Speaker 1: Hey, did you hear the news. Elevation Nights Spring twenty
Speaker 1: twenty two tour April twenty sixth through May fifth. Oh
Speaker 1: you gotta come. I mean, you really gotta come. I'm
Speaker 1: going to be preaching, Holly's going to be sharing Elevation Worship.
Speaker 1: Your favorite songs, old songs, new songs, kind of old
Speaker 1: new ish songs. I want to see you if you
Speaker 1: are anywhere near these cities, I want to see you.
Speaker 1: No excuses, no delay. Get your ticket right now. Let
Speaker 1: me know in the comments what night I'm going to
Speaker 1: see you, and what's your name? So I can try
Speaker 1: to shout you out, but I'll probably forget. But this
Speaker 1: is going to be amazing, the best night of our year.
Speaker 1: Go to Elevation Nights dot com right now, get your ticket,
Speaker 1: leave a comment. Let's go to the Word of God.
Speaker 1: So good to be in the Lord's House. Do me
Speaker 1: a favor. As you find your seat, just look at
Speaker 1: your neighbor and say, it's so good to see you
Speaker 1: in church. Say I'm happy I'm sitting next to you.
Speaker 1: I'm happy I'm worshiping next to you. Everybody online right now,
Speaker 1: just tell us where you're watching from right now in
Speaker 1: the Chat, people all over the world today joining us.
Speaker 1: They brought me the real pulpit today. This is the
Speaker 1: real pulpit. I haven't preached behind a pulpit in a
Speaker 1: long time like this. So good to be at Elevation Church.
Speaker 1: How may all love your church make some noise no
Speaker 1: place like Elevation Church. And what an honor, what a
Speaker 1: privilege it is for me to be back here in
Speaker 1: Charlotte at one of my favorite places in all of
Speaker 1: the world. And a really special weekend if you don't know,
Speaker 1: because yesterday your pastor, he celebrated his birthday, and I
Speaker 1: think it's important on birthday weekends that we let Pastor
Speaker 1: Stephen rest. And I love Pastor Stephen Verdick so very
Speaker 1: very much, and what a voice he has been in
Speaker 1: my life, What an impact and inspiration he has made
Speaker 1: on my life and our family. And I just counted
Speaker 1: an honor to not only get to follow behind him,
Speaker 1: but also to get to call him friend. And today
Speaker 1: on his birthday weekend, I just think that all of
Speaker 1: us in this place we should be praying for Pastor
Speaker 1: Stephen Hawley. We should be sending all the love. If
Speaker 1: you're in the Chat right now, just put it in
Speaker 1: the chat. Happy birthday, Pastor Stephen. We love him so
Speaker 1: very very much. Come on, if you love Pastor Steven,
Speaker 1: can we go ahead and make some noise and just
Speaker 1: thank God for who he is and no one like him,
Speaker 1: no one like him. I seemed to be under his preaching.
Speaker 1: What a blessing to be under his leadership. I learned
Speaker 1: a long time ago it matters what you get under
Speaker 1: in life. It really matters. Because I'm telling you there's
Speaker 1: a whole lot of people in life they never get
Speaker 1: over what God's placed under them because they never got
Speaker 1: under what God placed over them. And I think getting
Speaker 1: under the right spiritual authority and the right spiritual council
Speaker 1: makes all the difference. And so I love you and
Speaker 1: love this church honestly. Just being here today nothing like
Speaker 1: the presence of God. I'm thankful for the presence of
Speaker 1: God and he's here today. And recently, last time I
Speaker 1: got to be around Elevation Worship, they were in Miami
Speaker 1: on an elevation night. Wherever you're at in the world
Speaker 1: right now, I know they're about to get out all
Speaker 1: over the places in April. I think in May, I
Speaker 1: think I'm getting the dates right if they're coming to
Speaker 1: your city, if they're in a five hour radius drive,
Speaker 1: you ought to make it there because I'm telling you
Speaker 1: there's something on these nights that you're going to get
Speaker 1: in that room, and power of God is there, and
Speaker 1: I sense it here today in the house. Anybody ready
Speaker 1: for God's word today? Tewo. Corinthians, chapter twelve. I'm just
Speaker 1: I'm kind of gushing up here, but I got a
Speaker 1: word on my heart, and I came to preach today,
Speaker 1: and so I like a little bit of response. You
Speaker 1: could say, amen, you could say I like that. You
Speaker 1: could say preach it, white boy. I don't really care.
Speaker 1: But you are going to tap into your inner Pentecostal
Speaker 1: wherever he or she is today, and we're gonna have
Speaker 1: some church and we're gonna believe that God's Spirit's going
Speaker 1: to meet us right what we are. Second Corinthians, chapter twelve,
Speaker 1: verse six. This is the apostle Paul writing, he says,
Speaker 1: even if I should choose to boast, I would not
Speaker 1: be a fool, because I would be speaking the truth.
Speaker 1: But I refrain so no one will think more of
Speaker 1: me than what is warranted by what I do or
Speaker 1: what I say, or because of these surpassingly great revelations. Therefore,
Speaker 1: someone say, therefore, therefore, in order to keep me from
Speaker 1: becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh,
Speaker 1: a messenger of Satan to torment me three times. Someone
Speaker 1: say three times three times. I pleaded with the Lord
Speaker 1: to take it away from me, But he said to me,
Speaker 1: my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is
Speaker 1: made perfect in weakness. Therefore I will boast all the
Speaker 1: more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may
Speaker 1: rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I
Speaker 1: delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties.
Speaker 1: For when I am weak, then I am strong. I
Speaker 1: came to Elevation Church today to encourage somebody. I don't
Speaker 1: have a doom and gloom message. I don't think church
Speaker 1: is to be endured. I think it's to be enjoyed.
Speaker 1: And I got one mission, and that is to make
Speaker 1: sure you walk out of this room feeling better, believing
Speaker 1: for more, knowing that God wants to work in your life.
Speaker 1: I want to preach for the next two hours. I
Speaker 1: want to preach the next thirty minutes or so from
Speaker 1: the subject, work your weakness. Look at your neighbor, say neighbor,
Speaker 1: work your weakness. Look at your other neighbor, say other neighbor,
Speaker 1: work your weakness. Hopefully in your living room. You're talking
Speaker 1: to somebody right now, would you prayer one were talking
Speaker 1: with LORDI thank you so much for your word. We
Speaker 1: thank you that it's sharper than any double edged sored.
Speaker 1: We believe that today God, it brings truth, Lord to
Speaker 1: our chaos. It brings truth, Lord of the lies that
Speaker 1: the enemy wants to put in our mind. I pray
Speaker 1: that today Lord, as we know your truth, we walk
Speaker 1: into true, real freedom through the power of Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1: Thank you for being here with us today. Thank you
Speaker 1: for meeting us here. We thank you in advance for
Speaker 1: the transformation that's about to occur. If you agree with
Speaker 1: that prayer, all of God's people said, all of God's
Speaker 1: people said, and if you love Jesus one more time,
Speaker 1: go ahead and make a big, big shout of praise
Speaker 1: all over this place. Y'all. Don't make it fair up here.
Speaker 1: They just keep playing stuff. It sounds way too spiritual
Speaker 1: with these guys. I just got done at our church
Speaker 1: doing a seven week collection of talks on mindsets, the
Speaker 1: power of the mind, And I came across this this
Speaker 1: study that was done in two thousand and five by
Speaker 1: the National Science Foundation, and it was a study of
Speaker 1: the brain, and I found the research to be really interesting.
Speaker 1: They say that on average, that you and I we
Speaker 1: have about forty thousand thoughts a day, and out of
Speaker 1: those forty thousand thoughts, what we learned is that eighty
Speaker 1: percent of those thoughts are negative. Watch this. This is
Speaker 1: where I thought was really really interesting that ninety five
Speaker 1: percent of your thoughts are the same thought that you
Speaker 1: had yesterday. So what do we learn about humanity? We
Speaker 1: learned that humanity tends to go negative, and humanity is
Speaker 1: a broken record. Anyone out there, I'm not gonna get
Speaker 1: you put your hand up anyone out there, like you
Speaker 1: get on one song and you are on that song
Speaker 1: till I don't play songs. I execute them, just over
Speaker 1: and over and over and over again. And what I've
Speaker 1: learned about myself, but what I've learned about pastoring people
Speaker 1: is that we have a tendency to make much out
Speaker 1: of our weaknesses and very little out of our strengths.
Speaker 1: We have a tendency to focus on all that's missing,
Speaker 1: rather than noticing all that we have. My wife, she's
Speaker 1: here with me today, fifteen years of marriage. Holler at
Speaker 1: your boy. And her name is don Shriie, and she
Speaker 1: has a little bit of a struggle of her own,
Speaker 1: and that is she's addicted to online shopping. My wife
Speaker 1: makes you laugh because like she'll purchase something and she's like,
Speaker 1: oh my god, like the package, just like where did
Speaker 1: this come from? I'm like, you bought it for yourself,
Speaker 1: you know, And some of you girls are like, what
Speaker 1: do I get for Valentine's that you got yourself? Okay?
Speaker 1: She loves the online shop is always interesting because you
Speaker 1: purchase something online and typically they'll send you like a
Speaker 1: FedEx number, and if you ever take that fed X number,
Speaker 1: you put it into the website and then all of
Speaker 1: a sudden a message pops up, and what does it say.
Speaker 1: It says the package is in transit. And I think
Speaker 1: it's such a word for all of us in this
Speaker 1: place that if you have given your life to Jesus,
Speaker 1: please recognize that two thousand years ago he purchased you
Speaker 1: with his blood. But now all of us are in transit,
Speaker 1: all of us are in process, All of us are
Speaker 1: become mean who God has called us to be. I
Speaker 1: am not perfect, but thank God, I am being perfected.
Speaker 1: Anybody grateful out there that God has not done working
Speaker 1: on you yet, that you are becoming something. I've been
Speaker 1: purchased by Jesus. He owns me, but I have not
Speaker 1: arrived yet. Therefore, watch this. I can be becoming and
Speaker 1: struggling all in the same sentence. And we're gonna have
Speaker 1: to learn, you and I that although we're struggling in
Speaker 1: different areas, it does not negate the truth that we
Speaker 1: are still becoming the person that God has called us
Speaker 1: to be. I got to learn how to work my weakness.
Speaker 1: I got to recognize that problems do not actually overshadow
Speaker 1: God's purpose. You need to know today that you might
Speaker 1: have some weaknesses, but God still wants to work in
Speaker 1: your life. You're gonna have to learn that, yeah, you
Speaker 1: have some deficiencies, but none of those deficiencies are gonna
Speaker 1: delay the destiny that God has planned for you from
Speaker 1: the beginning. Am I preaching to anybody today? Work your weakness.
Speaker 1: You're becoming something in Jesus. You're becoming something in Jesus.
Speaker 1: I love our passage of scripture. Today, we don't have
Speaker 1: nearly enough time to truly put this text into its
Speaker 1: full context, but it is important that we recognize that
Speaker 1: Paul is writing to a church in Corinth. This is
Speaker 1: a church that he started, and he's been gone from
Speaker 1: this church for about a year and a half. And
Speaker 1: as he's been gone, there have been some false teachers
Speaker 1: that have snuck in and now they want to sway
Speaker 1: that audience to follow them. And the way that they're
Speaker 1: doing that is they're trying to discredit Paul. And they're
Speaker 1: discredit him in all sorts of ways that they're lying
Speaker 1: about him. They're really trying to challenge his integrity, and
Speaker 1: so they're saying all sorts of stuff. They're saying that
Speaker 1: he's got bad teaching, they're saying that he has moral failings,
Speaker 1: that his motivations are impure. They even just say stuff like,
Speaker 1: you know, he's just he's not a good preacher, Like
Speaker 1: he's not eloquent, he don't have the gift of pastor Steven,
Speaker 1: Like he's not good, you know. And so Paul is
Speaker 1: coming back to this church, and as he writes this church,
Speaker 1: he doesn't want this audience to be swayed into this
Speaker 1: false thinking and this false teaching, and so he has
Speaker 1: to defend his ministry. And as he becomes to defend
Speaker 1: his ministry, you can see like his hesitation go back
Speaker 1: to Second Corinthians ten, eleven and twelve, and he's kind
Speaker 1: of going through it and there's like a it's almost
Speaker 1: annoying to Paul that he has to do this because
Speaker 1: he doesn't want to give his resume, and he kind
Speaker 1: of starts by giving his strengths, and it kind of
Speaker 1: starts by sharing all the things that he's done. But
Speaker 1: then like halfway through, as you get into chapter eleven,
Speaker 1: what you see Paul's he flips the script. He's like,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm done going this route. If I'm
Speaker 1: really gonna try to impress you, let me just be
Speaker 1: honest with you. What's really impressive is not my strengths.
Speaker 1: What's really impressive is all that God has done despite
Speaker 1: my weaknesses. That if God's really gonna get glory and
Speaker 1: if you're really gonna witness the supernatural power of God,
Speaker 1: it will not happen because you witness and testify all
Speaker 1: the areas about my life that are strong. But rather
Speaker 1: when you recognize all of the gaps and the deficiencies
Speaker 1: that I have. And so Paul begins to talk about
Speaker 1: this thing he calls the thorn in his flesh. It's
Speaker 1: amazing because as we go through it, scholars have talked
Speaker 1: for many, many, you know, years about what is Paul's thorn?
Speaker 1: And there's lots of things we could just spare you,
Speaker 1: but they, you know, they talk about maybe it's his eyesight,
Speaker 1: maybe it's the shame of his past. You know, it
Speaker 1: wasn't just tough things that were happening to Paul. Paul
Speaker 1: did some really bad things. He killed Christians. That's why
Speaker 1: I always think for people in church, like I don't
Speaker 1: know if God can use me well, like like like
Speaker 1: what have you done? Bro? You know? Like and so
Speaker 1: really they talk about that, they think maybe it could
Speaker 1: be a physical thing. What I love is is that
Speaker 1: none of us actually know what Paul's thorn in his
Speaker 1: flesh was? And how do you know that? This is
Speaker 1: both merciful and quite instructive. It's merciful that we don't
Speaker 1: know what Paul's thorn is because how me all know,
Speaker 1: I just know how we are. If we knew what
Speaker 1: Paul's thorn was, we would all be comparing our thorn
Speaker 1: to his thorn. Some of y'all be like, oh wow,
Speaker 1: like Paul, you struggle with that, not me, superiority would
Speaker 1: hit your life. Others of you be like, that's your thorn, Paul,
Speaker 1: Oh man, I'm really jacked up. And then inferiority would
Speaker 1: hit your life. So it's merciful that we don't know
Speaker 1: what it is. But it's also instructive because apparently the
Speaker 1: point is not the thorn, but rather it's the purpose
Speaker 1: of the thorn. What's the purpose of the thorn? For
Speaker 1: a lack of better terms, today, just as we're talking
Speaker 1: about this idea of Paul's thorn, let's just use this
Speaker 1: word weakness that every one of us in this room
Speaker 1: and all of us watching online today, we have some
Speaker 1: sort of weakness. We have some sort of gap, some
Speaker 1: sort of deficiency, some sort of struggle, fear, worry, anxiety,
Speaker 1: something that our brain loves to replay, something that our
Speaker 1: brain told us yesterday. And if we're not careful today,
Speaker 1: even on the Lord's Day, we will walk out of
Speaker 1: here still rehearsing and playing the broken record. But I've
Speaker 1: come today to encourage you that you're gonna have to
Speaker 1: work that weakness, that you might be weak, but God
Speaker 1: still wants to work in and through your life. How
Speaker 1: do y'all know? Like, when it comes to this idea
Speaker 1: of weaknesses, the first step about our weaknesses is that
Speaker 1: we have to stop denying our weaknesses, Like you can't
Speaker 1: denying your weakness isn't going to solve your weakness. And
Speaker 1: sometimes church like it teaches us how to be like
Speaker 1: professional mask wears, Like we come in, we play the part,
Speaker 1: how you doing, brother blessed and highly favored, Like we
Speaker 1: just say it's this funniest stuff at church that you
Speaker 1: don't say on Mondays at the cubicle, you know. And
Speaker 1: if we're not careful, we just project all of our
Speaker 1: strength and all that's going good as opposed to exposing
Speaker 1: the weak areas of our life. I think many times
Speaker 1: we don't expose our weaknesses because honestly, just we're afraid
Speaker 1: to be embarrassed by them. When I was in Bible college,
Speaker 1: I was eighteen years of age and I was really
Speaker 1: on fire for Jesus. And I had started this Bible
Speaker 1: study at my Bible college that's funny and winning my
Speaker 1: Bible college to Jesus. And I decided that that summer,
Speaker 1: I wanted to like kind of go, you know, on
Speaker 1: the road doing some ministry. My dad's a preacher, and
Speaker 1: so I said, Dad, I want to go and preach
Speaker 1: and somebod. Dad called all his pastor friends and like
Speaker 1: booked me all up and down, you know, the East
Speaker 1: Coast preaching these little youth ministries. And so we got
Speaker 1: a mini van and we got a trailer. And I
Speaker 1: quickly realized I was like, yo, I'm gonna need some help.
Speaker 1: And so I can't just go preach. I'm gonna need,
Speaker 1: you know, like a like a worship team. And so
Speaker 1: we put a group together. Our group was called Broken.
Speaker 1: I mean it's no elevation nights, but I mean Broken
Speaker 1: coming to a town near you, you know, you know it.
Speaker 1: It was a wild summer. We had this little van
Speaker 1: and this blue trailer and we just drove everywhere. And
Speaker 1: I remember one time I drove across the state of
Speaker 1: Georgia five hours to get to a youth ministry that
Speaker 1: had five people in the audience. I still used a
Speaker 1: microphone because I didn't see five people. I saw five thousand. Okay,
Speaker 1: true story though. Anyways, I remember we would go to
Speaker 1: these places that I would preach and stuff, and so
Speaker 1: we were like real like into it. And I used
Speaker 1: to I used to wear this little microphone under my
Speaker 1: shirt because I wanted to replay and listen to my
Speaker 1: sermons and try to get better at them. And so
Speaker 1: I remember at the time there was this big Michael W.
Speaker 1: Smith song out there called Here I Am to Worship,
Speaker 1: and there was this part on the bridge that said,
Speaker 1: some of y'all remember it's like, oh, never know how
Speaker 1: much it costs to see my sin upon that cross.
Speaker 1: Thank you, so all glory to him. Honestly, honestly, it's
Speaker 1: not about me. It's not about me. Shut up. And
Speaker 1: I uh I remember. I remember like sometimes when I
Speaker 1: get preaching and I get real annointed, shut up, and
Speaker 1: the spirit of worship would like come upon me, you know.
Speaker 1: And so uh I remember, in particular, we had this
Speaker 1: little leap ministry and like I was off the microphone,
Speaker 1: but now I'm like praying for students and like this song,
Speaker 1: you know, the Michael W. Smith was on, and so
Speaker 1: I'm like singing. And so we get in the car
Speaker 1: the next day and I know this is super strange,
Speaker 1: but we would like always recap the night before, and
Speaker 1: so we're driving to the next town, and we put
Speaker 1: on the tape to listen to the sermon. We're all
Speaker 1: gonna evaluate it, we're all gonna like talk about it
Speaker 1: and give feedback. And the sermon's over. But now it's
Speaker 1: like in the ministry time, and so I'm praying for students,
Speaker 1: and so I'm not on the microphone, but you can
Speaker 1: still hear the recording, and that song comes on. And
Speaker 1: when that song comes on, I'm I'm praying for people,
Speaker 1: but I begin to sing that song in a register
Speaker 1: that certainly does not belong to me. And and it
Speaker 1: wasn't that I was like opposed to everybody laughing in
Speaker 1: the car. It was just after twenty minutes of still
Speaker 1: laughing that the embarrassment hit my life to a point
Speaker 1: that how ma y'all know that was the last time
Speaker 1: I asked for feedback from those guys with my message.
Speaker 1: Why because many times what happens is is that once
Speaker 1: we expose the weakness, shame hits our life. Listen to me,
Speaker 1: you will always be as sick as your secrets. God
Speaker 1: can't heal what you just continue to hide. And so
Speaker 1: what happens is if we're not careful, we start to
Speaker 1: close up and we start to hide the weak areas
Speaker 1: and we just start to play church and we just
Speaker 1: start to play Christianity, but all the while we're not
Speaker 1: finding encouragement. Listen to me loud and clear. Don't expect
Speaker 1: someone to weak courage that which you do not expose.
Speaker 1: We have to be people that are least willing to
Speaker 1: expose the weak areas of our life because just denying it,
Speaker 1: I'm never ever gonna find freedom from it. I have
Speaker 1: to come to terms with it. I have to bring
Speaker 1: it to the light. I have to showcase my friends,
Speaker 1: my pastors, those around me, because if I want God
Speaker 1: to work, I'm going to have to get comfortable to
Speaker 1: realize that although I have a weakness, he's not done
Speaker 1: working on me yet. But I have to expose it.
Speaker 1: So here's the apostle Paul, Like he's like you and
Speaker 1: I and he's writing, he's defending his ministry, and now
Speaker 1: he gets to this area about his weak area, and
Speaker 1: he's trying, I think, to encourage you and I that
Speaker 1: although he's weak, God still working. But he kind of
Speaker 1: just testifies about his story about his weakness, and he
Speaker 1: genuinely says out loud he says, three times I pleaded
Speaker 1: with the Lord to take it away from me. Three
Speaker 1: times I ask God, take this weakness away. Is there
Speaker 1: something in your life today that you are convinced that
Speaker 1: you know better than God? God? If you would just
Speaker 1: do that, then I could do this. God. If you
Speaker 1: would just take away that thing, I could be so
Speaker 1: much more effective for you. God. If you just gave
Speaker 1: me that promotion, then I would actually be happy. God.
Speaker 1: If you would just give me a spouse, I'm a Yeah,
Speaker 1: people coming alive this morning. And sometimes we say we
Speaker 1: want God's will, but really we just want our will,
Speaker 1: and we want to call it God's will. And so
Speaker 1: here's the apostle Pau and he's like, He's like, if
Speaker 1: you'll just take away this thorn, I just know then
Speaker 1: I could three times I've pleaded with the Lord. I
Speaker 1: think the most beautiful thing about that passage is that
Speaker 1: at least Paul is bringing the weakness to God. At
Speaker 1: least Paul is praying about the thing. How mey ell know,
Speaker 1: if you've got time to complain about it, you got
Speaker 1: time to pray about it. I'm not sure. I think
Speaker 1: some people they don't actually want resolve. Some people just
Speaker 1: want attention. But if you actually want something to change,
Speaker 1: if you want something to turn around, don't just talk
Speaker 1: about it to your friends. Don't just talk about it
Speaker 1: to your therapist. You bring that thing before and Alrighteous God,
Speaker 1: and you bring it before him saying God, I need
Speaker 1: you to turn something around. Three times, I'm pleaded with God. Yo.
Speaker 1: If it's worth praying, it's worth repeating. Repeat those prayers.
Speaker 1: Bring those prayers before God. There's a story in Luke
Speaker 1: chapter eleven that Jesus is teaching about prayer, and it's
Speaker 1: one of the most peculiar stories in all the Bible.
Speaker 1: You ought to go back and look at it. I
Speaker 1: preach the message one time entitled the Art of ba God,
Speaker 1: because the entire parable is all about this guy waking
Speaker 1: up in the night to a man on the outside
Speaker 1: knocking on the door who would not stop knocking, and
Speaker 1: finally the man answers his request, not because he loves
Speaker 1: the man, not because he enjoys the man, but because
Speaker 1: the man would not stop bothering him. I have a son.
Speaker 1: His name is Wild. That was a mistake to name
Speaker 1: him Wild. And this boy, I don't care what time
Speaker 1: of day it is. We wake up seven thirty am.
Speaker 1: Dead dead, dead dead ice cream ice cream, ice cream,
Speaker 1: ice cream, ice cream ice cream, Shut up, wild ice
Speaker 1: cream ice cream, ice cream ice cream. The other day,
Speaker 1: his mom was still in bed and I was up.
Speaker 1: It wasn't even eight am. His kids like ice cream,
Speaker 1: ice cream, ice cream. I was like, fine, you say, Richie,
Speaker 1: did you give that boy ice cream because you love him? No,
Speaker 1: quite the opposite. I gave that kid ice cream because
Speaker 1: he would not stop asking. And I want to say
Speaker 1: to some of you out there right now, if you
Speaker 1: got something that's that important you keep repeating that prayer.
Speaker 1: I don't care what it is. You bring it before
Speaker 1: God and you ask him to do something rich You
Speaker 1: can't pray about ice cream. That's shallow. No, there's no
Speaker 1: such thing as shallow prayers, only shallow people. If you
Speaker 1: walk up to a pool, every pool that I've almost
Speaker 1: ever been around has some sort of a shallow end somewhere.
Speaker 1: But no one looks at a pool that's got a
Speaker 1: shallow end and a deep end and says that's a
Speaker 1: shallow pool. They simply ask the question, does it have
Speaker 1: a deep end? And so all of your prayers are
Speaker 1: about ice cream. I don't think that's just a shallow prayer.
Speaker 1: I think you're a shallow person. The question is do
Speaker 1: you have a deep end. In the deep end is
Speaker 1: when you bring your weakness, your fear, your struggle, your insecurity,
Speaker 1: your anxiety. Those of us in the room today, we
Speaker 1: don't just come in here and play church. We come
Speaker 1: to God and we bring the totality of our self,
Speaker 1: the light side and the dark side, the good and
Speaker 1: the bad, the positive and the negative, and we're saying,
Speaker 1: God today, we want to transfer our thoughts, and we
Speaker 1: want your thoughts. Three times I've pleaded with the Lord.
Speaker 1: What I have learned about God when it comes to
Speaker 1: this idea of working my weakness is that unanswered prayers
Speaker 1: are not unmet needs. And you gotta get this because
Speaker 1: here's Paul. Three times I've pleaded to take that thorn away.
Speaker 1: I was sure if he would just take the thorn away,
Speaker 1: I could be effective. I could really plant these churches.
Speaker 1: Three times I've pleaded with God. I prayed it, I
Speaker 1: prayed it. I prayed it. I prayed it, I prayed it.
Speaker 1: So here's God, God, here's Paul's prayer. I love it,
Speaker 1: and you can hear see God. He's like yeah, Paul,
Speaker 1: I hear you. Here's what we do. I'm going to
Speaker 1: meet your need by not answering your request. No, no no, God,
Speaker 1: I don't think unerstood. I'm down here trying to do
Speaker 1: your work, and I got this struggle. I got this thing,
Speaker 1: this thorn that is wearing me out. Could you just
Speaker 1: relieve me of that so I could be more effective
Speaker 1: for you? Paul, I heard you. I'm going to meet
Speaker 1: that need by not answering your request. Some of y'all,
Speaker 1: y'all know this to be true about God. How may
Speaker 1: y'all know that one of the most merciful things God
Speaker 1: can do is not answer all your requests. I was
Speaker 1: seventeen years of age. I had an encounter with Jesus.
Speaker 1: My life was radically transformed, turned upside down. I was
Speaker 1: full on for Jesus. I was seeking God. I was like, Lord,
Speaker 1: I know you're calling me. I can hear. Yes, Lord,
Speaker 1: I'm supposed to go to school in Los Angeles. I
Speaker 1: live in Miami. You're calling me this school in LA
Speaker 1: And so in my house, my dad he is twofold,
Speaker 1: he is both priest and king. And so I remember
Speaker 1: coming to my father, and you know, I curtseyed and
Speaker 1: I beseech the father on behalf of the brethren. My
Speaker 1: brother's The Lord is speaking to me. I am supposed
Speaker 1: to go to college in Los Angeles and might have
Speaker 1: said no, no, no, no, you are not. I said,
Speaker 1: excuse me. He said, no, you're not going. You're not
Speaker 1: going to college in Los Angeles. That is not the
Speaker 1: Lord's will for your life. You're going to school in Cleveland, Tennessee.
Speaker 1: It's one thing not to go to Los Angeles. It
Speaker 1: is a whole other thing to be sent to Cleveland, Tennessee.
Speaker 1: Not Cleveland, Ohio. You need Cleveland, Tennessee. I was like what.
Speaker 1: I was like, God, where are you? Why have you
Speaker 1: forsaken me? You know. About a month and a half later,
Speaker 1: I was in Nashville, Tennessee. I met this beautiful blonde
Speaker 1: head girl named don Scherie durn Thank you, and man,
Speaker 1: it's excited for me. And we started talking and you know,
Speaker 1: just you know how it goes. And I said, what
Speaker 1: are your plans for the fall? She said, my plans
Speaker 1: are I'm making music and I'm going to be right
Speaker 1: here in Nashville, Tennessee. I said, how far of a
Speaker 1: drive is Nashville, Tennessee to Cleveland, Tennessee. She said, it's
Speaker 1: about two hours. I said, I know what God's will
Speaker 1: is for my life. Anybody thankful? God then answer all
Speaker 1: your requests. Anybody thankful that God still met your need
Speaker 1: although he didn't answer your prayer request in the way
Speaker 1: you wanted him to answer it. Come on, tell me
Speaker 1: all you wanted that new job, but had you gotten
Speaker 1: that new job, you would have never found that new passion.
Speaker 1: You prayed for a promotion, but had you gotten the promotion,
Speaker 1: you would have never found yourself on that new path.
Speaker 1: Some of you beg God, God, do not let this
Speaker 1: relationship fall apart. But God had to let that relationship
Speaker 1: fall apart to expose to you that thing was broken
Speaker 1: from the day you started it. Come on, some of you.
Speaker 1: All you said, God, show up in my life, But
Speaker 1: God says, I'm gonna make you wait so you can
Speaker 1: develop some inner strength. Some of you wanted breakthrough last year.
Speaker 1: You didn't know it was all a setup for breakthrough
Speaker 1: this year. Oh wait a minute, God has been meeting
Speaker 1: my needs. He just didn't answer the request the way
Speaker 1: I wanted it. God, God, I just know if you
Speaker 1: just solve this thing I could be more effective for you,
Speaker 1: And God's like, you have no idea how you'll be
Speaker 1: effective for me. I don't pick people like you do
Speaker 1: at recess when you line them all up for dodgeball,
Speaker 1: because y'all know what you do at dodgeball. You look
Speaker 1: at people and you judge them from their past performance,
Speaker 1: or you look at people you say, I wonder what
Speaker 1: they look like, they got some potential. But when God
Speaker 1: lines up humanity, he's not looking at past performance. He's
Speaker 1: not looking at your strength of today. When God looks
Speaker 1: at you, he says, I chose the foolish things of
Speaker 1: this world to shame the wise. I chose the weak
Speaker 1: things of this world as shame the strong. I chose
Speaker 1: the lowly things, the things that are despised, the things
Speaker 1: that are not, to nullify the things that are. Why
Speaker 1: because God only gets glory when you're broken. It's in
Speaker 1: your brokenness that His glory and power shines through. Paul.
Speaker 1: I'm going to meet your need by not answering your quest.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna leave that thorn in place because actually I'm
Speaker 1: going to get more glory from your life with this weakness.
Speaker 1: Oh okay, God, So I'm pleading. I'm pleading. God actually
Speaker 1: does answer him, he just doesn't answer him the way
Speaker 1: that he wants him to answer him. The scripture says
Speaker 1: that Jesus, this shows up in red letters now in
Speaker 1: the Bible, if you've got the red letter edition second print.
Speaker 1: Things right there, Jesus he speaks, and he says, my
Speaker 1: grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made
Speaker 1: perfect in weakness. Therefore I will boast all the more
Speaker 1: gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest
Speaker 1: on me. What I have learned about God over and
Speaker 1: over again is that God's grace will fill the space.
Speaker 1: We have a difficult time in twenty twenty two because
Speaker 1: now more than ever, we don't just have one person
Speaker 1: we're comparing our lives to. We have categories of people
Speaker 1: that we're comparing our life too. Right, Like, so you've
Speaker 1: got somebody in your life, is like, that's the spiritual person.
Speaker 1: Like you come to church, like look at them, they're
Speaker 1: just so free, they're just oh man, look at like
Speaker 1: they just have their hands are up. Wow, I'm over here.
Speaker 1: I feel weird like here and they're there, and uh,
Speaker 1: I'm less than we got we got, you know, relationships
Speaker 1: like married people. Oh man, look look at him. I
Speaker 1: just know. I just know he loves her like Christ
Speaker 1: loves the church guys. Oh man, look at her. I
Speaker 1: just I just know she's just I bet she she
Speaker 1: just always submits. Like what bro We got people we
Speaker 1: compare our kids to look at look at look at
Speaker 1: their kids. Oh they're perfect. Mine are demon possessed and
Speaker 1: they're perfect physicality right like, oh man, look at it,
Speaker 1: he's got apps. I just I have a tire around.
Speaker 1: I don't know what to do, like, God help me.
Speaker 1: And this comparison culture just kills our contentment, robs our joy.
Speaker 1: Watch this the grace that God has it fills the
Speaker 1: space in our life. But you got to see this.
Speaker 1: The space in my life is not the space between
Speaker 1: you and me. This is what happens. A lot of
Speaker 1: this is like, in fact, I don't get any grace
Speaker 1: for the space between me and you. The fact the
Speaker 1: space that God's filling my life is not between me
Speaker 1: and you. The space that God is filling in my
Speaker 1: life is who I am today and who He purchased
Speaker 1: on Calvary's Hill. It's the space from where I'm at
Speaker 1: and who I'm becoming tomorrow. And you have to learn
Speaker 1: this because the only grace you get is is for
Speaker 1: that space. It's for that. It's not the space between
Speaker 1: me and you, oh how much. It's the space between
Speaker 1: where I am today and who I'm becoming tomorrow. He says,
Speaker 1: my grace is sufficient. I like words, and words are
Speaker 1: always interesting me. I've read that word. That's the word
Speaker 1: that gets used a lot in church. Christ is sufficient,
Speaker 1: the sufficiency of Christ. We just throw that word around.
Speaker 1: Do you know what sufficient means? By definition, sufficient means
Speaker 1: adequate for its purpose? Okay, hold on it because I
Speaker 1: want to help somebody. God's grace is adequate for your purpose. Adequate?
Speaker 1: That's interesting one. You know what that word means, just
Speaker 1: the right amount? How may all know? We all need
Speaker 1: different measures of grace. There was one measure of grace
Speaker 1: I needed when I was single and secure, new book
Speaker 1: dropping tomorrow. There was a different measure of grace that
Speaker 1: I needed when I got married to Don Cherie. There
Speaker 1: was a different measure of grace that I needed when
Speaker 1: I started pastoring to church. Oh my goodness, we have
Speaker 1: three kids now. More grace, grace, And the scripture is
Speaker 1: saying that God has just the right amount of grace,
Speaker 1: not for your neighbor's purpose, but for your purpose. So
Speaker 1: run your race, because it's about your race. He has
Speaker 1: grace for your race and for the space in your life.
Speaker 1: My grace is sufficient for you. I'm thirty seven years
Speaker 1: of age, and I have been doing ministry now since
Speaker 1: I was eighteen years of age, but full time in
Speaker 1: ministry since I was twenty three. And I told you,
Speaker 1: I started going to school up in Cleveland, Tennessee, and
Speaker 1: it ended up becoming one of the greatest joys and
Speaker 1: blessings of my life getting to go to school there,
Speaker 1: and I learned how to lead there. I learned how
Speaker 1: to start preaching there. And I remember down the street
Speaker 1: in Atlanta, Georgia, there was this big ministry taking place
Speaker 1: called seven twenty two and there was a pastor there.
Speaker 1: But they have Pastor Louis Giglio. Come on, somebody shout
Speaker 1: out to Louis. Just giving shout outs, you know, and
Speaker 1: those of you who don't know. Louis leads a church
Speaker 1: called Passion City Church. And he's actually a very good
Speaker 1: friend of mine now at this point my life, but
Speaker 1: especially back then. I mean, he's a hero today, but
Speaker 1: he was certainly. Like back then, I was like, this
Speaker 1: guy is amazing. And if you know anything about Louie's
Speaker 1: like really smart, you know, and his hair is like,
Speaker 1: you know, speckled gray, and he like preaches about all
Speaker 1: sorts of different stuff like this guy can like you know,
Speaker 1: he preaches about the stars and like reveals like Christ
Speaker 1: in the stars, you know, like how would go? He's like,
Speaker 1: that's Oryan's belt, the Belt of Truth. I'm like, oh
Speaker 1: my god, you know whoa like? And see the Big
Speaker 1: Dipper then the Resurrection, I'm like, oh my goodness. I
Speaker 1: never saw Christ there before and I was blown away. Man,
Speaker 1: and I would drive down to Atlanta. He hid thousands
Speaker 1: of twenty somethings on a Tuesday night he was preaching,
Speaker 1: and I would just go, I'm like, oh, man, Louis Louie, Man,
Speaker 1: oh Louie. So I finally graduated from Bible College. I
Speaker 1: moved to Miami and my dad said, rich, what do
Speaker 1: you want to do? I said, I want to preach
Speaker 1: to young adults. He said why, I said, because Louis
Speaker 1: Giglio preaches to young adults. He said okay, he said, well,
Speaker 1: what night do you want to hold the service? I said,
Speaker 1: I want to preach on Tuesday nights. He said why,
Speaker 1: I said, because Louis Giglio preaches on Tuesday nights. Very
Speaker 1: true story. We started a ministry called the Rendezvous on
Speaker 1: Tuesday nights, and for the first six months of that
Speaker 1: ministry I would get up with a laser pointer and said,
Speaker 1: you see Oryan's belt right there. I did everything I
Speaker 1: possibly could to preach and teach and behave just like
Speaker 1: Louis Giglio. But no matter what I did, how may'all know?
Speaker 1: I am a very bad version of Louis Giglio. I
Speaker 1: don't get any grace to be Louis Giglio. I love Louis,
Speaker 1: no disrespect to Louis. I'm just a really bad copy
Speaker 1: of Louis Giglio. But the good news is I am
Speaker 1: the best Rich Wilgerson Jr. You have ever met in
Speaker 1: your entire life. Come on, somebody, be you run your race.
Speaker 1: God has grace for your space. Be you. Everybody else
Speaker 1: has already taken, and his grace is sufficient. It's going
Speaker 1: to fill that space. Work your weakness, someone say, work
Speaker 1: your weakness. James Chapter four, verse six says that he
Speaker 1: has more grace. Someone say, more grace. God has grace
Speaker 1: to spare all your mistakes, all your mishaps, all your faults,
Speaker 1: all your failures. He has more grace, more grace, more grace,
Speaker 1: work your weakness. You are on the journey of becoming.
Speaker 1: It's not the point that he has a thorn. The
Speaker 1: point is the purpose of the thorn. So what is
Speaker 1: the purpose of the thorn? Well, Paul actually answers it
Speaker 1: as we get ready to close the day. Paul says,
Speaker 1: I was given a thorn. Isn't that amazing? I was
Speaker 1: given a thorn? Meaning some of the weaknesses in your life,
Speaker 1: he didn't cause them. You didn't ask for them, You
Speaker 1: didn't want them, he says, a messenger of Satan to
Speaker 1: torment me. He even tells me you didn't ask for it,
Speaker 1: but God's going to use it. It even tells me
Speaker 1: that God will use the devil. He'll use the devil
Speaker 1: to accomplish his will in your life. But notice what
Speaker 1: he says. He says, to keep me from becoming conceited,
Speaker 1: To keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a
Speaker 1: thorn in my flesh. There's that word becoming. Who are
Speaker 1: you becoming today? Because who you're becoming, I actually think
Speaker 1: is more important than who you are today. Where you're
Speaker 1: headed is more important than where you are. Direction has
Speaker 1: always been more important than speed. And Paul answers the question.
Speaker 1: He says, why was I given this thorn? It was
Speaker 1: to keep me from becoming conceded, Meaning anything that keeps
Speaker 1: you humble in this life is a gift from God. Ah. No,
Speaker 1: that is not something that we like. But it's very
Speaker 1: true that pride comes before the fall. And the enemy
Speaker 1: is looking to trip us up in life, and he's
Speaker 1: looking for ways, and he's looking for opportunities for us
Speaker 1: to fall. C. S. Lewis called pride the great sin
Speaker 1: that truly at the heart of all of our mistakes,
Speaker 1: and our sin is our ego and our pride. And
Speaker 1: I'm telling you that God sometimes will give you a
Speaker 1: weakness because the weakness keeps you humble. The weakness reminds
Speaker 1: you that God is working despite and inspite all of
Speaker 1: your deficiencies to keep me from becoming conceited. I was
Speaker 1: given a thorn in my flesh. God's keeping me humble.
Speaker 1: God's reminding me where my strength comes from. James, in
Speaker 1: that same passage in chapter four, he says there's more grace.
Speaker 1: But he says, God opposes the proud, but gives grace
Speaker 1: to the humble. Do you know how you get into
Speaker 1: opposition with God? Pride? That's how we oppose God. Because
Speaker 1: when God sees a person full of pride, it's a
Speaker 1: person who's saying, God, I don't need your grace, and
Speaker 1: it reminds him of someone he don't like very much,
Speaker 1: which is the enemy. Because the enemy at one point
Speaker 1: was leading worship and then he fell like lightning from
Speaker 1: the sky because pride rose up on the inside of him.
Speaker 1: And every time we operate in pride, we look like
Speaker 1: the enemy. Therefore, anything we don't turn to praise will
Speaker 1: turn to pride. That's why we can't help but walk
Speaker 1: into God's house and say, I am only here by
Speaker 1: the grace of God. So what is the reason for
Speaker 1: the thorn and the weakness. It's because we have all
Speaker 1: been pierced, pierced for a purpose. You see, you have
Speaker 1: a calling in Jesus Christ. He purchased you with his
Speaker 1: blood two thousand years ago, and your calling and the
Speaker 1: dream he has for your life and your future is beautiful.
Speaker 1: In fact, I would liken it to a rose if
Speaker 1: you ever look at a rose. A rose is beautiful,
Speaker 1: but on that stem of the rose are thorns. And
Speaker 1: why are there thorns on that rose? Because the thorns
Speaker 1: prevent predators from destroying the rose. And why does God
Speaker 1: give us a thorn in our flesh? Because pride is
Speaker 1: the great predator of our potential, and my thorn prevents
Speaker 1: pride from destroying the calling and the purpose and the future.
Speaker 1: Then Y has for me. I'm going to use you.
Speaker 1: You're right where I need you to be. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: use your life. I purchased you. You are in transit,
Speaker 1: you are in process. Quit rehearsing all that you're not
Speaker 1: and start focusing all that I am. My little boy, Wyatt.
Speaker 1: We have three children. My firstborn's name is Wyatt Wesley Wilkerson.
Speaker 1: My second born's name is wild Wesley Wilkerson. And then
Speaker 1: my favorite child, who was born in July. She's a girl.
Speaker 1: My daughter. Her name is Waylan Wesley Wilkerson. And just
Speaker 1: a couple of weeks ago, Wyatt had to have his
Speaker 1: first surgery. My four year old son, he was three
Speaker 1: at the time, hit a little birthmark that had to
Speaker 1: be removed, and it was you know, it was a
Speaker 1: difficult thing for us parents taking him into the doctors.
Speaker 1: And we came over there, and because of all the
Speaker 1: COVID stuff, only one of us could go, and I'm
Speaker 1: the favorite parent, and so I went with him, of course,
Speaker 1: not about me though, And as the worship team comes up.
Speaker 1: I took Wyatt to the hospital and we got there
Speaker 1: and when we came in, the doctors came and told us.
Speaker 1: They said, mister Wilkerson, we're gonna have to take him
Speaker 1: back alone to get anesthesia, which I didn't know. I
Speaker 1: thought I was gonna be with him the whole time.
Speaker 1: And they had to put him under for this surgery
Speaker 1: take place. And so this little three year old boys
Speaker 1: just like, you know, he's freaking out and he's scared,
Speaker 1: and you know why. It's like, Dad, you know, why
Speaker 1: can't you go with me? You know, I want you
Speaker 1: to go with me, And like son, you know, hippolaws
Speaker 1: and whatnot, I can't, you know. And so it's like
Speaker 1: way too much information for the kid, you know. But
Speaker 1: with all my kids, I have these sayings that I
Speaker 1: teach my boys, especially my boys, every night we say
Speaker 1: the same thing. There's a whole long list of them.
Speaker 1: I'll spare you all of those, because those would help
Speaker 1: these sermons themselves. But one of the things I've I've
Speaker 1: taught my boys is that going, hey, guys, whenever you're scared,
Speaker 1: you can always ask Dad to borrow some courage. And
Speaker 1: so whiff like, d I don't want to hear this
Speaker 1: right now, they say that either way. I wanted to
Speaker 1: Spider Man and I said, Wyat, what does Dad say
Speaker 1: when you're scared? He's like, ah, well, Dad, can I
Speaker 1: borrow some courage? I said, of course, of course I
Speaker 1: got some. I got some courage. Despare See, in our weakness,
Speaker 1: we must be reminded that you and I we don't
Speaker 1: find encouragement in our strength. We find encouragement in Christ strength.
Speaker 1: Look at what Ephesian chapter six says. It says, finally,
Speaker 1: be strong in the Lord, and then in his mighty power,
Speaker 1: put on the full armor of God, so that you
Speaker 1: can take your stand against the devil's schemes. Know what
Speaker 1: the devil's scheme is. The devil scheme is in your mind.
Speaker 1: You you are less than you are, disqualified, your mistakes,
Speaker 1: you're past, your shame disqualifies you. Play that record over
Speaker 1: and over, but it's in that moment that I gotta
Speaker 1: lean up to heaven, and I got to ask my
Speaker 1: heavenly father, God, can I borrow some courage right now?
Speaker 1: I don't take courage of my strength. I take courage
Speaker 1: in his strength. See, the enemy does not defeat us
Speaker 1: because we are weak. The enemy defeats us because we
Speaker 1: think we are strong. We think we're strong. We think
Speaker 1: we can walk out of this place today and face
Speaker 1: the world in our own strength. But we need to
Speaker 1: come back to that child like faith. I have been
Speaker 1: pierced for a purpose. I have been given a thorn
Speaker 1: to keep me humble, to keep me close to God. God,
Speaker 1: can I borrow some courage? Every night, before I leave
Speaker 1: the boy's room, we have this little santus say all right, boys,
Speaker 1: are you strong? And they're respond back to me, Dad,
Speaker 1: if you are strong. And so they took Wyatt and
Speaker 1: they started putting him down on the stretcher, taking him
Speaker 1: down the hospital and he's sitting there with this big
Speaker 1: spider man kind of crying. I say what I said,
Speaker 1: are you strong? He looked back at the death. If
Speaker 1: you're strong? And I want to let you know today
Speaker 1: that wherever the enemy is attacking you wherever he is
Speaker 1: lying to you, And you said, I don't know how
Speaker 1: to go one more step. I don't know how to
Speaker 1: move forward. I don't know how to step into the future.
Speaker 1: I don't know how to become all these called me
Speaker 1: to become. And when God looks down at you and says,
Speaker 1: are you strong? Just like my boy Wyatt, just look
Speaker 1: back to God and say, God, if you're strong Lord,
Speaker 1: if you're strong and keeps staying. Then, if you're strong, up,
Speaker 1: keep walking. If you're strong, up, keeps serving. If you're
Speaker 1: strong up, keep worshiping. If you're strong, I'll keep moving forward.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna work my weakness God, I'm gonna work it.
Speaker 1: Work your weakness over rich. You don't know about my thorn, yo.
Speaker 1: Something tells me if Jesus Christ could handle a crown
Speaker 1: of thorns, he could manage your little thorn. You keep
Speaker 1: surrendering over to him. News flash, Jesus doesn't need your strength.
Speaker 1: He needs your surrender. And when you give up, that's
Speaker 1: when God shows up. That's when God shows up. As
Speaker 1: everyone's standing their feet today, it's a simple call. Work
Speaker 1: your weakness. Don't stop working in spite of your weakness.
Speaker 1: God doesn't call the qualified. He qualifies the called. You're
Speaker 1: becoming something in Jesus been pierced for a purpose. It's
Speaker 1: to remind you. It's Jacob walking with a limp. I
Speaker 1: wrestled with God and he was stronger than me. I
Speaker 1: know the one who's greater than me. I know the
Speaker 1: one who's greater than me. God. Can I borrow? Can
Speaker 1: I borrow some courage? Certainly? Are your strong son, are
Speaker 1: your strong daughter? If you're strong, If you're strong, I'm strong.
Speaker 1: I was talking to a friend the other day and
Speaker 1: he's kind of struggling with his faith. He said, rich.
Speaker 1: The thing about you, man that just keeps annoying me
Speaker 1: is that I feel like I know. I was like,
Speaker 1: there's a lot, man, so just line up. You know.
Speaker 1: The thing about you, man, it just keeps annoying me,
Speaker 1: is I feel like you use Jesus as a crutch.
Speaker 1: You just use him as a crutch. It's like anything
Speaker 1: challenge he just us, Jesus. Anything, just Jesus. Listen to
Speaker 1: all your sermons, Jesus. I said, I hear you, man,
Speaker 1: I said, but you have half a truth. So you're
Speaker 1: right in one way, but you're wrong in a totally
Speaker 1: different way, Jesus is not a crutch for me. It's
Speaker 1: way bigger than that. He's a stretcher. Oh come on,
Speaker 1: I need somebody in this room who can just take
Speaker 1: about ten seconds right now, and who can testify, who
Speaker 1: can stand right down the place that you're standing, say,
Speaker 1: I would not be here if it was not for
Speaker 1: the grace of God. Come on, somebody in this room.
Speaker 1: Let praise or rup from the inside. He hasn't just
Speaker 1: been something you've leaned on. He's been carrying you. He's
Speaker 1: been walking with you. Yay. Though I walk through the
Speaker 1: valley of the shadow of death, I'm not gonna fear
Speaker 1: any evil. My God has been faithful. I'm gonna work
Speaker 1: de fight my weakness. Come on, Church, lift your heads,
Speaker 1: Come on, joys kean live. You'll be had it. See
Speaker 1: first the king he o, you'll be what's you see first?
Speaker 1: The king know this? Carry yat. Oh we'll be yead.
Speaker 1: Oh he'll be had it. See first, the king he
Speaker 1: will be yd and sa first. The king pato, you'll
Speaker 1: be hot sae first, the king heat o, you'll be had.
Speaker 1: Oh we'll be had. Oh we'll be Can we put
Speaker 1: you first? Can we lean on you? God? Today we
Speaker 1: know your truth, Your grace is sufficient. Just with your
Speaker 1: head bowed and your eyes closed those online right now,
Speaker 1: at all of our other locations in the room. What's
Speaker 1: the area today that you're afraid to expose. What's the
Speaker 1: area that you just complain about but you don't pray about.
Speaker 1: What's the area to day that you're comparing your life
Speaker 1: to someone else's. It's that thorn that keeps you humble,
Speaker 1: It keeps you close to the foot of the cross,
Speaker 1: it keeps you close to Jesus. He's more than a crutchy,
Speaker 1: he's a stretcher or your weakness. God, I just pray
Speaker 1: for people all of this room right now online, Right now, God,
Speaker 1: areas Lord, where the enemy is lying to them. God,
Speaker 1: areas today where the enemy Lord is putting shame on
Speaker 1: them and anxiety and depression and fear. Greater is he
Speaker 1: that is in me than he that is in the world. God,
Speaker 1: we aren't survivors. We're more than conquerors. All glory and
Speaker 1: praise to you. I just pray right now or that
Speaker 1: you just meet people, meet them where they are. You
Speaker 1: could borrow some courage today. Be strong in the Lord,
Speaker 1: be strong in the heads are bout your eyes a
Speaker 1: closed wherever you're at, whatever location online. If you're here
Speaker 1: today and you've never surrendered your life to Jesus, doesn't
Speaker 1: need your strength. It's your surrender for you here today,
Speaker 1: and you're ready to give up and give into Jesus.
Speaker 1: You want to make your peace with God? How do
Speaker 1: you do that? You do that through relationship with Jesus.
Speaker 1: Get to all who received him and believed in his name.
Speaker 1: He gave them the right to be called children of God.
Speaker 1: So with your head bound in your eyes closure, on
Speaker 1: the count of three. If that's you, I'm ready today
Speaker 1: to give my life to Jesus. I believe he is
Speaker 1: who he said that he is, and I want to
Speaker 1: follow him. On the count of three. Would just be
Speaker 1: bold with your hand of high enough and long enough,
Speaker 1: just so I can see it. I want to include
Speaker 1: you in this prayer of salvation. Ready. One, Bible says
Speaker 1: today is the day of salvation. Two. Don't look at
Speaker 1: your neighbor. It's not about your neighbor. It's between you
Speaker 1: and Jesus. Ready, one, two, three. If that's you, liften up,
Speaker 1: that's me. That's me. That's me. That's me, that's me.
Speaker 1: That's me. That's me. Oh, it's beautiful church. Can we
Speaker 1: just all lift our hands towards heaven. Would you just
Speaker 1: repeat this pray after me? The Bible says, believe in
Speaker 1: your heart and confess with your mouth, and you shall
Speaker 1: be saved. Let's all pray it together. Say, Dear Jesus,
Speaker 1: today I surrender. I give you my life, my past,
Speaker 1: my present, even my future. I give you all of
Speaker 1: my weakness, all of my shortcomings, all of my sin.
Speaker 1: I surrender it to you God, replace it with your strength.
Speaker 1: I believe Jesus, you are who you said that you are,
Speaker 1: and today I'm declaring I want to follow you. Thank
Speaker 1: you for loving me. I love you, Jesus in Jesus
Speaker 1: Mighty name. Everybody said, come on, Elevation Church. Can we
Speaker 1: give Jesus the highest praise? Hallelujah. Well, if you enjoyed
Speaker 1: today's podcast, there are a couple of things I'd love
Speaker 1: for you to do. Make sure to subscribe, rate, and
Speaker 1: review this podcast. You can also help us reach others
Speaker 1: by investing today at Elevationchurch dot org. Slash GiB and
Speaker 1: thanks again for joining us on the Elevation Podcast