Speaker 1: Hey, this is Stephen Ferdik. 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 you perspective to
Speaker 1: see God is moving in your life. Enjoy the message.
Speaker 1: How many are excited about this series that we're in.
Speaker 1: The series is called Maybe God. The subject is his voice,
Speaker 1: his will, his ways. How do I know if this
Speaker 1: opportunity comes from the Lord? Now have a scripture for
Speaker 1: you today that I think will be a great blessing
Speaker 1: in your life. It's in First Samuel, chapter fourteen, verse
Speaker 1: number six. The Bible says Jonathan said to his young
Speaker 1: armor bearer, Come, let's go over to the outpost of
Speaker 1: those uncircumcised men. He's talking trash about the Philistines. He
Speaker 1: calls them a derogatory name. He's talking about their uncircumcision. Wow,
Speaker 1: he must be fired up about something. He's a little belligerent.
Speaker 1: He's getting bold now again. Afford to wait around and
Speaker 1: wait for something to happen from heaven when God has
Speaker 1: already given him a certain power on the earth. So
Speaker 1: he turns to who he has available at this point
Speaker 1: and says, let's go. It's just me and you, but
Speaker 1: touch somebody. Say let's go now. I want you to
Speaker 1: me a favor. If you're the only one on your
Speaker 1: row who praises God today during this sermon. I want
Speaker 1: you to go and look at somebody next to you
Speaker 1: and say, well, you go with me. Amen, he said,
Speaker 1: let's go over to the outpost of those uncircumcised men.
Speaker 1: Perhaps the Lord will act in our behalf. Nothing can
Speaker 1: hinder the Lord from saving, whether by many or by
Speaker 1: few in this third installment of Maybe God. My subject
Speaker 1: in my lesson today is called fifty fifty faith. I
Speaker 1: want to teach you on this principle that has been
Speaker 1: so useful in my life as a leader, and it's
Speaker 1: useful for me as a husband, as a dad, and
Speaker 1: just as a man. Fifty fifty faith. I believe this
Speaker 1: principle is going to set you free in some of
Speaker 1: the areas where indecision has imprisoned you, and you've been
Speaker 1: waiting around, and God is going to show you something
Speaker 1: today by the power and virtue of His word and spirit,
Speaker 1: that only He could show you about fifty fifty faith.
Speaker 1: Praise the Lord I celebrated my thirty ninth birthday this week.
Speaker 1: Appreciate your pity. You know that last one with the
Speaker 1: three in front of it. I'm owning it. I am
Speaker 1: so owning turning forty. I am so owning these little
Speaker 1: gray whiskers that are popping up. I'm not dying them
Speaker 1: or anything like that. Uh huh. I'm gonna tell them
Speaker 1: to get a close up on these gray these great
Speaker 1: things on the camera. Just zoom right into the greyest
Speaker 1: pat you can find in this beard. I'm proud of it.
Speaker 1: I don't care what my kids say about it, and
Speaker 1: when they tell me that my jokes are cringy and
Speaker 1: stuff like that. One of my kids told me that
Speaker 1: the other day, and I just asked him a question back.
Speaker 1: He said, your jokes are so cringey. And I just
Speaker 1: asked him a question. I said, how many people show
Speaker 1: up to hear you speak? Since I'm so cringey conversational
Speaker 1: parenting approach, you might want to try it sometime. But
Speaker 1: one of the things I think keeps happening to me
Speaker 1: and is really happening to me at this stage of
Speaker 1: my ministry in life, because I have been doing this
Speaker 1: as a pastor over thirteen years. Is that I feel
Speaker 1: so good saying that it felt cool. I've been doing
Speaker 1: this over thirteen years. That's a long time to do anything. Amen.
Speaker 1: I've never been less certain and I've never been more confident,
Speaker 1: all at the same time, all at the same time.
Speaker 1: And it's a strange thing, how when you give up
Speaker 1: your need for certainty you can gain a true confidence
Speaker 1: that is independent of circumstance. Can I preach to somebody
Speaker 1: today right here in this back left section of Valentine?
Speaker 1: The passage that I read to you is one of
Speaker 1: my favorites. If they were giving out an Academy Award
Speaker 1: for best Old Testament Narrative Scripture, I would want to
Speaker 1: nominate Jonathan is best Supporting Actor because he's not as
Speaker 1: famous as David, but he's a pretty good example for me,
Speaker 1: and it has helped me a lot. This passage has
Speaker 1: helped me a lot through the years. Every couple of
Speaker 1: years I preach it, and when I circle back to it,
Speaker 1: I see a different dimension of faith. I see a
Speaker 1: different dimension of the kind of confidence that we can
Speaker 1: have in Christ and in his promises. But I also
Speaker 1: see all of the uncertainty and self doubt that it
Speaker 1: also entails and that my faith is not a formula,
Speaker 1: and it can never be. The more I try to
Speaker 1: make it into a formula, the less valuable it becomes
Speaker 1: to me. When life challenges all of my presuppositions, and
Speaker 1: all of my ideas about what kind of ways God
Speaker 1: wants to work collapse under the weight of real life,
Speaker 1: under the weight of real bills, under the weight of
Speaker 1: real medical reports. And I need the kind of faith
Speaker 1: that is not dependent on my presuppositions. I need the
Speaker 1: kind of faith that can deal with some ambiguity. I
Speaker 1: need a faith, like Richard Rre says, that can be
Speaker 1: patient with mystery. I need a kind of faith that
Speaker 1: is not dependent on my plans to prevail. I need
Speaker 1: the kind of faith that can stand up against the
Speaker 1: worst thing that happens. I need the kind of faith
Speaker 1: that can shine when God goes dark, when I don't know,
Speaker 1: when I can't say it, when I can't see it,
Speaker 1: when I don't feel like I can make it. I
Speaker 1: need a faith that can withstand these seasons. Now around
Speaker 1: the verse that I read you is a little episode,
Speaker 1: and if you've been tracking with the series, I've used
Speaker 1: a few different Old Testament passages from Judges and Samuel
Speaker 1: to try to give us some sort of arc, or
Speaker 1: to give us give us some kind of context for
Speaker 1: the way that transition creates opportunity for us to trust God.
Speaker 1: In this particular transition a negative one for the nation
Speaker 1: of Israel. King Saul has really lost his way and
Speaker 1: he's abdicated his leadership because of this. The Philistines who
Speaker 1: would torment the Israelites all the way until the rule
Speaker 1: of David, remember Sampson began to deliver them. That's last week.
Speaker 1: And you need to go on and watch that message
Speaker 1: about the parentheses and the pivot and how there's a
Speaker 1: purpose even if I have to leave it blank right now,
Speaker 1: God is going to do something in this empty space
Speaker 1: in these parentheses. And I'm gonna put the parentheses there
Speaker 1: and I'm gonna let God fill them because He's too
Speaker 1: wise to make a mistake in my life. And that
Speaker 1: message is online. It's on YouTube and Facebook and elevation
Speaker 1: app and MySpace, and if they still had my Space,
Speaker 1: we will put it up there. Roku all of it.
Speaker 1: When when I was preaching that it talked about the
Speaker 1: beginning of deliverance, are partial deliverance and the beginning of
Speaker 1: deliverance happened through the judges. But now Saul the King
Speaker 1: was unable to commit himself fully to the ways and
Speaker 1: the will of the Lord, rather than to engage in
Speaker 1: a relationship with the living God, he has begun to manipulate.
Speaker 1: When he begins to manipulate and treat God as some
Speaker 1: kind of mechanism to get what he wants when he
Speaker 1: wants it, he loses that unique ability that we have
Speaker 1: to hear the voice of God. When you lose the
Speaker 1: ability to hear the voice of God, you waste energy,
Speaker 1: you waste resources, you waste worry on situations that God
Speaker 1: didn't even want you to give your attention to. So
Speaker 1: that's why I need to hear his voice. Saul, having
Speaker 1: lost that ability, is now surrounded by his enemies, so
Speaker 1: much so that his people that he was responsible for
Speaker 1: leading or hiding in rocks, in caves, in thickets. I
Speaker 1: just wanted to put the word thickets in there, because
Speaker 1: I don't get to use it on an everyday basis.
Speaker 1: But we're all hiding in places. Sometimes we find ourselves
Speaker 1: talked away in mindsets, in patterns, in isolation, away from people,
Speaker 1: away from life, away from joy, away from risk, away
Speaker 1: from opportunity. And this was the situation in Fir Samuel L. Fourteen.
Speaker 1: Pick up verse twenty three from thirteen. Now a detachment
Speaker 1: of Philistines had gone out to the pass at mcmash.
Speaker 1: It's always helpful to point out that the enemy always
Speaker 1: attacks you at the passages. He always attacks you at
Speaker 1: the places of transition, from what you knew to what
Speaker 1: you don't know, from where you were to where you're going.
Speaker 1: And so when he can set up an ambush at
Speaker 1: the passage, he can keep you from moving forward in
Speaker 1: those transitional pivotal moments of your life. And then one
Speaker 1: day somebody shout. One day, one day, Jonathan, son of
Speaker 1: Saul said to his young armor bearer, come, let's go
Speaker 1: over to the Philistine outpost on the other side. But
Speaker 1: he did not hell his father. Be very careful who
Speaker 1: you talk to about what God is doing inside of you.
Speaker 1: Be very careful who you communicate with about the impressions
Speaker 1: that God is stirring inside of you. If you talk
Speaker 1: to the wrong people about the right idea, your idea
Speaker 1: will die before it has the opportunity to conceive and
Speaker 1: give birth to what God is doing in your life.
Speaker 1: How many know I'm right about that. Saul was staying
Speaker 1: on the outskirts of Gibea under a pomegranate tree, and
Speaker 1: migrant with him were about six hundred men, among whom
Speaker 1: was a Hijah who was wearing an ephod. He was
Speaker 1: a son of Ichabod. He was a son of Ichabod's brother,
Speaker 1: rather Ahita, son of Phineas, the son of Eli, the
Speaker 1: lord's priest in Shiloh. No one was aware that Jonathan
Speaker 1: had left. On each side that Jonathan intended to cross
Speaker 1: to the Philistine outpost was a cliff. One was called Bozez,
Speaker 1: and the other sinnat. Bozez means slippery, Sinnam means thorny.
Speaker 1: Nobody told me it would be easy. God didn't promise
Speaker 1: me that his will would be convenient. Quit thinking that
Speaker 1: proof positive that you're in the will of God is
Speaker 1: that it feels good to you. Quit thinking that proof
Speaker 1: positive that you're in the will of God is that
Speaker 1: everybody understands it. Quit thinking that proof positive that you're
Speaker 1: in the will of God is that it just falls
Speaker 1: into place. No, he had to go through a thorny place,
Speaker 1: a slippery place, an uncomfortable place, an uncertain place. And
Speaker 1: just because I'm in an uncertain place doesn't mean I
Speaker 1: don't have a certain purpose. I'm gonna need somebody to
Speaker 1: shout on that right there, right there, right there, touch somebody,
Speaker 1: say I'm in his will. And one of the proofs
Speaker 1: that you're in his will is that you are experiencing warfare.
Speaker 1: It could be in terms of an internal resistance that
Speaker 1: you feel, or even if some things are going crazy
Speaker 1: in your life. And on each side was a challenge.
Speaker 1: On each side was a challenge. One cliff stood to
Speaker 1: the north toward Mickmash, the other to the south toward Gheba.
Speaker 1: And Jonathan said to his young armor bearer, come let's
Speaker 1: go over to the outpost of those uncircumcised men. Perhaps
Speaker 1: the Lord will act in our behalf. Nothing can hinder
Speaker 1: the Lord from saving, whether by many or by few. God,
Speaker 1: I love your word. I'm gonna take a moment and
Speaker 1: just talk to him about it. Thank you for putting
Speaker 1: that one little word in your word. Not the one
Speaker 1: where he said nothing can hinder the Lord, not the
Speaker 1: one where he said, come let's go over, But that
Speaker 1: one low word where he said perhaps because that word
Speaker 1: gives me hope It gives me hope for my insecurity.
Speaker 1: It gives me hope for my impossibilities and my uncertainty.
Speaker 1: It gives me hope to know that sometimes, even in
Speaker 1: the midst of making progress in my life, even in
Speaker 1: the midst of obeying the revealed will of God, there
Speaker 1: are going to be moments where one minute I have
Speaker 1: great faith and the next moment I'm overcome by great fear.
Speaker 1: But watch the Armor Bearer, he says back to Jonathan,
Speaker 1: who had a crazy idea, do all that you have
Speaker 1: in mind. Go ahead. I am with you heart and soul.
Speaker 1: And Jonathan said, come on then, since you're talking like that,
Speaker 1: come on then, since you want to do it too,
Speaker 1: come on then, since you don't think I'm crazy for
Speaker 1: wanting to move toward the enemy even though we're outnumbered,
Speaker 1: come on then, since you don't have any more brain
Speaker 1: cells or common sense than I do, come on, then,
Speaker 1: sometimes you need somebody who will help you, even though
Speaker 1: your plan sounds like a bad plan, to try to
Speaker 1: find God in it, just so you don't stay stuck
Speaker 1: in standing still. Come on, then, I like how he
Speaker 1: talked to him. He's like, come on then, And then
Speaker 1: the Armor Bear is like, go ahead then, and he's like, well,
Speaker 1: come on then, and they're pumping each other up. They're
Speaker 1: chest pumping each other, you know, and they don't have
Speaker 1: anybody else because watch this, the people who should have
Speaker 1: had faith have been overtaken by fear. Now, this is
Speaker 1: the part of the passage that's going to give me
Speaker 1: the contrast as we look at together two different ways
Speaker 1: that we try to figure out God's will, and everyone
Speaker 1: has a way that you try to figure out what
Speaker 1: the will of God is, even if you don't call
Speaker 1: it trying to figure out what the will of God is.
Speaker 1: You have a way that you make decisions that you
Speaker 1: hope will be most advantageous. You have a way that
Speaker 1: you try to discertna wisdom, and you can't always get
Speaker 1: it from a book, and you can't always get it
Speaker 1: from a class, and you can't always get it. Here's
Speaker 1: what I figured out. We're all making it up as
Speaker 1: we go. This part of my sermon is meant to
Speaker 1: encourage you. All the people that are writing parenting books
Speaker 1: about fifteen steps to raise a perfect kid, they left
Speaker 1: out some footnotes, and the bottom line is they just
Speaker 1: had good luck in the gene pool. Because God can
Speaker 1: give you a kid that can make you question all
Speaker 1: of your theories. I love my children. I'm just saying,
Speaker 1: all of us as parents are making it up as
Speaker 1: we go, all of us, all of us are trying
Speaker 1: to figure out with each child, and they're all different.
Speaker 1: I know Hollywood was faithful to me, but sometimes I'm like,
Speaker 1: how could they all be so different if it was
Speaker 1: just a common factor of me and you? But I
Speaker 1: trust her, But sometimes they're so different, and I'm like, well,
Speaker 1: you respond like this, and you respond like that, and
Speaker 1: watch John Nathan's plan. This is the dumbest idea that
Speaker 1: you can find in the Bible. The only one I
Speaker 1: can think of as dumber is Moses stretching out his
Speaker 1: stick over the Red Sea. That's pretty dumb. Or maybe
Speaker 1: David throwing a rock at a giant who has a sword.
Speaker 1: That's pretty dumb. Or maybe Jesus commanding the lunch from
Speaker 1: a little boy in the crowd and trying to feed
Speaker 1: fifteen thousand people with it. That's pretty dumb. Or maybe
Speaker 1: Mary going to Joseph and saying I'm pregnant but it
Speaker 1: wasn't another man, it was the Holy Spirit. That's pretty dumb.
Speaker 1: Or maybe it was a widow going around borrowing jars
Speaker 1: from her neighbors when she didn't have any oil and
Speaker 1: thinking something with That's pretty now that I come to
Speaker 1: think of it. A lot of the stuff that God
Speaker 1: did in his word looked like a dumb decision to
Speaker 1: the people while they were doing it. Listen, how dumb
Speaker 1: this is. Listen, Listen, how stupid this strategy is. Somebody say,
Speaker 1: bad idea? All right, come on, then we will cross
Speaker 1: over toward them and let them see us. I thought
Speaker 1: you were supposed to sneak up on somebody if you
Speaker 1: wanted to kill him. But whatever, if they say to us,
Speaker 1: I'll watch us. He's making this up because I want
Speaker 1: you to notice one thing about this passage. God gives
Speaker 1: Jonathan the victory, but God doesn't say a single word.
Speaker 1: The only people who speak in this passage are Jonathan,
Speaker 1: his assistant, and his enemies. God doesn't say a word.
Speaker 1: But Jonathan he makes up this this strategy. He's an innovator.
Speaker 1: He's like, all right, my dad's under the tree by
Speaker 1: the threshing floor, and the priest isn't doing anything, and
Speaker 1: so let's go over and show ourselves and expose ourselves
Speaker 1: to our enemies. And if they say, wait there until
Speaker 1: we come up to you, we will stay where we
Speaker 1: are and not go up to them. But if they
Speaker 1: say come up to us, we will climb up, because
Speaker 1: that will be our sign that the Lord has given
Speaker 1: them into our hands. And just when it can't get
Speaker 1: any dumber, Verse eleven, both of them showed themselves to
Speaker 1: the Philistine outpost. Look, sat the Philistines. There's two of
Speaker 1: them and dozens of us. The Hebrews are crawling out
Speaker 1: of the holes they were hiding in. The men of
Speaker 1: the outposts shouted to Jonathan and his armor bearer, come
Speaker 1: up to us, and we'll teach you a lesson. So
Speaker 1: Jonathan said to his armor bearer, climb up after me.
Speaker 1: The Lord has given them into the hand of Israel.
Speaker 1: How are you gonna speak in past tense about a
Speaker 1: battle you hadn't even fought yet? Because I know something
Speaker 1: that is greater than what I know with my mind.
Speaker 1: I know with my faith. Faith is the substance of
Speaker 1: things hoped for, and the evidence of things not seem
Speaker 1: so way it gets dumber. Jonathan climbed up, using his
Speaker 1: hands and feet. You know how vulnerable you are climbing
Speaker 1: up something dorny or slippery, using your hands and feet,
Speaker 1: quick thing just for you. I love y'all. Victory requires vulnerability.
Speaker 1: Victory requires vulnerability in anything. You have to make yourself
Speaker 1: vulnerable to experience a great relationship. You have to make
Speaker 1: yourself vulnerable to step into a new dimension in your business.
Speaker 1: You have to make yourself vulnerable to connect on any
Speaker 1: meaningful level with the life that God has given you.
Speaker 1: And so in this position of vulnerability, Jonathan prophesies a
Speaker 1: great victory. I feel the Holy Spirit, And it says
Speaker 1: that his armor bearer was right behind him, and the
Speaker 1: Philistines fell before Jonathan, and his armor bearer followed and
Speaker 1: killed behind him. In that first attack, Jonathan and his
Speaker 1: armor bearer killed some twenty men in an area of
Speaker 1: about half an acre, all because Jonathan turned to his
Speaker 1: armor bearer and said, I got an idea, you know,
Speaker 1: he said like that. But I'm at the place now
Speaker 1: where I don't really think that the value is in
Speaker 1: the idea. The value is in the courage to act
Speaker 1: on the impulse. When I put it like that, you
Speaker 1: got to realize how many people say things like this
Speaker 1: every day. You know. I remember talking to somebody about Uber,
Speaker 1: and they said, well, I could have thought of that.
Speaker 1: You know, really, you think thinking of something is the
Speaker 1: key to success. It's something anybody can think of something.
Speaker 1: I mean today I was walking out the door and
Speaker 1: Abby turned me into a dog because of my fuzzy
Speaker 1: sweater and she said, you want your belly, Rob, Do
Speaker 1: you want your belly? Rob? I licked her face and
Speaker 1: I left and came to church to preach. That's what
Speaker 1: dogs do. But she can think of stuff, I mean,
Speaker 1: thinking of it. Holly's telling me now they got like
Speaker 1: uber for photography. I really should find out the name
Speaker 1: of this and see if I could get a sponsorship.
Speaker 1: This message goes to a lot of people. But they
Speaker 1: said that you can go on and get a photographer
Speaker 1: anywhere in the world that you are, just like you
Speaker 1: can get a car from Uber, and you can get
Speaker 1: a photographer anywhere you are. If you're off with your
Speaker 1: family and you want to get a family picture like
Speaker 1: that so that you don't have to ask some random
Speaker 1: stranger who apparently has never used a smartphone in their
Speaker 1: life and doesn't know the tap to screen to make
Speaker 1: it lighter, you can get a professional to come out
Speaker 1: and capture the memory you know, and when she said,
Speaker 1: I was like, why didn't I think of that? Well,
Speaker 1: there's a lot more to it than thinking of it. Huh.
Speaker 1: People call me all the time and they'll be like,
Speaker 1: I heard this thing, there's a sermon in that somewhere,
Speaker 1: and so to that, I'm like, where like just because
Speaker 1: they could think of it? You know, I read this
Speaker 1: headline you should preach about that. You suhoul to write
Speaker 1: a song about that, and I'm like, you should shut
Speaker 1: up until you can write one of your own. I
Speaker 1: know you mean, well, but the hard part isn't thinking
Speaker 1: of it. The hard part isn't thinking of it. And
Speaker 1: this is why when they give you advice sometimes in marriage,
Speaker 1: like be the first to say you're sorry. It's not
Speaker 1: the thought that counts. Can I upset conventional wisdom for
Speaker 1: a moment? One thing that was really really striking to
Speaker 1: me in the text was not what Jonathan did, but
Speaker 1: what the people who should have been leading were doing
Speaker 1: at the time when Jonathan had to act on something
Speaker 1: that was partial and imperfect. When the Bible says that
Speaker 1: Saul was staying on the outskirts of Gibea under a
Speaker 1: pomegranate tree with six hundred men. I always skipped this
Speaker 1: verse because the names were hard to pronounce. I was
Speaker 1: preaching this passage when I was seventeen years old, and
Speaker 1: I didn't know how to pronounce these names, and I
Speaker 1: still don't. But then I figured out, you don't know
Speaker 1: how to pronounce them either, So if I just say
Speaker 1: it with enough confidence, we'll move on. But in skipping it,
Speaker 1: I missed something that became very important to me about
Speaker 1: the ephod. It says that the Lord's priest was wearing
Speaker 1: the ephod under the pomegranate tree. Now, the ethod was
Speaker 1: more than just an article of clothing. It was an
Speaker 1: instrument for seeking the will of God. On the ephod,
Speaker 1: the high priest would wear a breastplate. On the breastplate
Speaker 1: would be twelve stones with the names of the tribes
Speaker 1: of Israel, representing their special presence in the presence of God.
Speaker 1: When he would wear the breastplate into the most holy
Speaker 1: place to make atonement for the sins of the people
Speaker 1: so that they could be forgiven. Once a year, the
Speaker 1: instruction was given to the priest about what to make
Speaker 1: sure he kept close to his heart. It started with
Speaker 1: Aaron in Exodus chapter twenty eight. If you could give
Speaker 1: me this text that he will bear the names of
Speaker 1: the sons of Israel over his heart on the breastplate
Speaker 1: of decision. In the literal translation, it's the breastplate of judgment.
Speaker 1: It was what he wore when the judgment of God
Speaker 1: was conferred on the sacrificial animal that took the sins
Speaker 1: of the people away from the camp. It was the
Speaker 1: breastplate of judgment. But here it has translated the breastplate
Speaker 1: of decision as a continual memorial for the Lord. And
Speaker 1: here's why. Next verse, please also put Urrem and Themim,
Speaker 1: which are two special stones that would go not on
Speaker 1: the breastplate, but behind the breastplate. When the priest wore
Speaker 1: the ephant, which was like a kitchen apron where he
Speaker 1: would keep the vestments that were appropriate for his duty.
Speaker 1: And on that ephant was the breastplate, and behind the
Speaker 1: breastplate was Eurrem and themm. Whether these were stones or
Speaker 1: some other sort of special object, we are dependent on
Speaker 1: the incomplete records of archaeologists to make known to us.
Speaker 1: But one thing we know. It was one of the
Speaker 1: ways that God spoke about his will to his people.
Speaker 1: He spoke through the prophets. He spoke through dreams, and
Speaker 1: he spoke through these stones. I'm gonna call them stones
Speaker 1: because that's the closest thing we can know to what
Speaker 1: they were. One represented yes and one represented no. That
Speaker 1: was the meme. Eurreme was a little different. It was
Speaker 1: said to be a stone that would light up. And
Speaker 1: watch this. You are to put it behind the breast
Speaker 1: piece or in the breast piece, so that they may
Speaker 1: be over Aaron's heart whenever he enters the presence of
Speaker 1: the Lord. Thus Erin will always bear the means of
Speaker 1: making decisions. I love that little phrase, the means of
Speaker 1: making decisions in the presence of the Lord. Everybody has
Speaker 1: a means of making decisions. Everyone has a way that
Speaker 1: they try to figure out, where is this going? Can
Speaker 1: I trust this person? And I like this method a
Speaker 1: lot because all the priest had to do was take
Speaker 1: out the stones the meme it stands for perfection or decision,
Speaker 1: and then he would take urreem, which represents light, which
Speaker 1: always represents revelation, which always represents knowledge. And when God
Speaker 1: would speak through these stones, you would inquire of him,
Speaker 1: and if the answer was affirmative, Urreme would light up,
Speaker 1: and you would know God wants us to do it.
Speaker 1: Like when David was facing a battle at zick Lag
Speaker 1: and he had to go back and recover his family
Speaker 1: and the families of his men, and he asked the
Speaker 1: priest bring me an ephod, because I need to seek
Speaker 1: the Lord, because if I go into this battle and
Speaker 1: God doesn't want me to go in this battle, if
Speaker 1: I do this venture, if I go after this thing
Speaker 1: and God doesn't want me to do this thing, I'll
Speaker 1: be defeated. But if he says yes, no power in
Speaker 1: Hell can stand against me. Nothing can hinder the Lord
Speaker 1: from saving, whether by many or by few. So David said,
Speaker 1: bring me the ephod, because if God gives me light
Speaker 1: on this situation, I can fight this battle. If God
Speaker 1: gives me light on this situation, I can stand the trial,
Speaker 1: I can stand the test, I can pass it. I
Speaker 1: can do it if God says yes. But sometimes God
Speaker 1: would say no, and then sometimes the stone would do nothing.
Speaker 1: And what that meant was God doesn't want to answer
Speaker 1: this right now. In other words, if I can take
Speaker 1: you back to middle school, I love you, do you
Speaker 1: love me? Check yes or no? And sometimes I would
Speaker 1: put a third box called maybe. And sometimes they would
Speaker 1: ask God, you know should we go? Should we stay?
Speaker 1: Should we do it? Should we not? And the son
Speaker 1: would do nothing? What do you do with them? Maybe
Speaker 1: because a lot of times in our life, don't you
Speaker 1: wish you had a urim and at the meme in
Speaker 1: your closet? Come on, right next to your belts. I'd
Speaker 1: rather have a urim and at the meme than a Rolex.
Speaker 1: I mean I'd rather have I would, I would love
Speaker 1: if I could. What a what a what a blessing
Speaker 1: it would be? You know how many? You know, how
Speaker 1: many staff members I never would have hired to begin with?
Speaker 1: Come on, this is a big church. Can I be
Speaker 1: real with you? Do you know how many staff members
Speaker 1: i'd just be if I could have just had that
Speaker 1: special stone pull it out? Wouldn't that be cool? Can
Speaker 1: you imagine how many how many things would you have
Speaker 1: done differently? And how helpful would it be when you're
Speaker 1: making decisions if you could just have a stone just
Speaker 1: to light up and tell you, yes, this is God.
Speaker 1: You know how your kids start hanging out with friends
Speaker 1: and you're wondering, like, I don't know about these parents.
Speaker 1: They seem kind of like, I don't know I smelled
Speaker 1: something on their clothes smell like it might have been weed,
Speaker 1: or maybe it was something else, but I'm not sure. Lord,
Speaker 1: should I let my kids hang out with these kids?
Speaker 1: And God says yes, and you could get some sleep?
Speaker 1: Or you know, God, should I take this job? It's
Speaker 1: got more pay, but it's gonna mean more hours. I
Speaker 1: just think it would be so cool if it would
Speaker 1: light up and tell me. And yet, God, God, God
Speaker 1: knows something about me that I don't know about me.
Speaker 1: Is that even if He gave me the light to
Speaker 1: know what to do, a lot of times I wouldn't
Speaker 1: have the faith to do it. You're gonna make me
Speaker 1: preach by myself and sit there looking at me like
Speaker 1: I'm an entertainer. You know, the truth is that even
Speaker 1: sometimes when you know what to do, even sometimes when
Speaker 1: you know this as God. And they had these stones.
Speaker 1: They had these stones. It was behind the breastplate, and
Speaker 1: the breastplate was under the pomegranate tree, and the priest
Speaker 1: was doing nothing with it. They had the means of
Speaker 1: making decisions to know the will of God, but their
Speaker 1: fear had put them in a place, and their complacency
Speaker 1: had put them in a place. Because when you have
Speaker 1: the instruments, but you don't use them. How can God
Speaker 1: speak to you when you can't find this between Sundays?
Speaker 1: How can God give you his wisdom? And the important
Speaker 1: thing about it was Jonathan said, we don't have the
Speaker 1: ephod Ahijah has the ephoon. We don't have a complete
Speaker 1: clarity on this situation. But what he had that was
Speaker 1: so that's important. He had the right person to turn
Speaker 1: to and talk about it. I need you to understand
Speaker 1: the value not only of what God says to you
Speaker 1: in your life, but about who you say it to.
Speaker 1: After God says it to you, the right people will
Speaker 1: give you the go ahead. The right people will say,
Speaker 1: you know what, I'm gonna help you as you do this.
Speaker 1: I know the addiction has got you about three different
Speaker 1: cycles now and it looks like this one won't be
Speaker 1: any different. But whether or not you make it, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna be here with you on it. So let's go
Speaker 1: ahead and do this dumb thing, this impossible thing, this
Speaker 1: crazy thing. And then sometimes they got to turn and
Speaker 1: tell you that ain't got at all. But it's who
Speaker 1: you say it to and who you say it. It's
Speaker 1: a fifty to fifty thing. It's not just my relationship
Speaker 1: with God. It's my relationship with others, and a lot
Speaker 1: of us are suffering and in our relationship with God
Speaker 1: because we're living in bitterness with our relationship with others.
Speaker 1: You can't hear God just like this. I guarantee you
Speaker 1: if Jonathan would have had an armor bearer who told him,
Speaker 1: you know what, man, let me know how that turns out.
Speaker 1: I'm praying for you signed the cross. I guarantee you
Speaker 1: the battle wouldn't have moved on beyond Bethe even that
Speaker 1: day like it did, and even for me. I can
Speaker 1: say this when people say, how did you know God
Speaker 1: wanted you to start a church? I read a book.
Speaker 1: I felt inspired. I got up and preached. It seemed
Speaker 1: to help people read a book. I got a wife.
Speaker 1: We were doing our thing. One day she looked at me.
Speaker 1: In the mountains of Tennessee. We're at some youth camp.
Speaker 1: Carl CARTI was leading worship. We came back to the room.
Speaker 1: People say, when, how did you know? How did God
Speaker 1: speak to you it was time for you to start
Speaker 1: the church because I wanted to start it when I
Speaker 1: was forty. The church wouldn't even be here right now
Speaker 1: if Holly didn't turn to me, not God she was
Speaker 1: my yorem. God used her like that. She said, it's
Speaker 1: time for you go start this church. I said, when
Speaker 1: I'm forty. She said, no. Now, look, JJ, if you
Speaker 1: hear me saying on this message, you know God's calling
Speaker 1: you to go. You know how many people I've seen
Speaker 1: go start coffee shops because they like coffee and they
Speaker 1: hear a message like this and abuse it and they
Speaker 1: think that the whole point of the message is just
Speaker 1: go do the dumbest thing you can think of that
Speaker 1: you have a halfway interest in, and then blame the
Speaker 1: devil when it doesn't work out. Because it was spiritual
Speaker 1: warfare and attack and nobody believed in my dream and
Speaker 1: I'm nothing but Jesus on the cross some guard and
Speaker 1: I guess so many squeeze like the olives and the
Speaker 1: oils coming out. All of that is dumb because I'm
Speaker 1: not even talking about that. I'm talking about who you
Speaker 1: talk to, about what God is saying to you. And
Speaker 1: now now I get to return the favor. I mean
Speaker 1: the other day she she turned to me and was like, Hey,
Speaker 1: I'm about to tell you something that I think God
Speaker 1: is speaking to me. Because it's always a fifty to
Speaker 1: fifty thing always always so. So I'm confident, but I'm
Speaker 1: not certain, you know. And she was like, don't laugh
Speaker 1: at me. I'm like, why would I laugh at you?
Speaker 1: Tell me? And what she told me, I said, not
Speaker 1: only have you got to do that, but you got
Speaker 1: to do this, this and this and this and this
Speaker 1: because that's awesome. Then I think she was sorry that
Speaker 1: she told me because she didn't want to do this, this, this,
Speaker 1: and this and this. She just wanted to do that.
Speaker 1: But we started talking. You see how important it is
Speaker 1: not only what God says to you. It's not only
Speaker 1: this be of the cross. What is this one too?
Speaker 1: So I don't have uremn the meme, but I got Eugene.
Speaker 1: I needed a rhyme. It was it was a stretch
Speaker 1: at best, and Irene and I got people. Now this
Speaker 1: is so, this is so key. It's a fifty fifty faith.
Speaker 1: It's a fifty to fifty. That means it is a
Speaker 1: divine partnership where Jonathan says, you know, there is something
Speaker 1: that God can do, and then there is something that
Speaker 1: God will not do that only we can do. Faith
Speaker 1: is fifty to fifty. James proves it clearly. Not only
Speaker 1: does Jonathan exemplify it. James explains it when he says,
Speaker 1: faith without works is it takes two? This is a
Speaker 1: fifty to fifty proposition. Why would God do for you
Speaker 1: you what he gave you the strength to do for you?
Speaker 1: It is a fifty fifty faith. It is not my
Speaker 1: faith that saves me, and I'm grateful for that. How
Speaker 1: many are grateful that your faith in Christ for salvation
Speaker 1: is not fifty to fifty. Come on, because if it was,
Speaker 1: I would be in hell before Monday at three pm
Speaker 1: Eastern Standard time. But because he is my great High Priest, y'all,
Speaker 1: I'm about to get happy on this sermon. And because
Speaker 1: he took the breastplate of his own righteousness into the
Speaker 1: most holy place and shed his blood on the mercy seat,
Speaker 1: I don't ever have to doubt if he wants to
Speaker 1: see me or hear me, or love me, or throw
Speaker 1: his arms around me. He is my Righteousness and I
Speaker 1: am his child, and he is my great high Priest.
Speaker 1: Come on, shout about it, like you got the good
Speaker 1: sens to know. This thing doesn't depend on me. Foundational
Speaker 1: faith even that faith is the gift of God, so
Speaker 1: that no one can boast but watch this, Jonathan say,
Speaker 1: perhaps perhaps the Lord will it is fifty to fifty.
Speaker 1: I know he can. I think he will. Fifty to fifty.
Speaker 1: I know God is with me, and I think this
Speaker 1: is where he's leading me. It's fifty to fifty. I'm
Speaker 1: a fifty to fifty leader. I pull seventy staff into
Speaker 1: this Monday and say this is what I think God's doing.
Speaker 1: And I can't put a bow on it. But we're
Speaker 1: gonna find out together why Because God won't reveal truth
Speaker 1: if I don't move toward it ever. And the issue
Speaker 1: is this experience is the friend of wisdom, but it
Speaker 1: can be the enemy of faith. You need me to
Speaker 1: run that back. Experience is the friend of wisdom, but
Speaker 1: if you get like Saul in a hyda and keep
Speaker 1: the e fot under the pomegranate tree, Jonathan said, We're
Speaker 1: going to have to be our own ethought. We're gonna
Speaker 1: have to put ourselves out there and see if God will.
Speaker 1: And when Eugenie Peterson he had this idea, right, he
Speaker 1: was trying to preach the Bible. He's in heaven now,
Speaker 1: but he was trying to preach the Bible to his church.
Speaker 1: He realized that they weren't really getting it, so he
Speaker 1: sat down to write a translation of the Bible in
Speaker 1: a way they could understand. You know that little version
Speaker 1: on your Bible on your phone. I hope you got
Speaker 1: the Bible on your phone. I hope you got the
Speaker 1: Bible up above Facebook on your phone, because you need
Speaker 1: that one to start your day. You really do, you
Speaker 1: really do. You'll need to know what's going on in
Speaker 1: Russia every second, but you need to know what's happening,
Speaker 1: what God intends for your life. And if you click
Speaker 1: on it, there will be one version that says MSG
Speaker 1: and it has nothing to do with the Chinese restaurant.
Speaker 1: Is the message translation. And it was written by a
Speaker 1: man who was just see. He had an idea, what
Speaker 1: if I write the Bible in the language that's common
Speaker 1: to the people, and he ended up translating the whole
Speaker 1: Bible that way. The message translation all because maybe God
Speaker 1: will use this, you know, if you act on it.
Speaker 1: If you act, it's fifty to fifty. It's fifty to fifty.
Speaker 1: I'm not sure. I don't know. Look what he said
Speaker 1: when he translated for Samuel fourteen six, my favorite verse
Speaker 1: about faith in the Old Testament. Look what he said
Speaker 1: that Jonathan said to his armor bearer, come on, now,
Speaker 1: come on, now, let's do it now. Not when the
Speaker 1: priest gets his act together, not when the government gets
Speaker 1: his act together, not when, but now, we got to
Speaker 1: do this now. Now, come on, now, let's go across
Speaker 1: to these uncircumcised pagans. And then he said the title
Speaker 1: of my series, maybe God will work for us. Maybe
Speaker 1: maybe faith is being able to move on a maybe.
Speaker 1: And you know what that means. It's fifty to fifty.
Speaker 1: It might not work, but God is always working. I'm
Speaker 1: confident in the second, even when I'm not certain in
Speaker 1: the first. And it takes the time of faith church
Speaker 1: to say maybe maybe if I do this, maybe and
Speaker 1: maybe it won't and maybe God will use this thing
Speaker 1: that I think I'm supposed to do to lead to
Speaker 1: something that I was really supposed to do, so that
Speaker 1: even if the first thing fails, at least I'm sitting
Speaker 1: still in fear. But it takes faith to move on
Speaker 1: a maybe. When Yurim has gone dark and Saul is
Speaker 1: under a tree and you don't know what to do
Speaker 1: but to move toward it. God says, move toward it.
Speaker 1: It may work. And even if it doesn't I will.
Speaker 1: It is the power to move on a maybe, to
Speaker 1: know that God is mystery, but he is revealed, his
Speaker 1: character is trustworthy. I can move on a maybe. Father.
Speaker 1: I don't want to do this, but nevertheless, not my will,
Speaker 1: but yours be done. So I'm gonna go see about
Speaker 1: this and maybe somebody shout. Maybe maybe I've got a
Speaker 1: maybe faith enough faith to do it and not know
Speaker 1: the conclusion, but trust God in the process. It's a
Speaker 1: maybe faith. I'm confident. I'm not certain, but I'm confident.
Speaker 1: And you will find yourself many times in your life
Speaker 1: in a maybe moment. Some of you are there right now.
Speaker 1: It's a maybe moment for you. Maybe you are giving
Speaker 1: yourself to a marriage that you don't know if it
Speaker 1: can live. Like Ezekiel in the Valley of Bones, you
Speaker 1: don't even know if anything's going to happen, but you're
Speaker 1: prophesying and speaking forth and believing God to send the winds,
Speaker 1: and you're living in the maybe moment. Maybe if we
Speaker 1: start a church, maybe maybe I know who God is
Speaker 1: and I know nothing can stop him. But it's fifty
Speaker 1: to fifty. Man, you want to do it anyway. Maybe
Speaker 1: the miracle is in the maybe. I wish I could
Speaker 1: preach this to every discouraged heart today. God lives in
Speaker 1: a place called maybe. Faith lives in a place called maybe.
Speaker 1: So if you are in a maybe moment today, that's
Speaker 1: where God lives. Stand up when you're in that maybe moment,
Speaker 1: and if you are, you know it. And if you're not,
Speaker 1: you will need this message within the next six weeks
Speaker 1: because life is full of maybe moments. You will feel
Speaker 1: in that moment the coexistence of uncertainty and confidence, and
Speaker 1: you'll feel like you're making it up as you go.
Speaker 1: I like that image because Jonathan said, climb up after me,
Speaker 1: climb up after me. I was thinking about how they
Speaker 1: made it up as they win. But I had to go.
Speaker 1: I had to. I had to do it. I had
Speaker 1: to I had to trust God in a in a
Speaker 1: maybe moment. Maybe moments are like the moment where you
Speaker 1: could look stupid. Maybe moments are the moments where you
Speaker 1: could be rejected. Most of us aren't facing philistines and thorny,
Speaker 1: slippery cliffs and geographical obstacles. Most of us are facing
Speaker 1: things that are on the inside of us that seem insurmountable.
Speaker 1: And God is in the maybe moment of your life
Speaker 1: when you move forward. Anyway, when I stopped by my
Speaker 1: dad's house and gave him the letter on Father's Day
Speaker 1: after we had not spoken in months because I moved
Speaker 1: him to Charlotte when his health got bad with my mom,
Speaker 1: because he asked me to, and I told him, I said, Dad,
Speaker 1: I want to do this for you. You're my dad.
Speaker 1: I want to take care of you. And we didn't
Speaker 1: know that he had als yet. We just knew that
Speaker 1: he was very sick, and because he was a self
Speaker 1: employed barber, I didn't know, you know, if he was
Speaker 1: just honestly, my dad at that point in his life
Speaker 1: was so illogical and irrational. I didn't know if it
Speaker 1: was a good idea or not. But I knew my
Speaker 1: dad was asking me for help, and I knew that
Speaker 1: something was wrong, and when he asked me to do it,
Speaker 1: I knew something inside of me knew like this could
Speaker 1: turn out really bad, you know. Like I told my dad,
Speaker 1: I said, you live three and a half hours away
Speaker 1: from me right now, and that works pretty good for us.
Speaker 1: If you come up and we're all up in each
Speaker 1: other's face, you know, it might not be good. And
Speaker 1: he said, I need you to do this for me,
Speaker 1: and I said, I'll never forget telling him. You know,
Speaker 1: I don't even think this is a good idea, but
Speaker 1: I'm gonna do it. You asked me to, and I
Speaker 1: love you. But please, when you come up here, please,
Speaker 1: when you come live in Charlotte. I knew my mom
Speaker 1: would be fine, she's great, but I was like, you, please,
Speaker 1: don't do any of this crazy stuff. And honest to God, no,
Speaker 1: sooner than I sent the moving company to give him
Speaker 1: an estimate, he chased the moving company out of the
Speaker 1: yard with his walking cane. I mean this guy, he
Speaker 1: was a good dad for a lot of my life,
Speaker 1: but by this point his medications as well as his
Speaker 1: physical condition, he was starting to really lose his mind.
Speaker 1: But I knew I needed to move him anyway, and
Speaker 1: it didn't make sense at that point. In fact, when
Speaker 1: he got here, when he finally moved after running off
Speaker 1: the moving company, after he finally found a moving company
Speaker 1: that was fit to move him, and I went to
Speaker 1: go see him and check on him in the house
Speaker 1: that we had found for them. First thing he did
Speaker 1: when I walked in the door was complain about the house.
Speaker 1: When I tell you that, I said, some Hebrew words
Speaker 1: and some Greek words, some monks corner words, some compound
Speaker 1: cuss words. And it was like, over the next few months,
Speaker 1: every bad thing that I thought was going to happen,
Speaker 1: if I tried to do the right, things start happening.
Speaker 1: And what was the weird contrast was my ministry was
Speaker 1: going so great and the church was growing, and my
Speaker 1: dad and the way he treated my mom, and eventually
Speaker 1: he left, he went to go live by himself. It
Speaker 1: was like culminated in this horrible thanks like the worst
Speaker 1: Thanksgiving ever where we went to see him. The only
Speaker 1: place he would live was in this nursing home and
Speaker 1: they had him calling Bingo in the nursing home and yeah,
Speaker 1: it's okay, you can laugh about it, because it was like,
Speaker 1: how did we come to this? Like how can they
Speaker 1: not even live together? How do we spend all this
Speaker 1: money and all this time and he raised me all
Speaker 1: this time and coach my teams and all this, and
Speaker 1: then it's going to end like this. When we would
Speaker 1: try to talk on the phone, he would end up yelling.
Speaker 1: I would end up yelling, and then I'd end up preaching.
Speaker 1: And then I go back and talk to my dad
Speaker 1: and I'd end up yelling and he would end up yelling.
Speaker 1: But when I went by his house on Father's Day,
Speaker 1: I thought, well, maybe maybe if I write down. I
Speaker 1: took a notebook and I told Holly, can you drive
Speaker 1: for me for a minute. We were coming back from
Speaker 1: a family trip, and I said, I need to do
Speaker 1: something real quick. Can you drive from me and can
Speaker 1: we stop by my dad's house. He was living all
Speaker 1: alone at that time, by his own choice. And I
Speaker 1: sat there while Holly drove, and I wrote down a
Speaker 1: memory for every year that I had been alive of
Speaker 1: him being my dad. Because I knew we couldn't talk,
Speaker 1: but I thought, well, maybe if we could just communicate
Speaker 1: in writing. And when we showed up at the house
Speaker 1: and he opened the door, I kind of like threw
Speaker 1: the list at him, you know, like happy fun made
Speaker 1: a list for you, because maybe maybe this is a
Speaker 1: dumb idea, but maybe it could open a door for
Speaker 1: us to have a relationship. It's the maybe moments, you know.
Speaker 1: If I'm going to tell you about my maybe moments
Speaker 1: that result in starting a church that reaches the world,
Speaker 1: I think I owe it to you to tell you
Speaker 1: about my maybe moments that were messy to it's not
Speaker 1: always so clear, it's not always so perfect, it's not
Speaker 1: always so brilliant, it's not always so strategic. Life has
Speaker 1: lived in those maybe moments. And so I got to
Speaker 1: sit beside him as he breathed his last breath after
Speaker 1: three days that hospice had been in much later, after
Speaker 1: a progression where my mom graciously let him back in
Speaker 1: the house and cared for him until he died, and
Speaker 1: I got to be there, reading to him from Charles
Speaker 1: Spurgeon sermon The Peaceful Sleep of the Beloved. After I
Speaker 1: sang to him the Old Rugged Cross, and I thought
Speaker 1: he was going to pass quickly, but he stayed around
Speaker 1: like three days, and I ran out of hymns and
Speaker 1: started having to sing James Taylor and Hoodie and the Blowfish.
Speaker 1: I mean, I was there for all of it in
Speaker 1: that moment because of moving forward with a maybe, I
Speaker 1: believe God sent me with this message today and I'm overtime.
Speaker 1: I'm so overtime. It's going to be awful in the
Speaker 1: parking lot in the rain, give me and please smile
Speaker 1: at people on the way out and tell it's going
Speaker 1: to be worth it. But please listen to me listen
Speaker 1: to me. You're in a maybe moment. You're in a
Speaker 1: maybe moment, slipper on one side, thorny on the other.
Speaker 1: Don't have everybody with you thought you'd have with you,
Speaker 1: just got a armor bearer. Father, I pray today for
Speaker 1: the faith for your people to move forward on a
Speaker 1: maybe in this moment. You're the God of all wisdom.
Speaker 1: You are the God who sees all, knows all, and
Speaker 1: can do anything. I thank you, Lord that there are
Speaker 1: miracles emerging even now as I speak, in bodies, in relationships,
Speaker 1: in careers, in families. God, I thank you that ministry
Speaker 1: is birth out of maybe. We thank you God for
Speaker 1: giving us the Holy Spirit inside of us. We thank
Speaker 1: you for giving us the finished work of your son,
Speaker 1: to let us know that you are good, and you
Speaker 1: do good, and all things work together for the good
Speaker 1: of them that love. You speak over every maybe situation.
Speaker 1: Give your people now, by your grace the kind of
Speaker 1: faith that it takes to move forward and it maybe
Speaker 1: for we believe that nothing can hinder you from saving,
Speaker 1: whether by many or by few. Thank you for joining us.
Speaker 1: Special thanks to those of you who give generously to
Speaker 1: this ministry. Is because of you that this ministry is possible.
Speaker 1: You can click the link in the description to give
Speaker 1: now or visit Elevationchurch dot org slash podcast for more
Speaker 1: information and if you enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe.
Speaker 1: You can share it with your friends. You can click
Speaker 1: the share button, take a screenshot and share it on
Speaker 1: your social stories and tag us at Elevation Church. Thanks
Speaker 1: again for listening. God bless you.