Unlearn Your Limitations

0:00:02.160 --> 0:00:04.680 Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick. I'm the pastor of Elevation 0:00:04.960 --> 0:00:07.200 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 --> 0:00:12.600 it builds your faith. Hope it gives your perspective to 0:00:12.600 --> 0:00:15.280 see God has moving in your life. Enjoy the message. 0:00:17.680 --> 0:00:25.440 Mark chapter two. I kind of want to continue on 0:00:25.480 --> 0:00:29.240 something that I said on Easter, and I'll explain that 0:00:29.320 --> 0:00:31.120 in a second. Let me read the scripture. A few 0:00:31.160 --> 0:00:35.240 days later, when Jesus again entered Capernaum, the people heard 0:00:35.280 --> 0:00:38.839 that he had come home. They gathered in such large 0:00:39.040 --> 0:00:44.280 numbers that there was no room left, not even outside 0:00:44.320 --> 0:00:47.640 the door, and he preached the word to them. Some 0:00:47.720 --> 0:00:52.279 men came bringing to him a paralyzed man, carried by 0:00:52.400 --> 0:00:55.000 four of them, and since they could not get him 0:00:55.000 --> 0:00:58.760 to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening 0:00:59.160 --> 0:01:04.360 in the roof above Jesus. That's a strange phrase. You're 0:01:04.400 --> 0:01:06.120 not going to see it many times in the Bible. 0:01:06.480 --> 0:01:12.600 Above Jesus. You won't see that very much in the Bible. 0:01:12.640 --> 0:01:16.319 You won't see it. About sickness, you won't see you 0:01:16.360 --> 0:01:20.119 won't see it about shame. You won't see it about anxiety. 0:01:20.280 --> 0:01:23.080 You won't see it about panic attacks. You won't see 0:01:23.080 --> 0:01:26.880 it about political parties. So just circle that one because 0:01:26.920 --> 0:01:29.600 you won't see that above Jesus again, you won't. You 0:01:29.600 --> 0:01:34.520 will only see this one time. So physically speaking, they 0:01:34.560 --> 0:01:38.880 positioned themselves on the roof and watch this. A lot 0:01:38.920 --> 0:01:42.039 of y'all know this Bible story, but this is this 0:01:42.120 --> 0:01:44.840 is crazy if you stop and think about it. They 0:01:44.959 --> 0:01:48.320 dug through the roof and lowered the mat that the 0:01:48.320 --> 0:01:51.680 man was lying on, And when Jesus saw their faith, 0:01:52.120 --> 0:01:58.320 he said to the paralyzed man, son, your sins are forgiven. Now, 0:01:58.560 --> 0:02:02.960 some teachers of the law, we're sitting there thinking to themselves, 0:02:03.640 --> 0:02:10.440 why does this fellow talk like that. He's blaspheming it's heresy. 0:02:11.919 --> 0:02:20.079 Who can forgive sins but God alone. Immediately Jesus knew 0:02:20.200 --> 0:02:23.480 in his spirit that this is what they were thinking 0:02:24.040 --> 0:02:28.440 in their hearts. I can't wait to come back to you, 0:02:28.560 --> 0:02:32.200 vers eke. And he said to them, why are you 0:02:32.360 --> 0:02:37.480 thinking these things? Which is easier to say to this 0:02:37.600 --> 0:02:40.040 paralyzed man, your sins are forgiven, or to say get up, 0:02:40.040 --> 0:02:42.280 take your mat and walk, But I want you to 0:02:42.480 --> 0:02:46.240 know that the son of Man has shout the word 0:02:46.720 --> 0:02:52.720 authority on earth to forgive sins. So he said to 0:02:52.800 --> 0:02:56.200 the man, I tell you, get up, take your map, 0:02:56.840 --> 0:03:00.280 go home, get out of here, and tell you you 0:03:00.360 --> 0:03:06.880 don't need a ride home. So he got up, took 0:03:06.919 --> 0:03:09.160 his matt and walked out in full view of them. All. 0:03:09.720 --> 0:03:13.840 This amazed everyone, and they praise God. Say, ready, we 0:03:14.080 --> 0:03:18.720 have never seen anything like this. Put that in the chat. 0:03:19.000 --> 0:03:23.600 We have never seen anything like this. I want to 0:03:23.600 --> 0:03:30.000 speak to you today about unlearning your limitations. I dabbled 0:03:30.040 --> 0:03:33.960 in it on Easter, and I want to dive deeper today. 0:03:34.480 --> 0:03:39.720 So that's my title, Unlearning your Limitations. That's the straightforward title. 0:03:39.960 --> 0:03:43.120 That's the topical title. Here's the saucy title. You need 0:03:43.160 --> 0:03:45.600 a new roof. Now sit down and let's talk about it. 0:03:47.080 --> 0:03:54.040 You need a new roof because really, limitations are learned, right, 0:03:56.120 --> 0:03:59.360 And maybe you haven't had kids. They don't know. Tongues 0:03:59.400 --> 0:04:01.960 don't go in a line, electrical sockets, they don't know. 0:04:02.720 --> 0:04:06.000 They don't know anything about anything until they It's kind 0:04:06.040 --> 0:04:09.119 of like Graham was telling us one time he could 0:04:09.120 --> 0:04:18.320 beat up Mike Tyson. And just the confidence of Graham 0:04:18.440 --> 0:04:21.960 is something I need you all to pray about because 0:04:22.000 --> 0:04:24.080 I kind of think it's like a great gift, and 0:04:24.120 --> 0:04:26.039 then I kind of think it's like a liability, and 0:04:26.080 --> 0:04:28.800 I can't figure out which one yet. I mean, the 0:04:28.839 --> 0:04:32.159 boy walked into church today with a mullet, with his 0:04:32.279 --> 0:04:38.280 head held high and just the confidence the swag of 0:04:38.320 --> 0:04:42.599 Graham to not care what you think about his mullet. 0:04:42.720 --> 0:04:45.200 Now I'm gonna get off, I promise, I promise. But 0:04:47.480 --> 0:04:53.000 limitations are learned. And interesting thing about this text is 0:04:54.279 --> 0:04:57.480 it seems like the experience of the people who are 0:04:57.520 --> 0:05:01.520 experts in the Word of God works again them, and 0:05:01.560 --> 0:05:06.400 the stupidity of the people who get a miracle seems 0:05:06.440 --> 0:05:10.200 to have a strategic advantage. And I guess that's why 0:05:10.200 --> 0:05:14.080 I've always liked the passage, because in fifteen years of 0:05:14.160 --> 0:05:17.159 building the church, there have been so many times where 0:05:17.200 --> 0:05:20.720 I've had to try unorthodox things in order to do 0:05:20.800 --> 0:05:23.280 something for which I had no frame of reference. Now 0:05:23.320 --> 0:05:25.640 you may not know this. My dad wasn't a pastor. 0:05:26.040 --> 0:05:28.520 My dad was a barber. My grandfather was a pastor, 0:05:28.760 --> 0:05:32.040 but he pastored small churches. When I say small, probably 0:05:32.120 --> 0:05:34.839 like what one hundred people would have been on the 0:05:34.839 --> 0:05:38.960 bigger side, he did seventy churches of seventy fifty. I 0:05:38.960 --> 0:05:41.440 think in Monk's Corner it was the biggest one. That 0:05:41.560 --> 0:05:45.720 was about two hundred on Easter? Wasn't that big? Am 0:05:45.760 --> 0:05:48.880 I wrong? Am I off? Okay? So that to me, 0:05:49.760 --> 0:05:53.080 in my mind was the biggest church that I had seen. 0:05:53.279 --> 0:05:57.120 In fact, where I was a youth pastor, there were 0:05:57.160 --> 0:06:01.080 about about the same about one hundred twenty Santi Circle 0:06:01.120 --> 0:06:04.240 Community Church where Pastor Mickey let me learn to preach. 0:06:05.520 --> 0:06:09.360 When when I went to preach one time with Holly, 0:06:10.120 --> 0:06:12.800 I was I was sharing it a church I can't 0:06:12.839 --> 0:06:16.840 remember where. It was Calpins, South Carolina, Calpin's anybody from 0:06:16.839 --> 0:06:21.520 Calpins on EPAM And there were about there were about 0:06:21.560 --> 0:06:24.159 fifty people in the in the church, and the woman 0:06:24.200 --> 0:06:25.880 turned to Holly when I walked up to the pulpit 0:06:25.880 --> 0:06:27.800 to preach. I was only eighteen and we were in 0:06:27.800 --> 0:06:29.680 college and we had traveled out here for me to preach. 0:06:29.839 --> 0:06:31.919 And the woman turned to Holly and said, is this 0:06:32.000 --> 0:06:35.279 Stephen's first time preaching in a big church like ours? 0:06:37.040 --> 0:06:39.800 And we always thought that was so funny, a big 0:06:39.880 --> 0:06:42.720 church like ours, you know, with fifty and it was 0:06:44.200 --> 0:06:51.600 it was for her frame of reference, right, limitations are 0:06:51.680 --> 0:06:55.520 learned by that. I mean, you don't really come into 0:06:55.520 --> 0:06:59.200 the world knowing what you are not supposed to do 0:06:59.279 --> 0:07:05.440 because you're white, or because you're black, or because you're male, 0:07:06.320 --> 0:07:10.120 or because you're female, or because you're Baptist or because 0:07:10.160 --> 0:07:13.200 you're Pentecostal. I'd like to offend everybody before I finished 0:07:13.200 --> 0:07:18.000 this little list. Those things are learned, They are learned. 0:07:19.320 --> 0:07:22.640 Those are those are those are learned limitations. And here's 0:07:22.640 --> 0:07:25.520 what I mean. We wrote this song called Rattle last 0:07:25.600 --> 0:07:29.200 year and I was showing it to my friend and 0:07:29.240 --> 0:07:31.239 they said, well, you can't play that at your church. 0:07:31.440 --> 0:07:37.120 Black people won't like it. I didn't say it. Why 0:07:37.120 --> 0:07:40.080 are y'all looking at me like that? That's what they said. 0:07:41.680 --> 0:07:44.679 They said, black people don't really like rock and roll. 0:07:44.760 --> 0:07:47.120 And just in my head, I'm like, have you ever 0:07:47.160 --> 0:07:53.160 heard of Jimmy Hendrix? Chuck Berry? Like, how did you 0:07:53.240 --> 0:07:56.200 categorize a people group who pioneered a style of music 0:07:56.240 --> 0:07:59.560 and now you think they don't like like it? That's 0:07:59.600 --> 0:08:03.480 your ima. It's not the limitation of a person that 0:08:03.520 --> 0:08:06.480 you can just categorize anyway. You'll look up tight. Let 0:08:06.480 --> 0:08:09.760 me get back to the Bible verses in the Scriptures. 0:08:10.440 --> 0:08:15.360 In the Scriptures, there's a group of people called the 0:08:15.400 --> 0:08:17.560 scribes or the teachers of the law. It says here 0:08:17.560 --> 0:08:21.640 in Mark chapter two. And I have to be honest 0:08:21.680 --> 0:08:24.760 with you, I've been unfear to this group of people 0:08:24.840 --> 0:08:28.400 through the years because in verse six where you see 0:08:28.400 --> 0:08:31.160 them show up the teachers of the law or the scribes, 0:08:31.200 --> 0:08:32.440 And I'm going to tell you what that means in 0:08:32.440 --> 0:08:35.199 a minute. But they were sitting there and they were 0:08:35.280 --> 0:08:38.400 judging Jesus. So I always hated them in the passage. 0:08:39.240 --> 0:08:42.080 It made me hate them that they would criticize Jesus, 0:08:42.120 --> 0:08:46.000 who's the son of God. And at different times in 0:08:46.040 --> 0:08:50.080 my ministry, I've used this passage to preach to different needs. 0:08:50.120 --> 0:08:53.040 Like in some cases, I've used this passage to say 0:08:53.400 --> 0:08:55.560 that we as the church should be like the four 0:08:55.600 --> 0:08:59.160 men and bring our friends to Jesus. And then I'd 0:08:59.160 --> 0:09:01.760 give everybody a life Will Invite card for the next week, 0:09:01.760 --> 0:09:03.640 and I'd say, now, bring your friends back to church, 0:09:03.720 --> 0:09:06.240 and I'd tell him break the roof and send them 0:09:06.240 --> 0:09:08.400 out to go get their friends to Jesus. Bribe them, 0:09:08.400 --> 0:09:11.280 do whatever you have to do, and that's that's not 0:09:11.360 --> 0:09:16.079 a bad message. I've also used this passage at times 0:09:16.080 --> 0:09:19.720 before to talk to talk about what it would feel 0:09:19.760 --> 0:09:22.600 like to be the man on the mat who is 0:09:22.679 --> 0:09:31.760 getting dropped. Read it again, real quick. Show me where 0:09:32.120 --> 0:09:38.760 he agreed to this idea. Show me where he asked 0:09:38.760 --> 0:09:42.960 them to take him up on the roof and lower him. 0:09:43.240 --> 0:09:47.520 Show me where he signed his consent, his legal release 0:09:48.120 --> 0:09:51.120 that y'all can drop me in the middle of the number, 0:09:51.520 --> 0:09:55.520 you won't find it. And I've related to that man before, 0:09:55.559 --> 0:09:58.160 because sometimes you feel like you're put in situations that 0:09:58.240 --> 0:10:04.240 you didn't exactly sign up for. In the passage that 0:10:04.320 --> 0:10:08.040 I read to you just now, though, I felt some 0:10:08.200 --> 0:10:12.240 sympathy for the scribes this week that I've never felt before, 0:10:14.280 --> 0:10:17.560 because physically the doorway was blocked by the crowd. But 0:10:17.600 --> 0:10:21.320 that's not all that was blocked in the passage. These 0:10:21.400 --> 0:10:24.360 teachers of the law verse six were not the ancient 0:10:24.440 --> 0:10:30.680 equivalent of Internet trolls. These were not unemployed people with 0:10:30.800 --> 0:10:35.040 nothing better to do than to sit in judgment, and 0:10:35.120 --> 0:10:37.880 they showed up for a specific purpose in the house 0:10:37.920 --> 0:10:44.480 that day in Capernaum Kfarnahum, Village of Comfort, where Jesus 0:10:44.559 --> 0:10:47.120 did twenty two of his miracles only fifteen hundred people 0:10:47.360 --> 0:10:50.000 in the town, but he did twenty two of the 0:10:50.040 --> 0:10:53.839 biblical miracles happened in Capernaum. The sad part is at 0:10:53.840 --> 0:10:57.040 the end of his ministry, when he went to pronounce 0:10:57.120 --> 0:11:01.120 his woes and judgments. Copernaum, where he did a majority 0:11:01.160 --> 0:11:03.440 of his miracles, was on the list of cities that 0:11:03.520 --> 0:11:07.160 would not repent in spite of all that they had seen. 0:11:09.679 --> 0:11:15.120 The scribes in Mark chapter two were not sitting there 0:11:15.520 --> 0:11:19.880 just as critics that day. They were sitting as a 0:11:20.880 --> 0:11:25.200 how could I put this a correctness committee to make 0:11:25.240 --> 0:11:30.319 sure that this popular rabbi wasn't teaching something that contradicted 0:11:30.480 --> 0:11:32.880 the laws that they had given their life to defend 0:11:32.880 --> 0:11:35.840 and preserve. And I think we need to have a 0:11:35.840 --> 0:11:39.640 little more understanding when we read the Scripture sometimes of 0:11:40.679 --> 0:11:43.320 not just what we've thought about the people that the 0:11:43.360 --> 0:11:46.600 Bible talks about. You know this, this teacher of the 0:11:46.679 --> 0:11:50.520 law group that sitting there has traveled four days to 0:11:50.559 --> 0:11:55.160 be in Capernaum from Jerusalem at their own expense to 0:11:55.280 --> 0:11:59.600 make sure that the people aren't being taught anything that's wrong. 0:11:59.840 --> 0:12:02.680 They wanted to make sure that this guy wasn't running 0:12:02.679 --> 0:12:06.480 a cult. And I can get with that even back 0:12:06.520 --> 0:12:08.560 in the early days of the church. I would meet 0:12:08.559 --> 0:12:10.360 people who were in their forties, because I was in 0:12:10.360 --> 0:12:12.760 my twenties when I started, and I would ask the 0:12:12.760 --> 0:12:15.079 people in the forties, why were in their forties, which 0:12:15.120 --> 0:12:17.160 I am, now, why did you first come to our church? 0:12:17.320 --> 0:12:19.680 And they would say, my kids came over and I 0:12:19.720 --> 0:12:24.520 had to follow them to make sure you weren't crazy. 0:12:25.000 --> 0:12:28.360 And then I would say, well, was I And they say, yeah, 0:12:28.440 --> 0:12:31.760 but the good guy, you're the kind of crazy. I like, 0:12:32.280 --> 0:12:36.880 I like, you're kind of crazy. And then they say, 0:12:36.559 --> 0:12:40.280 but they came over and I thought they were judging me. No, no, no, 0:12:40.400 --> 0:12:48.480 they were protecting something precious to them. My father in 0:12:48.559 --> 0:12:54.480 law put me through so much to Mary Holly, and 0:12:54.640 --> 0:12:57.800 oh I didn't like him very much for a little while. 0:12:58.720 --> 0:13:06.240 But sometimes I look at a be yeah, and I'm like, 0:13:06.640 --> 0:13:09.880 I bet I will build an emotional mote for any 0:13:09.920 --> 0:13:12.920 squire that would dare to ask her hand. I gotta 0:13:13.000 --> 0:13:17.240 understand it was precious. Reading the scripture this week, I 0:13:17.320 --> 0:13:23.320 understood that there are two roofs. In Mark chapter two. 0:13:24.800 --> 0:13:28.800 The function of a roof, remember, is said that they 0:13:29.040 --> 0:13:30.920 dug through the roof of the house to get the 0:13:30.960 --> 0:13:36.079 man to Jesus, let's take a quick audience vote. Is 0:13:36.120 --> 0:13:38.800 a roof on your house a good thing to have 0:13:39.760 --> 0:13:43.720 in case of inclement weather? Y'all are so used to 0:13:43.720 --> 0:13:47.000 me flipping stuff in my sermons, hesitant about saying is 0:13:47.040 --> 0:13:50.440 a good thing right, because it keeps something out that 0:13:50.520 --> 0:13:54.880 can damage what's on the inside. So when I studied 0:13:54.880 --> 0:13:58.240 about the scribes this week, I was amazed to find 0:13:58.480 --> 0:14:01.520 that the function they served it was originally to preserve 0:14:01.640 --> 0:14:04.760 something that was very important to the people of God. 0:14:05.679 --> 0:14:08.199 Now you've got to know this or you won't understand 0:14:08.280 --> 0:14:11.120 why this is what Jesus said, Why are you thinking 0:14:11.160 --> 0:14:13.760 these things in your heart? Well? Why were they thinking 0:14:13.800 --> 0:14:16.640 these things in their heart? Why were they threatened by 0:14:16.840 --> 0:14:19.600 a prophet who would say, I forgive your sin an 0:14:19.640 --> 0:14:23.080 exclusive right of God alone? Why were they thinking these 0:14:23.120 --> 0:14:26.120 things in their heart? You have to understand what they 0:14:26.120 --> 0:14:29.480 were protecting. And in order to stand understand what they 0:14:29.520 --> 0:14:33.200 were protecting, you have to understand where they had been 0:14:35.400 --> 0:14:40.239 in Babylon, where God's people had been taken as captives. 0:14:41.120 --> 0:14:44.160 And see the scribes were specially trained to record the 0:14:44.200 --> 0:14:46.680 pronouncements and the legal decrees and the events and make 0:14:46.720 --> 0:14:50.600 sure to keep a record, But in Babylon. The customs 0:14:50.600 --> 0:14:55.960 of Babylon were different than God's chosen people had ever 0:14:56.000 --> 0:15:00.560 experienced before. And in Babylon is where the ribs begin 0:15:00.640 --> 0:15:04.480 to develop the oral traditions surrounding the Laws of Moses, 0:15:04.960 --> 0:15:09.680 so that God's people would not forget who they were. 0:15:10.000 --> 0:15:14.440 They were specially suited to do it because they were 0:15:14.520 --> 0:15:20.800 trained in recording the tradition. The only reason God's people 0:15:20.960 --> 0:15:23.600 even knew who they were when they came out of 0:15:23.640 --> 0:15:35.520 Babylon was because of the scribes. Now, Jesus, who is 0:15:35.720 --> 0:15:40.040 the Bible, calls the express image of God to show 0:15:40.120 --> 0:15:44.040 us what God is really like, shows up to fulfill 0:15:44.120 --> 0:15:47.840 the Messianic prophecies about him to save his people from 0:15:47.920 --> 0:15:52.680 their sin. And the scribes verse six. The teachers of 0:15:52.720 --> 0:15:58.200 the law were sitting there thinking to themselves, why does 0:15:58.240 --> 0:16:03.880 this fellow talk like that. He's not supposed to do this. 0:16:05.040 --> 0:16:14.520 You can't do that. That's not how this works. At 0:16:14.520 --> 0:16:18.440 the same time that they're thinking this, the debris is 0:16:18.480 --> 0:16:23.240 still falling through the ceiling from wear four rednecks. I'm 0:16:23.280 --> 0:16:25.640 using my imagination about what kind of guys would have 0:16:25.800 --> 0:16:32.280 done this? Have just moved through every excuse now This 0:16:32.360 --> 0:16:34.120 is a truth, This is a true statement. See if 0:16:34.120 --> 0:16:36.200 God's spirit verifies what I'm about to say to you. 0:16:37.080 --> 0:16:39.000 If this man would have been dependent on a lot 0:16:39.000 --> 0:16:42.440 of us, the moment we would have seen the crowd, 0:16:44.120 --> 0:16:46.600 he would have gone back home the exact same way 0:16:46.640 --> 0:16:51.040 he came. I promise you most of us. I don't 0:16:51.040 --> 0:16:52.040 want to say most of us. I don't want to 0:16:52.040 --> 0:16:56.000 talk about you. For me, I'm really quick to give 0:16:56.120 --> 0:17:01.960 up and assume something isn't God's will when I can't 0:17:02.040 --> 0:17:06.879 immediately see a way in. And so now we're in 0:17:06.920 --> 0:17:10.399 a passage where the scribes, these teachers of the law, 0:17:10.640 --> 0:17:15.200 who have preserved the identity of God's people. They weren't villains, really, 0:17:15.240 --> 0:17:18.840 they were heroes. But what happened over time was the 0:17:18.960 --> 0:17:25.359 oral tradition became more important than the truth. Did you 0:17:25.400 --> 0:17:28.000 ever play the telephone game? Do you know what I'm 0:17:28.040 --> 0:17:30.400 talking about? Where I tell you something and you tell 0:17:30.440 --> 0:17:32.399 them something and by the time it gets all the 0:17:32.400 --> 0:17:36.640 way around, everybody has rabies and everybody's gonna die. And 0:17:36.680 --> 0:17:41.199 it's a crazy thing when it gets passed down. And 0:17:41.280 --> 0:17:44.919 the thing about Jesus that maybe doesn't always get mentioned 0:17:44.920 --> 0:17:48.880 when we preach about him, is that he reveals to 0:17:49.000 --> 0:17:57.840 us that our God is a confrontational God. God is confrontational, 0:17:58.520 --> 0:18:02.240 and first thought about that might be no. God is 0:18:02.280 --> 0:18:07.080 a comforter. He's a good good father. Who he is, Stephen, 0:18:08.280 --> 0:18:16.520 who he is? Who he is and any is one. 0:18:16.560 --> 0:18:18.960 Scripture says that he comforts us with the comfort so 0:18:19.000 --> 0:18:20.840 we can comfort others with the same comfort by which 0:18:20.880 --> 0:18:23.800 we've been comforted. The Bible also says that God comforts 0:18:23.840 --> 0:18:25.920 the downcast, as something that Paul said when he was 0:18:25.960 --> 0:18:29.800 going through a lot of conflicts. He does comfort the downcast. 0:18:30.800 --> 0:18:33.760 He speak words of reassurance to you when everybody else 0:18:33.880 --> 0:18:36.280 is speaking words of condemnation to you. Be sure of it. 0:18:37.520 --> 0:18:41.760 But the same God that comforts the downcast also confronts 0:18:41.800 --> 0:18:48.560 the dysfunctional. And he loves you too much to leave 0:18:48.640 --> 0:18:55.320 you in something that is limiting you. He's a confrontational God. 0:18:56.640 --> 0:19:01.040 I know that thinking of God is confrontational may violate 0:19:01.560 --> 0:19:05.000 our perception of Him as it was handed down to us. 0:19:05.200 --> 0:19:09.960 But God is very confrontational. Right, God will get up 0:19:10.000 --> 0:19:13.080 in the face of anything that will keep you from 0:19:13.119 --> 0:19:18.320 being all that He created you to be. Now, before 0:19:18.320 --> 0:19:20.840 you take this as permission to just like go off 0:19:20.840 --> 0:19:23.760 on somebody and say you're being like Jesus. That's not 0:19:23.880 --> 0:19:26.600 the point of this lesson. The point of the lesson 0:19:26.880 --> 0:19:29.879 is for you to realize that God will break through 0:19:30.040 --> 0:19:33.560 any of the beliefs that you've developed about you, about 0:19:33.640 --> 0:19:38.400 him or about others. He's not scared to do that. 0:19:39.240 --> 0:19:41.200 So if it means going to Pharaoh and saying, let 0:19:41.240 --> 0:19:43.760 my people go, and he has to send frogs and 0:19:43.800 --> 0:19:46.320 turn the nile into blood, and if God has to 0:19:46.359 --> 0:19:49.520 send flies and locusts and plagues, even if God has 0:19:49.560 --> 0:19:52.320 to kill off the firstborn of Egipt, he will see 0:19:52.400 --> 0:19:56.000 to it that his people are really free, because He's 0:19:56.040 --> 0:20:00.320 a confrontational God. If it means he has to put 0:20:00.359 --> 0:20:03.040 you in a lion's den and shut the mouth of 0:20:03.080 --> 0:20:06.200 the lion to Soho never conness her that he is 0:20:06.240 --> 0:20:09.359 the great God and there is none above him, he'll 0:20:09.359 --> 0:20:15.560 do that. He's not a conflict avoiding God, and a 0:20:15.600 --> 0:20:20.360 lot of us never experience the growth because we will 0:20:20.359 --> 0:20:28.000 never face the conflict. One thing I love about Holly 0:20:28.480 --> 0:20:32.040 is when that switch flips and she turns from sweet 0:20:32.080 --> 0:20:37.280 Holly missus better half Holly, smiling Holly that y'all know 0:20:37.440 --> 0:20:40.520 and love and subscribe to her book club. But Holly, 0:20:40.800 --> 0:20:42.000 let me tell you someth about Holly. Let me know 0:20:42.040 --> 0:20:43.919 sorry about Holley. The other day she was on This 0:20:43.960 --> 0:20:45.760 is right at Christmas time that she was on with 0:20:45.840 --> 0:20:51.480 customer service. She is the most polite person. She's not nasty, 0:20:51.720 --> 0:20:55.520 she's not mean, she's balanced, she's even. She can diffuse, 0:20:56.240 --> 0:21:01.320 but at a certain point, I know you'll have y'all 0:21:01.320 --> 0:21:05.199 have a perspective of Holly. Right, She's just so and 0:21:05.280 --> 0:21:11.720 she is usually on this phone call. The lady, the 0:21:11.720 --> 0:21:16.520 customer service rep, wouldn't put her through to a supervisor, right, 0:21:17.119 --> 0:21:20.480 and and so I don't know what Holly said, but 0:21:20.600 --> 0:21:23.159 at some point the lady said, ma'am, I'm gonna go 0:21:23.200 --> 0:21:28.200 ahead and transfer you to escalations. And Holly said, that's 0:21:28.240 --> 0:21:31.040 exactly where you need to put me. It is escalations. 0:21:31.320 --> 0:21:36.720 That's the place for me, is escalations, escalate me. Holly 0:21:36.960 --> 0:21:40.639 said that. Holly, I'm like, who are you? I know you, 0:21:40.760 --> 0:21:45.040 but I don't know you. Because when something got in 0:21:45.119 --> 0:21:49.760 her way, now she's gonna try it a nice way 0:21:49.760 --> 0:21:52.600 and everything like that, but there comes the time to listen. 0:21:52.760 --> 0:21:56.120 It's okay sometimes for you to have that nice, gentle 0:21:56.720 --> 0:21:59.600 kind of faith about things in your life. Right, it's coming. 0:21:59.640 --> 0:22:01.920 It's a time just to be like nice and Okay, 0:22:02.119 --> 0:22:04.080 I'm just gonna wait and see how this turns out. 0:22:04.600 --> 0:22:08.240 But when something really matters to God's heart, in your heart, 0:22:09.000 --> 0:22:11.760 this one, I'm trying to say, there comes a time 0:22:11.840 --> 0:22:16.520 to escalate. There comes a time when people can't do 0:22:16.640 --> 0:22:19.640 it for you. So you have got to go above 0:22:19.720 --> 0:22:25.399 the people and go to the one who has all authority, 0:22:26.000 --> 0:22:34.120 all power. Aren't you glad that God's power doesn't need 0:22:34.240 --> 0:22:38.880 people's permission to operate. That if God decides to use 0:22:38.920 --> 0:22:43.560 you in a certain way, you can speak to the supervisor. 0:22:43.880 --> 0:22:46.359 If people aren't treating you good, you can go to 0:22:46.400 --> 0:22:48.800 your father. I say, you see how they're treating me, 0:22:49.000 --> 0:22:51.760 You see how their situation is. You see how I'm trying. 0:22:51.960 --> 0:22:54.960 Would you please get involved before I lose my mind 0:22:55.160 --> 0:22:58.439 and do something I'm gonna regret. God will step in. 0:22:58.920 --> 0:23:02.680 God will confront it. God will tell Pharaoh. God has 0:23:02.720 --> 0:23:08.160 a mighty hand, God has an outstretched gard. God set 0:23:08.240 --> 0:23:11.240 us sat in the misery my people in Aseel, and 0:23:11.280 --> 0:23:19.840 I'm coming down there. Not everybody likes this kind of preaching. 0:23:20.920 --> 0:23:25.840 It's not comfortable, but when you when when when you 0:23:25.880 --> 0:23:28.240 have an addiction that's robbing you of the daylight of 0:23:28.280 --> 0:23:36.840 your life. Yeah, So as the conflict is escalating, this 0:23:36.920 --> 0:23:40.560 is one of five stories in Mark's Gospel that's showing 0:23:40.680 --> 0:23:47.680 us the confrontational nature of God. And it's an interesting 0:23:47.720 --> 0:23:50.479 one because I'll point out a few things to you. 0:23:52.280 --> 0:23:55.880 When Jesus is arguing with the scribes about the Sabbath, 0:23:55.920 --> 0:23:59.000 they ask him, why are you breaking the Sabbath? Right, 0:23:59.560 --> 0:24:02.080 And he's trying to teach them the Sabbath is made 0:24:02.080 --> 0:24:04.040 for man. Man's not made for the Sabbath. You've got 0:24:04.040 --> 0:24:09.359 this completely out of order, right. In other words, you 0:24:09.480 --> 0:24:16.480 have turned a gift into a limitation. When he healed 0:24:16.480 --> 0:24:18.280 this man on a sabbath, all they could say is 0:24:18.359 --> 0:24:22.520 that's the wrong day to do it. Now, the Sabbath 0:24:22.560 --> 0:24:26.200 was given to people as a gift, but they turned 0:24:26.200 --> 0:24:29.960 it into a limit. This is a side note. Don't 0:24:30.040 --> 0:24:37.840 let your gift become your limitation. The more like, don't 0:24:37.920 --> 0:24:40.439 let something that God gave you in one season of 0:24:40.480 --> 0:24:44.080 your life to protect you become something in the next 0:24:44.119 --> 0:24:51.200 season of your life that prevents you. One example, you sure, 0:24:52.119 --> 0:24:57.000 all right, I got a hundred of these or like 0:24:57.320 --> 0:25:00.840 the way that we deal with people. Sometimes we learn 0:25:00.920 --> 0:25:03.320 to deal with people in a certain season of our 0:25:03.320 --> 0:25:07.040 life as a certain way to survive, because we have to, 0:25:08.440 --> 0:25:12.879 all right, And a lot of times I've been like swinging, 0:25:13.680 --> 0:25:19.360 like fighting, and I didn't even look up and realize 0:25:19.960 --> 0:25:23.720 my enemy was gone, and I'm still swinging at the air. 0:25:25.840 --> 0:25:30.399 And so my style of doing things, Like the best 0:25:30.440 --> 0:25:32.720 example I can give to you of this from my 0:25:32.800 --> 0:25:35.720 own life is that the way I've seen myself in 0:25:35.760 --> 0:25:40.880 certain seasons doesn't apply in other seasons. And God can 0:25:40.880 --> 0:25:45.080 give you something as a gift in one season. What 0:25:45.119 --> 0:25:48.960 am I thinking of? We wrote this other song that 0:25:49.000 --> 0:25:50.840 we just put out called talking to Jesus? Have you 0:25:50.840 --> 0:25:56.280 heard it? Heard it now? So Chris can tell you 0:25:56.520 --> 0:25:58.560 the whole time we were writing that song. We wrote 0:25:58.600 --> 0:26:01.440 that with our friend Brandon, and the whole time we 0:26:01.480 --> 0:26:03.800 were in the song, it broke all the rules of 0:26:03.800 --> 0:26:07.800 a worship song, because worship songs are supposed to be 0:26:08.320 --> 0:26:13.160 like this. You're supposed to only say about thirty words 0:26:13.160 --> 0:26:21.040 and just scramble them all around. Right, And we're writing 0:26:21.080 --> 0:26:23.840 this song and I'm finding myself saying lyrics like Mama 0:26:23.920 --> 0:26:25.760 used to drag me to church Sunday mornings and Wednesday 0:26:25.800 --> 0:26:27.719 night kaki pants and a polo shirt. Boy, I put 0:26:27.800 --> 0:26:30.199 up a fight, and I'm thinking, can you say khaki 0:26:30.280 --> 0:26:37.800 pants in a worship song? Now, there's a reason that 0:26:37.840 --> 0:26:40.080 worship songs are supposed to have a certain focus. The 0:26:40.119 --> 0:26:42.520 reason is when we come in to sing with our church, 0:26:42.720 --> 0:26:45.159 we want everybody to be able to access it. And 0:26:45.520 --> 0:26:47.800 maybe you didn't wear kaki pants to church. So you're 0:26:47.840 --> 0:26:50.840 worshiping God, Lord, I love you. I'm talking to Jesus, 0:26:50.920 --> 0:26:53.680 what a friend I have in Jesus khaki pants? Huh? 0:26:53.760 --> 0:26:56.280 And pulls you out of it. It's just like, Oh, 0:26:56.560 --> 0:26:59.160 I thought that was my song, but I guess that's 0:26:59.160 --> 0:27:04.280 not for me. The crazy thing about it was that 0:27:04.960 --> 0:27:08.399 I found God trying to give us a song about 0:27:08.440 --> 0:27:16.879 generational faith, but my rules for how God moves in worship, 0:27:18.440 --> 0:27:22.399 we're trying to restrict the expression that God wanted us 0:27:22.400 --> 0:27:28.359 to bring. Those rules were there for a reason. The 0:27:28.440 --> 0:27:32.760 scribes were there for a reason, to preserve the identity 0:27:32.800 --> 0:27:37.680 of God's people. But sometimes what was said to preserve 0:27:37.800 --> 0:27:42.040 something begins to prevent something. And I wonder has that 0:27:42.200 --> 0:27:46.520 happened in your life? I wonder do you need new rules? 0:27:47.440 --> 0:27:50.320 And while we're at it, I wonder who built your 0:27:50.400 --> 0:27:54.879 roof to begin with, Like, who set the limit to say, 0:27:55.080 --> 0:27:57.080 this is what God can do through you, and no more. 0:27:57.359 --> 0:28:00.240 This is what you're gifted at, and no more. People 0:28:00.280 --> 0:28:04.000 from your background, your education, your age, this is what 0:28:04.040 --> 0:28:09.879 you can do, and no more. I was talking to 0:28:09.960 --> 0:28:12.240 my friend who's forty three the other day and he 0:28:12.400 --> 0:28:15.439 was talking like his career was over. And then I 0:28:15.480 --> 0:28:17.920 told him about the guy who was fifty nine who 0:28:17.960 --> 0:28:22.160 reinvented and became a millionaire. So who put that roof 0:28:22.200 --> 0:28:24.040 on you? Who put the roof on you that if 0:28:24.040 --> 0:28:28.240 you are married by twenty five, there's something wrong with you? 0:28:28.280 --> 0:28:31.160 Who put that roof on you? Who put the roof 0:28:31.200 --> 0:28:33.320 on what we think God can do in church? That 0:28:33.359 --> 0:28:36.240 we think that God has to be confined to a building. 0:28:39.840 --> 0:28:42.520 The irony of my ministry is that everything God has 0:28:42.560 --> 0:28:44.320 done through me was something that I told him he 0:28:44.320 --> 0:28:49.440 couldn't do. I'm stubborn. I need the Holy Spirit. I 0:28:49.480 --> 0:28:52.640 need God's help because I'm so stubborn because I have 0:28:52.720 --> 0:28:55.960 these rules. You know, like to online, church isn't real, 0:28:58.600 --> 0:29:03.720 said me. Now you see why I feel bad for 0:29:03.800 --> 0:29:08.640 these scribes, these guys I've been preaching about all these years, 0:29:09.120 --> 0:29:12.160 These scribes, these you know, these teachers of the law, 0:29:12.280 --> 0:29:15.960 these pharisees, these you know. It was like a Pharisee 0:29:16.040 --> 0:29:22.880 in me. It's what I'm trying to deal with. It's 0:29:22.880 --> 0:29:24.840 not the crowd blocking the door that I have to 0:29:24.880 --> 0:29:28.160 worry about. I told our team, I said, I don't think. 0:29:28.240 --> 0:29:30.560 I don't think the church online can be real church, 0:29:30.600 --> 0:29:38.800 you know, because I've never seen it before. And if 0:29:38.800 --> 0:29:43.560 you never seen it before, you believe it can't be real. 0:29:47.080 --> 0:29:55.200 If you've never seen a healthy marriage, I'll be When 0:29:55.240 --> 0:29:59.600 we said verse twelve, this amazed everyone, and they praised 0:29:59.640 --> 0:30:05.200 God's saying we have never seen anything like this. The 0:30:05.240 --> 0:30:11.680 same thing that they said in praise is also the problem, 0:30:11.800 --> 0:30:15.360 because we've never seen anything like this before. So this 0:30:15.440 --> 0:30:18.920 can't be God. This is not the image I had 0:30:19.000 --> 0:30:21.320 of it. This is not the imagination I had of Though. 0:30:22.600 --> 0:30:24.560 He's not doing the rules we want him to do. 0:30:26.160 --> 0:30:30.760 It's not following the rules. And at the same time 0:30:30.880 --> 0:30:34.680 Jesus is breaking the rules. The men are breaking a roof, 0:30:37.480 --> 0:30:39.840 and I realized there were two roofs being removed in 0:30:39.840 --> 0:30:46.920 Mark chapter two. One was physical. It was Peter's house, 0:30:46.960 --> 0:30:51.880 by the way, No, it really was. It says when 0:30:51.960 --> 0:30:54.719 Jesus came to the house in Capernaium, that's the one 0:30:54.720 --> 0:30:58.120 where they based out of. It was Peter's house. If 0:30:58.120 --> 0:30:59.960 it would have been John, he'd kick those boys off 0:31:00.040 --> 0:31:02.000 off the roof, because John had good sense. But Peter 0:31:02.200 --> 0:31:06.120 was like, I like your style, Sa, That's something I 0:31:06.120 --> 0:31:12.400 would do. We'll get a new roof. Just break the roof. 0:31:12.480 --> 0:31:15.840 Let's get this time. Peter loved a mots fit Peter 0:31:15.960 --> 0:31:18.640 a crowd died. Peter doesn't care and give a crap 0:31:18.680 --> 0:31:20.800 and cut off in the here. Jesus can put it 0:31:20.880 --> 0:31:30.000 back and look. I told Elijah the other day, I said, 0:31:30.640 --> 0:31:32.640 I hope I set a good example for you. I 0:31:32.680 --> 0:31:34.680 hope I show you how to treat a woman. I 0:31:34.720 --> 0:31:37.720 hope I show you how to maneuver through difficult times. 0:31:37.920 --> 0:31:41.040 I hope I show you something about how to seek God. 0:31:41.320 --> 0:31:44.240 Be creative, make friends with your own creativity, don't let 0:31:44.320 --> 0:31:46.600 it turn inward, make sure you use it in service 0:31:46.600 --> 0:31:49.800 of others. I hope I show you a few things 0:31:48.840 --> 0:31:54.360 about Romanian dead lifts and Arnold presses, and some things 0:31:54.400 --> 0:31:56.040 you can take with you. The rest of your life. 0:31:56.280 --> 0:31:59.040 I hope I show you some good music like Nirvana, 0:31:59.120 --> 0:32:05.000 nevermind other classic gospel albums of the nineties. I said, 0:32:05.040 --> 0:32:07.520 y'all have limitations on genres. I'm telling you there's some 0:32:07.560 --> 0:32:14.960 good worship music you haven't heard yet. But I said, 0:32:14.600 --> 0:32:17.600 if you if you discover something, now listen to this. 0:32:17.480 --> 0:32:19.560 This is this is something I would say to anybody, 0:32:19.600 --> 0:32:23.040 but I said it to my oldest son. I said, 0:32:24.240 --> 0:32:27.040 if you see something in me that limits who God 0:32:27.080 --> 0:32:31.400 has made you to be, don't be loyal to my limitations. 0:32:37.520 --> 0:32:39.920 And here's the example I gave him. I had a 0:32:39.960 --> 0:32:43.440 friend who he used to train other preachers how to preach, 0:32:43.520 --> 0:32:46.200 and they would try to copy him. But they would 0:32:46.280 --> 0:32:49.160 copy not only the good things that he did because 0:32:49.160 --> 0:32:52.840 he was an amazing evangelist. They would even copy his 0:32:52.880 --> 0:32:58.560 mannerisms that were just incidental or glitchy. One thing in particular, 0:32:58.600 --> 0:33:01.080 he said, they tried to walk like him when they preached. 0:33:02.560 --> 0:33:06.040 And he said they were trying to walk like him, 0:33:06.040 --> 0:33:13.080 not realizing he had a bad back. So they're limping 0:33:13.120 --> 0:33:18.760 across the stage to be like their mentor, right, And 0:33:18.800 --> 0:33:27.960 I thought, that's crazy, man, They're imitating your injury. They're 0:33:28.040 --> 0:33:31.680 seeing you do something and they are thinking that because 0:33:31.720 --> 0:33:34.000 you do it, it must be right. So I told Elijah, 0:33:34.080 --> 0:33:38.000 I said, don't imitate my injury. Imitate me as I 0:33:38.000 --> 0:33:41.000 imitate Christ. But I think this is what I told him. 0:33:41.120 --> 0:33:48.080 I think that my ceiling can be your floor. And 0:33:48.160 --> 0:33:50.840 I don't mean in a pulpit as a preacher. I'm 0:33:50.840 --> 0:33:53.680 not limiting my kids that they need to be in 0:33:53.720 --> 0:33:57.040 the ministry. They are going to be in the ministry. 0:33:57.360 --> 0:34:00.800 It just might not be my style of men. It 0:34:00.880 --> 0:34:03.280 might not be a pulpit or a preaching or an 0:34:03.320 --> 0:34:06.080 acoustic guitar. What if what of them leads worship with 0:34:06.160 --> 0:34:08.520 a trap bet? What if that's what the next wave 0:34:08.640 --> 0:34:11.960 is of God's anointed holy music in the earth. What 0:34:12.000 --> 0:34:13.279 if they don't work at a church at all? But 0:34:13.320 --> 0:34:14.839 what if God uses them a great way in the world. 0:34:14.920 --> 0:34:17.000 After all, most of the miracles that Jesus did, we're 0:34:17.000 --> 0:34:19.080 in the marketplace. What are we trying to confine God 0:34:19.120 --> 0:34:21.040 to the places that we're most comfortable in. Why do 0:34:21.080 --> 0:34:22.800 we think that the most important stuff God's going to 0:34:22.880 --> 0:34:24.600 do is going to be through a preacher. The only 0:34:24.640 --> 0:34:27.560 point of a pulpit is to empower you for your field, 0:34:28.480 --> 0:34:35.520 for your feel you need a new roof. You keep 0:34:35.560 --> 0:34:38.080 banging up on the things that and here's what happens 0:34:38.080 --> 0:34:50.120 through life. You learn lies and become loyal to them, 0:34:50.160 --> 0:34:55.520 and then those lives become limits. You can't put khaki pants, 0:34:55.520 --> 0:34:59.600 send a worship song, well I did. You can't come 0:34:59.600 --> 0:35:04.080 in through the roof, Well we did, yeah, yeah, And 0:35:04.360 --> 0:35:06.680 I thought about calling the sermon. It's better to ask 0:35:06.760 --> 0:35:11.319 forgiveness than permission in some cases, because a lot of 0:35:11.320 --> 0:35:13.880 times we're waiting on somebody else to give us permission. 0:35:14.120 --> 0:35:19.200 You've got to get certain permission from within. Now I 0:35:19.480 --> 0:35:22.520 don't mean, I don't mean be inappropriate, walk around without 0:35:22.520 --> 0:35:25.759 your mask. Coming about Mark two, I'm not talking about that. 0:35:34.360 --> 0:35:35.919 I just want to I want to put the thought 0:35:35.960 --> 0:35:41.760 in your mind about inner permission. It's the inner permission 0:35:41.800 --> 0:35:45.680 that matters. Go to Corinthians. Let me show you. This 0:35:47.360 --> 0:35:57.040 is this good first Corinthians two. Now, this might be 0:35:57.120 --> 0:35:58.960 too much, but I'm going to give it a shot. 0:36:01.920 --> 0:36:05.680 You know, Jesus argued with the scribes about the washing 0:36:05.719 --> 0:36:10.480 of hands. There's so many things he argued with In 0:36:10.520 --> 0:36:17.160 this particular instance, there's one difference. Let me illustrate it. 0:36:17.200 --> 0:36:20.320 From this First Corinthians to go all the way to 0:36:20.400 --> 0:36:23.839 verse six. It's about ten verses. I want to read 0:36:23.840 --> 0:36:27.840 you do y'all have six? Oh? I started later, so 0:36:28.200 --> 0:36:30.280 I'll read you six and they can put it in later. Okay. 0:36:30.560 --> 0:36:33.000 We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among them 0:36:33.040 --> 0:36:35.279 a toure, but not the wisdom of this age or 0:36:35.320 --> 0:36:37.520 the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. No, 0:36:37.640 --> 0:36:40.960 we declare God's wisdom, a mystery that has been hidden 0:36:41.520 --> 0:36:44.760 and that God destined for our glory before time began. 0:36:45.560 --> 0:36:48.040 None of the rulers of this age understood it, for 0:36:48.200 --> 0:36:51.239 if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord 0:36:51.239 --> 0:36:55.040 of glory. However, as it is written, watch just what 0:36:55.160 --> 0:36:59.200 no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and 0:36:59.239 --> 0:37:02.600 what no human in mind has conceived. The things God 0:37:02.640 --> 0:37:05.399 has prepared for those who love him. Don't stop at 0:37:05.400 --> 0:37:08.759 that verse. Verse ten says something pretty cool. These are 0:37:08.800 --> 0:37:13.080 the things, what things, the things that no eye has 0:37:13.120 --> 0:37:18.920 seen and no ear has heard. These are the things 0:37:19.560 --> 0:37:22.960 God has revealed to us by his spirit. I'm so 0:37:23.080 --> 0:37:26.240 glad I have my own Bible, because I would always 0:37:26.320 --> 0:37:29.400 thought that. First Corinthians two stopped at verse nine. I 0:37:29.440 --> 0:37:32.560 heard this verse quoted for years, no eye has seen, 0:37:33.000 --> 0:37:35.759 no ear has heard, neither has it entered into the 0:37:35.760 --> 0:37:37.680 heart of man, what God has prepared for those who 0:37:37.760 --> 0:37:41.120 love him. And they'd stop. Verse ten says, these are 0:37:41.160 --> 0:37:44.279 the things, somebody say, these are the things God has 0:37:44.400 --> 0:37:47.320 revealed to us by his spirit. Put it in the chat. 0:37:47.360 --> 0:37:49.919 These are the things, These are the things, These are 0:37:49.920 --> 0:37:52.600 the things, These are the things. Go back to March 0:37:52.680 --> 0:37:55.120 chapter two. Now for a moment. Now, some teachers of 0:37:55.120 --> 0:37:58.080 the law were sitting there thinking to themselves, why does 0:37:58.120 --> 0:38:01.400 this fellow talk like that. He's blaming who can forgive 0:38:01.480 --> 0:38:05.720 sins but God alone. Immediately, here's my verse. Jesus knew 0:38:05.800 --> 0:38:08.720 in his spirit that this is what they were thinking 0:38:08.920 --> 0:38:11.919 in their hearts, and he said to them, why are 0:38:11.960 --> 0:38:17.360 you thinking these things? The power of the Lord is 0:38:17.520 --> 0:38:21.680 present to heal the sick, and all you want to 0:38:21.719 --> 0:38:25.680 think about is the limitations of your senses, what you 0:38:25.719 --> 0:38:29.080 can understand, what you can make sense out of. Why 0:38:29.120 --> 0:38:33.160 are you thinking these things? Well, I can tell you 0:38:33.239 --> 0:38:39.840 why they thought those things. They were taught those things. 0:38:40.560 --> 0:38:44.360 They were taught those things. You were taught how to 0:38:44.400 --> 0:38:46.879 think about who you are in Christ. You were taught 0:38:46.960 --> 0:38:48.920 to think about how to You were taught to think 0:38:48.960 --> 0:38:51.160 about how you function in the world. You were taught 0:38:51.200 --> 0:38:53.560 to think about your definition of power. You were taught 0:38:53.600 --> 0:38:55.960 to think about what you can and can accomplish. And 0:38:56.000 --> 0:38:59.720 if you've never seen it before, it's hard to believe 0:38:59.719 --> 0:39:04.560 that it can be. But here in Mark chapter two, 0:39:05.680 --> 0:39:10.240 we have Jesus, who is number one, able to see 0:39:10.239 --> 0:39:13.440 something no one else can see. Did you notice it 0:39:13.440 --> 0:39:19.160 in the texts that in verse five, Jesus saw their faith? 0:39:20.320 --> 0:39:24.279 How can you see faith? I didn't know you could 0:39:24.280 --> 0:39:28.560 see faith. I never walked up to somebody and said, 0:39:28.600 --> 0:39:35.760 looks like you've been gaining faith. Wow, you've lost some faith? 0:39:36.280 --> 0:39:40.560 Can I pray for you? But he could see faith 0:39:41.560 --> 0:39:44.640 in the form of the roof that was at his 0:39:44.760 --> 0:39:50.360 feet because of their action. He saw. Watch this their faith, 0:39:51.320 --> 0:39:57.080 not the man on the mat. Their faith. How many 0:39:57.120 --> 0:40:03.600 praise God that the right people in your life can 0:40:03.680 --> 0:40:07.760 lead you to healing? Come on, I mean the right people, 0:40:08.719 --> 0:40:10.919 the right people who won't give up when they see 0:40:10.920 --> 0:40:13.319 the crowd, the right people that won't give up on 0:40:13.360 --> 0:40:18.560 you because you're a little heavy, the right people. And 0:40:18.640 --> 0:40:20.239 I have a question. I have a question. I have 0:40:20.239 --> 0:40:23.720 a question if the right people can get you healed, 0:40:24.880 --> 0:40:31.279 can the wrong people keep you paralyzed. Some of the 0:40:31.320 --> 0:40:35.560 greatest limitations we put on ourselves come in the forms 0:40:35.600 --> 0:40:39.240 of the relationships that have no more purpose to serve 0:40:39.560 --> 0:40:45.640 in this season of our life. You need a new roof, 0:40:46.800 --> 0:40:50.960 You need some new relationships. You really do. You need 0:40:51.000 --> 0:40:53.920 some new people. I found out that that just like 0:40:54.840 --> 0:40:57.839 the men carried their friend. In fact, I always said 0:40:57.880 --> 0:41:00.120 it was his friends that got him to Jesus. But 0:41:00.160 --> 0:41:02.279 the Bible never even calls them his friends. It just 0:41:02.320 --> 0:41:06.200 says they were some men. I don't know if they 0:41:06.200 --> 0:41:08.120 were friends or if he hired them for the job. 0:41:08.160 --> 0:41:12.480 It doesn't matter. They got it done. But I'll tell 0:41:12.520 --> 0:41:18.120 you something, when you circle up with people who are 0:41:18.160 --> 0:41:21.000 stuck in a limitation of what God used to do, 0:41:22.680 --> 0:41:25.520 it is very hard for you to believe that all 0:41:25.560 --> 0:41:30.720 things are possible. So I give you a challenge today, 0:41:32.280 --> 0:41:35.480 and you can choose to receive it, or you can 0:41:35.560 --> 0:41:37.399 choose to reject it. That's going to be up to you. 0:41:39.480 --> 0:41:42.320 But I believe I'm speaking to somebody who's been blocked lately. 0:41:44.719 --> 0:41:48.919 You've heard of writer's block. Probably I've experienced that. There's 0:41:48.960 --> 0:41:51.279 even preacher's block. I promise you it's a real thing. 0:41:54.080 --> 0:42:02.400 There's also peace block, joy block. The biggest block in 0:42:02.440 --> 0:42:06.480 the passage was not the crowd at the door. It 0:42:06.560 --> 0:42:11.640 was the limitations in the hearts of the scribes who 0:42:11.640 --> 0:42:18.360 were sitting there thinking to themselves. And so Jesus proved 0:42:18.360 --> 0:42:21.959 his power over sin. He's like, hmm, if you don't 0:42:22.480 --> 0:42:24.839 believe that I forgive sin, maybe you'll believe me. If 0:42:24.880 --> 0:42:28.160 this man gets up and walks, it's easier for me 0:42:28.200 --> 0:42:29.600 to make him walk than it is for me to 0:42:29.640 --> 0:42:31.360 forgive him, because I'll have to die for him to 0:42:31.360 --> 0:42:41.200 be forgiven. What are the limitations that God is calling 0:42:41.239 --> 0:42:45.399 me to unlearn? I mean, certain limits are good. All right, 0:42:45.600 --> 0:42:48.960 the NBA is over, you're thirty four. You're not going 0:42:49.040 --> 0:42:52.319 to do it now. It's not going to happen now. 0:42:52.400 --> 0:42:54.200 Dunk on your son, but it's not going to the 0:42:54.239 --> 0:42:56.160 professional level. You're not going to get paid for it. 0:42:58.080 --> 0:42:59.919 But certain things you said. I said this on Easter, 0:43:01.680 --> 0:43:04.080 and I talked about how we'll even blame it on 0:43:04.120 --> 0:43:12.239 a personality type. Personalities aren't permanent. Temperaments are given, but 0:43:12.280 --> 0:43:15.640 personalities aren't. There's no such thing as I'm just a 0:43:15.719 --> 0:43:24.520 negative person. There's just negative patterns. What are the limitations 0:43:24.560 --> 0:43:27.520 that you need to unlearn that you received because of 0:43:27.560 --> 0:43:31.359 lies that you believe your limitations were learned. You didn't 0:43:31.400 --> 0:43:34.240 always just think like that. You didn't just always think, well, 0:43:34.400 --> 0:43:36.399 you know, if I love anybody, I'm just gonna get hurt. 0:43:36.400 --> 0:43:38.560 So I'll just stay here to myself and I'll just isolate. 0:43:38.560 --> 0:43:40.640 And I never really let anybody in because can't trust me. 0:43:40.719 --> 0:43:47.880 You learned that. And in Luke chapter five I was reading. 0:43:47.920 --> 0:43:52.440 Because Luke puts it a little different, it's the same story, 0:43:52.480 --> 0:43:56.200 but he said that when Jesus saw the men lower him, 0:43:56.600 --> 0:43:59.880 he looked at the man and said, friend, you're sin 0:44:00.120 --> 0:44:04.400 are forgiven. All these years I've been preaching this text, 0:44:05.680 --> 0:44:08.000 and I said, his four friends are the reason he 0:44:08.040 --> 0:44:12.600 got here. Put Luke five twenty again, Jesus said to 0:44:12.640 --> 0:44:19.480 the man friend, when the man's friends had taken him 0:44:19.480 --> 0:44:23.160 as far as they could, he found a friend that 0:44:23.280 --> 0:44:30.719 had no limitations. And the real beauty of it is 0:44:31.719 --> 0:44:38.480 that friend lives in you. So whatever whatever external limitation 0:44:38.719 --> 0:44:41.920 it is, I believe God is going to use in 0:44:41.960 --> 0:44:47.880 your life to reveal to you an internal grace that 0:44:48.040 --> 0:44:55.000 is greater than the external limitation. I declare it over 0:44:55.040 --> 0:44:58.640 your life. I prophesy it over your life. I don't 0:44:58.640 --> 0:45:01.120 have to scream to prophesy. I'm saying it till you 0:45:01.200 --> 0:45:03.600 direct flat footage. Watch me stand here and say it. 0:45:03.719 --> 0:45:08.840 The limitation is a gift. The external thing serves a 0:45:08.880 --> 0:45:12.200 purpose in your life to show the greatness of God. 0:45:12.840 --> 0:45:15.520 Jesus knew that the man needed to be forgiven more 0:45:15.560 --> 0:45:18.520 than he needed to be healed. He gave him the 0:45:18.560 --> 0:45:20.759 gift of a limitation to give him the gift that 0:45:20.800 --> 0:45:28.319 he didn't know he needed. So we have a Jesus 0:45:28.920 --> 0:45:33.000 who can hear thoughts. Isn't that scary? They didn't even 0:45:33.120 --> 0:45:37.399 say anything, and he argued with them, a Jesus who 0:45:37.400 --> 0:45:43.440 can see faith and a God who can forgive sins. 0:45:49.200 --> 0:45:51.680 Let's take a moment today in our lives and do 0:45:51.760 --> 0:45:56.399 what the men did. Let's put the issues of our 0:45:56.480 --> 0:46:01.280 life at the feet of Jesus. All he was proving 0:46:01.440 --> 0:46:05.960 is I have all authority. There is nothing you can 0:46:06.000 --> 0:46:08.200 bring into my presence. There is nothing you can say 0:46:08.239 --> 0:46:11.000 about yourself. There is nothing that you can bring into 0:46:11.320 --> 0:46:14.160 into this room, into the presence of God. There is 0:46:14.200 --> 0:46:17.200 no problem that you can name that is greater than 0:46:17.239 --> 0:46:20.520 the power of God. So right now, Lord, in the 0:46:20.600 --> 0:46:24.480 name of Jesus, in the name of your son Jesus, 0:46:24.480 --> 0:46:27.480 who walked the earth and lived the life that I 0:46:27.520 --> 0:46:30.319 could not live, the one who died to death on 0:46:30.360 --> 0:46:33.160 a sinner's cross, the one who, in the weakness of flesh, 0:46:33.239 --> 0:46:36.840 demonstrated the strength of God. In that name, in the 0:46:36.960 --> 0:46:40.120 name of Jesus, Christ of Nazareth, I speak to every 0:46:40.200 --> 0:46:43.960 human frailty. I speak to every sickness. I speak to 0:46:44.040 --> 0:46:48.520 every disease. I speak to every insecurity. I speak to shame. 0:46:48.800 --> 0:46:51.840 I speak to deep shame. I speak to secret shame. 0:46:52.080 --> 0:46:55.840 I speak to fear. I speak to night terrors. In 0:46:55.880 --> 0:46:59.040 the name of Jesus, in the name of Jesus, you 0:46:59.080 --> 0:47:02.680 will rise up above what was holding you, and you 0:47:02.760 --> 0:47:06.759 will demonstrate the authority of the Word of God in 0:47:06.800 --> 0:47:11.160 your life. This day, this week, this moment. You will 0:47:11.200 --> 0:47:14.840 break through every roof. You will break through every tradition. 0:47:15.320 --> 0:47:18.439 You will break through every barrier, you will break through 0:47:18.480 --> 0:47:22.160 every limitation, You will break through every name that has 0:47:22.200 --> 0:47:27.840 been placed on you. His name is greater, and I 0:47:28.000 --> 0:47:32.239 speak it over every life. God. We have proof, We 0:47:32.320 --> 0:47:36.279 have evidence that you forgive and heal. But we must 0:47:36.360 --> 0:47:38.840 believe it to be true for us because the greatest 0:47:38.880 --> 0:47:41.600 block in our life will not be something standing outside 0:47:41.600 --> 0:47:44.400 the door. It'll be something that grows up in our hearts. 0:47:44.680 --> 0:47:46.759 So Lord, right now we bring it all before you 0:47:48.719 --> 0:47:53.200 as we minister today. Lord, we said that there are 0:47:53.239 --> 0:47:56.520 some things that only your spirit can reveal. Eyes can't 0:47:56.560 --> 0:48:02.000 see it, ears can't hear it, but your spirit knows it. 0:48:04.360 --> 0:48:06.040 I pray for your sons and daughters this week that 0:48:06.040 --> 0:48:09.719 they would be visited by revelation of who you are 0:48:09.760 --> 0:48:12.759 and who they are in you, Oh God, If they 0:48:12.800 --> 0:48:18.439 find that out, they will never be blocked again. We're 0:48:18.520 --> 0:48:22.239 using this moment to escalate. We want to be transferred 0:48:22.239 --> 0:48:26.719 to another department. We've been down here dealing with some 0:48:26.800 --> 0:48:31.000 stuff and we don't need permission from scribes and people. 0:48:31.360 --> 0:48:33.960 We don't need a pretty interest God, we just need 0:48:34.000 --> 0:48:37.000 a way into your presence. God, you have given us 0:48:37.000 --> 0:48:41.239 a way in through the sacrifice of your son, and 0:48:41.320 --> 0:48:44.759 now we receive your touch in this moment. We thank 0:48:44.800 --> 0:48:48.080 you for your presence. Right now, I want to give 0:48:48.080 --> 0:48:51.839 an invitation for somebody to receive Jesus Christ as you're 0:48:51.880 --> 0:48:55.160 savedor and received the grace of God. The Bible says 0:48:55.160 --> 0:48:57.040 that it is by grace you are saved through faith. 0:48:57.080 --> 0:48:59.320 It's not of work, so that no one can boast. 0:48:59.320 --> 0:49:03.080 It's the gift of God. You just heard this message 0:49:03.120 --> 0:49:09.880 today in your PARI lies not physically. Maybe it's a 0:49:09.960 --> 0:49:16.239 spiritual paralysis that sin creates. It's the sense that you 0:49:16.280 --> 0:49:19.839 can never reach God. It's the sense that you can't 0:49:19.920 --> 0:49:23.960 keep the law. It's the sense that you need the 0:49:24.000 --> 0:49:27.160 grace of God, and that grace has been made available. 0:49:28.960 --> 0:49:31.800 There's not seven steps to this to getting right with God. 0:49:33.960 --> 0:49:36.680 There's not all this knowledge that you have to be 0:49:36.719 --> 0:49:43.239 able to quote. It's as simple as the faith of 0:49:43.360 --> 0:49:49.800 this man who was positioned at the feet of Jesus 0:49:51.120 --> 0:49:55.440 and forgiven of his sin. And if you would like 0:49:55.480 --> 0:49:58.880 to receive that forgiveness of your sin. I want to 0:49:58.920 --> 0:50:01.080 lead you in a prayer right now, and I want 0:50:01.120 --> 0:50:06.120 to just bring you to Jesus and I'm going to 0:50:06.120 --> 0:50:09.280 pray a prayer. I want you to repeat this prayer 0:50:09.280 --> 0:50:12.440 with me. It's going to be a life changing moment. 0:50:12.800 --> 0:50:16.400 And we're praying all together out loud as a church family. 0:50:16.800 --> 0:50:21.480 Pray with me, Heavenly Father. I believe believe that Jesus 0:50:21.560 --> 0:50:25.799 Christ is the Son of God and the savior of 0:50:25.840 --> 0:50:31.440 the world. Today, I make Jesus the lord of my life. 0:50:32.400 --> 0:50:37.200 I believe he died for me and rose again to 0:50:37.280 --> 0:50:42.880 give me life. I receive this new life. This is 0:50:43.280 --> 0:50:47.920 my new beginning. I am a child of God. On 0:50:47.960 --> 0:50:49.759 the count of three, if you pray that shoots your 0:50:49.760 --> 0:50:52.520 hand up one, two, three in the chat, say I 0:50:52.560 --> 0:50:55.839 receive Jesus. Just say it right there in the chap. 0:50:55.960 --> 0:50:59.560 We want to celebrate with you online. I received Jesus. 0:51:00.320 --> 0:51:05.720 Come on, I received Jesus. Not I achieved. I received Jesus. 0:51:06.120 --> 0:51:12.080 I received the grace of God. Well, I pray that 0:51:12.120 --> 0:51:15.600 you received exactly what you needed from God today, and 0:51:15.640 --> 0:51:18.640 I pray that this week you'll put your faith into action. 0:51:19.239 --> 0:51:23.040 Right He told the man, pick up your map and 0:51:23.120 --> 0:51:26.640 go home. And that's what we want to do. We 0:51:26.680 --> 0:51:29.080 want to take the message that God gave us and 0:51:29.160 --> 0:51:31.440 apply it in our lives. And I pray that God 0:51:31.480 --> 0:51:33.759 will give you the faith and the grace to do 0:51:33.840 --> 0:51:37.040 something this week that you've never done before, something that's 0:51:37.080 --> 0:51:39.520 been in you all along. Heley, and I love you. 0:51:40.080 --> 0:51:42.279 Thank you for joining us, Thank you for giving to 0:51:42.360 --> 0:51:47.480 the ministry. You're amazing. We're always grateful for your partnership 0:51:47.480 --> 0:51:50.200 in the gospel and for your prayers. It means a lot. 0:51:50.239 --> 0:51:52.479 We're praying for you to see you next time.