No one can see my face right now, but I'll walk past you."

And the Bible says as God walked past him, he could get a full glimpse of God's glory.

I wish I could know all that they talked about, but what I do know is that because Moses was aligned with the Father, and Moses had this boldness to communicate with the Father, and Moses valued the quality time, and he prioritized the time, he got to experience God in ways that, watch now, only Moses asked God.

Like, what would you want to experience about God that nobody's asked yet? That's what's so cool.

Moses is like, "For you and me, I don't know what everybody else is asking, but I wanna see your glory personally, one v.

one.

I already saw the Red Sea parted.

I already saw the miracles with Pharaoh, but for me, show me everything you got I don't know.

All I know is that God gives us an opportunity to be real close to Him and experience His fullness.

This week, I'm challenging you to see God's faithfulness in today, how amazing He's been yesterday, and then tomorrow when He's doing His wonderful things, we'll go, "Wow, thank you for today."

But you've been faithful the whole time.

Last thing and then Ty, I'll give it to you, or...

Yeah, I'll give it to you.

How about that? I read this out in Joshua.

It's also instructing the people to have that intentional plan and focus.

You and I, we have God's promise.

We have God's guidance.

Let's also give God our full attention and our focus.

He says this.

He says, "Now everybody, you're gonna sanctify yourselves for tomorrow."

And then He says, "And when you see the presence of the Lord moving, go after it.

Focus on His presence and follow Him wherever He goes."

Over these next few weeks, as we're leaning into the presence of the Lord, this week is a week where you can go, "Man, God, you've been faithful already."

But I want our expectation to be high for, for what God's gonna say, what God's gonna do.

When we gather next Sunday at 9:30, when we gather on Wednesday mornings at 6:00, let's sit on the edge of our seat for what He may be up to, all because we've seen Him be faithful today and yesterday.

Here's a challenge.

Can I give you a challenge? I wanna give you a challenge.

I wanna give you the Power 30 Challenge, okay? I wanna challenge all of us.

Remember, we wanna be intentional about our quality time.

I wanna challenge all of us to give God 30 minutes a day.

30 minutes a day.

"PD, I ain't got 30 minutes."

Yes, we do.

Guess what this is? This is one Netflix show.

This is one scroll on our phone.

You're welcome.

Look at that.

Everybody just gained 30 minutes.

You're welcome.

This is, watch now, when you're sitting watching your kid practice.

Ah.

This is when we are waiting for that appointment in the doctor's office This is sitting at the traffic light on I-4.

There's no traffic light on I-4 Huh? I was too into it Listen.

Someone said Disney.

No, here, here.

Listen.

We have the time, quality time.

So here, here it is.

Give Him 10 minutes of prayer, 10 minutes of reading scripture, 10 minutes, 10 minutes of worship.

Here's the thing, just so everybody knows.

Worship, we put it in the category of song.

Worship is not just singing.

It's our heart posture to the Lord.

When I'm studying the scriptures, I'm worshiping, because I'm trying to find Him in it.

When I'm in prayer, and I'm praying scripture back to Him, man, I'm worshiping.

When I'm being generous, it's my heart with His heart.

Man, I am worshiping Tomorrow.

But while we're thinking about tomorrow, let's see what today has already brought.

Amen? Thanks so much for tuning in.

We hope that you've been encouraged by today's episode, and we have one final challenge for you.

Take something that you've learned today or something that stuck out to you and share it with a friend or a loved one.

Spread a little of what I like to call that wisdom wealth with someone else.

Wherever you are, I hope that you have an incredible rest of your day.