Speaker 1: Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick.
Speaker 2: I'm the pastor of Elevation Church, and this is our podcast.
Speaker 2: I wanted to thank you for joining us today.
Speaker 1: Hope this inspires you. Hope it builds your faith.
Speaker 2: Hope it gives your perspective to see God is moving
Speaker 2: in your life.
Speaker 1: Enjoy the message.
Speaker 2: I want to share a verse with you from Isaiah
Speaker 2: forty three. This verse nineteen, God, see I am doing
Speaker 2: a new thing. Well, y'all, that's only the first part
Speaker 2: of the verse. Would you let me read the whole
Speaker 2: verse before you start acting all excited and enthusiastic.
Speaker 1: I'm just kidding. Of course, you can shout anytime.
Speaker 2: People shout over much stupid or stuff, so you can.
Speaker 2: You can get excited here. Sorry, all right, let me
Speaker 2: start over. Just let's start over. See, I'm doing a
Speaker 2: new thing now, it's up. Do you not perceive it?
Speaker 2: I am making away in the wilderness. That's what you are,
Speaker 2: just singing and streams in the waste slam. Permit me
Speaker 2: to go over to the Book of Hebrews. I want
Speaker 2: to put one New Testament verse together with that Old
Speaker 2: Testament prophecy. And this is Hebrews Chapter six, Verse one.
Speaker 2: The writer says, Therefore, let us move beyond the elementary
Speaker 2: teachings about Christ and be taken forward to maturity, not
Speaker 2: laying again the foundation of repentance from acts that lead
Speaker 2: to death and of faith in God. So what I
Speaker 2: want to talk to you for a few moments today,
Speaker 2: and I'm so very thrilled to get to stand before
Speaker 2: you again and share the word.
Speaker 1: Of God with you.
Speaker 2: And my subject, my subject is barriers to blessings. And
Speaker 2: I want you to pray for me that I would
Speaker 2: be able to deliver this word to you, just like
Speaker 2: God wants you to hear it. Father, Thanks, thank you
Speaker 2: for the time we have together. Now, these are your people,
Speaker 2: This is your word. Make the connection so that your
Speaker 2: word gets in the hearts of your people and changes
Speaker 2: their lives.
Speaker 1: Because if that happens, the world will change.
Speaker 2: So we believe we're standing on the brink of something great,
Speaker 2: and we declare it by faith in Jesus name.
Speaker 1: Amen, you may be seated.
Speaker 2: Well, not to be unspiritual, but would you help me
Speaker 2: wish my wife a happy birthday.
Speaker 1: She celebrated her birthday and I didn't ask her if
Speaker 1: I could tell you that she's thirty seven.
Speaker 2: We're getting old girl, No are We talk about this
Speaker 2: all the time that we know we're getting old, and
Speaker 2: we know we're getting old because we listen to Cheryl
Speaker 2: Crowe and we yeah, I was in love with Cheryl
Speaker 2: Crowe round age fourteen. I think she was like sixty
Speaker 2: five at that time, and so but she's still.
Speaker 1: Going and.
Speaker 2: Oh, yeah, we're getting old. It's true because I was
Speaker 2: telling Holly the other day, you know, we were even
Speaker 2: listening to trying to listen to some new music from
Speaker 2: the new Cheryl Crow album, which sounds, you know, like
Speaker 2: a paradox, but it's not. It's she's still making music today.
Speaker 2: But I looked at Holly I was like, I just
Speaker 2: can't do it. I just can't listen to the new
Speaker 2: Cheryl Crow. And so we had this weird discussion about
Speaker 2: neural pathways and how your brain starts to like certain
Speaker 2: music in certain stages, and we had a very this
Speaker 2: was on her birthday.
Speaker 1: We had a very.
Speaker 2: Deep discussion about why we don't like the new Cheryl
Speaker 2: Crow and why we like the old Cheryl Crow.
Speaker 1: And it's not I don't think it's Cheryl's fault.
Speaker 2: I don't think Cheryl's vocals have gotten weaker or songwriting
Speaker 2: abilities and sensibilities have gotten any less. Keen, I promise,
Speaker 2: i'mnna get back to the scripture.
Speaker 1: I see a few guests looking nervous. What did you
Speaker 1: bring me to?
Speaker 2: I see a few teenagers looking confused.
Speaker 1: Who is Sheryl Crow?
Speaker 2: And it all makes me feel old, because like, if
Speaker 2: you play a bassline from an old Cheryl Crow song,
Speaker 2: just automatically, it puts me in a certain frame of mind,
Speaker 2: you know, and music does that to you. They've written
Speaker 2: books about it, They've done studies at prestigious universities about
Speaker 2: why certain like why if you played leaving Las Vegas
Speaker 2: right now by Cheryl Crow, just even the baseline, just
Speaker 2: even just a.
Speaker 1: If he started playing that, I.
Speaker 2: Could remember being at the music Farm when I watched
Speaker 2: her open for Blues Traveler. It makes me feel free
Speaker 2: and it makes me feel excited.
Speaker 1: And I remember smelling marijuana for the first time. But
Speaker 1: that's not the point of church. Well, I'm saying this.
Speaker 2: It's like a it's embedded, it's an attachment, it's an
Speaker 2: anchor memory.
Speaker 1: And I liked it.
Speaker 2: I liked the old stuff, I like the new stuff,
Speaker 2: or any of you like me, like just music is not,
Speaker 2: but it it's.
Speaker 3: Okay to talk about just not what it used to be. No, no,
Speaker 3: what happened to the guitar solos and the Sheryl Crow basslines?
Speaker 2: Of course that brings us to Isaiah forty three. No,
Speaker 2: it really does, because y'all were shouting, and I thought
Speaker 2: it was odd that you were shouting, because the announcement
Speaker 2: went like this. I don't know if you remember, It's
Speaker 2: been like five minutes. And then some of us forget
Speaker 2: real quickly, and everybody shot knew. I was reading the verse,
Speaker 2: and I said, see, I am doing a new thing.
Speaker 2: I have no idea what happened in Matthews or Ronoke
Speaker 2: or Raleigh or any other location, but here Valentine. When
Speaker 2: I was trying to read my scripture and I only
Speaker 2: got that far, and I said, see, I am doing.
Speaker 1: A new thing. And they start cheering. But they do
Speaker 1: not share for highway construction.
Speaker 2: Nor did they listen to the new Sheryl Crow album,
Speaker 2: nor did they like their kids choice in music.
Speaker 1: Or clothing.
Speaker 2: We don't really how many want God to do a
Speaker 2: new thing in your life. I'm setting you up. Be
Speaker 2: careful if you raise your hand. I'm just warning you,
Speaker 2: because I think that's I think that's a real challenge.
Speaker 2: I really do. I think sometimes when God is trying
Speaker 2: to bless us, I can use scriptural examples. How you know,
Speaker 2: the early Church was so used to the law that
Speaker 2: when the writer of Hebrews began to break it down,
Speaker 2: and he said that in times past God has spoken
Speaker 2: through the prophets, and he gave us the law through Moses,
Speaker 2: and now he's speaking through his son. One of the
Speaker 2: reasons that the hebrew people had such a difficult time
Speaker 2: and they needed to be brought forth or be led
Speaker 2: into something new, is because our brains have a way.
Speaker 2: They've studied this now in science, not only with Sheryl
Speaker 2: Crow songs, but also with any habit that happens in
Speaker 2: your life. We know now that your brain actually creates highways.
Speaker 2: That's not a technical term. And over the next seven seconds,
Speaker 2: I'm going to tell you everything that I know about
Speaker 2: brain science, but it won't take me long. But I
Speaker 2: don't know that your brain forms connections. Yeah, your brain.
Speaker 2: Once you've done something a certain number of way a
Speaker 2: certain number of times, your brain just locks it in
Speaker 2: and anything that doesn't feel familiar like that starts to
Speaker 2: feel frustrating.
Speaker 1: And that's why some of the.
Speaker 2: Things that you do in your life that you don't
Speaker 2: even like the results of are so difficult to undo
Speaker 2: because you've established a way of doing things.
Speaker 1: We even say that, we say, well, that's just the
Speaker 1: way he is. What are we saying.
Speaker 2: We're talking about his neural pathways. We don't call it
Speaker 2: neural pathways because our friends would look at us funny.
Speaker 1: So we say that's just the way he is.
Speaker 2: Well, that's not just the way he is, it's the
Speaker 2: way his brain has been trained, or it's the way
Speaker 2: that her brain has been trained. I don't want to
Speaker 2: be sexist about it. Women have issues and habitual addictions to.
Speaker 4: Do.
Speaker 2: Somebody say, change your ways. No shouting over that. But
Speaker 2: yet I'm excuse me for a moment. I'm just trying
Speaker 2: to reconcile the fact that when I read my scripture.
Speaker 1: See I am doing a new thing. It felt exciting.
Speaker 2: But then when we actually begin to discuss what it means,
Speaker 2: because God says, now it springs up, do you not
Speaker 2: perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness
Speaker 2: and streams in the wasteland, and other words, God is
Speaker 2: saying to a people who have been exiled into Babylonian captivity.
Speaker 2: He's saying, I'm trying to bless you. I've been trying
Speaker 2: to bless you all your life. I've been trying to
Speaker 2: bless you all your life. I've been trying to release
Speaker 2: what you need all your life. I've been trying to
Speaker 2: give you what is in me. I've been trying to
Speaker 2: flow through you and flow to you and to't your neighbor. Again,
Speaker 2: I won't do this, but maybe about ten more times.
Speaker 2: Tell them God is trying to bless you. He is
Speaker 2: trying to bless you.
Speaker 1: But Isaiah speaks.
Speaker 2: Up because the people of Israel have been, by their behaviors,
Speaker 2: blocking the blessing of God. So I called this message
Speaker 2: barriers to blessings because just like there are blessings, I
Speaker 2: mean real blessings, not just cars and houses. Those are fine,
Speaker 2: not just pools and boyfriends, although if you get one
Speaker 2: of those or both of those, I'll celebrate with you.
Speaker 2: But far beyond that, God wants to bless you at
Speaker 2: the very state of your being. That's what he said
Speaker 2: to Abraham. You will be a blessing. Not just you
Speaker 2: will be blessed, but everybody you touch talk to even
Speaker 2: look at will be blessed just because they got in
Speaker 2: proximity to you.
Speaker 1: That's the promise.
Speaker 2: That's why God brought his people forth so that they
Speaker 2: would be blessed. And the reason that he wanted them
Speaker 2: to be blessed is so they could be a blessing.
Speaker 2: And that's what we're talking about in this series is
Speaker 2: that sometimes we experience.
Speaker 1: Here's the term in business terminology.
Speaker 2: Any business owners in the house, I need to know
Speaker 2: who to pray for, because it is not easy to
Speaker 2: lead an organization, is it.
Speaker 1: And if you started your business, raise your hand.
Speaker 2: If you started your business, and I see that takes
Speaker 2: a lot of courage, because every business has barriers to entry.
Speaker 1: That's the technical term.
Speaker 2: It's startup costs, government regulations, knowledge that you may not
Speaker 2: have that existing competitors already have. And so even to
Speaker 2: think about starting a business is should make you a
Speaker 2: little nauseous because there are barriers to entry. One thing
Speaker 2: that has changed in our modern age is that in
Speaker 2: regards to creativity and content, there are so many different
Speaker 2: ways to distribute content that it's no longer like it was.
Speaker 2: It's not like the old days. In the old days,
Speaker 2: you had to have a record label. To put out
Speaker 2: an album, you had to have a lot of money
Speaker 2: to book studio time. Well, now if you have the
Speaker 2: right software and a SoundCloud, you could just put your
Speaker 2: stuff out off as any good. Maybe it'll get somebody's attention.
Speaker 2: I mean, if you really consistently. I'm not saying it's easier,
Speaker 2: because now there are more than ever, many different people
Speaker 2: and many different entities vuying for attention. But what's happened
Speaker 2: is the barrier to entry has really been broken down,
Speaker 2: and now the barrier to entry is no longer Do
Speaker 2: you have enough money to make an album or do
Speaker 2: you have somebody who will help you make an album?
Speaker 2: It's are you any good? And are you consistent enough
Speaker 2: that you will put out enough stuff until you connect.
Speaker 1: With your audience.
Speaker 2: So I kind of feel like that that's what we're
Speaker 2: trying to understand here in Isaiah forty three and Hebrews
Speaker 2: chapter six. Although these scriptures are separated by about seven
Speaker 2: centuries of time. I think God is trying to get
Speaker 2: us to see that the barriers that were before us
Speaker 2: to keep us from experiencing His blessing are no longer there.
Speaker 2: So I'm talking about shame that was dealt with at
Speaker 2: the cross. I'm talking about your weakness that can actually
Speaker 2: become strength. I'm talking about the mistakes of your past
Speaker 2: that you relive in your mind over and over again.
Speaker 2: I'm saying God has dealt with that, defeated death, defeated the.
Speaker 1: Grave, taken your shame.
Speaker 2: How many want to thank God that the barrier has
Speaker 2: already been broken.
Speaker 1: Just receive it right now.
Speaker 2: Because since you couldn't get to God, God came down
Speaker 2: to you, wrapped himself up, looking like a little infant,
Speaker 2: but really he was infinite, coming through the eons, coming
Speaker 2: through the Axis, coming through Eternity. Cannot preach like the
Speaker 2: barrier is broken. As a matter of fact, when I
Speaker 2: even look out over our church, I see lots of
Speaker 2: barriers broken. I see people who shouldn't even be in
Speaker 2: church together praising God right beside each other, like we
Speaker 2: have the same baptism, the same faith, the same birth,
Speaker 2: the same hope.
Speaker 1: It gets me excited.
Speaker 2: Now if the essence of the Gospel is that God
Speaker 2: breaks barriers, and that he broke every barrier, even the
Speaker 2: righteous requirements of the law, which were fully met in him,
Speaker 2: so that you might be fully found in Him, so
Speaker 2: that nothing could separate you from the love of God
Speaker 2: that is in Christ, Jesus your Lord, neither height, nor death,
Speaker 2: nor anything else in all creation. When Paul wanted to
Speaker 2: say it, he said it like that, etc. None of
Speaker 2: it can keep me from the love and the blessing
Speaker 2: of God except my unbelief, because all of that can
Speaker 2: be true. But if you don't believe it's true, it
Speaker 2: won't be true for you, even if you're shout about it.
Speaker 2: But when you go home, you really don't think that
Speaker 2: God is doing a new thing, you will stay stuck.
Speaker 1: In what was. And I don't envy Isaiah.
Speaker 2: He was a much better preacher than I will ever be,
Speaker 2: to say the least. Even the fact that I would
Speaker 2: say that feels arrogant to say that. You know that Isaiah,
Speaker 2: let me tell you how good he was at his job. Okay,
Speaker 2: he's called the egle eyed prophet because he was prophesying
Speaker 2: stuff that he he wouldn't even live to see. So
Speaker 2: he was preaching the sermons that the people would need
Speaker 2: for something that they weren't even going through yet, that
Speaker 2: he would never even go through. And so God would
Speaker 2: download what they would need. And God knew that his
Speaker 2: people would worship these other gods, even though that the
Speaker 2: God of Heaven had promised to a man called Abraham,
Speaker 2: who was the father of their faith, that I will
Speaker 2: bless you, and you will be a blessing, and there
Speaker 2: will never be a time that you will not be blessed.
Speaker 2: And not only will you be blessed, but all peoples
Speaker 2: of the earth will be blessed through you, all of them.
Speaker 1: Not I'm not just doing this for one nation, one people.
Speaker 2: Grow The heart of God has always been that all
Speaker 2: of us would be blessed, that every barrier would be
Speaker 2: broken down, not just in one zip code, not just
Speaker 2: one ethnicity, not just one denomination, but that all people
Speaker 2: would be blessed through those who are called by His name.
Speaker 1: That's the promise. Here's the problem.
Speaker 2: You notice that they always like hang out together. The
Speaker 2: problem is that the people of God blocked not only
Speaker 2: their own blessing, but the blessing.
Speaker 1: That they were created to distribute to the earth through.
Speaker 2: Their unbelief in the true and living God. So Isaiah
Speaker 2: knows this and knows that there will be a time
Speaker 2: when they will live in captivity, in bondage. That blessed
Speaker 2: people can still live in bondage mentally emotionally blessed people
Speaker 2: can still live in bondage, and they weren't imprisoned in
Speaker 2: physical cells. They were taken away into a Babylonian land
Speaker 2: where a lot of their life really wasn't that bad.
Speaker 1: It wasn't that they lacked physically. It was just that they.
Speaker 2: Were in an unfamiliar, strange place, away from the place
Speaker 2: God had called them. Usually when we think of the
Speaker 2: opposite of blessing, we think that the situation would be
Speaker 2: really bad. It wasn't really the situation that got bad
Speaker 2: for these people that Isaiah is writing to.
Speaker 1: Their soul, and so.
Speaker 2: The situation wasn't that terrible, but the state of their
Speaker 2: soul very dry, very destitute, and very desperate. And into
Speaker 2: that situation Isaiah speaks forth a promise from God, and
Speaker 2: he says to the people.
Speaker 1: Who are not yet in captivity, but they will be.
Speaker 2: So he's giving them what they need for what they're
Speaker 2: going to go through that they don't.
Speaker 1: Know about yet.
Speaker 2: That's why you need to take notes in church, even
Speaker 2: if you don't think it's for you right now. Oh,
Speaker 2: I'm not a parent, but you never know when you
Speaker 2: might get one of those little puppies you.
Speaker 1: Might need the manual. What did he say four years ago?
Speaker 2: Well, he has a difficult task because he's speaking to
Speaker 2: a future that they don't experience yet, and so maybe
Speaker 2: they're not listening. So what's what he does? I want
Speaker 2: to back up a few verses. Go to verse fifteen.
Speaker 2: He reminds them who he is. I am the Lord,
Speaker 2: your Holy One, because Isaiah is only a mouthpiece. He
Speaker 2: is not the message. He is the mouthpiece of the message.
Speaker 2: I am the Lord, your Holy One. That's a cool
Speaker 2: thing that unholy people could claim a personal relationship with
Speaker 2: a holy God because the barrier has been broken. If
Speaker 2: Isaiah could talk like that, and Jesus hasn't even lived yet,
Speaker 2: how can we talk about our relationship with God.
Speaker 1: Living on this side of the cross.
Speaker 2: I'm broken, but I belong to one whose name is exalted,
Speaker 2: whose name is holy, and in the center of unbroken praise,
Speaker 2: I am the Lord.
Speaker 1: You belong to me. I am Israel's creator, your King.
Speaker 2: This is what the Lord says, he who made away
Speaker 2: through the See that's what we were just singing. We
Speaker 2: didn't really write that song. It was written in a
Speaker 2: long time. We plagiarized it. But there's no copyright on it,
Speaker 2: so we just up there singing it like us ours.
Speaker 1: Man oh tongs.
Speaker 2: And you gotta understand, this was Israel's jam.
Speaker 1: No, I'm serious, this was their song. So this was
Speaker 1: the one.
Speaker 2: You know, how you have your song, whether Sheryl Crow
Speaker 2: or Metallica. I see you out there, I see you.
Speaker 2: I love it too. I love it too. I saw
Speaker 2: damage incorporated. I even know what Metallica short it is.
Speaker 2: And you got jarms, Yeah, I saw I saw all
Speaker 2: of it, whatever your jam is. And I know it's
Speaker 2: not just white people in the church. And at this
Speaker 2: point I've only mentioned a few bands in certain genres,
Speaker 2: so it's a lot of different songs. But when Israel
Speaker 2: heard that, their collective consciousness as.
Speaker 1: A nation would remember the core story.
Speaker 2: That is referenced, because it's not just some generic thing.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 2: The Bible's not like a fortune cookie where you just
Speaker 2: kind of open it, look at the numbers, look at
Speaker 2: the thing.
Speaker 1: Pass it around.
Speaker 2: It was written to a Pacific people, So Isaiah is
Speaker 2: going back to the past to remind the people of
Speaker 2: the faithfulness of God. And he goes, he goes all
Speaker 2: the way back to when they were slaves in Egypt,
Speaker 2: and they were in bondage and they didn't see a
Speaker 2: way out, and God sent them a deliverer, and his
Speaker 2: name was Moses.
Speaker 1: And Moses stood before Pharaoh and said, let my people go.
Speaker 1: And he had to say it a.
Speaker 2: Bunch of times, because sometimes Pharaoh is stubborn, and freedom
Speaker 2: doesn't always come easy, and sometimes it takes persistence, And
Speaker 2: sometimes God has to let your situation look humanly impossible
Speaker 2: so that he can reveal himself as to God of
Speaker 2: all possibility. Sometimes Lazarus has to stay in the grave
Speaker 2: a little while longer so when he gets up, you
Speaker 2: won't just think it was the prayers of the church.
Speaker 2: You'll know it was the power of God that raised him.
Speaker 2: Like so he says, this is what the Lord says,
Speaker 2: he who made away, raise your hand. If God ever
Speaker 2: made a way for you, just even a little way,
Speaker 2: just even if he ever healed a headache, or just
Speaker 2: if he ever helped you get a job, or even
Speaker 2: if somebody slipped your two.
Speaker 1: When you didn't have a job and you got the gas,
Speaker 1: or maybe it.
Speaker 2: Was one time when you were so depressed, crying your
Speaker 2: eyes out, and you woke up one morning and you
Speaker 2: realize you know, I feel a little better today, and
Speaker 2: maybe I can get out of the bed today and
Speaker 2: maybe I'll wash a few dishes today. And before you
Speaker 2: knew it, you were back to normal. God made away?
Speaker 2: Has he ever made away for you? Has he ever
Speaker 2: made away? If he made if he made a way
Speaker 2: for you, just wave your hand. If he made away,
Speaker 2: just wave it. I don't know what you're talking about.
Speaker 1: Don Don John Jun Don don Donjon.
Speaker 2: When they started, when Isaiah said, dak the people that
Speaker 2: that was remembered, that was their soundtrack to remind him
Speaker 2: that they were no longer slaves.
Speaker 1: He who made away? Because this is a scene.
Speaker 2: This, This is not an abstract, theoretical, metaphorical out of
Speaker 2: words to say this. This is this is not what
Speaker 2: God kind of like does in a picture for him.
Speaker 2: This this is an actual, practical memory from the past
Speaker 2: of what God did for his people.
Speaker 1: He didn't do it for these people.
Speaker 2: They're in a different situation, but he did it for the.
Speaker 1: People that they're a part of. So it's part of
Speaker 1: their legacy. It's part of their core story.
Speaker 2: Their core story is that we were slaves. God brought
Speaker 2: us out of Egypt. We were there for over four
Speaker 2: hundred years. He brought us out into a promised land,
Speaker 2: and now they need to go back to their core
Speaker 2: story so that they can survive their captivity.
Speaker 1: Are you with me so far? So he brings them
Speaker 1: back ton toun to ton toun, toun to toun, tou
Speaker 1: tou tou toun tun tun tou toon tun.
Speaker 3: He made away Tondundun through the see tondund a path
Speaker 3: through tantandun mighty.
Speaker 5: Waers who threw out turn ton ton the cherry, Yes,
Speaker 5: tongue tun tunt and horses, hand army and reinforcements together,
Speaker 5: they're never to rize, like extingge something that was going.
Speaker 1: So they're like, yeah, yes, Jesus, won'tie do it? Wonie
Speaker 1: do it? Won't he make away?
Speaker 2: So then I'm surprised when he says verse eighteen, coming
Speaker 2: messes up the flow.
Speaker 1: He got the people remembering how strong and mighty God
Speaker 1: was it the Red Sea made away. We did it
Speaker 1: with no way.
Speaker 2: And then he says, forget the this is the next verse.
Speaker 2: I promise you, I'm not moving these all around. Forget
Speaker 2: the former things. I understand that because if you live
Speaker 2: in a state of regret over I mean if you
Speaker 2: relive over and over again every dumb thing you said,
Speaker 2: or everything that every decision that you made, every purchase
Speaker 2: that you mean.
Speaker 1: It is paralyzing to live in the past.
Speaker 2: And you really do have to understand that one thing
Speaker 2: that the Cross of Jesus does is it gives me the.
Speaker 1: Freedom to move past my mistakes. I am so grateful
Speaker 1: for that. And here's what I mean.
Speaker 2: I feel change breaking while I preach today because I
Speaker 2: always always preach that a certain way, and then one
Speaker 2: day I realize that most people are not living enslaved
Speaker 2: to the mistakes that they made, like twenty three years ago.
Speaker 1: It's that I keep making mistakes.
Speaker 2: So really, when I say moving on past your mistakes,
Speaker 2: that might not be very difficult if it was three
Speaker 2: years ago. But what if those three minutes ago and
Speaker 2: here you are in church and God is trying to
Speaker 2: bless you. Do you remember I said he's trying to
Speaker 2: bless you.
Speaker 1: He was blessing.
Speaker 2: Abraham to be a blessing. He wanted to bless his
Speaker 2: people so they could bless the earth.
Speaker 1: He's always blessing.
Speaker 2: It's not just an activity, it is an attribute of
Speaker 2: his character. He is the God who blesses it's what
Speaker 2: he does, it's who he is. It's what he does
Speaker 2: that flows from who he is, and he's always trying
Speaker 2: to bless you. But sometimes I've got to be honest
Speaker 2: about it. My unbelief, not only my unbelief, but my
Speaker 2: stubborn refusal to really accept the fact that whatever I did,
Speaker 2: he's already done something about it. It keeps me from
Speaker 2: entering into the present moment.
Speaker 1: So now I'm stuck.
Speaker 2: And he gives me permission to move on, pass my mistakes,
Speaker 2: and he says, see, I'm doing a new thing. Forget
Speaker 2: the past, which makes sense when we're talking about the
Speaker 2: mistakes of my past. But remember Isaiah did not just
Speaker 2: list the mistakes of their past. He just mentioned a
Speaker 2: miracle from their past. And right after he mentions the miracle,
Speaker 2: he tells them to forget it. Oh, I got you
Speaker 2: curious now, because that first thing I said, that's.
Speaker 4: Just normal preaching. Forget it and move on. That's bumper
Speaker 4: sticker stuff, Fidoh you know, forget it, drive on. I mean,
Speaker 4: that's not even really preaching. So you're clapping for it right.
Speaker 1: Moving on.
Speaker 2: If only the credit card companies would get the same
Speaker 2: spirit of forgiveness that God has right.
Speaker 1: They didn't get the memo though he male.
Speaker 2: Where there was no way through the Red Sea, brought
Speaker 2: us out of Egypt. And that God, the same God
Speaker 2: who did that, wants you to do this. Forget it,
Speaker 2: do not dwell on the past. Put my verse back.
Speaker 2: I don't want to think I'm making this up because
Speaker 2: I'm strange. I know forget.
Speaker 1: Well I did.
Speaker 2: I always assumed that the greatest barrier that keeps me
Speaker 2: from being blessed by God is what the devil did
Speaker 2: to me. Sometimes it is barrier to the blessing of
Speaker 2: God in your future. You got it is not what
Speaker 2: the devil did to you. It's what God did for
Speaker 2: you in one season that you expect him to repeat
Speaker 2: in the next season. So I've heard one hundred sermons,
Speaker 2: I probably preached a hundred sermons on move on from
Speaker 2: the mistake. But what about when God wants you to
Speaker 2: move on from the miracle? And this is the weirdest thing.
Speaker 2: I don't know how to explain it to you, but
Speaker 2: we have all these course stories at our church. In
Speaker 2: business terminology, your core story is the crux of your
Speaker 2: central value proposition, where you describe what you do as
Speaker 2: a company that differentiates you from all the other ones.
Speaker 2: Well as a church, we have a course story what
Speaker 2: makes us unique, the faith of the early days. You know,
Speaker 2: may some of the stuff y'all are talking about it
Speaker 2: backstage past weekend on a history tour.
Speaker 1: You know those stories are good. Can I be honest
Speaker 1: with you.
Speaker 2: The reason I'm not going to give you it the
Speaker 2: tour is because I don't remember the stuff that a
Speaker 2: lot of the stuff, And I used to think it
Speaker 2: was because I wasn't grateful, because I felt.
Speaker 1: Like, you know, if I was really grateful for what
Speaker 1: God did.
Speaker 2: I mean, there are things that Hollywood remind me of
Speaker 2: a lot of the times, and she'll be like, remember
Speaker 2: when God did this, And she'll mention something that had
Speaker 2: me all up in knots when it happened.
Speaker 1: But I don't even remember about it anymore.
Speaker 2: And I used to think that there was something wrong
Speaker 2: with me, or maybe I'm starting to lose my memory
Speaker 2: or something, because I already told you we're getting old,
Speaker 2: and maybe it's starting to deteriorate.
Speaker 1: My brain isn't functioning the same way. Or maybe God
Speaker 1: doesn't want me to rely on.
Speaker 2: A memory of a miracle that he has already performed
Speaker 2: and miss the miracle that is in progress. I'm trying
Speaker 2: to preach a progressive message today, and here's the message.
Speaker 1: Remember the ways he made, but forget the way he
Speaker 1: made it. This a run in place message. I gotta
Speaker 1: get some energy, so i'll holler jut too bad.
Speaker 2: Remember what he did for you, Remember how he kept you,
Speaker 2: how he blessed you, how he sustained you, how he
Speaker 2: opened doors, how he made opportunities, how he made a
Speaker 2: way out.
Speaker 1: Of no way. But then you gotta forget exactly how
Speaker 1: he did it.
Speaker 2: Remember how much fun your marriage was before you had children,
Speaker 2: But then forget the freedom that you had before you.
Speaker 1: Brought human beings and to exist.
Speaker 2: This no, I'm serious, because sometimes we get stuck in
Speaker 2: a season and.
Speaker 1: We miss God's supply. He said, I want you to
Speaker 1: remember what I did.
Speaker 2: And then forget how I did it, because I'm not
Speaker 2: going to do it the same way every time. And
Speaker 2: here's why I'm not going to do it the same
Speaker 2: way every time. I'm not gonna do it like I
Speaker 2: used to do it. Because you got imagine the people
Speaker 2: in captivity. They're hearing this message. Dun dua du duh
Speaker 2: and they're remembering Moses. Now by this time, Moses isn't
Speaker 2: somebody they know.
Speaker 1: He's like, no offense.
Speaker 2: Most if you're listening to me preach, I don't imagine
Speaker 2: he's tuning into my sermons, of all the sermons that
Speaker 2: he has available, if you know.
Speaker 1: But however that works with heaven and live streaming and
Speaker 1: stuff like that. But just for the record, no offense Moses.
Speaker 2: But I gotta believe that they were waiting for Moses
Speaker 2: to get them out of this captivity because Moses was
Speaker 2: kind of like a mascot. So they're looking, they're in
Speaker 2: Babylonian captivity, and they're going, Okay, who's God going to
Speaker 2: send to get us out of this?
Speaker 1: And so then Isaiah says, thus say it, the Lord,
Speaker 1: your King, your creator.
Speaker 2: Thus say it the Lord, the one who spoke to
Speaker 2: Abraham and called him out of ear of the Chaldeans,
Speaker 2: and made many out of one, and made you a nation,
Speaker 2: and brought you out of slavery.
Speaker 1: And brought you through the one who made away. This
Speaker 1: is what he says. Don't look for it to look
Speaker 1: like what it used to look like, or feel like
Speaker 1: what it used to feel like.
Speaker 2: Please do not misapply my message today to leave your
Speaker 2: husband and try to tell him that Preacher Stephens said
Speaker 2: that Moses is dead, or any of this weird stuff
Speaker 2: that Christian people do to try to make a message
Speaker 2: mean whatever they wanted to be. What I'm saying to
Speaker 2: you is when Jesus walked the earth, he did miracles,
Speaker 2: he opened blinded eyes, but he didn't do it the
Speaker 2: same way every time he did it.
Speaker 1: And here's why. This is what I believe. You believe
Speaker 1: whatever you want to believe.
Speaker 2: I believe God doesn't want us to be more committed
Speaker 2: to a system than we are to a source. So
Speaker 2: this is what the Lord says. I'm gonna make away
Speaker 2: because that's what I do. How many believe he's a
Speaker 2: way maker? Yeah, yeah, he's a waymaker.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna make away, but not the way I made
Speaker 1: it before. This is so strong and so powerful that
Speaker 1: if you really received.
Speaker 2: This in your spirit today, you will realize that the
Speaker 2: barrier to the blessing of God in your life is
Speaker 2: not no longer who is who is no longer in
Speaker 2: your life, or what age you are, or the money
Speaker 2: that somebody was.
Speaker 1: Owed you and didn't give you.
Speaker 2: Because we always externalize it it's always somebody else. And
Speaker 2: God says, I'm doing a new thing, and he asks
Speaker 2: a question, do you not see it or perceive it?
Speaker 2: What would keep me from perceiving what God is doing?
Speaker 2: Maybe it's expecting it to look just like what he's done.
Speaker 2: So here I am looking for God to park the
Speaker 2: Red Sea again, because that's what he did last time.
Speaker 1: Sometimes the greatest barrier to what God is doing.
Speaker 2: Is what he used to do. So when you first
Speaker 2: became a Christian, you just open your Bible and you're like, oh,
Speaker 2: you just open it anywhere, and God spoke to you
Speaker 2: and it had the verse of your street address from
Speaker 2: when you were eight, and you just opened it and
Speaker 2: you felt like a care and love shot out of
Speaker 2: your chest all across the And now men, your Bible
Speaker 2: flips up into all the depressing psalms and the Judas.
Speaker 2: And God speak to me like you used to speak
Speaker 2: to me. And God said, I'm still speaking, but not
Speaker 2: on the same frequency.
Speaker 1: I need you to go deeper. I need you to
Speaker 1: deep for something. Now forget forget not his faithfulness, but
Speaker 1: forget the form that it came in. They couldn't get this.
Speaker 2: So in Hebrews chapter six, verse one, the writer says,
Speaker 2: you keep looking for God.
Speaker 1: To look like the law because that's what you were
Speaker 1: addicted to see.
Speaker 2: We get addicted to one form of deliverance and then
Speaker 2: grace comes along and we don't even know what to
Speaker 2: do with it because it's not what God used to do.
Speaker 1: You got to move on.
Speaker 2: Some of you grew up in really religious environments where
Speaker 2: you know, God wasn't happy unless you were depressed. You know,
Speaker 2: it didn't even count as church unless you had to
Speaker 2: endure it. You need to move on past that. God
Speaker 2: is doing a new thing. I mean, lift your hands,
Speaker 2: lift your heart, be free in his presence.
Speaker 1: He's doing a new thing. Do you not see it?
Speaker 1: It will spring forth out of the ground. Do you
Speaker 1: not perceive it? And what got me about it, JJ.
Speaker 2: Is that when he did it at the Red Sea,
Speaker 2: he made a way through the waters.
Speaker 1: Is that what he did?
Speaker 2: Not setting you up this time? That's how the Bible
Speaker 2: story goes right, Don don don don. He made a
Speaker 2: way don dun dahntah through the waters, and the water
Speaker 2: stood up that the water that separated them from their
Speaker 2: freedom stood in attention like walls on either side until
Speaker 2: they got through and drowned the Egyptians, and they loved
Speaker 2: that story because that story reminded them of their deliverance.
Speaker 2: And he made a way through the waters. Isaiah says,
Speaker 2: this time God is going to make away. But he's
Speaker 2: not going to make a way through the waters. He's
Speaker 2: going to make away in the wilderness. Let me ask
Speaker 2: a question. What did they need in the wilderness? What
Speaker 2: was it they needed water? So what used to be
Speaker 2: the barrier is about to be the blessing. Y'all better
Speaker 2: help me preach. I feel the faithfulness of God to
Speaker 2: see what I'm saying. The barrier is now the blessing.
Speaker 2: What did threaten to kill you is now what God
Speaker 2: is bringing forth to bless your life.
Speaker 1: Sell about it. So God said, I.
Speaker 2: Am your creator, I am your King, And this is
Speaker 2: what I do. I turn barriers to blessings. I turn
Speaker 2: water in dry ground into sustenance for your survival. I
Speaker 2: turn pain into power. I turn same into grace, I
Speaker 2: turn abuse into straight I'm make away. I'm a waymaker.
Speaker 2: I'm worthy of worship. I'm worthy of grace. I'm doing
Speaker 2: a new thing in your life. Whatever's next is better,
Speaker 2: Whatever's next is better. That's what my faith believes when
Speaker 2: I find myself in a way see, A wilderness is
Speaker 2: not a situation where you feel like you're about to die.
Speaker 2: A wilderness is a situation like these exiles in Babylon,
Speaker 2: wondering how long the Lord?
Speaker 1: How long am I going to feel like?
Speaker 2: I'm in a place emotionally that I don't understand. It
Speaker 2: wasn't the physical surrounding of Babylon that made them weep
Speaker 2: as they sat by the rivers. It wasn't the lack
Speaker 2: of prosperity. It was a loss of purpose. How long
Speaker 2: am I going to wander in this place? But this time,
Speaker 2: I'm not sending Moses to get you out. This time,
Speaker 2: I'm going to send the water to where you are,
Speaker 2: and I am going to bless you in that place
Speaker 2: because I'm a waymaker. Boom bom, bombon. I believe, Dun dun, dun, dun.
Speaker 2: I'll see you do it again. But how you do
Speaker 2: it is up to you. I don't know if this
Speaker 2: will help you. But sometimes I get in situations and
Speaker 2: I just don't see a way.
Speaker 1: I don't know if you're there right now.
Speaker 2: I don't know if you're going into that if you
Speaker 2: just came out of it. One thing I know is
Speaker 2: you will find yourself. It feels terrible because you feel trapped,
Speaker 2: you feel uncertain, you feel landlocked. And here comes water
Speaker 2: springing forth from the ground where you are. And I
Speaker 2: learned something. I learned something.
Speaker 1: I hope this helps you. Really want to want this
Speaker 1: to help you. When I get into that internal.
Speaker 2: Wilderness where I can't feel God like I used to
Speaker 2: feel God, and it used to be don don don don,
Speaker 2: and now it's just MM. When I get into that
Speaker 2: place and I don't know how, and I don't know who,
Speaker 2: and I don't know when. When I get into that place,
Speaker 2: I realize that it's not my job.
Speaker 1: To predict the way that God is going to make,
Speaker 1: So I don't have to know how.
Speaker 2: If I know who, you got me, I am alpha
Speaker 2: and omega beginning and the end. A lot of us
Speaker 2: get stuck in a beta blessing and we cannot receive
Speaker 2: the upgrade because we are so stuck in the way
Speaker 2: God used to move.
Speaker 1: But he says, today I am doing a new thing.
Speaker 2: I know it doesn't feel like it used to feel,
Speaker 2: but I'm still faithful. I know it doesn't look like
Speaker 2: it used to look, but I'm still faithful.
Speaker 1: I know some things have changed in our country, but
Speaker 1: I'm still faithful because I am the Lord. I was
Speaker 1: the Lord, I will I am, I was, I will be.
Speaker 1: I make away. It's what I do, it's who I am,
Speaker 1: and I'm making a way for you right now. Do
Speaker 1: you not see it? And so often the answer is no,
Speaker 1: I don't see it because I'm looking backwards.
Speaker 2: I found out for a lot of people, the greatest
Speaker 2: barrier to their blessing is not what's before them, is
Speaker 2: what's behind them.
Speaker 1: That God has already dealt with.
Speaker 2: So, whoever God sent me to preach to today, you
Speaker 2: might be like seventy two years old and feel like
Speaker 2: you know what my best is behind me.
Speaker 1: The devil is a liar, I.
Speaker 2: Said the devil, I said, if he's talking.
Speaker 1: He's lying. Your best is not behind you.
Speaker 2: God has already been to your future, and he said,
Speaker 2: hurry up and.
Speaker 5: Back.
Speaker 1: I want to bless you where you are. I want
Speaker 1: to bless you with the strength you have left empty nesters.
Speaker 2: Just because your kids are gone does not mean your
Speaker 2: calling is over.
Speaker 1: I'm doing a new thing. I'm doing a new thing
Speaker 1: in your life. I'm doing a new thing in this church.
Speaker 1: You saw how I moved that water when you needed
Speaker 1: to go through it. Now I'm gonna make the water
Speaker 1: come up where you need it the most. I would
Speaker 1: love to pray for you.
Speaker 2: Because I know this is the kind of message that
Speaker 2: it's kind of easy to get excited about, but a
Speaker 2: little harder to live out. It's one thing to sing
Speaker 2: it in a worship center like this, talented musicians, beautiful lights,
Speaker 2: to declare.
Speaker 1: Your faith in a place like this. But God said,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna make the water come up in the desert.
Speaker 1: I'm going to make a way in the wilderness.
Speaker 2: I'm going to be faithful to you in the places
Speaker 2: where nobody else can provide for you.
Speaker 6: I am your source, sense your feet at every location.
Speaker 2: Put down your notes. This is not the part you
Speaker 2: need to write down. This is the part you need
Speaker 2: to receive by faith. That's the lie. The devil always
Speaker 2: tells me. Your best is behind you. I believe that
Speaker 2: since I was in college. I graduated college, married Holly.
Speaker 2: I thought, well, you know from here, I honestly thought this.
Speaker 2: I told one of my friends this. I said, this
Speaker 2: is probably the most ministry I will ever do, Because
Speaker 2: in college I had traveled to churches and done revivals
Speaker 2: and backyard Bible clubs.
Speaker 1: And things like that.
Speaker 2: I said, that's probably the most ministry I'll ever do.
Speaker 2: My friend was talking to me on the phone. He said,
Speaker 2: you're crazy. God's only going to use you more. You
Speaker 2: stay focused, they imaginative, stay creative. He's only gonna use
Speaker 2: you more. The only barrier is your willingness to believe
Speaker 2: by faith that what I.
Speaker 1: Just said is true. But I'm telling you is true.
Speaker 2: If it was true for the Babylonian captives, if it
Speaker 2: was true for the children of Israel who needed the
Speaker 2: waters to part, why could it not be true for you?
Speaker 1: Why not you? So I want you to remember.
Speaker 2: The ways He's made, the demonstrations of his faithfulness that
Speaker 2: it brought you to this point.
Speaker 1: It's too many to count, right.
Speaker 2: Some of y'all got some stories, man, some core stories
Speaker 2: of the moments where you knew that God was real
Speaker 2: and he was with you, that.
Speaker 1: He would never leave you nor forsake you. You know
Speaker 1: those stories? Yeah?
Speaker 2: Remember Now I need you to forget them, because your
Speaker 2: core story is not that you were a slave and
Speaker 2: now you're not a slave, or you went to jail,
Speaker 2: or that you got a divorce or that you had
Speaker 2: an abortion.
Speaker 1: God says, I am doing now.
Speaker 2: I don't want your core story to be about the
Speaker 2: blessings that I'm giving to you. I want your story
Speaker 2: to be about the blessing that I want to release
Speaker 2: through you. You have camped at this red sea long enough.
Speaker 2: I got more miracles. I got more miracles. No, it's
Speaker 2: not going to feel like it used to feel, and
Speaker 2: it's not going to give you chills like.
Speaker 1: It used to.
Speaker 2: And it might not be your favorite song from nineteen
Speaker 2: ninety four, and Ryl Crow might have a new baseline.
Speaker 1: I'm doing a new thing. I believe.
Speaker 2: I'll see you do it again. Now I won't see
Speaker 2: you do it how you did it. The holl's gonna change.
Speaker 2: But Jesus Christ, it's the same yesterday, today and forever.
Speaker 1: I don't have to know how. Come on, tell your neighbor.
Speaker 1: I don't know how. But I know who. I got
Speaker 1: a mighty car, I got a waymaker, I got a
Speaker 1: strong delivery.
Speaker 3: I know who.
Speaker 1: I know whom. I have believe and I am leslated
Speaker 1: that he is able. I said he's amo. He's able.
Speaker 2: He's able, no matter save the song, He's able.
Speaker 1: He's able receive. Move come on funeral mood. This is
Speaker 1: our jo listeners to this. This is on God, not.
Speaker 2: See to see God.
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.