Speaker 1: Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick.
Speaker 2: I'm the pastor of Elevation Church and this is our podcast.
Speaker 2: I wanted to thank you for joining us today.
Speaker 1: Hope this inspires you. Hope it builds your faith.
Speaker 2: Hope it gives your perspective to see God is moving
Speaker 2: in your life.
Speaker 1: Enjoy the message. Welcome to church.
Speaker 2: Welcome to the final installment of Bars and Battles. Yes,
Speaker 2: I know how tragic it is for you to learn
Speaker 2: that this is our final week of this series.
Speaker 1: How many of you have enjoyed it and then.
Speaker 2: Got to stop somewhere. I learned that, and you got
Speaker 2: to start somewhere. You got to stop somewhere. It's usually
Speaker 2: harder for me as a preacher to know where to
Speaker 2: start the sermon than where to stop it, because usually
Speaker 2: usually I know where I'm going.
Speaker 1: When I start.
Speaker 2: When I start preaching to you, I know where I'm going,
Speaker 2: but I don't always know how to get you into it,
Speaker 2: because well, when I first started.
Speaker 1: Preaching, I just assumed that at.
Speaker 2: The beginning of my sermon, everybody was as excited as
Speaker 2: I was about what I had been learning all week.
Speaker 2: But I found out they had real lives, and so
Speaker 2: you got to start somewhere, and sometimes it feels like
Speaker 2: we have to get our energy to match up. When
Speaker 2: I first started preaching, I came in so, I came
Speaker 2: in so hot. I've just come up screaming and yelling
Speaker 2: and hollering at the people in the first five minutes.
Speaker 1: But I find out sometimes you got to give them time.
Speaker 2: To merge into traffic and got to let the caffeine
Speaker 2: kick in. My pastor, Pastor Mickey, he used to always
Speaker 2: start his sermons the same way. Every time he started
Speaker 2: the sermon. Well, he would read his scripture, and then
Speaker 2: he would pray, and at the end of his prayer,
Speaker 2: he would end his prayer the same way. Every single
Speaker 2: time he would he would pray, read scripture, he would pray,
Speaker 2: and then he would say, lit the words of my
Speaker 2: mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in
Speaker 2: thy sight, O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer.
Speaker 1: And I thought he made that up.
Speaker 2: I didn't know he was plagiarizing Psalm nineteen fourteen. I thought, well,
Speaker 2: that's so deep and profound, And one day I looked
Speaker 2: and it was right there in the Bible. But I
Speaker 2: kind of thought, maybe that was like a good luck
Speaker 2: thing to say before you preach, you know, let the
Speaker 2: words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart
Speaker 2: be acceptable in your sight. I thought it was like saying, God,
Speaker 2: help me not to mess up, and help them to listen,
Speaker 2: help them to pay attention. That's a good thing to
Speaker 2: pray when you start a sermon. Let the words of
Speaker 2: my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable
Speaker 2: in your sight.
Speaker 1: Oh Lord, my Strength and Redeemer. It's kind of cool.
Speaker 2: Because it means that anytime I preach, there are two
Speaker 2: sermons happening, the one that I'm preaching and the one
Speaker 2: you're hearing. And sometimes those two are not the same.
Speaker 2: So I want to talk to you for a few
Speaker 2: moments today about silent sermons. Silent sermons, and what we'll
Speaker 2: do is we'll read the whole Psalm Psalm nineteen.
Speaker 1: We'll read the whole thing.
Speaker 2: I'm want to ask you to stand to your feet
Speaker 2: in honor of the reading of God's Word at all
Speaker 2: of our locations. Many say this is David's greatest hit
Speaker 2: of all of his psalms.
Speaker 1: This is to some of his finest work. C. S.
Speaker 2: Lewis said it's one of the greatest lyrics in human history,
Speaker 2: and who are you to argue with C. S. Lewis
Speaker 2: touch somebody say this must be a good one.
Speaker 1: It really is.
Speaker 2: Listen to all fourteen verses. The heavens declare the glory
Speaker 2: of God. The skies proclaim the work of his hands.
Speaker 2: Day after day, they pour forth speech, night after night
Speaker 2: they reveal knowledge. They have no speech, they use no words,
Speaker 2: No sound is heard from them, yet their voice goes
Speaker 2: out into all the earth.
Speaker 1: What a paradox this is, he said. They have no vocal.
Speaker 2: Cords, no esophagus, no larynx, yet they speak so loudly.
Speaker 1: The skies declare the glory of God.
Speaker 2: And the heavens show forth his power in such a
Speaker 2: way that it reaches the end of the earth. It's
Speaker 2: a silent sermon. Their words go to the ends of
Speaker 2: the world. In the heavens, God has pitched a tent
Speaker 2: for the sun. It's like a bridegroom coming out of
Speaker 2: his chamber, like a champion rejoicing to run his course.
Speaker 2: It rises at one end of the heavens and makes
Speaker 2: it circuit to the other. Nothing is deprived of its warmth.
Speaker 2: The law of the Lord is perfect, refreshing the soul.
Speaker 2: The statutes of the Lord are trustworthy, making wives the
Speaker 2: simple touch.
Speaker 1: Somebody say, God's word works.
Speaker 2: The precepts of the Lord are right, giving joy to
Speaker 2: the heart. The commands of the Lord are radiant, giving
Speaker 2: light to the eyes. The fear of the Lord is pure,
Speaker 2: enduring forever. The decrees of the Lord are firm, and
Speaker 2: all of them are righteous. They are more precious than gold,
Speaker 2: than much pure gold. They are sweeter than Krispy Kreme
Speaker 2: North Carolina translation. Then honey from the honeycomb. By them,
Speaker 2: your servant is worn in keeping them, in keeping them,
Speaker 2: not just in hearing them, but in retaining them. In
Speaker 2: keeping them, there's great reward. But who can discern their
Speaker 2: own errors? Forgive my hidden false Keep your servant also
Speaker 2: from willful sins.
Speaker 1: May they not rule over me.
Speaker 2: Then I will be blameless, innocent of great transgression. And
Speaker 2: here comes Pastor Mickey's verse.
Speaker 1: Made the words of my mouth, he said it in
Speaker 1: the King James English.
Speaker 2: Because Pastor Mickey is seventy eight, made the words of
Speaker 2: my mouth and the meditation of my heart. Take it
Speaker 2: down be acceptable in thy sight, Oh Lord, my strength
Speaker 2: and my redeemer. And now that I said the scripture,
Speaker 2: we can get the sermons started have a sea. It
Speaker 2: matters where you start. It matters where you start. You
Speaker 2: agree with me, it matters how you start your day.
Speaker 2: Let's use a few examples with your spouse. Holly and
Speaker 2: I were very happy on our honeymoon night and the
Speaker 2: next morning, I'm not going with this where you think
Speaker 2: I'm going with this.
Speaker 1: When she looked at.
Speaker 2: Me and I looked at her, and we had both
Speaker 2: been up, and we had both brushed our teeth, and
Speaker 2: we had both been awake for fifteen minutes, and we
Speaker 2: had not said a word, And she looked at me,
Speaker 2: and I looked at her, and we knew that we
Speaker 2: had made the right decision because she looked at me
Speaker 2: and she said to me, you don't like to talk
Speaker 2: in the morning either, And I said, no, I hate
Speaker 2: people in the morning.
Speaker 1: And we knew it was meant to.
Speaker 2: Be because we can start our morning without saying a word.
Speaker 2: We could start our morning without saying a word. And
Speaker 2: I found out that you can preach a sermon without
Speaker 2: saying a word. Some of the loudest sermons I will
Speaker 2: preach will be with my life, not with my lips.
Speaker 1: In fact, if.
Speaker 2: I've preached one sermon with my lips and another with
Speaker 2: my life. It won't be long before nobody wants to
Speaker 2: hear what I have to say, no matter how loud
Speaker 2: I say that silent sermons, there's the one that I preach,
Speaker 2: and then there's the one that I live. My grandfather
Speaker 2: was a preacher. I only heard him preach one time
Speaker 2: that I remember. Probably heard him preach other times that
Speaker 2: I don't remember, but I remember only one sermon that
Speaker 2: I ever heard him preach. Can't remember what he preached,
Speaker 2: but remember hearing him preach one time. I saw him
Speaker 2: preach hundreds of times. There's a difference. I saw him
Speaker 2: comb my grandmother's hair when she didn't even know his
Speaker 2: name anymore because Alzheimer's had completely erased her memory of him.
Speaker 2: But it didn't matter, because, like you've heard so many
Speaker 2: times before, he would say, she might not know who
Speaker 2: I am, but I know I.
Speaker 1: Know who I am even if she doesn't.
Speaker 2: And so I am the kind of husband that will
Speaker 2: comb her hair and show up every morning when visiting
Speaker 2: our start and not leave until they kick me out,
Speaker 2: and take her to Wendy's every day for lunch. And
Speaker 2: he had no integrity because they would share a diet
Speaker 2: coke every day at Wendy's and get free refills and
Speaker 2: only pay for one instead of two. But see, he
Speaker 2: was preaching a silent sermon.
Speaker 1: He wasn't the first one.
Speaker 2: He wasn't the first one to preach a silent sermon,
Speaker 2: because Moses was a man that God wanted to use,
Speaker 2: but he wasn't very good with words. So God said,
Speaker 2: don't worry about what you're going to say.
Speaker 1: I'm going to give you a stick, And if you take.
Speaker 2: The stick and stretch it out, touch somebody, say stretch
Speaker 2: it out. It's always in the stretch that you discover
Speaker 2: the supply. It's always in the stretch that you discover
Speaker 2: the strength. It's always in the stretch that you discover
Speaker 2: the supernatural. You'll be get warmed up by now somebody
Speaker 2: shall stretch. God said, Moses, if you'll stretch your staff
Speaker 2: over the waters, you won't have to say a word.
Speaker 2: I'll make the water's part and the people will know
Speaker 2: what kind of God I am, not by the words
Speaker 2: that you speak, but I'll make the waters free for you.
Speaker 1: It's a silent sermon.
Speaker 2: Moses wasn't the only one who preached a silent sermon.
Speaker 2: One woman in the Bible was so taken by the
Speaker 2: presence of Jesus Christ that she's snuck in a room
Speaker 2: with some perfume, some really expensive perfume.
Speaker 1: The Bible says it was worth a year's wages.
Speaker 2: And people knew that she loved Jesus not because of
Speaker 2: her speech, but because of the smell of the fragrance
Speaker 2: that she poured out at his feet. Now, I can't
Speaker 2: find one time where she said a word in the passage,
Speaker 2: but Jesus said, wherever the Gospel has preached, the memory
Speaker 2: of what this woman has done will be told. Because
Speaker 2: some sermons are preached through smell rather than by sound.
Speaker 1: I'll prove it to you.
Speaker 2: Shadrackneeshak in a bed and a go went down.
Speaker 1: In a fiery furnace. I'm preaching now.
Speaker 2: We passed the introduction, and they turned up the heat
Speaker 2: seven times hotter than normal, and.
Speaker 1: They thought it would kill them.
Speaker 2: But when they came out, they didn't even smell like smoke.
Speaker 1: And when you don't smell like what you've been through,
Speaker 1: and when you've been.
Speaker 2: Through the fire but you're not bitter about.
Speaker 3: It, it's a silent sonon Jesus got down in the
Speaker 3: dirt one day and a woman who had been.
Speaker 2: Caught in the act of adultree was about to get stone.
Speaker 2: Jesus said, if you've never done anything deserving of becoming human, target, practice.
Speaker 4: Goliad and fire away.
Speaker 2: And then he knelt down in the dirt, said not
Speaker 2: another word. And everybody started walking away.
Speaker 1: And he said not a word. He was writing in
Speaker 1: the dirt.
Speaker 2: I think he was writing their names and what they
Speaker 2: did on prom night, But I don't know what he wrote.
Speaker 2: Maybe just the essence of his presence was enough that
Speaker 2: his perfection became a reflection of their need for grace.
Speaker 2: Some of the greatest sermons are silent sermons. Silent sermons.
Speaker 2: Those guys preached one today. Before I ever opened my mouth,
Speaker 2: the preaching started. Sam and Brian you don't know him.
Speaker 2: They brought my pulpit out. They said something before I
Speaker 2: said something. First of all, they said that this is
Speaker 2: a heavy pulpit they've been lifting. By the way, when
Speaker 2: you're really strong, you don't have to talk about how
Speaker 2: strong you are.
Speaker 1: Real strength show, and when you.
Speaker 2: Really love God, sometimes it's something that's a seemingly insignificant
Speaker 2: act of service. I wonder if their sermon will actually
Speaker 2: mean more to God than mine because nobody will download
Speaker 2: Sam's podcast.
Speaker 1: But he preached it's.
Speaker 2: A silent sermon. People ask me off, and when are
Speaker 2: you gonna let Holly preach more? Well, first of all,
Speaker 2: she told me two times a year. Any more than that,
Speaker 2: and she's leaving me. She don't liked it that much,
Speaker 2: but she preaches every week. Every week, she preaches every week.
Speaker 2: If you don't believe me, just look over at her
Speaker 2: right now. She's got her notebook open and this is
Speaker 2: the second time she's heard this sermon and she's still
Speaker 2: pretending to take notes and writing a grocery lesson. That's
Speaker 2: not true. She gets something new out of it every time.
Speaker 2: It's a silent sermon, a silence sermon. Can you preach
Speaker 2: a silent sermon? Lazarus did? The Bible says that Jesus
Speaker 2: needed some way to reveal that he was not only healer,
Speaker 2: but he was resurrection. But if he said it, people
Speaker 2: might doubt it.
Speaker 4: But if he did it, somebody had to die.
Speaker 1: Sometimes the greatest sermon of.
Speaker 2: Your life will be by the things that you went through.
Speaker 2: In fact, I love it because that same passage where
Speaker 2: the woman broke the perfume.
Speaker 1: Her name was Mary.
Speaker 2: She was lazarus sister, And while she was pouring out perfume,
Speaker 2: Lazarus was chilling lean back at the table. He didn't
Speaker 2: have to say a word. The fact that he was
Speaker 2: dead and now alive, the fact that.
Speaker 4: He was in the ground and was now sitting at.
Speaker 2: The table, was proof of the power of God.
Speaker 1: How many don't. Just the fact that you showed up.
Speaker 2: To church today makes the devil sick.
Speaker 1: He can't s the singing in the House of God.
Speaker 1: I'm preaching by my very presence, but it's a silent sermon.
Speaker 2: So when David says the sun makes it circuit, he's
Speaker 2: not giving us a science lesson. He's showing us something
Speaker 2: about how creation preaches silent sermons day after day and
Speaker 2: night after night. He said, they pour forth the glory
Speaker 2: of God. They speak, but you can't hear it. Some
Speaker 2: of God's greatest work is seen, not heard, not heard.
Speaker 2: The skies preach a silent sermon. The consistency of the
Speaker 2: solar system says something to us about the nature of
Speaker 2: life that it is cyclical. Some of the things that
Speaker 2: you think are circumstance your life are actually cyclical. I
Speaker 2: think that's a big part of maturity is learning what's cyclical,
Speaker 2: and not just running around from situation to situation, but
Speaker 2: understanding the cycles that create the situations, because if you
Speaker 2: don't understand the cycle that creates a situation, you will
Speaker 2: be dealing with situation after situation after situation after situation.
Speaker 2: I don't need to be a science teacher to explain
Speaker 2: to you that the solar system operates on cycles. You
Speaker 2: understand we're making a trip right now. We do it
Speaker 2: every three sixty five. Sometimes it takes us three sixty
Speaker 2: six on those leap years, but we're making a cycle.
Speaker 2: David said that the heavens are declaring the glory of
Speaker 2: God and they keep on doing it consistently in the cycle.
Speaker 2: And although we know that technically he's not a explaining
Speaker 2: how the universe works, he's giving us a picture of
Speaker 2: the Sun in its circuit.
Speaker 1: The whole text kind of has.
Speaker 2: This theme of it that we're going round and round
Speaker 2: and round and round. He ends the Psalm saying, may
Speaker 2: the words of my mouth and the meditations of my
Speaker 2: heart be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength
Speaker 2: and my Redeemer. He starts with the solar system, the
Speaker 2: heavens declare the glory of God, and he ends with
Speaker 2: his soul. So from the solar system to his soul,
Speaker 2: everything is on a cycle.
Speaker 1: It's a cycle.
Speaker 2: Whatever you're thinking about right now, it's because of a cycle.
Speaker 2: In fact, I think it's very very good to start
Speaker 2: your day with God because it starts the cycle from
Speaker 2: the right place. I think that's why it's really important
Speaker 2: if you can read a Bible verse before you read
Speaker 2: a Facebook post, because it's just a better, purer cycle.
Speaker 2: If it's possible before you check email, check your n email.
Speaker 2: I just threw that in for the corny people. I
Speaker 2: would never say that. A lesser preacher would say something
Speaker 2: like that.
Speaker 1: To somebody, say it's a cycle, and he uses this phrase.
Speaker 2: The meditation of my heart. You'll get it together. Wasn't
Speaker 2: that bad? Meditation is not a hot yoga term. Meditation
Speaker 2: is not a term reserved exclusively for Eastern religion. Meditation
Speaker 2: actually in Hebrew is a musical term.
Speaker 1: How beut you didn't know that. That's why I'm telling you.
Speaker 2: It's like, David, here's where I learned about what meditation is,
Speaker 2: because for years and years and years and years I
Speaker 2: thought that what I said to God was my prayer life,
Speaker 2: as I say a lot of stuff to God, and
Speaker 2: I would say all the stuff that I need God
Speaker 2: to do, and sometimes I would lose focus, and I
Speaker 2: had prayer lists and prayer thoughts and all that, and
Speaker 2: it felt real boring. I didn't realize that there were
Speaker 2: some things that God wanted to say to me. I
Speaker 2: didn't understand the power of the silent sermon until I
Speaker 2: went to see Ed Shearon in concert.
Speaker 1: And I have nothing against Ed Shearon.
Speaker 2: In fact, I think Ed Shearon has written some beautiful songs.
Speaker 2: How many would agree that Ed Shearon has written some
Speaker 2: beautiful songs three of you.
Speaker 1: But I'm just saying this is not a rant against
Speaker 1: Ed Shearon.
Speaker 2: But I went to see Ed Shearon because Holly likes
Speaker 2: boring music and.
Speaker 4: Ed Shearon had an interesting way of.
Speaker 2: Doing a concert. And it was surprising to me because
Speaker 2: Ed Sheeran did a whole concert without a band, a
Speaker 2: whole ninety minute set in an arena. When I say
Speaker 2: it was boring, now, maybe I'm just spoiled because I
Speaker 2: passed her at church with the greatest musicians you will
Speaker 2: find anywhere.
Speaker 1: In the city.
Speaker 2: The Saint come on GTA the continent.
Speaker 4: To not ed no not ed ed.
Speaker 2: Shearon didn't even have a band, no bass player, no
Speaker 2: kick drum, no electric guitar. Ninety minutes of him with
Speaker 2: his guitar and his accent, and he had this little pedal.
Speaker 2: Come here, David's gonna help me. Yeah, give it up
Speaker 2: for David. This is the other.
Speaker 1: King, David. This is David, David.
Speaker 2: Liota, the king of the strings, the king of the
Speaker 2: six string guitar. David's going to do his best at
Speaker 2: Shearon impersonation because what that Shearon.
Speaker 1: Did, Now, I had to ask somebody.
Speaker 2: The first time I saw I'd do this, I didn't
Speaker 2: know what it was because I've saw him. He would
Speaker 2: play something and then he would stop playing it, but
Speaker 2: it kept going. And that's because he had one of these, right.
Speaker 2: It's called a loop station. If you're taking notes, you
Speaker 2: look like you're waiting for something to write down. At
Speaker 2: some point in this sermon, write down the word loop, loop, loop,
Speaker 2: and shows how the looping station worked. Because he doesn't
Speaker 2: have a drummer because apparently he's cheap, so instead of
Speaker 2: instead of hiring a drummer, he made his own drums
Speaker 2: on the guitar. Just give him an example. See what
Speaker 2: he did. He looped it. Now we gotta beat See
Speaker 2: you can move to that a little bit. But he's
Speaker 2: not doing anything. But he set something in motion and
Speaker 2: there it is. Now put something on top of it. Loop,
Speaker 2: something else. Oh that's a nice David. I like that
Speaker 2: jazzy Major seven stuff.
Speaker 1: That's pretty soulful for a white boy. That's good, David.
Speaker 1: There's something else on it. All we're doing stack in
Speaker 1: the loops. That's all we're doing. Come on, that's too
Speaker 1: sexy for church, David. Take it all the way back down.
Speaker 1: Take something out, Take that out.
Speaker 5: All started, all these layers started with a loop.
Speaker 1: With a loop.
Speaker 2: Now what I found out, David, how you make it stop?
Speaker 2: Because sometimes I wonder that about my heart? How do
Speaker 2: I make it stop?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 2: Because I get stuck in a loop. You ever been
Speaker 2: stuck in a loop. I'm talking about it in.
Speaker 1: Your mind now, not at the guitar or anything like that.
Speaker 2: You've been stuck in a loop where you find yourself
Speaker 2: in an absolute state of panic.
Speaker 1: That started Watch this with a silent sermon.
Speaker 2: Mosses isn't the only one who preached silent sermons. Lazarus
Speaker 2: isn't the only one who preached silent sermons. Jesus isn't
Speaker 2: the only one who preached a silent sermon. David isn't
Speaker 2: the only one who preached a silent sermon. Not only
Speaker 2: do the stars and the sun, and the skies and
Speaker 2: the solar.
Speaker 1: System preach a silent sermon. I got bad news for you.
Speaker 2: The devil preaches silent sermons.
Speaker 1: He gets you in a loop.
Speaker 2: I'm done with you, David, thank you so much. Give
Speaker 2: him a hand our very ownette searing. You ever been
Speaker 2: stuck in a loop of lives?
Speaker 1: He's talked to me.
Speaker 2: I feel awful, lonely up here concord.
Speaker 1: They're giving me no law. You don't admit it, but some.
Speaker 2: Of your relationships went off track, not because of what
Speaker 2: was said in the relationship, but because of what was
Speaker 2: not said, what you started saying to your self.
Speaker 1: He said within himself.
Speaker 4: That's what the.
Speaker 2: Rich man did in the parable when he said to himself,
Speaker 2: I'll build many barns, I'll take life easy. He didn't
Speaker 2: know that very night his life would be required.
Speaker 1: He said to himself. It matters where you start with
Speaker 1: what you.
Speaker 2: Think about, and self is a very small sun for
Speaker 2: your life to orbit around. It's a very limited loop.
Speaker 2: Self is a is a very small scale to see
Speaker 2: the world in.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 1: In fact, sing with me, do ray me me me me.
Speaker 2: I'm just me singing the song me that many of
Speaker 2: us me have been singing all week? Me me me
Speaker 2: me me?
Speaker 1: What's your favorite meditation?
Speaker 2: Me me? What are they thinking about me? Me?
Speaker 1: When is anybody ever gonna notice me?
Speaker 2: I changed the key, but it's still about me. Sometimes
Speaker 2: I can find a way to make anything about me.
Speaker 1: Me me, me, me, me, me me. Come on, let's
Speaker 1: acquire practice.
Speaker 2: Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of
Speaker 2: my heart.
Speaker 1: Me me me, me, me, me, me.
Speaker 2: Me me me me me.
Speaker 1: Me me me.
Speaker 2: Me me me me me.
Speaker 1: I don't think it's a hit ella.
Speaker 2: I don't think anybody's gonna buy the album. I don't
Speaker 2: think it's gonna bring me joy. I don't think it's
Speaker 2: gonna bring me peace. I don't think I'm gonna figure
Speaker 2: out a solution if I start with myself. I need
Speaker 2: a new loop, I said, I need a new loop.
Speaker 2: Some of you came to church today, not just the
Speaker 2: hero A sermon, but to preach one to yourself. Why
Speaker 2: don't you start with your source and not with yourself?
Speaker 2: Now to him, come on, who is Abel?
Speaker 4: Shout up town?
Speaker 1: To do immeasurably more than I asked for.
Speaker 2: Imagine, I'm tired of that track.
Speaker 1: Me me me me me me me me me me
Speaker 1: me me me me me.
Speaker 2: Me me me me me me me me me me.
Speaker 2: I thought about singing it till it wasn't funny anymore,
Speaker 2: And it sounds like we're already at that point.
Speaker 1: I know how long it would take.
Speaker 2: How long will it take until you change that meditation?
Speaker 1: Realizing that if.
Speaker 2: You start with yourself, you say in yourself, and you
Speaker 2: will always be limited by who you are.
Speaker 1: But when you start with the great I.
Speaker 2: Am, David said, who's that? They said, I think his
Speaker 2: name's Goliath. David said, I'll fight him. Saul said, you're small.
Speaker 2: David said, I'm not coming against him in myself or
Speaker 2: in my name, but I come against you in the
Speaker 2: name of the Lord the Sky. I declare the glory
Speaker 2: of God. Notice David did not start with what was
Speaker 2: in his heart. You start with what's in your heart.
Speaker 2: You'll scare yourself to death. That's a horror movie to
Speaker 2: start with what's in your heart.
Speaker 1: I was going to preach.
Speaker 2: One time, and the guy who invited me, I've never
Speaker 2: been to.
Speaker 1: His church before. He said, just share us on your heart.
Speaker 1: I said, oh, no, you don't want me to do that.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna share us in heaven because if I tell
Speaker 2: you what's in my heart, it won't help any of us.
Speaker 2: So I don't start my meditation with what's in myself.
Speaker 2: I noticed that every meditation, and again, don't think meditation.
Speaker 1: Think about the loop.
Speaker 2: Think about the lines that loop over and over again
Speaker 2: in the way that you think. Think about how you
Speaker 2: have this subtle way, if you let yourself into turning
Speaker 2: every interaction into a stage on which you.
Speaker 1: Were the star. I don't do that. I don't like
Speaker 1: to be noticed. I don't do that. I don't like.
Speaker 2: People to even look at me. I'm not that type
Speaker 2: of person. This must be a preacher thing. No, I
Speaker 2: promise you. You talk too much sometimes. I promise you.
Speaker 2: Some of the stuff that you post. Oh you didn't
Speaker 2: think I was talking about your Instagram.
Speaker 1: Fee, did you?
Speaker 2: I promise you some of you need to go home
Speaker 2: and change the bio on your on your Instagram, and
Speaker 2: it should just say what it's really all about?
Speaker 1: Me? Me, me, me.
Speaker 2: Me, Just give us an expectation of what's going to
Speaker 2: happen on that fee when you're easily offended, when everything's
Speaker 2: an insult.
Speaker 1: Did you see how.
Speaker 2: They looked at me. They weren't looking at you. They
Speaker 2: were thinking about dinner. They have not bought groceries this week,
Speaker 2: and their mom has cancer. You get outside yourself and
Speaker 2: think about something bigger.
Speaker 4: The skies declare the glory of God.
Speaker 2: People like this, bigger than what happens in here.
Speaker 1: Do your neighbor a real favor, Look at him and say.
Speaker 2: Get out your head. Get out of your head. That's
Speaker 2: a horrible place to take your orders. Am I preaching
Speaker 2: or am I preaching? Every meditation, every loop that starts
Speaker 2: with self ends in one of two places. And I
Speaker 2: want you to look for this in your life this week.
Speaker 2: It's either going to end in scarcity or shame. Every
Speaker 2: sermon that you preach to yourself, and you are always
Speaker 2: preaching to yourself. In fact, Martin Lloyd Jones said that
Speaker 2: our problem is we spend too much time listening to
Speaker 2: ourselves and not enough time preaching to ourselves. Isn't that
Speaker 2: what David psalms have shown us where he would say
Speaker 2: to his soul, is time to go to school. Bless
Speaker 2: the Lord, oh my soul, and all that is within me,
Speaker 2: Bless his holy name. He's preaching to himself, and.
Speaker 1: So are you.
Speaker 2: But when you preach to yourself from yourself, your sermon
Speaker 2: will always lead to scarcity. Brene Brown says that the
Speaker 2: number one meditation of many of our hearts is not enough.
Speaker 2: She says, we apply it to time, we apply it
Speaker 2: to money, we apply it to our talent, and the
Speaker 2: sermon that plays in our mind, if we would ever
Speaker 2: stop and listen to it, it starts every morning.
Speaker 1: Not enough.
Speaker 2: How much sleep did you get last night?
Speaker 1: How much money do you make on that job?
Speaker 2: Graham asked me the other day, Dad, is fifty six
Speaker 2: a year a lot of money? I said, it is
Speaker 2: till you make it. That might be the devil's favorite sermon.
Speaker 2: Not enough, not enough, not enough. He preached it to
Speaker 2: the disciples because they looked at five thousand men and
Speaker 2: women and children, and Jesus said, feed them. And they said, well,
Speaker 2: we don't have a whole lot. And we don't have
Speaker 2: a whole lot. We have five loaves and two fish.
Speaker 2: But that's not enough because they were starting with their selves,
Speaker 2: but they were standing next to the source. I wonder
Speaker 2: how different the story would be if you would ask
Speaker 2: the source instead of asking yourself.
Speaker 1: Check the source.
Speaker 4: He's smarter than enough. Somebody shout, he's more. He's small.
Speaker 1: YA will never shout in the.
Speaker 4: Back of the room.
Speaker 1: And I start hollering like this.
Speaker 4: I know y'all don't like it when.
Speaker 1: I holler, but this is not a silent sermon. This
Speaker 1: is a loud sermon.
Speaker 2: Somebody shout, he's more more than enough.
Speaker 3: Every need, every deficiency, all my failures.
Speaker 2: His blood is enough, his grace is enough, his word
Speaker 2: is enough. The law of the Lord is pure, reviving
Speaker 2: the soul. But if I start with myself, I end
Speaker 2: with scarcity.
Speaker 1: It's a loop because I start down here, and so.
Speaker 2: By the time I've looped around through my day, I
Speaker 2: end my day feeling completed. I wonder if you got
Speaker 2: a new loop. I wonder if you got a new
Speaker 2: loop and started with the source instead of starting with yourself.
Speaker 2: I wonder how the cycle would change if you started
Speaker 2: with your source. I know it's basic, but didn't David
Speaker 2: start with the heavens and then move toward his heart.
Speaker 1: The skies declare the glory of God. They show forth
Speaker 1: his power day after.
Speaker 2: Day and night after night, and day after day and
Speaker 2: night after night. And all I've got to do to
Speaker 2: stay and step with God is keep the beat of
Speaker 2: Heaven happening inside my heart. Because there's always enough in heaven.
Speaker 2: There's always enough patience in heaven. There's always enough provision
Speaker 2: in heaven. There's always enough bread in heaven. There's always enough,
Speaker 2: always enough, always enough. My God shall supply all of
Speaker 2: your needs according What if you got in that loop.
Speaker 2: What if you ask God to fill your empty places
Speaker 2: and you start with yourself, You in in scarcity. You
Speaker 2: start with your self, you end in shame. Because I
Speaker 2: look at myself and I feel like David. David does
Speaker 2: something weird. I think he wrote this song. It's contested
Speaker 2: he might have written it, he might have not written it.
Speaker 2: But let's give him credit because this is a song
Speaker 2: that embodies a characteristic known as wisdom poetry. It kind
Speaker 2: of switches beats in the middle of the song. It's
Speaker 2: going on and on about the skies and to have
Speaker 2: his For many years they thought it was two different
Speaker 2: poems put together as they were studying back and trying
Speaker 2: to find out how it was written and when it
Speaker 2: was written. It was such a sharp break at verse
Speaker 2: seven that they thought, well, maybe this is a different thing.
Speaker 1: You know, we're talking about the skies.
Speaker 2: And the sun and the stars. And then all of
Speaker 2: a sudden, David makes a break in verse seven and
Speaker 2: he starts talking about the law of the Lord. That's
Speaker 2: what he says, perfect refreshing the soul.
Speaker 1: Look at verse twelve. But who can discern their own errors?
Speaker 1: So he is an.
Speaker 2: Imperfect man looking into a perfect law. He's looking at
Speaker 2: what the law is and what it does, and how
Speaker 2: it brings peace, wisdom, and joy. But yet he knows
Speaker 2: that he has broken the very law that produces the
Speaker 2: very things that he wants. I don't think it's much
Speaker 2: of a break, because he is contemplating how the heavens
Speaker 2: are able to effortlessly declare the glory of.
Speaker 1: God, but he cannot.
Speaker 2: Because I'm stuck in a cycle called sin, and there
Speaker 2: are secrets in my heart that, no matter how much
Speaker 2: I dress him up with the words of my mouth,
Speaker 2: the meditations of my heart falls short of the glory
Speaker 2: of God.
Speaker 1: Paul knew it too.
Speaker 2: He said, what the law was powerless to do in
Speaker 2: that it was weakened by the sinful nature. Look what
Speaker 2: God did. God started a new loop. See through the law,
Speaker 2: man tried to reach his way to God.
Speaker 1: But it was a.
Speaker 2: Cycle of shame caused by sin. So I reach and
Speaker 2: fall short, and try and fall short, and repent and
Speaker 2: fall short, and get up and fall down, and reach
Speaker 2: and fall short and try and fall short, and get
Speaker 2: up and fall down. And God broke the cycle. For
Speaker 2: in the fullness of time, God.
Speaker 1: Sit for his son in the likeness of sinful man, to.
Speaker 2: Be a sin offering. For what the law was powerless
Speaker 2: to do in the I was weakened by the sinful nature.
Speaker 2: God did by sending his own son in the likeness
Speaker 2: of sinful man.
Speaker 1: So that we can say, there is therefore.
Speaker 4: Now no condemn.
Speaker 1: There is therefore let me give you a new loop.
Speaker 2: No condemnation, no condemnation, no condemnation for.
Speaker 1: Those who are in Christ Jesus.
Speaker 2: This is the kind of gospel preaching that got me
Speaker 2: to the cross.
Speaker 1: This is the kind of.
Speaker 2: Gospel preaching that will break the change of shame off
Speaker 2: of your life.
Speaker 1: This is the kind of gospel preaching that you can
Speaker 1: preach on.
Speaker 2: Monday morning, Tuesday nine, Wednesday afternoon. You can preach this
Speaker 2: stuff for yourself. There is therefore now no condemnation. Why
Speaker 2: because I'm in Christ. In other words, to seven people
Speaker 2: that tell them, I, I got a new loop. I got
Speaker 2: a new loop. That's what the gospel gives me. A
Speaker 2: new meditation. And watch this. I no longer live by situation.
Speaker 2: You're ready to jump up. I live by revelation. I
Speaker 2: know who he is, I know who I am in him.
Speaker 4: You better touch seven more people.
Speaker 1: Tell him I got a revelation.
Speaker 2: I got a revelation, or whatever I go through, I
Speaker 2: got a revelation of who's.
Speaker 4: In the fire with me. I know what he did.
Speaker 4: I know who he is. I know who I am
Speaker 4: at him. I got a new loop. I'm losing my voice.
Speaker 4: All shout for me.
Speaker 2: You get that in your heart, you'd be finishing the
Speaker 2: devil's sermons in no time. He might start them, but
Speaker 2: you let Grace finish them. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The devil
Speaker 2: will be scared to talk to you. He will because
Speaker 2: every failure he brings up is going to trigger within
Speaker 2: your mind a new loop. To realize that Grace is
Speaker 2: greater than my failure.
Speaker 1: Grace is greater.
Speaker 2: I don't know. Maybe you're gonna live in a new loop.
Speaker 2: It is not the sermon that I preach to you
Speaker 2: that determines the course of your life.
Speaker 1: It's a sermon you preach to yourself. That's what you
Speaker 1: say to yourself.
Speaker 2: Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of
Speaker 2: my heart be acceptable, acceptable, accept accept, Accept.
Speaker 1: What God says about.
Speaker 2: You, reject everything else, and live your life under.
Speaker 1: An open heaven. And the heavens declare.
Speaker 2: The glory of God, and the skies declare His wonder
Speaker 2: Day after day they pour forth speech, and.
Speaker 1: They don't need any words to do it. It's a
Speaker 1: silent sermon.
Speaker 2: It's the silent sermon that determines whether or not you
Speaker 2: step out on faith or stay in your comfort zone.
Speaker 2: It's the silent sermon you preach to yourself that determines
Speaker 2: whether you continue to live in a place of regret
Speaker 2: and resentment, or you step forward into your tomorrow believing
Speaker 2: that God will use all things for the good of
Speaker 2: those who love Him and are called according to his purpose.
Speaker 6: It's not this, it's the second sermon. We thought it
Speaker 6: was so weird that the.
Speaker 2: Preacher would pray, let the words of my mouth and
Speaker 2: the meditations of my heart be acceptable in your sight.
Speaker 2: But I get it now. He was saying, there's two
Speaker 2: sermons happening. There's what I say to you, and there's
Speaker 2: what you say to yourself. And you've got to learn
Speaker 2: how to be the coach of your own soul. I
Speaker 2: wish Davo Sweeney was here. He could help us. I
Speaker 2: was considering hiring a coach recently for leadership, and I
Speaker 2: wanted somebody who could help me to analyze my own leadership.
Speaker 1: And that's probably a good thing to do.
Speaker 2: But I was praying about it, and God said, be
Speaker 2: your own head coach, head coach, you hear me. I
Speaker 2: thought about titling this message help. My mind is a mess,
Speaker 2: and I don't know where to start to put it
Speaker 2: in order that would be more accurate to our real lives.
Speaker 2: But I started to call it the Silent sermon instead,
Speaker 2: because I found out that I have a second self.
Speaker 2: I have the self that tells me everything that's wrong
Speaker 2: with me, and then I have this second self.
Speaker 1: It's not really even me.
Speaker 2: It's a deposit guaranteeing my inheritance is the Holy spirit
Speaker 2: of God dwelling in me. When I say he's in
Speaker 2: my heart, I'm not talking about an organ anymore than
Speaker 2: David is talking about the sun as being a celestial body.
Speaker 2: He's talking about the faithfulness of God in poetic language.
Speaker 1: It is theology wrapped in poetry.
Speaker 2: So when he said the meditations of my heart, I thought,
Speaker 2: I need to be my own head coach. I think
Speaker 2: that I need to let the God in me talk
Speaker 2: to the me and me. I think I need to
Speaker 2: start letting my second self talk to my.
Speaker 1: Screwed up self.
Speaker 2: I even started doing it practically, And for me, I
Speaker 2: have to get out of my head set to write
Speaker 2: things down because up.
Speaker 1: Here is whoa.
Speaker 2: I can't keep it straight, comes real fast, But when
Speaker 2: I write it down, it helps me.
Speaker 1: To slow down a little bit and focus. Slow down.
Speaker 1: It gets that constant me.
Speaker 4: Me, me, me, me.
Speaker 2: So that the real me can speak.
Speaker 1: And I write letters to me from the other me.
Speaker 2: I know what schizophrenic pastor is not what you always
Speaker 2: pray for.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna help somebody, though, I write on the top
Speaker 1: of my page. I write down every time I do this,
Speaker 1: three times a week, holy ghost coaches notes.
Speaker 2: I write it down, and then I talked to myself,
Speaker 2: like I like myself, believe in myself, see myself, and
Speaker 2: know myself.
Speaker 1: Because I figure all of those are characteristics of the
Speaker 1: God in me. So if I can sit down long
Speaker 1: enough to listen.
Speaker 2: To what Elijah heard as a still small voice, see
Speaker 2: the wind came through the rocks, and Elijah heard nothing.
Speaker 2: I could preach a good sermon. We can sing a
Speaker 2: good song, you might not get it. The fire blazed high.
Speaker 2: Elijah heard nothing, nothing reassuring. Wind blew the fire, Earth
Speaker 2: started shaking. Earth, wind and fire did an opening act,
Speaker 2: and Elijah wasn't impressed.
Speaker 1: But the Hebrew word is interesting. It says God was
Speaker 1: in the whisper.
Speaker 2: It was in that silent sermon that Elijah realized that
Speaker 2: what he was running from was already taken care of.
Speaker 2: It was in that silent sermon that he realized God
Speaker 2: had already appointed someone to put to death those who.
Speaker 1: Threatened his own life.
Speaker 2: It was in that silent sermon that Elijah realized that
Speaker 2: there was already a successor appointed, that his ministry had
Speaker 2: not been in vain. It was in that silent sermon
Speaker 2: that he realized that there was still work to be done,
Speaker 2: and I can't stay in this place of self pity anymore.
Speaker 1: It's the silent sermon, the silent sermon. I wonder if
Speaker 1: that's why Joshua told the people.
Speaker 2: Not to say anything for the first six days they
Speaker 2: walked around the wall, because he knew they would start
Speaker 2: saying stuff to talk each other out of going into
Speaker 2: the land God had given him. Sometimes the best strategy
Speaker 2: is shut up. I know you've always wanted to do this,
Speaker 2: and you hated touching your neighbor in church until this point.
Speaker 2: But look at them and say, shut off. That's the strategy.
Speaker 1: Shut off. Well, you like that a little too much.
Speaker 1: I'm worried about rock Hill. There might be a fight
Speaker 1: in the parking lot.
Speaker 2: And on the seventh day you can shout, but it's
Speaker 2: the shout after the silence. So I write little coaches
Speaker 2: notes to myself. No, you can't see them, they're not
Speaker 2: for you. I don't talk to myself like I used
Speaker 2: to as much anymore.
Speaker 1: I still do.
Speaker 2: I'll never forget asking Amy Korb, But do you always
Speaker 2: walk around telling yourself what an idiot you are?
Speaker 1: She said, I've never done that in my life. Oh yeah, me, neither.
Speaker 1: I was asking for a friend. I said, she's onto something.
Speaker 1: I realized one time, I would beat myself up.
Speaker 2: If anybody else was talking to me the way I
Speaker 2: was talking to me, I'd beat myself up.
Speaker 1: I would beat them up.
Speaker 2: If I was bigger than them, I would beat them up.
Speaker 2: If they didn't know any moves, I would beat them up.
Speaker 2: And I'm living in loops of shame and scarcity, and
Speaker 2: God has really given me his grace. And it'd be
Speaker 2: life changing for you to start some new loops. It'd
Speaker 2: be life changing for you to pray what Pastor Mickey prayed.
Speaker 2: It'd be life changing for you to change your silent sermons.
Speaker 2: Listen to them. Do they start with me? They're going
Speaker 2: to end in shame. Do they start with me, They're
Speaker 2: going to end in scarcity. But if you start with
Speaker 2: the source, I bet you'll find springs of living water
Speaker 2: that had been waiting to well up within you.
Speaker 1: They're waiting to burst forth.
Speaker 2: So good. The best sermon Jesus ever preached, as far
Speaker 2: as I'm concerned. He preached it to the woman at
Speaker 2: the well. I mean, he said a lot of good
Speaker 2: things to her. He said, I'm the water you've been
Speaker 2: looking for. Where you've been running around, what's been happening
Speaker 2: in your heart. It's like a well that can hold water.
Speaker 2: But my favorite part of his sermon isn't what he said,
Speaker 2: it's where he sat. The Bible says he sat on
Speaker 2: a well and waited for a woman. It took me
Speaker 2: years to see that he was a well.
Speaker 1: On a well.
Speaker 2: There is a well within you that will not run dry.
Speaker 2: There is a God within you who does not fail.
Speaker 2: There is a grace within you that is not ashamed.
Speaker 2: But I can't give you this water.
Speaker 1: You've got to drink it for yourself.
Speaker 2: I believe God wants to whisper to us in this moment.
Speaker 2: I want you to be very still, very quiet. Just
Speaker 2: close your eyes, quit thinking about.
Speaker 1: Me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me me.
Speaker 7: See how good that feels. See right there is the
Speaker 7: presence of God. See right there is the peace that
Speaker 7: passes all understandable. See right there, how the blood of
Speaker 7: Jesus speaks a better word over your life. It's the silencer.
Speaker 7: It's the silence that can be heard. It's the part
Speaker 7: of you that knows that greater is he that's in
Speaker 7: me than he that's in the world. It's the part
Speaker 7: of you that knows that God will supply all my
Speaker 7: needs and be faithful.
Speaker 1: It's the part of you that knows, and it's in you.
Speaker 1: Thank you for joining us.
Speaker 2: Special thanks to those of you who give generously to
Speaker 2: this ministry. Is because of you that this ministry is possible.
Speaker 2: You can click the link in the description to give
Speaker 2: no or visit Elevationchurch dot org slash podcast for more
Speaker 2: information and if you enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe.
Speaker 1: You can share it with your friends.
Speaker 2: You can click the share button, take a screenshot and
Speaker 2: share it on your social stories and tag us at
Speaker 2: Elevation Church.
Speaker 1: Thanks again for listening. God bless you.