July 27, 2025 • 63 mins
We live in a world that values things more than thoughts, so when God speaks to us, we don’t always value it like we should. In this message, learn some of the ways God speaks, when to ask for it, and how to recognize it when He does.
If you’ve just made a decision for Christ, please respond HERE: ele.vc/tIepfr
Scripture References:
Psalm 139, verses 7-17
Jonah 1, verses 1-6, 12-17
Jonah 2, verse 1
Mark 4, verses 35-40
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
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.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
I wanted to thank you for joining us today. 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'm working on a sermon series and I'm going to
pick up this week with the momentum that we had
last week.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
Now, last week was so good that if.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
The person you're sitting next to wasn't here, tell them
I'm sorry, were you here last week? The title of
the series listen to this. That's what I thought. That's
the title of the series. And however, you say that
(00:48):
with whatever attitude you say it with. You might say
it like one of your kids was talking back to
you and you give them a look and then they
shut up, and then you say, that's what I thought.
Maybe like that, or maybe you're just confirming some things
in your life right now, just checking you know, Oh
that's what I thought. I just wanted to be sure.
(01:09):
But really the heart of what I want to teach about,
as you'll see today, is tracking back the actions in
our life to the thoughts that produce them, and then
bringing God into those thought processes, so that rather than
just always giving God our problems, we bring Him into
our thoughts. Clap your hands if you'd like to have
(01:34):
less problems to give God. And this series doesn't say
that we can always avoid the problems of life. But
I want to show you something today that I think
is really really easy to understand, but so difficult to apply.
I'm going to be reading from Psalm one thirty nine,
verses seven through seventeen. This will be the foundation, and
(01:56):
then I'll share a story from the Old Testament to
illustrate this.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
Thought today that God gave me.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
Every sermon starts as a thought, and so I want
to talk to you about thoughts from a thought that
God gave me, which is, by the way, why I
keep stacks of notebook paper all around my house in
case God gives me a thought.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
I need to be ready to catch it, just in
case I can give it to you.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
And this is so powerful. If you look at psalmone
thirty nine, David is speaking about the wonder of God.
I was going to read only verse seventeen to set
up my thought, but I feel like it'll be so
much more effective if I start at verse seven. So
listen to this. The Psalma says, everyone's standing please for the.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
Word of God. If you're physically able, thank you.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
Where shall I go from your spirit? Or where shall
I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven,
you're there. If I make my bed in shield, or
some translations say hell. If I make my bed in hell,
you are there. If I take the wings of the
(03:08):
morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
even there, your hands shall leave me, and your right
hand shall hold me. If I say surely, the darkness
shall cover me, and the light about me be night.
Even the darkness is not dark to you, the night
as bright as the day. For darkness is as light
(03:30):
with you. For you formed my inward parts. I heard
we had some mary Kay people here today, and we
celebrate you here. Mary Kay is good for the outward parts,
but I got something for the inward parts today. You
(03:55):
formed my inward parts. You knitted me together in my
mother's womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and
wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works. My soul knows it
very well. My frame was not hidden from you. When
I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the
depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed substance.
(04:16):
In your book were written every one of them, the
days that were formed for me, when as yet there
were none of them, Verse seventeen, as our key today,
How precious to me are your thoughts?
Speaker 1 (04:31):
Oh God? How vast is the sum of them?
Speaker 2 (04:36):
Let's read that together, repeat after me, How precious to
me are your thoughts?
Speaker 1 (04:43):
Oh God?
Speaker 2 (04:44):
How vast is the sum of them? Today I want
to talk to you on this subject. When God gives
a thought to you, When God gives a thought to you,
could that be possible the Holy One of Heaven would
condescend and give a thought to little old me, little
(05:08):
old you. We're going to talk about that today. When
God gives a thought to you, this I recall to
my mind. Therefore I have hope. It is because of
your mercies that we are not consumed, Because your compassions
feel not they are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness,
Faithful God, I thank you that your word has spoken
through generations to.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
Land at our doorstep. Today.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
We receive it, we want it, we need it. It
is our necessary bread. It is our living water. Come
now like a flood, Come now like a fountain. Quench
every soul, give a thought to us in Jesus' name. Amen,
please be seated. Put the title in the comments, please,
if you're watching online, when God gives a thought to you? Lately,
(05:55):
I've been saying things in rooms full of people that
are younger than me, and they don't know what I'm
talking about, and it's making me feel awkward and uncomfortable.
Speaker 1 (06:06):
Why.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
Just the other day, I walked into a songwriting session
with some of our very own in house songwriters and
I said, last night I took Holly to a concert.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
We went to see Counting Crows.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
They all just looked at me, and I realized something
very sad in that moment. They had not heard of
the Counting Crows. How do you not hear of the
Counting Crows? How many of you have not heard of
the Counting Crows? See now, I just feel ostracized, abandon betrayed,
(06:39):
never heard of the Counting Crows.
Speaker 1 (06:41):
I had to tell them about mister Jones.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
And round here, and they didn't want to know about
Counting Crows. So we just wrote a song The other day,
I was riding in the car with Abbey. Now she's fourteen, right,
so she was kind of quiet, kind of doing that
fourteen year old thing that fourteen year old girls can
sometimes do, or unless she's talking sixty miles a minute,
(07:07):
she's totally quiet. And she was totally quiet, and I
looked over at her and said something I thought she
would understand. I said, a penny for your thoughts. Well,
she looked at me just as confused as the counting
crows just walked in the room. She said a what
I said, A penny for your thoughts? She said, what's that?
(07:30):
I said, it's a colloquialism. It's an idiom.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
I think it has its roots somewhere in British origins.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
But it's just a way of saying, tell me what
you're thinking. Like you're kind of quiet, I can tell
you're thinking about something. The wheel seemed to be turning,
A penny for your thoughts, and she goes, that's weird.
She's quiet for about ten more seconds, and then she goes,
A penny.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
That's all.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
I thought, Yeah, you're right, that's kind of cheap, isn't it?
A penny for your thoughts? She's like you at least
got to adjust this for inflation. If I'm gonna give
you a whole thought or plural thoughts, multiple thoughts, it
needs to be multiple pennies at least a dime for
your thoughts. Probably needs to be about five dollars for
(08:21):
your thoughts. But just to set it up as an
illustration and not to be silly. And I knew God
wanted me to use this illustration because I thought of
it last minute and there was a penny sitting by
my door today. So I want to hold it up
and talk about how sometimes we think too cheap, and
(08:44):
sometimes we undervalue our thoughts because we live in a
world that values things more than thoughts, things more than thoughts.
So if you have a nice pair of sneakers, you
would not dare wear them to a dirty Love Week event.
(09:07):
You would never wear your clean sneakers through a dirty atmosphere.
But let's talk about where your mind goes on a
daily basis. And the fact of the matter is some
of the places that we take our minds our place
is that we would never take our shoes because we
(09:28):
value things over thoughts. I did have a small victory
the other day usually I'm a catastrophizer.
Speaker 1 (09:36):
I think of the worst scenarios.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
And this is why I wanted to preach a series
called That's What I Thought, because God has helped me
so much to begin to label and identify the ways
of thinking that don't come from Him.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
And I'm still a work in progress.
Speaker 2 (09:49):
But I try to share with you every time that
I get it wrong, so that I can occasionally share
with you when I get it right. I lead mostly
by failing forward. But the other I was proud. I
had ordered a new guitar online. I went to the
post office to pick it up. It didn't quite fit
in the back seat. I put it in my jeep
with the roof down cheap way.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
And I.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
Was talking to Abby because she was in the front
seat and she had bow on her lap, and Bo
was kind of hanging out the window because he enjoys that.
And I had this vision right as we were pulling
down the driveway of Bo tumbling out the window and
I didn't want him to. So I've come a long
way since we first got the dog. I didn't want
him to. I said, have you got him securely? She said,
(10:34):
I got him, but just something about the fact of
me thinking about him falling out the window and then
pulling in the garage with the guitar still sticking out
the top of the jeep, and hearing the crunch of
a very expensive guitar, very expensive guitar.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
And hearing the crunch and not cussing. It's a victory.
I did't cuss. I didn't cuss. Tell your neighbor. I
didn't cuss.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
Now, I didn't speak in tongues. I didn't praise the Lord.
I just didn't cuss because I had a thought. And
here was the thought. It wasn't the dog. It was
just a guitar. I can get another one of those.
It's just a thing. Tell your neighbor, because they might
(11:31):
be stressed out whatever they're stressed about. Tell them it's
just a thing. It's just a thing. When it's just
a thing, it's just a thing. If it's a Boston Terrior,
it's a Boston Terrier. And if my Boston Terrior falls
out of the window of my jeep on my watch,
I might be divorced. Now. She loves me more than
she loves the dog. She would never do that to me.
But there was something about the contrast. It wasn't bo,
(11:54):
It wasn't Abby. I can't get another Abby. Abby didn't
go decapitated through the garage. And the Lord is a
rewarder of those who diligently seek him.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
Because there was bubble wrap at the top of the
box and the guitar was fine, Thank you Jesus.
Speaker 2 (12:10):
And then I did start praising God after I opened
the box and didn't cuss, and.
Speaker 1 (12:15):
We were all fine.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
But there have been so many times in my life,
no matter how much of your time I waste telling
you what seems to be random stories about guitars and
dogs falling out of windows hypothetically, or even telling you
about old sayings and old rock stars as I start
my sermon, there are times where we do not value
God's thoughts enough. David in psalmone thirty nine gives a
(12:44):
different perspective, and he helps us to understand two things.
Speaker 1 (12:47):
One the value of a God thought.
Speaker 2 (12:51):
I want to talk to you about that for a
few moments today, and you may want to write some
of this down.
Speaker 1 (12:55):
Buddy.
Speaker 2 (12:57):
God might give you a thought today and you won't remember.
You'll be thinking about your order at the pizza hut.
Speaker 1 (13:04):
Write it down.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
The value of a God thought, But I also want
to talk to you about what Abby said. She said
just a penny, that's all. I want to talk to
you about the cost of a wrong thought. So he
begins by saying, I can't escape your presence God, even
if I try.
Speaker 1 (13:23):
I can take wings or scuba gear. Either way I go.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
You're there, And after framing us in with that kind
of poetic language, which is very different than what we
read last week in Psalm seventy seven, which was a
psalm of lament where he thought God had abandoned him,
this song is the complete opposite. He saying, I can't
abandon God. He keeps showing up. And how many have
that testimony in your life? That God keeps showing up? Oh,
(13:48):
come on, in ways that you didn't even ask him to.
Sometimes God shows up and spoils your whole party. And
in this song, particularly verse seventeen, listen what he says,
How precious to me are your thoughts? Oh God, how
vast are some of them? So he gives us two distinctions. One,
(14:10):
God's thoughts are valuable. A God thought is valuable. That's
why I keep paper all around my house, because a
God thought is valuable.
Speaker 1 (14:21):
Y'all.
Speaker 2 (14:21):
What I do with my life from my calling is
preach God's word to you. So I can go from
thinking I have nothing to say and I don't feel
the Holy Spirit, And how am I going to preach
Sunday to like?
Speaker 1 (14:33):
Can we gather them together even though it's already Friday.
Speaker 2 (14:35):
I've got to tell them right now this thing is
on fire and I don't have a back burner.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
Can they come over right now? There are times where
I wish I.
Speaker 2 (14:41):
Could bat signal you or Bible signal you and call
all of us together to fight the devil, because the
Word comes through a thought and it can happen that quickly. Therefore,
I've learned that the thoughts of God are valuable. How
valuable is a God thought to you? Is it something
that if a Bible verse comes into your feed you
might read it, or is it something that you seek
(15:03):
out in your life? Because if the God thoughts are
just right there in your scrolling beside all of the
other thoughts, they're not very set apart. And if the
only way I ever hear from God is if I
trip over something that He says on my way to
going somewhere else, I'm missing out on some very valuable
God thoughts. God can give you one thought that will
(15:26):
help you parent that special needs child differently. God can
give you that one thought that can help you parent
that child that isn't diagnosed with special needs differently, because
we all have special needs, and God knows what that
child needs more than he knows what you want that
child to be. And one God thought can show you
(15:48):
something about your child. One God thought can show you
somebody to reach out to who's already been through what
you're going through.
Speaker 1 (15:54):
And they know stuff that they can download on.
Speaker 2 (15:56):
Bluetooth in two minutes that would have taken you two years.
Speaker 1 (16:01):
One God thought, I'm telling you the power of what
I know.
Speaker 2 (16:05):
God can flip something on you so fast that you
will wonder why didn't I think of that sooner? It's
a God thought. I did not come to church today
to have a PEP rally. I did not come to
church today to have a PEP talk. I did not
come to church today for a social occasion. I did
not come to church today like it's a country club.
I did not come to church today for a concert.
(16:27):
I did not come to church today for a handclap.
I did not come to church today to show off.
I did not come to church today in hopes that
I might get a date. Although, Lord, if you want
to do that too, you can throw it in. I
won't turn anything away for free.
Speaker 1 (16:39):
Lord. You may pray if you're single.
Speaker 2 (16:40):
But what I came here for more than a person
that I might meet, is a God that will meet
with me and in one meeting, one moment, one second,
one thought. I'm telling you you can think a thought,
which is what happened to the Sons of Asaff last
week when he said I thought that it was through
and then I thought it through because a God thought
(17:03):
is valuable. Not only is it valuable, LJ, but it's vast.
He says, how precious are your thoughts to me? Oh God,
and then put the verse up again, how vast is
to some of them? That means God doesn't just think
things about church things. God doesn't just have thoughts to
(17:24):
offer you about your spiritual life. His thoughts are vast.
God is very well connected. God is very integrated. God
is very well versed. God is very multifaceted. God is
very multi lingual. He can help you in areas you
haven't even thought to pray to him about. He can
help you with parts of you that the therapist can
(17:46):
dig at for five years. I'm saying, get the therapist,
but take God to the couch with you, because God
can whisper something that the therapist said in a way
that only he could say it, because He knows the
inward hearts, so it's vast. He can speak to me
about a situation. He can speak to me about a change.
He can speak to me about a physical decision. I
(18:09):
do not believe that God has to help you pick
out every outfit.
Speaker 1 (18:11):
When you get dressed in the morning.
Speaker 2 (18:13):
I think people who pray about which kind of toothpaste
to use are kind of weird personally. But I want
to say that God's thoughts are vast, They are valuable,
and they are vast. How much do you value the
God thought when he gives you a word?
Speaker 1 (18:28):
Will you sit with it for a minute?
Speaker 2 (18:30):
Will you seek out a word for him rather than
waiting for him to bring you one. Will you have
a place that you go to get a word from God?
Or are you going to think the thoughts that are
automatic and miss the promises that are attached to the
thoughts of God which the Psalmist has already said, are precious.
(18:54):
To illustrate this for you today, about the value of
a god thought and the cost.
Speaker 1 (19:03):
The cost of a wrong thought.
Speaker 2 (19:06):
I want to use a person in the Bible that
I bet you've heard of before. His name is Jonah,
the most unfairly villainized person in the Bible. The Lord
told the boy to go preach to terrorists, and he
didn't want to do that, and we preach to him, like,
(19:29):
what's wrong with you?
Speaker 1 (19:30):
Jonah? Obey God? If God says go, you got to
go Jonah, Go Jonah, Go Jonah. Be obedient, Go Jonah.
Speaker 2 (19:39):
And this is actually in the Bible, I think one
of the easiest to read stories and the hardest to
understand as it pertains to us, because in this story
is prejudice. In this story is revenge. In this story,
is self pity. In this story is assumption. In this
story is resentment. In this story is regret. All of
(20:03):
that is in the story. But there's one thing I
want to show you today in this book of the
Bible that you could probably read in eight minutes when
you went home. In Jonah, Chapter one, the Bible gives
us a frame and please try to pretend like, you
don't know that. Jonah gets swallowed by a fish and
spit out and preaches to Nineveh and they have a revival.
(20:23):
But even after they have a revival, he's not happy
because he didn't want God to forgive him, and he
secretly knew that God was merciful, and he didn't want
God to have mercy on them. He only wanted God's
mercy for him. Pretend like you don't know any of that,
and look with me for a moment at Jonah chapter one.
It's coming up on the screen, and this first phrase
(20:44):
is really important. Now, the word of the Lord came
to Jonah. Stop Now, the word of the Lord came
to Jonah? What did that look like? What did that
sound like? Was it a dream that he had? Because
God is about to give him an assignment. God's about
(21:05):
to give him a thought. God is about to plant
something in Jonah's mind that is relative to his purpose,
and not only his purpose, but it was beyond Jonah's scope. Now,
the word of the Lord came to Jonah. Was it
a vision that he saw while he was awake? Was
it an audible voice?
Speaker 1 (21:26):
We don't know. And one thing that I'm glad that
we have that Jonah didn't have. Is this because I
got good news for you? If you feel like.
Speaker 2 (21:39):
God isn't speaking to you right now, and you're like,
I don't have any God thoughts. I just have all
the worried thoughts and the fear thoughts and how am
I going to pay for this thoughts? And you know,
I wish they would just leave me alone thoughts and
when is this ever going to change?
Speaker 1 (21:52):
Thoughts?
Speaker 2 (21:53):
I don't have any God thoughts. The Bible says the
word of the Lord came to Jonah. But because we
have God's word, you don't have to wait for the
word of the Lord to come to you.
Speaker 1 (22:06):
You can come to the word of the Lord. Isn't
that powerful? I'll try it again.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
If you are in a situation where you don't know
what to do, you don't know where to go, you
don't know where to turn, you don't know how it's
gonna work out, you can't really get your mind around it,
and the enemy is tormenting you. You don't have to
wait for the word of the Lord to come to you.
Speaker 1 (22:30):
You can come to the word of the Lord. And
everybody in church.
Speaker 2 (22:35):
This morning clap because that's what you did when you came,
come on, clap. You got to celebrate sometimes, right. I
didn't cuss, And I came to church because I'm not
gonna wait for the word of the Lord to come
to me.
Speaker 1 (22:50):
I'm not gonna wait for a goosebump. I came to.
Speaker 2 (22:53):
Church today because I value the thoughts of God.
Speaker 1 (22:57):
I value what God thinks about my real relationships.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
I value what God thinks about my possessions. I value
what God thinks about my identity. I value what God
thinks about my career. I value what God thinks about
my emotions. I value the thoughts of God. And the
Word of the Lord came to Jonah. And we may
wonder sometimes, how.
Speaker 1 (23:21):
Does God speak to me? Does God speak to me?
Is this God speaking to me?
Speaker 2 (23:27):
And I have discovered three very specific and repeatable ways
that God seems to speak. I'll give them to you
right now. Number one, he speaks through impressions impressions. Number two,
he speaks through instructions instructions, and number three he speaks
(23:51):
through interruptions.
Speaker 1 (23:55):
The Word of the Lord came to Jonah. The Word
of the Lord.
Speaker 2 (23:59):
The Word of the Lord isn't always a preacher preaching
the word of the Lord isn't always at your devotional time.
Sometimes the Holy Spirit, if he lives in you, will
show you something that you shouldn't say, show you something
that you should say, show you a way you should
see the situation that you hadn't been seeing the situation.
It's an impression. Can't explain it, but it's an impression.
(24:24):
But then sometimes we get so heavy on that and
that I think we just run around just following whatever
impression we get. And the problem with my impressions is
that sometimes my impressions are imposters and they pretend to
be God, but they're really just what I want dressed
up as God. That's what we're going to talk about
(24:45):
from Jonah, because God gives impressions, but he also gives instructions.
And one thing I love about God is he will
never give you an impression that violates his clear instruction.
So I don't care how attracted to her you are,
if she is married, you have received an instruction on
(25:08):
that situation. And I don't care that her name is
Cindy and so was your grandmother's. That is irrelevant to
this situation. There is an instruction.
Speaker 1 (25:19):
You know.
Speaker 2 (25:20):
Sometimes I think we're waiting on God to give us
a feeling or a thought because we don't want to
obey what we clearly saw that he said. And I'm
gonna stand here and preach this like I've been a
pastor for twenty years. Y'all ain't going to timidate me today,
reading all up in the Book of Revelation, trying to
figure out which one is North Korea and which one
(25:41):
is Israel and which one is Iraq, and you're all
over there translating that, while meanwhile the Bible says in
First Corinthians something that you don't really want to read
in First Corinthians, chapter six, this's pretty clear. This is
an instruction flee from sexual immorality.
Speaker 1 (25:57):
So we can read all the revelation we want, read.
Speaker 2 (26:00):
It, Underline it, highlight it, circle it, star it, smell it,
sniff it, take it, eat it, whatever you want to do.
Speaker 1 (26:08):
But you still gotta do this because this is an instruction.
Speaker 2 (26:11):
And he is God, and he is not my buddy, He's.
Speaker 1 (26:15):
Not an influencer.
Speaker 2 (26:17):
He is alpha and Omega, God don't want me to preach.
I need to go back on break bust. Somebody high
five your neighbors, say, because he said so.
Speaker 1 (26:32):
Because he said so. Because he said so, his definition,
his description.
Speaker 2 (26:43):
Fleet So I need a word from the Lord. There's one.
Do that all week and check in with me. Take
seven days of that. Well, I don't really struggle with
the So what you got for me?
Speaker 1 (26:56):
All right?
Speaker 2 (26:59):
No? I looked up some scriptures because we said we
want a god thought. All right, there's another one in
Ephesians for thirty two. This one says, be kind to
one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ
(27:23):
forgave you.
Speaker 1 (27:26):
Bo don't feel like forgiven. But this is not about
an impression.
Speaker 2 (27:31):
This is about an instruction, because you have a father
who knows that you can never be free until you forgive.
So if he tells me to flee, I've got to go.
If he tells me to forgive, I've got to love.
It's an instruction. Those are just some of the things
(27:51):
that God will use to speak to you. But then
there is like Jonah, where God will give you an interruption,
an interruption to the way that you think and to
the way that you see the world, and interruption to
what you think is important, an interruption to the path
that you laid out for your own life, and so
Jonah is a prophet, and the Bible says that the
word of the Lord came to Jonah. And I got
to say this one more time in case you didn't
(28:12):
get it. The word of the Lord can come to you.
Do you come to the word of the Lord. I
will ask you that every week, do you come to
the word of the Lord, so that the word of
the Lord can come to you, because there he will
give you instructions that will then mold your impressions so
that they are in His image, not yours.
Speaker 1 (28:34):
Praise the Lord.
Speaker 2 (28:37):
Now, the word of the Lord came to Jonah, son
of AMATAI saying, here's the details of the conversation. Arise,
go to nineve that great city, and call out against it.
Nobody wants to preach against it. Nobody wants to go
to a place that is against them. Ninevah was the
capital city of Assyria. They were brutal. They wouldn't just
(28:59):
kill you, they would impel you to send a message.
That's what I thought, Come try us again. They were brutal, barbaric,
and unrepentant, and they had personally oppressed the people that
Jonah was identified with. So when the Lord said go
to Nineveh and preach against it, for their evil has
come up before me, the Bible says, But Jonah rose
(29:22):
to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord.
We know because we just read someone thirty nine that
what he is trying to do is impossible. He went
to flee from the presence of the Lord. And we
know because we have someone thirty nine that if you
(29:42):
ascend to the heavens, he's there, and if you descend
to Hell, he's there. And you can't flee from Jonah,
but he from God. But Jonah thought he could, and
so he arose. And uh, I won't break this all
down for you. But Ninevah was five hundred miles from
the port where he was supposed to go, and Tarsish,
(30:05):
where he tried to go, was twenty five hundred miles,
So it was going to take him five times longer
to get where he had decided to go than where
God told him to go. But he kind of thought
he could get around it. He thought, that's what I thought. Now,
let's talk.
Speaker 1 (30:27):
There are some ways that you have tried to run
from some things in your life, and you thought, well,
if I just moved to a different city.
Speaker 2 (30:36):
And it's not always bad to move to a different
city long as you realize you go with you get
at least a two bedroom apartment, because there's at least
two of you's.
Speaker 1 (30:52):
He tried to go to Tarshish. He thought he would
run from the Lord.
Speaker 2 (30:58):
And every word of this is so instructive, but just
for the sake of time, focus in with me. On
verses three through five, he went down to Joppa. Pastor
Mickey used to say, when you run from God, you
always go down.
Speaker 1 (31:14):
I like that.
Speaker 2 (31:16):
He went down to Joppa and found a ship going
to Tarsish. Pastor Mickey used to always say, if you
ever want to run from God, the devil will always
give your ride.
Speaker 1 (31:27):
Anyway.
Speaker 2 (31:28):
That's just old preacher stuff that I used to hear.
So he paid the fare and went on board. I'm
holding up my penny'll He paid the fair, went on
board to go with them to Tarsish, away from the
presence of the Lord.
Speaker 1 (31:45):
Surprise verse four.
Speaker 2 (31:46):
You can't You can't run from any of it. You
can't run from it. Well, you can run from it,
just not very long, especially if the Lord really you.
Because those he loves, he disciplines those he really loves.
(32:06):
He does what it takes to bring them back. Those
that He really has a purpose for. He will even
punish you short term to prevent you from something in
your future that would be worse than the pain of
the present. I am not saying that every bad thing
happens so God can teach you a lesson. Please understand
(32:30):
that the number of people who I have watched die
of cancer and the number of people that I've seen
have their lives senselessly taken from a drunk driver would
prohibit me from ever skewing.
Speaker 1 (32:39):
That kind of nonsense from the pulpit.
Speaker 2 (32:41):
But I need to point out to you that the God,
who speaks by instructions and impressions, also will sometimes come
into your situation through an interruption.
Speaker 1 (32:53):
Because the Bible says that.
Speaker 2 (32:55):
The Lord hurled a great wind upon the sea, and
there was a mighty tempest on the sea, so that the.
Speaker 1 (33:03):
Ship threatened to break up.
Speaker 2 (33:06):
It is not the fact that there was a storm
that made me bring this passage up.
Speaker 1 (33:10):
It was who sent it that made it noteworthy.
Speaker 2 (33:13):
I am used to God calming storms, I am not
used to God sending them. But there was something that
God wanted to do in this situation that was important
enough for him to send a storm to stop Jonah.
Somewhere along the way he thought he was going to Tarshish,
But before he could get where he thought he was
(33:34):
going to go, a storm was sent upon the sea.
Now we're ready for verse five, The Bible says. Then
the mariners or the sailors were afraid. Now remember, these
men don't know God, not Jonah's God. They call on
many gods. They're polytheus. They have gods for everything. They
have God's for feasting, God's for fasting, God's for droughting,
(33:56):
God's for storms.
Speaker 1 (33:57):
And as they're calling on all their many gods.
Speaker 2 (34:00):
Many little gene, many gods that can't do anything for
you when it really counts like some of the gods
that we worship and serve, only to find out that
they are so small in the face of a great storm.
And is this why God has brought you to this
point in your life, so that you can call out
for something bigger.
Speaker 1 (34:18):
But the Lord hurled the wind on the sea.
Speaker 2 (34:20):
Then the mariners were afraid, and each cried out to
his God, and they hurled the cargo that was in
the ship into the.
Speaker 1 (34:29):
Sea to lighten it for them.
Speaker 2 (34:31):
But Jonah had gone down into the inner part of
the ship and had lain.
Speaker 1 (34:39):
Down and was fast asleep. So the captain get ready.
Luck In came and said to him.
Speaker 3 (34:52):
What do you mean, you sleeper, arise, call out to
your God. Perhaps the God will give a thought to
us that we may not perish. I'm talking about when
(35:15):
God gives a thought to you. I know what he
meant when he said it.
Speaker 2 (35:22):
Maybe if you call on God, he'll remember that we're
in this situation. Maybe if you call on your God,
he'll do something our gods can't do. When translation says
maybe he'll take notice, another translation says, maybe he'll throw
a thought our way. Maybe he'll give a thought to us.
Speaker 1 (35:42):
But the phrase was so rich man, I couldn't just
take it at face value.
Speaker 2 (35:48):
I realized when he said, perhaps your God will give.
Speaker 1 (35:52):
A thought to us and this storm will stop.
Speaker 2 (35:57):
That your God can give a thought to you that
will stop.
Speaker 1 (36:04):
The storm in his tracks.
Speaker 2 (36:07):
And he can do it today, and he can do
it right now, and he can do it even though
you're in your thirties, and he can do it even
while you're in your teens. Because what the captain said
that was so profound. He said, we need a thought
from God. I don't even know if you've got the
right one, but we need God in this situation. And
(36:31):
is it possible that you are in a storm right
now in your life? Not to be overly generic, but
everybody in here has some kind of storm or is
journeying with someone through a storm. And would it be
a good prayer for you to pray right about now,
God give a thought to me. See, because God's thoughts
(36:54):
are precious. God's works are wonderful, but his thoughts are
also precious. So it means that sometimes we're praying God
do something and God is speaking for us to think something,
because until we think something different than we've been thinking,
he can't do anything different than what he's been allowed
(37:17):
to do. For instance, the ship is not going to
turn around just because God wants Jonah in Nineveh.
Speaker 1 (37:24):
God did not turn the ship.
Speaker 2 (37:26):
God sent the storm, and in the middle of the
storm he had a decision to make.
Speaker 1 (37:31):
Not will God give a thought to me. God had
his eye on this boat from the moment Jonah got
on it. The whole reason they were.
Speaker 2 (37:38):
In this predicament was because of the sleeping prophet. And
now we've got some panic pagans, and now we've got
a self pitying prophet, and we've got a sovereign god
sending a storm on a raging sea, and we're used
to him calming storms. But the God of the calm
is the God of the chaos. And into the chaos,
(38:00):
the captain says something that the prophet should.
Speaker 1 (38:03):
Have known for sure. We need a God thought.
Speaker 2 (38:06):
We need God to do something in our family. We
need God to do something in this relationship. I need
God to do something in my business. I need God
to do something in my body. I need God to
walk in with me to this doctor. I need God,
and I'm not ashamed to cry.
Speaker 1 (38:23):
Out to him.
Speaker 2 (38:24):
And I can't.
Speaker 1 (38:25):
Sleep down here. Get up and call on God and
maybe God will give a thought to us.
Speaker 2 (38:43):
And Jonah said, yeah, I'm real sorry about this because
this is all my fall. See. I worship Yahweh, and
Yahweh told me to go to Nineveh, and I said,
no way. I'm just trying to keep it light because
it's kind of a hard sermon to preach if you
want to know the truth. But after he got done explaining,
and they cast lots which is kind of like drawing
(39:04):
a straw. And they realized it was Jonah's fault that
they were in this storm.
Speaker 1 (39:08):
They realized, listen to this, that.
Speaker 2 (39:10):
You can throw all the cargo overboard that you want,
but until you deal with the real thing that's going on,
it will stay chaotic. You can't fix chaos by losing cargo.
How much more stuff are you gonna throw overboard before
(39:32):
you realize Jonah has got to go?
Speaker 1 (39:37):
What do you mean Jonah's gotta go?
Speaker 2 (39:40):
I'm saying anything that is on your boat that is
keeping Jesus from being the captain of your peace and
your soul has.
Speaker 1 (39:46):
Got to go. You can rearrange all the.
Speaker 2 (39:50):
Deck chairs you want, it's still the Titanic. If Jonah
doesn't go, you can continue to throw things off and
spend money and waste money and buy stuff and buy
more square foot so y'all can sleep at opposite ends
of the bigger house. But until the attitudes that the
root of it change, nothing does until God gives a thought.
(40:12):
And it costs Jonah. Did you see how it said
he paid the fare. He paid more than a penny
for this. He paid his peace. He almost paid his purpose.
Speaker 1 (40:26):
Because of a wrong thought?
Speaker 2 (40:27):
How much have the wrong thoughts cost you? Because God,
your God, the God who speaks by impressions, instructions, and
even interruptions, might be using this storm to give a
thought to you, to you, to you, And don't try
(40:52):
to talk to your neighbor about this sermon after church
if they weren't really listening, don't try to explain it
to them.
Speaker 1 (41:02):
When God gives a thought to.
Speaker 2 (41:04):
You, Jonah, I just want to show you how merciful
God really is. Not only is he going to forgive
the barbaric Ninevites over there in chapter three when Jonah preaches,
and Jonah's not even that great of a preacher, the
only thing he says that they record in the Book
of Jonah is forty more days in Ninevah will be destroyed.
Speaker 1 (41:26):
Can you imagine coming to church for that? Y'all got
it pretty good, man.
Speaker 2 (41:32):
If Jonah was here, that'd be the whole sermon, and
he just say it over and over again and say
it louder. But God used it. God did something through Jonah.
He always wanted to do something through Jonah. He wants
to do something through you. But the question is do
you value the God thought because the cost of the
wrong thought. What you trade with the wrong thought is
(41:53):
the god thought that replaces it. So God calls you,
but you turn yourself into a castaway. So God calls
you righteous by the blood of Christ, but you keep
hiding in shame from even your own friends and family.
It's the cost of a wrong thought. Oh, he paid
the fare to get on the ship, but he paid
more than that. And as a matter of fact, it
(42:16):
got so bad that the sailors, after doing everything they could,
said what do you want us to do? And look
what he said in verse twelve. This is the cost
of the wrong thought. He said to them, pick me
up and hurl me into the sea. Then the sea
will quiet down for you. And now I'm going to
show you something. You've been in church all your life,
but I don't think you've ever seen this before.
Speaker 1 (42:35):
God gave it to me. Fresh the sea will quiet
down for you. I know it's because of me. I'm
the problem. It's me.
Speaker 2 (42:47):
I know it's because of me that this great tempest
has come upon you. Nevertheless, men wrote hard, try to
get back to the dry land. They tried everything they could,
they could not, for the sea grew more more tempestuous
against them. You're not going to row your way out
of this one. There's some situations you can strain as
much as you want to in the storm doesn't stop.
But watch this verse fourteen. Therefore they called out to
the Lord, Oh Lord, let us not perish for this
(43:08):
man's life, not on an instant blood for you.
Speaker 1 (43:11):
A lord has done as it pleased you verse fifteen.
Speaker 2 (43:15):
So they picked up Jonah and hurled him into the sea,
and the sea ceased from its rage. And right about
now you're thinking, where are you going with this depressing,
weird series sermons series right now? Well, the Bible says
the men feared the Lord exceedingly, and they offered a
sacrifice to the Lord and made vows.
Speaker 1 (43:33):
So that's good, right, they knew he was God.
Speaker 2 (43:36):
But the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah,
and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three
days and three nights. Now here's my favorite verse. Then
Jonah prayed. You see what I'm saying. I think you
(43:56):
know where I'm going with this. You're overstaying. You're welcome
in the belly of the fish because this didn't have
to happen in Jonah chapter two, verse one. This could
have happened in Jonah chapter one, verse six. And if
(44:19):
it had happened in Jonah chapter one, verse six, when
the captain came and said.
Speaker 1 (44:23):
Wake up, man, what's wrong with you? We're all gonna die.
Get up, don't you care? Call on your God. Perhaps
he will give a thought to us. Perhaps he'll get
us out of this, perhaps he'll notice us, perhaps he'll
do something.
Speaker 2 (44:34):
Perhaps he'll give a thought to us. And Jonah's thought was,
throw me overboard. What if his thought had been call
on God. What if he would have done this chapter two,
verse one, but didn't wait until he got in the
belly of the fish to do it.
Speaker 1 (44:55):
What at the moment the captain would have said, wake up,
call on God, he can stop it. Jonah had prayed
to the Lord.
Speaker 2 (45:02):
And I'm trying to say that some things you can
pray before you get in the belly.
Speaker 1 (45:11):
Do you hear me?
Speaker 2 (45:12):
Pray to this God word today? Then Jonah prayed with
seaweed around his neck. Then Jonah prayed, smelling like a
fish market. Then Jonah prayed in the belly of the whale.
Speaker 1 (45:28):
And here's what I noticed, he said verse one.
Speaker 2 (45:33):
He prayed to the Lord his God from the belly
of the fish, verse two, saying I called to the
Lord out of my distress, and he answered me out
of the belly of shield, I cried, and you heard
my voice. Leave it right there. God will hear you
when you cry to Him from the depths. But you
also do not have to go to the depths to
(45:54):
cry to him.
Speaker 1 (45:57):
God will hear you if you cry.
Speaker 2 (45:59):
To Him from the depths, but you do not have
to go all the way down to reach all the
way up, Because the Bible says, I called to the
Lord out of my distress. And there are two choices
you have to make. One you can call on God
in your distress, or you can bring God into your decisions.
(46:29):
And the other day I was praying about a problem,
like I mentioned at the beginning of the sermon, and
the Lord showed me something that was so kind and merciful.
Y'all think, when God gives your thought, it's always going
to feel like a precious moment.
Speaker 1 (46:42):
But sometimes it feels like the pain of surgery.
Speaker 2 (46:45):
And as I was praying about this problem, it was
as if the spirit of God said to me, not
not loud, just done on my spirit he said, you know,
you wouldn't have to bring me into this problem if
you would have brought me into those thoughts. Because the
problems are the wake of the thoughts. The behaviors are
(47:09):
the wake of the thoughts. And sometimes we are so
guilty over that's what I did that we don't go
back to That's what I thought. Jonah thought he could
run to Tarsish. Jonah thought he knew who was worthy
of God's love. Jonah thought he knew his calling. But
when Jonah prayed, God gave him mercy. And when he
(47:32):
prayed and made a vow to the Lord, and when
he prayed and remembered the hand of God, when he
prayed and asked God for forgiveness, and when he prayed
and looked to heaven, and when he prayed and recommitted
his life in his calling, and when you pray and
look to God. The problem isn't has God given a
thought to you? Have you given a thought to God?
(47:55):
Because you can give a thought to God before you
go into the belly of the prayers. You can give
a thought to God before you are spent. You can
give a thought to God before you are splinter. You
can give a thought to God before your life is wrecked.
You can give a thought to God when you're at
your lowest. You can give your thought to God before
you go all two thousand, five hundred miles. God can
(48:18):
interrupt it today with one God thought, with one God thought?
Speaker 1 (48:27):
Why go all two thousand and five.
Speaker 2 (48:29):
Hundred miles when God has a fish for you to
pray for today? But see, I'm a little different because
I believe that the same God who will hear you
from the fish watch. This is also saying, if you
will listen to me right now, if you will obey
me right now, if you will put your heart in
my hands, not other people's hands, right now, if you
(48:51):
will guard your heart, for from it flow the issues
of life, if you will resurrender this thing to me,
you can skip the fish. In other words, I feel
like fighting the devil today. You don't have to lose
everything to look up, and you don't have to keep
shedding stuff to turn to God.
Speaker 1 (49:12):
You can skip the fish.
Speaker 2 (49:14):
I'm saying to a teenager, you don't have to drink
until you're a drunk and it takes you ten years
of rehab to undo it. If God has to come
get you in rehab. He'll get you in rehab. But
let's try a little prehab. Want't you taste and see
that the Lord is good? And I don't need that
to go norm because I don't have to pray every
(49:36):
prayer from the belly. I can pray before I get
in the belly. High five three people say, I'm gonna
skip the fish.
Speaker 1 (49:48):
I'm gonna do it different this time.
Speaker 2 (49:50):
I'm gonna pray to the Lord before.
Speaker 1 (49:52):
The pain is great.
Speaker 2 (49:54):
I'm gonna pray to the Lord when I wake.
Speaker 1 (49:56):
Up in the morning.
Speaker 2 (49:57):
I'm gonna say stuff like this is the tast the
Lord has made order my death.
Speaker 3 (50:03):
In your word, dear.
Speaker 2 (50:04):
God, if I have said to Heaven, you are there.
And the same God.
Speaker 1 (50:10):
That'll send a fish to get me out.
Speaker 2 (50:15):
Is the God who will give me wings to get
me over. And I'm trying to say that God wants
to give a thought to you. Say it, God, give
a thought to me. I thought my thoughts long enough.
They cost too much. My thoughts lead to insecurity. My
(50:36):
thoughts lead to greed, My thoughts lead to selfishness, My
thoughts lead to despair. I thought, and I thought, and
I thought, and I thought and I thought if I
paid the fair, I could get the tartish and I
didn't have to do it.
Speaker 1 (50:47):
God, I thought I knew what was best for me.
But I need you to give a thought to me.
Speaker 2 (50:53):
And I'm not going to compare myself to my neighbor. God,
give a thought to me. Tell me how you think
of me, Tell me what you see in me. Tell
me what.
Speaker 1 (51:02):
You've called me to do. How have you gifted me?
How have you anointed me?
Speaker 2 (51:07):
What is my smooth stone that can bring down a giant?
What is my staff that can split a red sea?
Who have you called me to be saved again? God,
give a thought to me. How precious to me are
your thoughts?
Speaker 1 (51:26):
Oh God, where can I go from your presence? If
I go to Tarshish, you were there. You cut me
off in the middle of the sea to swallow.
Speaker 2 (51:33):
Me up, because you had a fish at the right
time to swallow me, and even the fish was mercy.
But I realized that if next time, instead of fleeing
with you, God, I will lean into you. God, I
may not have to go into the fish at all
to begin.
Speaker 1 (51:47):
With, because God gave a thought to me.
Speaker 2 (51:56):
And when God gives a thought to you, expect the
enemy to give an opposite thought. Sometimes you can tell
what God is speaking by what your mind is saying.
(52:16):
And if over and over again the enemy is telling
you something that's so diabolical, God is saying exactly the opposite.
Speaker 1 (52:23):
So if it looks like quit, then stay.
Speaker 2 (52:28):
I can point to so many times in my life
and I did not get here overnight, and I am
not perfect at it.
Speaker 1 (52:34):
And next time my guitar almost breaks at the top
of the jeep on my cuss if that he's not
in the car.
Speaker 2 (52:43):
But the number of times listen to me, listen to me,
the number of times that then Jonah prayed in my
life happened too late, taught me to lean into God sooner.
I don't want my kids to go through avoidable storms.
(53:04):
I don't want to create them. I want them to
skip some fish, you know what I mean. I feel
like that phrase right there is a God thought. Now
I'm ma skip the fish. I know where this goes.
The next time you go to through a little pity party, Now, Ima,
skip the fish. I don't like how it smells in there.
(53:27):
I don't want to go to my meeting Tuesday smelling
like fish. I'm not going to think like this, God
give a thought to me. Perhaps the God will give
a thought to us. He already gave a thought to you.
Have you given a thought to him? Or is this
just simply still all about you and what you want?
Because the cost is to give your thought for His thought,
(53:49):
and that's.
Speaker 1 (53:50):
What happens when we come to His word.
Speaker 2 (53:53):
How many times did God give me a thought that
was greater than anything.
Speaker 1 (54:00):
I thought?
Speaker 2 (54:00):
If I really wanted the church to shout, I could
preach when God gives a car to you, and there
would be shouts. When God gives a promotion to you,
and there would be shouts. Or I could go to
our young adult's chapel when God gives a spouse to you,
and there would be shouts. But the greatest gifts God
(54:20):
ever gave me came with thoughts. Because if I get
the things but not the thoughts of God to undergird them,
the things will be a burden, not a blessing.
Speaker 1 (54:30):
Jonah did what God said and it worked, and he
was miserable. Why because you got to have the God thoughts?
Speaker 2 (54:38):
Like the time she said to me after I preached,
I was having a pity party.
Speaker 1 (54:43):
Little pity party, little preaching pity party.
Speaker 2 (54:46):
And Holly just wisely says, I think you think you
failed in preaching today, but maybe you didn't fail.
Speaker 1 (54:54):
Maybe you just didn't finish.
Speaker 2 (54:58):
And that thought comes up here with me into this
pulpit every time I preached ever since she said it.
Every time I think, oh, man, I didn't say that
like I wanted to.
Speaker 1 (55:09):
The Lord would just remind me. Then pick it back
up next week.
Speaker 2 (55:12):
And say the rest bozo, skip the fish and the
whole thing of beating up on yourself.
Speaker 1 (55:18):
You said it better than most of them could have anyway,
So tell them to get up there and try. Come on,
they'll still need you next week.
Speaker 2 (55:26):
You got job security. One time I was frustrated with
some of our staff members. It was right before in
twenty twenty, when everything had totally shifted and all the
staff that had been doing one job started having to
(55:46):
do another one because obviously we weren't.
Speaker 1 (55:48):
Having in person church.
Speaker 2 (55:50):
We were on a zoom call, and I was like,
it's very important to me that we do this, and
we do that, and we do that. And the next
week I got on and I checked in and nobody
had done successfully what I asked. I said, I'm gonna
say this again, and it's very important that we do this,
and we do that, and we do that, and there again.
One more week goes by and I checked in and
it still hadn't been done. So the third week, I
was really angry and I kind of lost it. I
(56:12):
didn't cuss.
Speaker 1 (56:15):
That's gonna be my memoir title, but I didn't cuss. Well,
I got so mad.
Speaker 2 (56:23):
I kind of like lost my cool little bit, not
too bad, but just a little bit, and ended the
meeting abruptly, and when I was kind of closing the
laptop intentionally slammed the laptop shut.
Speaker 1 (56:38):
I said, they don't care. They don't care enough to
do what I'm asking them to do. They don't care.
Speaker 2 (56:44):
And the Spirit of the Lord gave me I thought.
He said, they care, they just can't. They don't know
how to do what you're asking them to do. This
is their first pandemic too. It was a God thought
because it took me from thinking that there was something
wrong with them and it was me against them, to
(57:05):
thinking it's us against it. You know, you can have
one God thought that's helped me so much. Even with y'all,
there are so many God thoughts that had to replace
wrong thoughts. Do you know when I used to preach
and people wouldn't get excited, I would feel like they
(57:26):
were almost like.
Speaker 1 (57:27):
I would get mad at the people. I say something
good and they wouldn't say anything, and I would get mad.
Now I pretend to be mad. I'm like, y'all ain't
saying nothing. I don't care.
Speaker 2 (57:38):
I always wonder if the crowd could talk back to
you know, y'all ain't saying nothing, and they'd go, you
aren't either. But the Lord dropped something in me so
profound it was a download. One day I was frustrated
about it, and he said, they're not here for you.
Speaker 1 (57:54):
You're here for them. You serve them when you preach.
Speaker 2 (57:58):
They're not your audience to make you feel good about
your amateur hour stand up comedy.
Speaker 1 (58:03):
If they don't laugh, you keep preaching. You're here for them.
You're here as a servant. It changed my life. What's that?
That's the value of a god thought? And God wants
to give you one stand up? Please? No one leave
(58:25):
and pray it out loud. God give a thought to
my wife.
Speaker 2 (58:32):
No, no, no, no, no, no.
Speaker 1 (58:38):
Try it again.
Speaker 2 (58:39):
Y'all weren't listening God, give a thought to me, Show
me how you think about me, Show me how you
think about others.
Speaker 1 (58:57):
Put somebody on my mind that I can help, that
I can bless. Yes, yes, I'm gonna tell you this too.
In twenty ten, when I started Love Week, it was
a thought, what if everybody in this church served an hour,
we could serve five thousand hours.
Speaker 2 (59:19):
Never would I have thought when God gave me that thought.
You gotta realize God's thoughts are vast. God's thoughts are vast.
So when I saw five thousand hours, how many have
we served?
Speaker 1 (59:35):
Now? Over what? Over what?
Speaker 2 (59:41):
Over a million hours of service from this church?
Speaker 1 (59:45):
In outrage? Y'all ain't clapping. All right, I'm gonna give
you a million dollars.
Speaker 2 (59:51):
Clap like that, over a million hours to our communities.
We're on God's mind. God, give a thought to me,
Show me how to do good, show me how to
make it. And really, sometimes the problem is that the
storm you're going through, it's the thoughts you're having about
(01:00:13):
the storm. Because in Mark chapter four, one time Jesus
was on the boat with his disciples and he said,
let's go to the other side. And the Bible says
when evening had come, he told them to cross over
to the other side, mark four thirty five. Come, let
us go over to the other side, next verse, and
leaving the crowd, they took him with them in the
(01:00:35):
boat just as he was, and the.
Speaker 1 (01:00:37):
Other boats were with him, and.
Speaker 2 (01:00:39):
A great wind storm arose and the waves were breaking
into the boat so that the boat was already filling.
Speaker 1 (01:00:45):
But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion.
Speaker 2 (01:00:51):
What is Jesus doing, acting like Jonah? Only he's not
running from God's will, He's rowing into it. And they
woke him up and said, teacher, do you not care
that we are perishing? Here was their thought, he doesn't care,
he's sleeping. And he awoke and rebuke the wind and
(01:01:13):
said to deceit, peace be still, And the wind ceased,
and there was a great calm, and he said to them,
why are you so afraid?
Speaker 1 (01:01:22):
Have you still no faith?
Speaker 2 (01:01:24):
And I want to talk to you before I close
My message about a sleeping Jesus, not a sleeping Jonah.
Because when the disciples saw Jesus asleep, they thought he
doesn't care. But they could have thought, wait, he is
God's son. If he is sleeping through the storm. Maybe
(01:01:46):
it's not that he doesn't care. Maybe we're cool and
I came to preach to somebody today. If God is
not doing it exactly like you want in your situation,
maybe it's not that he doesn't care. Maybe he's so confident,
Maybe he's so in control. Maybe he is so sovereign
(01:02:09):
over the storm that he will wake up when he
needs to wake up.
Speaker 1 (01:02:16):
It's all in your thoughts.
Speaker 2 (01:02:19):
So God, I pray right now that as high as
the heavens are above the earth, so are your ways
above our ways.
Speaker 1 (01:02:26):
And your thoughts above our thoughts. How precious to me
or your thoughts.
Speaker 2 (01:02:31):
So God, I pray for those who have been having
tormenting thoughts, tempting thoughts, I pray that they would be
replaced right now with the truth of your word.
Speaker 1 (01:02:40):
I thank you for our Savior, Jesus, who loved and
died for us. Thank you for joining us.
Speaker 2 (01:02:48):
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 (01:03:05):
You can share it with your friends.
Speaker 2 (01:03:07):
You can click the share button, take a screenshot and
share it on your social stories and tag us at
Elevation Church.
Speaker 1 (01:03:12):
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.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
I wanted to thank you for joining us today. 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'm working on a sermon series and I'm going to
pick up this week with the momentum that we had
last week.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
Now, last week was so good that if.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
The person you're sitting next to wasn't here, tell them
I'm sorry, were you here last week? The title of
the series listen to this. That's what I thought. That's
the title of the series. And however, you say that
(00:48):
with whatever attitude you say it with. You might say
it like one of your kids was talking back to
you and you give them a look and then they
shut up, and then you say, that's what I thought.
Maybe like that, or maybe you're just confirming some things
in your life right now, just checking you know, Oh
that's what I thought. I just wanted to be sure.
(01:09):
But really the heart of what I want to teach about,
as you'll see today, is tracking back the actions in
our life to the thoughts that produce them, and then
bringing God into those thought processes, so that rather than
just always giving God our problems, we bring Him into
our thoughts. Clap your hands if you'd like to have
(01:34):
less problems to give God. And this series doesn't say
that we can always avoid the problems of life. But
I want to show you something today that I think
is really really easy to understand, but so difficult to apply.
I'm going to be reading from Psalm one thirty nine,
verses seven through seventeen. This will be the foundation, and
(01:56):
then I'll share a story from the Old Testament to
illustrate this.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
Thought today that God gave me.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
Every sermon starts as a thought, and so I want
to talk to you about thoughts from a thought that
God gave me, which is, by the way, why I
keep stacks of notebook paper all around my house in
case God gives me a thought.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
I need to be ready to catch it, just in
case I can give it to you.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
And this is so powerful. If you look at psalmone
thirty nine, David is speaking about the wonder of God.
I was going to read only verse seventeen to set
up my thought, but I feel like it'll be so
much more effective if I start at verse seven. So
listen to this. The Psalma says, everyone's standing please for the.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
Word of God. If you're physically able, thank you.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
Where shall I go from your spirit? Or where shall
I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven,
you're there. If I make my bed in shield, or
some translations say hell. If I make my bed in hell,
you are there. If I take the wings of the
(03:08):
morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
even there, your hands shall leave me, and your right
hand shall hold me. If I say surely, the darkness
shall cover me, and the light about me be night.
Even the darkness is not dark to you, the night
as bright as the day. For darkness is as light
(03:30):
with you. For you formed my inward parts. I heard
we had some mary Kay people here today, and we
celebrate you here. Mary Kay is good for the outward parts,
but I got something for the inward parts today. You
(03:55):
formed my inward parts. You knitted me together in my
mother's womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and
wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works. My soul knows it
very well. My frame was not hidden from you. When
I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the
depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed substance.
(04:16):
In your book were written every one of them, the
days that were formed for me, when as yet there
were none of them, Verse seventeen, as our key today,
How precious to me are your thoughts?
Speaker 1 (04:31):
Oh God? How vast is the sum of them?
Speaker 2 (04:36):
Let's read that together, repeat after me, How precious to
me are your thoughts?
Speaker 1 (04:43):
Oh God?
Speaker 2 (04:44):
How vast is the sum of them? Today I want
to talk to you on this subject. When God gives
a thought to you, When God gives a thought to you,
could that be possible the Holy One of Heaven would
condescend and give a thought to little old me, little
(05:08):
old you. We're going to talk about that today. When
God gives a thought to you, this I recall to
my mind. Therefore I have hope. It is because of
your mercies that we are not consumed, Because your compassions
feel not they are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness,
Faithful God, I thank you that your word has spoken
through generations to.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
Land at our doorstep. Today.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
We receive it, we want it, we need it. It
is our necessary bread. It is our living water. Come
now like a flood, Come now like a fountain. Quench
every soul, give a thought to us in Jesus' name. Amen,
please be seated. Put the title in the comments, please,
if you're watching online, when God gives a thought to you? Lately,
(05:55):
I've been saying things in rooms full of people that
are younger than me, and they don't know what I'm
talking about, and it's making me feel awkward and uncomfortable.
Speaker 1 (06:06):
Why.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
Just the other day, I walked into a songwriting session
with some of our very own in house songwriters and
I said, last night I took Holly to a concert.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
We went to see Counting Crows.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
They all just looked at me, and I realized something
very sad in that moment. They had not heard of
the Counting Crows. How do you not hear of the
Counting Crows? How many of you have not heard of
the Counting Crows? See now, I just feel ostracized, abandon betrayed,
(06:39):
never heard of the Counting Crows.
Speaker 1 (06:41):
I had to tell them about mister Jones.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
And round here, and they didn't want to know about
Counting Crows. So we just wrote a song The other day,
I was riding in the car with Abbey. Now she's fourteen, right,
so she was kind of quiet, kind of doing that
fourteen year old thing that fourteen year old girls can
sometimes do, or unless she's talking sixty miles a minute,
(07:07):
she's totally quiet. And she was totally quiet, and I
looked over at her and said something I thought she
would understand. I said, a penny for your thoughts. Well,
she looked at me just as confused as the counting
crows just walked in the room. She said a what
I said, A penny for your thoughts? She said, what's that?
(07:30):
I said, it's a colloquialism. It's an idiom.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
I think it has its roots somewhere in British origins.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
But it's just a way of saying, tell me what
you're thinking. Like you're kind of quiet, I can tell
you're thinking about something. The wheel seemed to be turning,
A penny for your thoughts, and she goes, that's weird.
She's quiet for about ten more seconds, and then she goes,
A penny.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
That's all.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
I thought, Yeah, you're right, that's kind of cheap, isn't it?
A penny for your thoughts? She's like you at least
got to adjust this for inflation. If I'm gonna give
you a whole thought or plural thoughts, multiple thoughts, it
needs to be multiple pennies at least a dime for
your thoughts. Probably needs to be about five dollars for
(08:21):
your thoughts. But just to set it up as an
illustration and not to be silly. And I knew God
wanted me to use this illustration because I thought of
it last minute and there was a penny sitting by
my door today. So I want to hold it up
and talk about how sometimes we think too cheap, and
(08:44):
sometimes we undervalue our thoughts because we live in a
world that values things more than thoughts, things more than thoughts.
So if you have a nice pair of sneakers, you
would not dare wear them to a dirty Love Week event.
(09:07):
You would never wear your clean sneakers through a dirty atmosphere.
But let's talk about where your mind goes on a
daily basis. And the fact of the matter is some
of the places that we take our minds our place
is that we would never take our shoes because we
(09:28):
value things over thoughts. I did have a small victory
the other day usually I'm a catastrophizer.
Speaker 1 (09:36):
I think of the worst scenarios.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
And this is why I wanted to preach a series
called That's What I Thought, because God has helped me
so much to begin to label and identify the ways
of thinking that don't come from Him.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
And I'm still a work in progress.
Speaker 2 (09:49):
But I try to share with you every time that
I get it wrong, so that I can occasionally share
with you when I get it right. I lead mostly
by failing forward. But the other I was proud. I
had ordered a new guitar online. I went to the
post office to pick it up. It didn't quite fit
in the back seat. I put it in my jeep
with the roof down cheap way.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
And I.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
Was talking to Abby because she was in the front
seat and she had bow on her lap, and Bo
was kind of hanging out the window because he enjoys that.
And I had this vision right as we were pulling
down the driveway of Bo tumbling out the window and
I didn't want him to. So I've come a long
way since we first got the dog. I didn't want
him to. I said, have you got him securely? She said,
(10:34):
I got him, but just something about the fact of
me thinking about him falling out the window and then
pulling in the garage with the guitar still sticking out
the top of the jeep, and hearing the crunch of
a very expensive guitar, very expensive guitar.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
And hearing the crunch and not cussing. It's a victory.
I did't cuss. I didn't cuss. Tell your neighbor. I
didn't cuss.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
Now, I didn't speak in tongues. I didn't praise the Lord.
I just didn't cuss because I had a thought. And
here was the thought. It wasn't the dog. It was
just a guitar. I can get another one of those.
It's just a thing. Tell your neighbor, because they might
(11:31):
be stressed out whatever they're stressed about. Tell them it's
just a thing. It's just a thing. When it's just
a thing, it's just a thing. If it's a Boston Terrior,
it's a Boston Terrier. And if my Boston Terrior falls
out of the window of my jeep on my watch,
I might be divorced. Now. She loves me more than
she loves the dog. She would never do that to me.
But there was something about the contrast. It wasn't bo,
(11:54):
It wasn't Abby. I can't get another Abby. Abby didn't
go decapitated through the garage. And the Lord is a
rewarder of those who diligently seek him.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
Because there was bubble wrap at the top of the
box and the guitar was fine, Thank you Jesus.
Speaker 2 (12:10):
And then I did start praising God after I opened
the box and didn't cuss, and.
Speaker 1 (12:15):
We were all fine.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
But there have been so many times in my life,
no matter how much of your time I waste telling
you what seems to be random stories about guitars and
dogs falling out of windows hypothetically, or even telling you
about old sayings and old rock stars as I start
my sermon, there are times where we do not value
God's thoughts enough. David in psalmone thirty nine gives a
(12:44):
different perspective, and he helps us to understand two things.
Speaker 1 (12:47):
One the value of a God thought.
Speaker 2 (12:51):
I want to talk to you about that for a
few moments today, and you may want to write some
of this down.
Speaker 1 (12:55):
Buddy.
Speaker 2 (12:57):
God might give you a thought today and you won't remember.
You'll be thinking about your order at the pizza hut.
Speaker 1 (13:04):
Write it down.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
The value of a God thought, But I also want
to talk to you about what Abby said. She said
just a penny, that's all. I want to talk to
you about the cost of a wrong thought. So he
begins by saying, I can't escape your presence God, even
if I try.
Speaker 1 (13:23):
I can take wings or scuba gear. Either way I go.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
You're there, And after framing us in with that kind
of poetic language, which is very different than what we
read last week in Psalm seventy seven, which was a
psalm of lament where he thought God had abandoned him,
this song is the complete opposite. He saying, I can't
abandon God. He keeps showing up. And how many have
that testimony in your life? That God keeps showing up? Oh,
(13:48):
come on, in ways that you didn't even ask him to.
Sometimes God shows up and spoils your whole party. And
in this song, particularly verse seventeen, listen what he says,
How precious to me are your thoughts? Oh God, how
vast are some of them? So he gives us two distinctions. One,
(14:10):
God's thoughts are valuable. A God thought is valuable. That's
why I keep paper all around my house, because a
God thought is valuable.
Speaker 1 (14:21):
Y'all.
Speaker 2 (14:21):
What I do with my life from my calling is
preach God's word to you. So I can go from
thinking I have nothing to say and I don't feel
the Holy Spirit, And how am I going to preach
Sunday to like?
Speaker 1 (14:33):
Can we gather them together even though it's already Friday.
Speaker 2 (14:35):
I've got to tell them right now this thing is
on fire and I don't have a back burner.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
Can they come over right now? There are times where
I wish I.
Speaker 2 (14:41):
Could bat signal you or Bible signal you and call
all of us together to fight the devil, because the
Word comes through a thought and it can happen that quickly. Therefore,
I've learned that the thoughts of God are valuable. How
valuable is a God thought to you? Is it something
that if a Bible verse comes into your feed you
might read it, or is it something that you seek
(15:03):
out in your life? Because if the God thoughts are
just right there in your scrolling beside all of the
other thoughts, they're not very set apart. And if the
only way I ever hear from God is if I
trip over something that He says on my way to
going somewhere else, I'm missing out on some very valuable
God thoughts. God can give you one thought that will
(15:26):
help you parent that special needs child differently. God can
give you that one thought that can help you parent
that child that isn't diagnosed with special needs differently, because
we all have special needs, and God knows what that
child needs more than he knows what you want that
child to be. And one God thought can show you
(15:48):
something about your child. One God thought can show you
somebody to reach out to who's already been through what
you're going through.
Speaker 1 (15:54):
And they know stuff that they can download on.
Speaker 2 (15:56):
Bluetooth in two minutes that would have taken you two years.
Speaker 1 (16:01):
One God thought, I'm telling you the power of what
I know.
Speaker 2 (16:05):
God can flip something on you so fast that you
will wonder why didn't I think of that sooner? It's
a God thought. I did not come to church today
to have a PEP rally. I did not come to
church today to have a PEP talk. I did not
come to church today for a social occasion. I did
not come to church today like it's a country club.
I did not come to church today for a concert.
(16:27):
I did not come to church today for a handclap.
I did not come to church today to show off.
I did not come to church today in hopes that
I might get a date. Although, Lord, if you want
to do that too, you can throw it in. I
won't turn anything away for free.
Speaker 1 (16:39):
Lord. You may pray if you're single.
Speaker 2 (16:40):
But what I came here for more than a person
that I might meet, is a God that will meet
with me and in one meeting, one moment, one second,
one thought. I'm telling you you can think a thought,
which is what happened to the Sons of Asaff last
week when he said I thought that it was through
and then I thought it through because a God thought
(17:03):
is valuable. Not only is it valuable, LJ, but it's vast.
He says, how precious are your thoughts to me? Oh God,
and then put the verse up again, how vast is
to some of them? That means God doesn't just think
things about church things. God doesn't just have thoughts to
(17:24):
offer you about your spiritual life. His thoughts are vast.
God is very well connected. God is very integrated. God
is very well versed. God is very multifaceted. God is
very multi lingual. He can help you in areas you
haven't even thought to pray to him about. He can
help you with parts of you that the therapist can
(17:46):
dig at for five years. I'm saying, get the therapist,
but take God to the couch with you, because God
can whisper something that the therapist said in a way
that only he could say it, because He knows the
inward hearts, so it's vast. He can speak to me
about a situation. He can speak to me about a change.
He can speak to me about a physical decision. I
(18:09):
do not believe that God has to help you pick
out every outfit.
Speaker 1 (18:11):
When you get dressed in the morning.
Speaker 2 (18:13):
I think people who pray about which kind of toothpaste
to use are kind of weird personally. But I want
to say that God's thoughts are vast, They are valuable,
and they are vast. How much do you value the
God thought when he gives you a word?
Speaker 1 (18:28):
Will you sit with it for a minute?
Speaker 2 (18:30):
Will you seek out a word for him rather than
waiting for him to bring you one. Will you have
a place that you go to get a word from God?
Or are you going to think the thoughts that are
automatic and miss the promises that are attached to the
thoughts of God which the Psalmist has already said, are precious.
(18:54):
To illustrate this for you today, about the value of
a god thought and the cost.
Speaker 1 (19:03):
The cost of a wrong thought.
Speaker 2 (19:06):
I want to use a person in the Bible that
I bet you've heard of before. His name is Jonah,
the most unfairly villainized person in the Bible. The Lord
told the boy to go preach to terrorists, and he
didn't want to do that, and we preach to him, like,
(19:29):
what's wrong with you?
Speaker 1 (19:30):
Jonah? Obey God? If God says go, you got to
go Jonah, Go Jonah, Go Jonah. Be obedient, Go Jonah.
Speaker 2 (19:39):
And this is actually in the Bible, I think one
of the easiest to read stories and the hardest to
understand as it pertains to us, because in this story
is prejudice. In this story is revenge. In this story,
is self pity. In this story is assumption. In this
story is resentment. In this story is regret. All of
(20:03):
that is in the story. But there's one thing I
want to show you today in this book of the
Bible that you could probably read in eight minutes when
you went home. In Jonah, Chapter one, the Bible gives
us a frame and please try to pretend like, you
don't know that. Jonah gets swallowed by a fish and
spit out and preaches to Nineveh and they have a revival.
(20:23):
But even after they have a revival, he's not happy
because he didn't want God to forgive him, and he
secretly knew that God was merciful, and he didn't want
God to have mercy on them. He only wanted God's
mercy for him. Pretend like you don't know any of that,
and look with me for a moment at Jonah chapter one.
It's coming up on the screen, and this first phrase
(20:44):
is really important. Now, the word of the Lord came
to Jonah. Stop Now, the word of the Lord came
to Jonah? What did that look like? What did that
sound like? Was it a dream that he had? Because
God is about to give him an assignment. God's about
(21:05):
to give him a thought. God is about to plant
something in Jonah's mind that is relative to his purpose,
and not only his purpose, but it was beyond Jonah's scope. Now,
the word of the Lord came to Jonah. Was it
a vision that he saw while he was awake? Was
it an audible voice?
Speaker 1 (21:26):
We don't know. And one thing that I'm glad that
we have that Jonah didn't have. Is this because I
got good news for you? If you feel like.
Speaker 2 (21:39):
God isn't speaking to you right now, and you're like,
I don't have any God thoughts. I just have all
the worried thoughts and the fear thoughts and how am
I going to pay for this thoughts? And you know,
I wish they would just leave me alone thoughts and
when is this ever going to change?
Speaker 1 (21:52):
Thoughts?
Speaker 2 (21:53):
I don't have any God thoughts. The Bible says the
word of the Lord came to Jonah. But because we
have God's word, you don't have to wait for the
word of the Lord to come to you.
Speaker 1 (22:06):
You can come to the word of the Lord. Isn't
that powerful? I'll try it again.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
If you are in a situation where you don't know
what to do, you don't know where to go, you
don't know where to turn, you don't know how it's
gonna work out, you can't really get your mind around it,
and the enemy is tormenting you. You don't have to
wait for the word of the Lord to come to you.
Speaker 1 (22:30):
You can come to the word of the Lord. And
everybody in church.
Speaker 2 (22:35):
This morning clap because that's what you did when you came,
come on, clap. You got to celebrate sometimes, right. I
didn't cuss, And I came to church because I'm not
gonna wait for the word of the Lord to come
to me.
Speaker 1 (22:50):
I'm not gonna wait for a goosebump. I came to.
Speaker 2 (22:53):
Church today because I value the thoughts of God.
Speaker 1 (22:57):
I value what God thinks about my real relationships.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
I value what God thinks about my possessions. I value
what God thinks about my identity. I value what God
thinks about my career. I value what God thinks about
my emotions. I value the thoughts of God. And the
Word of the Lord came to Jonah. And we may
wonder sometimes, how.
Speaker 1 (23:21):
Does God speak to me? Does God speak to me?
Is this God speaking to me?
Speaker 2 (23:27):
And I have discovered three very specific and repeatable ways
that God seems to speak. I'll give them to you
right now. Number one, he speaks through impressions impressions. Number two,
he speaks through instructions instructions, and number three he speaks
(23:51):
through interruptions.
Speaker 1 (23:55):
The Word of the Lord came to Jonah. The Word
of the Lord.
Speaker 2 (23:59):
The Word of the Lord isn't always a preacher preaching
the word of the Lord isn't always at your devotional time.
Sometimes the Holy Spirit, if he lives in you, will
show you something that you shouldn't say, show you something
that you should say, show you a way you should
see the situation that you hadn't been seeing the situation.
It's an impression. Can't explain it, but it's an impression.
(24:24):
But then sometimes we get so heavy on that and
that I think we just run around just following whatever
impression we get. And the problem with my impressions is
that sometimes my impressions are imposters and they pretend to
be God, but they're really just what I want dressed
up as God. That's what we're going to talk about
(24:45):
from Jonah, because God gives impressions, but he also gives instructions.
And one thing I love about God is he will
never give you an impression that violates his clear instruction.
So I don't care how attracted to her you are,
if she is married, you have received an instruction on
(25:08):
that situation. And I don't care that her name is
Cindy and so was your grandmother's. That is irrelevant to
this situation. There is an instruction.
Speaker 1 (25:19):
You know.
Speaker 2 (25:20):
Sometimes I think we're waiting on God to give us
a feeling or a thought because we don't want to
obey what we clearly saw that he said. And I'm
gonna stand here and preach this like I've been a
pastor for twenty years. Y'all ain't going to timidate me today,
reading all up in the Book of Revelation, trying to
figure out which one is North Korea and which one
(25:41):
is Israel and which one is Iraq, and you're all
over there translating that, while meanwhile the Bible says in
First Corinthians something that you don't really want to read
in First Corinthians, chapter six, this's pretty clear. This is
an instruction flee from sexual immorality.
Speaker 1 (25:57):
So we can read all the revelation we want, read.
Speaker 2 (26:00):
It, Underline it, highlight it, circle it, star it, smell it,
sniff it, take it, eat it, whatever you want to do.
Speaker 1 (26:08):
But you still gotta do this because this is an instruction.
Speaker 2 (26:11):
And he is God, and he is not my buddy, He's.
Speaker 1 (26:15):
Not an influencer.
Speaker 2 (26:17):
He is alpha and Omega, God don't want me to preach.
I need to go back on break bust. Somebody high
five your neighbors, say, because he said so.
Speaker 1 (26:32):
Because he said so. Because he said so, his definition,
his description.
Speaker 2 (26:43):
Fleet So I need a word from the Lord. There's one.
Do that all week and check in with me. Take
seven days of that. Well, I don't really struggle with
the So what you got for me?
Speaker 1 (26:56):
All right?
Speaker 2 (26:59):
No? I looked up some scriptures because we said we
want a god thought. All right, there's another one in
Ephesians for thirty two. This one says, be kind to
one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ
(27:23):
forgave you.
Speaker 1 (27:26):
Bo don't feel like forgiven. But this is not about
an impression.
Speaker 2 (27:31):
This is about an instruction, because you have a father
who knows that you can never be free until you forgive.
So if he tells me to flee, I've got to go.
If he tells me to forgive, I've got to love.
It's an instruction. Those are just some of the things
(27:51):
that God will use to speak to you. But then
there is like Jonah, where God will give you an interruption,
an interruption to the way that you think and to
the way that you see the world, and interruption to
what you think is important, an interruption to the path
that you laid out for your own life, and so
Jonah is a prophet, and the Bible says that the
word of the Lord came to Jonah. And I got
to say this one more time in case you didn't
(28:12):
get it. The word of the Lord can come to you.
Do you come to the word of the Lord. I
will ask you that every week, do you come to
the word of the Lord, so that the word of
the Lord can come to you, because there he will
give you instructions that will then mold your impressions so
that they are in His image, not yours.
Speaker 1 (28:34):
Praise the Lord.
Speaker 2 (28:37):
Now, the word of the Lord came to Jonah, son
of AMATAI saying, here's the details of the conversation. Arise,
go to nineve that great city, and call out against it.
Nobody wants to preach against it. Nobody wants to go
to a place that is against them. Ninevah was the
capital city of Assyria. They were brutal. They wouldn't just
(28:59):
kill you, they would impel you to send a message.
That's what I thought, Come try us again. They were brutal, barbaric,
and unrepentant, and they had personally oppressed the people that
Jonah was identified with. So when the Lord said go
to Nineveh and preach against it, for their evil has
come up before me, the Bible says, But Jonah rose
(29:22):
to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord.
We know because we just read someone thirty nine that
what he is trying to do is impossible. He went
to flee from the presence of the Lord. And we
know because we have someone thirty nine that if you
(29:42):
ascend to the heavens, he's there, and if you descend
to Hell, he's there. And you can't flee from Jonah,
but he from God. But Jonah thought he could, and
so he arose. And uh, I won't break this all
down for you. But Ninevah was five hundred miles from
the port where he was supposed to go, and Tarsish,
(30:05):
where he tried to go, was twenty five hundred miles,
So it was going to take him five times longer
to get where he had decided to go than where
God told him to go. But he kind of thought
he could get around it. He thought, that's what I thought. Now,
let's talk.
Speaker 1 (30:27):
There are some ways that you have tried to run
from some things in your life, and you thought, well,
if I just moved to a different city.
Speaker 2 (30:36):
And it's not always bad to move to a different
city long as you realize you go with you get
at least a two bedroom apartment, because there's at least
two of you's.
Speaker 1 (30:52):
He tried to go to Tarshish. He thought he would
run from the Lord.
Speaker 2 (30:58):
And every word of this is so instructive, but just
for the sake of time, focus in with me. On
verses three through five, he went down to Joppa. Pastor
Mickey used to say, when you run from God, you
always go down.
Speaker 1 (31:14):
I like that.
Speaker 2 (31:16):
He went down to Joppa and found a ship going
to Tarsish. Pastor Mickey used to always say, if you
ever want to run from God, the devil will always
give your ride.
Speaker 1 (31:27):
Anyway.
Speaker 2 (31:28):
That's just old preacher stuff that I used to hear.
So he paid the fare and went on board. I'm
holding up my penny'll He paid the fair, went on
board to go with them to Tarsish, away from the
presence of the Lord.
Speaker 1 (31:45):
Surprise verse four.
Speaker 2 (31:46):
You can't You can't run from any of it. You
can't run from it. Well, you can run from it,
just not very long, especially if the Lord really you.
Because those he loves, he disciplines those he really loves.
(32:06):
He does what it takes to bring them back. Those
that He really has a purpose for. He will even
punish you short term to prevent you from something in
your future that would be worse than the pain of
the present. I am not saying that every bad thing
happens so God can teach you a lesson. Please understand
(32:30):
that the number of people who I have watched die
of cancer and the number of people that I've seen
have their lives senselessly taken from a drunk driver would
prohibit me from ever skewing.
Speaker 1 (32:39):
That kind of nonsense from the pulpit.
Speaker 2 (32:41):
But I need to point out to you that the God,
who speaks by instructions and impressions, also will sometimes come
into your situation through an interruption.
Speaker 1 (32:53):
Because the Bible says that.
Speaker 2 (32:55):
The Lord hurled a great wind upon the sea, and
there was a mighty tempest on the sea, so that the.
Speaker 1 (33:03):
Ship threatened to break up.
Speaker 2 (33:06):
It is not the fact that there was a storm
that made me bring this passage up.
Speaker 1 (33:10):
It was who sent it that made it noteworthy.
Speaker 2 (33:13):
I am used to God calming storms, I am not
used to God sending them. But there was something that
God wanted to do in this situation that was important
enough for him to send a storm to stop Jonah.
Somewhere along the way he thought he was going to Tarshish,
But before he could get where he thought he was
(33:34):
going to go, a storm was sent upon the sea.
Now we're ready for verse five, The Bible says. Then
the mariners or the sailors were afraid. Now remember, these
men don't know God, not Jonah's God. They call on
many gods. They're polytheus. They have gods for everything. They
have God's for feasting, God's for fasting, God's for droughting,
(33:56):
God's for storms.
Speaker 1 (33:57):
And as they're calling on all their many gods.
Speaker 2 (34:00):
Many little gene, many gods that can't do anything for
you when it really counts like some of the gods
that we worship and serve, only to find out that
they are so small in the face of a great storm.
And is this why God has brought you to this
point in your life, so that you can call out
for something bigger.
Speaker 1 (34:18):
But the Lord hurled the wind on the sea.
Speaker 2 (34:20):
Then the mariners were afraid, and each cried out to
his God, and they hurled the cargo that was in
the ship into the.
Speaker 1 (34:29):
Sea to lighten it for them.
Speaker 2 (34:31):
But Jonah had gone down into the inner part of
the ship and had lain.
Speaker 1 (34:39):
Down and was fast asleep. So the captain get ready.
Luck In came and said to him.
Speaker 3 (34:52):
What do you mean, you sleeper, arise, call out to
your God. Perhaps the God will give a thought to
us that we may not perish. I'm talking about when
(35:15):
God gives a thought to you. I know what he
meant when he said it.
Speaker 2 (35:22):
Maybe if you call on God, he'll remember that we're
in this situation. Maybe if you call on your God,
he'll do something our gods can't do. When translation says
maybe he'll take notice, another translation says, maybe he'll throw
a thought our way. Maybe he'll give a thought to us.
Speaker 1 (35:42):
But the phrase was so rich man, I couldn't just
take it at face value.
Speaker 2 (35:48):
I realized when he said, perhaps your God will give.
Speaker 1 (35:52):
A thought to us and this storm will stop.
Speaker 2 (35:57):
That your God can give a thought to you that
will stop.
Speaker 1 (36:04):
The storm in his tracks.
Speaker 2 (36:07):
And he can do it today, and he can do
it right now, and he can do it even though
you're in your thirties, and he can do it even
while you're in your teens. Because what the captain said
that was so profound. He said, we need a thought
from God. I don't even know if you've got the
right one, but we need God in this situation. And
(36:31):
is it possible that you are in a storm right
now in your life? Not to be overly generic, but
everybody in here has some kind of storm or is
journeying with someone through a storm. And would it be
a good prayer for you to pray right about now,
God give a thought to me. See, because God's thoughts
(36:54):
are precious. God's works are wonderful, but his thoughts are
also precious. So it means that sometimes we're praying God
do something and God is speaking for us to think something,
because until we think something different than we've been thinking,
he can't do anything different than what he's been allowed
(37:17):
to do. For instance, the ship is not going to
turn around just because God wants Jonah in Nineveh.
Speaker 1 (37:24):
God did not turn the ship.
Speaker 2 (37:26):
God sent the storm, and in the middle of the
storm he had a decision to make.
Speaker 1 (37:31):
Not will God give a thought to me. God had
his eye on this boat from the moment Jonah got
on it. The whole reason they were.
Speaker 2 (37:38):
In this predicament was because of the sleeping prophet. And
now we've got some panic pagans, and now we've got
a self pitying prophet, and we've got a sovereign god
sending a storm on a raging sea, and we're used
to him calming storms. But the God of the calm
is the God of the chaos. And into the chaos,
(38:00):
the captain says something that the prophet should.
Speaker 1 (38:03):
Have known for sure. We need a God thought.
Speaker 2 (38:06):
We need God to do something in our family. We
need God to do something in this relationship. I need
God to do something in my business. I need God
to do something in my body. I need God to
walk in with me to this doctor. I need God,
and I'm not ashamed to cry.
Speaker 1 (38:23):
Out to him.
Speaker 2 (38:24):
And I can't.
Speaker 1 (38:25):
Sleep down here. Get up and call on God and
maybe God will give a thought to us.
Speaker 2 (38:43):
And Jonah said, yeah, I'm real sorry about this because
this is all my fall. See. I worship Yahweh, and
Yahweh told me to go to Nineveh, and I said,
no way. I'm just trying to keep it light because
it's kind of a hard sermon to preach if you
want to know the truth. But after he got done explaining,
and they cast lots which is kind of like drawing
(39:04):
a straw. And they realized it was Jonah's fault that
they were in this storm.
Speaker 1 (39:08):
They realized, listen to this, that.
Speaker 2 (39:10):
You can throw all the cargo overboard that you want,
but until you deal with the real thing that's going on,
it will stay chaotic. You can't fix chaos by losing cargo.
How much more stuff are you gonna throw overboard before
(39:32):
you realize Jonah has got to go?
Speaker 1 (39:37):
What do you mean Jonah's gotta go?
Speaker 2 (39:40):
I'm saying anything that is on your boat that is
keeping Jesus from being the captain of your peace and
your soul has.
Speaker 1 (39:46):
Got to go. You can rearrange all the.
Speaker 2 (39:50):
Deck chairs you want, it's still the Titanic. If Jonah
doesn't go, you can continue to throw things off and
spend money and waste money and buy stuff and buy
more square foot so y'all can sleep at opposite ends
of the bigger house. But until the attitudes that the
root of it change, nothing does until God gives a thought.
(40:12):
And it costs Jonah. Did you see how it said
he paid the fare. He paid more than a penny
for this. He paid his peace. He almost paid his purpose.
Speaker 1 (40:26):
Because of a wrong thought?
Speaker 2 (40:27):
How much have the wrong thoughts cost you? Because God,
your God, the God who speaks by impressions, instructions, and
even interruptions, might be using this storm to give a
thought to you, to you, to you, And don't try
(40:52):
to talk to your neighbor about this sermon after church
if they weren't really listening, don't try to explain it
to them.
Speaker 1 (41:02):
When God gives a thought to.
Speaker 2 (41:04):
You, Jonah, I just want to show you how merciful
God really is. Not only is he going to forgive
the barbaric Ninevites over there in chapter three when Jonah preaches,
and Jonah's not even that great of a preacher, the
only thing he says that they record in the Book
of Jonah is forty more days in Ninevah will be destroyed.
Speaker 1 (41:26):
Can you imagine coming to church for that? Y'all got
it pretty good, man.
Speaker 2 (41:32):
If Jonah was here, that'd be the whole sermon, and
he just say it over and over again and say
it louder. But God used it. God did something through Jonah.
He always wanted to do something through Jonah. He wants
to do something through you. But the question is do
you value the God thought because the cost of the
wrong thought. What you trade with the wrong thought is
(41:53):
the god thought that replaces it. So God calls you,
but you turn yourself into a castaway. So God calls
you righteous by the blood of Christ, but you keep
hiding in shame from even your own friends and family.
It's the cost of a wrong thought. Oh, he paid
the fare to get on the ship, but he paid
more than that. And as a matter of fact, it
(42:16):
got so bad that the sailors, after doing everything they could,
said what do you want us to do? And look
what he said in verse twelve. This is the cost
of the wrong thought. He said to them, pick me
up and hurl me into the sea. Then the sea
will quiet down for you. And now I'm going to
show you something. You've been in church all your life,
but I don't think you've ever seen this before.
Speaker 1 (42:35):
God gave it to me. Fresh the sea will quiet
down for you. I know it's because of me. I'm
the problem. It's me.
Speaker 2 (42:47):
I know it's because of me that this great tempest
has come upon you. Nevertheless, men wrote hard, try to
get back to the dry land. They tried everything they could,
they could not, for the sea grew more more tempestuous
against them. You're not going to row your way out
of this one. There's some situations you can strain as
much as you want to in the storm doesn't stop.
But watch this verse fourteen. Therefore they called out to
the Lord, Oh Lord, let us not perish for this
(43:08):
man's life, not on an instant blood for you.
Speaker 1 (43:11):
A lord has done as it pleased you verse fifteen.
Speaker 2 (43:15):
So they picked up Jonah and hurled him into the sea,
and the sea ceased from its rage. And right about
now you're thinking, where are you going with this depressing,
weird series sermons series right now? Well, the Bible says
the men feared the Lord exceedingly, and they offered a
sacrifice to the Lord and made vows.
Speaker 1 (43:33):
So that's good, right, they knew he was God.
Speaker 2 (43:36):
But the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah,
and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three
days and three nights. Now here's my favorite verse. Then
Jonah prayed. You see what I'm saying. I think you
(43:56):
know where I'm going with this. You're overstaying. You're welcome
in the belly of the fish because this didn't have
to happen in Jonah chapter two, verse one. This could
have happened in Jonah chapter one, verse six. And if
(44:19):
it had happened in Jonah chapter one, verse six, when
the captain came and said.
Speaker 1 (44:23):
Wake up, man, what's wrong with you? We're all gonna die.
Get up, don't you care? Call on your God. Perhaps
he will give a thought to us. Perhaps he'll get
us out of this, perhaps he'll notice us, perhaps he'll
do something.
Speaker 2 (44:34):
Perhaps he'll give a thought to us. And Jonah's thought was,
throw me overboard. What if his thought had been call
on God. What if he would have done this chapter two,
verse one, but didn't wait until he got in the
belly of the fish to do it.
Speaker 1 (44:55):
What at the moment the captain would have said, wake up,
call on God, he can stop it. Jonah had prayed
to the Lord.
Speaker 2 (45:02):
And I'm trying to say that some things you can
pray before you get in the belly.
Speaker 1 (45:11):
Do you hear me?
Speaker 2 (45:12):
Pray to this God word today? Then Jonah prayed with
seaweed around his neck. Then Jonah prayed, smelling like a
fish market. Then Jonah prayed in the belly of the whale.
Speaker 1 (45:28):
And here's what I noticed, he said verse one.
Speaker 2 (45:33):
He prayed to the Lord his God from the belly
of the fish, verse two, saying I called to the
Lord out of my distress, and he answered me out
of the belly of shield, I cried, and you heard
my voice. Leave it right there. God will hear you
when you cry to Him from the depths. But you
also do not have to go to the depths to
(45:54):
cry to him.
Speaker 1 (45:57):
God will hear you if you cry.
Speaker 2 (45:59):
To Him from the depths, but you do not have
to go all the way down to reach all the
way up, Because the Bible says, I called to the
Lord out of my distress. And there are two choices
you have to make. One you can call on God
in your distress, or you can bring God into your decisions.
(46:29):
And the other day I was praying about a problem,
like I mentioned at the beginning of the sermon, and
the Lord showed me something that was so kind and merciful.
Y'all think, when God gives your thought, it's always going
to feel like a precious moment.
Speaker 1 (46:42):
But sometimes it feels like the pain of surgery.
Speaker 2 (46:45):
And as I was praying about this problem, it was
as if the spirit of God said to me, not
not loud, just done on my spirit he said, you know,
you wouldn't have to bring me into this problem if
you would have brought me into those thoughts. Because the
problems are the wake of the thoughts. The behaviors are
(47:09):
the wake of the thoughts. And sometimes we are so
guilty over that's what I did that we don't go
back to That's what I thought. Jonah thought he could
run to Tarsish. Jonah thought he knew who was worthy
of God's love. Jonah thought he knew his calling. But
when Jonah prayed, God gave him mercy. And when he
(47:32):
prayed and made a vow to the Lord, and when
he prayed and remembered the hand of God, when he
prayed and asked God for forgiveness, and when he prayed
and looked to heaven, and when he prayed and recommitted
his life in his calling, and when you pray and
look to God. The problem isn't has God given a
thought to you? Have you given a thought to God?
(47:55):
Because you can give a thought to God before you
go into the belly of the prayers. You can give
a thought to God before you are spent. You can
give a thought to God before you are splinter. You
can give a thought to God before your life is wrecked.
You can give a thought to God when you're at
your lowest. You can give your thought to God before
you go all two thousand, five hundred miles. God can
(48:18):
interrupt it today with one God thought, with one God thought?
Speaker 1 (48:27):
Why go all two thousand and five.
Speaker 2 (48:29):
Hundred miles when God has a fish for you to
pray for today? But see, I'm a little different because
I believe that the same God who will hear you
from the fish watch. This is also saying, if you
will listen to me right now, if you will obey
me right now, if you will put your heart in
my hands, not other people's hands, right now, if you
(48:51):
will guard your heart, for from it flow the issues
of life, if you will resurrender this thing to me,
you can skip the fish. In other words, I feel
like fighting the devil today. You don't have to lose
everything to look up, and you don't have to keep
shedding stuff to turn to God.
Speaker 1 (49:12):
You can skip the fish.
Speaker 2 (49:14):
I'm saying to a teenager, you don't have to drink
until you're a drunk and it takes you ten years
of rehab to undo it. If God has to come
get you in rehab. He'll get you in rehab. But
let's try a little prehab. Want't you taste and see
that the Lord is good? And I don't need that
to go norm because I don't have to pray every
(49:36):
prayer from the belly. I can pray before I get
in the belly. High five three people say, I'm gonna
skip the fish.
Speaker 1 (49:48):
I'm gonna do it different this time.
Speaker 2 (49:50):
I'm gonna pray to the Lord before.
Speaker 1 (49:52):
The pain is great.
Speaker 2 (49:54):
I'm gonna pray to the Lord when I wake.
Speaker 1 (49:56):
Up in the morning.
Speaker 2 (49:57):
I'm gonna say stuff like this is the tast the
Lord has made order my death.
Speaker 3 (50:03):
In your word, dear.
Speaker 2 (50:04):
God, if I have said to Heaven, you are there.
And the same God.
Speaker 1 (50:10):
That'll send a fish to get me out.
Speaker 2 (50:15):
Is the God who will give me wings to get
me over. And I'm trying to say that God wants
to give a thought to you. Say it, God, give
a thought to me. I thought my thoughts long enough.
They cost too much. My thoughts lead to insecurity. My
(50:36):
thoughts lead to greed, My thoughts lead to selfishness, My
thoughts lead to despair. I thought, and I thought, and
I thought, and I thought and I thought if I
paid the fair, I could get the tartish and I
didn't have to do it.
Speaker 1 (50:47):
God, I thought I knew what was best for me.
But I need you to give a thought to me.
Speaker 2 (50:53):
And I'm not going to compare myself to my neighbor. God,
give a thought to me. Tell me how you think
of me, Tell me what you see in me. Tell
me what.
Speaker 1 (51:02):
You've called me to do. How have you gifted me?
How have you anointed me?
Speaker 2 (51:07):
What is my smooth stone that can bring down a giant?
What is my staff that can split a red sea?
Who have you called me to be saved again? God,
give a thought to me. How precious to me are
your thoughts?
Speaker 1 (51:26):
Oh God, where can I go from your presence? If
I go to Tarshish, you were there. You cut me
off in the middle of the sea to swallow.
Speaker 2 (51:33):
Me up, because you had a fish at the right
time to swallow me, and even the fish was mercy.
But I realized that if next time, instead of fleeing
with you, God, I will lean into you. God, I
may not have to go into the fish at all
to begin.
Speaker 1 (51:47):
With, because God gave a thought to me.
Speaker 2 (51:56):
And when God gives a thought to you, expect the
enemy to give an opposite thought. Sometimes you can tell
what God is speaking by what your mind is saying.
(52:16):
And if over and over again the enemy is telling
you something that's so diabolical, God is saying exactly the opposite.
Speaker 1 (52:23):
So if it looks like quit, then stay.
Speaker 2 (52:28):
I can point to so many times in my life
and I did not get here overnight, and I am
not perfect at it.
Speaker 1 (52:34):
And next time my guitar almost breaks at the top
of the jeep on my cuss if that he's not
in the car.
Speaker 2 (52:43):
But the number of times listen to me, listen to me,
the number of times that then Jonah prayed in my
life happened too late, taught me to lean into God sooner.
I don't want my kids to go through avoidable storms.
(53:04):
I don't want to create them. I want them to
skip some fish, you know what I mean. I feel
like that phrase right there is a God thought. Now
I'm ma skip the fish. I know where this goes.
The next time you go to through a little pity party, Now, Ima,
skip the fish. I don't like how it smells in there.
(53:27):
I don't want to go to my meeting Tuesday smelling
like fish. I'm not going to think like this, God
give a thought to me. Perhaps the God will give
a thought to us. He already gave a thought to you.
Have you given a thought to him? Or is this
just simply still all about you and what you want?
Because the cost is to give your thought for His thought,
(53:49):
and that's.
Speaker 1 (53:50):
What happens when we come to His word.
Speaker 2 (53:53):
How many times did God give me a thought that
was greater than anything.
Speaker 1 (54:00):
I thought?
Speaker 2 (54:00):
If I really wanted the church to shout, I could
preach when God gives a car to you, and there
would be shouts. When God gives a promotion to you,
and there would be shouts. Or I could go to
our young adult's chapel when God gives a spouse to you,
and there would be shouts. But the greatest gifts God
(54:20):
ever gave me came with thoughts. Because if I get
the things but not the thoughts of God to undergird them,
the things will be a burden, not a blessing.
Speaker 1 (54:30):
Jonah did what God said and it worked, and he
was miserable. Why because you got to have the God thoughts?
Speaker 2 (54:38):
Like the time she said to me after I preached,
I was having a pity party.
Speaker 1 (54:43):
Little pity party, little preaching pity party.
Speaker 2 (54:46):
And Holly just wisely says, I think you think you
failed in preaching today, but maybe you didn't fail.
Speaker 1 (54:54):
Maybe you just didn't finish.
Speaker 2 (54:58):
And that thought comes up here with me into this
pulpit every time I preached ever since she said it.
Every time I think, oh, man, I didn't say that
like I wanted to.
Speaker 1 (55:09):
The Lord would just remind me. Then pick it back
up next week.
Speaker 2 (55:12):
And say the rest bozo, skip the fish and the
whole thing of beating up on yourself.
Speaker 1 (55:18):
You said it better than most of them could have anyway,
So tell them to get up there and try. Come on,
they'll still need you next week.
Speaker 2 (55:26):
You got job security. One time I was frustrated with
some of our staff members. It was right before in
twenty twenty, when everything had totally shifted and all the
staff that had been doing one job started having to
(55:46):
do another one because obviously we weren't.
Speaker 1 (55:48):
Having in person church.
Speaker 2 (55:50):
We were on a zoom call, and I was like,
it's very important to me that we do this, and
we do that, and we do that. And the next
week I got on and I checked in and nobody
had done successfully what I asked. I said, I'm gonna
say this again, and it's very important that we do this,
and we do that, and we do that, and there again.
One more week goes by and I checked in and
it still hadn't been done. So the third week, I
was really angry and I kind of lost it. I
(56:12):
didn't cuss.
Speaker 1 (56:15):
That's gonna be my memoir title, but I didn't cuss. Well,
I got so mad.
Speaker 2 (56:23):
I kind of like lost my cool little bit, not
too bad, but just a little bit, and ended the
meeting abruptly, and when I was kind of closing the
laptop intentionally slammed the laptop shut.
Speaker 1 (56:38):
I said, they don't care. They don't care enough to
do what I'm asking them to do. They don't care.
Speaker 2 (56:44):
And the Spirit of the Lord gave me I thought.
He said, they care, they just can't. They don't know
how to do what you're asking them to do. This
is their first pandemic too. It was a God thought
because it took me from thinking that there was something
wrong with them and it was me against them, to
(57:05):
thinking it's us against it. You know, you can have
one God thought that's helped me so much. Even with y'all,
there are so many God thoughts that had to replace
wrong thoughts. Do you know when I used to preach
and people wouldn't get excited, I would feel like they
(57:26):
were almost like.
Speaker 1 (57:27):
I would get mad at the people. I say something
good and they wouldn't say anything, and I would get mad.
Now I pretend to be mad. I'm like, y'all ain't
saying nothing. I don't care.
Speaker 2 (57:38):
I always wonder if the crowd could talk back to
you know, y'all ain't saying nothing, and they'd go, you
aren't either. But the Lord dropped something in me so
profound it was a download. One day I was frustrated
about it, and he said, they're not here for you.
Speaker 1 (57:54):
You're here for them. You serve them when you preach.
Speaker 2 (57:58):
They're not your audience to make you feel good about
your amateur hour stand up comedy.
Speaker 1 (58:03):
If they don't laugh, you keep preaching. You're here for them.
You're here as a servant. It changed my life. What's that?
That's the value of a god thought? And God wants
to give you one stand up? Please? No one leave
(58:25):
and pray it out loud. God give a thought to
my wife.
Speaker 2 (58:32):
No, no, no, no, no, no.
Speaker 1 (58:38):
Try it again.
Speaker 2 (58:39):
Y'all weren't listening God, give a thought to me, Show
me how you think about me, Show me how you
think about others.
Speaker 1 (58:57):
Put somebody on my mind that I can help, that
I can bless. Yes, yes, I'm gonna tell you this too.
In twenty ten, when I started Love Week, it was
a thought, what if everybody in this church served an hour,
we could serve five thousand hours.
Speaker 2 (59:19):
Never would I have thought when God gave me that thought.
You gotta realize God's thoughts are vast. God's thoughts are vast.
So when I saw five thousand hours, how many have
we served?
Speaker 1 (59:35):
Now? Over what? Over what?
Speaker 2 (59:41):
Over a million hours of service from this church?
Speaker 1 (59:45):
In outrage? Y'all ain't clapping. All right, I'm gonna give
you a million dollars.
Speaker 2 (59:51):
Clap like that, over a million hours to our communities.
We're on God's mind. God, give a thought to me,
Show me how to do good, show me how to
make it. And really, sometimes the problem is that the
storm you're going through, it's the thoughts you're having about
(01:00:13):
the storm. Because in Mark chapter four, one time Jesus
was on the boat with his disciples and he said,
let's go to the other side. And the Bible says
when evening had come, he told them to cross over
to the other side, mark four thirty five. Come, let
us go over to the other side, next verse, and
leaving the crowd, they took him with them in the
(01:00:35):
boat just as he was, and the.
Speaker 1 (01:00:37):
Other boats were with him, and.
Speaker 2 (01:00:39):
A great wind storm arose and the waves were breaking
into the boat so that the boat was already filling.
Speaker 1 (01:00:45):
But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion.
Speaker 2 (01:00:51):
What is Jesus doing, acting like Jonah? Only he's not
running from God's will, He's rowing into it. And they
woke him up and said, teacher, do you not care
that we are perishing? Here was their thought, he doesn't care,
he's sleeping. And he awoke and rebuke the wind and
(01:01:13):
said to deceit, peace be still, And the wind ceased,
and there was a great calm, and he said to them,
why are you so afraid?
Speaker 1 (01:01:22):
Have you still no faith?
Speaker 2 (01:01:24):
And I want to talk to you before I close
My message about a sleeping Jesus, not a sleeping Jonah.
Because when the disciples saw Jesus asleep, they thought he
doesn't care. But they could have thought, wait, he is
God's son. If he is sleeping through the storm. Maybe
(01:01:46):
it's not that he doesn't care. Maybe we're cool and
I came to preach to somebody today. If God is
not doing it exactly like you want in your situation,
maybe it's not that he doesn't care. Maybe he's so confident,
Maybe he's so in control. Maybe he is so sovereign
(01:02:09):
over the storm that he will wake up when he
needs to wake up.
Speaker 1 (01:02:16):
It's all in your thoughts.
Speaker 2 (01:02:19):
So God, I pray right now that as high as
the heavens are above the earth, so are your ways
above our ways.
Speaker 1 (01:02:26):
And your thoughts above our thoughts. How precious to me
or your thoughts.
Speaker 2 (01:02:31):
So God, I pray for those who have been having
tormenting thoughts, tempting thoughts, I pray that they would be
replaced right now with the truth of your word.
Speaker 1 (01:02:40):
I thank you for our Savior, Jesus, who loved and
died for us. Thank you for joining us.
Speaker 2 (01:02:48):
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 (01:03:05):
You can share it with your friends.
Speaker 2 (01:03:07):
You can click the share button, take a screenshot and
share it on your social stories and tag us at
Elevation Church.
Speaker 1 (01:03:12):
Thanks again for listening. God bless you.
Host
Steven Furtick
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