Speaker 1: Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick.
Speaker 2: I'm the pastor of Elevation Church and this is our
Speaker 2: podcast and 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 you perspective to see God is moving
Speaker 2: in your life.
Speaker 1: Enjoy the message.
Speaker 2: Just to hit it real quick from first Speeder five
Speaker 2: eight and nine, which serves as a theme. We won't
Speaker 2: preach from it today, but be alert and of sober mind.
Speaker 1: Your enemy.
Speaker 2: The devil prows around like a roaring lion. See I
Speaker 2: always read it wrong. I thought he was a lion.
Speaker 2: I thought he was bigger than me and stronger than me.
Speaker 2: But I found out that he's just loud like a lion.
Speaker 2: And the place where he roars is in my mind.
Speaker 2: That's where he's the loudest, in the thoughts that I have.
Speaker 2: And so he's looking for someone to devour. Did you
Speaker 2: ever wonder why all those Twitter feeds and Instagram feeds
Speaker 2: and Facebook feeds, why they call him feeds. It's because us.
Speaker 2: They're eating your mind alive. Did you know that? And
Speaker 2: so he devours people in any way that he can.
Speaker 2: He's looking for someone the command is resist him. But
Speaker 2: how many know it's hard to resist what you don't recognize.
Speaker 1: And if we're to resist.
Speaker 2: The enemy, because I don't know about you, but I
Speaker 2: don't intend to live the rest of my life as
Speaker 2: a Christian and be a slave to my own imagination.
Speaker 1: Amen. I don't intend to.
Speaker 2: Live the rest of my life forgiven by Christ as
Speaker 2: a prisoner to my past and replaying memories of moments
Speaker 2: that have come and gone, but I can't escape them
Speaker 2: in my mind. And so I really intend if it
Speaker 2: takes me the rest of my life, and it might,
Speaker 2: because it seems like sometimes I take two steps forward
Speaker 2: and three steps back. But I'm trying to get free.
Speaker 2: I'm trying to take my mind back so I can
Speaker 2: serve God with my mind and love the Lord my
Speaker 2: God with all my heart, with all my soul, with.
Speaker 1: All my mind, with all my strength.
Speaker 2: And I don't want to be drained, so I go
Speaker 2: into each day with no energy and broken focus. I
Speaker 2: really want to be able to see clear the way
Speaker 2: ahead so I can follow Christ into my future.
Speaker 1: And that's the intention of this series.
Speaker 2: But in order to resist the enemy, we've got to
Speaker 2: recognize him, or we'll spend our whole life, resisting all
Speaker 2: the wrong things, resisting silence when sometimes that's where God
Speaker 2: speaks the loudest, resisting or trying to avoid awkward situations.
Speaker 1: And God's middle name is awkward.
Speaker 2: He'll run out of food on purpose to see what
Speaker 2: you're going to do in an awkward situation. He'll sit
Speaker 2: down next to a disreputable woman. It'll well and make
Speaker 2: it awkward. So the disciples have to decide if they
Speaker 2: really believe that this message is for everyone.
Speaker 1: And so let's take a look today.
Speaker 2: At this idea of recognizing the enemy so we can
Speaker 2: see how he's at work in our lives. And this
Speaker 2: may be a weird title, but I want to call
Speaker 2: this message the devil in three D? What does he
Speaker 2: look like in real life, not our cartoon image of him,
Speaker 2: our coloring book devil. Once we get the cape off
Speaker 2: of him and try to understand how he really operates
Speaker 2: to try to master our minds and set up a
Speaker 2: seed of influence and our souls. Through controlling our emotions,
Speaker 2: we can start to do battle.
Speaker 1: And you know, Paul said.
Speaker 2: One time, we are not ignorant of Satan's devices, devices,
Speaker 2: Satan's devices, and of course I don't think this is
Speaker 2: the devil, but I wanted to give you three things
Speaker 2: just to.
Speaker 1: Make it memorable that start with the letter D.
Speaker 2: And rather than continue on talking about Peter this week,
Speaker 2: I want to move into the Old Testament for a
Speaker 2: few moments and tell you a story about a Bible
Speaker 2: character that I know you've heard of, named Moses, and
Speaker 2: I want to use this one example from his life
Speaker 2: is probably not the one that he would choose for
Speaker 2: us to evaluate, because he made a great mistake and
Speaker 2: it cost him dearly. But hopefully, like First Corinthians ten says,
Speaker 2: we can use him as an example so the same
Speaker 2: thing doesn't happen to us. How many of you want
Speaker 2: your kids to learn some stuff from your experience that
Speaker 2: they don't have to learn through their own pain. And
Speaker 2: so let's look at this. I'll read it to you.
Speaker 2: I'll be honest with you. I never appreached on this
Speaker 2: passage before because I was intimidated by it. And really
Speaker 2: it's a little confusing. You'll see that it seems a
Speaker 2: little harsh what happens in this passage.
Speaker 1: And honestly, I knew that if I.
Speaker 2: Ever preached it, that God would probably speak something to
Speaker 2: me that I wouldn't want to hear because I relate
Speaker 2: to a little thing that happens in this Bible story.
Speaker 2: But I want to share it with you now as
Speaker 2: we lean into this message. The devil in three D
Speaker 2: and of course Moses's devil was a little.
Speaker 1: Different than ours.
Speaker 2: He would have said Pharaoh, who was the ruler of Egypt,
Speaker 2: the one that he had to demand emancipation for the
Speaker 2: people of God from. He never really asked for that assignment.
Speaker 2: He didn't seek that assignment. He wasn't looking for a
Speaker 2: life purpose. God just interrupted what he thought was his
Speaker 2: second half of life and gave him something different to
Speaker 2: do and wasn't terribly convenient. But now we're looking at
Speaker 2: Moses at the end of his life, and this is
Speaker 2: what the Bible says Numbers chapter twenty, verse one. In
Speaker 2: the first month, the whole Israelite community arrived at the
Speaker 2: desert of Zenn and they stayed at Kadesh. Their Miriam
Speaker 2: died and was buried. Their Miriam died and was buried.
Speaker 2: Now there was no water for the community, and the
Speaker 2: people gathered in opposition to Moses and Aaron, and they
Speaker 2: quarreled with Moses and said, if only we had died
Speaker 2: when our brothers fell dead before the Lord. Why did
Speaker 2: you bring the Lord's community into this wilderness that we
Speaker 2: and our livestock should die here?
Speaker 1: Why did you.
Speaker 2: Bring us up out of Egypt.
Speaker 1: To this terrible place?
Speaker 2: It has no grain or figs, grape vines or pomegranates,
Speaker 2: Wi Fi or Starbucks. It's trying to bring you into
Speaker 2: the text. I don't want you bored trying to listen
Speaker 2: to this Bible story. And there is no water to drink.
Speaker 2: Moses and Aaron went from the assembly to the entrance
Speaker 2: to the tent of meeting and fell face down, and
Speaker 2: the glory of the Lord appeared to them. That's when
Speaker 2: God's glory shows up when you've run out of answers.
Speaker 2: That's when God's glory shows up when you admit God,
Speaker 2: I'm powerless to do this on my own.
Speaker 1: I need you God.
Speaker 2: I've tried everything, and still these people are driving me crazy.
Speaker 2: But I'm here at the entrance to the tent and I.
Speaker 1: Need you to speak.
Speaker 2: So for everybody who came into church with a cocky
Speaker 2: attitude today talking about I wonder what this sermon is
Speaker 2: gonna be about.
Speaker 1: And he better hurry up and.
Speaker 2: Get to it, because I don't really even want to
Speaker 2: be here, up here in that karate kid shirt looking
Speaker 2: like a Halloween costume, say something, won't you. You're not
Speaker 2: gonna get it. But those of you who came in
Speaker 2: here humbled under the mighty hand of God, he might
Speaker 2: just speak because you're listening now. Then the Lord said
Speaker 2: to Moses verse seven, take the staff, that same staff
Speaker 2: that you raised over the Red Sea, and it parted,
Speaker 2: that same staff that you.
Speaker 1: And threw on the ground.
Speaker 2: And I proved who I was to you because I
Speaker 2: turned the staff into a snake, and you picked it
Speaker 2: back up and it became a staff again.
Speaker 1: That same staff that.
Speaker 2: Turned the Nile River into blood until your enemy had
Speaker 2: no choice but to release you from bondage.
Speaker 1: That same staff that when you.
Speaker 2: Raised it up, the Amalekites.
Speaker 1: Were no match for the Israelites.
Speaker 2: That same staff. Take it now. I want you to
Speaker 2: get erin and get everybody together and speak to the
Speaker 2: rock before their eyes, and it will pour out its water,
Speaker 2: and you will bring water out of the rock for
Speaker 2: the community, so they in their livestock and drink. So
Speaker 2: Moses took the staff from the Lord's presence, just as
Speaker 2: he had commanded him. He and Aaron gathered the assembly
Speaker 2: together in front of the rock, and Moses said to them, listen,
Speaker 2: you rebels.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna start saying that around my house. More to
Speaker 1: the kids.
Speaker 2: We bring you water out of this rock. Isn't anything
Speaker 2: I do enough for you. I've been leading you through
Speaker 2: this wilderness for thirty eight years, and it's never enough.
Speaker 2: It never stops. It never stops. Somebody shout, it never stops.
Speaker 2: I screamed that one day on vacation, top of my lungs.
Speaker 2: I'd been such a good dad all day. I took
Speaker 2: my kids swimming, I went on a bike ride with
Speaker 2: the kids. We went and ate Japanese food, and we
Speaker 2: sat with people we didn't know, and I pretended to
Speaker 2: think it was funny when he flipped the bowl into
Speaker 2: his hat, like I never saw it before. I was
Speaker 2: a good dad that day. I was a great dad
Speaker 2: that day. I read to him at bedtime, and still
Speaker 2: at the end of the day, they were fighting, and
Speaker 2: all of a sudden, I heard myself screaming at my kids.
Speaker 1: Have you ever had an out of body experience.
Speaker 2: Screaming at your kids and you were surprised? What you
Speaker 2: said next? And you were thinking I might have to
Speaker 2: bleep myself at it myself.
Speaker 1: I don't know what's coming out next. The Holy Ghost just.
Speaker 2: Left and something else took over.
Speaker 1: And now I'm watching.
Speaker 2: Myself and I'm scaring of myself, and I shouted at
Speaker 2: the top of my lungs.
Speaker 1: It never stops. Now we can laugh about it. It wasn't
Speaker 1: funny at the time.
Speaker 2: Listen, your rebels, must we bring you water out of
Speaker 2: this rock. We already did this one time, thirty eight
Speaker 2: years ago. This has happened before. God kept your shoes
Speaker 2: from wearing out. Then Moses raised his arm and struck
Speaker 2: the rock, which God did not instruct him to do,
Speaker 2: twice with his staff, and water gushed out, and the
Speaker 2: community and their livestock drank. So on the surface what
Speaker 2: Moses did worked, But just because it worked on the
Speaker 2: surface doesn't mean it was wise and does not mean
Speaker 2: it will have a sustainable effect. And this is why
Speaker 2: when you control people with your anger, or your pouting.
Speaker 1: Or your manipulat.
Speaker 2: See I can't even say the words a foreign concept.
Speaker 1: To me, manipulation, You end up very lonely.
Speaker 2: Because the cost of controlling people is to end up
Speaker 2: alone and I know I got you pinned up against
Speaker 2: your chair right now talking about this sermons, so look
Speaker 2: confused and you get through this. But some of the
Speaker 2: stuff that works on the surface costs us in the end.
Speaker 2: And that's why it's so important that we understand this.
Speaker 2: Because what everybody got water, but it cost Moses what
Speaker 2: God had promised. And if the passage ended at verse eleven,
Speaker 2: you'd say, well, what's so hard about that scripture? Unfortunately,
Speaker 2: Verse twelve tell us that even though the water came
Speaker 2: out of the rock, what came out of Moses's heart
Speaker 2: in that moment prevented him from going further into God's promise.
Speaker 2: And even though all the people were happy and the
Speaker 2: people were impressed, and the people might not have even
Speaker 2: known anything was wrong because they were all too busy drinking,
Speaker 2: the people got hydrated. The people got what they wanted,
Speaker 2: but Moses lost what God had promised. Verse twelve, the
Speaker 2: Lord said to Moses and Aaron, because you did not
Speaker 2: trust in me enough to honor me as holy in
Speaker 2: the sight of the Israelites, you will not bring this
Speaker 2: community into the land I give them. These were the
Speaker 2: waters of Mirabah, where the Israelites quarreled with the Lord,
Speaker 2: and where he was proved holy among them.
Speaker 1: Makes me wish I would have.
Speaker 2: Paid more attention in my Hebrew class, because if I
Speaker 2: knew that miraba means quarreling, I would understand that God
Speaker 2: does some great miracles in places of great conflict. You know,
Speaker 2: it's funny all the little things we miss if we
Speaker 2: read the Bible in English because the interpretation. Sometimes the
Speaker 2: writers will put little humorous things in there that I
Speaker 2: wouldn't know to look for. But this particular word play,
Speaker 2: if you go back to verse two and I told you,
Speaker 2: I'm gonna give you three d's and I am the
Speaker 2: first one is deficit because he is describing a deficit
Speaker 2: that the people of God are in. It says in
Speaker 2: verse two there was no water for the community, and
Speaker 2: the people gathered. Now the Hebrew word for gathered here
Speaker 2: that he uses is a word that means to come
Speaker 2: together for the purpose of conflict. And see, I didn't
Speaker 2: even know Facebook was in the Bible. Talk to me,
Speaker 2: they call it a community. But the community came together to.
Speaker 1: Quarrel in that a nice word to quarrel.
Speaker 2: Not to not to fight, not to argue, but to
Speaker 2: quarrel and so they're they're fighting with each other and they.
Speaker 1: Don't have patience. But they don't have patience because they
Speaker 1: don't have water.
Speaker 2: And before we're too hard on them, these complaining Israelites,
Speaker 2: we need to consider that this was a matter of
Speaker 2: life and death. This is not the barista messed up
Speaker 2: your order and forgot that you prefer almond milk.
Speaker 1: This is something different.
Speaker 2: We can't live but a few days without water, and
Speaker 2: so we're desperate. And I've noticed that when people get desperate,
Speaker 2: they start doing things they wouldn't normally do.
Speaker 1: Have you noticed this about yourself, that when you get desperate,
Speaker 1: you get.
Speaker 2: Edgy, you get touchy, and sometimes you're lashing out at people.
Speaker 1: And it's not about the people.
Speaker 2: Like I had to explain to the kids about my
Speaker 2: road rage, it's not really about the driving.
Speaker 1: It has nothing to do with the driving.
Speaker 2: It's just that Dad finds this a convenient place to
Speaker 2: be shielded and an anonymous where I can let some
Speaker 2: stuff lie that's been building up.
Speaker 1: God, I don't want a real preacher, JJ. You preached
Speaker 1: next week. Thank them out.
Speaker 2: It's a whole thing because they came together to quarrel,
Speaker 2: and what they didn't no couldn't know, is that they
Speaker 2: were on the border of Canaan. The land that God
Speaker 2: had promised them was just a few short months away.
Speaker 2: But in a time when they should have been preparing
Speaker 2: to conquer, the enemy had them in a state of conflict.
Speaker 2: Don't you understand that the reason that you've been fighting
Speaker 2: like you've been fighting, and even the reason sometimes that
Speaker 2: the devil will get you focused on fighting against people,
Speaker 2: is because God is trying to bring you into what
Speaker 2: He spoke over your life and the promise of his
Speaker 2: inheritance in the Saints. And now the closer you get
Speaker 2: to that promise, the greater the conflict is going to be.
Speaker 2: I think one of the reasons that our church gets
Speaker 2: so divided is because the enemy knows that if we
Speaker 2: would ever stop fighting and focus on the mission that
Speaker 2: we were given by our captain and the savior of
Speaker 2: our souls, we would be dangerous to the kingdom of darkness.
Speaker 2: But we can't come together because we quarrel too much.
Speaker 2: It never stops, we never quit finding new things to
Speaker 2: fight about. It's not only that Christians fight against other religions.
Speaker 2: We can subdivide on a multiplicity of different levels. Of Christianity,
Speaker 2: and we can get into little groups so that we
Speaker 2: no longer come together to lift up the name of
Speaker 2: the Lord and to take this message to the ends
Speaker 2: of the earth.
Speaker 1: But now we're fighting over a translation of.
Speaker 2: The Bible, or we're fighting over what you wear to worship,
Speaker 2: or we're fighting over what specific nuance you believe about
Speaker 2: the Holy Spirit. But I didn't come to quarrel, so
Speaker 2: I don't need to fight with you. I came to conquer,
Speaker 2: and I need you in my corner. And I don't
Speaker 2: have the energy to spend fighting against the people God
Speaker 2: called me to fight with.
Speaker 1: So if you're black, fight with me. If you're a Hispanic,
Speaker 1: fight with me. If you're a woman, fight with me.
Speaker 1: If you're young, fight with me.
Speaker 2: Let's get together, old heads, young people, let's fight this
Speaker 2: fight together. And there's no water in the wilderness, and
Speaker 2: when there is no water, when there is a deficit,
Speaker 2: you start reacting.
Speaker 1: Instead of responding.
Speaker 2: I'm appreciate this message, Hollie. I feel it happening right now,
Speaker 2: because what I want to say is forget about the
Speaker 2: budget deficit. A whole lot more than a budget deficit
Speaker 2: in our nation today, and it's a different deficit than
Speaker 2: they faced.
Speaker 1: It's not a lack of water.
Speaker 2: I feel like in our world today we are severely
Speaker 2: lacking in our ability.
Speaker 1: To empathize with others.
Speaker 2: Because we've got a surplus of opinions and a deficit
Speaker 2: of empathy.
Speaker 1: Let me try another one. They didn't like that very much.
Speaker 2: We have a surplus of information and a deficit of wisdom,
Speaker 2: because if we don't have insight into information, we will
Speaker 2: get caught up in highlights and headlines and highlights and
Speaker 2: headlines and highlights and headlines and highlights and headlines, clicking
Speaker 2: on crazy stuff and not even bothering to read anything
Speaker 2: but the first sentence. And then somebody wants to ask me,
Speaker 2: do you really have a water slide on your stage
Speaker 2: in the church.
Speaker 1: Because you don't want to come.
Speaker 2: I almost lost my faith in the human race over
Speaker 2: that water slide. It's a deficit, and I've been noticing
Speaker 2: about myself. Maybe this is why I wanted to preach
Speaker 2: the series that I'm having a hard time focusing because
Speaker 2: you know, the Devil's devices. I think it's I think
Speaker 2: I'm no neurologist, but I think when it's getting hard for.
Speaker 1: Me to read three sentences in a book and now
Speaker 1: I'm trying to swipe paper. When I reached up to
Speaker 1: swipe a book the other.
Speaker 2: Day, I thought, I got to take my mind back. Actually,
Speaker 2: next week, if the Lord will enable me and help me,
Speaker 2: I'm gonna try to preach on that very subject of focus,
Speaker 2: because I'm talking to more and more people who feel.
Speaker 1: Like their mind is fragmented and can't hold a thought.
Speaker 2: And it's not just because you're getting old and fish
Speaker 2: oil won't help it. There's some principles in the Word
Speaker 2: of God about distraction that we need to look at.
Speaker 2: It's a deficit, a deficit where we have more ways
Speaker 2: to communicate and we're connecting less than ever. I think
Speaker 2: that's what the skyrocketing porn rates are about. I think
Speaker 2: that's what the skyrocketing sleep deprivation rates are about. We
Speaker 2: are desperate to connect, and we call ourselves connected and
Speaker 2: nothing could be further from the truth.
Speaker 1: And it's too much.
Speaker 2: Costa called it too much to live with, too little
Speaker 2: to live for. It's a deficit, a deficit of meaning,
Speaker 2: a deficit of insight. And when the deficit is left unaddressed,
Speaker 2: you know what happens next. Disappointment, sets in. And that's
Speaker 2: the second D is disappointment because I'm looking at how
Speaker 2: the Israelites are talking to Moses, right, and I get it.
Speaker 2: I get it because when you don't have what you
Speaker 2: need to live, you start doing things that you would
Speaker 2: not normally do and it's not even you. And you
Speaker 2: also want to explain to people. Sometimes I don't even
Speaker 2: know who that was. I'm so sorry. Can we take
Speaker 2: back the last five minutes? And sometimes you can't. Sometimes
Speaker 2: you can undo it. And what the Israelites said to
Speaker 2: Moses here apparently hit that button. Now everybody has a button.
Speaker 2: All of you who are calm, we just haven't found
Speaker 2: yours yet. Really, everybody has a boiling point. Everybody has
Speaker 2: something that if you hit that, you will see a
Speaker 2: different version of them, and you will completely change their
Speaker 2: Enneagram number. If you hit the button, they go from
Speaker 2: a seven to a two, a peacemaker to a shooter.
Speaker 1: And it can happen so quick.
Speaker 2: Most is the man of God is violently striking a
Speaker 2: rock when God is trying.
Speaker 1: To show his people grace.
Speaker 2: But the reason he did it, and this is why
Speaker 2: I can't figure out sometimes in my own life where
Speaker 2: it comes from, because I find things coming out of me,
Speaker 2: and I'm confused about where it came from, because i
Speaker 2: know I'm not mad about what I'm mad about, because
Speaker 2: it's not a big enough deal to make me as
Speaker 2: mad as I am about what I'm mad about. Please
Speaker 2: help me preach to you in this together. And they
Speaker 2: just got done telling him they wanted to die. And
Speaker 2: it's his fault, because anytime you are facing a deficit
Speaker 2: in your own life, you start looking for someone to blame.
Speaker 2: Anytime you are confronted with your own barrenness or brokenness,
Speaker 2: you want to find somebody else or something else whose
Speaker 2: fault it can be.
Speaker 1: And the first thing we do when we run out of.
Speaker 2: Resource is to look for someone else to take responsibility.
Speaker 2: If only we had died when our brothers fell dead
Speaker 2: before the Lord. Why did you bring the Lord's community?
Speaker 1: Why didn't my mom? Why wasn't my dad around?
Speaker 2: All these or reasonable things to say, but they don't
Speaker 2: really help the situation.
Speaker 1: They only make it worse.
Speaker 2: Why did you bring us out here into this wilderness
Speaker 2: that we should die here? They weren't actually about to die.
Speaker 2: God wasn't going to let him die. They were on
Speaker 2: the edge of destiny, about to take the land that
Speaker 2: God had promised for generations, and they want to die
Speaker 2: at the edge of destiny.
Speaker 1: Why'd you bring us.
Speaker 2: Up out of Egypt to this terrible place? There we
Speaker 2: had figs. There, we had grape funds. There, we had pomegranates.
Speaker 2: There we had grain. I forget to mention the whips.
Speaker 2: They forget to mention the mud and the straw, and
Speaker 2: they begin to glamorize a past that really didn't even exist, well,
Speaker 2: the good old days. I get it, man, it's tempting
Speaker 2: to go back there in your mind.
Speaker 1: Just as long as you know is.
Speaker 2: Your version of the past is just as imaginary as
Speaker 2: your version of the future back in Egypt, the place
Speaker 2: that you were praying God to get you out of. Oh,
Speaker 2: I'll never forget this. One time a lady came to me.
Speaker 2: She said, you need to change some things in the church,
Speaker 2: very early.
Speaker 1: In the church.
Speaker 2: And I was woo, I was cocky. I was twenty eight.
Speaker 2: So what I said next to home, you respond. So
Speaker 2: there's statute of limitations. She listed everything she wanted me
Speaker 2: to change in the church.
Speaker 1: Change this, and change that, and change this and change that.
Speaker 2: And either the Lord or the Devil prompted me to
Speaker 2: say what follows. I said, so you want me to
Speaker 2: recreate the church that you left to come to this one.
Speaker 2: I didn't mean it how it came out. I meant
Speaker 2: to say, I'll pray about it. I am, but a
Speaker 2: servant and a vessel just gushed out came out frustration.
Speaker 2: So you understand that frustration operates when your experience is
Speaker 2: different than your expectation. So when you are frustrated, it
Speaker 2: is not your life that you're frustrated with. It's your
Speaker 2: life compared to your expectation of your life.
Speaker 1: That's what makes you frustrated.
Speaker 2: It's that it normally takes me thirteen minutes to get there,
Speaker 2: and today it took me thirty and I didn't plan
Speaker 2: for that. And so since I was already at a
Speaker 2: time deficit and a sleep deficit, and I didn't put
Speaker 2: margin on this trip, now I find myself frustrated. I'm
Speaker 2: not really frustrated and how long it's taking. I'm frustrated
Speaker 2: about how long it's taken compared to how long I
Speaker 2: thought it was gonna take.
Speaker 1: And one of the best things we can do.
Speaker 2: For our peace of mind is to crucify our expectations.
Speaker 1: Of others.
Speaker 2: I mean, really, just put it up there on the
Speaker 2: cross and get to the place.
Speaker 1: Where we no longer have.
Speaker 2: An expectation of people to meet our needs, because we
Speaker 2: understand that our water flows from a different rock, that
Speaker 2: our joy.
Speaker 1: Flows from a different place.
Speaker 2: Come on, Epham shout at the phone that I don't
Speaker 2: depend on people to provide for me. Well, God has promised,
Speaker 2: It's already mine. And so they got really upset man.
Speaker 2: And then Moses got upset and he went to God
Speaker 2: and he wanted God to be upset like he was upset.
Speaker 2: And Moses was mad because God wasn't mad. That's what
Speaker 2: happened here. He was disappointed.
Speaker 1: It never stops, after all I've done for you. I've
Speaker 1: been here before. I have been here.
Speaker 2: Before, even even in high school when I was the
Speaker 2: athletic trainer water boy for the football team. Coach Meyer
Speaker 2: recruited me to be the athletic trainer.
Speaker 1: Said you could get a scholarship. And one day I
Speaker 1: was mixing that gatorade so sweet, and I thought, I don't.
Speaker 2: Think they give scholarships for that. I think he tricked
Speaker 2: me into this. You know, I kind of didn't like
Speaker 2: it anyway. It wasn't like I really cared too much
Speaker 2: about football. Football's fine, I'll turn it on. I'm not
Speaker 2: like some of y'all fantasy lineups and stuff.
Speaker 1: I got a real life. I'm skidding, I'm skinning. I'm
Speaker 1: skarting this fine as fine as fine, finem skarting.
Speaker 2: I'm scarting this fine as fine as fine. But man,
Speaker 2: it was a relatively simple job. I did it for
Speaker 2: over a year, and the main part of the job,
Speaker 2: you know, every once in a while, they would let
Speaker 2: me tape a wrist or an ankle.
Speaker 1: I think it wasn't even really people that was hurt.
Speaker 1: I think they just sent.
Speaker 2: Cast members over because if anybody was really hurt, doctor
Speaker 2: Bowens came in.
Speaker 1: So I don't even think I was really taping anybody.
Speaker 1: I don't even think it was.
Speaker 2: But I did have one one job, and every time
Speaker 2: they would have a water break, it was my job
Speaker 2: to turn on the water.
Speaker 1: That's right, Bobby Bousche got nothing on me. Well, I
Speaker 1: did it like clockwork. They blow the whistle.
Speaker 2: I was positioned close enough to the spickett, which was
Speaker 2: connected to the hose which went to the PVC pipe
Speaker 2: in Monk's Corner. It was fancy with a PVC pipe
Speaker 2: with the holes in it, trough of sorts with the
Speaker 2: water would come out of the pipe. But I was
Speaker 2: the man who turned it on, and I turned it
Speaker 2: on about three or four times every practice. And one
Speaker 2: day I went over there to turn it on and
Speaker 2: nothing came out. I don't know who forgot to pay
Speaker 2: the bill, but nothing came out. And those football players
Speaker 2: went to drink and they lined up.
Speaker 1: At the PVC pipe and nothing happened.
Speaker 2: And they started yelling at me, like these rebellious Israelites
Speaker 2: started yelling at Moses, started yelling at me, calling me Steve.
Speaker 2: I don't even go by Steve. There's an inn on
Speaker 2: my name pronounced consonant. This ain't will of fortune. Oh,
Speaker 2: I was mad yelling at me for the one time
Speaker 2: the water didn't come on. Hundreds of times the water
Speaker 2: came on.
Speaker 1: One time it didn't come on. And guess what, I'm
Speaker 1: not controlling the water. I'm just the one turning it on.
Speaker 1: So they were yelling at me. So I wasn't saved yet.
Speaker 1: Let me get that in.
Speaker 2: So I turned around and said God bless ah, y'all.
Speaker 1: Only instead of.
Speaker 2: God bless I've said some different BCE vocabulary that it
Speaker 2: is not appropriate for this church setting and holy people
Speaker 2: such as yourself, And in that moment, I forgot they
Speaker 2: were bigger than me, because.
Speaker 1: I do have a level of crazy.
Speaker 2: That if it kicks in, I will stop caring how
Speaker 2: much bigger you are. And I would rather die than
Speaker 2: have you cussed me out. I got in my Toyota
Speaker 2: church cell and I drove off.
Speaker 3: So oh just kind of came back to me. Man,
Speaker 3: I'm sorry.
Speaker 2: Because all these times I get Moses's disappointment. I really do,
Speaker 2: all these times, and this one time, all I've done
Speaker 2: for you, all the meals I've cooked, all the prayers
Speaker 2: I've prayed, all the compliments I gave, all the Christmas
Speaker 2: presents I bought, all the sacrifices I made, and you
Speaker 2: mean this one thing, this one time, and now you
Speaker 2: want to yell at me and disrespect me and ignore me.
Speaker 1: I figure Moses is tired.
Speaker 2: Of being taken for granted, tired of people just assuming
Speaker 2: that you're always gonna do it.
Speaker 1: It's just easy for you.
Speaker 2: Until I realized that Moses wasn't really disappointed with the people.
Speaker 1: Moses was.
Speaker 2: Still dealing with a fear that he had carried with
Speaker 2: him since the time God met him at the Burning Bush,
Speaker 2: impossibly before that, forty years earlier, when he killed an
Speaker 2: Egyptian to try to rescue one of his fellow Hebrews.
Speaker 2: And he never really fit in because he was raised
Speaker 2: as an Egyptian, but he was.
Speaker 1: By birth a Hebrew.
Speaker 2: And when he tried to defend the people that he
Speaker 2: was one of from the people that he had had
Speaker 2: to live with, Moses ended up having to run. That's
Speaker 2: why he ended up in the wilderness with the shepherds
Speaker 2: staff to begin with. And that's why when God met
Speaker 2: him at the bush, Moses said, you got the wrong one.
Speaker 2: Picked somebody stronger, Pick somebody more capable, Pick somebody with
Speaker 2: more experience. Pick somebody who doesn't struggle with what I
Speaker 2: struggle with, because I'll let you down, God, and I'll
Speaker 2: let them down. And not only not only is Moses
Speaker 2: dealing with this moment, but he's dealing with forty years
Speaker 2: of frustration, forty years of frustration that you could argue
Speaker 2: were the result of his lack of faith when he
Speaker 2: didn't go in and fight and take the land God
Speaker 2: had promised. In a sense, what they're saying about Moses
Speaker 2: is true and he knows it. It's not him, it's
Speaker 2: not them that he is disappointed in.
Speaker 1: So like for me realizing in my adult life that my.
Speaker 2: Core fear and a lot of the reasons that I
Speaker 2: withdraw and a lot of the reasons.
Speaker 1: That I lash out.
Speaker 2: It really came to me one time early in my
Speaker 2: marriage to Holly, and it was a low key argument,
Speaker 2: but all of a sudden it just kind of erupted
Speaker 2: and I yelled at her, I'm not stupid, I'm not stupid.
Speaker 1: It never stops. I'm not stupid, she said.
Speaker 2: I didn't say you were stupid, But I wasn't responding
Speaker 2: to what she said.
Speaker 1: I was responding to what I felt somewhere in me
Speaker 1: was something that told me that.
Speaker 2: I didn't know enough. Probably back to my dad in
Speaker 2: some ways he loved me. Wasn't that he didn't love me,
Speaker 2: but he kind of felt like it was him against
Speaker 2: the world and he didn't have a full deck to
Speaker 2: play with because of.
Speaker 1: The way he was raised.
Speaker 2: And somewhere I probably started thinking that I was operating
Speaker 2: in life out of a deficit of intelligence. And so
Speaker 2: my first instinct when some makes me feel stupid. What
Speaker 2: a phrase when they make me feel stupid. How much
Speaker 2: power are you giving away to other people when someone
Speaker 2: can make you feel stupid.
Speaker 1: That's a weak mind.
Speaker 2: But that's where that's where I find myself sometimes in
Speaker 2: that mental wilderness, that mental wilderness, do you know what
Speaker 2: I'm talking about?
Speaker 1: And I'm afraid.
Speaker 2: I'm afraid sometimes up here, not that I'm going to
Speaker 2: get the Bible wrong or that I'm going to dishonor God,
Speaker 2: but unfortunately that I will disappoint you. And every time
Speaker 2: we start a new series, I feel it, you know,
Speaker 2: because I try to create expectation this is going to
Speaker 2: be the best series ever. And then I hope Baby
Speaker 2: Jesus and Mother Mary and the Holy Ghost will somehow
Speaker 2: help us, because I don't want to disappoint you. And
Speaker 2: I'm sharing this altho biographically, but I'm wonderings like do
Speaker 2: a lot of us function in this place that I
Speaker 2: don't want to disappoint you? And that's why I hide.
Speaker 2: And now I find myself I don't even want to
Speaker 2: pick up the phone when people call, because now if
Speaker 2: I can text them back, I can carefully craft my response.
Speaker 2: Even in the smallest ways. I see this fear, I
Speaker 2: see myself withdrawing. I see myself wanting to isolate, and
Speaker 2: it's a tendency that I don't fully understand.
Speaker 1: Because I do love people. I really do love people.
Speaker 1: I've always loved people.
Speaker 2: I was the dude that hugged everybody in his graduating
Speaker 2: high school class, the whole two one hundred and thirty.
Speaker 1: Of them, hug them all.
Speaker 2: But I find myself sometimes wanting to withdraw, find myself
Speaker 2: wanting to walk out, find myself wanting to get out.
Speaker 2: I wonder why, you know, like, am I losing my
Speaker 2: love for people? It is all this getting to me,
Speaker 2: like lights and cameras and all that. But I realized
Speaker 2: I realized in the weirdest way one day what it
Speaker 2: was when a lady said to me, I've I've been
Speaker 2: going to your church seven years and I've never met you.
Speaker 2: And I said, I'm so sorry. I took it like
Speaker 2: an accusation, you know. She said, no, no, it's a
Speaker 2: big church.
Speaker 1: We love. The minister said, okay, good, I'm sorry.
Speaker 2: That's I'm really sorry, though, that's bad.
Speaker 1: I met your pastor in seven years. I'm sorry. She say,
Speaker 1: it's fine, it's fine.
Speaker 2: Stop apologizing now. It's awkward because I'm making it awkward.
Speaker 2: Then she made it awkward. She said, you're much taller
Speaker 2: on the screen.
Speaker 1: Well that helped you already.
Speaker 2: See I'm insecure woman, but I don't want to let
Speaker 2: you down, you know. So, So when Moses has this
Speaker 2: moment and I'm calling in a moment, but it's really
Speaker 2: not a moment because anytime something comes bursting to the surface,
Speaker 2: like Moses hitting that rock twice when God specifically spoke
Speaker 2: to him to speak to the rock, not to strike it.
Speaker 1: And I know why he struck the rock because this
Speaker 1: is the third issue. It's the issue of dependence. You know.
Speaker 2: This staff was the thing that he carried with him.
Speaker 2: Like Tom Hanks had a volleyball, Moses had a stick.
Speaker 2: And now in this moment where the community needs water
Speaker 2: and this is to be their last test, but they
Speaker 2: don't know it. This is to be their last test
Speaker 2: to see if they really trust God, and Moses fails
Speaker 2: the test. What I could not understand is why did
Speaker 2: God tell him to take the stick if he didn't
Speaker 2: want him to use it. Why did God tell Moses
Speaker 2: take the staff and then don't use it, just hold
Speaker 2: it and speak to the rock. Until I remember what
Speaker 2: Moses said to God when God first called Moses, I'm
Speaker 2: not good at speaking. And before God could let Moses
Speaker 2: lead his people into the promise, he had to know
Speaker 2: do you trust me enough? When God said Moses, you
Speaker 2: can't lead the people, it wasn't for punishment, it was
Speaker 2: for protection. If Moses would have led them in in
Speaker 2: the condition that his heart was in, with years and
Speaker 2: years and years and years of resentment building up, they
Speaker 2: would have all all got killed the first time God.
Speaker 1: Spoken, they didn't do what he said.
Speaker 2: Because God needs someone who is not dependent on their staff.
Speaker 2: I know you struck the Red the Nile River, and
Speaker 2: the Red Sea, and I know that this staff has
Speaker 2: been used to perform great miracles, and I want you
Speaker 2: to hold it in your hand, but have the faith
Speaker 2: not to use it. I want you to speak to
Speaker 2: the rock, and he struck it instead. And God said,
Speaker 2: you don't trust me enough. You've allowed this resentment to
Speaker 2: build to.
Speaker 1: A point that it has killed your potential.
Speaker 2: When we allow resentment to build and build and build
Speaker 2: and build, when we never really believe that we are
Speaker 2: what God said we are, when we are constantly taking
Speaker 2: people's assessment of us as the ultimate reality, it limits.
Speaker 1: Our participation in the promise of God.
Speaker 2: It doesn't keep God from loving you, but it keeps
Speaker 2: God from being able to lead you into the great
Speaker 2: and precious promises that have your name on them. God said,
Speaker 2: I just need you to trust me. I know you stutter,
Speaker 2: I know you stammer. I know you're afraid of letting
Speaker 2: me down. But it's never been about you, Moses. It
Speaker 2: was never about your mouth. It was about my mighty
Speaker 2: hand and my outstretched arm. It was never about your rod.
Speaker 2: It was about the rock.
Speaker 1: So what are you trusting in today, my friend, the
Speaker 1: rod or the rock?
Speaker 2: Because First Corinthians ten tells us plainly that this happened
Speaker 2: as an example for us, that the Israelites who wandered
Speaker 2: in the wilderness were an example for us, for you
Speaker 2: and me in our daily lives, in our efforts to.
Speaker 1: Trust God in the face of our own frailty, he said.
Speaker 2: The apostle Paul said verse four. They drank the same
Speaker 2: spiritual drink. They drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them.
Speaker 2: Here's the revelation, and that rock was Christ. It wasn't
Speaker 2: about Moses. It's not about me. It's not about you. Yes,
Speaker 2: I will let you down. Yes, I will disappoint you,
Speaker 2: But I'm not the rock. You know how good that
Speaker 2: makes me feel to know I'm not the rock. I
Speaker 2: don't have to force it, I don't have to fight it.
Speaker 2: I don't have to explode in anger when it doesn't
Speaker 2: go my way. I'm not the He is my stable place.
Speaker 2: He is my solid ground on Christ, the.
Speaker 1: Solid rock I stand. All other ground is sinking sand.
Speaker 1: Please stand, I'm closing. Please stand, I'm.
Speaker 4: Closing these Verse thirteen, where the waters of Miraba, where
Speaker 4: the Israelites quarreled with the Lord, they quarreled with the Lord.
Speaker 4: And verse two it said they quarreled with Moses, but
Speaker 4: really they were quarreling with the Lord.
Speaker 2: It wasn't even about Moses. It's not even about you.
Speaker 2: It's not even about me. We've been taking things personally,
Speaker 2: you know, and we let it build and then it explodes.
Speaker 2: Not in church, Oh you look so fancy in here,
Speaker 2: your little boozie blessed self, come up in the House
Speaker 2: of God carrying.
Speaker 1: A big, old thick Bible explodes when you get home.
Speaker 1: It explodes when you're all alone, and.
Speaker 2: You find yourself crying out, desperate for connection and disappointed
Speaker 2: with your life, so you start striking rocks and you
Speaker 2: start trying to get You know, the water came out
Speaker 2: of the rock, and it worked on the surface, but
Speaker 2: Moses did not get to enter into the promise of God.
Speaker 2: Did God still love Moses? Absolutely? He is Ei, the
Speaker 2: God of second chances.
Speaker 1: I sure hope, so I know he is. I know
Speaker 1: He's not going to punish me for one mistake.
Speaker 2: I can prove it. I can prove it to you.
Speaker 2: Give him that verse I sent you earlier someone fourteen eight.
Speaker 2: When the psalmist reflected on this event, he said, you
Speaker 2: got it one fourteen eight, the one I sent you
Speaker 2: earlier today No is Psalm one fourteen verse e. What
Speaker 2: if I started yelling at the people on the screens
Speaker 2: to demonstrate Moses's frustration, But it said that God turned
Speaker 2: the rock into a pool, the hard rock into springs
Speaker 2: of water.
Speaker 1: And God spoke to me through that verse.
Speaker 2: And said, if they'll let me, the place of their
Speaker 2: greatest mistake will become the place of my mercy and
Speaker 2: their greatest miracle.
Speaker 1: But for this to happen, we can't keep.
Speaker 2: It all up inside and keep exploding in situations and exploding.
Speaker 2: It's not anger for everybody. Sometimes it's much more subtle
Speaker 2: than that. It's the little waste that you withdraw yourself
Speaker 2: from those that you love because I don't want to
Speaker 2: be disappointed again. I don't want to be a disappointment
Speaker 2: some living my whole life trying to avoid disappointment.
Speaker 1: I'm bringing my expectations.
Speaker 2: Down, down, down, down, down, down down, because now no
Speaker 2: one can disappoint me.
Speaker 1: And I'm bringing myself.
Speaker 2: Back back back back, because I don't want to disappoint you.
Speaker 1: It's not about you. This is the test. This is
Speaker 1: the test.
Speaker 2: With your rod in your hand, to remember all that
Speaker 2: God has done for you, and the rock in front
Speaker 2: of you, the presence of God. Speak to it, don't
Speaker 2: strike it, Speak to it, confess it before God. Speak
Speaker 2: to your weekness, own your inadequacy. God said, I'm.
Speaker 1: Not looking for you to be what I need you
Speaker 1: to be. I'm looking for.
Speaker 2: You to trust in what I already am. And so
Speaker 2: when Moses said i'm not, God said I am. When
Speaker 2: Moses said I'm not, God said I am. When Moses
Speaker 2: said I'm not, God said I am. When Moses said not,
Speaker 2: God said I am.
Speaker 1: Do you trust him enough to let him handle those
Speaker 1: who have hurt you.
Speaker 2: Do you trust him enough to allow him to use
Speaker 2: everything that's happened for your good and his glory?
Speaker 1: Lift your hands if you do. The rock is in
Speaker 1: this place.
Speaker 2: When my heart is overwhelmed, Lead me to the rock
Speaker 2: that is higher than I.
Speaker 1: Meet us in this moment. God, pour out your spirit
Speaker 1: in a fresh way for your people.
Speaker 2: Now. I asked that you would speak to that weak place,
Speaker 2: broken place, discouraged place. Make that heart beat again for
Speaker 2: real water from a rock, so you are beauty from brokenness.
Speaker 2: Call to him, Call to him, speak to the rock.
Speaker 2: Unless you asking, you need me.
Speaker 1: Enter my decision making process. God, I need you.
Speaker 2: Thank you for joining us. Special thanks to those of
Speaker 2: you who give generously to this ministry. Is because of
Speaker 2: you that this ministry is possible. You can click the
Speaker 2: link in the description to give now or visit Elevation
Speaker 2: Church Slash podcast for more information and if you enjoyed
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Speaker 2: Elevation Church.
Speaker 1: Thanks again for listening. God bless you