Speaker 1: Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick. I'm the pastor of Elevation
Speaker 1: Church and this is our podcast. I wanted to thank
Speaker 1: you for joining us today. Hope this inspires you. Hope
Speaker 1: it builds your faith. Hope it gives your perspective to
Speaker 1: see God is moving in your life. Enjoy the message.
Speaker 1: Let's take just a moment Valentine and engage our responsibility
Speaker 1: and privilege to welcome our efam watching around the world
Speaker 1: on the Elevation app, YouTube, Facebook. I want to see
Speaker 1: who's watching. Somebody bring me a phone with YouTube on it.
Speaker 1: I did this at eleven thirty last week. It was
Speaker 1: I must see if you'll trust me with your phone.
Speaker 1: Do you know how much trouble I could get you
Speaker 1: in with your phone in five minutes? How many texts
Speaker 1: I could send on your behalf, how many bad influences
Speaker 1: I could block off your phone. Give me five minutes
Speaker 1: with your phone. I'll fix your future. I'll get you
Speaker 1: into college. I'll break up with him so you don't
Speaker 1: have to. I'll put a kissy face on it. Let's
Speaker 1: see YouTube. Tell me where are you watching from in
Speaker 1: the world? Just put your city, state, hamlet. How many
Speaker 1: y'all grew up in a hamlet. Don't we love this
Speaker 1: choir and the energy that they bring. Hello, Puerto Rico, Iowa. Whoa,
Speaker 1: it's going fast, New Zealand. Oh, I can't keep up.
Speaker 1: Look how fastest scrolling Gaithersburg, Maryland, New York City, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, Brussels, Houston,
Speaker 1: North Dakota, Miami, Ridgeland, Tampa Bay, Philadelphia, South Korea, Missouri,
Speaker 1: all kinds of countries, Pakistan, Oregon, South Africa, India, Singapore, Guatemala, Milwaukee,
Speaker 1: Las Vegas, Topeka, Indonesia, Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Chattanooga, Vermont, Philippines, Charlotte,
Speaker 1: North Carolina. We'll bring you greetings in the name of
Speaker 1: Jesus Christ. Scotland, China, Brazil, Ethiopia, France, Lithuania, Costa Rica.
Speaker 1: You got a message. I'm gonna give this back. Now,
Speaker 1: come take this. Come on, Let's thank God for all
Speaker 1: those all over the world joining. I said, worship, Thank you, lou.
Speaker 1: She's gonna be preaching soon. I'm gonna give her the
Speaker 1: mic soon and turn her loose, but not today. Today.
Speaker 1: I got this. You can relax. How many are ready
Speaker 1: for the word of God. I want to encourage you
Speaker 1: to stay up late on this Thursday night Eastern Standard
Speaker 1: time midnight the beginning of one thing, the end of another.
Speaker 1: And we're releasing five songs called at Midnight because Paul
Speaker 1: and Silas knew what to do in a desperate situation.
Speaker 1: And when we sing together and join together and praise
Speaker 1: God together, it creates freedom and our spirits, and it
Speaker 1: often creates change in our situation. But I want you
Speaker 1: to be a part of that. All of our watch
Speaker 1: parties around the world at midnight, I'm going to need
Speaker 1: you to caffeinate and plan accordingly. For some of you,
Speaker 1: it's going to be a bigger miracle than a jail
Speaker 1: break for you to stay up till midnight. But we're
Speaker 1: believing God for supernatural energy for you, and stay up
Speaker 1: at midnight and put it on Instagram and Facebook, put
Speaker 1: it on MySpace. You hear me, young people, and let
Speaker 1: us know where you're watching. From Ecclesiastes, chapter eleven, I
Speaker 1: want to ten year conversation that I began with our
Speaker 1: Matthew's campus on Thursday night. This message is called the
Speaker 1: Mystery of Potential. How many no God has put things
Speaker 1: inside of you that your eyes haven't seen. Yet God
Speaker 1: put things inside of you that your parents didn't even
Speaker 1: know about. And so I want to speak on those
Speaker 1: things today. From Ecclesiastes eleven, verse five and six. As
Speaker 1: you do not know the way the spirit comes to
Speaker 1: the bones in the womb of a woman with child,
Speaker 1: So you do not know the work of God who
Speaker 1: makes everything. In the morning, sow your seed, and at
Speaker 1: evening withhold not your hand, for you do not know.
Speaker 1: He said that in both verses it must be important. Solomon,
Speaker 1: the wisest man in the world, speaking about human ignorance,
Speaker 1: that even after all he learned, accomplished, and every success
Speaker 1: that he achieved. His common theme in this book is
Speaker 1: you do not know a mystery. And he said that
Speaker 1: one might prosper that you count out. And so since
Speaker 1: you don't know, keep sowing. Since you don't know, keep sowing,
Speaker 1: for you do not know which will prosper this or that,
Speaker 1: or whether both. Somebody say both, whether both alike will
Speaker 1: be good. Lord, This is your word, and so we
Speaker 1: do not ask you to make it true. It already is.
Speaker 1: Get it in our hearts, past all the falsehood distractions
Speaker 1: and deceit, so it can become flesh in our lives.
Speaker 1: In Jesus' name, Amen, you may be seated in using
Speaker 1: these two different analogies for the revelation of potential. The
Speaker 1: commonality is that there is a process by which anything
Speaker 1: must be fertilized. Whether it's human life or whether it's
Speaker 1: a seed that will become sustenance, it must undergo a
Speaker 1: process of fertilization. And I don't think I need to
Speaker 1: have the birds and the bees talk. If your parents
Speaker 1: didn't do that by now, it's not my job. But
Speaker 1: he talks about how in the womb of a woman
Speaker 1: there is a process and a part of human pregnancy
Speaker 1: that can be explained or that can be anatomically identified.
Speaker 1: And then there is another part which he calls the
Speaker 1: spirit entering the bones or the breath the Rua and Hebrew,
Speaker 1: it's the same word. When you hear spirit of God,
Speaker 1: you can also think breath of God. Both are correct,
Speaker 1: and it's the same word because it's the same process.
Speaker 1: Anything God breathes on comes to life. And if there's
Speaker 1: anything you need God to breathe on today, you are
Speaker 1: in His presence and anything is possible. As a matter
Speaker 1: of fact, the way this whole project called you got
Speaker 1: started was God breathed on something dirty, the dust of
Speaker 1: the earth, And when he breathed on it, he breathed
Speaker 1: into man the breath of life. So there is the
Speaker 1: bones and there is the breath. One of those can
Speaker 1: be explained and perceived with human eyes. And if there's
Speaker 1: anybody in overflow, I don't know if there is. We
Speaker 1: got two premium seats on the landing at Valentine. So
Speaker 1: bring in two people who traveled and had to sit
Speaker 1: and overflow and give them those seats. If it's a
Speaker 1: husband and a wife, or if it's two single people
Speaker 1: that look like they like each other out there in overflow,
Speaker 1: put them in those two seats. Let's see what God
Speaker 1: can do. Because when God brings things together and breathes
Speaker 1: into things, the limit of God's potential is only your belief,
Speaker 1: because God is so big and so great, and the
Speaker 1: only thing that ever limits him is what you believe
Speaker 1: he can do. And you know a lot of people
Speaker 1: will say, well, nothing limits God. He's God, and of
Speaker 1: course he is God. But God breathes into things. And
Speaker 1: when God breathes into things, it's so important that we
Speaker 1: receive it. When he breathes. Amen, how many of you
Speaker 1: are firstborn children. Firstborn children. Come on, let's give it
Speaker 1: up for ourselves. Come on, give it up for me
Speaker 1: and you because we were our parents' experiment. I think
Speaker 1: when you're having a child, and I don't have a
Speaker 1: lot of parenting advice, but this is one thing I
Speaker 1: do think is pretty good and I may write a
Speaker 1: book about this. When you have your first child, you know,
Speaker 1: you create a college fund for your Yeah, you create
Speaker 1: a college fund for your kids, but for your firstborn,
Speaker 1: you need to also create a therapy fund. Just go
Speaker 1: ahead and start it. Put it in a put it
Speaker 1: in an index fund or something. Because you are you
Speaker 1: are learning things on them that the other ones. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's kind of rough with your firstborn because you put
Speaker 1: all your hopes and dreams and fantasies and projections of
Speaker 1: parenthood on that poor I'll never forget when Elijah, you know,
Speaker 1: he's coming home from the hospital, I'm driving seventeen miles
Speaker 1: an hour on four eighty five, just you know. And
Speaker 1: by the time I became who was the third you know,
Speaker 1: I just center home in an uber It's just because
Speaker 1: I got this now. But on the first one, you're
Speaker 1: learning everything, so you're like totally overprotective, and sometimes you're
Speaker 1: overly ambitious, and so anything the kid does, you're like, oh,
Speaker 1: my god, did you He just played the piano like
Speaker 1: walks by and bangs it, and you think he's Mozart
Speaker 1: because you see potential. Sometimes it's not there. When Elijah
Speaker 1: first started playing baseball, I remember when he was on
Speaker 1: this coach pitch team, and the coach pitch league is
Speaker 1: kind of deceptive because the pitcher is working with you,
Speaker 1: which is the opposite of real baseball, but the pitcher
Speaker 1: wants you to hit it. And I was trying to
Speaker 1: figure out how to help Elijah with baseball because I
Speaker 1: played baseball a little bit. My dad coached me, but
Speaker 1: I don't know a lot about it. And I found
Speaker 1: out one of the grandparents there was a former scout
Speaker 1: for minor league baseball, and he walked over to me
Speaker 1: one game in the middle of the season and goes, hey,
Speaker 1: that's your boy out there. I said yeah. He said
Speaker 1: he's pretty good. It's got potential, and I was like,
Speaker 1: for real, like how much potential? You know, like you
Speaker 1: think he's like like a future And I couldn't even
Speaker 1: get the whole sentence out, and he interrupted me and
Speaker 1: said something to me, I believe God wants to say
Speaker 1: to some of you. He said, it's too soon to tell.
Speaker 1: In other words, I was just trying to be polite
Speaker 1: and say that your kid has a good swing and
Speaker 1: encourage you to keep it up as a dad. It's
Speaker 1: way too soon to tell you know, whether or not
Speaker 1: you should start looking for an agent. Okay, he's just
Speaker 1: got a good swing, But don't we always want to
Speaker 1: know so soon. How we post stuff and if people
Speaker 1: don't like it in two minutes, we feel the pressure
Speaker 1: to delete it because maybe the picture wasn't as good
Speaker 1: as I thought it was, you know, like it's the
Speaker 1: worst thing in the world. How we live in this
Speaker 1: age of instant validation where we just expect every opinion
Speaker 1: to be accepted just quickly. And if it doesn't happen quickly,
Speaker 1: if it doesn't happen just like that, if it doesn't
Speaker 1: just turn around by Friday, if within our first week
Speaker 1: back at the gym in January it doesn't melt off,
Speaker 1: we will cancel the gym membership and talk about the
Speaker 1: fact that the machines weren't right. But it wasn't the machines,
Speaker 1: it was our consistency and our deep down need to
Speaker 1: see it happen so quick. The man said, it's too
Speaker 1: soon to tell, and Solomon said the same thing. He said,
Speaker 1: there are some things in your life that are like
Speaker 1: the bones that are waiting on the breath, and you
Speaker 1: don't know the way God is going to work in
Speaker 1: your city situation. And it is always too soon for
Speaker 1: you to quit on something that God put on the
Speaker 1: inside of you. If He gave you a dream, is
Speaker 1: too soon to walk away from it just because it
Speaker 1: doesn't manifest in three dimensions by the time you get
Speaker 1: done praying about it. So that's what we talked about today,
Speaker 1: the mystery of potential and how it's too soon to tell,
Speaker 1: and how the only way that potential can be revealed
Speaker 1: is for process to be embraced. Y'all with me today.
Speaker 1: I never know. I never know how a sermon is
Speaker 1: going to affect people, and even after I preach it,
Speaker 1: it's difficult for me to discern the impact of it.
Speaker 1: I guess I could go off of a reaction base.
Speaker 1: But I went to a Panthers game one time and
Speaker 1: a lady was in front of me yelling the whole time.
Speaker 1: But she left in the fourth quarter, because sometimes the
Speaker 1: loudest or the first to leave. So I don't know
Speaker 1: how hard a sermon hit by how loud somebody gets
Speaker 1: about it. Feel free to be loud. I mean I
Speaker 1: like it loud. I really do like it loud. I'm
Speaker 1: a punk rocker at heart. But I don't know by
Speaker 1: how loud is, how deep it goes, is whether or
Speaker 1: not you get nicer to your wife after I preach.
Speaker 1: That shows how good my message got on love. I
Speaker 1: thought I would have a few amens from the higher
Speaker 1: register of the octave range. But you don't know. You
Speaker 1: really don't know. And the idea of human potential and
Speaker 1: a limitless God comes together in this text in a
Speaker 1: way that you can see several times throughout scripture in
Speaker 1: several examples. And whether we would talk about Peter who
Speaker 1: had to cast as an on the other side of
Speaker 1: the boat after he's spent all night catching nothing. The
Speaker 1: potential was there, but until the command was given from
Speaker 1: Jesus at the place of his frustration. I called this
Speaker 1: message the mystery of potential because I thought it sounded good.
Speaker 1: I could have just as easily called it the misery
Speaker 1: of potential, and we could preach about that too, because
Speaker 1: when you're young and people tell you you have potential,
Speaker 1: it's a compliment and it makes you feel hopeful. By
Speaker 1: the time you're sixty five and people are saying, you know,
Speaker 1: you have a lot of potential, it's depressing because by
Speaker 1: the time I'm sixty five, I don't need potential. I
Speaker 1: need kinetic. Potential doesn't pay the bills. Potential doesn't put
Speaker 1: a ring on my finger. Oh, you're going to be
Speaker 1: a good wife. Well, I'd like to be a good
Speaker 1: wife three years ago. If I'm a good wife, where's
Speaker 1: my good man? I come to church and I walk
Speaker 1: past all these men, but they're all past a bunch
Speaker 1: of Christian men. We'll never give anybody a hug praying
Speaker 1: for a wife instead of asking one out there Starbucks.
Speaker 1: I can't do anything in potential that seemed like that
Speaker 1: one hit. You know, you can never know the potential
Speaker 1: of a seed by looking at it, Hey, little seed.
Speaker 1: You know, you pray over a seed, you still won't
Speaker 1: know its potential. You can study the history of seeds,
Speaker 1: and although you might intellectually grasp its potential or comprehend
Speaker 1: what it contains, the only way to really know the
Speaker 1: potential is to plant it, and could it be that
Speaker 1: in your life and in my life right now there
Speaker 1: is potential that has not been planted. And so while
Speaker 1: we are frustrated about what our lives are missing, it's
Speaker 1: already in us in an immature form, and until we
Speaker 1: sow it, we will never know what it could have been. Now,
Speaker 1: I believe all over this house today there are starving seeds.
Speaker 1: There are things, gifts, abilities, thoughts, ideas wisdom that God
Speaker 1: has put in us, but it will not be shown
Speaker 1: until it is sown. Can I preach like I'm Doctor Seuss.
Speaker 1: My rhymes are on points so far you will never
Speaker 1: see it until you sow it. And so while we're praying,
Speaker 1: God show me my potential, and we're taking personality test
Speaker 1: which are fine. God bless Myers Briggs, whoever he is.
Speaker 1: God bless the Enneagraam Holly reads all that stuff to me.
Speaker 1: She tells me, I'm a one and she's a nine,
Speaker 1: and the one in the nine go together, and my
Speaker 1: one and her nine make a perfect five or something
Speaker 1: like that. Know how it works. I like all of it.
Speaker 1: But the truth of the matter is you can't bubble
Speaker 1: in a test and find out what's in you. You
Speaker 1: can't go on a journey of self discovery and find
Speaker 1: out what's in you, because watch this. Until the seed
Speaker 1: is sacrificed, until it goes into something bigger called the ground,
Speaker 1: until it breaks open to accomplish something, you'll never know
Speaker 1: what was in it. And when you live a selfish life,
Speaker 1: a safe life, and you don't sow it, you will
Speaker 1: never know. The enemy has got some of us so selfish,
Speaker 1: so discouraged, that our seeds are starving not for the
Speaker 1: lack of potential, but for the lack of process. So
Speaker 1: like think about Elisha plowing in a field in One
Speaker 1: Kings nineteen, just as an illustration, and he's plowing verse nineteen.
Speaker 1: He's plowing in a field with a yoke of oxen.
Speaker 1: There it is. He's plow with twelve yokovocxen in front
Speaker 1: of him. He's not posing in front of the plow.
Speaker 1: He's not posting on my plow. He's just plowing. He's
Speaker 1: just plowing. And a lot of times we will confuse
Speaker 1: the fact that we don't have good ground in our life,
Speaker 1: that is good opportunities. But maybe it's good ground and
Speaker 1: it's just unplowed and I wonder sometimes the things that
Speaker 1: we go through that are hard for us is not
Speaker 1: the enemy attacking us, but it is God plowing us
Speaker 1: to make the ground ready, to make our hearts ready,
Speaker 1: to make our wills ready. So we won't be arrogant
Speaker 1: and prideful, but we will have a plowed heart. And
Speaker 1: I don't know who this is for, but a lot
Speaker 1: of the things that you been praying away, God is
Speaker 1: plowing into and it's God's plowing process, just like Elisha
Speaker 1: had been plowing the crown. I believe God had been
Speaker 1: plowing Elisha, and I believe he's been plowing some of
Speaker 1: us and getting our ground ready and getting our hearts ready.
Speaker 1: Because sometimes if God visits us too soon with an
Speaker 1: opportunity that life has not prepared us for, we will
Speaker 1: not only ruin the opportunity, but we will hurt others
Speaker 1: in the process. So I don't want my heart to
Speaker 1: be unplowed ground. But I'm getting ahead of myself here,
Speaker 1: because this message is not just about plowing, it's about planting.
Speaker 1: And really, what I wanted to say is you have
Speaker 1: no idea what your encouragement can be until you plant it,
Speaker 1: what your smile can be until you plant it and planted.
Speaker 1: For me, it's theoretical for a farmer, it's practical. I
Speaker 1: read it as a metaphor planted. But really, this process
Speaker 1: Solomon is describing in an agricultural society would hit home
Speaker 1: like it would be like saying, like an iPad because
Speaker 1: there were so many more. You got to understand. The
Speaker 1: Bible was written in the context of its culture, and
Speaker 1: so it'd be like Sam'd be like this, I would
Speaker 1: sit next to a man on an airplane and this
Speaker 1: actually happened, Okay, true story. And I just got my iPad.
Speaker 1: This was years ago, and I was so proud to
Speaker 1: be one of the first people with an iPad and
Speaker 1: it had just come out, and we sent an intern
Speaker 1: to the Apple store to get one of the first iPads, okay,
Speaker 1: and I let them buy themselves something too, Okay, so
Speaker 1: I hooked them up. But the thing is I wanted
Speaker 1: to have one of the first iPads because Levi Lusco
Speaker 1: was telling me, you got to get an iPad. Bro.
Speaker 1: He's like, totally. You know my friend Leve, he's been
Speaker 1: here to preach. You got to try, sir, Rocha, Bro.
Speaker 1: You got to get this new bracelet for your workout, Bro,
Speaker 1: you got to get an iPad. He's always telling me
Speaker 1: to get something I'll already have. Always make me feel
Speaker 1: like my life is missing something. He's some kind of
Speaker 1: marketer from the pit of Hell. My loving You gotta
Speaker 1: get an iPad, bro, It's beautiful. It's just the technology
Speaker 1: is beautiful. So I have my iPad and the guy
Speaker 1: next to me had an iPad too, and so we
Speaker 1: felt like a connection. And he goes, how you like
Speaker 1: your iPad. I was like, I don't know. I just
Speaker 1: got it. He goes, I've had mine a week. I
Speaker 1: was like, they just came out yesterday. He said, I
Speaker 1: got Connections and Apple. I was like, oh, I got
Speaker 1: an intern send him to the Apple store. He goes,
Speaker 1: so what are you planning to use it for. I
Speaker 1: was like, well, I'm a preacher, so I'm a preacher
Speaker 1: my sermons from it. He goes, what else. I was like,
Speaker 1: I don't know what else. That's it, really, I guess.
Speaker 1: And he got this look on his face, like disgusted,
Speaker 1: like disappointment in somebody that a minute ago he felt
Speaker 1: an affinity for, but now he just felt nothing but
Speaker 1: deep total sadness and loss at what could have been
Speaker 1: a great relationship. He goes, you are using that device
Speaker 1: so far beneath its potential, and we didn't speak the
Speaker 1: rest of the flight. I didn't know what to say back.
Speaker 1: I'm so sorry, man, I just don't you know. Every
Speaker 1: time I opened the iPad, I think about what it
Speaker 1: could do, and I think about what's on it and
Speaker 1: what it could connect to through the Wi Fi connection.
Speaker 1: I think about everything that it could do that it's
Speaker 1: not doing. I think about the potential of it. I
Speaker 1: think about everything that's in some of the people that
Speaker 1: I get to preach to, everything that is in you
Speaker 1: that you haven't accessed, and everything that's in you that
Speaker 1: got buried, that got covered up. But the thing about
Speaker 1: dirt is it can also bring out potential. The thing
Speaker 1: about a seed when it goes into the ground, Remember
Speaker 1: it doesn't go into the ground to die. It goes
Speaker 1: into the ground to multiply. Some of y'all know what
Speaker 1: I'm talking about, because you had a failure in your
Speaker 1: life and people wrote you off, and people walked away,
Speaker 1: and it seemed like it was over. But you gave
Speaker 1: it a little time, and you gave it a little water,
Speaker 1: and you gave it a little trust, and you kept
Speaker 1: coming to church, and somehow, some way God turned pain
Speaker 1: into potential. Now, if you ever fished all night and
Speaker 1: caught nothing, but you cast your nets on the other
Speaker 1: side and hauled in a bucket full, I need you
Speaker 1: to shout right now that there's so much more. It's
Speaker 1: the mystery. Elisha is flowing and Elijah says something to him.
Speaker 1: He says, well, actually he says it with an action,
Speaker 1: not with words. He throws his cloak on Elisha, which
Speaker 1: represents the potential for miracles. And when Elijah's cloak, remember
Speaker 1: he's the great miracle worker who stood before Ahab, who
Speaker 1: ran from Jezebel, and who found Elisha plowing in a field.
Speaker 1: And he throws his mantle, the symbol of potential. I
Speaker 1: don't know who this is for, but God is throwing
Speaker 1: something your way today. I wish I could throw this
Speaker 1: microphone right at your forehead so you would just get it.
Speaker 1: But it's expensive, and he doesn't say much about it.
Speaker 1: It's very mysterious. It's very mysterious. And when Elisha receives
Speaker 1: that mantle, he doesn't immediately perform a miracle. In fact,
Speaker 1: let me tell you how mysterious potential is We don't
Speaker 1: hear Elisha's name again until Sewod King's chapter two, which
Speaker 1: many tell us was thirteen years after his potential was
Speaker 1: first suggested. But his potential was not revealed until he
Speaker 1: would take that same cloak and strike the water with it.
Speaker 1: After a long season of obedience, y'all got to know
Speaker 1: where to shout. That's where to shout, because that's where
Speaker 1: potential is proven. When it is planted. Planted, it's on
Speaker 1: the device, but it can only be retrieved from the
Speaker 1: device through a process of connection. And this process of
Speaker 1: connection in seed speak, revolves around planting, which makes me
Speaker 1: think first of all, of the sower, because when the
Speaker 1: sower plants a seed, Remember, farmers don't have funeral over
Speaker 1: seed that they scatter. Instead, they have expectation to see
Speaker 1: it again in a greater form later. So you're never
Speaker 1: really saying goodbye to anything that you give to God.
Speaker 1: You're really just opening your hands, which means that before
Speaker 1: you can receive anything, you have to release something. For
Speaker 1: those of you who like to take notes, you can
Speaker 1: write down the word release because process is revealed in potential,
Speaker 1: and potential is revealed in process and it comes a
Speaker 1: little bit along and along. But the first is to
Speaker 1: release the sewer. Must release the seed to see what
Speaker 1: it could be. I'm just wondering, is there something that
Speaker 1: you need to release in your life today? And could
Speaker 1: it be possible that you are looking at something, praying
Speaker 1: about something and trying to manipulate something that God wants
Speaker 1: you to release so that it can mature and manifest.
Speaker 1: And this is for all of us who are control freaks,
Speaker 1: because until we release it, it can't grow. Look at
Speaker 1: your neighbors, say let it go, tell them watch it grow.
Speaker 1: Let it go, watch it grow. But it can't grow
Speaker 1: if you're trying to control it. Right, is starving seeds
Speaker 1: and then is strangled seeds holding on so tight. Oh
Speaker 1: it's my time, it's my money. I feel so sorry
Speaker 1: for people who aren't generous. I feel so bad for
Speaker 1: you because all stinginess does is strangle to see that
Speaker 1: God has given you And if you could let it go,
Speaker 1: who knows what it could be. What if I just
Speaker 1: preach that sermon in the mirror, it would bounce right back.
Speaker 1: But if I put it out through that camera, it
Speaker 1: might hit Botswana and help somebody in their life. Or
Speaker 1: Bamberg South Carolina. I don't care. It is God's business
Speaker 1: where it goes. It's my job to sew it. And
Speaker 1: you got to sew it in the morning, sow it
Speaker 1: in the evening. So it when you feel it. Sow
Speaker 1: it when you don't. So when they cheer for you,
Speaker 1: So when they criticize you, sow it when they hosanna,
Speaker 1: and ShW it when they want to string you up.
Speaker 1: So when they notice, sow it when they don't, sow it,
Speaker 1: sew it, sew it. But just like you can't live
Speaker 1: your life not accessing everything that's on the device and
Speaker 1: expect to be a reflection of the image of God.
Speaker 1: You also, and I want to say this is so
Speaker 1: important because when we talk about potential, a lot of
Speaker 1: people start trying to produce something that God did not
Speaker 1: put inside of them. We got oranges wanting to be apples,
Speaker 1: Apples wanting to be kumquats, not a kum quat. You
Speaker 1: are a delicious red apple. You're gonna be a big,
Speaker 1: juicy red apple, but you want not be a kumquat. Yo.
Speaker 1: My barber told me a story the other day. His
Speaker 1: name is fly Ty. That's who you want to cut
Speaker 1: your hair he put fly in his name. I trust
Speaker 1: him with my f fade because he's fly Tie and
Speaker 1: he's been cutting my hair now he attends our University
Speaker 1: City location. I asked his permission to tell you this
Speaker 1: because I didn't want to embarrass him. But y'all, he
Speaker 1: told me the dumbest story ever the other day. And
Speaker 1: he was cutting my hair. And he has this bad
Speaker 1: habit of stopping cutting my hair while he tells me
Speaker 1: a fifteen minute story. And he needs to go to
Speaker 1: multitask school because I got things to do. He's cutting
Speaker 1: the clippers off and talking. But it's fine because I
Speaker 1: usually like his stories and his anecdotes, but this one
Speaker 1: was dumb. Listen this. He told me a story. And
Speaker 1: I don't remember exactly what the year was, but years
Speaker 1: ago he was hosting because he's not only a barber,
Speaker 1: he's a host, a radio personality. He works for the Hornets.
Speaker 1: He's very involved in the community. He speaks to little kids,
Speaker 1: like every time he comes to cut my hair. He's
Speaker 1: recently spoken to a group of kids that same day,
Speaker 1: Anti DJ at a wedding, Anti cured cancer, and he
Speaker 1: fought a fire on Providence Row. And he's just everywhere
Speaker 1: all the time. But he's sitting there telling me the
Speaker 1: story because we're talking about potential and what God has
Speaker 1: put in you, and we talk about this a lot.
Speaker 1: We talk about God. And I guess because my dad
Speaker 1: was a barber, I had just have a love for
Speaker 1: barber's and so the clippers start going, we start talking
Speaker 1: and we're talking about it, and he told me a
Speaker 1: story that jay Z came to a concert. I guess
Speaker 1: it was like in the nineties, before he was as
Speaker 1: popular as he is now, and the concert was half full,
Speaker 1: and fly Tie was one of the hosts for the concerts,
Speaker 1: and he said he observed jay Z during the concert
Speaker 1: talking to one of the members of a female group
Speaker 1: who was also on the concert bill called Destiny's Child,
Speaker 1: and he said that the concert was half full because
Speaker 1: jay Z was just on the come up, which would
Speaker 1: lead him to be some would say the greatest rapper
Speaker 1: of all time, depending on how you quantify that, it's
Speaker 1: a very strong case. But he said, I've since thought
Speaker 1: back to that day because jay Z and Beyonce were
Speaker 1: back there and I was watching their relationship develop before
Speaker 1: my eyes, and he's my same age, and I think
Speaker 1: often to myself. Look what he's done with his life
Speaker 1: and what have I done with mine? Now, of all
Speaker 1: the people in the Milky Way, for you to choose
Speaker 1: to use as a standard of how successful your life is,
Speaker 1: you just had to go get jay Z jay Z,
Speaker 1: not even not even Lil Wayne jay Z. You had
Speaker 1: to pick the most influential rapper of our lifetime. So
Speaker 1: here's what he did. He just wanted to feel small
Speaker 1: so bad, rather than focusing on Look how gracious God
Speaker 1: has been to me. I asked his permission to say this,
Speaker 1: and he said I could, Instead of I'm gonna preach
Speaker 1: to him through the camera. He's listening right now instead
Speaker 1: of picking Look where I could have been if it
Speaker 1: hadn't been for the grace of God. Look how he
Speaker 1: raised me up. Look how he kept me alive. Look
Speaker 1: how I wasn't a statistic. Look how he's using me
Speaker 1: in ways I never could have imagined. Look how he
Speaker 1: could a gift in me. Look how he's been good
Speaker 1: to me. You are not jay Z. You are not
Speaker 1: supposed to be. So tell your neighbor you are not
Speaker 1: beyond saying. Tell him what I am Destiny's child and
Speaker 1: what God could inside of me? I said, what God
Speaker 1: put inside of me is looking for a place to grow.
Speaker 1: I'm going back to my school like a seed ready
Speaker 1: to grow. And don't judge the significance by the size
Speaker 1: of the seed. I'm fly freaking tie clippers in one
Speaker 1: hand and microphone in the other. I got potential, but
Speaker 1: I gotta let go of what I think I'm supposed
Speaker 1: to be to become what I am. You know how
Speaker 1: sometimes you get this parental guilt, this feeling of like
Speaker 1: I watched a football game with the boys last night
Speaker 1: and I came to tears because there was a commercial
Speaker 1: of a man taking his sun fishing. I was choked up.
Speaker 1: I said, I'm so sorry, boys, I never took you
Speaker 1: fishing because I'm thinking that's where the lessons of life
Speaker 1: need to happen. On the boat, were like, it's okay, dad,
Speaker 1: it's fine Swiss football, but it can just always make
Speaker 1: you feel like, well, I need to be a dad
Speaker 1: like that. You know. The truth of the matter is,
Speaker 1: Holly was telling me how her dad used to take
Speaker 1: her out on the boat all the time. I was like,
Speaker 1: do you ever feel like you've married the wrong guy
Speaker 1: that I've never taken our family out on a boat once.
Speaker 1: I don't even know how to drive a boat. She said, No,
Speaker 1: I hated it on the boat. My dad liked the boat.
Speaker 1: See how I did it though, I got to take
Speaker 1: my kids out on a boat to be a good dad.
Speaker 1: It's just a small thing. I understand. It could be
Speaker 1: much deeper than that. You can start thinking when you
Speaker 1: are supposed to have a family, buy anything. I am
Speaker 1: supposed to be further along in my career. But when
Speaker 1: you let go of what is supposed to be in
Speaker 1: your mind, when you let that go, and the sower
Speaker 1: has to release the seed. I feel God calling some
Speaker 1: of us to release some things, even to release bitterness
Speaker 1: some of us. If we would release that root of bitterness,
Speaker 1: we would reap a harvest of peace. And it has
Speaker 1: to be released. God is calling me to release some things,
Speaker 1: release some expectations, and released my white knuckle ane agram
Speaker 1: ie perfectionist ideas. Did I get it right one? Yeah?
Speaker 1: I don't know. All I do know is this, Sometimes
Speaker 1: I cut off my circulation and strangle the seat of
Speaker 1: opportunities because of my need to control it. So when
Speaker 1: you throw your net on the other side, what I
Speaker 1: love about sewing, you don't have to be in a
Speaker 1: good mood to do it. The seed doesn't care if
Speaker 1: you've carefully dropped it or threw it and walked off.
Speaker 1: Is still where it's supposed to be. Peter said, we've
Speaker 1: worked hard all night and caught nothing, but because you
Speaker 1: say so, And he got blessed while he was rolling
Speaker 1: his eyes, because he had the faith to do what
Speaker 1: Jesus said. You got to sew it when you feel it,
Speaker 1: and sew it when you don't. Now, from the seed's perspective,
Speaker 1: being planted as a different experience, because the sower has
Speaker 1: to release, but the seed has to remain, and both
Speaker 1: are so important, so important mean to do that, I
Speaker 1: promise so important to remain thirteen years before he knew
Speaker 1: what that mental meant, thirteen years of being planted, correctively speaking,
Speaker 1: Why does Peter get so much airtime in pulpits for
Speaker 1: stepping out of a boat. That same thing that made
Speaker 1: him step out of the boat made him run when
Speaker 1: Jesus went to the cross. How about John who stayed
Speaker 1: in the boat and when Jesus was on the cross,
Speaker 1: stayed by his side to take care of his mom.
Speaker 1: But we don't celebrate those who stay. We don't celebrate
Speaker 1: those who who just do it. We make a tagline
Speaker 1: out of it for a shoe company, but we don't
Speaker 1: celebrate it. In other words, the seed has to remain
Speaker 1: in order to reproduce. Now, I wonder why we think
Speaker 1: that God can grow what he wants to grow in
Speaker 1: our life when we keep uprooting what he's doing every
Speaker 1: time it gets uncomfortable. And the soil is so important
Speaker 1: to the growth of the seed that you can have
Speaker 1: a really good seed and it can become nothing, not
Speaker 1: because it was nothing because it was surrounded by something
Speaker 1: that wasn't worthy of its presence. You can put a
Speaker 1: really good seed. This is the power of environment that
Speaker 1: what is around the seed determines whether what is within
Speaker 1: the seed comes out of the seed. And I don't
Speaker 1: know if this is pertinent to anyone in the area
Speaker 1: of who you spend the dominant amount of your time
Speaker 1: hanging out with, but what's around it eventually determine whether
Speaker 1: what is within it comes out of it. You can
Speaker 1: have really good stuff in you, but if everything around
Speaker 1: you is just dark and noise, and everything around you,
Speaker 1: if there's no light to it, if there's no hydration
Speaker 1: to it, it won't take root, and so if it
Speaker 1: doesn't take root, it can't come out. As a matter
Speaker 1: of fact, God sent me to speak to some people saying,
Speaker 1: there's nothing wrong with the seed. There's nothing wrong with
Speaker 1: who you are. It's just what you've surrounded yourself with
Speaker 1: in your mind, in your heart, on your feed, in
Speaker 1: your time, on your schedule. I'm looking for plow ground.
Speaker 1: I want other people in my life who can help
Speaker 1: bring out I want to join an eGroup. Oh watch
Speaker 1: that plum. This dude's a professional. I want to get
Speaker 1: around some good soil because I want the good stuff
Speaker 1: that is in me to come forth out of me.
Speaker 1: How many of y'all if you could put your kids
Speaker 1: around the right people, you just know your kid would
Speaker 1: be a doctor. I know they would. It's the environment.
Speaker 1: But watch this, Why do we think God can bless
Speaker 1: us to grow when every time the soil gets uncomfortable,
Speaker 1: we go to another church. You feel that tension shift.
Speaker 1: I did when I see people in this church who
Speaker 1: have been here ten years. When I see people in
Speaker 1: this church who would be planted, I realized that the
Speaker 1: potential of what is in someone can only really manifest
Speaker 1: when it has time to mature, and when we walk around.
Speaker 1: You know, Oh, I don't like that. You know, I'm
Speaker 1: going over here to a new church. I don't like
Speaker 1: the way they talk to me. I'm going over here.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna make some new friends. You know what, you
Speaker 1: are taking the old you to the new friendships. And
Speaker 1: so whatever, y'all like this, y'all like this at all.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna solve this seed anyway. I'm gonna hit some
Speaker 1: good ground with this seed. It's so important that you
Speaker 1: stay sometimes, and I know sometimes you gotta find better ground.
Speaker 1: But sometimes it's our inability to just let what God
Speaker 1: is doing in our life work. He uses some uncomfortable things.
Speaker 1: But if you never stay, you'll never see it. If
Speaker 1: you just keep moving to a new city every time,
Speaker 1: you make a mess out of your relationships so you
Speaker 1: can start over with the same seed that you carried
Speaker 1: in the last relationship, you will never see the potential
Speaker 1: of it. So I gotta I gotta stay. I gotta
Speaker 1: stay in faith. I gotta remain in the vine so
Speaker 1: I can bear my shrewe, so I can become what
Speaker 1: I already am in potential form. And only God knows
Speaker 1: how long it's going to take for me to become
Speaker 1: all that I am. When John was writing about it
Speaker 1: in his epistle, he said, see what great love the
Speaker 1: Father is lavished on us, that we should be called
Speaker 1: the children of God. And I watch this in verse two, beloved,
Speaker 1: we are God's children. Now. Now when I am forgiven,
Speaker 1: I'm full of the Holy Spirit, I am well abeled,
Speaker 1: I am strong and courageous. That's in me now. But
Speaker 1: what we shall be has not yet appeared, and it
Speaker 1: can only appear if it remains. It will be revealed
Speaker 1: if you remain thirteen years for potential to be reviewed.
Speaker 1: Most of us won't do it for thirteen days, thirteen
Speaker 1: years to see what it is, thirteen years of being planted.
Speaker 1: And then he did watch this, Elisha did twice as
Speaker 1: many miracles as Elijah did. You don't know what's in
Speaker 1: you yet. You don't know what the broken bread of
Speaker 1: your disappointed expectations is going to multiply into if you
Speaker 1: leave it in God's hands a little while. You don't
Speaker 1: know yet. The enemy can't remove anything that God put
Speaker 1: in you, But if he can keep you from sewing it,
Speaker 1: you will never know what it would have been. If
Speaker 1: he can get to quit give up in your life
Speaker 1: stop hoping, turn into a cynic. If he can get
Speaker 1: you to stop sewing. I'm preaching to people who have
Speaker 1: stopped sewing because of what you didn't know. Because you
Speaker 1: didn't know, they quit too soon. It's too soon to
Speaker 1: tell what it's going to be. It's too soon to
Speaker 1: tell if it made a difference. Is too soon to
Speaker 1: tell whether or not it was worth It is too
Speaker 1: soon for you to start. Every time you take the
Speaker 1: seed and pluck it out, to look at it and
Speaker 1: judge it, you interrupt the process by which it grows.
Speaker 1: So stop judging it, and keep watering it, and keep sewing,
Speaker 1: and keep trusting. Because Elisha goes on not only to
Speaker 1: part the waters of the Jordan River, which was his
Speaker 1: first miracle, but then he gets to Jericho and they
Speaker 1: need a healing in the water, and so he heals
Speaker 1: the poisonous waters his second miracle. And then he calls
Speaker 1: she bearers out of the woods to kill some little
Speaker 1: boys because he was still working this thing out. Because
Speaker 1: potential can be tricky at first, and so you can
Speaker 1: misuse your power in an earlier stage of your life.
Speaker 1: Never forget that the thing that makes you powerful makes
Speaker 1: you vulnerable and unguarded strength as a double weakness. It's
Speaker 1: all about potential. But everything he did was about potential.
Speaker 1: From the moment he was plowing. It was about potential,
Speaker 1: from the moment that he told the kings, hey, dig
Speaker 1: the ditches in preparation for the rain that is not
Speaker 1: coming from a natural source, but God is going to
Speaker 1: send it. When you do a natural thing, it was
Speaker 1: preparation for the potential of the power of God. Like
Speaker 1: the woman's oil. See, you never judge what can be
Speaker 1: in the resource by the size of the current supply.
Speaker 1: So the woman's like, oh, it's not much. Oh I'm
Speaker 1: not very good. Oh I'm not very much. Oh I'm
Speaker 1: not very known. Oh I don't have many followers. Oh
Speaker 1: I'm not Jesus jay Z. Oh I'm not Beyonce. Say,
Speaker 1: oh I don't have that. I can't sing like that,
Speaker 1: I can't move like that. But a little bit of
Speaker 1: oil flowed into a lot of jars. Wasn't about the
Speaker 1: amount of oil. It was about the amount of jars.
Speaker 1: When the Shunamite woman made him a guest room, he
Speaker 1: prophesied she would have a baby. She had given up
Speaker 1: on that. She didn't even believe that was possible. She
Speaker 1: didn't even know that was in her until the Word
Speaker 1: of God spoke it over her. You don't know what's
Speaker 1: in you. You don't know what's in your kids. Don't
Speaker 1: judge it too soon. They might turn out better than
Speaker 1: all the straight A students. The straight A students might
Speaker 1: be working for them. You don't know yet. It's too
Speaker 1: soon to tell. My God, who is this for? God
Speaker 1: is just all over me for somebody today. I know
Speaker 1: when He's fixed through me like this. That is for
Speaker 1: one person. I don't know who I'm sewing this, but
Speaker 1: it'll come back. I'll hear about it. I release this
Speaker 1: word over your life today. I release it over your
Speaker 1: life like Elijah released a mantle on Elisha's shoulders that
Speaker 1: when this word hits you, the potential of what God
Speaker 1: has put in you, every gift, skill, experience, plan, everything
Speaker 1: that God has brought you through, even all the pain,
Speaker 1: that's a potential miracle. That's a seed of the word
Speaker 1: of God. The seed seeds a small thing. Elisha told
Speaker 1: name and go down to the Jordan dip seven times.
Speaker 1: You know when he was healed, Not on the first time,
Speaker 1: not on the second time, not on the third time,
Speaker 1: on the seventh time potential is revealed in process. One day,
Speaker 1: a young prophet was chopping some wood to build a
Speaker 1: school for the prophets, and the axe had fell in
Speaker 1: the water. Elisha showed him where. When the young men
Speaker 1: showed him where it had fallen, something came on the
Speaker 1: axe head. It floated to the surface. The potential for
Speaker 1: God to speak to a small thing in your life,
Speaker 1: it's just as easy as it is for him to
Speaker 1: speak to a big thing. See all that was on
Speaker 1: Elisha in potential form, and all of it manifested when
Speaker 1: he planted himself in the purpose of God. So good
Speaker 1: to me. There's so much still in you, man, there's
Speaker 1: so much still in you, but you won't know if
Speaker 1: you stop sewing. So now follow Elisha all the way
Speaker 1: to the last miracle he performs. The Bible records, depending
Speaker 1: on how you divide it, like fifteen miracles that Elisha performs.
Speaker 1: Elijah performed eight, so it's roughly doubled the amount of miracles.
Speaker 1: The double portion that Elisha asked for, he got it.
Speaker 1: And the last thing we see him do, he's with
Speaker 1: this king who's being attacked him. He tells the king
Speaker 1: to take these arrows in his hand and start striking
Speaker 1: the ground with the arrows. Every time he struck the
Speaker 1: ground with an arrow as an act of faith that
Speaker 1: represented a potential victory that God would give him. And
Speaker 1: when he struck the ground three times and stopped, it
Speaker 1: upset Elisha. And Elisha said, you were using this device
Speaker 1: so far beneath its potential. And he was angry because
Speaker 1: he saw the victories that could have been if the
Speaker 1: king had believed in his potential. And you know what's
Speaker 1: really weird. After everything that Elisha did one miracle short
Speaker 1: of exactly twice as many miracles as his mentor, Elijah
Speaker 1: did eight Elisha did fifteen. The king strikes the ground
Speaker 1: and stops and forfeits his potential, and Elisha is angry.
Speaker 1: And the next verse says, in One Kings thirteen twenty,
Speaker 1: Elisha died and they buried him. Only this he wasn't buried,
Speaker 1: He was planted because there was still one more miracle
Speaker 1: left in him that hadn't been tapped yet. There is
Speaker 1: someone who still has a miracle in your bones. And
Speaker 1: something that you have buried is trying to come alive.
Speaker 1: While I'm preaching today, Something that you have buried a
Speaker 1: hope or a character, element of your character, or something
Speaker 1: that you have believed God for and is still in
Speaker 1: your bones. So they buried Elisha and one day, the
Speaker 1: Bible says, as they were conducting a funeral, Oh, so
Speaker 1: much potential in this room. There is so much potential
Speaker 1: in this room. You have no idea the potential that
Speaker 1: is in this room. As they were conducting a funeral,
Speaker 1: the Bible says that every springtime the Moabite raiders would
Speaker 1: come in and they would invade the land during harvest time.
Speaker 1: Isn't that interesting that the attack always happens when the
Speaker 1: harvest is coming. Y'all sleeping on the preacher. Now, I
Speaker 1: know I'll wear you out, but stay with me three minutes,
Speaker 1: and I promise you I'm gonna close this. The attack
Speaker 1: always happens the enemy. If he can't keep you from sewing,
Speaker 1: he wants you to walk away when you're about to reap.
Speaker 1: He wants you to walk away just at the moment.
Speaker 1: And if you stop now, you won't know what could
Speaker 1: have been. So the Bible says that there was a
Speaker 1: man that was being buried. There was a funeral in progress.
Speaker 1: Verse twenty one says that when the band was coming,
Speaker 1: they got in a hurry and they threw the man
Speaker 1: watched this on the grave of Elisha. Now, when they
Speaker 1: did that, it messed up the funeral, because when they
Speaker 1: buried Elisha, he still had one more miracle in his bones.
Speaker 1: So now when the dead thing hit the bones of Elisha,
Speaker 1: watch what God's about to do in your life. As
Speaker 1: soon as the man touched the bones of Elisha, he
Speaker 1: revived and stood up on his feet. What are you saying, preacher,
Speaker 1: I'm saying, if you'll throw it on the bones, if
Speaker 1: you will believe in the power of God, if you
Speaker 1: will declare resurrection power over everything you've sown, nothing is wasted,
Speaker 1: nothing is over, nothing is finished. If God is in it,
Speaker 1: it's shot. Come Lord, come on, give him a great praise.
Speaker 1: I believe in resurrection. I believe God is a grave ropper.
Speaker 1: I believe that the bones of Elisha still have power.
Speaker 1: I believe that the word of the Lord can still
Speaker 1: hit a bear and wound. I believe that the seed
Speaker 1: that you have sown, it was not buried, It was
Speaker 1: planted in the soil of God's faithfulness. Come on, let's
Speaker 1: touch the bones today. Let's go let's touch the bones.
Speaker 1: Let's go to the empty grave where they bury Jesus.
Speaker 1: But God was planting him. He was the firstborn. Come on, minnie, brethren.
Speaker 1: And when he went down, it to the earth. When
Speaker 1: he went down it to the earth, how many no army?
Speaker 1: Once Sunday he didn't stay there, but he got up
Speaker 1: and our kids up to come on, desers. If you
Speaker 1: received this word, gets your hands out, Come on every location,
Speaker 1: get up. I need us to keep our hands lifted,
Speaker 1: because we believe in resurrection. We believe in second chances.
Speaker 1: We believe in New Bocano. We believe. Does anybody believe this?
Speaker 1: Does anybody believe what this verse says? The tomb where
Speaker 1: soldiers watch in van was bowed for he day stay
Speaker 1: down right there his body? Man, Oh God, I was praying.
Speaker 1: I was praying last night about this gospel message. And
Speaker 1: I had to tell you what God showed me that
Speaker 1: it wasn't a grave, it was a garden, the tum
Speaker 1: where soldiers watched in vans Fuda. And after three days
Speaker 1: what happens? By how many of you believe in resurrection?
Speaker 1: I need every hand lift and every voice raise is wrong?
Speaker 1: The O God is wrong. The fra. Yes, it's coming up.
Speaker 1: It's coming up. Julie, Julie, He's get to all praise.
Speaker 1: We rise to consul, keep your relate, ju He's be
Speaker 1: all prace. We're oh. Thank you for join. Special thanks
Speaker 1: to those of you who give generously to this ministry.
Speaker 1: Is because of you that this ministry is possible. You
Speaker 1: can click the link in the description to give now,
Speaker 1: or visit Elevationchurch dot org slash podcast for more information
Speaker 1: and if you enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe. You
Speaker 1: can share it with your friends. You can click the
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Speaker 1: social stories and tag us at Elevation Church. Thanks again
Speaker 1: for listening. God bless you