Speaker 1: Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick.
Speaker 2: I'm the pastor of Elevation Church and this is our podcast.
Speaker 2: I wanted to thank you for joining us today.
Speaker 1: Hope this inspires you. Hope it builds your faith.
Speaker 2: Hope it gives your perspective to see God is moving
Speaker 2: in your life.
Speaker 1: Enjoy the message.
Speaker 2: I've been looking forward to sharing this word with you.
Speaker 2: Mark Chapter fourteen, verse ten through sixteen. Would you mind
Speaker 2: standing for the word of God.
Speaker 1: I know we just sat, but it's good. It's good.
Speaker 2: I'm helping you exercise your legs, maximizing your time and
Speaker 2: getting a little workout up and down, and.
Speaker 1: Exercise your spirit as well. Okay.
Speaker 2: Mark Chapter fourteen, verse ten says, then Judas is Scariot,
Speaker 2: one of the twelve, went to the chief priest to
Speaker 2: betray Jesus to them. They were delighted to hear this
Speaker 2: and promise to give him money. So he watched for
Speaker 2: an opportunity to hand him over Greek Paradidami, verse twelve.
Speaker 2: On the first day of the Feast of Unloved Bread,
Speaker 2: when it was customary to sacrifice the passover lamb, Jesus's
Speaker 2: disciples asked him where do you want us to go
Speaker 2: and make preparations for you to eat the passover. So
Speaker 2: he sent two of his disciples, telling them, go into
Speaker 2: the city, and a man carrying a jar of water.
Speaker 1: Will meet you.
Speaker 2: Follow him, say to the owner of the house he enters,
Speaker 2: The teacher asks, where is my guest room where I
Speaker 2: may eat the passover with my disciples. He will show
Speaker 2: you a large upper room, furnished and ready. Would you
Speaker 2: touch your favorite neighbor and tell the miss already ready,
Speaker 2: make preparations for us there where there there Verse sixteen.
Speaker 1: The disciples left.
Speaker 2: Went into the city and found things just as Jesus
Speaker 2: had told them, so they prepared the passover.
Speaker 1: Look at your neighbor one more time.
Speaker 2: I won't make you do it again, but look at
Speaker 2: them one more time and give them my sermon title.
Speaker 1: It's really a question.
Speaker 2: That to me the text provokes, and I want you
Speaker 2: to look at them and ask them this question, which
Speaker 2: is also my subject. Ask them this, say what are
Speaker 2: the chances please be seated again?
Speaker 1: So.
Speaker 2: I don't know about you, but I hate personality tests.
Speaker 2: I think they're useful for certain people. It's just that
Speaker 2: I can never remember the results of my tests.
Speaker 1: And I also think.
Speaker 2: Something about the nature of a personality test seems off
Speaker 2: to me because depending on what mood you catch me in,
Speaker 2: I will answer the questions very differently, even depending on
Speaker 2: what five minute window you catch me in I have.
Speaker 2: I don't know if I should admit this multiple personalities.
Speaker 1: I wish you would look at me like you don't.
Speaker 2: I will follow you home and watch how you act
Speaker 2: when you're not in church.
Speaker 1: We will find out.
Speaker 2: That you can be one person in one context and
Speaker 2: another person in another context. And yet our minds are
Speaker 2: always trying to find ways to categorize life as we're
Speaker 2: experiencing life. And it's a good thing that our minds
Speaker 2: are wired this way. It's really a good thing because
Speaker 2: too many things are happening to us all the time
Speaker 2: for us to process all of them on an individual basis.
Speaker 2: So what your brain does is in an attempt to
Speaker 2: help you from blowing up, is to group different stimuli according.
Speaker 1: To past experiences through the power of association.
Speaker 2: Your brain is always looking for a way to categorize experience,
Speaker 2: and so your mind is trying to judge at any
Speaker 2: given moment whether a certain environment is safe or dangerous,
Speaker 2: positive or negative, And a lot of times This is
Speaker 2: happening even at a subconscious level. Sometimes you don't even
Speaker 2: know why you don't like somebody that you just met.
Speaker 2: You haven't even had a real interaction with them yet.
Speaker 2: But the way their nose looks is just like your
Speaker 2: ex husband, And there's no chance that somebody with that
Speaker 2: nose could have a good heart.
Speaker 1: Say amen.
Speaker 2: Some people annoy you before you even know them, just
Speaker 2: because they remind you of Bob.
Speaker 1: And maybe they're not a bad.
Speaker 2: Person like Bob was, but they kind of talk like
Speaker 2: Bob and walk like Bob. And now you hate them
Speaker 2: and you hadn't even gotten to know them because you've
Speaker 2: categorized them.
Speaker 1: According to an association.
Speaker 2: Yet I have found that our associations are not always accurate,
Speaker 2: and our categories are not always correct. I think one
Speaker 2: of the first things that God does in our lives
Speaker 2: when he comes in through the indwelling of the Holy
Speaker 2: Spirit is to challenge our categories. You see this through
Speaker 2: the New Testament that after Jesus was resurrected from the dead,
Speaker 2: various disputes broke out amongst those who claimed to be
Speaker 2: his disciples regarding the nature.
Speaker 1: Of true faith.
Speaker 2: And it was that the Jewish people could not accept
Speaker 2: this infusion of gentiles because to have a gentile worshiping
Speaker 2: in a Jewish context did not fit their category of righteousness.
Speaker 2: So we've got to kick them out because they don't.
Speaker 1: Fit our category.
Speaker 2: Usually, when something comes into your life and you have
Speaker 2: no pre existing category for it, you dismiss it by
Speaker 2: calling it weird.
Speaker 1: I don't like that song, why it's weird.
Speaker 2: You find out sometimes that some of the things that
Speaker 2: you call weird in one stage of your life, or
Speaker 2: that you call bad at one stage of your life,
Speaker 2: or that you call failure in one stage of your life,
Speaker 2: later you will learn to put it in a completely
Speaker 2: different category. Because one of the things that Christ does
Speaker 2: when he comes into our lives is to change our categories.
Speaker 1: Paul knew this.
Speaker 2: This is why he said, after rising to the top
Speaker 2: of the religious ranks of his day, that what I
Speaker 2: used to count gain I now count as loss. What
Speaker 2: I thought mattered didn't matter as much as what really matters.
Speaker 2: But it took some time for me to mature to
Speaker 2: the point where I could challenge my categories. Some of
Speaker 2: the things that we will pray away in one season
Speaker 2: will be our very praise reports in the next because
Speaker 2: we will realize that unless we.
Speaker 1: Had been afflicted, we could not have been.
Speaker 2: Humbled to the point to really know the presence and
Speaker 2: power of God in an intimate in real wayallenges are categories.
Speaker 2: This is why they killed Jesus, by the way, because
Speaker 2: they could not find a category for who he was,
Speaker 2: how he taught, or the miracles that he performed. He
Speaker 2: did not come from their rabbinical schools. He was the
Speaker 2: carpenter's son. The carpenter's son certainly could not be the Christ.
Speaker 2: They could not wrap their minds around the fact that
Speaker 2: the Savior of the world could be born in the
Speaker 2: backwoods of Bethlehem.
Speaker 1: It did not fit their category.
Speaker 2: They could not understand why he didn't wash his hands
Speaker 2: like he was supposed to wash his hands. They couldn't
Speaker 2: understand why he would be comfortable eating with sinners and
Speaker 2: rebuke the religious elite. They could not understand why Jesus would,
Speaker 2: in many ways and in many situations, confront their religious
Speaker 2: tradition opposing the very values that they held so dear
Speaker 2: So what did they do? They crucified him because they
Speaker 2: could not categorize him. A lot of times people will
Speaker 2: reject you because they can't find a box to put
Speaker 2: you in because you represent Watch this, you represent a.
Speaker 1: Category killing God.
Speaker 2: Your God will not be limited to one economic background,
Speaker 2: to one race. Your God will not be limited to
Speaker 2: one way of thinking.
Speaker 1: Your God will not.
Speaker 2: Be limited to one personality type. And you see this
Speaker 2: theology entering through the apostle Paul in the Book of Galatians,
Speaker 2: the third chapter where he says, in Christ, there's no longer.
Speaker 1: June or gentile.
Speaker 2: Those old categories don't exist anymore. I don't find my
Speaker 2: people anymore. According to skin color, I don't find my
Speaker 2: people anymore.
Speaker 1: According to gender.
Speaker 2: There's no longer male nor female, slave nor free. Is
Speaker 2: no longer my position in a certain society that defines
Speaker 2: my worth. In Christ, we are one. The categories that
Speaker 2: were existed before he came have now been obliterated by
Speaker 2: one who is greater. He's a category killer. He's greater
Speaker 2: than all. His name is the buffalo names. I wish
Speaker 2: you shot in the back of Valentine. Let the week
Speaker 2: say I am strong, Let the poor say I am rich.
Speaker 1: I love When people ask me what kind.
Speaker 2: Of church's elevation, I say, do you have a while,
Speaker 2: because I can't give you the categories that you would
Speaker 2: normally typify a church with. I can't tell you we're
Speaker 2: a white church. I can't tell you we're a black church.
Speaker 2: I can't tell you we're a traditional church. I can't
Speaker 2: tell you we're a non traditional church. Well, we're pretty
Speaker 2: non traditional. I probably can't tell you that. Somebody will
Speaker 2: ask me a question, is it a spirit filled church?
Speaker 1: You know?
Speaker 2: Christians have all these little labels that we like to
Speaker 2: put to limit a church according to what we've experienced,
Speaker 2: so that we don't have to open our minds to
Speaker 2: the fact that God might not exist within our denominational structures,
Speaker 2: but He might be bigger than.
Speaker 1: All of them.
Speaker 2: Where the Paptist at you got to shout, Where the
Speaker 2: Methodist at you got to shout. We got to shout together.
Speaker 2: We're in this thing together. I'm preaching like this my
Speaker 2: last chance.
Speaker 1: You know, I don't know. You never know. Are you
Speaker 1: a spiritual church? I said, well, some of us are.
Speaker 2: Sometimes it depends on what day. And since they could
Speaker 2: not categorize Jesus, they crucified. Since he did not fit
Speaker 2: their concept of who the Christ would be, they missed
Speaker 2: the opportunity to be impacted by his presence. He came
Speaker 2: to his own, and his own received him, not because
Speaker 2: he didn't look like them.
Speaker 1: He didn't. He didn't do what they expected him to do.
Speaker 2: And Elijah broke my heart the other day when he
Speaker 2: said to me, Daddy, I just don't like rock and
Speaker 2: roll music. And my first thought was, Holly, I need
Speaker 2: a paternity test.
Speaker 1: This is not my child, This cannot be my child.
Speaker 2: But then I realized, it isn't that my son doesn't
Speaker 2: like rock and roll music. That's impossible. That's impossible. He's
Speaker 2: highly intelligent, he has good taste. He just hasn't.
Speaker 1: Heard the right rock and roll music yet.
Speaker 2: So I gave him a tutorial, and Jimmy HENDRICKX taught
Speaker 2: a class, and Kurt Cobain taught a class. All these
Speaker 2: dead and walked into the room and taught my child
Speaker 2: to love rock and roll. It's not that you don't
Speaker 2: love the music, you just haven't heard the right stuff yet.
Speaker 2: And for all of you who say I'm not a
Speaker 2: religious person, I get it. For all of you who
Speaker 2: say I'm not a church person, I get it. But
Speaker 2: it might not be that you don't like God. It
Speaker 2: might be that you just haven't seen the real thing yet,
Speaker 2: because when you really seek grace incarnate, when you really
Speaker 2: see the Church alive, forcefully advancing with love and mercy
Speaker 2: as our banners, you can't help but bop your head.
Speaker 1: I like this stuff. It's the real thing.
Speaker 2: Jesus came to show us what God was really like,
Speaker 2: and he changed the categories. I want us to spend
Speaker 2: a few moments today challenging our categories. I want us
Speaker 2: to look at the way that we have divided our
Speaker 2: lives to assets and liabilities, gains and losses, problems and opportunities.
Speaker 2: And I'll do it from the text Matthew or Mark,
Speaker 2: chapter fourteen. Although my first instinct was I can't preach
Speaker 2: this text in October. This is an Easter text, see
Speaker 2: because I had it categorized. We want to make Easter
Speaker 2: three days out of the year one week, and that's cool,
Speaker 2: But Easter is meant to be a way of life.
Speaker 2: So in this text we see Jesus on the verge
Speaker 2: of doing the very thing that he came to do
Speaker 2: all along. And we know this resistance in three different areas.
Speaker 2: We are going to see a challenge of the categorical
Speaker 2: system of who God is and how he works I'd
Speaker 2: like you to write these down. The first area I
Speaker 2: want to discuss his conflict. I believe that when God
Speaker 2: really gets a hold of your life in a surrendered way,
Speaker 2: that he will change the way you see conflict. I
Speaker 2: derived this insight from verse ten. Then Judas is Scariot,
Speaker 2: one of the twelve, went to the chief priests to
Speaker 2: betray Jesus to them. They were delighted to hear this
Speaker 2: and promise to give him money.
Speaker 1: It's interesting that most of us.
Speaker 2: Would see Judas is Scariot, who handed Jesus over to
Speaker 2: be crucified at the hands of Romans because of the
Speaker 2: impulse of the Jews to rid the earth of him,
Speaker 2: as an enemy. Most of us would see Judas as
Speaker 2: an enemy. Isn't it interesting that Jesus chose him as
Speaker 2: an employee?
Speaker 1: Why is that?
Speaker 2: Why would Jesus choose an enemy as an employee. It
Speaker 2: took me back to something that Moses said to the
Speaker 2: Israelites when they were coming into the land God had
Speaker 2: promised them. He said that you're going to drive out
Speaker 2: all of the nations who live here so you can
Speaker 2: possess the land. He said, But it won't all happen
Speaker 2: in the first year, because if all of your enemies
Speaker 2: went away, suddenly the land would be overgrown because you
Speaker 2: don't know what to do.
Speaker 1: With it yet.
Speaker 2: So when God brings you into a place or a promise,
Speaker 2: he will often leave enemies in the very land where
Speaker 2: he is settling you, because you are not ready yet
Speaker 2: for the full extent of freedom. And if he removed
Speaker 2: your enemies, your heart would be filled with pride. The
Speaker 2: scripture teaches that God opposes the proud, but gives grace
Speaker 2: to the humble. So God will use your enemies to
Speaker 2: create humility so that He can be for you what
Speaker 2: you can't.
Speaker 1: Be for yourself. I feel like appreciate that, but that's
Speaker 1: not my message. Maybe another time. He said that.
Speaker 2: Judas was looking for an opportunity to hand Jesus over,
Speaker 2: And while Judas was looking for an opportunity to hand
Speaker 2: Jesus over, Jesus was looking for an opportunity to die.
Speaker 1: It was this purpose he came for.
Speaker 2: Peter could not understand why Jesus, at the height of
Speaker 2: his ministry momentum, would go to Jerusalem, the place where
Speaker 2: they wanted to kill him. In Peter's mind, this would
Speaker 2: be the end of all of the miracles. In the
Speaker 2: understanding of Jesus, this was the beginning of the very
Speaker 2: mission that he came to accomplish. God has a different
Speaker 2: way of categorizing conflict than you do.
Speaker 1: So often in my life.
Speaker 2: I associate God with comfort and the devil with conflict.
Speaker 1: Watch me preach this JJ.
Speaker 2: Because we're going to switch columns today and see that
Speaker 2: sometimes it is the devil who will make your life comfortable.
Speaker 2: So you come to the point that you don't think
Speaker 2: you need God, and it is God that will allow ant,
Speaker 2: that will make you fall down on your knees and
Speaker 2: ask God for the very grace that enables you to
Speaker 2: rise high five your neighbors say, I need a fight.
Speaker 2: I need a conflict. I need an insecurity. I need
Speaker 2: a giant. I need a goliath, I need an enemy,
Speaker 2: I need a battle.
Speaker 1: That's the only.
Speaker 2: Way I can be blessed if I have a battle
Speaker 2: to fight. I need discomfort, or else I will become despondent.
Speaker 1: I feel the spirit of the Lord in this place.
Speaker 2: I see you going home and relabeling conflict as opportunity.
Speaker 2: How dumb would it be if I put down the
Speaker 2: weights because they got heavy and expected any muscular improvement.
Speaker 1: And we do it all the time.
Speaker 2: We run from conflict and pray for blessings from what
Speaker 2: we're praying for, how can we receive that? Sometimes we
Speaker 2: run from relationship to relationship because once it gets past chemistry,
Speaker 2: we don't know.
Speaker 1: What to do with conflict.
Speaker 2: Chemistry can make a baby, but in order to raise
Speaker 2: a child and to have a family, you better know
Speaker 2: what to do with conflict. So Jesus chose within his
Speaker 2: very ranks all of y'all over the age of sixty.
Speaker 2: Tell me if I'm telling the truth right now. If
Speaker 2: you don't learn what to do with conflict, it will
Speaker 2: follow you and wear a different costume into the next
Speaker 2: relationship that you ruin because you never learned how to
Speaker 2: deal with the real.
Speaker 1: Conflict, which is within. And so when you have.
Speaker 2: Walked with Jesus a little while, you understand that Judas
Speaker 2: was on saying payroll as Peter. Jesus called Judas friend
Speaker 2: and told Peter get behind me.
Speaker 1: Satan set that up.
Speaker 2: One time when Judas was getting ready to betray Jesus.
Speaker 2: The gospel writer recorded it this way. He said, what
Speaker 2: you're gonna do, do it quickly, quickly. Let's get this started.
Speaker 2: Because the sooner I die, the sooner I rise.
Speaker 1: And if I rise, and if I a.
Speaker 2: Sin, I can send the Holy Spirit to be your comforter.
Speaker 2: Let's go ahead and get this over with. Whatever you gotta.
Speaker 1: Do, do it. Hit me with your best shot. I
Speaker 1: know one thing, with.
Speaker 2: This all said and done, there will be glory after this.
Speaker 2: I am convinced that the sufferings up this present time.
Speaker 2: I can't preach this point too good, Clemson. I got
Speaker 2: to get to point number two, which is Jesus changes
Speaker 2: the way I see the conflict and the way I
Speaker 2: see the common.
Speaker 1: Wow, the common It's interesting to.
Speaker 2: Me that Jesus Christ, who spoke stars into their place,
Speaker 2: who causes the earth to rotate on its axis and
Speaker 2: revolve around the Sun, the source of all life, the
Speaker 2: one by whom, for whom and through whom all things
Speaker 2: were created, would choose something so silly to identify the
Speaker 2: place of his last meal. Yet, when the time came
Speaker 2: for him to go to Jerusalem from Bethany, the scripture
Speaker 2: says it was on the first day, verse twelve, of
Speaker 2: the feast of unloving Bread. Now this is a festival
Speaker 2: that the Jewish people would have been familiar with for us,
Speaker 2: it's arcane, it's meaning, it's tucked away in the symbolism
Speaker 2: of the unloving bread, which Paul will later describe as
Speaker 2: being a representation of how when we let a little
Speaker 2: bit of yeast into a lump, it takes.
Speaker 1: Over the whole thing.
Speaker 2: How when we're not careful about what we allow into
Speaker 2: our minds and our imaginations, before long we become enslaved
Speaker 2: by things that we once wanted to escape too.
Speaker 1: So the narrative of the people of Israel was this
Speaker 1: God brought.
Speaker 2: Them out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an
Speaker 2: outstretched arm. One of the ways that he did that
Speaker 2: was through an event that they commemorated called the Passover.
Speaker 2: They took the blood of a lamb and put it
Speaker 2: on their doorpost, so that when the first born of
Speaker 2: the Egyptians went down, all of their children would survive.
Speaker 2: It was a foreshadowing of Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God,
Speaker 2: who was slain from the foundation of the world.
Speaker 1: Now, each year these people.
Speaker 2: Would come in the hundreds of thousands to Jerusalem to
Speaker 2: eat what was called the Passover meal. This was the
Speaker 2: time when Jesus chose to die. He did not die
Speaker 2: on accident. He did not die out of time. He
Speaker 2: knew that the moment had come for him to pay
Speaker 2: the price for your sin and mind. He used Judas's
Speaker 2: deception to bring him to the place of his destiny.
Speaker 2: But he did it through something so common as a
Speaker 2: meal and a cross. The disciples wanted to know, where
Speaker 2: do you want us to go and make preparations for
Speaker 2: you to eat the Passover? Shall we get the sauces ready,
Speaker 2: the spices and the bitter herbs?
Speaker 1: Where would you like to eat the Passover?
Speaker 2: Jewish law commands we eat it within the city. We
Speaker 2: can't eat it in Bethany. We've got to go to Jerusalem.
Speaker 2: Where should we go? Now here's what I love about God.
Speaker 2: And I don't know if you knew this or not.
Speaker 2: And this is not a Halloween message, and I'm not
Speaker 2: endorsing Halloween or any of that stuff because I know
Speaker 2: how y'all are. But God has many costumes. I need
Speaker 2: to preach this to you. God has many costumes, and
Speaker 2: a lot of times why we can't find God in
Speaker 2: our life is he's wearing a costume that we don't recognize.
Speaker 1: Check it out.
Speaker 2: In Exodus, the people needed water in a dry and
Speaker 2: weary land.
Speaker 1: Water came springing forth out of a rock. What was
Speaker 1: that rock?
Speaker 2: Paul said that rock was Jesus Christ in another form,
Speaker 2: but it looked like a rock.
Speaker 1: It was God in a costume.
Speaker 2: When the people didn't know where to go, God led them.
Speaker 1: With the pillar of cloud.
Speaker 2: Paul tells us that that cloud was Christ and it
Speaker 2: represented baptism, but they didn't know it at the time
Speaker 2: because the cloud was God in a costume. When it
Speaker 2: came time for the Savior of the world to be born,
Speaker 2: he did it like a baby, not like a king,
Speaker 2: and not like thor. He didn't come down with lightning
Speaker 2: bolts and flashes in the sky to announce his arrival.
Speaker 2: He's snuck into the earth like a rock, like a cloud,
Speaker 2: like a child riding on a donkey, lowly and humble
Speaker 2: in a costume. As a matter of fact, let me
Speaker 2: blow your mind for real. They were preparing a passover lamb,
Speaker 2: and they were talking to the passover Lamb, and they
Speaker 2: didn't even know that they were talking to the one
Speaker 2: who was what they were looking for.
Speaker 1: And so I think.
Speaker 2: Sometimes I'm walking right past God and I don't recognize
Speaker 2: him because he's dressed stuff like ordinary. Oh yeah, Jesus said,
Speaker 2: some of you don't visit those who are in prison,
Speaker 2: and you don't visit those who are in need, and
Speaker 2: you don't do anything.
Speaker 1: To help the least of these.
Speaker 2: Vote what you fail to recognize is that when you
Speaker 2: walk by them, you walk by me.
Speaker 1: He was the Rock, he was the cloud, he was
Speaker 1: the child, he was.
Speaker 2: The lamb slain from the foundation of the world. How
Speaker 2: can someone as cosmic as God come as something so
Speaker 2: common as a lamb?
Speaker 1: That's what John the Baptist said. He said, look, the
Speaker 1: lamb of God.
Speaker 2: Why did he have to point him out if he
Speaker 2: was the savior of the world, Because he looked so common.
Speaker 2: He knew that without an announcement he would be missed.
Speaker 2: This is so powerful because if God is in the Rock,
Speaker 2: and God is in the cloud, and God is in
Speaker 2: the stable, and God is in the passover meal, and
Speaker 2: God would use an instruction as simple as find a
Speaker 2: man with a jar. Come on, can't you do better
Speaker 2: than that, Jesus? Where you want us to fix your
Speaker 2: a passover meal?
Speaker 1: It's cool. I got a place and I'm gonna give
Speaker 1: you a sign. Now.
Speaker 2: Since God is in the cloud, he can make a
Speaker 2: cloud form over the house where they need to eat,
Speaker 2: and it could spell out here with an arrow pointing
Speaker 2: to the house. Go into the city. I know it's crowded.
Speaker 2: You got to understand. Jerusalem was packed like Concord on
Speaker 2: a NASCAR speed Week.
Speaker 1: It was packed like Cotchella.
Speaker 2: And Jesus sends him in to a city that is
Speaker 2: not very big, that would be overrun with six times
Speaker 2: its normal population and says, you'll see a man carrying
Speaker 2: a water jar.
Speaker 1: Follow him. This poor dude with the water jar.
Speaker 2: You know, I want something, And God said, I want
Speaker 2: it to happen like that.
Speaker 1: I want it. I'm not gonna I'm.
Speaker 2: Not gonna use a spectacular sign.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna give you a simple instruction. And when you
Speaker 1: see the man with.
Speaker 2: The jar, if you have the faith to follow him
Speaker 2: in a house.
Speaker 1: You've never been in before.
Speaker 2: When you get there, you'll find the preparations already made.
Speaker 1: See, you got it out of sequence.
Speaker 2: You keep waiting to obey when God confirms. But God says,
Speaker 2: I only confirm after you obey. I don't confirm before
Speaker 2: I confirm after the fact. So go into the city
Speaker 2: and follow the man. Yeah, and I'm gonna move through
Speaker 2: what you call coincidence. Wow, the coincidence often looks a
Speaker 2: whole lot like the miracle. Just thinking back over my life,
Speaker 2: I realized that it has become more difficult for me
Speaker 2: the longer that I've walked with Christ to really admit
Speaker 2: that some of the things that I write off as
Speaker 2: a coincidence were really his hand at work.
Speaker 1: Remember when I told you Eric that we were driving.
Speaker 2: It was like a week after I had given my
Speaker 2: life to Christ and I almost got hit by that car.
Speaker 1: I don't know if you remember this. I remember it
Speaker 1: so clearly.
Speaker 2: It was the first time that I saw Wow, if
Speaker 2: I had gone when I was supposed to go, and
Speaker 2: if I had not stopped, that car that plowed through
Speaker 2: that stoplight would have hit me at age sixteen, And
Speaker 2: I remember feeling so grateful that just seeing something that.
Speaker 1: Could have happened that.
Speaker 2: I guess you could call it a coincidence if you
Speaker 2: want to, But something in me believes.
Speaker 1: That the reason my car.
Speaker 2: Didn't go at that moment, I forgot to tell you
Speaker 2: this part.
Speaker 1: The car was old and it wouldn't go. That's why
Speaker 1: it didn't go.
Speaker 2: Why wouldn't the car go because my dad bought it
Speaker 2: at Dick's Auto Shop for eight hundred dollars. Is that
Speaker 2: why my Chrysler laser wasn't go Was it a coincidence?
Speaker 1: Or was it God needed me to be here for
Speaker 1: a little while longer? Was that a coincidence?
Speaker 2: Was it a coincidence that Holly asked me to get
Speaker 2: her an act pretest? And she didn't know she would
Speaker 2: make all of my babies and carry the fruit of
Speaker 2: my well anyway, She couldn't have known at the time
Speaker 2: that I would change her name. But was it a
Speaker 2: coincidence that of all the high school students at revival
Speaker 2: at First Baptist Church Monk's Corner, she chose to walk
Speaker 2: up to me. I'm telling you there was something magnetic
Speaker 2: on me that day.
Speaker 1: It wasn't good looks.
Speaker 2: I didn't have that going for me, but something drew
Speaker 2: her over.
Speaker 1: Was it a coincidence?
Speaker 2: Was it a coincidence, Amy that I I was sick
Speaker 2: the first time I met your husband and I had
Speaker 2: to ask him do you know the name of the doctor,
Speaker 2: And he said, I'll call you with the number. And
Speaker 2: he called me later that afternoon to give me Chris
Speaker 2: Dinning's number because I didn't know anybody because we had
Speaker 2: just moved to Shelby. Was it a coincidence that I said, Hey,
Speaker 2: why don't y'all come over to dinner Tuesday?
Speaker 1: Hollywood, cook fried rice. We will eat carbs and be
Speaker 1: fat together.
Speaker 2: Was it a coincidence that you and Holly liked to
Speaker 2: shop together on Saturday and spend all of our money
Speaker 2: so that one day we could start a church travel
Speaker 2: the world five continents later? Was it a coincidence that
Speaker 2: I had strepthrope?
Speaker 1: Was it a coincidence?
Speaker 2: Was it a coincidence that you stood in my book
Speaker 2: line at Liberty University until the very last person had
Speaker 2: gone and considered walking away because the line was too long?
Speaker 2: Was it a coincidence that I never signed books because
Speaker 2: I feel sometimes like I don't get to spend enough
Speaker 2: time with people.
Speaker 1: And it feels a little impersonal for me.
Speaker 2: Not that I don't want to meet people, but I
Speaker 2: talked to them for twenty minutes each and then the
Speaker 2: whole line gets mad and they start riots and.
Speaker 1: It's a bad situation.
Speaker 2: Was it a coincidence that that day I did And
Speaker 2: was it a coincidence that you were the last one,
Speaker 2: which gave me more time? To talk to you, and
Speaker 2: that I wrote GTA Greater Things Ahead. I didn't know
Speaker 2: you were from the greater Toronto area, and that we
Speaker 2: would have a campus in Toronto one day.
Speaker 1: Was it a coincidence that a wrestler was in my
Speaker 1: hotel room in Colorado.
Speaker 2: Who would visit Africa with me just years later as
Speaker 2: we preached the gospel? Was it a coincidence that Adrian
Speaker 2: de Pray tricked us both into being in that program
Speaker 2: by describing it to us in a way that wasn't
Speaker 2: exactly reflective of reality. But God somehow tricked us into
Speaker 2: that hotel room in Denver, Colorado, so that we could
Speaker 2: get chased out of Chinese nightclubs together and one day
Speaker 2: do menace.
Speaker 1: Was that a coincidence?
Speaker 2: Because I imagine from the standpoint of the man who
Speaker 2: carried the jar of water, this was just a coincidence.
Speaker 2: But from the standpoint of the disciples, they knew this
Speaker 2: is something more. And sometimes I think faith is just
Speaker 2: as simple as second guessing. What you call coincidence. It
Speaker 2: may be a coincidence. I'm not suggesting that you turn
Speaker 2: into one of these people who blames everything on God.
Speaker 2: Do you know what I'm talking about have you met
Speaker 2: these people? I got a parking space right at the
Speaker 2: front of the gym.
Speaker 1: It was God. That wasn't God.
Speaker 2: You needed to walk, That's why you went to the
Speaker 2: gym for exercise.
Speaker 1: The devil gave you the spot closest.
Speaker 2: If it had been God, he would have given you
Speaker 2: some aptext for exercise.
Speaker 1: Challenge your categories.
Speaker 2: Was it a coincidence when Holly said I want to
Speaker 2: go to this farmer's market.
Speaker 1: Was a coincidence that I agreed to do it? That's
Speaker 1: a miracle. But we were on vacation at Sullivan's Island.
Speaker 1: Why not?
Speaker 2: Was it a coincidence that Addie May saw me from
Speaker 2: her cupcake booth. Was it a coincidence that she walked
Speaker 2: over and said, I'm sorry to bug you. I can
Speaker 2: see you with your family, but I listened to your podcast.
Speaker 2: Can I get a selfie? Was it a coincidence when
Speaker 2: she said, I'm gonna call my pastor.
Speaker 1: He's gonna be so jealous.
Speaker 2: Was it a coincidence when she said you should come
Speaker 2: to revival at my church next week and I said,
Speaker 2: I don't have anything but short I'm on vacation, sweetheart,
Speaker 2: But you can write down the dates of the revival,
Speaker 2: and I'll put him away and never look.
Speaker 1: At him again because I'm on vacation.
Speaker 2: I didn't say that, but I thought it. Was it
Speaker 2: a coincidence that somehow I kept the piece of paper
Speaker 2: and something told me to check in on it, and
Speaker 2: I found out that one of.
Speaker 1: The guest speakers had canceled. Was it a coincidence that
Speaker 1: Addie May had mentioned to me that when.
Speaker 2: She called her pastor, he said that they had invited
Speaker 2: me to speak at the revival office had told them.
Speaker 1: That I was on vacation that week. Was it a coincidence?
Speaker 2: When I looked up the number and called him, and
Speaker 2: when he called me back, he said, we just came
Speaker 2: out of a prayer meeting and we were praying that
Speaker 2: God would provide a speaker for us tonight, and you're
Speaker 2: the one we originally requested for this night.
Speaker 1: Was that a coincidence?
Speaker 2: Was it a coincidence that they wanted to prepare the
Speaker 2: lamb and they were sitting with the lamb?
Speaker 1: Was it a coincidence that in.
Speaker 2: All of Jerusalem, all of the people carrying water jars
Speaker 2: all funneled to this one man who had to be
Speaker 2: in one place at one time so that he could
Speaker 2: lead them into the room. And you say, you don't
Speaker 2: see any evidence of God's working in your life. What
Speaker 2: you've been calling coincidence, God calls evidence. That's how you
Speaker 2: know was with you. Was it a coincidence that you
Speaker 2: came to church today? Was it a coincidence that this
Speaker 2: is finally the weekend where you said, Okay, I'll go
Speaker 2: to your stupid loud church if you'll leave me alone.
Speaker 2: Was it a coincidence that I was preaching on coincidence
Speaker 2: for you to be here?
Speaker 1: And I'm not telling you that you always have.
Speaker 2: To tell people that it was God that got you
Speaker 2: the table at the restaurant, and that it was God
Speaker 2: that put gas in your car. It wasn't God to
Speaker 2: put gas in your car. You put gas in your car.
Speaker 2: If you don't put gas in your car, your car
Speaker 2: will run out of gas.
Speaker 1: Don't get weird with it.
Speaker 2: I'm just saying what Thomas Edison said. He said, coincidence
Speaker 2: is God's way of remaining anonymous.
Speaker 1: What I think we've got to learn to do in
Speaker 1: our lives.
Speaker 2: Is to see Christ in the coincidence, and the next
Speaker 2: time it happens, it's going to happen this week.
Speaker 1: It happened to me last week.
Speaker 2: It happened to me last week that I was walking
Speaker 2: through the airport Newark, New Jersey. Praise the Lord for
Speaker 2: a four hour layover in Newark, won a blessing. Might
Speaker 2: as well go over to this bookstore. Oh, I recognized
Speaker 2: that book.
Speaker 1: So and so mentioned that book on their podcast.
Speaker 2: So and so happened to be a person I've been
Speaker 2: in contact with that I grew up with. And I
Speaker 2: want to do a special project with this person for
Speaker 2: our church, but I haven't been able to connect. And
Speaker 2: when I said so and So's name, I walked around
Speaker 2: the corner and I saw a little flyer on the
Speaker 2: window of the bookstore, and it had so and So's
Speaker 2: name on it. I said, that's weird. I was just
Speaker 2: saying his name, and there he is on that flyer.
Speaker 2: And then I saw where it said book signing, and
Speaker 2: I said, well, that's weird. Who does a book signing
Speaker 2: in an airport? Isn't that crazy? I was just said,
Speaker 2: as an, and there's this picture and there he's doing
Speaker 2: a book signing in this airport.
Speaker 1: Wonder when he's doing it. Wouldn't it be weird if
Speaker 1: he was doing.
Speaker 2: It today, and he was doing it today. Wouldn't it
Speaker 2: be weird if he was doing it right now and
Speaker 2: he was doing it right now.
Speaker 1: Wouldn't it be.
Speaker 2: Weird if I texted him and he texted me back,
Speaker 2: and we spent an hour together and we set a
Speaker 2: date to do the thing that we were trying to do.
Speaker 1: Wouldn't it be.
Speaker 2: Weird if all that happened not when I was trying
Speaker 2: to make it happen, but when I was on the layover.
Speaker 2: What I'm saying, if you have ears to hear it,
Speaker 2: is that Jesus Christ wants to recategorize some of the
Speaker 2: things in your life that you saw as a coincidence.
Speaker 2: Many of you came to Charlotte against your will. You
Speaker 2: came because this is where the job brought you. Is
Speaker 2: it a coincidence that you're in Charlotte.
Speaker 1: Or is in an assignment?
Speaker 2: Is it a coincidence that, of all the people who
Speaker 2: could have been carrying a jar at this moment, that
Speaker 2: jar happened to be at that spot.
Speaker 1: It's no coincidence.
Speaker 2: Before they ever got to the spot where the man
Speaker 2: carrying the jar was, Jesus had already had a conversation
Speaker 2: and all you've got to do, really to see God
Speaker 2: move in your life is to keep a room ready
Speaker 2: for him when he comes.
Speaker 1: And you will find a large, spacious.
Speaker 2: Room already furnished, already prepared, awaiting your obedience. It's already ready,
Speaker 2: but you won't see it if you miss it. In
Speaker 2: the coincidence, tradition holds that this upper room was situated
Speaker 2: in the highest place in the whole city of Jerusalem.
Speaker 2: In that cool that Jesus knew the exact place where
Speaker 2: he wanted to take the Last Supper and institute communion.
Speaker 2: Isn't it cool that he prayed his high priestly prayer
Speaker 2: in John fourteen through seventeen from the highest place in
Speaker 2: the city. It couldn't have been just any house. It
Speaker 2: had to be that house. It had to be that time,
Speaker 2: It had to be that day. It's no coincidence. God
Speaker 2: is in the coincidence. God is in the comment. God
Speaker 2: is in the conflict. And you keep stepping over the
Speaker 2: rock and there's water in it. Wow, And you keep
Speaker 2: missing the cloud when it moves because you're looking down
Speaker 2: and you're sitting with the lamb, and you're missing him.
Speaker 2: Stand to your feet. I want to pray for your life.
Speaker 2: This week particularly, I would like to pray for those
Speaker 2: of you who in one of the three categories that
Speaker 2: I mentioned at the beginning, And I want to thank
Speaker 2: you so much for not leaving when I begin my
Speaker 2: opening prayer.
Speaker 1: It makes it so much.
Speaker 2: More effective when we pray when we don't have a
Speaker 2: lot of movement, when God is touching people's lives, and
Speaker 2: I really appreciate that so much, your willingness to stay.
Speaker 1: With us through this moment. I want to pray for
Speaker 1: those of you this week who are going to have
Speaker 1: Adie May at.
Speaker 2: The farmer's market come up to you with a cupcake,
Speaker 2: or are going to be Adie May bringing the cupcake over,
Speaker 2: and God is setting you up to be an answer
Speaker 2: to a prayer that you don't even know has been prayed.
Speaker 1: It's no coincidence. It's no coincidence.
Speaker 2: And all I want you to do this week is
Speaker 2: give it a second look. When the conflict comes, look
Speaker 2: at it a second way. At a second time, look
Speaker 2: at it a different way. Is this a conflict or
Speaker 2: is this an opportunity?
Speaker 1: Is this just a cross or is this a resurrection?
Speaker 1: Is this a storm or is this a stage.
Speaker 2: For God to reveal his glory in my situation. Is
Speaker 2: this just a meal or is this a message? Is
Speaker 2: this just a coincidence or is this my calling? It
Speaker 2: could be a coincidence or it can be a miracle.
Speaker 1: What are the chances that of all of.
Speaker 2: The men in Jerusalem carrying water, this one would be
Speaker 2: at that place at that time.
Speaker 1: What are the chances. I'll tell you the.
Speaker 2: Chances one hundred percent, Because when you walk in obedience,
Speaker 2: the outcome is guaranteed.
Speaker 1: This will work. I said, it will work. It will happen.
Speaker 1: It has to happen. It's sound come to pad if
Speaker 1: I walk.
Speaker 2: There. He told me to walk and do what he
Speaker 2: told me to do at the right time. It has
Speaker 2: to happen. It's no coincidence. God has you here. It's
Speaker 2: no coincidence. What you went through. It wasn't to destroy you,
Speaker 2: It was to develop you. God is in it. God
Speaker 2: is in the conflict. God is in the common God
Speaker 2: is in the diapers. God is in the math, homework.
Speaker 2: God is in the traffic. God is in the layoff.
Speaker 2: I'm telling you, God is in it. The Word became
Speaker 2: flesh and dwelt.
Speaker 1: Among us, and we beheld his glory.
Speaker 2: Help us to see it God in every season, in situation,
Speaker 2: Help us to find living water in dry places. I
Speaker 2: thank you for your spirit, the comforter who guides us
Speaker 2: into all truth. I lift up each circumstance represented in
Speaker 2: this room. Today online, our family joining us around the
Speaker 2: world goes watching on television.
Speaker 1: I pray that you would.
Speaker 2: Change the categorization system by which we have organized our
Speaker 2: life to prioritize comfort and convenience overcalling. We want to
Speaker 2: look for you in crowded streets. We want to see
Speaker 2: you in impossible situations. We need your guidance. Lord, We
Speaker 2: need your help.
Speaker 1: Thank you for joining us.
Speaker 2: Special thanks to those of you who give generously to
Speaker 2: this ministry. Is because of you that this ministry is possible.
Speaker 2: You can click the link in the description Give now
Speaker 2: or visit Elevationchurch dot org slash podcast for more information
Speaker 2: and if you enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe.
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Speaker 2: at Elevation Church.
Speaker 1: Thanks again for listening. God bless you