Speaker 1: Hey there. Before we jump into the amazing message today,
Speaker 1: we wanted to let you know about our upcoming tour,
Speaker 1: the starting end just a few days. We're heading out
Speaker 1: in the month of August with our friends Carry Joe
Speaker 1: and Codycarnes, and we're coming to a city near you.
Speaker 1: We're going to have an amazing time in the presence
Speaker 1: of God. Every single time we gather, he's faithful to
Speaker 1: meet with us and do something new and fresh in
Speaker 1: our hearts. So we hope you'll join us. Yes, we're
Speaker 1: going to be in Dallas, San Antonio, Omaha. We're going
Speaker 1: to be in Toledo, Dayton. We're coming to you Knoxville, Huntsville. Yes,
Speaker 1: we're also going to be in Louisville, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia,
Speaker 1: and New York. So come out join us, bring your friends,
Speaker 1: bring your family. Everything you need tickets and information is
Speaker 1: at Elevation Worship dot Com. We'll see you and it's
Speaker 1: an honored to minister to you right now wherever you are,
Speaker 1: whether you're in your home or your car. Some people
Speaker 1: listen to me while they work out, so that's good.
Speaker 1: Get another rep. That's your sign. You were praying for
Speaker 1: a sign that you should work out today. This is it.
Speaker 1: Go work out to say it. The Lord and I
Speaker 1: want to share with you today. Let's go to Acts
Speaker 1: chapter three. Stay standing for one moment, Acts chapter three.
Speaker 1: As you're turning there, just to give a moment for
Speaker 1: everybody to turn. Put in the chat right now. Where
Speaker 1: you're joining us from? All right? YouTube or Facebook or
Speaker 1: wherever you're joining us from. Where are you joining us from?
Speaker 1: We want to know, and what's your name? And uh,
Speaker 1: what's your favorite what's your favorite band? And what's your
Speaker 1: favorite flavor ice cream? Or whatever you want to say
Speaker 1: in the chat. Don't let the chat distract you, all right,
Speaker 1: because God has a word for you today. Tell your
Speaker 1: neighbor real quick, say, don't distract me today. God's going
Speaker 1: to speak to me today. Look at them and say,
Speaker 1: you look so good. You're distracting me right now, but
Speaker 1: stop distracting me. Oh yeah, oh yeah, yeah yeah yeah.
Speaker 1: God is going to speak to us today. Acts Chapter three,
Speaker 1: Verse thirteen, Verse thirteen, And I really want to go
Speaker 1: to verse nineteen. So I will. I said that like
Speaker 1: it was something I really wanted. But we can do it.
Speaker 1: We can do it. Let's just do it. The God
Speaker 1: of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob starting off strong. The God
Speaker 1: of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of our fathers,
Speaker 1: has glorified his servant, Jesus. You handed him over to
Speaker 1: be killed and disowned him before Pilot, though he had
Speaker 1: decided to let him go. You disowned the Holy and
Speaker 1: Righteous when and asked that a murderer be released to you.
Speaker 1: You killed the author of life. Wow, but God raised
Speaker 1: him from the dead. We are witnesses of this by
Speaker 1: faith in name of Jesus. By what faith in the
Speaker 1: name of Jesus, Love it, love it, love it. This man,
Speaker 1: whom you see and know, was made strong. It is
Speaker 1: Jesus's name and the faith that comes through him that
Speaker 1: has completely healed him. As you can all see now.
Speaker 1: Fellow Israelites, I know that you acted in ignorance, as
Speaker 1: did your leaders. But this, this, this what you did
Speaker 1: in ignorance. This is how God fulfilled what he what
Speaker 1: he had foretold through all the prophets, saying that his
Speaker 1: Messiah would suffer. Repent. Then repent, then change your mind,
Speaker 1: change your direction, turn to God, so that your sins
Speaker 1: may be wiped out. The times of refreshing may come
Speaker 1: from the Lord go back to verse fifteen. It's the
Speaker 1: nucleus of this message. You killed the author of life,
Speaker 1: but God raised them from the dead. We are witnesses
Speaker 1: of this today. I want to talk to you about
Speaker 1: what comes after. What comes after, That's what the Lord
Speaker 1: wants me to talk to you about. You know how
Speaker 1: you've been stressing out about stuff that's out there somewhere.
Speaker 1: The Lord said, let's talk about what comes after. You
Speaker 1: know how you've been stuck in some things that happened
Speaker 1: and you can't quite You keep tripping on stuff that's
Speaker 1: behind you. How to even trip on something that's behind you?
Speaker 1: But the Lord said, let's talk today for just a
Speaker 1: few moments about what comes after. Thank you for your word,
Speaker 1: God in Jesus, nay Amen. You may be seated while
Speaker 1: you're getting situated. Quick plug. Holly has a book club.
Speaker 1: You got two fans, baby, I'm like, you need a
Speaker 1: new marketing department. No, it's awesome. She has a book
Speaker 1: club and it is called the Holly Verdict book Club.
Speaker 1: Very creative title. I love it because when I asked
Speaker 1: her why she was doing it, she said, because I
Speaker 1: want to nothing deep about it. They don't always study
Speaker 1: books about seven ways to pray your way into a
Speaker 1: greater day. But they just study books that she likes,
Speaker 1: and they don't really even study. And why am I
Speaker 1: saying study? They just talk about them. And it's cool
Speaker 1: because she'll often get the author on. She's so excited
Speaker 1: when she gets the author. She'll call me into the
Speaker 1: room or come runn an inchick. I got the author.
Speaker 1: That's great. And then I pick on her and I'm like,
Speaker 1: but you know, I have a book club too, because
Speaker 1: she's always trying to get me to read the books.
Speaker 1: I'm like, no, baby, I'm sorry. I have a book
Speaker 1: club and the author lives in my heart. You have
Speaker 1: to feel so sorry for my family. They get dad
Speaker 1: jokes and preacher jokes, and both of them combined. It's unbearable,
Speaker 1: let me tell you right now. But I joke with her,
Speaker 1: and so I don't know. It's probably not because I'm
Speaker 1: studying the Bible. I'm probably just lazy. I always intend
Speaker 1: to read the books that she does, and I never
Speaker 1: get around to it. So she'll usually take me to
Speaker 1: go see the movie if there is a movie, and
Speaker 1: I will do that, and she took me to see
Speaker 1: one recently. I won't take what the movie is, so
Speaker 1: it won't be like a spoiler alert if you want
Speaker 1: to go see that movie. I hated it. I thought
Speaker 1: the movie was terrible. It's kind of a last minute decision.
Speaker 1: We snuck some low carb candy into the movie theater
Speaker 1: and I sat there and watched that movie. Within five minutes,
Speaker 1: she turns to me in and she goes, I'm so sorry,
Speaker 1: and then you know what she's gonna say next, I
Speaker 1: promise the book was so much better. It was better.
Speaker 1: Every five minutes she would turn to me and say,
Speaker 1: I promised the book was better, and I didn't read
Speaker 1: the book. So I'm like, yeah, right, how would I
Speaker 1: know if you're telling me the drums? One day, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna preach a scripture that says you are living epistles
Speaker 1: and talk about how we are actually God wants to
Speaker 1: put his word through our lives living. And then I'm
Speaker 1: gonna ask, what's the book better? Are you living out anyway?
Speaker 1: So I'm gonna do that one day. But she said
Speaker 1: I promised the book was better. After two hours of
Speaker 1: me thinking I really love you to sit through this movie.
Speaker 1: I didn't like it at all. It did something that
Speaker 1: I didn't expect it to do. The last scene of
Speaker 1: the movie. I was literally getting my keys, getting my wallet,
Speaker 1: literally thinking let's just go ahead and go I don't
Speaker 1: need this long last scene. And what happened in the
Speaker 1: last two minutes. I looked at her and said, that
Speaker 1: was a pretty good movie. I was pretty good. I
Speaker 1: didn't I did not see that coming. The last two
Speaker 1: minutes changed the whole movie from me wanting a refund
Speaker 1: to be wanting to rewatch it. I'm like, maybe we
Speaker 1: should come back and see that again, because I need
Speaker 1: to watch everything that I thought was stupid and slow
Speaker 1: and corny through the lens of the last thing that happened.
Speaker 1: So what I saw in the last two minutes made
Speaker 1: me rethink the whole last two hours because of what
Speaker 1: I saw at the end that I didn't know in
Speaker 1: the beginning, and I didn't know in the middle. But
Speaker 1: then when I saw the end, it changed the middle,
Speaker 1: It changed the beginning, and it made me think, maybe
Speaker 1: you are a good book picker. Maybe this movie wasn't
Speaker 1: so bad after all. In life, wouldn't it be nice
Speaker 1: if we could see the last two minutes, the last
Speaker 1: two months, the last two years, just to know how
Speaker 1: to watch everything that is happening in real time. Something
Speaker 1: can happen at the end that makes you go back
Speaker 1: and rethink the entire thing that went before it. You know,
Speaker 1: I'm right. You can have experiences in life that make
Speaker 1: you go from thank you, Lord for bringing this person
Speaker 1: into my life, for this relationship, to Lord, why didn't
Speaker 1: you protect me from this relationship? Why didn't I listen
Speaker 1: to all the people who told me. You know, I'm right,
Speaker 1: there are things that can happen later and here's what
Speaker 1: it is. Here's what it is. I was thinking, did
Speaker 1: the last two minutes change the first two hours? Can
Speaker 1: you change the past? Before you say no? Reconsider my
Speaker 1: illustration in light of this book club that we've chosen
Speaker 1: to attend today, because we're in a book club, right
Speaker 1: and we read something that happened now. We read something
Speaker 1: that happened not at the beginning of the Ministry of
Speaker 1: Peter and John, not at the end. We read something
Speaker 1: that happened right there in the middle that was so powerful,
Speaker 1: this miracle that was so powerful. I love it because
Speaker 1: I've been studying this all week. I know what comes before,
Speaker 1: I know what comes after, and right in the middle
Speaker 1: of it, Peter is preaching, and he says something and
Speaker 1: there's a word from God, and it actually there's two
Speaker 1: words from God. You should I get up to give
Speaker 1: you a word from God. But you picked double portions
Speaker 1: Sunday today because there are two words from God in
Speaker 1: this text. Now, before we get there, let's back out
Speaker 1: one more time and consider the premise. Can you change
Speaker 1: the past? Certainly, we can't do the events. That's a
Speaker 1: waste of time. I think that all regret is a
Speaker 1: misappropriation of imagination. Is you taking the wisdom God wants
Speaker 1: you to use for your future and applying it toward
Speaker 1: a situation that is already behind you. So can you
Speaker 1: change the past? Apparently Peter thinks that you can not
Speaker 1: change the events. And by the way, we're always changing
Speaker 1: the past when we tell somebody else what happened. You
Speaker 1: are the senior editor of your story, and you make
Speaker 1: all GUIDs of changes and alterations. You switch stuff around,
Speaker 1: You add dialogue, internal dialogue, external dialogue. You are an
Speaker 1: unreliable narrator. To put it in book terms, because this
Speaker 1: is a book club right now. The Bible is not
Speaker 1: a book like we say. It's a book. The Bible
Speaker 1: it has six these two separate books, different types of literature,
Speaker 1: everything from poetry to historical narrative to letters that were
Speaker 1: written to the church to instruct them how to live.
Speaker 1: And then you got the Gospels, which give the record
Speaker 1: of the account of what Jesus did while he was here.
Speaker 1: The Book of Acts is awesome because it tells us
Speaker 1: what happened after Jesus left. Now we know that this
Speaker 1: movement that was beginning here in Acts chapter three is
Speaker 1: something that will still occupy a space in time in
Speaker 1: twenty twenty two, twenty twenty three if you watch it later,
Speaker 1: or twenty twenty five if you watch it later. But
Speaker 1: God knows all of that. God knows when you're going
Speaker 1: to watch this message. And what Peter didn't know is
Speaker 1: that I was going to be bringing his words that
Speaker 1: he had to say on the spot to you today
Speaker 1: for your situation, and that you would be in a
Speaker 1: situation today where you don't know us next and you
Speaker 1: can't figure out what's happening. And the challenge of it is, see,
Speaker 1: we don't get to see the last scene. The disciples
Speaker 1: didn't get to see the last scene. They didn't get
Speaker 1: to see that this would work, that the Gospel would
Speaker 1: indeed go from Jerusalem that's where they started, to Judea
Speaker 1: the surrounding area, to Samaria, where they tended to avoid,
Speaker 1: and to the ends of the earth. Valentine Gaston, Riverwalk, Columbia,
Speaker 1: all the ends of the earth, Kentucky. Peter didn't know
Speaker 1: about Kentucky when he reaches for I guarantee there's somebody
Speaker 1: right now who's watching this from Kentucky, and they weren't
Speaker 1: paying attention, and all of a sudden they just got
Speaker 1: their attention because I said Kentucky. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The
Speaker 1: Lord want me say Kentucky because he knew you'd need
Speaker 1: this word right now. God is like that. My challenge
Speaker 1: is how do I live through this story when I
Speaker 1: don't know the last scene that may make it all
Speaker 1: make sense. That's why I have to live. Say these
Speaker 1: two words by faith, say it again by faith, put
Speaker 1: it in the chat by faith, by faith, by faith,
Speaker 1: Come on elon by faith, by faith, by faith, by faith,
Speaker 1: by faith, by faith, by faith. We walk by faith,
Speaker 1: not by sight. So it means that even though I
Speaker 1: haven't seen the last scene, is my kid gonna come
Speaker 1: back home? I haven't seen the last scene? Is my
Speaker 1: marriage gonna make it. I haven't seen the last scene.
Speaker 1: Am I ever gonna get through this? I haven't seen
Speaker 1: the last scene. Am I gonna get another job while
Speaker 1: I keep getting all these other bills? Because I keep
Speaker 1: getting other bills, but I haven't got another job. And
Speaker 1: even know if I get the other job, Am I
Speaker 1: gonna make enough in the other job to pay all
Speaker 1: the other bills because all the other bills didn't stop
Speaker 1: coming while I'm waiting on the other job. Even though
Speaker 1: I haven't seen that scene. By faith, I can believe
Speaker 1: that if God said that he was with me, You're ready,
Speaker 1: You're ready. He knows what's next, and I can trust him.
Speaker 1: Say lah, pause and think about it that in this
Speaker 1: scene of your life, you can believe that what God
Speaker 1: is working in your life, in your family, in your career,
Speaker 1: in my ministry, in my heart, in my character. Even
Speaker 1: though I don't get to see the last scene, I
Speaker 1: could turn to Holly and say, this is gonna be
Speaker 1: good because I trust who wrote the screenplay. Yeah, beautiful,
Speaker 1: Peter's coming on kind of strong in this sermon, you
Speaker 1: gotta admit, but he's fired up. You know how you
Speaker 1: get fired up, You get on a spiritual high. Have
Speaker 1: you ever been on a spiritual high. No, certainly, it's
Speaker 1: a lot different than what you just demonstrated. If you have,
Speaker 1: maybe today is not the day. But Peter had just
Speaker 1: he had done something pretty amazing because Jesus used to
Speaker 1: help them do miracles, but now he's no longer here
Speaker 1: in human form, and he sent his spirit. He was
Speaker 1: always telling them while he walked the earth, I'm going
Speaker 1: to leave. After I do, I'll send something that will
Speaker 1: give you a power I can't give you while I'm here.
Speaker 1: So wait for that. Don't get discouraged. I'm going to die.
Speaker 1: I'll be there three days, but don't give up in
Speaker 1: three days, don't give up in don't give up in
Speaker 1: ten days, twenty days, thirty days, fifty days. When they're
Speaker 1: persecuting you know that they persecuted me. And I'm giving
Speaker 1: you a spirit, the spirit of God. On the day
Speaker 1: of Pentecost, the spirit came. They were all together in
Speaker 1: one place and the spirit came. And that's where your
Speaker 1: strength comes from. From the spirit of God. That doesn't
Speaker 1: come from you, that doesn't come from situations, that doesn't
Speaker 1: come from earthly things, that doesn't come from creatine. I
Speaker 1: got some strength that comes from Jesus Christ, who set
Speaker 1: the spirit in his name, from the Father and lives
Speaker 1: forever to make intercession. I got his spirit seeing, so
Speaker 1: this is Peter. Watch I divide Peter's life into two
Speaker 1: separate things. Okay, I call him before Spirit Peter or
Speaker 1: BS Peter, and then after spirit Peter. All right, this
Speaker 1: is as Peter, not BS Peter, BS Peter. Before the
Speaker 1: spirit came in and he was saying all kind of
Speaker 1: stuff he couldn't back up. I got you, Jesus, I
Speaker 1: don't care about anything. Give me that sword, give me
Speaker 1: that ear. Ay I do, mister potato head preaching before
Speaker 1: he got filled with the spirit. But now Jesus is gone.
Speaker 1: But the spirit came and he's bold. This must be
Speaker 1: a different dude. This can't be the same dude that
Speaker 1: sat down at the fire and when a little servant
Speaker 1: girl asked where you, one of them said, I don't
Speaker 1: know him and started cussing. Because now he's preaching. That's
Speaker 1: who spoke these words. I didn't tell you that. I
Speaker 1: wanted to save it because I wanted you to see
Speaker 1: the words, and then I wanted you to think about
Speaker 1: who said them, and when he said them, and why
Speaker 1: he said them, look at it again. He goes all
Speaker 1: the way back the God of Abraham. He hits rewind
Speaker 1: all the way back to the beginning of the book,
Speaker 1: to the beginning of the movie, because something happened in
Speaker 1: this moment that made him rethink the whole thing. He's
Speaker 1: speaking to the Jewish people. They're familiar with this God.
Speaker 1: But as he rewinds to that first frame it says
Speaker 1: the God of Abraham. He reminds you and me that
Speaker 1: it starts with God. That it starts with God. It
Speaker 1: didn't start when your mom and dad decided it's time
Speaker 1: to try and succeeded. It didn't start when the fastest
Speaker 1: swimmer made it all the way. It's like waking y'all up.
Speaker 1: It didn't start with any of that. It starts with God.
Speaker 1: Because everybody's running because here's what happened. Here's what happening.
Speaker 1: I cannot preach this whole text. Just read it this week.
Speaker 1: Just promise me you'll try to read it this week.
Speaker 1: Where they're going to the temple at the hour of prayer,
Speaker 1: there's three times of prayer there at this particular time
Speaker 1: of prayer, the hour. The word hour literally means the
Speaker 1: divine appointment. They didn't know that they're going to the temple.
Speaker 1: This man is at the gate and he can't walk,
Speaker 1: and he asks for money, and Peter's like, don't have
Speaker 1: what you asked for, But I got what you need
Speaker 1: that you wouldn't even know to ask for, because it's
Speaker 1: a name. Silver and gold have I none, But such
Speaker 1: as I have I give you. This is what Peter
Speaker 1: said to the man, in the name of Jesus, get
Speaker 1: up and walk, reaches down his hand becomes a jumper cable.
Speaker 1: The man jumps up to his feet starts going to church,
Speaker 1: but not like everybody else. He's high stepping to church.
Speaker 1: He's walking, jumping, praising God. Everybody, how many of y'all
Speaker 1: came in this morning jumping and praising God? You know
Speaker 1: you're lying. You came in dragging and fighting and cussing
Speaker 1: and fussing, and then when you saw the greets, he said,
Speaker 1: raise the Lord. How are you unblessed and highly favored? Anyway,
Speaker 1: there's so much we can say about this miracle, as
Speaker 1: that he didn't leave the way he came and all
Speaker 1: of that. Today, I want to do what Peter did,
Speaker 1: and I want to go back because this man gets healed,
Speaker 1: and all the people don't know what to think about it,
Speaker 1: and so Peter takes the opportunity. You know, a lot
Speaker 1: of times God does something in our life on a
Speaker 1: physical level, but we don't stop to reflect on it
Speaker 1: and break it down on a spiritual level, so we
Speaker 1: don't get the full benefit of what he did. Peter
Speaker 1: sees this man who gets healed, and he sees this
Speaker 1: would make an excellent opportunity to preach. There's a man
Speaker 1: whose name is not known or mentioned, who is healed
Speaker 1: by a name that is above every name, and the
Speaker 1: vessel for it is a man who really was an
Speaker 1: unlikely candidate. I would call the Book of Acts. If
Speaker 1: I gave it a subtitle, I would call it the
Speaker 1: unfolding Plan of an unstoppable God through unlikely people like Peter,
Speaker 1: like me, like you. The unfolding plan. They didn't know
Speaker 1: it when they were in it. You don't know it
Speaker 1: when you're in it. You can't see it. When you're
Speaker 1: in it. You'll be grabbing your keys and grabbing your
Speaker 1: wallet and getting up to leave and starting to give up,
Speaker 1: and thinking about quitting and thinking about walking away, and
Speaker 1: turning to the person next to you and saying this
Speaker 1: is ridiculous. I wasted my money, I wasted my time,
Speaker 1: I wasted my prayers, I wasted my faith. I'm wasting
Speaker 1: my life. What was it all for? It keeps hurting
Speaker 1: and it won't go away. I keep trying and I
Speaker 1: can't get up. But in this moment, see Peter is
Speaker 1: taking the opportunity to remind you of Jesus, who is
Speaker 1: Hebrews twelve, who says the author and the finisher of
Speaker 1: my faith. Everybody say faith. So here's the challenge. Philip
Speaker 1: Yancy said that faith is believing in advance what will
Speaker 1: only make sense and reverse. Faith for what you can't
Speaker 1: figure out. Faith for what frustrates you. Faith for what
Speaker 1: has you tied up in knots. Faith for what wakes
Speaker 1: you up in the middle of the night. Faith for
Speaker 1: what makes you think you're losing your mind. Faith for
Speaker 1: what makes you wonder, am I going crazy? Faith for
Speaker 1: what you've given up on the possibility of change. For
Speaker 1: that kind of faith, he says, we've got to go
Speaker 1: all the way back. So watch this, this man who
Speaker 1: has just been healed, and Peter starts talking about history.
Speaker 1: What does this man's healing have to do with the
Speaker 1: Jewish people's history. What does healing have to do with history? Everything?
Speaker 1: Everything you understand, because if you are in the history only,
Speaker 1: then you want to experience your destiny. But if you
Speaker 1: are only focused on your destiny and have no frame
Speaker 1: of your history, you will give up too soon and
Speaker 1: miss the point of what God is doing in your life.
Speaker 1: The God of Abraham. We're going all the way back
Speaker 1: to Abraham, Peter. Peter's like, yeah, I'm going all the
Speaker 1: way back. This is like when you ask somebody how
Speaker 1: you're doing, and they're like, when I was three, You're like, whaa,
Speaker 1: how you doing? Right now? All they want to see
Speaker 1: is is this for you? Did that mean? That's let's
Speaker 1: give him a name. That's Rob. Rob not supposed to
Speaker 1: be walking. Rob's not Let's call him Jimmy. Jimmy's not
Speaker 1: supposed to be jumping. It's Jimmy jumping. Jimmy was out
Speaker 1: here jumping. Jimmy. We can't be jumping. We walked right
Speaker 1: over him. Now now, no, no, this is Some'm awesome.
Speaker 1: God can shifting so quick. The one that everybody stepped
Speaker 1: over is now the center of the story. He's God
Speaker 1: can shift it like that. So don't worry when people
Speaker 1: say something about you, or don't worry when people don't
Speaker 1: give you an opportunity, or don't worry when they don't
Speaker 1: text you back. You needed that space on your phone
Speaker 1: for what's coming. The man. I love the Word of God.
Speaker 1: The man is heel, and Peter's like the God of
Speaker 1: Abraham because it starts with God. Your story, whatever scene
Speaker 1: you're in right now, divorice, heartbreak, victory, success, promotion, termination,
Speaker 1: any of it. Your story is a story in a story,
Speaker 1: in a story, in a story, in a story. I
Speaker 1: should do this forty one times in a story, in
Speaker 1: a story. Put it in the chat, in a story,
Speaker 1: in a story, put it say out loud in a
Speaker 1: story in a story. Because that's how many generations back.
Speaker 1: Peter goes to explain what happened the God of Abraham.
Speaker 1: That's forty one generations before Jesus. Peter, can you kind
Speaker 1: of tell us what's just going on right now? Give
Speaker 1: me the cliffs knows, Peter, I'm not sure I want
Speaker 1: a whole history lesson. No, no, no, you got to
Speaker 1: understand history, or you'll look at this man and you'll
Speaker 1: think it's his story. But Peter has to show him
Speaker 1: it's not just his story, and it's not just your story.
Speaker 1: It's history. The God of Abraham, y'all know, I woke
Speaker 1: up ready to appreciate to you today I'm living in
Speaker 1: the middle of his story. That encourages me. I don't
Speaker 1: know why, because when it's all my story, it's all
Speaker 1: my drama. When it's all my story, it's all on
Speaker 1: my budget. If he's the director, he's gonna pay the bills.
Speaker 1: If he's the director, he's gotta figure out the script.
Speaker 1: If it's his story, he's gotta figure out how to
Speaker 1: make all this chaos and all this crazy and all
Speaker 1: these world events and all these hurts and all of
Speaker 1: these mistakes work together to serve the purpose of the
Speaker 1: author who created me from my mother's womb. So stepping
Speaker 1: right into the middle of his story, this man at
Speaker 1: the gate, Peter recalls his story. It's a story with
Speaker 1: then a story, with then a story. You hang around
Speaker 1: here long enough, I'm gonna teach of the Bible. Abraham
Speaker 1: is seventy five. Story is coming to a close at
Speaker 1: seventy five. Right, you hadn't talked to the author yet, Abraham,
Speaker 1: You had talked to the author yet, Abraham. The author
Speaker 1: showed up to Abraham. He didn't even have an H
Speaker 1: in his name. Vanna didn't even put an H in
Speaker 1: his name yet. I watched with Wheel of Fortune every
Speaker 1: Wednesday night when my mom, y'all, I'm wow, they're crazy.
Speaker 1: Every Wednesday night it's called Wednesdays for the Wheel, and
Speaker 1: I pray for Pat say Jack every Wednesday. And Pat,
Speaker 1: if you ever watched this, I would love to have
Speaker 1: you in elevation. I think you're amazing. Now I'll just
Speaker 1: put it out there in case God wants answer a
Speaker 1: dumb prayer. Abram, Abram, start counting stars. That's what the
Speaker 1: author told him. Start talking to the stars. Lord, Yeah,
Speaker 1: you did good on those stars. That's cool man. Now
Speaker 1: he's an herb the Kaldeans, and God says, go to
Speaker 1: the land. I will show you and count the stars.
Speaker 1: And if you can count them, that's how numerous your
Speaker 1: descendants are going to be. That's what comes after, after
Speaker 1: count the sand of the seashore. Now this is a
Speaker 1: collision of history and destiny, because there's what God did
Speaker 1: the stars long before Abram got here, and there's what
Speaker 1: God is doing through Abram history destiny. You stay stuck
Speaker 1: in one. Don't focus on the other. You're done. You
Speaker 1: stay just focused on the history. You're walking around, talk
Speaker 1: about how much you bench pressed in nineteen forty seven.
Speaker 1: I was the man back then, y'all. I see these
Speaker 1: kids these days. They don't know how we used to
Speaker 1: do it back in the day. Now you're stuck in
Speaker 1: your history. You start talking about what you're going to
Speaker 1: do one day when nobody is bothering you and there's
Speaker 1: no traffic and they make flying teslas and you don't
Speaker 1: have to wait to get the work. Well, that's just
Speaker 1: you hypothetically avoiding this present moment. Wow. Wow, Thank you God,
Speaker 1: Thank you God that I'm not stuck where I started.
Speaker 1: And but I thank you for that scripture that says
Speaker 1: no eye has seen, no ear has heard, neither has
Speaker 1: it entered in the heart of a man what God
Speaker 1: has prepared for those who love him. But God has
Speaker 1: revealed them to us by his spirit. See nobody ever,
Speaker 1: says the next verse, everybody, I always heard the first verse,
Speaker 1: no eye has seen and no ear is heard what
Speaker 1: is entered in the hearts of man? Next says but God.
Speaker 1: Abraham was seventy five years old and his wife's womb
Speaker 1: was as good as dead. But God wanted a baby
Speaker 1: named Isaac, and Abraham even got in the way and
Speaker 1: messed it up by having Ishmael with Hagar. But God
Speaker 1: had a plan for Isaac and Ishmael. But God, but God,
Speaker 1: but God has revealed them by his spirit. So that's
Speaker 1: what his spirit does. That's what time with God does.
Speaker 1: That's why coming to church is a better investment than
Speaker 1: the stock market. That's why coming to church is a
Speaker 1: better investment than washing your raggedy car, which is gonna
Speaker 1: be dirty again in three days. That's why coming to
Speaker 1: church and listening to the Word of God, because that
Speaker 1: word gets in you, and when it mixes with the
Speaker 1: spirit that was in you, and the soil of the
Speaker 1: spirit and the seed of the word get together. God said,
Speaker 1: so shall your seed be. At the same time he's
Speaker 1: speaking to old Labe Holab Holy plug, you sure about that?
Speaker 1: And the Lord's like, I'm sure about that because I'm
Speaker 1: the author. I'm the author. Holly got one author on
Speaker 1: the on the on the phone one time on the
Speaker 1: Instagram on her book club, and she goes Holly Ford
Speaker 1: dot com. You can look it up, and she said,
Speaker 1: she said, she told me to plug the website. So
Speaker 1: I forgot to do that. So I'm gonna do that.
Speaker 1: Maybe she'll pay me back in a sponsorship. You could
Speaker 1: sponsor me when we get home. All right, that has
Speaker 1: to be a sponsor. Dad, y'all quit looking at me.
Speaker 1: I'm uncomfortable. Shouldn't have said it, shouldn't have sent him.
Speaker 1: What comes after? That's a whole other sermon. That's a
Speaker 1: marriage seminar. Yeah, do the dishes, you might get a kiss,
Speaker 1: all right, what comes after? And she was interviewing this
Speaker 1: author who wrote a true story about her life, and
Speaker 1: she was she gave up a baby for adoption, teenage pregnancy.
Speaker 1: And when she got the author on the interview, she said,
Speaker 1: you left the story off right there at the inn,
Speaker 1: and you never told us did you meet the kid?
Speaker 1: And she goes, oh, yeah, that's what my next book
Speaker 1: is about. Always said good. I can't wait to read it. Y'all.
Speaker 1: When we read the Book of Acts, we're reading the sequel.
Speaker 1: It was written by Luke, who was a doctor who
Speaker 1: traveled with Paul, and he wrote it while Paul was
Speaker 1: imprisoned in Rome, and he wrote it to a man
Speaker 1: named Theophilous. He calls him the most excellent Theophilous. I
Speaker 1: want y'all start calling me that, by the way, most
Speaker 1: excellent Pastor Stephen, All right, get on it. Twenty six
Speaker 1: percent of the New Testament was written by Luke to Theophilos.
Speaker 1: Who was Theophilus? I mean, Luke is writing to him.
Speaker 1: Luke isn't even one of the original twelve Disciples. He's
Speaker 1: a gentile who came later. And he writes his first book,
Speaker 1: self titled Debut ep Luke. Then he puts out the
Speaker 1: Book of Acts as a follow up the sequel, and
Speaker 1: the disciples I never saw it this way before. They're
Speaker 1: living in the sequel. Jesus has gone in bodily form.
Speaker 1: What they knew is no longer available. What was normal
Speaker 1: for them for three years has been up into the
Speaker 1: cross has happened, the resurrection has happened, the Spirit has come.
Speaker 1: There's persecution ahead, but there's progress ahead. And there is
Speaker 1: always persecution with progress. If it's not from the outside,
Speaker 1: it's going to be from your lower nature and your
Speaker 1: flesh on the inside. There's always persecution with progress. The devil,
Speaker 1: I told you all last week. The devil will step
Speaker 1: right out of your way if you're headed in the
Speaker 1: wrong direction. Try any football players in here. I heard
Speaker 1: there were basketball players in here today. Is that right? Oh?
Speaker 1: I thought all over here? All right, do it when
Speaker 1: you get back when the season starts, turn around and
Speaker 1: run toward the other goal and see if anybody stops you.
Speaker 1: I let you do it all day long. They'll hand
Speaker 1: you a gatorade. Yeah, do that again. You're putting points
Speaker 1: on the board for the devil. He'll assist you. He'll
Speaker 1: ally oop you. Buck you ever make up your mind.
Speaker 1: I'm following Jesus, No, pardon back, I'm going forward to
Speaker 1: the future. I got a father, Nay Abraham. Wow, some
Speaker 1: names Wow, some name Jacob, And now his servant Jesus
Speaker 1: is being glorified. The unfolding Plan. Corey Ton Boom said,
Speaker 1: Heaven has no panic only plans. Heaven has no panic
Speaker 1: only plans. Think about what she went through. And she
Speaker 1: still said that, not before it happened, but after. She's
Speaker 1: still standing there saying stuff like, Heaven has no panic
Speaker 1: only plans. But it's an unfolding plan. It's an unfolding plan.
Speaker 1: At the picture, you don't see the scene. So by
Speaker 1: faith had to find out what God can do you're ready.
Speaker 1: You're ready, You're ready, And I have to apply that
Speaker 1: to the area where I'm the most anxious right now
Speaker 1: and believe by faith going forward based on the foundation
Speaker 1: of who God is, the God of Abraham, the God
Speaker 1: of Isaac, the God of Jacob. Isaac was tied up
Speaker 1: on an altar, and just as the moment where he
Speaker 1: thought he was going to be sacrificed, he heard a
Speaker 1: rustling of a ram in a bush. Because God never
Speaker 1: intended to kill Isaac. God always had a ram. The
Speaker 1: Bible says that Jesus is the Lamb of God who
Speaker 1: was slain from the foundation of the earth. When Peter
Speaker 1: stood at the cross, I got news for y'all. He
Speaker 1: didn't call it good friend Day. He didn't call it
Speaker 1: good Friday. We call it that because we know what
Speaker 1: came m question. What if it's good? What if it's good?
Speaker 1: What if it's good? We all know from broccoli that
Speaker 1: it can be good and not taste good. We know
Speaker 1: that what if it's good? What if it's good? Flip side,
Speaker 1: well if it's not, what if it makes you feel
Speaker 1: good but it's not good. Not calling anybody out to
Speaker 1: put you on the spot, but is there anybody watching
Speaker 1: online or at one of our campuses right now that
Speaker 1: raise your hand, And if you want to raise your hand,
Speaker 1: you don't have to that struggled with addiction and went
Speaker 1: through recovery at some point in your life. Thank you
Speaker 1: for raising your hand. And we're proud of you. We're
Speaker 1: proud of you, proud of you. Do you want to
Speaker 1: snatch people back now when you see them going down
Speaker 1: that path? Don't you? Because you know that after the
Speaker 1: high comes the lowest low. You know what it takes
Speaker 1: to break free from those chains, and you know how
Speaker 1: hard it still is for you every day, and you
Speaker 1: just want to scream. Don't don't like like you all
Speaker 1: want to scream for me. Don't keep walking pastor because
Speaker 1: you see what comes after. That's why Peter said repent.
Speaker 1: Did you notice that word in the text? He said, repent?
Speaker 1: Turn around. You're going the wrong way. You got your
Speaker 1: faith in the law. You listen to the prophets, but
Speaker 1: you missed the Messiah. Repent. You're trusting in your works,
Speaker 1: but you gotta receive discussable by grace. Repent. You're living
Speaker 1: your life for sinful pleasures, and sin is fun for
Speaker 1: a season. I said, sin is fun for a season,
Speaker 1: emphasis on season. But after that season comes another season,
Speaker 1: and some people that are trying to warn you right now,
Speaker 1: you turn them off, You tune them out, You tell them, no,
Speaker 1: you don't want to repent, you don't want to hear that.
Speaker 1: But how can the refreshing come if the repentance doesn't repent?
Speaker 1: Turn around? You got time, You're not dead, you're still breathing.
Speaker 1: You're not in this forever. Let me show you how
Speaker 1: I know. Can I show you how I know it's
Speaker 1: not forever? Can I show you how I know you
Speaker 1: still got time? Can I show you how I know
Speaker 1: it's not too late? Can I show you how I
Speaker 1: know it's gonna turn around? Can I show you why
Speaker 1: I faith to preach this work to you today? Because
Speaker 1: of what Peter said in verse fifteen. Verse fifteen is
Speaker 1: he's so annoying. If you need to share Jesus with somebody,
Speaker 1: but you only have five seconds, read them Acts three fifteen.
Speaker 1: Don't start with Abraham. You'll mess it up. You'll be
Speaker 1: putting Abraham on the arc and Moses and all that.
Speaker 1: But don't do that. Just say Acts three fifteen and
Speaker 1: show him this put on the big screen. We need
Speaker 1: this on the big screen, on the big screen, the
Speaker 1: big screen. This is a big verse. He said, you
Speaker 1: kill the author of life. Remember this is as Peter,
Speaker 1: not BS Peter, because Peter was cussing while Jesus was dying.
Speaker 1: But now he's been forgiven and he's repented, and he
Speaker 1: knows that that wasn't the end. Eh. And he's looking
Speaker 1: right at these people and saying, when you handed him
Speaker 1: over to the Romans, you killed him when you wanted
Speaker 1: to give up rabbits as was the custom, instead of
Speaker 1: the author of life. You kill the author. You're like pastor.
Speaker 1: I really want to go here with you, but this
Speaker 1: does not feel like to me the best verse I
Speaker 1: should share with my friends. Like you just said, huh,
Speaker 1: why are you stopping at the comma? Why are you
Speaker 1: stopping at the comma? Any English teachers in the room.
Speaker 1: English teachers make some noise. Y'all don't get shouted out much,
Speaker 1: do you. I shouted out the basketball players. Everybody was happy.
Speaker 1: English teachers. I need both of y'all to preach this message.
Speaker 1: This is an all inclusive gospel. I need everybody's health, heer,
Speaker 1: I need everybody's help. Tell me what a comma means stop,
Speaker 1: it means stop, hold on. I'm confused because it sounds
Speaker 1: like you're saying pause. But what I see people do
Speaker 1: all the time is get a divorce and stop. What
Speaker 1: I see people do all the time is fail and stop.
Speaker 1: What I see people all do all the time is
Speaker 1: come up short. And what I see people do all
Speaker 1: the time is try to change and stop. What I
Speaker 1: see people do all the time is give it three
Speaker 1: days and stop. But don't ever let that devil put
Speaker 1: a period where God put a Tama does that karma
Speaker 1: doesn't mean it's over, and he's think of breath. I
Speaker 1: keep going does whatever he's on the other side, I'm
Speaker 1: that Tama feeling in my spirit. I'm not preaching from
Speaker 1: my head. I'm preaching from my heart. This is emotionalism. No,
Speaker 1: it's grammar. It is grammar. Is grammar. Professor Fernick is
Speaker 1: in the house. Put it back off. I'm not done
Speaker 1: with it yet. This sin is the soul and annoying.
Speaker 1: This sentence is so annoying. No, not that diverse. The verse,
Speaker 1: the verse, the verse, the verse, the verse, the verse,
Speaker 1: the verse, the same verse. Y'all put it out, put
Speaker 1: it on the screen. Please please please this like us
Speaker 1: waiting on God. You know what I'm saying? This like
Speaker 1: Abraham twenty five years between when God gave him the
Speaker 1: promise and he saw it come to path. But just
Speaker 1: because I have to pause doesn't mean I stopped freaking.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna stay right here till that word come. Whoa
Speaker 1: spirit of the nature boys, Charlotte, North Carolina, where we
Speaker 1: speak English, Southern English. I failed Greek. I never passed Hebrew.
Speaker 1: They just sent me the degree to get me off
Speaker 1: the books. That's true. I made friends with the professor.
Speaker 1: I said, do you really want me to keep taking
Speaker 1: your class? And I had a degree a couple weeks later.
Speaker 1: I don't know what happened in between, but I know
Speaker 1: what came after I got that cemetery degree. I got
Speaker 1: that ce degree. You kill the author. I normally give
Speaker 1: you one word from God. Today I give you two.
Speaker 1: And you don't need to know Hebrew. You'll need to
Speaker 1: know Greek. You'll need to remember Theophilus. You have to
Speaker 1: go back to Abraham. You have to do any of that.
Speaker 1: Those two words that come after the comma, that's what
Speaker 1: I want you to remember, for every battle in your
Speaker 1: life in this season, for every cross in your life
Speaker 1: in this season, for every struggle in your life in
Speaker 1: this season, for every setback in your life, for every
Speaker 1: question in your life, for every unanswered prayer in your
Speaker 1: life in this season, for every thorn in your flesh
Speaker 1: in this season, for every in your hip this season,
Speaker 1: I want you to remember what comes after the come.
Speaker 1: But God only two words. You need to whip the
Speaker 1: devil's butt. Tell him, but stop being so reactive to
Speaker 1: the enemy's attack. I told you last week, closed your doors.
Speaker 1: Now I'm telling you this week, cover your butt. Can
Speaker 1: y'all believe I think about stuff like this, that's why
Speaker 1: you're at work. But God, you could do a whole
Speaker 1: study on every time that it says but God in
Speaker 1: the Bible, and you'd be blessed. You'd find out that
Speaker 1: very rarely when dive for even a righteous person. But
Speaker 1: God demonstrates his own love for us in this that
Speaker 1: while we were still sinners, not at the end of
Speaker 1: the movie, when we get our act together, when we
Speaker 1: get to heaven one day and we are given our
Speaker 1: wings and our trumpets. But while I'm still in my sin,
Speaker 1: I need somebody to hear that it is in the
Speaker 1: midst of the sin that the love is revealed. Now,
Speaker 1: don't keep sinning just because of that. But don't you
Speaker 1: stop because you're caught up in a comma. That's a comma.
Speaker 1: That is a comma. It does not mean stop, and
Speaker 1: it means what's coming next? You need to pay attention to.
Speaker 1: But tell me if I'm right English teacher. But can
Speaker 1: be an adjective, but can be a preposition. No, it
Speaker 1: can be an adverb. See what I'm saying. I failed
Speaker 1: my language class in this particular instance. But is not
Speaker 1: a noun. So you don't have to get off. But
Speaker 1: not in this instance. That's a different thing. This but now,
Speaker 1: this is important. It is a conjunction, and I remember
Speaker 1: it because of the song conjunction junction. What's your right? Right? So?
Speaker 1: What what y'all know? The Bible? What's under that? I
Speaker 1: love it? I love it. I love it. I love
Speaker 1: it because right there in that butt, right there in
Speaker 1: that butt, right there in that but is your breakthrough
Speaker 1: right there in that but? Is your freedom right there
Speaker 1: in that butt? Is you knowing how to calm yourself
Speaker 1: down when you feel like you're going crazy. But it
Speaker 1: means watch this. It is a conjunction. It is an
Speaker 1: adversative conjunction, an adversative conjunction. What that means is whatever
Speaker 1: comes after this butt, whatever comes after this butt. I'm
Speaker 1: preaching you to you today about what comes and a
Speaker 1: conjunction that is that is after this comma means that
Speaker 1: whatever comes after this butt is going to make whatever
Speaker 1: came before it wish that it had never even happened.
Speaker 1: Let me say it again, this is where the deep
Speaker 1: Christians are. Let me say it on this side, or
Speaker 1: maybe I should say it to this side, or maybe
Speaker 1: I should say it to this side, or maybe I
Speaker 1: should say it, or maybe I should say it to
Speaker 1: the people who got here early and got a seat
Speaker 1: right there on the plot. Okay, maybe it's over here.
Speaker 1: Watch this, watch this. Whatever comes after this but is
Speaker 1: gonna cancel out whatever happened before it. You didn't hear me.
Speaker 1: It's not gonna make it that it never happened. It's
Speaker 1: gonna make it that even though it happened, something greater
Speaker 1: happened after that made what happened before the butt. My
Speaker 1: preaching on my punctuation from March today, I'm preaching humbuck
Speaker 1: punctuation marks today whatever. Now, when people say to you
Speaker 1: stuff like this, they say, no offense. But whatever they're
Speaker 1: getting ready to say on the other side of that butt,
Speaker 1: it's gonna make you forget and disbelieve whatever they said
Speaker 1: before it no offense. But you can't dance, and your
Speaker 1: tattoo is crooked, and I don't like your jewelry, and
Speaker 1: you smell weird around your neck. You know, whatever they
Speaker 1: tell you, it's gonna be so crazy. No offense, but
Speaker 1: you get it, you get it, you get it. Don't
Speaker 1: take this personally. But a lady told Holly one time,
Speaker 1: don't take this personally. But we're leaving the church. We
Speaker 1: don't think Pastor Steven preaches sound doctrine, the Gospel of
Speaker 1: Jesus Christ. And we're just tired of seeing people come
Speaker 1: into church that are coming in high from the night before.
Speaker 1: And I couldn't understand. If they can't come to church
Speaker 1: high from the night before, how are we gonna lead
Speaker 1: them to the most high God that they don't even
Speaker 1: know about. If I can't preach to them, how they're
Speaker 1: gonna preach if they don't hear? And she had the
Speaker 1: unmitigated nerve gull and audacity to say, don't take it personal.
Speaker 1: Nothing personal. But your church sucks and you're leading people
Speaker 1: to hell. But it's not personal. And no, of course
Speaker 1: not what you said after. But you killed the author.
Speaker 1: But you can't do that, can you, Because the author
Speaker 1: is the one who gets to decide when it's over.
Speaker 1: You can't really kill the author, can you, Because if
Speaker 1: you kill the author, they can write a sequel. If
Speaker 1: you kill the author, they can put a comma. If
Speaker 1: you kill the author, they can write another chapter. I
Speaker 1: wasn't shouting over the comma. I wasn't shouting over the butt.
Speaker 1: I was shouting over what came after. I wasn't shouting
Speaker 1: over the pain. I wasn't shouting over the shame. I
Speaker 1: was shouting over what came after. And if whatever comes
Speaker 1: after that comma and that butt is bigger than what
Speaker 1: came before it. And what came after that butt was God.
Speaker 1: And we're talking about the God of Abraham, the God
Speaker 1: of Isaac, the God of Jacob. And I wish Peter
Speaker 1: would have kept going. I wish you would have started
Speaker 1: talking about Joseph, because Joseph talked just like this. This
Speaker 1: is how Joseph talked. Remember, sold into slavery, left in
Speaker 1: a pit, taken to a prison, but falsely accused, for
Speaker 1: gotten in a prison, standing before his brothers thirty nine
Speaker 1: years laid, forty years of interval. That's what you live in.
Speaker 1: You live in the interval, the interval between what God
Speaker 1: spoke and what you see. You have to believe it
Speaker 1: in the interval. And Joseph, after all that time, I
Speaker 1: gotta show you what he said because Peter stopped one
Speaker 1: character short. He should have talked about Joseph, who said,
Speaker 1: asked for you you intended to harm me? Can you
Speaker 1: please give me Genesis fifty twenty. I've got to show
Speaker 1: to people this verse because you'll hear Joseph as Peter
Speaker 1: is preaching about Jesus. Remember what Peter just said. You
Speaker 1: killed him, but the grave couldn't keep him. Let me
Speaker 1: be explicit. Your faith can't be in the miracle. It
Speaker 1: has to be in the man. It has to be
Speaker 1: in Jesus. It has to be in what he did.
Speaker 1: I'm talking about the fact that he got up out
Speaker 1: of the grave. That's the basis of our faith. His
Speaker 1: name is Jesus. His name will still be Jesus if
Speaker 1: I have a job, his name will still be Jesus.
Speaker 1: If I don't have a job, his name will still
Speaker 1: be Jesus. If I'm crying, his name will still be Jesus.
Speaker 1: If I lose twenty, if I gain twenty, his name
Speaker 1: will still be Jesus. If you like me, his name
Speaker 1: will still be Jesus. That's not changing, So neither is
Speaker 1: my faith. He got up. It was cross versus creator,
Speaker 1: and guess who won it was? It was God versus grave.
Speaker 1: And guess who gave up. Guess who tapped out? Not God?
Speaker 1: So why would you? Joseph, looking at all of his
Speaker 1: pain and all of his trauma, he says something so powerful,
Speaker 1: and you will recognize it. You will reckon. You will
Speaker 1: wonder if Peter was plagiarizing Joseph when he said, you
Speaker 1: killed the author. But God, look at this scripture. This
Speaker 1: is amazing. You intended to harm me. But God, you
Speaker 1: recognize those two words. You recognize that conjunction, the same
Speaker 1: one that Jesus was doing on the cross. Joseph was
Speaker 1: doing in his relationships, And that's what you gotta do.
Speaker 1: He said, you intended to harm me, harm me. I
Speaker 1: can't change that, But God intended it for what is
Speaker 1: now being done. And he lived fifty five more years
Speaker 1: to see his children's children's children brought to his knees.
Speaker 1: That's amazing, all because of what happened after the comma.
Speaker 1: The Lord sent me prophetically to speak to somebody who's
Speaker 1: at the comma right now? What am I going to
Speaker 1: do next? How am I going to handle this? Can
Speaker 1: I get up from the fall? Are we going to
Speaker 1: try it again? Are we gonna believe again? Am I
Speaker 1: gonna get out of the bed before eleven am this week?
Speaker 1: What am I gonna do next? And Joseph shows us
Speaker 1: that you don't need a deep revelation, You just need
Speaker 1: to disrupt the devil with a button because what comes
Speaker 1: after that butt It doesn't change the past, No, you
Speaker 1: can't change it. But what comes after, what comes after
Speaker 1: can change the very nature of the whole first two
Speaker 1: hours of the movie, of the whole first twenty years
Speaker 1: of your life, of the last twenty years of your life.
Speaker 1: What comes after You'll be turned around saying, now, wait
Speaker 1: a minute, Maybe God allowed some of that. Maybe it
Speaker 1: wasn't bad. Maybe God put me through that test so
Speaker 1: I would have a testimony. Maybe God let Joseph be
Speaker 1: in that pit, so he could be standing in that
Speaker 1: position to be a provider. You have to believe that
Speaker 1: by faith. But God, everybody say it, But God, don't
Speaker 1: tell me you don't know how to fight the devil
Speaker 1: this week. And don't tell me you don't have any weapons.
Speaker 1: You don't need a big one if it's loaded. And
Speaker 1: that is a loaded statement because that but God anything. Loneliness.
Speaker 1: You know I feel alone. I know you do. But
Speaker 1: God is with me. But God is with me, okay.
Speaker 1: And if God is with me, He's going to bring
Speaker 1: everything I need. I can't do it, but God is
Speaker 1: in me. But God's spirit. Peter couldn't preach till the
Speaker 1: spirit came. It was what came after. I declare a
Speaker 1: shift in your life. I declare a shift in your
Speaker 1: self image. I declare a shift in your insecurities. I
Speaker 1: declare a shift in your adversity. I declare a shift
Speaker 1: in your perspective. You cannot change the past, but God
Speaker 1: can change your perspective. Harm me, You tried to harm me.
Speaker 1: It came to harm me. I even harmed myself. The
Speaker 1: word harm. I told them to put it on the board.
Speaker 1: Hopefully they can do it for me. Now it says
Speaker 1: harm harm wide shot. Can I change it? Can I
Speaker 1: change it? Cannot change it. I don't want to erase it,
Speaker 1: but can I change it? I can erase it is
Speaker 1: up there. Cannot change it. Of course you can by
Speaker 1: what comes after? Do it? I feel like David Blaine
Speaker 1: up here, y'all, how we took something so ugly and
Speaker 1: what came after three letters, three days. You killed the author,
Speaker 1: you killed the composer, but it didn't stop the symphony.
Speaker 1: God is the one who brings it all into harmony.
Speaker 1: Harmony that's a musical term. Holly's got a book club,
Speaker 1: but I got songwriting team. Harmony, the author, the composer,
Speaker 1: they get to write the notes. See and y'all, I
Speaker 1: don't play piano. I play guitar pretty good, not as
Speaker 1: good as Joey who does play guitar as good as Joey.
Speaker 1: But I'll tell you right now, I know how to
Speaker 1: find middle C on this piano. And I wanted to
Speaker 1: show you what Joseph meant when he said you meant
Speaker 1: to harm me. But God use all of it to
Speaker 1: bring us to this moment. And I will not let
Speaker 1: what happened before regulate what I believe God for going forward.
Speaker 1: I use that as an illustration Church, just to talk
Speaker 1: to you about the fact that this note, this single
Speaker 1: note in isolation. Is it a good note? Anybody who
Speaker 1: thinks it's a good note makes some noise from middle C.
Speaker 1: Or is it a bad note? Everybody who thinks it's
Speaker 1: a bad note makes some noise boo middle see. Come on,
Speaker 1: you know intuitively what I'm trying to teach you. You
Speaker 1: know intuitively what Miles Davis said. He said, it is
Speaker 1: not the note you play that is wrong. It is
Speaker 1: the next note you play that makes it wrong or right.
Speaker 1: There's nothing wrong with that note. There's nothing right with
Speaker 1: that note. Is it good? Is it bad? Is it neither?
Speaker 1: It's neither until I hear what comes after bad note,
Speaker 1: same note, next note. Not a bad note, but it's
Speaker 1: a dissonant note because the interval is dissonant. There's nothing
Speaker 1: wrong with this note. Don't start running around all your
Speaker 1: pianos in your house and taking out middle seat. Ah,
Speaker 1: it's a bad note. This is what we want to do.
Speaker 1: Something happens in our lives. I gotta get rid of
Speaker 1: that stress. I got to get rid of that child's
Speaker 1: I gotta get rid of that thing. This is bad,
Speaker 1: this is horrible. No no no, no, no, no, no, no,
Speaker 1: no no, you don't know yet until you hear all right,
Speaker 1: sound like jaws in here right now? Ah, God brought
Speaker 1: us here to talk about your next No, because you
Speaker 1: can't control so much of what happens. You can't erase
Speaker 1: what you did. Peter said, you killed the author. But God, now,
Speaker 1: do you really think that anything that you've done is
Speaker 1: greater than who God is? You really think any mistake
Speaker 1: that you've made is greater than who God is? Joseph said,
Speaker 1: you meant to harm me. But God, who works all
Speaker 1: things together for his good, will take what was meant
Speaker 1: to harm me and bring it into harmony. Next note,
Speaker 1: it's your next note that God wants to speak about.
Speaker 1: That sounds good. Middle C has been redeemed. All I
Speaker 1: had to do was put it with F. That interval
Speaker 1: is called a perfect fourth. A perfect fourth English music
Speaker 1: theory therapy. Y'all ought to start paying me. And when
Speaker 1: I put that together, mm hmmm, we could do a
Speaker 1: lot with that. Come on, we could do a lot
Speaker 1: with that. No, Abby, thirty years, thirty years till you
Speaker 1: will hear that. Yeah, it was it, Ah, this is
Speaker 1: my store, same note I started with and did this
Speaker 1: to you, but where I took it? Next? What is
Speaker 1: your next note? Are you going to stay stuck on
Speaker 1: middle cea forever? Now we need a next note? This
Speaker 1: is my story with in a story within a story.
Speaker 1: God is the athor. The devil's a lie. He is
Speaker 1: defeat He killed the othor. But God is rais devil.
Speaker 1: What's your next note? Gonna be? This is my story.
Speaker 1: The Devil's not the author. You're not the author. God
Speaker 1: is the author. Don't you want to see what's on
Speaker 1: the other side of this butt or You're gonna die
Speaker 1: at the comma. You're gonna die at the gate. You're
Speaker 1: gonna die in the disappointment. Yes, people broke your heart.
Speaker 1: That's what broke in people. Hardly do they meant to
Speaker 1: harm you? But God, but God, but God, but God,
Speaker 1: but God, but God, but God? What is your next No,
Speaker 1: God says you get to choose. You're gonna play the
Speaker 1: one I wrote for you. You're gonna play the one
Speaker 1: that I destined for you. You're gonna play the one
Speaker 1: I created you for so that you have a story.
Speaker 1: You could be telling a different story. This time, next year.
Speaker 1: It's about the next note. Come off that cross, come
Speaker 1: out of that grave, come out of that failure, repent
Speaker 1: and turn to the Lord. He brought you here for
Speaker 1: this moment to tell you He is the author and
Speaker 1: the finisher. And the next note is yours to sing
Speaker 1: uh may uh may uh may see grace see how sweet?
Speaker 1: No no, uh may say Chris, it's your no, how sweet?
Speaker 1: The the next note, uh like me? I want was
Speaker 1: long watches bod Now next note a fault? What was blood?
Speaker 1: Next note? Bad? Ah? I see? Oh, come on, let's
Speaker 1: keep going, Let's keep going. What's your next note? I
Speaker 1: know mine? Praise God, Praise God. You know it. Praise God,
Speaker 1: Praise God, Praise God. Please pee. I can't sing it
Speaker 1: for you. You got to open your mouth and let
Speaker 1: everything that has breath praise the Lord God. Praise pea
Speaker 1: pe pease ye. It's the next snow. It's the next snow.
Speaker 1: It's the next note. You shall live and not die.
Speaker 1: God kept you alive for a reason. It's the next note.
Speaker 1: That's what the devil is fighting you over. What comes
Speaker 1: after the comma? It is your next note? What will
Speaker 1: it be? I know what mine is? I thought about
Speaker 1: giving up. I thought about quitting. I thought about throwing
Speaker 1: in the towel. I thought I wouldn't make it. I
Speaker 1: thought I wasn't worthy. I thought that he couldn't forgive me.
Speaker 1: I thought I couldn't do it. I thought i'd bout.
Speaker 1: The best was behind me until I found out what
Speaker 1: my next note needed to be. But God b h
Speaker 1: but God bu bu bu. But I need you to
Speaker 1: sing it like they sang it in the prison this week,
Speaker 1: like in the DUP's nest. Bade God bye, God bye,
Speaker 1: God bade God bye God. Let's sing it again. Let's
Speaker 1: sing it again. Let's sing it again. Lift those hands.
Speaker 1: Come on, come on God, I'm here today because he
Speaker 1: stepped it. Next note, next th next raak through the
Speaker 1: next down, next ray God, come on, no God, No,
Speaker 1: say it loud, put aways, time out hot that taggle
Speaker 1: down God by God, God, God for a hand gone
Speaker 1: a say come tell you go ahead. His name is Jesus,
Speaker 1: Stay out, Stay out God God. Well, if you enjoyed
Speaker 1: today's podcast, there are a couple of things I'd love
Speaker 1: for you to do. Make sure to subscribe, rate, and
Speaker 1: review this podcast. You can also help us reach others
Speaker 1: by investing today at elevationchurch dot org. Slash GiB and
Speaker 1: thanks again for joining us on the Elevation Podcast