Stop & Start | Pastor Chad Veach

The blood of Jesus was enough for me. The empty tomb is enough for me. If Jesus is enough for you today, why don't you just clap and praise Him because I'm setting my life apart not so that I can get a greater promised land, but I want to step into God's promised plan. Give Him a shout of praise. If that's your heart's cry today. Praise God. If you have a Bible with you or a cell phone, go to the book of Joshua. Go to Joshua chapter number three, verse number seven. I'm gonna preach in just a moment. Can we just clap and thank God for the worship teams at all the locations? Come on, you got some of the best worship in the world. My goodness, unbelievable. We're about to take off. Like something about the Bible, amen. I'm so happy to be here. My name is Chad Veach in Spanish, Chad Beach, and come on, I'm half Mexican, I can say that. And I am a married man, any married folks here today, we're the married people at, yep. (laughs) That's not a painful. Any happily married people in the house today. Praise the Lord. My wife and I are celebrating this year,

18 years of marriage. She's blessed and we have four kids together. I wanna show you a photo of my family. Let me put up this photo real fast. These are my four kids and my wife, Sayyama Julia. Look at my kids right here. This is my oldest daughter, Georgia, right here. I'll tell you about her in a second. Winston just turned 13 years old on Friday. This is Mav the Sav right there in the sweater. He's about to be, or he just turned 11 last week. And look at the youngest. (audience laughs) Extend your hands. Jesus, we just pray a miracle. Deliverance. But let me tell you about my baby girl, Georgia, my oldest, when she was born, she was born with a rare brain condition. The simple term is called smooth brain. The medical term is called listencephaly for whatever reason her brain just never formed, just never develop. And when she was born, the doctor said, your daughter, she's never gonna walk. She's never gonna talk. She's never gonna never gonna never gonna never gonna. And they also said she'll never lived this many years. They predicted her death. But I wanna tell you, my daughter is a freshman

in high school. She's about to turn 15 years old. Clap today if you believe that a doctor will never have the last say. Come on, give me your faith. If you believe that Jesus is the true and great physician. Come on, y'all help me get some faith. I'm believing for my girl to get healed today. Every night I lay hands on my daughter's brain and I declare healing over this brain. All she needs is some foods to grow. What are our foods to God? I'm believing that today my daughter's gonna get up out the bed, walk into the kitchen, make a sandwich and give me a fist pound. Come on, clap for my baby girl, Georgia. So that's where we're coming from. And we're thankful to be here today. Open your Bible, Joshua, chapter three. I'm gonna read in just a moment, but I wanna give you some context into our reading today. This is the Israelites. Remember they were in bondage in Egypt. They were in slavery. And God brought them out of Egypt. He used a mighty man named Moses. Brought them through. Remember the Red Sea on dry ground? All these miracles like fresh manna and fresh shoes

and pillars and clouds and all these amazing things. And Moses passes away. God raises up a new leader, Joshua. Can we just thank God today for the youth section today? Can we just clap God for the next generation? Come on, I just believe God always goes from glory to glory. So he goes from Moses to Joshua. Joshua is about to enter into the Promised Land. He's about to take them where they've been trying to go for over 40 years. This is like the cowboys trying to get back. (congregation laughing) Who am I preaching to today? I thought the holly goes. Yeah. This is so much fun. Right before they get into Jericho, God has them stop so they understand what's about to transpire. Watch what he says to Joshua, Joshua chapter three verse seven. And the Lord said to Joshua, today I will begin to exalt you in the eyes today right down the title. It's called stop and start. I just love this about God. Sometimes God, before He allows you to enter into your breakthrough, before He allows you to enter into your promise, God will say stop so you understand and then start. I just love this because a lot of us, we're just like, I just want to start. And a lot of times God's like, you need to stop. With God, remember, with God, we go really, really slow. So when it's right, we can go really, really fast. So God, I often will say stop, let's gather ourselves and then when it's time, we're going to start. I'll never forget when we had our girl Georgia, when we had our first baby. I mean, when you have your first baby, I mean, you're excited. We went out, we bought the crib,

we got the car seat, we got the stroller. You know, these days you go shopping for a stroller. You do that Amazon reviews, somebody say amen. We got everything ready, we got a room ready, we painted, we got this right for this miracle baby. And I'll never forget, when we're about to have our first baby, Julia was due any moment, any day, while I was preaching on the Thursday night to our young adult meeting, we were living in Seattle, Washington. And all of a sudden, right before, or sorry, right when I get done with preaching, I come off stage and this sweet volunteer says to me, you got to hurry up and get home. Your wife just went into labor. I said, oh, here we go, baby. So I get in my car and I drive so fast and I get up to our house and I park my car, run through the driveway, I get to our house, I come inside and I look at my wife and I'm like, is it going, is it happening? And she's like, it's about to go down. And she's like, it's happening right now. I go, okay, what do you need me to do? What do you, I'll do anything. What do you need me to do? She's like, okay, I ordered you a pizza. I need you to eat this pizza and I need you to take a nap. So hold on, just say that again. I need you to eat pizza and I need you to take a nap. I said, we need to have more kids. This is awesome. And I just love this because she's like, you want to start. But before we can start, you need to stop. God oftentimes allows you to have a say law moment, allows you to pause for station identification so you can understand the gravity and the weight of what you're about to experience from His hand. Come on, clap today if you're down to wait on the timing of the Lord to understand what God's about to do. Oh, the first thing that you got to understand about God, right down number one today, favor comes from the Lord. He says to Joshua, Joshua, today I am about to exalt you in front of all of Israel. Today I am about to make your name great. Today I'm about to allow your star to rise. I want to tell you that if you self-exalt, you're going to have to self-sustain. But when God promotes you, when God exalts you, when God scales your business, no man can cancel what God has said in motion. Promotion does not come from you. Promotion comes from the Lord. Oh, I love this read here on the screen. Put up Psalm 75 for promotion come at neither from the east. It doesn't come from the west. It doesn't come from the south. But God is the judge. He put it down one and he seteth up another. I watched my whole life. God takes some people and exalt them beyond their wildest dreams. And I've watched God do the thing that none of us want to experience and that is God has had to set down and humble another. Remember, Jesus teaches us that if you

humble yourself under the mighty hand of God, that God will exalt you. But if you exalt yourself, God will be forced to humble you. I don't know about you, but I don't want to force the Lord to have to humble my life. I'd rather gladly choose to humble myself under the hand of God and allow God to promote and exalt my life. I just want to remind you, Shoreline City, that the reason why we're experiencing what we're experiencing from San Antonio to Frisco, Oak Cliff, Guatemala. The reason why God is doing great things is because Pastor Earl and Onika are so humble. These are humble people. I met Pastor Earl on a basketball court 15 years ago and we're on the basketball court. Do you know what it's like to try and guard Pastor Earl? This man is crossing me up, hitting jump shots in my eye and telling me, you're doing a great job, man you're doing a great job hey you're playing You keep scorching me. You're doing a great job, man. You're doing, no, you're lying. But why do you think God keeps elevating and exalting Pastor Erlenoneka in Shoreline City? It's not because they've asked God, exalt me. They've asked God, Lord, as I choose to humble myself, will you let your kingdom come and let your will be done through my life? Clap today if you're willing to get humble under the mighty hand of God and allow God to do great things in you and allow God to do great things through you. When you get the favor of God on your life, it doesn't matter where you go, the hand of God is on you. They threw Joseph into a pit, favor still was on him. They put him in Potiphar's house, the favor of God was on him. They put him in a prison sale, the favor of God. They put him with Pharaoh in his kingdom.

When the favor of God is on your life, it'll touch your business, it'll touch your children, it'll touch your family, it'll touch Dallas. Clap if you're willing for the favor of God to land on your life today. So you can say it's not about me, but it's all about you. He says Joshua buckle up, buddy. You're about to experience. Some of us need to stop planning on failure when God is getting ready to plan on your success. My Bible says he does not have plans for your calamity. He has plans for your prosperity. He says Joshua, remember when I told Abraham that I'll make your name great? And I'll bless you. I'm about to bless you, Josh. Get ready for my blessing. You're gonna walk into rooms and people are gonna go. A few years ago, I was preaching in Dallas and I invited my little brother and my father to come with me and my little brother. He's like, I'll come only if we get to go to this one barbecue place in Dallas that I really wanna go to. He's a barbecue guy's got all the equipment. He's got all the recipes. He's just, he's a barbecue guy. And I love barbecue. So I'm like, absolutely, let's go. So we go to this spot here in Dallas and my brother, he does all the ordering

and he knows what to do and we're sitting there and we're eating me, my dad, and my brother. And my brother, I watched him look over and he sees somebody and he gets starstruck. You ever see somebody get starstruck? But they're just like. And so I'm like, who just walked in? You know, and so I look over and I'm like, all I see is a dude. So he's just like, and I see, he gets up and he walks over the guy and he goes, I know who you are. I say, man, family is weird. And he sees the guy, can I take a photo with you? And the guy's like, sure, it's a little creeped out but he's like, sure, you know. So I get up and I grab my brother's phone and I go to take a photo, my brother's like this. (congregation laughing) - God's saying to Joshua, I'm about to make you a big deal. You're not a big deal if you got to tell people, I'm a big deal. But when God promotes your life, I'm telling you nobody can stand in the way when the favor and the blessing of God hits your life. Clap if you're willing to be humble in the eyesight of the Lord. This is why Jesus, come on, Jesus was exalted and given the name that is above all names, why? 'Cause he humbled himself

even to the point of death on the cross. So he says to Joshua, get ready. I'm about to make you a big deal in the eyes of all of Israel. After he says this, he leads them across the Jordan River. They go through, just as they went through the Red Sea, now they go through the Jordan River. This is a miracle in itself. God stopped the water. They cross over the Jordan. They're this close to the promised land. When they cross the promised land, God says to Joshua, I want you to go to Home Depot and I want you to find these massive rocks and I want you to set up 12 memorial stones. I want you to just take a moment to set up these stones so that in the future generations, when your kids see these stones and they ask you, what are these stones doing here? I want you to testify of the faithfulness and the goodness of your God. I want you to tell your children, children, God has been faithful. God has been generous. God has been kind. Come on, is there anybody here today that has experienced the faithfulness of our God? The reason why God is asking Joshua to set up these memorial stones is because most of us experience one miracle and we go on to the next one.

God does one great thing. We're like, all right, next. No, that was good, God, but like next. We get the spirit of DJ Khaled, another one. Whoa, that was great, God, thank you so much. Next. [BLANK_AUDIO] I want you to learn how to testify that God has been better to us than we deserve and greater to us than we can imagine." In fact, write down point number two today before you ask God for your next miracle. Let's thank God for your last one. Some of us, if we get married, we're like, "Whoa, I'm married. I need a baby." God's like, "Hold on. This is, you were on the Tinder app for five years. Let's just thank God that you found somebody. This is like finding a ram in the thicket." What is it about us that when God does something great, we're already on to the next thing? God does something big in our life. We're like, "Thank you Jesus next." We have this prayer meeting on Thursdays in our church, and I was in prayer meeting last Thursday, and I started to believe God for things in our church and believe God for the deliverance of my youngest child and believe God for things in my life. I heard God speak to me as I was contending for more. I heard God say to me, "You have any way to thank me for the last thing I did." Because the week before somebody, a church, felt led by God to give our church $50,000. It's not in our account yet, but by faith we send them the wire instructions, Hallelujah, praise God. It's on the way of faith. It's all there in IOUs. Come on somebody. And I felt God say, "Hey, before we get to the next thing, can we just go back and can you praise me for the last thing?" We're so fast to move on. God set up the stones, he says, "So you can pause and praise and thank me for my faithfulness and my goodness." I love this Psalm. Put up Psalm 113. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord, you his servants. Praise the name of the Lord. Let the name of the Lord be praised both now and forevermore from the rising of the sun to the place where it sets the name of the Lord be praised. Before we ask God for the next one, can we clap today and thank God for all the miracles He's done in your family? Come on all the miracles He's done in your finances? Come on, if God's been good to you before you ask Him for anything. Come on, let's thank God for

everything. Before we petition, why don't we take a moment and praise Him? Come on, if God brought you through the Jordan, if God pulled you out the pit, if God called out your name, if God broke that chain, if God wrote that check, if God healed your marriage, if God touched your body, if God helped your business, if God did something for you that you couldn't do for yourself, why don't you lift up a shout of thanksgiving and a shout of praise? He said, "Set up the stones. Set up the stones so you don't just go on next." Next miracle, great, that's all. Some of us, we minimize the Jordan, like, oh, it's just Jordan. No, we got to pause and praise. Oh, I love this. Put it on the screen. The Old Testament, they set up stones to remember God's faithfulness, but in the New Testament, we receive communion to remember God's salvation and God's unconditional love. That's why we receive communion in the Old Testament. It was about remembering through stones in the New Testament, we received the bread and the cup to remember his unconditional love. I love receiving communion. Jesus said, "Do this in remembrance of me." And you take the cup and you take the bread. I'm a pastor's kid. I love communion Sunday because today's era, you know, we get to you peel the top and you got that little bread and then you peel the top. You know, I'm old school. When I was growing up, we passed Jesus. Come on, anybody grew up in church around here. I grew up in church. Jesus was amongst us. And I love communion Sunday because of all the juice that nobody drank. Me and my sister were in the back like, "I know it was the blood. Must have been the blood." That made me laugh too. I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Guys, I'm working, okay? Stop it. In the New Testament, we pause and remember the cross of Christ that I cannot purchase or earn my way into being good with God. That he made him who knew no sin to become sin for me. That I might become the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. I'm thankful, I'm in the New Testament that Jesus chose me over himself and he gave up his life so that I might not perish, but through his grace I might have everlasting life. Clap if you're grateful for salvation and the unconditional love of Jesus. Come on, I think Jesus can get a lot of praise than that. We remember his faithfulness, we remember his goodness. So the first thing he says is, I'm going to favor you because of your humility. Your humility, Joshua was Moses' assistant, he was the aide, he was the caregiver,

he was taking care of Moses, he said, I saw humility, I know I can exalt you. He brought him through the dry ground of the Jordan. He said, let's say law and pause and live a life of gratitude. Then right before they're about, this is like when the Seahawks were on the one-yard line, we're about to go back to back Super Bowl champions, Marshall Lynch's right here, we're right there. The devil's a liar. Sorry, my trauma came out for a second, I apologize. And right before they enter the promised land, watch what God says. Put it on the screen next verse, Joshua chapter 3 verse 5. And Joshua told the people, consecrate yourselves for tomorrow, the Lord will do amazing things among you. Right down number three, before you conquer, consecrate. Consecrate your lives for tomorrow, God's about to do great things in your life. But he says before you enter in, you got to see all of us, we just want to conquer. But God in heaven, he wants you to consecrate. Just so we're working from the same definition, put up consecrate on the screen. To consecrate means to be set apart from ordinary or sinful use. So you can be devoted to God for his purposes. So I no longer use my body, just so I can indulge or for pleasure, I don't live for pleasure, I live for purpose. I don't live for me, I live for mission. I don't live for the glory of my name, I live for the glory of his name. I no longer live to get, I no live to give. I don't live for to see what I'm going to receive. I'm looking to be a blessing, looking to be an encouragement. I want to consecrate my life all for the glory and the purposes of God. Is there anybody here today that's willing to be set apart from the world so you can live for something bigger than yourself? You gotta be careful, man, you gotta be careful because a lot of people, they want to consecrate so they can get a bigger blessing. I am going, you ever meet a super Christian? I love super Christians, man. Super Christians are just like I read the Bible, and I pray, and I tithe.

I am super, so super church and super, look at my hoodie, so I like today. And I know the more consecrated I get, the bigger blessing I'm going to have. It's not what he's saying. I do not consecrate so I can get something. I consecrate because I have something. I don't consecrate for something. I consecrate from something. God doesn't have to do another thing for me, for me to set my life apart. God doesn't have to give me something else for me to be set apart from the world. I'm consecrated because the cross was enough for me. The blood of Jesus was enough for me. The empty tomb is enough for me. If Jesus is enough for you today, why don't you just clap and praise him? Because I'm setting my life apart not so that I can get a greater promised land, but I want to step into God's promised plan. Give him a shout of praise if that's your heart's cry today. Oh, put it on the screen. God's not saying, if you consecrate yourself, I'll give you a miracle tomorrow. He's saying, because I love you, because of the promised plan, your response should be consecration and obedience. It's not, it's not, oh man, I'm just, I'm going to, oh, pastor Earl, this stuff. Okay, pastor Earl, sick, this is a lot. It's a lot. But I'll work out with somebody from church. I don't even work out. God. Laundry room, I don't do laundry. Okay, I'll do it, but only if I better. I'm tithing today. Oh, I better get more money. I do not tithe today so I can get. I tithe because I got. I got the cross of Christ. I got the blood of Jesus. I got a second chance. I got a new begin. Come on. He picked me up. He turned me around. He placed my feet on. I thank God. And some of us are like, "Oh, I'm gonna, I'm gonna do, oh, oh." Maybe. Okay. Well, it's your birthday. Fine. We're gonna party like it's your birthday. Sib communion like it's your birthday, I guess. No, no. God has been good enough to me. Jesus plus nothing equals everything. He doesn't have to do another thing for me to set my life. I don't want what the world has to offer. I

don't want to live a life of indulgence. I don't want one foot in the church and one foot in the world. I don't want to live for part of my life and part God's life. I'm all in on living for Jesus Christ, heart, soul, mind and strength. Roman says it this way. Therefore, I urge you, my brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God. This is your true and your proper worship. Do not conform to the patterns of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then, then when you're consecrated, you'll be able to test and approve what God's will is. He is good, pleasing. What's the last word there? What's the last word there? Watch this. God's will is three things. It's good. It's pleasing and it's perfect, but you will never experience it until you get consecrated. I haven't said this in the other services because they couldn't handle. Finally, some mature Christians are here. Thank God. Thank God for the 1130. Holy cow. The 8 a.m., hoof. But did you know that he doesn't just say consecrate? If we keep reading, he also says, circumcise. In the Old Testament, there was a physical circumcision. In the New Testament, it's a heart circumcision. Before you enter in your promised land, cut out anything in your heart that doesn't please God. You think you're going to enter into God's best plan while you're still carrying that bitterness? You think God's going to let you walk in victory while you still haven't dealt with the things that are unseen? He says, consecrate. Tomorrow I'm going to do something. If somebody were to whisper in your ear today, you wouldn't even believe it. But he says, buckle up. Get ready. Stop planning on the worst things happening to you. The Bible says the Proverbs 31 woman, she looks at the future and she smiles because she knows if God be for me, who can be against me? Come on, clap if you believe God's got good things for your future. Worship team, come join me. So here they are, they're about to enter in. Chapter 5 verse 13, now when Joshua was near Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him with a drawn sword in his hand. Joshua went up to him and asked, "Are you for us? Before our enemies?" "Neither," he replied, "but as commander of the army of the Lord, I have now come." Then Joshua fell face down to the ground in reverence and he asked him, "What message does my Lord have for his servant?" And the commander of the Lord's army replied, "Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy." And Joshua did so. Last thing, right down this, faith steps are a daily decision. This

is daily, trusting God, looking to God. And as they got to Jericho and they were entering in, Joshua looks up and he sees a man with a drawn sword. Joshua comes up to the man and he says, "Sup, homes? Are you for us or against us, Vato?" (gentle music) Mi vida loca. For us, you're against us. The commander of the Lord's Army. He's neither. He's telling Joshua, "I have not shown up in your life, so you can recruit me under your team. I have shown up to remind you, you're on our team. And before I ever confront what's in front of you, I'm going to confront what's inside of you. Before you ever walk in your victory, you've got to remember that when God shows up, it's all about surrender. And so Joshua bows his face to the ground, and he says, "What message does the Lord have for his servant?" He said, "Take off your sandals. The place you're standing is holy ground. Oh, I just love what God's saying." He dealt with his humility. He dealt with his gratitude. He dealt with his character. Now he's dealing with his surrender. It reminds me of my Savior, Jesus, when he was in the Garden of Gethsemane, the night that he was betrayed, when he put his face low to the ground. And he said, "I don't want to go to the cross.

I don't want to die for the sins of the people, but nevertheless, not my will, but your will be done." Come on, clap today if you're willing to surrender your life to the Lord, our Savior. It's not about what we want. It's not about getting God on the our side. It's about reminding God, I'm on your team. It's about us surrendering to a bigger plan and a bigger calling. Come on, jump to your feet today. Let's pray, Jesus, we thank you for your grace. We thank you for a stop Sunday before we can start Monday. We pause today to recognize we would never have the favor on our life without you, Jesus. We pause to say thank you for all the Jordan rivers you've brought us through. Thank you for all the miracles you've done in my family. Lift a hand if God's been good to you. God, I thank you and I praise you for we've seen it from time to time, age to age, generation to generation. We give you glory and honor. Great things God has done. We consecrate our life. If you're willing to set your life apart, just lift your hand a little higher. Lord, I set my life apart. Lord, I'm willing to be a vessel. I'm willing to be a servant. I'm willing to do whatever you want.

I surrender to the God dream. I surrender to the God plan. Not my will be done, but your will be done. On earth as it is in heaven, I pray that you'd use me beyond my wildest dreams. Use me beyond my wildest imagination. And now I prophesy and I declare over Shoreline City a greater generation and a greater day is coming. I thank you that God, you've done great things in this church, but I believe greater days are still to come. We declare that we'll give you all the honor and all the glory and all the worship in the future in Jesus' name and everybody said together. Come on, traffic, give a prayer. Amen, amen, amen, amen, amen. Hey, we're not dismissed just yet. I want to thank God for sending Pastor Chad to come and preach to us today. (congregation applauding) How many of you encourage today? Encourage and challenge. He's talking about consecration, circumcision, and we're smiling. That's a gift. He's saying, go all in. Be fully devoted. Live your life not in the world and for God. Go all in for God. And God has graced Him in such a way to be able to say those things and us to be able to hear it.

And I pray that we respond. This is right in alignment where we've been the entire month of September. We're talking about all in and wholehearted devotion. This is where we have been. Thank God again for sending Pastor Chad to us. I'm just so, so thankful. Right in alignment, right in alignment. (congregation applauding) And I have received that prayer of blessing. Well, we're about to leave in just a second, but I know we have some friends here today that right now they're on their way to an eternally separated from God and living even on this earth separated from them. And God brought them here today to grab ahold of their heart so their eyes would be open and they would come to faith in Jesus Christ today. This is that moment. This is why we don't get up and leave right now. 'Cause we honor what the Lord is trying to do in a person's soul that has remedied. To remind you, just a moment, bow your head for just a moment. And if you're like, man, I'm good, then you ought to be praying for somebody in the room or an online who's not. This is our moment to join our collective faith together and pray that every lie of darkness would fall by the wayside and people that need to see the light of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. See it in this moment. If you're under the sound of my voice, you've never given your heart and your life to Christ.

You never made them first, you never made them number one. But you're saying today, I don't want to go my own way, I want to go the way of Jesus. I don't want to be first in my life. I want Jesus Christ to be first. Maybe you are following Christ, but you know you've slipped away. You've gone another direction. Someone used to turn backslides. You know it's time for you to return, to repent, to get off of your own path and get on the path of surrendering your heart and your life to Christ. If that's you, you've never given your life to Jesus. At one point in time, you didn't, you slipped away. And today you're saying I want to read and to keep my life to serving Him. On the count of three, I just want you to throw your hand in the air. Ready, one, two, three. Just throw your hand in the air. You're saying, yep, this is me, this is me, this is beautiful, this is beautiful. You would wait for you all day long, matter of fact, heaven has been calling on this moment. Heaven's been waiting for this moment for you right now. Heaven's been waiting for this moment. You've probably got an aunt or an uncle or a grandmother or a grandpa or a friend that's been praying for you. Just keep that hand up. You're saying, yep, this is me. This is me. I want to give my heart and my life to Christ today. I want to get off of my own path. I want to get on his path. This is so beautiful. I ask everyone to do me a favor. Every person put your hand over your heart if you would not mind. Now, when everyone repeat this prayer out loud after me, say, "Dear Jesus," I ask, you, to forgive me of all my sins. I admit I made mistakes, and today, I give you my heart. I give you my life. Give me the power to live for you in Jesus' name, amen and amen. Can we lift our heads up, cop our hands? Come on, church. (loud thud) [BLANK_AUDIO]