SPEAKER_01: Welcome to Sharper Sword, the publication ministry of Lighthouse Baptist Church in Lemon Grove, California.
SPEAKER_01: Lighthouse believes that individuals can reach their potential for the Lord as they grow in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: We want to hear our Lord say, Well done, thou good and faithful servant.
SPEAKER_01: Let's join Pastor Doug Fisher as he preaches another important biblical message from the Word of God.
SPEAKER_00: Would you take your Bible and look at Exodus chapter number three?
SPEAKER_00: Exodus chapter number three.
SPEAKER_00: This morning I'm going to preach a message to you and a thought that I've never preached before, although probably for at least seven to eight years now, I've been using this for personally with people.
SPEAKER_00: When I sense the Spirit would have me to do that, and I'm going to give you a concept this morning that you'd like I'd like you to consider.
SPEAKER_00: I show you very quickly three places in the Bible where this concept of how the Lord may work with us.
SPEAKER_00: And when somebody says that God always does something a certain way, don't believe them.
SPEAKER_00: God does a certain something in someone's life, but he may do something totally unique and individuistic in someone else's life.
SPEAKER_00: When we say God always does this a certain way, may I say God is consistent, but he surprises us sometimes how he works.
SPEAKER_00: And his ways are past our ways.
SPEAKER_00: And doesn't he sometimes do something and you just kind of go, wow.
SPEAKER_00: Never heard him do that before.
SPEAKER_00: I want to show you a pattern that he may use in your lives.
SPEAKER_00: He's used this in my life in a certain way.
SPEAKER_00: And I'll show you the pattern.
SPEAKER_00: Look at Exodus chapter 3.
SPEAKER_00: Exodus chapter 3.
SPEAKER_00: And notice verse number 12.
SPEAKER_00: Verse number 12.
SPEAKER_00: Moses is being spoken to by the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And Moses right now is in the bottom of the Sinai Peninsula down near Horeb or Mount Sinai.
SPEAKER_00: And he's down there in that wilderness, that desert place watching sheep.
SPEAKER_00: And verse number 12, he said, God speaks to Moses, certainly I will be with thee.
SPEAKER_00: And this shall be a token unto thee.
SPEAKER_00: Here's something that I'm going to ask you to take note of, Moses.
SPEAKER_00: Here's a token.
SPEAKER_00: Here's a pledge.
SPEAKER_00: Here's something to remind you of my pledge to you.
SPEAKER_00: A token would be like a wedding ring that reminds us of the pledge that's made at the wedding altar, a token.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Here's what I'm going to pledge to you, that I have sent thee.
SPEAKER_00: Here's the pledge.
SPEAKER_00: Here's the token.
SPEAKER_00: Here's how you're going to know that I sent you.
SPEAKER_00: Here's the authentication.
SPEAKER_00: Here's my signature.
SPEAKER_00: When thou hast brought the people out of Egypt, ye shall serve God upon this mountain.
SPEAKER_00: He said, Here's the token, here's the pledge, here's the problems, how you're going to know, how it's going to relate back to you in times that Moses later on doesn't know that he's going to wonder, is God in this?
SPEAKER_00: How are we doing?
SPEAKER_00: He says, I want you to remember, this is the token.
SPEAKER_00: When thou hast brought forth the people out of Egypt, ye shall serve God upon this mountain, this very mountain.
SPEAKER_00: This mountain that you've been watching the flock on, I'm going to bring you back here again.
SPEAKER_00: Please listen to me.
SPEAKER_00: What's going to take place is uh let's say that this is Moses in the bottom of the Sinai Peninsula.
SPEAKER_00: He's near Horeb, he's near Mount Sinai, and the bush burns, and the bush doesn't consume, the bush burns.
SPEAKER_00: And God says to Moses, Take off your shoes, it's holy ground.
SPEAKER_00: And God speaks out of that burning bush and says, Now I'm calling you.
SPEAKER_00: Now I'm calling you.
SPEAKER_00: Moses is 80 years old.
SPEAKER_00: Now I'm calling you to go and deliver my people, which are your brethren, out of Egypt.
SPEAKER_00: And he says, The token is that I sent you is I'm going to bring you right back here again.
SPEAKER_00: You're going to go in and you're going to go in a way that you're not so much thinking about what you're doing or how you're doing, you're obeying me.
SPEAKER_00: And by the way, 40 years earlier in the book of Acts, when Moses was 40 years old, he left off being the son of Pharaoh's daughter because something came into his heart.
SPEAKER_00: It says it came into his heart.
SPEAKER_00: What came into his heart was to deliver his brethren, to go and free his brethren from that slavery, the Hebrews.
SPEAKER_00: But it was 40 years later that God said in the burning bush, now it's time.
SPEAKER_00: Now it's time, and I want you to do this.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm going to give you a token, a pledge, a promise, something that will authenticate this, something that you will remember this by.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to bring you right back here again.
SPEAKER_00: Now please listen to me.
SPEAKER_00: Moses is not going to lead himself.
SPEAKER_00: He's going to be led by God.
SPEAKER_00: What do you mean?
SPEAKER_00: He is going to leave Horeb in Sinai.
SPEAKER_00: He is going to go 250 miles or so through the wilderness, through the desert, from down in the Rephidim area, the Horeb, the Sinai area.
SPEAKER_00: He's going to come up the peninsula and he's going to go to Pharaoh, where Egypt is, 250 miles away.
SPEAKER_00: And by the way, you say, you're calculating right now, 250 miles, 60 miles an hour.
SPEAKER_00: Didn't work that way then.
SPEAKER_00: Didn't work that way.
SPEAKER_00: He goes up to Egypt.
SPEAKER_00: He goes in and says, Let my people go.
SPEAKER_00: And then may I remind you, there's a cloud, a pillar of cloud in the day, a pillar of fire at night that's going to lead him.
SPEAKER_00: Moses is not choosing where he's going.
SPEAKER_00: The cloud is choosing where he's going.
SPEAKER_00: And the cloud is sent by God.
SPEAKER_00: The cloud is a pillar of cloud during the day and a pillar of fire at night.
SPEAKER_00: And that pillar of cloud is going to lead him.
SPEAKER_00: And that pillar of fire.
SPEAKER_00: And may I say to you, Moses is not leading himself, but that pillar of cloud, that pillar of fire, watch this, please, is going to lead him back, and he's going to loop back around to where God says, here's where I'll bring you back to.
SPEAKER_00: Once in a while, God allows a person to do a loop.
SPEAKER_00: Let me say that again.
SPEAKER_00: Once in a while, God leads a person to do a loop.
SPEAKER_00: But I don't want you to just think about that geographically.
SPEAKER_00: There's more to it than that.
SPEAKER_00: Stay with me.
SPEAKER_00: When Moses leaves, he goes.
SPEAKER_00: Look at Exodus chapter number 13.
SPEAKER_00: Exodus chapter number 13.
SPEAKER_00: Stay with me if you would.
SPEAKER_00: In Exodus chapter number 13, notice verse 21.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 21.
SPEAKER_00: And I want you to see this clearly if you're new to the Bible, verse 21.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord went before them.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord was leading them.
SPEAKER_00: Exodus 13, 21.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord was guiding them by day in a pillar of cloud, to lead them the way.
SPEAKER_00: And by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, to go by day and night.
SPEAKER_00: He took not away the pillar of the cloud by day, nor the pillar of fire by night from before the people.
SPEAKER_00: Brethren, God went before them, and God was leading Moses.
SPEAKER_00: And when he went up to Egypt, if he would, he got up there and he knew he was supposed to have the reliefs of those people.
SPEAKER_00: Let my people go.
SPEAKER_00: I won't go into the whole scenario, but when he leaves with who knows how many hundreds of thousands of Jewish people, hundreds of thousands of former slaves, hundreds of thousands in family.
SPEAKER_00: Let me say it again.
SPEAKER_00: We think man or woman is leading, and I'm telling you, if the Holy Ghost is in it, it's not the man or the woman leading, it's God leading the man or the woman.
SPEAKER_00: I'll say it again.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes we think, well, they're they're doing what they want to do.
SPEAKER_00: Moses did not do what he wanted to do.
SPEAKER_00: Moses was obeying the cloud.
SPEAKER_00: He was obeying the pillar of fire.
SPEAKER_00: He would get up in the morning also and see if the cloud was still over the tabernacle or not.
SPEAKER_00: He would get up in the morning and see if the cloud was getting ready to move or not.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't know when the cloud was moving, he didn't know when it was staying.
SPEAKER_00: He just knew when that cloud began to move, everybody was supposed to pack up their tents.
SPEAKER_00: We're getting ready to go.
SPEAKER_00: Where are we going?
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
SPEAKER_00: How am I supposed to know that?
SPEAKER_00: I'm just following the cloud.
SPEAKER_00: Brethren, we're supposed to be following the Holy Ghost of God, is that right?
SPEAKER_00: And sometimes the Lord will loop us around.
SPEAKER_00: What do you mean, loop?
SPEAKER_00: Loop like we go in a place where we were and come back again.
SPEAKER_00: Wait a minute.
SPEAKER_00: Not just a geographical place, it could be a spiritual place.
SPEAKER_00: It could be a commitment place, it could be a ministry place.
SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of looping in the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: You say, why do you say looping?
SPEAKER_00: It's just the term.
SPEAKER_00: What do you mean?
SPEAKER_00: Is loop in the Bible?
SPEAKER_00: No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
SPEAKER_00: That's just the term I put on it.
SPEAKER_00: You say, is it inspired?
SPEAKER_00: No, it's not an inspired term.
SPEAKER_00: It's just a way that I'm thinking about he made a loop.
SPEAKER_00: But the token was, I'll bring you right back to this place where the bush burned, and I called you, and when I bring you back to that place, you'll remember that I called you.
SPEAKER_00: You'll know in authentication, you'll know of a certainty that I'm with you.
SPEAKER_00: And by the way, he didn't know the stress he was going to be under at that time.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't know that these people were not going to be totally in agreement with him.
SPEAKER_00: He did not know there was going to be fights and feuds and different things going on.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't know they were going to complain a lot.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't know how he was going to provide for them.
SPEAKER_00: How in the world would Moses know how to get water and how to get food for them?
SPEAKER_00: How in the world did Moses know about manna?
SPEAKER_00: He didn't know about any of that yet.
SPEAKER_00: All he was told was to go and do it, and God said, I'll provide along the way.
SPEAKER_00: And so when they went out, may I say to you, God uh fed them with manna, and he got over here and looped back around to Horeb and Rephidim, and that's where he brought water out of that rock with his rod.
SPEAKER_00: And that's where Joshua defeated the Amalekites because that rod was lifted up in the air.
SPEAKER_00: What?
SPEAKER_00: Mount Horeb.
SPEAKER_00: And then Sinai was the place where God came down in an inferning fire and spoke to Moses and spoke to the people, if you would, in that fire.
SPEAKER_00: And Moses went up, and Joshua went up, and then the 70 elders that went up.
SPEAKER_00: May I say to you, that was the area.
SPEAKER_00: Did Moses know that area well?
SPEAKER_00: He was watching a flock.
SPEAKER_00: And the flock had to move once in a while.
SPEAKER_00: The flock had to, you'll see them grazing over here, and then the flock grazing over there.
SPEAKER_00: He knew Horeb and Sinai very well.
SPEAKER_00: He knew Mount Orab.
SPEAKER_00: He knew Mount Sinai very well.
SPEAKER_00: He had walked it for 40 years, following sheep, leading sheep.
SPEAKER_00: I'll say it again, leading sheep.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't know he was going to lead a bunch of other sheep that way.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't understand.
SPEAKER_00: Don't you think he was out there going, man, that that little rebellious bat sheep?
SPEAKER_00: I gotta go get that.
SPEAKER_00: I gotta go with that person.
SPEAKER_00: They just ran away.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't know he'd have people like that.
SPEAKER_00: That he'd have to go get.
SPEAKER_00: Come on, are you still with me or not?
SPEAKER_00: The idea he was learning shepherding.
SPEAKER_00: But he didn't know how to shepherd lead like a shepherd in Egypt because they didn't believe in shepherding.
SPEAKER_00: They believed in dictatorial leadership.
SPEAKER_00: Pharaoh's leadership style, Egyptian's leadership style, that Moses was well versed in.
SPEAKER_00: He was a man mighty in words and deeds in the Egyptian culture.
SPEAKER_00: Come on, that's what Acts says.
SPEAKER_00: He knew how to lead that way, but God was going to teach him how to lead as a shepherd.
SPEAKER_00: May I say, as sometimes in leadership in the Pharaoh community, you command.
SPEAKER_00: May I say, when Moses was leading, he told him what God told him to do.
SPEAKER_00: He commanded at times, but he commanded from out front.
SPEAKER_00: What do you mean?
SPEAKER_00: Shepherds in Israel, they don't command and drive their flocks.
SPEAKER_00: Shepherds in Israel never drive their flocks.
SPEAKER_00: They would consider that a bad shepherd.
SPEAKER_00: Shepherds in Israel lead their flocks.
SPEAKER_00: They're out front, and the sheep follow.
SPEAKER_00: If you ever saw a shepherd beating and leading their flock from behind in Israel, they would think, culture, that was a terrible thing.
SPEAKER_00: You got to get to know their sheep.
SPEAKER_00: You got to know their voice, and they heard his voice.
SPEAKER_00: And he led those sheep, but the thing that was leading him was the pillar of cloud and the fire.
SPEAKER_00: And he led, and God led, and they went right back to where they were supposed to be in God's will.
SPEAKER_00: And they made, he made, Moses made this loop.
SPEAKER_00: Look, if you wouldn't stay with me, uh look at Genesis, the book of Genesis.
SPEAKER_00: Look at Genesis chapter 12.
SPEAKER_00: Everybody okay today?
SPEAKER_00: Say amen.
SPEAKER_00: Genesis chapter number 12.
SPEAKER_00: And watch Genesis chapter number 12 carefully, if you would.
SPEAKER_00: Genesis chapter number 12, let's study Abram a little bit, or Abraham.
SPEAKER_00: We just studied Moses.
SPEAKER_00: Look at Genesis 12.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 7, please.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 7.
SPEAKER_00: And it says, The Lord appeared unto Abram and said, Unto thy seed, your offspring, your family, will I give this land.
SPEAKER_00: And there builded, Abram builded an altar.
SPEAKER_00: And notice unto the Lord who appeared unto him.
SPEAKER_00: And notice what he says, and he removed from thence unto a mountain on the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent, having Bethel on the west and Hai on the east, and there he built an altar unto the Lord, and called upon the name of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: In where?
SPEAKER_00: In Bethel.
SPEAKER_00: And may I say to you, this Bethel is a term, a Jewish term, that means a place of worship, a holy place.
SPEAKER_00: It's where he built this altar, it's where God, if you would, appeared and spoke to him.
SPEAKER_00: But now notice verse number 10.
SPEAKER_00: There was a famine in the land, and Abram went down into Egypt.
SPEAKER_00: So I want you to look up here, if you would, just for a moment.
SPEAKER_00: Here is Abram at uh at Bethel.
SPEAKER_00: And God appears and he builds this altar at Bethel.
SPEAKER_00: And then God, knowing, has got a famine going on, and so Abraham journeys to Egypt.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because there's a famine back there, and he journeys down to Egypt.
SPEAKER_00: Not that this is uh set in stone, but the distance between Bethel and where he went into Egypt is about 250 miles.
SPEAKER_00: And may I say to you, it's over the top of that peninsula.
SPEAKER_00: If you remember Moses, he was at the bottom.
SPEAKER_00: Uh Abram, he was on the top of that peninsula and went over to Egypt.
SPEAKER_00: There was a famine.
SPEAKER_00: And then I want you to look, please look.
SPEAKER_00: Look at Genesis 13.
SPEAKER_00: You're doing great.
SPEAKER_00: Genesis 13.
SPEAKER_00: And notice what it says in verse number one.
SPEAKER_00: Verse number one.
SPEAKER_00: And Abraham went out of Egypt.
SPEAKER_00: He and his wife and all that they had in Lot with him in the south.
SPEAKER_00: And God had sent him down, and now he was sending him back up again.
SPEAKER_00: And he's going to take him back to Bethel.
SPEAKER_00: But I want you to notice, and we didn't read chapter 12, the rest of it, when Abraham returns, verse 2, Abraham was very rich in cattle, in silver, in gold.
SPEAKER_00: And he went on his journey from the south even to Bethel, unto the place where his tent had been at the beginning, between Bethel and Hai, unto the place of the altar where he had made there at first.
SPEAKER_00: And there Abram called on the name of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: So please look up here.
SPEAKER_00: Or what happens is he's at Bethel, builds an altar, Hai there.
SPEAKER_00: God appears to him, speaks to him, and then they go down, if you would, and there's a famine in the land.
SPEAKER_00: And in an unusual way, which I don't want to focus on right now, if you don't mind, Abram became very rich, please, not because of Abram, but because God blessed him in a very unique way.
SPEAKER_00: I'll let you read that yourself sometimes.
SPEAKER_00: Because God's ways are past finding out.
SPEAKER_00: In a very unusual way, when he leaves Egypt, he's very rich in cattle, he's very rich as a husbandry.
SPEAKER_00: He's very rich, if you would, and he's led back up, right back to Bethel again, where God appeared to him, and the idea is he returned back to Bethel.
SPEAKER_00: Please look, it was a loop.
SPEAKER_00: It was somewhere he traveled, he got done what he got done there, and he came back.
SPEAKER_00: Now, please again, don't think just geographical.
SPEAKER_00: I've looped personally in my life in San Diego.
SPEAKER_00: What do you mean?
SPEAKER_00: You mean you left?
SPEAKER_00: No, no, no.
SPEAKER_00: I I I've been living here all this time.
SPEAKER_00: Since 1980, I've been living here.
SPEAKER_00: But you can loop where you're at.
SPEAKER_00: Huh?
SPEAKER_00: You can loop right where you're at.
SPEAKER_00: You can leave something for a while, go out for a little bit, and return back to that something.
SPEAKER_00: Because the something is not always geographical.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes the something is a ministry.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes the something is a calling.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes the something is a relationship.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes the something is a calling, a commitment, a value made.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes it's something that you didn't expect, that you didn't even notice, and it's you you go out from it and you come back again and you realize and go, you know what?
SPEAKER_00: I've been here before.
SPEAKER_00: But something's different now.
SPEAKER_00: What do you mean something's different now?
SPEAKER_00: That loop taught me something.
SPEAKER_00: That loop educated me.
SPEAKER_00: That loop matured me.
SPEAKER_00: While I was in San Diego all these years, I went from hope to a loss of hope.
SPEAKER_00: For about nine months called depression.
SPEAKER_00: The hope again.
SPEAKER_00: You say, What did you learn?
SPEAKER_00: I learned what hope is.
SPEAKER_00: The best way to learn what hope is, is to not have it for a while.
SPEAKER_00: You say, what did you just get rid of your hope?
SPEAKER_00: I had nothing to do with it.
SPEAKER_00: Well, I did have something to do with it.
SPEAKER_00: I began to look at myself in a way, maybe, but I believe the Lord led me to a place where he took his hope away for a while.
SPEAKER_00: Now, wait a minute, God wouldn't do that.
SPEAKER_00: Read your book.
SPEAKER_00: You say, why do you hope we we talk in the Bible about faith, hope, and charity.
SPEAKER_00: And we talk a lot about faith.
SPEAKER_00: And we talk a lot about charity because it's defined.
SPEAKER_00: I want to tell you though, some people don't know what hope is until you run into somebody who's lost hope.
SPEAKER_00: And I want to tell you, I didn't, I don't think I lost hope totally, but if you live over here without hope long enough, it can really mess your mind up.
SPEAKER_00: That shaken mind.
SPEAKER_00: That mind that has imaginations.
SPEAKER_00: That mind that crosses over from unworthy to worthless.
SPEAKER_00: That mind that puts blame on yourself, even in things you hadn't even done.
SPEAKER_00: But you just say, I must have done it.
SPEAKER_00: That mind that exaggerates all the negative.
SPEAKER_00: Because when you lose hope, all you see is negative.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes it's negative about yourself, and sometimes it's constant negative about other people and about life.
SPEAKER_00: And may I say, if you've ever been in that place of where hope was lacking, to return back to hope again is a wonderful journey.
SPEAKER_00: You say, no, wait a minute, you're saying God would allow that?
SPEAKER_00: Read the book of Job.
SPEAKER_00: Job looped.
SPEAKER_00: What do you mean he looped?
SPEAKER_00: He looped spiritually.
SPEAKER_00: He went away after his children died, after all his health problems that Satan was bringing about under God's allowance.
SPEAKER_00: And by the time he gets over here in this loop, he said, I wish I would have never been born.
SPEAKER_00: I wish I would have never existed.
SPEAKER_00: This has all come upon me.
SPEAKER_00: Blaming himself.
SPEAKER_00: Then Eliphaz, Bill, Dad, and Zophar show up and they blame him every more.
SPEAKER_00: But by the end of the book of Job, he's looped.
SPEAKER_00: He's back over here and he's closer to God than ever before.
SPEAKER_00: And he knows God in a better way than he ever did before.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because that loop taught him something.
SPEAKER_00: That loop, that bad experience, that situation taught him something.
SPEAKER_00: I'll guarantee you, when Moses looped and came back again, he knew more when he came back to that same mountain than when he left.
SPEAKER_00: He knew more about shepherding people than ever before.
SPEAKER_00: When Abraham went into Egypt, left Bethel, and came back to Bethel, Abraham knew more about God than when he left.
SPEAKER_00: I'm saying to you, once in a while, God puts us through a loop.
SPEAKER_00: You call it whatever you want, a journey.
SPEAKER_00: Whatever you want to call it, it's a journey.
SPEAKER_00: And sometimes it's relationship and communication.
SPEAKER_00: Commitment and maturity and growth.
SPEAKER_00: Look at one more if you would.
SPEAKER_00: Stay with me.
SPEAKER_00: You're doing great this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Let's go to the book of Acts real quick.
SPEAKER_00: Just so you know I read the New Testament.
SPEAKER_00: Acts chapter 13.
SPEAKER_00: Everybody all right?
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes the loop is very unusual.
SPEAKER_00: Acts chapter 13.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes the loop, the journey, doesn't make any sense.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes it looks like the journey.
SPEAKER_00: How can God be in this?
SPEAKER_00: There's just no way God can be in this.
SPEAKER_00: And God shows up later and said, I've been with you all the way.
SPEAKER_00: I've been directing you all the way.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you didn't see the pillar of cloud, but I had the Holy Ghost in you telling you what to do.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, we matured you.
SPEAKER_00: Job, when he got there, you're in Acts 13.
SPEAKER_00: Job, when he got over to Job chapter 40, 41, 42, Job said, I thought I knew you.
SPEAKER_00: Now I know you.
SPEAKER_00: And by the way, Job in chapter 1 was a perfect man.
SPEAKER_00: Upright, eskewing evil, even sacrificed for his children just in case they didn't.
SPEAKER_00: He was a man that walked with God that God had blessed.
SPEAKER_00: But by the time he got over there, where he lost in his mind everything.
SPEAKER_00: Lost all his children, lost the confidence of his wife, lost all that he owned, lost the respect of his friends.
SPEAKER_00: Come on, are you still with me?
SPEAKER_00: Slandered, all kinds of things, and was down on himself.
SPEAKER_00: When God brought him back, God says, now I have a couple questions to ask you while we're coming back.
SPEAKER_00: Where were you when I formed this?
SPEAKER_00: Where were you when I did this?
SPEAKER_00: Where were you when this happened?
SPEAKER_00: Where were you when I did this?
SPEAKER_00: Job, explain to me this, if you would, that I've done.
SPEAKER_00: And he brought him back that way.
SPEAKER_00: And Job was like, I don't know the answers to any of that.
SPEAKER_00: You say, What was God doing?
SPEAKER_00: Showing Job how great God is.
SPEAKER_00: In a new way.
SPEAKER_00: In an unusual way.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, you say, What do you mean he brought him back closer?
SPEAKER_00: He brought him back closer.
SPEAKER_00: He said to the three friends, You pray, I won't accept it.
SPEAKER_00: Eliphaz bend down and so forth.
SPEAKER_00: You go down to Job and ask Job to pray for you.
SPEAKER_00: When Job prays for you, I'll accept it.
SPEAKER_00: Otherwise, I'm going to do with you according to your folly.
SPEAKER_00: You need to go to Job.
SPEAKER_00: And you need to get right.
SPEAKER_00: And by the way, Job needs to get right with you.
SPEAKER_00: And when he prays for you, and by the way, when Job prayed, God released him from his captivity.
SPEAKER_00: What was that?
SPEAKER_00: That was the loop.
SPEAKER_00: What do you mean?
SPEAKER_00: What was coming out of his captivity?
SPEAKER_00: His mind returned, his thoughts, his confidence, uh, his his abilities, his outlook, maybe his hope.
SPEAKER_00: Because he went back again and built something much greater than he'd never built before, but it wasn't him, it was God.
SPEAKER_00: And why would God do that?
SPEAKER_00: So Job had greater influence.
SPEAKER_00: Greater influence doesn't come without greater humility.
SPEAKER_00: Everybody's still all right today?
SPEAKER_00: And sometimes this loop is a journey to say, I want to elevate you.
SPEAKER_00: I want to make you more influential.
SPEAKER_00: Not popular, influential.
SPEAKER_00: It's not popular.
SPEAKER_00: It's not look at me.
SPEAKER_00: It's look at God, look at God, look at God, look at God.
SPEAKER_00: It's the influence to look at God, look at God, look at God.
SPEAKER_00: Why did God give him all those things again?
SPEAKER_00: Because God, Job could say, I really know God now.
SPEAKER_00: I thought I knew him before, but I had some self-righteousness in me.
SPEAKER_00: And by the way, read it, you'll see it in there.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not condemning Job.
SPEAKER_00: I respect Job greatly, but in the middle, God purged something.
SPEAKER_00: And the loop can do that.
SPEAKER_00: The loop can purge something within us.
SPEAKER_00: Everybody's still all right this morning.
SPEAKER_00: This concept of this journey can cleanse us, can empty us, so he can fill us with his spirit in a greater way.
SPEAKER_00: Look at Acts chapter 13.
SPEAKER_00: We're almost done.
SPEAKER_00: Acts 13.
SPEAKER_00: Notice verse number 3.
SPEAKER_00: Verse number 3.
SPEAKER_00: And now when Paul and his company loosed from Pathos or Paphas, they came to Perga in Pamphylia.
SPEAKER_00: And John, departing from them, returned to Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: If you remember John, he's surnamed John Mark.
SPEAKER_00: He's someone that Paul noticed in a certain way.
SPEAKER_00: And John went with the journey of the missionaries.
SPEAKER_00: But John, when they got to Panthilia, decided to depart.
SPEAKER_00: So please, please look.
SPEAKER_00: When he got there, John decided, I'm not going any further on the missionary journey with you.
SPEAKER_00: And the Bible says he departed in Panthilia and he returned to Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: Now, there's a statement that we need to see.
SPEAKER_00: Look, if you would at Acts chapter 15.
SPEAKER_00: Acts chapter 15.
SPEAKER_00: Acts chapter 15, look at verse 37.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 37.
SPEAKER_00: In verse 36, Paul and Barnab are the missionaries, verse 36.
SPEAKER_00: And they said, Let's go and visit our brother in every city.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to go back and go back around and we're going to check the churches that have been formed.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 37.
SPEAKER_00: And Barnabas determined to take with them John, whose surname was Mark.
SPEAKER_00: If you remember, Barnabas' personality was that way.
SPEAKER_00: Would you agree with that?
SPEAKER_00: What do you mean?
SPEAKER_00: He wanted to mentor him, he wanted to bring them back.
SPEAKER_00: Barnabas was the one that helped Saul become more Paul.
SPEAKER_00: Would you agree with that?
SPEAKER_00: So the idea was Barnabas.
SPEAKER_00: But verse 38, but Paul thought not good to take him with them, and departed from them, who departed from them from Pamphylia, and went not with them to the work.
SPEAKER_00: So Parnabas, Paul and Barnabas are going to have this contention.
SPEAKER_00: Humans sometimes don't agree on who's this and who's that and why this and why that, and should this person be used, or should not.
SPEAKER_00: And the idea was Paul and Barnabas had this contention.
SPEAKER_00: And may I say the contention was so sharp, verse 39 between them, that they departed asunder one from the other.
SPEAKER_00: They split.
SPEAKER_00: And so Barnabas took Mark, sailed into Cyprus, and Paul chose Silas and departed.
SPEAKER_00: Now, may I say to you, John Mark is going to be the one that does this loop.
SPEAKER_00: He leaves at Pamphylia, he goes to Jerusalem, but we believe Barnabas worked with him.
SPEAKER_00: And Barnabas took him and sailed on to Cyprus.
SPEAKER_00: Come on, is that right?
SPEAKER_00: They go back to Jerusalem and they want to take.
SPEAKER_00: Barnabas says, now we're back here, we're getting ready to go out again.
SPEAKER_00: Let's take John Mark with us.
SPEAKER_00: And Paul says, No.
SPEAKER_00: He left us.
SPEAKER_00: I don't think he should come.
SPEAKER_00: I don't think Paul was vindictive.
SPEAKER_00: I just think Paul was Paul.
SPEAKER_00: And he said, no, we're not going to bring him with us.
SPEAKER_00: And Barnabas says, I think we should.
SPEAKER_00: And so Paul says, and Barnabas says, and Paul goes with Silas to continue on the journey.
SPEAKER_00: And Barnabas takes John Mark, sails, and Barnabas begins to work with him a little bit.
SPEAKER_00: Come on, is that right?
SPEAKER_00: What happens?
SPEAKER_00: Over in the book of Acts, I'm sorry, over in the book of Timothy, 2 Timothy, we believe and we don't know for sure.
SPEAKER_00: May I say in 2 Timothy 4?
SPEAKER_00: We don't know for sure if it's that same Mark.
SPEAKER_00: John Mark?
SPEAKER_00: But we know that Paul says over in 2 Timothy chapter 4, verse 11, when he's talking to Luke, he says, Bring with you Mark.
SPEAKER_00: He's profitable for me for the ministry now.
SPEAKER_00: Please listen.
SPEAKER_00: We don't know exactly if that's John Mark.
SPEAKER_00: You say I do.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, we don't know exactly if that's John Mark.
SPEAKER_00: It just says, bring Mark.
SPEAKER_00: May I say to you, we think it's John Mark returning.
SPEAKER_00: We think, we think, and there's nothing wrong with this thought.
SPEAKER_00: Are you still with me?
SPEAKER_00: I'm not criticizing the thought.
SPEAKER_00: We think John Mark, Paul says, bring him back.
SPEAKER_00: He's ready to be used again.
SPEAKER_00: I'll say it again.
SPEAKER_00: He's ready to be used again.
SPEAKER_00: He's profitable to me now.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Barnabas must work with him.
SPEAKER_00: And by the time, if you would, if it's that same John Mark, Paul says, bring him back, bring him back into our midst again.
SPEAKER_00: Luke, bring him here, because he's profitable now.
SPEAKER_00: Brethren, sometimes people need to be worked with.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes people need to be educated or matured or counseled.
SPEAKER_00: Please listen.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes a marriage needs to be counseled.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes a family needs counsel.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes leaders need counsel.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes someone needs to work with leaders and help them through that journey to bring them back.
SPEAKER_00: But sometimes they never leave the place where they're at.
SPEAKER_00: They don't leave geographical, they just go on an emotional journey.
SPEAKER_00: They go on a journey where they fade a little while.
SPEAKER_00: Servants can fade a little while, faint a little while.
SPEAKER_00: And somebody pulls up beside him and says, No, no, no, I'm going to work with him.
SPEAKER_00: Barnabas says, No, I'm going to work with him.
SPEAKER_00: And Paul said, All right, we're going to depart.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to take Silas.
SPEAKER_00: You do that.
SPEAKER_00: And later on, we think Paul said, now bring him to me.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because somebody worked with him.
SPEAKER_00: Somebody brought him back again.
SPEAKER_00: Somebody maybe matured him.
SPEAKER_00: Somebody worked with him.
SPEAKER_00: They weren't discarded.
SPEAKER_00: And may I say, God does not discard.
SPEAKER_00: God does not discard service, like you know.
SPEAKER_00: God works to rebuild.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because he tells us in the New Testament book, never seek to destroy a brother.
SPEAKER_00: Never seek the destruction of a sister.
SPEAKER_00: That's in the book.
SPEAKER_00: Never are we as humans to seek the destruction of a male or a female, brother or sister.
SPEAKER_00: Never.
SPEAKER_00: So if he tells us that, how much more would God?
SPEAKER_00: God likes to restore.
SPEAKER_00: God likes to renovate.
SPEAKER_00: God likes to mature.
SPEAKER_00: And God likes to put the person back into play again in their life.
SPEAKER_00: Whatever that is, I'm just saying that once in a while, God takes us on a journey.
SPEAKER_00: And the journey might be emotional, spiritual, maturing, but it seems like if we just stay with it long enough and be persevering and follow the cloud and follow the Holy Ghost, what we don't want to do is get out here and quit.
SPEAKER_00: You don't want to leave Bethel and get to Egypt and quit.
SPEAKER_00: You want to go back to Bethel.
SPEAKER_00: Bethel.
SPEAKER_00: You don't want to go on this journey from Sinai Oreb into Egypt and say, Well, I'm quitting then.
SPEAKER_00: No, no, no.
SPEAKER_00: God's going to lead you right back to that.
SPEAKER_00: He said, There's a token, it's coming back again.
SPEAKER_00: Brother, you don't want to get out here in Job's suffering and just and you know, want to and just commit suicide.
SPEAKER_00: What do you mean?
SPEAKER_00: Job wanted to give up the ghost, he wanted to be done.
SPEAKER_00: He was so grieved, so overwhelmed with grief, so much blaming himself for the death of his children, his business, and everything that he wanted to be done.
SPEAKER_00: He wanted to be finished.
SPEAKER_00: Read it.
SPEAKER_00: May I say to you, he said, he said that which was the greatest fear he had had come upon him.
SPEAKER_00: May I say to you, David went through a loop.
SPEAKER_00: How many people in the Bible went through this loop?
SPEAKER_00: Ladies, there's a woman named Naomi.
SPEAKER_00: Naomi left her city.
SPEAKER_00: Went out with her two sons and husband.
SPEAKER_00: The husband dies in that city.
SPEAKER_00: The two sons marry two women, and then the two sons die.
SPEAKER_00: Naomi says to both daughters in all, leave, go back to your cultures.
SPEAKER_00: Ruth stays with her, and they return back to Naomi City.
SPEAKER_00: And it looks devastating for Naomi.
SPEAKER_00: It looks like it's a done life.
SPEAKER_00: It looks like God's done with her.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, Naomi said, I went out, you know, uh pleasant, but I'm coming back.
SPEAKER_00: Don't don't call me, don't call me Naomi, call me Mara, because God has dealt very bitterly with me.
SPEAKER_00: And Naomi thinks there's nothing she can think about that will ever restore what she once had.
SPEAKER_00: But that same Moabite daughter-in-law, Ruth, Mary Boaz, has a child, and Naomi's has that child, and she's holding the lineage of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: What I'm saying is sometimes God's ways are amazing.
SPEAKER_00: Who would think Naomi would go out here to a country, her husband would die, then her two boys would marry, and then they would die, and then she would come back with a woman named Ruth, who's a Moabite, not even supposed to be in the congregation, but please look and she's a widow of a Jewish man.
SPEAKER_00: She's exempt.
SPEAKER_00: What do you mean she's exempt?
SPEAKER_00: A Moabite's not supposed to come back in the congregation, but she's the widow of a Jewish man.
SPEAKER_00: So when she comes back, she's allowed to go out into the fields and glean as a widow woman.
SPEAKER_00: But God does something better and says, Boaz, go along.
SPEAKER_00: That woman there, she's of your kinsman.
SPEAKER_00: Let her in the main harvest, let her glean behind the main harvest.
SPEAKER_00: That's mitigating circumstances for the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And when she comes back to Naomi and says, Look, Naomi goes, Where did you get all that?
SPEAKER_00: Widows don't glean that much.
SPEAKER_00: Who happened?
SPEAKER_00: What happened?
SPEAKER_00: And and Ruth says, A man named Boaz.
SPEAKER_00: And Naomi starts, woo, Boaz.
SPEAKER_00: I know Boaz.
SPEAKER_00: He's the owner of a field, and he's not married yet, and he's in line.
SPEAKER_00: And whatever he says for you to do, do it.
SPEAKER_00: Just do it.
SPEAKER_00: She says, Go back and be what he said to be.
SPEAKER_00: Don't ever leave his field.
SPEAKER_00: Be like one of his handmaidens.
SPEAKER_00: And then Naomi says, Now here's what I want you to do, Ruth.
SPEAKER_00: You go down and do exactly what I'm going to tell you to do.
SPEAKER_00: Naomi's a little bit of a matchmaker.
SPEAKER_00: A type of the Holy Ghost.
SPEAKER_00: Come on, is that right?
SPEAKER_00: Leading Ruth to marry Boaz.
SPEAKER_00: Boaz?
SPEAKER_00: Kind of a type of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Well then who's Ruth?
SPEAKER_00: Type of the church.
SPEAKER_00: Moabite.
SPEAKER_00: Gentile Jew.
SPEAKER_00: What do you mean Gentile Jew?
SPEAKER_00: Moabite, but married to a Jewish man.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know it's good.
SPEAKER_00: I'm just saying.
SPEAKER_00: God's ways are very unusual.
SPEAKER_00: If you're on the loop right now, I want to tell you, if you're on the loop, you won't know yet.
SPEAKER_00: You won't know yet.
SPEAKER_00: Whatever you do, don't quit.
SPEAKER_00: Don't quit.
SPEAKER_00: Don't miss the end of the loop.
SPEAKER_00: When he shows you what the what the meaning of it is.
SPEAKER_00: Don't quit.
SPEAKER_00: Don't get around loop quitters.
SPEAKER_00: Don't get around other people who've quit.
SPEAKER_00: Don't get around other people who are bitter.
SPEAKER_00: Don't get around other people who are victims, blaming everybody else.
SPEAKER_00: Stay walking with the Holy Ghost.
SPEAKER_00: Follow the cloud.
SPEAKER_00: Follow the pillar.
SPEAKER_00: Don't listen when you're following the cloud and the pillar to all the claiming, the the the complaining going on behind you.
SPEAKER_00: If Moses would have listened to that, he would have given up.
SPEAKER_00: He was focused on the cloud.
SPEAKER_00: And the token was, I'll bring you right back here again.
SPEAKER_00: But I'll bring you back different than you've ever been before.
SPEAKER_00: If you've never received Christ, today would be a good day.
SPEAKER_00: What do you mean?
SPEAKER_00: You may have heard about Jesus Christ somewhere a long time ago.
SPEAKER_00: Listen to me.
SPEAKER_00: But maybe God looped you back into church today to say, now it's time to get saved.
SPEAKER_00: Now is the day of your salvation.
SPEAKER_00: If you've been away for a while, welcome back.
SPEAKER_00: If you're in a loop and you say, I've been walking with the Lord the whole time, but God's been bringing me through something perfect, let's see what the end result of that is and what God can do and accomplish.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you for listening to this message by Pastor Doug Fisher of Lighthouse Baptist Church in Lemon Grove, California.
SPEAKER_01: To learn more about Lighthouse Baptist Church, visit our website at www.lighthousebaptist.com or call 619 461 5561.