Life.Church with Craig Groeschel - Just a Stick, Part 1: Just a Stick

Episode Date: October 15, 2017

It takes faith beyond ourselves to believe we can do incredible things, and it takes a power beyond ourselves to do them. In the right hands, the ordinary can be extraordinary. Join us this weekend to see how a simple twig can be more than Just a ... Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hey, welcome to Life Church, where we are one church meeting in multiple locations and reaching around the world thanks to what God is doing at Church Online. If you ever have any questions or you want to learn more about us as a church, you can always check us out online simply by going to life.com. We love for you to stay connected throughout your week and everywhere you go with a Life Church app. It's free and available wherever you download your apps from. Well, today we are honored to welcome our guest, Pastor Jensen Franklin, as he brings a message to help us understand that it takes. It takes faith beyond ourselves to believe in incredible things, but it takes power beyond ourselves to do them, and how the ordinary, when left in the right hands, can become extraordinary. Hey, Life Church, before we dive into this week's message, I want to tell you about our message series

coming up. It's called when the devil knocks. We need to all embrace the reality that we are in a spiritual battle and we have opposition. The good news is we're not fighting for victory, but we're fighting from victory. the weeks to come, I want to talk about how we as followers of Christ engage in spiritual battle to move the ball forward and make a big difference starting in a few weeks. Today, I want to introduce to you an amazing guest speaker. This man has been a friend for a long period of time for me. I love his humility. I love his passion for the word. This guy is a student of God's

word. He's got an internationally known television ministry that touches homes all across the world. And then at the same time, he's got one of the most amazing student ministries, literally filling stadiums, entire stadiums, full of young adults who are passionate about Jesus. You're going to see why today, as you hear him teach God's word, could you help me show a little bit of life church love today for Pastor Jensen Franklin? Thank you so much. Wow. It's so wonderful to be back. back at Life Church with Pastor Craig and Amy. It's a delight and joy to be here with all of you at every campus, 27 campuses and counting what God is doing through this ministry. You know that

probably Life Church has helped more pastors than you can't imagine. We don't just rip off Pastor Craig's messages and all of that. But beyond that, the whole at the movies really wave that has hit our nation that gives pastors like me an amazing month of vacation that I have never had in my life. And I want to say to Pastor Craig and to the amazing teams that put those movies together, you make us look brilliant and we are so thankful. Come on, let's give God a hand clap for an amazing, amazing team of Life Church. We love you guys, and I'm delighted to be here. You know, you got some of the best-looking pastors, too, right? My personal belief is it helps evangelism if your pastors are good-looking like your pastors are.

And I do appreciate what is happening in this ministry. If you have your Bibles, I'd like for you to open them with me or turn them on your phone, ever how you do that, to the book of Exodus chapter four. I want to go to the book of Exodus chapter four. And I'm going to speak today a message that I pray God makes real to your. your heart, he sure has mine, and I feel it for every person listening to me across the campuses today that God's going to speak to you. I want everybody in the room, wherever you are, to say these words, God use me. Say it one more time altogether. God use me. Remember what you said

because I'm going to say something about that in just a moment. But I want you to go to Exodus chapter four, a familiar scripture, for the sake of time I'll begin reading with verse two. So the Lord said to him, what is in your hand? And Moses said a rod and he said, cast it on the ground. So he cast it on the ground and it became a serpent. I like this next part. And Moses fled from it. I would too. Then the Lord said to Moses, reach down your hand and take it by the tail. And he reached out his hand and caught it and it became a rod. in his hand. It turned back from a snake into a rod,

and I want to talk to you for just a few moments on the subject of just a stick. Just a stick. Moses had been hiding from the call of God on his life, camouflaged himself for 40 years in the wilderness. You remember the story, how he ran away, even though God had raised him to be the deliverer. And he's camouflaged himself in the wilderness.

He's hiding from his calling. And after 400 years of Egyptian bondage, God finds Moses in the desert and speaks through a burning bush and says, Go set my people free. He tried for 40 years to camouflage his calling. He was equipped with nothing but a stick and some sandals. And with a stick and some sandals, he has an encounter with God. And God says to him through that burning bush, take your shoes off. In other words, God was saying,

stop running from your calling. I want to speak to many of you who are listening to me today, and you're running from your calling. It's time to quit running from you. The reason God wanted his shoes is he said, I want you to quit running. I don't want you to run from your calling. I want you to run to it because this is your time and this is your season and this is your hour. He was full of fear. remember when God called me to preach. I really have never met a minister yet that God called to preach that they were not terrified. And maybe your calling is not preaching. It may be something else in some other field, but usually you will have to confront fear if you're going to fulfill the purpose and call of God upon your life. And the Lord said to him, he said, well, God, I can't do this.

And he offered God a catalog of excuses. And God said back to him, what's in your hand? And he said, I've got a stick. And God said, take that stick and throw it on the ground. And when he threw it on the ground, your Bible said it turned into a snake. It became sensational. It became supernatural. And when he threw the stick down, the Bible said, and when it turned into a snake, Moses ran from it.

I love that. In Hebrews, it talks about Moses being eloquent in speech. But somewhere he picked up a stutter. I don't know where he got that stutter from exactly, but I have a sneaky suspicion that when God said, pick the snake up by the tail, that's where the stutter began from Moses. And Moses said, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what, what did you say, God? And then God said, pick it up by the tail. Now, I'm not a snake handler.

But I do know enough about, and watched enough National Geographic to know if you're going to handle a snake, you don't want to get it by the tail. The tail is the little end. to get it by the head, the big end that it can bite you with. But God was saying, you handle the little end and I'll handle the big end. And God said, I want you to pick it up. I want you to confront your fear. I want you, if you're going to fulfill your call, if God's going to use you, you're going to have to overcome your fear. You're going to have to confront your fear. The very thing you've been running from, God is saying confront it. Sometimes God will make you confront your fear.

And the Bible said suddenly this stick, this stick that when he picks it up, that became a serpent, he picks it back up and it becomes a stick again. And I see something so powerful in this that I want you to see. That stick that was so common, that stick that was so ordinary, that stick that was so average, when he relinquished it, when he took his fingerprints off of it, when he took what he had and he gave it to God, suddenly it became sensational, suddenly it became supernatural, suddenly it could do things that it could have never done

while it was in his hand. And the point that I want to make is sometimes we think we have to be sensational for God to use, super talented, super good looking, super brilliant, super amazing. And really what God is looking for is something simple and ordinary and average and common. Because sometimes all God needs is a stick. When they're standing at the Red Sea and Pharaoh and his army are coming after Moses and the Israelites, God says, take that stick and hold it up and he parts the Red Sea.

because sometimes all God needs is a stick. And when they're at the bitter waters of Mara and the people are thirsting to death after being in the wilderness, God says to Moses, take a tree branch, get a stick, and put it in the bitter water, and the bitter water becomes sweet because sometimes all God needs is a common ordinary stick. And when the widow woman's about to die and she's going to prepare her last meal for her, she, for her,

and for her son, she's gathering sticks when the prophet comes up and gives her a formula for a miracle in her life because sometimes when God's going to do something magnificent and powerful in the earth, all he's looking for is someone who's just a stick. And when they were building the school of the prophets and one of the men was swinging the only axe that they had and the axe head flew off and went into the Jordan River. And God said to the prophet, take a stick and touch the river. And when he touched the river with the stick, the Bible said that the axe head, it didn't say it floated. It said it swam. Can you see an axe head doing the backstroke across the Jordan River? Because sometimes all God needs is a common, ordinary stick. And when the barbarians on a certain

island needed to be convinced who the true living God was. The apostle Paul is gathering sticks to build a fire and a serpent bites him. And when he doesn't die, they believe in his God because sometimes all God needs is a stick. And when God's ready to redeem the world, he's going to let his son die on two sticks because all God needs is a stick. And there is a friend that sticks closer than a brother. His name is Jesus. Sometimes all God needs is the common, the ordinary, the normal, a simple shepherd stick. Quit saying you're inadequate. Quit saying you're not smart enough.

Quit saying you can't do it. Quit saying it's too big and you're too small. All God needs is a stick. And he's already evaluated your excuses. And he says, if I needed something sensational or spectacular, I would have chosen that. I chose you and all I need is a stick. A simple shepherd stick. In order for God to get that stick, Moses had to go through the desert. You know where he picked that stick up when he was in the desert for 40 years? And sometimes we need to understand when we're going through a desert,

through a wilderness experience that God never intends for you to go through a dry spell, a desert or a wilderness, a tough place without picking up something. Because when you go, had he never gone through the desert, he'd have never picked up that stick. And had he never picked up that stick, he'd have never been able to part that sea and perform the miracles that he did. And so when you go through a desert in a hard time and a trial, God wants to equip you with something that you're going to pick up while you're going through that wilderness, that he's going to double back on and use mightily in your life.

All God needs is a stick. Moses was ready for the test now. And so he goes to Pharaoh. And he says, God said, let my people go. And Pharaoh said, why should I listen to you? And he said, I think he had a little swag when he walked in there. I think he knew. Have you ever had to take a test when you were in school and you were prepared for it?

It's a good feeling. You know, you just walk in. I got this. Have you ever had to take one that you were not prepared for? Let me, come on, every campus, don't lie. Well, he was ready for this one. And so when the moment that Pharaoh said, why should I believe you, he pulls that stick out, can you see him?

And he whops it down in front of thousands of people and Pharaoh. And suddenly, God takes that ordinary, common, average stick and performs the supernatural. And it becomes sensational. It's a snake. And Pharaoh yawns and calls for his magicians. A magician can't do a miracle. They do trickery, sleight of hand. Some of the commentaries say that they had serpents encased in silicone or something like that,

that when they threw it down, it broke the encasing off in the serpents. They couldn't really produce snakes. You remember, he calls his magicians, and they, by sleight of hand, do a trick and throw down and malt the same miracle. And it looks like they're doing the same thing. But then when Moses is about to have a panic attack, Moses serpent starts swallowing up the trickery, the deception, the lies. I'm going to call Moses snake a king snake because he started eating the other snakes.

I just want to preach right here and I want to say there's a lot of false doctrine and false gods and false theologies such as, you know, there's other religions, there's other religions, there's Buddha, There's Muhammad. There's New Ageism. But when it's all said and done, it started with one snake and it ends with one snake. Because he's going to swallow up the lies, the deceptions. There's only one Lord, is what I'm trying to say. And every knee will bow and every tongue will confess.

Jesus Christ is Lord. He's the king of kings. He's the Lord of Lords. And he'll swallow up all of his competitors. Anybody still believe that? Is that too bold? I still believe we are to preach Jesus. There is no other name given unto men whereby we can be saved, but the name of Jesus.

Everybody say that name, Jesus. And I'm right where I want to be in this message because I've been hurrying to get to the main thing that God brought me to give you. Moses does this amazing thing in front of thousands of people. But the greatest part of this miracle, ladies and gentlemen, is not that God can take something simple, common, ordinary,

and put his anointing upon it, his presence, transform it into something brilliant and sensational, and give it supernatural success, and let it swallow up its competitors. The greatest part of this miracle is not that the stick could turn into a snake, but the greatest part of this miracle is that that snake could go back after God used it in a massive way to be in a stick. Maybe the secret to the supernatural and God using us and giving us supernatural success in our business, in our home, in our family,

in our life, in our ministries is when he uses us and when he uses us and when he, he blesses us and when he gives us authority to swallow up and become successful and blessed, when he throws us down on the stage of life and in front of everybody, God does something that blows people's mind. Oh my God, look how he's using them. Look how he's blessing that businessman. Look how that business started. But God blows it up. But the key to it is can you go back after he's blessed you to just be in a stick? Can God bless you supernaturally with success you never dream and it not change who you are? I started out a stick. I started out common and ordinary. And now that God has blessed me, I must never forget.

I'm just a stick. I watched my little ministry. I've watched this ministry. I've watched Life Church go from no name, nowhere, nobody ever heard of Craig Groshell or like, Life Church. And God took this ministry and threw you down on the stage of the world. Don't you ever think that it's your brilliance that has done it? It's been the touch of God upon when you took your fingerprints off. It blew up. And you swallowed up all of the lives of the enemy in 27 cities and counting and all over the world. God is giving you supernatural success. But we must never forget. And I warn you. And I warn you, every ministry I can that God is using in a mighty way to never ever lose that humility that you started with. You start out a stick. God does supernatural things, but can you go back to being a

stick after he uses you? Sometimes the most supernatural thing you can do is just be natural after God's used you in a supernatural way. You know how many of my friends that I started out with in ministry. And I could start naming them and there would be household names that some of you would know in ministry that started out just sticks, nobodies that had nothing, but God threw them down and they gave what they had. It was not much at all. And he anointed it and blessed it and it went crazy. But somehow they could never go back to being the same person. Suddenly, he, They get the big head. They get full of themselves.

They get arrogant. I wonder how many business people are listening to me. Oh, how you needed life church. When your business was tiny and normal and common and average. And God threw you down. You started coming to a church like this and getting your mind renewed on the word of God. And he blessed your life.

But do you need him as much now that he's blessed you? Are you in church? Are you out on the lake in your boat? I don't mean the medal. If I can't get a Pentecost to Amen, I'll take a Baptist nod, a Presbyterian cough. Give me a Catholic cross. Give me anything I can get. But I'm preaching the truth.

We don't need to forget. We don't need to forget. We don't need to forget. Those of you who are in ministry, you know, if we don't watch it, there was a day you just dreamed of being a part of the staff. dreamed of being in full-time minutes. It was a far-distant dream, and now that God has given it to you, don't let it go to your head and get crazy and arrogant.

Oh, I'm all this. No, you're not. You're just a stick. Can God trust you to sing the solo on the praise team one Sunday and be at practice the next week when you're not singing the solo? You just got to go back to being a stick. Does that make sense?

The challenge is not. Can God find somebody that he can bless? The challenge is can we go back to being a common, ordinary stick and have the same humility and the same dependency upon God that we had before he ever did anything with our life. I look at how God's blessed my life. I started out stick. I'm as country as cornbread.

I'm from eastern North Carolina. I lived in a corn field. And sometimes it boggles my mind that God will take me and throw me down on a stage at Hill Song Conference or stage preaching with T.D. Jakes or Craig Rochelle. I'm just a stick. I don't ever want to forget. What God looks for is not our excellence, our brilliance, our pride and our arrogance. He just looks for a stick. Started from the bottom, now we're here. Don't you ever forget it. Come on, give the Lord a big shout.

Everybody at every campus, take a praise break. Take a praise break. Look how far he's brought you. Give him the glory. I don't know where that one came from. Okay. Turn to somebody and say, I remember you when you were a stick. Has God blessed you?

Has God given you a beautiful home and car? ought not to take you further and further away from God. It ought to make you want to be an usher more than ever before. You may be a CEO, the head of hundreds of people, but where are you serving in this church? You better go back to being a stick. God needs sticks. God blesses sticks. And here's something I want to show you real quick. In Mark chapter 16, he said these signs will follow them that believe in my name. They'll take up snakes or take up serpents. And serpents in Moses' day represented they'll have the supernatural. Then he adds this line to it, and it will not hurt them.

Could it be that the reason we don't see God heal and bless and do more supernatural things in our families, businesses, lives, and ministries is because he can't find people who will take up the supernatural and it not hurt them. Because a lot of people were twice as better off when they had half as much. much because at least then they were depending on God and praying and coming to church and steadfast after reading their Bible, getting up having devotions. But now that you've got it, can you go back to being a stick? And in the good times and the bad times, you seek God the same. Now I want to

close with this thought and I want you to listen carefully, lean in now. You're going to have more stick days than your Christian walk with God than snake days. Snake days are the sin. Snake days are the sin. sensational. Wow, miracles. Wow. God, I prayed and a door open and I got a promotion and all this. That's awesome. That's a, that's a, that's a sensational day. But most of life is stick days. Most of marriage is stick days. I love it when the young couples come wanting to get married. They don't want to sit in two chairs. They sit in each other's lap in pre-counseling. We want to hurry up and get married before Jesus comes. Oh, oh, three months later after they're married, even so come Lord Jesus, help us, Lord. And you need to understand that marriage is, I met my wife and I, Cherise, we've been married 30 years. We've got five children. Most of marriage is stick days, ordinary days. My wife doesn't care how good I preach.

See, she doesn't care how big your church is or how big your business is, sir. She doesn't care how successful, how many people call you, sir, at the office. She wants to know, did you take out the garbage? You've got to go back to being a stick. That's what I love about your ministry and about your pastor in all sincerity, is God has blown up in a sensational way, and we're not praising, man, we're giving glory to God, but we honor his servants. And maybe you don't see, because you take for granted, you're a bunch of spoiled brats.

You hear him every week. But what I love about him is after he does what he does so well, it's just a normal guy. He loves those six kids. He loves Amy. I love that. We need to see that modeled in the body of Christ. Maybe the reason God can't bless more people with supernatural success that swallows up the competition. is because he can't trust us to go back to that simple stick.

And let me close. I never read where God used that stick again. Let me rephrase that. I never read where God used that snake again. But I do read where he used that stick again. Because the Bible said one of the greatest miracles in the Old Testament was the story of when God was going to choose. the first high priest.

There were 12 tribes and all the leaders said, I ought to be the one, I ought to be the one. I'm God's choice. I'm God's man. I'm God's, every tribe had a leader who said, I should be the priest. And God said, I want everybody to take a stick off of a tree, a dead stick, and I want you to bring it into the Ark of the Covenant

and place it on the Ark of the Covenant. Twelve sticks representing the 12 tribes. And God says the stick that was covered. down and is dead that comes back to life and buds and blossoms in my presence. That'll be the verification of the one I choose. There's going to be 12 dead sticks side by side, 24 hours later you're going to come in and only one of them was dead but it came back to life. How do you know Jesus is God's son? Because they killed Muhammad.

They killed Buddha. They killed Jesus. They killed Harry Kishner. Death did. They placed them all in a tomb. But only one of those sticks came back alive. On the third day, his name is Jesus. Oh, Jesus.

Name above every name. Watch this. Watch this. The Ark of the Covenant had three things. in it. God's presence in the old covenant was in that God box and he said I want the Ten Commandments in there

the Ten Commandments of Stone they were in the Ark of the Covenant in the box. I want a pot with some manna from the wilderness and I want people to always know that I am their source so I want that close to me and there was

one other thing in that box. God didn't put a snake in there. He didn't put something sensational in there. He said, I want something close to me forever. I want Aaron's rod, that stick. I want it in my box as if to say, I resist the proud. But if you want to get close to me,

if you want to have my hand on your life and experience supernatural blessings that are beyond description, You cannot approach me in your arrogance. You cannot approach me on your own merits. You must come as a stick, just as I am without one plea. But that thy blood was shed for me. And if you'll come to him today and say, Lord, here I am. I don't have to be super talented.

I don't have to be super brilliant. I don't have to be what other people are. I give you what I have. All I possess, he'll bless you, he'll raise you, he'll throw you down and use you mightily. And I'm going to tell you something. The secret to Moses was he was the meekest man who ever lived. He kept going back to being a stick,

and God used him over and over and over again. There's a cycle that if you, he watches what you do after he blesses you. Be the stick. God is looking for people he can touch and raise up in this hour. And I just really feel led to pray for every person under the sound of my voice at all 27 campuses and across the world wherever you're watching this. Can we just pray together for just a moment? Everybody say, God use me.

Say it out loud right where you are. God use me. Here's my stick. It's just common. Ordinary, average, but I relinquish. I take my fingerprints off of it. I put it in your hands. And if you bless me, I'll go back and I'll give you all the glory.

And I'll just be the stick that you started out with so many years ago. Father, I pray today you'll speak to the heart of every man, woman, boy, and girl. your calling voices on this message. You're calling men and women, boys and girls back to the foot of the cross, back to the presence of God that made them what they are. So today, we say yes, Lord. Now, right where you are, just say that line one more time. God use me in Jesus' name. God bless you. See what I told you. Let's just continue all of our churches and an attitude of Father, thank you for that message. Thank you, God, that you are speaking to people even now, that our hearts are open to you as how you would use us, just ordinary sticks. As you're praying

today, all of our different churches, I wonder how many of you would say absolutely and completely, I'm an ordinary stick. Would you lift up your hands right now? Those of you who would say, I recognize I'm a stick, but I want God to use me. Would you lift up your hands? Father, I pray today that God, as your word has gone out, that your Holy Spirit would empower us, God, ordinary people to do the extraordinary, God, because your spirit dwells within us. God, we thank you that we will do what's natural, but because of you, you'll empower us to do the supernatural. God, we may only be able to do what's ordinary, God, but because of you, you will empower

us to do that which is extraordinary. God, we may only be able to do what's credible, but because of the power of the risen Christ dwelling within us, anoint and empower us to do. what is incredible for your glory and your namesake. God, I pray that we would find confidence that as your hand touches us, we can do exceedingly and abundantly more than we can ask, think, or imagine, God, according to your power that is at work within your church. God, I pray today that your spirit would speak to people,

give them the courage to reach out to others to share their faith. God, give them the boldness to say, yes, I will lead a life group and empower and lead others to know Jesus. God, give us the faith to know you could use us to minister to students or to reach out and be a blessing imparting Jesus into the lives of children. God, help us to recognize in our places of work that we are the light of the world that you can use.

Ordinary sticks, God, to do extraordinary works representing you all over this world. And God, at the end of the day, we thank you that as we start a stick, we are still just a stick. ordinary people in need of your grace and your power. God, use us, use your church to be a witness, the light of Jesus shining into this dark world. As you keep praying today at all of the different churches, there may be some of you would say, my goodness, I would love to make a difference,

but I don't even know where I stand spiritually. In fact, if we just maybe sat down across from each other and we're having a conversation, and I just ask you, where are you with God? I can only imagine the different answers. Some would say, well, you know, I used to kind of be engaged, but, you know, I've been away from God. Some of you would say, you know, I've done so many bad things. How could God ever love me? Others of you might say, well, I probably kind of believe in God, but, you know, it kind of ends about there. Let me just remind you, just the truth of what Pastor Jensen talked about. We're all sticks. The reality is, because of our sin nature, we've all fallen short of God's perfect standard. The truth is that none of us are good enough for God. None of us have been holy enough. Our works are not good enough. And that's why the amazing story of the goodness of God, born out through his son is what we call the gospel. It is the good news. For God so loved this world that he became one of us in the person of Jesus, who was born without sin, died on a couple of sticks on a very cruel cross. On the third day, he rose from the dead. Why?

Anyone, and this includes you, who calls out on his name, would be saved, sins forgiven, separated as far as you from the east is, from the west, to all of our churches. There are those of you, you recognize your need for God. When you call on his name, he will hear your prayer. He'll make you into a brand new person, not a better version of you, a different version. The old is gone, and everything becomes new at all of our churches, those who say, I need his grace, I need his mercy. I recognize I'm just a stick in need of salvation today.

I turn for my sin. I turn toward him, if that's your prayer today. I need his grace. I give my life to Jesus. Would you lift your hands high right now? All of our churches lift them up and say, yes, that's my prayer. I give my life to you. Those at church online, if you can simply click right below me,

as we've got people in all of our churches calling on the grace of Jesus, would you celebrate and join your voices in praying with those around you? pray Heavenly Father, I give you my life. Jesus forgive me. Make me brand new. I believe that you died for me and you rose again so I could live for you. Fill me with your spirit so I could live for you, follow you, and serve you for the rest of my life. My life is not my own.

today I give it to you. In Jesus' name I pray. Life Church, would you join me worshiping God, welcoming those born into God's family? As a church, it's our honor to play a small part in all that God is doing in and through your life. And we would love to continue with you on that journey. To find out what your next steps could be in your relationship with Christ, all you have to do is go to life.church slash next.

You know, here at Life Church, it's our mission to lead people to become fully devoted followers of Christ. From day one, that statement has driven everything we do as a church, all because we believe whoever finds God finds life.