Speaker 1: Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick.
Speaker 2: I'm the pastor of Elevation Church, and this is our podcast.
Speaker 1: Be sure to.
Speaker 2: Subscribe so we can get you these new sermons every week.
Speaker 2: I hope you're blessed today.
Speaker 3: Remains standing, remain standing. Once you've hugged enough, put those
Speaker 3: hands together, and welcome our EPAM all over the world. Hey, hey, everybody,
Speaker 3: we're about to be We're about to be out on
Speaker 3: the road this week. Elevation Knights Miami, Florida, Tampa, Florida, Knoxville, Tennessee,
Speaker 3: Atlanta Area, Birmingham. Then we're going to Texas. I'm gonna
Speaker 3: get Tim Riggins, and then we're going over to Love
Speaker 3: It and Dallas and Houston. Elevation Nights dot com. There
Speaker 3: are some tickets and some locations. Don't buy it from
Speaker 3: a scalper. Don't support that nonsense. But we really want
Speaker 3: to see you there. We're expecting God to do great,
Speaker 3: amazing things. Clap your hands if you're expecting it right now.
Speaker 1: God is good. God is good.
Speaker 3: God is so good, so faithful.
Speaker 1: Well today, this message that.
Speaker 3: I have to share with you is one that everybody
Speaker 3: in the room needs. So sometimes I'll say this message
Speaker 3: is for somebody. I don't know who this is for,
Speaker 3: but today I know it's for all y'all. So look
Speaker 3: at somebody and say you too, not the band.
Speaker 1: It's going to be good.
Speaker 3: I'm going to read from Matthew, chapter fifteen, verse twenty
Speaker 3: nine through thirty eight, a familiar story with a twist,
Speaker 3: and not for the sake of being clever, but for
Speaker 3: the sake of something that I believe God wants to
Speaker 3: speak to you today in a fresh way, Matthew, chapter fifteen,
Speaker 3: verse twenty nine. And while you're turning there in your Bible,
Speaker 3: I let us know online where you're joining us from.
Speaker 3: We'd love to know your name and where you're joining
Speaker 3: us from as well, right there in the comments, Matthew,
Speaker 3: chapter fifteen, verse twenty nine. Jesus left there and went
Speaker 3: along the Sea of Galilee. Then he went up on
Speaker 3: a mountain side and sat down. Great crowds came to him,
Speaker 3: bringing the lame, the blind, the crippled, the mute, many others,
Speaker 3: and laid them at his feet, and he healed them.
Speaker 3: The people were amazed when they saw the mute speaking.
Speaker 3: The crippled made well, the lame walking, and the blind
Speaker 3: see and they praised the God of Israel. Jesus called
Speaker 3: his disciples to him and said, I have compassion.
Speaker 1: For these people.
Speaker 3: They have already been with me three days and have
Speaker 3: nothing to eat. I do not want to send them
Speaker 3: away hungry, or they may collapse on the way. His
Speaker 3: disciples answered, where could we get enough bread in this
Speaker 3: remote place to feed such a crowd. How many loaves
Speaker 3: do you have, Jesus asked, seven, they replied, and a
Speaker 3: few small fish. He told the crowd to sit down
Speaker 3: on the ground. Then he took the seven loaves and fish,
Speaker 3: and when he had given thanks, he broke them and
Speaker 3: gave them to the disciples, and they in turned to
Speaker 3: the people. They all ate and were satisfied. Afterward, the
Speaker 3: disciples picked up seven basketfuls of broken pieces that were
Speaker 3: left over. Okay, verse thirty eight, let's read this one too.
Speaker 3: The number of those who ate was four thousand men,
Speaker 3: besides women and children. And I'm calling this message today
Speaker 3: navigating not enough. We've all been there, we will all
Speaker 3: be there at some point. So I can't think of
Speaker 3: a more important class to teach today than navigating not enough.
Speaker 3: And let's just pray one more time for the Holy
Speaker 3: spirit to guide us into truth.
Speaker 1: Lord, you said that.
Speaker 3: You would do that, that you would lead us and
Speaker 3: guide us and remind us of the things that matter,
Speaker 3: and teach us the things that we need to know.
Speaker 3: Do that just now, for these people, for everybody who
Speaker 3: will hear this message, is navigating something that.
Speaker 1: Is not enough. But you are more than enough.
Speaker 3: So bring us to that place in space and presence
Speaker 3: of mind to see you as you are. We give
Speaker 3: you praise in Jesus' name. Man, you may be seated.
Speaker 3: I made a list in my phone. I read it
Speaker 3: to you. Time, money, sleep, energy, friends, confidence, opportunity, authority, freedom, flexibility, discipline, experience, joy, peace, wisdom.
Speaker 3: And I stopped there with fifteen because Matthew, fifteen, I
Speaker 3: thought would be cool to do fifteen fifteen things that
Speaker 3: I just said that someone in this room feels like
Speaker 3: they don't have enough of right now. Time, money, sleep, energy, friends, confidence, opportunity, authority, freedom, flexibility, discipline, experience, joy, peace, wisdom.
Speaker 3: Everyone will have to navigate an area of not enough
Speaker 3: in your life in a way that comforts me to
Speaker 3: know that for all the things that I don't feel
Speaker 3: like I have enough of, there's some things you don't
Speaker 3: have enough of with your needy self. Either kind of
Speaker 3: evens the playing field. So don't be intimidated. Don't be intimidated.
Speaker 1: Not in here any way.
Speaker 3: The ground is level at the foot of the cross.
Speaker 3: We're all here because we need Jesus, and Jesus is complete.
Speaker 3: Jesus Christ is complete, fully, god fully man. At the
Speaker 3: sound of that truth echoes back another truth that in
Speaker 3: him I am complete, He is enough.
Speaker 1: I am enough.
Speaker 3: And yet there's no shortage of needs in this room.
Speaker 3: And everyone will have to pass through in different moments
Speaker 3: of your life, different facets of this same.
Speaker 1: Neighborhood called not enough.
Speaker 3: And we have to talk about how to navigate that,
Speaker 3: because I have found that not only is the not
Speaker 3: enough thing a battle that never goes away, but it
Speaker 3: is a battle that never fully gets in balance. And
Speaker 3: what I mean by that is when I read that
Speaker 3: list of things, there have been seasons in my life
Speaker 3: where I worked my way into enough of one of them,
Speaker 3: only to find another one screaming, Hey, now that you
Speaker 3: got enough money, you don't have any time.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I thought about this in the area of discipline. I
Speaker 3: tried to be a disciplined person in my life. I need
Speaker 3: that to stay on track. And yet I noticed the
Speaker 3: times in my life where my discipline is really keyed in.
Speaker 3: Sometimes I get so rigid that I lose my empathy.
Speaker 3: And I'm doing really good with my disciplines, but I'm
Speaker 3: mad at everybody else that they aren't as disciplined as me.
Speaker 3: Now I'm judging, So it's good. You know. I've got
Speaker 3: my macros and my workouts and my Bible time. But
Speaker 3: creates a whole other not enough over on this side,
Speaker 3: and I don't really want to stay in this too long.
Speaker 3: Just wanted to set up the idea of not enough.
Speaker 3: And I realized when I made the title navigating not enough,
Speaker 3: and God kind of led me to call this message
Speaker 3: that that in that title navigating not enough, I am
Speaker 3: the best one to teach this class because the two
Speaker 3: biggest fears in my life are both in that title,
Speaker 3: not enough and navigating.
Speaker 1: I told you two weeks.
Speaker 3: Ago that I have no sense of direction, and I
Speaker 3: still don't. There's been no supernatural miracle since then. And
Speaker 3: the idea of this passage here, I looked at one
Speaker 3: verse and I want to show it to you again
Speaker 3: that the disciples said again a pretty familiar scripture that
Speaker 3: I'm sharing with you today. But what they said to
Speaker 3: Jesus when he said I want to feed all these
Speaker 3: people I can get with because in verse thirty three,
Speaker 3: they answered, where could we get enough bread in this
Speaker 3: remote place to feed such a crowd? And we're going
Speaker 3: to stay with that question for a moment because it's
Speaker 3: very important. Where could we get enough bread in this
Speaker 3: remote place to feed such a crowd? And here are
Speaker 3: my two primary fears in life, all in one Bible verse.
Speaker 3: And the first one is the fear of running out,
Speaker 3: which runs deep for me. I don't know if there's
Speaker 3: any scarcity mentality in your life, or some kind of
Speaker 3: like efficit oriented way of thinking where you wake up
Speaker 3: each day at zero. I don't know if you ever
Speaker 3: do a little fire drills to try to figure out
Speaker 3: how you could sell everything and live in, living in underground,
Speaker 3: live in a tent somewhere if it came to that.
Speaker 3: But the fear of running out, I can't tell you how.
Speaker 3: I can't explain. I cannot explain to you how important
Speaker 3: it is that my phone is completely charged. Ninety three
Speaker 3: percent is not one hundred percent. I cannot run out
Speaker 3: of battery. What would I do. If the phone died,
Speaker 3: I would die. It's a fear that runs from everything
Speaker 3: from iPhones to sermon material.
Speaker 1: A lot of times when I.
Speaker 3: Preached too long is because I was scared I'd get
Speaker 3: up here and have nothing to say. So then I
Speaker 3: went and messed around study too long and kept you
Speaker 3: three hours.
Speaker 1: But my heart's in the right place.
Speaker 3: I don't want you to show up hungry and collapse
Speaker 3: when you leave because I was watching the game instead.
Speaker 1: So I really really really relate to.
Speaker 3: This thing of where could we get enough, the fear
Speaker 3: of running out, and then what makes it even.
Speaker 1: Worse put the scripture back up?
Speaker 3: Where could we get enough bread in this remote place?
Speaker 1: Did you notice that?
Speaker 3: So now, not only do I not have enough, that's
Speaker 3: my first fear in life, but I don't know where
Speaker 3: I am, and I need to know where I am.
Speaker 3: And if I don't know where I am, I need
Speaker 3: to be with somebody who knows where they are. And
Speaker 3: that's where you're like, But the disciples had Jesus, so
Speaker 3: it really didn't matter, because if you've got Jesus, you've
Speaker 3: always got enough. And isn't it interesting how confidently you
Speaker 3: say that about them?
Speaker 1: Back then?
Speaker 3: But if we followed you back into your neighborhood of
Speaker 3: not enough. And you know, when you get a little older,
Speaker 3: you don't even really know if you can depend on
Speaker 3: your body in the same way that you could. And
Speaker 3: I know I'm not old or anything like that, still vital,
Speaker 3: but yo, I pulled a muscle when I woke I
Speaker 3: thought I pulled a muscle when I woke up this morning,
Speaker 3: and I was like, oh no. For about five minutes,
Speaker 3: I was like, who's going to preach? And the worst
Speaker 3: part was I pulled it yawning, not lifting weights. I
Speaker 3: wasn't doing yoga or anything. I just yawned in something
Speaker 3: pop just to remind me, just to remind me.
Speaker 1: You know two extremes that we get into.
Speaker 3: I think when we look at what we don't have
Speaker 3: and what we need, there is an extreme that we
Speaker 3: go into, which is denial. You know, no, I'm good,
Speaker 3: I'm good, I'm good until you completely crash. And then
Speaker 3: the other one is despair, where you are so aware
Speaker 3: of what you don't have that you don't realize what
Speaker 3: you do have. And so, yes, the disciples have Jesus,
Speaker 3: and yes he has all knowledge, and yes he is omniscient.
Speaker 3: And he was, and is and will be all of
Speaker 3: those things for you. But it does not change the
Speaker 3: fact that they are in a remote place with limited resource.
Speaker 3: Now that's who I want to speak to today. You
Speaker 3: are in a remote place with a limited resource. Either
Speaker 3: of those is scary, just to be somewhere that is remote.
Speaker 3: I'm not talking about just physically. You know that. I'm
Speaker 3: talking about emotional states that you've never experienced. I mentioned
Speaker 3: stages of life that you've never experienced. It could even be,
Speaker 3: you know, beyond just the psychological. It could be just
Speaker 3: beyond the chronological. It could be that you are dealing
Speaker 3: with a series, a combination, or a sequence of things
Speaker 3: that you've never experienced.
Speaker 1: Quite like this.
Speaker 3: Everybody say remote place, now say limited resource. So I
Speaker 3: don't have enough, and I don't know where I am,
Speaker 3: and I don't know enough to get where I need
Speaker 3: to go to get what I need. And I don't
Speaker 3: know where I am and I don't have what I need.
Speaker 3: And those are my two biggest nightmares in life. So
Speaker 3: I decided to preach about it. Navigating not enough. If
Speaker 3: you were under the age of twenty, you will never
Speaker 3: know the terror of navigating by map, not an app
Speaker 3: called maps, not an interactive satellite guided device like.
Speaker 1: A map map.
Speaker 3: I went in the gas station yesterday and I was
Speaker 3: gonna buy one to bring out here and unfold it
Speaker 3: and like an icebreaker for the crowd and say, y'all,
Speaker 3: remember these, everybody who pulls a muscle when you yawn,
Speaker 3: y'all remember these. And I was gonna they didn't even
Speaker 3: have a map at the gas station. What is the
Speaker 3: world come to? I can't get a map at the
Speaker 3: gas station.
Speaker 1: Elijah asked me before he went to college.
Speaker 3: He said, how did you used to do it? How
Speaker 3: did you get anywhere? I said, son, it was traumatic.
Speaker 3: Your mom is great at directions, but she was better
Speaker 3: than me. When we first moved to Charlotte, there was
Speaker 3: the biggest city I'd.
Speaker 1: Ever lived in.
Speaker 3: And I would go have appointments with people all through
Speaker 3: the highways and the byways and the mean streets of Weddington, Waxaw,
Speaker 3: Mint Hill, And I kid you not, there was not
Speaker 3: a single.
Speaker 1: Meeting that I took that I would not end up
Speaker 1: on the phone with Holly.
Speaker 3: And she would be at the house and I'd be
Speaker 3: on the road and she would be guiding me. The
Speaker 3: Holly spirit would be guiding me, and I don't know.
Speaker 3: We just celebrated twenty one years of marriage. I don't
Speaker 3: know if we would have made it. Don't clap too quick.
Speaker 3: I don't know if we'd have made it at five, if
Speaker 3: we would have kept having to go that way, because
Speaker 3: you know, the thing about us communicating in this way
Speaker 3: is she had never lived here either, so it all
Speaker 3: sounds good while she's telling me what to do from
Speaker 3: the house with the map from two years ago. It
Speaker 3: changed everything. You know, people say I would have loved
Speaker 3: to have been a disciple and followed Jesus. I wouldn't
Speaker 3: back then. You wouldn't either. You know, you might have.
Speaker 3: You might eventually have loved it, but not in a moment.
Speaker 3: Because I want you to think about this. They're in
Speaker 3: a remote place, they're they're healing people. Who knows how
Speaker 3: long he's gonna keep doing this. It's been three days,
Speaker 3: and he doesn't seem tired yet because he's fully God.
Speaker 3: And now he pulls them to the side. And this
Speaker 3: is verse twenty two, because it's all really well and
Speaker 3: good as long as he's doing the work. But then
Speaker 3: he called the disciples to him and said, I have
Speaker 3: compassion for these people, they've already been with me. Now,
Speaker 3: that phrase been with me in the original language of
Speaker 3: the Bible doesn't just mean they hung out. It means
Speaker 3: that they've been cleaving to me. They've been staying with me.
Speaker 3: They've been hanging with me. They've been pulling on me,
Speaker 3: they've been pressing towards me, they've been receiving from me.
Speaker 3: So touch somebody real quick and say stay with him.
Speaker 1: Stay with him.
Speaker 3: If you feel crippled in an area of your life,
Speaker 3: if you feel lame in an area of your life,
Speaker 3: if you feel blind in an area of your life,
Speaker 3: if you feel like you're mute in an area of
Speaker 3: your life, I got some good guidance for you. Stay
Speaker 3: with Jesus. Good things happen when you stay with him.
Speaker 3: Good things happen when you stay with him. And I
Speaker 3: don't think it's a coincidence that they stayed three days.
Speaker 3: Read something in the Bible about three days. I'll just
Speaker 3: think about that. It's really it's really wonderful to think about,
Speaker 3: how you know this thing we say, where God guides,
Speaker 3: he provides. Have you heard that one where God guides
Speaker 3: he provides?
Speaker 1: I fully attest to that. I fully believe in that.
Speaker 3: My life is a trophy of the grace of God,
Speaker 3: that everywhere He has led me, he has provided for me.
Speaker 1: Where God guides, he provides.
Speaker 3: But the thing that that leaves out if you just
Speaker 3: put it on a bumper sticker, that where God guides,
Speaker 3: he provides, is that a lot of times we are
Speaker 3: guessing about where he's guiding us. I know you don't
Speaker 3: want to admit it, especially the men, because you don't
Speaker 3: want to admit you're lost. You rather drive in circles
Speaker 3: seven years.
Speaker 1: I'm not like that. I would call Holly. I would
Speaker 1: call her in a heartbeat. I didn't.
Speaker 3: I had a girl who could read a map, and
Speaker 3: I was determined to tap into her full resources. There's
Speaker 3: no male ego on me. I don't want to be lost.
Speaker 3: I'm too scared for that. And you know, if you
Speaker 3: get lost enough in your life, you will humble yourself
Speaker 3: to the point where you say, well, I don't normally
Speaker 3: like to ask for help. I don't like to admit
Speaker 3: I've never done this before. I don't like to say
Speaker 3: I was wrong. I don't like to ask somebody that
Speaker 3: I need them to show me in this area of
Speaker 3: my life. Sometimes we just aren't hungry enough yet, lost
Speaker 3: enough yet. But there's somebody in this room and you
Speaker 3: are and you are navigating and not enough in your
Speaker 3: life in this season that has brought you to the precipice.
Speaker 3: Or although you have pressed in to Jesus, you are
Speaker 3: in danger of collapsing on the way. That's what Jesus said.
Speaker 3: I don't want you to collapse along the way, and I've.
Speaker 1: Got good news for you. The Bible says that Jesus
Speaker 1: has compassion. If God gave you a new car, would
Speaker 1: you praise him for it?
Speaker 3: Paid off nice one, fast one, sexy one?
Speaker 1: Yeah, would you praise them for a new car?
Speaker 3: If God paid off your house, would you praise them
Speaker 3: for it? If God said, I'm giving you my compassion,
Speaker 3: There'd be nothing greater you could praise him for than
Speaker 3: the compassion of a Christ who is fully god Fully
Speaker 3: God enough to meet all of your needs, Fully God.
Speaker 1: Enough to stop a storm, fully.
Speaker 3: God enough to heal somebody who couldn't walk, and they
Speaker 3: go dancing out, Fully God enough that the one who
Speaker 3: couldn't speak left shouting, Fully God enough to do all
Speaker 3: of that, and fully man enough that, after all is
Speaker 3: said and done, pull his disciples to the side and
Speaker 3: say I have compassion for what they lack. I don't
Speaker 3: know if there's anybody in here who's in religious rehab.
Speaker 3: You grew up with a God who was waiting to
Speaker 3: crush you underneath the weight of what you were not yet.
Speaker 1: But we meet at Jesus in Matthew fifteen.
Speaker 3: Come on, get glad about it. Who has compassion for
Speaker 3: what you lack? So the Lord is my shepherd. I
Speaker 3: shall not want. That does not mean I will never lack,
Speaker 3: but it means that in every area where I lack,
Speaker 3: the Lord is faithful and loyal to me, that he
Speaker 3: will never leave me in my lack and turn a
Speaker 3: deaf ear to me when I call him. Let's praise God.
Speaker 3: Not for a car, not for a house. That's fine,
Speaker 3: I got a car, I got a house.
Speaker 1: But he has compassion.
Speaker 3: That he looks on my weakness with compassion, that he
Speaker 3: looks on my lack with compassion. I don't know. I
Speaker 3: just noticed that this week. I noticed that Jesus said,
Speaker 3: I have compassion for these people Verse thirty two. And
Speaker 3: the disciples answered the request that Jesus made about feeding
Speaker 3: them with logic and calculation. You know, like men often do,
Speaker 3: like men kind often does. Where can we get enough bread?
Speaker 3: There's no door dash on my phone. We don't have
Speaker 3: an app. You know, some people would say that Jesus
Speaker 3: is better than a GPS, but I don't think he is,
Speaker 3: because when you use a GPS.
Speaker 1: You get to select the destination.
Speaker 3: But when you follow Christ, he will get you where
Speaker 3: you need to go. He'll get you there, turn by turn,
Speaker 3: step by step. He'll do better than reroute you. He
Speaker 3: will pick your big behind up and carry your dead weight,
Speaker 3: if that's what it takes. But one thing about this savior.
Speaker 3: Imagine a GPS that you didn't get to tell it
Speaker 3: where you want to end up. That's Jesus. Peter's got
Speaker 3: this boat right. They're going all around ministering to people,
Speaker 3: and Peter's the one that's driving, okay, But the one
Speaker 3: who is driving the boat doesn't get to decide where
Speaker 3: it docks. I don't think you heard what I just said,
Speaker 3: because I'm describing what a life of following Christ feels like.
Speaker 3: Sometimes I'm driving this boat, I'm living this life. I'm
Speaker 3: making decisions. I'm the one having to make these moves.
Speaker 3: I'm the one having to show up for these things.
Speaker 3: But ultimately I don't get to decide where this boat docs.
Speaker 1: Jesus does. God does neg that brings you.
Speaker 3: Great comfort, or if you're control freak, it really starts
Speaker 3: to mess with you, especially when you end up in
Speaker 3: a remote place. And Jesus starts healing people and he
Speaker 3: shows no signs of stopping, and he wants the people
Speaker 3: to be fed, and he pulls the disciples to the
Speaker 3: side and says, I have compassion for these people. And
Speaker 3: the disciples answered verse thirty three, where could we get
Speaker 3: enough bread in this remote place to feed such a crowd?
Speaker 3: Now I need to slow this down and we can
Speaker 3: study it. Go to verse thirty two again, Jesus said
Speaker 3: I have compassion for these What did he say? I
Speaker 3: have compassion for these people? What did Jesus call them?
Speaker 3: Look at the disciples in verse thirty three. Where are
Speaker 3: we going to get enough bread in this remote place
Speaker 3: to feed such a It's all about how you see it.
Speaker 1: The disciples see crowds. Jesus sees people.
Speaker 3: How many times I've been getting ready to preach, and
Speaker 3: it's like, I've done everything that you're supposed to do
Speaker 3: that they taught me how to do. In that overpriced
Speaker 3: education that they gave me out there in Lousville, Kentucky.
Speaker 3: And I got a scripture, and I got four commentaries
Speaker 3: that I read, and I got a research brief that
Speaker 3: I hired somebody who's better at Greek than me to do,
Speaker 3: because hey, i have some deficiencies myself, and I've got
Speaker 3: some stories that might be funny, and I've got some
Speaker 3: one liners that might be repeatable, tweetable, exible. It's the
Speaker 3: most called now and then I realize that I have
Speaker 3: everything that I need except to remember the needs of
Speaker 3: the people that I'm preaching to. Now follow me. The
Speaker 3: disciples are worried about bread. Why because Jesus has something
Speaker 3: they don't have.
Speaker 1: And it might surprise you what Jesus has that they don't.
Speaker 1: He doesn't have.
Speaker 3: Any bread either. They have seven loaves, he has zero.
Speaker 3: So they actually have more of the physical product, if
Speaker 3: I could put it that way, than he does. But
Speaker 3: he says something. He says Verse thirty two. I have compassion,
Speaker 3: And sometimes when we think we're lacking provision, what we're
Speaker 3: really lacking is priorities.
Speaker 1: Follow me.
Speaker 3: Sometimes I don't see the situation.
Speaker 1: Correctly, so I call it not enough but if I.
Speaker 3: Would see it like Jesus sees it, it would instantly
Speaker 3: become more than enough for what He has called me
Speaker 3: to do. When I lose my perspective on God's priorities,
Speaker 3: I will always be running low on provision because it
Speaker 3: will never be enough.
Speaker 1: And this is why I would really encourage you to.
Speaker 3: Put a limit on how much you compare yourself to
Speaker 3: other people. Some of the not enough that you feel
Speaker 3: is not because of an actual amount that you have
Speaker 3: or don't have. It is because of the act of
Speaker 3: comparing that you involve yourself in that would say, because
Speaker 3: they have this, and because I have that, and because
Speaker 3: they do that and because I do this. Do you
Speaker 3: see how you have replaced the compassion of Christ with
Speaker 3: the comparison of man. And when you replace compassion with comparison,
Speaker 3: when you step outside of your calling, whatever that may be,
Speaker 3: when you step outside of what God has given you
Speaker 3: in a sign you to do in your life, you
Speaker 3: begin to see things as crowds, not people. You begin
Speaker 3: to see life as a race to be run rather
Speaker 3: than a journey to be enjoyed with Jesus. And sometimes
Speaker 3: I'm gonna tell you this, Sometimes I've been praying to
Speaker 3: God about not enough bread when what I really didn't
Speaker 3: have enough of with sight to see what he sees,
Speaker 3: how he sees it? Is this good to you. It's
Speaker 3: strengthen me because I realized that sometimes it's not the
Speaker 3: bread that I don't have, it's not the time that
Speaker 3: I don't have. It's the way I'm spending the time
Speaker 3: chasing the thing that God never called me to go after. Anyway,
Speaker 3: my time is a limited resource, my money is a
Speaker 3: limited resource. But if I never learned to put God
Speaker 3: first in any of those areas, how can I come
Speaker 3: to Him about a need that he tried to meet
Speaker 3: through a priority that I refused to set. Now I'm
Speaker 3: here to encourage you. I'm here to encourage you that
Speaker 3: sometimes not enough is a fact.
Speaker 1: It is.
Speaker 3: I met a lady last weekend. She came up to
Speaker 3: me in tears. She said, I listen to your sermons.
Speaker 3: I love God, but I need a job, and we
Speaker 3: prayed on the spot. I didn't tell her, well, I'll
Speaker 3: go home and pray about whether God wants you to
Speaker 3: have a job. You need a job, you have a God.
Speaker 3: I pray that God would give you the greatest job.
Speaker 3: I pray that he would open a door for you
Speaker 3: right now before you get home today. I don't know
Speaker 3: if he will, but I prayed for that.
Speaker 1: She said.
Speaker 3: I love how She said that, I love God, but
Speaker 3: I need a job. You do need God and a
Speaker 3: job for all of y'all. All I need is God
Speaker 3: thinks and a job.
Speaker 1: And a job. How many can testify at.
Speaker 3: The light company, the power company. They don't really respect
Speaker 3: that holy ghost currency, do they? And she said, I
Speaker 3: love God, but I need a job.
Speaker 1: Sometimes. It's a fact when I said sleep. If you
Speaker 1: have a child under the age.
Speaker 3: Of seventy three seventy four, it's going to be some
Speaker 3: sleepless nights, right. But what you don't want to do
Speaker 3: is let one need feed another need feed another need,
Speaker 3: until you let a situation that is not enough turn
Speaker 3: into an identity that you are not enough, and eventually
Speaker 3: start to believe that God is not enough and you
Speaker 3: die in a desert or a wilderness of want. You
Speaker 3: don't have enough money, But if you don't trust God
Speaker 3: with that and move forward in that, then you definitely
Speaker 3: won't get enough sleep. And if you don't get enough sleep,
Speaker 3: you won't have enough energy. And if you don't have
Speaker 3: enough energy, you will not have enough opportunities. And if
Speaker 3: they come, you'll kill them. You'll yawn at them and
Speaker 3: pull a muscle. I'm gonna call back as many times.
Speaker 3: I'm gonna use what the devil meant for evil this morning,
Speaker 3: and I'm appreciate it.
Speaker 1: I've been afflicted, y'all. I don't have any friends.
Speaker 4: Well, if you let that become, if you let it
Speaker 4: define you, and you begin to navigate according to what
Speaker 4: you don't have, Jesus said something interesting.
Speaker 1: He said, I have compassion.
Speaker 3: And when you tap into that, when you tap into
Speaker 3: the compassion that Christ has for you and the compassion
Speaker 3: that He has for others, bread is no problem to God.
Speaker 3: And I was just thinking how different this passage would
Speaker 3: have been. You know, they fed four thousand people. Verse
Speaker 3: thirty eight says, and they started with seven loaves. And
Speaker 3: I think it's amazing that Jesus saw people and they
Speaker 3: saw a crowd. And it made me start to wonder
Speaker 3: when it said that they fed four thousand people, why
Speaker 3: did we always say that it was the feeding of
Speaker 3: the five thousand? How many y'all heard the story that
Speaker 3: Jesus fed five thousand? Why don't we always call it
Speaker 3: that like, why don't we count the women and the
Speaker 3: children too? Well, they didn't at this time. That's how
Speaker 3: they did it at that time. And why do we
Speaker 3: call it five thousand where it says four thousand here?
Speaker 1: How many of you were wondering that when I read it,
Speaker 1: you're like four thousand?
Speaker 3: I thought it was five?
Speaker 1: What happened to the other thousand? You're not gonna believe
Speaker 1: this when I tell you.
Speaker 3: This is the second time Jesus did this, So now
Speaker 3: you're really judging the disciples, because in Matthew fourteen there
Speaker 3: were five thousand people and five loaves of bread, and
Speaker 3: Jesus fed all of them, and there were twelve baskets
Speaker 3: left over.
Speaker 1: A chapter later. I'm not talking about.
Speaker 3: That happened in Matthew three. That happened in Matthew fourteen.
Speaker 3: What chapter is this?
Speaker 1: Okay?
Speaker 3: How many of y'all are good enough at math to
Speaker 3: say that's not that long, that's not that long, And
Speaker 3: how many of you are good enough at math to
Speaker 3: put this all together?
Speaker 1: They fed five thousand with five loaves.
Speaker 3: Now it's only four thousand and they've got seven loaves.
Speaker 3: This should be easy, this should be simple. It's just
Speaker 3: simple math. Holly came to me this week. She's like,
Speaker 3: you need to see this everyone. While she'll bring me
Speaker 3: like a trend or something like just something that's going
Speaker 3: on in pop culture, just to make sure I'm a
Speaker 3: weird I can be kind of clueless. Sometimes she's like,
Speaker 3: you need to know a few things today. She'll tell
Speaker 3: me about gas prices or wars or Taylor Swift attending
Speaker 3: football games or things important things.
Speaker 1: And then she started showing me these was it.
Speaker 3: TikTok or Instagram something called girl math?
Speaker 1: You've heard of this?
Speaker 3: I have to because Holly showed me girl Math. She
Speaker 3: was like, watch this clip. And it was a lady
Speaker 3: saying okay, if this buy one, get one free, and
Speaker 3: I don't buy it, I basically lost money girl math.
Speaker 1: It was like a hashtag.
Speaker 3: If I spent thirty eight dollars online at Sephora, and
Speaker 3: but it's free shipping. If you go to forty dollars
Speaker 3: and I buy twenty dollars a mascara, so I qualified
Speaker 3: for free shipping. I basically saved money and got the
Speaker 3: mascara for free, girl Math. And I'm watching this like,
Speaker 3: why woman are you showing me this? This is triggering
Speaker 3: to me all kinds of stuff. Then had he goes,
Speaker 3: if I put the money on my Starbucks card six
Speaker 3: months ago and spend it is basically free because I
Speaker 3: already put the money.
Speaker 1: On the car.
Speaker 3: Girl math, and I'm like, well, let me teach you
Speaker 3: some dad math until you are paying rent in my
Speaker 3: house and buying food. Okay, anyway, And I don't really
Speaker 3: know anything about girl math, and I'll probably get you know,
Speaker 3: criticized or something. I'll get called a sexister, a misogynist,
Speaker 3: or some toxic masculinity something.
Speaker 1: Over this.
Speaker 3: But I've come to talk about girl math. I do
Speaker 3: know something, though, about God math, and that's the class
Speaker 3: I came to teach. Do you know anything about God math?
Speaker 3: This is not a trend? This is the truth. Can
Speaker 3: we talk about God math for a minute. Godmth is
Speaker 3: when you have seven loaves to start with and seven
Speaker 3: big basketfuls when you're done feeding a crowd. That's I
Speaker 3: know something about God math. I don't know about this
Speaker 3: girl math or man math, or boy math or dad
Speaker 3: math or mom math, but I know something about Do
Speaker 3: any of you know anything about God math in your life?
Speaker 3: Maybe not? Where everybody else walked away from you, but
Speaker 3: God stayed with you, and you found out that if
Speaker 3: it's just you and God that makes a majority, that's
Speaker 3: God math. I want to teach a class about God
Speaker 3: math because the Bible says that He fed four thousand
Speaker 3: with seven loaves. Anytime you have something left over that
Speaker 3: is greater than what you started with, that's God math.
Speaker 3: And they fed four thousand men besides women and children.
Speaker 3: Did you see that They didn't count the women, they
Speaker 3: didn't count the children. But God doesn't count like people count.
Speaker 3: And I'm glad he doesn't count like people counting. Because
Speaker 3: if we were doing my math and I'm standing at
Speaker 3: a red sea and all I have is a staff,
Speaker 3: then the sea is greater than the staff. But if
Speaker 3: God put me in front of that sea and he
Speaker 3: spoke a word over my purpose, then guess what happens.
Speaker 3: The staff becomes greater than the sea. That's God math.
Speaker 3: If Moses were here, he would teach this class with me.
Speaker 3: Can Moses be my adjunk professor today? Come on, I
Speaker 3: need an assistant teacher, somebody who knows something about God math.
Speaker 3: Maybe we could call on David who had a nine
Speaker 3: foot giant and a little tiny rock but in the
Speaker 3: hands of one who is committed.
Speaker 5: And called and chosen and anointed and oiled and raised
Speaker 5: by God by faith in God, one little rock couldn't
Speaker 5: have been that big.
Speaker 3: What about two inches around? Yeah, two inches around nine
Speaker 3: foot giant watch two inches versus nine feet. That's what
Speaker 3: happens when you get God math in your situation. Or
Speaker 3: maybe we need to call on Joshua, who's standing in
Speaker 3: front of a twelve foot thick wall called the Wall
Speaker 3: of Jericho and all these. God is a trumpet to
Speaker 3: deal with a wall. Now, anytime you've got a trumpet
Speaker 3: versus a twelve foot thick wall, you've got a problem,
Speaker 3: unless you've got a God who is greater than the problem.
Speaker 3: One trumpet can collapse a twelve foot wall. That's God math.
Speaker 3: That's not man's math. When you get in man's math,
Speaker 3: you start saying, they're bigger than us, they're stronger than us.
Speaker 3: It's greater than us. But when you know that he
Speaker 3: is four, are you who can be against you? Even
Speaker 3: if the whole host of the enemy's path rises up.
Speaker 1: I love it.
Speaker 3: There's this one story in the Old Testament. The prophet
Speaker 3: name Elisha can I preach for a minute. The prophet
Speaker 3: named Elisha sends a servant out to check in the morning.
Speaker 3: The servant comes back and says, we're in trouble. There's
Speaker 3: more of them than there are of us. Elisha said,
Speaker 3: he's not seeing this right. God is saying over somebody,
Speaker 3: you are not seeing this right. You're on the wrong app.
Speaker 3: You keep pulling up your map, you keep pulling up
Speaker 3: your calculator, you keep doing your math.
Speaker 1: But I got news for you.
Speaker 3: Where God guides, he provides. Watch this. If it's God's map,
Speaker 3: it's God's math. So when you find yourself in a
Speaker 3: remote area and you don't know what to do, or
Speaker 3: how to do it, or what to do it with.
Speaker 3: If I just came for three people, I wanted you
Speaker 3: to know, Oh, then if you're wary, puts you. If
Speaker 3: you're wary, puts you, if you're weary, puts you. Then
Speaker 3: you have what you need. If it's God's math, it's
Speaker 3: God's mad. So the prophet said, open his eyes that
Speaker 3: he may see that there are more with us than
Speaker 3: with them. That's that God math. Yeah, all of us
Speaker 3: who are bad at Man's math, let's get good at
Speaker 3: God's math. Man's math says there's nothing there but except a
Speaker 3: cloud the size of a man's hand. God's math says,
Speaker 3: I hear the sound of the abundance of rain getting
Speaker 3: ready to swell in your life. Yeah, that's God's math.
Speaker 3: That's God's math. I want to have a class called
Speaker 3: God's Math, and we only need one.
Speaker 1: Thing to show in the class. It's just one thing.
Speaker 3: If you want to write it down, you can write
Speaker 3: it down. We don't need a whole semester. We don't
Speaker 3: need a whole course. I don't even need but five
Speaker 3: more minutes. Show them what God's math looks like. That's
Speaker 3: God's math. That's God's math. That's God's math. It's not
Speaker 3: a hashtag. It's a prophecy. It says that whatever I'm
Speaker 3: going through is not greater than the God who knew
Speaker 3: I would be in this remote place with this limited resource. Yeah,
Speaker 3: but I only got six more months with my kids.
Speaker 3: That's not enough. It is if you let God do
Speaker 3: the math, he could take six months and accomplish more
Speaker 3: than you could in six years.
Speaker 1: Come out of man's math, come out a.
Speaker 3: Little boy's math. Come out a girl's math.
Speaker 1: Women's math.
Speaker 3: I don't need man's math any longer because God knew
Speaker 3: what I would need for this season. And I have
Speaker 3: never been in a situation that God called me to
Speaker 3: and felt like I was enough. That situation never enough
Speaker 3: is not a feeling. Enough is a place of faith
Speaker 3: that God is greater God, Math, God, Math, You're glad
Speaker 3: you came to the class today. Kiss your number two pencils.
Speaker 3: Make sure it's fully sharpened. I know life has you
Speaker 3: in a place right now where you never knew you'd be.
Speaker 1: The Disciples could relate.
Speaker 3: The interesting thing about this passage is they were no
Speaker 3: longer on the shores of Copernaum, where they had done
Speaker 3: all of their ministry. They were now in a gentile region,
Speaker 3: having to feed people that were strangers to the Covenant
Speaker 3: that they belonged to. And Jesus said, I have compassion
Speaker 3: for these people. And that lets me know is that
Speaker 3: God saw my situation coming before I did, and He
Speaker 3: put in me what I need before I felt the
Speaker 3: need arise. So if I say this to a crowd,
Speaker 3: then it has a very limited yield. But God sees
Speaker 3: people today who are navigating are not enough in your life?
Speaker 3: And you know that not enough so well that.
Speaker 6: It has almost become your name. It has almost become
Speaker 6: your name. For some of you, it is the shame
Speaker 6: of the mistakes that you have made that is keeping
Speaker 6: you stuck in this season. And by man's math, we
Speaker 6: all fall short of the glory of God. But God's
Speaker 6: math says that his grace is greater.
Speaker 1: Shout greater, Shout greater, Shout greater.
Speaker 3: That's the one word I want in your spirit about
Speaker 3: your God for whatever you're facing today.
Speaker 7: And as simple as it sounds, if the disciples had
Speaker 7: realized that God's plan was greater, they would have never
Speaker 7: asked the question.
Speaker 6: Where are we going to get enough? You don't have
Speaker 6: to ask about bread when you're standing next to it.
Speaker 6: So let's get serious about this. Now you're navigating and
Speaker 6: not enough in your life. And part of the problem
Speaker 6: with that is that you tried before and it wasn't enough.
Speaker 6: Tried to hold the marriage together but it wasn't enough.
Speaker 6: Tried to bring the kid back but it wasn't enough.
Speaker 6: Tried to start the business but it wasn't enough. Tried
Speaker 6: to bridge it through twenty twenty twenty twenty one in
Speaker 6: it wasn't enough. And now you think that you aren't enough.
Speaker 6: And by men's math, You're right. None is righteous, no,
Speaker 6: not one.
Speaker 3: But I love the compassion of Christ that we're celebrating
Speaker 3: in Matthew fifteen, For.
Speaker 1: The Bible says that he will leave the ninety nine
Speaker 1: to find the one.
Speaker 3: From men's perspective, that doesn't make much sense to leave
Speaker 3: the greater for the lesser. One thing I love about
Speaker 3: God is that the one who starts out with the.
Speaker 1: Least can end up with the most. After all, it's
Speaker 1: just simple math. It's simple math.
Speaker 3: When the disciples had five loaves, they fed five thousand,
Speaker 3: and they had twelve baskets left over. When they had
Speaker 3: seven loaves, they fed four thousand, and they only had
Speaker 3: seven basketfuls left over. Stay with me. This is important.
Speaker 3: This is the point I wanted to preach to. This
Speaker 3: is what I wanted you to leave with, about God's
Speaker 3: math and about them not enough that you're navigating in
Speaker 3: your life right now, about the weakness that God's strength
Speaker 3: has made perfect in, about the mistakes that you cannot
Speaker 3: redeem in your own human effort. That's the sixth. That's
Speaker 3: man's math. Seven is God's number. Seven is the number
Speaker 3: of completion. You are complete in Christ. You do not
Speaker 3: have a righteousness that comes from you. Your righteousness is
Speaker 3: not your own. It is received. It is an inheritance.
Speaker 3: It was purchased by Jesus and given by God. It
Speaker 3: is shed abroad in your heart through the Holy Spirit.
Speaker 3: And isn't it interesting that when they only had five loaves,
Speaker 3: they ended up with twelve baskets. When they had seven loaves,
Speaker 3: they ended up with seven baskets.
Speaker 1: The miracle that started with the least ended with the most.
Speaker 1: I'll prophesy over your situation.
Speaker 3: I prophesy over everybody who didn't get a good education.
Speaker 3: I prophesy over everybody who didn't get a good start
Speaker 3: in life and was not shown what real love looked like.
Speaker 3: I prophesy over everybody who didn't have a guide to
Speaker 3: show you how to navigate this transitional period of your life.
Speaker 3: That in the hands of Jesus, what starts as the
Speaker 3: least ends as the most. That's God's math. And if
Speaker 3: you feel weak today, that's a good starting place because
Speaker 3: from the starting place of your weakness comes a strength
Speaker 3: that is greater. I set a strength that is greater,
Speaker 3: and a power that is greater, and a grace that
Speaker 3: is greater. So you started with five, but you end
Speaker 3: with twelve. So you started cast down, what's your ending
Speaker 3: lifted up? So you started in a broken home. But
Speaker 3: you're going forward made whome because Christ asked and passion,
Speaker 3: and He is more than enough for you. For you
Speaker 3: less bread to begin with, more basketst in with blessed
Speaker 3: he the poor in spirit. For theirs is the Kingdom
Speaker 3: of Heaven. If you've got needs, if you've got weakness,
Speaker 3: if you've got space, God can fella. And I love
Speaker 3: what James one to five taught me. He said, if
Speaker 3: any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask.
Speaker 1: God. Ask God.
Speaker 3: Whatever you lack ask He's able, ask him.
Speaker 1: Ask him God.
Speaker 3: I need somebody in my wife right now to help
Speaker 3: me through this.
Speaker 1: Ask him.
Speaker 3: But as you are asking Him for what you think
Speaker 3: you need, make sure that you thank Him for what
Speaker 3: you already have. I want to sing an old song
Speaker 3: that I don't remember all the words to it.
Speaker 1: It was like wonderful grace of our madgeless grace, do
Speaker 1: good line right here.
Speaker 3: Yonder to Calvary's Mount Outport, there were.
Speaker 1: The blood of the them was spilled.
Speaker 3: Now this is the God there where the blood of
Speaker 3: the lamb was spilt, where one drop of his blood
Speaker 3: is greater than any sin you would ever commit. That's
Speaker 3: God Math, Man Math. You can keep the girl Math,
Speaker 3: you can keep the man Math. I want the God
Speaker 3: math where one drop of his atoning blood, one mention.
Speaker 1: Of his name.
Speaker 3: Look, there is flowing a crimson tide wider than snow.
Speaker 1: May you be today watch this grace Grace.
Speaker 8: God, grace that will part and cleanse. Rev. Chris, Grace, God's.
Speaker 7: Grace, grace that is grea than a pussy.
Speaker 1: Sing God like you got it. Pray, go, stab and
Speaker 1: pans big.
Speaker 8: God.
Speaker 1: Please say.
Speaker 3: God has a grace for your situation today. Stand to
Speaker 3: your feet, lift your hands to Heaven and receiving.
Speaker 8: Grace, Grace, God, Grace.
Speaker 1: Dad will pardon and clese.
Speaker 3: With claiming now is yours God.
Speaker 1: Grace, Heads bout, eyes closed.
Speaker 3: I want to invite somebody to receive the grace of
Speaker 3: Jesus Christ in your life today. This message was for you,
Speaker 3: a sinner in need of a savior. This message was
Speaker 3: for you, an orphan in need of a father. This
Speaker 3: message was for you, a backslider in need of a homecoming.
Speaker 1: This message is for you.
Speaker 3: He leaves the ninety nine and I don't know why
Speaker 3: he did it, but he found the one. He sees people,
Speaker 3: not crowds, and that grace is calling your name right now,
Speaker 3: and you know it.
Speaker 1: I'm going to lead you in a prayer right now.
Speaker 3: To receive the grace of God for those of you
Speaker 3: who are today ready to put your faith in Jesus
Speaker 3: Christ and receive his grace to cover your sin. I'm
Speaker 3: going to pray a line and then you pray it.
Speaker 3: It's not a magical prayer. It's an opportunity for you
Speaker 3: to do what the Bible says. To confess with your
Speaker 3: mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart
Speaker 3: that God raised him from the dead.
Speaker 1: You will be saved right now. Today is the day
Speaker 1: of salvation.
Speaker 3: Harden not your hearts.
Speaker 1: Today is the day of salvation.
Speaker 3: If you pray this from your heart, put your faith
Speaker 3: in Jesus Christ, you will be saved. Repeat after me,
Speaker 3: Heavenly Father, I am a sinner in need of a savior,
Speaker 3: and I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of.
Speaker 1: God and the Savior of the world. And today I
Speaker 1: make Jesus the.
Speaker 3: Lord of my life.
Speaker 1: I believe he.
Speaker 3: Died that I would be forgiven and rose again to
Speaker 3: give me life. I receive this new life. This is
Speaker 3: my new beginning.
Speaker 1: On the counter.
Speaker 3: Three shoot your hand up if you prayed that one
Speaker 3: two three, raise your hand right now, right now.
Speaker 1: God bless me. Blesse your hand right now. God bless
Speaker 1: me right now. God seize people. God seize people. God
Speaker 1: Seize people.
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: they're 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 our 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.