Enough is Enough - Mark Batterson

welcome to all eight of our campuses we were supposed to end a series last weekend titled mountains move but I wanted to wear this shirt one more time there's no other context in which I can really wear it because my name is not will actually I want to share a testimony with you a testimony that I believe has been 40 years in the making and it would be a sin of omission for me not to share it so I'm excited about this weekend but I want to tell you what's happened in my life I'm a little bit at a loss for words which is saying something for a preacher so I'm excited about where God's going to take us this weekend let me ask you a question and the question is this what's your earliest memory that's the question that the famed psychologist Alfred Adler would ask every patient he counseled that their very first counseling session aler would listen as they shared their earliest memory and his response would be the same with every single client every single time after they shared their earliest memory Alfred Adler would say and so life is Adler believed that our earliest memories leave a unique and powerful imprint on the soul they create a baseline a trend line in our lives for better for worse those early memories become emotional and mental default settings if you will so let me share three of my earliest memories I was 5 years old I was at my grandparents home in Fridley Minnesota they lived on the Mississippi River and loved my grandparents and had a blast at their house they only had one rule and the rule was this my grandfather was a professor at the University of Minnesota and one of his prized possessions was a fossil collection and so the rule was do not play with grandpa's fossils those fossils were the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and you can call me Adam because I remember picking it up with my five-year-old hands and I remember the fossil falling out of my hands I remember it cracking on the ground and as it did my heart may as well cracked into my grandfather walked into the room and he quickly assessed the situation he didn't scold me he didn't spank me what he did I will remember for the rest of my life he picked me up and held me close didn't say a word just gave me a bear hug it was my first taste of grace it was the first time I experienced an incarnation of grace that because I was scared I knew what I did was wrong but in that moment that's my first definition of grace listen we have a core value as a church love people when they least expect it at least deserve it you know what it traces back to that one incident to that one memory and so life is let me go back a little further when I was four years old a neighbor friend rode his bike over to my house and made a little pronouncement now I had a habit of borrowing his bike whenever I wanted to and so evidently he got tired of it he came down and said you can't ride my bike any longer because my dad took off the training wheels and then he biked back to his house five doors down well I marched down to his house I got on his bike and I rode his bike back to my house without training wheels and I kicked the kickstand down in our driveway because I want to tell you something if you want to get me to do something don't tell me to do it tell me it can't be done tell me it can't be done I need a challenge I needed a challenge since I was four years and so life is but neither of those are my earliest memory my earliest memory if I was sitting down with Adler would be this I was three years old and I woke up in the middle of the night and I couldn't breathe and that sensation for a three-year-old scary experience I walked into my parents room I woke them up and my dad picked me up carried me out to the car we drove to the hospital where I got a shot of epinephrine and as that adrenaline began to flood my bloodstream my lungs began to open back up and I could breathe again and we went back home and I went back to sleep that routine was repeated night after night week after week until finally we went and saw the doctor the doctor diagnosed me with asthma and gave me an inhaler and that inhaler became my best friend for the next 40 years uh every single day I would take a puff of that inhaler multiple times never went anywhere without it uh you know I was an athlete I played I played basketball in high school in college everywhere I played there would be an inhaler in my sock um I would exercise with it I would sleep with it right next to my bedside to hardly any nights I wouldn't wake up and have to take a puff I'd swim with it you name I don't leave home without it I never go anywhere without my inhaler ever never that's my earliest memory and so life is so let me ask you a question what's your earliest memory I want you to hold that thought and I want you to turn in your Bible to Deuteronomy chapter one verse six I'm going to invite all of our campuses to stand as I read God's Word Deuteronomy chapter one six and and we'll put it up on the screen so you can follow along it's a short verse short and sweet here it is I think it's a good ending note for this mountain's move series says you have stayed at this mountain long enough break camp and advance into the hill country of the amorite s-- won't you turn to your neighbor and say enough is enough all right that's the title of the message and you can go ahead and grab a seat if you're taking notes you can jot this down I think it's a framing thought it is hard to imagine what you cannot remember it is hard to imagine what you cannot remember let me explain what I mean if you grew up without a father or if you grew up with an abusive father it's very hard for you imagine a loving Heavenly Father because you don't have a memory of a moment with an earthly father to give you a benchmark a baseline a trendline in your life um because you don't have a memory it's a little bit harder to imagine I had a dad who would take me to the hospital you know night after night after night he'd do it patiently and lovingly and willingly and you know what I haven't really thought about it before this weekend but I think that memory of my dad taking me the hospital it gives me it helps me imagine a heavenly father who is an ever-present help in time of need because that's what I had it's hard to imagine what you cannot remember now what does that have to do with deuteronomy 1:6 I think it has everything to do with it what was the earliest memory of the Israelites their earliest memory their only memory was slavery this is all they had known their entire lives it's all they had known for ten generations it was their baseline it was their trendline it was their default setting and so life is it was hard for them to imagine freedom what is that it was hard for them to imagine a promised land a destiny beyond slavery it was hard for them to imagine victory when you have a four hundred year losing streak it tends to create a defeatist mentality slavery was her status quo slavery was their default setting their memory was their mountain and I think that's true for many of us a painful memory shameful memory memory of a mistake made and the enemy starts playing games with us and God has forgiven it and God doesn't just forgive God forgets but the enemy reminds us over and over and over and so my earliest memory is an asthma attack it's all I can remember and so it's very very hard for me to imagine anything else but something happened seven weeks ago I've been waiting to tell you kicked off the series with the challenge the challenge was this what's the bravest prayer you can pray now instead of me rehashing it I'll be wearing the same shirt let me just go back I want to just show you two minutes from that message I'm going to come back tell you what happened so what is the hardest thing that you could believe God for during this series what is the bravest prayer that you could pray over the next seven weeks all I know is that Joshua asked the son to stand still and then Elijah Acin iron axe head float oh and then Jesus asked his father to raise a man who had been dead for four days you can ask God to move that mountain let me be very transparent you said all right Pastor Mark and what is it for you what is that mighty mountain I've had asthma since that was three years old I've been hospitalized more weeks than you can imagine I've taken more pus of an inhaler than anyone could possibly count it's frustrating I prayed every prayer and I've tried everything but I want you to know I'm going to keep speaking to that mountain because I believe in a God who is able to heal now in the meantime I'm able to tell you that I wouldn't be Who I am or where I am without that thorn in the flesh God has used it and redeemed it in my life there are certain things about my personality or about my character that I don't think I could have learned any other way and so it's crazy in one regard I'm grateful and I know that someday I'm going to go jogging on streets at Gold and I will not grow weary and it won't be my lungs that hold me back from what it is that I'm trying to do so two weeks ago at our prayer night I just felt like I issued that challenge what's the bravest prayer that you could pray so I asked some people to pray for me and say would you pray again that the Lord would touch my lungs and heal my asthma now I want you to know that in the last couple of weeks I've had to take my inhaler you need to know that but I also want you to know that I went four days without taking my inhaler it's been years and years and years that I went four days and then I hiked Cadillac Mountain without a single puff of my inhaler up in Acadia National Park and so I'm not gonna I'm not going to wait for a hundred percent healing I'm going to celebrate the improvement I'm going to celebrate when I discern that God's moving I'm not going to despise the day of small beginnings I'm going to celebrate the little things and I'm going to believe God for complete healing because I know that he's able and that may seem unreasonable to some people so be it and this is where a sermon becomes a testimony something happened that weekend it was unique after I had preached that message at a few different campuses one person came up to me and said it was their first time at NCC but it said the night before they'd had a dream and in that dream I they were praying for someone who couldn't breathe with someone at lung issues and and in their dream kind of crazy but they were laying hands on that person and praying in tongues and and they said I just came to church this church this morning and I figure may not be a coincidence what would you think about me praying for you and I thought well we've never tried that before let's give it a go and and so we did what that person had dreamed and and then someone else came up to me and said that God had given them a picture and that in that picture there was a snake wrapped around my neck now I almost hesitate sharing that because that sounds very strange almost a little scary but I can't think of a better description of what I felt like my entire life something has constricted my breathing my entire life and they just issued a challenge and said you need to take an axe to the root of whatever it is that's it's this issue and so long story short I think as I preached that weekend I think I actually believed what I preached and I think I came to a point where I said enough is enough I've stayed at this mountain long enough now here's the thing you don't get to tell God when and where and how the miracle happens but there are moments where you can step out in faith and believe God again know why so many times it seems like that prayer for healing is gone unanswered but a switch flip 50 days ago I want you to know I haven't taken my inhaler between then and now that's 50 days if you add up all the days over 40 years that I haven't taken a puff of my inhaler I it wouldn't add up to 50 I want to be very careful this weekend because I don't have the emotional capacity or the verbal ability to put in words because it's so unbelievable and so unexplainable to me but that's what a miracle is right and so here's what I want to do I want to try to carefully share this testimony and I want to share a biblical thought at the end and just believe that somehow God might get us where he wants us to go oswald chambers said let god be as original with others as he was with you and when i read the gospels I don't see miracles happening the same way every time they happen in different ways in crazy ways and I think the reason is because God knew that we would try to reduce it down to a formula and it's not a formula that results in healing and it's certainly not any combination of words formulated into the right prayer that becomes some kind of abracadabra come on I know it's about our heart it's about being in a posture of humility it's about consecrating ourselves to God it's not about telling God how to do what to do when to do what he does it's just about letting God do something in your life but I think there's a moment where enough is enough and so I share that because I want to be very careful in the way that I share this testimony couple of weeks ago I took a trip up to New York City with our campus pastors for a conference and I didn't take it inhaler with me and you've got to understand I've never in 40-plus years gone anywhere without my inhaler ever anywhere again so I'm a bedside table I've one in the car have one in the backpack have one at the office several at home one of my pocket um it was scary but I felt like it was a step of faith that I needed to take now this is where I want to be careful I believe that medicine is a miracle I'm so grateful for doctors my life has been saved so many times from emergency surgery for ruptured intestines to a code blue in the hospital when I was 13 to all of those times when I have an asthma attack I wouldn't make it without an inhaler or shot of epinephrine so I'm not suggesting that you go off your meds are you hearing me but I felt like God it said you you stated this mountain long enough it's time to step out in faith so here's what I did I think you got to pray like it depends on God but I would also suggest that you have to work like it depends on you so when God healed my asthma I didn't immediately start smoking I just think that that would be a little at odds with with maybe God's game plan right there for my lungs and so what I did is I set up an appointment with my doctor jesus said go and show yourself to the priest so I went and saw my doctor and I asked him if we could do a pulmonary function test and got my results on day 23 and I just want to be absolutely as transparent as I can be I was a little discouraged when I got those results because it said a low level of bronchospasm or in other words an underlying tendency towards asthma and at first I was discouraged for a couple of minutes and I thought to myself wait but that's not asthma that's an underlying tendency towards asthma are you kidding me that's a long ways from where I was it also was only 2.2 percentage points away from no tendency okay and it said no restrictive lung disease based on lung volumes and the diffusion capacity within my lungs is within a normal range and so I I said to the doctor can we schedule another pulmonary function test in three months and I can't wait I think that only God can deliver you from certain things but deliverance has to be coupled with due diligence deliverance has to be coupled with disciplines God can do a miracle in your life like the in the Gospels where the man kind of cleans out the house but then if you don't put it in order the way you break a bad habit is you establish a good habit you've got to replace something in your life and so um I felt like all right let's go to work on this thing and so I started reading books on breathing and I realized that I had breathed the wrong way my entire life there is a wrong way to breathe um I mean how many of you know you oughtta be breathing through your nose let me see your hands how many you know this and then how many of you don't let me see your hands just be honest because I didn't thank you for your honesty um by the way Genesis 2:7 it's no coincidence that God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and I won't go into I won't get into nitric oxide I won't get into the over-breathing part of breathing through your mouth but I realized that I had been doing this wrong my entire life so I've been doing breathing exercises if you pass me on the streets of Capitol Hill as I'm walking to the office you might see me kind of gasping for breath because I'm doing breathing exercises everywhere I go I'm seeing how many paces I can hold my breath I'm doing breathing exercises in the morning when I'm watching TV not doing anything else let's see how long I can hold my breath and then we're gonna have a contest you and me we're going to have a contest I started researching different diets and supplements because what I realized is that because this memory was so old it had become an assumption in my life and I had become I I felt like there was nothing I could do about it and I began to realize that like honestly I don't really watch what I eat like I could or should and I think much of what I eat causes some chronic inflammation which is part of the undercurrent of what causes asthma so I thought I'm gonna I'm going to do some diet stuff I'm going to do some supplement stuff and I want to be careful here on you know no supplement can compensate for bad diet okay but listen creation is pretty amazing and there are some things that with some amazing properties some of which I don't think you should take or smoke but but they have amazing properties some of them healing properties some of them anti-inflammatories that are just listen it's just and so I just here's here's what I decided I'm going to do anything and everything that is legal and biblical because I'm not tolerating it anymore I'm not going to submit to it and if I go down I'm going to go down swinging not going to take it sitting down and again this came out of that message because I just believe what I preach you know revelation 2:20 nevertheless I have this against you you've tolerated this woman Jezebel to send a toleration what are you tolerating this robbing God of his glory what are you tolerating that is shortchanging the price that Jesus paid on the cross what are you tolerating that's less than God's good pleasing and perfect will what are you tolerating that's acceptable but it's not beneficial and you know it come on we got to stop tolerating those things and then the last thing I did was go out and get a trainer because you know what I found the better cardiovascular shape I'm in the happier my lungs are and so I'm going to pray like it depends on God I believe God healed me God delivered me but I'm going to back it up with some discipline I'm gonna work like it depends on me and so here we are I went back and looked at my journal and it's kind of funny over the last 50 days they keep a gratitude journal I number him and not every day Wow I think I think it really up my total over the last 50 days because like every day was like day six no inhaler day 12 no inhaler day 15 no inhaler um you know to me it's 365 gratitudes a year alright you've stated this mountain long enough then it says something interesting it says and let me get back into the text right here and we'll kind of bring this in for some kind of landing I don't even know where we're going to land might be a mergency landing I don't know you say to this mountain long enough but it's the next two words that are critical break camp break camp now seems like a a simple command but it's easier said than done and this is where I want to get in your business a little bit on let me kind of come at it from a different angle how many of you have ever lost your salvation on the way to church let me see your hands now let me see your hands how many of you you put your marriage in jeopardy I almost got divorced on the way to church you see your hands and then how many of you almost put your kids up for adoption on the way to church I don't know what it is it seems like the enemy's like number one tactic is people going to church he just gets in our business and you know what I found it's hard to get our family of five anywhere anytime for anything and then I think about when we had babies are you kidding me like good luck you're never going to be on time for anything you go the bathroom there's a 50% chance they're going to be swimming in the toilet it is controlled chaos like it's ridiculous trying to get myself from here to there it's not harder with with my wife and I and then family of five here's my point try millions of people camped at Mount Sinai and God says break camp and advance into the hill country of the am rights they had babies there was no command against we'll go look it in the wilderness they had babies they had flocks and herds and animals they rode donkeys there was no air conditioning how was anybody in a decent mood thousands of years ago oh and then there's the tabernacle check this out the Levites were responsible for moving the tabernacle there were there were three clans and if you add it up based on the census in numbers eight thousand five hundred and eighty tabernacle movers just to move the tabernacle what I'm saying is I bet they were like are you sure we can't just stay here because it'd be a lot easier breaking camp is a big deal but if you keep doing what you've always done you're going to keep getting what you've always gotten if you want God to do something new you can't keep doing this you cannot stay camped out at that Mount you can't keep tolerating it yeah stop tolerating you guys start dominating that's more than just a play on words that's God's original Commission to you Genesis 1:28 says God blessed them and said be fruitful and multiply and increase in number and subdue the earth ah that words to do I like it it's the Hebrew word kibosh it's like a Batman fight word BAM wham kibosh it's a submission move in martial arts it means to conquer to thoroughly conquer you got to take dominion over your attitude I know you do you got to quit complaining you got to quit making excuses quit playing the victim card you stated this mountain long enough you got to take dominion over your thoughts take every thought captive and make it obedient to Christ is that easy no is there another option no not biblically you got to take Dominion you got to take dominion over your body listen Paul is not exactly an Olympic athlete okay and that probably 100-pound weakling is my guess but I loved his description first Corinthians 9:27 I trained my body like an athlete the King James says I bring it into subjection don't tolerate it don't tolerate it listen take dominion over it some of you your marriage you need to take Dominion starts with just being I taking taking some action you know I think a lot of people think like all men if I go and see a counselor like it's a sign of weakness no no no no it's a sign of strength very few people are strong enough have enough courage to actually say hey I got an issue that maybe I need someone else to help me with I'm gonna go see a counselor you stayed at the mountain long enough how is this working for you how's it working for you if it's not working that it may be time to break camp and that's what I want to challenge you to do we close with the story in 2007 JK Rowling was struggling to complete the last book in the Harry Potter series the Deathly Hallows she was feeling a tense pressure one day she said as she was at her home office in Edinburgh she said as I was finishing Deathly Hollows there came a day when the window cleaner came the kids were at home the dogs were barking and so she couldn't finish because she couldn't focus so she checked into the Balmoral Hotel and heart of Edinburgh and she didn't check out until she finished the manuscript now Georgetown professor Cal Newport wrote a great book deep work and in that book he writes about this he says Rowling's decision to check into a luxurious hotel suite near Edinburgh Castle is an example of a curious but effective strategy in the world of deep work the grand gesture the grand gesture I Cal didn't come up with it JK Rowling certainly didn't either the Bible is filled with grand gestures right I would say the building in ark Noah grand gesture confronting Pharaoh let my people go grand gesture how about the priest stepping into the Jordan River before God parts or what about the Israelites circling Jericho for seven days how about Elijah burning his ploughing equipment what about the prophet Elijah lying on his left side for three hundred ninety days what about the wise men following a star what about Andrew dropping his net Peter getting out of the boat in the middle of the Sea of Galilee and I would say that Jesus hang on Roman cross it's a grand gesture I think there comes a moment where enough is enough we're gonna break camp we're gonna advance into the hill country now let me just be point-blank don't do something dumb there's dumb faith there's stuff you can do is just dumb let's not do that what I'm talking about is a prayerful approach I'm talking about getting a word from God and when you get that word you act on it it's time to take that step it's time to make a move started this series talking about Zakaria speaking to the mountain and I wonder if that's what was going through Jesus mind as we look at this last verse Matthew 21 18 says early in the morning as he was on his way back to the city he was hungry seeing a fig tree by the road he went up to it but found nothing on it except leaves then he said to it where were they he was talking to a tree yep directly addressed the tree and he said to it may you never bear fruit again and immediately the tree withered amazing miracle one of my favorites on curses a barren fig tree you know most of the miracles bring things back to life this one does the exact opposite now one of my mantras is thou shalt curse barren fig trees what I mean is what's not producing fruit in your life where are you wasting time talent and treasure that's another sermon for another day but at some point you gotta curse the barren fig tree you got to speak to that part of your life and this isn't the only instance he spoke to wind and waves right middle of a storm peace be still and he rebukes the wind and the waves and the storm goes away remember Peters mother-in-law he rebuked a fever he spoke to it and rebuked it and then he takes it one step further in this passage he said I tell you the truth if you have faith and do not doubt not only can you do what was done to the fig tree but you can also say to this mountain go throw yourself into the sea and it will be done who speaks to inanimate objects maybe the one who created them the one who has authority over them again if you've only been here one or two or seven weeks I'm more concerned about this message that you don't take it in a full context if you've been around here I think you know my heart and you know that I'm getting in your business a little bit this weekend because this is our last shot at this weekend and I fade this on fire and I think I have enough faith to believe that God can move the mountain in your life I just don't want you to keep tolerating it but I also want to be careful to say you can't just go around and rebuke this and rebuke that and I can imagine everybody going money rebuke their boss they don't like right like that's not what we're talking about um come on um no this is not mind over matter it's not a Jedi mind trick its authority over reality is what it is the authority of God over reality has got to pass a tupola litmus test got to be in the will of God and for the glory of God and again I can't tell you when or where how but I do know this God won't answer 100% of the prayers you don't pray and the mountains you don't speak to they're gonna stay right there and so there comes a moment I think this is the moment I hit seven weeks ago go ahead and talk to God about your mountain but then at some point you got to flip the script and you guys start talking to your mountain not your God who is able to do immeasurably more than all we can ask or imagine according to his power that's at work within us you stated this mountain long enough break camp advance into the destiny that God has for you let's pray father help this word take root and bear fruit in our hearts Lord I know it's not my words it's the Holy Spirit somewhere between my lips and people's hearts God I believe that some people there there's been a faith that is risen within them this weekend that during this series they have believed it and maybe like me it's an early memory something that just is hard to imagine but God I believe that you're able and I pray that you'd give us the courage to ask to believe one more time for that miracle in our lives not for us but for your glory but God your kingdom would come and your will would be done on earth as it is in heaven god I just pray across our eight campuses God would you're with your kingdom come and just invade the reality of our lives when we recognize by faith that reality is subject to your authority because you're the Creator and so we consecrate ourselves and offer ourselves and humble ourselves and say do it again God do it again in Jesus name Amen

Channel: National Community Church

Views: 18,637

Rating: 4.8549223 out of 5

Keywords: enough is enough mark batterson, mark batterson, mark batterson sermon, sermon on moving, making moves, moving, moving mountains, mountains move, sermon series, ncc, theater church, national community church, church in a movie theater

Id: rUHC8RoFdDo

Length: 39min 19sec (2359 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 13 2016