Speaker 1: Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick.
Speaker 2: I'm the pastor of Elevation Church and this is our podcast.
Speaker 2: I wanted to thank you for joining us today. Hope
Speaker 2: this inspires you. Hope it builds your faith. Hope it
Speaker 2: gives your perspective to see God is moving in your life.
Speaker 2: Enjoy the message. Something God told me very clearly as
Speaker 2: we begin this series called Waymaker, is that before we.
Speaker 1: Can change the world, we have to change our ways.
Speaker 2: Would you please turn with me, if you can find
Speaker 2: it in your Bible, to the Old Testament Book of Hagi.
Speaker 2: I'll give you about fifteen minutes to find the Book
Speaker 2: of Hagi. After that the screens will kick in and
Speaker 2: give you assistance. And what we want to look at today,
Speaker 2: we want to take a look at. Give me just
Speaker 2: a moment. I got my new notebook. Every series I
Speaker 2: get a new notebook. I got the one with the
Speaker 2: whole World on it. It's a vision series. So I figured, well,
Speaker 2: we're gonna touch the world, we better start with a
Speaker 2: notebook with the with the whole world. He's got the
Speaker 2: whole world.
Speaker 3: He's got you and me, brother.
Speaker 2: In his sense, in his hands, got.
Speaker 1: The and if you'll permit me, real quick.
Speaker 2: Just uh, he's got the Clemson Tigers. Okay, now let's
Speaker 2: look at Hagai Chapter one. I'm ready now touch somebody say.
Speaker 2: We can't change the world until we change our ways.
Speaker 2: This is the message of Hagid the Prophet. I'm having
Speaker 2: you seated because along scripture today fifteen verses we will
Speaker 2: endeavor to preach. In the second year of King Darius,
Speaker 2: on the first day of the sixth month, the word
Speaker 2: of the Lord came.
Speaker 4: Through the prophet Hagi to Zaruba bel son of Schiltiel,
Speaker 4: Governor of Judah, and to Joshua, son of Josidac, the
Speaker 4: High Priest JJ.
Speaker 2: You know how we text about preaching all the time.
Speaker 2: I would have skipped that verse in my first five
Speaker 2: years of preaching.
Speaker 1: One thing that I want you to do. This will
Speaker 1: help you develop your preaching skills.
Speaker 2: Take the verses that you naturally want to skip over
Speaker 2: and make yourself preach them.
Speaker 1: What I did. I went back and I figured I'm
Speaker 1: not going to do it, but I could.
Speaker 2: Preach verse one for a whole sermon, and what I
Speaker 2: would do if I was going to preach it, And
Speaker 2: you might want to preach it sometimes, JJ, because every
Speaker 2: once in a while. Let you get up here, and
Speaker 2: if your beard keeps scrolling, you might get another shot.
Speaker 2: But I figured you could reach that verse using only
Speaker 2: the prepositions.
Speaker 1: So watch this.
Speaker 2: In the second year of King Darius, on the first
Speaker 2: day the sixth month, the word of the Lord came
Speaker 2: through the prophet Hagi to Zir Rubebel. So what I
Speaker 2: was thinking is it was in the second year. That's
Speaker 2: the that's the setting. Okay, it was the word of
Speaker 2: the Lord.
Speaker 1: That's the source. It came to Zor Rubebel.
Speaker 2: Now he's the he's the he's the servant, and it
Speaker 2: came through Hagi, and he was the server.
Speaker 1: Now all of those start with the letter S.
Speaker 2: And what's cool about it is it didn't come from Hagi.
Speaker 2: It came through Hagi. So the word of the Lord
Speaker 2: came through Hagi.
Speaker 1: You see what I'm saying. This is how God speaks
Speaker 1: to people.
Speaker 2: God will speak to you through others. God will speak
Speaker 2: to you through life. God will speak to you through hardship.
Speaker 2: God will speak to you to through of the Lord,
Speaker 2: through the prophet, to the people of the Lord, through
Speaker 2: the prophet to the people.
Speaker 1: In the second year of.
Speaker 2: Darius, because God's word is not spoken in abstractions and
Speaker 2: theoretical constructs. God's word is designed to speak to specific situations.
Speaker 1: So this is not a history lesson that we came for. Today.
Speaker 2: We came for a word from the living God, and
Speaker 2: his word is living and active and sharper than any
Speaker 2: double edged sword. Now, so, if anything ever comes out
Speaker 2: of my mouth that helps you, it might have come
Speaker 2: through me. But it wasn't from me, because I have
Speaker 2: nothing of substance to offer. You are way too desperate
Speaker 2: for me to be able to help you of my
Speaker 2: own accord. But if God speaks through me to you,
Speaker 2: then anything can happen. Verse two.
Speaker 1: This is what the Lord Almighty says.
Speaker 2: These people say, the time has not yet come to
Speaker 2: rebuild the Lord's house. Then the word of the Lord
Speaker 2: came through the prophet Hagi. Is it a time for
Speaker 2: you yourselves to be living in your paneled houses while this
Speaker 2: house remains a ruin? Now, this is what the Lord
Speaker 2: Almighty says. Give careful thought to your ways. There's that
Speaker 2: word ways. Give careful thought to your ways. You have
Speaker 2: planted much, but harvested little. You eat but never have enough.
Speaker 2: You drink but never have your fill. You put on
Speaker 2: clothes but are not warm. You earn wages only to
Speaker 2: put them in a purse with holes in it. You
Speaker 2: are drowning in information and starving for wisdom. You have
Speaker 2: twenty four hour news feeds and twenty four hour ignorance.
Speaker 2: This is what the Lord Almighty says. Give careful thought
Speaker 2: to your ways. Go up into the mountains and bring
Speaker 2: down timber and build my house so that I may
Speaker 2: take pleasure in it.
Speaker 1: And be honored, says the Lord.
Speaker 2: You expected much, but behold, it turned out to be little.
Speaker 1: And what you brought home I blew away.
Speaker 2: Why, declares the Lord Almighty, because of my house, which.
Speaker 1: Remains a ruin. Well, each of you is busy with
Speaker 1: your own house.
Speaker 2: Therefore, because of you, the heavens have withheld their due,
Speaker 2: and the earth it's crops. I have a very challenging
Speaker 2: message for you today, and I hope you're ready for it,
Speaker 2: and I'm gonna need your help to preach it. So
Speaker 2: look at the person next to you and say, neighbor.
Speaker 2: God has given you a great opportunity. Now look at
Speaker 2: them and give them my title. Say don't blow it,
Speaker 2: don't blow it, don't blow it. I think God presents
Speaker 2: himself in the form of opportunity, and when you look
Speaker 2: at Hagai chapter one, you are seeing a people who
Speaker 2: are responding to an opportunity. Is interesting because Hagi has
Speaker 2: a very hard job as a preacher. He has to
Speaker 2: deliver a message of urgency in time of discouragement. Often
Speaker 2: it's difficult to motivate or inspire people to action when
Speaker 2: they are already discouraged about the outcome of their life.
Speaker 2: In order to create a sense of motivation, he gives
Speaker 2: the people a contrast between their effort and their outcomes.
Speaker 2: He has them evaluate the results of their lives relative
Speaker 2: to the effort. And so thinking about this passage, of course,
Speaker 2: made me begin to think about seventh grade South Carolina
Speaker 2: geography class because apparently the people were saying something in
Speaker 2: Hagui's time. They had a saying, and God overheard them talking,
Speaker 2: and they would say verse two, the people would say,
Speaker 2: this is the people from Judah, which is the southern
Speaker 2: kingdom of Israel. The time has not yet come to
Speaker 2: rebuild the Lord's house. Notice that these people say, the
Speaker 2: time has not yet come to rebuild the Lord's house. Now,
Speaker 2: different cultures have different sayings.
Speaker 1: You know this right.
Speaker 2: And if you did not grow up in the South,
Speaker 2: perhaps from time to time it is shocking to you
Speaker 2: to hear some of our sayings and to try to
Speaker 2: decipher the meaning of them.
Speaker 1: I will never forget Miss Taylor.
Speaker 2: I probably should have given her a pseudonym, but I've
Speaker 2: said her name now. The day that she corrected my
Speaker 2: Southern slang in front of the whole class, Now, granted
Speaker 2: I deserved it. I was such a punkin seventh grade.
Speaker 2: Granted I deserved it because she had told us to
Speaker 2: pull out our books and begin our silent reading time.
Speaker 2: Granted I was talking to somebody instead of pulling out
Speaker 2: the book like I.
Speaker 1: Was told to do.
Speaker 2: But did it give her the right to say the
Speaker 2: following I'll let you be the judge, Stephen Ferdick. Did
Speaker 2: you not hear me say pull out.
Speaker 1: Your book now?
Speaker 2: Miss Taylor was Northerner, So what I said next she
Speaker 2: had no context for. I said, I'm sorry, Miss Taylor.
Speaker 2: I'm fixing too, she said, Stephen ferdie She said, before
Speaker 2: you leave my class, I am going to make sure
Speaker 2: that you understand how ignorant you sound when you say
Speaker 2: things like I'm fixing too. Nobody else in the world
Speaker 2: outside of South Carolina says things like I'm fixing too.
Speaker 1: And if you go anywhere.
Speaker 2: Else in the world in your life and say I'm
Speaker 2: fixing to, it is going to automatically cause people to
Speaker 2: question your intelligence. Not only do you not have your
Speaker 2: book out, you are not even able to speak intelligently
Speaker 2: to deliver an excuse about why your book is not.
Speaker 1: I said, I'm about to Is that better? And it
Speaker 1: really doesn't matter what you call it.
Speaker 2: The problem was procrastination. And I found out we have
Speaker 2: a lot of different things we say to disguise our procrastination.
Speaker 1: Can I give you one thing we say in church?
Speaker 1: We don't say I'm fixing to. We say I'm praying
Speaker 1: about it.
Speaker 2: I will preach this word until three people are left
Speaker 2: in the first two rows of elevation balanine. And it's cool,
Speaker 2: because you do need to pray about some things. But
Speaker 2: some things that God just told you to do get
Speaker 2: your book out, do not require prayer.
Speaker 1: They require action.
Speaker 2: And that guy has a hard job because the people
Speaker 2: on one level are making progress, at least it seems
Speaker 2: to them like progress.
Speaker 1: And the question becomes, this is point number one. They'll
Speaker 1: put these on the screen.
Speaker 2: Is it progress or is it procrastination, because apparently there
Speaker 2: were some really nice subdivisions going up in the suburbs
Speaker 2: of Judah. The exiles have been back from Babylon now
Speaker 2: twenty years and that was a god thing, wasn't it.
Speaker 2: I mean, they didn't know if they'd ever come back,
Speaker 2: and only because Persian control took the territory of Babylon
Speaker 2: back were they able to come back and rebuild their homeland.
Speaker 2: And when they first got back, they thought they'd rebuild
Speaker 2: the temple because it had been destroyed.
Speaker 1: It was the.
Speaker 2: Preeminent place for the presence of God to be manifest
Speaker 2: among his people, so that He would have a dwelling place.
Speaker 2: You and I understand that now this temple is not
Speaker 2: a physical building, but it is you and I the
Speaker 2: Temple of the Holy Spirit, where God dwells and where
Speaker 2: God lives. But in the midst of rebuilding this place
Speaker 2: where God had appointed his presence to dwell, something was
Speaker 2: lacking in their perseverance, or perhaps.
Speaker 1: It was just that they got distracted.
Speaker 2: This has helped me so much in trying to minister
Speaker 2: to people and challenge people and call people hired to
Speaker 2: God's standard.
Speaker 1: Is that Often people.
Speaker 2: Are not willfully disobedient. They are just distracted, you know
Speaker 2: what I mean. I don't think that people always decide
Speaker 2: to live in disobedience. Sometimes life just creates such a scenario.
Speaker 2: And this is what guy said. He said, each of
Speaker 2: you is busy with your own house. I thought that
Speaker 2: was an interesting phrase that he said, you're busy with
Speaker 2: your own house. He didn't say they were bad people,
Speaker 2: just that they were busy people. I don't think those
Speaker 2: of you who don't serve in the church don't in
Speaker 2: the church because you're Satanic. I just think your kids
Speaker 2: probably have soccer. It's not satan at soccer. I'm not
Speaker 2: sure the tour that much different. Yeah, no, I hate soccer. Yes,
Speaker 2: it's not a secret people. I'm not sure. In a
Speaker 2: couple of weeks, we're going to take an offering. And
Speaker 2: I don't think there's anybody that will be in the
Speaker 2: church who will not appreciate the offering that is given,
Speaker 2: because it's the very offering that was given a year ago,
Speaker 2: or five years ago or ten years ago that built
Speaker 2: the church that you were a part of today, where
Speaker 2: God blesses your life.
Speaker 1: It is the very.
Speaker 2: Sacrifice that happens this time every year, and not just
Speaker 2: at the end of the year, but weekly and monthly,
Speaker 2: as people give to God and put him first. I
Speaker 2: think everybody values that on one level, especially the business owners.
Speaker 2: I was talking to a business owner one time. He said,
Speaker 2: I'm so glad I don't.
Speaker 1: Have your job. I said, why is that. You don't
Speaker 1: like to speak?
Speaker 2: He said, no, I don't mind speaking, he said. I
Speaker 2: just can't image imagine running a business where people came
Speaker 2: and decided whether they wanted to pay for the service
Speaker 2: or not. I would go broke if I ran my
Speaker 2: business like that. But here at our church, over and
Speaker 2: over again, people have stepped up sacrificially and consistently.
Speaker 1: And here's the keyword, systematically.
Speaker 2: To put God first, because I understand that my harvest
Speaker 2: is connected to God's house.
Speaker 1: Now this is where the word gets rich.
Speaker 2: Sometimes you are struggling in your life in ways that
Speaker 2: you do not understand, but you are not directly discerning
Speaker 2: the source of the dysfunction. Such is the case for
Speaker 2: the people in haw Guy's day. He said, you're disappointed,
Speaker 2: aren't you. I know you are.
Speaker 1: It's August.
Speaker 2: It's the season for figs and grapes and pomegranates, and
Speaker 2: you planted a lot of seed, but when you went
Speaker 2: to get the harvest, it was only half of what
Speaker 2: you expected. Have you ever invested in something or someone?
Speaker 2: Keep eye contact with me when I say what I
Speaker 2: say next, only to wonder how could I put so
Speaker 2: much into it and get so little out of it?
Speaker 1: Have you ever? Have you ever? This is the scene?
Speaker 1: And how guys they remember?
Speaker 2: This is a specific work to specific people, but I
Speaker 2: think it has universal application and it is a timeless truth.
Speaker 2: Is that when you do not start your process with
Speaker 2: God at the center, it will always end in disappointment.
Speaker 2: And it will not matter how much energy you give it,
Speaker 2: or how much talent that you have, or or or
Speaker 2: how sincere you are in your efforts.
Speaker 1: I'm telling you, man.
Speaker 2: I have sad with rich people, famous people, people with
Speaker 2: great status and no satisfaction, great prosperity, and no peace.
Speaker 2: Because any process that does not start with God ends
Speaker 2: in disappointment. Write that down, teach it to your kids,
Speaker 2: put it.
Speaker 1: On your mirror.
Speaker 2: Any process that does not start with God ends in disappointment.
Speaker 2: You plant much, you reap little, you get dressed, You're
Speaker 2: not warm. You drink, you drink you drink, you drink,
Speaker 2: you drink, you drink, but you are bottomless, and even
Speaker 2: the blessings that God gives you will be will be.
Speaker 2: Can I say it this way?
Speaker 1: Hollow?
Speaker 2: It's a hollow harvest. And while the people were busy
Speaker 2: building their own houses, busy building their own bodies, busy
Speaker 2: building their own dreams, busy planning their own future, they
Speaker 2: neglected the place of God's presence. I was praying about
Speaker 2: this message. I said, God, I can't preach that. I
Speaker 2: don't want to make them feel bad. Their lives are
Speaker 2: already hard enough. And God told me I didn't hear
Speaker 2: this out loud. Its just depression I have. Okay, so
Speaker 2: let's get that straight right now. But the impression that
Speaker 2: I got is if you don't ever make that connection,
Speaker 2: you will live in a continual state of frustration and
Speaker 2: wonder why am I doing so much and receiving so little?
Speaker 2: Why am I fishing all night and catching nothing? That's
Speaker 2: what happened to Peter, you know, fished all night, caught nothing,
Speaker 2: but the moment he gave his boat to Jesus, his
Speaker 2: biggest problem was breaking nets. Because God is in charge
Speaker 2: of the harvest, there is a certain part of success
Speaker 2: and a certain part of life.
Speaker 1: That you don't control.
Speaker 2: You can decide how much to plant, but without the
Speaker 2: cooperation of the elements, it will only grow to be
Speaker 2: so much. It takes a little while to learn this
Speaker 2: that you can do everything in your human strength that
Speaker 2: you know to do to guarantee a happy life, but
Speaker 2: there is a certain dimension of life that is outside
Speaker 2: of your control. Touch your neighbors, say, don't blow it.
Speaker 2: Here are these people. It's been twenty years. I understand.
Speaker 1: They come back from Babylon.
Speaker 2: They're really trying to get acclimated to being back in
Speaker 2: a place that has been so ravaged. They're settling into
Speaker 2: their towns. Maybe two years, maybe five years, but it's
Speaker 2: been twenty years. It's been twenty years now, which is
Speaker 2: a significant number for me. Let me tell you why.
Speaker 2: This summer, I was going back and watching some of
Speaker 2: the sermons that inspired.
Speaker 1: Me to be a preacher.
Speaker 2: They're all on YouTube, and it's cool because I don't
Speaker 2: have to pay for them.
Speaker 1: I can bootleg them now, and.
Speaker 2: I've long since lost the cassette tapes, but they're all
Speaker 2: online now, And so I was online watching some of
Speaker 2: my favorite preachers that were inspiring me as a boy.
Speaker 1: These were my heroes. I was watching them.
Speaker 2: Just to kind of get in touch with sixteen year
Speaker 2: old Stephen, who used to walk around the block with
Speaker 2: the walkman, and I would preach with the preachers and
Speaker 2: I would hold an imaginary microphone I've said too much, okay.
Speaker 2: And I was listening to them preach, and I was
Speaker 2: watching them on YouTube, and I thought, man, these guys
Speaker 2: looked so much older to me. And then I did
Speaker 2: some math, and I realized that the guys that I
Speaker 2: used to watch when I was sixteen were the age then.
Speaker 1: Right that I am. Now.
Speaker 2: You talk about a broken heart, you talk about a
Speaker 2: wake up call, because see, I still feel like I
Speaker 2: got all this time. You know, I still feel like
Speaker 2: we're just getting started. The church is just getting started.
Speaker 2: I mean, in my mind, this is still the IPO.
Speaker 2: But it was a wake up call for me to
Speaker 2: realize that what they were to you, then you are
Speaker 2: to somebody now. In other words, you don't have any
Speaker 2: time to waste. Touch your other neighbors say, don't blow it.
Speaker 2: You only got so much time. I know.
Speaker 1: You keep telling.
Speaker 2: Yourself one day when and we're gonna get around to it,
Speaker 2: and I'm fixing, but you might find yourself one day
Speaker 2: run it out of strength. What is it your heart
Speaker 2: to do? You better do it now. Some of your
Speaker 2: neighbors say, do it now, cock a doodle, do this
Speaker 2: is your wake up call I was twenty years ago. Man,
Speaker 2: if we're gonna build it, we gotta build it now.
Speaker 2: But sometimes the devil will tell you you're being patient
Speaker 2: when really you are procrastinating.
Speaker 1: And if he can get you.
Speaker 2: To mistake procrastination for patients, he can keep you locked
Speaker 2: out of the blessing.
Speaker 1: That is on the other side of your obedience.
Speaker 2: Yes, it's a process, I mean, yes.
Speaker 1: It takes time, but really twenty years.
Speaker 2: And after all, hat guy says, it looks like somehow
Speaker 2: you found time to build your own house. So glad
Speaker 2: Pastor Mickey taught me that. He beat that into my head.
Speaker 2: He said, boy, you find time for what you want
Speaker 2: to do. He said that because I told him I
Speaker 2: didn't have time to do something he told me to do.
Speaker 2: He said, boy, you find time for what you want
Speaker 2: to do. You find time for what you want to do.
Speaker 2: You find passion and energy. If I could get some
Speaker 2: of you to apply the same energy to serving God,
Speaker 2: that you apply to sin. We would turn every county
Speaker 2: in the United States of America, and it looked to
Speaker 2: them like progress. But the prophet had guy says, wait
Speaker 2: a minute. Progress is more than just effort. Progress is
Speaker 2: effort in the right direction. Consider your ways, Consider your ways.
Speaker 2: He gets into a vivid description, this sound is so modern.
Speaker 2: When I was reading it, I don't know if you
Speaker 2: had the same experience, because I thought about all the
Speaker 2: streams that we live in now, and the feeds, and
Speaker 2: when he said you eat and are never full, and
Speaker 2: you scroll and are never entertained. He didn't say that,
Speaker 2: but that's what it made me think of. He said,
Speaker 2: you YouTube, and now you're over in cat videos and
Speaker 2: you don't even know how you ended up.
Speaker 1: How did I?
Speaker 2: How did I get here on a Minecraft tutorial? I'm
Speaker 2: thirty seven years old. And then it gets kind of dramatic.
Speaker 2: I don't apologize for God's word. He said, when I
Speaker 2: saw that you were so busy with your own work,
Speaker 2: when I saw that you were so busy with your
Speaker 2: own interest, I didn't mind you building your own house.
Speaker 2: I didn't mind you driving a new car. I didn't
Speaker 2: mind you enjoying yourself on the weekend and telling your
Speaker 2: friend who's always trying to use you that you didn't
Speaker 2: have time to help them move.
Speaker 1: It was fine because they're always asking you in.
Speaker 2: There there, But what I minded was what I minded
Speaker 2: was that you lost your sense of what was really important.
Speaker 2: And so now God says I had to take action.
Speaker 2: I had to frustrate your process to remind you of
Speaker 2: your priorities.
Speaker 1: You know how, sometimes you'll be doing something that.
Speaker 2: Used to be fun for you and it's not fun anymore,
Speaker 2: and you can't even explain why. Sometimes that's God sucking
Speaker 2: the fun out of something that is keeping you from your.
Speaker 1: Calling him purpose.
Speaker 2: It is getting frighteningly quiet on week one of Waymaker.
Speaker 2: Good news is if I keep preaching like this, you
Speaker 2: will have plenty of seats for the rest of the
Speaker 2: four weeks of Waymaker. This is a space maker. That's
Speaker 2: what this sermon is. Nobody said I had to do
Speaker 2: something about it. I had to interrupt you in order
Speaker 2: to get your attention because I brought you back from Babylon.
Speaker 2: I made a way for you, and I gave you
Speaker 2: an assignment to rebuild my temple. But you took what
Speaker 2: I gave you, and you spent it on yourself. And
Speaker 2: so here's what I had to do.
Speaker 1: And I'll watch this.
Speaker 2: You might not like this to you of Godess okay,
Speaker 2: God is not running for any office. He does not
Speaker 2: need your vote. I said, he does not need your vote.
Speaker 2: He is not on any ticket. You expected much Verse nine,
Speaker 2: But see it turned out to be little. This is
Speaker 2: the part. And what you brought home I blew away.
Speaker 2: Well that's not nice, Heavenly Father. I thought your eye
Speaker 2: was on the spare row. I thought you had the
Speaker 2: whole world in your hands. I thought you would give
Speaker 2: me this day my daily bread. I didn't know you
Speaker 2: would blow it away. Touch somebody say, don't blow it
Speaker 2: what you brought home? I blew away. Why would you
Speaker 2: do that? Why would you Why would a good God
Speaker 2: called something to leave your life? I blew it away.
Speaker 2: It wasn't the devil. This would be my first assumption.
Speaker 2: Anytime anything that I don't like happens, it was the devil.
Speaker 2: The devil made me do it. The devil gave me
Speaker 2: a flat tire. The devil gave me a stomach flu.
Speaker 2: The devil gets more breast time in a lot of
Speaker 2: pulpits than Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1: Does.
Speaker 2: God said, no, I did that. I let it go bad.
Speaker 2: I made him break up with you. I made her
Speaker 2: not call you back.
Speaker 1: This is crazy stuff here now, this is.
Speaker 2: This is the stuff that you get in the parts
Speaker 2: of the Bible, like Haggi. That's flip pass to get
Speaker 2: over to the good stuff. My God shall supply all
Speaker 2: your knees according to his glorious riches. Can we get
Speaker 2: back to that, No, not this week. This week is Hagi.
Speaker 2: And Hagi said, God, blew it away? Why why would
Speaker 2: you do that? Why would you blow it away? Why
Speaker 2: would you blow it? God said, so you wouldn't. It
Speaker 2: was not to punish you. It was to protect you.
Speaker 2: If I allowed you to depend on your stuff, you
Speaker 2: would forget your source. So when I see you getting
Speaker 2: too attached to something that I gave you, sometimes I
Speaker 2: gotta make sure that you remember that I give you breath.
Speaker 1: And if I don't breathe out, you don't breathe in.
Speaker 2: Touch somebody say, don't blow it, don't blow it. When
Speaker 2: I see you building your house on sinking sand, sometimes
Speaker 2: I gotta send a storm.
Speaker 1: To check your foundation.
Speaker 2: And the rains came down, and the streams rose, and
Speaker 2: the winds blew and beat against that house, because God
Speaker 2: would rather have you go through a season of frustration
Speaker 2: than to build your whole life on the wrong foundation.
Speaker 2: You uh, I'm fixing too. They didn't say they wouldn't.
Speaker 2: You never say you won't. You say you're gonna. Ah, God,
Speaker 2: I'm gonna. This was the craziest got I tell y'all,
Speaker 2: crazy story.
Speaker 1: Crazy people go to this church.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 1: See what I'm.
Speaker 2: Saying right on June good crazy, bad crazy. This is
Speaker 2: bad crazy, I told the man.
Speaker 1: He kept saying, I love the church.
Speaker 2: I love the church is the gravest.
Speaker 1: I love the church.
Speaker 2: Do have a lot of money too. I love the church.
Speaker 2: I'm so successful. I love the church. Church is so great.
Speaker 2: I love the Lord. I love the church. I checked
Speaker 2: the record. He never gave anything to what he said
Speaker 2: he loved. Now in my universe, God so loved the world.
Speaker 1: That he gave.
Speaker 2: I said it real respectfully, and I don't check everybody's record.
Speaker 2: This was a long time ago. I just got so
Speaker 2: tired of it because he always loved the church. Love
Speaker 2: the Lord, love the word, love the worship, Love what.
Speaker 1: Y'all are doing for the community. I love it. I
Speaker 1: love it. He's a baller. Yeah, I love it, I.
Speaker 2: Said, I said, there might be something wrong with our records,
Speaker 2: but we have no recorded gift you ever made. This
Speaker 2: is when I was a younger preacher. I wasn't as sophisticated.
Speaker 2: I said, is that correct? He said, oh yeah, oh
Speaker 2: dog son, but hold I had. He was a Baptist,
Speaker 2: but he started speaking in tongues.
Speaker 1: I was so confused. I didn't know what to do
Speaker 1: about that. Tom. He's he's so long. He said, you
Speaker 1: know what he said to me?
Speaker 2: He said, he didn't say I'm fixing to but he said,
Speaker 2: he said, all right, when I die, I'm gonna put
Speaker 2: the church in my will, and I'm gonna send you
Speaker 2: one hundred thousand dollars. I wish I would have told
Speaker 2: him what I thought, but I didn't think of it
Speaker 2: right then. Holly does this all the time. She'd come
Speaker 2: home to me and she'd tell me about somebody who
Speaker 2: said something to her.
Speaker 1: And they just say, I was like.
Speaker 2: Time to town, and she just slices and burns them
Speaker 2: and roast them and told them to down.
Speaker 1: And I was like, Donna, sat down. I'll be like
Speaker 1: you sat that because she's so nice. I'm like you
Speaker 1: sat that. She's like, no, I was like that.
Speaker 2: I was like, it means I mean I would have
Speaker 2: said it. I mean I'm fixing too. I mean when
Speaker 2: I when I die, I mean, I'm gonna get my
Speaker 2: money over here, my checking in, my savings, and I
Speaker 2: got this thing over here, my money market, and it's
Speaker 2: somebody's gone.
Speaker 1: But we don't say never. We say not now.
Speaker 2: And twenty years past, and you were gonna, and you
Speaker 2: were gonna, and now the kids graduated and you were gonna.
Speaker 1: You were gonna. We were gonna. Oh, we were gonna
Speaker 1: build it.
Speaker 2: He God, we were gonna build it.
Speaker 1: We were going building a.
Speaker 2: Bamba son dahmba shan. And you say I'm fixing to
Speaker 2: And your whole economy is broken. Maybe not your financial economy.
Speaker 2: I mean you can financially succeed without God, but you
Speaker 2: can't have significance, not without God. There is no significance
Speaker 2: to any process that God is not the center of.
Speaker 1: I don't believe anything more than I believe.
Speaker 2: That there may be short term success, there may be
Speaker 2: illusion of happiness, but there will be no deep seated
Speaker 2: fulfillment in any process. That God is not the center
Speaker 2: of whether it's your money, whether it's a marriage, and
Speaker 2: God doesn't want you to blow it. He does not
Speaker 2: want you to waste the opportunity. I don't think there's
Speaker 2: any greater pained and the pain of a wasted opportunity.
Speaker 2: To neglect your priorities is to forfeit your provision. And
Speaker 2: what struck me about the text is that there was
Speaker 2: no lack of resource, natural or spiritual that prevented the
Speaker 2: people from prospering. How guys said, you planted plenty, there
Speaker 2: was nothing wrong with the seed. But I interrupted the
Speaker 2: cycle of the harvest so that you would not depend
Speaker 2: on anything that was disconnected from me. So now here's
Speaker 2: what I want you to do, very simple, very strategic,
Speaker 2: so basic that you cannot you can't, you cannot refuse
Speaker 2: to do it because you didn't understand it. Here's what
Speaker 2: I want you to do Verse eight. Go up into
Speaker 2: the mountains. That's the position, because you've got to be
Speaker 2: in the right place. You've got to be in the
Speaker 2: right place for God to bless you. You've got to
Speaker 2: stay planted to flourish. So go up into the mountain.
Speaker 2: When you get there, bring down timber. That's the potential.
Speaker 2: That's the potential. This is the temple in potential, this
Speaker 2: is the dwelling place of God.
Speaker 1: But right now it looks like simple timber.
Speaker 2: Bring down the timber, which represents the potential where the
Speaker 2: place where my glory will dwell. Right now it looks
Speaker 2: like timber. The temple is in the form. Now you
Speaker 2: got it. That's my dude right there. That's my dude
Speaker 2: right there. How did you know where I was going?
Speaker 2: The temple looks like timber until you bring it down
Speaker 2: and build my house. That's the process. So there's the position,
Speaker 2: there's the potential, and there's the process.
Speaker 1: Here's the thing. There was no shortage of provision. There
Speaker 1: never is. There never is.
Speaker 2: When God made the earth and spoke it into existence,
Speaker 2: When God breathed the breath of life into man, he
Speaker 2: gave everything that would be needed in the form of seed.
Speaker 1: There's no shortage in God.
Speaker 2: You think the unlimited God of the universe has shortage?
Speaker 2: Do you think there's anything in your life that is
Speaker 2: too hard for God?
Speaker 1: Even when you see a nation ravaged.
Speaker 2: By poverty, it's not because there wasn't enough stuff. It's
Speaker 2: because the systems did not allow the stuff to be distributed.
Speaker 2: There's never a lack of provision. In God, never everything
Speaker 2: that you need is already here. There is never a
Speaker 2: lack of provision. So the problem of the people in
Speaker 2: the way they experienced it was a problem with provision.
Speaker 2: Haw God said, it's not provision. Consider your ways. What
Speaker 2: you think is a lack of provision is a lack
Speaker 2: of priority.
Speaker 1: Because if you will seek.
Speaker 2: First the Kingdom of God and make this your foundation,
Speaker 2: if you will seek first His righteousness, all these.
Speaker 1: Things will be added to you.
Speaker 2: Everything you need, and everything you don't even know that
Speaker 2: you need, and everything that you really want beneath what
Speaker 2: you think you want.
Speaker 1: All of these things will be added to you.
Speaker 2: But if you seek the things, you'll miss the kingdom.
Speaker 2: But if you seek the kingdom, you'll get the things
Speaker 2: thrown in.
Speaker 1: If you will seek God.
Speaker 2: First everything your heart desires, we will be made manifest
Speaker 2: in His presence. And so often we are asking God
Speaker 2: to send provision. God can't send provision where there are
Speaker 2: no priorities. And if I can be just as basic
Speaker 2: about it as Pastor Mickey was, you find resource for
Speaker 2: what you.
Speaker 1: Want to do.
Speaker 2: How come people who can't afford to tithe can afford
Speaker 2: to iPhone seven Oh, they sit him back down now,
Speaker 2: just to write it down, Just to write it down
Speaker 2: when we take an offering at the end of the
Speaker 2: year in our church this year, and I want every
Speaker 2: campus to hear this, especially the newer ones. The only
Speaker 2: reason that you're sitting in a seat is because somebody
Speaker 2: brought down timber for the temple.
Speaker 1: Somebody did that.
Speaker 2: Somebody did that, And this is the time of year
Speaker 2: where we develop and demonstrate our faith as a family
Speaker 2: for those who have not yet been reached, for those
Speaker 2: who do not yet know the ways of God.
Speaker 1: This is the time where we go up.
Speaker 2: To the mountain. Our church is called elevation. After all,
Speaker 2: we go up to the mountain. We don't stay down
Speaker 2: in the in.
Speaker 1: The muck.
Speaker 2: Of the of the current viewpoint of our culture.
Speaker 1: We go up on the mountain. We access the resource.
Speaker 2: After all, the same resource that God was calling them
Speaker 2: to build his house with was the resource they were
Speaker 2: already building theirs with. Because you find timber for what
Speaker 2: you want to build, right, And why I love to
Speaker 2: seek God first is because when I prioritize my life,
Speaker 2: God's provision has a place to land. If you really
Speaker 2: remember some of the miracles in the Bible, where God
Speaker 2: did something great for someone, the first step was for
Speaker 2: their priorities to be ordered.
Speaker 1: The first step when the woman needed a miracle from
Speaker 1: the man of God.
Speaker 2: In the Book of First Kings, do you remember this story,
Speaker 2: the prophet said, I know you don't have much left.
Speaker 1: I know you lack provision in your own eyes right now.
Speaker 2: But if you will first give me a little cake
Speaker 2: and prioritize the purpose of God, if you will sustain
Speaker 2: God's work in the earth, God will sustain you. If
Speaker 2: you remember the little boy with the lunch that Jesus
Speaker 2: had Peter go over, beat him up, take his lunch,
Speaker 2: pass it out to the crowd.
Speaker 1: Creative internation.
Speaker 2: What started with a lunch ended in leftovers, But it
Speaker 2: was because of the prioritization to bring it first to
Speaker 2: Jesus and put it in his hands. That's what we
Speaker 2: do every time we tithe. It's the first ten percent
Speaker 2: of your income. It's setting it aside for God and
Speaker 2: saying God before anything else. You be the foundation of
Speaker 2: my finances. You be the foundation of my family. You
Speaker 2: be the foundation of my future. I want to build
Speaker 2: my life on you. And when you bring that first
Speaker 2: fruits to God, when you do it. Every time you
Speaker 2: do it, God says, I can build on that. But
Speaker 2: how can God build on a foundation that.
Speaker 1: You don't lay.
Speaker 2: And you are waiting for God to send something, and
Speaker 2: He's waiting for you to lay a foundation that will
Speaker 2: sustain what he sends.
Speaker 1: When you seek God first, all these.
Speaker 2: Things will be at it to you. And that's why
Speaker 2: I'm not afraid of what I might face in the future,
Speaker 2: because I have a foundation, because God is the bottom line.
Speaker 1: Of my life.
Speaker 2: Now, when you can't say that, you live in constant
Speaker 2: fear and suspicion and paranoia and emptiness, and even your
Speaker 2: blessings seem hollow, and you expect much and you.
Speaker 1: Come up empty.
Speaker 2: But God says, go up, bring down, and build. I
Speaker 2: love the Lord because even when he has to correct me,
Speaker 2: he still gives me another chance to get it right.
Speaker 2: God said, you've had twenty years to do it. I
Speaker 2: send in my prophet Hagi. By the way, you might
Speaker 2: be interested to know that Hagi's name means feast. So
Speaker 2: God is preaching to a people in a famine about
Speaker 2: a feast. And if you will have the faith to
Speaker 2: go up, bring down, and build, this is what the
Speaker 2: Lord Almighty says I am with you. I send my
Speaker 2: word through my prophet to give you another chance, another
Speaker 2: chance to build your life on the foundation of the
Speaker 2: solid rock of Jesus Christ. This is your second chance.
Speaker 1: Don't blow it.
Speaker 2: And some of you have had the kind of year
Speaker 2: that Hagi describe, eating not filled, drinking not quenched, dressed
Speaker 2: not warm. And God is sending his word to you
Speaker 2: today saying that the storm that I brought you through
Speaker 2: was to check your foundation. Everything you've been through was
Speaker 2: about establishing a foundation for your future. And I want
Speaker 2: to take a pastoral privilege right now and agree in
Speaker 2: prayer with all of God's people on every location.
Speaker 1: And I need you to join your faith.
Speaker 2: With me, everybody who's been coming up empty and reaping
Speaker 2: in disappointment and reaping in tears and reaping and frustration
Speaker 2: and wondering why. And God is now bringing you to
Speaker 2: a point of prioritizing His presence above all else. I
Speaker 2: want to pray with you right now, and that's that
Speaker 2: we stand at every location.
Speaker 1: This is the word of the Lord coming through the sermon.
Speaker 2: To your life, to your famine, to your frustration, to
Speaker 2: your barrenness. This is the word of the Lord, go up,
Speaker 2: bring it down, and let's bill.
Speaker 1: Don't blow it.
Speaker 2: God has put you in this season for a reason.
Speaker 2: God put you in this church for a reason. God
Speaker 2: put you in this city for a reason. God gave
Speaker 2: you those children for a reason, on that job, in
Speaker 2: that school for a reason. Now, don't you blow it.
Speaker 2: God kept you alive this long for a reason. God
Speaker 2: delivered you from sickness for a reason, brought you out
Speaker 2: of sin for a reason, kept you from going down
Speaker 2: for the last time for a reason.
Speaker 1: Don't you blow it.
Speaker 2: Don't waste his grace, don't waste your opportunity weeping over
Speaker 2: what you didn't do.
Speaker 1: Let's get building.
Speaker 2: We've got a kingdom to build people. Let's get building.
Speaker 2: Now is the time God said, I want to be
Speaker 2: your highest priority. And when I see you giving your
Speaker 2: best self to lower priorities. But if you will bring
Speaker 2: your best self and make God your highest priority, I
Speaker 2: guarantee you you've never experienced deep peace like this before.
Speaker 1: Now I'm going to pray in just a moment.
Speaker 2: After I pray, there will be a little bit more
Speaker 2: of a setting up of what's going to happen over
Speaker 2: the next few weeks.
Speaker 1: I'm excited about the journey.
Speaker 2: How many are excited about the journey. God is going
Speaker 2: to do some things in your life like never before.
Speaker 2: That's the phrase I hear, like never before, a blessing
Speaker 2: like never before, even now, making a way away in
Speaker 2: the wilderness, doing a new thing in your life in
Speaker 2: this ministry. And I come into agreement with you right
Speaker 2: now in the name of Jesus Christ, the son of
Speaker 2: the Living God, the eternal Word made flesh to dwell
Speaker 2: among us, full of grace and truth. And I come
Speaker 2: into agreement with you today that God would become the
Speaker 2: highest priority in your life, so that you can receive
Speaker 2: the deepest peace, the peace of knowing, the peace that
Speaker 2: passes all understanding, the peace of knowing that my house
Speaker 2: is built on the rock. Give us a passion for
Speaker 2: your house, Give us your heart for your world.
Speaker 5: We want to see the things you see. We want
Speaker 5: to know the things that you speak, and we want
Speaker 5: to walk in your ways. After all that you've.
Speaker 2: Done for us and after all that you've been to us,
Speaker 2: and in consideration of all that you're going to do,
Speaker 2: we give you our full and total lives, our complete selves.
Speaker 2: We repent of all the ways that we've put everything
Speaker 2: else ahead of you.
Speaker 1: We repent of the excuses that we've made. We repent
Speaker 1: of the spirit of procrastination.
Speaker 2: There are some things you called us to do that
Speaker 2: we keep putting off, we're fixing to.
Speaker 1: But today we declare.
Speaker 2: That what you have spoken, because you say so, we
Speaker 2: will let down the nets, and we believe for a
Speaker 2: great catch, a great harvest, more than we can ask
Speaker 2: or imagine, according to your glorious richest.
Speaker 1: In Christ, do it. God, you are a wave maker.
Speaker 2: Do it in their life, do it in their life.
Speaker 1: You are Thank you for joining us.
Speaker 2: Special thanks to those of you who give generously to
Speaker 2: this ministry. Is because of you that this ministry is possible.
Speaker 2: You can click the link in the description to give
Speaker 2: now or visit Elevationchurch dot org slash podcast for more
Speaker 2: information and if you enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe.
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Speaker 2: Elevation Church.
Speaker 1: Thanks again for listening. God bless you.