Let Go and Let God

Intro

Myself

-Thank Justin and Kimberly Haag (YA Pastors and new parents)

-Thank pastor Hal and Lori Seed (Lead Pastors for 28 years)

-Serve as a pastor on staff at Daybreak Church in Carlsbad

-I love my puppy (Belli), my girlfriend (Andie), good food and good coffee.

Talk

-Pastor Justin asked me to continue your series, “Advent: Let Every Heart Prepare Him Room” with my specific topic being “God expanding our hearts as we release”.

-I know how much your pastor values sound theology and intellectual thought, so I went to the most basic platitude driven phrase never found in scripture of my title, so tonight my talk is titled, “Let Go and Let God”.

-Naturally my though went directly past the peaceful advent story of our tiny baby savior being born and straight to an Old Testament story of a warrior and all the brutal battles he lead the nation of Israel in.

-Tonight we will be unpacking the idea of “release”. What does the process of release look like? How does this process affect us and those around us?

-I’d love to start by reading a charge given to Joshua by God as God was calling Joshua to lead his nation.

Joshua 1:7-9

-Stand as we read God’s word for us today.

Joshua 1:7–9 NIV

7 “Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go. 8 Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. 9 Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”

Pray

“Let Go and Let God”

Release begins when we learn to listen to and not just hear from God.

-The first we can learn from Joshua’s story is his ability to listen and follow every detail God spoke to him.

-We can draw a comparison of simply hearing from God and actively listening to God by looking at the how Moses and Joshua each modeled this for their followers.

-Let’s first look at an example of what it means to hear from god but not listen to Him in the life of Moses.

Numbers 20:7–12 NIV

7 The Lord said to Moses, 8 “Take the staff, and you and your brother Aaron gather the assembly together. Speak to that rock before their eyes and it will pour out its water. You will bring water out of the rock for the community so they and their livestock can drink.” 9 So Moses took the staff from the Lord’s presence, just as he commanded him. 10 He and Aaron gathered the assembly together in front of the rock and Moses said to them, “Listen, you rebels, must we bring you water out of this rock?” 11 Then Moses raised his arm and struck the rock twice with his staff. Water gushed out, and the community and their livestock drank. 12 But the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not trust in me enough to honor me as holy in the sight of the Israelites, you will not bring this community into the land I give them.”

-Moses cared more about bringing honor to his strength and leadership than he did bringing hope and healing to his people.

-God told him to simply speak to the rock and instead Moses criticized his people and struck the rock twice so he could appear to be the one with authority.

-In our life’s today we can look we have the authority when we criticize those who don’t agree with us or when we try to pretend like we have it all together when we’re actually struggling to get by.

-Criticizing others being wrong instead of just serving them is something I see all over social media right now.

-Regardless of your political leaning or theory on Covid, you can still serve others instead of criticizing them.

-For me, Moses striking the rock twice instead of just speaking God’s authority over it reminds me of all the times I try to fix my problems on my own instead of allowing God to have control.

-Joshua models this ability to let God have control over the situation perfectly.

Joshua 3:8 NIV

8 Tell the priests who carry the ark of the covenant: ‘When you reach the edge of the Jordan’s waters, go and stand in the river.’ ”

Joshua 3:15–16a NIV

15 Now the Jordan is at flood stage all during harvest. Yet as soon as the priests who carried the ark reached the Jordan and their feet touched the water’s edge, 16 the water from upstream stopped flowing. It piled up in a heap a great distance away, at a town called Adam in the vicinity of Zarethan, while the water flowing down to the Sea of the Arabah (that is, the Dead Sea) was completely cut off. So the people crossed over opposite Jericho.

-Joshua understood that the miraculous work of God required his obedience, not his authority.

-The process of seeing God do amazing things through your life begins with you learning to simply listen and obey what He asks.

-The power of release comes from humble obedience and that style of release is empowering not only of you, but also of those around you.

The testimony of your release builds faith.

-When you are faithful to actively listen to God, it increases your capacity for trust and builds the faith of everyone who hears and sees what God did.

Joshua 4:4–7 NIV

4 So Joshua called together the twelve men he had appointed from the Israelites, one from each tribe, 5 and said to them, “Go over before the ark of the Lord your God into the middle of the Jordan. Each of you is to take up a stone on his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the Israelites, 6 to serve as a sign among you. In the future, when your children ask you, ‘What do these stones mean?’ 7 tell them that the flow of the Jordan was cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord. When it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. These stones are to be a memorial to the people of Israel forever.”

-When you take time to build moments or document God coming through faithful you equip yourself for when life gets tough.

-Instead of allowing fear to dominate tough moments, use God’s proven faithfulness as hope.

-Your testimony of God’s faithfulness will also be the most useful tool for you use to build the Kingdom of God.

-Your story of God’s provision can bring the hope necessary to someone in a tough situation.

-I would also challenge you to no just tell others your story, but to help others experience the same.

Teach others to release as you grow.

-Joshua understood the purpose of his wisdom didn’t stop at simply sharing a story, but at training those around him to experience the same.

Joshua 23:3–4 NIV

3 You yourselves have seen everything the Lord your God has done to all these nations for your sake; it was the Lord your God who fought for you. 4 Remember how I have allotted as an inheritance for your tribes all the land of the nations that remain—the nations I conquered—between the Jordan and the Mediterranean Sea in the west.

Joshua 23:6 NIV

6 “Be very strong; be careful to obey all that is written in the Book of the Law of Moses, without turning aside to the right or to the left.

-Teaching other people how to release and trust God in their own life is the ultimate mission of our faith.

Matthew 28:19–20 NIV

19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

-Jesus commissioned us to not only be His image bearers and story tellers, but to train and disciple those around us.

-Telling someone a powerful story impacts them for a moment, but training them to live a powerful story impacts them and everyone around them for a lifetime.

Close

-I want to close by asking you a question.

-What do you need to release right now? Where is God calling you to actively listen in your life right now?

-As Christians we are called to change the world. Seriously, our call is to make disciples of ALL NATIONS.

-However, we can’t begin to impact the nations until we allow God to impact us.

-If you want to see the miraculous happen through you, you have to first let it happen in you.

-You have to take time to listen to God, not just hear Him.

-Release begins with your life being changed and ends with the world changed forever.