The Danger of Seeking Signs | Dr. Jerry Mason

Thank you, Bishop. Let's give the Lord a good hand

of praise and Thanksgiving this morning.

What a wonderful God he is. When we're down, he's still God.

Amen. This is my first official day

out. No better place to be than in

the House of the Lord. Thank you Jesus, Give honor this

morning to my Bishop. I thank him for those kind words

this morning. Support.

Bishop will be ministering tonight.

We're looking forward to that. Let's pray for him that he will

be able to deliver tonight what God has laid on his heart.

Give honor to my pastor this morning who is not here.

There's no greater privilege than to be asked by your pastor

to minister, especially when he's not here, and honor and

appreciate him for that honor. Brother Alex's sister Grace are

youth pastors. Man did he did not did he ever

more preach last weekend? What a message we heard last

Sunday night. And I want to give high honor

this morning to my beautiful wife who is in the office

working but no doubt listening. I love her and appreciate her

and thank God for God's gift of her to me.

Luke chapter #11 and verse #29 I will keep you standing only a

very short while this morning on a Sunday.

One verse that I feel like the Lord laid on my heart several

days ago and it reads this. And when the people were

gathered thick together, he began to say, this is an evil

generation. They seek a sign and there shall

no sign be given it but the sign of Jonas the Prophet.

I honestly don't know if I'm preaching or teaching or what

I'm what end of the spectrum this falls on this morning.

I'll let allow you to decide, but I do want to minister today.

A subject that I believe the Lord laid on my heart earlier

this week and that is the danger of seeking signs.

The danger of seeking signs. Would you lay your Bibles down,

lift your hands one more time and ask God to help us today on

this Sunday morning to speak his word.

Jesus, mighty God, in your name today we love you.

We're thankful God, for the opportunity to be in your house

now. God, by the anointed word that

we have read openly. Lord, in your hearing.

God, I ask you to minister today.

Touch my lips to speak your word.

Allow your anointing to be ever present with us, minister hearts

and lives and on our ears to hear what the Spirit would say

to the church and will not fail to give you glory and honor and

praise and Thanksgiving. And the church said Amen, Lord

bless you. You may be seated today.

That is a courtesy and not a command.

Seeking after a sign generally means looking for evidence or

indications that confirm or guide a decision or a belief or

an action. This can happen in various

contexts, spiritual or religious contexts.

People often seek signs from God or a higher power or some people

refer to him as the universe to validate their faith and to

guide their actions or prove some sort of reassurance.

For example, someone might pray for a sign to confirm whether

they should take a particular path in life or not, or before

they make a significant life changing decision.

Another way that this happens is in personal decision making.

Daily life. People often look for signs to

help them make choices. Could be anything from

interpreting coincidences or patterns to help guide them as

they seek advice from trusted sources that seem particularly

relevant at the moment. And then there is the

psychological context where people seek signs that be a way

for them to deal with anxiety or uncertainty.

Looking for signs can often provide a sense of control or

clarity, even if the signs themselves are ambiguous or open

to interpretation. Overall, seeking after a sign

involves a search for meaning, and it involves what we perceive

as a confirmation that is often driven by a desire for clarity

or reassurance in the face of uncertainty.

A primary issue today with sign seeking is that it doesn't stop

with the realization of the sign.

In our humanity we have this insatiable appetite to interpret

and understand the meaning of the sign.

For what good is a sign if I don't know what it means?

So there are some dangers that are associated with the

interpretation of signs. One is confirmation bias.

It causes the interpretation of events to be slanted in a way

that confirms a person's pre-existing beliefs leading to

skewed understandings. Another danger is the over

generalization in seeking patterns or signs where none

exist that results in over generalizing the circumstance

creating an incorrect conclusion.

Then there is one of my favorite to speak to, and I'll be brief

on it this morning, but is known as paralysis by analysis.

And if you've ever studied spreadsheets or numbers, you

probably can relate to what I'm referring to here.

But sometimes we can focus so much on one thing that it leads

us to no action. It leads to indecision and

inaction as one might become overly concerned now as to

whether they're making the right choice or not.

Another danger is the misinterpretation of events that

can be ambiguous or influenced by a range of factors and

interpreting them as signs can lead to misunderstandings and

incorrect assumptions. And lastly, this morning, a

danger in interpreting signs is emotional distress.

Believing that certain events are signs of negative outcomes

might cause unnecessary worry or stress.

So signs seeking and sign interpretation coexist.

They are not mutually exclusive. The problems that come with this

interpretation is that there's no logical criteria for

understanding the meaning behind these alleged signs.

It is an emotion based process that yields a false perception

of reality and leads us to inaccurate conclusions.

Some people will interpret resistance as a sign.

I have been in company with people before where we have, and

I'll give you an example this morning where we've had an

upcoming long-awaited and anticipated revival and people

have had a hard time getting to the House of God.

Some people interpret that resistance as we need to stop.

This isn't working. This is a sign.

Others will interpret the exact same set of circumstances as the

resistance is from our enemy. We need to push through.

God's going to bless us. Now.

While I have no argument with the faith behind those

statements, I hope you understand my point this morning

that people will interpret the same set of events and

circumstances in different ways. And so it it, it implies to us

today the the, the, the fallacy of our ability to properly

interpret what we perceive as signs in our life.

Somebody say Hallelujah. So interpreting signs is

difficult. There have been many times in my

life where signs were not what they seem to be.

I'll give you a couple of personal testimony examples this

morning. And some of these stories are

things. If you've been around here any

length of time, you might have heard all of these, so I will be

brief this morning. I won't drag you through the

entire story, I promise. Just looking to serve a point

today. When I was 17 years old, I was

asked by an up and coming Southern gospel singing group to

join them on the road to play piano.

Now as a 17 year old, you can only imagine, you can only

imagine the, the, the lights on the marquee and the, the, the,

the, the, the feeling that that brought with.

Wow, this is pretty awesome. They were rising on the charts

of the singing news at this time.

They were in the Top 40 and climbing.

They were Apostolic. So I thought they liked me.

I liked them, I enjoyed their music.

It felt good. What could be wrong?

I believe my dad's words were something like over my dead body

because he saw a sign that I didn't see.

If we're talking signs, less than a year later they were

dismantled and news was released that he had had, for some

sizeable amount of time, a mistress on the side that he was

supporting financially and intimately.

The signs were wrong. The first time I was asked to

take over as the pastor of a church, I was in my mid 20s.

As a young minister in my generation, you couldn't be

serious about ministry if you weren't open to pastoring.

It was kind of the unspoken rule of the 80s and the 90s.

There's still a flavor of that today, but I'd like to think

it's better. But there were some things that

were on my personal punch list that I just thought in my mind,

this would be pretty great if the Lord were a nice brick

building with landscaping, paved parking lot, a well decorated

sanctuary. And this, this was the cherry on

top. All right, this was me at 24.

All right, give you a little peek behind the curtain.

A office decorated with mahogany cherry furniture.

That was it. That was that was my bucket list

for ministry at that time. So we went on the invitation.

We preached, we sang. Guess what?

It's a nice brick building with landscaping.

Had a paved parking lot. It had a beautifully decorated

sanctuary. Actually, those were things I

already knew. The next one I did not know.

So as we received a private tour of the office area after

service, guess what? The office, what would be my

office was decorated with what it wasn't.

Light oak, mahogany, cherry. I walked into that room and I

heard the angels sing Hallelujah and I thought I was home.

But the signs were wrong. Throughout my professional

career, spanning the last 25 years, I have lost my job three

times. All dismissals were executed as

legal no fault separations and the reasons behind them, while

similar, were uniquely different.

The first time, in February 2008, I made it onto the list of

14 employees who were cut in a corporate downsizing event.

Although I was not at fault, I walked away with lessons

learned. It would take me several years

to emotionally recognize these lessons because of the scars

that developed because of hurt and misunderstanding and

confusion and the feelings of rejection.

The fight I came away having to fight, sometimes daily, was

whether or not this was a sign that I didn't have what it takes

to survive in business. The temptation to read this sign

was, and I will admit occasionally, still very real

sign in and of itself. Bishop was wrong.

The second time was in January 2010, working 105 hours a week

due to a whole set of events that unfolded not of my doing,

but I was one of many that had to try to make the best of it.

Again, no fault release, but being released still means they

don't want you, and that's a lot to deal with.

That's a lot of hurt. More scarves, more years of

grappling with the temptation to listen to signs speaking things

into my life that don't exist. The signs were saying you're not

worth it, you can't do it. This is twice now.

How many times till you stop? You're fake, you're not a

leader. Just go back to driving a

forklift and leave everybody alone.

Stop trying to be something you're not.

The signs were wrong a third time.

Similar but worse signs were wrong.

A few years ago I found myself with my wife with me traveling

on a business trip to Ontario. We were at the Canadian border

and I found myself afraid. I don't know if I've told this

one or not, but I found myself afraid of either impending

arrest or border rejection because I did not interpret the

sign correctly. I've been to Canada several

times, but this was my first time crossing by car.

Now, let me tell you something. I know.

I know, some people want to downplay Canada.

Canada's in North America, but Canada's still another country.

It's just as much another country as Mexico is their own

laws, their own language, even their English is different,

their own everything. And there's about 30 million

people in Canada, which is about 10% of the US population.

So what you find at the border are people trying to prove

themselves to the Americans on how much, how they are just as

good or better than you are. Make a Long story short.

Passing through the city of Detroit, coming to the border

crossing, there's approximately 14 lanes of entry.

They were all empty. I still chose the wrong one and

we were driving through that lane and it was a lane that

required specific pre authorization to pass through.

My wife brought it to my attention because she read the

sign correctly. Now, you notice how I said that?

Because she'll say that. So I want to.

I want to get ahead of that. So she read the sign correctly

and I said, well, it'll be all right.

I can't back up now. I'll just apologize and we'll

move on. It wasn't intentional.

Let me tell you something, Mr. Canadian Border Patrol agent

didn't care that it wasn't intentional.

I wrote down my window and he asked for that card that I did

not have. And I said, I'm I'm sorry, Sir,

I didn't mean to take the wrong lane because I didn't mean to.

And his response was, and I believe I have this word for

word, weren't you driving the car?

And his next words were are you dumb or just illiterate?

It was then I was worried I was about to go to jail.

Anybody who knows me, anybody who knows me well, knows there's

only probably two people, maybe three on the face of planet

Earth that can call me dumb or illiterate and get by with the

cops, Border Patrol, and my wife.

No, Sir. No, Sir.

I'm sorry, Sir. Thank you, Sir.

I'm sorry, Sir. It didn't stop there.

I'll cut the story short because it's a much longer story, but he

had a whole lot of fun with me that day, tossing me back and

forth like a ping pong ball between two different buildings

that I will tell you was entirely unnecessary.

But he was teaching the dumb American a lesson or two, and he

did. Don't drive across the border,

I'll just fly. The sign was right, but back to

our difficulty to interpreting the sign.

I did not read the sign correctly.

On August the 2nd, 2018, after a few solid years of serious

health issues, I had what was supposed to be a routine sinus

surgery to help fix some of the issues I was having.

Surgery was a great success, but the exit of the surgery did not

go well. As many who have heard the story

know. Or if you read my anniversary

post on Facebook a few days ago, you know, the doctor told me

afterwards that afternoon, it took three times to bring you

back and his exact words were I almost didn't bring you back.

After hearing this, I was filled with a mixed emotions of

gratitude, but also with paralyzing fear that I was

washed up, that I had nothing left to offer, that the sickness

was going to get the best of me and there was too much working

against me because there was too much wrong in my life.

What I heard, Bishop in my ears laying in that hospital bed, was

I might as well stop playing music.

I might as well stop singing, and I might as well stop

ministry. Maybe God was just done with me.

I want to note that there was a shift in this moment in.

The negative temptations working against me, because this time

they were not about my secular employment.

This time they were about my calling and my salvation.

Ladies and gentlemen, your enemy will stop nothing short than to

try his very best to steal from you and to destroy you and to

kill you. He will start at one juncture,

and he will not stop till he gets everything.

But I've come to tell somebody today that greater is he that is

in me than he that is in the world.

God is still able. So two days later, still in the

hospital bed. August 4th, 2018, I received a

message on Facebook Messenger from Pastor Brent Wedding.

Some of you know him. Pastor Wedding did not know what

was going on and the message I received was this.

I had a dream this morning about you which while I was dreaming I

must have been half awake because I thought why am I

dreaming about brother and sister Mason?

Anyways the dream there was a celebration dinner going on.

I got the impression you were retiring from a position you

held in church like youth leader or something.

People were there giving cards, speeches, laughing, crying, a

typical thank you, congratulations type dinner.

Someone asked what are you going to do now?

You replied I don't know, probably going to rest and take

it easy and just see what happens from here.

I got the impression that you felt like your work was done and

didn't know what your calling was now.

But in the dream I heard the Lord speak.

His work is not over, bigger and better things are in store.

Then I woke up and read your post.

Your work is not over. God has a plan for you, and it's

bigger than you can imagine. Once again, the signs were

wrong. The voice of the enemy was

wrong. The whispers in my ear rejecting

me were wrong. I hope somebody's seeing where

we're going with this this morning.

It's dangerous to heed the call of signs because the signs may

not be giving you the right the right voice.

We need to heed the voice of God Almighty today because the signs

can steer us the wrong direction behind many signs and their

their ambiguity that behind them is the voice of our enemy trying

to deflect us away from the voice and the power and the

wonder of an awesome God. Jesus was very clear in our text

this morning when he said this is an evil generation.

They seek a sign. We often seek signs to have

answers to questions that we're curious about.

Let me tell you, there's some questions we're not going to get

answered. One of the signs we often look

to, it's very popular, very popular in our movement, is the

signs of the end times. It's a subject matter that

garners much attention. I'm not here to interpret them.

That's somebody else's job. I'm not here to speak against

them either. But I do have a few things to

say because there's a myriad of opinions about end times and

here's what I believe. We need to consider it at a

basic level. If you want to take it deeper,

that's between you and God. You take it deeper, but at a

very basic level. This is what we need to consider

about in time. Understanding the subject matter

should be educational and informational.

I do not believe some will disagree with this, and that's

OK, but I do not believe in time.

Signs should be inspirational. I won't leave you there, I'll

explain why because if you go on inspiration alone, you can be

inspired in and you can be inspired out.

We need more than inspiration. We need God ordained anointing

we yes, I know inspiration comes with it, but when I'm inspired,

I hope there's anointing present.

We need more than just that Was inspiring.

One of the greatest insults someone I've had this happen

before, they probably didn't know it was an insult, but one

of the greatest insults I have ever received as a preacher is

Sir. That was a very inspiring

message today. I'm not here to be inspired when

I'm on the recipient end. I'm not here to be inspired.

I'm here to be changed and the only way we can seek after

change is not through inspiration.

We get changed today through God's anointed word.

So in lieu of signs today we need to focus on our

relationship with God. Here's the thing.

If a sign is needed, the sign will come.

It will come from God. You don't have to seek the sign.

Signs come through various means.

Signs come through prophecy. Signs come through His written

word. Signs come through His spoken

word. Signs come through undeniable

God moments. They happen.

Sometimes they happen on a day of the week that you'd least

expected I had. I had an undeniable God moment

last weekend pulling a tire off of my wife's vehicle and the car

Jack collapsed or or flipped over and the car fell to the

ground 30 seconds before that happened.

Brother Fred, if I had positioned my body the way that

I almost did, my legs would have been under that axle.

To me, maybe you disagree, but to me that was an undeniable God

moment. He cares and He was watching out

for me. It's not a sign.

It's not the sign that's the problem today.

Signs will happen. The problem is in the seeking

after the sign above seeking after God.

The problem is seeking after a sign to do what only God Himself

can do. We don't need the sign to do

something for us. We need God to do something for

us. We need to stop searching for

signs today to validate our worth and to validate our

readiness to receive what God has for us.

What God has for everyone today doesn't need a sign, it just

needs our obedience. Receive it.

His mercy, His grace, His blood covering His love, His arms of

acceptance wrapped around you. They don't require a sign.

They just require us to say yes because that's all He needs from

us is a yes. He loves you.

As our musicians come this morning, He has great things for

you. But we often look for signs

today to validate our relationships, to validate our

direction, to validate our actions.

We even look for signs to validate our walk with God.

And I've come to tell someone today, let's stop worrying about

the sign and let's worry merely after what God has for us.

Because when God looks at you, he sees you as worth it.

When God looks at you, he sees you not as an investment, but as

a precious gem that he loves, the apple of his eye.

When God looks at you, he sees worth above everything else.

Would you stay in with me this morning?

When God looks at you, he sees his child and he sees someone

that he's just begging and waiting, pining after to say,

Won't you let me in? This altar is open this morning.

If you need to pray, if you want to pray, come, pray.

Come. Let's worship the Lord together

this morning as Brother Alex takes us in song this morning.

There's a danger in seeking signs.

Let's not seek signs today. Let's seek after the face of God

and allow God to be God in our life.