What Are The Chances?

0:00:01.600 --> 0:00:02.840 Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick. 0:00:02.880 --> 0:00:05.840 I'm the pastor of Elevation Church and this is our podcast. 0:00:05.960 --> 0:00:07.800 I wanted to thank you for joining us today. 0:00:08.119 --> 0:00:10.720 Hope this inspires you. Hope it builds your faith. 0:00:10.800 --> 0:00:12.920 Hope it gives your perspective to see God is moving 0:00:12.960 --> 0:00:13.640 in your life. 0:00:13.920 --> 0:00:16.880 Enjoy the message. 0:00:17.000 --> 0:00:18.840 I've been looking forward to sharing this word with you. 0:00:19.760 --> 0:00:23.079 Mark Chapter fourteen, verse ten through sixteen. Would you mind 0:00:23.079 --> 0:00:24.239 standing for the word of God. 0:00:24.239 --> 0:00:28.880 I know we just sat, but it's good. It's good. 0:00:28.920 --> 0:00:33.760 I'm helping you exercise your legs, maximizing your time and 0:00:33.800 --> 0:00:35.559 getting a little workout up and down, and. 0:00:37.080 --> 0:00:40.640 Exercise your spirit as well. Okay. 0:00:40.640 --> 0:00:45.400 Mark Chapter fourteen, verse ten says, then Judas is Scariot, 0:00:45.440 --> 0:00:48.080 one of the twelve, went to the chief priest to 0:00:48.200 --> 0:00:51.639 betray Jesus to them. They were delighted to hear this 0:00:52.000 --> 0:00:55.120 and promise to give him money. So he watched for 0:00:55.160 --> 0:01:00.920 an opportunity to hand him over Greek Paradidami, verse twelve. 0:01:01.160 --> 0:01:03.560 On the first day of the Feast of Unloved Bread, 0:01:03.720 --> 0:01:07.600 when it was customary to sacrifice the passover lamb, Jesus's 0:01:07.680 --> 0:01:10.319 disciples asked him where do you want us to go 0:01:10.360 --> 0:01:13.840 and make preparations for you to eat the passover. So 0:01:13.880 --> 0:01:17.559 he sent two of his disciples, telling them, go into 0:01:17.600 --> 0:01:21.040 the city, and a man carrying a jar of water. 0:01:20.920 --> 0:01:21.520 Will meet you. 0:01:21.600 --> 0:01:25.200 Follow him, say to the owner of the house he enters, 0:01:25.720 --> 0:01:29.480 The teacher asks, where is my guest room where I 0:01:29.560 --> 0:01:33.399 may eat the passover with my disciples. He will show 0:01:33.440 --> 0:01:41.600 you a large upper room, furnished and ready. Would you 0:01:41.640 --> 0:01:45.360 touch your favorite neighbor and tell the miss already ready, 0:01:46.800 --> 0:01:56.000 make preparations for us there where there there Verse sixteen. 0:01:56.840 --> 0:01:58.280 The disciples left. 0:01:58.720 --> 0:02:03.160 Went into the city and found things just as Jesus 0:02:03.560 --> 0:02:07.880 had told them, so they prepared the passover. 0:02:07.960 --> 0:02:09.160 Look at your neighbor one more time. 0:02:09.160 --> 0:02:10.600 I won't make you do it again, but look at 0:02:10.639 --> 0:02:13.239 them one more time and give them my sermon title. 0:02:13.320 --> 0:02:14.639 It's really a question. 0:02:14.639 --> 0:02:18.679 That to me the text provokes, and I want you 0:02:18.720 --> 0:02:20.440 to look at them and ask them this question, which 0:02:20.480 --> 0:02:23.360 is also my subject. Ask them this, say what are 0:02:23.400 --> 0:02:27.200 the chances please be seated again? 0:02:34.040 --> 0:02:34.120 So. 0:02:34.160 --> 0:02:38.400 I don't know about you, but I hate personality tests. 0:02:40.840 --> 0:02:45.560 I think they're useful for certain people. It's just that 0:02:45.600 --> 0:02:47.760 I can never remember the results of my tests. 0:02:49.280 --> 0:02:50.160 And I also think. 0:02:50.000 --> 0:02:54.880 Something about the nature of a personality test seems off 0:02:54.919 --> 0:02:58.880 to me because depending on what mood you catch me in, 0:03:00.200 --> 0:03:04.120 I will answer the questions very differently, even depending on 0:03:04.240 --> 0:03:07.640 what five minute window you catch me in I have. 0:03:08.400 --> 0:03:11.200 I don't know if I should admit this multiple personalities. 0:03:13.520 --> 0:03:15.280 I wish you would look at me like you don't. 0:03:15.960 --> 0:03:18.560 I will follow you home and watch how you act 0:03:18.560 --> 0:03:19.600 when you're not in church. 0:03:20.080 --> 0:03:21.160 We will find out. 0:03:22.880 --> 0:03:26.080 That you can be one person in one context and 0:03:26.120 --> 0:03:31.080 another person in another context. And yet our minds are 0:03:31.120 --> 0:03:34.960 always trying to find ways to categorize life as we're 0:03:35.000 --> 0:03:39.320 experiencing life. And it's a good thing that our minds 0:03:39.320 --> 0:03:43.000 are wired this way. It's really a good thing because 0:03:43.240 --> 0:03:45.560 too many things are happening to us all the time 0:03:46.040 --> 0:03:49.680 for us to process all of them on an individual basis. 0:03:50.440 --> 0:03:52.800 So what your brain does is in an attempt to 0:03:52.840 --> 0:04:00.360 help you from blowing up, is to group different stimuli according. 0:03:59.960 --> 0:04:03.119 To past experiences through the power of association. 0:04:04.480 --> 0:04:08.320 Your brain is always looking for a way to categorize experience, 0:04:09.360 --> 0:04:12.080 and so your mind is trying to judge at any 0:04:12.120 --> 0:04:16.040 given moment whether a certain environment is safe or dangerous, 0:04:16.920 --> 0:04:19.920 positive or negative, And a lot of times This is 0:04:19.920 --> 0:04:24.200 happening even at a subconscious level. Sometimes you don't even 0:04:24.279 --> 0:04:26.760 know why you don't like somebody that you just met. 0:04:28.080 --> 0:04:30.159 You haven't even had a real interaction with them yet. 0:04:30.160 --> 0:04:32.160 But the way their nose looks is just like your 0:04:32.200 --> 0:04:36.080 ex husband, And there's no chance that somebody with that 0:04:36.279 --> 0:04:37.679 nose could have a good heart. 0:04:38.320 --> 0:04:38.920 Say amen. 0:04:39.600 --> 0:04:42.000 Some people annoy you before you even know them, just 0:04:42.040 --> 0:04:43.480 because they remind you of Bob. 0:04:43.520 --> 0:04:45.039 And maybe they're not a bad. 0:04:44.880 --> 0:04:47.279 Person like Bob was, but they kind of talk like 0:04:47.360 --> 0:04:49.640 Bob and walk like Bob. And now you hate them 0:04:49.640 --> 0:04:51.280 and you hadn't even gotten to know them because you've 0:04:51.360 --> 0:04:54.440 categorized them. 0:04:53.320 --> 0:04:55.880 According to an association. 0:04:57.080 --> 0:05:01.200 Yet I have found that our associations are not always accurate, 0:05:01.760 --> 0:05:06.440 and our categories are not always correct. I think one 0:05:06.480 --> 0:05:09.000 of the first things that God does in our lives 0:05:09.000 --> 0:05:11.599 when he comes in through the indwelling of the Holy 0:05:11.640 --> 0:05:16.480 Spirit is to challenge our categories. You see this through 0:05:16.600 --> 0:05:20.479 the New Testament that after Jesus was resurrected from the dead, 0:05:20.880 --> 0:05:24.039 various disputes broke out amongst those who claimed to be 0:05:24.080 --> 0:05:26.160 his disciples regarding the nature. 0:05:25.920 --> 0:05:26.680 Of true faith. 0:05:27.520 --> 0:05:29.919 And it was that the Jewish people could not accept 0:05:29.920 --> 0:05:34.200 this infusion of gentiles because to have a gentile worshiping 0:05:34.200 --> 0:05:38.160 in a Jewish context did not fit their category of righteousness. 0:05:39.040 --> 0:05:41.120 So we've got to kick them out because they don't. 0:05:40.920 --> 0:05:42.640 Fit our category. 0:05:43.640 --> 0:05:46.120 Usually, when something comes into your life and you have 0:05:46.200 --> 0:05:49.680 no pre existing category for it, you dismiss it by 0:05:49.720 --> 0:05:51.360 calling it weird. 0:05:52.920 --> 0:05:56.400 I don't like that song, why it's weird. 0:05:57.200 --> 0:06:00.040 You find out sometimes that some of the things that 0:06:00.600 --> 0:06:04.000 you call weird in one stage of your life, or 0:06:04.040 --> 0:06:06.919 that you call bad at one stage of your life, 0:06:07.000 --> 0:06:10.239 or that you call failure in one stage of your life, 0:06:10.440 --> 0:06:13.279 later you will learn to put it in a completely 0:06:13.320 --> 0:06:16.760 different category. Because one of the things that Christ does 0:06:16.800 --> 0:06:20.520 when he comes into our lives is to change our categories. 0:06:20.560 --> 0:06:21.240 Paul knew this. 0:06:21.240 --> 0:06:23.760 This is why he said, after rising to the top 0:06:23.839 --> 0:06:26.479 of the religious ranks of his day, that what I 0:06:26.560 --> 0:06:31.320 used to count gain I now count as loss. What 0:06:31.440 --> 0:06:35.080 I thought mattered didn't matter as much as what really matters. 0:06:35.520 --> 0:06:38.080 But it took some time for me to mature to 0:06:38.120 --> 0:06:42.200 the point where I could challenge my categories. Some of 0:06:42.240 --> 0:06:44.599 the things that we will pray away in one season 0:06:44.839 --> 0:06:47.440 will be our very praise reports in the next because 0:06:47.480 --> 0:06:49.480 we will realize that unless we. 0:06:49.480 --> 0:06:51.640 Had been afflicted, we could not have been. 0:06:51.600 --> 0:06:55.360 Humbled to the point to really know the presence and 0:06:55.440 --> 0:07:02.719 power of God in an intimate in real wayallenges are categories. 0:07:03.560 --> 0:07:06.080 This is why they killed Jesus, by the way, because 0:07:06.600 --> 0:07:10.120 they could not find a category for who he was, 0:07:10.800 --> 0:07:14.760 how he taught, or the miracles that he performed. He 0:07:14.840 --> 0:07:18.440 did not come from their rabbinical schools. He was the 0:07:18.520 --> 0:07:23.400 carpenter's son. The carpenter's son certainly could not be the Christ. 0:07:24.160 --> 0:07:26.480 They could not wrap their minds around the fact that 0:07:26.520 --> 0:07:28.960 the Savior of the world could be born in the 0:07:28.960 --> 0:07:30.240 backwoods of Bethlehem. 0:07:30.800 --> 0:07:32.560 It did not fit their category. 0:07:33.000 --> 0:07:35.640 They could not understand why he didn't wash his hands 0:07:35.680 --> 0:07:38.360 like he was supposed to wash his hands. They couldn't 0:07:38.440 --> 0:07:41.680 understand why he would be comfortable eating with sinners and 0:07:41.760 --> 0:07:46.559 rebuke the religious elite. They could not understand why Jesus would, 0:07:47.040 --> 0:07:51.840 in many ways and in many situations, confront their religious 0:07:51.880 --> 0:07:56.760 tradition opposing the very values that they held so dear 0:07:56.840 --> 0:08:00.360 So what did they do? They crucified him because they 0:08:00.400 --> 0:08:04.160 could not categorize him. A lot of times people will 0:08:04.200 --> 0:08:07.560 reject you because they can't find a box to put 0:08:07.600 --> 0:08:12.480 you in because you represent Watch this, you represent a. 0:08:12.520 --> 0:08:14.960 Category killing God. 0:08:15.440 --> 0:08:19.720 Your God will not be limited to one economic background, 0:08:20.000 --> 0:08:23.040 to one race. Your God will not be limited to 0:08:23.080 --> 0:08:24.360 one way of thinking. 0:08:24.560 --> 0:08:25.400 Your God will not. 0:08:25.440 --> 0:08:33.920 Be limited to one personality type. And you see this 0:08:34.000 --> 0:08:37.839 theology entering through the apostle Paul in the Book of Galatians, 0:08:37.880 --> 0:08:41.319 the third chapter where he says, in Christ, there's no longer. 0:08:41.080 --> 0:08:42.079 June or gentile. 0:08:43.200 --> 0:08:47.840 Those old categories don't exist anymore. I don't find my 0:08:48.000 --> 0:08:53.280 people anymore. According to skin color, I don't find my 0:08:53.360 --> 0:08:54.280 people anymore. 0:08:54.440 --> 0:08:55.520 According to gender. 0:08:55.760 --> 0:08:59.280 There's no longer male nor female, slave nor free. Is 0:08:59.320 --> 0:09:03.240 no longer my position in a certain society that defines 0:09:03.320 --> 0:09:07.480 my worth. In Christ, we are one. The categories that 0:09:07.600 --> 0:09:11.360 were existed before he came have now been obliterated by 0:09:11.400 --> 0:09:15.120 one who is greater. He's a category killer. He's greater 0:09:15.280 --> 0:09:18.400 than all. His name is the buffalo names. I wish 0:09:18.440 --> 0:09:23.000 you shot in the back of Valentine. Let the week 0:09:23.120 --> 0:09:26.800 say I am strong, Let the poor say I am rich. 0:09:29.840 --> 0:09:32.000 I love When people ask me what kind. 0:09:31.840 --> 0:09:36.800 Of church's elevation, I say, do you have a while, 0:09:38.200 --> 0:09:40.520 because I can't give you the categories that you would 0:09:40.559 --> 0:09:43.880 normally typify a church with. I can't tell you we're 0:09:43.880 --> 0:09:47.080 a white church. I can't tell you we're a black church. 0:09:48.240 --> 0:09:51.720 I can't tell you we're a traditional church. I can't 0:09:51.720 --> 0:09:54.680 tell you we're a non traditional church. Well, we're pretty 0:09:54.679 --> 0:09:59.040 non traditional. I probably can't tell you that. Somebody will 0:09:59.080 --> 0:10:03.040 ask me a question, is it a spirit filled church? 0:10:03.679 --> 0:10:03.880 You know? 0:10:04.000 --> 0:10:06.200 Christians have all these little labels that we like to 0:10:06.240 --> 0:10:09.360 put to limit a church according to what we've experienced, 0:10:09.400 --> 0:10:10.760 so that we don't have to open our minds to 0:10:10.800 --> 0:10:14.040 the fact that God might not exist within our denominational structures, 0:10:14.080 --> 0:10:15.120 but He might be bigger than. 0:10:15.000 --> 0:10:15.600 All of them. 0:10:16.080 --> 0:10:18.680 Where the Paptist at you got to shout, Where the 0:10:18.720 --> 0:10:21.560 Methodist at you got to shout. We got to shout together. 0:10:21.800 --> 0:10:27.600 We're in this thing together. I'm preaching like this my 0:10:27.720 --> 0:10:28.360 last chance. 0:10:28.440 --> 0:10:34.160 You know, I don't know. You never know. Are you 0:10:34.200 --> 0:10:39.760 a spiritual church? I said, well, some of us are. 0:10:40.520 --> 0:10:47.480 Sometimes it depends on what day. And since they could 0:10:47.559 --> 0:10:52.640 not categorize Jesus, they crucified. Since he did not fit 0:10:52.720 --> 0:10:57.280 their concept of who the Christ would be, they missed 0:10:57.280 --> 0:11:00.440 the opportunity to be impacted by his presence. He came 0:11:00.480 --> 0:11:04.319 to his own, and his own received him, not because 0:11:04.320 --> 0:11:07.680 he didn't look like them. 0:11:07.880 --> 0:11:13.040 He didn't. He didn't do what they expected him to do. 0:11:13.080 --> 0:11:15.200 And Elijah broke my heart the other day when he 0:11:15.240 --> 0:11:18.120 said to me, Daddy, I just don't like rock and 0:11:18.200 --> 0:11:23.160 roll music. And my first thought was, Holly, I need 0:11:23.160 --> 0:11:24.079 a paternity test. 0:11:24.200 --> 0:11:28.360 This is not my child, This cannot be my child. 0:11:30.840 --> 0:11:35.439 But then I realized, it isn't that my son doesn't 0:11:35.480 --> 0:11:41.200 like rock and roll music. That's impossible. That's impossible. He's 0:11:41.240 --> 0:11:45.760 highly intelligent, he has good taste. He just hasn't. 0:11:45.440 --> 0:11:48.200 Heard the right rock and roll music yet. 0:11:50.200 --> 0:11:53.920 So I gave him a tutorial, and Jimmy HENDRICKX taught 0:11:53.920 --> 0:11:59.240 a class, and Kurt Cobain taught a class. All these 0:11:59.320 --> 0:12:03.280 dead and walked into the room and taught my child 0:12:03.640 --> 0:12:06.800 to love rock and roll. It's not that you don't 0:12:07.080 --> 0:12:12.280 love the music, you just haven't heard the right stuff yet. 0:12:12.720 --> 0:12:14.880 And for all of you who say I'm not a 0:12:14.920 --> 0:12:17.640 religious person, I get it. For all of you who 0:12:17.679 --> 0:12:20.400 say I'm not a church person, I get it. But 0:12:20.480 --> 0:12:22.800 it might not be that you don't like God. It 0:12:22.880 --> 0:12:26.560 might be that you just haven't seen the real thing yet, 0:12:26.960 --> 0:12:31.720 because when you really seek grace incarnate, when you really 0:12:31.760 --> 0:12:37.000 see the Church alive, forcefully advancing with love and mercy 0:12:37.360 --> 0:12:40.920 as our banners, you can't help but bop your head. 0:12:41.320 --> 0:12:46.040 I like this stuff. It's the real thing. 0:12:48.520 --> 0:12:50.920 Jesus came to show us what God was really like, 0:12:51.000 --> 0:12:53.960 and he changed the categories. I want us to spend 0:12:53.960 --> 0:12:57.960 a few moments today challenging our categories. I want us 0:12:57.960 --> 0:12:59.600 to look at the way that we have divided our 0:12:59.640 --> 0:13:05.880 lives to assets and liabilities, gains and losses, problems and opportunities. 0:13:06.520 --> 0:13:08.640 And I'll do it from the text Matthew or Mark, 0:13:08.720 --> 0:13:12.520 chapter fourteen. Although my first instinct was I can't preach 0:13:12.559 --> 0:13:16.200 this text in October. This is an Easter text, see 0:13:16.240 --> 0:13:21.000 because I had it categorized. We want to make Easter 0:13:21.800 --> 0:13:26.199 three days out of the year one week, and that's cool, 0:13:26.240 --> 0:13:29.880 But Easter is meant to be a way of life. 0:13:30.880 --> 0:13:33.720 So in this text we see Jesus on the verge 0:13:33.720 --> 0:13:35.440 of doing the very thing that he came to do 0:13:35.520 --> 0:13:40.400 all along. And we know this resistance in three different areas. 0:13:41.000 --> 0:13:44.560 We are going to see a challenge of the categorical 0:13:44.640 --> 0:13:47.920 system of who God is and how he works I'd 0:13:47.960 --> 0:13:50.560 like you to write these down. The first area I 0:13:50.559 --> 0:13:54.360 want to discuss his conflict. I believe that when God 0:13:54.400 --> 0:13:56.920 really gets a hold of your life in a surrendered way, 0:13:57.920 --> 0:14:01.960 that he will change the way you see conflict. I 0:14:02.040 --> 0:14:05.239 derived this insight from verse ten. Then Judas is Scariot, 0:14:05.240 --> 0:14:07.800 one of the twelve, went to the chief priests to 0:14:07.880 --> 0:14:10.880 betray Jesus to them. They were delighted to hear this 0:14:11.520 --> 0:14:14.400 and promise to give him money. 0:14:15.760 --> 0:14:18.800 It's interesting that most of us. 0:14:18.679 --> 0:14:21.600 Would see Judas is Scariot, who handed Jesus over to 0:14:21.640 --> 0:14:26.680 be crucified at the hands of Romans because of the 0:14:26.720 --> 0:14:28.640 impulse of the Jews to rid the earth of him, 0:14:29.120 --> 0:14:33.560 as an enemy. Most of us would see Judas as 0:14:33.560 --> 0:14:38.160 an enemy. Isn't it interesting that Jesus chose him as 0:14:38.160 --> 0:14:40.440 an employee? 0:14:41.040 --> 0:14:41.680 Why is that? 0:14:43.200 --> 0:14:47.880 Why would Jesus choose an enemy as an employee. It 0:14:47.960 --> 0:14:50.720 took me back to something that Moses said to the 0:14:50.760 --> 0:14:53.000 Israelites when they were coming into the land God had 0:14:53.040 --> 0:14:56.960 promised them. He said that you're going to drive out 0:14:57.000 --> 0:14:58.960 all of the nations who live here so you can 0:14:59.000 --> 0:15:02.000 possess the land. He said, But it won't all happen 0:15:02.040 --> 0:15:05.080 in the first year, because if all of your enemies 0:15:05.120 --> 0:15:09.080 went away, suddenly the land would be overgrown because you 0:15:09.120 --> 0:15:09.960 don't know what to do. 0:15:09.960 --> 0:15:10.480 With it yet. 0:15:12.640 --> 0:15:15.320 So when God brings you into a place or a promise, 0:15:16.080 --> 0:15:18.800 he will often leave enemies in the very land where 0:15:18.800 --> 0:15:22.280 he is settling you, because you are not ready yet 0:15:23.240 --> 0:15:26.400 for the full extent of freedom. And if he removed 0:15:26.400 --> 0:15:30.400 your enemies, your heart would be filled with pride. The 0:15:30.400 --> 0:15:33.760 scripture teaches that God opposes the proud, but gives grace 0:15:33.840 --> 0:15:37.400 to the humble. So God will use your enemies to 0:15:37.520 --> 0:15:41.960 create humility so that He can be for you what 0:15:42.040 --> 0:15:42.640 you can't. 0:15:42.440 --> 0:15:45.280 Be for yourself. I feel like appreciate that, but that's 0:15:45.320 --> 0:15:48.840 not my message. Maybe another time. He said that. 0:15:48.920 --> 0:15:53.080 Judas was looking for an opportunity to hand Jesus over, 0:15:54.360 --> 0:15:58.280 And while Judas was looking for an opportunity to hand 0:15:58.360 --> 0:16:04.160 Jesus over, Jesus was looking for an opportunity to die. 0:16:04.960 --> 0:16:06.640 It was this purpose he came for. 0:16:07.600 --> 0:16:11.480 Peter could not understand why Jesus, at the height of 0:16:11.520 --> 0:16:15.520 his ministry momentum, would go to Jerusalem, the place where 0:16:15.520 --> 0:16:19.240 they wanted to kill him. In Peter's mind, this would 0:16:19.240 --> 0:16:22.120 be the end of all of the miracles. In the 0:16:22.240 --> 0:16:25.800 understanding of Jesus, this was the beginning of the very 0:16:25.840 --> 0:16:30.400 mission that he came to accomplish. God has a different 0:16:30.440 --> 0:16:33.800 way of categorizing conflict than you do. 0:16:35.440 --> 0:16:37.440 So often in my life. 0:16:37.440 --> 0:16:42.239 I associate God with comfort and the devil with conflict. 0:16:43.760 --> 0:16:45.359 Watch me preach this JJ. 0:16:46.200 --> 0:16:49.080 Because we're going to switch columns today and see that 0:16:49.200 --> 0:16:53.080 sometimes it is the devil who will make your life comfortable. 0:16:53.440 --> 0:16:55.800 So you come to the point that you don't think 0:16:55.840 --> 0:17:00.000 you need God, and it is God that will allow ant, 0:17:00.520 --> 0:17:03.040 that will make you fall down on your knees and 0:17:03.160 --> 0:17:06.679 ask God for the very grace that enables you to 0:17:06.840 --> 0:17:11.160 rise high five your neighbors say, I need a fight. 0:17:12.280 --> 0:17:15.640 I need a conflict. I need an insecurity. I need 0:17:15.680 --> 0:17:18.760 a giant. I need a goliath, I need an enemy, 0:17:18.960 --> 0:17:19.840 I need a battle. 0:17:20.000 --> 0:17:20.760 That's the only. 0:17:20.680 --> 0:17:22.639 Way I can be blessed if I have a battle 0:17:22.640 --> 0:17:32.960 to fight. I need discomfort, or else I will become despondent. 0:17:35.280 --> 0:17:37.119 I feel the spirit of the Lord in this place. 0:17:39.480 --> 0:17:45.920 I see you going home and relabeling conflict as opportunity. 0:17:46.720 --> 0:17:48.800 How dumb would it be if I put down the 0:17:48.840 --> 0:17:54.280 weights because they got heavy and expected any muscular improvement. 0:17:55.960 --> 0:17:57.080 And we do it all the time. 0:17:57.240 --> 0:18:00.600 We run from conflict and pray for blessings from what 0:18:00.600 --> 0:18:07.679 we're praying for, how can we receive that? Sometimes we 0:18:07.760 --> 0:18:12.560 run from relationship to relationship because once it gets past chemistry, 0:18:13.240 --> 0:18:13.720 we don't know. 0:18:13.640 --> 0:18:14.720 What to do with conflict. 0:18:18.359 --> 0:18:22.000 Chemistry can make a baby, but in order to raise 0:18:22.040 --> 0:18:24.840 a child and to have a family, you better know 0:18:24.880 --> 0:18:33.280 what to do with conflict. So Jesus chose within his 0:18:33.440 --> 0:18:35.439 very ranks all of y'all over the age of sixty. 0:18:35.480 --> 0:18:37.680 Tell me if I'm telling the truth right now. If 0:18:37.720 --> 0:18:41.280 you don't learn what to do with conflict, it will 0:18:41.320 --> 0:18:44.160 follow you and wear a different costume into the next 0:18:44.200 --> 0:18:47.040 relationship that you ruin because you never learned how to 0:18:47.119 --> 0:18:48.879 deal with the real. 0:18:48.680 --> 0:18:54.199 Conflict, which is within. And so when you have. 0:18:54.280 --> 0:18:58.720 Walked with Jesus a little while, you understand that Judas 0:18:59.680 --> 0:19:06.560 was on saying payroll as Peter. Jesus called Judas friend 0:19:08.000 --> 0:19:10.119 and told Peter get behind me. 0:19:10.240 --> 0:19:13.200 Satan set that up. 0:19:17.200 --> 0:19:20.320 One time when Judas was getting ready to betray Jesus. 0:19:20.400 --> 0:19:23.040 The gospel writer recorded it this way. He said, what 0:19:23.119 --> 0:19:27.520 you're gonna do, do it quickly, quickly. Let's get this started. 0:19:28.600 --> 0:19:32.600 Because the sooner I die, the sooner I rise. 0:19:33.880 --> 0:19:36.399 And if I rise, and if I a. 0:19:36.560 --> 0:19:40.560 Sin, I can send the Holy Spirit to be your comforter. 0:19:41.600 --> 0:19:45.040 Let's go ahead and get this over with. Whatever you gotta. 0:19:44.840 --> 0:19:48.320 Do, do it. Hit me with your best shot. I 0:19:48.480 --> 0:19:49.720 know one thing, with. 0:19:49.920 --> 0:19:55.640 This all said and done, there will be glory after this. 0:19:56.359 --> 0:19:59.520 I am convinced that the sufferings up this present time. 0:20:04.040 --> 0:20:08.520 I can't preach this point too good, Clemson. I got 0:20:08.560 --> 0:20:12.240 to get to point number two, which is Jesus changes 0:20:12.320 --> 0:20:14.879 the way I see the conflict and the way I 0:20:14.920 --> 0:20:16.240 see the common. 0:20:16.680 --> 0:20:20.920 Wow, the common It's interesting to. 0:20:20.880 --> 0:20:23.720 Me that Jesus Christ, who spoke stars into their place, 0:20:23.760 --> 0:20:26.919 who causes the earth to rotate on its axis and 0:20:27.000 --> 0:20:29.359 revolve around the Sun, the source of all life, the 0:20:29.359 --> 0:20:32.040 one by whom, for whom and through whom all things 0:20:32.040 --> 0:20:36.800 were created, would choose something so silly to identify the 0:20:36.840 --> 0:20:40.320 place of his last meal. Yet, when the time came 0:20:40.359 --> 0:20:43.440 for him to go to Jerusalem from Bethany, the scripture 0:20:43.480 --> 0:20:46.040 says it was on the first day, verse twelve, of 0:20:46.119 --> 0:20:51.560 the feast of unloving Bread. Now this is a festival 0:20:51.560 --> 0:20:53.959 that the Jewish people would have been familiar with for us, 0:20:54.000 --> 0:20:58.040 it's arcane, it's meaning, it's tucked away in the symbolism 0:20:58.119 --> 0:21:03.480 of the unloving bread, which Paul will later describe as 0:21:03.480 --> 0:21:06.400 being a representation of how when we let a little 0:21:06.440 --> 0:21:09.159 bit of yeast into a lump, it takes. 0:21:08.880 --> 0:21:09.680 Over the whole thing. 0:21:11.119 --> 0:21:13.680 How when we're not careful about what we allow into 0:21:13.720 --> 0:21:18.240 our minds and our imaginations, before long we become enslaved 0:21:18.280 --> 0:21:21.920 by things that we once wanted to escape too. 0:21:24.160 --> 0:21:26.320 So the narrative of the people of Israel was this 0:21:26.440 --> 0:21:27.080 God brought. 0:21:26.920 --> 0:21:28.720 Them out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an 0:21:28.760 --> 0:21:32.000 outstretched arm. One of the ways that he did that 0:21:32.160 --> 0:21:34.760 was through an event that they commemorated called the Passover. 0:21:36.280 --> 0:21:37.919 They took the blood of a lamb and put it 0:21:37.960 --> 0:21:41.680 on their doorpost, so that when the first born of 0:21:41.720 --> 0:21:45.440 the Egyptians went down, all of their children would survive. 0:21:46.359 --> 0:21:49.960 It was a foreshadowing of Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, 0:21:50.000 --> 0:21:52.679 who was slain from the foundation of the world. 0:21:53.800 --> 0:21:56.680 Now, each year these people. 0:21:56.680 --> 0:22:00.399 Would come in the hundreds of thousands to Jerusalem to 0:22:00.440 --> 0:22:04.399 eat what was called the Passover meal. This was the 0:22:04.480 --> 0:22:08.120 time when Jesus chose to die. He did not die 0:22:08.200 --> 0:22:13.240 on accident. He did not die out of time. He 0:22:13.320 --> 0:22:15.600 knew that the moment had come for him to pay 0:22:15.640 --> 0:22:19.359 the price for your sin and mind. He used Judas's 0:22:19.400 --> 0:22:22.160 deception to bring him to the place of his destiny. 0:22:23.240 --> 0:22:27.480 But he did it through something so common as a 0:22:27.520 --> 0:22:34.000 meal and a cross. The disciples wanted to know, where 0:22:34.080 --> 0:22:36.399 do you want us to go and make preparations for 0:22:36.440 --> 0:22:41.040 you to eat the Passover? Shall we get the sauces ready, 0:22:41.160 --> 0:22:43.320 the spices and the bitter herbs? 0:22:44.000 --> 0:22:45.760 Where would you like to eat the Passover? 0:22:45.880 --> 0:22:48.760 Jewish law commands we eat it within the city. We 0:22:48.800 --> 0:22:51.400 can't eat it in Bethany. We've got to go to Jerusalem. 0:22:51.720 --> 0:22:54.000 Where should we go? Now here's what I love about God. 0:22:54.040 --> 0:22:55.239 And I don't know if you knew this or not. 0:22:55.880 --> 0:22:57.719 And this is not a Halloween message, and I'm not 0:22:57.800 --> 0:22:59.720 endorsing Halloween or any of that stuff because I know 0:22:59.720 --> 0:23:06.480 how y'all are. But God has many costumes. I need 0:23:06.480 --> 0:23:11.320 to preach this to you. God has many costumes, and 0:23:11.359 --> 0:23:13.520 a lot of times why we can't find God in 0:23:13.560 --> 0:23:16.480 our life is he's wearing a costume that we don't recognize. 0:23:17.640 --> 0:23:18.160 Check it out. 0:23:18.200 --> 0:23:21.399 In Exodus, the people needed water in a dry and 0:23:21.440 --> 0:23:22.160 weary land. 0:23:22.800 --> 0:23:26.080 Water came springing forth out of a rock. What was 0:23:26.119 --> 0:23:26.600 that rock? 0:23:26.720 --> 0:23:29.800 Paul said that rock was Jesus Christ in another form, 0:23:30.359 --> 0:23:31.600 but it looked like a rock. 0:23:32.119 --> 0:23:33.639 It was God in a costume. 0:23:34.200 --> 0:23:37.040 When the people didn't know where to go, God led them. 0:23:36.920 --> 0:23:38.080 With the pillar of cloud. 0:23:38.760 --> 0:23:41.280 Paul tells us that that cloud was Christ and it 0:23:41.359 --> 0:23:44.679 represented baptism, but they didn't know it at the time 0:23:45.040 --> 0:23:48.439 because the cloud was God in a costume. When it 0:23:48.480 --> 0:23:50.760 came time for the Savior of the world to be born, 0:23:51.040 --> 0:23:53.400 he did it like a baby, not like a king, 0:23:53.640 --> 0:23:56.480 and not like thor. He didn't come down with lightning 0:23:56.520 --> 0:23:59.600 bolts and flashes in the sky to announce his arrival. 0:23:59.840 --> 0:24:03.320 He's snuck into the earth like a rock, like a cloud, 0:24:03.680 --> 0:24:07.160 like a child riding on a donkey, lowly and humble 0:24:07.359 --> 0:24:10.359 in a costume. As a matter of fact, let me 0:24:10.400 --> 0:24:14.080 blow your mind for real. They were preparing a passover lamb, 0:24:14.280 --> 0:24:17.080 and they were talking to the passover Lamb, and they 0:24:17.119 --> 0:24:20.120 didn't even know that they were talking to the one 0:24:20.240 --> 0:24:21.879 who was what they were looking for. 0:24:28.400 --> 0:24:29.879 And so I think. 0:24:30.000 --> 0:24:34.240 Sometimes I'm walking right past God and I don't recognize 0:24:34.320 --> 0:24:40.760 him because he's dressed stuff like ordinary. Oh yeah, Jesus said, 0:24:41.080 --> 0:24:43.800 some of you don't visit those who are in prison, 0:24:44.000 --> 0:24:46.199 and you don't visit those who are in need, and 0:24:46.240 --> 0:24:47.520 you don't do anything. 0:24:47.119 --> 0:24:48.520 To help the least of these. 0:24:48.600 --> 0:24:50.919 Vote what you fail to recognize is that when you 0:24:50.960 --> 0:24:52.359 walk by them, you walk by me. 0:24:57.960 --> 0:25:02.359 He was the Rock, he was the cloud, he was 0:25:02.440 --> 0:25:04.480 the child, he was. 0:25:04.480 --> 0:25:08.640 The lamb slain from the foundation of the world. How 0:25:08.680 --> 0:25:12.000 can someone as cosmic as God come as something so 0:25:12.160 --> 0:25:13.200 common as a lamb? 0:25:15.520 --> 0:25:19.480 That's what John the Baptist said. He said, look, the 0:25:19.640 --> 0:25:20.439 lamb of God. 0:25:21.760 --> 0:25:23.359 Why did he have to point him out if he 0:25:23.400 --> 0:25:25.879 was the savior of the world, Because he looked so common. 0:25:27.480 --> 0:25:29.679 He knew that without an announcement he would be missed. 0:25:32.480 --> 0:25:36.440 This is so powerful because if God is in the Rock, 0:25:37.440 --> 0:25:40.359 and God is in the cloud, and God is in 0:25:40.400 --> 0:25:45.359 the stable, and God is in the passover meal, and 0:25:45.400 --> 0:25:48.000 God would use an instruction as simple as find a 0:25:48.040 --> 0:25:52.240 man with a jar. Come on, can't you do better 0:25:52.280 --> 0:25:56.080 than that, Jesus? Where you want us to fix your 0:25:56.080 --> 0:25:57.840 a passover meal? 0:25:58.880 --> 0:26:00.600 It's cool. I got a place and I'm gonna give 0:26:00.600 --> 0:26:02.760 you a sign. Now. 0:26:03.920 --> 0:26:07.159 Since God is in the cloud, he can make a 0:26:07.200 --> 0:26:10.080 cloud form over the house where they need to eat, 0:26:10.640 --> 0:26:15.159 and it could spell out here with an arrow pointing 0:26:15.200 --> 0:26:19.200 to the house. Go into the city. I know it's crowded. 0:26:19.880 --> 0:26:23.399 You got to understand. Jerusalem was packed like Concord on 0:26:23.480 --> 0:26:24.879 a NASCAR speed Week. 0:26:25.640 --> 0:26:27.240 It was packed like Cotchella. 0:26:33.440 --> 0:26:36.679 And Jesus sends him in to a city that is 0:26:36.720 --> 0:26:40.119 not very big, that would be overrun with six times 0:26:40.160 --> 0:26:43.560 its normal population and says, you'll see a man carrying 0:26:43.600 --> 0:26:44.200 a water jar. 0:26:45.480 --> 0:26:49.000 Follow him. This poor dude with the water jar. 0:26:51.800 --> 0:26:55.200 You know, I want something, And God said, I want 0:26:55.240 --> 0:26:56.640 it to happen like that. 0:26:58.200 --> 0:27:00.359 I want it. I'm not gonna I'm. 0:27:00.200 --> 0:27:02.960 Not gonna use a spectacular sign. 0:27:03.119 --> 0:27:06.560 I'm gonna give you a simple instruction. And when you 0:27:06.600 --> 0:27:07.480 see the man with. 0:27:07.480 --> 0:27:10.520 The jar, if you have the faith to follow him 0:27:10.520 --> 0:27:11.200 in a house. 0:27:10.960 --> 0:27:12.200 You've never been in before. 0:27:12.400 --> 0:27:16.400 When you get there, you'll find the preparations already made. 0:27:16.640 --> 0:27:18.200 See, you got it out of sequence. 0:27:18.680 --> 0:27:23.200 You keep waiting to obey when God confirms. But God says, 0:27:23.440 --> 0:27:28.200 I only confirm after you obey. I don't confirm before 0:27:28.640 --> 0:27:32.040 I confirm after the fact. So go into the city 0:27:33.240 --> 0:27:38.399 and follow the man. Yeah, and I'm gonna move through 0:27:38.840 --> 0:27:46.840 what you call coincidence. Wow, the coincidence often looks a 0:27:46.840 --> 0:27:53.960 whole lot like the miracle. Just thinking back over my life, 0:27:54.119 --> 0:27:58.439 I realized that it has become more difficult for me 0:27:59.040 --> 0:28:02.439 the longer that I've walked with Christ to really admit 0:28:03.000 --> 0:28:05.879 that some of the things that I write off as 0:28:05.880 --> 0:28:09.160 a coincidence were really his hand at work. 0:28:11.400 --> 0:28:13.960 Remember when I told you Eric that we were driving. 0:28:14.000 --> 0:28:16.280 It was like a week after I had given my 0:28:16.320 --> 0:28:20.080 life to Christ and I almost got hit by that car. 0:28:20.680 --> 0:28:22.199 I don't know if you remember this. I remember it 0:28:22.240 --> 0:28:22.720 so clearly. 0:28:22.720 --> 0:28:25.480 It was the first time that I saw Wow, if 0:28:25.520 --> 0:28:27.320 I had gone when I was supposed to go, and 0:28:27.359 --> 0:28:29.720 if I had not stopped, that car that plowed through 0:28:29.720 --> 0:28:33.119 that stoplight would have hit me at age sixteen, And 0:28:33.160 --> 0:28:37.400 I remember feeling so grateful that just seeing something that. 0:28:37.320 --> 0:28:39.760 Could have happened that. 0:28:39.880 --> 0:28:42.880 I guess you could call it a coincidence if you 0:28:42.920 --> 0:28:45.840 want to, But something in me believes. 0:28:45.720 --> 0:28:47.120 That the reason my car. 0:28:47.280 --> 0:28:50.360 Didn't go at that moment, I forgot to tell you 0:28:50.400 --> 0:28:50.880 this part. 0:28:51.040 --> 0:28:55.480 The car was old and it wouldn't go. That's why 0:28:55.520 --> 0:28:56.160 it didn't go. 0:28:57.360 --> 0:29:00.480 Why wouldn't the car go because my dad bought it 0:29:00.640 --> 0:29:03.520 at Dick's Auto Shop for eight hundred dollars. Is that 0:29:03.560 --> 0:29:07.400 why my Chrysler laser wasn't go Was it a coincidence? 0:29:09.120 --> 0:29:13.640 Or was it God needed me to be here for 0:29:13.680 --> 0:29:17.240 a little while longer? Was that a coincidence? 0:29:19.160 --> 0:29:23.160 Was it a coincidence that Holly asked me to get 0:29:23.200 --> 0:29:28.560 her an act pretest? And she didn't know she would 0:29:28.560 --> 0:29:31.400 make all of my babies and carry the fruit of 0:29:31.440 --> 0:29:34.960 my well anyway, She couldn't have known at the time 0:29:35.000 --> 0:29:36.680 that I would change her name. But was it a 0:29:36.720 --> 0:29:41.040 coincidence that of all the high school students at revival 0:29:41.320 --> 0:29:44.920 at First Baptist Church Monk's Corner, she chose to walk 0:29:45.000 --> 0:29:47.880 up to me. I'm telling you there was something magnetic 0:29:47.960 --> 0:29:48.680 on me that day. 0:29:48.920 --> 0:29:50.040 It wasn't good looks. 0:29:50.320 --> 0:29:52.920 I didn't have that going for me, but something drew 0:29:52.960 --> 0:29:53.440 her over. 0:29:55.440 --> 0:29:56.480 Was it a coincidence? 0:29:58.240 --> 0:30:00.440 Was it a coincidence, Amy that I I was sick 0:30:00.480 --> 0:30:02.560 the first time I met your husband and I had 0:30:02.560 --> 0:30:04.240 to ask him do you know the name of the doctor, 0:30:04.520 --> 0:30:06.440 And he said, I'll call you with the number. And 0:30:06.480 --> 0:30:08.320 he called me later that afternoon to give me Chris 0:30:08.320 --> 0:30:10.239 Dinning's number because I didn't know anybody because we had 0:30:10.280 --> 0:30:12.760 just moved to Shelby. Was it a coincidence that I said, Hey, 0:30:12.760 --> 0:30:14.560 why don't y'all come over to dinner Tuesday? 0:30:14.760 --> 0:30:17.360 Hollywood, cook fried rice. We will eat carbs and be 0:30:17.440 --> 0:30:18.080 fat together. 0:30:18.480 --> 0:30:21.120 Was it a coincidence that you and Holly liked to 0:30:21.160 --> 0:30:24.240 shop together on Saturday and spend all of our money 0:30:24.440 --> 0:30:27.280 so that one day we could start a church travel 0:30:27.320 --> 0:30:30.760 the world five continents later? Was it a coincidence that 0:30:30.840 --> 0:30:33.560 I had strepthrope? 0:30:35.480 --> 0:30:36.480 Was it a coincidence? 0:30:37.840 --> 0:30:40.160 Was it a coincidence that you stood in my book 0:30:40.160 --> 0:30:44.200 line at Liberty University until the very last person had 0:30:44.200 --> 0:30:48.160 gone and considered walking away because the line was too long? 0:30:48.800 --> 0:30:51.720 Was it a coincidence that I never signed books because 0:30:51.720 --> 0:30:53.560 I feel sometimes like I don't get to spend enough 0:30:53.560 --> 0:30:54.360 time with people. 0:30:54.160 --> 0:30:55.800 And it feels a little impersonal for me. 0:30:56.000 --> 0:30:57.320 Not that I don't want to meet people, but I 0:30:57.360 --> 0:30:59.200 talked to them for twenty minutes each and then the 0:30:59.200 --> 0:31:01.280 whole line gets mad and they start riots and. 0:31:01.240 --> 0:31:02.440 It's a bad situation. 0:31:02.840 --> 0:31:04.720 Was it a coincidence that that day I did And 0:31:04.800 --> 0:31:06.640 was it a coincidence that you were the last one, 0:31:06.680 --> 0:31:08.640 which gave me more time? To talk to you, and 0:31:08.640 --> 0:31:11.160 that I wrote GTA Greater Things Ahead. I didn't know 0:31:11.200 --> 0:31:12.880 you were from the greater Toronto area, and that we 0:31:12.880 --> 0:31:14.720 would have a campus in Toronto one day. 0:31:15.160 --> 0:31:20.880 Was it a coincidence that a wrestler was in my 0:31:20.960 --> 0:31:23.120 hotel room in Colorado. 0:31:22.760 --> 0:31:25.520 Who would visit Africa with me just years later as 0:31:25.560 --> 0:31:28.400 we preached the gospel? Was it a coincidence that Adrian 0:31:28.440 --> 0:31:31.040 de Pray tricked us both into being in that program 0:31:31.200 --> 0:31:33.160 by describing it to us in a way that wasn't 0:31:33.200 --> 0:31:36.880 exactly reflective of reality. But God somehow tricked us into 0:31:36.920 --> 0:31:39.960 that hotel room in Denver, Colorado, so that we could 0:31:40.000 --> 0:31:42.760 get chased out of Chinese nightclubs together and one day 0:31:42.800 --> 0:31:43.280 do menace. 0:31:43.400 --> 0:31:44.720 Was that a coincidence? 0:31:53.520 --> 0:31:56.360 Because I imagine from the standpoint of the man who 0:31:57.440 --> 0:32:00.000 carried the jar of water, this was just a coincidence. 0:32:01.720 --> 0:32:06.760 But from the standpoint of the disciples, they knew this 0:32:06.840 --> 0:32:12.760 is something more. And sometimes I think faith is just 0:32:12.800 --> 0:32:18.840 as simple as second guessing. What you call coincidence. It 0:32:18.880 --> 0:32:23.440 may be a coincidence. I'm not suggesting that you turn 0:32:23.480 --> 0:32:26.680 into one of these people who blames everything on God. 0:32:27.920 --> 0:32:29.640 Do you know what I'm talking about have you met 0:32:29.640 --> 0:32:33.719 these people? I got a parking space right at the 0:32:33.720 --> 0:32:35.040 front of the gym. 0:32:35.280 --> 0:32:37.080 It was God. That wasn't God. 0:32:37.280 --> 0:32:39.480 You needed to walk, That's why you went to the 0:32:39.480 --> 0:32:40.640 gym for exercise. 0:32:40.840 --> 0:32:42.600 The devil gave you the spot closest. 0:32:42.760 --> 0:32:44.440 If it had been God, he would have given you 0:32:44.480 --> 0:32:45.920 some aptext for exercise. 0:32:51.320 --> 0:32:52.640 Challenge your categories. 0:32:56.480 --> 0:32:58.480 Was it a coincidence when Holly said I want to 0:32:58.520 --> 0:32:59.640 go to this farmer's market. 0:32:59.720 --> 0:33:04.000 Was a coincidence that I agreed to do it? That's 0:33:04.040 --> 0:33:08.200 a miracle. But we were on vacation at Sullivan's Island. 0:33:08.200 --> 0:33:08.520 Why not? 0:33:09.600 --> 0:33:11.760 Was it a coincidence that Addie May saw me from 0:33:11.800 --> 0:33:15.400 her cupcake booth. Was it a coincidence that she walked 0:33:15.400 --> 0:33:17.000 over and said, I'm sorry to bug you. I can 0:33:17.000 --> 0:33:19.240 see you with your family, but I listened to your podcast. 0:33:19.240 --> 0:33:24.480 Can I get a selfie? Was it a coincidence when 0:33:24.480 --> 0:33:25.920 she said, I'm gonna call my pastor. 0:33:25.920 --> 0:33:27.840 He's gonna be so jealous. 0:33:31.520 --> 0:33:33.440 Was it a coincidence when she said you should come 0:33:33.440 --> 0:33:35.560 to revival at my church next week and I said, 0:33:35.600 --> 0:33:37.840 I don't have anything but short I'm on vacation, sweetheart, 0:33:37.880 --> 0:33:39.720 But you can write down the dates of the revival, 0:33:39.760 --> 0:33:41.040 and I'll put him away and never look. 0:33:40.920 --> 0:33:42.320 At him again because I'm on vacation. 0:33:42.760 --> 0:33:46.080 I didn't say that, but I thought it. Was it 0:33:46.120 --> 0:33:48.080 a coincidence that somehow I kept the piece of paper 0:33:48.080 --> 0:33:49.440 and something told me to check in on it, and 0:33:49.480 --> 0:33:50.320 I found out that one of. 0:33:50.320 --> 0:33:54.040 The guest speakers had canceled. Was it a coincidence that 0:33:54.080 --> 0:33:55.720 Addie May had mentioned to me that when. 0:33:55.600 --> 0:33:58.040 She called her pastor, he said that they had invited 0:33:58.080 --> 0:34:01.080 me to speak at the revival office had told them. 0:34:00.920 --> 0:34:06.800 That I was on vacation that week. Was it a coincidence? 0:34:06.800 --> 0:34:08.520 When I looked up the number and called him, and 0:34:08.560 --> 0:34:10.239 when he called me back, he said, we just came 0:34:10.239 --> 0:34:11.640 out of a prayer meeting and we were praying that 0:34:11.680 --> 0:34:13.839 God would provide a speaker for us tonight, and you're 0:34:13.840 --> 0:34:16.000 the one we originally requested for this night. 0:34:17.080 --> 0:34:18.160 Was that a coincidence? 0:34:24.160 --> 0:34:26.239 Was it a coincidence that they wanted to prepare the 0:34:26.320 --> 0:34:27.880 lamb and they were sitting with the lamb? 0:34:29.400 --> 0:34:30.719 Was it a coincidence that in. 0:34:30.680 --> 0:34:36.080 All of Jerusalem, all of the people carrying water jars 0:34:37.160 --> 0:34:38.960 all funneled to this one man who had to be 0:34:39.000 --> 0:34:42.520 in one place at one time so that he could 0:34:42.600 --> 0:34:46.359 lead them into the room. And you say, you don't 0:34:46.360 --> 0:34:51.120 see any evidence of God's working in your life. What 0:34:51.280 --> 0:34:59.640 you've been calling coincidence, God calls evidence. That's how you 0:34:59.680 --> 0:35:03.840 know was with you. Was it a coincidence that you 0:35:03.880 --> 0:35:07.799 came to church today? Was it a coincidence that this 0:35:07.920 --> 0:35:11.359 is finally the weekend where you said, Okay, I'll go 0:35:11.640 --> 0:35:14.320 to your stupid loud church if you'll leave me alone. 0:35:14.840 --> 0:35:18.279 Was it a coincidence that I was preaching on coincidence 0:35:18.520 --> 0:35:19.440 for you to be here? 0:35:19.640 --> 0:35:21.680 And I'm not telling you that you always have. 0:35:21.719 --> 0:35:24.080 To tell people that it was God that got you 0:35:24.160 --> 0:35:26.640 the table at the restaurant, and that it was God 0:35:26.880 --> 0:35:29.480 that put gas in your car. It wasn't God to 0:35:29.480 --> 0:35:32.000 put gas in your car. You put gas in your car. 0:35:32.120 --> 0:35:34.120 If you don't put gas in your car, your car 0:35:34.160 --> 0:35:35.400 will run out of gas. 0:35:35.520 --> 0:35:36.680 Don't get weird with it. 0:35:36.880 --> 0:35:41.239 I'm just saying what Thomas Edison said. He said, coincidence 0:35:41.320 --> 0:35:43.279 is God's way of remaining anonymous. 0:35:47.239 --> 0:35:48.680 What I think we've got to learn to do in 0:35:48.719 --> 0:35:49.640 our lives. 0:35:51.320 --> 0:35:56.000 Is to see Christ in the coincidence, and the next 0:35:56.000 --> 0:35:57.960 time it happens, it's going to happen this week. 0:35:58.000 --> 0:35:59.160 It happened to me last week. 0:36:00.040 --> 0:36:03.680 It happened to me last week that I was walking 0:36:03.680 --> 0:36:09.640 through the airport Newark, New Jersey. Praise the Lord for 0:36:09.760 --> 0:36:16.399 a four hour layover in Newark, won a blessing. Might 0:36:16.440 --> 0:36:21.920 as well go over to this bookstore. Oh, I recognized 0:36:21.960 --> 0:36:22.520 that book. 0:36:23.160 --> 0:36:25.239 So and so mentioned that book on their podcast. 0:36:26.160 --> 0:36:28.480 So and so happened to be a person I've been 0:36:28.480 --> 0:36:31.719 in contact with that I grew up with. And I 0:36:31.719 --> 0:36:34.200 want to do a special project with this person for 0:36:34.239 --> 0:36:37.560 our church, but I haven't been able to connect. And 0:36:37.600 --> 0:36:39.600 when I said so and So's name, I walked around 0:36:39.600 --> 0:36:42.480 the corner and I saw a little flyer on the 0:36:42.520 --> 0:36:45.800 window of the bookstore, and it had so and So's 0:36:45.880 --> 0:36:48.480 name on it. I said, that's weird. I was just 0:36:48.480 --> 0:36:51.280 saying his name, and there he is on that flyer. 0:36:52.560 --> 0:36:56.040 And then I saw where it said book signing, and 0:36:56.080 --> 0:36:57.879 I said, well, that's weird. Who does a book signing 0:36:57.920 --> 0:36:59.759 in an airport? Isn't that crazy? I was just said, 0:36:59.760 --> 0:37:02.480 as an, and there's this picture and there he's doing 0:37:02.480 --> 0:37:03.920 a book signing in this airport. 0:37:04.120 --> 0:37:06.120 Wonder when he's doing it. Wouldn't it be weird if 0:37:06.120 --> 0:37:06.800 he was doing. 0:37:06.640 --> 0:37:13.719 It today, and he was doing it today. Wouldn't it 0:37:13.719 --> 0:37:16.480 be weird if he was doing it right now and 0:37:16.560 --> 0:37:17.760 he was doing it right now. 0:37:18.560 --> 0:37:19.160 Wouldn't it be. 0:37:19.120 --> 0:37:21.200 Weird if I texted him and he texted me back, 0:37:21.360 --> 0:37:23.120 and we spent an hour together and we set a 0:37:23.200 --> 0:37:24.920 date to do the thing that we were trying to do. 0:37:25.160 --> 0:37:25.799 Wouldn't it be. 0:37:25.719 --> 0:37:27.840 Weird if all that happened not when I was trying 0:37:27.840 --> 0:37:29.760 to make it happen, but when I was on the layover. 0:37:37.320 --> 0:37:40.400 What I'm saying, if you have ears to hear it, 0:37:40.440 --> 0:37:43.400 is that Jesus Christ wants to recategorize some of the 0:37:43.400 --> 0:37:46.920 things in your life that you saw as a coincidence. 0:37:48.400 --> 0:37:52.640 Many of you came to Charlotte against your will. You 0:37:52.719 --> 0:37:56.600 came because this is where the job brought you. Is 0:37:56.640 --> 0:37:58.960 it a coincidence that you're in Charlotte. 0:37:59.719 --> 0:38:00.920 Or is in an assignment? 0:38:03.360 --> 0:38:06.319 Is it a coincidence that, of all the people who 0:38:06.320 --> 0:38:09.640 could have been carrying a jar at this moment, that 0:38:09.840 --> 0:38:11.960 jar happened to be at that spot. 0:38:13.560 --> 0:38:15.920 It's no coincidence. 0:38:17.080 --> 0:38:20.200 Before they ever got to the spot where the man 0:38:20.360 --> 0:38:24.600 carrying the jar was, Jesus had already had a conversation 0:38:26.920 --> 0:38:28.839 and all you've got to do, really to see God 0:38:28.920 --> 0:38:31.719 move in your life is to keep a room ready 0:38:31.719 --> 0:38:32.640 for him when he comes. 0:38:34.320 --> 0:38:39.360 And you will find a large, spacious. 0:38:38.480 --> 0:38:47.640 Room already furnished, already prepared, awaiting your obedience. It's already ready, 0:38:47.840 --> 0:38:51.640 but you won't see it if you miss it. In 0:38:51.719 --> 0:38:59.880 the coincidence, tradition holds that this upper room was situated 0:38:59.880 --> 0:39:03.799 in the highest place in the whole city of Jerusalem. 0:39:05.000 --> 0:39:08.640 In that cool that Jesus knew the exact place where 0:39:08.640 --> 0:39:12.440 he wanted to take the Last Supper and institute communion. 0:39:12.760 --> 0:39:15.720 Isn't it cool that he prayed his high priestly prayer 0:39:15.840 --> 0:39:19.200 in John fourteen through seventeen from the highest place in 0:39:19.239 --> 0:39:21.920 the city. It couldn't have been just any house. It 0:39:22.000 --> 0:39:24.600 had to be that house. It had to be that time, 0:39:24.840 --> 0:39:29.240 It had to be that day. It's no coincidence. God 0:39:29.840 --> 0:39:36.560 is in the coincidence. God is in the comment. God 0:39:36.640 --> 0:39:40.279 is in the conflict. And you keep stepping over the 0:39:40.400 --> 0:39:44.719 rock and there's water in it. Wow, And you keep 0:39:44.760 --> 0:39:47.120 missing the cloud when it moves because you're looking down 0:39:48.880 --> 0:39:51.879 and you're sitting with the lamb, and you're missing him. 0:39:51.880 --> 0:39:56.399 Stand to your feet. I want to pray for your life. 0:39:56.480 --> 0:39:59.560 This week particularly, I would like to pray for those 0:39:59.560 --> 0:40:02.960 of you who in one of the three categories that 0:40:03.040 --> 0:40:04.759 I mentioned at the beginning, And I want to thank 0:40:04.840 --> 0:40:07.400 you so much for not leaving when I begin my 0:40:07.440 --> 0:40:08.000 opening prayer. 0:40:08.040 --> 0:40:09.080 It makes it so much. 0:40:08.880 --> 0:40:11.080 More effective when we pray when we don't have a 0:40:11.120 --> 0:40:13.920 lot of movement, when God is touching people's lives, and 0:40:13.960 --> 0:40:17.320 I really appreciate that so much, your willingness to stay. 0:40:17.040 --> 0:40:19.840 With us through this moment. I want to pray for 0:40:19.920 --> 0:40:25.279 those of you this week who are going to have 0:40:26.480 --> 0:40:28.560 Adie May at. 0:40:28.440 --> 0:40:31.759 The farmer's market come up to you with a cupcake, 0:40:33.680 --> 0:40:37.279 or are going to be Adie May bringing the cupcake over, 0:40:38.600 --> 0:40:42.440 and God is setting you up to be an answer 0:40:42.520 --> 0:40:46.040 to a prayer that you don't even know has been prayed. 0:40:46.440 --> 0:40:51.600 It's no coincidence. It's no coincidence. 0:40:54.000 --> 0:40:55.600 And all I want you to do this week is 0:40:55.640 --> 0:40:58.839 give it a second look. When the conflict comes, look 0:40:58.840 --> 0:41:01.000 at it a second way. At a second time, look 0:41:01.000 --> 0:41:04.839 at it a different way. Is this a conflict or 0:41:04.880 --> 0:41:06.000 is this an opportunity? 0:41:07.080 --> 0:41:10.600 Is this just a cross or is this a resurrection? 0:41:11.719 --> 0:41:15.279 Is this a storm or is this a stage. 0:41:15.440 --> 0:41:25.000 For God to reveal his glory in my situation. Is 0:41:25.040 --> 0:41:29.880 this just a meal or is this a message? Is 0:41:29.920 --> 0:41:34.759 this just a coincidence or is this my calling? It 0:41:34.760 --> 0:41:39.240 could be a coincidence or it can be a miracle. 0:41:40.840 --> 0:41:44.400 What are the chances that of all of. 0:41:44.280 --> 0:41:48.040 The men in Jerusalem carrying water, this one would be 0:41:48.080 --> 0:41:49.600 at that place at that time. 0:41:49.760 --> 0:41:54.640 What are the chances. I'll tell you the. 0:41:54.640 --> 0:42:01.360 Chances one hundred percent, Because when you walk in obedience, 0:42:01.760 --> 0:42:04.200 the outcome is guaranteed. 0:42:04.719 --> 0:42:09.720 This will work. I said, it will work. It will happen. 0:42:10.080 --> 0:42:15.239 It has to happen. It's sound come to pad if 0:42:15.239 --> 0:42:16.000 I walk. 0:42:17.680 --> 0:42:20.560 There. He told me to walk and do what he 0:42:20.640 --> 0:42:24.719 told me to do at the right time. It has 0:42:24.800 --> 0:42:29.040 to happen. It's no coincidence. God has you here. It's 0:42:29.040 --> 0:42:32.279 no coincidence. What you went through. It wasn't to destroy you, 0:42:32.520 --> 0:42:35.320 It was to develop you. God is in it. God 0:42:35.400 --> 0:42:38.319 is in the conflict. God is in the common God 0:42:38.400 --> 0:42:41.120 is in the diapers. God is in the math, homework. 0:42:41.360 --> 0:42:44.120 God is in the traffic. God is in the layoff. 0:42:45.239 --> 0:42:47.840 I'm telling you, God is in it. The Word became 0:42:47.880 --> 0:42:48.960 flesh and dwelt. 0:42:48.680 --> 0:42:51.280 Among us, and we beheld his glory. 0:42:51.480 --> 0:42:55.560 Help us to see it God in every season, in situation, 0:42:55.760 --> 0:43:03.600 Help us to find living water in dry places. I 0:43:03.640 --> 0:43:09.799 thank you for your spirit, the comforter who guides us 0:43:09.840 --> 0:43:15.360 into all truth. I lift up each circumstance represented in 0:43:15.400 --> 0:43:19.680 this room. Today online, our family joining us around the 0:43:19.680 --> 0:43:21.359 world goes watching on television. 0:43:23.520 --> 0:43:24.560 I pray that you would. 0:43:24.360 --> 0:43:27.600 Change the categorization system by which we have organized our 0:43:27.640 --> 0:43:32.360 life to prioritize comfort and convenience overcalling. We want to 0:43:32.400 --> 0:43:36.560 look for you in crowded streets. We want to see 0:43:36.560 --> 0:43:46.719 you in impossible situations. We need your guidance. Lord, We 0:43:46.760 --> 0:43:47.480 need your help. 0:43:50.120 --> 0:43:51.239 Thank you for joining us. 0:43:51.560 --> 0:43:54.000 Special thanks to those of you who give generously to 0:43:54.080 --> 0:43:57.560 this ministry. Is because of you that this ministry is possible. 0:43:58.040 --> 0:44:00.520 You can click the link in the description Give now 0:44:01.080 --> 0:44:04.960 or visit Elevationchurch dot org slash podcast for more information 0:44:05.520 --> 0:44:08.280 and if you enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe. 0:44:08.560 --> 0:44:10.600 You can share it with your friends. You can click 0:44:10.640 --> 0:44:12.960 the share button, take a screenshot. 0:44:12.360 --> 0:44:14.399 And share it on your social stories and tag us 0:44:14.440 --> 0:44:15.439 at Elevation Church. 0:44:15.560 --> 0:44:17.279 Thanks again for listening. God bless you