Speaker 1: Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick.
Speaker 2: I'm the pastor of Elevation Church and this is our podcast.
Speaker 2: I wanted to thank you for joining us today. Hope
Speaker 2: this inspires you. Hope it builds your faith. Hope it
Speaker 2: gives your perspective to see God is moving in your life.
Speaker 2: Enjoy the message. I wanted to mention to you that
Speaker 2: Elevation Nights is coming to the coldest part of the
Speaker 2: country at the coldest part of the year, February twenty
Speaker 2: through twenty ninth.
Speaker 1: We're gonna be in Hershey.
Speaker 2: Pennsylvania, Bridgeport, Connecticut, Grand Rapids, Michigan, Columbus, Ohio, Chicago, Long Island, Boston,
Speaker 2: and Philly. You can go to Elevation not Yeah, you
Speaker 2: can go to Elevation Nights dot com. I am currently
Speaker 2: purchasing parkas for this tour. It'll be amazing. And today
Speaker 2: I am excited to share God's word with you. You
Speaker 2: are excited to tell the person next to you, calm down,
Speaker 2: you're scaring me. You're so excited, you're vibrating. Your energy
Speaker 2: is off the charts. We want to share now with
Speaker 2: the prophet Isaiah in Isaiah twenty seven Isaiah twenty seven
Speaker 2: one through six some conversations that he was having with
Speaker 2: Israel that God wants to continue with us. In Isaiah
Speaker 2: chapter twenty seven, Verses one through six, brace yourself for
Speaker 2: a bold word from the Almighty God, Isaiah twenty seven.
Speaker 1: You're already they're waiting on me.
Speaker 2: Usually I'm waiting on you. In that day, the Lord
Speaker 2: will punish with his sword, his fears great and powerful sword, Leviathan,
Speaker 2: the gliding serpent, Leviathan, the coiling serpent. He will slay
Speaker 2: the monster of the sea in that day. Sing about
Speaker 2: a fruitful vineyard, I the Lord watch over it. I
Speaker 2: water it continually. I guard it day and night, so
Speaker 2: that no one may harm me. I am not angry.
Speaker 2: If only there were briars and thorns confronting me, I
Speaker 2: would march against them in battle. I would set them
Speaker 2: all on fire or else. Let them come to me
Speaker 2: for refuge. Let them make peace with me. Yes, let
Speaker 2: them make peace with me. Verse six. In days to come,
Speaker 2: Jacob will take root, Israel will bud and blossom and
Speaker 2: fill all the world with fruit. And I came with
Speaker 2: the message for you today to tell you don't tap out.
Speaker 1: Tap in.
Speaker 2: Just for you. The Lord sent me don't tap out,
Speaker 2: tap in, and on your way to your seat, touch
Speaker 2: three people and say it's not over yet, not by
Speaker 2: a long shot. Yes, Lord, it may be seated. Put
Speaker 2: my title into comments. Don't tap out, tap in. Abby
Speaker 2: asked me an interesting question three days ago, Dad, why
Speaker 2: are you so against soccer? I explained to Abby. I'm
Speaker 2: not against soccer.
Speaker 1: I respect it.
Speaker 2: I just didn't grow up in it, so I don't
Speaker 2: particularly love it. See, my roots are wrestling. I was
Speaker 2: a seventh grade wrestler. Yeah, impressive, I know. Just need
Speaker 2: you to know who you're listening to today. Seventh grade wrestler.
Speaker 1: Huh.
Speaker 2: And not so fun Because Graham, our middle child, is wrestling.
Speaker 2: It's doing great, way better than I was. He has
Speaker 2: exceeded his father's example. The student has has has.
Speaker 1: Become the master. Yeah.
Speaker 2: And yeah, it's funny because I think the reason that
Speaker 2: he likes wrestling. I can't prove this is because when
Speaker 2: he was about five years old. We get a lot
Speaker 2: of interesting messages for people who watch our sermons on
Speaker 2: the church. But I got a message from a former
Speaker 2: UFC champion, a mixed martial artist, who said he watched
Speaker 2: our sermons and that they were a blessing to him
Speaker 2: and that he'd like to speak to me. And so
Speaker 2: when we talked, his name is Vitor and when we talked,
Speaker 2: this has been about ten years ago. He invited me
Speaker 2: to come watch him train, and I took Graham with
Speaker 2: me to watch him train. And I thought that was
Speaker 2: so amazing. But what was really cool he was so
Speaker 2: nice to Graham. He got the first thing he did,
Speaker 2: he got down on the ground and he showed Graham
Speaker 2: the armbar and he let Graham put him in an
Speaker 2: arm Now let me show you a picture of v
Speaker 2: Tour just so you can know. Okay, So when I
Speaker 2: say he let Graham put him in an armbar, that's
Speaker 2: the only way it's going to happen. All right, you
Speaker 2: could take that down. I know that looks like a
Speaker 2: picture of me, but that's Vtor. You're confused. So Graham's
Speaker 2: got him in the arm bar. Graham's only about five
Speaker 2: years old. And v Tour starts tapping and Graham doesn't move,
Speaker 2: and Graham just sits there and holds the armbar. Do
Speaker 2: you know what arm bar? He's got his arm cranked
Speaker 2: back like's about to break it between his legs. And
Speaker 2: so Vitor's showing him this is a submission move. So
Speaker 2: he's got him like this, and Vtor taps, which in
Speaker 2: Mma means I give up, let me out.
Speaker 1: You win.
Speaker 2: Well, Graham just stays right there and Vitor goes tap
Speaker 2: tap tap tap tap, and I go, Graham, that means
Speaker 2: let go, So Graham, let's go. And Vitor pulls him
Speaker 2: to the side. He said, you're so strong, bro, but
Speaker 2: always respect the tap.
Speaker 1: When when someone taps, respect the tap. Let go.
Speaker 2: Have you noticed that the devil doesn't really respect your tap.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna wake you all up.
Speaker 2: Today because some of you have been trying to tap. Okay,
Speaker 2: that's enough now, okay, okay, quick quit picking on me, devil,
Speaker 2: pick on somebody else. I got a few suggestions. I'll
Speaker 2: give you a list.
Speaker 1: Just just let me alone.
Speaker 2: Tap tap uh there there are there are many of
Speaker 2: us who have been trying to tap or or surren
Speaker 2: not in the good I surrender all to the my
Speaker 2: precious Savior kind of way, but the tap that says
Speaker 2: I'm really done trying in this area of my life.
Speaker 2: I'm really done loving with my heart. It costs too
Speaker 2: much and it makes me feel too exposed. Tap in
Speaker 2: this relationship, tap in, this quest to overcome this habit,
Speaker 2: tap in this really living fully for Christ tap tap.
Speaker 2: But the thing about the enemy, if you don't know,
Speaker 2: he doesn't rely. And I hate to compare Graham to
Speaker 2: the devil, but just for a minute, just like Graham,
Speaker 2: the devil does not respect the tap. So when you
Speaker 2: give up on freedom to go back to slavery, you
Speaker 2: get momentary relief, but greater bondage. In the end, you
Speaker 2: think the devil I feel sorry for you because you tap.
Speaker 2: You think the devil plays by the rules and leaves
Speaker 2: you alone because you're tired. Oh I'm tired, I tap,
Speaker 2: I give up. I think that's what a lot of
Speaker 2: relapse is, not just in terms of substances, but when
Speaker 2: we fall back into something, it's us tapping.
Speaker 1: Going tap tap.
Speaker 2: I'm done feeling this way, tap tap. I don't want
Speaker 2: to feel lonely. I'd rather be high, tap tap. I
Speaker 2: don't want to feel like this. I'd rather be with
Speaker 2: the wrong influence system, be in isolation. Tap tap. I
Speaker 2: get into the thing.
Speaker 1: Hey, it's got a hold of me.
Speaker 2: But the devil doesn't respect your tap. And that's why
Speaker 2: giving in too self pity never produces progress. I'm preaching
Speaker 2: like a motivational speaker today just to let you know that,
Speaker 2: just because you know, this picture in the scripture is
Speaker 2: a picture of a name that is ready to tap. Now,
Speaker 2: Isaiah's preaching to the entire nation of Israel deer in
Speaker 2: the reign of Hezekiah and the Assyrians are coming to
Speaker 2: take them, and in the process of preaching to them
Speaker 2: to encourage them, the prophetic words speaks directly to their pain.
Speaker 2: He says, in that day the Lord will punish with
Speaker 2: his sword, his fierce, great and powerful sword. What kind
Speaker 2: of sword? Fierce, great and powerful touch? Somebody say, I've
Speaker 2: got a big God tell them the next part, and
Speaker 2: he likes me. So before you mess with me, you
Speaker 2: might want to know who my friend is.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2: You might want to know who my tag team partner
Speaker 2: is before you start beating me up. That's a whole
Speaker 2: message in the text that I read you. There are
Speaker 2: a few things, and we'll go through them like this
Speaker 2: in order. And I believe this is going to help
Speaker 2: you in your life for those areas where you've been
Speaker 2: trying to tap. I will admit that it isn't always
Speaker 2: that you want to give up completely and tap. It's
Speaker 2: just that a part of you in your life is
Speaker 2: exhausted of trying to extend yourself and expand yourself, so
Speaker 2: you go into shrinking mode. Look at me confused if
Speaker 2: you want. But everybody in here has these four things
Speaker 2: in their life. I'd like you to write them down
Speaker 2: if you have a pin or something like that. One
Speaker 2: there is a fight. Secondly there is fruit. Third there
Speaker 2: is a fence. And fourth there is a future. A fight, fruit, fence,
Speaker 2: and a future. In that day, the Lord will punish
Speaker 2: with his sword, his fierce, great and powerful sword. If
Speaker 2: God has his sword out, there's a fight going on,
Speaker 2: just like the Assyrian were invading Israel. God is very
Speaker 2: aware of what is messing with you. In this scripture.
Speaker 2: It's interesting because Isaiah draws on a mythological figure called Leviathan.
Speaker 2: Everyone say Leviathan. Leviathan was known as the chaos monster
Speaker 2: in the ancient world, and so drawing on a secular
Speaker 2: example of a chaos monster. The legend went that in creation,
Speaker 2: a higher power defeated the sea monster in order to
Speaker 2: create the world. Well, Isaiah doesn't believe this as a myth,
Speaker 2: but he uses it as an example, to bring a message.
Speaker 2: He says, in that day, the Lord will punish with
Speaker 2: his sword Leviathan the gliding serpent, Leviathan the coiling serpent.
Speaker 2: He will slay the monster of the Sea. Now, scholars
Speaker 2: suggest that perhaps these different mentions of Leviathan represent the
Speaker 2: three major threats to the Israelites. One, there was Leviathan
Speaker 2: the Assyrians, who were impending right now with an attack
Speaker 2: that would be unsurvivable for God's nation. This is represented
Speaker 2: by Leviathan the gliding serpent because it represents the Tigris River,
Speaker 2: which was a smooth, fast river. Then you've got Leviathan
Speaker 2: the coiling Serpent, which represents the rivers of Babylon, which
Speaker 2: was Israel's other enemy, Babylon the Euphrates River, which would
Speaker 2: snake and slow as it curved and twisted. This is
Speaker 2: the river of Babylon, representing the second enemy. But the
Speaker 2: third enemy is the monster of the sea, and that's Egypt.
Speaker 2: That's the nation that originally sheltered God's people during famine
Speaker 2: and oppressed them after the famine was over. Because many times,
Speaker 2: the things that you run to in one season of
Speaker 2: your life, you will need to be released from in
Speaker 2: another season.
Speaker 1: Of your life.
Speaker 2: And God says, in that day, I've got my sword drawn.
Speaker 2: I see what's being done to you. I am fighting
Speaker 2: for you. I'm in it with you. I'm working through you.
Speaker 2: I've got your back. No weapon formed against you will prosper.
Speaker 2: It will be produced, it will be forged in the flame,
Speaker 2: but it will die in the air, because when the
Speaker 2: wind of God's spirit takes the arrow off the trajectory
Speaker 2: of your life, even what the enemy means for evil.
Speaker 1: Will be used for good.
Speaker 2: And so we use in preaching all of these different
Speaker 2: characters like Pharaoh, who was the Egyptian god, where Moses
Speaker 2: goes to Pharaoh and says, let my people go. Or
Speaker 2: you might think about Goliath when David was trying to
Speaker 2: save the nation from Goliath, the Philistine warrior, and he
Speaker 2: stands up in front of Goliath and he says, you
Speaker 2: defy the armies of the Living God. Today I defy you,
Speaker 2: and God will give you into mind hands. And we
Speaker 2: use throughout scripture all of these metaphors because we know
Speaker 2: that we have a Goliath, and we know that we
Speaker 2: have a Pharaoh. And yet what I was studying y'all
Speaker 2: about Leviathan, I realized that while it represented maybe a Syria,
Speaker 2: Babylon and Egypt in its original context, it represents something
Speaker 2: different to each and every one of us in the room. Leviathan,
Speaker 2: for most of us, is not necessarily like Pharaoh, who
Speaker 2: you can see, or Goliath, who is big. What I
Speaker 2: noticed about the passage, and I've been waiting all week
Speaker 2: to teach you this, is that Leviathan's strength is in
Speaker 2: his ability to hide.
Speaker 1: So while there are giants that we face that we.
Speaker 2: Can see, and while there are economic conditions that cause
Speaker 2: us to be afraid, and while there are events in
Speaker 2: our life that cause us to be stressed out, Leviathan
Speaker 2: is a little different. Leviathan is not an ancient monster
Speaker 2: at all. In fact, Leviathan is waiting for you for
Speaker 2: when you get back home. For you see, the strength
Speaker 2: of this sea monster is in its ability to hide.
Speaker 2: Leviathan hides behind nice smiles, suppressing buried rage until it
Speaker 2: explodes at the wrong time. And you wonder where the
Speaker 2: hell did that come from. It came from Hell, but
Speaker 2: it hid. Did you know that hell knows where to
Speaker 2: hide in your life? When we say all Hell broke loose,
Speaker 2: it didn't just break loose.
Speaker 1: It built up and then it broke loose. And as
Speaker 1: long as.
Speaker 2: The enemy can keep you thinking you're fighting Pharaoh Goliath,
Speaker 2: he can hide in the form of Leviathan and pull
Speaker 2: you down every time you try to rise higher, and
Speaker 2: leave you wondering where did that come from? It came
Speaker 2: from hell. But the devil doesn't wear horns. The devil
Speaker 2: doesn't own a red cape. The devil doesn't carry a pitchfork.
Speaker 2: The devil just hides until the time that he knows
Speaker 2: you're susceptible. But I feel like what Paul said is
Speaker 2: relevant to us today and relevant to you and torrelevant
Speaker 2: to me. We are not ignorant of the devil's schemes.
Speaker 2: We you and I have the light of the Gospel
Speaker 2: of Jesus Christ to shine on Leviathan. And I thought today,
Speaker 2: since you're already fighting with it, since you're already dealing
Speaker 2: with it, since you already have to put up with it,
Speaker 2: since you're already wondering, how long.
Speaker 1: Is it going to be like this?
Speaker 2: Since you can't really tell any of your friends about it,
Speaker 2: because you can't even describe it. Me and you ought
Speaker 2: to call a viathin out in the light of God's
Speaker 2: presence today and talk about your leviatin and I'll start
Speaker 2: the party. So here's mine.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 2: It comes in the form of insecurity. The insecurity manifests
Speaker 2: itself in my irritability, and I'm usually irritated at something
Speaker 2: that isn't even the cause of a problem, but it
Speaker 2: usually locates a deeper insecurity than me. If I put
Speaker 2: the mic down and walked off the stage, I did
Speaker 2: enough for your gas money today by telling you that
Speaker 2: many of us our biggest enemy is our insecurity. Okay,
Speaker 2: here's the example I was. I was really really passionate
Speaker 2: about music from a very young age. When I became
Speaker 2: a pastor, I decided probably I wouldn't do music anymore.
Speaker 2: And then I ended up being the worship leader for
Speaker 2: the first part of the church. But then when I
Speaker 2: quit playing music, I felt like I was done writing songs.
Speaker 2: This has been about a decade ago, but some starts
Speaker 2: stirring at me, and I would start sending Chris a
Speaker 2: little song ideas every once in a while, but I
Speaker 2: just I would hum them into my phone, but I
Speaker 2: was too embarrassed to really sing them. So I walk
Speaker 2: around the house mumbling stuff into my phone. And one
Speaker 2: day I'd try to get away from people. When I
Speaker 2: did it, because it was kind of embarrassing, because I
Speaker 2: really felt like this probably very good. But I would
Speaker 2: mumble in my phone. One day, Holly walks in when
Speaker 2: I mumbling in the phone, and she goes, what are
Speaker 2: you doing? And she laughs? And when she laughed, I
Speaker 2: lashed out. I said, I'm trying to write a song.
Speaker 2: I guess I'm not allowed to write a song in
Speaker 2: my own house. I'll never write another song in front
Speaker 2: of you again. I'm sorry, we're the.
Speaker 1: All she did. All she said was what are you doing?
Speaker 2: And if I had really been singing, she wouldn't have
Speaker 2: had to ask, because she would.
Speaker 1: Have seen your singing. But I was too scared to really.
Speaker 2: Sing because there was something I had stuffed and suppressed
Speaker 2: that I dreamed of doing. Now, when she walks by
Speaker 2: and asks me about the thing that I'm trying to stuff,
Speaker 2: I lash out because I think that her laughter is
Speaker 2: aimed against me. Now I realized about myself that in
Speaker 2: this specificace instance, I would rather make Holly my foe
Speaker 2: than to deal with my fear. I'm trying to break
Speaker 2: this Leviathan thing down, because you know, I preach about Leviathan.
Speaker 1: You picture a fly and dragon. Uh.
Speaker 2: Leviathan is your temper tantrums. Leviathan is your sharp cutting words.
Speaker 2: Leviathan is that pushing away that you do of people
Speaker 2: the moment that they try to love you for real.
Speaker 2: Leviathan is that thing that grabs you and it's pulling
Speaker 2: you down, but it kind of comforts you because it
Speaker 2: feels like warmth.
Speaker 1: Leviathan. I'm not talking about the devil.
Speaker 2: I'm talking about the way that Leviathan manifests in your
Speaker 2: life and in my life. I had to admit that
Speaker 2: my wife, who God sent to be my greatest partner,
Speaker 2: was being treated like my opponent because of my own immaturity.
Speaker 2: And the Lord spoke something to me. He said, you
Speaker 2: would rather invent an enemy than deal with your insecurity.
Speaker 2: You would rather fight against the one who's trying to
Speaker 2: fight for you than to fight against the insecurity that
Speaker 2: keeps you from seeing things as they really are.
Speaker 1: I'm talking about my Leviathan. It's a fight. It is
Speaker 1: a fight for me.
Speaker 2: It's not happening on an external level. I can't point
Speaker 2: to Vitour, I can't point to Graham, I can't point
Speaker 2: to Holly. I can't point to haters. I can't point
Speaker 2: to people. I can't point to critics. I could try,
Speaker 2: I did try, But all of my life is like
Speaker 2: I've been fighting the same guy, and I'm starting to wonder,
Speaker 2: is it possible that it's not another guy I'm fighting
Speaker 2: it all? Is it possible that all of your life
Speaker 2: you have been fighting with something that you didn't know
Speaker 2: how to name. And I love Isaiah because he says,
Speaker 2: let's give this thing a name. So I know you're
Speaker 2: fighting today, and I know it's a struggle today, and
Speaker 2: I know you're frustrated today. So let's take a moment
Speaker 2: and let's name what you're fighting. I want you to
Speaker 2: name what you're fighting, what you're really wrestling with, not
Speaker 2: what you want to blame it on, not what you
Speaker 2: explain it by, not by what other people call it
Speaker 2: or justify it as. But what are you really fighting?
Speaker 2: When you numb with alcohol? What are you really fighting
Speaker 2: when you numb with gossip?
Speaker 1: What are you really fighting? Y'all?
Speaker 2: If I keep preciating like this, we'll have plenty of
Speaker 2: empty seats next week. So come on back. What are
Speaker 2: you really fighting? Because I came to fight your Leviathan,
Speaker 2: So you don't get high in church and go back
Speaker 2: home to hell and get dragged down into the same
Speaker 2: disease that ain't through your family generations before you. What
Speaker 2: are you really fighting inside? It's a fight. I know
Speaker 2: you got faith, but I know you're fighting too.
Speaker 1: It's a fight.
Speaker 2: Tell your neighbor I'm in a fight.
Speaker 1: Tell him.
Speaker 2: I'm sorry I don't look rested, but I'm in a fight.
Speaker 2: I'm sorry I didn't sound too good singing earlier, but
Speaker 2: I'm in a fight.
Speaker 1: I've been losing my voice.
Speaker 2: I'm in a fight. I'm sorry, I'm not perfect, but
Speaker 2: I'm in a fight. I'm sorry I don't have as
Speaker 2: much patience as I wish I had, but I'm in
Speaker 2: a fight. I've been fighting all my life. Some of
Speaker 2: the stuff I've been fighting, I don't even know what
Speaker 2: to call it, and I hadn't done therapy, and I'm
Speaker 2: afraid to take me thirty years to get to the
Speaker 2: bottom of it. I'm in a fight. That's what Leviathan
Speaker 2: will do to you. Leviathan will coil, Leviathan will glide,
Speaker 2: Leviathan will get by so quiet you won't even see
Speaker 2: that it's there, and then you'll jump out the boat
Speaker 2: over something that was swimming underneath the waters. The Bible says,
Speaker 2: we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against spiritual
Speaker 2: wickedness in heavenly places. And I want you to know
Speaker 2: that you're in a fight, but it's not your fight.
Speaker 2: I know, sound like I didn't study enough. Like you
Speaker 2: sound confused. You said I'm in a fight, but it's
Speaker 2: not my fight.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 2: The Bible says, in that day, the Lord will punish
Speaker 2: with his sword, his fierce, great and powerful sword, Leviathan
Speaker 2: the gliding serpent, Leviathan the coiling serpent. He will slay
Speaker 2: the monster of the sea. So what I notice reading
Speaker 2: that passage? The enemy is after me, but God doesn't
Speaker 2: tell me to defeat the enemy. I'll read it again
Speaker 2: until at least one person shouts about that. In that day,
Speaker 2: God says, I will punish with my sword, my fears great,
Speaker 2: powerful sword. Notice what the Lord didn't say in that day?
Speaker 2: I want you to fight a little harder, and do
Speaker 2: a little more, and try a little harder. God says,
Speaker 2: I see what's going on in your life. I know
Speaker 2: what's dragging you down in your spirit. I hear the
Speaker 2: cries of your depression, I see the trembling hands that
Speaker 2: your anxiety are causing. I see the trauma that you
Speaker 2: bury deep enough to get it past people. But man
Speaker 2: looks on the outward appearance, and God looks on the heart.
Speaker 2: And God sees past the struggle, and God sees the source,
Speaker 2: and God looks past your weakness, and God gives more strength.
Speaker 2: What shall we say than in response to these things?
Speaker 2: If God is for us, who can be against us?
Speaker 2: Shall not He.
Speaker 3: Who delivered his son freely give us all these things?
Speaker 4: I came to announce it's his fight. Five five three.
Speaker 4: People say, it's his fight. Okay, you don't get it yet,
Speaker 4: let me help you get it.
Speaker 2: God is not like God is not like Graham in
Speaker 2: the story I told, and the devil is not vitor.
Speaker 2: God is not at the mercy of anything or anyone
Speaker 2: or anywhere to do what you're asking him to do
Speaker 2: in your life. His sword is fierce, his sword is great.
Speaker 2: His sword is powerful. His sword is fierce, his sword
Speaker 2: is great, his sword is powerful. I know three things.
Speaker 2: His sword is fierce, his sword is great, his sword
Speaker 2: is powerful. And guess what that means for me? It
Speaker 2: means that I don't have to focus on what I'm
Speaker 2: fighting with. I can focus on the one who is
Speaker 2: fighting with me in the battle anytime I choose. So,
Speaker 2: if I could break it down for you, I'd say,
Speaker 2: there is a fight, and there is a sword, but
Speaker 2: the sword is in God's hand, not yours. This is
Speaker 2: why all of our efforts to try to fight in
Speaker 2: our flesh fail eventually, because.
Speaker 1: You're not bigger than it.
Speaker 2: You're like Graham trying to arm bar Vitour And wonder
Speaker 2: and why does this keep happening to me? It's because
Speaker 2: you haven't really understood your responsibility in this relationship with God.
Speaker 2: He said, the fight is mine, the sword is his.
Speaker 2: But watch this verse two in that day sing about
Speaker 2: a fruitful vineyard. The sword is his, the song is mine.
Speaker 2: And I will help you with this in any way
Speaker 2: that I can, because I believe that your song is
Speaker 2: God's sword. I believe that our worship of Jesus Christ
Speaker 2: is a powerful weapon against whatever has wrapped itself around
Speaker 2: your life. And when I say worship, I am not
Speaker 2: confined to the first twenty minutes of church. When I
Speaker 2: think about worship, worship for me is a way of
Speaker 2: looking at my life. When I praise His name, something
Speaker 2: miraculous happens. My problems get smaller. I can't explain it.
Speaker 2: But when I praise his name, stuff starts shrinking and
Speaker 2: strength starts growing. So my question is have you been
Speaker 2: more focused lately on your fight or your fruit? I
Speaker 2: want you to focus more on your fruit and less
Speaker 2: on your fight. I want you to focus more on
Speaker 2: where God is growing you and less on how the
Speaker 2: enemy is grabbing you.
Speaker 1: You know that's happening right now.
Speaker 2: The enemy is grabbing for your soul, grabbing for your peace,
Speaker 2: grabbing for your family, grabbing for your right mind, grabbing
Speaker 2: for your destiny, grapping for your advance, grabbing for your maturity,
Speaker 2: grabbing for your discipleship, grabbing for your prayer life, grabbing
Speaker 2: for your worship. But while he's grabbing, watch, God is
Speaker 2: growing very practically. Let's let's let's.
Speaker 1: Run it back real quick and walk it out.
Speaker 2: There's a fight and there's fruit, And my question is
Speaker 2: which one are you focused on more? Because the one
Speaker 2: that you look at more and the one that you
Speaker 2: speak about more will have the leverage in your life.
Speaker 2: Understand this, God is telling them to sing about a
Speaker 2: vineyard that isn't even there yet. Sometimes you sing over
Speaker 2: the fruit. Sometimes you sing over the seed. That's when
Speaker 2: God has given you the potential for something. All this
Speaker 2: is so prophetic, I'm gonna get an email about it
Speaker 2: from somebody.
Speaker 1: It's gonna be like Pastor Stephen.
Speaker 2: I was that guy onto eighth row in the second seat,
Speaker 2: and you remember me, and no I don't.
Speaker 1: But I'm glad God's given.
Speaker 2: It to you, because God will cause you sometime to
Speaker 2: sing over.
Speaker 1: A seed.
Speaker 2: Remember the nation of Israel was facing captivity, and yet
Speaker 2: in the chaos of captivity.
Speaker 1: Comes forth the beauty of creation.
Speaker 2: I see it happen in your life, as I appreciate
Speaker 2: it to you that out of the chaos Leviathan, the
Speaker 2: chaos monster, out of the chaos of this season, out
Speaker 2: of the chaos of the mistake that you made, out
Speaker 2: of the chaos of what was passed down to you
Speaker 2: that you've been dealing with, out of the chaos of
Speaker 2: a failed business, out of the chaos of a failed relationship,
Speaker 2: out of the chaos of the distraction that you've been
Speaker 2: dealing with, comes a new creation. And the Lord says,
Speaker 2: I want you to start singing. One thing I realized
Speaker 2: when we're worshiping together is that there are things that
Speaker 2: I'm dealing with back home that God is doing because
Speaker 2: of what's happening in here. When I look around and
Speaker 2: I see you at church, I know that your decision
Speaker 2: to be here doing this is waging war against whatever
Speaker 2: is waiting for you when you leave this place.
Speaker 1: You believe that.
Speaker 2: One time somebody wanted healing from Jesus, and Jesus said,
Speaker 2: go they're already healed, And at the exact time he
Speaker 2: spoke the word, the child was healed.
Speaker 1: Back home.
Speaker 2: You want God to fight your battles. Start focusing more
Speaker 2: on your fruit. Then you focus on the fight when
Speaker 2: you call people. It's all right to vent, but don't
Speaker 2: vent so much that you ruin your vineyard. The Bible
Speaker 2: says in Song of Solomon, chapter two, verse fifteen, you
Speaker 2: gotta catch the little foxes that spoil the vine Isn't
Speaker 2: it the little foxes? Isn't it the little thoughts that
Speaker 2: you allow to repeat in your head? Isn't it the
Speaker 2: little things that build up till you go with them?
Speaker 2: Because Leviathan is what, He's a gliding serpent. He don't
Speaker 2: make a lot of noise. He's a coiling serpent. He
Speaker 2: doesn't say, hey, I'm the devil want to ruin your life.
Speaker 1: Come along with me. We'll get it done together. It'll
Speaker 1: be a lot of fun.
Speaker 2: You'll end up in rehab, you'll have deep debt.
Speaker 1: You'll be crippled in debt.
Speaker 2: You'll never be able to afford to send your kids
Speaker 2: to college.
Speaker 1: Come on over here.
Speaker 2: It's a gliding serpent. He's a coiling serpent. He is
Speaker 2: a silent strategist. I'm real glad that my dad talked
Speaker 2: to me about our family's genetic predisposition to alcoholism when
Speaker 2: I was young. I think it's a brilliant thing that
Speaker 2: he did for me now, because he took me aside
Speaker 2: and talked to me. He kind of got in my
Speaker 2: head and he convinced me, if you ever start drinking,
Speaker 2: you will love it. He's like, trust me, I do it.
Speaker 2: I'm being honest with you, son, I'm telling you this
Speaker 2: will be hard for you to beat. He's like, what
Speaker 2: I think would be cool is if you just ever
Speaker 2: do it. I'm like, dang man, that's all my friends,
Speaker 2: you know. But he started this when I was like five,
Speaker 2: and then about every year because my friends weren't drinking
Speaker 2: when I was five and then every year he would
Speaker 2: like renew the conversation. You know, if you ever start
Speaker 2: doing it, you're gonna be homeless and probably end up
Speaker 2: on heroin if you start dren an alcohol. He had
Speaker 2: me so scared because he had seen what it did,
Speaker 2: because it was all in his family. Now, yes, this
Speaker 2: is an example, but we could substitute a lot of
Speaker 2: things here.
Speaker 1: But I'm going to tell you about my journey with this.
Speaker 2: For years of my life, when I was an adult,
Speaker 2: I would explain to people. Sometimes they'd go, want a glass?
Speaker 2: Why are you on drink? You want this? I'd be like, no,
Speaker 2: I don't drink. I don't drink, and I'm telling y'all.
Speaker 2: They would look at me like I said, I don't
Speaker 2: brush my teeth, I don't shower, I don't pray. They
Speaker 2: look at me so crazy, like I was an alien
Speaker 2: and me and Holly we would be around a lot
Speaker 2: of people and no judgment on any of it. I
Speaker 2: don't think it's sin to drink, but it was just
Speaker 2: my dad had told me. Just so you know, this
Speaker 2: Leviathan has ruined a lot of my life. He didn't
Speaker 2: call it Leviathan, but that's what he was telling me
Speaker 2: about He didn't give me Isaiah twenty seven to one.
Speaker 2: He just said, if you ever start drinking, it's a
Speaker 2: bad boy. So we're twenty five years old, now, thirty
Speaker 2: years old, now sitting around Sometimes we'd be sitting around
Speaker 2: with preachers. Hey, you want something to drink? No, we
Speaker 2: didn't not school you go ahead, you don't drink. Why
Speaker 2: don't you drink? Would you like a high sea? Would
Speaker 2: you like a caprice sun? I'm telling you we have
Speaker 2: been mocked over this more. And we've been mocked over
Speaker 2: a lot of stuff. This one ranks up there with
Speaker 2: all of them. And I would never say and you
Speaker 2: shouldn't and I don't think that. I don't even believe that.
Speaker 2: But what I would say is, this is something in
Speaker 2: my life that I feel very predisposed. In fact, most
Speaker 2: of my disciplines are a result of my weakness, not
Speaker 2: my strength. If you saw how many diet cokes I
Speaker 2: drink a day, you would be glad. I don't drink
Speaker 2: alcohol because it could get ugly. And don't email me
Speaker 2: about cancer and diet cokes. Everybody needs something in their
Speaker 2: life look forward to. Do not take my asp tame away.
Speaker 2: I fight you like that, get you an arm bar
Speaker 2: and watch me, watch me, watch me, I said, I said,
Speaker 2: we don't drink. We don't.
Speaker 1: And I realized one day.
Speaker 2: I realized that if I had lost my family to alcoholism,
Speaker 2: and I told him, hey, I don't drink. I'm in recovery.
Speaker 2: I lost my family, they'd go, that's great.
Speaker 1: Good for you. You should write a book about that.
Speaker 2: So I spoke to our youth at youth X in
Speaker 2: Orlando this summer, and I told him about Leviathan.
Speaker 1: And I said, everybody in here has a Leviathan.
Speaker 2: Your parents have one, your preacher has one. Some of
Speaker 2: them we know the name, and some of them we don't.
Speaker 2: But one thing I do know right now is that
Speaker 2: you have permission from God to become very intentional about
Speaker 2: living your life in a way that protects you from
Speaker 2: whatever threatens your destiny. So I told the youth, I'm
Speaker 2: not in recovery. I'm in precovery. I made that up.
Speaker 1: You like it.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna trademark that precovery. I know I am such
Speaker 2: a mess. I know I am such a goofball. I
Speaker 2: know I am such a dork. There are certain things
Speaker 2: I can't handle or play with. So why not make
Speaker 2: a decision today that I'm not gonna play with something
Speaker 2: that I'm gonna have to pray for.
Speaker 1: God to take away ten years from now.
Speaker 3: Who the sun set's free is free of thee Now.
Speaker 2: I got other stuff. I got road range, but I
Speaker 2: can't stop driving. I got to eat food issues, but.
Speaker 1: I can't go on them ten thousand day fast.
Speaker 2: What I'm trying to get you to say is this
Speaker 2: fruit in my life is valuable. And where there is fruit,
Speaker 2: there needs to be a fence. And I got good
Speaker 2: news for you. You know how you got a fence
Speaker 2: for your dog, but it's buried under the ground, and
Speaker 2: so the dog knows us there, but nobody else necessarily
Speaker 2: knows this there.
Speaker 1: And it's not a big fence because it.
Speaker 2: Would be ugly, and wouldn't your hoa would kick you
Speaker 2: out and find you and all of that. So you
Speaker 2: can't put a fence. So you have to get one
Speaker 2: of those fences that goes underground. This is what the
Speaker 2: Lord says. He says, I'm your underground fence. Thank you Jesus.
Speaker 2: I'll received this revelation, he said. I the Lord watch
Speaker 2: over it. I water it continually and watch what God
Speaker 2: does I know you've been fighting. I know it feels
Speaker 2: stronger than you. I know you don't see how to
Speaker 2: defeat it. I know it runs in your family. I
Speaker 2: know you've been dealing with it a long time. I
Speaker 2: know you want to tap out. I know it seems pointless.
Speaker 2: I know it seems fruitless. Ah, But in that day
Speaker 2: sing about a fruitful vineyard, and I announce over.
Speaker 1: Your life, child of God.
Speaker 2: You are God's garden, and God guards his guarden. And
Speaker 2: God will not just allow anything to come into your life.
Speaker 2: And God will not allow just anything to stay in
Speaker 2: your life. And God will not just allow the enemy
Speaker 2: to run ransack in your life anytime he wants to,
Speaker 2: not forever, For the Lord says in that day, I
Speaker 2: the Lord will water it, and I the Lord will
Speaker 2: watch over it, and I guard it day and night,
Speaker 2: so that no one.
Speaker 1: May harm it.
Speaker 2: Don't you see that you have a promise in the
Speaker 2: scripture that you have a fight, But you also have
Speaker 2: a fence. And you are not in this fight by yourself.
Speaker 1: But there is a fence around your life.
Speaker 2: And no, you can't always see the proof of it,
Speaker 2: but it is an underground fence.
Speaker 1: See.
Speaker 2: I believe all your life God has had you fenced in.
Speaker 2: There were times where you tried to go farther, you
Speaker 2: couldn't go farther because you got a fence. There were
Speaker 2: times where you tried to run away, but you couldn't
Speaker 2: run away because you.
Speaker 1: Had a fence.
Speaker 2: And I need you to know today that you walked
Speaker 2: in here with an invisible fence around you. And it
Speaker 2: doesn't mean that nothing bad is ever going to happen
Speaker 2: to you, but it means that whatever comes against you
Speaker 2: has to go through God. And by the time he
Speaker 2: gets stun using this in your life, I declare that
Speaker 2: Goliath's sword will cut off his own head.
Speaker 1: Baby.
Speaker 2: Plus, I got a fence. Somebody throw your hands up
Speaker 2: saying I got a fence. I'm himmed in, I'm locked down,
Speaker 2: I'm spoken for, I'm so loud, I'm ripped up, I'm
Speaker 2: tied up. I'm tangled up by.
Speaker 1: The word of God.
Speaker 2: I got a fence, A fence to keep me in
Speaker 2: his love, a fence to keep me in his grace.
Speaker 2: Nothing can separate me from the love of God that
Speaker 2: is in Christ. Jesus shall death, shall life, shall angels,
Speaker 2: shall demons, shall principalities, Shall any power be able to
Speaker 2: separate us from the love of God. No, because God
Speaker 2: will not allow you to be separated from what you
Speaker 2: are spoken for, and He has put his word inside
Speaker 2: of you. There's a fence around you, fence around you.
Speaker 2: There's a fence around you. You have got to start
Speaker 2: recognizing in your life the tremendous value of the fruit
Speaker 2: that you have been given. After all, y'all, that's what
Speaker 2: the fight is about. It's about the fruit, and not
Speaker 2: just the fruit that you already have, the fruit that's
Speaker 2: coming forth in your future. Oh it's coming, it's coming.
Speaker 1: Is my mic not on? I feel like they don't
Speaker 1: hear this.
Speaker 2: It's coming. They tell your neighbor. I don't think my
Speaker 2: mic is working properly. Come, it's coming.
Speaker 1: It's coming. It's coming.
Speaker 2: It's coming.
Speaker 1: It's coming.
Speaker 2: It's coming.
Speaker 1: It's coming.
Speaker 2: It's coming.
Speaker 1: It's coming.
Speaker 2: It's coming.
Speaker 1: That's why I'm getting this fence filed. It's coming.
Speaker 2: That's why I'm getting TikTok off my phone. It's coming.
Speaker 1: That's why I'm getting out of this. It's coming. That's
Speaker 1: why I'm.
Speaker 2: Protecting and guarding my heart for from it flow the
Speaker 2: issues of life is coming. It's common. It's common. When
Speaker 2: the fight is going down. That means the fruit is
Speaker 2: coming forth. I speak not by cliche, but by the
Speaker 2: spirit of God. Did he not say in the text
Speaker 2: in Days to Come? Jacob will take root? You know?
Speaker 2: I think a lot of times we assume that if
Speaker 2: it's not seen, it's not happening. But my Bible says
Speaker 2: that just like the enemy hides, so does God. Sometimes
Speaker 2: it isn't always a feeling. It isn't always provable or verifiable. Yeah,
Speaker 2: sometimes it's roots. And you know what you can't do
Speaker 2: with roots, You can't rush them. The more I thought
Speaker 2: about it, I realized that just like my roots are wrestling,
Speaker 2: so are yours. I mean, maybe I'm taking it a
Speaker 2: little too far sometimes I do, But I think it's
Speaker 2: significant that the Lord is fighting Leviathan, and he mentions Jacob,
Speaker 2: who was the father of the whole nation of Israel.
Speaker 2: And while God is wrestling Leviathan, Jacob is wrestling with himself.
Speaker 2: You must understand and bring into visibility that Jacob was
Speaker 2: wrestling inside of his mother's womb in the dark. That
Speaker 2: one night Jacob was going to meet his brother Esau,
Speaker 2: and he wrestled with an angel all night long in
Speaker 2: the dark and now here. He is again mentioned in
Speaker 2: scripture verse six in Days to Come, Jacob will take root.
Speaker 2: One thing I know about roots is that they don't
Speaker 2: do anything significant until they are unseen. Because I keep
Speaker 2: hearing you say I can't feel God right now. I
Speaker 2: keep hearing you say, I don't know where God is.
Speaker 2: I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I
Speaker 2: don't know. I don't know what to do. I keep
Speaker 2: hearing you pretend like he went away, but he didn't
Speaker 2: go away. You're taking root. You're taking root, and your
Speaker 2: roots are wrestling. See in mm A, they have something
Speaker 2: called tap out, But in agriculture there's something called a
Speaker 2: tap root.
Speaker 1: Okay, okay, okay, okay.
Speaker 2: What does an oak tree and a walnut tree, and
Speaker 2: a carrot and a beat and you have in common?
Speaker 1: They all have a tap root, not just any root.
Speaker 2: The taproot is the first root that comes from the sea.
Speaker 2: It goes directly down, and it goes down deep. It
Speaker 2: goes down deep enough that it can reach water that
Speaker 2: a surface root cannot reach.
Speaker 1: It goes down.
Speaker 2: Deep enough that should this plant encounter a drought at
Speaker 2: any point in the future, it will hold the water
Speaker 2: that it has because it went to the depth that
Speaker 2: it needed to go to receive the nutrient and even
Speaker 2: store it in its own root.
Speaker 1: What does that have to do with you.
Speaker 2: That's fine for a carrot, that's fine for a beat,
Speaker 2: that's fine for a tree.
Speaker 1: What does that have to do with me? You you
Speaker 1: have a tap root named Jesus. Now, I'm not.
Speaker 5: Preaching about Jacob. I'm not preaching about monsters. I'm not
Speaker 5: preaching about Mma. I'm talking about Jesus. I'm talking about
Speaker 5: my tap root. I'm talking about my inner witness. I'm
Speaker 5: talking about Greater is he that is.
Speaker 2: In me than he that is in the world. And
Speaker 2: any time you decide to you can tap into it,
Speaker 2: or you can tap out. But if you tap out,
Speaker 2: and know this, the enemy's not going to leave you alone.
Speaker 2: He doesn't respect that tap.
Speaker 1: But if you tap in, if you get bold enough today.
Speaker 2: To say, my savior bled and died for me, how
Speaker 2: shall I live any longer in sin? If you get
Speaker 2: bold enough to say, today, I know a name that
Speaker 2: is greater than Leviathan. I know a name that is
Speaker 2: greater than disease. I know a name that is greater
Speaker 2: than depression. His name is Jesus, come on.
Speaker 4: I'm looking for a.
Speaker 2: Rooted church, a stable praise, a faithful, grateful rooting in him.
Speaker 4: Frenches out, french is out, hands.
Speaker 2: Lifted, fart open, grateful praise. So you start singing about
Speaker 2: a fruitful vineyard. Because while you're singing, he's slaying. While
Speaker 2: you're singing, while you're reaching, he's rooting.
Speaker 1: He's rooting you. He's rooting you. He's for you, not
Speaker 1: against you. He's with you, he hasn't forsaken.
Speaker 2: You, and he's got you going down. So you can
Speaker 2: drink and never run dry in days to come.
Speaker 1: It's a question, dude, tap out or tap in?
Speaker 2: Because Paul said, finally, my brothers, be strong in the
Speaker 2: Lord and his mighty power. I want you to tap
Speaker 2: into gratitude right now. I want you to sing about
Speaker 2: fruit right now. I want you to sing about fruit,
Speaker 2: even if it looks like a little bitty c put
Speaker 2: it in the ground.
Speaker 1: And watch it grow. I want you to start noticing.
Speaker 1: Listen to me.
Speaker 2: I want you to start noticing where you're growing. All
Speaker 2: I ever see you doing is putting yourself on a
Speaker 2: guilt trip about where you're struggling. I want you to
Speaker 2: start noticing where you're growing. I had to tell myself
Speaker 2: one time. At least it only took me three days
Speaker 2: to bounce back. This time, it used to take me
Speaker 2: three weeks. I came back from something. I was so
Speaker 2: down about it, and I was beating myself up. See
Speaker 2: you're still just a little baby. You preach this stuff,
Speaker 2: you don't live it. But then I thought, wait a minute,
Speaker 2: I got a fruitful vineyard, I got a fence.
Speaker 1: It's coming up in my life. It's taking root right now.
Speaker 2: And that's why I think it'd be so sad for
Speaker 2: you to click off my message and think it wasn't
Speaker 2: for you because you don't feel like you're growing or
Speaker 2: it's happening in your life. Just like that enemy hides,
Speaker 2: so does God Sometimes. What if you saw the struggle
Speaker 2: as soil? What if you thought it was really producing patience.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna tell you a secret. Praise is protection. The
Speaker 2: bigger you get your view of God, the bigger you
Speaker 2: get your understanding of his sword, which is his word.
Speaker 1: It's his word. The sword of the Spirit is the
Speaker 1: word of God.
Speaker 2: The more you begin to worship and put his word
Speaker 2: to work in your life. I believe not only are
Speaker 2: you going to see the fruit, But you are going
Speaker 2: to see a future that you wouldn't even believe if
Speaker 2: I told you right now. I never know if God
Speaker 2: gave me this message for a lot of people or
Speaker 2: for a few. That's not my job to know that.
Speaker 2: I'm just putting the seed in your heart. I talked
Speaker 2: about a lot of stuff today. I talked about addiction.
Speaker 2: I talked about depression. I talked about struggle. I talked
Speaker 2: about sovereignty. I talked about biblical characters. I talked about
Speaker 2: your character. But one thing I want you to hear
Speaker 2: at the heart of this message, your tap root is Jesus.
Speaker 2: Hold on, I'm a prove it to you. Didn't he
Speaker 2: go down in the ground. Didn't he go down deep
Speaker 2: enough that you would never have to die again? Didn't
Speaker 2: he pay a great enough price that there is no
Speaker 2: condemnation for us. Let's fill the world with fruit. Let's
Speaker 2: fill the world with fruit. Let's fill the world with fruit.
Speaker 2: Let's tap in to find out what's in you. Tired
Speaker 2: of you tapping out? It doesn't even work anyway. It
Speaker 2: doesn't even work.
Speaker 1: Anyway, not for long.
Speaker 2: But if you tap in, you got a well that
Speaker 2: never runs dry. Father, God, I give you glory because
Speaker 2: you gave me this word, and I thank you for
Speaker 2: it before I appreachied it to them because I need it.
Speaker 1: Right now.
Speaker 2: We tap in. We tap in like we've got a
Speaker 2: tag team partner, fresh, rested and ready in the corner,
Speaker 2: like it's not our fight, like you have all power.
Speaker 2: Come on, Church, you got to praise Him for yourself.
Speaker 2: Your praise is your protection. Your praise is your not
Speaker 2: my praise, not my preaching, your praise. Come on, if
Speaker 2: you praise him, you'll see that whatever is surrounding you,
Speaker 2: God is surrounding it.
Speaker 1: You got a fix.
Speaker 2: Oh Jesus, be a fish right here right now.
Speaker 1: I will bless.
Speaker 6: Hell time.
Speaker 1: Come on, this is not my fight. You are my defense.
Speaker 1: You hold my life.
Speaker 2: This is my loo is on my side?
Speaker 6: Think you are You would call me fitz, Thank you
Speaker 6: go She hold my life.
Speaker 2: This is my love.
Speaker 1: Is this is not my fire?
Speaker 4: Come on, go ahead and tapping his mouthy fence, go ahead.
Speaker 1: And tapping this Fred God, you got it.
Speaker 2: This is my is.
Speaker 1: You will found my side and you would call me fred.
Speaker 2: Come on, this is this is not my fire?
Speaker 5: She my de face?
Speaker 6: Do you hold my life? This is my come on
Speaker 6: like in my side, she would come me pray my
Speaker 6: say Laura, com me you real with me, working.
Speaker 1: Through me, Faddy for me.
Speaker 4: Guy, he's not a cat.
Speaker 2: You meal with me.
Speaker 1: You're working to me.
Speaker 6: You're Fridy for me. Guys, he's not a case me.
Speaker 2: Oh you reading with me, You're working through me.
Speaker 1: You're Friday for me.
Speaker 2: God, he's not a cat. Me.
Speaker 1: You hel with me, You're.
Speaker 2: Working through me, fridy me. Thank you for joining us
Speaker 2: special thanks to those of you who give generously to
Speaker 2: this ministry. Is because of you that this ministry is possible.
Speaker 2: You can click the link in the description to give now,
Speaker 2: or visit Elevation dot org slash podcast for more information
Speaker 2: and if you enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe. You
Speaker 2: can share it with your friends. You can click the
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Speaker 2: social stories and tag us at Elevation Church. Thanks again
Speaker 2: for listening.
Speaker 1: God bless you.