October 17, 2025 • 47 mins
What if God didn’t meet your expectations because He wants to exceed them?
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hey, this is Stephen Ferdik.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
I'm the pastor of Elevation Church and this is our podcast.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
And I wanted to thank you for joining us today.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Hope this inspires you. Hope it builds your faith. Hope
it gives your perspective to see God is moving.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
In your life. Enjoy the message.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Let's get into the scripture now, the Book of Matthew
chapter eleven, verse two and three. And as I share
this with you today, I pray that it'll be a
very personal experience for you. Matthew chapter eleven, Versus two
and three. When John, who was in prison, heard about
the deeds of the Messiah, he sent his disciples to
(00:38):
ask him, are you the one who is to come?
Speaker 1 (00:43):
Or should we expect someone else?
Speaker 2 (00:46):
And really let's focus on the first part of that,
when John who was in prison, You'll find my message
right between those commas in that little clause when John
and here's the phrase, who was in prison? Today, I
like to speak to you about invisible prisons. Invisible prisons,
and let's pray one more time. God, you hold the keys,
(01:08):
you have all authority, your sovereign and we believe that
you can do anything. Now enable your servants to have
the kind of faith that will connect with Heaven, get
us past the point of our own perspective, and help
us to see things like you see him for a
few minutes. We believe that if we do, things will
change in our lives. In Jesus' name, I pray, Amen,
you may.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
Be seated low ocd. My Bible was on the wrong
side of the thing. I have to keep it a
certain way.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
And you know, it's funny when you're married to somebody,
you notice all these little things about them.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
Now listen, this is not hyperbole.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
Holly Ferdick is pretty much the perfect wife. We don't
have the perfect marriage, but she's like, you know, nine
point nine nine out of ten on the way, and
even look at me, Look at me. I'm not just
earning points up here trying to get something started in
the afternoon after I preach.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
I promise you she really is.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
And even when we miss each other just by that
point zero zero zero zero zero one.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
It's usually just she's even trying.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
And sometimes it's just like she loves me so much
and messes things up, you know, like she she used
to introduce me. We would go to the different campuses
and have a campus vision night, and so we'd be
like at University City or at Riverwalk the artist formerly
known as Rock Hill, and she get up to introduce
me like she'd she'd read a scripture, greet the people,
(02:41):
and she would tell them, now, in a few moments,
our pastor is gonna come preach and let me tell
you it's going to be a good one tonight. And
they cheer a little bit, and she'd say, I mean,
I'm telling you he's been studying all day. I mean
to tell you he hadn't come out of his room.
I went in the room and he was on his
face on the carpet, seeking God and worshiping God. And
(03:03):
and then he and then he on the way over,
he had a napkin out and he was writing his
sermon notes on a napkin.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
And he's just fired up. And I've never seen him
this fired up.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
And I think tonight might be the best message that
he's ever going to preach in his life. And I'm like,
shut up, this is too much presser, Like I cannot
take the expectations. And it's like ah, like everything she says,
it's like I can't possibly make it this good.
Speaker 1 (03:28):
You know, get up and tell him.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
I've been sick and uh and the kids have been
crazy and it's just a miracle that I'm here. And then,
you know, I could just jump over that. You know,
I could dunk on that. Just set the goal about
five feet, I could.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
Dunk on that.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
You know what I'm saying, because she puts it up
so high I can't possibly reach it. It's about expectations.
Marriage is about expectations. I could I could preach a
seminar on that. Let's do another time, because it's just
the idea of when you don't understand someone's expectations, you
can't make sense of their disappointments.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
And faith when you get.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
To the essence of it is an expectation, a confident
assurance that a negative circumstance still holds the potential to
produce great purpose in my life. Come on, shout on that.
I'm gonna teach you all where to shout. Y'all been
coming to church too many years to not know where
the shouting part is.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
That's the shouting part.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
Means I can walk into something dark and light it
up because of my faith, because the light of the
world lives in me. You say, Jesus is the light
of the world. Absolutely he is, but guess where he lives.
It's an expectation. Faith is an expectation to know that,
even if the sequence of things doesn't make sense in
(04:46):
my life, that God, who lives outside of time because
he is eternal, knows the end from the beginning. So
then I have to trust him with element op if
he is Z and A, and if A is related
to Z, because he is Alpha and Omega beginning in
the end, the first and the last. My faith is
an expectation that before the movie even starts, he's already
(05:07):
shot the closing scene. It helps me to know today
that I don't have to live in suspense as to
whether or not I will see the goodness of the
Lord in the land of the living. Because faith is
an expectation. Faith enables me to wake up in the
morning knowing that surely goodness and mercy will follow me
all the days of my life. And since this is
one of the days of my life, Goodness and mercy
(05:28):
are my bodyguards, one on my right and one on
my left. You can't see them there invisible, but if
you look real close, I've got security. Tell somebody, say
I got security, goodness, and mercy. The favor of the
Lord is the filter through which I view the fights
of my life. Knowing this that he who began a
good work in me will be faithful to complete it.
(05:51):
Don't know when, don't know how, not even sure what
he's doing yet. But my faith gives me an expectation.
Now unto him who is able to do immeasurably more
than we ask or imagine, according to his power that
works mightily in us, not according to my preference, not
according to my understanding or the finite finite you know, small, little,
(06:15):
puny way that I tend to come at situations. But
my faith is an expectation, and this expectation is contagious.
Talk about talk about expectations.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
Man John, the Baptist who we just read about, he was.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
He was really, really familiar with the pressure of high
expectations because he was a miraculous, miraculously born baby, and
an angel prophesied his birth, and in fact, when his mother,
Elizabeth got pregnant, you know, his father Zachariah, was so
(07:00):
shocked by it that he told the angel it couldn't
happen because they were kind of old and so his expectation.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
You know, with age, one thing can happen. With age.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
That's good, you can get experience, but it can diminish expectation.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
Do you know what I mean by that?
Speaker 2 (07:18):
I'm looking for over forty because I'm not there yet.
I'm familiar with this. But John was born. Before he
was born, you have to understand that he was the
voice that prepared the way for the Lord that the
(07:39):
entire nation was expecting to.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
Deliver them from oppression.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
That was their expectation of the Messiah, and they looked
for for hundreds of years, in centuries, so that this
generation that was alive at the time the birth of
Christ had heard the stories, the rumors, and the rumblings
about the possibility and potential of his coming into the world,
and this expectation from their heart was that he would
(08:05):
then set them free from oppression, whether economic or political,
or deliver them from their circumstantial containment. There's an expectation,
and one thing you got to do when you have
an expectation is make sure that you connect yourself with
people who have a similar expectation. And this is important
(08:29):
because expectation is contagious. Say that out loud, expectation is contagious.
Those of you watching this message, you didn't get to
be with us in worship. I had everybody in the
church turn to each other, and I had them check
with their neighbor and make sure that their neighbor was
the right neighbor, because I don't want I'm sitting next
(08:51):
to anybody who's not expecting God to speak today, just
going to play something on their phone, you know, Candy
Crush or whatever game is popular. Now.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
I don't play that.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
I read my Bible in my free times. Kidding, I
was kidding. I read my Bible, watch YouTube in my
free time. But but I was just having him check,
you know, because expectation is contagious.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
Here's how contagious it is.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
When John the Baptist was still in Elizabeth's womb, an
angel appeared six months after Elizabeth got pregnant with John
the Baptist to Mary, who was a relative of Elizabeth.
Now you know, Mary, Mary, did you know from Christmas?
She was told that she was going to have a
baby and she hadn't had relations. And it's kind of
(09:34):
hard to believe a revelation that completely contradicts the circumstances.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
Surrounding it.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
So the first thing that she did when the angel
left was going to the hill country to see her
relative named Elizabeth, because the Angel said, she's also expecting.
The best thing you can do when you are expecting
is to get around somebody.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
Else who's expecting.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
If you get around somebody who's expecting, your expect will rise.
Speaker 1 (10:02):
That's why I come to.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
Church, to be honest with you, because you know what,
I could watch it on my phone, but there's something
about being in an atmosphere with people who are also expected.
You know what, if you're watching this message in your house,
next time you watch it, invite somebody over and you'll
drink some coffee together and get some expectation between the
two of you, and get a Bible, and break out
(10:26):
your Bible and stand up on your feet while I'm preaching.
Even if you're watching in your kitchen, if you got
somebody next to you, grab them right now and tell
them I'm expecting something. And what I need is somebody
who will help me with this expectation, because if I
don't get around somebody who's expecting something.
Speaker 1 (10:50):
This is so real.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
This is so real that we've got worship leaders in
this church who lead worship and don't even have a microphone.
Because when we're pulling in today, Graham, who's eleven, said
to me, we listened to hes Ki Walker on the
way to church today, so I had I had the
(11:13):
I had the car bumping on the way in the
parking lot. And then we moved over into Israel Hoten
circa two thousand and.
Speaker 1 (11:23):
Six, and and then.
Speaker 2 (11:25):
We pulled by the parking team and do you know
my son said to me when we pulled by the
parking team, he said, I love that guy.
Speaker 1 (11:34):
Now this is Graham. Graham doesn't has never even said
he loved me, but.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
He he was like, I love him. You can tell
he's excited. Graham never said I love Chris Brown.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
He never said it.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
Once ever, But that parking attendant, Graham said, he does
so much for our church.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
What could we do for him? But it was a
childlike faith.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
And I promise I'm gonna talk about John the Baptist
in a minute. But it's the craziest thing that when
somebody is also expecting, you know, it created an expectation.
Speaker 1 (12:17):
Even in the.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
Parking lot, my son felt something. What he felt though
he didn't know it was the Holy Spirit in that man,
the Holy Spirit in that man who didn't need a microphone.
Speaker 1 (12:29):
He had an orange baton, and he was expecting that
when you pull in my.
Speaker 2 (12:35):
Parking lot, you're pulling up on the holy ground. So
get ready something good. I'm expecting something. So when Elizabeth
and Mary got together.
Speaker 1 (12:55):
Mary said, Oh, I just got bumped.
Speaker 2 (12:58):
Mary said, what do you mean I just got This
is the new modern steam for the translation of Bible.
Speaker 1 (13:03):
What do you mean you just got bumped?
Speaker 2 (13:05):
She said, When you got here, the baby in your
womb made the baby in my womb leap for joy.
Now you can't see it, it's invisible.
Speaker 1 (13:19):
But something in.
Speaker 2 (13:20):
You, the Jesus in you, the Christ in you.
Speaker 1 (13:25):
I'm gonna calm down in a minute and preach.
Speaker 2 (13:28):
But somebody who's got a purpose on the inside. Sound
like you're expecting the greatest page.
Speaker 1 (13:34):
Of your life.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
Come on on, every campus, Let's take nineteen seconds and
praise a minute. There. It's all right, it's all right,
(14:07):
it's all right to be expected, it's all right, it's
all right. It's all right to love Jesus. It's all
right to be enthusiastic.
Speaker 1 (14:16):
It's all right.
Speaker 3 (14:17):
It's all right, to lift up your eyes to the
hills and know where your health comes from.
Speaker 2 (14:30):
Expectation is contagious, so is skepticism. Sit down, We gotta
modulate because a lot has happened since John the Baptist
was jumping up and down in Elizabeth's womb as a fetus.
Speaker 1 (14:53):
You know what I mean?
Speaker 2 (14:54):
Like a lot happens between when something gets birthed the
point now where he's he started his ministry. He's like,
he's been doing his job. You've been doing your job.
Just remember the Titans.
Speaker 1 (15:09):
You've been doing your job. He's been doing his job.
Speaker 2 (15:15):
And Jesus now is really really getting He's getting popular.
He's blowing up, as some would say.
Speaker 1 (15:29):
Now this is not before the blow up.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
Jesus is blowing all the way up, all the way up.
Speaker 1 (15:37):
And John, according to the text, is in prison.
Speaker 2 (15:45):
When John first saw Jesus as an adult, and whether
or not they had much contact during their teenage years
is not recorded in scripture. But one thing we know
is that when John saw Jesus at one point when
he was baptized in the Jordan River, John identified Jesus
not by the activities that he did, but he identified
(16:09):
him based on the essence of who he was, which
is really important in how we relate to God, because
if we only learn to identify God by what he
does and what he does for us, then our expectation
will be attached to his activity, and that's dangerous. It's
(16:30):
very dangerous to have. It's very dangerous to have a
low expectation of God. Then you just live the life
at the level of your disappointments and then wonder why
everything turns out exactly the way you imagined it to
turn out because you didn't have any faith for anything else.
Speaker 1 (16:43):
It's a self fulfilling prophecy.
Speaker 2 (16:45):
But it's also very dangerous to have an expectation of
God that is not congruent with his character. And this
is where it gets difficult for us. Because dancing baby
he's in the womb is one thing. But now when
John who was in prison, not in prison for a
(17:08):
meth laugh, not in prison because you know, not in
prison for a domestic disturbance, in prison for standing up
to a wicked king herod and because he wouldn't say
what was expected of him to be said, because he
was a prophet and he didn't operate like that, and
(17:28):
he was kind of rough, y'all.
Speaker 1 (17:30):
John the Baptist was. If he had a Twitter account,
it would.
Speaker 2 (17:34):
Definitely it would definitely need to be suspended. He would
definitely be deplatformed in this day. In this PC day,
John the Baptist would not have much of an audience,
but he was very popular in his time until Jesus came.
And when Jesus came, he said, look, Lamb of God
takes away his sins of the world. Don't follow me,
follow him John three thirty. He must become greater. I
must become less. Follow him, not me. Whole reason I'm
(17:56):
here his point to him. Here he is, y'all, go
with him. I'm gonna do my thing. I prepared to wagh.
I'm just a voice. I'm not the one. I'm just
a voice pointing.
Speaker 1 (18:03):
To the one. So I know my place.
Speaker 2 (18:04):
So I'm gonna fall back now so he can do
what he came to do, and what he came to
do watch this was to judge the unwickedness and to
bring the people to repentance. That was John's favorite message.
He loved that word repent He just preached.
Speaker 1 (18:22):
It all the time.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
And when they would come out to be baptized by him.
He would call him names. He one time called the
Pharisees a brute of vipers. I thought that would be
an interesting way to welcome the campuses one weekend. And
yet there was a prophetic power to his ministry that
(18:43):
people were attracted to because he would say things that
were true, whether they wanted them to be true or not.
And yet that same spirit. And I really want to
isolate this. I didn't do it last night, but I
was thinking the same thing that made him so great
got him in trouble, the same thing that made him
able to just take a stand. And I'm not moving.
(19:04):
And this is how it's gonna be. Repent, Repent, repent.
Let me show you one example. Can I show you
one example of what his message was? So he's out
baptizing at the Jordan, he baptized Jesus. He said, uh,
I'm not worthy to untie your thong of your sandaljes said,
we got to do it to fulfill all righteousness is proper,
it's appropriate. Stop thinking about how you think it needs
(19:24):
to be, and I'm telling you how it needs to be.
You're just the voice. You're the You're not the message.
You're just the voice. Again, You're not the message, You're
just the voice. One more time, You're not the message,
You're just the voice. And so he baptized Jesus in obedience,
even though it didn't make sense.
Speaker 1 (19:41):
And now watch this.
Speaker 2 (19:42):
This is something that he said that shows us what
his expectation was.
Speaker 1 (19:47):
And if you.
Speaker 2 (19:47):
Don't understand his expectation, you can't make sense of his disappointment.
This was his expectation of the Messiah. This was his
expectation of the one that he gave, gave away his
ministry to. This was his expectation of the Lamb of God,
who takes away the sin of the world and is
found in Matthew chapter three. Watch this, he's talking to
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the crowds. I baptize you with water for repentance. But
after me comes one who is more powerful than I,
who sandals I am not worthy to carry. He'll baptize
you with the Holy Spirit and fire. Watch this verse twelve.
His winnowing fork is in hand. Ooh, that's what you
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used to get the chaf owl, the wickedness. You winnow
it out, and you separate the sheep from the goats,
the good from the bad, the righteous from the wicked.
He's got his winnowing fork. He's here now, and it's
about to go down. It's about to get good. The
Lamb of God is here, and he's got his winnowing
fork in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor,
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gathering his wheat into the bar and burning up the
chaff with unquenchable fire. It's about to be fired. The
Son of God is here. It's about to be fire.
He's got a fork and he's about to start a fire.
And he's burning up all y'all that don't want to
do it, and get right and get left, and you
know all this stuff he had John the Baptist had
a church sign. It would have all those things about
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hell on it, you know, about the fire and the
wicked and the righteous and turn or burn and you know.
Speaker 1 (21:26):
And he's got his fork in one hand. Now watch this.
Speaker 2 (21:29):
He's in prison now. He's in prison now, and something
is making him doubt what he was so sure about
from the time even before he was born, what he
knew before he was even born, he's now doubting in
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this prison. Sends messengers one hundred miles on foot just
to ask Jesus one question, and I get it, because
you know we're supposed to be partners. And here I
am in prison, and all I keep seeing is you
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healing people, blessing people.
Speaker 1 (22:15):
All I see.
Speaker 2 (22:16):
All I keep seeing is the reports of how awesome
it's going for you. But I stood up to a
king and I'm here in prison, and here's what he's wondering.
Did you catch it? In the verse? He said, are
you the one? Or should we expect someone else? In
other words, is it always gonna be like this? In
(22:38):
other words, I thought I thought I thought you were
gonna Have you ever thought God was gonna where'd y'all go?
Y'all were fired up when we had a little praise
moment and all that. Have you ever thought God was
(22:59):
gonna you? Have you ever wondered? Because John the Baptist
is just wondering. He's just wondering. He's not denying Jesus.
Speaker 1 (23:10):
He's not. He's not.
Speaker 2 (23:11):
He's not turning away from the sovereign Lord who bought him.
Speaker 1 (23:14):
He's not.
Speaker 2 (23:15):
He's he's he's.
Speaker 1 (23:16):
Not contradicting what he said to begin with.
Speaker 2 (23:20):
He's just thinking, Now, maybe God isn't what I thought
he was. Maybe the one that I trusted in maybe
I trusted in the wrong one.
Speaker 1 (23:34):
Now you don't say it.
Speaker 2 (23:36):
Like that, because if you said it like that, you
would be scared. God would hit you with the lightning bolt.
But you just send messengers. You don't say it like
that directly, but indirectly. Somebody came in here wondering, and
you don't talk about this.
Speaker 1 (23:50):
You're you're wondering.
Speaker 2 (23:52):
You know, God made some promises and and here's the
here's the interesting thing about it. A lot of times
our entire faith journey is sabotaged because of our expectation
of salvation when it gets started. And I'm not sure
that as preachers we've been very responsible about it, because
a lot of times we will preach that salvation from
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your sin is a one time event. In fact, it
is you will never pay the penalty of your sin.
Jesus is the lamb of God. This is what John
knu who takes.
Speaker 1 (24:27):
Away the sin of the world. But the power of.
Speaker 2 (24:30):
Sin is very different than the penalty of sin, and
the patterns of sin are very different than the penalty
of sin. So when we preach that you've been forgiven
of your sin, you are set free from the penalty
of your sin. But if the pattern of your sin
has been ingrained not only just throughout your lifetime, but
some of it is even generational, and some addictions that
(24:53):
you are fighting against, you know, the invisible.
Speaker 1 (24:56):
Prisons that you live in, the things that you do
over and over again.
Speaker 2 (25:00):
I was thinking about how some of us are in
invisible prisons today. Even as we try to appear free
to people, there is a spiritual depression on so many,
so many thousands that I will preach to this weekend,
and nobody can see it because we paint the walls
with a smile, but we live behind bars on the inside.
Speaker 1 (25:23):
It's an invisible prison.
Speaker 2 (25:25):
It's ways of thinking and reasoning and fearing. Because when
I realized John was in two different prisons at the same.
Speaker 1 (25:37):
Time, it clarified the text for me.
Speaker 2 (25:40):
One was the one that herod Antipus put him in
for saying what he didn't want to hear. But the
other one was an invisible prison. The other one is
one that I'm all too familiar with. This is the
prison of your expectations, This is the prison of your plans,
(26:06):
This is the prison of what you thought God was
going to do. You know, hey, go ask Jesus, are
you the one? Because uh, I told everybody you're the one.
(26:27):
I told everybody you had your fork, You've got to
start a fire.
Speaker 1 (26:32):
Watch what the messengers say back to John.
Speaker 2 (26:37):
They say, Jeuz, reply, go back and report to jarn
what you hear and see Look at this list. The
blind receives sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy
are cleansed the death. Here the dead are raised, and
the good news is proclaimed to the poor. Blessed is
anyone who does not stumble on account of me. Watch
what wasn't in that verse? The fork and the fire. Jesus,
(27:00):
this wasn't doing any of the things that John wanted
him to do. Read the list again. The blind received site,
the lame walk, those who have leprosy or cleanse the death.
Here the dead or rays, and the good news is
proclaimed to the fore go tell John that. And John's like,
I'm just checking, Jesus, where's the fork? Where's the fire?
(27:26):
You know, WTF? You ever had a moment? Why y'all
hate me today?
Speaker 1 (27:38):
He never had a where's the fork? Where's the fire?
Speaker 2 (27:45):
Jo?
Speaker 1 (27:47):
John is having a moment.
Speaker 2 (27:50):
John is in a WTF moment with the Lord, walk
out if you want to. But if you'll be really honest,
if you'll be really honest, there are some things in
your life you're trying to figure out. Right now, Come on,
where is it? Where is it? What in the world
(28:14):
is this? Somebody show what is this?
Speaker 1 (28:18):
What is this? Yeah? Yeah, I don't know. I just
need to know because I.
Speaker 2 (28:23):
Thought you were gonna and that is the prison that
we spend so much of our lives in what we
thought God was gonna do.
Speaker 1 (28:30):
But I got a question for you.
Speaker 2 (28:33):
What if He really is able to do immeasurably more
than you ask her. Imagine what if he wants to
do something so much better than your mic can comprehend?
Speaker 1 (28:46):
Is you be open to that?
Speaker 2 (28:53):
What if God didn't want to meet your expectations because
he wanted to exceed them? And now I'm gonna make
you sit back down because You're not gonna like this.
The way he grows my faith.
Speaker 1 (29:10):
Is usually to disappoint my expectation. John's like this, This
is what I gave up my ministry for.
Speaker 2 (29:29):
This. I gave my life to Jesus and I'm still
struggling with depression and anxiety. This because it was your
expectation of deliverance that is causing your disappointment.
Speaker 1 (29:44):
Go tell John wishes blind c the death here the
lame walk.
Speaker 2 (29:52):
Tell him, I'm touching people that nobody else would touch,
that were quarantined because of this dreadful disease called leprosy,
and they're able to go to their family because they're
cleansed and they can live their life. Tell him all that,
But you know he's not making this upright. This is
what he came to do. This is what he announced
that he came to do. In Luke chapter four, he said,
the spirit of the Lord is on me because he's
(30:13):
quote in Isaiah sixty one, because he is fulfilling the prophecy,
not fulfilling their preferences. Fulfilling the prophecy. It's very different.
He's fulfilling what he said. He was not what they
thought he was going to be. That's what God is
trying to deliver us from, you see it, from what
we thought he was going to be. He's so much
(30:33):
bigger than that. He's so much better than that. His
plan is so much bigger than that. His purpose is
so much greater than that. And John said, are you
the one? He said, go back and tell him that
the death here and the blind sea and the lepers
are touched, and the eyes of the blind are open,
and the ears of the death. This is all from
Luke chapter four. Look it up when he unrolled the scroll,
(30:54):
when he stood up to read in his hometown, and
he said.
Speaker 1 (30:56):
To this day, is this prophecy fulfilled? In your hearing?
I came.
Speaker 2 (31:00):
The spirit of the Lord is upon me, for he
has annoyed me to preach the good news to the poor,
recovery of sight to the blind. He sent me to
open death fears. He sent me to do all this.
But one thing he left out when he sent the
message to John. And this is crazy, Zach, because I
know how much you left the Bible, so it's gonna
blow your mind.
Speaker 1 (31:14):
The only thing that he left out.
Speaker 2 (31:16):
He added some stuff to it, but he left one
thing out, Freedom for the prisoners.
Speaker 1 (31:23):
Look it up right now, reference me. It's in Luke.
For I can wait.
Speaker 2 (31:35):
I know I'm right about this, unless you got some
weird bible that you made for yourself, Luke. For it's
like eighteen nineteen something like that.
Speaker 1 (31:45):
What's his say? Eighteen nineteen? What was say?
Speaker 2 (31:51):
Spear Lord's this is Rick Parker, the one that you'll
always hear on the podcast, the one you hey, Rick,
you know you're famous on the podcast. He's the one
always talking back to me, the country guy. He's always
talking back to him. People ask me all the time,
who's that country guy that's always talking back to you.
Speaker 1 (32:09):
That's Rick Parker. What does it saying?
Speaker 2 (32:11):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, Gospel to the poor, healed the broken heart.
Speaker 1 (32:20):
Liberty to the captives. Where's that? He said?
Speaker 2 (32:23):
Tell John, I'm doing it all. Tell John that everything
I said I would do, I'm doing it.
Speaker 1 (32:34):
But what I said I would do is not what
he was expecting.
Speaker 2 (32:40):
And tell John that I need his faith not to
rest in his idea of who he thought I was.
Speaker 1 (32:48):
I'm gonna preach this home right now.
Speaker 2 (32:50):
I need his faith not to rest in whether or
not I fulfill his agenda. Look, so many of the
things that Jesus did in the scripture, it was a
hidden agenda. In fact, he even spoke in parables, not
so the people would get a cute little story about
a father and a son and he ran away and
he ate with the pigs, and the father welcomed him home.
That isn't why he taught in parables. He taught in
(33:11):
parables because he didn't want his wisdom to be ascertained
with the human mind. He taught in parables so that
the spirit of God could reveal to the unlearned not
the wisdom of this world, but the things of God.
So much of what he does is hidden, and yet
we spend all of our time in our minds trying
(33:31):
to figure out whether God is good, trying to figure
out whether life makes sense.
Speaker 1 (33:36):
It's a prison.
Speaker 2 (33:38):
You'll never figure it out that way. You can't get
out that way. You can't solve your problems on the
level of self. It's gonna take a great, big God
with an eternal plan.
Speaker 1 (33:49):
It's gonna take a really good God. It's going to
take a majestic God.
Speaker 2 (33:58):
And I'm gonna have to decide whether or not I'm
going to interpret him through the lens of my expectations
or set my expectations on the basis of.
Speaker 1 (34:12):
Who he is. Now, here's what I know.
Speaker 2 (34:15):
I am preaching to so many different types of people today.
For some of you, you can hardly breathe right now
because I'm speaking so specifically to you. Because the Lord
is trying to get this message to you. For others
of you, you're in a much more dangerous place. You're
not even listening.
Speaker 1 (34:36):
You know what.
Speaker 2 (34:38):
God uses to develop your faith, disappointment. You know what
the devil uses to destroy your faith, disappointment. And I
think it's what you do with it. Because's going to happen.
It's going to happen in relationships, it's going to happen
(34:59):
in it's going to happen in churches to where what
you thought it was gonna be and what it really is.
You know, I don't even like the way this Bible
story goes because what I want to happen next in
the story is that the Angel of the Lord comes
(35:20):
breaks John out of prison, and John goes on to
preach the gospel and he has more success and double
for his trouble like job like never before. In the
Lord restores the years the kanker worm is wasting. We
can have good church and all get a serotonin hit,
go home, be happy, and watch a NASCAR race. But
what I'm thinking is I need to tell you that
(35:41):
the way you expect this story to end, since we're
talking about expectations, is not necessarily the way that it does.
Because John John doesn't get out of prison in Matthew
chapter eleven. In fact, in Matthew fourteen, his head is
served up on a platter because the King decides to
(36:03):
cut it off him. And yet there's something that's even
more beautiful in the text than John getting what he wants.
Speaker 1 (36:13):
There's something much more profound.
Speaker 2 (36:18):
Then John gets what he wants, and what it is
is in verse seven and following. Now, this transitional phrase
is really important. By the way, who am I preaching
to today? That there's been some things that weren't what
you thought they were going to be, and it's affecting
(36:39):
your faith now. And even in a sense, God is
not who you thought he was going to be, and
you're experiencing him in a different way.
Speaker 1 (36:48):
Than you have a template for and it's challenging to you.
Speaker 2 (36:53):
So what happens next is the part of the message
that I really want you to take to heart. Because
John's disciples were leaving, what does that mean? Whatever Jesus
says next, John doesn't hear it. He turns to the
crowd and begins to speak about John. This is significant
(37:18):
because what he says next is what he wants the
crowd to know about John. What he said before was
what he wanted John to know about him. And it's
a critical distinction because God never wants your faith to
rest on you. He knows how fragile and fickle you are.
(37:39):
He said, Go tell John that there is a purpose
that is greater. There is a plan that is bigger.
Say that there is a purpose that is greater. There
is a plan that is bigger. I'm looking for one
hundred percent participation on every location. There is a purpose
that is greater. There is a plan that is bigger.
(38:01):
Look at the person next you, say there is a
purpose that is greater. There is a plan that is bigger.
Other neighbor, There is a purpose that is greater. There
is a plan that is bigger. Tell him zoom out,
zoom out, zoom out, zoom out, zoom out, zoom out,
zoom out. Because you've been seeing this one little thing,
and when you're in the prison of your mind, it's
(38:22):
an awfully small place sitting it. It's really hard to
see the light of day in solitary confinement. But go
tell John, we're right on schedule. Go tell John, I'm
using his preparation. Go tell John it wasn't in vain
I heard the Lord say, Ferdick, Go tell John. Go
tell the people. Go tell the discourage, Go tell the beaten,
Go tell the broken, Go tell the depressed, Go tell
(38:45):
the sick, Go tell the broke, Go tell the herding,
Go tell the young, Go tell the old.
Speaker 1 (38:50):
Go tell him this working, Go tell him.
Speaker 2 (38:52):
I'm doing it, just not like you wanted me to,
But I'm doing it. He turns around and says to
the crowd, what did you go out into the wilderness
to see.
Speaker 1 (39:12):
A red swayed by the wind? No?
Speaker 2 (39:15):
John wasn't fickle. John wasn't fragile. When John made up
his mind about something, that's just the way it was.
And that's what's getting him in trouble, because he made
up his mind about what he thought God was gonna do,
and when God did what God wanted to do.
Speaker 1 (39:38):
Is that you right now? Are you in an invisible prison?
I know here.
Speaker 2 (39:43):
It isn't gonna cut your head off. It's not that dramatic,
right But you can't enjoy people, can you? Is that
you right now? You can't create? Is that you right now?
Is that me who am'm preaching to? Maybe I'm preaching
to me. It's not that God didn't do anything for me.
It's not that God didn't bless me. It's just different
(40:08):
than what I thought. And as long as I'm in
the prison of what I thought, I can't be a
part of what God is doing. So be set free today.
Be set free by the fact that God may not
(40:30):
be conforming to your agenda or keeping all of your appointments.
God might not be organizing everything to match your exact preference.
But there is a greater purpose, and there is a
bigger picture. And just like John was the forerunner of.
Speaker 1 (40:47):
Jesus Christ, some of you.
Speaker 2 (40:50):
God is using you to fight battles for your children
and your children's children, and your children's children's children will.
Speaker 1 (40:59):
Be blessed if you don't fall away.
Speaker 2 (41:03):
If you don't fall away, if you will resist the
urge to control God, you can serve Him and worship
Him and it'll be all right. Because my faith is
not the expectation that circumstances will be pleasant. My faith
is the expectation that the voice of the Lord is
(41:24):
upon the waters. Go tell John, blessed is he who
does not trip over the way he thought it was
going to be? Blessed is he who accepts what I'm
(41:47):
doing in his or her life. And the Lord wants
to set you free today from the way you thought
that it.
Speaker 1 (41:59):
Was going to be. And that's it, and that's it
because you know what's going to happen.
Speaker 2 (42:10):
Once you get set free from the way you thought
it was going to be, you can embrace what it is. Yeah,
and you know what God's gonna do more than what
you thought he was gonna do. The blind see the
lame walk. God's got something better than a fork. God's
got something better.
Speaker 1 (42:30):
Than a fire.
Speaker 2 (42:32):
The first place of deliverance is in the area of
your expectation, Holy Spirit. I thank you for this moment,
and I pray that this message would not fall on
deaf ears, because truth be told, Lord, there is a
prison that is not physical. There are captives in here today.
(42:56):
Those chains are invisible. And I want to pray for
right now, Lord, that you would look into the places
of their life where they've been disappointed and where they've
been bruised or even worse than that, where they got
their hopes up so high and they made a fool
of themselves, and so now it's kind of hard for them.
Speaker 1 (43:18):
To really have an expectation of your goodness.
Speaker 2 (43:23):
They're in an invisible prison of disappointment, resentment, bitterness.
Speaker 1 (43:30):
But you said you came to set us free.
Speaker 2 (43:35):
So you didn't do it physically for John, But would
you set us free, set us free from ourselves, set
us free from our regrets, set us free from our sin.
Speaker 1 (43:51):
With everyone's thending.
Speaker 2 (43:55):
Where the spirit of the Lord is, there's freedom.
Speaker 1 (44:01):
And the kind of freedom that I mean.
Speaker 2 (44:04):
Is the freedom from the need to control your life,
the freedom from the need to call the shots and
to always know the plan. John said, are you the
one I just need to know? And I hear the
Lord saying today, Yeah, it's me.
Speaker 1 (44:26):
It's me.
Speaker 2 (44:29):
It's me getting you through this season. It's me that
allowed some of the things in your life that you
don't like. I didn't cause all of them, but I'm
using all of them.
Speaker 1 (44:38):
It's me. Go tell John, it's me. It's me. It's me.
Speaker 2 (44:46):
That thing that won't let you go, that's grace. God said,
that's me. I think that keeps pumping in your heart
getting you back up. You fall down, seven, you get
up eight. God said, that's me. That thing in you
that it can't always make sense. You know, you should
read the Bible, sometimes you don't. God said, that's me.
(45:07):
I want you to wrestle with it.
Speaker 1 (45:08):
That's me. I don't want you to put me in
a formula. That's me.
Speaker 2 (45:11):
I don't want you to have me in a box.
I don't want you to be in this prison of
your small view of me.
Speaker 1 (45:16):
That's me.
Speaker 2 (45:19):
Oh God, of every moment that come before you now,
in need of your mercy, in need of your grace,
we need to know that you are our shepherd, even
if we go through a valley of the shadow of death.
And now thank you now, Lord, that as this word
(45:41):
has gone forth today across multiple campuses, across multiple continents,
that you are confirming your presence to your people right now,
if you would just lift your hands, God said, it's me.
It's me that you need to make sense of your life.
Speaker 1 (46:00):
It's me.
Speaker 2 (46:02):
Lord, I thank you that there is a bigger picture.
We do not see in full. We see in part,
we prophesy, in part, we speak in part. But when
that which was perfect has come, that which is incomplete
will be taken away. Until that time, Lord, we trust
in your presence, We trust in who you are. You're
still the lamb of God that takes away the sin
(46:24):
of the world. You're still the king of our life.
You're still the hope and foundation that our lives are
built on. You're still the solid rock on which we stand.
All of the ground is sinking sand. It's you, God.
It's you that we worship, and it's you that we trust.
It's not ourselves, it's not our circumstances.
Speaker 1 (46:42):
It's you. Somebody say, it's you. It's you that I need. Lord.
Speaker 2 (46:46):
It's you that fulfills me. It's you that completes me.
It's you that makes ways. It's you that opens doors.
It's you that sets the prisoners free. It's you that
broke the chains. It's you that I'm looking to. Promotion
doesn't come from the Easter. Promotion comes from you. It's
you I'm counting on. It's you I'm looking to. It's
you I'm leaning on. It's your everlasting arms. It's your
(47:09):
mighty hand, it's your outstretch power.
Speaker 1 (47:12):
It's your grace that we need.
Speaker 2 (47:14):
It's you, Lord, It's nobody else. It's you.
Speaker 1 (47:18):
Our health comes from you. Our strength is in you,
our trust.
Speaker 2 (47:22):
Is in your name, and we worship you now.
Speaker 1 (47:27):
Thank you for joining us.
Speaker 2 (47:28):
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 (47:45):
You can share it with your friends.
Speaker 2 (47:47):
You can click the share button, take a screenshot and
share it on your social stories and tag us at
Elevation Church.
Speaker 1 (47:52):
Thanks again for listening. God bless you.
Hey, this is Stephen Ferdik.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
I'm the pastor of Elevation Church and this is our podcast.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
And I wanted to thank you for joining us today.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Hope this inspires you. Hope it builds your faith. Hope
it gives your perspective to see God is moving.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
In your life. Enjoy the message.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Let's get into the scripture now, the Book of Matthew
chapter eleven, verse two and three. And as I share
this with you today, I pray that it'll be a
very personal experience for you. Matthew chapter eleven, Versus two
and three. When John, who was in prison, heard about
the deeds of the Messiah, he sent his disciples to
(00:38):
ask him, are you the one who is to come?
Speaker 1 (00:43):
Or should we expect someone else?
Speaker 2 (00:46):
And really let's focus on the first part of that,
when John who was in prison, You'll find my message
right between those commas in that little clause when John
and here's the phrase, who was in prison? Today, I
like to speak to you about invisible prisons. Invisible prisons,
and let's pray one more time. God, you hold the keys,
(01:08):
you have all authority, your sovereign and we believe that
you can do anything. Now enable your servants to have
the kind of faith that will connect with Heaven, get
us past the point of our own perspective, and help
us to see things like you see him for a
few minutes. We believe that if we do, things will
change in our lives. In Jesus' name, I pray, Amen,
you may.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
Be seated low ocd. My Bible was on the wrong
side of the thing. I have to keep it a
certain way.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
And you know, it's funny when you're married to somebody,
you notice all these little things about them.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
Now listen, this is not hyperbole.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
Holly Ferdick is pretty much the perfect wife. We don't
have the perfect marriage, but she's like, you know, nine
point nine nine out of ten on the way, and
even look at me, Look at me. I'm not just
earning points up here trying to get something started in
the afternoon after I preach.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
I promise you she really is.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
And even when we miss each other just by that
point zero zero zero zero zero one.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
It's usually just she's even trying.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
And sometimes it's just like she loves me so much
and messes things up, you know, like she she used
to introduce me. We would go to the different campuses
and have a campus vision night, and so we'd be
like at University City or at Riverwalk the artist formerly
known as Rock Hill, and she get up to introduce
me like she'd she'd read a scripture, greet the people,
(02:41):
and she would tell them, now, in a few moments,
our pastor is gonna come preach and let me tell
you it's going to be a good one tonight. And
they cheer a little bit, and she'd say, I mean,
I'm telling you he's been studying all day. I mean
to tell you he hadn't come out of his room.
I went in the room and he was on his
face on the carpet, seeking God and worshiping God. And
(03:03):
and then he and then he on the way over,
he had a napkin out and he was writing his
sermon notes on a napkin.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
And he's just fired up. And I've never seen him
this fired up.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
And I think tonight might be the best message that
he's ever going to preach in his life. And I'm like,
shut up, this is too much presser, Like I cannot
take the expectations. And it's like ah, like everything she says,
it's like I can't possibly make it this good.
Speaker 1 (03:28):
You know, get up and tell him.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
I've been sick and uh and the kids have been
crazy and it's just a miracle that I'm here. And then,
you know, I could just jump over that. You know,
I could dunk on that. Just set the goal about
five feet, I could.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
Dunk on that.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
You know what I'm saying, because she puts it up
so high I can't possibly reach it. It's about expectations.
Marriage is about expectations. I could I could preach a
seminar on that. Let's do another time, because it's just
the idea of when you don't understand someone's expectations, you
can't make sense of their disappointments.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
And faith when you get.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
To the essence of it is an expectation, a confident
assurance that a negative circumstance still holds the potential to
produce great purpose in my life. Come on, shout on that.
I'm gonna teach you all where to shout. Y'all been
coming to church too many years to not know where
the shouting part is.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
That's the shouting part.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
Means I can walk into something dark and light it
up because of my faith, because the light of the
world lives in me. You say, Jesus is the light
of the world. Absolutely he is, but guess where he lives.
It's an expectation. Faith is an expectation to know that,
even if the sequence of things doesn't make sense in
(04:46):
my life, that God, who lives outside of time because
he is eternal, knows the end from the beginning. So
then I have to trust him with element op if
he is Z and A, and if A is related
to Z, because he is Alpha and Omega beginning in
the end, the first and the last. My faith is
an expectation that before the movie even starts, he's already
(05:07):
shot the closing scene. It helps me to know today
that I don't have to live in suspense as to
whether or not I will see the goodness of the
Lord in the land of the living. Because faith is
an expectation. Faith enables me to wake up in the
morning knowing that surely goodness and mercy will follow me
all the days of my life. And since this is
one of the days of my life, Goodness and mercy
(05:28):
are my bodyguards, one on my right and one on
my left. You can't see them there invisible, but if
you look real close, I've got security. Tell somebody, say
I got security, goodness, and mercy. The favor of the
Lord is the filter through which I view the fights
of my life. Knowing this that he who began a
good work in me will be faithful to complete it.
(05:51):
Don't know when, don't know how, not even sure what
he's doing yet. But my faith gives me an expectation.
Now unto him who is able to do immeasurably more
than we ask or imagine, according to his power that
works mightily in us, not according to my preference, not
according to my understanding or the finite finite you know, small, little,
(06:15):
puny way that I tend to come at situations. But
my faith is an expectation, and this expectation is contagious.
Talk about talk about expectations.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
Man John, the Baptist who we just read about, he was.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
He was really, really familiar with the pressure of high
expectations because he was a miraculous, miraculously born baby, and
an angel prophesied his birth, and in fact, when his mother,
Elizabeth got pregnant, you know, his father Zachariah, was so
(07:00):
shocked by it that he told the angel it couldn't
happen because they were kind of old and so his expectation.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
You know, with age, one thing can happen. With age.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
That's good, you can get experience, but it can diminish expectation.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
Do you know what I mean by that?
Speaker 2 (07:18):
I'm looking for over forty because I'm not there yet.
I'm familiar with this. But John was born. Before he
was born, you have to understand that he was the
voice that prepared the way for the Lord that the
(07:39):
entire nation was expecting to.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
Deliver them from oppression.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
That was their expectation of the Messiah, and they looked
for for hundreds of years, in centuries, so that this
generation that was alive at the time the birth of
Christ had heard the stories, the rumors, and the rumblings
about the possibility and potential of his coming into the world,
and this expectation from their heart was that he would
(08:05):
then set them free from oppression, whether economic or political,
or deliver them from their circumstantial containment. There's an expectation,
and one thing you got to do when you have
an expectation is make sure that you connect yourself with
people who have a similar expectation. And this is important
(08:29):
because expectation is contagious. Say that out loud, expectation is contagious.
Those of you watching this message, you didn't get to
be with us in worship. I had everybody in the
church turn to each other, and I had them check
with their neighbor and make sure that their neighbor was
the right neighbor, because I don't want I'm sitting next
(08:51):
to anybody who's not expecting God to speak today, just
going to play something on their phone, you know, Candy
Crush or whatever game is popular. Now.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
I don't play that.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
I read my Bible in my free times. Kidding, I
was kidding. I read my Bible, watch YouTube in my
free time. But but I was just having him check,
you know, because expectation is contagious.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
Here's how contagious it is.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
When John the Baptist was still in Elizabeth's womb, an
angel appeared six months after Elizabeth got pregnant with John
the Baptist to Mary, who was a relative of Elizabeth.
Now you know, Mary, Mary, did you know from Christmas?
She was told that she was going to have a
baby and she hadn't had relations. And it's kind of
(09:34):
hard to believe a revelation that completely contradicts the circumstances.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
Surrounding it.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
So the first thing that she did when the angel
left was going to the hill country to see her
relative named Elizabeth, because the Angel said, she's also expecting.
The best thing you can do when you are expecting
is to get around somebody.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
Else who's expecting.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
If you get around somebody who's expecting, your expect will rise.
Speaker 1 (10:02):
That's why I come to.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
Church, to be honest with you, because you know what,
I could watch it on my phone, but there's something
about being in an atmosphere with people who are also expected.
You know what, if you're watching this message in your house,
next time you watch it, invite somebody over and you'll
drink some coffee together and get some expectation between the
two of you, and get a Bible, and break out
(10:26):
your Bible and stand up on your feet while I'm preaching.
Even if you're watching in your kitchen, if you got
somebody next to you, grab them right now and tell
them I'm expecting something. And what I need is somebody
who will help me with this expectation, because if I
don't get around somebody who's expecting something.
Speaker 1 (10:50):
This is so real.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
This is so real that we've got worship leaders in
this church who lead worship and don't even have a microphone.
Because when we're pulling in today, Graham, who's eleven, said
to me, we listened to hes Ki Walker on the
way to church today, so I had I had the
(11:13):
I had the car bumping on the way in the
parking lot. And then we moved over into Israel Hoten
circa two thousand and.
Speaker 1 (11:23):
Six, and and then.
Speaker 2 (11:25):
We pulled by the parking team and do you know
my son said to me when we pulled by the
parking team, he said, I love that guy.
Speaker 1 (11:34):
Now this is Graham. Graham doesn't has never even said
he loved me, but.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
He he was like, I love him. You can tell
he's excited. Graham never said I love Chris Brown.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
He never said it.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
Once ever, But that parking attendant, Graham said, he does
so much for our church.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
What could we do for him? But it was a
childlike faith.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
And I promise I'm gonna talk about John the Baptist
in a minute. But it's the craziest thing that when
somebody is also expecting, you know, it created an expectation.
Speaker 1 (12:17):
Even in the.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
Parking lot, my son felt something. What he felt though
he didn't know it was the Holy Spirit in that man,
the Holy Spirit in that man who didn't need a microphone.
Speaker 1 (12:29):
He had an orange baton, and he was expecting that
when you pull in my.
Speaker 2 (12:35):
Parking lot, you're pulling up on the holy ground. So
get ready something good. I'm expecting something. So when Elizabeth
and Mary got together.
Speaker 1 (12:55):
Mary said, Oh, I just got bumped.
Speaker 2 (12:58):
Mary said, what do you mean I just got This
is the new modern steam for the translation of Bible.
Speaker 1 (13:03):
What do you mean you just got bumped?
Speaker 2 (13:05):
She said, When you got here, the baby in your
womb made the baby in my womb leap for joy.
Now you can't see it, it's invisible.
Speaker 1 (13:19):
But something in.
Speaker 2 (13:20):
You, the Jesus in you, the Christ in you.
Speaker 1 (13:25):
I'm gonna calm down in a minute and preach.
Speaker 2 (13:28):
But somebody who's got a purpose on the inside. Sound
like you're expecting the greatest page.
Speaker 1 (13:34):
Of your life.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
Come on on, every campus, Let's take nineteen seconds and
praise a minute. There. It's all right, it's all right,
(14:07):
it's all right to be expected, it's all right, it's
all right. It's all right to love Jesus. It's all
right to be enthusiastic.
Speaker 1 (14:16):
It's all right.
Speaker 3 (14:17):
It's all right, to lift up your eyes to the
hills and know where your health comes from.
Speaker 2 (14:30):
Expectation is contagious, so is skepticism. Sit down, We gotta
modulate because a lot has happened since John the Baptist
was jumping up and down in Elizabeth's womb as a fetus.
Speaker 1 (14:53):
You know what I mean?
Speaker 2 (14:54):
Like a lot happens between when something gets birthed the
point now where he's he started his ministry. He's like,
he's been doing his job. You've been doing your job.
Just remember the Titans.
Speaker 1 (15:09):
You've been doing your job. He's been doing his job.
Speaker 2 (15:15):
And Jesus now is really really getting He's getting popular.
He's blowing up, as some would say.
Speaker 1 (15:29):
Now this is not before the blow up.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
Jesus is blowing all the way up, all the way up.
Speaker 1 (15:37):
And John, according to the text, is in prison.
Speaker 2 (15:45):
When John first saw Jesus as an adult, and whether
or not they had much contact during their teenage years
is not recorded in scripture. But one thing we know
is that when John saw Jesus at one point when
he was baptized in the Jordan River, John identified Jesus
not by the activities that he did, but he identified
(16:09):
him based on the essence of who he was, which
is really important in how we relate to God, because
if we only learn to identify God by what he
does and what he does for us, then our expectation
will be attached to his activity, and that's dangerous. It's
(16:30):
very dangerous to have. It's very dangerous to have a
low expectation of God. Then you just live the life
at the level of your disappointments and then wonder why
everything turns out exactly the way you imagined it to
turn out because you didn't have any faith for anything else.
Speaker 1 (16:43):
It's a self fulfilling prophecy.
Speaker 2 (16:45):
But it's also very dangerous to have an expectation of
God that is not congruent with his character. And this
is where it gets difficult for us. Because dancing baby
he's in the womb is one thing. But now when
John who was in prison, not in prison for a
(17:08):
meth laugh, not in prison because you know, not in
prison for a domestic disturbance, in prison for standing up
to a wicked king herod and because he wouldn't say
what was expected of him to be said, because he
was a prophet and he didn't operate like that, and
(17:28):
he was kind of rough, y'all.
Speaker 1 (17:30):
John the Baptist was. If he had a Twitter account,
it would.
Speaker 2 (17:34):
Definitely it would definitely need to be suspended. He would
definitely be deplatformed in this day. In this PC day,
John the Baptist would not have much of an audience,
but he was very popular in his time until Jesus came.
And when Jesus came, he said, look, Lamb of God
takes away his sins of the world. Don't follow me,
follow him John three thirty. He must become greater. I
must become less. Follow him, not me. Whole reason I'm
(17:56):
here his point to him. Here he is, y'all, go
with him. I'm gonna do my thing. I prepared to wagh.
I'm just a voice. I'm not the one. I'm just
a voice pointing.
Speaker 1 (18:03):
To the one. So I know my place.
Speaker 2 (18:04):
So I'm gonna fall back now so he can do
what he came to do, and what he came to
do watch this was to judge the unwickedness and to
bring the people to repentance. That was John's favorite message.
He loved that word repent He just preached.
Speaker 1 (18:22):
It all the time.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
And when they would come out to be baptized by him.
He would call him names. He one time called the
Pharisees a brute of vipers. I thought that would be
an interesting way to welcome the campuses one weekend. And
yet there was a prophetic power to his ministry that
(18:43):
people were attracted to because he would say things that
were true, whether they wanted them to be true or not.
And yet that same spirit. And I really want to
isolate this. I didn't do it last night, but I
was thinking the same thing that made him so great
got him in trouble, the same thing that made him
able to just take a stand. And I'm not moving.
(19:04):
And this is how it's gonna be. Repent, Repent, repent.
Let me show you one example. Can I show you
one example of what his message was? So he's out
baptizing at the Jordan, he baptized Jesus. He said, uh,
I'm not worthy to untie your thong of your sandaljes said,
we got to do it to fulfill all righteousness is proper,
it's appropriate. Stop thinking about how you think it needs
(19:24):
to be, and I'm telling you how it needs to be.
You're just the voice. You're the You're not the message.
You're just the voice. Again, You're not the message, You're
just the voice. One more time, You're not the message,
You're just the voice. And so he baptized Jesus in obedience,
even though it didn't make sense.
Speaker 1 (19:41):
And now watch this.
Speaker 2 (19:42):
This is something that he said that shows us what
his expectation was.
Speaker 1 (19:47):
And if you.
Speaker 2 (19:47):
Don't understand his expectation, you can't make sense of his disappointment.
This was his expectation of the Messiah. This was his
expectation of the one that he gave, gave away his
ministry to. This was his expectation of the Lamb of God,
who takes away the sin of the world and is
found in Matthew chapter three. Watch this, he's talking to
(20:11):
the crowds. I baptize you with water for repentance. But
after me comes one who is more powerful than I,
who sandals I am not worthy to carry. He'll baptize
you with the Holy Spirit and fire. Watch this verse twelve.
His winnowing fork is in hand. Ooh, that's what you
(20:35):
used to get the chaf owl, the wickedness. You winnow
it out, and you separate the sheep from the goats,
the good from the bad, the righteous from the wicked.
He's got his winnowing fork. He's here now, and it's
about to go down. It's about to get good. The
Lamb of God is here, and he's got his winnowing
fork in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor,
(20:58):
gathering his wheat into the bar and burning up the
chaff with unquenchable fire. It's about to be fired. The
Son of God is here. It's about to be fire.
He's got a fork and he's about to start a fire.
And he's burning up all y'all that don't want to
do it, and get right and get left, and you
know all this stuff he had John the Baptist had
a church sign. It would have all those things about
(21:19):
hell on it, you know, about the fire and the
wicked and the righteous and turn or burn and you know.
Speaker 1 (21:26):
And he's got his fork in one hand. Now watch this.
Speaker 2 (21:29):
He's in prison now. He's in prison now, and something
is making him doubt what he was so sure about
from the time even before he was born, what he
knew before he was even born, he's now doubting in
(21:50):
this prison. Sends messengers one hundred miles on foot just
to ask Jesus one question, and I get it, because
you know we're supposed to be partners. And here I
am in prison, and all I keep seeing is you
(22:11):
healing people, blessing people.
Speaker 1 (22:15):
All I see.
Speaker 2 (22:16):
All I keep seeing is the reports of how awesome
it's going for you. But I stood up to a
king and I'm here in prison, and here's what he's wondering.
Did you catch it? In the verse? He said, are
you the one? Or should we expect someone else? In
other words, is it always gonna be like this? In
(22:38):
other words, I thought I thought I thought you were
gonna Have you ever thought God was gonna where'd y'all go?
Y'all were fired up when we had a little praise
moment and all that. Have you ever thought God was
(22:59):
gonna you? Have you ever wondered? Because John the Baptist
is just wondering. He's just wondering. He's not denying Jesus.
Speaker 1 (23:10):
He's not. He's not.
Speaker 2 (23:11):
He's not turning away from the sovereign Lord who bought him.
Speaker 1 (23:14):
He's not.
Speaker 2 (23:15):
He's he's he's.
Speaker 1 (23:16):
Not contradicting what he said to begin with.
Speaker 2 (23:20):
He's just thinking, Now, maybe God isn't what I thought
he was. Maybe the one that I trusted in maybe
I trusted in the wrong one.
Speaker 1 (23:34):
Now you don't say it.
Speaker 2 (23:36):
Like that, because if you said it like that, you
would be scared. God would hit you with the lightning bolt.
But you just send messengers. You don't say it like
that directly, but indirectly. Somebody came in here wondering, and
you don't talk about this.
Speaker 1 (23:50):
You're you're wondering.
Speaker 2 (23:52):
You know, God made some promises and and here's the
here's the interesting thing about it. A lot of times
our entire faith journey is sabotaged because of our expectation
of salvation when it gets started. And I'm not sure
that as preachers we've been very responsible about it, because
a lot of times we will preach that salvation from
(24:15):
your sin is a one time event. In fact, it
is you will never pay the penalty of your sin.
Jesus is the lamb of God. This is what John
knu who takes.
Speaker 1 (24:27):
Away the sin of the world. But the power of.
Speaker 2 (24:30):
Sin is very different than the penalty of sin, and
the patterns of sin are very different than the penalty
of sin. So when we preach that you've been forgiven
of your sin, you are set free from the penalty
of your sin. But if the pattern of your sin
has been ingrained not only just throughout your lifetime, but
some of it is even generational, and some addictions that
(24:53):
you are fighting against, you know, the invisible.
Speaker 1 (24:56):
Prisons that you live in, the things that you do
over and over again.
Speaker 2 (25:00):
I was thinking about how some of us are in
invisible prisons today. Even as we try to appear free
to people, there is a spiritual depression on so many,
so many thousands that I will preach to this weekend,
and nobody can see it because we paint the walls
with a smile, but we live behind bars on the inside.
Speaker 1 (25:23):
It's an invisible prison.
Speaker 2 (25:25):
It's ways of thinking and reasoning and fearing. Because when
I realized John was in two different prisons at the same.
Speaker 1 (25:37):
Time, it clarified the text for me.
Speaker 2 (25:40):
One was the one that herod Antipus put him in
for saying what he didn't want to hear. But the
other one was an invisible prison. The other one is
one that I'm all too familiar with. This is the
prison of your expectations, This is the prison of your plans,
(26:06):
This is the prison of what you thought God was
going to do. You know, hey, go ask Jesus, are
you the one? Because uh, I told everybody you're the one.
(26:27):
I told everybody you had your fork, You've got to
start a fire.
Speaker 1 (26:32):
Watch what the messengers say back to John.
Speaker 2 (26:37):
They say, Jeuz, reply, go back and report to jarn
what you hear and see Look at this list. The
blind receives sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy
are cleansed the death. Here the dead are raised, and
the good news is proclaimed to the poor. Blessed is
anyone who does not stumble on account of me. Watch
what wasn't in that verse? The fork and the fire. Jesus,
(27:00):
this wasn't doing any of the things that John wanted
him to do. Read the list again. The blind received site,
the lame walk, those who have leprosy or cleanse the death.
Here the dead or rays, and the good news is
proclaimed to the fore go tell John that. And John's like,
I'm just checking, Jesus, where's the fork? Where's the fire?
(27:26):
You know, WTF? You ever had a moment? Why y'all
hate me today?
Speaker 1 (27:38):
He never had a where's the fork? Where's the fire?
Speaker 2 (27:45):
Jo?
Speaker 1 (27:47):
John is having a moment.
Speaker 2 (27:50):
John is in a WTF moment with the Lord, walk
out if you want to. But if you'll be really honest,
if you'll be really honest, there are some things in
your life you're trying to figure out. Right now, Come on,
where is it? Where is it? What in the world
(28:14):
is this? Somebody show what is this?
Speaker 1 (28:18):
What is this? Yeah? Yeah, I don't know. I just
need to know because I.
Speaker 2 (28:23):
Thought you were gonna and that is the prison that
we spend so much of our lives in what we
thought God was gonna do.
Speaker 1 (28:30):
But I got a question for you.
Speaker 2 (28:33):
What if He really is able to do immeasurably more
than you ask her. Imagine what if he wants to
do something so much better than your mic can comprehend?
Speaker 1 (28:46):
Is you be open to that?
Speaker 2 (28:53):
What if God didn't want to meet your expectations because
he wanted to exceed them? And now I'm gonna make
you sit back down because You're not gonna like this.
The way he grows my faith.
Speaker 1 (29:10):
Is usually to disappoint my expectation. John's like this, This
is what I gave up my ministry for.
Speaker 2 (29:29):
This. I gave my life to Jesus and I'm still
struggling with depression and anxiety. This because it was your
expectation of deliverance that is causing your disappointment.
Speaker 1 (29:44):
Go tell John wishes blind c the death here the
lame walk.
Speaker 2 (29:52):
Tell him, I'm touching people that nobody else would touch,
that were quarantined because of this dreadful disease called leprosy,
and they're able to go to their family because they're
cleansed and they can live their life. Tell him all that,
But you know he's not making this upright. This is
what he came to do. This is what he announced
that he came to do. In Luke chapter four, he said,
the spirit of the Lord is on me because he's
(30:13):
quote in Isaiah sixty one, because he is fulfilling the prophecy,
not fulfilling their preferences. Fulfilling the prophecy. It's very different.
He's fulfilling what he said. He was not what they
thought he was going to be. That's what God is
trying to deliver us from, you see it, from what
we thought he was going to be. He's so much
(30:33):
bigger than that. He's so much better than that. His
plan is so much bigger than that. His purpose is
so much greater than that. And John said, are you
the one? He said, go back and tell him that
the death here and the blind sea and the lepers
are touched, and the eyes of the blind are open,
and the ears of the death. This is all from
Luke chapter four. Look it up when he unrolled the scroll,
(30:54):
when he stood up to read in his hometown, and
he said.
Speaker 1 (30:56):
To this day, is this prophecy fulfilled? In your hearing?
I came.
Speaker 2 (31:00):
The spirit of the Lord is upon me, for he
has annoyed me to preach the good news to the poor,
recovery of sight to the blind. He sent me to
open death fears. He sent me to do all this.
But one thing he left out when he sent the
message to John. And this is crazy, Zach, because I
know how much you left the Bible, so it's gonna
blow your mind.
Speaker 1 (31:14):
The only thing that he left out.
Speaker 2 (31:16):
He added some stuff to it, but he left one
thing out, Freedom for the prisoners.
Speaker 1 (31:23):
Look it up right now, reference me. It's in Luke.
For I can wait.
Speaker 2 (31:35):
I know I'm right about this, unless you got some
weird bible that you made for yourself, Luke. For it's
like eighteen nineteen something like that.
Speaker 1 (31:45):
What's his say? Eighteen nineteen? What was say?
Speaker 2 (31:51):
Spear Lord's this is Rick Parker, the one that you'll
always hear on the podcast, the one you hey, Rick,
you know you're famous on the podcast. He's the one
always talking back to me, the country guy. He's always
talking back to him. People ask me all the time,
who's that country guy that's always talking back to you.
Speaker 1 (32:09):
That's Rick Parker. What does it saying?
Speaker 2 (32:11):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, Gospel to the poor, healed the broken heart.
Speaker 1 (32:20):
Liberty to the captives. Where's that? He said?
Speaker 2 (32:23):
Tell John, I'm doing it all. Tell John that everything
I said I would do, I'm doing it.
Speaker 1 (32:34):
But what I said I would do is not what
he was expecting.
Speaker 2 (32:40):
And tell John that I need his faith not to
rest in his idea of who he thought I was.
Speaker 1 (32:48):
I'm gonna preach this home right now.
Speaker 2 (32:50):
I need his faith not to rest in whether or
not I fulfill his agenda. Look, so many of the
things that Jesus did in the scripture, it was a
hidden agenda. In fact, he even spoke in parables, not
so the people would get a cute little story about
a father and a son and he ran away and
he ate with the pigs, and the father welcomed him home.
That isn't why he taught in parables. He taught in
(33:11):
parables because he didn't want his wisdom to be ascertained
with the human mind. He taught in parables so that
the spirit of God could reveal to the unlearned not
the wisdom of this world, but the things of God.
So much of what he does is hidden, and yet
we spend all of our time in our minds trying
(33:31):
to figure out whether God is good, trying to figure
out whether life makes sense.
Speaker 1 (33:36):
It's a prison.
Speaker 2 (33:38):
You'll never figure it out that way. You can't get
out that way. You can't solve your problems on the
level of self. It's gonna take a great, big God
with an eternal plan.
Speaker 1 (33:49):
It's gonna take a really good God. It's going to
take a majestic God.
Speaker 2 (33:58):
And I'm gonna have to decide whether or not I'm
going to interpret him through the lens of my expectations
or set my expectations on the basis of.
Speaker 1 (34:12):
Who he is. Now, here's what I know.
Speaker 2 (34:15):
I am preaching to so many different types of people today.
For some of you, you can hardly breathe right now
because I'm speaking so specifically to you. Because the Lord
is trying to get this message to you. For others
of you, you're in a much more dangerous place. You're
not even listening.
Speaker 1 (34:36):
You know what.
Speaker 2 (34:38):
God uses to develop your faith, disappointment. You know what
the devil uses to destroy your faith, disappointment. And I
think it's what you do with it. Because's going to happen.
It's going to happen in relationships, it's going to happen
(34:59):
in it's going to happen in churches to where what
you thought it was gonna be and what it really is.
You know, I don't even like the way this Bible
story goes because what I want to happen next in
the story is that the Angel of the Lord comes
(35:20):
breaks John out of prison, and John goes on to
preach the gospel and he has more success and double
for his trouble like job like never before. In the
Lord restores the years the kanker worm is wasting. We
can have good church and all get a serotonin hit,
go home, be happy, and watch a NASCAR race. But
what I'm thinking is I need to tell you that
(35:41):
the way you expect this story to end, since we're
talking about expectations, is not necessarily the way that it does.
Because John John doesn't get out of prison in Matthew
chapter eleven. In fact, in Matthew fourteen, his head is
served up on a platter because the King decides to
(36:03):
cut it off him. And yet there's something that's even
more beautiful in the text than John getting what he wants.
Speaker 1 (36:13):
There's something much more profound.
Speaker 2 (36:18):
Then John gets what he wants, and what it is
is in verse seven and following. Now, this transitional phrase
is really important. By the way, who am I preaching
to today? That there's been some things that weren't what
you thought they were going to be, and it's affecting
(36:39):
your faith now. And even in a sense, God is
not who you thought he was going to be, and
you're experiencing him in a different way.
Speaker 1 (36:48):
Than you have a template for and it's challenging to you.
Speaker 2 (36:53):
So what happens next is the part of the message
that I really want you to take to heart. Because
John's disciples were leaving, what does that mean? Whatever Jesus
says next, John doesn't hear it. He turns to the
crowd and begins to speak about John. This is significant
(37:18):
because what he says next is what he wants the
crowd to know about John. What he said before was
what he wanted John to know about him. And it's
a critical distinction because God never wants your faith to
rest on you. He knows how fragile and fickle you are.
(37:39):
He said, Go tell John that there is a purpose
that is greater. There is a plan that is bigger.
Say that there is a purpose that is greater. There
is a plan that is bigger. I'm looking for one
hundred percent participation on every location. There is a purpose
that is greater. There is a plan that is bigger.
(38:01):
Look at the person next you, say there is a
purpose that is greater. There is a plan that is bigger.
Other neighbor, There is a purpose that is greater. There
is a plan that is bigger. Tell him zoom out,
zoom out, zoom out, zoom out, zoom out, zoom out,
zoom out. Because you've been seeing this one little thing,
and when you're in the prison of your mind, it's
(38:22):
an awfully small place sitting it. It's really hard to
see the light of day in solitary confinement. But go
tell John, we're right on schedule. Go tell John, I'm
using his preparation. Go tell John it wasn't in vain
I heard the Lord say, Ferdick, Go tell John. Go
tell the people. Go tell the discourage, Go tell the beaten,
Go tell the broken, Go tell the depressed, Go tell
(38:45):
the sick, Go tell the broke, Go tell the herding,
Go tell the young, Go tell the old.
Speaker 1 (38:50):
Go tell him this working, Go tell him.
Speaker 2 (38:52):
I'm doing it, just not like you wanted me to,
But I'm doing it. He turns around and says to
the crowd, what did you go out into the wilderness
to see.
Speaker 1 (39:12):
A red swayed by the wind? No?
Speaker 2 (39:15):
John wasn't fickle. John wasn't fragile. When John made up
his mind about something, that's just the way it was.
And that's what's getting him in trouble, because he made
up his mind about what he thought God was gonna do,
and when God did what God wanted to do.
Speaker 1 (39:38):
Is that you right now? Are you in an invisible prison?
I know here.
Speaker 2 (39:43):
It isn't gonna cut your head off. It's not that dramatic,
right But you can't enjoy people, can you? Is that
you right now? You can't create? Is that you right now?
Is that me who am'm preaching to? Maybe I'm preaching
to me. It's not that God didn't do anything for me.
It's not that God didn't bless me. It's just different
(40:08):
than what I thought. And as long as I'm in
the prison of what I thought, I can't be a
part of what God is doing. So be set free today.
Be set free by the fact that God may not
(40:30):
be conforming to your agenda or keeping all of your appointments.
God might not be organizing everything to match your exact preference.
But there is a greater purpose, and there is a
bigger picture. And just like John was the forerunner of.
Speaker 1 (40:47):
Jesus Christ, some of you.
Speaker 2 (40:50):
God is using you to fight battles for your children
and your children's children, and your children's children's children will.
Speaker 1 (40:59):
Be blessed if you don't fall away.
Speaker 2 (41:03):
If you don't fall away, if you will resist the
urge to control God, you can serve Him and worship
Him and it'll be all right. Because my faith is
not the expectation that circumstances will be pleasant. My faith
is the expectation that the voice of the Lord is
(41:24):
upon the waters. Go tell John, blessed is he who
does not trip over the way he thought it was
going to be? Blessed is he who accepts what I'm
(41:47):
doing in his or her life. And the Lord wants
to set you free today from the way you thought
that it.
Speaker 1 (41:59):
Was going to be. And that's it, and that's it
because you know what's going to happen.
Speaker 2 (42:10):
Once you get set free from the way you thought
it was going to be, you can embrace what it is. Yeah,
and you know what God's gonna do more than what
you thought he was gonna do. The blind see the
lame walk. God's got something better than a fork. God's
got something better.
Speaker 1 (42:30):
Than a fire.
Speaker 2 (42:32):
The first place of deliverance is in the area of
your expectation, Holy Spirit. I thank you for this moment,
and I pray that this message would not fall on
deaf ears, because truth be told, Lord, there is a
prison that is not physical. There are captives in here today.
(42:56):
Those chains are invisible. And I want to pray for
right now, Lord, that you would look into the places
of their life where they've been disappointed and where they've
been bruised or even worse than that, where they got
their hopes up so high and they made a fool
of themselves, and so now it's kind of hard for them.
Speaker 1 (43:18):
To really have an expectation of your goodness.
Speaker 2 (43:23):
They're in an invisible prison of disappointment, resentment, bitterness.
Speaker 1 (43:30):
But you said you came to set us free.
Speaker 2 (43:35):
So you didn't do it physically for John, But would
you set us free, set us free from ourselves, set
us free from our regrets, set us free from our sin.
Speaker 1 (43:51):
With everyone's thending.
Speaker 2 (43:55):
Where the spirit of the Lord is, there's freedom.
Speaker 1 (44:01):
And the kind of freedom that I mean.
Speaker 2 (44:04):
Is the freedom from the need to control your life,
the freedom from the need to call the shots and
to always know the plan. John said, are you the
one I just need to know? And I hear the
Lord saying today, Yeah, it's me.
Speaker 1 (44:26):
It's me.
Speaker 2 (44:29):
It's me getting you through this season. It's me that
allowed some of the things in your life that you
don't like. I didn't cause all of them, but I'm
using all of them.
Speaker 1 (44:38):
It's me. Go tell John, it's me. It's me. It's me.
Speaker 2 (44:46):
That thing that won't let you go, that's grace. God said,
that's me. I think that keeps pumping in your heart
getting you back up. You fall down, seven, you get
up eight. God said, that's me. That thing in you
that it can't always make sense. You know, you should
read the Bible, sometimes you don't. God said, that's me.
(45:07):
I want you to wrestle with it.
Speaker 1 (45:08):
That's me. I don't want you to put me in
a formula. That's me.
Speaker 2 (45:11):
I don't want you to have me in a box.
I don't want you to be in this prison of
your small view of me.
Speaker 1 (45:16):
That's me.
Speaker 2 (45:19):
Oh God, of every moment that come before you now,
in need of your mercy, in need of your grace,
we need to know that you are our shepherd, even
if we go through a valley of the shadow of death.
And now thank you now, Lord, that as this word
(45:41):
has gone forth today across multiple campuses, across multiple continents,
that you are confirming your presence to your people right now,
if you would just lift your hands, God said, it's me.
It's me that you need to make sense of your life.
Speaker 1 (46:00):
It's me.
Speaker 2 (46:02):
Lord, I thank you that there is a bigger picture.
We do not see in full. We see in part,
we prophesy, in part, we speak in part. But when
that which was perfect has come, that which is incomplete
will be taken away. Until that time, Lord, we trust
in your presence, We trust in who you are. You're
still the lamb of God that takes away the sin
(46:24):
of the world. You're still the king of our life.
You're still the hope and foundation that our lives are
built on. You're still the solid rock on which we stand.
All of the ground is sinking sand. It's you, God.
It's you that we worship, and it's you that we trust.
It's not ourselves, it's not our circumstances.
Speaker 1 (46:42):
It's you. Somebody say, it's you. It's you that I need. Lord.
Speaker 2 (46:46):
It's you that fulfills me. It's you that completes me.
It's you that makes ways. It's you that opens doors.
It's you that sets the prisoners free. It's you that
broke the chains. It's you that I'm looking to. Promotion
doesn't come from the Easter. Promotion comes from you. It's
you I'm counting on. It's you I'm looking to. It's
you I'm leaning on. It's your everlasting arms. It's your
(47:09):
mighty hand, it's your outstretch power.
Speaker 1 (47:12):
It's your grace that we need.
Speaker 2 (47:14):
It's you, Lord, It's nobody else. It's you.
Speaker 1 (47:18):
Our health comes from you. Our strength is in you,
our trust.
Speaker 2 (47:22):
Is in your name, and we worship you now.
Speaker 1 (47:27):
Thank you for joining us.
Speaker 2 (47:28):
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 (47:45):
You can share it with your friends.
Speaker 2 (47:47):
You can click the share button, take a screenshot and
share it on your social stories and tag us at
Elevation Church.
Speaker 1 (47:52):
Thanks again for listening. God bless you.
Host
Steven Furtick
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