WEBVTT - He Answered 0:00:01.520 --> 0:00:02.800 Hey, this is Stephen Ferdik. 0:00:02.840 --> 0:00:05.840 I'm the pastor of Elevation Church and this is our podcast. 0:00:05.880 --> 0:00:08.280 I wanted to thank you for joining us today. Hope 0:00:08.320 --> 0:00:10.680 this inspires you. Hope it builds your faith. 0:00:10.760 --> 0:00:12.840 Hope it gives your perspective to see God is moving 0:00:12.920 --> 0:00:13.560 in your life. 0:00:13.840 --> 0:00:16.599 Enjoy the message. 0:00:18.520 --> 0:00:21.040 There have been so many times where God gave our 0:00:21.120 --> 0:00:25.360 church a song and two years later, five years later, 0:00:25.400 --> 0:00:28.040 ten years later, somebody will come up to me and say, 0:00:28.040 --> 0:00:33.680 that song got me through my cancer treatments, that song. 0:00:33.479 --> 0:00:37.400 Got me through my prison sentence. 0:00:38.600 --> 0:00:41.280 When they send us videos of those prisoners singing trust 0:00:41.280 --> 0:00:46.960 in God, and even people who aren't in a physical prison, 0:00:47.040 --> 0:00:50.479 people will say that thing got me through some sleepless nights. 0:00:50.800 --> 0:00:53.800 I listened to the Blessing when I was dealing with 0:00:54.320 --> 0:00:56.200 incredible anxiety and fear. 0:00:56.120 --> 0:00:57.160 And all of these songs. 0:00:57.240 --> 0:01:00.840 And this Thursday, you have a opera tunity to be 0:01:00.880 --> 0:01:03.080 a part of that. So I'm not telling you that 0:01:03.200 --> 0:01:04.800 because we need people to attend. 0:01:04.840 --> 0:01:07.680 It's always pretty full. I just didn't want you to 0:01:07.720 --> 0:01:10.200 miss it and not know what was happening. Now. 0:01:10.240 --> 0:01:14.040 I take my job seriously, and my job is to 0:01:14.120 --> 0:01:16.199 put God's words in people's heart. 0:01:17.680 --> 0:01:20.039 That's my job. That's my job. 0:01:25.000 --> 0:01:27.360 Whenever I'm not preaching to you or studying to preach 0:01:27.400 --> 0:01:30.360 to you, I'm usually humming a melody into a song, 0:01:31.040 --> 0:01:34.200 changing a lyric for the fifteenth time, so the team 0:01:34.280 --> 0:01:37.240 has to learn it at nine to thirteen before we 0:01:37.280 --> 0:01:38.360 try it the first time. 0:01:40.240 --> 0:01:41.360 And it's all the same thing. 0:01:41.440 --> 0:01:44.000 I want you to have watched this a new loop 0:01:44.680 --> 0:01:49.040 in your life. That's what I'm preaching about today. That's 0:01:49.080 --> 0:01:53.400 what I preached about last week. Our series shown the graphic. 0:01:53.440 --> 0:02:00.360 It's called same lies, new loops and meditating on word 0:02:00.360 --> 0:02:02.400 of God is hard when we have so much noise 0:02:02.440 --> 0:02:03.240 in our world. 0:02:03.000 --> 0:02:03.360 Isn't it. 0:02:05.160 --> 0:02:07.280 Y'all got sit there and act like it's not noisy 0:02:07.400 --> 0:02:11.840 in your in your mind. So a noisy mind needs 0:02:11.840 --> 0:02:14.920 a new loot, something else to latch onto, so you 0:02:14.960 --> 0:02:19.560 don't go absolutely crazy with temptation and with anger or 0:02:19.600 --> 0:02:22.640 with shame. And one thing that I love to do 0:02:22.760 --> 0:02:25.000 is when we can get a meditation from God's word 0:02:25.720 --> 0:02:28.680 and then God gives us a melody to go with it, 0:02:28.680 --> 0:02:32.840 it helps us to remember it in the hard times. Today, 0:02:32.840 --> 0:02:34.880 I want to share with you from a psalm Psalm 0:02:35.000 --> 0:02:37.240 one hundred and fourteen. We read it in our family 0:02:37.280 --> 0:02:39.880 Bible club. We don't stand the whole time in our church. 0:02:39.880 --> 0:02:42.400 In case you're wondering, did you wear the wrong shoes? 0:02:43.600 --> 0:02:45.640 I'll let you use that seat to its fullest in 0:02:45.760 --> 0:02:47.600 just a moment. But please stand for the reading of 0:02:47.639 --> 0:02:49.800 God's word. And if you're watching this somewhere else, you 0:02:49.800 --> 0:02:52.640 may want to stand too. There's something about respecting and 0:02:52.760 --> 0:02:56.600 reverencing God's words because his words are eternal. 0:02:58.000 --> 0:03:00.400 Everything else. Everybody says it, and. 0:03:00.360 --> 0:03:06.000 It goes God's were last forever Psalm fourteen. 0:03:10.000 --> 0:03:13.320 I pick up in verse five. You're gonna like this one. 0:03:13.639 --> 0:03:23.320 Wow, Why was it s that you fled? Why Shordan 0:03:23.919 --> 0:03:29.600 did you turn back? Why mountains did you leap like rams? 0:03:30.520 --> 0:03:34.840 You hills like lambs? To us, that's kind of strange imagery. 0:03:35.880 --> 0:03:39.200 First of all, he's talking about the things that God 0:03:39.240 --> 0:03:41.920 did in Israel's past. This is a passover psalm that 0:03:41.960 --> 0:03:44.320 they would use to remember how God brought them out 0:03:44.360 --> 0:03:46.480 of Egypt. How many of you remember when God brought 0:03:46.520 --> 0:03:50.120 you out of something in your own life? So now 0:03:50.360 --> 0:03:55.800 he's taunting their trauma. Why is it c that you fled? 0:03:56.520 --> 0:03:59.280 Why Jordan did you turn back. I gotta say something 0:03:59.320 --> 0:04:02.040 about that verse. Did you know you have a god 0:04:02.640 --> 0:04:06.080 who when he speaks to the sea, it sprints to 0:04:06.160 --> 0:04:11.000 obey him. If God says to the red sea right left, 0:04:11.320 --> 0:04:14.920 the sea doesn't dawdle, The sea doesn't walk, The seed 0:04:14.960 --> 0:04:18.719 doesn't crawl, the sea doesn't think about it. When God says, 0:04:19.000 --> 0:04:22.760 see split, the sea sprints to obey his word. 0:04:22.800 --> 0:04:26.279 That's how powerful he is. I gotta go faster. That's 0:04:26.279 --> 0:04:27.000 only one verse. 0:04:28.240 --> 0:04:31.480 Verse six, Why mountains did you leap like rams? Did 0:04:31.520 --> 0:04:34.560 you know you have a god who when he speaks, 0:04:34.960 --> 0:04:39.719 mountains leap. I know we're used to talking about mountains moving, 0:04:40.200 --> 0:04:42.400 but this is a different picture. He said, Not only 0:04:42.400 --> 0:04:46.400 do they move, the mountains leap when he speaks. The 0:04:46.880 --> 0:04:50.840 obstacle moves when he speaks. It can happen quickly and 0:04:51.040 --> 0:04:56.240 suddenly and irreversibly and dramatically when he speaks mountains leap 0:04:56.600 --> 0:04:59.839 when he speaks sea split. And I'm trying to read 0:04:59.880 --> 0:05:04.640 my but I'm excited about He's been doing it for 0:05:04.680 --> 0:05:09.159 a long time. Verse seven, tremble earth at the presence 0:05:09.240 --> 0:05:12.800 of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob, 0:05:13.040 --> 0:05:17.240 who turned the rock into a pool the hard rock 0:05:17.680 --> 0:05:21.680 into springs of water. One verse from Matthew chapter four, 0:05:21.800 --> 0:05:29.560 verse four. Matthew Chapter four, verse four, the Bible says, 0:05:30.120 --> 0:05:34.839 Jesus answered, it is written man shall not live on 0:05:34.920 --> 0:05:39.039 bread alone, but on every word that comes from the 0:05:39.240 --> 0:05:41.360 mouth of God. 0:05:41.960 --> 0:05:42.800 Say amen to that. 0:05:42.960 --> 0:05:47.400 Somebody, Yeah, I want to take those two words from 0:05:47.480 --> 0:05:51.560 verse four. Put it up again, please, Jesus answered. The 0:05:51.600 --> 0:05:53.520 title I'd like to preach to you from today. 0:05:53.360 --> 0:06:00.880 Is two words. He answered. He answered, yeah, He answered, 0:06:01.279 --> 0:06:03.279 turn around and hug five people on your way to 0:06:03.320 --> 0:06:03.680 your seat. 0:06:03.720 --> 0:06:07.960 Say I'm so glad, he answered, I'm glad he picked 0:06:08.040 --> 0:06:10.719 up my call, my collect call. 0:06:11.560 --> 0:06:13.839 I'm glad he paid the price for me. He answered. 0:06:15.279 --> 0:06:19.760 I'm grateful because he answered, I'm standing here today because 0:06:19.800 --> 0:06:23.920 he answered, He answered, I asked him for another day, 0:06:23.920 --> 0:06:26.680 and he gave it. He answered, I. 0:06:26.640 --> 0:06:28.520 Asked him to help me keep my mind together. 0:06:28.600 --> 0:06:31.960 Somebody put it in the chat, say, he answered, Say 0:06:31.960 --> 0:06:35.640 it out loud at every location. He answered, aren't you 0:06:35.800 --> 0:06:38.120 glad you have a God who answers prayers. 0:06:40.880 --> 0:06:44.080 Come on, it's not a rhetorical question. Aren't you glad 0:06:44.120 --> 0:06:45.599 you have a god? Put it in the chat? 0:06:45.640 --> 0:06:50.839 Say I'm glad, he answers yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah. 0:06:51.040 --> 0:06:55.919 Sometimes other people don't, he answered, Sometimes other people turned away, 0:06:56.120 --> 0:07:02.719 he answered, now king of rhetorical questions, I love the 0:07:02.760 --> 0:07:06.040 way psalmone fourteen puts the truth across. It was fresh 0:07:06.040 --> 0:07:08.920 to me. And again, we have a family Bible Club, 0:07:09.440 --> 0:07:12.000 and we landed in this just at the time that 0:07:12.040 --> 0:07:15.080 my message was coming together. Thank you Lord for speaking 0:07:15.080 --> 0:07:16.880 to me in my personal life so I could share 0:07:16.920 --> 0:07:19.640 it with others. I want to give it to you 0:07:19.720 --> 0:07:22.720 like he gave it to me. It's a rhetorical question. 0:07:23.240 --> 0:07:27.040 Why was it sea that you fled? Why Jordan did 0:07:27.040 --> 0:07:30.840 you turn back? Why mountains did you leap like rams? 0:07:31.760 --> 0:07:35.200 You hills like lambs. We know the answer because God 0:07:35.240 --> 0:07:39.480 told it too, But in framing it rhetorically, it invites 0:07:39.600 --> 0:07:42.880 us into the story, and it invites this truth into 0:07:42.920 --> 0:07:47.640 our story as well, the story of your wives and 0:07:47.680 --> 0:07:51.160 what ifs, the loops and lies that the enemy has 0:07:51.200 --> 0:07:54.760 you in imagining worst case scenarios and replaying past hers 0:07:54.800 --> 0:07:57.280 to the point that you cannot see God, who is 0:07:57.320 --> 0:08:00.960 your present help? Into this the mis speaks and I 0:08:01.000 --> 0:08:05.000 wonder what melody was attached to this meditation? Why was 0:08:05.040 --> 0:08:07.760 it c that you fled. It's a rhetorical question. Now 0:08:07.760 --> 0:08:11.640 you know the phrase rhetorical question, right. A rhetorical question 0:08:11.720 --> 0:08:13.640 is a question that you ask but you really don't 0:08:13.640 --> 0:08:20.040 expect an answer, right, Like somebody says, what were you thinking? 0:08:22.480 --> 0:08:24.640 All they're saying is you're stupid, but they're framing it 0:08:24.680 --> 0:08:27.920 with a question, but don't answer. It's rhetorical. It means 0:08:27.960 --> 0:08:32.360 you weren't right. Or there's other ones too. 0:08:32.559 --> 0:08:34.640 I don't know. I'm just thinking of a few before 0:08:34.640 --> 0:08:36.760 I came out. Oh, here's one. 0:08:37.080 --> 0:08:41.160 One time Elijah did something that Holly kept telling him 0:08:41.200 --> 0:08:42.160 not to do, and she kept. 0:08:42.040 --> 0:08:44.280 Telling them, kept telling them, and she finally goes, how. 0:08:44.120 --> 0:08:46.240 Many times do I have to tell you? And he 0:08:46.280 --> 0:08:52.000 goes three times? There was a rhetorical question. It wasn't 0:08:52.000 --> 0:08:58.000 a literal question. It was a rhetorical question. And by 0:08:58.040 --> 0:09:03.160 framing this question and as rhetorical about the Red Sea 0:09:04.000 --> 0:09:07.240 or the mountains that God moved for his people, God 0:09:07.320 --> 0:09:11.040 is not only asking a rhetorical question, but he's asking 0:09:11.280 --> 0:09:16.440 a historical question. What did God do for you in 0:09:16.480 --> 0:09:20.680 your past that when you remember it, it reveals to 0:09:20.760 --> 0:09:25.000 you how powerful He is in your Now, go ahead 0:09:25.000 --> 0:09:26.640 and get ready to write down some notes. 0:09:27.440 --> 0:09:29.679 I'm going to give you three points today. Somebody say, 0:09:29.760 --> 0:09:30.760 he answered. 0:09:31.640 --> 0:09:34.360 Put the title of my sermon right there in the comments. 0:09:34.400 --> 0:09:37.400 Please just put he answered in all caps. 0:09:38.000 --> 0:09:40.880 And of course when he answers in Psalm one fourteen, 0:09:41.480 --> 0:09:43.839 he says, tremble earth at the presence of the Lord. 0:09:43.960 --> 0:09:47.720 Now that's how it happened, the presence of the Lord. 0:09:48.240 --> 0:09:51.199 Let me put all this together really quickly. Why did 0:09:51.240 --> 0:09:54.520 the sea sprint when God's people were passing through? That's 0:09:54.520 --> 0:09:58.720 a historical event, a rhetorical question. Why did the mountain 0:09:58.800 --> 0:10:01.720 move when God told it to? What about those impossible 0:10:01.760 --> 0:10:03.880 things that he did in your life? 0:10:04.040 --> 0:10:07.160 It's rhetorical, it's also historical. 0:10:07.960 --> 0:10:10.199 And if you look back over your life, you'll see 0:10:10.679 --> 0:10:15.040 that his presence was everywhere. You didn't always recognize it 0:10:15.080 --> 0:10:18.160 because you were hurting too bad, but his presence was 0:10:18.200 --> 0:10:21.800 there with you. You couldn't quite see it because there 0:10:21.800 --> 0:10:25.480 were enemies surrounding your table, but he prepared a table 0:10:25.520 --> 0:10:27.960 for you in the presence of your enemies. 0:10:30.200 --> 0:10:32.080 Who was it that told the sea to split, the 0:10:32.120 --> 0:10:34.640 mountain to move? It was God. 0:10:35.040 --> 0:10:39.360 It's a rhetorical question. It's a historical question. I like 0:10:39.440 --> 0:10:43.600 them to bring my teaching screen out please. Everybody clapped 0:10:43.600 --> 0:10:44.920 to give me the courage to draw a. 0:10:44.920 --> 0:10:50.480 Little bit today. See how supportive the ladies are When. 0:10:50.280 --> 0:10:56.880 I I think I'm going to reflect myself next year. 0:10:56.920 --> 0:11:01.880 It looked so fun, looks so fun. 0:11:03.040 --> 0:11:07.320 Okay, I heard you, I heard you. I am not 0:11:07.440 --> 0:11:09.960 going to answer that. You hear what they said. 0:11:10.120 --> 0:11:13.240 No, we want Holly, we want Holly. 0:11:13.360 --> 0:11:14.040 I know me too. 0:11:20.760 --> 0:11:23.720 Just to get you back in the mindset of this message, 0:11:24.360 --> 0:11:27.640 I drew a loop and I talked about how the 0:11:27.840 --> 0:11:30.880 enemy is always speaking and so is God. 0:11:32.160 --> 0:11:36.840 Same lies. Let's abbreviate new loops. 0:11:37.880 --> 0:11:41.040 This is the process of transformation. Does that kind of 0:11:41.040 --> 0:11:41.720 look like a brain? 0:11:41.760 --> 0:11:43.800 A little bit like? Not really? 0:11:44.160 --> 0:11:48.400 The renewal of your mind to stop repeating the same 0:11:48.440 --> 0:11:51.120 stuff over and over again that leads you to defeat 0:11:51.160 --> 0:11:57.680 and start repeating what leads you to victory. Victory and 0:11:58.040 --> 0:12:02.280 defeat are both found in the repeat. 0:12:04.640 --> 0:12:09.280 That doesn't only rhyme. That's really good. The victories you. 0:12:09.280 --> 0:12:12.199 Experience in your life or even in your physical body, 0:12:12.480 --> 0:12:15.880 the victories of losing weight, the victories of building strength. 0:12:16.320 --> 0:12:20.960 It's found in the repeat. So are the defeats you 0:12:21.000 --> 0:12:24.840 lift weight weight one time every four months. And you 0:12:24.880 --> 0:12:27.280 only lift one weight four times every one time every 0:12:27.280 --> 0:12:31.160 four months, we will see that result. If you lift 0:12:31.200 --> 0:12:35.520 it every day forty times, we will see that if 0:12:35.559 --> 0:12:38.080 you get the right thing on repeat. Oh God, I 0:12:38.200 --> 0:12:41.080 feel like somebody's about to get set free. If you 0:12:41.120 --> 0:12:44.120 get the right thing on repeat in your life, You're 0:12:44.160 --> 0:12:47.880 gonna get stronger. You're gonna say, like the prophet Isaiah 0:12:47.960 --> 0:12:53.520 said day that weight on the lore will renew their strength. 0:12:54.160 --> 0:12:57.480 I'm renewing my strength by what I do every day. 0:12:58.080 --> 0:13:01.240 I am renewing my strength every time I come to church. 0:13:01.360 --> 0:13:04.880 Give yourself a hand for coming to your class today, 0:13:05.400 --> 0:13:09.000 for tuning into this message today, because this, for me 0:13:09.240 --> 0:13:12.040 is not just a church service, This is a new loop. 0:13:12.880 --> 0:13:16.480 This for me is retraining my brain to move away 0:13:16.559 --> 0:13:19.520 from the lies and believe what God says about me. 0:13:20.240 --> 0:13:21.319 Not only is. 0:13:21.280 --> 0:13:24.760 Your victory found in your repeats, though, but your defeat 0:13:25.480 --> 0:13:29.240 is often found in your repeats. What you say to 0:13:29.360 --> 0:13:32.760 yourself over and over again that disagrees with what God 0:13:32.800 --> 0:13:36.080 already spoke about you before you were ever born will 0:13:36.160 --> 0:13:38.280 leave you feeling weak. You're not really weak, you just 0:13:38.360 --> 0:13:42.480 are repeating the wrong thing. Repeat the right thing you'll 0:13:42.480 --> 0:13:46.439 be stronger. This is not to say that our praise 0:13:46.559 --> 0:13:50.400 and pursuit of God will preclude all of our proclivities 0:13:50.440 --> 0:13:50.880 towards sin. 0:13:50.920 --> 0:13:53.280 In other words, I'm not saying it's going to be easy. 0:13:54.080 --> 0:13:54.920 And think about this way. 0:13:55.920 --> 0:13:57.640 I read to you what seemed to be a random 0:13:57.720 --> 0:14:03.240 verse from Matthew chapter four, where Jesus answered and said, 0:14:03.520 --> 0:14:06.880 it is written man will not live on bread alone, 0:14:06.880 --> 0:14:09.480 but every word that comes from the mouth of God. 0:14:10.840 --> 0:14:14.319 You know where Jesus was when he said that the 0:14:14.360 --> 0:14:17.640 wilderness the wilderness. 0:14:18.600 --> 0:14:19.880 I want to show this to you. You're not going 0:14:19.920 --> 0:14:23.200 to believe. This is in the Bible in Matthew four, 0:14:23.280 --> 0:14:26.560 verse one. Turn there if you'd like, or just will 0:14:26.600 --> 0:14:29.840 put it up on the screen for you. Matthew chapter four, 0:14:31.200 --> 0:14:36.640 verse one. The Bible says this, Then Jesus was led 0:14:36.760 --> 0:14:41.280 by the spirit into the wilderness. That's the part I 0:14:41.280 --> 0:14:46.200 thought would shock you, because I thought the spirit would. 0:14:46.040 --> 0:14:50.320 Lead Jesus to an easy place. But it gets worse. 0:14:51.040 --> 0:14:54.640 Then Jesus was led by the spirit into the wilderness 0:14:55.080 --> 0:14:59.040 to be tempted by the devil. I have got all 0:14:59.160 --> 0:15:02.040 kinds of questions about that verse, and none of them 0:15:02.040 --> 0:15:02.720 are rhetorical. 0:15:02.760 --> 0:15:06.920 I really need to know. Why would the spirit lead 0:15:07.040 --> 0:15:08.240 him into the wilderness. 0:15:08.240 --> 0:15:11.400 And I thought about that over and over again, and 0:15:11.440 --> 0:15:14.120 I realized the more I read it that it was 0:15:14.160 --> 0:15:22.480 a repeat, because I remembered how Israel in the Old 0:15:22.520 --> 0:15:28.360 Testament went through the wilderness too, not for forty days 0:15:28.400 --> 0:15:32.880 and forty nights, but for forty years. And here's what 0:15:32.920 --> 0:15:35.160 the enemy did to them when they were coming out 0:15:35.200 --> 0:15:40.240 of Egypt. God was bringing them out of Egypt to 0:15:40.920 --> 0:15:41.880 the Promised Land. 0:15:43.240 --> 0:15:46.760 And on their way out of Egypt into the. 0:15:46.760 --> 0:15:51.400 Promised Land, the devil told them a lie that they 0:15:51.400 --> 0:15:51.840 could not. 0:15:51.920 --> 0:15:53.560 Do what God had called them to do. 0:15:54.080 --> 0:15:56.360 The devil has been telling you that same lie, has 0:15:56.400 --> 0:15:59.800 any that you are not enough, and that you are 0:16:01.560 --> 0:16:04.360 you are not enough, you are not loved. I said 0:16:04.400 --> 0:16:08.400 this last week. But victory is found in the repeat. 0:16:09.160 --> 0:16:09.720 And when you. 0:16:09.720 --> 0:16:12.760 Begin to understand that's all the devil ever says to you, 0:16:12.760 --> 0:16:15.640 You're not enough. It's not enough, they're not enough, You're 0:16:15.680 --> 0:16:18.640 not loved. It's not enough, you're not loved. Unless you 0:16:18.680 --> 0:16:20.880 do this, you can't be that. They won't love you 0:16:20.960 --> 0:16:23.680 if they only love you because you're not enough, You're 0:16:23.680 --> 0:16:25.840 not loved, You're not even enough for God to love 0:16:25.840 --> 0:16:27.280 you unless you act a certain way. 0:16:27.520 --> 0:16:28.760 You're not enough for God to. 0:16:28.720 --> 0:16:31.120 Hear you unless you reach a certain level of spirituality 0:16:31.160 --> 0:16:33.520 and scale yourself up to the highest heide of the 0:16:33.520 --> 0:16:36.960 best Christian. It's not enough. You tried, but it's not enough, 0:16:37.160 --> 0:16:39.960 and you're not loved. Now, those two lies play on 0:16:40.000 --> 0:16:42.040 the loop in our mind. But in the case of 0:16:42.080 --> 0:16:44.040 Israel going through the wilderness, I want to tell you something. 0:16:44.200 --> 0:16:46.920 It was actually true. They were not enough for their 0:16:47.040 --> 0:16:49.320 enemies without. 0:16:49.040 --> 0:16:54.440 God, but they were not without God. And that's what 0:16:54.520 --> 0:16:58.400 you forget. You forget that he's with you in the wilderness. 0:17:01.480 --> 0:17:04.520 He's with you in the wilderness. He's with you in 0:17:04.560 --> 0:17:08.160 your weakness. He's with you as you fight through this addiction. 0:17:09.200 --> 0:17:12.600 He's with you as you resist temptation. He's with you 0:17:12.680 --> 0:17:16.160 for that hard conversation you need to have. He's with 0:17:16.240 --> 0:17:18.840 you as you care for somebody who doesn't appreciate you. 0:17:19.160 --> 0:17:21.479 He is with you as you work through those bills 0:17:21.480 --> 0:17:24.760 and try to get yourself back on some financial stable ground. 0:17:25.080 --> 0:17:27.680 He's with you as you try to consider how am I. 0:17:27.640 --> 0:17:29.440 Going to mention this so I can begin to deal 0:17:29.520 --> 0:17:30.919 with it? Because I'm tired of caring. 0:17:31.200 --> 0:17:33.399 He is with you in the dry place where you 0:17:33.440 --> 0:17:36.080 haven't felt him for a really long time, and you're 0:17:36.119 --> 0:17:38.520 starting to feel like, well, maybe something's wrong with me, 0:17:38.600 --> 0:17:41.399 Maybe God has left me. But the Bible says that 0:17:41.520 --> 0:17:45.359 Jesus was led into the wilderness by the spirit. It 0:17:45.440 --> 0:17:49.240 says that the spirit led him, but it doesn't say 0:17:49.280 --> 0:17:58.280 the spirit left him. The spirit led him to a 0:17:58.359 --> 0:18:01.520 hard place, but the spirit, it did not leave him 0:18:01.840 --> 0:18:05.520 in the hard place. The same spirit that led him 0:18:05.560 --> 0:18:10.679 in the wilderness was there all forty days and forty nights. 0:18:11.080 --> 0:18:13.000 And I know you need some things in your life 0:18:13.040 --> 0:18:15.480 to get better. And I know you need some chains 0:18:15.480 --> 0:18:17.960 and shackles to fall off your feet. And I know 0:18:18.080 --> 0:18:21.159 you need God to turn some stones into rivers of water. 0:18:21.600 --> 0:18:23.600 And I know you need God to do some things, 0:18:23.640 --> 0:18:26.800 and he can and he will. But even until he does, 0:18:27.359 --> 0:18:29.440 he's with you in this wilderness. 0:18:29.720 --> 0:18:31.560 He's with you in this in between. 0:18:32.000 --> 0:18:35.120 He didn't drop you off in the middle of your adversity. 0:18:35.520 --> 0:18:38.360 He didn't leave you to figure this out by yourself. 0:18:38.800 --> 0:18:41.520 He did not abandon you when you got attacked. 0:18:42.080 --> 0:18:44.560 He's not waiting for you to get it together, to 0:18:44.600 --> 0:18:47.480 come down and rescue you. He picks up. 0:18:47.440 --> 0:18:49.679 The phone, and if you call him, he'll come. 0:18:50.040 --> 0:18:52.960 If you call him, he'll come. If you say. 0:18:52.840 --> 0:18:55.400 Jesus, he'll say, yes, I've done. 0:18:55.240 --> 0:18:57.880 It a thousand times. I didn't feel like. 0:18:57.920 --> 0:19:01.080 Calling on him, but I lifted my hands by faith, 0:19:01.160 --> 0:19:04.879 not sight, bye, faith not feeling, and I called on 0:19:05.040 --> 0:19:09.080 the Lord, and I stuck the Lord and he wards 0:19:09.600 --> 0:19:16.560 and he answered. So I want to give you three 0:19:16.600 --> 0:19:20.680 truths today to remember for new loops in your life. 0:19:20.760 --> 0:19:21.720 And the first one is this. 0:19:21.840 --> 0:19:24.520 I want you to shout it out everybody, say he's here. 0:19:27.640 --> 0:19:29.560 Say that again. He's here. 0:19:31.880 --> 0:19:36.040 Now in the verse I read you. He's not the 0:19:36.080 --> 0:19:47.440 only one here. It's the devil talking. I'm not even 0:19:47.440 --> 0:19:48.440 gonna write out his whole name. 0:19:48.440 --> 0:19:50.080 I'm gonna just put that D right there and you'll 0:19:50.119 --> 0:19:54.680 know who I'm talking about. And then there's Jesus. 0:19:58.320 --> 0:20:05.080 Hold up, I'm gonna do that in all caps. I 0:20:05.119 --> 0:20:09.199 can't draw, but I can do that. Now, listen to me, 0:20:09.359 --> 0:20:12.840 and listen to me. Close about this. It's a conversation 0:20:13.000 --> 0:20:16.960 going back and forth in the wilderness. And the spirit 0:20:17.119 --> 0:20:19.960 is with Jesus to defeat the enemy. The spirit is 0:20:20.000 --> 0:20:22.520 with you to defeat the enemy. 0:20:22.640 --> 0:20:29.520 Yeah, Yeah, I love how we make it seem like 0:20:29.680 --> 0:20:34.800 Jesus as our perfect risen savior, and he is never 0:20:34.920 --> 0:20:38.239 experienced difficulty, or at least you know, we may not 0:20:38.280 --> 0:20:40.080 say that about Jesus because we know we went to 0:20:40.119 --> 0:20:40.640 the cross. 0:20:41.600 --> 0:20:43.399 Sometimes we act like that was the only time that 0:20:43.480 --> 0:20:47.320 Jesus's life was hard. Jesus's life was hard the whole 0:20:47.359 --> 0:20:51.720 time it was hard. This is the brink of his ministry. 0:20:52.520 --> 0:20:54.760 He's thirty years old, and the spirit leads him in 0:20:54.760 --> 0:20:58.199 the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. That's his 0:20:58.280 --> 0:21:01.840 ministry apprenticeship. That's what the Lord gave him. That's what 0:21:01.880 --> 0:21:05.520 his father gave him to prepare him. And so I 0:21:05.520 --> 0:21:07.760 have recognized every time in my life that God was 0:21:07.800 --> 0:21:09.680 about to do something huge. I had to go through 0:21:09.680 --> 0:21:13.760 hell before I got there every time, and I passed 0:21:13.760 --> 0:21:16.480 that along to you. In case you're going through hell, 0:21:17.440 --> 0:21:21.119 you might be on the brink of something huge, and 0:21:21.200 --> 0:21:24.920 the devil might know that, and he might be deploying 0:21:24.960 --> 0:21:28.480 extra resources to try to get you to choke before 0:21:28.520 --> 0:21:29.200 you arrive. 0:21:29.000 --> 0:21:30.600 At your destiny. 0:21:32.760 --> 0:21:36.480 Everything I ever released for God faced tremendous resistance. I 0:21:36.600 --> 0:21:38.960 just say that in case it's been difficult for you 0:21:39.400 --> 0:21:42.080 now With that note made, then Jesus was led by 0:21:42.119 --> 0:21:45.199 the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the 0:21:45.240 --> 0:21:50.439 devil after fasting forty days and forty nights. This has 0:21:50.480 --> 0:21:52.040 to be the most obvious verse in the Bible. 0:21:52.240 --> 0:21:56.119 He was hungry, and. 0:21:56.160 --> 0:21:58.119 Yet it's not because Jesus is saying stuff that his 0:21:58.160 --> 0:21:59.800 disciples like, I have food to eat that you know not. 0:22:00.960 --> 0:22:03.679 But he still had a stomach and it was still empty. 0:22:04.760 --> 0:22:07.440 I fasted forty days one time when we started the church. 0:22:08.320 --> 0:22:09.840 Those were the hardest things I ever did. And people 0:22:09.880 --> 0:22:11.159 told me before I did it, don't worry about it. 0:22:11.200 --> 0:22:13.240 Once you get through the first three days, you don't 0:22:13.280 --> 0:22:16.119 even think about food anymore. And they said it's not 0:22:16.119 --> 0:22:18.120 hard after like day three. Let me tell you something, 0:22:18.400 --> 0:22:21.200 every one of them, I rebuke your lying. 0:22:21.000 --> 0:22:27.080 Spirit, talk about same lies, new loops. It was hard 0:22:27.240 --> 0:22:28.520 the whole time. 0:22:29.480 --> 0:22:32.800 I started dreaming about foods I don't even eat in 0:22:32.920 --> 0:22:36.879 my normal life. I would be I would see brussels 0:22:36.880 --> 0:22:40.119 sprouts and salivate. Now I don't even need bacon in them. 0:22:40.160 --> 0:22:42.879 I just need the Brussels sprout. I'll eat it without oil, 0:22:43.240 --> 0:22:46.159 without salt. The whole forty days. It was hard the 0:22:46.240 --> 0:22:48.920 whole time. And you know, we think that the only 0:22:48.960 --> 0:22:51.040 time that it was hard for Jesus was when he 0:22:51.080 --> 0:22:53.200 went to the cross, because we read about him healing 0:22:53.240 --> 0:22:56.280 blind eyes the highlight reel, and people who couldn't speak 0:22:56.320 --> 0:22:58.360 spoke when he spoke for them to speak. Because whatever 0:22:58.400 --> 0:23:01.119 he speaks to does whatever he says. If he speaks 0:23:01.119 --> 0:23:02.840 to a sea, it's prints, if he speaks to a 0:23:02.840 --> 0:23:05.439 mountain that leaps, whatever he speaks to does what it says, 0:23:05.600 --> 0:23:08.119 except for us. Sometimes I'll come back to that in 0:23:08.160 --> 0:23:12.679 a future series. But it was hard the whole time. 0:23:14.240 --> 0:23:15.919 It was hard for him when he was tempted by 0:23:15.960 --> 0:23:19.520 the devil in the wilderness. His life was hard ever 0:23:19.600 --> 0:23:22.960 since he was a baby. Not only was he born 0:23:23.080 --> 0:23:27.880 in a barn, but Harry tried to kill him from 0:23:27.920 --> 0:23:32.240