Courageous Faith - Week 1 - Damon Moore - September 13, 2026

This is the City Place Church Podcast.

Here at City Place, we build dreams, ignite faith, and establish leaders that win the lost for God's kingdom.

From wherever you're listening, we hope that you are empowered by the message.

All right, if you're ready, say let's go.

Let's go.

Look at the person beside you, say are you ready? Are you ready? Look at your second choice, say now are you ready? One was more passionate, the other one was like, "Are you ready?" Just to make sure you don't know who's sitting beside you.

Well, hey, we getting ready to jump into God's word, and I'm excited.

How many of y'all were here last Sunday when Pastor Demetric preached? Yeah.

Was that not fire? Yeah.

That was awesome.

And so we're gonna continue just to see what the Lord wants to say.

It is our courageous Sunday, where at the end of our service, not only will we bring our tithe and offering, but for many of us in this room, you're beginning, uh, to, to begin to fulfill your commitments that you made.

We'll talk about it, cast a little bit of vision at the end of, uh, service today, and give you some updates on where we are and where we...

where we're going as it relates to, uh, literally acquiring our, uh, permanent location.

How many y'all are gonna be glad- Yeah when you walk into your own building? Yeah.

Isn't that awesome? Can you, can, can you, can you, can you get excited about the fact that your kids will be able to run on their own playground? Whoo.

You know what excites me? And, and, and, and what excites me is that long after I'm gone- Yeah there's gonna be another generation that's gonna worship.

Yeah.

It reminds me of the, the apostles who were part of the tw- the 12.

Yeah.

And the next thing you know, Jesus says, "You're gonna upset the world."

Yeah.

We are a product of their yes.

Yes.

Somebody else is gonna be a product of your yes.

It's crazy to think about, ain't it? Yeah.

I know.

You get to play a part.

We'll talk about that at the end.

But hey, we're gonna jump into God's Word.

We've been in, uh, the Book of Joshua, and we've only gotten to two chapters and a few verses in chapter three.

Today, we're actually gonna begin to move even further into the Book of Joshua, but we're only going to be in Joshua chapter 3, because we never got past the first six verses.

Joshua 3 · chapter mention

Isn't that awesome? Yes.

And so we're gonna go further in there, but there's been a verse that we've been leaning on in Joshua 1:9, and it says, "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

And so I'd love for us to put our name in that blank, where God is speaking to Joshua, but God is also speaking to us as a church because in 2026, God is moving us from being cautious to being courageous.

So on the count of three, I want us to read this verse.

Now normally, we put our name first.

Now we're gonna start this, the, the, the verse, and we're gonna include our name as we continue through.

On the count of three.

Are you ready? Yeah.

Here we go.

One, two, three.

Have I not- This past, this past Friday, we had sisterhood night.

All the sisters say yeah.

Yeah.

And, and some of the ladies were there p- uh, prepping, and they were putting some things on the table, and one of the verses that came out of the preparation time was Joshua 1:9.

Joshua 1:9

And, and one of the ladies that was setting up, she said, "Look, PD, have I not commanded you- be strong?" And she was...

It, it was almost like we can't get away from this verse.

Yeah.

And I was like, I love it because we wanna hear the echo of the Father's heart.

Yeah.

And in, in, in ear- earlier parts of the year, we said this.

We said that God meets us in our comfort, and when God meets us in our comfort, He begins to ask us to do certain things that pushes us from our comfort to where we become courageous.

Yeah.

And we said that our steps normally start something like this.

God speaks to us where we are, and our first step is a cautious one.

Yeah.

I know what you're telling me to do, but I'm not sure if my step is gonna move me to completion.

And we said that that first step is important because after we take that first step, it's important that we connect to Jesus.

John chapter 15, "I am the vine, you are the branch.

John 15 · chapter mention

As long as you're connected to me, you bear much fruit."

And we said that if we take that first step and we connect to Jesus, what happens is, is that our walk with Christ becomes consistent.

We become consistent.

Like, we, we, we begin to read our Bibles in the morning even though we're still discovering who He is.

Yeah.

And we said that we don't stop just with our consistency.

We go back and we remain in connection to Him because as we remain connected to Him, we become committed to Him.

Yeah.

And as we remain committed to Him, we don't stop there.

We continue our connection until we become courageous in Him.

And when we read in Joshua chapter one, Moses has died.

God speaks to Joshua, and He says, "Now is the time for you and the people to claim hold of every promise that I have for you."

And He says, in times past, in Moses' generation, because of their complaining, because of their worry, their doubt, they could only look at the promise, but they couldn't cr- uh, claim it.

And He says, "Joshua, I want you to know that from this part of the land to that part of the land, when you go to the east and the west, I've given it all to you."

He says, "No one will be able to stand before you all the days of your life.

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

The only thing is, is I'm telling you to be strong and courageous."

You're gonna move from your comfort to being courageous, and this Sunday is Courageous Sunday, and I didn't wanna just scoot past the fact that God has called us to be courageous.

And I was thinking about last Sunday, where Pastor Demetric was up here, and he said that you and I have to be available.

We have to have our hearts postured to, "God, it's whatever you want to do.

It's not my will," Jesus said, "but it's your will that be, to be done."

Like, what if we leave, leave our...

or lead our life with a heart of availability? Yeah.

When I was a kid, we would sing, "Lord, I'm available to you.

My will I give to you.

I'll do what you say do.

Use me, Lord, to show somebody else the way."

What if we lived a life where we were available? And so as we were thinking about, and I'm thinking about the last five months of our year and how God has spoken to us, and we've literally been slow-walking ourselves through the Book of Joshua.

I think about how during 21 days of prayer, we said, "God, we're gonna posture our heart and position our lives to be close to your presence."

We said that we will be as close to God as we choose to be, and we'll go as far as the Lord will take us.

And this morning I couldn't help but land in a place where God's challenging us to be a church that seeks after Him.

It's Courageous Sunday, we're gonna give generously, but that won't change the fact that we're focused on pursuing Him.

And if you have your Bibles, I want you to go to Hebrews chapter 11.

Hebrews 11 · chapter mention

We're gonna spend some time in Hebrews chapter 11.

Hebrews 11 · chapter mention

This is gonna be our foundational text over the next few weeks while we're still going through the Book of Joshua.

And it says this in verse one of Hebrews 11.

It says, "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, it's the evidence of things not seen.

For by it the elders obtained a good testimony.

By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which were visible."

Verse four, "By faith Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts; and through it he being dead he still speaks.

By faith Enoch was taken away so that he did not even see death, and was not found, because God had taken him.

For before he was taken he had this testimony," watch now, "that he pleased God."

So verse six says, "But without faith it is impossible," somebody say impossible.

Impossible.

"To please God, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him."

Can we pray? This morning we are kicking off a new series called Courageous Faith.

Courageous Faith.

Let's pray.

Father, in Jesus' name we thank you that we get to gather together under your great name.

We're not here for some sort of social club.

We're here because we need to hear from you.

We're here because we wanted to come together to lift up your great and mighty name.

So Father, we ask that you'll speak to us.

Change us, push us from our comfort zone into the place where we're committed and courageous in you, and we'll give you the glory and the honor.

In Jesus' name we pray, amen.

Courageous faith.

I've noticed over my years as a pastor that there are so many that know God loves them, but they're not sure if He's pleased with them Like they know he loves them, but they're not sure he's pleased with them.

See, there's a difference between being loved by someone and you and I living in a way that pleases them.

Hebrews 11 says that without faith, it's impossible to please him.

It says that Enoch was said to have pleased God.

See, we know that God loves us, but sometimes we don't live a life that pleases him, and we may not even recognize if he's pleased with us.

Remember during our postured and positioned, uh, it was Moses who said, "Let me know that I delight in you.

I wanna know that my actions and my heart is aligned with you."

And it says that if we're gonna walk in faith, faith pleases God.

Like we wanna know, God, what pleases you.

I, I, I love the fact that, um, my wife and I, we have two boys, and we're not always happy with what they do We're not always pleased with what they do, but they know we love them.

But there are times when we have to tell them how pleased we are Like, there, there's this foundational element in faith that says that my faith is not just to grab hold of something I want.

Yeah.

My faith aligned with the Father should please Him.

Yeah.

Y'all okay? I, I, I realize that sometimes I come out like more like a jet than an airplane coming down a runway.

It makes me think of Jesus.

The Bible says that when He was baptized, heaven opened up, and with a loud voice, He said, "This is my Son in whom I am well pleased."

Jesus hadn't turned over tables yet, hadn't walked on water yet.

But because of His expression to the one that He loved, He let the whole world know that this is my boy- Yeah and I'm pleased with Him.

Like, so I'm looking at this, and I'm realizing that Jesus receives the love of the Father, but He's also pleased with Him, and I started asking myself and telling myself, well, I wanna be a person that pleases God, and it led me to this part for CityPlace Church.

What kind of a church pleases God? Because we can have faith to walk on water, but am I pleasing God? Yeah.

And so as we are going through over the next few weeks, we're gonna go through some qualities of a church and a people that pleases God.

Write this down, because a church that pleases God is made up of people who are pleasing God A church that pleases God is made up of people who are pleasing God A church is a living organism made up of life-giving, Christ-following, evangelistic, disciple-making people.

And so if we are going to be a church that pleases God, we wanna be a people that pleases God.

Yes.

And the only way we're gonna be a people that pleases God is if we first know that we're gonna come as close to Him as we possibly can.

Yes.

And we will go as far as He will take us.

Are you trending all right? Yes.

So that leads me now to Joshua chapter 3, because the qualities that we're gonna find in a life-giving church and in a people that pleases God is found in Joshua chapter 3.

Joshua 3 · chapter mention Joshua 3 · chapter mention

I gave you some of the context.

In Joshua, God speaks to him, "Hey, you are gonna go, you're gonna prosper.

You will walk in great courage, and, and, and every step that you take, I'm with you.

No one will be able to stand with you."

In chapter 2, he goes to Rahab's, uh, the, he send out spies to go to Rahab's house, and the, and the report that comes back, "Listen, God has truly given it all to us.

We're just gonna show up.

They're gonna hand it over to us because God's already showed up."

In Joshua chapter 3, this is where we settled.

Joshua 3 · chapter mention

He says to them in verse 5, he says, "Now listen, you're gonna see the priest carrying the presence of the Lord, the Ark of the Covenant."

And he says, "They're gonna go ahead of us.

We're gonna follow them because we've never been this way before."

And he says, "Now listen, I want you to sanctify yourselves.

Set yourself apart, bind yourself to who He is, because tomorrow your eyes will see wonders from the Lord We spent 21 days in a few verses, and now we're going to continue because the story continues where they have sanctified themselves, and now they're ready to take some courageous action and courageous faith.

Verse seven says this.

The Lord is speaking to Joshua, and he says, "This day I will exalt you in the sight of all of Israel, that they may know that I was with Moses and so I will be with you.

You shall command the priests who bear the ark of the covenant, saying, 'When you have come to the edge of the water of Jordan, you shall stand in the Jordan.'"

So Joshua said to the children of Israel, "Come here and hear the words of the Lord your God."

And Joshua said, "By this you shall know that the living God is among you, and that He without-- and that He will without fail drive out before you the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Hivites, the Perizzites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, and the Jebusites," all of the ites.

Verse 11: "Behold, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of the earth is crossing over before you into the Jordan."

So everybody pay attention.

The presence of the Lord is going before them.

They're not going by themselves.

God spoke to them in Joshua chapter one.

In Joshua chapter three, now, um, uh, Joshua is telling them, "The Lord is going before you."

He said what He would do.

Now He's taking action on what He said He would do.

Everybody's good? Let's keep going.

Verse 12: "Now therefore, take your s- take for yourselves 12 men from the tribes of Israel, one man for every tribe.

And it shall come to pass, as soon as the soles of the feet of the priests who bear the ark of the Lord, the Lord of all the earth, shall rest in the waters of the Jordan, that the waters of the Jordan shall be cut off; and the waters that come down from the upstream, they shall stand up as a heap."

And so it was, when the people set out from the camp to cross over the Jordan, with the priests bearing the ark of the covenant before the people, and before-- and those who bore the ark came to the Jordan.

And the feet of the priests who bore the ark dipped in the edge of the water, for the Jordan overflows all its banks during the whole time of harvest.

One version says that it was at flood level.

That the waters which came down from upstream stood still, and rose in a heap very far at Adam, the city that is beside Zaretan.

So the waters that went down from the sea, the Salt Sea, failed and were cut off, and the people crossed over opposite of Jericho.

Then the priests who bore the ark of the covenant stood firm on dry ground in the midst of the Jordan and all of Israel crossed over on dry ground until all of the people had crossed over completely over the Jordan River Courageous faith.

God says one thing, and then in Joshua chapter three, God begins to does-- do what he says he's going to do.

But it required them moving from a place of comfort into faith steps, one step at a time.

God speaks to them, and he says to them, "Now listen, when the leaders carry my presence and they step into the impossible, I will do the impossible, cause the water to be held on both sides as a heap of water just watching you go past.

And when they step in, it's gonna be dry ground, and all I need you to do is just walk across."

I don't know about y'all, but it takes faith to walk across dry ground and see the water and not go, "It may come down at any time."

It takes faith to say, "The priests are gonna carry the presence and this is going to happen?" See, when you and I are spending time with God, the impossible will eventually seem like normal Like, it takes faith, but because we are as close to Him as possible, even when it seems crazy, we go, "He'll do it."

Yeah.

Like, that means that if He says He will do it, my action step is to believe He will do it and take my step.

Yeah.

So they take one step, and the Bible says that all of them cross over.

Now here's the thing.

Some theologians believe that it could be between 400,000 to a million people that crossed over.

Can you imagine the weight of carrying the presence of the Lord for somebody else? Remember I told you that today we're gonna be giving, and someone else will stand on our shoulders later.

Yeah.

Like, can you imagine carrying the weight of God's presence in alignment with Him so that you get your freedom, and you get your freedom, and you get your promise, and you get your promise, and it's all happening because they're all moving with a step of faith.

Yeah.

It took the leaders to take a step of faith.

It took Joshua to take a step of faith.

It, it took little Tyrone as a little kid to take a step of faith.

It took little Tyrone's parents to take a step of faith.

Yeah.

It took Grandma and Grandpa in the same community to take a step of faith.

Every single person in the community had to take their own step of faith.

Yeah.

That's good.

It wasn't just Joshua.

It was every single person taking a step of faith Because of your step of faith and your step of faith and my step of faith and your step of faith, today we're reading about a people who crossed over and were victorious Hebrews says that it's now faith that's the substance of things hoped for.

I can't wait for us to get across to Jericho.

It's the evidence of things not seen.

Step into the water and watch what I do.

They step into the water, and the water stopped.

Faith is the substance of what I cannot see, but I'm rooted in Him because I'm so close to Him that just in case it might happen, God, I'm gonna trust you anyway.

Amen.

But then it is without faith If I don't have it, I can't please Him.

So could it be that there are some qualities of a church that pleases God that's happening in this story? Write down the first one.

Here's the first one.

Because remember I said a church that pleases God is made up of people who are pleasing God.

The first one is that they are a reverent, a reverent church or a reverent people.

When God spoke, they knew that He meant what He said.

There was a reverence of who He is.

Write num- number two, a faith-filled.

They were a faith-filled people and a faith-filled church A church that pleases God is gonna be a bold church Gonna be bold about what he says to do.

It's gonna be bold about Jesus.

We are gonna be loud about our Jesus.

Just so you know, we will never compromise the name of Jesus.

That's right.

If we bear him on our chest and in our heart, we will be bold about Jesus.

We will not look like a compromising church.

All right now.

Y'all good? Yep.

Yeah.

See, see, see, a, a, a, a church that's pleasing God will be filled with a church of people who are pleasing God.

Yeah.

Like, your faith and your faith with my faith and your faith, we'll see God do the impossible because we're all taking a courageous step.

Y'all trending all right? Here, here, write this down.

A church that's pleasing God and a people that's pleasing God are th- they're a unified church.

They're a unified people I was talking to some pastors and they were talking about church splits.

God's not in that To think about that.

The church splits for whatever reason.

God's not in that.

No.

No.

Now, there are churches that come out of churches that are birthed out of churches, but God unites His body.

He doesn't divide His body.

And so we will fight for the unity of the Church and this church.

Yeah.

Like, we have to fight for that.

Why? Because I'm trying to build you up to be all that God's called you to be, and we should be doing the same thing so that when you take a step, and you take a step, and you take a step, by the time we all cross over into the promise, we get to see the fulfillment of what He said.

Yeah.

So we have to fight for the fact that I want you to walk upright before Him, and I'm not gonna let nobody tear you down If you hear somebody talk about a church in this community, pull them aside.

Pull them aside and say, "Hey, don't know what's going on, but we need to pray for the church.

We will not tear it down."

Right.

If you're tempted to comment about some pastor online, zip it up.

If we're not on the front lines, zip it up and pray for him.

Yep.

Don't tear down nobody else in this church.

I promise you, we will talk to you.

Y'all are looking at me funny.

Why? Because listen, watch now.

Complaining and gossip and d- and division kept the people walking around a mountain for 40 years Oh my gosh.

So a unified people will be a people that pleases God.

Last one, last one.

This is my favorite.

A loving people.

We're gonna love God and we're gonna love people.

Like, we're gonna love people so hard and so well.

We're gonna love people to Jesus.

We're gonna be unashamed.

We are gonna love people right where they are.

I'm so glad that people loved me when I was a hot mess, or in the words of Miss Marlow, hottrash.com.

Has anybody been told that by Miss Marlow? Hottrash.com.

Hottrash.com.

I'm like, "Is that a real website?" No, listen, like, like, I don't know about you, but I am so glad that God wasn't waiting on me to be made perfect- Yeah.

Yeah before He sent Jesus.

Yes.

It says that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

Yes.

So guess what we're gonna do? We're not gonna point a finger at any single person.

We're gonna meet them right where they are.

I love it because in foundations class, we actually get to walk the journey of our yes.

We get to walk the journey of becoming closer in Christ.

I love the fact that I'm, I'm hearing some of the feedback of some of the lessons and, and, uh, things that's gonna be taking place in our city groups.

If you are YA 18 to 30, y'all are gonna be doing some powerful stuff.

You're talking about the lies that people would try to tell or the lies you believe.

Pulled me out of my mess.

We're gonna love people well.

So write this down.

A reverent church fears the Lord And lives with sincere obedience to him.

We're gonna fear the Lord and we're gonna live In sincere obedience to him.

We're only gonna get through two of these today, just so you know 'Cause I know y'all are like, "PD, the blanks."

That's the reason why you don't have two full pages of notes Psalm s- Psalms 147 says this, in verse 11 it says, "The Lord delights in those who fear Him, who put their hope," watch now, "in His unfailing love."

He delights in the one who fears Him, and guess what? You get to just situate yourself in His unfailing love See, the Lord delights in us because we fear Him.

Let, let, let's define what it means to fear God, because today creates the foundation of the courageous faith we're gonna be talking about over the next few weeks.

I know we're believing God for big things, but sometimes if you're like me, you believe Him for the thing, and the thing doesn't take place, and then I start doubting Him because I thought that was faith, when actually my faith has to be rooted in how I go after Him and I seek Him, rather than just looking at His hands.

You know what I'm talking about? So I gotta make sure that as we talk about courageous faith, that we're not just talking about the belief side of it, it's the rootedness in the one that, where we can please Him.

So here's what it means, is not to be afraid of Him.

He is God, yes.

There is that, that fear, yes.

But we're not afraid of Him.

It literally means to be awe-filled.

To be aware of God's holiness and His authority.

So when we're talking about fear Him, when we're talking about being rooted in Him, when we're talking about, "God, I, I, I'm, I'm coming after you, and, and, and I'm holding you in high esteem and honor.

I'm not fearful of you.

I'm just in awe of you."

See, the reverence for God isn't something that's gonna drive us away, but His awe draws us to Him It draws us to him Joshua says, "Hey, follow the presence of the Lord.

You've never been that way before.

Go after him wherever he goes."

Joshua in, in, in verse five and six, he says, "Hey, sanctify yourselves.

Get to know him personally for yourself because tomorrow you'll see his mighty acts."

It's personal relationship.

You need to know him for yourself, not just because the pastor is preaching.

You need to be filled with awe just because he's God, not because of what he's done for you.

Yeah.

Man, I'm, I'm in awe of him because he woke me up this morning.

I'm in awe of him because he did save my life.

He saved my soul.

He gave Jesus.

I'm in awe of the fact that the creator of the universe allows you and I to call him Dad.

Yeah.

I'm blown away.

You and I could walk outside right now and experience the awe of God.

Yeah.

The clouds in the sky, the rain that comes down, the sun.

Like, the awe of God is on full display The question is, is when our life is on display, would our life say that we believe God? Would our life on display say that we believe God See, how you and I view God will determine how we live.

How you and I view God will determine how we live.

You and I can have a low view of God, which means we treat His Word casually, we ignore His convict-viction and rationalize sin, uh, or we know what God says, but we just don't wanna do it.

Have you ever been there? Like we, we start watering down what the Lord may ask of us.

He starts to become a little common.

Or we can have a high view of God where we take God's Word seriously, we repent of our sins quickly, we obey God with reverence no matter what the cost is.

See, I, I realized in, in preparation for this message that, watch now, that not...

it's not that people don't believe in God, it's just that sometimes you and I believe Him without revering Him Like it, it, there are times where we, we, we, we know Him.

We just don't root ourselves in the fact that He is holy Like the reality is, is that so many believers, Christ followers, they haven't rejected God, it's just that we sometimes reduce Him Have you ever lowered the bar so that you can just kinda step over it instead of reaching for it? Like, it's not that we're rejecting God, it's just that sometimes we make Him simple, make Him common.

It's kinda like when Jesus in Luke chapter seven was hanging out at Simon's house, who was a Pharisee, and Jesus was eating with him, and He was just hanging out.

And the Bible says that while Jesus is hanging out, there was a woman that came in, and she broke a box of oil, and she started to worship Him.

And she just laid it out before Him.

She's drying His feet with her tears, and she's just crying out, and she's just very repentant.

And they're looking at Jesus like, "What's this all about?" And He's like, "Hey, listen, I came to your house and you didn't even offer me something to wash my feet.

But yet she recognized me as holy, and she didn't wanna miss this moment.

So what you viewed as just Jesus being over for dinner, she viewed as the Savior is in front of me."

There was an awe, there was a reverence, and she took the time in front of you, out of place as a female during that time, to go, "He deserves it all."

Like, it's not that we don't know Him, it's just...

And as we've rejected Him, it's just that sometimes we feel like we're doing too much for Him, or we don't have the time.

And Hebrew says, "Hey, listen, it's your faith that positions you to please Him."

Because when you approach Him, you have to believe that He is, that He is your Savior, He is your Lord, He is your God.

He is present.

He wants to minister to you.

He wants to love on you.

You don't wanna take Him for granted.

You don't just wanna wake up in the morning or do your quiet time and go, "I read for the day.

I didn't get nothing from it.

I don't know why."

It's maybe because in that moment, He was just common Courageous faith So here's a question And I want you to think about this this week.

Where has God become casual to you? Because when we start taking this airplane ride about courageous faith, we have to be rooted in the fact that we're coming after God, not coming after his hands So where has God become casual to you? Is it in your language, what you watch, how you spend your time? Do you have a casual approach to worship or how you serve in God's house or serve others? Are you rushing through your prayer time? Are, have you forgotten that those moments that were once sacred are now no big deal? Are we coming to God going, "God, I'm coming to you to simply please you.

You're my focus.

You're my priority."

Write this down.

This one stung me.

When our awe of God fades, our view of God shrinks.

When our awe, when our awe of God fades, our view of God shrinks against the strength Where has he become casual? It's a you Philippians chapter 2 says this in verse 12.

Philippians 2 · chapter mention

It says, "Work hard to show the results of your salvation, obeying God with deep reverence and fear."

Watch this now, verse 13 is so powerful.

"For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases Him."

Y'all see that? Like, it's like work hard to show the results of what He's doing in you and the freedom that He's given you, obeying God with deep awe and reverence of His holiness, and the fear, knowing that He's working in you to give you the desire to be able to walk in the power so that you please Him.

Y'all, it's amazing that God has equipped us to be able to finish well, and to be able to walk in Him so well.

We are not void of anything, which takes me back to Joshua.

Says, "Hey, listen, I will be with you no matter where you go."

Joshua verse, chapter 3, "And when you step into the water, I'm gonna handle the left, I'm gonna handle the right.

All you have to do is follow my presence, 'cause I'm already there."

Every aspect of our life, if we will include Him, we'll find Him right there.

So think about this.

God spoke the world into existence.

He knows every tear that you've cried.

God is big enough to hold the world and your history in His hands.

God, He's loving you enough, watch, to hold your life in the purpose that He called you for.

He's powerful enough to raise the dead, personal enough to meet you right where you are.

The more you and I pursue Him, the bigger He becomes.

The more we pursue Him, the bigger He becomes.

Will you bow your heads? Where has God been made casual to you? Is he common? Is he common? Or maybe you haven't walked into that relationship with Jesus just yet.

Maybe today is the first day that he becomes holy to you, that he- where you and I begin to reverence him Your heads are bowed, your eyes are closed.

You say that you're ready to receive Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior, or maybe you're ready to recommit so that He's not casual.

If you're in this room and you say, "Damon, I am ready to surrender my life to Jesus, and I'm ready to make Him my priority so that every day of my life I'm pleasing Him," on the count of three, I just want you to raise your hand high enough and long enough for me to see it.

Ready? One, two, three.

Raise your hand high enough and long enough for me to see it.

I see it.

I see it.

I see it.

I see it.

You can put your hands down.

Come on, CityPlace, can we pray together? Say, "Dear Jesus, I thank You today for dying on a cross for me, and I acknowledge You as holy.

I surrender my life to You, and I declare today that You will be my Lord, my Savior, and my friend.

I receive Your gift of salvation.

I'm ready to chase after You, in Jesus' name, amen."

Come on, can you give Jesus some praise this morning? Come on, we had hands go up.

Can you give Jesus some praise this morning? So listen, we're gonna take steps of faith, and every step we take, we're moving to please God, which leads me to point number two.

Remember I told you we're only getting two today.

Point number two is that we will be a faith-filled church.

We will be a faith-filled church Faith is the substance of things hoped for.

It's the evidence of what we haven't seen yet.

But it was by faith that the elders got a good testimony.

And so we, over the next few weeks, we're gonna be building upon what courageous faith looks like.

We're gonna take our step by step by step to see what God does.

Why? Because our Christian walk is gonna be a faith walk.

It's gonna be a faith walk.

Are y'all ready to take a journey? Y'all are quiet.

Are y'all ready to take a journey? Thanks for joining us.

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