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. How good it is to be in
Speaker 1: God's house today? Anybody thankful to be in the Lord's
Speaker 1: House on this Sunday morning, Clap your hands. I want
Speaker 1: to welcome you to church right here. I'm at the
Speaker 1: Balantine campus, but all of our friends on the e
Speaker 1: Fam and really all over the world, all of our
Speaker 1: locations were so grateful that you're tuning in. And I'm
Speaker 1: just thinking about the Psalmist as he says, Oh, I
Speaker 1: want to magnify the Lord. Let us exalt his holy name.
Speaker 1: How many of you know that whatever you magnify in
Speaker 1: your life gets bigger. There's something about as we begin
Speaker 1: to worship God, we start making the name of God
Speaker 1: bigger and bigger. In our situation. You might have some problems,
Speaker 1: but come on, your God is bigger than every problem
Speaker 1: you have. Come on and give him praise. And today
Speaker 1: I think it's powerful that you're in church. To the
Speaker 1: Psalmi stays, let us, let us exalt his holy name.
Speaker 1: You know that faith is not just individual. Faith is communal.
Speaker 1: That we need each other. And today, as we've gathered
Speaker 1: in God's house, I believe he's right here with us,
Speaker 1: and he's gonna minister, He's gonna speak to us. Can
Speaker 1: we thank God for just the best worship team ever?
Speaker 1: Shout out to Leland in the house, My friend Leland.
Speaker 1: Leland sings like he's in heaven. I don't know some
Speaker 1: of those notes that he is, but I'm like, dear Jesus,
Speaker 1: Dear Jesus, my name is Rich. If we've never met before,
Speaker 1: I hail from Miami, Florida. I lead a church called
Speaker 1: Voo Church. And what an honor. Thank you so much,
Speaker 1: What an honor it is to be with you today.
Speaker 1: And if you've got a Bible, quickly turned to the
Speaker 1: book of Deuteronomy. We're gonna read God's word from a
Speaker 1: standing position this morning. Deuteronomy chapter twenty. I want to
Speaker 1: give you one verse and then we're going to look
Speaker 1: at about eight verses today. And as you're turning there,
Speaker 1: it is always such a great privilege and such a
Speaker 1: great honor to stand behind this pulpit. I thank God
Speaker 1: for this house, and I thank God for the ministry,
Speaker 1: the life and the leadership of Pastor Stephen and Holly Ferdick.
Speaker 1: It is Pastor Appreciation Month, and your pastor is not
Speaker 1: just your pastor, but really he pastors so many people
Speaker 1: all around the world. Can we thank God for his
Speaker 1: life and can we thank God for his ministry? Can
Speaker 1: we clap our hands and make some noise today? It's
Speaker 1: always funny preaching at elevation because there's very few pulpits
Speaker 1: in the world that when you walk up to it,
Speaker 1: there's almost like a gasp, like, Oh, someone drove in
Speaker 1: today from Omaha and they were hoping to hear Pastor
Speaker 1: Steven and you got rich. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, but
Speaker 1: I do believe that God's going to minister to us.
Speaker 1: And I was thinking about your pastor walking in because
Speaker 1: for me, as as I come here year after year,
Speaker 1: I get excited to share the word, but equally I
Speaker 1: get excited to take a month just to put honor
Speaker 1: where honor is due. I remember some years ago when
Speaker 1: the Miami Heat when they were good pray for him.
Speaker 1: They were in the Eastern conference finals, and my dad
Speaker 1: he scored some tickets, and my dad's balling on a budget,
Speaker 1: and so he got us nosebleed tickets. In fact, we
Speaker 1: weren't just we weren't sitting up high. In fact, the
Speaker 1: seats he had to stand up in the arena. Okay,
Speaker 1: but we were just happy to be in the room.
Speaker 1: But I remember watching the game from a distance. It
Speaker 1: was almost like watching the game on delay. You're so
Speaker 1: far away from the court. There was a couple of
Speaker 1: times I was like, I bet I could hang with
Speaker 1: these guys. That's from a distance. Since that time, I've
Speaker 1: had a couple opportunities to sit on the court. And
Speaker 1: how ma y'all know, sitting on the court, sitting on
Speaker 1: the wood is a totally different game. You can see
Speaker 1: guys sweat drop, you can hear what they're saying. One time,
Speaker 1: I was like, foul and the guy looked at me.
Speaker 1: I just sat down, never spoke again. Okay, I was like,
Speaker 1: here's what I want to hear. Same game, different perspective.
Speaker 1: Proximity brings perspective. And let me just say, as a
Speaker 1: friend of this house, I've been up close and personal
Speaker 1: with your pastor. He is a man of faith. He's
Speaker 1: a man of integrity, he is a man of courage,
Speaker 1: and I'm so grateful for what God has done in
Speaker 1: his life for me. He's one of my heroes. He's
Speaker 1: someone that I look up to and I just always
Speaker 1: want to say to Elevation Church, you better take care
Speaker 1: of that man. Pray for him, stand with him. We
Speaker 1: love your pastor, Steve, and a pastor all like. Come on,
Speaker 1: he makes the noise if we're grateful. It's a life
Speaker 1: for the leadership a pastor Stephen Hollyford. We love you, guys.
Speaker 1: We got your back today. Let me give you one
Speaker 1: verse today and I'm gonna preach it like I feel it,
Speaker 1: and I feel it today. Deuteronomy chapter twenty, verse one.
Speaker 1: It says this, when you go to war against your
Speaker 1: enemies and see horses and chariots and an army greater
Speaker 1: than yours, do not be afraid of them because the
Speaker 1: Lord your God. Oh I like this, because the Lord
Speaker 1: your God, who brought you up out of Egypt, will
Speaker 1: be with you. Yeah, you should just clap your hands.
Speaker 1: Is that good? Is that good? I want to speak
Speaker 1: for a few moments. Say from this subject, When before
Speaker 1: you begin, when before you begin, would you pray to
Speaker 1: the Lord, thank you for your word. God. We believe
Speaker 1: it's sharper than any double edged sword. Speak to us now, Lord,
Speaker 1: as we read it, we invite it to read us.
Speaker 1: Maybe we leave here different from how we came. Speak
Speaker 1: to us. We love you, we praise you. And all
Speaker 1: of God's people said, all of God's people said, if
Speaker 1: you love Jesus, make a little bit of noise today,
Speaker 1: all right, high five a couple of people and say
Speaker 1: you're gonna win. Say you're gonna win. In the chat,
Speaker 1: say you're gonna win. You're gonna win, You're gonna win,
Speaker 1: win before you begin. I love the fact that all
Speaker 1: throughout the scripture God invites us and tells us that
Speaker 1: we're going to win. But notice he never says that
Speaker 1: we won't have to fight. In fact, the longer I
Speaker 1: walk with Jesus, the more and more I recognize that
Speaker 1: the Christian life is not a dance. It's a battle.
Speaker 1: And the first battle that we must always fight is
Speaker 1: not an external one. It's always an internal one. It's
Speaker 1: always the battle in your mind that you have to fight,
Speaker 1: the war on the inside. I think many times we
Speaker 1: go I want to change my life. Listen, you don't
Speaker 1: change your life by changing your life. You change your
Speaker 1: life by changing your mind. How many out there you
Speaker 1: could just use some more peace? Anyone? Just you could
Speaker 1: use a little more peace in twenty eight Not me, pastor,
Speaker 1: I'm good, you know. I think most people I talked
Speaker 1: to could use more peace in twenty twenty five. It
Speaker 1: seems like everyone I talked to is dealing with this
Speaker 1: mild grade of anxiety, this this little level of just
Speaker 1: a restless soul. And in fact, you can just see
Speaker 1: it as you talk to people like you ever asked
Speaker 1: one how you doing? How you doing busy? Oh, moms
Speaker 1: are busy, you know, dads are busy. Everyone talk to you,
Speaker 1: how you doing busy? I talk to a student in
Speaker 1: our youth industry today, sixteen years of age, just how
Speaker 1: you doing? Brothers busy? I was like, Bro, you're sixteen.
Speaker 1: You ain't got no job, you ain't got no wife,
Speaker 1: you ain't got no kids. You aren't busy, you know.
Speaker 1: But I think he speaks to a culture that's moving
Speaker 1: so fast that what comes up and spills out of
Speaker 1: his life is a restlessness of going. I could use
Speaker 1: some more peace. Anybody thankful for a God that says
Speaker 1: you can be warring on the outside, but you can
Speaker 1: still have peace that passes all understanding on the inside.
Speaker 1: My Bible says that his peace tra sends understanding. Let
Speaker 1: me make that modern day. You might be in a
Speaker 1: battle today that doesn't make any sense. You might be
Speaker 1: up against a challenge today that is illogical. But praise
Speaker 1: God for Jesus, we can be right there in the
Speaker 1: midst of something that is illogical, but right smack in
Speaker 1: the middle, he can give you a piece that doesn't
Speaker 1: make any sense. I need you to clap your hands,
Speaker 1: stir your faith a little bit today. God wants you
Speaker 1: to win on the inside before you ever see a
Speaker 1: win on the outside. Deuteronomy chapter twenty is powerful because
Speaker 1: if you knowing about the Book of Deuteronomy, it is
Speaker 1: the book of instruction that God is giving his law,
Speaker 1: He's given his commands. And here in Deuteronomy twenty, what
Speaker 1: we're discovering is that Moses is giving a battle briefing
Speaker 1: before they go into war, which I like that it's
Speaker 1: like before they actually step into a fight, he's giving
Speaker 1: them instruction. He's teaching them how to win before they begin.
Speaker 1: And what's really interesting, as he begins to teach long
Speaker 1: before he actually puts weapons in their hands. He's wanting
Speaker 1: them to win the war in their head before he
Speaker 1: puts weapons in their hands. He wants to be with
Speaker 1: the worry in their heart. I think as we teach
Speaker 1: in this day and age, I think we all need
Speaker 1: a framework from wherever we're operating from that we're not
Speaker 1: fighting for victory. We're fighting from victory. And the only
Speaker 1: way you're gonna fight from victory is when you actually
Speaker 1: believe that God is for you. I know that kind
Speaker 1: of sounds maybe cliche to some people, but many people
Speaker 1: don't live with that revelation God is for you. Recently,
Speaker 1: I had a little battle briefing of my own in
Speaker 1: my house, not with soldiers, but with my children. I've
Speaker 1: got four kids, Wyat, Wild, Whalen, and Wolfgang. His name
Speaker 1: is Wilkerson. That those were preacher's kids. Right there, everything's
Speaker 1: got a rhyme or being alliteration, and I had to
Speaker 1: grab the three bigs. I had to do a briefing
Speaker 1: with them. I had gotten information from the babysitter that
Speaker 1: particularly my daughter Waylan, had been pretty difficult all day long,
Speaker 1: and so in my house I am the general if
Speaker 1: you know what I'm I'm about. And so I lined
Speaker 1: him up and I said, Waylon Wesley Wilkerson, I said,
Speaker 1: were you being bad today? Is this really true? That
Speaker 1: you were throwing tantrums like this? And all of a
Speaker 1: sudden she just turned instantly into these beautiful princess tres Daddy,
Speaker 1: I don't remember any other parents out there. Your kids
Speaker 1: got short term amnesia. You don't remember. So I looked
Speaker 1: at her older brother. His name is Wild, and trust me,
Speaker 1: he lives up for the name Wild. I said, yo, Wild,
Speaker 1: was your sister bad today? He looked at me and said, oh, Dad,
Speaker 1: it's been such a long day, homie. It's two fifteen
Speaker 1: in the afternoon. I love my son Wild because what's
Speaker 1: interesting is that Wild can fight all day long with
Speaker 1: his sister, But the moment he senses that there is
Speaker 1: judgment or someone potentially coming after his sister, he says,
Speaker 1: not on my watch. Let me tell you something. Brothers protect,
Speaker 1: but fathers fight. And I need some people in this
Speaker 1: room to understand that when the enemy comes after your life,
Speaker 1: whatever battle is coming your way, you need to settle
Speaker 1: once and for all. There is a god who says
Speaker 1: I will be with you. I will get into that
Speaker 1: fight and I will fight on your behalf. So before
Speaker 1: the enemy attacks, before the temptation comes, why not settle
Speaker 1: it in your heart? God is for me. And if
Speaker 1: God is for me, come on, who can be against me?
Speaker 1: Clap your hands, give God some praise in this house.
Speaker 1: When before you begin, I want to make a couple
Speaker 1: of observations, and I want you to take some notes.
Speaker 1: But the scripture begins here in verse one, and Moses
Speaker 1: comes out, and the instruction is when you go to war,
Speaker 1: not if, but when, because you need to understand that
Speaker 1: battles in life are not optional, they are inevitable. Like
Speaker 1: you don't get to choose the fight. All you get
Speaker 1: to choose is how you'll show up to the fight.
Speaker 1: How you're going to show up to this fight? And
Speaker 1: notice what it is that he says. He says, when
Speaker 1: you go to war against your enemies and you see
Speaker 1: horses and chariots and an army greater than yours, please
Speaker 1: write this down today. Don't let what you see shake
Speaker 1: what you know. Don't let what you see shake what
Speaker 1: you know. When you see the chariots and when you
Speaker 1: see an army of yours, how y'all know that fear
Speaker 1: begins with your sight. What you see. It starts in
Speaker 1: your eyes, and then it moves to your mind. Is
Speaker 1: there anybody out there like me that all of a
Speaker 1: sudden you can see something, and as you see it,
Speaker 1: you can make it far worse. Your imagination can run
Speaker 1: in the wrong direction. You can take one little thing
Speaker 1: that you see and turning it into an entire Netflix series.
Speaker 1: Just me. You see a text left on red and like,
Speaker 1: that's it. Relationships over, I'm gonna be living with my
Speaker 1: parents forever. You see one unexpected build, that's it. I'm done.
Speaker 1: I'm never gonna make it. Dave Ramsey was right about me.
Speaker 1: You see one uncomfortable conversation at work, like that's it.
Speaker 1: They're gonna fire me. They're probably clearing out my desk
Speaker 1: right now. Why is it? It's because it's not just
Speaker 1: what we see. We don't just things. We script things.
Speaker 1: We have a tendency that something begins with our sight.
Speaker 1: But then all of a sudden, it's not the sight
Speaker 1: that's the problem. It's the story we attach to the sight.
Speaker 1: And here it is God saying, if you want to win,
Speaker 1: before you begin, do not let what you see shake
Speaker 1: what you know. You're gonna have to understand that faith
Speaker 1: doesn't deny what you see. It's just confidence in what
Speaker 1: you already know. Yes, I see chariots, but I know
Speaker 1: my God. Yes I see problems in front of me,
Speaker 1: but I know his promises. Yes, I see the odds
Speaker 1: are stacked up against me, but I know the one
Speaker 1: who has already overcome. Is there anybody in this house
Speaker 1: who says I want to have an unshakable kind of faith?
Speaker 1: Listen to the command. He says, do not be afraid.
Speaker 1: Do you know that this is the most common command
Speaker 1: in all of Scripture, Some three hundred and sixty five
Speaker 1: times the Bible says do not be a Why Because
Speaker 1: the Bible wants to remind you every day of the
Speaker 1: year not to be afraid. Because if fear doesn't take
Speaker 1: a day off, faith shouldn't take one either. And it's
Speaker 1: not just what you see, it's what you say. And
Speaker 1: you ought to start getting good at saying God's word
Speaker 1: over every situation of your life. I will not fear.
Speaker 1: The Lord is my Light and my salvation. Whom shall
Speaker 1: I fear? Yay, though I walk through the valley of
Speaker 1: the shadow of death, Oh Come on. I'm gonna preach
Speaker 1: myself happy. I will not fear anybody out there today
Speaker 1: in a valley. You could be in a valley and
Speaker 1: bright there from the valley to Clare, I will not
Speaker 1: be afraid. I know who my God is. Not just
Speaker 1: what you see, it's what you say. But fear shakes us,
Speaker 1: faith stands. Do you ever play that game Jenga? I
Speaker 1: can't play it anymore. It increases my anxiety. When that
Speaker 1: thing starts wabbling, I'm like, oh no, it's like Rich,
Speaker 1: it's not a real tower, man, chill out. But what
Speaker 1: I've learned about the game is as you pull out bricks,
Speaker 1: the top can be wabbling. But watch this. If the
Speaker 1: foundation is sturdy, it doesn't fall. I want to encourage
Speaker 1: you today that faith does not deny what you see. Faith
Speaker 1: doesn't even stop the shaking. What faith does is it
Speaker 1: gives you sturdy and stable ground to stand on. I
Speaker 1: want you to see the sturdy ground that Moses gave.
Speaker 1: Moses said it this way. He says, do not be
Speaker 1: afraid of them, because the Lord, your God, who brought
Speaker 1: you up out of Egypt, will be with you. See.
Speaker 1: This is the thing with faith. Faith firmly looks at
Speaker 1: a situation and it can be shaking, but it makes
Speaker 1: it decision that I'm building my life on the word
Speaker 1: of God, on the rock of God. And so I
Speaker 1: don't always know what it is that God is doing.
Speaker 1: I can't even always see what God is doing, but
Speaker 1: I do know what He's done. And here comes Moses.
Speaker 1: He's like, I know you can't see the battle in
Speaker 1: front of us about how God's going to do it,
Speaker 1: but you do know what he has done. So you
Speaker 1: might not be able to see God's plan, but you
Speaker 1: do know his power. And you might not be able
Speaker 1: to see your future right now, but come on, you
Speaker 1: can remember your freedom. And you might not be exactly
Speaker 1: where you want to be, but can anybody testify you
Speaker 1: know you are not where you used to be. What
Speaker 1: a miracle he came and found me. I want to
Speaker 1: encourage you to operate in faith today because you don't
Speaker 1: have to see what he's doing, but you know what
Speaker 1: he's done. You know enough about God to understand He's
Speaker 1: gonna get you through this thing. If he brought you
Speaker 1: up out of Egypt, he'll bring you through whatever circumstance
Speaker 1: you're in now. If he parted the red sea. He
Speaker 1: could part your situation. If he was faithful back then,
Speaker 1: he'll be faithful right now. If he did it, then
Speaker 1: anybody believe he could do it again. Don't let what
Speaker 1: you see shake what you know. But watch what Moses
Speaker 1: does here as he continues to speak. Let's look at
Speaker 1: verse two. I haven't read this to you yet. Verse
Speaker 1: two says this, when you're about to go into battle,
Speaker 1: the priest shall come forward and address the army. He
Speaker 1: shall say, here Israel today. You are going into battle
Speaker 1: against the enemies. Do not be faint hearted or afraid.
Speaker 1: Do not panic or be terrified by them. Write this down.
Speaker 1: This is important. Don't let your worry be louder than
Speaker 1: God's word. This is unique. They're about to go to battle.
Speaker 1: They don't send out a general, they don't send out
Speaker 1: a colonel. There's no sergeant that comes out. Moses sends
Speaker 1: out the priest. Can you imagine if you're in that army, like, well,
Speaker 1: what's up here? What's going on here? You're sending out priests. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's because every warrior needs a preacher before the war.
Speaker 1: The word. That's what I love about Sunday is I'm
Speaker 1: so proud of you for being in church today. I'm
Speaker 1: so proud that that's the habit of your life, because
Speaker 1: as we gather here today, we're not just merely putting
Speaker 1: on a church service. This is the briefing before the battle.
Speaker 1: This is the strategy, and God's strategy is his spirit.
Speaker 1: I don't think i'm speaking to spectators. I think I'm
Speaker 1: speaking to soldiers. Anybody fighting for something today, anybody fighting
Speaker 1: for purpose, fighting for your calling, fighting for peace, fighting
Speaker 1: for joy, anyone fighting for their marriage, fighting for their family.
Speaker 1: Are there some dads out there that are fighting for
Speaker 1: their it's going If you're a fighter in this house,
Speaker 1: clap your hands for fighting. It's funny. Sometimes on Instagram
Speaker 1: people will comment at me, why are you always yelling?
Speaker 1: Calm down, bro? And I'm like, I'm yelling because every
Speaker 1: week when people come into church, I want to make
Speaker 1: sure that my voice is louder than whatever they've been
Speaker 1: up against all week long. I want you to know
Speaker 1: there is a God who is for you. There's a
Speaker 1: God who's fighting for you. You don't have to be afraid.
Speaker 1: Keth's gonna get you through this thing. Because we live
Speaker 1: in a noisy world, and all week long, you're gonna
Speaker 1: leave here, and you're gonna tune off from the link
Speaker 1: today and all week long you're gonna be doing with
Speaker 1: algorithms and people at work, and all of the voices
Speaker 1: you're gonna hear is gonna be the voice of worry.
Speaker 1: Even some of you right now listening today, it's your
Speaker 1: own inner critic that speaks to you, and it's the
Speaker 1: voice of worry all day long. That word worry comes
Speaker 1: from an Anglo Saxon word, which means to strangle. How
Speaker 1: many of us were just we're being strangled by worry.
Speaker 1: We're being strangled by the pressures of this life. I
Speaker 1: wonder what's louder in your life? God's word or you'll worry?
Speaker 1: Write this down. This is important. What you repeat in
Speaker 1: peace will become your reflex under pressure. Let me say
Speaker 1: that one more time. Put it in the chat. What
Speaker 1: you repeat in peace will become your reflex under pressure.
Speaker 1: This is really important because when life hits you, what's
Speaker 1: going to come out of you? We could look at
Speaker 1: the life of Jesus right Jesus in the wilderness. Remember
Speaker 1: that after Matthew three, he's baptized and the Father speaks
Speaker 1: over him, and immediately he goes into the wilderness to
Speaker 1: be tempted by Satan. Notice, whenever Satan comes to attack you,
Speaker 1: he always attack your identity. So the last thing that
Speaker 1: Jesus heard the Father say is this is my son,
Speaker 1: whom I love, and I'm well pleased. The first thing
Speaker 1: out of the enemy's mouth is if you are the
Speaker 1: son of God, gets you to question, what's this the
Speaker 1: word of God? And what you'll see there in the wilderness.
Speaker 1: Jesus was tempted for forty days. And what Jesus is
Speaker 1: actually doing is he's illustrating for us how to win.
Speaker 1: Because remember the Israelites, they went into a wilderness for
Speaker 1: forty years, and they had been given the Book of Deuteronomy,
Speaker 1: the Book of Instruction, but they never obeyed it, they
Speaker 1: never used it, they never applied it, and they found
Speaker 1: themselves delayed forever, never getting out an entire generation. But
Speaker 1: here comes Jesus, and he doesn't take forty years. All
Speaker 1: he needs is forty days. And every time the enemy
Speaker 1: comes and tempts him, all Jesus does is he says,
Speaker 1: it is written. Why because it is written before it
Speaker 1: is one, the word of God must come first. And
Speaker 1: what's really fascinating is that as you study that entire
Speaker 1: dialogue back and forth between Jesus and the devil in
Speaker 1: masth you for what you find out is that every
Speaker 1: scripture that Jesus quotes is from the Book of Deuteronomy,
Speaker 1: as if to say, you always had the answer. The
Speaker 1: same word I gave you back there in the wilderness
Speaker 1: is the same word that I'll use to defeat Satan. See,
Speaker 1: Jesus understood that the word is a weapon. You do
Speaker 1: get that right, that this is a weapon. And if
Speaker 1: you don't train in the word, you won't triumph in
Speaker 1: the wilderness. Let me just go a little bit further.
Speaker 1: Satan when he comes to attack, Jesus uses the word,
Speaker 1: meaning you can't just read the word. You've got to
Speaker 1: learn the word. We got a lot of immature believers
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty five, God bless everybody. But sometimes we're
Speaker 1: just like you ever need a word from God? Go God, please,
Speaker 1: Oh God, God, God, God, you know where are you? You? You? You?
Speaker 1: I need a word? And so you ever do flip
Speaker 1: and read elevation way too mature today. Never flip and
Speaker 1: read flipping read goes like this. You know, it's like,
Speaker 1: oh God, I need a word. I need a word
Speaker 1: and you just flip and then you just hopefully you
Speaker 1: get a good word from God. But that's like Russian roulette. Man, God,
Speaker 1: I need a word. I need a word. Flip and
Speaker 1: read and Judas hanged himself. No, I need another word.
Speaker 1: I need Okay, go and do likewise. Wah. No, friends,
Speaker 1: it's not enough to read it. You gotta learn it.
Speaker 1: It's a weapon. And as you train in it, come on,
Speaker 1: you become lethal that when the enemy attacks you, you
Speaker 1: have a word to fight back. Come on, when pressure
Speaker 1: hit Jesus' life, the word came out of him. Pressure
Speaker 1: doesn't remove what's inside of you. It reveals what's inside
Speaker 1: of you. What happens if you squeeze an apple? You
Speaker 1: get what apple? Juice? Look at this, this is an amazing audience. Today.
Speaker 1: What happens when you squeeze an orange? You get what orange?
Speaker 1: My good? Give him a big round applause today. Wow?
Speaker 1: What happens when you squeeze a Christian complaining? Fear trouble? No, friend,
Speaker 1: when you squeeze a believer, you ought to get believer
Speaker 1: juice believer or juice believer? Juice believer? Juice? You ought
Speaker 1: to get believer juice, because believers ought to have fruit. Yeah,
Speaker 1: if you're a believer, you want to have fruit of
Speaker 1: the spirit, which means when attacks hit my life, when
Speaker 1: people lie about my name, when they choose me, when
Speaker 1: life squeezes me, I want love to be the result.
Speaker 1: When all of a sudden I'm dealing with the sorrows
Speaker 1: of life and the pressures of life, I pray that
Speaker 1: joy would be squeezed out of me. Believer, juice, I
Speaker 1: pray that when anxiety wants to hit my life, I
Speaker 1: pray that all of a sudden I'm feeling strangled by worry,
Speaker 1: I pray that peace would begin to erupt. It's believer juice.
Speaker 1: But how much more for kindness and goodness and gentleness
Speaker 1: and faithfulness, self control. Come on, all the fruit of
Speaker 1: the Holy Spirit, because last time I checked, the fruit
Speaker 1: of the Spirit still grows under pressure. Come on and
Speaker 1: clap your hands to make sure that fruit shows up.
Speaker 1: And so God has the priest go forward. Can you
Speaker 1: imagine be in that army, like what's going on here? Man?
Speaker 1: You're sending out the preachers. Yeah, we're going to battle. Okay,
Speaker 1: we need a strategy, and I'm gonna give you a
Speaker 1: sermon a sermon, But what is God trying to do?
Speaker 1: God is trying to get his external world into their
Speaker 1: internal world. God is trying to get his external word
Speaker 1: inside to shape their internal world. I gotta get the
Speaker 1: Word in you, because as the Word takes root in you,
Speaker 1: something's going to grow. Faith is going to grow. I
Speaker 1: have a friend who's a performance coach, and I love
Speaker 1: him so much, and he said to me something the
Speaker 1: other day that really struck me. He said, Rich, have
Speaker 1: you ever noticed that people tend to shape and design
Speaker 1: their external environment to mirror their internal one. Now, all
Speaker 1: of the gospel, just we understand is about inside out
Speaker 1: change that I have to have my heart change, and
Speaker 1: Jesus does that. But that shouldn't stop us that once
Speaker 1: we've had that moment of salvation take place, Maturity would say,
Speaker 1: let me set up an external world that impacts and
Speaker 1: influences my internal world. But so many people, if you
Speaker 1: just look at it, it's like their whole life is in chaos.
Speaker 1: Watch their environment around them will be in chaos. So
Speaker 1: many people, they start going through worry, and so what
Speaker 1: do they do? They feed into that worry. Many pool
Speaker 1: they feel lonely, So what do they do, they isolate,
Speaker 1: so their external environment begins to mirror what's happening on
Speaker 1: the inside. You know this to be true. That's why
Speaker 1: when you're having a bad it's like, Alexa play my
Speaker 1: depressed playlist, Tom all adult and some of y'all got crazy.
Speaker 1: Alexa play I want to cry in the shower playlist.
Speaker 1: They never heard that term misery loves company is true.
Speaker 1: That what we're feeling, we want our outside world to
Speaker 1: look like that. So often, and so all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: I'm feeling fear, So I put on the news to
Speaker 1: feed my fear. I'm upset. So now I go to
Speaker 1: TikTok and I scroll and I death scroll, just so
Speaker 1: I get angrier and angrier and angrier. But maturity somebody
Speaker 1: who wants to win. Before they begin, they say, all right,
Speaker 1: I don't feel this, but I gotta play faith. I
Speaker 1: don't want to worship, but I'm gonna play worship. I
Speaker 1: want to set up an external world that changes my
Speaker 1: internal world. I think sometimes we can we can overthink
Speaker 1: this because sometimes we can start thinking of ourselves. All right,
Speaker 1: that's it. I gotta change my environment. I gotta move cities.
Speaker 1: I gotta move churches, and sometimes those things are required,
Speaker 1: but more often not, it's smaller things. It's just creating
Speaker 1: small little habits to say, let me just do things
Speaker 1: that all of a sudden I can create an external
Speaker 1: world that begins to change. Let his word on the
Speaker 1: outside get in and shape my heart on the inside.
Speaker 1: One of the most practical things I think we can do.
Speaker 1: My my friend here, Adrian's got his phone, is we
Speaker 1: could start with this thing right here, this little devil
Speaker 1: in our pocket. I just go for the next fifteen
Speaker 1: minutes about how bad the iPhone is. You know, no,
Speaker 1: that's not the point. But this right here is one
Speaker 1: of the leading causes of our anxiety, of our restlessness.
Speaker 1: This is the whole thing that we carry with this
Speaker 1: all the time, just little people. No, no, no, no, no, no,
Speaker 1: you know this all day long. Let me just tell
Speaker 1: you when it comes to this thing, like here's just
Speaker 1: a base thing. You could have a friend tell me
Speaker 1: you got to parent your phone. Rich Wow. Wow, I said,
Speaker 1: what does that mean? He said, well, your kids go
Speaker 1: to bed before you, don't They said yes. He said
Speaker 1: you wake up before your kids, don't you. I said, yeah,
Speaker 1: I do. He said, why don't you do that with
Speaker 1: your phone. For some of us, it's like, just quit
Speaker 1: sleeping with your phone. Yeah, someboy all got your phone
Speaker 1: on your pillow at night. I don't know why I'm anxious.
Speaker 1: You don't. Can you imagine if you're an alcoholic, It's like, Man,
Speaker 1: I'm really struggling, but I sleep with Jack Daniels every night.
Speaker 1: You can't defeat the enemy if you're sleeping with the enemy.
Speaker 1: Come on, No, you gotta put it to bed at night.
Speaker 1: And maybe it shouldn't even sleep in your room. Maybe
Speaker 1: you should tuck it in another room, unplug it, and
Speaker 1: say good night, little phone, I'll see you in the morning.
Speaker 1: In fact, just little things just change your environment. Instead
Speaker 1: of putting your phone on your nightstand at night, why
Speaker 1: not swap that out and put this on your night
Speaker 1: stand at night? Why not just make a decision, even
Speaker 1: right here today, I want to win before I begin,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go biblical before I go digital. Come on,
Speaker 1: come on, mean, why don't you just put your Bible
Speaker 1: on your nightstand? But if you don't read it, even
Speaker 1: if you don't get to it, let it be a
Speaker 1: trigger on the external side of you that before I
Speaker 1: go to bed at night, it's the last thing I see,
Speaker 1: and when I wake up in the morning, it's the
Speaker 1: first thing that I see. Faith comes by hearing and
Speaker 1: hearing the word of God. I might not feel it
Speaker 1: on the inside, but I want to put it on
Speaker 1: the outside to trigger my environment, to say I want
Speaker 1: God's word to get on the inside of you. Go on,
Speaker 1: clap your hand, make a little bit of noise, make
Speaker 1: a little bit of noise. Sometimes it's just a little cue.
Speaker 1: Sometimes it's just a little thing that the priests would
Speaker 1: come out before them. They might not have wanted a sermon,
Speaker 1: but they needed a sermon. It's like the more and
Speaker 1: more I grow in my life, when I'm feeling lonely,
Speaker 1: when I'm feeling depressed, I don't want to say, Alexa,
Speaker 1: play my depressed playlist. I want to say, Alexa, play
Speaker 1: my faith filled elevation worship playlist. Jesus be the who
Speaker 1: am I that you keep me on your mind. God,
Speaker 1: I'm just grateful for you. They say gratitude is the
Speaker 1: right attitude. When I hear that song, I want to
Speaker 1: run through a brick wall. Why Because faith has a sound.
Speaker 1: Peace has a sound, and what you play starts to
Speaker 1: shape your environment. It starts turning things around. You gotta
Speaker 1: get God's word louder than your worry. Let me hear
Speaker 1: the sound of faith, Let me hear the sound of peace.
Speaker 1: Let me hear the sound of joy in this house.
Speaker 1: I play it when I don't feel it. Who am
Speaker 1: I that you keep me on your mind? God? I'm
Speaker 1: just grateful for you. What a what a miracle? How
Speaker 1: did you do this in me? And yeah, I got
Speaker 1: some battles in front of me. But Lord, what I've
Speaker 1: seen you do time and time again is I know
Speaker 1: what you brought me out of. I don't know what
Speaker 1: you're doing, but I know what you have done. And
Speaker 1: if you are faithful back, then you'll be faithful again.
Speaker 1: I need you to praise God in faith today when
Speaker 1: before you begin, grab a seat, Grab a seat, Let
Speaker 1: me give you this last one. Look at verse five
Speaker 1: with me. We're just walking through the text today, just
Speaker 1: a Bible study on a Sunday. Pastor will be back soon,
Speaker 1: Please come back to church. Look at verse five. This
Speaker 1: is very interesting me. The officers shall say to the army,
Speaker 1: has anyone built a new house and not yet begun
Speaker 1: to live in it? Let him go home, or he
Speaker 1: may die in battle, and someone else may begin to
Speaker 1: live in it. Has they one planted a vineyard and
Speaker 1: not begun to enjoy it. Let him go home, or
Speaker 1: he may die in battle and someone else enjoy it.
Speaker 1: Has anyone pledged to a woman and not married her,
Speaker 1: Let him go home, or he may die in battle
Speaker 1: and someone else marry her. This is a very fascinating
Speaker 1: part because this is before the battle has begun, and
Speaker 1: here is the strategy of winning. I believe this last thought.
Speaker 1: I want you to get this deep in your heart.
Speaker 1: It's simply this, don't let your anxiety overthrow your order.
Speaker 1: When you study the Word of God, and you see
Speaker 1: when it says do not be anxious, it can be
Speaker 1: translated do not be torn apart, because that's what anxiety does.
Speaker 1: It makes us feel sin and it separates us. But
Speaker 1: if you really want to win in life, you really
Speaker 1: don't win until you become whole. Everything about our gospel
Speaker 1: is about an integrated life, mind, body, spirit, and soul
Speaker 1: coming together on all cylinders. And what's taking place here
Speaker 1: is that they give these instructions to the people and
Speaker 1: they say, Hey, has anyone like built a new house
Speaker 1: and you haven't gotten to live in yet leave. Has
Speaker 1: anyone about to get married and you haven't gotten to
Speaker 1: be with your leave? If anyone's planted a new vineyard
Speaker 1: and you haven't enjoyed it, leave, what's happening here? What
Speaker 1: I want you to see in the text is that
Speaker 1: God is not just interested merely in raising up fighters.
Speaker 1: He also is raising up families. And when we talk
Speaker 1: about things like contending and fighting back, it's not merely
Speaker 1: always in life about enduring. It's also about enjoying. That's
Speaker 1: what I love about Elevation Church. You don't just have
Speaker 1: to come to church. You get to come to church here.
Speaker 1: We're not just suffering through it. No, we enjoy the
Speaker 1: President of God. God is into your enjoyment. In fact,
Speaker 1: all the pleasures of life, every good gift came from above.
Speaker 1: What's meant to happen in the life of a Christian
Speaker 1: is every good thing that He's given you relationships, family, jobs, blessing.
Speaker 1: It is supposed to roll back up into praise and
Speaker 1: adoration of Him that I would give glory unto God.
Speaker 1: I'm blessed to be a blessing. But just see this
Speaker 1: category here. You've got a house, you've got a spouse
Speaker 1: and you've got a vineyard. By the way, if you've
Speaker 1: got a house and a spouse, all you're missing is
Speaker 1: a vineyard. But your house speaks about your home life.
Speaker 1: Your spouse speaks of your relationships, and your vinyard speaks
Speaker 1: around your work and what God has said, He said
Speaker 1: I care about all those things. Listen to me. One
Speaker 1: of the most spiritual things you will ever do in
Speaker 1: your entire life is go back home and get your
Speaker 1: house in order. If your home life is in chaos,
Speaker 1: your peace will always be in confusion. And many of
Speaker 1: us sometimes we think it's the really big, massive thing,
Speaker 1: but often it's the small thing. God is a god
Speaker 1: of order. I don't have enough time today, but I
Speaker 1: want to hear this order is the antidote to anxiety. Order.
Speaker 1: We don't serve a god of disorder, but a God
Speaker 1: of peace, meaning that when I get my life in order,
Speaker 1: peace will be the result. And I see so many
Speaker 1: people today and they're wondering why I feel so afraid,
Speaker 1: why I feel like I'm up against so many challenges,
Speaker 1: And it's because they're missing that peace on the inside.
Speaker 1: But if you want to win, before you begin, you
Speaker 1: better get your priority set. Everything about God, and his
Speaker 1: book is about priorities. Seek first the Kingdom of God,
Speaker 1: and all these things shall be added unto you. We
Speaker 1: have a whole generation that's chasing after the added things.
Speaker 1: But God says, if you'll put me first, I'll handle
Speaker 1: all of the additions. What is tithing, It's about putting
Speaker 1: God first? What is Sabbath about? Going God, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: cease one day of the week, and I'm gonna trust
Speaker 1: you like Chick fil A that as I work for
Speaker 1: six days and I take one day off. You're the
Speaker 1: God who can show up. You're the God who can
Speaker 1: do exceedingly, immeasurably more than we could ever ask forything.
Speaker 1: It's about order, and even for me, it's just good,
Speaker 1: like the order of my life. Number one, God tell
Speaker 1: this to my church today. Number two, my spouse. Number three,
Speaker 1: my children, I got four of them, Wyatt Wild Whalen
Speaker 1: a wolfgang. Number four, my family and friends watch this.
Speaker 1: Number five, my church. Number six, the community. There's a
Speaker 1: lot of preachers today that if they're not careful, they
Speaker 1: will prefer God's bride over their own bride. It's not noble,
Speaker 1: it's dangerous. I can't take care of God's children if
Speaker 1: I don't first take care of my children and listen.
Speaker 1: This is one of the things I love about your
Speaker 1: pastor is that he's got his priorities set. He doesn't
Speaker 1: bend to culture, he doesn't bend to naysayers and critics.
Speaker 1: He understands the assignment of God and with it, he's
Speaker 1: a leader worth following. Because you don't want an anxious priest.
Speaker 1: You don't want a disintegrated preacher. You want someone who's
Speaker 1: integrated in whole because you teach what you know, but
Speaker 1: you reproduce who you are very good. Yeah, And so
Speaker 1: God says, I want you to go home because I
Speaker 1: want to make sure that you are a whole before
Speaker 1: you fight. Let me show you this verse. It's verse
Speaker 1: I think it's verse number Is it first number eight?
Speaker 1: Can you bring that one up? Yeah? Verse eight. Is
Speaker 1: anyone afraid or faint hearted? Let him go home so
Speaker 1: that his fellow soldiers will not become disheartened too. Boo.
Speaker 1: I just want to remind some people to that Elevation
Speaker 1: church and those watching online. Fear is contagious. Yea. And
Speaker 1: so he says, Yo, if there's anybody in the camp
Speaker 1: who's afraid, leave now, because I can't let the rest
Speaker 1: of the company. That's who you are, a group of soldiers,
Speaker 1: not a crowd a company. I can't let you catch that.
Speaker 1: About two weeks ago, I woke up with a sore throat.
Speaker 1: Couldn't believe it. Went to the doctors. They said, Rich,
Speaker 1: you have strep throat. I said, I'm forty one years
Speaker 1: of age. I don't know you could get strep throat
Speaker 1: at forty one years of age, So like we might
Speaker 1: have to take your tonsils, I said you, the devil
Speaker 1: is a liar. You should have come from me when
Speaker 1: I was eight. There is no way you're having my tonsils.
Speaker 1: Bro Well, it just so happened that about seven days prior,
Speaker 1: my son, Wyat, my oldest, he had strep throat. It
Speaker 1: wasn't random. I caught it from Wyatt. I wonder today,
Speaker 1: some of the things that you're carrying you didn't start
Speaker 1: with that. You caught that along the way. You caught fear.
Speaker 1: You've been examining something outside of God's word. That's feeding
Speaker 1: your fear. A coworker gave you that, A fearful friend
Speaker 1: gave you that. An absentee father gave you that. The
Speaker 1: betrayal of a man or a woman. Something else gave
Speaker 1: you that, because my Bible says that you are not
Speaker 1: given a spirit of fear, but of love, power and
Speaker 1: sound mind. Come on and clap your hands if you
Speaker 1: believe our God has the antidote. He says, get your
Speaker 1: life in order. I just like telling some people there's
Speaker 1: some folks in your life right now. You gotta let
Speaker 1: them go check your circle. Fear is like secondhand smoke.
Speaker 1: It might not have started with you, but it doesn't
Speaker 1: mean that it won't affect you. And some of us
Speaker 1: are inhaling something from afar, and all of a sudden
Speaker 1: it's getting down into our heart and it's leaving us
Speaker 1: in a restless place. I think many times we find
Speaker 1: ourselves going, God, just take away the battles. But that's
Speaker 1: not the point of this message. It is one battle
Speaker 1: after the next. You're in the fight. It's a But
Speaker 1: what you have to learn is that God wants to
Speaker 1: mature you in the battle. He wants to strengthen you
Speaker 1: in the battle. He wants to give you peace and
Speaker 1: joy and love right there in the middle. All the
Speaker 1: water in the ocean can't sink a ship unless it
Speaker 1: gets inside the ship. I love how Pastor Steven's been
Speaker 1: preaching about the same lies new loops, because here's what's funny.
Speaker 1: I went to the doctor for my strep throat and
Speaker 1: at this point I'm just like, I want immediate results.
Speaker 1: I'm like, give me the shot. Bro. He's like, we're
Speaker 1: so sorry, we run backward with shots. We gotta give
Speaker 1: you antibiotics. I'm like, okay, two pills a day for
Speaker 1: ten days. Well, five days in I felt good. I
Speaker 1: went to elevation nights, had the spirit of God. I
Speaker 1: forgot that I had ever been sick, and then last
Speaker 1: week the virus came back. Today, as I stand on
Speaker 1: the stage, I'm back on antibiotics. See which, why are
Speaker 1: you telling me is I'm telling you this that sometimes
Speaker 1: we have to face the same fight again and again
Speaker 1: and again, and we have to keep coming back to
Speaker 1: it because if you don't confront it, you can't change it.
Speaker 1: And if you keep denying it, you'll never ever be
Speaker 1: delivered from it. I want to say to some people
Speaker 1: right now that are running from some stuff, listen to me.
Speaker 1: When you numb the pain, you also numb the blessing.
Speaker 1: When you try to escape the trial, you're also going
Speaker 1: to escape the teaching and the lesson in it. They
Speaker 1: go hand in hand. And some fights you just got
Speaker 1: to keep fighting. Some things you got to keep coming
Speaker 1: back to. Some things you got to keep going. God,
Speaker 1: I got to apply your word again. I was laying
Speaker 1: in bed with my son about two weeks ago, my
Speaker 1: oldest son, Wyatt, and we were recounting his really first
Speaker 1: trip to Disney World. I took him when he was
Speaker 1: four years of age, and I really traumatize my apologize
Speaker 1: for that. At four years of age, I took him
Speaker 1: on Mountain. I said, you're gonna love it. He came off,
Speaker 1: You ever cry so hard, you convince yourself you have asthma.
Speaker 1: I hate you. He's in therapy, so that's going good.
Speaker 1: But he said, Dad, I hate that, right. I'm so sorry.
Speaker 1: And every year we would talk about it, and I'm
Speaker 1: always like, why you gotta go on it again. You'll
Speaker 1: love it, You'll love it, you'll love it. He's like, no, Dad,
Speaker 1: I don't want to go, and I go, you'll love it,
Speaker 1: you'll love it. Well, we just went back, literally maybe
Speaker 1: six weeks ago, and at seven years of age. I
Speaker 1: had to bribe him a little bit I said, I'll
Speaker 1: get you two toys, one from Star Wars, one from Marvel.
Speaker 1: Don't come at me in the comments. I'm just trying
Speaker 1: my best out in these streets. He's like, you promise,
Speaker 1: He's like crying. I'm like, you're gonna love it, you know.
Speaker 1: But he went on Space Mountain. Of course, as we
Speaker 1: came off the ride, he's got his hands up laughing
Speaker 1: to me, goes Dad again again again, And I was like, son,
Speaker 1: I want to go again, but the way my budget
Speaker 1: set up, I only got I only got one lightning passed.
Speaker 1: And so I said it bro just next year. You know.
Speaker 1: I tell you that because the night I was laying
Speaker 1: in bed with him, just two weeks ago, we were
Speaker 1: talking about Disney World. I said, why, what's your favorite
Speaker 1: ride at Disney World? He said Space Mountain. I said
Speaker 1: why that makes me laugh because you told me that
Speaker 1: you were so afraid of it that you hated it.
Speaker 1: He said, I know, Dad, but I think they changed
Speaker 1: the ride. And I said, no, Sun, the ride didn't change.
Speaker 1: You changed. You changed. It didn't get easier, you got stronger,
Speaker 1: and the battles won't get lighter. You'll just get wiser
Speaker 1: and circumstances won't change, but you will. You will grow
Speaker 1: from the inside out. You will win from your mind.
Speaker 1: And even before you get in the battle, even before
Speaker 1: it begins, you're walking in with a winning mindset. I
Speaker 1: know who my God is, and if my God is
Speaker 1: for me, well he's brought me through in the past,
Speaker 1: he'll bring me through again. I know there's a mountain
Speaker 1: in front of me, but all I gotta do is
Speaker 1: agree with the word of God. And even this mountain
Speaker 1: has got to move. Anybody feel like moving to mountain today?
Speaker 1: Clap your hands, give God to pray. Let's just stand
Speaker 1: to your feet all over this place. One verse I
Speaker 1: did not read, and let me speak at over to
Speaker 1: you as we come to a close Deuteronomy, chapter twenty,
Speaker 1: verse four, The Lord your God goes with you to
Speaker 1: fight for you, to give you victory. May you step
Speaker 1: into this week knowing that you have a God who
Speaker 1: will fight for you and with you, and he will
Speaker 1: give you victory. I know it feels like it's been
Speaker 1: battle after battle, but I think a faith filled person
Speaker 1: looks back on their story and it says, actually, it's
Speaker 1: been victory after victory after victory after victory. I'm getting stronger.
Speaker 1: I'm getting stronger. And if you'll face it, listen to me.
Speaker 1: If you'll face it, God will fight with you. He
Speaker 1: didn't give you armor on the backside. You go back
Speaker 1: and read Ephesian six. There is no back play because
Speaker 1: He never meant for you to turn from this thing.
Speaker 1: He meant you to face it. And God says, if
Speaker 1: you'll face it, I'm a fight for you. I'm a
Speaker 1: fight for you. I'm a fight for you. I'm a
Speaker 1: fight for you. When I was a kid, I was
Speaker 1: obsessed with professional wrestling. Don't you tell me it's fake,
Speaker 1: It's real. And I used to love the tag team
Speaker 1: leading to Doom Road Warriors. I'll keep going, but I'll stop.
Speaker 1: There always be this moment in a tag team match
Speaker 1: where the guy's down. He's down. He's down, he's down,
Speaker 1: he's tired, he's weary. What his partner is outside reaching
Speaker 1: reaching kind of looks like the cross. But while I
Speaker 1: was stuck in my sin, Christ died for me. What
Speaker 1: a miracle. When I couldn't get to him, he came
Speaker 1: to me and he reached out. And all you gotta
Speaker 1: do is tag God in, because when that partner gets
Speaker 1: in the ring momentum is about to shift. A miracle
Speaker 1: is on the way. I came all the way to Charlotte,
Speaker 1: North Carolina to tell some people tag God in. Jesus
Speaker 1: is here and if you tag him in, victory is
Speaker 1: on the way. Lifts your hands, listen, your boys, come
Speaker 1: on in worship God.
Speaker 2: Hey, wanna fuck.
Speaker 1: Fucking Toto?
Speaker 2: This, sir?
Speaker 1: What lay a power? Jesus were saying? What a faith saying?
Speaker 1: Thus say in your family, how you save myself? Thous
Speaker 1: Daddy coming you raise me? Fut me, coach fun me
Speaker 1: ca water being co funding me? Case what fun wat
Speaker 1: a beer? Tag got it? Tag him in? Tag him in.
Speaker 1: Thank God for Jesus. Thank God for Jesus with your
Speaker 1: head out of your eyes blue and all of our
Speaker 1: locations and online, Thank God for Jesus for pieces not
Speaker 1: on a concept, that's a person. He is the Prince
Speaker 1: of peace. The Cross was God saying, you can tag
Speaker 1: Jesus in. If you'll face it, He'll fight with you.
Speaker 1: Victory is in front of you. I don't know what
Speaker 1: battles you're stepping into this week, but you can win.
Speaker 1: Before you begin. It's a battle briefing. You're getting battle ready.
Speaker 1: It's a battle plan. God. Thank you for your presence. God,
Speaker 1: anything's possible when your people show up and your presence
Speaker 1: shows up, it's an atmosphere of possibility. So the Lord,
Speaker 1: I pray for people today that are fighting, people that
Speaker 1: are dealing with anxiety, people dealing with fear. What I
Speaker 1: pray that your word would get into their heart and
Speaker 1: begin to shape and reshape their internal world even now,
Speaker 1: Peace that transcends, peace that passes. What a miracle. Who
Speaker 1: am I that you'd love me? Holy Spirit? I just
Speaker 1: send you at work today, people facing so many things.
Speaker 1: Would you meet him here right here, right now, stay
Speaker 1: with your head bowed and your eyes closed before we
Speaker 1: dismiss them, before we get out of here. I just
Speaker 1: want to get people an opportunity. The Bible says, believe
Speaker 1: in your heart and confess with your mouth, and you
Speaker 1: shall be saved. You can't achieve salvation, you receive it.
Speaker 1: It's by grace through faith, so that no man can boast.
Speaker 1: For God so loved the world that he gave as
Speaker 1: one and only son, that whoever believes in and will
Speaker 1: not perish. But I've everlasting life. That's the message in
Speaker 1: the anthem of Elevation Church, and that's what we bring
Speaker 1: week in and week out. If you're online or right
Speaker 1: here in the room, and that's you today, you say,
Speaker 1: I want to surrender my life over to Jesus. On
Speaker 1: the count of three, I want to give you an
Speaker 1: opportunity just to lift your hand up high enough and
Speaker 1: long enough, just to say I want to put my trust,
Speaker 1: my faith in Jesus. It happens in a moment. It's
Speaker 1: called tagging God in. You're getting stronger day by faith.
Speaker 1: On the count of three. If that's you, lay say rich,
Speaker 1: would you pray with me? I want I want to
Speaker 1: receive grace. I want to receive Jesus on the kind
Speaker 1: of three. Ready one the Bible says today is that
Speaker 1: day two. Don't look at your neighbors. Not about your neighbor.
Speaker 1: It's between you and Jesus. Ready, one, two, three. If
Speaker 1: that you looked up, that's me. That's me. Thank you God,
Speaker 1: Thank you God, Thank you Jesus. Online right there, come
Speaker 1: on elevation, lift your hands towards Heaven. We're gonna pray
Speaker 1: this prayer and we're seeing this chorus. Say dear Jesus, today,
Speaker 1: I give you my life. I turn from my ways
Speaker 1: and I receive your words. I believe and confess you
Speaker 1: are who you said that you are. Thank you for
Speaker 1: loving me, Thank you for saving me. Today I ask
Speaker 1: that you would give me the grace to follow you.
Speaker 1: Thank you for your peace, thank you for your joy,
Speaker 1: Thank you for your word. Miracle in Jesus' name. Come on, everybody,
Speaker 1: give God praise. Thank you for joining us.
Speaker 2: Special thanks to those of you who give generously to
Speaker 2: this ministry. Is because of you that this ministry is possible.
Speaker 2: You can click the link in the description to give
Speaker 2: now or visit Elevationchurch dot org slash podcast for more
Speaker 2: information and if you enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe.
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Speaker 2: Elevation Church.
Speaker 1: Thanks again for listening. God bless you.