Speaker 1: Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick.
Speaker 2: I'm the pastor of Elevation Church and this is our podcast.
Speaker 2: Be sure to subscribe so we can get you these
Speaker 2: new sermons every week.
Speaker 1: Hope you're blessed today.
Speaker 3: I really am excited to continue a series today that
Speaker 3: I started last week, and I'm.
Speaker 1: Calling the series. You're ready. I know that voice.
Speaker 3: I know that voice, and we're talking about how to
Speaker 3: discern God's voice and then do what it says.
Speaker 1: Aren't both of those important?
Speaker 3: You know what I noticed about us sometimes as believers
Speaker 3: in Jesus, we get so caught up in the parts
Speaker 3: of what God has spoken that are hard to discern,
Speaker 3: and we ignore the parts that are hard to do.
Speaker 3: Some things that God has spoken to us about they're
Speaker 3: not hard to discern.
Speaker 1: He just told us to do that, to forgive, but
Speaker 1: that's hard to do. I'm gonna come over to this side.
Speaker 1: I feel resistance on this side of the room. Maybe
Speaker 1: it's better over here. I'm gonna just check the waters
Speaker 1: on this side.
Speaker 3: Sometimes the Lord will tell you confess your sins one
Speaker 3: to another. That's easy to discern, that you need to
Speaker 3: be honest about your sin. It's hard to do because
Speaker 3: I want you to see me like that, so I
Speaker 3: want to keep this armor on. Well, we're talking about
Speaker 3: not only discerning the voice of God, but being able
Speaker 3: to do what he speaks.
Speaker 1: And I want you to be seated today.
Speaker 3: Normally I share my scripture while you're standing, but I
Speaker 3: want you to be seated because I want to talk
Speaker 3: you into the scripture today. So take your seat wherever
Speaker 3: you are and turning your bible please to First Corinthians,
Speaker 3: chapter four, verse one through five. First Corinthians four one
Speaker 3: through five. Thank you for your word.
Speaker 1: Lord.
Speaker 3: Somebody say what Samuel said. Speak Lord, your servant is listening.
Speaker 3: We talked about Samuel last week and how he attuned
Speaker 3: his ear to the voice of God, and so that
Speaker 3: before he spoke for God, he had to learn to
Speaker 3: hear from God.
Speaker 1: Very important.
Speaker 3: The apostle Paul was another preacher who had to hear
Speaker 3: from God before he could speak for God, because there
Speaker 3: was a time in his life when he persecuted followers
Speaker 3: of Christ and he thought he was serving God, and
Speaker 3: he had to come to that all important place that
Speaker 3: really measures your maturity in the Lord, where he said
Speaker 3: I was wrong.
Speaker 1: Try to say that one time. See how heart it
Speaker 1: is to say I was by a vow wrong.
Speaker 3: And he spent the rest of his ministry not trying
Speaker 3: to make it up to God, but trying to spread
Speaker 3: the message of the God who had saved him by grace.
Speaker 3: After spending his whole life trying to earn God's favor
Speaker 3: through keeping the law in First Corinthians. After for Paul
Speaker 3: is well into his established ministry and he's doing something
Speaker 3: we would never think that someone.
Speaker 1: Of his caliber would have to do.
Speaker 3: He's defending himself to the Corinthian church. Not that like
Speaker 3: they really had any right to judge.
Speaker 1: Him, because they were wild. They were so wild.
Speaker 3: I'm talking about sexual immorality in the church. It was
Speaker 3: different back then. They had stuff going so crazy that
Speaker 3: believers were suing each other because they couldn't mediate any
Speaker 3: other way.
Speaker 1: It's different back.
Speaker 3: Then, and they were also not only dysfunctional, but they
Speaker 3: were divided. So, yeah, one group in the church like
Speaker 3: we like when Paul preaches. Then there was another group
Speaker 3: that was like, well, we like when a Paulus preaches.
Speaker 3: And Paul speaks into all of that, telling them you
Speaker 3: should be eating meat by now, but you still need
Speaker 3: milk because you have not yet developed your digestive system
Speaker 3: to realize that if God's word is being preached, he
Speaker 3: can use anything he wants to bring it to you,
Speaker 3: the one he wants to bring it to you anytime
Speaker 3: he wants to bring.
Speaker 1: It to you.
Speaker 3: But then it gets personal, and I've spent a lot
Speaker 3: of time debating how to share this message today because
Speaker 3: it is personal to me. I have determined that the
Speaker 3: greatest way for me to make it personal to you
Speaker 3: is to share how it's personal for me. But first,
Speaker 3: let's see how it is personal for Paul. First Corinthians four,
Speaker 3: verse one. This, then, is how you ought to regard
Speaker 3: us as servants of Christ and as those entrusted with
Speaker 3: the mysteries God has revealed. Let's read that again, entrusted
Speaker 3: with the mysteries God has revealed. There are some mysteries
Speaker 3: that God has not revealed. Paul says, we are not
Speaker 3: responsible for what God has not revealed. We are entrusted
Speaker 3: with the mysteries God has revealed. There are some things
Speaker 3: in your life that God has not shown you yet.
Speaker 1: You are not responsible for what.
Speaker 3: God has not revealed, and you get to trust Him
Speaker 3: with those mysteries. But then, Paul says, we have been
Speaker 3: entrusted with the mystery of the Gospel that has been
Speaker 3: revealed through Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1: Look at verse two.
Speaker 3: Now it is required that those who have been given
Speaker 3: a trust must prove famous. No, that's what everybody in
Speaker 3: our day wants to be, is famous. But Paul said,
Speaker 3: if you've been entrusted with it, you don't have to
Speaker 3: be famous. You just have to be faithful. You don't
Speaker 3: even have to be that smart. You just have to
Speaker 3: be faithful. You don't even have to be perfect, You
Speaker 3: just have to be faithful. Verse three is where I
Speaker 3: want to pick up our thought for today. I care
Speaker 3: very little if I am judged by you or by
Speaker 3: any human court, indeed touching nation. So I don't care
Speaker 3: what you think about me. You didn't convince them. Say
Speaker 3: it again. I don't care what you think about me.
Speaker 1: Now ask them, do you like my outfit? Does it
Speaker 1: look good on me? Does it make me look fat?
Speaker 3: I hear a preacher one time, even preaching, he said,
Speaker 3: I don't preach for the praise of men.
Speaker 1: Amen. Amen, I see the irony anyway. We all need validation.
Speaker 1: And so last week I talked about values.
Speaker 3: You'll know God's voice when you have God's values. To
Speaker 3: ask God to speak to me about something that he
Speaker 3: hasn't revealed when I'm not doing what he has revealed
Speaker 3: is kind of missing the point. Because if I have
Speaker 3: God's values, watch this. I can go to any college
Speaker 3: and be a Christian. If I had God's values, I
Speaker 3: could show up on any job and be a witness.
Speaker 3: If I have God's values, I can take a wrong decision,
Speaker 3: repent and God will make it right.
Speaker 1: Because when I have God's values, I hear God's voice.
Speaker 3: Today, I want to switch it a little bit, and
Speaker 3: I want to talk about not values, but verdicts. Verdicts.
Speaker 3: It's a courtroom term, he said. He said, I care
Speaker 3: very little if I'm judged by you Verse three.
Speaker 1: So he must care a little bit, but not too much.
Speaker 3: I kind of care, but not enough to be controlled
Speaker 3: by it. I'm gonna brush my teeth. I don't wanna
Speaker 3: have bad breath.
Speaker 1: You know I'm gonna.
Speaker 3: I'm gonna try to do my best, but but I'm
Speaker 3: not controlled by it. I care what you think, but
Speaker 3: I'm not controlled by it.
Speaker 1: I don't. I don't.
Speaker 3: I don't have to prove it to you or any
Speaker 3: human core And this gets deep Verse three part B. Indeed,
Speaker 3: I do not even judge myself. My conscience is clear,
Speaker 3: but that doesn't make me innocent because my heart is deceptive.
Speaker 1: It is the Lord who judges me.
Speaker 3: Therefore, judge nothing before the appointed time.
Speaker 1: Wait until the Lord comes.
Speaker 3: He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness
Speaker 3: and will expose the motives of the heart. At that time,
Speaker 3: each will receive their praise from God.
Speaker 1: Here's the title of my message.
Speaker 3: I want to talk about when Jesus is your jury.
Speaker 1: Come on, y'all, got quiet.
Speaker 3: I know you're trying to write it down, but you
Speaker 3: can multitask shout while shout while you're right, when Jesus
Speaker 3: is your jury? Because I'm telling you there are internal
Speaker 3: verdicts that are happening in your mind and your heart
Speaker 3: every single day about others, about yourself, about your life.
Speaker 3: And I want to talk about that a little bit.
Speaker 3: And I chose the word jury because that's the job
Speaker 3: of a jury, right to declare a verdict after examining
Speaker 3: evidence and in your heart. Even at this point in
Speaker 3: my message today, you have already made certain verdicts about
Speaker 3: the word that I'm preaching today. You've already started deciding
Speaker 3: is this for me or is this for someone else?
Speaker 3: Do I agree with what he's saying or do I
Speaker 3: disagree with what he's saying. Do I think Pastor seven
Speaker 3: looks good with his shirt tucked in or does it
Speaker 3: look kind of weird because he normally does And I
Speaker 3: can't decide.
Speaker 1: You know all the things that you think, and.
Speaker 3: You laugh at that, you laugh at that, but it
Speaker 3: is a very peculiar thing to be a public minister.
Speaker 3: And this is where I want to share with you personally.
Speaker 3: My eighteen year old son, Graham is preaching a lot
Speaker 3: right now. And you say, you must be proud of
Speaker 3: my am, But I'm proud.
Speaker 1: Of all my kids. They don't have to preach to
Speaker 1: make me proud. Yet at the same time, it is
Speaker 1: kind of fun to teach him a little bit about preaching.
Speaker 3: And he started asking me questions about preaching, like how
Speaker 3: do you do an introduction? And you know, how do
Speaker 3: you transition from one point to the other. Here's one
Speaker 3: thing he said to me. And I don't know if
Speaker 3: this means he's just like very self aware or a
Speaker 3: little bit arrogant, but he goes.
Speaker 1: I'm such a funny person.
Speaker 3: How do I get my humor to come across more
Speaker 3: when I preach, because they don't laugh when I talk.
Speaker 3: You see what he did. It's their fault they're not laughing.
Speaker 3: I'm funny. How do I get them to come.
Speaker 1: Up to the my level?
Speaker 3: Delusion can be a tool for the preacher, But he.
Speaker 1: Is funny and he is learning. And one day he
Speaker 1: walked past me where I study in the house.
Speaker 3: I'm going to share this personally, but it's not autobiographical.
Speaker 1: It's for your application, So listen to this.
Speaker 3: I study in our house at a dining room table
Speaker 3: with about seven empty chairs.
Speaker 1: I like studying there number one because it's.
Speaker 3: Close to the food, and number two I like it
Speaker 3: because those empty chairs help me prepare. Here's why I
Speaker 3: sit with the Bible. I say, Lord, speak to me.
Speaker 3: I need you to show me in your word what
Speaker 3: it says, not what I think, not what I preached
Speaker 3: about it last time. And Lord, even if I don't
Speaker 3: completely understand it, I want to share it because I
Speaker 3: would rather give the people a word that is fresh
Speaker 3: and messy than something that is moldy but has no meaning.
Speaker 3: So as I'm studying a lot of times, I get
Speaker 3: a little I love alliteration so I start making everything
Speaker 3: start with P, like it's gonna do today in this
Speaker 3: sermon when I give you the outline. But after I've
Speaker 3: made everything start with the letter P, and after I've
Speaker 3: tried to figure out lines that I can say, stories
Speaker 3: I can share, illustrations that I can do, I start
Speaker 3: talking to the empty chairs.
Speaker 1: Please don't commit me to the outreach partner.
Speaker 3: That helps with mental health when you hear this, but
Speaker 3: I start talking to the empty chairs, or rather I let.
Speaker 1: Them talk to me. And there are people in there
Speaker 1: helping me prepare to preach. They don't know.
Speaker 3: They're there, but they're there. Eric, you're there. I shouldn't
Speaker 3: tell you this. You might start wanting to get paid
Speaker 3: or something like that. Help me with my sermon.
Speaker 1: But sometimes when I'm all lost, and what does.
Speaker 3: The Greek say? What does the Hebrews say? You know,
Speaker 3: God speak to me, speak to me. I look at
Speaker 3: the empty chair, and I say, if Eric was sitting
Speaker 3: right there, and I know some of the strain and
Speaker 3: the stress that he's carrying. I've known him since we
Speaker 3: were little boys. I know that he was adopted, and
Speaker 3: I know that that's complicated for him.
Speaker 1: And I know that he instantly deals with the issues.
Speaker 3: From certain things that happened before he even had a
Speaker 3: conscious memory. What does Eric need to hear from you Lord,
Speaker 3: even if it doesn't start with a letter P, even
Speaker 3: if it messes up my outline, even if it means
Speaker 3: I'm not going to get up there to sound so smart?
Speaker 1: What does Eric need to hear?
Speaker 3: Sometimes you're there, Matt's smart, So sometimes I'm like, you know,
Speaker 3: Matt's really smart, really successful.
Speaker 1: But success brings pressure.
Speaker 3: So what does the person who's successful but under pressure need.
Speaker 1: To hear today? Because you tend to think that the only.
Speaker 3: People who need a touch from the Lord are people
Speaker 3: who are down low. But there is a pressure that
Speaker 3: comes with blessings that you have to learn how to
Speaker 3: manage as well.
Speaker 1: So what do I say to the person.
Speaker 3: Who is winning and weary? I said, what do I
Speaker 3: say to the person that's winning and weary? So I
Speaker 3: bring them all around me. I bring Holly around me.
Speaker 3: I bring Holly to the table, and I realize that
Speaker 3: she needs to hear honor your husband's and submit to them.
Speaker 3: And then I put some kids in the church, you know,
Speaker 3: because they're not necessarily stressing about the same things that
Speaker 3: you know a fifty seven year old is stressing about,
Speaker 3: So Lord, show me what my fifteen year old daughter.
Speaker 3: So Abby's there and Holly's there, and it's just me
Speaker 3: and a Bible to the naked eye. But I got
Speaker 3: every chair filled with people who have needs that only
Speaker 3: God knows and only God can meet. And I told
Speaker 3: Graham one day he walked by and said, why do
Speaker 3: you study in this room? I said, because these chairs
Speaker 3: are full, because it reminds me that after I hear
Speaker 3: from God, I'm speaking to them and it helps me
Speaker 3: to filter. Am I coming up here to be impressive?
Speaker 3: Or am I coming up here to be a blessing?
Speaker 3: One time the Holy Spirit spoke to me. He said,
Speaker 3: you can impress them or bless them, but you can't
Speaker 3: do both at the same time.
Speaker 1: And if your primary.
Speaker 3: Coast or listening to me, you think I'm talking about preacher,
Speaker 3: and I'm talking about every room you walk into. I'm
Speaker 3: talking about how you interact with your family. I'm talking
Speaker 3: about how you show up in social situations. I'm talking
Speaker 3: about sitting with someone who's going through something. Are you
Speaker 3: trying to be impressive or a blessing? Paul said, one
Speaker 3: time I forgot everything I knew, so I could remember
Speaker 3: the Cross of Christ. I count it all dung for
Speaker 3: the sake of knowing him. I preach the foolishness of
Speaker 3: the cross. It's foolishness to those who are perishing, but
Speaker 3: to those of us who are being saved, it's the
Speaker 3: power of God. So when I preach, I want to
Speaker 3: please Jesus and I want to help Eric. I want
Speaker 3: to help Matt. I want to help Holly, she needs
Speaker 3: a lot of help. She's married to me. I want
Speaker 3: to help Abby. I want to help them. So they
Speaker 3: are there and they are preaching to me, and I
Speaker 3: showed Granddad. I said, before you can hear from God,
Speaker 3: you need to remember that you're speaking to them and
Speaker 3: you're a servant of God's purpose.
Speaker 1: Before you are.
Speaker 3: A speak you are not speaking for status.
Speaker 1: You are a servant of the living God.
Speaker 3: You serve the word of God, the bread of Heaven,
Speaker 3: French to the hearts of hurting people, and is a
Speaker 3: privilege to do it. And then I pulled out my
Speaker 3: phone and I showed him a text message. I said,
Speaker 3: I just got this text the other day from John.
Speaker 3: John has been in our church for almost twenty years.
Speaker 3: He was recently diagnosed with Parkinson's. He's in the middle
Speaker 3: of a battle with Parkinson's. And while I'm sitting here
Speaker 3: preparing my sermon, parsing the sentences in the original languages
Speaker 3: that I hardly understand, and trying to prepare to get
Speaker 3: up here and preach to you, I'm remembering John and
Speaker 3: the fact that he has Parkinson's, and he sent me
Speaker 3: a text that said, Pastor, these last few weeks of
Speaker 3: preaching have helped me so much. You see, I have
Speaker 3: pneumonia right now, and on top of the Parkinson's.
Speaker 1: It's a lot.
Speaker 3: But with God's help, I will continue to fight and
Speaker 3: show up every day.
Speaker 1: So I'm not preaching.
Speaker 3: To be impression. If I'm preaching to help John. I'm
Speaker 3: preaching to John today. Do you understand today that John
Speaker 3: would love to be in this building but he can't.
Speaker 3: He would love to be in your seat and he can't.
Speaker 3: And some of you are scrolling on snapchat. Well, I'm preaching,
Speaker 3: and somebody would give anything to be in your seat,
Speaker 3: you see, because the word of God, this is my
Speaker 3: weapon to fight through my weakness. I told Graham, your
Speaker 3: job is to please Jesus and help John. That's all
Speaker 3: you gotta do. That's all you gotta do when you preach,
Speaker 3: Please Jesus and help John. So I'm preaching for two
Speaker 3: people today, Jesus and John.
Speaker 1: That's my job. Paul said, I got a job.
Speaker 3: I love the apostle Paul because he understood the assignment.
Speaker 1: He said, I got a job to do.
Speaker 3: I gotta take the gospel to the gentiles. Touch somebody,
Speaker 3: Say you got.
Speaker 1: A job to do.
Speaker 3: Look at them like you expect them to report and
Speaker 3: log their hours. Say you got a job to do.
Speaker 3: I got a job to do. You got a job
Speaker 3: to do. Mom, you gotta raise those kids. No, you
Speaker 3: don't have to control them, but you gotta be there
Speaker 3: for them.
Speaker 1: You gotta. You gotta co labor with God. Collaborate with
Speaker 1: God to raise that child. And watch this. You have
Speaker 1: a job. You have a job.
Speaker 3: Students, you have a job. And it ain't just for
Speaker 3: you to chat. GVT your way to a c and
Speaker 3: get out of this thing you got. You got a job.
Speaker 3: Somebody in your great might commit suicide if they don't
Speaker 3: meet Jesus.
Speaker 1: You've got a job to do.
Speaker 3: You gotta show them the one who said you got
Speaker 3: a reason to live. You gotta job. Say, I got
Speaker 3: a job, not unemployed in the Kingdom of God.
Speaker 1: I've got a job. I've got a job to.
Speaker 3: Do as a mom. I got a job to do
Speaker 3: as a student. I got a job to do as
Speaker 3: a small business owner. I gotta figure this out. I
Speaker 3: got a job to do as a creative. I gotta
Speaker 3: learn how to do this these graphics in a way
Speaker 3: that inspire people. I got a job to do, not
Speaker 3: just when I show up to work, but as I
Speaker 3: work on myself.
Speaker 1: I got a job to do.
Speaker 3: I gotta work on me so that I don't pass
Speaker 3: down to the next generation what I struggled with, so
Speaker 3: that I can be a chain breaker in my family.
Speaker 1: I got a job to do.
Speaker 3: And then I told Graham, you got to know your job,
Speaker 3: but you also got to know your jury.
Speaker 1: Your jury.
Speaker 3: Let me ask you something, just me and you. You
Speaker 3: love it when the preachers says that, like, there's a
Speaker 3: bunch of us, okay, But if it was just me
Speaker 3: and you and we could talk about it, who's your jury?
Speaker 3: Paul said to the Corinthian Church. You're not my jury.
Speaker 1: The Lord is.
Speaker 3: And he's not saying that so he can get away
Speaker 3: with sin. You only God can judge me, Paul got stown,
Speaker 3: But not like that, all right, not like that. He
Speaker 3: wasn't saying that as excuse, just liv anyway he wanted
Speaker 3: to is sin is actually a higher standard that.
Speaker 1: I'm called to than what you think about me.
Speaker 3: Because when people judge, they do it on the surface,
Speaker 3: and they do it as a summary, So they just
Speaker 3: label you at the level they can see you. And
Speaker 3: I think if Paul had had kids, he would have said,
Speaker 3: I don't care if you think I'm a good dad.
Speaker 3: You don't see how I parent my kids. So for
Speaker 3: every mom that has a job, who's your jury? Who
Speaker 3: gets to render the verdict whether you're doing a good
Speaker 3: job at it or not? And does does that jury
Speaker 3: exists in real life or only on your screen through
Speaker 3: cultivated moments that were curated to impress others, so that
Speaker 3: you are comparing the mom that you are to the
Speaker 3: mom that they pretend to be.
Speaker 1: What's your job? Who's your jury?
Speaker 3: Whose popularity would you give anything to earn? Who are
Speaker 3: you doing it for? I want to break this message
Speaker 3: down into three points that start with the letter P
Speaker 3: because John likes alliteration. You told me that one time,
Speaker 3: but I think it'd be simplest. If we talk about
Speaker 3: the verdicts.
Speaker 1: In your heart. You know what I mean when I
Speaker 1: say verdict, You're no good at.
Speaker 3: This, You're unworthy, You're the problem. You'll never change. It's
Speaker 3: too big for you. You don't have the experience those
Speaker 3: verdicts in your heart. Those verdicts in your heart come
Speaker 3: from a jury. Who's your jury. We're going to talk
Speaker 3: about praise. That's the first thing we're going to talk about,
Speaker 3: and then we're going to talk about patience, and.
Speaker 1: We'll close the message in about three and a half hours.
Speaker 3: Talking about power, praise, patience.
Speaker 1: And power.
Speaker 3: It's interesting that Paul uses this phrase in verse five.
Speaker 3: I'm gonna put it on the screen again for you,
Speaker 3: where he says, hang on, let me turn back there. Yeah,
Speaker 3: each will receive their praise from God.
Speaker 1: Do you see that right there at the bottom of
Speaker 1: the screen.
Speaker 3: I'll give you a second to take it in because
Speaker 3: we're used to seeing give praise to God. But that
Speaker 3: looks kind of weird to see it on the screen
Speaker 3: that you also can receive praise from God. Now, who's
Speaker 3: praise you crave the most? Will tell me a lot
Speaker 3: about what you are chained Two who's praise you crave
Speaker 3: the most. So when I started explaining to Graham about
Speaker 3: the jury, I had to tell him a story about
Speaker 3: another John. See, there is a part of me that
Speaker 3: when I preach, I want to be accurate.
Speaker 1: I want to be correct. I want to do a
Speaker 1: good job. And there's one memory that stands out in
Speaker 1: my mind.
Speaker 3: Several years ago, and this is the only time that
Speaker 3: this has ever happened. I was criticized for my ministry.
Speaker 1: I'll see if you believe that or not.
Speaker 3: Y'all know better than that because they say it to
Speaker 3: you too about going.
Speaker 1: To church here, so I get it right.
Speaker 3: And this is the part that's kind of personal, but
Speaker 3: I want to give it to you so it can
Speaker 3: be personal for you. There was a man named John
Speaker 3: one time who was being interviewed, and he is a
Speaker 3: great theologian.
Speaker 1: He's in heaven now and he is a great theologian.
Speaker 1: What's his name? John.
Speaker 3: They were doing a lightning round with him at a
Speaker 3: theological panel, and they were saying, we're going to say
Speaker 3: a name of a person, or the name of an event,
Speaker 3: or the name of an organization, and we want you
Speaker 3: to lightning round, just respond what you think about that person. Now,
Speaker 3: I was very unsuspecting because honestly, I really loved this
Speaker 3: guy's teaching, and I studied his books and seminary I
Speaker 3: mean cemetary, I mean seminary.
Speaker 1: And I studied his books to the point.
Speaker 3: Where I actually had started buying volumes of his different
Speaker 3: commentaries on the Bible. So it was really weird to
Speaker 3: me because I was just watching this thing on YouTube
Speaker 3: as a spectator, and I was like in the other
Speaker 3: room getting ready to go preach on a Saturday night,
Speaker 3: and they said my name, they go, they go Steven Ferdick.
Speaker 1: I'm like, is my mom in.
Speaker 3: Here somewhere calling me by my first and last name?
Speaker 1: Like did they say my name? And I got back
Speaker 1: to the screen just in time to see it. And
Speaker 1: I'll never forget it because it wasn't just what he said,
Speaker 1: It was how he sighed before he said it.
Speaker 3: I was expecting him to say who, because I don't
Speaker 3: think of myself as anybody that this man should know about.
Speaker 1: I read his books. But he goes.
Speaker 3: Ah, And what he said next was one word, but
Speaker 3: it felt like it had about a million syllables. He said, unqualified.
Speaker 3: I said, what did John just call me? And the
Speaker 3: first thing I wanted to do was's fight.
Speaker 1: You thought I was.
Speaker 3: Going to say pray. No, I didn't want to pray
Speaker 3: for him. I wanted to lay hands on him.
Speaker 1: Because that's in the Bible too.
Speaker 3: It's in the Bible, like something out of the Bible.
Speaker 3: I can share it with you now because there's no
Speaker 3: bitterness in my heart toward this man.
Speaker 1: I'm sure in heaven and I'm.
Speaker 3: Sure we'll eat grits and eggs together one day when
Speaker 3: I get there, because I'm gonna.
Speaker 1: Be there too, whether he wants me in there or not.
Speaker 1: And I'm gonna knock on.
Speaker 3: His door and I'm gonna say, I read your book.
Speaker 1: Let's have a book club, John.
Speaker 4: But you know what's weird is that sometimes when I
Speaker 4: sit down to study, even though I forgave him, even
Speaker 4: though I wrote a book called Unqualified.
Speaker 3: And sent him one hundred and twenty dollars tie and
Speaker 3: the book signed in the.
Speaker 1: Mail, Yeah I did that. I don't even know they made.
Speaker 3: One hundred and twenty dollars ties until I bought him one.
Speaker 3: Even though I'm gotten over it, there are still sometimes
Speaker 3: that I sit down to preach to one John and
Speaker 3: find myself trying to.
Speaker 1: Prove to another John.
Speaker 3: But God said that's the wrong Joe, God, because God.
Speaker 1: Did not call you to convince the jury.
Speaker 3: God called you to please Him and help John.
Speaker 1: So clap your hands. If you know I got nothing
Speaker 1: to prove.
Speaker 3: Wrong, John, write that down next time you find yourself
Speaker 3: trying to prove something to somebody who isn't even paying attention.
Speaker 3: By the way, you know what they're doing, trying to
Speaker 3: prove themselves to somebody who isn't paying attention. So they
Speaker 3: can prove themselves to somebody who isn't.
Speaker 1: Paying attention because they're proven. And what are you proven to?
Speaker 3: And what will it improve you if they do approve
Speaker 3: of you? Here what I said, What would it improve
Speaker 3: you if they did approve of you? So I'm saying,
Speaker 3: like Paul said, I care a little bit, but I
Speaker 3: can't be controlled by a jury when God has given
Speaker 3: me a job. Even if it's not a person saying it.
Speaker 3: I bet you've heard it before.
Speaker 1: Unqualified.
Speaker 3: Why do I make his voice sound like you on
Speaker 3: a respirator or something?
Speaker 1: Unqualified? I could hear, I could hear the jury. We
Speaker 1: have reached a verdict on.
Speaker 3: Verdict, your honor, we pronounced him unqualified, and I'm like, yeah,
Speaker 3: like Moses, Yeah, like the Virgin Mary, Yeah, like a
Speaker 3: shepherd boy named David, Yeah, like a cousin fisherman, the
Speaker 3: name Peter, anybody God ever use he bit it through.
Speaker 1: They're dysfunction.
Speaker 3: So come all right, we're talking about the praise that
Speaker 3: come from God. Say it, the praise that comes from God,
Speaker 3: the praise.
Speaker 1: I wrote this down.
Speaker 3: Stop performing for people that don't hold your prize. Say
Speaker 3: it again, vertie for the people in the back of
Speaker 3: the church who have been trying to impress somebody, but
Speaker 3: there's nothing at the bottom of the box. You'll remember, Cereal,
Speaker 3: you reach down in it and there's something at the
Speaker 3: bottom of the box. Some of you are reaching so
Speaker 3: far down for the approval of people, but there's nothing
Speaker 3: in the bottom of the box. It doesn't matter if
Speaker 3: they like, It doesn't matter if they don't.
Speaker 1: You can love them, but do not perform for.
Speaker 3: Them, because how can you commit to the praises of
Speaker 3: God if you are addicted to the praises of people.
Speaker 3: Mm hm m hm.
Speaker 1: Stop performing for people. Hold your prize.
Speaker 3: I didn't say something ministering to people who treat you
Speaker 3: mean that's called turn the other cheek.
Speaker 1: That's in the Bible. You gotta do that. God revealed that.
Speaker 1: But you don't have to perform for.
Speaker 3: I don't have to take first Corinthians four, verse five
Speaker 3: and then go to Revelation twenty three about the Great
Speaker 3: White Throne of judgment, the three different types of judgment
Speaker 3: in the Bible. Just because John might be watching me
Speaker 3: from heaven. I'm not preaching to that John. I'm preaching
Speaker 3: to you. I have a job to do today. You
Speaker 3: have a job to do. Are you performing for people?
Speaker 3: He said, the Lord has my prize, So the Lord
Speaker 3: is the one that I'm doing it for. I thought
Speaker 3: that was so freeing for me. See, when you are
Speaker 3: a servant, Okay, I'll go ahead and break down my
Speaker 3: pride barrier and just doing I was trying.
Speaker 1: To avoid it, but I can't now. I want to
Speaker 1: say it right.
Speaker 3: Look young up here, Okay, when you are a servant
Speaker 3: of God's purpose, you won't be a slave to people's praise.
Speaker 3: When you're a servant of God's purpose, I got to
Speaker 3: move on, but I want to talk to you about
Speaker 3: being a slave of people's praise. See, if you are
Speaker 3: a slave of people's praise, you will be a casualty
Speaker 3: of their criticism. So sometimes the danger isn't from the haters,
Speaker 3: it's from the praise. Because if you become too addicted
Speaker 3: to people's praise, people telling you you do a good job,
Speaker 3: what about when God calls you to do something that
Speaker 3: nobody's going to compliment you say, I know that voice.
Speaker 1: That's not the collapse of the crowd, that's the call
Speaker 1: of God.
Speaker 3: Do you know the difference. I have to learn the
Speaker 3: difference where the Lord will say to you sometimes I
Speaker 3: need you to do something that's going to make the
Speaker 3: crowd think you're crazy.
Speaker 1: But the crowd's crazy, not you. And if your jury.
Speaker 3: Of being a parent is other people telling you how
Speaker 3: much screen time your kids should have, are they paying
Speaker 3: for the data plan? You got to work that out
Speaker 3: with God. You might have to parent all your different
Speaker 3: kids different ways. The Bible says train up a child
Speaker 3: in the way that they should go, not in the
Speaker 3: way that your neighbor's child should go, not in the
Speaker 3: way that some experts said they should go.
Speaker 1: Get over it. There are no experts.
Speaker 3: There's just guides along the way, And there is a
Speaker 3: God who made you, and the God who made you,
Speaker 3: knows what's in you, and he's the only one who
Speaker 3: gets to decide if you've been responsible with what He've
Speaker 3: been trusted to you.
Speaker 1: And that's why it doesn't matter much.
Speaker 3: When people praise you, because people don't know what God
Speaker 3: gave you. So it could be possible that you were
Speaker 3: given much more than you're working with and people are impressed,
Speaker 3: but God is not pleased.
Speaker 1: Only God knows what he gave you.
Speaker 3: It could be possible that you are doing much better
Speaker 3: than people would think, but you were given a very
Speaker 3: rough start in life, and for you to be where
Speaker 3: you are right now is the grace of God. And
Speaker 3: don't let anybody's schedule intimidate you for where your life
Speaker 3: is supposed to be right now. So if I'm not
Speaker 3: a slave to their praise, I can't be a casualty
Speaker 3: of their criticism.
Speaker 1: Please God, help John, Please God, that's all I have
Speaker 1: to do.
Speaker 3: Please God, and help John and all of the Johns
Speaker 3: that are in this room. And I think you got
Speaker 3: to focus it down to know like Paul knew. He said,
Speaker 3: I am entrusted with what God has revealed to me.
Speaker 3: And that might be one certain thing for each season
Speaker 3: that God reveals and says you are respond this. You
Speaker 3: are not responsible for the outcome. You are only responsible
Speaker 3: to apologize. You are not responsible for the outcome. You
Speaker 3: are only responsible to show up. You are not responsible
Speaker 3: to create something wonderful. You're just responsible to create consistently.
Speaker 3: When I came off my summer break, I wrote.
Speaker 1: A lot of songs.
Speaker 3: Somebody said, did you write us a lot of great songs?
Speaker 3: I said, a lot of songs. I don't know if
Speaker 3: they're great yet. I'll let y'all decide that. That's not
Speaker 3: my job.
Speaker 1: I'm not the jury. I don't examine myself. I can
Speaker 1: only show up.
Speaker 3: That's all I can do and be what Paul called faithful.
Speaker 3: And this kind of faith requires and this is a
Speaker 3: very bad word, so we might need to bleep it out.
Speaker 1: The sermon number two patience, bleep.
Speaker 3: It out, or nobody's gonna watch the video.
Speaker 1: Patience.
Speaker 3: Verse five is one of my favorite verses in the Bible.
Speaker 3: And yet the Lord showed me something fresh for us today.
Speaker 3: Can I give it to you? Can I give it
Speaker 3: to you like God gave it to me? Somebody say, patience, Therefore,
Speaker 3: judge nothing before the appointed time. Wait until the Lord comes.
Speaker 3: What's he talking about. He's talking about the day when
Speaker 3: we'll stand before God. And you know, when I stand
Speaker 3: before God, no matter who's up there going unqualified.
Speaker 1: Don't let him in. I'm not gonna take a test
Speaker 1: to get in. I'm not gonna take a test. I'm
Speaker 1: just gonna do emotion.
Speaker 3: I'm gonna find the man on the middle cross and
Speaker 3: point and say it like this, I'm with him, And
Speaker 3: that's how I'm gonna get in. Because my eternal verdict
Speaker 3: hinges on my relationship with Jesus, and I have accepted
Speaker 3: him as the Lord and savior of my life, and
Speaker 3: he died for me, and he covered me, and all
Speaker 3: of the sin that I did was canceled. It's not
Speaker 3: only canceled, but God has so loved me with his
Speaker 3: love that he is conforming me to the image of
Speaker 3: his son Jesus, and that is settled. That is the
Speaker 3: eternal verdict over my life. But I'd like to say
Speaker 3: that there are also internal verdicts that we make in
Speaker 3: the meantime, and that's not always just based on your
Speaker 3: relationship with Jesus.
Speaker 1: That's based on your relationship with the Holy Spirit.
Speaker 3: So those verdicts that go on inside of you where
Speaker 3: you judge stuff. You judge stuff about yourself, like who
Speaker 3: you think you need to be to be qualified for
Speaker 3: a thing, or who you think you need to know
Speaker 3: to get in certain doors. All of those judgments how
Speaker 3: you think your life needs to turn out. Remember I
Speaker 3: said last week that we can't ask God for directions
Speaker 3: if we don't let him set the destination, like God
Speaker 3: is not like GPS, where you put in the destination
Speaker 3: and then God will just give you the directions to
Speaker 3: the destination you chose. And so, in the process of
Speaker 3: trusting God, in the process.
Speaker 1: Of hearing God, there are some times.
Speaker 3: Where I have to trust his timing even when I
Speaker 3: don't feel like he's talking. And sometimes he's talking, but
Speaker 3: I've already made up my mind what i want him
Speaker 3: to say, so I can't hear what he says because
Speaker 3: I already have the script written. This verse says something
Speaker 3: about the appointed time.
Speaker 1: Let's read it again.
Speaker 3: Therefore, judge nothing before the appointed time. So Paul is saying,
Speaker 3: don't judge things that happen in your life, don't judge events.
Speaker 3: Don't even judge things that you call failure as being fruitless.
Speaker 3: Some of the greatest fruit in your life is born
Speaker 3: from the greatest failures.
Speaker 1: Shall I say it again?
Speaker 3: Some of the greatest fruit from your life will come
Speaker 3: out of the greatest failures. How many can testify to that?
Speaker 3: Just wave a hand at me, he says. Judge nothing
Speaker 3: before the appointed time.
Speaker 1: So right now this verse.
Speaker 3: Therefore, judge nothing before the appointed time.
Speaker 1: Say it?
Speaker 3: Therefore, judge nothing before. Okay, therefore, judge nothing before in
Speaker 3: light of the fact that God is the judge, in
Speaker 3: light of the fact that God is the jury, in
Speaker 3: light of the fact that God knows what he has
Speaker 3: entrusted to you. He says, therefore, judge nothing before the
Speaker 3: appointed time.
Speaker 1: So what time is it right now? Somebody check your
Speaker 1: watch real quick.
Speaker 3: Ten forty two am Eastern Standard time?
Speaker 1: Is that right?
Speaker 3: Ten forty two Eastern Standard time on Sunday's today's day?
Speaker 1: What's wrong? Fili?
Speaker 3: Like I lost the room? Y'all seem distracted. Are y'all
Speaker 3: distracted by something? I'm trying to preach? But y'all see
Speaker 3: that nobody's looking at me. Y'all seem distracted by something.
Speaker 3: Y'all are distracted because you're judging something, something that you
Speaker 3: didn't expect.
Speaker 1: But something that I planned.
Speaker 3: Because before I preach the sermon, I told Davide, when
Speaker 3: I say what time is it, I want you to
Speaker 3: start walking from the back of the church and walk
Speaker 3: on the stage.
Speaker 1: And when you walk, act like you're doing.
Speaker 3: It on purpose, so the security doesn't snatch you. Act
Speaker 3: like you know where you're going, so some redneck doesn't.
Speaker 1: Jump up and tackle you.
Speaker 3: Somebody'd be like, oh, I get no, no, no, he's
Speaker 3: coming up here because I called him.
Speaker 1: Because I called him.
Speaker 3: See, you thought he was a distraction, but really he
Speaker 3: was a demonstration.
Speaker 1: You didn't know what he was there for.
Speaker 3: But I told him before he started walking up the
Speaker 3: stairs what I needed him there for. Because I said
Speaker 3: at a certain time in my sermon, I'm gonna say
Speaker 3: what time is it? At that moment, I don't want
Speaker 3: you to ask anybody's permission. I don't want you to
Speaker 3: push past anybody. I don't want you to second guest.
Speaker 3: When I say what time is it? Start walking and
Speaker 3: just stand there. And the people are gonna think, what's
Speaker 3: he there for? But I told you before what you're
Speaker 3: there for. Because I want to use you in this
Speaker 3: sermon illustration. There have been some things in my life
Speaker 3: where God put me in situations and I didn't know
Speaker 3: what I was there. But before Joseph ever got thrown
Speaker 3: into the prison, God knew what he would be there for,
Speaker 3: to feed his entire family.
Speaker 1: Y'all, don't hear me preaching. Paul was in prison in.
Speaker 3: Philippi and he started praising God at night, and suddenly
Speaker 3: everybody's chains came loose. He didn't start praising after the
Speaker 3: chains broke. He started praising before because he knew.
Speaker 1: What he was.
Speaker 3: Therefore, I'm trying to say that when you know your purpose,
Speaker 3: that when you know your father, when you know his fools,
Speaker 3: let me put it plain, stop judging stuff that God
Speaker 3: is not done with yet. Okay, that was pretty good
Speaker 3: punctuation mark.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: See, because he's there for a purpose. You judged it
Speaker 3: before you knew what it was there for. You judged it.
Speaker 3: You are judging certain things about you, and you are
Speaker 3: calling them weaknesses. You are calling them weaknesses, but they're
Speaker 3: really not weaknesses.
Speaker 1: They're weapons. They are therefore God to use.
Speaker 3: Paul said, one time I had a thorn in my
Speaker 3: flesh and I asked God to take it away, but
Speaker 3: he left it there for a purpose, so that I
Speaker 3: might know his grace is sufficient. Don't judge it before
Speaker 3: you get to see what it was there, for God
Speaker 3: knows what he's doing. Am I preaching better than this
Speaker 3: Episcopalian church of shouting?
Speaker 1: I don't need their praise.
Speaker 3: Hey, cuse, the Holy Ghost is telling me this word
Speaker 3: is working, all right, Go sit back down.
Speaker 1: And don't run back up here again.
Speaker 3: If he runs back up here again, he's not authorized
Speaker 3: for an illustration.
Speaker 1: And a powerful april.
Speaker 3: I thought it was a distraction, but Pastor was using
Speaker 3: it for a demonstration. If that's true of me, how
Speaker 3: much more is God using things. You think it's a distraction,
Speaker 3: you're judging it, you think it's a disappointment.
Speaker 1: You're judging it. Don't judge it before God gets to
Speaker 1: show you.
Speaker 3: What it's all right, But paul says something so important
Speaker 3: that I hope you saved a little room for dessert,
Speaker 3: because if you read this what Paula is saying, He's like,
Speaker 3: you can't judge me. I'm holy, you can't judge me.
Speaker 3: I know I'm walking with God.
Speaker 1: In fact, he.
Speaker 3: Makes this statement, and I think this is the problem
Speaker 3: with only using this scripture, So I want to use
Speaker 3: one more today.
Speaker 1: For this installment, get something out of this. Praise the Lord.
Speaker 1: Oh that therefore befo A thing really really got me
Speaker 1: when I was studying, But.
Speaker 3: I realized there's somebody listening to me who doesn't know
Speaker 3: what it is. Therefore, and that what Paul said, not
Speaker 3: all of us can say. You know, when he said
Speaker 3: I don't judge myself verse four, my conscience is clear. See,
Speaker 3: we can't all say that when he said it is
Speaker 3: the Lord that judges me. Just a few words later,
Speaker 3: do you see that in verse four part B, it
Speaker 3: is the Lord that judges me. We can all say
Speaker 3: that because it's ultimately going to be God's job to
Speaker 3: judge us.
Speaker 1: Ultimately. Ultimately, I mean.
Speaker 3: That doesn't mean that people won't hand out consequences and
Speaker 3: that your life won't have certain verdicts that are just
Speaker 3: you know, handed to you by life. But it means
Speaker 3: that ultimately God will judge you. But the part that
Speaker 3: we might be tripping over is we can't all say,
Speaker 3: like Paul, my conscience is clear, because there are a
Speaker 3: lot of you who are listening to me, and you're
Speaker 3: hearing this through the filter of guilt. And when I
Speaker 3: read to you about Paul saying, you can't judge me.
Speaker 1: I know that my conscience is clear.
Speaker 3: You're thinking to yourself, people can't judge me because they
Speaker 3: don't even know.
Speaker 1: How bad I really am.
Speaker 3: And even sometimes listen to me, when someone tries to
Speaker 3: give you praise or a compliment or lift you up,
Speaker 3: you won't let it in because there is something that
Speaker 3: you know about you. So now I want to call
Speaker 3: on a third person named John. If you go to
Speaker 3: John chapter eight with me briefly, there is a perickopee
Speaker 3: about a woman who was caught in the act of adultery,
Speaker 3: and she was brought before Jesus to be judged by
Speaker 3: a jury of religious professionals.
Speaker 1: For our purposes.
Speaker 3: Today, you may not be dragged in front of Jesus
Speaker 3: to be judged by a group of people. It may
Speaker 3: be by your own regret, resentment, dark nostalgia, remembrances of
Speaker 3: things that you did, and current struggles with things.
Speaker 1: That you still do.
Speaker 3: The Bible says in John chapter eight, verse one, that
Speaker 3: Jesus went to the Mount of Olives, and at dawn
Speaker 3: he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the
Speaker 3: people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them,
Speaker 3: so get the picture.
Speaker 1: It is as it should be.
Speaker 3: Jesus, the Savior, is at the center, and everyone is
Speaker 3: gathered around him, and he taught them. Verse three, The
Speaker 3: teachers of the Law and the Pharisees brought a woman
Speaker 3: caught in adultery. So while the crowds are being taught,
Speaker 3: this woman is caught, and she is brought before Jesus,
Speaker 3: the one who taught the crowds.
Speaker 1: Now they brought the woman.
Speaker 3: Who was caught in adultery, and they get they do
Speaker 3: something that religion always does. See, when the passage started,
Speaker 3: Jesus was at the center.
Speaker 1: But when they got involved, Sin was at the center.
Speaker 3: So they say, look at her sin, Jesus, we caught her.
Speaker 3: The teachers of the Law and the Pharisees.
Speaker 1: Brought a woman caught in adultery.
Speaker 3: They made her stand before the group and said to Jesus,
Speaker 3: teach her. This woman was caught in the act of
Speaker 3: adultery in the law. They're quoting scripture. This must be
Speaker 3: God in the law. They're talking about the Bible. This
Speaker 3: must be God in the law. Moses commanded us to
Speaker 3: stone such women.
Speaker 1: Now, what do you say.
Speaker 3: That is a dangerous question to ask Jesus if you
Speaker 3: don't really want to answer, don't ask him if you
Speaker 3: don't want to know, because Jesus might not agree with you.
Speaker 3: It is a dangerous thing when you have made a
Speaker 3: Jesus in your mind that only ever agrees with you.
Speaker 3: Jesus might think different about it than you. Jesus might
Speaker 3: see it different than you. Jesus is my jury. Jesus
Speaker 3: is my jury. So they asked the question, teacher, what
Speaker 3: do you say about it? Hey, there, what do you teaching?
Speaker 3: All these wonderful things? But we're bringing you a woman
Speaker 3: who was caught. We caught her red handed. We caught
Speaker 3: her in the act. We know what the Bible says.
Speaker 3: And they were using this question as a trap in
Speaker 3: order to have a basis for accusing him. But it's
Speaker 3: a bad idea to try to trap the answer with
Speaker 3: your questions. I said, you better not try to trap
Speaker 3: the answer with your questions. See, I've got to come
Speaker 3: to him and say what do you think? And I
Speaker 3: think the most powerful thing in the Bible is what
Speaker 3: happens right in the.
Speaker 1: Middle of the verse. But Jesus been down.
Speaker 3: And started to write on the ground with his finger.
Speaker 3: Notice he stoops before he speaks, he stoops before he speaks.
Speaker 3: He doesn't have to stoop. He's God. He doesn't have
Speaker 3: to stoop. He is the highest name, the name above
Speaker 3: every name, the name at which every need will bow.
Speaker 1: He doesn't have to stoop. But instead of.
Speaker 3: Clearing his throat to speak, he rolls up his sleeves
Speaker 3: to get dirty and get to work in the life
Speaker 3: of a woman who was caught in the act of adultery,
Speaker 3: and whatever he wrote in verse seven, they were not
Speaker 3: satisfied with his actions, the Bible said. When they kept
Speaker 3: questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, let
Speaker 3: any of you who is without sin be the first
Speaker 3: one to throw a stone at her.
Speaker 1: And again he stooped down and rode on the ground.
Speaker 3: And at this those who heard begin to go away,
Speaker 3: one at a time, the older ones.
Speaker 1: First, I wonder what they did in the sixties, baby,
Speaker 1: what were they doing at Woodstock? And this is really
Speaker 1: good news.
Speaker 5: Until only Jesus was left with the woman still standing there.
Speaker 5: And Jesus straightened up and asked her, woman, where is
Speaker 5: your jury?
Speaker 3: Has no one condemned you? No one, sir? She said,
Speaker 3: Then neither do I condemn you. Jesus declared, now and
Speaker 3: leave your life of sin. One Baptist preacher said, it's
Speaker 3: a good thing they drop their rock, because Jesus can
Speaker 3: change water into wine. And if he can change water
Speaker 3: into wine, if one of those boys would picked up
Speaker 3: a rock and thrown it at her, Jesus would have
Speaker 3: turned it into rubber mid air, and that rubber rock
Speaker 3: would have bounced off of her and bounce back into
Speaker 3: a rock and bust their brains out. That's what the
Speaker 3: Baptist preacher said. But just touch your neighbors, simply say
Speaker 3: you better.
Speaker 1: Drop your rock.
Speaker 3: You better drop your rock, because none of us really
Speaker 3: wants Jesus to start bringing forth all of the evidence,
Speaker 3: of all of the thoughts, and all of the things,
Speaker 3: and all of the times and all of the struggles.
Speaker 3: But what I love about the passage is that they
Speaker 3: were caught up in what a sinner she was. I
Speaker 3: don't know if you noticed, but they accused her. See,
Speaker 3: the Holy Spirit is not an accuser. That's Satan's job.
Speaker 3: The Holy Spirit is an advocate. And when Jesus is
Speaker 3: your jury, when Jesus.
Speaker 1: The perfect one, this thoughtless one.
Speaker 3: The lamb of God, the lion of the tribe of Judah,
Speaker 3: the Bride in the Morning Star, the Lily of the Valley,
Speaker 3: the Rose of Sharon.
Speaker 1: When that God gets.
Speaker 3: Down in the dirt, it doesn't matter what people declare
Speaker 3: over your life. Even you can't judge you when Jesus
Speaker 3: is your jury, because the Bible says, help me preach somebody.
Speaker 3: The Bible says that as he stooped down and began
Speaker 3: to ride in the dirt, they said, the law commands
Speaker 3: us to stone such women.
Speaker 1: Oh she's such a sinner. Oh she's such a sinner.
Speaker 3: So remember this power to change belongs to God. See
Speaker 3: Jesus did not tell her you have permission to keep sinning.
Speaker 3: He told her, now that you've met me, you have
Speaker 3: power to stop. So that's why anytime the enemy starts
Speaker 3: telling you you're such a sinner, you can't be used
Speaker 3: by God.
Speaker 1: You're such a sinner.
Speaker 3: God can't forgive you for that you're such a sinner. See,
Speaker 3: you're missing the whole point. The point isn't that I'm
Speaker 3: such a sinner or.
Speaker 1: That I'm such a saint. Is that he's such a savior.
Speaker 1: Come on, come on, come on, come on, he's such
Speaker 1: a savior. Yeah, but you're such a sinner.
Speaker 3: And so when the enemy starts beating your brains out
Speaker 3: with these rubber rocks, when the enemy starts throwing stuff
Speaker 3: at you and hurling, and there's verdicts in your head,
Speaker 3: you say, yeah, I'm such a sinner. I'm not here
Speaker 3: because I'm such a saint. I'm here because he's such
Speaker 3: a savior. As a matter of fact, he's such a
Speaker 3: savior that, in one gospel account, when the woman with
Speaker 3: the issue of blood snuck up and touched the hymn
Speaker 3: of his garment, didn't even touch him, just touch the
Speaker 3: him of his garment, the dirty part of his garment,
Speaker 3: the part that dragged through the streets when she touched
Speaker 3: the hem of his garments. Normally, if the unclean touches
Speaker 3: the clean, the clean becomes unclean.
Speaker 1: But he's such a savior. He's such a savior.
Speaker 3: That when you touch this savior, it doesn't make the
Speaker 3: clean unclean. Baby, it makes the unclean clean. He's such
Speaker 3: a savior. He's such a savior. He is such a savior.
Speaker 3: Touch somebody, say he's such a savior. He's such a savior.
Speaker 3: He's such a savior that when he got to the
Speaker 3: grave and it was four days into lazarus death, he
Speaker 3: had to call Lazarus by name because there was so
Speaker 3: much power in his word that if he had just
Speaker 3: said get up, every dead body in Jerusalem and Bethany
Speaker 3: would have got about the brave because it's such a savior.
Speaker 3: There's enough in one word from God. And he is
Speaker 3: such a savior that one drop of his blood can.
Speaker 1: Make the foul liss clean.
Speaker 3: He's such a savior that when the thief on the
Speaker 3: cross turned to the man in the middle and said,
Speaker 3: I know I don't deserve it. I know I've wasted
Speaker 3: so much time. I know I deserve to be up
Speaker 3: here and you don't.
Speaker 1: But would you remember me?
Speaker 3: I don't even know who you are yet, I don't
Speaker 3: even really get it yet. But would you remember me?
Speaker 3: And he said, today you'll be with me in paradise.
Speaker 3: So I'm telling you today, the power of my testimony
Speaker 3: and the power of my confession, and the power of
Speaker 3: my thought, and the power of my overcoming and the
Speaker 3: power of my victory is not that I'm such a saint.
Speaker 1: Is that he is such a savior.
Speaker 3: Law commands us to stone such a woman. She's such
Speaker 3: a sinner, don't you hear that sometimes about yourself. You're
Speaker 3: such an idiot. Yeah, but Jesus is sucher than you.
Speaker 3: I think I should preach a message called you know
Speaker 3: we talked about he's a savior. He's such a savior,
Speaker 3: and he's sucher than your sin. He's such a savior.
Speaker 3: He's such a savior that they only had the power
Speaker 3: to catch her in the act of adultery. But he's
Speaker 3: such a savior. He has the power to catch you
Speaker 3: when you fall and stand you back up again. So
Speaker 3: when the verdict goes in my mind, you're unqualified, or
Speaker 3: you're dirty, or you're unworthy, or you're a peace trash
Speaker 3: or and man, I gotta.
Speaker 1: Tell you something.
Speaker 3: In one of those chairs around my table is me.
Speaker 3: I ap preach to me because I hear it all
Speaker 3: the time. You're such a moron. Come on, how many
Speaker 3: of you liked me struggle with self talking. You're not
Speaker 3: gonna pay for therapy, so this is all you're gonna
Speaker 3: get today listening to me.
Speaker 1: Talk to you.
Speaker 3: When I went to therapy for the about the third
Speaker 3: or fourth time, I was describing all of these thoughts
Speaker 3: that go in my head. I was describing my jury.
Speaker 3: The therapist didn't call it that. That's what I've learned,
Speaker 3: that it's a jury making a verdict. But she interrupted
Speaker 3: me with a question. She said, Hey, I hear you
Speaker 3: saying some really harsh things about yourself.
Speaker 1: Whose voice is that? That's a good question.
Speaker 3: And sometimes my voice in my head sounds more like
Speaker 3: the serpent that accused us than.
Speaker 1: The Savior that advocates.
Speaker 3: So I shared First Corinthians four one through five to
Speaker 3: let you know that Jesus is your jury and that
Speaker 3: you have a job. But I read John eight to
Speaker 3: know that your job is not to be Jesus.
Speaker 1: Your job is to trust him.
Speaker 3: And he did for you what you couldn't do for you.
Speaker 3: And so when the when the such a start this week?
Speaker 1: And they will.
Speaker 3: You're such a You're such a You're such a bad man,
Speaker 3: you're such a Whose voice is that? It's not the
Speaker 3: voice of the savior, it's the voice of shame. And
Speaker 3: you know what, Shame can't lift you out of your sin.
Speaker 3: Shame can't lift you out of your sin, and grace
Speaker 3: will not leave you in it.
Speaker 2: Hey, I hope you enjoyed the podcast, and if you did,
Speaker 2: make sure to share it and subscribe so we can
Speaker 2: get you all of these new messages as soon as
Speaker 2: the available. I also want to take a moment and
Speaker 2: thank all of you who are a part of Elevation.
Speaker 2: Whether you support us financially, or serve with us, or
Speaker 2: just share these messages, it's because of you that we're
Speaker 2: able to reach people all around the world. And if
Speaker 2: you want more information on how to be a part
Speaker 2: of Elevation, click the link in the description. Thanks again
Speaker 2: for listening. Make sure to leave a review, share the message,
Speaker 2: and subscribe.
Speaker 1: God bless you.