Speaker 1: Hey, don't start clicking off. I promise we're going to
Speaker 1: get to the preaching in just a moment. But I'm
Speaker 1: excited about this. This is a very special tradition at Elevation,
Speaker 1: and we want to speak to all of you who
Speaker 1: call our church home, especially our extended family, our EPAM
Speaker 1: around the world, because once a year we have a
Speaker 1: special series. It's really more than a collection of teachings.
Speaker 1: It's a faith experience for all of the people who
Speaker 1: are part of our ministry at Elevation, and this year
Speaker 1: our theme is game Changer. I think one of the
Speaker 1: most exciting things that God is doing in our ministry
Speaker 1: is to open the doors of our ministry beyond our walls.
Speaker 1: What I mean by that is we are amazed at
Speaker 1: the thousands and thousands and thousands of you who are
Speaker 1: letting us know that you're impacted by this ministry in
Speaker 1: another zip code, in another state, in another country, maybe
Speaker 1: eventually on another planet. But what I wanted to mention
Speaker 1: to you is that you can be a part of
Speaker 1: this beyond just consuming. Many of you have been blessed
Speaker 1: by God to be a blessing, and I wanted to
Speaker 1: ask today would you be willing during this special time
Speaker 1: of year to make a one time donation to the
Speaker 1: ministry or maybe partner with us on a monthly basis
Speaker 1: through recurring giving. I believe God could use your gift
Speaker 1: to enable this ministry to continue to reach, to continue
Speaker 1: to break paradigms, to continue to lift up Jesus. And
Speaker 1: I wanted to ask you personally to go to Elevationchurch
Speaker 1: dot org and you can see the ways to give there.
Speaker 1: But most importantly, know that we feel a tremendousness of
Speaker 1: responsibility to minister the Word of God, not only to you,
Speaker 1: but to challenge you to partner with us in reaching
Speaker 1: people for the Gospel. I believe your gift today could
Speaker 1: be a game changer, so don't put it off right now.
Speaker 1: Elevationchurch dot org you can find all of the details.
Speaker 1: I hope you enjoy this message and thank you for
Speaker 1: being a part of the family. Whoo, it feels good
Speaker 1: here Elevation Balatime. I know it does. A Lake Norman
Speaker 1: over at Blaytney, see, I know it feels great up there. Hey,
Speaker 1: my name is Larry Bryan. I get the privilege of
Speaker 1: opening up God's Word with you today and all my
Speaker 1: friends call me LB at least my friends do You
Speaker 1: could call me LB too. You can say hey, LB,
Speaker 1: oh man, thank you, I'm glad to be here. And
Speaker 1: a truism we learned early in our church is people
Speaker 1: may not always remember what you say, but they'll always
Speaker 1: remember the way you make them feel. I want to
Speaker 1: make sure that everybody who's here that's a first time
Speaker 1: guest feels very welcomed today. I'd like you to give
Speaker 1: out at least three displays of affection. You can give
Speaker 1: a hug, a high five, a handshake. I want you
Speaker 1: to welcome at least three people, at least three church
Speaker 1: appropriate displays of affection. Mind you. After you have done that,
Speaker 1: you you may be seated. Thank you, Worship team, thank
Speaker 1: you so much. Hey. Have you enjoyed this season we're
Speaker 1: in right now, Game Changer? Oh oh my goodness, it
Speaker 1: has been absolutely incredible Week one. Let's do a quick
Speaker 1: little review right here. Secret scorecard, My reason determines my reward.
Speaker 1: How many of you are blessed by week one of
Speaker 1: this series? My gosh. Now Week two for all the
Speaker 1: warriors in the house, Pastor Stephen burned the place down.
Speaker 1: He talked about reverse your worry worship is worry and reverse,
Speaker 1: like how many of you were blessed by that? Oh
Speaker 1: my gosh. And so week one, Week two, let's call
Speaker 1: it week three. This is Week three. I get the
Speaker 1: privilege of delivering God's word today. Here's the title I
Speaker 1: want to get for today's message. Is this? For the
Speaker 1: note takers in the house, you would write this down
Speaker 1: an ordinary day, an ordinary day, say ordinary. And the
Speaker 1: text I'm going to be in today is going to
Speaker 1: be acts. Chapter three is where I'll be. And I
Speaker 1: remember when I came to faith. It was in my
Speaker 1: late twenties. I just finished graduate school, and I had
Speaker 1: grown up in a home where religion really and faith
Speaker 1: was not really a part of it. If Jesus Christ
Speaker 1: was used in a conversation, it was more for colorful
Speaker 1: language than it was any kind of praise. And that
Speaker 1: was just kind of the world I grew up, and
Speaker 1: I grew up Catholic, so you know, I'd go to
Speaker 1: church a couple times a year, and I remember, like
Speaker 1: in my darkest moments where I'm like in that dark
Speaker 1: place some of you know, that dark place, like that
Speaker 1: place that you don't feel like anybody should ever see,
Speaker 1: that place, that you're like God is so disgusted with
Speaker 1: you can never lean into it. God leaned into that
Speaker 1: moment with me, and he met me in that place,
Speaker 1: and he radically, radically saved me. And I remember getting
Speaker 1: my first Bible. I was twenty seven, so I didn't
Speaker 1: own a Bible until I was twenty steven. I remember
Speaker 1: taking the cellophane off of it and like smelling of us, like, oh,
Speaker 1: this is amazing. And then I went to a Bible
Speaker 1: study with some of you Baptists, like you know you.
Speaker 1: It's like Bibles are like h oh Badiah Stephaniah. But
Speaker 1: I heard about Matthew, Mark, Lucan, John, I can't find out,
Speaker 1: but like and I lean over my buddy's like what
Speaker 1: page is that on? I didn't realize then all the
Speaker 1: Bibles have the same Like what are you doing Christians?
Speaker 1: That makes no sense. So I remember what it's like
Speaker 1: to get in a place that, depending upon the book
Speaker 1: you're going to go to, a man may not open
Speaker 1: up my Bible because it didn't want to look stupid,
Speaker 1: because you know what, I felt very ordinary. And if
Speaker 1: you feel ordinary today, if you feel like you're an
Speaker 1: ordinary individual, I want you to know that you are
Speaker 1: positioned to be mightily used by an extraordinary God. He
Speaker 1: is not looking for the brightest, He's not looking for
Speaker 1: the tallest, the prettiest. He's looking for the one that
Speaker 1: makes himself available today. And anybody who says, God, I
Speaker 1: make myself available, he will use you. That is the
Speaker 1: evidence of the story of the Church, and it is
Speaker 1: how he has moved throughout eternity. So I just want
Speaker 1: to give you permission to be ordinary. Look at your
Speaker 1: neighbor right left, which one looks the most ordinary to you?
Speaker 1: I know, don't tell him. But in Acts chapter three
Speaker 1: is where I'm going to be. It says this. This
Speaker 1: is one day Peter and John were going to the
Speaker 1: temple at the time of prayer three in the afternoon.
Speaker 1: No a man was lame from birth, being carried to
Speaker 1: the temple gate called Beautiful, where he was put every
Speaker 1: day to beg from those going into the temple courts.
Speaker 1: When he saw Peter and John about to enter, he
Speaker 1: asked them for money. Peter looked straight at him, as
Speaker 1: did John. Then Peter said, look at us. So the
Speaker 1: man gave them his attention, expecting to get something from them.
Speaker 1: Then Peter said silver or gold I do not have,
Speaker 1: But what I have I give you in the name
Speaker 1: of Jesus Christ of Nazareth walk Taking him by the
Speaker 1: right hand, he helped him up, and instantly his feet
Speaker 1: and ankles became strong. Now, this story out of Acts
Speaker 1: chapter three is really one of my favorite stories in
Speaker 1: the New Testament. I love it. It's really been a
Speaker 1: story that's played a pivotal part in the history of
Speaker 1: our church. But I love it because it has these
Speaker 1: two words that come together one day. Oh, it's kind
Speaker 1: of like dynamite. You put these two in great together
Speaker 1: and something blows up one day, and if you were
Speaker 1: to do a Bible study on it, just do that.
Speaker 1: Google it later one day Bible Verse, and you're gonna
Speaker 1: see story after story of something incredible. It's given me
Speaker 1: like scenes in a movie where you're like what the
Speaker 1: Southern translation, We're like, yo, check this out, Like that's
Speaker 1: it's amazing. It's a place of potential impossibility. When you
Speaker 1: see these two words, it needs to alert your senses
Speaker 1: at Oh, something significant is about to happen, Something is
Speaker 1: about to go down that's gonna change the direction of
Speaker 1: somebody else's life. This is a game changing moment. One
Speaker 1: day is a game changer because when one day happens
Speaker 1: in your life, everything changes after it, and some of
Speaker 1: you are about to encounter one of those moments today.
Speaker 1: Today is that one day it's going to be a
Speaker 1: game changer where whatever you walked in with is going
Speaker 1: to look very different when you walk out, because God's
Speaker 1: about to do something in you. And these one day
Speaker 1: stories have less to do with God's promises being dropped
Speaker 1: into our laps. It has way more to do with people,
Speaker 1: ordinary people like you and me, who believe that with
Speaker 1: God all things are possible, not some things, not a
Speaker 1: couple things, not a conditional faith that says, if it
Speaker 1: ever gets here, God then know all things. Because one
Speaker 1: day is a perspective. It is a perspective where you
Speaker 1: lean in expecting God to move. I don't know if
Speaker 1: it'll be today or tomorrow, or next year or in
Speaker 1: twenty years, but my God will move. His promises are
Speaker 1: yes and amen in Jesus Christ, I believe it. That's
Speaker 1: a one day perspective that's illustrated in the text. The
Speaker 1: other perspective that's illustrated in the text is another day,
Speaker 1: say another day, and what we get to do is
Speaker 1: decide which one we want to live. One day potential impossibility.
Speaker 1: Another day, Hey, honey, how was work today? It was
Speaker 1: just another day. Another day becomes another week, and another month,
Speaker 1: and another year and another decade, and now your kids
Speaker 1: are grown and you're looking at each other like, what
Speaker 1: did we just do with the last twenty years? And
Speaker 1: we've just wasted it just one day at a time.
Speaker 1: Another day is a perspective where you give up believing
Speaker 1: that God's promises will come to pass, and you settle
Speaker 1: into autopilot and you are just being taken down the
Speaker 1: rivers of life, feeling like you're at the whims and
Speaker 1: the mercies of God and you're just flowing along. No, no,
Speaker 1: no no. And the reality is one day and another
Speaker 1: day are both perspectives. One is leaning in, one is
Speaker 1: leaning back, And the reality is both of these are ordinary.
Speaker 1: Both of these are ordinary because the life you live
Speaker 1: is your ordinary. You get to decide which life you
Speaker 1: want to live. You have the ability through the person
Speaker 1: of Jesus Christ living inside of you, the one who
Speaker 1: spoke the world into existence, the one who raised Jesus
Speaker 1: from the dead, is living inside of you, and you
Speaker 1: get the ability to make a choice to say, I
Speaker 1: will either live life in a one day mentality. God,
Speaker 1: I believe you're for me and not against me, or
Speaker 1: I can live over here and just be like it's
Speaker 1: just another day. All those other people get blessed just now.
Speaker 1: I mean those are for the extraordinary Christians, not ordinary folk.
Speaker 1: Because most of these one day stories and the scriptures
Speaker 1: are ordinary people believing in an extraordinary God. And so
Speaker 1: when we started this ministry more than twelve years ago,
Speaker 1: we're coming up on our thirteenth birthday Elevation Church. You'll
Speaker 1: look good for a preteen. I remember when we started
Speaker 1: this church, we were living in a little town called Shelby,
Speaker 1: North Carolina. And you all heard of Shelby. It's about
Speaker 1: an hour away from Charlotte. For those of you that
Speaker 1: don't know, it's halfway between Charlotte, North Carolina and Asheville.
Speaker 1: It's not a destination location. It's like a stop for
Speaker 1: gas and then you keep going. It's Nazareth, you know.
Speaker 1: But we were living there and pastors seems like, hey,
Speaker 1: we got to get to Charlotte. We got to find
Speaker 1: a place to meet, we got to find a location.
Speaker 1: So I believe that God is for us. I believe
Speaker 1: that God is for this ministry. And I just drove
Speaker 1: to Charlotte and my little Ford Ranger expecting God's favor
Speaker 1: to be there when I got there, I've just acted
Speaker 1: like that. You know how you hang out with somebody
Speaker 1: that's bigger and stronger than you, you feel tougher, Like yeah,
Speaker 1: what you've gotten now? Boy? My God is that big
Speaker 1: and my pastor's that strong. I believe it. I'm like,
Speaker 1: if God said it, it's gonna happen. If pastors said
Speaker 1: there's this facility waiting for us in Starngmuck, it's there.
Speaker 1: And so I show up in Charlotte. The first place
Speaker 1: to stop is at a community college. I walk in,
Speaker 1: go up to the vice president's office. Meanwhile, we had
Speaker 1: just picked the name for the church like a month before,
Speaker 1: and I walk into the president vice president's office. I'm like, listen,
Speaker 1: my name's Larry Bryan. I'm a part of a church
Speaker 1: called Elevation Church. We haven't even started yet, but we're
Speaker 1: gonna change the world. And you want us meeting at
Speaker 1: your location. And she's like, well, the biggest room we
Speaker 1: got really only holds about one hundred and forty people.
Speaker 1: I said, that's way too small. God's going to do
Speaker 1: something so much bigger than that. And she's said, it's
Speaker 1: funny you showed up here today because this is actually
Speaker 1: my last day working at this location. She said, I
Speaker 1: start a new job on Monday at a place called
Speaker 1: the Levine Senior Center. She said, we're actually going to
Speaker 1: be building a building. And we were meeting with the
Speaker 1: trustees the other day. We haven't even broken ground on it,
Speaker 1: but we were talking about maybe it would be good
Speaker 1: for a church to rent our facility. I said, yes today, Amen,
Speaker 1: God wants us sen in that location. That's how we
Speaker 1: found our first location. We can collap for that. That's
Speaker 1: but the one day perspective says, whether it's at the
Speaker 1: first stop, the twelve stop, or the hundred stuff, my
Speaker 1: God is going to say yes. At some point, it's
Speaker 1: going to happen. See one day as a persistence towards
Speaker 1: the promises of God, you get shut down in the
Speaker 1: first response, and now you give up on the promises
Speaker 1: of God? Why are you so easy to push over?
Speaker 1: Do you know here, daddy is? Do you know what's
Speaker 1: living inside of you? To know what you're capable of?
Speaker 1: About a week after we found this location, I met
Speaker 1: with a church planting expert who is an expert on
Speaker 1: planting churches and Charlie. He's like, Larry, you know, it's
Speaker 1: virtually impossible for anyone to find a location to meet
Speaker 1: at within Charlotte because every outhouse and doghouse and middle
Speaker 1: school and high school has got a church meeting in it,
Speaker 1: that says expert voice. I looked at him, said, I'm sorry.
Speaker 1: We already found a location. My God already provided before
Speaker 1: you even set it in out. And some of you
Speaker 1: were listening to experts tell you what God cannot do
Speaker 1: in your life. We were just ordinary people that believed
Speaker 1: in an extraordinary God, and it began with eight families
Speaker 1: selling their homes and quitting their jobs. This is my wife,
Speaker 1: Janet here. We were one of those original eight families.
Speaker 1: We just celebrated eighteen years of marriage. Isn't she love me?
Speaker 1: Isn't I can't sing, but my reason determines my reward.
Speaker 1: I'm not singing for you. I'm trying to score points
Speaker 1: with my girl. But we got the distinct privilege of
Speaker 1: being one of those original eight families. So if I
Speaker 1: take you back to two thousand and five, this is
Speaker 1: thirteen years ago. We're all living in Shelby, eight families,
Speaker 1: and we had met Pastor Stephen first time I ever
Speaker 1: saw him preach. He was the only white guy in
Speaker 1: an all gospel, Black gospel choir. He was at North
Speaker 1: Greenville College. He was a senior at North Greenville College,
Speaker 1: and that choir he was leading with about sixty people,
Speaker 1: and he knew how to clap on the two and four,
Speaker 1: but nobody at the church I was at knew how
Speaker 1: to really do that right. And he brings the all
Speaker 1: black gospel choir down and he's leading the choir at
Speaker 1: the church we're at in Shelby there in north in
Speaker 1: North Greenville College in South Carolina, and I saw him preach,
Speaker 1: first time I ever saw him preach. He preaches serma
Speaker 1: called God is Great, God is Good. I still have
Speaker 1: the VHS tape. Bald head go tea baggy clothes and
Speaker 1: he burned the place down. And I said, this joker
Speaker 1: is going to change the world. And I said, that's
Speaker 1: the church I want to be a part of. So
Speaker 1: when I heard that him and Hollyood getting ready to
Speaker 1: start this thing called Elevation Church, I pulled him in
Speaker 1: my office and I'm coming with I know it's really
Speaker 1: bad grammar. You don't end with a preposition, but it's
Speaker 1: because it was a blank line that says, wherever you go,
Speaker 1: I'm coming. And he said, what it means if you
Speaker 1: want to be a part of this, you need to
Speaker 1: sell your house, quit your job, move to an unnamed
Speaker 1: city in an unnamed part of the country to be
Speaker 1: part of an unnamed church. Are you in? I'm like,
Speaker 1: who wouldn't sign up for that? No, I'm not kidding.
Speaker 1: Who wouldn't sign up for that? It's the greatest thing
Speaker 1: on the face of the earth. Everybody right now says
Speaker 1: I wish I would have done that, and you might
Speaker 1: not have had a chance to be a part of
Speaker 1: the original Eight. But you can get on the original
Speaker 1: eight spirit today because the spirit that launched our ministry
Speaker 1: is the same spirit that's moving here today. And there's
Speaker 1: so many new people coming to Elevation Church that you
Speaker 1: don't know the history, and it's hard to understand the
Speaker 1: story when you haven't read the previous chapters. I just
Speaker 1: want to show you some of those previous chapters about us,
Speaker 1: and all eight families are signed up. But we were
Speaker 1: a part of a church there called Christ Covenant Church
Speaker 1: February of two thousand and five. Through the end of
Speaker 1: the year, we stayed underneath the umbrella of that ministry.
Speaker 1: All of us were tithing to that church. That's ten percent,
Speaker 1: the first ten percent we give to God. When we
Speaker 1: signed up to this thing called Elevation Church, Pastor said, Hey,
Speaker 1: here's what we're going to do. We're going to sow
Speaker 1: seeds of sacrificial generosity that will produce fruit in the future.
Speaker 1: See the blessing you see began to sacrifices that you'll
Speaker 1: never see. Because all eight families gave ten percent to
Speaker 1: the church. Were at because we believed in being faithful
Speaker 1: to church. But this end, this new thing called Elevation Church,
Speaker 1: we're going to go five percent and ten percent above
Speaker 1: and beyond it. So those eight families sowed seeds of generosity.
Speaker 1: It was not a couple of fat cats stroking big checks.
Speaker 1: It was built upon people like Tyler and Amy Ford,
Speaker 1: John and Heather Bishop, ordinary people like Chunks and Amy Corbett.
Speaker 1: None of us were experts in church work, but all
Speaker 1: of us loved God. We were ordinary people that worshiped
Speaker 1: an extraordinary God, and we wanted our lives to count
Speaker 1: because you know, there's a difference between success and significance.
Speaker 1: Success is what you build for yourself. Significance is what
Speaker 1: you give away for God. And you can be extremely
Speaker 1: successful in life and yet have no six significance. But
Speaker 1: I also know the opposite exists. Some of you feel
Speaker 1: like you were not successful in life, but you are
Speaker 1: one of the most significant people on the all walking
Speaker 1: on the face of the earth, because your significance is
Speaker 1: tied to your sacrifice. Now your size, now, your status,
Speaker 1: now your number of followers, simply your sacrifice, and what
Speaker 1: God wants is a sacrifice. And those eight families brought sacrifices.
Speaker 1: If I were to illustrate the church, let me give
Speaker 1: you an illustration this first row, Can you stand up
Speaker 1: right here? And then one, two, three, four, five, six,
Speaker 1: you six? Could you stand up right there? That's good.
Speaker 1: So thirteen years ago, this is what we were, eight families,
Speaker 1: sixteen people. You know what we are today? Thirteen years later,
Speaker 1: we actually have seventeen campuses. We've got more campuses today
Speaker 1: than we did people thirteen years ago. Look what God
Speaker 1: won't do? Look what God won't do? You maybe see
Speaker 1: you mean? And I remember there was a game changer
Speaker 1: for us when we found the vision statement of our
Speaker 1: ch it's this, It's on the screens. This is why
Speaker 1: we started our church. So that people far from God
Speaker 1: will be raised to life in Christ. That's it, say,
Speaker 1: people far from God will be raised to life in Christ.
Speaker 1: Say people far from God will be raised to life
Speaker 1: in Christ. And we were praying for people before we
Speaker 1: ever saw their faces and knew their names. And without
Speaker 1: being melodramatic, we were praying for you before we ever
Speaker 1: met you. I have no idea what you were doing
Speaker 1: thirteen years ago, Melbourne. I have no idea what you
Speaker 1: were doing thirteen years ago someone watching online from Topeka, Kansas.
Speaker 1: But God knew you. God knew the steps he would
Speaker 1: order in your life to bring you to the moment
Speaker 1: you're sitting in today. And we believe so strongly that
Speaker 1: the Gospel is real. We wanted to bring a real
Speaker 1: sacrifice because faith is not just believing for it, it
Speaker 1: is sacrificing toward it. There is a language and a
Speaker 1: lifestyle to faith. There is a language that says I
Speaker 1: believe that with God all things are possible. That's the
Speaker 1: language of it. But that is just one part of it.
Speaker 1: The other part of is I am going to live
Speaker 1: a lifestyle that will be persistent to see that happen.
Speaker 1: There is a language and a lifestyle, and the lifestyle
Speaker 1: that God brought us eight families to a sacrifice. My
Speaker 1: wife and I we sold our house, we quit our jobs.
Speaker 1: We cast in our stocks or bonds, our savings, put
Speaker 1: it all in the center of table. Said God, either
Speaker 1: you get all the glory or we look really stupid.
Speaker 1: I am glad option a worked out. But why were
Speaker 1: we doing it? Because we loved God that much and
Speaker 1: we wanted to see His glory on this earth. We
Speaker 1: believe so strongly in the church. We weren't just going
Speaker 1: to make it a weekend activity. We were going to
Speaker 1: make it an everyday lifestyle. And I remember another game
Speaker 1: changing moment when we're at the ministry we were at
Speaker 1: we were moving into a new sanctuary space, so before
Speaker 1: all the families moved in, we had a chance to
Speaker 1: get on our knees on the cement and write names
Speaker 1: on the cement of people we wanted to come to faith.
Speaker 1: This was a game changer for me because I got
Speaker 1: on the cement in the middle of the sanctuary and
Speaker 1: my wife and I we wrote down these names. We
Speaker 1: wrote down the name Luanne, it's my sister. These are
Speaker 1: people we hope who come to faith in Jesus. I
Speaker 1: wrote down Dad, that's my dad. Wrote down Lance, that's
Speaker 1: my younger brother. He said, diabetes since he was four
Speaker 1: years old and he's struggling right now to feel his feet.
Speaker 1: My brother Lonnie, my brother Butch his real name is Leslie. Yep,
Speaker 1: you would too, My mom, my niece, Caylin. I started
Speaker 1: to write these names down. This was a game changer
Speaker 1: for me because I started to identify the people in
Speaker 1: faith that I wanted to see come to faith in Jesus.
Speaker 1: And from this began what we call our one day teaching,
Speaker 1: which is based upon Act chapter three, And in Act
Speaker 1: chapter three it says one day Peter and John at
Speaker 1: the time of prayer went to the temple gate and
Speaker 1: so one day, and here's the way that we teach
Speaker 1: the one day principle around here at Elevation Church. Because
Speaker 1: her vision statement is people far from God raised to
Speaker 1: life in Christ. That's the vision, people far from God
Speaker 1: raise to life in Christ. But if it's about a
Speaker 1: bunch of people and it's not about a person, it
Speaker 1: is not personal. Personal is powerful. So the way that
Speaker 1: I teach the One Day principle is this, who is
Speaker 1: close to you but far from God, who is inside
Speaker 1: your relational networks but outside the love of Jesus Christ,
Speaker 1: who if they died today, we spend eternity separated from Him.
Speaker 1: Get this thing so personal. So whenever I would teach this,
Speaker 1: I would get people to write down in their notes,
Speaker 1: And I want you to do this in your notes
Speaker 1: right now or on your phone, is a blank line
Speaker 1: and put a name in it. For me. Every time
Speaker 1: I taught this, and I've taught it over two hundred
Speaker 1: and fifty times, I use my sister's name, Luanne, and
Speaker 1: I write it in the thing. My sister, my oldest sister,
Speaker 1: she's six years older than me. She used to look
Speaker 1: out for me on the nights when dad is doing
Speaker 1: what his father did. See. My sister grew up in
Speaker 1: a world that she looked at her heavenly father and said,
Speaker 1: you must be just like my earthly father, because my
Speaker 1: earthly father rejects me, It treats me like this. Why
Speaker 1: on earth would my heavenly father want anything to do
Speaker 1: with me. So once she got to the age she
Speaker 1: was old enough to decide I'm out of this, she said,
Speaker 1: peace out, I am done. But you know that when
Speaker 1: you're running from something, you start recreating it in your future.
Speaker 1: Because God's vision is never to run from something, it
Speaker 1: is to something. And my sister runs into life recreating
Speaker 1: all of the havoc that she had in her pass
Speaker 1: And I would teach this one day principle like this.
Speaker 1: If this were the one day, Luan or your person
Speaker 1: were to come to church, what would you want him
Speaker 1: to experience? Who would you want them to meet? And
Speaker 1: now it became really really personal to me. You want
Speaker 1: to know the vision of our church so that people
Speaker 1: far from God would be really used to life in Christ.
Speaker 1: But it's not just a language, it's a lifestyle. Because
Speaker 1: we would teach it like this. If that were to happen,
Speaker 1: I would be up all night praying. See my family
Speaker 1: lives in Minnesota, and if they were to come here,
Speaker 1: oh my gosh, it is miracle, and I would be
Speaker 1: up all night praying, and I'd be saying God, please move,
Speaker 1: Please move in their life because life is so chaotic.
Speaker 1: She doesn't know you and she needs you God. And
Speaker 1: I get to this building early and then pray over
Speaker 1: every single seat in the auditorium. I'd annoint it with
Speaker 1: oral I'd be speaking in tongues because I don't know
Speaker 1: which seat she's gonna sit in. I don't know which
Speaker 1: seat's gonna be the place of a miracle. I don't
Speaker 1: know what seat the shame is gonna be washed away at.
Speaker 1: So I'm just gonna pray over every single one of them,
Speaker 1: and then I'm gonna go to go to the parking team. Say,
Speaker 1: parking team, do you get it? My sister's coming. She's
Speaker 1: just like me. She has no patience, and if more
Speaker 1: than three cars get backed up, she's gonna turn around
Speaker 1: and go home. And if she gets in an accident
Speaker 1: on the way home and die, she's going to hell.
Speaker 1: And if that happens, I'm gonna kill you. Then I'm
Speaker 1: gonna go to the greeters. I'm say, greeters, do you
Speaker 1: get it? Because if you're talking to my sister, you're
Speaker 1: making her feel like everybody else thinks about her what
Speaker 1: she feels about herself. Because she works in a job
Speaker 1: where she's had a trucking company and she's the safety
Speaker 1: enforced her. So she gets to talk to truckers all
Speaker 1: day long and tell them to stop driving. And if
Speaker 1: you're a trucker and you're not driving, you're expressing your
Speaker 1: displeasure in colorful ways. She gets cussed out all day
Speaker 1: long in the job and then comes home to a
Speaker 1: house where her and her husband look at each other
Speaker 1: and go to opposite ends of the house because the
Speaker 1: reality is, you know how long it's been since she's
Speaker 1: seen somebody say to her, I'm glad to see you,
Speaker 1: Because in her honest moments, she would have tapped out
Speaker 1: long before had it not just been for her little daughter,
Speaker 1: my niece, Caylen. But the greeterers get it, and they
Speaker 1: make her smile, and they make you feel like you
Speaker 1: matter and you're here today and I love you, and
Speaker 1: they bring her in and they take my niece to
Speaker 1: our ekids ministry, And my sister's world is spinning out
Speaker 1: of control and the only thing she has is her daughter,
Speaker 1: and she's gonna trust her to your hands. Man, you
Speaker 1: better speak in full sentences, You better have all your teeth.
Speaker 1: You better get down on a knee and look that
Speaker 1: little girl in the eye, say God loves you. You
Speaker 1: are so beautiful. Because if you don't do that, my sister,
Speaker 1: whose life is spinning out of control. She's gonna feel like,
Speaker 1: how can I trust her to you? And if she
Speaker 1: brings her into the auditorium, her focus is on her daughter,
Speaker 1: not on the gospel. And we're not gonna let that happen.
Speaker 1: But we're not just baby seating and he kids. No,
Speaker 1: we're hiding the word of God, which will produce a
Speaker 1: harvest one day. And I leave that little girl sitting
Speaker 1: in the back seat, preaching the sermon, singing the arms.
Speaker 1: Jesus loves me. This I know, for the Bible tells
Speaker 1: me so. So she leaves her daughter and he kids,
Speaker 1: and then she meets one of her ushers that gets
Speaker 1: the privilege to walk my sister to a seat where
Speaker 1: her life is going to be changed. And the worship begins,
Speaker 1: and she starts to tear up because I don't even
Speaker 1: know what is going on inside of me, but something's happening.
Speaker 1: Because you are created in the image of God. There
Speaker 1: is an indelible mark that He has left on your
Speaker 1: heart that is always pulling you back to the Father.
Speaker 1: She cannot describe it, but she cannot stop it, and
Speaker 1: it's expressing itself through tears, and she's like, oh, could
Speaker 1: it be that there's something better. And then the gospel's preached,
Speaker 1: and Pastor Stephen gets up here and he stands here
Speaker 1: and he declaes declares, where's Jesus Christ, crucified, died, buried
Speaker 1: and resurrected for the forgiveness of sins? And my sister
Speaker 1: at the says, could it be? That's what I've been
Speaker 1: looking for my whole life. And if my sister's coming
Speaker 1: to church, that's what I want her one day experience
Speaker 1: to be. Like my sister Luanne, who is it for
Speaker 1: you in that line? Make it personal? Some of you
Speaker 1: this church, you're treating it too casually because you have
Speaker 1: not made it personal for you. It's a game changer
Speaker 1: today because this is the day you make it personal
Speaker 1: and you make it be about a person. If the
Speaker 1: extent of my faith is only about me and what
Speaker 1: I get, I have got a shallow faith, and shallow
Speaker 1: values will lead to empty victories. Today is to day
Speaker 1: that we can dig for something deeper and mountain. Make
Speaker 1: it be about us. But who is it who's in
Speaker 1: your line? Because for some woman here, it's her husband
Speaker 1: who's at home today. For some dabt it's their daughter
Speaker 1: that you've got in a fight four years ago, and
Speaker 1: unforgiveness fractured the relationship. Who is it for you? What
Speaker 1: would it look like if you were to dive develop
Speaker 1: a persistence its God. I don't know when it's going
Speaker 1: to happen, but I believe it will happen. That's one day.
Speaker 1: That's why we started this ministry for that. And as
Speaker 1: we started going through this ministry, my wife and I
Speaker 1: realized we cannot expect new blessings off of old sacrifices.
Speaker 1: I can't just live off of a house that was
Speaker 1: sold twelve years ago. I've got to bring a present
Speaker 1: day sacrifice today. So my wife and I come to
Speaker 1: twenty thirteen end of your Giving series. That year was
Speaker 1: called Banner Years, and my wife and I said, we
Speaker 1: are going to give specifically to my sister Luanne and
Speaker 1: her family. And at the end of year, we wrote
Speaker 1: down the word restoration and we gave the biggest gift
Speaker 1: we have given. See, sacrifice is never about size. It's
Speaker 1: always about significance. Because if I were to tell you
Speaker 1: the size, some of you be like, that's a lot.
Speaker 1: Some of you would say that's a little. It's never
Speaker 1: about the amount, It's about the sacrifice. That it represents.
Speaker 1: God is not calling us to equal amounts, but He
Speaker 1: is calling us to equal sacrifices. And I want to
Speaker 1: challenge you this year to sacrifice in such a way
Speaker 1: that you show your faith. Now just talk about it.
Speaker 1: I'm talking you live your faith that kind of faith.
Speaker 1: And we saw God move in my sister's family and
Speaker 1: God had restored that marriage and He is restoring that family.
Speaker 1: Look at what God is doing, not just thirteen years ago,
Speaker 1: but today. Then the next year comes along the year
Speaker 1: after that, and our surround was the series we were
Speaker 1: in that year, and then we wrote down the word salvation.
Speaker 1: This is actually the word. This is my handwriting. Because
Speaker 1: we were able to convince Lewann and John and Caln
Speaker 1: to come to North Carolina for Carolina Christmas. And the
Speaker 1: person I've been teaching about for a decade that I
Speaker 1: didn't think would ever come to Elevation Church game whoa.
Speaker 1: And in that moment I got a chance to see
Speaker 1: my niece Caaylen give her life to Christ, my brother
Speaker 1: in law John give his lafe to Christ, and my
Speaker 1: sister Luanne give her a lafe to Christ. Won't God
Speaker 1: do it? And as I was reading Acts chapter three,
Speaker 1: getting ready for today, said God, sid you don't understand
Speaker 1: the whole story because you didn't read the previous chapters.
Speaker 1: And God took me back to Acts chapter two and
Speaker 1: Acts chapter two. It said, everyone was filled with awe
Speaker 1: at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles.
Speaker 1: All the believers were together, they had had everything in common.
Speaker 1: They sold their property and possessions and gave to anyone
Speaker 1: who had need. Every day they continued to meet together
Speaker 1: in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes
Speaker 1: and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God
Speaker 1: and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the
Speaker 1: Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.
Speaker 1: This is an ordinary day the first century Church, in
Speaker 1: the Book of Acts, an ordinary day is when they're
Speaker 1: gathering together, they're worshiping their sacrificing and their gift, and
Speaker 1: the Lord added to their number daily those who were
Speaker 1: being saved. It was an ordinary day for them to
Speaker 1: see people come to faith in Jesus. And did you
Speaker 1: know that at Melbourne, one of our seventeen locations, on
Speaker 1: an ordinary weekend, at one of our ordinary campuses last
Speaker 1: week Melbourne. You had twenty eight people make decisions for
Speaker 1: Christ last week at an ordinary weekend at an ordinary campus.
Speaker 1: Look what God can do when ordinary people make a
Speaker 1: one day their lifestyle. So I got it, oh, Act
Speaker 1: chapter three. This Beggar being Healed began in Acts chapter
Speaker 1: two cause for Peter and John, this is what we do,
Speaker 1: this is who we are, this is our ordinary faith.
Speaker 1: As they walk into Act chapter three, their ordinary one day,
Speaker 1: God's at move I'm living my life for His glory.
Speaker 1: Their ordinary encountered, this beggar's ordinary. The one day encountered
Speaker 1: is just another day which I'm asking which one are you?
Speaker 1: Are you Peter and John? Are you the beggar? And
Speaker 1: when this ordinary collided with that ordinary, an extraordinary God
Speaker 1: showed up on the scene. Because the lesser must submit
Speaker 1: to the greater, and the greater glory that is in
Speaker 1: those people caused that to submit, and that man's life
Speaker 1: was changed. It's been the story of our church since
Speaker 1: we started, not just with those original eight families, but
Speaker 1: countless individuals who have jumped in and been a part
Speaker 1: of this, like John and Rodney Mullens right here. They
Speaker 1: showed up in two thousand and sixties to get their
Speaker 1: adult daughter at church. They said this is weird, but
Speaker 1: they said, this is ordinary, and they've been here ever since,
Speaker 1: serving in sacrificing people like Adam and Anita Bright build
Speaker 1: up at a Roanoke location. They started coming to the
Speaker 1: Ronot campus in twenty fourteen. During the Surround series. He
Speaker 1: lost his job and they were pregnant. He received a
Speaker 1: severance which they planned to live on for the next
Speaker 1: few months and prepared for the baby to come. But
Speaker 1: they felt God called them to give the whole severance
Speaker 1: at the year end offering, and they weren't. Wrote down
Speaker 1: the word trust. It didn't make sense, but they obeyed.
Speaker 1: Let me read that again. It didn't make sense, but
Speaker 1: they obeyed. That's ordinary faith God. I don't have to
Speaker 1: understand it to obey it. I'm just gonna do it.
Speaker 1: Within two weeks, Adam got a phone call and has
Speaker 1: offered a better job, more pay, sustainable job, less travel,
Speaker 1: so we can be ten with his family. Lew and
Speaker 1: Kiera Torres at a Raleigh location. The Torres family joined
Speaker 1: the Raleigh campus twenty fifteen. For the past four years,
Speaker 1: they've been trying to have a baby, unable to conceive
Speaker 1: last year during Waymaker, they gave sacrificially and wrote the
Speaker 1: word baby on their card with the belief that God
Speaker 1: was going to bring a baby their way. A little
Speaker 1: over two months ago, baby boy David was born to
Speaker 1: this wonderful family. Won't God do it? Ordinary people having
Speaker 1: an ordinary faith? Bobby and Carla Sweeney at our Winston
Speaker 1: Salem Campus. Bobby and Carla were part of launching the
Speaker 1: Winston Salem Campus in twenty seventeen. Their adult daughter, Stephanie
Speaker 1: has spina bifida. Been a long hard journey caring for
Speaker 1: her through the mounting medical struggles through another adult daughter, Tree,
Speaker 1: struggle with crippling postpartum depression over the past couple of years.
Speaker 1: They gave sacrificially during Waymaker, and they claimed the word
Speaker 1: trust after trusting God through so many hard times with
Speaker 1: their families. Saw the fruit of their faith when their
Speaker 1: daughter Tree was baptized this past August. Won't God do it?
Speaker 1: Won't God do it? I don't give to get. God's
Speaker 1: not a celestial vending machine that I popped in a
Speaker 1: couple quarters of push a blessing. Heck, no, I give
Speaker 1: because every time I give, it creates more space for
Speaker 1: Him to occupy. God wants to be so consumed in
Speaker 1: your life. He wants to have all of you, the
Speaker 1: good parts, the bad parts, the parts you want and
Speaker 1: the parts you don't. That's why we give, because He
Speaker 1: is worth it and the Gospel commands it. We just
Speaker 1: don't want to have a faith. I believe for it,
Speaker 1: we want to live for it. And so when I
Speaker 1: wrote those names down, my brother Lay he's not yet
Speaker 1: come to faith. My dad, he's not yet come to faith.
Speaker 1: He's in a retirement home and he's got severe dimension.
Speaker 1: I saw him a couple of weeks ago, and now
Speaker 1: I'm like, God, how do I share the faith with him?
Speaker 1: And he doesn't even know who I am. I still
Speaker 1: believe God is sovereign. I don't know how, But I
Speaker 1: also believe God is sovereign, and I have a responsibility.
Speaker 1: My responsibility is to keep sacrificing. God's responsibility is to
Speaker 1: keep saving, and I'm going to trust that He's going
Speaker 1: to do it even when it can make sense. So
Speaker 1: one day isn't just for the stories that have happened.
Speaker 1: One day is for the things that are waiting to
Speaker 1: be written. That's why I give, don't give up. Somebody
Speaker 1: needs you. And what I didn't realize is when I
Speaker 1: wrote that blank line down, I didn't know what would
Speaker 1: encompass all of you. I didn't know what encompass all
Speaker 1: of the people in Raley or Morrisville, Gaston. I also
Speaker 1: didn't know what encompassed my family. This last Easter, I
Speaker 1: got a text from one of her e Kids directors saying,
Speaker 1: your daughter, Dalen, she wants to give her life to Jesus.
Speaker 1: So I sprinted across the building. I huffed and puffed
Speaker 1: the whole way there, but I got there, and my
Speaker 1: wife and I got a chance to lead our ten
Speaker 1: year old daughter and a prayer to give her life
Speaker 1: to Jesus this past Easter. I didn't know that when
Speaker 1: I signed up, I didn't know that. And so this
Speaker 1: past Easter, when I called my sister Luan and I said, hey, Dalen,
Speaker 1: just give her life to Jesus. We're celebrating. She said, Hey, Larry,
Speaker 1: when I come out there in August, I've been thinking
Speaker 1: about this for a while now. This is the name
Speaker 1: I wrote down more than thirteen years ago. She said,
Speaker 1: do you think you could baptize me? And then my
Speaker 1: daughter piles on and my daughter says, hey, do you
Speaker 1: think I could get baptist with Auntie Lou? And so
Speaker 1: this about these baptisms happened a couple of weeks ago.
Speaker 1: Take a look, is this thank you? And it is
Speaker 1: my premis to baptize you in the name of the Fathers,
Speaker 1: so that people far from God will be raised to
Speaker 1: life in Christ, people like my sister, your dad, you,
Speaker 1: your mother, your friends, your co workers, ordinary people. But
Speaker 1: you stand your feet at all of our locations. And
Speaker 1: Peter and John stepped out of Acts chapter three an
Speaker 1: ordinary day. In the Acts chapter four, the next chapter
Speaker 1: that's waiting to be written, they've been arrested at this point,
Speaker 1: put on trial for their faith, and they're taking before
Speaker 1: the religious leaders in the Acts four thirteen and says this.
Speaker 1: It says, when they saw the courage of Peter and John,
Speaker 1: they realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men. They were
Speaker 1: astonished and took note that these men had been with
Speaker 1: Jesus ordinary an ordinary day, ordinary people living an ordinary
Speaker 1: life in the hands of an extraordinary God. Because the
Speaker 1: word ordinary there if in the original language, it's actually
Speaker 1: pronounced idiotas yep. If you feel ordinary, you are perfectly
Speaker 1: positioned to be used by God. He's not looking for
Speaker 1: the religious elite. He's not looking for those that prove
Speaker 1: their worth by how much biblical acumen they have. He's
Speaker 1: looking for ordinary people to step into ordinary situations and
Speaker 1: declare an extraordinary God. And it says they could tell
Speaker 1: that these men had been with Jesus, not just because
Speaker 1: of the testimony of their mouth, but the evidence of
Speaker 1: their life. Faith is a language towards it, but it's
Speaker 1: also a lifestyle that believes towards it. That's what God
Speaker 1: wants us to do, is to walk out of here
Speaker 1: into the next chapter, but to have a one day mentality,
Speaker 1: says God. With you, all things are possible. And we
Speaker 1: serve a savior, a great God who was in heaven glorious.
Speaker 1: But he said, I'm gonna come down as an ordinary man,
Speaker 1: take on ordinary flesh, live in an ordinary city, do
Speaker 1: ordinary things. As he walked through his life in ordinary flesh,
Speaker 1: an ordinary day with Jesus, blind people, seeing the deaf,
Speaker 1: hearing an ordinary day with Jesus is miraculous. And then
Speaker 1: he crawled upon to an ordinary cross, a cross that
Speaker 1: was killed, used to kill ordinary convicts. And he was
Speaker 1: numbered with us. And if I measure my sacrifice against
Speaker 1: what Jesus did on the cross. It looks insignificant, but
Speaker 1: God is looking at you, say, whatever you bring me,
Speaker 1: that's significant because the significance of my life is always
Speaker 1: tied to my sacrifice. When you walk into your job tomorrow,
Speaker 1: well they know that you've been with Jesus. You go
Speaker 1: back into that classroom, put up with those little blessed souls,
Speaker 1: and you go to work with all those just wonderful people.
Speaker 1: Are they going to know that you've been with Jesus.
Speaker 1: Faith doesn't mean you don't doubt. It just means that
Speaker 1: there's a game changer you go back to. Well, I
Speaker 1: hope you enjoyed the podcast today, and if you did,
Speaker 1: there are just a couple things I'd love for you
Speaker 1: to do. Number One, subscribe to our show. That way,
Speaker 1: the most recent episode will always be in your feed,
Speaker 1: waiting for you ready when you are. And Secondly, if
Speaker 1: this ministry has impacted you and you'd like to help
Speaker 1: us continue to reach others, you can click the link
Speaker 1: in the description and you can give now and I'll
Speaker 1: see you next time on the Elevation Podcast.