August 16, 2024 • 44 mins
Do our past bad decisions ruin our chance for a better future? How do we even know when we’re on the right track? Discover how God can use both the good and the bad in your life to direct your paths.
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick. I'm the pastor of Elevation
Church and this is our podcast. I wanted to thank
you for joining us today. Hope this inspires you. Hope
it builds your faith. Hope it gives your perspective to
see God is moving in your life. Enjoy the message.
In the final week of our series, there is a cloud.
God led me to a scripture in Numbers, chapter nine.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
I want to read this for you.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
It may be unfamiliar, but hopefully it will build your faith.
And that is my prayer every time I stand in
the pulpit to preach, that God would use me to
build your faith, because it is your faith that enables
you to experience God's presence in your life. And so
as we read this scripture, I want you to just
kind of like get a flow for it.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
It's unusual scripture.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
I don't know that I ever heard a sermon on
it before, but I was looking at how God gave
his people this cloud. They were coming out of Egyptian
slavery and they were trying to get to the Promised Land,
but they were experiencing a delay.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
You ever had one of those?
Speaker 1 (01:01):
Huh? You ever been stuck somewhere, stuck in something. So
that's where they were and it was mostly their fault.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
But you can't really blame them.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
They were trying to figure out who is this God
and who are we? And all they had ever known
was all they had ever known. And so God gives
them a gift in the midst of this. And that's
what I want to share with you about today. Numbers
chapter nine, verse fifteen. I'm calling this sermon. All systems go,
All systems go, you know, like when they launch a
rocket ship. Y'all saw hidden figures, and so we're getting
(01:35):
ready for what God is doing in our lives.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
Everybody say, there is a cloud on.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
The day the tabernacle, the tent of the Covenant Law
was set up.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
I need to say something right here.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
Every situation is a setup if God is in it.
Here they are in the wilderness, but God is still
establishing his presence. Just want to point that out. So
they set up this tabernacle, which was a portable house
or the presence and the glory of God. And it
says that there was a cloud that covered it from
(02:06):
evening till morning. The cloud above the tabernacle looked like
fire That's how it continued to be. The cloud covered it,
and at night it looked like fire. Whenever the cloud
lifted from above the tent, the Israelites set out. Wherever
the cloud settled, the Israelites encamped. At the Lord's command,
the Israelites set out, and at his command they encamped.
(02:28):
As long as the clouds stayed over the tabernacle, they
remained in camp. When the cloud remained over the tabernacle
a long time, the Israelites obeyed the Lord's order and
did not set out. Sometimes, I say sometimes sometimes the
cloud was over the tabernacle only a few days. At
the Lord's command, they would in camp. Then at his
(02:51):
command they would set out. Now, what's the common denominator,
whether they're coming or going.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
They are doing it at the Lord's command.
Speaker 1 (02:59):
And the whole reason they're in this wilderness is because
they would not go into a place that God said
he had promised to them. So now they've got to
learn some lessons, and God is using this cloud as
a personal trainer.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
Amen.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
Well, I'm excited to appreciate about this today because it
means that God is developing their faith even though they
were disobedient. But he doesn't give up on them. Instead,
he uses the opportunity to guide them in a place
where he didn't want them to wander. But even in
their wandering, he was teaching them how to walk with him.
(03:37):
Thank you Jesus. So they were walking cloud to go
and listen to this verse twenty one. Sometimes the cloud
stayed only from evening till morning, and when it lifted
in the morning, they set out, whether by day or
by night, whether by day or by night, whether in
the good times are the bad times, whether I'm clear
or whether I'm confused, whether I did it right or
whether I did it wrong. God was right there night morning,
(03:59):
wilderness promised land. Wherever you find yourself, there he is.
And so when the cloud would go, they would go,
whether by day or by night. Whenever the cloud lifted,
they set out. Whether the cloud stayed over the tabernacle.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
For two days or a month or a year, the.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
Israelites would remain in the camp and not set out.
But when it lifted, they would not set out. And
by this point in the passage, you're thinking.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
We got it.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
They followed the cloud, But we don't got it. You know,
we need things to be reiterated.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
For us.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
I mean, how many times have you done the same
dumb thing expecting a different result in your life thus far?
And you're only twelve. Let me read one more verse,
verse twenty three. At the lord's command, they encamped, and
at the lord's command.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
They set out.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
They obeyed the Lord's order in accordance with his command
through Moses, all systems go, Holly, and I just celebrate.
Get ready to applug big. This's a big one. We
just celebrated fifteen years of marriage. Some of y'all look
like you're too good to clap for my fifteen years.
(05:13):
Maybe you've been doing it thirty years, thirty five years,
but to me, fifteen it's above the average, already beat
the odds.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
Feels kind of good.
Speaker 1 (05:23):
And I attribute our marital success to a couple of
different factors.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
I will list them for you in this order.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
God, Holly, that's neck and neck too, they're right there together.
And the third one is not me. The third one
is this is going to sound strange when I say it,
the invention of the GPS system, the Global Positioning system.
(05:55):
If it had not been for the GPS system, because
some of our worst fire somebody over here must be
like me. Some of our worst fights are in the
car because I have no sense of direction and she
is supposed to have one. It was part of an
unspoken prenuptial agreement. I grew up in Monk's Corner, South Carolina.
(06:17):
She grew up in Miami, Florida. She's supposed to know
her way around places. I told her I was country
when I married her, I told we talked about this,
and so we used to travel. And I know this
is prehistoric and primitive, and I'm not relating to the
young people anymore when I.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
Say stuff like this.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
But when we used to print our directions off a
map quest, what what our marriage? Our marriage was in
trouble on those map Quest directions, because now we got
it down. I mean, one Christmas, she brought me a
Tom Tom. Y'all don't remember nothing about a Tom Tom.
Now you got it on your phone when you got
(07:00):
Siri and everything like that. But we used to boy,
we used to talk about things in the car because
she would tell me win the term, but not win anyway.
What I'm saying is we made it. Somebody shot they
made it, and we made it because of the GPS.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
That's because for me.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
It's a real thing I cannot overemphasize to you. And
I'm gonna stay here for a minute because I do
have a point to all of this, and it really
has nothing to.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
Do with GPS.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
It's really a spiritual point. I have found out in
my life, both as a driver and as a person
that I am not really good at finding my way
around by myself, even as a pastor. I probably shouldn't
tell you this, but I've never done this before. I
(07:46):
told Elijah that the other day. He was arguing with
me about something. He wanted to listen to something lo
yochty or something, and I said, you can't because I
don't know his clean versions. And he said, well, you
listen to worse stuff when you were growing up. And
I said, but I have a parental right of hypocrisy.
Shut up and do this because I've never done this before.
We're gonna do it the way I want to do it.
(08:09):
He did. He said Snoop was just as bad. His
album was called, and he said the name of the
album from nineteen ninety three. So we had a discussion.
Some of y'all are too safe to come to this
worship experience.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
I'm gonna tell you, but thank you for coming.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
And so we were talking.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
I was like, I never did this before, and it.
Speaker 1 (08:31):
Kind of gave me compassion, even for my dad. You know,
he didn't have a dad.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
I had a dad.
Speaker 1 (08:36):
My dad's dad ended his own life and my dad
was nine. So one day I was going off about
my dad to my mom.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
You know, he doesn't get it, and he and this,
he and that, and.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
Probably some of my gripes were legitimate, but she said
back to me something.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
She said, he never saw it done.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
He's trying to stay, but he never saw it. It's
like being a tour guide you've never been to and really,
raising teenagers in today's world is like being a tour
guide in a town that changes every ten minutes. Huh.
These have to go to the gas station to buy
a magazine with pornographic material. Now they can get it
(09:17):
on the same device they can read their Bible on,
So like, how do you navigate that? So I've come
to the conclusion in life that I need a leader.
I need a leader. God knows that about me. He
(09:39):
knew that about his children. He knew they were frustrated,
he knew they were confused, and he knew that they
were following a man, Moses.
Speaker 2 (09:49):
Moses had.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
Moses had had tried to talk God out of Jusey,
and yet he's the one God wanted. And so.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
God gave them a gift. He gave I'm kind of.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
Like it's a primitive GPS system.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
Did you see it? In number chapter nine?
Speaker 1 (10:11):
God was doing the cloud way before Google. Okay, and
so this cloud. Ever say there is a cloud. He
put this cloud in the wilderness for three purposes. Please
take notes, because I believe there are three things that
God wants to do in your life right now.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
And I'm speaking to.
Speaker 1 (10:31):
The person who has been in a state of confusion.
I wanted you to know that there is a cloud
over your life, whatever wilderness you find yourself in today,
whether as a parent or whether as a pre pubescent.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
You know, I could be speaking.
Speaker 1 (10:49):
To a pastor listening to this on a podcast, but
I want you to know that there is a cloud,
and God sent the cloud to guide you, to guide you.
It's actually be better than that because God.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
Did not just say he would guide you.
Speaker 1 (11:04):
He said in Psalm number forty six that he would
be our guide. That's better because if God gave me guidance.
I know something about myself. I'm not good at following it.
So when Holly and I talk about directions, she'll say,
you know, you take a left and then there's a
fruit stand, and then there's a cow, and then there's
(11:24):
a thing, and then there's a building, and then there's
a store, and then there's.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
A porch swing.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
It's a red porch swing, got American flag draped over.
She knows all these details and stuff that I don't recognize.
And then she'll look at me and she see my
eyes glazing over, and she said, you know what, I'll
just give you the address, and that saved our marriage.
I'm serious, I have no This is how bad it is.
When I was a teenager, I would not go get
(11:48):
my driver's license. Not because I didn't want to drive.
I could not find my way around Monk's Corner. What
is there to find in Monk's Corner? There's a walmart
and there's a high school. I couldn't fight. It was
so about my dad. My dad had to make me
go get my driver's license. He walked in the house
one Wednesday. It was his day off. It was summertime.
(12:09):
I had turned fifteen months ago, but I wouldn't get
every time he would ask me, you want to go
get your license? Because I'm sickadrete in your own. Every
time he would ask me, do I want to go
get my license? I would tell him no. It wasn't
that I was scared of driving. I was so embarrassed
that I couldn't find my way around, so I just
kept putting it off. In one Wednesday, he walked in.
It was his day off, it was my day off.
I worked at. I had a summer job at. My
(12:31):
first job was at Petrest Crematory and Cremation Service. Okay,
I started from the bottom for real. Don't look at
me like I was glamorous. And I was in my
guitar my room, playing my guitar. He walked in and said,
(12:51):
today's the day we're going to get your license.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
I'm sick of this.
Speaker 1 (12:55):
And I wasn't scared of the driving test. I should
have been the woman that was sitting next to me
for the driving test.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
She was so mean.
Speaker 1 (13:01):
The car kept cutting off every time I try to start.
My dad's jimmy. Y'all remember the jimmy. Every time I
would try to start every time my dad's car was
such a piece of crap. When you try to start
the car and put it in reverse, it would cut off.
And so I was trying to back out of the
parking lot of the DMV. I couldn't get the car
out of the parking lot. And every time I put
(13:24):
in a reverse that would cut off. And the woman
let me do it three times, and she says, Sir,
in the history of my experience of one hundred and
thirty five years administering these tests, I've never done this.
But get out the car. Your test is over. You
failed in the parking lot. My dad came running across
the parking lot. He's sweating. My dad's a big old guy, sweating,
(13:44):
waving his arms. Give him another chance, ma'am, give him
another chance. I forgot to tell him this car's got
some issues. You can't have the air conditioning on when
you have it in reverse. Y'all didn't grow up driving
these kind of cars. I know you got to BMW
on your sixteenth think that I.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
Had to naked.
Speaker 1 (14:07):
Where's he going with this? I think a lot of
believers have been given license to live in the fullness
of the promise of God. But I don't trust my
sense of direction, and so God said, I see you.
Speaker 2 (14:34):
You look like a sheep.
Speaker 1 (14:37):
I see you.
Speaker 2 (14:41):
Turning left instead of right. So I'm going to guide you.
Speaker 1 (14:47):
The Lord is my shepherd, the Lord. That's a good thing.
He's my shepherd because I am bad. I mean, I
am bad at finding my way. So he said that
(15:10):
he would make me lie down in green pastures. Wait, man,
I don't want anybody make me do anything. Live a
little while, and you will want someone bigger than you,
wiser than you, stronger than you. You'll stop trying to
shrink God down to a formula that you can manipulate,
(15:33):
and you will come to the point where you'll say, God,
have your way in my life. Make me lie down
in green pastors. David said, he leads me beside still waters,
in that cool He restores my soul. He leadeth me
in paths.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
Of righteousness for his name's sake.
Speaker 1 (15:55):
Yeave, though I walked through the valley of the shadow
of death. Wait a minute, we were just talking about
still waters and paths of righteousness.
Speaker 2 (16:01):
How did we end up in this valley of the
shadow of death?
Speaker 1 (16:06):
But sometimes the paths of righteousness must pass through the
valley of the shadow of death so that you can
go through situations that look like seem like and feel
like they are going to kill you. But you get
to the other side and you see a table that
(16:27):
has spread of provision in the presence of your enemies.
If there is one thing I believe, it's that goodness
and mercy happened following me all the days of my life.
I'm loud. That is one thing that keeps me from
(16:48):
going crazy. I know God is guiding my life. I
really have come to the point where I believe that
I can't always tell you where, but I know who
The Lord is my shepherd, and I found out that
he will use circumstances that he did not create. He
(17:14):
will even use confusion to guide me to confidence. So
the children of I'll prove this to you. Okay, they
come to the Red Sea. They're confused, but God put
a cloud here.
Speaker 2 (17:28):
It is before them. This is Exitus thirteen twenty one.
Speaker 1 (17:31):
They're not in the wilderness yet, they're not out of
Egypt yet.
Speaker 2 (17:34):
They're in between. They're fifteen years old, they're about to
get their driver's license.
Speaker 1 (17:36):
They don't know where to go. So look what God does.
By day, the Lord said a pillar, and it went
ahead of them, and it is a pillar of cloud
by day and a pillar of fire by night. Because
God will not always look the same way in every situation,
and sometimes you miss him because you are looking for
(17:58):
Him to appear in the form of a method. And
so you come to something, I'm gonna turn my back.
So this just can between you and God. Wave your hand.
If you're going through something right now that you do
not fully understand. Right, it's called being alive. So now
(18:18):
they're coming to this transition point and they don't know
where to go because they can't go back to Egypt,
but they don't know how to get across the sea.
So God gives them a cloud. And watch what the
scripture says, go back to twenty one. I want to
make sure you don't miss this. Sometimes I go too
fast on it and we miss stuff. He sent them
to cloud. He went before them to guide them. God's
(18:42):
positioning system. So wherever I go, God went before me.
That sounds so simple, but thousands of you don't believe
that yet. You believe that the good things that are
happening to you are the result of the guidance of God.
(19:03):
But I'm telling you that God was using the chariots
of Egypt and the whip of Pharaoh to make sure.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
That they kept moving.
Speaker 1 (19:12):
So God is driving them from behind and leading them
as he goes before them, say out loud, God is
my guide. Say it like the devil might have been
pushing you around lately.
Speaker 2 (19:25):
Let him know.
Speaker 1 (19:26):
God is my guide. And even if it's the devil pushing,
God is the one who is pulling me into the purpose.
All things work together for the good.
Speaker 2 (19:40):
So I need a guide.
Speaker 1 (19:42):
And so the cloud went before them and it showed
them the next step to take.
Speaker 2 (19:46):
In the cloud, it led them.
Speaker 1 (19:50):
I need the Lord to lead me. I need him
to lead me to speak these sermons. We're all in
trouble if he doesn't lead me to sermons. I heard
somebody say something in church one time. They were talking
about being led by the Holy Spirit. Okay, and you've
(20:12):
probably heard that before that God led me sometimes Christians,
you said, to say the craziest stuff all religions do.
Some religions will commit acts of terror and say that
they were led by God to do that. One thing
I heard early they were taking an offering in church.
I grew up in church, but it wasn't personal for
(20:37):
me then, you know, like it was a religion, It
wasn't a relationship. But when my relationship with God became real,
because only you can decide that. They were taking an
offering one day and the person taken the offering, they
said this phrase. They said, just give today as you
(20:58):
feel led. And I was only like seventeen years old,
but I knew, well, that's not going to work as
I feel led, because I mean, let's just apply that
feel led to other areas of life. Okay, if I
(21:19):
ate what I feel led to eat, there would not
be enough denim in these United States of America to
circumvent my waistline. If I exercised when I feel led
(21:39):
to exercise, it would be once in January, in once
in May when I thought about looking good in a
bathing suit, and then I would decide I already got
my wife who cares, and I would never hit the
jem if I did it when I fell. Okay, try this.
Tell your kids when you feel led to go to school.
Try that with your employee. I wasn't feeling led to
(22:02):
What if you went to work when you felt led
to work? But we will subjugate our relationship with God
to our feelings. Now, notice this, The cloud didn't ask
the children of Israel do you feel like moving today?
Would this be a good time? And did I catch
(22:24):
you at a bad time? And God doesn't consult their
mood see if they feel like moving. I don't have
to feel it. Not being led by my feelings. I'm
led by my priorities. You missed a whole lot just now.
(22:47):
It wasn't a real shouty statement, but it is the
difference between mature faith that will get you through the
wilderness and the kind of faith that goes up and
down and flows like this. And as you going all
around to all different people all time, God sent them
the cloud to teach them to prioritize.
Speaker 2 (23:03):
Everybody say prioritize.
Speaker 1 (23:06):
Some people came to church today because they felt like it.
Other people came to church today because this is the
day the Lord has made. I set this time aside.
And the less I felt like it, the more I
knew I needed to do it, because I am not
watch just sakh first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness.
That is a statement of priority, not a statement of feeling,
not a statement of preference. If I did everything I
(23:28):
felt like doing. I would have a prison ministry from
inside the prison. If I preached when I felt like preaching,
you would hear three sermons a year from me. I
didn't preach because I felt like it, although I did today.
I feel like preaching today. I can't explain it. A
little extra caffeine or work a wonder in your soul.
(23:51):
But even if I didn't feel it, it's eleven thirty
and here come the people, and the Word of God
is here, and somebody needs it. It's preaching to it's
praise in time. I don't lift my hands because I
feel like lifting my hands. I did it because he's worthy,
He's worth. How many worship then because he's worthy? To
(24:15):
seven people say, I do it because he's worthy, because
he's worthy, Because he's worthy. That's why I seek him,
because he's worthy. That's why I offer him the honor,
because he's worthy. That's why I'm staying where he told
me to stay, because he's worthy. Stay married fifteen years
(24:38):
being nice when you feel led to be nice, just
stay married fifteen minutes. If it's your priority, God is
my priority. One way of saying this, He's at the
center of my life. Now, think about that. The tabernacle
(25:02):
is in the wilderness. It's a portable tabernacle. Many of
our locations at Elevation Church still meet in rented facilities.
Means we have awesome volunteers come early, stay, lay, set up,
tear down.
Speaker 2 (25:13):
Some of y'all didn't come to Elevation during.
Speaker 1 (25:15):
That season, and those of you who did are thanking
God that those days are over. But that's where you
find out who you're really faithful. People are hauling those
trailers in Winston Salem and in and out, and we
have portable locations.
Speaker 2 (25:27):
Well, we didn't start that. God started that.
Speaker 1 (25:33):
And he not only told them how to build the
tabernacle when Moses went up and sought them for six
days in the cloud. And after seven days in the cloud,
God spoken, some of you leave too soon before God speaks.
When it's cloudy, you quit listening. But that's where God
speaks in the valley in the cloud. I feel God's
presence in this place. So he told him how to
(25:57):
build the tabernacle. But he also told him where to
put it. He told him, make sure you set it
up in the middle of the camp so that everybody
has to face it. So that all of the tribes
standing under their different banners have to face the same center.
Speaker 2 (26:13):
Right, So when I.
Speaker 1 (26:16):
Look at my life, I realized that not only is
God leading me, but he is leading me from the center.
The cloud would hover above the tabernacle, and the tabernacle
would stay in the middle. So watch this. This is
so powerful I should demonstrate it. Come here, Jordan, come here, Buck,
Come here, JJ. Wherever they went, you can be the
(26:40):
tabernacle and you can be the cloud. I am making
this up as I go. All right, but wherever they went,
this had to stay in the middle. We are so
(27:00):
paralyzed about where God is positioning us, and so we
go does God want me to take this job or
that job? And we become really flaky, really flaky. We
won't commit that this, or we're moving all around. Oh look,
did God want me to marry him? You married him
twenty seven years ago. That is a done deal. Now,
(27:22):
what you got to do is keep the presence of
God in the middle yet, and so when God moves
move you.
Speaker 2 (27:33):
Just gotta come on.
Speaker 1 (27:34):
Buck. You're helping me with this, doing a terrible job
at it right now. But so think about that now, listen,
listen of all the ways God could have led them.
This is a strange scenario. Strange how many would agree
this is strange because if you want the people to
get up and go, put them on a schedule. That's
(27:56):
just some parenting advice. By the way, you decide to
have a baby, LJ. Put them on a schedule. Yet
God does the exact opposite of what every parenting book
tells you to do.
Speaker 2 (28:07):
He wants to teach his children something.
Speaker 1 (28:09):
So the Bible says that sometimes the cloud would stay
for like two days, and then it would move, so
they had to move because they had to keep thinking
in the middle. And then it would stop and they
would stop. Sometimes the cloud would stay for a year.
I want you to think about this. Just stay right there,
(28:34):
so somebody has to stay.
Speaker 2 (28:35):
Up all night. It's millions of.
Speaker 1 (28:37):
People because we just read the Bible and we think, oh,
wouldn't it be cool if God would give me you
a cloud to show me which job to take or
which school to put my kids. No, it wouldn't be cool.
It would be horribly inconvenient because you'd always be thinking
we're gonna remove in today and then just about the
time you would unpack in the spot you were in it,
start moving again.
Speaker 2 (28:57):
Stop and the.
Speaker 1 (28:59):
Craze's the hist thing about this whole scenario that is
not mentioned in the text, but is implied in the text.
They weren't really going anywhere. If you know your Bible,
come on, you know your Bible, John, and then at
least you should you're an ordained minister of the Gospel
(29:20):
of Jesus Christ. Buck's just a security guy. No, he's
actually a great example because I met him in college.
I liked him because he was a wrestler, a successful wrestler.
Speaker 2 (29:41):
He won a stag championship. He fought in MMA tournaments.
Speaker 1 (29:47):
Yeah he did, Yeah he did. They were illegal, unsanctioned
tournaments with interns at Elevation Church. But listen to me, now,
that's not my point.
Speaker 2 (30:04):
I met him on an internship.
Speaker 1 (30:05):
The whole time I was at the internship, I was
complaining I didn't see Buck until eight years later.
Speaker 2 (30:10):
Was it eight years later? Something like that?
Speaker 1 (30:13):
He said, seven seven years later. I appreciate you correcting
the story just that much, which really didn't make a
difference at all other than the slow down.
Speaker 2 (30:21):
The momentum of my point.
Speaker 1 (30:22):
I appreciate that Buck, I didn't know when I was
doing the internship that he and I would travel.
Speaker 2 (30:30):
We've been to six continents together preaching the gospel.
Speaker 1 (30:33):
Now.
Speaker 2 (30:35):
Sometimes he's an illustration.
Speaker 1 (30:37):
Sometimes he's making sure that everything is set so I
can minister. But God had to take me all the
way through an internship that I didn't even want to
be at. We went to who HOAt China together, We
got chased through Chinese nightclubs together, sketchy stuff before social media,
(30:59):
thank God. But God was guiding us for where he
knew he was taking us. But he had to take
us the long way for something that he wanted us
to pick up along the way. Because if I hadn't
done that intern if I had gone to Charleston Southern University,
(31:25):
there would not have been a Holly boy knot. Oh yeah,
her last name was worse than Ferdick. When I met her,
she got an upgrade on Ferdick, and that is no
small feet. But I couldn't go to Charleston Southern. They
had to take my scholarship away because I had to
go to Tigerville, South Carolina, in the mountains, in the woods,
(31:46):
where boys and girls are not even allowed to look
at each other. Across the street because it's a Baptist school.
I had to go to the Baptist school to get
a point, not girl, because God knew he was calling
us just I'm trying to say, then, if you keep
God in the center, you don't happen no where you're going.
Just keep them, keep the God in the middle. Sit
(32:13):
down before I. He's guiding me, and he is teaching
me to prioritize His presence, and he will not do
it in a way that I can predict, because my
tendency is to turn God into a formula. And you
know as well as I do that if God had
(32:34):
moved that cloud at seven pm every Friday, they would
have become more dependent on the system than the source.
And He loves you too much to let your faith
become a formula. So he's gonna can I say this,
(32:57):
I need permission, even though you don't know what I'm
gonna say. I need you to trust my integrity. God
is using your confusion and I can hear it right
now because on First Corinthians fourteen on Facebook, they're gonna
put First Corinthians fourteen on There's people that sit around
on Facebook and they have nothing better to do. They're
gonna say on this clip, they're going to say, but
(33:17):
God is not the author of confusion.
Speaker 2 (33:19):
I read the same verse.
Speaker 1 (33:21):
It's talking about having an orderly worship experience, and so
it says God is.
Speaker 2 (33:27):
Not the author of confusion.
Speaker 1 (33:28):
In other words, don't everybody try to talk at one time,
or nobody's going to hear what anybody's saying. That is
the context of that verse. He's not the author of confusion.
That doesn't mean he won't use confusion.
Speaker 2 (33:42):
You know what, I believe the only path to true confidence.
Speaker 1 (33:47):
Is through confusion, because only after you've been through the confusion,
and after you've been through the valley, can you say
the Lord is my shepherd. He told them, I'm gonna
(34:13):
put you in that wilderness for forty years, but while
you're there, I'm going to train you to trust me.
I'm going to train you. See, we are so destination minded.
(34:35):
But the cloud didn't move because they needed a new
destination study. This sometime they got man of wherever they
set up camp. The only reason that God moved them
around was so that they wouldn't get stuck in one system.
God said, I don't want you to get stuck in
a system that will short circuit your faith. So I'm
(35:01):
going to allow life to throw you off balance from
time to time, and I'm gonna put you in some
situations where you don't feel certain because you can't have
your certainty and God's confidence.
Speaker 2 (35:21):
So I sent the cloud to guide you.
Speaker 1 (35:25):
I sent the cloud to teach you to prioritize my presence.
The cloud was above the tabernacle. How many No, not
only is he central, but he is above. God has
exalted Jesus and given him the name that is above.
Every name that at the name of Jesus. Every knee,
every sickness, every disease, every worry, every attack, every fear,
(35:50):
every knee will pow, every tone will confess. I feel
God guiding me right now. I feel these words going
right into your heart. Jesus Christ. It's just Lord, to
the glory of God the Father. And notice the scripture
says it was a pillar of cloud. A pillar is
(36:11):
an image of stability. How can you have stability if
what you're following keeps moving great? So, so Jesus is
getting ready to be taken up. Okay, he's resurrected from
the dead. I'm fast forwarding like a couple thousand years.
(36:35):
And he looks at his disciples and he knows, like
the children of Israel, they have never been this way before.
He's got a mission for them. He said, you will
receive power. Somebody shall power, because God's presence is God's power.
It's not an accessory, it's not a bonus feature. God's
(36:59):
presence is God's power. Up until this time, they have
been relying on God's presence in the visible form of
Jesus Christ. But you got to watch this. Something shifts
and just before Jesus leaves the earth, he's already taken
the keys to death, hell and the grave. He's already
paid the price for the sin that stood and kept
(37:20):
record against us. He's already nailed your condemnation to the cross.
He's already carried your shame. He's already born your burden.
He's already taken your sorrow. And now he's standing and
he's resurrected, and he's about to ascend into heaven to
be seated at the right hand of God, the Father Almighty.
From whence he shall come to judge to quicken the dead.
(37:41):
And he looks at his disciples and says, you shall
receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and
you will be my witnesses. Watch this in Jerusalem, in Judea,
in Samaria, to the ends. I am sending you into
an unstable world with a sore foundation, and you will
(38:07):
be my witnesses.
Speaker 2 (38:09):
In Jerus Summari at the ends of the earth and
watched this.
Speaker 1 (38:11):
And when he had said this, he was taken up
before their very eyes, and the cloud hid him from
their sight, and they couldn't see him anymore. But they
(38:33):
didn't need to see him anymore, because when he sent
his spirit they got a GPS. Somebody shot, I got
(38:54):
a GPS. I don't have to stay lost and lonely
and confused and uncertain any more. Jesus said, today is
the day all systems go. Today's the day you get
your driver's license. And you will receive power when the
(39:19):
Spirit comes on you. Stabilize, stabilize. The cloud kept going
to show them that wherever they would go, God would
be in their midst. I'm declearing this over your life today,
(39:42):
that there is a cloud in every wilderness. There is
a cloud. It's not an external thing. You keep asking
for God to give you a sign on a text
messager a sign to show up in the sky or something.
But the sign is within you. On the endside, he
will not leave you or forsake you. Who am I
(40:05):
preaching to today? I really need to know because God said,
I want to guide you, I want to teach you
to prioritize, and I want to stabilize you. So I'm
bringing you into some unfamiliar terrain because I don't want
you to depend on your circumstance. I want you to
(40:27):
depend on my spirit. So I gave you a GPS guide, prioritize, stabilize.
Somebody's shot. I got a GPS. Come on, this is
this is better. This is better than knowing where you're going,
(40:53):
to know who is with you as you go. If
you believe God is with you, end up on your
feet right now. If you believe he's guiding you, if
you believe He's taking you somewhere, Come on. I need
you to praise God in this moment like you've got
Holy spirit power. Come on, praise Him in this moment.
(41:17):
God inhabits the praises of his people. He dwells in
the midst of praise. He dwells in the midst of hollelujah,
he dwells stuff.
Speaker 2 (41:36):
It's our God.
Speaker 1 (41:38):
This will be the last day of your life that
you will live without a guide. I didn't say you
wouldn't go through another valley.
Speaker 2 (41:50):
But today, today we make a declaration. God is guiding
my life.
Speaker 1 (41:56):
You know what that means that everything that comes against
me has to work for me before it's all said
and done. The Lord is my shepherd. The Lord is
my shepherd. The Lord is my shepherd. Come on, touch
twelve people tell him. The Lord is my shepherd. The
Lord is my shepherd. He's guiding me, providing for me.
Speaker 2 (42:20):
The spirit of the Lord is in this place. And
where the spirit is there is freedom. You have been
so scared, so.
Speaker 1 (42:27):
Nervous because I don't know where to go. And the
Lord is my shepherd, and there is a cloud.
Speaker 2 (42:36):
I'll tell you what we need to do. We need
to establish a connection with Heaven.
Speaker 1 (42:42):
You know, the Bible says his divine power has given
us everything we need for life and godliness through him.
Speaker 2 (42:48):
So everything you need, God.
Speaker 1 (42:50):
Chris, that's a thought of this is in the cloud,
you know. And to get what's in the cloud, I
need a connection with the source. Lift your hands, come on,
lift your hands. Father, We honor you, We glorify you,
We bless your name, We honor your presence. Come on,
open your mouth, give and praise, We magnify, exult and
(43:13):
extol God of all. We exult to now. High up
mom uncertainty, high about fear, Come high about depression, high
about the spat. We'll lift our hands in your press,
re steal your people. God, Thank you for your far
come sin that your mom you we re see.
Speaker 2 (43:43):
Thank you for joining us.
Speaker 1 (43:44):
Special thanks to those of you who give generously to
this ministry. Is because of you that this ministry is possible.
You can click the link in the description to give now,
or visit Elevation Church dot org slash podcast for more
information and if you enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe.
Speaker 2 (44:01):
You can share it with your friends.
Speaker 1 (44:03):
You can click the share button, take a screenshot and
share it on your social stories and tag us at
Elevation Church.
Speaker 2 (44:08):
Thanks again for listening. God bless you
Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick. I'm the pastor of Elevation
Church and this is our podcast. I wanted to thank
you for joining us today. Hope this inspires you. Hope
it builds your faith. Hope it gives your perspective to
see God is moving in your life. Enjoy the message.
In the final week of our series, there is a cloud.
God led me to a scripture in Numbers, chapter nine.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
I want to read this for you.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
It may be unfamiliar, but hopefully it will build your faith.
And that is my prayer every time I stand in
the pulpit to preach, that God would use me to
build your faith, because it is your faith that enables
you to experience God's presence in your life. And so
as we read this scripture, I want you to just
kind of like get a flow for it.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
It's unusual scripture.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
I don't know that I ever heard a sermon on
it before, but I was looking at how God gave
his people this cloud. They were coming out of Egyptian
slavery and they were trying to get to the Promised Land,
but they were experiencing a delay.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
You ever had one of those?
Speaker 1 (01:01):
Huh? You ever been stuck somewhere, stuck in something. So
that's where they were and it was mostly their fault.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
But you can't really blame them.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
They were trying to figure out who is this God
and who are we? And all they had ever known
was all they had ever known. And so God gives
them a gift in the midst of this. And that's
what I want to share with you about today. Numbers
chapter nine, verse fifteen. I'm calling this sermon. All systems go,
All systems go, you know, like when they launch a
rocket ship. Y'all saw hidden figures, and so we're getting
(01:35):
ready for what God is doing in our lives.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
Everybody say, there is a cloud on.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
The day the tabernacle, the tent of the Covenant Law
was set up.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
I need to say something right here.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
Every situation is a setup if God is in it.
Here they are in the wilderness, but God is still
establishing his presence. Just want to point that out. So
they set up this tabernacle, which was a portable house
or the presence and the glory of God. And it
says that there was a cloud that covered it from
(02:06):
evening till morning. The cloud above the tabernacle looked like
fire That's how it continued to be. The cloud covered it,
and at night it looked like fire. Whenever the cloud
lifted from above the tent, the Israelites set out. Wherever
the cloud settled, the Israelites encamped. At the Lord's command,
the Israelites set out, and at his command they encamped.
(02:28):
As long as the clouds stayed over the tabernacle, they
remained in camp. When the cloud remained over the tabernacle
a long time, the Israelites obeyed the Lord's order and
did not set out. Sometimes, I say sometimes sometimes the
cloud was over the tabernacle only a few days. At
the Lord's command, they would in camp. Then at his
(02:51):
command they would set out. Now, what's the common denominator,
whether they're coming or going.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
They are doing it at the Lord's command.
Speaker 1 (02:59):
And the whole reason they're in this wilderness is because
they would not go into a place that God said
he had promised to them. So now they've got to
learn some lessons, and God is using this cloud as
a personal trainer.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
Amen.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
Well, I'm excited to appreciate about this today because it
means that God is developing their faith even though they
were disobedient. But he doesn't give up on them. Instead,
he uses the opportunity to guide them in a place
where he didn't want them to wander. But even in
their wandering, he was teaching them how to walk with him.
(03:37):
Thank you Jesus. So they were walking cloud to go
and listen to this verse twenty one. Sometimes the cloud
stayed only from evening till morning, and when it lifted
in the morning, they set out, whether by day or
by night, whether by day or by night, whether in
the good times are the bad times, whether I'm clear
or whether I'm confused, whether I did it right or
whether I did it wrong. God was right there night morning,
(03:59):
wilderness promised land. Wherever you find yourself, there he is.
And so when the cloud would go, they would go,
whether by day or by night. Whenever the cloud lifted,
they set out. Whether the cloud stayed over the tabernacle.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
For two days or a month or a year, the.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
Israelites would remain in the camp and not set out.
But when it lifted, they would not set out. And
by this point in the passage, you're thinking.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
We got it.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
They followed the cloud, But we don't got it. You know,
we need things to be reiterated.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
For us.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
I mean, how many times have you done the same
dumb thing expecting a different result in your life thus far?
And you're only twelve. Let me read one more verse,
verse twenty three. At the lord's command, they encamped, and
at the lord's command.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
They set out.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
They obeyed the Lord's order in accordance with his command
through Moses, all systems go, Holly, and I just celebrate.
Get ready to applug big. This's a big one. We
just celebrated fifteen years of marriage. Some of y'all look
like you're too good to clap for my fifteen years.
(05:13):
Maybe you've been doing it thirty years, thirty five years,
but to me, fifteen it's above the average, already beat
the odds.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
Feels kind of good.
Speaker 1 (05:23):
And I attribute our marital success to a couple of
different factors.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
I will list them for you in this order.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
God, Holly, that's neck and neck too, they're right there together.
And the third one is not me. The third one
is this is going to sound strange when I say it,
the invention of the GPS system, the Global Positioning system.
(05:55):
If it had not been for the GPS system, because
some of our worst fire somebody over here must be
like me. Some of our worst fights are in the
car because I have no sense of direction and she
is supposed to have one. It was part of an
unspoken prenuptial agreement. I grew up in Monk's Corner, South Carolina.
(06:17):
She grew up in Miami, Florida. She's supposed to know
her way around places. I told her I was country
when I married her, I told we talked about this,
and so we used to travel. And I know this
is prehistoric and primitive, and I'm not relating to the
young people anymore when I.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
Say stuff like this.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
But when we used to print our directions off a
map quest, what what our marriage? Our marriage was in
trouble on those map Quest directions, because now we got
it down. I mean, one Christmas, she brought me a
Tom Tom. Y'all don't remember nothing about a Tom Tom.
Now you got it on your phone when you got
(07:00):
Siri and everything like that. But we used to boy,
we used to talk about things in the car because
she would tell me win the term, but not win anyway.
What I'm saying is we made it. Somebody shot they
made it, and we made it because of the GPS.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
That's because for me.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
It's a real thing I cannot overemphasize to you. And
I'm gonna stay here for a minute because I do
have a point to all of this, and it really
has nothing to.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
Do with GPS.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
It's really a spiritual point. I have found out in
my life, both as a driver and as a person
that I am not really good at finding my way
around by myself, even as a pastor. I probably shouldn't
tell you this, but I've never done this before. I
(07:46):
told Elijah that the other day. He was arguing with
me about something. He wanted to listen to something lo
yochty or something, and I said, you can't because I
don't know his clean versions. And he said, well, you
listen to worse stuff when you were growing up. And
I said, but I have a parental right of hypocrisy.
Shut up and do this because I've never done this before.
We're gonna do it the way I want to do it.
(08:09):
He did. He said Snoop was just as bad. His
album was called, and he said the name of the
album from nineteen ninety three. So we had a discussion.
Some of y'all are too safe to come to this
worship experience.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
I'm gonna tell you, but thank you for coming.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
And so we were talking.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
I was like, I never did this before, and it.
Speaker 1 (08:31):
Kind of gave me compassion, even for my dad. You know,
he didn't have a dad.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
I had a dad.
Speaker 1 (08:36):
My dad's dad ended his own life and my dad
was nine. So one day I was going off about
my dad to my mom.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
You know, he doesn't get it, and he and this,
he and that, and.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
Probably some of my gripes were legitimate, but she said
back to me something.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
She said, he never saw it done.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
He's trying to stay, but he never saw it. It's
like being a tour guide you've never been to and really,
raising teenagers in today's world is like being a tour
guide in a town that changes every ten minutes. Huh.
These have to go to the gas station to buy
a magazine with pornographic material. Now they can get it
(09:17):
on the same device they can read their Bible on,
So like, how do you navigate that? So I've come
to the conclusion in life that I need a leader.
I need a leader. God knows that about me. He
(09:39):
knew that about his children. He knew they were frustrated,
he knew they were confused, and he knew that they
were following a man, Moses.
Speaker 2 (09:49):
Moses had.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
Moses had had tried to talk God out of Jusey,
and yet he's the one God wanted. And so.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
God gave them a gift. He gave I'm kind of.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
Like it's a primitive GPS system.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
Did you see it? In number chapter nine?
Speaker 1 (10:11):
God was doing the cloud way before Google. Okay, and
so this cloud. Ever say there is a cloud. He
put this cloud in the wilderness for three purposes. Please
take notes, because I believe there are three things that
God wants to do in your life right now.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
And I'm speaking to.
Speaker 1 (10:31):
The person who has been in a state of confusion.
I wanted you to know that there is a cloud
over your life, whatever wilderness you find yourself in today,
whether as a parent or whether as a pre pubescent.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
You know, I could be speaking.
Speaker 1 (10:49):
To a pastor listening to this on a podcast, but
I want you to know that there is a cloud,
and God sent the cloud to guide you, to guide you.
It's actually be better than that because God.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
Did not just say he would guide you.
Speaker 1 (11:04):
He said in Psalm number forty six that he would
be our guide. That's better because if God gave me guidance.
I know something about myself. I'm not good at following it.
So when Holly and I talk about directions, she'll say,
you know, you take a left and then there's a
fruit stand, and then there's a cow, and then there's
(11:24):
a thing, and then there's a building, and then there's
a store, and then there's.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
A porch swing.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
It's a red porch swing, got American flag draped over.
She knows all these details and stuff that I don't recognize.
And then she'll look at me and she see my
eyes glazing over, and she said, you know what, I'll
just give you the address, and that saved our marriage.
I'm serious, I have no This is how bad it is.
When I was a teenager, I would not go get
(11:48):
my driver's license. Not because I didn't want to drive.
I could not find my way around Monk's Corner. What
is there to find in Monk's Corner? There's a walmart
and there's a high school. I couldn't fight. It was
so about my dad. My dad had to make me
go get my driver's license. He walked in the house
one Wednesday. It was his day off. It was summertime.
(12:09):
I had turned fifteen months ago, but I wouldn't get
every time he would ask me, you want to go
get your license? Because I'm sickadrete in your own. Every
time he would ask me, do I want to go
get my license? I would tell him no. It wasn't
that I was scared of driving. I was so embarrassed
that I couldn't find my way around, so I just
kept putting it off. In one Wednesday, he walked in.
It was his day off, it was my day off.
I worked at. I had a summer job at. My
(12:31):
first job was at Petrest Crematory and Cremation Service. Okay,
I started from the bottom for real. Don't look at
me like I was glamorous. And I was in my
guitar my room, playing my guitar. He walked in and said,
(12:51):
today's the day we're going to get your license.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
I'm sick of this.
Speaker 1 (12:55):
And I wasn't scared of the driving test. I should
have been the woman that was sitting next to me
for the driving test.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
She was so mean.
Speaker 1 (13:01):
The car kept cutting off every time I try to start.
My dad's jimmy. Y'all remember the jimmy. Every time I
would try to start every time my dad's car was
such a piece of crap. When you try to start
the car and put it in reverse, it would cut off.
And so I was trying to back out of the
parking lot of the DMV. I couldn't get the car
out of the parking lot. And every time I put
(13:24):
in a reverse that would cut off. And the woman
let me do it three times, and she says, Sir,
in the history of my experience of one hundred and
thirty five years administering these tests, I've never done this.
But get out the car. Your test is over. You
failed in the parking lot. My dad came running across
the parking lot. He's sweating. My dad's a big old guy, sweating,
(13:44):
waving his arms. Give him another chance, ma'am, give him
another chance. I forgot to tell him this car's got
some issues. You can't have the air conditioning on when
you have it in reverse. Y'all didn't grow up driving
these kind of cars. I know you got to BMW
on your sixteenth think that I.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
Had to naked.
Speaker 1 (14:07):
Where's he going with this? I think a lot of
believers have been given license to live in the fullness
of the promise of God. But I don't trust my
sense of direction, and so God said, I see you.
Speaker 2 (14:34):
You look like a sheep.
Speaker 1 (14:37):
I see you.
Speaker 2 (14:41):
Turning left instead of right. So I'm going to guide you.
Speaker 1 (14:47):
The Lord is my shepherd, the Lord. That's a good thing.
He's my shepherd because I am bad. I mean, I
am bad at finding my way. So he said that
(15:10):
he would make me lie down in green pastures. Wait, man,
I don't want anybody make me do anything. Live a
little while, and you will want someone bigger than you,
wiser than you, stronger than you. You'll stop trying to
shrink God down to a formula that you can manipulate,
(15:33):
and you will come to the point where you'll say, God,
have your way in my life. Make me lie down
in green pastors. David said, he leads me beside still waters,
in that cool He restores my soul. He leadeth me
in paths.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
Of righteousness for his name's sake.
Speaker 1 (15:55):
Yeave, though I walked through the valley of the shadow
of death. Wait a minute, we were just talking about
still waters and paths of righteousness.
Speaker 2 (16:01):
How did we end up in this valley of the
shadow of death?
Speaker 1 (16:06):
But sometimes the paths of righteousness must pass through the
valley of the shadow of death so that you can
go through situations that look like seem like and feel
like they are going to kill you. But you get
to the other side and you see a table that
(16:27):
has spread of provision in the presence of your enemies.
If there is one thing I believe, it's that goodness
and mercy happened following me all the days of my life.
I'm loud. That is one thing that keeps me from
(16:48):
going crazy. I know God is guiding my life. I
really have come to the point where I believe that
I can't always tell you where, but I know who
The Lord is my shepherd, and I found out that
he will use circumstances that he did not create. He
(17:14):
will even use confusion to guide me to confidence. So
the children of I'll prove this to you. Okay, they
come to the Red Sea. They're confused, but God put
a cloud here.
Speaker 2 (17:28):
It is before them. This is Exitus thirteen twenty one.
Speaker 1 (17:31):
They're not in the wilderness yet, they're not out of
Egypt yet.
Speaker 2 (17:34):
They're in between. They're fifteen years old, they're about to
get their driver's license.
Speaker 1 (17:36):
They don't know where to go. So look what God does.
By day, the Lord said a pillar, and it went
ahead of them, and it is a pillar of cloud
by day and a pillar of fire by night. Because
God will not always look the same way in every situation,
and sometimes you miss him because you are looking for
(17:58):
Him to appear in the form of a method. And
so you come to something, I'm gonna turn my back.
So this just can between you and God. Wave your hand.
If you're going through something right now that you do
not fully understand. Right, it's called being alive. So now
(18:18):
they're coming to this transition point and they don't know
where to go because they can't go back to Egypt,
but they don't know how to get across the sea.
So God gives them a cloud. And watch what the
scripture says, go back to twenty one. I want to
make sure you don't miss this. Sometimes I go too
fast on it and we miss stuff. He sent them
to cloud. He went before them to guide them. God's
(18:42):
positioning system. So wherever I go, God went before me.
That sounds so simple, but thousands of you don't believe
that yet. You believe that the good things that are
happening to you are the result of the guidance of God.
(19:03):
But I'm telling you that God was using the chariots
of Egypt and the whip of Pharaoh to make sure.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
That they kept moving.
Speaker 1 (19:12):
So God is driving them from behind and leading them
as he goes before them, say out loud, God is
my guide. Say it like the devil might have been
pushing you around lately.
Speaker 2 (19:25):
Let him know.
Speaker 1 (19:26):
God is my guide. And even if it's the devil pushing,
God is the one who is pulling me into the purpose.
All things work together for the good.
Speaker 2 (19:40):
So I need a guide.
Speaker 1 (19:42):
And so the cloud went before them and it showed
them the next step to take.
Speaker 2 (19:46):
In the cloud, it led them.
Speaker 1 (19:50):
I need the Lord to lead me. I need him
to lead me to speak these sermons. We're all in
trouble if he doesn't lead me to sermons. I heard
somebody say something in church one time. They were talking
about being led by the Holy Spirit. Okay, and you've
(20:12):
probably heard that before that God led me sometimes Christians,
you said, to say the craziest stuff all religions do.
Some religions will commit acts of terror and say that
they were led by God to do that. One thing
I heard early they were taking an offering in church.
I grew up in church, but it wasn't personal for
(20:37):
me then, you know, like it was a religion, It
wasn't a relationship. But when my relationship with God became real,
because only you can decide that. They were taking an
offering one day and the person taken the offering, they
said this phrase. They said, just give today as you
(20:58):
feel led. And I was only like seventeen years old,
but I knew, well, that's not going to work as
I feel led, because I mean, let's just apply that
feel led to other areas of life. Okay, if I
(21:19):
ate what I feel led to eat, there would not
be enough denim in these United States of America to
circumvent my waistline. If I exercised when I feel led
(21:39):
to exercise, it would be once in January, in once
in May when I thought about looking good in a
bathing suit, and then I would decide I already got
my wife who cares, and I would never hit the
jem if I did it when I fell. Okay, try this.
Tell your kids when you feel led to go to school.
Try that with your employee. I wasn't feeling led to
(22:02):
What if you went to work when you felt led
to work? But we will subjugate our relationship with God
to our feelings. Now, notice this, The cloud didn't ask
the children of Israel do you feel like moving today?
Would this be a good time? And did I catch
(22:24):
you at a bad time? And God doesn't consult their
mood see if they feel like moving. I don't have
to feel it. Not being led by my feelings. I'm
led by my priorities. You missed a whole lot just now.
(22:47):
It wasn't a real shouty statement, but it is the
difference between mature faith that will get you through the
wilderness and the kind of faith that goes up and
down and flows like this. And as you going all
around to all different people all time, God sent them
the cloud to teach them to prioritize.
Speaker 2 (23:03):
Everybody say prioritize.
Speaker 1 (23:06):
Some people came to church today because they felt like it.
Other people came to church today because this is the
day the Lord has made. I set this time aside.
And the less I felt like it, the more I
knew I needed to do it, because I am not
watch just sakh first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness.
That is a statement of priority, not a statement of feeling,
not a statement of preference. If I did everything I
(23:28):
felt like doing. I would have a prison ministry from
inside the prison. If I preached when I felt like preaching,
you would hear three sermons a year from me. I
didn't preach because I felt like it, although I did today.
I feel like preaching today. I can't explain it. A
little extra caffeine or work a wonder in your soul.
(23:51):
But even if I didn't feel it, it's eleven thirty
and here come the people, and the Word of God
is here, and somebody needs it. It's preaching to it's
praise in time. I don't lift my hands because I
feel like lifting my hands. I did it because he's worthy,
He's worth. How many worship then because he's worthy? To
(24:15):
seven people say, I do it because he's worthy, because
he's worthy, Because he's worthy. That's why I seek him,
because he's worthy. That's why I offer him the honor,
because he's worthy. That's why I'm staying where he told
me to stay, because he's worthy. Stay married fifteen years
(24:38):
being nice when you feel led to be nice, just
stay married fifteen minutes. If it's your priority, God is
my priority. One way of saying this, He's at the
center of my life. Now, think about that. The tabernacle
(25:02):
is in the wilderness. It's a portable tabernacle. Many of
our locations at Elevation Church still meet in rented facilities.
Means we have awesome volunteers come early, stay, lay, set up,
tear down.
Speaker 2 (25:13):
Some of y'all didn't come to Elevation during.
Speaker 1 (25:15):
That season, and those of you who did are thanking
God that those days are over. But that's where you
find out who you're really faithful. People are hauling those
trailers in Winston Salem and in and out, and we
have portable locations.
Speaker 2 (25:27):
Well, we didn't start that. God started that.
Speaker 1 (25:33):
And he not only told them how to build the
tabernacle when Moses went up and sought them for six
days in the cloud. And after seven days in the cloud,
God spoken, some of you leave too soon before God speaks.
When it's cloudy, you quit listening. But that's where God
speaks in the valley in the cloud. I feel God's
presence in this place. So he told him how to
(25:57):
build the tabernacle. But he also told him where to
put it. He told him, make sure you set it
up in the middle of the camp so that everybody
has to face it. So that all of the tribes
standing under their different banners have to face the same center.
Speaker 2 (26:13):
Right, So when I.
Speaker 1 (26:16):
Look at my life, I realized that not only is
God leading me, but he is leading me from the center.
The cloud would hover above the tabernacle, and the tabernacle
would stay in the middle. So watch this. This is
so powerful I should demonstrate it. Come here, Jordan, come here, Buck,
Come here, JJ. Wherever they went, you can be the
(26:40):
tabernacle and you can be the cloud. I am making
this up as I go. All right, but wherever they went,
this had to stay in the middle. We are so
(27:00):
paralyzed about where God is positioning us, and so we
go does God want me to take this job or
that job? And we become really flaky, really flaky. We
won't commit that this, or we're moving all around. Oh look,
did God want me to marry him? You married him
twenty seven years ago. That is a done deal. Now,
(27:22):
what you got to do is keep the presence of
God in the middle yet, and so when God moves
move you.
Speaker 2 (27:33):
Just gotta come on.
Speaker 1 (27:34):
Buck. You're helping me with this, doing a terrible job
at it right now. But so think about that now, listen,
listen of all the ways God could have led them.
This is a strange scenario. Strange how many would agree
this is strange because if you want the people to
get up and go, put them on a schedule. That's
(27:56):
just some parenting advice. By the way, you decide to
have a baby, LJ. Put them on a schedule. Yet
God does the exact opposite of what every parenting book
tells you to do.
Speaker 2 (28:07):
He wants to teach his children something.
Speaker 1 (28:09):
So the Bible says that sometimes the cloud would stay
for like two days, and then it would move, so
they had to move because they had to keep thinking
in the middle. And then it would stop and they
would stop. Sometimes the cloud would stay for a year.
I want you to think about this. Just stay right there,
(28:34):
so somebody has to stay.
Speaker 2 (28:35):
Up all night. It's millions of.
Speaker 1 (28:37):
People because we just read the Bible and we think, oh,
wouldn't it be cool if God would give me you
a cloud to show me which job to take or
which school to put my kids. No, it wouldn't be cool.
It would be horribly inconvenient because you'd always be thinking
we're gonna remove in today and then just about the
time you would unpack in the spot you were in it,
start moving again.
Speaker 2 (28:57):
Stop and the.
Speaker 1 (28:59):
Craze's the hist thing about this whole scenario that is
not mentioned in the text, but is implied in the text.
They weren't really going anywhere. If you know your Bible,
come on, you know your Bible, John, and then at
least you should you're an ordained minister of the Gospel
(29:20):
of Jesus Christ. Buck's just a security guy. No, he's
actually a great example because I met him in college.
I liked him because he was a wrestler, a successful wrestler.
Speaker 2 (29:41):
He won a stag championship. He fought in MMA tournaments.
Speaker 1 (29:47):
Yeah he did, Yeah he did. They were illegal, unsanctioned
tournaments with interns at Elevation Church. But listen to me, now,
that's not my point.
Speaker 2 (30:04):
I met him on an internship.
Speaker 1 (30:05):
The whole time I was at the internship, I was
complaining I didn't see Buck until eight years later.
Speaker 2 (30:10):
Was it eight years later? Something like that?
Speaker 1 (30:13):
He said, seven seven years later. I appreciate you correcting
the story just that much, which really didn't make a
difference at all other than the slow down.
Speaker 2 (30:21):
The momentum of my point.
Speaker 1 (30:22):
I appreciate that Buck, I didn't know when I was
doing the internship that he and I would travel.
Speaker 2 (30:30):
We've been to six continents together preaching the gospel.
Speaker 1 (30:33):
Now.
Speaker 2 (30:35):
Sometimes he's an illustration.
Speaker 1 (30:37):
Sometimes he's making sure that everything is set so I
can minister. But God had to take me all the
way through an internship that I didn't even want to
be at. We went to who HOAt China together, We
got chased through Chinese nightclubs together, sketchy stuff before social media,
(30:59):
thank God. But God was guiding us for where he
knew he was taking us. But he had to take
us the long way for something that he wanted us
to pick up along the way. Because if I hadn't
done that intern if I had gone to Charleston Southern University,
(31:25):
there would not have been a Holly boy knot. Oh yeah,
her last name was worse than Ferdick. When I met her,
she got an upgrade on Ferdick, and that is no
small feet. But I couldn't go to Charleston Southern. They
had to take my scholarship away because I had to
go to Tigerville, South Carolina, in the mountains, in the woods,
(31:46):
where boys and girls are not even allowed to look
at each other. Across the street because it's a Baptist school.
I had to go to the Baptist school to get
a point, not girl, because God knew he was calling
us just I'm trying to say, then, if you keep
God in the center, you don't happen no where you're going.
Just keep them, keep the God in the middle. Sit
(32:13):
down before I. He's guiding me, and he is teaching
me to prioritize His presence, and he will not do
it in a way that I can predict, because my
tendency is to turn God into a formula. And you
know as well as I do that if God had
(32:34):
moved that cloud at seven pm every Friday, they would
have become more dependent on the system than the source.
And He loves you too much to let your faith
become a formula. So he's gonna can I say this,
(32:57):
I need permission, even though you don't know what I'm
gonna say. I need you to trust my integrity. God
is using your confusion and I can hear it right
now because on First Corinthians fourteen on Facebook, they're gonna
put First Corinthians fourteen on There's people that sit around
on Facebook and they have nothing better to do. They're
gonna say on this clip, they're going to say, but
(33:17):
God is not the author of confusion.
Speaker 2 (33:19):
I read the same verse.
Speaker 1 (33:21):
It's talking about having an orderly worship experience, and so
it says God is.
Speaker 2 (33:27):
Not the author of confusion.
Speaker 1 (33:28):
In other words, don't everybody try to talk at one time,
or nobody's going to hear what anybody's saying. That is
the context of that verse. He's not the author of confusion.
That doesn't mean he won't use confusion.
Speaker 2 (33:42):
You know what, I believe the only path to true confidence.
Speaker 1 (33:47):
Is through confusion, because only after you've been through the confusion,
and after you've been through the valley, can you say
the Lord is my shepherd. He told them, I'm gonna
(34:13):
put you in that wilderness for forty years, but while
you're there, I'm going to train you to trust me.
I'm going to train you. See, we are so destination minded.
(34:35):
But the cloud didn't move because they needed a new
destination study. This sometime they got man of wherever they
set up camp. The only reason that God moved them
around was so that they wouldn't get stuck in one system.
God said, I don't want you to get stuck in
a system that will short circuit your faith. So I'm
(35:01):
going to allow life to throw you off balance from
time to time, and I'm gonna put you in some
situations where you don't feel certain because you can't have
your certainty and God's confidence.
Speaker 2 (35:21):
So I sent the cloud to guide you.
Speaker 1 (35:25):
I sent the cloud to teach you to prioritize my presence.
The cloud was above the tabernacle. How many No, not
only is he central, but he is above. God has
exalted Jesus and given him the name that is above.
Every name that at the name of Jesus. Every knee,
every sickness, every disease, every worry, every attack, every fear,
(35:50):
every knee will pow, every tone will confess. I feel
God guiding me right now. I feel these words going
right into your heart. Jesus Christ. It's just Lord, to
the glory of God the Father. And notice the scripture
says it was a pillar of cloud. A pillar is
(36:11):
an image of stability. How can you have stability if
what you're following keeps moving great? So, so Jesus is
getting ready to be taken up. Okay, he's resurrected from
the dead. I'm fast forwarding like a couple thousand years.
(36:35):
And he looks at his disciples and he knows, like
the children of Israel, they have never been this way before.
He's got a mission for them. He said, you will
receive power. Somebody shall power, because God's presence is God's power.
It's not an accessory, it's not a bonus feature. God's
(36:59):
presence is God's power. Up until this time, they have
been relying on God's presence in the visible form of
Jesus Christ. But you got to watch this. Something shifts
and just before Jesus leaves the earth, he's already taken
the keys to death, hell and the grave. He's already
paid the price for the sin that stood and kept
(37:20):
record against us. He's already nailed your condemnation to the cross.
He's already carried your shame. He's already born your burden.
He's already taken your sorrow. And now he's standing and
he's resurrected, and he's about to ascend into heaven to
be seated at the right hand of God, the Father Almighty.
From whence he shall come to judge to quicken the dead.
(37:41):
And he looks at his disciples and says, you shall
receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and
you will be my witnesses. Watch this in Jerusalem, in Judea,
in Samaria, to the ends. I am sending you into
an unstable world with a sore foundation, and you will
(38:07):
be my witnesses.
Speaker 2 (38:09):
In Jerus Summari at the ends of the earth and
watched this.
Speaker 1 (38:11):
And when he had said this, he was taken up
before their very eyes, and the cloud hid him from
their sight, and they couldn't see him anymore. But they
(38:33):
didn't need to see him anymore, because when he sent
his spirit they got a GPS. Somebody shot, I got
(38:54):
a GPS. I don't have to stay lost and lonely
and confused and uncertain any more. Jesus said, today is
the day all systems go. Today's the day you get
your driver's license. And you will receive power when the
(39:19):
Spirit comes on you. Stabilize, stabilize. The cloud kept going
to show them that wherever they would go, God would
be in their midst. I'm declearing this over your life today,
(39:42):
that there is a cloud in every wilderness. There is
a cloud. It's not an external thing. You keep asking
for God to give you a sign on a text
messager a sign to show up in the sky or something.
But the sign is within you. On the endside, he
will not leave you or forsake you. Who am I
(40:05):
preaching to today? I really need to know because God said,
I want to guide you, I want to teach you
to prioritize, and I want to stabilize you. So I'm
bringing you into some unfamiliar terrain because I don't want
you to depend on your circumstance. I want you to
(40:27):
depend on my spirit. So I gave you a GPS guide, prioritize, stabilize.
Somebody's shot. I got a GPS. Come on, this is
this is better. This is better than knowing where you're going,
(40:53):
to know who is with you as you go. If
you believe God is with you, end up on your
feet right now. If you believe he's guiding you, if
you believe He's taking you somewhere, Come on. I need
you to praise God in this moment like you've got
Holy spirit power. Come on, praise Him in this moment.
(41:17):
God inhabits the praises of his people. He dwells in
the midst of praise. He dwells in the midst of hollelujah,
he dwells stuff.
Speaker 2 (41:36):
It's our God.
Speaker 1 (41:38):
This will be the last day of your life that
you will live without a guide. I didn't say you
wouldn't go through another valley.
Speaker 2 (41:50):
But today, today we make a declaration. God is guiding
my life.
Speaker 1 (41:56):
You know what that means that everything that comes against
me has to work for me before it's all said
and done. The Lord is my shepherd. The Lord is
my shepherd. The Lord is my shepherd. Come on, touch
twelve people tell him. The Lord is my shepherd. The
Lord is my shepherd. He's guiding me, providing for me.
Speaker 2 (42:20):
The spirit of the Lord is in this place. And
where the spirit is there is freedom. You have been
so scared, so.
Speaker 1 (42:27):
Nervous because I don't know where to go. And the
Lord is my shepherd, and there is a cloud.
Speaker 2 (42:36):
I'll tell you what we need to do. We need
to establish a connection with Heaven.
Speaker 1 (42:42):
You know, the Bible says his divine power has given
us everything we need for life and godliness through him.
Speaker 2 (42:48):
So everything you need, God.
Speaker 1 (42:50):
Chris, that's a thought of this is in the cloud,
you know. And to get what's in the cloud, I
need a connection with the source. Lift your hands, come on,
lift your hands. Father, We honor you, We glorify you,
We bless your name, We honor your presence. Come on,
open your mouth, give and praise, We magnify, exult and
(43:13):
extol God of all. We exult to now. High up
mom uncertainty, high about fear, Come high about depression, high
about the spat. We'll lift our hands in your press,
re steal your people. God, Thank you for your far
come sin that your mom you we re see.
Speaker 2 (43:43):
Thank you for joining us.
Speaker 1 (43:44):
Special thanks to those of you who give generously to
this ministry. Is because of you that this ministry is possible.
You can click the link in the description to give now,
or visit Elevation Church dot org slash podcast for more
information and if you enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe.
Speaker 2 (44:01):
You can share it with your friends.
Speaker 1 (44:03):
You can click the share button, take a screenshot and
share it on your social stories and tag us at
Elevation Church.
Speaker 2 (44:08):
Thanks again for listening. God bless you
Host
Steven Furtick
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