Speaker 1: Hey, this is Stephen Ferdik. I'm the pastor of Elevation
Speaker 1: Church and this is our podcast. I wanted to thank
Speaker 1: you for joining us today. Hope this inspires you. Hope
Speaker 1: it builds your faith. Hope it gives your perspective to
Speaker 1: see God is moving in your life. Enjoy the message.
Speaker 1: My scripture for this worship encounter with God is from
Speaker 1: Philippians chapter three. That's the text I believe God wants
Speaker 1: to speak to us through today. And if you want
Speaker 1: to join me there and just follow along. Now usually
Speaker 1: preach from the New International Version, the one that says
Speaker 1: NIV if you're pulling it up on a Bible app
Speaker 1: or something, and you can pull it up with me,
Speaker 1: or it'll just be right on the screens. And I
Speaker 1: like to read you verses seven through sixteen to get
Speaker 1: a full context of what Paul is saying in this passage.
Speaker 1: He said, but whatever word gains to me, I now
Speaker 1: consider loss for the sake of Christ. And what is more,
Speaker 1: I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth
Speaker 1: of knowing Christ, Jesus my Lord, for who's I have
Speaker 1: lost all things, I consider them garbage that I may
Speaker 1: gain Christ and be found in Him, not having the
Speaker 1: righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but
Speaker 1: that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness that
Speaker 1: comes from God. On the basis of faith. I want
Speaker 1: to know Christ, yes, to know the power of his resurrection,
Speaker 1: and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death,
Speaker 1: and so somehow attaining to the resurrection from the dead.
Speaker 1: Not that I have already obtained all this or have
Speaker 1: already arrived at my goal. But I press on to
Speaker 1: take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold
Speaker 1: of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself
Speaker 1: yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing
Speaker 1: I do. I've got to focus on this. I've got
Speaker 1: to shut some other things out and make sure that
Speaker 1: I'm going after the right goal. So what I have
Speaker 1: to do is forget what is behind, and I'm straining
Speaker 1: toward what is ahead. I press on through dangers, I
Speaker 1: press on through difficulties. I press on through low emotional states,
Speaker 1: I press on through migrain headaches, I press on through
Speaker 1: dysfunctional tendencies within myself. I press on toward the goal
Speaker 1: to win the prize for which God has called me
Speaker 1: heavenward in Christ, Jesus. All of us then, who are mature,
Speaker 1: should take such a view of things. And on some
Speaker 1: point you think differently that too, God will make clear
Speaker 1: to you. Paul's like, if you don't agree with me,
Speaker 1: God will straighten you out. And then verse sixteen says
Speaker 1: something surprising. Only let us live up to what we
Speaker 1: have already attained. So the title I want to give
Speaker 1: this message is the paradox of progress. The paradox of progress,
Speaker 1: and you may be seated, God bless you. I got
Speaker 1: to do something before we go forward, is to get
Speaker 1: you excited about the word paradox is. The essence of
Speaker 1: the Gospel is paradox. The essence of God is paradox.
Speaker 1: And yet it's one of those words like kind of
Speaker 1: where you kind of know what it means. Okay, So
Speaker 1: Abby comes up to me while I'm studying for the sermon,
Speaker 1: and it was just a perfect illustration. She's like, can
Speaker 1: I work alongside you? And she had some typing class
Speaker 1: that she's taking for school and she needed to work
Speaker 1: on her typing drills, so they were giving her words
Speaker 1: to type and she kept interrupting me, which I don't
Speaker 1: mind it all because we're in that stage of bonding
Speaker 1: where she's never an interruption to me. She's usually not
Speaker 1: an interruption to me. She's rarely I'm trying to work
Speaker 1: on my accuracy up here in front of you. She's
Speaker 1: rarely an interruption to me. We just really really are
Speaker 1: harmonized right now, and I know it might not be
Speaker 1: like that forever. So I'm like, yeah, sure, come on,
Speaker 1: work with me. Interrupt me. It's all good. But it
Speaker 1: was fun because I'm a word guy. And so when
Speaker 1: she was stopping to ask me, and she's in second grade,
Speaker 1: so I can still handle her homework, only have like
Speaker 1: one more year of being smarter than her, So she's like,
Speaker 1: what does And she started asking me what certain words meant.
Speaker 1: She's like, what does conditioning mean? And it was funny
Speaker 1: because I know exactly what it means, but sometimes it's
Speaker 1: hard to explain it even though you know it, Like,
Speaker 1: let me ask you what does conditioning mean? So you're like,
Speaker 1: it's like what you get used to. That's what I said.
Speaker 1: I don't know if that helped her understand it or not.
Speaker 1: She goes back to typing, and then she asked me
Speaker 1: another one, what was it? Hold on? I wrote it
Speaker 1: down because it was real funny the ones she said,
Speaker 1: because they were words I knew. Oh, she said, what
Speaker 1: does reproduce mean? I was like, well, you know, you
Speaker 1: make more of something from yourself. And then I shut
Speaker 1: it down because I didn't want her to really start
Speaker 1: asking about reproduction in the technical sense. It's my favorite one.
Speaker 1: What does typewriter mean? And I felt, old, you know,
Speaker 1: I'm like, you really don't know, And so I told
Speaker 1: about the typewriter and the brother word processor and dinosaurs
Speaker 1: and other things. She seriously didn't know what does typewriter mean?
Speaker 1: And then I was like, this is getting good and
Speaker 1: I need to record this in case it's like a
Speaker 1: sermon illustration. Uh So I pulled out the phone and
Speaker 1: snucked this little video. Check this out. Spell it again.
Speaker 1: D e f I l e n T m e
Speaker 1: n t s. Spell it one more time. D e
Speaker 1: f I l e like d e f I l
Speaker 1: e n e n t. Defilement. It's like when you
Speaker 1: take something that is clean and make it dirty, or
Speaker 1: you take something that is good and make it bad,
Speaker 1: or something like that, like in the Bible they put okay,
Speaker 1: Like in the Bible, if the unclean touch the clean,
Speaker 1: it would defile, defile the clean. You know, hey, you
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying. Does that make sense? No? Sort of?
Speaker 1: I don't know if you could hear. I said, does
Speaker 1: that make sense? Because I knew, I really, I knew
Speaker 1: what it meant. But I knew I really wasn't breaking
Speaker 1: it down where she needed it, And so she said,
Speaker 1: sort of, I don't want to hurt your feelings. Not
Speaker 1: really sort of. People were asking me about the title
Speaker 1: of this worship project. We called it paradoxology. And of course,
Speaker 1: growing up in the Methodist Church, we sang the doxology
Speaker 1: Praise God from whomoh blessings flow, Praise Him all creatures
Speaker 1: here below, and that's where we got the title Hallelujah
Speaker 1: here below, Praise Him all creatures here below, like down
Speaker 1: here on earth, not just in heaven. We need to
Speaker 1: praise Him even in broken situations. We need to praise
Speaker 1: Him even with uncertain faith. We need to praise Him
Speaker 1: even in challenging times. And so the doxology is called
Speaker 1: the Doxa means glory. Legia is expression oral or written,
Speaker 1: So it's an expression of glory, giving praise to God,
Speaker 1: Praise God all creatures here below, just like the host
Speaker 1: of Heaven. Praise him. You can praise him better because
Speaker 1: they've always been perfect, but you haven't always been and
Speaker 1: you're still not. And the paradox is that a perfect
Speaker 1: God desires imperfect praise from funky, messy, petty people like you.
Speaker 1: So I called it paradoxology, you know, just the fact
Speaker 1: that we can praise God even though we don't deserve to,
Speaker 1: because of the blood of Jesus. It's mind boggling, and
Speaker 1: it's different than a contradiction. A contradiction is two things
Speaker 1: that cannot possibly be true at the same time, cats
Speaker 1: and dogs. There's not a cloud in the sky. It's
Speaker 1: got to be one or the other. But with God
Speaker 1: we find paradox, and that is that on the surface,
Speaker 1: it seems as if both cannot be true. But He's
Speaker 1: bigger than that. Nowhere is the paradox of the Gospel
Speaker 1: has played out in the practical implications of our everyday
Speaker 1: life more apparent than Philippians chapter three, where Paul says
Speaker 1: I had ascended to the heights of the resume virtues
Speaker 1: of religion within Judaism, I was circumcised on the eighth day,
Speaker 1: like I was supposed to be I studied under Gamaliel.
Speaker 1: He was a boss. I was of the tribe of Benjamin,
Speaker 1: where the kings come from. I was important and significant.
Speaker 1: But now I've made a decision. I'm going to write
Speaker 1: all of those things off and I'm going to reach
Speaker 1: towards something better and bigger. And the thing about it is,
Speaker 1: as I am living in Christ, I am dying to Seuth.
Speaker 1: It's a paradox. And he's describing in many ways a
Speaker 1: paradoxical view of progress as it relates to spiritual growth.
Speaker 1: Can I teach and preach a little bit this weekend
Speaker 1: the paradox of progress? It seems as if Paul is
Speaker 1: saying that as I am gaining strength in God, I
Speaker 1: am losing a sense of certainty in things I used
Speaker 1: to trust in. And when he said it, whatever gains
Speaker 1: to me, I now consider loss for the sake of Christ.
Speaker 1: It got me thinking about the paradox of progress. How
Speaker 1: sometimes we want to move forward in an area of
Speaker 1: our life, but it seems like it's difficult to keep
Speaker 1: everything in our life moving forward all at once. It
Speaker 1: seems like it's difficult to apply our limited self to
Speaker 1: what seems like an endless, ceaseless list of demands and supplies,
Speaker 1: so that some days you find yourself really doing well
Speaker 1: at work and really unable to give focus at home
Speaker 1: because by the time you get home, you spend all
Speaker 1: of the currency of your energy at work. And so
Speaker 1: I made progress at work, but home is more important,
Speaker 1: and yet I don't have as much to give to
Speaker 1: what is most important. But yet it's important that I
Speaker 1: work because I need to bring some money home, because
Speaker 1: if I don't bring some money home, I won't have
Speaker 1: a home to come home to. Then I'll be standing
Speaker 1: out in the rain talking about blame it on the rain,
Speaker 1: and I'll be lip syncing like Milli Vanilli and talking
Speaker 1: about girl. You know, it's true, But the only thing
Speaker 1: about it is we don't have any money. And that's true,
Speaker 1: and so it's a paradox. It's a paradox of progress
Speaker 1: that sometimes when I'm moving forward in one area, I
Speaker 1: can't move forward in another. And this is the part
Speaker 1: I'm excited about. I have three points. If we only
Speaker 1: get to one, this is the one I want to preach,
Speaker 1: because sometimes Paul shows us that what's most important is
Speaker 1: least impressive. As a society, we celebrate all the wrong
Speaker 1: stuff have you noticed, as a human race, we celebrate
Speaker 1: all the wrong stuff. And as somebody who manages a
Speaker 1: ministry that has a reach that goes just beyond one town,
Speaker 1: I can tell you right now, people celebrate the wrong stuff.
Speaker 1: They think that a church is built on the preacher's gift.
Speaker 1: It's not a preacher's gift. Well, you said that a
Speaker 1: little too loud. I heard my feelings about that, but
Speaker 1: you're right. You're right, it's not that. And people will
Speaker 1: celebrate a lot of things that that are surface level.
Speaker 1: So Paul had all of that. You understand, he had
Speaker 1: all of the all of the credentials, he had all
Speaker 1: of the bells, he had all of the he had
Speaker 1: all of the things that go in a bio to
Speaker 1: make you look significant. And yet what he said was
Speaker 1: so powerful. He said that that I gave up what
Speaker 1: was impressive in order to reach towards something that was
Speaker 1: actually important. I feel like I'm about to stage dive
Speaker 1: to preach this. And one thing you need to know
Speaker 1: is that a lot of the changes that will happen
Speaker 1: in your life that are the most important are the
Speaker 1: ones that you won't get any compliments about. Because I've
Speaker 1: noticed this. Once you get really consistent at something, people
Speaker 1: stop complimenting you about it. Am I right? The best
Speaker 1: way to get compliments is to only do the right
Speaker 1: thing occasionally. The best way to get compliments if that's
Speaker 1: your goal is to be a crappy dad who only
Speaker 1: comes around on Christmas and only shows up to give
Speaker 1: the kids what they want, disciplines them, and only shows
Speaker 1: up to break the rhythm that's trying to be established.
Speaker 1: If you're going to be the kind of dad that's
Speaker 1: actually handling some of the disciplinary issues, or the kind
Speaker 1: of mom that's actually parenting rather than trying to win
Speaker 1: a popularity contest with your teenager, you will not receive
Speaker 1: as many compliments. And people are crazy. People celebrate all
Speaker 1: the wrong stuff. If you get in shape, watch this.
Speaker 1: Here's the one thing I have. I compliment people who
Speaker 1: stay in shape, right, because usually what you have to
Speaker 1: do to get a compliment on physical fitness is lose
Speaker 1: a bunch of weight. And I just think that's wrong.
Speaker 1: So I don't go up to people and be like,
Speaker 1: you look like you've been losing weight, because first of all,
Speaker 1: that might sound like an insult to them, so it's
Speaker 1: awkward to say. But secondly, I walk up to people
Speaker 1: and I'd be like, you look, you still look good.
Speaker 1: I do. I believe in complimenting consistency, you know, like
Speaker 1: thanks for being on time, like you part of the
Speaker 1: Red Sea. That in a miracle. But what happens is
Speaker 1: when you get really good at something, people take you
Speaker 1: for granted. When you are consistent, you stop getting compliments.
Speaker 1: So if people have stopped complimenting you, that is the
Speaker 1: highest compliment. It means you are so consistent that you
Speaker 1: have a basis or a foundation, and you can then
Speaker 1: be set free from the need to be impressive. And
Speaker 1: that's what Paul was. He said, I gave up what
Speaker 1: was impressive to people to pursue what was important to me.
Speaker 1: I feel the Holy Ghost telling fifty people delete Instagram
Speaker 1: before you take another note on my sermon, and give
Speaker 1: up what is impressive for a month for something more important.
Speaker 1: I feel the spirit of God saying, some of y'all
Speaker 1: spend too much money on clothes, and you are so
Speaker 1: behind on your school loans. And if you keep trying
Speaker 1: to impress people, you are going to impress people right
Speaker 1: into your own depression. Trying to climb out of a
Speaker 1: pit of what people see y'all don't like the preacher today,
Speaker 1: but he's on point. He heard from God, and Paul said,
Speaker 1: all that I thought was gained and what I thought
Speaker 1: was important, I found out that it's the interior state.
Speaker 1: He said, I want a righteousness that comes from God
Speaker 1: through faith. I want to be more focused on the
Speaker 1: invisible stuff. So I'll take you to Palm Sunday. Since
Speaker 1: his Palm Sunday right now, and since Jesus came into Jerusalem,
Speaker 1: and he's entering not at Bethage or Bethany. Bethany's two
Speaker 1: miles away. That's where he stayed at night. But he's
Speaker 1: setting up for the crucifixion, for the scene where he
Speaker 1: will pay the price for our sins, where he will
Speaker 1: die like a criminal, even though he reigns like a king.
Speaker 1: It's a paradox, but he says in Luke nineteen, I
Speaker 1: wish I had time to preach that passage to you.
Speaker 1: Can we look at it for one moment together, and
Speaker 1: I promise I will go fast. But Jesus is getting
Speaker 1: ready to go into the city and he stops short
Speaker 1: of the city. He's on the Mount of Olives. You remember,
Speaker 1: that's where gets Simone is that's where he will be pressed.
Speaker 1: That's where his capillaries will burst, so that he sweats
Speaker 1: like drops of great blood. But all that is still
Speaker 1: in front of him, and his ministry has been exploding.
Speaker 1: And when he gets to the place where he's about
Speaker 1: to make his entry, he makes preparations. And the Bible
Speaker 1: says in Luke nineteen twenty eight. After he had taught
Speaker 1: them a certain teaching about the Kingdom of God and
Speaker 1: how it doesn't come all at once, but it comes
Speaker 1: in stages, and it takes patience to see the reign
Speaker 1: of God come in your life, and don't expect progress
Speaker 1: to come all at once, and don't expect proof to
Speaker 1: accompany every step that you take in faith. And after
Speaker 1: he had taught that, he told him something as they
Speaker 1: approached Jerusalem twenty nine. Please, he said, verse thirty. He said,
Speaker 1: go to the village ahead of you, and as you
Speaker 1: enter it, you will find a cult tied there which
Speaker 1: no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here. Okay.
Speaker 1: So Jesus is giving them an instruction that sounds illegal.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna need you to go give me a little
Speaker 1: baby horse. I'm gonna take my horse an old town road,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna ride, And he said, as you are untying it.
Speaker 1: If they ask you, why, tell them, curios, the Lord
Speaker 1: needs it. Tell the owner that the Lord needs it.
Speaker 1: Tell the one who is stewarding it that the one
Speaker 1: who made it needs it. I think one of the disciples,
Speaker 1: even though the disciples aren't named, it just says there
Speaker 1: were two of them, had to be Peter, because Peter
Speaker 1: knew what it was like to have Jesus get in
Speaker 1: something that you own. That's how Peter's whole ministry started.
Speaker 1: Jesus just got in his boat and said, push me out.
Speaker 1: I've got to preach. And so now Jesus watched this paradox.
Speaker 1: Who created the world needs something in the world he created.
Speaker 1: To even say that the Lord needs something is a paradox.
Speaker 1: It's a crazy situation to be in. But he doesn't
Speaker 1: just need any kind of horse, not a regal horse,
Speaker 1: not the kind of horse that a human king would
Speaker 1: ride in on. Remember, Jesus is fully God and fully man.
Speaker 1: It's a paradox. It shouldn't make sense, but it does.
Speaker 1: He's perfect and divine, but he's able to be touched
Speaker 1: by the feelings of our infirmity. So he says, get
Speaker 1: a cult that has never been ridden. I'm going to
Speaker 1: ride into the city like a humble king, not like
Speaker 1: a hype beast, Like a humble king. I'm going to
Speaker 1: ride into the city. I'm not going to walk because
Speaker 1: I'm a king, but I'm going to ride on something
Speaker 1: that looks common. I'm going to ride on something that
Speaker 1: is set aside for a special service. I'm going to
Speaker 1: ride on something that was tied up until now. But
Speaker 1: I wonder if God brought somebody to church today because
Speaker 1: he wants to untie you and set you free from
Speaker 1: ways of being and thinking and dreaming and believing to
Speaker 1: serve the purpose he created you for. Anyway, it was
Speaker 1: kind of cool to me that the King rode in
Speaker 1: on a lowly cult, That someone so important rode in
Speaker 1: on something that wasn't impressive. Some of the changes God
Speaker 1: wants to make in your life will not be the
Speaker 1: ones that people will tell you good job about. And
Speaker 1: the temptation is for us to make progress in the
Speaker 1: areas that get noticed because it feeds our ego. On
Speaker 1: social media, they call it vanity metrics is where Facebook
Speaker 1: wants you to buy more ads for your business, so
Speaker 1: they tell you how many people that you're reaching, but
Speaker 1: you're not really reaching them. It's just scrolling through the feed.
Speaker 1: What you really got to figure out is engagement. How
Speaker 1: deep is the connection? And people celebrate all the wrong stuff?
Speaker 1: Am I right? Am I? Right? Am I right? John
Speaker 1: sou When y'all went to the Grammys, everybody was texting you,
Speaker 1: and it's cool to go to the Grammys. But the
Speaker 1: Grammys wasn't the most important thing Elevation Worship did last year.
Speaker 1: It was that consistent ministry, weekend week out, just showing up. Look,
Speaker 1: I go and I travel to churches all over the world,
Speaker 1: and I'm privileged to do it. But the first thing
Speaker 1: I do when I take the pulpit, if the people
Speaker 1: are like, hey, you know wen I guess speaker, we
Speaker 1: love you bastards, you know, because you know when you
Speaker 1: come to town, when people aren't used to seeing you
Speaker 1: and they don't know you that well, they're excited. The
Speaker 1: first thing I do is say, let's thank God for
Speaker 1: your pastor let's thank God for the people who who
Speaker 1: every single week in this church, the staff members, the volunteers,
Speaker 1: the people who were in the parking lot, the people
Speaker 1: who were standing out in the rain to welcome you in.
Speaker 1: Let's appreciate what's truly important, not just what's impressive. Now,
Speaker 1: Paul said, I had all this impressive residue of my
Speaker 1: religious accomplishment. But in order to pursue what was important
Speaker 1: and to seek first the kingdom, I had to stop
Speaker 1: trying sew that gum hard. That's what Paul said in Greek.
Speaker 1: So that gum hard it was garbage, it was scubula,
Speaker 1: it was trash. It's trash compared to the treasure of
Speaker 1: knowing who I am in Christ and being connected to
Speaker 1: my source and walking in my purpose, a purpose with
Speaker 1: the purpose in the presence of God. Paul said, I
Speaker 1: was circumcised. That's outward. I'm from Benjamin, that's genetic. All
Speaker 1: of that you can have all of that. I want
Speaker 1: to fix my insides. I want a righteousness that comes
Speaker 1: from God. I want peace when I lay down on
Speaker 1: my pillow, to know that this day I serve something
Speaker 1: bigger than me, even if it hurt. Wow, a king
Speaker 1: on a colt. What a paradox. And remember now, the
Speaker 1: crowds loved Jesus for his miracles, didn't they They're like, woo,
Speaker 1: He's coming back. The guy who healed Lazarus. He's coming,
Speaker 1: He's coming. It's just two miles. You want to go,
Speaker 1: let's go. I'll go with you. We'll go together. We'll
Speaker 1: get our e group there. It'll be amazing. You gotta
Speaker 1: sit her. We'll get together, it'll go together, we'll go
Speaker 1: see him. Of course, they were already going on the
Speaker 1: pilgrimage for the Passover anyway, so they are already going.
Speaker 1: So there are you out in the crowd, and here
Speaker 1: he comes on a cult the important writing on the
Speaker 1: unimpressive this is why God can use you, because you're
Speaker 1: just as good as a donkey. In the King James version,
Speaker 1: it says he sat on a and you can look
Speaker 1: that up. I almost called the message cya because it
Speaker 1: says they threw their cloaks over the donkey. But it
Speaker 1: also stands for change your approach and stop trying to
Speaker 1: grow in the stuff that is glamorous and noticed by people.
Speaker 1: Paul said, I want to know Christ. That's one of
Speaker 1: those little phrases that I don't think we really know
Speaker 1: what it means. It's like sort of I want to
Speaker 1: know Christ. You know what that means? Sort of I've
Speaker 1: heard it before. It's like coulding Bible right, stop smoking
Speaker 1: stuff like that, pray a lot mission strips. I am
Speaker 1: to know him, Paul said, I had to go into
Speaker 1: partnership with his sufferings to experience closeness. And this is
Speaker 1: why Jesus was forsaken by those that he called love,
Speaker 1: shepherd and taught and parted into is because the closer
Speaker 1: you get, the further you feel. Wow. This is the
Speaker 1: paradox of progress. And this is why you are growing
Speaker 1: in your faith at the same time that you're about
Speaker 1: to give up on it, because it's a paradox of progress.
Speaker 1: The closer Jesus got to the cross, the more confused
Speaker 1: his disciples became. And sometimes the the closer you get
Speaker 1: to God and the more you walk in His ways,
Speaker 1: the more questions you will have as you give up
Speaker 1: on the answers that were simple for one stage. But
Speaker 1: the closer you get, the more mature you become, the
Speaker 1: more progress you may. You find that the answers don't
Speaker 1: come so easy. You're no longer content with cliches because
Speaker 1: you want to know him. You want to know who
Speaker 1: he really is. Now they loved him on Palm Sunday.
Speaker 1: Remember they put the palm branches down. I don't even
Speaker 1: know where they got it from, because that was from
Speaker 1: the other festival. They didn't even use those that pass over.
Speaker 1: But whether or not it's two different accounts merged together,
Speaker 1: we'll never know. They put the palm branches down in
Speaker 1: this passage and all of the gospels that record it,
Speaker 1: and they were like, in a loud voice, holds that,
Speaker 1: blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosannah.
Speaker 1: Here's what's weird about it. The Pharisees are like, shut
Speaker 1: him up. Jesus is like, I can't. If they stop,
Speaker 1: the rocks will start shouting. Because who I am creates praise.
Speaker 1: Who I am creates expectation. When my presence shows up,
Speaker 1: things have to change. Things have to change. If you're
Speaker 1: sitting next to somebody who doesn't like you, clap and
Speaker 1: tell them. If I don't do it, the chair will.
Speaker 1: Someone's gotta praise God, something's gotta glorify him. It might
Speaker 1: as well be something with breadth, it might as well
Speaker 1: be me. So now back to the text. He's going
Speaker 1: in and they're like, Hosannah, blessed this the king who
Speaker 1: comes in the name of the Lord. Peace, in heaven
Speaker 1: and glory doxa, doxa remember, doxa glory doxology, doxa glory
Speaker 1: in the highest, doxa peace and glory in the highest.
Speaker 1: Some Pharisees were like, shot him up, and he's like
Speaker 1: in the stones a crowd. But then what's crazy to
Speaker 1: me is this paradox. Remember, I love that word. I
Speaker 1: want you to love that word. I'm going to preach
Speaker 1: on that word until you love that word. Paradox is
Speaker 1: like a contradiction, only it happens to be true. And
Speaker 1: sometimes you are when you are frustrated with yourself because
Speaker 1: you feel like a contradiction. Right, I love God, but
Speaker 1: I love certain sins. I love God, but I still
Speaker 1: love this thing over here that I shouldn't love. It's
Speaker 1: not a contradiction. It's a paradox because his strength is
Speaker 1: made perfect in your weakness, and his grace needs a
Speaker 1: place to operate, So he leaves a weakness in your
Speaker 1: life so that the King can ride in on a cult,
Speaker 1: so that they won't celebrate what he wrote in on
Speaker 1: they'll celebrate him when he rides in. Where was a Oh?
Speaker 1: Verse forty one? As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city,
Speaker 1: You got it nineteen twenty one. He wept over it. Wow,
Speaker 1: they were shouting. He was weeping. They were cheering, and
Speaker 1: he was crying. He wasn't on the cross yet, That's
Speaker 1: not why he was crying. He wasn't in the garden yet.
Speaker 1: That's not why he was crying. There was no physical pain.
Speaker 1: He was crying because he knew they were celebrating the
Speaker 1: wrong thing. He knew that they thought that he was
Speaker 1: coming to fix it, and he was coming to fix them. Wow.
Speaker 1: They thought he was coming to change the situation and
Speaker 1: the kingdom would come at once. But what he was
Speaker 1: really coming to do was deeper. He said, Jerusalem, the
Speaker 1: name of the city means peace, city of peace, jay
Speaker 1: ru Salem. Salem sounds like shalom, right, peace, city of peace.
Speaker 1: You were supposed to be the city of peace. And
Speaker 1: look at verse forty two. If you even you had
Speaker 1: only known on this day what would bring you peace.
Speaker 1: But now it is hidden from your eyes. What would
Speaker 1: bring you peace is at your gate, and you will
Speaker 1: reject it because it comes riding on a cult, looking common,
Speaker 1: looking ordinary. You will reject it because you do not
Speaker 1: understand the cross and the closer Jesus got to his
Speaker 1: purpose the further he got from their plan. Have your
Speaker 1: plans been disrupted lately? You might be getting closer? You
Speaker 1: know how he used to play closer, closer, closer. I
Speaker 1: always thought was interesting how Paul was blinded when he
Speaker 1: first got converted by Jesus on the Damascus Road. And
Speaker 1: it must have been weird because he had never been
Speaker 1: closer to God than he was in that moment. He'd
Speaker 1: been close to religion, he had climbed that ladder, but
Speaker 1: now he can't see. And there's a sense in which,
Speaker 1: when you really make progress in your walk with God,
Speaker 1: at first you think you know everything, and now you've
Speaker 1: got the answer. Jesus is the answer. What's the answer?
Speaker 1: Jesus is the answer. What's the answer for America? Jesus
Speaker 1: is the answer for America. What's the answer for our
Speaker 1: young people in the drug epidemic and the apolatria. Jesus
Speaker 1: is the answer. You know, what's the answer for the
Speaker 1: innert that. Jesus is the answer. What's the answer for
Speaker 1: alcoholic Jesus is the answer. But over time you start
Speaker 1: asking better questions, and as you ask deeper questions. When
Speaker 1: you first start, you think you're awesome. Like Elijah is
Speaker 1: making beats right now, and I'm so proud of them,
Speaker 1: and they're good. The first one he made, he thought
Speaker 1: it was ready for radio. He was ready to send
Speaker 1: it to pump Uzzi all the other littles that I
Speaker 1: don't really like to listen to, and he's like, Dad,
Speaker 1: this is amazing, listen to my beat. But then he
Speaker 1: messed around and got good enough to know how much
Speaker 1: better he needed to be. When you first started something,
Speaker 1: you know, when I first started playing guitar, I told
Speaker 1: you about this last week. I thought I was amazing.
Speaker 1: When I first started preaching, I thought I was Billy
Speaker 1: Graham just waiting for a Tokyo crusade to call me.
Speaker 1: But today I stand before you, and I understand that
Speaker 1: ever more than ever before at this point, that even
Speaker 1: the attempt to describe the ways of God as an
Speaker 1: exercise in futility. So it took me getting good enough
Speaker 1: at it to know how good at it I was not.
Speaker 1: It took me. It took me getting just good enough
Speaker 1: at it to know I'm not good at it at all.
Speaker 1: Paul said. The more that I press toward the mark,
Speaker 1: the more I realize that I have so far to
Speaker 1: go and so much to learn, and so many things
Speaker 1: in me. When you first start trying to walk with God,
Speaker 1: you get the mechanics down and you do this and
Speaker 1: you don't do that. But then God starts challenging your
Speaker 1: motives and now it's no longer just about doing the
Speaker 1: right things and saying the right things and learning the
Speaker 1: right words and changing these protocols. Now it's about something
Speaker 1: so much deeper. But the good news is if you
Speaker 1: feel like you've got so far to go, that is
Speaker 1: a good sign that you are actually getting closer to God.
Speaker 1: God's presence creates awareness, awareness of your need, awareness of
Speaker 1: his grace, awareness of his greatness, awareness of his glory,
Speaker 1: and you start to see that all of sinned and
Speaker 1: fall in short of the glory of God. And I
Speaker 1: don't have any judgment to give, and I don't have
Speaker 1: any hell to put anybody in, and I'm writing off
Speaker 1: all the things that I thought I knew to know
Speaker 1: the one who made me. Or you get the further
Speaker 1: you feel you have to go. This is the paradox
Speaker 1: of progress. It's the paradox of Jesus hanging on the cross,
Speaker 1: and He's never been more powerful, and he's never looked weaker.
Speaker 1: So I want to address what Paul said before we
Speaker 1: finished today because it always confused me. It always seemed
Speaker 1: like a paradox. You know what that means. Paradox sort
Speaker 1: of you know what I'm saying. It's like the idea
Speaker 1: that God is sovereign but I'm responsible. It's a paradox.
Speaker 1: That's what makes some God. If I could explain it,
Speaker 1: I wouldn't have to have faith to believe it. I'm
Speaker 1: completely comfortable. How can you serve and love God when
Speaker 1: God I I'm completely comfortable with that He's great, big God.
Speaker 1: I'm a little old me That settles it for me.
Speaker 1: I understand how how his ways are higher than my ways,
Speaker 1: his thoughts are higher than my thoughts. So Paul says,
Speaker 1: I want to know him the power of his resurrection. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I want some of that resurrection power and participation in
Speaker 1: the fellowship of his sufferings. At first, I thought he
Speaker 1: meant that he wanted to die for Christ, and ultimately
Speaker 1: he was on house arrest at the end of the
Speaker 1: Book of Acts when he did suffer many imprisonments and
Speaker 1: eventual death for Christ. Right, But I read it differently.
Speaker 1: He said, I want to participate in his sufferings, in
Speaker 1: his death while I live. That's the paradox. Now watch this, Lord,
Speaker 1: help me deliver this. Paul's not saying I want to
Speaker 1: die like Christ died. He's saying I want to live
Speaker 1: like Christ died. And that means that I'm constantly going
Speaker 1: through cycles of death and resurrection. That means I'm constantly
Speaker 1: having to die too shallow desires so that He can
Speaker 1: give me the desires of my heart and do a
Speaker 1: new thing in me. And whatever I have to let go,
Speaker 1: and whatever I have to write off, and whatever I
Speaker 1: have to let you have. You know, some things are
Speaker 1: not worth me fighting for anymore. Whatever was gain, whatever
Speaker 1: I thought was important, I'm giving it up for something
Speaker 1: more important. I want to know connection with Christ, and
Speaker 1: I want to live like he died. So when people
Speaker 1: insult me, I want to learn to let that go
Speaker 1: like he did. I want to live like he died.
Speaker 1: You want to die like he died? No, I want
Speaker 1: to live like he died. And what it'll look like
Speaker 1: Sometimes people will think I'm losing, but really I'm winning.
Speaker 1: It'll seem like and feel like I'm losing. Now the
Speaker 1: Lord told me it was really important to say this.
Speaker 1: Some of you have been convinced you're in a losing
Speaker 1: season right now because you feel very discombobulated on the inside.
Speaker 1: You're not so certain about certain things that are going
Speaker 1: on in your life right now. It is not a loss.
Speaker 1: In fact, it is a new level. It is actually
Speaker 1: you going deeper into the things of God to understand
Speaker 1: his heart at a level that you couldn't have before.
Speaker 1: So Paul said, if I have to take an l
Speaker 1: if I have to go through some things that are
Speaker 1: painful for me, if I have to be a cult,
Speaker 1: if I have to look like a donkey, if I
Speaker 1: have to ride in looking ridiculous, for the purpose of
Speaker 1: God to be fulfilled. I want to live like he died.
Speaker 1: If I have to hang on a cross to bring
Speaker 1: forth resurrection power. If I have to go to Jerusalem,
Speaker 1: and if I have to face the jeers and the
Speaker 1: taunts and the ridicule and the rejection, if I have
Speaker 1: to pray in the Garden of gethsemony, nevertheless, not my will,
Speaker 1: but yours be done, I'm willing to do it. It's
Speaker 1: not a goal, it's a gift. What you're reaching for
Speaker 1: is already yours. Paul said, all I'm trying to do,
Speaker 1: don't sit down. I'm closing is take hold of that
Speaker 1: for which Christ already took hold of me. I'm not
Speaker 1: trying to arrive at a place where God loves me.
Speaker 1: I'm just trying to live out of the love that
Speaker 1: He is already demonstrating and express his glory doxology. I'm
Speaker 1: trying to express his glory through my weakness. I'm trying
Speaker 1: to ride into town like a little donkey so I
Speaker 1: can carry the purpose of God in my life. And
Speaker 1: it might seem small, and sometimes it feels like I'm
Speaker 1: going backwards, and sometimes it feels like it'd be easier
Speaker 1: just not to come to church altogether and quit trying
Speaker 1: and just give in to my tendencies. But the paradox
Speaker 1: of progress is this, It's all ready yours. The grace
Speaker 1: that you need to change is already yours. The grace
Speaker 1: that you need to go forward is already yours. The
Speaker 1: grace that you need to rise up is already yours.
Speaker 1: The grace that you need to do it in the
Speaker 1: face of adversity and uncertainty, it's already yours. What you
Speaker 1: are reaching for is already yours, and I want to
Speaker 1: pray for some people today. Are you going to play?
Speaker 1: I want to pray for some people today who have
Speaker 1: been moving forward, but it's been a fight, and it's
Speaker 1: been frustrating every step of the way, and you are
Speaker 1: going to have to let go of some things to
Speaker 1: reach for your purpose. What I'm going to pray today,
Speaker 1: the instruction that the Holy Spirit is giving me is
Speaker 1: that you would experience Philippians three sixteen and live up
Speaker 1: to what you have already attained. Isn't that a beautiful
Speaker 1: verse to say, I'm moving forward, but I already made it.
Speaker 1: I want to be more like Christ, but not so
Speaker 1: He will love me more. I want to move forward
Speaker 1: toward my purpose, but not to prove something. I just
Speaker 1: want to carry the king into Jerusalem. I just want
Speaker 1: to carry the purpose of God. You know what. I
Speaker 1: want to raise those three kids God has given me.
Speaker 1: I want to I want to love my wife in
Speaker 1: a way that she can be proud to be my wife.
Speaker 1: I want to pastor the church that He gave me
Speaker 1: in a way that would be honorable. I want to
Speaker 1: preach messages that would help people, and I don't have
Speaker 1: to be anything other than what I am to do it.
Speaker 1: Jesus said, I want to ride on a colt. I
Speaker 1: want a little donkey. I want a little horse. I
Speaker 1: want I want a little thing. I want a little
Speaker 1: thing so I can ride in on something that will
Speaker 1: give me glory. We celebrate the wrong stuff, y'all, we
Speaker 1: celebrate the wrong stuff. The Lord rejoices to see the
Speaker 1: plumb line in the hand of Zaruba bel he rejoices
Speaker 1: to see the beginning of a thing, and the King
Speaker 1: comes riding in on a colt. We've got to celebrate steps.
Speaker 1: We've got to celebrate crosses. We've got to celebrate even
Speaker 1: our sufferings, not because we're going through them, but because
Speaker 1: they achieve in us a glory, a dosa that outweighs
Speaker 1: all of the tribulations. So God, help me celebrate what
Speaker 1: I see as a setback. Now, help me celebrate what
Speaker 1: I see is confusion. Help me feel around in the
Speaker 1: darkness and find my way down the Damascus road until
Speaker 1: I can see what You've called me to be. I
Speaker 1: want to know him in the fellowship of his suffering,
Speaker 1: so that I can experience the resurrection power of the
Speaker 1: humble King, the King of weakness, who is our strength.
Speaker 1: With your head's bowed and your eyes closed, today I
Speaker 1: declare that the devil has been lying to you. You
Speaker 1: are making progress. You are making progress. Progress isn't pretty
Speaker 1: mm hm. Usually yards are hard fought when you really
Speaker 1: want to live for God, especially you've been doing it
Speaker 1: a little while. I mean, it gets harder and harder
Speaker 1: and harder. That's the paradox of progress. This should be
Speaker 1: easy by now. How come I have to forgive this
Speaker 1: person for the seven hundred and ninety first time I
Speaker 1: thought I did it already. Paradox of progress is every
Speaker 1: time you do it, you do it deeper. And God
Speaker 1: is dealing with something different. I pray today that God
Speaker 1: would show you a glimpse of your progress. I really
Speaker 1: want you to see it, because it's important that you
Speaker 1: know it on the inside. Even if people don't see it,
Speaker 1: you know, they might not notice. People will come up
Speaker 1: and say, oh, you've lost you've lost weight, but they
Speaker 1: won't say, oh, you've lost bitterness. They do not how
Speaker 1: compliment that because usually what's the most important isn't the
Speaker 1: most impressed. But made the Lord give you the priorities
Speaker 1: today to know. I'll count at all loss. I'll write
Speaker 1: it all off, what they think, what they say, for
Speaker 1: the sake of being connected to Christ, that matters to me,
Speaker 1: That matters to me, For the sake of fulfilling my calling,
Speaker 1: that matters to me. Lord, I delivered your word like
Speaker 1: the donkey that I am today, just one stumbling step
Speaker 1: after another to get it to the people. Now it's
Speaker 1: between you and them. Whatever you spoke to them in
Speaker 1: these moments, seal it. It is so important to me
Speaker 1: that today they sense your grace and that they apprehend
Speaker 1: that for which you have apprehended them. Let them know
Speaker 1: that you've got them in your grip. That they might
Speaker 1: be trying to hold onto something, but you're holding onto them,
Speaker 1: so that as we take hold of that for which
Speaker 1: you took hold of, us are not striving and straining,
Speaker 1: but trusting and believing in Jesus' name. Thank you for
Speaker 1: joining us. Special thanks to those of you who give
Speaker 1: generously to this ministry. Is because of you that this
Speaker 1: ministry is possible. You can click the link in the
Speaker 1: description to give now or visit Elevationchurch dot org slash
Speaker 1: podcast for more information, and if you enjoyed the podcast,
Speaker 1: you can subscribe. You can share it with your friends.
Speaker 1: You can click the share button, take a screenshot and
Speaker 1: share it on your social stories and tag us at
Speaker 1: Elevation Church. Thanks again for listening. God bless you.