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'm working on a sermon series and I'm going to
Speaker 2: pick up this week with the momentum that we had
Speaker 2: last week.
Speaker 1: Now, last week was so good that if.
Speaker 2: The person you're sitting next to wasn't here, tell them
Speaker 2: I'm sorry, were you here last week? The title of
Speaker 2: the series listen to this. That's what I thought. That's
Speaker 2: the title of the series. And however, you say that
Speaker 2: with whatever attitude you say it with. You might say
Speaker 2: it like one of your kids was talking back to
Speaker 2: you and you give them a look and then they
Speaker 2: shut up, and then you say, that's what I thought.
Speaker 2: Maybe like that, or maybe you're just confirming some things
Speaker 2: in your life right now, just checking you know, Oh
Speaker 2: that's what I thought. I just wanted to be sure.
Speaker 2: But really the heart of what I want to teach about,
Speaker 2: as you'll see today, is tracking back the actions in
Speaker 2: our life to the thoughts that produce them, and then
Speaker 2: bringing God into those thought processes, so that rather than
Speaker 2: just always giving God our problems, we bring Him into
Speaker 2: our thoughts. Clap your hands if you'd like to have
Speaker 2: less problems to give God. And this series doesn't say
Speaker 2: that we can always avoid the problems of life. But
Speaker 2: I want to show you something today that I think
Speaker 2: is really really easy to understand, but so difficult to apply.
Speaker 2: I'm going to be reading from Psalm one thirty nine,
Speaker 2: verses seven through seventeen. This will be the foundation, and
Speaker 2: then I'll share a story from the Old Testament to
Speaker 2: illustrate this.
Speaker 1: Thought today that God gave me.
Speaker 2: Every sermon starts as a thought, and so I want
Speaker 2: to talk to you about thoughts from a thought that
Speaker 2: God gave me, which is, by the way, why I
Speaker 2: keep stacks of notebook paper all around my house in
Speaker 2: case God gives me a thought.
Speaker 1: I need to be ready to catch it, just in
Speaker 1: case I can give it to you.
Speaker 2: And this is so powerful. If you look at psalmone
Speaker 2: thirty nine, David is speaking about the wonder of God.
Speaker 2: I was going to read only verse seventeen to set
Speaker 2: up my thought, but I feel like it'll be so
Speaker 2: much more effective if I start at verse seven. So
Speaker 2: listen to this. The Psalma says, everyone's standing please for the.
Speaker 1: Word of God. If you're physically able, thank you.
Speaker 2: Where shall I go from your spirit? Or where shall
Speaker 2: I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven,
Speaker 2: you're there. If I make my bed in shield, or
Speaker 2: some translations say hell. If I make my bed in hell,
Speaker 2: you are there. If I take the wings of the
Speaker 2: morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
Speaker 2: even there, your hands shall leave me, and your right
Speaker 2: hand shall hold me. If I say surely, the darkness
Speaker 2: shall cover me, and the light about me be night.
Speaker 2: Even the darkness is not dark to you, the night
Speaker 2: as bright as the day. For darkness is as light
Speaker 2: with you. For you formed my inward parts. I heard
Speaker 2: we had some mary Kay people here today, and we
Speaker 2: celebrate you here. Mary Kay is good for the outward parts,
Speaker 2: but I got something for the inward parts today. You
Speaker 2: formed my inward parts. You knitted me together in my
Speaker 2: mother's womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and
Speaker 2: wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works. My soul knows it
Speaker 2: very well. My frame was not hidden from you. When
Speaker 2: I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the
Speaker 2: depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed substance.
Speaker 2: In your book were written every one of them, the
Speaker 2: days that were formed for me, when as yet there
Speaker 2: were none of them, Verse seventeen, as our key today,
Speaker 2: How precious to me are your thoughts?
Speaker 1: Oh God? How vast is the sum of them?
Speaker 2: Let's read that together, repeat after me, How precious to
Speaker 2: me are your thoughts?
Speaker 1: Oh God?
Speaker 2: How vast is the sum of them? Today I want
Speaker 2: to talk to you on this subject. When God gives
Speaker 2: a thought to you, When God gives a thought to you,
Speaker 2: could that be possible the Holy One of Heaven would
Speaker 2: condescend and give a thought to little old me, little
Speaker 2: old you. We're going to talk about that today. When
Speaker 2: God gives a thought to you, this I recall to
Speaker 2: my mind. Therefore I have hope. It is because of
Speaker 2: your mercies that we are not consumed, Because your compassions
Speaker 2: feel not they are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness,
Speaker 2: Faithful God, I thank you that your word has spoken
Speaker 2: through generations to.
Speaker 1: Land at our doorstep. Today.
Speaker 2: We receive it, we want it, we need it. It
Speaker 2: is our necessary bread. It is our living water. Come
Speaker 2: now like a flood, Come now like a fountain. Quench
Speaker 2: every soul, give a thought to us in Jesus' name. Amen,
Speaker 2: please be seated. Put the title in the comments, please,
Speaker 2: if you're watching online, when God gives a thought to you? Lately,
Speaker 2: I've been saying things in rooms full of people that
Speaker 2: are younger than me, and they don't know what I'm
Speaker 2: talking about, and it's making me feel awkward and uncomfortable.
Speaker 1: Why.
Speaker 2: Just the other day, I walked into a songwriting session
Speaker 2: with some of our very own in house songwriters and
Speaker 2: I said, last night I took Holly to a concert.
Speaker 1: We went to see Counting Crows.
Speaker 2: They all just looked at me, and I realized something
Speaker 2: very sad in that moment. They had not heard of
Speaker 2: the Counting Crows. How do you not hear of the
Speaker 2: Counting Crows? How many of you have not heard of
Speaker 2: the Counting Crows? See now, I just feel ostracized, abandon betrayed,
Speaker 2: never heard of the Counting Crows.
Speaker 1: I had to tell them about mister Jones.
Speaker 2: And round here, and they didn't want to know about
Speaker 2: Counting Crows. So we just wrote a song The other day,
Speaker 2: I was riding in the car with Abbey. Now she's fourteen, right,
Speaker 2: so she was kind of quiet, kind of doing that
Speaker 2: fourteen year old thing that fourteen year old girls can
Speaker 2: sometimes do, or unless she's talking sixty miles a minute,
Speaker 2: she's totally quiet. And she was totally quiet, and I
Speaker 2: looked over at her and said something I thought she
Speaker 2: would understand. I said, a penny for your thoughts. Well,
Speaker 2: she looked at me just as confused as the counting
Speaker 2: crows just walked in the room. She said a what
Speaker 2: I said, A penny for your thoughts? She said, what's that?
Speaker 2: I said, it's a colloquialism. It's an idiom.
Speaker 1: I think it has its roots somewhere in British origins.
Speaker 2: But it's just a way of saying, tell me what
Speaker 2: you're thinking. Like you're kind of quiet, I can tell
Speaker 2: you're thinking about something. The wheel seemed to be turning,
Speaker 2: A penny for your thoughts, and she goes, that's weird.
Speaker 2: She's quiet for about ten more seconds, and then she goes,
Speaker 2: A penny.
Speaker 1: That's all.
Speaker 2: I thought, Yeah, you're right, that's kind of cheap, isn't it?
Speaker 2: A penny for your thoughts? She's like you at least
Speaker 2: got to adjust this for inflation. If I'm gonna give
Speaker 2: you a whole thought or plural thoughts, multiple thoughts, it
Speaker 2: needs to be multiple pennies at least a dime for
Speaker 2: your thoughts. Probably needs to be about five dollars for
Speaker 2: your thoughts. But just to set it up as an
Speaker 2: illustration and not to be silly. And I knew God
Speaker 2: wanted me to use this illustration because I thought of
Speaker 2: it last minute and there was a penny sitting by
Speaker 2: my door today. So I want to hold it up
Speaker 2: and talk about how sometimes we think too cheap, and
Speaker 2: sometimes we undervalue our thoughts because we live in a
Speaker 2: world that values things more than thoughts, things more than thoughts.
Speaker 2: So if you have a nice pair of sneakers, you
Speaker 2: would not dare wear them to a dirty Love Week event.
Speaker 2: You would never wear your clean sneakers through a dirty atmosphere.
Speaker 2: But let's talk about where your mind goes on a
Speaker 2: daily basis. And the fact of the matter is some
Speaker 2: of the places that we take our minds our place
Speaker 2: is that we would never take our shoes because we
Speaker 2: value things over thoughts. I did have a small victory
Speaker 2: the other day usually I'm a catastrophizer.
Speaker 1: I think of the worst scenarios.
Speaker 2: And this is why I wanted to preach a series
Speaker 2: called That's What I Thought, because God has helped me
Speaker 2: so much to begin to label and identify the ways
Speaker 2: of thinking that don't come from Him.
Speaker 1: And I'm still a work in progress.
Speaker 2: But I try to share with you every time that
Speaker 2: I get it wrong, so that I can occasionally share
Speaker 2: with you when I get it right. I lead mostly
Speaker 2: by failing forward. But the other I was proud. I
Speaker 2: had ordered a new guitar online. I went to the
Speaker 2: post office to pick it up. It didn't quite fit
Speaker 2: in the back seat. I put it in my jeep
Speaker 2: with the roof down cheap way.
Speaker 1: And I.
Speaker 2: Was talking to Abby because she was in the front
Speaker 2: seat and she had bow on her lap, and Bo
Speaker 2: was kind of hanging out the window because he enjoys that.
Speaker 2: And I had this vision right as we were pulling
Speaker 2: down the driveway of Bo tumbling out the window and
Speaker 2: I didn't want him to. So I've come a long
Speaker 2: way since we first got the dog. I didn't want
Speaker 2: him to. I said, have you got him securely? She said,
Speaker 2: I got him, but just something about the fact of
Speaker 2: me thinking about him falling out the window and then
Speaker 2: pulling in the garage with the guitar still sticking out
Speaker 2: the top of the jeep, and hearing the crunch of
Speaker 2: a very expensive guitar, very expensive guitar.
Speaker 1: And hearing the crunch and not cussing. It's a victory.
Speaker 1: I did't cuss. I didn't cuss. Tell your neighbor. I
Speaker 1: didn't cuss.
Speaker 2: Now, I didn't speak in tongues. I didn't praise the Lord.
Speaker 2: I just didn't cuss because I had a thought. And
Speaker 2: here was the thought. It wasn't the dog. It was
Speaker 2: just a guitar. I can get another one of those.
Speaker 2: It's just a thing. Tell your neighbor, because they might
Speaker 2: be stressed out whatever they're stressed about. Tell them it's
Speaker 2: just a thing. It's just a thing. When it's just
Speaker 2: a thing, it's just a thing. If it's a Boston Terrior,
Speaker 2: it's a Boston Terrier. And if my Boston Terrior falls
Speaker 2: out of the window of my jeep on my watch,
Speaker 2: I might be divorced. Now. She loves me more than
Speaker 2: she loves the dog. She would never do that to me.
Speaker 2: But there was something about the contrast. It wasn't bo,
Speaker 2: It wasn't Abby. I can't get another Abby. Abby didn't
Speaker 2: go decapitated through the garage. And the Lord is a
Speaker 2: rewarder of those who diligently seek him.
Speaker 1: Because there was bubble wrap at the top of the
Speaker 1: box and the guitar was fine, Thank you Jesus.
Speaker 2: And then I did start praising God after I opened
Speaker 2: the box and didn't cuss, and.
Speaker 1: We were all fine.
Speaker 2: But there have been so many times in my life,
Speaker 2: no matter how much of your time I waste telling
Speaker 2: you what seems to be random stories about guitars and
Speaker 2: dogs falling out of windows hypothetically, or even telling you
Speaker 2: about old sayings and old rock stars as I start
Speaker 2: my sermon, there are times where we do not value
Speaker 2: God's thoughts enough. David in psalmone thirty nine gives a
Speaker 2: different perspective, and he helps us to understand two things.
Speaker 1: One the value of a God thought.
Speaker 2: I want to talk to you about that for a
Speaker 2: few moments today, and you may want to write some
Speaker 2: of this down.
Speaker 1: Buddy.
Speaker 2: God might give you a thought today and you won't remember.
Speaker 2: You'll be thinking about your order at the pizza hut.
Speaker 1: Write it down.
Speaker 2: The value of a God thought, But I also want
Speaker 2: to talk to you about what Abby said. She said
Speaker 2: just a penny, that's all. I want to talk to
Speaker 2: you about the cost of a wrong thought. So he
Speaker 2: begins by saying, I can't escape your presence God, even
Speaker 2: if I try.
Speaker 1: I can take wings or scuba gear. Either way I go.
Speaker 2: You're there, And after framing us in with that kind
Speaker 2: of poetic language, which is very different than what we
Speaker 2: read last week in Psalm seventy seven, which was a
Speaker 2: psalm of lament where he thought God had abandoned him,
Speaker 2: this song is the complete opposite. He saying, I can't
Speaker 2: abandon God. He keeps showing up. And how many have
Speaker 2: that testimony in your life? That God keeps showing up? Oh,
Speaker 2: come on, in ways that you didn't even ask him to.
Speaker 2: Sometimes God shows up and spoils your whole party. And
Speaker 2: in this song, particularly verse seventeen, listen what he says,
Speaker 2: How precious to me are your thoughts? Oh God, how
Speaker 2: vast are some of them? So he gives us two distinctions. One,
Speaker 2: God's thoughts are valuable. A God thought is valuable. That's
Speaker 2: why I keep paper all around my house, because a
Speaker 2: God thought is valuable.
Speaker 1: Y'all.
Speaker 2: What I do with my life from my calling is
Speaker 2: preach God's word to you. So I can go from
Speaker 2: thinking I have nothing to say and I don't feel
Speaker 2: the Holy Spirit, And how am I going to preach
Speaker 2: Sunday to like?
Speaker 1: Can we gather them together even though it's already Friday.
Speaker 2: I've got to tell them right now this thing is
Speaker 2: on fire and I don't have a back burner.
Speaker 1: Can they come over right now? There are times where
Speaker 1: I wish I.
Speaker 2: Could bat signal you or Bible signal you and call
Speaker 2: all of us together to fight the devil, because the
Speaker 2: Word comes through a thought and it can happen that quickly. Therefore,
Speaker 2: I've learned that the thoughts of God are valuable. How
Speaker 2: valuable is a God thought to you? Is it something
Speaker 2: that if a Bible verse comes into your feed you
Speaker 2: might read it, or is it something that you seek
Speaker 2: out in your life? Because if the God thoughts are
Speaker 2: just right there in your scrolling beside all of the
Speaker 2: other thoughts, they're not very set apart. And if the
Speaker 2: only way I ever hear from God is if I
Speaker 2: trip over something that He says on my way to
Speaker 2: going somewhere else, I'm missing out on some very valuable
Speaker 2: God thoughts. God can give you one thought that will
Speaker 2: help you parent that special needs child differently. God can
Speaker 2: give you that one thought that can help you parent
Speaker 2: that child that isn't diagnosed with special needs differently, because
Speaker 2: we all have special needs, and God knows what that
Speaker 2: child needs more than he knows what you want that
Speaker 2: child to be. And one God thought can show you
Speaker 2: something about your child. One God thought can show you
Speaker 2: somebody to reach out to who's already been through what
Speaker 2: you're going through.
Speaker 1: And they know stuff that they can download on.
Speaker 2: Bluetooth in two minutes that would have taken you two years.
Speaker 1: One God thought, I'm telling you the power of what
Speaker 1: I know.
Speaker 2: God can flip something on you so fast that you
Speaker 2: will wonder why didn't I think of that sooner? It's
Speaker 2: a God thought. I did not come to church today
Speaker 2: to have a PEP rally. I did not come to
Speaker 2: church today to have a PEP talk. I did not
Speaker 2: come to church today for a social occasion. I did
Speaker 2: not come to church today like it's a country club.
Speaker 2: I did not come to church today for a concert.
Speaker 2: I did not come to church today for a handclap.
Speaker 2: I did not come to church today to show off.
Speaker 2: I did not come to church today in hopes that
Speaker 2: I might get a date. Although, Lord, if you want
Speaker 2: to do that too, you can throw it in. I
Speaker 2: won't turn anything away for free.
Speaker 1: Lord. You may pray if you're single.
Speaker 2: But what I came here for more than a person
Speaker 2: that I might meet, is a God that will meet
Speaker 2: with me and in one meeting, one moment, one second,
Speaker 2: one thought. I'm telling you you can think a thought,
Speaker 2: which is what happened to the Sons of Asaff last
Speaker 2: week when he said I thought that it was through
Speaker 2: and then I thought it through because a God thought
Speaker 2: is valuable. Not only is it valuable, LJ, but it's vast.
Speaker 2: He says, how precious are your thoughts to me? Oh God,
Speaker 2: and then put the verse up again, how vast is
Speaker 2: to some of them? That means God doesn't just think
Speaker 2: things about church things. God doesn't just have thoughts to
Speaker 2: offer you about your spiritual life. His thoughts are vast.
Speaker 2: God is very well connected. God is very integrated. God
Speaker 2: is very well versed. God is very multifaceted. God is
Speaker 2: very multi lingual. He can help you in areas you
Speaker 2: haven't even thought to pray to him about. He can
Speaker 2: help you with parts of you that the therapist can
Speaker 2: dig at for five years. I'm saying, get the therapist,
Speaker 2: but take God to the couch with you, because God
Speaker 2: can whisper something that the therapist said in a way
Speaker 2: that only he could say it, because He knows the
Speaker 2: inward hearts, so it's vast. He can speak to me
Speaker 2: about a situation. He can speak to me about a change.
Speaker 2: He can speak to me about a physical decision. I
Speaker 2: do not believe that God has to help you pick
Speaker 2: out every outfit.
Speaker 1: When you get dressed in the morning.
Speaker 2: I think people who pray about which kind of toothpaste
Speaker 2: to use are kind of weird personally. But I want
Speaker 2: to say that God's thoughts are vast, They are valuable,
Speaker 2: and they are vast. How much do you value the
Speaker 2: God thought when he gives you a word?
Speaker 1: Will you sit with it for a minute?
Speaker 2: Will you seek out a word for him rather than
Speaker 2: waiting for him to bring you one. Will you have
Speaker 2: a place that you go to get a word from God?
Speaker 2: Or are you going to think the thoughts that are
Speaker 2: automatic and miss the promises that are attached to the
Speaker 2: thoughts of God which the Psalmist has already said, are precious.
Speaker 2: To illustrate this for you today, about the value of
Speaker 2: a god thought and the cost.
Speaker 1: The cost of a wrong thought.
Speaker 2: I want to use a person in the Bible that
Speaker 2: I bet you've heard of before. His name is Jonah,
Speaker 2: the most unfairly villainized person in the Bible. The Lord
Speaker 2: told the boy to go preach to terrorists, and he
Speaker 2: didn't want to do that, and we preach to him, like,
Speaker 2: what's wrong with you?
Speaker 1: Jonah? Obey God? If God says go, you got to
Speaker 1: go Jonah, Go Jonah, Go Jonah. Be obedient, Go Jonah.
Speaker 2: And this is actually in the Bible, I think one
Speaker 2: of the easiest to read stories and the hardest to
Speaker 2: understand as it pertains to us, because in this story
Speaker 2: is prejudice. In this story is revenge. In this story,
Speaker 2: is self pity. In this story is assumption. In this
Speaker 2: story is resentment. In this story is regret. All of
Speaker 2: that is in the story. But there's one thing I
Speaker 2: want to show you today in this book of the
Speaker 2: Bible that you could probably read in eight minutes when
Speaker 2: you went home. In Jonah, Chapter one, the Bible gives
Speaker 2: us a frame and please try to pretend like, you
Speaker 2: don't know that. Jonah gets swallowed by a fish and
Speaker 2: spit out and preaches to Nineveh and they have a revival.
Speaker 2: But even after they have a revival, he's not happy
Speaker 2: because he didn't want God to forgive him, and he
Speaker 2: secretly knew that God was merciful, and he didn't want
Speaker 2: God to have mercy on them. He only wanted God's
Speaker 2: mercy for him. Pretend like you don't know any of that,
Speaker 2: and look with me for a moment at Jonah chapter one.
Speaker 2: It's coming up on the screen, and this first phrase
Speaker 2: is really important. Now, the word of the Lord came
Speaker 2: to Jonah. Stop Now, the word of the Lord came
Speaker 2: to Jonah? What did that look like? What did that
Speaker 2: sound like? Was it a dream that he had? Because
Speaker 2: God is about to give him an assignment. God's about
Speaker 2: to give him a thought. God is about to plant
Speaker 2: something in Jonah's mind that is relative to his purpose,
Speaker 2: and not only his purpose, but it was beyond Jonah's scope. Now,
Speaker 2: the word of the Lord came to Jonah. Was it
Speaker 2: a vision that he saw while he was awake? Was
Speaker 2: it an audible voice?
Speaker 1: We don't know. And one thing that I'm glad that
Speaker 1: we have that Jonah didn't have. Is this because I
Speaker 1: got good news for you? If you feel like.
Speaker 2: God isn't speaking to you right now, and you're like,
Speaker 2: I don't have any God thoughts. I just have all
Speaker 2: the worried thoughts and the fear thoughts and how am
Speaker 2: I going to pay for this thoughts? And you know,
Speaker 2: I wish they would just leave me alone thoughts and
Speaker 2: when is this ever going to change?
Speaker 1: Thoughts?
Speaker 2: I don't have any God thoughts. The Bible says the
Speaker 2: word of the Lord came to Jonah. But because we
Speaker 2: have God's word, you don't have to wait for the
Speaker 2: word of the Lord to come to you.
Speaker 1: You can come to the word of the Lord. Isn't
Speaker 1: that powerful? I'll try it again.
Speaker 2: If you are in a situation where you don't know
Speaker 2: what to do, you don't know where to go, you
Speaker 2: don't know where to turn, you don't know how it's
Speaker 2: gonna work out, you can't really get your mind around it,
Speaker 2: and the enemy is tormenting you. You don't have to
Speaker 2: wait for the word of the Lord to come to you.
Speaker 1: You can come to the word of the Lord. And
Speaker 1: everybody in church.
Speaker 2: This morning clap because that's what you did when you came,
Speaker 2: come on, clap. You got to celebrate sometimes, right. I
Speaker 2: didn't cuss, And I came to church because I'm not
Speaker 2: gonna wait for the word of the Lord to come
Speaker 2: to me.
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna wait for a goosebump. I came to.
Speaker 2: Church today because I value the thoughts of God.
Speaker 1: I value what God thinks about my real relationships.
Speaker 2: I value what God thinks about my possessions. I value
Speaker 2: what God thinks about my identity. I value what God
Speaker 2: thinks about my career. I value what God thinks about
Speaker 2: my emotions. I value the thoughts of God. And the
Speaker 2: Word of the Lord came to Jonah. And we may
Speaker 2: wonder sometimes, how.
Speaker 1: Does God speak to me? Does God speak to me?
Speaker 1: Is this God speaking to me?
Speaker 2: And I have discovered three very specific and repeatable ways
Speaker 2: that God seems to speak. I'll give them to you
Speaker 2: right now. Number one, he speaks through impressions impressions. Number two,
Speaker 2: he speaks through instructions instructions, and number three he speaks
Speaker 2: through interruptions.
Speaker 1: The Word of the Lord came to Jonah. The Word
Speaker 1: of the Lord.
Speaker 2: The Word of the Lord isn't always a preacher preaching
Speaker 2: the word of the Lord isn't always at your devotional time.
Speaker 2: Sometimes the Holy Spirit, if he lives in you, will
Speaker 2: show you something that you shouldn't say, show you something
Speaker 2: that you should say, show you a way you should
Speaker 2: see the situation that you hadn't been seeing the situation.
Speaker 2: It's an impression. Can't explain it, but it's an impression.
Speaker 2: But then sometimes we get so heavy on that and
Speaker 2: that I think we just run around just following whatever
Speaker 2: impression we get. And the problem with my impressions is
Speaker 2: that sometimes my impressions are imposters and they pretend to
Speaker 2: be God, but they're really just what I want dressed
Speaker 2: up as God. That's what we're going to talk about
Speaker 2: from Jonah, because God gives impressions, but he also gives instructions.
Speaker 2: And one thing I love about God is he will
Speaker 2: never give you an impression that violates his clear instruction.
Speaker 2: So I don't care how attracted to her you are,
Speaker 2: if she is married, you have received an instruction on
Speaker 2: that situation. And I don't care that her name is
Speaker 2: Cindy and so was your grandmother's. That is irrelevant to
Speaker 2: this situation. There is an instruction.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 2: Sometimes I think we're waiting on God to give us
Speaker 2: a feeling or a thought because we don't want to
Speaker 2: obey what we clearly saw that he said. And I'm
Speaker 2: gonna stand here and preach this like I've been a
Speaker 2: pastor for twenty years. Y'all ain't going to timidate me today,
Speaker 2: reading all up in the Book of Revelation, trying to
Speaker 2: figure out which one is North Korea and which one
Speaker 2: is Israel and which one is Iraq, and you're all
Speaker 2: over there translating that, while meanwhile the Bible says in
Speaker 2: First Corinthians something that you don't really want to read
Speaker 2: in First Corinthians, chapter six, this's pretty clear. This is
Speaker 2: an instruction flee from sexual immorality.
Speaker 1: So we can read all the revelation we want, read.
Speaker 2: It, Underline it, highlight it, circle it, star it, smell it,
Speaker 2: sniff it, take it, eat it, whatever you want to do.
Speaker 1: But you still gotta do this because this is an instruction.
Speaker 2: And he is God, and he is not my buddy, He's.
Speaker 1: Not an influencer.
Speaker 2: He is alpha and Omega, God don't want me to preach.
Speaker 2: I need to go back on break bust. Somebody high
Speaker 2: five your neighbors, say, because he said so.
Speaker 1: Because he said so. Because he said so, his definition,
Speaker 1: his description.
Speaker 2: Fleet So I need a word from the Lord. There's one.
Speaker 2: Do that all week and check in with me. Take
Speaker 2: seven days of that. Well, I don't really struggle with
Speaker 2: the So what you got for me?
Speaker 1: All right?
Speaker 2: No? I looked up some scriptures because we said we
Speaker 2: want a god thought. All right, there's another one in
Speaker 2: Ephesians for thirty two. This one says, be kind to
Speaker 2: one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ
Speaker 2: forgave you.
Speaker 1: Bo don't feel like forgiven. But this is not about
Speaker 1: an impression.
Speaker 2: This is about an instruction, because you have a father
Speaker 2: who knows that you can never be free until you forgive.
Speaker 2: So if he tells me to flee, I've got to go.
Speaker 2: If he tells me to forgive, I've got to love.
Speaker 2: It's an instruction. Those are just some of the things
Speaker 2: that God will use to speak to you. But then
Speaker 2: there is like Jonah, where God will give you an interruption,
Speaker 2: an interruption to the way that you think and to
Speaker 2: the way that you see the world, and interruption to
Speaker 2: what you think is important, an interruption to the path
Speaker 2: that you laid out for your own life, and so
Speaker 2: Jonah is a prophet, and the Bible says that the
Speaker 2: word of the Lord came to Jonah. And I got
Speaker 2: to say this one more time in case you didn't
Speaker 2: get it. The word of the Lord can come to you.
Speaker 2: Do you come to the word of the Lord. I
Speaker 2: will ask you that every week, do you come to
Speaker 2: the word of the Lord, so that the word of
Speaker 2: the Lord can come to you, because there he will
Speaker 2: give you instructions that will then mold your impressions so
Speaker 2: that they are in His image, not yours.
Speaker 1: Praise the Lord.
Speaker 2: Now, the word of the Lord came to Jonah, son
Speaker 2: of AMATAI saying, here's the details of the conversation. Arise,
Speaker 2: go to nineve that great city, and call out against it.
Speaker 2: Nobody wants to preach against it. Nobody wants to go
Speaker 2: to a place that is against them. Ninevah was the
Speaker 2: capital city of Assyria. They were brutal. They wouldn't just
Speaker 2: kill you, they would impel you to send a message.
Speaker 2: That's what I thought, Come try us again. They were brutal, barbaric,
Speaker 2: and unrepentant, and they had personally oppressed the people that
Speaker 2: Jonah was identified with. So when the Lord said go
Speaker 2: to Nineveh and preach against it, for their evil has
Speaker 2: come up before me, the Bible says, But Jonah rose
Speaker 2: to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord.
Speaker 2: We know because we just read someone thirty nine that
Speaker 2: what he is trying to do is impossible. He went
Speaker 2: to flee from the presence of the Lord. And we
Speaker 2: know because we have someone thirty nine that if you
Speaker 2: ascend to the heavens, he's there, and if you descend
Speaker 2: to Hell, he's there. And you can't flee from Jonah,
Speaker 2: but he from God. But Jonah thought he could, and
Speaker 2: so he arose. And uh, I won't break this all
Speaker 2: down for you. But Ninevah was five hundred miles from
Speaker 2: the port where he was supposed to go, and Tarsish,
Speaker 2: where he tried to go, was twenty five hundred miles,
Speaker 2: So it was going to take him five times longer
Speaker 2: to get where he had decided to go than where
Speaker 2: God told him to go. But he kind of thought
Speaker 2: he could get around it. He thought, that's what I thought. Now,
Speaker 2: let's talk.
Speaker 1: There are some ways that you have tried to run
Speaker 1: from some things in your life, and you thought, well,
Speaker 1: if I just moved to a different city.
Speaker 2: And it's not always bad to move to a different
Speaker 2: city long as you realize you go with you get
Speaker 2: at least a two bedroom apartment, because there's at least
Speaker 2: two of you's.
Speaker 1: He tried to go to Tarshish. He thought he would
Speaker 1: run from the Lord.
Speaker 2: And every word of this is so instructive, but just
Speaker 2: for the sake of time, focus in with me. On
Speaker 2: verses three through five, he went down to Joppa. Pastor
Speaker 2: Mickey used to say, when you run from God, you
Speaker 2: always go down.
Speaker 1: I like that.
Speaker 2: He went down to Joppa and found a ship going
Speaker 2: to Tarsish. Pastor Mickey used to always say, if you
Speaker 2: ever want to run from God, the devil will always
Speaker 2: give your ride.
Speaker 1: Anyway.
Speaker 2: That's just old preacher stuff that I used to hear.
Speaker 2: So he paid the fare and went on board. I'm
Speaker 2: holding up my penny'll He paid the fair, went on
Speaker 2: board to go with them to Tarsish, away from the
Speaker 2: presence of the Lord.
Speaker 1: Surprise verse four.
Speaker 2: You can't You can't run from any of it. You
Speaker 2: can't run from it. Well, you can run from it,
Speaker 2: just not very long, especially if the Lord really you.
Speaker 2: Because those he loves, he disciplines those he really loves.
Speaker 2: He does what it takes to bring them back. Those
Speaker 2: that He really has a purpose for. He will even
Speaker 2: punish you short term to prevent you from something in
Speaker 2: your future that would be worse than the pain of
Speaker 2: the present. I am not saying that every bad thing
Speaker 2: happens so God can teach you a lesson. Please understand
Speaker 2: that the number of people who I have watched die
Speaker 2: of cancer and the number of people that I've seen
Speaker 2: have their lives senselessly taken from a drunk driver would
Speaker 2: prohibit me from ever skewing.
Speaker 1: That kind of nonsense from the pulpit.
Speaker 2: But I need to point out to you that the God,
Speaker 2: who speaks by instructions and impressions, also will sometimes come
Speaker 2: into your situation through an interruption.
Speaker 1: Because the Bible says that.
Speaker 2: The Lord hurled a great wind upon the sea, and
Speaker 2: there was a mighty tempest on the sea, so that the.
Speaker 1: Ship threatened to break up.
Speaker 2: It is not the fact that there was a storm
Speaker 2: that made me bring this passage up.
Speaker 1: It was who sent it that made it noteworthy.
Speaker 2: I am used to God calming storms, I am not
Speaker 2: used to God sending them. But there was something that
Speaker 2: God wanted to do in this situation that was important
Speaker 2: enough for him to send a storm to stop Jonah.
Speaker 2: Somewhere along the way he thought he was going to Tarshish,
Speaker 2: But before he could get where he thought he was
Speaker 2: going to go, a storm was sent upon the sea.
Speaker 2: Now we're ready for verse five, The Bible says. Then
Speaker 2: the mariners or the sailors were afraid. Now remember, these
Speaker 2: men don't know God, not Jonah's God. They call on
Speaker 2: many gods. They're polytheus. They have gods for everything. They
Speaker 2: have God's for feasting, God's for fasting, God's for droughting,
Speaker 2: God's for storms.
Speaker 1: And as they're calling on all their many gods.
Speaker 2: Many little gene, many gods that can't do anything for
Speaker 2: you when it really counts like some of the gods
Speaker 2: that we worship and serve, only to find out that
Speaker 2: they are so small in the face of a great storm.
Speaker 2: And is this why God has brought you to this
Speaker 2: point in your life, so that you can call out
Speaker 2: for something bigger.
Speaker 1: But the Lord hurled the wind on the sea.
Speaker 2: Then the mariners were afraid, and each cried out to
Speaker 2: his God, and they hurled the cargo that was in
Speaker 2: the ship into the.
Speaker 1: Sea to lighten it for them.
Speaker 2: But Jonah had gone down into the inner part of
Speaker 2: the ship and had lain.
Speaker 1: Down and was fast asleep. So the captain get ready.
Speaker 1: Luck In came and said to him.
Speaker 3: What do you mean, you sleeper, arise, call out to
Speaker 3: your God. Perhaps the God will give a thought to
Speaker 3: us that we may not perish. I'm talking about when
Speaker 3: God gives a thought to you. I know what he
Speaker 3: meant when he said it.
Speaker 2: Maybe if you call on God, he'll remember that we're
Speaker 2: in this situation. Maybe if you call on your God,
Speaker 2: he'll do something our gods can't do. When translation says
Speaker 2: maybe he'll take notice, another translation says, maybe he'll throw
Speaker 2: a thought our way. Maybe he'll give a thought to us.
Speaker 1: But the phrase was so rich man, I couldn't just
Speaker 1: take it at face value.
Speaker 2: I realized when he said, perhaps your God will give.
Speaker 1: A thought to us and this storm will stop.
Speaker 2: That your God can give a thought to you that
Speaker 2: will stop.
Speaker 1: The storm in his tracks.
Speaker 2: And he can do it today, and he can do
Speaker 2: it right now, and he can do it even though
Speaker 2: you're in your thirties, and he can do it even
Speaker 2: while you're in your teens. Because what the captain said
Speaker 2: that was so profound. He said, we need a thought
Speaker 2: from God. I don't even know if you've got the
Speaker 2: right one, but we need God in this situation. And
Speaker 2: is it possible that you are in a storm right
Speaker 2: now in your life? Not to be overly generic, but
Speaker 2: everybody in here has some kind of storm or is
Speaker 2: journeying with someone through a storm. And would it be
Speaker 2: a good prayer for you to pray right about now,
Speaker 2: God give a thought to me. See, because God's thoughts
Speaker 2: are precious. God's works are wonderful, but his thoughts are
Speaker 2: also precious. So it means that sometimes we're praying God
Speaker 2: do something and God is speaking for us to think something,
Speaker 2: because until we think something different than we've been thinking,
Speaker 2: he can't do anything different than what he's been allowed
Speaker 2: to do. For instance, the ship is not going to
Speaker 2: turn around just because God wants Jonah in Nineveh.
Speaker 1: God did not turn the ship.
Speaker 2: God sent the storm, and in the middle of the
Speaker 2: storm he had a decision to make.
Speaker 1: Not will God give a thought to me. God had
Speaker 1: his eye on this boat from the moment Jonah got
Speaker 1: on it. The whole reason they were.
Speaker 2: In this predicament was because of the sleeping prophet. And
Speaker 2: now we've got some panic pagans, and now we've got
Speaker 2: a self pitying prophet, and we've got a sovereign god
Speaker 2: sending a storm on a raging sea, and we're used
Speaker 2: to him calming storms. But the God of the calm
Speaker 2: is the God of the chaos. And into the chaos,
Speaker 2: the captain says something that the prophet should.
Speaker 1: Have known for sure. We need a God thought.
Speaker 2: We need God to do something in our family. We
Speaker 2: need God to do something in this relationship. I need
Speaker 2: God to do something in my business. I need God
Speaker 2: to do something in my body. I need God to
Speaker 2: walk in with me to this doctor. I need God,
Speaker 2: and I'm not ashamed to cry.
Speaker 1: Out to him.
Speaker 2: And I can't.
Speaker 1: Sleep down here. Get up and call on God and
Speaker 1: maybe God will give a thought to us.
Speaker 2: And Jonah said, yeah, I'm real sorry about this because
Speaker 2: this is all my fall. See. I worship Yahweh, and
Speaker 2: Yahweh told me to go to Nineveh, and I said,
Speaker 2: no way. I'm just trying to keep it light because
Speaker 2: it's kind of a hard sermon to preach if you
Speaker 2: want to know the truth. But after he got done explaining,
Speaker 2: and they cast lots which is kind of like drawing
Speaker 2: a straw. And they realized it was Jonah's fault that
Speaker 2: they were in this storm.
Speaker 1: They realized, listen to this, that.
Speaker 2: You can throw all the cargo overboard that you want,
Speaker 2: but until you deal with the real thing that's going on,
Speaker 2: it will stay chaotic. You can't fix chaos by losing cargo.
Speaker 2: How much more stuff are you gonna throw overboard before
Speaker 2: you realize Jonah has got to go?
Speaker 1: What do you mean Jonah's gotta go?
Speaker 2: I'm saying anything that is on your boat that is
Speaker 2: keeping Jesus from being the captain of your peace and
Speaker 2: your soul has.
Speaker 1: Got to go. You can rearrange all the.
Speaker 2: Deck chairs you want, it's still the Titanic. If Jonah
Speaker 2: doesn't go, you can continue to throw things off and
Speaker 2: spend money and waste money and buy stuff and buy
Speaker 2: more square foot so y'all can sleep at opposite ends
Speaker 2: of the bigger house. But until the attitudes that the
Speaker 2: root of it change, nothing does until God gives a thought.
Speaker 2: And it costs Jonah. Did you see how it said
Speaker 2: he paid the fare. He paid more than a penny
Speaker 2: for this. He paid his peace. He almost paid his purpose.
Speaker 1: Because of a wrong thought?
Speaker 2: How much have the wrong thoughts cost you? Because God,
Speaker 2: your God, the God who speaks by impressions, instructions, and
Speaker 2: even interruptions, might be using this storm to give a
Speaker 2: thought to you, to you, to you, And don't try
Speaker 2: to talk to your neighbor about this sermon after church
Speaker 2: if they weren't really listening, don't try to explain it
Speaker 2: to them.
Speaker 1: When God gives a thought to.
Speaker 2: You, Jonah, I just want to show you how merciful
Speaker 2: God really is. Not only is he going to forgive
Speaker 2: the barbaric Ninevites over there in chapter three when Jonah preaches,
Speaker 2: and Jonah's not even that great of a preacher, the
Speaker 2: only thing he says that they record in the Book
Speaker 2: of Jonah is forty more days in Ninevah will be destroyed.
Speaker 1: Can you imagine coming to church for that? Y'all got
Speaker 1: it pretty good, man.
Speaker 2: If Jonah was here, that'd be the whole sermon, and
Speaker 2: he just say it over and over again and say
Speaker 2: it louder. But God used it. God did something through Jonah.
Speaker 2: He always wanted to do something through Jonah. He wants
Speaker 2: to do something through you. But the question is do
Speaker 2: you value the God thought because the cost of the
Speaker 2: wrong thought. What you trade with the wrong thought is
Speaker 2: the god thought that replaces it. So God calls you,
Speaker 2: but you turn yourself into a castaway. So God calls
Speaker 2: you righteous by the blood of Christ, but you keep
Speaker 2: hiding in shame from even your own friends and family.
Speaker 2: It's the cost of a wrong thought. Oh, he paid
Speaker 2: the fare to get on the ship, but he paid
Speaker 2: more than that. And as a matter of fact, it
Speaker 2: got so bad that the sailors, after doing everything they could,
Speaker 2: said what do you want us to do? And look
Speaker 2: what he said in verse twelve. This is the cost
Speaker 2: of the wrong thought. He said to them, pick me
Speaker 2: up and hurl me into the sea. Then the sea
Speaker 2: will quiet down for you. And now I'm going to
Speaker 2: show you something. You've been in church all your life,
Speaker 2: but I don't think you've ever seen this before.
Speaker 1: God gave it to me. Fresh the sea will quiet
Speaker 1: down for you. I know it's because of me. I'm
Speaker 1: the problem. It's me.
Speaker 2: I know it's because of me that this great tempest
Speaker 2: has come upon you. Nevertheless, men wrote hard, try to
Speaker 2: get back to the dry land. They tried everything they could,
Speaker 2: they could not, for the sea grew more more tempestuous
Speaker 2: against them. You're not going to row your way out
Speaker 2: of this one. There's some situations you can strain as
Speaker 2: much as you want to in the storm doesn't stop.
Speaker 2: But watch this verse fourteen. Therefore they called out to
Speaker 2: the Lord, Oh Lord, let us not perish for this
Speaker 2: man's life, not on an instant blood for you.
Speaker 1: A lord has done as it pleased you verse fifteen.
Speaker 2: So they picked up Jonah and hurled him into the sea,
Speaker 2: and the sea ceased from its rage. And right about
Speaker 2: now you're thinking, where are you going with this depressing,
Speaker 2: weird series sermons series right now? Well, the Bible says
Speaker 2: the men feared the Lord exceedingly, and they offered a
Speaker 2: sacrifice to the Lord and made vows.
Speaker 1: So that's good, right, they knew he was God.
Speaker 2: But the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah,
Speaker 2: and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three
Speaker 2: days and three nights. Now here's my favorite verse. Then
Speaker 2: Jonah prayed. You see what I'm saying. I think you
Speaker 2: know where I'm going with this. You're overstaying. You're welcome
Speaker 2: in the belly of the fish because this didn't have
Speaker 2: to happen in Jonah chapter two, verse one. This could
Speaker 2: have happened in Jonah chapter one, verse six. And if
Speaker 2: it had happened in Jonah chapter one, verse six, when
Speaker 2: the captain came and said.
Speaker 1: Wake up, man, what's wrong with you? We're all gonna die.
Speaker 1: Get up, don't you care? Call on your God. Perhaps
Speaker 1: he will give a thought to us. Perhaps he'll get
Speaker 1: us out of this, perhaps he'll notice us, perhaps he'll
Speaker 1: do something.
Speaker 2: Perhaps he'll give a thought to us. And Jonah's thought was,
Speaker 2: throw me overboard. What if his thought had been call
Speaker 2: on God. What if he would have done this chapter two,
Speaker 2: verse one, but didn't wait until he got in the
Speaker 2: belly of the fish to do it.
Speaker 1: What at the moment the captain would have said, wake up,
Speaker 1: call on God, he can stop it. Jonah had prayed
Speaker 1: to the Lord.
Speaker 2: And I'm trying to say that some things you can
Speaker 2: pray before you get in the belly.
Speaker 1: Do you hear me?
Speaker 2: Pray to this God word today? Then Jonah prayed with
Speaker 2: seaweed around his neck. Then Jonah prayed, smelling like a
Speaker 2: fish market. Then Jonah prayed in the belly of the whale.
Speaker 1: And here's what I noticed, he said verse one.
Speaker 2: He prayed to the Lord his God from the belly
Speaker 2: of the fish, verse two, saying I called to the
Speaker 2: Lord out of my distress, and he answered me out
Speaker 2: of the belly of shield, I cried, and you heard
Speaker 2: my voice. Leave it right there. God will hear you
Speaker 2: when you cry to Him from the depths. But you
Speaker 2: also do not have to go to the depths to
Speaker 2: cry to him.
Speaker 1: God will hear you if you cry.
Speaker 2: To Him from the depths, but you do not have
Speaker 2: to go all the way down to reach all the
Speaker 2: way up, Because the Bible says, I called to the
Speaker 2: Lord out of my distress. And there are two choices
Speaker 2: you have to make. One you can call on God
Speaker 2: in your distress, or you can bring God into your decisions.
Speaker 2: And the other day I was praying about a problem,
Speaker 2: like I mentioned at the beginning of the sermon, and
Speaker 2: the Lord showed me something that was so kind and merciful.
Speaker 2: Y'all think, when God gives your thought, it's always going
Speaker 2: to feel like a precious moment.
Speaker 1: But sometimes it feels like the pain of surgery.
Speaker 2: And as I was praying about this problem, it was
Speaker 2: as if the spirit of God said to me, not
Speaker 2: not loud, just done on my spirit he said, you know,
Speaker 2: you wouldn't have to bring me into this problem if
Speaker 2: you would have brought me into those thoughts. Because the
Speaker 2: problems are the wake of the thoughts. The behaviors are
Speaker 2: the wake of the thoughts. And sometimes we are so
Speaker 2: guilty over that's what I did that we don't go
Speaker 2: back to That's what I thought. Jonah thought he could
Speaker 2: run to Tarsish. Jonah thought he knew who was worthy
Speaker 2: of God's love. Jonah thought he knew his calling. But
Speaker 2: when Jonah prayed, God gave him mercy. And when he
Speaker 2: prayed and made a vow to the Lord, and when
Speaker 2: he prayed and remembered the hand of God, when he
Speaker 2: prayed and asked God for forgiveness, and when he prayed
Speaker 2: and looked to heaven, and when he prayed and recommitted
Speaker 2: his life in his calling, and when you pray and
Speaker 2: look to God. The problem isn't has God given a
Speaker 2: thought to you? Have you given a thought to God?
Speaker 2: Because you can give a thought to God before you
Speaker 2: go into the belly of the prayers. You can give
Speaker 2: a thought to God before you are spent. You can
Speaker 2: give a thought to God before you are splinter. You
Speaker 2: can give a thought to God before your life is wrecked.
Speaker 2: You can give a thought to God when you're at
Speaker 2: your lowest. You can give your thought to God before
Speaker 2: you go all two thousand, five hundred miles. God can
Speaker 2: interrupt it today with one God thought, with one God thought?
Speaker 1: Why go all two thousand and five.
Speaker 2: Hundred miles when God has a fish for you to
Speaker 2: pray for today? But see, I'm a little different because
Speaker 2: I believe that the same God who will hear you
Speaker 2: from the fish watch. This is also saying, if you
Speaker 2: will listen to me right now, if you will obey
Speaker 2: me right now, if you will put your heart in
Speaker 2: my hands, not other people's hands, right now, if you
Speaker 2: will guard your heart, for from it flow the issues
Speaker 2: of life, if you will resurrender this thing to me,
Speaker 2: you can skip the fish. In other words, I feel
Speaker 2: like fighting the devil today. You don't have to lose
Speaker 2: everything to look up, and you don't have to keep
Speaker 2: shedding stuff to turn to God.
Speaker 1: You can skip the fish.
Speaker 2: I'm saying to a teenager, you don't have to drink
Speaker 2: until you're a drunk and it takes you ten years
Speaker 2: of rehab to undo it. If God has to come
Speaker 2: get you in rehab. He'll get you in rehab. But
Speaker 2: let's try a little prehab. Want't you taste and see
Speaker 2: that the Lord is good? And I don't need that
Speaker 2: to go norm because I don't have to pray every
Speaker 2: prayer from the belly. I can pray before I get
Speaker 2: in the belly. High five three people say, I'm gonna
Speaker 2: skip the fish.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna do it different this time.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna pray to the Lord before.
Speaker 1: The pain is great.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna pray to the Lord when I wake.
Speaker 1: Up in the morning.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna say stuff like this is the tast the
Speaker 2: Lord has made order my death.
Speaker 3: In your word, dear.
Speaker 2: God, if I have said to Heaven, you are there.
Speaker 2: And the same God.
Speaker 1: That'll send a fish to get me out.
Speaker 2: Is the God who will give me wings to get
Speaker 2: me over. And I'm trying to say that God wants
Speaker 2: to give a thought to you. Say it, God, give
Speaker 2: a thought to me. I thought my thoughts long enough.
Speaker 2: They cost too much. My thoughts lead to insecurity. My
Speaker 2: thoughts lead to greed, My thoughts lead to selfishness, My
Speaker 2: thoughts lead to despair. I thought, and I thought, and
Speaker 2: I thought, and I thought and I thought if I
Speaker 2: paid the fair, I could get the tartish and I
Speaker 2: didn't have to do it.
Speaker 1: God, I thought I knew what was best for me.
Speaker 1: But I need you to give a thought to me.
Speaker 2: And I'm not going to compare myself to my neighbor. God,
Speaker 2: give a thought to me. Tell me how you think
Speaker 2: of me, Tell me what you see in me. Tell
Speaker 2: me what.
Speaker 1: You've called me to do. How have you gifted me?
Speaker 1: How have you anointed me?
Speaker 2: What is my smooth stone that can bring down a giant?
Speaker 2: What is my staff that can split a red sea?
Speaker 2: Who have you called me to be saved again? God,
Speaker 2: give a thought to me. How precious to me are
Speaker 2: your thoughts?
Speaker 1: Oh God, where can I go from your presence? If
Speaker 1: I go to Tarshish, you were there. You cut me
Speaker 1: off in the middle of the sea to swallow.
Speaker 2: Me up, because you had a fish at the right
Speaker 2: time to swallow me, and even the fish was mercy.
Speaker 2: But I realized that if next time, instead of fleeing
Speaker 2: with you, God, I will lean into you. God, I
Speaker 2: may not have to go into the fish at all
Speaker 2: to begin.
Speaker 1: With, because God gave a thought to me.
Speaker 2: And when God gives a thought to you, expect the
Speaker 2: enemy to give an opposite thought. Sometimes you can tell
Speaker 2: what God is speaking by what your mind is saying.
Speaker 2: And if over and over again the enemy is telling
Speaker 2: you something that's so diabolical, God is saying exactly the opposite.
Speaker 1: So if it looks like quit, then stay.
Speaker 2: I can point to so many times in my life
Speaker 2: and I did not get here overnight, and I am
Speaker 2: not perfect at it.
Speaker 1: And next time my guitar almost breaks at the top
Speaker 1: of the jeep on my cuss if that he's not
Speaker 1: in the car.
Speaker 2: But the number of times listen to me, listen to me,
Speaker 2: the number of times that then Jonah prayed in my
Speaker 2: life happened too late, taught me to lean into God sooner.
Speaker 2: I don't want my kids to go through avoidable storms.
Speaker 2: I don't want to create them. I want them to
Speaker 2: skip some fish, you know what I mean. I feel
Speaker 2: like that phrase right there is a God thought. Now
Speaker 2: I'm ma skip the fish. I know where this goes.
Speaker 2: The next time you go to through a little pity party, Now, Ima,
Speaker 2: skip the fish. I don't like how it smells in there.
Speaker 2: I don't want to go to my meeting Tuesday smelling
Speaker 2: like fish. I'm not going to think like this, God
Speaker 2: give a thought to me. Perhaps the God will give
Speaker 2: a thought to us. He already gave a thought to you.
Speaker 2: Have you given a thought to him? Or is this
Speaker 2: just simply still all about you and what you want?
Speaker 2: Because the cost is to give your thought for His thought,
Speaker 2: and that's.
Speaker 1: What happens when we come to His word.
Speaker 2: How many times did God give me a thought that
Speaker 2: was greater than anything.
Speaker 1: I thought?
Speaker 2: If I really wanted the church to shout, I could
Speaker 2: preach when God gives a car to you, and there
Speaker 2: would be shouts. When God gives a promotion to you,
Speaker 2: and there would be shouts. Or I could go to
Speaker 2: our young adult's chapel when God gives a spouse to you,
Speaker 2: and there would be shouts. But the greatest gifts God
Speaker 2: ever gave me came with thoughts. Because if I get
Speaker 2: the things but not the thoughts of God to undergird them,
Speaker 2: the things will be a burden, not a blessing.
Speaker 1: Jonah did what God said and it worked, and he
Speaker 1: was miserable. Why because you got to have the God thoughts?
Speaker 2: Like the time she said to me after I preached,
Speaker 2: I was having a pity party.
Speaker 1: Little pity party, little preaching pity party.
Speaker 2: And Holly just wisely says, I think you think you
Speaker 2: failed in preaching today, but maybe you didn't fail.
Speaker 1: Maybe you just didn't finish.
Speaker 2: And that thought comes up here with me into this
Speaker 2: pulpit every time I preached ever since she said it.
Speaker 2: Every time I think, oh, man, I didn't say that
Speaker 2: like I wanted to.
Speaker 1: The Lord would just remind me. Then pick it back
Speaker 1: up next week.
Speaker 2: And say the rest bozo, skip the fish and the
Speaker 2: whole thing of beating up on yourself.
Speaker 1: You said it better than most of them could have anyway,
Speaker 1: So tell them to get up there and try. Come on,
Speaker 1: they'll still need you next week.
Speaker 2: You got job security. One time I was frustrated with
Speaker 2: some of our staff members. It was right before in
Speaker 2: twenty twenty, when everything had totally shifted and all the
Speaker 2: staff that had been doing one job started having to
Speaker 2: do another one because obviously we weren't.
Speaker 1: Having in person church.
Speaker 2: We were on a zoom call, and I was like,
Speaker 2: it's very important to me that we do this, and
Speaker 2: we do that, and we do that. And the next
Speaker 2: week I got on and I checked in and nobody
Speaker 2: had done successfully what I asked. I said, I'm gonna
Speaker 2: say this again, and it's very important that we do this,
Speaker 2: and we do that, and we do that, and there again.
Speaker 2: One more week goes by and I checked in and
Speaker 2: it still hadn't been done. So the third week, I
Speaker 2: was really angry and I kind of lost it. I
Speaker 2: didn't cuss.
Speaker 1: That's gonna be my memoir title, but I didn't cuss. Well,
Speaker 1: I got so mad.
Speaker 2: I kind of like lost my cool little bit, not
Speaker 2: too bad, but just a little bit, and ended the
Speaker 2: meeting abruptly, and when I was kind of closing the
Speaker 2: laptop intentionally slammed the laptop shut.
Speaker 1: I said, they don't care. They don't care enough to
Speaker 1: do what I'm asking them to do. They don't care.
Speaker 2: And the Spirit of the Lord gave me I thought.
Speaker 2: He said, they care, they just can't. They don't know
Speaker 2: how to do what you're asking them to do. This
Speaker 2: is their first pandemic too. It was a God thought
Speaker 2: because it took me from thinking that there was something
Speaker 2: wrong with them and it was me against them, to
Speaker 2: thinking it's us against it. You know, you can have
Speaker 2: one God thought that's helped me so much. Even with y'all,
Speaker 2: there are so many God thoughts that had to replace
Speaker 2: wrong thoughts. Do you know when I used to preach
Speaker 2: and people wouldn't get excited, I would feel like they
Speaker 2: were almost like.
Speaker 1: I would get mad at the people. I say something
Speaker 1: good and they wouldn't say anything, and I would get mad.
Speaker 1: Now I pretend to be mad. I'm like, y'all ain't
Speaker 1: saying nothing. I don't care.
Speaker 2: I always wonder if the crowd could talk back to
Speaker 2: you know, y'all ain't saying nothing, and they'd go, you
Speaker 2: aren't either. But the Lord dropped something in me so
Speaker 2: profound it was a download. One day I was frustrated
Speaker 2: about it, and he said, they're not here for you.
Speaker 1: You're here for them. You serve them when you preach.
Speaker 2: They're not your audience to make you feel good about
Speaker 2: your amateur hour stand up comedy.
Speaker 1: If they don't laugh, you keep preaching. You're here for them.
Speaker 1: You're here as a servant. It changed my life. What's that?
Speaker 1: That's the value of a god thought? And God wants
Speaker 1: to give you one stand up? Please? No one leave
Speaker 1: and pray it out loud. God give a thought to
Speaker 1: my wife.
Speaker 2: No, no, no, no, no, no.
Speaker 1: Try it again.
Speaker 2: Y'all weren't listening God, give a thought to me, Show
Speaker 2: me how you think about me, Show me how you
Speaker 2: think about others.
Speaker 1: Put somebody on my mind that I can help, that
Speaker 1: I can bless. Yes, yes, I'm gonna tell you this too.
Speaker 1: In twenty ten, when I started Love Week, it was
Speaker 1: a thought, what if everybody in this church served an hour,
Speaker 1: we could serve five thousand hours.
Speaker 2: Never would I have thought when God gave me that thought.
Speaker 2: You gotta realize God's thoughts are vast. God's thoughts are vast.
Speaker 2: So when I saw five thousand hours, how many have
Speaker 2: we served?
Speaker 1: Now? Over what? Over what?
Speaker 2: Over a million hours of service from this church?
Speaker 1: In outrage? Y'all ain't clapping. All right, I'm gonna give
Speaker 1: you a million dollars.
Speaker 2: Clap like that, over a million hours to our communities.
Speaker 2: We're on God's mind. God, give a thought to me,
Speaker 2: Show me how to do good, show me how to
Speaker 2: make it. And really, sometimes the problem is that the
Speaker 2: storm you're going through, it's the thoughts you're having about
Speaker 2: the storm. Because in Mark chapter four, one time Jesus
Speaker 2: was on the boat with his disciples and he said,
Speaker 2: let's go to the other side. And the Bible says
Speaker 2: when evening had come, he told them to cross over
Speaker 2: to the other side, mark four thirty five. Come, let
Speaker 2: us go over to the other side, next verse, and
Speaker 2: leaving the crowd, they took him with them in the
Speaker 2: boat just as he was, and the.
Speaker 1: Other boats were with him, and.
Speaker 2: A great wind storm arose and the waves were breaking
Speaker 2: into the boat so that the boat was already filling.
Speaker 1: But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion.
Speaker 2: What is Jesus doing, acting like Jonah? Only he's not
Speaker 2: running from God's will, He's rowing into it. And they
Speaker 2: woke him up and said, teacher, do you not care
Speaker 2: that we are perishing? Here was their thought, he doesn't care,
Speaker 2: he's sleeping. And he awoke and rebuke the wind and
Speaker 2: said to deceit, peace be still, And the wind ceased,
Speaker 2: and there was a great calm, and he said to them,
Speaker 2: why are you so afraid?
Speaker 1: Have you still no faith?
Speaker 2: And I want to talk to you before I close
Speaker 2: My message about a sleeping Jesus, not a sleeping Jonah.
Speaker 2: Because when the disciples saw Jesus asleep, they thought he
Speaker 2: doesn't care. But they could have thought, wait, he is
Speaker 2: God's son. If he is sleeping through the storm. Maybe
Speaker 2: it's not that he doesn't care. Maybe we're cool and
Speaker 2: I came to preach to somebody today. If God is
Speaker 2: not doing it exactly like you want in your situation,
Speaker 2: maybe it's not that he doesn't care. Maybe he's so confident,
Speaker 2: Maybe he's so in control. Maybe he is so sovereign
Speaker 2: over the storm that he will wake up when he
Speaker 2: needs to wake up.
Speaker 1: It's all in your thoughts.
Speaker 2: So God, I pray right now that as high as
Speaker 2: the heavens are above the earth, so are your ways
Speaker 2: above our ways.
Speaker 1: And your thoughts above our thoughts. How precious to me
Speaker 1: or your thoughts.
Speaker 2: So God, I pray for those who have been having
Speaker 2: tormenting thoughts, tempting thoughts, I pray that they would be
Speaker 2: replaced right now with the truth of your word.
Speaker 1: I thank you for our Savior, Jesus, who loved and
Speaker 1: died for us. Thank you for joining us.
Speaker 2: Special thanks to those of you who give generously to
Speaker 2: this ministry. Is because of you that this ministry is possible.
Speaker 2: You can click the link in the description to give
Speaker 2: now or visit Elevation Church dot org slash podcast for
Speaker 2: more information, and if you enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe.
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Speaker 1: Thanks again for listening. God bless you.