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: Let's look at John chapter seven together. I feel God's
Speaker 1: presence in this place. Now. Even if I didn't feel it,
Speaker 1: I would know that it was real. But it's good
Speaker 1: to feel it. And I feel God's presence in this place. Amen.
Speaker 1: John chapter seven is a very interesting scenario, or more accurately,
Speaker 1: episode in the life of Jesus. And I think you
Speaker 1: probably will say I never really heard a sermon on
Speaker 1: that story before, and then you won't be able to
Speaker 1: say that after today. But it's a it's a really
Speaker 1: human moment in the life of Jesus, and it's a
Speaker 1: great example to us today. So as we look at this,
Speaker 1: we hope that we will see the example of Jesus
Speaker 1: and how it applies to our lives. In John chapter seven,
Speaker 1: verse one, the Bible says after this, Jesus went around
Speaker 1: in Galilee, purposely staying away from Judea because the Jews
Speaker 1: there were waiting to take his life. But when the
Speaker 1: Jewish feast of Tabernacles was near, Jesus's brother said to him,
Speaker 1: you ought to leave here. How many know, there's always
Speaker 1: somebody to tell you what you ought to do, always,
Speaker 1: and usually as people with your same last name, you
Speaker 1: know you oughta well, you ought to leave here and
Speaker 1: go to Judea so that your disciples may see the
Speaker 1: miracles you do. No one who wants to become a
Speaker 1: public figure action secret. Since you are doing these things,
Speaker 1: post them on Instagram. For even his own brothers did
Speaker 1: not believe him, and therefore Jesus told them the right
Speaker 1: time for me has not yet come for you. Anytime
Speaker 1: is right, salty Jesus. The world cannot hate you, but
Speaker 1: it hates me because I testify that what it does
Speaker 1: is evil. If you haven't had a head on collision
Speaker 1: with the devil lately, it means you might be headed
Speaker 1: in the same direction. That's what Pastor Mickey used to say.
Speaker 1: Of course I'm in conflict. I am a contradiction of
Speaker 1: the world's values, and so it's not easy for me
Speaker 1: to live on this earth. According to Kingdom principles. But
Speaker 1: Jesus said verse eight, you go to the feast. I'm
Speaker 1: not going to control you, but you do what you
Speaker 1: need to do. You go ahead and go. I am
Speaker 1: not yet going up to this feast because for me
Speaker 1: the right time has not come. I wonder how different
Speaker 1: our lives would be if we would learn the power
Speaker 1: of those two words, not yet, not yet. And having
Speaker 1: said this, he stayed in Galilee. However, after his brothers
Speaker 1: had left for the feast, he went also, not publicly,
Speaker 1: but in secret. Not publicly, but in secret. Now at
Speaker 1: the feast, the Jews were watching for him and asking
Speaker 1: where is that man Among the crowds. There was widespread whispering,
Speaker 1: widespread whispering about him. Some said he is a good man.
Speaker 1: Others replied, no, he deceives the people. But no one
Speaker 1: would say anything publicly about him for fear of the Jews.
Speaker 1: The key for this message today is in verse ten. However,
Speaker 1: after his brothers had left for the feast, he went also,
Speaker 1: not publicly, but in secret. And what I want to
Speaker 1: talk to you about today is the pressure to perform,
Speaker 1: the pressure to perform. And let's pray one more time,
Speaker 1: Spirit of God. I thank you for the accuracy with
Speaker 1: which you register in the hearts and the minds of
Speaker 1: people who are open. Give us this openness that we
Speaker 1: may receive whatever you wish to speak, and we give
Speaker 1: you praise in advance in Jesus' name. Amen, would you
Speaker 1: touch somebody on your way to your seat and say,
Speaker 1: I don't have to post it to prove it. It's
Speaker 1: so great to have the opportunity now to apologize to
Speaker 1: my mom for my teenage years. I just didn't have
Speaker 1: an appreciation at the time for the pressure of parenting.
Speaker 1: You really can't until you are blessed with the same
Speaker 1: pressure of parental responsibility for yourself, because like, really, my
Speaker 1: mom and dad stretched their resources in order for me
Speaker 1: as a as a I guess like a spoiled, entitled
Speaker 1: brat of a kid to not appreciate the sacrifices and
Speaker 1: really the pressure that they were under to buy me
Speaker 1: those rebock pumps. And since my dad was a barber,
Speaker 1: and he started out just five dollars a haircut six
Speaker 1: dollars by the time he quit cutting hair, he was
Speaker 1: up to thirteen dollars a haircut, I believe. And my
Speaker 1: mom had been in education, teaching special education and then
Speaker 1: as an early interventionist, which wasn't exactly a high paying job,
Speaker 1: but they provided for me so competently that I never
Speaker 1: really thought about the pressure that it must have been
Speaker 1: to try to make sure that I never really felt
Speaker 1: their pressure. I remember going to this telephone office, the
Speaker 1: Berkeley Telephone Company, and my parents would clean the office
Speaker 1: at night after they would get off their other job,
Speaker 1: and all I could do was complain, and I thought
Speaker 1: that it was child abuse that they made me empty
Speaker 1: the trash, but I just didn't understand when she was
Speaker 1: making me run the vacuum cleaner while she was cleaning
Speaker 1: the toilets on Saturday, just like I didn't appreciate the
Speaker 1: pressure even emotionally. I remember when my dad kind of
Speaker 1: quit coming home. I didn't realize that the reason he
Speaker 1: was doing that was because of not having a father
Speaker 1: example for himself when I hit the teenage stage, he
Speaker 1: had no frame of reference for how to deal with
Speaker 1: what he felt, and I thought he was lazy. So
Speaker 1: he went to go drink with my uncle. But it
Speaker 1: wasn't so much laziness, I now have come to believe,
Speaker 1: as it was the fact that he was under a
Speaker 1: weight that he hadn't felt like he had been built
Speaker 1: for and there is a sense in which his pressure
Speaker 1: in his own life paralyzed him, like pressure often can.
Speaker 1: When you find yourself in a situation where you have
Speaker 1: not been exposed to that particular responsibility, and now you
Speaker 1: are responsible for something that you've never been exposed to.
Speaker 1: It can create a lot of pressure, not only on
Speaker 1: the financial side with kids, but just emotionally and how
Speaker 1: by the time you come home from work where you're
Speaker 1: providing materially, you don't have anything left to give emotionally,
Speaker 1: and even if you do. There was this dude that
Speaker 1: came up to me Friday night at the baseball game
Speaker 1: and he just looked. He had the look on his
Speaker 1: face like all parents get from time to time, like
Speaker 1: if you shoot me, I'll give you half the insurance money.
Speaker 1: It was just a parent look, and you only know
Speaker 1: it if you've been there. But I just said to him,
Speaker 1: kind of randomly, I said, you're such a good man,
Speaker 1: because I could tell he was having one of those
Speaker 1: days and he was running back and forth and it
Speaker 1: kind of stopped them in his tracks. And he's like, really,
Speaker 1: I don't feel like a good man today, you know.
Speaker 1: I was I was at work, and then I left
Speaker 1: work at four because I'm supposed to get off fit
Speaker 1: for But then the idiot who took my next shift,
Speaker 1: he didn't show up in time for a shift. So
Speaker 1: who does the manager call Not the person who didn't
Speaker 1: show up, but me, because they know they can count
Speaker 1: on me, because the people we treat the worst are
Speaker 1: usually the people that we know we can count on
Speaker 1: the most, and we expect the most out of them.
Speaker 1: But by the time he got off work, he was
Speaker 1: throwing the ball with his daughter to get it ready
Speaker 1: for the game. And by the time he finished throwing
Speaker 1: with his daughter, he said, this is what he's telling me.
Speaker 1: By the time I finished throwing my daughter, my manager
Speaker 1: been blowing up my phone. Now my manager is mad
Speaker 1: at me, and I'm walking in the house talking to
Speaker 1: my manager who's yelling at me, and my wife's got
Speaker 1: dinner ready, but I can't eat dinner because I'm talking
Speaker 1: to my manager, and so my wife is mad because
Speaker 1: the food is coll But I can't help it that
Speaker 1: the food is coll because if I lose this job,
Speaker 1: we're not going to have any food to cook. So
Speaker 1: coal food is better than no food, and all that
Speaker 1: they're on the baseball team and I want to die.
Speaker 1: And funny thing is he doesn't come to the church.
Speaker 1: He doesn't come to the church. He's only been one
Speaker 1: time that I know of. And when he came that
Speaker 1: one time, he told me it was a good sermon.
Speaker 1: So I knew that he didn't have like a Christian
Speaker 1: vocabulary the word that he put in there. But he
Speaker 1: didn't know that I was preaching on pressure today. He
Speaker 1: didn't know that he was giving me, he was helping
Speaker 1: me see that it's not just as a preacher, or
Speaker 1: it's not just those of us who stand on a
Speaker 1: stage who feel this pressure. Because it used to be
Speaker 1: enough if you just provide for your kids. It used
Speaker 1: to be enough if you just protect your kids. It
Speaker 1: used to be enough if you would just prepare your kids.
Speaker 1: And sometimes all of those things seem to be in conflict,
Speaker 1: that while you want to protect your kids, you also
Speaker 1: have to prepare your kids. And so sometimes I don't know,
Speaker 1: should I catch you or should I let you fall
Speaker 1: a little bit so you don't fall a lot? Should
Speaker 1: I let you skin your knee now so that you
Speaker 1: don't break your neck later? Should I should I let
Speaker 1: you Peter sink down into the water and let you
Speaker 1: sink and not let you drown. Sometimes, even Jesus, if
Speaker 1: you read the scripture, he did not prevent the failure.
Speaker 1: He allowed the failure so that the person could learn
Speaker 1: the lesson that would enable them later. Sometimes there's so
Speaker 1: much pressure coming from so many different directions, And if
Speaker 1: you stop to think about the life of Jesus, he
Speaker 1: was he was under pressure from the Pharisees who wanted
Speaker 1: to kill him because he threatened their political power, And
Speaker 1: so they were watching everything that he did, and they
Speaker 1: were watching him with very, very scrutinizing eyes, even to
Speaker 1: the point that if he healed somebody, not only would
Speaker 1: they watch him heal the person, but they would they
Speaker 1: would find him healing on the wrong day, and if
Speaker 1: he healed on the Sabbath, they would stand up and
Speaker 1: accuse him for doing something good. Would you like to
Speaker 1: get accused not only for doing the wrong thing, but
Speaker 1: for doing the right thing at the wrong time. This
Speaker 1: is Jesus. He shows up and they follow him to
Speaker 1: see if he's gonna wash his hands before he eats.
Speaker 1: How creepy is it when you have people following you
Speaker 1: in the bathroom to see one time I was at PF.
Speaker 1: Chanin's and there was a man that was standing there
Speaker 1: watching me while I was and it was threatening to me.
Speaker 1: It was threatening to me, So I kind of looked
Speaker 1: down my fishies in the bathroom and I washed my hands.
Speaker 1: I walked over to him and he said, I was
Speaker 1: waiting to see if you do wash your hands after
Speaker 1: you went I go to your church. I'm like, bro,
Speaker 1: there's a lot of other great churches I would like
Speaker 1: to tell you about right now. But for Jesus, it
Speaker 1: was ceremonial. It wasn't It wasn't a hygienic thing. They
Speaker 1: were watching to see what he breaked the law and
Speaker 1: not wash his hands. They weren't worried about the fact
Speaker 1: that he was trying to eat with people that they
Speaker 1: considered unclean, because he was righteousness and grace and truth.
Speaker 1: They were so focused on the cosmetics, and so everything
Speaker 1: that he did was under scrutiny. Oh he's talking with
Speaker 1: a woman. Oh he's touching a leper al. He's not
Speaker 1: supposed to act like that, he's not supposed to speak
Speaker 1: like that. And then sometimes for Jesus he would perform
Speaker 1: a miracle for the crowd, but they would miss the
Speaker 1: deeper meaning, which is what has just happened when we
Speaker 1: read on chapter seven. Because he just fed five thousand
Speaker 1: men and women and children, and he provided for their
Speaker 1: needs in such a great way that they all ate
Speaker 1: and had their fill. But after he filled them up physically,
Speaker 1: he turned to fill them spiritually. And it turns out
Speaker 1: that they were following him not for the spiritual dynamics
Speaker 1: of who he was, but for the physical benefits of
Speaker 1: what he could provide. And when he began to speak
Speaker 1: at a deeper level, the Bible says that many of
Speaker 1: them didn't want to hear it. After he fed them
Speaker 1: the bread, he turned around and said, now that you've
Speaker 1: had bread, recognize that I am bread. The miracle that
Speaker 1: I just performed was not about what I did. It
Speaker 1: was to point to who I am. I am the
Speaker 1: bread of life, and if you eat my flesh and
Speaker 1: drink my blood, you can remain in me. Well, they
Speaker 1: didn't like that very much. It's like he had the
Speaker 1: crowd and then he lost them. He had the following
Speaker 1: and then he lost it. And the Bible says in
Speaker 1: John six sixty six sixty sixty six, I always remember
Speaker 1: that like it's a bad number, six sixty six. I
Speaker 1: always remember it because it said many then deserted him
Speaker 1: and followed him no more, then went away because this
Speaker 1: is a hard saying, and followed him no more. And
Speaker 1: as they're walking away, Jesus turns to his disciples and says,
Speaker 1: do you want to walk away too? And Peter said,
Speaker 1: we don't have no options. I already gave my boat
Speaker 1: away for a little while, and I already put my
Speaker 1: investment in you, and I got to see where this ends,
Speaker 1: even if it ends at a cross. That's the context
Speaker 1: of John chapter seven. And it's one thing to kind
Speaker 1: of have to deal with opposition from the devil. It's
Speaker 1: another thing to kind of have to deal with it
Speaker 1: from inside your own house. And Jesus had seven siblings.
Speaker 1: Some traditions infer these are his human brothers, And whether
Speaker 1: or not Jesus had any sisters, it's interesting to me
Speaker 1: that it was his brothers who pulled him aside with
Speaker 1: a strategy watch this for how to get his followers back.
Speaker 1: And they've got it all figured out, and they've got
Speaker 1: it all calculated, and they say, Jesus, do more of
Speaker 1: the stuff like where you're feeding people, and less of
Speaker 1: the cannibal stuff that you say in your speeches. Let's
Speaker 1: take out the cannibalism. And why don't you go to
Speaker 1: Judea because the Feast of Tabernacles is about to start,
Speaker 1: and you can come with us and you can do
Speaker 1: the kinds of things that you've been doing here in Galilee,
Speaker 1: which was in the northern part of Palestine, which was
Speaker 1: not as densely populated as Jerusalem and Judea. You can
Speaker 1: do publicly what you've been doing privately. You can take
Speaker 1: this show on the road. We can get you a
Speaker 1: headlining spot at the Coachella. Of the Old Testament. This
Speaker 1: was the feast where they would come and build booths.
Speaker 1: It was actually called the Festival of Booths or Tabernacles.
Speaker 1: And they would build the booth when they got there,
Speaker 1: and they would stay for a while, and they would
Speaker 1: thank God for the water that he gave them, and
Speaker 1: they would thank God for the sustenance that he gave them.
Speaker 1: They would remember in the wilderness how God saw his
Speaker 1: people through even though they didn't have quail or grain.
Speaker 1: But he made manna, which literally means what is it,
Speaker 1: and it means what it is? So God meets what
Speaker 1: is it? With what it is, and it shows that
Speaker 1: he can show up in any situation and take what
Speaker 1: it is, and when he fills what it is with
Speaker 1: who he is, it will become what you need it
Speaker 1: to be for the season that you're in. Two people
Speaker 1: recognize good preaching when they hear it, and they say,
Speaker 1: come on and do some of the flashy stuff that
Speaker 1: you've been doing here in Nazareth, and take this show
Speaker 1: fifty five miles south to Judea. And if you can
Speaker 1: do these public things in front of people, you can
Speaker 1: become a public figure. In fact, that's the phrase that
Speaker 1: drew me to the text. It said, no one who
Speaker 1: wants to become a public figure acts in secret. We
Speaker 1: live in a time where everybody wants to be a
Speaker 1: public figure. We live in a time and please don't
Speaker 1: get mad at me for saying this, where even people
Speaker 1: who have a private account spend their whole LIFs posting
Speaker 1: stuff and commenting on stuff to create an image and
Speaker 1: a projection of a reality that may bear no resemblance.
Speaker 1: The awkward golf collapse really helped me. I appreciate that
Speaker 1: to the reality of their situation and Jesus's brothers pull
Speaker 1: them aside and say, we've got a great idea. Why
Speaker 1: don't you show the world who you really are. The
Speaker 1: interesting thing about the text, and I'm gonna give this
Speaker 1: to you quick, because the nexus of this text is
Speaker 1: in verse five. It says that even Jesus' brothers did
Speaker 1: not believe in him, and since they didn't believe, they
Speaker 1: were trying to get him to perform. Any time you
Speaker 1: have unbelief in your heart, it will cause you to
Speaker 1: try to perform to prove something that you don't really believe.
Speaker 1: In psychological terms, it's called the fraudulence complex, or some
Speaker 1: call it the impostor syndrome, and it speaks about how
Speaker 1: many of us have an inability to internalize our strengths
Speaker 1: and our accomplishments. Psychologists call it the impostor syndrome because
Speaker 1: they say that many of us secretly, deep down feel
Speaker 1: like we're a fraud. Many of us secretly, deep down
Speaker 1: feel like we have so much less to offer than
Speaker 1: what people expect, and that even when people compliment us,
Speaker 1: we figure that the reason that they're complimenting us is
Speaker 1: because they don't really see us for who we are.
Speaker 1: And if they ever saw us for who we are,
Speaker 1: if they ever saw how stupid we feel. If they
Speaker 1: ever saw how inexperienced we feel, if they really saw
Speaker 1: how nervous we really feel, they would kick us out
Speaker 1: the room. It happens to fathers, It happens to mothers.
Speaker 1: It happens to leaders, it happens to teenagers. It is
Speaker 1: the fear of being found out to be less than
Speaker 1: they thought you were. It is the fear that keeps
Speaker 1: you in a performance mode. It is the fear that
Speaker 1: keeps you spending money to look like something important, because
Speaker 1: deep down you're afraid that you're really not. It is
Speaker 1: the fear that keeps you over compensating, and you get
Speaker 1: in situations and rather than letting other people be the
Speaker 1: center of attention, you feel the need to overcompensate to
Speaker 1: show how intelligent you are because deep down you don't
Speaker 1: feel intelligent enough, so people think you're cocky, but you're
Speaker 1: really not cocky. You're scared with the conflict between who
Speaker 1: they think you're supposed to be and who you feel
Speaker 1: like you really are. It's called the imposter syndrome. It
Speaker 1: means that sometimes even as I'm trying to fulfill my purpose,
Speaker 1: I feel like a fake. It's not that I'm a hypocrite.
Speaker 1: It's not that I'm insincere. It's just that deep down inside,
Speaker 1: I'm a man who sometimes feels like a little boy.
Speaker 1: I'm a preacher who sometimes feels like a sinner. I
Speaker 1: want to be wise, but sometimes I feel like a fool.
Speaker 1: And I'm wondering, is there anybody here who lately has
Speaker 1: been up under the pressure of an expectation? And when
Speaker 1: you feel that, the temptation and the tendency is to
Speaker 1: prove it. I gotta prove I'm a good dad, prove
Speaker 1: I'm a good mom. I got to prove I'm a
Speaker 1: good preacher. I got to prove it. And when you
Speaker 1: do it to prove it, it takes the joy out
Speaker 1: of it. See Jesus, Jesus didn't mind performing miracles. He
Speaker 1: just wasn't going to do it for the wrong motives.
Speaker 1: Jesus was going to Judea. He just wasn't going to
Speaker 1: make a public spectacle out of his power. Jesus was
Speaker 1: ultimately determined to show the world who he was, but
Speaker 1: he wasn't going to do it for the gram. I
Speaker 1: think the key thing that he says in the text
Speaker 1: is not now I'm going to Judea, which is the
Speaker 1: region where he would ultimately give his life, but not now.
Speaker 1: And it's such a weird world we live in, isn't it.
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm so scared for my kids. Honestly, I
Speaker 1: don't even know what to tell them about growing up
Speaker 1: in a time where we've always had the pressure, but
Speaker 1: now the performance. Now everybody gets to experience performance anxiety
Speaker 1: because we all perform our lives for one another all
Speaker 1: the time, just constantly. I mean, if you cook a
Speaker 1: good meal for your family, it does not count unless
Speaker 1: you make an Instagram story out of the meal. This
Speaker 1: is a very common thing to preach about. Is common
Speaker 1: because it's killing us. Jesus said, if I go to
Speaker 1: Judea for the wrong reasons, and if I show up
Speaker 1: with the wrong motives, and if I live my life
Speaker 1: to perform for others rather than to glorify my father,
Speaker 1: it'll kill me. The religious leaders were waiting to literally
Speaker 1: kill Jesus. But I wonder, what are the things that
Speaker 1: are killing you? It says that he purposely stayed away
Speaker 1: from Judea. What do you need to purposely stay away
Speaker 1: from in this season of your life? What do you
Speaker 1: need to purposely stop thinking about in this season of
Speaker 1: your life, who do you need to purposely stop comparing
Speaker 1: yourself to in this season of your life? For me,
Speaker 1: it's Buck. I was doing squats the other day and Chunks,
Speaker 1: Chunks was watching me do these squats and I was
Speaker 1: doing them deep, deep squats. I only do leg day
Speaker 1: once every six weeks, so I got to make it
Speaker 1: count when I do it. And I don't know if
Speaker 1: I can do it in these genes. I should have
Speaker 1: tested this. I hadn't done this illustration yet, but I mean,
Speaker 1: I was down deep on the squad. Now. Buck wasn't
Speaker 1: there that day. Chunks was there, and Chunks was spotting
Speaker 1: me and he said, what are you doing? And I said,
Speaker 1: I'm doing I'm doing my squats like Buck. But he
Speaker 1: said something so important. He said, don't do them like Buck.
Speaker 1: Buck is built different than you. You're gonna break your
Speaker 1: back trying to be like Buck. And I wonder how
Speaker 1: we look to God trying to You are gonna snap
Speaker 1: your hamstring, you are gonna pop your quads, trying to
Speaker 1: trying to be Buck, getting getting trying to turn, trying
Speaker 1: to I went on Instagram the other day and I
Speaker 1: saw I I saw Kevin Hart, and I felt like
Speaker 1: a failure in my whole life. I felt like, what
Speaker 1: am I doing with my whole life? What is the
Speaker 1: point of my existence? Within fifteen seconds, here I am
Speaker 1: with a burden on me that I wasn't built for
Speaker 1: by comparing myself to someone with a different calling. And
Speaker 1: please don't judge me while I am in this vulnerable position,
Speaker 1: because the truth of the matter is some of you
Speaker 1: are hurting in ways that you don't have to hurt,
Speaker 1: because you are putting yourself in a position that you
Speaker 1: were not built to live in. Jesus said, I'm not
Speaker 1: going to Judea because you want me to go to Judea.
Speaker 1: I don't have to post it to prove it. I
Speaker 1: don't have to turn stones into breadth to show that
Speaker 1: I'm the son of God. I live out of purpose,
Speaker 1: not for popularity. I live out of purpose, not for
Speaker 1: the praises of men, but for the praise that can
Speaker 1: only come from God. And I wonder if there's somebody
Speaker 1: today who is content to stay in Galilee to know
Speaker 1: that it's my season to be obedient. And that's all
Speaker 1: I have to do. All I have to do is
Speaker 1: be obedient in this season of my life. And Jesus said,
Speaker 1: you'll go. I'm not going. Not now you'll go. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna stay. I'm purposely staying away because if I go
Speaker 1: here to impress people with that motive, it'll kill me.
Speaker 1: And trying to impress people and trying to as you're
Speaker 1: up to arbitrary standards that are changing so fast, it'll
Speaker 1: kill your contentment, it'll kill your joy, it'll kill your marriage,
Speaker 1: it'll kill your ministry, it'll kill your family. And now
Speaker 1: even Jesus couldn't please everybody, and he was sinless and spotless. Jesus,
Speaker 1: Jesus Christ, the Son of God, couldn't please everybody, and
Speaker 1: we expect that we can. Even Jesus had to say,
Speaker 1: y'all are my family. I love you, but it's not
Speaker 1: for me, and just those words, it's not for me.
Speaker 1: You ought to go down there, as Judea, show them
Speaker 1: what you've made of because I think they were under
Speaker 1: pressure too. Honestly, I think probably it was a lot
Speaker 1: of pressure to be a sibling of Jesus. And you're
Speaker 1: bringing home seas in chemistry, you know, and he's turning
Speaker 1: water into wine like affect molecular structures in real time,
Speaker 1: a lot of pressure. You got that weird brother, you know,
Speaker 1: the one who stays at the temple teaching people at
Speaker 1: age twelve. It's a pressure to feel special. And sometimes
Speaker 1: the pressure that we feel to be special does not
Speaker 1: come from God. It comes from culture, who tells you
Speaker 1: that you've got to be so special, so different, so unique,
Speaker 1: so set apart. But you already, are you already? Are
Speaker 1: you already? Are already? Am set apart? Jesus? If you
Speaker 1: go down to Judea, you could, you could, really, you
Speaker 1: could show them who you are. You could, you could
Speaker 1: show them who you are. I don't need to show them.
Speaker 1: I know. When you live out of that place, it
Speaker 1: affects you to be able to do it for purpose
Speaker 1: and not for proof, because really, who are you trying
Speaker 1: to prove it to? I mean, whoever you're trying to
Speaker 1: prove something to isn't paying attention, because they're trying to
Speaker 1: prove it to somebody who's not paying attention. And they're
Speaker 1: proving it to someone who's not paying attention. And so
Speaker 1: while we're busy posting to each other our results to
Speaker 1: prove to one another what we're worth, our purpose is
Speaker 1: dying in the place of our insecurity. When you know
Speaker 1: it's real, when you know it's authentic, it enables you
Speaker 1: to do it from a place of purpose. I'm going
Speaker 1: to Judea, I'm going to go. I'm just not going
Speaker 1: to go because you pushed me into it. Be careful
Speaker 1: what you let people or cultural norms push you into.
Speaker 1: You'll never be pushed into purpose. You will be pulled
Speaker 1: from within. If it's pushing, it's not purpose. God does
Speaker 1: not drive, he leads. They are very different. Jesus said,
Speaker 1: I'm going when it's time for me to go. I'm
Speaker 1: not going for clout. I'm going for Cairos. That's the
Speaker 1: Greek word that means the timing of God. In Greek philosophy,
Speaker 1: fate determined timing. In Kingdom philosophy, God determines timing. It
Speaker 1: means I'm where I need to be right now, and
Speaker 1: I'm good in Galilee. I'm good in Galilee. I'm good
Speaker 1: if nobody knows my name. I'm good being anonymous. I
Speaker 1: was listening to a podcast the other day with a
Speaker 1: former First Lady of the United States, and she said
Speaker 1: the number one sacrifice that she gave to serve the
Speaker 1: country was the loss of anonymity. That Isn't it crazy
Speaker 1: that everybody else is trying to climb out of the
Speaker 1: thing that she wishes she could have back, And now
Speaker 1: we've got a whole generation that's just trying to be
Speaker 1: a public figure. I went on somebody's Instagram account the
Speaker 1: other day. They had seventy followers, and it said public
Speaker 1: figure under the name. Why do you need a label
Speaker 1: so bad? Why do you so badly need to be
Speaker 1: perceived by others? It's the pressure to be special, It's
Speaker 1: the pressure to be important. But when you belong to
Speaker 1: God and you are living on assignment, and you know
Speaker 1: your anointing and you know your gift, it takes the
Speaker 1: pressure off. Because I'm good in Galilee. I'll walk on
Speaker 1: water in Galilee. I'll heal blind eyes in Galilee. I'll
Speaker 1: teach in Galilee, I'll pray in Galilee. I'm good in Galilee.
Speaker 1: I see it even seep into our ministry in very
Speaker 1: subtle ways when we sit down to measure our ministry.
Speaker 1: If I'm not careful, I will become so performance oriented
Speaker 1: in the way I pastor this church that I will
Speaker 1: get my priorities more on the statistics than the substance
Speaker 1: and I felt it happening the other day because we're
Speaker 1: looking at all of these Instagram posts that we put out,
Speaker 1: and we use it all. I promise you Jesus would
Speaker 1: have had an Instagram account. It would have been the
Speaker 1: dopest Instagram account that you've ever seen in your life.
Speaker 1: You would have swiped up and got healed. You wouldn't
Speaker 1: even had to click on anything after that. It would
Speaker 1: have been but swipe up and lose your leprosy. It
Speaker 1: would have been an amazing Instagram account. But what I'm
Speaker 1: saying about it is I was in this moment where
Speaker 1: we were showing how this post perform, perform, perform, perform. Now,
Speaker 1: for me, that's a dangerous word because I am performance
Speaker 1: oriented by nature. I don't know why I would ask
Speaker 1: for your prayers for that. I sometimes feel like I'm
Speaker 1: just showing up to regular conversations and oh God, I
Speaker 1: hope I say the right thing. I had a friend
Speaker 1: who got in trouble the other day, and it took
Speaker 1: me a week to call him, not because I didn't
Speaker 1: care about him, but because I didn't think I would
Speaker 1: have anything valid to say, so rather than call him
Speaker 1: and say what I had, I waited and hurt him
Speaker 1: by not calling because I didn't think i'd have something
Speaker 1: to say. And when I finally called him, I realized
Speaker 1: he didn't need my performance. He just needed my presence.
Speaker 1: He didn't need me to say anything. He didn't need
Speaker 1: me to say anything. He just needed me to be there.
Speaker 1: And when you don't believe that, it kills you. Unbelief
Speaker 1: always leads to performance. They didn't believe in him. They
Speaker 1: thought he was a fraud. When you think you're a fraud,
Speaker 1: when you get unbelief in your heart, when you go
Speaker 1: to those places in your mind, you kill yourself trying
Speaker 1: to prove something. You know. We're analyzing, and you can
Speaker 1: look at it. You can look at how how many
Speaker 1: people like this post. And here's a sermon clip we
Speaker 1: put out in. Here's a song that we put out in.
Speaker 1: Here's another sermon clip, and this one performed better than
Speaker 1: that one. And that's good to know. I think should
Speaker 1: look at all that. I mean, I definitely want the
Speaker 1: person who's managing my retirement account to look at the
Speaker 1: performance of the retirement account. I don't just want them
Speaker 1: to pray about it. Amen. Now it's losing money, but
Speaker 1: it's a great company. We believe in their values and
Speaker 1: I want to make some money, But with ministry, you
Speaker 1: can't always measure that, can you. And I don't really
Speaker 1: know if the one that got the most likes was
Speaker 1: the one that God used, because who am I to
Speaker 1: say that the one that didn't get as many likes.
Speaker 1: Maybe it came across somebody's feed when their hands were
Speaker 1: shaken too bad to click like or to comment because
Speaker 1: they had a bottle of pills in their hand, and
Speaker 1: something that was spoken through that I just really hit
Speaker 1: their situation. And you can't measure that when you do
Speaker 1: it for the wrong audience, when people don't clap, you quit,
Speaker 1: when they don't say thank you, or when you get
Speaker 1: the feeling like they don't even appreciate me, they don't
Speaker 1: even notice, they wouldn't even miss me, they don't even
Speaker 1: they don't even know what I bring to this. They
Speaker 1: don't really Jesus wasn't doing it for the people, and
Speaker 1: he certainly wasn't doing it for their praise. He was
Speaker 1: doing it for a purpose, and the people were not
Speaker 1: his audience. And when the brothers said, you need to
Speaker 1: do it so they'll see, you need to do it
Speaker 1: so they'll know you need to do it to prove it,
Speaker 1: Jesus said, I believe. Twenty nineteen version Jesus said, I
Speaker 1: don't have to post it to prove it. I don't
Speaker 1: have to do it because they're clapping. I do it
Speaker 1: because I'm called. I'm not doing it for clout. I'm
Speaker 1: doing it for calling. I am not chasing their approval.
Speaker 1: I am fulfilling my assignment. Now, this message is for
Speaker 1: our generation. And I do not mean people that are
Speaker 1: my age. I mean the time that we live in
Speaker 1: is consumed and obsessed with chasing clout, approval and publicity.
Speaker 1: But some things ought to stay private. Some things that
Speaker 1: God does in your life are not for ppa. Some
Speaker 1: things are not for a public display of ability or
Speaker 1: a public display of affection. You know, back in my day,
Speaker 1: if you were making out with somebody in public, they
Speaker 1: would holler at you. Get a room. And I heard
Speaker 1: Jesus say, when you pray, don't do it out in
Speaker 1: public like the Pagans do trying to impress somebody or
Speaker 1: the Pharisees do. But get in a secret place, get
Speaker 1: in your closet, get a room where you get alone
Speaker 1: with God, and ask God what am I called to
Speaker 1: do what am I called to be. I can't take
Speaker 1: my cues from culture or the crowd is killing me. God,
Speaker 1: what do you want me to do in this season?
Speaker 1: It's too much pressure to please people. God. I just
Speaker 1: want to please you. I do it for you. God.
Speaker 1: I show up for you, I stay late for you,
Speaker 1: I forgive for you. I love for you, I serve
Speaker 1: for you. I breathe for you. I live for you.
Speaker 1: I worship for you. It's not for an audience of them.
Speaker 1: God is my audience. And when God is your audience,
Speaker 1: the opinions of people are no longer your sustenance. I
Speaker 1: don't turn stones into bread. We so need this word
Speaker 1: from the Lord because we're sure not going to get
Speaker 1: it from the world. It's getting weirder and weirder and weirder.
Speaker 1: How we're all performing for each other all the time.
Speaker 1: It's exhausting and it sucks and it's worthless and it
Speaker 1: doesn't matter. And God sent me today. Watch this with
Speaker 1: a word of sanity. The crowd will kill you. I
Speaker 1: love the phrase that he put. Jod said there was
Speaker 1: wide spread whispering about Jesus. Everybody had a comment to make,
Speaker 1: but nobody had the courage to say it out loud
Speaker 1: to his face. Everybody was whispering. And this is the
Speaker 1: world that we live in, and when we give too
Speaker 1: much weight to the whispers of people and not enough
Speaker 1: weight to the word of God, it will kill us
Speaker 1: on the inside. So the impostor syndrome was coined as
Speaker 1: a phrase several decades ago in psychological terms, but it's
Speaker 1: as old as Moses, who stood up one day just
Speaker 1: to see a burning bush that wasn't consumed talking about
Speaker 1: who am I that I should go stand before Pharaoh.
Speaker 1: No matter how many miracles God did through Moses, he
Speaker 1: still had trouble believing that he was enough to lead
Speaker 1: the people. That's why he struck the rock instead of
Speaker 1: speaking to it. That's why he was still trying to
Speaker 1: prove at the end of his ministry, I am something,
Speaker 1: I am somebody I can do it. And now I'm
Speaker 1: spending too much money over here, and now I'm spending
Speaker 1: too much energy over here, and now I'm becoming something
Speaker 1: that I don't even like to prove it to who
Speaker 1: to who? Jesus said, I'm going to Judea when it's
Speaker 1: right for me, and God give us the clarity to
Speaker 1: know what's right for us what we're built for, so
Speaker 1: we stop finding ourselves and compromising positions that do not
Speaker 1: even fit our build God, give us the wisdom to
Speaker 1: know when people are pushing us. Just because it's normal
Speaker 1: doesn't mean it's wise. God, give us the wisdom to
Speaker 1: know our timing. Give us the wisdom to know when
Speaker 1: we need to put something in a journal not on Facebook.
Speaker 1: Give us the wisdom to know when it's your voice. Father,
Speaker 1: I thank you for what you've spoken today, and I
Speaker 1: believe that I will be hearing for a long time
Speaker 1: how it was applied in individual lives. With everyone standing,
Speaker 1: I want to pray a prayer or a blessing over
Speaker 1: you today that if you can receive it with your spirit,
Speaker 1: it will save you so much pain and consternation and
Speaker 1: agony to be able to receive that you don't have
Speaker 1: to live on bread alone, but every word that proceeds
Speaker 1: from the mouth of God. And just to know in
Speaker 1: this moment that it is okay to stay in Galilee,
Speaker 1: it's okay to operate in your gift, it's okay to
Speaker 1: do it the way you need to do it, and
Speaker 1: that proving stuff to people never produce the power of God.
Speaker 1: Never Even when Jesus hung on the cross, they were
Speaker 1: still trying to get him to prove it. If you
Speaker 1: are the son of God, come down from that cross.
Speaker 1: But he couldn't come down. He wasn't up there to
Speaker 1: prove it. He was up there to do it for
Speaker 1: you and for me, to despise the shame and to
Speaker 1: endure the cross. The presence of the Lord is here
Speaker 1: to remind you of your righteousness and to remind you
Speaker 1: that you don't have to perform a religious act or
Speaker 1: a behavior modification program to be accepted by your heavenly Father.
Speaker 1: With your head's bowed and your eyes closed, there's somebody
Speaker 1: here who's been feeling like you're not enough, and it
Speaker 1: has caused you to enter into modes of communication and
Speaker 1: methods of life and paces of lifestyle that do not
Speaker 1: even fit your assignment or your calling. And there are
Speaker 1: some places that you're going to purposely need to stay
Speaker 1: away from in the coming days. Places in your mind
Speaker 1: and places in your imagination. There are places that you
Speaker 1: will need to stay away from on purpose in order
Speaker 1: to live in peace. And you've been under a pressure
Speaker 1: that did not come from God, to live up to
Speaker 1: something that was not even originated in his heart. Today,
Speaker 1: I pray that the peace of God would be your
Speaker 1: portion as you enter this next season of your life,
Speaker 1: and that whatever you do, you would not do it
Speaker 1: for popularity or for praise, but that you would do
Speaker 1: it on purpose, that you would do it with an
Speaker 1: intentionality like Jesus had as he set his face toward
Speaker 1: the future with destiny in his heart, praying, even under
Speaker 1: pressure in the garden of gethsemone, nevertheless, not my will,
Speaker 1: but Thine be done. May God give you this spirit
Speaker 1: of focus and determination to raise your family and to
Speaker 1: run your race, and to live your life, and to
Speaker 1: ignore the whispers to come out of unbelief. Stop trying
Speaker 1: to prove it. You don't have to prove it. It's
Speaker 1: already spoken. It's already settled. With heads bout and eyes closed.
Speaker 1: This is the moment of our service where we give
Speaker 1: you the opportunity to begin a relationship with God. If
Speaker 1: you are here today and you are far away from God,
Speaker 1: you don't have to leave that way, and you don't
Speaker 1: have to perform up to a standard. That's what they
Speaker 1: tried to do through the law, but nobody could keep it.
Speaker 1: There is no unrighteous one and you can make plans
Speaker 1: to change your life, and you can have better priorities,
Speaker 1: and you could try to be a better person, but
Speaker 1: none of it will get you there. It all comes
Speaker 1: down to the grace of God. It all comes down
Speaker 1: to believing and surrendering your life to Him. And I
Speaker 1: believe there are a special few today that God brought
Speaker 1: you here for this moment, for this moment, that He
Speaker 1: can make you his child, that He can give you
Speaker 1: a new beginning in your life, that you can begin
Speaker 1: to walk with Him, that you can give your life
Speaker 1: to Jesus Christ. And with our heads bowed and our
Speaker 1: eyes closed, we pray together as a church family, out
Speaker 1: loud on every campus for the benefit of those who
Speaker 1: are coming to God or coming back to God. The
Speaker 1: Bible says, if you confess with your mouth Jesus's Lord,
Speaker 1: and believe in your heart God raised him from the dead,
Speaker 1: you will be saved. It is by grace you are
Speaker 1: saved through faith. It is the gift of God, not
Speaker 1: of work, So no one can boast. It's not about
Speaker 1: what you can do, It's about what has already been done.
Speaker 1: He died for you, he rose for you today. This
Speaker 1: can be your moment with heads about and eyes closed.
Speaker 1: If you want to give your life to Jesus Christ,
Speaker 1: repeat this prayer after me. Church Family, pray along, Heavenly Father.
Speaker 1: I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God
Speaker 1: and the Savior of the world. And today I make
Speaker 1: Jesus the Lord of my life. I believe he died
Speaker 1: that I could be forgiven and rose again to give
Speaker 1: me life. I receive this new life. This is my
Speaker 1: new beginning. On the count of three, if you prayed
Speaker 1: that prayer, shoots your hand up high. One, two, three.
Speaker 1: I want to celebrate with you. Bless you God, Bless Him,
Speaker 1: bless Him. I think we can celebrate better than that.
Speaker 1: Let's do it like a family. Let's do it like
Speaker 1: the angels. Let's throw a little party, a little birthday party.
Speaker 1: Come on, let's throw a little birthday party. Welcome to
Speaker 1: the Family of God. Thank you for joining us. Special
Speaker 1: thanks to those of you who give generously to this ministry.
Speaker 1: Is because of you that this ministry is possible. You
Speaker 1: can click the link in the description to give now,
Speaker 1: or visit Elevationchurch dot org slash podcast for more information,
Speaker 1: and if you enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe. You
Speaker 1: can share it with your friends. You can click the
Speaker 1: share button, take a screenshot and share it on your
Speaker 1: social stories and tag us at Elevation Church. Thanks again
Speaker 1: for listening. God bless you.