Speaker 1: Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick. 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: Thanks for tuning in. Worship has been awesome. The presence
Speaker 1: of God is here. The presence of God is there
Speaker 1: wherever you are. And right now it is time for
Speaker 1: the preaching of the Word. We have the honor of
Speaker 1: Pastor Darius Daniels being with us this weekend. He is
Speaker 1: the lead pastor of Chase Church. He's been with us
Speaker 1: before and I believe God's given him a message for
Speaker 1: our Elevation family. So right now, put your hands together,
Speaker 1: put your praise hands up in the chat, put the
Speaker 1: hearts in the chat, put the prayer hands together, the
Speaker 1: clap hands. Welcome Pastor Daniel. Well, come on better than that,
Speaker 1: and let's give a great God, great praise wherever you are,
Speaker 1: in your living room, in your kitchen, in your card let,
Speaker 1: it everything that has breath, praise the Lord. It doesn't
Speaker 1: matter what it is, It couldn't change who he is.
Speaker 1: Let's give a great God, great praise. Well, let's pray together. Father,
Speaker 1: we love you today. Our presence wherever we are is
Speaker 1: evidence of your faithfulness. Your faithfulness is great. You've kept us.
Speaker 1: We recognize it, and our response is worship. It's appreciation,
Speaker 1: it's gratitude. Thank you that you love us enough not
Speaker 1: to leave us without direction, and that direction comes through
Speaker 1: your word. So we pray for that today. I pray
Speaker 1: for the empowering presence of the Holy Spirit, your annoying
Speaker 1: to equip and empower me to teach not just the
Speaker 1: message from the Bible, but to release a word from
Speaker 1: the Lord. For you're the only one that can speak
Speaker 1: to all of us and say something different to each
Speaker 1: of us at the same time. So may this message
Speaker 1: be your love letter to us. Let us know that
Speaker 1: you see us rite where we are, and that you
Speaker 1: love us enough to speak with specificity to give us
Speaker 1: strength to run on to see what the end would be.
Speaker 1: Thank you for this house, the spiritual weapon of mass destruction.
Speaker 1: Thank you for the assignment that you've given it to
Speaker 1: see people far from God raise to life in Christ.
Speaker 1: Thank You for the lives that will be raised to
Speaker 1: life today as a result of what you're doing through
Speaker 1: this incredible spiritual family called Elevation Church. Knowing you like
Speaker 1: we know you, we already have what we've asked you for.
Speaker 1: So we thank you for these things in the name
Speaker 1: of the one who saved our life. That name is Jesus.
Speaker 1: If you agree, come on, put a man in the
Speaker 1: chat wherever you are. We're excited to be in the
Speaker 1: house today. Well listen, it is my extreme honor to
Speaker 1: be here. First of all, I have just such great
Speaker 1: respect and admiration for one of the greatest leaders on
Speaker 1: the planet, one of the most incredible communicators on the planet,
Speaker 1: and one of the greatest men personally off stage that
Speaker 1: I know. And so the scriptures teach us that honor
Speaker 1: is a kingdom ethic. It is the way we manage
Speaker 1: relationships as followers of Jesus. So wherever we are in
Speaker 1: the chat, in the room, we're just gonna make some
Speaker 1: major noise. And thank God for my friend, my brother
Speaker 1: passed the Stephen erdet so excited to be here with you,
Speaker 1: and listen. If you're at home, you're probably already sitting down.
Speaker 1: If you're in the room, you can have your seats.
Speaker 1: What matters is the Pasha of our heart. There's something
Speaker 1: on my heart I kind of want to share today,
Speaker 1: and so I want you to meet me in the
Speaker 1: second book of the Bible, the Book of Exodus. Y'all.
Speaker 1: I'm dealing with some mixed emotions today. This morning. This morning,
Speaker 1: six thirty am, had to drop off my firstborn son
Speaker 1: for college. He's playing football at west Point University west
Speaker 1: Point Military Academy, and drop them off this morning. So
Speaker 1: I'm young but I feel old, and I'm old but
Speaker 1: I feel young. I don't know, but I got mixed
Speaker 1: emotions and excited about all that God's domed in the
Speaker 1: life of my family, and glad to be here with
Speaker 1: this incredible spiritual family. EXETERU, Chapter thirteen, verse seventeen. I'm
Speaker 1: going to read a few verses here, one verse here,
Speaker 1: and then we're going to use as a launch and
Speaker 1: path to leap into our lesson today. This is what
Speaker 1: it says. It says when Pharaoh let the people go,
Speaker 1: God did not lead them on the road through Philistine country,
Speaker 1: though that was shorter. See what he says. For God
Speaker 1: said if they faced war, they might change their minds
Speaker 1: and return to Egypt. So God led the people verse eighteen,
Speaker 1: around by the desert road, toward the Red Sea. Israelites
Speaker 1: went up out of Egypt ready for battle. I want
Speaker 1: to end the reading the God's word right there, and
Speaker 1: I want to tag a title to this text. I
Speaker 1: want us to think around this thought and our time
Speaker 1: together today. I didn't see that coming. I didn't see
Speaker 1: that coming the family. There are a number of interesting
Speaker 1: adjectives that can be used to describe the nature and
Speaker 1: the character of God. For the purpose of our time
Speaker 1: together today, I want to lift up one that I
Speaker 1: think is extremely important and at the same time extremely unsettling,
Speaker 1: and that is God is unpredictable. Please don't read what
Speaker 1: I'm not writing. Please don't hear what I'm not saying.
Speaker 1: I am not saying in any way that there is
Speaker 1: any inconsistency in God's character. That's not what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: God is consistently consistent. He's reliably reliable. He is what
Speaker 1: the writer of Hebrews calls it calls immutable. He is unchanging.
Speaker 1: He's the same yesterday, today, and forevermore. He was a waymaker,
Speaker 1: he is a waymaker. He will be a waymaker. He
Speaker 1: was a door opener, he is a door opener. He
Speaker 1: will be a door opener. He was a healer, he
Speaker 1: is a healer, he will be a healer. As a
Speaker 1: matter of fact, the only reason that many of us
Speaker 1: are saying in the membrane in the midst of a
Speaker 1: pandemic is because God's been consistent. Corona's been unpredictable, but
Speaker 1: God's been consistent. The economy's been uncertain, but God's been consistent.
Speaker 1: The only reason we're here is because God is consistent.
Speaker 1: I'm not saying there's any inconsistency in his character, but
Speaker 1: I am saying there isdictability in his activity. In other words,
Speaker 1: we can predict who God will be, but we cannot
Speaker 1: always accurately anticipate what God will do. We see instances
Speaker 1: in scripture in the New Testament, specifically where people found
Speaker 1: themselves in dilemmas and in situations and circumstances and Jesus
Speaker 1: responded immediately. And then we look in the same New
Speaker 1: Testament and we see examples of instances like John eleven
Speaker 1: with a dude named Lazarus. Jesus gets word that Lazarus
Speaker 1: is sick, and instead of going immediately, he delays himself intentionally.
Speaker 1: He says no I'm a wait until about four days
Speaker 1: before I get there, because the Sadducees had the teaching
Speaker 1: that the spirit of a man didn't leave until after
Speaker 1: three days, and so when he got there on the
Speaker 1: fourth day, they knew that it was undeniably inexplain a miracle.
Speaker 1: See you can predict who he'll be, but you can't
Speaker 1: always predict what he'll do. See See, there are some
Speaker 1: instances where he healed. Jesus healed people by touching them.
Speaker 1: Then there are instances like in Mark five, where someone
Speaker 1: got healed by touching the hem of him. She didn't
Speaker 1: even touch him, she touched what was touching him. She said,
Speaker 1: if I could touch the hem of his garment, I'll
Speaker 1: be made whole. There are times where he spoke the
Speaker 1: word and healed, and then there are instances where he
Speaker 1: spit in dirt, made mud, put mud on a person's
Speaker 1: eyes and they got healed. And then there are instances
Speaker 1: where individuals like the apostle Paul said, because of the
Speaker 1: abundance of revelation given to me, there was given me
Speaker 1: a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of saying to
Speaker 1: buffet me this thing. I saw the Lord three times
Speaker 1: that it might be removed from me. And on the
Speaker 1: third time, God say, nah, my great sufficient, it's God.
Speaker 1: You're not gonna change this. No, I'm not gonna change that.
Speaker 1: But God the devil Sinnate say yeah, the double sentate.
Speaker 1: But I like it, so I'm gonna leave it. God,
Speaker 1: I've never been things have never been worse. Yeah, but
Speaker 1: spiritually they'd never been better. God, I've never been in
Speaker 1: this much pain. You've never been in this much prayer.
Speaker 1: So instead of altering this, I'm gonna give you grace
Speaker 1: to endure it. There's no inconsistency in his character, but
Speaker 1: there is unpredictability in his activity. Life then will be
Speaker 1: full of surprises. So listen to me, family. This means
Speaker 1: that the course and the quality of our life is
Speaker 1: going to be determined by our ability to handle what
Speaker 1: you didn't see coming. Oh. And I know this is unnerving,
Speaker 1: and this is unsettling for those of us who are
Speaker 1: like me, who prefer the predictable. It's uncomfortable for those
Speaker 1: of us who do not like disruption. But if I
Speaker 1: want to be used by God, I must be willing
Speaker 1: to be disrupted. If I want to be used by God,
Speaker 1: I must be willing to be disrupted, because God is
Speaker 1: the god of disruption. You'll be minding your business, tending
Speaker 1: to sheep, and then all of a sudden he'll start
Speaker 1: setting burning bushes on fire. And you thought you were
Speaker 1: out of Egypt for the rest of your life, Moses.
Speaker 1: And then he starts telling you to take your shoes
Speaker 1: off your own holy ground, and he says, I know
Speaker 1: you thought you were going to do one thing with
Speaker 1: your life, but I'm getting ready to disrupt it. I
Speaker 1: don send you back to the place you said you'd
Speaker 1: never go back to get you in minding his business
Speaker 1: threshing weed in a wine press. Disruption. So the course
Speaker 1: in the quality of my life, it's going to be
Speaker 1: determined by my ability to handle what I did see coming,
Speaker 1: because God in life are full of surprises. This means
Speaker 1: the people who live well must be willing to relinquish
Speaker 1: what many in our culture are addicted to holding on to,
Speaker 1: and that is control. Control. And what's weird is we
Speaker 1: need to relinquish what we really don't have. So we're
Speaker 1: relinquishing the illusion of something for peace's sake, because the
Speaker 1: idea that we have control is an illusion because we
Speaker 1: don't we have responsibility, but not control. We have influence,
Speaker 1: but not control. Control is an illusion. Control is reserved
Speaker 1: for the sovereign one. And when you attempt, you and
Speaker 1: I attempt to take on the responsibility and the weight
Speaker 1: of control, we're taking on God weight. And then we're
Speaker 1: carrying weight we're not conditioned to carry. And then our
Speaker 1: mind and our body begins to respond in inappropriate ways
Speaker 1: to send you a message that you weren't designed to
Speaker 1: carry this. You've been designed to focus on today. You
Speaker 1: haven't been built to worry about tomorrow. Because while you're sleeping,
Speaker 1: I'm the God that never sleeps a sumberus. While you're
Speaker 1: trying to figure it out, I'm the God that's already
Speaker 1: working it out. That's God weight. You get today, I
Speaker 1: got tomorrow control. It's an illusion. It's now try to
Speaker 1: take control. I'm taking God weight, and our bodies and
Speaker 1: our minds respond in a way letting us know that
Speaker 1: we have not been created to carry I have responsibility, now,
Speaker 1: I got influence, but I do not have control. So
Speaker 1: here's the question. Here's the question, especially for people who
Speaker 1: have already made the decision to become a follower of
Speaker 1: the person and the principles of Jesus. Here's the question,
Speaker 1: do you only trust God with your past or do
Speaker 1: you trust him with your future? Because this means I
Speaker 1: must be willing. If I trust him with my future,
Speaker 1: I must be willing to wrap my head around and
Speaker 1: experience that we see here in this text. This text
Speaker 1: teaches us how to manage these surprise seasons. This text
Speaker 1: here in Exodus offers us some insight on how to
Speaker 1: handle seasons and situations that we didn't see coming. It's interesting, right,
Speaker 1: this book of Exodus, which captures Israel's exodus out of Egypt,
Speaker 1: it shows us something really interesting to me. It shows
Speaker 1: us this. It shows us that we may be able
Speaker 1: to ladies and gentlemen look at God's promises and get
Speaker 1: a sense of where He's taking us. But the text
Speaker 1: teaches that we might be surprised when it comes to
Speaker 1: the way he takes us there. Right, because this text
Speaker 1: is God's fulfilling of a promise that he makes to
Speaker 1: Moses in private. God tells Moses in private, I'm sending
Speaker 1: you back to Egypt, and you're going to tell Pharaoh
Speaker 1: to let my people go, and you're going to take
Speaker 1: my people to a land I promised them it's inhabited
Speaker 1: by the Canaan Knites. It's called Canaan Land. It's a
Speaker 1: promised land in the Old Testament. It's a New Testament
Speaker 1: picture of the life that's available to us in Christ.
Speaker 1: And God says to Moses, I'm gonna usual to take
Speaker 1: Israel from e to the Promised Land. Those were the
Speaker 1: only two destinations in the conversation, Egypt and the Promised Land.
Speaker 1: Only two destinations in the conversation, Egypt and the Promised Land.
Speaker 1: So when Moses goes to Israel, he starts preaching God's promise,
Speaker 1: and God is gonna take us from Egypt and get
Speaker 1: us to the Promised Land. Somebody shout, promise, man, look
Speaker 1: at your neighbor and say promised land. Smell the heron,
Speaker 1: say I smell Promised Land. And he's preaching, and the
Speaker 1: people are excited and they're screaming, and then finally at
Speaker 1: God is making good on the promise. The Bible says
Speaker 1: when Pharaoh lets the people go, God did not leave
Speaker 1: them on the road through Philistine country, though that was shorter.
Speaker 1: Wait a minute, now, Jesus, wait a minute. You said
Speaker 1: I was going from Egypt to the Promised Land. You
Speaker 1: ain't saying anything about this other route here. No, no, no no,
Speaker 1: It's interesting. It says when Pharaoh let him go, God
Speaker 1: did not leave them through the Philistine country. Listen to me, family,
Speaker 1: though that was shorter. I'm gonna say that again. He
Speaker 1: didn't leave them through Philistine country, though that was shorter.
Speaker 1: Because the assumption is we're going to have a straight
Speaker 1: path to the promise. God said, no, no, no no, no,
Speaker 1: even though that's shorter, I can't lead you the short way.
Speaker 1: Watch this because if they face war, they might change
Speaker 1: their minds and return to Egypt. Don't miss this, family.
Speaker 1: God knows what battles, right, we are not ready to fight.
Speaker 1: Did you hear what I just said? He says, Now,
Speaker 1: I could take you that way, but if I take
Speaker 1: you that way, you're going to be exposed to some
Speaker 1: adversity that you're not quite developed for us, and it's
Speaker 1: gonna set you back. It would have set them back physically,
Speaker 1: but sometimes it set us back spiritually, and it sets
Speaker 1: us back emotionally. And God knows what battles. We are
Speaker 1: not ready to fight this way. Mark Batterson puts it,
Speaker 1: He says, that's a backside to every blessing. Did you
Speaker 1: hear what I just said? So here this They were
Speaker 1: ready to get out of Egypt and get into Canaan,
Speaker 1: but they were not ready to deal with the adversity
Speaker 1: that a short path required. Are y'all following me here?
Speaker 1: He says? He says, I know that's shorter, he says,
Speaker 1: but it's a backside to that. And you're ready for
Speaker 1: the front side, but you're not ready for the backside.
Speaker 1: Because to whom so hother much is giving, much is required.
Speaker 1: And sometimes I'm not holding you up because you're not
Speaker 1: ready for the front side. I'm holding you up because
Speaker 1: you're not ready for the backside. Yes, I'm holding I'm
Speaker 1: not holding you up because I'm not going to give
Speaker 1: it to you. I'm holding you up because when I
Speaker 1: give it to you, I want you to be mature
Speaker 1: enough to handle it so that you can keep it.
Speaker 1: I don't know who this is far, but I want
Speaker 1: I want to talk to somebody who feels like you're
Speaker 1: experiencing a divine delay. I want you to know it's
Speaker 1: just delay, it's not denial, because God knows how to
Speaker 1: put you in the right place at the right time.
Speaker 1: Maybe you ready for it, but you're not ready for it.
Speaker 1: Did you hear what I just said. Maybe you're ready
Speaker 1: for it, but you're not ready for it. You know,
Speaker 1: you can be ready for the promotion but not ready
Speaker 1: for pressure. You can be ready for elevation but not
Speaker 1: ready for haters. You can be ready for responsibility but
Speaker 1: not be ready for being liked. God's like, I got
Speaker 1: to make sure that your heart is as good as
Speaker 1: your gift. I've got to make sure that your soul
Speaker 1: is as whole as your gift is, because if not,
Speaker 1: your gift will lead you and put you in places
Speaker 1: and spaces that your heart is not mature enough to handle.
Speaker 1: And a blessing will feel like a curse if you
Speaker 1: get it too early. I want somebody to just pause
Speaker 1: right now and just thank God for every time he
Speaker 1: delayed something. Thank God not for every open door, but
Speaker 1: for the doors he closed that he knew I wasn't
Speaker 1: ready to walk in. God says, no, no, no no, they
Speaker 1: face war. They might change their mind and return to Egypt.
Speaker 1: So what was the text say? It says something. In
Speaker 1: verse eighteen, it says, so God led the people around
Speaker 1: by the desert road toward the Red Sea. Listen to
Speaker 1: this family. This, this is this is really interesting to me,
Speaker 1: at least it's interesting to me. It's it's interesting because
Speaker 1: one version of the scripture translates this as desert. Some
Speaker 1: others translate this as the wilderness. So this is a
Speaker 1: destination God left out of the conversation because if you
Speaker 1: go back and you look at God's conversation with Moses
Speaker 1: and Moses's conversation with Israel, there's no mention of a
Speaker 1: desert or wilderness. This means, God, are you all ready
Speaker 1: for this? If you're ready to put, I'm ready in
Speaker 1: the chat. If you're ready, put I'm ready in the chat.
Speaker 1: It means God, God intentionally withheld information from Israel until
Speaker 1: they were out of Egypt. I want to make sure
Speaker 1: you heard what I just said. It means stay with me.
Speaker 1: It means that He intentionally withheld information from them until
Speaker 1: they were too far into it. They thought about going back,
Speaker 1: they talked about going back, but they were too far
Speaker 1: into it to go back. And I want to see
Speaker 1: if we can relate to Israel's experience, because I believe
Speaker 1: that sometimes God intentionally withhold's information from us. He says,
Speaker 1: because if you knew everything you were saying yes to,
Speaker 1: I don't know if you would give me a yes.
Speaker 1: So I'm gonna wait until you too far away from Egypt,
Speaker 1: until you recognize everything that you got yourself into, because
Speaker 1: if I let you know in the beginning, you would
Speaker 1: have never left your starting point. Yeah, it takes them
Speaker 1: through this this place wilderness. Now, when I first saw that,
Speaker 1: I'm saying to myself, like, Yo, that's that's negative. I
Speaker 1: don't want the wilderness. I don't want that. That's negative.
Speaker 1: Then some said to me, it's necessary, and I'm saying no.
Speaker 1: So sometimes I get in my head, I'm like, no,
Speaker 1: it's it's negative. No, it's it's necessary. It's negative. It's necessary.
Speaker 1: It's negative, it's necessary. And then this thought came to
Speaker 1: my mind. There's the wilderness is only negative when you
Speaker 1: stay there longer than you have to. Okay, it's it's
Speaker 1: it's the wilderness represents surprise seasons. It represents what you
Speaker 1: didn't see coming. It represents what you cannot predict and
Speaker 1: what you cannot prefer. And God says, this is interesting,
Speaker 1: that wilderness seasons are not necessarily negative and then necessary.
Speaker 1: Listen to this because these seasons, although we don't prefer them,
Speaker 1: are seasons of preparation. And it's weird because it is
Speaker 1: preparation that God keeps you uninformed about, because God's the
Speaker 1: only one that will take you to school, and you
Speaker 1: not even know you in class. You didn't even know
Speaker 1: you went to school until it was over. Is there
Speaker 1: anybody that can look back over your life and say,
Speaker 1: I didn't understand while I went through certain things when
Speaker 1: I was in the middle of it, But then once
Speaker 1: I got on the other side of it and I
Speaker 1: look back, I realized and recognize God was teaching me something.
Speaker 1: And if I didn't learn what I needed to learn
Speaker 1: back then, if I wasn't developed in the ways I
Speaker 1: needed to be developed back then, I wouldn't be in
Speaker 1: the position to handle where I am right now. I
Speaker 1: want to pause for the cause and tell somebody that
Speaker 1: God is not just your savior, He's your teacher and
Speaker 1: he's got you in school right now teaching you some
Speaker 1: things you need to learn. So just sit back, dig
Speaker 1: the scene with the student, lean whoop, whoop, and get
Speaker 1: the lessons so that you can receive the blessing somebody
Speaker 1: praise them on your couch praise them in your living room.
Speaker 1: It's it's it's it's it's interesting here. He sets them
Speaker 1: in this, this wilderness, this desert, says, Yeah, this is
Speaker 1: a place of preparation. And wherever listen to me, family,
Speaker 1: Wherever there's preparation, there pruning. Wherever that's preparation, that's pruning.
Speaker 1: Meaning forward movement is not just attached to what we
Speaker 1: start doing. It is attached to what we stop doing.
Speaker 1: It's pruning. Jesus puts it this way in John fifteen.
Speaker 1: He says, every branch that bears fruit, God prunes so
Speaker 1: that it can produce more fruit. And when I look
Speaker 1: at Israel's experience in the wilderness, I see there's a
Speaker 1: lot of pruning going on. Like, first of all, there's
Speaker 1: pruning of issues. The wildness becomes like an airport hub
Speaker 1: where certain things get dropped off that can't go to
Speaker 1: the final destination. Because sometimes the enemy is not the enemy,
Speaker 1: it's the enemy. And sometimes God drops us in these
Speaker 1: surprise seasons, he says, because I want to give you
Speaker 1: an opportunity to deal with some of the things that
Speaker 1: can't go with you where you're going. Because old new seasons,
Speaker 1: we keep feeling like old seasons if we don't deal
Speaker 1: with old issues. This might be one of the reasons
Speaker 1: why when David defeated Goliath, he went up to him
Speaker 1: and cut off his head. Because sometimes we knock the
Speaker 1: giant down and we think it's dead, and then we
Speaker 1: turn our back on it and try to move forward
Speaker 1: in a new season, and then an old problem rears itself,
Speaker 1: rears its head back up and follows us into a
Speaker 1: new one. Pruning issues. This is really really uncomfortable. People
Speaker 1: get uncomfortable when I talk about this one. But it's
Speaker 1: also a time where there's pruning of individuals. It is
Speaker 1: so important. See Prover thirteen and twenty says walk walk
Speaker 1: with wise men and become wise. But a companion of
Speaker 1: fool suffers harm. Listen to this family. It didn't say
Speaker 1: a fool suffers harm. It says a companion of foolslfs home,
Speaker 1: which means I don't have to be a fool to
Speaker 1: be hurt. I just got to hang out with them.
Speaker 1: The scriptures for doing this don't be deceived. Bad company corrupts,
Speaker 1: good character issues individuals. It's a time where God purgaes
Speaker 1: us of attitudes. Notice the text says they might see
Speaker 1: war and go back to Egypt. Why because for hundreds
Speaker 1: of years they've been slaves, their minds had not been
Speaker 1: conditioned to think like soldiers. So they were out of Egypt,
Speaker 1: but Egypt was not out of them. So God needed
Speaker 1: to adjust their attitude so that they could see themselves properly.
Speaker 1: Because you're always behave in a way that is consistent
Speaker 1: with the way you see yourself. And God' say, I
Speaker 1: gotta get you to see you the way I see you.
Speaker 1: And this is why I spend so much time telling
Speaker 1: you who you are in scripture, because I want you
Speaker 1: to see yourself the way I see you, so that
Speaker 1: you can behave in a way that's consistent with who
Speaker 1: you've been born to be, not who you think you
Speaker 1: really are. So I want to do all of this
Speaker 1: in some of these surprise seasons. And I think when
Speaker 1: you look at Israel's experience, we can see a connection
Speaker 1: to some of ours. And I think it really answers
Speaker 1: the quintessential question when it comes to dealing with surprise seasons,
Speaker 1: y'all passadaris, what do I do with these seasons? Here?
Speaker 1: It is what do I do what I can't with
Speaker 1: what I can't control? And what I didn't predict and
Speaker 1: what I don't prefer. What do I do? You manage them?
Speaker 1: What do I do when I can't control it? I
Speaker 1: manage it? And what does this mean for us? It
Speaker 1: means for us, what it meant for Israel? Practically, when
Speaker 1: seasons cannot be avoided, they must be managed, it managed,
Speaker 1: and how it is managed determines whether or not it
Speaker 1: is prolonged or made permanent. And I want to give
Speaker 1: a few ways to manage seasons like this because I
Speaker 1: feel like it's really important. Okay, this is really important
Speaker 1: because the season itself listen to me, The season itself
Speaker 1: is a surprise. But then once you get in the season,
Speaker 1: you're going to experience some things that are surprised also.
Speaker 1: And this is exactly what happened to Israel. So they
Speaker 1: get in this in this wilderness season and they start
Speaker 1: getting hungry. They like, we want some bread, we want
Speaker 1: something to eat. And then all of a sudden, the
Speaker 1: Bible says and Nexitus, chapter sixteen, verse number thirty one.
Speaker 1: It says that the people of Israel called watch this
Speaker 1: called the bread manna. It was like white coarameter seed,
Speaker 1: and taste it like wafers made with honey. Don't miss this, y'all.
Speaker 1: So they are in the middle of this surprise season.
Speaker 1: They're asking their savior for provision, and they wake up
Speaker 1: one morning and they see this coorander seed spread on
Speaker 1: the ground like do and they called it manna because
Speaker 1: mana means what is it? So they ask God for bread?
Speaker 1: And they wake up and they see this frost like
Speaker 1: carander seed substance spread out like do and they say
Speaker 1: mana because mana means what is it? God? I ask
Speaker 1: you for bread? What is this? I ask you for wisdom?
Speaker 1: What is this? I ask you for strength? What is this?
Speaker 1: I ask you for a blessing? What is this? I
Speaker 1: ask you for more? What is this? Here it is
Speaker 1: family because here manna represents three things. I'm get all
Speaker 1: your waye Manter represents first of all the times when
Speaker 1: God's performance doesn't match your expectation. Listen to this. They
Speaker 1: asked for bread, and I guess they thought they were
Speaker 1: gonna get I'm originally from Mississippi, some kind of country.
Speaker 1: I guess they thought they were gonna get some jiffy
Speaker 1: corn bread, some hot water corn bread, right, some wonderbread.
Speaker 1: But here it is the Bible says they saw something
Speaker 1: on the ground that looked so different from what they
Speaker 1: anticipated in their head. They didn't even recognize that God
Speaker 1: had answered their prayer. He just answered their prayer in
Speaker 1: a form that was different than what they expected. So
Speaker 1: this is what some biblical historians say. They say that
Speaker 1: Israel took that seed, and when they took that seed,
Speaker 1: they grinded it. And when they grinded it, grinded the seed,
Speaker 1: the seed became green and they were able to take
Speaker 1: the and make bread. Don't miss this. It means that
Speaker 1: God's provision came in the form of a project. Did
Speaker 1: you hear what I just said? And you got to
Speaker 1: be willing to grind to turn it into what you
Speaker 1: know it could be. I don't know who I'm preaching
Speaker 1: to and here today, but I want you to know
Speaker 1: it's grinding season for you. When God gets you a seed,
Speaker 1: you've got to be willing to grind and if you're
Speaker 1: grind you can turn it into what you know it's
Speaker 1: been created to be. It's when God's performance the match
Speaker 1: your expectations. Okay, here it is number two number two manna.
Speaker 1: What is it? It represents? Uh oh? Times when God
Speaker 1: supernaturally suffocates your supply. This is what was interesting about
Speaker 1: their experience with manna. The manna would only last twenty
Speaker 1: four hours except for the day before the Sabbath. It
Speaker 1: will spoil, which means that every day they woke up
Speaker 1: they had to depend on God to provide. It wouldn't
Speaker 1: be like that always, but for that season for them,
Speaker 1: God says, yep, and everybody's going to hit a season
Speaker 1: where in some area of your life, you will hit
Speaker 1: a season where God supernaturally suffocates your supply and say,
Speaker 1: every day you're going to have to look to me
Speaker 1: for this, because watch this. There are things you're having
Speaker 1: to ask me for in the wilderness that you're going
Speaker 1: to have an overflow of in Canaan. Canaan is a
Speaker 1: land that was agriculturally rich. He was flowing with milk
Speaker 1: and honey. And God says, before you get to Canaan,
Speaker 1: I want to make sure you are crystal clear on
Speaker 1: who your source is. That I condition you properly so
Speaker 1: that when you get to Canaan you don't get the
Speaker 1: grapes and forget about God. I want to know, is
Speaker 1: there anybody watching me right now, anybody that's willing to
Speaker 1: admit that I will not get the grapes and forget
Speaker 1: about God, because God was there holding me in the
Speaker 1: midnight hour. God was there coaching and counseling and consoling me.
Speaker 1: God was there teaching and training me that He's my
Speaker 1: sores and I've got to depend and rely on him.
Speaker 1: Is when He supernaturally suffocates your supply. He says, no
Speaker 1: in this area right now, in this season, I'm going
Speaker 1: to teach you a different type of dependence. And finally,
Speaker 1: manner represents listen to this. It represents seasonal supply here.
Speaker 1: It is. This is one of my favorite scriptures in
Speaker 1: the Old Testament. It says, and the manner ceased it
Speaker 1: was temporary. They probably were getting all up in arms,
Speaker 1: experienced and extreme anxiety, and God's like, this is just temporary.
Speaker 1: This is just what I'm doing right now to hold
Speaker 1: you over until I get you to where I'm taking you.
Speaker 1: This is just temporary provision that I'm making until I
Speaker 1: provide in a way that is more permanent. It is
Speaker 1: a temporary supply here. It is. So instead of feeling
Speaker 1: anxiety with the manner listen to this, they should have
Speaker 1: expressed appreciation for the manner because they didn't reckonize that
Speaker 1: the manner was a miracle. Sometimes we can be so
Speaker 1: busy looking for a miracle that we miss the one
Speaker 1: we're experiencing. And God's greatest critique of Israel was their
Speaker 1: unappreciation for his benevolence and generosity to their life. He's like,
Speaker 1: I've done all of these miracles, and they're still infected
Speaker 1: with entitlement, and they don't know how to properly respond
Speaker 1: to what I've already done in life, in their life?
Speaker 1: What more do I have to do to prove I
Speaker 1: got them now? Passadarius? What's the proper response to miracles?
Speaker 1: It's appreciation. What's the word that we use for that
Speaker 1: in Christian context? It's praise. Praise it just noise. Praise
Speaker 1: is good manners. Praise is a recognition of God's divine
Speaker 1: provision in my life, and it is my organic and
Speaker 1: automatic response. It is an expression of gratitude, and gratitude
Speaker 1: is the seed for more. The more you so praise God,
Speaker 1: God starts sowing back into you. And I feel like,
Speaker 1: in the midst of a pandemic, yes we've lost a lot,
Speaker 1: Yes we're going through a lot, but I think we
Speaker 1: need to pause for a minute and reflect on the
Speaker 1: manner we've experienced, the miracles he's already performed and refused
Speaker 1: to be infected with entitlement and say, I've got to
Speaker 1: praise God for what he has done, and I'm gonna
Speaker 1: praise God in expectation for what he's getting ready to do.
Speaker 1: I want somebody to praise him right now. Yes, I'm done. Listen.
Speaker 1: Israel mismanaged this season, so what was intended to be
Speaker 1: temporary turned out to be forty years. Forty years they
Speaker 1: wandered in the wilderness. They didn't have to because they mismanaged,
Speaker 1: but they didn't see coming. Listen to me, this is
Speaker 1: the word that's on my heart. Just because you're surprised
Speaker 1: doesn't mean you're not prepared. You may not feel prepared.
Speaker 1: But just because you've been surprised by what is coming
Speaker 1: your way, does it mean that God has not been
Speaker 1: preparing you for it? And your management of it is
Speaker 1: tied to your recognition and your revelation. God has prepared
Speaker 1: me for this. I didn't see it coming, but I'm ready.
Speaker 1: I was caught off guard, but I'm ready. I don't
Speaker 1: prefer this, and I wouldn't have picked it. But if
Speaker 1: God allowed me to experience it, I'm ready for it.
Speaker 1: You know what happened when those plagues hit Egypt. God
Speaker 1: was getting them ready. You know what happened when he
Speaker 1: split that red sea and they walked through on the
Speaker 1: right ground. God was getting them ready. And there's some
Speaker 1: red seas he's split in your life? What was he
Speaker 1: doing getting you ready? Cat you prepared? Taking you through school,
Speaker 1: not even letting you know you've been in class. Now,
Speaker 1: here's the question in a season like this, are you
Speaker 1: going to apply what your teacher has taught you? This
Speaker 1: is what I learned, this is this is hard. It's
Speaker 1: hard for me. I struggle with it practically, but when
Speaker 1: I think about it cognitively, it helps me at least
Speaker 1: a bit that when I look at God's track record
Speaker 1: in my past, doubting him in my present is actually illogical.
Speaker 1: So when it seems it would seemed like faith would
Speaker 1: be illogical, But like when you look at how faithful
Speaker 1: God has been, it's like, no, doubt is actually illogical
Speaker 1: because there hasn't been a time He hadn't come through.
Speaker 1: Now he doesn't always sometimes he comes through, and I'm like, man,
Speaker 1: what is it? What is this, but there has not
Speaker 1: been a time He has come through. And if He
Speaker 1: didn't give me what I thought I needed, he taught
Speaker 1: me how to live without it. Yes, you didn't see
Speaker 1: it coming, but God got you ready for it. And
Speaker 1: today I'm getting ready to close out Today, I just
Speaker 1: want to pray for some people who feel like you've
Speaker 1: been knocked off of your feet and caught off God.
Speaker 1: I want to pray for some people who like pass
Speaker 1: it there as I didn't see this coming. I'm so thrown.
Speaker 1: I don't know what to do. I don't I don't
Speaker 1: know where to turn. I'm telling you just because you're
Speaker 1: surprised doesn't mean you aren't prepared. Your God it's been
Speaker 1: getting you ready. If you're willing to manage this manner,
Speaker 1: he will show you that what's on the other side
Speaker 1: of this wilderness experience is a canalin that flows with
Speaker 1: milky honey, where God makes good on his promises. So
Speaker 1: I don't think we necessarily need another revelation now, but
Speaker 1: we do need resilience, and some of us need a
Speaker 1: divine deposit of that. I'm going to pray that God
Speaker 1: will give it to you wherever you are. So Father,
Speaker 1: right now, I thank you that your word says it
Speaker 1: is you who works in us to will and to
Speaker 1: do your good pleasure. And I pray right now that
Speaker 1: you would grant and bless your people with divine will
Speaker 1: of power. I pray for supernatural resilience. I pray for
Speaker 1: strength beyond our own. I pray for a set fastness
Speaker 1: that is beyond our own human capability. I pray that
Speaker 1: you would strengthen us, that we might be strong in
Speaker 1: the Lord. And I give you praise right now that
Speaker 1: the weak are being made strong, that bowed down heads
Speaker 1: are being lifted up, and people who were about to
Speaker 1: throw in the towel are receiving a second wind, the
Speaker 1: wind of the Holy Spirit blowing and breathing on them.
Speaker 1: I thank you for strength to the weak and resilience
Speaker 1: to the weary. We receive it in the name of
Speaker 1: the one who saved our life. That name is Jesus.
Speaker 1: It's in his name we pray. Amen, 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.