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: In the final week of our series, there is a cloud.
Speaker 1: God led me to a scripture in Numbers, chapter nine.
Speaker 2: I want to read this for you.
Speaker 1: It may be unfamiliar, but hopefully it will build your faith.
Speaker 1: And that is my prayer every time I stand in
Speaker 1: the pulpit to preach, that God would use me to
Speaker 1: build your faith, because it is your faith that enables
Speaker 1: you to experience God's presence in your life. And so
Speaker 1: as we read this scripture, I want you to just
Speaker 1: kind of like get a flow for it.
Speaker 2: It's unusual scripture.
Speaker 1: I don't know that I ever heard a sermon on
Speaker 1: it before, but I was looking at how God gave
Speaker 1: his people this cloud. They were coming out of Egyptian
Speaker 1: slavery and they were trying to get to the Promised Land,
Speaker 1: but they were experiencing a delay.
Speaker 2: You ever had one of those?
Speaker 1: Huh? You ever been stuck somewhere, stuck in something. So
Speaker 1: that's where they were and it was mostly their fault.
Speaker 2: But you can't really blame them.
Speaker 1: They were trying to figure out who is this God
Speaker 1: and who are we? And all they had ever known
Speaker 1: was all they had ever known. And so God gives
Speaker 1: them a gift in the midst of this. And that's
Speaker 1: what I want to share with you about today. Numbers
Speaker 1: chapter nine, verse fifteen. I'm calling this sermon. All systems go,
Speaker 1: All systems go, you know, like when they launch a
Speaker 1: rocket ship. Y'all saw hidden figures, and so we're getting
Speaker 1: ready for what God is doing in our lives.
Speaker 2: Everybody say, there is a cloud on.
Speaker 1: The day the tabernacle, the tent of the Covenant Law
Speaker 1: was set up.
Speaker 2: I need to say something right here.
Speaker 1: Every situation is a setup if God is in it.
Speaker 1: Here they are in the wilderness, but God is still
Speaker 1: establishing his presence. Just want to point that out. So
Speaker 1: they set up this tabernacle, which was a portable house
Speaker 1: or the presence and the glory of God. And it
Speaker 1: says that there was a cloud that covered it from
Speaker 1: evening till morning. The cloud above the tabernacle looked like
Speaker 1: fire That's how it continued to be. The cloud covered it,
Speaker 1: and at night it looked like fire. Whenever the cloud
Speaker 1: lifted from above the tent, the Israelites set out. Wherever
Speaker 1: the cloud settled, the Israelites encamped. At the Lord's command,
Speaker 1: the Israelites set out, and at his command they encamped.
Speaker 1: As long as the clouds stayed over the tabernacle, they
Speaker 1: remained in camp. When the cloud remained over the tabernacle
Speaker 1: a long time, the Israelites obeyed the Lord's order and
Speaker 1: did not set out. Sometimes, I say sometimes sometimes the
Speaker 1: cloud was over the tabernacle only a few days. At
Speaker 1: the Lord's command, they would in camp. Then at his
Speaker 1: command they would set out. Now, what's the common denominator,
Speaker 1: whether they're coming or going.
Speaker 2: They are doing it at the Lord's command.
Speaker 1: And the whole reason they're in this wilderness is because
Speaker 1: they would not go into a place that God said
Speaker 1: he had promised to them. So now they've got to
Speaker 1: learn some lessons, and God is using this cloud as
Speaker 1: a personal trainer.
Speaker 2: Amen.
Speaker 1: Well, I'm excited to appreciate about this today because it
Speaker 1: means that God is developing their faith even though they
Speaker 1: were disobedient. But he doesn't give up on them. Instead,
Speaker 1: he uses the opportunity to guide them in a place
Speaker 1: where he didn't want them to wander. But even in
Speaker 1: their wandering, he was teaching them how to walk with him.
Speaker 1: Thank you Jesus. So they were walking cloud to go
Speaker 1: and listen to this verse twenty one. Sometimes the cloud
Speaker 1: stayed only from evening till morning, and when it lifted
Speaker 1: in the morning, they set out, whether by day or
Speaker 1: by night, whether by day or by night, whether in
Speaker 1: the good times are the bad times, whether I'm clear
Speaker 1: or whether I'm confused, whether I did it right or
Speaker 1: whether I did it wrong. God was right there night morning,
Speaker 1: wilderness promised land. Wherever you find yourself, there he is.
Speaker 1: And so when the cloud would go, they would go,
Speaker 1: whether by day or by night. Whenever the cloud lifted,
Speaker 1: they set out. Whether the cloud stayed over the tabernacle.
Speaker 2: For two days or a month or a year, the.
Speaker 1: Israelites would remain in the camp and not set out.
Speaker 1: But when it lifted, they would not set out. And
Speaker 1: by this point in the passage, you're thinking.
Speaker 2: We got it.
Speaker 1: They followed the cloud, But we don't got it. You know,
Speaker 1: we need things to be reiterated.
Speaker 2: For us.
Speaker 1: I mean, how many times have you done the same
Speaker 1: dumb thing expecting a different result in your life thus far?
Speaker 1: And you're only twelve. Let me read one more verse,
Speaker 1: verse twenty three. At the lord's command, they encamped, and
Speaker 1: at the lord's command.
Speaker 2: They set out.
Speaker 1: They obeyed the Lord's order in accordance with his command
Speaker 1: through Moses, all systems go, Holly, and I just celebrate.
Speaker 1: Get ready to applug big. This's a big one. We
Speaker 1: just celebrated fifteen years of marriage. Some of y'all look
Speaker 1: like you're too good to clap for my fifteen years.
Speaker 1: Maybe you've been doing it thirty years, thirty five years,
Speaker 1: but to me, fifteen it's above the average, already beat
Speaker 1: the odds.
Speaker 2: Feels kind of good.
Speaker 1: And I attribute our marital success to a couple of
Speaker 1: different factors.
Speaker 2: I will list them for you in this order.
Speaker 1: God, Holly, that's neck and neck too, they're right there together.
Speaker 1: And the third one is not me. The third one
Speaker 1: is this is going to sound strange when I say it,
Speaker 1: the invention of the GPS system, the Global Positioning system.
Speaker 1: If it had not been for the GPS system, because
Speaker 1: some of our worst fire somebody over here must be
Speaker 1: like me. Some of our worst fights are in the
Speaker 1: car because I have no sense of direction and she
Speaker 1: is supposed to have one. It was part of an
Speaker 1: unspoken prenuptial agreement. I grew up in Monk's Corner, South Carolina.
Speaker 1: She grew up in Miami, Florida. She's supposed to know
Speaker 1: her way around places. I told her I was country
Speaker 1: when I married her, I told we talked about this,
Speaker 1: and so we used to travel. And I know this
Speaker 1: is prehistoric and primitive, and I'm not relating to the
Speaker 1: young people anymore when I.
Speaker 2: Say stuff like this.
Speaker 1: But when we used to print our directions off a
Speaker 1: map quest, what what our marriage? Our marriage was in
Speaker 1: trouble on those map Quest directions, because now we got
Speaker 1: it down. I mean, one Christmas, she brought me a
Speaker 1: Tom Tom. Y'all don't remember nothing about a Tom Tom.
Speaker 1: Now you got it on your phone when you got
Speaker 1: Siri and everything like that. But we used to boy,
Speaker 1: we used to talk about things in the car because
Speaker 1: she would tell me win the term, but not win anyway.
Speaker 1: What I'm saying is we made it. Somebody shot they
Speaker 1: made it, and we made it because of the GPS.
Speaker 2: That's because for me.
Speaker 1: It's a real thing I cannot overemphasize to you. And
Speaker 1: I'm gonna stay here for a minute because I do
Speaker 1: have a point to all of this, and it really
Speaker 1: has nothing to.
Speaker 2: Do with GPS.
Speaker 1: It's really a spiritual point. I have found out in
Speaker 1: my life, both as a driver and as a person
Speaker 1: that I am not really good at finding my way
Speaker 1: around by myself, even as a pastor. I probably shouldn't
Speaker 1: tell you this, but I've never done this before. I
Speaker 1: told Elijah that the other day. He was arguing with
Speaker 1: me about something. He wanted to listen to something lo
Speaker 1: yochty or something, and I said, you can't because I
Speaker 1: don't know his clean versions. And he said, well, you
Speaker 1: listen to worse stuff when you were growing up. And
Speaker 1: I said, but I have a parental right of hypocrisy.
Speaker 1: Shut up and do this because I've never done this before.
Speaker 1: We're gonna do it the way I want to do it.
Speaker 1: He did. He said Snoop was just as bad. His
Speaker 1: album was called, and he said the name of the
Speaker 1: album from nineteen ninety three. So we had a discussion.
Speaker 1: Some of y'all are too safe to come to this
Speaker 1: worship experience.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna tell you, but thank you for coming.
Speaker 1: And so we were talking.
Speaker 2: I was like, I never did this before, and it.
Speaker 1: Kind of gave me compassion, even for my dad. You know,
Speaker 1: he didn't have a dad.
Speaker 2: I had a dad.
Speaker 1: My dad's dad ended his own life and my dad
Speaker 1: was nine. So one day I was going off about
Speaker 1: my dad to my mom.
Speaker 2: You know, he doesn't get it, and he and this,
Speaker 2: he and that, and.
Speaker 1: Probably some of my gripes were legitimate, but she said
Speaker 1: back to me something.
Speaker 2: She said, he never saw it done.
Speaker 1: He's trying to stay, but he never saw it. It's
Speaker 1: like being a tour guide you've never been to and really,
Speaker 1: raising teenagers in today's world is like being a tour
Speaker 1: guide in a town that changes every ten minutes. Huh.
Speaker 1: These have to go to the gas station to buy
Speaker 1: a magazine with pornographic material. Now they can get it
Speaker 1: on the same device they can read their Bible on,
Speaker 1: So like, how do you navigate that? So I've come
Speaker 1: to the conclusion in life that I need a leader.
Speaker 1: I need a leader. God knows that about me. He
Speaker 1: knew that about his children. He knew they were frustrated,
Speaker 1: he knew they were confused, and he knew that they
Speaker 1: were following a man, Moses.
Speaker 2: Moses had.
Speaker 1: Moses had had tried to talk God out of Jusey,
Speaker 1: and yet he's the one God wanted. And so.
Speaker 2: God gave them a gift. He gave I'm kind of.
Speaker 1: Like it's a primitive GPS system.
Speaker 2: Did you see it? In number chapter nine?
Speaker 1: God was doing the cloud way before Google. Okay, and
Speaker 1: so this cloud. Ever say there is a cloud. He
Speaker 1: put this cloud in the wilderness for three purposes. Please
Speaker 1: take notes, because I believe there are three things that
Speaker 1: God wants to do in your life right now.
Speaker 2: And I'm speaking to.
Speaker 1: The person who has been in a state of confusion.
Speaker 1: I wanted you to know that there is a cloud
Speaker 1: over your life, whatever wilderness you find yourself in today,
Speaker 1: whether as a parent or whether as a pre pubescent.
Speaker 2: You know, I could be speaking.
Speaker 1: To a pastor listening to this on a podcast, but
Speaker 1: I want you to know that there is a cloud,
Speaker 1: and God sent the cloud to guide you, to guide you.
Speaker 1: It's actually be better than that because God.
Speaker 2: Did not just say he would guide you.
Speaker 1: He said in Psalm number forty six that he would
Speaker 1: be our guide. That's better because if God gave me guidance.
Speaker 1: I know something about myself. I'm not good at following it.
Speaker 1: So when Holly and I talk about directions, she'll say,
Speaker 1: you know, you take a left and then there's a
Speaker 1: fruit stand, and then there's a cow, and then there's
Speaker 1: a thing, and then there's a building, and then there's
Speaker 1: a store, and then there's.
Speaker 2: A porch swing.
Speaker 1: It's a red porch swing, got American flag draped over.
Speaker 1: She knows all these details and stuff that I don't recognize.
Speaker 1: And then she'll look at me and she see my
Speaker 1: eyes glazing over, and she said, you know what, I'll
Speaker 1: just give you the address, and that saved our marriage.
Speaker 1: I'm serious, I have no This is how bad it is.
Speaker 1: When I was a teenager, I would not go get
Speaker 1: my driver's license. Not because I didn't want to drive.
Speaker 1: I could not find my way around Monk's Corner. What
Speaker 1: is there to find in Monk's Corner? There's a walmart
Speaker 1: and there's a high school. I couldn't fight. It was
Speaker 1: so about my dad. My dad had to make me
Speaker 1: go get my driver's license. He walked in the house
Speaker 1: one Wednesday. It was his day off. It was summertime.
Speaker 1: I had turned fifteen months ago, but I wouldn't get
Speaker 1: every time he would ask me, you want to go
Speaker 1: get your license? Because I'm sickadrete in your own. Every
Speaker 1: time he would ask me, do I want to go
Speaker 1: get my license? I would tell him no. It wasn't
Speaker 1: that I was scared of driving. I was so embarrassed
Speaker 1: that I couldn't find my way around, so I just
Speaker 1: kept putting it off. In one Wednesday, he walked in.
Speaker 1: It was his day off, it was my day off.
Speaker 1: I worked at. I had a summer job at. My
Speaker 1: first job was at Petrest Crematory and Cremation Service. Okay,
Speaker 1: I started from the bottom for real. Don't look at
Speaker 1: me like I was glamorous. And I was in my
Speaker 1: guitar my room, playing my guitar. He walked in and said,
Speaker 1: today's the day we're going to get your license.
Speaker 2: I'm sick of this.
Speaker 1: And I wasn't scared of the driving test. I should
Speaker 1: have been the woman that was sitting next to me
Speaker 1: for the driving test.
Speaker 2: She was so mean.
Speaker 1: The car kept cutting off every time I try to start.
Speaker 1: My dad's jimmy. Y'all remember the jimmy. Every time I
Speaker 1: would try to start every time my dad's car was
Speaker 1: such a piece of crap. When you try to start
Speaker 1: the car and put it in reverse, it would cut off.
Speaker 1: And so I was trying to back out of the
Speaker 1: parking lot of the DMV. I couldn't get the car
Speaker 1: out of the parking lot. And every time I put
Speaker 1: in a reverse that would cut off. And the woman
Speaker 1: let me do it three times, and she says, Sir,
Speaker 1: in the history of my experience of one hundred and
Speaker 1: thirty five years administering these tests, I've never done this.
Speaker 1: But get out the car. Your test is over. You
Speaker 1: failed in the parking lot. My dad came running across
Speaker 1: the parking lot. He's sweating. My dad's a big old guy, sweating,
Speaker 1: waving his arms. Give him another chance, ma'am, give him
Speaker 1: another chance. I forgot to tell him this car's got
Speaker 1: some issues. You can't have the air conditioning on when
Speaker 1: you have it in reverse. Y'all didn't grow up driving
Speaker 1: these kind of cars. I know you got to BMW
Speaker 1: on your sixteenth think that I.
Speaker 2: Had to naked.
Speaker 1: Where's he going with this? I think a lot of
Speaker 1: believers have been given license to live in the fullness
Speaker 1: of the promise of God. But I don't trust my
Speaker 1: sense of direction, and so God said, I see you.
Speaker 2: You look like a sheep.
Speaker 1: I see you.
Speaker 2: Turning left instead of right. So I'm going to guide you.
Speaker 1: The Lord is my shepherd, the Lord. That's a good thing.
Speaker 1: He's my shepherd because I am bad. I mean, I
Speaker 1: am bad at finding my way. So he said that
Speaker 1: he would make me lie down in green pastures. Wait, man,
Speaker 1: I don't want anybody make me do anything. Live a
Speaker 1: little while, and you will want someone bigger than you,
Speaker 1: wiser than you, stronger than you. You'll stop trying to
Speaker 1: shrink God down to a formula that you can manipulate,
Speaker 1: and you will come to the point where you'll say, God,
Speaker 1: have your way in my life. Make me lie down
Speaker 1: in green pastors. David said, he leads me beside still waters,
Speaker 1: in that cool He restores my soul. He leadeth me
Speaker 1: in paths.
Speaker 2: Of righteousness for his name's sake.
Speaker 1: Yeave, though I walked through the valley of the shadow
Speaker 1: of death. Wait a minute, we were just talking about
Speaker 1: still waters and paths of righteousness.
Speaker 2: How did we end up in this valley of the
Speaker 2: shadow of death?
Speaker 1: But sometimes the paths of righteousness must pass through the
Speaker 1: valley of the shadow of death so that you can
Speaker 1: go through situations that look like seem like and feel
Speaker 1: like they are going to kill you. But you get
Speaker 1: to the other side and you see a table that
Speaker 1: has spread of provision in the presence of your enemies.
Speaker 1: If there is one thing I believe, it's that goodness
Speaker 1: and mercy happened following me all the days of my life.
Speaker 1: I'm loud. That is one thing that keeps me from
Speaker 1: going crazy. I know God is guiding my life. I
Speaker 1: really have come to the point where I believe that
Speaker 1: I can't always tell you where, but I know who
Speaker 1: The Lord is my shepherd, and I found out that
Speaker 1: he will use circumstances that he did not create. He
Speaker 1: will even use confusion to guide me to confidence. So
Speaker 1: the children of I'll prove this to you. Okay, they
Speaker 1: come to the Red Sea. They're confused, but God put
Speaker 1: a cloud here.
Speaker 2: It is before them. This is Exitus thirteen twenty one.
Speaker 1: They're not in the wilderness yet, they're not out of
Speaker 1: Egypt yet.
Speaker 2: They're in between. They're fifteen years old, they're about to
Speaker 2: get their driver's license.
Speaker 1: They don't know where to go. So look what God does.
Speaker 1: By day, the Lord said a pillar, and it went
Speaker 1: ahead of them, and it is a pillar of cloud
Speaker 1: by day and a pillar of fire by night. Because
Speaker 1: God will not always look the same way in every situation,
Speaker 1: and sometimes you miss him because you are looking for
Speaker 1: Him to appear in the form of a method. And
Speaker 1: so you come to something, I'm gonna turn my back.
Speaker 1: So this just can between you and God. Wave your hand.
Speaker 1: If you're going through something right now that you do
Speaker 1: not fully understand. Right, it's called being alive. So now
Speaker 1: they're coming to this transition point and they don't know
Speaker 1: where to go because they can't go back to Egypt,
Speaker 1: but they don't know how to get across the sea.
Speaker 1: So God gives them a cloud. And watch what the
Speaker 1: scripture says, go back to twenty one. I want to
Speaker 1: make sure you don't miss this. Sometimes I go too
Speaker 1: fast on it and we miss stuff. He sent them
Speaker 1: to cloud. He went before them to guide them. God's
Speaker 1: positioning system. So wherever I go, God went before me.
Speaker 1: That sounds so simple, but thousands of you don't believe
Speaker 1: that yet. You believe that the good things that are
Speaker 1: happening to you are the result of the guidance of God.
Speaker 1: But I'm telling you that God was using the chariots
Speaker 1: of Egypt and the whip of Pharaoh to make sure.
Speaker 2: That they kept moving.
Speaker 1: So God is driving them from behind and leading them
Speaker 1: as he goes before them, say out loud, God is
Speaker 1: my guide. Say it like the devil might have been
Speaker 1: pushing you around lately.
Speaker 2: Let him know.
Speaker 1: God is my guide. And even if it's the devil pushing,
Speaker 1: God is the one who is pulling me into the purpose.
Speaker 1: All things work together for the good.
Speaker 2: So I need a guide.
Speaker 1: And so the cloud went before them and it showed
Speaker 1: them the next step to take.
Speaker 2: In the cloud, it led them.
Speaker 1: I need the Lord to lead me. I need him
Speaker 1: to lead me to speak these sermons. We're all in
Speaker 1: trouble if he doesn't lead me to sermons. I heard
Speaker 1: somebody say something in church one time. They were talking
Speaker 1: about being led by the Holy Spirit. Okay, and you've
Speaker 1: probably heard that before that God led me sometimes Christians,
Speaker 1: you said, to say the craziest stuff all religions do.
Speaker 1: Some religions will commit acts of terror and say that
Speaker 1: they were led by God to do that. One thing
Speaker 1: I heard early they were taking an offering in church.
Speaker 1: I grew up in church, but it wasn't personal for
Speaker 1: me then, you know, like it was a religion, It
Speaker 1: wasn't a relationship. But when my relationship with God became real,
Speaker 1: because only you can decide that. They were taking an
Speaker 1: offering one day and the person taken the offering, they
Speaker 1: said this phrase. They said, just give today as you
Speaker 1: feel led. And I was only like seventeen years old,
Speaker 1: but I knew, well, that's not going to work as
Speaker 1: I feel led, because I mean, let's just apply that
Speaker 1: feel led to other areas of life. Okay, if I
Speaker 1: ate what I feel led to eat, there would not
Speaker 1: be enough denim in these United States of America to
Speaker 1: circumvent my waistline. If I exercised when I feel led
Speaker 1: to exercise, it would be once in January, in once
Speaker 1: in May when I thought about looking good in a
Speaker 1: bathing suit, and then I would decide I already got
Speaker 1: my wife who cares, and I would never hit the
Speaker 1: jem if I did it when I fell. Okay, try this.
Speaker 1: Tell your kids when you feel led to go to school.
Speaker 1: Try that with your employee. I wasn't feeling led to
Speaker 1: What if you went to work when you felt led
Speaker 1: to work? But we will subjugate our relationship with God
Speaker 1: to our feelings. Now, notice this, The cloud didn't ask
Speaker 1: the children of Israel do you feel like moving today?
Speaker 1: Would this be a good time? And did I catch
Speaker 1: you at a bad time? And God doesn't consult their
Speaker 1: mood see if they feel like moving. I don't have
Speaker 1: to feel it. Not being led by my feelings. I'm
Speaker 1: led by my priorities. You missed a whole lot just now.
Speaker 1: It wasn't a real shouty statement, but it is the
Speaker 1: difference between mature faith that will get you through the
Speaker 1: wilderness and the kind of faith that goes up and
Speaker 1: down and flows like this. And as you going all
Speaker 1: around to all different people all time, God sent them
Speaker 1: the cloud to teach them to prioritize.
Speaker 2: Everybody say prioritize.
Speaker 1: Some people came to church today because they felt like it.
Speaker 1: Other people came to church today because this is the
Speaker 1: day the Lord has made. I set this time aside.
Speaker 1: And the less I felt like it, the more I
Speaker 1: knew I needed to do it, because I am not
Speaker 1: watch just sakh first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness.
Speaker 1: That is a statement of priority, not a statement of feeling,
Speaker 1: not a statement of preference. If I did everything I
Speaker 1: felt like doing. I would have a prison ministry from
Speaker 1: inside the prison. If I preached when I felt like preaching,
Speaker 1: you would hear three sermons a year from me. I
Speaker 1: didn't preach because I felt like it, although I did today.
Speaker 1: I feel like preaching today. I can't explain it. A
Speaker 1: little extra caffeine or work a wonder in your soul.
Speaker 1: But even if I didn't feel it, it's eleven thirty
Speaker 1: and here come the people, and the Word of God
Speaker 1: is here, and somebody needs it. It's preaching to it's
Speaker 1: praise in time. I don't lift my hands because I
Speaker 1: feel like lifting my hands. I did it because he's worthy,
Speaker 1: He's worth. How many worship then because he's worthy? To
Speaker 1: seven people say, I do it because he's worthy, because
Speaker 1: he's worthy, Because he's worthy. That's why I seek him,
Speaker 1: because he's worthy. That's why I offer him the honor,
Speaker 1: because he's worthy. That's why I'm staying where he told
Speaker 1: me to stay, because he's worthy. Stay married fifteen years
Speaker 1: being nice when you feel led to be nice, just
Speaker 1: stay married fifteen minutes. If it's your priority, God is
Speaker 1: my priority. One way of saying this, He's at the
Speaker 1: center of my life. Now, think about that. The tabernacle
Speaker 1: is in the wilderness. It's a portable tabernacle. Many of
Speaker 1: our locations at Elevation Church still meet in rented facilities.
Speaker 1: Means we have awesome volunteers come early, stay, lay, set up,
Speaker 1: tear down.
Speaker 2: Some of y'all didn't come to Elevation during.
Speaker 1: That season, and those of you who did are thanking
Speaker 1: God that those days are over. But that's where you
Speaker 1: find out who you're really faithful. People are hauling those
Speaker 1: trailers in Winston Salem and in and out, and we
Speaker 1: have portable locations.
Speaker 2: Well, we didn't start that. God started that.
Speaker 1: And he not only told them how to build the
Speaker 1: tabernacle when Moses went up and sought them for six
Speaker 1: days in the cloud. And after seven days in the cloud,
Speaker 1: God spoken, some of you leave too soon before God speaks.
Speaker 1: When it's cloudy, you quit listening. But that's where God
Speaker 1: speaks in the valley in the cloud. I feel God's
Speaker 1: presence in this place. So he told him how to
Speaker 1: build the tabernacle. But he also told him where to
Speaker 1: put it. He told him, make sure you set it
Speaker 1: up in the middle of the camp so that everybody
Speaker 1: has to face it. So that all of the tribes
Speaker 1: standing under their different banners have to face the same center.
Speaker 2: Right, So when I.
Speaker 1: Look at my life, I realized that not only is
Speaker 1: God leading me, but he is leading me from the center.
Speaker 1: The cloud would hover above the tabernacle, and the tabernacle
Speaker 1: would stay in the middle. So watch this. This is
Speaker 1: so powerful I should demonstrate it. Come here, Jordan, come here, Buck,
Speaker 1: Come here, JJ. Wherever they went, you can be the
Speaker 1: tabernacle and you can be the cloud. I am making
Speaker 1: this up as I go. All right, but wherever they went,
Speaker 1: this had to stay in the middle. We are so
Speaker 1: paralyzed about where God is positioning us, and so we
Speaker 1: go does God want me to take this job or
Speaker 1: that job? And we become really flaky, really flaky. We
Speaker 1: won't commit that this, or we're moving all around. Oh look,
Speaker 1: did God want me to marry him? You married him
Speaker 1: twenty seven years ago. That is a done deal. Now,
Speaker 1: what you got to do is keep the presence of
Speaker 1: God in the middle yet, and so when God moves
Speaker 1: move you.
Speaker 2: Just gotta come on.
Speaker 1: Buck. You're helping me with this, doing a terrible job
Speaker 1: at it right now. But so think about that now, listen,
Speaker 1: listen of all the ways God could have led them.
Speaker 1: This is a strange scenario. Strange how many would agree
Speaker 1: this is strange because if you want the people to
Speaker 1: get up and go, put them on a schedule. That's
Speaker 1: just some parenting advice. By the way, you decide to
Speaker 1: have a baby, LJ. Put them on a schedule. Yet
Speaker 1: God does the exact opposite of what every parenting book
Speaker 1: tells you to do.
Speaker 2: He wants to teach his children something.
Speaker 1: So the Bible says that sometimes the cloud would stay
Speaker 1: for like two days, and then it would move, so
Speaker 1: they had to move because they had to keep thinking
Speaker 1: in the middle. And then it would stop and they
Speaker 1: would stop. Sometimes the cloud would stay for a year.
Speaker 1: I want you to think about this. Just stay right there,
Speaker 1: so somebody has to stay.
Speaker 2: Up all night. It's millions of.
Speaker 1: People because we just read the Bible and we think, oh,
Speaker 1: wouldn't it be cool if God would give me you
Speaker 1: a cloud to show me which job to take or
Speaker 1: which school to put my kids. No, it wouldn't be cool.
Speaker 1: It would be horribly inconvenient because you'd always be thinking
Speaker 1: we're gonna remove in today and then just about the
Speaker 1: time you would unpack in the spot you were in it,
Speaker 1: start moving again.
Speaker 2: Stop and the.
Speaker 1: Craze's the hist thing about this whole scenario that is
Speaker 1: not mentioned in the text, but is implied in the text.
Speaker 1: They weren't really going anywhere. If you know your Bible,
Speaker 1: come on, you know your Bible, John, and then at
Speaker 1: least you should you're an ordained minister of the Gospel
Speaker 1: of Jesus Christ. Buck's just a security guy. No, he's
Speaker 1: actually a great example because I met him in college.
Speaker 1: I liked him because he was a wrestler, a successful wrestler.
Speaker 2: He won a stag championship. He fought in MMA tournaments.
Speaker 1: Yeah he did, Yeah he did. They were illegal, unsanctioned
Speaker 1: tournaments with interns at Elevation Church. But listen to me, now,
Speaker 1: that's not my point.
Speaker 2: I met him on an internship.
Speaker 1: The whole time I was at the internship, I was
Speaker 1: complaining I didn't see Buck until eight years later.
Speaker 2: Was it eight years later? Something like that?
Speaker 1: He said, seven seven years later. I appreciate you correcting
Speaker 1: the story just that much, which really didn't make a
Speaker 1: difference at all other than the slow down.
Speaker 2: The momentum of my point.
Speaker 1: I appreciate that Buck, I didn't know when I was
Speaker 1: doing the internship that he and I would travel.
Speaker 2: We've been to six continents together preaching the gospel.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 2: Sometimes he's an illustration.
Speaker 1: Sometimes he's making sure that everything is set so I
Speaker 1: can minister. But God had to take me all the
Speaker 1: way through an internship that I didn't even want to
Speaker 1: be at. We went to who HOAt China together, We
Speaker 1: got chased through Chinese nightclubs together, sketchy stuff before social media,
Speaker 1: thank God. But God was guiding us for where he
Speaker 1: knew he was taking us. But he had to take
Speaker 1: us the long way for something that he wanted us
Speaker 1: to pick up along the way. Because if I hadn't
Speaker 1: done that intern if I had gone to Charleston Southern University,
Speaker 1: there would not have been a Holly boy knot. Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: her last name was worse than Ferdick. When I met her,
Speaker 1: she got an upgrade on Ferdick, and that is no
Speaker 1: small feet. But I couldn't go to Charleston Southern. They
Speaker 1: had to take my scholarship away because I had to
Speaker 1: go to Tigerville, South Carolina, in the mountains, in the woods,
Speaker 1: where boys and girls are not even allowed to look
Speaker 1: at each other. Across the street because it's a Baptist school.
Speaker 1: I had to go to the Baptist school to get
Speaker 1: a point, not girl, because God knew he was calling
Speaker 1: us just I'm trying to say, then, if you keep
Speaker 1: God in the center, you don't happen no where you're going.
Speaker 1: Just keep them, keep the God in the middle. Sit
Speaker 1: down before I. He's guiding me, and he is teaching
Speaker 1: me to prioritize His presence, and he will not do
Speaker 1: it in a way that I can predict, because my
Speaker 1: tendency is to turn God into a formula. And you
Speaker 1: know as well as I do that if God had
Speaker 1: moved that cloud at seven pm every Friday, they would
Speaker 1: have become more dependent on the system than the source.
Speaker 1: And He loves you too much to let your faith
Speaker 1: become a formula. So he's gonna can I say this,
Speaker 1: I need permission, even though you don't know what I'm
Speaker 1: gonna say. I need you to trust my integrity. God
Speaker 1: is using your confusion and I can hear it right
Speaker 1: now because on First Corinthians fourteen on Facebook, they're gonna
Speaker 1: put First Corinthians fourteen on There's people that sit around
Speaker 1: on Facebook and they have nothing better to do. They're
Speaker 1: gonna say on this clip, they're going to say, but
Speaker 1: God is not the author of confusion.
Speaker 2: I read the same verse.
Speaker 1: It's talking about having an orderly worship experience, and so
Speaker 1: it says God is.
Speaker 2: Not the author of confusion.
Speaker 1: In other words, don't everybody try to talk at one time,
Speaker 1: or nobody's going to hear what anybody's saying. That is
Speaker 1: the context of that verse. He's not the author of confusion.
Speaker 1: That doesn't mean he won't use confusion.
Speaker 2: You know what, I believe the only path to true confidence.
Speaker 1: Is through confusion, because only after you've been through the confusion,
Speaker 1: and after you've been through the valley, can you say
Speaker 1: the Lord is my shepherd. He told them, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: put you in that wilderness for forty years, but while
Speaker 1: you're there, I'm going to train you to trust me.
Speaker 1: I'm going to train you. See, we are so destination minded.
Speaker 1: But the cloud didn't move because they needed a new
Speaker 1: destination study. This sometime they got man of wherever they
Speaker 1: set up camp. The only reason that God moved them
Speaker 1: around was so that they wouldn't get stuck in one system.
Speaker 1: God said, I don't want you to get stuck in
Speaker 1: a system that will short circuit your faith. So I'm
Speaker 1: going to allow life to throw you off balance from
Speaker 1: time to time, and I'm gonna put you in some
Speaker 1: situations where you don't feel certain because you can't have
Speaker 1: your certainty and God's confidence.
Speaker 2: So I sent the cloud to guide you.
Speaker 1: I sent the cloud to teach you to prioritize my presence.
Speaker 1: The cloud was above the tabernacle. How many No, not
Speaker 1: only is he central, but he is above. God has
Speaker 1: exalted Jesus and given him the name that is above.
Speaker 1: Every name that at the name of Jesus. Every knee,
Speaker 1: every sickness, every disease, every worry, every attack, every fear,
Speaker 1: every knee will pow, every tone will confess. I feel
Speaker 1: God guiding me right now. I feel these words going
Speaker 1: right into your heart. Jesus Christ. It's just Lord, to
Speaker 1: the glory of God the Father. And notice the scripture
Speaker 1: says it was a pillar of cloud. A pillar is
Speaker 1: an image of stability. How can you have stability if
Speaker 1: what you're following keeps moving great? So, so Jesus is
Speaker 1: getting ready to be taken up. Okay, he's resurrected from
Speaker 1: the dead. I'm fast forwarding like a couple thousand years.
Speaker 1: And he looks at his disciples and he knows, like
Speaker 1: the children of Israel, they have never been this way before.
Speaker 1: He's got a mission for them. He said, you will
Speaker 1: receive power. Somebody shall power, because God's presence is God's power.
Speaker 1: It's not an accessory, it's not a bonus feature. God's
Speaker 1: presence is God's power. Up until this time, they have
Speaker 1: been relying on God's presence in the visible form of
Speaker 1: Jesus Christ. But you got to watch this. Something shifts
Speaker 1: and just before Jesus leaves the earth, he's already taken
Speaker 1: the keys to death, hell and the grave. He's already
Speaker 1: paid the price for the sin that stood and kept
Speaker 1: record against us. He's already nailed your condemnation to the cross.
Speaker 1: He's already carried your shame. He's already born your burden.
Speaker 1: He's already taken your sorrow. And now he's standing and
Speaker 1: he's resurrected, and he's about to ascend into heaven to
Speaker 1: be seated at the right hand of God, the Father Almighty.
Speaker 1: From whence he shall come to judge to quicken the dead.
Speaker 1: And he looks at his disciples and says, you shall
Speaker 1: receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and
Speaker 1: you will be my witnesses. Watch this in Jerusalem, in Judea,
Speaker 1: in Samaria, to the ends. I am sending you into
Speaker 1: an unstable world with a sore foundation, and you will
Speaker 1: be my witnesses.
Speaker 2: In Jerus Summari at the ends of the earth and
Speaker 2: watched this.
Speaker 1: And when he had said this, he was taken up
Speaker 1: before their very eyes, and the cloud hid him from
Speaker 1: their sight, and they couldn't see him anymore. But they
Speaker 1: didn't need to see him anymore, because when he sent
Speaker 1: his spirit they got a GPS. Somebody shot, I got
Speaker 1: a GPS. I don't have to stay lost and lonely
Speaker 1: and confused and uncertain any more. Jesus said, today is
Speaker 1: the day all systems go. Today's the day you get
Speaker 1: your driver's license. And you will receive power when the
Speaker 1: Spirit comes on you. Stabilize, stabilize. The cloud kept going
Speaker 1: to show them that wherever they would go, God would
Speaker 1: be in their midst. I'm declearing this over your life today,
Speaker 1: that there is a cloud in every wilderness. There is
Speaker 1: a cloud. It's not an external thing. You keep asking
Speaker 1: for God to give you a sign on a text
Speaker 1: messager a sign to show up in the sky or something.
Speaker 1: But the sign is within you. On the endside, he
Speaker 1: will not leave you or forsake you. Who am I
Speaker 1: preaching to today? I really need to know because God said,
Speaker 1: I want to guide you, I want to teach you
Speaker 1: to prioritize, and I want to stabilize you. So I'm
Speaker 1: bringing you into some unfamiliar terrain because I don't want
Speaker 1: you to depend on your circumstance. I want you to
Speaker 1: depend on my spirit. So I gave you a GPS guide, prioritize, stabilize.
Speaker 1: Somebody's shot. I got a GPS. Come on, this is
Speaker 1: this is better. This is better than knowing where you're going,
Speaker 1: to know who is with you as you go. If
Speaker 1: you believe God is with you, end up on your
Speaker 1: feet right now. If you believe he's guiding you, if
Speaker 1: you believe He's taking you somewhere, Come on. I need
Speaker 1: you to praise God in this moment like you've got
Speaker 1: Holy spirit power. Come on, praise Him in this moment.
Speaker 1: God inhabits the praises of his people. He dwells in
Speaker 1: the midst of praise. He dwells in the midst of hollelujah,
Speaker 1: he dwells stuff.
Speaker 2: It's our God.
Speaker 1: This will be the last day of your life that
Speaker 1: you will live without a guide. I didn't say you
Speaker 1: wouldn't go through another valley.
Speaker 2: But today, today we make a declaration. God is guiding
Speaker 2: my life.
Speaker 1: You know what that means that everything that comes against
Speaker 1: me has to work for me before it's all said
Speaker 1: and done. The Lord is my shepherd. The Lord is
Speaker 1: my shepherd. The Lord is my shepherd. Come on, touch
Speaker 1: twelve people tell him. The Lord is my shepherd. The
Speaker 1: Lord is my shepherd. He's guiding me, providing for me.
Speaker 2: The spirit of the Lord is in this place. And
Speaker 2: where the spirit is there is freedom. You have been
Speaker 2: so scared, so.
Speaker 1: Nervous because I don't know where to go. And the
Speaker 1: Lord is my shepherd, and there is a cloud.
Speaker 2: I'll tell you what we need to do. We need
Speaker 2: to establish a connection with Heaven.
Speaker 1: You know, the Bible says his divine power has given
Speaker 1: us everything we need for life and godliness through him.
Speaker 2: So everything you need, God.
Speaker 1: Chris, that's a thought of this is in the cloud,
Speaker 1: you know. And to get what's in the cloud, I
Speaker 1: need a connection with the source. Lift your hands, come on,
Speaker 1: lift your hands. Father, We honor you, We glorify you,
Speaker 1: We bless your name, We honor your presence. Come on,
Speaker 1: open your mouth, give and praise, We magnify, exult and
Speaker 1: extol God of all. We exult to now. High up
Speaker 1: mom uncertainty, high about fear, Come high about depression, high
Speaker 1: about the spat. We'll lift our hands in your press,
Speaker 1: re steal your people. God, Thank you for your far
Speaker 1: come sin that your mom you we re see.
Speaker 2: Thank you for joining us.
Speaker 1: Special thanks to those of you who give generously to
Speaker 1: this ministry. Is because of you that this ministry is possible.
Speaker 1: You can click the link in the description to give now,
Speaker 1: or visit Elevation Church dot org slash podcast for more
Speaker 1: information and if you enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe.
Speaker 2: 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.
Speaker 2: Thanks again for listening. God bless you