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: Nothing like the Lord, Nobody beside him, nobody like him.
Speaker 1: Can't contain him, can't describe him. You know, I can
Speaker 1: tell you about the river, or we can just step
Speaker 1: right in. And that's the way it is with the Lord.
Speaker 1: I can tell you, but sometimes you've got to taste
Speaker 1: and see that the Lord is good. Open your mouth
Speaker 1: wide and let him feel it today. Come on, open
Speaker 1: your mouth wide and let him feel it today. Glory, Glory, glory, glory.
Speaker 1: Thank you Jesus. Thank you for my health. Thank you
Speaker 1: for my strength. Thank you for my salvation. Thank you Lord,
Speaker 1: thank you for keeping me. Thank you for my sanity.
Speaker 1: Thank you for clothes on my body. Thank you for
Speaker 1: food in my belly. Thank you Lord, Thank you Jesus.
Speaker 1: Thank you for my wife. Thank you for my three kids.
Speaker 1: Thank you for my mom. Thank you for this church. God,
Speaker 1: thank you for the ministry that goes forth from this place.
Speaker 1: This is holy ground. You're a worthy God. You're a
Speaker 1: mighty God. You're a magnificent God. You're an all sufficient God.
Speaker 1: You're a wonder working God. You're away making God. There's
Speaker 1: nothing too hard for you. I trust you, your God.
Speaker 1: I love you, your God. I'll worship you. I believe you,
Speaker 1: take you at your word, I respect you. I need you. Come,
Speaker 1: Holy Spirit for the moments that we share together. Speak
Speaker 1: to every heart. I give you all the credit in advance.
Speaker 1: I know that anything good that happens today won't be
Speaker 1: because of an idea that I had from my human mind.
Speaker 1: It'll be because you used my vocal corese and my
Speaker 1: lips of claim. But God, they've got to have an
Speaker 1: open heart. Won't do any good for us to sing
Speaker 1: all this beautiful music and say all the profound words
Speaker 1: with all of the correct theology if their heart isn't open.
Speaker 1: So I thank you that heaven is open. May our
Speaker 1: hearts speak to every distraction. Every disappointment. Got to go
Speaker 1: out the room right now, because Jesus is here. You
Speaker 1: have our attention. Lord, have your way Jesus' name, and
Speaker 1: all God's people sit together. Come on from Valentine to riverwalk.
Speaker 1: All God's people said together all over the world, our evam,
Speaker 1: we want you to know you're welcome here, welcome to church.
Speaker 1: Come on, Valentine, let's send the amnesphe are for all
Speaker 1: of those words joining us today. I want to go
Speaker 1: back to Genesis chapter twenty eight as we study God's
Speaker 1: word together today. I'm so excited about the word that
Speaker 1: the Lord has given me to gift to you. I
Speaker 1: pray that I won't mess it up. I don't want
Speaker 1: to dilute it. I don't want to pollute it. I
Speaker 1: don't want to take from it. I don't want to
Speaker 1: add to it. Just what he said. And I pray
Speaker 1: that in these moments that you would just create that
Speaker 1: quiet place inside of you, away from all the noise.
Speaker 1: I know you got three people you need to text back.
Speaker 1: I know you've got somebody you don't want to see
Speaker 1: that you got to meet up with it two forty
Speaker 1: five today. None of that matters. Right now. The Lord
Speaker 1: is in this place and wherever you are, I say
Speaker 1: it with equal confidence. You say, well, I'm not in
Speaker 1: a church building. The Lord is in that place. You say, well,
Speaker 1: I'm not in a really good place. Right now, man,
Speaker 1: I really haven't been doing good. I've really just been
Speaker 1: struggling back with some old things.
Speaker 2: Again, the Lord is in that place.
Speaker 1: So as we receive God's word and we stand on
Speaker 1: God's promise, and we thank him for his presence, let's
Speaker 1: study together in Genesis chapter twenty eight thirteen. Y'all think
Speaker 1: when I preach a scripture two weeks in a row,
Speaker 1: it's because I didn't want to study the second week.
Speaker 1: It's really just because I didn't get it done the
Speaker 1: first week. I'm going to read some of the first
Speaker 1: half where Jacob is running from his brother Esau, who
Speaker 1: wants to kill him. And Esau is good with the
Speaker 1: bow and arrow. By the way, Jacob is good with
Speaker 1: kitchen utensils and good with weapons. So when Jacob steals
Speaker 1: the blessing from Esau, he gets blessed. But have you
Speaker 1: ever been blessed? But that's why Thanksgiving is a complicated holiday. Man.
Speaker 1: It's such a blessing to have all of our family together.
Speaker 1: But well, I'm gonna let y'all sort that out. On Thursday,
Speaker 1: this is the day that the Lord has made everybody
Speaker 1: put in the chat blessed. But tell your neighbor real quick.
Speaker 1: I'm blessed, but he's blessed, but he's also in the
Speaker 1: time of isolation. And he's on his way four hundred
Speaker 1: miles from his father's house to stay with his uncle
Speaker 1: Laban for a little while till he figures out exactly
Speaker 1: what he's going to do next. And I preached last
Speaker 1: week on your next messy step, just to let you
Speaker 1: know that it's not always clear, and that's okay if
Speaker 1: you just be strong and courageous every place you set
Speaker 1: your foot, God will give it to you as you go.
Speaker 1: But you can't get paralyzed now, and you can't let
Speaker 1: the fact that you can't see the next five hundred
Speaker 1: steps keep you from taking the next one. Now, as
Speaker 1: Jacob is trying to get some sleep on the hard
Speaker 1: ground with a pillow made out of a rock under
Speaker 1: his head, the Bible says that there was a ladder
Speaker 1: that came from heaven, and there above it verse thirteen
Speaker 1: stood the Lord, and he said, I am the Lord,
Speaker 1: the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac.
Speaker 1: Notice he does not yet say I'm the God of Jacob,
Speaker 1: because Jacob has not made that decision yet for himself.
Speaker 1: That's what we're going to find out. Is he going
Speaker 1: to be your God too? And he told him, I'm
Speaker 1: the generational God who made a promise to your grandfather
Speaker 1: and your father. I will give you and your descendants
Speaker 1: the land on which you are lying. Your descendants will
Speaker 1: be like the dust of the earth, and you will
Speaker 1: spread out to the west and to the east, to
Speaker 1: the north and to the south. It makes me think
Speaker 1: chunks about all these campuses that God has given us
Speaker 1: all over the place. The Lord even gave us one
Speaker 1: in Canada Happy Month, late Canadian Thanksgiving, to our Toronto campuses.
Speaker 1: But just God is going to do something so mind blowing,
Speaker 1: something so much bigger than just our church or our campus.
Speaker 1: Is this is God's original promise to his people, to
Speaker 1: his nation Israel. And now, of course we're standing in
Speaker 1: that promise today as most of us who are maybe
Speaker 1: gentiles by birth or grafted in through Christ. So that
Speaker 1: promise is being spoken over Jacob. He said, You're gonna
Speaker 1: spread out like dust. It's gonna be messy, but I'm
Speaker 1: going to do it. It's gonna be dirty, but I'm
Speaker 1: going to do it, and all peoples on earth will
Speaker 1: be blessed through you. When are you gonna stop just
Speaker 1: coming to church to be blessed and start asking God,
Speaker 1: make me a blessing. I want to be a blessing
Speaker 1: today to somebody. God, he said, all the nations of
Speaker 1: the earth will be blessed through you and your offspring,
Speaker 1: even though you don't have children yet. God will speak
Speaker 1: about things that have not even started yet in the natural,
Speaker 1: and he'll speak it supernaturally. And this is the promise
Speaker 1: I want you to receive for yourself today Verse fifteen.
Speaker 1: I am with you and will watch over you wherever
Speaker 1: you go, and I'll bring you back to this land.
Speaker 1: I will not leave you until I have done what
Speaker 1: I promised you. When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he thought,
Speaker 1: surely the Lord is in this place. Just took me
Speaker 1: a while to catch up with it. He was afraid
Speaker 1: and said, how awesome is this place? This is none
Speaker 1: other than the House of God. This is the g
Speaker 1: of Heaven. Early the next morning, Jacob took the stone
Speaker 1: he had placed under his head and set it up
Speaker 1: as a pillar and poured oil on top of it.
Speaker 1: We didn't talk about any of this last week. We're
Speaker 1: gon't talk about all of it today. He called that
Speaker 1: place Bethel, which means house of God. Yeah, that's not
Speaker 1: just a worship ministry out there in California. That's in
Speaker 1: the Bible. The place was called the House of God.
Speaker 1: That's what it's named after. And it's not just in
Speaker 1: one location, it's anywhere that God visits. Yeah, he called
Speaker 1: that place Bethel though the city used to be called
Speaker 1: LUs and LUs means almond tree. Wow, that's a big
Speaker 1: jump from a nut tree to the House of God.
Speaker 1: Tell somebody next to you, this is crazy. This is crazy.
Speaker 1: This is crazy now Verse twenty. Then Jacob made a
Speaker 1: vow saying, if God will be with me and will
Speaker 1: watch over me on the journey I am taking, and
Speaker 1: will give me food to eat and clothes to wear,
Speaker 1: so that I return safely to my father's household, then
Speaker 1: the Lord will be my God, and this stone that
Speaker 1: I have set up as a pillar will be God's house.
Speaker 1: And of all that you give me, God, I know
Speaker 1: you're my source. Of all that you give me, I
Speaker 1: have nothing without you. Of all that you give me,
Speaker 1: I will give you a tenth amen. Verse eleven is
Speaker 1: where I want to take my title from so that
Speaker 1: I return safely to my father's household. Then the Lord
Speaker 1: will be my God. Then the Lord will be my God.
Speaker 1: Then the Lord will be my God. The Lord told
Speaker 1: me to preach to you today three words. This is, then,
Speaker 1: this is then. And I can tell that's a little
Speaker 1: bit like mystical or whatever. So just turn to your neighbor,
Speaker 1: give them my subtitle. Tell them God uses stupid. Yeah,
Speaker 1: tell them this one might be for you, because God,
Speaker 1: I have a strong feeling. Father, if you can speak
Speaker 1: through a donkey, speak through me in Jesus' name, Amen,
Speaker 1: touch three people, say this is your word today, This
Speaker 1: is then? God uses stupid Now, Pastor Steve, I wish
Speaker 1: you wouldn't say words like stupid up there in the pulpit.
Speaker 1: That's not a sanctified word, and I don't appreciate it.
Speaker 1: I'll bring my kids into service. Well, you ought to
Speaker 1: drop them in E kids. We have excellent volunteers and
Speaker 1: juice boxes. Do we give them juice boxes and E kids?
Speaker 1: I don't know. I hadn't checked. You know how our
Speaker 1: ministry seems so strategic when you see it up there
Speaker 1: on the screens, and we have E groups and E kids.
Speaker 3: And eteams and E bikes and no E cigarettes yet
Speaker 3: in the church, but it sounds so strategic.
Speaker 1: I said something last week and I got a testimony
Speaker 1: of a miracle from one of our campus pastors. So
Speaker 1: I want to say it again to you, because miracles
Speaker 1: are already happening in this season. Miracles are already happening
Speaker 1: in this season. And he was telling me a very
Speaker 1: difficult season that he's been through, and then God began
Speaker 1: to bring some resolution and he saw it. And the
Speaker 1: thing that I said that helped him for his faith
Speaker 1: is that a lot of times what you explain later
Speaker 1: as strategy, you experience as surrender. How many heard me
Speaker 1: say that last week from this very pulpit, and I'm
Speaker 1: gonna say it again. You experience a lot of things
Speaker 1: as surrender in real time. What I mean by surrender,
Speaker 1: you don't know what else to do, and then when
Speaker 1: you get through it, you look back and you start saying, well,
Speaker 1: step one, step two, step three, step four. You know,
Speaker 1: somebody else might struggle with an addiction that you came through,
Speaker 1: and you're kind of coaching them later. And now you're
Speaker 1: kind of arrogant because you got, you know, nine or
Speaker 1: ten years under your belt, and you're like, well, the
Speaker 1: first thing you need to do, and then the second thing.
Speaker 1: And I found it very helpful. And you may mean, well,
Speaker 1: but just make sure you tell them that the first
Speaker 1: thing you do is help God. I need you. I
Speaker 1: don't know what to do without you. And some of
Speaker 1: the things that look strategic in your life you actually
Speaker 1: stumbled into. If you'll be honest about it, it was
Speaker 1: the hand of God guiding you. It was the voice
Speaker 1: of God calling you. It was his net that caught you.
Speaker 1: It was his word that kept you. Many of the
Speaker 1: things in our ministry that felt very strategic in year
Speaker 1: five and in year ten were actually things that at
Speaker 1: the time just felt like, what do we do next? God,
Speaker 1: we are a multi let's welcome all of our locations today,
Speaker 1: all twenty locations our EPAM all over the world. We
Speaker 1: strategically place these locations on a multi site church with
Speaker 1: the campuses that we have in the model that we have,
Speaker 1: so we could reach people. Right, it was strategic, No,
Speaker 1: it was surrender. We were out of space, no more
Speaker 1: room to put people. What can we do, Well, maybe
Speaker 1: we can get another high school auditorium down the road.
Speaker 1: It was surrender. What do we do? Who do we bribe?
Speaker 1: Who do we pay off, How can we get that
Speaker 1: other auditorium? Why isn't the video working? Why isn't the
Speaker 1: video working again the next week?
Speaker 4: And it's messy like that, and his steps like that,
Speaker 4: and it's trusting like that, and is falling like that,
Speaker 4: and it's standing like that, and it's waiting like that,
Speaker 4: and it's moving like that, and it's zigging and it's zagging.
Speaker 1: Remember, and it's zigging and it's zagging, and it's having
Speaker 1: and it's losing and it's getting back. And this is
Speaker 1: what growth feels like, more like surrender, less like strategy.
Speaker 1: Later you can explain it a you can write your
Speaker 1: book Seven Steps to a Healthier Marriage. But the truth
Speaker 1: is you got down on your knees that third month
Speaker 1: of marriage and said, God, I don't believe in divorce,
Speaker 1: but I don't know where I am a murder. And
Speaker 1: if you don't help me with this white man.
Speaker 2: And the strategic explanation off in camouflages the surrendered experience, why.
Speaker 1: Tell me that? Because I know right now you don't
Speaker 1: know what to do about this thing in your life.
Speaker 1: And yet I would suggest to you personally and pastorally
Speaker 1: that God has already already done enough for you to
Speaker 1: trust him. I met with a financial adviser and the
Speaker 1: first time I met him, he said, I just need
Speaker 1: you to trust me. I said, whoa bukaroo. We ain't
Speaker 1: about to build a trust off of one meeting when
Speaker 1: you get paid on commission. The only way trust is
Speaker 1: going to be building this relationship is through results, and
Speaker 1: that's gonna take years, not months. So if you need
Speaker 1: me to trust you from this meeting, just know I
Speaker 1: don't trust you one bit. I don't trust you. I
Speaker 1: don't get paid to trust you. And as a matter
Speaker 1: of fact, I want you to know that I am
Speaker 1: operating from a fundamental distrust of you because I am
Speaker 1: not going to work this hard to provide for my family.
Speaker 1: And then just because you have a nice smile and
Speaker 1: a button down shirt, I'm supposed to just trust you.
Speaker 1: I got button down shirts. Serial killers have button down shirts.
Speaker 1: I don't trust you. You got to show me something
Speaker 1: to trust in. Is that good wisdom for business? Is
Speaker 1: that good wisdom for faith? Jacob seems to be saying
Speaker 1: here at this threshold of his own journey, I don't
Speaker 1: know if I can trust you yet. God, I don't
Speaker 1: know you like that. I don't know yet if I
Speaker 1: can fully believe what you say to me. Oh, Shacob,
Speaker 1: how dare you doubt the sovereignty of God? People? He's
Speaker 1: far from home, he doesn't have a Bible to read.
Speaker 1: He just had a dream or a vision in which
Speaker 1: he saw a staircase that went from earth to heaven.
Speaker 1: And he's supposed to just wake up and say, let's
Speaker 1: go God, wherever you take me, I'm with you. So
Speaker 1: he does something very interesting, and I want to show
Speaker 1: it to you because as I studied it, two words
Speaker 1: stood out to me in the text. And a lot
Speaker 1: of you have been listening to me preach for a
Speaker 1: long time. Show of hands or just put a raised
Speaker 1: hand in the chat. How many of you have been
Speaker 1: listening to me preach for at least one year? How
Speaker 1: many have you been listening to me preach for about
Speaker 1: three years or more? Raise your hand, keep them up
Speaker 1: five years or more? How many you started listening to
Speaker 1: me preach before you wanted to? But somebody in your
Speaker 1: house had me preaching and you had to listen to
Speaker 1: him because they wouldn't turn it all. That's all right too.
Speaker 1: I am not going to take this a step further
Speaker 1: and ask if you even want to be here today.
Speaker 1: I'm drawing the line, but by the time you've heard
Speaker 1: me preach, maybe you can pick up my rhythm. There's
Speaker 1: something Jacob says, and I want you to catch it.
Speaker 1: It's two words. It's kind of like a continuum that
Speaker 1: he establishes here, and I believe it's the continuum that
Speaker 1: we're living in as well. In verse twenty, Jacob makes
Speaker 1: a vow, and in that vow he said, if God
Speaker 1: will be with me and we'll watch over me on
Speaker 1: this journey I am taking, and will give me food
Speaker 1: to eat and clothes to wear so that I returned
Speaker 1: safely to my father's household, then the Lord will be
Speaker 1: my God. The two words are in those two verses,
Speaker 1: and I wonder if you've been listening to me preach
Speaker 1: Jim and Livy for like thirteen, fourteen, eighteen years, can
Speaker 1: you guess which words just went to me? Because I'm
Speaker 1: picturing this congregation that I'm preaching to remember, some people
Speaker 1: lost their job this week, some people got a promotion.
Speaker 1: Some people are complaining about their job. Some people would
Speaker 1: love to snatch up the job that that person is
Speaker 1: complaining about. Somebody right here this week is saying I
Speaker 1: got to lose some weight. Somebody's trying to put on
Speaker 1: some weight, drinking all the protein they've got. Somebody is
Speaker 1: wishing they were single again. Somebody is saying, God, rescue
Speaker 1: me from this season of singleness. Somebody is saying, God,
Speaker 1: I don't know what to do. Somebody is saying, God,
Speaker 1: I know what to do, but I don't want to
Speaker 1: do it. Someone pretend like I don't know what you
Speaker 1: want me to do, so I can continue to pretend
Speaker 1: like I'm waiting for direction when really I'm procrastinating my
Speaker 1: faith and calling it patience. Everything is happening in this room.
Speaker 1: And what I saw in the text, it was just
Speaker 1: two little words. Let's read it again. He said, if
Speaker 1: that was the first one, if God will be with
Speaker 1: me and will watch over me on this journey I
Speaker 1: am taking, and will give me food to eat and
Speaker 1: clothes to wear. And now, remember God just told him
Speaker 1: I'm gonna give you the north, the south, the east,
Speaker 1: and the west. But that's gonna come later. Jacob says,
Speaker 1: I don't even need need you to give me real
Speaker 1: estate right now. If you will just give me food
Speaker 1: to eat and close to wear. Everybody say if, if
Speaker 1: you'll do that for me, if you will be with
Speaker 1: me and give me food to eat and close to wear,
Speaker 1: If you will be with me, give me food to
Speaker 1: eat and close to wear, so that I return safely
Speaker 1: to my father's household, then the Lord will be my God.
Speaker 1: The second word is then if then if then sounds
Speaker 1: like the boy thinks he can bargain with the most high.
Speaker 1: Sounds like the boy thinks that God is trying out
Speaker 1: to be his financial adviser. Here's what we're gonna do.
Speaker 1: We're gonna sit there and have a quarterly meeting, and
Speaker 1: if you profitable to me, then I'll serve you. I
Speaker 1: don't read it that way at all. At this date
Speaker 1: age in my life. I think Jacob is saying, it
Speaker 1: doesn't take much for me to trust you. I just
Speaker 1: need you to show me enough, just enough that I'll
Speaker 1: know three things. One that you're with me, One that
Speaker 1: I've got something to eat and something to wear. I
Speaker 1: can't run through this desert naked, and I can't go
Speaker 1: to the next stop hungry. So I need you to
Speaker 1: be with me. I need you to feed me, and
Speaker 1: I need you to watch over me. I need you
Speaker 1: to be with me. I need you to watch over me.
Speaker 1: I need you to feed me. And if you'll do
Speaker 1: that that much, that much, if you'll do that much,
Speaker 1: then you'll be my God. If you'll be with me.
Speaker 1: That's a prayer for God's presence. When you pray your
Speaker 1: Thanksgiving prayer this week, thank God for his presence. When
Speaker 1: you sit down to eat a big old ham, what
Speaker 1: you're gonna have this week? You know by coming to
Speaker 1: church the Sunday before Thanksgiving. Your calori these are automatically
Speaker 1: divided by three. Give the Lord a praise for that
Speaker 1: fake word I just gave you. I say that every
Speaker 1: year on this Sunday. Every year, on this Sunday, for
Speaker 1: every amen that you say, all of the sugar is
Speaker 1: translated into protein to build your wouldn't that be cool
Speaker 1: if it worked like that? And when you sit down
Speaker 1: to pray, whoever's going to pray, say, Lord, I want
Speaker 1: to thank you first of all for your presence. You've
Speaker 1: been with me. How many know the truth that God
Speaker 1: has been with you when nobody else was. You might
Speaker 1: be there right now, It might have been last night
Speaker 1: you were saying, God, I sure am lonely, but even
Speaker 1: in your greatest loneliness. There was light, wasn't there come on?
Speaker 1: Even when you were a little girl and you were
Speaker 1: twelve or thirteen years old and you just felt so
Speaker 1: weird and so strange, there was something inside of you
Speaker 1: that you knew you weren't alone, even though you felt alone,
Speaker 1: that even though you didn't get invited to the parties,
Speaker 1: there was something in you that knew that I have
Speaker 1: a purpose. You were never alone, not for any of it.
Speaker 1: He is present, and I don't need a feeling to
Speaker 1: prove his presence. You know, I don't need more proof
Speaker 1: of his presence than I already have. He told me
Speaker 1: he was with me, So he is with me. It's
Speaker 1: just a matter of me becoming aware of it. Surely
Speaker 1: the Lord is in this place, and I was not
Speaker 1: aware of it. So thank God for his presence. Number two,
Speaker 1: Thank him for his protection, his protection. He said, Lord,
Speaker 1: if you'll be with me, and if you'll watch over me,
Speaker 1: if you'll protect me. God. What does it mean that
Speaker 1: God protected me? It doesn't mean that you never broke
Speaker 1: your toe and set out. It doesn't mean that he
Speaker 1: kept every weapon from being formed. It means that, in
Speaker 1: spite of whatever weapon was formed, you had the faith
Speaker 1: to endure it. And I want you to thank Him
Speaker 1: for your shield and your buckler. I want you to
Speaker 1: thank him that there have been angels around you that
Speaker 1: kept you from car accidents that you didn't see come in.
Speaker 1: I want you to thank him for slow drivers that
Speaker 1: got in front of you and you cussed at them,
Speaker 1: and they kept you from getting to the next intersection
Speaker 1: where there was going to be a drunk driver. But
Speaker 1: you were too busy cussing at the slow driver to
Speaker 1: know about the drunk driver. So I want you to
Speaker 1: thank God for the protection that you haven't even recognized yet.
Speaker 1: I want you to just go back over your life
Speaker 1: and realize that there were some things that God did.
Speaker 1: I want you to praise him for the crazy person
Speaker 1: that you asked him to make fall in love with you,
Speaker 1: because you had not turned the corner and seen there
Speaker 1: crazy yet. And you found out four years later that
Speaker 1: when God said no, when you said please, God was
Speaker 1: doing you the greatest favor of your life. He was
Speaker 1: protecting you. Don't you see that He wasn't punishing me
Speaker 1: because he hated me. He was punishing me to protect me.
Speaker 1: There is a punishment, a discipline that comes from God
Speaker 1: that is meant to protect. If God is convicting you
Speaker 1: right now of a sin in your life, I want
Speaker 1: you to praise Him for his protection. He's looking out
Speaker 1: for you. He hasn't given up on you. He's not
Speaker 1: gonna let your heart get so hard that you keep
Speaker 1: on doing it till you die from it. I want
Speaker 1: you to praise God for his protection. I want you
Speaker 1: to thank him that he kept your mind from going
Speaker 1: absolutely buck wild over twenty twenty five. Your mom lost
Speaker 1: her mind. You didn't lose yours. You kept your sanity.
Speaker 1: He brought you here, He woke you up, look at
Speaker 1: your neighbor and say, you know what's crazy. I woke
Speaker 1: up this morning, food on my table, close on my back.
Speaker 1: I thank God for his prisoness w I thank God
Speaker 1: for his protection, and I thank him for his provision.
Speaker 1: How many no? God to be a good good father
Speaker 1: brains on the righteous and the unrighteous, the just and
Speaker 1: the unjust. He blessed me when I did it right.
Speaker 1: He blessed me when I turned left. He provided for me.
Speaker 1: He gave me some things. He opened some doors and
Speaker 1: nobody could shut. He closed some doors and nobody could open.
Speaker 1: He provided for me. He didn't always give me what
Speaker 1: I wanted, but he gave me what I needed. He
Speaker 1: is my Jehovah Jyra. I had to blade in the air,
Speaker 1: but there was a ram in the bush. God made
Speaker 1: a way for me. Didn't look like it would work,
Speaker 1: felt like it shouldn't work, probably wasn't gonna work. Already
Speaker 1: planned out my speech, but he left me in the
Speaker 1: middle of the road, and he gave me a ring,
Speaker 1: and he gave me a row. Praise him for his
Speaker 1: pro Oh yeah, I'm trying to get you to praise God.
Speaker 1: I'm trying to get you to praise God. I'm trying
Speaker 1: to you know how they use rage bait to try
Speaker 1: to get you to go off and crash out. You
Speaker 1: know that rage bait. How my kids will rage bait
Speaker 1: each other. Well, the Lord told me today, I have
Speaker 1: an assignment for you, Fordick. I want you to praise
Speaker 1: bait my people and try to find if you can
Speaker 1: finally push the button, because some of them are waiting
Speaker 1: like they don't have anything to praise me for. But
Speaker 1: if you can get them to look back. Don't even
Speaker 1: have to look back that far. Just look back over
Speaker 1: your last step and you'll see that isn't it have nothing?
Speaker 1: Come on high five three people and say I'm passed.
Speaker 1: Do I'm pasted, dou I'm passed to what you mean? I?
Speaker 1: Oh God, this praise. I'm a praise bader, trying to
Speaker 1: get you to think about how good he is, trying
Speaker 1: to get you to think about the mercy he showed you,
Speaker 1: Trying to get you to think about what you have left,
Speaker 1: Trying to get you to think about how the rain
Speaker 1: came and the wind blew and the storm rolls by
Speaker 1: my house. Didn't know by a surviser. I'm bad not
Speaker 1: bade praise, and now I'm praising you. Know, somebody probably
Speaker 1: thinks you look stupid praising him like that. Somebody probably
Speaker 1: thinks you look stupid praising him like that. But look
Speaker 1: at your neighbor and say, after all I've seen, I'd
Speaker 1: be stupid not to after all he does for me,
Speaker 1: I'd be stupid not to say thank you. I'd be
Speaker 1: stupid not to get an I'd be stupid. Looks pretty
Speaker 1: stupid if you hadn't seen him make away. But if
Speaker 1: you were coming up on something and you didn't see
Speaker 1: it away, and all you had in your hand was
Speaker 1: a staff and you saw him take something as stupid
Speaker 1: as a staff and split something as big as a se.
Speaker 1: It'll make you shake your tambourine when you get on
Speaker 1: the other side. And by the way, one time, the
Speaker 1: Lord really spanked me, The Lord really checked me. The
Speaker 1: Lord really corrected me. Yeah, he's got to ride in
Speaker 1: a staff. One is to comfort and one is to confront.
Speaker 1: And I was telling the Lord one day, I'll be
Speaker 1: so thankful when I get through this. When I get
Speaker 1: through this, then I'll be so thankful. The Lord says,
Speaker 1: switch it. When you get thankful, you'll get through this.
Speaker 1: Because the way you're thinking right now, you ain't gonna
Speaker 1: make it. You ain't gonna make it unless you get
Speaker 1: a little crazy, you get a little stupid, start thanking
Speaker 1: God for stupid stuff. Uh huh. And I want to
Speaker 1: take it a little bit further. Not only did the
Speaker 1: things in my life that now look the most strategic
Speaker 1: at the time seem the stupidest, but some other people
Speaker 1: said they were stupid. Well, I told my friends that
Speaker 1: want named the church Elevation. And you know, now we
Speaker 1: got a lot of cool church names, but they weren't
Speaker 1: churches called things like Elevation, not that many. I'm never
Speaker 1: there with some. I'm not saying I'm the originator, but
Speaker 1: I just thought, Wow, it'd be great to call it elevation.
Speaker 1: You know, lift up, Jesus, lift up people, you're going high,
Speaker 1: you know, elevation. Remember one dude looked at me and said,
Speaker 1: sounds stupid. It sounds like the name of a youth group.
Speaker 1: It sounds like if you two had a youth group.
Speaker 1: That's what he said. It's a fine line. I said.
Speaker 1: I like it. I like it. I like it. I
Speaker 1: like it. There's a stupid name for a church elevation
Speaker 1: that never worked. I had a flashback the other day.
Speaker 1: I don't know if y'all remember this Janet this dude,
Speaker 1: because think about now. You've got Jacob and he says
Speaker 1: this thing. I'm gonna take this rock and I'm gonna
Speaker 1: pour oil on it, freaking out man, And this rock
Speaker 1: is gonna be your house. God, I'm gonna turn this
Speaker 1: stone into your house, and of everything you give me.
Speaker 1: I mean, he's just disoriented. He doesn't know what to do.
Speaker 1: So he just says, if you will show me enough,
Speaker 1: if you give me your presence, your protection, your provision,
Speaker 1: I will trust you. And he pours this oil on
Speaker 1: a rock. Well, it made me think about some of
Speaker 1: the things we did that seem stupid at the time
Speaker 1: when the church was young, because I want to share
Speaker 1: it with these lovely people, because God still wants to
Speaker 1: use stupid today in your family, in your athletic career,
Speaker 1: in your business, and your spiritual life, in your emotions.
Speaker 1: God wants to use what people call stupid. One of
Speaker 1: the first things that I remember was when the man
Speaker 1: came to give us a strategy on giving. He said,
Speaker 1: the strategic move when you're starting a church. Now, listen
Speaker 1: to this. Tell me this doesn't sound strategic on the surface,
Speaker 1: because the world's with them sounds strategic on the surface.
Speaker 1: Is how do it? And this is what you get
Speaker 1: right and then you'll be blessed. But so here's what
Speaker 1: he said to do, and to me it felt like
Speaker 1: a compromise of my integrity. He said, you're not going
Speaker 1: to have any money. That was true. He said, you
Speaker 1: don't have that many members, and that was true. He said,
Speaker 1: so each of you know somebody who is a member
Speaker 1: of another church, asked them for the next twenty four
Speaker 1: months to redirect their tithe that they would give to
Speaker 1: their church and give it to you instead. Their church
Speaker 1: won't miss it, and it'll make or break you. I
Speaker 1: thanked him for his time. At the time, we were
Speaker 1: so broke. I didn't even have any money to pay
Speaker 1: him to come and give us the speech. So I
Speaker 1: gave him a Chili's gift card and I said thank
Speaker 1: you for coming. I saw broke. We were so In
Speaker 1: a way, what he said sounded really good. I do
Speaker 1: know some people I've been traveling doing ministry. I've got
Speaker 1: some contacts. Maybe I should reach out and do it
Speaker 1: that way, but the spirit of the Lord wouldn't let
Speaker 1: me do it like that. You ever had the spirit
Speaker 1: tell you to do something that seems stupid? See that
Speaker 1: seems smart. But here's what the Lord told me to
Speaker 1: tell our team Instead. I shut the door, I let
Speaker 1: him leave. I said what he just said. If we
Speaker 1: do it that way, it might work for a while,
Speaker 1: but it's going to set up a pattern where we
Speaker 1: did not build it on the rock. We got to
Speaker 1: trust God. Tell your neighbor. I got to trust God,
Speaker 1: So I asked him, didn't I said, so, can we
Speaker 1: do this instead? While we're still at this church waiting
Speaker 1: to go start our church? We were being sent from
Speaker 1: a church with permission and blessing. I said, while we're
Speaker 1: still under the covering of this church, let's keep giving
Speaker 1: ten percent of our income to this church, and let's
Speaker 1: give an additional ten to the one we're starting. And
Speaker 1: they all did it. As far as I know. I
Speaker 1: didn't check the W two's to do the math, but
Speaker 1: they all did it. So when I said you today
Speaker 1: that it is my desire as a pastor that every
Speaker 1: single family in this church, every single individual in this church,
Speaker 1: would put God first through the tithe and give ten percent,
Speaker 1: I'm not telling you that because of a need we have.
Speaker 1: I'm telling you that because it's the foundation that everything
Speaker 1: you see today was built on. And I say it
Speaker 1: with confidence and I say it with clarity. Well, I
Speaker 1: like that first part of the sermon you were preaching,
Speaker 1: Pastor Steve, and that was really good and fun, like
Speaker 1: that calorie cancelation blessing. Can we go back to that? No,
Speaker 1: we can't, because now I got to talk to you.
Speaker 1: We all love the part where God said to Jacob,
Speaker 1: I'll be with you. But what about the part where
Speaker 1: Jacob said to God, if you'll be with me, then
Speaker 1: I'm with you. I always thought ten percent sounded like
Speaker 1: a lot until I figured out it all came from God,
Speaker 1: and maybe the ninety that he lets me keep is
Speaker 1: a lot, and maybe the ten that he asked me
Speaker 1: to give isn't that big. Right, I'm just talking to
Speaker 1: you about trust in God. Trust in God is not
Speaker 1: because you sang the chorus really loud. Trust in God
Speaker 1: is not because you clapped your hands on the beat.
Speaker 1: Trust in God is not because you have a good
Speaker 1: feeling about this. Trust in God is when you say
Speaker 1: I'm in and I know it looks stupid, but you
Speaker 1: gave it all to me. You gave it all to
Speaker 1: me anyway, another stupid thing. Can I just tell you
Speaker 1: a little bit of a testimony of stupid stuff that
Speaker 1: God used in our life? This might help you. How
Speaker 1: many of y'all are kind of newly married, like you say,
Speaker 1: like a year or two or something like that. Just
Speaker 1: raise your hand at me real quick, newly marry? How
Speaker 1: many of y'all hope to be raising your hand when
Speaker 1: I asked that question years from now? All right, check
Speaker 1: out the market research in here. This is a great
Speaker 1: place to come to meet all of your life needs.
Speaker 1: I came to her and I said, woman, the Lord
Speaker 1: don't want us to be in debt. The Lord don't
Speaker 1: want us to have cars we can't afford. The Lord
Speaker 1: don't want us to have furniture that we haven't paid
Speaker 1: for yet. What's the thing that they have where you
Speaker 1: can pay for a jacket and put it eighteen dollars
Speaker 1: a month and be paying for it for eighteen years. Klarna,
Speaker 1: he says, it's called klarna. You said karma. I said,
Speaker 1: We're not clarna. We're not laying away. The only way
Speaker 1: we're going to buy for something is if we can
Speaker 1: afford it. And that meant that our house was filled
Speaker 1: at the beginning of our marriage with furniture that came
Speaker 1: from Eric's dad's trailer and he was over the trailer park,
Speaker 1: so he would repoe people's furniture and save it. And
Speaker 1: so our marriage was built on the foundation of furniture
Speaker 1: from the trailer park that was repoed from people who
Speaker 1: didn't pay the rent. That's who your pastor is. That's
Speaker 1: how smart I am. Follow me? Is I follow christ?
Speaker 1: That's who I am, buddy. That's who I am, buddy.
Speaker 1: But I paid for everything we ever put in our house,
Speaker 1: and I don't mean that to say, if you're in
Speaker 1: debt that you did it wrong. I'm just telling you,
Speaker 1: as a matter of fact, it would feel stupid sometimes.
Speaker 1: When I knew we could just put it on a card.
Speaker 1: See what the world calls, Wyse, what the world calls strategic,
Speaker 1: God calls stupid, And what the world calls stupid God
Speaker 1: calls strategic? Ain't that crazy? And as a matter of fact,
Speaker 1: once brother Dave Ramsey got me convinced on the emergency fund,
Speaker 1: how many of y'all did the emergency fund that Dave
Speaker 1: Ramsey talked about. It's a great practice, man. It's like,
Speaker 1: save what is it, three months to six months of
Speaker 1: your living expenses and put it away so that when
Speaker 1: the tire goes flat, you don't have to go in
Speaker 1: debt to replace it. Did that like in our first
Speaker 1: two years of marriage. And I was so proud when
Speaker 1: that number hit. I figured out what the number would be.
Speaker 1: Boom boom, boom boom boom this how much we need
Speaker 1: to save? Saved it up got to the level and
Speaker 1: that night when I went to tell her in the
Speaker 1: kitchen that we've hit our emergency fund, go, I felt
Speaker 1: a prompting from the Lord that I tried to rebuke
Speaker 1: as Satan, and the prompting said give it all away.
Speaker 1: I said, that's stupid, Not to the Lord. I thought
Speaker 1: it was the devil. I thought it was the devil
Speaker 1: because Dave said I had to save it. I full disclosure. Now,
Speaker 1: many times over the Lord has blessed us, and I
Speaker 1: have not kept my savings at Zero's every time since
Speaker 1: that day. But I remember walking in and saying, you
Speaker 1: know that emergency fund, it's about to be a missions gift. Stupid,
Speaker 1: isn't it. I don't know. You tell me because when
Speaker 1: we wrote those checks at that kitchen table, I remember
Speaker 1: the place, so you never forget the place where God
Speaker 1: makes you a promise. That's why Jacob named the place Bethel.
Speaker 1: He said, this is God's house. You say it's stupid
Speaker 1: to call a rock the house of God. Not when
Speaker 1: God spoke to you there. Stupid unless you had God
Speaker 1: speak to you there. And the Lord spoke to me
Speaker 1: two sentences. He said, if you keep your hands open
Speaker 1: to me, then you will always have everything you need.
Speaker 1: You will always be able to do everything I've called
Speaker 1: you to do. He spoke that to me at that
Speaker 1: kitchen table that came from the trailer park, repossessed furniture
Speaker 1: that was scratched up and dinged up, and I had
Speaker 1: money to buy a new one, and the Lord said,
Speaker 1: this time, I want you to give it. We didn't
Speaker 1: have kids yet. It wasn't like we were being irresponsible.
Speaker 1: You're like, I can already see people misapplying this message.
Speaker 1: Do you know what I mean? Like the Lord says,
Speaker 1: the Lord said he would use stupid. Baby, that's the
Speaker 1: word I've been waiting for. Did you hear what pastor
Speaker 1: said today? I'm getting a boat. I'm getting a boat.
Speaker 1: Man of God said I could get a boat. Don't
Speaker 1: pervert this word. You know what I'm talking about. Keep
Speaker 1: me in context. And I want to ask you a question.
Speaker 1: Was it stupid? I don't know. One of the things
Speaker 1: we gave to was this. Look around. Some of your
Speaker 1: kids have been baptized here. I don't think it was stupid.
Speaker 1: Some of you had your life put back together here.
Speaker 1: I don't think it was stupid. Some of you afraid
Speaker 1: to receive Christ here. I don't call that stupid. He
Speaker 1: is no fool who he gives what he cannot keep
Speaker 1: to gain what he cannot lose. You call it stupid.
Speaker 1: I call it surrender. And Jacob takes the oil. Remember
Speaker 1: he has very little with him. He's on the run,
Speaker 1: and he takes the little bit of oil that he
Speaker 1: has and pours it on the rock. The rock is stupid,
Speaker 1: The oil is stupid. The whole thing is stupid unless
Speaker 1: God is in it. But God uses stupid and he
Speaker 1: says this.
Speaker 5: He says, I'll trust you, and I'll give to you
Speaker 5: if you will be with me, and if you will
Speaker 5: give me food, and if you will give me clothes.
Speaker 1: And if you will watch out for me and watch
Speaker 1: over me, if then you will be my God. So
Speaker 1: I want to ask a question, and I need some
Speaker 1: participation on this. How many of you, if we take
Speaker 1: Jacob's rubric, if we take Jacob's grid, if we take
Speaker 1: Jacob's prayer, if we take Jacob's not negotiation, but if
Speaker 1: we take Jacob's surrender to the Lord as a template,
Speaker 1: how many of you would say that God has been
Speaker 1: with you? Make some noise? How many of you would
Speaker 1: say that God put food on your table. You're cheering
Speaker 1: a little soft about that one. Maybe you're hungry right now,
Speaker 1: but I'm saying you're gonna have something to eat before
Speaker 1: the sun goes down. How many of you have clothes
Speaker 1: on your body, even if the waist fits a little
Speaker 1: tighter in November than it did in January. Come on,
Speaker 1: I got clothes on my body, food on my table.
Speaker 1: How many would say God has kept me alive. Jacob said,
Speaker 1: if you will be present, if you will protect, and
Speaker 1: if you will provide, if verse twenty one, then you
Speaker 1: will be my God. And the Lord said to tell
Speaker 1: you if he's been with you presence, if he's provided
Speaker 1: for you food and clothing, if he's watched out for
Speaker 1: you protection, if he's done that for you, then this
Speaker 1: is then. You don't need more proof. This is then
Speaker 1: say it. This is then, and I know you've been
Speaker 1: postponing your joy. Oh I'll be happy then. No, this
Speaker 1: is then when my kids come back to God, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna throw a big party and celebrate. No, no, no,
Speaker 1: God is working in their life right now. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: go down this road with the praise for the prodigal
Speaker 1: because this is then when I get this amount in
Speaker 1: the bank, I'll be secure. No, you won't. You'll pay taxes.
Speaker 1: So the fact that you have enough, you had gas
Speaker 1: in the tank to get here. You had energy in
Speaker 1: your body to get here. This is then you better
Speaker 1: take that rock that you got and that oil that
Speaker 1: you got and pour what you've got on where you're
Speaker 1: at and praise God at a kitchen table that was
Speaker 1: repowed from somebody's trailer park and ask God, what would
Speaker 1: you have me to do next for you? Wow? This
Speaker 1: is then the Lord made Jacob a promise. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: bring the blessing of the Lord through your offspring. He
Speaker 1: had no kids, but then he had twelve, and then
Speaker 1: those twelve has some and those became nations, and the
Speaker 1: nations became a tribe. Each of the nations became their
Speaker 1: own tribe. And then those tribes they took the land
Speaker 1: that God had promised to Jacob, that he had promised
Speaker 1: to Isaac, that he had promised to Abraham. God is
Speaker 1: a prophise keeper. He's a promise keeper in your life.
Speaker 1: He's not just getting started in your life. Is already
Speaker 1: in progress. The thing that you're praying about is already
Speaker 1: in progress. The thing that you're worried about, He's already
Speaker 1: working on the thing that you need. He already knows it.
Speaker 1: The thing that you lack, he already supplies the thing
Speaker 1: that you're not. He already is. God's already worked in
Speaker 1: on this, because then that nation gave birth to a savior.
Speaker 1: Jesus came from the tribe of Judah, and the Messiah
Speaker 1: was born, and the Messiah died on a cross. And
Speaker 1: the Bible says something very interesting from Jesus's own mouth
Speaker 1: in Matthew twenty one, Verses forty three and forty four,
Speaker 1: he said to them, have you never read into Scriptures
Speaker 1: forty two? The stone? What did Jacob lay his head on?
Speaker 1: The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. Somebody shout,
Speaker 1: the Lord has done this, And it is marvelous in
Speaker 1: our eyes. I see it now. I see that Jacob's
Speaker 1: rock was pointing to Jesus. I see that Jacob, who
Speaker 1: was the second born, not the chosen one, was the
Speaker 1: one who was blessed, was pointing to Jesus, who was
Speaker 1: born of a virgin, who became the rock on which
Speaker 1: the church was built. And now I see what Jesus
Speaker 1: means when he says that God selected what man rejected,
Speaker 1: because Jesus was what the people rejected, But it's what
Speaker 1: God wanted all along. So Jesus is saying that the
Speaker 1: thing that you need is right in front of you,
Speaker 1: but you are rejecting it, and you cannot expect the
Speaker 1: blessing of God and reject the way he sends it.
Speaker 1: So God says, I know you're in a hard place
Speaker 1: right now, a rocky place right now, a place that
Speaker 1: you can't fully call home right now. I understand that.
Speaker 1: Look at me, Look at me, Look at me. I've
Speaker 1: been praying for you this week. I've been praying that
Speaker 1: God would say what it is right now that he
Speaker 1: wants you to anoint, because you can anoint a rock
Speaker 1: and it can become a place where God meets with you.
Speaker 1: That means you're anointed for the hard place. That means
Speaker 1: you're anointed for the difficult thing. That means God is
Speaker 1: teaching you to trust him in transition. And I hear
Speaker 1: the spirit of the Lord saying, what more do I
Speaker 1: have to do to get you to trust me? When
Speaker 1: is it going to be then for you? If experience
Speaker 1: was going to teach us to trust God, we would
Speaker 1: have trusted him by now. He's done enough for you
Speaker 1: to trust him. He's done enough for you to trust him.
Speaker 1: He can be trusted the fact that he put you
Speaker 1: on this planet, the fact that he kept you to
Speaker 1: this day, the fact that he provided for you through
Speaker 1: every season of your life. He's done enough. And if
Speaker 1: he never does anything else, I trust him. If he
Speaker 1: never goes any He died for me, he forgave me,
Speaker 1: He cast my sins from the east to the west.
Speaker 1: And you don't need more proof to trust him. You
Speaker 1: just need more practice. You need more practice saying God,
Speaker 1: I trust you. You know how we get through something
Speaker 1: really hard, and we get through it and then we
Speaker 1: forget that. We told God if we got through it,
Speaker 1: we would serve him. Not this time, baby, This is then.
Speaker 1: You said if God would give you the responsibility, you
Speaker 1: would shoulder it. Well, this is then. You got it. Baby,
Speaker 1: You're the one for the job. You said that if
Speaker 1: God would give you the blessing, you would take care
Speaker 1: of it. This is then, and God is calling you
Speaker 1: to trust him with it because it didn't start with
Speaker 1: you and it's not on you to sustain it. But
Speaker 1: I'm praying that you would show.
Speaker 6: Up with oil to every hard place in your life
Speaker 6: this week, and I'm praying that you would do something
Speaker 6: stupid to see God do something supernatural.
Speaker 1: That is the word of the Lord. Give him praise
Speaker 1: and glory in this house. Give him praise and glory
Speaker 1: and thanks. If he's been good to you, then lift
Speaker 1: up a shout of praise for your own self, for
Speaker 1: your own journey. Everyone's standing, no one moving. We'll dismiss altogether.
Speaker 1: This is then. This is then. Jacob said, if you'll
Speaker 1: just be with me, watch over me, and provide for me,
Speaker 1: then you'll be my God. And I'm here to tell
Speaker 1: you He's done all three for me. Thank him for
Speaker 1: his presence, Thank him for his protection, Thank him for
Speaker 1: his provision. Everybody in this church that ain't a tithe
Speaker 1: ought to be online setting up your tithing when I
Speaker 1: finished this message, and I ought not have to beg
Speaker 1: for it. God's been too good to you. What would
Speaker 1: it take? How much more would God have to do
Speaker 1: to get you to trust him? I can't afford not
Speaker 1: to trust him. He's my God, He's my God. I've
Speaker 1: seen too much. This is the Lord's doing, aren't you glad?
Speaker 1: God uses stupid that I don't have to figure it out.
Speaker 1: Just have enough faith to move forward. I want to pray.
Speaker 1: I was thinking about how do I close this message.
Speaker 1: This is such a personal thing to talk about. It's
Speaker 1: such a festive season to be in. It's festive, it's fun,
Speaker 1: it's all that, but it's also so full. Start getting
Speaker 1: panic attacks just seeing Rudolph, you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: Just want to shoot Rudolph and be like, leave me alone.
Speaker 1: Come back next December. I'm not ready for you yet.
Speaker 1: And I know we're all feeling all those different things.
Speaker 1: And here I am challenging you. You're like this, this dude,
Speaker 1: this preacher coming up, You're talking about giving to God.
Speaker 1: Doesn't he understand how stretched we already are? Exactly That's
Speaker 1: why you need God in this situation. And until you
Speaker 1: put him first, you're never going to figure it out.
Speaker 1: I think it's significant that Jacob had to anoint what
Speaker 1: he had before God could give him what he promised.
Speaker 1: Even if all you have isn't that much. What did
Speaker 1: Jesus say when the disciples said, we don't have enough
Speaker 1: food to feed all these what do you have? Bring
Speaker 1: them here to me? And when they brought him the
Speaker 1: fish and the loads, he took it, he blessed it,
Speaker 1: he broke it, he gave it to them, And the
Speaker 1: Bible says, then they gave to the people as much
Speaker 1: as they wanted. The Lord said, this is then on
Speaker 1: December the fourteenth, we'll be taking an offering for our
Speaker 1: expansion and our outreach, and it'll be wonderful, but we're
Speaker 1: really taking an offering for your faith. Don't wait to
Speaker 1: do tomorrow what God is telling you to do right now,
Speaker 1: whether it's in the area of your finances, which is
Speaker 1: thousands of you. There are thousands of people connected to
Speaker 1: this ministry who do not yet trust God in this way.
Speaker 1: Today is your day. But as I was praying how
Speaker 1: to close it, the Lord said, don't pray about the money,
Speaker 1: pray about the trust. Pray about the trust. That you've
Speaker 1: seen God do enough to trust him. What else would
Speaker 1: he have to do? Come here. This is my best
Speaker 1: friend since high school. You'll give him a hand. Eric Phillips.
Speaker 1: When we were boys, I gave my life to Christ.
Speaker 1: He was still he was still building his testimony. I
Speaker 1: love him to death. Man, he was wild buck wild.
Speaker 1: I sat down with him, and this was on Black Friday.
Speaker 1: We were sixteen years old, and I remember I was
Speaker 1: a very very passionate evangelist, even before I had a church,
Speaker 1: always telling everybody that they needed to get right or
Speaker 1: get left, turn or burn. And I'm telling this guy
Speaker 1: right across the table, I'm like, you know, the Lord
Speaker 1: wants you to get saved, and you can't keep living
Speaker 1: like this. I said, what's it going to take for
Speaker 1: you to give your life to the Lord. What's it
Speaker 1: going to take for God to get your attention? He said,
Speaker 1: I don't know. I'm having a lot of fun living
Speaker 1: my life. I think he's going to have to do
Speaker 1: something pretty dramatic. I said, if he does something dramatic,
Speaker 1: then will you give your life to Christ? If then
Speaker 1: the next night he went out and got so drunk
Speaker 1: he had to go to the emergency room. Members died
Speaker 1: of alcohol poisoning. The next Monday, we were sharing a
Speaker 1: testimony at the Fellowship of Christian Athletes where everybody was
Speaker 1: crying about how Doc came into his life. A week later,
Speaker 1: he was back running from God again because the temptation
Speaker 1: was too strong. Two or three years later, he came
Speaker 1: and said, I'm finally ready. Now, I'm finally ready to
Speaker 1: give my life to Christ. I'm finally ready. I said,
Speaker 1: I've seen this song and dance before. You have to
Speaker 1: prove it to me. This time. So I'm really ready now,
Speaker 1: I'm really ready. I'm really ready to receive Jesus and
Speaker 1: we pray and he was one of the first people
Speaker 1: who came here to start the church with us, and
Speaker 1: he's still here. But but I heard the question, what's
Speaker 1: it going to take for you? What's it going to take?
Speaker 1: How much more will God have to do? And I'm
Speaker 1: asking you now, how much more is God going to
Speaker 1: have to do to get your attention? How much more
Speaker 1: is God going to have to show you that he
Speaker 1: can be trusted and others cannot. How much more is
Speaker 1: God going to have to do to get you to
Speaker 1: see that He has you where he wants you and
Speaker 1: you are the one he chose for that situation. How
Speaker 1: much more is God going to have to do? What
Speaker 1: is your if? Hasn't He already done it? Hasn't he
Speaker 1: already proven to you his love. Hasn't he already shown
Speaker 1: you through every season of your life that He's enough.
Speaker 1: Didn't you have warmth in the winter? Didn't you have
Speaker 1: cool in the summer? Didn't you have his hand undergirding you.
Speaker 1: Didn't you have his love calling you back home? Do
Speaker 1: you not have the forgiveness of your sins. Do you
Speaker 1: not have the assurance of your salvation? What more would
Speaker 1: God have to do to get you to trust him?
Speaker 1: I'm telling you this is Then goal your head and
Speaker 1: close your eyes. Thank you. I wanted to give that
Speaker 1: picture because there's somebody who's there right now. You need
Speaker 1: to give your life to Jesus. You need to trust
Speaker 1: him with your life. Some of you you've trusted him
Speaker 1: with your life, but you're just not trusting him with
Speaker 1: this part of it. Going to say that again, that
Speaker 1: was the word of the Lord to somebody's heart. You've
Speaker 1: trusted him with your life, but not this part of it.
Speaker 1: How much more is he going to have to do
Speaker 1: to show you He's the God of every season, the
Speaker 1: God of every generation. I pray that you would trust God.
Speaker 1: Why don't you just lift your hands to him right now?
Speaker 1: You don't have to. I can't make you, nobody can
Speaker 1: make you surrender. But if you will, if you give
Speaker 1: it to God, he tell you what he told me.
Speaker 1: If you'll keep your hands open to me, you will
Speaker 1: always have everything you need to do everything that I've
Speaker 1: called you to do for every season of your life.
Speaker 1: I speak that over you right now in the name
Speaker 1: of Jesus. So Father, here we are rich and poor,
Speaker 1: great and small, happy and sad, gathered together against all odds,
Speaker 1: built on the solid rock of Jesus Christ, the one
Speaker 1: foundation that the storm can't shake, the foundation of your name.
Speaker 1: We came to say that this is then we're not
Speaker 1: going to trust you in rejoicing you and praise you
Speaker 1: and worship you and serve you when everything looks good,
Speaker 1: sounds good, feels good. No, no, right now, not when we
Speaker 1: see how it turns out. Right now, you're good. So
Speaker 1: I give you this right now, and tomorrow I'll give
Speaker 1: it to you again, and five minutes later I'll give
Speaker 1: it back to you. Surrender. With every step you can
Speaker 1: put your your hands down, but keep your head balant
Speaker 1: and your eyes closed. I want to pray for somebody
Speaker 1: who needs to give your life to Jesus Christ. Please,
Speaker 1: right now, don't let this moment pass you by. What
Speaker 1: is God going to have to do to get your attention?
Speaker 1: What is God going to have to do to show
Speaker 1: you how much He loves you? He brought you here
Speaker 1: so right now I want to lead you in a prayer.
Speaker 1: This prayer is you expressing to God your faith in
Speaker 1: Jesus Christ. It's not a magical prayer, but aracle happens
Speaker 1: when you pray it. For the Bible says that if
Speaker 1: you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and
Speaker 1: believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead,
Speaker 1: you will be saved. It'll happen right now. This is
Speaker 1: your then, this is the moment for you to give
Speaker 1: your life to Christ. Stop running and believe, Stop doubting,
Speaker 1: and have faith. God is here and he loves you
Speaker 1: so much. We're going to pray out loud as a
Speaker 1: church family for the benefit of those who are coming
Speaker 1: to God, are coming back to God. Repeat after me,
Speaker 1: Heavenly Father. I am a sinner in need of a savior,
Speaker 1: and I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of
Speaker 1: God and the savior of the world. And today I
Speaker 1: make Jesus the Lord of my life. I believe he
Speaker 1: died that I would be forgiven and rose again to
Speaker 1: give me life. I receive this new life. This is
Speaker 1: my new beginning. I am a child of God. On
Speaker 1: the counter, three shoot your hand up one two three.
Speaker 1: If you've prayed that prayer, praise the Lord. I knew
Speaker 1: it would be a lot today I could feel up
Speaker 1: what I preach. This is your homecoming, man, this is
Speaker 1: your homecoming. I praise God for you, so do all
Speaker 1: of these people. We welcome you to the family of God.
Speaker 1: Come on, give the Lord of great soul of praise. Hallelujah.
Speaker 1: Thank you for joining us. Special thanks to those of
Speaker 1: you who give generously to this ministry. Is because of
Speaker 1: you that this ministry is possible. You can click the
Speaker 1: link in the description to give now, or visit Elevation
Speaker 1: Church dot org slash podcast for more information and if
Speaker 1: you enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe. You can share
Speaker 1: it with your friends. You can click the share button,
Speaker 1: take a screenshot and share it on your social stories
Speaker 1: and tag us at Elevation Church. Thanks again for listening.
Speaker 1: God bless you.