Speaker 1: Hey, I'm coming to you now from the basin. This
Speaker 1: is a special bonus teaching that I recorded just for
Speaker 1: you to break it down a little more, to take
Speaker 1: it a little deeper.
Speaker 2: I hope you enjoy this overflow message. Let me know,
Speaker 2: let's go. You know, many times in.
Speaker 1: Our life, even when things don't go the way we
Speaker 1: wanted them to, or when things happen in a really
Speaker 1: horrible way, I've noticed a lot of people still find
Speaker 1: a way through that to rejoice, to redeem the situation,
Speaker 1: and to show God's glory in it, and that always
Speaker 1: inspires me. I have three people that come to my
Speaker 1: mind every single time I mentioned that, who I've witnessed
Speaker 1: in my life that found a way that when the
Speaker 1: healing didn't come or the protection wasn't there, and the
Speaker 1: worst thing happened, these three people that I think about
Speaker 1: moved forward and they move forward with mourning, broken hearts,
Speaker 1: never quite the same again. But when I say with God,
Speaker 1: there's always a way, that's what I mean. I don't
Speaker 1: mean there's always a way to avoid suffering. Because Jesus
Speaker 1: went on a road that we call via Dolorosa, the
Speaker 1: way of suffering, to the cross, and he prayed, if
Speaker 1: there is any other way, Father, let this cut.
Speaker 2: Pass from me.
Speaker 1: Nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done. So Jesus
Speaker 1: himself shows us that the way, the truth and the life.
Speaker 1: He shows us, the one who is the way, shows
Speaker 1: us that the way to our salvation was through his cross.
Speaker 1: So we're not saying with God, there's always a way
Speaker 1: around suffering, but there is always a way through whatever
Speaker 1: God leads you through. Ate though I walk through the
Speaker 1: valley of the shadow of Death, that will fear no evil,
Speaker 1: for Thou art with me. So the second confession that
Speaker 1: came to me the other day, and I love things
Speaker 1: I can get in my heart and even say out
Speaker 1: loud and write down if they have meaning to me.
Speaker 1: I'm looking for things that kind of help me get
Speaker 1: my faith stirred up, help me get my focus on God,
Speaker 1: help me get my horizons broadened, so I don't just
Speaker 1: live in my own head. But the second thing God
Speaker 1: gave me when I was thinking about going to preach
Speaker 1: is God is not out to get me. He is
Speaker 1: in it with me, working through me, fighting for me.
Speaker 1: And I thought about that as it relates to preaching
Speaker 1: and ministering. I think for many years, I had a
Speaker 1: very subtle and buried fear that I didn't even know
Speaker 1: was there, that somehow in the process of preaching, that
Speaker 1: I was going to screw it up, and almost not
Speaker 1: that God wanted me to, but almost that I was
Speaker 1: doomed too. And I wouldness said, man, God is out
Speaker 1: to get me. I think what I would have thought, though, was, Man,
Speaker 1: I'm not perfect. I'm not worthy to preach this message.
Speaker 1: And even though I don't have this list of things
Speaker 1: that are in my life where I'm just trying to
Speaker 1: be a hypocrite. Yeah, I struggle with things and I
Speaker 1: wrestle with things, just like all of you do. But
Speaker 1: standing up, I'm not saying that I'm perfect. But man,
Speaker 1: i'd have probably deserved to preach this. And since I
Speaker 1: don't deserve it, and since I don't know all this
Speaker 1: Greek and Hebrew and I probably could have studied more
Speaker 1: or learned more, I could.
Speaker 2: Be living this out more, you know.
Speaker 1: Or there's not enough examples of historical Christian figures in
Speaker 1: this sermon, and it's too modern, or it's not modern enough.
Speaker 1: It's you know, all these reasons why I think my
Speaker 1: either my life or my knowledge disqualifies me almost thought
Speaker 1: of it like God didn't want to bless my message.
Speaker 1: You know, I didn't always feel this way, but a
Speaker 1: lot of times I would and kind of waiting for
Speaker 1: waiting for God to pull the rug out from under me,
Speaker 1: or waiting for You ever seen like a trap door
Speaker 1: open and somebody just fall down, And that's what I
Speaker 1: mean by God out to get me in preaching and
Speaker 1: in life. You know, I think one of one of
Speaker 1: the artists that I listened to a few years ago
Speaker 1: said is God playing a joke on me? Like he
Speaker 1: was talking about having success and wondering is God playing
Speaker 1: a joke on me?
Speaker 2: It sounds weird to talk about God that way, but.
Speaker 1: Almost feeling like God is looking for a reason to
Speaker 1: take take things away. God is looking for a reason
Speaker 1: to to send things into chaos in our life. And
Speaker 1: I understand there's a lot of scriptural passages where we
Speaker 1: see God dealing with his people in a way that
Speaker 1: seems harsh to us, and just from a literal interpretation,
Speaker 1: it is harsh. We do have now in the model
Speaker 1: of Jesus and in the life of Jesus, in the
Speaker 1: reality of Jesus. The assurance that God is looking for
Speaker 1: a way to love us. Now, I want you to
Speaker 1: let that sink him. God is looking for a way
Speaker 1: to love me, and will I let him in? Because
Speaker 1: he's looking for ways to love me. He's looking for
Speaker 1: ways to use me. He's looking for ways to encourage me,
Speaker 1: strengthen me, build me up, help me. Not always the
Speaker 1: way that I tell him he should, don't get me
Speaker 1: wrong about that. But God is always looking for a
Speaker 1: way to show his love to me and through me.
Speaker 1: He got down in the fire. The fourth man in
Speaker 1: the fire was Jesus. I believe with those Hebrew boys
Speaker 1: to let him know I'm in it with you.
Speaker 2: I'm in it with you. That's what he told Joshua. Right.
Speaker 1: We were setting up Joshua yesterday in my sermon, and
Speaker 1: we're going to preach about Joshua some in the in
Speaker 1: the next few weeks. God willing, and he said to Joshua,
Speaker 1: don't turn from it to the right or to the left,
Speaker 1: for the.
Speaker 2: Lord, your God will be with you wherever you go.
Speaker 1: So stay in the law of the Lord, meditate on
Speaker 1: his law day and night. We might even take that
Speaker 1: further and say stay in faith, you know, stay in
Speaker 1: the word of God, stay in the promises of God.
Speaker 1: Stay in the spirit, walk in step with the spirit.
Speaker 1: The New Testament teaches us.
Speaker 2: And and be strong in the Lord, and put on
Speaker 2: his armor.
Speaker 1: And the Lord your God, he told Joshua, will be
Speaker 1: with you wherever you go. So if you're somewhere, even
Speaker 1: somewhere you don't like, God is in it with you.
Speaker 1: If you're somewhere, even if it's somewhere you feel stuck,
Speaker 1: God is stuck in it with you. Wait, wait, God
Speaker 1: is and stuck.
Speaker 2: I beg to differ. He is stuck in it with
Speaker 2: you because God lives in you. Right.
Speaker 1: So now God can do anything. God can blow blow
Speaker 1: up the whole situation.
Speaker 2: Man. He could.
Speaker 1: He could turn over tables into the temple. He can
Speaker 1: he can blast open a red sea. I'm not saying
Speaker 1: that God doesn't have the capacity. But what I mean
Speaker 1: is is that when when Jesus said I will never
Speaker 1: leave you or forsake you, when he came hunting down
Speaker 1: Peter in the boat after he went fishing, he.
Speaker 2: Wanted us to see that He's in it with you.
Speaker 1: Like like Adrian said to Rocky and Rocky four, now
Speaker 1: Rocky four, uh ish is basically like the New Testament
Speaker 1: of the Rocky movies, all right, and all the creed
Speaker 1: stuff is commentaries, okay, and then Rocky one, two, and
Speaker 1: three of the Old Testament. But that's another time. But
Speaker 1: Adrian said, I'm I'm I'm with you no matter what.
Speaker 1: And the Lord says that to you, I'm in it
Speaker 1: with you. I'm in it with you. Ask Paul and Silas,
Speaker 1: who were in prison. If God is in it with you,
Speaker 1: ask ask ask who else can we ask?
Speaker 2: Maybe you could put an example, your own example in
Speaker 2: the chat?
Speaker 1: Ask hmm, I know, we could ask ask David who
Speaker 1: was at the cave of Adullum. If God is with you,
Speaker 1: ask Jonah, who had God put him in a fish,
Speaker 1: speak to the fish to vomit him out.
Speaker 2: If God is in it with you, God is in
Speaker 2: it with you.
Speaker 1: Ask the disciples who thought Jesus didn't care about them
Speaker 1: because he was sleeping in the hull of the ship
Speaker 1: in the storm. If Jesus is in it with you,
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, he's in it with you. He's in it
Speaker 1: with you. Number two, he's working through you. That part's
Speaker 1: important because it gets the focus off of just selfishly
Speaker 1: going like, okay, Lord, you must savior you're my snuggie.
Speaker 1: You must special someone. You're in it with me. Let's
Speaker 1: follow around down here in the fear together. No, it
Speaker 1: is God who works in you, both too willing to
Speaker 1: do according to his good pleasure.
Speaker 2: He's he's in it with you, working through you.
Speaker 1: Even when Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, which I
Speaker 1: mentioned yesterday, Now Jesus, that's what I pulled out of
Speaker 1: that text. Now, Jesus, he's standing here now. He wasn't
Speaker 1: there when they wanted him to come, But he's in
Speaker 1: it with you now. He even wept because he loved
Speaker 1: the sisters so much, and he said that this sickness
Speaker 1: will not end in death, but it is for God's
Speaker 1: glory that God's son might be revealed. And even the
Speaker 1: resurrection of Lazarus was something that Jesus was using as
Speaker 1: his own road to purpose and our redemption in South
Speaker 1: was leading him to Jerusalem, because when he raised Lazarus,
Speaker 1: that's when the chief priest inscribes really got set on
Speaker 1: killing him.
Speaker 2: So God was using Lazarus.
Speaker 1: I like to say he was using him as a
Speaker 1: prop He was using him as a prop to set
Speaker 1: up the resurrection of his son Jesus Christ, and don't
Speaker 1: let that make you feel too bad, because God working
Speaker 1: through you is the highest honor.
Speaker 2: It is the highest honor for God to flow.
Speaker 1: Through you, move through you, to speak through you, to
Speaker 1: think through you, to wrap your arms around somebody, give love,
Speaker 1: to serve through you. God is in it with me,
Speaker 1: working through me, fighting for me. And that brings us
Speaker 1: back to what I started out saying that with God
Speaker 1: there's always a way, and by faith I will find it,
Speaker 1: and by faith I will fight for it. God is
Speaker 1: fighting for me all right back to the passage where
Speaker 1: in Luke chapter five, these men, these four men are
Speaker 1: bringing their friend to Jesus. Y'all thought I forgot my
Speaker 1: Bible passage. Y'all have no faith in me, But by
Speaker 1: faith I will find it. In Luke chapter five. Oh,
Speaker 1: I love doing these videos, man. I should put these
Speaker 1: out one day. Maybe I'll put this one out. I
Speaker 1: just do them here for my own personal discipline and
Speaker 1: development and time with God. But maybe I'll put this
Speaker 1: one out where it says that the power of the
Speaker 1: Lord was with Jesus to heal the sick people. That
Speaker 1: where the doctor said there's no way they can be healed.
Speaker 1: People where the mental health specialist said, there's no way
Speaker 1: for this to be helped, people who their inside voice
Speaker 1: has told them is never going to change. It says
Speaker 1: that the power of the Lord was there for Jesus
Speaker 1: to he'll sick. Some men came this is Luke five eighteen,
Speaker 1: carrying a paralyzed man on a mat and tried to
Speaker 1: take into the house to lay in before Jesus, who
Speaker 1: had the power to make a way for this man
Speaker 1: to be healed. Now verse nineteen. When they could not
Speaker 1: find a way to do this, because the crowd, when
Speaker 1: they could not find a way, they must have had
Speaker 1: the same tape playing in their head, the same recording
Speaker 1: playing in their head when they could not find a way.
Speaker 1: With God, there's always a way. When they could not
Speaker 1: find a way, but with God, there's always a way. Imagine,
Speaker 1: I'm rolling up on the healing service. We're here to
Speaker 1: see Jesus.
Speaker 2: We got a friend. He's very, very sick. As you
Speaker 2: can see. He can't move from this map. What's his name? Matt?
Speaker 1: All right, Well, sorry, but you and Matt gonna have
Speaker 1: to come back next week because there's no room left. Okay, cool,
Speaker 1: big crowd, Okay, Cool, what would you have done in
Speaker 1: this situation? What do you do when you try to
Speaker 1: go after something that God is calling you to go
Speaker 1: after in any area, you know, to make a difference
Speaker 1: in someone's life, to complete something that God is stirring
Speaker 1: in you, just to you know, take a step toward
Speaker 1: the things that you know He's purpose. I'm being generic
Speaker 1: here on purpose so that I don't rule anybody out.
Speaker 1: When you can't find a way, what do you do?
Speaker 1: Most people walk away walk away well okay, or they
Speaker 1: say I'm a wait on the Lord, and that's good
Speaker 1: to do. That's good to do when you are finding
Speaker 1: yourself in manipulation, impatience, starting to do things outside of
Speaker 1: God's values to accomplish your own vision that you see
Speaker 1: that you want.
Speaker 2: It's very good to wait on the Lord.
Speaker 1: But in this case, they knew that the power of
Speaker 1: the Lord was there to heal Jesus, and they knew
Speaker 1: that Jesus was not the one keeping them out of
Speaker 1: the room.
Speaker 2: It was the crowd.
Speaker 1: So watch what they did when they couldnot find a way.
Speaker 1: Somebody say, with God, there's always a way. That's the
Speaker 1: first thing You've got to believe. You got to believe
Speaker 1: that he who made the heavens and the sea, and
Speaker 1: measured out the universe.
Speaker 2: He who spoke. And it was he who.
Speaker 1: Calls things that are not as though they are, He
Speaker 1: who enliven's dead wounds, He who causes the rain to
Speaker 1: fall on barren land and brings forth out of parched ground.
Speaker 2: He will always make a way. But watch this, you
Speaker 2: got to find it.
Speaker 1: And I said, when they cannot find a way to
Speaker 1: do this because the crowd, they went up on the
Speaker 1: roof and lowered him on his mat through the tiles,
Speaker 1: in the middle of the crowd, right in front of Jesus.
Speaker 1: Oh no, I'm getting you to Jesus. I'm getting you
Speaker 1: to Jesus. I'm getting to Jesus. I'm getting this issue
Speaker 1: to Jesus. I'm going to bring this to the one
Speaker 1: who can do something about it. I'm gonna do it
Speaker 1: by faith. Here's why this verse came to me, this
Speaker 1: story that I love so much.
Speaker 2: I apprecied it many times.
Speaker 1: Here's why it came to me as an illustration of
Speaker 1: the affirmation that I gave you with God.
Speaker 2: There's always a way. The power of the God God
Speaker 2: is with Jesus.
Speaker 1: And at first it seemed like there was in a way.
Speaker 1: But with God, there's always a way. And look what
Speaker 1: Jesus said when he verse twenty saw their faith. He said, friend,
Speaker 1: your sins are forgiven. And how did he see their faith?
Speaker 1: Because they found a way, And how did they find
Speaker 1: a way?
Speaker 2: By faith? By faith, I will find it. By faith, I.
Speaker 1: Will find a way to get to my wife's heart
Speaker 1: and show her that I love her.
Speaker 2: By faith, I will find find a.
Speaker 1: To pass on these values that are important to me
Speaker 1: to my kids, even in a corrupt culture. By faith,
Speaker 1: I will find a way to get up on my
Speaker 1: feet and be a provider. By faith, I will find
Speaker 1: a way, because with God, there's always a way. And
Speaker 1: by faith, not by works, not by smarts, not by skills.
Speaker 1: In fact, you could argue that this was not a
Speaker 1: very smart thing at all to go up on the roof,
Speaker 1: dig the tiles, and lower the stretcher.
Speaker 2: But they did it, and Jesus didn't call it foolish.
Speaker 2: She called it faith. And I'm not saying be destructive,
Speaker 2: but I'm saying be creative, be creative, be creative with
Speaker 2: your faith. I'm a find a way. Some weeks, I
Speaker 2: feel a little lost in what I'm supposed.
Speaker 1: To preach that week or what I'm supposed to create
Speaker 1: that week, But I got to start with the thing that,
Speaker 1: you know what, God is in this with me, working
Speaker 1: through me.
Speaker 2: He's fighting for me.
Speaker 1: So there's a way, there's a way, and by faith,
Speaker 1: I will find it. I will find it because God
Speaker 1: is in it with me. God is working through me.
Speaker 1: God is fighting for me. I mentioned Paul and Silas
Speaker 1: in prison. If God will get with you in prison,
Speaker 1: it'll get with you anywhere. And I know they didn't
Speaker 1: do anything wrong to be in prison, but you know
Speaker 1: the analogy is still good, right, who wants to go
Speaker 1: to prison?
Speaker 2: God?
Speaker 1: And the crazy thing was that when the door's open,
Speaker 1: do you remember this story in next chapter sixteen, verse
Speaker 1: twenty five, when the doors flung open and everyone's prison
Speaker 1: bands were loose, and God made a way for them
Speaker 1: to get out, and they stayed.
Speaker 2: They stayed.
Speaker 1: Paul and Silas stayed in the prison even though they
Speaker 1: could leave freely. And the guard woke up to kill
Speaker 1: himself and Paul's I don't kill yourself.
Speaker 2: Don't do that.
Speaker 1: We're all here, let me tell you by Jesus, And
Speaker 1: that prison guard got saved, which always demonstrated to me
Speaker 1: a very powerful principle. A lot of times, what we're
Speaker 1: looking for a way out of God is looking for
Speaker 1: a way into. So I'm trying to escape situations, going God,
Speaker 1: get me a way out, and God's say.
Speaker 2: I want to weigh in. That's what I want.
Speaker 1: I want to work through you in this. I want
Speaker 1: to show my strength in this. Let him in because
Speaker 1: there's a way. But you got to unblock your heart.
Speaker 1: You can't be bitter, you can't be in survival mode.
Speaker 1: You got to open up your heart a little bit
Speaker 1: today and say, Lord, I know there's a way that
Speaker 1: you can use this. I know there's a way you
Speaker 1: can do this. I know there's a way we can
Speaker 1: go forward in it. By faith, help me find it.
Speaker 1: You won't find it.
Speaker 2: By fear.
Speaker 1: You will only see dead ends through the lens of fear.
Speaker 1: That's all you ever see through the lens of fear
Speaker 1: is dead after dead end. But by faith, I will
Speaker 1: find a way. Hey, I hope you enjoyed the podcast,
Speaker 1: and if you did, make sure to share it and
Speaker 1: subscribe so we can get you all of these new
Speaker 1: messages as soon as they're available. I also want to
Speaker 1: take a moment and thank all of you who are
Speaker 1: a part of Elevation. Whether you support us financially, or
Speaker 1: serve with us, or just share these messages, it's because
Speaker 1: of you that we're able to reach people all around
Speaker 1: the world. And if you want more information on how
Speaker 1: to be a part of Elevation, click the link in
Speaker 1: the description. Thanks again for listening. Make sure to leave
Speaker 1: a review, share the message and subscribe. God bless you.