Speaker 1: Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick. I'm the pastor of Elevation
Speaker 1: Church and this is our podcast and I wanted to
Speaker 1: thank you for joining us today. Hope this inspires you.
Speaker 1: Hope it builds your faith. Hope it gives your perspective
Speaker 1: to see God is moving in your life. Enjoy the message.
Speaker 1: This is very well known in church circles. I don't
Speaker 1: know if you've ever heard it before. I hope some
Speaker 1: of you haven't, because we want to reach people who
Speaker 1: have never gone to church before. And so don't feel
Speaker 1: bad if you don't know what this means. When I
Speaker 1: read it and the church people all start shouting and
Speaker 1: you're like, what, that's all right? But look at the
Speaker 1: scripture in Revelation chapter twenty two, verse twelve. Look, I
Speaker 1: am coming soon. My reward is with me, and I
Speaker 1: will give to each person according to what they have done.
Speaker 1: I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and
Speaker 1: the last, the beginning and the end. I didn't give
Speaker 1: them verse fourteen, but I bet they can put it
Speaker 1: in after. Blessed are those who wash their robes. Verse
Speaker 1: thirteen says I am the Alpha and the Omega, the
Speaker 1: first and the last, the beginning, and the end blessed
Speaker 1: are those who wash their robes. And I want to
Speaker 1: preach about blessings today, but not just any kind of blessings.
Speaker 1: There's all kind of blessings. I want to talk to
Speaker 1: you very specifically about beta blessings. That's my subject today.
Speaker 1: Beta blessings, be eta beta blessings. And let's begin our
Speaker 1: study of the Word of God. You may be seated
Speaker 1: beta beta blessings. Put it in the chat, Beta blessings.
Speaker 1: Say it out loud, Beta blessings. Y'all in the room.
Speaker 1: When I say put it in the chat for y'all,
Speaker 1: you don't have a chat right now, so you could
Speaker 1: just say it all right, you can actual chat it.
Speaker 1: It's a substitute for people who can't say it out loud,
Speaker 1: but y'all can do it for real. So everybody say
Speaker 1: beta blessings. Some are using thumbs, some are using tongues.
Speaker 1: But beta, you know, Beta. I don't mean like a
Speaker 1: sorority or something like that, alpha beta gamma. I don't
Speaker 1: want to bring any flashbacks to the people of God.
Speaker 1: I don't mean like blood pressure, like beta blockers. I
Speaker 1: saw that on an infomercial. I don't mean that I
Speaker 1: don't mean like like in the stock market where where
Speaker 1: it measures the stock. Not that kind of beta. That's
Speaker 1: not what I'm thinking of. Not the beta club that
Speaker 1: I was in an eighth grade. How many y'all are
Speaker 1: in beta club? I was in beta club. But that's
Speaker 1: what I'm talking about. I'm talking like Chunks always does this.
Speaker 1: He always signs up for the beta versions of software.
Speaker 1: I guess he's like an early adapter. Which is so
Speaker 1: funny because when he first started the church, he didn't
Speaker 1: even know how to use a spreadsheet, and he was
Speaker 1: the CFO. He had a notebook with a golden Retriever
Speaker 1: on the cover of the notebook, and all the church
Speaker 1: finances were in it, and there wasn't much to write down,
Speaker 1: so it was all right. That was like the beta
Speaker 1: version of Elevation Church, right, the beta version of our bookkeeping.
Speaker 1: Now there's all this audits and committees and subcommittees and
Speaker 1: everything like that. But now he's like always telling me
Speaker 1: about the new software. Graham was laughing at me the
Speaker 1: other day. He said, I needed the new iPhone. I
Speaker 1: don't even know which one this is? Which one do
Speaker 1: I have? The ten? The X? Do you call it
Speaker 1: the X? Or the ten, and he was like, you
Speaker 1: need the twelve and I said, I didn't know that
Speaker 1: I missed eleven. He said, he said, you need the
Speaker 1: twelve junior. What's it called? The mini MENI I love
Speaker 1: to make them cringe. That's why I do that. I
Speaker 1: pick out stuff I can say to make them cringe.
Speaker 1: That's my favorite thing. It's just a privilege of being
Speaker 1: the pastor and having your kids in church. The iPhone
Speaker 1: twelve or they hated so much. I don't know. I'm
Speaker 1: not a beta guy. Chunks will get all this new software.
Speaker 1: It'll be the beta version, which means, of course it's
Speaker 1: still being tested. And he likes it. And I'll be like,
Speaker 1: is that good that new operating system? And he's like,
Speaker 1: I don't know yet. This in the beta version. So
Speaker 1: I put this sermon in my phone. I was looking
Speaker 1: at the note in my iPhone X Senior. I put
Speaker 1: this sermon in my phone beta blessings, and I checked
Speaker 1: on the info tab on my ever note and it
Speaker 1: said I put it in twenty eighteen, and it's been
Speaker 1: that long in my phone. And then there comes a
Speaker 1: time when God will ought me to release it and
Speaker 1: preach it. And when I put it in my phone
Speaker 1: Beta blessings. I was thinking about the things that God
Speaker 1: does in our lives in certain seasons that at first
Speaker 1: we're not sure if it's a blessing because it's in beta.
Speaker 1: When I wrote this sermon down in twenty eighteen and
Speaker 1: couldn't figure out exactly how to preach it, I thought
Speaker 1: it was wasted. It wasn't wasted. It was in beta.
Speaker 1: Can I preach like I've been waiting to preach us
Speaker 1: for three years. We've been following the Israelites through the
Speaker 1: wilderness and they are in between seasons. I read you
Speaker 1: a scripture where Jesus said, I'm the Alpha and Omega.
Speaker 1: That is the first letter of the Greek alphabet, Alpha
Speaker 1: and the last letter Omega. That's why he says I'm
Speaker 1: the beginning and the end the last book of the Bible.
Speaker 1: He says, I am Alpha and Omega. I want you
Speaker 1: to write this down. It's a little bit of a
Speaker 1: long sentence, but Jesus is the Alpha and Omega. But
Speaker 1: I need a beta blessing for the spaces in between.
Speaker 1: Helped me. Holy Spirit. When the Israelites were in the wilderness,
Speaker 1: God was with them. He never stopped being with you.
Speaker 1: He's not waiting for you at some future destination. I
Speaker 1: want to get closer to God this year. That doesn't
Speaker 1: come five Bible books that you've memorized later and then
Speaker 1: a lot of times we'll be like, God, bring me
Speaker 1: back to the love that I have when I first
Speaker 1: met you, which is typically overrated in our imagination because
Speaker 1: we weren't as holy as we like to tell ourselves
Speaker 1: that we were when we first met him. So when
Speaker 1: you say he's the alpha and the Omega, you've got
Speaker 1: to also mentioned right that he is also beta, that's
Speaker 1: in between alpha and omega, and that's where we need
Speaker 1: his presence the most. How many understand that when a
Speaker 1: new year changes and a new year begins and there's
Speaker 1: so much excitement, or when a new year ends and
Speaker 1: there's so much desperation, we've kind of missed the point
Speaker 1: that some of God's greatest blessings are beta. Some of
Speaker 1: God's greatest blessings are in the form of watch this Mana.
Speaker 1: I don't know if you've been watching the sermons or
Speaker 1: slacking off, but I'll catch you up real quick that
Speaker 1: I've been talking about Mana in the Wilderness that he
Speaker 1: gave them mana, which means what is it? In that
Speaker 1: cool they needed food and God gave them something, and
Speaker 1: they didn't recognize it as a blessing at first. What
Speaker 1: is it? That's what mana means. Everybody say what is it?
Speaker 1: What is it? And then mana also means what it is?
Speaker 1: It is? And I don't yet know what it's going
Speaker 1: to be. And that's true about your life. And that's
Speaker 1: true about the thing that you're praying about right now,
Speaker 1: and that's true about everything that God has put inside
Speaker 1: of you. I want to look at this real quick
Speaker 1: because it's so powerful. In Joshua chapter five, it gives
Speaker 1: us a picture of this transition. Put it on the
Speaker 1: screen for me. Joshua chapter five, I could find it
Speaker 1: in my Bible. We could do it quicker, it said
Speaker 1: the day after the Passover, This is the Israelites, after
Speaker 1: going through the wilderness for forty years, after dealing with
Speaker 1: the situation for forty years. The Bible says that they
Speaker 1: celebrated the passover and they ate some of the produce
Speaker 1: of the land that God had promised. What kind of bread?
Speaker 1: What did I preach about last week? I'm not going
Speaker 1: to invite y'all back if y'all don't help me preach
Speaker 1: about this last week, please tell me the sermons stuck
Speaker 1: that law. So they came out of Egypt with unleavened bread.
Speaker 1: They didn't have the time for it to rise, but
Speaker 1: they had to go. And sometimes you've got to set
Speaker 1: out with a word from God not knowing all of
Speaker 1: the details. Even Abraham had to do this. God set
Speaker 1: in Genesis chapter twelve to Abraham. This was before he
Speaker 1: even had an h in his name. This was before
Speaker 1: Vana White even sold him. This was before. This was
Speaker 1: back in the times when Vana White used to manually
Speaker 1: turn the letters. Some of y'all don't know, this was
Speaker 1: a long time ago. This is back in the very beginning.
Speaker 1: Did I just preach wheel of fortune by accident? Yes?
Speaker 1: I did, Yes, I did. I did it on purpose too,
Speaker 1: for the real ones. And watch this. Before Abraham knew
Speaker 1: where he was going, he had to leave what he knew.
Speaker 1: Don't quit your job, don't sign a divorce paper. That's
Speaker 1: not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about abandoning your
Speaker 1: way of thinking. And the Lord said in Genesis chapter twelve,
Speaker 1: verse one, go from your country, your people, your father's household,
Speaker 1: to the land. I will show you you notice how
Speaker 1: specific God was about what he was leaving from, and
Speaker 1: how vague God was about what he was going to.
Speaker 1: That's where beta blessings are required. That's the beta version
Speaker 1: of the blessing of God. And follow it a verse further.
Speaker 1: This is God's original blessing to his people, coming through Abraham,
Speaker 1: the father of our faith, to the nation of Israel.
Speaker 1: Would all come through this one man, but it was
Speaker 1: still in beta. It would all come through one man,
Speaker 1: but it was still in beta. And the Lord had
Speaker 1: such a big vision for how he wanted to use
Speaker 1: Abraham as a blessing. I will make you into a
Speaker 1: great nation. I'll bless you. I'll make your name great,
Speaker 1: and you will be a blessing. One more verse. Show
Speaker 1: you how big this is. Let me show you how
Speaker 1: big this is what God had in mind to do
Speaker 1: through Abraham. Let me show you how big this is
Speaker 1: what God had in mind to do when he created you.
Speaker 1: Let me show you how big the picture is that
Speaker 1: God sees while you're so zoomed in on the part
Speaker 1: of your life that you don't like. He said, I'll
Speaker 1: bless those who bless you, and curse those who curse
Speaker 1: you in all people's own earth will be blessed through you.
Speaker 1: You see how big that blessing was, But it was
Speaker 1: still in beta. Correct me if I'm wrong, Tesla. But
Speaker 1: when they have it in beta, they don't release it
Speaker 1: to everybody. You have to sign up for that. God
Speaker 1: was gonna bless the whole earth through Israel, not just them.
Speaker 1: But we encountered them the last few weeks in the
Speaker 1: wilderness while they were still in beta. The Lord told me,
Speaker 1: I'm preaching to some people today who are in the
Speaker 1: beta version, the beta version, and when it's in the
Speaker 1: beta version, they're usually working out some bugs. Ask somebody
Speaker 1: next to you, got bugs. That's why I don't put
Speaker 1: it on my phone until later, because I want to
Speaker 1: wait till they get all the bugs out. And I
Speaker 1: wonder did God take his people through the wilderness for
Speaker 1: forty years, around and around in circles to get the
Speaker 1: bugs out? And I wonder has God left some of
Speaker 1: the things in our life in a holding pattern or
Speaker 1: brought us into spaces where we're not getting what we're
Speaker 1: praying for, or it's not happening as fast as we
Speaker 1: wanted to, because maybe He wants to get the bugs out.
Speaker 1: So I'm praying a prayer over my life this week. God,
Speaker 1: get the bugs out, because I don't want to release
Speaker 1: a version to the world. See, before I preached this
Speaker 1: message to you, I preached it to myself so I
Speaker 1: could get the bugs out. Because before I release it,
Speaker 1: before I put it out on YouTube where everybody with
Speaker 1: the broadband connection and an opinion can judge it, I
Speaker 1: want to make sure it's what God wants to say.
Speaker 1: I had it in my phone three years to preach
Speaker 1: to you because God wanted you to have it right now.
Speaker 1: But it wasn't wasted. It was in beta. God said,
Speaker 1: there's some stuff you prayed for, there's some stuff you
Speaker 1: asked for. There's some stuff I know you need. It's
Speaker 1: in beta. It's in beta. It's in beta. This relationship
Speaker 1: isn't a bad relationship. It's in beta. It's in beta.
Speaker 1: This song I'm working on isn't a bad song. It's
Speaker 1: just in beta. That book I worked on last year
Speaker 1: that's not ready to be released yet, it wasn't a
Speaker 1: waste of time. It's in beta. I put it in
Speaker 1: a box in my room to remind myself that Lazarus
Speaker 1: might go in a box for a minute, but he
Speaker 1: will rise again. What was the Lord telling me? I
Speaker 1: gotta remember he was saying something about boxes in beta.
Speaker 1: He was telling me, oh, when we get too attached
Speaker 1: to the beta version, it puts God in a box.
Speaker 1: Let's go deeper. Sit down, look, I'm not even standing
Speaker 1: up well, and your step ahead. These aid Beta blessings,
Speaker 1: Beta blessings. The mana was not meant to be on
Speaker 1: the menu permanently. It was a seasonal provision. And when
Speaker 1: the mana went away. I don't know if you saw
Speaker 1: that in Joshua five. At first they thought this is
Speaker 1: really bad. This is really bad. How many of you
Speaker 1: had something in your life last year that you go,
Speaker 1: this is really bad. This is really bad, y'all. There's
Speaker 1: three people in the church who had a storm last year.
Speaker 1: These are some Caribbean crews. Christians in here. Come. I'm
Speaker 1: looking for some pirates of the Caribbean that had to
Speaker 1: fight some battle. Beta. The manner was what God gave
Speaker 1: them in between. That's what I mean by Beta blessings.
Speaker 1: I'm someone who really fights for my relationships. I don't
Speaker 1: throw people away. There's people in this room right now
Speaker 1: that are on my staff. I should have fired him
Speaker 1: fifteen times. I'm not looking at anybody more, and they
Speaker 1: probably should have not, you know, been mad at me
Speaker 1: and left. But you know I'm loyal. I really am loyal, true,
Speaker 1: you know me the whole time, all right. Sometimes in
Speaker 1: that effort to be loyal, not necessarily to a person,
Speaker 1: I always want to be good to people. If I'm
Speaker 1: your friend, I'm your friend. But sometimes I'm loyal to
Speaker 1: something that the Lord used in one season at the
Speaker 1: expense of something that he's bringing in this season. And
Speaker 1: I want to take that off of people, and I
Speaker 1: want to take that off of jobs. In all the
Speaker 1: ways that we use sermons as an excuse to not
Speaker 1: have perseverance, let us think in this is a This
Speaker 1: is not a confirmation for you to quit, but it
Speaker 1: is a command for you to grow, grow, grow, grow,
Speaker 1: grow grow. Elevation church. They used to call it evolution church.
Speaker 1: And I'm like, well, both are right. And I'm not
Speaker 1: talking about Darwin or something like that, or from the
Speaker 1: Goo to the Zoo to you or any of that.
Speaker 1: I'm saying like changeing. It always changes. But isn't there
Speaker 1: a temptation? I read this thing from a rabbi wrote
Speaker 1: this quote. He said that our wisdom is distinguishing between
Speaker 1: those things which must remain unchanging in our lives and
Speaker 1: those changes we should accept an embrace. I read it
Speaker 1: over and over again. I wrote it out, I read it,
Speaker 1: I wrote it, and I said, Lord, show me that
Speaker 1: because in Joshua five, once Moses had taken the people
Speaker 1: as far as they could go, he was I guess
Speaker 1: you could say, in some ways beta, not like a
Speaker 1: beta male. I don't mean it like that, like not
Speaker 1: that he was passive. I'm saying he was what God
Speaker 1: gave them to get them to a certain place. God
Speaker 1: gives you that, He gives you instruments, He gives you provisions,
Speaker 1: He gives you manna. When Joshua led the people to
Speaker 1: the edge of God's promise, the man of stop, that
Speaker 1: was bad. No, it wasn't. It was beta. And I
Speaker 1: want you to shift your mind this week and see
Speaker 1: things in your life that are in development and be
Speaker 1: able to say, it's not bad. It's in beta. It's
Speaker 1: not bad. It's in beta. And when the real product
Speaker 1: gets finished, they updated. You don't keep the beta version
Speaker 1: on your phone forever. When they came to the edge
Speaker 1: of Canaan when God gave them the ability to sow
Speaker 1: and reap, they couldn't go out their tents and just
Speaker 1: collect the man anymore. Oh and by the way, this
Speaker 1: is underscored so brilliantly in I believe it's Exodus chapter sixteen,
Speaker 1: where it said they were to go out and get
Speaker 1: the manna they needed for that day. When they tried
Speaker 1: to keep the mana too long for the next day
Speaker 1: and didn't have the faith that God would put it there,
Speaker 1: it would rot, it would stink, and there would be
Speaker 1: maggots in the manna, maggots in the mana. That what
Speaker 1: God gave them became infested with their lack of faith
Speaker 1: when they kept the mana too long, when they kept
Speaker 1: the beta too long, guess what got in it? Bugs?
Speaker 1: Bugs us, Do you see it? It said the maggots
Speaker 1: would eat the mana. But if they used what they
Speaker 1: were supposed to use, if they did what they were
Speaker 1: supposed to do, if they moved to the rhythm of
Speaker 1: the voice of God, there would always be more mana.
Speaker 1: And now, if we want to watch all of these
Speaker 1: economic predictors, and we want to watch all of these
Speaker 1: these social conclusions, and we want to watch all these
Speaker 1: talking heads who say the worst things to keep us watching.
Speaker 1: Then we will have maggots in our manna. God gave
Speaker 1: us certain things for seasons, seasons, seasons, and it's time
Speaker 1: to grow up. Y'all. Didn't shout over that. Y'all like
Speaker 1: the magots better, y'all like the maggots better than the maturity. Oh,
Speaker 1: I'm the worst about this. I'll find something that works
Speaker 1: and I'll just keep doing it. I mean, when I
Speaker 1: used to preach sermons series. I mentioned this earlier. There
Speaker 1: came a time where that was that was a blessing.
Speaker 1: I told Holly the other day. I used to need
Speaker 1: to plan my sermon series twelve weeks in advance when
Speaker 1: I started, so I could have time to study. I
Speaker 1: didn't know what I was doing. You still don't, thanks
Speaker 1: a lot. I just say what. I just say it
Speaker 1: so nobody else can't. It's a deeply embedded insecurity that
Speaker 1: manifested me being sarcastic on stage in front of thousands
Speaker 1: of people, and so I used that as a way
Speaker 1: to study. Okay, I'm going to preach on this and
Speaker 1: that and the other, and it let me study over
Speaker 1: the course of years. Though the way God began to
Speaker 1: speak to me, and I'm just using this as an example.
Speaker 1: You would have your own I would start to use
Speaker 1: that as a crutch, and it would keep me from
Speaker 1: speaking what God was saying to me right now and
Speaker 1: trusting Him in the moment, because I would rely on
Speaker 1: the structure, not the spirit. There's nothing wrong with sermons series,
Speaker 1: and maybe God will use that again one day, But
Speaker 1: right now, I've noticed that the Lord has me in
Speaker 1: a different place, and to do that takes trust. Do
Speaker 1: you remember Malachi three, Bring the tithe into the storehouse.
Speaker 1: Some of y'all have PTSD over that scripture. You know,
Speaker 1: bring the tithe or God's gonna curse you. Bring the tithether,
Speaker 1: God's gonna puncture your lung. Bring the tithe and you
Speaker 1: have flat tire. It's been all been done. I don't
Speaker 1: think that scripture is about just tithing ten percent. It
Speaker 1: is about that, but it's about trust. It's about trusting
Speaker 1: God to transform you. It's about trusting God to teach you.
Speaker 1: It's about trusting God and the transitions of your life.
Speaker 1: So He's saying to the nation, I couldn't believe when
Speaker 1: I saw this, this is what set it off for me.
Speaker 1: Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may
Speaker 1: be food in my house. Test me in this test.
Speaker 1: That's an important word. Test. That's what they do in beta,
Speaker 1: they test the product. That's what God did in the wilderness.
Speaker 1: He tested his people, not because he didn't know. He
Speaker 1: wasn't trying to get information about him. He wasn't doing
Speaker 1: any at Graham on the Israelites. It's testing where the
Speaker 1: bugs get worked out, where I learned not to be petty,
Speaker 1: offended and paranoid, and to rely on God as my source.
Speaker 1: He said, test me, test me, test me, He said,
Speaker 1: test me. No, you test us. He's like, no, no, no,
Speaker 1: I'm not the one who has bugs to begin with.
Speaker 1: I'm just getting things out of you. Why why is God?
Speaker 1: Why is God getting the bugs out of me? Right
Speaker 1: now here? It is. See if I'm not throw open
Speaker 1: the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing.
Speaker 1: The test is to create space in my life, and
Speaker 1: I'll put so much blessing that there will not be
Speaker 1: room enough to receive it. Now, So Lord, I want
Speaker 1: to have room to receive anything you bring into my life.
Speaker 1: I want to have room to receive it. And I
Speaker 1: can't do that. I can't have room to receive what
Speaker 1: you're bringing in my life if every square inch of
Speaker 1: my mind is occupied. And then the next verse said
Speaker 1: something crazier. He said, test me. See if I won't
Speaker 1: bless you and I verse eleven, you're not gonna believe
Speaker 1: this will prevent pests. There's the bugs again. I'll get
Speaker 1: the pest out of your crops. I'll get the bugs
Speaker 1: out of your thinking. I'm working things out of you, see,
Speaker 1: because if I release it too soon, you won't be ready.
Speaker 1: So trust me. In this space called the wilderness, God's
Speaker 1: getting the bugs out. God's getting the bugs out. Some
Speaker 1: of you have really good kids, they're just buggy. I asked, Chunks,
Speaker 1: is that software good? Should I get it? He's like,
Speaker 1: I don't know yet. It's buggy right now. But just
Speaker 1: because it's buggy in beta doesn't mean it's not good.
Speaker 1: And when God gets done getting the bugs out of
Speaker 1: your kids, the things that you spank them over, the
Speaker 1: things that you put them in time out over, I'm sorry,
Speaker 1: this is very politically correct Culture twenty twenty one. I
Speaker 1: don't want to be canceled, uh, the things that you
Speaker 1: encouraging them strongly to modify in their behavior. See how
Speaker 1: many y'all raise your hand. We're just gonna do it.
Speaker 1: Have a strong willed kid, at least one in your family.
Speaker 1: Parents Fars Fars, Fars Fars fans, parents are how many
Speaker 1: would say they're even borderline stubborn, borderline stubbornlin? Can I
Speaker 1: get a stomer? Can I get a border lin stubber?
Speaker 1: Can I get a word line stubber online online stubborn
Speaker 1: stumber and stubborn, strong, wild strong one? Okay, okay, okay,
Speaker 1: you know how right now it's an immature form, but
Speaker 1: it's gonna be boldness. It's just in beta. It's in beta.
Speaker 1: It's in beta. I got some bless ads, but they're
Speaker 1: in beda right now. They feel like a burdad, but
Speaker 1: it's a blessed God's getting the bugs out of my crops.
Speaker 1: This here, my build will be a delightful wand my vine, well,
Speaker 1: it's truth in season. How many of y'all got a
Speaker 1: beta blessing right now? Something God is working on something.
Speaker 1: God is doing something. God is perfecting something. God is
Speaker 1: establishing something. He's completing something, he's revealing something, he's revising.
Speaker 1: You got it? You got it. I got it in
Speaker 1: beta already, know alpha. I know who started it already,
Speaker 1: know Omega, I know who's gonna finish it. But watch
Speaker 1: me right now, praise God. In the beta stage. Work
Speaker 1: the fucks out, get the bitterness out, get the unbelievable,
Speaker 1: get it out so that you will have room too
Speaker 1: receive it. It's something in beta. It's just in between.
Speaker 1: It's just in beta. It's just in between. It's just
Speaker 1: in beta. It's in beta. Are you blessed? Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: in beta. Doesn't look like you're blessed. Doesn't look like
Speaker 1: a blessing. Watch this some of the things that turn
Speaker 1: out to be the biggest blessings when they're in beta,
Speaker 1: they're the buggiest. How ma, y'all ever bought a boat?
Speaker 1: It was a blessing for a minute, wasn't it. Back
Speaker 1: when I was a little listen, we had a subscription
Speaker 1: service for music called not Spotify, Columbia House, Oh my
Speaker 1: wheel of fortune, Columbia House, saying shout him to God
Speaker 1: with a voice of oldness, because they would sell you
Speaker 1: twelve CDs p for a penny, that's practically free. I
Speaker 1: heard the Israelites in Egypt talking about we had fish
Speaker 1: for free in Egypt. Numbers eleven five. We had fish
Speaker 1: for free in Egypt. We had fish for free, and
Speaker 1: we also got beat half to death in Egypt. It
Speaker 1: was free at first. You've already heard the masterful speech.
Speaker 1: Free at last, but free at first. That's the things
Speaker 1: that come into your life looking like a blessing, but
Speaker 1: it's not. You would send off this little card, you know,
Speaker 1: when you were sending off that car. It was the
Speaker 1: first step toward a collection agency. I had a collection
Speaker 1: agency on my back at age thirteen, twelve CDs for free,
Speaker 1: and they were free at first, but then there was
Speaker 1: a selection of the month. It was a negative billing
Speaker 1: kind of situation where if you didn't send back this
Speaker 1: card automatically here comes to your mailbox, not the CDs
Speaker 1: that you wanted. Go to your mailbox, like, what's this?
Speaker 1: Open it up? This is Michael Bolton? Who want Michael Bolton?
Speaker 1: It was free at first. The Michael Bolton CD is
Speaker 1: twenty five dollars. Going to your mailbox, open up the
Speaker 1: package and they sent you Ace of Base, Like no,
Speaker 1: I want a motor at Ace of Spades. This is
Speaker 1: Ace of Base. Oh that she wants is you know
Speaker 1: this is terrible, but it was free at first. It
Speaker 1: was free at first. It was free at first. Then
Speaker 1: they keep sending you stuff that you didn't ask for.
Speaker 1: It was free at first. I don't mean to get
Speaker 1: up in your fortnication. It was free at first. I
Speaker 1: don't mean to get up into things that you do
Speaker 1: that are free at first. It could be a lot
Speaker 1: of things. Let's just don't get on the sex stuff.
Speaker 1: I could talk about manipulation, y'all like me saying fortnication
Speaker 1: better than manipulation, because everybody in this room has tried
Speaker 1: to manipulate what God gave you at one point in time.
Speaker 1: And it works at first. It works at first until
Speaker 1: you're looking down spice girls, wondering how am I going
Speaker 1: to pay for this? The fish for free at first,
Speaker 1: and they said fish in Egypt. Now my mind is
Speaker 1: really weird. So I get on a theme and I
Speaker 1: just stayed there until almost wear it out to death.
Speaker 1: The fish in Egypt is what they wanted to go
Speaker 1: back to. Right, that's the same thing from the twelve
Speaker 1: Tribes of Israel as the twelve Disciples. And I want
Speaker 1: to show you this continuity, to show you a beta blessing.
Speaker 1: Do you remember when Peter and I'll teach you this
Speaker 1: story real quick. It's a good one. And Luke five
Speaker 1: was fishing all night and caught nothing. That was a
Speaker 1: really frustrating thing, but his lack of success was actually
Speaker 1: a blessing because it set the stage for him to
Speaker 1: meet Jesus. At that exact moment, he's putting the boat up,
Speaker 1: and I know a lot of us have failed at
Speaker 1: things I have, you have, and it's hard to see
Speaker 1: those things as a blessing when they're in beta. And
Speaker 1: while he's washing his nets and cleaning out all of
Speaker 1: the particles that would brought the nets so couldn't use
Speaker 1: them again, the Lord goes and preaches in his boat
Speaker 1: to be a disciple, and they went, listen, you want
Speaker 1: to talk about a blessing. They went from empty nets
Speaker 1: to sinking boats, and for some of you this is
Speaker 1: going to be a year of boat sinking blessings. Do
Speaker 1: you receive that some of those blessings will not come
Speaker 1: in the form of material possessions, although if you need that,
Speaker 1: may God do it for you. But some of those
Speaker 1: blessings will come in the form of things that no
Speaker 1: material possession can be exchanged for and it is going
Speaker 1: to be a year for some of us. I declare
Speaker 1: this over your life, with no trace of sarcasm or manipulation.
Speaker 1: This is going to be a year of boat sinking
Speaker 1: blessings in your life, boat sinking blessings in your life.
Speaker 1: And you know how they're going to come. Not when
Speaker 1: you pray for a blessing, but when you obey. What
Speaker 1: took the nets from being empty to being so fool
Speaker 1: that they couldn't even stand the catch was when Peter said,
Speaker 1: look at verse five, We've worked hard all night. This
Speaker 1: isn't working. But because you say so, pray to be blessed, fine,
Speaker 1: pray about it, but obey to be blessed. Obey so
Speaker 1: beta blessing works better. Obey to be blessed. Right, Not,
Speaker 1: I'll obey this when you bless me, lord, not if
Speaker 1: you bless me Lord. No, just because it's the right thing,
Speaker 1: just because it's who I want to be, just because
Speaker 1: that's what I'm supposed to do, not because of something external.
Speaker 1: This is who I am. That's why I'm kind, That's
Speaker 1: why I'm going after it, That's why I'm still doing it.
Speaker 1: That's why I'm still surfing right out of obedience. And
Speaker 1: this is so awesome because they went from empty nets
Speaker 1: to boats sinking blessings. And the the question is will
Speaker 1: you have room to receive it? Peter didn't. He needed
Speaker 1: another boat, He needed more room to receive. When the
Speaker 1: boats were so full of fish that they couldn't hold him,
Speaker 1: he had to signal his partner. And for this stage
Speaker 1: of your life, you are not going to be able
Speaker 1: to stay in isolation. I know you used to do that.
Speaker 1: You did that to survive. That's how you did it.
Speaker 1: You were a fighter and you kept people off of you,
Speaker 1: and you did that, but that is going to prohibit
Speaker 1: you from receiving in this season. You've got to signal
Speaker 1: the other boat in this ridge. You tom been thinking
Speaker 1: about this in beta for three years just so God
Speaker 1: could release it to us today. Because we're in beta,
Speaker 1: aren't we come on with your buggy self, your little
Speaker 1: buggy beta behind looking at me all angelic celestial. I
Speaker 1: bet you were a beta boyfriend, JT. So wonder, Brittany,
Speaker 1: aren't you glad that she looked past the bugs and
Speaker 1: saw the beta that you could be. I'm in beta.
Speaker 1: By the way, buggy boyfriends turn into messy men. So
Speaker 1: watch it, watch it, watch it, watch it. But should
Speaker 1: we do with homework and all that? What a blessing
Speaker 1: he is to you? What a blessing she is to you.
Speaker 1: And the more we allow God to do in our
Speaker 1: own lives, the more ready we are to receive from partnership.
Speaker 1: So much to it. They haul in all these fish, right,
Speaker 1: what a blessing. And then the craziest part of the text,
Speaker 1: I need you ready to receive this. Do you have
Speaker 1: room for a little more? Come on, say, I have
Speaker 1: room to receive. I have room to receive it. So
Speaker 1: when they caught the fish, they saw Jesus for who
Speaker 1: he was. When they caught the fish, he gave them
Speaker 1: a calling. They tried to push Jesus away. Peter said,
Speaker 1: I'm a sinful man. Look at verse nine. I'm a
Speaker 1: sinful man. I'm a sinful man. Luke five nine, I'm
Speaker 1: a sinful man. No, you're not a bad man. You're
Speaker 1: just in beta. I got a plan for you. I
Speaker 1: got a work to do in you. You're just in beta.
Speaker 1: Don't give up on yourself. You just in beta. I
Speaker 1: know you're buggy and whiney, but I'm just in beta.
Speaker 1: He's the Alpha and the Omega, and I'm in Beda
Speaker 1: and I'm blessed. Now what I saw next challenged everything
Speaker 1: I thought I knew about the Bible, because I thought
Speaker 1: that Jesus blessed them to catch the fish. And then
Speaker 1: what happened in verse ten, You got it. They were
Speaker 1: astonished by the catch of fish, and so were the partners,
Speaker 1: and he said, don't be afraid. From now on you
Speaker 1: a fish for people. Verse eleven got me. They pulled
Speaker 1: up their boats and left everything the blessing that they
Speaker 1: just had. And I read it, and the Lord said,
Speaker 1: that's because the fish wasn't the blessing. That wasn't the blessing.
Speaker 1: That was the bait. Coming right up in your kitchen.
Speaker 1: I'm coming right up in your kitchen. See that miracle
Speaker 1: that Jesus gave them. That wasn't the blessing. That was
Speaker 1: the Now talking about beta, I'm talking about bait. Be a.
Speaker 1: I thank you, little buddy, of I said, what do
Speaker 1: you mean. It's like I'm having this conversation with the
Speaker 1: Holy Spirit, not out loud, but just thinking about it,
Speaker 1: you know, just thinking about it, trying to go deeper
Speaker 1: in it and go how did they leave the blessing
Speaker 1: that they just had, and how can we do that?
Speaker 1: And how can things be moving around in our life
Speaker 1: and it seems like good things are going away? And
Speaker 1: how can I be okay with that? How can I
Speaker 1: move forward in that? How can I do it? See,
Speaker 1: the ketch a fish was just what God used to
Speaker 1: get them to their calling. It wasn't really the blessing.
Speaker 1: It was just the bait. The man of was just
Speaker 1: the means to get them to Canaan. That's all it was.
Speaker 1: It was just the beta, the bait, the beta, the bait.
Speaker 1: It was the bait that God used. Like when I
Speaker 1: went to college, I got a scholarship, not a full scholarship,
Speaker 1: but enough scholarship that God gave me to get there,
Speaker 1: and I thought that was a blessing and it was,
Speaker 1: but it wasn't just a blessing. It was bait. Because
Speaker 1: when I got to college, I went to BSU, which
Speaker 1: was the Baptist Student Union, and they asked me to
Speaker 1: be the greeter on the team. And I thought that
Speaker 1: was good. I have a good personality. What a blessing
Speaker 1: that they want me to be a greeter. And it was,
Speaker 1: but it was also a debate because another person on
Speaker 1: the Greeter team, her name was Holly Boyknot, the artist
Speaker 1: formerly known as Holly Boy Knot. And so when I
Speaker 1: met Holly boy Not, I figured, what a blessing to
Speaker 1: be on the welcome team of BSU with Holly boy Not.
Speaker 1: But that wasn't really the blessing. That was just the
Speaker 1: bait because then they asked me to be the leader
Speaker 1: of a summer ministry impact team that would go across
Speaker 1: the state of South Carolina to preach to people. I thought,
Speaker 1: what a blessing. I'm the only freshman that Mason Easterlink
Speaker 1: ever asked to do this. What a blessing did I
Speaker 1: get to do it? But that wasn't even just the blessing.
Speaker 1: That was the bait because he also said I get
Speaker 1: to pick my team members. So I circled back to
Speaker 1: the welcome Somebody, shout over your beta blessing right now,
Speaker 1: because I promise you God knows how to get you
Speaker 1: where he wants you to go. So I want you
Speaker 1: to know the thing that you thought was the blessing,
Speaker 1: that wasn't even it. That wasn't even all. That was
Speaker 1: just the but dning. I have the OUTBA have the
Speaker 1: old man. God, that's just the bait. That's just the beta.
Speaker 1: You haven't seen your best self yet. You haven't seen
Speaker 1: your risen self yet. This is just a rough draft.
Speaker 1: There will be revisions. I'm in beta, God said beta blessing.
Speaker 1: He said, I got blessings I want to bring to you.
Speaker 1: So I'm using things to to bait to get you
Speaker 1: in the places where I want you to be. I'm
Speaker 1: using the things that you hate to bring you into
Speaker 1: the blessings that you prayed for. It wasn't even the blessing.
Speaker 1: That was just the bait. It does not yet appear
Speaker 1: what we shall be. I just got a glimpse of
Speaker 1: it right now. You think that acorn is sexy, there's
Speaker 1: an oak inside that acorn. Oh you thought you thought
Speaker 1: the beta was good, Wait till God gets thees bugs out.
Speaker 1: And that's why you have to keep surviving and living
Speaker 1: and not kill yourself and not give into it. That's why,
Speaker 1: because there is a blessing so big for Abraham, there
Speaker 1: is a blessing so big for you that you are
Speaker 1: a part of, not just to you, but through you,
Speaker 1: for your family and your children and their children. And
Speaker 1: so God, if you want to release me into the world. God,
Speaker 1: I want you to get the bugs out, not to
Speaker 1: make me perfect. I'll never be perfect. Peter walked away
Speaker 1: from the fish, followed Jesus, saw miracles, lost his faith
Speaker 1: at the cross, met him again after the resurrection. He's
Speaker 1: still in Beda, after all he saw. He's still in Beda.
Speaker 1: And you think you're supposed to be arrived by now,
Speaker 1: Please don't, please, don't put that pressure on yourself. I'm
Speaker 1: in Beda data. That's not an excuse for me not
Speaker 1: to grow. It's the reason why I have to because
Speaker 1: I want to see, don't you. I want to see.
Speaker 1: I want to see what I can be if I'm
Speaker 1: really free. Minister LJ. It took me all the way
Speaker 1: to John twenty one, and something real strange occurs in
Speaker 1: the text, because it seems like in the Bible that
Speaker 1: Israelites want to go back to the fish, that we're familiar,
Speaker 1: and it seemed like so did the disciples. And in
Speaker 1: John twenty one, the Peter who would receive Holy Spirit
Speaker 1: power and preach on the day of Pentecost. Stop. You
Speaker 1: have no idea what God is going to use you
Speaker 1: to do. You just don't know. You can't know what
Speaker 1: he's already done through you that you don't even know about.
Speaker 1: But Peter did what we always do in that beta
Speaker 1: stage of our life, you know, the in between the beta.
Speaker 1: Alpha is great, it's exciting. Omega is great, it's fulfilling.
Speaker 1: But beta, that's really different. Middle school, mid life. What
Speaker 1: do these things have in common? They are both the
Speaker 1: stages of life where we talk about people losing their minds.
Speaker 1: Why because it's the beta stage, the in between stage.
Speaker 1: So when I saw this in John twenty one three,
Speaker 1: I judged Peter because it said he'd already seen the
Speaker 1: risen Lord, and he said to his companions verse three,
Speaker 1: I'm going fishing. I'm going fishing, all right. The fish
Speaker 1: represents what he was familiar with and what he was
Speaker 1: good at. He's trying to go back to beta. Peter's
Speaker 1: trying to be Simon again, fighting the battles like you
Speaker 1: used to fight, doing it in your own strength, going
Speaker 1: back to old stuff, old old stuff that's not even
Speaker 1: part of the new creation. It's not even part of
Speaker 1: the original you. It's just layers. And I don't want
Speaker 1: to judge him over a fishing trip. It didn't like
Speaker 1: he went to the strip club. He just went fishing.
Speaker 1: So I want to read it to you. Stand where
Speaker 1: you are received this work. I want you to put
Speaker 1: your body in a posture that you're going to receive
Speaker 1: what I want to show you. They went out and
Speaker 1: got in the boat that night. They call it not
Speaker 1: that sounds familiar, sounds like luke Fi. Sounds like a
Speaker 1: few years ago, sounds like the wilderness, sounds like our
Speaker 1: habits are addictions twenty twenty, twenty twenty one, twenty nineteen,
Speaker 1: sounds like that you well. Jesus shows up again at
Speaker 1: the point of what they've perceived to be their failure,
Speaker 1: but it was really his whole point. I speak it
Speaker 1: over your life. Sometimes the failure is the goal because
Speaker 1: of how positions you and the Lord waited till the
Speaker 1: last man, till they got all the bugs out, till
Speaker 1: they got their muscles sore, till they've done all they
Speaker 1: could do. Jesus stood on the shore. The disciples did
Speaker 1: not realize it was Jesus, and he called out to them, friends,
Speaker 1: haven't you any fish? Pay attention to this verse? No,
Speaker 1: they answered. Then he said, throw your net on the
Speaker 1: right side of the boat, and you will find some.
Speaker 1: When they did when they did something different, when they
Speaker 1: did it a different way. God is saying, do it
Speaker 1: a different way, do it a different way. This is
Speaker 1: what we've been talking about. This is what God has
Speaker 1: had me walking us through. Do it a different way,
Speaker 1: a different way, a different way to meet those needs
Speaker 1: that were put there by God. One that doesn't push
Speaker 1: him out of the picture. One that doesn't leave you
Speaker 1: feeling worse. Fish you can eat that you don't choke
Speaker 1: on the bones, things that don't make you feel like
Speaker 1: crap in the morning, things that don't make you go
Speaker 1: further and further into isolation. He said, friends, haven't you
Speaker 1: any fish? And then when they threw it on the
Speaker 1: other side, they were unable to haul in the net
Speaker 1: because the large number of fish boats sinking. Blessing. But
Speaker 1: then the disciple whom Jesus loves said to Peter, it
Speaker 1: is the Lord. And as soon as Simon Peter heard
Speaker 1: him say his the Lord, he wrapped his outo garment
Speaker 1: round for you, taking off jumped in the water. I
Speaker 1: want to preach about that. I don't preach about this.
Speaker 1: The other disciple following in the boat towing the net
Speaker 1: full of fish. The fish the blessing. They were not
Speaker 1: far from the shore, about one hundred yards football field.
Speaker 1: Now verse nine, when they landed they saw a fire
Speaker 1: of burning coals there with fish on it and some bread.
Speaker 1: I don't want you to miss the significant of this
Speaker 1: for your life. Verse eight says they towed the net
Speaker 1: full of fish, and verse nine says when they landed
Speaker 1: they saw burning coals with fish already on it. So
Speaker 1: then Jesus in verse ten says, bring some of the
Speaker 1: fish you have just caught. Bring the blessing I just
Speaker 1: gave you. Next verse, Peter climbed back in the boat
Speaker 1: and dragged the net ashore. Peter's alpha male, Ah ah,
Speaker 1: I got a whole net. Ah ah. Always struggling this
Speaker 1: you always trying. Ah. It was full of large fish
Speaker 1: one hundred and fifty three, who's counting. But even with
Speaker 1: so many, This is the thing about God's blessing. It
Speaker 1: didn't break the net. That's the thing about God's blessing.
Speaker 1: It doesn't break the net. And I'll leave you with
Speaker 1: this thought because I know you're full now and I
Speaker 1: want you to be able to digest what you heard.
Speaker 1: But I should show you this. Jesus said, come and
Speaker 1: have breakfast. None of the disciples dared ask him, who
Speaker 1: are you? They knew it was the Lord. In Verse
Speaker 1: thirteen says Jesus came, took the bread and gave it
Speaker 1: to them, and did the same with the fish. So
Speaker 1: the question is which fish? The ones they had just caught,
Speaker 1: are the ones that he had already cooked. All the
Speaker 1: things we bring to God in our effort to do better,
Speaker 1: in our effort to be blessed, we find that when
Speaker 1: we get to the shore and recognize him for who
Speaker 1: he is, he's already cooking while we couldn't catch all night.
Speaker 1: I don't know what our global church family is going
Speaker 1: through because God doesn't see crowds. He sees people. But
Speaker 1: he must see someone who has been fishing all night
Speaker 1: and catching nothing. He must see somebody that's so frustrated
Speaker 1: you're about ready to just put the nets up, go home,
Speaker 1: quit quit being present, and all of that. Or he
Speaker 1: must see somebody who's stuck in a version of you
Speaker 1: that isn't really you. Because he had this message in
Speaker 1: my heart for three years, but today this is the
Speaker 1: release date for you for what you've been holding, for
Speaker 1: the expectation you put on yourself that doesn't come from God.
Speaker 1: Right now, with your hands to heaven, and I lift
Speaker 1: mine too, let's just decide that. Let's just decide that
Speaker 1: we're not going to let the blessing of God that's
Speaker 1: in our life right now die in the wilderness. Lord,
Speaker 1: I'm really thankful that you're the Alpha because you begin
Speaker 1: the good work in me. I'm really thankful that you're
Speaker 1: the Omega because you'll finish today. I want to praise
Speaker 1: you for Beta, the second letter of the Greek alphabet,
Speaker 1: the one that lets me know you're every step in between.
Speaker 1: I pray right now for every man, woman, boy and
Speaker 1: girl who's been in beta. Oh i've got this issue,
Speaker 1: I've got this insecurity. Oh I've got this. I got it,
Speaker 1: I got it. It's all right, it's all right, it's
Speaker 1: all right, it's all right, it's all right, it's just Beta.
Speaker 1: I thank you that your blessings are more than fish.
Speaker 1: I thank you that your blessings are more than feelings.
Speaker 1: How we long, Lord to eat the bread that doesn't perish,
Speaker 1: the food that doesn't spoil, and that's your word. I
Speaker 1: thank you for every blessing that you used and every
Speaker 1: battle to bring us to the place where we are
Speaker 1: right now. This is where we are supposed to be.
Speaker 1: We praise you right now. We praise you with our mouths,
Speaker 1: we praise you with our hands. We praise you for
Speaker 1: the beta blessings. We worship you, We worship uke. That
Speaker 1: nothing is wasted, not a crawl, not one jot, not
Speaker 1: one tittle, not one word falls from your mouth that
Speaker 1: it does not produce. We thank you. Were on the
Speaker 1: edge of Canaan. We are stepping into exceeding great and
Speaker 1: precious promises. When that which is perfect has called, that
Speaker 1: which is incomplete goes away. Oh God, we thank you
Speaker 1: for the Manna. But today we're eating grapes. We thank
Speaker 1: you God. We thank you God. We thank you God.
Speaker 1: We thank you for the Law. But we're under grace.
Speaker 1: We thank you for Moses. But Jesus is our Josuah.
Speaker 1: We thank you, we honor you, we worship you. I
Speaker 1: hope you received that blessing today and walk in it
Speaker 1: the blessing in between, not waiting on a future state
Speaker 1: to celebrate, not living in a past that's never coming back,
Speaker 1: but celebrating God's presence with you right now. I bless
Speaker 1: you in Jesus' name, His favor upon you, his presence
Speaker 1: before you, his power within you. God is for you today.
Speaker 1: Receive this blessing. Thank you for being a part of
Speaker 1: our family. Thank you for giving to support this ministry.
Speaker 1: Thank you for sharing the messages. You say it every week, God,
Speaker 1: I mean it every week. It's such a blessing to
Speaker 1: be joined with you and connected in ministry. I'll see
Speaker 1: you next time. Make sure to subscribe. We love you,
Speaker 1: We bless you.