Obstacles In The Journey | Cornerstone Church | Pastor Joel Haywood

and the seasons in our life where we're not quite where we were and yet we're also not quite where we believe that God wants to take us and what would we do there. And so we're gonna be in the book of Joshua today. I'm gonna dive right in. Okay? No no fluff. No fun stuff. Just God's word. Joshua

chapter three. Let me set the scene of where we're picking up. God has been working for the last forty years through a man named Moses to lead his chosen people, the nation of Israel. And because they are prone to rebellion,

they're prone to make the wrong decision, they're prone to worship other gods before the one true God, they have been wandering the wilderness for forty years. Now

Moses has just passed away where we pick up in the book of Joshua and so God decides it's time to raise up a new leader for my people, the Israelites. And the man that he raises up to leadership is Joshua. Now if I'm Joshua, I'm excited in this moment

because what God says is I'm giving you the same promise that I gave to Moses. You are gonna lead my people and it's time that we finally have them enter the promised land. The land that I have prepared for them, the land that I have been bringing them to, they've been wandering

for forty years but I want you Joshua to finally lead them in to the promised land. So I'm feeling good if I'm Joshua. There's just one problem between where the Israelites are standing and the promised land that God has for them. There is a raging river.

A physical obstacle known as the Jordan River and the bible tells us that the river is flooding during this time of year and so the moment looks like the Israelites standing on the front steps of the promised land but they can't get there.

This isn't like a cute little stream that they can just wade and make their way across. This is a flood stage, dangerous, rapid, rushing river. So they're almost there. They're

almost where God wants to take them and yet they aren't there. There's an obstacle in their way, something they can't overcome so they need God to intervene on their behalf. And this right up front is why I think this story is so relatable. Have you ever felt that?

Have you ever felt like you're in this place where you're not where you used to be and you have a sense of where God wants to take you but right in front of you is an obstacle, something that's in your way, a barrier that you cannot overcome and you need God to do something miraculous to help you step across it.

What I want to talk about this morning is what do we do in that space? What do we do when the in between feels not only like we can't get there but there's an obstacle in our way, a barrier? What would God have us do? How would he call us to live? How would we, how would he ask us to operate as Christians

between here and there? So if you're taking notes, I've titled our message this morning, obstacles in the journey.

Obstacles in the journey. Cornerstone, can I pray for us? Then we'll dive in. Hey God, we're here for you. Not for any other reason. This is not a warm up to Super Bowl Sunday. We are here for you to sit under the weight and the power of your word. Would you bring it alive in our minds and our hearts this morning God?

Would you use it? Would you show us how you are a God who has always been faithful and will always be faithful. Would you meet us in this place in our in between moments. We love you Jesus. We trust you. It's in your mighty name we pray and everybody said Amen. Amen. Amen. Okay, book of Joshua.

Joshua chapter three. If you have a physical bible, start at the very front, start working to the right and you will find this book of Joshua and yes, that's my best Lynn Winters impression. Okay, we're gonna be in Joshua chapter three verse seven. It says this,

and the Lord said to Joshua, today I will begin to exalt you in the eyes of all Israel so they may know that I am with you just 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. Okay. Right off the bat,

remember we know that there is an obstacle in their way between where they are and where God is taking them and I love that God kind of downloads the instructions to Joshua.

He says here's what I need you to do. I need you to take the ark of the covenant and load it up onto the shoulders of some of the priests and then I want them to step out into the water. Now I know I just lost some of you.

So you're like is this Indiana Jones? Like what do you mean ark of the covenant? Listen, it's okay. That's a real thing in scripture. And what it represents for the Israelite people is God's physical presence with them, His dwelling place among them as they have wandered through the desert for the last forty

years and it also represents his promise, his covenant to them. To be their God and to take them where he promised to take them. And so in essence what God is doing here is he says hey I want you to take my covenant. Take my promise. Take the promise that I have given you and put it in front of you.

Then I want you to step out into the river. Into the very thing that you don't know that you can overcome. The very thing that you are not sure you can handle and it's terrifying. I want you to step out into it. This is a daunting but also a dangerous task for Joshua and the Israelites.

Because again the bible tells us that this is a flood stage river. It's not some cute little stream. This is life threatening. Oh and by the way Joshua, you're responsible for getting between two and three million people across it safely. No big deal. He says I want you to step out into

the river. And what I love about God is that he doesn't just ask Joshua to do this crazy thing and just leave him hanging. He says and when you do, I'm gonna show up. He attaches a promise to it. So let's jump back in to Joshua three. We're gonna pick up in verse 11.

See the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth will go into the Jordan ahead of you. Now then, choose 12 men from the tribes of Israel, one from each tribe and as soon, cornerstone say as soon. As soon. As soon as the priests who carry the ark of the Lord, the Lord of all the earth set foot in the Jordan,

it's waters flowing downstream will be cut off and stand up in a heap. And there's the promise. God's asking them to do this crazy thing but he's not asking them to go solo. He says as soon as you step out and do the thing I'm asking you to do even though it feels scary, I'll meet you there.

In essence, you step out in obedience, I'll show up in power. That brings me to the first thing that I think we can learn this morning Cornerstone Church in our in between places, between here and there. I think God would have us be people who step out in obedience.

Here's my first question. Why does God ask the Israelites to step into the water before he does the miracle?

Like remember, God created this river. Surely he could just snap his fingers and just like it would just wall up right there. He did not need their help. Surely he's not asking for their assistance because he needs it, so why does he ask them to step out? He could have done the miracle first.

Them putting their feet in the water did absolutely nothing to disrupt the flow of this flooding river so why does God ask for it first? I mean picture this moment. These priests carrying the promise of God, the ark of the covenant step out into the water. Everything in me would be losing my mind. Like this looks unsafe.

Every fiber of my being would be saying this is crazy. Remember it's not a calm little trickle, it's not ankle deep water, this is a life threatening chaotic rapid rushing river and God doesn't say wait until the coast is clear and then go. He just says go. Step out.

Again if I'm the priest I am losing my mind. Every fiber of my being, every survival instinct is saying no, no, no, wait till something happens first and then go. But God asked them to step into the water before the miracle, before the water stops flowing and before they can see dry ground. So often

for us as human beings I think we wait for God to give us all the details. And our seasons between here and there where we were and where we wanna get to, we wait for God to make everything super clear. Give me a map, give me the turn by turn navigation, give me a five year plan but so often Cornerstone,

God doesn't give us that. What he asks for is instead one foot in front of the other day by day, moment by moment, simple obedience.

Even when it doesn't make sense. Even when it looks scary. Even when it goes against everything that we would do ourselves. Not after the river parts. Not once it becomes easy or once it becomes clear but before.

And I wonder this morning if there are some of us in here who feel like we've been between here and there for a long time. That we feel like we are well aware of where we came from, where God brought us out of, a season of pain, A season of hurt. A season of confusion.

And we also have a deep heart level sense of where we believe God is taking us. A season of freedom and healing and redemption and restoration. But what we see directly in front of us is scary and an obstacle that we don't know how to overcome. And so we're standing on the shore saying God I'm waiting on you.

Waiting for God to move. Waiting for him to go first. Waiting for him to do something, anything. And then once we see that, then we'll step out and God says, no, no, no, want you to step out first. I wonder this morning how many of us are waiting for God to move, but really he's waiting on you.

Waiting for you to step out in obedience. To do the thing that he's asked you to do. To do the thing that he has made clear to us long before it looks like it makes sense because isn't this what faith is? Here's what Hebrews 11 verse one says, now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance of what we do not see.

I believe some of us are standing on the edge of where God wants to take us but nothing is happening because we refuse to get our feet wet. And we don't feel stuck because God hasn't spoken, we feel stuck in the in between because we haven't listened. We haven't been willing to be obedient in the things that he has made

clear. And I wanna be absolutely abundantly clear here Cornerstone. What I'm not suggesting is that we start making reckless decisions.

I'm not suggesting that we start following and acting on every emotional impulse that we think might be from God or that we start forcing outcomes that God never wanted. What I'm suggesting is that we just do what he's made clear. That we step out in simple obedience even when it doesn't make sense to us.

Maybe you're in here and you've been praying for God to repair a relationship in your life. Like there's a relationship that is broken, it's fractured

and you want it to improve but you don't know how to improve it. You've done some damage, they've done some damage and you just have no idea how to repair it or make it better and so you're throwing your hands up like God, would you fix this? I just wonder how often he looks at us like yeah, I would love to.

I love restoring relationships but first would you do the thing I've asked you to do? Would you forgive them? Not because they asked for it, not because they've acknowledged that they did anything wrong or even said they were sorry but because biblically as Christians we are called to forgive, period. So can you obey

even when it doesn't feel like it'll help the situation? Maybe you've been praying for freedom from a sin struggle that has held you captive for years. And you've tried to wrestle it,

you've tried to like muscle your way through it, you've tried to overcome it on your own and every time you are getting your butt kicked and so you're throwing your hands up like God, I just can't win this battle. Would you come and win this battle? Would you give me freedom?

And again, think God loves to do that. I think he absolutely can do that. But I wonder if sometimes he looks at us and says yeah, but would you step out in obedience? The bible says

confess your sins to one another and you will find healing. What if it looked like for you obedience is just inviting people in, stop keeping it hidden, stop keeping it in the dark, stop letting it fester and hoping it goes away but locking arms with people and chasing after Jesus to find freedom.

Not because he needs our help but because he wants us to trust him and be obedient. Maybe for you obedience looks like stepping into community when it's easier to give into isolation in 2026.

Maybe it's taking a step towards that dream you believe God placed on your heart even when you don't know what it's gonna look like. I don't know what obedience looks like for you as an individual but here's what I know. So often we stand on the shore saying God what do I do? And he's like I already told you. Step out.

Be obedient even when it doesn't make sense before you see a clear path forward. I believe that God wants every one of us to experience the fullness of what he has for us but sometimes he waits for us to step out in obedience.

Not because he needs our help, not because we bring anything to the table but because he wants our trust in him to grow. Wants our hearts and our minds to depend on him every step of

the way. We think we're waiting on God but sometimes the only time we see the miracle is when we stop waiting and we start stepping out in obedience. And obedience this morning Cornerstone looks like getting our feet wet before the ground is dry or we see a path forward.

Between here and there are you willing to step out in obedience? One of the best things about the Israelites in this story is that they actually get it right.

So often in the old testament the Israelites are an example of what not to do. Know? But right here God says step into the water and they say it doesn't make sense and it's terrifying but I'm going to step in. I wanna see how God shows up. Let's see if he keeps his promise. Let's jump back in. Joshua three

verse 15, God has said as soon as you step in the water, I'm gonna do the miracle. Let's see if he's good on his promise. Verse 15, now

the Jordan is at flood stage all during harvest yet as soon, there it is again, one more time. Say as soon. As soon. 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.

It piled up in a heap a great distance away at a town called Adam in the vicinity of Zerothen while the water flowing down to the Sea Of Araba or the Salt Sea was completely cut off. So the people crossed over opposite Jericho.

The priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord stood firm on dry ground in the middle of the Jordan while all Israel passed by until the whole nation had completed the crossing on dry ground.

And there it is. There's the miracle.

God has done it. He was faithful. He showed up. He has never failed and he didn't fail the Israelites here. He said as soon as you step out in belief that I'm gonna show up, I'm gonna show up and he does the miracle and praise God because between two and three million people cross over safely. This feels like the moment

where we should all just say amen and wash our hands and go get lunch.

But this is why it's so vital, so important that we don't just read our bibles, that we actually study our bibles because I am convinced that there's something happening beneath the surface here that is an important lesson for us to learn. Any visual learners in the room?

Okay. Me too. And I would encourage you, if you're studying the bible like sometimes it's hard for the words to go from the page to my mind to my heart. Right? So sometimes it's helpful to actually get a picture

of what's happening. So if you're a visual learner, I got you, we got some maps, okay? Let's throw that first map up. Alright, super simple. The red circle, that's where the Israelites are before they cross the Jordan River. The white line is the Jordan River flowing from top to bottom

and Jericho is where they're trying to get to. Make sense? Tracking so far? Here's where it gets so interesting. I assume when I read this story that if this is where the Israelite priests step into the water,

it says as soon as they put their feet in the water, God does the miracle and so in my mind I picture a wall of water like like right here.

And that feels like a safe assumption, right? Because this is where the people are. God's gonna show up for the people. It makes sense, it tracks that this would be where he does the miracle except that's not at all what happened. Verse 16

tells us that God parted the river a great distance away at a town called Adam. That town Adam is way up there, that black dot. We can actually throw the second map up. The bible says a great distance away, scholars have concluded that that great distance is roughly 20 miles. To put that in perspective,

if the Israelites were stepping into the Jordan River right here with us in this room, God did the miracle at the footprint center in Downtown Phoenix.

Why does this matter? What this means is that God was good on his promise. The second their feet hit the water he showed up and did a miracle just like he said he was going to. But from where Joshua and the Israelites were standing it looked like nothing happened. Because it was 20 miles away. God was present

and he was working but to the Israelites it felt like he was absent and doing nothing. God showed up just like he said he would the second their feet hit the water except for them they looked out and saw nothing but resistance and a raging river in front of them. Listen, if I'm Joshua in this moment, I am panicked.

I'm the one who talks to God, right? I'm the one who said let's all go to the river and step out. He's gonna show up, I promise. If I'm Joshua, I'm like where are you? You told me to bring all these people out here like you said you were gonna show up and work in our midst and you're nowhere to be found.

I wonder if the Israelites felt like God forgot about them. Like he abandoned them. Maybe he had better things to do that day. Maybe they looked at him like, God, we did our part.

Like we stepped out in obedience like you told us to. You just didn't hold up your end of the bargain. Listen, what do we do Cornerstone when it feels like we're doing everything that we've been asked to do and God isn't doing his part?

What do we do in the moment between here and there where it feels like God has left us hanging? It brings me to my second point for us

this morning. Between here and there, stand firm in faith.

As a pastor I have the privilege to sit with people, usually young adults, 20 who are in this position.

I get to walk with people as they're in this journey between where they were and where God is taking them as a follower of Christ and I get to get a front row seat to that and so they'll come into my office and they feel this tension of like I feel like I'm doing everything I'm supposed to do but God isn't showing up for me.

And they always kind of identify two things. They describe it in these terms. They say yeah, it feels like I'm doing my part but God's power is not on my life. They say I'm missing the power of God here. Or the other thing they say is I'm missing the presence of God here.

I know he's powerful but he's absent. He is removed from my situation.

And after having had these conversations over and over for a handful of years, I've noticed a theme, a reality that I wanna put in front of us when that's where we are, between where we were and where we wanna be and it feels like God isn't working. Let me tell you what we're not missing. We are not missing the power of God or the presence of God. What we are missing is the perspective

of God. To see that he is working upstream, we just have no idea. We can't see it yet. So what do we do in the moment where it feels like God has forgotten about us? It's profoundly simple. We stand firm. We stay put. God said step out so we step out and we stand firm. Listen, I am by no means a mathematician or a scientist.

I have no idea Cornerstone how long it took between the moment when they step into the water and it feels like God didn't show up before they actually saw the miracle of 20 miles worth of water flowing by. But my best guess is ours. So picture this,

God says step out and they do saying God, I'm trusting you. I can't overcome this river, I can't get across, I can't get to the promised land that you have for me but I'm stepping out in obedience and they see nothing for hours but they stand firm on what God already told them.

The reason I find this so striking is because I think it's the complete opposite of what we do. If I'm Joshua in this moment, I have two responses. I am tempted to either bail altogether or build a boat. Like I'm saying hey guys, God didn't hold up his end of the deal. The plan must have changed. Let's go our own way.

Or better yet, let's just settle here. I know it's not the promised land but it's adjacent. It's less than what God has for us but God's holding out on us.

Or guys, hey we gotta take matters into our own hands. We gotta control. I need you to build a boat and I need you to build a bridge and we're just gonna start shuttling people across as best we can. Like let's just figure it out ourselves. God didn't do it so we need

to do it. We have this tendency to control and take matters into our own hands.

Maybe you're believing that God has a spouse for you someday.

A God honoring marriage. I just know the statistics of this room. Like I know the demographics of our church that a large percentage of us are single and there's probably a desire in your heart to share your life for, with someone and to chase after Jesus together. And you've been obeying God and doing everything he's asked you to do and yet it doesn't feel like he's bringing it.

You've made it clear, God I'm trusting you with this relationship but I need you to provide it and you're stepping out in obedience and he's nowhere to be found. And listen, Valentine's Day is next week and you don't wanna do that again.

So you're tempted to download that dating app or call that ex boyfriend or girlfriend that was rude to you or go back into hookup culture because it's better than being alone.

I wonder if God's looking at us like, listen, they're on their way. Can you stand firm? Maybe you've been praying for God to do a miracle in your finances. Like God I need you to show up.

The ones and zeros aren't adding up here and you've been doing your part. I've been tithing, I've been giving, I've been generous trusting that God is gonna show up here but he just isn't.

It seems like he calls himself Jehovah Jireh, the Lord will provide but he's not providing for you and so your temptation is to just take it into your own hands, to stop giving, to stop being generous and to just pinch every penny and hunker down.

God says stand firm. Maybe you've been praying for God to fix the relational tension in your family and you're believing that he can. That reflects his heart in a powerful way and yet you keep going to Thanksgiving and Christmas and Easter with your family and it's just full of tension and explosions

and difficult family dynamics that make it really hard to be there. And you think that God would want to work there but he hasn't yet. So your temptation is to say I'm out. If you're not going to work at this neither am I.

I wonder how often God looks at us and says stand firm. I'm working and I'm moving, I'm just doing it 20 miles away and you can't see it yet. I think it's so powerful that Joshua and the Israelites didn't panic, they didn't try to control, they didn't assume that God left them hanging instead they stood firm.

They couldn't see or feel the miracle. All they saw and felt was resistance and raging water in front of them but they stood firm believing that God is good, that he is for them, that he is faithful, that he has never failed on a promise and that he is working upstream even if they can't see it yet.

One One of the most helpful verses for us as believers is Isaiah 55 verse nine. It's so helpful when it comes to the perspective of God. It says this, as the heavens are higher than the earth so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Cornerstone, what would it look like for us to be people who step out in obedience believing that God will meet us there and then even when it feels like he hasn't we stand firm trusting that he's moving and he's working and he is good on his promise even if we can't see it yet.

Number one, between here and there we step out in obedience. Number two, between here and there we stand firm in faith. And here's the last one. Number three,

between here and there stack stones in remembrance.

Okay, so I mentioned that the Israelites get it right. They do everything they're supposed to do. They step out in obedience and stand firm in faith and God delivers on his promise. The entire nation of Israel

crosses over into the promised land and God has shown up in a powerful way. And it feels like the story should end there. But it doesn't. In fact it continues on into chapter four and in Joshua chapter four God does something really interesting. He comes to Joshua and he says hey, before you settle,

before you overtake Jericho, before you actually experience and live into the promised land that I've given you, I want you to send 12 guys back into the Jordan River. And I want you to tell each of them to grab a stone and pull it out with them onto the shore. So that's what Joshua does.

He grabs 12 men and he says I want you to go back into the river, grab a stone and bring it to me. And then a couple days later Joshua gathers the entire nation of Israel in front of the Jordan River that they've just crossed. And he just starts stacking the stones one on top of

the other. And then God actually tells us why he has Joshua do this. Last verse here, Joshua chapter four verse 21. He said to the Israelites, in the future when your descendants ask their fathers what do these stones mean, tell them Israel crossed the Jordan on dry

ground for the Lord your God dried up the Jordan before you until you had crossed over. The Lord your God did to the Jordan just what he had done to the Red Sea when he dried it up before us until we had crossed over.

So in essence what God is saying to Joshua is before you live into the promise that I've just brought you to, I wanna teach you how to remember.

I wanna teach you the power and the invitation in remembering my past faithfulness to help you live into my future faithfulness. Before you set up camp, before you do anything, let's stop and remember and so he says grab these stones and build an altar of remembrance. He's trying to teach them a lesson.

I think he does this because he knows that as humans we are forgetful people.

I think he knows we have this nasty tendency as human beings to forget how he has been faithful in the past and that actually hinders me from believing that he can be faithful in the present or the future and I just think he wants them to learn this lesson now how powerful it is to remember.

I love that he actually kind of jabs them and he brings up the Red Sea. If you don't know what that's referencing, for context, forty years earlier, one of the first things that God did with his chosen nation of Israel as they escaped slavery in Egypt was he parted the Red Sea and they crossed over on dry ground.

Then in Joshua four what he's essentially saying is guys, I've done this miracle before. You just forgot. And I don't want you to ever forget again. And I think that's a lesson he wants us to learn too. What does it look like to look back and remember his past faithfulness to inform how we can trust him to be faithful

in the future. What if we stack stones of remembrance? I'll go first.

My family and I, my wife and my daughter, we are incredibly blessed, okay? God has been so, so kind to us and yet at the same time, the past twelve months have been easily the most difficult months, the most difficult season of life that we've ever lived through.

I wasn't sure how much to share of this but my wife who's braver than me and stronger than me said just tell them like nothing is powerful in the dark, let's just bring it into the light with our brothers and sisters in Christ. And so I wanna share that my wife has been suffering severely from crippling

postpartum anxiety, OCD, and depression.

Which is something that as a parent like you hear about it but unless you go through it you know, you don't know anything about what to actually do or the emotional toll that this will take. And so we have been walking through this for the past twelve months and it has resulted in so many difficult

moments, so many confusing moments, so many painful moments. Days and weeks and months where it's just crippling and all consuming and we just feel like there's no way out.

And as a pastor, the hard part about this is I know the answer. Like I know that God could in an instant take all this away.

Like he could snap his fingers and my wife would be healed and I would be healed and our family dynamic would be restored like he could do that and yet he has it. And so if I'm honest with you, there are moments where I'm looking up to heaven like, God, where are you?

When are you gonna deliver us from this? When are you gonna take us from here to there? When are you gonna take this all away? I know that you can so why won't you? Where are you? And then I was sitting down to write this message this week, reading Joshua three,

moving into Joshua four and I stumbled upon this realizing oh, this is a lesson that I can teach Cornerstone on Sunday and God just nudged my heart so gently like, no Joel, this lesson's for you.

And so I said I'll go first. And I tried to do this. I tried to stack stones in remembrance, to look back on God's past faithfulness. So it looked like this. It looked like, hey God, this season is really confusing.

Like I don't know which way is up. I don't know how to be a good husband. I don't know how to be a good dad. Like I have no idea what you're doing here. There's questions and I'm lost and I'm confused. But instead of dwelling on that,

this week I chose to remember that there was a season about a decade ago that felt pretty similar. Where I was lost and purposeless and confused and had no idea what God wanted to do there and then he was faithful and he showed up and he called me to ministry and he gave me meaning and significance and a purpose.

Now, this season is marked by so many questions that I can't answer.

I don't know what you're teaching us. I don't know what lesson we're supposed to learn here. I don't know how it's all gonna work out. I don't know what to do when I wake up in the morning. Know, like I I don't know. There's so many unanswered questions. Then I thought back to three years ago when my wife Emily and I felt like we wanted to start a family. We wanted to step into this. We wanted to have a son or a daughter but we saw no path forward. We

didn't know how it was gonna happen. We didn't think it was gonna be possible and then I think back to God's faithfulness where he showed up and now we have a beautiful fifteen month old baby girl.

God, this season is painful in a way that I've never experienced.

Like there's days where I don't feel like getting out of bed, I know that my wife doesn't feel like getting out of bed, like this is painful in a way that we don't know how to even talk about but I remember a season not too long ago that was jarringly

painful in a similar way and I'm choosing in this moment to reflect on how you were faithful then and believe that you will be faithful now. That you brought us here to Arizona. You brought us to Cornerstone. You gave us a family around us who can rally around us and point us to Jesus. I'm trusting that you were faithful then and you'll be faithful now.

God,

I'm prone to forget. I'm a I'm a forgetful person and so I'm tempted to not remember anything that you've done in the past but right here and right now I'm looking back on all that you have done and believing for all that you can do in my life. What if we started to stack stones in remembrance cornerstone?

In the moments between here and there where we don't see it fully, we don't know what God is doing, what we can control is we look back and trust that if he was faithful then, he can be faithful now. And can I just tell you that when we do this,

before we know it, we're staring in the face of an altar of remembrance of how God has been faithful and how he's moved and how he's worked in the past and that will fuel us and give us hope for how he will be faithful and move and work in the future and it will give us courage to stand firm and trust him between here and there?

So a couple questions. Where is God asking you to step out in obedience right now?

Where have you been standing on the shore waiting for him to go first and he's like, no, no. I've told you what to do. Can you obey? Can you step out? Secondly, where have you stepped out but now it feels like God's not moving and you see resistance around you and so you're tempted to bail or build a boat?

What would it look like to stand firm? To trust that he's moving and working even if you can't see it. And then here's the last one cornerstone. What past faithfulness of God can you call to mind today? What does it look like for you to start stacking stones in remembrance believing that if he was faithful

and moved in the past and showed up for you that he has never failed, He will never fail and you can trust him for the future but you can also trust him right here between here and there. Between here and there we step out. We stand firm and we stack stones in remembrance. Amen? Let me pray for us. Hey God, we're grateful

that that is true of you. That's not a platitude. That's just not something catchy that we say on a Sunday morning. You have never failed and you will never fail. So would we cling to that this morning?

God, would you meet every soul in here exactly where they are? Would you tell them what it looks like to step out in obedience, trusting that you are good on your promise?

Bring to mind the areas where they've been standing still thinking that's the right call, but you're calling them to step out. And then God, when they do, would you meet them there and give them the ability and the willingness to stand firm and trust that you're moving even if they can't see it yet.

And then God, before we walk out of those doors, would we become a people who call to mind the ways that you've moved and been so so good to us in the past and would that inform how we trust you in the future and in the in between? God, love you. Jesus, we praise you. It's in your mighty name we pray. Amen.

Amen. Cornerstone, I love you so much. If you have any needs for prayer, come on down. Our team would love to pray with you. We will see you next Sunday.