Speaker 1: Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick.
Speaker 2: I'm the pastor of Elevation Church, and this is our
Speaker 2: podcast and I wanted to thank you for joining us today.
Speaker 1: Hope this inspires you. Hope it builds your faith.
Speaker 2: Hope it gives your perspective to see God has moving
Speaker 2: in your life.
Speaker 1: Enjoy the message.
Speaker 2: Our scripture today is found in Mark chapter six, verse
Speaker 2: one through six. I want to read this to you
Speaker 2: from our Savage Jesus series, which just keeps going. This
Speaker 2: is now the longest series that I've ever preached.
Speaker 1: I didn't intend it. I just got stuck in it.
Speaker 2: But we've been just tracking this man named Jesus that
Speaker 2: we thought we knew so much about, and he keeps
Speaker 2: shocking us and surprising us. And we realize that we
Speaker 2: can spend our whole lives studying about him and only
Speaker 2: begin to glimpse how great he is and also how
Speaker 2: revolutionary his life was and his time here on earth.
Speaker 2: And so we want to pick up in March six today,
Speaker 2: and we're in for a real treat today because we
Speaker 2: get to see Jesus take a trip back home, and
Speaker 2: we get to see the response to his ministry from
Speaker 2: those who knew him as a little boy. And we'll
Speaker 2: get to evaluate that in the light of our own lives.
Speaker 2: And I want to read you the scripture and then
Speaker 2: take some time teaching it today. Very excited about this
Speaker 2: particular message. The scripture says in Mark chapter six, Verse one,
Speaker 2: Jesus left there and went to his hometown, accompanied by
Speaker 2: his disciples. When the Sabbath came, he began to teach
Speaker 2: in the synagogue, and many who heard him were amazed.
Speaker 2: Where did this man get these things? They asked, what's
Speaker 2: this wisdom that has been given him?
Speaker 1: What are these remarkable miracles he is performing? It's going good, right, Wow,
Speaker 1: this guy's good. Whoa write that down? Hey? This is amazing.
Speaker 1: But then something shifts in the tone of the text.
Speaker 2: And this is where we'll spend our time trying to
Speaker 2: discern the difference between their amazement in that verse and
Speaker 2: their annoyance in the next one. Isn't this the carpenter
Speaker 2: in this mary Son, the brother of James, Joseph, Judas,
Speaker 2: and Simon.
Speaker 1: Aren't his sisters here with us?
Speaker 2: And they took offense at him, And Jesus said to them,
Speaker 2: a prophet is not without honor except in his own town.
Speaker 2: Among his relatives and in his own home, and he
Speaker 2: this next part, I know you think they made a
Speaker 2: mistake when they typed it in for the screen because
Speaker 2: it says that Jesus could not and we're not used
Speaker 2: to seeing anything that he can't do. And so I know,
Speaker 2: you think I need to fire the production team who
Speaker 2: put the scripture up. That it should say he would not,
Speaker 2: that he was unwilling to, but it actually it actually
Speaker 2: says he could not.
Speaker 1: He was unable to.
Speaker 2: There was one thing that even Jesus was not able
Speaker 2: to do, and it was to override the unbelief of
Speaker 2: the people that he wanted to heal, that he wanted
Speaker 2: to serve, that he wanted to save. But the Bible
Speaker 2: says that when Jesus came home, he could not do
Speaker 2: any miracles there except lay his hands on a few
Speaker 2: sick people and healed them. And it's interesting because when
Speaker 2: we started the passage, the people were amazed at Jesus,
Speaker 2: but now when we come to this verse, Jesus is
Speaker 2: amazed at the people. And the only time we see
Speaker 2: Jesus unable to do something in scripture, and the only
Speaker 2: time we see Jesus amazed in scripture is in regards
Speaker 2: to faith. It says he was amazed at their lack
Speaker 2: of faith, and so there was something he wanted to
Speaker 2: do for the people that he couldn't do for the
Speaker 2: people because of something that was within the people. That's
Speaker 2: what I want to speak about today. The title of
Speaker 2: this message is Trapped in Nazareth. Trapped in Nazareth, And
Speaker 2: on your way to your seat, look at the person
Speaker 2: next to you and say, you seem stuck, Please be seated.
Speaker 2: Sometimes people think Jesus was from Bethlehem. He was born
Speaker 2: in Bethlehem. Oh little tell bethlm how still we see
Speaker 2: the lie?
Speaker 1: But he was born in Bethlehem. He grew up in Nazareth.
Speaker 2: That's where this passage takes place, not where he was born,
Speaker 2: but where he was raised in Nazareth, not where he
Speaker 2: did most of his ministry. He didn't do most of
Speaker 2: his ministry in the place where he grew up, because
Speaker 2: sometimes in order to be used by God, you have
Speaker 2: to leave what is familiar. That's an important point and
Speaker 2: we'll cover it more fully, But I just want to
Speaker 2: tell you a little bit about Nazareth, which is twenty
Speaker 2: five miles southwest of Capernaum. That was his base. That's
Speaker 2: where he set up shop and moved around that Sea
Speaker 2: of Galilee to do miracles. That's where his fame was
Speaker 2: being published. When it says in verse one, Jesus left there.
Speaker 2: He didn't leave the place where he was ministering and
Speaker 2: go back home because it wasn't working out. He left
Speaker 2: his success to go back to where he started. And
Speaker 2: that interesting. He didn't go back because he needed a
Speaker 2: room in Mary's basement or to sleep on the couch
Speaker 2: for a little while while they raised some funds for
Speaker 2: the ministry. He wasn't go funding me and trying to
Speaker 2: get it off the ground. He was in fact going
Speaker 2: back home for a specific purpose, which we know because
Speaker 2: it says this important detail that he took his disciples
Speaker 2: with him.
Speaker 1: Now, why is it important.
Speaker 2: That he took his squad if I may call them
Speaker 2: a squad, just to modernize the.
Speaker 1: Text a little bit.
Speaker 2: If the Bible were written today, it would say he
Speaker 2: went accompanied with his squad.
Speaker 1: He went with them, and he went.
Speaker 2: Back to the people who he grew up with, and
Speaker 2: he took them with him. Now that's important why because
Speaker 2: he's taking them as a part of their training, he
Speaker 2: is commissioning them to change the world, and he takes
Speaker 2: them back. I'll never forget when I took Colley to
Speaker 2: Monk's Corner for the first time. She was so bored
Speaker 2: and she acted so interested, and I knew I found
Speaker 2: the woman I wanted because she pretended like Monk's Corner
Speaker 2: was the most fascinating city in the United States of America.
Speaker 2: Now she had traveled by this point to forty nine
Speaker 2: of the United States. She had seen many things, and
Speaker 2: so I know there was nothing special about Monk's Corner,
Speaker 2: But boy, she made me feel like she was interested
Speaker 2: in Sonic where we hung out every Friday night, just
Speaker 2: different landmarks like this that were important to my development.
Speaker 1: Just didn't taking the disciples home to show him around.
Speaker 2: He has a purpose. I'm not making a detour. He's
Speaker 2: not even coming home for Thanksgiving. He's not checking in
Speaker 2: it's not been a while. He's actually coming home for
Speaker 2: a purpose. He's coming home for a purpose. And while
Speaker 2: he is there, he is invited to give the guest
Speaker 2: lecture in the synagogue on the Sabbath day. And as
Speaker 2: he does that, as he stands up to teach, the
Speaker 2: people notice that there is something about him that they
Speaker 2: did not notice when he lived among them, because he'd
Speaker 2: been there for a long time. But now that he's
Speaker 2: been gone for a while, they see him differently when
Speaker 2: he comes back. And since I already read the whole
Speaker 2: passage to you, we may as well talk about the
Speaker 2: fact that Jesus was rejected by.
Speaker 1: Those who were the closest to him.
Speaker 2: He found wider acceptance among the sinners than he did
Speaker 2: the religious. In fact, one way that the prophet said
Speaker 2: it was he came unto his own, and his own
Speaker 2: received him.
Speaker 1: Not that's a very sad.
Speaker 2: Place to be, by the way, when the people closest
Speaker 2: to you don't appreciate you, don't support you.
Speaker 1: And don't express their love to you.
Speaker 2: In fact, I have met grown men who are still
Speaker 2: trying to prove something to their dead dad who never
Speaker 2: said I'm proud of you. There's something about when you
Speaker 2: wanted approval from somebody who was closest to you. And
Speaker 2: we all have these people in our lives that we
Speaker 2: really desperately crave for them to tell us that not
Speaker 2: only what we do matters to them, but that they
Speaker 2: admire us as a man, maybe some man thing. I
Speaker 2: don't know, if you can help me sort this out.
Speaker 2: Whether this is a gender thing or whether it's across
Speaker 2: the board. I want to be admired by the people who.
Speaker 1: Really know me. That means something.
Speaker 2: To me, because I figure I can fake everybody else out.
Speaker 2: But if the people who are closest to.
Speaker 1: Me and now the most, if they don't think I'm
Speaker 1: full of crap, I'm doing something, talk to me.
Speaker 2: I love how y'all look at me confused, like you're
Speaker 2: not full of crap. Sometimes, you know how you're real
Speaker 2: nice to the server at the restaurant, but you yell
Speaker 2: at your wife.
Speaker 1: Like that, like that thing that just made you go.
Speaker 1: Do me?
Speaker 2: So the pain of wanting someone close to you to notice?
Speaker 1: Have you ever just wanted someone to notice? Come on,
Speaker 1: I know you're sitting.
Speaker 2: Next to them, so we got to play it straight.
Speaker 1: Have you ever wanted somebody to just notice?
Speaker 2: This is why I make Holly preach occasionally, because I
Speaker 2: just want her to know how freaking hard it is.
Speaker 2: That's why she leaves me with all of the kids occasionally,
Speaker 2: because she just wants me to know. This is not
Speaker 2: as easy as I make it look. Okay, So every
Speaker 2: once in a while, I got to leave these demons.
Speaker 2: I mean blessings from the Lord, so you can know, so.
Speaker 1: You can know.
Speaker 2: And yet what amazed me about the life of Jesus
Speaker 2: was how often the people closest to.
Speaker 1: Him took him for granted. And that what happens me.
Speaker 2: You know this, sometimes when you get too close to something,
Speaker 2: it becomes too common. Remember, these people had a hard
Speaker 2: time seeing Jesus as their deliverer because they had seen
Speaker 2: Jesus in diapers. It's kind of hard to believe he's
Speaker 2: going to save the world when you knew him in
Speaker 2: his terrible twos.
Speaker 1: Did Jesus have terrible twos?
Speaker 2: I don't know.
Speaker 1: That's a theological question for another time.
Speaker 2: But it's kind of hard sometimes to see the miracle
Speaker 2: in something that you have become familiar with. He quotes
Speaker 2: a saying because these people that he grew up around
Speaker 2: don't seem to receive him on the same level that
Speaker 2: the Gentiles, even who were not known to associate with
Speaker 2: the Jews, and in fact were known in many ways
Speaker 2: to be resistant to the Jewish religion, had no problem
Speaker 2: welcoming him. In fact, when he showed up for them,
Speaker 2: they came in droves to hear him speak.
Speaker 1: But now he's back.
Speaker 2: Home, and the disciples must have been shocked, because I
Speaker 2: know they were looking forward to this. They're taking the
Speaker 2: show back home, and certainly we're going to get to
Speaker 2: see the impact of the ministry in this small town.
Speaker 2: Nazareth isn't a big place. Nazareth is only like a
Speaker 2: couple hundred people.
Speaker 1: The only reason you know.
Speaker 2: The name Nazareth is because Jesus put it on the map.
Speaker 2: Before Jesus, Nazareth was unknown. And so going back to Nazareth,
Speaker 2: you know, twenty five miles from where we're doing all
Speaker 2: this great ministry, going through the precipitous cliffs of our Belle,
Speaker 2: all of these routes that they would travel the seven
Speaker 2: mile major trade route as they're going, don't you know
Speaker 2: Peter was excited. I can't wait to show them what
Speaker 2: Jesus can do. Boy, they're gonna be shocked when they
Speaker 2: see what you've become. He's going back home, Bieber is
Speaker 2: going back to Canada, Drake is going back to Toronto.
Speaker 1: Jesus is going.
Speaker 2: Back home to Nazareth and he's preaching and it's amazing.
Speaker 1: They're amazed.
Speaker 3: Ooh that's good, Jesus, Oh that's good.
Speaker 2: And all of a sudden somebody said, wait, he's one
Speaker 2: of us. And the moment they categorized him as one
Speaker 2: of us.
Speaker 1: He became common.
Speaker 2: And the moment you categorize something is common that was sent.
Speaker 1: To be special, you trip over the miracle.
Speaker 2: Because you miss it in the mundane.
Speaker 1: Yes, Lord, I'll preach it just like that.
Speaker 2: God said for me to tell some of you husbands
Speaker 2: that some of the things that you used to be
Speaker 2: amazed about in the woman that you married are some
Speaker 2: of the same things you're complaining about eight years in.
Speaker 1: Mike Purnitt, you said it. You know how it is.
Speaker 2: It's some of the things that are amazing when a
Speaker 2: relationship begins.
Speaker 1: Oh, he's just so, he's so amazing. He's just mysterious.
Speaker 2: Okay, I want to holler at you in eleven years
Speaker 2: about how mysterious he is and how amazing it is,
Speaker 2: because in eleven years you might be mad that he
Speaker 2: won't talk. It was sexy that he was mysterious, it
Speaker 2: was amazing, But now what was amazing is annoying.
Speaker 1: Let me help the fellas out.
Speaker 2: You know how she looks amazing when she comes out
Speaker 2: for a date. The reason she looks amazing is because
Speaker 2: you don't yet have a glimpse into the process by
Speaker 2: which she looks amazing.
Speaker 1: And I promise you.
Speaker 2: Something about the process that it takes to make her
Speaker 2: look amazing.
Speaker 1: It's going to be two hours of you waiting.
Speaker 2: I'm not preaching about me, he qulls averb.
Speaker 1: A prophet is without honor only in his hometown.
Speaker 2: In other words, sometimes the people who are the closest
Speaker 2: treat it the most common. And this is the principle
Speaker 2: that we would summarize by saying familiarity breeds contempt. But
Speaker 2: I'll tell you something else. It also breeds complacency. And
Speaker 2: when something is so close to you for so long,
Speaker 2: when when God puts something in your midst that is
Speaker 2: magnificent and miraculous, but you live among it long enough,
Speaker 2: sometimes you have been around it so long that you
Speaker 2: cease to be amazed by it, and you start taking
Speaker 2: things for granted. In one way, if people take you
Speaker 2: for granted, I want you.
Speaker 1: To know, it's a compliment.
Speaker 2: It's a compliment to your consistency.
Speaker 1: If people take you for granted.
Speaker 2: This is why your kids never say thank you, because
Speaker 2: they always eat.
Speaker 1: Starve them three days. Cut the water off.
Speaker 2: For a week, you know, the reason they don't thank
Speaker 2: you for it is because it's always there. I had
Speaker 2: to understand this about preaching because when I started preaching,
Speaker 2: people were always pinched my cheek.
Speaker 1: Oh, that was so good. And one day they stopped
Speaker 1: pinching my cheek.
Speaker 2: And at first I was offended because I thought they
Speaker 2: didn't appreciate me. And then I realized that maybe it
Speaker 2: wasn't that I wasn't preaching good anymore. Maybe I had
Speaker 2: preached consistently well enough for long enough that they no
Speaker 2: longer felt the need to pat my bottom to get
Speaker 2: me to do it again.
Speaker 1: This is what I teach our staff at Elevation Church.
Speaker 2: I'll say, you know you're getting good at something when
Speaker 2: people stop telling you that you did a good job,
Speaker 2: because it just becomes what they expect from you, and
Speaker 2: they'll stop complimenting you because you're consistent. So when they
Speaker 2: stop complimenting you, that in itself is a compliment. In
Speaker 2: other words, if I'm telling you, thank you so much
Speaker 2: for doing this on time, that's.
Speaker 1: Not a compliment.
Speaker 2: Translation, you are so unreliable and undependable that I am
Speaker 2: literally shocked that you got your stuff together for once.
Speaker 1: Thank you for making your bed. What are you twelve?
Speaker 2: I expect you to do it. You're supposed to do it.
Speaker 2: You don't have to thank me for preaching. I preach
Speaker 2: because it's fire shut.
Speaker 1: Up in my bones. Who unto me if I do
Speaker 1: not preach the gospel. If you want to send me
Speaker 1: a gift card, I'll spend it. But I don't have
Speaker 1: to have it.
Speaker 2: I don't have to have it touch somebody say I
Speaker 2: don't need it, not to survive on because I have
Speaker 2: matured like Jesus, to the point that even when they
Speaker 2: did not see him for who he was, he still
Speaker 2: did what he could. He could not do many miracles,
Speaker 2: but he did what he could, unappreciated what he could,
Speaker 2: uncelebrated what he could, unnoticed what he could, unrecognized what
Speaker 2: he could.
Speaker 1: Taken for granted what he could. Here's the danger.
Speaker 2: While it is a compliment to you, when people take
Speaker 2: you for granted, it is a danger to them because
Speaker 2: what is consistently hear me Lake Norman, what is consistently
Speaker 2: taken for granted is eventually taken away. Here comes Jesus
Speaker 2: to his hometown, Nazareth, and he's coming with the same
Speaker 2: healing power that resurrected a twelve year old girl in
Speaker 2: Mark chapter five that healed a woman with the issue
Speaker 2: of blood.
Speaker 1: She didn't take Jesus for granted.
Speaker 2: She knew she had one shot to get to him,
Speaker 2: and she wasn't gonna throw away her shot.
Speaker 1: She knew this might be the only chance that I have.
Speaker 2: It's funny to me people come to uh Elevation sometimes
Speaker 2: from other parts of the country, and it always shames
Speaker 2: some of us who live here because it's in our backyard.
Speaker 1: And it's on their bucket list, and they're excited. They
Speaker 1: got the.
Speaker 2: VIP brochure, they got an Elevation Worship hoodie on with
Speaker 2: the Elevation youth had on, and they got some They
Speaker 2: know all the songs better than the people who live
Speaker 2: in Waxaw.
Speaker 1: And it's kind of crazy to.
Speaker 2: Us because they come with a spirit of worship. They're early,
Speaker 2: they don't complain about the park, and they didn't have
Speaker 2: to deal with it because they got there early. And
Speaker 2: then it puts some of us to shame because what's
Speaker 2: on their bucket list is in our backyard. And sometimes
Speaker 2: we can take something for granted, and I'm guilty of it.
Speaker 2: Sometimes that God has given me the privilege to pastor
Speaker 2: such a wonderful, beautiful church, full of such diversity of thought,
Speaker 2: diversity of ethnicity, diversity of income, diversity of background, diversity
Speaker 2: of strength. And sometimes I can let it become just
Speaker 2: another Sunday.
Speaker 1: But the devil is a liar. This is not common.
Speaker 1: This is not common, This is not common.
Speaker 2: And I will not take these things for granted.
Speaker 1: I will not allow my.
Speaker 2: Miracle to become trapped in my familiarity. Here what I said,
Speaker 2: because you might have clapped over it. I will not
Speaker 2: allow my miracle to become trapped in my familiarity. Jesus
Speaker 2: comes to Nazareth, full of healing, full of resurrection, full
Speaker 2: of blind eye opening power, full of death, ear opening power,
Speaker 2: full of lame to walk, blind to see power, full
Speaker 2: of dead raising power, and all that power shows up
Speaker 2: in a little town like Nazareth, and Jesus has not
Speaker 2: lost any power on the twenty five mile journey through
Speaker 2: the cliffs of our Bell. But the people have lost
Speaker 2: their appreciation of his power. And since they have lost
Speaker 2: their appreciation for his power, they have limited the potential
Speaker 2: for his power to be released into their lives. I
Speaker 2: wonder has it happened to some of us when we
Speaker 2: first got saved. We were grateful. It felt good to
Speaker 2: be forgiven. It felt good to be free. It felt
Speaker 2: good to have something to live for. It felt good
Speaker 2: to have an orientation in life that was not us
Speaker 2: on a throne. It felt good to not need people
Speaker 2: to tell us what we were worth because we had
Speaker 2: been bought with the precious blood of Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1: But something happens.
Speaker 2: Because we don't have to sacrifice bulls and goats and
Speaker 2: pigeons and doves and bulls, and since we don't have
Speaker 2: to smell the blood of the sacrifice, sometimes we can
Speaker 2: become complacent and treat the blood.
Speaker 1: Of Jesus which was shed for us, as a.
Speaker 2: Common thing because we don't feel it. And because we
Speaker 2: don't feel it, we begin to become familiar with it.
Speaker 2: And when you become familiar with it, sometimes you miss
Speaker 2: the power of it. And some of you are tripping
Speaker 2: over your miracle because it's been in front of you
Speaker 2: so long you have stopped being amazed. I came with
Speaker 2: a word for somebody. Stay amazed. Don't get jaded by it.
Speaker 2: Don't start to back up and put your hands in
Speaker 2: your pocket and act like.
Speaker 1: You got yourself here.
Speaker 2: If we can get honest, you know you still need
Speaker 2: that same grace. If it wasn't still flowing, you wouldn't
Speaker 2: be still breathing. Don't blame me like that. There's some
Speaker 2: stuff in your life that if it had not been
Speaker 2: for the Lord on yours I five five people. Tell them,
Speaker 2: I'm still amazed. Stay amazed by it. Don't get too
Speaker 2: comfortable with it. Don't start thinking you earned what you
Speaker 2: first received. Don't start acting like God owes you will
Speaker 2: favor to leave you on the planet. Every pay is
Speaker 2: a gift, Every breath is a gift. Now, let's do
Speaker 2: what David said. Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.
Speaker 2: Let everything that has hands clap those hands.
Speaker 1: Holgy people and.
Speaker 2: Shallow to God with a voice of triumph.
Speaker 1: Power came to Nazareth, but it was trapped.
Speaker 2: It was trapped in their familiar expectation, and they missed
Speaker 2: the miracle.
Speaker 1: They tripped over it.
Speaker 2: Literally, it's implied in the word that mark Usus says
Speaker 2: that they were amazed. But then when they started thinking
Speaker 2: about it, watched their dialogue. Where did this man get
Speaker 2: these things? They didn't deny his power? What's this wisdom
Speaker 2: that has been given him. They didn't deny his wisdom.
Speaker 2: What are these remarkable miracles that he is performing. They
Speaker 2: didn't deny his miracles. They didn't doubt it. They despised it.
Speaker 2: Why did they despise it? Because he looked like one
Speaker 2: of them. He came in a common way, and when
Speaker 2: God comes in a common way, we trip over him.
Speaker 2: In our process of trying to get to something that
Speaker 2: we think is important, we trip. Here's what they said.
Speaker 2: Isn't this the carpenter there tripping? They're tripping? They thought
Speaker 2: he was tripping. Who does he think he is? This
Speaker 2: guy is tripping. I love how they call him this,
Speaker 2: this man, this dude. It's only five hundred people in
Speaker 2: the town. You know good and well what his name is.
Speaker 2: But they gave him a different name. What's what they
Speaker 2: called him? The carpenter? Common This one's even better. Isn't
Speaker 2: this Mary's son? You don't do that. In Jewish custom,
Speaker 2: you call the child by the name of his father. Now,
Speaker 2: maybe at this point Joseph's dead, But even if Joseph
Speaker 2: is dead, you still call him by the name of
Speaker 2: the father, unless you don't know exactly who his father is. Remember,
Speaker 2: Jesus came from questionable circumstances. Mary said it was God.
Speaker 2: But none of us saw the pregnancy test. That angel
Speaker 2: didn't tell us. She was telling the truth. So we
Speaker 2: know Mary's his MoMA. She's got the same nose. But
Speaker 2: that daddy thing baby, that baby, that baby might have,
Speaker 2: I don't know. Mary was talking to Tom. They spent
Speaker 2: a lot of time together. It is circulated. See Nazareth's
Speaker 2: small town. You didn't grow up in a small town,
Speaker 2: so you don't know how it goes in a small town.
Speaker 2: It didn't take long for this rumor to become embedded.
Speaker 2: Where did he come from? None of us really know.
Speaker 2: It wasn't what he did that they doubted. It was
Speaker 2: where he came from. Where did he come from from?
Speaker 1: Nazareth? Who was one of them?
Speaker 2: And so they looked at him for a minute, Oh
Speaker 2: this is good, and then they remember, wait, he's.
Speaker 1: One of us. He can't be special. He came from us.
Speaker 2: What would make them think like that? What was it
Speaker 2: about Nazareth that had them trapped in their percep Okay,
Speaker 2: now we need Nathaniel because you know Christmas time everybody
Speaker 2: always sings Mary.
Speaker 1: Did you know? But Mary wasn't even in church that day.
Speaker 1: She wasn't even there. She wasn't even in the synagogue.
Speaker 2: You don't hear this preach from Pulpits a lot, I
Speaker 2: think because it's hard to tie up with the boat. Jesus'
Speaker 2: family thought he was crazy during the three years of
Speaker 2: his ministry. In Mark chapter three, they came to get
Speaker 2: him from Capernaum. They came to bring him back home
Speaker 2: because he had gotten Here's how we say it in
Speaker 2: the South, too big for his breeches. That's a Southern saying,
Speaker 2: bridges being our pants.
Speaker 1: I don't know. I don't know how you say it
Speaker 1: back home. I went to Australia.
Speaker 2: In Australia they call it tall poppy. It means when
Speaker 2: you get to Hi, you want to grow up too high.
Speaker 2: Somebody needs to cut you down. This is what's happening
Speaker 2: in Nazareth. They're like, ooh, it's good, ooh, the healer
Speaker 2: is here. Wait a minute, Mary's boy, this is tooo familiar.
Speaker 1: This feels like us. And when it felt like.
Speaker 2: Them, something within them caused them to push it away.
Speaker 1: We only see why in John chapter one.
Speaker 2: And I'm so glad that God gave us four Gospels,
Speaker 2: because Mark puts one perspective, Matthew puts one, Luke puts one.
Speaker 2: In Luke four, it says that they were so offended.
Speaker 2: Scandalon is the Greek word. It means to set a trap.
Speaker 2: They were so offended they became trapped in their offense,
Speaker 2: and God's power could not operate at its full capacity
Speaker 2: because their mentality was trapped in their offense.
Speaker 1: Why were they so offended?
Speaker 2: What was it about Nazareth and the people of Nazareth
Speaker 2: other than the fact that they grew up around Jesus?
Speaker 1: Was there something else? There had to be something.
Speaker 2: Else for them to push away, to have sickness in
Speaker 2: their village, but.
Speaker 1: Push away the one that could heal them, for them.
Speaker 2: To have demon possession oppressing their children, but send away
Speaker 2: the one who could make the demon shriek and run
Speaker 2: out of town. What was it about Nazareth that made
Speaker 2: them push away the one who came to set them free?
Speaker 2: What was it about Nazareth? Well, Nathaniel's gonna tell us.
Speaker 2: Nathaniel doesn't get a lot of speaking parts in the Bible,
Speaker 2: so let's pay close attention. Is very uncommon that Nathaniel speaks,
Speaker 2: But the Bible tells us one thing that he said
Speaker 2: that this whole text and our entire understanding of why
Speaker 2: God often cannot do what he wants to do in
Speaker 2: our lives. It hinges on this because when Philip came
Speaker 2: to find Nathaniel, he was excited about Jesus. This is
Speaker 2: when Jesus was first assembling his squad, this is before
Speaker 2: he sent them out to do any miracles. And Philip
Speaker 2: comes running up to his friend Nathaniel. He's called Nathaniel,
Speaker 2: and John's gospel other right call him Bartholomew. He had
Speaker 2: an alias here he's called Nathaniel. And Philip comes to
Speaker 2: Nathaniel because sometimes the first thing you do when you
Speaker 2: really meet Jesus is drag people with you. Sometimes, when
Speaker 2: God really gets a hold of your life, you will
Speaker 2: bribe people into coming.
Speaker 1: To church with you.
Speaker 2: You'll buy them Starbucks to get them to sit with
Speaker 2: you in church because.
Speaker 1: You know how messed up they are. But you can't
Speaker 1: tell them that.
Speaker 2: But if you drag them in this church and let
Speaker 2: me open the Bible, God will tell them, and together
Speaker 2: the Holy Spirit in you can get them fixed. And
Speaker 2: so you say come with me to church, and they say,
Speaker 2: I don't like church, and you say, well, this is
Speaker 2: a normal church, and they say, I'm in the church
Speaker 2: before I hearn about that evolution in church in churance
Speaker 2: in that the church.
Speaker 1: That's the church where you're coming with me. Now shut
Speaker 1: up and come.
Speaker 2: And so Philip found Nathaniel verse forty five, John one
Speaker 2: and told him we have.
Speaker 1: Found the one.
Speaker 2: Somebody shout, we found him. This is the one Moses
Speaker 2: wrote about in the Law, and whom the prophets also wrote,
Speaker 2: Watch Jesus of Nazareth, where's he from again? Nazareth the
Speaker 2: son of Joseph. And Nathaniel's reaction helped me to understand
Speaker 2: why the people of Nazareth resisted Jesus and missed his miracles.
Speaker 2: And it helped me understand why I tend to push
Speaker 2: people away sometimes. And it helped me understand why sometimes
Speaker 2: I reject the love people are trying to give me,
Speaker 2: but really I'm rejecting something else. Because when Philip said
Speaker 2: we found the one, Nathaniel was excited. But when he
Speaker 2: said where he was from, Jesus of Nazareth, Philip said
Speaker 2: forty six, Nazareth, let me do this in my best
Speaker 2: ai voice. Practice Nazareth Nazareth. Tell me about Nazareth. Watch
Speaker 2: what he says. It hinges on this. I thought they
Speaker 2: only rejected Jesus and took offense and were trapped scandal
Speaker 2: on to set a trap. I thought they were offended
Speaker 2: by Jesus because they were so familiar with him. But
Speaker 2: now I think the reason that they rejected Jesus is
Speaker 2: because they rejected themselves. Apparently Nazareth had a reputation because
Speaker 2: the first thing Nathaniel said was Nazareth.
Speaker 1: Can anything good come from there?
Speaker 2: That's how I feel about myself sometimes, you know, because
Speaker 2: I know myself. And when they took offense at him,
Speaker 2: at first I was angry with them. Then I realized
Speaker 2: they weren't really rejecting him. They had a reputation. And
Speaker 2: Nazareth is this backwoods town. Nazareth is on nobody's bucket list.
Speaker 2: They talk funny in Nazareth. It's not like Jerusalem. It's
Speaker 2: not a very religious place.
Speaker 1: Nazareth.
Speaker 2: You mean the boy with a baby daddy, who were
Speaker 2: not even short Nazareth. He came from us. It wasn't
Speaker 2: that they couldn't believe what he did. They couldn't believe
Speaker 2: it came from them. His miracles to them were remarkable.
Speaker 2: But when they tried to reconcile the fact that he
Speaker 2: was one of them with what he was doing, they
Speaker 2: couldn't reconcile the fact that something good could come from us.
Speaker 1: And when you have a view of yourself that has
Speaker 1: been shaped.
Speaker 2: Year after year, even generation after generation, by stereotypes, or
Speaker 2: by generalizations, or by failures, it comes to a point
Speaker 2: where you really start to believe that nothing good can
Speaker 2: come from you. And some of you are right there today,
Speaker 2: trapped in Nazareth because you got some things in your past,
Speaker 2: and some of them aren't even your fault. But just
Speaker 2: because it wasn't your fault doesn't mean it's not your prison.
Speaker 2: And in this room there is sexual molestation that happened
Speaker 2: twenty three years ago and still dominates.
Speaker 1: Your perception of what your future can be.
Speaker 2: And there are many in this room who are still
Speaker 2: imprisoned in a failed relationship. The relationship failed five years ago,
Speaker 2: but you are living in it in this very moment.
Speaker 2: Can anything good come from someone like me? He's just
Speaker 2: like us, He's one of us. And they were amazed
Speaker 2: at first, and then they began to despise what they
Speaker 2: were first amazed that when they realized, wait a minute,
Speaker 2: he's one of us. There is a part of us
Speaker 2: that is able to believe that God is great.
Speaker 1: But when we try to reconcile the fact of.
Speaker 2: His greatness with the reality of our brokenness, we start
Speaker 2: to feel like these people and we push Jesus away.
Speaker 2: And it's not that we can't believe that he's great,
Speaker 2: it's just that we can't believe that anything good could
Speaker 2: come from.
Speaker 1: Our life.
Speaker 2: Because there's so much that I don't know, and there's
Speaker 2: so much that I should have done it, so much
Speaker 2: that I shouldn't have done. And now I'm trapped in
Speaker 2: Nazareth because see, I've made some mistakes and I know
Speaker 2: Jesus is a healer, and I know he's amazing, and
Speaker 2: I know he's a miracle. World is not his miracle
Speaker 2: working power. That's in question. Here is me. I'm trapped
Speaker 2: in Nazareth. It's me and I'm a preach till all
Speaker 2: of your facade comes falling off because you come in
Speaker 2: this church and you look at me a certain way,
Speaker 2: and you come with this sterile approach to God, but
Speaker 2: he can't do what he really wants to do in
Speaker 2: your life. Because you're trapped in Nazareth. So you listen
Speaker 2: to me preach, and you'll sing a few songs, and
Speaker 2: you'll say a few prayers.
Speaker 1: But Jesus is limited in what he can do through.
Speaker 2: Your life because you are trapped in what you were.
Speaker 2: Nazareth was so unknown and so disregarded that Nathangel's first
Speaker 2: response was not Nazareth.
Speaker 1: Not Nazareth.
Speaker 2: Like the devil tells you, you.
Speaker 1: You really think you can raise those kids?
Speaker 2: You never saw it done. What makes you think you're
Speaker 2: going to be any better than your dad was? It's
Speaker 2: what tells you you can't. It's what can be in
Speaker 2: proximity of the power of God, but not receive. They
Speaker 2: were right there, but they resisted and rejected it. And
Speaker 2: yet it wasn't Jesus they were rejecting. It was that
Speaker 2: they had been rejected and people have said something about
Speaker 2: you long enough you start to believe it's really true.
Speaker 2: And I am convinced that the people of Nazareth that
Speaker 2: day were not rejecting Jesus as much as they were
Speaker 2: rejecting themselves. See, you have to develop your view of
Speaker 2: who God is through the prism of who you think
Speaker 2: you are. And if you believe the rest of your
Speaker 2: life that you are worthless, it will be very hard
Speaker 2: for you to worship a God who thought you were
Speaker 2: worth dying for. As a matter of fact, I want
Speaker 2: to help set somebody free who has been disappointed because
Speaker 2: someone rejected you. A lot of times they're not rejecting you.
Speaker 2: A lot of times what they are rejecting is something
Speaker 2: that had nothing to do with you. And sometimes they
Speaker 2: push you away because there's something pushing on the inside
Speaker 2: of them. A lot of what we experience as rejection
Speaker 2: is really just projection. It's people who have been disappointed,
Speaker 2: who have been hurt, And now you're thinking, what's wrong
Speaker 2: with me? Why doesn't she appreciate me? It's not you
Speaker 2: she doesn't appreciate. Is that she can't appreciate herself because
Speaker 2: she has not yet healed from something. Sometimes when people
Speaker 2: are pushing you away, it's not even about you. Stop
Speaker 2: being so self centered. Stop thinking that people are responding
Speaker 2: to you. People have real hurts, people have real issues.
Speaker 2: Sometimes they can't get over what happened to them. To
Speaker 2: celebrate you, will you love them anyway? Are you strong
Speaker 2: enough in God? Is your relationship with him strong enough
Speaker 2: to know that what they say about me doesn't change
Speaker 2: who I am. Men's denial cannot block my destiny.
Speaker 1: Jesus was still a.
Speaker 2: Prophet, whether they knew it or not, whether they celebrated
Speaker 2: him or not, whether they rolled out a red carpet
Speaker 2: or ran him out of town, he knew who he was.
Speaker 1: Do you know who you are or do you need
Speaker 1: people to tell you who you are?
Speaker 2: Because if you let people tell you who you are,
Speaker 2: they'll say you're just a carpenter. They'll say you're just
Speaker 2: a single mom. They'll say you're just a teenager. They'll
Speaker 2: say you're just a divorceee. But if you know who
Speaker 2: God is, you realize your life is not defied by
Speaker 2: an event. Oh, as a matter of fact, it actually is.
Speaker 2: That event happened on a hill called Cavalry, when he
Speaker 2: set his blood for me, when the precious Lamb of
Speaker 2: God looked at me through time and set I'll die
Speaker 2: for him.
Speaker 1: So now I know that I am accepted by him.
Speaker 2: I love Jesus tenacity because a lot of us, if
Speaker 2: we would have been rejected in our hometown, that would
Speaker 2: have been enough to kill our mission.
Speaker 1: But what I want to show you for everybody who.
Speaker 2: Has been rejected or has been rejecting the grace that
Speaker 2: God has been trying to give you. Sometimes you're rejecting yourself.
Speaker 2: Is that something good can come from Nazareth? I say
Speaker 2: something good can come from Nazareth. And I want to
Speaker 2: tell you another thing. Well, I got you here. You
Speaker 2: don't have to stay where you started. How many praise
Speaker 2: God for that? I don't have to stay.
Speaker 3: I don't have to stay where I started. I don't
Speaker 3: have to be who I was. I don't have to
Speaker 3: be trapped in Nazareth. I don't go home and tell
Speaker 3: your husband you're leaving like he's Nazareth.
Speaker 2: People will abuse my little sermons sometimes take them out
Speaker 2: of context.
Speaker 1: Be quitting your job like it's Nazareth.
Speaker 2: You got a mortgage to pay, bro, and I need
Speaker 2: you to tithe, So keep that job. Keep that job.
Speaker 2: Maybe Nazareth isn't a place. Maybe it's a perspective. That's
Speaker 2: where we get trapped, not where we are, but what
Speaker 2: we think about where we are. Jesus could have done
Speaker 2: it in Nazareth, they just weren't willing to receive it.
Speaker 2: And what's what he did, Because this is what somebody
Speaker 2: under the sound of my voice needs to do today.
Speaker 2: And I don't know why, but I feel like when
Speaker 2: I show you this, it's going to help you understand
Speaker 2: how to get unstuck. That's something that has been playing
Speaker 2: like it's on repeat on your playlist, over and over
Speaker 2: in your mind that you can't get out of.
Speaker 1: It could be a failure. It could be a friend
Speaker 1: that left you. It could be somebody you keep trying
Speaker 1: to prove.
Speaker 2: Yourself to, but you're never going to prove yourself to
Speaker 2: them because they've never proved themselves to themselves. So how
Speaker 2: are you going to get their approval if they don't
Speaker 2: even approve of themselves. This is what's going to help
Speaker 2: you because I never saw it before because I preached
Speaker 2: this passage. One day, I'm going to do a whole
Speaker 2: series called I Apologize, and it's going to be all
Speaker 2: the passages that I.
Speaker 1: Preached and I screwed them up, and I'm going to
Speaker 1: go back and.
Speaker 2: Apologize to those passages of scripture in a whole series.
Speaker 1: And this is installment one.
Speaker 2: I apologize for stopping in verse six because often I
Speaker 2: would stop right here and say.
Speaker 1: He was amazed at their lack of faith.
Speaker 2: But right there in the same verse, it says he
Speaker 2: was amazed at their lack of faith. Right there in
Speaker 2: that same verse where it says he was rejected by
Speaker 2: the people who should have respected him the most.
Speaker 1: Have you ever felt that way?
Speaker 2: It could be a parent, it could be a child
Speaker 2: that you've done the most for. The only people that
Speaker 2: can really hurt you are the ones you really love.
Speaker 2: There's nothing like being rejected by people that you expected
Speaker 2: more from and even had the right to expect more from.
Speaker 2: He should have been able to do ten times the
Speaker 2: miracles in Nazareth. He should have been able to do
Speaker 2: much more for the people who already knew him, and
Speaker 2: that could have been enough to stop him.
Speaker 1: Soft Jesus would have stopped in Nazareth.
Speaker 2: Oh, I'm sorry, y'all think I'm taking it too far.
Speaker 2: I'll tone it down. I apologize. I'm so sorry. I
Speaker 2: won't say these things anymore. I'm sorry. I won't heal anybody.
Speaker 2: If y'all don't like it, I'll go back to the
Speaker 2: carpenter shop. It's cool. Just please don't make fun of me.
Speaker 2: We get so worried about rejection that we miss God's
Speaker 2: next direction for our life. And the moment you understand
Speaker 2: that many of the rejections that we experience are really redirections.
Speaker 2: You will no longer be trapped in Nazareth. Some of
Speaker 2: us have gotten bitter offended. We're trapped scandaloon to set
Speaker 2: a trap trapped in Nazareth.
Speaker 1: What is Nazareth? The place where people said you couldn't
Speaker 1: a place where who was supposed to be there wasn't there?
Speaker 2: The place where you failed and you had great expectations
Speaker 2: and you disappointed them. Here's what happens next. He was
Speaker 2: amazed at their lack of faith. Then Jesus, so rejection
Speaker 2: is not the end, because the next thing he did
Speaker 2: after they rejected him in Nazareth.
Speaker 1: Watch this went around teaching.
Speaker 2: From village to village, calling the Twelve to him.
Speaker 1: He's already called them to be his disciples.
Speaker 2: Now he can release them into their ministry, calling.
Speaker 1: The twelve to him. God, I love your word.
Speaker 2: Thank you for showing me this, because I thought rejection
Speaker 2: minute was over. But when I read this, I realize
Speaker 2: that some of our greatest blessings can only come on
Speaker 2: the other side of rejection. And to send them out
Speaker 2: two by two and gave them authority over impure spirits.
Speaker 2: These were his instructions. E take nothing for the journey
Speaker 2: except the staff. Touch somebody say you don't need it,
Speaker 2: You don't need it. Whatever you don't have, you don't
Speaker 2: need it. Whatever they didn't give you, you don't need it.
Speaker 2: Whatever they didn't say, you don't need it. Whatever wasn't
Speaker 2: put in your path, you don't need it. Don't take
Speaker 2: it with you. Wear sandals, but not an extra shirt.
Speaker 1: Verse ten. Whenever you enter.
Speaker 2: A house, stay there until you leave that town. And
Speaker 2: if any place will not welcome you or listen to you,
Speaker 2: leave that place. Don't you stay trapped in Nazareth. Don't
Speaker 2: you spend the rest of your life trying to prove
Speaker 2: yourself to people. Don't you spend the rest of your
Speaker 2: life apologizing for a week's season.
Speaker 1: They won't welcome you.
Speaker 2: If it doesn't work out there, if you can't get
Speaker 2: it right.
Speaker 1: This time, leave that place. Leave that place. It's not
Speaker 1: an address, it's not a zip code.
Speaker 2: It's a perspective, and shake the dust off your feet
Speaker 2: as a testimony against this. Must be why he brought
Speaker 2: the disciples to naza because he wanted to show them
Speaker 2: what to do with rejection, and he knew that they
Speaker 2: were not ready to be released in ministry until they
Speaker 2: had first been rejected. The road to resurrection is paved
Speaker 2: with rejection, and the stone that the builders rejected, that
Speaker 2: the people tripped on, became the chief cornerstone. Jesus had
Speaker 2: showed them how to cast out devils, Jesus had showed
Speaker 2: them how to heal the sick. Jesus had showed them
Speaker 2: how to touch lepers. But now he's showing them how
Speaker 2: to do one more thing that they're gonna need and
Speaker 2: then they can be released.
Speaker 1: He had to show them how to shake it off. Oh,
Speaker 1: I feel the spirit of Taylor Swift. And he had
Speaker 1: to show them one more thing.
Speaker 2: It's not always gonna go like you wanted to go,
Speaker 2: and not everybody is gonna see.
Speaker 1: What you want them to see.
Speaker 2: And you're not always gonna make the right moves, and
Speaker 2: there are gonna be some mistakes. But if you will
Speaker 2: say it off and move forward in faith, you're ready.
Speaker 2: Now you're ready. Now you failed some and you're ready.
Speaker 2: Now you've heard a lot as you're ready. Now you're
Speaker 2: humbled by it. You're stronger because something you now know
Speaker 2: that only God can approove of you. You now know
Speaker 2: not to look to people for their validation. You're coming
Speaker 2: out of Nasareth. Stop tripping. Stop tripping over what people think.
Speaker 2: Stop tripping trying to get somebody to clap for you
Speaker 2: who's not even paying attention. They got their own car payment.
Speaker 2: Stop needing people to validate what you know.
Speaker 1: God made you already.
Speaker 2: Those disciples went out from there and they started casting
Speaker 2: out demons, taking authority.
Speaker 1: But first they had to go through rejection. First, they
Speaker 1: had to go through disappointment. First, they had to go
Speaker 1: to Nasareth. Twenty five mile trip.
Speaker 2: Jesus took the boys on just to show them what
Speaker 2: to do, and it doesn't work, Just to show them
Speaker 2: that even Jesus had to be rejected. He was despised
Speaker 2: and rejected, you know why, so you would never have
Speaker 2: to be You might be rejected by people, but you
Speaker 2: will never be rejected by him.
Speaker 1: And I want to tell you one more thing. Stand
Speaker 1: up so I'll quit.
Speaker 2: God selects what man rejects, so people pick Saul. God
Speaker 2: wants David. You better celebrate everybody who's ever hurt, everybody
Speaker 2: who ever had someone.
Speaker 1: Come on the stone that the builders rejected.
Speaker 2: I feel resurrection and power rising up in thirty people.
Speaker 1: Where are the thirty.
Speaker 2: We're coming out of national, coming out of the gray,
Speaker 2: coming out of here, coming out of failure. If less
Speaker 2: you and you know, let those hands and class I
Speaker 2: believe in Naster lives.
Speaker 1: Thank you for joining us.
Speaker 2: Special thanks to those of you who give generously to
Speaker 2: this ministry. Is because of you that this ministry is possible.
Speaker 2: You can click the link in the description to give
Speaker 2: now or visit Elevation Church dot org slash podcast for
Speaker 2: more information and if you enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe.
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Speaker 1: Thanks again for listening. God bless you.