Speaker 1: Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick. 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 has moving in your life. Enjoy the message.
Speaker 1: Happy New Year. It's amazing because many of us never
Speaker 1: thought that we would finally see this day. It is
Speaker 1: twenty twenty one, and twenty twenty is officially and finally
Speaker 1: behind us. The past twelve months have brought a lot
Speaker 1: of challenges along with them, and I know most of
Speaker 1: us have probably wished we could just erase this year
Speaker 1: from our memory at some point or another. But do
Speaker 1: you really want that. I mean, I've always heard be
Speaker 1: careful what you wish for, and I believe that it's
Speaker 1: important to look back before we move into what this
Speaker 1: new year holds. Every January, I like to take time
Speaker 1: to journal and reflect on the previous year. You know,
Speaker 1: a lot of people like to make goals and think
Speaker 1: about what's coming, but it's really important to reflect on
Speaker 1: the highs and the lows that you experienced in the
Speaker 1: year before, and to think about all the ways that
Speaker 1: I've grown. We need to pause and reflect on the
Speaker 1: words that God has spoken to us as we walked
Speaker 1: through the fear and the frustration and the fighting that
Speaker 1: twenty twenty brought, And we need to recognize, as our
Speaker 1: pastor has continually pointed out to us, that this twenty
Speaker 1: twenty was actually the year of the Lord's favor. When
Speaker 1: we look back, it's so evident that His presence has
Speaker 1: been with us every single step of the way. I
Speaker 1: can't get that song the Blessing out of my head.
Speaker 1: You know, that little song that our church also released
Speaker 1: into the world this year that literally went around the world.
Speaker 1: I keep thinking about the part where it says, may
Speaker 1: His presence go before you and behind you, and besides you,
Speaker 1: all around you and within you. He is with you,
Speaker 1: and He is for you. So looking back on twenty twenty,
Speaker 1: we can see that not only was God with us,
Speaker 1: but He was doing a work within us, within you
Speaker 1: and within me, a work that wasn't derailed by your
Speaker 1: situation or your disappointment, or your fear or your frustration,
Speaker 1: but one that actually served to accelerate your growth because
Speaker 1: what God wanted most from us was transformation on the inside.
Speaker 1: In our mindsets, in our hearts, in our faith, and
Speaker 1: in our families. Today I'm standing in our Valentine auditorium
Speaker 1: and almost the exact spot that I have been for
Speaker 1: every sermon that my husband has preached this year, and
Speaker 1: I felt that there was no better place to revisit
Speaker 1: and reflect on some of the most timely sermons of
Speaker 1: the year for our church. Today, I have with me
Speaker 1: my journals that highlight the work that God was doing
Speaker 1: in our church and in our families and in our hearts. Now,
Speaker 1: first of all, can we just all get on the
Speaker 1: same page and agree that Pastor stephen sermons from twenty
Speaker 1: twenty were on a whole another level. And that is
Speaker 1: saying a lot, because this man brings us a sermon
Speaker 1: week after week that is a word from God, and
Speaker 1: he's been doing it for years. But I feel like
Speaker 1: every week in twenty twenty, our pastor prophetically brought the
Speaker 1: exact word that I needed to hear, even when I
Speaker 1: didn't know that that was what I needed to hear.
Speaker 1: Do you agree with that? When we talk about looking
Speaker 1: for God's favor on our lives, I gotta say I
Speaker 1: can't believe that I got a front row seat to
Speaker 1: see each of these sermons being preached and going out
Speaker 1: into the world, even if most of the time it
Speaker 1: was just to me and practically an empty room. Each week,
Speaker 1: I got to sit in this seat and watch Pastor
Speaker 1: Stephen deliver not only the words that we needed to
Speaker 1: hear to get us through the week, but the promises
Speaker 1: of God that reminded us of who we are despite
Speaker 1: the challenges and the disappointments that we face this year.
Speaker 1: And I believe that these short excerpts from four of
Speaker 1: his sermons will serve to remind you of some of
Speaker 1: what God spoke to you and what God did in
Speaker 1: your life. So can we go into twenty twenty one
Speaker 1: with a little dose of hindsight. That's what we're called
Speaker 1: this message today, Hindsight twenty twenty. Go ahead and put
Speaker 1: that in the chat wherever you're worshiping with us from
Speaker 1: We are going to look back and see the favor
Speaker 1: of God was there all along. God's presence goes before us.
Speaker 1: He goes before us to prepare the way when we
Speaker 1: go through trials, and you can see the hand of
Speaker 1: God doing just that. When we look back at the
Speaker 1: sermon my husband preached called make Room for the new
Speaker 1: on March eighth. Now talk about being prophetic. We had
Speaker 1: no idea that that would be the last weekend that
Speaker 1: we would all be gathered together in church, and just
Speaker 1: a week later, a state of emergency would shut down
Speaker 1: most of the country. It's pretty remarkable, first of all,
Speaker 1: to just remember what it was like when this room
Speaker 1: was packed full of people, but also to think about
Speaker 1: how none of us knew how much we would actually
Speaker 1: need this message, not only then, but even more so
Speaker 1: when everything in our world seemed to change overnight. In
Speaker 1: my notes, I wrote down time under tension is the
Speaker 1: formula for growth, and I had no idea how much
Speaker 1: tension would arise in the coming months, and this message
Speaker 1: was preparing us for what was to come. See, we
Speaker 1: talked about making room for the new. You want to
Speaker 1: go have a yard sale or something like that, or
Speaker 1: put everything on It's not about closet space. It's not
Speaker 1: about it's not about clearing out your closet. It's about
Speaker 1: the transformation of your mind. Do you have room for
Speaker 1: the new in your mind? Because they didn't. Peter didn't.
Speaker 1: When God showed Peter what he was about to do,
Speaker 1: like this is the way it always is when God
Speaker 1: shows us something, we compare it to our previous point
Speaker 1: of reference, and then we start consulting our resources. And
Speaker 1: God wants to bring us new relationships. But watch this,
Speaker 1: if you're not ready for new people in your life,
Speaker 1: you will bring the same patterns to the new relationships
Speaker 1: that you brought to the old relationships. And we literally
Speaker 1: keep people out of our lives that God wants to
Speaker 1: send because we are holding on to the hurts from
Speaker 1: the one who have already left. I feel the spirit
Speaker 1: of God breaking barriers as I preach right now, because
Speaker 1: you're like, what is this message you have to do
Speaker 1: to me? I'm not getting on an airplane and going
Speaker 1: to preach to somebody in Cessareea like Peter did. You
Speaker 1: don't have to. All you have to do is dare
Speaker 1: to believe that God is making room for the new
Speaker 1: in your life right now. And even sometimes when it
Speaker 1: was painful for me and I thought I was losing
Speaker 1: things in my life, I wasn't losing it. God was
Speaker 1: moving it. Who is this for? I just need to know,
Speaker 1: probably about twenty people, you didn't lose it. God moved it.
Speaker 1: He said, you will still be eating last year's harvest.
Speaker 1: When you have to move it out. Somebody shall move
Speaker 1: it out. God, anything that is in the way of
Speaker 1: me being who I need to be in this season,
Speaker 1: get it out of my heart, get it out of
Speaker 1: my mind, get it out of my habits. You can
Speaker 1: have it. God, I don't want it. I want what
Speaker 1: you've got. So you can't receive new miracles with old mindsets.
Speaker 1: Make room for the new. It looks like this, emptying yourself,
Speaker 1: humbling yourself and asking God, what do you want to
Speaker 1: do in my job? Or you can run from it
Speaker 1: and resist it, and you can keep remembering when the
Speaker 1: kids were so cute they are forty three now they
Speaker 1: stop being cute. Quite a while ago and the church
Speaker 1: was trying to figure out how do we protect what
Speaker 1: we loved while we embrace what is new? And I
Speaker 1: don't know. I think there are at least three lessons
Speaker 1: in this text. Y'all got a minute, make room for
Speaker 1: the new. Number one, God says this, don't limit yourself
Speaker 1: by labels. The first thing God told Peter, he said,
Speaker 1: you've got your nice little, neat categories, because when the
Speaker 1: sheet came down, Peter saw all kinds of animals. And
Speaker 1: y'all need to know in this culture they respected visions.
Speaker 1: This was not like Peter's hallucination or you know how
Speaker 1: some people now are so weird and they're like, well,
Speaker 1: the Lord showed me a vision of us walking on
Speaker 1: the beach. It's like, bro, you need to ask her
Speaker 1: out and stop trying to embed it in this weird spirituality.
Speaker 1: So so Peter actually saw something. But remember there's sometimes
Speaker 1: a tension between what you thought God showed you. It's
Speaker 1: at tension, and that tension is a real gift because
Speaker 1: that's where growth happens. Where it's like God, I thought,
Speaker 1: I thought I was going to be married to her
Speaker 1: the rest of my life, but I'm not. I'm not
Speaker 1: married now, and that's painful. But what you do with
Speaker 1: it becomes your jappa, which determines do you run from
Speaker 1: God's purpose for your future or do you run toward it.
Speaker 1: That's joppa. And the word God gave me was don't
Speaker 1: limit it with a label, because the first thing he
Speaker 1: told Peter, he said Peter said, in verse six, acts eleven,
Speaker 1: I looked into it and saw four footed animals of
Speaker 1: the earth, wild beasts, reptiles, and birds. And then after
Speaker 1: he saw the pigs in a blanket. He said, I
Speaker 1: try to keep y'all awake. Then I heard a voice
Speaker 1: telling me get up, Peter, kill and eat. Now, when
Speaker 1: I read that, I said, God was trying to get
Speaker 1: Peter to go hunting. No, it wasn't about the animals.
Speaker 1: He was about to sin Cornelius, whom Peter saw as
Speaker 1: an unclean gentile, so he was using this. It wasn't
Speaker 1: about bacon. It was about barriers, mental barriers. So when
Speaker 1: he said get up, Peter, kill and eat, it wasn't
Speaker 1: that God wanted Peter to kill a pig. It was
Speaker 1: that he was trying to kill Peter's categories. In this
Speaker 1: season of your life, God is trying to kill your categories.
Speaker 1: He's going to use people you did not even like
Speaker 1: to grow you up and mature you. There was one
Speaker 1: person the other day that shared a Bible verse with
Speaker 1: one of my kids, and they left our church years ago.
Speaker 1: They didn't even like me when they left, But when
Speaker 1: they gave a Bible verse to my kids, I said, God,
Speaker 1: I don't care who hands them the scriptures. I'll take
Speaker 1: a cold cup of water in the pit of hell
Speaker 1: from anybody. I don't care who hands it to them.
Speaker 1: Use who you want to use God, do what you
Speaker 1: want to do, kill my categories. As a matter of fact,
Speaker 1: when we say all things work together for the good,
Speaker 1: what we mean when we quote Romans eight twenty eight
Speaker 1: out of context because Romans eight twenty eight is connected
Speaker 1: and conjoined incidentally to Romans eight twenty nine, which says,
Speaker 1: according to his purpose. So what it means by good
Speaker 1: is this going to fulfill his purpose? Not my preference.
Speaker 1: Y'all can shout right now. What it means is I
Speaker 1: can't categorize. That's God's job. It is God's job to
Speaker 1: know what's best for me. It is God's job to
Speaker 1: know what needs to happen. It is God's job to
Speaker 1: know what experiences I need to get. So God says,
Speaker 1: stop limiting it by labels. Labels labels can apply to
Speaker 1: a group of people. He said, look what the Lord
Speaker 1: said when he said, arise Peter killing e. Peter says,
Speaker 1: surely not, Lord, nothing impure or unclean has ever entered
Speaker 1: my mouth. Now watch what God said in verse nine.
Speaker 1: Those are your categories, not mine. The voice spoke from
Speaker 1: heaven a second time, saying, do not call anything impure
Speaker 1: that God has made clean. Stop limiting God with your
Speaker 1: labels prophetic, right, I mean, who knew that we needed
Speaker 1: to hear make room for the new? And making room
Speaker 1: for the new sounds exciting until it actually comes time
Speaker 1: to let go and make space. And many of us
Speaker 1: didn't get to choose what we were going to let
Speaker 1: go of. This year took so much from us. And
Speaker 1: what I think everyone under the sound of my voice
Speaker 1: today can understand is how tiring that process is and
Speaker 1: was when we didn't know how long we would be
Speaker 1: stuck in our homes, or stuck without a job, or
Speaker 1: stuck trying to work at home and teach our children.
Speaker 1: And just as we were starting to feel exhausted with
Speaker 1: our situation, Pastor Stephen came in and preached a message
Speaker 1: that resonated so powerfully with what everyone was feeling, but
Speaker 1: also a message that brought so much hope, reminding us
Speaker 1: that the Savior we worship has been in that same spot.
Speaker 1: He told us that trials may make you weary, but
Speaker 1: that doesn't mean that God's not in it or that
Speaker 1: you are weak. How do we know, because Jesus got
Speaker 1: tired too. I wrote this in my notes. We serve
Speaker 1: a God who is powerful enough to give us strength,
Speaker 1: but was also human enough to feel tired. I think
Speaker 1: you're going to be really encouraged as we revisit this
Speaker 1: portion of tired on the inside. What do I tell
Speaker 1: the person who is too tired to go on? What
Speaker 1: do I tell the one who says I'm too tired?
Speaker 1: God said, tell him I got tired too. Jesus sat
Speaker 1: down in Samaria. That's where to talk to a woman.
Speaker 1: That's who ask him for water? That's what. But why
Speaker 1: because you was tired? Because he was fully god fully many.
Speaker 1: As much as we love to shout about his divinity,
Speaker 1: you know how we were a minute ago when I
Speaker 1: was setting you up about the great I am, just
Speaker 1: to bring you back down so you could know that
Speaker 1: the same God who created you, who was strong enough,
Speaker 1: who was powerful enough. Everybody thinks Jesus was weak. Raise
Speaker 1: your hand. Maybe maybe being weary doesn't mean you're weak.
Speaker 1: Jesus tire? Why was he tired? I didn't say who
Speaker 1: was he tired of? We already know it was Peter.
Speaker 1: Come on, Peter, Peter's fighting you at every turn, cussing
Speaker 1: and stuff in front of the press, having to bleep
Speaker 1: Peter out. You know, I know he was tired of
Speaker 1: the Pharisees. He couldn't wash his hands, or not wash
Speaker 1: his hands. They followed him to every bathroom, every dinner.
Speaker 1: I know he was tired of them, but it says
Speaker 1: he was tired from the journey. Thinking about Jesus journey.
Speaker 1: You know, they walked everywhere, no uber, no uber, Jesus,
Speaker 1: uber Christ, Uber Savior. Three day walk from where they
Speaker 1: were baptizing through some area. Straight through was the short cut.
Speaker 1: By the way, the direct route is sometimes the divine route.
Speaker 1: Instead of hiding the fact that you're tired, you just say, God,
Speaker 1: I'm tired. Somebody was yawning during my sermon one time,
Speaker 1: and I just got mad about it. I said, how
Speaker 1: are you tired? You're not doing anything, you know. But
Speaker 1: I found out later they worked the night shift and
Speaker 1: came straight to church. It's kind of hard to understand
Speaker 1: someone if you only see them at one part of
Speaker 1: their journey. And some people that we think are weak
Speaker 1: maybe are weary. Have you thought about that that just
Speaker 1: because you're weary, it doesn't make you weak. How do
Speaker 1: you know that Jesus, I am the light of the world,
Speaker 1: I am the bread of life, I am the Resurrection,
Speaker 1: I am the door, I am the shepherd, I am
Speaker 1: the true vine, I am the Way. At some point,
Speaker 1: six hours after they left that morning, at noon, he
Speaker 1: said something we wouldn't expect to hear the saviors say,
Speaker 1: I am tired. This is the incarnation I worship of God,
Speaker 1: who is powerful enough to give me strength and who
Speaker 1: is human enough to get tired. And for some reason
Speaker 1: this week I felt that some of us needed to
Speaker 1: meet tired Jesus. I thought maybe you could relate to him,
Speaker 1: because his journey didn't really start with just leaving that morning.
Speaker 1: I mean, that's enough six hours that day. Six hours
Speaker 1: in one day. I mean I got a six hour
Speaker 1: drive coming up with my kids, and I'm downloading every
Speaker 1: episode of the off on all of their phones, just
Speaker 1: hoping we can make it six hours, still be saved,
Speaker 1: still be married, still be healed, delivered, blessed in one
Speaker 1: bappy family. And that's a drive six hours because you
Speaker 1: leave at six is noon is hot as the heat
Speaker 1: of the day. Of course, he's tired, And yet I wondered,
Speaker 1: was it only physical or did he go through Samaria
Speaker 1: because he was tired of the way they were treating
Speaker 1: each other. Why was he tired. Why did he come
Speaker 1: to abolish the barriers full of grace and truth? And
Speaker 1: we beheld his glory. His journey didn't start in Bethlehem.
Speaker 1: And the beginning was the Word, and the Word was
Speaker 1: with God, and the Word was God, and the Word
Speaker 1: became flesh. That's a long trip from the sapphire seal
Speaker 1: of heaven to the dusty streets of Samaria. Of course
Speaker 1: he was tired. Even youth will grow weary and stumble.
Speaker 1: But those who wait on the Lord. I'm waiting on
Speaker 1: God right now, I'm waiting. Somebody say I'm waiting. I'm waiting.
Speaker 1: I'm waiting, and I'm weary, and I'm not going to
Speaker 1: lie to you. I'm weary. I mean, this is getting old.
Speaker 1: And some of y'all want to cuss right now, don't
Speaker 1: do it in the chat, they'll block you. But even
Speaker 1: in your mind, you're like, I'm sick of this. I
Speaker 1: am sick of this. I mean, that's that's not an
Speaker 1: I am statement we read in the Bible. But that's
Speaker 1: what you're saying right now in your heart. I am,
Speaker 1: but I am sick of this. I am I am
Speaker 1: sick and tired. I am tired of fighting battles. The
Speaker 1: thing about me, some people say when they get tired,
Speaker 1: they start laughing. Not me. When I get tired, I
Speaker 1: get mean, how many of you when you get tired?
Speaker 1: That's that's why when you had to pull me out
Speaker 1: of the elevator in Australia, I was about to fight
Speaker 1: that guy after I preached. I mean, I had just
Speaker 1: finished given the invitation too. If you're here today, the
Speaker 1: Lord says, come and that dude said something sideways to me,
Speaker 1: and my uncle taught me to hit him with your
Speaker 1: elbow if you can get close enough. And I was
Speaker 1: talking the elbow and Chunks pulled me back. He said,
Speaker 1: you've been I was jet lagged. I had preached twenty
Speaker 1: three times in four days. They were preaching me to
Speaker 1: death at Hillsung Church. I'm preaching. I'm preaching, preaching, preaching tired,
Speaker 1: And Chunks told me, I said, come on, you're too
Speaker 1: tired now, because when you get too tired, you start
Speaker 1: fighting battles that don't matter to distract you from the
Speaker 1: ones that do. That's just me. I start fighting everybody.
Speaker 1: I start fighting people that are trying to help me
Speaker 1: when I'm tired. So Jesus said y'all go get lunch.
Speaker 1: I'm sitting here for a minute because the ones y'all
Speaker 1: have been fighting against are the ones I came to say.
Speaker 1: He had to go through some mary, He had to
Speaker 1: sit down. There was a woman coming who needed him.
Speaker 1: She didn't even know it, she had no idea who
Speaker 1: he was. He sat down because he was tired. I mean,
Speaker 1: you don't have to do anything right now. Just sit
Speaker 1: down and receive this word that the Son of God
Speaker 1: got tired. The Son of God got tired. I know
Speaker 1: you're superman and you're mad at yourself because you can't
Speaker 1: always get it perfect perfection got tired. Faith doesn't prevent fatigue.
Speaker 1: It just gives me a place to sit. One of
Speaker 1: the things that I've realized when I'm tired and my
Speaker 1: emotions are just getting the best of me, is that
Speaker 1: I'll tend to start thinking that I am stuck and
Speaker 1: things are always going to be this way. That everything
Speaker 1: that I had planned, or the schedule that I had
Speaker 1: for my life, well now everything is just permanently derailed.
Speaker 1: And while everyone's schedule did get thrown out the window
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty, that doesn't mean that God ever got
Speaker 1: off of his schedule in this next message that I
Speaker 1: want to share with you unschedulable blessings. My husband reminded
Speaker 1: us that you can't schedule the presence of God. If
Speaker 1: God wants to reset your schedule, will you let him?
Speaker 1: If God wants to move, He's like, Hey, I know
Speaker 1: all your other friends are over here doing this, that,
Speaker 1: and the other. But I got something different for you.
Speaker 1: God said, can we reschedule? I know you had all
Speaker 1: this stuff that you were going to do this year.
Speaker 1: Can we reschedule? I almost hear the Lord saying, let
Speaker 1: me make it up to you. I almost hear the
Speaker 1: Lord saying, I'm gonna do exceeding abundantly above what you
Speaker 1: had on your schedule. I almost hear the Lord saying,
Speaker 1: let me get you ready for what I have scheduled. See,
Speaker 1: to really trust God, we can sing about that and
Speaker 1: quote about that, but to trust in the Lord with
Speaker 1: all your heart means that you have to move with him.
Speaker 1: You have to move with him. And life has come
Speaker 1: along this year and interrupted your rhythm. I know it sucks.
Speaker 1: I'm not saying you have to like it, but what
Speaker 1: are you gonna do with it? He didn't promise you
Speaker 1: a schedule. He promised you his spirit. See that's better.
Speaker 1: That's better. That's better because his spirit will give me
Speaker 1: the ability to step out if I need to step out,
Speaker 1: or to stay put if I need to stay put.
Speaker 1: So this is for you. If you feel behind schedule,
Speaker 1: have more money in the bank by now. I should
Speaker 1: know more of the Bible by now. It does not
Speaker 1: matter what your schedule was. It matters what God spoke
Speaker 1: about you before you were born. Do you get it now?
Speaker 1: You can be seventy five and eleven years into waiting.
Speaker 1: Abraham tried to have a baby with Hagar because he
Speaker 1: got tired of waiting for the schedule. I'm glad that
Speaker 1: the disciples waited for the spirit and whatever you're waiting
Speaker 1: for today. I just needed to make it clear as
Speaker 1: clear as I can. I can't make it as clear
Speaker 1: as I saw it. I'll never be able to do that.
Speaker 1: But I just saw God saying, stop trying to schedule me. Like,
Speaker 1: build your schedule, but realize that some of the best
Speaker 1: things that I'm going to do in your life are
Speaker 1: not going to be on your schedule. Anybody testify that
Speaker 1: one of the greatest blessings God gave you the greatest
Speaker 1: blessings are unschedulable. And if you are so stuck on
Speaker 1: what you thought this stage of life or what you
Speaker 1: thought this day would be like, I'm telling you you
Speaker 1: are gonna miss the gift. Wait for the gift. I'm
Speaker 1: waiting for the gift. If that's your word, you can
Speaker 1: put it in the chat, or you can just put
Speaker 1: it on a post. I'm waiting for the gift. I'm
Speaker 1: waiting for the gift, and I'm looking for the gift,
Speaker 1: and I'm looking for the cause. And I can't schedule
Speaker 1: God's presence. I can't schedule God's presence and say you
Speaker 1: should have done this then, and you should have done
Speaker 1: that there, and you need to give me details, then
Speaker 1: I'm sorry. You're not gonna get all the details. God
Speaker 1: will tell you what to build, but he will not
Speaker 1: tell you when to move it. He wants you to
Speaker 1: depend on him. This is the most anointed word I've
Speaker 1: preached all year, because God is resetting our schedules, and
Speaker 1: what we are calling interruptions are really invitations. Praise Him
Speaker 1: for him, Praise him for him. Jesus said to Jyrus,
Speaker 1: don't be afraid, just believe. When he got to the house.
Speaker 1: The little girl was dead. To the other people, she
Speaker 1: was sleeping to Jesus because he has his own schedule.
Speaker 1: Heaven has a schedule, Heaven has a purpose, Heaven has
Speaker 1: a blueprint, Heaven has a process. Have you submitted your
Speaker 1: schedule to the Lord? Just to say, Lord, I'm I
Speaker 1: want to reschedule. I thought you were going to do this,
Speaker 1: but let's reschedule. Lord. I thought you were gonna heal Lazarus.
Speaker 1: But hey, if you want to raise him from the dead,
Speaker 1: let's go to the tomb. Let's reschedule. I'll roll the stone. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I've been disappointed. I've been depressed, I've been stressed out,
Speaker 1: but let's reschedule. I've been confused, but I've been trying
Speaker 1: to control the timing, and you've been calling me to
Speaker 1: trust you. So I received power. Lift your hands. I
Speaker 1: received power. I received power. I received power when the
Speaker 1: Holy Spirit comes on me and I'm gonna be a
Speaker 1: witness wherever I go. Father, I thank you in this
Speaker 1: moment for the unschedulable. Unschedulable God, help me say it.
Speaker 1: That's what happens when you make up a word, you
Speaker 1: mess up your prayer. The unschedulable blessings that are coming
Speaker 1: to your people all over the world, The unschedulable blessings,
Speaker 1: the testimonies that are coming. Because you are an unschedulable God.
Speaker 1: You give a hundred year old man a baby. You
Speaker 1: can bless us behind schedule at the same time you
Speaker 1: can be interrupted by a woman with the issue of blood.
Speaker 1: You can bless us ahead of schedule. That you can
Speaker 1: do anything because you're God. You can prepare a table
Speaker 1: in the presence of our enemies. You don't even have
Speaker 1: to get rid of the problem to bless us. You're unschedulable.
Speaker 1: It's not for us to know the time. We can't
Speaker 1: control anything. We can't even control our kids little league schedule.
Speaker 1: We certainly can't control how things unfold in our life.
Speaker 1: So we just gonna We're just gonna wait, not because
Speaker 1: we're lazy, just because we know you love us. Some
Speaker 1: of the best stuff that God will do in your
Speaker 1: life will not be on your schedule. I wrote that
Speaker 1: exact line down. Some of the best things God will
Speaker 1: do in your life will not be on your schedule.
Speaker 1: You cannot schedule God's presence. It's so comforting when we
Speaker 1: re lives that God is committed to bringing about his
Speaker 1: purpose in our lives on his schedule. When we think
Speaker 1: we're falling behind, God is often ready to do his
Speaker 1: greatest work. I so needed to be reminded of this,
Speaker 1: because not only does he not move according to our timetable,
Speaker 1: but ultimately I think the main lesson that we have
Speaker 1: learned is in order to make room for the new
Speaker 1: in our lives, we have to expect that God is
Speaker 1: going to actually do something new in your life, and
Speaker 1: when he does, we have to remember that that doesn't
Speaker 1: always look the way it's always looked. It never looks
Speaker 1: the way that you expected or comes when you thought
Speaker 1: it would come, but it might need that there is
Speaker 1: a deposit or a gift in you that you never
Speaker 1: knew you had. Pastor Stephens a lot of time in
Speaker 1: the Fall exploring the theme of asking better questions and
Speaker 1: how this year hopefully finally got us to the place
Speaker 1: of no longer telling God our plans, but perhaps asking
Speaker 1: him what his purposes are for us, and what did
Speaker 1: he put inside of us to do? What deposit has
Speaker 1: he made in us to use for his kingdom? And
Speaker 1: it's my prayer that this kind of faith will be
Speaker 1: how we start this year twenty twenty one, asking the
Speaker 1: right questions based on faith, not fear, based on who
Speaker 1: lives inside of us, not what we think we have
Speaker 1: or don't have. Here's something that I wrote down from
Speaker 1: the sermon. Did I ask keep coming back? When they
Speaker 1: came to him? They received? When you ask you activate?
Speaker 1: How does Pastor Stephen manage to encourage me and chastise
Speaker 1: me in the same sermon. I love this clip and
Speaker 1: it also happens to feature another one of my favorite
Speaker 1: people making a special appearance to check this out. If
Speaker 1: you knew what was in you, you wouldn't kill yourself.
Speaker 1: If you knew what was in you, you wouldn't let
Speaker 1: pornography strangle the creative life out of you. If you
Speaker 1: knew what was in you, you wouldn't hide yourself behind
Speaker 1: false personas. If you knew I was in you. Everywhere
Speaker 1: the enemy has planted condemnation in your life. I want
Speaker 1: you to replace it with a question. That's the devil's language.
Speaker 1: Condemnation that's the devil. That's not how God talks. God
Speaker 1: asks questions. The wisdom that comes from above whispers within,
Speaker 1: Like you said to Elijah in the cave. What are
Speaker 1: you doing here? God ask questions up close. He knows
Speaker 1: you like that. If you knew, you would ask Wait
Speaker 1: a minute, I thought. If you don't know, you asked no. No.
Speaker 1: If you knew who was in you, you stop listening
Speaker 1: to everything around you so much. If you know who
Speaker 1: told you that you were naked, who told you that
Speaker 1: you were nothing, who told you it wasn't enough. If
Speaker 1: you knew who you were talking to when you talk
Speaker 1: to yourself, if you knew, Thank you, Lord, thank you,
Speaker 1: Thank you for the ministry of the Holy Spirit. I
Speaker 1: don't think I've ever felt you more than I feel
Speaker 1: you right now. And I thank you because I need you.
Speaker 1: I need you, We need you, somebody needs you. On
Speaker 1: the other and through their tears, they see now that
Speaker 1: the answer is not standing outside of them. The living
Speaker 1: water is within and the bread is right here. So
Speaker 1: Jesus is in Moses. Okay, Jesus and Moses. God's not
Speaker 1: going to do it like he used to do it,
Speaker 1: but if you ask, he'll show you what he's doing
Speaker 1: right now in this moment. Speaking of Moses, remember when
Speaker 1: God came to him and said, I want to use you.
Speaker 1: He had to set a whole nation for you. We
Speaker 1: don't have that responsibility. But God's speaking to us too,
Speaker 1: He's calling us to. Moses asked a question, who shall
Speaker 1: I say sent me? God said, I am, you are
Speaker 1: what that's the question? How you get to spend the
Speaker 1: rest of your life finding out the answer? Thank you, Lord,
Speaker 1: I am. You're going to find out all that he
Speaker 1: is through the things you go through. But Moses, Moses
Speaker 1: said something to the Lord in Exodus fourteen, and I'll
Speaker 1: show you this before I close, because the Lord gave
Speaker 1: it to me like an image, like an image, Like
Speaker 1: an image. He said, if you knew what was in you,
Speaker 1: if you knew what was in you, you would ask
Speaker 1: for strength. You would ask, I'm in you. So you
Speaker 1: can ask I'm in you. You got to get it
Speaker 1: in you. You got to get it in you, Moses said,
Speaker 1: after a whole series of excuses, you know, God asked
Speaker 1: him a question. He said, what's that in your hand? Said?
Speaker 1: In your hand? Moses simply had a staff, But that
Speaker 1: wasn't all it was. It was an instrument to part waters,
Speaker 1: to turn rivers to blood. It was an instrument. It
Speaker 1: was an instrument. What's in your hand? It's coming from
Speaker 1: the five. It's coming from the five. It's coming from
Speaker 1: the five. What's in your hand? Did you ask? Did
Speaker 1: you ask? Or do you just assume it's not enough?
Speaker 1: Did you ask? We get in trouble when we answer,
Speaker 1: when we answer instead of asking. So God said, I
Speaker 1: chose you, Moses in an Exodus four ten, this is
Speaker 1: the picture the Lord gave me. And the Lord must
Speaker 1: really want somebody to get this message, because it's so
Speaker 1: heavy on me. I can barely move. But Moses said,
Speaker 1: pardon your servant, Lord, I have never been eloquent, not enough,
Speaker 1: neither in the past nor since you've spoken to your servant.
Speaker 1: I'm slow speech and tongue. Now everybody has something like that.
Speaker 1: They could say why you can't make it, and why
Speaker 1: there's not enough, and why eight months wages wouldn't be enough.
Speaker 1: Everybody has an inner Philip, and the inner Philip will
Speaker 1: jump to conclusions based on the evidence that you can
Speaker 1: see with your eyes. But watch what the Lord said
Speaker 1: in verse eleven. The Lord said, did I ask who
Speaker 1: gave human beings their mouth? Did I ask who makes
Speaker 1: them deaf? From you? Did I ask you keep telling
Speaker 1: me what you're not? But I didn't ask you that
Speaker 1: you keep telling me what you can't. But I didn't
Speaker 1: ask you that. So don't say I'm just single, don't
Speaker 1: say I'm just young, don't say I'm too old. Did
Speaker 1: I ask high Lord? I am enough? Is it not?
Speaker 1: I come here, boy, Come here, Come in come in
Speaker 1: cocon come in come, in come, in come, in come,
Speaker 1: in come, in come, in come, in come, in come,
Speaker 1: in come here, come in come in I need to
Speaker 1: hunder sixty dollars. I need to under sixty dollars. I
Speaker 1: need to under sixty dollars. I need to under sixty dollars. Ah,
Speaker 1: you didn't think you had it. But right up before
Speaker 1: I came to preach, I handed him my wallet and
Speaker 1: I didn't tell him why. I said, just hold this
Speaker 1: for me until I'm done. And I'm about to be done,
Speaker 1: because when I get to the end of my message,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna put something in my boy, and when I
Speaker 1: ask you for it, the fact that I ask is
Speaker 1: the proof that you have him. If I ask, you
Speaker 1: have it, if I ask, I gave it, it's in you.
Speaker 1: It's more than alone. Count that money that what's in
Speaker 1: that wallet? What's in that wallet? I need tell sixty
Speaker 1: But I will never ask you for what I didn't
Speaker 1: get you to forget with. And if you run out
Speaker 1: of that, I got credit too. Now upset my credit score.
Speaker 1: I'm putting in a boy, I'm putting in your duggers.
Speaker 1: I'm putting in your spirit. I'll put it in a basket.
Speaker 1: I'll put it in a bag. I'll put it in
Speaker 1: a weakness. I'll put it in a poet. I yeah, follow,
Speaker 1: I had follow. Wow you're not, but I am had this.
Speaker 1: Boats live again, they care, they will. It's so good
Speaker 1: to look back and to remember the messages that God
Speaker 1: has spoken over us this year. I actually remember being
Speaker 1: on the front row and seeing my husband give Elijah
Speaker 1: his wallet and wondering why is he giving Elijah his wallet?
Speaker 1: And then I totally forgot about it, and I was
Speaker 1: just as surprised as you were at the end. I
Speaker 1: just I love moments like that. And as I close,
Speaker 1: I just want to remind you that everything you need
Speaker 1: to accomplish what God is calling you to do in
Speaker 1: twenty twenty one, it's already inside of you. Everything you
Speaker 1: need for everything you're called to do, and nothing more.
Speaker 1: The fact that he asks is the proof that you
Speaker 1: have it. What a beautiful reminder. I want to encourage
Speaker 1: you to spend a few moments reflecting on the presence
Speaker 1: of God in your life over the past year. I
Speaker 1: find that when I take the time to look back,
Speaker 1: I can see the hand of God in every triumph
Speaker 1: and every disappointment, in every setback, and in every unexpected blessing.
Speaker 1: When I take the time to see, I can trace
Speaker 1: the favor of God on my life every step of
Speaker 1: the way. And I know you would agree with that.
Speaker 1: In the morning, in the evening, in your coming, in
Speaker 1: your going, He is with you, before you, behind you,
Speaker 1: besides you, all around you. He was with you in
Speaker 1: twenty twenty and he goes before you in twenty twenty one.
Speaker 1: Thank you everyone for joining me as we took a
Speaker 1: look back at the amazing messages that God has spoken
Speaker 1: to our hungry souls. Remember, all of these messages and
Speaker 1: more are available in their full format on the Elevation
Speaker 1: Church YouTube and the Elevation Church Podcast for you to
Speaker 1: listen to over and over again and for you to
Speaker 1: share with a friend that you think might need to
Speaker 1: hear these messages too. And so I just want to
Speaker 1: close in prayer, thank you for joining us today and God,
Speaker 1: we thank you that your presence has been with us
Speaker 1: all along. We thank you for giving our pastor the
Speaker 1: exact words that we needed to hear each week in
Speaker 1: twenty twenty. They were truly bred for our souls. And Lord,
Speaker 1: we look forward to twenty twenty one, not because it
Speaker 1: will be perfect or free from pain or disappointment, but
Speaker 1: because a new year means new opportunities for growth. And God,
Speaker 1: we want to grow in our knowledge of You and
Speaker 1: in our relationship with You, and we want to know
Speaker 1: you more each day. Thank you God that you are
Speaker 1: with us each and every step of the way, that
Speaker 1: we don't have to be afraid because You are with
Speaker 1: us and we are never ever alone. God, we thank
Speaker 1: you for the ministry of Elevation Church and what it
Speaker 1: means to each and every one of us. We love you, Lord,
Speaker 1: It's in Jesus name we pray. Amen, thank you for
Speaker 1: joining us. Special thanks to those of you who give
Speaker 1: generously to this ministry. Is because of you that this
Speaker 1: ministry is possible. You can click the link in the
Speaker 1: description to give now or visit Elevationchurch dot org slash
Speaker 1: podcast for more information and if you enjoyed the podcast,
Speaker 1: you can subscribe. You can share it with your friends.
Speaker 1: You can click the share button, take a screenshot and
Speaker 1: share it on your social stories and tag us at
Speaker 1: Elevation Church. Thanks again for listening. God bless you.