WEBVTT - Unlearn Your Limitations 0:00:02.160 --> 0:00:04.680 Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick. I'm the pastor of Elevation 0:00:04.960 --> 0:00:07.200 Church and this is our podcast. I wanted to thank 0:00:07.200 --> 0:00:10.520 you for joining us today. Hope this inspires you. Hope 0:00:10.520 --> 0:00:12.600 it builds your faith. Hope it gives your perspective to 0:00:12.600 --> 0:00:15.280 see God has moving in your life. Enjoy the message. 0:00:17.680 --> 0:00:25.440 Mark chapter two. I kind of want to continue on 0:00:25.480 --> 0:00:29.240 something that I said on Easter, and I'll explain that 0:00:29.320 --> 0:00:31.120 in a second. Let me read the scripture. A few 0:00:31.160 --> 0:00:35.240 days later, when Jesus again entered Capernaum, the people heard 0:00:35.280 --> 0:00:38.839 that he had come home. They gathered in such large 0:00:39.040 --> 0:00:44.280 numbers that there was no room left, not even outside 0:00:44.320 --> 0:00:47.640 the door, and he preached the word to them. Some 0:00:47.720 --> 0:00:52.279 men came bringing to him a paralyzed man, carried by 0:00:52.400 --> 0:00:55.000 four of them, and since they could not get him 0:00:55.000 --> 0:00:58.760 to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening 0:00:59.160 --> 0:01:04.360 in the roof above Jesus. That's a strange phrase. You're 0:01:04.400 --> 0:01:06.120 not going to see it many times in the Bible. 0:01:06.480 --> 0:01:12.600 Above Jesus. You won't see that very much in the Bible. 0:01:12.640 --> 0:01:16.319 You won't see it. About sickness, you won't see you 0:01:16.360 --> 0:01:20.119 won't see it about shame. You won't see it about anxiety. 0:01:20.280 --> 0:01:23.080 You won't see it about panic attacks. You won't see 0:01:23.080 --> 0:01:26.880 it about political parties. So just circle that one because 0:01:26.920 --> 0:01:29.600 you won't see that above Jesus again, you won't. You 0:01:29.600 --> 0:01:34.520 will only see this one time. So physically speaking, they 0:01:34.560 --> 0:01:38.880 positioned themselves on the roof and watch this. A lot 0:01:38.920 --> 0:01:42.039 of y'all know this Bible story, but this is this 0:01:42.120 --> 0:01:44.840 is crazy if you stop and think about it. They 0:01:44.959 --> 0:01:48.320 dug through the roof and lowered the mat that the 0:01:48.320 --> 0:01:51.680 man was lying on, And when Jesus saw their faith, 0:01:52.120 --> 0:01:58.320 he said to the paralyzed man, son, your sins are forgiven. Now, 0:01:58.560 --> 0:02:02.960 some teachers of the law, we're sitting there thinking to themselves, 0:02:03.640 --> 0:02:10.440 why does this fellow talk like that. He's blaspheming it's heresy. 0:02:11.919 --> 0:02:20.079 Who can forgive sins but God alone. Immediately Jesus knew 0:02:20.200 --> 0:02:23.480 in his spirit that this is what they were thinking 0:02:24.040 --> 0:02:28.440 in their hearts. I can't wait to come back to you, 0:02:28.560 --> 0:02:32.200 vers eke. And he said to them, why are you 0:02:32.360 --> 0:02:37.480 thinking these things? Which is easier to say to this 0:02:37.600 --> 0:02:40.040 paralyzed man, your sins are forgiven, or to say get up, 0:02:40.040 --> 0:02:42.280 take your mat and walk, But I want you to 0:02:42.480 --> 0:02:46.240 know that the son of Man has shout the word 0:02:46.720 --> 0:02:52.720 authority on earth to forgive sins. So he said to 0:02:52.800 --> 0:02:56.200 the man, I tell you, get up, take your map, 0:02:56.840 --> 0:03:00.280 go home, get out of here, and tell you you 0:03:00.360 --> 0:03:06.880 don't need a ride home. So he got up, took 0:03:06.919 --> 0:03:09.160 his matt and walked out in full view of them. All. 0:03:09.720 --> 0:03:13.840 This amazed everyone, and they praise God. Say, ready, we 0:03:14.080 --> 0:03:18.720 have never seen anything like this. Put that in the chat. 0:03:19.000 --> 0:03:23.600 We have never seen anything like this. I want to 0:03:23.600 --> 0:03:30.000 speak to you today about unlearning your limitations. I dabbled 0:03:30.040 --> 0:03:33.960 in it on Easter, and I want to dive deeper today. 0:03:34.480 --> 0:03:39.720 So that's my title, Unlearning your Limitations. That's the straightforward title. 0:03:39.960 --> 0:03:43.120 That's the topical title. Here's the saucy title. You need 0:03:43.160 --> 0:03:45.600 a new roof. Now sit down and let's talk about it. 0:03:47.080 --> 0:03:54.040 You need a new roof because really, limitations are learned, right, 0:03:56.120 --> 0:03:59.360 And maybe you haven't had kids. They don't know. Tongues 0:03:59.400 --> 0:04:01.960 don't go in a line, electrical sockets, they don't know. 0:04:02.720 --> 0:04:06.000 They don't know anything about anything until they It's kind 0:04:06.040 --> 0:04:09.119 of like Graham was telling us one time he could 0:04:09.120 --> 0:04:18.320 beat up Mike Tyson. And just the confidence of Graham 0:04:18.440 --> 0:04:21.960 is something I need you all to pray about because 0:04:22.000 --> 0:04:24.080 I kind of think it's like a great gift, and 0:04:24.120 --> 0:04:26.039 then I kind of think it's like a liability, and 0:04:26.080 --> 0:04:28.800 I can't figure out which one yet. I mean, the 0:04:28.839 --> 0:04:32.159 boy walked into church today with a mullet, with his 0:04:32.279 --> 0:04:38.280 head held high and just the confidence the swag of 0:04:38.320 --> 0:04:42.599 Graham to not care what you think about his mullet. 0:04:42.720 --> 0:04:45.200 Now I'm gonna get off, I promise, I promise. But 0:04:47.480 --> 0:04:53.000 limitations are learned. And interesting thing about this text is 0:04:54.279 --> 0:04:57.480 it seems like the experience of the people who are 0:04:57.520 --> 0:05:01.520 experts in the Word of God works again them, and 0:05:01.560 --> 0:05:06.400 the stupidity of the people who get a miracle seems 0:05:06.440 --> 0:05:10.200 to have a strategic advantage. And I guess that's why 0:05:10.200 --> 0:05:14.080 I've always liked the passage, because in fifteen years of 0:05:14.160 --> 0:05:17.159 building the church, there have been so many times where 0:05:17.200 --> 0:05:20.720 I've had to try unorthodox things in order to do 0:05:20.800 --> 0:05:23.280 something for which I had no frame of reference. Now 0:05:23.320 --> 0:05:25.640 you may not know this. My dad wasn't a pastor. 0:05:26.040 --> 0:05:28.520 My dad was a barber. My grandfather was a pastor, 0:05:28.760 --> 0:05:32.040 but he pastored small churches. When I say small, probably 0:05:32.120 --> 0:05:34.839 like what one hundred people would have been on the 0:05:34.839 --> 0:05:38.960 bigger side, he did seventy churches of seventy fifty. I 0:05:38.960 --> 0:05:41.440 think in Monk's Corner it was the biggest one. That 0:05:41.560 --> 0:05:45.720 was about two hundred on Easter? Wasn't that big? Am 0:05:45.760 --> 0:05:48.880 I wrong? Am I off? Okay? So that to me, 0:05:49.760 --> 0:05:53.080 in my mind was the biggest church that I had seen. 0:05:53.279 --> 0:05:57.120 In fact, where I was a youth pastor, there were 0:05:57.160 --> 0:06:01.080 about about the same about one hundred twenty Santi Circle 0:06:01.120 --> 0:06:04.240 Community Church where Pastor Mickey let me learn to preach. 0:06:05.520 --> 0:06:09.360 When when I went to preach one time with Holly, 0:06:10.120 --> 0:06:12.800 I was I was sharing it a church I can't 0:06:12.839 --> 0:06:16.840 remember where. It was Calpins, South Carolina, Calpin's anybody from 0:06:16.839 --> 0:06:21.520 Calpins on EPAM And there were about there were about 0:06:21.560 --> 0:06:24.159 fifty people in the in the church, and the woman 0:06:24.200 --> 0:06:25.880 turned to Holly when I walked up to the pulpit 0:06:25.880 --> 0:06:27.800 to preach. I was only eighteen and we were in 0:06:27.800 --> 0:06:29.680 college and we had traveled out here for me to preach. 0:06:29.839 --> 0:06:31.919 And the woman turned to Holly and said, is this 0:06:32.000 --> 0:06:35.279 Stephen's first time preaching in a big church like ours? 0:06:37.040 --> 0:06:39.800 And we always thought that was so funny, a big 0:06:39.880 --> 0:06:42.720 church like ours, you know, with fifty and it was 0:06:44.200 --> 0:06:51.600 it was for her frame of reference, right, limitations are 0:06:51.680 --> 0:06:55.520 learned by that. I mean, you don't really come into 0:06:55.520 --> 0:06:59.200 the world knowing what you are not supposed to do 0:06:59.279 --> 0:07:05.440 because you're white, or because you're black, or because you're male, 0:07:06.320 --> 0:07:10.120 or because you're female, or because you're Baptist or because 0:07:10.160 --> 0:07:13.200 you're Pentecostal. I'd like to offend everybody before I finished 0:07:13.200 --> 0:07:18.000 this little list. Those things are learned, They are learned. 0:07:19.320 --> 0:07:22.640 Those are those are those are learned limitations. And here's 0:07:22.640 --> 0:07:25.520 what I mean. We wrote this song called Rattle last 0:07:25.600 --> 0:07:29.200 year and I was showing it to my friend and 0:07:29.240 --> 0:07:31.239 they said, well, you can't play that at your church. 0:07:31.440 --> 0:07:37.120 Black people won't like it. I didn't say it. Why 0:07:37.120 --> 0:07:40.080 are y'all looking at me like that? That's what they said. 0:07:41.680 --> 0:07:44.679 They said, black people don't really like rock and roll. 0:07:44.760 --> 0:07:47.120 And just in my head, I'm like, have you ever 0:07:47.160 --> 0:07:53.160 heard of Jimmy Hendrix? Chuck Berry? Like, how did you 0:07:53.240 --> 0:07:56.200 categorize a people group who pioneered a style of music 0:07:56.240 --> 0:07:59.560 and now you think they don't like like it? That's 0:07:59.600 --> 0:08:03.480 your ima. It's not the limitation of a person that 0:08:03.520 --> 0:08:06.480 you can just categorize anyway. You'll look up tight. Let 0:08:06.480 --> 0:08:09.760 me get back to the Bible verses in the Scriptures. 0:08:10.440 --> 0:08:15.360 In the Scriptures, there's a group of people called the 0:08:15.400 --> 0:08:17.560 scribes or the teachers of the law. It says here 0:08:17.560 --> 0:08:21.640 in Mark chapter two. And I have to be honest 0:08:21.680 --> 0:08:24.760 with you, I've been unfear to this group of people 0:08:24.840 --> 0:08:28.400 through the years because in verse six where you see 0:08:28.400 --> 0:08:31.160 them show up the teachers of the law or the scribes, 0:08:31.200 --> 0:08:32.440 And I'm going to tell you what that means in 0:08:32.440 --> 0:08:35.199 a minute. But they were sitting there and they were 0:08:35.280 --> 0:08:38.400 judging Jesus. So I always hated them in the passage. 0:08:39.240 --> 0:08:42.080 It made me hate them that they would criticize Jesus, 0:08:42.120 --> 0:08:46.000 who's the son of God. And at different times in 0:08:46.040 --> 0:08:50.080 my ministry, I've used this passage to preach to different needs. 0:08:50.120 --> 0:08:53.040 Like in some cases, I've used this passage to say 0:08:53.400 --> 0:08:55.560 that we as the church should be like the four 0:08:55.600 --> 0:08:59.160 men and bring our friends to Jesus. And then I'd 0:08:59.160 --> 0:09:01.760 give everybody a life Will Invite card for the next week, 0:09:01.760 --> 0:09:03.640 and I'd say, now, bring your friends back to church, 0:09:03.720 --> 0:09:06.240 and I'd tell him break the roof and send them 0:09:06.240 --> 0:09:08.400 out to go get their friends to Jesus. Bribe them, 0:09:08.400 --> 0:09:11.280 do whatever you have to do, and that's that's not 0:09:11.360 --> 0:09:16.079 a bad message. I've also used this passage at times 0:09:16.080 --> 0:09:19.720 before to talk to talk about what it would feel 0:09:19.760 --> 0:09:22.600 like to be the man on the mat who is 0:09:22.679 --> 0:09:31.760 getting dropped. Read it again, real quick. Show me where 0:09:32.120 --> 0:09:38.760 he agreed to this idea. Show me where he asked 0:09:38.760 --> 0:09:42.960 them to take him up on the roof and lower him. 0:09:43.240 --> 0:09:47.520 Show me where he signed his consent, his legal release 0:09:48.120 --> 0:09:51.120 that y'all can drop me in the middle of the number, 0:09:51.520 --> 0:09:55.520 you won't find it. And I've related to that man before, 0:09:55.559 --> 0:09:58.160 because sometimes you feel like you're put in situations that 0:09:58.240 --> 0:10:04.240 you didn't exactly sign up for. In the passage that 0:10:04.320 --> 0:10:08.040 I read to you just now, though, I felt some 0:10:08.200 --> 0:10:12.240 sympathy for the scribes this week that I've never felt before, 0:10:14.280 --> 0:10:17.560 because physically the doorway was blocked by the crowd. But 0:10:17.600 --> 0:10:21.320 that's not all that was blocked in the passage. These 0:10:21.400 --> 0:10:24.360 teachers of the law verse six were not the ancient 0:10:24.440 --> 0:10:30.680 equivalent of Internet trolls. These were not unemployed people with 0:10:30.800 --> 0:10:35.040 nothing better to do than to sit in judgment, and 0:10:35.120 --> 0:10:37.880 they showed up for a specific purpose in the house 0:10:37.920 --> 0:10:44.480 that day in Capernaum Kfarnahum, Village of Comfort, where Jesus 0:10:44.559 --> 0:10:47.120 did twenty two of his miracles only fifteen hundred people 0:10:47.360 --> 0:10:50.000 in the town, but he did twenty two of the 0:10:50.040 --> 0:10:53.839 biblical miracles happened in Capernaum. The sad part is at 0:10:53.840 --> 0:10:57.040 the end of his ministry, when he went to pronounce 0:10:57.120 --> 0:11:01.120 his woes and judgments. Copernaum, where he did a majority 0:11:01.160 --> 0:11:03.440 of his miracles, was on the list of cities that 0:11:03.520 --> 0:11:07.160 would not repent in spite of all that they had seen. 0:11:09.679 --> 0:11:15.120 The scribes in Mark chapter two were not sitting there 0:11:15.520 --> 0:11:19.880 just as critics that day. They were sitting as a 0:11:20.880 --> 0:11:25.200 how could I put this a correctness committee to make 0:11:25.240 --> 0:11:30.319 sure that this popular rabbi wasn't teaching something that contradicted 0:11:30.480 --> 0:11:32.880 the laws that they had given their life to defend 0:11:32.880 --> 0:11:35.840 and preserve. And I think we need to have a 0:11:35.840 --> 0:11:39.640 little more understanding when we read the Scripture sometimes of 0:11:40.679 --> 0:11:43.320 not just what we've thought about the people that the 0:11:43.360 --> 0:11:46.600 Bible talks about. You know this, this teacher of the 0:11:46.679 --> 0:11:50.520 law group that sitting there has traveled four days to 0:11:50.559 --> 0:11:55.160 be in Capernaum from Jerusalem at their own expense to 0:11:55.280 --> 0:11:59.600 make sure that the people aren't being taught anything that's wrong. 0:11:59.840 --> 0:12:02.680 They wanted to make sure that this guy wasn't running 0:12:02.679 --> 0:12:06.480 a cult. And I can get with that even back 0:12:06.520 --> 0:12:08.560 in the early days of the church. I would meet 0:12:08.559 --> 0:12:10.360 people who were in their forties, because I was in 0:12:10.360 --> 0:12:12.760 my twenties when I started, and I would ask the 0:12:12.760 --> 0:12:15.079 people in the forties, why were in their forties, which 0:12:15.120 --> 0:12:17.160 I am, now, why did you first come to our church? 0:12:17.320 --> 0:12:19.680 And they would say, my kids came over and I 0:12:19.720 --> 0:12:24.520 had to follow them to make sure you weren't crazy. 0:12:25.000 --> 0:12:28.360 And then I would say, well, was I And they say, yeah, 0:12:28.440 --> 0:12:31.760 but the good guy, you're the kind of crazy. I like, 0:12:32.280 --> 0:12:36.880 I like, you're kind of crazy. And then they say, 0:12:36.559 --> 0:12:40.280 but they came over and I thought they were judging me. No, no, no, 0:12:40.400 --> 0:12:48.480 they were protecting something precious to them. My father in 0:12:48.559 --> 0:12:54.480 law put me through so much to Mary Holly, and 0:12:54.640 --> 0:12:57.800 oh I didn't like him very much for a little while. 0:12:58.720 --> 0:13:06.240 But sometimes I look at a be yeah, and I'm like, 0:13:06.640 --> 0:13:09.880 I bet I will build an emotional mote for any 0:13:09.920 --> 0:13:12.920 squire that would dare to ask her hand. I gotta 0:13:13.000 --> 0:13:17.240 understand it was precious. Reading the scripture this week, I 0:13:17.320 --> 0:13:23.320 understood that there are two roofs. In Mark chapter two. 0:13:24.800 --> 0:13:28.800 The function of a roof, remember, is said that they 0:13:29.040 --> 0:13:30.920 dug through the roof of the house to get the 0:13:30.960 --> 0:13:36.079 man to Jesus, let's take a quick audience vote. Is 0:13:36.120 --> 0:13:38.800 a roof on your house a good thing to have 0:13:39.760 --> 0:13:43.720 in case of inclement weather? Y'all are so used to 0:13:43.720 --> 0:13:47.000 me flipping stuff in my sermons, hesitant about saying is 0:13:47.040 --> 0:13:50.440 a good thing right, because it keeps something out that 0:13:50.520 --> 0:13:54.880 can damage what's on the inside. So when I studied 0:13:54.880 --> 0:13:58.240 about the scribes this week, I was amazed to find 0:13:58.480 --> 0:14:01.520 that the function they served it was originally to preserve 0:14:01.640 --> 0:14:04.760 something that was very important to the people of God. 0:14:05.679 --> 0:14:08.199 Now you've got to know this or you won't understand 0:14:08.280 --> 0:14:11.120 why this is what Jesus said, Why are you thinking 0:14:11.160 --> 0:14:13.760 these things in your heart? Well? Why were they thinking 0:14:13.800 --> 0:14:16.640 these things in their heart? Why were they threatened by 0:14:16.840 --> 0:14:19.600 a prophet who would say, I forgive your sin an 0:14:19.640 --> 0:14:23.080 exclusive right of God alone? Why were they thinking these 0:14:23.120 --> 0:14:26.120 things in their heart? You have to understand what they 0:14:26.120 --> 0:14:29.480 were protecting. And in order to stand understand what they 0:14:29.520 --> 0:14:33.200 were protecting, you have to understand where they had been 0:14:35.400 --> 0:14:40.239 in Babylon, where God's people had been taken as captives. 0:14:41.120 --> 0:14:44.160 And see the scribes were specially trained to record the 0:14:44.200 --> 0:14:46.680 pronouncements and the legal decrees and the events and make 0:14:46.720 --> 0:14:50.600 sure to keep a record, But in Babylon. The customs 0:14:50.600 --> 0:14:55.960 of Babylon were different than God's chosen people had ever 0:14:56.000 --> 0:15:00.560 experienced before. And in Babylon is where the ribs begin 0:15:00.640 --> 0:15:04.480 to develop the oral traditions surrounding the Laws of Moses, 0:15:04.960 --> 0:15:09.680 so that God's people would not forget who they were. 0:15:10.000 --> 0:15:14.440 They were specially suited to do it because they were 0:15:14.520 --> 0:15:20.800 trained in recording the tradition. The only reason God's people 0:15:20.960 --> 0:15:23.600 even knew who they were when they came out of 0:15:23.640 --> 0:15:35.520 Babylon was because of the scribes. Now, Jesus, who is 0:15:35.720 --> 0:15:40.040 the Bible, calls the express image of God to show 0:15:40.120 --> 0:15:44.040 us what God is really like, shows up to fulfill 0:15:44.120 --> 0:15:47.840 the Messianic prophecies about him to save his people from 0:15:47.920 --> 0:15:52.680 their sin. And the scribes verse six. The teachers of 0:15:52.720 --> 0:15:58.200 the law were sitting there thinking to themselves, why does 0:15:58.240 --> 0:16:03.880 this fellow talk like that. He's not supposed to do this. 0:16:05.040 --> 0:16:14.520 You can't do that. That's not how this works. At 0:16:14.520 --> 0:16:18.440 the same time that they're thinking this, the debris is 0:16:18.480 --> 0:16:23.240 still falling through the ceiling from wear four rednecks. I'm 0:16:23.280 --> 0:16:25.640 using my imagination about what kind of guys would have 0:16:25.800 --> 0:16:32.280 done this? Have just moved through every excuse now This 0:16:32.360 --> 0:16:34.120 is a truth, This is a true statement. See if 0:16:34.120 --> 0:16:36.200 God's spirit verifies what I'm about to say to you. 0:16:37.080 --> 0:16:39.000 If this man would have been dependent on a lot 0:16:39.000 --> 0:16:42.440 of us, the moment we would have seen the crowd, 0:16:44.120 --> 0:16:46.600 he would have gone back home the exact same way 0:16:46.640 --> 0:16:51.040 he came. I promise you most of us. I don't 0:16:51.040 --> 0:16:52.040 want to say most of us. I don't want to 0:16:52.040 --> 0:16:56.000 talk about you. For me, I'm really quick to give 0:16:56.120 --> 0:17:01.960 up and assume something isn't God's will when I can't 0:17:02.040 --> 0:17:06.879 immediately see a way in. And so now we're in 0:17:06.920 --> 0:17:10.399 a passage where the scribes, these teachers of the law, 0:17:10.640 --> 0:17:15.200 who have preserved the identity of God's people. They weren't villains, really, 0:17:15.240 --> 0:17:18.840 they were heroes. But what happened over time was the 0:17:18.960 --> 0:17:25.359 oral tradition became more important than the truth. Did you 0:17:25.400 --> 0:17:28.000 ever play the telephone game? Do you know what I'm 0:17:28.040 --> 0:17:30.400 talking about? Where I tell you something and you tell 0:17:30.440 --> 0:17:32.399 them something and by the time it gets all the 0:17:32.400 --> 0:17:36.640 way around, everybody has rabies and everybody's gonna die. And 0:17:36.680 --> 0:17:41.199 it's a crazy thing when it gets passed down. And 0:17:41.280 --> 0:17:44.919 the thing about Jesus that maybe doesn't always get mentioned 0:17:44.920 --> 0:17:48.880 when we preach about him, is that he reveals to 0:17:49.000 --> 0:17:57.840 us that our God is a confrontational God. God is confrontational, 0:17:58.520 --> 0:18:02.240 and first thought about that might be no. God is 0:18:02.280 --> 0:18:07.080 a comforter. He's a good good father. Who he is, Stephen, 0:18:08.280 --> 0:18:16.520 who he is? Who he is and any is one. 0:18:16.560 --> 0:18:18.960 Scripture says that he comforts us with the comfort so 0:18:19.000 --> 0:18:20.840 we can comfort others with the same comfort by which 0:18:20.880 --> 0:18:23.800 we've been comforted. The Bible also says that God comforts 0:18:23.840 --> 0:18:25.920 the downcast, as something that Paul said when he was 0:18:25.960 --> 0:18:29.800 going through a lot of conflicts. He does comfort the downcast. 0:18:30.800 --> 0:18:33.760 He speak words of reassurance to you when everybody else 0:18:33.880 --> 0:18:36.280 is speaking words of condemnation to you. Be sure of it. 0:18:37.520 --> 0:18:41.760 But the same God that comforts the downcast also confronts 0:18:41.800 --> 0:18:48.560 the dysfunctional. And he loves you too much to leave 0:18:48.640 --> 0:18:55.320 you in something that is limiting you. He's a confrontational God. 0:18:56.640 --> 0:19:01.040 I know that thinking of God is confrontational may violate 0:19:01.560 --> 0:19:05.000 our perception of Him as it was handed down to us. 0:19:05.200 --> 0:19:09.960 But God is very confrontational. Right, God will get up 0:19:10.000 --> 0:19:13.080 in the face of anything that will keep you from 0:19:13.119 --> 0:19:18.320 being all that He created you to be. Now, before 0:19:18.320 --> 0:19:20.840 you take this as permission to just like go off 0:19:20.840 --> 0:19:23.760 on somebody and say you're being like Jesus. That's not 0:19:23.880 --> 0:19:26.600 the point of this lesson. The point of the lesson 0:19:26.880 --> 0:19:29.879 is for you to realize that God will break through 0:19:30.040 --> 0:19:33.560 any of the beliefs that you've developed about you, about 0:19:33.640 --> 0:19:38.400 him or about others. He's not scared to do that. 0:19:39.240 --> 0:19:41.200 So if it means going to Pharaoh and saying, let 0:19:41.240 --> 0:19:43.760 my people go, and he has to send frogs and 0:19:43.800 --> 0:19:46.320 turn the nile into blood, and if God has to 0:19:46.359 --> 0:19:49.520 send flies and locusts and plagues, even if God has 0:19:49.560 --> 0:19:52.320 to kill off the firstborn of Egipt, he will see 0:19:52.400 --> 0:19:56.000 to it that his people are really free, because He's 0:19:56.040 --> 0:20:00.320 a confrontational God. If it means he has to put 0:20:00.359 --> 0:20:03.040 you in a lion's den and shut the mouth of 0:20:03.080 --> 0:20:06.200 the lion to Soho never conness her that he is 0:20:06.240 --> 0:20:09.359 the great God and there is none above him, he'll 0:20:09.359 --> 0:20:15.560 do that. He's not a conflict avoiding God, and a 0:20:15.600 --> 0:20:20.360 lot of us never experience the growth because we will 0:20:20.359 --> 0:20:28.000 never face the conflict. One thing I love about Holly 0:20:28.480 --> 0:20:32.040 is when that switch flips and she turns from sweet 0:20:32.080 --> 0:20:37.280 Holly missus better half Holly, smiling Holly that y'all know 0:20:37.440 --> 0:20:40.520 and love and subscribe to her book club. But Holly, 0:20:40.800 --> 0:20:42.000 let me tell you someth about Holly. Let me know 0:20:42.040 --> 0:20:43.919 sorry about Holley. The other day she was on This 0:20:43.960 --> 0:20:45.760 is right at Christmas time that she was on with 0:20:45.840 --> 0:20:51.480 customer service. She is the most polite person. She's not nasty, 0:20:51.720 --> 0:20:55.520 she's not mean, she's balanced, she's even. She can diffuse, 0:20:56.240 --> 0:21:01.320 but at a certain point, I know you'll have y'all 0:21:01.320 --> 0:21:05.199 have a perspective of Holly. Right, She's just so and 0:21:05.280 --> 0:21:11.720 she is usually on this phone call. The lady, the 0:21:11.720 --> 0:21:16.520 customer service rep, wouldn't put her through to a supervisor, right, 0:21:17.119 --> 0:21:20.480 and and so I don't know what Holly said, but 0:21:20.600 --> 0:21:23.159 at some point the lady said, ma'am, I'm gonna go 0:21:23.200 --> 0:21:28.200 ahead and transfer you to escalations. And Holly said, that's 0:21:28.240 --> 0:21:31.040 exactly where you need to put me. It is escalations. 0:21:31.320 --> 0:21:36.720 That's the place for me, is escalations, escalate me. Holly 0:21:36.960 --> 0:21:40.639 said that. Holly, I'm like, who are you? I know you, 0:21:40.760 --> 0:21:45.040 but I don't know you. Because when something got in 0:21:45.119 --> 0:21:49.760 her way, now she's gonna try it a nice way 0:21:49.760 --> 0:21:52.600 and everything like that, but there comes the time to listen. 0:21:52.760 --> 0:21:56.120 It's okay sometimes for you to have that nice, gentle 0:21:56.720 --> 0:21:59.600 kind of faith about things in your life. Right, it's coming. 0:21:59.640 --> 0:22:01.920 It's a time just to be like nice and Okay, 0:22:02.119 --> 0:22:04.080 I'm just gonna wait and see how this turns out. 0:22:04.600 --> 0:22:08.240 But when something really matters to God's heart, in your heart, 0:22:09.000 --> 0:22:11.760 this one, I'm trying to say, there comes a time 0:22:11.840 --> 0:22:16.520 to escalate. There comes a time when people can't do 0:22:16.640 --> 0:22:19.640 it for you. So you have got to go above 0:22:19.720 --> 0:22:25.399 the people and go to the one who has all authority, 0:22:26.000 --> 0:22:34.120 all power. Aren't you glad that God's power doesn't need 0:22:34.240 --> 0:22:38.880 people's permission to operate. That if God decides to use 0:22:38.920 --> 0:22:43.560 you in a certain way, you can speak to the supervisor. 0:22:43.880 --> 0:22:46.359 If people aren't treating you good, you can go to 0:22:46.400 --> 0:22:48.800 your father. I say, you see how they're treating me, 0:22:49.000 --> 0:22:51.760 You see how their situation is. You see how I'm trying. 0:22:51.960 --> 0:22:54.960 Would you please get involved before I lose my mind 0:22:55.160 --> 0:22:58.439 and do something I'm gonna regret. God will step in. 0:22:58.920 --> 0:23:02.680 God will confront it. God will tell Pharaoh. God has 0:23:02.720 --> 0:23:08.160 a mighty hand, God has an outstretched gard. God set 0:23:08.240 --> 0:23:11.240 us sat in the misery my people in Aseel, and 0:23:11.280 --> 0:23:19.840 I'm coming down there. Not everybody likes this kind of preaching. 0:23:20.920 --> 0:23:25.840 It's not comfortable, but when you when when when you 0:23:25.880 --> 0:23:28.240 have an addiction that's robbing you of the daylight of 0:23:28.280 --> 0:23:36.840 your life. Yeah, So as the conflict is escalating, this 0:23:36.920 --> 0:23:40.560 is one of five stories in Mark's Gospel that's showing 0:23:40.680 --> 0:23:47.680 us the confrontational nature of God. And it's an interesting 0:23:47.720 --> 0:23:50.479 one because I'll point out a few things to you. 0:23:52.280 --> 0:23:55.880 When Jesus is arguing with the scribes about the Sabbath, 0:23:55.920 --> 0:23:59.000 they ask him, why are you breaking the Sabbath? Right, 0:23:59.560 --> 0:24:02.080 And he's trying to teach them the Sabbath is made 0:24:02.080 --> 0:24:04.040 for man. Man's not made for the Sabbath. You've got 0:24:04.040 --> 0:24:09.359 this completely out of order, right. In other words, you 0:24:09.480 --> 0:24:16.480 have turned a gift into a limitation. When he healed 0:24:16.480 --> 0:24:18.280 this man on a sabbath, all they could say is 0:24:18.359 --> 0:24:22.520 that's the wrong day to do it. Now, the Sabbath 0:24:22.560 --> 0:24:26.200 was given to people as a gift, but they turned 0:24:26.200 --> 0:24:29.960 it into a limit. This is a side note. Don't 0:24:30.040 --> 0:24:37.840 let your gift become your limitation. The more like, don't 0:24:37.920 --> 0:24:40.439 let something that God gave you in one season of 0:24:40.480 --> 0:24:44.080 your life to protect you become something in the next 0:24:44.119 --> 0:24:51.200 season of your life that prevents you. One example, you sure, 0:24:52.119 --> 0:24:57.000 all right, I got a hundred of these or like 0:24:57.320 --> 0:25:00.840 the way that we deal with people. Sometimes we learn 0:25:00.920 --> 0:25:03.320 to deal with people in a certain season of our 0:25:03.320 --> 0:25:07.040 life as a certain way to survive, because we have to, 0:25:08.440 --> 0:25:12.879 all right, And a lot of times I've been like swinging, 0:25:13.680 --> 0:25:19.360 like fighting, and I didn't even look up and realize 0:25:19.960 --> 0:25:23.720 my enemy was gone, and I'm still swinging at the air. 0:25:25.840 --> 0:25:30.399 And so my style of doing things, Like the best 0:25:30.440 --> 0:25:32.720 example I can give to you of this from my 0:25:32.800 --> 0:25:35.720 own life is that the way I've seen myself in 0:25:35.760 --> 0:25:40.880 certain seasons doesn't apply in other seasons. And God can 0:25:40.880 --> 0:25:45.080 give you something as a gift in one season. What 0:25:45.119 --> 0:25:48.960 am I thinking of? We wrote this other song that 0:25:49.000 --> 0:25:50.840 we just put out called talking to Jesus? Have you 0:25:50.840 --> 0:25:56.280 heard it? Heard it now? So Chris can tell you 0:25:56.520 --> 0:25:58.560 the whole time we were writing that song. We wrote 0:25:58.600 --> 0:26:01.440 that with our friend Brandon, and the whole time we 0:26:01.480 --> 0:26:03.800 were in the song, it broke all the rules of 0:26:03.800 --> 0:26:07.800 a worship song, because worship songs are supposed to be 0:26:08.320 --> 0:26:13.160 like this. You're supposed to only say about thirty words 0:26:13.160 --> 0:26:21.040 and just scramble them all around. Right, And we're writing 0:26:21.080 --> 0:26:23.840 this song and I'm finding myself saying lyrics like Mama 0:26:23.920 --> 0:26:25.760 used to drag me to church Sunday mornings and Wednesday 0:26:25.800 --> 0:26:27.719 night kaki pants and a polo shirt. Boy, I put 0:26:27.800 --> 0:26:30.199 up a fight, and I'm thinking, can you say khaki 0:26:30.280 --> 0:26:37.800 pants in a worship song? Now, there's a reason that 0:26:37.840 --> 0:26:40.080 worship songs are supposed to have a certain focus. The 0:26:40.119 --> 0:26:42.520 reason is when we come in to sing with our church, 0:26:42.720 --> 0:26:45.159 we want everybody to be able to access it. And 0:26:45.520 --> 0:26:47.800 maybe you didn't wear kaki pants to church. So you're 0:26:47.840 --> 0:26:50.840 worshiping God, Lord, I love you. I'm talking to Jesus, 0:26:50.920 --> 0:26:53.680 what a friend I have in Jesus khaki pants? Huh? 0:26:53.760 --> 0:26:56.280 And pulls you out of it. It's just like, Oh, 0:26:56.560 --> 0:26:59.160 I thought that was my song, but I guess that's 0:26:59.160 --> 0:27:04.280 not for me. The crazy thing about it was that 0:27:04.960 --> 0:27:08.399