Speaker 1: Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick. I'm the pastor of Elevation
Speaker 1: Church and this is our podcast. I wanted to thank
Speaker 1: you for joining us today. Hope this inspires you. Hope
Speaker 1: it builds your faith. Hope it gives your perspective to
Speaker 1: see God is moving in your life. Enjoy the message.
Speaker 1: If He walk you up this morning, give him praise. Hallelujah.
Speaker 1: Isn't it good to be together? However we have to
Speaker 1: get together. Let's just let's keep coming together, you know,
Speaker 1: forsake not the assembly of ourselves together. And it's a
Speaker 1: difficult time to do that. But you know, when that
Speaker 1: Bible verse was written, they were being persecuted for their faith,
Speaker 1: cast out of their community. And so I'm just so
Speaker 1: grateful that we live in a time where God has
Speaker 1: enabled us to share the message with you. And I'm excited.
Speaker 1: I'm excited to share God's word today, honestly, sincerely, not
Speaker 1: in that preacher kind of way. Oh, I'm excited to
Speaker 1: share the you know, not in a formal way. I
Speaker 1: really really have something today that I want to share
Speaker 1: with you, and I pray that God would enable me
Speaker 1: to speak it. Of course, I want to do a
Speaker 1: few shout outs real quick before we transition. If I
Speaker 1: would have known we were going to break it down
Speaker 1: like that, I wouldn't have worn this flannel it is.
Speaker 1: I'm starting to sweat up your praise the Lord. Where
Speaker 1: are you coming from today? I know church is coming
Speaker 1: to you. You aren't coming to church today, but church
Speaker 1: is coming to you. Somebody, tell me where you're watching
Speaker 1: from today? Okay, I see somebody from northeast Pennsylvania. Tell
Speaker 1: me your name, your first name, or what your friends
Speaker 1: call you, because we're going to be friends, all right,
Speaker 1: we be friends. And tell me where you're watching from,
Speaker 1: your first name or your nickname if it's appropriate, and
Speaker 1: where you're watching from. And if it's hard to say,
Speaker 1: give me a pronunciation God, because I'm really bad at that.
Speaker 1: I'm trying to get through this, but it's coming really fast.
Speaker 1: I see Hong Kong, Jamaica, the UK, Boston, India, London.
Speaker 1: Even if you're watching this later, put it in the
Speaker 1: comments because I'll go through and read all of them,
Speaker 1: and when i'm bored, it'll give me something to pray for.
Speaker 1: I can pray for you, I can look at your
Speaker 1: name and pray for you. And I know where you're from,
Speaker 1: that'd be cool. Michigan, Oklahoma, Santa Fe, New Mexico, Romania.
Speaker 1: You know this always amazes me. Brazil, Dubai, Jeremy, Jeremy Jeremy.
Speaker 1: Isn't that a pearl Jen song? Let's see we got
Speaker 1: Todd from Orlando. Heybody, do me a favor. I want
Speaker 1: you to say Happy birthday to Chunks. Corbin. He goes
Speaker 1: by Chunks and he's not overweight. That's the thing about it.
Speaker 1: He's really He turned forty three today. He was walking
Speaker 1: around like he's in seventy seven, though he said it's
Speaker 1: mohoo flexer. But everybody say Happy birthday, Chunks because it's
Speaker 1: holly Amy and Chunks are out here. Of course, we
Speaker 1: don't have a lot of people here. I think it's
Speaker 1: responsible for us to have as few people as possible.
Speaker 1: But I just want to put some people that I
Speaker 1: loved in the room, just to remember that we're not alone.
Speaker 1: So Happy birthday, Chunks. They're saying it from all over
Speaker 1: the world. I wish you could see it. Wow, this
Speaker 1: is more people than lived in Fernandina Beach where you
Speaker 1: grew up, just saying happy birthday. Are you watching it?
Speaker 1: Happy Birthday? Man, Come on, I'm not going to sing
Speaker 1: it to you. Chunks. You still got joy even though
Speaker 1: you got an aching back and aching knees, torn rotator cuff.
Speaker 1: But you still got joy because the world didn't give it.
Speaker 1: What kind of joy? Oh, that's Bible joy, Chris, Yes, joy,
Speaker 1: not like endorphins, but joy. That kind of joy, joyous joy.
Speaker 1: I still got joys, full of joy, joy speaking full
Speaker 1: of Lord Joy. Father, we thank you for your love.
Speaker 1: We thank you for your mercy, the things that can't
Speaker 1: be changed and will never be taken away. I pray
Speaker 1: for all of these who are gathered today, just even
Speaker 1: closer than if they were in the building. Lord, I
Speaker 1: thank you that the voice of your word is reaching
Speaker 1: right now to all of these men and women, Desiree
Speaker 1: and Ronda and Sean and Belinda and Bill and Dennis
Speaker 1: and Shelley in Singapore and in Canada. I thank you
Speaker 1: that your joy is reaching right now. We will rejoice
Speaker 1: you and boast in you and trust in you in
Speaker 1: this time in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, if you're allowed
Speaker 1: to hug the person that you're with, go ahead and
Speaker 1: give them a big hog, and let's get into the
Speaker 1: word of God. Thank you Jesus. Wow. Hey, I'm still
Speaker 1: getting used to this. This is still very new to me,
Speaker 1: like preaching to just empty seats. But it's kind of
Speaker 1: cool because obviously there's more people running cameras today than
Speaker 1: when I started preaching. And one cool thing about going
Speaker 1: through something that feels new is it makes you access
Speaker 1: something that you may have started to take for granted,
Speaker 1: like little things. You know, you find yourself grateful for
Speaker 1: little things. And you know, there's probably a lot of
Speaker 1: us who are getting in touch with some things inside
Speaker 1: of ourselves during this time, more, maybe more than we want.
Speaker 1: Is like, oh, I just don't want to be alone
Speaker 1: with myself, and I'm kind of I'm kind of cool
Speaker 1: with not having to be around too many people right now.
Speaker 1: And I don't say that in a flippant way. I
Speaker 1: know that it's a very serious situation in our world.
Speaker 1: But I was telling my friend the other day, I've
Speaker 1: been I've been trying to find a way to stop
Speaker 1: hugging people for a couple of years. I don't like
Speaker 1: I don't like hugging anymore. I used to like hugging,
Speaker 1: and now only like the hug people with the last
Speaker 1: name Verdict and so I've been looking for a way
Speaker 1: out for years, so that part kind of suits me.
Speaker 1: And but of course one of the things that you
Speaker 1: really have to get used to is the contrast. Like
Speaker 1: this right here is a contrast. When I preached last
Speaker 1: week and I came off of the stage because remember, like,
Speaker 1: there's nobody out here, So I'm just looking at empty
Speaker 1: seats and I have a screen with YouTube comments that's
Speaker 1: scrolling from A Penny and South Africa and Cape Town
Speaker 1: and Derek from South Carolina. And while all this is happening,
Speaker 1: you know, I'm just preaching to I'm not saying you're nobody,
Speaker 1: but it's not that many people out here. Of course,
Speaker 1: Holly's out here, and one Holly is worth a million
Speaker 1: other people. And so I'm just working on my afternoon
Speaker 1: quarantine plans right now, starting early. But you know, aside
Speaker 1: from just having our amazing worship team and what a
Speaker 1: beautiful time that was in God's presence, today, I'm not
Speaker 1: seeing anyone. So when I got off the stage last week,
Speaker 1: in a way it was disorienting because one of our
Speaker 1: staff members was asking me, what did that feel like,
Speaker 1: and I said, it felt weird, But in a way
Speaker 1: it felt familiar because you know, when I started preaching,
Speaker 1: I would preach like there would be three kids, three
Speaker 1: seventh grade kids. You know, this is how I started.
Speaker 1: And I would just come out and preach, but I
Speaker 1: would try to preach like it was a Billy g crusade.
Speaker 1: And me and Chris grew up in small towns about
Speaker 1: two hours apart, and we used to play music. We
Speaker 1: both had bands, and we would play music at Christian clubs.
Speaker 1: Let me tell you what that's that's a real paradox,
Speaker 1: right there a Christian club and we played at one.
Speaker 1: I don't remember what it was called Psalm one fifty
Speaker 1: or ps one fifty or something like that. It was
Speaker 1: named after some Bible verse. And but there'd be three people,
Speaker 1: five people, ten people was a ten people was a stadium,
Speaker 1: you know. So for me, it's like it's kind of
Speaker 1: getting back to my roots because I'm used to having
Speaker 1: to close my eyes to see. You know, when I
Speaker 1: used to preach, the kids would be like not paying
Speaker 1: attention and probably because I wasn't interesting, but I would
Speaker 1: have to close my eyes and just pretend, or maybe
Speaker 1: it was something different than pretending. Maybe I was just
Speaker 1: closing my eyes in order to have a perspective that
Speaker 1: didn't come from what I saw with my natural eye.
Speaker 1: And so last week it was kind of cool because
Speaker 1: I was preaching and I was picturing people just gathered
Speaker 1: together and need a word from God and need encouragement.
Speaker 1: And I was picturing people that normally may not come
Speaker 1: to church, but they need something for their soul during
Speaker 1: this time, and there's very little other options for entertainment,
Speaker 1: so here they come over, and I'll be picturing people
Speaker 1: that maybe they've been drinking too much to numb the anxiety,
Speaker 1: or maybe they've been fighting a lot in the house,
Speaker 1: or maybe they've been lonely all by themselves. So I'm
Speaker 1: preaching kind of to an empty room. But when I
Speaker 1: walked off the stage, my staff member said to me,
Speaker 1: what did it feel like to preach to the most
Speaker 1: people you've ever preached to in your life? I said,
Speaker 1: I didn't know I was doing it. He said yeah.
Speaker 1: He said, the equivalent of who was on just at
Speaker 1: that live service and this was just the first one
Speaker 1: on Sunday. It was the equivalent of Bank of America
Speaker 1: Stadium where the Panthers played. And he said, there were
Speaker 1: so many people on that stream that it was actually spectrum,
Speaker 1: which is where I went to see you too. That
Speaker 1: spectrum was the overflow room. That's how many people I
Speaker 1: was preaching to. And what I thought was weird was
Speaker 1: the contrast between what I was seeing with my eyes
Speaker 1: and what God was doing on the other side of
Speaker 1: the screen. And what hit me about it, and what
Speaker 1: I want to share with you about today a little bit,
Speaker 1: is that God was doing the most when I was
Speaker 1: seeing the least. And I want to bring a word
Speaker 1: to you today about how sometimes when we see the least,
Speaker 1: God does the most, even when I don't see it.
Speaker 1: What were they sing in earlier? You're working even when
Speaker 1: I don't feel it. You're working. No offense to Brother Leland.
Speaker 1: I love his bridge that he put on the song,
Speaker 1: but I would even I would even put a put a,
Speaker 1: especially when I don't see it. You're working, especially doesn't
Speaker 1: sing as good, especially when I don't precious stay with even,
Speaker 1: but especially in those moments when I see the least,
Speaker 1: feel the least, watch this, know the least, understand the least.
Speaker 1: These are the spaces that God creates for revelation of
Speaker 1: who he is. How would I know He's a waymaker?
Speaker 1: If I never needed a way made. How would I
Speaker 1: know he's a provider if I never had a need.
Speaker 1: How would I know that he was resurrection if I
Speaker 1: never experienced that. So we speak this word of the
Speaker 1: Lord to you today, and I want to come from
Speaker 1: a passage of scripture that I shared with our leaders
Speaker 1: on Friday night. We had a gathering of just under
Speaker 1: five thousand of our leaders just to encourage and strengthen
Speaker 1: the church, and I was sharing along the lines of
Speaker 1: your position for a miracle, and I'd love for you
Speaker 1: to put that into chat. I mentioned it last week,
Speaker 1: I'm positioned for a miracle, and then just put where
Speaker 1: you're coming from. You know, if it's I see Wallyburg,
Speaker 1: North Carolina. I never heard of Wallyburg, North Carolina. I'm
Speaker 1: learning all kinds of stuff right now. I didn't know
Speaker 1: there was a Wallybirg. But God is positioning me. Say
Speaker 1: I'm positioned for a miracle, and that means that we
Speaker 1: have to learn how to see in our spirit what
Speaker 1: we cannot sense. And this is such an important skill
Speaker 1: that I want to devote my whole sermon to it today.
Speaker 1: Let me read you this story may be familiar to you,
Speaker 1: maybe not, but just to jump right in the middle
Speaker 1: of it. In tewod Kings, chapter six, verse fifteen, the
Speaker 1: book says, when the servant of the Man of God
Speaker 1: got up and went out early the next morning, an
Speaker 1: army with horses and chariots had surrounded the city. Now
Speaker 1: what he said next is something a lot of us
Speaker 1: have been saying. Maybe we've been using different words, maybe
Speaker 1: we've been using stronger language. But he said, oh no,
Speaker 1: my lord, oh no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
Speaker 1: How many of young moms when you heard how long
Speaker 1: they were canceling in school? Oh no, no, no, no,
Speaker 1: how many of y'all when you met with your financial
Speaker 1: advisor or clicked on your account, Oh no, oh no,
Speaker 1: I wish I'll put that in the chat with a
Speaker 1: bunch of o's, just say, oh no, I mean just
Speaker 1: as many o's as your thumb can tie. And we
Speaker 1: feel that way, you know, especially if we're if we're
Speaker 1: worried about symptoms, or if we're struggling in an emotional way.
Speaker 1: Oh no, And I love how that's right there in
Speaker 1: the Bible. His first response, he's a servant of the
Speaker 1: Man of God, right, But his first response wasn't praise God.
Speaker 1: His first response was, oh no, and we want to
Speaker 1: pretend to be real spiritual. You know, I see all
Speaker 1: your prayer emojis, but you've been having some other emojis too.
Speaker 1: You need to find that little devil emoji because really,
Speaker 1: you know what happened to the servant in the passage.
Speaker 1: And let me just take a moment to set this up.
Speaker 1: You got anything else to do, I don't have anything
Speaker 1: else to do. We may as well just hang out
Speaker 1: for a little while. But he woke up to a
Speaker 1: different world than the one he went to sleep in.
Speaker 1: He woke up to a different world than the one
Speaker 1: he went to sleep in, and he said, oh no. Now,
Speaker 1: if you've ever woken up to a different world then
Speaker 1: the one you went to sleep in, you'll understand that
Speaker 1: it creates an impulse. Some people call it fear. I
Speaker 1: just call it humanity. It's just like, oh, oh yeah,
Speaker 1: if you ever lost somebody, if they ever left your
Speaker 1: life suddenly, whether they died or just went away, and
Speaker 1: you woke up to a different world that didn't have
Speaker 1: them in it, Like maybe you remember the first time
Speaker 1: you woke up in a world without your dad. Maybe
Speaker 1: you remember the first time you woke up in a
Speaker 1: world without a steady job. Remember the first time you
Speaker 1: woke up in the world without you know, the NBA.
Speaker 1: I remember when they started canceling everything a couple of
Speaker 1: weeks ago. And I say it not in a humorous way,
Speaker 1: but when things get canceled that you used to count on,
Speaker 1: it makes you question everything. And so whether it's something
Speaker 1: that we would say always entertainment or is this or
Speaker 1: it's that, it's just the feeling of like, oh no,
Speaker 1: and watch us question it gets even more specific, what
Speaker 1: shall we do? Okay? So that's where you find yourself today.
Speaker 1: I want to preach a message to you. What do
Speaker 1: I do? What do I do? And the servant asked
Speaker 1: the question, and the prophet gives the answer. In verse sixteen.
Speaker 1: He says, don't be afraid. Those who are with us
Speaker 1: are more than those who are with them. And Elisha prayed,
Speaker 1: and we're going to get this prayer today, and we're
Speaker 1: really going to pray it for the next seven days
Speaker 1: until I see you again. In this format, we're going
Speaker 1: to pray this prayer over those that we love, and
Speaker 1: we're going to pray this prayer over ourselves. And here's
Speaker 1: the prayer. I've been putting this on all my text
Speaker 1: messages because I've got business leaders in my church that
Speaker 1: are like, oh no, what do we do? I've got
Speaker 1: doctors in our church that are like, oh no, what
Speaker 1: are we doing? I don't have the answer. So this
Speaker 1: is the prayer. Okay, this is the prayer that I
Speaker 1: want us to pray right about now. Open his eyes,
Speaker 1: Lord that he may see, Open his eyes, Lord, that
Speaker 1: he may see. Somebody put in the chat, open my eyes,
Speaker 1: put in the comments, Open my eyes. Those of y'all
Speaker 1: sitting on those stools behind me, say, open my eyes,
Speaker 1: Open his eyes so that he may see. Then the
Speaker 1: Lord opened the servant's eyes, and he looked and saw
Speaker 1: the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all
Speaker 1: around Elisha. And you know, I love that text so much.
Speaker 1: I love how God was protecting a servant. And I
Speaker 1: love how God was more powerful than the enemy. I
Speaker 1: love how no weapon formed against us shall prosper. I
Speaker 1: love all of that. But sometimes when you're in a
Speaker 1: real situation or a circumstance, the cliches don't comfort you
Speaker 1: very much. I didn't know what to call this message.
Speaker 1: I don't know what we're going to call it when
Speaker 1: we put it online. We'll figure that out later. But
Speaker 1: I did flash back just reading this passage to the
Speaker 1: other night Abby, who is our nine year old. All
Speaker 1: of y'all who are part of the church, you kind
Speaker 1: of know my kids. I got a nine year old,
Speaker 1: twelve year old, fourteen year old. But Abby is the
Speaker 1: most prone to come downstairs in the middle of the
Speaker 1: night and wake us upcause she got scared. And she
Speaker 1: came downstairs the other day and she's, you know, trembling
Speaker 1: about something, something fell over in the bathroom. And I
Speaker 1: wasn't quite asleep yet. If I had been totally asleep,
Speaker 1: I would have done the spiritual thing and said tell
Speaker 1: your mom true story. But I still wasn't asleep, so
Speaker 1: I said, come here, baby, you know real good dad,
Speaker 1: And I said, get up on my chest and sit here.
Speaker 1: I said, what's wrong? She said, I'm scared, something fell over,
Speaker 1: something's in the bathroom. I said, maybe nothing in the bathroom.
Speaker 1: And besides, even if it is, you're here with me now.
Speaker 1: I said, I feel this, and she gave me a
Speaker 1: little squeeze. Because we have this game. We played the
Speaker 1: Squishy Wall, the Brickie Wall, the squishy wall, the BRICKI wall, squishy, squishy,
Speaker 1: squishy wall, bricky, bricky, bricky wall. I said, feel a
Speaker 1: bricky wall. And so she sat her life a little bit.
Speaker 1: And she's still crying though, and I said, uh, there's
Speaker 1: nothing in your bathroom, and even if there is, you're
Speaker 1: with me now. She said, I'm still scared. I love kids.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna call this message for just a minute. I'm
Speaker 1: still scared because you know, while it's easy to quote
Speaker 1: scriptures like don't be afraid, let's look at it for
Speaker 1: a moment and take a perspective, because you know, we're
Speaker 1: having a hard time even dealing with just a virus
Speaker 1: right now. But this is not an invisible virus. This
Speaker 1: is horses and chariots that came to get the Man
Speaker 1: of God in Dothan. This is like I went to sleep.
Speaker 1: We were good. I woke up, we were surrounded. I
Speaker 1: went to sleep. I had a job. I woke up.
Speaker 1: I didn't. I went to sleep and things were well.
Speaker 1: I woke up to a different world. And he asked
Speaker 1: him a question. And it's a reasonable question, right. This
Speaker 1: is the man of God, this is the preacher, this
Speaker 1: is the guy who speaks and God provides. This is
Speaker 1: the guy who speaks in God's supplies. So he asked
Speaker 1: the question to the right person. He says, what do
Speaker 1: we do? Now? Watch the answer that the Man of
Speaker 1: God gives Elisha. He says, don't be afraid. Well, that's cute,
Speaker 1: appreciate it. Thanks a lot. You know how people give
Speaker 1: you advice that makes you want to slap him. Well,
Speaker 1: I hadn't thought of that, And it's just it's this
Speaker 1: is the time for well meaning Christians to shut up
Speaker 1: a little bit. You know, Oh, well you lost your job.
Speaker 1: God will provide. That's fine in certain context. But sometimes,
Speaker 1: and I want you to see how Elisha does this.
Speaker 1: Sometimes it's more important what we don't do than what
Speaker 1: we do do. That didn't come out exactly right, but
Speaker 1: you know what I was trying to say. Sometimes sometimes
Speaker 1: what I don't what I won't do in a season
Speaker 1: where I'm uncertain, is even more important than what I do.
Speaker 1: Because let's follow the text, and I really want to
Speaker 1: take our time. We don't have another service coming in,
Speaker 1: so we could just we could just do this right,
Speaker 1: put it back up. He said, what shall we do?
Speaker 1: And then the prophet said, don't and this, so go
Speaker 1: out to fifteen what shall we do? And the prophet
Speaker 1: said don't? And the man said what shall we do?
Speaker 1: And the prophet said don't. So I ask you a question,
Speaker 1: what won't you do in a time where so many
Speaker 1: are desperate and and we're all kind of fearful, and
Speaker 1: we all feel scared. If you're not scared right now,
Speaker 1: I'm scared of you. If you're not scared right now,
Speaker 1: you are some kind of evil cyborg robi come to
Speaker 1: destroy the planet, And I want you quarantined, okay, because
Speaker 1: to have flesh means to feel fear. So while he's
Speaker 1: wondering what does this new world that I woke up
Speaker 1: to mean? And what do we do, the prophet starts
Speaker 1: by saying don't. Don't. So maybe for you it goes
Speaker 1: like this, Right now, I won't lash out at the
Speaker 1: people closest to me because of the fear that I
Speaker 1: feel about what's going on outside of me. Maybe it's
Speaker 1: like that, what won't you do? What a question? Right?
Speaker 1: What do we do? Well, the first thing you've got
Speaker 1: to do is decide what you won't do. So I
Speaker 1: won't just make you know irrational stories up in my mind.
Speaker 1: I won't spend three hours reading conspiracy theories on Twitter
Speaker 1: and then ask the Lord. Now I let me down
Speaker 1: to sleep. I pray the Lord my soul to keep.
Speaker 1: You gave your soul away that day. So what I
Speaker 1: won't do, what I won't do is spend time in
Speaker 1: the hypothetical. What I won't do, what won't you do?
Speaker 1: I would have been annoyed with the prophet. I'm just
Speaker 1: being honest, you knowing, what do we do? What's the plan? Man?
Speaker 1: What is you gonna do? Fight them? There's so many
Speaker 1: of them. It's just me and you, and by this time,
Speaker 1: my life's just kind of old. You know, you can't fight,
Speaker 1: so it's just meat versus all of them. What do
Speaker 1: we do? What's the plan? What's the what's the strat,
Speaker 1: what's the What do we do? What's the deal? What
Speaker 1: do we do? What to do? All? Right? Don't be
Speaker 1: afraid and not working for me? Right now? How do
Speaker 1: I do that? How do I don't be afraid? I'm
Speaker 1: not afraid. I'm not afraid. I'm not afraid. I'm not afraid.
Speaker 1: I'm not afraid. Still scared, she said, I'm still scared.
Speaker 1: I know you're with me. I'm still scared. There's still
Speaker 1: something in my bedroom. I'm still nine, I'm still weak,
Speaker 1: I still got bills, I'm still got to show up
Speaker 1: at the grocery store and work. I still got a
Speaker 1: relative who's eighty four years old who's starting to cough,
Speaker 1: and I wonder will I get to see her again.
Speaker 1: I'm still scared. So why does he say, don't be afraid? Okay,
Speaker 1: I want to teach you a little bit. It's almost
Speaker 1: impossible to be strategic when you're scared. And so the
Speaker 1: first thing we have to do as people of faith.
Speaker 1: And I use that term not to mean as optimists
Speaker 1: or people who believe in fairy tales, or people who
Speaker 1: float on clouds of cotton candy through the burning seas
Speaker 1: of sulfur and suffering in this world because we know Jesus.
Speaker 1: I don't mean that kind of faith. I don't mean
Speaker 1: formulate faith. I don't mean the the answer kind of faith.
Speaker 1: I mean the better question kind of faith. What do
Speaker 1: we do? Okay, well, what do we don't? We don't
Speaker 1: give way to despair? Right? What good would that do?
Speaker 1: We don't? We don't. I know another thing we don't do.
Speaker 1: We don't minimize the sufferings of others. We don't do that.
Speaker 1: And how about this, y'all talk to me out there.
Speaker 1: We don't compare what somebody else is going through with
Speaker 1: what we're going through. And we don't start running around
Speaker 1: just saying dumb stuff. You know what we don't do.
Speaker 1: We don't get on YouTube and comment how this is
Speaker 1: God's judgment. We don't speak about things that we don't know.
Speaker 1: That's above our pay grade. It's the judgment of God.
Speaker 1: What And somebody's mother died and you want to be
Speaker 1: some kind of closet theologian, some kind of armchair rookie,
Speaker 1: amateur theologian. Keep your day job. God is God, so
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna try to be God. That's his job.
Speaker 1: You remember Holly's story that she preached one time. She
Speaker 1: told about these boys that were fighting. This is a
Speaker 1: good quarantine story, all right, for all of y'all that's
Speaker 1: got real kids that don't have you know, halo's and
Speaker 1: harps and all that. And they fight sometimes even though
Speaker 1: you pray for him, they fight sometimes. They were fighting
Speaker 1: two brothers and if I mess it up, you can
Speaker 1: you can fix it for me. And the mom said,
Speaker 1: what are y'all fighting about, and one of them had
Speaker 1: a sandwich and wouldn't cut it in half and share it,
Speaker 1: and she said, y'all need to share. Be like Jesus.
Speaker 1: Jesus would share. And the boy that had the sandwich
Speaker 1: looked at it and he took a bite out of
Speaker 1: it and said, you be Jesus, you can share. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna take a bite. But when my wife preached that message,
Speaker 1: her message was let God be God. Let God be God.
Speaker 1: You be Jesus, you be humble, you be trusting. Jesus
Speaker 1: had a nevertheless attitude toward his relationship with his father.
Speaker 1: He was like, I don't want to go to the cross.
Speaker 1: I don't want to drink this cup. Nevertheless, not my will,
Speaker 1: but yours be done. So you be Jesus. But what
Speaker 1: I won't do in this situation is just as important
Speaker 1: as what I will do. So the Holy Spirit is
Speaker 1: on that statement right now. Reflect on it. What won't
Speaker 1: you do? What were we gonna do? What won't you do?
Speaker 1: I won't live in fear. I may feel fear, I
Speaker 1: won't live in it. I may experience sensations of fear.
Speaker 1: I felt my breath getting short the other day before
Speaker 1: I stood up to preach. Somebody asked me, how long
Speaker 1: were you preaching before you stopped feeling scared. I said,
Speaker 1: I'm still scared every time I preach. I was shaken
Speaker 1: before I came out here today. Now I know how
Speaker 1: to control my shake so you don't see it, but
Speaker 1: my hands still shaking when they're in my pockets. I
Speaker 1: mean this important to me. Somebody is discouraged, depressed, somebody's
Speaker 1: on the on the edge, and I get to preach
Speaker 1: the word like that's important to me. I don't. I
Speaker 1: don't want to be the weak link of what God
Speaker 1: wants to give to you. I don't want to come
Speaker 1: out here and miss the mark of what God wants
Speaker 1: to say. I'm still scared, but it doesn't have to
Speaker 1: stop me. So what I'm saying is not that I
Speaker 1: won't feel fear, not that I won't have questions, not
Speaker 1: that I won't Sometimes in my mind, when I'm praying prayers,
Speaker 1: I'm praying prayers that really don't even sound like prayers.
Speaker 1: I'm praying prayers like oh crap, I'm praying prayers like
Speaker 1: please God. I'm praying prayers. I'm not walking around the
Speaker 1: house all the time with my hands lifted. But I
Speaker 1: won't stop worshiping. I won't stop praising. Put it in
Speaker 1: the chat. I won't stop. I won't stop. I won't
Speaker 1: That's what I won't do. I won't stop. I won't
Speaker 1: back down. I will not give in. I will not surrender.
Speaker 1: I will not give away my joy. I will not
Speaker 1: give away my peace. My peace was purchased with the
Speaker 1: blood of Christ. It's too expensive. You can't have it.
Speaker 1: It's too valuable. It's the only treasure I've got. It's
Speaker 1: the only thing that moths can't eat up and that
Speaker 1: thieves can steal. I might be scared, but I'm still
Speaker 1: gonna stand on the word of the Lord. I won't
Speaker 1: bow to your statue, nebukanesser, I won't bow. Put me
Speaker 1: in a fire. If you have to put me, tie
Speaker 1: up my hands and throw me in a furnace. This
Speaker 1: is shad wrack, Mishak and Abed and Ago. They said,
Speaker 1: the God that we serve is able to deliver us,
Speaker 1: and we know that he will. But even if somebody say,
Speaker 1: even if even if he doesn't, I will not bow.
Speaker 1: And the only thing the fire what's gonna do is
Speaker 1: burn off what you tied me up with God said,
Speaker 1: I'm setting you free in this season. I'm gonna use
Speaker 1: the fire to set you free. I'm gonna set you
Speaker 1: free from addiction. I'm gonna set you free from bad priorities.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna set you free from distractions. So that's what
Speaker 1: the man said. He said, don't be afraid. You can
Speaker 1: feel fear. It can ride in the car, but it
Speaker 1: can't drive. I can't wait to hear testimonies on this
Speaker 1: message because you have been letting that joker drive. You
Speaker 1: have been letting you have been letting that crook, that robber,
Speaker 1: that thief, that devil have your life and your peace
Speaker 1: and your joy. And so he said, here's what we're
Speaker 1: not gonna do. He said, don't be afraid. Now who
Speaker 1: says it is just as important as what it said.
Speaker 1: How many will agree. So if my fourteen year old
Speaker 1: says to me, don't worry, dad, God's got this, I'm like, eh.
Speaker 1: When my mom says it, it has more weight because
Speaker 1: of who said it. So Elisha's ministry, you have to remember,
Speaker 1: was a prophetic ministry. Was a prophetic ministry. It's not
Speaker 1: about telling the future. It's about seeing. It's about seeing.
Speaker 1: It's about seeing the invisible. Would you agree with me
Speaker 1: that one of the lessons God is trying to get
Speaker 1: us to learn right now. I'm sure there are many
Speaker 1: lessons that will understand because of what we're going through
Speaker 1: as a society, But would you agree with me that
Speaker 1: one of the lessons he's trying to get us to
Speaker 1: learn is that sometimes what we can't see is more
Speaker 1: important than what we can see. I mean, just even
Speaker 1: thinking about it, Like how I stood on the stage
Speaker 1: last week and preached, and what was happening on the
Speaker 1: other side of what I could see was significant. And
Speaker 1: at the same time, the entire economy is rocking and
Speaker 1: reeling because of an invisible virus. And so the Bible
Speaker 1: started to get real to me when I thought about,
Speaker 1: you know, scriptures that used to sound good, but now
Speaker 1: they make more sense. We wrestle not against flesh and blood,
Speaker 1: but against spiritual wickedness, principalities, rulers. What he's trying to
Speaker 1: say is that, like what we're fighting, that we can
Speaker 1: see has to first be approached to the level that
Speaker 1: we can't see. And God is trying to show us
Speaker 1: some things today because watch this. Not only does he
Speaker 1: tell him, don't be afraid. And this is not coming
Speaker 1: from a man who has never had to face fear before.
Speaker 1: This is coming from a prophet who had to walk
Speaker 1: into a widow's house. If you want to do a
Speaker 1: Bible study this week, you know, if you just get
Speaker 1: tired of what's that show that everybody on my staff
Speaker 1: is watching with the tigers, Tiger King. If you get
Speaker 1: tired of Tiger King, I'm gonna be looking for a
Speaker 1: Netflix sponsorship check out of this. But if you get
Speaker 1: tired of watching that, read Second King's four or Elisha.
Speaker 1: This is the same guy that said don't be afraid
Speaker 1: to the servant when they were surrounded by the armies
Speaker 1: of Aaron, who came to lock him up because of
Speaker 1: what he could see. He had to walk into a
Speaker 1: woman's house who said, I'm about to go into debt.
Speaker 1: My husband is dead, I have nothing to pay it with,
Speaker 1: and I have nothing in my house at all except
Speaker 1: a little oil. Now, this prophet Elisha, had the ability
Speaker 1: to see in a little bit what the woman could
Speaker 1: not see because she was looking through a different lens.
Speaker 1: A lot of us have thought of faith as being
Speaker 1: this way that we manipulate God. But now we find
Speaker 1: ourselves in a season where we can't control almost anything.
Speaker 1: We can't control what's open and what's closed. We can't
Speaker 1: control at some level what happens in foreign markets that
Speaker 1: affects us at home, what happens in foreign places. So
Speaker 1: in the season of what we can't control, we have
Speaker 1: to read the fine faith right, Because I thought I
Speaker 1: thought faith was like a lever. Picture this, and like
Speaker 1: when we pull the lever, you know, have faith, give
Speaker 1: him a phrase, give him a praise. You know when
Speaker 1: praises go up, blessings come down. It's like transactional, right,
Speaker 1: It's like jack pot Jesus. It's like yes, Lord, you know,
Speaker 1: like I'm gonna pray, my kid's gonna make straight a's
Speaker 1: I'm gonna pray, and I say, I'm gonna stop my
Speaker 1: headache's gonna go away. I'm gonna pray and pray. But see,
Speaker 1: faith is not a lever. Faith is a lens, a
Speaker 1: way of seeing your situation. And sometimes faith changes the situation.
Speaker 1: Sometimes faith changes the way you see the situation. Sometimes
Speaker 1: God changes it, sometimes he changes me. But either way,
Speaker 1: even when I don't see it, even when I don't
Speaker 1: feel it, come on, you're supposed to say to line,
Speaker 1: y'all are the worship team after all, especially when I
Speaker 1: don't see it, even when I don't feel it, especially
Speaker 1: when I don't feel it, and when I don't know
Speaker 1: what do I do. Don't be afraid. So what the
Speaker 1: prophet told the woman in Second Kings four is what
Speaker 1: he's practicing in Second King six. Some of us are
Speaker 1: getting to put into practice for ourselves what we preach
Speaker 1: to others. We preach about peace, we preach about God's power.
Speaker 1: Now we get to prove that what God showed us
Speaker 1: in the light is true in the darkness, that what
Speaker 1: God showed us on the mountain is true in the valley,
Speaker 1: That what God showed us the night before is still
Speaker 1: true the next morning. And when that woman went around
Speaker 1: to her neighbors and she got all these jars right,
Speaker 1: and the oil started flowing, and the only limitation to
Speaker 1: what God could provide was her capacity to receive it.
Speaker 1: And that's still true. And so now Elisha knows that
Speaker 1: if this man's heart is filled with fear, he can't
Speaker 1: operate in faith because you can't be you can't be
Speaker 1: strategic when you're scared. And so that's why it's so
Speaker 1: important what He says next that we have a perspective.
Speaker 1: Put that in the chat perspective. This is a prayer
Speaker 1: for perspective. This is a prayer for perspective. I put
Speaker 1: it on Instagram the other day because the Lord told
Speaker 1: me that tewod King six seventeen is a prayer for perspective.
Speaker 1: Watch this. The servant was asking for protection. What do
Speaker 1: we do? God gave him perspective. What do you see?
Speaker 1: What do I do? Starts with what do you see?
Speaker 1: And if the enemy can keep you from seeing, if
Speaker 1: he can keep you from seeing them the blessings, he
Speaker 1: can keep you stuck in a place of brokenness. If
Speaker 1: he can and keep you from seeing the advantages or
Speaker 1: the opportunities, he can keep you running. That's That's a
Speaker 1: very important thing. Is that when you're when your vision
Speaker 1: of who God is is obscured by what you're going through,
Speaker 1: something very small can block out something much bigger. Can
Speaker 1: I stay here a minute? Like you're gonna say no,
Speaker 1: something very small can block out something much bigger. How
Speaker 1: could I illustrate this? I'm gonna try to illustrate this
Speaker 1: real quick. I know y'all aren't prepared for this. So
Speaker 1: for just a minute freaking out the camera people. But
Speaker 1: something very small. This is very small, but you're what
Speaker 1: you're supposed to see you can't see. Pray for me, y'all. Yeah,
Speaker 1: something very small. This is very small, right, it's very small.
Speaker 1: Something very small can block out something much bigger. Now
Speaker 1: you can't see anything that's supposed to be seen something
Speaker 1: very small. Maybe it's no coincidence that I'm using this
Speaker 1: iPhone that's got some of y'all with stomach ulcers because
Speaker 1: you won't come off of it and see what's right
Speaker 1: around you, or you won't use that Bible. Laugh. You
Speaker 1: got that other app open? What's it called Insta Insta
Speaker 1: What huh? Insta insta instat It's not Instagram right now,
Speaker 1: it's like Insta gross. It's like it just makes me
Speaker 1: feel if I stay on it too long. It's just
Speaker 1: like I'm in an alternate reality and now I can't
Speaker 1: see what is invisible. Something small can block out something bigger. Okay,
Speaker 1: is that camera on, y'all? We didn't plan any of this,
Speaker 1: So pray for your preacher right now. Pray for the cameraman.
Speaker 1: I'm still six feet apart. By the way, I want
Speaker 1: you all to know that. But I'm just showing you
Speaker 1: this illustration how something small. And this is what First
Speaker 1: King's nineteen says about it, that eli Jah, who was
Speaker 1: the great Man of God, who taught Elisha in Second
Speaker 1: King six everything that he knows, because as this is
Speaker 1: nothing new, because the same God that delivered me from
Speaker 1: the Paul the Lion and the Paul the Bear will
Speaker 1: deliver me from this uncircumcised philistine too. The only reason
Speaker 1: Elisha knew what to see in the situation that he'd
Speaker 1: never been in before, he had followed the great Man
Speaker 1: of God, Elijah, the prophet, the one who called down
Speaker 1: fire on Mount Carmel. Remember that Bible story Sean. I mean,
Speaker 1: he said, if God is God, serve him. If Bail
Speaker 1: is God, serve him. Choose this day who you will serve.
Speaker 1: And God answered by fire eight hundred and fifty false prophets,
Speaker 1: the prophets of Astrara had to bow their knee. And
Speaker 1: then when Elijah got done with that miracle, he went
Speaker 1: up on a mountain and prayed, Now, listen to this
Speaker 1: about perspective. From a perspective, he said, I hear the
Speaker 1: sound of the abundance of rain. I hear something that
Speaker 1: I can't see. I know something that I can't see.
Speaker 1: And when a servant went to check the sky, he said,
Speaker 1: I know you said you heard something, but there's nothing there.
Speaker 1: And Elijah said to a servant, what we need to
Speaker 1: say to our soul. Go back and look again, Go
Speaker 1: back and look again. Rejoice in the Lord always. I
Speaker 1: will say it again. Rejoice. I will say it again. Rejoice.
Speaker 1: Say it again. Say it again, Say it again, Check
Speaker 1: it again, look again, go again, look again. Say it again.
Speaker 1: Say it again. In the chap say it again. In
Speaker 1: the comments, say it again. Say it again. Say it again.
Speaker 1: God is good. Say it again. The Lord is my shepherd.
Speaker 1: Say it again. God is with me. Say it again.
Speaker 1: He has not left me. Say it again. I've never
Speaker 1: seen the righteous forsaken. Say it again. He is the
Speaker 1: bread of life. Say it again. He's a waymaker. Say
Speaker 1: it again. He's a miracle worker. And when he checked
Speaker 1: the seventh time, he saw something very small, a cloud
Speaker 1: the size of a man's hand, something so small. Three
Speaker 1: and a half years of drought came to an end.
Speaker 1: Because it's something very small. But you know what's weird.
Speaker 1: When jezebel Ahab's wife, AaB was the wicked king. Jezebel
Speaker 1: was the one really running the show. One preacher said,
Speaker 1: the last decision Ahab ever made was I do because
Speaker 1: after that Jezebel took over and she would kill the prophet.
Speaker 1: She was much more ruthless than Ahab was. But when
Speaker 1: Jezebel heard what Elijah had done, she said, we'll put
Speaker 1: it up there on the screen one King's nineteen. She
Speaker 1: sent a messenger to Elijah to say, may the gods
Speaker 1: deal with me, be it ever so severely. If by
Speaker 1: this time tomorrow I do not make your life like
Speaker 1: one of them, I'm gonna kill you. But she couldn't.
Speaker 1: She couldn't. There's certain things the devil can't do to you.
Speaker 1: But if he can get you to believe that, he
Speaker 1: doesn't even have to do it. If he can get
Speaker 1: you to get so blocked by something small, are you
Speaker 1: on this camera? Go back to this camera something? How
Speaker 1: could something so small? Look what Elijah, the Great Man
Speaker 1: of God did in verse three. So Elijah was afraid.
Speaker 1: He was afraid, so he fled and he ran, and
Speaker 1: he ran and he ran because Jezebel couldn't kill him.
Speaker 1: So since she couldn't kill him, all she could do
Speaker 1: was convince him. And so I believe this message is prophetic,
Speaker 1: not pathetic, prophetic in the sense that you are allowing
Speaker 1: something small to block out something bigger. And I promise
Speaker 1: you right now, God's calling is bigger than any crisis.
Speaker 1: Trust me on that and read your Bible if you
Speaker 1: don't believe me. That's how I can go through it,
Speaker 1: because I know that God's calling is bigger. And so
Speaker 1: why would I let something small block out something big?
Speaker 1: When he hung the stars and name them, why would
Speaker 1: I refuse to lift my eyes to the hills when
Speaker 1: I know where my help comes from. So there is
Speaker 1: something bigger, there is something greater. There is something other
Speaker 1: on the other side of this. I wonder what's on
Speaker 1: the other side of this that is so big that
Speaker 1: the enemy sent a storm to disrupt your peace, to
Speaker 1: destroy your joy. God is with us in this place
Speaker 1: right now. Do you feel that? And so the prophet said,
Speaker 1: those who are with us are more than those who
Speaker 1: are with him. He must have went to public school.
Speaker 1: This dude is bad and mad. Elijah is bad and mad.
Speaker 1: And the servant is like, huh, because he's counting right,
Speaker 1: He's like those with us or more than those with them,
Speaker 1: all right, so one, two, and then he starts counting
Speaker 1: enemy one, two, three, four, five, seven, eight, nine, twelve
Speaker 1: because I know somebody sitting there listening, Well, preacher, this
Speaker 1: is this is this is cool, this is neat. But
Speaker 1: have you seen the news. I'm like, but yeah, I
Speaker 1: saw it. I see the statistics. But what good is
Speaker 1: it going to do for me to be afraid? Like
Speaker 1: I want to be aware, but there's a fine line
Speaker 1: between aware and afraid. And let me just say this
Speaker 1: and we can edit it out if it's too strong.
Speaker 1: I think it's dangerous when we start watching a death
Speaker 1: count on a ticker like it's a score in a
Speaker 1: baseball game, I think that kind of crosses a line.
Speaker 1: I think it puts us in a state where we
Speaker 1: have made entertainment out of misery, and then we become
Speaker 1: addicted to being afraid and it kind of feels comfortable.
Speaker 1: It's like, oh, this is normal. You know. One of
Speaker 1: the reasons Elijah ran from Jezebel he was used to running.
Speaker 1: He had been hiding for three and a half years,
Speaker 1: so he did what came natural. And a lot of
Speaker 1: us when we get in a fierce state it's because
Speaker 1: it feels familiar to us. This is like group therapy,
Speaker 1: isn't it to know that sometimes we feel more familiar
Speaker 1: in a state of fear than we do in a
Speaker 1: state of faith. And what the prophet gave him was
Speaker 1: a different way to do math. I wrote in my notes,
Speaker 1: I said, this is miracle math. Somebody put it in
Speaker 1: the comments, this is miracle math. Miracle math is like this,
Speaker 1: you're ready, there's more of us than them. Huh. Close
Speaker 1: your eyes and you'll see it. Because I'm not talking
Speaker 1: about what you can see. I'm talking about what's more
Speaker 1: real than what you can see. Close your eyes and
Speaker 1: you'll see it. This is miracle math. It's a miracle math.
Speaker 1: It's like Gideon, you have too many men. Too many men.
Speaker 1: I'm going to fight a battle. That's exactly what I
Speaker 1: need is soldiers. No, you got too many because if
Speaker 1: you go in with this many men, you will think
Speaker 1: it was you that won the battle. So when he
Speaker 1: gets down to three hundred, God says, now go in
Speaker 1: the strength that you have, Now go. It's miracle math.
Speaker 1: It's like Jesus, there's five thousand men and women and children.
Speaker 1: What do you have? Five loaves? Into fish. It's not enough, right,
Speaker 1: depends on whose calculator you're using. This is not Texas instruments.
Speaker 1: This is the Son of God. Put it in my
Speaker 1: hands once you got in your house. A little bit
Speaker 1: of oil, a little bit of time, a little bit
Speaker 1: of sanity, a little bit of praise. Just a weak
Speaker 1: Wi Fi connection, But I'm hooked up, hooked in to
Speaker 1: the presence of God. And God is a multiplier, and
Speaker 1: God is enough, and God is with me. This is
Speaker 1: miracle math. How long has he been dead? Three days?
Speaker 1: That's just right, this miracle mad God said, do a recalculation.
Speaker 1: I thought I was out numbered, but I'm not. I
Speaker 1: thought it was over, but it's not. I thought it
Speaker 1: was done, but it's not. This is miracle math. Y'all
Speaker 1: say something in the chat while I button my shirt.
Speaker 1: Miracle math preaching so hard I snapped my button opened.
Speaker 1: Oh well, that's all right, because the word of the
Speaker 1: Lord came to the servant and said, there's more with
Speaker 1: us than with them. And then here's the prayer. And
Speaker 1: I'm closing kind of. This is closing number one, closing
Speaker 1: number one lowercase eight. Look at this miracle math. Miracle math,
Speaker 1: how many praise God for this word, because we really
Speaker 1: need this in our life right now. We really need
Speaker 1: this in our life. He prayed. After he encouraged him,
Speaker 1: don't be afraid. Then he said, open my eye, eyes,
Speaker 1: open my eyes. There's the prayer. And that's that's really
Speaker 1: not a physical statement. Right. His eyes were working just fine.
Speaker 1: That's why he was scared. He's like, my vision is
Speaker 1: twenty twenty, bro, I don't know what you're looking at.
Speaker 1: He's like, no, no no, no, no, no, open his eyes.
Speaker 1: Paul called it the eyes of your heart perspective. Now,
Speaker 1: when the servant looked again verse seventeen, and this is
Speaker 1: the whole message. Okay, he opened his eyes after the
Speaker 1: Lord granted Elisha's request, and he looked and saw the
Speaker 1: hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. Now,
Speaker 1: let me tell you what's really wonderful about that verse
Speaker 1: is that when Elishah prayed, help did not come. Help
Speaker 1: was already there. So when Elisha prayed, your Goodness, when
Speaker 1: he prayed, open his eyes, Holli, so that he may see.
Speaker 1: The Lord only had to show him what was already there.
Speaker 1: And we can pray for provision. And that's wonderful. We
Speaker 1: can pray for healing, and we should, and we really
Speaker 1: need to pray for everybody who's a nurse or a doctor,
Speaker 1: or a clerk, or a law enforcement officer, our first responders,
Speaker 1: like all of it. We need to pray for each other.
Speaker 1: But the thing we need to pray for more than
Speaker 1: anything else is perspective. We're coming into a time where
Speaker 1: what is invisible is more valuable than what is visible,
Speaker 1: when everything that can be shaken will be shaken, so
Speaker 1: that that which cannot be shaken will remain. We're coming
Speaker 1: to a time where peace is more profitable than bitcoin.
Speaker 1: We're coming to a time where joy cannot rest on
Speaker 1: external circumstances. And when he looked, he saw the hills
Speaker 1: full of horses, they were already full. He just couldn't
Speaker 1: see it. He saw the hills full of chariots of fire.
Speaker 1: The fire was already burning. But you know what didn't
Speaker 1: happen when he prayed. And I don't know if you
Speaker 1: want to hear this or not. And LJ, we're not
Speaker 1: going to be able to put a B three on this,
Speaker 1: but it's true and I need to say it. God
Speaker 1: did not answer Elisia's prayer by eliminating the enemy. Instead,
Speaker 1: he illuminated his presence. So faith is not a lever
Speaker 1: that I pull, God, make it stop. God is a lens.
Speaker 1: Faith is a lens that I look through to see
Speaker 1: that God has been there the whole time. He's with
Speaker 1: you right now. But I'm still scared. At you said,
Speaker 1: I'm still scared, Then just stay with me. Just stay
Speaker 1: with me, and whatever is going on up there, whatever
Speaker 1: is going on out there, you need to stay with
Speaker 1: your Father right now. And you need to stay in
Speaker 1: faith right now. And the only way that we can
Speaker 1: really deal with fear, because if we stay in fear,
Speaker 1: and then we stay in frustration, and then we get
Speaker 1: stupid because you are not very strategic when you're scared.
Speaker 1: So don't be afraid. Watch this. The only way to
Speaker 1: do that is to change the focus. To change the focus. Okay,
Speaker 1: the situation did not change in Second King six, The
Speaker 1: focus did. The only way I know to stop being
Speaker 1: afraid is to change what I'm focused on. And so
Speaker 1: I just need us right now to begin to ask
Speaker 1: the Lord to illuminate, not eliminate. God, take the fear away.
Speaker 1: It doesn't work like that. Oh God, give me all
Speaker 1: the answers, tell me the plan. I need the strategy.
Speaker 1: God said, before I give you the strategy, I want
Speaker 1: to give you your sight and shine light on your situation. Lord,
Speaker 1: shine your light in our hearts, to show us who
Speaker 1: you are, not who we thought you were. Show us
Speaker 1: what it means to believe that you are able to
Speaker 1: do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask, or imagine.
Speaker 1: Just right now in the chat or in the comments,
Speaker 1: as a prayer, say open my eyes, open my eyes
Speaker 1: to see that there's more for me than against me.
Speaker 1: And you're like, pastor, that's really cute, but that cliche
Speaker 1: is not very comforting. Right now I feel alone. I
Speaker 1: know you feel alone, but you're not alone. And even
Speaker 1: if you're alone physically, and even if you're trying to
Speaker 1: figure out how to provide for a lot of people
Speaker 1: right now, many of us are. I'm right there with you.
Speaker 1: The scripture says, if God is for you, who can
Speaker 1: be against you? So the math goes like this, Me
Speaker 1: and God is greater than anything. I face us and God,
Speaker 1: the Church and God. We're not alone, like right now,
Speaker 1: we're together, right now, in this moment, together, right now,
Speaker 1: we're fighting together worshiping together, spreading the word of the
Speaker 1: Lord together. Right now, We've got more reasons to trust
Speaker 1: God than we do to doubt him. Come on, We've
Speaker 1: got more victories behind us then we do reasons to
Speaker 1: fear in front of us. You hear me. We've got
Speaker 1: more reasons to be grateful right now than we do
Speaker 1: to be afraid right now, So come on in less,
Speaker 1: just with a perspective of praise, and with wide open eyes,
Speaker 1: and even with lifted hands. Come on, let your kids
Speaker 1: see you worshiping God. Let your kids see how you
Speaker 1: fight your battles. Let your kids see how you make
Speaker 1: it through a storm. Let a generation behold that we
Speaker 1: are that generation that will declare the works of the Lord.
Speaker 1: And there are more for us than against us. He
Speaker 1: is a mighty God, a present help, a prophesy over
Speaker 1: your life. Today. You might be scared, but that doesn't
Speaker 1: stop the presence of the Lord. Thank you Jesus, Thank
Speaker 1: you Jesus. And he is doing the most when we
Speaker 1: feel it the least. And I come to you today
Speaker 1: in Jesus' name from Elevation Church to let you know
Speaker 1: you're not alone. You are not alone. God is with you,
Speaker 1: and we are with you, and you are not alone.
Speaker 1: But I'm still scared. But you're not alone. But I'm
Speaker 1: still scared. But He's got you in the palm of
Speaker 1: his hand. How do you know that? How do you
Speaker 1: know he's got me? How can you say that? I
Speaker 1: say it by faith, not by feeling. And I thank
Speaker 1: God for his presence with us in this moment. If
Speaker 1: you receive this word right now, just say right there,
Speaker 1: I receive it. I receive it, I receive it, I
Speaker 1: receive it. I receive it by faith. I receive joy, peace, wisdom. Amen.
Speaker 1: Thank you for joining us. Special thanks to those of
Speaker 1: you who give generously to this ministry. Is because of
Speaker 1: you that this ministry is possible. You can click the
Speaker 1: link in the description to give now, or visit Elevation
Speaker 1: Church dot org slash podcast for more information and if
Speaker 1: you enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe. You can share
Speaker 1: it with your friends. You can click the share button,
Speaker 1: take a screenshot and share it on your social stories
Speaker 1: and tag us at Elevation Church. Thanks again for listening.
Speaker 1: God bless you.