Speaker 1: Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick. I'm the pastor of Elevation
Speaker 1: Church and this is our podcast. I wanted to thank
Speaker 1: you for joining us today. Hope this inspires you. Hope
Speaker 1: it builds your faith. Hope it gives your perspective to
Speaker 1: see God is moving in your life. Enjoy the message.
Speaker 1: Let's get into the scripture now, the Book of Matthew
Speaker 1: chapter eleven, verse two and three. And as I share
Speaker 1: this with you today, I pray that it will be
Speaker 1: a very personal experience for you. Matthew chapter eleven, Versus
Speaker 1: two and three. When John, who was in prison, heard
Speaker 1: about the deeds of the Messiah, he sent his disciples
Speaker 1: to ask him, are you the one who is to come?
Speaker 1: Or should we expect someone else? And really let's focus
Speaker 1: on the first part of that, When John who was
Speaker 1: in prison, You'll find my message right between those commas
Speaker 1: in that little clause. When John and here's the phrase,
Speaker 1: who was in prison him? Today, I'd like to speak
Speaker 1: to you about invisible prisons. Invisible prisons, and let's pray
Speaker 1: one more time. God, you hold the keys, you have
Speaker 1: all authority, your sovereign, and we believe that you can
Speaker 1: do anything. Now enable your servants to have the kind
Speaker 1: of faith that will connect with Heaven, get us past
Speaker 1: the point of our own perspective, and help us to
Speaker 1: see things like you see him for a few minutes.
Speaker 1: We believe that if we do, things will change in
Speaker 1: our lives. In Jesus' name, I pray, Amen, you may
Speaker 1: be seated low ocd. My Bible was on the wrong
Speaker 1: side of the thing. I have to keep it a
Speaker 1: certain way. And you know, it's funny when you're married
Speaker 1: to somebody, you notice all these little things about them.
Speaker 1: Now listen, this is not hyperbole. Holly Ferdick is pretty
Speaker 1: much the perfect wife. We don't have the perfect marriage,
Speaker 1: but she's like, you know, nine point nine out of
Speaker 1: ten on the way, and even look at me, Look
Speaker 1: at me. I'm not just earning points up here trying
Speaker 1: to get something started in the afternoon after I preach.
Speaker 1: I promise you she really is. And even when we
Speaker 1: miss each other just by that point zero zero zero
Speaker 1: zero zero one, it's usually just she's even trying. And
Speaker 1: sometimes it's just like she loves me so much and
Speaker 1: messes things up, you know, like she she used to
Speaker 1: introduce me. We would go to the different campuses and
Speaker 1: have a campus vision night, and so we'd be like
Speaker 1: at University City or at Riverwalk the artist formerly known
Speaker 1: as Rock Hill, and she get up to introduce me
Speaker 1: like she'd she'd read a scripture, greet the people, and
Speaker 1: she would tell them, now, in a few moments, our
Speaker 1: pastor is gonna come preach and let me tell you
Speaker 1: it's going to be a good one tonight. And they
Speaker 1: cheer a little bit, and she'd say, I mean, I'm
Speaker 1: telling you he's been studying all day. I mean to
Speaker 1: tell you he hadn't come out of his room. I
Speaker 1: went in the room and he was on his face
Speaker 1: on the carpet, seeking God and worshiping God. And then
Speaker 1: he and then he on the way over, he had
Speaker 1: a napkin out and he was writing his sermon notes
Speaker 1: on a napkin. And he's just fired up. And I've
Speaker 1: never seen him this fired up. And I think tonight
Speaker 1: might be the best message that he's ever going to
Speaker 1: preach in his life. And I'm like, shut up. This
Speaker 1: is too much pressure, Like I cannot take the expectations.
Speaker 1: And it's like ah, like everything she says, it's like
Speaker 1: I can't possibly make it this good, you know, get
Speaker 1: up and tell him I've been sick and and the
Speaker 1: kids have been crazy, and it's just a miracle that
Speaker 1: I'm here. And then, you know, I could just jump
Speaker 1: over that. You know, I could dunk on that. Just
Speaker 1: set the goal about five feet, I could dunk on that.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying. She puts it up so
Speaker 1: high I can't possibly reach it. It's about expectations. Marriage
Speaker 1: is about expectations. I could I could preach a seminar
Speaker 1: on that. Let's do another time, because it's just the
Speaker 1: idea of when you don't understand someone's expectations, you can't
Speaker 1: make sense of their disappointments. And faith when you get
Speaker 1: to the essence of it is an expectation, a confident
Speaker 1: assurance that a negative circumstance still holds the potential to
Speaker 1: produce great purpose in my life. Come on, shout on that.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna teach y'all where to shout. Y'all been coming
Speaker 1: to church too many years to not know where the
Speaker 1: shouting part is. That's the shouting part means I can
Speaker 1: walk into something dark and light it up because of
Speaker 1: my faith, because the light of the world lives in me.
Speaker 1: You say, Jesus is the light of the world. Absolutely
Speaker 1: he is, but guess where he lives. It's an expectation.
Speaker 1: Faith is an expectation to know that, even if the
Speaker 1: sequence of things doesn't make sense in my life, that God,
Speaker 1: who lives outside of time, because he is eternal, knows
Speaker 1: the end from the beginning. So then I have to
Speaker 1: trust him with element op if he is Z and A,
Speaker 1: and if A is related to Z, because he is
Speaker 1: Alpha and Omega beginning in the end, the first and
Speaker 1: the last. My faith is an expectation that before the
Speaker 1: movie even starts, he's already shot the closing scene. It
Speaker 1: helps me to know today that I don't have to
Speaker 1: live in suspense as to whether or not I will
Speaker 1: see the goodness of the Lord in the land of
Speaker 1: the living. Because faith is an expectation. Faith enables me
Speaker 1: to wake up in the morning knowing that surely goodness
Speaker 1: and mercy will follow me all the days of my life.
Speaker 1: And since this is one of the days of my life,
Speaker 1: Goodness and mercy are my bodyguards, one on my right
Speaker 1: and one on my left. You can't see them there invisible,
Speaker 1: but if you look real close, I've got security. Tell somebody,
Speaker 1: say I got security. Goodness and mercy. The favor of
Speaker 1: the Lord is the filter through which I view the
Speaker 1: fights of my life. Knowing this that he who began
Speaker 1: a good work in me will be faithful to complete it.
Speaker 1: Don't know when, don't know how, not even sure what
Speaker 1: he's doing yet. But my faith gives me an expectation.
Speaker 1: Now unto him who is able to do immeasurably more
Speaker 1: than we ask or imagine, according to his power that
Speaker 1: works mightily in us, not according to my preference, not
Speaker 1: according to my understanding or the finite finite you know, small, little,
Speaker 1: puny way that I tend to come at situations. But
Speaker 1: my faith is an expectation, and this expectation is contagious.
Speaker 1: Talk about talk about expectations. Man John, the Baptist who
Speaker 1: we just read about, he was he was really, really
Speaker 1: familiar with the pressure of high expectations because he was
Speaker 1: a miraculous, miraculously born baby, and an angel prophesied his birth,
Speaker 1: and in fact, when his mother, Elizabeth got pregnant, you know,
Speaker 1: his father Zacho, was so shocked by it that he
Speaker 1: told the angel it couldn't happen because they were kind
Speaker 1: of old, and so his expectation, you know with age,
Speaker 1: one thing can happen with age. That's good. You can
Speaker 1: get experience, but it can diminish expectation. Do you know
Speaker 1: what I mean by that? I'm looking for over forty
Speaker 1: because I'm not there yet. I'm familiar with this. But
Speaker 1: John was born. Before he was born, you have to
Speaker 1: understand that he was the voice that prepared the way
Speaker 1: for the Lord that the entire nation was expecting to
Speaker 1: deliver them from oppression. That was their expectation of the Messiah.
Speaker 1: They looked for for hundreds of years, in centuries, so
Speaker 1: that this generation that was alive at the time the
Speaker 1: birth of Christ had heard the stories, the rumors, and
Speaker 1: the rumblings about the possibility and potential of his coming
Speaker 1: into the world, and this expectation from their heart was
Speaker 1: that he would then set them free from oppression, whether
Speaker 1: economic or political, or deliver them from their their circumstantial containment.
Speaker 1: There's an expectation, and one thing you got to do
Speaker 1: when you have an expectation is make sure that you
Speaker 1: connect yourself with people who have a similar expectation. And
Speaker 1: this is important because expectation is contagious. Say that out loud,
Speaker 1: expectation is contagious. Those of you watching this message, you
Speaker 1: didn't get to be with us in worship. I had
Speaker 1: everybody in the church turn to each other, and I
Speaker 1: had them check with their neighbor and make sure that
Speaker 1: their neighbor was the right neighbor, because I don't want
Speaker 1: them sitting next to anybody who's not expecting God to
Speaker 1: speak today, just going to play something on their phone,
Speaker 1: you know, candy Crush or whatever game is popular. Now,
Speaker 1: play that stuff. I read my Bible in my free times. Kidding,
Speaker 1: I was kidding, read my Bible, watch YouTube in my
Speaker 1: free time. But but I was just having them check,
Speaker 1: you know, because expectation is contagious. Here's how contagious it is.
Speaker 1: When John the Baptist was still in Elizabeth's womb, an
Speaker 1: angel appeared six months after Elizabeth got pregnant with John
Speaker 1: the Baptist to Mary, who was a relative of Elizabeth.
Speaker 1: Now you know, Mary, Mary, did you know from Christmas?
Speaker 1: She was told that she was going to have a
Speaker 1: baby and she hadn't had relations. And it's kind of
Speaker 1: hard to believe a revelation that completely contradicts the circumstances
Speaker 1: surrounding it. So the first thing that she did when
Speaker 1: the angel left was going to the Hill country to
Speaker 1: see her relative named Elizabeth, because the angel said, she's
Speaker 1: also expecting. The best thing you can do when you
Speaker 1: are expecting is to get around somebody else who's expecting.
Speaker 1: If you get around somebody who's expecting, your expectation will rise.
Speaker 1: That's why I come to church, to be honest with you,
Speaker 1: because you know what, I could watch it on my phone,
Speaker 1: but there's something about being in an atmosphere with people
Speaker 1: who are also expected. You know what, if you're watching
Speaker 1: this message in your house, next time you watch it,
Speaker 1: invite somebody over and you'll drink some coffee together and
Speaker 1: get some expectation between the two of you, and get
Speaker 1: a Bible and break out your Bible and stand up
Speaker 1: on your feet while I'm preaching. Even if you're watching
Speaker 1: in your kitchen, if you got somebody next to you,
Speaker 1: grab them right now and tell them I'm expecting something,
Speaker 1: and what I need is somebody who will help me
Speaker 1: with this expectation, because if I don't get around somebody
Speaker 1: who's expecting something. This is so real. This is so
Speaker 1: real that we've got worship leaders in this church who
Speaker 1: lead worship and don't even have a microphone, because when
Speaker 1: we're pulling in today, Graham, who's eleven, said to me,
Speaker 1: we listened to hes Ki Walker on the way to
Speaker 1: church today, So I had, I had, I had the
Speaker 1: car bumping on the way in the parking lot. And
Speaker 1: then we moved over into Israel Hoten circa. Two thousand
Speaker 1: and six, and and then we pulled by the parking team.
Speaker 1: And do you know my son said to me when
Speaker 1: we pulled by the parking team, he said, I love
Speaker 1: that guy. Now this is Graham. Graham doesn't has never
Speaker 1: even said he loved me, but he he was like,
Speaker 1: I love him. You can tell he's excited. Graham never
Speaker 1: said I love Chris Brown. He never said it once ever.
Speaker 1: But that parking attendant, Graham said, he does so much
Speaker 1: for our church. What could we do for him? But
Speaker 1: it was a childlike faith. And I promise I'm gonna
Speaker 1: talk about John the Baptist in a minute. But it's
Speaker 1: the craziest thing that when somebody is also expecting, you know,
Speaker 1: it created an expectation. Even in the parking lot, my
Speaker 1: son felt something. What he felt though he didn't know,
Speaker 1: it was the Holy Spirit in that man. The Holy
Speaker 1: Spirit in that man who didn't need a microphone. He
Speaker 1: had an orange baton, and he was expecting that when
Speaker 1: you pull in my parking lot, you're pulling up on
Speaker 1: the holy ground. So get ready something good. I'm expecting something.
Speaker 1: So when Elizabeth and Mary got together, Mary said, oh,
Speaker 1: I just got bumped. Mary said, what do you mean,
Speaker 1: I just got bumped? This is the new modern steam
Speaker 1: for the translation of Bible. What do you mean you
Speaker 1: just got bumped? She said, When you got here, the
Speaker 1: baby in your womb made the baby in my womb
Speaker 1: leap for joy. Now you can't see it, it's invisible.
Speaker 1: But something in you, the Jesus in you, the Christ
Speaker 1: in you. I'm gonna calm down in a minute of preach.
Speaker 1: But somebody who's got a purpose on the inside, sound
Speaker 1: like you're expecting the greatest days of your life. Come
Speaker 1: on on, every campus. Let's take nineteen seconds and praise
Speaker 1: a minute. There. It's all right, it's all right. It's
Speaker 1: all right to be expected, it's all right, it's all right.
Speaker 1: It's all right to love Jesus. It's all right to
Speaker 1: be enthusiastic. It's all right. It's all right to lift
Speaker 1: up your eyes to the hills. And know where your
Speaker 1: health comes from. Expectation is contagious, so is skepticism. Sit down,
Speaker 1: we gotta modulate because a lot has happened since John
Speaker 1: the Baptist was jumping up and down in Elizabeth's womb
Speaker 1: as a fetus. You know what I mean? Like a
Speaker 1: lot happens between when something gets birthed and the point
Speaker 1: now where's he started his ministry. He's like, he's been
Speaker 1: doing his job. You've been doing your job. Just remember
Speaker 1: the Titans. You've been doing your job. He's been doing
Speaker 1: his job. And Jesus now is really really getting He's
Speaker 1: getting popular. He's blowing up, as some would say. Now
Speaker 1: this is not before the blow up. Jesus is blowing
Speaker 1: all the way up, all the way up. And John,
Speaker 1: according to the text, is in prison. When John first
Speaker 1: saw Jesus as an adult, and whether or not they
Speaker 1: had much contact during their teenage years is not recorded
Speaker 1: in scripture. But one thing we know is that when
Speaker 1: John saw Jesus at one point when he was baptizing
Speaker 1: in the Jordan River, John identified Jesus not by the
Speaker 1: activities that he did, but he identified him based on
Speaker 1: the essence of who he was, which is really important
Speaker 1: in how we relate to God, because if we only
Speaker 1: learn to identify God by what he does and what
Speaker 1: he does for us, then our expectation will be attached
Speaker 1: to his activity. And that's dangerous. It's very dangerous to have.
Speaker 1: It's very dangerous to have a low expectation of God.
Speaker 1: Then you just live the life at the level of
Speaker 1: your disappointments and then wonder why everything turns out exactly
Speaker 1: the way you imagined it to turn out because you
Speaker 1: didn't have any faith for anything else. It's a self
Speaker 1: fulfilling prophecy. But it's also very dangerous, isn't it, to
Speaker 1: have an expectation of God that is not congruent with
Speaker 1: his character. And this is where it gets difficult for us,
Speaker 1: because and babies in the womb is one thing. But
Speaker 1: now when John who was in prison, not in prison
Speaker 1: for a meth laugh, not in prison because you know,
Speaker 1: not in prison for a domestic disturbance, in prison for
Speaker 1: standing up to a wicked king herod and because he
Speaker 1: wouldn't say what was expected of him to be said,
Speaker 1: because he was a prophet and he didn't operate like
Speaker 1: that and he was kind of rough, y'all. John the
Speaker 1: Baptist was if he had a Twitter account, it would
Speaker 1: definitely it would definitely need to be suspended. He would
Speaker 1: definitely be deplatformed in this day. In this PC day,
Speaker 1: John the Baptist would not have much of an audience,
Speaker 1: but he was very popular in his time until Jesus came.
Speaker 1: And when Jesus came, he said, look, Lamb of God
Speaker 1: takes away his sins the world. Don't follow me, follow
Speaker 1: him John three thirty. He must become greater. I must
Speaker 1: become less. Follow him, not me. Whole reason i'm here
Speaker 1: is point to him. Here he is, y'all go with him.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna do my thing prepared the way. I'm just
Speaker 1: a voice. I'm not the one. I'm just a voice
Speaker 1: pointing to the one. So I know my place. So
Speaker 1: I'm gonna fall back now so he can do what
Speaker 1: he came to do, and what he came to do
Speaker 1: watch this was to judge the unwickedness and to bring
Speaker 1: the people to repentance. That was John's favorite message. He
Speaker 1: loved that word repent. He just preached it all the time,
Speaker 1: and when they would come out to be baptized by him,
Speaker 1: he would call him names. He one time called the
Speaker 1: Pharisees a brute of vipers. I thought that would be
Speaker 1: an interesting way to welcome the campuses one weekend. And
Speaker 1: yet there was a prophetic power to his ministry that
Speaker 1: people were attracted to because he would say things that
Speaker 1: were true, whether they wanted them to be true or not.
Speaker 1: And yet that same spirit. And I really want to
Speaker 1: isolate this. I didn't do it last night, but I
Speaker 1: was thinking the same thing that made him so great
Speaker 1: got him in trouble, the same thing that made him
Speaker 1: able to just take a stand. And I'm not moving.
Speaker 1: And this is how it's gonna be. Repent, Repent, repent.
Speaker 1: Let me show you one example. Can I show you
Speaker 1: one example of what his message was. So he's out
Speaker 1: baptizing at the Jordan. He baptized Jesus. He said, uh,
Speaker 1: I'm not worthy to untie your thong of your sandaljes said,
Speaker 1: we got to do it to fulfill all righteousness. It's proper,
Speaker 1: it's appropriate. Stop thinking about how you think it needs
Speaker 1: to be, and I'm telling you how it needs to be.
Speaker 1: You're just the voice. You're not You're not the message.
Speaker 1: You're just the voice. Again, You're not the message. You're
Speaker 1: just the voice. One more time. You're not the message,
Speaker 1: You're just the voice. And so he baptized Jesus in obedience,
Speaker 1: even though it didn't make sense. And now watch this.
Speaker 1: This is something that he said that shows us what
Speaker 1: his expectation was. And if you don't understand his expectation,
Speaker 1: you can't make sense of his disappointment. This was his
Speaker 1: expectation of the Messiah. This was his expectation of the
Speaker 1: one that he gave away his ministry to. This was
Speaker 1: his expectation of the Lamb of God, who takes away
Speaker 1: the sin of the world and is found in Matthew
Speaker 1: chapter three. Watch this, he's talking to the crowds. I
Speaker 1: baptize you with water for repentance. But after me comes
Speaker 1: one who is more powerful than I, who sandals I
Speaker 1: am not worthy to carry. He'll baptize you with the
Speaker 1: Holy Spirit and fire. Watch this verse twelve. His winnowing
Speaker 1: fork is in hand. Ooh, that's what you used to
Speaker 1: get the chaff owl the wickedness. You winnow it out,
Speaker 1: and you separate the sheep from the goats, the good
Speaker 1: from the bad, the righteous from the wicked. He's got
Speaker 1: his winnowing fork. He's here now, and it's about to
Speaker 1: go down. It's about to get good. The Lamb of
Speaker 1: God is here, and he's got his winnowing fork in
Speaker 1: his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering
Speaker 1: his wheat to the barn and burning up the chaff
Speaker 1: with unquenchable fire. It's about to be fire. The Son
Speaker 1: of God is here. It's about to be fire. He's
Speaker 1: got a fork and he's about to start a fire.
Speaker 1: And he's burning up all y'all that don't want to
Speaker 1: do it, and get right and get left, and you know,
Speaker 1: all this stuff he had John the Baptist had a
Speaker 1: church sign. It would have all those things about hell
Speaker 1: on it, you know, about the fire and the wicked
Speaker 1: and the righteous and turn or burn, and you know,
Speaker 1: and he's got his fork in one hand. Now watch this.
Speaker 1: He's in prison now. He's in prison now, and something
Speaker 1: is making him doubt what he was so sure about
Speaker 1: from the time even before he was born, what he
Speaker 1: knew before he was even born, he's now doubting in
Speaker 1: this prison. Sends messengers one hundred miles on foot just
Speaker 1: to ask Jesus one question. And I get it, because
Speaker 1: you know, we're supposed to be partners. And here I
Speaker 1: am in prison, and all I keep seeing is you
Speaker 1: healing people, blessing people. All I see, all I keep
Speaker 1: seeing is the reports of how awesome it's going for you.
Speaker 1: But I stood up to a king and I'm here
Speaker 1: in prison, And here's what he's wondering. Did you catch it?
Speaker 1: In the verse? He said, are you the one? Or
Speaker 1: should we expect someone else? In other words? Is it
Speaker 1: always gonna be like this? In other words, I thought
Speaker 1: I thought I thought you were gonna Have you ever
Speaker 1: thought God was gonna where'd y'all go? Y'all were fired
Speaker 1: up when we had a little praise moment and all that.
Speaker 1: Have you ever thought God was gonna you? Have you
Speaker 1: ever wondered? Because John the Baptist is just wondering. He's
Speaker 1: just wondering. He's not denying Jesus. He's not. He's not.
Speaker 1: He's not turning away from the sovereign Lord who bought him.
Speaker 1: He's not. He's he's he's not contradicting what he said
Speaker 1: to begin with. He's just thinking, now, maybe God isn't
Speaker 1: what I thought he was. Maybe the one that I
Speaker 1: trusted in, maybe I trusted in the wrong one. Now
Speaker 1: You don't say it like that, because if you said
Speaker 1: it like that, you would be scared. God would hit
Speaker 1: you with the lightning bolt. But you just send messengers.
Speaker 1: You don't say it like that directly, but indirectly. Somebody
Speaker 1: came in here wondering, and you don't talk about this.
Speaker 1: You're you're wondering. You know, God made some promises and
Speaker 1: and here's the here's the interesting thing about it. A
Speaker 1: lot of times our entire faith journey is sabotaged because
Speaker 1: of our expectation of salvation when it gets started. And
Speaker 1: I'm not sure that as preachers we've been very responsible
Speaker 1: about it, because a lot of times we will preach
Speaker 1: that salvation from your sin is a one time event.
Speaker 1: In fact, it is you will never pay the penalty
Speaker 1: of your sin. Jesus is the lamb of God. This
Speaker 1: is what John knuw who takes away the sin of
Speaker 1: the world. But the power of sin is very different
Speaker 1: than the penalty of sin, and the patterns of sin
Speaker 1: are very different than the penalty of sin. So when
Speaker 1: we preach that you've been forgiven of your sin, you
Speaker 1: are set free from the penalty of your sin. But
Speaker 1: if the pattern of your sin has been ingrained, not
Speaker 1: only just throughout your lifetime, but some of it is
Speaker 1: even generational, and some addictions that you are fighting against,
Speaker 1: you know, the invisible prisons that you live in, the
Speaker 1: things that you do over a over again. I was
Speaker 1: thinking about how some of us are in invisible prisons today,
Speaker 1: even as we try to appear free to people. There
Speaker 1: is a spiritual depression on so many, so many thousands
Speaker 1: that I will preach to this weekend, and nobody can
Speaker 1: see it because we paint the walls with a smile,
Speaker 1: but we live behind bars on the inside. It's an
Speaker 1: invisible prison. It's ways of thinking and reasoning and fearing.
Speaker 1: Because when I realized John was in two different prisons
Speaker 1: at the same time, it clarified the text for me.
Speaker 1: One was the one that herod Antipus put him in
Speaker 1: for saying what he didn't want to hear. But the
Speaker 1: other one was an invisible prison. The other one is
Speaker 1: one that I'm all too familiar with. This is the
Speaker 1: prison of your expectations, This is the prison of your plans,
Speaker 1: This is the prison of what you thought God was
Speaker 1: going to do. You know, hey, go ask Jesus, are
Speaker 1: you the one? Because uh I told everybody. You're the
Speaker 1: one I told everybody you had your fork and you're
Speaker 1: about to start a fire. Watch what the messengers say
Speaker 1: back to John. They say, Jesus, reply, go back and
Speaker 1: report to Jarn what you hear and see. Look at
Speaker 1: this list. The blind receives sight, the lame walk, those
Speaker 1: who have leprosy are cleansed the deaf. Here the dead
Speaker 1: are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor.
Speaker 1: Blessed is anyone who does not stumble on account of me.
Speaker 1: Watch what wasn't in that verse, the fork and the fire.
Speaker 1: Jesus wasn't doing any of the things that John wanted
Speaker 1: him to do. Read the list again. The blind received site,
Speaker 1: the lame walk, those who have leprosy or cleanse the death.
Speaker 1: Here the dead or rays, and the good news is
Speaker 1: proclaimed to the fore Go tell John that, And John's like,
Speaker 1: I'm just checking, Jesus, where's the fork? Where's the fire?
Speaker 1: You know? WTF? You ever had a moment? Why y'all
Speaker 1: hate me today? You never had a where's the fork?
Speaker 1: Where's the fire? Jo? John is having a moment. John
Speaker 1: is in a WTF moment with the Lord. Walk out
Speaker 1: if you want to, but if you'll be really honest.
Speaker 1: If you'll be really honest, there are some things in
Speaker 1: your life you're trying to figure out. Right now, come on,
Speaker 1: where is it? Where is it? What in the world
Speaker 1: is this? Somebody show what is this? What is this? Yeah? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't know. I just need to know because I
Speaker 1: thought you were gonna and that is the prison that
Speaker 1: we spend so much of our lives in what we
Speaker 1: thought God was gonna do. But I got a question
Speaker 1: for you. What if He really is able to do
Speaker 1: immeasurably more than you ask her. Imagine? What if he
Speaker 1: wants to do something so much better than your mind
Speaker 1: can comprehend. Is you deopen to that? What if God
Speaker 1: didn't want to meet your expectations because he wanted to
Speaker 1: exceed them. And now I'm gonna make you sit back
Speaker 1: down because You're not gonna like this. The way he
Speaker 1: grows my faith is usually to disappoint my expectation. John's
Speaker 1: like this, This is what I gave up my ministry
Speaker 1: for this. I gave my life to Jesus and I'm
Speaker 1: still struggling with depression and anxiety. This because it was
Speaker 1: your expectation of deliverance that is causing your disappointment. Go
Speaker 1: tell John wishes blind c the death here, the lame walk.
Speaker 1: Tell him, I'm touching people that nobody else would touch,
Speaker 1: that were quarantined because of this dreadful disease called leprosy,
Speaker 1: able to go back to their family because they're cleansed
Speaker 1: and they can live their life. Tell him all that.
Speaker 1: But you know he's not making this upright. This is
Speaker 1: what he came to do. This is what he announced
Speaker 1: that he came to do. In Luke chapter four, he said,
Speaker 1: the spirit of the Lord is on me because he's
Speaker 1: quote Isaiah sixty one, because he is fulfilling the prophecy,
Speaker 1: not fulfilling their preferences. Fulfilling the prophecy. It's very different.
Speaker 1: He's fulfilling what he said. He was not what they
Speaker 1: thought he was going to be. That's what God is
Speaker 1: trying to deliver us from, you see it, from what
Speaker 1: we thought he was going to be. He's so much
Speaker 1: bigger than that. He's so much better than that. His
Speaker 1: plan is so much bigger than that. His purpose is
Speaker 1: so much greater than that. And John said, are you
Speaker 1: the one? He said, go back and tell him that
Speaker 1: the death here and the blind sea and the lepers
Speaker 1: are touched, and the eyes of the blind are open,
Speaker 1: and the ears of the death. This is all from
Speaker 1: Luke chapter four. Look it up when he unrolled the scroll,
Speaker 1: when he stood up to read in his hometown, and
Speaker 1: he said, to this day, is this prophecy fulfilled? In
Speaker 1: your hearing? Came the spirit of the Lord is upon me,
Speaker 1: for he has annoyed me to preach the good news
Speaker 1: to the poor, recovery of sight to the blind. He
Speaker 1: sent me to open death fears. He sent me to
Speaker 1: do all this. But one thing he left out when
Speaker 1: he sent the message to John. And this is crazy, Zach,
Speaker 1: because I know how much you left the Bible, so
Speaker 1: it's gonna blow your mind. The only thing that he
Speaker 1: left out. He added some stuff to it, but he
Speaker 1: left one thing out. Freedom for the prisoners. Look it
Speaker 1: up right now, reference me. It's in Luke for I
Speaker 1: can wait. I know I'm right about this, unless you
Speaker 1: got some weird bible that you made for yourself. Luke,
Speaker 1: For it's like eighteen nineteen something like that. What's his say?
Speaker 1: Eighteen nineteen? What was say? Spear Lord's This is Rick Parker,
Speaker 1: the one that you'll always hear on the podcast the
Speaker 1: one you hey, Rick, you know you're famous on the podcast.
Speaker 1: He's the one always talking back to me. The country guy.
Speaker 1: He's always talking back to them. People ask me all
Speaker 1: the time, who's that country guy that's always talking back
Speaker 1: to you. That's Rick Parker. What does it saying? Yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: Gospel to the poor, healed the broken heart, Liberty to
Speaker 1: the captives. Where's that? He said? Tell John, I'm doing
Speaker 1: it all. Tell John that everything I said I would do,
Speaker 1: I'm doing it. But what I said I would do
Speaker 1: is not what he was expecting. And tell John that
Speaker 1: I need his faith not to rest in his idea
Speaker 1: of who he thought I was. I'm gonna preach this
Speaker 1: home right now. I need his faith not to rest
Speaker 1: in whether or not I fulfill his agenda. Look, so
Speaker 1: many of the things that Jesus did in the scripture,
Speaker 1: it was a hidden agenda. In fact, he even spoke
Speaker 1: in parables, not so the people would get a cute
Speaker 1: little story about a father and a son and he
Speaker 1: ran away and he ate with the pigs, and the
Speaker 1: father welcomed him home. That isn't why he taught in parables.
Speaker 1: He taught in parables because he didn't want his wisdom
Speaker 1: to be ascertained with the human mind. He taught in
Speaker 1: parables so that the spirit of God could reveal to
Speaker 1: the unlearned not the wisdom of this world, but the
Speaker 1: things of God. So much of what he does is hidden,
Speaker 1: and yet we spend all of our time in our
Speaker 1: minds trying to figure out whether God is good, trying
Speaker 1: to figure out whether life makes sense. It's a prison.
Speaker 1: You'll never figure it out that way. You can't get
Speaker 1: out that way, you can't solve your problems on the
Speaker 1: level of self. It's gonna take a great, big God
Speaker 1: with an eternal plan. It's gonna take a really good God.
Speaker 1: It's going to take a majestic God. And I'm gonna
Speaker 1: have to just whether or not I'm going to interpret
Speaker 1: him through the lens of my expectations or set my
Speaker 1: expectations on the basis of who he is. Now, here's
Speaker 1: what I know. I am preaching to so many different
Speaker 1: types of people today. For some of you, you can
Speaker 1: hardly breathe right now because I'm speaking so specifically to you,
Speaker 1: because the Lord is trying to get this message to you.
Speaker 1: For others of you, you're in a much more dangerous place.
Speaker 1: You're not even listening. See, you know what God uses
Speaker 1: to develop your faith, disappointment. You know what the devil
Speaker 1: uses to destroy your faith, disappointment. And I think it's
Speaker 1: what you do with it. Because's going to happen. It's
Speaker 1: going to happen in relationships, it's going to happen in careers,
Speaker 1: it's going to happen in churches to where what you
Speaker 1: thought it was gonna be and what it really is.
Speaker 1: You know, I don't even like the way this Bible
Speaker 1: story goes, because what I want to happen next in
Speaker 1: the story is that the Angel of the Lord comes
Speaker 1: breaks John out of prison, and John goes on to
Speaker 1: preach the gospel and he has more success and double
Speaker 1: for his trouble like job like never before. In the
Speaker 1: Lord restores the years the kanker worm is wasting. We
Speaker 1: can have good church and all get a serotonin hit,
Speaker 1: go home, be happy, and watch a NASCAR race. But
Speaker 1: what I'm thinking is I need to tell you that
Speaker 1: the way you expect this story to end, since we're
Speaker 1: talking about expectations, is not necessarily the way that it does.
Speaker 1: Because John doesn't get out of prison in Matthew chapter eleven,
Speaker 1: in fact, in Matthew fourteen, his head is served up
Speaker 1: on a platter because the King decides to cut it
Speaker 1: off him. And yet there's something that's even more beautiful
Speaker 1: in the text than John getting what he wants. There's
Speaker 1: something much more profound then John gets what he wants,
Speaker 1: and what it is is in verse seven and following. Now,
Speaker 1: this transitional phrase is really important. By the way, who
Speaker 1: am I preaching to today? That there's been some things
Speaker 1: that weren't what you thought they were going to be,
Speaker 1: and it's affecting your faith now. And even in a sense,
Speaker 1: God is not who you thought he was going to be,
Speaker 1: and you're experiencing him in a different way than you
Speaker 1: have a template for and it's challenging to you. So
Speaker 1: what happens next is the part of the message that
Speaker 1: I really want you to take to heart that says,
Speaker 1: as John's disciples were leaving, what does that mean? Whatever
Speaker 1: Jesus says next, John doesn't hear it. He turns to
Speaker 1: the crowd and begins to speak about John. This is
Speaker 1: significant because what he says next is what he wants
Speaker 1: the crowd to know about John. What he said before
Speaker 1: was what he wanted John to know about him. And
Speaker 1: it's a critical distinction because God never wants your faith
Speaker 1: to rest on you. He knows how fragile and fickle
Speaker 1: you are. He said, Go tell John that there is
Speaker 1: a purpose that is greater. There is a plan that
Speaker 1: is bigger. Say that there is a purpose that is greater.
Speaker 1: There is a plan that is bigger. I'm looking for
Speaker 1: one hundred percent participation on every location. There is a
Speaker 1: purpose that is greater. There is a plan that is bigger.
Speaker 1: Look at the person next you say there is a
Speaker 1: purpose that is greater. There is a plan that is bigger.
Speaker 1: Other neighbor, there is a purpose that is greater. There
Speaker 1: is a plan that is bigger. Tell him zoom out,
Speaker 1: zoom out, zoom out, zoom out, zoom out, zoom out,
Speaker 1: zoom out. Because you've been seeing this one little thing,
Speaker 1: and when you're in the prison of your mind is
Speaker 1: an awfully small place sitting it. It's really hard to
Speaker 1: see the light of day in solitary confinement. But go
Speaker 1: tell John. We're right on schedule. Go tell John, I'm
Speaker 1: using his preparation. Go tell John. It wasn't in vain.
Speaker 1: I heard the Lord say, Ferdick. Go tell John, Go
Speaker 1: tell the people. Go tell the discourage, Go tell the beaten,
Speaker 1: Go tell the broken, Go tell the debreast, Go tell
Speaker 1: the sick, Go tell the broke, Go tell the herding,
Speaker 1: Go tell the young, Go tell the old. Go tell
Speaker 1: him this working, Go tell him. I'm doing it, just
Speaker 1: not like you wanted me to, but I'm doing it.
Speaker 1: He turns around and says to the crowd, what did
Speaker 1: you go out into the wilderness to see a red
Speaker 1: swayed by the wind? No? John wasn't fickle. John wasn't fragile.
Speaker 1: When John made up his mind about something, that's just
Speaker 1: the way it was. And that's what's getting him in
Speaker 1: trouble because he made up his mind about what he
Speaker 1: thought God was gonna do, and when God did what
Speaker 1: God wanted to do? Is that you right now? Are
Speaker 1: you in an invisible prison? I know here. It isn't
Speaker 1: gonna cut your head off. It's not that dramatic, right,
Speaker 1: But you can't enjoy people, can you? Is that you
Speaker 1: right now? You can't create? Is that you right now?
Speaker 1: Is that me who am I preaching to? Maybe I'm
Speaker 1: preaching to me? Is not that God didn't do anything
Speaker 1: for me? It's not that God didn't bless me. It's
Speaker 1: just different than what I thought. And as long as
Speaker 1: I'm in the prison of what I thought, I can't
Speaker 1: be a part of what God is doing. So be
Speaker 1: set free today. Be set free by the fact that
Speaker 1: God may not be conforming to your agenda or keeping
Speaker 1: all of your appointments. God might not be organizing everything
Speaker 1: to match your exact preference. But there is a greater purpose,
Speaker 1: and there is a bigger picture. And just like John
Speaker 1: was the forerunner of Jesus Christ, some of you. God
Speaker 1: is using you to fight battles for your children and
Speaker 1: your children's children, and your children's children's children will be
Speaker 1: blessed if you don't fall away. If you don't fall away,
Speaker 1: if you will resist the urge to control God, you
Speaker 1: can serve Him and worship Him and it'll be all right.
Speaker 1: Because my faith is not the expectation that circumstances will
Speaker 1: be blessing. My faith is the expectation that the voice
Speaker 1: of the Lord is upon the waters. Go tell John,
Speaker 1: blessed is he who does not trip over the way
Speaker 1: he thought it was going to be? Blessed is he
Speaker 1: who accepts what I'm doing in his or her life.
Speaker 1: And the Lord wants to set you free today from
Speaker 1: the way you thought it was gonna be. And that's it,
Speaker 1: and that's it because you know what's gonna happen. Once
Speaker 1: you get set free from the way you thought it
Speaker 1: was going to be, you can embrace what it is.
Speaker 1: And you know what God's gonna do more than what
Speaker 1: you thought he was gonna do. The blind see the
Speaker 1: lame walk. God's got something better than a fork. God's
Speaker 1: got something better than a fire. The first place of
Speaker 1: deliverance is in the area of your expectation. Holy Spirit.
Speaker 1: I thank you for this moment, and I pray that
Speaker 1: this message would not fall on deaf ears, because truth
Speaker 1: be told, Lord, there is a prison that is not physical.
Speaker 1: There are captives in here today. Those chains are invisible.
Speaker 1: To pray for him right now, Lord, that you would
Speaker 1: look into the places of their life where they've been
Speaker 1: disappointed and where they've been bruised or even worse than that,
Speaker 1: where they got their hopes up so high and they
Speaker 1: made a fool of themselves, and so now it's kind
Speaker 1: of hard for them to really have an expectation of
Speaker 1: your goodness. They're in an invisible prison of disappointment, resentment, bitterness.
Speaker 1: But you said you came to set us free, So
Speaker 1: you didn't do it physically for John, But would you
Speaker 1: set us free, set us free from ourselves, set us
Speaker 1: free from our regrets, set us free from our sin.
Speaker 1: With everyone's thending, where the spirit of the Lord is,
Speaker 1: there's freedom. And the kind of freedom that I mean
Speaker 1: is the freedom from the need to control your life,
Speaker 1: the freedom from the need to call the shocks and
Speaker 1: to always know the plan. John said, are you the
Speaker 1: one I just need to know? And I hear the
Speaker 1: Lord saying today, Yeah, it's me. It's me. It's me
Speaker 1: getting you through this season. It's me that allowed some
Speaker 1: of the things in your life that you don't like.
Speaker 1: I didn't cause all of them, but I'm using all
Speaker 1: of them. It's me. Go tell John, it's me. It's me.
Speaker 1: It's me. That thing that won't let you go, that's grace.
Speaker 1: God said, that's me. I think that keeps pumping in
Speaker 1: your heart getting you back up. You fall down, seven,
Speaker 1: you get up eight. God said, that's me. That thing
Speaker 1: in you that it can't always make sense. You know
Speaker 1: you should read the Bible, sometimes you don't. God said,
Speaker 1: that's me. I want you to wrestle with it. That's me.
Speaker 1: I don't want you to put me in a formula.
Speaker 1: That's me. I don't want you to have me in
Speaker 1: a box. I don't want you to be in this
Speaker 1: prison of your small view of me. That's me. Oh God,
Speaker 1: of every moment that come before you now, in need
Speaker 1: of your mercy, in need of your grace, we need
Speaker 1: to know that you are our shepherd, even if we
Speaker 1: go through a valley of the shadow of death. Now
Speaker 1: thank you now, Lord, that as this word has gone
Speaker 1: forth today across multiple campuses, across multiple continents, that you
Speaker 1: are confirming your presence to your people right now. If
Speaker 1: you would just lift your hands, God said, it's me.
Speaker 1: It's me that you need to make sense of your life.
Speaker 1: It's me. Lord. I thank you that there is a
Speaker 1: bigger picture. We do not see in full. We see
Speaker 1: in part, we prophesy in part, we speak in part.
Speaker 1: But when that which is perfect has come, that which
Speaker 1: is incomplete will be taken away. Until that time, Lord,
Speaker 1: we trust in your presence, We trust in who you are.
Speaker 1: You're still the lamb of God that takes away the
Speaker 1: sin of the world. You're still the king of our life.
Speaker 1: You're still the hope and foundation that our lives are
Speaker 1: built on. You're still the solid rock on which we
Speaker 1: stand all of the ground of sinking sand. It's you, God.
Speaker 1: It's you that we worship, and it's you that we trust.
Speaker 1: It's not ourselves, it's not our circumstances. It's you. Somebody say,
Speaker 1: it's you. It's you that I need. Lord. It's you
Speaker 1: that fulfills me. It's you that completes me. It's you
Speaker 1: that makes ways. It's you that opens doors. It's you
Speaker 1: that sets the prisoners free. It's you that broke the chains.
Speaker 1: It's you that I'm looking to. Promotion doesn't come from
Speaker 1: the East or the west. Promotion comes from you. It's
Speaker 1: you I'm counting on. It's you I'm looking to. It's
Speaker 1: you I'm leaning on. It's your everlasting arms. It's your
Speaker 1: mighty hand, it's your outstretch power. It's your grace that
Speaker 1: we need. It's you, Lord, It's nobody else. It's you.
Speaker 1: Our health comes from you. Our strength is in you,
Speaker 1: our trust is in your name, and we worship you now.
Speaker 1: Thank you for joining us. Special thanks to those of
Speaker 1: you who give generously to this ministry. Is because of
Speaker 1: you that this ministry is possible. You can click the
Speaker 1: link in the description to give now or visit Elevation
Speaker 1: Church dot org slash podcast for more information and if
Speaker 1: you enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe. You can share
Speaker 1: it with your friends. You can click the share button,
Speaker 1: take a screenshot and share it on your social stories
Speaker 1: and tag us at Elevation Church. Thanks again for listening.
Speaker 1: God bless you this