Josh and his family are planting Breakthrough Church in Richardson, TX. Their prayer is that Jesus would use them to advance His Kingdom and to see many receive healing and deliverance in His name. Josh is married to Abby and has three kids, two boys and one girl.
Participant: Hey everybody.
Welcome back to another episode of
the Breakthrough Church podcast.
Excited to share some updates
and just what I'm learning.
I'm learning a lot.
Uh, leading Breakthrough Church.
We're five weeks in and
it has been awesome.
So many testimonies, and it's been
really cool to see how the Lord
leads and, uh, I'm learning a lot.
So I wanna just share
a few of those things.
And last week, uh.
I spent my Monday morning
really prepping for my message.
We're going through the book
of Mark and the next message
was all about discipleship.
It was Levi, who is Matthew?
Jesus calling Levi to follow
him and he left the tax booth
immediately follows Jesus.
And, and right out of the
gate, uh, Jesus begins to use
Levi to reach his buddies and.
Earlier in Mark one, Jesus told
Peter, and Andrew, follow me and
I'll make you become fishers of men.
And so right away we see Levi being
used by Jesus as a new follower of
Jesus to reach his friends, uh, and
to proclaim the kingdom to them.
And the scribes hate it because Jesus
is fellowshiping with tax collectors and
sinners and the whole thing, whatever.
I, I think it's a compelling
story and it's really fascinating.
I, I was spending all morning studying
that passage, but also the few
passages after in Mark two, which
are about fasting and the Sabbath.
And then, um, the next chapter,
chapter three, begins with the story
of the Sabbath, uh, or story of, of
Jesus healing someone on the Sabbath.
And the Pharisees, uh, hate him for
it because their hearts are hardened
and it grieved Jesus and his heart
because he saw their hardness of heart.
Anyways, I'm studying all of
this and I just get nothing, man.
I'm, I'm, there's no heat on
anything in those passages.
And I'm like, I mean,
they're good messages, right?
Like I could come up with something and
I could spend all day weaving together
these stories and coming with curating
content and delivering it on Saturday.
I've done it before.
I could do it again, but I just
didn't feel life or heat on anything.
And by that I mean.
I didn't really feel like the Holy
Spirit was really highlighting something
to share with the church on Saturday.
The only thing that I had an inkling
of was Jesus's words to Levi follow me.
And so, but at the end of the day
on Monday, I was like, okay, you
want me to stand up in front of
everybody and say, Hey, follow Jesus.
Because that's not a sermon
that's, that's a command.
To follow someone, and that might
be great, but how do you do that?
And, and who am I inviting and all
the things, I just had questions,
but I just felt a little bit of life
on this invitation to follow Jesus.
So the next morning, uh, we were praying
and, uh, we were with, I was with my
breakout, my Tuesday morning breakout,
which for those of you that may not
know, that's our weekly prayer time,
early morning, 5:15 AM on Tuesdays where
we just seek the Lord in his presence.
To dwell with him, for
him to dwell with us.
And it's really, you know, obviously
fueled everything I've told you guys
this, it's fueled everything that we do.
And sure enough, it happened again.
Right?
So in the time of breakout, I read,
Sal actually began to read John
17 and read the whole chapter,
which was the High Priestly Prayer.
Powerful Prayer by Jesus.
I felt led to read the rest of the book.
So I read chapter 18, 19, 20.
Which is all about the, the passion
of Jesus, his death and resurrection.
And I read the whole thing.
It was, it was just like you felt the
presence of God increase as I kept
reading the story of Jesus going to
the cross and dying and pouring out his
blood, and then Mary Magdalene going to
the garden to tend to his broken body.
But Jesus is alive and this amazing story.
And then I felt led to read the chapter
21 after just sitting in silence
after seeing about Jesus resurrection.
I read 21, and in John 21, um, seven
of the disciples go back to fishing.
Jesus has called them out of the life
of fishing, but after this traumatic
event of seeing this man Jesus, who
they love, who they believe is the
Messiah, they see him die on a cross.
And yeah, they've seen him
resurrect, they've seen him.
Twice since his resurrection, they still
aren't sure what to do with themselves.
They, they, they are so unsure about it
that they go back to what's familiar.
They go back to, to fishing and they
spend all night and they caught nothing.
And that's so frustrating, especially
as somebody who prides themselves
and their ability to catch fish.
They go out and they don't catch anything.
But in 21 verse four, it says,
just as day was breaking.
Jesus stood on the shore.
Honestly, why I started to read chapter
21 after the resurrection story, the the
crucifixion resurrection is 'cause in my
mind, as we were praying on that Tuesday
morning, I had a picture of a seashore.
It was sunny out, and I heard the lapping
waves against the sea, against the sand,
and I just thought about that and I
thought, oh, that's Jesus on the seashore.
I need to read that story.
And so in verse four, it says,
Joseph's day was breaking.
Jesus stood on the shore.
Yet the disciples did not
know that it was Jesus.
Jesus said to them, children,
do you have any fish?
They answered him.
No.
He said to them, cast the net on the right
side of the boat and you will find some.
So they cast it, and now they were not
able to haul it in because of the quantity
of fish that disciple whom Jesus loved.
Therefore said to Peter, it is the Lord.
When Simon Peter heard that it was
the Lord, he put on his outer garment
for he was stripped for work and threw
himself into the sea, just threw himself.
It doesn't say he dove.
It's almost like he can't contain himself.
He threw himself into the sea.
The other disciples came in the
boat dragging the net full of fish
for, they were not far from the
land, but about a hundred yards off.
And what I thought was so compelling
about this was Jesus has what they
already, Jesus already has what
they were looking for in the sea.
'cause when they get to the shore, they
find that Jesus was there with a charcoal
fire, fish laid out on it with bread.
Jesus already had the fish, the very
thing that they were looking for.
When they get to the shore, he says, bring
me some of your fish that you've caught.
It's his participation in
what Jesus is already doing.
Bring what you have and add it to what I'm
doing and let's see this thing through.
And it just was a compelling story.
What was really compelling
about it is Jesus reinstates.
Peter, there's so much
that goes on in this story.
I don't want to get into all of it right
now, but what I felt from the Lord was
look at what I've done on the cross.
Look at.
Everything I've done, I a bore
every sin on my body, in my body,
on the tree, and I have resurrected.
And you are free.
You are completely free.
Don't go back to what's familiar.
Follow me.
I just really sense that.
'cause that's what he says
to Peter after saying this.
He said to him, follow me.
This is after Jesus said,
Peter, do you love me?
And Peter's like, yes, I love you Peter.
Do you love me?
Yes, I love you Peter.
Do you love me?
Yes, I love you.
And then he finally says, great.
You're gonna go places that you
didn't, would not go on your own.
People are gonna basically crucify you
upside down is what he's telling him.
And after saying this, he
said to him, follow me.
In other words, Jesus is like,
I know where you've been.
You've denied me three times.
I'm gonna give you three opportunities
to reinstate yourself to, to
re-up on your commitment to me.
Because yeah, you've been through tough
things, but what What's coming for you
is more tough and in the middle of all
of it, I just want you to remember this.
Follow me.
And I just sense like God was
saying, don't go back into your
office and study scripture to
try to get content for a sermon.
There are people that need to be saved.
There are people that need to hear
this message, that need to hear what
I've done on the cross for them, and
I just sensed an urgency to go to UTD.
I thought, man, I've got to go.
I can't stay here in my office.
I have to, I have to leave, I have to
go out and I have to witness to Jesus.
So I did.
I went to UTD
and um, it was a powerful time.
Nobody, as far as I know, nobody
committed their lives to Jesus.
But I went on campus with my friend, uh,
well, um, he's my, definitely my friend.
I'm discipling him and I'm, I'm
mentoring him into these things.
And so he came with me and.
We walk, we walked up to, uh, three
people that were helping students sign
up for intramural sports on campus.
And Luke walks up and Luke says, Hey, you
know, we're actually on a prayer walk.
Do you guys need prayer for anything?
And they said, no, we're good.
And they had Indian accents and you
know, who knows where they're really
from, but they weren't from the states.
And uh, they were like, no, we're good.
We don't need prayer.
And something went off in my spirit.
It was almost like the Lord was
saying, they don't think they
need prayer, but they need me.
They need me.
And so I was provoked in my
spirit and I did not let no
be, uh, an acceptable answer.
And I said, okay, um, you don't
need prayer for anything, but we
just needed to tell you that God
loves you, that there is a God and
he exists, and his name is Jesus.
And he sees you and he knows you, and he
loves you more than you can ever imagine.
Have you guys ever
heard the gospel before?
And they're like, no, we've
never heard the gospel.
Like you've never heard the good news of
what Jesus has done for you on the cross.
They're like, no, I've never heard that.
This is in Richardson at UTD.
They've never heard this before.
And I said, great.
I'm gonna share it with you.
And so I shared the
gospel, I shared about sin.
Uh, the punishment of sin is
death, separation from God forever.
I shared about the kingdom coming today,
that the kingdom of God is here today.
That there's an alternative way of
living that's full of life, peace
and joy, and you can have it if
you forsake your sin and follow
Jesus and commit your life to him.
And I asked if what they thought
about that, and they still
tried to like, shove it aside.
And I, it was almost like God
was telling me to annoy them.
That they needed to be, they
needed to be shaken up by this, and
they needed to be rattled by it.
This is not a comfortable message.
It should make them uncomfortable and
it should make them nervous because
I'm talking about eternal things.
I'm talking about eternal life and
I, I shared everything with 'em.
I did not hold back.
I said, guys, 'cause one of
the things they said was, we
need to think more about this.
And I said, what if you don't
have time to think about it?
They're like, what do you mean?
What if you died today?
I'm not trying to be, I'm
not trying to scare you.
What if you are wanting to go home, I
don't know, tonight, tomorrow, wherever.
And you're like, all right, I'm gonna
think more about what that guy said.
What if you know, what
if you don't make it?
I just had went to a memorial service of
a friend of mine who died of an aneurysm.
All of a sudden just, just
like that she was gone.
That could be you.
I'm not trying to scare you, but,
and you need to count the cost
because this is a whole life change.
I'm here today.
Today, right now in this moment to tell
you that Jesus is extending his hand
of salvation and he's extending his
hand of discipleship, and he wants you.
He loves you, and he wants to take away
everything that you've ever done, all
your sin, your brokenness, your shame.
He wants to take all of it and
set you free from it, but you have
to give it to him like I was not.
I was like, no, people are supposed
to be rattled by this message.
Right?
Paul tells us that those who
follow Jesus were an aroma.
We're either an aroma of life to those
that are being saved or we're the aroma
of death to those who are rejecting Jesus.
This is not supposed to be
a message for everybody.
It is a message for everybody.
It is not a message for everybody.
You know what I'm saying?
This is supposed to rattle people and
to make them feel very uncomfortable.
'cause it's messing with their whole life.
It is moving their cheese.
This is.
A message that Im, that impacts
every single piece of your life.
And so I just felt like I
was supposed to annoy them.
Like a gnat.
Just be like, no, this message is true.
Uh, one of the things they said was,
you know, well, to each their own,
everybody's got their own message, kind
of always leads to the same, same place.
Like, believe what you believe.
And I was like, so there's
no objective truth.
Like there has to be some
things that are true.
Right?
And so I, I named off a
few things like this table.
This table is true.
I can see it.
I can feel it.
This, you can't tell me like,
no, that table doesn't exist.
I can see it.
I can feel it.
I can touch it.
It's holding things up like that's true.
I pointed at a volleyball
this guy was holding.
I said, is that volleyball?
Are you holding that volleyball?
He's like, yeah.
Well, that's, I don't believe it's true.
I don't believe you're holding that ball.
That ball.
And I think they were
trying to grasp with this.
They were, they were, they were
trying to wrestle with this idea
of like, oh, I can't just say.
To each their own.
'cause there are things that are true.
And I, and I told them, I'm sitting
here, I'm telling you what is true.
That Jesus is the way,
the truth and the life.
The only way to the Father is through him.
And you must repent and turn from your
sin and commit your life to Jesus.
What do you think about that?
And they were like, well, you know what?
I don't.
One of the guys was like, you
know what, if I die, I die.
My body just ceases to exist.
I'm happy with my life.
I'm like, are you, do you really wanna
put your eternity on that right now?
You wanna just say that whatever
happens to you happens to you
and you're good with that.
'cause I'm here to tell you, you
could be with God in Paradise forever.
And he, I think he
backed off a little bit.
He was like, okay.
You know, it was hard to read it, but I
said, guys, this is real, this is true.
And they, they all said, okay, we
really, we really need to think
more about it and research it.
Like, great, I have a Bible for you.
So I grabbed the Bible, I
gave them all three a Bible.
I put my name and my number in
the Bible as well as an invite
card to break through church.
And I said, guys, if you mean it.
You said you're gonna think
through it and research it more.
If you mean that you will read this
book, I'm giving this to you so you
can do the very thing you said you
were gonna do, so you're gonna do it.
And they're like, yeah,
yeah, we're gonna do it.
I said, okay, let me pray for you.
I prayed for 'em and said bye.
And then we went to, um, we were walking
around and we saw this group of people
who offered to sell us some dirty soda.
And dirty soda is really just.
Imagine Dr.
Pepper with french vanilla creamer
in it or something like that.
It was actually delicious.
I had coconut cream creamer and a Dr.
Pepper.
Yo, that slapped.
It was so good, but that
wasn't why we were there.
Um, we, we, we, we bought some of
the, the sodas and then we said,
okay, well we heard out, heard
you guys what you guys are doing.
Which they're pre-med students at
UTD raising money for their pre-med
fraternity to raise money for special
needs students to be able to go to camp.
So we heard their spiel, we heard about
it and we're grateful to support it.
Um, and then we said, okay,
well we heard about you guys.
Well, you need to hear about
us and what we're doing.
And they're like, okay.
I said, well, we're starting a church
in the area and we believe in Jesus.
Have you guys ever heard of Jesus?
And most of them were like,
well, we've heard his name.
And I'm like, well, have
you heard the gospel?
You know what he did?
He did for you on the cross?
And like, no, not really.
There was one girl there who later I found
out was Catholic, but she, I could tell
she did not want her friends to know.
She was uncomfortable about
admitting that she was Catholic.
And I told her, don't be ashamed of that.
Come on, you're a Christian.
You follow Jesus.
Like, you should not be ashamed of that.
And she kind of nodded at me.
But, um, we, I just began to
share the gospel with this group
and ask if they believed it
and what they thought about it.
And there was one girl specifically
that really felt like that she was
the leader of the group and everybody
else kind of stopped listening, but
I really started to minister to her.
And share the gospel with her.
And she was kind of saying like, oh, I
grew up, there's, I have every sacred
text that you could imagine in my home.
Growing up, my parents really valued
diversity of opinion and all this stuff.
And I was like, okay,
well, which one's true?
Because one of them has to be true.
And we just talked about it.
And, um, I, uh, she, she was like,
Hey, we should bring our fraternity
to breakthrough just for like, we
want to go visit different areas
of faith and we, it would be fun.
I was like, that'd be awesome.
You guys should come.
And um, I eventually
offered to pray for her.
And prayed and then, and, and said, amen.
And she was like teary-eyed.
She was like, whoa, I did not expect that.
And I was like, okay, well I'm
trying to learn how to do this.
So like, what did you expect?
She was like, I don't know.
I, I guess I expected you to be
like, well, Jesus be with her.
And Amen.
And, uh, that was different and what
I had prayed, guys, for the record, I
prayed a, a blessing prayer over her.
I said, father, I bless her.
And I, I actually said her name.
I'm, I won't share it on the podcast, but.
I said, I bless you in the name of Jesus
with peace and with joy and with love.
Father, would you meet her?
Would you show her how much you love her?
So I blessed her with these things.
I said, I, I bless you with peace.
I bless you with joy, which is
an easy way to pray for somebody
that's really meaningful.
And it's rooted in our spiritual
authority as sons and daughters of the
king, that we can have the opportunity
to impart peace, blessing, joy, uh, into
people even if they don't know Jesus.
So I prayed that and she was moved.
She was in tears.
And I said, well, God loves you, uh,
so much, and uh, and uh, it is after
you wants a relationship with you.
And she was like, okay,
well thank you so much.
And I was like, you're welcome.
And so we left and then we
walked back to our cars.
Um, that night I went on a prayer walk
and I, I, I was reminded of Levi and
the call to follow him and immediately.
That call led him to be in his
house with Jesus reclining at
table fellowshipping with those
that were in great need for Jesus.
And I thought Je and I remember Jesus
only hung out with people who needed him.
He only really had anything to
offer God and God in the flesh.
King of glory, high king of heaven, Lord
of Lords can only offer something to
somebody who admits that they need him.
And.
Um, that, that, that, that day
on Tuesday, I didn't wanna be in
my office just prepping a sermon.
I wanted to be around
people who needed Jesus.
And that night I remembered, not
only did Jesus tell Levi follow me,
but he also told Peter at the end of
John 21 to follow me, which was what
we had prayed about that morning.
And I felt like God had given
me a message, uh, for Saturday
without me studying the
scriptures for hours upon hours.
And we need to rightly
divide the word of truth.
That's important.
But I felt like God put me through the
message that he wanted me to preach,
but I lived it, uh, this message
of following Jesus to the point of
death, like dying to my own agenda,
my own will, and following him.
And if there's any encouragement in any of
this, it's Jesus can't offer you anything
unless you admit that you need him.
If you come to Jesus, needy and
hungry, he will meet you there.
If you come to him with your
achievements and your righteousness,
he can't do anything for you, and
he actually turns his face from you.
Paul tells us that we are
severed from Christ if we seek
to be justified by the law.
No one can be justified by works.
It's only by faith.
When we come to Jesus with
faith, admitting our need,
he meets us there every time.
In all of this, I'm learning that the Holy
Spirit is the one that leaves the church.
I'm reminded of Jesus' words.
This is, this is amazing
when he says this.
In John 16, Jesus told the disciples
on the this last little speech
before Jesus dies and goes to heaven.
Uh, in verse 12, chapter 16, verse 12
of John, I still have many things to
say to you, but you cannot bear them.
Now when the spirit of truth comes,
he will guide you into all truth.
For, he will not speak on his own
authority, but whatever he hears,
he will speak and he will declare
to you the things that are to come.
He will glorify me for, he will take
what is mine and declare it to you.
All that the father has is mine.
Therefore, I said that he will take
what is mine and declare it to you.
Do you see the dynamic at play
in the Godhead right there?
You have the Father, the
Son, and the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit is the
one that speaks to us.
If you are hearing the voice of God
today, that's the voice of the Holy
Spirit, the person of the Spirit who
is a unique person in the Godhead.
The Spirit is not the
Son and not the Father.
He is a unique person, equal in
essence and glory as God, as the
Father, as the Son, but distinct in
his role in how he relates to us.
The Holy Spirit is the voice
of God in our lives today.
He's the one that guides us.
And he's the one that speaks to us.
But what does he speak?
He speaks only what he hears from Jesus.
Think about that.
The Holy Spirit, who is God does
not speak unless spoken to by Jesus.
If you're hearing the voice of the Holy
Spirit in your life who told him to
say that Jesus Christ himself, do you
see how big of an advantage this is?
Jesus said, it is to your
advantage that I lead.
Because then I will
send the helper to you.
Why is that an advantage?
Because now Jesus' voice isn't just
constrained to whoever can hear
him physically in an atmosphere
or in a geographical space.
His voice is now accessible to all
who call upon His name because the
Holy Spirit is God everywhere at once.
He's the presence of Jesus, the Spirit
of Jesus In the church today, when we're
hearing the voice of the Holy Spirit,
we're hearing what Jesus has to say to us.
And where did Jesus get it from?
The Father.
All that the father has is mind.
Therefore, I said that he will take
what His mind and declare it to
you so the spirit goes to Jesus and
hears what Jesus wants to say to you.
But Jesus heard that from the Father.
So the Father is the source.
Jesus is the vo, is the voice.
It is maybe not the best analogy
because of what I'm saying.
The father's the source.
The son is the course, right?
This is the doxology.
The spirit is the flow.
The father speaks and
says, I want this done.
I want this said.
Jesus says, great Father,
I'll go say it to you.
Hey, holy Spirit, go say
this to these people.
And the Spirit is the one who
goes and actually speaks it to us.
Why do we need to be
dependent on the Spirit?
Because if you're dependent on
Jesus and the Father, you need
to be dependent on the Spirit.
'cause the only way to hear the
voice of Jesus or the Father is to
hear the voice of the Holy Spirit.
And I'm hearing right now in this
season that the Holy Spirit is
speaking to me about breakthrough,
that he's the one leading it.
He's the one in charge of it.
Of her, I should say that I'm
to preach only what I hear,
the Holy Spirit preaching.
If I'm a preacher of the word, the
Bible says I need to be preaching as
if I'm preaching the Oracles of God.
So if the father's telling the Son to tell
the Spirit to tell me something I need
to share with the church as if it was the
father himself speaking to the church,
that's how seriously I need to take it.
That's how important this is and how
that informs my sermon prep means I'm
going to come to him and say, father,
what do you want me to speak Holy Spirit?
What am I to preach?
What am I to speak to the people this
weekend or today, whatever it might be?
I'm so encouraged by this because
the Holy Spirit is the one
that wants to lead Breakthrough
Church, and I just get to listen.
I get to say yes and obey
to whatever he has for us.
I wanna encourage you.
If you wanna lead, if you wanna lead
and live a Jesus centered life, then
that must be a life that is dedicated
to fellowshipping and communion
with the person of the Holy Spirit.
You cannot live a Jesus centered
life apart from the Holy Spirit.
Um, don't be like the Israelites
who, when Stephen was dying, said,
always resisted the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit was the one that
was trying to call people in the
Old Testament back to true and right
worship, and yet they hardened their
hearts and resisted the Holy Spirit.
Stephen said, um, you stiff neck people,
you always resist the Holy Spirit.
Do not harden your hearts.
Guys, when the Holy Spirit
is speaking to you, do it.
Say yes immediately or else you
will grieve him and he will leave.
If you're a Christian, you are
sealed with the Holy Spirit.
He will never leave you, but you can
grieve him and wound him and hurt his
feelings to the point where he makes
himself hard to find in your life.
The Holy Spirit is in you.
He's also with you.
Jesus said The Spirit is in
you and he will be with you.
Or he actually said in
John 14, Jesus said, uh.
The spirit of truth whom the
world cannot receive because it
neither sees him nor knows him.
You know him, for he dwells
with you and will be in you.
The Holy Spirit is with us and in us.
He's with us to draw us to Jesus and then
he is in us to make us one with Jesus.
And you as a Christian,
you're one with Jesus.
Nothing can change that,
but the ness can change.
That fellowship can change.
You can feel like the Holy Spirit's
far from you 'cause you've grieved him.
How often do we grieve him just by
not doing what he's told us to do and
getting ahead of him or disobeying and
going the complete opposite direction,
or not being on in his timing.
It can be all of these things.
My encouragement to you today is if
you hear the Holy Spirit's voice,
that's from Jesus who speaks on behalf
of the Father, so obey right away.
It's for your good, and I can
almost guarantee you it's for
somebody else's good as well.
So be encouraged.
Follow the leading of the Holy Spirit.
I'm trying to, uh, and I
wanna do that with you guys,
so I hope you're encouraged.
If you have any thoughts, questions,
uh, please let me know every, almost
no, not, not almost every week, but very
often I do hear from people saying, man,
all your podcast was so encouraging.
It was so great.
I'm so glad to hear that.
Uh, please continue to tune in.
Um, but more importantly, don't just
listen to my voice and what I'm saying
and be like, whoa, that's really cool.
Um, let's be agents of the kingdom.
Let's usher in the future.
Kingdom together.
Let's pray for the sick.
Let's, uh, let's preach the gospel.
Let's see the kingdom come.
All right, let's do it together.
Love y'all.
See ya.