It Sucks, But It's A Start

You're always writing something.

That's what I've told so many people is that you know,

you're writing every six days a sermon. So your flow

is continuous, whether it's a song or whether it's a sermon,

because you're just always, you know, pinned to paper and

so and you're always hearing from you know, asking God

what he wants to speak to our church week in

and week out. And so I think, like so many

of our songs do come as a as a result

from the overflow of what we're learning in church.

And it kind of goes with the second when we

can mention them together. It's always be connecting, always be collecting.

And by collecting, we mean remember the woman who came

to savage Jesus and she's like a daughter's in trouble.

He's like, I don't give the children's food to dogs.

She's like, and I'll take the crumbs. I'm scrappy like that.

Anything that I think God might have possibly given me,

it's a voice, memo, or an ever know, or on

a napkin somewhere, and I am very very greedy for

any phrase, concept, any little melody, anything, And what I'm

doing with all of that in the collection phase is

not categorizing it yet, just collecting it. And when I

collect something, and we'll do this real time. I didn't

plan this out, but I'll find one and give you

an example. I don't always know what it is when

it comes. If you can relate to that wave your hand, I.

Don't know what it is, but it's something. It's a

little bit of oil. I don't know what it is,

but it's something.

And you have to learn how to respect your somethings

enough to record them, enough to go back to them,

enough to live in them, enough to pour them out.

You have to respect your something, even when your something sucks.

Our favorite phrase is it sucks, but it's a start.

So I have in this phone. Let me count the notes,

fifty three notes on ever note on ever note.

And mostly I write on paper. Ask him, ask buck.

He works out with me, and in between squat thrusts,

I'm making up an excuse to go write something down.

It's a good way to procrastinate in your workout. By

the way, God's giving me something, but I'm always and

I don't know he brings. I don't know what he

brings over there. He'll start working on something.

But I'm gonna respect it enough to collect it, to

have somewhere for it. I'm going to have a jar

ready in case oil feels like flowing.

Do you have that set up?

And it doesn't have to be organized, because now you

can search stuff just with a box, so I have.

I've been sending him songs, poor Chris, while he was

recording this last album. I was sending him song starts

for the next one. It's kind of dysfunctional, but he

loves me. I wrote down beta blessings the other day,

you know, like a beta version, Beta blessings.

I don't know what it is.

Is something I put this sermon in my phone Beta blessings,

and I checked on the info tab on my ever

note and it said I put it in twenty eighteen,

and it's been that long in my phone, and then

there comes a time when God will prompt me to

release it and preach it. And when I put it

in my phone beta blessings, I was thinking about the

things that God does in our lives in certain seasons

that at first we're not sure if it's a blessing

because it's in beta. When I wrote this sermon down

in twenty eighteen, and couldn't figure out exactly how to

preach it. I thought it was wasted. It wasn't wasted.

It was in beta. Can I preach like I've been

waiting to preach?

Just for three years, we've been following the Israelites through

the wilderness, and they are in between seasons. I read

you a scripture where Jesus said, I'm the Alpha and Omega.

That is the first letter of the Greek alphabet, Alpha

and the last letter Omega. That's why he says I'm

the beginning, in the end and the last book of

the Bible. He says, I am Alpha and Omega. I

want you to write this down. It's a little bit

of a long sentence. But Jesus is the Alpha and Omega.

But I need a beta. Blessing for the spaces in

between helped me, Holy Spirit. When the Israelites were in

the wilderness, God was with them. He never stopped being

with you. He's not waiting for you at some future destination.

I want to get closer to God this year. That

doesn't come five Bible books that you've memorized. Later and

then a lot of times we'll be like God, bring

me back to the love that I have when I

first met you, which is typically overrated in our imagination

because we weren't as holy as we like to tell

ourselves that we were when we first met him. So

when you say he's the alpha and the omega, you've

got to also mention right that he is also beta,

that's in between alpha and omega, and that's where we

need his presence the most. How many understand that when

a new year changes and a new year begins and

there's so much excitement, or when a new year ends

and there's so much desperation, we've kind of missed the

point that some of God's greatest blessings are beta.

Some of God's greatest.

Blessings are in the form of watch this manna. I

don't know if you've been watching the sermons slacking off,

but I'll catch you up real quick that I've been

talking about mana in the wilderness.

That he gave them mana, which means what is it?

Isn't that cool?

They needed food and God gave them something and they

didn't recognize it as a blessing at first?

What is it? That's what mana means. Everybody say what

is it? What is it?

And then mana also means what it is. It is,

and I don't yet know what it's going to be.

And that's true about your life, and that's true about

the thing that you're praying about right now, and that's

true about everything that God has put inside of you.

I want to look at this real quick because it's

so powerful.

And Joshua, chapter five, it gives us a picture of

this transition.

Put it on the screen for me. Joshua, chapter five.

I could find it in my Bible. We could do

it quicker. It said the day after the Passover.

This is the Israelites, after going through the wilderness for

forty years, years, after dealing with the situation for forty years.

The Bible says that they celebrated the passover and they

ate some of the produce of the land that God

had promised.

What kind of bread? What did I preach about last week?

I'm not gonna invite y'all back if y'all don't help

me preach I preached about this last week. Please tell

me the sermons stuck that law. So they came out

of Egypt with unleavened bread. They didn't have the time

for it to rise, but they had to go. And

sometimes you've got to set out with a word from

God not knowing all of the details.

Even Abraham had to do this.

God said in Genesis chapter twelve to Abraham.

This was before he even had an h in his name.

This was before Vana White even sold him. This was

before this was back in the times when van of

White to manually turn the letters. Some of y'all don't know,

this was a long time ago. This is back in

the very beginning. Did I just preach reeal of fortune

by accident?

Yes? I did, Yes, I did. I did it on

purpose too, for the real ones. And watch this.

Before Abraham knew where he was going, he had to

leave what he knew. Don't quit your job, don't sign

in divorce paper. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm

talking about abandoning your way of thinking. And the Lord

said in Genesis chapter twelve, verse one, go from your country,

your people, your father's household, to the land I will

show you you Notice how specific God was about what

he was leaving from, and how vague.

God was about what he was going to.

That's where beta blessings are required. That's the version of

the blessing of God and follow it up verse further.

This is God's original blessing to his people coming through Abraham,

the father of our faith, to the nation of Israel.

Would all come through this one man, but it was

still in beta. It would all come through one man,

but it was still in beta. And the Lord had

such a big vision for how he wanted to use

Abraham as a blessing. I will make you into a

great nation. I'll bless you. I'll make your name great,

and you will be a blessing. One more verse.

Show you how big this is.

Let me show you how big this is what God

had in mind to do through Abraham. Let me show

you how big this is what God had in mind

to do when he created you. Let me show you

how big the picture is that God sees. While you're

so zoomed in on the part of your life that

you don't like. He said, I'll bless those who bless you,

and curse those who curse you. In all people's own

earth will be.

Blessed through you.

You see how big that blessing was, but it was

still in beta. Correct me if I'm wrong, Tesla. But

when they have it in beta, they don't release it.

To everybody. You have to sign up for that God

was gonna bless the whole earth through Israel, not just them.

But we encountered them the last few weeks in the

wilderness while they were still in beta. The Lord told me,

I'm preaching to some people today who are in the

beta version, the beta version, and when it's in the

beta version, they're usually working out some.

Bugs. Ask somebody next to you, got bugs.

That's why I don't put it on my phone until later,

because I'm.

To wait till they get all the bugs out.

And I wonder did God take his people through the

wilderness for forty years, around and around in.

Circles to get the bugs out?

And I wonder has God left some of the things

in our life in a holding pattern or brought us

into spaces where we're not getting what we're praying for

or it's not happening assassin as we wanted to, Because

maybe He wants.

To get the bugs out. So I'm praying a prayer

over my life.

This week, God, get the bugs out, because I don't want.

To release a version to the world.

See before I preached this message to you, I preached

it to myself. So I could get the bugs out

because before I release it, before I put it out

on YouTube where everybody with the band connection and an

opinion can judge it, I want to make sure it's

what God wants to say. I had it in my

phone three years to preach to you because God wanted

you to have it right now.

But it wasn't wasted. It was in beta.

God said, there's some stuff you prayed for.

There's some stuff you asked for. There's some stuff I

know you need. It's in beda. It's in beta. It's

in beta.

This relationship isn't a bad relationship.

It's in beda. It's in beda.

This song I'm working on isn't a bad song.

It's just in beta.

That book I worked on last year that's not ready

to be released yet, it wasn't a waste of time.

It's in beta.

I put it in a box in my room to

remind myself that Lazarus my going to box for a minute,

but he.

Will rise again. Hey, thank you for watching.

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