I Caught A Thought

a very retigious society. Ready now, just like she did, we're about to do around the audience response to my best premium ministry. My brother look at somebody next to you and say, I caught a thought. I caught a thought. Chunks you ready, let's see caught it? Sorry about that, Collie caught something. By the way. This guy who just threw me the Bible, it's like my best friend in the world. But he's the worst. He's always blaming people

when he gets sick. He's always trying to track back to who had a running nose four months ago, blaming it on my kids. You know soon, So you came back from the mission trip. I think I caught it from them it was food poisoning. You can't catch food poisoning. Why are you trying to blame the missionary because you've got a stomach virus. He's magnum pi trying to investigate. It's a pop culture reference for the young people, very relevant and current. I caught it. Look at somebody and say,

I caught a thought. Let me ask you something. Is it possible to catch an attitude? You got anybody just when you see their name on your phone. Y'all responding a little too much to this, you might be giving yourself away. I caught a thought? Can you catch Can you catch faith? Can you catch fear? Can you catch an idea? Can you catch a dream? Can you catch a vision? Can you catch a word from God that will cause you to worship from a deep place past

the shallows of feelings and emotions? You're here today because you caught a thought. You thought you should come to church. You caught a ride and you came. But before you caught a ride, you caught a thought I should go to church. And because you caught a thought, you're about to look at twelve people. Ready, That's how we aught too. I caught a thought. Now, I'm demonstrating this physically, but

I'm want to demonstrate it scripturally. Go in your Bible to Numbers, chapter thirteen, and I want to look at a passage of scripture that has been really helpful to me so many times through the years when I am caught between two thoughts, and when one thought says you should and you can, and one thought says you can't, so don't try. This passage has often helped my perspective. And it's a familiar story for anybody who knows about Father Abraham had many sons, and many sons had Father Abraham.

I am one of them, and so are you. So let's just praise the Lord. That Bible school stuff. It works in grown up life too, because the children of Abraham are of course coming into the land that God promised them, and in the Book of Numbers, have the opportunity to receive the gift, but they get more focused on the giants that oppose them than the gift that God has given them. And that happens to us all the time. So what we see in Numbers, chapter thirteen,

verse thirty. And I'm so excited to show you this, I'm having to contain my excitement is that there will always be a thought that God will bring you to deliver you. There will always be a thought that the enemy will bring to destroy you. And they're both right here in numbers Chapter thirteen. Let's study this together. The Bible says, then Caleb silenced the people before Moses and said, we should go up and take possession of the land,

for we can certainly do it. But the men who had gone up with him said, we can't attack those people. They are stronger than we are. And they spread among the Israelites a bad report about the land they had explored. They said, the land we explored devours those living in it. All the people we saw there are of great size. We saw the Nephilim there, the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilum. We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes,

and we looked the same to them. Stop. There was no conversation between the giants and the spies about who was bigger. That wasn't what they heard, that was what they thought. The nation never saw the promised land for themselves. They relied on the support or the report of the spies to give them a picture of the promise. Of God as well as give them a prediction about the outcome. And it wasn't because they saw something, It was because they heard something. And what they heard was a result

of something that the spies thought. So when it said in the scripture, they spread among the Israelites a bad report, and that report kept the Israelites from going into the land that God had given them. I realized it is possible to be stopped not because of your giants, but because of your thoughts, not because of something that is actually bigger than you, but because of something that you have made bigger than you on the movie screen of

your mind. How many of you have an Imax screen in your mind, and you can blow things up all to all different proportions. The whole nation caught a thought and it made their faith week. And God had given them the land, and they could have had the land. In fact, the land was already theirs. Because the enemy

can't take away anything that God has given to you. However, if he can attack your faith through weakening your immune system, that faith immune system that is supposed to filter out those microscopic germs, those seeds of discontent that will cause you to walk away from what God has calling you to walk into although he can't take it away from you. If he can get to your faith, if he can get to that part of you that believes God and cause it to be disrupted by something that your eyes

see or your ears. Here, Holy Spirit, help me say this the right way. He can't take it. So what he wants to do is to move you from a place of believing that He loves you, called you, qualified you, set you apart, put you there to do it. And the issue with me is that I experience both thoughts, both voices simultaneously. Let me try to break this down. I got Caleb telling me this is one thought you should you can, and then I got ten other spies. You ever noticed how it seems to be more reasons

why you shouldn't than that you should. You ever felt outnumbered in your thought life? Yeah? I got ten spies. Now the spies are going into the land. And the number one rule of being a spy is don't get caught, right yo with me? Yeah, it's the number one rule of being a spy. Whatever you do, sneak in. And Joshua told him, or Moses told him. Joshua was one of the two spies that saw it the right way, and he told him. Moses told Joshua and Caleb and

the ten other spies. He said, when you go in there, make sure, make sure that they don't see you. Okay, But then they got caught. But they didn't get caught by their enemies. They got caught by their insecurities. I'm a preaching to you. They got caught by a thought. And the thought was, we're not big enough. The thought was we don't have enough. The thought is, we can't they're bigger. And so then now all of a sudden, they are dominated not by their enemies, but by their thoughts.

And God said that I was preaching to somebody today who is caught between two thoughts. One is telling you that God gave you everything you need to raise that child. The other is telling you that you're the one who screwed them up. I'm a preaching to your business today. One is telling you that it's all right. God can restore the years that the locusts have eaten. The other is telling you you've wasted too much time and now nothing good can happen in life. So I'm caught between

two thoughts. And on one hand I see the size of the grapes. I see the size of the promise, and I know the size of my God. On the other hand, I hear all of the reasons why a great, big God could not use a little puny person like me from Monks Corner, South Carolina, a little puny person like me who never did this on this level before. Even as I preach to you, I'm caught between two thoughts. She looks like she's never heard a better sermon in her life. Somebody up there looks like they hate me

and are contemplating how they can slip out. And how did I get stuck in the middle of this row for this sermon? And why is he yelling like that? And that shirt is too bright and it hurts my eyes, and I just want to get out of here. I'm a preach to you. I'm a preach to the I'm a preach to the love in the room. I'm going to preach to the faith. You're feeling better, LJ. He had to miss last Sunday. It's the first time he's missed playing behind me in three years. He's never missed.

But he caught, and he caught a stomach bug and I'm not gonna lie to you. This may make me a bad pastor. When I saw him Tuesday, I waved at him. I didn't wap him up. I don't love him that much. I'm not going to spend the whole week throwing up just to tell you, hello, we can do this virtually. I love you, man, praying for you from a distance, I'm not getting close enough to catch it. M hm. And honestly, this is why I had to stop hanging out with some certain people, because I started realizing,

you catch what you're close to. Now, if you need to take out your phone at this point in my sermon and do some surgery with that, swipe left, delete, move. Some of y'all don't need to lift your hands to have more faith, you need to swipe your thumb because it is your contacts. I caught something. I catch something every time I'm around them, every time I scroll. I noticed this the other day. I get in a certain mood and I can't figure out how was I so

happy three minutes ago? And now have you ever had a switch that quick? Yeah? So I started studying it, and I realized that before I caught a feeling, I caught a thought. Now, sometimes that thought is just me going through my feed and I will see something that won't register. Now, here's what I noticed. You don't feel it while you're scrolling. When I ate a whole bag of oreos one Thanksgiving after I'd already eaten three meals, I didn't feel sick while I was eating them. My

taste buds didn't tell me to stop. So I'm scrolling and I don't feel sick until after I've stopped. What I realized about myself. And maybe you're more spiritually mature than me, and you can find a church where the pastor is whole, healthy and doesn't have these issues. But for all of us who understand that, sometimes you are mad about something that you saw ten minutes ago on your phone because you were in everybody else's life but your own, trying to figure out am I better than them?

Are they better than me? And so what happened while I was scrolling? I saw them on vacation and I know they're in debt. So I caught a thought of judgment. Why should they be on vacation when I know they're in debt? And now I feel sick ten minutes later because of the thought that I caught while I scrolled through somebody else's situation that has nothing to do with my responsibility. Y'all gonna help me with this, or am

I gonna? So what happened to me was I caught a thought of offense, and then I reaped an attitude of frustration. I got offended the other day because I saw God blessing somebody that he wasn't supposed to bless Did you ever watch God just do something awesome for the wrong person? He didn't consult you? And so I found myself feeling insecure. The reason that I felt insecure in myself is because I caught a thought of offense about somebody else. Now here's what happens. You become a

victim of your own judgment. When you judge others that way, you judge you that way. So when you catch a thought of judging others, don't be surprised when the judgment comes upon you. The less y'all say, amen, the more I know I'm preaching. So I caught a thought. I caught a thought, and I realized that the thought that I hold on to the thought that I you know, like you can catch a wave, you could catch a football for the game winning touchdown like Graham Fredick did yesterday,

just this very yesterday. But I never knew I could catch a thought. I knew you could catch a case. I had some relatives that did it. I knew you could catch a cold. But I found out you could catch a thought. And then I trace sometimes the weakness of my faith, and I ask myself the question, where did that thought come from? And it's important where it came from, because where it comes from determines where it leads to. My issue is that when I say I hear from God, I don't hear him out loud. God

bless you if you do. I've never heard the audible voice of God. I mean, he speaks through my wife all the time. But other than that exception, I've never heard the audible voice of God. If you have, I'm not mad at you unless you start trying to use it to manipulate people by making up stuff that God told you, because God has three way calling and he

can tell us both. So don't tell me God spoke to you something that I'm not in agreement with and try to get me to do something you want to do by saying God told you to, especially if you say God told you to quit your job because you're just tired of dealing with frustrating people. I don't know if that's God or if you're just tired. Need to get some sleep, and I have better attitude when you show up. I've never heard from God out loud. So

one guy asked me one time. He was like, when you say God spoke to you, how do you know? Great question, because I don't hear God at an auditory level, So when I say God spoke, that can be misleading. You know. When Peter said Jesus spoke to me, it was literal. Jesus was a person. He spoke to me. I was fishing one night. I hadn't caught anything. I was frustrated, and Jesus said, let down your nets in the deep for a catch. And Peter would say, at first,

I was frustrated because I thought you're a carpenter. I'm a fisherman. You do your job, I'll do mine. You wanted my vote to preach from. I didn't know you were going to try to drive it. But watch this, because you say so, I will let down the nets. Now, when he let down the nets, he caught a great number of fish. But God was showing me that before he caught the fish, he caught you. Like this church,

before there was a seat, there was a thought. Now see the issue with this is I don't hear God out loud like that, and so I connect with God not at an auditory or sensory level. I connect with God at the level of thought. Which would be fine if God spoke to me at the level of thought, and he was the only one who spoke that way. But I got this other joker. They call him the devil.

But when I say the devil tempts me or the devil discourages me, I'm not talking about a guy in a Halloween costume that he got on clearance at Target, walking up with a pitchfork and a cape and some horns. I never saw the devil like that. I just put him off my shoulder. He's not on my shoulder when he comes to me. He comes to me through a thought. So now I got God speaking to me through my thoughts. I've got the enemy trying to speak against what God

spoke to me through my thoughts. I got two voices on the same device, and I'm caught between a thought. One is telling me your greatest years are ahead of you. One is telling me you've already done all the good things you're gonna do. You better write it out because it won't be much longer. One is telling me go ahead and speak it and say it and do it and step into it and believe for it. And the other one is telling me, well, you better not go too far out there. You know, if you go too

far out there, you be embarrassed. And after off you climb high, they can pull you down. And I'm caught between Caleb we Can and the other spies. I'm caught caught got a thought. I got caught. I got caught by a thought. I don't know how it happened, but y'all, I got this thought that goes through my mind all the time that says it doesn't matter, just all the time.

I could be doing anything and it'll be like it's Almo the way the thought you know that eye roll emoji that you yeah, that's that would be the face of it. But the thought behind it is like, you know, who cares doesn't matter? You ever had that thought catch you trying to do something? Mm hmm, Raise your hand again. If you've ever had that thought, why did y'all raise y'all saying so much higher? The second time I asked her,

oh oh, oh, you're not enough. I don't know if you say it exactly like that, but it's crazy how many people I talked to. And I used to think it was deep who didn't have a lot of confidence, But then I realized professional athletes have this thought that I'm not enough. They are the ones who are society worships, and still there's a thought. It's a thought that's going around.

The reason is going around so much more now than it used to go around is because now we don't judge ourselves or measure ourselves according to the calling God has given us. We compare ourselves to a fictionalized account of somebody else's life. That's where you always get in trouble. Now, get this point. You always get in trouble when you start comparing your calling to somebody else's because when you compare callings, you catch insecurity. When you compare callings, you

catch in sufficiency. When I think I'm not enough, you know I'm not enough. Even the disciples, you know it's not enough food to go around Jesus, you need to send them away. How many times have I sent away something that God put in my life because I caught a thought that I'm not enough. They wandered around and around and around in the wilderness for forty years, not because of their enemy, but because of their thought. And then even sometimes when things are going good, I got

this thought. I don't know where it comes from. I don't think it's God. I don't think it is. Sorry to tell sometimes because it's not like he talks like this. I don't even know what that was. I'm glad he didn't talk like that. That was super weird. Yes, So, like Morgan Freeman, it's just a thought. Come on, if God sounded like Morgan Freeman, you could do it. If you narrated your life like that, you could do it. You could make it. You would go to sleep and

wake up and just be ready for the day. But it comes like a thought. You know, even when it's going good, it won't last. They'll leave you too. You can't count on them. Then you sabotage the gift because you're not securing it, because even while it's happening, you don't believe this real. This is my thoughts. I don't know where I caught them. I had a good mom, good dad. I mean, they weren't perfect, don't get me wrong. I wish I could trace it back to just one

traumatic event. I think that would be easier, not enough. Where that thought come from. I'm not sure where it came from, but I know where it takes me. And when I look back on the seasons of my life that I was so deep in depression. Oh yeah, and I know the Bible verses. Yeah, I know better than you. Let's have a quote in contests, Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again, rejoice see my hand motions. I know the verse rejoicing the Lord Always. And then

Paul says, I will say it again, rejoice. Well, you can say it as many times as you want to. Paul. I'm sad right now and I can't find my way out, and so now I'm fighting on the level of my feelings. But watch this before it became a feeling. And look, even Paul, it wasn't just like Moses was a bad leader. Even Paul had to fight against opposing voices and thought systems that undermine the essence of the grace of God.

In the gospel, even in the churches that he started, even in the church at Corinth he would write to that church, and what would happen to them was they would they would be led astray or the word he likes to use in Second Corinthians is deceived. He says, I fear that you're being deceived by the power of suggestion. He uses the example he says, like Eve was deceived by the serpent. You remember that story when God said you can eat any of this, And then she caught

a thought from a snake. She allows something that was beneath her to speak to her, and she caught a thought. See, I never had a snake slither up to me and talk to me. I wish I did. I wish it was a snake that I could chop the head off of it. It's a thought, and I have to live with this and I have to deal with it. And the serpent said to Eve, did God really say you see it? He introduces a doubt into the possibility and potential of faith, causing her to focus on what is

not available rather than what is. And Paul says, I'm afraid that you will be deceived because there's these there's these spies in the church at Corinth, and there they're leading the Christians astray. They're doing it by the power of thought. They are introducing the thought into the Church that you need something other than Christ to justify you. He says, I fear that you have been led astray from your pure devotion to Christ. And pure is the

right word. That's the important word. Pure. It's that uncontaminated place that you access occasionally where you know that God's got you and everything is going to be all right. You ever just felt that, and you had no reason to, and you didn't even have the facts to back it up. You ever just felt that, Like Wow, I just feel like I feel like I'm gonna make it and God's

gonna do it. And I just feel and I can't even prove it on a flow chart or anything like that, but I just What happens is the enemy deceives you. He can't take what God gave you. You know that, right. I need to make sure you know that he can't take what God gave you. But if he can get you to catch a thought that opposes it, he can keep you so weak that you will not walk into it. And this is what he says to the church at Corinth because they got spies running around introducing lies to

the church. They got thoughts that oppose the knowledge of God. In fact, that's how he phrases it in tewod Corinthians ten, verse four. He says, the weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. What's a stronghold in military terms is a place that you go to seek refuge, a stronghold where you set up to do a battle where the enemy can't get to you, or it can

become a place where the enemy traps you in. He says, what happens in a physical battle can happen mentally, spiritually, emotionally to any one of us at any time. See, because it is with the thought that I can experience God. Can catch a thought of Jesus and his grace for me, and his love for me, and his mercy towards me, and that thought can move me to worship Him in the beauty of holiness, in the splendor of his magnificence.

In fact, I want to say this, one thought of Jesus can lift you above any wave of worrying, one thought of Jesus. Have you been having trouble breathing this week? Get a thought on your mind of the goodness of God. You see that battle he brought you through, You see that way He made for you? And just one thought of Jesus, how many no one thought can lift me out of the pit one thought, But a stronghold can also Ensnare you a thought I'm not enough? A thought

I wonder what they're thinking about me right now. Not but that thought, that thought, this isn't gonna end well, that thought, I'm not what they think I am. Here's one of my here's one of my strungolds. If they really knew you, they wouldn't like you, if they really knew, because all of us are bluffing. All of us are faking it. All your little cool friends are faking it. They all got acne, they all got his shoes, They

all feel lonely, and none of y'all are cool. Everybody's faking it, God expense, if your shoes are you ain't perfect. But Paul, they were coming into the church like, oh, he's an impostor he's not a real one. They were introducing a thought to rob them. You know, the devil is a thief. Right, he can't take your promise, so now he wants to steal your thoughts. Bob was reading something in Proverbs. Can I show you this real quick?

I didn't get to show him last night. In Proverbs, Chapter six, verse thirty, it says people do not despise a thief if he steals to satisfy his hunger when he's starving. A thief is just a thief. You know, the enemy is a thief. You can't blame him for trying to steal what he doesn't want you to have. But check the next verse. I love this verse thirty one. Yet if he is caught. Yet, if he is caught, he must pay seven full. So today we came into this service to catch a thief and to let him know.

Give me my joy back, give me my peace back, give me my wisdom back, give me the joy of my salvation, restore seven fall ik of thought. I kind of thought, I realize that he loves me, and if he loves me, it doesn't matter if you like me. I kind of thought. I'm bold about it. I'm form for it, I'm made for it. I'm called to it. I believe I'll walk right forward into my future holding on to a thought of the favor of God. Some of y'all need to catch this. Come on, catch this favor,

catch this word, catch this joy, catch this peace. You've been hanging around Facebook, but you came in here for some faith today, didn't you. Well? Catch this. God is for you. He's more than the world against you. Kick those ten spies out of your hand and listen to Caleb. We can, we should, we will. He is I have. I am Hi five of them and say, I caught a thought. I caught a thought. I caught a thought, just like I caught a cold last February. I caught

a thought. I found out that he is Avil. I found out that he who began a good work in me will be faithful to complete it. I found out he is the bread of life. He is El Sadai, He is more than enough. I caught a thought of God. A thought brought me into depression, and a thought is gonna bring me out. When I surveyed the wondrous cross on which the Prince of Glory died, my richest gain I count but loss and poor contempt on all my pride.

What's he saying. I caught a thought the goodness of God, and it lifted me out of the pit of my despair. You can't keep the thought from coming. But what's what Paul said? He said, we demolish strongholds. How do we destroy it? Verse five is important? He said, we demolish every spy that says we can't and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God. How many know something about God that is deeper than a feeling. I mean, you've known it since you were a child.

You've known it in your soul, You've known it in your spirit. Deep calls to deep. So when I have a thought that opposes what I know about God, What're you gonna do about it? I can't keep it from coming. But he said, we take different every thought to make it obey Christ. And so when they say you seem different this week, you don't look so stressed this week, tell them, oh, yeah, it's craziest thing. I caught a thought. It was about this big I found out God is

about this. I caught a thought of his greatness. I magnified him in my mind. I began to rejoice in the rock of my salvation. This I recall to my mind. Therefore I have hope. I caught a thought and it led me to a hope. Now, the thought that you hold on to the one that you allowed to dominate, that will be the stronghold of your life. If the Lord is your stronghold, if he is the place where you hide, if you catch a thought, a glimpse of your calling. Okay, here it is. There was a woman

who was bleeding on the inside. She heard Jesus coming through her part of town. She had done everything to fix it at the level of the symptom, but nothing worked. The condition that she had was a deep one. It was causing her to hemorrhage and lose blood, just like many of us are hemorrhaging emotionally and losing energy and

losing hope. When she heard Jesus passing through, her desperation for a change caused her to do something dramatic in her life because she had gotten a second opinion, and a third opinion, in a fourth opinion, and none of that word. But here comes healing and here comes hope. And the Bible says that she did what she had to do to get through all of the people who could have blocked her, and to grab a hole to catch Jesus as he was passing by to heal somebody else.

And he's moving quickly, and Peter's backing everybody away. Don't touch him. He's in a hurry. But she reaches out, and the Bible says that she is this verse thirty seven. Yes, she touched his cloak. She caught him. She caught his cloak. She caught what could hear her? She caught a flow, she caught a miracle, she caught a change verse thirty eight because she thought before I caught the answer. I caught a thought. Yeah, before I caught forgiveness. I caught

a thought before I caught bitterness. I caught a thought. If I can catch a thought, I can catch his cloak. And if I can touch him, he can make me well. With everyone standing and your hands lifted to heaven like you need to catch what Heaven has today, I declare over your life that faith and favor are flowing from the person of Jesus in the form of the Holy Spirit in this moment, across every location and our epam

around the world. Catch this. You've been holding on to thoughts of low self worth and low self esteem, all to lead you to this moment in the presence of Jesus, that if you can catch a thought, the woman was made well because she touched his cloak. She touched his cloak because she caught a thought. And there are great opportunities for love and for joy, and for peace and for provision. There is a great calling assignment on your life. My sister. There is a tremendous promise in front of you.

And there's Caleb saying you should you can, And there's ten other spies saying you can. And I don't care if you're out number ten to two. If you will follow Caleb into Canaan, you can eat the fruit of the land. You can experience the joy of the Lord, if you can catch this thought. This I recall to my mind. I caught a thought, and it lifted me from my despair. I caught a thought and it lifted me from my addiction. I caught a thought of Jesus,

and it lifted me from my shame. And I begin to rejoice and worship him with gladness because I caught a thought. A victory for the battle belongs to the Lord. He is my stronghold. He is the strength of my life, and I will not be put to shame, for the joy of the Lord is my strength. Come on, catch this victory, catch this wind. Lift your sails and catch this victory. Catch this wind. Sing it over the people, Chris till they catch it. I'm gonna see it in

the land of the Living. I'm gonna see the goodness of God. I'm gonna sing it. I'm gonna see till I see it. I'm gonna see Tixie. Come on, touches God, touch his resens touch his healing touch as I'm gonna see you fixy for come on, you can catch them. It's an importation. I'm gonna see your fixy. 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.