August 16, 2024 • 49 mins
Sometimes, the biggest barrier between us and our blessings is not the challenges around us, but our expectation for God to show up in the same way He did in our past. Learn the freedom that comes when you stop asking the questions of what, when, and how — and focus instead on WHO.
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
I'm the pastor of Elevation Church, and this is our podcast.
I wanted to thank you for joining us today.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
Hope this inspires you. Hope it builds your faith.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Hope it gives your perspective to see God is moving
in your life.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
Enjoy the message.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
I want to share a verse with you from Isaiah
forty three. This verse nineteen, God, see I am doing
a new thing. Well, y'all, that's only the first part
of the verse. Would you let me read the whole
verse before you start acting all excited and enthusiastic.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
I'm just kidding. Of course, you can shout anytime.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
People shout over much stupid or stuff, so you can.
You can get excited here. Sorry, all right, let me
start over. Just let's start over. See, I'm doing a
new thing now, it's up. Do you not perceive it?
I am making away in the wilderness. That's what you are,
(01:07):
just singing and streams in the waste slam. Permit me
to go over to the Book of Hebrews. I want
to put one New Testament verse together with that Old
Testament prophecy. And this is Hebrews Chapter six, Verse one.
The writer says, Therefore, let us move beyond the elementary
(01:28):
teachings about Christ and be taken forward to maturity, not
laying again the foundation of repentance from acts that lead
to death and of faith in God. So what I
want to talk to you for a few moments today,
and I'm so very thrilled to get to stand before
you again and share the word.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
Of God with you.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
And my subject, my subject is barriers to blessings. And
I want you to pray for me that I would
be able to deliver this word to you, just like
God wants you to hear it. Father, Thanks, thank you
for the time we have together. Now, these are your people,
This is your word. Make the connection so that your
(02:06):
word gets in the hearts of your people and changes
their lives.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
Because if that happens, the world will change.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
So we believe we're standing on the brink of something great,
and we declare it by faith in Jesus name.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
Amen, you may be seated.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
Well, not to be unspiritual, but would you help me
wish my wife a happy birthday.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
She celebrated her birthday and I didn't ask her if
I could tell you that she's thirty seven.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
We're getting old girl, No are We talk about this
all the time that we know we're getting old, and
we know we're getting old because we listen to Cheryl
Crowe and we yeah, I was in love with Cheryl
Crowe round age fourteen. I think she was like sixty
(03:02):
five at that time, and so but she's still.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
Going and.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
Oh, yeah, we're getting old. It's true because I was
telling Holly the other day, you know, we were even
listening to trying to listen to some new music from
the new Cheryl Crow album, which sounds, you know, like
a paradox, but it's not. It's she's still making music today.
But I looked at Holly I was like, I just
can't do it. I just can't listen to the new
(03:28):
Cheryl Crow. And so we had this weird discussion about
neural pathways and how your brain starts to like certain
music in certain stages, and we had a very this
was on her birthday.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
We had a very.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
Deep discussion about why we don't like the new Cheryl
Crow and why we like the old Cheryl Crow.
Speaker 1 (03:49):
And it's not I don't think it's Cheryl's fault.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
I don't think Cheryl's vocals have gotten weaker or songwriting
abilities and sensibilities have gotten any less. Keen, I promise,
i'mnna get back to the scripture.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
I see a few guests looking nervous. What did you
bring me to?
Speaker 2 (04:03):
I see a few teenagers looking confused.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
Who is Sheryl Crow?
Speaker 2 (04:07):
And it all makes me feel old, because like, if
you play a bassline from an old Cheryl Crow song,
just automatically, it puts me in a certain frame of mind,
you know, and music does that to you. They've written
books about it, They've done studies at prestigious universities about
why certain like why if you played leaving Las Vegas
right now by Cheryl Crow, just even the baseline, just
(04:29):
even just a.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
If he started playing that, I.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
Could remember being at the music Farm when I watched
her open for Blues Traveler. It makes me feel free
and it makes me feel excited.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
And I remember smelling marijuana for the first time. But
that's not the point of church. Well, I'm saying this.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
It's like a it's embedded, it's an attachment, it's an
anchor memory.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
And I liked it.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
I liked the old stuff, I like the new stuff,
or any of you like me, like just music is not,
but it it's.
Speaker 3 (05:10):
Okay to talk about just not what it used to be. No, no,
what happened to the guitar solos and the Sheryl Crow basslines?
Speaker 2 (05:23):
Of course that brings us to Isaiah forty three. No,
it really does, because y'all were shouting, and I thought
it was odd that you were shouting, because the announcement
went like this. I don't know if you remember, It's
been like five minutes. And then some of us forget
real quickly, and everybody shot knew. I was reading the verse,
and I said, see, I am doing a new thing.
I have no idea what happened in Matthews or Ronoke
(05:46):
or Raleigh or any other location, but here Valentine. When
I was trying to read my scripture and I only
got that far, and I said, see, I am doing.
Speaker 1 (05:56):
A new thing. And they start cheering. But they do
not share for highway construction.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
Nor did they listen to the new Sheryl Crow album,
nor did they like their kids choice in music.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
Or clothing.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
We don't really how many want God to do a
new thing in your life. I'm setting you up. Be
careful if you raise your hand. I'm just warning you,
because I think that's I think that's a real challenge.
I really do. I think sometimes when God is trying
to bless us, I can use scriptural examples. How you know,
(06:42):
the early Church was so used to the law that
when the writer of Hebrews began to break it down,
and he said that in times past God has spoken
through the prophets, and he gave us the law through Moses,
and now he's speaking through his son. One of the
reasons that the hebrew people had such a difficult time
(07:04):
and they needed to be brought forth or be led
into something new, is because our brains have a way.
They've studied this now in science, not only with Sheryl
Crow songs, but also with any habit that happens in
your life. We know now that your brain actually creates highways.
(07:25):
That's not a technical term. And over the next seven seconds,
I'm going to tell you everything that I know about
brain science, but it won't take me long. But I
don't know that your brain forms connections. Yeah, your brain.
Once you've done something a certain number of way a
certain number of times, your brain just locks it in
and anything that doesn't feel familiar like that starts to
(07:47):
feel frustrating.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
And that's why some of the.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
Things that you do in your life that you don't
even like the results of are so difficult to undo
because you've established a way of doing things.
Speaker 1 (08:02):
We even say that, we say, well, that's just the
way he is. What are we saying.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
We're talking about his neural pathways. We don't call it
neural pathways because our friends would look at us funny.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
So we say that's just the way he is.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
Well, that's not just the way he is, it's the
way his brain has been trained, or it's the way
that her brain has been trained. I don't want to
be sexist about it. Women have issues and habitual addictions to.
Speaker 4 (08:25):
Do.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
Somebody say, change your ways. No shouting over that. But
yet I'm excuse me for a moment. I'm just trying
to reconcile the fact that when I read my scripture.
Speaker 1 (08:39):
See I am doing a new thing. It felt exciting.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
But then when we actually begin to discuss what it means,
because God says, now it springs up, do you not
perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness
and streams in the wasteland, and other words, God is
saying to a people who have been exiled into Babylonian captivity.
He's saying, I'm trying to bless you. I've been trying
(09:08):
to bless you all your life. I've been trying to
bless you all your life. I've been trying to release
what you need all your life. I've been trying to
give you what is in me. I've been trying to
flow through you and flow to you and to't your neighbor. Again,
I won't do this, but maybe about ten more times.
Tell them God is trying to bless you. He is
(09:31):
trying to bless you.
Speaker 1 (09:34):
But Isaiah speaks.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
Up because the people of Israel have been, by their behaviors,
blocking the blessing of God. So I called this message
barriers to blessings because just like there are blessings, I
mean real blessings, not just cars and houses. Those are fine,
not just pools and boyfriends, although if you get one
(09:56):
of those or both of those, I'll celebrate with you.
But far beyond that, God wants to bless you at
the very state of your being. That's what he said
to Abraham. You will be a blessing. Not just you
will be blessed, but everybody you touch talk to even
look at will be blessed just because they got in
proximity to you.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
That's the promise.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
That's why God brought his people forth so that they
would be blessed. And the reason that he wanted them
to be blessed is so they could be a blessing.
And that's what we're talking about in this series is
that sometimes we experience.
Speaker 1 (10:35):
Here's the term in business terminology.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
Any business owners in the house, I need to know
who to pray for, because it is not easy to
lead an organization, is it.
Speaker 1 (10:43):
And if you started your business, raise your hand.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
If you started your business, and I see that takes
a lot of courage, because every business has barriers to entry.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
That's the technical term.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
It's startup costs, government regulations, knowledge that you may not
have that existing competitors already have. And so even to
think about starting a business is should make you a
little nauseous because there are barriers to entry. One thing
that has changed in our modern age is that in
(11:14):
regards to creativity and content, there are so many different
ways to distribute content that it's no longer like it was.
It's not like the old days. In the old days,
you had to have a record label. To put out
an album, you had to have a lot of money
to book studio time. Well, now if you have the
right software and a SoundCloud, you could just put your
stuff out off as any good. Maybe it'll get somebody's attention.
(11:35):
I mean, if you really consistently. I'm not saying it's easier,
because now there are more than ever, many different people
and many different entities vuying for attention. But what's happened
is the barrier to entry has really been broken down,
and now the barrier to entry is no longer Do
you have enough money to make an album or do
you have somebody who will help you make an album?
It's are you any good? And are you consistent enough
(11:55):
that you will put out enough stuff until you connect.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
With your audience.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
So I kind of feel like that that's what we're
trying to understand here in Isaiah forty three and Hebrews
chapter six. Although these scriptures are separated by about seven
centuries of time. I think God is trying to get
us to see that the barriers that were before us
(12:22):
to keep us from experiencing His blessing are no longer there.
So I'm talking about shame that was dealt with at
the cross. I'm talking about your weakness that can actually
become strength. I'm talking about the mistakes of your past
that you relive in your mind over and over again.
(12:44):
I'm saying God has dealt with that, defeated death, defeated the.
Speaker 1 (12:48):
Grave, taken your shame.
Speaker 2 (12:52):
How many want to thank God that the barrier has
already been broken.
Speaker 1 (12:57):
Just receive it right now.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
Because since you couldn't get to God, God came down
to you, wrapped himself up, looking like a little infant,
but really he was infinite, coming through the eons, coming
through the Axis, coming through Eternity. Cannot preach like the
barrier is broken. As a matter of fact, when I
even look out over our church, I see lots of
(13:22):
barriers broken. I see people who shouldn't even be in
church together praising God right beside each other, like we
have the same baptism, the same faith, the same birth,
the same hope.
Speaker 1 (13:37):
It gets me excited.
Speaker 2 (13:43):
Now if the essence of the Gospel is that God
breaks barriers, and that he broke every barrier, even the
righteous requirements of the law, which were fully met in him,
so that you might be fully found in Him, so
that nothing could separate you from the love of God
that is in Christ, Jesus your Lord, neither height, nor death,
nor anything else in all creation. When Paul wanted to
say it, he said it like that, etc. None of
(14:04):
it can keep me from the love and the blessing
of God except my unbelief, because all of that can
be true. But if you don't believe it's true, it
(14:27):
won't be true for you, even if you're shout about it.
But when you go home, you really don't think that
God is doing a new thing, you will stay stuck.
Speaker 1 (14:40):
In what was. And I don't envy Isaiah.
Speaker 2 (14:45):
He was a much better preacher than I will ever be,
to say the least. Even the fact that I would
say that feels arrogant to say that. You know that Isaiah,
let me tell you how good he was at his job. Okay,
he's called the egle eyed prophet because he was prophesying
stuff that he he wouldn't even live to see. So
he was preaching the sermons that the people would need
for something that they weren't even going through yet, that
(15:06):
he would never even go through. And so God would
download what they would need. And God knew that his
people would worship these other gods, even though that the
God of Heaven had promised to a man called Abraham,
who was the father of their faith, that I will
bless you, and you will be a blessing, and there
will never be a time that you will not be blessed.
And not only will you be blessed, but all peoples
of the earth will be blessed through you, all of them.
Speaker 1 (15:28):
Not I'm not just doing this for one nation, one people.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
Grow The heart of God has always been that all
of us would be blessed, that every barrier would be
broken down, not just in one zip code, not just
one ethnicity, not just one denomination, but that all people
would be blessed through those who are called by His name.
Speaker 1 (15:47):
That's the promise. Here's the problem.
Speaker 2 (15:49):
You notice that they always like hang out together. The
problem is that the people of God blocked not only
their own blessing, but the blessing.
Speaker 1 (16:01):
That they were created to distribute to the earth through.
Speaker 2 (16:04):
Their unbelief in the true and living God. So Isaiah
knows this and knows that there will be a time
when they will live in captivity, in bondage. That blessed
people can still live in bondage mentally emotionally blessed people
(16:26):
can still live in bondage, and they weren't imprisoned in
physical cells. They were taken away into a Babylonian land
where a lot of their life really wasn't that bad.
Speaker 1 (16:39):
It wasn't that they lacked physically. It was just that they.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
Were in an unfamiliar, strange place, away from the place
God had called them. Usually when we think of the
opposite of blessing, we think that the situation would be
really bad. It wasn't really the situation that got bad
for these people that Isaiah is writing to.
Speaker 1 (16:59):
Their soul, and so.
Speaker 2 (17:02):
The situation wasn't that terrible, but the state of their
soul very dry, very destitute, and very desperate. And into
that situation Isaiah speaks forth a promise from God, and
he says to the people.
Speaker 1 (17:19):
Who are not yet in captivity, but they will be.
Speaker 2 (17:22):
So he's giving them what they need for what they're
going to go through that they don't.
Speaker 1 (17:26):
Know about yet.
Speaker 2 (17:27):
That's why you need to take notes in church, even
if you don't think it's for you right now. Oh,
I'm not a parent, but you never know when you
might get one of those little puppies you.
Speaker 1 (17:38):
Might need the manual. What did he say four years ago?
Speaker 2 (17:46):
Well, he has a difficult task because he's speaking to
a future that they don't experience yet, and so maybe
they're not listening. So what's what he does? I want
to back up a few verses. Go to verse fifteen.
He reminds them who he is. I am the Lord,
your Holy One, because Isaiah is only a mouthpiece. He
(18:06):
is not the message. He is the mouthpiece of the message.
I am the Lord, your Holy One. That's a cool
thing that unholy people could claim a personal relationship with
a holy God because the barrier has been broken. If
Isaiah could talk like that, and Jesus hasn't even lived yet,
(18:27):
how can we talk about our relationship with God.
Speaker 1 (18:30):
Living on this side of the cross.
Speaker 2 (18:32):
I'm broken, but I belong to one whose name is exalted,
whose name is holy, and in the center of unbroken praise,
I am the Lord.
Speaker 1 (18:45):
You belong to me. I am Israel's creator, your King.
Speaker 2 (18:53):
This is what the Lord says, he who made away
through the See that's what we were just singing. We
didn't really write that song. It was written in a
long time. We plagiarized it. But there's no copyright on it,
so we just up there singing it like us ours.
Speaker 1 (19:13):
Man oh tongs.
Speaker 2 (19:14):
And you gotta understand, this was Israel's jam.
Speaker 1 (19:19):
No, I'm serious, this was their song. So this was
the one.
Speaker 2 (19:23):
You know, how you have your song, whether Sheryl Crow
or Metallica. I see you out there, I see you.
I love it too. I love it too. I saw
damage incorporated. I even know what Metallica short it is.
And you got jarms, Yeah, I saw I saw all
of it, whatever your jam is. And I know it's
not just white people in the church. And at this
point I've only mentioned a few bands in certain genres,
so it's a lot of different songs. But when Israel
(19:44):
heard that, their collective consciousness as.
Speaker 1 (19:47):
A nation would remember the core story.
Speaker 2 (19:50):
That is referenced, because it's not just some generic thing.
Speaker 1 (19:53):
You know.
Speaker 2 (19:53):
The Bible's not like a fortune cookie where you just
kind of open it, look at the numbers, look at
the thing.
Speaker 1 (19:58):
Pass it around.
Speaker 2 (19:59):
It was written to a Pacific people, So Isaiah is
going back to the past to remind the people of
the faithfulness of God. And he goes, he goes all
the way back to when they were slaves in Egypt,
and they were in bondage and they didn't see a
way out, and God sent them a deliverer, and his
name was Moses.
Speaker 1 (20:17):
And Moses stood before Pharaoh and said, let my people go.
And he had to say it a.
Speaker 2 (20:21):
Bunch of times, because sometimes Pharaoh is stubborn, and freedom
doesn't always come easy, and sometimes it takes persistence, And
sometimes God has to let your situation look humanly impossible
so that he can reveal himself as to God of
all possibility. Sometimes Lazarus has to stay in the grave
a little while longer so when he gets up, you
won't just think it was the prayers of the church.
You'll know it was the power of God that raised him.
(20:43):
Like so he says, this is what the Lord says,
he who made away, raise your hand. If God ever
made a way for you, just even a little way,
just even if he ever healed a headache, or just
if he ever helped you get a job, or even
if somebody slipped your two.
Speaker 1 (21:00):
When you didn't have a job and you got the gas,
or maybe it.
Speaker 2 (21:02):
Was one time when you were so depressed, crying your
eyes out, and you woke up one morning and you
realize you know, I feel a little better today, and
maybe I can get out of the bed today and
maybe I'll wash a few dishes today. And before you
knew it, you were back to normal. God made away?
Has he ever made away for you? Has he ever
made away? If he made if he made a way
for you, just wave your hand. If he made away,
just wave it. I don't know what you're talking about.
Speaker 1 (21:24):
Don Don John Jun Don don Donjon.
Speaker 2 (21:32):
When they started, when Isaiah said, dak the people that
that was remembered, that was their soundtrack to remind him
that they were no longer slaves.
Speaker 1 (21:44):
He who made away? Because this is a scene.
Speaker 2 (21:47):
This, This is not an abstract, theoretical, metaphorical out of
words to say this. This is this is not what
God kind of like does in a picture for him.
This this is an actual, practical memory from the past
of what God did for his people.
Speaker 1 (22:07):
He didn't do it for these people.
Speaker 2 (22:09):
They're in a different situation, but he did it for the.
Speaker 1 (22:12):
People that they're a part of. So it's part of
their legacy. It's part of their core story.
Speaker 2 (22:19):
Their core story is that we were slaves. God brought
us out of Egypt. We were there for over four
hundred years. He brought us out into a promised land,
and now they need to go back to their core
story so that they can survive their captivity.
Speaker 1 (22:36):
Are you with me so far? So he brings them
back ton toun to ton toun, toun to toun, tou
tou tou toun tun tun tou toon tun.
Speaker 3 (22:52):
He made away Tondundun through the see tondund a path
through tantandun mighty.
Speaker 5 (23:00):
Waers who threw out turn ton ton the cherry, Yes,
tongue tun tunt and horses, hand army and reinforcements together,
they're never to rize, like extingge something that was going.
Speaker 1 (23:12):
So they're like, yeah, yes, Jesus, won'tie do it? Wonie
do it? Won't he make away?
Speaker 2 (23:30):
So then I'm surprised when he says verse eighteen, coming
messes up the flow.
Speaker 1 (23:38):
He got the people remembering how strong and mighty God
was it the Red Sea made away. We did it
with no way.
Speaker 2 (23:49):
And then he says, forget the this is the next verse.
I promise you, I'm not moving these all around. Forget
the former things. I understand that because if you live
in a state of regret over I mean if you
(24:14):
relive over and over again every dumb thing you said,
or everything that every decision that you made, every purchase
that you mean.
Speaker 1 (24:22):
It is paralyzing to live in the past.
Speaker 2 (24:27):
And you really do have to understand that one thing
that the Cross of Jesus does is it gives me the.
Speaker 1 (24:31):
Freedom to move past my mistakes. I am so grateful
for that. And here's what I mean.
Speaker 2 (24:42):
I feel change breaking while I preach today because I
always always preach that a certain way, and then one
day I realize that most people are not living enslaved
to the mistakes that they made, like twenty three years ago.
Speaker 1 (24:58):
It's that I keep making mistakes.
Speaker 2 (25:02):
So really, when I say moving on past your mistakes,
that might not be very difficult if it was three
years ago. But what if those three minutes ago and
here you are in church and God is trying to
bless you. Do you remember I said he's trying to
bless you.
Speaker 1 (25:20):
He was blessing.
Speaker 2 (25:22):
Abraham to be a blessing. He wanted to bless his
people so they could bless the earth.
Speaker 1 (25:26):
He's always blessing.
Speaker 2 (25:27):
It's not just an activity, it is an attribute of
his character. He is the God who blesses it's what
he does, it's who he is. It's what he does
that flows from who he is, and he's always trying
to bless you. But sometimes I've got to be honest
about it. My unbelief, not only my unbelief, but my
(25:48):
stubborn refusal to really accept the fact that whatever I did,
he's already done something about it. It keeps me from
entering into the present moment.
Speaker 1 (26:01):
So now I'm stuck.
Speaker 2 (26:03):
And he gives me permission to move on, pass my mistakes,
and he says, see, I'm doing a new thing. Forget
the past, which makes sense when we're talking about the
mistakes of my past. But remember Isaiah did not just
list the mistakes of their past. He just mentioned a
(26:25):
miracle from their past. And right after he mentions the miracle,
he tells them to forget it. Oh, I got you
curious now, because that first thing I said, that's.
Speaker 4 (26:41):
Just normal preaching. Forget it and move on. That's bumper
sticker stuff, Fidoh you know, forget it, drive on. I mean,
that's not even really preaching. So you're clapping for it right.
Speaker 1 (26:58):
Moving on.
Speaker 2 (27:01):
If only the credit card companies would get the same
spirit of forgiveness that God has right.
Speaker 1 (27:06):
They didn't get the memo though he male.
Speaker 2 (27:14):
Where there was no way through the Red Sea, brought
us out of Egypt. And that God, the same God
who did that, wants you to do this. Forget it,
do not dwell on the past. Put my verse back.
(27:35):
I don't want to think I'm making this up because
I'm strange. I know forget.
Speaker 1 (27:42):
Well I did.
Speaker 2 (27:44):
I always assumed that the greatest barrier that keeps me
from being blessed by God is what the devil did
to me. Sometimes it is barrier to the blessing of
God in your future. You got it is not what
(28:09):
the devil did to you. It's what God did for
you in one season that you expect him to repeat
in the next season. So I've heard one hundred sermons,
I probably preached a hundred sermons on move on from
(28:29):
the mistake. But what about when God wants you to
move on from the miracle? And this is the weirdest thing.
I don't know how to explain it to you, but
we have all these course stories at our church. In
business terminology, your core story is the crux of your
central value proposition, where you describe what you do as
(28:52):
a company that differentiates you from all the other ones.
Well as a church, we have a course story what
makes us unique, the faith of the early days. You know,
may some of the stuff y'all are talking about it
backstage past weekend on a history tour.
Speaker 1 (29:05):
You know those stories are good. Can I be honest
with you.
Speaker 2 (29:08):
The reason I'm not going to give you it the
tour is because I don't remember the stuff that a
lot of the stuff, And I used to think it
was because I wasn't grateful, because I felt.
Speaker 1 (29:17):
Like, you know, if I was really grateful for what
God did.
Speaker 2 (29:20):
I mean, there are things that Hollywood remind me of
a lot of the times, and she'll be like, remember
when God did this, And she'll mention something that had
me all up in knots when it happened.
Speaker 1 (29:29):
But I don't even remember about it anymore.
Speaker 2 (29:31):
And I used to think that there was something wrong
with me, or maybe I'm starting to lose my memory
or something, because I already told you we're getting old,
and maybe it's starting to deteriorate.
Speaker 1 (29:38):
My brain isn't functioning the same way. Or maybe God
doesn't want me to rely on.
Speaker 2 (29:48):
A memory of a miracle that he has already performed
and miss the miracle that is in progress. I'm trying
to preach a progressive message today, and here's the message.
Speaker 1 (30:12):
Remember the ways he made, but forget the way he
made it. This a run in place message. I gotta
get some energy, so i'll holler jut too bad.
Speaker 2 (30:28):
Remember what he did for you, Remember how he kept you,
how he blessed you, how he sustained you, how he
opened doors, how he made opportunities, how he made a
way out.
Speaker 1 (30:38):
Of no way. But then you gotta forget exactly how
he did it.
Speaker 2 (30:47):
Remember how much fun your marriage was before you had children,
But then forget the freedom that you had before you.
Speaker 1 (30:59):
Brought human beings and to exist.
Speaker 2 (31:04):
This no, I'm serious, because sometimes we get stuck in
a season and.
Speaker 1 (31:12):
We miss God's supply. He said, I want you to
remember what I did.
Speaker 2 (31:22):
And then forget how I did it, because I'm not
going to do it the same way every time. And
here's why I'm not going to do it the same
way every time. I'm not gonna do it like I
used to do it. Because you got imagine the people
in captivity. They're hearing this message. Dun dua du duh
and they're remembering Moses. Now by this time, Moses isn't
somebody they know.
Speaker 1 (31:42):
He's like, no offense.
Speaker 2 (31:45):
Most if you're listening to me preach, I don't imagine
he's tuning into my sermons, of all the sermons that
he has available, if you know.
Speaker 1 (31:52):
But however that works with heaven and live streaming and
stuff like that. But just for the record, no offense Moses.
Speaker 2 (32:00):
But I gotta believe that they were waiting for Moses
to get them out of this captivity because Moses was
kind of like a mascot. So they're looking, they're in
Babylonian captivity, and they're going, Okay, who's God going to
send to get us out of this?
Speaker 1 (32:18):
And so then Isaiah says, thus say it, the Lord,
your King, your creator.
Speaker 2 (32:25):
Thus say it the Lord, the one who spoke to
Abraham and called him out of ear of the Chaldeans,
and made many out of one, and made you a nation,
and brought you out of slavery.
Speaker 1 (32:32):
And brought you through the one who made away. This
is what he says. Don't look for it to look
like what it used to look like, or feel like
what it used to feel like.
Speaker 2 (32:50):
Please do not misapply my message today to leave your
husband and try to tell him that Preacher Stephens said
that Moses is dead, or any of this weird stuff
that Christian people do to try to make a message
mean whatever they wanted to be. What I'm saying to
you is when Jesus walked the earth, he did miracles,
(33:13):
he opened blinded eyes, but he didn't do it the
same way every time he did it.
Speaker 1 (33:17):
And here's why. This is what I believe. You believe
whatever you want to believe.
Speaker 2 (33:20):
I believe God doesn't want us to be more committed
to a system than we are to a source. So
this is what the Lord says. I'm gonna make away
because that's what I do. How many believe he's a
way maker? Yeah, yeah, he's a waymaker.
Speaker 1 (33:38):
I'm gonna make away, but not the way I made
it before. This is so strong and so powerful that
if you really received.
Speaker 2 (33:51):
This in your spirit today, you will realize that the
barrier to the blessing of God in your life is
not no longer who is who is no longer in
your life, or what age you are, or the money
that somebody was.
Speaker 1 (34:06):
Owed you and didn't give you.
Speaker 2 (34:07):
Because we always externalize it it's always somebody else. And
God says, I'm doing a new thing, and he asks
a question, do you not see it or perceive it?
What would keep me from perceiving what God is doing?
(34:27):
Maybe it's expecting it to look just like what he's done.
So here I am looking for God to park the
Red Sea again, because that's what he did last time.
Speaker 1 (34:42):
Sometimes the greatest barrier to what God is doing.
Speaker 2 (34:46):
Is what he used to do. So when you first
became a Christian, you just open your Bible and you're like, oh,
you just open it anywhere, and God spoke to you
and it had the verse of your street address from
when you were eight, and you just opened it and
you felt like a care and love shot out of
your chest all across the And now men, your Bible
(35:08):
flips up into all the depressing psalms and the Judas.
And God speak to me like you used to speak
to me. And God said, I'm still speaking, but not
on the same frequency.
Speaker 1 (35:19):
I need you to go deeper. I need you to
deep for something. Now forget forget not his faithfulness, but
forget the form that it came in. They couldn't get this.
Speaker 2 (35:40):
So in Hebrews chapter six, verse one, the writer says,
you keep looking for God.
Speaker 1 (35:46):
To look like the law because that's what you were
addicted to see.
Speaker 2 (35:49):
We get addicted to one form of deliverance and then
grace comes along and we don't even know what to
do with it because it's not what God used to do.
Speaker 1 (36:00):
You got to move on.
Speaker 2 (36:02):
Some of you grew up in really religious environments where
you know, God wasn't happy unless you were depressed. You know,
it didn't even count as church unless you had to
endure it. You need to move on past that. God
is doing a new thing. I mean, lift your hands,
lift your heart, be free in his presence.
Speaker 1 (36:21):
He's doing a new thing. Do you not see it?
It will spring forth out of the ground. Do you
not perceive it? And what got me about it, JJ.
Speaker 2 (36:31):
Is that when he did it at the Red Sea,
he made a way through the waters.
Speaker 1 (36:38):
Is that what he did?
Speaker 2 (36:40):
Not setting you up this time? That's how the Bible
story goes right, Don don don don. He made a
way don dun dahntah through the waters, and the water
stood up that the water that separated them from their
freedom stood in attention like walls on either side until
they got through and drowned the Egyptians, and they loved
(37:00):
that story because that story reminded them of their deliverance.
And he made a way through the waters. Isaiah says,
this time God is going to make away. But he's
not going to make a way through the waters. He's
going to make away in the wilderness. Let me ask
(37:25):
a question. What did they need in the wilderness? What
was it they needed water? So what used to be
the barrier is about to be the blessing. Y'all better
help me preach. I feel the faithfulness of God to
(37:52):
see what I'm saying. The barrier is now the blessing.
What did threaten to kill you is now what God
is bringing forth to bless your life.
Speaker 1 (38:03):
Sell about it. So God said, I.
Speaker 2 (38:08):
Am your creator, I am your King, And this is
what I do. I turn barriers to blessings. I turn
water in dry ground into sustenance for your survival. I
turn pain into power. I turn same into grace, I
turn abuse into straight I'm make away. I'm a waymaker.
(38:32):
I'm worthy of worship. I'm worthy of grace. I'm doing
a new thing in your life. Whatever's next is better,
(38:53):
Whatever's next is better. That's what my faith believes when
I find myself in a way see, A wilderness is
not a situation where you feel like you're about to die.
A wilderness is a situation like these exiles in Babylon,
wondering how long the Lord?
Speaker 1 (39:09):
How long am I going to feel like?
Speaker 2 (39:11):
I'm in a place emotionally that I don't understand. It
wasn't the physical surrounding of Babylon that made them weep
as they sat by the rivers. It wasn't the lack
of prosperity. It was a loss of purpose. How long
am I going to wander in this place? But this time,
(39:31):
I'm not sending Moses to get you out. This time,
I'm going to send the water to where you are,
and I am going to bless you in that place
because I'm a waymaker. Boom bom, bombon. I believe, Dun dun, dun, dun.
(39:56):
I'll see you do it again. But how you do
it is up to you. I don't know if this
will help you. But sometimes I get in situations and
I just don't see a way.
Speaker 1 (40:19):
I don't know if you're there right now.
Speaker 2 (40:20):
I don't know if you're going into that if you
just came out of it. One thing I know is
you will find yourself. It feels terrible because you feel trapped,
you feel uncertain, you feel landlocked. And here comes water
springing forth from the ground where you are. And I
(40:44):
learned something. I learned something.
Speaker 1 (40:45):
I hope this helps you. Really want to want this
to help you. When I get into that internal.
Speaker 2 (40:53):
Wilderness where I can't feel God like I used to
feel God, and it used to be don don don don,
and now it's just MM. When I get into that
(41:16):
place and I don't know how, and I don't know who,
and I don't know when. When I get into that place,
I realize that it's not my job.
Speaker 1 (41:36):
To predict the way that God is going to make,
So I don't have to know how.
Speaker 2 (41:49):
If I know who, you got me, I am alpha
and omega beginning and the end. A lot of us
get stuck in a beta blessing and we cannot receive
the upgrade because we are so stuck in the way
(42:13):
God used to move.
Speaker 1 (42:15):
But he says, today I am doing a new thing.
Speaker 2 (42:21):
I know it doesn't feel like it used to feel,
but I'm still faithful. I know it doesn't look like
it used to look, but I'm still faithful.
Speaker 1 (42:29):
I know some things have changed in our country, but
I'm still faithful because I am the Lord. I was
the Lord, I will I am, I was, I will be.
I make away. It's what I do, it's who I am,
and I'm making a way for you right now. Do
(42:51):
you not see it? And so often the answer is no,
I don't see it because I'm looking backwards.
Speaker 2 (43:01):
I found out for a lot of people, the greatest
barrier to their blessing is not what's before them, is
what's behind them.
Speaker 1 (43:11):
That God has already dealt with.
Speaker 2 (43:17):
So, whoever God sent me to preach to today, you
might be like seventy two years old and feel like
you know what my best is behind me.
Speaker 1 (43:25):
The devil is a liar, I.
Speaker 2 (43:27):
Said the devil, I said, if he's talking.
Speaker 1 (43:30):
He's lying. Your best is not behind you.
Speaker 2 (43:34):
God has already been to your future, and he said,
hurry up and.
Speaker 5 (43:40):
Back.
Speaker 1 (43:43):
I want to bless you where you are. I want
to bless you with the strength you have left empty nesters.
Speaker 2 (43:49):
Just because your kids are gone does not mean your
calling is over.
Speaker 1 (43:54):
I'm doing a new thing. I'm doing a new thing
in your life. I'm doing a new thing in this church.
You saw how I moved that water when you needed
to go through it. Now I'm gonna make the water
come up where you need it the most. I would
love to pray for you.
Speaker 2 (44:18):
Because I know this is the kind of message that
it's kind of easy to get excited about, but a
little harder to live out. It's one thing to sing
it in a worship center like this, talented musicians, beautiful lights,
(44:39):
to declare.
Speaker 1 (44:39):
Your faith in a place like this. But God said,
I'm gonna make the water come up in the desert.
I'm going to make a way in the wilderness.
Speaker 2 (44:52):
I'm going to be faithful to you in the places
where nobody else can provide for you.
Speaker 6 (45:00):
I am your source, sense your feet at every location.
Speaker 2 (45:13):
Put down your notes. This is not the part you
need to write down. This is the part you need
to receive by faith. That's the lie. The devil always
tells me. Your best is behind you. I believe that
since I was in college. I graduated college, married Holly.
I thought, well, you know from here, I honestly thought this.
(45:36):
I told one of my friends this. I said, this
is probably the most ministry I will ever do, Because
in college I had traveled to churches and done revivals
and backyard Bible clubs.
Speaker 1 (45:47):
And things like that.
Speaker 2 (45:48):
I said, that's probably the most ministry I'll ever do.
My friend was talking to me on the phone. He said,
you're crazy. God's only going to use you more. You
stay focused, they imaginative, stay creative. He's only gonna use
you more. The only barrier is your willingness to believe
(46:12):
by faith that what I.
Speaker 1 (46:14):
Just said is true. But I'm telling you is true.
Speaker 2 (46:17):
If it was true for the Babylonian captives, if it
was true for the children of Israel who needed the
waters to part, why could it not be true for you?
Speaker 1 (46:28):
Why not you? So I want you to remember.
Speaker 2 (46:33):
The ways He's made, the demonstrations of his faithfulness that
it brought you to this point.
Speaker 1 (46:39):
It's too many to count, right.
Speaker 2 (46:42):
Some of y'all got some stories, man, some core stories
of the moments where you knew that God was real
and he was with you, that.
Speaker 1 (46:50):
He would never leave you nor forsake you. You know
those stories? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (46:57):
Remember Now I need you to forget them, because your
core story is not that you were a slave and
now you're not a slave, or you went to jail,
or that you got a divorce or that you had
an abortion.
Speaker 1 (47:14):
God says, I am doing now.
Speaker 2 (47:17):
I don't want your core story to be about the
blessings that I'm giving to you. I want your story
to be about the blessing that I want to release
through you. You have camped at this red sea long enough.
I got more miracles. I got more miracles. No, it's
(47:42):
not going to feel like it used to feel, and
it's not going to give you chills like.
Speaker 1 (47:45):
It used to.
Speaker 2 (47:45):
And it might not be your favorite song from nineteen
ninety four, and Ryl Crow might have a new baseline.
Speaker 1 (47:53):
I'm doing a new thing. I believe.
Speaker 2 (48:01):
I'll see you do it again. Now I won't see
you do it how you did it. The holl's gonna change.
But Jesus Christ, it's the same yesterday, today and forever.
Speaker 1 (48:15):
I don't have to know how. Come on, tell your neighbor.
I don't know how. But I know who. I got
a mighty car, I got a waymaker, I got a
strong delivery.
Speaker 3 (48:28):
I know who.
Speaker 1 (48:30):
I know whom. I have believe and I am leslated
that he is able. I said he's amo. He's able.
Speaker 2 (48:42):
He's able, no matter save the song, He's able.
Speaker 1 (48:50):
He's able receive. Move come on funeral mood. This is
our jo listeners to this. This is on God, not.
Speaker 2 (49:13):
See to see God.
Speaker 1 (49:24):
Thank you for joining us.
Speaker 2 (49:26):
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 1 (49:43):
You can share it with your friends.
Speaker 2 (49:44):
You can click the share button, take a screenshot and
share it on your social stories and tag us at
Elevation Church.
Speaker 1 (49:50):
Thanks again for listening. God bless you.
Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
I'm the pastor of Elevation Church, and this is our podcast.
I wanted to thank you for joining us today.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
Hope this inspires you. Hope it builds your faith.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Hope it gives your perspective to see God is moving
in your life.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
Enjoy the message.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
I want to share a verse with you from Isaiah
forty three. This verse nineteen, God, see I am doing
a new thing. Well, y'all, that's only the first part
of the verse. Would you let me read the whole
verse before you start acting all excited and enthusiastic.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
I'm just kidding. Of course, you can shout anytime.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
People shout over much stupid or stuff, so you can.
You can get excited here. Sorry, all right, let me
start over. Just let's start over. See, I'm doing a
new thing now, it's up. Do you not perceive it?
I am making away in the wilderness. That's what you are,
(01:07):
just singing and streams in the waste slam. Permit me
to go over to the Book of Hebrews. I want
to put one New Testament verse together with that Old
Testament prophecy. And this is Hebrews Chapter six, Verse one.
The writer says, Therefore, let us move beyond the elementary
(01:28):
teachings about Christ and be taken forward to maturity, not
laying again the foundation of repentance from acts that lead
to death and of faith in God. So what I
want to talk to you for a few moments today,
and I'm so very thrilled to get to stand before
you again and share the word.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
Of God with you.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
And my subject, my subject is barriers to blessings. And
I want you to pray for me that I would
be able to deliver this word to you, just like
God wants you to hear it. Father, Thanks, thank you
for the time we have together. Now, these are your people,
This is your word. Make the connection so that your
(02:06):
word gets in the hearts of your people and changes
their lives.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
Because if that happens, the world will change.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
So we believe we're standing on the brink of something great,
and we declare it by faith in Jesus name.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
Amen, you may be seated.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
Well, not to be unspiritual, but would you help me
wish my wife a happy birthday.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
She celebrated her birthday and I didn't ask her if
I could tell you that she's thirty seven.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
We're getting old girl, No are We talk about this
all the time that we know we're getting old, and
we know we're getting old because we listen to Cheryl
Crowe and we yeah, I was in love with Cheryl
Crowe round age fourteen. I think she was like sixty
(03:02):
five at that time, and so but she's still.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
Going and.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
Oh, yeah, we're getting old. It's true because I was
telling Holly the other day, you know, we were even
listening to trying to listen to some new music from
the new Cheryl Crow album, which sounds, you know, like
a paradox, but it's not. It's she's still making music today.
But I looked at Holly I was like, I just
can't do it. I just can't listen to the new
(03:28):
Cheryl Crow. And so we had this weird discussion about
neural pathways and how your brain starts to like certain
music in certain stages, and we had a very this
was on her birthday.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
We had a very.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
Deep discussion about why we don't like the new Cheryl
Crow and why we like the old Cheryl Crow.
Speaker 1 (03:49):
And it's not I don't think it's Cheryl's fault.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
I don't think Cheryl's vocals have gotten weaker or songwriting
abilities and sensibilities have gotten any less. Keen, I promise,
i'mnna get back to the scripture.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
I see a few guests looking nervous. What did you
bring me to?
Speaker 2 (04:03):
I see a few teenagers looking confused.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
Who is Sheryl Crow?
Speaker 2 (04:07):
And it all makes me feel old, because like, if
you play a bassline from an old Cheryl Crow song,
just automatically, it puts me in a certain frame of mind,
you know, and music does that to you. They've written
books about it, They've done studies at prestigious universities about
why certain like why if you played leaving Las Vegas
right now by Cheryl Crow, just even the baseline, just
(04:29):
even just a.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
If he started playing that, I.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
Could remember being at the music Farm when I watched
her open for Blues Traveler. It makes me feel free
and it makes me feel excited.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
And I remember smelling marijuana for the first time. But
that's not the point of church. Well, I'm saying this.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
It's like a it's embedded, it's an attachment, it's an
anchor memory.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
And I liked it.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
I liked the old stuff, I like the new stuff,
or any of you like me, like just music is not,
but it it's.
Speaker 3 (05:10):
Okay to talk about just not what it used to be. No, no,
what happened to the guitar solos and the Sheryl Crow basslines?
Speaker 2 (05:23):
Of course that brings us to Isaiah forty three. No,
it really does, because y'all were shouting, and I thought
it was odd that you were shouting, because the announcement
went like this. I don't know if you remember, It's
been like five minutes. And then some of us forget
real quickly, and everybody shot knew. I was reading the verse,
and I said, see, I am doing a new thing.
I have no idea what happened in Matthews or Ronoke
(05:46):
or Raleigh or any other location, but here Valentine. When
I was trying to read my scripture and I only
got that far, and I said, see, I am doing.
Speaker 1 (05:56):
A new thing. And they start cheering. But they do
not share for highway construction.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
Nor did they listen to the new Sheryl Crow album,
nor did they like their kids choice in music.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
Or clothing.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
We don't really how many want God to do a
new thing in your life. I'm setting you up. Be
careful if you raise your hand. I'm just warning you,
because I think that's I think that's a real challenge.
I really do. I think sometimes when God is trying
to bless us, I can use scriptural examples. How you know,
(06:42):
the early Church was so used to the law that
when the writer of Hebrews began to break it down,
and he said that in times past God has spoken
through the prophets, and he gave us the law through Moses,
and now he's speaking through his son. One of the
reasons that the hebrew people had such a difficult time
(07:04):
and they needed to be brought forth or be led
into something new, is because our brains have a way.
They've studied this now in science, not only with Sheryl
Crow songs, but also with any habit that happens in
your life. We know now that your brain actually creates highways.
(07:25):
That's not a technical term. And over the next seven seconds,
I'm going to tell you everything that I know about
brain science, but it won't take me long. But I
don't know that your brain forms connections. Yeah, your brain.
Once you've done something a certain number of way a
certain number of times, your brain just locks it in
and anything that doesn't feel familiar like that starts to
(07:47):
feel frustrating.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
And that's why some of the.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
Things that you do in your life that you don't
even like the results of are so difficult to undo
because you've established a way of doing things.
Speaker 1 (08:02):
We even say that, we say, well, that's just the
way he is. What are we saying.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
We're talking about his neural pathways. We don't call it
neural pathways because our friends would look at us funny.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
So we say that's just the way he is.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
Well, that's not just the way he is, it's the
way his brain has been trained, or it's the way
that her brain has been trained. I don't want to
be sexist about it. Women have issues and habitual addictions to.
Speaker 4 (08:25):
Do.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
Somebody say, change your ways. No shouting over that. But
yet I'm excuse me for a moment. I'm just trying
to reconcile the fact that when I read my scripture.
Speaker 1 (08:39):
See I am doing a new thing. It felt exciting.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
But then when we actually begin to discuss what it means,
because God says, now it springs up, do you not
perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness
and streams in the wasteland, and other words, God is
saying to a people who have been exiled into Babylonian captivity.
He's saying, I'm trying to bless you. I've been trying
(09:08):
to bless you all your life. I've been trying to
bless you all your life. I've been trying to release
what you need all your life. I've been trying to
give you what is in me. I've been trying to
flow through you and flow to you and to't your neighbor. Again,
I won't do this, but maybe about ten more times.
Tell them God is trying to bless you. He is
(09:31):
trying to bless you.
Speaker 1 (09:34):
But Isaiah speaks.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
Up because the people of Israel have been, by their behaviors,
blocking the blessing of God. So I called this message
barriers to blessings because just like there are blessings, I
mean real blessings, not just cars and houses. Those are fine,
not just pools and boyfriends, although if you get one
(09:56):
of those or both of those, I'll celebrate with you.
But far beyond that, God wants to bless you at
the very state of your being. That's what he said
to Abraham. You will be a blessing. Not just you
will be blessed, but everybody you touch talk to even
look at will be blessed just because they got in
proximity to you.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
That's the promise.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
That's why God brought his people forth so that they
would be blessed. And the reason that he wanted them
to be blessed is so they could be a blessing.
And that's what we're talking about in this series is
that sometimes we experience.
Speaker 1 (10:35):
Here's the term in business terminology.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
Any business owners in the house, I need to know
who to pray for, because it is not easy to
lead an organization, is it.
Speaker 1 (10:43):
And if you started your business, raise your hand.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
If you started your business, and I see that takes
a lot of courage, because every business has barriers to entry.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
That's the technical term.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
It's startup costs, government regulations, knowledge that you may not
have that existing competitors already have. And so even to
think about starting a business is should make you a
little nauseous because there are barriers to entry. One thing
that has changed in our modern age is that in
(11:14):
regards to creativity and content, there are so many different
ways to distribute content that it's no longer like it was.
It's not like the old days. In the old days,
you had to have a record label. To put out
an album, you had to have a lot of money
to book studio time. Well, now if you have the
right software and a SoundCloud, you could just put your
stuff out off as any good. Maybe it'll get somebody's attention.
(11:35):
I mean, if you really consistently. I'm not saying it's easier,
because now there are more than ever, many different people
and many different entities vuying for attention. But what's happened
is the barrier to entry has really been broken down,
and now the barrier to entry is no longer Do
you have enough money to make an album or do
you have somebody who will help you make an album?
It's are you any good? And are you consistent enough
(11:55):
that you will put out enough stuff until you connect.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
With your audience.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
So I kind of feel like that that's what we're
trying to understand here in Isaiah forty three and Hebrews
chapter six. Although these scriptures are separated by about seven
centuries of time. I think God is trying to get
us to see that the barriers that were before us
(12:22):
to keep us from experiencing His blessing are no longer there.
So I'm talking about shame that was dealt with at
the cross. I'm talking about your weakness that can actually
become strength. I'm talking about the mistakes of your past
that you relive in your mind over and over again.
(12:44):
I'm saying God has dealt with that, defeated death, defeated the.
Speaker 1 (12:48):
Grave, taken your shame.
Speaker 2 (12:52):
How many want to thank God that the barrier has
already been broken.
Speaker 1 (12:57):
Just receive it right now.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
Because since you couldn't get to God, God came down
to you, wrapped himself up, looking like a little infant,
but really he was infinite, coming through the eons, coming
through the Axis, coming through Eternity. Cannot preach like the
barrier is broken. As a matter of fact, when I
even look out over our church, I see lots of
(13:22):
barriers broken. I see people who shouldn't even be in
church together praising God right beside each other, like we
have the same baptism, the same faith, the same birth,
the same hope.
Speaker 1 (13:37):
It gets me excited.
Speaker 2 (13:43):
Now if the essence of the Gospel is that God
breaks barriers, and that he broke every barrier, even the
righteous requirements of the law, which were fully met in him,
so that you might be fully found in Him, so
that nothing could separate you from the love of God
that is in Christ, Jesus your Lord, neither height, nor death,
nor anything else in all creation. When Paul wanted to
say it, he said it like that, etc. None of
(14:04):
it can keep me from the love and the blessing
of God except my unbelief, because all of that can
be true. But if you don't believe it's true, it
(14:27):
won't be true for you, even if you're shout about it.
But when you go home, you really don't think that
God is doing a new thing, you will stay stuck.
Speaker 1 (14:40):
In what was. And I don't envy Isaiah.
Speaker 2 (14:45):
He was a much better preacher than I will ever be,
to say the least. Even the fact that I would
say that feels arrogant to say that. You know that Isaiah,
let me tell you how good he was at his job. Okay,
he's called the egle eyed prophet because he was prophesying
stuff that he he wouldn't even live to see. So
he was preaching the sermons that the people would need
for something that they weren't even going through yet, that
(15:06):
he would never even go through. And so God would
download what they would need. And God knew that his
people would worship these other gods, even though that the
God of Heaven had promised to a man called Abraham,
who was the father of their faith, that I will
bless you, and you will be a blessing, and there
will never be a time that you will not be blessed.
And not only will you be blessed, but all peoples
of the earth will be blessed through you, all of them.
Speaker 1 (15:28):
Not I'm not just doing this for one nation, one people.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
Grow The heart of God has always been that all
of us would be blessed, that every barrier would be
broken down, not just in one zip code, not just
one ethnicity, not just one denomination, but that all people
would be blessed through those who are called by His name.
Speaker 1 (15:47):
That's the promise. Here's the problem.
Speaker 2 (15:49):
You notice that they always like hang out together. The
problem is that the people of God blocked not only
their own blessing, but the blessing.
Speaker 1 (16:01):
That they were created to distribute to the earth through.
Speaker 2 (16:04):
Their unbelief in the true and living God. So Isaiah
knows this and knows that there will be a time
when they will live in captivity, in bondage. That blessed
people can still live in bondage mentally emotionally blessed people
(16:26):
can still live in bondage, and they weren't imprisoned in
physical cells. They were taken away into a Babylonian land
where a lot of their life really wasn't that bad.
Speaker 1 (16:39):
It wasn't that they lacked physically. It was just that they.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
Were in an unfamiliar, strange place, away from the place
God had called them. Usually when we think of the
opposite of blessing, we think that the situation would be
really bad. It wasn't really the situation that got bad
for these people that Isaiah is writing to.
Speaker 1 (16:59):
Their soul, and so.
Speaker 2 (17:02):
The situation wasn't that terrible, but the state of their
soul very dry, very destitute, and very desperate. And into
that situation Isaiah speaks forth a promise from God, and
he says to the people.
Speaker 1 (17:19):
Who are not yet in captivity, but they will be.
Speaker 2 (17:22):
So he's giving them what they need for what they're
going to go through that they don't.
Speaker 1 (17:26):
Know about yet.
Speaker 2 (17:27):
That's why you need to take notes in church, even
if you don't think it's for you right now. Oh,
I'm not a parent, but you never know when you
might get one of those little puppies you.
Speaker 1 (17:38):
Might need the manual. What did he say four years ago?
Speaker 2 (17:46):
Well, he has a difficult task because he's speaking to
a future that they don't experience yet, and so maybe
they're not listening. So what's what he does? I want
to back up a few verses. Go to verse fifteen.
He reminds them who he is. I am the Lord,
your Holy One, because Isaiah is only a mouthpiece. He
(18:06):
is not the message. He is the mouthpiece of the message.
I am the Lord, your Holy One. That's a cool
thing that unholy people could claim a personal relationship with
a holy God because the barrier has been broken. If
Isaiah could talk like that, and Jesus hasn't even lived yet,
(18:27):
how can we talk about our relationship with God.
Speaker 1 (18:30):
Living on this side of the cross.
Speaker 2 (18:32):
I'm broken, but I belong to one whose name is exalted,
whose name is holy, and in the center of unbroken praise,
I am the Lord.
Speaker 1 (18:45):
You belong to me. I am Israel's creator, your King.
Speaker 2 (18:53):
This is what the Lord says, he who made away
through the See that's what we were just singing. We
didn't really write that song. It was written in a
long time. We plagiarized it. But there's no copyright on it,
so we just up there singing it like us ours.
Speaker 1 (19:13):
Man oh tongs.
Speaker 2 (19:14):
And you gotta understand, this was Israel's jam.
Speaker 1 (19:19):
No, I'm serious, this was their song. So this was
the one.
Speaker 2 (19:23):
You know, how you have your song, whether Sheryl Crow
or Metallica. I see you out there, I see you.
I love it too. I love it too. I saw
damage incorporated. I even know what Metallica short it is.
And you got jarms, Yeah, I saw I saw all
of it, whatever your jam is. And I know it's
not just white people in the church. And at this
point I've only mentioned a few bands in certain genres,
so it's a lot of different songs. But when Israel
(19:44):
heard that, their collective consciousness as.
Speaker 1 (19:47):
A nation would remember the core story.
Speaker 2 (19:50):
That is referenced, because it's not just some generic thing.
Speaker 1 (19:53):
You know.
Speaker 2 (19:53):
The Bible's not like a fortune cookie where you just
kind of open it, look at the numbers, look at
the thing.
Speaker 1 (19:58):
Pass it around.
Speaker 2 (19:59):
It was written to a Pacific people, So Isaiah is
going back to the past to remind the people of
the faithfulness of God. And he goes, he goes all
the way back to when they were slaves in Egypt,
and they were in bondage and they didn't see a
way out, and God sent them a deliverer, and his
name was Moses.
Speaker 1 (20:17):
And Moses stood before Pharaoh and said, let my people go.
And he had to say it a.
Speaker 2 (20:21):
Bunch of times, because sometimes Pharaoh is stubborn, and freedom
doesn't always come easy, and sometimes it takes persistence, And
sometimes God has to let your situation look humanly impossible
so that he can reveal himself as to God of
all possibility. Sometimes Lazarus has to stay in the grave
a little while longer so when he gets up, you
won't just think it was the prayers of the church.
You'll know it was the power of God that raised him.
(20:43):
Like so he says, this is what the Lord says,
he who made away, raise your hand. If God ever
made a way for you, just even a little way,
just even if he ever healed a headache, or just
if he ever helped you get a job, or even
if somebody slipped your two.
Speaker 1 (21:00):
When you didn't have a job and you got the gas,
or maybe it.
Speaker 2 (21:02):
Was one time when you were so depressed, crying your
eyes out, and you woke up one morning and you
realize you know, I feel a little better today, and
maybe I can get out of the bed today and
maybe I'll wash a few dishes today. And before you
knew it, you were back to normal. God made away?
Has he ever made away for you? Has he ever
made away? If he made if he made a way
for you, just wave your hand. If he made away,
just wave it. I don't know what you're talking about.
Speaker 1 (21:24):
Don Don John Jun Don don Donjon.
Speaker 2 (21:32):
When they started, when Isaiah said, dak the people that
that was remembered, that was their soundtrack to remind him
that they were no longer slaves.
Speaker 1 (21:44):
He who made away? Because this is a scene.
Speaker 2 (21:47):
This, This is not an abstract, theoretical, metaphorical out of
words to say this. This is this is not what
God kind of like does in a picture for him.
This this is an actual, practical memory from the past
of what God did for his people.
Speaker 1 (22:07):
He didn't do it for these people.
Speaker 2 (22:09):
They're in a different situation, but he did it for the.
Speaker 1 (22:12):
People that they're a part of. So it's part of
their legacy. It's part of their core story.
Speaker 2 (22:19):
Their core story is that we were slaves. God brought
us out of Egypt. We were there for over four
hundred years. He brought us out into a promised land,
and now they need to go back to their core
story so that they can survive their captivity.
Speaker 1 (22:36):
Are you with me so far? So he brings them
back ton toun to ton toun, toun to toun, tou
tou tou toun tun tun tou toon tun.
Speaker 3 (22:52):
He made away Tondundun through the see tondund a path
through tantandun mighty.
Speaker 5 (23:00):
Waers who threw out turn ton ton the cherry, Yes,
tongue tun tunt and horses, hand army and reinforcements together,
they're never to rize, like extingge something that was going.
Speaker 1 (23:12):
So they're like, yeah, yes, Jesus, won'tie do it? Wonie
do it? Won't he make away?
Speaker 2 (23:30):
So then I'm surprised when he says verse eighteen, coming
messes up the flow.
Speaker 1 (23:38):
He got the people remembering how strong and mighty God
was it the Red Sea made away. We did it
with no way.
Speaker 2 (23:49):
And then he says, forget the this is the next verse.
I promise you, I'm not moving these all around. Forget
the former things. I understand that because if you live
in a state of regret over I mean if you
(24:14):
relive over and over again every dumb thing you said,
or everything that every decision that you made, every purchase
that you mean.
Speaker 1 (24:22):
It is paralyzing to live in the past.
Speaker 2 (24:27):
And you really do have to understand that one thing
that the Cross of Jesus does is it gives me the.
Speaker 1 (24:31):
Freedom to move past my mistakes. I am so grateful
for that. And here's what I mean.
Speaker 2 (24:42):
I feel change breaking while I preach today because I
always always preach that a certain way, and then one
day I realize that most people are not living enslaved
to the mistakes that they made, like twenty three years ago.
Speaker 1 (24:58):
It's that I keep making mistakes.
Speaker 2 (25:02):
So really, when I say moving on past your mistakes,
that might not be very difficult if it was three
years ago. But what if those three minutes ago and
here you are in church and God is trying to
bless you. Do you remember I said he's trying to
bless you.
Speaker 1 (25:20):
He was blessing.
Speaker 2 (25:22):
Abraham to be a blessing. He wanted to bless his
people so they could bless the earth.
Speaker 1 (25:26):
He's always blessing.
Speaker 2 (25:27):
It's not just an activity, it is an attribute of
his character. He is the God who blesses it's what
he does, it's who he is. It's what he does
that flows from who he is, and he's always trying
to bless you. But sometimes I've got to be honest
about it. My unbelief, not only my unbelief, but my
(25:48):
stubborn refusal to really accept the fact that whatever I did,
he's already done something about it. It keeps me from
entering into the present moment.
Speaker 1 (26:01):
So now I'm stuck.
Speaker 2 (26:03):
And he gives me permission to move on, pass my mistakes,
and he says, see, I'm doing a new thing. Forget
the past, which makes sense when we're talking about the
mistakes of my past. But remember Isaiah did not just
list the mistakes of their past. He just mentioned a
(26:25):
miracle from their past. And right after he mentions the miracle,
he tells them to forget it. Oh, I got you
curious now, because that first thing I said, that's.
Speaker 4 (26:41):
Just normal preaching. Forget it and move on. That's bumper
sticker stuff, Fidoh you know, forget it, drive on. I mean,
that's not even really preaching. So you're clapping for it right.
Speaker 1 (26:58):
Moving on.
Speaker 2 (27:01):
If only the credit card companies would get the same
spirit of forgiveness that God has right.
Speaker 1 (27:06):
They didn't get the memo though he male.
Speaker 2 (27:14):
Where there was no way through the Red Sea, brought
us out of Egypt. And that God, the same God
who did that, wants you to do this. Forget it,
do not dwell on the past. Put my verse back.
(27:35):
I don't want to think I'm making this up because
I'm strange. I know forget.
Speaker 1 (27:42):
Well I did.
Speaker 2 (27:44):
I always assumed that the greatest barrier that keeps me
from being blessed by God is what the devil did
to me. Sometimes it is barrier to the blessing of
God in your future. You got it is not what
(28:09):
the devil did to you. It's what God did for
you in one season that you expect him to repeat
in the next season. So I've heard one hundred sermons,
I probably preached a hundred sermons on move on from
(28:29):
the mistake. But what about when God wants you to
move on from the miracle? And this is the weirdest thing.
I don't know how to explain it to you, but
we have all these course stories at our church. In
business terminology, your core story is the crux of your
central value proposition, where you describe what you do as
(28:52):
a company that differentiates you from all the other ones.
Well as a church, we have a course story what
makes us unique, the faith of the early days. You know,
may some of the stuff y'all are talking about it
backstage past weekend on a history tour.
Speaker 1 (29:05):
You know those stories are good. Can I be honest
with you.
Speaker 2 (29:08):
The reason I'm not going to give you it the
tour is because I don't remember the stuff that a
lot of the stuff, And I used to think it
was because I wasn't grateful, because I felt.
Speaker 1 (29:17):
Like, you know, if I was really grateful for what
God did.
Speaker 2 (29:20):
I mean, there are things that Hollywood remind me of
a lot of the times, and she'll be like, remember
when God did this, And she'll mention something that had
me all up in knots when it happened.
Speaker 1 (29:29):
But I don't even remember about it anymore.
Speaker 2 (29:31):
And I used to think that there was something wrong
with me, or maybe I'm starting to lose my memory
or something, because I already told you we're getting old,
and maybe it's starting to deteriorate.
Speaker 1 (29:38):
My brain isn't functioning the same way. Or maybe God
doesn't want me to rely on.
Speaker 2 (29:48):
A memory of a miracle that he has already performed
and miss the miracle that is in progress. I'm trying
to preach a progressive message today, and here's the message.
Speaker 1 (30:12):
Remember the ways he made, but forget the way he
made it. This a run in place message. I gotta
get some energy, so i'll holler jut too bad.
Speaker 2 (30:28):
Remember what he did for you, Remember how he kept you,
how he blessed you, how he sustained you, how he
opened doors, how he made opportunities, how he made a
way out.
Speaker 1 (30:38):
Of no way. But then you gotta forget exactly how
he did it.
Speaker 2 (30:47):
Remember how much fun your marriage was before you had children,
But then forget the freedom that you had before you.
Speaker 1 (30:59):
Brought human beings and to exist.
Speaker 2 (31:04):
This no, I'm serious, because sometimes we get stuck in
a season and.
Speaker 1 (31:12):
We miss God's supply. He said, I want you to
remember what I did.
Speaker 2 (31:22):
And then forget how I did it, because I'm not
going to do it the same way every time. And
here's why I'm not going to do it the same
way every time. I'm not gonna do it like I
used to do it. Because you got imagine the people
in captivity. They're hearing this message. Dun dua du duh
and they're remembering Moses. Now by this time, Moses isn't
somebody they know.
Speaker 1 (31:42):
He's like, no offense.
Speaker 2 (31:45):
Most if you're listening to me preach, I don't imagine
he's tuning into my sermons, of all the sermons that
he has available, if you know.
Speaker 1 (31:52):
But however that works with heaven and live streaming and
stuff like that. But just for the record, no offense Moses.
Speaker 2 (32:00):
But I gotta believe that they were waiting for Moses
to get them out of this captivity because Moses was
kind of like a mascot. So they're looking, they're in
Babylonian captivity, and they're going, Okay, who's God going to
send to get us out of this?
Speaker 1 (32:18):
And so then Isaiah says, thus say it, the Lord,
your King, your creator.
Speaker 2 (32:25):
Thus say it the Lord, the one who spoke to
Abraham and called him out of ear of the Chaldeans,
and made many out of one, and made you a nation,
and brought you out of slavery.
Speaker 1 (32:32):
And brought you through the one who made away. This
is what he says. Don't look for it to look
like what it used to look like, or feel like
what it used to feel like.
Speaker 2 (32:50):
Please do not misapply my message today to leave your
husband and try to tell him that Preacher Stephens said
that Moses is dead, or any of this weird stuff
that Christian people do to try to make a message
mean whatever they wanted to be. What I'm saying to
you is when Jesus walked the earth, he did miracles,
(33:13):
he opened blinded eyes, but he didn't do it the
same way every time he did it.
Speaker 1 (33:17):
And here's why. This is what I believe. You believe
whatever you want to believe.
Speaker 2 (33:20):
I believe God doesn't want us to be more committed
to a system than we are to a source. So
this is what the Lord says. I'm gonna make away
because that's what I do. How many believe he's a
way maker? Yeah, yeah, he's a waymaker.
Speaker 1 (33:38):
I'm gonna make away, but not the way I made
it before. This is so strong and so powerful that
if you really received.
Speaker 2 (33:51):
This in your spirit today, you will realize that the
barrier to the blessing of God in your life is
not no longer who is who is no longer in
your life, or what age you are, or the money
that somebody was.
Speaker 1 (34:06):
Owed you and didn't give you.
Speaker 2 (34:07):
Because we always externalize it it's always somebody else. And
God says, I'm doing a new thing, and he asks
a question, do you not see it or perceive it?
What would keep me from perceiving what God is doing?
(34:27):
Maybe it's expecting it to look just like what he's done.
So here I am looking for God to park the
Red Sea again, because that's what he did last time.
Speaker 1 (34:42):
Sometimes the greatest barrier to what God is doing.
Speaker 2 (34:46):
Is what he used to do. So when you first
became a Christian, you just open your Bible and you're like, oh,
you just open it anywhere, and God spoke to you
and it had the verse of your street address from
when you were eight, and you just opened it and
you felt like a care and love shot out of
your chest all across the And now men, your Bible
(35:08):
flips up into all the depressing psalms and the Judas.
And God speak to me like you used to speak
to me. And God said, I'm still speaking, but not
on the same frequency.
Speaker 1 (35:19):
I need you to go deeper. I need you to
deep for something. Now forget forget not his faithfulness, but
forget the form that it came in. They couldn't get this.
Speaker 2 (35:40):
So in Hebrews chapter six, verse one, the writer says,
you keep looking for God.
Speaker 1 (35:46):
To look like the law because that's what you were
addicted to see.
Speaker 2 (35:49):
We get addicted to one form of deliverance and then
grace comes along and we don't even know what to
do with it because it's not what God used to do.
Speaker 1 (36:00):
You got to move on.
Speaker 2 (36:02):
Some of you grew up in really religious environments where
you know, God wasn't happy unless you were depressed. You know,
it didn't even count as church unless you had to
endure it. You need to move on past that. God
is doing a new thing. I mean, lift your hands,
lift your heart, be free in his presence.
Speaker 1 (36:21):
He's doing a new thing. Do you not see it?
It will spring forth out of the ground. Do you
not perceive it? And what got me about it, JJ.
Speaker 2 (36:31):
Is that when he did it at the Red Sea,
he made a way through the waters.
Speaker 1 (36:38):
Is that what he did?
Speaker 2 (36:40):
Not setting you up this time? That's how the Bible
story goes right, Don don don don. He made a
way don dun dahntah through the waters, and the water
stood up that the water that separated them from their
freedom stood in attention like walls on either side until
they got through and drowned the Egyptians, and they loved
(37:00):
that story because that story reminded them of their deliverance.
And he made a way through the waters. Isaiah says,
this time God is going to make away. But he's
not going to make a way through the waters. He's
going to make away in the wilderness. Let me ask
(37:25):
a question. What did they need in the wilderness? What
was it they needed water? So what used to be
the barrier is about to be the blessing. Y'all better
help me preach. I feel the faithfulness of God to
(37:52):
see what I'm saying. The barrier is now the blessing.
What did threaten to kill you is now what God
is bringing forth to bless your life.
Speaker 1 (38:03):
Sell about it. So God said, I.
Speaker 2 (38:08):
Am your creator, I am your King, And this is
what I do. I turn barriers to blessings. I turn
water in dry ground into sustenance for your survival. I
turn pain into power. I turn same into grace, I
turn abuse into straight I'm make away. I'm a waymaker.
(38:32):
I'm worthy of worship. I'm worthy of grace. I'm doing
a new thing in your life. Whatever's next is better,
(38:53):
Whatever's next is better. That's what my faith believes when
I find myself in a way see, A wilderness is
not a situation where you feel like you're about to die.
A wilderness is a situation like these exiles in Babylon,
wondering how long the Lord?
Speaker 1 (39:09):
How long am I going to feel like?
Speaker 2 (39:11):
I'm in a place emotionally that I don't understand. It
wasn't the physical surrounding of Babylon that made them weep
as they sat by the rivers. It wasn't the lack
of prosperity. It was a loss of purpose. How long
am I going to wander in this place? But this time,
(39:31):
I'm not sending Moses to get you out. This time,
I'm going to send the water to where you are,
and I am going to bless you in that place
because I'm a waymaker. Boom bom, bombon. I believe, Dun dun, dun, dun.
(39:56):
I'll see you do it again. But how you do
it is up to you. I don't know if this
will help you. But sometimes I get in situations and
I just don't see a way.
Speaker 1 (40:19):
I don't know if you're there right now.
Speaker 2 (40:20):
I don't know if you're going into that if you
just came out of it. One thing I know is
you will find yourself. It feels terrible because you feel trapped,
you feel uncertain, you feel landlocked. And here comes water
springing forth from the ground where you are. And I
(40:44):
learned something. I learned something.
Speaker 1 (40:45):
I hope this helps you. Really want to want this
to help you. When I get into that internal.
Speaker 2 (40:53):
Wilderness where I can't feel God like I used to
feel God, and it used to be don don don don,
and now it's just MM. When I get into that
(41:16):
place and I don't know how, and I don't know who,
and I don't know when. When I get into that place,
I realize that it's not my job.
Speaker 1 (41:36):
To predict the way that God is going to make,
So I don't have to know how.
Speaker 2 (41:49):
If I know who, you got me, I am alpha
and omega beginning and the end. A lot of us
get stuck in a beta blessing and we cannot receive
the upgrade because we are so stuck in the way
(42:13):
God used to move.
Speaker 1 (42:15):
But he says, today I am doing a new thing.
Speaker 2 (42:21):
I know it doesn't feel like it used to feel,
but I'm still faithful. I know it doesn't look like
it used to look, but I'm still faithful.
Speaker 1 (42:29):
I know some things have changed in our country, but
I'm still faithful because I am the Lord. I was
the Lord, I will I am, I was, I will be.
I make away. It's what I do, it's who I am,
and I'm making a way for you right now. Do
(42:51):
you not see it? And so often the answer is no,
I don't see it because I'm looking backwards.
Speaker 2 (43:01):
I found out for a lot of people, the greatest
barrier to their blessing is not what's before them, is
what's behind them.
Speaker 1 (43:11):
That God has already dealt with.
Speaker 2 (43:17):
So, whoever God sent me to preach to today, you
might be like seventy two years old and feel like
you know what my best is behind me.
Speaker 1 (43:25):
The devil is a liar, I.
Speaker 2 (43:27):
Said the devil, I said, if he's talking.
Speaker 1 (43:30):
He's lying. Your best is not behind you.
Speaker 2 (43:34):
God has already been to your future, and he said,
hurry up and.
Speaker 5 (43:40):
Back.
Speaker 1 (43:43):
I want to bless you where you are. I want
to bless you with the strength you have left empty nesters.
Speaker 2 (43:49):
Just because your kids are gone does not mean your
calling is over.
Speaker 1 (43:54):
I'm doing a new thing. I'm doing a new thing
in your life. I'm doing a new thing in this church.
You saw how I moved that water when you needed
to go through it. Now I'm gonna make the water
come up where you need it the most. I would
love to pray for you.
Speaker 2 (44:18):
Because I know this is the kind of message that
it's kind of easy to get excited about, but a
little harder to live out. It's one thing to sing
it in a worship center like this, talented musicians, beautiful lights,
(44:39):
to declare.
Speaker 1 (44:39):
Your faith in a place like this. But God said,
I'm gonna make the water come up in the desert.
I'm going to make a way in the wilderness.
Speaker 2 (44:52):
I'm going to be faithful to you in the places
where nobody else can provide for you.
Speaker 6 (45:00):
I am your source, sense your feet at every location.
Speaker 2 (45:13):
Put down your notes. This is not the part you
need to write down. This is the part you need
to receive by faith. That's the lie. The devil always
tells me. Your best is behind you. I believe that
since I was in college. I graduated college, married Holly.
I thought, well, you know from here, I honestly thought this.
(45:36):
I told one of my friends this. I said, this
is probably the most ministry I will ever do, Because
in college I had traveled to churches and done revivals
and backyard Bible clubs.
Speaker 1 (45:47):
And things like that.
Speaker 2 (45:48):
I said, that's probably the most ministry I'll ever do.
My friend was talking to me on the phone. He said,
you're crazy. God's only going to use you more. You
stay focused, they imaginative, stay creative. He's only gonna use
you more. The only barrier is your willingness to believe
(46:12):
by faith that what I.
Speaker 1 (46:14):
Just said is true. But I'm telling you is true.
Speaker 2 (46:17):
If it was true for the Babylonian captives, if it
was true for the children of Israel who needed the
waters to part, why could it not be true for you?
Speaker 1 (46:28):
Why not you? So I want you to remember.
Speaker 2 (46:33):
The ways He's made, the demonstrations of his faithfulness that
it brought you to this point.
Speaker 1 (46:39):
It's too many to count, right.
Speaker 2 (46:42):
Some of y'all got some stories, man, some core stories
of the moments where you knew that God was real
and he was with you, that.
Speaker 1 (46:50):
He would never leave you nor forsake you. You know
those stories? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (46:57):
Remember Now I need you to forget them, because your
core story is not that you were a slave and
now you're not a slave, or you went to jail,
or that you got a divorce or that you had
an abortion.
Speaker 1 (47:14):
God says, I am doing now.
Speaker 2 (47:17):
I don't want your core story to be about the
blessings that I'm giving to you. I want your story
to be about the blessing that I want to release
through you. You have camped at this red sea long enough.
I got more miracles. I got more miracles. No, it's
(47:42):
not going to feel like it used to feel, and
it's not going to give you chills like.
Speaker 1 (47:45):
It used to.
Speaker 2 (47:45):
And it might not be your favorite song from nineteen
ninety four, and Ryl Crow might have a new baseline.
Speaker 1 (47:53):
I'm doing a new thing. I believe.
Speaker 2 (48:01):
I'll see you do it again. Now I won't see
you do it how you did it. The holl's gonna change.
But Jesus Christ, it's the same yesterday, today and forever.
Speaker 1 (48:15):
I don't have to know how. Come on, tell your neighbor.
I don't know how. But I know who. I got
a mighty car, I got a waymaker, I got a
strong delivery.
Speaker 3 (48:28):
I know who.
Speaker 1 (48:30):
I know whom. I have believe and I am leslated
that he is able. I said he's amo. He's able.
Speaker 2 (48:42):
He's able, no matter save the song, He's able.
Speaker 1 (48:50):
He's able receive. Move come on funeral mood. This is
our jo listeners to this. This is on God, not.
Speaker 2 (49:13):
See to see God.
Speaker 1 (49:24):
Thank you for joining us.
Speaker 2 (49:26):
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 1 (49:43):
You can share it with your friends.
Speaker 2 (49:44):
You can click the share button, take a screenshot and
share it on your social stories and tag us at
Elevation Church.
Speaker 1 (49:50):
Thanks again for listening. God bless you.
Host
Steven Furtick
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