Participant: Hey everybody.

Welcome back to another episode of
the Breakthrough Church Podcast.

Great to be with you.

Uh, as always, have some
stories and testimonies of,

uh, how God is, is working.

Uh, you know, church planting
is, uh, a lot like, um, well.

I'm sure there's a lot of things
that are like this, but one way

to describe the journey of church
planting is from Exodus chapter.

Um, actually, lemme lemme pull it up.

I just, I just thought
about this earlier today.

I was like, oh, this is actually really
helpful way of thinking about things.

Um, in Exodus 17, it's after the
Israelites, um, were delivered from

Egypt by God through Moses and Aaron.

It says, all the congregation of
the people of Israel moved on from

the wilderness of sin by stages
according to the commandment

of the Lord, and camped at atu.

There was no water for
the people to drink.

Uh, I was thinking about that just today,
uh, before I jumped on to record this

and how that just so clearly describes
church planning in so many ways.

Um, first they're moving on from
the wilderness of sin by stages.

So there's this calling from the Lord to,
to Moses to go and lead the people out of.

Uh, slavery.

And so they've, they've left slavery and
you'd think everything would be good.

You are like, oh, we got
this call from the Lord.

This guy's delivered us.

His name's Moses and Aaron.

He is there.

They've delivered us.

Now we can move on.

Uh, and we can go into the next,
you know, I don't know, be free.

And I don't know what was in their
minds when they saw the Red Sea part

and they made it to the other side.

I'm sure there was.

Excitement and oh my goodness, the,
the Red Seas are parting and, and,

and we're headed into all God has
for us the promise of God, like the

inheritance, the land, like I can't wait
to get through the Red Sea and, and be

finally rid of slavery and, and Egypt.

I can't wait to be done with
it into all God has for us.

And they get to the other side
and it's literally wilderness.

There's just dirt.

There's nothing there.

And Moses, God bless him.

Wow.

What a tough, tough thing to lead through
because you probably have excitement

and just awe at seeing God deliver
them in a miraculous way, and all of a

sudden they're in the wilderness of sin.

I don't know if that is supposed to
be a metaphor of actual sin, um, but.

It is maybe hard to, uh, ignore
that one, but I'm gonna, I'm

gonna move on from it from now.

But they find themselves in the wilderness
and they're moving on from the wilderness.

Okay?

God is speaking.

They're going by stages, meaning,
and not like all at once.

They're just like moving full
speed ahead into the wilderness.

They're moving by stages.

There's a method here, and that method is
according to the commandment of the Lord.

So they're following the voice of the
Lord into the depths of the wilderness.

And okay, that sounds comforting
by the commandment of the Lord,

by stages, they're gonna finally
get to the promised land.

God's leading them, but there was
no water for the people to drink.

God himself led them into a place where
there was no water for them to drink.

I don't know about you, but
that messes with me I thought.

The Lord was a good shepherd and
that he leads me beside still waters.

I thought he led me beside green
pastures and he restores my soul.

This doesn't sound like that.

This does not sound like that at all.

This sounds like he's
a pretty bad shepherd.

It sounds like he's not really leading
them to the promised land, but he's, maybe

the Lord doesn't know what he's doing.

Maybe the Lord isn't really with them.

Which is exactly what the
people thought in this time.

They begin to quarrel with Moses and
they say, give us water to drink.

At the end of the story, it says that
the, what they were really testing the

Lord in was whether or not he was among
them was the Lord present in their

community because it didn't seem like it,
because they didn't have water to drink.

Now in this church planting gener, I
can't church planting journey, I can't

tell you how many times I've looked in
front of me and I've seen just wilderness

and I have not seen water to drink.

And the question immediately
is, Lord, where are you?

Lord, where are you?

And

without fail, he has proven
himself, faithful and true.

He has shown up.

And in this moment, this specific
instance, uh, the Lord tells Moses,

go, uh, pass on before the people
take with you some of the elders of

Israel and take your hand as staff
with which you struck the Nile and go,

behold, I will stand before you there
on the rock at horrid, and you shall

strike the rock and water shall come
out of it and the people will drink.

Obviously, this is speaking of Jesus.

Jesus is the rock.

From which water flows that
satisfies the true eternal water.

The staff also speaks of Jesus name.

Namely, it's the cross.

It's the tree Jesus died upon.

So speaking of Christ, crucified
as the place we go to find water to

drink when we're dry, that'll preach.

If you're thirsty, where do you go?

Go to the crucified lamb of God
and he will fill you with water.

That is the spirit.

And one thing I wanna point out about
this story is sometimes God will lead you

into places where you have to trust him.

It may not seem like the Lord
because in our form of leadership,

we want to lead people into places
where they can actually trust us.

Right?

But, but we want them not to.

We, we want to give people, when
we're leading people, when I'm

leading someone, I want to give them
everything that they need ahead of time.

I want to equip them with everything
that they have before they meet

the wilderness, before they get to
that place so they know what to do.

And really what that is doing, it's
building their trust in themselves.

And here God is, is trying to train this
newly freed people on how to trust the

Lord above themselves or their slave
masters that they were in or with.

Back in Egypt, you see
there are new people.

They're free and they
don't know how to be free.

And one of the first lessons in
being free is learning how to trust

the Lord when you don't see the
provision right in front of you.

Isn't that right?

Because when you're free, you're gonna go
places that you can never go as a slave.

That's the beauty of the gospel.

And when you go there, you're then
forced with trusting that God is

going to provide in those moments,
even if you don't see it right away.

They cry out to Moses, who's a picture
of Jesus, the intercessor, the one

who stands in between us and God,
and he's the one that goes to the

Father and uh, and sends the water.

This is a picture of the gospel,
the ascension of Jesus, going to

the right hand of the Father, and
it says in Acts 2 33 that the father

after exalting him to his right hand.

And giving Jesus the promised Holy
Spirit, he poured 'em out on the people.

And so you see right here pictures of
Acts two, uh, and the gospel, and Jesus

being the one, uh, who is the, well,
the one who provides the water, um,

the one who leads us to the true water.

So you see all that in here,
but I just was so mindful, like,

man, isn't this church planning.

Just to give you insight into our
journey, man, it's, we're going by stages

according to the commandment of the Lord.

His voice is leading us and his
voice leads us to places where we

have to trust him so that we know
without a shadow of a doubt, that

he's the one building this thing and
he's the one that gets the glory.

And it is humbling and challenging
and risky, and I don't like it.

I don't like it.

Uh, it is contrary to everything in me.

Which is to control and to know what's
coming and to force things to happen.

And I'm just confronted when I
read this story that like, wow.

God is the one who's leading and
he doesn't always lead me, besides

still waters or green pastures.

Practically that Psalm 23 about
Lord being my shepherd is like

I can trust him to lead me.

Eventually I'll get there, but sometimes
to get there it, it doesn't always look

like green pastures and still waters.

I'm not saying God leads us into
turmoil and distress, but he does

leave us into, lead us into places
where we have to release our stress.

Trust that he knows what he's doing.

Um, so real practically, uh, really cool
testimony from the last couple of weeks,

uh, I've been praying and asking the Lord.

Me and Sal have been praying and
asking the Lord for band, for a band.

Like, we want to have a
full band come launch.

And that's just a, that feels like a
heavy load and it's kind of daunting.

And Sal and I have talked a
lot about it and Sal has just

knocked it outta the park.

Just, uh, him reaching out to people
following up and has done a great job.

And, uh, I've mainly just
been worried about it.

He's been the one actually doing stuff,
uh, regarding the band and stuff.

But, um, so last week on Tuesday we
were praying and really specifically

we're like, Lord, we need a drummer.

We're gonna pray and
ask you for a drummer.

So Lord, would you
provide for us a drummer?

That was on Tuesday morning.

Tuesday afternoon.

I hang out with a friend of mine
who's the youth pastor here at the

Farmer's Branch campus of the branch,
and we do some ministry together.

We go and pray for someone at his
house and then, and then on the way

back, I'm telling him about prayer,
like, uh, about breakthrough and what

we need and what we're praying for.

And I mentioned that we need a drummer.

And he goes, oh man, I know a high
school kid who could play any song.

You need him to play on the drums.

He's just so good.

I can reach out to his parents for you.

I was like, okay, great.

That'd be awesome.

Yeah, reach out and see what he says.

And he goes, okay.

And then he also looks at me
and he says, you know, I drum.

I was like, what?

He said, yeah, I was in a death metal
band before I came to know Jesus.

And I was like, you've
gotta be kidding me.

Would you want to drum
for us on Saturdays?

He was like, well, lemme talk to uh, his
wife, he said, two weeks ago, I was just

telling her how I didn't think I would
ever drum again and how I really miss it.

And I was like, dude.

You shouldn't have said that.

Uh, I said, do you wanna drum drum for us?

He said, lemme talk to her.

So, um, he ends up talking to her and
tells Sal that he's willing to commit like

once or twice a month, which at the time,
you know, it's like, all right, come on.

That's awesome.

It's more than we had 24 hours ago.

But then the next day on Wednesday,
um, the day after praying for a

drummer, literally praying that God
would bring water from the rock.

Because we feel like God
told us not to pay anybody.

We could have built a band already
with the money that we've raised, but

we felt like God said, don't do that.

Build a testimony.

Let me build a testimony and so.

We're like trusting God to bring water
from a rock, you know, like we don't

have any, any leads other than just, you
know, Zach, who I just mentioned, and

maybe that high school kid and you know,
I guess we have some contacts, but we're

just trying to, you know, bring praying
that God would bring water from the rock.

So that Wednesday, I'm in the gym around
noon and I look over at a, uh, at a

guy who's in between sets and he has
headphones on and he's air drumming,

like drumming with his hands in the air.

And I'm like, I'm going.

I'm going for it.

So I walk over to him and
I give him that head nod.

Head nod, meaning, Hey,
take your headphones off.

I got something to say.

And so he takes his headphones off and
I'm like, Hey man, are you a drummer?

And he was like, uh, yeah, yeah, I drum.

And I said, cool.

You drum in a band.

Or like, what?

What kind of music?

He's like, no, don't drum
in a band, but mainly rock.

Uh.

I was like, okay.

So you just drum by yourself or what?

He's like, yeah, by myself.

I said, okay, you have a drum kid at home?

He's like, yeah, yeah.

Drum kid at home.

Been playing for about eight years.

I was like, all right, cool.

You in school.

He was like, yeah, my Dallas College.

You have work?

Yeah, I work in Anthony's Italian.

Cool man.

Are you a Christian?

And he was like, yeah,
yeah, I'm a Christian.

Go to Mary Immaculate.

And, uh, you know, I'm trying
to, trying to follow Jesus.

I'm like, wow.

Okay.

Awesome.

Um, well, my friends and I are starting
a church in Richardson, and we were

just praying yesterday for a drummer.

Would you ever consider praying
about joining us and being our

drummer on Saturday nights?

And he was like, I mean, yeah.

Yeah.

I would love to talk about it.

I'm like, yes, okay.

It's a win.

Alright, gimme your number.

So I got his number and I thought,
oh man, I know how this goes.

Somebody in the moment doesn't wanna make
me feel bad, so they reach out, they tell

me yes, but they didn't really mean it.

And I'm like, oh, here we go.

Um, I know how this, this goes.

Um, sure enough, and like an hour
later he texts me and says, Hey

man, I actually don't work tomorrow.

Do you wanna get together
for co, for coffee?

I was like, oh my word, yes.

He's following up.

This is amazing.

So me sound, him got coffee and,
and he was, he was telling about

us, about encounters with the
Lord and how he's trying to love

God and love and follow Jesus.

And, um, wants to really give over, give
his talents to the Lord and drumming.

And, uh, apparently he's pretty good and.

We thought, man, this is amazing.

He, we ended up having spiritual
conversations and confess

sin, and it was just powerful.

It was a powerful meeting.

And we left it with, okay man, pray
about it and, and just, you know, we'll

follow up and let us know what you think.

Uh, just today I was literally, I was
stressed and talk to Sal about, um,

maybe we should just focus on acoustic.

Maybe it's just a little too hard
to, I'm showing you my lack of faith.

By the way, this is where I'm
talking about when God leads you to

places where you have to trust him.

I was just talking with Sal today about
maybe we should just go acoustic, strip

it down and just go like a guitar,
maybe some keys and a couple singers,

like we could pull that off today.

Right?

And I talked to Sal and he's
like, okay, yeah, I hear that.

And maybe we should just like
maybe, maybe what the Lord is

saying is just surrender and just
be okay with whatever does happen.

Whatever we do have.

I'm like, okay, yeah, yeah, yeah.

So we hang up literally
minutes after he says, bro.

The guy from the gym just
texted me and said he's all in.

He can't be there Saturday,
but he's in to be our drummer.

He's gonna ask off work every Saturday.

I'm like, come on bro.

I saw this guy air drumming in the gym.

And I, I just on a whim go up to him
and say, Hey bro, are you a Christian?

Do you wanna be our drummer?

And here we are.

A week or two later.

A week later?

Yeah, a little over a week later.

And, uh, he's committed to be our drummer.

I mean, come on man.

Talk about God.

God's voice leading us into places where
we have to trust him and then we trust

him and he brings water from the rock.

Man, this is how Christianity should be.

It's actually not just church planting.

This is how we should
be living as Christians.

We should be living on the edge of being
a fool, on the edge of making mistakes,

on the edge, of not having enough,
trusting that God's gonna provide in

the moments we need him to provide.

This is what it means to be free.

Being free doesn't mean being
comfortable, and I think that's

what the Israelites thought.

They thought they're gonna be
delivered from slavery, and then

they're being delivered into comfort.

And that's not what God had in store.

He had in store their freedom.

He delivered them from slavery
into freedom, not into comfort.

Comfort says, I have
everything that I need.

I don't need to trust.

Everything I need is right in front of me.

I can see it with my eyes
and I can just enjoy it.

I, I can even thank God for it.

But it's right here.

It's comfortable, and
it's within my reach.

And in my grasp.

And true freedom is not that true.

Freedom is actually trust, trusting
in the Lord, because when you trust

in the Lord, guess what's impossible?

Nothing.

True Freedom is doing the impossible.

It's, it's, it's walking through
life trusting the Lord so much so

that he will literally move mountains
to support you when your heart

is fully blameless towards him.

Man, come on.

I'm preaching to myself if I'm being
honest, but why is true freedom?

Not comfort because freedom is
unlimited in its potential to

do all God's asked you to do.

Comfort is I have what I
have right in front of me.

But that's limiting yourself and
limiting God and what he wants to do.

True freedom, just like Jesus told
the disciples, go into all the

cities, proclaim the kingdom, heal
the sick, and take nothing with you.

Why?

Because then they're limitless in their
trust and in their effectiveness in

the kingdom because they know God has
to show up or else this won't work.

And God is the God of impossible.

He's the God of infinite power,
infinite wisdom, and can fully equip

you in the moments you need it.

That's true freedom.

Um, and the reason it doesn't feel
that way is because we're used to

comfort and we're used to living the
Christian life with everything that

we need, uh, sitting in our laps.

And until we're willing to let those
things go and trust the Lord into

the risky waters of faith, uh, we
will never see truly all God can do.

Uh, so I just encourage you to step out,
take a risk, sacrifice something, um.

Get to a point where
you need God to show up.

I don't know what it is.

Maybe it's like going to somebody you
know you needed to share Jesus with and

you don't know what you're gonna say.

You dunno how you're gonna do it,
but you just need to go up and say,

Hey, and you just need to let the
Holy Spirit speak to you through

and through you in that moment.

Um.

Maybe God's told you to do something
that you're like, I don't know if

that's the Lord, and it doesn't
make sense to my rational mind.

Okay, that's probably the Lord.

His ways are not our ways.

So anyways, I hope this is encouragement
to you and, uh, it's a testimony

of just real time church planning,
but also, uh, what it's like to

live the Christian life and faith.

And I'm learning more and more over
the, the weeks as we approach launch,

uh, that I have very little faith.

And God is increasing it as he continues
to show up and bring water from the rock.

Um, okay.

Uh, yeah, that's all I
have for you this time.

Uh, I want to encourage you.

To come visit us on launch day,
September 13th, from five to 7:00 PM

we're gonna worship the Lord, minister
to him and his heart, and he's gonna

come, he's gonna release people from
burdens, he's gonna heal bodies.

He is gonna deliver spirits.

Uh, it's gonna be a powerful time.

And uh, if you can't make launch
day, that's actually good.

Come the week two, week three, week four.

Uh, we love to stagger this.

So, uh, if you don't come launch
today, that's not because I think.

I won't think that you hate me.

Um, I'll just think that
you're being strategic.

How about that?

So, September 5th, or sorry,
September 13th at 5:00 PM Uh,

you can RSVP on our Instagram.

Follow us on Instagram.

You can stay up to date on
all of this stuff as well.

And as always, if you feel called
and stirred to give financially as

we build this house for the Lord,
uh, we would, um, gratefully, uh,

receive your, your generous donation.

So, um, yeah.

Love you guys.

Thanks for tuning in and
we'll see you next time.