Speaker 1: Hello Evams, especially our West Coast family. We have an
Speaker 1: announcement for you, Elevation Nights twenty twenty two West Coast.
Speaker 1: Are you ready for this? October twenty fifth through November third,
Speaker 1: We're coming your way so exciting. You can get your
Speaker 1: tickets right now at Elevation Nights dot com. It's gonna
Speaker 1: be me Holly, Elevation Worship. It's gonna be amazing, unbelievable
Speaker 1: these nights. Don't want to miss So if you're in Glendale, Arizona,
Speaker 1: Las Vegas, Sacramento, California, Eugene, Oregon, Seattle, Oakland, California, San
Speaker 1: Diego and La or anywhere near those areas, we want
Speaker 1: to see you. Elevation Nights dot com. Don't miss it.
Speaker 1: Elevation Nights dot com. Get your tickets Elevation Nights dot com.
Speaker 1: Let's see you there. Let's go to the message. If
Speaker 1: you're in the chat, put a clapping emoji. How about that? Now,
Speaker 1: don't sit down after you do this, but turn around
Speaker 1: and high five five people and say you're in the
Speaker 1: best section in the church right now. You're sitting in
Speaker 1: my section. Thanks, y'all. Stay standing, Stay standing for the word,
Speaker 1: Stay standing for the word. Stay standing for the word.
Speaker 1: Stay standing for the word. Stay standing like you're on
Speaker 1: your front foot, ready to receive what the Lord is
Speaker 1: going to speak to you today. Clap your hands. If
Speaker 1: you're ready for what the Lord is going to speak
Speaker 1: to you today, open your heart. Thank you Jesus. All right, yeah,
Speaker 1: it feels better with your playing. Thank you Jesus, Thank
Speaker 1: you Jesus. Is So, I'm going to give you this scripture,
Speaker 1: and it's jumping in right in the middle, So since
Speaker 1: sound a little abrasive, but we'll ease into it and
Speaker 1: get to do my favorite thing today. I'm going to
Speaker 1: take a New Testament scripture and then I'm gonna, after
Speaker 1: a little while, put an Old Testament story behind it
Speaker 1: to illustrate what we learn. I love doing that kind
Speaker 1: of bringing the principle together with a picture. Then we
Speaker 1: can really get it. And that's my desire for us,
Speaker 1: that we really get what God wants us to have.
Speaker 1: So I'm never just trying to fill fifty minutes, y'all.
Speaker 1: What a sorry goal that would be, but to really
Speaker 1: impart faith to your heart today, and I believe the
Speaker 1: Lord's going to do that. Galatians chapter three, verse three,
Speaker 1: The Apostle Paul speaking. Watch how this one starts? Are
Speaker 1: you so foolish? It gets better from there after beginning
Speaker 1: by means of the spirit, Are you now trying to
Speaker 1: finish by means of the flesh? What a question. Maybe
Speaker 1: that's why I'm tired. Maybe that's why I'm discouraged. Maybe
Speaker 1: that's why I'm worn out. Maybe that's why I can't
Speaker 1: think clearly. Maybe that's why I can't sleep, because I'm
Speaker 1: trying to finish by the flesh what began with the spirit?
Speaker 1: And then verse four, have you experienced so much in vain?
Speaker 1: If it really was in vain? And then here's the
Speaker 1: fourth question. There's been three, here's the fourth. So again
Speaker 1: I ask, does God give you his spirit and work miracles?
Speaker 1: We're thinking about miracles. Does God give you his spirit
Speaker 1: and work miracles among you by the works of the
Speaker 1: law or by your belief? What you heard? Are you
Speaker 1: trying to finish in the flesh what began in the spirit?
Speaker 1: So the Lord sent me up here to remind you today.
Speaker 1: This is a reminder for some, a revelation for others.
Speaker 1: He wanted me to remind you He's still the shepherd,
Speaker 1: He's still the shepherd put my title in the chat.
Speaker 1: If you're watching online, he's still the Shepherd. And if
Speaker 1: you're standing next to somebody on your way to your seat,
Speaker 1: tell him he's still the Shepherd, and you may be seated,
Speaker 1: God bless you. He's still the Shepherd. If Paul sounds
Speaker 1: unpastoral in this letter, he's really not. He'd writ into
Speaker 1: a group of churches in modern day Turk. They're not
Speaker 1: just one church. They're spread out. He started several of
Speaker 1: them on a missionary journey, and he's like trying to
Speaker 1: get them back on track, and so he does it
Speaker 1: in a way. He's having a conversation with this church
Speaker 1: that every parent has with their kid every once in
Speaker 1: a while, and the conversation goes like this, are you crazy?
Speaker 1: Ask the person next to you, are you crazy? Because
Speaker 1: this was not meant to be a conversation, just a
Speaker 1: rhetorical question somebody. I'll finish that question with an answer
Speaker 1: because you know them because you live with them where
Speaker 1: they are in Christ. But they're still crazy, and not
Speaker 1: the kind of crazy that we ALTI often associate with
Speaker 1: people who are getting off track. Not crazy on drugs,
Speaker 1: crazy having sex, crazy in strip club. None of that
Speaker 1: crazy because they've had a Jesus experience, but they're trying
Speaker 1: to put a Jesus experience on top of a Jewish identity.
Speaker 1: And in the process of doing that, those two words
Speaker 1: I chose them on purpose, experience and identity. The Jewish
Speaker 1: identity was the cultural one. That was the religious identity,
Speaker 1: that was the social identity, and it was signified by circumcision,
Speaker 1: which for most of us men is a medical procedure
Speaker 1: that in case all the kids didn't go to eat
Speaker 1: kids this morning, I'm just going to let you Wikipedia
Speaker 1: all of the different benefits of circumcision. Later, to them,
Speaker 1: it was a badge. It was like saying I'm in
Speaker 1: and that was the custom. So then comes Paul preaching
Speaker 1: Christ and him crucified to let them know that it
Speaker 1: is in Christ. Everybody say in Christ. Next time somebody
Speaker 1: asks you where you are, say in Christ. Now, don't
Speaker 1: do that. They'll think you're weird. I can't stand people
Speaker 1: who get real spiritual just out of nowhere. But just
Speaker 1: know it inside of yourself, all right, in Christ. Put
Speaker 1: it in the chat, in Christ, in Christ, in Christ.
Speaker 1: So you're in church today, but you're in Christ when
Speaker 1: you leave church. When you're in the grocery store, you're
Speaker 1: still in church because you are Church and you are
Speaker 1: in Christ, and Christ is in you, and that never
Speaker 1: goes away. That's your identity, identity in Christ, identity. Now
Speaker 1: you will have experiences every single day of your life
Speaker 1: that will seem to contradict that identity, because being in
Speaker 1: Christ doesn't exempt you from any of the normal challenges
Speaker 1: of life. We've got to stop telling people Jesus will
Speaker 1: make it all right, because what they assume when they
Speaker 1: hear that is that my experiences now that I'm a Christian,
Speaker 1: will always a line with my picture, my preference, and
Speaker 1: really my own I don't want to tell you this,
Speaker 1: but we try to shape God like our own personality,
Speaker 1: and all of those things have to be subject to
Speaker 1: Christ for us to be a true disciple. Let's go
Speaker 1: a little further. You're ready. Once you get an identity
Speaker 1: ingrained and you think that's who I am, it is
Speaker 1: very difficult to receive any experience that is different than
Speaker 1: that identity. I learned that where I grew up shaped
Speaker 1: me in amazing ways. Small town, so it taught me
Speaker 1: how to be good with people. Because in a small
Speaker 1: town you have a certain accountability socially, what's considered polite
Speaker 1: and what's considered rude. Okay, when I grew up, if
Speaker 1: you didn't wave at people, even if they were strangers,
Speaker 1: that would considered rude. In Monk's corner where I grew up,
Speaker 1: where Holly grew up in Miami, Florida, it's perfectly acceptable
Speaker 1: and maybe even safer to not make eye contact. But see, now,
Speaker 1: marriage is this merger of We're walking down the street
Speaker 1: and she's saying, who is that that? You just waved that?
Speaker 1: And I say, I don't know, And she said, well,
Speaker 1: why did you wave? Because that's what you do. How
Speaker 1: many from the South. That's what you do. That's what
Speaker 1: you do. You eat grits, you never put sugar in them.
Speaker 1: I rebuke you, Satan, and you wait, she thought that
Speaker 1: was so silly. So now we split the difference. I
Speaker 1: only wave, you know, about everyone out of three times.
Speaker 1: But you know, you can take the boy out a
Speaker 1: Monk's corner, but you can't take Monk's corner out of
Speaker 1: the boy. So I might see it one day in
Speaker 1: the mall and I just wave at you. It's not
Speaker 1: because I know you go to this church. I was
Speaker 1: just trained to wave at everybody, just waving at everybody,
Speaker 1: and then we've kind of come together. So why do
Speaker 1: I bring that up, because it is a perfect example
Speaker 1: of what's happening in Galatians. Right. Paul is no longer
Speaker 1: in Turkey, this essential Turkey we're talking about. If you
Speaker 1: want to get a modern picture, He's no longer here
Speaker 1: in the flesh with the people, but he's still the shepherd.
Speaker 1: He still sees himself, not as an influencer, not as
Speaker 1: a modern guru, like how we have people who give
Speaker 1: us advice, but he sees himself as their pastor and
Speaker 1: their shepherd, even when he's writing them a letter. And
Speaker 1: he really never stopped being a shepherd, no matter where
Speaker 1: his travels took him, no matter how much of the
Speaker 1: known world that he went to evangelize, no matter how
Speaker 1: many gentiles that he preached to, he always loved these churches.
Speaker 1: You could take Paul out of Galatia, but you couldn't
Speaker 1: get Galicia out of Paul. Every parent who has called
Speaker 1: a so called empty nester understands what I'm saying. I'm
Speaker 1: not one yet, but I imagine if they come back
Speaker 1: after I send them away, I'll have to open the door,
Speaker 1: and I'm pacing myself for that. Right, this thing is
Speaker 1: a marathon. I will still think you're doing something dumb.
Speaker 1: When you're fifty, you could be worth a billion dollars,
Speaker 1: and I'll still be like, are you sure that this
Speaker 1: is the job that has job security for you? Right?
Speaker 1: Don't you need something to fall back on? Because you
Speaker 1: can take the kid out the house, but you can
Speaker 1: never take the love out of the parent. Your kid
Speaker 1: can discuss you, but you're still going to be devoted
Speaker 1: to him cussing them out, but you're cussing them out
Speaker 1: in love. You ever cuss somebody out in love? And
Speaker 1: now now we're back to Galatians three. Are you so foolish?
Speaker 1: Are you falls in that high voice? Are you crazy?
Speaker 1: Holly Scary voices her quiet voice. We tremble because she's
Speaker 1: loud all the time. She's just a naturally low to talker.
Speaker 1: When it's quiet, that's real bad. Are you so stupid
Speaker 1: as to really go back to circumcision the outward sign
Speaker 1: and think that that's gonna get you to the end.
Speaker 1: The foolishness of trusting in the flesh, the foolishness, And
Speaker 1: so just answer your your question that your neighbor asked
Speaker 1: you a few minutes ago. Tell him, yes, I'm that crazy.
Speaker 1: Tell him, tell him, yes, I'm that crazy. I'm that
Speaker 1: crazy in my flesh. I'm still crazy. How many still
Speaker 1: crazy saints are honest enough to raise your hand and say,
Speaker 1: catch me at the wrong moment with the right hit
Speaker 1: the right button, sugar the right reflex, I'm still crazy. Okay,
Speaker 1: you look crazy. So now she stood up too quick.
Speaker 1: It was just too quick. Me too, Me too. I'm
Speaker 1: still crazy, and I know that, and I'm glad that
Speaker 1: I know that because God delivered me from so much.
Speaker 1: But there's some stuff that's still in me that he's
Speaker 1: dealing with. And now it's all coming together because they're
Speaker 1: in Christ, but they're still crazy. Paul is not in
Speaker 1: Galatia physically, but he's still and he is doing something
Speaker 1: that shepherds do. He is directing the sheep, and he's
Speaker 1: directing the sheep realizing sheep are not dolphins. Dolphins are smart,
Speaker 1: especially the bottlenose dolphin. I was reading about the ten
Speaker 1: smartest animals in the world. The bottlenose dolphin was number two.
Speaker 1: That dolphin is so smart. Can recognize this self in
Speaker 1: the mirror smarter than me. Sometimes I don't even know
Speaker 1: who I am. And yet the Lord didn't talk about
Speaker 1: a dolphin. He said. He said, you are my sheep,
Speaker 1: and my sheep know my voice. And Jesus said, I'm
Speaker 1: the good shepherd. And so Paul is realizing watch this.
Speaker 1: If I am a shepherd, sometimes I have to direct
Speaker 1: the sheep where to go, assuming that they don't know
Speaker 1: where to go. Are you so foolish? Yes, the moment
Speaker 1: you answer no to that question, you're in danger. The
Speaker 1: moment is, like you said, foolish, Nah man, I'm actually
Speaker 1: you know, pretty much pretty much got some stuff figured out.
Speaker 1: I'm praying for you. I don't mean not being confident. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know things, you know skills. I'm not talking about
Speaker 1: being insecure. I'm not talking about downplaying yourself. Those people
Speaker 1: are most annoying people in the world. You know, I'm
Speaker 1: not good at anything really like that, and I can't
Speaker 1: really do anything like that. Just shut up. What God
Speaker 1: gave you. He gave you what you're good at. You're
Speaker 1: good at. You know, you're seven foot two, and I'm like,
Speaker 1: you're tall, well not really, you know the Lord you know, yes,
Speaker 1: you're tall. There's nothing worse than false humility. It's awful.
Speaker 1: It's not really humility. It's just drawing more attention to
Speaker 1: yourself through an act of humility. But you're just acting.
Speaker 1: You're just acting. You're just acting. Sing a solo and
Speaker 1: you say, oh, that was good, you sang good today. No, no, no,
Speaker 1: it wasn't me. It was the Lord. And see, do
Speaker 1: you're wrong about that? Because it would have been much
Speaker 1: better if it was the Lord. It was just good.
Speaker 1: I didn't say it was perfect. I just said it
Speaker 1: was good. Let's bring it down to notedge anyway, it's
Speaker 1: the power of realizing. Everybody say in Christ, still crazy?
Speaker 1: This side, do in Christ? This side, do still crazy?
Speaker 1: This side, do in Christ? Spirit? This side do still crazy?
Speaker 1: Flesh this side do in Christ spirit? This side do
Speaker 1: still crazy? Yeah, faith flesh both inside of me? Does
Speaker 1: not explain a lot that makes a lot of sense.
Speaker 1: How some of y'all will road rage even before you
Speaker 1: get off the church property today, And it's all right,
Speaker 1: And you can keep your elevation church sticker on the car.
Speaker 1: You don't have to take it off because I'm still crazy. Well,
Speaker 1: I think we have the right as the children of God,
Speaker 1: not in an entitled way, but in an expectant way
Speaker 1: that if Jesus lives in us and we are in him,
Speaker 1: I expect God to direct me. I expect God to
Speaker 1: direct me. You say, well, he's God, how can you
Speaker 1: tell him what to do? No, No, that's what he
Speaker 1: told me he wanted to do for me. So I
Speaker 1: expect God to direct me. When I'm getting ready to preach,
Speaker 1: I expect God to lead me to the passage he
Speaker 1: wants me to preach. I don't come to this Bible
Speaker 1: thinking I've got it figured out, and I don't come
Speaker 1: to the passage thinking that I know what it means.
Speaker 1: I expect God to direct me. Everybody say, I expect
Speaker 1: God to direct me. Now put it in the chat
Speaker 1: and say it out loud. If you're here, I expect
Speaker 1: God to direct me. I expect him to direct me
Speaker 1: in my relationships. I expect that he's going to bring
Speaker 1: the right people in my life in this season. I
Speaker 1: not only want him to be the bouncer at the entrance,
Speaker 1: but the exit. I want him to decide and direct
Speaker 1: in my life who gets in and who goes out.
Speaker 1: And I expect God to direct me. I believe that
Speaker 1: every good and perfect gift comes from above, So I
Speaker 1: expect God to bring opportunities into my life. You say
Speaker 1: that sounds cocky. No, no, no, I'm crazy. So I
Speaker 1: expect God to give me the opportunity because I know
Speaker 1: that it wasn't by my own power. It wasn't by
Speaker 1: my own strength. Nothing in my life makes much sense.
Speaker 1: When we wrote the lyric, I think it over and
Speaker 1: it doesn't add up. That's the math. When I think
Speaker 1: of what God has done, how many have the same testimony,
Speaker 1: And when I know, oh how crazy I am, how
Speaker 1: crazy I can be, how many ways I've wandered along
Speaker 1: the path, how many left turns were a part of
Speaker 1: God getting me to the right place. You don't understand.
Speaker 1: I expect God to direct me in my future because
Speaker 1: the only reason I'm here right now is because of
Speaker 1: His faithfulness. So when something comes in my way, I
Speaker 1: don't stick my chest out. I bow on my knee
Speaker 1: and I say God, thank you for another gift, thank
Speaker 1: you for another opportunity, thank you for another reason, thank
Speaker 1: you for another level. Thank you for another harvest, thank
Speaker 1: you for another breakthrough, thank you for another open door,
Speaker 1: thank you for another open road. Thank you, thank you,
Speaker 1: thank you, thank you, thank you. I expect some of
Speaker 1: y'all came to church needing to hear from God today.
Speaker 1: Well expected. He's a speaking God. He's a talking God.
Speaker 1: He's a way making God. He'll show you something you
Speaker 1: didn't even know. Asking for now one time him who is?
Speaker 1: He's able to do immeasurably more than we ask or imagine.
Speaker 1: WHOA I expect a blessing today. I expect God to
Speaker 1: be good to me. I expect my needs met. I
Speaker 1: expect him abundantly supply good measure, rest out, shake it together,
Speaker 1: run it over. I expect it. I'm ready for it.
Speaker 1: I'm stretching my hands to heaven. I expect it. I
Speaker 1: expect it. Touch three people, I expect it. I expected
Speaker 1: that y'all touching each other lately because COVID. But we
Speaker 1: need to touch somebody right now so it can be contagious,
Speaker 1: because somebody next to you lost their expectation because of
Speaker 1: their experience. If I don't come to God off and experience,
Speaker 1: I come to him because I know who he is.
Speaker 1: He said, I'm the bread of life. That said all.
Speaker 1: If he's the bread, I expect to be bad. He said,
Speaker 1: I'm resurrection. So he is resurrection. I expecting to raise me.
Speaker 1: I expect expected, I expected, and I'm bracing for it,
Speaker 1: and I'm believing for it, and I'm trusting for it,
Speaker 1: and I'm grateful for it. I expected. He said he
Speaker 1: was the vine, So that means if I'm in him,
Speaker 1: he's in me, and I will bear much fruit. I expected.
Speaker 1: I expected, And since I expect the good Shepherd to
Speaker 1: direct me, I have to be willing to accept when
Speaker 1: he corrects me. Yeah, sit down on that one. Some
Speaker 1: stuff you stand up about. Oh No, the Lord just
Speaker 1: set us up, didn't he. Why'd you do that to us? Lord?
Speaker 1: It felt so good? Let's see, miss. You know, the
Speaker 1: expectator of direction from God without the acceptance of correction
Speaker 1: from God is delusional. I can't expect God to direct
Speaker 1: me and then not accept when he corrects me. Oh,
Speaker 1: we love Paul. Paul's preaching the Gospel of Jesus. Paul
Speaker 1: is so awesome. Paul's so amazing. Let's go over here
Speaker 1: and let's continue to Let's continue to trust in the
Speaker 1: old stuff. Let's continue to be justified by faith, and
Speaker 1: then maybe we can have both, and then maybe we
Speaker 1: can have our Jewish identity and our Jesus experience instead
Speaker 1: of having a Jesus identity and a Jewish experience. We're
Speaker 1: not conformed to the world. My experience is not the
Speaker 1: definition of my potential in Christ. So if I try
Speaker 1: to make it about something that, it's not. Like the
Speaker 1: hymn writer said, the arm of flesh will fail you.
Speaker 1: This side of the room flesh, you feel me. And
Speaker 1: so salvation starts with this spirit. You can't complete or
Speaker 1: finish in the flesh. What God started in the spirit.
Speaker 1: And Paul's bringing correction to the Galatians and correction to us,
Speaker 1: because we're not running around talking about circumcision, but we're
Speaker 1: running around counting followers, thinking how popular you are, how
Speaker 1: many likes something get. I want to teach a Bible
Speaker 1: study one day. It won't work on a Sunday, to
Speaker 1: take about three hours, and I would do it over
Speaker 1: a series of weeks, but you forget everything by the
Speaker 1: time I get back to next week, so that don't
Speaker 1: work either. And one day I'll just I'll just turn
Speaker 1: on the camera one day and I'll just teach it
Speaker 1: in my I'll teach you, I'll teach it on. I'll
Speaker 1: teach it. I recorded on my phone. How how to
Speaker 1: be led by the shepherd in a culture of like
Speaker 1: and subscribe? How to be led by the shepherd in
Speaker 1: a culture of like and subscribe? We like to be led?
Speaker 1: Doesn't it feel good every once in a while for
Speaker 1: somebody to take charge and it doesn't have to be you.
Speaker 1: How many of you are over your company or over
Speaker 1: your division, or you're over your small business, or you're
Speaker 1: over your family, You're over something. Don't you just love it?
Speaker 1: Sometimes when somebody's like, here's what we're doing, here's when
Speaker 1: we're doing it, don't ask about it. You're like, that's
Speaker 1: kind of cool. You marry somebody like that. I'm serious.
Speaker 1: It just feels good sometimes when you're over alive and
Speaker 1: somebody will just decide. How many of you like to
Speaker 1: be led? Like to be led? Now you have a
Speaker 1: mental model of what it means to be led, and
Speaker 1: it's based on technology. Your mental model of God in
Speaker 1: a modern context is the woman on the GPS who
Speaker 1: makes suggestions. If you don't do what she tells you
Speaker 1: to do, she doesn't stop the car, but God will
Speaker 1: because he's a shepherd, a good shepherd. What's a good shepherd?
Speaker 1: That's what Jesus said in John ten eleven. If you
Speaker 1: want to look up the reference, he said, I am
Speaker 1: the good Shepherd. All that other stuff, he's that too,
Speaker 1: But he is a good shepherd, So that must mean
Speaker 1: that he knows something I don't know, and that he's
Speaker 1: going to get me there sometimes against my own human
Speaker 1: will or my sorry, y'all, fleshly desires. It just had
Speaker 1: to be one side or the other. I just chose, y'all.
Speaker 1: There is no spiritual significance to that. Everybody on the
Speaker 1: side of the room looks so hurt, y'all. Maybe we'll
Speaker 1: switch it up next week or something. I don't know.
Speaker 1: And I thought about would it be a good GPS
Speaker 1: system in my car? If if when I made the
Speaker 1: wrong turn it was like, okay, cool, would it be
Speaker 1: a good GPS? And then I thought about would it
Speaker 1: be a good physical trainer if when you came in
Speaker 1: and you said I don't feel like it, they were like, great,
Speaker 1: I don't really feel like training you either. Let's eat
Speaker 1: unless eat sugar. Unlet's eat crap because I really don't
Speaker 1: feel like counting your reps today either. So we're both
Speaker 1: on the same page. Let's go. Would it be would
Speaker 1: it be a good God if he didn't put conviction
Speaker 1: alongside comfort? And is what you're going through in your
Speaker 1: life right now a correction not from the devil, but
Speaker 1: from the good shepherd. Do we give the devil credit
Speaker 1: for the shepherd's directions? Everything bad that happens is the devil?
Speaker 1: Not necessarily he's a good shepherd. Now that we've had
Speaker 1: that New Testament perspective, let's go to the Old Testament.
Speaker 1: The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. You
Speaker 1: know that song that is I was at a funeral recently,
Speaker 1: and of course that was the song that was shared,
Speaker 1: because for most of us it's our favorite, and even
Speaker 1: if only by process of the fact, that's kind of
Speaker 1: the only one we know that's our song. The Lord
Speaker 1: is my shepherd. I shall not want. He's going to
Speaker 1: direct me. You remember all the things that says, green grass,
Speaker 1: still waters, restoreth my soul. His rod and his staff
Speaker 1: they comfort me. That's verse four. Put up verse four,
Speaker 1: real quick, His rod, thy rod talking to God, Thy
Speaker 1: rod and thy staff they comfort me. I love comfort,
Speaker 1: and I need comfort, and sometimes I need God to
Speaker 1: hold me because I won't let anybody else touch me.
Speaker 1: I'm serious. Sometimes I'm defensive in ways that God's the
Speaker 1: only one who can get in, and I love that
Speaker 1: he can and he can comfort me. And sometimes there's
Speaker 1: a gap when I'm like, I don't get this, and
Speaker 1: I'm glad God can comfort me. And sometimes I'm nursing
Speaker 1: my own wounds and I'm locking my own wounds, and
Speaker 1: I'm making it worse as i'm doing it. So I
Speaker 1: need the Balm of Gilead to come and comfort me,
Speaker 1: and I'm thankful that he comforts me. But in the passage,
Speaker 1: the Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. That
Speaker 1: means I lack no good thing. That means the shepherd
Speaker 1: knows the difference between what feels good and what is good.
Speaker 1: The next part is the part that most of us
Speaker 1: struggle with, because the first thing that God does ask
Speaker 1: the shepherd, the Lord is my shepherd. I shall not
Speaker 1: want Verse two. You won't like this part now that
Speaker 1: you look at it. This way. He maketh me. He
Speaker 1: makes me. I don't like anybody to make me do anything.
Speaker 1: You can suggest, but don't make me. You can plan it,
Speaker 1: but don't make me. That's why I went back and
Speaker 1: read all these books about ten summers ago that I
Speaker 1: was assigned in school, and I enjoyed them. But if
Speaker 1: you tell me I have to read it, I'm not
Speaker 1: reading it. I did. I read Great Expectations by Charles
Speaker 1: Dickens at the pool for fun in eleventh grade. I
Speaker 1: didn't read it. I got the cliff notes because they
Speaker 1: were making me read it. I don't like you to
Speaker 1: make me. I don't like you to make me. And
Speaker 1: yet the first thing that he says to shepherd does
Speaker 1: he makes me lie down? Hold on, God, I want
Speaker 1: you to be my shepherd. I want to be led
Speaker 1: where I want to be led because my mental model
Speaker 1: of God is GPS. So I'll tell you the destination.
Speaker 1: If I get off track, then put me back on,
Speaker 1: but take me another way. Because God, the Lord is
Speaker 1: my Alexa. The Lord is my SII, the Lord is
Speaker 1: my a. What a good shepherd. That means he's not
Speaker 1: gonna see you doing something that he knows where it
Speaker 1: leads and not say something to you about it. That
Speaker 1: means he's not gonna let you sabotage yourself and your
Speaker 1: future without bringing correction. But see, we don't really like
Speaker 1: that side of the shepherd. It's like no, no no, no,
Speaker 1: I expect God to direct me. So here's what I want. Opportunities. Okay,
Speaker 1: what if a part of the opportunity God is going
Speaker 1: to bring you in two years is the character development
Speaker 1: of a disappointment that he takes you through right now?
Speaker 1: Is he still your shepherd when you don't like what
Speaker 1: he says? Is he fire your trainer if they never
Speaker 1: tell you something to do you don't like. Fire your
Speaker 1: friends if they'll never tell you the truth when you're
Speaker 1: making a fool of yourself. You ever look back at
Speaker 1: pictures of stuff you wore and say, where were my friends?
Speaker 1: I had no friends. It's scary. Nobody told me that
Speaker 1: was so tight. It wasn't flattering. I tell you it
Speaker 1: was tight, and I wasn't toned, and nobody said anything
Speaker 1: about that. Contrast, he makes me his correction. I used
Speaker 1: to teach leadership a lot more than I do now.
Speaker 1: I don't know why I don't teach it as much anymore,
Speaker 1: But maybe I should start back, because I would teach
Speaker 1: when somebody corrects you, that's an investment. Now. I don't
Speaker 1: mean people that don't know you, people that just insult you,
Speaker 1: people that just are spouting their opinion. Get that out
Speaker 1: of your mind. The Lord is my shepherd. You are
Speaker 1: led by somebody and they love you enough. Yes, Jesus
Speaker 1: loves me. Yes, Jesus loves me. Yes, Jesus loves me.
Speaker 1: How do I know this? I know he loves me,
Speaker 1: not only because the Bible tells me. So I know
Speaker 1: Jesus loves me because Jesus leads me. And when he
Speaker 1: leads me, sometimes he uses a staff to bring me back.
Speaker 1: That staff doesn't feel good around the sheep's neck. Why
Speaker 1: you always associate God with a good feeling. Sometimes you
Speaker 1: got to sit in something you don't like to get
Speaker 1: to something that you want, whether that's peace or joy.
Speaker 1: Oh my shout, swim out the door. Lord, they were
Speaker 1: shouting so good ten minutes ago. New song just came
Speaker 1: to me. Because when he brings you back, that's kindness,
Speaker 1: the kindness of God that brings me to repentance. Because
Speaker 1: I expect to be led by somebody who knows what's
Speaker 1: out of head, and I don't because I'm crazy. I'm crazy.
Speaker 1: I will get so in what I want to feel
Speaker 1: right now that I will reach for something now that
Speaker 1: I'm going to regret later unless I have a shepherd.
Speaker 1: So I might as well tell you I need Jesus.
Speaker 1: No apologies. I need Jesus. Yeah, yeah, me too. I
Speaker 1: need Jesus to forgive me. So I'm going to heaven
Speaker 1: when I die. Uh huh. I need Jesus way before
Speaker 1: I get to heaven when I die. The Lord is
Speaker 1: my talk to me, He's my shepherd. Oh. I love
Speaker 1: green grass, But do you like when he makes you
Speaker 1: lie down? I want to get the green grass, all right?
Speaker 1: So I give you from my own life. When I
Speaker 1: preach about things for my own life, I don't want
Speaker 1: you to think that's because I think my life is
Speaker 1: so important. It just makes it more real to me.
Speaker 1: If I open a sermon illustration book and say, okay,
Speaker 1: in the year thirteen hundred and seventy six, a guy
Speaker 1: said this, I don't even know if he really said
Speaker 1: that or not. That's just in the book. This is
Speaker 1: what I know is real, okay, and maybe you can
Speaker 1: relate two or three times in the last I would say,
Speaker 1: in the last couple of years, I felt like the
Speaker 1: Lord was saying inside of me. This never out loud
Speaker 1: for me. I have never heard God speak to me
Speaker 1: out loud ever, and I've asked him to before, because
Speaker 1: then I would know, especially if he said it like
Speaker 1: Morgan Freeman on Shawshankradeshin, I'd be like, Oh, that's God
Speaker 1: right there, that's Morgan Freeman, that's the voice of God.
Speaker 1: So inside there is a few times, and I'll tell
Speaker 1: you what they were, because I think it helps to
Speaker 1: flesh it out a little bit. When when I started
Speaker 1: doing what Paul said in Galatians, trusting in the flesh,
Speaker 1: that's my own human strength. Remember, they weren't going off
Speaker 1: snort and coke. That's not what Paul is correcting. They
Speaker 1: weren't going off and worshiping Satan. That's not what Paul
Speaker 1: was correcting. He was saying, God started something in your life.
Speaker 1: And then you're like, oh, thanks God, I'm good. I've
Speaker 1: got it from here. That's what we do with the Lord.
Speaker 1: I call it Divinity on Demand. We're like, God, I
Speaker 1: want you for season one, but I'll take season two,
Speaker 1: season three, season four. I got it from here, and
Speaker 1: you don't got it from here. And you don't know
Speaker 1: you don't got it from here until the plot twist
Speaker 1: happens that you didn't see because you didn't write the script.
Speaker 1: But God did, and he's the shepherd. And that's why
Speaker 1: you have to trust him not only to save you
Speaker 1: watch this, but sustain you. There is a saving faith.
Speaker 1: I throw myself on the mercy of God. I throw
Speaker 1: myself on the grace of the cross of Christ, and
Speaker 1: that saves me and his son. But that's same. Don't
Speaker 1: think that you get that grace and then just grind
Speaker 1: it out the rest of your life. Don't think you
Speaker 1: just pray to God parents and say, God, give us
Speaker 1: a healthy baby. Okay, we got it from here, we'll
Speaker 1: raise them from here. No you won't. You're crazy. You're
Speaker 1: crazy if you really think you can do this whole
Speaker 1: human experience without Jesus, You're crazy. Are you crazy? Are
Speaker 1: you crazy? You stop tithing because the economy was bad?
Speaker 1: Are you crazy? No? I got it from here God,
Speaker 1: you blessed me with this. But God, I'm gonna keep
Speaker 1: it now. Are you crazy? So God gave it to
Speaker 1: you and now you want to grind it out? Are
Speaker 1: you crazy? So here's where the Lord showed me. I
Speaker 1: was making a sermon and I was figuring out what
Speaker 1: to call it, and I knew that the Lord gave
Speaker 1: me a title. I can feel it when the Lord
Speaker 1: tells me what to call it. So if he tells
Speaker 1: me to call it, he's still the shepherd. I call
Speaker 1: it that, and you're like, okay, because I know I
Speaker 1: could do sexier than that. I know I could do
Speaker 1: better clickable than that. You know how to navigate seasons
Speaker 1: of regret to lead to breakthroughs, more sex, more money,
Speaker 1: and fat loss. That would be clickable. And that's fine.
Speaker 1: There's a time for all of that. There is a
Speaker 1: time to be strategic, there really is. There is a
Speaker 1: time to dial it in. There's a time technically to
Speaker 1: figure all of that out. But all that comes after.
Speaker 1: But when I'm preparing to preach to you, see, I
Speaker 1: can't do that in my flesh. I need the spirit.
Speaker 1: And God gave me something and I said, I can't
Speaker 1: call it that. It won't get clicked. And this is
Speaker 1: not a conversation. I'm trying to make it a conversation
Speaker 1: because I can't say it to you how God speaks
Speaker 1: on the level of spirit, not the level of flesh.
Speaker 1: So we're trying to tell you how it went. It
Speaker 1: felt inside of me, like God said, is this what
Speaker 1: we've come to? Clicking? Is this what we've come to?
Speaker 1: So you won't preach what I tell you is going
Speaker 1: to help people and set them free, that you really
Speaker 1: know in your spirit. You're talking about clicks, you talk
Speaker 1: about practice, and I really felt like God didn't like it.
Speaker 1: In fact, I almost felt like God said, I hate this.
Speaker 1: I can't bless this, I can't work with this. If
Speaker 1: we're going after clicks, you ought to go make porn.
Speaker 1: That'll get way more clicks. You're going to try to
Speaker 1: figure out in the flesh what can only be done
Speaker 1: through the spirit. So well, I don't do that. I
Speaker 1: don't put sermons on YouTube. I think you missed the point.
Speaker 1: I think we all do it all the time. We
Speaker 1: try to figure out what people would like. Are you
Speaker 1: crazy because they're crazy? Now you're trying to base your
Speaker 1: life around crazy people, and what crazy people will like
Speaker 1: will lead to a level of crazy that is crazier
Speaker 1: than your original crazy that made you try to impress
Speaker 1: crazy people, and then you forget who you are. You
Speaker 1: forget who you are, you forget men. I'm not up
Speaker 1: here to be a performer. I'm a preacher, baby, and
Speaker 1: the spirit of the Lord is upon me because he
Speaker 1: has anointed me to preach good news to the captives.
Speaker 1: And recovery of sight for the bli, and the breaking
Speaker 1: of chains and the liberation of those who are oppressed,
Speaker 1: and the acceptable year of the Lord's favor. Now, do
Speaker 1: you want favor or flesh? You want to do it
Speaker 1: God's way? I preached this last week. God's ways seem weird,
Speaker 1: but they weren't. It worked to trust God. It works
Speaker 1: to give it to him. It works to step out
Speaker 1: in faith. It works to stay in faith. It works
Speaker 1: to speak faith, it works to hear faith. Faith comes
Speaker 1: by hearing, hearing by the word. And then you get
Speaker 1: stuck in the space of trying to figure out in
Speaker 1: the flesh what God started by the spirit. Here's another
Speaker 1: time the Lord said, I don't like this. Somebody asked me,
Speaker 1: will you go do this certain opportunity to share the gospel?
Speaker 1: And I start thinking of all the reasons that I
Speaker 1: would not be good at doing it. And the Lord said,
Speaker 1: I don't like this at all, because you act like
Speaker 1: you were so good to get here to start with.
Speaker 1: I don't like this at all. You're getting this thing
Speaker 1: backwards now, because what's started by faith you're trying to
Speaker 1: finish in flesh. I got it. God, Thank you for
Speaker 1: the house. I got it from here. God, you don't
Speaker 1: got it here because that house is not a home
Speaker 1: unless God's spirit is in it. So you need God
Speaker 1: to fill what he helped you build. Did you hear me,
Speaker 1: I'm scared. I'm scared of God missed. You need God
Speaker 1: to help you feel or to fill what he helped
Speaker 1: you build, or what he gave you the strength to build,
Speaker 1: or what he built for himself. That was David's thing,
Speaker 1: he said, he said, he said, the Lord is my shepherd.
Speaker 1: David wrote that because of his experience, he was a
Speaker 1: shepherd himself. He was a shepherd, a shepherd who showed
Speaker 1: up to the battle lines just in time. How many
Speaker 1: of you have a testimony. God put me at the
Speaker 1: right place at the right time for certain things in
Speaker 1: my life. It was not coincidence. I was thinking about Joel.
Speaker 1: He was up here singing million little miracles and they
Speaker 1: don't even know, they don't need know that. When you
Speaker 1: recorded that song in this empty room during the craziest
Speaker 1: time in the world, and we're all COVID testing to record,
Speaker 1: and you weren't even supposed to be here for the recording,
Speaker 1: but I said, stay around just in case there's a
Speaker 1: song A Million Little Miracles that we wrote, and I
Speaker 1: think you've seen it, and you said, I love that song.
Speaker 1: I heard the demo. I said, stay around just in case.
Speaker 1: And he sang that song and the Glory of God
Speaker 1: and you can download it now on YouTube, but don't
Speaker 1: turn off the sermon. Do it after the sermon. And
Speaker 1: it's just amazing how David had this perspective. WA's what
Speaker 1: he said to Golith, Holy Spirit, lead me. Now, I
Speaker 1: need to get this in. This is the most important
Speaker 1: part of the message, because now I'm giving you the picture.
Speaker 1: That's the principle. That's the principle. You can't finish in
Speaker 1: the flesh, your own power, your own strength, your own
Speaker 1: delusional desires that will lead you astray. The hardest, deceitfully wicked,
Speaker 1: can't trust that. I need the Spirit of God. I
Speaker 1: got to stay in touch with him. I can't finish
Speaker 1: in the flesh what started in the spirit. But here's
Speaker 1: the picture. When David saw Goliath. The commentaries vary. He
Speaker 1: was at least what did I say earlier? He was
Speaker 1: at least seven foot two. He could have been as
Speaker 1: tall as nine foot nine. The measurements aren't exactly the same.
Speaker 1: So let's just all agree that's tall. Can we get
Speaker 1: consensus on that? Okay, okay, okay, okay, too big to beat?
Speaker 1: And David's like, perfect, he's too big to beat. That
Speaker 1: means God will have to do it. That means God
Speaker 1: will get the glory and I'll grow in my faith.
Speaker 1: Saw give me my shepherd tool. Wait, David, we're not
Speaker 1: talking about sheep here. We're talking about a Philistine warrior
Speaker 1: with a sword. It was like, huh, I know these weapons.
Speaker 1: God has used these weapons. I've been keeping my father's sheep.
Speaker 1: And so he takes the instruments of shepherding applies them
Speaker 1: to the strategy of warfare. And it worked for his
Speaker 1: advantage because Goliath never even got close enough to use
Speaker 1: his weapon. David knocked him out. You know that story,
Speaker 1: don't you. I can tell you look kind of bored,
Speaker 1: like really, David and Goliath. Okay, I gotta give you that,
Speaker 1: because that's how David started. He was so he was
Speaker 1: so full of faith. He said, I'm gonna come at
Speaker 1: you without a sword so that everybody will know it
Speaker 1: was the Lord. And some of y'all had that kind
Speaker 1: of faith, or have that kind of faith? Have experienced
Speaker 1: those types of moments. I'm doing this because God told me.
Speaker 1: I'm doing this because God told me. I'm doing this
Speaker 1: because I believe God is with me. I'm fifty five
Speaker 1: percent sure God told me to do this, and that
Speaker 1: says good is this gonna get? So? Here we go, Jesus.
Speaker 1: That's old Peter getting out there in that boat. He's like,
Speaker 1: I think so oh no, falling down. Jesus picked him up,
Speaker 1: moving in the right direction. That's David. David becomes a king.
Speaker 1: He deals with a crazy king. Crazy king. Crazy king.
Speaker 1: Saul tries killhim, can't killhim because he can't kill what
Speaker 1: God's crown. You could throw spear at it, but if
Speaker 1: it ducks, God can't kill it. Because David was full
Speaker 1: of the spirit of God and he was annoyed by purpose,
Speaker 1: and he was a eight brother and he was left out.
Speaker 1: But God annoyed him anyway through Samuel. Because when God
Speaker 1: has something for you, do that matter what people say
Speaker 1: about you. So stop trying to impress people. Get voted
Speaker 1: in by people. People have no final say. Only God
Speaker 1: has final say because he's the Shepherd's king. Whatever he
Speaker 1: say is going to happen. He's now the king, and
Speaker 1: he does the craziest thing that we ever see David do.
Speaker 1: And everybody listening to this right now who grew up
Speaker 1: in church thinks I'm going to talk about bath sheeba,
Speaker 1: but I'm not. That is David's most famous sin. He
Speaker 1: slept with a woman that wasn't his wife and had
Speaker 1: her husband killed on the front lines of battle because
Speaker 1: he saw what he was in the king and then
Speaker 1: springing the time when the King's go off to ward,
Speaker 1: he was walking around his roof and he saw beautifulman
Speaker 1: bathing and he said, bring her to me, and he
Speaker 1: had slept with her, and then he had her husband
Speaker 1: killed to try covered up. You can't cover it up,
Speaker 1: because Nathan came in confronted him. That wasn't the dumbest
Speaker 1: thing David ever did. For the Bible records that although
Speaker 1: that cost one man his life and David his own baby,
Speaker 1: there's something else David did that I have done that
Speaker 1: costs much more, and I want to show you that
Speaker 1: in First Chronicles twenty one. We're a long way from
Speaker 1: where we were last week when David was bringing the
Speaker 1: art which represented the presence of God back to Jerusalem,
Speaker 1: the City of Peace. Stay with me. He's now in
Speaker 1: a position of power, and God has given him victory
Speaker 1: from his enemies. What he does next is so dumb
Speaker 1: that it seems smart. Is so dumb that it seems smart.
Speaker 1: The Bible says in First Chronicles twenty one, verse one
Speaker 1: that Satan this is where it started, rose up against Israel.
Speaker 1: And watch this not what you expect Satan to do,
Speaker 1: attack them through the Philistines. No, he incited David to
Speaker 1: take a census of Israel. What's so bad about a census?
Speaker 1: That's not one of the seven deadly sins? What's so
Speaker 1: bad about taking a census? What's so bad about David saying, Hey,
Speaker 1: I want to know how many people we have so
Speaker 1: I can be ready for whatever. And he tells Joe
Speaker 1: Ab go through and count all my subjects. Now, I'm
Speaker 1: just going to tell you the story how it goes down,
Speaker 1: and then you can figure out what's so bad about it.
Speaker 1: He says, Hey, Joe Ab, who is his military advisor
Speaker 1: and wages the wars for him on the ground, He's like,
Speaker 1: I want to know how many men I have that
Speaker 1: are good with a sword, So go count all the
Speaker 1: fighting men, and so Joe Ab says, I don't think
Speaker 1: you want to do that, David, are you crazy? Respectfully, King,
Speaker 1: Sir David, are you crazy? If you need more, God
Speaker 1: to give you a hundred times more, may God multiply
Speaker 1: your troops times one hundred. King, But don't do this
Speaker 1: because God had commanded. There's only two times where a
Speaker 1: king is supposed to take a census. One is if
Speaker 1: you're taxing people, and one is if you're putting together
Speaker 1: an army for a battle. And neither applied. So it
Speaker 1: lets me know that now David has moved from power
Speaker 1: of the humility of trusting in the presence of God
Speaker 1: to the pride of saying, how many do I have
Speaker 1: find out? Because I might have to fight? And if
Speaker 1: I have to fight, I want to know how many
Speaker 1: fighting men that there are. But see now he's measuring flesh.
Speaker 1: And David didn't get to be king by measuring flesh.
Speaker 1: In fact, he was the one that his brothers didn't
Speaker 1: even think should be in the room. So how did
Speaker 1: the king who got to the crown trust in God's
Speaker 1: spirit and taking a sling in his hand against a big,
Speaker 1: tall giant. How did he come to this point where
Speaker 1: he's being led by his senses. Census Census, Census census.
Speaker 1: If he had used his census when he was up
Speaker 1: against Goliath, he would have run. If you would have
Speaker 1: gotten to this point by your senses, you would not
Speaker 1: be in church. You wouldn't. It was God that snatched you.
Speaker 1: It was God that led you. It was God. Come on, now,
Speaker 1: it was God that helped you. This is the moment
Speaker 1: where you affirmed the word and confirmed the word with
Speaker 1: your own praise. It was God he breathed on it.
Speaker 1: It was God he stepped in it. It was God
Speaker 1: he cleared the path. It was God he made them
Speaker 1: lie down in green pests. So you came this far
Speaker 1: and now you're counting. You came this far by faith,
Speaker 1: and now you're trying to figure it out and listen,
Speaker 1: hear the word of the Lord. You got to stop
Speaker 1: trying to figure this stuff out in your flesh and
Speaker 1: then praying for God to give you direction. You gotta
Speaker 1: stop sizing up. You know, I heard a country preacher
Speaker 1: what's his name, Todd. We talked about him all the time.
Speaker 1: Pastor pastor Charles, what's his name? Pastor Charles? The guy
Speaker 1: we talk about all the time, Charles Randolph pastor Charles Randolph.
Speaker 1: He said, the rest of the nation looked at Goliath
Speaker 1: and said he's too big to kill. David looked at
Speaker 1: Goliath and said he's too big to miss. Amen. So
Speaker 1: how'd you go? No question, question question for you? How'd
Speaker 1: you go from from God's grace being the being, the
Speaker 1: fuel and the strength and the hope and the joy
Speaker 1: of your life? And now you're like, no, God, I
Speaker 1: got it from here. I got it. Thank you Lord
Speaker 1: for putting on this Beck I can do it. Now
Speaker 1: you can't and you don't have to because he's a
Speaker 1: good shepherd, and he leaves you, but not by your senses.
Speaker 1: So then when you're sitting there all night long, this
Speaker 1: is what worry is about. We're taking a census, we're
Speaker 1: listing problems, and then in our lowest moment, Satan incites
Speaker 1: you and he says, start thinking about what you have.
Speaker 1: Start thinking about how strong you are, because if I
Speaker 1: can get you to see how strong you are, I
Speaker 1: can get you to believe how weak you are. Because
Speaker 1: if I can put you in the flesh, I can
Speaker 1: kill what started in the spirit. And then I can
Speaker 1: get you to leave your kids, and then I can
Speaker 1: get you to quit your ministry, and then I can
Speaker 1: get you to leave your church, and then I can
Speaker 1: get you to stop praising and stop rejoicing, because if
Speaker 1: I can get you in the flesh, I can make
Speaker 1: you fail. Joe Abs said, don't do it, and David did.
Speaker 1: And the numbers were impressive. Man, the numbers were impressive.
Speaker 1: Men love to measure, by the way. Joebs came back
Speaker 1: and said, you got one point one million, and then
Speaker 1: four hundred and seventy thousand in Judah that are part
Speaker 1: of the one point one million. There you go. But
Speaker 1: he didn't even count two of the tribes because he
Speaker 1: hated it so much what David told him to do.
Speaker 1: He knew it was a bad idea, and he wasn't
Speaker 1: even he wasn't even the godliest guy in the world,
Speaker 1: and he's like, this is crazy. Are you crazy? Even
Speaker 1: the world looks at us in the church sometimes then says,
Speaker 1: y'all say you trust God anyway? Oh, the third time,
Speaker 1: the Lord told me, I don't like that. The third time,
Speaker 1: I was telling Holly that sermon didn't go good, and
Speaker 1: she said, how do you know? I said, the people
Speaker 1: didn't respond. The Lord said, I hate that you preach
Speaker 1: from revelation, not for response. I hate when you use
Speaker 1: your censes. God hates when you use your censes to
Speaker 1: try to figure out what He wants to reveal by faith.
Speaker 1: He hates it. He hated it so much that he
Speaker 1: allowed a plague to bring David back. Seventy thousand people
Speaker 1: died after Joe Ebb came back with the count. And
Speaker 1: we love to measure, We love to measure. We're especially men.
Speaker 1: I don't mean to be sexist, but the reason I
Speaker 1: think men love to measure the most. I was in
Speaker 1: a prison preaching a few years ago, doing a Bible
Speaker 1: study with some seminary students into prison. They were doing
Speaker 1: a seminary program into prison. I said, I'll teach a little,
Speaker 1: then we can do Q and A. And a guy
Speaker 1: raised his hand. The first guy. He said, I've been
Speaker 1: wanting to know this. I read your books and I've
Speaker 1: been waiting for you to get here so I can
Speaker 1: ask you this. We're talking about it before. How much
Speaker 1: do you binge? Not the return of Christ, none of that,
Speaker 1: you know, not the Book of Daniel, just that much been?
Speaker 1: And I said, well, we'll go out in the yard
Speaker 1: and find out after you know, just messing around. But
Speaker 1: I was like, in't that hilarious? Like of all the things,
Speaker 1: we're still fifteen, we are still fifteen years old. The
Speaker 1: problem with that measurement isn't that God doesn't want you
Speaker 1: to be strategic. But sometimes you have to repent of
Speaker 1: being rational where God has given you revelation, repent of
Speaker 1: trying to be rational about what only the spirit can reveal.
Speaker 1: The census, the sin of the census. Nobody in here
Speaker 1: today was going, God, forgive me of the sin of counting,
Speaker 1: forgive me of the sin of trying to figure out
Speaker 1: apart from you, what you said you would help me do.
Speaker 1: And after that plague swept through. The Lord said, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna give you three choices, David. This is this is
Speaker 1: how I'm going to punish you. He spoke through the prophet.
Speaker 1: The kings would have a pastor, a prophet to the king.
Speaker 1: His name was God, not God. But God came to
Speaker 1: correct David. Be very open that God will use people
Speaker 1: to correct you, not everybody, but God will speak. God
Speaker 1: speaks to me the most through my wife, the most,
Speaker 1: the most, and I have to be open to that.
Speaker 1: So the prophet says, three choices you can have three
Speaker 1: years of famine, you can have three months of your
Speaker 1: enemies invading you and you can't stop them. You can
Speaker 1: be on the run, or you can have three days
Speaker 1: of a plague. And David said, I'll take the third option,
Speaker 1: because the plague comes from God's hand and He's merciful.
Speaker 1: I would rather be in the hands of my shepherd
Speaker 1: than be open to the attack of my enemy. And
Speaker 1: David got serious about it when he saw the sword
Speaker 1: over Jerusalem, the sword over Jerusalem, the sword over the
Speaker 1: City of Peace. David got serious about it. And if
Speaker 1: you don't respond when God speaks to your conscience, you
Speaker 1: will have to respond when he speaks through the consequence.
Speaker 1: And David said, verse seventeen is to me, is to
Speaker 1: me the key for all of us who are guilty
Speaker 1: of trying to finish in the flesh what God started
Speaker 1: in the spirit. David gets down in sackclothed and ashes
Speaker 1: and watched this in verse seventeen. You got it on
Speaker 1: the screen for me, guys, He said to God, was
Speaker 1: it not I who ordered the fighting men to be counted?
Speaker 1: Was it not I who ordered the fighting men to
Speaker 1: be counted? Now watch the next part I the shepherd,
Speaker 1: have sinned and done wrong. That spoke to me, Church,
Speaker 1: that spoke to me that David is a king with
Speaker 1: one point five million swords under his command. But he's
Speaker 1: still the shepherd. He's still in this moment, watch this,
Speaker 1: he remembers who he really is. It was I the shepherd.
Speaker 1: It was I, God, the one that you raised up.
Speaker 1: He has a flashback to the pasture, and he remembers,
Speaker 1: it's not my might. It's not my strength. It's not
Speaker 1: my goodness. It's not my righteousness. It's not my wisdom.
Speaker 1: It's not my intelligence, it's not my finance, it's not
Speaker 1: my resource. I'm still the shepherd, Lord, I'm still that
Speaker 1: boy that you raised up. I'm still Jesse's son who
Speaker 1: was left out but you brought me in. I'm still
Speaker 1: the one you call I the shepherd. It's me God,
Speaker 1: the shepherd, not the king. It's me God. I'm not
Speaker 1: a pair of right now. I'm a child. You're my father.
Speaker 1: I'm the shepherd God. I remember what you did for me.
Speaker 1: Some of you need to go back to your shepherd instruments.
Speaker 1: Some of you need to go back to your shepherd's faith.
Speaker 1: God raised you up, God set you high. God gave
Speaker 1: you blessing. God gave you influence. God gave you opportunity.
Speaker 1: God gave you time. God gave you leisure. God gave
Speaker 1: you space, God gave you breathing room. But he's still
Speaker 1: the shepherd. Get back to that radical root faith man,
Speaker 1: that good kind of crazy that you have that says, hey, Goliah,
Speaker 1: I don't need a sword. I come against you. Hit
Speaker 1: the name of God. Now go down before I make
Speaker 1: you go doubt, lay down before I spit in headkick
Speaker 1: on you. Lord a shepherd, he's still a shepherd. God said,
Speaker 1: you still are? You still are when you sin, You're
Speaker 1: still a Christian. That's your identity. Sin is the experience.
Speaker 1: Child of God is the identity you still are. I
Speaker 1: need whoever whoever I studied this to help to receive
Speaker 1: it by faith and say, I still am, I still am.
Speaker 1: I still am. I still am. I still am devil,
Speaker 1: I still am. Back up off me with that shame, devil.
Speaker 1: I still am. I still am. I was his child,
Speaker 1: I am his child. I was beloved, I am beloved.
Speaker 1: I was mighty in God. I am mighty in God.
Speaker 1: When I remember, remember, remember, remember, remember remember remember I
Speaker 1: the shepherd, and the plague stopped when he made a
Speaker 1: sacrifice and remembered. But then I see something else in
Speaker 1: the text one more time, and I close with this.
Speaker 1: Everyone's standing, every location, everyone's standing. Thank you, Jesus, thank you, Jesus,
Speaker 1: Thank you Lord, Thank you Lord, Thank you Lord, thank
Speaker 1: you Lord, thank you Jesus, thank you Jesus, thank you
Speaker 1: Lord for this work. He said, I the Shepherd. I
Speaker 1: believe he had a flashback to that pasture. But I
Speaker 1: believe he also had a flashback this Psalm twenty three,
Speaker 1: where he remembered not only that he's still the shepherd,
Speaker 1: but that he's still a sheep. And the Lord is
Speaker 1: my shepherd. So you got off track. He's still the shepherd,
Speaker 1: so you did some dumb stuff. He's still the shepherd,
Speaker 1: so you're crazy. He's still the shepherd, so you smell bad.
Speaker 1: He's still the shepherd, so you have no sense of direction.
Speaker 1: He's still the shepherd, so you don't know what to
Speaker 1: do now. He's still the shepherd. It's true in the valley,
Speaker 1: he's the shepherd. It's true in the palace, he's the shepherd.
Speaker 1: And one reason I knew that God wanted me to
Speaker 1: preach this word. He's still the shepherd is because there's
Speaker 1: nobody in this room that doesn't need to hear it.
Speaker 1: If you're in a valley right now and feel like nobody,
Speaker 1: he's still the shepherd, and he will leave the ninety
Speaker 1: nine to find the one. He's still the shepherd. If
Speaker 1: you got one point five million fighting men like David
Speaker 1: and God has made your dreams come true, don't get cocky.
Speaker 1: He's still the shepherd. He's speaking to you, and he's
Speaker 1: calling to you. He's trying to get you out of
Speaker 1: your flesh into the spirit so he can sustain you.
Speaker 1: The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want he
Speaker 1: makes me lie down in the place that he made
Speaker 1: me for. Oh, that staff doesn't feel comfortable. But I'm
Speaker 1: glad that he'll bring me back. Aren't you glad that
Speaker 1: God will bring you back? No, y'all, we praise God
Speaker 1: for the wrong stuff. We got to learn to praise
Speaker 1: Him when it's like, Oh, he's bringing me back to
Speaker 1: the heart of worship. He's bringing me back to my
Speaker 1: shepherd's staff. He's bringing me back to my first love,
Speaker 1: to my childlike faith, to my dependence on him. No
Speaker 1: more substitutions. He is my shepherd. No more being led
Speaker 1: by my flesh. Devil, you're a liar. He's my shepherd.
Speaker 1: No more condemnation for those who are in Christ. Jesus,
Speaker 1: the Lord is my shepherd. Shall not one close your eyes,
Speaker 1: lift your hands. The shepherd is here. He brought you here,
Speaker 1: and he's going to lead you out. Every step in between.
Speaker 1: He's still the shepherd. Say it, He's still the shepherd.
Speaker 1: He's still the shepherd. Even after all the mistakes I've made,
Speaker 1: he's still the shepherd. He will reroute you, he will
Speaker 1: redirect you, he will reinvent you, he will revive you
Speaker 1: and ask Lazarus, he'll resurrect you. Because even if you've
Speaker 1: been dead four days, he's still the shepherd. Thank you, Jesus,
Speaker 1: Thank you, Jesus. Come on, there's no praise in this place.
Speaker 1: You gotta give God a praise to him, not clapping,
Speaker 1: praise him with your mouth. Thank you, Jesus, Thank you, Jesus.
Speaker 1: Do it online, do it in Lake Norman. Come on,
Speaker 1: thank you, Jesus. The Lord is my shepherd. And I
Speaker 1: don't live by census. I live by the spirit. I've
Speaker 1: been into each service the last few weeks with some
Speaker 1: of those old hymns. Some of those old hymns speak
Speaker 1: about faith and faithfulness to bring some continuity to your
Speaker 1: spirit in a changing time. To know that he's the
Speaker 1: same God that delivered you from the lion and the bear.
Speaker 1: To get you out of your senses and into the spirit.
Speaker 1: The Lord is my shepherd. We don't live by census
Speaker 1: with your eyes closed. Now eyes close, so you're not
Speaker 1: looking around with your senses. One of my favorite hymns
Speaker 1: is called Blessed Assurance Jesus is Mine. It was written
Speaker 1: by Fanny Crosby when she was six weeks old. She
Speaker 1: was born in eighteen twenty. When she was six weeks old,
Speaker 1: she developed a condition in her eye, and the doctor
Speaker 1: was trying to fix it, but he made it worse
Speaker 1: and she went blind. Fanny Crosby went on, by the
Speaker 1: age of ten to memorize first four books of the
Speaker 1: Bible and all four Gospels. She was so gifted that
Speaker 1: she went on to write eight thousand songs. She was
Speaker 1: quoted as saying, if I could go back and find
Speaker 1: the man who operated on my eyes and made me blind,
Speaker 1: I would say thank you, thank you, thank you for
Speaker 1: had I not been blind. If I had had my sight,
Speaker 1: I may not have had this faith. I think we
Speaker 1: need to thank God for all of the things in
Speaker 1: our life right now that according to our senses, according
Speaker 1: to our site, according to our minds, make no sense.
Speaker 1: But in the spirit, come on, oh, come on, I
Speaker 1: think that key is too high for me to sing LJ.
Speaker 1: Maybe you should go to something lower. Blessed assurance. Jesus
Speaker 1: is mine. Oh, what a for taste of glory divine?
Speaker 1: This is who I am, air of salvation, This is
Speaker 1: whose I am purchase of God. Listen or enough his
Speaker 1: spear washed in his How about this first perfect submission?
Speaker 1: Does it lead to perfect de lived visions of rapture?
Speaker 1: Now burst out of sight? That a blind woman wrote
Speaker 1: about visions of rapture? Lets me know? It is by faith.
Speaker 1: Come on, it is by faith. It is by faith.
Speaker 1: It is by faith. I don't care if you can
Speaker 1: see it right now. It's real. It is by faith.
Speaker 1: This is my story. This is my song, praising my
Speaker 1: safe over day. This is my sort. This is my
Speaker 1: song praising my safe all the day. Lift your hands
Speaker 1: worship and by faith. Now, well, if you enjoyed today's podcast,
Speaker 1: there are a couple of things I'd love for you
Speaker 1: to do. Make sure to subscribe, rate, and review this podcast.
Speaker 1: You can also help us reach others by investing today
Speaker 1: at elevationchurch dot org slash gift and thanks again for
Speaker 1: joining us on the Elevation Podcast