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: and now to the Word of God. Amen. Genesis chapter fifty,
Speaker 1: What are you doing with that organ trying to provoke me?
Speaker 1: Genesis chapter fifty, verse nineteen. But Joseph said to them,
Speaker 1: don't be afraid, am I in the place of God.
Speaker 1: You intended to harm me, but God intended it to
Speaker 1: accomplish what is now being died, the saving of many lives.
Speaker 1: So then don't be afraid. I will provide for you
Speaker 1: and your children. And he reassured them and spoke kindly
Speaker 1: to them. God minute for good. The life of Joseph
Speaker 1: is almost like an entire movie. I could even say
Speaker 1: it's like a like a show with seven seasons. It
Speaker 1: spans about fourteen chapters in the Book of Genesis. Holly
Speaker 1: said one time that she doesn't like sermons about Joseph
Speaker 1: because they try to do too much and trying to
Speaker 1: spand that much content there's a lot you have to
Speaker 1: track through with Joseph, all the betrayal, the hurt, the
Speaker 1: promise God made him, the process that he went through.
Speaker 1: But you're gonna like this one. And the reason that
Speaker 1: you didn't like sermons about Joseph before is because they
Speaker 1: didn't tell you the best stuff. So that's what I'm
Speaker 1: gonna I'm not gonna skim it today. I'm gonna say
Speaker 1: something that it's really going to reach you. Holly. And So,
Speaker 1: someone was saying to me about a TV show that
Speaker 1: I would really like a while back, and they said
Speaker 1: it's really good. I said, I watched it. I didn't
Speaker 1: like it. They said, how many episodes did you watch?
Speaker 1: I said, like three or four? It was boring. And
Speaker 1: they said, well, if you can push past the first
Speaker 1: two seasons, this is like a military career. I'm not
Speaker 1: trying to push through something trying to relax. They're not
Speaker 1: paying me to watch this. I'm paying Netflix to watch this.
Speaker 1: Am I'm pushing through. If you can really push through
Speaker 1: the first two seasons, you get to the good part.
Speaker 1: I want to talk to you today about get to
Speaker 1: the good part. Get to the good part. And I
Speaker 1: want to pray for you, because this is a prophetic
Speaker 1: word for somebody, and I don't know who. So I
Speaker 1: pray Father, in the name of Jesus, that this word
Speaker 1: would reach from eternity right into Sunday morning or Tuesday
Speaker 1: afternoon or four am on Thursday. I pray that it'll
Speaker 1: go right here from South Charlotte, North Carolina, on this
Speaker 1: plastic pulpit and penetrate the hearts of those who need
Speaker 1: to get to the good part, those who are holding on,
Speaker 1: those who are pushing through. I declare today they're going
Speaker 1: to get to the good part. In Jesus' name. Amen,
Speaker 1: you may be seated. Yeah, because I was kind of like,
Speaker 1: if you have to watch two seasons for the show
Speaker 1: to get interesting, is it really good? At that point?
Speaker 1: You violate my definition of a good show if it
Speaker 1: took two seasons. If I have to invest twenty hours
Speaker 1: of my life, you know how many songs I can
Speaker 1: write in twenty hours while I'm pushing through to like
Speaker 1: your stupid show just kind of tick me on made
Speaker 1: me mad while we're at it. Not only do I
Speaker 1: not like thumbs up emojis, I prefer fist bump. And
Speaker 1: not only do I not want to push through a
Speaker 1: show that I'm supposed to be enjoying. Not only do
Speaker 1: I want to not want to endure something that's supposed
Speaker 1: to be meant for my entertainment I'm paying a subscription for.
Speaker 1: I don't even really like the word good because it's
Speaker 1: kind of common. Like I played a song for somebody
Speaker 1: one time that I had just written, and I came
Speaker 1: out of a songwriting season. I'm still in a songwriting
Speaker 1: season right now, so just put up with me if
Speaker 1: I use analogies that are relevant to my life. I
Speaker 1: played them a song, they said, that's good. I'm like,
Speaker 1: I don't want good. I want goosebumps, like I want
Speaker 1: you to make noises and stuff that aren't even worse,
Speaker 1: like oh yeah, oh, I just I don't want that's good.
Speaker 1: In fact, I don't I don't even I don't even
Speaker 1: want you to use that word at all, Like, oh man,
Speaker 1: that that sermon was? That was? That was good. One
Speaker 1: time somebody was preaching back to me while I was
Speaker 1: preaching and I said something. They said that's good, and
Speaker 1: I was like, no, it's life changing because I had
Speaker 1: studied it so much. It was like in my bones,
Speaker 1: not that I was so smart, just to me the
Speaker 1: way I saw it in the Bible, it was so amazing,
Speaker 1: and like, that's that's a word. I like amazing. Everybody
Speaker 1: say amazing. Put it in the chat with all caps
Speaker 1: and seventeen exclamation points. Amazing. Put all the exclamation points
Speaker 1: after it. That's amazing. You know, That's what I want
Speaker 1: Holly to tell me when I give her a gift.
Speaker 1: I don't want her to be like, oh, this is good.
Speaker 1: I want it to be terrific. Yeah. I wrote down
Speaker 1: actually a list of words I didn't even look at
Speaker 1: the source that are better than good, great, awesome, terrific, wonderful, incredible, stupendous.
Speaker 1: Somebody say stupendous, yeah, I'll think stupendous, mind blowing hyphenated
Speaker 1: words still a word. Ridiculous. You could tell me that's ridiculous.
Speaker 1: Oh that was ridiculous. That song was ridiculous. But good,
Speaker 1: I don't like good. You can say it was sick.
Speaker 1: You can say it was glorious. You can say it
Speaker 1: was excellent, you can say it was outstanding. You can
Speaker 1: say that was crazy, you can say that was insane.
Speaker 1: In fact, I would rather don't even use an adjective,
Speaker 1: use a superlative. That was the best ever since time began.
Speaker 1: There's never been a better one, and there never will be,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. I was kind of mad
Speaker 1: because Joseph gets kind of toward the end of this
Speaker 1: little journey full of so many twist and turns, ups
Speaker 1: and downs, and he says to his brothers, God minute
Speaker 1: for good, after all he went through, and just to
Speaker 1: use such a twenty five cent word on such an
Speaker 1: expensive experience it cost him is freedom. That cost him
Speaker 1: the better part of his life. And then the only
Speaker 1: thing he can think to say about it at the
Speaker 1: end is it was good. It was good. Take you
Speaker 1: on a big vacation. How'd you like it? It It was good? Good.
Speaker 1: Now I want to see you freak out if I
Speaker 1: really do something that I put my heart into, or
Speaker 1: I just might not do it again. You know, it
Speaker 1: was just good. It pretty good. I guess it depens
Speaker 1: on how you say it. You know, Ah, it's good,
Speaker 1: it's good, It's good. I guess it's all in the end,
Speaker 1: and you're like, why are you taking so much time
Speaker 1: to waste? We feel kind of like the show you
Speaker 1: were talking about where you hurry up and get to
Speaker 1: the good part. I am at the good part because
Speaker 1: the very last thing that we really hear Joseph say
Speaker 1: is one of the very first things that we see
Speaker 1: God think. Can I show you somebody say, this is good,
Speaker 1: this is good, this is getting good. It's getting good.
Speaker 1: I wasn't so sure when he started, but it's getting
Speaker 1: good now. Now go to Genesis chapter one. And this
Speaker 1: is why you didn't like stories about Joseph, because they
Speaker 1: started in Genesis thirty seven when we started reading about Joseph.
Speaker 1: But Joseph's story didn't start in Genesis thirty seven. It
Speaker 1: started in Genesis one. And can I tell you that
Speaker 1: your story didn't start. Everybody shout your birth year outlaw,
Speaker 1: what's your birth year? What's your birth year? Put it
Speaker 1: in the chat. Put it in the chat. Put it
Speaker 1: in the chat. So we all are lying God forgive them.
Speaker 1: It didn't start then it started in Genesis one. Read
Speaker 1: this in the again. And God created the heavens and
Speaker 1: the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, and
Speaker 1: darkness was over the surface of the deep and the
Speaker 1: Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. And God said,
Speaker 1: let there be light. And there was light. And God
Speaker 1: saw that the light was, and he separated the light
Speaker 1: from the darkness. God saw that the light was good.
Speaker 1: Joseph is standing in a moment that he never really
Speaker 1: could have anticipated. He just found out that his father died.
Speaker 1: He's weeping over the loss of Jacob after burying him.
Speaker 1: His brothers are very concerned that now Joseph is going
Speaker 1: to pay them back. They didn't need to be. After
Speaker 1: the process that Joseph had gone through. Joseph wasn't so
Speaker 1: concerned about what his brothers thought or what his brothers did. Remember,
Speaker 1: he had this understanding that God meant it for good.
Speaker 1: So now with all of his brothers surrounding him, falling
Speaker 1: down at his feet and saying, don't hurt us, We'll
Speaker 1: be your slaves. The last thing Dad said, this is
Speaker 1: what he told them. The last thing Dad said is
Speaker 1: be nice to your brothers. They're still lying. After all
Speaker 1: their lives, they haven't stopped lying. They've come to Egypt
Speaker 1: because well there's a famine where they're from. And God
Speaker 1: positioned Joseph in Egypt so he could take care of
Speaker 1: the very ones who betrayed him, which is why I
Speaker 1: ended up there to begin with. Anyway, this is the
Speaker 1: good part that we love to preach where it says
Speaker 1: you meant it for evil, but God meant it for good.
Speaker 1: So isn't it crazy that the last thing we see
Speaker 1: in the last chapter of the first book of the Bible, Genesis,
Speaker 1: is the same thing we saw in the first chapter
Speaker 1: of the Book of Genesis. In the last chapter of Genesis,
Speaker 1: Joseph says it was good. In the first chapter of Genesis,
Speaker 1: God says it was good. And what's really beautiful about it,
Speaker 1: if you want to study it, is that God's plan
Speaker 1: all through the process, never stopped being good. It never
Speaker 1: stopped being good. It never stopped out. I wonder, can
Speaker 1: you just say that by faith it never stopped being good.
Speaker 1: He never stopped being good. So when we get into
Speaker 1: the concept of was it good, a lot of times
Speaker 1: that depends on how last week I preached on what
Speaker 1: you call small. Remember, please pretend like you remember that
Speaker 1: made me really sad. If you didn't, Yeah, I said
Speaker 1: what you call small. God often sees it big. And
Speaker 1: what you see is big, like an impossible thing. God's like,
Speaker 1: oh boop. The little devils that you stress about all
Speaker 1: day long, and the things you can't get over. The
Speaker 1: hypothetical hurdles that you make up in your mind because
Speaker 1: you can't figure out how you're gonna get from here
Speaker 1: to there. But God already knows. Boop. Come on, let's
Speaker 1: make a sound effect. Praise right now. Boop. That's how
Speaker 1: big it is to God. That's how big it is
Speaker 1: to God. With a flick of his finger, with a
Speaker 1: word from his mouth, with a breath from his nostril,
Speaker 1: his hand is as short. Ya. Don't make me preach
Speaker 1: us the introduction. But in the same way, we have
Speaker 1: this tendency to get confused about what God calls small
Speaker 1: we call big like our character that's big to God
Speaker 1: as small to some of us. We'll compromise our character
Speaker 1: to get clout. God says, I'll make your name great.
Speaker 1: You don't have to take any of your clothes off.
Speaker 1: On TikTok. Who am I preaching to? Like this? And
Speaker 1: in the same way that we he can confuse what
Speaker 1: God calls small with what we call big, and what
Speaker 1: we call big and God calls small. The prophet Isaiah says,
Speaker 1: we have this problem, and I want to give you
Speaker 1: this verse. It's very powerful. In Isaiah five, verse twenty,
Speaker 1: Let's call on the prophet he said, woe to those
Speaker 1: who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness
Speaker 1: for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for
Speaker 1: sweet and sweet for bitter. What's he talking about here?
Speaker 1: I think you know exactly what he's talking about. I
Speaker 1: think you've experienced it, probably even in church, where people
Speaker 1: can sometimes even use religion as a cover up for prejudice.
Speaker 1: That's what Isaiah's talking about. When you call evil good
Speaker 1: and good evil. Christians can be some of the most
Speaker 1: close minded, hateful people. And I love us. I have
Speaker 1: no choice. I'm stuck with us. I decided to follow Jesus,
Speaker 1: no turning back. But I didn't know all these fools
Speaker 1: were going to be doing it with me. And see
Speaker 1: it's in my own heart. No no, no, no, no, no
Speaker 1: no no. Before you start shouting about other people, I'm
Speaker 1: really talking about you, because sometimes you use your relationship
Speaker 1: with God as an excuse to be close minded and
Speaker 1: not get another perspective. God said it, God, believe it.
Speaker 1: That settles it. Is this stances awkward for you, it's
Speaker 1: awkward for me. You know I'm standing on the word
Speaker 1: of God. No you're not. You're stuck in tradition and
Speaker 1: people will use the message of the Bible is an
Speaker 1: excuse to be me corny joke. I didn't tell you
Speaker 1: this one yet. This woman went to church. She hadn't
Speaker 1: been in a long time. She didn't have any nice clothes,
Speaker 1: so she was wearing clothes that was inappropriate to go
Speaker 1: to church. So when she got there, the preacher talked
Speaker 1: to her afterwards. He was like, hey, you need to
Speaker 1: wear something different when you come to church next week.
Speaker 1: That is inappropriate. So you know, you just might want
Speaker 1: to put something different on. Ask God what he wants
Speaker 1: you to wear next week. She came back next week
Speaker 1: wearing the exact same thing. Said preacher said. She uh, so,
Speaker 1: I've said hear me the first time he met her
Speaker 1: at the door, he said, I thought, I told you
Speaker 1: before you come back to sweet asked God what you
Speaker 1: should wear the church, and I want you to go
Speaker 1: home before you come back next week, ask what you
Speaker 1: wear church. She comes back in the same thing. That's
Speaker 1: all she had. She had a rough life. She she
Speaker 1: didn't have she didn't know what to wear to church.
Speaker 1: She hadn't been to church in a long time. She
Speaker 1: came back to the third week wearing the same stuff.
Speaker 1: The preacher was mad this time because the deacons were
Speaker 1: mad at him, so he was mad at the lady.
Speaker 1: It was a whole shine of condemnation that was going
Speaker 1: on in this little fictitious church. And he looked at
Speaker 1: her and said, I thought I told you to ask
Speaker 1: God what to wear before you came back to this church.
Speaker 1: She said, I did, he said, And what did God say?
Speaker 1: He said? She said, he said he didn't know what
Speaker 1: I should wear to this church because he never been here.
Speaker 1: Have I ever told you that one? That's a classic,
Speaker 1: That's a classic. How many of you knew the punchline
Speaker 1: before I said it? And you're waiting for me to
Speaker 1: get to the good part? Right? Tell him, pastor tell him,
Speaker 1: tell him. We are not being you know, it's so
Speaker 1: amazing church people. So what we do is we substitute
Speaker 1: judgment and call it holiness. We call evil good, and
Speaker 1: evil is only what others are doing. The decibel levels
Speaker 1: are going down as I get more personal. Come on,
Speaker 1: give to the good part. This is the good part.
Speaker 1: This is a good part of a sermon where it
Speaker 1: challenges your assumptions that are keeping you from accessing the
Speaker 1: blessing of God. Let me tell you another thing. The
Speaker 1: Pharisees in the Bible, they were the religious ruling party
Speaker 1: of Jesus's day, and they would come up to him
Speaker 1: to test him. So one time they came up to him,
Speaker 1: and the man didn't have good motives. He said, Jesus,
Speaker 1: he called him good teacher, good teacher, sucking up, you know.
Speaker 1: But really he was trying to catch Jesus in a contradiction.
Speaker 1: So it's a bad idea. But he didn't know yet
Speaker 1: that Jesus was the word made flesh dwell among us.
Speaker 1: He didn't know that. So I said, good teacher, jesaid,
Speaker 1: why do you call me good? Only one is good.
Speaker 1: That's God. That verse spoke to me this week. See,
Speaker 1: I don't know if I can call myself a good man.
Speaker 1: I want to be. I try to be real, I
Speaker 1: aspire to be. Holly says that I am. I got
Speaker 1: some dark parts, though all I can see is your
Speaker 1: halo right now. I can't tell if you're sympathetic, you're
Speaker 1: judging me. Every good man has dark parts. There is
Speaker 1: a part of every person that is really dark. Different
Speaker 1: things bring it out of us in different times. Some
Speaker 1: people's dark is more socially acceptable than others. And if
Speaker 1: the people around you haven't seen your dark part. They
Speaker 1: haven't got close enough yet. Even Joseph, who is held
Speaker 1: up rightly as a hero kind of an example of
Speaker 1: how to deal with life's disappointments, setbacks, and let's be honest, man,
Speaker 1: he went through rape charges, he went through false imprisonment
Speaker 1: because of those charges. He went with being forgotten by
Speaker 1: the people that he helped, like all the things that
Speaker 1: we deal with just times one hundred, we deal with
Speaker 1: little versions of these overlooks and these offenses. Well he
Speaker 1: dealt with them, you know, on the grandest, most epic scale,
Speaker 1: and he was able to say something so powerful. God
Speaker 1: intended it for good. And if you only read that,
Speaker 1: and I think this is why that you don't like
Speaker 1: the sermons about Joseph, because in our effort to just
Speaker 1: skip to that and to make it all good, you know,
Speaker 1: these little things it's all good. Romans eight twenty eight,
Speaker 1: it's all good. Romans eight twenty eight. Doesn't say it's
Speaker 1: all good. You remember when you were working on that sermon.
Speaker 1: Tim Farrell was working on a sermon. One time. We're
Speaker 1: in a meeting and he goes, I want to preach
Speaker 1: a sermon at the rock Hill Campus called It's All
Speaker 1: Good Romans eight twenty eight. All things work together for good.
Speaker 1: I'm like Timmy, I love you. You can't preach that.
Speaker 1: That's not what Paul said. He didn't say all things
Speaker 1: are good. Right. You got people out there who have
Speaker 1: been molested. You want to preach us all good. You've
Speaker 1: got people out there who can't pay their bills. You
Speaker 1: want to preach us all good. And I wasn't mad
Speaker 1: at him. We were just studying the text together. This
Speaker 1: is how I show love. Get it, I get in there. Yeah,
Speaker 1: this is how I show love. I said, it's not
Speaker 1: all good. If you want to preach that passage, you
Speaker 1: can preach it's going to be good. And this is
Speaker 1: what I want to preach to you about today. I
Speaker 1: want to preach to you about how to get to
Speaker 1: the good part. But I want to warn you you
Speaker 1: can't get to the good part if you're not willing
Speaker 1: to go through the dark part. There is a dark
Speaker 1: part in every person. Even Joseph, when confronted by his brothers,
Speaker 1: was tempted. You hear me, This great hero was tempted
Speaker 1: to make them pay. And nobody probably put that part
Speaker 1: in the sermons that Holly heard about Joseph. Where Joseph
Speaker 1: was tricking them and putting the cup in the bag
Speaker 1: and hiding the cup in the bag and trying to accuse,
Speaker 1: he still couldn't decide what he wanted to do. Like
Speaker 1: you right now, you're trying to decide how do I
Speaker 1: respond to this? How do I respond to something that
Speaker 1: wasn't good? That God let in my life wasn't good.
Speaker 1: How my dad died it wasn't good. How your dad
Speaker 1: walked out. That wasn't good. So we can't preach it's
Speaker 1: all good. Because before Joseph could get this is what
Speaker 1: blew my mind to the good part, where he could say,
Speaker 1: I will provide for your family. You see how selfless
Speaker 1: that sounds, how responsible, how mature. I'll take care of you.
Speaker 1: Don't worry about it. It's all good. But before he
Speaker 1: could get to the good, he had to go through
Speaker 1: the dark. And so do you, and so do I,
Speaker 1: so do I. I have to realize that my first
Speaker 1: reaction is not always coming from my realist self. I
Speaker 1: am teaching better than they are shouting. Now, kid going,
Speaker 1: I'll move you down to the front row. So people
Speaker 1: will say this, they'll just go off right, they'll just
Speaker 1: go off, cuss people out, flip people off, turn stuff over,
Speaker 1: wreck their life, all this stuff, and say, I'm just
Speaker 1: keeping it real. No, that's just your reaction. That's just
Speaker 1: you letting the dark part run the show. But greater
Speaker 1: is he that is in you, that he that is
Speaker 1: in the world that verses about Jesus. And he's in
Speaker 1: me too. But in order to get to that part,
Speaker 1: you know, the part of you that's wise and kind
Speaker 1: and good and yeah, and I don't have to say
Speaker 1: anything back, and I'm focused. I'm good the good part.
Speaker 1: Sometimes to get to that good part, you got to
Speaker 1: keep your mouth shut through the dark part. We don't
Speaker 1: know what to do with the dark part, so we
Speaker 1: never get to the good part. So I say, get
Speaker 1: to the good part. You'll never get to the good
Speaker 1: part if you don't learn how to deal with the
Speaker 1: dark part. So I guess they're right. You have to
Speaker 1: make it through a few seasons before it gets good.
Speaker 1: I guess they're right. You got to get through a
Speaker 1: few seasons. You got to get through some confusion, you
Speaker 1: got to get through some things. You gotta put it
Speaker 1: in perspective. After all, by the time Joseph said this verse,
Speaker 1: and I promise you, so many of you are new
Speaker 1: to church, and I want you to know, you will
Speaker 1: hear this verse preached again. It is so popular, you
Speaker 1: will hear this verse preached out of context. Like Joseph
Speaker 1: just said it when he woke up one morning. Will
Speaker 1: you went freevile? Don't for good? Without the setup, that
Speaker 1: punchline is empty. It has been years since Joseph's brothers
Speaker 1: came back. He's had years to look back on it.
Speaker 1: He's had time to reflect on what it is that
Speaker 1: God was doing. And our problem is sometimes we just
Speaker 1: want to spoon feed people these sugar coated answers. There's
Speaker 1: a reason for everything. That's not always your job to
Speaker 1: remind somebody of that. You know, I went off on
Speaker 1: somebody one time. There's a reason. Well tell me what
Speaker 1: it is. Since your God, what is it? Joseph said,
Speaker 1: I'm not in the place of God, But yet he
Speaker 1: acted like him because he saw what was good through
Speaker 1: what was dark. Isn't that what God did in Genesis?
Speaker 1: I never realized that Genesis fifty twenty was just the
Speaker 1: continuation of Genesis four. Light was the first thing, you know,
Speaker 1: the seven Days of creation. God made the light, and
Speaker 1: then he made the atmosphere or the firmament, and i'd
Speaker 1: quote all seven, but we don't have time. I'll get
Speaker 1: him out of order. But there's all this stuff, you know,
Speaker 1: this is really good in the dry ground, in the plants,
Speaker 1: and then the sun. And he made the light before
Speaker 1: he made the sun, which I can't figure out other
Speaker 1: than the fact that he is light. But all of it,
Speaker 1: you know, the fifth day, the birds of the air,
Speaker 1: and the fish in the sea, and then the land
Speaker 1: animals on the six saying look, I got them all,
Speaker 1: got them all, I got them all right, Somebody give
Speaker 1: me that if I say, good job, pastor good job.
Speaker 1: You want a cookie, you want a hey flaws, you
Speaker 1: want a star on your charm. But all of that
Speaker 1: becomes more powerful when you realize that in Genesis one four,
Speaker 1: look at this, God saw that it was good. He
Speaker 1: doesn't need light to see. He is light, so he
Speaker 1: saw it was good while he was still doing it.
Speaker 1: Most important thing I've learned, like in creating a sermon,
Speaker 1: a song, really even in building a family and trying
Speaker 1: to create a great relationship, is that there's always a
Speaker 1: dark part, just like you have flesh, and I have flesh,
Speaker 1: and you have memories, and I have memories, and you
Speaker 1: have temptations and tendencies and I do too. Every process,
Speaker 1: not just every person, but every process has a dark part.
Speaker 1: I can't think of a single song that I ever
Speaker 1: wrote that I didn't at one point during the song
Speaker 1: feel like Ichabod, the glory has departed. I'll never write
Speaker 1: another song. What am I trying to do? And at
Speaker 1: these moments, I don't know how to explain this to you.
Speaker 1: I know you know what I'm talking about. I'll be
Speaker 1: sitting there going Tom Petty wouldn't have liked this song.
Speaker 1: Tom Petty is dead. Tom Petty never even heard of
Speaker 1: elevation worship while he was alive. I got Tom Petty
Speaker 1: looking over my shoulder, going, eh, not so sure. Where
Speaker 1: did Tom Petty come from in this? But like that's
Speaker 1: a part of the process. Is like pushing through that judgment. Hey,
Speaker 1: when y'all do that too, for you, it's not Tom
Speaker 1: Petty over your shoulder, Okay, it's your mom. Wow. There's
Speaker 1: a part when you go to do something for God,
Speaker 1: write a song, take a step, make an active service,
Speaker 1: change a habit. I don't care what it is. There
Speaker 1: is a part of every process that's dark, and it
Speaker 1: can come right, I mean right before the best part.
Speaker 1: And if you let it die in the dark, you'll
Speaker 1: never get to the Like I promise you. It's not
Speaker 1: just the caffeine and me. It's like God sent me
Speaker 1: out here to say to somebody, you've got to get
Speaker 1: through this dark part of your life, of this stage
Speaker 1: of a gouldhood. And maybe just because I've got two teenagers,
Speaker 1: I was thinking about teens who commit suicide, and it
Speaker 1: started to haunt me that, like they have no idea
Speaker 1: that high school is weird for everybody. It doesn't feel
Speaker 1: like this forever. It's not always. I mean there's still
Speaker 1: challenges and people are still people, and life is still hard,
Speaker 1: but it's not always this surge of hormones and weirdness
Speaker 1: and stuff breaking out on your face everywhere, just stuff
Speaker 1: in your mind and wonder. No, no, no, no, no no.
Speaker 1: It won't always be this dark. It won't always be
Speaker 1: the dark. You gotta live. You gotta live. Whoever you are,
Speaker 1: you gotta live, You gotta live, You gotta live. You
Speaker 1: gotta live to see it. You gotta live, You gotta
Speaker 1: live to see I will remain confident in this that
Speaker 1: I will see. I got lights, I will see the
Speaker 1: good goodness of the Lord. Goodness, goodness. It's gonna get good.
Speaker 1: It's gonna get good. It's gonna get good and gooder
Speaker 1: and gooder and better and better. And you haven't seen
Speaker 1: anything yet. You haven't even met your best self yet.
Speaker 1: You gotta get through this valley. Oh yeah, oh yeah,
Speaker 1: oh yeah, oh yeah. I gotta get through this valley. Yea,
Speaker 1: though I walk through the valley of the shadow of Death,
Speaker 1: I will fear no evil, for thou art with me.
Speaker 1: Thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. Question, is
Speaker 1: a rod and a staff a good thing or a
Speaker 1: bad thing? Depends on whether you're a wolf or a sheep. Now,
Speaker 1: when I belong to God, everything he does in my life,
Speaker 1: it might not feel good, but it is good because
Speaker 1: He's still good. Ya Awa through the valley. I gotta
Speaker 1: get through this valley so I can make it to
Speaker 1: the table. You prepare a table. That's kind of weak,
Speaker 1: eld Jane, I said, make it to the table. Make
Speaker 1: it to the table. Make it to the table. Leg
Speaker 1: it to the table, Make it to the table, make
Speaker 1: it to the I'm gonna make it to the table.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna make it. I'm gonna make it. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: make it. I'm gonna make it. I gotta make it.
Speaker 1: I was for to make it. My kids need me
Speaker 1: to make it. My wife needs me to make it.
Speaker 1: My search needs me to make it. You have to
Speaker 1: make it. You have to make it. You've got to
Speaker 1: make it. It's necessary that you make it. You gotta
Speaker 1: get to the good part. You gotta get to the
Speaker 1: good part. You gotta locate Israel inside of your Jacob.
Speaker 1: Sit up, Israel, be a man, be a woman, be
Speaker 1: the one God call, stand up and do it. You
Speaker 1: gotta make it to the table. And to make it
Speaker 1: to the table, I gotta go through the shadow. Every
Speaker 1: good thing has a dark part. So James says something
Speaker 1: I thought we should think about. He said, don't need
Speaker 1: to see brothers, sisters. Every good, somebody say good, Every
Speaker 1: good and perfect gift comes from above. I think I
Speaker 1: gave him the scripture. I'd love for you to show
Speaker 1: it now, coming down from the Father of heavenly lights,
Speaker 1: who does not change. Like shifting shadows. That's all any
Speaker 1: shadows gift. You see it again, see it again. The
Speaker 1: contrast that every good thing has a dark part. What
Speaker 1: concerns me is I see a lot of people who
Speaker 1: never get to the good part of their marriage, of
Speaker 1: their gift, their skill. I guarantee you there's no guitar
Speaker 1: players out here right now, but I guarantee you if
Speaker 1: we could ask them when they maybe even on bass shay.
Speaker 1: Before you first start learning how to play, there's a
Speaker 1: point where your fingers hurt so bad. When I was
Speaker 1: starting to learn to play guitar, my fingers would hurt
Speaker 1: so bad. And Harold Staley, Jack crib they both told me,
Speaker 1: these two men that were teaching me guitar, they both said,
Speaker 1: you got to build up the callouses, and every time
Speaker 1: I would go to practice, it would hurt so bad. Ah,
Speaker 1: most people quit before they get the callous, because if
Speaker 1: you keep playing long enough, eventually your finger will be
Speaker 1: able wade. Remember the before the calluses. And if you
Speaker 1: don't play for a little while now, it's not that
Speaker 1: this doesn't change. If you don't play for a while,
Speaker 1: you got to start over again. Most people quit before
Speaker 1: they get there, whether it's teenagers who in their life
Speaker 1: or let's be honest, not even in their life, but
Speaker 1: just sabotage themselves because they don't want to sit with
Speaker 1: the loneliness, and you just want to tell them, no, no, no,
Speaker 1: don't give that away. That's too important. Don't give that away.
Speaker 1: No no, no no, no, don't do that. Get to the
Speaker 1: good part, Joseph, don't throw your brothers out. That's how
Speaker 1: God is going to build a nation. Get to the
Speaker 1: good part. I know you want to go off and
Speaker 1: freak out and tell them another that's just your reaction.
Speaker 1: That's not the reality. The real, you know, is better.
Speaker 1: So James says, don't be deceived. Every good gift comes
Speaker 1: from above. A few things I take from that one.
Speaker 1: If it's good, it came from God. Write that down,
Speaker 1: putting in check. If it's good, it came from God.
Speaker 1: Say it fast like the micromachine. Man. If it's good,
Speaker 1: it came from God. All right. So if God blesses
Speaker 1: me through somebody or through something, it came from him.
Speaker 1: I got a bunch of birthday gifts a few days ago,
Speaker 1: thanks to everybody sent me a gift. And hey, the
Speaker 1: greatest gift is prayer, all right, so thank you. I
Speaker 1: used to always hear a preachers say that. They'd say
Speaker 1: thank you for all of you who give to the
Speaker 1: church and all this stuff, and then, but most importantly,
Speaker 1: your prayers. I'm like, is that prayers aren't more important
Speaker 1: than the giving. We gotta feed people, we gotta help people,
Speaker 1: we gotta build the kingdom. Thank you for all of it.
Speaker 1: It's all important, you know, false dichotomy. But but uh,
Speaker 1: what was I saying? Oh? Oh, the gifts, the guests,
Speaker 1: the guests, the guests. You see this jacket I'm wearing.
Speaker 1: Wade gave me this. And the funny thing was when
Speaker 1: I saw his handwriting on the envelope. He's given me
Speaker 1: so many gifts through the years. I said that one
Speaker 1: was from Wade. It's gonna be good. I hadn't even
Speaker 1: unwrapped the gift. I knew who gave it. When I
Speaker 1: shook the box, I knew it was something I could wear.
Speaker 1: I said, I got my preaching clothes for next week
Speaker 1: because it came from Wade. Somebody said it came from Wade.
Speaker 1: Wade knows what I like to wear. He knows blackest, slimming,
Speaker 1: flattering to my body type. Came from Wade. It's good.
Speaker 1: I'm good this week. I got something to wear this
Speaker 1: because it came from Wade. If it comes from God,
Speaker 1: it's gonna be good. So if it's good, it comes
Speaker 1: from God, even if God does it through somebody else.
Speaker 1: I didn't hug the postman for delivering Wade's gift. It's
Speaker 1: kind of deep, right, we get dependent on people. We
Speaker 1: think people have to be good to us for God
Speaker 1: to be good to us. No they don't. No, they
Speaker 1: don't question who got Jesus to the cross, which disciple
Speaker 1: John the one he loved, or Judas the one who
Speaker 1: betrayed him. And now you're seeing my theme of my message, right,
Speaker 1: get to the good part. The part that feels good
Speaker 1: isn't always the part that is good. You only know
Speaker 1: that when you reflect on it. Because I was thinking,
Speaker 1: if it's good, it came from God. If it came
Speaker 1: from God, it's good. What if it didn't, it's going
Speaker 1: to be good anyway. And that's where you can preach
Speaker 1: Romans eight twenty eight. In all things God works for
Speaker 1: the good. Now, I always heard that verse. They read
Speaker 1: that much, and then it was confusing to people. All
Speaker 1: things worked together for the good. They didn't even get
Speaker 1: to the good part of the verse. They stopped on
Speaker 1: the word good. The good part is what it says
Speaker 1: next to those who love the Lord and are called
Speaker 1: according to His purpose. So real quick, Divie, earlier I
Speaker 1: saw you out here. You've had two tools that I've
Speaker 1: seen since you came out, not counting your notebook. You
Speaker 1: had this real quick and you had this. When we
Speaker 1: talk about what God calls good, we have to understand
Speaker 1: something about God. God doesn't call something good based on
Speaker 1: how it made you feel while it was happening. God
Speaker 1: doesn't call something good based on whether how much you
Speaker 1: expected it and how much it matched your preference. God
Speaker 1: calls it good when it serves its purpose. David, you
Speaker 1: were singing on this. You were sitting on this. I
Speaker 1: have a feeling if you tried to sing on this
Speaker 1: it wouldn't work. It wouldn't work. It's a good store,
Speaker 1: but you can't sing into it. It's a good mic,
Speaker 1: but you can't sit on it. Quit thinking you're not
Speaker 1: good because you can't do what it wasn't even in
Speaker 1: your function or your purpose to do. When God made
Speaker 1: man on the sixth day, he said, it's very good.
Speaker 1: It's very good. It's real good. It's in my image,
Speaker 1: it's according to my likeness. It's good. It's good. It's good.
Speaker 1: It's good. It's good. It's good. It's good. It's good,
Speaker 1: it's good, it's good. Why are you saying that? Somebody
Speaker 1: told me the other day I had a good workout.
Speaker 1: I said, how is it good? Said I was throwing up.
Speaker 1: After I said huh, he said, I know it worked.
Speaker 1: Come get this stuff to be Joseph said, am I
Speaker 1: in the place of God? No, you're not in the
Speaker 1: place of God. But he had the same thought process
Speaker 1: as God. He knew that the darkness doesn't have to
Speaker 1: go away for the light to be effective. So when
Speaker 1: you say how are you doing it, and you say
Speaker 1: I'm good, you're not lying. You're just focusing. Wow. Sometimes
Speaker 1: before you can get to the good part in your life,
Speaker 1: you have to get to the good part in your mind.
Speaker 1: So then you start saying things like lb Skinner when
Speaker 1: it rained at our first church service, where there was
Speaker 1: rain and the attendant suffered, and I was depressed, and
Speaker 1: I said, it rained. Almost nobody came. He was smiling.
Speaker 1: I said, what are you smiling about? It was rainy
Speaker 1: and nobody came. He said, ah, But Pastor, it gave
Speaker 1: our greeter teams a chance to shine. See he had
Speaker 1: had these custom elevation umbrellas made, and he was waiting
Speaker 1: for a chance to use somebody. He saw the rain,
Speaker 1: he said it's good. I saw the rain and said,
Speaker 1: oh God. He saw the rain and said it's good.
Speaker 1: And I wonder are you waiting for it to get
Speaker 1: good in your life? And God is waiting for you
Speaker 1: to get good in your mind. For everybody who's struggling
Speaker 1: with comparison and envy? What are you good at? The
Speaker 1: darkness doesn't want you to see that you only see
Speaker 1: without form and void. God said, let there be light.
Speaker 1: I'm just asking God over our congregation, look, shine the
Speaker 1: light on the good part. This way, the good part.
Speaker 1: Turn your flashlight on your phone right now and start
Speaker 1: shining it around. And when the people that are sitting
Speaker 1: in your apartment start asking you, what in the world
Speaker 1: are you doing, say, I'm looking for the good part.
Speaker 1: I'm looking for the good part. I'm looking I need
Speaker 1: some light. I need some light. I need some light.
Speaker 1: I need the word of God. I need worship, I
Speaker 1: need the presence of God. And that is why my
Speaker 1: consumption becomes important, and why every week I say something
Speaker 1: to you about your phone your social media, your twenty
Speaker 1: four seven Then what do they call it? Twenty four seven?
Speaker 1: News cyclone cycle, new cycle. It's like people will say,
Speaker 1: I've got to be informed. I gotta like it is
Speaker 1: good to be informed. But if you have to dig
Speaker 1: through that much garbage to get something good, is it
Speaker 1: really good? We're confused. Like Adam and Eve, they weren't
Speaker 1: in trouble because they ate an apple. The Bible says
Speaker 1: that they ate from the tree of the knowledge of
Speaker 1: good and evil, and they thought they were like God,
Speaker 1: I know it's good. We always get in trouble when
Speaker 1: we try to do God's job. God said it was good.
Speaker 1: God said it was good. God said it was good.
Speaker 1: And Joseph is such a great picture. All the way
Speaker 1: across forty nine chapters of Genesis, he echoes back what
Speaker 1: God said when he spoke the world into existence. That good.
Speaker 1: But I don't even really want to show you this
Speaker 1: from Joseph's life. I want to show you one thing
Speaker 1: that Jesus said before I let you go. And this
Speaker 1: is where the real power is because remember, Joseph said
Speaker 1: it was good. That's what he said when he was
Speaker 1: looking back, and that's powerful, and that really takes from
Speaker 1: ature perspective to say, oh, man, I guess this is
Speaker 1: what God. You know, it's I probably could have got
Speaker 1: there an easier way, but I guess this is what God. Okay, Lord,
Speaker 1: I accept it. Let me tell you something Jesus did.
Speaker 1: He's he's getting ready to leave his disciples. They're sad.
Speaker 1: They are what he calls grieving, and grieving doesn't just
Speaker 1: have to be over a death. You can grieve an opportunity.
Speaker 1: You can grieve a schedule that was lost, dicta billy,
Speaker 1: you could grieve a lot of things. Jesus is dealing
Speaker 1: with grieving disciples who are going to miss his physical presence.
Speaker 1: I guess if we're going to tie it into Genesis, right, like,
Speaker 1: Jesus is the light of the world, so they're losing
Speaker 1: their light. He was what they walked by. He's the
Speaker 1: only way that his presence, his words, his actions, his example,
Speaker 1: his encouragement. They're going to lose that. Have you lost
Speaker 1: something lately? Have you lost your light? Here's what he says.
Speaker 1: Absolutely amazing how God's word works in concert with each other.
Speaker 1: Because way after Joseph said it was good, now that
Speaker 1: I look back on it, Jesus was saying this, John
Speaker 1: chapter sixteen. But now I'm going to him who sent me.
Speaker 1: None of you asked me where are you going? Watch this?
Speaker 1: Watch this? No, no, no, Jesus knew where he was going.
Speaker 1: They didn't know where they were going, right, So he's
Speaker 1: trying to convince them of something and that they're not
Speaker 1: so sure of. Here's what he says. Rather, you are
Speaker 1: filled with grief because I have said these things. He's
Speaker 1: going to the cross. And this is the assurance that
Speaker 1: he gives us. He tells them verse seven, it is
Speaker 1: for your good that I am going away. Unless I
Speaker 1: go away, the advocate the Holy Spirit will not come
Speaker 1: to you. So here's the here's the upgrade. I was
Speaker 1: with you. Now my spirit will be in you. But
Speaker 1: first I gotta go. That's the dark part. The good
Speaker 1: part is you're gonna have the spirit. He's gonna convince love, joy, peace,
Speaker 1: page Kid's gonna say those general self control Galatian five
Speaker 1: two twenty three. We're not there yet. We got to
Speaker 1: the good part yet, this is the dark part. He
Speaker 1: knows what they're about to go through, and he also
Speaker 1: knows what they are going to get to, so he
Speaker 1: is giving them something. So that while you go through
Speaker 1: this painful moment, this first season, this second season, these
Speaker 1: winter months, this dark part, this hard part of your day,
Speaker 1: this hard part of your life, this hard part of
Speaker 1: your marriage, your ministry. If you don't go through the
Speaker 1: dark part, you won't get to the good part unless
Speaker 1: I go away. Yeah, it's gonna feel different, it's gonna
Speaker 1: be confusing, you're not gonna know. This is where people
Speaker 1: give up on God. They start reading the Bible and
Speaker 1: they read it like a fortune cookie, and the first
Speaker 1: thing that makes them confused, they say, God's not real.
Speaker 1: This stuff doesn't work. I'll really believe it. I pray
Speaker 1: and it didn't happen. But you didn't get to the
Speaker 1: good part where you find out that it is not
Speaker 1: in the answers that God becomes real. It is in
Speaker 1: wrestling with the questions that you'll find out that there
Speaker 1: is a kingdom within you, within you. That's the good part.
Speaker 1: Thank God for all the good things around me. But
Speaker 1: it's what He does and that's the good part. And
Speaker 1: you will never get to that if you keep changing
Speaker 1: what's around you never get to the good part because
Speaker 1: you won't go through the dark part. Take a pill,
Speaker 1: get out, the dark part, blow up the relationship. Many
Speaker 1: people never get to intimacy in relationships. I'm gonna tell
Speaker 1: you why, because they won't push through the insecurity to
Speaker 1: get to real intimacy. You've got to go through insecurity
Speaker 1: because I gotta be willing to let you see me.
Speaker 1: If we're gonna have one guy said into me, see intimacy,
Speaker 1: that's scary. I want you to see into me. So
Speaker 1: we never get to intimacy because we won't work through
Speaker 1: the insecurity of saying, yeah, I am flawed. And even
Speaker 1: in our relationship with God, Jacob spent his whole life
Speaker 1: pretending to be somebody else. But God said no, I
Speaker 1: want to get to the good part, the true part,
Speaker 1: the real part. Many people never get to their destiny
Speaker 1: because they won't work through the disappointment, never get to
Speaker 1: the wisdom because they won't work through the bitterness. To
Speaker 1: get to the good part, you got to go through
Speaker 1: the dark part. But he's with me, He's with me.
Speaker 1: Jesus said, I'm going away, what I'll be with you.
Speaker 1: I'll be with you. It is good for you. Joseph
Speaker 1: had it right, he said it was good. Jesus took
Speaker 1: it to another level. Give me the verse. He didn't
Speaker 1: say it was good after it happened. He said, it
Speaker 1: is good. God give us the faith, not just to
Speaker 1: look back on our life and say, ah, it all
Speaker 1: worked out. But what if you could stand in the
Speaker 1: darkest place where you don't know what's two feet ahead.
Speaker 1: What if you could stand in the darkest place where
Speaker 1: you don't know how God's going to do. What if
Speaker 1: you could stand in the darkest place where you don't
Speaker 1: know who's going to be with you. What if you
Speaker 1: could stand in the darkest place where you can't predict
Speaker 1: how He's going to provide. What if if you could
Speaker 1: be like Jesus and say it is good for me,
Speaker 1: and if it's not good right now, it's going to
Speaker 1: be it is good. Put it up. It is good.
Speaker 1: It is good. It is good. It is for my good.
Speaker 1: And so I'm thankful that what God started doing, Thank
Speaker 1: you Lord in Genesis one when he said on the
Speaker 1: first day of creation that the light is good, he
Speaker 1: is still doing. In Genesis fifty, where Joseph looked back
Speaker 1: on everything he'd been through, I said it was good.
Speaker 1: I need the faith, and you need the faith to
Speaker 1: be able to say if it came from God is good.
Speaker 1: If it's good it came from God. It is not
Speaker 1: good right now. It's gonna be when he gets done
Speaker 1: with it. Yet, Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, Oh, God, help
Speaker 1: me appreciate the gifts that you put in my life.
Speaker 1: Some of us don't know how good it was until
Speaker 1: it's gone. I don't want to be like that. I
Speaker 1: don't want to just survive seasons of my life and
Speaker 1: then look back and say that was good. And I
Speaker 1: didn't even know that was so good, that that was
Speaker 1: so good. I didn't even know how good it was
Speaker 1: until it was gone. We don't know it's good. Sometimes
Speaker 1: still it's gone. But what if God right now sent
Speaker 1: me to preach this word to you, to let you
Speaker 1: know that even in the valley, there's a table, and
Speaker 1: you've got to You've got to. You've got to, you've
Speaker 1: got to, you've got to go through the dark part
Speaker 1: to get to the good part. Almost forgotten, I promise,
Speaker 1: I almost forgot. I'm not playing with you all. Almost forgot.
Speaker 1: Genesis fifty twenty two. This is why you never liked
Speaker 1: sermons about Joseph. They stopped reading at the verse twenty one.
Speaker 1: Look at twenty two Joseph stayed in Egypt along with
Speaker 1: his father's family. He lived one hundred and ten years.
Speaker 1: Every sermon I ever heard about Joseph was about the
Speaker 1: first thirty years of his life. Oh, he didn't even
Speaker 1: get to the good part yet. I came to prophesy,
Speaker 1: You've got more life to live, You'll got more things
Speaker 1: to do, You've got more love to give, You got more,
Speaker 1: You'll got more. Joseph's state, it is up. And he
Speaker 1: lived to be one hundred and ten. He didn't die
Speaker 1: at the pit, he didn't die at the prison. He
Speaker 1: didn't die at that life. He lived one ten And
Speaker 1: I believe that I will see the goodness, goodness, the goodness,
Speaker 1: the goodness. Give me the next verse. That's not the
Speaker 1: best part either, here's the best part. You can have
Speaker 1: Genesis fifty twenty. That's not the good part. This is
Speaker 1: the good part. And saw the third generation of Ephraim's
Speaker 1: children and the children of Makir, son of Manassa, were
Speaker 1: placed at burn on Joseph's knees. His grandbabies were sitting
Speaker 1: on his knees in the same land of his suffering.
Speaker 1: You hadn't even got to the good part yet. You
Speaker 1: hadn't even seen God's best yet. You haven't even experienced
Speaker 1: life yet. Oh it's getting good now, it's getting good. Now,
Speaker 1: it's getting good. It's getting good. It's getting good. It's
Speaker 1: getting good. It's getting good. It's getting good in my life.
Speaker 1: It's getting dark because it's getting good. It's getting dark
Speaker 1: because it's getting good. There's something on the other side.
Speaker 1: That's why I've been in this fight. It's getting good,
Speaker 1: that's getting good. It's getting good. It's getting good. Can
Speaker 1: you at least say that. If you can't say it
Speaker 1: is good, he say it's getting good. It's getting good.
Speaker 1: It's getting good. It's getting good. It's getting good. It's
Speaker 1: getting good. It's getting hard, it's getting good. It's getting awkward.
Speaker 1: It's getting good. It's getting rough. It's getting good. It's
Speaker 1: getting scary. It's getting good. Oh God, sir, it's good.
Speaker 1: And there was give me Genesis one. For give me
Speaker 1: Genesis one, for give me Genesis one for this? How
Speaker 1: it started this, How it is this, How the book
Speaker 1: is this, How your life end is this, How your
Speaker 1: life starts. It's good, it's good, it's good. It's always good.
Speaker 1: It's always good. It's not always good. But it's gonna
Speaker 1: be good. It's getting good. It's getting good. It's getting good.
Speaker 1: And God, God saw that the light was good, and
Speaker 1: then verse five cents separate the light from the durness.
Speaker 1: And God called the light day and dartniss calle night,
Speaker 1: and there was evening and morning first day. God's not
Speaker 1: done yet, but it's good. And then you gotta ask yourself,
Speaker 1: why put it back up? Why evening and morning not
Speaker 1: mourning and evening? Come on, it's getting good. It's getting good.
Speaker 1: This a God. I feels so bad for everybody who
Speaker 1: locked off. That's serving. I feel so bad if you
Speaker 1: love golf, because it's just getting gold. It's just I
Speaker 1: feel so bad for everybody who quit because it's just
Speaker 1: getting good. Watch watch live. Why evening and then morning?
Speaker 1: In that backwards No, no, you gotta remember how it started.
Speaker 1: Genesis one, verse one, Genesis one, verse one. In the beginning,
Speaker 1: God created the heavens in the art. Give me the
Speaker 1: next one. It's getting good now the earth was formless
Speaker 1: and empty darkness. So I want you to know that
Speaker 1: God starts good in the dark. Woo, it's getting good,
Speaker 1: it's getting good. I'm clapping, I'm clapping. I'm clapping. You're
Speaker 1: in the dark part right now. That's where it starts
Speaker 1: with God. You're confused, right now, that's where it starts
Speaker 1: with God. That dark part, that's just a preview of
Speaker 1: how big the purpose really is. So when I tell
Speaker 1: you you got to get to the good part, that's
Speaker 1: what I'm talking about. It's a process. There's a part
Speaker 1: of every process that'll make you want to quit. There's
Speaker 1: a part of every person that will make you want
Speaker 1: to murder. But I never would have preached a sermon
Speaker 1: if I would have stopped in the dark part. That
Speaker 1: part where my interior gallery of critics is saying, you
Speaker 1: call this a sermon. Yes, you already said that before.
Speaker 1: I don't want to hear that. That's the dark part.
Speaker 1: That means it's kidding God. The evening is the prelude
Speaker 1: to the morning and the economy of God. You meant
Speaker 1: him for evil, but he took the enemy man for evil.
Speaker 1: You gotta get to the good part. If you die
Speaker 1: in the dark part, it will be a miscarriage of
Speaker 1: your calling. It's gonna get good man. You're like, I
Speaker 1: don't believe that right now. That's fine. You don't have
Speaker 1: to borrow my confidence. You're like, can I do that?
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, Philippians one six. Paul was talking to the
Speaker 1: church at Philip I said, I am confident of this now.
Speaker 1: The reason he's saying that maybe they're not confident of
Speaker 1: this right now, Paul said, I am that he who
Speaker 1: began what kind of work? Come on, talk to me online,
Speaker 1: He who began a talk to me Columbia, talk to
Speaker 1: me River Walk. Come on, talk to he who began
Speaker 1: a talk to me Lake Norman, He who began a
Speaker 1: If it's good, it came from God, and if it
Speaker 1: started with God, it doesn't end with people. I don't
Speaker 1: care what they did to you, saw in you, didn't
Speaker 1: see in you. You're gonna get to the good part.
Speaker 1: You're not gonna die. No no, no, no no, no no
Speaker 1: no no no no, no, no no, You're not gonna
Speaker 1: I am confident in this that he who began a
Speaker 1: good work and you will be faithful to complete it
Speaker 1: to the day of Christ. This is the partnership of
Speaker 1: the Gospel. So let's take a moment. Let's come into partnership.
Speaker 1: Let's come into agreement together. Lift your hands, close your eyes,
Speaker 1: bow your head. You got to get to the good part.
Speaker 1: You got to get to the good part. That's not death,
Speaker 1: it's just a shadow of You got to get to
Speaker 1: the good part. Lord, in this moment of ministry, that
Speaker 1: may determine whether someone makes it or lays down and
Speaker 1: dies in a valley. I declare in decree on the
Speaker 1: authority of your word. What the apostle Paul prophesied over
Speaker 1: the church at Philippi, I declared over Elevation Church, You're
Speaker 1: gonna go through the dark part, but you're gonna get
Speaker 1: to the good part. You're gonna be an amazing, amazing,
Speaker 1: amazing mother, and an amazing life, an amazing man, an
Speaker 1: amazing provider. You're gonna be. There are gifts in you,
Speaker 1: there are skill sets in you. They haven't been recognized yet.
Speaker 1: That's all right. It starts in the dark. It starts
Speaker 1: in the dark. Lord. I thank you. Then, when it's
Speaker 1: two am and we can't find a friend, you are there.
Speaker 1: I thank you that when we trip and fall over
Speaker 1: our own misgivings and can't get a get a get
Speaker 1: a get a get a leg up, and we can't,
Speaker 1: we can't even find a strength to stand again, you
Speaker 1: are there. I'm gonna make it to the table. My
Speaker 1: enemies will still be there, but I'm gonna eat. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna see, I'm gonna taste the goodness of the Lord
Speaker 1: in the land of the living. May we not live
Speaker 1: our lives worshiping the idol of tomorrow or clinging to
Speaker 1: a relic of the past. May we push past the
Speaker 1: religion so we can get to the friendship. You are good.
Speaker 1: It is good. It is so in Jesus' name. Amen,
Speaker 1: excuse it's good. It's good. Surely goodness and mercy will
Speaker 1: follow me all the days of my life, even in
Speaker 1: the valley, even in the shadow. You are good. You
Speaker 1: are with me. You're Rod and staff. They comfort. I'm
Speaker 1: not sure about the valley. I'm not sure about the enemies.
Speaker 1: But surely goodness will follow me wherever God leads me.
Speaker 1: Clap your hands and give God praise for this word.
Speaker 1: Come on, if you receive this word but I receive
Speaker 1: it in the chatter, borrow my confidence and say, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna make it. I'm gonna make it. I'm gonna make it.
Speaker 1: I didn't fight this hard to die, I didn't come
Speaker 1: this far to turn back. The grace of God is
Speaker 1: on your life. May grace and peace be multiplied to
Speaker 1: you through God, our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1: Everyone who receives us wor a clap your hands and
Speaker 1: say an't no. Well, maybe now it'll have a little
Speaker 1: different meaning when I tell you it was so good
Speaker 1: to have you with us today. Really, I appreciate you
Speaker 1: making the time, and I'm believing Romans eight twenty eight
Speaker 1: for each of our lives that God's purpose will be fulfilled.
Speaker 1: We're believing God with you for the better things that
Speaker 1: are ahead. And we're believing that God is going to
Speaker 1: be with you even those shadows and enemies surround you.
Speaker 1: You already heard the summer. I could go on and on.
Speaker 1: I had many more scriptures. Maybe I'll do a part
Speaker 1: two of this message sometime. Just now. In the meantime,
Speaker 1: we love you. We're praying for you now, and to
Speaker 1: Him who is able to do immeasurably more than you
Speaker 1: ask her, imagine according to His power that works mightily
Speaker 1: in you, to be gloried through Christ Jesus in the
Speaker 1: Church out forever. It's gonna be good. I'll see you
Speaker 1: next time. H