Be Careful What You Copy

tour October twenty sixth through Thursday, November third. Now listen out everybody online, put in the comments in the chat where you're watching from today, what city, what state? And let me tell you where we're coming. It's going to be me and I might let Chris Brown come. I hadn't decided about it yet. You think I should let him come to be? You want to share a bunk

with him? You want the top bunk. So we'll be in Atlanta, Georgia, Nashville, Tennessee, Tulsa, Oklahoma, Fort Worth, Texas, Houston, Texas, Orlando, Florida, Sunrise, Florida, and Jacksonville, Florida. If you are within five hundred miles of Atlanta, Georgia, Nashville, Tennessee, Tulsa, Oklahoma, Fort Worth, Texas, Houston, Texas, or Lando, Florida, Sunrise Florida, or Jacksonville, Florida. We would

love to see you. That's October twenty sixth through November third, and you can go to Elevation Nights dot com to get your tickets and information and we'll be there. I was thinking today, other people will drive two hundred miles for what we have right here in our backyard, the presence of this amazing community of believers. And I'm excited today when lady told me one time that she drove twelve hours to come to church, and she said it

was on my bucket list. And I stood up and told the church, you see what's on her bucket list is in many of our backyard. So you just have to keep that perspective. God is doing an amazing work at all of our locations and all around the world. Give God a praise. Come on, Let everything that has bread praise the Lord that has a new significance in the time of COVID. Right. Let everything that has breath that we appreciate more that God gave us another day

and that we're here to praise him. And we want to take full advantage of that. Are you ready for the word of God? It doesn't matter if you are. I am, so I'm excited enough for all of us. I want to share with you from Hebrews chapter eight today, verses three through seven. I think I'm done with Joe. Thanks Hebrews chapter eight. Pat had a long decay. Hebrews

chapter eight, verse three through seven. Ready, every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices, and so it was necessary for this one, Jesus, to also have something to offer. If he were on earth, he would not be a priest, for there are already priests who offer the gifts prescribed by the law. They serve at a sanctuary that is a copy and a shadow of what is in heaven. This is why Moses was warned

when he was about to build the tabernacle. See to it that you make everything according to the pattern shown you on the mountain. But in fact, the ministry Jesus has received is as superior to theirs, as the covenant of which he is mediator is superior to the old one. Since the new covenant is established on what better promises. For if there had been nothing wrong with that first covenant. No place would have been sought for another. Back to

verse five. They serve the high priest in the levitical line from the lineage of Erin. They serve at a sanctuary that is a copy and a shadow of what is in heaven. So this is why, this is why Moses was warned when he was about to build the tabernacle. They serve in a sanctuary that is a copy. This is why Moses was warned. See to it that you make everything according to the pattern shown you on the mountain.

The Lord told me to give you the sermon in the form of a warning today, and the warning is, be careful what you copy. Be careful what you copy. You may be seated. Be careful what you copy. I didn't say not the copy. That's dumb. People will tell you sometimes don't copy being original. No, you need to copy a little bit, right. You need to copy through certain developmental stages. Our kids copy, you know, our kids copy. That's how they put one foot in front of the other.

Learn to walk. You don't teach your kidnaw. If you don't want to walk on your legs, you know you might want to try walking around on your hands. They copy, They copy sounds phonetically. It's a part of the developmental process to copy. You copy. If you're learning an instrument, you would copy the scales. If you were learning a language, you would copy the alphabet. You don't make up a new alphabet, you just you shouldn't stop with the copy.

That's the thing write in anything. You shouldn't just stop with the copy. So in raising three of my own, now I'm sitting here thinking like what do I want them to copy of me? And what do I want them to cast out. I feel like, since they have my genetics, it's my job to help shepherd them through some of this stuff, and it's really important that I disciple them. As a dad. I want to disciple my kids, not through a class. I don't really think they need

another class for me, especially since I'm a preacher. They get to hear my words a lot, but in what I do and what I show them, and not just about Bible verses. I don't just want to disciple my kids and what they think about Greek or Hebrew. In a Bible text, the original word is epic. I want to talk to him about some other words too, Some words that we might not be allowed to say in church,

especially now Graham's thirteen and Elijah sixteen. One thing I really thank God for is I've had the opportunity to work out with Elijah the last couple of years, and I'm glad that it's going to be at least two more years before he can catch me on bench press. But I kind of turned the workout room that's in our house into a little bit of a seminary study, like a laboratory, where I'm not only showing him how to do certain exercises. But I don't know if I

told you this way. I've been taking him through the top one hundred rock albums of all time. Right, strain up a child and the way that they should go, and the way that they should go is led Zeppelin. Right. We listen to Grades in the gardens to an old church basement, but then sometimes sometimes we listen to other albums. Something funny happened to the other where we were listening to Jimmy Hendrix Little Wing, one of the greatest guitar

intros of all time. I learned it when I was fourteen and LJ Elijah says to me, this guy sounds like Pearl Jam. He thought Jimmy nineteen sixty nine was copying Stone Gossard and Mike McCready in nineteen ninety one because he didn't know who was coffy a new and I said, no, boy, you don't have to grow up and be a Christian, but you will know that, Jimmy Hendrix, there are some things that are not negotiable. They're coffy and Jimmy, Jimmy's not coffy in them. And give me

that what I handed you before we walked up. I disciple him in so many different ways. I'm pretty proud of myself. I show him, I show him technological advancements that have happened in the field of audio recording. I explained to him how like downloading songs or streaming songs is a relatively new phenomenon, and that when we wanted music from our friends, we had to copy. But where it was bad, you would put this cassette tape in another cassette with it, a blank one with it. That

wasn't the problem. The problem was when you had to copy a copy of a copy of a copy, Because every time you copy a cassette tape, the quality drops of the copy in Hebrews, chapter eight, y'all thought this was story time. This is a story time I set up for my servant. The writer of Hebrews is understanding that as generations have passed from Moses, the quality of faith has dropped within the religious system of his day.

He does something kind of crazy in order to bring these new believers into an understanding of the process of emulating and imitating Christ. He points to somebody that they never met Moses to explain about somebody that they never personally met Jesus. He talks about a tabernacle. You got to remember, these people never saw the tabernacle that they carted around the wilderness. It's been many years since they were setting up that tabernacle. It's been replaced now, not

only by Solomon's temple, but that one's been destroyed. There's been another temple built. So they are generations removed from Jimmy. I like Pearl Jam. I'm a Pearl Jam fan. But he realizes that with every generational transference there has been a loss in quality, and he says things in Hebrews like you need to persevere. Y'all give up too quick. He's gonna fuscin at him. So he brings in examples.

He talks about it in Hebrews chapter eleven, different people in the faith who endured, some people who were cut

in half for their faith. And so he's kind of trying to say, like, you think is bad because somebody didn't like your comment on Facebook, has been a lot worse, right, And if I could talk to you today, I would use this subject, be careful what you copy, because what happens to a lot of us is we're not even conscious of what we're copying in our behaviors and even our faith, and even our concept of God sometimes came through so many generations who put their own concept of

God on top of the biblical concept of God. You got to think somebody did that to them, who did that to them, who did that to them, who did that to them? And by the time it gets to them, they say, I'm not sure I want anything to do with God. But it's not God that you want nothing to do with. It's the copy of God, the copy of the copy of the copy of the copy of the copy of God through all these generations. So he's pointing to something that they've never personally seen. Get this

an experience. They never had this tabernacle that God commanded Moses about to build with very specific dimensions. And when God called Moses to build a tabernacle, he did it. While Moses was on a mountain. He spoke to Moses face to face as a man speaks. Well, actually he spoke to Moses. But then Moses had to go speak to the people. And sometimes when Moses would speak to the people what God had said, as he would say what God had said, they would twist it and make

it something else. That has now been happening. In Hebrews chapter eight for hundreds of years. See he talks about the covenant that was given, the old covenant, the covenant of Moses, that God promised to be with his people if they kept his commands. But he said, how Jesus brought a better covenant, so he didn't tell us to build a tabernacle. He became the tabernacle. He was the

dwelling place of God. And rather than a high priest bringing an offering like an animal or a bull or a goat to shed the blood of something else to a tone for your sin, Jesus shed his own blood. He offered himself as a gift. He is a great high priest, a better high priest, a better covenant. But he understands something about the people that they are attempting to copy a lesser covenant, a covenant that depends on

your behavior, not grace. And let's be honest. They came by it honestly because we are all influenced by culture. If you don't believe me, I'll say this the same way that we sometimes can't even get from church to Monday morning. You know how church you can sometimes have these mountaintop experiences and Lord, I'm gonna serve you, and I'm gonna pray with my wife and I and I'm gonna wait on you, And then that message doesn't even make it through Monday traffic. You don't even get to

the office right from the mountain to Monday. I could preach about that, how do I get God from the mountaintop of inspiration to Monday morning. So he's understanding that they're going to need something to help him get there, and he understands that you have to be careful what you copy. Because when Moses went up to get the instructions from God on the ten commandments, remember those come on you broke all of them. I know you remember them.

You have to understand by the time Moses got back down, they weren't waiting on the Lord. They were worshiping a cow that they made out of golden earrings. He was only up there forty days. They would wander in the wilderness forty years because after they came out of each they couldn't get Egypt out of them. And I'm concerned that sometimes we are so controlled by culture. This is what God said, see to it. Pay attention is a warning,

he said. Moses was warned, see to it that you make everything according to the patterns shown you on the mountain, because when you get down off the mountain, the children of is Wyo are going to be naked dancing around jewelry. So you have to sew hear from God and know what he showed you, and nobody spoke to you, and

know what He is doing in your life. Not somebody else's know what he's doing in your life, not the neighbor next door to know what he's doing in your life in this moment that you build that so be careful what you copy from the culture around you. Be careful what you copy from the culture around you that keeps you from discovering the kingdom within you. It's fasterphernic. I'm preaching. I'm already doing it now. We copy culture around us, and what we don't realize, see, we we

don't realize that we're copying crazy. I know this because when I tell people that I don't watch the news very much, they look at me like I'm irresponsible. Well, just because people want to make money off of twenty four to seven news cycle doesn't mean that I have to submit my mind to the stress that it cost us. You I don't have to. Well, then then you won't be informed, but I also won't be insane. Preach to me, preach to me, freash to me. I need this, I

need this. They call it breaking news because it's breaking your brain. Breaking news. You can't put out a bird feeder. Did y'all see that? It was breaking news on my screen? The birds are dying now and we got to take our bird feeders down. Well, maybe we do, but that's not breaking news about a bird bath. That's not a pandemic about it. Did you see this? Did you see? This? Is crazy? But we copied crazy, and so if everybody's

a zombie on the Walking Dead. If everybody's staring at stuff and never looking at each other, be careful what you copy. Come a golden cow from something that watched this, that you got out of the age, so that God delivered you from And by the time Moses got down the mountain, this is why God warned him in Exodus twenty five, because God's telling him thou shalt not kill, and thou shalt not commit adultery, and thou shalt not

cove it. And if you live the way that the first come, I tell you too, you won't cover anybody else's life, because you'll be so content with your own that you won't have to take your neighbor's wife, you won't have to take your neighbor's ox, you won't have to take matters in your own hands. And by the time he gets down talking about contentment, they're dancing around a calf. And I can relate so much to copying culture. And then I miss Christ because the Kingdom is within me.

But that's the Old Testament, Pesters, Actually, no, it's not. It's in Hebrews, in the New Testament. And he said in the New Testament that you need to be warned sometime that if you don't build when you come down the mountain in your everyday life, what God spoke to you in those moments where He touched your soul, you will miss the kingdom. By copying the culture, now people can twist anything. So some people will say, like, well, then you shouldn't have drums in church because you know

that's from the devil and from the world. You want air conditioning in church because that's not in Exodus either, That wasn't It's a way of thinking. It's what the Bible calls the patterns of this world that we conform to, and the world squeezes you into its mold so that you start trying to have conversations with two hundred and eighty characters, and then the medium becomes the mold that

we get squeezed into. So we can't know each other as people who are created in the image of God because we are conversing with each other on a platform that was designed by people to get us to argue too much too soon. This is point number one. Be careful what you copy from culture. I'm not saying you have to dress like you're out in nineteen thirty three to be a Christian. I'm not talking about external stuff. Neither was the writer of Hebrews. He was saying, the

external covenant is gone. Is the internal one that matters now. So our distinction and what makes us different is not that we look weird, but that we refuse to conform to crazy. Put this in the chat. I refuse to conform to crazy. When I say put it in the chat, you say it out loud too. It's kind of an arrangement we have. I refuse to conform to crazy. Be careful what you copy from a culture that has lost its ever loving mind and is controlled by the prints

of the power of the air. Y'all believe in the devil. If you don't believe in the devil after the last two years, so be careful what you copy. Be careful who you envy. Some of us envy people who are secretly miserable, but you don't know that. So this is my second point. Be careful what you copy from other people,

because you don't see the full picture. I remember watching the documentary last year, and I got so jealous of the person that the documentary was about because he had won something like sixteen Grammys whole time I'm watching them. I don't know if you ever do this. I sit there and compare my accomplishments to his accomplishments, and it's like, we have a pastor, you touched souls for the Kingdom. Well, I want a Grammy too, all right. So I'm sitting there.

I'm sitting there going I never won one Grammy. He's got sixteen or whatever. But then it was like the Lord spoke to me in the middle of the documentary and said, wikiam So I put him in my Wikipedia app and I donate to Wikipedia because they've helped me so much with my research every year. And I put his name in the thing and I saw, yes, he has sixteen Grammys, but he also has had five wives. So I didn't judge him. I didn't turn off the documentary.

I still admire him, but I realized that what I had done in the process of admiring his accomplishments, I had not considered the cost of those accomplishments. So I want the Grammys, but I also want, you know, less than four divorce proceedings and no judgment on the guy. But isn't that what we do? We crop and copy you know, you crop a picture. You know how when that person in your life is no longer in your

life and you crop them out of the picture. We do that when we're comparing ourselves to other people, right, because we're copying something that's cropped. They're showing you what they want you to see. Now you are copying a picture, a form, a shadow, a crop picture. So you see what they did and you go, well, I'm not doing that. I'm not as good as them. I'm not. I can't eve accomplish anything like them. And here's what I noticed. Some of the people that we want to be like

are burning out influencers. Influencers that we see on social media and after we have bought all their makeup product and all their diet product and all their fitness stuff, and then we see their post about y'all, I just wanted to come on here today. People been asking that's how every influencer post I've ever seen starts. And I'm not even on social media that much, but I got that one memorized. I just wanted to come on here, y'all, and I have people have been asking. Nobody's been asking you.

Two people I ask you. But now they're on a confession. Now here's what's crazy. I've been copying somebody who comes on and tells me I'm actually depressed, and I've been copying you. I actually feel like I'm losing my mind. I can't eat, I can't sleep. I was so busy envying your bag that I didn't realize that at the bottom of it is a bottle of pills that you can't function without. Now who I wish I could feel the energy y'all are putting on me right now? Is

it better a river walk? I might come over there is not far. Be careful what you copy from another person's life, because you don't know what it costs them. Remember I told you I told my father in law. He's a cool guy, so I get to tell him

everything I told him. When he said, amen, I'm not going to copy this humility though, I'll tell you that right now he said, he said, one time we were talking about this one pastor, and we were taught different people that discourage you along the way from ministry and one guy that I met who had traveled the world, and when I was like twenty years old, my dad had me go to promise keepers with him It was actually in Charlotte, so I was in college and my

dad was still a monk's corner. We met in Charlotte for promise keepers, and you had to volunteer behind the scenes, and I was running the clock and I already knew I was called to be a preacher. So this very famous preacher was back there and I walked up to him. I said, I don't want to bother you before you preach. He said, yes, you do. Apparently you do, because you are right now. I said no, I just wanted to know, can you give me a piece of advice as somebody

that I admire. You've written so many books and you've shared the Gospel with so many people. What advice would you have for me, for somebody who aspires to do what you do? He said, you don't want to be me, and I thought it was rude at first, but he was trying to tell me something. He was trying to tell me about the surcharge of sacrifice, that what I saw in his books that I admired. I don't know

who this is for. You have to be careful that you don't set the blueprint of your life based on the part of somebody else's life that you see, because they might be cropping out stuff that you don't want to copy. I wish this was inside Elevation because I would tell all the pastors in this room there's some stuff about Elevation Church. I would not advise you to do. This is a great church. To me, it's the best church in the world. I love the church I pastor,

and you can't talk me out of that. But come on, man, when we call the event inside Elevation, it's not really inside elevation. It's barely inside. It's like lobby elevation. It is not kitchen elevation. You're not going to see the real mess of it. See, this is what we do. We want to copy one part of somebody's life. And what happens when we do that is we missed the bigger picture. I wonder, have you been missing the bigger picture because you've been trying to copy somebody else and

you saw one part of their life. They got more followers than you, but their kids aren't following them anymore because they're never there. That's right. I don't do social media. I'm not just talking about the platform. I'm talking about the thing inside of us. You know what I mean, where we we copy somebody who if you could really give them, They said, don't do it like that. That's crazy. It costs me too much if I depressed all enough. The writer of Hebrews, nobody even knows who wrote Hebrews.

But he's so brilliant because he's showing us Moses. Why is he showing us Moses and then Jesus, Because he's showing you that Moses could only take you so far, even for the children of Israel. I mean, think about it. Moses led them to the edge of the Promised Land, but he didn't get to take them in. Joshua did that. And when God called Joshua, and now Moses was a great man, no doubt about it. Moses, Moses was really

actually gracious with the people that he led. Because God said one time, well, I'll just kill him and start all over with you and give you better people to leave. He said, Lord, don't do that. It'll make you look bad. You said, you put your name on these people, and your hand was on and bring them out of Egypt. So if you kill them, it's gonna make you look bad. I probably would go. I probably would vote for you.

To kill him too. But if we really take this into consideration, it's not good for your reputation, God, even though it's my preference right now that notwithstanding, Moses was so controlled by the focus group that he sent into the Promised Land that he copied the fear of the ten Spies who said we can't go in, and he

never got to lead the people. So by the time that Moses dies in Joshua chapter one, God is giving Joshua a talk about what he's called him to do, and he says something kind of cool, because remember, Moses really knew God. Moses really knew God. But look at this in Joshua chapter one, verse five, after he says I'm going to give you this land that I swore to the people Joshua one to five, no one will be able to stand against you all the days of your life as I was with So I will be

with Now what does that mean? That means I'm gonna be present with you like I was present with him. But your process, Joshua, will not be like Moses's process. And another, his limitations will not be your limitations. Where he stopped is where you're starting. Where he stopped is where you're starting. You're not gonna be like me. You're gonna be better than me. You're gonna be so much

better than me. You're not Stephen Ferdick's son. I'm gonna be Elijah Verdick's dad, Graham Fredick's dad, Habby Verdick's dad. Do you understand when God calls you and he puts his spirit in you, you are not limited by what you've seen. That's not the end of your potential. So he tells Joshua, I'm gonna be with you like I was with Moses. I will never leave you, nor forsake you. Verse six. Be strong and courageous, because you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their

ancestors to give them. Next verse be strong and very courageous. Be careful. Aha, what's my sermon called? Be careful what you copy? So Joshua, listen. I want you to listen like God's talking to you. Don't be limited by what you saw Moses do. Moses is not your model. God is. That's what the writer of Hebrews are saying. See, the law could only take you so far. That's why Jesus came. The law was good, but it could only get you so far. The law was great, but it was fought

in that you couldn't keep it. There was nothing wrong with the law, there was something wrong with me. I'm the lead that kept me from going further when the law was my regulation. So now what the law was powerless to do, in that it was weakened by the sinful nature. God did by sending his son, the better high priest in the order of Melchizedek, whose blood wets more than a million bulls and ghosts and doves. That's who Jesus is. He is the arbitrator and the mediator

of a better covenant. My covenant is not with Moses. My covenant is not with my past. My covenant is not with others. My covenant is not with my genetics. My covenant is not with my depression. My covenant is not with fear. My covenant is not with his spies. My covenant is not with this staff. My covenant is not with Pharaoh. My covenant is with my father. I got a covenant, a better covenant. Somebody shall better better better, better,

better better better. It's gonna be better, better, be better better, So be careful what you copy from before when God is trying to bring you into something better. Oh, I'm so glad that I don't have to do it in this season like I did it in that season. He said, you're still okay. You know how we talked about copy in the world when we started the sermon, all those drug dealers and tick talkers and all those evils. That's not who the writer of Hebrews was talking to. They

weren't copying the world. They were stuck in a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of worship that was external. Wouldn't that be hard? Like I can't even drive when I go to London because they drive on the wrong side of the road. That's right, it's the wrong side of the road. It pounds, not kilograms too while we're at it, but uh K, you know that's hard for me to even drive on the other side of the road. They're having to believe

they never personally saw Jesus. They're having to believe in that and let go of what they were always taught would bring them to God. So if I can make this practical, because I know that's a little abstract. Most of what we copy in relationships is not what we were taught, but what we caught from the relational dynamics that we were around. You know how coronavirus is contagious, so is crazy and they don't make a mask for that.

Yet if they could have been a mask for that, how many of y'all will buy at fifty dollars one hundred dollars. So one of the first things that me and Holly did when we sat down, and this was after we had about three or four fights our marriage, if we started talking about, well, how did your parents fight? How did my parents fight? What are we subconsciously copying from the way that we saw conflict handled? That is good?

And what if we subconsciously copied that needs to go based on who we are, based on our personalities, based on our calling. Because I honor where I came from, and I honor what I saw, But I don't have to copy what I saw when it no longer fits what I'm called to. I'm gonna give you that again because you just missed that FILET Mignon what I say again, I don't have to copy what I saw, Huh. I can honor it, but I don't have to copy it. I can honor the tradition. Thank you Moses. You built

the tabernacle in the wilderness. Thank you, High Priest, that's the lineup area. Thank you for that. There's nothing wrong with that. In many ways, it's a continuation of that. But are you copying something that you're no longer called to? And another thing, this is what happened with the Pharisees. You remember the Pharisees and the sad Ducees. They were sad, you see, because they esteemed the traditions of men above the traditions of God. That's what happened to them. What

does that mean. That means that as the law was given from Moses, the law was good, but as it got copied a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy. Now here's what had happened. By the time Jesus showed up on the scene. They were still preaching God's commandments and copying those, but they had lost God's heart to the point where if a man got healed on the sabbath, they would say, you can't do that. They copied the commandments. Jesus said, sabbath

was made for men, not man. For the sabbath in copying it, they lost the quality of it and out of our life growing up. Everybody over thirty makes some noise. All right, there's some stuff that isn't bad, but you're standing in front of something better. And if you copy the way you did it before, and as God is trying to bring you better. I'll give you an example from Moses's life. He did this one time. The people

were thirsty one time in the wilderness. Moses is like, why God, why, Like you're running carpool in a couple of weeks, Okay, why God? Why? Right? And so the Lord's like, well, take that staff I gave you and strike the rock and then the water will come out. And he's like really, He's like, really, I'm gonna show the people that I'm God. And he's like, all right, So the same staff, remember it I appreciate a few weeks ago, parts to sea with it. Well, now he

strikes the rock with it. Here comes the water, and the people drink, and God doesn't kill him, and they go on to complain some more. Now you got to go all the way to the end, because here's something that says in Hebrews. It says in Hebrews thirteen seven look at it later. Remember your leaders spoke the word of God concerning you and considered the outcome of their way of life. Now, when we're looking at somebody's Instagram feed, we're not seeing the outcome of their way of life.

We're seeing the snapshot. Even when you interact with people in church, they do not always lit their hands like they were doing thirty five minutes ago. They're not always so peaceful and so worshipful and so holy. So, so don't judge yourself according to that. But the scripture says considered the outcome of their way of life. And the reason that Moses couldn't lead the people in is because in his frustration about the people's grumbling, this is crazy,

because I think I've done this before. God told him the second time they were thirsty in the wilderness, speak to the rock and the water will flow out. But Moses didn't want to speak to the rock. He wanted to do it how he did it before. So in his frustration, you've been frustrated lately, and so what you've been doing what Moses did? It says he struck the rock power that God told him to speak to. I'm gonna do it like I did it before. I don't care what you say, God, I'm gonna get my way

right away. I'm gonna do this the way that it benefits me. I'm gonna do that. I'm gonna show I'm a man, I'm Moses. And he didn't get into the promise because he copied the way God told him to do it before. What I was wondering while I was praying, because I pray for y'all. By the time we get together, I've been with you all week. I'm serious, I've been with you all week, and I thought about how you are praying about some things in your life right now.

You need water from a rock, water in the wilderness. That could be provision, that could be an emotional need you have. And if I take it all the way, I see some of you trying to do what you did ten years ago and it's not working. So you are stuck because you are copying the way that you struck the rock. And now God is giving you a new way to do it, but you won't do it the new way as long as I copy the way that I did it back then. I got a text from a friend the other day and he said, I

want you to understand. You're in a new season as a preacher. Now, I said, tell me about it. He said, it's the season of a father. You're no longer a twenty six year old church planter, so when you preach, step into your role as a father. Now, I said, I got people in the church that are twenty years older than me. He said, it's not about chronology, it's about calling. So God is giving you permission to do it different, to do it different. Say it, do it different.

Tell the person that to do it different. You got to do it different. You got to do it different if you keep hitting stuff the way you're hitting stuff, if you keep doing things out of frustration, if you keep trying to copy what you did before, and see, this is what gets me. I heard a guy one time. He was standing up to preach to his congregation, and he said, I wish I could have coffee with everybody in this church and share what I'm going to share

with you today. And I sat there and thought, well, you could. The church had forty people in it, so you could knock that out by Thursday. If you're really motivated, if you do four a day, I'll go math. But I think you could do that. He had heard another pastor who pastored thirty thousand people say that, and he thought, well, that sounds cool. So now he gets up in copies in his context what he saw somebody else do in

a context that is not his context. This is like, remember when David put on the armor of Saul and he walked around for a moment and he's got to fight Goliath, and he's like, I guess he will give me whatever the guy wears who fights, and Saul's like, here you go, you can wear mine. And David walks around in him a little bit and he's like, this is heavy, this is weird, and this is not me. Right now, I think I would be better off with

my slingshot, with what God called me to do. I know this is how you would fight, but I've got to do it different. Some of you, as teenagers, God is going to show you you don't have to go to every party because at the end of popularity, a lot of the people who are so popular are going home so miserable. I tell you, I'm a dad right now, I'm preaching like a dad and parents, we don't have

to copy the way everybody else raises their kids. You have permission to break tradition with whatever does not fit your calling. You have got to build in the valley what God showed you on the mountain. In case you haven't noticed, we live in a culture that worships our kids at the expense of our families. So I had moments where when the kids were all playing sports, where I said, nobody's coming to your game tonight. We're dropping you off and we're going on a date because I

haven't been with your mom in two weeks. And after you leave me, she's gonna be the only one I have left in the house. And I'll pick you up and you can tell me about it, and maybe somebody else to get a video. So what I'm supposed to parent them like they're all Serena and Venus like I'm supposed to be Tiger. It was that I know culturally inappropriate reference. A lot of stuff comes along with all of this. Everybody has to do it the way God

shows you to do it. But what happens is we start building according to somebody else's blueprint, whether it's the world, whether it's the concept of God that you were handed that is not accurate to the scripture. You need to read the Bible for yourself. I'm not your professional holy spirit. I'm a preacher. You need to get in Hebrews and say well, Pastor Steven missed this part. Now, this part

was the best part. He said that, But that made me wonder about that, because if it's just a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy, I'm just Pearl Jam I'm not Jimmy. I'm not Jesus. Neither is Moses. There are your broke friends that you're taking financial advice from, or your unmarried friends that are giving you marriage advice. Well, I would tell him. I bet you would your imaginary marriage. Feel the spirit of Dave Ramsey coming on me anyway, Be careful to

obey the word that I have given you. Joshua, You're gonna go somewhere they couldn't go. You're gonna do something they couldn't do. You're gonna break saints that help them all their life. Now you do it and be strong and courageous. Stop copying crazy because you don't want to be weird. I wanna be weird. If what I'm seeing in this world right now is normal, God make me weird. I wanna be the weirdest one there is, y'all. And not let your kids listen to that rock and roll

music and that rap music. I'll tell you what right now, that's bad. They're the devil. I saw all the kids that went off after their parents didn't experience anything with them. I got to decide how to raise my kid, y'all. I put a picture of me on a We might take this out before we put it on YouTube. Y'll check with me. I put a picture of me one time with the kids. We went to see God's team, the Clemson Tigers. Sorry, pal, he's got a game caught

shirt on and I had on the Guns N' Roses shirt. Now, all the comments that on the picture said, uh, why wearing guns and Roses shirt? That's worldly, not as good. You're spending time with your kids like you live in a monastery. So be careful what you copy. Be careful that you don't copy the condemnation that other people put on you. And this is the last thing I'll tell you, And then I will just be quiet and I will go baptized Graham, and I'm gonna have the best time

doing it. And I'm baptizing. I'm not in my name, in Jesus' name. I want you to do it like Jesus did it, because I wanted to tell you one more thing that God told Joshua. Be careful what you copy in your heart, for it will set the direction of your life. You're what he told Joshua. He said, meditate on this book of the law that Moses gave you. Don't be like Moses. You're different than Moses. But I want you to take the same word of God that was given to him. What a brilliant thought that what

I copy in my heart. He said, I want you to meditate on what I spoke. Go over you so that you can lead these people where I called you to go. You see how meditation says direction. And a lot of us with what we do with different things that we've thought about ourselves, said about ourselves, agreed with about ourselves, condemnation, the enemy's putting us, we do a copy and paste. So we take something like you know

that I'm unworthy. We take something like that I'm not good enough, that I'll never be that Da da da da da da, And so then I copy and paste it. I almost did an illustration where I wanted to show you what would happen to the screen if you copied and pasted that over and over again, it would fill up. I'm unworthy, I'm and you know what, apart from the grace of God, we are. But you know how they say sometimes on like on a walkie talkie, they say,

copy that, copy that, copy that. What God wants you to do is start iditating on his words, not the ones that somebody else spoke, and copy it in your heart. He said, I'm going to give you a new covenant. It's a better covenant, and it's not written on tablets of stone because those break. I'm gonna put it on your heart, and I'm gonna give your heart a flesh. And i want you to take your I want you to take your Bible, and I want you to take what God has spoken over your life, and I want

you to copy that. I want you to find out what he called you, what he gifted you to do, what he put the seat of potential in for you, And copy that, and don't get so caught up in trying to copy something you're not that you never find out who you are. You will have to be strong and courageous because you live in a culture that copies crazy, and it'll take faith and it'll take focus. But if

God said that you are his child, copy that. Copy that, And when God speaks that I'm going to take even the mistakes that you've made in your life and I'm gonna whip them up into something that you'll be testifying about as a miracle three months from now, then copy that. I have these moments where God uses somebody to encourage me, and my first instinct is to cancel it out. Oh, they just said that because they're being nice. Oh, they're

just complimenting me, because they're sucking up because I'm the boss. Oh, she just said that because she has to live with me and she doesn't want me in a bad mood. I'll cancel it instead of copying it. Then somebody says something mean about me, negative about me, or they don't even have to say it. I say it to myself, and you want to copy that. So anyway, when I baptize you in a minute, can you come up. We won't wrestle this time. Yeah, just come all the way out.

Were y'all here? When I wrestled Graham? This is Graham he says funny stuff like how am I so ripped in every part of my body? Nobody else in our family is naturally muscular. That's good, you know, me said, that's so good. But when I baptize you in just a minute, maybe after the cameras are off and all that. But I almost asked Mom to get you here early today, But then I decided just to do it now because the Lord told me to end my sermon this way,

because he would use it to speak to others. Someone say it to you. This Bible I started preaching from him right after you were born. I had given the big One, the Life Application when to Elijah, the one that sits by his bed, and he's actually been reading it a lot lately, so that's good. And every time I preached a passage, I highlighted it and I put what I preached, and I've been saving it for you, and I want to give it to you today. And I wrote you a letter and I told you a

story and you can read that later. And I marked in it where where Jesus was baptized. Even Jesus was baptized, you know, he was setting the example, and you're not Jesus you're nothing close, and I'm not John the Baptist, but when you're going to be baptized as a symbol, it's you emulating the depth of Christ and the risen the resurrection of Christ and the washing away of your sin. It doesn't save you, but it says that you're saved

and that you belong to Christ. And in the note, and I highlighted this for you, and I put it all on the letter, but just in case it helps somebody else. When Jesus is baptized, a voice from heaven said, this is my son, whom I love. With him, I

am well pleased. I want you to copy that in your heart because I'm concerned that the culture is going to copy of a copy of a copy of a copy, and the devil will try to tell you all kinds of things through your life that you're not called, or you're not chosener, it's not worth it, or you're missing out by following Christ and all that that's not true.

I want you to copy that because the craziest thing is God said that to Jesus before he opened any blind eyes, before he multiplied fish and loaves, before he did any of his miracles. God said, I love you, I'm pleased with you. Copy that it feels awkward. No, it's good though. When you go down in that water, I want you to know that you can dive to the hole. When you come up out of the water, you're raised to walk in the newness of life. Copy that,

stand up on your feet. The scripture says in Ephesians five to one, the imitators of God as dearly loved children. When you didn't see the model of love, is hard to recreate it. When you didn't see the model of acceptance, it's hard to recreate it. But the day there is a voice from heaven speaking over YouTube, there is a better covenant. This is my child. Do you unwill please

copy that? Father. I speak your word over every man and woman today, from the ones that are ten feet away from me to the ones who are thousands of miles removed. I pray that as your word comes from Heaven, like the rain that falls, like the snow that comes down and accomplishes its purpose, that your word would replenish and multiply the seed that is in our heart. Today. We thank you that you are bringing us into something

better than Egypt, better than the world's customs. We thank you that you are bringing us into something better than Moses. You're better than we ever thought you could be. When your word speaks one thing and our fear speaks another, we choose to agree with what you spoke. We will copy that in the name of Jesus. I pray Amen. Thank you for joining us. Special thanks to those of you who give generously to this ministry. Is because of

you that this ministry is possible. You can click the link in the description to give now, or visit Elevationchurch dot org slash podcast for more information and if you enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe. You can share it with your friends. You can click the share button, take a screenshot and share it on your social stories and tag us at Elevation Church. Thanks again for listening. God bless you.