Beth Moore - Raise The Roof - Part 4
We have chronic resistance to dependency on God. We, honestly, y'all, we want him to rescue us, and then we want him to leave us alone. Come in, we want him to be, you know, the Emergency Broadcast System. We want him to be the EMT. We want him to come in the ambulance and get us in an emergency, but we don't want him to mess with us beyond that because we have a chronic resistance to dependency on God, but here's the joke, and I say this, listen, I'm not talkin' down to you. I'm telling you, I have lived out every bit of this lie. What I'm about to tell you, I know by heart in shocking ways that the joke here is that there really is no such thing as human complete independence. We're acting like, "I don't wanna be dependent upon God because I want to be independent". Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, all we're doin' is changin' one dependency for another.
I can tell you right now, and you can take this to the bank, that if you are underestimating God, you are overestimating something else, or you are overestimating someone else. It happens every single time because it will be one or the other. Oh, we are dependent on something. We can either be dependent entirely upon God and be free, or we can be codependent and caught up in bondage. That's how this goes down because I can either be dependent upon God, or I can be dependent upon all my substance abuse. Am I talkin' to anybody in the house today? 'Cause we're talkin' about real things today. Or I can be dependent upon the numbing of pornography, or I can be dependent upon the numbing of constant activity and busyness and trying to control and bitterness and anger and unforgiveness.
Oh, do not tell me we are not dependent upon something. We're just choosing codependency over divine dependency, and there is a biblical name for that, and it has been in play for thousands of years, and that is idolatry. It's all in the world, it is. The next one is this: our love affair with sophistication. Don't think we don't have it. We just want, we want to look great at this. We just really do. Never mind that by the time Paul went home, he was scarred from head to toe. Now, I'm not thinkin' we just go lend ourselves to a good beating. I'm not lookin' for that either. I don't like pain any more than you do, but I'm saying that I'm not sure that the life of fiery faith is pretty, but, man, we're gon' try to make it so. And we are eaten up with lookin' sophisticated, just eaten up with it, eaten up.
Let me tell ya somethin', revival is messy. If any church is not willing to get messy, they will not have revival because, let me tell you, it's people repentin' all over the place. It's people that, like, might holler out in the middle of the service, you're goin' like, "Don't you know how to have church"? We'll, no, because they're lost and finally comin' in the church building. Anybody know what I'm talkin' about? But, no, "Everybody behave, everybody behave". We're not havin' revival here, by golly. Anybody know what I'm sayin'? What are we doin'? What are we doin'? "We wouldn't want everybody laid out on the floor or in repentance, I mean, what a mess". That's what you call "revival". That's what you call "awakening". We have sophisticated our way out of an awakening, and it's just pride.
Listen, it's hard to be cool and Christlike. It just, it just is. When we really start bein' set free, one of the first casualties of true liberty is coolness. It's just like somebody's gon' think you're a fool. Somebody's gon' think you're a fool. The last one, I know you're anxious for me to get through with this, and understand, is a pure lack of prayer. It's just a lack of prayer, just a lack of prayer. Just a lack of prayer. I think that the reason why we lack prayer in our lives is because we don't really believe what it is. In John chapter 11, when Jesus was about to raise Lazarus from the dead, he said the most interesting thing in prayer. He said, "Father, I know that you always hear me, but for these who are standing close by", Jesus talked to him like he knew he was heard 'cause he knew he was heard, and that's the thing that, you know, when, in our quiet place, when we're prayin', we're hoping we are.
You know, we are. We're not realizing, listen to me, listen to me. So, say, you get up in the mornin', and house is dark. You're tired, you've only had about five hours sleep, so it's decidin', like, "Am I gonna get up, or am I not"? But you're thinkin', "You know, I'm really committed to spendin' this time with the Lord before the sun rises. Get up, sleepy". Maybe that your sink is still filled with dishes from the night before. There's all manner of dirty clothes piled up, and the clean clothes are up on your kitchen counter in a heap, in a heap, and half the socks are there, and half have gone to be with Jesus and... The black hole in every dryer, in every dryer, and there's just all this goin' on and all these problems, all this stuff, all this stuff, all this stuff, and you don't look at social media.
You, just, you get your Bible out, and you do whatever, maybe your Bible-readin' that day, and you just begin to pray, "Lord, this is what your Word says, and, man, I just, I just give myself to you today and I just pour out my confessions to you. So-and-so hurt my feelings, and man, I'm mad, and I need you to help me, and my heart feels cold toward my husband, and I hate goin' to work. And, Lord, that kid that's mean to my eight-year-old, I hate that kid. I've never hated a kid in my life, Lord, but I hate that kid, and I just, I just give this all to you 'cause I don't know what to do with it, and all this, I just can't hardly even say this 'cause it's so meaningful to me".
You have no idea that in the unseen realm that is a greater reality than this one, there's a cloudy pillar of the very presence of God hangin' on your head. What would happen if you're, like, sittin' there at your table, and Jesus just shows up right there, just shows up and goes, "Go ahead, go ahead". You're just like... like, he's got his crowns goin' and all this stuff goin'. What would you say to him? Y'all, this is, we're talkin' to God, who said, "Let there be light," and there was. Prayer is talking to God. I mean, it's like no, no interruption in it. I mean, it's like straight-on. People will tell me so often, "I feel like you have a straight pipeline to God," and I'll say every time to them, "So do you. Do you know Jesus? Because, if you know Jesus, you got it too, you got it too. You're talking to the King of all kings". "You know, but he doesn't talk back".
What? Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. What do you think this is? This is dialogue right here. He speaks to me. I'm readin' in Ezekiel chapter 8, goin', "Lord, what on earth is that"? 'Cause he's speakin' to me here, and I'm speakin' back, "Lord, I think that's us right now. I think that's us". I'm seein' something else in the Psalms, goin', "Lord, I feel exactly that way. My heart's just been at a state of lament lately". I'm lookin' at somethin' over there in the epistles that talks about the kind of strength we can have, and "Lord, I want that for my family". We're just talkin', we're just talkin', we're just talkin'. He's talkin' to us through his Word. We're talkin' back. Prayer, prayer, prayer. Prayerless life is a powerless life every single time, every single time, and the reason why we're not all hyped-up about prayer is because we don't really believe he is engaging, and he is.
And here's the thing, here's the flip side to every bit of that bad news, here's the good news, this is the gospel, every bit of that can change, every bit of that can change, and it starts with the individual. I wonder today, I wonder today, who has the guts and humility to simply repent of sins all the way to the highest part of this sanctuary? I just wonder, who, today, would just go like, "What am I holdin' back for? I've been under such a heavy burden of sin, of hate, of bitterness, of prejudice. I've gotten so mean-spirited". What do we have to lose except all that heaviness of sin? "God, we just, we just repent of my carnality, of my corruption. I just repent. Lord, I repent of my chronic resistance to being dependent on you. You're the best thing that ever happened to me. Lord, I repent of thinkin' I need to be", "cheese," "cheese".
I can't be filled with the Spirit and be all sophisticated all the time. "God, light my heart on fire for prayer". Back in Ephesians, I wanna show you something in Ephesians 3:20. This gets me over and over. I cannot tell you. There's never a week, there may not be more than three or four days that go by without me thinking about this and saying something to God about it or meditating on it in some way, Ephesians 3. You know those verses that talk about him doing more than we could ask or think, remember that? 'Cause we love that, and we should love it. We pray that, and we should pray it, but I want you to see what the context of it is because it is immensely important, the context of it.
Look with me where it says, in verse 20, so Ephesians 3, verse 20, "Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever, amen". All right, what is the context of "he will do more than we ask or think, according to the power within us"? This is the best news. Sometimes we'll think, "No, that's not the funnest news," 'cause we want him to do more than we ask or think in circumstances. And he can do that. He does it all the time.
We see him do it all the time, but he said, "You know what, I very purposely inspired those words in exactly the order that I meant to because I want you to know, Beth, I want you to know, child of God, I want you to know, Melinda, I want you to know, Karen, I want you to know, Kimberly, I want you to know, Ellen, I want you to know, Patricia, I want you to know, Becky, I want you to know, Bailey, I want every one of you to know that the power I most want to display that is 'far beyond anything you could ask or think' is actually in your person. The biggest miracle that impacts the world for the gospel of Christ is a transformed, power-filled, human, flesh-and-blood life". That's what testifies. That's what testifies. That's what he wants to do in you.
Listen, we are sittin' so pretty for revival 'cause that's what happens when our eyes get open to something that we didn't even wanna see. God's so merciful to us. He's settin' us up to refine us and to purify us. We're thinkin', and I go, "Well, it sounds like, to me, I'm gonna have to be all-consumed with him". Well, you know, yeah, basically, but right now, you know, we're consumed with all our addictions, consumed with our insecurity. Like, are you tellin' me you're not consumed by somethin' else? What else is consuming you? Because he is the only fire that does not burn up what's containing it.
Listen to me, this is what happens in Exodus chapter 3. Why was it Moses went over to look at the burning bush? Because it was not burning up the bush that it was in. Every other thing that consumes us will ultimately eat us alive. This is the fire that makes us instead of breaks us. We have what it takes to live in victory. I have a bee box at home, a honey bee box. I'm just beside myself over it. I've had it about a year. A friend of mine set it up, that's a beekeeper, and I can't, I mean, I'm obsessed with it. I'm totally obsessed with it, and, I mean, she said, "Beth, you have such a good queen". I was like, "Yes, I have such a good queen". And she said, I mean, she said, "You are collecting more than me". She just keeps settin' another compartment on top of it, and so, the other day, we walked up pretty close to it so that we could get a picture of it.
Well, I got a bee, a honey bee, stuck in the top of my hair, and it just would not come out. It wanted out. It wanted out so badly. It was just like, "Buzzzzz," and it was buzzin', but it just could not get out of my hair, and I was trying to get it out, and I was just doing all of this, and she was doing it too, and it stung me, like, over and over and over. I had, like, a wasp, really, but, like, a bee, but when I was tellin' my staff about it, they looked at me, I mean, they looked at me like, "You are the craziest person that we have ever known". Yeah, because I can't even tell you how many snakes I've killed with a stick. Can't even tell you. I mean, I see a poisonous snake, it's like, "Get the snake stick and kill the thing".
I'll never forget when I asked Keith, "Come, kill the snake," when we moved out to the country. "Come, kill the snake. It's right in our yard. It's a coral snake, and it's dangerous," and he was like, "You go kill it". He said, "You're gon' have to learn how to kill a snake". Well, I can kill a snake. 'Cause they wanna know, "Why in the world would you be stung and go back to that bee house"? 'Cause I like bees. The fact of it is we can do all the things through Christ who strengthens us. I want you to take down two quick, these are just real practical things, a few practical, everyday aspects of divine power. Just, these aren't catchalls. These are just a couple of things, but they meant a lot to me.
Two things I want you to take down: the same power that opened the grave can shut the mouth. And this is no small thing. Anybody in the room, besides me, have a little trouble shuttin' your mouth? I could just go, "Blomb," I mean, and, like, you have a comeback, and it's like everything you can do not to do, like, you know the perfect thing to say because you already argued. You had this whole argument in your head at home before you ever came to work. You've already practiced your lines, and so you're just ready to go. And so, I mean, the psalmist says in Psalm 139, "You know every word before it is ever on my tongue". And let me tell you, there is power, look, in learning when to go... God is going, "I'm hearing this... and what I want you to hear is this", because, let me tell ya, you wanna know about relationships we put in the grave? How many of them have to do with words that came out of somebody's mouth?
And those relationships are just basically dead and buried. The mouth. Learn when to shut it. I got to learn when to shut it. I got to, that sacred second when it's right on the tip of our tongue, and the Holy Spirit within us goes, "Don't". Sometimes it's not even real, it's just like this one syllable with no consonant, "Aaaa, don't do it. Don't you do it. Don't you do it". I'll be all repentin' for somethin' I said, and I'll feel like the Holy Spirit's goin' like, "Did I tell you not to say that"? And that's something about being in a relationship with God. He's always right, so it's very frustrating. It's very frustrating. The same power that opened the grave can open the mouth.
If you want to live a power-filled life in Christ, if Christ is in you, if the Spirit of Christ is in you, if you were in him and the Spirit of Christ is in you, and you want to live a power-filled life, a very big part of it is learning how to use your mouth. Use your mouth. And by this, I mean, you're gonna go to scriptures, and you're gonna make confessions of faith from those scriptures. There are lots of places we could do it, but one in particular, let me just turn to one for an example because it's a well-known one. Romans chapter 8 is really well known. We can say that, if God is, "You know what, Lord, if you are for me, who can be against me? You know what, Lord, you're gonna work everything together for good for me because I do love you, and I am called according to your purpose. Lord, I am thankful that nothing, absolutely nothing can separate me from your love, absolutely nothing, not death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, absolutely nothing in the future, nothing in the past, nothing can do it," that we're making confession.
This is how we live on the CPR of God. We breathe in his Word, and we breathe it out as our confession. We breathe it in as we read it. This is the breath of God on the page. I'm gonna breathe it in. I breathe it in by my belief. I breathe it out by making confession of it. And so that our prayer time, it's one reason why I have pages of scriptures that I've turned into prayer for the children in my family, so my grandchildren and my own children, because I believe there's power in the Word and that, when I put prayer and the Word together, things happen. And so I'll just, like, I say 'em aloud. I never just read 'em silently. And it's still effective if you read 'em silently, but there's nothing like... remember, Satan cannot read your mind. You are sealed. You are sealed. Once the Holy Spirit is in us, we are sealed. Nothing's getting in, and the Holy Spirit is not getting out.
If we wanna make some proclamations that we mean business, it better be out loud. It better be out loud. Just say the Word. Say, "You have pulled me out of the pit". "You delivered me because you delighted in me," Psalm chapter 18, says. Use your mouth, use your mouth, use your mouth. Get to where you know when you're under torment of the evil one, when you can say out loud, "Oh, I don't think so. Oh, I don't think so. You know, I don't think I'm going to give way to fear today because, you know what, God? You did not give me the spirit of fear. This is of the devil. This is of my own flesh. I reject it because you have given me the spirit of power and love and self-control". Anybody know what I'm talkin' about?
Bible full of confessions. Bible full of 'em. Get 'em. Speak 'em. Get on your feet. Scare the dogs under the bed. And we do it all by the name of Jesus. Don't you dare forget it because it's the only name. It's all that's doing it, and you use those words, "In the name of Jesus Christ," "By the name of Jesus," "Through the name of Jesus," "For the name of Jesus". I've studied the book of Acts, and it says it over and over and over again. It's one reason they had such power. They literally lived by the very name of Jesus Christ. That is gonna be our power.
I wanna show y'all a picture. This is my little Annabeth. This is my namesake. This is mini me. Oh, would you just look at that leap? Did you know that that leap was practiced over and over again in my house? I have kind of a long den. We did one big family room, the kitchen's in and everything else, just so we could have the crowd of people from our family in there all the time, and I just can't tell you, and when she first started doing it, she first started trying to leap when she was about, I guess about seven, they were already have them try to leap, and, I mean, it's just like this, just like this, and they got a little, and then we talked about how we could strengthen that muscle in our right leg, strengthen that where we'd come fly up and where that back one would fly back. We just kept at it and kept at it and kept at it and kept at it and kept at it. She practiced it at home over and over again. She practiced it in dance over and over again because the kid is an athlete.
When I rub her little feet, sometimes she'll be at my house, and, you know, she just dances multiple days a week, and I'll rub her little feet, and her feet have muscles in them in places that our normal feet don't even have. It's just the craziest thing. Here's what I wanna tell you is that you practice and I practice our faith. There is nothing that's going to mean any more to us when we get home than this, and by "home," I mean home with Jesus. That we practiced our faith, that we believe him. It takes practice. In other words, the next thing that comes up, you think, "Okay, how do I practice my faith right here? What does this look like in practicing my faith right here? What would I do? What would Paul do? What would Peter do? What would Mary Magdalene do right here? What would Lydia have done in Acts chapter 16? What would these people have done? What would they have done? Because this is where I practice, I gotta practice it. Okay, well, what is it I'm supposed to do? All right, what does his Word say"?
You understand what I'm saying? We practice it over and over and over, and we just keep leap, leapin', and our leaps like this... We just keep leapin'. We just keep leapin'. We keep leapin', we keep buildin' up that muscle, building up that muscle, buildin' up that muscle, and, I mean, one day, the Lord's just up there, and he just goes... "Look at that leap," because we practiced over and over again, and it may be that the next leap, we tumble all over the place, but we get back up, and we get at it again, and we walk it out, and the enemy knocks us down, and we get back up again, and we just brush our knees off and let God doctor our bloody elbows, and we just get back to it again because Jesus is worthy. He's worthy. He's worthy.