WEBVTT - What God Left Out: Flatbread Faith 0:00:02.120 --> 0:00:04.680 Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick. I'm the pastor of Elevation 0:00:04.920 --> 0:00:07.160 Church and this is our podcast. I wanted to thank 0:00:07.200 --> 0:00:10.520 you for joining us today. Hope this inspires you. Hope 0:00:10.520 --> 0:00:12.559 it builds your faith. Hope it gives your perspective to 0:00:12.600 --> 0:00:17.480 see God is moving in your life. Enjoy the message. 0:00:18.079 --> 0:00:20.360 How many want to receive the Word of God today? 0:00:22.400 --> 0:00:27.800 How many want a fresh, big Bible lesson today? All right, 0:00:28.960 --> 0:00:31.080 if you're not standing, stand up for a moment. If 0:00:31.120 --> 0:00:34.280 you are standing, remain that way in the upright position, 0:00:35.000 --> 0:00:38.240 and we're about to take off. Look at Exodus chapter 0:00:38.240 --> 0:00:45.960 twelve with me. Thank you for your spirit Lord. Put 0:00:45.960 --> 0:00:47.960 that in the chat. Thank you for your spirit Lord. 0:00:48.960 --> 0:00:51.120 Welcome all over the world. We welcome you. Let us 0:00:51.120 --> 0:00:53.920 know where you're joining from right now, where you're worshiping from, 0:00:53.920 --> 0:00:57.520 not watching worshiping. I'm a participator. I'm not a spectator. 0:00:58.080 --> 0:00:59.560 I want to get in on it, what God is 0:00:59.600 --> 0:01:02.120 doing in the season. I don't want to be left out. 0:01:03.040 --> 0:01:05.319 Look at this scripture. I mentioned it last week. I 0:01:05.360 --> 0:01:07.840 told you that last week when I preached on comfort food, 0:01:08.240 --> 0:01:11.800 I had a tupperwaar anointing. And so hopefully your fridge 0:01:11.840 --> 0:01:13.600 has been stocked this week, and you've been able to 0:01:13.720 --> 0:01:18.720 nibble on what you need. That's a goal anyway, then, 0:01:19.120 --> 0:01:20.520 and I want to go back into one of the 0:01:20.600 --> 0:01:25.800 passages that I mentioned and really really see what God 0:01:25.840 --> 0:01:28.520 is saying to me. Please help me, Lord, as you 0:01:29.360 --> 0:01:31.560 lavished your word on me, helped me to access it 0:01:31.640 --> 0:01:38.200 now for your people who needed. Exodus twelve thirty seven, 0:01:38.440 --> 0:01:43.440 the Israelites journeyed from Ramses to Suckott. There are about 0:01:43.520 --> 0:01:48.440 six hundred thousand men on foot, besides women and children, 0:01:49.960 --> 0:01:52.040 and many other people went up with them, and also 0:01:52.160 --> 0:01:55.680 large droves of livestock, both flocks and herts. With the 0:01:55.720 --> 0:02:00.000 dough the Israelites had brought. With the dough the Israelite 0:02:00.240 --> 0:02:04.240 had brought from Egypt, they baked loaves of unloven bread. 0:02:05.440 --> 0:02:08.960 They baked loaves of unloven bread with the dough that 0:02:09.000 --> 0:02:13.440 they brought from Egypt. All right, lean into this, it's 0:02:13.480 --> 0:02:17.680 getting good. You smell the bread, all right, here it comes. 0:02:18.600 --> 0:02:22.800 The dough was without yeast because they had been driven 0:02:23.280 --> 0:02:27.200 out of Egypt and did not have time to prepare 0:02:27.560 --> 0:02:33.160 food for themselves. Now, the length of time the Israelite 0:02:33.200 --> 0:02:36.600 people lived in Egypt was four hundred and thirty years, 0:02:36.680 --> 0:02:38.720 and at the end of four hundred and thirty years 0:02:39.520 --> 0:02:44.280 to the very day, all the Lord's divisions left Egypt 0:02:44.800 --> 0:02:48.760 because the Lord kept vigil. Somebody say, God is looking 0:02:48.800 --> 0:02:52.000 out for me. That's not my sermon, but I needed 0:02:52.000 --> 0:02:54.560 to underscore it real quick in case you've been wondering lately. 0:02:54.960 --> 0:02:58.120 The Lord kept vigil. That means you don't have to 0:02:58.160 --> 0:03:02.040 watch all the things all the time Lord kept vigil. 0:03:03.400 --> 0:03:05.760 The Bible said, he doesn't slumber or sleep, so that 0:03:05.800 --> 0:03:07.760 means you ought to get some rest. Tell somebody take 0:03:07.760 --> 0:03:10.920 a nap. Take a nap. The storm will still be 0:03:10.960 --> 0:03:16.320 there when you wake up. Because the Lord kept vigil 0:03:16.360 --> 0:03:19.640 that night to bring them out of Egypt. On this night, 0:03:20.320 --> 0:03:22.760 all the Israelites are to keep vigil to honor the 0:03:22.760 --> 0:03:25.520 Lord for generations to come. I wanted you to get 0:03:25.560 --> 0:03:28.079 the full context, but really I want to go off 0:03:28.120 --> 0:03:31.040 of verse thirty nine, where it says the dough was 0:03:31.120 --> 0:03:35.160 without yeast because they had been driven out of Egypt 0:03:35.160 --> 0:03:38.760 and did not have time to prepare food for themselves. 0:03:40.040 --> 0:03:41.600 And I want to give you two titles that you 0:03:41.640 --> 0:03:44.600 can choose from. The first is more descriptive. It says 0:03:45.360 --> 0:03:51.600 on this title, we could say what God left out? 0:03:53.160 --> 0:03:58.000 What God left out? If you like your titles a 0:03:58.000 --> 0:04:02.040 little on the spicy side, we're gonna call this little 0:04:02.080 --> 0:04:11.360 sermon flat bread faith, Flat bread faith. Serve your word 0:04:11.400 --> 0:04:13.200 to the people, and use me as a waiter God 0:04:13.200 --> 0:04:22.680 in Jesus' name, Amen, Amen, what God left out? You 0:04:22.880 --> 0:04:31.279 never really tell anybody everything, not even yourself, not even God. 0:04:32.800 --> 0:04:37.120 Self awareness is an ongoing process. You tell yourself the 0:04:37.160 --> 0:04:40.680 story that you can live with, the version of events 0:04:40.720 --> 0:04:43.880 you can live with. But in our own little way, 0:04:44.000 --> 0:04:50.520 we're all revisionist historians. So when we compile how certain 0:04:50.560 --> 0:04:53.120 things went down in our life, we do it in 0:04:53.160 --> 0:04:57.400 a way that will accommodate our pain or our fear 0:04:59.520 --> 0:05:02.960 too fast. Back up, Lord said, slow down, slow down. 0:05:04.520 --> 0:05:09.880 Revisionist history. It's like you leave certain things out, you 0:05:10.560 --> 0:05:13.200 say a certain part, leave a certain part out, and 0:05:13.240 --> 0:05:15.000 you kind of stack it in a way that makes 0:05:15.040 --> 0:05:18.760 you feel better about it. Everybody does this. I do it, 0:05:18.839 --> 0:05:21.040 you do it. I've done it before. Oh that's staff 0:05:21.080 --> 0:05:23.640 member left because you know they were this and that 0:05:23.680 --> 0:05:27.520 and underperforming. Well, I'm still salty about it. So what 0:05:27.560 --> 0:05:31.520 you are getting is me seasoning with the details that 0:05:31.600 --> 0:05:34.480 I like, and then they will say a different well 0:05:34.520 --> 0:05:36.600 my season was over, and I'm like, no, you were 0:05:36.640 --> 0:05:38.760 just lazy and quit and didn't want to stick it out. 0:05:39.080 --> 0:05:41.400 And then there and then they're going back and they're like, well, no, 0:05:41.480 --> 0:05:43.120 this was going in my life and that was going, 0:05:43.240 --> 0:05:45.000 and we're all working off of our point of view. 0:05:45.279 --> 0:05:48.200 And that's that's that's very important to realize, is that 0:05:48.640 --> 0:05:50.839 we are all when it comes to how we understand 0:05:50.880 --> 0:05:56.520 our life doing a revisionist history. And another thing, if 0:05:56.560 --> 0:05:58.520 you like to write down things that the preacher says 0:06:01.839 --> 0:06:09.520 not mandatory, it's recommended, we're all reductionists. Wow. And that's 0:06:09.560 --> 0:06:15.040 when we take something that's incredibly complicated and make it 0:06:15.080 --> 0:06:20.680 sound so simple. So, you know, taking something that's so 0:06:20.880 --> 0:06:24.799 big and difficult to understand and just trying to boil 0:06:24.839 --> 0:06:28.080 it down to something that especially preaching, Like I'm going 0:06:28.120 --> 0:06:30.200 to talk a little bit about preaching today because hey, 0:06:30.520 --> 0:06:34.160 you know that's that's something I care about, aren't you glad? Yeah, 0:06:34.400 --> 0:06:36.680 it'd be bad if I didn't. But you want to 0:06:36.720 --> 0:06:39.640 boil it down, make it rhyme, you know, make it 0:06:39.680 --> 0:06:42.560 start with the same letters and all that. I do that. 0:06:42.640 --> 0:06:46.360 I like that, but sometimes I have noticed that I 0:06:46.520 --> 0:06:52.480 oversimplify what is actually very complicated. I'm preaching to you today. 0:06:53.279 --> 0:06:55.159 I came over, I came over. I brought a big 0:06:55.160 --> 0:06:58.960 old casserole over your hunger. So so, so that's one thing. 0:06:59.080 --> 0:07:03.880 But then I also sometimes overcomplicate what is really pretty simple, 0:07:05.080 --> 0:07:08.880 and both of those can get me in trouble. When 0:07:08.880 --> 0:07:11.680 you read the Bible, the biggest mistake that you can 0:07:11.720 --> 0:07:15.200 make is to think you already know what you're reading. 0:07:16.800 --> 0:07:21.280 You miss all kinds of stuff when you take out 0:07:21.360 --> 0:07:25.120 the parts revisionists, you take out the parts that make 0:07:25.160 --> 0:07:27.280 you feel uncomfortable, take out the parts that you don't 0:07:27.320 --> 0:07:31.280 initially understand, or when you try to boil it down 0:07:31.320 --> 0:07:35.440 to something that is palatable. You can't take all of 0:07:35.480 --> 0:07:39.760 the tension out of the truth. You can't. Well, you can, 0:07:40.840 --> 0:07:42.640 but you're not going to have a strong faith that way. 0:07:42.680 --> 0:07:46.960 You'll be weak. Then anytime something happens that doesn't clearly 0:07:47.000 --> 0:07:51.480 fit your version of the truth, then you won't have 0:07:51.520 --> 0:07:57.040 any shield to protect you from the attacks of the enemy. 0:07:57.320 --> 0:07:59.160 I need a little help online. This room's kind of 0:07:59.160 --> 0:08:02.120 sleepy today. Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So we all 0:08:02.160 --> 0:08:05.600 do it. We all do it. I tell people sometimes 0:08:05.600 --> 0:08:08.080 how our church started. But I don't tell him everything 0:08:08.160 --> 0:08:12.080 because you can't tell everything, you know. It's first of all, 0:08:12.080 --> 0:08:14.320 it would take forever. You can't go all the way back. 0:08:14.640 --> 0:08:16.880 And secondly, there are some things I don't even remember. 0:08:16.960 --> 0:08:19.720 It's like I blocked him out. I had this memory 0:08:19.720 --> 0:08:21.680 come back to me when I was preparing the sermon 0:08:22.240 --> 0:08:25.480 of how me and Holly went to this place one 0:08:25.520 --> 0:08:28.440 time and Nicole went with us. Nicole went with us. 0:08:29.000 --> 0:08:33.520 We were we drove about eight hours and we drove 0:08:33.640 --> 0:08:37.280 to preach at at camp and Adrian de Prey asked 0:08:37.280 --> 0:08:40.480 me to go tag team. He dicipled you in college, 0:08:40.520 --> 0:08:43.120 didn't He made you memorize scripture. If you missed a word, 0:08:43.160 --> 0:08:44.880 what'd you punch you in the jar or something like that. 0:08:45.080 --> 0:08:48.240 Adrian's this big intimidating god. This He used to throw 0:08:48.360 --> 0:08:51.080 chairs around on his sermon illustrations. You had to wear 0:08:51.120 --> 0:08:54.400 a motorcycle helmet to go to Adrian to pray sermon. 0:08:54.640 --> 0:08:56.920 Great man of God, great passion. I looked up to him. 0:08:56.960 --> 0:08:58.920 You ever hear Adrian do the four chairs? He had 0:08:58.920 --> 0:09:01.240 this one sermon he would put sticks down his pants. 0:09:01.440 --> 0:09:03.280 I still don't know what the thing was about. But 0:09:03.320 --> 0:09:06.040 he would. He would he would go gather sticks and 0:09:06.040 --> 0:09:08.839 shove them down anyway. He is a very powerful man 0:09:08.840 --> 0:09:12.200 of God. He told me. I blocked some of this 0:09:12.200 --> 0:09:15.040 stuff out, but it came back to me. He told me, 0:09:15.200 --> 0:09:17.120 I want you to meet me at such and such 0:09:17.360 --> 0:09:19.839 and tag team preached this camp with me. That was 0:09:19.880 --> 0:09:22.800 a dream come true for me. Tim. I thought, well, that's, 0:09:23.160 --> 0:09:25.800 you know, like getting to play with you know, Lebron 0:09:25.920 --> 0:09:28.320 or something like that. For me. At the time, I 0:09:28.360 --> 0:09:31.240 thought preaching with Adrian. And so we drove out there 0:09:31.240 --> 0:09:34.200 eight hours and when we got there, y'all, it was 0:09:34.320 --> 0:09:38.120 the weirdest situation. They said. When we got there, they said, 0:09:38.160 --> 0:09:43.680 welcome to hobo camp. I said, hobo camp. They said, yeah, 0:09:43.720 --> 0:09:47.040 tomorrow is the hobo parade. I don't know if it's 0:09:47.080 --> 0:09:50.000 politically correct to say hobo anymore. I might get shut down. 0:09:50.080 --> 0:09:52.400 He canceled and all over this or not. But I 0:09:52.400 --> 0:09:53.920 didn't make it up. I didn't know it was a 0:09:53.960 --> 0:09:55.880 hobo camp. I just knew. Adrian asked me to go. 0:09:56.160 --> 0:09:58.400 He said, meet me out there. I drove out there 0:09:58.720 --> 0:10:03.320 and he would even there and I asked the lady. 0:10:03.400 --> 0:10:05.680 The lady running the camp was ninety years old and 0:10:05.760 --> 0:10:08.840 legally blind, and it was inner house, and there's one 0:10:08.920 --> 0:10:11.040 hundred and fifty. Am I making this up. It's a 0:10:11.080 --> 0:10:13.880 whole campground. But then the meeting was in the house 0:10:14.080 --> 0:10:16.440 and the lady was so nice. There was nothing. I 0:10:16.480 --> 0:10:20.320 just didn't I didn't know that it was a hobo camp, right, 0:10:21.040 --> 0:10:23.120 I didn't know that they were divided. We went to 0:10:23.160 --> 0:10:25.440 eat in the cafeteria the first day and the kids 0:10:25.520 --> 0:10:29.400 all start banging their glasses on the table in Unison, 0:10:29.679 --> 0:10:31.719 because they all come back to the same camp every year. 0:10:31.760 --> 0:10:34.560 Is my first time they start banging their their glasses 0:10:34.600 --> 0:10:37.800 on the table and they start singing. I remember the song. 0:10:38.440 --> 0:10:41.560 How do I remember this? Hatfield's, Yoakums and McCoy's and 0:10:41.640 --> 0:10:45.640 kettles have gathered together for some fun, fun, fun fun. 0:10:45.840 --> 0:10:49.040 Some have come by box car, some have come from walking. 0:10:49.080 --> 0:10:52.120 Oh there's a travel by their thumb thumb, thumb, thumb. 0:10:52.240 --> 0:10:56.520 Though we roam a thousand miles away, we will return 0:10:56.840 --> 0:11:01.120 here for convention data. I don't remember the rest, but 0:11:01.160 --> 0:11:03.280 I remember that much. And I was so freaked out 0:11:03.440 --> 0:11:05.520 and Adrian wasn't even there. That's why I went to 0:11:05.559 --> 0:11:07.199 the lady run. I said, where's Adrew say, don't get 0:11:07.160 --> 0:11:09.600 here til Sunday. So he gets here Sunday, I'm waiting 0:11:09.640 --> 0:11:18.640 for him, like, Man of God. You didn't You left 0:11:18.679 --> 0:11:25.480 out the part where it was a hobo camp and 0:11:25.559 --> 0:11:29.080 a hobo pray. You left out the part where I 0:11:29.120 --> 0:11:31.319 had to do the first two sessions by myself. I 0:11:31.360 --> 0:11:37.480 didn't have a sermon ready. You left Oh come on, 0:11:39.679 --> 0:11:46.240 he said, Yeah, I left that part out because I 0:11:46.280 --> 0:11:48.600 thought if I didn't leave it out, you wouldn't show up. 0:11:53.240 --> 0:11:56.280 Y'all thought I was just having a random flashback, like 0:11:56.360 --> 0:11:59.640 pray for pastor he's over caffeinated. No, no, no, no no, no, 0:12:00.120 --> 0:12:03.920 it came back to me for a reason he left 0:12:03.960 --> 0:12:07.319 it out. Today, I don't want to talk to you 0:12:08.080 --> 0:12:11.080 about what God brought the Israelites through the Red Sea, 0:12:12.000 --> 0:12:15.960 because I figure you've heard that part before. I don't 0:12:15.960 --> 0:12:17.880 want to talk to you about who he struck down, 0:12:18.080 --> 0:12:22.000 the firstborn of Egypt to cause Pharaoh to let his 0:12:22.040 --> 0:12:25.080 people go with a mighty hand and outstretched arm, because 0:12:25.080 --> 0:12:29.360 I figure you've heard about that and it's really scary too. Instead, 0:12:29.400 --> 0:12:33.280 I wanted to mention something that happened when they were 0:12:33.360 --> 0:12:38.120 leaving that you can skip over. You can skip over 0:12:38.160 --> 0:12:42.920 it so easily, but it really speaks to me. It 0:12:43.000 --> 0:12:45.439 said that when they left Egypt, where they had been 0:12:45.520 --> 0:12:49.720 four hundred and thirty years, and by way of review, 0:12:50.440 --> 0:12:53.560 they were not in Egypt because of something they did wrong. 0:12:55.720 --> 0:12:58.640 They were in Egypt because that was the place God 0:12:58.760 --> 0:13:05.120 provided for them when God finally brought them out as 0:13:05.160 --> 0:13:10.400 their situation had changed from one of provision to imprisonment. 0:13:11.880 --> 0:13:16.440 The Bible records an important detail that says they left 0:13:17.120 --> 0:13:20.600 with bread. One verse says it was wrapped in their 0:13:20.679 --> 0:13:27.000 clothes on their shoulders, and the bread was unleavined. It 0:13:27.040 --> 0:13:33.400 says specifically the dough was without yeast because they had 0:13:33.400 --> 0:13:37.360 to leave so fast, they didn't have time to prepare 0:13:37.600 --> 0:13:42.920 food for themselves. And I was thinking, if God had 0:13:42.960 --> 0:13:47.080 the foresight and the planning ability to get them ready, 0:13:47.120 --> 0:13:49.600 to get all of the clothes of the Egyptians, all 0:13:49.640 --> 0:13:52.080 of the jewelry, all of the things they took, if 0:13:52.120 --> 0:13:54.840 God could plan out all ten plagues to get his 0:13:54.960 --> 0:13:59.040 people out, surely he could have had them bake the 0:13:59.080 --> 0:14:04.120 bread the night before. So the only thing I can 0:14:04.160 --> 0:14:09.000 think is that God didn't want them to take yeast 0:14:09.840 --> 0:14:19.640 from Egypt into the place of their promise when we're 0:14:19.640 --> 0:14:21.720 praying over a new year, I told you I was 0:14:21.760 --> 0:14:25.080 going to focus on room to receive. Everybody, say room 0:14:25.200 --> 0:14:28.480 to receive, say it out loud, like with your mouth 0:14:28.480 --> 0:14:30.560 and your vocal cords and your larynx and stuff. Room 0:14:30.680 --> 0:14:34.560 to receive, room to receive. Put as many o's as 0:14:34.600 --> 0:14:38.280 you want in the word. Room, room to receive. That's 0:14:38.320 --> 0:14:41.080 why I give God a great, big praise. I want 0:14:41.120 --> 0:14:43.320 him to have a whole lot of room to run 0:14:43.360 --> 0:14:46.240 around and do what he wants to do. And I 0:14:46.280 --> 0:14:48.560 found out sometimes you can have a big room that's cluttered. 0:14:50.880 --> 0:14:54.920 You can have a big gift that's cluttered. You can 0:14:54.960 --> 0:14:58.240 have a smart mind that's cluttered. You can have a 0:14:58.280 --> 0:15:03.520 good relationship that's cluttered. But God is doing something in 0:15:03.560 --> 0:15:06.640 this text that I wonder has He been doing in 0:15:06.680 --> 0:15:14.120 your life, my life, this church, this ministry, is that 0:15:14.360 --> 0:15:22.560 rather than God demonstrating his power through what he adds, 0:15:26.640 --> 0:15:31.080 he gives his people a lesson in leaving it out, 0:15:33.600 --> 0:15:35.520 taking a deep breath and shout, leave it out. One 0:15:35.600 --> 0:15:38.920 two three. You weren't ready, I'll do it again. One 0:15:38.960 --> 0:15:45.480 two three, leave it out, leave it out, he said, 0:15:45.520 --> 0:15:49.720 get up in a hurry, out of Egypt, and they 0:15:49.720 --> 0:15:53.200 didn't even have time to let the bread rise. That's 0:15:53.240 --> 0:15:56.680 what the yeast does, It makes the bread rise. And 0:15:56.720 --> 0:15:59.000 before the bread could even rise, they had to get out. 0:16:00.280 --> 0:16:04.960 They didn't even have time to prepare for a global pandemic, 0:16:05.040 --> 0:16:09.440 I mean for the exodus. Sometimes my mind goes back 0:16:09.480 --> 0:16:11.840 and forth, like a do ad on TikTok or something. 0:16:11.880 --> 0:16:17.400 It's going back and forth. So I want you to 0:16:17.440 --> 0:16:21.360 ask a question today, and this could be very good homework, 0:16:21.440 --> 0:16:22.520 or we could just do it right now. Let's do 0:16:22.560 --> 0:16:24.160 it right now. Let's do right now. We've got time, right, 0:16:24.200 --> 0:16:26.160 we got time. You got anything better to do than 0:16:26.160 --> 0:16:27.800 hear the word of the eternal God who sits on 0:16:27.840 --> 0:16:30.320 the throne and having above all principle, these and authorities. Sorry, 0:16:30.440 --> 0:16:36.200 so let's do it right now. What is God leaving 0:16:36.240 --> 0:16:41.280 out in my life right now to lead me to 0:16:41.320 --> 0:16:45.320 where he called me all along? And I want to 0:16:45.320 --> 0:16:47.720 do it over under a couple of different headings. I 0:16:47.760 --> 0:16:51.600 want to talk about it from disappointments, that's number one. 0:16:52.000 --> 0:16:56.480 I want to talk about it through deficiency, and then 0:16:56.520 --> 0:17:00.440 I want to talk about it through deletions. Feed them 0:17:00.440 --> 0:17:03.720 back to me real quick. Disappointments put it in the 0:17:03.800 --> 0:17:12.080 chat next one deficiency and three deletions. They left Egypt 0:17:13.320 --> 0:17:16.800 with bread with no yeast, and they went into a 0:17:16.840 --> 0:17:19.560 place where they had no knowledge of how to survive. Remember, 0:17:19.560 --> 0:17:21.760 they went into the wilderness. God gave amana. All of 0:17:21.800 --> 0:17:24.439 that is awesome. You know, when I read the Bible 0:17:24.520 --> 0:17:28.920 sometimes I think the more important things that we learn 0:17:29.520 --> 0:17:32.800 are in the spaces where nothing is written. And I 0:17:32.840 --> 0:17:35.119 want to give you a few examples of that, because 0:17:35.160 --> 0:17:36.919 in your life, a lot of times it will not 0:17:37.040 --> 0:17:40.600 be the obvious things that will leave the greatest clues 0:17:41.200 --> 0:17:44.320 to what God has called you to do. One example 0:17:44.359 --> 0:17:47.400 that I thought of that was when God told Moses 0:17:47.440 --> 0:17:51.600 his name, he said I am And I figured out 0:17:51.640 --> 0:17:54.439 over time that God didn't get tongue tied about what 0:17:54.480 --> 0:17:59.400 came next. He wanted to leave it open. We want 0:17:59.440 --> 0:18:02.320 to limit God right. We want a picture of God 0:18:02.680 --> 0:18:06.560 that we can hang in our kitchen. We want a 0:18:06.600 --> 0:18:09.800 picture of Jesus that looks just like somebody with our 0:18:09.840 --> 0:18:15.000 same last name. But when God left that blank, he 0:18:15.040 --> 0:18:17.720 wanted you to know that He will not be confined 0:18:18.200 --> 0:18:20.919 to something that you can call him with human language, 0:18:21.840 --> 0:18:25.879 or a picture that your eyes can perceive. Let me 0:18:25.920 --> 0:18:28.520 show you this. In the New Testament, Acts chapter one 0:18:28.880 --> 0:18:33.040 is kind of like Numbers twelve or Exodus twelve, because 0:18:33.280 --> 0:18:36.800 it's a picture of a nation in transition. It's the 0:18:36.840 --> 0:18:39.040 same thing in Acts one, it's the same thing in 0:18:39.040 --> 0:18:42.560 the New Testament. Jesus is leaving, the Holy Spirit is coming, 0:18:42.800 --> 0:18:46.399 and life is happening in that transition. Life happens in 0:18:46.440 --> 0:18:50.679 the transitions, Life happens in the car, Life happens on 0:18:50.720 --> 0:18:53.560 the way to stuff, Life happens with something that came 0:18:53.640 --> 0:18:55.040 up on your caller idea and you don't even know 0:18:55.080 --> 0:18:58.280 what number that was. Life happens good and bad in 0:18:58.320 --> 0:19:01.560 places you didn't know to look. And so this is 0:19:01.600 --> 0:19:03.760 a This is a parallel that God gave me. They 0:19:03.800 --> 0:19:07.000 were coming out of Egypt. God was bringing his church 0:19:07.160 --> 0:19:10.480 out of a religious system in Acts chapter one. So 0:19:10.680 --> 0:19:13.760 they're standing there talking to Jesus, who they've walked with 0:19:13.800 --> 0:19:16.240 in Acts one, and look at verse six. They gathered 0:19:16.280 --> 0:19:19.680 around and asked him, Lord, are you x one six 0:19:20.000 --> 0:19:24.360 at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel. 0:19:24.359 --> 0:19:27.080 But God was not going to restore what they had before. 0:19:30.680 --> 0:19:34.639 He was going to replace it with something much better. 0:19:36.560 --> 0:19:40.720 I gotta get this through to somebody. God. God, God, 0:19:40.800 --> 0:19:46.320 God is not going to restore the earlier version of 0:19:46.359 --> 0:19:50.680 your life. God is not going to make things back 0:19:50.800 --> 0:19:55.359 like they were. He doesn't do that. That's not his thing. Jesus. 0:19:55.560 --> 0:19:57.440 I'm not saying that Jesus was like eight d or 0:19:57.440 --> 0:19:59.439 anything like that, but he couldn't do the same miracle 0:19:59.480 --> 0:20:03.160 the same way. He's spitting and touching and speaking, and 0:20:03.400 --> 0:20:07.760 it's it's not gonna be like it was now now. 0:20:07.760 --> 0:20:09.679 When they asked him this, they said, Lord, are you 0:20:09.720 --> 0:20:11.840 at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel? 0:20:12.520 --> 0:20:14.760 I want you to notice what he said back to them, 0:20:14.920 --> 0:20:16.480 It's not for you to know the times of the 0:20:16.520 --> 0:20:22.480 dates Father set by his own authorny. He reveals his 0:20:22.600 --> 0:20:26.960 power not by the details that he puts in, but 0:20:27.000 --> 0:20:32.240 by the details that he left out. He could have 0:20:32.240 --> 0:20:34.440 told him the answer to that. You think he didn't 0:20:34.480 --> 0:20:38.840 know and you didn't have a plan for it. You 0:20:38.880 --> 0:20:41.000 think God is like, oh, I didn't see this thing 0:20:41.080 --> 0:20:44.520 happening over there in China. This is a real game changer. 0:20:44.720 --> 0:20:47.600 What are we gonna do? Gabriel, Hey, Michael, get your 0:20:47.600 --> 0:20:50.560 war clothes on. There's a really got caught off guard. 0:20:50.720 --> 0:20:53.399 Goodness of sam Bush on the no no, no no, no, no, no. 0:20:56.960 --> 0:21:01.600 That blank space right there, that's the place where we 0:21:01.760 --> 0:21:06.800 learn to believe. See, if we know something, we don't 0:21:06.800 --> 0:21:11.560 have the opportunity to believe it. I don't have to 0:21:11.600 --> 0:21:16.520 believe what I know. I have to believe what God spoke. 0:21:18.680 --> 0:21:22.040 You want another one. God is often revealed by what 0:21:22.119 --> 0:21:24.159 he leaves out more than what he puts in. You 0:21:24.440 --> 0:21:27.280 really want another one? I got about three hundred of these, 0:21:28.520 --> 0:21:31.320 all right, let me give you another one. When they 0:21:31.320 --> 0:21:33.720 talk about Abraham in the Bible, he's known as the 0:21:33.880 --> 0:21:37.159 father of faith, the father of many nations, right, and 0:21:37.200 --> 0:21:41.879 it gives this little reductionist verse, revisionist history. It says 0:21:41.920 --> 0:21:48.400 Abraham believed God and it was credited to him for righteousness. Now, 0:21:48.400 --> 0:21:52.080 for someone who's been studying the Bible like I have 0:21:52.840 --> 0:21:57.560 these twenty and some years, twenty and some you like 0:21:57.600 --> 0:22:01.160 that leaving it open, let you know exactly how long 0:22:01.840 --> 0:22:05.240 he said. He did a lot more than believe God. 0:22:06.760 --> 0:22:10.639 He lied about who his wife was, He has sex 0:22:10.680 --> 0:22:13.000 with Hagar, who was supposed to be cleaning the house. 0:22:13.680 --> 0:22:15.879 He did a lot more than You don't like the 0:22:15.880 --> 0:22:19.639 real Bible, do you? Oh? You like that airbrush. You 0:22:19.680 --> 0:22:21.880 want me to leave this stuff out that you don't 0:22:22.080 --> 0:22:26.360 like about your Bible heroes. No, here's the thing about it. 0:22:26.960 --> 0:22:29.879 All that was left out when Paul wrote Romans, and 0:22:29.920 --> 0:22:33.400 I was going, why why did God leave that out? 0:22:35.400 --> 0:22:39.840 And I figured out that Abraham's life was not defined 0:22:39.840 --> 0:22:44.320 by his failures, not by God. It was defined by 0:22:44.359 --> 0:22:49.080 his faith. You got it? Are you getting it? So 0:22:49.160 --> 0:22:52.360 when Paul gets ready to describe Abraham, he doesn't mention 0:22:52.480 --> 0:22:55.040 the things we might mention. Oh, then they went bankrupt, 0:22:55.040 --> 0:22:57.480 and then and then they're kind of over there. He 0:22:57.600 --> 0:23:00.320 mentions none of that. He said he believed God. That's 0:23:00.359 --> 0:23:03.959 what counts. That's what matters. That's what will be said 0:23:04.040 --> 0:23:10.880 after the fact, even with the ups and downs. Leave 0:23:10.920 --> 0:23:14.359 it out. Leave it out. Last week I was preaching 0:23:14.400 --> 0:23:16.879 about the prodigal son, and I was mad at the 0:23:16.960 --> 0:23:21.120 dad and the story right because the younger one took 0:23:21.200 --> 0:23:24.360 his money and wasted it. Let's go to that passage 0:23:24.400 --> 0:23:28.680 real quick, Luke fifteen. I love the Word of God, Skinner, 0:23:28.880 --> 0:23:30.760 I love it. I love it. I love it. My 0:23:30.840 --> 0:23:34.840 hardest parted in finding out something to preach. My hardest 0:23:34.840 --> 0:23:37.239 part is figuring out what to leave out because this 0:23:37.280 --> 0:23:40.560 thing is so good to me. I told Abby last night. 0:23:40.640 --> 0:23:43.040 She came in, she said, you got your sermon ready? 0:23:43.080 --> 0:23:47.040 I said, no, I got three. She said, you'll find 0:23:47.080 --> 0:23:50.399 one verse to bring them all together. You always do. 0:23:52.800 --> 0:23:54.560 Did you say that? Or am I making it up? 0:23:55.280 --> 0:23:58.560 She was a prophet because I didn't know. I didn't 0:23:58.560 --> 0:24:01.520 know what it had to do with Yeaston bred and 0:24:01.600 --> 0:24:03.760 the prodigal son. I'm like, I guess they both have 0:24:03.840 --> 0:24:06.600 food in them, but what else? Watch this? You ready? 0:24:07.280 --> 0:24:12.480 Whoa luke fifteen? Luke fifteen? So the younger brother he 0:24:12.480 --> 0:24:16.520 goes out and he's doing his you know, younger brother stuff. 0:24:16.760 --> 0:24:19.760 And he's out there, you know, spending everything he had, 0:24:20.080 --> 0:24:22.840 trying to be independent from the father. You know, I 0:24:22.920 --> 0:24:28.919 want my freedom. It's not really free, It's not really free. 0:24:29.080 --> 0:24:30.840 When the devil tempts you, he leaves a lot of 0:24:30.840 --> 0:24:37.679 stuff out about what it's going to cost you. You 0:24:37.720 --> 0:24:42.080 think God's the only one who leaves stuff out. The 0:24:42.640 --> 0:24:47.719 devil has the same strategy. He will tell you all 0:24:47.880 --> 0:24:54.040 about the feeling. I gotta go back real quick. I 0:24:54.040 --> 0:24:56.159 gotta go back real quick. When they were saying we 0:24:56.160 --> 0:24:58.920 wish we were back in Egypt, remember from last week. Remember, 0:24:59.080 --> 0:25:03.479 and they said we had in Egypt. You also had 0:25:03.520 --> 0:25:06.040 an unreasonable quota of bricks that you had to make 0:25:06.080 --> 0:25:10.919 with not enough straw. You left that out out. You 0:25:11.000 --> 0:25:13.359 left that out. And there's a way our memory gets selective, 0:25:13.480 --> 0:25:19.920 all the good old days. I should probably leave this out. 0:25:21.040 --> 0:25:22.639 We could take that out later. I don't know what 0:25:22.680 --> 0:25:26.160 that was. But look at me, I'm printing the Bible. Now. 0:25:27.840 --> 0:25:32.040