(upbeat music) - Hey, this is Pastor John Ryan Cantu from PNEUMA Church in Houston, Texas.

Thank you for listening to the message today.

I hope that it blesses you and all those that you share it with.

God bless you. (upbeat music) When I was a youth pastor, no one ever did anything like that with me.

I had to buy my own shoes.

Amen.

Praise the Lord.

We're happy to be in the house of God this morning.

Amen.

Praise, praise of the Lord.

It's Memorial Day weekend.

We got a lot of people out of town.

If you don't see somebody, just reach out to them.

That's your, that's the church doing the church's part.

Amen.

Just reach out and let them know that they're missed, that they're loved and we wait for them next week.

Man, we had an awesome time.

We had the whole pastoral team attend a conference in Chicago called Jumpstart Conference.

My second time going, awesome, awesome speakers.

I mean, it was amazing and we got poured into and I'm ready to preach this morning, but I'm not gonna preach today.

Pastor Demaris has a word that I know that the Lord has been ministering.

And so I'm gonna have her come up and preach at Pentecostal fire this morning.

Amen. (congregation cheering) God bless you.

How are you guys this morning?

I am blessed to be in the house of the Lord with you guys.

Thank you, pastor.

I'm a little bit tired, I'm not gonna lie.

It was a lot of going, going, going.

And I have to put our male pastors on blast.

So they made the girls walk for like an hour and a half on heels after lunch, 'cause we were supposed to be looking for coffee and dessert.

And we never got coffee, we never got dessert, but they made us walk an hour and a half to see the water.

We were moody, we were sweaty, we were hungry again.

And so, but it was fun, so I just had to throw you guys.

They were all wearing tennies, by the way.

So to them it was like, come on, let's go.

And we're like, Melissa tripped a couple of times.

I had like a blister.

Pastor Mita's an expert at walking in heels, so she was fine.

But yes, so but it was a much needed time that we needed.

Usually pastors just pour and pour and pour, so when there's an opportunity for us to get poured into, it's amazing.

And so it was a refreshing time in the presence of that.

If I could say a word, it would be refreshing and confirmation from the Lord that we receive.

But I'm gonna ask you to stand.

Thank you, pastor.

It's always a privilege when he lets me give the word, he gives me the opportunity.

Real quick, yesterday was my daughter's 18th birthday.

She's up there.

She just hid.

Happy birthday, Missy.

We love you very much.

She is like her daddy and she has a servant's heart.

If you don't know my daughter, take five minutes with her awkward self and you'll love her.

Happy birthday, baby.

Very proud of you.

So let's go ahead and open the word of God to Joshua 3.

You guys know that I am a woman of confirmation and the Lord didn't give me my three confirmations, he gave me four.

So God is good.

Yes, amen.

So we're gonna do a little bit of reading in between as well.

So I'm gonna ask you to not close your Bible or put it aside.

Leave it open.

We're gonna be in Joshua and then we're gonna be on Deuteronomy.

So let's go ahead and read the word of God.

Joshua 3 and we're going to read from verse 3 to, well, I tell you when to stop, 14, okay?

So here we go.

Early in the morning, Joshua and all the Israelites set out from Shittim and went to the Jordan where they camped before crossing over.

After three days, the officers went throughout the camp, giving orders to the people.

When you see the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord your God and the Levitical priest scaring it, you are to move, someone say move.

Move out from your position and follow it.

Say follow it.

Then, again, say then, you will know which way to go since you have never been this way before.

But keep a distance of about 2,000 cubits between you and the Ark.

Do not go near it.

Joshua told the people, consecrate yourselves for tomorrow the Lord will do amazing things among you.

Joshua said to the priest, take up the Ark of the Covenant and pass on ahead of the people.

So they took it up and went ahead of them.

And the Lord said to Joshua, today I will begin to exalt you in the eyes of all of Israel so they may know that I am with you as I was with Moses.

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 said to the Israelites, come here and listen to the words of the Lord your God.

This is how you will know that the living God is among you and that he will certainly drive out before you, the Canaanites, Hittites, Hevites, Perissites, Girgashites, Amorites, and Jezebites.

See, the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord of all the earth will go into the Jordan ahead of you, say ahead of you.

Now then, choose 12 men from the tribes of Israel, one from each tribe, and as soon as the priests who carry the Ark of the Lord, the Lord of all the earth set foot in the Jordan, its waters flowing downstream will be cut off and stand up in a heap.

So when the people broke down to cross the Jordan, the priests carrying the Ark of the Covenant went ahead of them.

Now the Jordan is at flawed stage, all during harvest yet.

Yet, as soon as the priests who carried the Ark reached the Jordan and their feet touched the water's edge, the water from upstream stopped flowing.

Let's go ahead and pray.

Thank you, Father God, this morning for bringing us here.

I thank you, Holy Spirit, because I know that your presence is in this place.

Thank you, Holy Spirit, for what you've already done in us this morning, and we ask you, my God, that this word may penetrate the souls of the people who need it this morning, Father.

I come against any destruction from the enemy, anything that comes against what you have for us this morning, I bind it in the mighty name of Jesus, and I ask, my God, that you take over, that it be you through me, not an ounce, not a word, of what you don't want me to say.

In the mighty name of Jesus, I pray, amen.

You may be seated.

Hallelujah.

The title of my message this morning is My Legacy.

My Legacy.

There are four points that I want to talk to you guys about this morning.

If you remember, we just read that they were given instructions to move.

Once they saw the Ark of the Covenant pass before them, they were asked to be set apart, to be consecrate.

They were asked them to, "Consecrate yourself," Joshua said.

And then he told them, "Take that step."

And then the last one, and we're gonna go back to reading a little bit, I want you to know that this is bigger than you.

This morning, I wanna talk about what happens when we move from where we are and we go after God's presence.

This morning, I already saw a group of people that are hungry for the presence of God.

I saw it on Spanish, and I just saw it right now in English.

So I believe God is raising people that are just hungry to go after his presence.

I wanna talk about how when we move and we go after God's presence, we set ourselves apart and we move in faith knowing that God goes before us and it's not just for me, it's not just for you, it's for the generations that are behind me, it's for my legacy.

In this story, we see that the Israelites were finally going into the Promised Land.

But see, these were not the same people that came out of Egypt.

These were the sons and the daughters of the people who came out of Egypt.

The OGs died in the wilderness.

Numbers 13, one, we see where God tells Moses to send men to explore the land of Canaan.

And then he tells them, in Numbers 13, one, the Lord said to Moses, send some men to explore the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the Israelites.

So God was telling them, go look around, because this is the land that I have promised them and I have already given to them.

And I want you to go back and open your Bible to Numbers, I'm sorry, Numbers 13, 25 to 28.

I say it didn't honor me, I don't know why.

Numbers 13, 25 to 28.

And this is a New Living Translation.

And it says, after exploring the land for 40 days, the men returned to Moses, Aaron and the whole community of Israel, Akadesh in the wilderness of Paran.

They reported to the whole community what they had seen and showed them the fruit they had taken from the land.

This was their report to Moses.

We enter the land, you send us to explore, and it is indeed a beautiful country, a land flowing with milk and honey.

Here is the kind of fruit it produces.

But the people living there are powerful, and their towns are large and fortified.

We even saw giants there, the descendants of Anak.

So see, from the men that Moses had sent to explore the land only two believe that they could actually take on the people there.

These two people were Caleb and Joshua.

The rest of them, the wen, what they did was spread fear amongst the people.

Two believe.

The rest just said, we can go.

They're gonna take our children as plunder.

No, no, no, no, no.

There's giants in there.

No, we can go.

So they spread fear.

That same night, after spreading all the fear, the members of the community, they raise their voices and they cry loud, and then they went before Moses and Aaron and they said, why did you take us out of Egypt?

You should have left us where we were.

You want us to go into a land where they're gonna take our children as plunder and they're gonna kill us?

No, no, no, you should have left us where we were.

Why did you get us out of there?

We should have just let us die in Egypt.

Mind you though, that they had seen miracle after miracle already up to this point.

But they would rather be slaves.

That to me was mind blowing.

Yet how many times we see God get us through situations over and over again, and we still take a look back at what we left behind.

Numbers 14 says, two of the men who had explored the land, Joshua son of Nun and Caleb, son of Jepunet, tore their clothing.

Back in those days, that's how they were upset and ah.

I imagine it like a whole kind of scene, like they were upset.

They tore their clothing.

They said to all the people of Israel, the land we traveled through and explored is a wonderful land.

They're still trying to convince them.

And if the Lord is pleased with us, he will bring us safely into the land and give it to us.

It is a rich land flowing with milk and honey.

Do not rebel against the Lord.

And they tell him, don't be afraid of the people of the land.

They are only helpless, pray to us.

They have no protection.

And they said, but the Lord is with us.

Don't be afraid of them.

Guess what they did?

The whole community began to talk about stoning them for saying what they were saying.

That, as I read it, I'm like, what?

They're telling them that God is going before them, that God is with them, and they want to stone them.

After this, the glory of God appeared in the tent of meeting.

And God and Moses have a little conversation, a little dialogue.

God was ready to just wipe them out with a plague.

He's like, that's it, I'm done.

Everyone's dead, a plague, they're gone.

I believe the heart of the Father was saddened because day after everything they had seen and he had gone through, they still didn't believe in him.

So Moses comes to the heart of the Father.

And I love how he tells them, God, what are they gonna say?

What are they gonna say?

Everybody knows that you got them out of Egypt.

Everybody knows that you got them out of slavery.

Like, they're gonna say that you didn't keep your promise.

That's what all the people of the nations are gonna say, that you don't keep the promises that you make.

And then he appeals to God's heart, and he tells them, you're slow to anger.

You're filled with a failing love.

You are a forgiver of sin.

So Moses uses the characteristics of God to plea for the people.

God, but that's not who you are.

I know you're mad right now, God, but that's not who you are.

Then God says, okay, Moses knows me, right?

I won't kill them, fine.

But this generation will get to enter the promised land.

He tells them they will all die in the wilderness and they will wander here until every single one of them is dead.

And the kids that they were scared will be taken as plunder will be the ones to go into the promised land.

See, this is the other side of the scripture that we just read in Joshua 3.

So we see they're already ready to go to cross into the promised land.

But before all that happened, this is what happened.

A bunch of unbelieving people that died in the wilderness because they didn't wanna believe in what God had promised.

Sometimes I think that we are so quick to criticize the Israelites.

And we say, what were they thinking?

I'm the first one, I do it all the time when I read it.

Why wouldn't they believe God?

But see, it's because we have the whole picture.

We already know what happened, right?

We know that they made it.

We know everything, we know the whole story.

But it is here when our faith is tested, when you don't know the whole picture, like they didn't know the whole picture, that are you gonna believe what God has told you or are you just going to go by what you see in front of you?

My first point this morning is move.

The Israelites had received orders from the officers to move from where they were and follow the Ark of the Covenant.

If you know and if you didn't know, the Ark of the Covenant represented the presence of God.

And although we have access to His presence in your quiet time and your one-on-one, in the car, that's my favorite.

I don't know if you've seen the memes, but there's memes when me listening to worship music and it's the little girl from the movie Monsters and she's crying and then you see the other people looking.

That's me, they're looking at me.

I love my one-on-one with God in the car and I know that God's there with me.

But there is something special.

We come as one body and we go after God's presence and we seek God's presence.

And I love that that's what we've been talking about this morning, go after God's presence.

Just praise Him for who He is, not for what He can do for you.

Unfortunately, ouch, I have seen the lack of movement when the presence of God fills this room.

More times than not, we'll stay on our seat.

And although God can touch you right where you are, He can touch you on your seat, it's at the altar when transformation happens.

It's at the altar when chains are broken.

It's at the altar where God can restore your marriage.

It's at the altar when that addiction can be broken.

There is something special about coming to the altar.

And you know what keeps you in your seat, and I'm sorry to break the news to you, pride.

Pride, because you don't want people to know your business.

Because you don't want people to be like, why is there going to the altar when pastor preached about repentance?

Does it matter?

It doesn't.

We come to the presence of God and we come to the altar because I don't know about you, but I need Him daily.

And we come to His presence because this is where we find Him.

Because it's a posture of surrendering, here I am God, here I am God.

Yes, the Word spoke to me, and sometimes you just come because you just want to have a moment in the presence of God.

We are not here for anyone other than God.

When I read this scripture, I could hear telling me when I was preparing, I need my people to go after my presence.

This is the Word.

This is not my notes the Lord gave me.

Tell them I need them to go after my presence.

Church, it is time to move and go after the presence of God.

This Word was birthed after God had me read this part of the text over and over again, verse four.

When it says, then, then you will know which way to go since you have never been this way before.

Then you will know which way to go.

After we go, after the presence of God, then.

He was telling them, when you see the ark of the covenant pass by, follow it, then you will know which way to go.

Listen, here's a formula.

Move from your position, follow him, then.

Movement, follow, then.

Can you imagine what would have happened if the people wouldn't have listened to the instructions?

They would have missed on the land that had been promised to their parents, the land of plenty.

What are you missing out on this morning because you're comfortable where you are?

I told you that this Word was birthed a few weeks ago and God was asking me, do you trust me?

God has been speaking to me for a few months about a decision that I needed to make and I was conflicted and the Lord kept telling me, but do you trust me?

Do you trust me?

One of the preachers that was speaking over the week said, some of you had to travel thousands of miles to receive a word from God.

That was me.

I was the one that had to travel.

Miles to receive my confirmation from God.

Just like me, there are people here who God has already given instructions to.

God has already told you to move.

God has already instructed you to do.

God has instructed you to speak.

There are prophets that are silent in the room, but you're comfortable in your position.

You're comfortable where you are.

God wanted me to remind you that it's time for you to move.

Move.

Move.

If he gave you the instruction, if he told you what you need to do, you do it.

You move because he goes before you.

I've never been the way God is leading me.

Me and Demaris, I've never been this way before, but I know that as long as I keep my eyes on God, and I know that as long as I keep me going after his presence, I know that he's gonna lead the way.

I know that he's gonna open the way for me, and all I need to do is trust him.

Do you trust him this morning?

Takes me to the second thing that he told them.

You need to be set apart.

He told them on verse five, Joshua told the people, consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do amazing things among you.

Consecrate is another word for set apart for God.

Listen, we need to be set apart for God's purpose.

We cannot let distractions keep on distracting us, and keep us from where God wants to take us.

Are you staying away from the things, and maybe even the people that distract you from God?

Consecrate yourself for tomorrow.

The Lord will do amazing things among you.

What we do today, what you do today, what I do today determines your tomorrow.

The decisions that you make today will determine your tomorrow.

Perhaps your mentality is I'm waiting for God to do.

I'm waiting for God to do.

So if God does, I'll move.

If God does, I'll move, but no, God wants you to move first, 'cause that's what he told them to do, move.

You set yourself apart, you spend time in his word, you cultivate that relationship with God, and you prepare the soil for what he's going to sow in you.

Just like God opened a way for them to cross on dry land, he's about to do great things amongst this church.

But he's coming for a consecrated, a set apart bride.

He's not coming for a dirty bride.

So you have to leave whatever is distracting you behind.

Whatever is keeping you from going after his presence, you need to leave it behind.

Three.

Take that step.

He told them, he gave them extrenches.

He said, give this command of verse eight.

Give this command to the priest who carried the ark of the covenant.

When you reach the banks of the Jordan River, take a few steps into the river and stop there.

Have you noticed how it was constant movement?

It was follow the ark first, go after his presence.

Consecrate yourself.

To be set apart required movement, because there are things that you need to get rid of.

You need to move.

There are things that are in your way.

You need to move them out of the way.

Constant movement, consecrate.

And then, take a few steps into the river.

If we are not constantly moving, we are going to get stuck.

Transparent moment, because I believe in transparency.

A few, I want to say, last year, towards the end of 2022 into 2023, I was dealing with some issues internally.

And I remember wanting to get out of there so bad.

I didn't want to be, I didn't like it.

I didn't like what I felt.

I didn't like what I thought.

I didn't like where I was.

And I remember wanting to not feel that way anymore.

And until one day, I had to tell God, God, examine my heart, what is it?

Show it to me, all the ugly.

I never prayed that.

Show me all the ugly.

Show it to me, because I am tired of being this way.

I'm tired of feeling stuck.

I was stuck.

And the Lord, sure enough, okay, here you go, mama.

This one, and this one, and this one, and this one.

And I had to repent.

Pastors repent too, y'all.

I had to repent.

And I had to tell God, forgive me.

Heal my heart.

I don't, I don't want to be like that.

Heal my heart.

And he began a transformation in my heart and in my mind, and in the way I spoke and in my actions.

But I had to come clean to God.

I don't know why sometimes we have such a hard time coming clean to God like he already know.

Right, but it's in confessing how we feel where there is change, because that's when God knows, like, okay, well then you want it.

Because you're saying, like, you don't want to be there anymore.

But we're like, God, you know my heart.

We even want to sound spiritual, right?

You know my heart, Lord.

Now, confess it.

And then there's healing that comes behind it.

If you have been stuck in the same spot for a while and you've been spinning your wheels, it's time to evaluate your why.

Are you trying to get out of there or you're just used to being there?

The Israelites were used to slavery, the first ones.

They were used to slavery.

God had delivered them from their oppressor.

He had opened the Red Sea.

They walked on dry land.

He sent a manna to eat every day.

There was a pillar of cloud during the day.

They were spoiled.

There was a pillar of fire at night, water from a rock.

Over and over, God showed up.

Yet that generation didn't enter the Promised Land because they had that slave mentality.

How many times has God showed up for you already and you still have that slave mentality?

You're not in Egypt anymore.

You're not in Egypt anymore.

He already took you out of there.

Why do you keep wanting to go back to your Egypt?

You're not in Egypt anymore.

You gotta take that step.

And God is asking you this morning, do you trust me?

Verse 15 says, "It was the harvest season and the Jordan was overflowing its banks.

But as soon as the feet of the priests who were carrying the ark touched the water at the river's edge, the water above the point began backing up at grace distance."

Did you catch how God didn't open the river first?

He didn't.

They had to stepped into troubled waters.

The river was as high as it could be 'cause it was harvest season.

They stepped.

Then God moved.

Maybe God is asking you to step into troubled waters this morning.

But once they stepped, it opened.

And just like their parents and their grandparents who walked on dry land, they were able to walk on dry land as well.

But they had to step into the river first.

Isaiah 43 two says, "When you go through deep waters, I will be with you."

When you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not be drowned.

When you walk through the fire of oppression, you will not be burned up and the flames will not consume you.

Can we go to Joshua four?

I told you to not put your Bible away.

Let's go to Joshua four.

Joshua four, verse four.

And it says, "When all the people had crossed the Jordan, the Lord said to Joshua, 'Now, choose 12 men, one from each tribe, and tell them, take 12 stones from the very place where the priests are standing in the middle of the Jordan.

Carry them out and pile them up at the place where you will camp tonight.'"

Babe, junior, Steph, can you guys come?

Pastors, both pastors, can you all come?

Let's, I wanna give you a visual.

I wanna ask Pastor Ryan to stand here, Pastor Danny, right across from him.

They represent the presence of God across from him.

You guys are the river.

So you guys right here, face each other.

There you go.

These are the people that had to cross. [laughs] They're awkward right now.

But listen, this man carry the presence of God.

This man have been chosen for such a time as this to lead us.

This man are anointed.

They represents the presence of God.

And I'm gonna throw a few rocks in there, and you guys are the people that walked, sorry, pick up your rock and walk.

And I want you to hold on to that rock, sorry.

You had to bend over.

They're gonna stay.

Okay, thank you.

Y'all can go sit.

Thank you so much.

Hold on to that rock.

Y'all can go sit down.

Thank you, pastors.

I wanted to give you a visual of what they had to do.

The presence of God went before them.

When the pastors tell you, and this is side note, when the pastors tell you, "Praise, praise," when the pastors tell you, "Lift up your hands," lift up your hands.

When the pastors tell you, "Give a shout of praise," because they have received instructions from God that sometimes we don't even know.

And it's our job to listen to what God has already given to them.

Hold on to your rock.

Verse six of Joshua first says, "We will use these stones to build a memorial.

"In the future, your children will ask you, "'What do these stones mean?'

"Then you can call them, and they remind us "that the Jordan River stopped flowing "when the ark of the Lord's covenant went across.

"These stones will stand as a memorial "among the people of Israel forever."

Fourth, this is bigger than you.

The generation that entered Canaan had never been that way before.

You remember when we read that?

They had never been that way before.

He told them, "You're gonna receive instructions "because you've never been this way before."

No one had showed them the way to go.

They were the first.

To go that way.

All they had seen and heard was complaining from their parents and their grandparents and their uncles and their tias and all that.

They will be the first to walk this new path.

Perhaps you didn't have anyone show you the way of the Lord.

Perhaps you are the first.

Perhaps you are the first walking this way.

You are the first one who decided not to follow your parents' footsteps.

You are the first one who decided to change your legacy.

Maybe you are not yet, but God is nudging on your heart and telling you, "It's time.

"It's time, you gotta be the first."

How do you wanna be remembered?

For my family, my mom told me this story.

I asked her.

It started with my grandma.

I know I have memories, but I wanted to know when it started.

It started with my grandma who heard the gospel and she decided to follow Jesus.

My grandfather, her husband was an alcoholic and they would have to go find him on the streets.

My grandma would send my uncles, "Go find your dad 'cause he hasn't come."

And this is what they've told me.

And they would bring him home.

The pastor of the church where my grandma got saved would go to their house, visit my grandma, my uncles, and they would just read the word with them.

My mom remembers this.

She was five years old when my grandma got saved.

And it was in one of those visitations of the pastor that my grandpa heard the gospel.

He would, and this is for those of you who are the only ones that are doing it, for the wives that are coming Sunday after Sunday without their husband, my grandpa would give my grandma her time, my mom says.

He would get really mad because she was going to church but she would get her kids ready, we're going on to church, we go.

What you do now, even if you're doing it alone, it matters.

Keep doing it.

One of those times you don't know that your husband's gonna walk in through those doors.

I remember the time that my father-in-law walk in through those doors.

It was the Father's Day.

My husband is the first of his family.

He decided to be the first.

And he was telling me over the weekend we were talking and he's like, "Babe, I didn't have any footsteps to follow."

I didn't.

I had to be the first.

But he remembers his mama's faith.

She believed and she had faith on who God was, although she wasn't in church but she had faith.

And so for my grandma and my grandpa, my mom was five when my grandma accepted Jesus.

She was eight when she decided to give her life to God.

Bring your kids to church.

And I was at 15 when she was baptized and received the gift of speaking in other tongues.

My uncle Abraham, some of you guys know, he was born into a Christian household.

He's the baby of the family.

My grandpa later became a pastor and those are the memories I have.

I remember my grandpa playing his guitar.

I remember him making me sing "Alcance, Salvacion" for those of you who are, you remember?

♪ Alcance, Salvacion ♪ If you don't know it, it's a super old song.

And they have a recording of me singing that when I was like five.

So he would play the guitar.

I remember him playing the guitar.

He would sing the "corritos."

He would put down the guitar.

He would grab his Bible and get behind the pulpit and he would begin to preach in his living room.

And then later he moved into a small church where he pastored for many years.

Those are the memories I have.

My mom, side note for the youth who you marry, matters.

When you marry outside of God's will, matters.

My dad was not saved.

My mama was a rebel and married my dad.

And again, she had to go against my dad for a while until my dad got saved.

Then my dad got saved.

And then the memories I have of my dad is singing and preaching 'cause my daddy was a pastor.

But it was my grandma.

My grandma was the first.

Are you the first?

Or are you willing to be the first?

You can change your generation, your legacy for what you decide to do now.

Can I ask the worship team to come?

This is bigger than you.

Bigger than you.

Had my grandma not accepted Jesus as her Lord and Savior?

Had she not taken her kids to church?

Had she not pushed through the addiction of her husband?

Through an alcoholic?

Had my mom not pushed through and continued to go to church until my dad got saved?

My mama will pray for my dad.

Pray, make him uncomfortable.

What you pray for your spouse, matters.

You can pray bold prayers and say God wherever he's at.

Make him uncomfortable.

Make him feel that he is not where he needs to be, that he needs to come to your feet.

And my dad showed up to the church one time.

They had a service.

And my mom tells me that he said, I don't know what's going on.

I don't know but something told me to be here.

And here I am, how do I do?

How do I get saved?

How do I get saved?

Because of the prayers of my mama.

That had seen that my grandma's prayers worked on her husband.

What you do today, matters.

The path that you walk today, matters.

When you decide to be the first, matters.

It doesn't matter.

You're gonna get backlash and you're gonna get hate.

But you're not doing it just for you.

You're doing it for your legacy, for those that are coming behind you.

I decided to bring rocks here this morning.

You know I'm a visual person.

And this rocks, my husband, my poor husband tired after traveling, he was doing this last night.

And we wrote the words, legacy.

2024.

And this altar call, is for those of you that are in the house, that can step in faith, that can say God, it doesn't matter what it looks like.

It doesn't matter that my mom, my dad, nobody showed me.

It doesn't matter how it looks around me.

I'm going to go after your presence.

I'm gonna follow your presence.

I'm gonna consecrate myself.

I wanna set myself apart.

I don't wanna keep flirting with my Egypt.

I wanna be set apart for you.

I'm gonna take that step of faith, perhaps your son or a daughter, not even a husband or a wife, that can come to the front and say, for my parents, for my mom, for my dad, for my grandpa, for my grandma, and for my future kids, for my legacy.

For my legacy.

We have legacy changers in the room.

Can you stand to your feet?

If that's you, I want you to come to the front, and I want you to grab a rock.

And this is your reminder.

They built an altar after they crossed.

They built an altar right in the middle of the Jordan that is still there as a reminder of what God took them out of into.

And so this morning, for those of you who can say, for my legacy, for my legacy, for my legacy, and I will step into the river, and I will step perhaps into troubled waters, but I'm gonna leave an indention so deep that there will be no confusion of where I walked, of how I prayed, of how I interceded, or how I fought, because the mark is gonna be imprinted so deep that they'll be able to walk into my footsteps.

They'll be able to say because of my grandma.

They'll be able to say because of my daddy.

They'll be able to say because of my son, because of my daughter.

The one Sunday morning, one Sunday morning, decided to trust God with everything that they had, with their whole being.

They decided to trust God, and they stepped into troubled waters and said, God, wherever you leave me, wherever you take me, for my legacy, can you lift up your hands this morning, and lift up the rock into the heavens, as a memorial, as a memorial, that you are living for your legacy.

No more flirting with Egypt, church.

We don't got time to be flirting with Egypt.

God already took you out of there.

You are no longer that addict.

You are no longer in need of that addiction.

God already took you out of there.

Why you still flirting with Egypt?

Oh, Lord, oh, Lord, move this morning.

Oh, look at the hearts of your people this morning, brother who have decided, Lord, to step, Father, in space, knowing, my God, that you will open a path as long as we go after your presence, as long as we go after your presence, God, and it doesn't matter what it looks like in front of us, Lord.

This will be our memorial, that we decided to be chain breakers, to change our generations to come, that we decided to print a new legacy that is coming behind us this morning, that it doesn't matter that my parents didn't show me, that it doesn't matter what happened before me.

I have decided to go after your precious this morning for my legacy, for my legacy, for my legacy. - Thanks for listening.

If you'd like some more information on PNEUMA Church, visit us on our website at mypneumachurch.org.

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Thanks again and God bless. (gentle music) [MUSIC PLAYING]