Welcome to the Lansdale Life Church podcast.
If you're seeking a closer relationship with Jesus Christ, this podcast is for you.
Thank you for joining us today.
All right, gentlemen.
We went a bit long on the fellowship. Sorry if you guys are tight with time, but we have a
real special speaker today. I've been pumping up this morning for the last couple weeks in church, and
you know, it was probably maybe five, six, nine months, you know how time flies.
But I was thinking like at times, you know, because there was a slither of time that we were actually contemplating
starting our church in New Hope. I don't know if you know this, yeah. Down in, if you know New Hope along the river,
down at the playhouse, you know, but, so then we just kept praying the Lord led us to Lansdale, right?
But over time, I just started thinking, you know, if you know New Hope, Pennsylvania, I'm sure Chuck will share a little bit more about this, but
New Hope, Pennsylvania is a beautiful part of Bucks County and the state.
If you've never been in New Hope, the town, it's just gorgeous. Tons of money.
I mean, you could not imagine how much real estate is in that little pocket of ground right along the Delaware River.
The construction is wonderful. It's just beautiful, right? And just gorgeous. What's that?
Historical, very historical, artistic. A lot of famous artists came from there.
But another thing is there's a lot of spiritual darkness. And over the years, churches have closed.
Churches have gone very woke and, and
watered down, if not apostatistic, if you want to call it a word.
But just a lot of things have taken place in that part of the, of the county.
And I was thinking, you know, I remember there was one guy who was preaching the straight up gospel and he was so hardcore true to the word of God.
He loved Jesus. I wonder if he's still, I kind of knew he was still somewhere.
So I reached out to him and, and we connected. I'm like, how are you surviving in New Hope, Pennsylvania, when every other
gospel preaching church has moved on, closed, and changed.
And through us getting together and talking, I learned a testimony about this guy that I never knew and it's just tremendous.
And I said, you know, I have to have him come out and share with the men on what's going on in Chuck Wilson's life and his family's life.
So without further ado, let's give it up to the Lord for Pastor Chuck Wilson.
All right. Well, thank you, Chris.
It's great to be here.
Great food, by the way.
Wow. Wow.
Really good food.
Some of it, I wasn't sure, but it was really good.
I've never enjoyed a green drink before like that.
That was that was really good.
Really good.
That was great.
So, yeah, it's great to be here.
I met Pastor Chris years ago.
You visited, you know, the church years and years.
Wow.
Wow. Wow. Wow.
Twenty five.
Yeah, it was early.
I met you and you visited and then we reconnected for lunch.
It was so great.
I have lots of friends in Calvary Chapel circles and a lot of our folks from our church are from Calvary Chapel is from farther away.
And then when we started, we're so similar and we might even end up with Calvary Chapel at some point.
We'll see.
So my wife and I started New Hope Community Church 25 years ago.
We have 13 children and I think there's a picture back there.
We have 13 children and now 12 grandchildren.
I think you have that picture too.
Twelve grandchildren.
So that's church growth.
That's the only way to do it in New Hope.
And it's crazy, right?
It's crazy to have that many kids anywhere, but especially in New Hope, because like you said, it's very expensive.
You know, everybody's like, how do you survive there?
It's a miracle.
But so I'm going to share from the book of Joshua today about craziness, even crazier story, crazy steps of faith that I will apply to my life.
And I think it's going to be easy to apply to your lives too.
So let me just start with prayer.
Father, we thank you for the chance to all be here.
And we know we're here for a reason that your Holy Spirit wants to speak to us through your word.
We pray for your mercy and grace to accomplish that in Jesus name.
Amen.
So, uh, the title, I call this God's call to craziness, crazy steps of faith.
All right.
And the first one is in Joshua one verse 10, and I know that you got the verses behind me, but I'm going to read it here.
All right.
In Joshua one verse 10, have it marked.
All right, here we go.
Um, sorry, I got these ribbons in this one.
It's a new Bible.
I had to dig out a new Bible for you guys.
All right.
So, uh, in Joshua one, one verse 10, Joshua commanded the officers of the people saying pass through the camp and command the people saying prepare provisions for yourselves for within three days.
You will cross over this Jordan to go into possess the land, which the Lord your God is giving you to possess.
So they're getting ready to cross the Jordan and that you remember the people were wandering.
Moses dies.
You guys know the story, the Exodus, Moses dies.
I'm sure you know the story well with pastor Chris here, but they're ready to cross into the promised land.
Finally, the new generation, they're following Joshua into the land.
And this is what his very first command is that we're going to cross the Jordan and you couldn't, we, a lot of times we forget about this, but Joshua must've been thinking, God, are you kidding me?
That we're off to a very bad start.
My first command as the leader of the people here will be, might be my last one.
You know, you know, how about, how about a bridge?
How about a boat, right?
He had to be thinking that it'd be like the, like the president going, say, we're going to go help Ukraine.
I'll just pick a war that there's many of them.
We're going to go help Ukraine.
I want to march everybody to, uh, which ocean would it be?
Uh, well, I guess up to Alaska, you have to march up to Alaska and, uh, and we're going to, you get there and they say, okay, now start marching into the ocean, march into the ocean.
We're going to march into Europe and, and, and help out Ukraine, uh, or not anyway.
So, uh, so, and God is crazy.
Can you imagine that?
Well, kind of, we can, can't we, but anyway, and God picked the best time.
He picked the flood stage.
That was, if you study the book of Joshua, you see, this is the flood stage that it was happening.
The flood stage, has anybody been to Israel?
You, you've been to the Jordan, the Jordan river and it's not that big, right?
It's this tiny little river, but when it floods, it's crazy.
We live on the Delaware river in New Hope, right on the Delaware.
And you, you could walk across the Delaware right now, probably about knee high.
You could just walk across it.
No problem.
We had a baptism a couple months ago and I had to walk so far out.
We couldn't even see the people on the island because it was so low, right?
I had to find a little dip in the, in the, in the river bed.
But, but when that thing floods, you don't want to be anywhere near it.
I've several times seen the flood come over the streets of New Hope all the way up the whole town, completely flooded.
Years ago, about 20 years ago, now it was the last time, but it's crazy.
And that's what happens in the Jordan, very unimpressive river, but when it floods, it floods.
It was crazy.
And so this is when God brought them there to the, the flood stage.
Now, why am I going to have to march?
So I got to march them through this flooding river, this dangerous flooding river.
And not only that, but it won't, it won't part until you step into it.
It's not going to part till you step into it.
Remember Moses, Ten Commandments, raised the rod, sparks.
He got to make it, make it open up with his, you know, raising the rod, right?
It was easy, right?
It was, you saw the movie Ten Commandments, Charlton Heston, right?
That's my favorite version.
But, but this time, that's not how it's going to happen.
This time in chapter three, verse 15, listen to this, I'm going to read verse 14 too.
So it was when the people set out from their camp to cross over the Jordan with the priest
bearing the ark of the covenant before the people.
Now here's verse 15, which we have up here.
And as 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 the harvest.
There's the flood, right?
That the waters which came down from the upstream stood still and rose in a
heap very far away at Adam, the city that is beside Zeratan.
So the waters that went down into the sea of the Araboth, the salt sea failed
and they were cut off and the people crossed over.
Is that all still up there?
Read it for me.
I can get the page open.
Opposite Jericho, opposite Jericho.
Thank you.
Opposite Jericho.
So this, this took a lot of faith.
First of all, the whole town of Adam cut off.
You can see the prophetic.
It's a biblical picture.
The sins of Adam cut off all the ones that flowed.
Joshua going through Jesus.
It's all amazing, amazing prophetic pictures here.
That could be a whole nother week of sermons, but, but this took a lot of faith.
What if it didn't open?
Right?
I mean, think about that.
We always say, well, let's just think about what if it didn't open?
God, I'm going to look stupid.
They're going to stone me.
They would have still, remember they tried to stone Moses how many times?
They would have stoned the guy.
They would all march back to Egypt.
And what if it doesn't stay open?
What if it doesn't stay open?
You know, tsunamis, what happens before a tsunami, the water gets sucked out and
the there's a wide open, you know, shallows and everybody goes out there and
collects shells and oh, here it comes shooting back in.
What if that happens?
This is a massive flooding river at this point.
It's, it was scary to take the step, but also the, to stay there.
Crossing the Jordan was a step of faith, a step of faith.
It's scary to take a step of faith, isn't it?
Yeah.
Going down to Philadelphia and hearing all the different stories, different
people doing these ministries.
It's scary to take a step of faith.
Uh, we can all relate to that.
Starting the church in New Hope 25 years ago was a step of faith.
It was a big step of faith.
Believe me.
Uh, it was a church plant graveyard.
There were seven church plants before us.
You paid, did the right thing coming to Lansdale.
There were seven church plants before us that failed.
They called it the church plant graveyard.
And so when we were starting, we're like, Oh, for seven, here we go.
We'll give it another eighth try.
Right.
It was the occult capital of the East coast.
Uh, it's now shifted back to Salem, Massachusetts.
Thank you God.
But, oh, it was intense.
Like, I don't even want to tell you the stories.
Uh, it's, it was, and still is the Sodom and Gomorrah of Pennsylvania.
Everybody knows it.
That's what it's called.
Uh, and when we started, it hit the fan.
We got some phone calls.
What kind of church is this?
Community church.
And when they started asking me questions, would I do this or that
and perform this wedding and that all kinds of crazy stuff?
I said, no, we follow the Bible.
We follow the Bible.
Oh, it hit the fan.
Oh, they, they came after us.
Uh, they came after us.
They were attacking.
We were in the papers.
The TVs were showing up.
Uh, and all lies, they all signed a petition.
Thousands of people signed petition that not let us come into the town.
They, and they were all lies.
We're just trying to make money on the town, blah, blah, crazy stuff.
Uh, that we started off and we had, there were so many protesters.
We had to have policemen in the services.
Uh, they, for three months, we had policemen in the service.
I always knew there'd be at least two people in our church service, two
policemen, and, and they would come and clear them out and, you know, get
things calmed down in time for us to get church started.
And it was, it's, you know, all that, all that tolerance I experienced
that firsthand, uh, and, and it was lots of threats that it's like, um, what
you see going on now all over the country.
Right.
But we were 20 years ahead of that.
And I told all of my pastor friends, I go, this is what is coming to the,
you know, that's not going to happen in the United States.
This could never happen.
I go, I'm telling you, I knew it was going to, because they would call me
on the phone and say, well, this is what we're doing too.
We're going to do it to the whole country.
The whole, everybody's going to be afraid to speak, to speak the Bible
because we're going to make it a hate crime and all this stuff.
And I warned, I, I literally sent out a letter to like a hundred pastors.
Nobody answered me.
One guy wrote, said, ah, Chuck, I think you're being a little extreme here.
You're a little crazy now, you know, in new hope.
I'm like, and here it is right here.
It is.
It is exactly what has happened.
The first service was a zoo.
It was crazy.
Um, it was just crazy.
And then to top it all off, we had seven kids at the time.
My wife was pregnant again, and she actually lost the baby during that first service.
She came up to me and said, I'm losing the baby.
And she still taught children's church.
She still greeted everybody, but we knew the whole time she was losing the baby.
That's what it was like starting this church.
It was a step of faith, but we've seen God's work and powerful ways.
Number one, we're still there and we're no longer over eight, you know, over seven.
Now we're one for eight on the church plants.
We're still there, which is huge.
People say, how are you doing there?
Y'all we're still there.
You know, how's it going?
Is it flourishing?
We're still there.
What I think was the second service that we had.
There was a, we didn't even know this.
We started using the, we used the local high school.
We used it for 20 years, the high school.
And it was amazing.
That was a whole big battle too, but they, the school board opened the doors to us.
And, and, uh, we were there and there was an AIDS walk planned at that second
service, uh, where they would have, they're raising money for AIDS.
And so everybody was coming to help raise money for AIDS, which is no problem with
that, but the people who are part of this movement, you can imagine who is
mostly there and they're going to have the AIDS walk.
And I was like, what are we going to do?
We already have enough problems and now they're all going to be piled into the
parking lot and out in front of the school.
And, and, but one of my guys in our church, one of my guys said, why don't
we make it a ministry opportunity?
I'm like, I'm the pastor.
I should have thought of that.
Right.
Yeah.
Why don't we make it a minister opportunity?
So we did, I called the AIDS walk guys and, and I know that I know they knew who
we were cause it was all over everywhere.
Right.
And, and they said, I go, hi, I just pastor.
Yeah, what do you want?
I go, well, I know you're having the AIDS walk and we just wanted
to help out somehow if we could help out, you know, and they go, what do you mean?
I go, well, we have food.
We have these energy bars and energy drinks and green drinks.
No, okay.
We have this stuff and we're going to, you know, hand it out.
He goes, how much are you going to charge for it?
I go, no, we're going to give it out.
They're like, Oh, cause they thought churches only wanted to get money.
Right.
And so, so we start talking and they realized that we wanted to help and
they were just on both shock shock.
They said, no church ever offered to help us.
We didn't think Christians cared about people with AIDS.
I said, we care.
So we got involved and we helped that day.
And then we helped more the next year and the next year out there.
We canceled the service.
We canceled their service.
And we had our whole church out there wearing our church shirts
and walking the seven miles and raising money.
And we did that for a year after year.
We just canceled church for, they finally stopped 15 years into the thing.
It kind of AIDS kind of lost its appeal and they stopped, but for 15 years,
we just didn't even have church on that side.
We were out there walking with these people and they were just so touched.
You can't believe it.
They gave us center, like they had all these tables set up and then they
gave us the center table with a giant poster and they put, put us in
their publications front and center, me walking with my kids on the AIDS
walk and they were just so excited.
They, they, they were just so touched.
They, and I never, for one of the guys said, we may not agree on everything,
but we know you care.
We never compromised the message.
Not one bit, but we spoke the truth and love and they couldn't do more.
They would have events to plan for the AIDS walk.
And they invited me and my wife, I'm in the gay bar and new hope.
It was called the Raven.
I think it was when I was in, they, we were like royalty.
They couldn't, they couldn't, they fell over themselves looking out for us,
bringing us food, bringing us something to drink, you know, what do you need?
And they were just thrilled.
We were there thrilled and that's, that's what happened.
It, it really, it really had a huge impact, huge impact.
There was an AIDS house in new hope.
There still is an AIDS house, but there was one when we were there and the AIDS
house, uh, it was, it had like eight, 10 residents or something.
I can't even remember anymore, but they were abandoned.
People that will worry, God, grenades walk.
We care about it.
I mean, the homosexual community completely abandoned them because they
were no longer attractive.
They were no longer someone that they could be attracted to these people with AIDS.
They were completely ignored.
They were a photo op on AIDS walk day.
They'd all be out there, you know, and then they just forget them.
They said they were isolated from, from new and new hope.
And so I went in and started connecting with them and taking people out to
lunch and, and getting together.
And, and long story short, they start coming to our church and they
start getting saved and at one point, every resident in that building was
saved and coming to our church and it ticked off the people who are running
it because they sold us that, you know, Christians are bad people and they
got so upset.
They finally told the new residents, you can't go to that church
anymore because they're haters.
So now we're cut off, but all those people came up through a lot of them
died, most of them died over time with the AIDS and stuff, but they
became part of our church.
It was just, it was just a, an amazing thing.
We were shut out, but not before we saw these amazing transformations in
the people in the AIDS house and, uh, just amazing stories.
That's that, that's one example of a Jordan.
What's your Jordan river, center of Philadelphia, what's your Jordan river?
What step of faith is God calling you to take?
What step of faith is God calling Lansdale, uh, life to take?
Lansdale life to take.
It's crazy, but you know, God has called you to do it.
Some crazy thing.
Maybe it's missions.
Maybe it's a mission trip.
Maybe it's a ministry of some kind.
Maybe it's taking a stand for Jesus Christ.
Maybe it's witnessing to someone that is not going to witness to that person.
That's the last person I want to witness to.
We could all tell those stories, right?
Maybe it's, it's crazy, but God has called you to stay in your
marriage, even though it's very frustrating.
Maybe God's calling you to stay here until you get married, even
though it's really, really hard.
Maybe it's waiting for God's lead and some area of your life that
God is calling us to do.
What is your Jordan?
What step of faith is God calling you to take?
The next crazy step is in Joshua six, one to two.
And we already did crossing the Jordan.
I call this one crashing, crashing Jericho.
And in chapter six, verse one, where it says now Jericho was securely
shut up because of the children of Israel.
None went out and none came in.
And the Lord said to Joshua, see, I have given Jericho into your hand.
It's King and the mighty men of valor.
You shall march around the city.
All you men of war.
You shall go around the city once this you shall do for six days.
Oh, I went too far.
I'll just do first two.
I'm going to come back to that one in a minute.
Uh, so anyway, he, he goes, here's Jericho.
You got to take it.
Okay.
He might only do a couple of verses there.
Crossing the Jordan is a picture of salvation, right?
Into the Jordan means spreading judgment out of the Jordan following Joshua.
Joshua is a picture of Jesus Christ.
The same exact word, Hebrew and Greek, Joshua, Hebrew, Jesus, Greek.
It's a complete picture of Jesus Christ and what he's done.
He, he led us in, he led us to salvation.
Okay.
But as soon as, as soon as they cross the Jordan, they run right into Jericho, right
into it and what, what's this, right?
What's this?
Uh, think of, think of us as it's a picture of salvation, right?
What is this?
I thought when I put my faith in Jesus, the battle is over.
Did anybody ever believe that at one time?
If maybe for the first five minutes of your, uh, faith, right.
Then, and a lot of times we put our faith in Jesus and people even teach this
on certain guys, Joel will see on TV, teach us.
Yeah, you can, now you can just sit back and relax.
You can sit back and relax and just wait for Jesus to come again.
Right.
That was kind of a, when I was a kid, it was kind of a common theme,
you know, Christians, right?
That was a different world, but wait for Jesus.
If we, we put our faith in Jesus, we get baptized.
We are, have a mountain top experience.
If you've never been baptized, get baptized.
And if you want to come down, Chris, bring them down to the river.
We'll do it in the Jordan.
That's a really fun in the Jordan.
All right.
And so, uh, but, but then you get home and you get back to real life and we
get wham blindsided and you're like, what's this?
Right.
Listen, when we're saved, when we're saved, we put our faith in
Jesus Christ, we're saved.
The war is over, but the battles are just beginning.
It's like mop up.
Any World War II fans out there, you know, or the wars we, we had, we D-Day,
we, we, we got into Europe.
We knew the war was over, but then it was mop up time.
And that was a long, you know, same with the Japanese islands, you know,
taking those islands from the Japanese mop up brutal.
That was over.
We're going to win.
No doubt about it.
But mop up time is a brutal, brutal time for fighting brutal time.
And that's what it is like spiritually.
Salvation is a gift, right?
It's a gift.
We get it by putting our faith in Jesus Christ, but practical sanctification,
practical sanctification is a life long battle, a lifelong battle.
And it's still all by faith.
We're saved by faith.
We live by faith, but it's a battle.
It's a battle.
Look at the Israelites.
They were given the Promised Land.
Remember all the times God said, I'm giving it to you.
I'm giving you the Promised Land.
And then they had to fight for every inch of it, right?
Isn't that crazy?
I give it to you.
They had to fight for every inch of it, every inch of it.
It, it, it, because when we become a Christian, we were saved.
We have peace.
We have joy, but we're not beamed up to heaven.
You know, there's no beam me up, Scotty, right?
There's, we're not beamed up.
No, now we're conscious of a enemy within and without.
We were ignorant of both before, but now we are conscious of an enemy within the
old self got to kill it and, and without Satan, right?
We're now called to kill the flesh and resist the devil by faith in God's grace.
It's all by faith.
We're saved by faith.
We live by faith, right?
So the Israelites hit this wall, this Jericho, this key Canaanite city.
It was the key Canaanite city and all of the, all of the Promised Land.
It was the strongest one.
And let's look at how God said to take it.
I already started reading the verses, verse three, God says to take it this way.
He says, you shall march around the city.
All you men of war, you shall go all around the city.
Once this you shall do six days and seven priests shall bear seven trumpets
of Ram's horn before the art.
But the seventh day you shall march around the city seven times and the
priest shall blow the trumpets.
It shall come to pass that when they make a long, a long blast with Ram's horns.
And when you hear the sound of the trumpet, that all the people shall shout
with a great shout, then the wall of the city will fall down flat and the
people shall go up every man straight before it.
Now this is, this is the commander of the Lord's army telling
Joshua what's going to happen.
This isn't the people.
He's just telling Joshua at this point.
And we know the commander of the Lord's army was actually Jesus.
If you look at the, the, the context and it's actually a Christoph.
And he, Jesus appeared to Joshua.
How's that right?
And he's given him the command and he's telling him how he's going to take it.
Okay.
And, and, and, and you can imagine what Joshua must have been thinking as
he's given him the battle plans, not to the people, he's given it
directly to Joshua at this point.
You can imagine what he had to be thinking.
And the people are going to think I'm crazy.
They're going to think I'm crazy.
Jericho will laugh.
Couldn't we try fighting first?
Can we like charge the walls and get repulsed?
That'll be more open to your idea, God.
There'll be more open to your idea then, right?
But imagine a battle today.
Imagine a battle where, where the army attacks and, and, and is, is, is
almost, almost victorious.
And then they say, okay, that's enough.
Let's all go home.
And they just go home.
Can you imagine that?
Anybody been watching the Israel news?
You can see that what I'm talking about, right?
But, but God was teaching them dependence.
He gave Joshua this command because he's teaching dependence.
Is your faith in your strength or in my strength?
Did you ever wonder why God had him cross at Jericho?
He could have crossed anywhere, anywhere.
It's a long river.
There was only a few cities on the river.
A lot of them were inland.
But he had him cross exactly at Jericho.
He was teaching them dependence, dependence.
That's why second Corinthians 12, nine, and 10 says this, I probably, I can't
look back, but I'll give you my version.
Uh, I'm probably a little different from that one.
But it says, but he said to me, my grace is sufficient for you for my
power is made perfect in weakness.
That is why for Christ's sake, uh, I'm going to read it.
All right.
Uh, my grace is sufficient for you.
My strength is made perfect in weakness.
Therefore I'll boast, I'm going to read this one.
Therefore, most gladly, I have like three versions of this memorize.
Uh, therefore, most gladly, I will rather boast in my infirmities that
the power of Christ may rest upon me.
Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities and reproaches in needs and
persecutions and distresses for Christ's sake from when I am weak.
Then I am strong.
That's a great, great one.
If you don't have that one on memorize it, any version will do.
I have any, but he said, my grace is sufficient for you and my weakness.
When I'm weak, then I am strong.
God puts Jericho's in our lives to make us dependent.
He's making us dependent.
And then he teaches us lessons as we go through this process.
And there's three things that jump out with this Jericho thing.
Three different lessons.
The first one is in chapter six, verse six, where he says this, then Joshua,
the son of non-call, now he's got the message from the commander of the
Lord's army, which we know is Jesus, right?
Christ, then Joshua, the son of none, call the priests and said to them, take
up the arc of the covenant and let seven priests bear seven trumpets of
Ram's horn before the arc of the Lord.
And he said to the people proceed, march around the city and let him who
is armed advanced before the arc of the Lord.
So it was when Joshua had spoken to the people that the seven priests bearing
the seven trumpets of Ram's horns before the Lord advanced and blew the
trumpets and the arc of the covenant, the Lord followed them.
The armed men went before the priest who blew the trumpets and the rear guard
came after the arc while the priest continued blowing the trumpets.
Okay.
So what, what lesson, the lesson I want to bring out from this one is faith.
It's faith, Joshua, and this is why Joshua gets this instructions from
Christ, but then he tells them what to do.
He doesn't tell them what's going to happen.
You notice that he left out the result.
What he left it out.
Do you ever notice that he was teaching them faith, faith.
He didn't tell them the wall would fall.
He just said to March, Jesus rarely, our Joshua, Jesus rarely tells us the
reason why until first we obey first, we obey, and then we see the reason why.
Right.
That's how it works in John eight 31, where it says this, if you, Jesus said,
if you hold to my teaching, you're really my disciples, then you will know
the truth, then you will know the truth.
You catch that?
See what version, uh, okay.
Uh, do you have that one?
John eight, if you hold to my teaching, your own man, disciples,
then you'll know the truth and the truth will set you free.
Uh, and the truth shall make you free.
Okay.
I got several versions once again.
All right.
That's when you get to be my age, you have lots of versions in your head here.
So the point is this first we hold to the teaching.
If we're really a disciple, if we're going to follow God's word a hundred
percent, and then after we hold to it, then, then you will know the truth.
That's how God works.
That's how he works.
It, he rarely tells us the whole story before he first calls us to
take a step away and follow him.
And then we see the reason for it.
Lesson number two in verse 10, where Joshua says then, um, now Joshua had
commanded the people saying you shall not shout or make any noise with your
voice, nor shall a word proceed out of your mouth until the day I say to you
shout, then you shall shout.
Lesson number two, patience, patience.
They had to be quiet.
They had to be a test of obedience.
It's multiplied once again, because they weren't even told why they're marching.
They still didn't know why they were marching.
So we have faith, we have patience.
And the third one is, uh, I'll get to tell you, it's perseverance.
Look at verse 11 where it says this in verse 11.
So he had the arc of the Lord circle the city going around at once.
Then they came into the camp and lodged in the camp.
One time around, you know, stop, right?
Uh, this is perseverance, perseverance.
And what happened?
What happened when they did that first one?
And Joshua rose early in the morning, verse 12.
And the priest took up the arc of the Lord.
Then seven priests peering seven trumpets, rams horns before the arc of the Lord
went on continually in blue with the trumpets and the armed men went before
them, but the rear guard came after the arc of the Lord.
This is getting monotonous, right?
Well, the priest continued blowing the trumpets and the second day they
marched around the city once and returned to the camp.
So they did six days, six days.
It's perseverance.
What happened?
Nothing visibly, nothing visibly, but something did happen.
What really did happen?
They were obedient.
Something did happen.
They were obedient to what God called them to do.
And they developed their faith and their patience and their
perseverance because they were obedient.
God was doing something in them.
Have you ever felt like you were faithful, but nothing happened?
You ever feel like that?
Why am I doing this?
I put all this energy into my kid and they rebelled.
I prayed for someone who was sick and they weren't healed.
I went down to the abortion clinic, Planned Parenthood, and tried to
witness these ladies and say babies, but they went in.
I don't know what they did with that baby.
I have no idea.
You ever feel like that?
We were down at the Planned Parenthood War Minister for 20 years.
They just closed.
It was beautiful, beautiful.
How many days and nights were we down there praying with the
believers against that?
We witnessed this somebody, but we don't think they got saved or
they haven't been saved yet.
And we've been witnessing for all these years.
We help an addict with a battle they're having and they relapse, you know,
or we have a ministry, we're doing our ministry, but we don't see any
visible fruit.
Can anybody relate to any of this?
But nothing happens, but something is happening.
We are being faithful.
We are being faithful to God's call, faithful.
God is developing our faith, patience, and perseverance.
He's using all this to accomplish this.
In Romans 5.3, it says this, not only so, but we also rejoice in our suffering
because I'm probably using a different version, suffering, because we know
that suffering develops perseverance, perseverance, character, and character,
hope.
The reason for the trial that we're going through is God's working on
these things, perseverance, character.
Oh, I got the same ones.
All right.
Good.
Got them all right.
All right.
Perseverance, character, and hope.
God's working on that in our life.
That's what he's doing through the trial that we're going through.
Then we still seem like nothing's happening, but something is happening.
It's like the karate kid.
Remember the first karate kid, uh, you know, when Mr.
Miyagi has him waxing the car, wax on, wax off, wax on, wax off.
And he finally blows this up.
He goes, what am I doing this for?
You're just using me to wax your cars.
You know, I want to learn karate.
I got to fight these bad guys.
You know, you come out of these bullies, you teach me something.
And he goes, I knew something.
Wax on, ha, wax on, ha.
He was teaching him karate the whole time.
And that's God.
It seems like we're wasting time and God's preparing us for the battle.
And look what happens next.
Look what happens next.
Verse 15, chapter six, verse 15.
But it came to pass on the seventh day that they rose early about the dawning
of the day and marched around the city seven times in the same manner on that
day only they marched around the city seven times and the seventh time it
happened when the priest blew the trumpets that Joshua said to the people
shout for the Lord has given you the city.
Now the city shall be doomed by the Lord to destruction and it, and it, and
all who are in it, only Rahab the harlot shall live.
She and all who are with her in the house because she held the
messengers that hid the messengers that we sent and you by all means abstain
from the accursed things, lest you become accursed when you take of the accursed
things and make the camp of Israel a curse and trouble it, but all the silver
and gold and vessels of bronze and iron are consecrated to the Lord.
They shall come into the treasury of the Lord.
So the people shouted when the priest blew the trumpets and it happened when
the people heard the sound of the trumpet and the people shouted to the
great shout that the wall fell down flat.
Then the people went up into the city.
Every man straight before him and they took the city.
They took the city crazy God's crazy commands plus our crazy
obedience equals crazy results.
Crazy commands, crazy obedience, crazy results on the seventh day, the
seventh time around, how many lapses have been total 13, 13 times around.
Finally 13 times around.
And why didn't they quit?
Why didn't they quit faith?
Hebrews 11 30 says this Hebrews 11 30 says by faith, the walls of Jericho fell
down after they were encircled for seven days by faith, by faith, their faith,
by faith, they came down, their faith kept them going, kept them going.
One more step, one more sermon, one more diaper.
Do you have grandchildren?
Uh, one more hug, one more prayer and encouragement to somebody.
One more, you might be ready to quit.
Have you ever felt like quitting?
Probably not since the drive down here to over here today, right?
It's every day, right?
But if we quit, we will miss out on what God is trying to do,
what God is going to do.
We'll miss out.
God's crazy commands plus crazy obedience equals crazy results.
If we will bail out, if we bail out, we will never know what crazy,
powerful thing God had planned.
We'll never know.
I, uh, in new hope, I remember this one guy years ago, his name was Kevin.
He w we had a woman in our church who had a house on her property that she
rented out in addition to the house she lived in and she rented it to a guy
named Kevin and she said, Chuck, you have to meet this Kevin guy.
He's gay.
He's a homosexual activist.
He was a heavy hitter in DC.
He was down in DC all the time.
He was a heavy, heavy hitter.
And, uh, and he just, he, he, she's like, I've been witnessing to him.
And, and, uh, I want you to come and talk to him because he's,
he's really open to the gospel.
And I was like, Hey, cause I'm, you know, I don't, we have people, I'm, I'm
using this story, but we have people of all different struggles in their life.
Just like your church does also, but this guy's struggles, homosexuality,
not a struggle.
He was completely in.
I met this guy.
He had scars all over his arms where he cut himself for whatever reason.
This guy was beat up.
It's, it's not a happy lifestyle.
Uh, trust me, it's not a happy lifestyle.
And, uh, no matter what they say on TV, it's not happy.
And, and he, I started talking about God and he was so open.
He started coming to church and I'll never forget I'm preaching.
And he was sitting in the very back of the auditorium.
Remember how big the auditorium is, but he was locked in, he was
just like laser focused, you know?
And he just, he, he was just didn't take his eyes off me and the word.
And he was just really, I knew God was working and I went over to his house
and met with him and Mary Ellis.
And he was like, I believe it.
I want to give my life to Jesus, but I know what it will cost me.
Everybody, he was immersed in this life.
He had more dresses in his closet than anybody ever saw before.
You know, my wife would have loved to get, go visit and borrow a few of them.
Yeah, this, this guy was, this, this guy was, this guy was, he was all the
people he knew came from this life and they're, and they're in militant, right?
And not all they're, I've got neighbors, they're not militant, but he was
part of the militant group and he, he was really, really close and I'll
never forget, he kept coming and then I'll never forget the day before
Easter, Mary Ellis called me and said, uh, said, Malcolm's coming tomorrow.
I believe he's going to become a Christian tomorrow.
I almost sure, but I just met with him.
I showed him a video of the resurrection.
He was in tears.
He he's this close tomorrow's the day you start praying.
So I was praying the next day, come to church and Kevin wasn't there.
I was like, where is he?
I, he was, he really was determined to be here.
And I said to Mary Ellis, she goes, I don't know.
And she goes home and I got a call later in the day.
She said, Chuck, he's dead.
He died during the night.
Now listen, these guys live really rough lifestyles and the things they
do are very bad for the body, you know, and, and this guy died from some
internal hemorrhaging and it was, and that the, uh, guys, the EM EMTs, the
guy came out and said he died painful.
What he had, they figured it out.
Said he, it took him probably six hours to die and he was intense
pain the whole time.
It was terrible.
That just, I don't even want to tell you, terrible.
And, and I said to Mary Ellis, I believe he became a Christian.
He was this close and God knew what it would take to get him over that line.
Six hours of intense pain.
No, he had to know he was dying by the end.
Six hours.
I believe it took that to bring him to God.
And then God said, I'm not leaving you on this earth.
And he took them home because his life would have been hell.
You think, you know, these, his friends and everybody would have
just hammered this guy.
He was, he was a heavy hitter in DC, heavy hitter.
And we believe he put his faith in Jesus.
And so we just took comfort in that.
But then Mary Ellis called me later in the week.
She said, Oh, they're going to have a memorial service on the mule barge.
If you ever in the new hope, they have these mule barges.
They pull them down the barge.
They're going to have a mule barge.
Memorial service for him.
And, and I invited myself to come and I said, and I want you to come too.
And because, uh, I told them I was the last person ever to talk to him.
And I want to share what Kevin told me in our last meeting.
All right.
So she invites, she invited me and said, and bring all the Bibles you can find.
So I had a paper bag.
I threw all these Bibles into it, you know, you know, everything I could find,
you know, and I brought them all in and I get there.
And I show up and she's so excited.
Whereas we're getting ready to get on the mule barge.
She said, I got my bag of Bibles.
And, and she says, they promised me I could talk last because I talked to him
last, they promised me I could share.
And so I can't wait.
I don't think they promised her anything.
I think she insisted that she, they let her share.
This woman was so funny.
And so she, uh, she was an evangelist beyond evangelists.
And so, uh, so we get there and I'm there to hand out my Bibles.
And this group was very strange looking.
It was a weird group on the barge pack that, you know, and, and it got a lot weirder.
Uh, the first guy who got up to speak was his name was pumpkin.
I don't know if you ever follow New Hope, but his name was pumpkin.
And he's, he looks like a pumpkin.
This guy, uh, he's old, old and he's looked like a pumpkin.
And, and, but he's a real activist and he starts giving this whole
history lesson with a microphone.
He starts giving a whole history lesson of how the whole gay movement went from
ostracized to now they're in control.
And he he's given this whole message and while he's doing, he's
stripping off pieces of clothing.
All right.
So he'd tell one story and he'd take off his shirt.
The other one take off the shoes.
He's doing a strip tease, you know, this guy who had no
business taking off his shirt.
Let me assure you, there was nothing provocative about this.
Right.
And so he, so, but he's given this and he finally gets down to his thong.
Picture a pumpkin with a thong on.
This is what, this is what we're dealing with.
And I was creeped out.
I'm, I'm used to a lot, but this was too much for me.
I said, Mary Ellis, here's the Bibles, the mega Bibles.
Uh, and I was here and it was about to where that sign is.
That's the barge on both sides.
I said, I'm going to make the jump because I think I can make it.
And even if I can't, I, I, I'm going to get close enough
to get out of that canal.
I'm, I'm Mary Ellis.
I'm gone.
Here's the Bibles.
You do it.
She's like now, pastor Chuck, don't forget.
We're here for the gospel.
You know, we have to, we have to look past all of this stuff for the gospel.
She talked me down.
He didn't take the thong off.
All right.
Another guy got up to speak all this stuff going on.
And then a little later toward the end, they got up
and they started, the guy was on this keyboard and they started doing this chant.
And, and they started reading from the paper.
And I, I looked over the paper and, and Mary Ellis did too.
And they were actually, and they were spreading the ashes
and hitting a gong and all this.
And it was actually a satanic ritual.
They're praying to the devil, sending Kevin to the devil, you know?
And, and this is what they're doing.
And Mary Ellis went, yeah, she transformed in the crazy lady.
She goes, they're praying to the devil.
They're praying to the devil.
She's going to go, okay.
I go, now Mary Ellis, we're here for the gospel.
We got to go through a lot to share Jesus.
Don't we?
And she's like, okay.
So, so they finished and they get done and they say, okay, that's nice.
Now we're going to dock here in just a moment.
Thanks everybody for coming.
And Mary Ellis said, they're leaving me out.
They lied to me.
You know, who knows what, how she had said it.
She goes, they're leaving.
She jumped up, took the microphone away from the guy and said, now, wait a minute.
You told me I'm going to share it.
I'm going to share.
I'm the last person to talk to Malcolm.
And Malcolm, Malcolm's coming, Kevin.
I'm the last person to talk to Kevin.
And, and I'm going to tell you what he really believed.
You might not know what he used to be, but I'm going to tell you what he
believed, what he told me he believed.
And she shared the gospel like only Billy Graham could.
And, and she's sharing it and it was like a demonic response.
The girl I was sitting across from who was very nice up till now, she was transformed.
She morphed.
I'll never forget.
She put her hands over her ears.
She shut her eyes really tight and he went to growling.
She was even possessed.
It was everywhere on the boat, everywhere on the boat.
It was crazy.
And then, and then she, Mary Ellis gets done and she goes, I'm going to
And now here's my pastor.
He has a bag of Bibles that he wants to give to all of you.
As you get off the boat, I like going, go doing this, you know, and I'm like,
they're going to throw them.
I'm not going to have to jump.
They're going to throw me off now.
Right?
They were, it was crazy demonic, right?
And, and nobody took a Bible.
They went past me, not even looking at me, but two people did go, I'm one of you.
Two people whispered, I'm one of you as they got off the boat.
And I'm like, what am I doing?
I'm this barge with my bag of Bibles.
Why am I here?
Why didn't I jump when I had the chance that I'm literally thinking that I should
have jumped way long time ago.
I could already been home for lunch, right?
Then Mary Ellis walks up to me with the guy in tow.
The guy who had been playing the keyboard walked up.
He was a transvestite from Kenya, from Kenya.
Handsome guy, handsome guy, but he's transvestite from Kenya.
Uh, he hadn't gone through any procedures back then.
They just put on dresses, right?
Uh, so before they started maiming them, that's a whole nother wicked demonic thing.
But it, and she goes, he's not only that he's a Christian, he's a Christian and
he's been looking for a church because he's been on a fellowship since he left
Kenya.
I'm like, I can see he's been on a fellowship.
That's pretty obvious, you know, but he was raised in a Christian.
All right.
And so I said, well, nice to meet you, Malcolm.
You know, good to meet you.
And, uh, hopefully come to church tomorrow.
I hope you hope you come, you know, come on to church.
And, and I never expected to see him again.
But was I wrong?
He showed up and boy, did he ever show up flaming his hair was curled.
His nails were bright red.
He was flaming when he showed up.
And he said later, he did that because he was hoping we would reject him.
So he'd have an excuse not to give his life to Jesus.
That's why he did it.
He was sadly disappointed.
People were thrilled to see him.
Nobody flinched because we're a church of new hope.
Nobody flinched.
Everybody hugged him and welcomed him and his heart melted and his life melted.
And he right there in that service, put his faith in Jesus, gave his life to Jesus.
And he lived happily ever after not.
Then the battle started.
Then the demons had to be gotten out of him.
Uh, we, we discipled them.
One of the guys in our church took him in who, you know, who one of the guys who
has a prison minister was in prison, took him into his apartment.
You know, we finally, he was such a hard thing.
We knew we had to get him out of there.
We sent him to pure life ministries, you know, pure life ministries in
Kentucky, super, super ministry and had him there.
He was doing pretty well.
And all of a sudden he disappeared.
They called, said he disappeared.
Mel got in his car, drove down, searched the streets in Kentucky and found him.
Uh, brought him back.
He looked like he had been through a meat grinder.
You know, it was unbelievable to get bring him back and we got him cleaned up
and back to his senses again.
And, and then we sent him to teen challenge, uh, teen challenge.
It was like in long Island or something, send him to teen challenge.
And, and we got him out of there.
Two years later, teen challenge came to our churches.
Hey, we come and sing and speak and share our testimonies.
And he, they showed up great ministry.
Uh, and they show up and Malcolm was with him.
He was a different person.
He actually shared that Sunday.
They let him do the sermon, but it really was his story and how the church loved
him and brought him through so much.
It was powerful and it was really touching for our church, but honestly,
we deal with this a lot, but, but God's crazy command plus crazy
obedience equals crazy results.
Will we walk by faith even when it doesn't make sense?
Or will we bail out, right?
Well, we bail out.
It's hard, isn't it?
We want to bail out.
My marriage isn't what it was.
The kids aren't what it was.
Well, you know, and my ministry, my church, my boss, whatever, whatever.
This I'm getting beat up in my temptation.
I'm not winning.
We want to bail out and I see it all the time, but what will we do?
Will we, will we keep walking by faith?
The last thing I want to talk to you about is my son, which I guess was on the thing
there, uh, my wife, I have, uh, as you saw the picture, I have 13 kids.
My first two were prodigals.
By the time they got into college, they were prodigals.
I'm like, what are we doing?
I said to my wife, we, I'm not doing this 11 more times.
This was brutal.
There were prodigals.
I just wanted to quit.
I want to go off to an Island somewhere and just quit.
I'm sure nobody can relate to that.
All right.
Thankfully, the second prodigal Matthew came home.
He came back from college and he's like, he was shaken up by the spiritual
warfare and he came back and he returned to the Lord.
Now he's a pastor and ministry now along with a couple other.
My sons are in ministry now.
Uh, and all my children are following God.
They were all, they have all really got very serious about their face.
I'm just so thankful for that.
But my son, Ryan, the oldest one, the first prodigal dug in his heels and he
just, we'd have a good little time.
Then he would go back to his other life and the drugs were involved.
He wasn't really a heavy drug guy.
He was more pot and alcohol, but those are very bad.
Don't everybody believe that pot pot's demonic doorway.
Let me just tell you, don't touch it.
Don't buy the lie.
I'm telling you it's as demonic as any drug.
And, uh, but he dug in his heels, he ended up marrying a heroin addict in
Philadelphia, down in Philly, uh, near Kensington fish town.
Uh, and, and they, and he would come back and almost get there.
And then he would fall away and get there.
And it was like this back and forth.
We were just get our hopes up.
And then he'd go back to his, not just not really the drugs, but just
turning on Jesus, turning on family, turning and, and it was crazy.
But finally his wife gets pregnant.
His wife gets pregnant against all odds, right?
Heroin addict.
They have a baby, but, but they, because of the drug use, the baby
was taken away in the hospital and we got the baby.
We got the little girl.
We got her.
And, uh, and not long after that, my son overdosed.
He'd used something with fentanyl.
It was usually some innocuous drug, but it had fentanyl on it.
It killed him.
And about a year later, his wife, same thing.
Fentanyl killed her.
Drug use.
They both, they both died.
Now they're both gone, but, but we have this baby and you, you talk about, uh,
trauma, trauma, it was unbelievable.
Many parents, I've seen many parents at this point ditch it all.
Marriages break up, faith gone.
And, but we, Kim, I remember we said, you know what?
We are just going to trust God.
Let's just keep trusting God.
Let's just keep taking a step.
We had this little baby from the hospital.
She was having withdrawal for a month.
She would shake, you know, all night long and we're carrying her.
She had all kinds of challenges.
She had trouble walking and then we had her therapy and then she's running.
She had trouble talking.
We got a therapist.
She won't shut up.
Your ears are bleeding, right?
But, but we went through so much trauma.
She had emotional issues because of the drugs.
Yeah.
We had her in chop because of some skin issues.
It was on and on.
And, and, and thankfully, uh, there were many challenges.
What's she, oh, here's the, oh, I go back to the other picture.
Do the, did they already see the first one?
Yeah, this is her in the hospital with, with, you know, or initially,
and you can't imagine it was just trauma, but this is her today.
She's nine years old today.
That's her.
And it was hard.
I mean, we had to do some, I mean, if I showed you some videos of her throwing
temper tantrums, she could throw enough for 10 children.
It was crazy, but she's unbelievable.
Now a lot of hard work, the whole family pitching in.
She's gifted in every area.
You can imagine she's a super athlete.
She's academic, everything.
But, but the point is it was brutal and it would have been easy to quit it.
But, but, uh, she's such a blessing.
And the best part is that, I mean, we're so close to the world and I,
but she's a piece of my son.
I can't stay sad too long because she's right there in my face, right there.
My face in God opened the door to minister to many people through this
whole trial and beyond the memorial service.
The entire community showed up, uh, everybody was there and they heard
the gospel over and over.
It's like the Charlie Kirk funeral.
They kept doing the gospel.
This was led this funeral gospel, gospel, gospel, gospel.
It was just, it was just amazing.
And the community was impacted.
Our kids were impacted.
I can't tell you how they're just, you'd be shocked if you, they're
all in some ministry missions, doing so many different things.
And, and also Laurel is, is doing just amazing in every way.
Um, and the impact continues.
I, uh, then wrote, uh, I felt led to write a book.
I actually had a dream like 30 years ago now about this story.
And, and I'm dreamed it.
And I got up, I was so moved.
I got up and I wrote the story down.
And then after my son died, I, I showed it to my kids and they
said, you should write this story because it's about remembering someone
that you lost and healing after that memory.
And it looks like a kid's book, but it's really, uh, it's really for everybody.
But especially if there's a child who's lost someone, it's really perfect
for them or if a parent lost a child, perfect, but I'm getting messages
from all over the world, from people from all different places.
Um, it's, uh, I think there's a picture.
Yeah, it's called, uh, I wrote this called Merle's sweatshirt and, um,
it's about remembering those you loved and lost and still love.
Uh, in the back, there's a whole another story where I connect the
dots to our story, but it's not about our story, but at the end,
I do connect the dots a little bit, but my daughter that made some
videos that she posted, she put it on Instagram and Facebook and YouTube
and, uh, I want to use a TikTok, she goes, dad, you're going to reach
a whole different group of people.
It's like, you know, and she's right.
I go into any, I go into a sewer to reach people, you know, I go into gay bars,
you know, uh, I said, okay, it's not, and it's amazing who you can reach
on all these different ways of reaching.
And the, the videos ended up reaching millions of people.
I think we're up to 7 million views now on the video and, and, and, and the
book plot, the videos plus the book kind of converge to help people.
Some just the videos, some of the books, I'm getting thousands of messages.
When I say from all over the world, I mean, all over the world, it's crazy.
The messages that we're getting and it's, it's such a simple, simple
thing, helping people heal from loss and God's part of this process, obviously.
And I'll just show you one of the videos my daughter did.
It's my favorite out of all the ones she did about Laurel and I.
So I'll just show that little clip here.
All right.
Hi, I'm Chuck Wilson with Merle's sweatshirt.
I got my sweatshirt on today and also the book here.
And I just want to say thank you to everybody who's been so
encouraging on TikTok.
I mean, I, it's unbelievable.
I just like, I feel so close to everybody.
I just want to hug everyone.
It's unbelievable.
You guys have been so encouraging and I'm so touched that the story is touching you.
I just wanted to connect some dots here.
Um, at the end of the book, sometimes people finish the book and they don't turn
the page because as you turn the page, you see a whole rest of the story.
That's very important connecting the dots.
And the first part is that I talked about a dream, how I actually
dreamed this book 25 years ago.
Never realizing how 25 years later it would intersect with my life.
And so the way that happened is our son, this is a picture of our son,
Ryan with a little baby in his arms.
But right after this picture, he passed away and then his wife did too.
That's a whole nother story for a whole nother TikTok, but it just
was such a devastating thing.
But the amazing thing from that is sad as it was.
And we still are so sad.
And my wife and I are very, very sad all the time, but we have this whole other
side, this whole other blessing.
And that's the little girl came to live with us.
And here she is now.
Here she is.
She just turned eight years old and she's just such a joy to us and all of our kids.
We have 13 kids.
And when we lost one, we were down to 12, but with Laurel adopted
now, we have lucky 13 again.
So she just been such a blessing.
All right.
So a couple of things I wanted to share too.
Um, it, it, when we adopted her, it just was such a blessing because we went
from this incredible sadness to this happiness at the same time, it's hard
to explain, but that's really what grief is, is we have these so sad,
missing someone, and yet at the same time we have these happy memories of them.
And we talked about the sweatshirt.
Laurel is my sweatshirt and Laurel is all of our sweatshirts now.
She's one who really just brings some joy out of that intense pain and sadness.
And I hope that both of these stories, the story of, of, of Merle and then
also the story of little Laurel will just encourage you because I know so many
of you are remembering and grieving and sad, but it would just bring some.
Reminder that you can still have that, that happiness and great memories
in the midst of that, and I hope that's what encourages you.
And a lot of people were asking about sweatshirts.
So, uh, every say, can I get a sweatshirt?
We're going to work on it.
I'm going to have to work on it.
I told my wife, we got to get sweatshirts going.
So we're going to do our best for that.
Okay.
But thank you so much.
I love reading about how the book is really encouraging you and
helping you with healing.
God bless.
So that's, uh, that this happened all because we didn't bail out.
We didn't bail out.
We, if we had bailed out, what would we have messed all along the way?
Uh, I did bring some books.
I put some on the back table, um, and, and make sure you read the, in the
back of the book where it tells the story there, if, if I'm not trying
to make money, I'm, I'm just trying to replace, uh, all I'm trying to do
is keep ordering books to give my wife is like, we're never going to
make money on these books.
Everybody I go, no, we're going to keep using it for ministry.
But, but if anybody wants one, you can, if you want to throw $10 into
the box under the table, that's fine.
If not, you don't have money.
It's no problem.
Take a book.
All right.
People are constantly buying me groups of books so that I can give them out.
So if you know someone who needs a book and you want to bring one to them,
there's some hard covers, soft covers.
And if you ever need more, cause, uh, you know, I may never be back here again,
but you go on prime.
I know the evil empire prime, Amazon prime, but they're selling the books
unbelievably inexpensive.
So I tell everybody use the prime because you get them, you get them cheaper
there than you can offer for my publisher.
It's crazy.
So, um, I don't know how they do it, but anyway, uh, if you need them, but,
but if you want books, grab, grab one, grab a couple and, uh, you know,
use them for ministry.
That that's great.
But where is God calling you?
Where, where, what crazy step is he calling us to take?
Will we bail out or follow what spiritual lesson is he working on in us?
The patients, the faith, the patients, the perseverance.
Maybe he's calling you to put your faith in Christ.
I don't want to assume everybody here's a Christian.
Maybe he's calling you to put your faith in our Joshua to take a step of faith
and put your faith in our Joshua.
Jesus, Joshua is Jesus.
The arc that they follow through as a picture of the work of Christ,
what he did with his death and resurrection, what he accomplished on the
cross, it's all a picture Joshua crossing the Jordan.
It is a picture of Jesus death, resurrection.
He, Jesus was baptized in that same exact spot where, where they,
they cross there and just like Israelites, we must follow our Joshua,
Jesus Christ.
We have to take a step of faith.
I always end everything I ever do with John three 16.
Why not John three 16 for God.
So love the world that he gave his one and only son that whoever
believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life.
Let's pray.
How is God speaking to us?
Maybe you're here and you've never put your faith in Jesus Christ.
You've never given your life to him.
You've never followed our Joshua through that river of judgment and
death into real life.
But you can take that step of faith right now.
It happens in our heart.
We put our faith in Jesus in our heart, but I just encourage people
to, to pray a prayer of faith, to put an exclamation point on that.
The biblical, simple prayer of faith.
God, I repent.
I repent of everything in my life that is sin.
I repent of everything in my life that goes against your word and
your purpose for my life.
Please forgive me.
Forgive me because I'm putting my faith in your son, Jesus Christ.
My total trust, my total hope and his death on the cross to wash me clean,
his resurrection from the dead to give me a new life.
I put my faith in Jesus Christ.
I give my life to him.
If you have prayed that prayer of faith today, I want to encourage
you not to leave here without telling somebody, tell pastor Chris,
tell me, tell your buddy next to you, tell somebody so that we can be
excited for you and help you grow in your new life in Christ.
For those of us who have already put our faith in Christ, what, how
was the Holy Spirit speaking to us?
Maybe we're ready to quit.
Maybe we're ready to bail out.
Maybe not outwardly, but inwardly.
How is God working in our life?
What step of faith is he calling us to take?
Will we surrender to what he's calling us to do?
Will we let him work on an area of our life, our faith or our patience or our
perseverance, say God, finish it, finish this, what you're, what you're
starting in me, finish it.
Father, I pray that for every one of us, Lord, we're all struggle.
We all battle.
It's never going to end until we get to heaven someday.
But Lord, I just pray that this group of guys could really build each
other up and encourage each other.
And Lord, I just pray that, uh, that we would not quit that every person here,
every person here would finish.
Well, you pray that in Jesus name.
Thanks for joining us at Lansdale Life Church as we praise God and discuss his
word.
Don't forget to join us for worship live Sunday mornings at 10 a.m.
Eastern on YouTube.
Be blessed and have a great day.