Speaker 1: Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick.
Speaker 2: I'm the pastor of Elevation Church and this is our podcast.
Speaker 2: I wanted to thank you for joining us today.
Speaker 1: Hope this inspires you. Hope it builds your faith.
Speaker 2: Hope it gives your perspective to see God is moving
Speaker 2: in your life.
Speaker 1: Enjoy the message. Come on, praise Him for every valley
Speaker 1: and every mountain and stepfast. Love is better than life. Wow.
Speaker 1: What an awesome God you are no doubt about that.
Speaker 2: Everything in our life points to the fact that there
Speaker 2: was a steady hand guiding us.
Speaker 1: And now Lord, we clap our hands.
Speaker 2: To celebrate your hand that never left our lives in Jesus' name.
Speaker 1: Amen, you know what you got to do?
Speaker 2: High five to eighteen people and tell them it was
Speaker 2: the hand of God.
Speaker 1: Raise the Lord.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah yeah. Did you do eighteen or did
Speaker 2: you round up lazy bones everybody online as well? Give
Speaker 2: a high five in the chat. Look, fist pump in
Speaker 2: the chat. Let us know you're here too. Our epham
Speaker 2: around the world.
Speaker 1: Today. I have a word for our anniversary. I told
Speaker 1: the Lord.
Speaker 2: Hey, I tried to tell God several months ago that
Speaker 2: I wanted to invite a guest to speak for the anniversary.
Speaker 2: I said, this is great Sunday for me to just
Speaker 2: enjoy all that you have done, Lord and the works
Speaker 2: thy hands have made. So invite a guest speaker, and
Speaker 2: I even had a little list of guests that I
Speaker 2: wanted to bring. You know, almost anybody will come preach
Speaker 2: to you because you are the most amazing church in
Speaker 2: the world. No, I'm saying that that's not bragging, is
Speaker 2: a fact you are the greatest, all right.
Speaker 1: I'm not saying the greatest on stage.
Speaker 2: I'm saying the greatest people, the greatest volunteers, the greatest
Speaker 2: prayer warriors, the most generous, amazing people in the world are.
Speaker 1: Right around you.
Speaker 2: So I was getting my list ready of guest speakers,
Speaker 2: and then I saw something that I felt in the
Speaker 2: scripture that I was supposed to preach on this day.
Speaker 2: So then I was conflicted, because I want the day
Speaker 2: off so I can just cry through the baptism video
Speaker 2: like you do and not have to dry my snot
Speaker 2: and put vizin in my eyes and get up here
Speaker 2: and pretend to be all composed. But so when I
Speaker 2: saw this word, though, it really felt important and it
Speaker 2: felt appropriate for the day.
Speaker 1: Now Graham looked at me, because we went a little
Speaker 1: longer in worship.
Speaker 2: We had a video and Holly baptized half the town
Speaker 2: of Charlotte here at Valentine and at all of our locations.
Speaker 2: Let's welcome all of our locations right now. So we
Speaker 2: sang and we and we prayed, and we praised, and
Speaker 2: we sang and we prayed.
Speaker 1: And Graham looked at me and goes, are you preaching today?
Speaker 2: Like?
Speaker 1: How long is this going to be? I got an
Speaker 1: appointment with a bull at Chipotle. You'd preaching too. What
Speaker 1: truth of the matter is, not only should we.
Speaker 2: Really make time for God's presence that matters the most,
Speaker 2: But I believe that if you listen good, I can
Speaker 2: go quick. So I want to turn to a scripture
Speaker 2: in Isaiah forty nine, because when I told the Lord
Speaker 2: that I would get a guest speaker, he said, okay,
Speaker 2: then you be the guest. Because it's my church. The
Speaker 2: Lord said, he said, I'm inviting you say yes. So
Speaker 2: here is my yes Isaiah forty nine, verses one through four.
Speaker 1: The word of the Lord.
Speaker 2: Listen to me, you islands, hear this, you distant nations.
Speaker 2: Before I was born, the Lord called me from my
Speaker 2: mother's womb. He has spoken my name. He made my
Speaker 2: mouth like a sharpened sword. In the shadow of his hand.
Speaker 1: He hid me.
Speaker 2: He made me into a polished arrow, and concealed me
Speaker 2: in his quiver. He said to me, you are my
Speaker 2: servant Israel, and whom I will display my splendor. But
Speaker 2: I said, I have labored in vain. I have spent
Speaker 2: my strength for nothing at all. Who hasn't felt like that?
Speaker 2: Come on, who hasn't felt like that? Someday the servant
Speaker 2: of the Lord feels unappreciated and unseen, And he says, so,
Speaker 2: I have labored in vain. I have spent my strength
Speaker 2: for nothing at all. Keep reading, yet, and that's the
Speaker 2: word the devil doesn't want you to get to in
Speaker 2: this text. I said, I have labored in vain. I
Speaker 2: have spent my strength for nothing at all. Yet everybody hollered.
Speaker 1: Yet.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's an important word for this message today. So
Speaker 2: I want you to emphasize it. Just three letters, but
Speaker 2: say it with everything you got. Say yet, what is
Speaker 2: due me is in the Lord's hand, and my reward is.
Speaker 1: With my God.
Speaker 2: The word of the Lord. Do you receive it? The
Speaker 2: word of the Lord? For our eighteenth anniversary. Is this
Speaker 2: concealed but not canceled. Concealed but not canceled. I thank
Speaker 2: you for favor God as I preach this message. I
Speaker 2: thank you for penetration of these principles that have ministered
Speaker 2: to me. I thank you for each precious person that
Speaker 2: you brought into the room. And I thank you that
Speaker 2: you're going to do it like you always do, in
Speaker 2: a way that you've never done. And we will give
Speaker 2: you glory in Jesus' name. We praise you in advance. Hallelujah.
Speaker 2: It is so amen. Amen, you may be seated, concealed
Speaker 2: but not canceled. Now let me start this personally. A
Speaker 2: few years ago, I was going through one of those
Speaker 2: valley seasons of life and ministry that we all have
Speaker 2: to pass through, and I was throwing a pity party.
Speaker 2: And even though there were so many things to be
Speaker 2: grateful for in this ministry, I found myself doing a
Speaker 2: lot of avoiding what I know that God had assigned
Speaker 2: me to do. I know, I'm going quick, because you know,
Speaker 2: Graham's got to get out of here.
Speaker 1: He's the greatest.
Speaker 2: But just to start this off for the sake of
Speaker 2: time from a personal place, I was avoiding things that
Speaker 2: I had asked God to give me, and I started
Speaker 2: canceling things that were a priority in my life. I
Speaker 2: was talking to a friend about this, who's very wise
Speaker 2: and more experienced than me, and I told my friend,
Speaker 2: I just can't believe that, after all God has done
Speaker 2: for me, I can't find my motivation. And I'm grateful
Speaker 2: and I'm thankful, and I praise him for what he's done,
Speaker 2: but I guess I'm just getting lazy.
Speaker 1: My friend laughed.
Speaker 2: My friend said, anybody who's known you for five minutes
Speaker 2: knows there's not a lazy bone in your body. One
Speaker 2: of the hardest working people I've ever met in any profession.
Speaker 2: It's not that you're lazy, it's that you're afraid. You know,
Speaker 2: somebody can say something and all of a sudden, it's
Speaker 2: like they turn into Yoda and you say, tell me
Speaker 2: more about that.
Speaker 1: I'm not lazy. I'm afraid. Yeah, you're afraid. You're afraid.
Speaker 2: You're not motivated right now because you're afraid, and you're
Speaker 2: afraid because you have accumulated a few failures and disappointments,
Speaker 2: and so now you're not doing the thing that you're
Speaker 2: called to do not because you're lazy, bad, evil, wicked, hateful,
Speaker 2: or an apostate.
Speaker 1: You're not lazy, you're afraid.
Speaker 2: You're not showing up because you don't want to fall short.
Speaker 2: Turned around my entire view of it in that one
Speaker 2: conversation that the fear of falling short was keeping me
Speaker 2: from showing up. This passage that I read for an
Speaker 2: emotional context hopefully registered to you on multiple levels as
Speaker 2: I read it, where the servant of the Lord prophesying
Speaker 2: about Jesus ultimately but through the vehicle and the human
Speaker 2: vessel named Isaiah, who prophesied around the eighth century in
Speaker 2: a very perilous time, is sharing about his confidence in
Speaker 2: God's calling on his life. Just to mention it again,
Speaker 2: because after I read this scripture and point out a
Speaker 2: few things, I'm going to share it with you a
Speaker 2: story that will bring.
Speaker 1: It to life. He says, before I was born, the
Speaker 1: Lord called me.
Speaker 2: Everybody say called, and right now put it in the
Speaker 2: comment say called, and just personalize it and say I'm called.
Speaker 1: He said, from my.
Speaker 2: Mother's womb, he has spoken my name. He made my
Speaker 2: mouth like a sharpened sword in the shadow.
Speaker 1: Of his hand.
Speaker 2: He hid me me into a polished arrow and concealed
Speaker 2: me in his quiver. Now, what drew my attention to
Speaker 2: this text for our purpose today is that you can
Speaker 2: be called and concealed at the same time. You can
Speaker 2: be in the will of God but not feel God
Speaker 2: at the same time. And this draws my attention not
Speaker 2: only to Isaiah, but to all of the people that
Speaker 2: I pastor who feel sometimes like the hand of God
Speaker 2: has left your life.
Speaker 1: You know that He put you where he put you
Speaker 1: for a purpose.
Speaker 2: At a time, and then at times you go through
Speaker 2: seasons and maybe even just hours in the day where
Speaker 2: it feels as if the hand of.
Speaker 1: God has lifted.
Speaker 2: I should talk for a moment about the hand of
Speaker 2: God before we move on, because there is no other
Speaker 2: reason that I'm here celebrating the eighteenth anniversary of this
Speaker 2: church today as your pastor than the hand of God.
Speaker 1: The fact that I'm here and saying, and married.
Speaker 2: And not addicted to substances other than diet coke.
Speaker 1: Leave me alone about.
Speaker 2: It aspar dame or amphetamines. You decide, I'll drink the
Speaker 2: diet coke and stay married. No, it's the hand of
Speaker 2: God that I'm here, not my skill. It's the hand
Speaker 2: of God that I'm here, not my status. It's the
Speaker 2: hand of God that I'm here. This church was great
Speaker 2: before it was ever famous. We live in a time
Speaker 2: where fame is conflated with greatness, and people can't tell
Speaker 2: the two apart. But everything great is not famous, and
Speaker 2: everything famous is not great. Concealed, Isaiah said, concealed, and
Speaker 2: it's amazing because if you can get in this with me,
Speaker 2: it's going to be so beautiful when it pops off
Speaker 2: for you personally.
Speaker 1: He says that my reward is in God's hand.
Speaker 2: It is the hand of God that decides when I'm promoted.
Speaker 2: It is the hand of God that decides when the
Speaker 2: people come into my life, when the people exit from
Speaker 2: my life. God is deciding, and God is deciphering, and
Speaker 2: God is discerning, and God is developing with his hand.
Speaker 2: It was nothing but the hand of God. Say that
Speaker 2: it was nothing but the hand of God. Look at
Speaker 2: the person next to you and say, I know i'm pretty,
Speaker 2: I know I'm cute, I know i'm handsome, I know
Speaker 2: I'm charismatic, But none of that is what got me here.
Speaker 1: It was nothing but the hand of God. Yeah, my
Speaker 1: parents helped.
Speaker 2: Out, but it was his hand on them that got
Speaker 2: me through. It's nothing but the hand of God. It
Speaker 2: was nothing but the hand of God that got us
Speaker 2: through COVID as a church. It was nothing but the
Speaker 2: hand of God that got you through that divorce and
Speaker 2: kept you with the shred of your hope for love
Speaker 2: in the future. It was nothing but the hand of
Speaker 2: God that you got in the car drunk but still
Speaker 2: didn't die. Somehow an angel kept you alive. You know it,
Speaker 2: and I know it. So let's not pretend that we
Speaker 2: were so good and so gifted we came to praise
Speaker 2: him and lit our hands because it was.
Speaker 3: With hand.
Speaker 1: High five three people and say.
Speaker 2: It was nothing but the hand of God, nothing but
Speaker 2: the hand of God, nothing but the hand of God.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I heard.
Speaker 2: A saying one time, tell me, if you agree where
Speaker 2: God guides, he provides, is it true? Won't he do it?
Speaker 2: How many have a testimony. If you go down in
Speaker 2: the deepest valley, there will be grass in that valley
Speaker 2: because the good shepherd will never lead you somewhere, He
Speaker 2: won't feed you.
Speaker 1: His hand has provided.
Speaker 2: And I heard how the hand of God provided, and
Speaker 2: I heard how the hand of God gave, and I
Speaker 2: heard how the hand of God would provide. And I've
Speaker 2: seen how the hand of God can provide.
Speaker 1: What I had to.
Speaker 2: Realize in the moments of my discouragement and in the
Speaker 2: places of my deepest deficiency, is that the hand of
Speaker 2: God that provides is also the hand that hides. Isaiah said,
Speaker 2: I felt like it was all for nothing. The disciples
Speaker 2: who followed Jesus watched him go down into the ground,
Speaker 2: and the two on the road to Ammaeus. In Luke's Gospel,
Speaker 2: I believe about the twenty fourth chapter said it best.
Speaker 1: We had hoped he was the one, but they buried him.
Speaker 2: It was all for nothing to leave our boats in
Speaker 2: our nets and follow him. It was all for nothing
Speaker 2: to step out on faith. It was all for nothing
Speaker 2: to love that person who used my love.
Speaker 1: As leverage to hurt me. It was all.
Speaker 2: It made me feel like less of a little whiny
Speaker 2: baby brat that. Isaiah said. I know God made me,
Speaker 2: I know He's got me, and i know I'm in
Speaker 2: his hand. But look at verse two, so beautiful. I
Speaker 2: fought back to tears while I was preparing this message,
Speaker 2: because I wanted to save the emotion for our moment together,
Speaker 2: so we could feel it together. He said that God
Speaker 2: took me in his hand and he hid me. Isn't
Speaker 2: that The part that they never tell you about God's
Speaker 2: hand is that sometimes the greatest gift that He gives
Speaker 2: you is hiddenness. And so while we are here today
Speaker 2: on our eighteenth anniversary, thanking God for all the many.
Speaker 3: Ways, great is I faithfulness, Oh God, my Father, there
Speaker 3: is no shadow of turning with thee thout. Change is
Speaker 3: not thy compassions. They feel not as thou hast been,
Speaker 3: though forever will be all I have needed. Thy hand
Speaker 3: hath provided, Thy hand hath provided.
Speaker 2: And then that same hand that provides sometimes hides. I
Speaker 2: want to speak to everybody today who is in a
Speaker 2: season of your life where you sense that God is hidden,
Speaker 2: that you are hidden, and the reason you're going through
Speaker 2: what you're going through has not been revealed. Turn with
Speaker 2: me to the words of Isaiah, who said that God
Speaker 2: spoke of me before I was born, and made my
Speaker 2: mouth like a sharpened sword in the.
Speaker 1: Shadow of his hand. He hid me.
Speaker 2: He made me into a polished arrow, and concealed me
Speaker 2: in his quiver. Do you remember the first time you
Speaker 2: ever heard the phrase they got canceled. I remember very
Speaker 2: well someone saying that a major celebrity was canceled, and
Speaker 2: I said, what their shows off the air?
Speaker 1: They said, no, doesn't mean that.
Speaker 2: That's what it meant in the eighties, back when there
Speaker 2: used to be sitcoms. This is not full house. It
Speaker 2: means they were canceled. It means they did something wrong
Speaker 2: and they got canceled. I said they died. No, they
Speaker 2: got canceled. I said they got fired. No, they got canceled.
Speaker 2: I said, explain to me what it means. And what
Speaker 2: they showed me was comments that people were making about
Speaker 2: this person that were disagreeing with what the person did,
Speaker 2: and they called that canceled. Now, these comments were not
Speaker 2: coming from the chief executive officer of the company. They
Speaker 2: were coming from people who didn't even know the person.
Speaker 2: And they said they got canceled.
Speaker 1: And a little phrase went through me.
Speaker 2: And I want to see if I can get it
Speaker 2: to go through you too today. Man can't cancel what
Speaker 2: God created.
Speaker 1: Put that in the comments section. Let's do something good
Speaker 1: with the comment section.
Speaker 2: Repeat after me, man can't cancel.
Speaker 1: What God created? Or if you prefer the.
Speaker 2: Language of Isaiah, Man can't cancel what God is called.
Speaker 2: Now shout, I'm called. I was called before I got here.
Speaker 2: I was called before I blew it. I was called
Speaker 2: before I went through this sickness. I was called before
Speaker 2: I passed through these waters. I was called before I
Speaker 2: came to this challenge. So if I'm called by God,
Speaker 2: how can I be canceled by man? I understand we
Speaker 2: can lose a reputation and we need to have character.
Speaker 2: I understand we can make mistakes that have to suffer
Speaker 2: the consequences. I understand there's accountability for those who are
Speaker 2: in the public eye, but I'm not talking about those
Speaker 2: in the public eye.
Speaker 1: I'm talking about those who feel hidden in this season.
Speaker 2: Of your life, and you feel like nobody even cares
Speaker 2: that you're here. Because you're here, but you're hidden. Let
Speaker 2: me illustrate right now. There are frequencies going through the
Speaker 2: air making my voice go to your heart, hopefully your heart. First,
Speaker 2: it has to pass through your ears. And in order
Speaker 2: for the noise that is coming from my mouth, and
Speaker 2: I'm shouting way too loud, so let me modulate down.
Speaker 2: In order for the sound to reach you where I am,
Speaker 2: there must be vibrations. But the vibrations are not visible,
Speaker 2: and yet we all believe the vibrations because we know
Speaker 2: that the words that I'm speaking are going through the
Speaker 2: air and maybe into your heart or maybe in one
Speaker 2: ear and.
Speaker 1: Out the other.
Speaker 2: But something that is vibrating is creating something that is
Speaker 2: not visible.
Speaker 1: And it is proof for the fact that if God
Speaker 1: speaks a.
Speaker 2: Word over your life, you might not see it, but
Speaker 2: that doesn't mean it isn't here.
Speaker 1: Right now, I.
Speaker 2: Came to have an anniversary party for every word that
Speaker 2: God spoke over your life from the womb.
Speaker 1: He spoke it before you were you.
Speaker 2: You spoke it before you got your Social Security digits.
Speaker 1: He spoke it before you messed up the last relationship.
Speaker 1: He spoke it.
Speaker 2: And if he spoke it, and if he created it,
Speaker 2: and if he made.
Speaker 1: It, you can't mess it up.
Speaker 2: But so much, all right, all right, all right, Yesia.
Speaker 1: Let me teach you Sunday school story. Now. They let
Speaker 1: this one.
Speaker 2: Out of your Sunday school storyboard flannel graph textbooks, and
Speaker 2: it is quite possibly the most inappropriate story that I
Speaker 2: could share with you on such a glorious, beautiful occasion
Speaker 2: as an anniversary of a church on the eighteenth year.
Speaker 2: It involves a dagger, it involves a stabbing, it involves
Speaker 2: a king named Egglon and a warrior named Ehud.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go quit.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna go quick, but I gotta show you this.
Speaker 2: God has secret weapons. God has secret weapons. He has
Speaker 2: more than one way to win in your life. He
Speaker 2: has more than one way to make a difference in
Speaker 2: the world. So the Israelites were doing what they always did,
Speaker 2: turning away from God. They were turning away from the
Speaker 2: one who rescued them, turning away from the one who
Speaker 2: were deeming the Let's pick up the text in Judges
Speaker 2: chapter three, the most inappropriate anniversary Bible text. But I'm
Speaker 2: just a guest speaker today, so what do I know?
Speaker 2: The Lord took me to Judges chapter three, verse twelve. Again,
Speaker 2: the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord,
Speaker 2: And because they did this evil, the Lord gave Egglon,
Speaker 2: king of Moab, power over Israel. Now I want you
Speaker 2: to understand, the enemy has no power over you other
Speaker 2: than what you give him by your disobedience to God.
Speaker 2: Always remember that you're in God's hand. Say I'm in
Speaker 2: God's hand. He sharpened me in the shadow, he polished
Speaker 2: me in the secret place, getting me ready for such
Speaker 2: a time as this. Now, the Bible says in verse
Speaker 2: thirteen that God wanted to act on behalf of his people.
Speaker 2: So this king Eglon, he took a little too far.
Speaker 2: He got the Ammonites and the Malachites to join him.
Speaker 2: Eglon came and attacked Israel, and they took possession of
Speaker 2: the city of Palms. So they're under attack, and you
Speaker 2: may be too. You may be under attacked in your
Speaker 2: life right now. I think the biggest factor that determines
Speaker 2: whether you're under attack from the enemy is whether you're alive.
Speaker 2: So the answer to that is, yes, you're under attack
Speaker 2: in some way, shape or form. And it may be
Speaker 2: a long range attack, or it may be something that's
Speaker 2: happening immediately.
Speaker 1: But watch what happened in verse fourteen.
Speaker 2: The Israelites were subject to Egglon, king of Moab, for
Speaker 2: eighteen years.
Speaker 1: And now you see why I picked this passage that
Speaker 1: got my attention.
Speaker 2: Eighteen years and I'm like, yeah, but Lord, we hadn't
Speaker 2: been subject to Egglon for eighteen years because they were
Speaker 2: having to pay tribute and they were having to bring
Speaker 2: all this extra taxation to the king, and they were
Speaker 2: oppressed by him, and it.
Speaker 1: Was causing them great hardship.
Speaker 2: Now we're here today celebrating, of course, eighteen years of blessing.
Speaker 2: But let's see, before we finish this celebration, if there's
Speaker 2: a parallel for this eighteen years of oppression that Israel
Speaker 2: suffered and the victory God gave them, and the eighteen
Speaker 2: years of victory he's given us.
Speaker 1: Watched this verse fifteen again.
Speaker 2: The Israelites cried out to the Lord, and he gave
Speaker 2: them a deliverer, Ehud, a left handed man, the son
Speaker 2: of Garah, the Benjamin.
Speaker 1: And now we have.
Speaker 2: A completely confusing situation where God gives his people a
Speaker 2: gift that makes no sense. The tribe of Benjamin, Larry
Speaker 2: Bride will tell you, is literally known as the right
Speaker 2: handed tribe because Heaven, the name Benjamin literally means son
Speaker 2: of my right hand.
Speaker 1: That's what it means.
Speaker 2: So when God wanted to deliver his people, he sent
Speaker 2: them a left handed warrior.
Speaker 1: From a right handed tribe.
Speaker 2: This makes no sense. Repeat after me, This makes no sense.
Speaker 2: How many been feeling like that about a situation in
Speaker 2: your life right now?
Speaker 1: Now? This makes no sense.
Speaker 2: Why would God sharpen an arrow polish an arrow and
Speaker 2: then conceal it.
Speaker 1: In a quiver. Did you notice that Isaiah chapter.
Speaker 2: Forty nine, verse two said that God hid me in
Speaker 2: the quiver? Did you know that God has a quiver.
Speaker 2: The quiver is the pouch where the archer keeps his
Speaker 2: arrows so that he can carry them to the place
Speaker 2: so that when the time is right, the arrow can
Speaker 2: be launched.
Speaker 1: But until the arrow is ready to be launched, the
Speaker 1: arrow is kept in the quiver. And if you.
Speaker 2: Judge your potential by the quiver, you'll think I'm never
Speaker 2: going anywhere.
Speaker 1: If you judge watch.
Speaker 2: This the potential of your child by what they're struggling
Speaker 2: through in adolescents, you'll be preparing to give them money for.
Speaker 1: A homeless ministry named after them.
Speaker 2: But what if it is not a destination where they
Speaker 2: are right now? What if you have been cursing something
Speaker 2: in your life and.
Speaker 1: What you call a curse, God calls a quiver. So
Speaker 1: I came with a challenge. Church.
Speaker 2: Let me smile at you while I say it, don't.
Speaker 1: Curse your quiver. That's where God.
Speaker 2: Keeps his most valuable weapons, his secret weapons, his special weapons,
Speaker 2: his sharp weapons, his ready weapons, his capable weapons, his weapons.
Speaker 1: That no one will see. Come in.
Speaker 2: Now the Bible seems kind of brilliant because I understand
Speaker 2: that it is the shameful things that God uses to
Speaker 2: shame the strong, that it is the foolishness of the
Speaker 2: cross that God used to save the world. When he
Speaker 2: got ready to redeem us from our sin, he found
Speaker 2: a virgin womb.
Speaker 1: Why this makes no sense.
Speaker 2: When he got ready to take down a Philistine giant,
Speaker 2: he chose a shepherd boy who was hidden in a
Speaker 2: field coust this.
Speaker 1: Makes no sense.
Speaker 2: When he got ready to use somebody to liberate the
Speaker 2: Israelites from Egypt, he chose a murderer who was a fugitive.
Speaker 2: Why Because this makes no sense. And when this makes
Speaker 2: no sense, that's where.
Speaker 1: God can get the greatest glory.
Speaker 4: So he said, I gotta get a left handed warrior. Teezus,
Speaker 4: are you feeling this like I'm feeling this.
Speaker 1: Because somebody in here has the left hand?
Speaker 2: All your life in a right handed tribe, and you
Speaker 2: never really fit in, and you've never really been what
Speaker 2: you thought you were supposed to be, and you've never
Speaker 2: really had what you felt like you were supposed to have.
Speaker 2: And what other people do easily. You struggle, for you're
Speaker 2: a left handed warrior from a right handed tribe. And
Speaker 2: God looks across fifty thousand Bingjamite soldiers. They had about
Speaker 2: forty seven thousand swordsmen and only seven hundred lefties, and
Speaker 2: God said, I need a lefty for this. God is
Speaker 2: looking for lefties, and you're about to find out why.
Speaker 2: If you want to hear the rest of this message
Speaker 2: makes some holy ghost noise.
Speaker 1: Of this eighteen year old church.
Speaker 2: Eighteen year old church. And you know what happens when
Speaker 2: you turn eighteen. You can go to war when you
Speaker 2: turn eighteen. I believe God's about to raise up a warrior.
Speaker 2: As I've reached this word today. As a matter of fact,
Speaker 2: what's sat in your hand?
Speaker 1: What's sat in your hand? What's that in your hand?
Speaker 2: You look like a whapish Isaiah said he had me
Speaker 2: in the shadows, but he wasn't punishing me. He was
Speaker 2: polishing me. I'm not being punished. I'm being polished. That's
Speaker 2: his hand working on me. That's his hand sending me down.
Speaker 2: That's his hand too, hiding me for the right time.
Speaker 2: And when the right time comes, I'm going to be
Speaker 2: the right one for the right time because he hid
Speaker 2: me in his quiver. It's not a curse, it's a
Speaker 2: quiver loneliness. Sometimes it's because you feel left handed. One
Speaker 2: of my best friends he said that three words or
Speaker 2: they're not words, they're phrases.
Speaker 1: But he said three words, but he should have said
Speaker 1: three phrases describe.
Speaker 2: How he's felt his whole life, left out, looked over,
Speaker 2: and less than. Now understand this church for the historical
Speaker 2: context that if you were left handed in a right
Speaker 2: handed tribe, they didn't let you serve in the military
Speaker 2: except in a special position, and it wasn't the best position.
Speaker 1: So imagine all the times that.
Speaker 2: Ehud got looked over, left out, and felt less than.
Speaker 2: And the Israelites cried out to the Lord, and he
Speaker 2: gave them Verse fifteen Police. He gave them a deliverer
Speaker 2: from a place they weren't looking. He gave them what
Speaker 2: they had looked over. He gave them someone who had
Speaker 2: been left out. He gave them what they considered less than.
Speaker 2: And we regard Christ according to the flesh. We miss
Speaker 2: his glory because God will always wrap his favor in flesh.
Speaker 2: And when we look for God to do something, only
Speaker 2: from the right hand of what we consider a blessing.
Speaker 1: We miss what's on the left.
Speaker 2: Every time I'm trying to say, God's trying to give
Speaker 2: you stuff, but you're watching the wrong hand. You're waiting
Speaker 2: for everything to go right. But sometimes God wants to
Speaker 2: bless you from the left.
Speaker 1: Now do you see.
Speaker 2: Why I invited myself to preach this message, Because it's
Speaker 2: been eighteen years they've been struggling, and eighteen years they've
Speaker 2: been suffering. And for eighteen years God has been blessing
Speaker 2: this ministry. And for eighteen years it was nothing but
Speaker 2: his hand that kept us going.
Speaker 1: For eighteen years.
Speaker 2: And then they cried out and God sent them a
Speaker 2: blessing from the left.
Speaker 1: So WA's what happens when he goes.
Speaker 2: The Israelite sent him with tribute to Eglon, king of Moab.
Speaker 1: And I want you to picture this in your hand.
Speaker 2: Because this loaner called a loser, looked over and left out,
Speaker 2: This loaner called a loser, looked over and left out.
Speaker 2: That's not always just the way people talk about you.
Speaker 1: Sometimes that's the way you talk to yourself.
Speaker 2: This left handed warrior, this left handed judge, he takes
Speaker 2: the tribute to the enemy king.
Speaker 1: But verse sixteen says something kind of interesting.
Speaker 2: Now, Ehud, the left handed deliver had made a double
Speaker 2: edged sword about a cubit long uh huh, which he
Speaker 2: strapped to his right thigh under his clothing. So we
Speaker 2: called this conceal and carry all right, not making a
Speaker 2: political statement.
Speaker 1: This is just you know, they would have canceled the Bible.
Speaker 2: Isaiah would have got canceled, Paul would have got canceled.
Speaker 2: Jeremiah definitely would have got canceled.
Speaker 1: Some of the prophets were walking around naked. Cancel, cancel, cancel, cancel.
Speaker 1: Some of us have canceled culture in our heart.
Speaker 2: And anything that doesn't look like, oh yeah, I'm coming
Speaker 2: for him this morning, Mama, I'm coming for him on
Speaker 2: my eighteenth birthday. I didn't come here just to blow
Speaker 2: a kazou. I came here to break a chain, because
Speaker 2: every once in a while you have canceled out something
Speaker 2: that God came to give you, and.
Speaker 1: You keep canceling. He carried a weapon in to deliver
Speaker 1: his people, and.
Speaker 2: It was first of all, it was concealed. Everybody say concealed.
Speaker 2: He put it under his clothing. Watch what he did.
Speaker 2: Verse seventeen. He presented the tribute to Eglon, king of Moab,
Speaker 2: who was a very fat man. I didn't call him
Speaker 2: the Bible did. Don't cancel me, cancel judges. He was
Speaker 2: a fat man. You couldn't even read the Bible if
Speaker 2: it was written today. He was a fat man. So
Speaker 2: I un presented the tribute. Here's your stuff.
Speaker 1: We hate you eighteen years of slavery. Keep going, And
Speaker 1: he sent the.
Speaker 2: Rest of them on their way, because sometimes you got
Speaker 2: to do what God gave you to do and nobody's
Speaker 2: gonna get it, but you still got to do it.
Speaker 1: So he sent them.
Speaker 2: Away and they carried it out, but on reaching the
Speaker 2: stone images near Gilgal, he himself went back to Aglon
Speaker 2: and said, your.
Speaker 1: Majesty, I have a secret message for you.
Speaker 2: And the king said to his attendant Lebos, and they
Speaker 2: all left. And he had then approached him while he
Speaker 2: was sitting alone in the upper room of his palace,
Speaker 2: and said, I have a message from God for you,
Speaker 2: and the king gets up from his seat. Stop knowing nothing,
Speaker 2: because if they came in from the tribe of Benjamin,
Speaker 2: they were probably searched for weapons, but the warriors always
Speaker 2: carried the weapon on the opposite leg that they intended
Speaker 2: to draw it from. So if you come in here
Speaker 2: from a right handed tribe, we're gonna check your left thigh.
Speaker 2: But God told him to strap it to the right one.
Speaker 2: That was the unchecked leg. That was the one nobody
Speaker 2: thought to look for. That was the thing that they
Speaker 2: didn't even see as a threat. That was the thing
Speaker 2: that's nuck in unexpected. There are some of you who
Speaker 2: are in here today and you are checking the wrong leg.
Speaker 2: You are checking the wrong source, you are checking the circumstance.
Speaker 2: But God, when he gets ready to deliver his people
Speaker 2: from eighteen years of captivity, he uses somebody who can conceal.
Speaker 1: Everybody say, conceal the weapon on his right leg. Why
Speaker 1: his right leg?
Speaker 2: Verse twenty one tells us because when the moment came,
Speaker 2: he had reached with his rejected hand, with his weak hand,
Speaker 2: with his left out hand, with his looked.
Speaker 1: Overhand, with his less than hand.
Speaker 2: You keep thinking, God, he's going to use your special strength.
Speaker 2: He's going to use your secret weakness as a secret webbit.
Speaker 2: And old fat Egglon never saw it come in, Old Egglon,
Speaker 2: he didn't check that right leg, did he? And verse
Speaker 2: twenty one says he took that sword that he made
Speaker 2: himself from his right thig Boone plunged it into the
Speaker 2: king's big old king Hippo belly walked out, blew a trumpet,
Speaker 2: got ten thousand mobabides dead, and the land had.
Speaker 1: Rest for eighty years. Why Why did God give them
Speaker 1: the victory? How?
Speaker 2: How did God give them the victory? It was from
Speaker 2: something concealed. Not only was it concealed, it was crossed.
Speaker 2: It came from the other side, which was the right side.
Speaker 2: You don't get it. You're the right one for this,
Speaker 2: And what you think is wrong with you is what
Speaker 2: makes you right for this. What was your Hey, work
Speaker 2: on yourself, get yourself better, do what you can do
Speaker 2: to increase your strengths. But know in the meantime that
Speaker 2: you serve a god who gave a victory to a
Speaker 2: nation over an eighteen year problem, and he used a
Speaker 2: left handed warrior that nobody saw come in.
Speaker 1: So turn to your.
Speaker 2: Neighbor and say, look to the left, because it's going
Speaker 2: to come from in this season, and unexpected place. It's
Speaker 2: going to come from in this season, and unexpected blessing.
Speaker 1: It's going to come from.
Speaker 2: In this season, an unexpected experience. It's coming from the left.
Speaker 2: It's a concealed weapon. Everybody say concealed, and he crossed it.
Speaker 2: Everybody say crossed. But I gotta show you.
Speaker 1: One more thing.
Speaker 2: Not only was it concealed, and not only was it
Speaker 2: crossed where it came from the other side, But the
Speaker 2: Bible says that this dagger, this sword in verse sixteen.
Speaker 1: Was about a cubit. And I had to look up.
Speaker 1: I'm just being honest.
Speaker 2: I don't remember they talked to me, probably in seminary,
Speaker 2: but I forgot.
Speaker 1: I had to look up how big is a cubit? Actually,
Speaker 1: what I googled was how big is a cubit? In
Speaker 1: American I don't want them meters? Well, I look like
Speaker 1: international annoying thing.
Speaker 2: No, how big was the instrument that ended eighteen years
Speaker 2: of oppression?
Speaker 1: And Google told.
Speaker 2: Me something, and God told me something, and Google told me.
Speaker 1: That a cubit is eighteen inches.
Speaker 2: I said, what now, we're celebrating eighteen years eighteen years.
Speaker 1: And honest, eighteen No, that's another Bible verse.
Speaker 2: Eighteen years of captivity ended with eighteen inches of faith.
Speaker 2: So you mean to tell me that for every year
Speaker 2: they were oppressed, e Hud made a weapon an inch bigger.
Speaker 2: An inch for every year, an inch for every year.
Speaker 1: Do you know how long eighteen years is?
Speaker 2: That's as long as my oldest son has been alive.
Speaker 1: Do you know how long eighteen years is?
Speaker 2: Eighteen years is seventy two summer, springs, winter and falls.
Speaker 2: That's eighteen years. Eighteen years is a long time. Is
Speaker 2: six thousand, five hundred and seventy four days.
Speaker 1: That's eighteen years.
Speaker 2: That's one one hundred and fifty seven thousand, seven hundred
Speaker 2: and eighty eight hours.
Speaker 1: That's eighteen years.
Speaker 2: That's nine million, four hundred and sixty three thousand, two
Speaker 2: hundred and eighty minutes. And all of a sudden, ten
Speaker 2: million minutes of oppression ended. Eighteen years of oppression ended
Speaker 2: because of eighteen inches in the left hand, not.
Speaker 1: The right hand. So God said, on this eighteenth year
Speaker 1: anniversary of elevation, Church, what do you have in your hand?
Speaker 1: It's enough?
Speaker 2: Eighteen years is long, eighteen inches is short.
Speaker 1: But isn't this what God always does to use the
Speaker 1: small thing to take down the big thing?
Speaker 2: Isn't this what He always does, taking the mystery of
Speaker 2: the gospel to mystify the scholar and the wisdom of
Speaker 2: this age, to confound it to be brought to note.
Speaker 2: So I came to remind this church that God called
Speaker 2: me to pastor this year.
Speaker 1: This is a church that.
Speaker 2: Believes in eighteen inch miracles.
Speaker 1: Hallelujah Jesus.
Speaker 2: Eighteen inches is all it took for eighteen years to
Speaker 2: come to an end.
Speaker 1: Eighteen inches, they say.
Speaker 2: They say that the greatest journey and the longest trip
Speaker 2: in human experience is eighteen inches from the head to
Speaker 2: the heart. These numbers are approximate, but the truth is
Speaker 2: very relevant because some of you are eighteen inches away
Speaker 2: from faith. Isaiah said, I know he called me in
Speaker 2: my head. I know he chose me before I was born.
Speaker 2: But sometimes my heart gets discouraged and I say to myself,
Speaker 2: I spent my strength in vain. It was all for nothing.
Speaker 2: Have you ever felt that way? I feel that way
Speaker 2: sometimes talking to you. But I have to remember now,
Speaker 2: and you have to remember eighteen inches takes time, and
Speaker 2: some of the things that you believe in your head
Speaker 2: haven't made it to your heart yet. And when they do,
Speaker 2: when you really believe that I'm not less than I'm
Speaker 2: left handed, they say I'm weird.
Speaker 1: God says, I'm wired by him. The Master workman.
Speaker 2: And if I can find a way to preach to
Speaker 2: you over the next few weeks as.
Speaker 1: I launch my book, Do the New You, I'm.
Speaker 5: Going to try to get you to see that God
Speaker 5: has brought you to this moment of your life because
Speaker 5: you are a weapon in his hand to do good
Speaker 5: for His kingdom.
Speaker 1: So the next time you feel.
Speaker 2: Like Isaiah and you feel concealed and you say, God,
Speaker 2: I can't see how it's going to work out, and
Speaker 2: I don't see how it's going to happen, and I'll
Speaker 2: see why I have to go through this. Remember it's concealed,
Speaker 2: but it's not canceled. It is still active in your life.
Speaker 2: And this weapon of the double edged sword of the
Speaker 2: Word of God is in your hand today. For Isaiah said,
Speaker 2: and I echo, Yet what is.
Speaker 1: Due mean is in the Lord's hand.
Speaker 2: Stop looking at how small it is in your hand,
Speaker 2: and start realizing how powerful.
Speaker 1: His hand is.
Speaker 2: He's got you in his hand, Church, He's got us
Speaker 2: in his hand. I've seen it in the baptism tank.
Speaker 2: I've seen it in the boardroom. I've seen it at
Speaker 2: the bottom, I've seen it in the breakthrough. I'm still
Speaker 2: in his hand. And if you know you're in his hand,
Speaker 2: Lift your hands and give him.
Speaker 1: Praise for eighteen years. Thank you for joining us.
Speaker 2: Special thanks to those of you who give generously to
Speaker 2: this ministry.
Speaker 1: Is because of you that this ministry is possible.
Speaker 2: You can click the link in the description to give now,
Speaker 2: or visit Elevation Church dot org slash pots for more information.
Speaker 1: And if you enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe. You
Speaker 1: can share it with your friends.
Speaker 2: You can click the share button, take a screenshot and
Speaker 2: share it on your social stories and tag us at
Speaker 2: Elevation Church.
Speaker 1: Thanks again for listening. God bless you.