Speaker 1: Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick. I'm the pastor of Elevation
Speaker 1: Church and this is our podcast. I wanted to thank
Speaker 1: you for joining us today. Hope this inspires you. Hope
Speaker 1: it builds your faith. Hope it gives your perspective to
Speaker 1: see God is moving in your life. Enjoy the message.
Speaker 1: It's been a great morning already, and we are so
Speaker 1: excited about what we have in store. I was talking
Speaker 1: to Pastor Stephen yesterday on the phone and he was
Speaker 1: telling me he's really excited about about two things right now.
Speaker 1: Number one is he can't wait to be on this
Speaker 1: stage preaching next weekend at his favorite place in the planet.
Speaker 1: So when he's excited, spoilert you should be excited because
Speaker 1: next weekend is going to be incredible. Are you excited
Speaker 1: to have our pastor with us next weekend? And then
Speaker 1: he was also telling me he was very excited that
Speaker 1: we have Lisa Turkhurst in the house this weekend to
Speaker 1: preach to us. Lisa and Art have been Elevators part
Speaker 1: of our church for close to a decade now, very
Speaker 1: faithful and committed participants in our church. We love them,
Speaker 1: their family, their dear friends of Pastor Stephen and Holly,
Speaker 1: And if you didn't know this, Lisa is a New
Speaker 1: York Times bestselling author many many many times over. In fact,
Speaker 1: her new book is It's Not Supposed to Be This Way,
Speaker 1: It's out now. She's the president, she's the founder of
Speaker 1: Proverbs thirty one Ministry. She preaches and teaches all over
Speaker 1: the world, inspiring the church globally. And we are very
Speaker 1: very blessed and honored that she is preaching at her
Speaker 1: church home this weekend. So at every location, can you
Speaker 1: please put your hands together and celebrate as we welcome
Speaker 1: Lisa Turkhurst to the stage. Thank you so much. What
Speaker 1: a joy and honor it is to be able to
Speaker 1: be in my home church, and this is very exciting.
Speaker 1: There's two things about elevation that I have seen across
Speaker 1: the world as I'm out preaching and teaching in different
Speaker 1: environments and different facilities, and it's this Number one, elevation
Speaker 1: worship is in every church conference I go to. And
Speaker 1: what a gift it is that we get to hear
Speaker 1: it in our home church. Can we thank God for
Speaker 1: elevation worship? And the second thing is when people find
Speaker 1: out that I get to sit under the teaching of
Speaker 1: Pastor Stephen Ferdick every single week. They kind of wish
Speaker 1: they could move to Charlotte and do the very same thing.
Speaker 1: Can we thank God for our pastor? Amazing Pastor. Stephen
Speaker 1: and Holly are good friends, and so that gives me
Speaker 1: a unique opportunity to be able to see something that
Speaker 1: I'm so blessed by is that you guys are incredible people.
Speaker 1: Whether you're on the stage or behind the scenes, you're
Speaker 1: good people. And I thank God for that. Can we
Speaker 1: thank God for the gifts that we have in Castor
Speaker 1: and Holly? Well, stay standing for the reading of God's Word.
Speaker 1: We're gonna read first off from Revelation. In case you
Speaker 1: haven't been to the Revelation in a while, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: unpack a little bit for you. But let's read God's
Speaker 1: word and be encouraged by it this morning. Revelation chapter
Speaker 1: twenty one, starting in verse three, and I heard a
Speaker 1: loud voice from the throne saying, Look, God's dwelling place
Speaker 1: is now among the people, and He will dwell with them,
Speaker 1: and they will be his people, and God himself will
Speaker 1: be with them and be their God. He will wipe
Speaker 1: every tear from their eyes. There will be no more
Speaker 1: death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old
Speaker 1: order of things has passed away. Come on, somebody, we
Speaker 1: have a lot to look forward to. You right you
Speaker 1: can be seated. And for those of you who are
Speaker 1: note takers, and I hope that means most of you,
Speaker 1: you'll want the title of the sermon right away, and
Speaker 1: that is Life between Two Gardens. And that may sound
Speaker 1: like a strange title, but by the end of my message,
Speaker 1: I promise you will understand life between two gardens. You know,
Speaker 1: as I read these verses in Revelation that gives me
Speaker 1: great hope for one day. But I want to make
Speaker 1: sure that I have great hope and great fate to
Speaker 1: live out what I need to live out today, because
Speaker 1: sometimes life can be hard. A couple weeks ago, Pastor
Speaker 1: Preach an incredible message from a message entitled Invisible Prisons,
Speaker 1: and he said something that really grabbed my heart. He said,
Speaker 1: what God uses to develop your fate is disappointment, and
Speaker 1: what the devil uses to destroy your faith is disappointment.
Speaker 1: I want to dive into disappointment today because I think
Speaker 1: it's something that we can all relate to. I want
Speaker 1: to identify where does disappointment come from and what do
Speaker 1: we do about it? And I'm also going to share
Speaker 1: from my heart some very personal, deep devastating disappointments that
Speaker 1: my family and I have walked through the past three years.
Speaker 1: And I think and I pray you'll be able to
Speaker 1: relate to today's message. Here's the deal. We've all either
Speaker 1: just been through some stuff, or we're in the middle
Speaker 1: of some stuff, or we're headed toward being in some stuff.
Speaker 1: And you may say, well, Lisa, that's not very positive. No,
Speaker 1: I'm positive we either been through some stuff, we in
Speaker 1: some stuff, or we about to go through some stuff. Right,
Speaker 1: And so I like to open up God's word and
Speaker 1: discover what do we do about the disappointments that we
Speaker 1: all face every single day. But first let's discover where
Speaker 1: disappointment comes from. And to do that, we're going to
Speaker 1: turn over to Genesis, the very first book of the Bible,
Speaker 1: starting in chapter two, verse five. Now, no shrub had
Speaker 1: yet appeared on the earth, and no plant had yet
Speaker 1: sprung up, for the Lord God had not sent the
Speaker 1: rain on the earth, and there was no one to
Speaker 1: work the ground. But streams came up from the earth
Speaker 1: and watered the whole surface of the ground. Then the
Speaker 1: Lord God formed a man from the dust of the
Speaker 1: ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life,
Speaker 1: and the man became a living being. Now, the Lord
Speaker 1: God verse eight planted a garden in the east in Eden,
Speaker 1: and there he put the man he had formed. The
Speaker 1: Lord God made all kinds of trees to grow out
Speaker 1: of the ground, trees that were pleasing to the eye
Speaker 1: and good for food. In the middle of the garden,
Speaker 1: where the tree of Life and the tree of the
Speaker 1: Knowledge of good and evil. Skip down to verse fifteen,
Speaker 1: the Lord God took the man and put him in
Speaker 1: the garden of Eden to work it and take care
Speaker 1: of it. And the Lord God commanded the man, you
Speaker 1: are free to eat from any tree in the garden,
Speaker 1: but you must not eat from the tree of Knowledge
Speaker 1: of good and evil, for when you eat from it,
Speaker 1: you will certainly die. And I'm convinced at this point
Speaker 1: that the man did not write the one rule down,
Speaker 1: because the very next verse, the Lord says, Ah, it
Speaker 1: is not good for the man to be alone. I
Speaker 1: will make a helper suitable for him. And women have
Speaker 1: been making lists for their men ever since. Come on,
Speaker 1: somebody say, amen, nahha, you know it's true. You have
Speaker 1: a woman in the house today, So you know, just
Speaker 1: a special gift for you there. And after that, a
Speaker 1: helper suitable for Adam has looked for. So Adam names
Speaker 1: all the animals, but no helper was found amongst the animals.
Speaker 1: And so then God causes a man to fall into
Speaker 1: a deep sleep and he takes part of a rib,
Speaker 1: and from that he fashions a woman. And then God
Speaker 1: brings the woman to Adam. And listen to what he says.
Speaker 1: It's so poetic. It's almost like rivaling any rap song
Speaker 1: that you could hear today. This is now bone of
Speaker 1: my bones and flesh of my flesh. She shall be
Speaker 1: called whoa man, for she was taken out of a man.
Speaker 1: My friend Levi LESCo says that the original meeting of
Speaker 1: that part of scripture right there is she had apple
Speaker 1: bottom jeans and boots with the fur. I can't find
Speaker 1: that in all my research, but that's what Levi says,
Speaker 1: verse twenty four. This is why man leaves his father
Speaker 1: and his mother and is united to his wife, and
Speaker 1: they become one flesh. And then one of my favorite
Speaker 1: verses in all of the Bible, Genesis two twenty five,
Speaker 1: Adam and his wife were both naked, and they felt
Speaker 1: no shame. They felt no shame though they were standing
Speaker 1: there completely vulnerable before one another and before God himself.
Speaker 1: But they could stand there feeling no shame and being
Speaker 1: that vulnerable because they had no other opinion to contend
Speaker 1: with but the absolute love of God himself. Can you imagine?
Speaker 1: Perfection was everywhere? There was perfection in their relationship. There
Speaker 1: was perfect communion with God. The atmosphere, the environment, all
Speaker 1: of their surroundings were perfect. Everything was amazing. But then
Speaker 1: we find Genesis three, verse one. Now the serpent was
Speaker 1: more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord
Speaker 1: God had made. He said to the woman, did God
Speaker 1: really say? And don't you kind of wish that the
Speaker 1: woman at this point would have said, if you're so
Speaker 1: interested in what God had to say, go ask him yourself. Right,
Speaker 1: God has saved all of us a whole lot of trouble,
Speaker 1: wouldn't it, But that's not what happens. Did God really say?
Speaker 1: And it Isn't it also interesting that the devil always
Speaker 1: wants to make us question God's word. I mean, God
Speaker 1: is the creator, but the enemy is the perverter. Not
Speaker 1: only does he want to make us doubt God's word,
Speaker 1: he wants to make us believe that God's word is
Speaker 1: too difficult to understand and too hard to live out.
Speaker 1: The Thing about it, though, is that the God of
Speaker 1: the universe hand fashioned our brain. I'm convinced with his
Speaker 1: word and mind, we were made to be able to
Speaker 1: not only get into God's word, but for God's word
Speaker 1: to get into us. Come on, somebody, that's amazing, right.
Speaker 1: But the enemy wants to pervert that. And then look
Speaker 1: at what he does when he quotes back what God
Speaker 1: said his first three words, the enemy's first three words
Speaker 1: that he said God said was you must not now
Speaker 1: what were God's actual first three words? God's actual first
Speaker 1: three words? Or you are free? We serve a God
Speaker 1: of freedom. But the enemy wants us to believe that
Speaker 1: we serve a God of restriction. The enemy wants us
Speaker 1: to believe that we serve it. You must not God,
Speaker 1: but that's not true. We serve a God of freedom.
Speaker 1: He has woven the theme of freedom. He wants his
Speaker 1: people free all the way through the Bible. Now he
Speaker 1: does give us some restriction, but it's for our protection.
Speaker 1: We serve a God of freedom. But look how the
Speaker 1: enemy twists that. When he quotes God. He says, God
Speaker 1: said you must not eat from any tree in the garden.
Speaker 1: The woman said to the serpent, we may eat from
Speaker 1: the fruit from the trees in the garden. But God
Speaker 1: did say you must not eat from the fruit of
Speaker 1: the tree that is in the middle of the garden.
Speaker 1: You must not even touch it, or you will die.
Speaker 1: Now that is not at all what God said. She
Speaker 1: added that last little part. I think it's very dangerous
Speaker 1: when we add our opinion on top of God's word.
Speaker 1: I really, really do you know. So many times it's
Speaker 1: like people will Lisa, what is your opinion about this
Speaker 1: issue and that issue? And I said, why does my
Speaker 1: opinion matter? When God's word is so very clear. We
Speaker 1: got to get into God's word and let God's word
Speaker 1: get into us. God will give us the answers that
Speaker 1: we need. We don't need to be adding our opinion
Speaker 1: to God's word. Verse four, you will certainly not die,
Speaker 1: the serpent said to the woman, for God knows when
Speaker 1: you eat from it, your eyes will be opened, and
Speaker 1: you will be like God, knowing good and evil. And
Speaker 1: when the woman saw that the fruit of the tree
Speaker 1: was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and
Speaker 1: also desirable for gaining wisdom. Wait just one minute, So
Speaker 1: I used to think as I was reading the story,
Speaker 1: that's kind of challenging that God would put this tree
Speaker 1: in the middle of the garden. The tree is the
Speaker 1: knowledge of good and evil and hang on it fruit
Speaker 1: that was so pleasing to the eye and good for food.
Speaker 1: I mean, was this kind of like a super fruit
Speaker 1: like brownie a mode fruit? How could she resist, right
Speaker 1: and like to put that there with that amazing fruit
Speaker 1: and then say don't eat from it. That just seemed
Speaker 1: kind of complicated to me until I kept it in
Speaker 1: the context that it's really in. And if you remember
Speaker 1: when I read Genesis too, there's a detail about all
Speaker 1: the trees in the garden. All the trees in the
Speaker 1: garden had fruit that was good for food and pleasing
Speaker 1: to the eye. They all had the Brownie ala mode
Speaker 1: fruit hanging on it. Right, she was surrounded by God's provision,
Speaker 1: but she stared at the one thing God said not
Speaker 1: to have. And we will steer where we stare right,
Speaker 1: same thing we want what we want, And when we
Speaker 1: get fixated on something, even if God says no. We
Speaker 1: try to say yes, because here's the thing. I think
Speaker 1: sometimes we do think God's withholding something from us. God's
Speaker 1: not withholding something from us. God is protecting us from
Speaker 1: all that's contained in that fruit that we have no
Speaker 1: idea that fruit was the knowledge of good and evil.
Speaker 1: The human heart was never supposed to know the knowledge
Speaker 1: of evil. It is too heavy of awake. God wasn't
Speaker 1: withholding from us. He was protecting us. You know what
Speaker 1: the knowledge of evil is. It's all those things we
Speaker 1: experience and we say, it's not supposed to be this way.
Speaker 1: A cancer diagnosis, infertility, struggle, betrayal, heartbreak, devastations that we
Speaker 1: see on the nightly news. You're right, it's not supposed
Speaker 1: to be this way. God never intended for us to
Speaker 1: note the knowledge of evil. But Eve looked at the
Speaker 1: one thing she wasn't supposed to take, and she took
Speaker 1: some and she ate it, and she gave some to
Speaker 1: her husband and who was with her, and he ate it.
Speaker 1: Then suddenly the eyes of both of them were opened
Speaker 1: and they realized that they were naked. I wonder what
Speaker 1: that moment was like. Did they look down and go
Speaker 1: all or did they look across and go, oh, no, bra,
Speaker 1: you got to cover that up, like here you a
Speaker 1: fig and a leaf. We got to do something about
Speaker 1: all that. Right. I don't know. I wasn't there, but
Speaker 1: here's what I do know. They weren't just physically naked.
Speaker 1: They were also emotionally naked. They'd never felt the weight
Speaker 1: of guilt before, but they do now. And they were
Speaker 1: spiritually naked. They never felt the way of shame before,
Speaker 1: but they do now. And think of all the things
Speaker 1: now that God would have surely been justified in saying
Speaker 1: to Adam and Eve. They didn't just unleash sin that day.
Speaker 1: We're still living out that reality to day. Think of
Speaker 1: the weight of that. So well, Adam and Eve are hiding,
Speaker 1: here comes God walking in the cool of the day,
Speaker 1: and I just imagine all he would have been justified
Speaker 1: in saying. But he doesn't. He simply asked them two questions.
Speaker 1: I'm stunned by this, and I think that maybe God
Speaker 1: would like to ask us those same two questions today.
Speaker 1: The first question, he says, where are you now? Their
Speaker 1: physical location was not a mystery to God. He's God.
Speaker 1: He knew exactly where they were located. But Adam and
Speaker 1: Eve are hiding and they are afraid. The sound that
Speaker 1: used to be such a delight to them when everything
Speaker 1: was perfect, the sound of God walking in the garden.
Speaker 1: It used to be like Daddy's home. And I imagine
Speaker 1: them running through the garden and being so excited. But
Speaker 1: if you were a child and you ever had your
Speaker 1: mama say this to you, you just wait till your
Speaker 1: daddy gets home, right, you know, the sound of Daddy
Speaker 1: getting home on those days is not so nice, right.
Speaker 1: And I imagine now the very sound that used to
Speaker 1: bring them such joy as making them so afraid. And
Speaker 1: so I think God is saying where are you? Because
Speaker 1: they've lost their spiritual orientation. They've forgotten where to go
Speaker 1: to when they're afraid. I think God asked me that
Speaker 1: question some mornings when I wake up and I'm in
Speaker 1: a funk. Have you ever been in a funk? Like
Speaker 1: you just wake up and it's like no particular reason.
Speaker 1: You just feel like the weight of the world's on you,
Speaker 1: and you're just kind of grumpy, you know, And you
Speaker 1: know you should listen to a praise song, you know,
Speaker 1: should read the Bible, but instead you're like, no, let
Speaker 1: me just hop on Facebook for a minute. Let me
Speaker 1: just hop on Instagram, and I'll hop on Instagram and
Speaker 1: I'll start scrolling, and all of a sudden, it doesn't
Speaker 1: make my funk better. It multiplies my funk because suddenly
Speaker 1: everybody else's thighs look thinner than mine, their marriage looks
Speaker 1: more romantic than mine, their kids are getting more words
Speaker 1: than mine. Their house is better decorated than mine. And
Speaker 1: my two best friends got together and went out to
Speaker 1: dinner last night. What they didn't even invite me? Right,
Speaker 1: and my funk is multiplied. I think God would like
Speaker 1: to say, Lisa, where are you? Where are you? Girl?
Speaker 1: You need to get off of Facebook and get your
Speaker 1: face in my book because that is where hope can
Speaker 1: be found. I know what you need. Right the second
Speaker 1: question that God asked them, who told you you were naked?
Speaker 1: Remember that Adam and Eve and God are not the
Speaker 1: only ones in the garden at this point. The enemy
Speaker 1: is also there. And I know from reading Revelation chapter twelve,
Speaker 1: verses ten and eleven, the enemy is called the accuser
Speaker 1: of the Brethren. He accuses us day and night, and
Speaker 1: so I know the enemy is there, and I believe
Speaker 1: the enemy would love for Adam and eve to believe
Speaker 1: and for you and I to believe that we haven't
Speaker 1: just done something wrong, that we are something wrong and
Speaker 1: he accuses us so we can try to lock us
Speaker 1: in chains of shame. Right just like Pastor was saying,
Speaker 1: the enemy would love for us to be in prison.
Speaker 1: You know, just by all the stuff, I think God
Speaker 1: asking who told you you were naked is really saying
Speaker 1: who told you you were anything less than the amazing
Speaker 1: child of the almighty God who told you you were naked.
Speaker 1: You see, I think some of us have words that
Speaker 1: have been sitting on us for a long time, and
Speaker 1: pain that we carry around with us that was from
Speaker 1: a long time ago. At some point in your life,
Speaker 1: somebody spoke a line to you and it became a
Speaker 1: lie that you believed about yourself. And then that lie
Speaker 1: that you believed about yourself suddenly became a label that
Speaker 1: you put on yourself and your identity. And now that
Speaker 1: label has become a liability in all your relationships of today.
Speaker 1: And somebody will say something to you today and it'll
Speaker 1: offend you. But you have a way out of proportion
Speaker 1: reaction to the offense at hand. Why, because you are
Speaker 1: still carrying the pain of that line that became a lie,
Speaker 1: that became a label, and now is a liability. And
Speaker 1: you are holding this person accountable for things they hadn't
Speaker 1: even done. Who told you, who told you that you
Speaker 1: were naked? We cannot let their words become the words
Speaker 1: of our story. We got to let God's words become
Speaker 1: the words of the story of our lives. Amen. Amen. Well,
Speaker 1: after this, then God does have consequences for them, because
Speaker 1: sin always comes as a package deal with consequences. There's
Speaker 1: no sin that you commit where there's not a package
Speaker 1: deal of consequences that come with it. And there were consequences.
Speaker 1: But sin also demands a sacrifice. Let's look at Genesis III,
Speaker 1: starting in verse twenty one. Then the Lord God made
Speaker 1: garments of skin for Adam and his wife, and he
Speaker 1: clothed them. And with apologies to the animal activists, blood
Speaker 1: of an animal was shed here. The animals were harmed
Speaker 1: in the making of this story. But this is appointing
Speaker 1: really to Jesus because this day was the blood of
Speaker 1: the animal that would be the sacrifice to cover their sin.
Speaker 1: And one day it would be the blood of God's
Speaker 1: own son, Jesus Christ that would be shed, that would
Speaker 1: drip from a cross to be the ultimate covering for
Speaker 1: the sin of the world. And the Lord God said
Speaker 1: verse twenty two, the man has now become like one
Speaker 1: of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be
Speaker 1: allowed to reach out his hand and take also from
Speaker 1: the tree of life and eat and live forever. So
Speaker 1: the Lord God banished him from the garden of Eden
Speaker 1: to work the ground from which he had been taken.
Speaker 1: And I'll be honest, if we were sitting at my
Speaker 1: kitchen table right now, I would admit to you that
Speaker 1: that's hard for me to hear that God banished them
Speaker 1: from the garden. If you ever read that, and kind
Speaker 1: of thought, oh, that sits heavy on you, right. And
Speaker 1: so I decided to do a little study, taking the
Speaker 1: word banished and going back to the Hebrew to see
Speaker 1: what was the original intention of that word. And I
Speaker 1: found something so surprising. The root of that word actually
Speaker 1: means sent out, not banished. In other words, God sent
Speaker 1: them out, which tells me he was doing it for
Speaker 1: a purpose a reason. Interestingly enough, the Hebrew derivative of
Speaker 1: scent out is closely related to the New Testament Greek
Speaker 1: derivative from John three point sixteen, when God so loved
Speaker 1: the world that he gave or he sends in his
Speaker 1: son Jesus. Again, it's appointing to what Jesus will one
Speaker 1: day be able to do for us that we cannot
Speaker 1: do for ourselves. But why did God send them out
Speaker 1: of the garden? Why did they have to leave? Look
Speaker 1: at the text, it's very clear. Remember there's another tree
Speaker 1: in the garden, the Tree of life. They were allowed
Speaker 1: to eat from that when they were in perfection. To
Speaker 1: eat from the Tree of life meant that their lives
Speaker 1: would be perpetuated for eternity, and that was good when
Speaker 1: they were perfect. But now that sin has entered in
Speaker 1: their body is in a state of decay and they
Speaker 1: are separated from God. If God would have left them
Speaker 1: and they would have eaten from the Tree of Life,
Speaker 1: then they would have been stuck in that state forever.
Speaker 1: And God loved them too much to do that. So
Speaker 1: he sends them out and gives them a gift that
Speaker 1: will feel nothing like a gift at all. He will
Speaker 1: allow their physical bodies to die so that they could
Speaker 1: trade that then for a spiritual body that, through the
Speaker 1: forgiveness of Jesus Christ, that could enter back into that
Speaker 1: perfect relationship with God. This was not an act of cruelty.
Speaker 1: It was an act of great mercy. Amen. Now let
Speaker 1: me just point out one more thing though. From all
Speaker 1: that we've read, I now know the human heart was
Speaker 1: in the context of the perfection of the garden of Eden.
Speaker 1: So when Adam and Eve were sent out, God did
Speaker 1: not strip from them that awareness of perfection. The awareness
Speaker 1: of perfection is etched into the very dna of our soul.
Speaker 1: We know perfection exists, but we can't find it. No
Speaker 1: wonder we are disappointed. This is where disappointment comes from.
Speaker 1: Have you ever been taking a picture with a group
Speaker 1: of friends and you all smile, take the picture, and
Speaker 1: then before they post it, you say, let me see it,
Speaker 1: and then you hold it and you do like this,
Speaker 1: who you looking at y'rself? Right? And if you happened
Speaker 1: to be in the middle and you had your butt
Speaker 1: out and your hips tucked behind the person beside you,
Speaker 1: and you look real good, you'll be like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: we got to post this one right away. It's good
Speaker 1: at everybody, uh huh. But if you were the sad
Speaker 1: fool that got stuck on the end this way and
Speaker 1: you I'm looking, oh you know what I'm saying, and
Speaker 1: your arms are just not good, and chen something something happening,
Speaker 1: you will hit the trash can on their phone. You
Speaker 1: will say it was blurry. Everybody's eyes were shut. Now,
Speaker 1: let me get up here in the middle. Let's take
Speaker 1: that picture now, right, we know perfection exists we keep
Speaker 1: looking for But even then, even if the picture's real, real,
Speaker 1: good of us, we still crop it and we edit it, right,
Speaker 1: we filter it, and that's not even good enough. Now
Speaker 1: we got to post it and make sure other people
Speaker 1: think it's perfect. Refresh, Refresh, refress. How many lights do
Speaker 1: I get? Right? We know perfection exists, and that's where
Speaker 1: disappointment comes from. So here's my question. Why didn't God
Speaker 1: strip the awareness of perfection out from our hearts? Because
Speaker 1: it's his way of drawing our heart to him, the
Speaker 1: one who is perfect, the only one who is perfect,
Speaker 1: the answer to every desire for perfection that we keep chasing.
Speaker 1: And if lesser loves ever satisfied us, we would think
Speaker 1: we had no need for God. So, my friends, that's
Speaker 1: where disappointment comes from. We hold everything up to this standard,
Speaker 1: this expectation of perfection, and then our experience hits right. Here,
Speaker 1: and the fertile ground between those two is disappointment. Now,
Speaker 1: if our disappointment, if the worst disappointment that we face
Speaker 1: today is that we go through the drive through coffee
Speaker 1: line and they frapay our latte and waylay our whole day,
Speaker 1: we're like, oh, I'm just gonna put a little Jesus
Speaker 1: on it and it's gonna be okay. We'll handle my
Speaker 1: disappointment right. And that's good. That's good. But a lot
Speaker 1: of us are going through disappointments that are pretty serious,
Speaker 1: heartbreaking actually, and it's not just disappointment, really, it's like
Speaker 1: a devastation, a disillusionment. What do we do about that? Well,
Speaker 1: we heard in Revelation that there will be a new day.
Speaker 1: So let's turn back to Revelation because I want to
Speaker 1: show you something else that I think is pretty profound.
Speaker 1: Let's go back to Revelation chapter twenty one, starting in
Speaker 1: verse three and read that part again, and then we'll
Speaker 1: keep going. And I heard a loud voice from the
Speaker 1: throne saying, Look, God's dwelling place is now among the people.
Speaker 1: He will dwell with them, and they will be his people,
Speaker 1: and God himself will be with them and be their God,
Speaker 1: he will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will
Speaker 1: be no more death or mourning, or crying or pain,
Speaker 1: for the old order of things has passed away. He
Speaker 1: who is seated on the throne said, I am making
Speaker 1: everything new. Then he said, write this down. I think
Speaker 1: because he's given the revelation to a man, he didn't
Speaker 1: want them to miss it this time. Write this down,
Speaker 1: for these words are trustsworthy and true. He said to me,
Speaker 1: it is done. I'm the Alpha and the Omega, the
Speaker 1: beginning and the end. And then look over at Revelation
Speaker 1: twenty two, verse three. No longer will there be any curse.
Speaker 1: You see. Let me give you a little spiritual orientation here.
Speaker 1: We start out in the perfection of Eden, but we
Speaker 1: don't live there anymore. So we live the anxiety of
Speaker 1: the first Eden. In Revelation chapter twenty two that we
Speaker 1: just read from my Bible says that's when Eden is restored.
Speaker 1: So we not only live from anxiety of the first
Speaker 1: garden of Eden, but we live in anticipation that the
Speaker 1: perfection of Eden will return. But right now we're simply
Speaker 1: doing life between two gardens. And I wonder if that
Speaker 1: could help make sense of some of the disappointments, and
Speaker 1: maybe we could stop expecting a perfection out of ourselves
Speaker 1: and others and our relationships that not even God expects. Like.
Speaker 1: I wonder if we could just give people a little
Speaker 1: more grace, right, Stop expecting our jobs to be so perfect,
Speaker 1: Stop expecting church to be so perfect. Stop expecting your
Speaker 1: neighbor to be so perfect, your spouse to be so perfect,
Speaker 1: your kids to be so perfect. I wonder if we
Speaker 1: could just step back a little bit and just acknowledge, yup,
Speaker 1: I'm doing life between two gardens right. It's not always
Speaker 1: going to be that way, but it is that way today. Now,
Speaker 1: what do we do about it? To do that, I
Speaker 1: want to turn to Mark chapter fourteen. There's a middle
Speaker 1: garden in this life between two gardens. In Mark chapter fourteen,
Speaker 1: Jesus has just had the last supper with his disciples,
Speaker 1: and they've walked across the Kidron Valley, and now they've
Speaker 1: gone to this place they would meet out often outside
Speaker 1: the city, called the garden of Gasemone. In this garden
Speaker 1: of Gsemone, Gisemone means the place of the pressing of
Speaker 1: the olive verse thirty two. This is what Jesus says,
Speaker 1: knowing full well that soldiers are on the way to
Speaker 1: arrest him and take him on the road to the cross.
Speaker 1: They Jesus and his disciples Verse thirty two, Mark chapter fourteen.
Speaker 1: They went to a place called Goodsemone, and Jesus said
Speaker 1: to his disciples, sit here while I pray. He took Peter, James,
Speaker 1: and John along with him, and he began to be
Speaker 1: deeply distressed and troubled. My soul, Jesus said, is overwhelmed
Speaker 1: with sorrow to the point of death. He said to
Speaker 1: them stay here and keep watch. I don't know about you,
Speaker 1: but as I read these words of Jesus, I find
Speaker 1: myself saying, there are no words of Jesus I can
Speaker 1: relate to more than this, because I know what it's
Speaker 1: like to walk through something and feel so overwhelmed with
Speaker 1: sorrow that I say, I think this just might kill me.
Speaker 1: Have you ever been there? That's where my family and
Speaker 1: I have been the past three years. I know what
Speaker 1: it feels like to come into church sit way back
Speaker 1: there because I feel like I'm walking in and I
Speaker 1: can barely breathe. That's another reason I'm so grateful to
Speaker 1: be sitting under teaching a Pastor Stephen, because when you're
Speaker 1: that overwhelmed, you can't remember whole messages. But sometimes it's
Speaker 1: sentences within messages that change people's lives because we can
Speaker 1: hold onto those sentences and we can preach back those sentences.
Speaker 1: And we have a pastor who cares so much about
Speaker 1: our hearts that he writes messages with sentences that we
Speaker 1: can remember and preach back to ourselves that are inspired
Speaker 1: by the Holy Spirit, where he spends time in the
Speaker 1: text and he unearthed these truths that sometimes we can't
Speaker 1: find for ourselves and for those of us are hanging
Speaker 1: on by a thread. Dear God, that's what we need.
Speaker 1: That's what I've needed. Some of you walked in church
Speaker 1: today and you're right there just hanging on by a thread.
Speaker 1: Can I tell to you I'm so proud of you
Speaker 1: forgetting to church today. This is exactly where you need
Speaker 1: to be. It's exactly where you need to be. And
Speaker 1: those of you joining onlines is the best way for
Speaker 1: you to spend your time. This is the best place
Speaker 1: that you could log on online. Of all the choices
Speaker 1: as you have, you chose Elevationchurch dot org and that
Speaker 1: was a great, great choice. You know, why Because sometimes
Speaker 1: when we can't find footing in our faith, we got
Speaker 1: to go stand on somebody else's faith. We got to
Speaker 1: go stand on Pastor Stephen's faith. We got to go
Speaker 1: stand beside somebody who's in a different season and they
Speaker 1: are proclaiming the faithfulness of God in a way that
Speaker 1: it shifts the atmosphere of our depression. It lives our anxiety.
Speaker 1: We got to get ourselves to church. We got to
Speaker 1: get in a place where we can be reminded that
Speaker 1: our God is good, Our God is very good. You
Speaker 1: see what my family and I have been walking through
Speaker 1: in the past several years is that in February of
Speaker 1: twenty sixteen, I found out my husband, my life partner
Speaker 1: for over two decades, was being unfaithful, and it about
Speaker 1: broke me into just break me. It shattered me. It
Speaker 1: was the hardest thing that we've ever walked through as
Speaker 1: a family. That's why I think Jesus says to disciples,
Speaker 1: stay here and keep watch. I used to think it
Speaker 1: was just because the soldiers were coming and he didn't
Speaker 1: want to get caught off guard by the soldiers. But
Speaker 1: Jesus is God. I mean, He's full divinity and absolute humanity.
Speaker 1: He knew where their soldiers were. Now, maybe he didn't
Speaker 1: want the disciples to get caught off guard. But I
Speaker 1: think there's another meaning. I think Jesus is saying, stay
Speaker 1: here and watch how I do this life between two gardens.
Speaker 1: Stay here and watch me, because you're gonna need this.
Speaker 1: You're gonna need this. You're gonna need this when you
Speaker 1: go through times of deep sorrow and deep heartbreak. Stay
Speaker 1: here and watch me. Keep your eyes on me. I
Speaker 1: want you to write down some verses that this week.
Speaker 1: I want you to take some time and go read
Speaker 1: for yourself. It's in Hebrews chapter two, verses fourteen through eighteen.
Speaker 1: In Hebrews Chapter two, verse fourteen says this, since the
Speaker 1: children have flesh and blood, he too, shared in their humanity,
Speaker 1: so that by his death he might break the power
Speaker 1: of him who holds the power of death, that is
Speaker 1: the devil next verse verse fifteen, and free those who
Speaker 1: all their lives were held in slavery by their fear
Speaker 1: of death next verse. For surely it's not the angels
Speaker 1: he helps, but Abraham's descendants next verse, verse seventeen. For
Speaker 1: this reason, he had to be made like them, fully human.
Speaker 1: In every way. Make no mistake, Jesus was absolute divinity
Speaker 1: and full humanity at the same time, without sin, but
Speaker 1: fully human. He knows what it feels like to be human.
Speaker 1: Now he hasn't experienced maybe the exact same circumstances as you,
Speaker 1: but the emotional turmoil that we experience. He knows what
Speaker 1: it feels like to be betrayed, He knows what it
Speaker 1: feels like to be heartbroken. He knows what it feels
Speaker 1: like to be so very human and the weight of
Speaker 1: all of that, and the reason God sent him was
Speaker 1: not just to make an atonement for our sins, but
Speaker 1: what a great gift that was, but also so that
Speaker 1: he could be a merciful and faithful high priest to us.
Speaker 1: We can trust his teaching because we can know he
Speaker 1: felt what we feel. We can't listen to Jesus's words
Speaker 1: and say, well, he didn't understand, because he's God after all,
Speaker 1: no fully human in every way, we can Trust's teaching
Speaker 1: even when we're experiencing the deepest heartbreak, especially when we're
Speaker 1: experiencing the deepest heartbreak going through the hardest stuff, because
Speaker 1: Jesus knew what it felt like. Look at the very
Speaker 1: next words that he says verse thirty six, Going just
Speaker 1: a little farther so they could still see him. He
Speaker 1: fell to the ground and prayed, if possible, the hour
Speaker 1: might pass from him. I'm a father, he said, everything
Speaker 1: is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Oh,
Speaker 1: dear God, I know, I know what this feels like
Speaker 1: to know that our God is possible and capable of
Speaker 1: doing everything. God, everything is possible for you. Change this
Speaker 1: circumstance in my life. After I see you changing it
Speaker 1: for other people. So, Dear God, change it or me?
Speaker 1: And isn't it at this exact moment where our fate
Speaker 1: comes in conflict with our feelings? And it's so hard,
Speaker 1: isn't it? But never forget. These aren't the last words
Speaker 1: that Jesus uttered after he says, take this cup for me,
Speaker 1: change this God, make a different plan. I don't want
Speaker 1: this to be my life. I've uttered those words, But
Speaker 1: now look at these nine earth shaking hells shattering, demon
Speaker 1: quaking words. He says. Yet, not what I will, but
Speaker 1: what you will. In other words, he had a marked
Speaker 1: moment before going to the cross where he exchanged his will.
Speaker 1: Take this cup from me for God's will, because he
Speaker 1: knew God's will was better. You see. Here's where I
Speaker 1: get in trouble sometimes with my faith. I know, even
Speaker 1: if God doesn't change my circumstances, I know my hope
Speaker 1: is that God will do or bring good from even this.
Speaker 1: I know that the scripture teaches us that. But here's
Speaker 1: where I get in trouble. I then like to run
Speaker 1: ahead of God and write the script of good that
Speaker 1: he should surely do right. And people will sometimes say, Lisa,
Speaker 1: have you prayed about this? Oh? You know I prayed
Speaker 1: about it, when in reality I have stressed about it.
Speaker 1: I have fretted about it, I have called my friends
Speaker 1: about it, I have cried in my bed about it.
Speaker 1: And then if I actually did pray about it, I
Speaker 1: was so busy making suggestions to God of all the
Speaker 1: ways he could fix it that I didn't really stop
Speaker 1: to listen to God revealing to me what he was
Speaker 1: actually doing. And I think it's so helpful for us
Speaker 1: to stop holding God accountable to a good that he
Speaker 1: never wrote. He will do good, but it will be
Speaker 1: his version of good, and his version of good is
Speaker 1: always better. Amen. Here's how I have marked moments where
Speaker 1: I trade my will for his will. I stand in
Speaker 1: the middle of my circumstance and I say, God, you
Speaker 1: are good. God, you are good to me. This doesn't
Speaker 1: feel good and it doesn't seem good, and I might
Speaker 1: not be able to even see any good that's going
Speaker 1: to come from this. But God, I know you are
Speaker 1: good and you are good to me. Other people might
Speaker 1: not be good to me, but you are good to me,
Speaker 1: and God, you are good at being God. So I'm
Speaker 1: going to lay down all my suggestions and I'm just
Speaker 1: gonna sit here and realize my job is to be
Speaker 1: obedient to God. God's job is taking care of everything else.
Speaker 1: Everything else marked moments of trading my will for Thy will.
Speaker 1: And can I tell you I had to do that
Speaker 1: the past three years, not just one time, not just sometimes.
Speaker 1: I had to do it every day, sometimes hour by hour.
Speaker 1: And God has absolutely worked a miracle in my family.
Speaker 1: But it wasn't that he ever listened to any suggestion
Speaker 1: I made. We serve a good God with good plans,
Speaker 1: and his plans are always better. And the miracle that
Speaker 1: God worked in my family was so much bigger and
Speaker 1: so much better. He wasn't just after changing behavior in
Speaker 1: my husband. He was after giving him a brand new heart.
Speaker 1: And can I just acknowledge today my husband is sitting
Speaker 1: on the front row and I thank God. I thank God,
Speaker 1: I thank God, I thank God for you. It is
Speaker 1: a miracle. It is a miracle. Some people say, LI, see,
Speaker 1: you're so courageous for sharing your story. I don't really
Speaker 1: think I'm the courageous one. I think you're the courageous one,
Speaker 1: art because you were man enough to humble yourself before
Speaker 1: the Lord, and in the face of so many people
Speaker 1: knowing you came home and you fought from my heart,
Speaker 1: I thank God for you. I think you're a shiny
Speaker 1: example to many, and I do thank God for you.
Speaker 1: I remember one time we were in counseling and I
Speaker 1: was supposed to write an impact letter talking about the
Speaker 1: impact that this had had on me. And at that
Speaker 1: point I was not very hopeful that things would work out,
Speaker 1: and so I remember writing this impact letter and I
Speaker 1: remember saying that sometimes when you walk through broken times,
Speaker 1: you look around and there's broken pieces, you golo them
Speaker 1: back together, and then God's light and love can shine
Speaker 1: through the cracks of that brokenness. We all love that story.
Speaker 1: We see Kumbai, yah and yay. Everything right in this
Speaker 1: letter I wrote, but that's not our story. Because I
Speaker 1: look around and I don't just see broken pieces. I
Speaker 1: see nothing but dust. And you can't glue dust. I
Speaker 1: put a period, I signed it, I folded it up,
Speaker 1: threw it on the counter, and intended to end it
Speaker 1: just that way. Here's the miracle, though, getting into God's
Speaker 1: word and letting God's word get into you. He'll chase
Speaker 1: you roualm. He'll remind you there's a different ending with him.
Speaker 1: And he reminded me from Genesis too. Of all the
Speaker 1: ingredients that God could have chosen to make his favorite creation,
Speaker 1: and he had access to it all, God chose dust,
Speaker 1: and he picked up that dust, and he breathed into it,
Speaker 1: and life came from that dust. Oh my friends, No
Speaker 1: matter where you are today, dust does not signify an end.
Speaker 1: Dust is often what must be present for the brand
Speaker 1: new to begin. Amen, Amen and amen. Thank you for
Speaker 1: joining us. Special thanks to those of you who give
Speaker 1: generously to this ministry. Is because of you that this
Speaker 1: ministry is possible. You can click the link in the
Speaker 1: description to give now, or visit Elevationchurch dot org slash
Speaker 1: podcast for more information, and if you enjoyed the podcast,
Speaker 1: you can subscribe you can share it with your friends.
Speaker 1: You can click the share button, take a screenshot and
Speaker 1: share it on your social stories and tag us at
Speaker 1: Elevation Church. Thanks again for listening. God bless you.