WEBVTT - When The Gift Becomes A Prison 0:00:02.120 --> 0:00:04.680 Hey, this is Stephen Ferdeck. I'm the pastor of Elevation 0:00:04.960 --> 0:00:06.960 Church and this is our podcast and I wanted to 0:00:07.000 --> 0:00:09.880 thank you for joining us today. Hope this inspires you. 0:00:10.320 --> 0:00:12.520 Hope it builds your faith. Hope it gives your perspective 0:00:12.520 --> 0:00:17.960 to see God is moving in your life. Enjoy the message. 0:00:18.720 --> 0:00:20.520 I want you to look at this scripture. In Luke 0:00:20.600 --> 0:00:28.720 chapter six, you share a litt's story from the life 0:00:28.720 --> 0:00:36.200 of Jesus. Over the last two weeks, I've been unpacking 0:00:36.880 --> 0:00:40.560 what it means to examine your examples and kind of 0:00:40.600 --> 0:00:44.600 think about what you're modeling your life after, and what 0:00:44.800 --> 0:00:48.919 mold you are squeezing your mind into, and what determines 0:00:48.960 --> 0:00:50.839 the way you think. So just stay standing for one 0:00:50.840 --> 0:00:53.239 more moment while I read the scripture, and then you 0:00:53.280 --> 0:00:57.280 can be seated. You can use that premium seat that 0:00:57.400 --> 0:01:00.120 we put in this campus. And welcome to all of 0:01:00.120 --> 0:01:02.640 our locations and our Ethan around the world. But this 0:01:02.840 --> 0:01:04.520 is a This is the last sermon that I'm going 0:01:04.600 --> 0:01:06.640 to preach in this stream of teaching, but I think 0:01:06.640 --> 0:01:09.240 it's going to be a really important one. Luke chapter six, 0:01:09.400 --> 0:01:12.520 verse one says one Sabbath, Jesus was going through the 0:01:12.560 --> 0:01:17.040 grain fields, and his disciples began to pick some heads 0:01:17.080 --> 0:01:21.360 of grain, rub them in their hands, and eat the kernels. 0:01:21.959 --> 0:01:23.600 And you know, I just have a theory, but I 0:01:23.600 --> 0:01:29.320 think Peter started this little grain picking thing. Verse two. 0:01:29.360 --> 0:01:31.760 Some of the Pharisees asked, why are you doing what 0:01:31.880 --> 0:01:35.440 is unlawful on the Sabbath? And Jesus answered them, have 0:01:35.600 --> 0:01:38.759 you never read what David did when he and his 0:01:38.840 --> 0:01:43.320 companions were hungry. He entered the house of God. In 0:01:43.360 --> 0:01:48.320 taking the consecrated bread, he ate what is lawful only 0:01:48.400 --> 0:01:51.680 for priests to eat, and he also gave some to 0:01:51.760 --> 0:01:55.480 his companions this key verse. Then Jesus said to them, 0:01:55.880 --> 0:02:01.080 the son of Man is lord of the Sabbath. So 0:02:01.120 --> 0:02:02.880 I want to talk to you today about when the 0:02:02.920 --> 0:02:08.720 gift becomes a prison. When the gift becomes a prison, Lord, 0:02:08.760 --> 0:02:10.440 I thank you for what you showed me. There's no 0:02:10.480 --> 0:02:12.600 way I can preach it the way that you showed 0:02:12.639 --> 0:02:14.240 it to me, But help me become as close as 0:02:14.320 --> 0:02:17.280 humanly possible in these moments. I'm excited about it, and God, 0:02:17.320 --> 0:02:21.040 I want you to distribute this food through me. I 0:02:21.080 --> 0:02:25.639 pray that we would just block out distractions and receive 0:02:25.720 --> 0:02:30.760 the seed of your word, the incorruptible word of God, 0:02:31.960 --> 0:02:35.880 fall in our hearts now in Jesus' name, Amen, you 0:02:35.919 --> 0:02:41.320 may be seated when the gift becomes a prison. I 0:02:41.360 --> 0:02:46.960 watched this documentary about Olympic athletes the other day. They 0:02:46.960 --> 0:02:53.720 were all the Olympic athletes on camera were depressed in 0:02:52.520 --> 0:02:56.720 the documentary talking about and did you see this? It 0:02:56.800 --> 0:03:00.160 was called the Weight of Gold. And I'm not recommending it. No, 0:03:00.320 --> 0:03:02.440 there's not sponsoring me to say this. If they want to, 0:03:02.480 --> 0:03:05.160 then I'll consider endorsing it formally. I'm not against that. 0:03:05.800 --> 0:03:10.519 But the thing that got my attention, regardless of kind 0:03:10.560 --> 0:03:12.760 of the point of view, that I'll never understand is 0:03:13.720 --> 0:03:16.960 watching Michael Phelps, who did a great voice over, by 0:03:16.960 --> 0:03:19.840 the way, for the whole documentary, and he was just 0:03:19.960 --> 0:03:23.640 narrating the process of kind of going from the greatest 0:03:23.720 --> 0:03:27.480 human accomplishment that you can imagine and being the most celebrated, 0:03:27.520 --> 0:03:30.639 decorated athlete in the history of the Olympics to going 0:03:30.760 --> 0:03:34.240 to the fact that then he had moments of even 0:03:34.480 --> 0:03:39.040 wondering do I want to live? And so then I thought, man, 0:03:39.080 --> 0:03:41.640 we need to pray for Michael Phelps. But then there 0:03:41.720 --> 0:03:45.000 was another athlete and another athlete, and they all kind 0:03:45.000 --> 0:03:46.840 of shared the same thing. And I understand it was 0:03:46.920 --> 0:03:49.040 just a documentary and there's a storyline. I get it. 0:03:49.080 --> 0:03:52.119 I get it. But it got me thinking about how 0:03:53.360 --> 0:03:57.280 such a great talent that came from God actually became 0:03:57.840 --> 0:04:03.080 a trap for these individuals. And as they were describing 0:04:03.120 --> 0:04:05.440 what it felt like to wonder who am I when 0:04:05.480 --> 0:04:08.360 I'm not in the pool? Who am I when I'm 0:04:08.400 --> 0:04:11.200 not on the uneven bars? And one of the ironic 0:04:11.240 --> 0:04:13.960 things was watching a gymnast talk about the difficulty of 0:04:14.040 --> 0:04:19.480 balance because she was saying, there was no balance in 0:04:19.480 --> 0:04:24.479 my life. I just I became this machine and I 0:04:24.560 --> 0:04:30.599 lost me. And I thought about how that can happen, 0:04:30.640 --> 0:04:34.640 that a talent that comes directly from God, because there's 0:04:34.720 --> 0:04:36.480 no way my body is going to do those things. 0:04:36.520 --> 0:04:38.480 It wouldn't matter how much I trained, So it obviously 0:04:38.520 --> 0:04:41.000 came from God, and they worked hard too, But something 0:04:41.040 --> 0:04:45.120 that was God given, like the talent to be the 0:04:45.160 --> 0:04:48.800 greatest athlete, one of the greatest athletes in the world, 0:04:49.480 --> 0:04:53.240 could actually leave you feeling trapped because you don't, even 0:04:53.360 --> 0:04:56.640 after a while, have a concept of self that is 0:04:56.720 --> 0:05:01.440 separate from the skill set that you've developed and honed 0:05:03.400 --> 0:05:08.320 when the gift becomes a prison. Did you know that 0:05:08.360 --> 0:05:11.960 the Sabbath in Luke chapter six was meant to be 0:05:12.040 --> 0:05:16.840 a gift to the people. I don't know if you've 0:05:16.839 --> 0:05:19.560 been paying attention, but there are some issues that are 0:05:19.560 --> 0:05:27.960 controversial in our world today, and yet there is no 0:05:28.160 --> 0:05:34.039 amount of controversy that we experienced that can compare to 0:05:34.160 --> 0:05:37.560 what Jesus went through with these characters called the Pharisees. 0:05:37.960 --> 0:05:40.320 You may have heard of them before in the Bible. 0:05:40.600 --> 0:05:44.599 The Pharisees, they're not as bad as we think they are. 0:05:44.760 --> 0:05:48.320 They're actually people who got caught up in something that 0:05:48.440 --> 0:05:50.800 was meant to be a good thing, which is protecting 0:05:50.839 --> 0:05:54.039 and preserving the law of God. But in the process 0:05:54.080 --> 0:05:57.320 of trying to protect the truth, they got it twisted. 0:05:58.760 --> 0:06:01.479 And this is exactly what's happening in Luke chapter six. 0:06:01.960 --> 0:06:07.000 While Jesus's disciples are snacking on the seeds from the 0:06:07.080 --> 0:06:10.760 heads of fully ripe grain in a field, and the 0:06:10.760 --> 0:06:14.680 Pharisees called Jesus to the side, why are you doing 0:06:15.120 --> 0:06:21.160 what is unlawful on the Sabbath? Everybody say Sabbath. Sabbath 0:06:21.480 --> 0:06:24.600 to us may just be something that Jewish people do 0:06:24.720 --> 0:06:27.080 and yet for many of us, we would have a 0:06:27.080 --> 0:06:30.880 hard time understanding what a great gift it was when 0:06:30.880 --> 0:06:34.560 it was originally given from God. In fact, God said, 0:06:34.640 --> 0:06:38.040 I gave you the Sabbath so that you could pattern 0:06:38.720 --> 0:06:41.520 your life after the way that I created the world, 0:06:42.600 --> 0:06:45.320 so that you do your work in six days, and 0:06:45.360 --> 0:06:49.480 on the seventh you rest. On the seventh you rest. 0:06:50.320 --> 0:06:53.240 It was a pattern so that God wanted us to 0:06:53.520 --> 0:06:56.480 then copy him, to know that we can rest from 0:06:56.480 --> 0:06:59.320 our labor. It ultimately was a shadow of what Jesus 0:06:59.400 --> 0:07:03.280 Christ would accomplish, that he is our sabbath rest, and 0:07:03.320 --> 0:07:06.039 that when we trust in Him for our salvation, it 0:07:06.160 --> 0:07:09.480 is complete and we can rest from our labor because 0:07:09.520 --> 0:07:12.360 of what He did for us. And yet, isn't it 0:07:12.400 --> 0:07:15.680 funny how a gift that God gave them so that 0:07:15.720 --> 0:07:18.760 they could reflect on the rhythm of his creative ability 0:07:19.520 --> 0:07:23.960 has become, by the time of Jesus, a trap by 0:07:24.000 --> 0:07:28.680 which they accuse Jesus of blasphemy. There were many things 0:07:28.720 --> 0:07:31.640 that Jesus argued with these teachers about in his day, 0:07:32.200 --> 0:07:36.960 but nothing was more controversial than the Sabbath. Nothing was 0:07:37.000 --> 0:07:40.640 more controversial to them than catching him. Trying to catch 0:07:40.680 --> 0:07:44.280 him break the Sabbath, and I don't know why I 0:07:44.320 --> 0:07:48.280 never studied it before. But as the Pharisees are accusing 0:07:48.360 --> 0:07:51.880 Jesus in Luke chapter six of breaking the Sabbath, in 0:07:52.000 --> 0:07:56.840 Luke chapter five, everything is breaking. Like in Luke chapter 0:07:56.960 --> 0:08:00.920 five one through eleven, the disciples are out fishing and 0:08:00.960 --> 0:08:04.200 they can't catch anything without Jesus. But when they went 0:08:04.240 --> 0:08:07.280 deeper into the water and obeyed Jesus at the point 0:08:07.320 --> 0:08:10.280 of their frustration, they had a great catch, so much 0:08:10.680 --> 0:08:14.800 that their nets begin to break. A few verses later, 0:08:14.920 --> 0:08:17.400 Jesus is teaching in a house and there are some 0:08:17.440 --> 0:08:19.600 men who need to get their friend to Jesus. Because 0:08:19.600 --> 0:08:23.720 he's a paralyzed man. His body won't work appropriately, so 0:08:23.760 --> 0:08:25.880 since they can't get him through the front door, they 0:08:25.880 --> 0:08:29.680 climb up on the roof break the roof to bring 0:08:29.720 --> 0:08:32.400 their friend to Jesus. And then at the end of 0:08:32.480 --> 0:08:34.680 Luke five, if you want to study this later this week, 0:08:34.720 --> 0:08:36.800 this would be an awesome thing for you to pack 0:08:36.840 --> 0:08:39.280 and take out and snack on sometime during this week 0:08:39.320 --> 0:08:42.280 so you can read what I'm saying. Jesus describes that 0:08:42.840 --> 0:08:48.080 when new wine comes into old wine skins, the old 0:08:48.120 --> 0:08:51.560 wine skin can't hold the new wine. And if you 0:08:51.679 --> 0:08:54.400 try to pour something new that God has given you 0:08:54.880 --> 0:08:58.200 into something old to hold it, it will waste the 0:08:58.320 --> 0:09:02.760 wine and this skin will break. So in that context, 0:09:02.760 --> 0:09:05.360 now I want to show you how the nets were breaking, 0:09:06.000 --> 0:09:10.000 the roof was breaking, the wine skins are breaking, And 0:09:10.120 --> 0:09:15.160 here is Jesus breaking the Sabbath on purpose, by the 0:09:15.160 --> 0:09:19.400 Pharisees definition, in order to engage them in a conversation 0:09:19.520 --> 0:09:22.760 that will confront the very nature of the corruption of 0:09:22.800 --> 0:09:26.520 their way of seeing and teaching God's word in conformity 0:09:26.520 --> 0:09:32.160 with their culture and not the character of God. Maybe 0:09:32.200 --> 0:09:35.360 I should slow down for a minute. I'll see it 0:09:35.440 --> 0:09:42.760 all wound up. Because I'm glad that Jesus will break stuff. 0:09:44.440 --> 0:09:49.240 I'm grateful that Jesus will break stuff. Some things I 0:09:49.440 --> 0:09:53.559 need him to break. There are some chains that I've 0:09:54.400 --> 0:09:58.720 tried to pull myself free from for years that I 0:09:58.840 --> 0:10:03.640 need Jesus to break. There are some even thought patterns 0:10:04.920 --> 0:10:07.439 that I need Jesus to break the pattern of my thought. 0:10:08.960 --> 0:10:10.880 Some of the things that some of the things that 0:10:10.920 --> 0:10:14.760 I maybe grew up thinking that we're normal, that I 0:10:14.840 --> 0:10:20.440 need God to break me out of the tradition. Let's 0:10:20.480 --> 0:10:26.680 talk about tradition. For a moment, when my tradition and 0:10:26.760 --> 0:10:37.720 the truth contradict one another, one has to break. How 0:10:37.720 --> 0:10:39.400 many of you, if Jesus was doing a casting call 0:10:39.480 --> 0:10:41.280 for disciples, you would try to sign up and be 0:10:41.320 --> 0:10:47.280 one of the twelve raise your hand. I was thinking 0:10:48.480 --> 0:10:50.040 it would have been easy to be a disciple of Jesus, 0:10:50.080 --> 0:10:51.560 because I have to really when I ask what Jesus, 0:10:51.559 --> 0:10:53.000 would you have to use my imagination and read all 0:10:53.040 --> 0:10:54.320 these words? All I'd have to do. If I was 0:10:54.320 --> 0:10:55.959 a disciple and I had lived two thousand years ago 0:10:55.960 --> 0:10:57.200 and been able to see him the flesh, just follow 0:10:57.280 --> 0:10:59.480 him and do what he did. I don't think it 0:10:59.520 --> 0:11:03.800 would have been that easy, really, especially because everything that 0:11:04.120 --> 0:11:10.679 he would do would contradict everything that I had seen done. Disciple. 0:11:11.920 --> 0:11:16.280 It said Jesus disciples did something, and then Jesus is 0:11:16.320 --> 0:11:22.319 defending his disciples, and uh, well, everybody in here is 0:11:22.360 --> 0:11:29.000 a disciple. The word disciple just means learner. So everybody 0:11:29.040 --> 0:11:31.600 in here is a disciple. And I want you to 0:11:31.600 --> 0:11:34.600 write something down. I don't know if we still give 0:11:34.600 --> 0:11:39.520 out elevation pins in the time of No. Yeah, everything's changed, y'all, 0:11:40.360 --> 0:11:43.520 everything's changed. You don't even get elevation pins anymore. What 0:11:43.600 --> 0:11:45.840 does the world come to? All right? Just put it 0:11:45.840 --> 0:11:47.280 in your phone or put it in the chat. You 0:11:47.320 --> 0:11:50.000 got yours, you brought your own. Write this in the chat. 0:11:50.840 --> 0:12:00.760 Discipleship by default or design. See, everybody in here is 0:12:00.800 --> 0:12:05.480 being disciple. I'll never forget when Holly had to bend 0:12:05.600 --> 0:12:09.480 the movie Kung Fu Panda from our house because our 0:12:10.360 --> 0:12:14.120 our boys were just kicking everything, run around house, kicking 0:12:14.160 --> 0:12:16.040 everything all the time. And she had to put a 0:12:16.200 --> 0:12:20.360 temper im moratorium on Kung Fu Panda because they were uh, 0:12:20.840 --> 0:12:23.640 they were. They were kicking without mister Miyagi to show 0:12:23.679 --> 0:12:25.200 them how to do it. So they're just running around 0:12:25.280 --> 0:12:29.839 kicking crap. And I did the same thing watching Karate 0:12:29.920 --> 0:12:31.680 Kid when I was little. I've kicked. I put my 0:12:31.760 --> 0:12:34.240 foot through a picture window in my mom's house. I 0:12:34.320 --> 0:12:37.280 put my foot through the window, and she was more 0:12:37.280 --> 0:12:40.320 worried about the window than my foot. At first. I 0:12:40.320 --> 0:12:42.920 remember her running in the room my window. I'm like, 0:12:43.040 --> 0:12:48.920 my bloody ankle, my achilles. Anyway, I'm going to therapy. 0:12:49.280 --> 0:12:55.040 But uh, but but but but I I realized that 0:12:55.640 --> 0:13:01.400 I am a disciple of somebody or something. Now, what 0:13:01.440 --> 0:13:03.400 I was trying to get across in the last two weeks, 0:13:03.400 --> 0:13:05.959 how many of you were following with my messages about 0:13:06.160 --> 0:13:10.520 be careful what you copied. And then I'd preach a 0:13:10.520 --> 0:13:16.120 whole sermon called copy that copy that, don't don't copy, 0:13:16.200 --> 0:13:19.959 the don't copy the dysfunction. Some of us were discipled 0:13:20.040 --> 0:13:26.400 by dysfunction, and now we have dysfunctional norms in our 0:13:26.400 --> 0:13:31.160 hearts that have become the default of how we approach life. 0:13:31.320 --> 0:13:35.600 And so we were discipled or taught in dysfunctional ways. 0:13:35.640 --> 0:13:38.760 And I'm not even talking about blaming your parents or 0:13:38.800 --> 0:13:41.360 your nursery was painted blue and you really like green, 0:13:41.440 --> 0:13:43.720 and to this day it really bothers you because green 0:13:43.800 --> 0:13:46.480 means go and blue got you thrown off. And so 0:13:46.600 --> 0:13:49.400 now I'm not talking about some blame game that we play. 0:13:49.440 --> 0:13:54.040 I'm talking about understanding that the patterns that were established 0:13:54.080 --> 0:13:57.600 in your heart usually started in ways that you weren't 0:13:57.600 --> 0:14:01.640 even aware of at the time. Some of us were 0:14:01.760 --> 0:14:06.400 discipled in dysfunction. And I thought about this too. Some 0:14:06.480 --> 0:14:12.760 of us had an apprenticeship in anxiety because we were 0:14:12.800 --> 0:14:17.440 either in an environment right and again, my mom wrote 0:14:17.440 --> 0:14:19.280 me a letter and she was sharing with me some 0:14:19.360 --> 0:14:22.760 of the things that she saw growing up to help 0:14:22.800 --> 0:14:26.000 me understand some of the things that she modeled for me. 0:14:26.320 --> 0:14:29.360 She was showing me this is what I saw. These 0:14:29.400 --> 0:14:31.800 are some things I went through. These are some things 0:14:31.840 --> 0:14:34.160 that happened to me that I've never told you about 0:14:34.400 --> 0:14:36.440 because up until now I haven't known if it was 0:14:36.480 --> 0:14:38.880 appropriate to share. But I don't want you to spend 0:14:38.880 --> 0:14:43.280 your whole life wondering why certain things happen in your 0:14:43.320 --> 0:14:46.240 heart over and over again, when I can expose you 0:14:46.320 --> 0:14:48.040 to some of the things that I saw, or some 0:14:48.080 --> 0:14:51.040 of the atmosphere that I was raised in. And the 0:14:51.120 --> 0:14:54.240 fact is, you know, we come to church and teach 0:14:54.280 --> 0:14:57.280 you to worship God, but we only get ninety minutes 0:14:57.320 --> 0:15:01.280 a week with you. Okay, let's be honest about most 0:15:01.280 --> 0:15:09.160 people's church attendance patterns. Ninety minutes a month. And then 0:15:09.240 --> 0:15:13.080 so if you were raised in a home of anxiety, 0:15:13.120 --> 0:15:16.360 and we're in here teaching faith and trust God and 0:15:16.400 --> 0:15:19.520 by faith, the world's reform. But if your life was 0:15:19.680 --> 0:15:26.840 framed by worry and what if and scarcity, many of 0:15:26.920 --> 0:15:31.200 us have a full apprenticeship and anxiety. And I thought 0:15:31.240 --> 0:15:37.760 about this. Some of us had an internship and insecurity 0:15:38.760 --> 0:15:42.040 and We were taught not to trust God to be 0:15:42.160 --> 0:15:44.560 enough to meet our needs, but to know everything that 0:15:44.680 --> 0:15:47.560 was wrong with us, because it was repeated over us, 0:15:47.760 --> 0:15:50.400 and it was insinuated if it wasn't said out loud. 0:15:50.720 --> 0:15:52.240 And so when you come to church you have to 0:15:52.280 --> 0:15:57.600 realize that you have been discipled by default. But following, 0:15:57.680 --> 0:15:59.880 Jesus gives me the option. This is what I want 0:15:59.920 --> 0:16:03.160 you to know that you don't get to decide how 0:16:03.200 --> 0:16:05.240 you were raised, what you were born into, any of that. 0:16:05.600 --> 0:16:08.400 Those decisions were made for you. But you get to 0:16:08.480 --> 0:16:11.400 decide from this point on what time is it right now? 0:16:11.400 --> 0:16:12.800 What time is it right now? What time is it 0:16:12.880 --> 0:16:20.280 right now? Ten twenty eight Eastern time, August what twenty second, 0:16:21.040 --> 0:16:25.400 twenty and twenty one, the year of our Lord and o'domini. 0:16:25.880 --> 0:16:29.600 From this moment forward or whenever you're watching this, from 0:16:29.640 --> 0:16:33.400 this moment forward, you get to decide who do I 0:16:33.520 --> 0:16:45.600 want to be discipled by. In the scripture you have 0:16:45.680 --> 0:16:50.240 the Pharisees who have been discipled by generation after generation 0:16:50.720 --> 0:16:53.560 of scribes and teachers of the law. And the law 0:16:53.720 --> 0:16:56.240 was good. God gave the law. It was a gift 0:16:56.280 --> 0:16:59.840 from God. God gave them the Sabbath as a gift 0:17:00.400 --> 0:17:05.240 to reflect and remember. One little known thing about the 0:17:05.280 --> 0:17:09.240 Sabbath is that God said one time, I gave you 0:17:09.280 --> 0:17:11.359 this as a gift to remember when you were slaves 0:17:11.359 --> 0:17:15.080 in Egypt and I brought you out. Isn't it crazy 0:17:16.080 --> 0:17:19.120 that a gift God gave them to remember how they 0:17:19.119 --> 0:17:23.600 were set free from their slavery, they have now become 0:17:23.760 --> 0:17:29.320 slaves of the Sabbath. Mark says it real clear. He 0:17:29.359 --> 0:17:36.280 says that Sabbath is made for man, not man for 0:17:36.400 --> 0:17:39.920 the Sabbath. But by the time that Jesus is walking 0:17:40.000 --> 0:17:42.200 the earth and touching and healing and teaching the power 0:17:42.840 --> 0:17:46.040 and preaching the Kingdom of God and inaugurating a new 0:17:46.160 --> 0:17:50.679 order of things, by the time the true king has come, 0:17:51.920 --> 0:17:54.240 they have turned the gift that God gave into a prison. 0:17:57.200 --> 0:18:03.200 Anything can become a prison. Right now, technology is enabling 0:18:03.240 --> 0:18:05.280 me to preach this word to somebody who couldn't hear 0:18:05.320 --> 0:18:07.879 it any other way. And I praise God for the 0:18:07.880 --> 0:18:13.879 gift of technology. On the other hand, I cursed the 0:18:14.000 --> 0:18:19.480 day that our phones ever got smart. And I don't 0:18:19.520 --> 0:18:21.399 have the faith yet, but I bought a flip phone 0:18:21.400 --> 0:18:24.280 two years ago. And when I get enough faith I'm 0:18:24.280 --> 0:18:27.119 gonna hook it up and I'm gonna be the only person. 0:18:27.480 --> 0:18:31.640 They're gonna call me flip phone verdict and yeah, if 0:18:31.640 --> 0:18:32.960 you want to talk to me, you're gonna have I 0:18:33.000 --> 0:18:34.960 don't have the faith yet. I'm not there yet because 0:18:34.960 --> 0:18:37.320 I'm tethered to this right now. But I'm praying for 0:18:37.359 --> 0:18:39.359 the day where I could have enough faith to be 0:18:39.440 --> 0:18:43.439 set free from the curse of this. But it's a gift. 0:18:44.160 --> 0:18:49.760 Welcome our Epham around the world. Somebody is gonna get 0:18:49.800 --> 0:18:52.639 saved off of this message. And I'm trying to cast 0:18:52.680 --> 0:18:55.760 the devil out of your YouTube feed in your algorithm. 0:18:56.080 --> 0:18:59.720 The same feed that is making you crazy is putting 0:18:59.720 --> 0:19:04.159 the word of God in your spirit right now. But 0:19:04.320 --> 0:19:06.800 the same gift that helps me preach the gospel can 0:19:06.840 --> 0:19:10.200 become a prison. It can put you on so many 0:19:10.240 --> 0:19:15.320 stupid headlines and half truths and ten percent truths and 0:19:15.359 --> 0:19:19.840 two percent truths and conspiracy theories and all of that 0:19:20.000 --> 0:19:22.600 is all of that is contained in the same gift. 0:19:23.040 --> 0:19:29.200 Same thing with money, same thing with money. God can 0:19:29.480 --> 0:19:33.520 can bless you with income, but then that income can 0:19:33.560 --> 0:19:36.000 cause you to step out a little too far, a 0:19:36.040 --> 0:19:39.439 little too fast, And now all of a sudden you 0:19:39.520 --> 0:19:42.160 are imprisoned in something that you prayed for and God 0:19:42.200 --> 0:19:43.800 gave you because you didn't know how to manage it. 0:19:47.280 --> 0:19:49.840 I think I ought to teach you about this, that 0:19:49.920 --> 0:19:53.600 a gift can become a prison. Intimacy is a gift 0:19:53.600 --> 0:19:57.840 from God, all kinds of intimacy, not just sexual intimacy, 0:19:57.960 --> 0:20:00.320 but sexual intimacy is a gift from God. But you 0:20:00.400 --> 0:20:04.560 understand how when we talk about the Sabbath, a gift 0:20:04.600 --> 0:20:09.080 that God gave that became twisted to imprison so that 0:20:09.119 --> 0:20:11.600 the Pharisees are saying you're not allowed to eat on 0:20:11.680 --> 0:20:16.639 the Sabbath. They have become locked into the law and 0:20:16.760 --> 0:20:19.760 missed the spirit of the very gift that God gave. 0:20:21.480 --> 0:20:24.040 And that happens all the time in our life. So 0:20:24.080 --> 0:20:26.439 that an Olympic athlete can say, you know, this talent 0:20:27.000 --> 0:20:29.560 that was given to me by God, that was such 0:20:29.600 --> 0:20:32.720 a good thing it almost broke me. So that someone 0:20:32.720 --> 0:20:35.520 who starts to be blessed financially, they can say, you 0:20:35.560 --> 0:20:37.520 know what, when I started getting more money, I stopped 0:20:37.520 --> 0:20:40.439 trusting God as much. I had a man tell me 0:20:40.480 --> 0:20:43.120 one time, I started thinking money was the answer to everything. 0:20:43.920 --> 0:20:46.000 I started just skipping God in the process when I 0:20:46.000 --> 0:20:48.280 didn't need to ask him anymore, and I basically designed 0:20:48.280 --> 0:20:52.480 a life for myself that made God unnecessary. So he thought, 0:20:53.760 --> 0:20:58.080 because the gift became a prison, I could give you 0:20:58.119 --> 0:21:03.320 more examples. I think you've got your own things that 0:21:03.480 --> 0:21:09.359 God gave you, that you became a slave to things 0:21:09.400 --> 0:21:11.920 that God. I'm not talking about the devil. I'm talking 0:21:11.960 --> 0:21:14.280 about a gift. The Sabbath didn't come from the devil. 0:21:15.960 --> 0:21:18.560 It came from God. It's in the book of Genesis. 0:21:19.840 --> 0:21:23.880 It's God that gave them that rest. But they turned 0:21:24.040 --> 0:21:28.880 the gift of rest into a weapon. They turned the 0:21:28.920 --> 0:21:32.359 gift of God into a prison. In fact, just a 0:21:32.400 --> 0:21:35.320 few verses later, they go from picking on the disciples 0:21:35.320 --> 0:21:38.240 about eating grain and a feeling the sabbath to telling 0:21:38.359 --> 0:21:41.359 Jesus he can't heal a man with a withered hand 0:21:41.480 --> 0:21:45.200 on the Sabbath. You mean to tell me that Jesus 0:21:45.240 --> 0:21:48.240 can't give this man his ability to work on this 0:21:48.320 --> 0:21:50.720 day because you've set it aside as a day not 0:21:50.840 --> 0:21:53.679 to work. But see how this happens in our lives. 0:21:53.720 --> 0:21:56.720 So subtly that a gift that God gives you can 0:21:56.760 --> 0:21:59.399 become twisted to the point that the gift that was 0:21:59.440 --> 0:22:05.679 given to serve you begins to enslave you. And I 0:22:05.720 --> 0:22:10.040 think what's happening in this passage is really demonstrated in 0:22:10.320 --> 0:22:12.159 what the disciples did that we have to do all 0:22:12.200 --> 0:22:17.879 the time. It says that verse one, they took the 0:22:17.920 --> 0:22:21.119 heads of grain, and when they would rub them in 0:22:21.160 --> 0:22:26.520 their hands, they would then eat the kernels. All right, 0:22:27.200 --> 0:22:31.600 So what's wrong with this? What's so bad about it? 0:22:33.200 --> 0:22:38.760 Are they stealing in someone else's field? No, because the 0:22:38.840 --> 0:22:40.600 levitical law says that the edges of the field are 0:22:40.640 --> 0:22:43.840 to be left unharvested so the traveler passing through can 0:22:43.880 --> 0:22:46.760 eat from it. So I'm not breaking any laws. But 0:22:46.880 --> 0:22:50.880 see the Pharisees, they had thirty nine laws or thirty 0:22:50.960 --> 0:22:54.040 nine categories of things you couldn't do on the Sabbath 0:22:54.320 --> 0:22:56.200 that God never said you couldn't do on the Sabbath. 0:22:58.640 --> 0:23:01.520 Now here's what's going to trip you. And this is 0:23:01.560 --> 0:23:06.879 how weird religion can get. You're allowed to pluck grain 0:23:06.960 --> 0:23:10.280 on the Sabbath, but you just can't harvest grain on 0:23:10.320 --> 0:23:13.400 the Sabbath by the Pharisees rule, not God's rule, by 0:23:13.400 --> 0:23:17.040 the Pharisees rule. So how close do the pharisees have 0:23:17.119 --> 0:23:21.240 to be watching the disciples, like, who's the sick one here? 0:23:21.640 --> 0:23:24.760 If you are stalking me to the point that you 0:23:24.840 --> 0:23:28.560 are watching me rub the heads of grain between my hands, 0:23:28.880 --> 0:23:31.520 I think you are the one who has a problem 0:23:31.720 --> 0:23:36.560 and needs counseling, not me because I'm hungry. Yes, I'm 0:23:36.560 --> 0:23:40.080 talking about the comment section. I have never ever in 0:23:40.119 --> 0:23:44.439 my life seem more crazy than in the comment section 0:23:44.800 --> 0:23:48.280 of a Christian YouTube channel, because here I am now 0:23:48.520 --> 0:23:51.239 watching everything. Ah, They're not supposed to do this. Now. 0:23:51.240 --> 0:23:52.719 I would have been fine if they would have plucked it, 0:23:52.800 --> 0:23:55.200 but when they rubbed the grain to get the husks 0:23:55.200 --> 0:23:56.959 to fall away, now you know what the husk is. 0:23:57.160 --> 0:24:00.280 The husk is the workless part that protects the cur Colonel. 0:24:00.520 --> 0:24:03.080 The kernel is the seed that the grain comes from, 0:24:03.320 --> 0:24:05.840 and the husk is the part that covers the kernel. 0:24:06.040 --> 0:24:09.639 So the disciples are watching walking through and Peter says, 0:24:09.640 --> 0:24:12.280 watch this, and Jesai looking right now, and they picked 0:24:12.320 --> 0:24:14.199 the grain that Jesus knew what was happening behind him, 0:24:14.200 --> 0:24:15.800 and he didn't tell him to stop because he wasn't 0:24:15.800 --> 0:24:19.560 following the pattern of the pharisees. I'll take it a 0:24:19.560 --> 0:24:22.320 step further, he didn't care what they did with the grain, 0:24:22.680 --> 0:24:27.719 because he's the Bread of life. I think that's the 0:24:27.720 --> 0:24:32.080 most anointed verse in the Bible. Jesus was going through 0:24:32.080 --> 0:24:38.160 the grain field. Jesus, the Bread of Heaven, the Bread 0:24:38.200 --> 0:24:43.000 of life, is walking by grain and irony of irony. 0:24:43.280 --> 0:24:47.480 The Pharisees are arguing with the Bread of Life about 0:24:47.480 --> 0:24:50.760 how to pick grain on the Sabbath, which he is. 0:24:51.840 --> 0:24:54.080 So they're picking what he is on the day which 0:24:54.080 --> 0:24:56.840 he came to fulfill. And they're like, you can't do that. 0:24:57.720 --> 0:25:01.480 Watch out for people who tell you what God can't do. No, 0:25:01.800 --> 0:25:03.800 God can't bless you like that. It has to be 0:25:03.920 --> 0:25:06.520 like this, It has to fit this structure. That's their 0:25:06.560 --> 0:25:14.239 wine skin, not your limitation. I was, I was. I 0:25:14.359 --> 0:25:16.840 was talking to somebody one time. They said, you you 0:25:16.920 --> 0:25:22.320 tend to let other people's insecurity become your limitation, and 0:25:22.480 --> 0:25:25.560