Speaker 1: Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick.
Speaker 2: I'm the pastor of Elevation Church and this is our podcast.
Speaker 1: I wanted to thank you for joining us today. Hope
Speaker 1: this inspires you. Hope it builds your faith.
Speaker 2: Hope it gives your perspective to see God is moving
Speaker 2: in your life.
Speaker 1: Enjoy the message.
Speaker 2: I want to let you know if you don't live
Speaker 2: near Charlotte, but you've always wanted to come to Elevation Church,
Speaker 2: we figured out a way to come to you.
Speaker 1: Elevation Nights Fall Tour twenty.
Speaker 2: Twenty five coming up October twenty first through October thirtieth.
Speaker 2: Saint Paul, Minnesota, Omaha, Nebraska, Saint Louis, Missouri, Louisville.
Speaker 1: Kentucky, Dluf, Georgia.
Speaker 2: We might as well say Atlanta, And if some of
Speaker 2: you from Charlotte want to drive to Atlanta, that'll be great.
Speaker 2: There will be no traffic. There never is any traffic
Speaker 2: on I eighty five. It'll take you nine hours to
Speaker 2: drive there, but you should do that. Tampa, Florida, Miami, Florida,
Speaker 2: where my beautiful I grew up.
Speaker 1: Y'all give it up for Holly and Orlando, Florida. Go
Speaker 1: to Elevation Nights dot com.
Speaker 2: Happy eleventh anniversary to our Raleigh campus.
Speaker 1: Help me celebrate them better than that.
Speaker 2: Come on, Happy eleventh anniversary Raleigh, Raleigh Campus.
Speaker 1: We're praying for a great next year of ministry.
Speaker 2: It's our twentieth year of ministry as a church, and
Speaker 2: just we'll continue the celebration all year. Thank you to
Speaker 2: all the wonderful guest preachers who filled this pulpit and preached,
Speaker 2: and all of our home team that preached.
Speaker 1: But my middle son Graham looked at me the other
Speaker 1: day he said, it is time. We want you back.
Speaker 1: All these speakers have been great. We want you back.
Speaker 1: I'm back.
Speaker 2: I want to share with you today a scripture that
Speaker 2: the Lord gave me during our break.
Speaker 1: Our break was very unusual this year.
Speaker 2: Part of the time is just rest, part of the
Speaker 2: time is study, songwriting and all of that.
Speaker 1: The first half we spent in an unusual way.
Speaker 2: Our oldest son, Elijah had a surgery and he was
Speaker 2: recovering from that. It was a pretty major surgery, and
Speaker 2: then he got infected and we ended up back into ICU.
Speaker 1: For quite a while after that, and he's doing all
Speaker 1: better now.
Speaker 2: In fact, the Lord healed him, and he's clipping my
Speaker 2: sermon for TikTok right now as I preach it in
Speaker 2: a back room somewhere. So let's give God phrase for that.
Speaker 2: I told him before I came to preach us. I'm
Speaker 2: going to be very clippable today. I must say good stuff.
Speaker 2: I'll make your job easy. But in our Bible reading,
Speaker 2: as we were going through some of that for the
Speaker 2: better part of a month as a family, we came
Speaker 2: across Psalm seventy seven and there was a verse I
Speaker 2: knew I wanted to share with you when I got
Speaker 2: back with you, and it's going to lead us into.
Speaker 1: A series today.
Speaker 2: So remain standing for just when I read this one verse,
Speaker 2: just one verse? Can you stand for one verse? It's
Speaker 2: in Psalm seventy seven, verse nineteen, And I'll read this
Speaker 2: and then work backward from there to give you the
Speaker 2: message for today. And the Lord's going to help us
Speaker 2: in some remarkable ways. Psalm seventy seven, verse nineteen. The
Speaker 2: Psalmist says to God, your path led through the sea,
Speaker 2: your way through the mighty waters, though your footprints were
Speaker 2: not seen, and had a beautiful scripture. And the Lord
Speaker 2: really used that in my life. I believe he wants.
Speaker 1: To use it in yours really underrated scripture too. Maybe
Speaker 1: it'll be your favorite.
Speaker 2: At the end of today, he says, your path led
Speaker 2: through the sea, your way through the mighty waters, though
Speaker 2: your footprints were not seen. And just turn to the
Speaker 2: person next to you and tell them, even if you
Speaker 2: don't see it, God is working, tell him even if
Speaker 2: you don't feel it.
Speaker 1: God is working.
Speaker 2: Let's put our hands together and praise the way Maper
Speaker 2: in this place. Come on, praise the way Maper in
Speaker 2: this place. God.
Speaker 1: I thank you for every mountain.
Speaker 2: You've brought me over, every valley you've brought me through.
Speaker 2: It was nobody but you, and I praise you today.
Speaker 2: Speak now through your word.
Speaker 1: Use me as a vessel. I'm willing and available and open.
Speaker 2: Give me the courage, give me the clarity, the confidence
Speaker 2: to speak to your children today. And may they receive
Speaker 2: it and obey it. For it is in Jesus name
Speaker 2: that I pray and believe and call it done. Amen,
Speaker 2: you may be seated. Well, boys, bring out my teaching screen.
Speaker 2: Let's get this series started properly. As I announced to
Speaker 2: you our title for the next six weeks at least,
Speaker 2: and maybe even beyond that, because this is such a
Speaker 2: big topic that we're going to talk about, and the
Speaker 2: title of the series it doesn't come exactly from the
Speaker 2: verse that I read you, but I'll.
Speaker 1: Show you where it did come from in a moment.
Speaker 2: And before you judge my handwriting, just know that Abby
Speaker 2: has made fun of my handwriting so much. And today
Speaker 2: I made her try to write on the screen before
Speaker 2: we came.
Speaker 1: Out here, and she said, this is harder than it
Speaker 1: looks like.
Speaker 2: I'm so sorry for how I spoke of you, father,
Speaker 2: But what I want to talk to you about for
Speaker 2: the next few weeks.
Speaker 1: The title of the series is and you're gonna like
Speaker 1: this phrase because you could say it with attitude. Okay,
Speaker 1: we're gonna talk about that's what I thought.
Speaker 2: You know, you got to look at your neighbor and
Speaker 2: say it like you were just right and they were
Speaker 2: just wrong, and you tried to tell them but they
Speaker 2: wouldn't listen.
Speaker 1: Tell them, that's what I thought. That's what I thought.
Speaker 2: Like you were certain and you were proved to be correct.
Speaker 2: There is no better feeling. Then, that's what I thought.
Speaker 2: Or that phrase is so elastic that we use it
Speaker 2: also to mean that our bias was confirmed, like.
Speaker 1: Well, that's what I thought. Let's check it out. Mean, sure,
Speaker 1: that's what I thought.
Speaker 2: But we want to really use that phrase today to
Speaker 2: deal with the thoughts that we think, because honestly, not
Speaker 2: only pastorally but personally, ninety percent of the problems that
Speaker 2: I have faced in my life have not come from
Speaker 2: what the devil did to me.
Speaker 1: Or from what others said about me.
Speaker 2: The biggest problem that I have over and over again
Speaker 2: trying to do what God wants, or the biggest obstacle
Speaker 2: to God doing what he wants in my life over
Speaker 2: and over again seems to be this tricky little thing
Speaker 2: called my bracelets are catching the screen. Oh Lord, that's
Speaker 2: like for this, let me try it over here. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: The biggest problem for me over and over again it
Speaker 2: just happens over and over again, is that I get.
Speaker 1: Trapped in what I thought. This is gonna drive me crazy?
Speaker 2: Over here, Welcome back Verdick who sabotaged my screen while
Speaker 2: I was on brick?
Speaker 1: Was it Robert Madu did he mess up my screen?
Speaker 1: Was it Torn Wells who messed up my screen? The
Speaker 1: biggest obstacle?
Speaker 2: And somebody shout, if you know what I'm talking about
Speaker 2: when I say that the biggest problem that I seem
Speaker 2: to have over and over again, it's not necessarily the
Speaker 2: enemies that I face, but it's.
Speaker 1: What I thought.
Speaker 2: It's not necessarily what my life is at this moment
Speaker 2: that's making me sad.
Speaker 1: It's what I thought my life was going to be
Speaker 1: at this season.
Speaker 2: It's not necessarily who I am as a person that
Speaker 2: makes me insecure. It's what I thought I was supposed
Speaker 2: to be based on what I saw that other people
Speaker 2: showed me from who they are, but I didn't see
Speaker 2: their flaws, and so now I'm comparing my future to
Speaker 2: somebody whose flaws I have never seen. And now I'm
Speaker 2: frustrated about where I am, not because of where I am,
Speaker 2: but because of what I thought. I'm not frustrated because
Speaker 2: I'm not married at this age. I'm frustrated because I
Speaker 2: thought I would be. I'm not frustrated because I'm dealing
Speaker 2: with this situation. I'm frustrated because I didn't have the
Speaker 2: chance to prepare for it. And over and over again,
Speaker 2: in my life, the biggest enemy to what God wants
Speaker 2: to do is what I thought he was going to do.
Speaker 1: Now, I want you to get a.
Speaker 2: Time in your mind where you were what I like
Speaker 2: to call confidently wrong, and I don't know if you
Speaker 2: can think of one, or.
Speaker 1: If you've blocked all of that out selective memory.
Speaker 2: I asked everybody in my family, and if y'all know
Speaker 2: any way to fix that while I'm not using the.
Speaker 1: Screen, that would be awesome.
Speaker 2: If not, we'll all work around it and all of
Speaker 2: the OCD people will ignore that part of the screen
Speaker 2: that is not supposed to be like that.
Speaker 1: Now, listen, I asked everybody in my family.
Speaker 2: I said, I need an opening illustration for my new
Speaker 2: series called That's what I thought, And I need you
Speaker 2: to tell me a time when you were so wrong
Speaker 2: and you were so sure you were right. And everybody
Speaker 2: in my family said, can't think of one. Everybody in
Speaker 2: my family, I'll have to get back with you, And
Speaker 2: none of them got back to me with you. The
Speaker 2: means they can't remember one time where they were completely
Speaker 2: wrong and assured that they were completely right, or it
Speaker 2: means that there's nothing really harder in life than to
Speaker 2: going back and admitting remembering when you were wrong. You
Speaker 2: just hit the lead on those times in your life
Speaker 2: like don't want to remember them, And the problem with
Speaker 2: that is then you can't grow from.
Speaker 1: Them as you go forward in the future.
Speaker 2: Now, when we say that Jesus takes away our shame
Speaker 2: and our sin, that doesn't mean that he wants to
Speaker 2: cancel out the lessons that we learned from our mistakes.
Speaker 2: It means that he frees us from the penalty of
Speaker 2: it and the bondage to it. But it doesn't mean
Speaker 2: that Jesus wants us to live our lives just to
Speaker 2: continue to be wrong in all the ways that we
Speaker 2: were wrong a year ago, five years ago, ten years ago.
Speaker 2: And there's almost nothing more difficult than remembering and admitting when.
Speaker 1: You were just so wrong.
Speaker 2: I had one this week. I have fresh examples of
Speaker 2: being confidently wrong. I did it at the dinner table.
Speaker 2: One of our kids said something, and I just came
Speaker 2: back with something, and I didn't listen to the rest
Speaker 2: of their sinence and I completely missed the spirit of
Speaker 2: what they were trying to say.
Speaker 1: Just confidently wrong.
Speaker 2: Now I have about a twelve hour expiration dosage cycle
Speaker 2: on the dumb things I do. It takes that long
Speaker 2: for me to digest my dumb and then apologize. So
Speaker 2: twelve hours later, I found myself saying I was so.
Speaker 1: Wrong for that. Now that's hard, isn't it.
Speaker 2: That's hard, isn't it to say I was wrong to
Speaker 2: talk to you like that. I was wrong to assume
Speaker 2: that about you. I was wrong to judge you like that.
Speaker 2: I was wrong to put you in that position. I
Speaker 2: was even to admit dumb things like I was wrong
Speaker 2: when I said that song sucked. The first time I
Speaker 2: heard it, I thought it sucked. Now I realize it's
Speaker 2: a bop, and I feel dumb because I like it,
Speaker 2: But I can't admit I like it because the first
Speaker 2: time I heard it, I thought it was silly. That
Speaker 2: actually is a banger. I've been wrong about songs that
Speaker 2: I've written before. We wrote a song in this church
Speaker 2: one time, and I thought it was good, and then
Speaker 2: we went to record it. And after the recording, I
Speaker 2: turned to Holly and I said, well, I thought that
Speaker 2: song was good, but it's not good.
Speaker 1: She said, I thought it was pretty good. I said,
Speaker 1: it wasn't good.
Speaker 2: You could tell the people didn't like it, that people
Speaker 2: didn't care about it, and it's not going to go
Speaker 2: anywhere after we record.
Speaker 1: Oh, come to the altar.
Speaker 2: That's how wrong I can be about a song, and
Speaker 2: I'm glad I was wrong because it means there might
Speaker 2: be something else in my life right now that I
Speaker 2: think sucks, but it's actually going to be an amazing thing.
Speaker 2: If I'm wrong about that, then I might be wrong
Speaker 2: about this.
Speaker 1: It is the utter relief.
Speaker 2: Of realizing that you were wrong and admitting it and
Speaker 2: growing from it. But the only thing more difficult then
Speaker 2: remembering when you were wrong and admitting you were wrong,
Speaker 2: which I know is in a very good way to
Speaker 2: start a sermon. None of us want to talk about that.
Speaker 2: The only thing more difficult than remembering and admitting I
Speaker 2: was wrong is to realize I am wrong. If it's
Speaker 2: that hard for everybody in my family and everybody watching
Speaker 2: this sermon to go back and remember I was so wrong,
Speaker 2: how could I have been so wrong to think what
Speaker 2: I thought, or to say what I said, or to
Speaker 2: believe what I believed, or to assume what I assumed.
Speaker 2: The only thing more difficult than remembering it because it
Speaker 2: doesn't feel good, is realizing.
Speaker 1: That I am wrong.
Speaker 2: Right now, If we don't even want to admit that
Speaker 2: we were wrong, how much less do we want to
Speaker 2: realize that we are wrong or might be wrong or
Speaker 2: could possibly be wrong. Just see if you can get
Speaker 2: it out out of your mouth. I may be wrong
Speaker 2: about that. And when you get to that point in
Speaker 2: your life, you realize that a lot of us in
Speaker 2: here we have iPhones.
Speaker 1: How many of you have iPhones?
Speaker 2: Hold up your iPhone right here at this part of
Speaker 2: the sermon iPhones.
Speaker 1: I want you to realize that not only do you
Speaker 1: have iPhones, but you also have I thoughts.
Speaker 2: And it's possible that the devil has you trapped in
Speaker 2: an eye thought right now in your life.
Speaker 1: And I thought in the.
Speaker 2: Psalm we just read, the Psalmist says something so incredibly
Speaker 2: miraculous and wonderful. He says God's path led through the
Speaker 2: sea and his way through the mighty waters, though his
Speaker 2: footprints were not seen.
Speaker 1: But to understand the process.
Speaker 2: By which he arrived at that thought, I want to
Speaker 2: take you all the way back to the beginning of
Speaker 2: Psalm seventy seven, and journey with me now for a
Speaker 2: moment while I build this thought out for you. That's
Speaker 2: what I thought. The Psalmist is lamenting here. There are
Speaker 2: four different types of psalms in your Bible. There are
Speaker 2: psalms of praise, songs of thanksgiving, psalms of wisdom, and
Speaker 2: psalms of lament.
Speaker 1: The mint is where they're just telling God their trouble.
Speaker 2: Lament is where they are being honest with God, realizing
Speaker 2: that why would you hide it from him? It's not
Speaker 2: like he didn't see the whole thing, Realizing that you
Speaker 2: can say something to God and He's big enough to
Speaker 2: handle your brokenness. This is a psalm of lament, but
Speaker 2: I want to show you how it goes from a
Speaker 2: psalm of lament to a psalm of wisdom, and over
Speaker 2: the course of the next several weeks, I want to
Speaker 2: help you with your thoughts because some of your eye
Speaker 2: thoughts are wrong. Some of your eye thoughts about people
Speaker 2: are wrong, some of your eye thoughts about what is
Speaker 2: still ahead of you in your life are wrong. And
Speaker 2: you could be confidently wrong, and you can be completely trapped.
Speaker 2: That's the situation for the psalmist in Psalm seventy seven.
Speaker 1: It's not David writing this time.
Speaker 2: It's one of the sons of Asaf, the musical leaders,
Speaker 2: and he's poor out his heart to God.
Speaker 1: He says, I cried out to God for help.
Speaker 2: I cried out to God to hear me when I
Speaker 2: was in distress. Circle the word distress please, I sought
Speaker 2: the Lord at night. I stretched out untiring hands, and
Speaker 2: I would not be comforted. I remembered you, God, and
Speaker 2: I groaned. What a strange thing to say. I thought
Speaker 2: it was. I remember you, God, and I was grateful.
Speaker 2: I remember you God, and I praised. I remembered you God,
Speaker 2: and I was encouraged. I remembered you God, and I rejoiced.
Speaker 2: He said it was so bad. I remembered you and
Speaker 2: I groaned. The reason Psalm seventy seven is special and
Speaker 2: you might want to study it is because a lot
Speaker 2: of times when they wrote psalms, they were asking God
Speaker 2: to deal with external enemies. We've got this giant facing us,
Speaker 2: this army coming against us, this sickness that we're dealing with,
Speaker 2: and it was an external enemy. Or in the case
Speaker 2: of Psalm fifty one, David is praying about his own sin.
Speaker 2: He's saying, creating me a clean heart, O God, I
Speaker 2: did something horrible, and I need you to make me new,
Speaker 2: and I need you to raise me up, and I
Speaker 2: need you to give me a second chance. But this
Speaker 2: is not a psalm about enemies, and this is not
Speaker 2: even a psalm about sin. In this psalm, the primary
Speaker 2: problem for the psalmist is not an external enemy or
Speaker 2: even his own sin.
Speaker 1: His problem is God. His problem is God.
Speaker 2: And more specifically, his problem is God, Where did you go?
Speaker 1: His problem is God? When are you going to help
Speaker 1: me feel something again?
Speaker 2: God?
Speaker 1: When are you going to answer this?
Speaker 2: I'm holding out my arms to you, and you seem
Speaker 2: to be standing at a distance. I'm not even sure
Speaker 2: you're in the room. I'm not even sure you hear this.
Speaker 2: And so as he's recounting this, I want you to
Speaker 2: understand the heaviness of it, so that when I encourage
Speaker 2: you in just a few moments, like I plan to
Speaker 2: do with God's health, you will understand the place this
Speaker 2: psalm starts at he has a problem with God. And
Speaker 2: when you have a problem with bills, somebody can pay
Speaker 2: them for you. When you have a problem in your body,
Speaker 2: you can go to a doctor about that. When you
Speaker 2: have a problem even in your mind, you can have
Speaker 2: a therapist for that. But what do you do when
Speaker 2: your problem is with the one.
Speaker 1: Who has no boss?
Speaker 2: What do you do when your problem is with the
Speaker 2: one who has no supervisor?
Speaker 1: That you may ask to speak to.
Speaker 2: What do you do when you're in a situation where
Speaker 2: what God did is so much different than what you
Speaker 2: thought he should do.
Speaker 1: That is Psalm seventy seven.
Speaker 2: I remembered you God, and I've grown, not shouted, grown,
Speaker 2: not clap, grown, not danced grown.
Speaker 1: I remembered you God, and I growned, I meditated, and
Speaker 1: my spirit grew faint.
Speaker 2: People will tell you all the time how much they've grown,
Speaker 2: but they won't tell you how much they groaned so
Speaker 2: they could grow into the place where they are today.
Speaker 2: This is the process of becoming a person that God
Speaker 2: can use, and it is not easy. He said, my
Speaker 2: spirit grew faint. You kept my eyes from closing. I
Speaker 2: was too troubled to speak. And then verse five gives
Speaker 2: us the entire problem, not only with the Psalmists, but
Speaker 2: with ourselves. I thought, everybody say I thought, I thought.
Speaker 1: About the former days. Justin do I even have to
Speaker 1: say it? Circle?
Speaker 2: I thought, Circle it for everybody in here who's having
Speaker 2: doubtful thoughts. Circle it for everybody in here who's having
Speaker 2: fearful thoughts. Circle it for everybody in here who's having
Speaker 2: jelly pettis, petty jealous, petty jelly thoughts, jelly thoughts were.
Speaker 1: Calling them right now.
Speaker 2: Circle it for everybody in here who is dealing not
Speaker 2: within that external threat and maybe not even.
Speaker 1: A personal sin, but with a eye thought. Now, when I.
Speaker 2: Read this at first, you're gonna be like, he did
Speaker 2: the right thing.
Speaker 1: This is what you're supposed to do.
Speaker 2: This is what we teach in church that you're supposed
Speaker 2: to go back and remember. If you're in a season
Speaker 2: right now where you don't know what God is gonna do,
Speaker 2: just remember what he did.
Speaker 1: And that's what it sounds like on the surface. But
Speaker 1: I want to dig a little bit.
Speaker 2: Because I've been leaping two months to preach this message.
Speaker 1: And I'm gonna preach it today.
Speaker 2: I thought about the former days when my genes fit
Speaker 2: a little looser. I thought about the former days when
Speaker 2: my hamstrings weren't so I thought about the former days
Speaker 2: when I didn't need these readers to look at my
Speaker 2: Bible and this size sixty seven font in order to
Speaker 2: preach it to you.
Speaker 1: I thought about the former days, the years of long ago.
Speaker 1: I remembered my songs in the night.
Speaker 2: My heart meditated, and my spirit asked, what's wrong with
Speaker 2: any of this?
Speaker 1: It's an eye thought.
Speaker 2: I remember verse six, please my songs in the night.
Speaker 2: My heart meditated, and my spirit asked, now, watch what
Speaker 2: happens when it starts with me.
Speaker 1: Verse seven.
Speaker 2: This is what you get back when you send out
Speaker 2: an eye thought. This is what you get back. And
Speaker 2: you know what, You can't block an eye thought, not
Speaker 2: with your fingers.
Speaker 1: You have to deal with it. And the Psalmist is putting.
Speaker 2: It all out there for us today, which gives us
Speaker 2: permission to know that we can feel emotionally confused and
Speaker 2: still get spiritually strong. Watch what he says. It gets
Speaker 2: worse before it gets better. Will the Lord reject forever?
Speaker 2: Will he never show his favor again? Has his unfailing
Speaker 2: love vanished forever? Has his promise failed for all time?
Speaker 2: Has God forgotten to be mercif? Has he, in anger
Speaker 2: withheld his compassion? I thought, and that's what came back,
Speaker 2: and what I heard the psalm is saying today. And
Speaker 2: I wonder if it's true of you, he says. I
Speaker 2: thought I suffered, and I thought I thought it was through.
Speaker 2: I thought back over the best days of my life,
Speaker 2: and I thought they're behind me. I thought about the
Speaker 2: things that I would love to see God do for
Speaker 2: me that he's done for others. And I thought, well,
Speaker 2: I guess he just doesn't want to do it for me.
Speaker 2: I thought, I thought. I thought it was through. I
Speaker 2: thought that my experience of God had completely dried up.
Speaker 2: I thought he didn't love me anymore. The Psalmas said
Speaker 2: that I didn't. So, if you've ever felt that, you're
Speaker 2: in the Bible. I thought that God had taken his
Speaker 2: hand off my life. I thought he had just given
Speaker 2: up on me because others did.
Speaker 1: I thought it was through.
Speaker 2: And you see in this passage what they call the
Speaker 2: three peas of negative thinking. I'm going to be talking
Speaker 2: to you over the next six weeks about I thought,
Speaker 2: I'm gonna be talking to you about three ways of
Speaker 2: negative thinking that you may recognize in your life. They're
Speaker 2: all here in the psalm and we'll come back to
Speaker 2: them a few times, but I just want to point
Speaker 2: them out to you. He says, Will the Lord reject forever?
Speaker 2: Will he never show his favor again? Has his unfailing
Speaker 2: love vanished forever? I thought it was through. I thought
Speaker 2: it was gone. I didn't see his footprints in the sand.
Speaker 2: Y'all ever seen that little poster on the thing, did
Speaker 2: you ever see butt prints in the sand.
Speaker 1: That's another one. You can look that up another time.
Speaker 1: He says, I felt rejected.
Speaker 2: I thought it was never gonna come again. Now that's
Speaker 2: strong saying never. That's strong when you think that he
Speaker 2: will never show you favor again. And he said, I
Speaker 2: thought his love had vanished. And they call these the
Speaker 2: three piece of negative thinking because they're traps. And it's
Speaker 2: when you take something that happens to you and you
Speaker 2: make it personal rejection. It's when you make it permanent never,
Speaker 2: and it's when it becomes pervasive, vanished everywhere. It took
Speaker 2: everything away. It's completely ripping through.
Speaker 1: Your whole life.
Speaker 2: Because one thing to have a problem, and you've got
Speaker 2: it in a corner. And this is the one thing
Speaker 2: that I'm dealing with in my life. But you know,
Speaker 2: the enemy has you in an I thought when it
Speaker 2: becomes personal, the Lord rejected me, there's something wrong with me.
Speaker 2: It's fine to be disappointed because somebody didn't want to
Speaker 2: be your friend. It is another thing to assume that
Speaker 2: they are worthy to be the Olympic figure skating judge
Speaker 2: of your life.
Speaker 1: And then you stop.
Speaker 2: Putting yourself out there because you think that somehow they
Speaker 2: have the stamp of approval to give the human race,
Speaker 2: and that they know just from their virtue, of their
Speaker 2: own goodness, whether or not you're worthy.
Speaker 1: And now you've.
Speaker 2: Got yourself isolated because you took it personal. And there
Speaker 2: may have been something that they were going through that
Speaker 2: was so dark that if you would have known that,
Speaker 2: you would have given them a hug and said, I'll
Speaker 2: send you a Christmas card. But now you've got it personal, permanent,
Speaker 2: it's never coming back. It's always going to be this way.
Speaker 2: It will never change. I'm never going to be able
Speaker 2: to go a week without doing this. I am never
Speaker 2: going to find anybody who gets me. It's permanent, it's
Speaker 2: going to stay this way forever, and it's pervasive. It's
Speaker 2: when you can't celebrate the kid that's doing good because
Speaker 2: of the one that you're worried about. It's when you
Speaker 2: can't celebrate the health in your body because.
Speaker 1: Of the hell in your mind. It's because you're in.
Speaker 2: An eye thought. He said, I thought it was through.
Speaker 2: I thought the dream was through. I thought the vision
Speaker 2: was through. I thought the relation. I thought my joy,
Speaker 2: I thought my very joy in life was through.
Speaker 1: It's an eye thought. And if you're there today, let's
Speaker 1: start there.
Speaker 2: I thought it was through. There are some things in
Speaker 2: your life that may very well be through. That's why
Speaker 2: you can't dwell on.
Speaker 1: I thought about the former days.
Speaker 2: That's why you can't watch Andy Griffith reruns and wish
Speaker 2: again for wholesome entertainment, and curse this Love Island. That
Speaker 2: this crap these kids are watching and the devil is
Speaker 2: taking over a generation.
Speaker 1: This is an I thought. But the Lord y'all are
Speaker 1: laughing like y'all been watching it too.
Speaker 2: I thought it was true. I thought the best days
Speaker 2: were behind me, I thought. And I want to show
Speaker 2: you something this really helped me. Is something that he
Speaker 2: said in verse two, and yeah, yeah, yeah, he said
Speaker 2: when I was in distress. Everybody say distress. Distress is
Speaker 2: a normal part of the Christian life, just like it's
Speaker 2: a normal part of the human experience. Distress in and
Speaker 2: of itself is not a problem. When I was in distress.
Speaker 2: The promise that God makes is not to protect us
Speaker 2: from distress. The promise that God makes is not to
Speaker 2: keep all pressure from coming on our lives. The promise
Speaker 2: that God makes is not to make sure that He
Speaker 2: always takes us the long way around any problem.
Speaker 1: The problem is when the distress becomes despair. There's a difference.
Speaker 2: Distress is this hurts, but I have hope. Despair is
Speaker 2: this hurts and I have no hope.
Speaker 1: Despair is dangerous.
Speaker 2: Despair is hurt minus hope. Despair is looking at the
Speaker 2: situation saying never vanished, rejection, personal, permanent, pervasive.
Speaker 1: I thought the psalmist said.
Speaker 2: Not that this is just a difficult season and I
Speaker 2: got to get through it, because we all have those.
Speaker 1: Not this is just a bad day.
Speaker 2: And if I can make it till five o'clock without
Speaker 2: cussing anybody out, I can keep bringing home a paycheck
Speaker 2: and not get kicked out of this house that I'm
Speaker 2: behind a month on.
Speaker 1: Anyway, It's not if I can get through this, it
Speaker 1: is is this all there is?
Speaker 2: Despair is it's never going to get better.
Speaker 1: That's where the devil wants you.
Speaker 2: It's never going to get better, and you'll always lose
Speaker 2: your temper. It's never going to get better, and you
Speaker 2: will always be a failure. It's never going to get better,
Speaker 2: and you are always gonna be too loud, and you
Speaker 2: are always gonna be too quiet, and you were always
Speaker 2: gonna be too short. Did you ever think maybe God
Speaker 2: made you short so you could fit through little doors?
Speaker 1: Okay, now, if this is where the psalmist starts, we
Speaker 1: have got to.
Speaker 2: Do something today to get you out of this. If
Speaker 2: despair is dangerous, and distress is and dangerous, you can
Speaker 2: go through a lot of things. You've been through a
Speaker 2: lot of things. You've put up with a lot of things.
Speaker 2: Tell your neighbor, I'm tougher than I look. Tell them again,
Speaker 2: I'm tougher than I look.
Speaker 3: To love.
Speaker 2: I'm pretty smileful of you. I'm tougher than I look.
Speaker 2: I'm tougher than I look.
Speaker 1: I took a.
Speaker 2: Licking and kept on ticking. I'm tougher than I look.
Speaker 2: I'm like a weevile. I wabbled, but I didn't go down.
Speaker 2: I'm tougher than I look. I've had some challenges to
Speaker 2: my faith. I've had some questions about God.
Speaker 1: I'm still here praising in.
Speaker 2: Fact, that's my two word testimony when I can't think
Speaker 2: of anything else to praise him for.
Speaker 3: Still here, somebody shouts, still here in a funk, still here,
Speaker 3: down in it, still here, wondering about it, Still here.
Speaker 1: Piece isn't all.
Speaker 2: So what you've got to do, child of God is
Speaker 2: never allowed distress, which is temporary, to become despair, which
Speaker 2: says forever. And the devil specializes in turning distress into
Speaker 2: despair to get you so clouded by one conflict that
Speaker 2: you have forgotten your call.
Speaker 1: Who am I preaching to today?
Speaker 2: God sent this word to disrupt your despair?
Speaker 1: Hear me?
Speaker 2: God sent this word to disrupt your despair. Every I
Speaker 2: thought that has been telling you you will not make it,
Speaker 2: every I thought that has been telling you you are
Speaker 2: not worthy of God's love. The Cross made you worthy.
Speaker 2: What does it have to do with your behavior? What
Speaker 2: did it ever have to do with your behavior? It's
Speaker 2: about his blood. I call you worthy in the name
Speaker 2: of Jesus. I call you healed by his stripes. I
Speaker 2: call you forgiven. And His favor is coming to your
Speaker 2: situation right now, into your room, into your home, into
Speaker 2: your wound, into your family, into your business, into that.
Speaker 1: Thing that the devil told you is through is through.
Speaker 2: Give up is through. Quit fighting is through. Don't go
Speaker 2: back to rehab is through. Give up on it. Just
Speaker 2: manage the ad.
Speaker 1: It's through. It's through, Just walk away from it is through.
Speaker 2: Just move to another city and start over the same
Speaker 2: stuff all over again, till.
Speaker 1: It catches up with you. Is through leave is through.
Speaker 2: Well. I found something for the trap. I found a
Speaker 2: truth for the trap for everybody who has been in
Speaker 2: an I thought, and I know you know the one
Speaker 2: I'm talking about. Don't make me start prophesying it, tee.
Speaker 2: I thought, the one that starts with you and ends
Speaker 2: with misery. You know, every thought that it starts with
Speaker 2: me ends in misery eventually if it doesn't involve God.
Speaker 2: So what I noticed from what I read from Brugemont
Speaker 2: and some of the other theologians that I was looking up,
Speaker 2: he said, I thought about the former days, and I
Speaker 2: thought it was personal, permanent, pervasive. I would ask God
Speaker 2: to help me with the problem, but God was the problem.
Speaker 2: I didn't know where to go.
Speaker 1: Now. I kind of lied to you when I set
Speaker 1: the sermon up.
Speaker 2: I said, I was going to share a verse that
Speaker 2: I read that meant a lot to me right after
Speaker 2: alleged got out of the hospital, and I am, but
Speaker 2: it wasn't the one I read you when I started
Speaker 2: a servant. It's one it's a little sniper verse. It's
Speaker 2: a little sniper scripture. It's like you could just gloss
Speaker 2: right over it. But remember how bad of a state
Speaker 2: this guy was in. What's going to turn it around
Speaker 2: for you? What's going to turn it around for us?
Speaker 2: What's going to break us out of these patterns and
Speaker 2: traps of thinking that the devil says never all? What's
Speaker 2: going to break us out of this limited view of
Speaker 2: your situation that can't find God in it because you
Speaker 2: have gotten so.
Speaker 1: Blurry in the battle.
Speaker 2: And so I told my mom, I said, I'm going
Speaker 2: to be reading from Psalm seventy seven to preach this week.
Speaker 1: And she likes I give a little headstart.
Speaker 2: Well, she send me like a picture of her Bible
Speaker 2: open to Psalm seventy seven.
Speaker 1: She's like, already beat you to it, preacher. I'm trying
Speaker 1: to do her voice.
Speaker 2: When I do that, I already beat It was a text,
Speaker 2: but that's how she would have said it.
Speaker 1: And I said, bring that Bible because I want to
Speaker 1: show you something. I give my camera.
Speaker 2: This is not Psalm twenty three. Everybody knows Psalm twenty three.
Speaker 2: The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want It's
Speaker 2: a relatively obscure Psalm. You see how she had that circled.
Speaker 2: Sometimes it takes a minute to see it. That's like
Speaker 2: the Lord, Well, this illustration isn't really working too well either.
Speaker 1: But what I wanted to show.
Speaker 2: You that I can show you direct me, man, do
Speaker 2: I need to stand somewhere different?
Speaker 1: I do whatever, and you do that's better.
Speaker 2: She has that Psalm seventy seven circled like a serial killer.
Speaker 1: That's like a.
Speaker 2: Right and I realized why she's got it all underlined.
Speaker 2: I said, bring the Bible to church. I got to
Speaker 2: show the people something. She's circling everything in this Bible
Speaker 2: all the way down to has his unfailing love vanished forever?
Speaker 1: Has his promise failed for all time? And then on
Speaker 1: her Bible that's the part where that page ends. I
Speaker 1: told her.
Speaker 2: I was like, that's not the best part of Psalm
Speaker 2: seventy seven. She's said, yeah, that's what I was reading
Speaker 2: right after your dad died. Thanks a lot. I was like,
Speaker 2: you know, that's a good part of Psalm seventy seven too,
Speaker 2: obviously when you're going through things. But I said, read
Speaker 2: the rest and hit me a couple hours later. Now,
Speaker 2: my dad died of als. It was over ten years ago,
Speaker 2: and it was in June of twenty thirteen, and this
Speaker 2: psalm meant a lot to her during that low.
Speaker 1: Time of her life.
Speaker 2: And so she was reading it like we do, and
Speaker 2: we come to this place. I thought it was through.
Speaker 2: And she had just lost her husband. She had just
Speaker 2: lost him after caring for him. It was an atrocious,
Speaker 2: atrocious disease. But what I want to show her and
Speaker 2: you today from Psalm seventy seven is in verse ten,
Speaker 2: May this change your life, made this break your pattern?
Speaker 2: May this bring you out of the trap. Because he
Speaker 2: said I was stuck in. I thought, watch this. Then
Speaker 2: I thought, that's the whole sermon. Then I thought, circle
Speaker 2: it on the screen, justin. Then I thought, no circle.
Speaker 2: Then I thought, because the first thought wasn't the right thought.
Speaker 2: Then I thought, I thought, I thought, I thought, and
Speaker 2: I got stuck in a loop of I thoughts.
Speaker 1: Then I thought.
Speaker 2: Verse ten is the hinge where everything changes for this Psalmist.
Speaker 2: Verse ten is the hinge where everything can change for
Speaker 2: you and I. Verse ten is the hinge that depression
Speaker 2: doesn't want you to know about.
Speaker 1: Verse ten is the hinge that.
Speaker 2: The devil wants to hide and delete off of your
Speaker 2: Bible lap.
Speaker 1: Verse ten is the hinge that the.
Speaker 2: Devil doesn't want you to turn to because after all
Speaker 2: of that which is real, after all of that which
Speaker 2: is a part of being you, after all of.
Speaker 1: That, I thought it was through. After all of that,
Speaker 1: he says.
Speaker 2: Then I thought, let's see what he thought next to this,
Speaker 2: I will appeal the years when the Most High stretched
Speaker 2: out his right hand. I will remember the deeds of
Speaker 2: the Lord. Yes, I will remember your miracles of long ago.
Speaker 2: I will consider all your works and meditate on all
Speaker 2: your mighty deeds. Go back to verse ten. Then I
Speaker 2: thought to this, I will appeal the years when the
Speaker 2: Most High stretched out his right hand.
Speaker 1: Go back to verse two.
Speaker 2: When we started with these eye thoughts, he was saying,
Speaker 2: when I was in distress, I sought the Lord at night.
Speaker 2: I stretched out untiring hands, who stretched out I stretched out. Ah,
Speaker 2: I can't do this much longer. I don't care how
Speaker 2: many interior raises you do in the gym for your shoulders.
Speaker 1: You can only do this so long.
Speaker 2: And is it possible that the reason you are so
Speaker 2: faint in your faith, and so weary in your worship,
Speaker 2: and so discouraged about your destiny.
Speaker 1: And the reason that you think that it's through.
Speaker 2: Is because you have been so focused on this God,
Speaker 2: I can't give any more.
Speaker 1: I can't do anymore. I already feel so stretched God,
Speaker 1: I feel.
Speaker 2: So empty, I feel so unseen, I feel so uncelebrated.
Speaker 2: I keep stretching out my hands, I keep putting myself forth,
Speaker 2: I keep taking my next step, but you're not there.
Speaker 1: Then verse ten, then verse ten.
Speaker 2: Then I thought, I'm gonna appeal to a higher court
Speaker 2: instead of thinking about how I'm doing this, let me
Speaker 2: think about the years when God stretched his hand. And
Speaker 2: when I start thinking about how he's stretched his hand,
Speaker 2: and I forget about my hands. Suddenly my hands go
Speaker 2: up in worship because.
Speaker 3: I remember that the bow is not mine, but it
Speaker 3: belongs to the Lord.
Speaker 2: Fifteen seconds of praise for everybody who needs a.
Speaker 3: Then I thought, Then I thought, well that's annoying. Yeah,
Speaker 3: high five your neighbors say.
Speaker 1: Then I thought, I thought over and over, I thought,
Speaker 1: Then I thought, oh yeah. Then I thought I thought
Speaker 1: it was through. Then I thought I might as well
Speaker 1: throw in the towel.
Speaker 2: Then I was very focused on all the reasons I
Speaker 2: had not.
Speaker 1: To go forward. Y'all, slow, y'all are real, slow, y'all,
Speaker 1: slow like molasses in the south.
Speaker 2: Then I thought, let me think about his hand, let
Speaker 2: me remember his deeds.
Speaker 1: He does it in a quartet.
Speaker 2: He talks about the mighty deeds of God, the works
Speaker 2: of God, the awesome deeds of God, the deeds of God.
Speaker 1: He lists them off and wrap them off. Because he said,
Speaker 1: I thought it was through.
Speaker 4: And then after I had gotten done with all of
Speaker 4: my questions. Then after I had poured out all my complaints,
Speaker 4: then after I had considered all the reasons that I
Speaker 4: had to be afraid.
Speaker 1: I thought it was through. But then I thought it through.
Speaker 1: I thought about saying, all right, devil, I quit. Then
Speaker 1: I thought it was through. But then.
Speaker 3: I thought it through, and I decided I would have
Speaker 3: despair unless I have to leave. Then I what see
Speaker 3: the good this?
Speaker 1: I'm the lord in the land of the livings.
Speaker 3: Hot five seven people say, I thought it through.
Speaker 1: I thought it through. I thought it through. I thought
Speaker 1: it through.
Speaker 3: I thought it through.
Speaker 1: Now let me tell you what I mean.
Speaker 2: In verse nineteen, let's go right back to the top
Speaker 2: of the sermon. He said, when I thought about the
Speaker 2: way God works, don't sit down.
Speaker 1: You're about to shout again. You might as well just
Speaker 1: save yourself a calorie burn. You might as well just
Speaker 1: save yourself a cardio. Just go ahead and.
Speaker 2: Jump up now by faith and get ready to celebrate.
Speaker 2: He said, your path lead.
Speaker 1: Circle the word through.
Speaker 2: Let's do Bible study. I wanted you to take me
Speaker 2: around it. I wanted you to carry me over it.
Speaker 2: I wanted you to give me a boat. But instead
Speaker 2: of a boat, I got a mighty hand.
Speaker 1: And an outspread farm. Your path, your path led through.
Speaker 2: Tell your neighbor, I thought it through, your way through
Speaker 2: the mighty waters, through the mighty waters. Though your footprints
Speaker 2: weren't seen. Why didn't I see God's footprints? Because he
Speaker 2: was working with his hand at a higher level. He
Speaker 2: was driving back waters that I didn't know. He needed
Speaker 2: depart so he could drown Egyptians that were chasing me
Speaker 2: and trying to bring me back into captivity. What am
Speaker 2: I trying to say? Think it through? You just keep
Speaker 2: thinking the same eye thoughts and you're like, I.
Speaker 1: Do think it through. I'm an overthinker. Just because you
Speaker 1: think it again doesn't mean you thought it through. You underthinker.
Speaker 2: You you think like this, Oh, well, the devil's attacking me.
Speaker 2: I guess God's not with me. What if you thought
Speaker 2: that through God must be so with me. This is
Speaker 2: how you think it through.
Speaker 1: God.
Speaker 2: I went to my in laws fiftieth wedding anniversary the
Speaker 2: other day.
Speaker 1: Clap your hands for that.
Speaker 2: And it survived betrayal, and it survived addiction, and it
Speaker 2: survived special needs, and there were times where they thought
Speaker 2: it wouldn't make it. Then I thought, the challenge is
Speaker 2: you can't see the path in the present. W it's
Speaker 2: only in retrospect that the Red Sea looks like a blessing.
Speaker 1: I'll show you what I mean.
Speaker 2: Go to Exodus fourteen when the Israelites came up on
Speaker 2: the Red Sea. You know the story. You know the story.
Speaker 2: They came up on the Red Sea. They were leaving Egypt.
Speaker 2: They had been slaves for four hundred and thirty years,
Speaker 2: and God was leading them out.
Speaker 1: They were happy, They were ready to dance. They even
Speaker 1: pecked their tambourines.
Speaker 2: And as the tambourines are jingling in their suitcase, oh no,
Speaker 2: here comes trouble.
Speaker 1: What is the sound of that very hot pitch.
Speaker 2: It doesn't sound like a tambourine, It's an Egyptian chariot.
Speaker 1: Oh no, the Egyptians are coming after us.
Speaker 2: So watch what they thought, because I'm trying to get
Speaker 2: you to see that you might be wrong. You might
Speaker 2: think the attack means it's through. That's an I thought
Speaker 2: they thought. Watch this Exited fourteen, the Lord said, Moses,
Speaker 2: the stretch your hand over the sea, that the waters
Speaker 2: going to go to full back over the Egyptians and
Speaker 2: their cheers and horsemen most stretches hand over see day break.
Speaker 2: The justians of fleetwary, the Lord swipped them into the sea.
Speaker 2: Oh so the Israelites didn't die. The Egyptians did go
Speaker 2: to verse twenty eight to flow back and cover all
Speaker 2: the chariots and horsemen. Now that all sounds so wonderful.
Speaker 2: God drowned their enemies, right, And I know I'm rushing this.
Speaker 1: I don't have time.
Speaker 2: You go.
Speaker 1: Come back next week for part two of this. But
Speaker 1: what's crazy to me about.
Speaker 2: This scripture is the scripture says that when they got
Speaker 2: to the edge of their escape route in Exodus chapter fourteen,
Speaker 2: verse eleven, they said to Moses, was it because there
Speaker 2: were no graves in Egypt that you brought us to
Speaker 2: the desert to die? They thought that water was going
Speaker 2: to kill them. That's what they thought, now, look at
Speaker 2: chapter fifteen, verse one, when they got to the other
Speaker 2: side and the Egyptians were all dead behind them, and
Speaker 2: the thing they thought was gonna kill him Exitus fifteen,
Speaker 2: verse one. Exitus fifteen, verse one, and circle the word.
Speaker 2: Then Moses and the Israelites sang this song.
Speaker 1: To the Lord. I will sing to the Lord.
Speaker 2: That's fine, But you got to sing that same song
Speaker 2: on the other side so you can get through this.
Speaker 2: Somebody say, then, I thought.
Speaker 1: It is the.
Speaker 2: Hinge of the scripture for the people of God.
Speaker 1: They remembered their exodus.
Speaker 2: This deliverance motif sets the entire story for Jesus, who
Speaker 2: would be the greater Moses, who would bring us out
Speaker 2: of the slavery to sin. It's all set up here,
Speaker 2: and the Psalmist is looking back and saying, when I
Speaker 2: could not see your footprints, I remembered that your hand
Speaker 2: was working in the night. And you've been looking at
Speaker 2: the wrong level, and you have been thinking at the
Speaker 2: wrong level. And God's thoughts are not our thoughts, and
Speaker 2: his ways are not our ways. And what if the
Speaker 2: attack is against you is actually sent to remind you
Speaker 2: how valuable what you carry actually is. Think it through
Speaker 2: think it through. The devil is not omnipresent. The devil
Speaker 2: does not have unlimited ammunition. So if there is an
Speaker 2: attack against your life, if there is an attack against
Speaker 2: your family, if there is an attack against your mind,
Speaker 2: there is something in your future that Hell has recognized.
Speaker 1: Think it through.
Speaker 3: What is it?
Speaker 2: What is it that Hell knows about my family that
Speaker 2: I forgot about my family?
Speaker 1: Then I thought it through?
Speaker 2: And even more, what is it that God knows I
Speaker 2: need to learn that He would let me go through this?
Speaker 2: And if you really want to get out of the
Speaker 2: I thought, what is it that He's going to use
Speaker 2: this for in somebody else's life? Did I really suffer
Speaker 2: this much to stay silent about what he taught me
Speaker 2: as as a student.
Speaker 1: So the word of the Lord is think it through.
Speaker 1: Think it through.
Speaker 2: It never comes like you thought it would come, not
Speaker 2: when it comes from God, because if it came like
Speaker 2: you thought it would come, then your thoughts would be
Speaker 2: God right.
Speaker 1: And he says, my ways are not your ways. Neither
Speaker 1: are my thoughts your thoughts.
Speaker 2: And it just blessed me to think about all of
Speaker 2: the people in here who, instead of giving up on
Speaker 2: this pursuit of Jesus instead of giving up on your purity,
Speaker 2: instead of giving up.
Speaker 1: On the impact God has called you to make.
Speaker 2: Instead of thinking it was through, You're going to think
Speaker 2: it through today so that the song you have to
Speaker 2: sing on the other side reflects the faithfulness of the.
Speaker 1: God who split the sea.
Speaker 2: One moment, it looked like the sea was going to
Speaker 2: kill them. The next minute they realized, Wait, God didn't
Speaker 2: bring us this far to drown us. He didn't bring
Speaker 2: us out here to leave us. He didn't bring us
Speaker 2: out here because He's not with us. He brought us
Speaker 2: out here because the enemy can't swim.
Speaker 1: Thank you for joining us.
Speaker 2: Special thanks to those of you who give generously to
Speaker 2: this ministry.
Speaker 1: Is because of you that this ministry is possible.
Speaker 2: You can click the link in the description to give now,
Speaker 2: or visit Elevationchurch dot org slash podcast for more information
Speaker 2: and if you enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe.
Speaker 1: You can share it with your friends.
Speaker 2: You can click the share button, take a screenshot and
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Speaker 2: Elevation Church.
Speaker 1: Thanks again for listening. God bless you