Speaker 1: Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick. I'm the pastor of Elevation
Speaker 1: Church and this is our podcast. I wanted to thank
Speaker 1: you for joining us today. Hope this inspires you. Hope
Speaker 1: it builds your faith. Hope it gives your perspective to
Speaker 1: see God is moving in your life. Enjoy the message.
Speaker 1: Just to hit it real quick from first Peter five
Speaker 1: eight and nine, which serves as a theme. We won't
Speaker 1: preach from it today, but be alert and of sober mind.
Speaker 1: Your enemy, the devil prows around like a roaring lion.
Speaker 1: See I always read it wrong. I thought he was
Speaker 1: a lion. I thought he was bigger than me and
Speaker 1: stronger than me. But I found out that he's just
Speaker 1: loud like a lion. And the place where he roars
Speaker 1: is in my mind. That's where he's the loudest, in
Speaker 1: the thoughts that I have. And so he's looking for
Speaker 1: someone to devour. Did you ever wonder why all those
Speaker 1: Twitter feeds and Instagram feeds and Facebook feeds, why they
Speaker 1: call him feeds is because they're eating your mind alive?
Speaker 1: Did you know that? And so he devours people in
Speaker 1: any way that he can. He's looking for someone. The
Speaker 1: command is resist him, But how many know it's hard
Speaker 1: to resist what you don't recognize, and if we're to
Speaker 1: resist the enemy, because I don't know about you, But
Speaker 1: I don't intend to live the rest of my life
Speaker 1: as a Christian and be a slave to my own imagination. Amen.
Speaker 1: I don't intend to live the rest of my life
Speaker 1: forgiven by Christ as a prisoner to my past and
Speaker 1: replaying memories of moments that have come and gone, but
Speaker 1: I can't escape them in my mind. And so I
Speaker 1: really intend if it takes me the rest of my life,
Speaker 1: and it might, because it seems like sometimes I take
Speaker 1: two steps forward and three steps back. But I'm trying
Speaker 1: to get free. I'm trying to take my mind back
Speaker 1: so I can serve God with my mind and love
Speaker 1: the Lord my God with all my heart, with all
Speaker 1: my soul, with all my mind, with all my strength.
Speaker 1: And I don't want to be drained, so I go
Speaker 1: into each day with no energy and broken focus. I
Speaker 1: really want to be able to see clear the way
Speaker 1: ahead so I can follow Christ into my future. And
Speaker 1: that's the intention of this series. But in order to
Speaker 1: resist the enemy, we've got to recognize him, or we'll
Speaker 1: spend our whole life, resisting all the wrong things, resisting
Speaker 1: silence when sometimes that's where God speaks the loudest, resisting
Speaker 1: or trying to avoid awkward situations. And God's middle name
Speaker 1: is awkward. He'll run out of food on purpose to
Speaker 1: see what you're going to do in an awkward situation.
Speaker 1: He'll sit down next to a disreputable woman it all well,
Speaker 1: and make it awkward. So the disciples have to decide
Speaker 1: if they really believe that this message is for everyone.
Speaker 1: And so let's take a look today at this idea
Speaker 1: of recognizing the enemy so we can see how he's
Speaker 1: at work in our lives. And this may be a
Speaker 1: weird title, but I want to call this message the
Speaker 1: devil in three D. What does he look like in
Speaker 1: real life, not our cartoon image of him, our coloring
Speaker 1: book devil. Once we get the cape off of him
Speaker 1: and try to understand how he really operates to try
Speaker 1: to master our minds and set up a seed of
Speaker 1: influence and our souls through controlling our emotions, we can
Speaker 1: start to do battle. And you know, Paul said one time,
Speaker 1: we are not ignorant of Satan's devices, devices, Satan's devices,
Speaker 1: and of course I don't think this is the devil,
Speaker 1: but I wanted to give you three things just to
Speaker 1: make it memorable that start with the letter D. And
Speaker 1: rather than continue on talking about Peter this week, I
Speaker 1: want to move into the Old Testament for a few
Speaker 1: moments and tell you a story about a Bible character
Speaker 1: that I know you've heard of, named Moses, and I
Speaker 1: want to use this one example from his Life's probably
Speaker 1: not the one that he would choose for us to evaluate,
Speaker 1: because he made a great mistake and it cost him dearly.
Speaker 1: But hopefully, like First Corinthians ten says, we can use
Speaker 1: him as an example so the same thing doesn't happen
Speaker 1: to us. How many of you want your kids to
Speaker 1: learn some stuff from your experience that they don't have
Speaker 1: to learn through their own pain. And so let's look
Speaker 1: at this. I'll read it to you. I'll be honest
Speaker 1: with you. I never appreached on this passage before because
Speaker 1: I was intimidated by it. And really it's a little confusing.
Speaker 1: You'll see that it seems a little harsh what happens
Speaker 1: in this passage. And honestly, I knew that if I
Speaker 1: ever preached it, that God would probably speak something to
Speaker 1: me that I wouldn't want to hear because I relate
Speaker 1: to a little thing that happens in this Bible story.
Speaker 1: But I want to share it with you now as
Speaker 1: we lean into this message. The devil in three D
Speaker 1: and of course Moses's devil was a little different than ours.
Speaker 1: He would have said Pharaoh, who was the ruler of Egypt,
Speaker 1: the one that he had to demand emancipation for the
Speaker 1: people of God from. He never really asked for that assignment.
Speaker 1: He didn't seek that assignment. He wasn't looking for a
Speaker 1: life purpose. God just interrupted what he thought was his
Speaker 1: second half of life and gave him something different to
Speaker 1: do and wasn't terribly convenient. But now we're looking at
Speaker 1: Moses at the end of his life, and this is
Speaker 1: what the Bible says Numbers chapter twenty, verse one. In
Speaker 1: the first month, the whole Israelite community arrived at the
Speaker 1: desert of Zenn and they stayed at Kadesh. Their Miriam
Speaker 1: died and was buried. Their Miriam died and was buried.
Speaker 1: Now there was no water for the community, and the
Speaker 1: people gathered in opposition to Moses and Aaron, and they
Speaker 1: quarreled with Moses and said, if only we had died
Speaker 1: when our brothers fell dead before the Lord. Why did
Speaker 1: you bring the Lord's community into this wilderness that we
Speaker 1: and our livestock should die here? Why did you bring
Speaker 1: us up out of Egypt to this terrible place? It
Speaker 1: has no grain or figs, grape vines or pomegranates, Wi
Speaker 1: Fi or Starbucks. It's trying to bring you into the text.
Speaker 1: I don't want you bored trying to listen to this
Speaker 1: Bible story. And there is no water to drink. Moses
Speaker 1: and Aaron went from the assembly to the entrance to
Speaker 1: the tent of meeting and fell face down, and the
Speaker 1: glory of the Lord appeared to them. When God's glory
Speaker 1: shows up when you've run out of answers, That's when
Speaker 1: God's glory shows up when you admit God, I'm powerless
Speaker 1: to do this on my own. I need you God.
Speaker 1: I've tried everything, and still these people are driving me crazy.
Speaker 1: But I'm here at the entrance to the tent and
Speaker 1: I need you to speak. So for everybody who came
Speaker 1: into church with a cocky attitude today talking about I
Speaker 1: wonder what this sermon is gonna be about. And he
Speaker 1: better hurry up and get to it. Because I don't
Speaker 1: really even want to be here, up here in that
Speaker 1: karate kid shirt looking like a Halloween costume, say something,
Speaker 1: won't you. You're not gonna get it. But those of
Speaker 1: you who came in here humbled under the mighty hand
Speaker 1: of God, he might just speak, because you're listening now.
Speaker 1: Then the Lord said to Moses verse seven, take the staff,
Speaker 1: that same staff that you raised over the Red Sea,
Speaker 1: and it parted, that same staff that initially threw on
Speaker 1: the ground. And I proved who I was to you
Speaker 1: because I turned the staff into a snake, and you
Speaker 1: picked it back up and it became a staff again.
Speaker 1: That same staff that turned the Nile River into blood
Speaker 1: until your enemy had no choice but to release you
Speaker 1: from bondage. That same staff that when you raised it up,
Speaker 1: the Amalekites were no match for the Israelites. That same staff.
Speaker 1: Take it now. I want you to get erin and
Speaker 1: get everybody together and speak to the rock before their eyes,
Speaker 1: and it will pour out its water, and you will
Speaker 1: bring water out of the rock for the community, so
Speaker 1: they in their livestock and drink. So Moses took the
Speaker 1: staff from the Lord's presence, just as he had commanded him.
Speaker 1: He and Aaron gathered the assembly together in front of
Speaker 1: the rock, and Moses said to them, listen, you rebels.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna start saying that around my house. More to
Speaker 1: the kids. Do we bring you water out of this rock?
Speaker 1: Isn't anything I do enough for you. I've been leading
Speaker 1: you through this wilderness for thirty eight years, and it's
Speaker 1: never enough. It never stops. It never stops. Somebody shout,
Speaker 1: it never stops. I screamed that one day on vacation,
Speaker 1: top of my lungs. I'd been such a good dad
Speaker 1: all day. I took my kids swimming, I went on
Speaker 1: a bike ride with the kids. We went in ate
Speaker 1: Japanese food, and we sat with people we didn't know,
Speaker 1: and I pretended to think it was funny when he
Speaker 1: flipped the bowl into his hat, like I never saw
Speaker 1: it before. I was a good dad that day. I
Speaker 1: was a great dad that day. I read to him
Speaker 1: at bedtime. And still at the end of the day,
Speaker 1: they were fighting, and all of a sudden, I heard
Speaker 1: myself screaming at my kids. Have you ever had an
Speaker 1: out of body experience screaming at your kids? And you
Speaker 1: were surprised what you said next? And you were thinking
Speaker 1: I might have to bleep myself at it myself. I
Speaker 1: don't know what what's coming out next. The Holy Ghost
Speaker 1: just left and something else took over. And now I'm
Speaker 1: watching myself and I'm scaring of myself, and I shouted
Speaker 1: at the top of my lungs. It never stops. Now
Speaker 1: we can laugh about it. It It wasn't funny at the time. Listen,
Speaker 1: your rebels, must we bring you water out of this rock.
Speaker 1: We already did this one time, thirty eight years ago.
Speaker 1: This has happened before. God kept your shoes from wearing out.
Speaker 1: Then Moses raised his arm and struck the rock, which
Speaker 1: God did not instruct him to do, twice with his staff,
Speaker 1: and water gushed out, and the community and their livestock drank.
Speaker 1: So on the surface what Moses did worked, But just
Speaker 1: because it worked on the surface doesn't mean it was
Speaker 1: wise and does not mean it will have a sustainable effect.
Speaker 1: And this is why when you control people with your
Speaker 1: anger or your pouting or your manipulat see I can't
Speaker 1: even say the word is a foreign concept to me, manipulation.
Speaker 1: You end up very lonely because the cost of controlling
Speaker 1: people is to end up alone and I know I
Speaker 1: got you pinned up against your chair right now talking
Speaker 1: about this sermons, so look confused and you get through this.
Speaker 1: But some of the stuff that works on the surface
Speaker 1: costs us in the end. And that's why it's so
Speaker 1: important that we understand this. Because what everybody got water,
Speaker 1: but it cost Moses what God had promised. And if
Speaker 1: the passage ended at verse eleven, you'd say, well, what's
Speaker 1: so hard about that scripture? Unfortunately, Verse twelve tell us
Speaker 1: that even though the water came out of the rock,
Speaker 1: what came out of Moses's heart in that moment prevented
Speaker 1: him from going further into God's promise. And even though
Speaker 1: all the people were happy and the people were impressed,
Speaker 1: and the people might not have even known anything was
Speaker 1: wrong because they were all too busy drinking, the people
Speaker 1: got hydrated. The people got what they wanted, but Moses
Speaker 1: lost what God had promised. Verse twelve, the Lord said
Speaker 1: to Moses and Aaron, because you did not trust in
Speaker 1: me enough to honor me as holy in the sight
Speaker 1: of the Israelites, you will not bring this community into
Speaker 1: the land I give them. These were the waters of Mirabah,
Speaker 1: where the Israelites quarreled with the Lord, and where he
Speaker 1: was proved holy among them. Makes me wish I would
Speaker 1: have paid more attention in my Hebrew class, because if
Speaker 1: I knew that miraba means quarreling, I would understand that
Speaker 1: God does some great miracles in places of great conflict.
Speaker 1: You know, it's funny all the little things we miss
Speaker 1: if we read the Bible in English because the interpretation.
Speaker 1: Sometimes the writers will put little humorous things in there
Speaker 1: that I wouldn't know to look for. But this particular
Speaker 1: word play, if you go back to verse two and
Speaker 1: I told you, I'm gonna give you three d's and
Speaker 1: I am the first one is deficit because he is
Speaker 1: describing a deficit that the people of God are in.
Speaker 1: It says in verse two there was no water for
Speaker 1: the community, and the people gathered. Now the Hebrew word
Speaker 1: forgathered here that he uses is a word that means
Speaker 1: to come together for the purpose of conflict. And see,
Speaker 1: I didn't even know Facebook was in the Bible. Talk
Speaker 1: to me, they call it a community. But the community
Speaker 1: came together to quarrel in that a nice word to quarrel,
Speaker 1: not to not to fight, not to argue, but to
Speaker 1: quarrel and so they're they're fighting with each other and
Speaker 1: they don't have patience. But they don't have patience because
Speaker 1: they don't have water. And before we're too hard on them,
Speaker 1: these complaining Israelites, we need to consider that this was
Speaker 1: a matter of life and death. This is not the
Speaker 1: barista messed up your order and forgot that you prefer
Speaker 1: almond milk. This is something different. This is we can't
Speaker 1: live but a few days without water, and so we're desperate.
Speaker 1: And I've noticed that when people get desperate, they start
Speaker 1: doing things they wouldn't normally do. Have you noticed this
Speaker 1: about yourself, that that when you get desperate, you get edgy,
Speaker 1: you get touchy, and sometimes you're lashing out at people.
Speaker 1: And it's not about the people. Like I had to
Speaker 1: flaying to the kids about my road rage, it's not
Speaker 1: really about the driving. It has nothing to do with
Speaker 1: the driving. It's just that Dad finds this a convenient
Speaker 1: place to be shielded and an anonymous where I can
Speaker 1: let some stuff lie that's been building up. God, I
Speaker 1: don't want a real preacher, JJ. You preached next week.
Speaker 1: Thank them out. It's a whole thing because they came
Speaker 1: together to quarrel and what they didn't know couldn't know,
Speaker 1: is that they were on the border of Canaan. The
Speaker 1: land that God had promised them was just a few
Speaker 1: short months away. But in a time when they should
Speaker 1: have been preparing to conquer, the enemy had them in
Speaker 1: a state of conflict. Don't you understand that the reason
Speaker 1: that you've been fighting like you've been fighting, and even
Speaker 1: the reason sometimes that the devil will get you focused
Speaker 1: on fighting against people, is because God is trying to
Speaker 1: bring you into what he spoke over your life and
Speaker 1: the promise of his inheritance and the saints. And now
Speaker 1: the closer you get to that promise, the greater the
Speaker 1: conflict is going to be. I think one of the
Speaker 1: reasons that our church gets so divided is because the
Speaker 1: enemy knows that if we would ever stop fighting and
Speaker 1: focus on the mission that we were given by our
Speaker 1: captain and the savior of our souls, we would be
Speaker 1: dangerous to the kingdom of darkness. But we can't come
Speaker 1: together because we quarrel too much. It never stops, we
Speaker 1: never quit finding new things to fight about. It's not
Speaker 1: only that Christians fight against other religions. We can subdivide
Speaker 1: on a multiplicity of different levels of Christianity, and we
Speaker 1: can get into little groups so that we no longer
Speaker 1: come together to lift up the name of the Lord
Speaker 1: and to take this message to the ends of the earth.
Speaker 1: But now we're fighting over a translation of the Bible,
Speaker 1: or we're fighting over what you wear to worship, or
Speaker 1: we're fighting over what specific nuance you believe about the
Speaker 1: Holy Spirit. But I didn't come to quarrel, so I
Speaker 1: don't need to fight with you. I came to conquer,
Speaker 1: and I need you in my corner. And I don't
Speaker 1: have the energy to spend fighting against the people God
Speaker 1: called me to fight with. So if you're black, fight
Speaker 1: with me. If you're a Hispanic, fight with me. If
Speaker 1: you're a woman, fight with me. If you're young, fight
Speaker 1: with me. Let's get together, old heads, young people, let's
Speaker 1: fight this fight together. And there's no water in the wilderness.
Speaker 1: And when there is no water, when there is a deficit,
Speaker 1: you start reacting instead of responding. I'm apprecia this message, Hollie.
Speaker 1: I feel it happening right now, because what I want
Speaker 1: to say is, forget about the budget deficit. We got
Speaker 1: a whole lot more than a budget deficit in our
Speaker 1: nation today. And it's a different deficit than they faced.
Speaker 1: It's not a lack of water. I feel like in
Speaker 1: our world today we are severely lacking in our ability
Speaker 1: to empathize with others because we've got a surplus of
Speaker 1: opinions and a deficit of empathy. Let me try another one.
Speaker 1: They didn't like that very much. We have a surplus
Speaker 1: of information and a deficit of wisdom, because if we
Speaker 1: don't have insight into information, we will get caught up
Speaker 1: in highlights and headlines and highlights and headlines and highlights
Speaker 1: and headlines and highlights and headlines, clicking on crazy stuff
Speaker 1: and not even bothering to read anything but the first sentence.
Speaker 1: And then somebody wants to ask me, do you really
Speaker 1: have a water slide on your stage because you don't
Speaker 1: want to come. I almost lost my faith in the
Speaker 1: human race over that water slide. It's a deficit, and
Speaker 1: I've been noticing about myself. Maybe this is why I
Speaker 1: wanted to preach the series that I'm having a hard
Speaker 1: time focusing because you know, the Devil's devices. I think
Speaker 1: it's I think I'm no neurologist, but I think when
Speaker 1: it's getting hard for me to read three sentences in
Speaker 1: a book and now I'm trying to swipe paper. When
Speaker 1: I reached up to swipe a book the other day,
Speaker 1: I thought, I got to take my mind back. Actually,
Speaker 1: next week, if the Lord will enable me and help me,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna try to preach on that very subject of focus,
Speaker 1: because I'm talking to more more people who feel like
Speaker 1: their mind is fragmented and can't hold a thought. And
Speaker 1: it's not just because you're getting old and fish oil
Speaker 1: won't help it. There's some principles in the Word of
Speaker 1: God about distraction that we need to look at. It's
Speaker 1: a deficit, a deficit where we have more ways to
Speaker 1: communicate and we're connecting less than ever. I think that's
Speaker 1: what the skyrocketing porn rates are about. I think that's
Speaker 1: what the skyrocketing sleep deprivation rates are about. We are
Speaker 1: desperate to connect, and we call ourselves connected and nothing
Speaker 1: could be further from the truth. And it's too much.
Speaker 1: Costa called it too much to live with, too little
Speaker 1: to live for. It's a deficit, a deficit of meaning,
Speaker 1: a deficit of insight. And when the deficit is left unaddressed,
Speaker 1: you know what happens next. Disappointment sets in And that's
Speaker 1: the second D is disappointment because I'm looking at how
Speaker 1: the Israelites are talking to Moses right, and I get it.
Speaker 1: I get it because when you don't have what you
Speaker 1: need to live, you start doing things that you would
Speaker 1: not normally do and it's not even you. And you
Speaker 1: also want to explain to people. Sometimes I don't even
Speaker 1: know who that was. I'm so sorry. Can we take
Speaker 1: back the last five minutes? And sometimes you can't. Sometimes
Speaker 1: you can undo it. And what the Israelites said to
Speaker 1: Moses here apparently hit that button. Now everybody has a button.
Speaker 1: All of you who are calm, we just haven't found
Speaker 1: yours yet. Really, everybody has a boiling point. Everybody has
Speaker 1: something that if you hit that, you will see a
Speaker 1: different version of them, and you will completely change their
Speaker 1: enneagram number. The right button, they go from a seven
Speaker 1: to a two, a peacemaker to a shooter, and it
Speaker 1: can happen so quick. Most is the man of God
Speaker 1: is violently striking a rock when God is trying to
Speaker 1: show his people grace. But the reason he did it,
Speaker 1: and this is why I can't figure out sometimes in
Speaker 1: my own life where it comes from, because I find
Speaker 1: things coming out of me, and I'm confused about where
Speaker 1: it came from, because i know I'm not mad about
Speaker 1: what I'm mad about, because it's not a big enough
Speaker 1: deal to make me as mad as I am about
Speaker 1: what I'm mad about. Please help me preach to you
Speaker 1: in this together. And they just got done telling him
Speaker 1: they wanted to die. And it's his fault. Because anytime
Speaker 1: you are facing a deficit in your own life, you
Speaker 1: start looking for someone to blame. Anytime you are confronted
Speaker 1: with your own barrenness or brokenness, you want to find
Speaker 1: somebody else or something else whose fault it can be.
Speaker 1: And the first thing we do when we run out
Speaker 1: of resource is to look for someone else to take responsibility.
Speaker 1: If only we had died when our brothers fell dead
Speaker 1: before the Lord. Why did you bring the Lord's community?
Speaker 1: Why didn't my mom? Why wasn't my dad around? All?
Speaker 1: These are reasonable things to say, but they don't really
Speaker 1: help the situation. They only make it worse. Why did
Speaker 1: you bring us out here into this wilderness that we
Speaker 1: should die here? They weren't actually about to die. God
Speaker 1: wasn't going to let him die. They were on the
Speaker 1: edge of destiny, about to take the land that God
Speaker 1: had promised for generations, and they want to die at
Speaker 1: the edge of destiny. Why'd you bring us up out
Speaker 1: of Egypt to this terrible place? There we had figs. There,
Speaker 1: we had grape funds. There we had pomegranates. There we
Speaker 1: had grain. I forget to mention the whips. They forget
Speaker 1: to mention the mud and the straw, and they begin
Speaker 1: to glamorize a past that really didn't even exist, well,
Speaker 1: the good old days. I get it, man, it's tempting
Speaker 1: to go back there in your mind. Just as long
Speaker 1: as you know is your version of the past is
Speaker 1: just as imaginary as your version of the future back
Speaker 1: in Egypt, the place that you were praying God to
Speaker 1: get you out of. Oh, I never forget this. One
Speaker 1: time a lady came to me. She said, you need
Speaker 1: to change some things in the church, very early in
Speaker 1: the church. And I was woo, I was cocky. I
Speaker 1: was twenty eight. So what I said, next to Homie responsible.
Speaker 1: There's statute of limitations. She listed everything she wanted me
Speaker 1: to change in the church, change this and change that,
Speaker 1: and change this and change that. And either the Lord
Speaker 1: or the devil prompted me to say what follows. I said,
Speaker 1: so you want me to recreate the church that you
Speaker 1: left to come to this one. I didn't mean it
Speaker 1: how it came out. I meant to say, I'll pray
Speaker 1: about it. I am, but a servant and a vessel
Speaker 1: just gushed out came out frustration. So you understand that
Speaker 1: frustration operates when your experience is different than your expectation.
Speaker 1: So when you are frustrated, it is not your life
Speaker 1: that you're frustrated with. It's your life compared to your
Speaker 1: expectation of your life. That's what makes you frustrated. It's
Speaker 1: that it normally takes me thirteen minutes to get there,
Speaker 1: and today it took me thirty. And I didn't plan
Speaker 1: for that. And so since I was already at a
Speaker 1: time deficit and a sleep deficit, and I didn't put
Speaker 1: margin on this trip, now I find myself frustrated. I'm
Speaker 1: not really frustrated at how long it's taking. I'm frustrated
Speaker 1: about how long it's taken compared to how long I
Speaker 1: thought it was gonna take. And one of the best
Speaker 1: things we can do for our peace of mind is
Speaker 1: to crucify our expectations of others. I mean, really just
Speaker 1: put it up there on the cross and get to
Speaker 1: the place where we no longer have an expectation of
Speaker 1: people to meet our needs, because we understand that our
Speaker 1: water flows from a different rock, that our joy flows
Speaker 1: from a different place. Come on, Epham, shout at the
Speaker 1: phone that I don't depend on people to provide for
Speaker 1: me what God has promised. It's already mine. And so
Speaker 1: they got really upset man. And then Moses got upset,
Speaker 1: and he went to God and he wanted God to
Speaker 1: be upset like he was upset. And Moses was mad
Speaker 1: because God wasn't mad. That's what happened here. He was disappointed.
Speaker 1: It never stops after all I've done for you. I've
Speaker 1: been here before. I have been here before, even even
Speaker 1: in high school when I was the athletic trainer water
Speaker 1: boy for the football team. Coach Meyer recruited me to
Speaker 1: be the athletic trainer. Said you could get a scholarship.
Speaker 1: And one day I was mixing that gatorade so sweet,
Speaker 1: and I thought, I don't think they give scholarships for that.
Speaker 1: I think he tricked me into this. You know, I
Speaker 1: kind of didn't like it anyway. It wasn't like I
Speaker 1: really cared too much about football. Football's fine, I'll turn
Speaker 1: it on. I'm not like some of y'all fantasy lineups
Speaker 1: and stuff. I got a real life. I'm skinding, I'm skinning.
Speaker 1: I'm scarting this fine as fine as fine. Fine, I'm skarting.
Speaker 1: I'm scarting this fine as fine as fine. But man,
Speaker 1: it was a relatively simple job. I did it for
Speaker 1: over a year, and the main part of the job,
Speaker 1: you know, every once in a while, they would let
Speaker 1: me tape a wrist or an ankle. I think it
Speaker 1: wasn't even really people that was hurt. I think they
Speaker 1: just sent cast members over because if anybody was really hurt,
Speaker 1: doctor Bowens came in. So I don't even think I
Speaker 1: was really taping anybody. I don't even think it was.
Speaker 1: But I did have one one job, and every time
Speaker 1: they would have a water break, it was my job
Speaker 1: to turn on the water. That's right, Bobby Bouche got
Speaker 1: nothing on me. Well, I did it like clockwork. They
Speaker 1: blow the whistle. I was positioned close enough to the
Speaker 1: spickett which was connected to the hose which went to
Speaker 1: the PVC pipe in Monk's Corner. It was fancy with
Speaker 1: a PVC pipe with the holes in it, trough of
Speaker 1: sorts with the water would come out of the pipe.
Speaker 1: But I was the man who turned it on, and
Speaker 1: I turned it on about three or four times every practice.
Speaker 1: And one day I went over there to turn it
Speaker 1: on and nothing came out. I don't know who forgot
Speaker 1: to pay the bill, but nothing came out. And those
Speaker 1: football players went to drink and they lined up at
Speaker 1: the PVC pipe and nothing happened. And they started yelling
Speaker 1: at me, like these rebellious Israelites started yelling at Moses,
Speaker 1: started yelling at me, calling me Steve. I don't even
Speaker 1: go by Steve. There's an N on my name. Now
Speaker 1: the consonant. This ain't will of fortune. Oh, I was
Speaker 1: mad yelling at me for the one time the water
Speaker 1: didn't come on. Hundreds of times the water came on.
Speaker 1: One time it didn't come on. And guess what, I'm
Speaker 1: not controlling the water. I'm just the one turning it on.
Speaker 1: So they were yelling at me. So I wasn't saved yet.
Speaker 1: Let me get that in. So I turned around and
Speaker 1: said God bless all y'all. Only instead of God bless
Speaker 1: I've said some different bce vocabulary that is not appropriate
Speaker 1: for this church setting and holy people such as yourself,
Speaker 1: And in that moment, I forgot they were bigger than me,
Speaker 1: because I do have a level of crazy that if
Speaker 1: it kicks in, I will stop caring how much bigger
Speaker 1: you are. And I would rather die than have you
Speaker 1: cussed me out. I got in my Toyota turch cell
Speaker 1: and I drove off. So oh just kind of came
Speaker 1: back to me. Man, I'm sorry because all these times
Speaker 1: I get Moses's disappointment. I really do, all these times,
Speaker 1: and this one time, all I've done for you, all
Speaker 1: the meals I've cooked, all the prayers I've prayed, all
Speaker 1: the compliments I gave, all the Christmas presents I bought,
Speaker 1: all the sacrifices I made, and you mean this one thing,
Speaker 1: this one time, and now you want to yell at
Speaker 1: me and disrespect me and ignore me. I figure Moses
Speaker 1: is tired of being taken for granted, tired of people
Speaker 1: just assuming that you're always gonna do it and it's
Speaker 1: just easy for you. Until I realized that Moses wasn't
Speaker 1: really disappointed with the people. Moses was still dealing with
Speaker 1: a fear that he had carried with him since the
Speaker 1: time God met him at the Burning Bush, impossibly before
Speaker 1: that forty years earlier, when he killed an Egyptian to
Speaker 1: try to rescue one of his fellow Hebrews. And he
Speaker 1: never really fit in because he was raised as an Egyptian,
Speaker 1: but he was by birth a Hebrew. And when he
Speaker 1: tried to defend the people that he was one of
Speaker 1: from the people that he had had to live with,
Speaker 1: Moses ended up having to run. That's why he ended
Speaker 1: up in the wilderness with the shepherd's staff to begin with.
Speaker 1: And that's why when God met him at the bush,
Speaker 1: Moses said, you got the wrong one. Picked somebody stronger,
Speaker 1: Pick somebody more capable, Pick somebody with more experience. Pick
Speaker 1: somebody who doesn't struggle with what I struggle with, because
Speaker 1: I'll let you down, God, and I'll let them down.
Speaker 1: And not only not only is Moses dealing with this moment,
Speaker 1: but he's dealing with forty years of frustration, forty years
Speaker 1: of frustration that you could argue were the result of
Speaker 1: his lack of faith when he didn't go in and
Speaker 1: fight and take the land God had promised. In a sense,
Speaker 1: what they're saying about Moses is true, and he knows it.
Speaker 1: It's not him, it's not them that he is disappointed in.
Speaker 1: So like for me realizing in my adult life that
Speaker 1: my core fear and a lot of the reasons that
Speaker 1: I withdraw and a lot of the reasons that I
Speaker 1: lash out. It really came to me one time early
Speaker 1: in my marriage to Holly, and it was a low
Speaker 1: key argument, but all of a sudden it just kind
Speaker 1: of erupted and I yelled at her, I'm not stupid,
Speaker 1: I'm not stupid. It never stops. I'm not stupid, she said.
Speaker 1: I didn't say you were stupid, But I wasn't responding
Speaker 1: to what she said. I was responding to what I
Speaker 1: felt somewhere in me was something that told me that
Speaker 1: I didn't know enough, probably back to my dad, in
Speaker 1: some ways he loved me. It wasn't that he didn't
Speaker 1: love me, but he kind of felt like it was
Speaker 1: him against the world and he didn't have a full
Speaker 1: deck to play with because of the way he was raised.
Speaker 1: And somewhere I probably started thinking that I was operating
Speaker 1: in life out of a deficit of intelligence. And so
Speaker 1: my first instinct when someone makes me feel stupid, what
Speaker 1: a phrase when they make me feel stupid. How much
Speaker 1: power are you giving away to other people when someone
Speaker 1: can make you feel stupid. That's a weak mind. But
Speaker 1: that's where that's where I find myself sometimes and that
Speaker 1: mental wilderness, that mental wilderness, do you know what I'm
Speaker 1: talking about? And I'm afraid. I'm afraid sometimes up here,
Speaker 1: not that I'm going to get the Bible wrong or
Speaker 1: that I'm going to dishonor God, but unfortunately that I
Speaker 1: will disappoint you. And every time we start a new series,
Speaker 1: I feel it, you know, because I try to create
Speaker 1: expectation this is going to be the best series ever.
Speaker 1: And then I hope Baby Jesus and Mother Mary and
Speaker 1: the Holy Ghosts will somehow help us, because I don't
Speaker 1: want to disappoint you. And I'm sharing this autobiographically, but
Speaker 1: I'm wondering, is like, do a lot of us function
Speaker 1: in this place that I don't want to disappoint you?
Speaker 1: And that's why I hide. And now I find myself
Speaker 1: I don't even want to pick up the phone when
Speaker 1: people call, because now if I can text them back,
Speaker 1: I can carefully craft my response. Even in the smallest ways.
Speaker 1: I see this fear, I see myself withdrawing. I see
Speaker 1: myself wanting to isolate, and it's a tendency that I
Speaker 1: don't fully understand because I do love people. I really
Speaker 1: do love people. I've always loved people. I was a
Speaker 1: dude that hugged everybody in his graduating high school class,
Speaker 1: the whole two one hundred and thirty of them, hug
Speaker 1: them all. But I find myself sometimes wanting to withdraw,
Speaker 1: find myself wanting to walk out, find myself wanting to
Speaker 1: get out, and I wonder why, you know, like, am
Speaker 1: I losing my love for people? It is all this
Speaker 1: getting to me, like lights and cameras and all that.
Speaker 1: But I realized I realized in the weirdest way one
Speaker 1: day what it was when a lady said to me,
Speaker 1: I've I've been going to your church seven years and
Speaker 1: I've never met you. And I said, I'm so sorry.
Speaker 1: I took it like an accusation, you know. She said, no, no,
Speaker 1: it's a big church. We love. The minister said, okay, good,
Speaker 1: I'm sorry. That's I'm really sorry, though, that's bad. I
Speaker 1: met your pastor in seven years. I'm sorry. She said,
Speaker 1: it's fine, it's fine. Stop apologizing now. It's awkward because
Speaker 1: I'm making it awkward. Then she made it awkward. She said,
Speaker 1: you're much taller on the screen. Well that helped you already.
Speaker 1: See I'm insecure woman, but I don't want to let
Speaker 1: you down, you know. So, So when Moses has this
Speaker 1: moment and I'm calling in a moment, but it's really
Speaker 1: not a moment because anytime something comes bursting to the surface,
Speaker 1: like Moses hitting that rock twice when God specifically spoke
Speaker 1: to him to speak to the rock, not to strike it.
Speaker 1: And I know why he struck the rock because this
Speaker 1: is the third issue. It's the issue of dependence. You know.
Speaker 1: This staff was the thing that he carried with him.
Speaker 1: Like Tom Hanks had a volleyball, Moses had a stick.
Speaker 1: And now in this moment where the community needs water
Speaker 1: and this is to be their last test, but they
Speaker 1: don't know it. This is to be their last test
Speaker 1: to see if they really trust God, and Moses fails
Speaker 1: the test. What I could not understand is why did
Speaker 1: God tell him to take the stick if he didn't
Speaker 1: want him to use it. Why did God tell mos
Speaker 1: us take the staff and then don't use it, just
Speaker 1: hold it and speak to the rock. Until I remember
Speaker 1: what Moses said to God when God first called Moses,
Speaker 1: I'm not good at speaking. And before God could let
Speaker 1: Moses lead his people into the promise, he had to
Speaker 1: know do you trust me enough? When God said Moses,
Speaker 1: you can't lead the people, it wasn't for punishment, it
Speaker 1: was for protection. If Moses would have led them in
Speaker 1: in the condition that his heart was in, with years
Speaker 1: and years and years and years of resentment building up,
Speaker 1: they would have all got killed the first time God spoken,
Speaker 1: they didn't do what he said because God needs someone
Speaker 1: who is not dependent on their staff. I know you
Speaker 1: struck the Red the Nile River, and the Red Sea,
Speaker 1: and I know that this staff has been used to
Speaker 1: perform great miracles, and I want you to hold it
Speaker 1: in your hand, but have the faith not to use it.
Speaker 1: I want you to speak to the rock, and he
Speaker 1: struck it instead. And God said, you don't trust me enough.
Speaker 1: You've allowed this resentment to build to a point that
Speaker 1: it has killed your potential. When we allow resentment to
Speaker 1: build and build and build and build, when we never
Speaker 1: really believe that we are what God said we are,
Speaker 1: when we are constantly taking people's assessment of us as
Speaker 1: the ultimate reality, it limits our participation in the promise
Speaker 1: of God. It doesn't keep God from loving you, but
Speaker 1: it keeps God from being able to lead you into
Speaker 1: the great and precious promises that have your name on them.
Speaker 1: God said, I just need you to trust me. I
Speaker 1: know you stutter, I know you stammer. I know you're
Speaker 1: afraid of letting me down. But it's never been about you, Moses.
Speaker 1: It was never about your mouth. It was about my
Speaker 1: mighty hand and my outstretched arm. It was never about
Speaker 1: your rod. It was about the rock. So what are
Speaker 1: you trusting in today, my friend, the rod or the rock?
Speaker 1: Because First Corinthians ten tells us plainly that this happened
Speaker 1: as an example for us, that the Israelites who wandered
Speaker 1: in the wilderness were an example for us, for you
Speaker 1: and me in our daily lives, in our efforts to
Speaker 1: trust God in the face of our own frailty, he said.
Speaker 1: The apostle Paul said verse four. They drank the same
Speaker 1: spiritual drink. They drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them.
Speaker 1: Here's the revelation, and that rock was Christ. It wasn't
Speaker 1: about Moses. It's not about me. It's not about you. Yes,
Speaker 1: I will let you down. Yes, I will disappoint you,
Speaker 1: But I'm not the rock. You know how good that
Speaker 1: makes me feel to know I'm not the rock. I
Speaker 1: don't have to force it, I don't have to fight it.
Speaker 1: I don't have to explode in anger when it doesn't
Speaker 1: go oh my way. I'm not the He is my
Speaker 1: stable place. He is my solid ground on Christ, the
Speaker 1: solid rock I stand. Whole other ground is sinking sand.
Speaker 1: Please stand, I'm closing, Please stand, I'm closing these Verse thirteen,
Speaker 1: where the waters of Miraba, where the Israelites quarreled with
Speaker 1: the Lord, they quarreled with the Lord. And verse two
Speaker 1: it said they quarreled with Moses. But really they were
Speaker 1: quarreling with the Lord. It wasn't even about Moses. It's
Speaker 1: not even about you. It's not even about me. We've
Speaker 1: been taking things personally, you know. Let it build and
Speaker 1: then it explodes. Not in church, Oh you look so
Speaker 1: fancy in here, your little boozy blessed self, come up
Speaker 1: in the House of God carrying a big, old, thick Bible.
Speaker 1: Explodes when you get home. It explodes when you're all
Speaker 1: alone and you find yourself crying out, desperate for connection
Speaker 1: and disappointed with your life. So you start striking rocks
Speaker 1: and you start trying to get You know, the water
Speaker 1: came out of the rock, and it worked on the surface,
Speaker 1: but Moses did not get to enter into the promise
Speaker 1: of God. Did God still love Moses? Absolutely? You see
Speaker 1: the God of second chances? I sure hope, so I
Speaker 1: know he is. I know He's not gonna punish me
Speaker 1: for one mistake. I can prove it. I can prove
Speaker 1: it to you. Give him that verse you earlier someone
Speaker 1: fourteen eight. When the Psalmist reflected on this event, he said,
Speaker 1: you got it one fourteen eight, the one I sent
Speaker 1: you earlier today? No is Psalm one fourteen verse A.
Speaker 1: What if I started yelling at the people on the
Speaker 1: screens to demonstrate Moses's frustration, But it said that God
Speaker 1: turned the rock into a pool, the hard rock into
Speaker 1: springs of water. And God spoke to me through that
Speaker 1: verse and said, if they'll let me, the place of
Speaker 1: their greatest mistake will become the place of my mercy
Speaker 1: and their greatest miracle. But for this to happen, we
Speaker 1: can't keep it all up inside and keep exploding in
Speaker 1: situations and exploding. It's not for everybody. Sometimes it's much
Speaker 1: more subtle than that. It's the little waste that you
Speaker 1: withdraw yourself from those that you love because I don't
Speaker 1: want to be disappointed again. I don't want to be
Speaker 1: a disappointment some living my whole life trying to avoid disappointment.
Speaker 1: I'm bringing my expectations down, down, down, down, down, down down,
Speaker 1: because now no one can disappoint me. And I'm bringing
Speaker 1: myself back back back back, because i don't want to
Speaker 1: disappoint you. It's not about you. This is the test.
Speaker 1: This is the test. With your rod in your hand,
Speaker 1: to remember all that God has done for you, and
Speaker 1: the rock in front of you, the presence of God.
Speaker 1: Speak to it, don't strike it, Speak to it, Confess
Speaker 1: it before God. Speak to your weakness, own your inadequacy.
Speaker 1: God said, I'm not looking for you to be what
Speaker 1: I need you to be. I'm looking for you to
Speaker 1: trust in what I already am. And so when Moses
Speaker 1: said I'm not, God said I am. When Moses said
Speaker 1: I'm not, God said I am. When Moses said I'm not,
Speaker 1: God said I am. When Moses said not, God said
Speaker 1: I am. Do you trust him enough to let him
Speaker 1: handle those who have hurt you? Do you trust him
Speaker 1: enough to allow him to use everything that's happened for
Speaker 1: your good and his glory? Lift your hands. If you do,
Speaker 1: the rock is in this place. When my heart is overwhelmed,
Speaker 1: Lead me to the rock that is higher than I
Speaker 1: meet us in this moment. God, pour out your spirit
Speaker 1: in a fresh way for your people. Now. I asked
Speaker 1: that you would speak to that weak place, broken place,
Speaker 1: discouraged place. Make that heart beat again for real water
Speaker 1: from a rock, so you are beauty from brokenness. Call
Speaker 1: to him, Call to him, speak to the rock. Unless
Speaker 1: you come, ask if you need me enter my decision
Speaker 1: making process. God, I need you well. I hope you
Speaker 1: enjoyed the podcast today, and if you did, there are
Speaker 1: just a couple of things I'd love for you to do.
Speaker 1: Number one, subscribe to our show. That way, the most
Speaker 1: recent episode will always be in your feed, waiting for
Speaker 1: you ready when you are. And secondly, if this ministry
Speaker 1: has impacted you and you'd like to help us continue
Speaker 1: to reach others, you can click the link in the
Speaker 1: description and you can give now and I'll see you
Speaker 1: next time on the Elevation Podcast.