Church. What a day already it's been. Come on, what a day to be in God's house, huh, I mean, I'm just saying that's pretty special to have that kind of response in terms of baptisms and people making this decision to follow Jesus. I mean, I was thinking like I'm over. I'm just overjoyed, I'm so thankful Prayers are being answered in this house and I just wanna just lean in just before I preach, like, if you, we'll have, we just got brand new invite cards that we brought in just for you, because I think what's happening here is too good to keep to ourself and so, just as a way of extending an opportunity, you can bring it to the coffee shop, into the marketplace at your office, the water cooler, while you're walking on the street. Just have some cards with you to invite people in, because man, god is moving and we don't want to be an interruption to what's happening. We want to be just the catalyst and the ambassador to what the Holy Spirit is doing in this house. So, come on, just lean in and get people here with you that need Jesus close to you but far from God. Right, and we're gonna see those experiences.

And, man, I was shedding a tear, which would be a surprise to some of you Shedding a tear this morning watching people be baptized, because I've heard their stories, I've seen them invest their lives in small groups and just to see the transformation in their lives, in their families. Hey, listen, we're on our way to our best year yet, right Four months down and, man, I want to just say God, show me how good it can get, show me how good it can get. God, listen, I'm ready to preach God's word. Are you ready to receive it? Today? The year was 2024, and it was a Sunday. I know this for a fact because a little thing in the fall was October 2024, and it was a Sunday evening. Because on Sunday evenings there's a little thing called Sunday night football. Sunday evenings there's a little thing called Sunday Night Football, and I think the game, if I remember correctly, it was the Dallas Cowboys versus Pittsburgh Steelers. So an iconic matchup.

And you know I'm a fan of sport, of all kind of sport. I love sports, I love watching sports, and it's nothing to have a game on in the background of whatever else is going on and me kind of like dual multitasking. Whatever else is going on and me kind of like dual multitasking. I think we had some people in the house and we're watching the game and it cut to a commercial which I thought might be. I'm a marketing major and so it might be one of my favorite commercials. I've seen Nike's had some good commercials, apple has had some good commercials, but this was a Honda commercial and it was so powerful as I watched it because the narrator did something powerful. He said a script and then he flipped the script and it really changed words that seem like defeating words into words of powerful victory. In fact, we have it right now for you to watch it.

So hey, check it out my dreams the more I seem to learn, the more I seem to lose. I want to carry on, but not today. This is the point. I give up, but not today. I want to carry on. The more I seem to lose, the more I seem to learn. My dreams will destroy my doubts. You will see me at the top. This is the last time you won't remember my name.

Amen, amen, powerful, powerful when the script will get flipped. And what I know is this is that is the year that I was reminded that if I'm still living, god's not done, and what might seem like words of defeat around my life, god can actually flip it for his glory and for my good. Hey, why don't you just lean over to your neighbor and just say hey, don't call it a comeback, and the one you've been ignoring all service, bump them and say God's about to flip the script. Jesus, stop the script. Jesus, stop the clock, stop the clock. That's why we only have one service, because we can just carry on for a little extra. Some of you have been asking when we're going to two services, and we are. It will be September 7th, coming out of the summer birthday weekend. We're going to turn 13, 12,. No 12, 2012 to 2025 is 13. It's going to be our 13th birthday. Into the teen years, everybody and teenagers do things twice as nice, and so we're going to go to two services.

Here we are in week two of our series Don't Call it A Comeback, and last week we leaned in on the idea that we don't call it a comeback, it's a calling back. It's a calling Because it's not about how many times we fall. It's what we do when we fall and when we get back up and we get going again. That is the space of right standing for our life Not that we fall, but that we get back up. Do you see this? Look at in the key verse, proverbs 24 and 16,. It says for though the righteous fall seven times, they rise again. What makes us righteous? The blood of Jesus, the work he accomplished on the cross and our willingness to stand back up when we fall. It's not being perfect. It doesn't take perfection to be righteous, it just takes a heart that says I'm not going to stay down. Rejoice, not against me, o my enemies. When I fall, I shall arise. All right, I'm going to try not to get too excited today. Hey, we all fall down, but we get back up, we get back up. Tell your neighbor, we get back up.

So this week, here's my thought for this week the setback is not a death sentence, it's a divine setup. The setback is not a death sentence, it's a divine setup. The setback is not a death sentence, it's a divine setup. God doesn't write tragedies without flipping the final chapter into triumph. And I'm going to tell you today you're not here by accident in this house, but also you're not where you're at in your life by accident, and don't discount the fact that God knows exactly where you are. He knows where you are. In fact, my spiritual father used to say does it ever occur to you that nothing ever occurs to God? It's not a surprise where you're at and God's just waiting for the right moment. He doesn't deal in drama, he deals in deliverance, he deals in reformation, he deals in restoration and he is flipping the script in your life for what seemed like defeat will be victory. You're being positioned for purpose.

So how do we go from a setback to a setup? Because the Bible declares that God can make all things beautiful in its time. So even the ugly spots of our life can become beautiful in God's hands. But I'm gonna tell you we have a part to play. Sometimes y'all go so quiet. It's like I'm waiting for like a kickback and then you're like just you're gonna say you gotta give, give me better, preach, better preach, better PC. So check this out. Here's, here's our spot in turning a setback into a setup, because we can all agree that the promises of God are yes and amen, through Jesus, that he's never failed, that he's always faithful, that he provides a way when there is no way. He is the miracle worker, the promise keeper, the way maker, and even when we can't see it, he's working in our life. We can all agree about that. So, if that's true, that means God will do what he said he will do.

But there's something I have to do to turn us back to a setup. Are you ready? The first thing is this you must recognize what you've neglected. So this is one of those. The vacuum's coming into the room. It's going to like get on our feet a little bit. We might feel like I'm stepping on your toes, but it's because we need to keep moving forward and we need to make sure everybody goes with us.

So you need to recognize what you've been, what you've neglected. You might say it like this we need to be mindful. Before God can rebuild something, you must recognize what's been ignored, overlooked and left unchecked. You cannot fight. Well, let me just say this what are the things that we overlook and neglect in our life? Some of us? We neglect our prayer life. We neglect the purity commitment that we've made. We've neglected passion.

And I'm going to tell you you cannot fight a public battle with a private prayer life on pause. Some of you wonder why the battle is so tough. It's because the time you should be spending in private prayer you're investing and neglecting. You're investing in something else. You're neglecting your own private prayer. And we're going to agree with you. We're going to stand with you, we're going to pray with you, we're going to believe with you and believe for you. But there is a part you play. You can't neglect the private prayer time because life is going to hit you. Sometimes life hits us like a freight train and sometimes life hits us like a quiet whisper and what seemed like it wouldn't be that big of a deal hits us harder than we thought.

But here's the truth. Jesus never promised a painless life. He promised his presence, filled within the pain. It's going to be painful at times, but that doesn't mean God's not there. He actually is close to the broken. He's close to the ones that are down and out. He's even closer when we mention his name.

So he says this in John 16, 33, the world will have its problems and setbacks, but take heart, because I've overcome the world. So he's already accomplished victory for us. We know there's gonna be difficult days. We know that we're gonna face pain. But don't count pain as the miss, that God's missing in the environment. Just because we're having pain doesn't mean God's not there. So we've all had these setbacks dreams that have been deferred, relationships that have crumbled, ministry moments that have fallen flat. God, I'm the chief. I live in those moments. I'm like if you knew how many Sundays I want to keep driving until I ran out of gas and start over. But thank God, it's not all on me and it's not all on you. We just gotta get back up and keep going, because God is listen.

The setbacks in your life don't define you unless you hand them the pen. Amen, amen, amen, amen. But God says let me rewrite the story. He's not intimidated by your failure. He's intent to finish the work.

Look at Hebrews 12 and 2. It says this looking unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith, for who the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Looking to Jesus, the author and the finisher, god is going to write the story. In fact, in Psalms 139, verses 15 through 18, my favorite passage of scripture. It actually says that God has written down every day of our life before we've lived one of them. So don't give the setback the pen to write the story. Let the pen stay in the hand of the author and the finisher of your life, because he knows how to turn it for your good. He knows. Tell your neighbor, he knows.

So setbacks are just divine disguises for setups, because God is about to flip the script in your life. So you have to recognize what's been neglected. The second thing you have to do is you have to repent of what you've hidden. You might say you need to. If the first step is to be mindful, the next step is to be intentional. That repentance is not just confessing, it's confronting what's been buried. You can't conquer what you cover. You can't conquer what you cover. You can't heal what you hide. And you can't walk in power while walking in pretense. Or you might say it like this God can't fix what you won't face face.

Let me take you to the battle of AI. That's not artificial intelligence. It's actually a city in the Bible. It's a small city, but I want to tell you, if you overlook the small things in your life, they will have devastating consequences. Joshua has just seen the walls of Jericho fall down, not by lifting a sword, but by lifting a shout. And they walk the walls, they shout, the walls fall down, the city's in chaos and God had commanded because this was the first battle on this side of the promised land, all their work until getting to the Jordan River had been on the other side, on the promises coming side of the promise, like it's not here yet. But on this side of Jericho we're in the promised land and God sets up for Jericho to be the first city to fall, as God allows his people to start inhabiting the place that he's promised them Uniquely. Let me tell you this not in your notes that God did not move the people out in advance of his people moving in, because he said if he moved the people out too early, the wilderness would overtake it and it would be too hard for God's people to get in there and set up camp. Isn't that interesting that God will keep your enemy in the place where you think you belong until you're ready to conquer it? That might be a whole nother series. So they conquer Jericho.

And everything God said and again, this is principle. Remember the Bible is principle. Concepts and promises, patterns that have repeated themselves from Old Testament to New Testament. The pattern really stays the same, even though Jesus Christ once and for all made the sacrifice for our sins. It was the same pattern of the Old Testament. But this is what happens.

God says this is the first city in the promised land. And what do we do with first? We give it to God, the tithe, the first 10%. We don't just give 10% of our income, we give the first 10% of our income because the first belongs to God. So God says give me the entire city. Destroy the city. Don't take the gold, don't take the spoils of war, don't take any of it. Destroy it all.

Save one family, rahab's family, because she saved the spies back in the day. So that was the only family that survived Jericho. By the way, rahab found herself in the lineage of Jesus. So there's another whole sermon series that might be Mother's Day. And Mama said knock you out. So we're on this side of Jericho. God says destroy everything. They didn't even raise a sword, they only lifted their voices. Victory was fresh, confidence was high. And look at Joshua 6 and 27. So the Lord was with Joshua and his fame spread out through, spread throughout all the country. It's that last line, this is the last time. You won't remember my name, not for my name's sake, but for his name. Don't remember me for me, remember me for the audience of one making Jesus famous.

But that next territory to take was Ai. It's pronounced Ai, and it's interesting to me that it was a small town, a simple battle, but it became a bitter defeat. But it became a bitter defeat. They sent some guys to check out the land and they were like, hey, it's such a small town, we don't need to send the entire army, let's just send 3,000 people to fight this battle. I mean, there's millions of Israelites at this time, there's 30,000, 300,000. You name how many warriors you want and they're there, but we're just gonna send 3,000, 300,000,. You name how many warriors you want and they're there, but we're just gonna send 3,000, because, man, we took Jericho just by screaming.

So it became bitter defeat. Why was that? Was it a lack of strategy? No. Was it a lack of strength? Nope, it was because of hidden sin. You see, in Jericho, when Joshua passed on God's command to destroy and to just burn it all up, no one gets out, except Rahab and her family, don't take anything. Achan saw something. He saw something, he wanted something, he took something and he hid something. He saw something, he wanted something, he took something and he hid something. Joshua 7, 4, 6,.

After the battle at Ai, it says, the hearts of the people melted in fear and became like water because they couldn't understand how did we have such a great victory, such a public victory, and then such a humiliating defeat? It's because something was hidden. Let me just tell you this Sin that is hidden is sin that destroys. Jesus died on a cross and shed his blood one time to cover our past sins, our present sins and our future sins. But you know what? It will be hard for the blood of Jesus to find the sin that's hidden.

Joshua tried to strategize his way around what only surrender could solve. He leaned on strength when he should have leaned into the spirit, because yesterday's oil will not win today's war. And I know we love the God of comfort. We love the God. He is the God of comfort. The Holy Spirit is our comforter and we can be comforted, but we cannot miss the importance of the God who commands. And when God's comforting, that's great, but when God commands, we better pay attention and not conceal anything around us.

Joshua 7, 10,. God says to Joshua he says stand up, because Joshua's on his face crying about the loss, about the defeat. And God says, hey, stand up, get off your face, get back up and go conquer the land. We're going to do it the right way. We're going to do it the right way. Get off your face, get into position, confront what's been concealed, because if you won't confront it, you'll never conquer it.

So he had to go find what the problem was in the camp and the Holy Spirit revealed who the problem was. And this is where we need to be sensitive, because I'm going to tell you, not one person in this room has the capacity, the space or the authority to point a finger at anybody else, but only to look in the mirror at ourself and say Lord, create a clean heart in me and renew a right spirit in me, and if there is anything hidden in my heart, let it be revealed in front of you, the God that can fix it. We go to God for salvation, we go to one another for healing, but listen, we're not here to point our fingers at one person because, listen, I hate sin and I hate that there might be sin in your life, but I've got too much sin in my life to be pointing my finger at you. Thank you Akin's confession. I'm gonna tell you.

When Akin finally confessed he actually God opened up and just the entire Achan's entire tent and surrounding area was gone. You say that's mean. Well, there was a command and somebody neglected the command and concealed the sin. Listen, we're going to sin. The Bible says all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. And I know it's not popular to preach about sin. So I'm sorry, not sorry Because I think I'm here on a mandate today that God's about to do in you what you've only dreamed about and only asked for and imagined. And I'm just going to tell you this he can't do it if you're concealing something. So listen, there's no shame in coming to an altar and repenting, because if we don't repent of it, we can't be relieved of it. Achan's confession was brutal but necessary. Achan's confession was brutal but necessary. You've got to dig up what you've buried before God will build it. So you have to recognize what you've neglected, you have to repent for what you've hidden. And I'm just going to tell you there's no one in this room my mom's watching online, so my mom does not have to worry about this statement but all the rest of us? We have to be honest about what's been hidden in our life. So recognize what you've neglected, repent of what has been concealed. And the third one rise up with what you've learned, because God never puts us to a spot without the capacity to build us back up. God never lets you stay down unless you decide you're going to stay down. The right standing comes by getting back up and moving forward with what you learned. You might say be encouraged, be mindful. There are things I need to pay attention to Be. What was the second one? I was so good I forgot it. Be intentional, because there's going to be things that you might be hiding, that you didn't really mean to hide in your life, but you just got so good at covering it up you forgot it. But be encouraged, because where you are now, you don't have to stay. This is where God can flip the script, because God doesn't waste pain, he uses it. Amen. You can rise up with wisdom and authority and the fire of God in your life, because the ground that broke you can now become the ground you own. God told Joshua get back up and go conquer. Ai it's yours. It's yours, now that you've cleaned out what needed to be cleaned out, go forward and conquer. And that's what I'm declaring to you. If you'll be mindful, if you'll be intentional, you can be encouraged, because the victory in your life is coming and the ground that, once buried you is going to be the ground that you own. What tripped you up will be where you trample man. We used to sing a song when I was a kid. I went to the enemy's camp and I took back what he stole from me and we'd say it again I took back what he stole from me and we'd say it one more time I took back what he stole from me and we'd get to a spot because the enemy is under my feet. If you'll be mindful and be intentional, you can stand on top of what used to just really take you out. The devil is under your feet because you're not going back to where you were. You're getting ready to step into where you were born to be. After repentance, after exposure, comes restoration. Joshua 8.1, don't be afraid and do not be discouraged. I have delivered them into your hands. I've delivered the king of AI into your hands. The same battlefield that shamed you will be the soil where your breakthrough springs up. Did you hear that? Let me say that, for clarity's sake the same battlefield that shamed you will be the soil where your breakthrough springs up. This is what God's saying to you today. I said we wouldn't have a comeback. I think I'm lying. Your calling is not canceled. Tell your neighbor, your calling's not canceled. Your purpose is not paused. Your future is not finished. God's about to flip the script. Hey, let me ask you what's your AI? Not your chat GPT. What's knocked the breath out of you this week, this month? Remember those declarations we made to start the year. What's trying to take that out of you? Maybe it's betrayal, rejection, hidden failure. No one saw, but you'll never forget. Maybe it's betrayal, rejection, hidden failure. No one saw, but you'll never forget. See that, see how that works. No one knows it, no one saw it, but you can't forget it until you face it. God says I'm not done. You know what he told Joshua. He told Joshua lift up the javelin, lift up, lift up that weapon, and as long as you hold that up, your army will defeat the enemy. God's saying listen, I'm not done. The javelin's in your hand. Victory is in your hand. Deliverance in your hand, healing in your hand. Deliverance in your hand, healing in your hand, forgiveness, forgiveness, joshua 8, 18. Hold it out toward Ai, the javelin that is in your hand, for into your hand I will deliver this city. The difference between the first time they went to Ai and the second time, god's presence was leading the way. So how do you get from setback to set up to a spirit-filled and spirit-led victory? You recognize what you've neglected, you repent of what you've hidden. You rise with what you've learned because, hey, we don't call it a comeback, we call it revival. We call it revival. Bitterness may bury you, but faith will raise you. You're not done, you're not too far gone, you're not too broken. Your setback is just a comma because God's not finished writing. So be encouraged, because God turns graves into gardens, defeats into destinies and setbacks into setups. Don't wait, don't settle, don't stay down, stand back up, face it, let God fix it. Don't call it a comeback. Don't stay down, stand back up, face it, let God fix it. Don't call it a comeback, because the champion in you has been there all the time, just waiting to be released. Can you receive that word today? Amen.