Speaker 1: Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick. I'm the pastor of Elevation
Speaker 1: Church and this is our podcast. I wanted to thank
Speaker 1: you for joining us today. Hope this inspires you. Hope
Speaker 1: it builds your faith. Hope it gives you perspective to
Speaker 1: see God is moving in your life. Enjoy the message. Well,
Speaker 1: be seated, and let's begin to study God's word. There's
Speaker 1: a lesson today that I want to teach you, and
Speaker 1: I believe I want to start at Luke chapter one. Really,
Speaker 1: this will feel like you've got some a running start.
Speaker 1: If you heard what I preached last week, it's really
Speaker 1: going to have some momentum for you. We've been talking
Speaker 1: about argue in control and we've been asking God that sometimes, respectfully,
Speaker 1: we've been asking God, are you behind this? Are you still?
Speaker 1: Are we still good? Is this still in your hands?
Speaker 1: And we don't tell anybody that we come to church
Speaker 1: and we hide all that stuff. We sleep it right
Speaker 1: under the couch of our Christian vocabulary. But I know
Speaker 1: what you've been thinking. I've been. God showed me. He
Speaker 1: showed me some stuff that you've been wondering about. And
Speaker 1: it's okay, as you're going to see today that puts
Speaker 1: you in good company. But let's begin at Luke chapter one,
Speaker 1: and this is I guess you could say Christmas is
Speaker 1: coming early, because this is the passage that they normally
Speaker 1: go to for Christmas. But since the rest of the
Speaker 1: year is just so screwed up, I figured I would
Speaker 1: just mix it up a little bit. And look how
Speaker 1: the Bible says it in Luke chapter one, verse thirty nine.
Speaker 1: At that time, Mary got ready and hurried to a
Speaker 1: town in the hill country of Judea, where she entered
Speaker 1: Zechariah's home and greeted Elizabeth. And when Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting,
Speaker 1: the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled
Speaker 1: with the Holy Spirit. In a loud voice, she exclaimed,
Speaker 1: blessed are you among women? And blessed is the child
Speaker 1: you will bear. Somebody in the chat say I'm blessed too.
Speaker 1: I'm blessed too. But why am I so favored? You know,
Speaker 1: we've been talking about questions that are in the Bible.
Speaker 1: That's a great one. Have you ever seen that one
Speaker 1: in the Bible before? I never did before this week?
Speaker 1: Why am I so favored? Ask somebody? Why am I
Speaker 1: so blessed? Ask him? Why are you so blessed that
Speaker 1: you get to sit next to me? Have you thought
Speaker 1: about that? Well? The mother of John the Baptist, Elizabeth,
Speaker 1: as of her encounter with Mary, the Mother of Jesus,
Speaker 1: She said, why am I so favored that the mother
Speaker 1: of my Lord should come to me? As soon as
Speaker 1: the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby
Speaker 1: in my womb leaped for joy verse forty five. Blessed
Speaker 1: is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill
Speaker 1: his promises to her. Go to Isaiah fifty five. Isaiah
Speaker 1: fifty five, Verse eight. My thoughts are not your thoughts.
Speaker 1: Neither are my ways. Neither are your ways my ways,
Speaker 1: declares the Lord. Let me read it again, see if
Speaker 1: I can get it right. I didn't do that verse
Speaker 1: appropriate service, All right, try again. For my thoughts are
Speaker 1: not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares
Speaker 1: the Lord. One more verse as the heavens are higher
Speaker 1: than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways,
Speaker 1: and my thoughts than your thoughts. I want to talk
Speaker 1: to you today about jumping to a new conclusion. Jumping
Speaker 1: to a new conclusion. I was researching on Wikipedia, and
Speaker 1: Wikipedia said that the world record for the long jump
Speaker 1: is held currently by Mike Powell of the United States
Speaker 1: of America, who in nineteen ninety one in Tokyo, Japan,
Speaker 1: jumped twenty nine feet four and one quarters inches. Or
Speaker 1: if you're in any country that is less arrogant than
Speaker 1: America that has adopted the metric system eight point ninety
Speaker 1: five meters, you know, we do our own thing over here.
Speaker 1: But I don't know about that. I do know about this.
Speaker 1: The world record for the long jump, no matter what
Speaker 1: Wikipedia says, is not held by Mike Powell. The world
Speaker 1: record for the long jump, and I've never told you
Speaker 1: this before, but the world record for the long jump
Speaker 1: is held by my father, who is in Heaven watching
Speaker 1: from the campus called Heaven today. When I tell you
Speaker 1: that this man holds the world records in the ability
Speaker 1: to jump to conclusions, nobody could jump to a conclusion
Speaker 1: like Larry Ferding. And he's not here so we can
Speaker 1: talk about it. And I'm going to use this man
Speaker 1: as an illustration as payback for all the times I mean,
Speaker 1: he could just he could get suspicious. Towards the end
Speaker 1: of his life, he was really sick, so he was
Speaker 1: on medication. So then he had performance enhancement drugs, and
Speaker 1: he could jump to conclusion even more. Some of these
Speaker 1: things I cannot tell you about because it would put
Speaker 1: such a depressing fog over the sermon. But one of
Speaker 1: them is kind of funny, and I never told Eric this.
Speaker 1: Eric knew my dad really well, so he kind of
Speaker 1: knows what I'm talking about. But some of the crazy
Speaker 1: stuff I never even told anybody about. And then I
Speaker 1: just find myself every year he's gone, remembering this stuff,
Speaker 1: I'm like, that was crazy? Was at real life? Well,
Speaker 1: here's one of the things, And I just tell you
Speaker 1: this is an illustration about jumping to conclusions. Y'all better
Speaker 1: be lucky I had squats yesterday, or I would jump
Speaker 1: across this stage to illustrate the message. I thought about
Speaker 1: coming out to Van Halen with the synthpad, but I
Speaker 1: figured YouTube might flag the sermon because somebody say, jump,
Speaker 1: Oh my dad could jump. Now, he was not athletic,
Speaker 1: but he could jump to a conclusion. Here's an example.
Speaker 1: Case in point. When he was sick, he lived in
Speaker 1: Monks Corner, South Carolina by himself for a period because
Speaker 1: he was estranged from the family. I've told that story,
Speaker 1: don't really feel like telling that story again today. The
Speaker 1: point is it was really really rough. And so one
Speaker 1: day I remember thinking I need to go see him,
Speaker 1: and I didn't have a lot of time. The church
Speaker 1: was so busy, but I want to show him he
Speaker 1: was more important to me than a busy church. And
Speaker 1: Wes Watson said that he had this little plane where
Speaker 1: he could fly us. It's not even really worthy to
Speaker 1: be called a plane. I don't know what you were doing.
Speaker 1: Let me get in the air in that. You must
Speaker 1: not value the Man of God at all, this thing.
Speaker 1: But he said it's only a three and a half
Speaker 1: hour drive, so be a short flight. And I figured
Speaker 1: me and Elijah, my oldest son, would go see my
Speaker 1: dad and we could go spend four hours with him
Speaker 1: and fly back and I could be back to preach
Speaker 1: for church. I was traveling a lot during this time.
Speaker 1: It was crazy times. So when I got there with Elijah,
Speaker 1: and I guess Elijah was what like five five years
Speaker 1: old or something like that. And so when I got
Speaker 1: there with Elijah, my friend Sean Wood, who's a pastor
Speaker 1: in Monk's Corner, picked me up from the Monk's Corner
Speaker 1: International Airport. You Missapoy and so we fly in on
Speaker 1: this little plane that doesn't it doesn't look like it
Speaker 1: could make it to your row mean in the denim jacket.
Speaker 1: But somehow we got to the monk's corner. Sean picks
Speaker 1: me up, takes me to my dad's. He says, I'm
Speaker 1: just going to stay around for a little while, and
Speaker 1: you just text me. It was very tense with my
Speaker 1: dad at that time. He said, so if it goes bad,
Speaker 1: I'll be close by. He said, I won't go farther
Speaker 1: than five minutes away, and then I'll take you back
Speaker 1: to the airport. My dad was so honored. It just
Speaker 1: made his day. He couldn't believe. There's the happiest I've
Speaker 1: seen him in a long time. He was so happy
Speaker 1: that Elijah and I found him important enough to get
Speaker 1: on a plane and come see it. He said, you
Speaker 1: flew here. I said, yeah, Dad, it's not like an
Speaker 1: expensive thing. My buddy who's on staff at the church,
Speaker 1: he had it, and he said, so you flew here
Speaker 1: to see me. I said, yes, sir, I flew here
Speaker 1: to see you. And we've been getting on each other's
Speaker 1: nerves and he kind of kind of blew his mind.
Speaker 1: Had a good visit. I went to RB's and got
Speaker 1: him a jamocha shake. He seemed happy about that. A
Speaker 1: few days later, I get a call from him, and
Speaker 1: his opening line on the call is I know about
Speaker 1: the video. I said. What he said, I know about
Speaker 1: the video. I said, I heard you, but I don't
Speaker 1: know what the crap you're talking about. Now people just
Speaker 1: start talking louder like that's going to clarify it. I
Speaker 1: heard the English words you said. They have no meaning
Speaker 1: to me. It's random. He said, I know about the
Speaker 1: video that you shot for Shawn Wood while you were
Speaker 1: here in Monk's Corner last week. I said, video for
Speaker 1: Sewn What video for Shawn Wood? Oh? Oh, I shot
Speaker 1: a video for Shawn Wood four weeks ago for his
Speaker 1: church anniversary. My dad, who's sitting around the house with
Speaker 1: nothing better to do, talk to somebody who said I
Speaker 1: saw your son on a video. Mom, I never even
Speaker 1: told you this stuff. This is stuff I've been keeping
Speaker 1: from you, just because to protect you from the craziness
Speaker 1: of your husband. You know I'm right. This man could
Speaker 1: make stuff up. They had shown a video that I
Speaker 1: had made for Shawn's anniversary four weeks earlier in the
Speaker 1: studio at elevation. My dad heard that there was a
Speaker 1: video of me at Shawn's church, and he put two
Speaker 1: and seven together and got six h and he said,
Speaker 1: I know about the video. I know you didn't really
Speaker 1: come here to see me. You put on this big
Speaker 1: show like you gotta playing. You didn't come here for me.
Speaker 1: I came here for Sean. I said, I did that
Speaker 1: four weeks ago. Dad. He said, oh, you ever got you?
Speaker 1: Ever got caught jump into a conclusion And all you
Speaker 1: could say was, oh, nothing to see here, walk away slowly,
Speaker 1: forget that ever happened. So move over. Mike Powell, Larry
Speaker 1: Ferdick has the world record for the long jump. And
Speaker 1: I think it runs into family because I I think
Speaker 1: I have genetically the same ability to jump to a conclusion.
Speaker 1: And and I want to share something with you today
Speaker 1: that has been life changing for me that I realized
Speaker 1: about my dad because I thought about that, that story
Speaker 1: just came back to me. I was studying about John
Speaker 1: the Baptist being born of Zachariah who was too old
Speaker 1: to bear children and his wife Elizabeth was too old
Speaker 1: to bear children, but God did it anyway, and just
Speaker 1: remembering how that when Zachariah, who was a priest in
Speaker 1: the line of Erin, was burning incense before the Lord,
Speaker 1: which is in itself to go into the Holy of
Speaker 1: Holies a statistical improbability. There were eighteen thousand of these priests,
Speaker 1: So for the lot to fall to you, to go
Speaker 1: before the Lord and burn incense is an amazing thing.
Speaker 1: Not to mention that while he was burning incense, the
Speaker 1: Angel Gabriel came to him and said, I am Gabriel,
Speaker 1: and you shall bear a son. And Zachariah asked a question,
Speaker 1: how can I be sure of this and see? Any
Speaker 1: time you need certainty, it prohibits your ability to expect
Speaker 1: theory in things that God has spoken over your life.
Speaker 1: And the Angel Gabriel said, because you did not believe,
Speaker 1: you will not be able to speak until this sin
Speaker 1: is fulfilled. For the Angel prophesied a son who would
Speaker 1: prepare the way for the Lord. You know him as
Speaker 1: John the Baptist, but Zechariah just knew him as a
Speaker 1: statistical improbability. How can I, and how can I? And
Speaker 1: how can I? And see? What we've been learning this
Speaker 1: year is as long as we try to stay in
Speaker 1: figuring out how and knowing things with our minds, we
Speaker 1: limit the ability of our spirit to know what God
Speaker 1: has already spoken before we were ever born. And the
Speaker 1: Lord gave me something to give to you. This is
Speaker 1: a one point sermon. This is the whole point, and
Speaker 1: then you can keep listening. The conclusion that you jumped
Speaker 1: to is based on the belief that you start with.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna say that again for the slow note takers.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna say it again for everybody who needs to
Speaker 1: put down their cereal spoon and pick up a pin,
Speaker 1: because the conclusion that you come to, and I'm going
Speaker 1: to prove this through the scripture, the conclusion that you
Speaker 1: come to is based on the belief that you start with.
Speaker 1: Why did my dad spin a story that I put
Speaker 1: on an entire sarade? I mean, think about the planning
Speaker 1: that went into my visit from his perspective. Why was
Speaker 1: it easier for him to be suspicious of his son?
Speaker 1: I think somewhere, deep down he really didn't believe he
Speaker 1: was worthy of all that. And I think it's possible
Speaker 1: that deep down inside of yourself, there are some conclusions
Speaker 1: that you keep coming to, and your imagination is amazing.
Speaker 1: You know how. I know that because you can feel
Speaker 1: your back molar in your mouth starting to hurt, and
Speaker 1: convince yourself it's coronavirus. That's not even a listed symptom.
Speaker 1: I never heard Fauci say that a molar. But you
Speaker 1: can somehow take a cavity and turn it into corona because,
Speaker 1: deep down, somewhere suspicious in your mind, you believe that
Speaker 1: if anything bad can happen, is gonna happen to me.
Speaker 1: If anything can go wrong, it will go wrong. That
Speaker 1: might be Murphy, but it ain't Gospel. I love Elizabeth,
Speaker 1: Elizabeth had. Elizabeth had a whole different spirit than Zachariah.
Speaker 1: She said, why am I so favored? Why am I
Speaker 1: so favored? Why am I so blessed? And the conclusions
Speaker 1: that we come to over and over again are based
Speaker 1: in the belief that we start with, can I prove
Speaker 1: it to you? A few years ago, the ministry was
Speaker 1: going through a testing season. It wasn't like twenty twenty
Speaker 1: where everything is easy. And at this particular time, every
Speaker 1: time that one of my main staff members would reach
Speaker 1: out to me, it was typically with bad news. Now,
Speaker 1: bad news creates bad beliefs if you're exposed to it
Speaker 1: over again. The Bible says, whose report will you believe?
Speaker 1: When you've got bad news after bad news after bad news.
Speaker 1: So here's how this manifested in my life, and we're
Speaker 1: gonna walk through this, also in John the Baptist's life
Speaker 1: and in your life. But Wade Joy sent me an email.
Speaker 1: This was in June twenty seventeen. How do you remember
Speaker 1: that specifically? Because I pulled up the email while I
Speaker 1: was getting ready for this sermon. I wanted to make
Speaker 1: sure I remembered it right. And it said on the
Speaker 1: email subject e w Updates Elevation worship Updates. I scrolled
Speaker 1: through quick to see who quit, who quit? Who did
Speaker 1: something stupid? But everything in the email was like about
Speaker 1: good stuff. It was like, this song is doing great,
Speaker 1: this new artist wants to take this song. Only King
Speaker 1: Forever is charting on the radio. We had already quit
Speaker 1: singing it in church, and that was on Christian radio
Speaker 1: right on schedule, and so so so I looked, I said,
Speaker 1: oh my God, And I looked back up at the
Speaker 1: thing because I'm scanning through it to see what's wrong.
Speaker 1: Nothing was wrong. I was in shock. I had a
Speaker 1: heart attack that nothing was bad in the email. And
Speaker 1: I went back to the subject line, and it actually
Speaker 1: sat in the subject line fun ew updates. I literally
Speaker 1: took the fun out of it. You've heard this expression
Speaker 1: before me, and you take the fun out of it.
Speaker 1: I literally took the fun out of it because I
Speaker 1: was framing it by fear and not by faith. But
Speaker 1: please be patient with me. I had experienced some bad
Speaker 1: news over and over again, and the bad news trained
Speaker 1: me to believe that it was gonna get worse. A
Speaker 1: lot of us have running in the background of our
Speaker 1: belief system. It's gonna get worse. It's gonna get worse.
Speaker 1: Even when it's going good, it's gonna get worse. Sometimes
Speaker 1: Holly will tell me, let's go on a walk. It's
Speaker 1: beautiful outside. First thing I do check the weather app
Speaker 1: because it's probably gonna rain in five hours. So we
Speaker 1: can't walk around the block because what if we get
Speaker 1: caught in the rain. She'll say, Baby, it's a walk
Speaker 1: around the block. We're not going to hike the Appalachian Trail.
Speaker 1: But there's something in me. I'm just being honest with you,
Speaker 1: and I think it's a genetic. I can do this
Speaker 1: long jump and I never told the church this before.
Speaker 1: It's a skill it's a secret scop and keeping from you.
Speaker 1: I am a golden medalist long jumper. I can jump
Speaker 1: to a conclusion helpless. And now I'm gonna call the
Speaker 1: role every professional long jumper. Wave your hand at me,
Speaker 1: either physically or digitally. Somebody find me a long jump emoji.
Speaker 1: Put it. If they don't make one, I don't know
Speaker 1: if they make one. Put a golden medal in the
Speaker 1: chat for all of you who are gold medalists in
Speaker 1: making crap up in your mind. I don't know why
Speaker 1: y'all are clapping for that. It's really not a good thing.
Speaker 1: In the text that I read you, the scripture said
Speaker 1: that Elizabeth, after finding out that she was pregnant with
Speaker 1: the forerunner of Jesus Christ. I mean, think about this.
Speaker 1: This is amazing news. She went into seclusion for five months,
Speaker 1: and Mary, who was her relative, found out that she
Speaker 1: was also pregnant with child. It's a wonderful I guess
Speaker 1: you would call it a juxtaposition of Jesus and John.
Speaker 1: And one of them is being born to a woman
Speaker 1: who's too old, one of them is being born to
Speaker 1: a woman who's too young. One of them is past
Speaker 1: that point in her life and one of them is
Speaker 1: a virgin and isn't ready for this yet. So in
Speaker 1: that context, God brings the two of them together to
Speaker 1: encourage one another's state. And one of the things that's
Speaker 1: been bothering me is that you've been fighting some of
Speaker 1: the biggest battles of your life alone in this season.
Speaker 1: After a while, like my dad, you can start going crazy,
Speaker 1: coming to conclusions that are killing you. I know them
Speaker 1: on it. I can tell because nobody's making eye contact
Speaker 1: with me in the room right now. It's like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I totally do this. I totally do that. I come
Speaker 1: to a conclusion that is based in a belief. Remember
Speaker 1: what Elizabeth said to Mary in verse forty five, blessed
Speaker 1: is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill
Speaker 1: his promise to her. That amazing that it begins with belief.
Speaker 1: That behavior begins with belief. So why am I so
Speaker 1: good at creating worst case scenarios? A lot of times
Speaker 1: the conclusion I won't even say a lot of times,
Speaker 1: I'd say all the time, the conclusions that I come
Speaker 1: to are based in the belief that I start with.
Speaker 1: What I have to get better at doing is identifying
Speaker 1: where did those beliefs come from. John the Baptist was
Speaker 1: a mighty man, eccentric wardrobe, no doubt. I mean, y'all
Speaker 1: think I don't dress like a preacher. This guy running
Speaker 1: around with some crazy belts. I mean, it wasn't just
Speaker 1: a fashion statement for him though. He was representing something new.
Speaker 1: He was preparing the way for the new era, the
Speaker 1: Kingdom of God. It's amazing, though, because when Elizabeth first
Speaker 1: reached Mary, and remember Mary would have had to travel
Speaker 1: something like fifty miles to get to a relative. The
Speaker 1: first thing that she did when she found out she
Speaker 1: was pregnant with Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the
Speaker 1: Messiah who would save his people from their sins, was
Speaker 1: to get around someone else who was carrying something significant.
Speaker 1: And to do that she had to go up the mountains.
Speaker 1: I was thinking about how she was going to elevation,
Speaker 1: because anyway, I was just putting that in there as
Speaker 1: a thing. But when she got there, an amazing thing
Speaker 1: happened because something inside of her knew the thing that
Speaker 1: she was carrying, John the Baptist, which was to prepare
Speaker 1: the way for the Lord, knew that what she was
Speaker 1: in the presence of was significant. You know how you
Speaker 1: just know some things. You know how you just know
Speaker 1: some things deep down. Some of the things that you
Speaker 1: know are not true. I feel like I just flipped
Speaker 1: you in a jiu jitsu map. You were like, well,
Speaker 1: God said it. I believe it. That settles it some
Speaker 1: of the stuff you believe God didn't say. To begin with,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna give you about twelve examples. About twelve examples,
Speaker 1: and I might throw in at thirteen. All Right, some
Speaker 1: of you believe this, but it's not true. You believe
Speaker 1: that who I am is what I do, and what
Speaker 1: I do is who I am. The reason I know
Speaker 1: you believe this is because I believe it. Every single
Speaker 1: Sunday I get up to breach. Do you know that
Speaker 1: I feel a lot of times like I'm only as
Speaker 1: good as my last sermon. And it's understandable I would
Speaker 1: feel that way because I grew up here in things
Speaker 1: like God wants to use you, and usually when you
Speaker 1: use something, that means it's a product. So I begin
Speaker 1: to think that God wants to use me like I
Speaker 1: might use this pulpit, or like I might like I
Speaker 1: might use a fork, or like I might use a spoon.
Speaker 1: Since I believe deep down that I'm really just something
Speaker 1: that God wants to use, and I lose sight of
Speaker 1: the fact that before I was someone he wanted to use,
Speaker 1: I was someone that he loved. It is easy for
Speaker 1: me to jump to the conclusion. I hear Youie Eddie
Speaker 1: saying jump, jump, but it's easy for me to jump
Speaker 1: to the conclusion that if I do not perform, that,
Speaker 1: if I do not measure up to the expectation of performance,
Speaker 1: I do not have worth as a person. So what
Speaker 1: do you do when you lose the job that you
Speaker 1: had identified with? The conclusion that you come to is
Speaker 1: based on the belief that you start with. When we
Speaker 1: say things that sound Christian but they're really not constructive, like, uh,
Speaker 1: I'm just a sinner saved by grace, it's the word
Speaker 1: just that bothers me if you don't believe that you
Speaker 1: are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus, and that
Speaker 1: all of your sins and your records. I know we
Speaker 1: live in cancel culture, but we forgot to talk about
Speaker 1: the most important thing that was canceled, the record of
Speaker 1: wrong that stood against me. That's what Christ canceled. That's
Speaker 1: what the Cross canceled. That's what God canceled. But I'm
Speaker 1: just a sinner saved by grace. And see to you
Speaker 1: that feels so true because you have so much proof.
Speaker 1: You got receipts. I can show you my sin. I
Speaker 1: can show it to you. I'm just a sinner saved
Speaker 1: by grace. If that's what you start with, If you
Speaker 1: approach your father like a beggar, you will only ever
Speaker 1: be able to receive crumbs. You won't come boldly to
Speaker 1: the throne room. If you believe I'm just a sinner
Speaker 1: saved by grace. It sounds so humble, but deeper down
Speaker 1: it leads us to look for God's judgment in places
Speaker 1: where he has promised us his grace. See, we are
Speaker 1: highly suspicious of the nature of a God who we
Speaker 1: secretly believe doesn't really like us. He loves you because
Speaker 1: Jesus is in your heart, but really unlike you. Really
Speaker 1: he's really down with Jesus. But Jesus did the sign
Speaker 1: co sign for your group insurance plan. And God's God's
Speaker 1: gonna He formed me in my mother's womb. So every
Speaker 1: weird thing about me, I mean every weird thing about you,
Speaker 1: cause I'm not gonna preach this like it doesn't apply
Speaker 1: to you. Every weird thing about you is included in
Speaker 1: Ephesians too, and Ephesians two says you are God's workmanship.
Speaker 1: I haven't given you anything to put in the chat
Speaker 1: yet this sermon, and I know I'm failing you. Just say,
Speaker 1: take it up with the workman. I am God's handiwork
Speaker 1: so I know I'm weird. I don't mean to be weird,
Speaker 1: but take it up with the workman. Now. The weirdest
Speaker 1: thing about your weirdness, can I say this, is that
Speaker 1: if you start with the belief that there's something wrong
Speaker 1: with you, you will skip past the best stuff that
Speaker 1: God has put inside of you. John, I can't say
Speaker 1: it again. I don't remember what I said, wasn't in
Speaker 1: my notes. But John remembered he was so unique, and
Speaker 1: he was powerful because of his uniqueness, and God said,
Speaker 1: he's he's going to prepare the way for the Lord.
Speaker 1: And even in his mother's womb, he recognized the presence
Speaker 1: of Jesus. You know, I know that verse forty four
Speaker 1: it says that the baby leaped for joy. That's why
Speaker 1: I called it jump. John was jumping around in the
Speaker 1: presence of Jesus before he was ever born. God saw
Speaker 1: and knew and loved you before one of your days
Speaker 1: came to be. Now you are looking at me like
Speaker 1: you believe this for somebody else, but not for you.
Speaker 1: You're looking at me like you believe this in theory,
Speaker 1: but it's a different thing in practice. The conclusions that
Speaker 1: we jumped to are not derived from what we believe theoretically.
Speaker 1: They are derived from what we believe practically and personally.
Speaker 1: So I've got to get this personal. I got to
Speaker 1: get this personal to the point that I know that
Speaker 1: God's purpose is working in my life and was working
Speaker 1: in my life. What if you started with that belief.
Speaker 1: What if you started with the belief that in your
Speaker 1: pre natal state, God was already forming you according to
Speaker 1: a purpose. What if you started with that How different
Speaker 1: would you look to you in the mirror? How much
Speaker 1: less would you hate the sound of your own voice?
Speaker 1: How much less would you doubt the things that God
Speaker 1: included to be a part of your destiny. I don't
Speaker 1: know who I'm preaching too, but God said I started
Speaker 1: this before you ever got here, and I will be
Speaker 1: faithful to complete it in your life. John just knew
Speaker 1: he's jumping around in the womb because he knows he
Speaker 1: is in the presence of one who is greater. John
Speaker 1: was jumping around, kicking around, never been pregnant before, but
Speaker 1: heard about it and watched it and read about it
Speaker 1: in the books and saw it on the movies, and
Speaker 1: next to me in the bed and Hollywood say feel that.
Speaker 1: And I'd be like, I can't feel that, And she say,
Speaker 1: can't you feel it? And I'd say, no, I can't
Speaker 1: feel it, and she'd say why can't She did frustrate,
Speaker 1: I can't feel it. I'm not carrying it. I'm trying
Speaker 1: to experience something from the outside that you're experiencing from
Speaker 1: the inside. So John, John is carrying this, this assignment.
Speaker 1: He's carrying this this message repent, you know, repent. The
Speaker 1: Kingdom of Heaven is near repent. He kept talking. Let
Speaker 1: me show you this in the scripture, because it doesn't
Speaker 1: stop in the in the in the womb for John,
Speaker 1: he goes into the wilderness, in the wilderness, from the
Speaker 1: womb to the wilderness. God's hand was on this. Why
Speaker 1: in that pretty preaching, Jeff, from the womb to the wilderness.
Speaker 1: God was with you before it got started. He's with you.
Speaker 1: He was with you in the womb. He's with you
Speaker 1: in the wilderness too. But John was preaching in the wilderness.
Speaker 1: He went there by choice, and he declared, repent The
Speaker 1: Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. I got to show
Speaker 1: you this. In Matthew three, verse eleven. This is part
Speaker 1: of his message. He said, I baptize you with water
Speaker 1: for repentance. Change turn, change, turn right. He's preaching about repentance,
Speaker 1: but he said, after me comes one who is more
Speaker 1: powerful than I, who sandals I am not worthy to carry.
Speaker 1: He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.
Speaker 1: Who's he talking about? Is not a trick question. The
Speaker 1: answer is Jesus. Jay E s Us. We love Jesus,
Speaker 1: Yes we do. Yeah, Jesus his winnowing for it. Listen
Speaker 1: to this. This is the part. His winnowing fork is
Speaker 1: in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor,
Speaker 1: gathering his wheat into the barn, burning up the chap
Speaker 1: with the unquenchable fire. Somebody shall fire. John was expecting
Speaker 1: for Jesus to come with fire. Now look at this.
Speaker 1: In John's Gospel, Chapter one, I got so much scripture.
Speaker 1: I hope you're hungry. John Chapter one, verse twenty nine
Speaker 1: the Bible says the next day, John saw Jesus coming
Speaker 1: toward him and said, look, the lamb of God who
Speaker 1: takes away the sin of the world. This is the one.
Speaker 1: This is the one. This is the one I meant
Speaker 1: when I said, this is the one that my spirit
Speaker 1: recognized before my frame was ever known. This is the one.
Speaker 1: Somebody shout, this is the one. Shout it in the chat.
Speaker 1: This is the one. This is the one I meant
Speaker 1: when I said, a man comes after me who has
Speaker 1: surpassed me because he was before me. Now, the conclusion
Speaker 1: that you come to is based in the belief that
Speaker 1: you start with. He's going all the way back to
Speaker 1: what he knew in his mother's womb. He's going back
Speaker 1: to that recognition that predated his cognitive ability to know
Speaker 1: that there's something that I knew before my life, before
Speaker 1: my before my experience, before my lens of the world
Speaker 1: begin to attain it. This is the one. There's something
Speaker 1: in you that has always known God was there. There's
Speaker 1: something in you that has always known that He loved you.
Speaker 1: There is something in you. How many how many of
Speaker 1: you can testify there has been some even and it
Speaker 1: was so dark and everything in you doubted there was
Speaker 1: something in you, kicking, living, beating to let you know
Speaker 1: there's a purpose for your life. This is the why
Speaker 1: I myself did not know him. But the reason I
Speaker 1: came baptizing with water was that he might be revealed
Speaker 1: to Israel. And then John gave this testimony. I saw
Speaker 1: the Spirit come down from heaven as a dove and
Speaker 1: remain on him, And I myself did not know him.
Speaker 1: But the one who sent me to baptize with water
Speaker 1: told me, the man on whom you see the spirit
Speaker 1: come down and remain is the one who will baptize
Speaker 1: with the Holy Spirit. Thank you, Lord, I have seen
Speaker 1: and I testified this is God's chosen one. The next day,
Speaker 1: John was there again with two of his disciples, and
Speaker 1: when he saw Jesus fashion, he said, look the lamb
Speaker 1: of God. Look the lamb of God. He recognized Jesus
Speaker 1: when he came toward him. He came to the conclusion
Speaker 1: this is the one. Because he had a belief that
Speaker 1: he went back to I wish I could tell you
Speaker 1: that he held fast to that confession every moment of
Speaker 1: his life. I wish I could tell you that he
Speaker 1: and Jesus went on an arena tour. These are the
Speaker 1: two most popular prophets in Israel since Isaiah. I wish
Speaker 1: I could tell you that John the Baptist was the
Speaker 1: opening act and Jesus was the headliner. Oh, Jesus packed
Speaker 1: crowds in. He performed miracles, he taught, he did, demonstruted,
Speaker 1: He exemplified the Kingdom of God with authority and power.
Speaker 1: Drove out demons, spoke with such wisdom that the crowds
Speaker 1: were amazed and his opponents were aghast. He healed men
Speaker 1: who were blind and they saw again. He cured the
Speaker 1: lame and they walked again. He even had the audacity
Speaker 1: to touch lepers so that they could feel again. He
Speaker 1: healed Peter's mother in law one time. Many believed that's
Speaker 1: why Peter denied him. It's a little preacher humor. I
Speaker 1: wish it was so simple that John and Jesus hand
Speaker 1: in hand because he believed it. I wish it was
Speaker 1: so simple as to tell you that God called me
Speaker 1: to preach when I was sixteen, and I've never doubted
Speaker 1: whether he called me. I wish I could tell you
Speaker 1: that I didn't have a voice inside my head that
Speaker 1: tells me I'm a pathetic hypocrite, and I have no
Speaker 1: business being a preacher, even though I'm trying to live
Speaker 1: the best I can. I wish I could tell you
Speaker 1: that I always started with the belief that God is
Speaker 1: for me, who can be against me? I wish I
Speaker 1: could tell you that I haven't woken up one time
Speaker 1: at three in the morning since the pandemic and wondered
Speaker 1: will we have a church left after this? I wish
Speaker 1: I could tell you that I kind of wish the
Speaker 1: story ended right here. I wish this was the conclusion.
Speaker 1: But one of the most disturbing questions in the Bible
Speaker 1: is in Matthew chapter eleven. What makes it so disturbing
Speaker 1: isn't necessarily the content of the question, but who it
Speaker 1: came from. In Matthew chapter eleven, a question was asked
Speaker 1: of Jesus, and this is just in verse four, please
Speaker 1: or actually, I want to read you verse three. Are
Speaker 1: you the one who is to come? Or should we
Speaker 1: expect someone else? You know, that question wouldn't bother me
Speaker 1: if it came from Nicodemus. He was a religious ruler
Speaker 1: who came to Jesus at night for fear of being
Speaker 1: put out of a synagogue, and he wanted to understand
Speaker 1: about being born again. It wouldn't bother me so much
Speaker 1: if that message came from the woman who was caught
Speaker 1: in the act of adultery, or the Samaritan woman at
Speaker 1: the well, who really did see the Gospel the same
Speaker 1: way that the Jewish people did. It wouldn't bother me.
Speaker 1: Even if it came from Peter, who was always saying
Speaker 1: stupid stuff. Peter's that kid, you just tune out. What
Speaker 1: makes that the question, that question so disturbing to me
Speaker 1: is that it came from the mouth of John, the
Speaker 1: same one who pointed him out came to a place
Speaker 1: where he started to doubt. Are you really the one?
Speaker 1: We can't talk about these things because all of the
Speaker 1: A plus gold star Christians will start to judge us
Speaker 1: in the comments section if we do I never doubt,
Speaker 1: they say, isn't it interesting that the disciple who said
Speaker 1: that kind of thing at the Last Supper of Christ
Speaker 1: was the one who denied ever knowing him before the
Speaker 1: rooster crode. The conclusion that you come to is based
Speaker 1: in the belief you start with. If you start by
Speaker 1: believing that the proof of your faith is that you
Speaker 1: never experience doubt, and the moment you experience doubt, your
Speaker 1: faith will fall apart. But I hope this sets you
Speaker 1: free today to know that John, the one who pointed
Speaker 1: and said, look the lamb of God, he was the
Speaker 1: first one. And you gotta get this. You really got
Speaker 1: to stop and think about it. You can't multitask this
Speaker 1: message and really get it. This is the one who
Speaker 1: announced this is the one. And now the one who
Speaker 1: announced it is asking. The one who made the announcement
Speaker 1: is now asking the question that he had been answering
Speaker 1: just a year ago. But he's been in prison for
Speaker 1: a year and he's only getting secondhand reports on what
Speaker 1: Jesus is doing. And when you don't experience it firsthand,
Speaker 1: when you just hear about it, when you can't really
Speaker 1: see it, and you can't see the big picture and
Speaker 1: you kind of trapped in this place, it gets kind
Speaker 1: of hard to believe it. So then you start to
Speaker 1: believe different things. Then you start to forget what God
Speaker 1: showed you in the spirit, and you start trying to
Speaker 1: figure it out in your mind. Now, wait a minute.
Speaker 1: John said that he was coming to judge with fire,
Speaker 1: but when they brought him a report about Jesus, look
Speaker 1: what Jesus told him Matthew eleven, verse five. He said,
Speaker 1: go tell John what you see and what you hear
Speaker 1: verse five. Matthew eleven, verse five, go back and report
Speaker 1: to John. The blind receives sight the lane walk, those
Speaker 1: who have leprosy are cleansed. The death here the debtor raised,
Speaker 1: and the good news is proclaimed to the poor. But
Speaker 1: John wasn't expecting that. He was expecting judgment. So now
Speaker 1: he wants to know, are you the one when you
Speaker 1: believe that God is a certain way and he has
Speaker 1: the audacity not to conform to the biography that you
Speaker 1: created with your belief, then you experience something that you
Speaker 1: never expected. I'm preaching now, I'm preaching. I'm preacing you
Speaker 1: come to the conclusion that He's not with you because
Speaker 1: the belief that you started with was that his presence
Speaker 1: would always accommodate your preferences. So I've been asking the
Speaker 1: question in my prayer time lately, God, what are the
Speaker 1: things that I have been believing that are not true?
Speaker 1: We don't know the difference anymore were between the truth
Speaker 1: and our belief. We think that because we believe it,
Speaker 1: that makes it true. I can jump off this stage
Speaker 1: right now, and land on my head, and I can
Speaker 1: believe that the Lord will uphold me, and I will
Speaker 1: break my neck on international internet television for all of
Speaker 1: you to see that the truth has no respect for
Speaker 1: my wrong belief. But now let me ask you a question.
Speaker 1: What response does Jesus gift to John? And what response
Speaker 1: does Jesus gift to you? And when we have come
Speaker 1: to this point where life has contradicted our belief about
Speaker 1: what's supposed to happen to good people, or how your
Speaker 1: kids are supposed to turn out if you raise them
Speaker 1: a certain way, and they'll never make bad decisions and
Speaker 1: they'll never be like my sister's kids, and all of
Speaker 1: these things that you believe. But when you run head
Speaker 1: first into a truth that contradicts your belief, what is
Speaker 1: the message of Jesus? And does Jesus have a message
Speaker 1: for you? Does Jesus have a message for John, the
Speaker 1: one who faithfully prepared the way, the one who said
Speaker 1: I must become less John three point thirty, he must
Speaker 1: become greater, the one who was willing to go before him,
Speaker 1: the one who knew him in the womb. Does Jesus
Speaker 1: have a message for John? Does Jesus have a message
Speaker 1: for you. Does God have a word for your life today?
Speaker 1: I believe he does. Matthew eleven, verse six. Blessed is
Speaker 1: anyone who does not stumble on account of me? Tell
Speaker 1: John that. Tell John, don't stumble. Tell John, just like
Speaker 1: he went first in life, he's going to go first
Speaker 1: in death. John went on to give his life in
Speaker 1: prison for the cause of righteousness. Jesus didn't assure him
Speaker 1: with a sweet platitude. Jesus didn't assure him with a
Speaker 1: pinteresque link. Jesus didn't assure him with something that rhyme.
Speaker 1: He said, blessed is the one who does not The
Speaker 1: word in Greek is scandalon. He calls it. In the NIV,
Speaker 1: they call it does not stumble, or a few other
Speaker 1: definitions to describe what happens to us when we run
Speaker 1: into something in our life that doesn't match what we
Speaker 1: thought would happen. It means to trip up to entice.
Speaker 1: It means literally a stumbling block that may cause you
Speaker 1: to trip and fall or to follow way. I just
Speaker 1: see it like a picture, So let me use your stool.
Speaker 1: This may be too simple for you, but Jesus told
Speaker 1: John this is scandalion. This is offense. This is a
Speaker 1: stumbling block. This is the thing that that is getting
Speaker 1: in the way of you moving forward in your faith
Speaker 1: in this season of your life against the odds. This
Speaker 1: is the thing right And and Jesus said, says to John,
Speaker 1: don't trip, don't trip. What did you say? You want
Speaker 1: to come show me? You want to come show me?
Speaker 1: Come on up, show show me, show me what you
Speaker 1: just said. I wondered, who would get it because this house.
Speaker 1: Come on up, Come on up, he said, he said,
Speaker 1: don't rip, John, Just that's how I saw it in
Speaker 1: my head. Now he said, so, so get a good
Speaker 1: base and just John, just like you were doing in
Speaker 1: your mother's womb. I love the Bible. I love the Bible,
Speaker 1: saying I heard God saying, somebody say it. Jump John,
Speaker 1: Jump John, Jump John, Jump John, Jump John. Now, now
Speaker 1: that is something that is something that can make you fall,
Speaker 1: but it is also something that can strengthen your faith.
Speaker 1: So jump John, keep jumping. You know what's true. You
Speaker 1: know who I am. You saw me before you knew me.
Speaker 1: You saw the spirit like a dump. Don't get tired
Speaker 1: in this place. Don't get tired in this trial. Don't
Speaker 1: trip John. Just job, Just jup, Just jump John. You
Speaker 1: know what to do. Just jump John, and keep jumping.
Speaker 1: As a matter of fact, this is so good. One
Speaker 1: scholar said that when Luke said that the baby jumped
Speaker 1: in the womb of Elizabeth, it was echoing when David
Speaker 1: brought the arc back to Jerusalem, and when he got
Speaker 1: the presence of God six steps. Guess what he did.
Speaker 1: He started jumping. Because I got the presence of God back,
Speaker 1: because I got the provision of God working in my house,
Speaker 1: because I got the favor. I got the favor. Why
Speaker 1: aren't y'll praising God? God? Said? Jump shot John, Chop John.
Speaker 1: If you believe, said George, still blessed? Shoff John, Tell
Speaker 1: three people jump John, Zum jump John jump jump John,
Speaker 1: Jump jump John jump Deep. Faiths can't get you from
Speaker 1: trumping jump Jun jup Jun jump Shot Zum jump Ju
Speaker 1: jumps jump Jun jump jump Don jump. Hey tell John,
Speaker 1: it would be a shame for you to trip over
Speaker 1: something that's not even true. And the Lord said to
Speaker 1: ask you, are you tripping over something stumbling blocks scandalon
Speaker 1: that's not even true? Are you staying away from God's
Speaker 1: presence because of an offense that you think he's holding
Speaker 1: against you. Are you tripping over something that's not even true?
Speaker 1: Are you running from a Jezebel who doesn't even have
Speaker 1: the power to take your life? Are you tripping over
Speaker 1: something that's not even true. The conclusion that you come
Speaker 1: to is based in the belief that you start with.
Speaker 1: For all of us to think that God will love
Speaker 1: us more later, maybe we need to be reminded what
Speaker 1: the name John means. Anyway, his name means loved, So
Speaker 1: in those moments when you can't feel it, I want
Speaker 1: to encourage you to believe it by faith, and all
Speaker 1: week long, a whole week long, I want you to
Speaker 1: jump in Your calf muscles are going to look like
Speaker 1: they got bowling ball in plants when you come back
Speaker 1: to church next week, because this week I'm jumping. I'm
Speaker 1: jumping to a new conclusion. Now I used to believe.
Speaker 1: I used to believe that I wasn't enough when I
Speaker 1: found out that His spirit in me is the same
Speaker 1: spirit that raised Christ from the dead. Now that I
Speaker 1: believe that the belief that I start with in every
Speaker 1: situation determines the conclusion that I come to. And Jesus
Speaker 1: said to John, and he says, to you stop tripping
Speaker 1: over things that aren't true. In John's case, he needed
Speaker 1: an upgraded expectation of the Kingdom of God, and he
Speaker 1: would get one. He would get one if he didn't trip.
Speaker 1: Are you tripping lately? Are you tripping over stuff that
Speaker 1: isn't even true? I want to pray for you. I
Speaker 1: feel like Isaiah fifty five eight is not only a
Speaker 1: good place to start the sermon, but it's a really
Speaker 1: good place for us to land. It's not only a
Speaker 1: good place to jump from, it's a good place for
Speaker 1: us to anchor it. And the Lord said through the prophet,
Speaker 1: my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways
Speaker 1: my ways. I'm going to do what you asked me
Speaker 1: to do, but it won't be the way that you thought. Now.
Speaker 1: For everybody who is dealing in your life right now, now,
Speaker 1: with standing in front of something that was unexpected for you,
Speaker 1: I want you to bow your head and make a
Speaker 1: sanctuary in your heart. It would be such a shame
Speaker 1: for the Lord to bring you to this moment and
Speaker 1: to have plotted in purpose your life from your mother's womb,
Speaker 1: for you to come to this and trip. You got
Speaker 1: to believe, just like John that in every season of
Speaker 1: your life, God is preparing. The one who prepared the
Speaker 1: way for Jesus came to a stumbling block himself. Now,
Speaker 1: what's standing in front of you today is not proof
Speaker 1: that God doesn't want you to do it. If you
Speaker 1: believe that, if you believe that, you'll stop, you'll lay
Speaker 1: down and die right where you are. But somebody say, John,
Speaker 1: You didn't say that, right. You got to say John,
Speaker 1: like an athletic trainer say jomp. God, we instruct our
Speaker 1: hearts today to be set on things above where Christ
Speaker 1: is not unearthly things, to remember that eternal purpose of
Speaker 1: companies and impregnates each moment with infinite potential because of
Speaker 1: your spirit, and that spirit lives in us. I believe
Speaker 1: that you sent me to the pulpit today for people
Speaker 1: all over the world who need to jump to a
Speaker 1: new conclusion, who need to be reminded of gospel truth.
Speaker 1: Every sin is forgiven and every debtor rased. So we
Speaker 1: thank you for it now in Jesus' name. Somebody who's
Speaker 1: tripping off of a memory, somebody who's tripping off of
Speaker 1: a hypothetical, somebody who is tripping over the torment of
Speaker 1: what might happen. Lord, we believe what Elizabeth said, blessed
Speaker 1: is she? Blessed is he who believed that what the
Speaker 1: Lord spoke would be fulfilled. Look at me for a moment.
Speaker 1: What Elizabeth told Mary, God is telling you. Blessed is
Speaker 1: the one who believes that what God spoke he will fulfill.
Speaker 1: Don't truth, don't trip, trust, don't trip trust moment by moment,
Speaker 1: day by day. What I love about God is that
Speaker 1: he already fulfilled it. And I thank God that in
Speaker 1: my life he has already worked out, according to his
Speaker 1: divine counsel everything that concerns me. Father, we thank you
Speaker 1: that your word does not return void. It accomplishes what
Speaker 1: you send it for everybody. With lifted hands right now say,
Speaker 1: I believe that the Lord will fulfill his purpose for me. Again.
Speaker 1: I believe that the Lord will fulfill his purpose for
Speaker 1: me again. I believe that the Lord will fulfill his
Speaker 1: purpose for my life. Now jump, John, jump, Come on,
Speaker 1: get up there to heavenly places, seated with Jesus. Lift
Speaker 1: those hands, lift the press, give him glory shop jup shop. Due.
Speaker 1: So do you receive that word? Just know that we're
Speaker 1: so thankful that you're a part of this ministry. Paul
Speaker 1: called it the partnership in the gospel. That's the way
Speaker 1: I feel. Thank you forgiving, Thank you for praying for
Speaker 1: me and Holly and our church and this ministry. Thank
Speaker 1: you for sharing. Make sure that you share this message
Speaker 1: with someone this week. Sow it. It's good seed. It'll
Speaker 1: make a difference in somebody's life, and make sure to subscribe.
Speaker 1: And I believe God is bringing things to an expected
Speaker 1: end in your life. Remember he knows the plans He
Speaker 1: has for you, plans to give you a hope and
Speaker 1: a future. So jump, John, Jump, I'll see you next time.
Speaker 1: We love you.