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 your perspective to
Speaker 1: see God is moving in your life. Enjoy the message.
Speaker 1: Turn in your bible to Matthew. Excuse me. Mark chapter three.
Speaker 1: I'll go to Matthew in a minute. I got so
Speaker 1: much scripture. This is gonna be overwhelming today. I hope
Speaker 1: you wore sweatpants because you're gonna get fat off of
Speaker 1: this bread from heaven today. You need an elastic waistband
Speaker 1: for this. God has been speaking to me because I
Speaker 1: asked him. I said, God, give me a message for
Speaker 1: your people, and he gave me so much to give.
Speaker 1: We'll see if we can get it done all in
Speaker 1: this one session. Mark chapter three. I'm gonna pick up
Speaker 1: at verse twenty. Do you remember a couple of years
Speaker 1: ago I preached savage Jesus and we were saying, how
Speaker 1: Jesus isn't solved, Jesus isn't scared. Jesus is so great
Speaker 1: and so awesome and so powerful, and he's confident in
Speaker 1: that way that true authority always carries itself to know
Speaker 1: who he is and what he came to do. So
Speaker 1: I figured we spend some time with him today, our example,
Speaker 1: the author and finisher of our faith. Let's spend some
Speaker 1: time with Jesus, seeing his example. In his days, things
Speaker 1: were much different than they are now. There was a division,
Speaker 1: political division, it was different. The Bible's not as relevant
Speaker 1: in our times. But in his day there was uncertainty,
Speaker 1: there was instability, and so he was dealing with things
Speaker 1: that we don't deal with as an advanced civilization. But
Speaker 1: let's see if we can find any help at all
Speaker 1: from this quaint book called the Bible that has absolutely
Speaker 1: no bearing on our current lives. That was sarcasm. I
Speaker 1: can see them taking that and putting that on YouTube,
Speaker 1: So I have to okay, Mark three, verse twenty. This
Speaker 1: is the message that I never got to preach from
Speaker 1: savage Jesus, and so we're doing it today. Then Jesus
Speaker 1: entered a house. Somebody say, come in my house. Lord,
Speaker 1: come on, come in my house, Come in this room,
Speaker 1: Come in my kitchen. God, come in this house, right now,
Speaker 1: come in my house, Come in my heart. Then Jesus
Speaker 1: entered a house. And I believe he's come into your
Speaker 1: house today too. Okay, not mister Rogers, but Jesus come
Speaker 1: into your house right now. He said that he entered
Speaker 1: a house. This is what Mark said. And a crowd
Speaker 1: gathered so that he and his disciples were not even
Speaker 1: able to eat. And when his family heard about this,
Speaker 1: they went to take charge of him, for they said
Speaker 1: he is out of his mind. And the teachers of
Speaker 1: the law who came down from Jerusalem, said, he is
Speaker 1: possessed by Beelzeble, by the prince of demons. He's driving
Speaker 1: out demons. So Jesus called them over to him and
Speaker 1: began to speak to them in parables. How can Satan
Speaker 1: drive out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself,
Speaker 1: that kingdom cannot stand. If a house is divided against itself,
Speaker 1: that house cannot stand. And if Satan opposes himself and
Speaker 1: is divided, he cannot stand. His end has come. In fact,
Speaker 1: no one can enter a strong man's house without first
Speaker 1: tying him up. Then he can plunder the strong man's house. Truly,
Speaker 1: I tell you, people can be forgiven all their sins
Speaker 1: and every slander they utter. Some of you better praise
Speaker 1: God with the some of the stuff you've said. That's
Speaker 1: a good verse. Let me read it again. People can
Speaker 1: be forgiven all their sins and every facebook they utter.
Speaker 1: I lost, y'all. But whoever blasphemes listen to this against
Speaker 1: the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven. They are guilty
Speaker 1: of an eternal sin. He said this because they were
Speaker 1: saying he has an impure spirit. Then Jesus' mother and
Speaker 1: brothers arrived right just at that moment of pension, this
Speaker 1: climax of conflict with the scribes. Here come his family members,
Speaker 1: and standing outside. I want you to pay attention to
Speaker 1: this standing outside, they sent someone to call him. Standing outside,
Speaker 1: they sent someone in to call him. What I want
Speaker 1: to talk to you today is from something you might
Speaker 1: have heard in school from your teacher. The message is
Speaker 1: called use your inside voice. Did you ever have a
Speaker 1: teacher tell you that? Did you ever tell those fifth
Speaker 1: graders at Township three Elementary? Paul Holly was a school
Speaker 1: teacher when we first got married, and she taught these
Speaker 1: wild kids use your inside voice. And of course, you know,
Speaker 1: I always love to talk about my kids any chance
Speaker 1: I get, because I'm proud of them and using them
Speaker 1: as sermon illustration, as a way that I have them
Speaker 1: earn their keep around the house and they don't do
Speaker 1: anything else. But I figure, Abby is what do you
Speaker 1: call it? A paradox because she's the littlest one in
Speaker 1: our family and the loudest, and we often wonder about Abby.
Speaker 1: How can she be so little and so loud? It's
Speaker 1: baffling to the mind. I had to slash back whilst
Speaker 1: preparing this week, thinking about use your inside voice of
Speaker 1: one time she came to me, and I'm not going
Speaker 1: to make up what she said, because honestly don't remember,
Speaker 1: but she was probably fussing about her brother's The odds
Speaker 1: are very high that she that's what she was tweaked about.
Speaker 1: She said, uh, she says, A there's a lot of
Speaker 1: people around. I think it was at church and he
Speaker 1: was at church and there were people around. So she's
Speaker 1: so loud and she doesn't even know how loud she is.
Speaker 1: And I say, baby, I'm listening, use your inside voice.
Speaker 1: She goes without adjusting her volume one decibel. This is
Speaker 1: my inside voice. She was so confused, so frustrated. This
Speaker 1: is my inside voice. I wonder about your inside voice,
Speaker 1: and what I wonder is what is your inside voice?
Speaker 1: Mine would scare you my inside voice. I'm using that
Speaker 1: not to mean my volume level. I'm using that to
Speaker 1: mean my thought process and how critical I am of myself.
Speaker 1: Even right now, in this moment, there are two preachers preaching,
Speaker 1: the one you hear and the one I hear. And
Speaker 1: in between everything that the one you hear is saying,
Speaker 1: the one I hear is trying to stop me from
Speaker 1: saying what I'm saying, your inside voice, because I wonder
Speaker 1: about your inside voice, because Holly's not that self critical
Speaker 1: like I am, and I've often wished that I could
Speaker 1: take a break from my brain and spend a day
Speaker 1: inside of hers. I thought that would feel like a vacation,
Speaker 1: because she's really nice to herself. It turns out, and
Speaker 1: one time we were watching this movie and they were
Speaker 1: externalizing an inside voice, and it was so harsh and
Speaker 1: it was so bad and it was almost demonic. And
Speaker 1: I told her after the movie, I said, that's exactly
Speaker 1: what it sounds like in my head. She's really that's
Speaker 1: the dumbest movie scene I've ever seen in my life.
Speaker 1: I didn't relate to it at all. And we were
Speaker 1: watching the same movie and having a completely different experience
Speaker 1: within our own minds. About your inside voice, Abby said,
Speaker 1: this is my inside voice. It's just normal to me.
Speaker 1: I just walk around talking at this volume all the time.
Speaker 1: Somebody asked me sometimes, are you the same off the
Speaker 1: stage as on the stage. I was like, well, I
Speaker 1: hope I have the same character, but I don't speak
Speaker 1: at the same volume. It would be so weird to
Speaker 1: walk in the house. You know, this is offside my pavia,
Speaker 1: sit down, they got the trash. This is all lotsed dishes.
Speaker 1: I don't do that at home. Liver approaches right. And
Speaker 1: what I noticed about Jesus, I promised, this is a sermon. Uh,
Speaker 1: this is a sermon from the Bible, from the passage
Speaker 1: I just read you. What I noticed about Jesus is
Speaker 1: that he was rarely, if ever, driven by the opinions
Speaker 1: of outside voices. Think about it. I grew up hearing
Speaker 1: all about how Jesus died for our sin, and he did.
Speaker 1: That's foundational. But what I wonder about for a lot
Speaker 1: of us, your inside voice, my inside voice, All of
Speaker 1: the voices that we consume on a daily basis, whether
Speaker 1: we read them with our eyes or hear them with
Speaker 1: our ears, all of the inputs, all of the noise
Speaker 1: that I mentioned earlier. What I wonder about that is,
Speaker 1: have we accepted that Jesus died to forgive us for
Speaker 1: our sin, but not experienced that he also died to
Speaker 1: deliver us from cynicism. Can I preach for three and
Speaker 1: a half hours today? Maybe we'll do that. Maybe we'll
Speaker 1: just preach and chop it up and run it to
Speaker 1: the end of the year. Because Jesus didn't just die
Speaker 1: for my sin. He died for my cynical heart, which
Speaker 1: I will mention multiple times in this message, but it's
Speaker 1: all from the text. I mean, think about it. Jesus's
Speaker 1: greatest struggle in life was not the temptation to sin.
Speaker 1: He was perfect, blameless, God of God. He was the
Speaker 1: son of David. But he was also the Lamb slain
Speaker 1: from the foundation of the earth. That means he was
Speaker 1: perfectly pure. That means it no matter what he was
Speaker 1: tempted with, he knew within who he was. Yet we
Speaker 1: see him in this passage, like so many passages, dealing
Speaker 1: with the cynicism of those he came to save, not
Speaker 1: the people outside the church, but the passage I read.
Speaker 1: You said that the scribes king all the way from
Speaker 1: Jerusalem to Capernaum, where he was doing his ministry around
Speaker 1: the Sea of Galilee. Remember he was born in Bethlehem,
Speaker 1: grew up in Nazareth, and then he moved to Capernaum.
Speaker 1: That's cool. He moved away from where he came from
Speaker 1: to do what he came to do. I'll come back
Speaker 1: to that, I promise. If I forget, come up here
Speaker 1: and tell me to go back to it, because it's
Speaker 1: very important. Now. These rulers come from Jerusalem and they
Speaker 1: come to accuse Jesus. They're fired up and mad, probably
Speaker 1: not because of what he's doing, but because they are
Speaker 1: not able to do it. So when you see someone
Speaker 1: who is able to do something that you can't do,
Speaker 1: it is easier to criticize it than it is to
Speaker 1: be challenged by it. For many of us, I feel
Speaker 1: like preaching cynicism has become our strategy. It's how we
Speaker 1: deal with disappointment. We don't get our hopes up, then
Speaker 1: no one can bring them down. For many of us,
Speaker 1: cynicism sir as a shield to keep us from ever
Speaker 1: exposing ourselves to the elements of mystery, which are the
Speaker 1: essence of faith in God. These cynical scribes. Can I
Speaker 1: tell you about the scribes. They had a lot of knowledge,
Speaker 1: but they didn't have real wisdom. They had a lot
Speaker 1: of knowledge. Information was their specialty. They were trained in
Speaker 1: the law and discipline. These were not pornographers. These were
Speaker 1: valued members, esteemed members of the Sanhedrin, the Jewish ruling council.
Speaker 1: Them that should have known that the one who was
Speaker 1: the fulfillment of the law that they had expertly divined
Speaker 1: was standing right in front of them, But they criticized
Speaker 1: the very one that they spoke of, and they didn't
Speaker 1: even know it, because Jesus was doing weird stuff, healing
Speaker 1: shriveled hands, packing out crowds. And I wanted to tell
Speaker 1: you this, Annah. In Mark's Gospel it says crowd thirteen times,
Speaker 1: and it's never positive. Me. As a preacher, I always
Speaker 1: wanted to draw a crowd. But when Mark records his gospel,
Speaker 1: the thing that most preachers are trying to create was
Speaker 1: the thing that actually got in Jesus' way of doing
Speaker 1: what he came to do. That's not just for preachers.
Speaker 1: A lot of the times, the things that the world
Speaker 1: celebrates actually get in the way of God doing what
Speaker 1: he wants to do in your life. So everybody wants
Speaker 1: to be busy, that's another way of saying crowded. But
Speaker 1: sometimes our busyness is the very thing that keeps God
Speaker 1: from doing his work his business. Now, now, Jesus said,
Speaker 1: I have to be about my father's business, not what
Speaker 1: the crowds or the consumers wanted him to do. He
Speaker 1: had to be about building what he called in this
Speaker 1: passage his father's kingdom, or the Kingdom of God, the
Speaker 1: kingdom of Heaven. It was a phrase that was unique
Speaker 1: to Jesus. He came to inaugurate that kingdom, and he
Speaker 1: was doing it. And in order to do that, he
Speaker 1: had to drive out Satan. So this man comes to him,
Speaker 1: and we don't read about him in Mark's Gospel, but
Speaker 1: we read about him in the other gospels where he
Speaker 1: was possessed with a demon and he couldn't speak, he
Speaker 1: was mute, and he couldn't see, he was blind. And
Speaker 1: so the Bible says that Jesus dealt with both of
Speaker 1: those issues. And since we're talking about inside voice, it's
Speaker 1: significant that the man left speaking right, that the man
Speaker 1: who could not speak now could speak. Hold that for
Speaker 1: a moment, now here come. The Pharisees describes it was
Speaker 1: their job to interpret the law, and now they can't
Speaker 1: even interpret the actions of the one who stands in
Speaker 1: front of them to fulfill the law. I'm going deep today,
Speaker 1: Are you with me? So? What God showed me in
Speaker 1: this context is that the cynicism of the scribes was
Speaker 1: one thing because they had too much knowledge, and it
Speaker 1: blocked wisdom. Too much noise, too much of how we
Speaker 1: think things are supposed to be, too much of our
Speaker 1: mastery of God closes us from the mystery of God,
Speaker 1: and it makes you cynical. It makes you start to
Speaker 1: think that you know God better than God. Before he
Speaker 1: died for our sin, he had to deal with their cynicism. Now,
Speaker 1: can I really freak you out? Go to Matthew twelve
Speaker 1: Real Quick twenty five. This is the same account. He
Speaker 1: heals this demon possessed man, and the scribes don't like it.
Speaker 1: They don't like it. It threatens them. So they do
Speaker 1: what we do when we get threatened. They criticize, They
Speaker 1: become cynical. They don't want to learn anything, They don't
Speaker 1: really want to experience what God came to bring. They
Speaker 1: just want to defend themselves. You know how you hide
Speaker 1: your own dysfunction. I'm not breaking it down fine enough
Speaker 1: for you. You You know the thoughts you have when you
Speaker 1: go through your Instagram feed about other people. A lot
Speaker 1: of those are designed to keep you from having to
Speaker 1: be alone with you. So the scribes have their scrolls right,
Speaker 1: and they interpreted the scrolls. What's it called when you're
Speaker 1: on your phone? Say that they and they accuse him
Speaker 1: of doing the devil's work, but they don't do it
Speaker 1: out loud. This is what I want to show you
Speaker 1: Verse twenty five. Jesus knew their thoughts. If that happened
Speaker 1: every time you came to church, your stuff coming, be
Speaker 1: honest about it. Come on, tell me about your inside voice.
Speaker 1: I've told you about mine. Mine will tell me the
Speaker 1: most horrible things about myself about others. It is unthinkable.
Speaker 1: It is not Pg. Thirteen what my inside voice says
Speaker 1: to me. I'm sorry, but it's not King James English.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, it's not Greek, it's not its compound. Cuss
Speaker 1: words is cuss words in tongues, is cuss words that
Speaker 1: bypass cultural cuss words. I'm talking about my inside voice,
Speaker 1: and Jesus heard what they said in their heart. So
Speaker 1: it goes to show you can have all the words right,
Speaker 1: you can sing all the songs, you can do all
Speaker 1: the stuff, you can call yourself a certain label. Jesus
Speaker 1: knew their thoughts, and we think that he came to
Speaker 1: deal with our external values. He came to deal with
Speaker 1: your inside voice. I want to talk about your inside voice.
Speaker 1: I want to talk about the temptations that you don't
Speaker 1: bring up in e group. Ah ah. They are not
Speaker 1: Zoom appropriate, they are not church appropriate. You don't need
Speaker 1: to tell anybody. But he knew their thoughts. The word
Speaker 1: was made flesh. That means he already knows. He knows
Speaker 1: it before you speak it. It's so silly what we
Speaker 1: try to hide from God. When he hears your inside voice.
Speaker 1: He hears your inside voice. One scripture says that his
Speaker 1: spirit interprets their grooms. When you don't know what to pray,
Speaker 1: and you can't find anything to pray, and all you
Speaker 1: can barely do is move your lips, he interprets that
Speaker 1: the scribes can't do it, the Savior can't. He knows
Speaker 1: how to interpret the events of your life. He's good
Speaker 1: at that, but we're not. So they see him he
Speaker 1: makes a mute man speak and they go, that must
Speaker 1: be the devil. Because you know in church we love
Speaker 1: nothing more than to blame the devil. We should do
Speaker 1: a word count of one of my sermons one day
Speaker 1: and see if I say Jesus or the devil more
Speaker 1: in my sermon, I might be embarrassed. Well, we do
Speaker 1: it all the time, when we give the devil credit
Speaker 1: for something that God is actually trying to do. That's
Speaker 1: what they were doing in the passage. Oh, the devil
Speaker 1: did that. The devil attacked me. I was the devil.
Speaker 1: It wasn't the devil. And I don't know. If you
Speaker 1: want to write this down, you write it down. The
Speaker 1: devil didn't do it. The devil didn't do it. Sometimes
Speaker 1: your decisions did it. The devil didn't wreck your car.
Speaker 1: You're trying to turn the radio station at the same
Speaker 1: time you tried to return the text that wrecked your car.
Speaker 1: That wasn't the devil. That's what Jesus said. The devil
Speaker 1: didn't do this. In fact, it was Jesus doing it.
Speaker 1: But they blamed the devil. It's like this voice that
Speaker 1: always makes you a victim, this voice that always tries
Speaker 1: to give the devil credit for things that God is
Speaker 1: actually doing. It'tn' crazy that the Kingdom of God was coming,
Speaker 1: but their cynicism stopped them from participating in it. Oh,
Speaker 1: the number of times that you and I have missed
Speaker 1: the God who was in our midst and the miracles
Speaker 1: he was performing because of a cynical spirit. And I'm
Speaker 1: going to show you where all that comes from in
Speaker 1: the text. See in the text, you have a contrast
Speaker 1: is the kingdom of God and the kingdom of Satan.
Speaker 1: Did you notice that he said if Satan's kingdom is divided,
Speaker 1: it will fall. And the crazy thing about it is
Speaker 1: Satan is more strategic about his kingdom than a lot
Speaker 1: of God's children are about God's kingdom, because we do
Speaker 1: all the time what the devil knows better than to
Speaker 1: ever do. He says, Satan won't fight Satan. He's bringing
Speaker 1: a kingdom. But we, as God's children, we don't have
Speaker 1: enough good sense, so we embrace strategies of cynicism, and
Speaker 1: we call it wisdom. So let me tell you something
Speaker 1: and it'll come up on the screen when I say
Speaker 1: it online later, not right now. They'll put it on later,
Speaker 1: And I promise you's gonna come up on the screen.
Speaker 1: Cynicism is counterfeit wisdom. It looks like wisdom. It looks
Speaker 1: like that tag Lawyer watch that I bought for thirty
Speaker 1: dollars in New York. It looked like a tag. It
Speaker 1: wasn't a tag. It looks like the truth. It isn't
Speaker 1: the truth. It looks like righteousness. It's not righteousness. It
Speaker 1: looks like faith. It's really manipulation. Cynicism is counter It's
Speaker 1: as fake as that Louis v. Gucci bag that you
Speaker 1: picked up online from an It's as fake as that.
Speaker 1: When you go through life with a cynical spirit, that
Speaker 1: is not the spirit of God. And let me just
Speaker 1: tell you something right now, I don't intend to run
Speaker 1: this pulpit with the spirit of cynicism. No matter what
Speaker 1: happens in the world. Gospel means good news, good news,
Speaker 1: good news, freedom. I'm gonna preach that for this pulpit.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna preach that from this pulpit. How about your pulpit?
Speaker 1: Whose report? Will you believe? Bus Her inside voice, So
Speaker 1: he's building this kingdom in the contrast. At first I
Speaker 1: thought it was God versus Satan. Then I thought, well,
Speaker 1: that's kind of it. But it's something else too, And
Speaker 1: then I thought, well, maybe it's maybe it's maybe it's
Speaker 1: maybe it's about the strong man versus the weak man,
Speaker 1: because in the text too. And then there's this verse
Speaker 1: that people worry about where it says, if you've blasting
Speaker 1: the Holy Spirit, you can never be forgiven. And people
Speaker 1: are thinking, oh, no, have I done that? But if
Speaker 1: you're even asking have I done that, you haven't done that,
Speaker 1: because that is the Holy Spirit convicting you, which means
Speaker 1: that you are not denying His work inside of you.
Speaker 1: So when he says anything you say or do can
Speaker 1: be forgiven, that's based on the finished work of Christ
Speaker 1: that he was completing. But what cannot be forgiven is
Speaker 1: a sin that you will not deal with. And that's
Speaker 1: why he mentions the Holy Spirit. So on one hand,
Speaker 1: you have the kingdom of Satan versus the Kingdom of God.
Speaker 1: On the other hand, there's like a division, he says,
Speaker 1: a house divided against his self. He's talking about the
Speaker 1: eternal versus the temporal, the eternal versus the ephemeral, what
Speaker 1: lasts forever versus what's gonna wither in faith word of
Speaker 1: the Lord versus the values of the world. But here
Speaker 1: came the real thing for me, and it went all
Speaker 1: the way back to the beginning. Do you remember how
Speaker 1: when I started reading the text in verse twenty, I
Speaker 1: stopped and said, then Jesus entered a house. And you're
Speaker 1: probably thinking, like, come on, man, get on with it,
Speaker 1: you know, don't make a big deal about this. No, no, no,
Speaker 1: Everything significant that happens in this text happens on the inside.
Speaker 1: He entered a house, probably Simon's house, Peter's house. That's
Speaker 1: where he stayed in Capernaum. Yeah, that's where he stayed.
Speaker 1: And they probably just got done repairing the roof because
Speaker 1: in Mark chapter two, there was a big crow and
Speaker 1: the man who really needed help couldn't get in, so
Speaker 1: they tore off the roof to get the men down
Speaker 1: to Jesus. So now the roof is freshly repaired, there's
Speaker 1: another crow. Peter's telling Mark the gospel. He's the one
Speaker 1: who gave Mark the account to write, and Mark wrote
Speaker 1: it for Peter. So Peter puts in there, we didn't
Speaker 1: even have a chance to eat. I think that's probably
Speaker 1: due to what he was really focused on, you know, like,
Speaker 1: of all the things to remember, Jesus is driving out devils,
Speaker 1: and Peter's like and we miss lunch, you know, we
Speaker 1: get focused on the temporal. But really the contrast that
Speaker 1: I want to bring up is external internal, because not
Speaker 1: only is Jesus receiving criticism and opposition from the scribes,
Speaker 1: but his own family. I never heard more people tell
Speaker 1: me than this year, in fourteen years of pastoring, how
Speaker 1: they're not even speaking to their own family. It's got
Speaker 1: us so divided with different things that are going on.
Speaker 1: And yet when I preach the passage, everybody thinks they're Jesus.
Speaker 1: Everybody thinks they're Jesus. So if I preach this and
Speaker 1: I say his family was standing on the outside of
Speaker 1: the house, everybody thinks that they're Jesus in the passage.
Speaker 1: And I came with something real deep to tell you, you
Speaker 1: you and Jesus. In Jesus, I see a wife elbowing
Speaker 1: her husband right now on a couch in Minnesota, saying,
Speaker 1: you and Jesus, I did not tell you to tell
Speaker 1: your neighbor that. But listen to me when I say this.
Speaker 1: The secret to Jesus doing his father's will, and the
Speaker 1: secret to you doing the will of God, and the
Speaker 1: secret to you not going crazy in this season of
Speaker 1: life and with what the world is going through, is
Speaker 1: going to be the voices that you respond to. The
Speaker 1: voices that you respond to are going to come mainly
Speaker 1: on what you surround yourself with. God help me preach it.
Speaker 1: What made Jesus so strong? Remember he said, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: go in the house of Satan and I'm gonna tie
Speaker 1: him up. And if I bind the strong man, if
Speaker 1: somebody greater, somebody stronger, he says, I am binding Satan.
Speaker 1: That's what he was doing. Now. He could not bind
Speaker 1: Satan if he was fighting with people. So when he
Speaker 1: gets to the point where the scribes are criticizing him,
Speaker 1: and they're not even saying it out loud, but they're
Speaker 1: saying it in their heart, one translation says, they reasoned
Speaker 1: in their heart. Look what Jesus did in verse twenty three.
Speaker 1: You got it on the screen verse twenty three. No, no, no,
Speaker 1: I'm talking about Mark three twenty three. I'm sorry. I
Speaker 1: think I gave them the whole New Testament to get
Speaker 1: ready for the sermon today. Here it is, so Jesus
Speaker 1: called them over to him. They're over on the other
Speaker 1: side of the room. The scribes thinking about what Jesus
Speaker 1: just did. But he doesn't shout. He calls them over
Speaker 1: so he can use his his what, his why. See,
Speaker 1: real power doesn't have to show. He called them over.
Speaker 1: He knew where he came from, he knew who he was.
Speaker 1: Do you do you I'm checking on your inside voice.
Speaker 1: On one hand, externally speaking, I am the child of
Speaker 1: faith Bracy Lyles Ferdick. On one hand, speaking genetically, I
Speaker 1: am the son of Larry Stevens Ferdick. I am Larry
Speaker 1: Stevens Furdick, Jr. On one hand, but that's not where
Speaker 1: I came from. Do you know where you come from?
Speaker 1: Let me show you in first John where you came from.
Speaker 1: You're ready for this? Now, where did Jesus come from?
Speaker 1: I just told you. He was born in Bethlehem. He
Speaker 1: grew up in Nazareth. He went to Capernaum. But in
Speaker 1: the beginning was the Word, and the word was with God,
Speaker 1: and the Word was God. So Jesus didn't come from Mary.
Speaker 1: He came through Mary. So and his family showed up
Speaker 1: and said, Hey, here's what you gotta do. And the
Speaker 1: scribes showed up from the synagogue and said, hey, here's
Speaker 1: what you gotta do. And everybody had an opinion. Jesus
Speaker 1: was not driven by their opinions. He was steered by
Speaker 1: the will of his father. Are you are you? Because
Speaker 1: if you're not, you're going to be tossed and driven
Speaker 1: with the wind, and your emotions are going to ruin
Speaker 1: your life, and your cynicism is going to constrict your wisdom.
Speaker 1: First John four, where do you come from? Ask somebody,
Speaker 1: where do you come from? Look at them in the
Speaker 1: pupils of their eyes. Y'all didn't say it in the room.
Speaker 1: Where do you come from? Ask them again, where do
Speaker 1: you come from? You don't even have to answer. I'm
Speaker 1: going to answer it. You ready for this? This is
Speaker 1: first John four, verse four. I love this Bible verse.
Speaker 1: I've quoted it a lot. I don't think I ever
Speaker 1: understood it till this week. One John four four? Are
Speaker 1: you ready? You, dear children, are from God? Check this morning? Okay?
Speaker 1: You are from God and have overcome them? You you
Speaker 1: from God and have overcome them because the one who
Speaker 1: is It's hard for me to say this like I
Speaker 1: want to say it. It's so powerful to me. It
Speaker 1: reminds me of a lady. She came up to me
Speaker 1: one time after I preached. She had a deep Southern accent,
Speaker 1: and she said, aren't you from Monk's Corner, South Carolina?
Speaker 1: I said, yes, ma'am. She said, I'm from Somerville, which
Speaker 1: is only twenty miles from Monk's Corner or so, and
Speaker 1: that's where my rival the high school team football team,
Speaker 1: the Somerville Greenway. So I said, well, I won't hold
Speaker 1: that against you. You know, that little small town humor,
Speaker 1: you know, give her that little Monk's Corner. I said, well,
Speaker 1: I won't hold it against you because I'm a Berkeley
Speaker 1: Stag and they're the Greenway. I said, it's all right.
Speaker 1: She said, well, then I got a question for you.
Speaker 1: If you're from Monk's Corner, why don't you talk like
Speaker 1: where you come from? She said this about my accent,
Speaker 1: But I want to ask this about your attitude. Now.
Speaker 1: I just read you a Bible verse. I just read
Speaker 1: you a Bible verse that said you are a child
Speaker 1: of God. Helljae. I didn't get a B twelve shot,
Speaker 1: Give me a B three. You are a child of God,
Speaker 1: So why don't you talk like where you come from?
Speaker 1: You'll come from God, You'll come from royalty, He'll flow
Speaker 1: from his side, shock, like where you come from. I'm
Speaker 1: looking for thirty people to have church with, So watch this.
Speaker 1: Let the week say, I am trust, I come from strength,
Speaker 1: I cut from the rock. I come from the world. WHOA,
Speaker 1: I don't come from Nazarin. I don't come from Month's corner.
Speaker 1: I didn't come from Larry. I came from the Lord.
Speaker 1: I haven't inheritance. I'm a fack y'all do her real quick,
Speaker 1: give God twenty seconds of praise. Let you know where
Speaker 1: you come from. You are a royal priesthood. You are
Speaker 1: a holy nation. To declare the praises, to declare the praises,
Speaker 1: to declare the praises, to declare the praises. Anybody can
Speaker 1: describe the problem, to declare the praises. It doesn't take
Speaker 1: faith to be cynical. It doesn't take smart to be
Speaker 1: said Nicole. It takes faith to contradict your circumstance with
Speaker 1: your confession right there in the chat. Say I'm talking
Speaker 1: like where I come from. I'm talking like she said.
Speaker 1: You don't talk like you're from Monk's corner. Some of y'all,
Speaker 1: you don't talk like you don't talk like you You
Speaker 1: know that his blood was shed for you. You talk
Speaker 1: to yourself like you're workless. I'm not even talking about
Speaker 1: what you say to other people. I'm talking about how
Speaker 1: we talk to ourself. I'm talking about the inside voice.
Speaker 1: God said, let us make man in our image. You you,
Speaker 1: you were me in his image. Paul said, you are
Speaker 1: God's workmanship created in Christ before the world got started.
Speaker 1: What gave Jesus the authority to focus on his assignment?
Speaker 1: And what's going to help you do it as a mom,
Speaker 1: as a man? What's going to help you to still
Speaker 1: know who you are even though the addictions that you
Speaker 1: carry say otherwise. Because I'm telling you God knows what's
Speaker 1: going on inside of your heart today. I don't he does.
Speaker 1: But even still before any of that, before any of
Speaker 1: those layers of life that labeled you, you children of God,
Speaker 1: dear children, have overcouse, greater is He? That is, if
Speaker 1: I could teach you one thing about God today, I
Speaker 1: can't tell you who he is because that would take
Speaker 1: the rest of my life to even read the introduction.
Speaker 1: But I can tell you where he is in one
Speaker 1: word inside. So look at the rest of the text
Speaker 1: in first John, It's very powerful, he said in verse five,
Speaker 1: they are from the world, and therefore speak from the
Speaker 1: viewpoint of the world. How can we have God's spirit
Speaker 1: and speak Satan's language? How can Satan drive out satan
Speaker 1: Cynicism is counterfeit strategy. The real wisdom of God is
Speaker 1: peaceable and pure, and it creates more faith, not less.
Speaker 1: But who are you listening to? Voices become viewpoints. He
Speaker 1: said that you come from God, but you listen to
Speaker 1: the world. You come from God, but you listen to
Speaker 1: the opinions of people who don't have your best interest
Speaker 1: at heart. I know everybody's trying to read into what
Speaker 1: I'm saying, because you can't say anything anymore without it
Speaker 1: being political. I'm saying first John four or five is
Speaker 1: what I'm saying, that worldly values have no place in
Speaker 1: the heart of a Christian. Here froud preacher ass wholen smoke.
Speaker 1: The Bible don't even have cigarettes in it. This is
Speaker 1: not about the external stuff. That's not what he's writing about.
Speaker 1: He's saying, there are false prophets that have come and
Speaker 1: the way you can recognize put it back up verse five.
Speaker 1: He says, they speak from the viewpoint of the world.
Speaker 1: You see it. Voices become viewpoints. Voices become viewpoints. What
Speaker 1: you hear gets in your heart, what you scroll gets
Speaker 1: in your spirit. I'm helping somebody in the most practical
Speaker 1: way today. Help me help them, Lord, help me help them. Lord.
Speaker 1: The Lord said, this is why you're stressed. Cynicism is
Speaker 1: not wisdom, It's a sickness. They are from the world.
Speaker 1: They speak like the world. Why would we have the
Speaker 1: spirit of God and speak the language of satan? Just
Speaker 1: the things we say to ourselves about ourselves? He said,
Speaker 1: the world listens to them. But wat's what I found
Speaker 1: in verse six. I love this. We are from God,
Speaker 1: and whoever knows God listens to us. That really got me, man,
Speaker 1: because I pictured Jesus. There's a crowd around him and
Speaker 1: they want something from him. How many you feel like
Speaker 1: there's people that want things from you all the time.
Speaker 1: I know you're sitting next to him, so you can't
Speaker 1: really raise your hand on that point. I know I
Speaker 1: hear your inside voice, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Word
Speaker 1: of God made flesh, the incarnate, eternal in itself. That's
Speaker 1: a contradiction, is standing with the crowd, surrounded by scribes,
Speaker 1: and even dealing with the cynicism of his own family right,
Speaker 1: but he knew where he came from. We are from
Speaker 1: God this week in your heart. I want you to
Speaker 1: and don't start playing self music because I'm not closing.
Speaker 1: I want you to talk like where you come from.
Speaker 1: Talk like where you come from, or another way to
Speaker 1: say it. Use your inside voice. The world is so
Speaker 1: loud you think it's normal, Like Abby, this is my
Speaker 1: inside voice. I'm just a pessimistic person. That's just the
Speaker 1: way I am. What about the great I am? I
Speaker 1: thought we just read a verse that said greater is
Speaker 1: he that is in you than he that is in
Speaker 1: the world. So what about that? Voices become viewpoints? Right?
Speaker 1: I thought you were seated in heavenly places with Jesus
Speaker 1: where he reigns. So what are you doing down in
Speaker 1: the sewer of cynicism? The real issue isn't whether our
Speaker 1: nation is divided. The real issue is whether your heart
Speaker 1: is divided. Do you really trust his authority? Jesus had
Speaker 1: internal authority. You know what that means. He didn't need
Speaker 1: other people to tell him who he was. That's so cool.
Speaker 1: Wouldn't you like to get there? I would. You're already there, Andrew,
Speaker 1: but I've still got some work to do. Right. If
Speaker 1: I had your beard, I'd be more confident too. But
Speaker 1: look at Jesus. In verse twenty eight, he says something.
Speaker 1: You can't really get the full sense of it in English,
Speaker 1: but go back to Mark three twenty eight. Truly, I
Speaker 1: tell you this phrase is only recorded from the lips
Speaker 1: of Jesus in the whole New Testament in this way,
Speaker 1: And let me tell you what's interesting about it. Usually
Speaker 1: when a priest or a prophet would prophesy, they would say,
Speaker 1: thus say it the Lord, and the people would say amen.
Speaker 1: It was a response to what was spoken that confirmed
Speaker 1: the truth of it, or a witness everybody say amen,
Speaker 1: say it louder, say amen, Come on, say it like
Speaker 1: you're from Monks Corner, South Carolina, Pentecostal Holiness Church. That
Speaker 1: was terrible. Don't ever do that again. That's terrible. Well,
Speaker 1: in the text it says truly, I tell you, but
Speaker 1: the actual literal translation is a man, I tell you
Speaker 1: the truth. What's weird about it is he said amen first.
Speaker 1: He is the only one who does that. I don't
Speaker 1: mean to bore you today. I know you want to
Speaker 1: get back to count in ballots, but can I talk
Speaker 1: about the Bible for three seconds, for three seconds? Can
Speaker 1: the Lord have three seconds of your attention? All right? Then? See,
Speaker 1: let me read this to you. Witherington said in his commentary,
Speaker 1: I read this really expensive book to be able to
Speaker 1: tell you the significance of this moment. And Jesus goes
Speaker 1: on to say this in March's Gospel over and over again,
Speaker 1: the phrase is, amen, I tell you the truth. Amen,
Speaker 1: I say to you. And this is the first instance
Speaker 1: in Mark. But listen. This phrase, which was characteristic of
Speaker 1: Jesus get ready to shout, suggests that he felt free
Speaker 1: to vouch for himself. It was a real expensive book,
Speaker 1: so I got to read it again. This phrase, a man,
Speaker 1: I tell you suggests that he felt free to vouch
Speaker 1: for himself and the truth of his own word without
Speaker 1: requiring external human testimony to his truthfulness. So I want
Speaker 1: you to say amen. I want you to say it again.
Speaker 1: I want you to say it again. I want you
Speaker 1: to learn how to say a man from within. What
Speaker 1: I mean is I want you to get to the
Speaker 1: point in your faith. And I want to get to
Speaker 1: the point in my life where I do not wait
Speaker 1: for humans to validate my identity or for events to
Speaker 1: validate my optimism. I want to be able to watch this,
Speaker 1: to say a man to begin with, So say amen.
Speaker 1: If you know who you are, you can say that
Speaker 1: and not wait for anybody else to say it for you.
Speaker 1: If you know what he's spoken, if you know what
Speaker 1: he said, if you know where you come from, you
Speaker 1: can start your This is so grammatically incorrect, but theologically
Speaker 1: is so powerful because Jesus wasn't waiting on anybody else
Speaker 1: for an amen. He wasn't waiting for anybody else. He
Speaker 1: wasn't waiting for anybody else. He had an amen that
Speaker 1: came from within. And I think we've lost that. I
Speaker 1: think we are so consumed with the voices of others
Speaker 1: that we can't even hear our Father, and then we
Speaker 1: start asking God to take away things that we put
Speaker 1: in our hearts through the wrong voices. But today the
Speaker 1: Lord said, it's going to be a better work week
Speaker 1: for you, cause you're gonna begin with Amen. Clap your hands.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna try that again. Clap your hands like you're
Speaker 1: not at the masters. Clap your hands like what God's there,
Speaker 1: you go, clap your hands. I'm on the thirteen of y'all,
Speaker 1: I'm any thirty of y'all. I'm any somebody to clap
Speaker 1: your hands if you receive this word, so Jesus. Jesus,
Speaker 1: who was surrounded by cynicism, was not driven by the
Speaker 1: agendas of others. He was led by the spirit of God.
Speaker 1: We make this our prayer. God. We came today so
Speaker 1: you could deal with our inside voice. We've been saying,
Speaker 1: a man to the world's values and the world's vocabulary. Lord,
Speaker 1: help me to begin my day with amen. So be it, Yes, Lord,
Speaker 1: agreement with you. I agree with you. You say I'm
Speaker 1: your child. I agree with you. You say I can
Speaker 1: make it. I agree with you. You say you got me.
Speaker 1: I agree with you. Why in the world will we
Speaker 1: allow the language of the enemy to permeate the heart
Speaker 1: of a child of God. Everyone's standing, everyone's standing, everyone's standing.
Speaker 1: A woman told me one time, I know I'm doing
Speaker 1: all these quotes today, But she said, I say amen
Speaker 1: when you're preaching, but I just don't say it out loud.
Speaker 1: She said, don't ever think that I'm not listening to you.
Speaker 1: I'm saying amen on the inside. Everybody in here is
Speaker 1: saying amen to something on the inside, coming into agreement
Speaker 1: with viewpoints and values on the inside. Jesus said something
Speaker 1: very interesting when his mother and his brothers came to
Speaker 1: the door and they said, get out here, go back
Speaker 1: to Nazareth. You know, you know that voice that always
Speaker 1: tries to call you back to what's familiar, even if
Speaker 1: it's not good for you. Come on, now, you got
Speaker 1: to go back to Nazareth. Jesus had an inside voice.
Speaker 1: He knew what his father had spoken. Voices become viewpoints.
Speaker 1: Jesus wasn't going to be driven by something from the outside.
Speaker 1: He was steered by the spirit of God on the inside.
Speaker 1: Am I are you? Or have you got so much
Speaker 1: noise that you don't even notice God's voice anymore when
Speaker 1: he speaks. I gotta confess I'm guilty most of the time.
Speaker 1: I preach to you what I pray to God about.
Speaker 1: Help me with this, Lord, how many needs some help?
Speaker 1: With your inside voice? You got it? He said. Greater
Speaker 1: is he that's in you than he that's in the world.
Speaker 1: And I believe that the voice you give attention to,
Speaker 1: that's the one you're going to experience. Jesus said, I'm
Speaker 1: not going to be driven by the opinions of anyone.
Speaker 1: I'm moving according to my Father's agenda. He used his
Speaker 1: inside voice. God, help us to hear your voice of
Speaker 1: wisdom in this moment. Somebody right now is making big
Speaker 1: decisions in their life. They're deciding whether to move or
Speaker 1: to stay, whether to sell or to buy. Somebody's deciding
Speaker 1: do they even think their life is worth living? And
Speaker 1: right now is so important that they can hear you voice.
Speaker 1: That's why the enemy has been crowding them out, doing
Speaker 1: everything he can to keep them blind, to keep them mute,
Speaker 1: to keep them confused. You are not the author of confusion, Lord,
Speaker 1: So right now we ask for the clarity of the
Speaker 1: whisper of your spirit. Call us over like you call
Speaker 1: those scribes over it, and correct us, Lord, because we
Speaker 1: have our own opinions in ways that things are supposed
Speaker 1: to work, and we need to hear the word that
Speaker 1: only you can speak from the inside voice. Speak on
Speaker 1: the inside, Lord, that we start talking like where we
Speaker 1: come from, that we start telling ourselves that we're loved
Speaker 1: and we're okay, and we're sufficient, not because of some accomplishment.
Speaker 1: No no, no no, that's external. No no no no no no,
Speaker 1: because God made me, because I am made of the
Speaker 1: same substance that God spoke the world with, so that
Speaker 1: word is alive and acted the inside voice. Hey look
Speaker 1: at me, Jed, do you remember I want to tell
Speaker 1: you this because I know love. I know you love
Speaker 1: the scriptures. When Jesus showed up at the tomb of Lazarus,
Speaker 1: you remember how he got there and Lazarus was already dead.
Speaker 1: So Mary and Martha were just so hurt by that.
Speaker 1: Like a lot of people that are listening to this
Speaker 1: word today, it's just so much noise, so much confusion. Literally,
Speaker 1: you have felt like you're going crazy, and you kind
Speaker 1: of are because you're trying to hold too much in
Speaker 1: your head and in your heart, and you're being controlled
Speaker 1: by external stuff, and everything else affects you. Everything else
Speaker 1: tells you what it would take for you to matter.
Speaker 1: That's what's happening. Well, in this particular case, they lost
Speaker 1: their brother Lazarus. I spent the whole year trying to
Speaker 1: write a book about Lazarus, so it was fresh on
Speaker 1: my mind. And when Jesus got to the tomb, it
Speaker 1: said that he felt something for the sisters. Look at me,
Speaker 1: he feels something for you. He feels something for you.
Speaker 1: He felt something on the inside and put up the
Speaker 1: verse in chapter eleven, John, chapter eleven, Please, I gotta
Speaker 1: show you this. It would be disobedient to the Lord
Speaker 1: for me to not give you this. It was the
Speaker 1: last thing God gave me for the sermon. But it
Speaker 1: may be the thing you came for. John, chapter eleven. Please.
Speaker 1: When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had
Speaker 1: come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved
Speaker 1: in spirit and troubled by her pain, by your tears,
Speaker 1: by your questions, deeply moved in trouble. That's what he
Speaker 1: felt on the inside. Next verse, where have you laid him?
Speaker 1: He asked, Come and see Lord? They reply, And what
Speaker 1: came next was a miracle. How many are ready for
Speaker 1: a miracle today? This may not be for someone in
Speaker 1: this room. Maybe it's for you. I don't know. I
Speaker 1: don't know. But the scripture says that in verse thirty five,
Speaker 1: Jesus wept, and the Jews said, see how he loved him.
Speaker 1: But some of them said you ever had Some of
Speaker 1: them say, come on, talk to me, don't use your
Speaker 1: inside voice. Some of them will always say, could not
Speaker 1: he who opened the eyes of the blind man have
Speaker 1: kept this man from dying? All these voices on the
Speaker 1: inside of you could not He wouldn't shouldn't he have
Speaker 1: the Bible? Says Jesus, once more deeply moved Verse thirty eight.
Speaker 1: Came to the tomb. It was a cave with a
Speaker 1: stone laid across the entrance. Take away the stone, he said,
Speaker 1: But Lord, said Martha, the sister of the dead man.
Speaker 1: By this time there's a bad odor, for he's been
Speaker 1: there four days. Then Jesus said, did I not tell
Speaker 1: you that if you believe, you will see the glory
Speaker 1: of God. Now here's what I wanted to show you.
Speaker 1: Please lean into this moment. Please don't get distracted. This
Speaker 1: is so important. So they took away the stone. Then
Speaker 1: Jesus looked up and said, Father, I thank you that
Speaker 1: you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me,
Speaker 1: but I said this for the benefit of the people
Speaker 1: standing here, that they may believe that you sent me.
Speaker 1: Verse forty three. This is what I'm familiar with. When
Speaker 1: he said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, in
Speaker 1: a what so I want you to say Lazarus on
Speaker 1: three in a loud voice one two three. So he didn't.
Speaker 1: He didn't say it softly. I could cry, thinking about it.
Speaker 1: When he spoke to Lazarus, who was dead, he said
Speaker 1: it loud. Jesus has an outside voice, he really does.
Speaker 1: He can command and speak. I mean, Jesus, some of
Speaker 1: y'all don't like it when I holler when I preach.
Speaker 1: That's my Bible verse right there, y'all, he said in
Speaker 1: a loud voice. But he didn't get loud until he
Speaker 1: was talking to Lazarus. When he spoke to his father,
Speaker 1: he said it in his inside voice because he knew
Speaker 1: God is not up there, out there distant. I and
Speaker 1: my father are one, and I want you to know
Speaker 1: that this week that when you talk to your father,
Speaker 1: you're using your inside voice. That's the real you, that's
Speaker 1: your spirit. That's what God knows about you. That's not
Speaker 1: what others say. Others think that's gonna drive you off
Speaker 1: the edge of a cliff. But Jesus said to his father,
Speaker 1: I know you always hear me. So Lord, you said
Speaker 1: that your word would be like rain that came from
Speaker 1: the heaven and did not return void. I believe that
Speaker 1: about your word in this moment, I believe that your
Speaker 1: word is gaining entrance to the hearts of men and women,
Speaker 1: even now as I preach it. Lord, there's a certain
Speaker 1: heaviness to those who are really receiving it, because the
Speaker 1: chatter is so bad and the noise is so loud.
Speaker 1: I pray that this week, amongst the shouts of the scribes,
Speaker 1: the cynicism of those who should support us, the division
Speaker 1: that we experience in our world, and the questions that
Speaker 1: will remain unanswered, that we would use our inside voice,
Speaker 1: that we would talk like where we come from, that
Speaker 1: we would remember that we are citizens of a heavenly kingdom,
Speaker 1: and we have a king, and his name is Jesus,
Speaker 1: and that king is inside of me and inside of you.
Speaker 1: So if you know it on the inside, come on,
Speaker 1: use your outside voice for a minute. Come on, that's
Speaker 1: not it, That's not it. Lazarus, come far, shy co far,
Speaker 1: please come far, like a river outer flow from my soul.
Speaker 1: Come on, giving phraise in the house. Well, you know
Speaker 1: I always like to share a final word, and you
Speaker 1: can hear that it's kind of our right. I appreachied
Speaker 1: about inside voice, and then I appreci so loud. I
Speaker 1: lost my voice, but I'm working on it. Pray for me, seriously,
Speaker 1: we're praying for you. Don't forget that when you share
Speaker 1: this message with somebody, or when you invest into this ministry,
Speaker 1: when you give God uses it. It's planning seeds of
Speaker 1: the Gospel, and we need it right now more than ever.
Speaker 1: So I want to thank you for keeping the word
Speaker 1: of God going strong. There are so many thousands of
Speaker 1: you that make up our EPHAM around the world. It
Speaker 1: used to stand for extended family, but twenty twenty now
Speaker 1: it means everyone, and so we just thank you for
Speaker 1: being a part of this global ministry, this global family.
Speaker 1: It is an honor for me and for Holly to
Speaker 1: share God's word with you. Make sure you subscribe and
Speaker 1: don't forget this week. Use your inside voice, subscribe, share
Speaker 1: all that I see you next time. We love you.