Speaker 1: Ah, But we love you today, and we worship and
Speaker 1: adore you. We're not angels, but we want to gather
Speaker 1: around your throne like they do and give you praise,
Speaker 1: and we want to sing what they sing. We want
Speaker 1: to say worthy, Worthy, Worthy is the lamb to open
Speaker 1: the scroll. We thank you, Lord, that all of history
Speaker 1: is in your hands. We thank you that everything in
Speaker 1: the past that has happened is now being brought into
Speaker 1: perfect alignment with the future that you have prophesied over
Speaker 1: us in this moment. We say that because our confidence
Speaker 1: is in your unchanging nature and your steadfast character, and
Speaker 1: we want to be more like you are. God. We
Speaker 1: want to be rooted and grounded in what lasts. So today, Lord,
Speaker 1: I thank you for a sustaining blessing over these men
Speaker 1: and women, a sustaining blessing over these boys and girls.
Speaker 1: We thank you that you are a creator and a keeper.
Speaker 1: So Lord, right now, I thank you that I'm in
Speaker 1: the palm of your hand. Right now, I thank you
Speaker 1: that your grip is stronger than my resistance. God, I
Speaker 1: thank you that you're stronger at holding me than I
Speaker 1: am at letting go. And I thank you that you've
Speaker 1: got me right where you want me. I'm not behind,
Speaker 1: I'm not off schedule. I'm right where I need to be.
Speaker 1: I'm who I need to be. You didn't want to
Speaker 1: make me any different than you made me. There wasn't
Speaker 1: a missing worker on the assembly line on the day
Speaker 1: that you created me. Before I was born, you knew me.
Speaker 1: You set me apart in my mother's womb. Everything that
Speaker 1: I'm missing is just an opportunity for a miracle. Every
Speaker 1: space in me is just somewhere for you to show
Speaker 1: off in my life. In my weakness, you are strong.
Speaker 1: You are a mighty God, a wonderful counselor, an everlasting father,
Speaker 1: and the Prince of peace. We call on your great name, Jesus.
Speaker 1: Your name is above every other name. Who you are
Speaker 1: is what we trust it, and we place our hope
Speaker 1: in you. In Jesus' name. Everybody who believes that name
Speaker 1: is the name that matters. Shot a mad, come on,
Speaker 1: shot a mad awesome awes Well, we were singing the
Speaker 1: names of God. But let me just take a minute,
Speaker 1: and what's your name? Tell three people around you, Hi,
Speaker 1: my name is. What's your name? Just get to know
Speaker 1: him all right? In the chat? How are you? Where
Speaker 1: are you? Let me open this YouTube lane. All right,
Speaker 1: in the chat, who are you? Let me know in
Speaker 1: the chat, who are you? Somebody? Shout your name right
Speaker 1: here at me, real quick, shout your legal name. I
Speaker 1: don't know you enough to have a nickname relationship yet
Speaker 1: and from all over the world. It's just it would
Speaker 1: amaze you. I don't want you to do it because
Speaker 1: it would be distracting. But if you saw all the
Speaker 1: people in the chat that are joining us for church today,
Speaker 1: it really is true. I didn't know God was literal
Speaker 1: when he said I'm going to stretch your boundaries, but
Speaker 1: he did. That's even beyond what we could have thought.
Speaker 1: We built buildings all these many years for the church,
Speaker 1: and the Lord was like, that's great. The buildings are great.
Speaker 1: Build them. But what God is doing now in the
Speaker 1: year twenty twenty one is so far beyond the building.
Speaker 1: Come on. And what I love about it is it's
Speaker 1: not only it's not only people who watch online, but
Speaker 1: they worship, they give, they build. It's our extended family.
Speaker 1: Let's welcome our Epham all around the world. I learned
Speaker 1: that the Lord's ways are higher than mine. Have you
Speaker 1: learned that? Yet? Sooner you learn that Man you're gonna
Speaker 1: waste less money, less time, less prayers asking God for
Speaker 1: stuff that if He gave it to you, you'd want
Speaker 1: to return it back to send her. I'm just trying
Speaker 1: to save you some time. That God's ways are better, better, better,
Speaker 1: better better. Yeah, all right, we got Emma, Chris Jane Steven.
Speaker 1: What an anointed name that it is with a V.
Speaker 1: He spelled it right, Steven, God, bless your mother and
Speaker 1: blessed be the fruit of your mother's woman. Samantha from Malaysia.
Speaker 1: You see what I'm saying. From Malaysia. I never thought
Speaker 1: I would put a campus in Malaysia, but God did that.
Speaker 1: God is gonna do so much more through your life then,
Speaker 1: you know to ask him for right now, so be encouraged.
Speaker 1: We're getting ready. We're preparing our year end offering. It's
Speaker 1: called the year end offering, is called better this year better.
Speaker 1: That's the word God spoke to me. I'm like, Lord,
Speaker 1: I can't tell him it's gonna get better. He said,
Speaker 1: that's not the point of it. The point is if
Speaker 1: it doesn't get better, they will. So. God is gonna
Speaker 1: increase you, make you stronger and wiser. He's gonna do that.
Speaker 1: He's doing that sometimes when you don't feel it. I
Speaker 1: noticed when I'm working out physically, the moments where I
Speaker 1: feel the weakest, I'm growing the most. Wonder is that
Speaker 1: true in the spirit? Me too? She said, I hope
Speaker 1: so so you had a bad week. I barely made
Speaker 1: it in. I hope you're telling that truth. It was
Speaker 1: amazing though. So many you never know what somebody's going
Speaker 1: through right next to you. That's why I hate when
Speaker 1: y'all leave when I'm closing my sermon in prayer, when
Speaker 1: you slip out so you can get the lunch. It
Speaker 1: bothers me because you don't know that person on that road,
Speaker 1: what they came in carrying, and what God is lifting.
Speaker 1: One of our longtime volunteers, This is just one example.
Speaker 1: One of our longtime volunteers in the Raleigh Durham area
Speaker 1: had just made it back to church last week, and afterwards,
Speaker 1: one of our campus pastors said, I you man, where
Speaker 1: have you been? And he said, well, I fell out
Speaker 1: for a little while, you know, but this week my
Speaker 1: son took his own life. But while that while we
Speaker 1: were worshiping, God spoke to me, is going to get better?
Speaker 1: Only in God's presence can you receive a truth like that.
Speaker 1: I didn't tell him that because that's not my place
Speaker 1: to tell him that. I can't imagine what that feels like.
Speaker 1: But God can say that, and he does every single
Speaker 1: time we get together. How many of you are are
Speaker 1: better in some way or your family is better because
Speaker 1: of the ministry right here at Elevation. I mean, even
Speaker 1: if it was just one time, if it was just
Speaker 1: one time, God spoke to you. So the best thing
Speaker 1: we can do is to always invest in what God
Speaker 1: is using to feed us. There's no better place to invest.
Speaker 1: So on the December twelfth, we set the date. Really
Speaker 1: it's now through the whole end of the year, but
Speaker 1: we'll be receiving into offering. We use it for expansion
Speaker 1: and outreach and all the great ministries. I'm looking at
Speaker 1: a couple dozen people in here who I know are Tithers.
Speaker 1: They give God always the first ten percent of what
Speaker 1: God gives them, not the leftovers, uh huh, not that
Speaker 1: congealed cranberry sauce nobody wanted to eat on Thanksgiving Day.
Speaker 1: They don't throw God the scraps, but they come to
Speaker 1: God first and say, I trust you, You're my God. Systematically,
Speaker 1: so thousands begin doing that. During this time, many give
Speaker 1: above and beyond. That's what Holly and I. I didn't
Speaker 1: tell her the number God gave me yet, but it's
Speaker 1: it's I don't like it. It's kind of bigger than
Speaker 1: I wanted it, but I'm always glad that I did it.
Speaker 1: So it's a chance for you to seek God. That's
Speaker 1: the thing is for you to ask God, God, what
Speaker 1: would you have me to give? And there's envelopes and details,
Speaker 1: but that's not my depart today. My role is to
Speaker 1: take this Bible and I'm gonna try to knock that
Speaker 1: devil off your shoulder that's been talking to your role.
Speaker 1: Let's see, this is a pretty big Bible. By swing
Speaker 1: it hard enough, maybe that devil leave you alone for
Speaker 1: a couple of minutes. All right, So thank you worship team.
Speaker 1: What an awesome video about the worship ministry. Huh, everybody,
Speaker 1: everybody grateful for God's presens Give God a shout of praise.
Speaker 1: All right, be seated, classes in session. This is a
Speaker 1: lesson today. I've been threatening to teach this for a year.
Speaker 1: I keep playing with it, and God confirmed in several
Speaker 1: different ways that this was the word for today. So
Speaker 1: I'm very confident about that. I'm going to teach you
Speaker 1: on the subject the power of a better question, The
Speaker 1: power of a better question. I've been flirting with it
Speaker 1: for some time now, but today because our word is better.
Speaker 1: The prophet hag I asked a series of questions, who
Speaker 1: of you is left? Who saw the former house in
Speaker 1: its glory? And then he asked how does it look
Speaker 1: to you? Now? He's asking questions. Do any of you
Speaker 1: know the first question in the Bible? By the way,
Speaker 1: anybody I can call on just guess. I won't make
Speaker 1: you look dumb. I promise I'm not setting you up.
Speaker 1: I would never embarrass you. First question. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's the second question. I thought that was the first
Speaker 1: question in the Bible too, Adam, where are you? So
Speaker 1: when I was on the thing, going on the chat,
Speaker 1: and I said who are you? Where are you? And
Speaker 1: I asked that question, you probably put a physical location
Speaker 1: geographical Malaysia, or you put a name, right. But the
Speaker 1: more specific we got with that question where are you,
Speaker 1: it just becomes endlessly deep. Right, say where are you?
Speaker 1: And you're like Topeka? Right? Cool? Now I know your address,
Speaker 1: but I don't know your attitude. So where are you?
Speaker 1: If we take it deeper, the depth of the question
Speaker 1: can go as deep as you want it to go.
Speaker 1: If I say where are you? Well, I'm kind of
Speaker 1: offended because last week I was supposed to get invited
Speaker 1: to this thing and nobody invited me. And really I'm
Speaker 1: mad because I'm always the one doing the invited. So
Speaker 1: I'm really in a state of bitterness that seems to
Speaker 1: get darker as I hold on to it, and I'm deepeness.
Speaker 1: That could be the answer to the question where are you? Also,
Speaker 1: or you could just say Topeka, But it's just depending
Speaker 1: on how deep you see the question. So that is
Speaker 1: the first question that God asked in the Bible, but
Speaker 1: it's not the first question that appears in the Bible.
Speaker 1: That's what God asked, Adam. I'm glad you said that one,
Speaker 1: because that is such a powerful question. Where are you?
Speaker 1: Like I can see that physically Fourth Road Gyra shirt
Speaker 1: looks like a good Christian. She's got a Gyra's shirt
Speaker 1: on her back and a blessed hoodie in her lap.
Speaker 1: She is double poors and praising God to take you.
Speaker 1: I want all of it, God, but I don't know
Speaker 1: if I can see like because Adam, Adam was hiding
Speaker 1: from God, and so when God says where are you Adam,
Speaker 1: He's not asking him for information, He's asking him for location,
Speaker 1: not for God, for Adam. That's kind of deep question
Speaker 1: where are you? It's like Greenville? Nope, grief, that's where
Speaker 1: I am? Right? So how deep do we go? But
Speaker 1: we ask people surface questions? You know, what do you
Speaker 1: do for a living? You excited about Cam coming back?
Speaker 1: Just surface stuff. That's fine. And I don't think you
Speaker 1: should ask people two deeper questions when you're getting the
Speaker 1: home as creepy you know what I mean? Oh? What
Speaker 1: any of your Graham number you? I don't want to
Speaker 1: talk to you about numbers yet you have not earned
Speaker 1: my number yet. Right. But the first question in the
Speaker 1: Bible that appears is in Genesis three, before Adam realizes
Speaker 1: he's naked, when the serpent asks Eve, do you remember?
Speaker 1: Did God really say? The first question that appears in
Speaker 1: the Bible isn't the one God asks, it's the one
Speaker 1: Satan asks, which makes me wonder sometimes is the first
Speaker 1: question that comes to our mind about something not the
Speaker 1: best question available? You feel me because sometimes the questions
Speaker 1: that I ask about a situation are not the best questions,
Speaker 1: and that's why the Lord led me to the power
Speaker 1: of a better question. And Abby, my ten year old,
Speaker 1: gets this at a deep level. Apparently. I asked her
Speaker 1: this week. She said I hadn't made my Christmas list yet.
Speaker 1: I said, well, you better get started. What do you want?
Speaker 1: And she said, what should I want? Living with Socrates
Speaker 1: in the house? Something like that, You know what I mean.
Speaker 1: I'm like, Wow, that's deep. I don't know if she
Speaker 1: was trying to provoke me to say, what's my ceiling?
Speaker 1: Is this a three hundred dollars Christmas? Is it a five?
Speaker 1: How much does the two fairy bring? I'm gonna get up,
Speaker 1: you know, up, hiss eyes, I can go. I don't
Speaker 1: even know how deep she meant it, but I thought, wow,
Speaker 1: that's the first question Jesus asked in all of the Bible.
Speaker 1: The first time we see him talk. He doesn't give
Speaker 1: an answer. In John chapter one, Jesus is the answer, sure,
Speaker 1: but he's also the question he asked these two guys
Speaker 1: who were following. He said, what do you want? What
Speaker 1: a question? They said, we want to come see where
Speaker 1: you're staying, Rabbi. But I think the rest of his
Speaker 1: ministry was dealing with that second question, the one Abby asked,
Speaker 1: what should I want? Is what I want? Is what
Speaker 1: I wish? Is what I think I want? Really what
Speaker 1: I want? Or will I get what I want and
Speaker 1: not want what I've got in the end. That's called
Speaker 1: a midlife crisis. But if we would ask better early
Speaker 1: life questions, we wouldn't have midlife crisis. The power of
Speaker 1: a better question. I feel anointed in leather today and
Speaker 1: I don't know why. So in a minute, I'm going
Speaker 1: to give you a scripture from Numbers, chapter thirteen. Go
Speaker 1: ahead and start turning there. But in the meantime, let
Speaker 1: me give you a few examples what I mean before
Speaker 1: we get very deep textually. I told you the first
Speaker 1: question in the Bible came from Satan. Did God really say?
Speaker 1: And then he twisted what God actually said and added
Speaker 1: to it an exactayted it like the enemy always does.
Speaker 1: And we'll come back to that. But then the question
Speaker 1: God asked was simple, not where should you be? Where
Speaker 1: are you? God starts where you are? When I start
Speaker 1: with the sermon, I don't start by preparing with what
Speaker 1: do I know? Because honestly, what you need goes far
Speaker 1: beyond what I know. I don't know how to answer
Speaker 1: the real questions you're asking. I don't know if you
Speaker 1: should marry him or whatever. I don't know if you
Speaker 1: should move out or move in. I don't know, but
Speaker 1: God does. So I learned to ask the question as
Speaker 1: a preacher, not what do I know? So a lot
Speaker 1: of times we come to the Bible and we think
Speaker 1: we know it so good, Oh man, I know that story.
Speaker 1: Sometimes when I read this, I can see some of you.
Speaker 1: Your eyes glaze over. You're like, go, I know this story.
Speaker 1: You fit for Thios And people tell me something I
Speaker 1: don't know. Okay, well, maybe God is going to show
Speaker 1: you something that you don't know from something that you
Speaker 1: think you do. Right. But if I start with what
Speaker 1: do I know? When I read the Bible, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: impose all of my influences instead of getting insight from
Speaker 1: God's word, I'm gonna bring all to it what I
Speaker 1: already think I know. So I don't know what my
Speaker 1: message is gonna be about when I start to prepare it.
Speaker 1: I don't start with that. If I start with what
Speaker 1: I know, I'm gonna it's gonna be a thirty second sermon.
Speaker 1: I'm not that smart. I'm not so how stupid would
Speaker 1: it be for you to come out here and take
Speaker 1: all this time out of your day? If the starting
Speaker 1: place is what does Stephen Ferdick know? I can put
Speaker 1: that in a tweet. We don't need a sermon for that.
Speaker 1: It's a waste of time. But I start with this, God,
Speaker 1: what do they need? That's a better question, because God
Speaker 1: knows that in a way I don't. And he might
Speaker 1: sneak to me and say, you need to tell him
Speaker 1: stop crying. It's coming. I'm like, well, God, I didn't
Speaker 1: even know to tell him that. I didn't even know
Speaker 1: that there are trumpets and tears what I preach life week.
Speaker 1: I didn't come to the text looking for what I
Speaker 1: already knew. I came looking for God, what do we need?
Speaker 1: Not just you but me? What do we need? And
Speaker 1: this amazing thing that your father knows what you need.
Speaker 1: He knows what you need. So you start with where
Speaker 1: you are, but you don't stop there. You start with
Speaker 1: a better question. When I first started preaching again, my
Speaker 1: question would always be I'd look at a message and
Speaker 1: I'd go, how will this preach? In other words, will
Speaker 1: it be exciting dynamic. Will people laugh at it? Will
Speaker 1: they go ooh wow and write that down? Yeah, oh,
Speaker 1: come on with it for this reaction, But now I
Speaker 1: want to know will it produce repentance. Repentance is not
Speaker 1: feeling bad. I'm not saying I want you to feel
Speaker 1: bad when you leave. Let me just beat the crap
Speaker 1: out of them and come back next Sunday for more.
Speaker 1: That's not what I'm looking for, Not how to make
Speaker 1: you feel bad. You already do a pretty good job
Speaker 1: at that without any instruction. Do not. You do not
Speaker 1: need school in how bad you already suck. So this
Speaker 1: puppit is not a how much you suck school. You know.
Speaker 1: Point number one, you suck. Point number two you used
Speaker 1: to suck even more. Point number three, No matter how
Speaker 1: much you work, you're still gonna suck. See you next Sunday.
Speaker 1: That is not have you been to that church before?
Speaker 1: But see but see, God knows what you need. That's
Speaker 1: not gonna help you. That that sin consciousness is not
Speaker 1: gonna bring you to repentance. That's not gonna change you.
Speaker 1: You need to see Jesus when you come. You need
Speaker 1: to know that Christ in you is the hope of glory,
Speaker 1: So it's the better question. What should I want? Huh?
Speaker 1: I don't know. Maybe I woul't want the stuff. Maybe
Speaker 1: I'm focused on the wrong thing. So then Jesus said,
Speaker 1: we'll seek first the kingdom. You know, don't run around
Speaker 1: like the Pagans saying what shall we eat? Thanksgiving sermon?
Speaker 1: What shall we wear? If you spent more time today
Speaker 1: figuring out what you were going to wear to church
Speaker 1: before you got here, then you do asking the question,
Speaker 1: what did God speak to me? When you leave here?
Speaker 1: Why are y'all looking at me like that wasn't the
Speaker 1: best thing that has ever been said from this pulpit?
Speaker 1: If you spend more time, I remember one time I
Speaker 1: was so into my what do I wear when I preach?
Speaker 1: And I was so into that because I wanted to
Speaker 1: look good. You got to be presentable. You know, people
Speaker 1: are looking at you up here, A lot of people
Speaker 1: are looking at you. And the Lord said, I don't
Speaker 1: want you to focus more on your outfit than you
Speaker 1: do your outline. What is is God speaking? If it
Speaker 1: took you an hour to figure out what to where
Speaker 1: to get here, that's on me. I'm in bed right
Speaker 1: now watching online. Okay, if it took you an hour
Speaker 1: to figure out what to watch on YouTube, and you
Speaker 1: can't even take ten seconds. That's what the enemy does.
Speaker 1: He is gonna snatch the seed before it ever hits
Speaker 1: the soil and goes deep enough to make a difference.
Speaker 1: And if all you hear what I'm preaching is what
Speaker 1: somebody else should do with what I've preached, Boy, I
Speaker 1: wish my husband would have come. He could have used
Speaker 1: that word. You are not God's mirror holder. Praise the
Speaker 1: Lord Numbers, Chapter thirteen. I'm just trying to think about
Speaker 1: the power of a better question. I used to ask,
Speaker 1: how will this preach? Now I want to know what
Speaker 1: kind of person will this preaching produce? So if I
Speaker 1: preach something like your haters are elevators, you know rhymes,
Speaker 1: it's exciting all of your haters. Tell all your haters. Look.
Speaker 1: The reason that that kind of preaching gets people excited
Speaker 1: is because it absolves us from all relational responsibility. So
Speaker 1: if all I do is talk about your haters, your
Speaker 1: haters can't stand you because you're so blessed, you're so favored. No,
Speaker 1: your haters can't stand you because you are late to work.
Speaker 1: Why whoa what kind of person. Is this preaching producing?
Speaker 1: That's a better question. If you are single and you
Speaker 1: are asking God for a man to pop the question
Speaker 1: to you. Okay, you need to ask two questions. Not
Speaker 1: only when you meet a man, is he single? And no?
Speaker 1: Hold on, not even is he saved? That's a good question.
Speaker 1: He should be saved, he should know the Lord. But
Speaker 1: is he sane? Because there are crazy Christians just a
Speaker 1: be he's too, but he's crazy. He can call Colosses,
Speaker 1: but he's crazy. Is he sexy? Is he stable? Unstable?
Speaker 1: Is only sexy? So much? For so long numbers Chapter thirteen.
Speaker 1: It's a familiar passage of scripture. The Lord told Moses,
Speaker 1: I want you to send twelve men. Everybody shall twelve
Speaker 1: twelve men into the land I'm giving. The Israelite says
Speaker 1: there inheritance. The question isn't has God given it? The
Speaker 1: question is will you go forward? I want to speak
Speaker 1: that over every area of your life right now that
Speaker 1: God has promised. The question isn't has God given it? Joy? Peace,
Speaker 1: all the fruit of the spirit, love, patience, It's kindness, goodness,
Speaker 1: fath than generes of control. That's the fruit of the spirit.
Speaker 1: That's what grows from knowing God in the spirit of
Speaker 1: a believer. It's called the fruit of the Spirit in
Speaker 1: Galatians life, and it's all yours. That's not the question
Speaker 1: about the fruit. It's the question will you go forward
Speaker 1: into it? Now we're going to see what happens when
Speaker 1: God is bringing you into something and the devil is
Speaker 1: pulling you back to something at the same time the
Speaker 1: power of a better question. Let's go in verse seventeen
Speaker 1: when Moses sent them to explore Canaan. All the leaders
Speaker 1: of the tribes. Just remember the leaders. I won't list
Speaker 1: them all, just the leaders of the tribes, twelve of them,
Speaker 1: to explore Canaan. That's what God had promised Abraham. And
Speaker 1: now he's bringing them into it, and they are right
Speaker 1: on the cusp of it. You don't know how close
Speaker 1: you are. Y'are looking at me and shocking disbelief. So
Speaker 1: tell the person next to you so they'll believe you. You
Speaker 1: You don't know how close you are. You'll know put
Speaker 1: in chat you'll not close you are. They're coming into Canaan.
Speaker 1: But you remember, they just got out of Egypt. So
Speaker 1: he told them go up through the Negev and on
Speaker 1: into the hill country. See what the land is like,
Speaker 1: and whether the people who live there are strong or weak,
Speaker 1: few or many? Okay, it's an exploration. It's an exploration.
Speaker 1: What kind of land do they live in? Is it
Speaker 1: good or bad? What kind of towns do they live in?
Speaker 1: Are they unwalled or fourty five? How's the soil? Is
Speaker 1: it fertile or poor? Are there trees in it or not?
Speaker 1: It's like most slow down, one thing at a time, okay,
Speaker 1: and making my list good to bad? One wall, We're
Speaker 1: five trees, are no trees fertile or porcela? But then
Speaker 1: he says, do your best. Yeah, yeah, I'll say it,
Speaker 1: do your best to bring back some of the fruit
Speaker 1: of the land. It was the season for the first
Speaker 1: ripe grapes. Say it is eating season. It's eating season.
Speaker 1: It's eating season. It's eating season. I cancel every carbohydrate
Speaker 1: you're gonna eat on Thursday. It's eating season. I hope
Speaker 1: you've brought your elastic pants to church at Elevation Church
Speaker 1: because it's eating season. I'm going to lead a little
Speaker 1: room to grow because it's eating season. I've been in
Speaker 1: starving season long enough. I've been in scavenger scrap season
Speaker 1: long enough. I've been in Leftover living long enough. Now
Speaker 1: I'm coming to where the grapes are growing at it's time.
Speaker 1: So they went up verse twenty one and explored the
Speaker 1: land from the desert of zen As far as Reyhop
Speaker 1: to lie Bohammad. They went through the Negev came to Hebron,
Speaker 1: where a hymn she Sheeshai. I bluff y'all on these
Speaker 1: names half the time, and tell my the descendants of
Speaker 1: Anak the giants. You know this little Bible story. I
Speaker 1: promise you know it. You were at one time they
Speaker 1: got grapes to promise they got giants the problem. Okay,
Speaker 1: but this is really powerful. Watch this. They reached verse
Speaker 1: twenty three, the valley of Eshkol. They cut off a
Speaker 1: branch bearing a single cluster of grapes. Two of them
Speaker 1: carried it on a pole between them, along with some
Speaker 1: pomegranates and figs. That place was called the Valley of
Speaker 1: Eshkol because of the cluster of grapes the Israelites cut
Speaker 1: off there. Eshkah means cluster in Hebrew, so they're like, uh,
Speaker 1: it's a cluster of grapes. What do you want to
Speaker 1: call it? How about cluster? Cool? Let's go back at
Speaker 1: the end of forty At the end of forty days,
Speaker 1: Verse twenty five, they returned from exploring the land. They
Speaker 1: came back to Moses and Aaron and the whole Israelite
Speaker 1: community at kate Ash in the desert. They're still in
Speaker 1: the desert. So when you're in the desert, you ask
Speaker 1: desert level questions. It's survival based. When you're in the desert,
Speaker 1: it's like, how am I going to get through this day?
Speaker 1: Let me back up a little bit, How am I
Speaker 1: gonna make it to ten am? Let me back it
Speaker 1: up a little bit. How am I gonna get out
Speaker 1: of the bed this morning? Let me back it up
Speaker 1: a little bit more than that. How am I gonna
Speaker 1: get to sleep tonight? With everything I got on my mind?
Speaker 1: Those are desert questions. They are focused on limitation. They
Speaker 1: originate with Satan. Did God really say you must not
Speaker 1: eat of any tree? It's a limitation based question. But
Speaker 1: God wants me to teach you on the power of
Speaker 1: a better question, a loaded question. Do you know the
Speaker 1: phrase a loaded question? It contains more than appears on
Speaker 1: the surface. So when Jesus says what do you want,
Speaker 1: he's not saying that, like your kids just walked in
Speaker 1: your room and you're trying to have some married people time,
Speaker 1: Why you want to get out of here? He says,
Speaker 1: what do you want? And let's start there, and let's
Speaker 1: move toward the deeper desire that I created you for.
Speaker 1: It's a better question. When you are in the desert,
Speaker 1: you let the devil do all the question asking who
Speaker 1: do you think you are dreaming like that? Who do
Speaker 1: you think you are putting yourself out there like that?
Speaker 1: What makes you think you can accomplish that? Well, if
Speaker 1: it was gonna work, wouldn't it have work? By now?
Speaker 1: Those are desert questions. It's when you've been used to
Speaker 1: not having enough, or you've been used to somebody else
Speaker 1: oppressing you or something else oppressing you. And so let's
Speaker 1: say it's an addiction, and then an addiction has been
Speaker 1: calling the shots. The only question you've been asking, if
Speaker 1: you've been stuck in the throes of addiction is when
Speaker 1: can I get another hit of that? And by the way,
Speaker 1: it can be cocaine, or it can be shopping, it
Speaker 1: can be Amazon just as easily as it can be heroin.
Speaker 1: We are not talking about one substance here. I'm coming
Speaker 1: for you today. God spoke to me. He said, those
Speaker 1: are desert questions. Desert questions, and when you ask desert questions,
Speaker 1: you get dead end answers. It doesn't open anything up.
Speaker 1: Even when you're asking somebody, uh, don't when you pick
Speaker 1: up your kids for school, don't say how is your day?
Speaker 1: Because it gives them the option for a one word
Speaker 1: answer good. Bad. You got to ask them something more open, right.
Speaker 1: If you want to be creative, if you want to
Speaker 1: get your teenager to talk, you gotta have something different.
Speaker 1: And I don't even know what the question would beet
Speaker 1: because I still have figured out how to get Graham
Speaker 1: to talk to me on the way home from school.
Speaker 1: But I'm working on it, and I know what doesn't
Speaker 1: work is a is a yes or no good or
Speaker 1: bad answer? Okay, now, so let's journey on in the text?
Speaker 1: Can we journey on in the text? Are y'all with
Speaker 1: me today? Are you with me today? You see? Are
Speaker 1: you with me today? Epham? Are you with me today? Valentine?
Speaker 1: Back right section? Are you with me today? Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: ah yeah, I'm with you? Preacher read the next verse.
Speaker 1: So they came back to Moses and Aaron those spies
Speaker 1: Holzerite community at Kadosh in the desert of Parin. There
Speaker 1: in the desert, they reported to them and the whole
Speaker 1: assembly and showed them the fruit of the land. They
Speaker 1: gave Moses this account. We went into the land what
Speaker 1: God promised, which you sent us, and it does flow
Speaker 1: with milk and honey. Newsflash, God is right. Here's this fruit.
Speaker 1: You wanted some grapes. We brought you some grapes, not
Speaker 1: only the ones that Joshua and Caleb would carry, because
Speaker 1: the rest of them wouldn't carry any fruit, wouldn't carry
Speaker 1: any fruit. But Joshua and Caleb, the two splies they
Speaker 1: didn't name, they had a different spirit. They had different spirit.
Speaker 1: They asked better questions. Instead of looking at how hard
Speaker 1: it was in the land and say it, how in
Speaker 1: the world are we possibly going to do this? They
Speaker 1: looked at the same situation. And this is what I
Speaker 1: want you to see. God can give you the ability
Speaker 1: to look at a situation that you were looking at
Speaker 1: as an impossibility and see it as an opportunity. Who's
Speaker 1: this for? And there's a cluster of fruit, you know,
Speaker 1: the pomegranates, the figs, and the grapes, there's a cluster
Speaker 1: from Eshkol. But there's also a cluster happening between what
Speaker 1: God has called his people to do and the conflict
Speaker 1: that they feel about it inside of themselves. So it's
Speaker 1: a cluster. That's a negative word to me. I don't
Speaker 1: hear that usually about fruit. I usually heard about stuff
Speaker 1: that goes wrong. Man, it was a cluster. People say
Speaker 1: that it's a cluster at Kate Shpernie because you got
Speaker 1: these twelve spies, and you've got two of them that
Speaker 1: have faith to say, oh yeah, taste this, na I
Speaker 1: taste this fruit. All taste of this and at the
Speaker 1: same time watch this. At the same time, they are
Speaker 1: getting a taste of tomorrow. They are being dragged back
Speaker 1: to a past that is beneath them. Watch watch, watch
Speaker 1: this verse twenty eight. But the fruit is just like
Speaker 1: God said it would be. But the people, the promise
Speaker 1: and the people, it's a cluster. The promise and the
Speaker 1: problems is a cluster God. God told me to preach
Speaker 1: to somebody today who is a cluster right now in
Speaker 1: your life, in your mind, in your marriage, in your family.
Speaker 1: It's a cluster of watch this, fear and faith. It's
Speaker 1: a cluster of thoughts. You can't get it untangled. You
Speaker 1: can't really figure out if it's been a good year
Speaker 1: or a bad year. You don't really know what to
Speaker 1: think about it anymore. You don't know to think. Is
Speaker 1: this my friend? Is this my enemy? It's a cluster.
Speaker 1: That's what's happening at kate ash Varniah and the man
Speaker 1: of God, Moses sent these spies out, and he asked
Speaker 1: them three simple questions. But they came back with a butt.
Speaker 1: They came back with a butt. But the people who
Speaker 1: live there are powerful, and the cities are fortified and
Speaker 1: very large. We even saw the descendants of Anak there.
Speaker 1: The Amalekites live in the Negev, the Hittites, Jebyuzites, Amorites
Speaker 1: live in the hill country, and the Canaanites live near
Speaker 1: the sea along to Jordan. Then Caleb silenced the people
Speaker 1: before Moses and said, we should go up take possession
Speaker 1: of the land, for we certainly can do it. I
Speaker 1: can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me. And
Speaker 1: Philippians four thirteen hasn't even written yet. But the men,
Speaker 1: there's another butt. There's another butt. There's another But there's
Speaker 1: a promise. There's a problem. There's a butt in between,
Speaker 1: there's a promise, there's a problem. There's a butt in between.
Speaker 1: There's a problem. But God, But God, that's my favorite
Speaker 1: butt in the Bible. But God, you don't understand. But God,
Speaker 1: who is rich in mercy. But God demonstrates his own
Speaker 1: love for us in this that while we were yet
Speaker 1: sinners Christ died for ophs. I don't know if this
Speaker 1: sounds right. But you need another butt. You need another
Speaker 1: But you need a new leader. You keep being led
Speaker 1: by your feelings, you keep being led by your frustrations,
Speaker 1: you keep being led by your limits. You need a
Speaker 1: new leader or you're gonna die in the desert, in
Speaker 1: the wilderness of what if. Wow, we can't attack those people.
Speaker 1: Is this good for you? I swear the church went
Speaker 1: Presbyterian on me overnight. I don't know what's happening in
Speaker 1: here today. I'm preaching. I am preaching this passage of scripture.
Speaker 1: You know what, Maybe that's a bad question. Is this
Speaker 1: good to you? Maybe? Is it good for you? Maybe
Speaker 1: you need to hear this word today that you can't
Speaker 1: hide behind your butt. We can't attack those people. They
Speaker 1: are stronger than we are, and they spread among the
Speaker 1: Israelites a bad report about the land they had explored,
Speaker 1: and they said, the land we explored devours those living
Speaker 1: in it. Something This is a reference to infertility in Canaan.
Speaker 1: It devours those living in it. Some scholars said that's
Speaker 1: because there was such a high infertility rate, and that's
Speaker 1: what it means. But regardless about it, they said, the
Speaker 1: land is fruitful, but the people are of great size.
Speaker 1: We saw the Nephilum there, the descendants of Ainmact come
Speaker 1: from the Nephilm. We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes,
Speaker 1: and we looked the same to them. Chapter fourteen, verse one.
Speaker 1: That night, all the members of the community raised their
Speaker 1: voices and wept aloud, and all the Israelites grumbled against
Speaker 1: Moses and Aaron. And the whole assembly said to them,
Speaker 1: if only we had died in Egypt on the cusp
Speaker 1: of Canaan. You know how close you are to being free.
Speaker 1: And you taste tomorrow. Sometimes you taste the grape. Sometimes.
Speaker 1: Oh that's what a good day feels like. Oh that's
Speaker 1: what it feels like to not have to prove myself
Speaker 1: and just sit there and let them sound smart if
Speaker 1: they want to. But I don't have to say anything back.
Speaker 1: Oh that's what it feels like. Three hours without Instagram
Speaker 1: and I feel like I have detoxed from the devil
Speaker 1: himself and you get a little taste of it, a
Speaker 1: little taste of tomorrow. I almost wanted to call this
Speaker 1: message tomorrow taste better. That's the only way you're gonna
Speaker 1: give up Egypt. We all have a secret Egypt. A
Speaker 1: secret Egypt, not a geographical place, an emotional place. It
Speaker 1: emotionally grips your potential tightly. Egypt emotionally grips your potential tightly.
Speaker 1: Em Egypt. I'm spelling Egypt emotionally. I'm gonna stop working
Speaker 1: so hard on this stuff if y'all don't like that.
Speaker 1: Everybody has a secret Egypt. And so here, I mean,
Speaker 1: let's be nice to these people. You think you would
Speaker 1: have done better. You wouldn't almost even come to church
Speaker 1: because I'm back to parking. Look. Look, look, they're nervous
Speaker 1: of warriors that are bigger than them. You're nervous about
Speaker 1: your mother in law on Thursday coming in town for Thanksgiving,
Speaker 1: and can you put up with her for four hours?
Speaker 1: So let's give some grace. They just came out of Egypt.
Speaker 1: It's not easy leave in Egypt. I'm preaching about this
Speaker 1: for two years now. If only we had died in
Speaker 1: Egypt or in this wilderness? Why why verse three is
Speaker 1: the Lord bringing us to this land only to let
Speaker 1: us fall by the sword. That's a really dumb question.
Speaker 1: You know you could take that same question. Why did
Speaker 1: the Lord bring us through the Red Sea? Why did
Speaker 1: the Lord get me through my twenties? Why did the
Speaker 1: Lord get me through that horrible divorce? Why did the
Speaker 1: Lord get my kid through that horrible situation? But look
Speaker 1: how they finish it, only to let us fall by
Speaker 1: the sword. I think you could take that same question,
Speaker 1: why did God bring me this far to leave me?
Speaker 1: And if you flip that question a little bit, why
Speaker 1: would God bring me this far to leave me right now?
Speaker 1: That is a better question. Do you really think he
Speaker 1: saved you with his son's blood but he's not gonna
Speaker 1: provide for your material needs? You really think that he
Speaker 1: came all the way from heaven at Christmas time like
Speaker 1: a baby, but he's gonna leave you now because you're
Speaker 1: struggling with this? Do you really think that God did
Speaker 1: all of that and saw you through all these dangers?
Speaker 1: And toenails and snares, and his grace is going away. Now,
Speaker 1: why would God bring you this far to leave you?
Speaker 1: Why would he think it if he didn't mean it?
Speaker 1: Why would he do it if he wasn't permitted to him?
Speaker 1: He who began a good work in me is faithful
Speaker 1: to complete it. So the same question they're using to
Speaker 1: get discouraged, I want to turn it on the devil
Speaker 1: and say he didn't bring me out of Egypt to
Speaker 1: kill me in Canaan. He didn't bring me out of
Speaker 1: depression to let me die in this uncertainty. No, No,
Speaker 1: he didn't bring me through COVID to let me drop
Speaker 1: this Christmas whoo. It's a better question. Why would he
Speaker 1: have done all that? If that was all that it was,
Speaker 1: why would he have put it in you? I had
Speaker 1: another better question. Why is the devil fighting you so hard?
Speaker 1: If you're not carrying anything? Why is he coming at you?
Speaker 1: I watched a little bit of football. They don't usually
Speaker 1: hit somebody if they're not carrying the ball or blocking
Speaker 1: somebody who is. I never saw a fan get hit.
Speaker 1: I never saw a water boy get hit, except on
Speaker 1: Adam Sandler and Bobby Bouchet. But that's not in the Bible.
Speaker 1: Carrying something, I got something. I'm under something. I'm on
Speaker 1: the something. I got a better question. Why it's the
Speaker 1: devil standing at this stop. I'm calming out of the desert. Yahay, whoa,
Speaker 1: I'm on it now, Babies, I'm on it now. I
Speaker 1: don't know the answer, but I got a better question.
Speaker 1: It's God before me. Oh damn, gess it. Ah Ah.
Speaker 1: I'm carrying something. It's a cluster. I'm carrying some grapes,
Speaker 1: but I'm fighting some giants. It's a cluster. I'm carrying promise,
Speaker 1: but I got some problems. It's a cluster. I got
Speaker 1: a heavenly calling. I got some human conflict, she said, cluster.
Speaker 1: I'm in the valley of Ashkhol right now. Be patient
Speaker 1: with me. It's heavy. I'm carrying something. I'm carrying them
Speaker 1: promise on a pole. I never carried graceful, for I
Speaker 1: only ate quail in Egypt. I never tasted tomorrow. Yet
Speaker 1: when you're nice to me, it scares me because the
Speaker 1: only people I ever knew who said they loved me
Speaker 1: were nasty to me. And I'm trying to start liking
Speaker 1: when you're nice to me. But when I push you
Speaker 1: away like that. Be patient with me because it's a cluster,
Speaker 1: because I don't know how to trust. Because it's a cluster,
Speaker 1: because I don't really know how to show love. That's
Speaker 1: why sometimes I lash out because I don't know how
Speaker 1: to show love, so I lash out. But really I
Speaker 1: want to be close to you. But it's a cluster.
Speaker 1: It's a cluster. And then the craziest question text, the
Speaker 1: one that I wanted to preach, is verse four. They said,
Speaker 1: wouldn't no, yeah, verse three? Sorry, verse four, we should
Speaker 1: choose a leader and go back to Egypt. Next part
Speaker 1: says there's a verse missing, y'all, y'all took a verse out.
Speaker 1: That's a pro problem. They've took a verse out, that's all. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's that's there's a there's another verse in there, y'all.
Speaker 1: Y'all left out the best verse verse verse three, Verse three?
Speaker 1: Why is the Lord bringing us to this land less
Speaker 1: fall of us or our Why isn't the children be
Speaker 1: taking us plunder? There? It is? Wouldn't it be better
Speaker 1: for us to go back? Hm? Hm? We should choose
Speaker 1: a leader and go back. Really, they are not being
Speaker 1: led by their potential at this moment. Or their wisdom.
Speaker 1: They're certainly not being led by God's promise. They're being
Speaker 1: led by their fear back to what is familiar. People
Speaker 1: preach coming out of Egypt like Egypt represents sin. It doesn't,
Speaker 1: it doesn't. It represents survival, survival. You notice the threat
Speaker 1: of my teaching this past two years. I'm watching people
Speaker 1: stuck in survival mode. You get a little taste of tomorrow,
Speaker 1: a little glimpse of God's best. But the moment you
Speaker 1: taste the graves, you start thinking about the giants. The
Speaker 1: people who made the decision not to go into this canaan,
Speaker 1: this promise, this flowing place, this promised land. They didn't
Speaker 1: even see the giants for themselves. And you know what's
Speaker 1: even crazier. The spies that came back answered a question
Speaker 1: that Moses didn't even ask. I read you every question
Speaker 1: Moses asked. He said, what are the people like? And
Speaker 1: that was his problem right there. He started the question
Speaker 1: with what are the people like? That's something you can't control.
Speaker 1: That's something you can't control. So when you start with
Speaker 1: other people, you need a better question. No no, no,
Speaker 1: no no no. This is going to have practical value.
Speaker 1: If you are going to entrust your time to me.
Speaker 1: I am going to help you in your Monday, your Tuesday,
Speaker 1: your Wednesday. I'm not giving you some Sunday syrup pancake
Speaker 1: preacher sermon where we just feel good for a few
Speaker 1: minutes and everybody goes out in a little coma trenkoma
Speaker 1: for thirty minutes. This is the word of God. You
Speaker 1: can't start in the wrong place and end up at
Speaker 1: the right place. So when Moses said what are the
Speaker 1: people like? Are they big or small? The people who
Speaker 1: were under his leadership went in and looked for exactly
Speaker 1: the lens that he gave them. And so when they
Speaker 1: came back, all they could talk about was the Amalekis,
Speaker 1: the hit Tights, the jug Desias, this holiday season, the
Speaker 1: cellu lights, and all of the battles. I couldn't resist it.
Speaker 1: And when you start with that, when you start with
Speaker 1: desert questions, you end up in dead end situations. Eleven days,
Speaker 1: you could have moved through this wilderness. What you got
Speaker 1: to study this? Sometimes? Promise me you'll look this up later, okay.
Speaker 1: In joshua Io, one of the spies that carried the
Speaker 1: pole with Caleb to go into promis Land everybody else
Speaker 1: that was over twenty died in a wilderness. They get
Speaker 1: stuck because they asked questions that God didn't tell them
Speaker 1: to ask. They tried to answer questions that God wasn't
Speaker 1: even asking. How's it going to work out? That's above
Speaker 1: your pay, Gray Bubba, the Monk's corner coming out of me. Now,
Speaker 1: that's above your pay, great Bubba. But I know that
Speaker 1: all things work together for the good, right, So my
Speaker 1: question about it can't be how is this going to
Speaker 1: work out? Because if I do that, I will limit
Speaker 1: my answer to my experience. How I've seen God work
Speaker 1: it out so far at this point in my life?
Speaker 1: What if he wants to do something? Huh huh. It's
Speaker 1: the power of a better question. God, what have I
Speaker 1: not even asked? Thought or imagine that you have the
Speaker 1: power to do. And when Joshua led the people into
Speaker 1: the Promised Land forty years later, he sent two spies,
Speaker 1: not twelve, because he didn't want another cluster that represents focus,
Speaker 1: that represents focus. This word is thick. Y'all, pray for me.
Speaker 1: I can't, I can't. I can't even get it out. WHOA,
Speaker 1: You got the wrong focus group? You're asking the wrong people.
Speaker 1: You're asking jealous people. You're asking people sometimes they don't
Speaker 1: even know that they're insecure, and you are limiting your
Speaker 1: potential to their insecurity. Well, i'd tell my wife off
Speaker 1: if I were you, I'd just go down there to
Speaker 1: the golf course. That's why your wife sleeps in another room. Dude. Okay, okay,
Speaker 1: Oh this is kind of rough now. I like the
Speaker 1: other stuff that he was preaching earlier. True, isn't it
Speaker 1: is that sometimes when we get the wrong focus group,
Speaker 1: it cost us our fruit. There are three questions that
Speaker 1: Moses told them to ask. When Joshua sent the people
Speaker 1: into the land, he didn't do any of that. He said,
Speaker 1: just go check it out, come back. We're going in becus,
Speaker 1: God said it. So we're going to focus. And do
Speaker 1: you remember about Rahab? She was a questionable profession. She
Speaker 1: has a prostitute and Lord Euster. I don't know if
Speaker 1: the Lord can use a prostitute. He didn't ask you
Speaker 1: who he could use. You didn't think virgins could have
Speaker 1: babies either, But you know'll be seeing hat silent night
Speaker 1: in a few days. Nothing is impossible with God. Oh,
Speaker 1: but when Raya told Joshua, she said we're all scared
Speaker 1: of y'all. The spies came back, saying they're huge. We
Speaker 1: look like grasshoppers to them. Well, first of all, what
Speaker 1: are you doing asking your enemies what you look like?
Speaker 1: Why are you answering the devil's question? When Eve put
Speaker 1: Genesis three, verse one up there, just so I can
Speaker 1: show you, the serpent said to Eve, did God really
Speaker 1: say you must not eat from any tree in the garden?
Speaker 1: That's the devil's question. Eve looked verse two, said back
Speaker 1: to the serpent, So what would be a better question?
Speaker 1: The serpent slithers up to you in the garden, did
Speaker 1: God really say questioning God's intentions and motives and capacity
Speaker 1: and wisdom and all that stuff? Right, what would be
Speaker 1: a better question than did God really say? Here's I
Speaker 1: got one suggestion for Eve. Okay, why am I talking
Speaker 1: to a snake? Why? Ah? Why am I speaking to
Speaker 1: something that's beneath me? Why am I dealing with something?
Speaker 1: Why am I consulting with something that Jesus can crush?
Speaker 1: That's a better question, right? You like that? He Yo?
Speaker 1: The other day I was driving to a parking lot
Speaker 1: and this lady whips out of her parking space, groom
Speaker 1: almost hissed me, and I had to put the brakes on.
Speaker 1: I put them on pretty hard. And then when like
Speaker 1: the airbag came out. But it was a close call.
Speaker 1: And my car does this thing. I don't know if
Speaker 1: your car has this feature when somebody does something stupid,
Speaker 1: the car honks and it grabs my hand and it
Speaker 1: honks the car. It's a feature on my car. Why
Speaker 1: honked that? The lady, y'all? She I'm sure she saw
Speaker 1: my elevation sticker, but she she flipped me the bird.
Speaker 1: She flipped me the bird, sideways bird with the thumb,
Speaker 1: and she was eating a bagel and looking at she
Speaker 1: di'd't even look up at me to flip me off
Speaker 1: a bagel, driving with her knees, running out the parking lot,
Speaker 1: flipping the bird. Apparently my car also has a feature
Speaker 1: that it goes in reverse when someone flips me the bird.
Speaker 1: Because y'all, I wasn't thinking something took over. I put
Speaker 1: the car. Oh, this wasn't eighteen years ago before I
Speaker 1: became a pastor. This was last week. I wish it
Speaker 1: was eighteen years ago. Under the blood. I'm not even
Speaker 1: sure I'm forgiving of this one yet, that I'm telling you,
Speaker 1: I hadn't even told my kids this yet. I put
Speaker 1: the car in reverse. I don't know what I'm gonna
Speaker 1: do when I get back, but I can't drive by
Speaker 1: somebody flipping me the It was the bagel that put
Speaker 1: me over the top. It was the bagel. If she
Speaker 1: hadn't been eating the bagel, I wouldn't have backed up.
Speaker 1: But bagel and bird, I'm backing up. I put the
Speaker 1: car in reverse, boom, right into another lady's jeep. Boom.
Speaker 1: So now I'm like, I got out my car with
Speaker 1: my hands off, my dig not worship, just surrender, just stupidity.
Speaker 1: I said, I'm so sorry. Let's look at it. We'll
Speaker 1: do whatever you want to do. It's my fault. I'm
Speaker 1: an idiot. She had a bagel. She flipped me off.
Speaker 1: I said, babe, it was the bagel. It was the bagel.
Speaker 1: It was the bagel. It took it over the top.
Speaker 1: And then we looked. Her car was fine, it's a jeep.
Speaker 1: God loves jeets. Mine was fine too, and I gave
Speaker 1: her all the cash I had. She didn't want to
Speaker 1: call the cops. There was nothing wrong with her car.
Speaker 1: But when I drove back off I looked at my car.
Speaker 1: It was a little scratch, just a little scratch, and
Speaker 1: it could have gone a whole different way. Right, she
Speaker 1: could have been crazy, she could have been mean, she
Speaker 1: could have been a church member. Thankfully, it was just
Speaker 1: a little scratch, and and I got a lesson from it,
Speaker 1: very very simple lesson, but was powerful. The Lord said,
Speaker 1: I want you to be glad that you have that
Speaker 1: scratch to remind you what happens the next time you
Speaker 1: are tempted to back up to something that is beneath you.
Speaker 1: It's a little scratch. What a lesson, Because here's the
Speaker 1: real question. What were you going to do when you
Speaker 1: got back there? You want to go back to Egypt.
Speaker 1: You want to go back to that. So what are
Speaker 1: you going to do When you prove you're right, You're
Speaker 1: going to be right and lonely. Every time you want
Speaker 1: to go back, remember you are going back to something
Speaker 1: that is beneath you. By the way, it's not always
Speaker 1: bad to go back. It's not always bad to go back.
Speaker 1: In Luke fifteen, there was this young man who decided
Speaker 1: to ask his father for his share of the inheritance. Early.
Speaker 1: I want it now, I want it now, and you
Speaker 1: know what's really scary. His father gave him what he
Speaker 1: asked for, even though it wasn't best for him. Israel
Speaker 1: got soul as their king, and God didn't want to
Speaker 1: give him a king. He wanted to be their king.
Speaker 1: You can get what you wanted asking the wrong questions.
Speaker 1: And after this young man had spent all his money,
Speaker 1: father said, okay, I'll let you go, because he loved
Speaker 1: him enough to let him go. Now, this is one
Speaker 1: parable that Jesus told. It's just one. It's just one.
Speaker 1: But the Bible says that after he had spent all
Speaker 1: he had in a foreign land, there began to be
Speaker 1: a famine in that country. And that's what connected me
Speaker 1: from numbers thirteen with the Israelites who went to Egypt
Speaker 1: for a famine. God is setting them free. But they
Speaker 1: have to go through the desert, and so do you
Speaker 1: and so do I. We have to learn new ways.
Speaker 1: It's not enough to taste tomorrow. We have to learn
Speaker 1: new patterns, new responses. Backing up to somebody who shoots
Speaker 1: you the bird, You are a preacher, bro, what are
Speaker 1: you doing? And we all have these moments, these moments,
Speaker 1: But what you do in those moments can be critical
Speaker 1: because watch this. Their fear in the moment kept them
Speaker 1: stuck for an entire generation, all because they asked the
Speaker 1: wrong question. Moses didn't ask them all that. Moses didn't
Speaker 1: ask them all that. He said, find out about the land.
Speaker 1: Is it good or bad? That's a multiple choice. That's
Speaker 1: the first question. Is this worth it? Is this worth it?
Speaker 1: Isn't that a great question? Is this worth the energy?
Speaker 1: Is this worth the fight? I had to learn that
Speaker 1: some things aren't. Moses said, Spy out the land and
Speaker 1: find out is it good or bad? Is this even
Speaker 1: worth fighting for? Is this worth fighting about? Is this
Speaker 1: worth all this back and forth? Or can we just hug?
Speaker 1: Do I really need you to like me? Look, do
Speaker 1: whatever you want to do. I quit trying to change
Speaker 1: people's opinions about me. I decided to focus on my
Speaker 1: character and my actions and not backing up into people's
Speaker 1: jeeps and getting my own act together. And find out, Wow,
Speaker 1: if I will focus on my character, God will take
Speaker 1: care of my reputation. Amen. Amen, So Moses said, check
Speaker 1: out the land? Is it good or bad? Is this
Speaker 1: even worth fighting for? That's a good question. The second
Speaker 1: thing he said, is you know, check out the towns.
Speaker 1: Are they unwalled or fortified? What a great question, he said,
Speaker 1: How are we going to do this? Do we have
Speaker 1: to go around the guards? Are there big walls? What
Speaker 1: are we gonna have to do? That's a great question,
Speaker 1: not can we do it? How are we going to
Speaker 1: do it? You have got to shift your spirit to
Speaker 1: be more like Caleb. You gotta start looking at stuff
Speaker 1: and saying, if there are walls, we'll blow trumpets. If
Speaker 1: there are walls, we'll scale them. If there are enemies,
Speaker 1: God will take their protection away. So how are we
Speaker 1: going to do this? Stop focusing so much of the
Speaker 1: question on like how high the wall is? I just
Speaker 1: want to know God, is there a way around it?
Speaker 1: Or do you want me to go over it? Or
Speaker 1: do you want me to go under it? Because one
Speaker 1: thing's for sure, I will not die in the desert.
Speaker 1: I won't do it. I am not gonna let negative
Speaker 1: questions run the show of my life and contrare to
Speaker 1: God's promise. And then I love the last thing he said,
Speaker 1: how's the soil? Is it fertile or poor? Are there trees?
Speaker 1: Bring some grapes because it's the season. I learned that
Speaker 1: it's a really good question to ask what is already growing?
Speaker 1: Because sometimes it's the soil, not the sea. There is
Speaker 1: nothing wrong with what I preach to you today. There's
Speaker 1: a lot right with it. This is the word of God.
Speaker 1: It can grow in your life. How's your soil? Because
Speaker 1: if your soil is too thorn two thornty, it won't
Speaker 1: matter how true the sermon was. And sometimes we're really
Speaker 1: focused on the seed that goes in, but not the soil.
Speaker 1: That's what I want you to look at today. The
Speaker 1: soil of your heart, the soil of your soul, the
Speaker 1: soil of your mind. Is the power of a better question.
Speaker 1: It's the power of getting from a point of where
Speaker 1: they said, why would God leave bring us as far
Speaker 1: just to kill us? Shouldn't we go back to Egypt?
Speaker 1: And you remember what happened to the boy in Luke fifteen.
Speaker 1: He spent all of his money and he was filling
Speaker 1: his stomach with what the pigs were eating. A Jewish
Speaker 1: boy eating with pigs. That's about as far down as
Speaker 1: you can go, right. But then he did something, he
Speaker 1: did something very significant, and I want you to do
Speaker 1: this today. I think it's verse seventeen. It says when
Speaker 1: he came to his senses. Yeah, so, up until now
Speaker 1: he's been in his feelings. This is what I want,
Speaker 1: this is what I deserve, this is where I'm going.
Speaker 1: Up till now, he's been in his feelings. But when
Speaker 1: he came to his senses, he asked a better question.
Speaker 1: How many of my father's hired servants have food to stare?
Speaker 1: Have a fridge full, have doggie bags after every night's meal?
Speaker 1: How are the servants eating at a buffet and I'm
Speaker 1: rolling around with the pigs at the bottom. When he
Speaker 1: asked a better question, he made a better decision. When
Speaker 1: you ask a better question, Help me, Holy Spirit, help
Speaker 1: me get this message through. Help me push through all
Speaker 1: the stuff the enemy's been asking. Oh how small I am,
Speaker 1: how little I have? How much I've messed up? What
Speaker 1: I could have done different? That's the wrong question. Here's
Speaker 1: a better question. Why am I starving when my father
Speaker 1: is good? Why am I dying when my father is good?
Speaker 1: Why am I hungry when my father has more than enough?
Speaker 1: Why am I living on this level? Why am I
Speaker 1: backing up to something that is beneath me? So watch
Speaker 1: his decision eighteen Get ready to feel chose? He said,
Speaker 1: I will set out and go back. It's not always
Speaker 1: bad to go back. I'm going back to my father.
Speaker 1: That's quite the opposite of how the children of Israel responded, Hunk,
Speaker 1: it got hard. They said, we're going back to Pharaoh.
Speaker 1: This cat, he said, it's getting hard going back to
Speaker 1: my father. Please stand, stand, put down whatever you're holding
Speaker 1: in your hands, open your hands, plant your feet, take
Speaker 1: a deep breath. I want to ask you a better question,
Speaker 1: A better question numbers fourteen. Wouldn't it be better to
Speaker 1: go back, not to Egypt, to your father? Wouldn't it
Speaker 1: be better to go to the source rather than going
Speaker 1: to people? Wouldn't it be better to go back? That's crazy.
Speaker 1: That's the same question that kept stuck in the wilderness,
Speaker 1: and it's the same question that brought the prodigal son
Speaker 1: back home. Wouldn't it be better to go back? I
Speaker 1: feel God calling somebody back today. Back Back, back back
Speaker 1: to your full self, back to your real life, back
Speaker 1: to the real reasons, back to the true motive, back
Speaker 1: to the Kingdom of God, back to what's within you,
Speaker 1: back to what you were when He made you in
Speaker 1: his image, back to what you were when He spoke
Speaker 1: you into existence. Back to what you were when he
Speaker 1: created you and knit you together in your mother's womb
Speaker 1: before you knew your name. He knew you before you
Speaker 1: were born. He set you apart. Back to that, back
Speaker 1: to the real you, back to beneath all the layers
Speaker 1: of disappointment. Wouldn't it be better to go back to
Speaker 1: your father's already on the porch than to stay down
Speaker 1: here with these pigs. Wouldn't it be better to go back?
Speaker 1: It's the one who made you Father. Your word goes
Speaker 1: forth like seed, and it needs good soil. I honor
Speaker 1: you today, God, because you gave us good seed. You
Speaker 1: spoke to us a better question. Is it worthy? What
Speaker 1: will it take? What's growing right now in my life?
Speaker 1: We thank you Lord for the power of a better question.
Speaker 1: We think we know what we need. We think we
Speaker 1: know what we want. What should we want? God? For
Speaker 1: as high as the heavens are above the earth, so
Speaker 1: are your ways above our ways, and your thoughts above
Speaker 1: our thoughts. We're coming back God, coming back to the
Speaker 1: only one who knows. Yes, Lord, we repent. We're coming
Speaker 1: back to the top, repent, back to your way of thinking.
Speaker 1: I thank you now, Lord, and I want to pray
Speaker 1: for somebody who's been with the pigs. I want to
Speaker 1: speak to somebody who's halfway back to Egypt, and I
Speaker 1: want to ask that your love would draw them home.
Speaker 1: Maybe the best question is who will separate us from
Speaker 1: the love of God? I thank you Lord that nothing
Speaker 1: can stand between us and our father. For how shall
Speaker 1: he who freely gave us all things not also give
Speaker 1: us this gift? Our Father, who are in heaven hollow
Speaker 1: would be your name, your kingdom? Come? Your will be
Speaker 1: done on earth as it is in heaven. What should
Speaker 1: I want? God? What should I want? Heads bowed, eyes close?
Speaker 1: I want to tell you one more thing, and it
Speaker 1: may be my whole message for you. When Jesus said
Speaker 1: that you don't have to run around asking what shall
Speaker 1: we eat? What shall we drink? What shall we wear?
Speaker 1: He said, your father knows that you need them. Your
Speaker 1: father knows. And here's what I want you to know.
Speaker 1: If he dress li with you? Lease la what a question?
Speaker 1: How much more? That's a better question. What shall we eat?
Speaker 1: What shall we drink? What shall we wear? That's a
Speaker 1: better question. How much for does he love ify sizzle
Speaker 1: with you? How much for will he go? How much
Speaker 1: for will he go Iffy Watch, So every Still? How
Speaker 1: much for does he Love? How much for does he looks?
Speaker 1: Siffy Stras Sizzle Little with Fetisland? How much for Willy Clue?
Speaker 1: How much for Willy Clue Giffy Watch? Well, if you
Speaker 1: enjoyed today's podcast, there are a couple of things I'd
Speaker 1: love for you to do. Make sure to subscribe, rate,
Speaker 1: and review this podcast. You can also help us reach
Speaker 1: others by investing today at Elevationchurch dot org. Slash GiB
Speaker 1: and thanks again for joining us on the Elevation Podcast.