Speaker 1: Hey, this is Stephen Ferdik. I'm the pastor of Elevation
Speaker 1: Church and this is our podcast. I wanted to thank
Speaker 1: you for joining us today. Hope this inspires you. Hope
Speaker 1: it builds your faith. Hope it gives your perspective to
Speaker 1: see God is moving in your life. Enjoy the message.
Speaker 1: And I've been waiting to ask you, are you ready
Speaker 1: for the Word of God? Not be really ready? Why
Speaker 1: are you ready? Come on, y'all better stretch for this word?
Speaker 1: All right, quit banging on those bongos and let me preach.
Speaker 1: First Kings, Chapter twenty. First Kings Chapter twenty remains standing
Speaker 1: for the reading of God's word. It's good to see
Speaker 1: my niece Hattie with blonde hair. I barely recognized her. Wow,
Speaker 1: a lot has changed. I used to have blonde hair, Hattie.
Speaker 1: Look it up. It's on Google. First Kings, Chapter twenty,
Speaker 1: versus one through thirty four. You want to hurry today? Okay?
Speaker 1: Are you hungry? Hungry for the bread of life, the
Speaker 1: manna from heaven? I have food to eat that ye know,
Speaker 1: not of Okay, King James, let's do it. One Kings
Speaker 1: twenty verse one. Now ben Hadad, King of Aram, mustered
Speaker 1: his entire army, accompanied by thirty two kings with their
Speaker 1: horses and chariots. He went up and besieged Samaria and
Speaker 1: attacked it. He sent messengers into the city to Ahab,
Speaker 1: King of Israel, saying, this is what Ben Hadad says.
Speaker 1: Your silver and gold are mine, and the best of
Speaker 1: your wives and children are mine. And the king answered,
Speaker 1: just as you say, my lord, the King, I and
Speaker 1: all I have are yours. How are you going to
Speaker 1: give up that easy on what God gave you? I
Speaker 1: and all that I have are yours. And the messengers
Speaker 1: came again and said, this is what ben Hadad says.
Speaker 1: I sent to demand your silver and gold, your wives,
Speaker 1: and your children. But about this time tomorrow, I'm going
Speaker 1: to send my officials to search your palace. In the
Speaker 1: houses of your officials, they will seize everything you value
Speaker 1: and carry it away. And the King of Israel summoned
Speaker 1: all the elders of the land and said to them,
Speaker 1: see how this man is looking for trouble. When he
Speaker 1: sent for my wives and my children, my silver and
Speaker 1: my gold, I did not refuse him. Let's key in
Speaker 1: on these next verses. The elders and the people all
Speaker 1: answered don't listen to him or agree to his demands.
Speaker 1: So he replied to ben Hadad's messengers, tell my Lord
Speaker 1: the King, your servant will do all you demand it
Speaker 1: the first time, but this demand I cannot meet. And
Speaker 1: they left and took the answer back to Benidad. They
Speaker 1: left and took the answer back to Benadad. This demand
Speaker 1: I cannot meet. Don't listen to him or agree to
Speaker 1: his demands. Now that that scripture was probably unfamiliar to
Speaker 1: most of you, how many you never heard that one before?
Speaker 1: Don't remember hearing it? We can't start my first Sunday
Speaker 1: back with y'all, lion right here in church. Come on,
Speaker 1: how many of y'all like I don't really know much
Speaker 1: about Benadad. I'm gonna balance. I'm gonna balance this and
Speaker 1: give you a familiar scripture, and then we'll preach. But
Speaker 1: look real quick at Philippians chapter four. Philippians chapter four,
Speaker 1: verse six. Do not be anxious about anything, but in
Speaker 1: every situation, by prayer, petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests
Speaker 1: to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding,
Speaker 1: will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Speaker 1: So for the next few minutes, let's talk about the
Speaker 1: guided mind and the guarded heart. And in case that's
Speaker 1: too pretty, here's the other title. Take it back. Take
Speaker 1: it back, Father, I thank you for this day of deliverance.
Speaker 1: Do what you said you would do. In Jesus' name, Amen,
Speaker 1: on your way to your seat, punch your neighbor gently
Speaker 1: if they are not COVID conscious, and say, take it back.
Speaker 1: We need to get a new Touch your neighbor, Oh,
Speaker 1: touch your neighbors. Take it back. So I want to
Speaker 1: make a confession to you. This is one of my
Speaker 1: friends advised me not to share this. I'm gonna share
Speaker 1: it anyway. About ten years ago, I went to have
Speaker 1: a consultation for liposuction. Buck went with me. This is
Speaker 1: not an endorsement or a negative publicity against cosmetic surgery
Speaker 1: in any way. But I went to get an endorsement
Speaker 1: for what do you call it? A consultation to see
Speaker 1: if the doctor thought I should do liposuction. I didn't
Speaker 1: do it. He talked me out of it. And the
Speaker 1: reason I went is because I want to have abs
Speaker 1: and I like fried rice, So that's why I went.
Speaker 1: That's what I told him. So when he heard me talking,
Speaker 1: he said, oh, you're one of these guys, And I
Speaker 1: said one of what guys? And Buck was there, so
Speaker 1: he was there with me. He said, these guys you
Speaker 1: just want to You want me to fix the fat, right,
Speaker 1: but you still want to eat the food, he basically,
Speaker 1: And I think the guy had a lot of integrity
Speaker 1: because he said, get out of here. He said, come
Speaker 1: see me after you've changed your processes. Come see me
Speaker 1: after you've changed some things, you know, maybe your diet,
Speaker 1: you're exercising all that. Then if you still he said,
Speaker 1: but but don't come to me asking me to fix
Speaker 1: what you are unwilling to change. So I left and
Speaker 1: I didn't do it, and I still haven't done it
Speaker 1: to this day, but I might one day. I don't
Speaker 1: know making any commitments like that. What I've noticed a
Speaker 1: lot of times spiritually is that we bring God our problems,
Speaker 1: and that's good. I want you to know you can
Speaker 1: bring any problem that you ever have into the presence
Speaker 1: of God. Your problems are welcome in God's presence. You
Speaker 1: might as well bring him into the presence of God.
Speaker 1: It's not like he doesn't know about them anyway. My
Speaker 1: problems are welcome in God's presence. And that helps me
Speaker 1: to know that there's nothing that I'm dealing with that
Speaker 1: I have to carry by myself. I don't get extra
Speaker 1: credit for holding it to myself. When I come to God,
Speaker 1: I can start talking about you know, like Paul said
Speaker 1: in Philippians chapter four, anything he said, don't be anxious,
Speaker 1: but instead pray. And I'm so grateful that there's nothing
Speaker 1: that I have to hide from God. I can bring
Speaker 1: him any problem that I have, not just a big
Speaker 1: one but a small one. Not just a small one,
Speaker 1: but a big one. God doesn't have a scale where
Speaker 1: he weighs my problems and says that's too big. I'm busy.
Speaker 1: And on the other hand, God doesn't have a must
Speaker 1: be this tall to ride sign in his presence where
Speaker 1: he says, if your problem isn't a certain amount, I'm
Speaker 1: not concerned with it, because He's number the hairs on
Speaker 1: my head. He cares about what I care about. But
Speaker 1: lately I felt the Lord challenging me. And I'm want
Speaker 1: to start this teaching with you today and this will
Speaker 1: just really be the beginning of it. But God's been
Speaker 1: challenging me instead of always just bringing me your problems,
Speaker 1: which you're always welcome to do. Why don't you start
Speaker 1: bringing me your thoughts instead of coming to me, you know,
Speaker 1: like in an emotional state where you're all worked up
Speaker 1: and you're so depressed, and you're so anxious and all
Speaker 1: these other things that I know I'm not supposed to be,
Speaker 1: but I get there and then asking God, will you
Speaker 1: please suck it out? It's been a while. Have y'all
Speaker 1: prayed any prayers lately? God? Would you please suck this
Speaker 1: out of me? Have you ever come to the Lord
Speaker 1: for light? Bo is what I'm trying to say, where
Speaker 1: I'm asking God to deal with the consequences, and that's fine,
Speaker 1: and I would not discourage you from that. There's nothing
Speaker 1: that you've brought in here today that God hasn't seen before.
Speaker 1: Please don't ever be arrogant enough to think that you
Speaker 1: have created a new category or species of sin that
Speaker 1: God is somehow going to be repulsed or surprised by.
Speaker 1: And please don't ever think that you're going to bring
Speaker 1: God something that he would be intimidated or insulted by.
Speaker 1: At the same time, wouldn't you like to find out
Speaker 1: what it would be like that instead of letting the
Speaker 1: problem get to the point where it's so tangled up
Speaker 1: inside of you that you have to bring it to
Speaker 1: God as a full grown problem. What if you started
Speaker 1: involving God earlier in the process, at the level of
Speaker 1: your thought. When I read you the scripture from One
Speaker 1: Kings twenty, it was a surprising scripture for me that
Speaker 1: God led me to to preach, because the main character
Speaker 1: in the passage is not King David, or you know,
Speaker 1: Man after God's own heart, or Moses who was no
Speaker 1: ordinary child, but a king that we don't preach much
Speaker 1: about named Ahab. Now, the only time you ever hear
Speaker 1: Ahab's name is in connection with the problem that he caused.
Speaker 1: And AaB caused a lot of problems in fact, for
Speaker 1: any of you who feel like you're too bad for
Speaker 1: God to bless you, or you can't like really give
Speaker 1: what God has for you. The Bible says in One
Speaker 1: King sixteen that Ahab was the most wicked king who
Speaker 1: ever lived, all right, So that's who we're talking about.
Speaker 1: And the Bible says that thirty two kings came to
Speaker 1: attack him, a confederacy of thirty two different kings led
Speaker 1: by ben Hadad, who AaB fought three different times and
Speaker 1: I'm just giving you all this background to remind you
Speaker 1: that Ahab, in One Kings Chapter twenty, the king who
Speaker 1: needed for God to do something. Let me read it again.
Speaker 1: Isn't it crazy? I just read it again that the
Speaker 1: king of Israel, the nation that belonged to God, didn't
Speaker 1: even ask for God's perspective before he agreed to the
Speaker 1: enemy's demands. If you notice, there is no section in
Speaker 1: this scripture that Ahab stops and calls for a prophet.
Speaker 1: There is no section in the scripture that I read
Speaker 1: you that Ahab stops and says, well, let's see what
Speaker 1: the Lord says about this. There is no there is
Speaker 1: no indication see aep I hate Ab because he caused
Speaker 1: all this trouble for the nation and then wanted to
Speaker 1: blame the enemy for an agreement that he him elf
Speaker 1: made with the enemy. How many times in my life,
Speaker 1: in your life, have we asked God to deliver us
Speaker 1: from an agreement that we made with the enemy without
Speaker 1: consulting him. Oh, you're one of those kinds. The life
Speaker 1: of suction doctor said to me, you just want me
Speaker 1: to suck it out. You just want to bring me
Speaker 1: the results of your habits and have me fix them
Speaker 1: without adjusting any of them. AaB is so quick to
Speaker 1: agree with the enemy. I wonder how many times in
Speaker 1: your life have you agreed with the enemy without even
Speaker 1: consulting God. You know what I mean by agreed with
Speaker 1: the enemy. It comes along in the form of anxiety.
Speaker 1: I'm not one of these people who wakes up to
Speaker 1: my first alarm clock. In fact, my default disposition in
Speaker 1: the morning is despair and discouragement. Holly, that's too loud
Speaker 1: of a laugh, and you just keep it down on
Speaker 1: that front. Row my default position. And so in some
Speaker 1: ways the verse I read you in Philippians. I know
Speaker 1: you don't think these two scriptures go together, but I'm
Speaker 1: going to show you how they do. Because Philippians four
Speaker 1: six to someone like me is just about the most
Speaker 1: annoying Bible verse in the Bible, where Paul says, don't
Speaker 1: be anxious about anything. And I want to file that.
Speaker 1: My first instinct is I want to file that in
Speaker 1: the court of useless advice. And I also want to
Speaker 1: argue with Paul because his kids didn't have Snapchat, and
Speaker 1: so when he's telling me don't be anxious about anything,
Speaker 1: he didn't even have kids, So how are you going
Speaker 1: to sit here and advise me on a situation that
Speaker 1: you never had firsthand experience of. And I want to
Speaker 1: argue with Paul, don't be anxious about anything, because to me,
Speaker 1: at first it seems like an impossible demand. So then
Speaker 1: he says something else. He says, but in every situation,
Speaker 1: by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.
Speaker 1: Do not be anxious about anything. But in every situation,
Speaker 1: by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your request to God. Now,
Speaker 1: this is the end of a letter that Paul wrote
Speaker 1: to the Philippian church. This is not the first thing
Speaker 1: that he said to them. This is not your annoying
Speaker 1: friend that gives you unsolicited advice. This is a church
Speaker 1: that he had a great relationship with. This is in
Speaker 1: a time of his own imprisonment where he has more
Speaker 1: to worry about than they have to worry about. And
Speaker 1: when we see the word anxious, I know you can't
Speaker 1: relate to this. But a few people in the church
Speaker 1: have had more anxiety in the past year than they
Speaker 1: ever had before. There's a few people in the church,
Speaker 1: just a few dirty sinners. And what the to me?
Speaker 1: Over the course of the pandemic is very interesting. It's
Speaker 1: almost by getting me to indulge in the little thoughts
Speaker 1: I noticed that he had. He had, he had tempted
Speaker 1: me to make agreements that I didn't even know that
Speaker 1: I made. That almost that almost caused me to give
Speaker 1: up what God gave me, an agreement with the enemy.
Speaker 1: So Ahab has a wife named Jezebel, and she has
Speaker 1: taught him to depend on idols. She is a Phoenician woman.
Speaker 1: She does not serve the God of Israel. She has
Speaker 1: taught them to serve the rain god. Bail the rain God.
Speaker 1: But he has just been proven false on a mountain
Speaker 1: called Mount Carmel under a prophet named Elijah. And now
Speaker 1: after a state of famine, the nation is weakened, and
Speaker 1: so Benedad makes a strategy. I will attack them while
Speaker 1: they are still week from the famine. And it's not
Speaker 1: just one enemy that you got to worry about. The
Speaker 1: Bible says that he went and got thirty two other kings.
Speaker 1: Because you need to know before you agree with the enemy.
Speaker 1: He always brings company that you didn't count on an
Speaker 1: agreement with the enemy. Have you made any agreements with
Speaker 1: the enemy that need to be broken? Today before you
Speaker 1: can move forward into the promise that God has for
Speaker 1: your life, do not be anxious about anything. I don't
Speaker 1: like that verse because frankly, I like my anxiety, and
Speaker 1: I'm not talking about as a medical condition. You know,
Speaker 1: terms get so culturally loaded. They mean different things to
Speaker 1: different people. I am not telling you not to consult
Speaker 1: a professional. That is not the point of this sermon.
Speaker 1: But many of us have made an alliance with anxiety
Speaker 1: somewhere deep in our hearts, and we have actually grown
Speaker 1: so accustomed to our anxiety that it now feels normal
Speaker 1: to us, and peace feels foreign. And so now you
Speaker 1: get used to just waking up feeling weird all the time,
Speaker 1: and now you get used to feeling on edge all
Speaker 1: the time, and you begin to think that it is
Speaker 1: normal because it's all that you've ever seen. And I
Speaker 1: love what the elders said to Ahab. This is what
Speaker 1: I believe the spirit of God is saying to somebody today,
Speaker 1: and it's the message God gave me. Do not listen
Speaker 1: to your enemy or agree to his demands. Just because
Speaker 1: my enemy speaks something doesn't mean I have to agree
Speaker 1: with it. After all, it is not the voice you
Speaker 1: hear that determines the life you end up with. It's
Speaker 1: the voice you believe, and before the enemy can get
Speaker 1: you to agree with it, he has to get you
Speaker 1: to believe it. So in order to get you to
Speaker 1: believe it, he'll get somebody to say it. And how
Speaker 1: many have found out you cannot believe everything you hear?
Speaker 1: Not these days, I was reading the list of things
Speaker 1: that Paul said that we should think about, because he's
Speaker 1: trying to give us a new perspective. You have to
Speaker 1: believe everything that crosses through your mind. You have to
Speaker 1: accept everything that comes across your heart. He said, don't
Speaker 1: be anxious about anything, but pray about everything. Now he says,
Speaker 1: there are some things we should think about verse eight.
Speaker 1: Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever
Speaker 1: is pure, whatever is lovely. But see, I stopped at
Speaker 1: part one when he said, finally, brothers and sisters, whatever
Speaker 1: is true, think about such things, because I wondered, how
Speaker 1: do I even know anymore what that is? How do
Speaker 1: I even know what is true? How can I possibly know?
Speaker 1: In this culture of headlines and highlights. Now you don't
Speaker 1: even just believe the headline. You believe the retweet of
Speaker 1: the retweet of the retweet of the retweet. How do
Speaker 1: I even know what is true anymore? How do I
Speaker 1: even know? Because if I make an agreement with the enemy.
Speaker 1: That's why I was excited about uth X. I think
Speaker 1: that if we can undo some of the untruths and
Speaker 1: keep our young people from making some agreements with the enemy. Now,
Speaker 1: this is what I'm praying. This is what I'm praying,
Speaker 1: not only for this week, but I'm praying this for
Speaker 1: my kids all the time. You'll know I've got a
Speaker 1: good prayer life because I've got three children that are
Speaker 1: still living in my house. You'll know I got a
Speaker 1: good prayer life because one of them as his driver's permit.
Speaker 1: You'll know I got a good prayer life because I
Speaker 1: have a beautiful ten year old daughter. And oh, I'm
Speaker 1: praying every day. Don't let my daughter, don't let my sons,
Speaker 1: don't let me make agreements with the enemy. Don't let
Speaker 1: me make an agreement with the enemy. You know, sometimes
Speaker 1: you get in this self pity mode and you kind
Speaker 1: of go with it and you start thinking, oh, I'm
Speaker 1: just worthless, I'm just this, I'm just that, I'm just
Speaker 1: the other. You know why you do that, because it
Speaker 1: takes the pressure off for a minute. You know why
Speaker 1: Ahab gave up his silver and his gold, and the
Speaker 1: Bible said his best wives not you can have the
Speaker 1: other ones, but Lord, let me keep the best ones.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna take your silver and your gold, and I'm
Speaker 1: gonna take your best wives and your best kids. In
Speaker 1: other words, I'm attack the land. They have said, okay,
Speaker 1: because if I agree with you, maybe you won't attack me.
Speaker 1: So sometimes we find ways to make the attack stop
Speaker 1: that actually make the battle worse and weaken us on
Speaker 1: the inside after the fact. This is the root of addiction. Oh,
Speaker 1: I was praying for our kids when y'all were standing
Speaker 1: up earlier. I was praying, God, don't let them make
Speaker 1: an alliance with something early in their life. Don't let
Speaker 1: them make an agreement with something. Some of us make
Speaker 1: agreements with things that provide us with temporary relief. But
Speaker 1: they are false gods. They cannot save, they do not
Speaker 1: serve us, they do not satisfy us. They are broken
Speaker 1: cisterns that cannot hold water. So if we're going to
Speaker 1: preach about anything, if we're going to preach about repentance
Speaker 1: from sin and dead works, we have to first understand
Speaker 1: that before the problem, this is my sermon, before the
Speaker 1: promise of God can be received, your agreement with the
Speaker 1: enemy has to be broken. And there are things there
Speaker 1: are things about you that are not true, that are
Speaker 1: not right, that are not noble, that are not good,
Speaker 1: report that are not virtuous, that are not praiseworthy, that
Speaker 1: you have begun to believe, because sometimes it is easier
Speaker 1: to believe the lie that looks like the evidence I
Speaker 1: can see, then believe the truth that is new. And
Speaker 1: it's easier for me to bring God my love handles
Speaker 1: and ask him to suck them out. Have you ever
Speaker 1: crawled up in the presence of God when it's so
Speaker 1: bad that you can't even hardly pray anymore? After you've
Speaker 1: been fifteen rounds with Oh God? And I've had God
Speaker 1: help me in those times. To be honest with you,
Speaker 1: I wouldn't bear if he didn't help me in those times.
Speaker 1: So there's nothing wrong with that. But I heard the
Speaker 1: Lord say to me the other day, this would have
Speaker 1: been easier if you'd have brought it to me earlier. Listen,
Speaker 1: it starts before you see it. Say that out loud.
Speaker 1: It starts before you see it again. It starts before
Speaker 1: you see it. That's true for a leak in your roof,
Speaker 1: that is true for an emotional state. I was so,
Speaker 1: I was so obsessed with Paul's instruction to the Philippians.
Speaker 1: He said, the peace of God will guard your heart
Speaker 1: and your mind. In Christ, he says, look at this
Speaker 1: in verse seven, and the peace of God. So I
Speaker 1: want the peace of God. God, give me your peace.
Speaker 1: I'm so stressed out, I'm so anxious. I don't know
Speaker 1: what to do about it. And he said, well, if
Speaker 1: you don't guide your mind, it's impossible for God's peace
Speaker 1: to guard your heart. How many know your mind needs
Speaker 1: to be guided. Oh? Let me, Oh, I need to
Speaker 1: break it to you. Your mind needs guidance. Your mind
Speaker 1: is an undisciplined, rabid dog that will bite the whole neighborhood. God,
Speaker 1: your mind needs guidance. That powerful computer of your mind,
Speaker 1: that mind needs guidance. Elon Musk didn't make a self
Speaker 1: driving mind yet, y'all. I don't think there's one coming
Speaker 1: on the market. So if I'm going to bring God
Speaker 1: into my problems but not bring him into my process,
Speaker 1: what's what's going to happen? Every single time? When the
Speaker 1: King said to the enemy ben Adad, I can't meet
Speaker 1: these demands. The Lord gave a promise in verse thirteen.
Speaker 1: Listen to this. This is Firse King's twenty thirteen. A
Speaker 1: prophet came to Ahab, King of Israel, and announced, this
Speaker 1: is what the Lord says. Whoo, this is what the
Speaker 1: Lord says. I'm supposed to read what comes next, but
Speaker 1: that's where I'm stuck. This is what the Lord says.
Speaker 1: Everybody say it. This is what the Lord says. What
Speaker 1: did I come to church to hear what the Lord says?
Speaker 1: What do I want to fill my heart with? What
Speaker 1: the Lord says? What do I want my kids to believe?
Speaker 1: What the Lord says? What am I building my life
Speaker 1: on that can't be shaken with a storm? What the
Speaker 1: Lord says? What has the power to defeat and uproot
Speaker 1: every lie? I believe? What the Lord says? What am
Speaker 1: I steering my life according to what the Lord says?
Speaker 1: What has the final say over what happens to me
Speaker 1: in this season of my life? What the Lord says?
Speaker 1: What has divine power to demolish strongholds and defeat every
Speaker 1: devil in hell? What the Lord says? This is what
Speaker 1: the Lord says, I heard what you said, Nadadh. But
Speaker 1: this is what the Lord says. Do you see this
Speaker 1: vast army. Do you see these problems? Do you see
Speaker 1: this situation? This is what the Lord says. I will
Speaker 1: give it into your hand today. Then you will know.
Speaker 1: I am the Lord. Well Pastor Steve. That doesn't apply
Speaker 1: to me. I'm divorced, Well Pastor Steve. That doesn't apply
Speaker 1: to me. I'm twelve, Well Pastor Steve. That doesn't apply
Speaker 1: to me. I got a learning disability, Well Pastor Steve.
Speaker 1: That doesn't apply to me. I got an eating disorder,
Speaker 1: Well Pastor Steve. That doesn't apply to me. I don't
Speaker 1: have any friends, Well Pastor Steve. That doesn't apply to me.
Speaker 1: I got a ge d. If God did it for
Speaker 1: Ahab him sure enough to do it for me. I
Speaker 1: amn this child, Do it for me, Lauren. Do it
Speaker 1: for me, Lauren. I have been carrying the burdens of
Speaker 1: battles that my decisions created. I have been anxious about
Speaker 1: agreement that I made with the enemy. But the Lord said,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna I'm gonna deliver them into your hands today.
Speaker 1: Then you will know. Then you will know, and the
Speaker 1: peace of God, which passes all understanding, will guard your
Speaker 1: heart and mine. Wait a minute, what's the difference heart
Speaker 1: and mine? Heart and mind? The heart is the emotions.
Speaker 1: The mind is the thought process. And I can't pray
Speaker 1: my way out of emotional states that my thinking cost.
Speaker 1: Y'all didn't shout too good over that heart. Sit down,
Speaker 1: We're still we're still just getting started. I'm not very
Speaker 1: I'm not very good at vacation. I don't know how
Speaker 1: you can be bad at vacation, but I am. Usually
Speaker 1: I'm too lazy to do anything fun with my kids
Speaker 1: and make any memories. But then sometimes when I try stuff,
Speaker 1: it just goes horribly wrong. In fact, every time I
Speaker 1: try to do something a little interest, it goes wrong.
Speaker 1: We were talking this summer. We went to the beach
Speaker 1: this summer, and and they've had kayaks that you can
Speaker 1: ride in the ocean. But it's different. When Holly gets
Speaker 1: in the kayak, it's peaceful. When I get into kayak,
Speaker 1: it's cursed. And there's three three times we got in
Speaker 1: the kayak that it went bad all in one week
Speaker 1: last summer. I didn't get into kayak this summer. It's
Speaker 1: this cursed when I get in one of the times
Speaker 1: that the kayak had ended with a man with scissors
Speaker 1: pointing them at me, telling me he was going to
Speaker 1: stab me with the scissors. And that happened. That happened,
Speaker 1: and we don't have time to talk about that, and
Speaker 1: I don't really want to talk about it. It's a
Speaker 1: horrible memory. But even when I'm not in the kayak,
Speaker 1: listen how bad I am. Listen how bad I am
Speaker 1: at adventures. We swam in the ocean two summers ago,
Speaker 1: and I think I told you all this story where
Speaker 1: the rip title. Yeah, I told you that, But it's
Speaker 1: a conversation that I had with Elijah that I wanted
Speaker 1: to say to you. And maybe I'll say more about
Speaker 1: this at Youth Thanks, because they're gonna let me preach
Speaker 1: a session too, and I might have talk more about this.
Speaker 1: I said, Elijah, You've got to be so careful how
Speaker 1: far you swim out from me, because even if I
Speaker 1: want to get to you out there, there is a
Speaker 1: place that you can get so far away from me.
Speaker 1: I'm your dad, I'm your father. If I could get
Speaker 1: to you, I'll get to you. But in this particular instance,
Speaker 1: the undertow was so bad I had Abby on one arm,
Speaker 1: and Graham was hanging on the other. And they weren't
Speaker 1: care if I lived or died. They were just using
Speaker 1: me to get out as an object. And I said,
Speaker 1: if you get too far out, it won't be about
Speaker 1: whether I want to come get you. There is such
Speaker 1: a thing, and I used it to parallel to them,
Speaker 1: not just the water. But I just talked about in
Speaker 1: your teenage years, in your decisions, there is a place
Speaker 1: where you can get far enough out. Now. I'm not
Speaker 1: saying God's love can't reach you wherever you are, especially
Speaker 1: for y'all in the back, how y'all doing. I'm not
Speaker 1: saying you're too far away for the Lord. But what
Speaker 1: I'm saying is you can't make an agreement with the
Speaker 1: enemy in your soul and then ask for peace in
Speaker 1: your life. If you do, it's going to be cyclical,
Speaker 1: and you're just going to keep bringing your problems to
Speaker 1: God over and over again and he'll accept them. But
Speaker 1: the Lord has been asking me, do you always want
Speaker 1: to be bringing me your problems or do you want
Speaker 1: to bring me your thoughts before they become problems? So
Speaker 1: I think we have to decide will we be willing
Speaker 1: to let God guide our minds, so that is peace
Speaker 1: can guard our hearts. And the term is a military term.
Speaker 1: It's a great, amazing picture that Paul gives. It's a
Speaker 1: military term. Is talking about a detachment that God will
Speaker 1: set up at your heart, the peace of God. There
Speaker 1: are two things mentioned in Philippians chapter four. You may
Speaker 1: not notice them on the surface, but they're both right there.
Speaker 1: One is the peace of God and one is the
Speaker 1: God of Peace. In Philippians four seven, it says, in
Speaker 1: the peace of God which passes all understanding. And every
Speaker 1: time I call someone who's going through something that you
Speaker 1: can't imagine or can't figure out how to deal with,
Speaker 1: or you can't counsel, the standard thing that I will
Speaker 1: pray for them is God, And I pray that your
Speaker 1: peace that passes all understanding will guard your heart of mind.
Speaker 1: Because you know, when you're calling someone who lost their
Speaker 1: child as a pastor, or when you're calling somebody who
Speaker 1: is in the fight of their life and dealing with
Speaker 1: things that you know they didn't cause for themselves, it's
Speaker 1: no good for you to try to explain it to them.
Speaker 1: So I'll just pray that the peace of God that
Speaker 1: passes all understanding would guard their heart and their mind
Speaker 1: in Christ. But some of the agreements that you make
Speaker 1: with the enemy, instead of keeping out anxiety, peace of
Speaker 1: God wants to keep out anxiety. But sometimes your agreements
Speaker 1: with the enemy keep out the peace of God. You
Speaker 1: know when I tell myself I'm not worthy. In psychological terms,
Speaker 1: they talk about rumination, and a lot of us we
Speaker 1: think that we're overthinking things. We're really under thinking things.
Speaker 1: We're just thinking the same thing over and over at
Speaker 1: the same level. Never involve God. Just give the enemy
Speaker 1: whatever he wants. Just give him our mind. Just believe
Speaker 1: anything that goes through our mind. Right, But the peace
Speaker 1: of God will set up a guard at your heart.
Speaker 1: That's your emotions if you guide your mind. And that's
Speaker 1: why he says there's power and prayer. I don't. I
Speaker 1: don't pray like I like I could, like I should.
Speaker 1: Sometimes I don't pray till the pressure gets so bad
Speaker 1: I feel like I'm about to explode, And the Lord's like,
Speaker 1: are you Are you done with that? Now? You want
Speaker 1: to come on over here? And if you drag that
Speaker 1: far enough across the floor, you've got low enough now.
Speaker 1: But what if you don't have to wait till it
Speaker 1: gets to that point. Lord, keep me from doing something
Speaker 1: crazy in the next five minutes. It's gonna take me
Speaker 1: the next five years to what if you prayed that?
Speaker 1: What if we prayed about What if you involved God
Speaker 1: earlier in the process, like before it goes all the
Speaker 1: way to level ten? What if God wanted to meet
Speaker 1: you at two? Oh, this is slipping a little off tray.
Speaker 1: Like if you drove your car like you guided your mind,
Speaker 1: you being a ditch. Just let go of the wheel
Speaker 1: until the last minute. You're steering into a semi Now
Speaker 1: you want to drive, but we do it with our souls.
Speaker 1: We wait until let's see exact last minute. Oh, God,
Speaker 1: deliver me from the decisions that I've made all week.
Speaker 1: You no, I'm serious, y'all. Do me like that in
Speaker 1: one hour on Sunday. You want me to preach a
Speaker 1: word that will deliver you from the decisions just spend
Speaker 1: all week making. That's not right, it's not fair. I
Speaker 1: told the dental hygienist one time, I'm not gonna flyss.
Speaker 1: I'll be here every six months. Do the best you
Speaker 1: can whenever you can get out of my teeth in
Speaker 1: that time. Just do it and the rest. Leave it,
Speaker 1: and it'll grow for the glory of God until you
Speaker 1: remove it again. I know it's gross, but I let
Speaker 1: it build up until the last minute. And God has
Speaker 1: been saying to me, you can bring me your problems,
Speaker 1: but you can also bring me your thoughts. Now I'm
Speaker 1: at the point where I will pray about absolutely anything
Speaker 1: because you know why I do it, because Paul said
Speaker 1: I could, and he wrote the Bible. And I know
Speaker 1: you think there's certain things we're not supposed to pray about,
Speaker 1: but you didn't write the Bible. I don't care what
Speaker 1: you think about it anymore, because Paul said, don't be
Speaker 1: anxious about anything. Listen to this. Pray in Eva every situation.
Speaker 1: So in Greek every situation means every situation in that
Speaker 1: deep I got a degree in the Bible. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: blow your mind. A porn addict can pray while he's
Speaker 1: looking at porn. I'll see y'all next week. We gotta
Speaker 1: do this. In doss LJ. You can pray in the
Speaker 1: middle of a panic attack, not after it's over and
Speaker 1: you're on the floor. You can pray, you know what.
Speaker 1: You can even start with a selfish prayer if you
Speaker 1: have to. You have to wait until you want the
Speaker 1: right thing to talk to God. You've been waiting the
Speaker 1: rest of your life. You're too dysfunctional to wait until
Speaker 1: you want the right thing to pray. Delight yourself in
Speaker 1: the Lord, and he will give you the desires of
Speaker 1: your heart. He will put them in there. So I
Speaker 1: prayed the man who had the scissors at me, and
Speaker 1: the thing I pray, God, I want to take his
Speaker 1: sisters from him, because I was more fit than him.
Speaker 1: I could see it. I you know, I sized it
Speaker 1: up real quick. And I and so you know, they
Speaker 1: say pray for your enemies. It doesn't say what you
Speaker 1: pray for him. So you have to start somewhere like, Lord,
Speaker 1: let him fall on his scissors right now. But but
Speaker 1: the important thing is that you involve God in the process.
Speaker 1: Right you ever had to pray in anger? Pray angry?
Speaker 1: I was getting ready to preach one time, and I
Speaker 1: start praying to the Lord, why will you hide your
Speaker 1: face from me? Wh're the block? Then I why have
Speaker 1: you forsaken me? I wouldn't feel anything to God. And
Speaker 1: I thought as if God was saying, oh there you are, there,
Speaker 1: you are. Why am I hiding my face from me?
Speaker 1: Why are you hiding from me? You keep God out
Speaker 1: of the process, You keep God out of the then
Speaker 1: you end up just being just like a half Oh
Speaker 1: I hate a haveb but I gotta be honest. I
Speaker 1: kind of relate to him. Enemy is attacking me with
Speaker 1: thirty two kings. Okay, you can have it. You can
Speaker 1: have it. It is easier to just believe the lie
Speaker 1: than it is to you know, you got to train
Speaker 1: yourself in truth. It doesn't come naturally. Paul said, whatever
Speaker 1: things that you have seen, received or heard from me,
Speaker 1: a lot of us have never actually seen a pattern
Speaker 1: of how to fight our battles with God's help. We
Speaker 1: believe the way that we've seen it done is the
Speaker 1: only way that it can be done. We don't really believe,
Speaker 1: like really believe that I can give my battle to
Speaker 1: the Lord. I don't really believe that the peace of
Speaker 1: God will guard my heart in my mind. But I
Speaker 1: want you to watch what happened to Ahab. You know,
Speaker 1: the enemy doesn't just attack you once and if it
Speaker 1: doesn't work, he leaves you alone. Because the Lord gave
Speaker 1: Ahab a victory over Benedad. But just after the victory,
Speaker 1: the prophet comes back and came to Ahab again. And
Speaker 1: look at this. In verse twenty two, he said to
Speaker 1: the King of Israel, strengthen your position and see what
Speaker 1: must be done, because next spring the King of Aram
Speaker 1: will attack you again. I'm under attack again. I'm dealing
Speaker 1: with depression again. Jesus died for me, and I believe
Speaker 1: that his blood cleanses me. But I'm struggling with unworthiness again.
Speaker 1: And the prophet said something very interesting. It's not just prayer,
Speaker 1: it's not just peace. He says, strengthen your position and
Speaker 1: see what must be done, because see the officials. Verse
Speaker 1: twenty three of the King of Aram had a theory
Speaker 1: on why God gave the victory to the Israelites the
Speaker 1: first time, and they advised him their gods are gods
Speaker 1: of the hills. That is why they were too strong
Speaker 1: for us. But if we fight them on the plains,
Speaker 1: surely we will be stronger than they. So do this,
Speaker 1: remove and replace them, or remove all the kings from
Speaker 1: their commands and replace them with other officers. Remove and
Speaker 1: replace would be a good sermon, by the way, to
Speaker 1: remove and replacement, not today. You must also raise an
Speaker 1: army like the one you lost. Horse for horse and
Speaker 1: cherio for chery. So we can fight Israel on the plains.
Speaker 1: Then surely we will be stronger than they. And he
Speaker 1: agreed with them and acted accordingly. He agreed with the
Speaker 1: lie and acted accordingly. This has been a dad the enemy.
Speaker 1: He agreed with the advice of his counselors. He thought
Speaker 1: that God Yahweh, was like Bail of the Phoenicians. He
Speaker 1: thought that God was only limited to one geographical locale.
Speaker 1: So the reason they beat you was because you fought
Speaker 1: them in the hills. But if you fight them in
Speaker 1: the low place. Now here's the thing. Some of you,
Speaker 1: the enemy attacked you on one level, and it didn't
Speaker 1: work because you still have your faith and you still
Speaker 1: have your sanity, and you didn't blow your brains out,
Speaker 1: and you didn't give in, and you didn't walk away.
Speaker 1: But now watch this, he's hitting you with a low blow.
Speaker 1: He said, if you fight them in the plains, will
Speaker 1: be stronger than them. But look what the word of
Speaker 1: the Lord says. And I want to show you this
Speaker 1: in verse twenty eight, and I'm closing. I'm closing because
Speaker 1: it says that they lined up against them, and they
Speaker 1: seem like a flock of small goats, and they look
Speaker 1: too small, but they had God fighting for them. Verse
Speaker 1: twenty eight. The Man of God came up and told
Speaker 1: the King of Israel. Here it is again. This is
Speaker 1: what the Lord says. This is what the Lord says,
Speaker 1: because the Eramians think the Lord is a god of
Speaker 1: the hills and not a god of the valleys. Because
Speaker 1: the enemy face that if he hits you in your
Speaker 1: weakest spot. Just be honest, how many of you the
Speaker 1: enemy has hit you with a low blow lately, like
Speaker 1: in the place where it hurts the most. This is
Speaker 1: what the Lord says, because he hit you where you
Speaker 1: were the weakest. I am going to display my strength
Speaker 1: in the greatest way because the enemy thinks, oh, if
Speaker 1: I fight him there, they'll give in. But he's wrong
Speaker 1: about it. The harder he hits you in the most
Speaker 1: vulnerable place, the greater a candidate for the grace of God,
Speaker 1: you become. Some of you. The enemy couldn't defeat you
Speaker 1: while you were awake, So now he started sneaking into
Speaker 1: your sleep. You've been having dreams in the middle of
Speaker 1: the night about scenarios. You've been waking up in a
Speaker 1: cold sweat, not even rested. He couldn't fight you, couldn't
Speaker 1: beat you awake, so now he's fight you asleep. Some
Speaker 1: of you. The enemy took a lot from you personally,
Speaker 1: but it didn't cause you to lose your faith. So
Speaker 1: then he hit your kids. There was one thing for
Speaker 1: you to be dealing with it, but now you're watching
Speaker 1: your kids suffer. Oh, if I can't beat them in
Speaker 1: the hills, I'll fight them on the plains. God said,
Speaker 1: I am the God of unconditional victory. I believe that
Speaker 1: God is calling somebody today to take back not only
Speaker 1: the high places. But God said, because your enemy thinks
Speaker 1: that I am only the God of the hills, I
Speaker 1: am going to show you a victory in the valley
Speaker 1: so you will know I'm not like bail. I don't
Speaker 1: operate based on physical location. I don't need perfect circumstances
Speaker 1: to do my work. In fact, if you have faith
Speaker 1: to believe it, I hear God saying I stack the
Speaker 1: odds against myself. That's what the Lord said. I'm making
Speaker 1: it so impossible because I want you to know that
Speaker 1: it's your weegh. I want you to know that it's God.
Speaker 1: See when they're fighting you in the mountains, when they're
Speaker 1: fighting you in the good time. You think it's you,
Speaker 1: You think it's your leverage. This is what the Lord
Speaker 1: says in this season, I'm going to do something in
Speaker 1: the lowest place, in the most vulnerable place, in your weakness.
Speaker 1: I am strong. So what does the Lord say? That's
Speaker 1: what I want to know. I don't want to agree
Speaker 1: with the enemy about anything that keeps me from hearing
Speaker 1: what God has said about me, whether it's why I'm unworthy,
Speaker 1: why I'm incompetent. In fact, Lord, right now, in the
Speaker 1: name of Jesus, in the name of Jesus, I break
Speaker 1: the power of the agreements that your children have made
Speaker 1: with the enemy, and we call on you, God of Peace,
Speaker 1: to set up an armed guard at our hearts. In Christ, Jesus,
Speaker 1: we thank you that our position in you is permanent
Speaker 1: and it is fixed. Lord. Today, we don't want to
Speaker 1: give the enemy so easily what you died with your
Speaker 1: blood to purchase for us, and you came to give
Speaker 1: us peace right now, standing all over this house, every location,
Speaker 1: watching online, God said, take it back. You agreed with
Speaker 1: the enemy, but take it back. I know I agreed
Speaker 1: in my heart that I was workless. I know I
Speaker 1: agreed in my heart that my best days were behind me.
Speaker 1: I know I agreed in my heart that I wouldn't ever.
Speaker 1: But I take it back, because this is what the
Speaker 1: Lord says. God, We're not going to be so quick
Speaker 1: to hand over the best of what you gave us.
Speaker 1: We've let the enemy have enough. He's taken enough ground
Speaker 1: in this season. We've given up enough ground. Not another inch,
Speaker 1: not another inch. I thank you that now, in this moment,
Speaker 1: you are releasing your peace, your unconditional victory. Lord. I
Speaker 1: want to pray for somebody today who has believed the
Speaker 1: lie that you are a god of the mountains, only,
Speaker 1: that you can only win into hills, that you can
Speaker 1: only use perfect people, and that you can only work
Speaker 1: in perfect circumstances. It's a lie. And because the Aramians
Speaker 1: think that you're only a god of the hills and
Speaker 1: not the valleys, I dispatch victory into the valleys of
Speaker 1: your people's lives today. Well, I thank you for it.
Speaker 1: I thank you for it. In advance. We have heard
Speaker 1: your word today. This is what the Lord says. We
Speaker 1: have sung your word today. This is what the Lord says,
Speaker 1: and we thank you Jesus your name. Then, over these
Speaker 1: next seven days of our life, as we meditate on
Speaker 1: this word, we will not rehearse the reasons that we
Speaker 1: should feel defeated, and we will not rehearse the reasons
Speaker 1: that we should be afraid. We will remember the victories
Speaker 1: that you have given and anticipate the ones that you
Speaker 1: have promised. All of God's people who agree with this word,
Speaker 1: lift up a great shout of braves, lift up a
Speaker 1: great shout of friends. Thank you Lord. Come on, lift
Speaker 1: your hands, lift your hands. I declare victory over your life.
Speaker 1: This is what the Lord says. I'm gonna give it
Speaker 1: into your hands. Receive it, receive it right now, receive
Speaker 1: it right now. I give it in your hands. It
Speaker 1: is a kid. See that. All the people who receive
Speaker 1: this word clap your hands and say Amen. So good
Speaker 1: to see you again. I missed you. Have you missed me? Well,
Speaker 1: we're back back together again. I pray that you heard
Speaker 1: something from the Word today that you can put into practice.
Speaker 1: That's what Paul said, and Philippians for check it out.
Speaker 1: He said, and whatever you received, put it into practice.
Speaker 1: So you're going to practice what God says this week
Speaker 1: instead of rehearsing what you heard from the enemy. I
Speaker 1: just pray that this week you come into agreement with
Speaker 1: what God says about your future, about your gifts, what
Speaker 1: God says about you as a person. He loves you,
Speaker 1: has a great plan for you. Thank you for being
Speaker 1: a part of the ministry, all of you who give
Speaker 1: and pray and share these messages and come here regularly.
Speaker 1: Just it's a blessing to be connected with you. I
Speaker 1: look forward for what God is going to do next.
Speaker 1: I love you. Take it back