Speaker 1: Welcome to the Elevation Church Podcast. We've got a special
Speaker 1: bonus podcast for you today from our very own Hollyfordict.
Speaker 1: She recently shared this message with the women of our
Speaker 1: church at our annual event called Reflect. But this message
Speaker 1: is for everyone. We're excited for you to hear it
Speaker 1: and learn how we can all end this year strong.
Speaker 1: Enjoy the message? Are you ready for a message? All right? God,
Speaker 1: we thank you so much that we can be here
Speaker 1: together tonight. And together looks different this year, but together
Speaker 1: this year is beautiful because you are here, and you
Speaker 1: are in our presence, and you are coming together with
Speaker 1: us across our screens and across our worlds. And so God,
Speaker 1: we unite our hearts together, we unite our faith together,
Speaker 1: and we open up our minds in our ears because
Speaker 1: we want to hear from you. Lord. Would you speak
Speaker 1: to us now, say Jesus, and my prayam many. All right,
Speaker 1: So twenty twenty it's been a really special year. And
Speaker 1: I don't know if you're like me, but I am
Speaker 1: just really thankful that it's November. Not that I think
Speaker 1: that the clock is gonna, you know, strike twenty twenty one,
Speaker 1: and all of this crazy madness is going to go away.
Speaker 1: But as the year winds down and I'm beginning to
Speaker 1: reflect on the last nine months, I'm like, wow, a
Speaker 1: lot of crazy stuff happened, and like, you know, crazy good, crazy, weird,
Speaker 1: crazy bad, And you know what, though, I'd like to
Speaker 1: focus on the good stuff that have happened. There have
Speaker 1: been some really cool moments, right, And we've had some
Speaker 1: great conversations with our families being forced to be together,
Speaker 1: and we've made some great memories. And I'm just starting
Speaker 1: to see that, in spite of all the craziness, all
Speaker 1: the madness, that I have actually learned a few new
Speaker 1: things this year. Did anybody else learn anything new this year? Like?
Speaker 1: Did anybody learn how to cook this year? My friendly
Speaker 1: this year? She called me the today, she's a holly.
Speaker 1: I cooked four times this week? Aren't you proud of me?
Speaker 1: Did anyone learn how to teach kindergarten this year? Did
Speaker 1: anyone learn how to cook, teach kindergarten and work remotely
Speaker 1: all at the same time? And I don't know if
Speaker 1: I would say that I like mastered those things, but
Speaker 1: I did give it my best shot. It's suft for
Speaker 1: the kindergarten part, Thank god. I don't have any kindergarteners.
Speaker 1: But I did also learn how to remove my own fingernails.
Speaker 1: I mean not the actual nail, but you know that
Speaker 1: like heavy nail polish that we love to get put on.
Speaker 1: And so I thought that we could take a few
Speaker 1: moments to look back at all of the beauty blunders
Speaker 1: of twenty twenty. As I get started, you know, I
Speaker 1: like to start with something funny, and this is reflect
Speaker 1: and so it's good to laugh at ourselves. So I'll
Speaker 1: start with myself. Here's a picture that I posted back
Speaker 1: in March on Instagram. There I am two hours, two
Speaker 1: hours with foil. I was completely incapacitated with foil on
Speaker 1: my fingers, soaking those bad boys off because I didn't
Speaker 1: have the little drill you know that they use and
Speaker 1: get them off in twenty minutes. Did anyone just chew
Speaker 1: their nails off? Be honest, Type it in the chat.
Speaker 1: Just give me the teeth, EMOCHI, Okay, type it in
Speaker 1: the chat. So now I've been honest with you. Type
Speaker 1: it in the chat. If you attempted to wax your
Speaker 1: own eyebrows, cut your own bangs. We saw some really
Speaker 1: bad bang cuts on Instagram. Abby and I one night
Speaker 1: we wanted to experiment, so we put a semi permanent
Speaker 1: pink hair dye on her hair. And Amy has a
Speaker 1: lot of hair, and it turned out really great, except
Speaker 1: that I spent the next two weeks trying to get
Speaker 1: the dye out of my kitchen sink. So that was
Speaker 1: a little beauty blender for me. Did anyone else attempt
Speaker 1: to dye their own hair? I read that Madison read
Speaker 1: that's a company that sells at home air kids. Adrian
Speaker 1: said she dyed her own hair. Their profits increased seven
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty percent during the spring. Of all of
Speaker 1: you trying to dye your hair at home, how many
Speaker 1: of you took the approach that, no matter what, you
Speaker 1: were going to wait it out. I think you were
Speaker 1: the same women who realized how many days you could
Speaker 1: actually go without showering before anyone in your family noticed.
Speaker 1: I love memes, and I love I try to fill
Speaker 1: my Instagram feed with things that make me laugh. So
Speaker 1: I wanted to share with you my absolute favorite meme
Speaker 1: of quarantine. It says coming out of quarantine like So,
Speaker 1: I want to know which one you related to the best.
Speaker 1: Is it the brows or the roots or the eyelashes
Speaker 1: and the fingernails. So okay, the men have no clue
Speaker 1: how hard quarantine was on us. It was. There were
Speaker 1: some really hard things that we went through and that
Speaker 1: we had to learn. Put that slide back up because
Speaker 1: my message to and my inspiration from my message comes
Speaker 1: from that top right picture. So I want you to
Speaker 1: type it in the chat if you can relate to
Speaker 1: needing to get your roots done. I took to Instagram
Speaker 1: to ask some of you to send me pictures of
Speaker 1: your roots, and that was hilarious. I laughed so hard
Speaker 1: that I snorted Chelsea Reynolds, mostly at your picture that
Speaker 1: you sent me. Would you like to see a couple
Speaker 1: of them that people said me? I did get these
Speaker 1: ladies permission, by the way. Okay, so here we go.
Speaker 1: I just want to highlight a couple just you guys
Speaker 1: can go through go through it a little faster. Just
Speaker 1: got to see some of these ladies up close. Her
Speaker 1: eyelashes look good, though. Let's see another one. Oh, I
Speaker 1: like that one. My friend Jess Stack, he was our
Speaker 1: campus pastor wife in Raleigh. She wins the prize for
Speaker 1: the longest routs during quarantine, and she did tell me
Speaker 1: that I could share this picture although, fun fact, I
Speaker 1: got it from her because I texted my friend who's
Speaker 1: her hairdresser. I said, did you get there's Jess? Did
Speaker 1: you get any good pictures of people with risins? She
Speaker 1: sent me this picture of Jess, and bless your heart, Jess,
Speaker 1: thanks for sharing that picture with you. Tonight, it is
Speaker 1: time for a root check. So look at your neighbor
Speaker 1: if you're sitting with someone, and say, let me check
Speaker 1: your roots. If you're watching on zoom, just put your
Speaker 1: head up to the camp. I'm just kidding. You don't
Speaker 1: have to do that, but do turn in your Bible
Speaker 1: to Jeremiah seventeen, verse seven. Let me get mine up here,
Speaker 1: Here we go. I just got a little verse I
Speaker 1: want to read. You says this, But blessed is the
Speaker 1: one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him.
Speaker 1: They will be like a tree planted by the water
Speaker 1: that sends out its roots by the stream. It does
Speaker 1: not fear when heat comes. Its leaves are always green,
Speaker 1: It has no worries in a year of drought, and
Speaker 1: it never fails to bear. I love the Bible, and
Speaker 1: I love this passage because it paints for us a
Speaker 1: beautiful picture of a person who is like a tree.
Speaker 1: And I want to be a tree that has roots
Speaker 1: that go so deep that no matter what the world
Speaker 1: throws at me, no matter what happens to me, I
Speaker 1: can operate from a place of strength. And it is November, ladies,
Speaker 1: and we all know that this is the busiest season
Speaker 1: of the year, and it's in the middle of the
Speaker 1: craziest year ever. And I just was wondering if there's
Speaker 1: anybody else out there, And you're like me, and you're like,
Speaker 1: by god, I'm going to finish this year strong. Are
Speaker 1: you with me? So denight we're going to talk about
Speaker 1: how to have roots that never fail to bear fruit.
Speaker 1: It's easy to be to say that you want to
Speaker 1: be a woman with roots, you know, like that woman
Speaker 1: who can just handle business, a woman who's a source
Speaker 1: of strength for everyone around her, not somebody who's perfect,
Speaker 1: but just you never you know, anyone it just seems
Speaker 1: to have poised no matter what happens to her. We
Speaker 1: all want to be that kind of woman that seems
Speaker 1: to just be able to handle any situation. Can you
Speaker 1: think of a woman in your life who has roots,
Speaker 1: a woman who has weathered some storms and some droughts,
Speaker 1: but always seems to come out on the other side
Speaker 1: bearing fruit. Have you ever thought like, I don't know
Speaker 1: how she does it. I don't know how she handles it.
Speaker 1: I can tell you this right now. Strong women do
Speaker 1: not happen by accident. Like, Okay, do you know a
Speaker 1: woman who has a killer body? What is the thing
Speaker 1: that everyone asks her? How do you do it? Why
Speaker 1: do we ask this question? Like we all know the
Speaker 1: answer to this question. The answer is diet and exercise.
Speaker 1: Anyone who has ABS does not eat French fries. And
Speaker 1: yet I keep like, maybe there's she has found some
Speaker 1: you know, magic tea that just shrinks her belly after
Speaker 1: she eats the French fress. Strength does not happen overnight.
Speaker 1: It happens over time, day in and day out, staying faithful,
Speaker 1: staying present, working on becoming the best version of yourself
Speaker 1: that you can be. And this is hard work because
Speaker 1: the easy thing to do is to just blame others
Speaker 1: for my situation. The easy thing to do is to
Speaker 1: stay angry and to stay easily offended by every little
Speaker 1: thing that doesn't go our way. It's also easy to
Speaker 1: try really hard for one day. Have you ever done this? Like, Okay,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna wake up at five and I'm gonna read
Speaker 1: my Bible and I'm gonna pray and I'm gonna fast too,
Speaker 1: and then by noon you are on the phone screaming
Speaker 1: at customer service driving through McDonald's. I have now you
Speaker 1: Gus McDonalds. I'm just you said you were gonna fast,
Speaker 1: and now you're driving to McDonald's. And you know, it's like,
Speaker 1: I remember the first time I took a group fitness class.
Speaker 1: Remember I've told you I've never been MVP before. Okay,
Speaker 1: So I did not take my first group fitness class
Speaker 1: until I was over thirty. And there was this woman
Speaker 1: that went to our church and she taught this class
Speaker 1: called body Pump. And anybody ever take body pump before.
Speaker 1: It's not very popular class anymore, but at the time
Speaker 1: there was this class where you would lift weights to music.
Speaker 1: So I show up at the class and the instructor
Speaker 1: comes over to me. She was not one of those
Speaker 1: people who ate French fries, and she just says to me,
Speaker 1: she was like, hey, listen, just start light. You can
Speaker 1: even just use the bar because the weights can get
Speaker 1: really heavy. And I was like, I can do this
Speaker 1: with the weights. I mean, I don't want to look stupid,
Speaker 1: and so very stubbornly I completed the class with the weights.
Speaker 1: I probably look stupid anyway trying to do it with
Speaker 1: the weights. And when I tell you that I was
Speaker 1: sore when I was walking to my car. Oh, guys,
Speaker 1: when I woke up the next morning, I said to
Speaker 1: my husband, I said, I think I am the flu.
Speaker 1: I could not move like I could not move for
Speaker 1: about a week. I could barely go up the stairs.
Speaker 1: I was like an old lady. My kids were like,
Speaker 1: there were babies at the time. They were like, mommy,
Speaker 1: I'm like, kid, do it. I don't think I went
Speaker 1: back to that class for like a year. That's not
Speaker 1: how you build strength. That's not how you get strong
Speaker 1: by going to one class one time. You get strong
Speaker 1: little by little, day by day. A tree doesn't grow overnight.
Speaker 1: A tree takes the time to put down roots. And
Speaker 1: if you want to be a strong woman, a woman
Speaker 1: who fights for the things in your life that are
Speaker 1: important to you, you're going to have to have some roots.
Speaker 1: Time under tension creates strength. And Jeremiah says that this
Speaker 1: tree is planted by the water, and it sends out
Speaker 1: its roots by the stream. You see. The most important
Speaker 1: part of the tree happens below the surface. It happens
Speaker 1: in the places where people cannot see. And I want
Speaker 1: us to finish this year strong. I don't want to
Speaker 1: go limping across the finish line into twenty twenty. I
Speaker 1: want to look back on this year and say, you
Speaker 1: know what, twenty twenty threw some stuff at me, but
Speaker 1: I think I'm stronger for it. How do we do this?
Speaker 1: How do we do this? We've got to check our roots.
Speaker 1: So I want you to turn in your Bible to
Speaker 1: Luke chapter one, and I want to show you a
Speaker 1: woman who had weathered some pretty tough droughts and storms.
Speaker 1: And I believe that she has a few things that
Speaker 1: she can teach us tonight about how to have some
Speaker 1: deep roots. So we're gonna look at the life of Mary.
Speaker 1: Start with me. In verse twenty six, it says this,
Speaker 1: in the sixth month of Elizabeth's pregnancy, God sent the
Speaker 1: angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in gallery Galilee, to
Speaker 1: a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph,
Speaker 1: a descendant of David. The virgin's name was Mary. The
Speaker 1: angel went to her and said, greetings, you are highly favored.
Speaker 1: The Lord is with you. And Mary was greatly troubled
Speaker 1: at his words and wondered what kind of greetingness might be.
Speaker 1: But the Angel said to her, do not be afraid, Mary,
Speaker 1: for you have found favor with God. You will conceive
Speaker 1: and give birth to a son, and you are to
Speaker 1: call him Jesus. He will be great, and he will
Speaker 1: be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord
Speaker 1: God will give him the throne of his father David,
Speaker 1: and he will reign over Jacob's descendants forever. His kingdom
Speaker 1: will never end. How can this be, Mary asks the angel,
Speaker 1: Since I am a virgin, and the Angel and the
Speaker 1: Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of
Speaker 1: the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one
Speaker 1: to be born will be called the Son of God.
Speaker 1: Even Elizabeth, your relative, is going to have a child,
Speaker 1: and her own her old age, and she who has
Speaker 1: said to be unable to conceive as in her sixth month,
Speaker 1: for no word from God will ever fail. I am
Speaker 1: the Lord's servant, Mary said, May your word to me
Speaker 1: be fulfilled, and then the Angel left her. Mary had
Speaker 1: a massive calling on her life. She was going to
Speaker 1: be the mother of the Messiah. She was going to
Speaker 1: raise God. I don't know what it's like to raise God.
Speaker 1: I do know what it's like to attempt to raise children,
Speaker 1: and that is a massive calling. And we know nothing
Speaker 1: about Mary prior to this passage of scripture. As the
Speaker 1: story unfolds, we find out that she's a girl for
Speaker 1: Nazareth who's engaged to be married, and an angel comes
Speaker 1: to her and says, greeting, Have you ever thought about
Speaker 1: all of the ways that God spoke to people in
Speaker 1: the Bible up until this point, up until Jesus came.
Speaker 1: He spoke through dreams, he spoke through a burning bush,
Speaker 1: he spoke through a talking donkey, he spoke through writing
Speaker 1: on the wall, and even occasionally an audible voice. But
Speaker 1: we come to this passage and we find Mary and
Speaker 1: where was she when the angel came to her? What
Speaker 1: was she doing? The passage doesn't say that she was
Speaker 1: in church, or that she was kneeling in prayer, that
Speaker 1: she was sleeping and he came to her in a dream.
Speaker 1: It just simply says that an angel came to her.
Speaker 1: And I wonder if God just knew that he could
Speaker 1: interrupt any old day in Mary's life that she had
Speaker 1: such an awareness of God's presence that she was ready
Speaker 1: to receive from him during her everyday life. And I'm
Speaker 1: just wondering, are you aware of God's presence in your
Speaker 1: everyday life? Or is your day so loud and so
Speaker 1: crowded and so back to back to back that God
Speaker 1: would have to strike lightning to get your attention. It's
Speaker 1: so popular for us to talk about self care right now,
Speaker 1: and self care it really is important. But what if
Speaker 1: self care was not about a girl's night out or
Speaker 1: a day at the spa. What if self care was
Speaker 1: not letting your calendar get so full? What if self
Speaker 1: care was about saying no to another thing that you
Speaker 1: were asked to do, or another sports team for your kid.
Speaker 1: What if self care is about taking a break from
Speaker 1: social media. I'm talking to myself. But if you think
Speaker 1: that being aware of God's presence means that you get
Speaker 1: up and pray at five am, that's great and if
Speaker 1: you can do that, you should. I think getting up
Speaker 1: is awesome. I just can't do it. I have tried,
Speaker 1: and when I get up early, I just fall back asleep.
Speaker 1: It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter if I splash cold
Speaker 1: water on my face doesn't matter. I mean, I just
Speaker 1: can't get up early. And I do think that setting
Speaker 1: aside time to read and study God's word and pray
Speaker 1: and listen to music. I do believe that those things
Speaker 1: are essential for my strength, and I do practice those
Speaker 1: things in my everyday life. It's just that I have
Speaker 1: to look for pockets. You may not have an hour
Speaker 1: to spend every day in prayer and on your knees,
Speaker 1: and it's a beautiful thing, like I said, if you do,
Speaker 1: But do you have any pockets? Like? What do you
Speaker 1: do on your commute to work? What do you do
Speaker 1: when you're sitting at your kids sports practice. I've sat
Speaker 1: at a lot of sports practices and play Candy Crush
Speaker 1: on my phone. I'm just gonna be honest with you.
Speaker 1: What is playing in the background while you're doing laundry?
Speaker 1: What do you do on your lunch break at work?
Speaker 1: Who do you talk to or what do you watch?
Speaker 1: Are you pulling up are you pulling up the news
Speaker 1: or Netflix or Instagram or even here's a really hard
Speaker 1: one for me to say. What's the last thing you
Speaker 1: do before you fall asleep at night? Mary had space
Speaker 1: in her life for God. And we live in a
Speaker 1: day and time where we are so lucky because we
Speaker 1: can fill the space in our life with the most
Speaker 1: amazing summons from the most incredible preachers around the world,
Speaker 1: and worship music is at our fingertips and audio books
Speaker 1: and podcasts. But if you don't have a plan, then
Speaker 1: you're gonna end up scrolling feeds during every extra second
Speaker 1: that you have during your day. And while I am
Speaker 1: on the topic about making space in your life, I
Speaker 1: just want to say that some of us, I feel like,
Speaker 1: are letting church slip through our fingers. When we first
Speaker 1: went into quarantine, you got up early and you got
Speaker 1: your family up, or you got to your kitchen table
Speaker 1: and you had your coffee and you had your TV on,
Speaker 1: and you gave God your full attention. But now maybe
Speaker 1: you're just catching it later on YouTube. And by the way,
Speaker 1: our buildings are open. I don't know if you knew that.
Speaker 1: But also, just about every church that I know is
Speaker 1: somehow safely meeting together. And if you're not careful, if
Speaker 1: you let the important things slip through your fingers, you're
Speaker 1: gonna find yourself in a very difficult storm and you're
Speaker 1: not gonna have the roots to get you through because
Speaker 1: you have not made God's presence a priority in your life.
Speaker 1: It's time for us to wake up, ladies and position
Speaker 1: ourselves to hear God speak to us. Because the strength
Speaker 1: that you need in the next season is that we're
Speaker 1: right here in the things that God is speaking to you. Now,
Speaker 1: are you aware? Mary aware? And the Angel comes to
Speaker 1: her and tells her you have found favor with God.
Speaker 1: You're gonna give birth to the son of the Most High,
Speaker 1: and the power of the Holy Spirit is gonna come
Speaker 1: upon you. And what did Mary say? She said, I
Speaker 1: am the Lord's servant. Made a word to me, be fulfilled. Now,
Speaker 1: if they were me, if I were married, when the
Speaker 1: Angel came to me and said that, I'm not sure
Speaker 1: that I am the Lord's servant, would be the first
Speaker 1: thing out of my mouth. You know, like, I have
Speaker 1: some things that I would want to know, like if
Speaker 1: you qualifying? Like God, did you know that I'm just
Speaker 1: a girl and I don't know nothing about raising no baby?
Speaker 1: Or God? Did you? Did you? I don't think anybody's
Speaker 1: gonna believe me. I mean, a virgin pregnant. How is
Speaker 1: that gonna go? God? I mean, I'm not good enough.
Speaker 1: I'm not shruck, I'm not smart enough. What about my past?
Speaker 1: What about the things that I've done, the mistakes that
Speaker 1: have Mammy, God, you don't want to use me? I
Speaker 1: mean I think that you could use her, or you know,
Speaker 1: I was actually thinking Lord, that that maybe I could
Speaker 1: have a more upfront calling than rather like behind the
Speaker 1: scenes calling. Maybe God, I could be a prophetess instead
Speaker 1: of a diaper changer. But Mary accepted the calling that
Speaker 1: God had placed on her life. And you've got to
Speaker 1: have the root of acceptance in your life because if
Speaker 1: you don't, you're going to abandon your calling at the
Speaker 1: first sign of trouble. Because the thing about a calling
Speaker 1: is your calling is only for you. You can't trade
Speaker 1: it for someone else's. Although I know sometimes we look
Speaker 1: at somebody else you're like, God, Okay, why didn't you
Speaker 1: call me to do that? That looks like so much
Speaker 1: more fun than than this. You can't return it for
Speaker 1: a different one. I like to return things. It's like
Speaker 1: a habit that I have. I like to order things
Speaker 1: online and then try them on and then return them.
Speaker 1: You can't return your calling. You can either reject it
Speaker 1: or you can accept it. And I am so guilty
Speaker 1: of rejecting my own calling. Not outright, of course, I
Speaker 1: mean like, of course Mary was never gonna be like God,
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna do that. It's more subtle. It's not
Speaker 1: like Jonah, who went in the opposite direction of where
Speaker 1: God was calling him. I think I can just sometimes
Speaker 1: let myself get stuck, and some days, if I'm being honest,
Speaker 1: I'm unwilling to put in the work that's required to
Speaker 1: accomplish the things that God wants me to do. I'm
Speaker 1: just gonna say it this way. It's kind of hard
Speaker 1: for you to come out of my mouth, but I'm
Speaker 1: lazy and I would rather watch YouTube videos of someone
Speaker 1: else's day in the life than actually live mine with
Speaker 1: the purpose that God has given me. Someday, Just can
Speaker 1: I be honest? I mean, is anybody with me? And
Speaker 1: some of you were giving me the praise hands that
Speaker 1: it took me years. There were years where I just
Speaker 1: simply did not want to put in the work that
Speaker 1: was required to preach a good sermon. My husband would
Speaker 1: be like, I want to you to preach. I'm like God,
Speaker 1: I'm not good at preaching, But you know what it
Speaker 1: takes work to write a good sermon, and you know
Speaker 1: what else it takes to put a good sermon together,
Speaker 1: reading your Bible. But at the time, I think it
Speaker 1: was easier for me to hide behind the idea that
Speaker 1: I wasn't good enough, that I didn't have what it takes.
Speaker 1: Was that really it, I'm not sure that it was.
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm sure that I struggled to have confidence,
Speaker 1: but I really don't think that I was willing to
Speaker 1: put in the work to live out the things that
Speaker 1: God was calling me to do. And you're enough. You
Speaker 1: have everything that you need to do what God is
Speaker 1: calling you to do, but it doesn't mean that it's
Speaker 1: not going to be hard. Repetition over time creates strength,
Speaker 1: and you might be thinking like, well, I don't really
Speaker 1: know what I'm called to do. I have an answer
Speaker 1: for you. It's really simple. You're called to do whatever
Speaker 1: God has placed in your life right now. Not one
Speaker 1: day when I get married, not one day when I
Speaker 1: have more money, not one day when I have my
Speaker 1: own house I'll have people over. I just want you
Speaker 1: to hear me say tonight, the best person to raise
Speaker 1: your kids, is you, the best person to do your job?
Speaker 1: Is you the best person to speak up for that
Speaker 1: cause that's just so burden on your heart. That's your calling.
Speaker 1: It's you. You are called to the place that you
Speaker 1: are right now. Your high school, your neighborhood, your co workers.
Speaker 1: They need to see you confidently in the calling that
Speaker 1: God has given you. And when you go through something hard,
Speaker 1: all the people around you are going to see your
Speaker 1: strength and your resilience and your dependence on God as
Speaker 1: you go through whatever your challenges are. Challenges are unavoidable
Speaker 1: in life. And we like to think that of Mary
Speaker 1: when the Angel visited her, and how glorious and beautiful
Speaker 1: that was. But what about Mary when nobody did believe
Speaker 1: her that she was pregnant? What about that hard part?
Speaker 1: What about the part where Mary had to give birth
Speaker 1: to a baby in a barn? I mean talk about
Speaker 1: giving birth during COVID. Mary gave birth to a baby
Speaker 1: in a barn. What about the hard part where Mary
Speaker 1: stood at the foot of the cross and watched her
Speaker 1: son experience the most unimaginable pain and rejection. And I
Speaker 1: believe that it was in those moments that Mary had
Speaker 1: to come back to that encounter with the angel and
Speaker 1: she had to remember what she was chosen for. She
Speaker 1: said all right, I am the Lord's servant. Write this down.
Speaker 1: This is deep, This is really deep. I can do
Speaker 1: hard things. You can You can do hard things. Nobody
Speaker 1: ever said that a calling was easy. Having a calling
Speaker 1: requires you to have strength so that you can move
Speaker 1: through the difficult times. And the minute that Mary accepted
Speaker 1: her calling, she went into action. Look at this all right,
Speaker 1: So we've got verse thirty eight, and Mary says, I
Speaker 1: am the Lord's servant. May your word to me be fulfilled?
Speaker 1: And then the angel left her. At that time, Mary
Speaker 1: got ready and hurried to a town in the hill
Speaker 1: country of Judea, where she entered Zechariah's home and greeted Elizabeth.
Speaker 1: Let me ask you a question. When God gives you
Speaker 1: a direction, what is your response? Time. God uses people
Speaker 1: who hear his word and move, and it starts with
Speaker 1: the small things, because if you can't hear and act
Speaker 1: in the small things, then you won't be able to
Speaker 1: do it in the big things. I promise you. I
Speaker 1: know you think if God just call me to do
Speaker 1: something big, then I would do it. But I don't
Speaker 1: want to do this small thing. But let me tell you,
Speaker 1: the small things are practiced for the big things. And
Speaker 1: I just wonder tonight, what is the last small thing
Speaker 1: that God asked you to do. Maybe he asked you
Speaker 1: to apologize to someone. Did you do it? Maybe he
Speaker 1: asked you to begin the process of forgiveness. And I
Speaker 1: know that forgiveness is complicated, and I'm not saying they
Speaker 1: have to go, you know, be friends with that person again.
Speaker 1: But maybe he just whispered into your spirit. I want
Speaker 1: you to start to forgive that person. I know they
Speaker 1: hurt you, but forgiveness is you. Did you do it?
Speaker 1: Maybe ask you to start an e group or a
Speaker 1: Bible study in your home. Becoming a woman of action
Speaker 1: takes practice, and the absolute best thing that you can
Speaker 1: do for the people in your life that you love
Speaker 1: is be a healthy person yourself. It's to be a
Speaker 1: woman who is able to hear God's voice and act
Speaker 1: on it in the simplest, smallest ways. You put down
Speaker 1: your phone and you spend time with your child, or
Speaker 1: maybe you send a text message. God just put somebody
Speaker 1: on your heart, so you send it. It's the small things.
Speaker 1: God is good and he is patient, but he is
Speaker 1: not going to give you step two before you do
Speaker 1: step one. Now, the good news is that step one
Speaker 1: is still right there waiting for you right now. A
Speaker 1: woman who takes action understands that better is not out there,
Speaker 1: Better is right here, right now, and that woman is
Speaker 1: able to look around and figure out what is the
Speaker 1: next step that God wants me to take? What is
Speaker 1: something that I can do right now? And so what
Speaker 1: does Mary do? She goes to see Elizabeth. And this
Speaker 1: is the part of the story that really gets me.
Speaker 1: I'm really passionate about this, and I want you to
Speaker 1: understand that strong women understand the power of attachment. When
Speaker 1: I am confident in my calling, I don't need to compete.
Speaker 1: I don't need to compare. I simply need to align
Speaker 1: myself with those who can confirm what is already inside
Speaker 1: of me. You are never intended to live out your
Speaker 1: calling alone. And I'm not talking about having a husband.
Speaker 1: I am talking about having a group of women around
Speaker 1: you who will support you. But you have to get
Speaker 1: the order right first. You've got to get the order
Speaker 1: right first. Mary was aware, so she was able to
Speaker 1: hear from God when he spoke to her. Then she
Speaker 1: accepted the calling that God had placed on her life.
Speaker 1: Then she acted, and so she knew, what is the
Speaker 1: step that I need to take. Well, I'm gonna have
Speaker 1: a baby, so I better get around someone who's a
Speaker 1: little bit farther down the road for me. And the
Speaker 1: angel happened to tell me your cousin Elizabeth has also conceived.
Speaker 1: Now you might be thinking she talks about friendship every year. Yes,
Speaker 1: I do, because I still see women who don't get it.
Speaker 1: We need each other. I need you and you need me.
Speaker 1: Over the past year or so, I've become obsessed with elephants.
Speaker 1: And you may have caught onto that tonight, because we've
Speaker 1: got an elephant necklace, and we've got a elephant ornament.
Speaker 1: We've got all these fun things. And it's because well,
Speaker 1: it all started with a fiction book by Jodypico. I
Speaker 1: don't know if anybody is a Jodypico fan. I am
Speaker 1: a fan of fiction, and those of you who know
Speaker 1: me know that I just I love stories. So I
Speaker 1: listen to this book it's about elephants, and it got
Speaker 1: me really intrigued. So then I watched some YouTube videos,
Speaker 1: and I watch documentary. Then I listened to a memoir.
Speaker 1: It's just a whole thing. So I want to share
Speaker 1: with you a couple of things that I learned about
Speaker 1: elephants because they are an incredible species. They are among
Speaker 1: the most intelligent species of animals. Their intelligence can rival
Speaker 1: that of primates and dolphins and whales. Elephants can solve
Speaker 1: complex problems. They can recognize their reflection in the mirror
Speaker 1: self awareness shout out to reflect five years ago if
Speaker 1: you were here. Elephants can dance to the beat of music,
Speaker 1: and they can even communicate with each other through infrasonic
Speaker 1: sounds like these sounds that are inaudible to the human
Speaker 1: ear when they communicate six miles apart. But that's not
Speaker 1: the best part about elephants to me. Elephants are a
Speaker 1: matriarchal society. So this means that they kick the boys
Speaker 1: out when they become teenagers and they operate as a unit.
Speaker 1: They care for each others young The older teach the
Speaker 1: younger how to watch for danger, how to find water
Speaker 1: in a drought. They grieve with each other when one
Speaker 1: loses a baby. They slow down when someone in their
Speaker 1: herd is sick or injured, and they have this thing
Speaker 1: that they do when one of their own is vulnerable.
Speaker 1: They circle up. When should I look at this picture
Speaker 1: that I have for you? Keep it up there because
Speaker 1: as you see, the elephants are in a circle, but
Speaker 1: the strong ones are facing out. And I want you
Speaker 1: to notice that there are some that are obviously older
Speaker 1: and bigger than others. There are some children there that
Speaker 1: are learning this is what we do. This is a
Speaker 1: herd of elephants, And most likely what they're doing is
Speaker 1: they're either protecting the young from danger, which I don't
Speaker 1: think that's what's happening in this picture because we have
Speaker 1: the little wed and kind of poking his head out.
Speaker 1: Most likely what they're doing is one of their own
Speaker 1: is in labor, and so when one of their own
Speaker 1: is giving birth to something and they're in a vulnerable position,
Speaker 1: they circle up. They huddle around each other to protect
Speaker 1: their own from the outward danger that she is facing
Speaker 1: in that moment. And ladies, I don't know if you've
Speaker 1: ever had the honor of having some women come around
Speaker 1: you during a time of need, but it is a
Speaker 1: beautiful thing to experience. I'm trying to get you to
Speaker 1: see tonight that, yeah, having roots does require you to
Speaker 1: do some things on your own, to be aware of
Speaker 1: God's presence and to accept your calling and be ready
Speaker 1: to act. And when you see that direction from God,
Speaker 1: but you're also going to need others to support you
Speaker 1: on your way. And every time I say something about
Speaker 1: the importance of female friendships, someone inevitably says or comments
Speaker 1: on my Instagram or whatever. They say something like, well,
Speaker 1: I've tried, and I'm just too hurt and I am
Speaker 1: just gonna go it alone. And I thought about that tonight,
Speaker 1: and I thought about all the teenage girls who are
Speaker 1: out there watching shout out to my elevation youth. I
Speaker 1: know that many of your groups are meeting together, and
Speaker 1: I just want to say to all the teenage girls
Speaker 1: who are hearing me talk about having a group of
Speaker 1: women around you, that mean girls are a real thing.
Speaker 1: And unfortunately they don't go away when you graduate high school.
Speaker 1: But I wonder tonight if maybe you're using the wrong
Speaker 1: criteria for your support system. What you want to do
Speaker 1: is get yourself around someone who's a little bit farther
Speaker 1: down the road from you, maybe not in age, maybe
Speaker 1: just immaturity, in maturity, not im maturity. Someone that you
Speaker 1: look up to for who they are, not what they wear,
Speaker 1: someone that they you admire for the person that they are,
Speaker 1: not how many followers that they have. And I'm not
Speaker 1: just talking to the teenage girls anymore, Ladies. When Mary
Speaker 1: got to Elizabeth, Elizabeth immediately confirmed what was already happening
Speaker 1: inside of Mary. She celebrated her, and she brought her
Speaker 1: into her life. The Bible tells us that Elizabeth was
Speaker 1: six months pregnant and that Mary stayed with Elizabeth for
Speaker 1: three months. I don't know if you could do the
Speaker 1: math on that, but I think that Mary stayed until
Speaker 1: Elizabeth gave birth. And I don't know about you, but
Speaker 1: I think when it came time for Mary to give
Speaker 1: birth to her own child alone in a barn, I
Speaker 1: just wonder whose voice was in her head because she
Speaker 1: got herself around somebody who could help her. Check your
Speaker 1: roots tonight? Who is around you? Who is cheering you on?
Speaker 1: Who has fault with you? Who is griefed with you?
Speaker 1: Maybe you don't know where to start. I have an
Speaker 1: idea for you. Who are you watching with right now?
Speaker 1: You see? I have some friends in this room whose
Speaker 1: friendship means everything to me. Some of them live here
Speaker 1: in town. A few of them got on an airplane
Speaker 1: during a pandemic to come and see me. And these
Speaker 1: ladies are more than just people that I hang out
Speaker 1: with for fun. These women have We've prayed each other
Speaker 1: through things. We've prayed each other through cancer and loss,
Speaker 1: We've prayed each other through ministry and kids. And there's
Speaker 1: some women in this room that mean the world to me.
Speaker 1: And in a few minutes we're going to get to
Speaker 1: share with each other what God is speaking to us.
Speaker 1: And I really hope that you'll take the time to
Speaker 1: dig in on the route of friendship tonight. The whole
Speaker 1: reason I didn't want you to watch alone is because
Speaker 1: I am so sick of virtual relationships. I want us
Speaker 1: to have face to face conversation. Zoom and face sight.
Speaker 1: It counts, but you've got to look somebody in the
Speaker 1: eyes and say help or can I help you? But
Speaker 1: if you don't build it now, that's the thing about roots.
Speaker 1: You got to build them before the storm comes. You
Speaker 1: have to send them out to the stream, before the
Speaker 1: drought comes, because if you don't build those relationships now,
Speaker 1: you won't have them when you need them. And you
Speaker 1: know what, it is an amazing thing, a beautiful thing
Speaker 1: to feel the support of other women in your life
Speaker 1: during a difficult time. But it's also a privilege to
Speaker 1: do it for someone else when you walk alongside a
Speaker 1: friend through a divorce or a loss, or a sickness
Speaker 1: or infertility, you experience a level of friendship that a
Speaker 1: girl's night out is never going to provide. It takes vulnerability,
Speaker 1: takes relationship takes time. Remember roots take time. So Elizabeth,
Speaker 1: she confirms what's inside of Mary. She says, blessed is
Speaker 1: she who has believed that the Lord fulfill his promises
Speaker 1: to her. And then Mary begins her prayer and she says,
Speaker 1: my soul glorifies the Lord. My spirit rejoices in God,
Speaker 1: my savior, for he has been mindful of the humble
Speaker 1: state of his servant. He picked me, and from now
Speaker 1: on all generations will call me blessed, for the Mighty
Speaker 1: One has done great things for me. Holy is his name.
Speaker 1: See it was good for Mary to have Elizabeth to
Speaker 1: confirm what God had called Mary to do. But there
Speaker 1: comes a time when the affirmation that you need has
Speaker 1: to come from within yourself, with your own mouth, when
Speaker 1: you begin to worship God. Before Mary saw any fruit,
Speaker 1: she had to center her focus on who her God was.
Speaker 1: To her, he was her Savior, the Mighty One, who
Speaker 1: had done great things for her. Worship like this only
Speaker 1: flows from someone who has a living, breathing relationship with
Speaker 1: her father. She goes on to just quote scripture. She
Speaker 1: just pieces it together from the different prophecies in the Bible.
Speaker 1: It's scripture that she had planted in her spirit as
Speaker 1: a child, and it poured out of her mouth because
Speaker 1: long before she was visited by an angel, she was
Speaker 1: putting down roots. Mary focused her faith on the one
Speaker 1: who had called her. She didn't list out all the
Speaker 1: things that could go wrong. She didn't think about all
Speaker 1: the hardships that would lay ahead, because by God, if
Speaker 1: she had, she probably wouldn't have accepted this calling. But
Speaker 1: she stayed focused on who God was and who she
Speaker 1: was in Christ. And this makes sense when we read
Speaker 1: it about Mary the mother of Jesus. But these are
Speaker 1: things that we must put into action in our own lives.
Speaker 1: This is the root that you draw from on the
Speaker 1: days where you feel weak, when you feel like you
Speaker 1: don't have what it takes, when perhaps no one knows
Speaker 1: exactly what you're going through because it's just too personal,
Speaker 1: too soon, or you just can't verbalize it. Sometimes the
Speaker 1: affirmation that you need has to come from within. Several
Speaker 1: weeks ago, I woke up to the start of a
Speaker 1: very long day, and I had a million and one
Speaker 1: things to do, some of them small, some of them big.
Speaker 1: And I already told you I'm not a morning person.
Speaker 1: So when my alarm went off at six am, I
Speaker 1: immediately was feeling overwhelmed. And I just, I don't know
Speaker 1: if you ever feel like that when you wake up.
Speaker 1: I feel like that when I wake up almost every morning,
Speaker 1: but this morning I actually was like deserved to feel
Speaker 1: that way. And so I woke up and I just
Speaker 1: everything just felt so heavy, and I dragged myself out
Speaker 1: of bed and headed to the bathroom and I thought
Speaker 1: to myself, I can do this. And my husband sat
Speaker 1: up in bed and he said what can you do?
Speaker 1: And honestly, I was shocked, and I was a little
Speaker 1: bit embarrassed because I didn't realize that I had said
Speaker 1: it out loud. I felt like he was like invading
Speaker 1: my space. And I was like, oh, and I realized
Speaker 1: I said out loud, I can do this. And so
Speaker 1: when he said what can you do, I looked at
Speaker 1: him and I said everything. It probably wasn't like that.
Speaker 1: It was probably more like everything everything that I have
Speaker 1: to do today, I can do it. I promise you.
Speaker 1: I not get this right ninety nine times out of
Speaker 1: one hundred, but that particular day, in the darkness of
Speaker 1: my bedroom and in the darkness of the morning, somehow
Speaker 1: my soul was able to top those roots that I
Speaker 1: had spent time, and I was reminded of Philippians four thirteen.
Speaker 1: I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me.
Speaker 1: My goal for you tonight was for you to come
Speaker 1: and for you to feel refreshed, and for you to
Speaker 1: just take a deep breath, and for you to feel encouraged.
Speaker 1: But most of all, I wanted you to hear me
Speaker 1: say you can do this. You can finish twenty twenty strong, everything,
Speaker 1: everything that you were called to do, and not one
Speaker 1: thing extra. You are a chosen child of the Most
Speaker 1: High God, and you are a rooted woman, and you
Speaker 1: can finish strong because together we're not gonna limp across
Speaker 1: the finish line to twenty twenty. Together, we're gonna help
Speaker 1: each other, we're gonna pray for each other, we're gonna
Speaker 1: lift each other up. And on those mornings where we
Speaker 1: just feel alone and overwhelmed, we're gonna tap that root
Speaker 1: that's deep inside of us, and we're gonna say, all right, God,
Speaker 1: I can do this. Whatever it is that you've called
Speaker 1: me to do, God, I can do it, and I'm
Speaker 1: gonna do it with a good attitude, and I'm gonna
Speaker 1: do it because I am empowered by the Holy Spirit.
Speaker 1: Remember the Angel said, the Holy Spirit will come upon you.
Speaker 1: You are not alone. You're not alone physically, and you're
Speaker 1: not alone spear Vitruly, everything that God has called you
Speaker 1: to do, He's gonna put in your spirit, and He's
Speaker 1: gonna give you his spirit, and together you're going to
Speaker 1: accomplish the amazing things that God has put right in
Speaker 1: front of you. Right now. You can do this everything, everything,
Speaker 1: everything that you're called to do, and not one thing extra.
Speaker 1: So I want to pray for you tonight. I just
Speaker 1: want to take a minute and pray over you God,
Speaker 1: Thank you for this night. Thank You for these women
Speaker 1: that are gathered literally all over our world. Thank You
Speaker 1: that we live in a day and time where nothing
Speaker 1: can stop your church, nothing can stop us from meeting together.
Speaker 1: Just take a breath, breathe in and realize that you
Speaker 1: are chosen child with the most high King. And I
Speaker 1: want to pray for those of you who are tired
Speaker 1: and overwhelmed, And God, would just whisper to you in
Speaker 1: this moment, here's your strength. I want to pray for
Speaker 1: the one who is busy. God, for those of us
Speaker 1: who are busy, and when we head into the busiest
Speaker 1: time of the year, it's just busy on top of busy,
Speaker 1: on top busy. Would you show us the pockets of
Speaker 1: time that we have. Would you whisper to our spirit
Speaker 1: when we're scrolling in the wrong places, when we have
Speaker 1: a minute it to hear a word from you to
Speaker 1: recenter our focus and worship you. Would you just whisper
Speaker 1: it to us? Would you give us a song to
Speaker 1: get us through the end of the Yeard, you give
Speaker 1: us a word, You give us a verse. God, show
Speaker 1: us those little pockets of time. And I believe that
Speaker 1: when we when we center our focus on You, when
Speaker 1: we see that pocket and we come to you. God,
Speaker 1: so You're going to give us that little bit of
Speaker 1: strength that we need for the next thing that you've
Speaker 1: called us to do. God, help us to fight, help
Speaker 1: us to keep fighting, Help us to realize that in
Speaker 1: You we're stronger than we think we are. Make us
Speaker 1: aware of your presence in this place right now. For
Speaker 1: every person that's watching in this moment, maybe in a
Speaker 1: couple of hours or in a couple of days. God,
Speaker 1: you're not bound by time. Your spirit can reach through
Speaker 1: a screen and grab our hearts when we give you
Speaker 1: our time and our focus and our faith. And that's
Speaker 1: what we're doing right now, right here, in this moment.
Speaker 1: Thank you for joining us. Special thanks to those of
Speaker 1: you who give generously to this ministry. Is because of
Speaker 1: you that this ministry is possible. You can click the
Speaker 1: link in the description to give now, or visit Elevationchurch
Speaker 1: dot org slash podcast for more information and if you
Speaker 1: enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe. You can share it
Speaker 1: with your friends. You can click the share button, take
Speaker 1: a screenshot and share it on your social stories and
Speaker 1: tag us at Elevation Church. Thanks again for listening. God
Speaker 1: bless you.