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