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. Well,
Speaker 1: would you look at somebody next to you. Please do
Speaker 1: not touch them. They might not be comfortable with that,
Speaker 1: but just look at them and say, I am so
Speaker 1: looking forward to experiencing God's word with you today. Would
Speaker 1: you do that right where you are and say it
Speaker 1: even in the chat, say I've been looking forward to
Speaker 1: this all week. I'm looking forward to being strengthened by
Speaker 1: the word of God. We've worshiped him, We've turned our
Speaker 1: hearts to help. Now let's set aside every distraction. Don't
Speaker 1: be like Martha busy in the kitchen. Take these next
Speaker 1: few minutes and just get in position to hear from
Speaker 1: the Lord. And I promise you He's going to speak
Speaker 1: to you today all over the world. Let me know
Speaker 1: right now in the comments or the chat where you're
Speaker 1: watching from. I don't like to call it watching where
Speaker 1: you're worshiping from. Hey, man, watching is something you do
Speaker 1: for like Yellowstone or the Game of Thrones or something
Speaker 1: like that. But this ain't the game. This is the
Speaker 1: real throne, all right. So we came to worship. Y'all
Speaker 1: shouldn't have given me a few weeks off. I'm in
Speaker 1: bad shape today. Pray for me, e fham. Now the
Speaker 1: scripture for today that I want to read to you
Speaker 1: is from Numbers, chapter eleven. You'll quit being funky and
Speaker 1: pad me with something spiritual, some church chords. All right,
Speaker 1: praise the Lord Numbers, chapter eleven, verse four through six.
Speaker 1: You ready? Are you ready? Readier than you just sounded?
Speaker 1: I hope y'all are readier in your room than they
Speaker 1: are in this room, all right, Lake Norman? Yes, okay.
Speaker 1: The rabble with them begin to crave other food, and
Speaker 1: again the Israelites started wailing and said, if only we
Speaker 1: had meat to eat, We remember the fish we ate
Speaker 1: in Egypt at no cost, Also the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions,
Speaker 1: and garlic. But now we have lost our appetite. We
Speaker 1: never see anything but this manner. If only we had
Speaker 1: meat to eat, We remember the fish we ate in
Speaker 1: Egypt at no cost. I thought i'd talked to you
Speaker 1: today on the first sermon that I preached from the
Speaker 1: New Year about comfort food. Comfort food, Lord feed us
Speaker 1: the bread of Heaven today because we need it in Jesus.
Speaker 1: Say amen. You may be seated right now. I want
Speaker 1: you to say in the chat, or maybe look at
Speaker 1: somebody if you're in a room with more than one person,
Speaker 1: and tell them your favorite comfort food. Put it in
Speaker 1: the chat right now. Or if you're sitting next to somebody,
Speaker 1: what's the food that makes you feel better? Well, it
Speaker 1: makes you feel temporarily better, because that's the definition of
Speaker 1: comfort food, right, the food that will make you feel
Speaker 1: better for five minutes. Right? Your favorite Our research this
Speaker 1: week the Bible and I researched on Google and the
Speaker 1: favorite comfort food is still pizza for fifteen percent of Americans.
Speaker 1: So I don't know other parts. So we'll put it
Speaker 1: into chat. And do not take this moment to show
Speaker 1: off how healthy you are. You know, but kombucha is
Speaker 1: my comfort food. Shut up, go away, let is go
Speaker 1: to another church. All right, I'm talking about I'm talking
Speaker 1: about something it's not good for you, but it tastes
Speaker 1: good to you. Put it in the chat. I'm not
Speaker 1: going to tell you mine yet I'll tell you, Hollies,
Speaker 1: if you ever want to make her feel better, French
Speaker 1: rice and her French rice, and I thank God for
Speaker 1: that because they're cheap and they're predictable. It's a lot
Speaker 1: cheaper than jewelry. Right, So if I see her down
Speaker 1: and it's not just food, I hope you're putting these
Speaker 1: in the chat, by the way, because I'm really interested
Speaker 1: to see how many of you will be honest about it.
Speaker 1: And I know this is really bad because you've got
Speaker 1: all these goals for the new year that you're not
Speaker 1: going to eat it anymore. Here I am bringing it up.
Speaker 1: And you turned on the church to try to get
Speaker 1: away from this stuff, and here I am talking about it.
Speaker 1: But I think we should talk about it. I think
Speaker 1: we should talk about comfort food today. And I think
Speaker 1: we should talk about it beyond just physical food. But
Speaker 1: I want to use physical food to get there, because
Speaker 1: there's something that we can feel, you know, something we
Speaker 1: could we could feel when we went to Singapore a
Speaker 1: couple of years ago. Holly's laughing because we kind of
Speaker 1: had a fight. We had a disagreement our host. I
Speaker 1: was there to preach and our hosts were so amazing
Speaker 1: the church that we were at, and they took us
Speaker 1: to really nice restaurants. I thought they were all really
Speaker 1: nice restaurants because they were all restaurants that I knew
Speaker 1: the name of, and I liked it that way. Holly,
Speaker 1: on the other hand, was so disappointed that they were
Speaker 1: taking us to the same restaurants. Do you remember they
Speaker 1: took us. I remember one night they took us to
Speaker 1: Ruth Chris, which is like my favorite. That's that's like
Speaker 1: one of the first nice dates. I saved up eighteen
Speaker 1: months and took Holly to Ruth christ And I'm serious
Speaker 1: when we went to came to Charlotte, and and and
Speaker 1: so I was happy to be at Ruth Chris. And
Speaker 1: she's kind of disappointed. And she told me afterwards, she said,
Speaker 1: I could have ate all that in Charlotte. Come and
Speaker 1: apparently she had just read a book. I don't remember
Speaker 1: the name of the book. She read a book Crazy
Speaker 1: Rich Asians, where they put a bunch of stuff about
Speaker 1: food markets and stuff. So she's reading this book right
Speaker 1: and we're going to Singapore and she's thinking about all
Speaker 1: this new food she's gonna try when we get there.
Speaker 1: And then they take us to TGI Fridays in the mall,
Speaker 1: and I was happy. I like TGI Fridays. There's nothing
Speaker 1: wrong with TGI Fridays anywhere in the world. Any day.
Speaker 1: It doesn't have to be Friday. I'm making a Friday
Speaker 1: on Thursday. I eat chicken tenders any day of the week.
Speaker 1: Makes me feel good. It makes me feel something familiar
Speaker 1: in my soul. I like it. I like chains, chain restaurant. Chain. Oh,
Speaker 1: I like chains. That's what they call it, a chain restaurant.
Speaker 1: It's the same anywhere you go. I like them. It's
Speaker 1: comfortable to me. Don't even have to look at the menu.
Speaker 1: Don't have to acquire a taste. Who has time for that,
Speaker 1: especially in an unfamiliar place. If the place is unfamiliar,
Speaker 1: at least give me a taste. I can recognize numbers.
Speaker 1: Chapter eleven. The Israelites are in a strange place. They
Speaker 1: left a strange place that they came to to escape
Speaker 1: of famine that they did not cause. But it's been
Speaker 1: four hundred and thirty years since they first entered Egypt.
Speaker 1: How many know that four hundred and thirty years is
Speaker 1: enough time to adjust your taste? Butts, they were not
Speaker 1: slaves for four hundred and thirty years. They were only
Speaker 1: slaves for four hundred. The reason I point that out
Speaker 1: is for the first thirty Egypt was the place that
Speaker 1: fed them what they needed to survive. Can I show
Speaker 1: you this? I would love to show you this in Genesis.
Speaker 1: I have so many scriptures today we might just chop
Speaker 1: this up and show it for the next for the
Speaker 1: rest of the year. But in Genesis forty one, and
Speaker 1: I've been waiting to share this with you for a
Speaker 1: while now, so just forgive my excitement about it. But
Speaker 1: it talks about how the people of God got to Egypt,
Speaker 1: where God took care of them. And I've mentioned before
Speaker 1: from this pulpit how the place that you escape to
Speaker 1: in one sea can become the place that you are
Speaker 1: enslaved by in the next, you know, And this really
Speaker 1: really shows this in a way that I think you
Speaker 1: can get it. In Genesis forty one, verse fifty three,
Speaker 1: I can't give you the whole story, but let me
Speaker 1: just try to give you a little taste of it.
Speaker 1: It says the seven years of abundance in Egypt came
Speaker 1: to an end and the seven years of famine. Everybody
Speaker 1: say famine. Put it in the chat, say famine, famine,
Speaker 1: the seven years of Famine began, just as Joseph had said.
Speaker 1: There was famine in all the other lands, but in
Speaker 1: the whole land of Egypt there was food. They came
Speaker 1: to Egypt, not out of rebellion, but out of survival.
Speaker 1: They came to Egypt. And one day I'm going to
Speaker 1: preach this message. I've been promising it for a while.
Speaker 1: I'm going to talk about sins with benefits. You've heard
Speaker 1: the other phrase, but that's not the one that I meet.
Speaker 1: And I'm talking about things that you do that meet
Speaker 1: a certain need in your life, but the way that
Speaker 1: they meet the need creates a greater need, throwing you
Speaker 1: into a spiral sometimes of what ends up feeling like slavery.
Speaker 1: So listen to this phrase. This got my attention. It
Speaker 1: said in verse fifty five, when all Egypt began to
Speaker 1: feel the famine. That's the phrase that I want you
Speaker 1: to underline there, Okay, or write it down or put
Speaker 1: it in the chat. Feel the famine. I believe I'm
Speaker 1: preaching to somebody today who feels the famine. It could
Speaker 1: be a famine of encouragement in your life, like nobody
Speaker 1: has told you you're doing a good job in a while,
Speaker 1: and nobody has told you in a while that you matter,
Speaker 1: or if they are telling you, you you don't really believe
Speaker 1: their motives because they're just trying to use it. They
Speaker 1: get you to do something to manipulate you to do
Speaker 1: something they want you to do. So now you're so
Speaker 1: jaded that you can't even receive the nutrition of other
Speaker 1: people's encouragement because you experienced it in a manipulat format.
Speaker 1: And so now you're really reluctant to receive anything anyone
Speaker 1: says to you that's positive because you are more trained
Speaker 1: in your taste buds to something that is negative. But
Speaker 1: you feel the famine, and watch this. The Bible says,
Speaker 1: when all Egypt began to feel the famine, the people
Speaker 1: cried to Pharaoh for food. So right beside famine put Pharaoh.
Speaker 1: Pharaoh was, of course the ruler of Egypt. Right he
Speaker 1: ended up putting Joseph in charge of the food supply.
Speaker 1: And if you don't know all this backstory, you'll still
Speaker 1: get the message. Okay, it's all right, And plus i'll
Speaker 1: give you something to study this week, so you can
Speaker 1: look all this up this week and realize that there
Speaker 1: was a famine that brought the people of God. Joseph,
Speaker 1: who was an Israelite, it brought his whole family to Egypt. Now, now,
Speaker 1: God will use famine in your life to get you
Speaker 1: into a place or position of his purpose, over and
Speaker 1: over again in the scripture. So when we say we
Speaker 1: want God to move in our lives, how many would
Speaker 1: say that I want God to move in my life
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty one? Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, okay.
Speaker 1: So for God to move in your life, he will
Speaker 1: often remove something from your life. So when you pray that,
Speaker 1: you have to think of those at the same time,
Speaker 1: move and remove. If God's gonna move, if he's gonna
Speaker 1: do something, if he's going to change things. And we
Speaker 1: say we want change, and we shout about change and
Speaker 1: we pray about change. What we really want is we
Speaker 1: want change that we choose and that we can control.
Speaker 1: Talk to me, Church of the Living God, come on,
Speaker 1: get Pentecostal for a minute and talk to me. Talk
Speaker 1: to me and talk to me. Talk to me. That's
Speaker 1: all I mean. And we say we want change. So
Speaker 1: when they felt the famine, they came to Egypt, and
Speaker 1: of course Verse fifty seven says all the world came
Speaker 1: to Egypt to buy grain from Joseph because the famine
Speaker 1: was severe everywhere. And this is where my compassion kicks in.
Speaker 1: When I hear a preacher yelling at somebody for being
Speaker 1: an alcoholic, or yelling at somebody because they have a
Speaker 1: sexual addiction, or yelling at somebody because they go over
Speaker 1: here and do this and that and the other. I
Speaker 1: feel kind of like the person on the other end
Speaker 1: needs to be able to say in their own defense,
Speaker 1: it needs a need, and then we can help you,
Speaker 1: once we're honest about that, find a better way to
Speaker 1: meet that need through God. That's what salvation is. That's
Speaker 1: what transformation has. Not that God tells you to starve
Speaker 1: and swallow your spit and like it, but to get
Speaker 1: joy from a place that won't create chains just to
Speaker 1: make you comfortable. Now the text that we're in, Remember
Speaker 1: it's been over four hundred years and the people of
Speaker 1: God have come out of Egypt. But as we've learned,
Speaker 1: it's a lot easier to come out of Egypt than
Speaker 1: to get Egypt out of you. And that's why no
Speaker 1: amount of new cities that you moved to can free
Speaker 1: you from internal struggles that you carry, I should do this.
Speaker 1: No amount of churches that you can hop to you
Speaker 1: want another one, No amount of hair colors. I've had
Speaker 1: a lot of hair colors. I'm telling you what I know.
Speaker 1: But what's in us in your now? When they felt
Speaker 1: the famine, they went to Egypt. And that wasn't a
Speaker 1: bad thing. It wasn't a bad thing. It wasn't a
Speaker 1: sinful thing. It wasn't like they went to Egypt to
Speaker 1: run away from God. It wasn't like you know, in
Speaker 1: the Bobby of Jonah running from God going to Nineveh
Speaker 1: instead of going to Tarsish forg government. Wasn't that kind
Speaker 1: of situation. It was a survivor instinct, and that's been
Speaker 1: you for a little while. It was either go to
Speaker 1: Egypt and survive or starve to death. You self medicated
Speaker 1: a lot of pain. You used anger as a defense
Speaker 1: mechanism so that you wouldn't be abused in the areas
Speaker 1: where you feel most vulnerable. That's how they got to Egypt.
Speaker 1: And if we could start there with a little bit
Speaker 1: of compassion to understand what the Israelites, you know, the
Speaker 1: passage I read it sounded kind of rough, right. They
Speaker 1: started complaining in the verses just before it says that
Speaker 1: they complained about their hardships and the presence of the Lord,
Speaker 1: and the outskirts of the camp started to burn and
Speaker 1: be consumed with fire when they were complaining. I'm like, dang,
Speaker 1: that's rough, because I guess one thing to criticize their
Speaker 1: attachment to Egypt. Don't even understand their abuse to put
Speaker 1: them in that position to begin with. So I'm reading
Speaker 1: it and I'm thinking about Graham. A while back, Holly
Speaker 1: asked him when you're out there wrestling, because he's a
Speaker 1: pretty good little wrestler. She said, do you listen to
Speaker 1: the coaches? Can you hear them when they're screaming at
Speaker 1: you what to do all this stuff? Because she doesn't
Speaker 1: know much about wrestling, But we're over there yelling cross face, sprawl,
Speaker 1: you know, all these things to do. He said, Well,
Speaker 1: I can hear them, but I don't listen because they
Speaker 1: don't know what I'm going through. They don't know they
Speaker 1: don't know what I'm what I'm feeling. I said, son,
Speaker 1: that's the benefit they have is that they can see it.
Speaker 1: They're trying to get you to see what you need
Speaker 1: to do, because when what you feel I start preaching
Speaker 1: to him about it. I start preaching to him about it.
Speaker 1: I start preaching to him about it. I said, because
Speaker 1: they have the they have the benefit of being outside
Speaker 1: of the situation to see what you need to do.
Speaker 1: You are so deep in the struggle. That's the children
Speaker 1: of Israel in numbers eleven. We look at this and
Speaker 1: we're like, oh, how stupid could you be. We want
Speaker 1: to go back to Egypt. Yeah, they want to go
Speaker 1: back to Egypt, just like you want to go back
Speaker 1: to Let me see your phone, and I can find
Speaker 1: your pharaoh. Let me see your phone. I can find
Speaker 1: your fear. I'm not gonna do it to you, but
Speaker 1: I could. Oh, I could do it. I could do it.
Speaker 1: I could find it because I know how it is.
Speaker 1: We're sitting are precident, We're preching it. It's been centuries
Speaker 1: since this was written, right, Sir, I don't have a pharaoh.
Speaker 1: Then why do I see you ignoring your kids, not
Speaker 1: living your real life and watch this filling yourself with
Speaker 1: stuff that makes you feel worse in the end. What's
Speaker 1: that about. I'll find your pharaoh, you can find mine. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Because you were thinking I don't need this sermon comfort foods.
Speaker 1: I'm doing pretty good with my eating. I'm on a
Speaker 1: gluten free drink only almond milk and wheat grass shots
Speaker 1: and things of this nature that are good for my
Speaker 1: digestive system and really kick the enzymes and overdrive. So
Speaker 1: you can give this to someone else. Okay, so you
Speaker 1: don't have comfort foods, you don't like cracker barrel, I
Speaker 1: get it. You're not saying you're not going to heaven,
Speaker 1: but that's all right. Do you have comfort friends? And
Speaker 1: I'm using the term friend loosely because we all need
Speaker 1: people that can sit with us and be with us,
Speaker 1: and we know they're there. I mean, I have several
Speaker 1: people in this room that would I wouldn't have made
Speaker 1: it this far without them. It's not what I'm talking about.
Speaker 1: I'm talking about they make you feel better for five minutes.
Speaker 1: Like I'm not saying you can avoid them or cut
Speaker 1: them off because you got to show love like Jesus.
Speaker 1: But I just want you to identify this because I
Speaker 1: think some of us are drawn to relationships that keep
Speaker 1: us in chains, and we like the chains because they're comfortable,
Speaker 1: and when we meet somebody who would really challenge us
Speaker 1: to change, we push them away I like chains. It
Speaker 1: feels comfortable, but it's not safe. It's not safe. You know,
Speaker 1: there's a difference, right. It's kind of interesting to me
Speaker 1: that we not only have comfort foods and sometimes comfort friends,
Speaker 1: comfort phrases, things that we say to make ourselves feel better,
Speaker 1: like excuses we make or we blame comfort phrases. Not
Speaker 1: just comfort foods, comfort phrases. We feed ourselves these lines. Oh, well,
Speaker 1: that's why I'm like that, and I never do that,
Speaker 1: and well they can only do that because of this
Speaker 1: and that, and well, nobody really loves me. That's just
Speaker 1: all a way to keep us in the comfort of
Speaker 1: our dysfunctional life. And you see it in the Israelites.
Speaker 1: But you got to feel for them because they've been
Speaker 1: in the wilderness for a year now, one year, one year,
Speaker 1: and they've been eating the same menu item called mana,
Speaker 1: the manna. It's kind of difficult to describe to you.
Speaker 1: One is, because we don't have the same version of
Speaker 1: that now. I can't bring it up here passing around
Speaker 1: to do communion with it. You're not getting this at
Speaker 1: Whole Foods. And I don't know that it was very delicious,
Speaker 1: but it got the job done. And some seasons, God
Speaker 1: will provide for you with something it's not necessarily like savory,
Speaker 1: but it'll help you survive. And some seasons in our
Speaker 1: life are like that. When they saw it manna literally
Speaker 1: means what is it? It was brand new to them,
Speaker 1: didn't taste like anything they've tasted before. But you gotta imagine, like,
Speaker 1: the way it would work is when the dew would appear,
Speaker 1: the mana would come and they could get enough for
Speaker 1: that day. Right, give us this day our daily bread.
Speaker 1: That's how God provides for you enough for right now,
Speaker 1: enough for right now, and there will be more for
Speaker 1: the next day. But you cannot reach into tomorrow and
Speaker 1: pull in today's peace or some ply or joy or
Speaker 1: anything like that. That's where you get stressed. That's where
Speaker 1: you start wanting to go back to Egypt, start thinking
Speaker 1: about the future or the past. All these things are dangerous.
Speaker 1: But what was it like the first day they saw
Speaker 1: the mana? Wow? What is it? I'm curious. Wow, there's
Speaker 1: this strange sweet food on the ground. It's like honey
Speaker 1: covered way first, it's a strange taste, but at least
Speaker 1: we're eating. Remember, God wanted to bring them into the
Speaker 1: Promised land. They tasted the grapes of Canaan, but they
Speaker 1: forfeited their right to the fruit of that land because
Speaker 1: of their lack of faith. So this put them in
Speaker 1: a position of circling in the wilderness. And they've been
Speaker 1: there for one year now, and the Mana has gotten monotonous.
Speaker 1: The miracle has gotten monotonous, all of us complaining, ungrateful people,
Speaker 1: get ready because I'm coming for us. The miracle got
Speaker 1: monotonous to you. I thought that's how it said it
Speaker 1: in the verse. Put numbers eleven six up there against
Speaker 1: so Jenna can see it. She needs to see this.
Speaker 1: We've lost our appetite. We never see anything but this manna.
Speaker 1: Like how you felt in quarantine looking at John sal
Speaker 1: every day, looking at that same guy every day. You
Speaker 1: remember you used to see him up on stage praising God.
Speaker 1: Awe if I could just be with that man of
Speaker 1: God with his annointed vocal course. And then about month
Speaker 1: month three of quarantine, month for you're looking at him like,
Speaker 1: what is it? You know, it's changed from a statement
Speaker 1: of possibility to predictability. And now I'm bored with this.
Speaker 1: Used to watch elevation online all the way across the world.
Speaker 1: Now six am rehearsals. What is it? That's what amazes
Speaker 1: me about how you stay excited. I love that because
Speaker 1: to eat the same thing every day. So I thought,
Speaker 1: what got them in trouble? I thought, what got them
Speaker 1: in trouble is that is that they had the same
Speaker 1: thing every day. And so they started complaining, all we
Speaker 1: want the fish of Egypt, the fish of Pharaoh. Oh
Speaker 1: so good. I'm sick of this man. I'm so tired
Speaker 1: of this man. I'm so tired of this man. I'm
Speaker 1: so tired of this woman. I'm so tired of this life.
Speaker 1: I'm so tired of this thing. It's the same every day.
Speaker 1: But I had to keep studying it for the context,
Speaker 1: because that's where the key was to me, understanding what
Speaker 1: really happened here, What made them want to go back
Speaker 1: to a place where they were slaves, What made them
Speaker 1: want to give up their right to freedom, to go
Speaker 1: back into their role as slaves. See, on one hand,
Speaker 1: the Manna was the same every day, never changed flavors.
Speaker 1: It's like God put a HelloFresh in the wilderness, but
Speaker 1: it was the same. It's like it got locked on
Speaker 1: the same all right, the same meal every time, and
Speaker 1: you keep waiting on it change and it doesn't. At
Speaker 1: the same time, while everything was the same every day,
Speaker 1: same wilderness, same food, same diet, same same same same same,
Speaker 1: same old crap, same old patterns, same old me. I
Speaker 1: asked the Lord, when year could I just have somebody
Speaker 1: else's dysfunctions, just to try them on and see if
Speaker 1: I liked them better? You get tired of your own
Speaker 1: At the same time that everything was the same and
Speaker 1: they were sick of it. Everything had changed. At the
Speaker 1: same time that they were eating the same food every day.
Speaker 1: I want to see if you can relate to this.
Speaker 1: At the same time that they were doing the same
Speaker 1: thing every day, gathering the same man. Okay, we take
Speaker 1: it this day, we leave it on Sunday, we get
Speaker 1: you're on Saturday, we get twice as much before the Sabbath,
Speaker 1: and then we rest. At the same time that they're
Speaker 1: going through this gridlock system of the same. Everything has changed.
Speaker 1: They've never been free before, not for four hundred years
Speaker 1: at least, and everything has changed, and everything is the
Speaker 1: same every day. And it is the combination of everything
Speaker 1: feeling the same, mundane boring, along with the instability of
Speaker 1: everything that you've ever known going away that causes them
Speaker 1: to crave something that almost kills them. Wow. Wow, do
Speaker 1: you think this is a little bit like us in
Speaker 1: the year twenty twenty one where it feels like everything changed,
Speaker 1: and at the same time, every day just feels like
Speaker 1: another replay, the same bad news, the same thing. Because look, everything,
Speaker 1: I gotta tell you the whole story, because if I
Speaker 1: just give you a compendium of this, you will miss
Speaker 1: the essence of it. It's really important that you get
Speaker 1: inside of this. They had to move constantly in the wilderness,
Speaker 1: and they had no you're you're ready to see how
Speaker 1: relevant the Bible is. They had no schedule for it.
Speaker 1: So every day it was like, am I taking my
Speaker 1: kids to school? Am I gonna drop them off at school?
Speaker 1: Am I gonna drop them in a river? Am I
Speaker 1: gonna homeschool them? Cook them lunch? I mean, well, you
Speaker 1: know what am I gonna do with them today? So
Speaker 1: it's day by day? The man, it was day by day,
Speaker 1: but it was the same, but everything had changed. And
Speaker 1: so at first I thought, Okay, well they just wanted
Speaker 1: to but no, they wanted the same, but they wanted
Speaker 1: to change. But they wanted the same, and they were
Speaker 1: stuck in between, and in between you have nothing. That's
Speaker 1: what Bono said. Bono said one time they were about
Speaker 1: to break up. You two, he said, and in order
Speaker 1: to get to the next expression of the band, you
Speaker 1: have to reject the first one, and in between you
Speaker 1: have nothing. That's what it feels like at first. So
Speaker 1: to fill it, you want to go back to what
Speaker 1: you know, right. That's why we can preach these sermons.
Speaker 1: You know, I want you to leave your life of
Speaker 1: sin behind. And that sermon feels good for five minutes,
Speaker 1: For five okay, I'll give you fifteen minutes. I'll even
Speaker 1: give you three days. But see that doesn't really change anyone,
Speaker 1: because what is happening as you are embracing your new
Speaker 1: nature in christis you got out of Egypt, but all
Speaker 1: of Egypt is not out of you yet. And it's
Speaker 1: not that they're not a real Christian, and it's not
Speaker 1: that you're a bad person, and it's not you need
Speaker 1: somebody to beat you of you straw across face. I
Speaker 1: got something on top of me that I need to
Speaker 1: know how to deal with. I feel the famine. And
Speaker 1: then the question becomes, so where do you go when
Speaker 1: you feel the famine? When you feel alone, when you
Speaker 1: feel ashamed, when you feel afraid. I heard it this
Speaker 1: way in my mind, fruit or fish, Not that one's
Speaker 1: bad on the dietary level. I'm no nutritionis promise you
Speaker 1: that I can't teach you about boiled peanuts and the
Speaker 1: correct way to eat them and the exact time to
Speaker 1: eat them. We could teach you these things and another
Speaker 1: seminar at some point. But remember what God wanted for
Speaker 1: his peace when he let them spy out the land,
Speaker 1: the grapes of canaan. And then look what has come
Speaker 1: to after one year in the wilderness. And think about
Speaker 1: what has come to after a year of us going
Speaker 1: through a very unsettling time. And at the same time
Speaker 1: it's unsettling, it's completely boring. How can we be so
Speaker 1: bored and so scared at the same time. It's been
Speaker 1: one year in the wilderness. I remember when the first
Speaker 1: guy came to elevation with a mask on, and I
Speaker 1: told security to keep an eye on him because I'd
Speaker 1: never seen that before. This was before the pandemic, before
Speaker 1: the NBA shut down, before we before we have any
Speaker 1: clue that this was going to be what it is.
Speaker 1: And I remember them telling me on a Saturday night.
Speaker 1: There's a guy here with a mask on. There's a
Speaker 1: guy here with a mask on, and we thought he
Speaker 1: was an aly and we've never seen that before. And
Speaker 1: now the whole world feels like no offense, but like
Speaker 1: a TSA checkpoint where I don't know the rules from
Speaker 1: one thing to the next, and I'm completely disoriented, Like
Speaker 1: if wear a mask. In some places they're like, oh,
Speaker 1: that's great, you love your neighbor other you're a communist
Speaker 1: Euros conspiracy illuminati, you know. Ah. And so everything's so
Speaker 1: predictably stupid. Everybody's so predictably mad. That's mad all the time.
Speaker 1: And so now I crave something stable. But watch this,
Speaker 1: shains aren't stable. They only make you feel that way.
Speaker 1: So now, if I stay in Egypt, if I stay
Speaker 1: with meeting the need, if I stay with Pharaoh, whatever
Speaker 1: my Pharaoh is, I will never befure. That's the thing
Speaker 1: about Pharaoh's fish. We wish. Look, we hood in Egypt. Really,
Speaker 1: you want whips like you had in Egypt? Come on,
Speaker 1: come on, I want to get back to who it
Speaker 1: was BC before Corona. I don't want to get back
Speaker 1: to the old ways, the old times. I don't want
Speaker 1: to get back to how it was when I was
Speaker 1: having a nervous breakdown and my husban verge of divorce,
Speaker 1: And yeah, I get back to that garlic and onions
Speaker 1: and leaks. That's what they were talking about. And the
Speaker 1: reason they were thinking about Egypt's garlic is because they
Speaker 1: had forfeited Canaan's grapes. It's the same every day, and
Speaker 1: yet we can't plan anything. And I just thought I
Speaker 1: got to preach this because it feels like it belongs
Speaker 1: in a newspaper. It feels like it was written for us.
Speaker 1: We're hungry. We're hungry, and we got to decide whether
Speaker 1: we're going to crave the fish of Egypt or move
Speaker 1: forward into the fruit of Canaan. The manna was never
Speaker 1: meant to be permanent. The manna was the mercy of God.
Speaker 1: You know. The reason they didn't like the taste of manna,
Speaker 1: they weren't supposed to. God didn't want them to die
Speaker 1: in the wilderness. So he's using those things to get
Speaker 1: you going forward to the grapes. He's using these things.
Speaker 1: He's using this dissatisfaction so that you don't settle in
Speaker 1: a place of survival, but just step into everything that
Speaker 1: he has for you, and some of us were going
Speaker 1: to die in the wilderness, but God allowed us to
Speaker 1: lose our taste for comfort food. It's pretty good. It's
Speaker 1: pretty good. I didn't even give you the message yet.
Speaker 1: Watch this. The whole time that I've read this passage,
Speaker 1: because I've read it before and i've heard it. You
Speaker 1: just talk talk about a devotion on complaining. You know,
Speaker 1: make up your bed, don't complain, do the right thing,
Speaker 1: don't complain, shut up, or wear your mask or don't
Speaker 1: wear your mask and don't complain. Right, that's a surface
Speaker 1: level interpretation. What we're looking for is what really makes
Speaker 1: me crave something that kills me? Or like you said
Speaker 1: in the Pound the other day, Elijah said something. He goes,
Speaker 1: why do we crave what we hate? I said, stop
Speaker 1: right now. We're in the middle of a workout. I said,
Speaker 1: stop right now. I took a big red marker and
Speaker 1: wrote it down on the page. That's the question we're after. Remember,
Speaker 1: they cried out for God to get them out of Egypt. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and then God did, and now they're willing to go back.
Speaker 1: But I get it because, like Graham said, I'm not
Speaker 1: under the pressure of having to follow a moving cloud
Speaker 1: and a fire and not ever knowing when I'm going
Speaker 1: to be situated. So why do you crave what you hate?
Speaker 1: Why do you prefer pessimistic thoughts? Why you just tend
Speaker 1: to gravitate toward that or self pity? Why you like that?
Speaker 1: Why do you like to say stuff, real horrible stuff
Speaker 1: about yourself that you would fight somebody else if they
Speaker 1: said it to one of your friends. Why do you
Speaker 1: crave that? Why you feed yourself? That feed yourself? That
Speaker 1: I always like to point out when we're talking about
Speaker 1: your phone is your pharaoh. That most of the stuff
Speaker 1: that you're doing is called a feed. And have you
Speaker 1: noticed it doesn't really feel you. How many have you
Speaker 1: got off Instagram or Facebook one night this week and say, God,
Speaker 1: I just feel so fresh, I feel so ready for
Speaker 1: what's next? You know what? My faith in humanity is
Speaker 1: RECs storage. Just seeing the comments of those who the
Speaker 1: Lord is appointed to speak into my life. Hmm, garlic
Speaker 1: onions leagues, this is delicious. Listen man, It's like it
Speaker 1: was in Egypt. They gave them bricks with no straw.
Speaker 1: That's what these social media apps are designed to do
Speaker 1: to us, to starve us and to keep us coming.
Speaker 1: You'll better watch the documentary on Netflix. This crap is
Speaker 1: real and it doesn't fill you. Your appetite for the
Speaker 1: wrong things is insatiable. And yet some of the stuff
Speaker 1: you crave isn't bad. It's just where are you gonna
Speaker 1: go to get it? That's what I love. That's what
Speaker 1: I love about God is that He's got what I
Speaker 1: really want. So let me ask you a question. Why
Speaker 1: would you run to Pharaoh to beg for something that
Speaker 1: your father can really give you want. I don't want
Speaker 1: this to be a negative sermon. Let me preach for
Speaker 1: a few minutes about your father's fridge. All right, let
Speaker 1: me preach for a few We're talking about comfort food.
Speaker 1: So let's go all the way forward a few centuries
Speaker 1: when a rabbi named Jesus showed up and started teaching,
Speaker 1: and he said, let me tell you what the Kingdom
Speaker 1: of God is like. The Kingdom of God is like, Oh,
Speaker 1: it's like a man who has a hundred sheep lost
Speaker 1: one went after the one. Oh, it's like a woman
Speaker 1: who had ten coins lost one went after the one.
Speaker 1: Or if you didn't get that, it's like a man
Speaker 1: who had two sons lost one. The one said, I'm
Speaker 1: going to take my inheritance, said the Bible says in
Speaker 1: Luke fifteen. God, I love how the Bible just goes together.
Speaker 1: It's like a great meal where all of the dishes
Speaker 1: compliment each other. And I was thinking about the famine
Speaker 1: that they felt in the wilderness, and then I thought
Speaker 1: about this, this younger son in Luke fifteen. You know,
Speaker 1: miss the prodigal son. You might have heard about him.
Speaker 1: He gets blamed for a lot of stuff. He went
Speaker 1: out and took his money, his father's money, and wasted it.
Speaker 1: He took what he could have invested and wasted it.
Speaker 1: And some of us have done that. We've wasted time,
Speaker 1: we've wasted thoughts. We've wasted energy, we've wasted intellect. We've
Speaker 1: wasted passions, we've wasted desires. We have craved inordinate things.
Speaker 1: That's what the word means in numbers eleven four. It
Speaker 1: means to crave an inordinate thing, with an indiscriminate leaning
Speaker 1: on your senses, just eaten anything. And that's what happened
Speaker 1: to the son who left his father's house. I want
Speaker 1: to read this to you and see if this is
Speaker 1: how you've been feeling lately. The Lord told me that
Speaker 1: we are feeling the famine. And it's not even just
Speaker 1: an economic thing, because you might be like, well, my
Speaker 1: job's fine. I think we're feeling a famine just for
Speaker 1: some basic human contact these days, because everything's new and
Speaker 1: everything's the same, and it feels endless and it feels
Speaker 1: different all at the same time. I never had to
Speaker 1: walk up to people think before and think, do we
Speaker 1: shake hands? Are we going to do this? I used
Speaker 1: to have to be like, are we gonna adapt? We're
Speaker 1: just gonna shake What are we doing? Are we doing this?
Speaker 1: Are we doing that? Now? I don't even know if
Speaker 1: we touch each other. I never had to ask that before.
Speaker 1: But it feels like it's just the same every day.
Speaker 1: And when the younger brother look at Luke fifteen, verse thirteen,
Speaker 1: it said he got together everything that his father gave
Speaker 1: him set out to a distant country. You see that, yes,
Speaker 1: put it in the chat, say I see it a
Speaker 1: distant country. So he went to a foreign place, just
Speaker 1: like the Israelites. Now here's the difference. He went to
Speaker 1: a foreign place. Put the verse back, cup please. He
Speaker 1: went to a foreign place, and he wasn't running from
Speaker 1: a famine. He was running from his father. I understand
Speaker 1: running from a famine, but why would he run from
Speaker 1: his father? When he got there, he squandered his wealth
Speaker 1: in wild living. When you read that, you think about
Speaker 1: all the things that you don't struggle with. But I
Speaker 1: would challenge you to plug in something that personally fits
Speaker 1: for you there. Don't take it straight to the strip
Speaker 1: club because you would never go there. When you see
Speaker 1: wild living, think about the other things. Think about the
Speaker 1: things that keep you spending, spending, spending, spending, spending, not
Speaker 1: just money, but keep you just spending, spending, spending, Hungry, hungry, hungry, thirsty, thirsty, thirsty,
Speaker 1: right feeding, feeding, feeding, Think about these things, think about
Speaker 1: what it is for you. It could be something different
Speaker 1: for each person in here. But look at this, what
Speaker 1: happened next first place, after he has spent everything, Because
Speaker 1: that's what eventually happens. That's what eventually happens. Eventually you're
Speaker 1: just spent. How many can testify that? Eventually? You know?
Speaker 1: When you go to a foreigned place away from who
Speaker 1: you know, you really are away from character. First, chasing
Speaker 1: after applause from people, or chasing after somebody's approval, it
Speaker 1: doesn't feel you Pharaoh can never feed you. There aren't
Speaker 1: enough fish in the world. And while we're at it,
Speaker 1: the fish aren't that good. They aren't as good as
Speaker 1: you remember them. They aren't as good as you imagine them.
Speaker 1: The fish are not that good. It's full of bones
Speaker 1: and it'll choke you on the bones. The fish are
Speaker 1: not that good. The fish are not worth me giving
Speaker 1: up myself for the fish are not worth me giving
Speaker 1: up my peace for No. No, there's not a fish
Speaker 1: in the world. There is not a fish in Egypt.
Speaker 1: There is not a fish in the Nile that is
Speaker 1: worth me giving up my knowledge of God and myself.
Speaker 1: That's what the younger brother did. And after he had
Speaker 1: spent everything, there was a severe famine in the whole country,
Speaker 1: and he began to be in need. And it was
Speaker 1: a good thing that there was a famine, because it
Speaker 1: brought him back to his father. It's a good thing
Speaker 1: if it brings you closer to God, it's a good thing.
Speaker 1: I'm not talking about feels good in this five minutes.
Speaker 1: I'm not talking about comfort. I'm talking about change, grace, faith,
Speaker 1: the good stuff, the stuff you can live on, not
Speaker 1: what this kid started eating. Look what happens to you
Speaker 1: when you leave your father. Look what happens to you
Speaker 1: when you start remembering Egypt's fish and forgetting God's faithfulness.
Speaker 1: Look what happens This boy went and hired himself out
Speaker 1: to a citizen of that country. You don't belong here.
Speaker 1: I'm saying that to somebody. You do not belong in
Speaker 1: this low place. You do not belong at three in
Speaker 1: the morning on some porn hub, trying to find something
Speaker 1: to fill you that only makes you more hungry. You
Speaker 1: do not belong in that place. And yes, this is
Speaker 1: a real pulpit, and yes we talk about real stuff.
Speaker 1: And yes, I live in the world, and yes I
Speaker 1: know that some of us. I'm not yelling at you.
Speaker 1: I'm pleading with you. Yeah, don't let a craven kill you. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you want acceptance good, you want enjoy good, you want
Speaker 1: life good, you want more good. The problem with most
Speaker 1: Christians isn't that we want too much. We don't want enough.
Speaker 1: We'll settle for fish. God wants to give us fruit,
Speaker 1: We'll settle for a hide. When God wants us to
Speaker 1: be seated above all the noise of this world. I'm
Speaker 1: telling you what I found out the hard way. The
Speaker 1: boy didn't want to know. He just wanted his share
Speaker 1: of the inheritance. And look where it left him, Look
Speaker 1: where it leaves you. This is why we've been feeling weak.
Speaker 1: This is why, not because of something going on externally.
Speaker 1: No no, no, no, no no no. The Bible says
Speaker 1: that he looked at the pigs that he was feeding
Speaker 1: verse sixteen, and he longed to fill his stomach with
Speaker 1: the pods. That the pig's reading comfort food, something that
Speaker 1: was fit for an animal. Have you been doing that?
Speaker 1: Thoughts that you telling yourself things, You've been believing lies,
Speaker 1: You've been going to just to feel full for five
Speaker 1: minutes and then he had a moment of realization. And
Speaker 1: I love it because he came verse seventeen to his
Speaker 1: senses and he said to himself, my father's fridge is full.
Speaker 1: I just paraphrase that. I like the way that sounded.
Speaker 1: Put it right there in the chat. Say it with
Speaker 1: your mouth out loud. My father's fridge is full. Say
Speaker 1: it again. My father's fridge is full. Say it again,
Speaker 1: out loud. My father's fridge is full. Multitask while you're
Speaker 1: typing it, say it, my father's fridge is full. Look
Speaker 1: at the person on the couch next to you and
Speaker 1: brag about it. Look at him and say, my father's
Speaker 1: fridge is full. And tell somebody else that you've been
Speaker 1: going to that's been abusing you. Your fish are not
Speaker 1: that delicious. My father's fridge is full. And tell every
Speaker 1: pharaoh that keeps you in chains of ways of believing
Speaker 1: and behaving and living and thinking and hurting and bleeding
Speaker 1: and starving, my father's fridge is full. The thought pharaoh,
Speaker 1: I got a father, The thought pigs, I got a father.
Speaker 1: It's full, it's full. He's got all the comfort you need,
Speaker 1: he's got all the joy you have him In needing
Speaker 1: the wrong things, you've been getting them from the wrong place.
Speaker 1: It's an acquired day. Truth is an acquired taste when
Speaker 1: you've been eating lies all your life. So the Lord
Speaker 1: said that we should think about comfort food today. We
Speaker 1: should ask ourselves the question why do I crave what
Speaker 1: I hate? And what would be a better way to
Speaker 1: get in? You know, like practically there is a better
Speaker 1: way inside of God to get this done. For everything
Speaker 1: that's destroying your life. I want you to realize that
Speaker 1: your father has it in every decision that you make.
Speaker 1: Here's what you're deciding, am I going to get it
Speaker 1: from Pharaoh? Or am I going to get it from
Speaker 1: my father. One is a chain restaurant. It's going to
Speaker 1: keep you stuck right where you are in Egypt. But
Speaker 1: the other one, if the sun makes you free, you
Speaker 1: will be free. Indeed, and the key to everything I'm
Speaker 1: trying to teach you is in Numbers, chapter eleven, verse four,
Speaker 1: when the Israelites craved the meat of Egypt. It all started.
Speaker 1: Look at this because the rabble that was with them.
Speaker 1: And you may ask me, Pastor Fredick, I know what
Speaker 1: rabble is. But just for the other people who don't
Speaker 1: study their Bibles as much, what exactly do you mean
Speaker 1: by rabble? When I show you this, you're going to understand.
Speaker 1: Listen to me, By the spirit of God, I'm not
Speaker 1: playing with your emotions here. I'm telling you what God
Speaker 1: showed me. When you see what the rabble was, you
Speaker 1: will begin to understand why you've been craving things that
Speaker 1: you hate that destroy you. When the Israelites left Egypt,
Speaker 1: they had to do it in a hurry. They did
Speaker 1: it in the middle of the night, and some of
Speaker 1: your life has been like that. You've just been trying
Speaker 1: to stay one step ahead of something really bad, right,
Speaker 1: survival mode, Stay with me. I know I've said a lot,
Speaker 1: and I know I cooked too much. But get some
Speaker 1: tupperware and take this home, Okay, get some toughware. Yeah yeah, tupleware, tupperware,
Speaker 1: a tuppleware, a tupplewa, a tuplewear. And I got a
Speaker 1: tupperware in the morning. I got a tupperware in night. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Now what is it? Exodus twelve? Is it thirty seven?
Speaker 1: It describes it thirty eight when they left in the darkness,
Speaker 1: about two million strong, six hundred thousand men, women and children.
Speaker 1: When they left on foot like that, and they got
Speaker 1: everything they put in their hands from the Egyptians, and
Speaker 1: they left Egypt where they were enslaved, where they went
Speaker 1: to originally be fed, which represented the place of bondage,
Speaker 1: which represents what you might be leaving this year or
Speaker 1: trying to leave. Here's what happen them. Many other people
Speaker 1: went up with them. That's the rabble. When it says
Speaker 1: give me numbers eleven four again, when it says the
Speaker 1: rabble with them begin to crave other food, it's the
Speaker 1: Egyptians that left with them that were not one of them.
Speaker 1: So when you left Egypt, all of Egypt didn't leave you.
Speaker 1: I'm not talking about people. I'm talking about perspectives, patterns.
Speaker 1: I'm talking about the things that went with you. You're
Speaker 1: in Christ, You're a new creation, but don't be alarmed
Speaker 1: when some of the old cravings are still there. That's
Speaker 1: the rabble. And God said that the first step to receiving.
Speaker 1: This is what I'm gonna teach you about for the
Speaker 1: next few weeks. Are you ready, I'm gonna pick this
Speaker 1: up next week. I'm gonna pick this up next week,
Speaker 1: but we're going to talk about having room to receive
Speaker 1: in your life. Room. Everybody put that in all caps
Speaker 1: in the chat. I feel like it's our series for
Speaker 1: the new year, room to receive, and in order to
Speaker 1: have room to receive, the new things, the grapes of Canaan,
Speaker 1: the promises of God, the good things, the encouragement, the life,
Speaker 1: the joy, the honey, the sweetness, the things that God
Speaker 1: has called you, the savor, the truth that has already
Speaker 1: in you, but keeps getting crowded out by the lies,
Speaker 1: by the rabble, by the routines, by the attitudes, by
Speaker 1: the beliefs, by the behaviors, by the limitations by the
Speaker 1: examples you've seen. I just spelled the word rabble, go
Speaker 1: back and check it. It's all of those things. It's
Speaker 1: the routines, it's the attitudes, it's the beliefs, it's the behaviors,
Speaker 1: it's the lies, the limitations you believe. And it is
Speaker 1: the examples that you have seen set that keep you
Speaker 1: reaching for Egypt's fish when Canaan's grapes are right in
Speaker 1: front of you. And I want you to remember going
Speaker 1: into this new year that before you can receive the blessing,
Speaker 1: God has to remove the rabble. And so here's the decision,
Speaker 1: and we will make it together, because I think we'll
Speaker 1: be better served if we do this together this year
Speaker 1: in order to receive God's best for our life. I
Speaker 1: want to ask you a question. Are you willing to
Speaker 1: allow God to remove the rabble, the old that feels good,
Speaker 1: that draws you back in? Are you willing to allow
Speaker 1: it will be a process. Look at this passage. It
Speaker 1: says in numbers eleven, verse thirty four. And it's so
Speaker 1: crazy because they craved quail, meat, fish, garlic, leaks, onions,
Speaker 1: all the egypt stuff. You know how good they knew
Speaker 1: the menu from Egypt. It had been ingrained in them.
Speaker 1: I'm familiar with this menu. I know exactly what to
Speaker 1: do with this old pattern. Oh, but the new one,
Speaker 1: the new one. What is this? Man? What is this?
Speaker 1: That's exactly where God wants you. It's uncertain. That doesn't
Speaker 1: mean it's unsafe. Your father has enough in his house.
Speaker 1: So God is bringing us to our senses. And when
Speaker 1: they complained, God sent them so much quail that it
Speaker 1: started coming out of there their noses. One other scripture says,
Speaker 1: but they couldn't digest it because while it was in
Speaker 1: their teeth. Pharaoh's food never fills you. And it says
Speaker 1: in verse thirty four that the place where they complained
Speaker 1: was called Kibroth Hatafa, because there they buried the people
Speaker 1: who craved other food. Can I tell you what kibbath?
Speaker 1: Put it back up because I don't know how to
Speaker 1: pronounce it. Hatava means it literally means graves of craving.
Speaker 1: And the Lord is bringing us into a new year
Speaker 1: with a question funeral or feast, Funeral or feast, or
Speaker 1: maybe he's saying, let's have the funeral for the rabble
Speaker 1: so that we can feast on what the Father has
Speaker 1: more than enough of Stand up. I'm closing, and give
Speaker 1: God twenty one seconds of praise. I'm counting you. Just clap. No, no,
Speaker 1: that's not praise like a Canaan praise, like a grateful
Speaker 1: praise like eighth the Egyptians you see today, you will
Speaker 1: see no more. Come on, get uncomfortable, get uncomfortable, Come on,
Speaker 1: get uncomfortable, and praise them. If you know, it's acomfortably
Speaker 1: out there in the father's house. So look at this,
Speaker 1: and I bless you, and I bless you. But before
Speaker 1: I bless you with the blessing of a new year,
Speaker 1: I want to show you what the father said to
Speaker 1: the older son. See, there was a younger son who
Speaker 1: left the father's house and he was starving. But that
Speaker 1: wasn't the saddest part of Luke fifteen. There was another
Speaker 1: son who was starving, and he was in the house.
Speaker 1: And that's you. That's you. That's you. There's no need
Speaker 1: for you to starve, for the need of what your
Speaker 1: father has plenty of. And I want you to just
Speaker 1: turn your poems like this is a new Year's consecration.
Speaker 1: I know we're a few days into the year. You
Speaker 1: might even be watching this three years after I appreci it.
Speaker 1: God doesn't care about that. Lift your hands, because the
Speaker 1: only thing that makes it new is you. What good
Speaker 1: is it God to give you a new opportunity if
Speaker 1: you're going to stay on an Egyptian diet. Lord, you
Speaker 1: are our food, our bread, our sustenance. We live, move, breathe,
Speaker 1: and have our being in you. That's it. All that
Speaker 1: we need is in this moment. Because you are in
Speaker 1: this moment. You are not enough. You are more than enough.
Speaker 1: You are enough with tupperware. So Lord, in the strength
Speaker 1: of this word that you spoke today, we commit a
Speaker 1: new year to you. We would hate to be the
Speaker 1: bearers of a Canaan promise and die with an Egyptian appetite.
Speaker 1: We want to speak to you this week about the rabble,
Speaker 1: the rabble, the rabble. For them, it was people that
Speaker 1: had to be buried before they could move forward in
Speaker 1: the graves of craving. But for us, it's going to
Speaker 1: be those other things. Those routines that are killing us,
Speaker 1: Attitudes that are squeezing us, beliefs that are limiting us,
Speaker 1: behaviors that are sabotaging us, Labels and limits and lies
Speaker 1: that are confining us. The examples that we see that
Speaker 1: have shown us that Egypt that we've seen is what
Speaker 1: we're going back to. But we're not going back. We
Speaker 1: don't want to go back. We're looking back. We're going forward.
Speaker 1: You brought us through this far. We didn't come out
Speaker 1: here to die. We're not going to wander in this
Speaker 1: wilderness complaining about what you fed us. You gave us
Speaker 1: what we need for the season that we're in, and
Speaker 1: we're grateful, and we're thankful, and you are a good father,
Speaker 1: and it is right for us to celeb. So we
Speaker 1: clap our hands all over the world. We thank you
Speaker 1: for our necessary food. We thank you for living water.
Speaker 1: Thank you Jesus, Thank you Jesus. I'll show you this,
Speaker 1: and I promise I'm going to turn it over to
Speaker 1: the team. When the younger son came home, the older
Speaker 1: brother was mad, but the father said in verse thirty
Speaker 1: one of Luke fifteen, my son, you're always with me.
Speaker 1: Everything I have is yours. But we had to celebrate
Speaker 1: and be glad because this brother of yours was dead
Speaker 1: and is alive again. He was lost in is fun well.
Speaker 1: The older brother stood outside with his arms crossed because
Speaker 1: he wasn't used to this way of seeing his father operate,
Speaker 1: just like you're not used to what you've been experiencing.
Speaker 1: Either the father made a choice for the son funeral
Speaker 1: or feast. Your brother was dead, he's alive. You have
Speaker 1: a decision to make this year the graves of craving
Speaker 1: or the feast of your father. I pray in the
Speaker 1: name of Jesus that you will choose life. In Jesus' name. Hey,
Speaker 1: it's me again. You can't get away from me. What
Speaker 1: a privilege to share God's word with you today. I
Speaker 1: pray that you were fed, strengthened, and now ready to
Speaker 1: fight the good fight of faith. Thank you to everybody
Speaker 1: who gives to this ministry. I always like to say
Speaker 1: that because you know, without someone investing in the ground
Speaker 1: of the ministry, there can be no harvest. And so
Speaker 1: thank you all of you who give to the ministry.
Speaker 1: Regularly gave to our favorite offering. We're in a great
Speaker 1: position to reach people around the world this year. Thank you,
Speaker 1: Thank you, thank you. Make sure to subscribe, share the sermon.
Speaker 1: We just want you to know we love you. Thank
Speaker 1: you for being a part of our family. Make sure
Speaker 1: you feed yourself what your father has this week don't
Speaker 1: go around hungry like the snack Machine used to say
Speaker 1: outside my dad's barbershaw. I'll see you next time. We
Speaker 1: love you very much.