Speaker 1: Hey, this is Stephen Ferdik.
Speaker 2: I'm the pastor of Elevation Church, and this is our
Speaker 2: podcast and 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.
Speaker 2: We are very excited about what God is speaking to
Speaker 2: us in this new series. The series is called Gates
Speaker 2: of Change, and we started last week just taking responsibility
Speaker 2: for our own relationship with God. And we made a
Speaker 2: decision that we will not be perfect this year, but
Speaker 2: we will be present.
Speaker 1: We will be present, and we will show up.
Speaker 2: We will show up for the celebrations and the struggles,
Speaker 2: and we will take our seat in the gate. And
Speaker 2: what we're saying is we're going to be where we
Speaker 2: belong this year. And so touch your neighbors, say I'm back.
Speaker 2: I am back. I'm really excited to share the scripture
Speaker 2: with you today that I ended on from Isaiah twenty
Speaker 2: eight Versus five and six. This is where I stopped
Speaker 2: last week, and I want to pick up your very
Speaker 2: powerful Old Testament prophecy. In that day, the Lord Almighty
Speaker 2: will be a glorious crown, a beautiful wreath for the
Speaker 2: remnant of his people. He will be a spirit of
Speaker 2: justice to the one who sits in judgment, a source
Speaker 2: of strength to those who turn back the battle at
Speaker 2: the gate. Only two scriptures, so I like to repeat
Speaker 2: it again, because we have plenty of time in that day.
Speaker 2: The Lord Almighty will be a glorious crown, a beautiful
Speaker 2: wreath for the remnant of his people. He will be
Speaker 2: a spirit of justice to the one who sits in judgment,
Speaker 2: a source of strength to those who turn back the
Speaker 2: battle at the gate. Look at your neighbors, say, save
Speaker 2: your strength. I want to speak to you today about
Speaker 2: save your strength for the battles that really matter. To
Speaker 2: have a prioritize life so that you don't waste time
Speaker 2: chasing down stuff that ought to be running from you.
Speaker 1: Just save your energy for your real.
Speaker 2: Life instead of your imaginary battles that you may not
Speaker 2: ever even have to fight, but the devil wants to
Speaker 2: keep you up all night with so you're sleepy when
Speaker 2: you go to work the next morning.
Speaker 1: Save your strength for.
Speaker 2: The relationships that God wants you to invest in, so
Speaker 2: you don't keep going back to people who'll continue to
Speaker 2: abuse you in ways that you should have seen coming.
Speaker 1: Save your strength, so you don't.
Speaker 2: Do in the flesh what can only be done by might,
Speaker 2: empower and the spirit of the Lord. Save your strength.
Speaker 2: And some of you are behind. You missed last week,
Speaker 2: so I told them, catch everybody up.
Speaker 1: In ninety seconds.
Speaker 2: Sit down, let's go to the movies real quick, and
Speaker 2: I'll start this second installment. The greatest trouble in David's
Speaker 2: life came when he became passive, or you might say disengaged.
Speaker 2: I don't think there's ever been a time in the
Speaker 2: world where we've been more engaged on the surface and
Speaker 2: more disengaged in our souls. I'm disengaged, not because I
Speaker 2: don't care, but just because I'm afraid I don't know
Speaker 2: if I have what it takes.
Speaker 1: David was shaken.
Speaker 2: And everything changed for David when he did something so simple.
Speaker 1: The King got up, left his chamber and took his
Speaker 1: seat in the gate.
Speaker 2: And with the end of becaus, with his accusations and
Speaker 2: his excuses. I want you to look him square in
Speaker 2: the eye before the year even gets started, good and
Speaker 2: tell him, devil, this seat is taken. This is the
Speaker 2: place of responsibility. This is the place of owning your story.
Speaker 1: But it begins with the decision for you to take
Speaker 1: your place in the game.
Speaker 2: And we're going to start getting intentional about our thoughts
Speaker 2: so that we win the battle between.
Speaker 1: The gates.
Speaker 2: I thought i'd started my sermon where I ended it
Speaker 2: last time, you know, I thought I would take a
Speaker 2: moment and just illustrate how sometimes where something shows up
Speaker 2: is not where it started.
Speaker 1: At.
Speaker 2: This sermon that you here today came from a note
Speaker 2: that I made last year, And sometimes where something shows
Speaker 2: up is and where it starts. By the time you
Speaker 2: hear the sermon, it's already been hopefully in the process
Speaker 2: of me thinking about it for a long time, because
Speaker 2: I don't want to just think of something Saturday and
Speaker 2: say it on Sunday. I even realized that about about
Speaker 2: your life, like you. You showed up today and I'll
Speaker 2: see you, but I don't really see what it took
Speaker 2: for you to get here, or you know, what is
Speaker 2: affecting your mind.
Speaker 1: As I preach, sometimes people will say that's the best
Speaker 1: sermon you ever preached. I'll say, that's just the best
Speaker 1: you ever listened, Wasn't they good? But the sermon starts
Speaker 1: before it starts.
Speaker 2: I always tell the parking team like, hey, help me
Speaker 2: out when people are coming in. Smile at them, wave
Speaker 2: at them, put them in a good mood. It'll make
Speaker 2: my job easier. Because the sermon starts before it starts.
Speaker 2: It starts before it starts, it starts checking in your kids,
Speaker 2: or starts. So make sure make sure that you get
Speaker 2: as good of a start as possible. And this time
Speaker 2: of year, we're so focused on new beginnings. But the
Speaker 2: law longer you live, the less you really believe in
Speaker 2: new beginnings, and the cliches don't really comfort you in
Speaker 2: the same way or inspire you at the same level anymore.
Speaker 2: Knew you No, no, I didn't grow three inches Yeah,
Speaker 2: see me. You can't really get a new start to
Speaker 2: your story. What you can do is change the ending.
Speaker 2: And the only real way for you to affect the ending.
Speaker 1: Is to understand the starting place.
Speaker 2: It is very important that we understand the scripture that
Speaker 2: I read in the context of the times, because there
Speaker 2: would have been an outside gate, the outer wall of
Speaker 2: the city, with a gate for entrance and inner gate
Speaker 2: as a line of defense, and then this space between
Speaker 2: the gate where justice was supposed to be served negotiations happened.
Speaker 2: People would buy and sell, and that was the space
Speaker 2: between the gates, where the negotiations of life and the
Speaker 2: deliberations took place.
Speaker 1: Between the gates.
Speaker 2: We're talking in this series about that space between the gates,
Speaker 2: the realm of your decisions, the realm of your thought process,
Speaker 2: the space between what you see with your eyes and
Speaker 2: what you do in your life, what you hear with
Speaker 2: your ears, and how you act when you go home.
Speaker 1: That's space. That's where the battle is won and lost.
Speaker 2: Now, by the time the battle is one, there has
Speaker 2: already been significant work done. Nobody wins the Olympics at
Speaker 2: the race. They won the Olympics in the dark at
Speaker 2: four thirty. Where their success showed up is not where
Speaker 2: their success started. And usually if you see an issue
Speaker 2: in somebody's life, where it showed up is not where
Speaker 2: it started.
Speaker 1: It's the same with victories that it is with defeat.
Speaker 2: I told a story last week about my dad, and
Speaker 2: the reason I like to tell so many stories about
Speaker 2: my dad is because he's not here to correct them.
Speaker 2: I can tell him how I want to tell him.
Speaker 2: The one I told him about him last week him
Speaker 2: made him sound kind of bad, but I thought I
Speaker 2: would tell a good one about him. Now, my dad
Speaker 2: was a good dad, especially if you compare him to
Speaker 2: the standard that he didn't have a dad to show
Speaker 2: him how to do it, and he was making it
Speaker 2: up when he was doing it. He was just kind
Speaker 2: of he was winging it. And I have mad respect
Speaker 2: for that, because it's hard enough to be a dad
Speaker 2: when you've seen a dad.
Speaker 1: But he had to make it up.
Speaker 2: And so some of his tactics were not FDA approved.
Speaker 2: Some of his tactics were kind of street tactics. One
Speaker 2: time I told my mom I wanted to kill him. Yeah,
Speaker 2: my finest moment, I'll kill him.
Speaker 1: I want to kill him.
Speaker 2: And when he picked me up from school that day
Speaker 2: early dismissed picked me up from school and said he
Speaker 2: had two guns in the back of the truck. I
Speaker 2: was going to get one and he was going to
Speaker 2: get one because he heard I wanted to kill him
Speaker 2: and if I didn't shoot, he was going to. I mean,
Speaker 2: that is not necessarily the type of parenting you hear about.
Speaker 2: I'm focused on the family. But he's done the best
Speaker 2: he could and he didn't actually do it. He let
Speaker 2: me cry for ten minutes and think that he was
Speaker 2: going to do it, but I never said it again.
Speaker 2: One of his finest moments, though I don't know where
Speaker 2: he got the idea to do this, was when he
Speaker 2: began to talk to me about addiction. He began to
Speaker 2: talk to me about addiction because his father committed suicide
Speaker 2: and had been a very mean drunk. His father's father
Speaker 2: had been an alcoholic, and somewhere along the line, he
Speaker 2: made the decision that I can't go back and rewrite
Speaker 2: how this story started in our bloodline, but I'm going
Speaker 2: to impart a vision to my son so that he
Speaker 2: might be the one to write a different ending.
Speaker 1: You can't create a new beginning, but you can write
Speaker 1: a new ending.
Speaker 2: That's what I'm trying to say. You can't change who
Speaker 2: wasn't there for you, but you can write a new ending.
Speaker 2: And maybe we should start this year not as an
Speaker 2: expectation of new beginnings, but new endings that from this
Speaker 2: point forward, I said, From this point forward, Paul said,
Speaker 2: I pressed toward the mark. This one thing I do
Speaker 2: forgetting what is behind me. There is no strength in
Speaker 2: what's behind me.
Speaker 1: I stretched toward what's ahead. I saw my dad.
Speaker 2: He would pull me aside even from like a really
Speaker 2: young age, like I was eight years old, and he
Speaker 2: would pull me aside and start talking to me about
Speaker 2: the dangers of alcoholism. Eight years old and he would
Speaker 2: tell me my.
Speaker 1: Dad was a drunk, and his dad was a drunk,
Speaker 1: and his dad was drunk. He said, you could be
Speaker 1: the first verdict. It wasn't an alcoholic. He put it
Speaker 1: out there like a challenge to me, like you could
Speaker 1: go to the moon. You could be the first verdict.
Speaker 1: I kind of liked that. I was only eight.
Speaker 2: I was, hey, I don't know what he thought the
Speaker 2: kids would bringing to school.
Speaker 1: Juice boxes, Like what temptation he thought. I was under.
Speaker 1: You could be the first verdict. And it got through
Speaker 1: to me even when I got a little older, I
Speaker 1: could be the first verdict.
Speaker 2: This is not a sermon about don't drink, by the way, Okay,
Speaker 2: I said, I want you to get all nervous like that,
Speaker 2: like I'm one of those preachers, because I have noticed
Speaker 2: a lot of the preachers who preach don't drink or
Speaker 2: eighty pounds overweight. So apparently they skipped all the verses
Speaker 2: about gluttony and okay, okay, you didn't come for all
Speaker 2: that let's get back to the scripture.
Speaker 1: Isaiah said that he will be.
Speaker 2: Is anybody leaving, I can't see very well back here,
Speaker 2: I'll still there, okay, okay, a source of strength to
Speaker 2: him who turns back the battle at the gate. In
Speaker 2: other words, God will strengthen the will of the one
Speaker 2: who makes the decision.
Speaker 1: It stops here.
Speaker 2: I'm taking my place in the gate to say that
Speaker 2: I cannot affect how the story started. But my dad said,
Speaker 2: if you really want to be the first verdict to
Speaker 2: beat this, you got to beat it in your blood
Speaker 2: because if you taste it, you're gonna like it. So
Speaker 2: I want to challenge you, just don't ever fight it.
Speaker 2: He was trying to get me to see that sometimes
Speaker 2: the best place to fight the battle is before it
Speaker 2: ever begins. To draw a line and say, I'm not
Speaker 2: even going there. I'm not even playing with this. This
Speaker 2: is not going to be a part of my children's legacy.
Speaker 2: I can't control what it's been until now, but from
Speaker 2: this stay forward. By the grace of God. I am
Speaker 2: a new creation in Christ and I'm gonna beat it
Speaker 2: in the bloodline. I'm gonna make a stand for the
Speaker 2: next generation. There are going to be some changes at
Speaker 2: the gate. The place to beat it it's before it begins,
Speaker 2: because if you let it in, you've.
Speaker 1: Already let it win. It's like this in marriage.
Speaker 2: By the time you let resentment in, you've already let bitterness.
Speaker 2: When it's like this in our thought process, by the
Speaker 2: time we let worry in, we've already let anxiety win.
Speaker 2: And this is the year we no longer fight the
Speaker 2: devil on his level, because Isaiah said, there is a
Speaker 2: strategy you can turn back the battle at the gate.
Speaker 2: It's a powerful thought. Sometimes people make fun of me
Speaker 2: and we go out to eat. They say, oh, yeah,
Speaker 2: I forgot you don't drink fine judging. You drink what
Speaker 2: you want to drink. I drink fourteen diet mountain dews today.
Speaker 2: I got no judgment for your liquid consumption. I's got
Speaker 2: a different drug. What I'm saying is, this is a
Speaker 2: decision I made.
Speaker 1: Is a standard that I have said.
Speaker 2: And the problem in Isaiah is they is that the
Speaker 2: leaders who should have been setting the standard for the
Speaker 2: people have lowered the standard and let the people vulnerable.
Speaker 2: This has no relevance to our modern day. Of course,
Speaker 2: the Bible is an ancient book. In fact, Isaiah says,
Speaker 2: he gives a picture of it. He says that the
Speaker 2: leaders who are supposed to be sitting in their seat
Speaker 2: of judgment, rendering decisions of virtue and justice.
Speaker 1: Verse seven.
Speaker 2: He says, they stagger from wine and reel from beer,
Speaker 2: the priest and the prophets.
Speaker 1: Wouldn't this make church more interesting?
Speaker 2: The priests and the prophets stagger from beer and are
Speaker 2: befuddled with wine. Y'all, I have a heart enough time
Speaker 2: making sense when I'm up here sober. Can you imagine
Speaker 2: what I would sound like if I had of you?
Speaker 1: He said.
Speaker 2: They stagger when seeing visions. They cannot see correctly, so
Speaker 2: how can they lead correctly? They stumble when rendering decisions.
Speaker 1: They are the ones who.
Speaker 2: Are supposed to calibrate the calling of.
Speaker 1: The nation, and yet they.
Speaker 2: Are so drunk. Maybe it's a metaphor. Maybe it's not
Speaker 2: just that they're drunk on alcohol. Maybe they're drunk on pride.
Speaker 2: Maybe they're intoxicated with power, maybe a self aggrandizement that
Speaker 2: has caused the leaders of this day to begin to
Speaker 2: weigh self interest in a different scale than the best
Speaker 2: interests of the people. And yet Isaiah says something that
Speaker 2: rings true today that God will will be a source
Speaker 2: of strength to those who turn back the battle at
Speaker 2: the gate. Notice he says that no matter who sits
Speaker 2: in the gate, God is still the source of strength
Speaker 2: to those who turn back the battle at the gate.
Speaker 1: It would be.
Speaker 2: Worth answering the question who is the source of your strength?
Speaker 2: If you haven't decided that by now, you need to
Speaker 2: decide it really quickly, because if the source of your
Speaker 2: strength is who you're sitting beside, you will live a
Speaker 2: very disappointed life. If the source of your strength is
Speaker 2: a number at the bottom of your balance sheet, something
Speaker 2: will hit your life so hard that you can't buy
Speaker 2: your way out of it, and you will find out
Speaker 2: really quickly that net worth is a terrible place to
Speaker 2: put your sense of self value.
Speaker 1: If the source of your strength is.
Speaker 2: How people look at you, or treat you, or think
Speaker 2: about you. If the source of your strength on any
Speaker 2: given day is the condition of your health, you will
Speaker 2: always be susceptible to them.
Speaker 1: And so Isaiah says he.
Speaker 2: Will be a spirit of justice to the one who
Speaker 2: sits in judgment and the source of strength to those
Speaker 2: who turn back the battle at the gate. To make
Speaker 2: God the source of your strength means that you depend
Speaker 2: on Him. As one Psalmas said, you lift your eyes
Speaker 2: to the hills. From whence cometh your help. Your help
Speaker 2: cometh from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth.
Speaker 2: And he will not suffer your foot to be moved.
Speaker 2: The Lord which keepeth thee will not slumber nor sleep.
Speaker 2: The Lord is your keeper. The Lord is your shade
Speaker 2: upon your right hand. And that someone not smite thee
Speaker 2: by day, nor the moon by night.
Speaker 1: He will preserve your soul even forevermore.
Speaker 2: To know that all your help comes from God, that
Speaker 2: all your hope is in Jesus, That all of your
Speaker 2: help comes not from the right, not from the left,
Speaker 2: not from the north, not from the south, not from
Speaker 2: the economy, not from the job touch. Somebody say not you,
Speaker 2: God is my source. Now, go ahead and clap right now.
Speaker 2: If you know God's got your back. In fact, stand
Speaker 2: up on your feet and shout about it.
Speaker 1: If God is.
Speaker 2: Your source in every of your life, ain't every famine.
Speaker 1: I have a friend named Jesus. He is my source.
Speaker 2: I am so tempted to preach on this part of
Speaker 2: the verse that.
Speaker 1: I almost forgot what came before it.
Speaker 2: Isaiah said in that day, the Lord Almighty will be
Speaker 2: a glorious crown, a beautiful wreath for the remnant of
Speaker 2: his people.
Speaker 1: Now, what is a wreath and what is a remnant
Speaker 1: besides a Christmas decoration.
Speaker 2: A wreath symbolizes victory, and he is preaching victory to
Speaker 2: people who are about to experience defeat. He's preaching, of course,
Speaker 2: about the impending Assyrian evasion to the to the northern
Speaker 2: territory of Samaria, the crown jewel of the Northern Kingdom
Speaker 2: of Israel set on a Ferraile valley.
Speaker 1: He's speaking to them about their their potential, and.
Speaker 2: He's telling them how their protection is gone, and so
Speaker 2: now they're.
Speaker 1: Going to face a season of defeat. And in the.
Speaker 2: Same breath that he promises to be a source of strength,
Speaker 2: he warns them of a coming defeat. But yet he
Speaker 2: speaks about victory in the context of defeat. He says,
Speaker 2: in that day, the Lord Almighty will be a glorious crown,
Speaker 2: a beautiful wreath for the remnant of his people. God
Speaker 2: said he will be a wreath for the remnant. The
Speaker 2: wreath symbolizes victory. The remnant represents what's left. God always
Speaker 2: has a remnant, no matter what you've lost in your
Speaker 2: life or who walked away from you, God always leaves
Speaker 2: a remnant. No matter how wicked this world gets or
Speaker 2: how dark the times that we live in may seem
Speaker 2: to be. God always has a remnant in every office.
Speaker 2: God has a remnant in every church. God has a
Speaker 2: remnant in every city, and every generation. God has a remnant.
Speaker 2: God always has a remnant. There's always a little bit
Speaker 2: of oil in the house, even if you feel like
Speaker 2: you're starving to death. God always has a remnant. There's
Speaker 2: always a little boy with a lunch. If you call
Speaker 2: him for it and put it in the hands of
Speaker 2: the Master, it will multiply. Because God always has a remnant.
Speaker 2: No matter how many leave Gideon, there will always be
Speaker 2: three hundred, and God is able to win with the remnant.
Speaker 2: God said, I'm gonna bless what's left. I will not
Speaker 2: be limited by what you lost. I will be a
Speaker 2: wreath for the remnant. I'm gonna bless what's left. I'm
Speaker 2: gonna bless what's left. Stop weeping over what's lost. I'm
Speaker 2: gonna bless what's left. I want you to shout right
Speaker 2: now over what you've gotten left.
Speaker 1: I want you to shout right now over.
Speaker 2: The gift you have, the strength you have, the friends
Speaker 2: you have, the opportunities you have, the time you have.
Speaker 2: God said, I'm gonna bless what you got left. If
Speaker 2: you will not stay stuck in what walked away, I'm
Speaker 2: gonna bless what you got left. You can win with
Speaker 2: what you got left.
Speaker 1: Feel like preaching. I feel like preaching to the remnant.
Speaker 2: Where's the remnant at where are the ones who went
Speaker 2: through the.
Speaker 1: Fire and came out of bound And to bless what's left.
Speaker 2: No matter what happens at the leadership level, I'm looking
Speaker 2: for someone who will turn back the battle at the gate.
Speaker 2: And in that day the Lord Almighty will be a
Speaker 2: glorious crown of beautiful wreath for the remnant of his people.
Speaker 2: And then he mentions two different spirits. Watch this in
Speaker 2: verse six. Can we study the Bible. He will be
Speaker 2: a spirit of justice to the one who sits in judgment,
Speaker 2: that's the first one, and a source of strength to
Speaker 2: those who turned back the battle at the gate. So
Speaker 2: you've got the spirit of justice to the one who
Speaker 2: sits in judgment and the source of strength to those
Speaker 2: who turned back the battle at the gate. Study that
Speaker 2: text all week, and I thought I was talking about
Speaker 2: two different things. But the more I read it, the
Speaker 2: more I realized that this is two functions of the
Speaker 2: same spirit.
Speaker 1: He will be a spirit of justice.
Speaker 2: To the one who sits in judgment, a source of
Speaker 2: strength to those who turn back the battle at the gate.
Speaker 2: The first part of the verse is about standards. He
Speaker 2: will be a spirit of justice. He will decide what
Speaker 2: is wrong and right to the one who sits in judgment.
Speaker 2: He will be a spirit of justice and a source
Speaker 2: of strength to the one who turns back the battle
Speaker 2: at the gate. So the same God that is the
Speaker 2: source of our strength is to also be the source
Speaker 2: of our standards. And here's the question that I came
Speaker 2: to ask today. How can I expect God's strength if
Speaker 2: I do not embrace God's standards.
Speaker 1: I'm about to throw this my brother. See how can
Speaker 1: I How can I call God.
Speaker 2: The source of my strength if I have not made
Speaker 2: him the source of my standards.
Speaker 1: He will be a.
Speaker 2: Spirit of justice to the one who sits in judgment. Now,
Speaker 2: if I have let that seat open, and I have
Speaker 2: left culture to tell me what's right and wrong, how
Speaker 2: can I look to culture for my standards and.
Speaker 1: Then look to God for my strength.
Speaker 2: How can I look for the world to tell me
Speaker 2: how to live and then expect God to give me
Speaker 2: strength for a standard.
Speaker 1: That was not his?
Speaker 2: How can I call God the source of my strength
Speaker 2: if he is not the source of my standards? How
Speaker 2: can I expect his strength and resist his standards?
Speaker 1: It's good right. That's why I feel weak.
Speaker 2: Sometimes because I'm asking God to strengthen me. But I
Speaker 2: have given away my strength because I have lowered my standard.
Speaker 2: And then the enemy comes in like a flood, but
Speaker 2: I don't have a standard. Then I ask God to
Speaker 2: give me joy, you know, and your present folds the joy.
Speaker 1: Joy.
Speaker 2: The Lord is my strength, and I want his strength.
Speaker 2: I want his joy. But if I have not applied
Speaker 2: his standard to my thought life, and I let my
Speaker 2: mind think whatever it wants to think, and I go
Speaker 2: to God for strength, but I did not go to
Speaker 2: him for standards. I am asking him to violate the
Speaker 2: very nature of our relationship. How can he be the
Speaker 2: source of my strength if I won't let him be
Speaker 2: the source of my standards?
Speaker 1: Who set your standards? Who set your standards? Was it was.
Speaker 2: It God that set your standards? I was talking to
Speaker 2: one guy the other day. It became very apparent to
Speaker 2: me pretty quickly that he sets his own standards for
Speaker 2: right and wrong. And I admire him for that because
Speaker 2: I don't trust myself that much. I mean, he must
Speaker 2: be really perfect to have his own standard for right
Speaker 2: and wrong.
Speaker 1: See, I need a God.
Speaker 2: I need a God who's bigger than me, wiser than me,
Speaker 2: who's been around longer than me. I need a God
Speaker 2: who can see around the next corner and know how
Speaker 2: this decision is going to affect my destiny.
Speaker 1: I don't want to occupy that seat. I need a God.
Speaker 2: And sometimes we're so crazy as Christians.
Speaker 1: We will allow the world to set.
Speaker 2: Our standards as a church and tell us what the
Speaker 2: church ought to be and not be, and put us
Speaker 2: in a box and call us by a denomination. But
Speaker 2: I will not be standardized by a dysfunctional world.
Speaker 1: I have a higher standard. We are chosen people, a
Speaker 1: royal priesthood, a holy nation, to declare.
Speaker 2: The prices of Him who called us out of darkness.
Speaker 2: Well like preaching, I'm preaching like this might.
Speaker 1: Be my last time. Why you preached so hard? One
Speaker 1: of my friends said, you know you preach too hard.
Speaker 1: He said, it hollered too much.
Speaker 2: And then he said, you know, you could take a
Speaker 2: little bit extra time and for yourself and not prepare
Speaker 2: so hard, and people wouldn't even know the difference. I
Speaker 2: shouldn't tell you. He was a pastor to see what
Speaker 2: happens when leaders lower the standard. Because, to be honest
Speaker 2: with you, I don't preach to your standard. The only
Speaker 2: question I had when I get done with this sermon
Speaker 2: is God, did I get it right? And if I
Speaker 2: got it right, I don't care how many likes, clicks, shares, downloads.
Speaker 2: I don't care who gets up and walks out in
Speaker 2: the middle of it because I made them uncomfortable or they.
Speaker 1: Wanted to watch a football game. I don't care if
Speaker 1: they laugh, stand up and clap. I'm not preaching for the.
Speaker 2: One preacher one time said, I don't preach for the
Speaker 2: praise of men.
Speaker 1: Amen. Amen, Who set your standard? Have you even thought
Speaker 1: about it? Or do you just inherited?
Speaker 2: Who set your standard? You look into celebrit for your standard?
Speaker 2: Really them the ones who are so miserable they can
Speaker 2: only be happy when they have attention.
Speaker 3: Really, that's your standard. Who set your standard?
Speaker 2: Who set your standard of what you will and will
Speaker 2: not listen to.
Speaker 1: Who set your standard?
Speaker 2: Oh you think you're better than us, That's what they'll
Speaker 2: say when you start living with standards.
Speaker 1: Oh you think you're better than us.
Speaker 2: No, it's just that I know how much I need
Speaker 2: a source that is not me, because I.
Speaker 1: Am weak without him. In fact, I'm nothing without him.
Speaker 1: So excuse me.
Speaker 2: But the battle that I'm in is too real for
Speaker 2: me to play around and live my life with exposed.
Speaker 1: Places and low standards. So I gotta get this right
Speaker 1: this year. I like that. I like that boy right there.
Speaker 2: He looks like a teenager with standards, right sitting there,
Speaker 2: leaning in in church. Some kids would be texting in church,
Speaker 2: but not you. You look like you want something from God. Boy,
Speaker 2: you look like you got a mission. You look like
Speaker 2: God might use you. Don't you lift down to the
Speaker 2: level of your friends. Your friends don't know anything yet
Speaker 2: God has taking you places. Stand up on your feet
Speaker 2: right now, Yeah, you stand up right now. Raise the standard,
Speaker 2: don't lower it. We you'll show up at school. God
Speaker 2: walks through the halls. We you'll show up at school.
Speaker 1: The pleasures of God moved. Raise the standard.
Speaker 2: You're really gonna let your unmarried friends tell you how
Speaker 2: to do your marriage.
Speaker 1: I tell you I had a wife, I wouldn't. Uh huh,
Speaker 1: you said. All I needed to hear in that.
Speaker 2: If I had a wife hard, if I wanted what
Speaker 2: you had, i'd do what you're doing.
Speaker 1: But I want something better.
Speaker 2: It's your standard. Sometimes our standards need to be lowered. Yeah, yeah, no,
Speaker 2: sometimes they do because sometimes it takes too much to
Speaker 2: make us happy. Who set the standard for what it
Speaker 2: takes to make you happy? Who set the standard for
Speaker 2: what it takes to have a good day. I'm bad
Speaker 2: about this one bad meeting and I had a bad day.
Speaker 1: No, no, no, It's like that old man told me
Speaker 1: that time. I said how you doing? He said, I'm alive.
Speaker 2: I thought, well, you didn't answer me, and then I realized,
Speaker 2: yes he did, because for him.
Speaker 4: To be alive, he woke up. It's a good day.
Speaker 4: He woke up, it's a good day. We'll set your standards.
Speaker 2: I mean, when did we come to the point when
Speaker 2: kids had to watch a movie in the car.
Speaker 1: Trip to Target.
Speaker 2: I used to have to dry ride four hours with
Speaker 2: a crayon and a book, and now you need alsa
Speaker 2: to get the Harris Theater.
Speaker 1: Don't set their standard. Do we all to mine?
Speaker 2: Do?
Speaker 1: What time I was complaining? I preached on a Saturday night.
Speaker 1: My friend came. He's on staff at another church, and I.
Speaker 2: Was apologizing to him because the crowd was a little
Speaker 2: down because I was used to being packed out an
Speaker 2: elevation on Saturday night. I said, I'm sorry, man, it
Speaker 2: was kind of it was kind of down today.
Speaker 1: He said, your down day would be my revival.
Speaker 2: I needed that because sometimes you let your standard get
Speaker 2: out of control. Sometimes as the church, we want to
Speaker 2: put a standard on the world that we ourselves don't
Speaker 2: even exemplify. We can't even figure out racial reconciliation within
Speaker 2: the context of the community of faith, but then we
Speaker 2: want to judge it when it's in the world.
Speaker 1: But God's got a remnant. God always has a remnant.
Speaker 2: I believe God is raising up Elevation Church as a
Speaker 2: remnant in this day to raise the standard of what
Speaker 2: church can be and how broad this message really is.
Speaker 2: We're here to raise the standard. I wonder who set
Speaker 2: your standards? See, how can you expect God to be
Speaker 2: your strength if he didn't set your standards? How can
Speaker 2: I expect success if I don't have a standard of excellence.
Speaker 1: If I have not established a standard of excellence in
Speaker 1: my life.
Speaker 2: Why would I expect God to bless my blemished offerings.
Speaker 2: You could take a little time off your sermons, you
Speaker 2: know nobody would notice. But why would I ask God
Speaker 2: to bless something that my whole heart wasn't in. It's
Speaker 2: hard to preach this in church because in church people
Speaker 2: think that if it's for God, it doesn't have to
Speaker 2: be good. Church can become a place where we just
Speaker 2: bring God any old thing. We show up on time
Speaker 2: for something we buy a ticket for, but we thirty
Speaker 2: five minutes late to get to church, and it doesn't
Speaker 2: matter because it's like the preliminary stuff or something like that.
Speaker 2: Just bring God any old thing and listen. I am
Speaker 2: not talking about God's standards so that you'll earn his love.
Speaker 2: This is not about keeping rules so that God will
Speaker 2: love you.
Speaker 1: It's because living right, because He does.
Speaker 2: Not living up to a standard, but living out of
Speaker 2: a standard. Christ in you the Hope of Glory, or
Speaker 2: as Romans says, that the righteous requirements of the law
Speaker 2: might be fully met in us who.
Speaker 1: Walk not after the flesh but the spirit.
Speaker 2: For years, I read it that the righteous requirements of the.
Speaker 1: Law might be met by us.
Speaker 2: Now I realize it's not something God wants from me,
Speaker 2: as something that he wants for me. He has given
Speaker 2: me a standard. He has called me his child, and
Speaker 2: to live beneath that is to be like Eve and
Speaker 2: to speak to something that you should be stepping on.
Speaker 2: But a lot of times we have an expectation with
Speaker 2: no standard. A standard of excellence means doing the best
Speaker 2: with what you have. And until I've done the best
Speaker 2: with what I have, I don't feel like I should
Speaker 2: ask God to do what he can do if I
Speaker 2: haven't done what I can do. And you run into
Speaker 2: all kinds of problems with this, you know, even from
Speaker 2: early in the church. Early in the church, I wanted
Speaker 2: to have a standard, you know, and we didn't have money,
Speaker 2: but I wanted a standard. And we didn't have equipment,
Speaker 2: but I wanted a standard. So I was the worship
Speaker 2: leader when we started. The standard was way lower than
Speaker 2: it is now.
Speaker 1: I got in at a good time. Okay, I was
Speaker 1: the only one available, and.
Speaker 2: So so I had to organize the band, and I
Speaker 2: bought in this guitar player for one of our first rehearsals,
Speaker 2: and he came in and he didn't practice.
Speaker 1: He said, I got busy this week. I didn't practice
Speaker 1: this week. But I'm good, so I let him practice
Speaker 1: with us.
Speaker 2: Then after practice I pulled him aside because I didn't
Speaker 2: want embarrassing. I said, hey, man, we won't be needing
Speaker 2: you Sunday because you didn't practice.
Speaker 1: He said, really, He said.
Speaker 2: You're going to kick me out the church because I
Speaker 2: didn't practice.
Speaker 1: I said, no, you can come to church.
Speaker 2: You just can't come with a guitar on and standing
Speaker 2: on the stage.
Speaker 1: You come to church all you want.
Speaker 2: I said, you see the chant playing, and I gave
Speaker 2: him a fifty dollars gas card. I said, here you go, man,
Speaker 2: and but but you're not playing. He said, your standards
Speaker 2: are too high. Nobody. He said, nobody's going to want
Speaker 2: to be a part of this ministry because the standards
Speaker 2: are too high. And he was right, nobody. This whole
Speaker 2: thing just I heard a story. Listen. I heard a
Speaker 2: story last night from an e group in our church.
Speaker 2: The couple that came a couple of years ago. They
Speaker 2: were sharing their story how they got here. They said,
Speaker 2: we hated it when we first came, and I was
Speaker 2: waiting for the for the twist, you know, because you're
Speaker 2: here now and you came years ago, they said. We
Speaker 2: came in and somebody at the door said we couldn't
Speaker 2: bring our Starbucks in church, and we had just spent
Speaker 2: five dollars each on our Starbucks. And I sat through
Speaker 2: the first part of the sermon all mad about my Starbucks.
Speaker 2: But then in the middle of the sermon, I started crying.
Speaker 2: And then when we left the church, we were getting
Speaker 2: in our car and somebody chased us down. The same
Speaker 2: person that told us we couldn't have our Starbucks in
Speaker 2: church said, while you were in service, we went and
Speaker 2: got you a Starbucks gift card and chased them down
Speaker 2: with a Starbucks gift card. And it wasn't even my
Speaker 2: sermon that wanted to Christ. It was Starbucks. But it
Speaker 2: was a standard. See, because I feel like, why should
Speaker 2: I ask people to tithe to this ministry and then
Speaker 2: have lazy staff members who don't even want to practice.
Speaker 2: Why should I expect you to invite your friends to
Speaker 2: church and not have a standard of excellence on this stage.
Speaker 2: Why should I expect God to bless something that I
Speaker 2: am not invested in? Why should we expect God to
Speaker 2: bless our lives with success when we have not established
Speaker 2: a standard of excellence. This is my year to bring
Speaker 2: my best to God, to bring him a worthy offering.
Speaker 2: I will not offer the Lord that which cost me nothing.
Speaker 1: How can I.
Speaker 2: Expect God to bless me with success when I have
Speaker 2: no standard of excellence? How can I expect God to
Speaker 2: bless me with abundance when I have no standard of stewardship.
Speaker 2: The standard comes before the strength. He will be a
Speaker 2: spirit of justice to the one who sits in judgment,
Speaker 2: and a source of strength to him who turns back
Speaker 2: to battle at the gate. The standard, then the strength,
Speaker 2: The standard then the strength. So if I want God
Speaker 2: to be my provider, I have to make a plan.
Speaker 2: Why would God give me prove if I don't have
Speaker 2: a plan for it? Why would God bless me with
Speaker 2: more when I'm not even generous with what I have?
Speaker 2: Why would he pour out of his resources into closed hands.
Speaker 2: I need a standard. That's why I give the first
Speaker 2: ten percent to God. That's my standard. He's first. This
Speaker 2: is off limits. It's not for negotiation. This is my standard.
Speaker 2: God comes first. Your children shouldn't even have to ask
Speaker 2: you are we going to church this week? Unless you
Speaker 2: got the flu. Of course we're going to church. It's
Speaker 2: our standard. I don't care who's playing. It's our standard.
Speaker 2: I don't care who's preaching. It's our standard. I don't
Speaker 2: care how bad the parking lot is. It's our standard.
Speaker 2: That God is working, I'll sit in traffic.
Speaker 1: He's God. I got standards.
Speaker 2: I got standards, see, and that's where my.
Speaker 1: Strength comes from. My standards.
Speaker 2: I don't have to waste time making decisions about standards
Speaker 2: that I should have said a long time ago. I
Speaker 2: don't have to negotiate between the gates. I have standards.
Speaker 2: How can I expect God to give me stability if
Speaker 2: I don't have a standard of integrity. A lot of
Speaker 2: times we ask God to help us feel better. Sometimes
Speaker 2: we're not going to feel better until we do better.
Speaker 2: And when you're managing secrets that you won't bring before
Speaker 2: God and confess to him so that he can begin
Speaker 2: the process of healing, you will always feel off inside.
Speaker 2: God can't be the source of your strength if he's
Speaker 2: not the source of your standards. How can I expect
Speaker 2: God to give me influence if I will not embrace
Speaker 2: the standard of sacrifice that influence for I want the influence,
Speaker 2: not the sacrifice. I want the resurrection, but not the crucifixion.
Speaker 1: We'll sell your standards.
Speaker 2: How can I expect to live in freedom if I
Speaker 2: do not embrace God's standard of forgiveness. If I hold
Speaker 2: on to every offense and let it all in the gate,
Speaker 2: don't turn back to battle. If I'm looking for reasons
Speaker 2: to be offended, looking for reasons to be angry, I
Speaker 2: should not be surprised when I find myself in a
Speaker 2: low emotional state. How can I be free from what
Speaker 2: I let walk right through my front door? How can
Speaker 2: I expect to walk in freedom if I have not
Speaker 2: chosen to walk in forgiveness. It is the standard of
Speaker 2: forgiveness that enables me to live in freedom.
Speaker 1: I don't forget you for you. I forgive you because
Speaker 1: I want to be free.
Speaker 2: How can I expect God's peace in my life if
Speaker 2: I don't control my meditation? How can I receive strength
Speaker 2: that God is trying to give me?
Speaker 1: If I just let any thought in?
Speaker 2: How can I expect to live in a state of
Speaker 2: joyful celebration of my progress If I allow myself to
Speaker 2: constantly complain, and sometimes I'm complaining or criticizing, I can
Speaker 2: be real critical because I got that excellence thing. And
Speaker 2: the flip side of excellence is judgmental when I try
Speaker 2: to put my standard on you, which is always wrong,
Speaker 2: which is always wrong. And so now I've opened my mouth,
Speaker 2: and I thought I was complaining or I thought I
Speaker 2: was criticizing, and I told myself, I'm just letting it out. No,
Speaker 2: I'm letting it in. I left my gate wide open
Speaker 2: to the enemy because I have no standard. But when
Speaker 2: I set a standard for my speech and my thoughts,
Speaker 2: I turned back the battle at the gate. And now
Speaker 2: I'm not in the stranglehold of a system of thought
Speaker 2: that I allowed myself to flirt with. And now I'm
Speaker 2: living in a state of joy, and I'm living at
Speaker 2: a level above the serpent, and he's under my feet.
Speaker 2: And I am not negotiating with what God called me
Speaker 2: to trample on. I said, I'm not going to conversate
Speaker 2: with what God has given me the ability to crush.
Speaker 1: I'm taking my stand and I'm setting my standard.
Speaker 2: How can I expect God's strength if I do not
Speaker 2: embrace God's standard? How can we expect God to give
Speaker 2: our nation unity if we do not embrace his standard
Speaker 2: of equality? He will be a spirit of justice to
Speaker 2: the one who sits in judgment. And when we allow
Speaker 2: inequality and prejudice and stereotypes and oppression to go unchecked
Speaker 2: and then ask God to make us one, we are
Speaker 2: violating the very principle that will create unity. And then
Speaker 2: we come up on a weekend and we celebrate Doctor
Speaker 2: King rightfully, but we celebrate him at the wrong level
Speaker 2: because we celebrate his speeches. The Doctor King's life was
Speaker 2: not about speeches.
Speaker 1: It was about standards.
Speaker 2: And I'm so afraid that we want God.
Speaker 1: We want God to be our mascot.
Speaker 2: We want God to be like one of those little
Speaker 2: you know, those little stuffed animals, the ones that talk
Speaker 2: when you pull the string. And we got our little
Speaker 2: Jesus doll that we pull out, and we pull the string,
Speaker 2: and Jesus has about three little things that he says,
Speaker 2: you know, love your neighbor and love your enemies, and
Speaker 2: we pull the string, we pull the string, and he
Speaker 2: just says these little sayings. And we don't want his standards.
Speaker 2: We just want his sayings. And we'll listen to speeches.
Speaker 2: We'll listen to I have a dream, but a dream
Speaker 2: without action, and a dream without process, and a dream
Speaker 2: without justice is a delusion. So we got to raise
Speaker 2: the standard and declare that some things are not all right.
Speaker 2: There has to be a standard. We are the people
Speaker 2: of God. Where is our standard? We can't wait for
Speaker 2: anybody else to set our standard. We are the Church,
Speaker 2: We are the light of the world.
Speaker 1: We are the ones in the cave. It's us.
Speaker 2: He cannot be the source of our strength if he
Speaker 2: is not the source of our standards. We cannot poison
Speaker 2: the well and then complain about the water. Do you
Speaker 2: hear what I'm trying to say. We've got to stop
Speaker 2: it at the source, to draw a bloodline in the
Speaker 2: name of Jesus and say this stuffs here. These are
Speaker 2: my standards. I will not apologize. I will not always
Speaker 2: live up to them, but I am pressing toward the.
Speaker 1: Mark for the prize of the high calling. I got
Speaker 1: a high calling, and I will not live with low standards.
Speaker 2: God is looking for somebody to turn back the battle
Speaker 2: at the gate. At the gate at the very beginning
Speaker 2: of the year. You know, most people want to get
Speaker 2: out of the gate strong. We want to get in
Speaker 2: the gate strong, take ownership and responsibility for our attitudes, and.
Speaker 1: He will be.
Speaker 2: Spirited justice to the one who sits in judgment, source
Speaker 2: of strength to the one who turns back the battle
Speaker 2: at the gate. If you want to be one of
Speaker 2: those that he speaks about who will turn back the
Speaker 2: battle at the gate, I want you to stand to
Speaker 2: your feet right now on every campus because I believe
Speaker 2: God has given us an opportunity. The gates of change
Speaker 2: start with our standards. I kind of wish we could
Speaker 2: sit down after this kind of wish we could take
Speaker 2: a moment and look at areas of your life where
Speaker 2: you're feeling weak and you need strength. Because in the
Speaker 2: area where you need strength, that's where you need standards.
Speaker 2: I'm not talking about twenty rules for you to keep
Speaker 2: that you tried to keep last year. I'm not talking
Speaker 2: about that kind of religious spirit that builds a ladder
Speaker 2: for you to climb to God. I'm talking about a
Speaker 2: ladder that came down to you. And the first stout
Speaker 2: of these changes is standards.
Speaker 1: Standards. What are your standards? Who set them?
Speaker 2: Who set the standard for you of what it means
Speaker 2: to be a man? Who set the standard for you
Speaker 2: of what it means to be a Christian? Just to
Speaker 2: pray a prayer one time, show up to church when
Speaker 2: it's convenient. Try not to cuss too much. The devil
Speaker 2: is a liar. There's a higher standard. This thing is
Speaker 2: meant to consume all of my life. It changes the
Speaker 2: way I see, the way I speak, the way I think,
Speaker 2: the way I treat my brother, the way I treat
Speaker 2: my sister. I got a new standard here, and God
Speaker 2: is looking for people at the beginning of this year
Speaker 2: who will raise the standard. Beautiful thing about it is
Speaker 2: that He is not going to cause you to have
Speaker 2: to reach the standard. He's only calling you to raise it,
Speaker 2: and he will give you the grace to draw a
Speaker 2: line and say it stops here. Are there some things
Speaker 2: in your life today that you need.
Speaker 1: To say stops here. I'm not going to talk that way,
Speaker 1: think that way, live that way.
Speaker 2: I'm not going to just allow unrestricted access to everything
Speaker 2: that wants to come into my space or my spirit
Speaker 2: to dominate my life and sabotage my sil This year,
Speaker 2: I'm raising the standard, and when the enemy comes in
Speaker 2: like a flood, the spirit of the Lord will raise
Speaker 2: a standard against him. He will be a spirit of justice,
Speaker 2: a wreath for the remnant to him who turns back
Speaker 2: the battle at the gate. Lift your hands. Father, We
Speaker 2: lift our hands to let the enemy know that he
Speaker 2: can only go so far, and in our lives, whatever
Speaker 2: is left we offer it to you right now as
Speaker 2: a living sacrifice wholly acceptable to you.
Speaker 1: It is a reasonable act of worship.
Speaker 2: Father, I thank you for your holy spirit that lives
Speaker 2: in us and calls us to a higher standard this
Speaker 2: week in our lives. Help us to identify those places
Speaker 2: where we have negotiated with what you have spoken and
Speaker 2: have allowed access to the enemy.
Speaker 1: We draw a line right here.
Speaker 2: We declare that the blood of Jesus is against everything
Speaker 2: that has opposed our lives, and has opposed our families,
Speaker 2: and has opposed our communities. And we are here today
Speaker 2: to be your remnant, to be crowned with your strength
Speaker 2: and enabled by your spirit to do exploits for your kingdom.
Speaker 2: Your kingdom Come. Your will be done on earth as
Speaker 2: it is in heaven. Bless your people.
Speaker 1: Lord, 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.
Speaker 1: You can share it with your friends.
Speaker 2: You can click the share button, take a screenshot and
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Speaker 2: Elevation Church.
Speaker 1: Thanks again for listening. God bless you.