Speaker 1: Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick. I'm the pastor of Elevation
Speaker 1: Church and this is our podcast. I wanted to thank
Speaker 1: you for joining us today. Hope this inspires you. Hope
Speaker 1: it builds your faith. Hope it gives you perspective to
Speaker 1: see God is moving in your life. Enjoy the message
Speaker 1: Joshua Chapter fourteen. Please remain standing for one moment in
Speaker 1: respect and honor for the word of God. The Lord
Speaker 1: has given me something today that is so beautiful to me,
Speaker 1: and I pray that I can show it to you
Speaker 1: accurately today and that you can receive it. I praise
Speaker 1: God in advance for the way He's going to show
Speaker 1: you today who He really is in your life and
Speaker 1: who you really are in his eyes. A man, I'm
Speaker 1: so glad you're here. I prayed you wouldn't miss church today.
Speaker 1: I was like, Lord, whoever needs to hear it, even
Speaker 1: if their kids fight them all the way to church
Speaker 1: and they got a flat tire, help them to roll
Speaker 1: down the street on a hubcap to get this message today.
Speaker 1: So if you tuned in, it wasn't by mistake. We
Speaker 1: were praying that everyone who would need this message would
Speaker 1: get it, even if it's two years later and you
Speaker 1: found it on YouTube after watching a cat video or bts.
Speaker 1: This is gonna be your message, This is gonna be
Speaker 1: the one. The Lord has heard the questions you've been asking,
Speaker 1: He's seen the struggle you've been facing, and he wants
Speaker 1: to give you something today to see it in a
Speaker 1: different light. Joshua chapter fourteen a very pivotal scripture for
Speaker 1: the nation of Israel and for us. As Joshua gives
Speaker 1: the inheritance that God promised so many centuries ago to
Speaker 1: the people who were walking into the land, and as
Speaker 1: he's dividing up the different parcels or the lots, casting
Speaker 1: lots to decide which tribe will live on what lot,
Speaker 1: one person takes initiative named Caleb, and I want to
Speaker 1: read you his speech that he made to Joshua, because
Speaker 1: he's trying to convince him that he's supposed to live
Speaker 1: in a certain place, and so he's going to tell
Speaker 1: him some things from his resume, and he's also going
Speaker 1: to tell him some things and reflect on some things
Speaker 1: that have happened. And I want you to eavesdrop on
Speaker 1: it today Joshua fourteen, verse six. Then the people of
Speaker 1: Judah came to Joshua at Gilgal and Caleb, the son
Speaker 1: of Jeffina. I'm so sorry I got to put this
Speaker 1: in here. I wonder if it's significant that it's Judah
Speaker 1: because that represents praise in the Bible, and I wonder
Speaker 1: if there's something about praise that helps us to take
Speaker 1: possession of the promises of God. I just wonder that
Speaker 1: out loud in your presence today. I'm not sure, but
Speaker 1: I wonder if some of the problems that you've been
Speaker 1: focusing on, if you could get in a place of praise,
Speaker 1: you might see the solution clearly Today, We're never going
Speaker 1: to make it through the next state versus if we
Speaker 1: keep interrupting, so start over. Then, the people of Judah
Speaker 1: came to Joshua, Gilgal and Caleb, the son of Jeffuna
Speaker 1: the Kenezite said to him, you know what the Lord
Speaker 1: said to Moses, the man of God in Kate desh Barnea,
Speaker 1: concerning you and me. I was forty years old when Moses,
Speaker 1: the servant of the Lord, sent me from Kate desh Barney.
Speaker 1: I was just a young man, just forty years old.
Speaker 1: That's very youthful, very youthful age. I was forty years old,
Speaker 1: when Moses sent us to spy out the land, and
Speaker 1: I brought him word again, as it was in my heart.
Speaker 1: But my brothers who went up with me, made the
Speaker 1: heart of the people melt. Yet I wholly followed the Lord,
Speaker 1: my God. I didn't let it get to me. I
Speaker 1: didn't let it get in me what they said. And
Speaker 1: Moses swore on that day, saying, surely the land on
Speaker 1: which your foot has trodden shall be an inheritance for
Speaker 1: you and your children forever, because you have wholly followed
Speaker 1: the Lord, my God. And now behold, behold, the Lord
Speaker 1: has kept me Alione, just as he said. These forty
Speaker 1: five years since the time. That's a long time to
Speaker 1: wait for a promise to come to pass. That's a
Speaker 1: long time to suffer for somebody else's disobedience. Forty five
Speaker 1: years I survived the wilderness. It's been forty five years
Speaker 1: since the time that the Lord spoke this word to
Speaker 1: Moses while Israel walked in the wilderness. And now behold,
Speaker 1: I am this day eighty five years old. I am
Speaker 1: still as strong today. Eighty five that's still flexing. I'm
Speaker 1: still as strong today as I was in the day
Speaker 1: that Moses sent me. My strength now is as my
Speaker 1: strength was then, for war and forgoing and coming. So
Speaker 1: now somebody shout, now there's been a long time coming.
Speaker 1: But now give me this hill country of which the
Speaker 1: Lord spoke on that day. For you heard on that
Speaker 1: day how the Anakin were there, with great fortified cities.
Speaker 1: It may be that the Lord will be with me
Speaker 1: and I shall drive them out, just as the Lord said.
Speaker 1: And then Joshua blessed him, and he gave hebren to Caleb,
Speaker 1: the son of Jafunah for an inheritance. Well, look at
Speaker 1: your neighbor and give them my title. And then I
Speaker 1: want to share a lesson with you. Look at him,
Speaker 1: and first of all, say you look amazing. Tell them
Speaker 1: you've never looked better. And now tell him say I
Speaker 1: appreciate that, but my Maker is my mirror. They didn't
Speaker 1: get it. Look at the next person, say I appreciate it,
Speaker 1: but my Maker is my mirror. Thank you Lord for
Speaker 1: illumination of your word in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen, Well
Speaker 1: let's give him one more shout as we take our seat. Amen.
Speaker 1: That wasn't really a shout, It was more of a murmur.
Speaker 1: I can't teach you how to shout one day when
Speaker 1: your kids don't clean up, do that. But for the Lord, Amen,
Speaker 1: it's great that we get to see how God makes
Speaker 1: a nation. He's forming a nation. He said, I want
Speaker 1: a people that can present me to the world. And
Speaker 1: he didn't do it the typical way, because if you
Speaker 1: wanted to have a great nation, you would pick a
Speaker 1: rich one, a wealthy one. And yet, instead of making
Speaker 1: a nation that was already great greater, God found a
Speaker 1: man who was too old to have kids with a
Speaker 1: wife who was barren in her womb, and created a
Speaker 1: great nation out of an impossible situation. I am preaching
Speaker 1: so hard already, and I'm trying to throttle down. But
Speaker 1: this is a message in itself. Is that when God
Speaker 1: found Abram, this was before he had a consonant in
Speaker 1: his name, the artist formerly known as Abram. He went
Speaker 1: on to be Abrahm him he was the father of
Speaker 1: many nations. But when God called him, his stuff wasn't
Speaker 1: even working anymore. And the reason I'm telling you that
Speaker 1: is because sometimes God will speak something over your life
Speaker 1: and you will look in the mirror and not see it.
Speaker 1: He'll speak something in your soul and you'll look in
Speaker 1: the mirror and you won't see it, which is so
Speaker 1: important to know that it's not how God sees you
Speaker 1: that determines where your life ends up. If it had
Speaker 1: been Moses wouldn't have died in the wilderness. It's not
Speaker 1: how God sees me. It's how I think God sees
Speaker 1: me that determines where I end up. I'll prove it
Speaker 1: to you all the way from Genesis chapter one. Remember,
Speaker 1: let us make man in our image. God needed someone
Speaker 1: to show the world what he looked like, or else
Speaker 1: he would have just been a concept. God would have
Speaker 1: been an abstract theory. So he made man, and one
Speaker 1: man to reflect who he was. He needed someone to
Speaker 1: show his nature through. So he made me in you.
Speaker 1: And when you insult the product, you insult the manufacturer,
Speaker 1: which is why it's good to know our theology that
Speaker 1: he made me from the dust. That God took something
Speaker 1: that seemed filthy and something that seemed finite and made
Speaker 1: something that would reflect what is eternal. Then, after making
Speaker 1: the man, he began to create not only the world
Speaker 1: the man, but a nation through Abram, through someone who
Speaker 1: seemed unlikely, and the nation of Israel spent a whole
Speaker 1: lot of time trying to figure out what we spent
Speaker 1: our whole lives trying to figure out, or at least
Speaker 1: our teenage years and our twenties is like, what's my identity?
Speaker 1: So what you're really seeing in Joshua be fourteen is
Speaker 1: not just people getting some real estate, but they're coming
Speaker 1: into their identity, their national identity. And it's hard because
Speaker 1: they've been through so much and they started from something
Speaker 1: so small. It's easy for them to see themselves according
Speaker 1: to what they've been through or where they started. And
Speaker 1: now they're breaking up. There's nine and a half tribes
Speaker 1: that get this land, and so Joshua and the priests
Speaker 1: they're shaking this receptacle. This is how they would cast lots.
Speaker 1: They would take the thing and shake it and they
Speaker 1: would have little wood blocks with different codes on them,
Speaker 1: and then they would kind of shake it out and
Speaker 1: what it fell on that meant this tribe gets that land,
Speaker 1: and this tribe gets that land. When Caleb interrupts the process,
Speaker 1: he's like, hold on, you're not going to figure out
Speaker 1: where I live by just rolling some dice. Okay, I
Speaker 1: got a promise, Moses said. Now, remember Moses was the
Speaker 1: one who was supposed to lead the people into the land,
Speaker 1: but he was unable to do it. And here's how
Speaker 1: I would put it if I were a preacher. He
Speaker 1: got them out of Egypt, but he never got Egypt
Speaker 1: out of them because they were oppressed for you know,
Speaker 1: four hundred and thirty years. And when you've been under
Speaker 1: something for any length of time, when you've been under
Speaker 1: the power of any influence for any length of time,
Speaker 1: that influence becomes your identity. So now your addiction speaks
Speaker 1: more to you about your potential than God's word over you,
Speaker 1: than the prophetic gift that's inside of you. It happens
Speaker 1: to all of us when when you've been suffering from something,
Speaker 1: you can begin to take on the name of your
Speaker 1: disease or your issue. It's writing the name of your creator,
Speaker 1: whose image you were made of. But see, it's how
Speaker 1: you see it, it's how you see yourself. And I
Speaker 1: think I can prove to you if you give me
Speaker 1: like two and a half minutes, that the reason the
Speaker 1: people didn't go into the land under Moses was because
Speaker 1: Moses never really saw himself in the image of his creator.
Speaker 1: Abram did. Abram did even though he had a hard
Speaker 1: time getting with it, even though he was like, you
Speaker 1: got any pills for that or anything like that, because
Speaker 1: I'm old now. And even though he had to wait
Speaker 1: for Isaac and he messed up in the process and
Speaker 1: ended up producing something that caused him more trouble by
Speaker 1: sleeping with Hagar. Even though all of that happened, God
Speaker 1: still called him the father of faith, the father of
Speaker 1: many nations, and to show him who he was, he
Speaker 1: brought him out of his tent, out of his limitation,
Speaker 1: out of his situation, and he said, Okay, here's your revelation.
Speaker 1: Here's your situation. Get out of your situation, and now
Speaker 1: look up, preach into somebody. Look up. And he said,
Speaker 1: count the stars if you can. I don't know how
Speaker 1: far he got before he was like, what's the point
Speaker 1: of God? I can't you know? Three hundred and forty
Speaker 1: three hundred and forty four. What are you trying to
Speaker 1: show me? And God said, as many as they are,
Speaker 1: so shall your descendants be, so shall your seed be.
Speaker 1: So he gives him an image, an image, not just
Speaker 1: an idea, but an image. Now. Colossians one fifteen look
Speaker 1: it up real quick says that Jesus is the image
Speaker 1: of the invisible God. That's very powerful. That Jesus shows
Speaker 1: us what God is like, that the Word became flesh
Speaker 1: and dwelled among us. That's what Jesus is. He is
Speaker 1: the image of the God that we can't see. Did
Speaker 1: I get it right? Colossians one fifteen, That he is
Speaker 1: the image of the invisible God. This is the challenge
Speaker 1: for everybody under the sound of my voice. There is
Speaker 1: a way that God sees you because he formed you.
Speaker 1: There is that you see you. There is a way
Speaker 1: that others see you. And where you go from this
Speaker 1: point forward in your life is going to depend on
Speaker 1: which mirror you believe. I got all these mirrors in
Speaker 1: my house that are messed up, and I know they're
Speaker 1: messed up because they keep showing me. My beard is
Speaker 1: supposed to be black. But I look in those mirrors
Speaker 1: and they're messed up. They're defective. I'm gonna take them
Speaker 1: back to the store because they keep showing me these
Speaker 1: gray patches. Like I'm forty years old and I started
Speaker 1: rebuking mirrors in my house. You know, these lines coming
Speaker 1: up under my eyes, and I'm like, you are a liar,
Speaker 1: like your father the devil. I cast you back to
Speaker 1: the pit of Hell or this it actor. How many
Speaker 1: ever looked in a messed up mirror? How many ever
Speaker 1: have people around you that made you feel a certain
Speaker 1: way about yourself. When Moses was coming into his identity
Speaker 1: and assignment, he had to deal with the fact that
Speaker 1: he was really living with two different images of who
Speaker 1: he was. And remember, God is using Moses to deliver
Speaker 1: the Israelites out of this Egyptian oppression. And when Moses
Speaker 1: first first starts to act on his impulse, he does
Speaker 1: the right thing, but he does it the wrong way.
Speaker 1: He defends his people, but he does it by murdering
Speaker 1: an Egyptian. So he's ahead of his time and he's
Speaker 1: out of his own but he's doing the right thing.
Speaker 1: But he still doesn't know who he is yet, and
Speaker 1: it's difficult for him because he doesn't really fit in
Speaker 1: with either group that he's living with. The Hebrews are
Speaker 1: the people he was born from. The Egyptians are the
Speaker 1: people that he was raised by. But he identifies more
Speaker 1: with the people that he was born from than the
Speaker 1: people he was raised by, so he doesn't really fit in.
Speaker 1: And when you don't really fit into either group, you
Speaker 1: end up running. That's what happened to Moses. He confronted
Speaker 1: an Egyptian who was beating a Hebrew one day, and
Speaker 1: he killed him and buried him. But then the next
Speaker 1: day he went out and saw two of his brothers fighting,
Speaker 1: and he was like, break it up, guys. You know
Speaker 1: we're suffering enough from them. We don't have to kill
Speaker 1: each other. And this isn't a this chapter two. I
Speaker 1: want to show it to you real quick. You got
Speaker 1: it Exodus too. The man said back to him, who
Speaker 1: has made you a prince and a judge over us?
Speaker 1: Do you mean to kill me as you have killed
Speaker 1: the Egyptian? And then Moses was afraid and thought, surely
Speaker 1: the thing is known, and he ran. He ran. We
Speaker 1: don't really see him in his next stage of his
Speaker 1: assignment until forty years later. He ran because he was
Speaker 1: to Hebrew to be an Egyptian and to Egyptian to
Speaker 1: be a Hebrew. And when you don't really fit in
Speaker 1: with either, you don't know who you are, and you
Speaker 1: spend years of your life running from who you really are,
Speaker 1: looking in the mirror of your last mistake. He ran,
Speaker 1: and he ran, and he ran. And see the question
Speaker 1: is the right one, he said, who made you. Who
Speaker 1: made you? But if you don't know that, you will
Speaker 1: hand other people your mirror to show you who you are.
Speaker 1: And let me tell you something about people. People would
Speaker 1: rather define you by your worst mistake. What's crazy about
Speaker 1: Moses is he killed a man and there's only one
Speaker 1: verse in the Bible about the murder. Now, if you
Speaker 1: let church people write the Bible, they would have had
Speaker 1: a whole book about it. Would be called the Book
Speaker 1: of Moses's murder, the Book of Moses's Mistake, the Book
Speaker 1: of Debbi's divorce, the book of your lowest moment. But
Speaker 1: maybe God doesn't see you through the lens of your mistake.
Speaker 1: Maybe he sees you through the lens of his grace.
Speaker 1: Maybe when he looks at you, he sees the finished
Speaker 1: work of Jesus Christ. Have you ever thought about the
Speaker 1: fact that if they didn't make you, they can't define you.
Speaker 1: My maker is I promise. I'm trying to be as
Speaker 1: calm as I can be. But when God showed me
Speaker 1: that my maker is my mirror. He showed me Moses
Speaker 1: standing in front of the burning bush, and God's like,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna use you. You're gonna be the one to
Speaker 1: do it. You're the one who's had the conflicted identity
Speaker 1: and so many mistakes, and you don't even really believe
Speaker 1: in yourself. And so I was thinking about you and
Speaker 1: how you might be standing in front of something that
Speaker 1: God is speaking to you and is burning on the inside,
Speaker 1: but you can't really locate yourself because honestly, you don't
Speaker 1: fit into either group. You don't really fit in with
Speaker 1: really churchy people because they are so perfect and they
Speaker 1: pray so much, and they make Bible verses out of
Speaker 1: their kids sandwiches before they pack them in the lunch
Speaker 1: box numbers thirteen thirty one cut out with scripture stencils
Speaker 1: and pack it in the lunch box like the Fish
Speaker 1: and the Loaves and the Little Boy. And you are
Speaker 1: not churchy enough, but you're really not worldly enough, because
Speaker 1: the spirit of God is on the inside of you
Speaker 1: when you try to sin, telling you that you're something
Speaker 1: greater than that. And you're kind of righteous, but you're
Speaker 1: kind of ratchet, and you're you're kind of a worshiper,
Speaker 1: but you're kind of worldly, and you kind of worry,
Speaker 1: but you kind of worship, and you're kind of organized,
Speaker 1: but you're kind of chaotic and you're kind of powerful,
Speaker 1: but you're kind of petty, and you come on, I'm
Speaker 1: preaching to somebody, and you're a little bit of both.
Speaker 1: And your self concept is in development. And this is
Speaker 1: when it's very important who holds your mirror, because if
Speaker 1: the wrong people show you, you get a distorted image
Speaker 1: of yourself, and then you start matching in your life
Speaker 1: what you see in your mind. That's what That's what
Speaker 1: Moses did. God's like, all right, got a job for
Speaker 1: you to do. I'm gonna use you. I'm gonna give
Speaker 1: you everything you need. Cool. Moses is like, uh but
Speaker 1: uh but uh but see the thing about me. WA's
Speaker 1: what he says. This is Exodus four ten. It's which
Speaker 1: mirror you're looking at, right, So if you look at
Speaker 1: the mirror of what you're missing and you only see
Speaker 1: what's not there, that's what Moses did. He's like, he goes,
Speaker 1: oh my lord, this is an Exodus four ten. O MG.
Speaker 1: He says, oh m L. He's like, I'm not eloquent.
Speaker 1: I am not eloquent. It's funny because I got the
Speaker 1: scripture on the back screen right now, and it's got
Speaker 1: a typo in it. It says, I am eloquent, he
Speaker 1: said the opposite. That's that's what he said, right there,
Speaker 1: I am not eloquent, and you really have both voices.
Speaker 1: That's that's kind of how it feels, right like one
Speaker 1: is saying I am, and one is saying I'm not.
Speaker 1: And I don't know which one. I got this thing
Speaker 1: on the inside of me that feels like I can
Speaker 1: do it and I'm supposed to do it and I'm
Speaker 1: gonna make it. But I got this other thing saying
Speaker 1: and I don't know which way to look. So he said,
Speaker 1: I'm not eloquent. And then he says, either in the
Speaker 1: past or in the last five minutes, nothing has changed
Speaker 1: since you started speaking. It's still the same. I got
Speaker 1: saved and my nose is still big. I got saved,
Speaker 1: and I'm still kind of cross eyed, and I read slow.
Speaker 1: I got saved and I still don't feel intelligent enough.
Speaker 1: I got saved and I still got memories. I got saved,
Speaker 1: and I love God, but I still got trauma. I
Speaker 1: got saved, and I love God, but I'm still limited
Speaker 1: by my experience. He said, I'm not. I'm not what
Speaker 1: you think I am. God's answer is so instructive. Next verse,
Speaker 1: the Lord said, who has made who made your mouth?
Speaker 1: Who made your brain? Yeah? But I'm just weird. What
Speaker 1: if the world is weird and we're the normal ones? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I like it. I gotta be careful who I look
Speaker 1: at when I preach, by the way, because you're like
Speaker 1: a mirror. Oh they put this Chris is Chris Brown around?
Speaker 1: If he's around bringing back out Collen comes when the
Speaker 1: worship leaders are leading. They don't know this, but there
Speaker 1: was a choir out here today at Valentine and they
Speaker 1: were standing on these risers and if Chris didn't coming,
Speaker 1: you'll have to do okay, so LJ. They think that
Speaker 1: they're just up here singing. Come come tell about y'all.
Speaker 1: We could teach a whole thing on this. Can y'all
Speaker 1: still see me back here, because I want to tell
Speaker 1: this to them. One time they discovered that a lot
Speaker 1: of primates and all humans are softwired with mirror neurons,
Speaker 1: so our brains actually experience the same emotion that somebody
Speaker 1: we're watching if we're tuned into them. And they got
Speaker 1: it from a monkey that was watching a man open
Speaker 1: a nut, and they had it hooked up to his
Speaker 1: brain and they saw the same brain activity in the
Speaker 1: monkey's brain, that was in the man's brain who was
Speaker 1: opening the nut. And they realized that all humans are
Speaker 1: wired in such a way with mirror neurons that I
Speaker 1: experience your reality by watching you experience it. So this
Speaker 1: is why when a parent gets mad, kids can feel
Speaker 1: that stuff. They can feel that tension. It's called a
Speaker 1: mirror neuron. Here's what was happening while you were singing.
Speaker 1: This is how I fight my battles. Somebody out there
Speaker 1: was going through a battle, but they've been feeling like
Speaker 1: they were losing. But God puts you out here as
Speaker 1: a mirror. So now all of us. They didn't feel
Speaker 1: victorious this week. But when they saw you worshiping God,
Speaker 1: don't run from me. I got you by this leather coat.
Speaker 1: When they saw you worshiping God, they didn't feel like
Speaker 1: they had the victory. But while you were souting the victory. Now,
Speaker 1: I wonder if you would do that for somebody on
Speaker 1: your row right now. I know you had a hard
Speaker 1: week too, But magnify the Lord with me. Let us
Speaker 1: exalt his name together. If you don't have faith today,
Speaker 1: borrow mine. You are gonna make it up. Said. So
Speaker 1: it's called mirror neurs. And just as contagious as faith is,
Speaker 1: so is cynicism. So if you got cynical people holding
Speaker 1: up your mirror, you'll always feel small. You'll always feel
Speaker 1: smaller than your challengemaller than your giant, smaller than your addiction,
Speaker 1: because you're not looking at your God. But when your
Speaker 1: maker is your mirror. Three forty four, three forty five,
Speaker 1: three forty six, I'm still counting. God's not done yet.
Speaker 1: His mercies are new with every rising up the sun,
Speaker 1: He who began a good work in me, will be
Speaker 1: faithful to complete it. One thing about a mirror, it
Speaker 1: always shows you the image in reverse. God knows how
Speaker 1: your situation turns out. God knows how your story ends.
Speaker 1: God knows what he put in you. When this message
Speaker 1: flooded into my heart, I was like, it's gonna change
Speaker 1: somebody's life because they've just been looking in the wrong mirror,
Speaker 1: been looking at their mistakes. When your mistakes are your mirror,
Speaker 1: you stay on the out of Canaan, even though you
Speaker 1: have the strength to go in, not because you are small,
Speaker 1: but because you see small. So the spies came back
Speaker 1: and they were like, hey, Moses, remember Moses has dealt
Speaker 1: with rejection his whole life, and so a lot of
Speaker 1: times when when people don't accept you, it's because they
Speaker 1: have rejected themselves. Not all the time, a lot of times.
Speaker 1: And this is a really important point. Everybody's acceptance is
Speaker 1: not a blessing because the majority might be the wrong mirror.
Speaker 1: Ten out of twelve said we can't go in. Ten
Speaker 1: out of twelve said there to be We went in.
Speaker 1: This is what they said. We went to the land Moses,
Speaker 1: and they became the mirror for the millions of people
Speaker 1: who had a promise from God but hadn't possessed it yet.
Speaker 1: This is why it's so important who you're around, what
Speaker 1: you take in, what you look at, you become what
Speaker 1: you behold. So the people are giving a report and
Speaker 1: they're like, it's a great place. The valleys are fertile,
Speaker 1: it's a rich land. We brought you back some grapes.
Speaker 1: Grapes were so big they had to carry them on poles.
Speaker 1: But then they stopped looking at God, stopped looking at
Speaker 1: grapes and started talking about giants. And when they looked
Speaker 1: too much at the giants as their mirror, they saw
Speaker 1: themselves as grasshoppers. That's what they said, Number thirteen thirty three.
Speaker 1: They said, there were the Nephelum, the sons of Anak
Speaker 1: who come from the Nephelum. There were giants in the land,
Speaker 1: big strong adversaries that we would have to dispossess to
Speaker 1: take the lamb. And we seemed to ourself, wow, like grasshoppers.
Speaker 1: Not to God. We seem to ourselves like grasshoppers. Most
Speaker 1: people see God really big. Even those who barely believe
Speaker 1: in God see him really big. It's not how big
Speaker 1: you see God, it's how much you believe that God
Speaker 1: is in you. We seemed to ourselves as grasshoppers, and
Speaker 1: so we seemed to them our reflection determined our reality.
Speaker 1: We looked at him. What got me about it is
Speaker 1: that they could have seen the exact same situation in reverse.
Speaker 1: Watch this. They were like, the giants are too big.
Speaker 1: God promised us the victory, but I guess we can't
Speaker 1: go in because of the size of the giants. Reverse it,
Speaker 1: because God always shows you the image and reverse. So
Speaker 1: it's like this, God has already promised us the victory
Speaker 1: and the giants are so big. If the giants are
Speaker 1: that big and God has promised us the victory, If
Speaker 1: what is coming against us is that great, how much
Speaker 1: greater must God be within me? Greater is he come
Speaker 1: on and help me that is within me, then he
Speaker 1: that is in the world. The size of my giant
Speaker 1: is a proof of the size of my God. Thank
Speaker 1: you Lord. If God is letting me experience a challenge
Speaker 1: this big See, God is trying to use your enemies
Speaker 1: to show you how valuable you are in his gigdom.
Speaker 1: And why would you let your enemies hold your mirror? Anyway?
Speaker 1: Who cares what the sons of anac think you look like?
Speaker 1: That's what Caleb said. He was like, shut up, we
Speaker 1: can do it. Hit somebody say shut up, I can
Speaker 1: do it. It's in the Bible too us. In the Bible,
Speaker 1: Caleb said that he says shut up. He silenced the
Speaker 1: people and said, if God is with us, my maker
Speaker 1: is my mirror. And I always thought it was funny
Speaker 1: because he's like, hey, Joshua, I know you're rolling these
Speaker 1: little lots around on the ground to figure out who
Speaker 1: lives there. But remember God gave me a promise that
Speaker 1: I would live in the high place. I want hebron
Speaker 1: hebron three thousand feet above sea level above sea level.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna have to take a month off after I
Speaker 1: preci this message. I've given you everything I got. You've
Speaker 1: been living a C level. You've been looking in the
Speaker 1: wrong mirror. You've been consulting the mirror for your flesh.
Speaker 1: You put twenty minutes into your makeup today, but you
Speaker 1: didn't get you didn't get in this mirror right here.
Speaker 1: This is a mirror too. This is a mirror too.
Speaker 1: You've been struggling over external issues, but what about what's
Speaker 1: in you? James said something curious. He said, if you
Speaker 1: listen to the word and don't do it, you're like
Speaker 1: a man who looks at himself in a mirror. In
Speaker 1: the beginning was a word, and the word was with God,
Speaker 1: and the word was God, My maker is my mirror.
Speaker 1: So I can't look. I can't run around the people
Speaker 1: who are struggling with their own sense of self today
Speaker 1: term in mind, and I can't use the situation either.
Speaker 1: That's why I love Caleb because it's almost like he's lying.
Speaker 1: Come on, man, he's eighty five and he's talking. I'm
Speaker 1: talking about I still got it? Now, what mirror are
Speaker 1: you looking at? Look at somebody says, I still got it.
Speaker 1: It'll feel good to say it too. I still got
Speaker 1: it because I'm not talking about the flesh. I'm talking
Speaker 1: about faith. And the wilderness can do one of two
Speaker 1: things to you. It can kill you or it can
Speaker 1: make you stronger. Caleb said, all that I went through,
Speaker 1: I didn't get bitter. I didn't get the wilderness in me,
Speaker 1: even though I went through the wilderness. In fact, everything
Speaker 1: I went through over the last four and a half
Speaker 1: decades only serve to convince me that much more that
Speaker 1: I still got it. I mean, if God promised it
Speaker 1: to be back then and saw me through all this,
Speaker 1: I don't want to live at the level of feelings.
Speaker 1: You settle too low. You settle for what you see,
Speaker 1: You settle for what people say. You settle for old templates,
Speaker 1: you settle for old scripts, you settle for emotions. When
Speaker 1: you're seated in heavenly places with Jesus, you gotta settle up.
Speaker 1: You gotta get up above what you see, above what
Speaker 1: you feel, and above what you've been through. He said,
Speaker 1: I want to live. I want to live where the
Speaker 1: blessings are. I want to live where the battles are.
Speaker 1: You can't have a victory without a battle. God is
Speaker 1: raising you up right now. He's doing it through a process.
Speaker 1: The level you will settle on is the level that
Speaker 1: you see yourself. And it makes me so sad to
Speaker 1: think of how many times that you and I have
Speaker 1: gone to the wrong mirrors. And so we see a
Speaker 1: grasshopper when we're really a giant. When we see a
Speaker 1: failure when really it was a lesson, when we see
Speaker 1: what's missing because we can only see through the filter
Speaker 1: of our fear. God said, let us make man in
Speaker 1: our image, in our likeness. You are not my maker.
Speaker 1: You will not be my mirror. When God said I
Speaker 1: Am to Moses, you know my name is I Am,
Speaker 1: he was trying to get him to see you are
Speaker 1: as I am. That's what a mirror does. God says,
Speaker 1: I want to see myself in you. When God sees you,
Speaker 1: he sees himself. He sees his son. Christ is the
Speaker 1: image of the invisible God. And if he is in you,
Speaker 1: he is more than the world against you. I want
Speaker 1: to pray for a few hundred people today. You will
Speaker 1: know who you are if the message resonated with you
Speaker 1: in a personal way, and it's this. You've been going
Speaker 1: to the wrong mirror. You've been consulting physical, natural, relational elements,
Speaker 1: incomplete fragmented elements, and you don't know who you are
Speaker 1: right now, and you're stuck between two realities. The message
Speaker 1: God gave me was your Maker is your mirror. And
Speaker 1: you know what's beautiful, You're his. He wants to use
Speaker 1: you to reflect himself to the world, and so he's
Speaker 1: gonna give you some stuff. Some of it's gonna be
Speaker 1: giants in front of you, some of it's gonna be
Speaker 1: giants inside of you. David was good at killing giants
Speaker 1: as long as they were standing in front of him.
Speaker 1: It was the ones within him that took him out.
Speaker 1: Some of them are gonna be short term, some of
Speaker 1: them are gonna be long term. If you go to
Speaker 1: the wrong mirror, you'll always feel small. But if you
Speaker 1: will learn how to worship and get in the word
Speaker 1: of God and believe the promise that He spoke over
Speaker 1: your life and get in this mirror, you are not
Speaker 1: going to win over insecurity. Looking in the mirror of Instagram,
Speaker 1: it is only going to show you what you're not,
Speaker 1: what you can, and what you want. But if you
Speaker 1: get in this mirror, I'm telling you the word of
Speaker 1: God can do something for your spirit. It can make
Speaker 1: you stronger in your spirit than your enemies are in
Speaker 1: your situation. Now, stand up on your feet. I want
Speaker 1: to pray with you. I want to pray with you.
Speaker 1: I want to prophesy over you. I don't want anyone
Speaker 1: moving or leaving. The Lord said that this word would
Speaker 1: hit deep for the ones who needed it. Have been
Speaker 1: seeing themselves, according to past experiences, have been looking in
Speaker 1: a rear view mirror at something that happened, and are
Speaker 1: about to wreck in the face of their future. And
Speaker 1: he said that today he wanted to give you a
Speaker 1: different mirror, different mirror. Caleb said, I'm not just settling
Speaker 1: for my lot in life. I'm not just settling for depression.
Speaker 1: I was hesitant to preach the message because I thought
Speaker 1: people would hear it like it was some you know,
Speaker 1: God give me my BMW. You know, God make me famous.
Speaker 1: That's not what Caleb said. He said, I want the challenge.
Speaker 1: I want the altitude. I want the opportunity to prove
Speaker 1: God again. I want to live at the high place.
Speaker 1: I want to be my higher self. I'm still strong,
Speaker 1: I still got it. I still got it. My faith
Speaker 1: went through testing forty five years and I survived. I
Speaker 1: still got it. I'm not ashamed of what I went through.
Speaker 1: It proves that God was with me. I still got it.
Speaker 1: Thank you for your word, Lord, It shows us who
Speaker 1: we are. Thank you for worship where we can reflect you,
Speaker 1: where we can be hold your glory. Close your eyes, visualize.
Speaker 1: The king told Elisha that he would strike the ground
Speaker 1: three times. Elisha said, you, you've got to see the victory.
Speaker 1: Before you see the victory, open the east window and shoot.
Speaker 1: It's the first creation. Is you got to be able
Speaker 1: to see yourself made of dust but touched with divinity.
Speaker 1: You gotta see yourself free, even though you don't feel free,
Speaker 1: even though you still keep running back to lesser stuff.
Speaker 1: You gotta know you got a higher purpose and a
Speaker 1: greater name. I wish you would lift your hands in
Speaker 1: His presence, wherever you are. I wish you would lift
Speaker 1: them high and surrender. I wish you would lift them
Speaker 1: like the burden has been rolled away, and begin to sing.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna see a victory. I'm gonna see a victory.
Speaker 1: I shall see it. I'm gonna see it in my spirit.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna see it in my heart. I'm gonna see it.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna see deliverance. I'm gonna see the red Sea part.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna see the mountains move. I'm gonna see it
Speaker 1: come to pass in my blood line. I'm gonna see it.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna see it. I'm gonna have the joy of
Speaker 1: the Lord. I'm gonna see it. I'm gonna fulfill it.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna walk in it. I'm gonna receive it. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna prove it. I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna make it.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna sound it, I'm gonna declare it. Thank you
Speaker 1: for joining us. Special thanks to those of you who
Speaker 1: give generously to this ministry. Is because of you that
Speaker 1: this ministry is possible. You can click the link in
Speaker 1: the description to give now, or visit Elevation Church dot
Speaker 1: org slash podcast for more information and if you enjoyed
Speaker 1: the podcast, you can subscribe. You can share it with
Speaker 1: your friends. You can click the share button, take a
Speaker 1: screenshot and share it on your social stories and tag
Speaker 1: us at Elevation Church. Thanks again for listening. God bless you.