WEBVTT - Timing Your Testimony 0:00:02.120 --> 0:00:04.680 Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick. I'm the pastor of Elevation 0:00:04.920 --> 0:00:07.160 Church and this is our podcast. I wanted to thank 0:00:07.200 --> 0:00:10.479 you for joining us today. Hope this inspires you. Hope 0:00:10.520 --> 0:00:12.559 it builds your faith. Hope it gives your perspective to 0:00:12.560 --> 0:00:16.960 see God is moving in your life. Enjoy the message, 0:00:17.680 --> 0:00:23.200 y'all be seated. I want to tell you a story today, 0:00:24.000 --> 0:00:31.600 story from the Bible from Second Kings chapter eight. And 0:00:31.680 --> 0:00:35.840 you might not have heard this one before. It's really good. 0:00:36.800 --> 0:00:44.440 It's really good. In Second King's chapter eight, there's a 0:00:44.479 --> 0:00:47.640 little story like you said that already. I'm just stalling 0:00:47.640 --> 0:00:56.000 while I find my scripture. The scripture records this. Now 0:00:56.480 --> 0:01:01.360 Elisha had said to the woman who's son he had 0:01:01.400 --> 0:01:06.520 restored to life, go away with your family and stay 0:01:06.680 --> 0:01:09.679 for a while. Put that in the chat. Stay for 0:01:09.760 --> 0:01:14.399 a while, I feel God on the first verse of 0:01:14.440 --> 0:01:18.280 the passage, and we've got five more to go past 0:01:18.319 --> 0:01:25.160 her keenan stay for a while. But here's the bad part. 0:01:25.880 --> 0:01:30.399 Stay for a while wherever you can, not necessarily where 0:01:30.400 --> 0:01:35.560 you want, because the Lord has decreed a famine in 0:01:35.640 --> 0:01:39.600 the land that will last seven years. And the woman 0:01:39.640 --> 0:01:42.679 proceeded to do as the Man of God said, she 0:01:42.800 --> 0:01:46.000 and her family went away and stayed in the land 0:01:46.040 --> 0:01:51.200 of the Philistines seven years. At the end of the 0:01:51.240 --> 0:01:53.120 seven years, she came back from the land of the 0:01:53.160 --> 0:01:56.720 Philistines and went to appeal to the king for her 0:01:56.760 --> 0:02:01.800 house and land. The King was talking to Geheesi, the 0:02:01.840 --> 0:02:04.720 servant of the Man of God, and had said, tell 0:02:04.760 --> 0:02:11.400 me all about the great things Elisha has done. Just 0:02:11.480 --> 0:02:14.240 as gehes I was telling the king how Elisha had 0:02:14.280 --> 0:02:18.920 restored the dead to life, the woman whose son Elisha 0:02:19.000 --> 0:02:23.320 had brought back to life, came to appeal to the 0:02:23.400 --> 0:02:31.919 king for her house and land. Wow, gahees I said, 0:02:34.120 --> 0:02:39.079 this is the woman, my lord the King, and that's 0:02:39.080 --> 0:02:45.200 her son whom Elisha restored to life. The king asked 0:02:45.200 --> 0:02:50.359 the woman about it, and she told him, then you're 0:02:50.360 --> 0:02:56.120 ready for this. He assigned an official to her case 0:02:57.400 --> 0:03:06.359 and said to him, give back everything that belonged to her. 0:03:08.000 --> 0:03:09.680 I need to know who's with me today because it 0:03:09.720 --> 0:03:12.960 feels like a funeral in the room. But it's really 0:03:13.000 --> 0:03:18.960 a great opportunity for you to shout say give back everything. 0:03:19.440 --> 0:03:24.040 In the chat, give back everything. This is not a 0:03:24.080 --> 0:03:26.680 time for lowercase. This is a time for all cats. 0:03:27.160 --> 0:03:34.720 Give back everything. Say it again, give back everything that 0:03:34.800 --> 0:03:47.360 belonged to her, including all the income from her land, 0:03:48.080 --> 0:03:56.400 from the day she left the country until now. So 0:03:56.520 --> 0:04:00.320 this is your sermon. You're the one that I the 0:04:00.320 --> 0:04:03.640 devil to get this message for well good, because the 0:04:03.680 --> 0:04:06.560 Lord told me to talk to you today about timing 0:04:06.680 --> 0:04:13.960 your testimony. Do you know what I mean when I 0:04:13.960 --> 0:04:18.640 say testimony put the word testimony in the chat. For 0:04:18.720 --> 0:04:21.919 some of you, this will bring up a courtroom image, 0:04:22.800 --> 0:04:26.560 depending on the path that your life has taken, or 0:04:26.560 --> 0:04:29.679 what you're watching or whatever you're aware of. For others, 0:04:29.720 --> 0:04:32.080 it will put us back in a church during the 0:04:32.120 --> 0:04:35.720 scariest time of the church service. And how many know 0:04:35.760 --> 0:04:39.400 what I'm talking about when I say a testimony service 0:04:39.440 --> 0:04:43.040 in a church because it's totally ad lived and there 0:04:43.120 --> 0:04:45.720 are no gutters in case the balls go right off. 0:04:45.839 --> 0:04:47.280 You know, you never know if it's going to hit 0:04:47.320 --> 0:04:50.480 any pins or if somebody's gonna stand up and monopolize. 0:04:50.520 --> 0:04:52.920 The time, Pastor Mickey used to do the testimony service, 0:04:53.160 --> 0:04:56.160 and he used to have people come up and say stuff. 0:04:56.240 --> 0:05:00.720 When I started this church, I had had people share 0:05:00.720 --> 0:05:04.120 their testimonies, but I always had a rule, and this 0:05:04.320 --> 0:05:07.040 was my rule, and I think it's a pretty good rule. 0:05:07.640 --> 0:05:11.240 They could share their testimony, but I always had to 0:05:11.279 --> 0:05:16.360 hold the mic. Is that true? And I trained our 0:05:16.360 --> 0:05:19.320 campus fastors. This is this true, Campus Fastors. I said, 0:05:19.480 --> 0:05:22.839 when you bring somebody up on stage that you can't trust, 0:05:25.040 --> 0:05:26.679 and let me tell you who to trust the least, 0:05:26.880 --> 0:05:29.080 the one who is the most excited to come up 0:05:29.080 --> 0:05:35.200 and share when you offer the opportunity. So that's our rule. 0:05:35.560 --> 0:05:39.280 You hold the mic, and I'll tell you why. Just 0:05:39.320 --> 0:05:42.000 because there's one story that stands out of my mind. 0:05:42.000 --> 0:05:45.240 I've seen some testimonies services go really bad, and maybe 0:05:45.279 --> 0:05:47.840 you have to one that I heard about. I didn't 0:05:47.880 --> 0:05:50.520 see this with my own eyes, but my friend Carl, 0:05:50.960 --> 0:05:54.919 he had this incident where he was playing piano behind 0:05:55.440 --> 0:05:59.440 the pastor and during testimony service there was a man 0:05:59.440 --> 0:06:02.080 who stood up and said, I called him this morning 0:06:02.080 --> 0:06:04.120 to confirm this was true. Do you remember the story? 0:06:04.600 --> 0:06:07.480 He was playing piano and a man stood up and said, 0:06:08.440 --> 0:06:13.480 I just need to confess to the Lord that I've 0:06:13.480 --> 0:06:18.880 been having some really bad thoughts about people. And yes, 0:06:18.960 --> 0:06:22.000 I mean you, big boy, And he turns in points 0:06:22.440 --> 0:06:27.800 to my friend Carl's dad, And so Carl's dad, do 0:06:27.800 --> 0:06:30.040 you know the story? And Carl's dad stood up right. 0:06:30.080 --> 0:06:32.159 I barely remembered it too, but he said, and I 0:06:32.279 --> 0:06:35.640 mean you, big boy. I'm talking about you, big boy 0:06:35.839 --> 0:06:39.240 in testimony service. And Carl's dad stood up, comes to 0:06:39.279 --> 0:06:41.159 the front of the church. This is a little church, 0:06:41.200 --> 0:06:43.360 there's no security, comes to the front of the church 0:06:43.400 --> 0:06:45.560 with his chest out and says, well, how about we 0:06:45.600 --> 0:06:48.400 move this to the parking lot. You're talking about me? 0:06:51.160 --> 0:06:55.640 So what's my number one rule for testimony service? You 0:06:55.960 --> 0:07:00.600 hold the mic because I can't trust you yet. And 0:07:00.640 --> 0:07:03.919 trust takes time, and there are certain things that you 0:07:04.000 --> 0:07:07.600 need to hold on to until you've had enough relational 0:07:07.680 --> 0:07:13.800 time to develop trust. That's not being paranoid. Yeah, that's 0:07:13.880 --> 0:07:21.080 just the wisdom of experience. So another thing that I 0:07:21.080 --> 0:07:26.000 would teach is kind of like a countdown timer, like 0:07:26.080 --> 0:07:29.960 after sixty seconds, take it back. Take the mic back 0:07:30.200 --> 0:07:33.160 after about sixty seconds, that's all it takes. If they 0:07:33.200 --> 0:07:37.960 start with my great grandmother, get the mic, start pulling 0:07:37.960 --> 0:07:40.320 it back, pull it back slowly, so it doesn't happen 0:07:40.360 --> 0:07:47.040 all at once, It just kind of slowly. And the 0:07:48.160 --> 0:07:52.600 truth of the matter is, you never really get to 0:07:52.640 --> 0:07:56.760 share the truth story of what God is doing in 0:07:56.800 --> 0:08:00.360 your life. As it is, you don't really have time 0:08:00.440 --> 0:08:02.800 to tell everything, and you really don't have trust to 0:08:02.800 --> 0:08:06.880 tell everything. What I called it in a recent sermon 0:08:07.000 --> 0:08:10.880 was a time lapse testimony where you edit out the 0:08:10.920 --> 0:08:12.920 scenes that you don't want other people to see. And 0:08:12.960 --> 0:08:16.080 I think that's wise. I don't think you should just 0:08:16.240 --> 0:08:18.720 trust anybody talking about the things that God has done 0:08:18.760 --> 0:08:24.040 in your life. What I wonder is, have you even 0:08:24.120 --> 0:08:34.480 told yourself your true testimony? When I read the scripture 0:08:34.520 --> 0:08:39.280 in Two Kings, chapter eight, it kind of came alive 0:08:39.360 --> 0:08:43.559 in me to realize that, I guess, depending on how 0:08:43.600 --> 0:08:47.040 you look at it, God either has really terrible timing 0:08:47.160 --> 0:08:51.800 or really impeccable timing. You could make the case from 0:08:51.960 --> 0:08:55.240 certain scriptures that God has terrible timing. And I know 0:08:55.320 --> 0:08:57.760 that makes me sound like a heretic, and they could 0:08:57.760 --> 0:08:59.839 probably clip this and put it on YouTube or something 0:08:59.880 --> 0:09:05.600 like that and say all my false teachings. But four 0:09:05.679 --> 0:09:09.679 days after Lazarus dies is bad timing to show up 0:09:09.679 --> 0:09:14.840 and help, Or the fourth watch of the night, just 0:09:14.920 --> 0:09:18.160 before dawn is a terrible time to step in and 0:09:18.200 --> 0:09:22.640 stop the storm. In this scripture, though it brought to 0:09:22.720 --> 0:09:28.480 my memory all the times that God was waiting for 0:09:28.559 --> 0:09:32.480 the exact right moment in my life where He could 0:09:32.480 --> 0:09:36.320 achieve the most glory out of my situation to step in. 0:09:37.720 --> 0:09:42.200 Some sermons that I preach are like a lesson. This one, 0:09:42.200 --> 0:09:44.640 to me in my spirit, feels more like a lifeline 0:09:45.640 --> 0:09:48.760 that God gave me to give to somebody as you 0:09:48.840 --> 0:09:53.600 were waiting for the restoration of something that you lost. 0:09:54.360 --> 0:09:56.280 And if we can look at this scripture for a 0:09:56.320 --> 0:09:58.640 moment today, I think we can see some things to 0:09:58.720 --> 0:10:02.600 help us. Especially in verse one, it says that Elisha 0:10:02.720 --> 0:10:06.400 had said to the woman whose son he had restored. 0:10:06.480 --> 0:10:09.920 Everybody say the word restored. I love that word. I 0:10:09.920 --> 0:10:13.240 think we need to use it more in church, restored, 0:10:14.600 --> 0:10:18.640 restored to life. And he told that woman go away 0:10:19.120 --> 0:10:22.800 with your family and stay for a while wherever you can, 0:10:23.200 --> 0:10:25.360 because the Lord has to create a famine in the 0:10:25.440 --> 0:10:29.280 land that will last seven years. Now here's what will 0:10:29.320 --> 0:10:32.520 get you about the story. In verse two, the woman 0:10:32.640 --> 0:10:36.600 proceeded to do as the Man of God said, and 0:10:36.640 --> 0:10:39.920 then when she came back seven years later, she lost 0:10:39.960 --> 0:10:48.400 what she had. So I can understand characters like Jonah, 0:10:48.720 --> 0:10:51.400 who God says, go to Nineveh but you want to 0:10:51.440 --> 0:10:54.559 go to Tarsish, and because you want to go to Tarsish, 0:10:54.720 --> 0:10:58.760 you end up on the seaweed Mediterranean diet. You end 0:10:58.880 --> 0:11:01.960 up having to spend the night the fish. That's understandable. 0:11:02.600 --> 0:11:07.160 This scripture suggests that you can do exactly what God 0:11:07.240 --> 0:11:12.960 tells you, that you can go exactly where He sends you, 0:11:13.840 --> 0:11:18.040 that you can act on God's word and not see 0:11:18.400 --> 0:11:23.920 the results that you imagine. You can do everything right. 0:11:24.000 --> 0:11:25.840 And see, this is where we get in trouble because 0:11:25.880 --> 0:11:30.920 sometimes we become convinced that the famine is our fault. 0:11:35.679 --> 0:11:39.920 Notice in the passage, the Lord decreed the famine, and 0:11:39.960 --> 0:11:43.959 the Lord told the woman to leave. But when she left, 0:11:44.040 --> 0:11:47.000 in the process of going where God sent her to survive, 0:11:47.679 --> 0:11:52.480 she lost something that she had before she left. And 0:11:52.520 --> 0:11:56.400 the famine wasn't her fault. And there's no disobedience. I mean, 0:11:56.400 --> 0:11:58.800 this woman, you don't know much about her, maybe, but 0:11:58.880 --> 0:12:02.440 she's absolutely a man because she had a very generous heart. 0:12:02.480 --> 0:12:04.480 And we kind of know this woman. We know a 0:12:04.480 --> 0:12:07.440 lot about this woman, and to me, she's familiar because 0:12:08.000 --> 0:12:10.440 I've preached a lot about her story. But see things 0:12:10.440 --> 0:12:13.400 have changed for her. You know, one day you can 0:12:13.440 --> 0:12:16.280 stand up and share where you're at in your life 0:12:16.520 --> 0:12:19.599 and is so amazing and you're so blessed. One of 0:12:19.640 --> 0:12:22.640 the reasons that I don't teach parenting sermons is because 0:12:22.679 --> 0:12:26.920 mine's still live with me, and I don't want to 0:12:27.040 --> 0:12:32.120 tempt God. Do you understand what I mean? To get 0:12:32.200 --> 0:12:36.600 up and preach seven ways to raise an amazing kid? 0:12:36.880 --> 0:12:41.199 And then God sends seven demons in my kid so 0:12:41.240 --> 0:12:44.440 that I can see that sometimes you can do all 0:12:44.520 --> 0:12:48.920 the right things as a parent. It'll keep you from 0:12:48.920 --> 0:12:51.800 getting judgmental. To realize that this is the same woman 0:12:52.240 --> 0:12:54.760 when the prophet asked her what do you want? Because 0:12:54.800 --> 0:12:57.000 see she had done a great thing for Elisha, And 0:12:57.040 --> 0:12:59.040 when the prophet said what do you want? She said 0:12:59.080 --> 0:13:03.120 something interesting. I don't need anything. I've got a home 0:13:03.160 --> 0:13:07.240 among my own people. And the woman who needed nothing 0:13:08.480 --> 0:13:14.360 in Second King's chapter four now has nothing in Second 0:13:14.440 --> 0:13:19.040 King's Chapter eight. What is the point of that for 0:13:19.080 --> 0:13:22.880 me to bring it up? Don't be arrogant in seasons 0:13:22.880 --> 0:13:27.880 of blessings, don't be arrogant, And by the same token, 0:13:28.160 --> 0:13:33.559 in seasons of struggle, don't despair. And you would love 0:13:33.559 --> 0:13:37.560 to convince you that it's all your fault, even the 0:13:37.600 --> 0:13:41.040 things that people did to you, that there was something 0:13:41.080 --> 0:13:46.480 wrong with you that made them do it. But the 0:13:46.520 --> 0:13:53.320 famine wasn't her fault. The famine wasn't her fault. Now 0:13:53.440 --> 0:13:55.760 I hesitate to preach this because we live in a 0:13:55.800 --> 0:13:58.280 time where people kind of don't want to take responsibility 0:13:58.520 --> 0:14:03.520 for anything. So by saying this, the famine isn't their fault, 0:14:03.960 --> 0:14:09.200 I'm afraid that my sermon will be misapplied. Okay, the 0:14:09.280 --> 0:14:14.120 famine wasn't her fault, but she still had a responsibility, 0:14:14.400 --> 0:14:23.120 right right, So she walks back into the presence of 0:14:23.160 --> 0:14:31.520 the king to ask him to give back what she 0:14:32.040 --> 0:14:39.880 lost when she left, what you lost when you left, 0:14:41.520 --> 0:14:47.560 what you lost when you left. Okay, I'm gonna share 0:14:47.560 --> 0:14:53.680 something with you. This is kind of personal, But about 0:14:53.720 --> 0:14:57.880 two and a half years ago, I realized there were 0:14:57.920 --> 0:15:01.040 some things in my life that God wanted to give me, 0:15:01.200 --> 0:15:03.320 and that indeed he had promised me that I had 0:15:03.400 --> 0:15:07.760 given up on. And I'll tell you exactly what it was. 0:15:07.800 --> 0:15:10.640 It's not some deep, dark secret. I just, you know, 0:15:10.720 --> 0:15:12.320 never really thought to share it with you till I 0:15:12.320 --> 0:15:16.840 read this passage. Pretty much I had made up my 0:15:16.920 --> 0:15:20.520 mind that I was some kind of machine that God 0:15:20.560 --> 0:15:24.160 wanted to use to do ministry, and I thought that 0:15:24.240 --> 0:15:27.280 my greatest value to God was what he could use 0:15:27.320 --> 0:15:30.560 me to do. I don't think I would have said 0:15:30.600 --> 0:15:33.040 it like that. I certainly preached the opposite of that. 0:15:33.120 --> 0:15:35.280 You're a child of God, you're the righteousness of God. 0:15:35.400 --> 0:15:37.400 You're not a human doing, You're a human being. But 0:15:37.440 --> 0:15:39.200 you can say all kinds of stuff with your mouth, 0:15:39.200 --> 0:15:41.240 and I believe it in your heart. I promise you 0:15:41.240 --> 0:15:43.960 you can all day long have the right answers and 0:15:44.000 --> 0:15:47.280 then deep down in your heart have some really dark questions. 0:15:47.480 --> 0:15:50.680 And for me, I was starting to wonder, like, do 0:15:50.840 --> 0:15:59.160 I matter apart from what I do? Now that's a 0:15:59.200 --> 0:16:02.120 tender thing to say to you, because some of it 0:16:02.160 --> 0:16:04.840 I'm still undoing. Let me tell you a little bit 0:16:04.840 --> 0:16:07.000 of my testimony. I started preaching when I was sixteen, 0:16:08.080 --> 0:16:11.320 So for me, that was really early for me to 0:16:11.480 --> 0:16:14.280 become acquainted with the fact that when you stand up 0:16:14.320 --> 0:16:20.960 and talk, you're representing God. Right. I'm thankful that God 0:16:21.000 --> 0:16:23.160 called me at that stage of my life. I really 0:16:23.160 --> 0:16:26.480 wouldn't change any of it, you know, but what it 0:16:26.520 --> 0:16:31.120 did in me it started to kind of conflate my 0:16:31.320 --> 0:16:36.680 identity with my contribution, or I could say it another way. 0:16:37.160 --> 0:16:40.600 It kind of started to confuse my identity with my gift. 0:16:42.560 --> 0:16:46.200 That happens to a lot of pastors. And about two 0:16:46.240 --> 0:16:48.840 and a half years ago I found myself in the 0:16:48.880 --> 0:16:51.560 position of this woman. Now here's how I relate to her. 0:16:52.480 --> 0:16:55.880 Not that I'm a widow. There's a lot I don't. 0:16:56.040 --> 0:16:59.000 She's a woman, I'm a man. This woman, as a 0:16:59.000 --> 0:17:02.400 matter of fact, has seen a physical resurrection of her child. 0:17:03.720 --> 0:17:09.480 What I can relate to her in this way is 0:17:09.520 --> 0:17:12.879 that God wanted to give her something that she didn't 0:17:12.880 --> 0:17:17.560 even know to ask for, and that in the process 0:17:17.600 --> 0:17:25.240 of surviving a famine, she had lost something. I think 0:17:25.240 --> 0:17:27.960 in the process in chunks I never talked to you 0:17:27.960 --> 0:17:30.000 about this, but in the process of building this church, 0:17:30.000 --> 0:17:33.000 which I believe God called me to do as a leader, 0:17:33.040 --> 0:17:35.680 as a preacher, I think there are some things that 0:17:35.800 --> 0:17:38.359 while I was doing what it required to do, that 0:17:39.680 --> 0:17:42.840 I kind of left myself out of it. Y'all are 0:17:42.840 --> 0:17:45.320 like God was he? What drug was he on? It 0:17:45.840 --> 0:17:48.040 wasn't like all that, because it doesn't always have to 0:17:48.080 --> 0:17:50.600 be like all of that. All I know is I 0:17:50.600 --> 0:17:54.439 would find myself many times wondering if I couldn't do 0:17:55.160 --> 0:17:58.560 what I did, would I have any right to be here? 0:17:58.760 --> 0:18:02.040 And basically I thought that the only way for me 0:18:02.119 --> 0:18:08.199 to belong was to bring something external to myself for others. 0:18:09.880 --> 0:18:12.600 And there came a point because sometimes you have to 0:18:12.600 --> 0:18:15.800 go low enough, and I experienced several moments that God 0:18:15.840 --> 0:18:17.440 gave me. I really see it now as a gift. 0:18:17.480 --> 0:18:18.720 I and see it as a gift at the time. 0:18:18.960 --> 0:18:22.240 But God let me get low enough that I had 0:18:22.280 --> 0:18:26.520 to make a decision and I did that if this 0:18:26.760 --> 0:18:31.119 is what it cost to succeed in ministry, I would 0:18:31.200 --> 0:18:38.320 rather fail in people's eyes but have joy inside myself 0:18:39.760 --> 0:18:46.199 then achieve everything that the world offers and feel empty. 0:18:47.520 --> 0:18:52.439 And the reason that I'm telling you this is because 0:18:52.600 --> 0:18:54.800 I think this happens to all of us from time 0:18:54.840 --> 0:18:58.119 to time, that we have to do certain things in 0:18:58.200 --> 0:19:02.240 certain seasons, right like being a mom. If you've ever 0:19:02.320 --> 0:19:04.879 been a mom, or you're considering being a mom, you 0:19:04.920 --> 0:19:08.520 should know or testify to the fact. If you've experienced it, 0:19:08.760 --> 0:19:11.480 you can say amen to this. If you haven't experienced it, 0:19:11.560 --> 0:19:13.840 you can consider it in the contract of becoming a 0:19:13.840 --> 0:19:18.280 mom that you become a hostage to another human in 0:19:18.359 --> 0:19:27.119 the process, and it's not just for moms. Like sometimes 0:19:27.200 --> 0:19:30.440 as a man, to build your career, sometimes you find 0:19:30.440 --> 0:19:33.879 yourself in the process of making a living, you lose 0:19:33.920 --> 0:19:39.320 a sense of yourself and what's important. So the prophet said, 0:19:39.480 --> 0:19:41.280 you've got to get out of here, and she did 0:19:41.320 --> 0:19:44.159 what the prophet said. She wasn't running from God, she 0:19:44.280 --> 0:19:48.040 wasn't disobeying God. She was doing what she had to 0:19:48.080 --> 0:19:54.400 do to survive. Can you own the fact that some 0:19:54.440 --> 0:19:56.359 of the things that you did in your life, you 0:19:56.400 --> 0:19:59.959 were doing what you had to do, and the devils 0:20:00.240 --> 0:20:02.600 beats you up with it at night, like, how could 0:20:02.600 --> 0:20:05.040 you do that? That was the best I could do 0:20:05.160 --> 0:20:08.800 in that season. I was doing the best I could. 0:20:09.040 --> 0:20:12.399 I was balancing on Oh, I was balancing so much. 0:20:13.400 --> 0:20:15.119 It was all I could do to stand up stream. 0:20:15.320 --> 0:20:18.200 And then the enemy will come along and subtract all 0:20:18.280 --> 0:20:24.359 of those all of those factors of survival. She didn't 0:20:24.440 --> 0:20:28.320 run from God. The prophet told her to go away, 0:20:28.680 --> 0:20:31.840 and she lost what was hers in the process of 0:20:31.880 --> 0:20:37.760 being obedient to God. Because I kind of felt like 0:20:37.760 --> 0:20:41.520 a hypocrite when I was struggling emotionally. And here's how 0:20:41.520 --> 0:20:44.920 it wou be. You come out to preach. The worship 0:20:44.920 --> 0:20:48.280 team is going into, you know, something very powerful and anthemic. 0:20:48.840 --> 0:20:52.399 And sometimes it was a song I wrote and I 0:20:52.400 --> 0:20:56.560 wouldn't feel the lyrics to the song I wrote, and 0:20:56.600 --> 0:20:58.240 I'd be coming out here. But I have a job 0:20:58.280 --> 0:21:00.200 to do and I want to be responsible. I mean, 0:21:00.640 --> 0:21:02.720 good God, if I'm a plumber, I don't get to feel, 0:21:03.880 --> 0:21:05.600 you know, putting a wrench on a pipe. You got 0:21:05.640 --> 0:21:07.879 to just fix something. So I've got a job to do. 0:21:08.240 --> 0:21:11.480 So I'll come up here and inspire faith. Not every time, 0:21:11.600 --> 0:21:17.160 but a lot of times. And I would feel guilty. 0:21:17.200 --> 0:21:22.760 What it took out of me to build the ministry 0:21:23.560 --> 0:21:26.520 put me in a place where I could not receive 0:21:26.600 --> 0:21:37.359 ministry myself, and it scared me. It scared me that 0:21:37.400 --> 0:21:42.439 I could become a shell. And I had to have 0:21:42.480 --> 0:21:47.000 a moment. And I had a moment that reminds me 0:21:48.040 --> 0:21:51.880 of this woman boldly going to the King and saying, 0:21:51.920 --> 0:22:02.760 I want it back. I want it. I don't want 0:22:02.800 --> 0:22:14.040 to just build something or survive something. I want it back. 0:22:15.800 --> 0:22:24.000 I want it. That you're scared to say that because 0:22:24.040 --> 0:22:26.720 we are taught that if God wants us to have it, 0:22:26.960 --> 0:22:31.400 he'll just give it. And he will. But the other day, 0:22:31.600 --> 0:22:34.639 we were driving in this rainstorm and we were coming 0:22:34.680 --> 0:22:37.639 home from the mountains and it was raining so hard 0:22:37.880 --> 0:22:40.919 there was a flash flood warning on all of our phones. 0:22:41.119 --> 0:22:43.480 And I was just driving. I could barely see out 0:22:43.480 --> 0:22:46.320 of the windshield. I was just driving. And Graham is 0:22:46.359 --> 0:22:48.760 the kid in our family who will say the most 0:22:48.840 --> 0:22:51.200 with the least words. And he said, is no one 0:22:51.240 --> 0:22:54.359 else scared about this other than me? Am I the 0:22:54.400 --> 0:22:57.239 only one that's concerned about this? And I said, I 0:22:57.320 --> 0:23:00.840 was just playing around. But I said, son, God's hand 0:23:00.920 --> 0:23:03.520 is on our vehicle, and God will see us through 0:23:03.520 --> 0:23:06.840 this storm. And the boy says, there's only so much 0:23:06.920 --> 0:23:16.560 God can do. Maybe we should pull over. How does 0:23:16.600 --> 0:23:22.440 he get this at thirteen and we don't at thirty. 0:23:23.600 --> 0:23:26.280 At the risk of running you out of this church, 0:23:26.600 --> 0:23:31.040 let me say something theologically deep. There is only so 0:23:31.280 --> 0:23:36.120 much God can do. No, no, no, God can do anything. 0:23:36.640 --> 0:23:40.359 He can make the stars, he can make the sun, 0:23:40.000 --> 0:23:43.320 he can move the mountains. But you got to speak 0:23:43.359 --> 0:23:52.760 the word. So so it starts with me being honest 0:23:52.800 --> 0:23:56.560 about the fact that, in the process of surviving of 0:23:56.600 --> 0:23:59.680 famine that I didn't cause like some of you were 0:23:59.680 --> 0:24:02.160 doing the best you could. You didn't have an example 0:24:02.200 --> 0:24:04.359 for it. You were doing the best you could. You 0:24:04.400 --> 0:24:06.520 didn't have a frame of reference for it. You were 0:24:06.560 --> 0:24:08.880 doing the best you could. You had never been this 0:24:08.920 --> 0:24:13.400 way before. And the Lord sent her to the land 0:24:13.440 --> 0:24:15.320 of the Philistines. What do you know about the Philistines? 0:24:15.359 --> 0:24:19.720 In the Bible? Good guys are bad guys. Good place 0:24:19.760 --> 0:24:22.320 to be, a bad place to be. She had to 0:24:22.359 --> 0:24:29.399 go into an enemy occupied place to survive a famine, 0:24:29.560 --> 0:24:34.080 and so have some of us. Some of us that's 0:24:34.080 --> 0:24:40.000 where our addictions came from. In order to keep ourselves 0:24:40.000 --> 0:24:42.080 on the planet, we had to do something to numb 0:24:42.080 --> 0:24:52.480 the pain. I love this sermon because it takes the 0:24:52.560 --> 0:24:57.199 shame out of where I've been. It helps me to 0:24:57.359 --> 0:25:03.480 understand there comes a time where you have to appreciate 0:25:03.520 --> 0:25:08.160 where God fed you during the famine, but be willing 0:25:08.240 --> 0:25:11.639 to leave and go back to the place where you 0:25:11.680 --> 0:25:22.240 really belong. You know, I said this was like a lifeline. 0:25:22.840 --> 0:25:27.400 You've convinced yourself that you can never have it. You've 0:25:27.400 --> 0:25:30.719 convinced yourself that you can never be happy, and you 0:25:30.800 --> 0:25:35.080 quote Bible verses. God wants you to be holy, not happy. 0:25:35.359 --> 0:25:40.359 That's in the first version of you. That's not a 0:25:40.400 --> 0:25:44.160 Bible verse. That's the book of your dumb cousin's opinion. 0:25:45.480 --> 0:25:53.280 You ever read that? Now, in cases, seems like a 0:25:53.320 --> 0:25:56.320 stretch to compare us to this woman. Let me tell 0:25:56.320 --> 0:26:01.840 you a little bit more about our story. She wasn't 0:26:01.880 --> 0:26:04.600 really looking to get something from God. She was looking 0:26:04.640 --> 0:26:09.800 to give something to God. She had a Well, you 0:26:09.800 --> 0:26:11.960 can go watch the sermon online. I preached it to 0:26:12.040 --> 0:26:15.600 Holly called just the two of us. I preached it 0:26:15.600 --> 0:26:18.560 in the whole empty room. That was just her on 0:26:18.640 --> 0:26:20.480 the front row and a few people that stuck in 0:26:20.520 --> 0:26:22.720 the back. But it was just the two of us, 0:26:23.880 --> 0:26:25.639 and I used it to talk about this woman and 0:26:25.680 --> 0:26:30.880 her husband. Did y'all hear this sermon? Yeah, is most 0:26:30.880 --> 0:26:32.679 awkward sermon I ever preached because it was just two 0:26:32.720 --> 0:26:35.879 of us in the room. It's very big room. And 0:26:35.920 --> 0:26:40.440 this woman was just determined to use what she had 0:26:40.440 --> 0:26:44.639 for God, really expecting nothing in return. Now, when I 0:26:44.680 --> 0:26:48.200 say timing your testimony, and I use these examples about 0:26:48.200 --> 0:26:52.399 taking the mic away and all of this, what I 0:26:52.440 --> 0:26:56.920 really mean by timing your testimony is about trusting God 0:26:57.280 --> 0:27:01.600 to obey him before he has shown you exactly why 0:27:01.640 --> 0:27:05.359 he's calling you to do it, okay, Like it's really 0:27:05.400 --> 0:27:08.159 easy to say after the fact that God connected this 0:27:08.280 --> 0:27:11.720 and that and the other. But the trick of it 0:27:11.800 --> 0:27:14.480 is that she made a room for the prophet to 0:27:14.520 --> 0:27:18.000 come and stay before she knew what God was going 0:27:18.040 --> 0:27:21.399 to do through her act of obedience. And isn't that 0:27:21.440 --> 0:27:25.520 the hardest thing, Like the author said, to believe in 0:27:25.560 --> 0:27:29.399 advance what will only make sense in reverse. That's the 0:27:29.440 --> 0:27:32.480 hardest thing in the world. To let down the nets 0:27:32.480 --> 0:27:34.199 for the catch before you have any clue that this 0:27:34.240 --> 0:27:37.959 carpenter knows where they are. That's the hard part. And 0:27:38.080 --> 0:27:41.399 after she did that, the prophet said, you've gone to 0:27:41.440 --> 0:27:44.960 all this trouble for us, Now what can we do 0:27:45.200 --> 0:27:48.960 for you? She had something in her heart that she 0:27:49.080 --> 0:27:51.439 wanted God to do, like you have something in your 0:27:51.440 --> 0:27:53.840