Welcome And Episode Setup

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Hey everyone and welcome to the Bible Breakdown Podcast. In this podcast, we will be breaking down the Bible one chapter a day. Whether you are a new believer or have been following Christ for a while, we believe that you will learn something new and fresh every single day. So thank you for joining us and let's get into breaking down the Bible together.

Holy Spirit Deadlift Story

Setting Zechariah’s Context

Reading Zechariah Chapter 4

Not By Might, By Spirit

Do Not Despise Small Beginnings

Two Practical Takeaways

Prayer And Closing Blessing

SPEAKER_01 0:23

Well everybody, welcome back to the Bible Breakdown Podcast with your host, Pastor Brandon. Today, Zechariah chapter four. And today's title is Holy Spirit Deadlift. Holy Spirit Deadlift. This comes from a story I heard one time, and that is there was a guy named Eddie Hall who, up until then, they there was this record for the deadlift. It's uh it's particular if you're a weightlifter or powerlifter, you know what I'm talking about. It's this particular, you know, uh type of weightlifting, you know, um exercise that is considered to be the most natural like measure of strength. Because literally you're taking weight, you're picking it up off the floor, you're putting it back down. And for many people who are into weightlifting, it is considered to be the test of who the strongest man in the world is, is if you could pick something up and put it back down, right? And for a long time, there was this record that had never been broken, and Eddie Hall wanted to break it. Well, when it got time for him to do this, just merely picking up the weight was impossible for him. He he couldn't pick up the weight just by his muscles. And so what he had to do is he went to like this psychologist. They helped him to get so mentally in this space, and they told him that if you put yourself in a place where you're trying to rescue someone, like from a burning building, something like that, and you have to dig down in and get that adrenaline, then you can do it. And you actually watch him, he broke the record and you watch his face, and in his eyes, he's not there. He is in some kind of imagined moment where he thinks he is saving someone, and he said later, he said, I went to such a dark place that I don't ever want to try that again. Well, here's the thing that is how you can pick up heavy weight, but there's a good side of that that realize that when the Holy Spirit is with you, you don't have to go to a dark place, but instead you can imagine the goodness of God and to realize that God is for you and He can do impossible things through you if we just come on home to Him. And that's what this chapter is all about. So we're gonna dive into that. And if you want to go ahead and open up your Bibles to Zechariah chapter four, and while you're doing that, make sure you take just a moment to like, share, and subscribe to the YouTube channel and the podcast. Make sure you leave us a five-star review on the podcast, it really does help. And make sure you're going to the Bible breakdown discussion on Facebook. It's an amazing group of people doing a wonderful job, and you can find all that information at thebiblebreakdown.com. Well, as I was saying, we're in uh uh Ezekiel, Ezekiel, my goodness, we're in Zechariah right now, and the idea behind Zechariah is to come on home. We've been talking about how the nation of Israel was, or Judah rather, had come on back home from exile, but as they had come on back home spiritually, they still needed to come on back home to the Lord. They were building the temple and it was re-establishing the central focus of God in the nation of Judah. And that's the whole focus of Zacharias. Chapter one was all about, come on, it's time to come on home back to me. Chapter two was saying, as you come on back home to me, I'm gonna do great things, I'm gonna be among you. Chapter three, yesterday, was about how he was gonna make us squeaky clean, give us a testimony of how we were once filthy, now we're clean. Now in chapter four, he is going to say all the things that are in front of you that you have to do, all the impossible tasks, impossible things. I never intended on you to do that on your own. There was never a moment when I thought that you were gonna have to do anything impossible. You were always supposed to do the possible, and I will do the impossible. That Holy Spirit deadlift, that Holy Spirit moment where He does the impossible through us. And so if you're ready, let's jump into Zechariah chapter four, and this one of the greatest promises in the entire Bible is here. So here we go. Zechariah chapter 4, verse 1 says this. What do you see now? He asked, and I answer, I see a solid gold lampstand with a bowl of oil on top of it. And the bowl are seven lamps, each having seven spouts with wicks. And I said, And and I see two olive trees, one on each side of the bowl. Pause. Now I got a little distracted because if you ever read the book of Revelation with me, chapter one, two, and three, you see so much of this imagery right here. And so you see how they go together. I would encourage you to go back and read those and just see how the imagery goes together. All right, verse 4. Then I asked the angel, What are these, my lord? And what do they mean? Don't you know? asked the angel. No, my lord, I replied. Then he said, This is what the Lord says to Zerubbabel. It is not by force nor by strength, but by my spirit, says the Lord of heaven's armies. Nothing, not even a mighty mountain, will stand in Zerubabel's way. It will become a level plain before him. And when Zerubabel sets a final stone of the temple in place, the people will shout, May God bless it, may God bless it. Then another message came to me from the Lord. Zerubabel is the one who laid the foundation of this temple, and he will be the one to complete it. Then you will know that the Lord of Heaven's armies has sent me. Do not despise these small beginnings, for the Lord rejoices to see the work begin, to see the plumb line in Zerubabel's hand. Then the seven lamps represent the eyes of the Lord that search all around the world. Then I asked the angel, What are these two olive trees on each side of the lampstand? And what are the two olive branches that pour out golden oil through gold two gold tubes? Don't you know? he said. No, my lord, I replied. Then he said to me, They represent the two anointed ones who stand in the court of the Lord of all the earth. And we'll see the rest of that tomorrow. But did you catch those two amazing promises? Number one, is remember we were talking about at the beginning of the podcast how this this guy Eddie Hall was told, man, you can't lift this up by yourself. So what you've got to do is you gotta go inside your head, find a a moment where your your fight, flat, or freeze response will kick in, and you gotta push that that response so then you can do something amazing. Well, God is saying the exact opposite. He's saying, yes, you can't do this on your own, but you don't have to go inside yourself and find your best now and all this ridiculousness. He said instead, come find me. Like I'm here to do the impossible. We're gonna do this together. Me and you, anything's possible. And so God says, let's do life together. And then I love how he said this. He said, Do not despise the beginnings, small beginnings, for the Lord rejoices to see the work begin. I think there's there's two different takeaways, and I don't know who may be listening to this or watching this on YouTube, but I believe God's word is so so so relevant to us today. So here's the two. First of all, God never intended for you to do those hard things by yourself. Many times, for whatever reason, we tend to make prayer our last response instead of our first response. You ever heard someone say, Well, we've done all we know to do, so let's just pray. How horrible. Instead, it should be, yo, we've got a problem. The first thing we should do is pray. But I'm just as guilty as as anybody else. And instead of going, okay, well, God, we've tried everything else. Well, now we're gonna pray. Instead, we say, God, before we do anything else, we're coming to you in prayer. And watch what God will do. God has no intention of you doing those hard things by yourself. Here's the second thing. Never let anybody look down on you for doing the simple things well. Never, never let what you're doing for the Lord, the fact that you are, yo, I I've talked to people before and it breaks my heart because they say, Yo, yo, Pastor, I feel like I'm not doing anything great. All I'm doing is raising my kids. Like, oh my goodness. You're raising the next generation of Christ followers? Do not despise what other people would consider small things. That's powerful and it's amazing. Pastor, I don't feel like I'm really doing anything. I just got this job and whatever. So you you mean to tell me that you have a job where you are God's secret agent, his ambassador into that place? Why do you think you have that job? You have that job so that you can be an example for other people. Pastor, I th I feel like everybody else is just reading the Bible so fast and get something out of it. All I do is read one chapter a day. Oh my goodness, you're reading God's word? You mean you're opening yourself up to hear the voice of the King of the universe every single day? Never compare yourself to anybody else. The quickest way to lose joy is to compare your effort to somebody else's highlight reel. Instead, the Lord rejoices when we do the little things with all of our heart to realize that God is in the small moments just as much as the big moments. And so if you think about it, there's no such thing as a small moment. There's just small mindedness about God's goodness. And so I would encourage you, number one, don't ever feel like you gotta do the hard things by yourself. And then number two, there is no such thing as small moments in the kingdom of God. It's all for his glory. As Paul said, whether we live or we die, we do it all for the glory of God. Let's pray together right now. God, thank you so much for today. Thank you, God, that you're with us and that you're for us, and that Lord, you continue to help us re-examine and to know who we are and what you're doing in our lives. I pray, God, that you'll be with us in all things. We celebrate you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. And what God's Word says in Zechariah 1, verse 3, it says, Return to me, I'll return to you, says the Lord of heaven's armies. Let our lives be a continual returning back to the Lord. I love you. I'll see you tomorrow for Zechariah chapter 5.