Speaker 1: Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick.
Speaker 2: I'm the pastor of Elevation Church and this is our podcast.
Speaker 1: Be sure to.
Speaker 2: Subscribe so we can get you these new sermons every week.
Speaker 1: I hope you're blessed today.
Speaker 3: How this song the way?
Speaker 1: Come on?
Speaker 2: Lift your hands like this. God, we receive you in
Speaker 2: this place. King of kings and Lord of lords, exalted
Speaker 2: and lifted high, ever present, always faithful. Anything you want
Speaker 2: to do today, Lord, whoever you want to heal, whoever
Speaker 2: you want to set free, whoever you want to change.
Speaker 4: Do it again. You've done it before, Do it again.
Speaker 4: Do it again and again and again.
Speaker 2: We give you glory and we rejoice in your presence
Speaker 2: in Jesus' name.
Speaker 1: Amen, Glory to God.
Speaker 2: I don't think I have to tell you what to do,
Speaker 2: but just in case, high five to seven people and
Speaker 2: tell him he's going.
Speaker 1: To do it again.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, God is so faithful.
Speaker 1: How many know He's a faithful God.
Speaker 2: You know I've been preaching this series about God, and yeah,
Speaker 2: I mean hopefully all the things we preach here are
Speaker 2: about God. But in a very unique way, God has
Speaker 2: been downloading to us that there's so much about him.
Speaker 1: There are so.
Speaker 2: Many ways that He desires to show up in our
Speaker 2: lives that we haven't recognized yet. And so I started
Speaker 2: Week one, I talked about how he's the God of also.
Speaker 2: That message really meant a lot to me because it
Speaker 2: reminded me that, you know, we haven't met all of
Speaker 2: God yet. God isn't changing or morphing or expanding. He can't.
Speaker 2: He's immutable, he can't change. But we, certainly, as we
Speaker 2: moved through the different seasons of our lives, need to
Speaker 2: see Him in different ways. And so he's the God
Speaker 2: of also. Last week we preached on how he's the
Speaker 2: God of.
Speaker 4: Again and again and again and again, because if.
Speaker 1: He's other, stop stop, because I got to move on
Speaker 1: to part three.
Speaker 2: God gave me a part three, And today I want
Speaker 2: to talk to you about how he's not only the
Speaker 2: God of also, and not only the God of again,
Speaker 2: but he's the God of already, the glory of the terms.
Speaker 2: So real, quick, shake three hands and say it's on
Speaker 2: the way, and you may be seated.
Speaker 1: The God have already. You may be seated. You're here
Speaker 1: for a reason today. You're here for a reason. Today.
Speaker 1: God has something for you today.
Speaker 2: The spirit of Thank you so much, in the spirit
Speaker 2: of last week's message about the God of again, I'm
Speaker 2: going to use the same passage from last week again,
Speaker 2: John twenty one, Verses four through nine. Will select a
Speaker 2: little different passage this time, but from the same story
Speaker 2: and time permitting, I want to also hit that Luke
Speaker 2: fifteen again from the Prodigal Sun. One was the story
Speaker 2: of Jesus told a parable to teach, and one was
Speaker 2: a miracle that he performed, but they share a similar
Speaker 2: lesson the God of already verse four. Early in the morning,
Speaker 2: Jesus stood on the shore, but his disciples did not realize.
Speaker 1: That it was Jesus.
Speaker 2: He called out to them, friends, haven't you any fish? No,
Speaker 2: they answered, and he said, throw your net on the
Speaker 2: right side of the boat and you'll find some. And
Speaker 2: when they did, they were unable to haul in the
Speaker 2: net because of the large number of fish. The disciple,
Speaker 2: whom Jesus loved, said to Peter, it is the Lord.
Speaker 2: And as soon as Simon Peter heard him say it
Speaker 2: is the Lord, he wrapped his outer garment around him,
Speaker 2: for he'd taking it off, and jumped into the water.
Speaker 2: The other disciples followed in the boat, towing the net
Speaker 2: full of fish, for they were not.
Speaker 1: Far from shore. They were not far.
Speaker 2: Put it in the chat, not far, and tell your
Speaker 2: neighbor not far, not far from shore. About one hundred
Speaker 2: yards makes me get ready for football season.
Speaker 1: About one hundred yards.
Speaker 2: When they landed, they saw a fire of burning coals
Speaker 2: there with fish on it and some bread. When they landed,
Speaker 2: they saw fire burning coals there with fish on it
Speaker 2: and some bread. The god of already and this message
Speaker 2: has a subtitle, let him cook. I thought, I'll tell
Speaker 2: you a little story. I couldn't remember. If I shared it.
Speaker 2: My oldest son said he had never heard it. When
Speaker 2: I was in high school, right after I got really
Speaker 2: fired up for Jesus Christ, I was running around telling
Speaker 2: everybody that they needed to be saved and they were going.
Speaker 1: To hell and I wasn't, and so be like me.
Speaker 2: I was burning all my Motley Crew and Guns n'
Speaker 2: Roses CDs and listening to Striper and burned my Pantera
Speaker 2: and went over to Petra. If you're in the subculture,
Speaker 2: you know, if you don't know, you don't know.
Speaker 1: You don't need to know. And so I just tell
Speaker 1: people all the time.
Speaker 2: I was very very bold, some would say zeal without knowledge,
Speaker 2: but I was. I was excited, fired up my dad.
Speaker 2: He was in church at the time. He'd been in
Speaker 2: church when I was a little boy. My mom always
Speaker 2: took us to church, but my dad wasn't in church
Speaker 2: at the time. He would go out and play golf
Speaker 2: on Sundays, a little part three golf course, get drunk
Speaker 2: with my uncle, and I think that sort of an atonement.
Speaker 2: When I was getting ready to go to church, he
Speaker 2: would wake up early and cook us breakfast, and so
Speaker 2: he'd be over there making.
Speaker 1: Some scrambled eggs and grits.
Speaker 2: If you don't like grits, I don't need you as
Speaker 2: a member Elevation Church. And then he would make on
Speaker 2: occasions some corn beef hash.
Speaker 1: Some fried baloney.
Speaker 2: But it was all because he felt bad because he
Speaker 2: wasn't going to church, so'd wake up early and cook
Speaker 2: for us, and then he'd go off to the golf
Speaker 2: course and we go to church.
Speaker 1: And that was going on for a little while.
Speaker 2: One Sunday morning, I remember really clearly whatever came over me.
Speaker 2: I looked at him and said, Dad, this breakfast is great,
Speaker 2: thank you for making it. But I want to tell
Speaker 2: you something now. I'm only sixteen, seventeen years old something
Speaker 2: like that. I said, it's not going to be long
Speaker 2: before God's going to get a hold of your life.
Speaker 2: I've been praying for you, and God answers my prayers,
Speaker 2: and pretty soon you're gonna turn to the Lord, and
Speaker 2: it's gonna be crazy, and you're gonna be reading the
Speaker 2: Bible all the time and going to church and not
Speaker 2: gonna be just cooking breakfast and going off. You can
Speaker 2: cook this breakfast today, but eventually, soon and very soon,
Speaker 2: you'll be going.
Speaker 1: Church with us.
Speaker 2: And I don't remember if he said anything. He didn't
Speaker 2: go to church that day. He kept cooking, and I
Speaker 2: ate and went to church. It was about a year
Speaker 2: or more later when I had gone off to college
Speaker 2: and I came back home to preach at Santi Circle
Speaker 2: Community Church for a weekend. And after I preached the sermon,
Speaker 2: my dad came down for the altar call, and when
Speaker 2: I went down to pray with him, he said, never
Speaker 2: stop preaching. Well, you know, we had many bumps and
Speaker 2: bruises after that. He wasn't raptured up to heaven. He
Speaker 2: didn't become the next Pope, Billy Graham or Bill Gates
Speaker 2: for that matter, But it really was a change in
Speaker 2: his life. He started memorizing the Bible and stuff like that.
Speaker 2: He told me something, He said, remember that day when
Speaker 2: you told me when I was cooking breakfast that God
Speaker 2: was going to get ahold of my life and all
Speaker 2: this stuff you were saying to me. I said, yeah,
Speaker 2: because I was proud of my prophecy having come to pass.
Speaker 2: He said, what I didn't tell you is I felt
Speaker 2: so sorry for you when you were saying all that,
Speaker 2: because I thought He's going to be so disappointed.
Speaker 1: He has no idea.
Speaker 2: And I felt so sorry for you that you didn't
Speaker 2: know how low I was and how far I was
Speaker 2: from God. And I was standing in the shower every
Speaker 2: morning before I go open the barber shop and just think, God,
Speaker 2: if you give me the strength to get through this day,
Speaker 2: I promise I'll change. But I couldn't change. And so
Speaker 2: I sat there and listened to you, and I felt
Speaker 2: so bad that you were that crazy and that naive
Speaker 2: to think that I could change because you didn't know
Speaker 2: how far away I was.
Speaker 1: We're doing me a favor.
Speaker 2: Will you look at your neighbor real quick and say
Speaker 2: you're not as far as you think you are. That's
Speaker 2: what God knows that you don't. That's what the devil
Speaker 2: knows that you don't. That from that life that God
Speaker 2: has called you to live, and from that victory that
Speaker 2: He's called you to accomplish in his name, from that
Speaker 2: freedom that to you feels like some sort of dream.
Speaker 1: Right now, you're not as far as.
Speaker 2: You think you are, because the God of already is
Speaker 2: in the house. I tell you that story not to
Speaker 2: impress you, but as the motivational speakers would say, to
Speaker 2: press impress upon you, or rather to reflect myself on
Speaker 2: these moments that we have in our life, like I
Speaker 2: had with my dad, where you know something you don't
Speaker 2: know how you know it, You sense it, even though
Speaker 2: your senses.
Speaker 1: Are telling you different, your spirit says it.
Speaker 2: It actually just came to me this morning to tell
Speaker 2: you that story as I was asking God, how can
Speaker 2: I bring them into this text, which is a story
Speaker 2: about a fisherman named Peter who was called to be
Speaker 2: a shepherd and had to make a transition because he
Speaker 2: had been through an experience where he'd let himself down,
Speaker 2: and he thought, let Jesus down. Now he's out there
Speaker 2: fishing and Jesus is on the shore and.
Speaker 1: I was wondering, like, what was happening in that moment
Speaker 1: with my dad?
Speaker 2: What's happening in those moments of our life where.
Speaker 1: One thing is seen to be already in progress.
Speaker 2: Do you remember when they used to interrupt your regularly
Speaker 2: scheduled programming to give you a news report or a
Speaker 2: weather report. Used to be watching Family Matters on Friday night,
Speaker 2: watching Arkle try to get Laura Winslow one more time
Speaker 2: on Friday night, and the news would come on, there's
Speaker 2: a storm. They just interrupt your regularly scheduled program. And
Speaker 2: then when they would get back to the program, after
Speaker 2: they had said whatever they needed to say and just
Speaker 2: broke in on your program, they say, we now return
Speaker 2: to your regularly scheduled programming already in progress, and then
Speaker 2: it would just go right back. No DVR, you can't rewind,
Speaker 2: so you know, Erkele still isn't with Laura like like always,
Speaker 2: and you just drop right back in in the middle
Speaker 2: of it because it's already in progress. Now that's the
Speaker 2: challenge with the text I read you, because I just
Speaker 2: jumped right into something where you know, Peter has denied
Speaker 2: Jesus three times, he's out fishing, who knows how bad
Speaker 2: he felt, who knows how far he felt. He's already
Speaker 2: seen Jesus. But Jesus shows up again. And I loved
Speaker 2: verse four. This really touched me because I related to it.
Speaker 2: It said early in the morning, Jesus stood on the shore,
Speaker 2: but the disciples did not realize that it was Jesus.
Speaker 1: You know, kind of far off in the distance.
Speaker 2: They're tired, they've been fishing all night, caught nothing, frustrated,
Speaker 2: probably a little discouraged, and they did not realize it
Speaker 2: was Jesus. But that doesn't mean he wasn't there. In Seminary,
Speaker 2: they taught me this term that stuck with me. It's
Speaker 2: called the already not yet view of scripture. And it
Speaker 2: sounds like a contradiction, but it's not. It's just the
Speaker 2: tension that we all live in. Everybody say already, now,
Speaker 2: say not yet this side. You can be already already.
Speaker 2: Y'all don't sound ready. How about y'all be already. I'll
Speaker 2: get to be not yet.
Speaker 1: Already. Ah. Yeah. They taught me that in Seminary.
Speaker 2: The Kingdom of God came when Jesus came to earth,
Speaker 2: and he said, the Kingdom of God is at hand.
Speaker 2: And he inaugurated that kingdom with miracles, signs, and wonders.
Speaker 1: He did amazing things.
Speaker 2: He was crucified, dead and buried, risen from the dead,
Speaker 2: He's send it to the right hand of God, and
Speaker 2: he's coming again to establish his kingdom once and for all.
Speaker 1: He already died for the sins of all who will
Speaker 1: believe on him.
Speaker 2: He already rose to life, and he's risen with all
Speaker 2: power in the keys of death, hell and grave are
Speaker 2: in his hand. He's interceding for you right now. He's
Speaker 2: already paid the price, he's already won the victory. But
Speaker 2: as the Bible talks about these realities, there is a
Speaker 2: sense in which they are already fulfilled and a sense
Speaker 2: in which they are y'all still aren't ready. Maybe next
Speaker 2: week I'll do it again again, and you can try
Speaker 2: it again. But the picture here is that if the
Speaker 2: Bible says you are saved, it will also say you
Speaker 2: will be saved. And so it's talking about something that
Speaker 2: happened and something that will happen. And it's like, I
Speaker 2: am saved right now from the penalty of.
Speaker 1: My sin, but I.
Speaker 2: Am still not completely set free from the pattern of sin,
Speaker 2: and That's why I can say I'm already a child
Speaker 2: of God, but I'm not yet well behaved. I'm not
Speaker 2: yet grown up like I want to be. It's the
Speaker 2: already not yet. And I think if you'll look at
Speaker 2: the Bible that way, it'll help you understand why sometimes
Speaker 2: you see things in the Bible and you're like, oh am,
Speaker 2: I even a Christian Hugh pray without ceasing.
Speaker 1: I don't live that way.
Speaker 2: Well, you already praise, but though without ceasing part that's
Speaker 2: the not yet. Or the Bible even says that we
Speaker 2: have been adopted into God's family, and then it says
Speaker 2: that we are awaiting our adoption.
Speaker 1: Which one is it?
Speaker 2: Well, it's already technically true, but I have not yet
Speaker 2: fully understood all of the implications of it.
Speaker 1: It'd be like if they switched cameras right now.
Speaker 2: You know there's somebody back there that's on the other camera,
Speaker 2: let's just.
Speaker 1: Switch to this one.
Speaker 2: And he had to be ready to do it, and
Speaker 2: I gave him no preparation. That's why I had to
Speaker 2: be there. He was already there waiting for a word
Speaker 2: in order to do what he was there to do.
Speaker 2: So you find yourself in moments in your life.
Speaker 1: You get the sense that.
Speaker 2: You are dealing with the not yetness of you, and
Speaker 2: you're hearing about the alreadiness of God, and it can
Speaker 2: be hard to reconcile. So I think that's the scene
Speaker 2: here with Peter and Jesus having breakfast on the shore.
Speaker 2: I think that was the scene that day with me
Speaker 2: having breakfast with my dad.
Speaker 1: I think that's the scene in.
Speaker 2: Your life as well, and I invite you into it
Speaker 2: for all of your not yetness.
Speaker 1: One scripture that I really love.
Speaker 2: I honestly had never really paid attention to it, just
Speaker 2: skimmed right over it. But Paul is describing this in
Speaker 2: Second Corinthians six ' ten, So he kind of describes
Speaker 2: it and it sounds a little schizophrenic, but I think
Speaker 2: he's just being real. He says, second Corinthian six ' ten.
Speaker 2: We are sorrowful yet always rejoicing. Then that sounds Paul,
Speaker 2: you need some medicine or something. Man, You kind of
Speaker 2: can't decide. I'm serious, sorrowful yet always rejoicing. And then
Speaker 2: it gets better. He says, poor yet making many rich,
Speaker 2: having nothing yet possessing everything. He's showing us this shift,
Speaker 2: just a little shift. He's like we're sorrowful, yeah, rejoicing,
Speaker 2: we're poor, recounting poor, but out of our poverty.
Speaker 1: It's creating a spiritual richness in the earth. And I'm
Speaker 1: glad about that.
Speaker 2: And then that last part really got me because I
Speaker 2: taught you this last week, and I want to go
Speaker 2: a little deeper, he said, having put it back up,
Speaker 2: having nothing yet possessing everything.
Speaker 1: So this is where I showed you my trick last week.
Speaker 2: When I start getting entitled, when I start getting petty,
Speaker 2: when I start forgetting what God has given me, it's
Speaker 2: a little trick that I've learned to do to realize
Speaker 2: that I have everything. Oh yeah, you're looking at a
Speaker 2: blessed man, A very blessed man.
Speaker 1: I got it all.
Speaker 2: I have everything, And here's how I get everything. I'm
Speaker 2: gonna teach you how to get everything in five seconds,
Speaker 2: all right, because I can really convince myself. Nobody loves me,
Speaker 2: everybody hates me. I guess I'll go eat worms. I
Speaker 2: guess I'll just go over in my corner write one
Speaker 2: of my other little sermons, and nobody loves me.
Speaker 5: And then I go, no, oh, this is ridiculous.
Speaker 1: What are you talking about?
Speaker 2: Not only have I been blessed with so many things.
Speaker 2: But I do an exercise where I imagine the loss
Speaker 2: of someone that I love the most. I imagine the loss.
Speaker 2: You're like, that's very negative. No, watch where it's gonna
Speaker 2: get me, because it's very very powerful. I imagine what
Speaker 2: if I lost Holly? What would I give to have
Speaker 2: her back? Two hundred dollars? Come on, man, everything, I'll
Speaker 2: kill you in take yours if I have to to
Speaker 2: get her back, everything, whatever it takes. I'll be uh,
Speaker 2: what's the movie ransom. I'll be Mel Gibson. I'll be
Speaker 2: Liam Neeson. I will storm through the gates of hell.
Speaker 2: I would do I would give everything to have.
Speaker 1: Her back, and I have her now, So what do
Speaker 1: I have everything? See how quick that was.
Speaker 2: I went from like being annoyed, being perturbed, just being
Speaker 2: all you know, how stupid we can get when we
Speaker 2: get adjusted to something that we've had access to too long.
Speaker 2: We get acclimated to what's available, and then.
Speaker 1: We become unaware of.
Speaker 2: How valuable it is because we become too acclimated to
Speaker 2: what's available.
Speaker 1: So when it says in verse four, oh, I got
Speaker 1: to give you a little bit more about this.
Speaker 2: Early in the morning Jesus done on the shore, but
Speaker 2: the disciples did not realize that it was Jesus. I
Speaker 2: realized that their awareness had not caught up with his.
Speaker 1: Theareness yet he was there. They weren't aware.
Speaker 2: Yet he was no less there because they weren't aware
Speaker 2: of it. He's standing on the shore, cooking fish, getting
Speaker 2: ready for them to haul in some more fish.
Speaker 1: They'ven have plenty of fish. It's gonna be fished today.
Speaker 2: But the one thing they couldn't know in that moment
Speaker 2: was that he was already there where they were headed for.
Speaker 2: But there was something he wanted to show them before
Speaker 2: they got there too. And so I look at Jesus
Speaker 2: in this passage and I realized that it's one.
Speaker 1: Thing to look back over my life.
Speaker 2: I feel like teaching and preaching and shouting and praising today,
Speaker 2: and I see almost like a sign hanging over every
Speaker 2: open door in my life, Jesus was here, you know,
Speaker 2: like almost I think of Jesus as a graffiti artist.
Speaker 2: You know how they have a tag and they tag
Speaker 2: when they do it, and Jesus does it legally, but
Speaker 2: they tag it.
Speaker 1: I read, I studied a little.
Speaker 2: Bit the first graffiti artist that was recognized for his
Speaker 2: tag was named Cornbread and he was really cool.
Speaker 1: He was in Philadelphia.
Speaker 2: He hopped over the fence at the Philadelphia Zoo one
Speaker 2: time when he was seventeen and spray painted the side
Speaker 2: of an elephant and he tagged it Cornbread Lives.
Speaker 1: And I look back over.
Speaker 2: My life now and I see all these tags over
Speaker 2: not just the open doors and the opportunities God gave me,
Speaker 2: but even some of the closed doors that God didn't
Speaker 2: let me go through.
Speaker 1: And now I look.
Speaker 2: Back and I see a tag that he says, Jesus
Speaker 2: was here. I look back over some of the relationships
Speaker 2: that God brought into my life and some of the
Speaker 2: ones that I asked him for and he said not yet,
Speaker 2: not yet. I look back over some of the already
Speaker 2: blessings in my life, and I see that, hey, God
Speaker 2: has already been working on this for a long time
Speaker 2: for me. I mean, He's already done so much for me.
Speaker 2: And the more that I access the already blessings in
Speaker 2: my life, the more aware I am no takers get ready.
Speaker 2: The more aware I am of the already blessings, the
Speaker 2: better I can deal with the not yet questions. Reach
Speaker 2: verdeck I already am in this good to get in
Speaker 2: a space where you go, wait a minute, wait a minute. Yeah,
Speaker 2: there are some things that I want God to add
Speaker 2: to my life, but being blessed.
Speaker 1: Is not about what he might or might not add.
Speaker 2: It's about what I access that I already have, and
Speaker 2: learning to access what I already have is the process
Speaker 2: of gratitude, and gratitude is the access point to joy.
Speaker 1: That's why I.
Speaker 2: Love my little exercise, because when I am unaware of
Speaker 2: a blessing, I feel like it's not there, even though
Speaker 2: it is.
Speaker 1: Read the scripture, Jesus was on the shore.
Speaker 2: They didn't know it. He's there. They're not aware he
Speaker 2: can be there. But until you are aware that he
Speaker 2: is there, it will feel as if he's not.
Speaker 1: So the challenge of this.
Speaker 2: Season of my life as a grown man is not
Speaker 2: to look back and say Jesus was there, but to
Speaker 2: stand in the middle of my not yet and declare.
Speaker 1: Jesus is here.
Speaker 5: I've got to tag it while.
Speaker 2: I'm going through it so I can hold to the
Speaker 2: truth in this situation that what I will look back
Speaker 2: on in my life in the next season and say
Speaker 2: God was there, He's here in it right now, but
Speaker 2: his thearness always outpaces your awareness, which is how you
Speaker 2: end up like my.
Speaker 1: Dad, and you go. I felt sorry for you, You
Speaker 1: felt sorry for me. I feel sorry for you.
Speaker 2: God was working on your dumb butt and you were
Speaker 2: too mind to say it.
Speaker 1: God sent it, arrogant little seventeen year old punk. Were
Speaker 1: some Doc Martin's.
Speaker 2: To tell you God's going to turn your life around,
Speaker 2: and you couldn't see it.
Speaker 1: He was there, you just weren't aware of it. How
Speaker 1: mean y'all got something you're worried about this week coming
Speaker 1: up in your life. And I mean this week.
Speaker 2: I'm not talking about when you turn ninety four and
Speaker 2: will there still be Social Security and will Biden still
Speaker 2: be president or somebody older.
Speaker 1: But this week, this week, all right.
Speaker 2: God's going to beat you to it. Let me get
Speaker 2: more specific. Jesus is already there. Oh that's so nice.
Speaker 2: Imagine Jesus is already there. This is the problem with
Speaker 2: you Christians. You just have this imaginary friend named Jesus
Speaker 2: that you think is going to work everything.
Speaker 1: Out for you.
Speaker 2: It's not imaginary. It's not imaginary for me. And I
Speaker 2: don't know if you can say the same thing. I
Speaker 2: have more proof that He has been there for me
Speaker 2: than almost any other person.
Speaker 1: In my life.
Speaker 2: So if you wanted to convince me that God wasn't real,
Speaker 2: you should have done that a long time ago, because
Speaker 2: you're a little late, because I've already seen the ways
Speaker 2: that He's made for me. I've already seen the things
Speaker 2: that he's brought me through. I have already seen him
Speaker 2: bring water from a rock. I have already seen him. Now,
Speaker 2: high five somebody and say I already know. So you
Speaker 2: can't make.
Speaker 1: Me doubt him because I know too much about him.
Speaker 1: I already know. I'm not studying a book to find
Speaker 1: out if he's real. I'm not waiting on.
Speaker 5: A scientist to bust stop in.
Speaker 2: A molecule or splinting at him to tell me if
Speaker 2: Christ lives. I got the tag over my life, said, jeez,
Speaker 2: I lives.
Speaker 5: If you know he's alive, shout up, Come on, give him.
Speaker 1: An already praise. What's it already praise?
Speaker 2: It's when I praise him in a.
Speaker 1: Not yet situation for a blessing that he's all right.
Speaker 5: I need pressed down, singing together.
Speaker 4: Whoever I.
Speaker 1: Need to teach, but high five at least three people.
Speaker 1: But you didn't tell me what to tell him.
Speaker 6: See ah, I think we need to recognize the connection
Speaker 6: between appreciating our already as we.
Speaker 1: Anticipate are not yet.
Speaker 2: This is the greatest skill that God can give you
Speaker 2: to help you fight depression, distraction, discouragement, temptation. See when
Speaker 2: you stay in not yet and forget you're already, you
Speaker 2: go running after stuff that is less than you because
Speaker 2: you got tired of waiting on something that was not
Speaker 2: yet ready for you. But when you know who you are,
Speaker 2: when you know what you've already gotten, when you know
Speaker 2: who's already chosen.
Speaker 5: You to be His called you by name, seal you with.
Speaker 7: His spirit, adopted you as his child, you can stand
Speaker 7: in your already and say, like Paul, I don't have
Speaker 7: it yet.
Speaker 1: I love that word.
Speaker 2: I went to therapy and my therapist taught me how
Speaker 2: to say that word.
Speaker 1: I'm serious. It helped me.
Speaker 2: I say I just can't figure it out, and the
Speaker 2: therapist will interrupt and say, ah, yet, I got.
Speaker 1: All my nerves. I said, I'm not paying you to
Speaker 1: correct me.
Speaker 2: I said I can't figure it out and I hadn't
Speaker 2: figured it out, and the therapist will say yet, And
Speaker 2: every time they said, yet, it took me back to
Speaker 2: how many things God had already done for me.
Speaker 8: I see, My already gave me the balance for my
Speaker 8: not yet.
Speaker 2: That's why I want you to imagine things being out
Speaker 2: of your life that are in your life, so you
Speaker 2: can get back in your already. I drove up to
Speaker 2: the church today and I was like, oh man, this church,
Speaker 2: it got so much debt.
Speaker 1: We just got to pay off all our debt. Oh wait, no,
Speaker 1: God already paid off our debt.
Speaker 2: That made me want Now you'll see why I'm in
Speaker 2: such a good mood preaching today.
Speaker 1: I preach real good with no debt on my back.
Speaker 2: It didn't get paid off in those five minutes before
Speaker 2: I came out to preach to you. I just recalled
Speaker 2: it to my mind, and I accessed thee already, so I.
Speaker 1: Can move ahead into the not yet.
Speaker 2: You ever thought about how many things in this passage
Speaker 2: of scripture that Jesus asked the disciples that he.
Speaker 1: Already knew. It's kind of funny. Please hear me.
Speaker 2: I'm not disrespecting Jesus when I say this. I'm just
Speaker 2: using a current term to describe something that's in the text.
Speaker 2: Jesus was trolling these boys. I don't mean like troll
Speaker 2: the motor on the boat. I mean like troll of
Speaker 2: messing with them.
Speaker 1: Us. Jesus said, uh, okay.
Speaker 2: First of all, I did a sermon that made him
Speaker 2: mad one time, called sneaky Jesus. They thought I meant
Speaker 2: that he was deceptive. I didn't mean deceptive. I mean
Speaker 2: he'll sneak up on you. He snuck up on the shore.
Speaker 2: Didn't tell him it was him, all right, So they
Speaker 2: don't recognize him. He's there, they're not aware. That's just
Speaker 2: like you right now. He is there in ways you're.
Speaker 1: Not aware of right now.
Speaker 2: And you'll look back and see the tag and it
Speaker 2: won't say Cornbread lives. It'll say Jesus lives. But you
Speaker 2: got to see it now. So he's on the shore
Speaker 2: and they don't know he's there. And then verse five,
Speaker 2: he said, friends, haven't you any fish?
Speaker 1: So the one who created fish doesn't know if they've
Speaker 1: caught any.
Speaker 2: I think I speculate that he already knew, because he's
Speaker 2: sovereign and he's God, so I think he knew. So
Speaker 2: they say no, and then he says, okay, throw your
Speaker 2: nets over to the right side of the boat, and
Speaker 2: you'll find something.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 2: The other thing that he knew is where the fish were.
Speaker 2: He already knew that. And the other thing he knew
Speaker 2: is that their nets were going to break and they
Speaker 2: couldn't haul him in without some help. But then because
Speaker 2: the nets didn't end up breaking. But the disciple whom
Speaker 2: Jesus lost said to Peter is the Lord. As soon
Speaker 2: as Simon Peter hurt and say is the Lord, he
Speaker 2: wrapped the telagramerun and jumped into the water.
Speaker 1: And what I really.
Speaker 2: Couldn't get over about this passage, and I don't know
Speaker 2: if you noticed it, is that it said they were
Speaker 2: not far from the shore, about one hundred yards.
Speaker 1: Wait, so.
Speaker 2: Let's do some math. They're in the boat fishing, catching nothing.
Speaker 2: Jesus is on the shore one hundred yards away. I
Speaker 2: don't know the exact dimensions of Peter's boat. It is
Speaker 2: Peter's boat. That's why Jesus chose Peter to be his disciple,
Speaker 2: because Jesus needed transportation.
Speaker 1: I heard all these deep things. He chose Peter because
Speaker 1: he was no. It wasn't his boldness, it was his boat.
Speaker 1: That's why Jesus chose him.
Speaker 2: I'm settling it once in for all and his boldness,
Speaker 2: but mostly his boat because he needed to travel around.
Speaker 2: So now Peter's back in that boat and he's fishing.
Speaker 2: And I don't know the exact dimensions of the boat,
Speaker 2: but I do know one thing. No matter how big
Speaker 2: this boat was, is there anybody here who has a boat?
Speaker 1: Got a boat?
Speaker 2: Come on, God's not going to strike you for having
Speaker 2: a boat. You have a boat in tithe and go
Speaker 2: to heaven, all right? How big could the boat be?
Speaker 2: If it was, let's say it was like a pretty
Speaker 2: big fishing boat, but just a singular boat. Some research
Speaker 2: that I accessed, it doesn't say it in the text.
Speaker 1: It said it might have been about eight feet wide max.
Speaker 1: That's not about right.
Speaker 2: Is it conceivable that it would have been eight feet wide?
Speaker 1: Okay, So you mean to tell me.
Speaker 2: They have been fishing all night and they are about
Speaker 2: to row in one hundred yards to the shore and
Speaker 2: from one side of the boat to the other. Is
Speaker 2: the difference between we're starving and we're stuffed.
Speaker 1: You mean to.
Speaker 2: Tell me that they've been out there all night and
Speaker 2: at just the moment they're about to give up. I'm
Speaker 2: prophesying to somebody prophesying to somebody at just the moment
Speaker 2: they're about to row the boat ashore one hundred yards.
Speaker 1: What they don't know in that moment.
Speaker 2: Is that if they take the nets from the left
Speaker 2: side of the boat to the right side of the boat,
Speaker 2: and if the boat is only eight feet and the
Speaker 2: shore is one hundred yards away, that means it's easier
Speaker 2: for them to keep fishing than.
Speaker 1: It is for them to give up.
Speaker 2: Follow me, you gotta go one hundred yards to give up,
Speaker 2: but you only gotta go eight feet.
Speaker 1: For a great catch.
Speaker 2: And the fish aren't on the way when you drop
Speaker 2: the nets.
Speaker 1: The fish are.
Speaker 2: Already the fish at the moment you drop the nets.
Speaker 1: The fish don't start to swim. Nah.
Speaker 9: That's what Jesus got to the shore early, because it's oh.
Speaker 2: The fish to swim, and they did. So. When you
Speaker 2: drop your nets in your not yet season, you need.
Speaker 9: To know that what's your fishing for is not far
Speaker 9: from you.
Speaker 5: You might be eight feet away from.
Speaker 9: A new day, eight feet away from restoration, eight feet
Speaker 9: away from freedom from your addiction, eight feet away from
Speaker 9: a relationship that will take you out.
Speaker 1: Of the loneliness and bring you into fruitful union.
Speaker 2: Hey, feet away when you hate to miss your harvest
Speaker 2: and find out it was only eight feet away.
Speaker 6: It's gonna be big, baby, It's gonna be big.
Speaker 1: It's gonna be big. You're gonna make a difference. You're
Speaker 1: gonna tell others. You're gonna help others. You're not just
Speaker 1: gonna be selfish. You're gonna serve others. God already knows
Speaker 1: what he's.
Speaker 2: Called you to do, and the devil wants you to
Speaker 2: pull that boat in and give up because he knows
Speaker 2: you're eight feet away. See, it is the principle that
Speaker 2: sometimes a small shift can make a big difference. A
Speaker 2: small shift just to make a small shift. Today, you're
Speaker 2: not as far as you think you are. Whoever this
Speaker 2: word is for, it is burning like a fire in
Speaker 2: my bones. You're not as far as you think you are.
Speaker 1: I wish I.
Speaker 2: Could muster the faith I had when I told my
Speaker 2: dad that you're not as far as you think you are.
Speaker 2: God can snatch you with his pinky finger. He's strong,
Speaker 2: his hand is not slack. I don't care how far
Speaker 2: you are. You're not as you think you are. Not
Speaker 2: from God. He's God who told the sun when to rise,
Speaker 2: and he did he's God.
Speaker 1: I'm talking about.
Speaker 2: God who told the storm to be still and it did.
Speaker 2: I'm talking about God who told the walls when to
Speaker 2: fall and they did.
Speaker 5: I'm talking about God who told the bones.
Speaker 1: Come alive and they did. I'm gonna have another one.
Speaker 2: And if he told the fish when to swim and
Speaker 2: they did.
Speaker 1: He will again.
Speaker 2: And if he told the fish when to swim and
Speaker 2: they did, he will again.
Speaker 1: It's a remix.
Speaker 5: We hadn't even released him original. Yes, and we're already
Speaker 5: working on the remix.
Speaker 1: Because he's God.
Speaker 10: Her, He's God.
Speaker 1: Hardy's stay bo.
Speaker 5: Did you hear any devil? Cause he's God's how Handy's God?
Speaker 2: Dad? He saith?
Speaker 5: Who man, it's all away, it's all away, it's all away.
Speaker 3: It's on the way.
Speaker 1: Let your dad's gown.
Speaker 5: WHOA?
Speaker 1: So I see a picture right now? Stay with me,
Speaker 1: Stay with me, Stay with me. I want to minister
Speaker 1: to somebody. You think you are so far from God.
Speaker 1: Watch this.
Speaker 2: Not only was Jesus only one hundred yards away and
Speaker 2: they had no idea that he was. And not only
Speaker 2: were the fish only eight feet away and they had
Speaker 2: no idea that they were. But Peter, you have already
Speaker 2: been restored in God's eyes. Now it's time for you
Speaker 2: to be restored in your eyes. Receive it, Receiver it,
Speaker 2: Paul said, you can go from having nothing to possessing everything.
Speaker 2: Having nothing yet possessing everything. Your nets are empty. You
Speaker 2: don't have it yet.
Speaker 8: That doesn't mean it's not there. So the gift you
Speaker 8: have is real. It just isn't fully grown yet. The
Speaker 8: forgiveness that you have is real.
Speaker 2: You're just not fully acquainted and familiar with your freedom
Speaker 2: in Christ yet. I'm saving your money on a therapy bill.
Speaker 2: This is what they're going to do if you go
Speaker 2: over there.
Speaker 1: I'm trying to save you some money on a therapy bill.
Speaker 2: Drop a little something in the bucket for your therapist today.
Speaker 2: I want you to see the power of your yet,
Speaker 2: and to believe in the God of already is to
Speaker 2: trust the God of Yet with every step to take,
Speaker 2: with every habit that you implement. A lady told me
Speaker 2: at elevation nights. She was standing there, and I did
Speaker 2: the thing that y'all hate when I do. And I said,
Speaker 2: turn to your neighbor and say And she said, I
Speaker 2: rolled my eyes, and you made me say something to
Speaker 2: my neighbor and he was tall, and I was single,
Speaker 2: and he was sending.
Speaker 1: And she wrote me a letter and said, today he
Speaker 1: is my husband.
Speaker 2: I'm not making it up. I'm not making it up.
Speaker 2: I'll print the email. I'll put it on Twitter's faces
Speaker 2: and my Space.
Speaker 1: I mean because something as simple as turned to your neighbor.
Speaker 1: Turn to your neighbor real quick and tell him not yet,
Speaker 1: not yet yet, not yet. I thought he was finished.
Speaker 3: Not yet.
Speaker 11: Hey, hey, so so imagine.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you could stay and softly LJ.
Speaker 2: I'm done teaching, but I want to give you the
Speaker 2: picture from Luke fifteen, because I would hate not to
Speaker 2: give you this. You remember how I told you there
Speaker 2: are two stories here, and Jesus taught one and then
Speaker 2: the other one he actually acted out, and they're both
Speaker 2: saying the same thing, that you're not as far as
Speaker 2: you think you are. There were two sons and one
Speaker 2: son to his father. I want my share of the
Speaker 2: inheritance now, Luke fifteen. So he set up to a
Speaker 2: distant country. What kind of country? Say it again? A
Speaker 2: distant country. While he was there, he spent all that
Speaker 2: he had on riotous living. For a little while went good,
Speaker 2: but then eventually he came to a point where nobody
Speaker 2: knew how bad it was, and he longed to fill
Speaker 2: his stomach with the husk that the swine ate. He
Speaker 2: was that low. Finally, Bubble says, he came to himself.
Speaker 2: He came to himself. I believe somebody's coming to yourself today.
Speaker 2: And God is already there. God already sees you like
Speaker 2: you really are. You just don't yet. Came to himself
Speaker 2: and he said, how many of my father's hired servants
Speaker 2: have food to spair, and here I am starving to death.
Speaker 2: I will arise and go to my father, and perhaps
Speaker 2: he will make me like one of his hired servants.
Speaker 2: So verse twenty is where it really picks up for
Speaker 2: our purpose as we close today.
Speaker 1: It said that he got up and went to his father, but.
Speaker 2: While he was still a long way off, his father
Speaker 2: saw him. How many times did I read this story
Speaker 2: and never really notice what was happening, Because just before this.
Speaker 1: This boy is making a story that he's going to
Speaker 1: tell his dad.
Speaker 2: He's making his plan to get back in good graces
Speaker 2: with his dad, to reconcile, to get back where he belongs.
Speaker 2: And a lot of you are like that. You're like, OK,
Speaker 2: I'm gonna get my life together. I'm gonna do this.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna do that. I'm gonna join a gym, and
Speaker 2: then I'm gonna drink smoothie and then I'm gonna I
Speaker 2: don't want to smooth.
Speaker 1: Want milk shake.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna drink a milkshake. And then I'm gonna join
Speaker 2: a gym and I'm gonna join that gym where they
Speaker 2: have milkshakes at the gym and pizza.
Speaker 1: I like that gem.
Speaker 2: So he's playing it all out, but he's tired, he's exhausted,
Speaker 2: he's a shame. And not to make light of the story,
Speaker 2: I mean, he really doesn't know. Am I even gonna
Speaker 2: be welcome back? Is this even gonna work? And I
Speaker 2: don't just mean this for people y'all who are I mean,
Speaker 2: I certainly mean this for people who don't know God,
Speaker 2: but for those of us who do. There are times
Speaker 2: in our life where we think, I feel sorry for you, preacher.
Speaker 1: You're telling me all this, but you don't know how
Speaker 1: far I am.
Speaker 2: You don't know what's going on with me and my wife.
Speaker 2: One guy finally told me the other day, he said,
Speaker 2: I've been faking you out for five months. I keep
Speaker 2: telling you everything's good, but because I don't want you
Speaker 2: to think bad of me, because you're a preacher.
Speaker 1: But I hain't had a job for five months.
Speaker 2: I've been leaving the house every day just going to Panera,
Speaker 2: so my kids would think I had a job.
Speaker 1: And I don't know what I'm gonna do.
Speaker 2: I'm running out of money, and all over the room
Speaker 2: there are not yet empty nets.
Speaker 1: All over the world.
Speaker 2: So you get this strategy in your mind and you think, Okay,
Speaker 2: here's how I'm gonna get it together.
Speaker 1: Here's sow I'm gonna fix it. And you know that
Speaker 1: could be exhausting.
Speaker 2: It can stop you from even taking the first step. Really,
Speaker 2: I gotta imagine with every step that the boy is taking,
Speaker 2: he's thinking, God, I hope, I hope Dad will have
Speaker 2: me back, even if he'll just let me sleep outside.
Speaker 2: I'll prove myself. I'll work my way back. I'll get there.
Speaker 2: I'll get there. It may take me years, I'll get there.
Speaker 2: So I'm gonna make a each to him. Remember it's
Speaker 2: a distant country. So he's got a long walk.
Speaker 1: Ahead of him.
Speaker 2: And at some point along this long walk, as he's
Speaker 2: rehearsing his speech, father, I'm no longer worthy making me
Speaker 2: a hired servant.
Speaker 1: I've disgraced you, I've shamed you.
Speaker 2: I've sinned, and I'm sorry. Maybe I should put the
Speaker 2: first part first. So I'm sorry, I have sinned.
Speaker 1: I sinned. I'm sorry.
Speaker 2: And every step he's working this out and rehearsing it
Speaker 2: in his mind.
Speaker 1: Here's how many get back, here's how many to do it.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna I'm gonna say to my father. I'm gonna
Speaker 2: say to my father. I'm gonna say to my father.
Speaker 2: And while he's rehearsing his speech, somehow, someway, his father
Speaker 2: is already running toward.
Speaker 11: Them, and you look up and you realize, oh, he's
Speaker 11: already here.
Speaker 2: While he was still a long way off, well, he
Speaker 2: still thought I have so far to go.
Speaker 1: And the one that he was planning to gravel to.
Speaker 11: Grabs him with grace.
Speaker 1: And pulls him in. You're not as far as you
Speaker 1: think you are.
Speaker 2: It takes a while to put your life back together,
Speaker 2: but it only takes a moment to be right with God.
Speaker 1: That's all it is.
Speaker 2: He already decided it, he already paid for it.
Speaker 1: You were always his, you always will be his, always
Speaker 1: have been welcomed in his presence, always will be loved.
Speaker 2: The God have already is the God of every Not yet.
Speaker 1: We stand in the middle today, and I want to
Speaker 1: tell you save your speech.
Speaker 2: God doesn't need you to tell them twenty five reasons
Speaker 2: you're sorry. Just come to them and say, Father, I'm yours,
Speaker 2: and I trust that everything I'm worried about. And tomorrow
Speaker 2: you're already there. You're already on the shore. You're not far,
Speaker 2: so I'm not far. I'm already loved. I'm already Choseph.
Speaker 2: I know who I am. I'm a child of God.
Speaker 2: Nothing can change that. I know what you've spoken. I'm
Speaker 2: already loved more than I could imagine.
Speaker 1: That is enough, mon.
Speaker 12: Moy, I know who lied, I know what's useful. I'm moready,
Speaker 12: more than doggety Marger, the bloody isinglady.
Speaker 10: I'm bracial, and though who lied, I know what's useful
Speaker 10: locking more already, boy the dog be.
Speaker 1: Mad body.
Speaker 3: Seem already. I'm already Jos, I know who. I know
Speaker 3: what you say?
Speaker 11: One thing?
Speaker 13: Pay is he not? Ham already already.
Speaker 2: Joe, Joe, who.
Speaker 1: I know what you come more than I paid?
Speaker 3: Hurdy is he.
Speaker 1: Hey?
Speaker 2: I hope you enjoyed the podcast, and if you did,
Speaker 2: make sure to share it and subscribe so we can
Speaker 2: get you all of these new messages as soon as
Speaker 2: they're available. I also want to take a moment and
Speaker 2: thank all of you who are a part of Elevation.
Speaker 2: Whether you support us financially, or serve with us, or
Speaker 2: just share these messages, it's because of you that we're
Speaker 2: able to reach people all around the world. And if
Speaker 2: you want more information on how to be a part
Speaker 2: of Elevation, click the link in the description. Thanks again
Speaker 2: for listening. Make sure to leave a review, share the message,
Speaker 2: and subscribe.
Speaker 1: God bless you.