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 is moving in your life. Enjoy the message.
Speaker 2: I won't tell you the whole story, but just a
Speaker 2: little part of it.
Speaker 1: In One Kings eighteen forty one, and Elijah said to Ahab,
Speaker 1: go eat and drink, for there is the sound of
Speaker 1: a heavy rain.
Speaker 2: So Ahab went off to eat and drink.
Speaker 1: But Elijah climbed to the top of Carmel, bent down
Speaker 1: to the ground and put his face between his knees.
Speaker 1: Maybe I'll read you a little bit more. This is
Speaker 1: a good story. I'll reach you a little bit more.
Speaker 1: How are you today?
Speaker 2: Are you?
Speaker 1: Are you.
Speaker 2: Me too? Me too? I used to have a guy.
Speaker 2: Every time you'd ask him how are you doing, he said, well.
Speaker 1: He's doing any better? I'd be twins. It's weird. You
Speaker 1: know what that means? This other guy used to always say.
Speaker 1: He said, I'm better than I deserve. That's pretty good. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's got pretty good. And so we have here a
Speaker 1: picture of a nation coming out of a drought. And
Speaker 1: then it's but it's a process, and it doesn't happen
Speaker 1: all at once, and it happens in stages.
Speaker 2: Look at verse forty three.
Speaker 1: Elijah tells the king that he hears the sound of
Speaker 1: the abundance of rain, and they haven't had any rain
Speaker 1: in three and a half years. And then he tells
Speaker 1: this servant go and look toward the sea. And the
Speaker 1: servant went up and looked, and he came back and said,
Speaker 1: there is nothing there. Seven times Elijah said go back.
Speaker 1: The seventh time, the servant reported, a cloud as small
Speaker 1: as a man's hand is rising from the sea. So
Speaker 1: Elijah said, go and tell Ahab, hitch up your chariot.
Speaker 2: And go down before the rain stops you.
Speaker 1: Meanwhile, the sky grew black with clouds, the wind rose,
Speaker 1: a heavy rain started falling, and Ahab rode off to Jezruel.
Speaker 1: The power of the Lord came on Elijah, and, tucking
Speaker 1: his cloak into his belt, he ran ahead of Ahab
Speaker 1: all the way to Jezreel. I love that. I just
Speaker 1: I think it's cool that Elijah ran seventeen miles and
Speaker 1: he was out running the King's chariot because he was
Speaker 1: ready for rain. Look at your neighbors, say I'm ready
Speaker 1: for rain, and then comes to question are you really?
Speaker 1: You know, then comes to question are you really? For
Speaker 1: as long as I can remember, I have been fascinated
Speaker 1: by creative process.
Speaker 2: So I like to hear how books were written.
Speaker 1: Usually after I watch a movie, I will go on
Speaker 1: Wikipedia and study, and then I'll go read about how
Speaker 1: they did it, and I'll find YouTube interviews.
Speaker 2: With the director.
Speaker 1: If I liked the movie, or even if I didn't
Speaker 1: like the movie, I want to know how did it
Speaker 1: get that bad? You know, like what went wrong in
Speaker 1: the creative process? Because I know at some point somebody
Speaker 1: thought this movie was going to be better than it
Speaker 1: ended up being, Like what went wrong? And so I'm
Speaker 1: a student of the creative process. When I hear a
Speaker 1: song that I like, I love music and I've always
Speaker 1: loved music. And even before I started trying to write songs,
Speaker 1: of course, I started trying to write songs right around
Speaker 1: the age I was like twelve or thirteen, I was
Speaker 1: starting trying to write. So I just thought of one
Speaker 1: that I tried to write when I was twelve or thirteen,
Speaker 1: but that is not for public consumption. Okay, that's just
Speaker 1: from my memories, but I remember reading about songwriting process.
Speaker 1: I just always thought I was fascinating, And even to
Speaker 1: this day, I'll ask someone if I hear a song
Speaker 1: that I like and I get to meet the person.
Speaker 2: Who wrote it, I'll say, how did it start?
Speaker 1: To me, that's always interesting because sometimes when they tell
Speaker 1: you how the song started, it started in such a
Speaker 1: different place than how it was when you heard it.
Speaker 1: I could let you hear songs from Elevation worsh from
Speaker 1: the album.
Speaker 2: If I let you hear how they started, they.
Speaker 1: Would make you cry, and not because of the presence
Speaker 1: of God or the anointing. They were that bad when
Speaker 1: they started. I let my kids hear a few of
Speaker 1: the songs from our newest album, and I let them
Speaker 1: hear it in Beta. I let I let them hear
Speaker 1: the song from when it started, and they have told me, Dad,
Speaker 1: you should never let anyone hear this again. You need
Speaker 1: to delete this off of your phone. Nobody should hear this,
Speaker 1: because there is something about starting that feels shameful. Have
Speaker 1: you ever been to the gym and you know you've
Speaker 1: got a lot of work to do? Have you ever,
Speaker 1: I did this for for for one for one thing.
Speaker 1: I want to say this, Okay, I want to say
Speaker 1: this about going to the gym. When you start, it
Speaker 1: always sucks. Okay, this is this is the truth about exercise.
Speaker 1: It always sucks when you start, when you go to
Speaker 1: the gym. I remember one time walking into a certain gym.
Speaker 1: This has been years ago. I walked into a certain gem,
Speaker 1: turned around and walked out. I didn't didn't touch a machine.
Speaker 1: All I did was look at the other people who
Speaker 1: had been there consistently and walked out. Just turn around,
Speaker 1: walked out, didn't even touch anything, just turn around and
Speaker 1: walked out. They don't even work looked at the person
Speaker 1: behind the counter, didn't even want to think about the
Speaker 1: process of soreness that would accompany the workout. Something about
Speaker 1: starting touch and never say get started, get started. And
Speaker 1: as we begin this series, I want to take you
Speaker 1: on a little bit of a journey. And I've kind
Speaker 1: of committed myself today if it's okay with you, I
Speaker 1: want to get in a little bit of a more
Speaker 1: of a teaching mode because there is something about the
Speaker 1: nature of faith that God has.
Speaker 2: Been dealing with me about.
Speaker 1: And if I start preaching and hollering and all that
Speaker 1: stuff that do sometimes and all that wild stuff, I.
Speaker 2: Won't get my content across.
Speaker 1: And I really feel like the content of this is
Speaker 1: what is most important about.
Speaker 2: The nature of faith.
Speaker 1: The last time I was with you, we were talking
Speaker 1: about harvest. Did any of you hear my message on
Speaker 1: harvest problems? And then what do we say? We talked
Speaker 1: about how what you've been calling a problem, God calls
Speaker 1: a harvest. Now, there is something about the nature of
Speaker 1: faith that is illustrated by the rain in First Kings,
Speaker 1: chapter eighteen, and so we see it when Elijah says
Speaker 1: to Ahab, there is.
Speaker 2: The sound of the heavy rain. There's the sound of
Speaker 2: the heavy.
Speaker 1: Rain that often, when it comes to the realm of faith,
Speaker 1: we hear things.
Speaker 2: That we cannot see yet.
Speaker 1: That is, when a word of God comes forth into
Speaker 1: your life, you will not immediately see a change in
Speaker 1: your situation. It will first produce a change within you.
Speaker 1: I just feel like teaching a little bit today because
Speaker 1: there are a few stages that you're going to have
Speaker 1: to go through if you are going to come out
Speaker 1: of the drought. Now, when I say the drought, I
Speaker 1: mean the dry season that you have been experiencing inside
Speaker 1: of yourself. When I say the drought, I don't necessarily
Speaker 1: mean that you're on the verge of bankruptcy or losing
Speaker 1: your marriage. Even because one thing I found out about
Speaker 1: dry seasons is it often my situation can be doing
Speaker 1: a whole lot better than my soul. I found out
Speaker 1: that everybody else can look at my life and see
Speaker 1: evidences of success. But if my soul is dry, if
Speaker 1: my heart is empty, if my motivations are not aligned,
Speaker 1: I can be winning outside and weeping inside. So I
Speaker 1: want to speak to you today about coming out of
Speaker 1: the drought, but I want to do it a little differently.
Speaker 1: What I want to do is I want to talk
Speaker 1: about the enemies that will keep you in a dry place.
Speaker 1: I believe that there are at least three, and they're
Speaker 1: all illustrated in the text I just read you. And
Speaker 1: really I'm using this text as a picture of the
Speaker 1: creative process. There is a creative aspect of faith. When
Speaker 1: I grew up in the Baptist Church, I heard about
Speaker 1: saving faith, and it was almost like that was all
Speaker 1: that faith was for, just to get saved go to heaven.
Speaker 1: But I found out that while I'm here on earth.
Speaker 1: I need my faith in the meantime. I won't need
Speaker 1: my faith when I get to Heaven. Faith is the
Speaker 1: substance of things, hope for the evidence of things not seen.
Speaker 1: So when I see Jesus, I won't need to believe
Speaker 1: in Jesus. He will be right there. I need faith
Speaker 1: now now. Faith is the substance of things, hope for
Speaker 1: y'all going to mess up and make me preach. I
Speaker 1: told you, I just want to stay here with my notes,
Speaker 1: y'all like rite set out. But I'm living in this
Speaker 1: stage where I have not seen him, but I love him.
Speaker 1: And there are some things that I know in my
Speaker 1: soul that I don't see in my situation yet. And
Speaker 1: that's what faith is for. I guess I consider myself
Speaker 1: at the core. If you cut me, I'm a faith preacher.
Speaker 1: Not a faith preacher where we all have to act
Speaker 1: like everything's all right, but a faith preacher, a deep
Speaker 1: faith preacher. And nothing's happening, but I believe something's happening
Speaker 1: when nothing's happening, because beneath the surface, my faith is
Speaker 1: rising in hard times, fallow crowd, I got faith. Well,
Speaker 1: sometimes it's invisible because there will always be a stage
Speaker 1: of invisibility. There are three stages I want to mention,
Speaker 1: and you can see where you find yourself today. But
Speaker 1: I believe our faith must survive the invisibility stage, the
Speaker 1: stage where you may be, like Elijah, have heard something
Speaker 1: since something precede something, believe something that you do not
Speaker 1: yet see. I spent like seventy thousand dollars on my
Speaker 1: seminary education, so every once in a while I like
Speaker 1: to say stuff I learned there. They talk about the
Speaker 1: already not yet eschatological tension. That is a seventy thousand
Speaker 1: dollars word, eschatological. It just means that as things unfold,
Speaker 1: there are certain realities of your new nature and Christ
Speaker 1: that you will experience already, but there is a part
Speaker 1: of it that is not yet fulfilled. So watch this,
Speaker 1: you know. I just said to Ahab, go eat and drink,
Speaker 1: for there is the sound of a heavy rain, which
Speaker 1: isn't good news if you just washed your car, or
Speaker 1: if you have an outdoor wedding, or if you're a pastor.
Speaker 1: I can tell how stupid my staff members are by
Speaker 1: how they act when it snow's on Sunday, if they're
Speaker 1: posting stuff on Instagram. The snow is so beautiful. No,
Speaker 1: snow sucks on Sunday. If you're a pastor, okay, it's
Speaker 1: pretty for people don't go to church. But if your preacher,
Speaker 1: that is the worst thing you can see on Sundays.
Speaker 1: And now, which means that the conditions of the weather
Speaker 1: and how they affect you depend on your expectation. So
Speaker 1: if you've been in a famine like the nation of
Speaker 1: Israel had for three and a half years, and you
Speaker 1: hear the sound of rain, it is not inconvenient. See,
Speaker 1: this is where people sometimes they'll go, well, I'm preaching,
Speaker 1: they are not desperate enough yet for the word of God.
Speaker 1: So while I'm preaching, they're like, but if you get
Speaker 1: in a situation where you really need God to speak
Speaker 1: to you, if you get in a situation where you
Speaker 1: know that you that you need every word that proceeds
Speaker 1: from the mouth of God, that you cannot live on
Speaker 1: bread alone, you won't be like you be like, please God,
Speaker 1: let him hold me two hours. Speak Lord, for your
Speaker 1: turban is listening. I hear the sound of the abundance
Speaker 1: of rain. As a matter of fact, I got seed
Speaker 1: in the crownd and unless it rains, they can't come forth.
Speaker 1: So bring the storm, Bring the rain. The storm will
Speaker 1: only serve to reveal the foundation. I build my house
Speaker 1: on the rock, and the rain comes down, and the
Speaker 1: stream shries, and the winds blew and beat against that house,
Speaker 1: and it did not fall because it had its foundation
Speaker 1: on the rock.
Speaker 2: Somebody shot, I'm ready for rain.
Speaker 1: So Ahab goes off to eat and drink, and the
Speaker 1: famine is over and the drought is over. But Elijah
Speaker 1: climbed to the top of Carmel. Now, I love you guys,
Speaker 1: and I like to demonstrate the Bible. We're appropriate, but
Speaker 1: it does not seem to me to be appropriate to
Speaker 1: demonstrate what he did here physically, So you just have.
Speaker 2: To imagine it.
Speaker 1: He bent down to the ground and put his face
Speaker 1: between his knees. Now, I don't do that yoga preaching stuff, okay,
Speaker 1: the hot yoga, cold yoga, none of I don't do
Speaker 1: any of that yoga, all right, So so watch everything's
Speaker 1: in motion, right this refugee. I don't know if you
Speaker 1: know about Elijah. He was He was a rain maker,
Speaker 1: but he was also a refugee, okay, And everybody in
Speaker 1: here is a little bit of both as well. By
Speaker 1: the way, Okay, he's been hiding for three and a
Speaker 1: half years because he called for the drought because the
Speaker 1: people had started depending on sources other than God.
Speaker 2: And anytime you depend on a source that.
Speaker 1: Is not God, he will cut you off because He
Speaker 1: will not allow your life to be sourced by something
Speaker 1: that cannot sustain your life. So he will cut you
Speaker 1: off for a little while so you will come back
Speaker 1: to what you needed all along, because he loves you
Speaker 1: that much. And Elijah is like hiding the whole time
Speaker 1: because if Jezebel, who is in charge of all of
Speaker 1: the rain gods, they serve this god called bail who
Speaker 1: wasn't really a god. He didn't have all power, you know,
Speaker 1: like politicians who say things, but they don't really have
Speaker 1: the power to change all the stuff that they make
Speaker 1: promises about. I'm not saying politicians are bad. We have
Speaker 1: politicians in our church, and I love the politicians in
Speaker 1: the church. And there's there's there's great politicians, and there's
Speaker 1: there's politicians, there's other politicians, and there's all of that.
Speaker 1: But but but God, being the true and living God,
Speaker 1: will not be corralled or confined by human need. He's
Speaker 1: not corralled or confined by human expectation. He will not
Speaker 1: be manipulated by the mechanics of humanity. And so now
Speaker 1: the rain has stopped falling, and you will come into
Speaker 1: a season of your life where God will cut you off.
Speaker 1: He won't stop loving you, he won't stop providing for you.
Speaker 1: It's just that God will allow situations to get your attention.
Speaker 1: And you can pray and ask him to change the
Speaker 1: situation all that you want, But until you allow him
Speaker 1: to change you, nothing is going to change in the situation.
Speaker 1: When the time came for Elijah to come forth and
Speaker 1: present himself before Ahab and Jezebel, that king and that
Speaker 1: queen whose wickedness was responsible for the nation's famine, he
Speaker 1: comes before them boldly. He calls for a summit. By
Speaker 1: this time, he survived so much. Did you ever see
Speaker 1: that show Survivor? I think might still be on the
Speaker 1: on the air. I'm not sure, do hem I still
Speaker 1: watch Survivor?
Speaker 2: No?
Speaker 1: Is it still on? Everybody over seventy three is raising
Speaker 1: their hand they still watch Survivor. We watched it for
Speaker 1: a couple of seasons. Holly used to tell me all
Speaker 1: the time, isn't this a mean thing to say to
Speaker 1: your husband.
Speaker 2: She was like, you would be the first.
Speaker 1: One voted off of survivor. I couldn't argue with her.
Speaker 2: She's right.
Speaker 1: I have no survival skills none. All I can do
Speaker 1: is talk, and sometimes I'm not even that good at that.
Speaker 1: This is the only thing I do. That's why I
Speaker 1: hold the mic so tight, because I don't know what
Speaker 1: I would do if I couldn't talk, and I have
Speaker 1: no survival skills. On Elijah the prophet, he had the
Speaker 1: skills to survive the drought, and he did.
Speaker 2: He survived in.
Speaker 1: The drought, he survived the dry.
Speaker 2: Season, and he did it really well.
Speaker 1: He did it by obeying the voice of the Lord.
Speaker 1: So when the voice of the Lord told him to
Speaker 1: go to the brook, and I'll have birds there that
Speaker 1: will drop your breakfast off. I'll have birds dropping off biscuits.
Speaker 1: I'll have birds dropping off bow Jangles biscuits. I'll have
Speaker 1: birds dropping off bow Jangles spicy Cajun filet biscuits. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna say it till you get hungry. God will provide
Speaker 1: for you in some strange ways. If you haven't noticed,
Speaker 1: God had ravens, which is a dirty bird. I mean,
Speaker 1: the only people who like ravens live in Baltimore. God use.
Speaker 1: God used the dirty bird to feed his man in
Speaker 1: a time of famine. Stop telling God how he can
Speaker 1: and can't bless you. Stop telling God how he can
Speaker 1: can and can't feed you. Stop telling God what style
Speaker 1: he can and cannot use. Stop waiting on a song
Speaker 1: you like in church to worship God. What if God
Speaker 1: wants to bless you in a different style, bless you
Speaker 1: in a different way. He's very creative, and so he's
Speaker 1: supplying for Elijah at the brook. The brook drives up.
Speaker 1: God sends Elijah to a widow. Why would you send
Speaker 1: me to a widow to provide me with food? Because
Speaker 1: sometimes God will show you how great a supply is
Speaker 1: by sending you to someone with a greater need than
Speaker 1: you had to begin with. And sometimes you will realize,
Speaker 1: in the course of meeting someone else's need how great
Speaker 1: God's supply already is in your life. So he does
Speaker 1: all that, and for three and a half years he
Speaker 1: is a refugee until it comes time for the refugee
Speaker 1: to become a rain maker.
Speaker 2: I love it.
Speaker 1: That was almost my title of the sermon, from refugee
Speaker 1: to rain maker. I like creativity. I like creative process,
Speaker 1: all right, titles for every sermon I preach. I just
Speaker 1: love it.
Speaker 2: I love it. I love it.
Speaker 1: And he stands up and he gets all the prophets
Speaker 1: of Bail, all these little rain dancers, makes fun of him,
Speaker 1: calls them names, he tells them. He's like, hey, maybe
Speaker 1: Bail's in the bathroom. Maybe that's why he can't hear you,
Speaker 1: because they had a deal. You call for fire, I'll
Speaker 1: call for fire. And the God who answers by fire,
Speaker 1: he is God. And when Bail didn't answer, Elijah said,
Speaker 1: maybe he's in the bathroom. I love the Bible, And
Speaker 1: at the end of the whole thing, the Bible says
Speaker 1: that after wetting the wood, now watch this. This is
Speaker 1: the nature of faith. You wood before you call for fire.
Speaker 1: You do when you're walking by faith, because that's how
Speaker 1: God often proves his presence by putting you in an
Speaker 1: impossible sit situation, an impossible situation preaching to somebody today,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna look all around this room in Valentine and.
Speaker 2: Find out who it is.
Speaker 1: You are in an impossible situation, and you are in
Speaker 1: the stage called invisibility, that's where you don't see any
Speaker 1: way that it could happen. Okay, I was even talking
Speaker 1: to one of my.
Speaker 2: Friends this week.
Speaker 1: He's very successful, but he has another level God is
Speaker 1: calling him to. It isn't just for the people who
Speaker 1: need God to heal them of cancer, although this message
Speaker 1: would apply to you in that situation. This is somebody
Speaker 1: who's going from one stage to the next. And here's
Speaker 1: what he said to me. He said, I feel like
Speaker 1: God is doing something new in me, but I just
Speaker 1: don't see the path to it yet. Invisibility, I sense
Speaker 1: God doing it. I hear the sound of rain, but
Speaker 1: I don't see anything yet. And so Elijah, while the
Speaker 1: king goes off to eat and drink, buries his head,
Speaker 1: closes his eyes and believes by faith that what he
Speaker 1: has spoken will come to pass.
Speaker 2: And this servant come here, jjy.
Speaker 1: The servant runs up to the top of the mountain,
Speaker 1: going up there to the Yeah, I just want to
Speaker 1: show you what he did. I don't know if the
Speaker 1: camera can catch this. For the other campuses. Here comes
Speaker 1: goes up to the top.
Speaker 2: We're gonna have some fun with this too.
Speaker 1: We're gonna have some fun with this because he didn't
Speaker 1: just do it one time.
Speaker 2: Come here, Jonathan.
Speaker 1: And now on the way back down, he's going slower.
Speaker 1: On the way back down, he's going slower because he's
Speaker 1: got to deliver some bad news to the Man of God.
Speaker 1: And in case you hadn't noticed, you don't want.
Speaker 2: To give bad news to Elijah a lot.
Speaker 1: I mean, he's the kind of guy you do not
Speaker 1: want to give Elijah bad news. Elijah slaughtered all eight
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty false prophets. Okay, So now you've got
Speaker 1: to come to the guy who just killed just under
Speaker 1: a thousand false prophets, and.
Speaker 2: He doesn't even look up at you.
Speaker 1: He's in this weird position, this prayer, this prayer thing.
Speaker 1: And now you've got to tell this guy who just
Speaker 1: told the king, gets your chariot ready and go down
Speaker 1: before the rain stops you. You just told you just
Speaker 1: told the king that it's going to rain. You sent
Speaker 1: your servant to go see it, and the servant comes
Speaker 1: back and says, look at the phrase, there is nothing there.
Speaker 1: Can I ask you a question? Was the servant wrong?
Speaker 1: I feel like I'm being set up right now.
Speaker 2: Got on.
Speaker 1: You are, because remember we're talking about a rain cycle.
Speaker 1: And before you see the cloud form, it is rising
Speaker 1: from the sea, So something is happening when nothing is seen.
Speaker 1: Whenever you're preaching, you say something so good that you
Speaker 1: know God is on it, and they just look at.
Speaker 2: Flat for the word.
Speaker 1: And so the guys like, I don't know if you
Speaker 1: want me to go catch up with ay have and
Speaker 1: tell them to take it easy on the food and
Speaker 1: drink because, uh, I don't know what you heard. But
Speaker 1: whenever you start in faith, remember we were talking about
Speaker 1: the start of the process, it always feels like nothing.
Speaker 2: Nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing nothing. You know what this church
Speaker 2: started with, right, nothing?
Speaker 1: You know what the disciples packed when Jesus went out
Speaker 1: to teach one day and five thousand men and the
Speaker 1: women and children needed to eat. You know what they
Speaker 1: packed in their cooler that day?
Speaker 2: Nothing? Nothing, nothing.
Speaker 1: I wonder are you in the it's nothing stage? It's nothing,
Speaker 1: there is nothing, there is nothing. Maybe the doctors have
Speaker 1: told you there is nothing we can do. Maybe you
Speaker 1: were told since you were a little girl there is
Speaker 1: nothing special about you. The invisibility stage is kind of
Speaker 1: tough because you know what you heard, and you know
Speaker 1: what you sense some times, but what you see is
Speaker 1: a direct contradiction of what you sense. Please talk to me.
Speaker 1: If I'm talking to you, I need a little bit
Speaker 1: of response, unless you're trying to illustrate nothing. Oh man,
Speaker 1: I know what it feels like to be looking at
Speaker 1: nothing and hearing something. Do you do you know what
Speaker 1: it feels like to be believing God for something and
Speaker 1: seeing nothing. I mean no change in your kids. I
Speaker 1: mean the more you pray for them, the wilder they get.
Speaker 1: I mean nothing, I mean no bit, I mean no
Speaker 1: new revenue, I mean no way forward. And Elijah does something.
Speaker 1: This is spectacular. Elijah says, go back, look at your neighbor.
Speaker 1: Say go back. Everybody point to Jonathan. Jo says, even
Speaker 1: at the other campus, to say, go back and look again.
Speaker 1: So go back. It goes back again, and he looks again.
Speaker 1: Now look Jonathan, look, look, look, look, look, come on back.
Speaker 1: I got bad news. It's still nothing. Still nothing. Everybody says,
Speaker 1: still nothing. I'm gonna drag this point out because this
Speaker 1: is how it feels. This is how faith feels. This
Speaker 1: is how it feels to write a sermon. This is
Speaker 1: how it feels to write a song. This is how
Speaker 1: it feels to raise a kid. This is how it feels.
Speaker 1: This is how it feels to wait on God by faith.
Speaker 1: This is how it feels to worship God in a
Speaker 1: dry season. This is how it feels for three and
Speaker 1: a half years when you hear the sound but can't
Speaker 1: see the sight. Somebody's shouting nothing, go again, go again.
Speaker 1: Everybody pointed Jonathan, say go again, go again, go again.
Speaker 1: Look again. Now, Notice Elijah is not moving. He sends
Speaker 1: a runner. Maybe he knows that if he uses his eyes,
Speaker 1: his faith will die. Maybe he knows that where I
Speaker 1: am right now, and how it seems right now, I
Speaker 1: can't look at my situation. I gotta listen right now.
Speaker 1: I gotta hear what God says. If I go by
Speaker 1: what I see, I'll die in this trout. So come
Speaker 1: on back, come on back, come on back. Still nothing,
Speaker 1: still nothing, Go again. Here's my message. You ready? Still nothing?
Speaker 1: Go again, still nothing, Go again. One lap around the
Speaker 1: Jericho walls, still nothing. March again. Two laps around the
Speaker 1: Jericho walls, still nothing. Go again. One dip in the
Speaker 1: Jordan River, name and still nothing. Go again. Two dips,
Speaker 1: still nothing, Go again. Five trips up the mountains. Still nothing.
Speaker 1: Go again, still nothing, Go again, still nothing, Go again,
Speaker 1: still nothing, Pray again, still nothing, Sing again, still nothing.
Speaker 1: Praise them again. I will reason. Faith is the substance
Speaker 1: of things, hope for the evidence of things not seen.
Speaker 1: Just because you can't see it doesn't mean he didn't
Speaker 1: speak it.
Speaker 2: I can't see.
Speaker 1: Y'all at the University City location right now, but that
Speaker 1: doesn't mean I don't believe that you are shouting. I
Speaker 1: mean up on your feast shouting. I can't see it
Speaker 1: right now at Gaston, but that doesn't mean you're not
Speaker 1: on your feast shouting. I can't see you online, but
Speaker 1: I release the word of God into your situation, into
Speaker 1: your sickness, into your shame.
Speaker 3: Nothing it's impossible with God. Hold on, Nothing is impossible
Speaker 3: with God.
Speaker 1: The only thing that is impossible with God is nothing.
Speaker 1: Somebody's shout is never nothing, not if God is in it,
Speaker 1: it's never nothing. If God is in it, nothing is impossible.
Speaker 1: I don't feel appreciated today. I just want to teach
Speaker 1: you a little bit. So so the seventh time, if
Speaker 1: you how many times did you go, We're gonna pretend
Speaker 1: like you're seven.
Speaker 2: Come here, Come here, come here. I don't have time. Slow,
Speaker 2: you're so.
Speaker 1: Slow, Jonathan Josephs, everybody give it up for John.
Speaker 2: I see something. Huh, I see something. You see something there? Well, well, so.
Speaker 1: You're saying it's not it's not nothing, it's not nothing.
Speaker 4: Okay, it's not nothing. It's not nothing, but it's small though.
Speaker 4: Oh it's not it's not nothing. It's something. But now
Speaker 4: it's not much, not much.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: So when he came back the seventh time, he said,
Speaker 1: it's not nothing. I see it, but it's not much.
Speaker 1: It's not invisible, but it's insignificant.
Speaker 2: Now this is this is.
Speaker 1: This is is the second stage that your faith must survive.
Speaker 1: It's insignificance. Sit down, a runner, do whatever you want
Speaker 1: to do. I'm dumb and say, now it's not nothing.
Speaker 1: There is a boy here, but he only has five
Speaker 1: loaves and two fish. How far will they go amongst
Speaker 1: so many? It's just a little bit of oil. It's
Speaker 1: not nothing, but it's not much. So now we've gotten
Speaker 1: to the place where, okay, I stood up in front
Speaker 1: of the church when we had who is this message hitting?
Speaker 1: Because right now, so it's so strong in my soul.
Speaker 2: I stood up in front of the church and you
Speaker 2: had two first time guests.
Speaker 1: Do you know what a disaster it would be now
Speaker 1: to have two first time, guests. But you gotta celebrate
Speaker 1: what seems insignificant when I teach leaders. When I teach leaders,
Speaker 1: how many have you own a business or run a
Speaker 1: division in your company, or you have somebody that reports
Speaker 1: to you where you breathe? Okay, raise your hand, all right,
Speaker 1: you need to learn this. Celebrate something. Let me tell
Speaker 1: you what to celebrate? Celebrate?
Speaker 2: Can I preach real? We'll edit this out for online,
Speaker 2: but it's just us.
Speaker 1: It's just you know, twenty five thousand of us, right, Okay,
Speaker 1: so that's a secret. Celebrate the sucky start. Celebrate the
Speaker 1: soreness the next day, celebrate the small start. Do you
Speaker 1: remember that first girl that got saved in our church?
Speaker 2: Her name was Crystal.
Speaker 1: There was a period of three months where she was
Speaker 1: the only person that we could get saved. So every
Speaker 1: week we talked about Crystal. I don't even know where
Speaker 1: Crystal is today. She left the church a long time ago,
Speaker 1: but she was our first salvation. I wish she was
Speaker 1: still here. That'd be great. I care about her, God
Speaker 1: bless her and all that.
Speaker 2: But it was a start.
Speaker 1: I can't tell you how many times on my sermon
Speaker 1: I'll start writing something down. Can I just talk to you.
Speaker 1: Can I talk to you because I know you're working
Speaker 1: on something. I know you're believing God for something. I
Speaker 1: know that you're working on something that don't have to
Speaker 1: be a song, that don't have to be a sermon.
Speaker 1: But I always start and the first thing I'm thinking
Speaker 1: when i'm writing it down, this sucks.
Speaker 2: This sucks. It always does to start with.
Speaker 1: That's why my kids said, you should never let anybody
Speaker 1: hear how these songs started.
Speaker 2: You know what, though, I'm proud of my sucky starts.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm proud. I am so proud of those sucky starts.
Speaker 1: I am so proud of all those little voice memos
Speaker 1: and type notes and gibberish. I mean all these notes
Speaker 1: that I wrote that you will never hear. I mean
Speaker 1: all of these ideas, all of this stuff that I tried,
Speaker 1: I'm proud of. I'm proud of my scraps, out of
Speaker 1: my frustrations. I'm proud of my problems. I'm proud of
Speaker 1: my failures. I'm proud of my strikeouts. It's the proof
Speaker 1: that I survived and I stuck it out when it sucked.
Speaker 1: I went back when it wasn't much. I stayed with
Speaker 1: it when it was little. Proud of that. I'm proud
Speaker 1: of that scribbling. I'm proud of that chicken scratch. I'm
Speaker 1: proud of everything I did that didn't work. It's what
Speaker 1: made me strong enough to sustain the blessing when it came.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, you gotta shout over the small stuff. So
Speaker 1: the servant's like, it's a class of a man's and
Speaker 1: the life just like, let's go bump bump, bump, dump
Speaker 1: dum dum, doom, doom doom.
Speaker 2: And the servants like me, you don't hear me. Cloud, man,
Speaker 2: it's not a I know. We gotta go. We gotta go.
Speaker 2: We gotta go.
Speaker 1: We gotta go, We gotta go, we gotta go, we
Speaker 1: gotta go. It's building. We gotta go. It's working. We
Speaker 1: gotta go, it's building. We gotta ride this momentum. It's
Speaker 1: just a little cloud. But if we get out in
Speaker 1: front of it, watch what God will do if we
Speaker 1: get in front of it, if we'll start moving on
Speaker 1: a little bit of blessing, little as much when God
Speaker 1: is in it. I texted my friend the other day,
Speaker 1: I said, I want you to make this confession over
Speaker 1: your life for thirty days. I want you to look
Speaker 1: at everything that seems stupid that you're doing right now
Speaker 1: that feels like because I know moms feel like this.
Speaker 2: I know you do.
Speaker 1: I know that I know that employees and jobs that
Speaker 1: you don't really like feel like this. I know couples
Speaker 1: trying to get out of debt feel like this. I
Speaker 1: know people that are believing God to bless them in
Speaker 1: a bigger way. And you know you're in a small space.
Speaker 1: I know you feel this.
Speaker 2: West.
Speaker 1: I want you to make this confession over your life.
Speaker 1: I said, I want you to say, this is significant.
Speaker 1: This is significant. This is significant. Running a vacuum cleaner,
Speaker 1: this is significant, changing a diaper, this is significant, coming home,
Speaker 1: just being a good husband, this is significant.
Speaker 2: This is significant.
Speaker 1: The devil won't like it when you say that, because
Speaker 1: the way he gets you to leave your assignment is
Speaker 1: to convince you that it doesn't matter what you're working on.
Speaker 1: It's so small, it's so small. This is significant. And
Speaker 1: don't wait to say that until it seems significant, because
Speaker 1: that takes no faith. This is significant. This this not
Speaker 1: just that. This is significant. Have you ever wanted a
Speaker 1: new car and you picked out the kind of car
Speaker 1: you wanted and the next thing you knew. You started
Speaker 1: seeing that car everywhere you went.
Speaker 2: What happened?
Speaker 1: They just flooded the market with that car all of
Speaker 1: a sudden. Google has an algorithm in your brain, and
Speaker 1: so they put the cars in front of you. Perhaps
Speaker 1: we're probably coming to that day. But it wasn't Amazon, baby,
Speaker 1: It was your attention. You started seeing it when you
Speaker 1: started searching for it. You want a life that matters.
Speaker 1: Make it matter, make it matter, make it matter.
Speaker 2: This is significant.
Speaker 1: It's a cloud the size of a man's hand, and
Speaker 1: a lighter said, let's go. That's what we've been waiting for.
Speaker 1: It sucks, but it's a start. It's small, but it's
Speaker 1: a start. I barely see it, but it's a start.
Speaker 1: We got a long way to go because we got
Speaker 1: in this famine three and a half years ago, and
Speaker 1: it's not going to be over overnight. But it's a start.
Speaker 1: It's a start, and my start is significant. Can I
Speaker 1: show you one more thing? Can I? If you need
Speaker 1: to leave, go ahead and leave, But I'm gonna take
Speaker 1: ten minutes with everybody who wants to hear, because if
Speaker 1: the enemy cannot get you to stay listen, he wants
Speaker 1: And I don't know if you believe in the devil,
Speaker 1: but your brain, let's let's approach it from a psychological perspective.
Speaker 1: If you don't believe in the devil, you don't have kids.
Speaker 1: But just in case you don't have kids and don't
Speaker 1: believe in the devil.
Speaker 2: Your brain is wired for survival.
Speaker 1: Okay, So when you're living in your head, all you're
Speaker 1: thinking about is survival. What had Elijah been doing for
Speaker 1: three and a half years before the drought was over? Survival,
Speaker 1: which in that three and a half year span was success.
Speaker 1: Because sometimes just making it is what matters. Just making
Speaker 1: it is what matters. I mean, just still being in
Speaker 1: faith is victory sometimes. But when the shift happens, I wonder,
Speaker 1: will you be ready for the rain you've been praying for?
Speaker 1: Because your brain, if you stay inside your brain, your
Speaker 1: reflex will always be to run. What has Elijah been
Speaker 1: doing for the last three and a half years, Come on,
Speaker 1: talk to me, church. What's he been doing? He's been running,
Speaker 1: surviving and running and surviving and running and surviving. So
Speaker 1: when the rain comes, he runs, and for a little
Speaker 1: while he's running ahead of the rain. He's running in
Speaker 1: front of the chariot because he's ready for his next assignment.
Speaker 1: He's ready to survey have now he believes revival has
Speaker 1: come to the nation. The bail prophets have been destroyed,
Speaker 1: the asker of profits are all laying at their own altars,
Speaker 1: dead in their own blood. And now revival can come.
Speaker 1: And so he runs seventeen miles on the fuel of
Speaker 1: his eight, on the fuel of the promise of God
Speaker 1: coming to pass in his life. He runs ahead of
Speaker 1: the chariot, he runs ahead of the rain.
Speaker 2: And then something happens.
Speaker 1: Because if the enemy can't kill you in the invisibility
Speaker 1: stage or the insignificant stage, the only thing left for
Speaker 1: him to do to keep you from receiving what God
Speaker 1: is pouring out in your life is intimidation. He can't
Speaker 1: keep God from making it rain, but maybe he can
Speaker 1: keep you from receiving it.
Speaker 2: If he can get your running.
Speaker 1: Because I'm a runner, I'm a refugee, and I'm a
Speaker 1: rain maker.
Speaker 2: But now I'm a refugee. WA's what happens? What's what happens?
Speaker 1: When when Elijah should be celebrating the storm, I'll come
Speaker 1: back to that another week.
Speaker 2: Your storm, celebrate your storm.
Speaker 1: We always preach about storms like it's something we want
Speaker 1: to get out of. What if the storm that God
Speaker 1: sent into your life was to prove his presence. Celebrate
Speaker 1: your storm, Celebrate your storm, Celebrate your storm, Celebrate the
Speaker 1: storms you survive, and celebrate the storms when they come,
Speaker 1: because you know God is with you in the storm.
Speaker 1: He isn't ever present help in the time of trouble.
Speaker 1: And when the storm came and Ahab went down and
Speaker 1: told Jezbel what Elijah had done.
Speaker 2: She knew that her day's were numbered, So she sends
Speaker 2: a messenger to Elijah.
Speaker 1: And what happens next is going to shock you because
Speaker 1: you just watched the faith of a rain maker, but
Speaker 1: now you're going to see the fear of a renegade,
Speaker 1: run away a refugee. And the messengers come to Elijah,
Speaker 1: come on, let's play this out, and they say, Jezebel says.
Speaker 2: She's going to kill you. What we are thick the
Speaker 2: scripture off the screen.
Speaker 1: What we are expecting next is for Elijah to tell
Speaker 1: Jezebel where she can go with that noise and what
Speaker 1: she can do with her threats. Come on, would it
Speaker 1: you wish Jezebel would try.
Speaker 2: To kill me?
Speaker 1: So what comes next is shocking against the backdrop of
Speaker 1: the boldness of a prophet who put his head between
Speaker 1: his knees and waited for rain, who survived three and
Speaker 1: a half years of drought, who was fed by the
Speaker 1: mouths of birds, and at the house of a widow.
Speaker 1: And now the rain has come, and now the drought
Speaker 1: is over. And now verse three, Elijah was.
Speaker 2: Afraid.
Speaker 1: Never thought I'd see those three words. Never thought he would.
Speaker 1: I mean, I would have understood if he ran well,
Speaker 1: the drought was still in progress. But it's raining. Now
Speaker 1: it's raining, and Elijah, the one who survived three and
Speaker 1: a half years of drought, is running. The Bible says
Speaker 1: he's running for his life. I don't buy it. I'm sorry,
Speaker 1: I don't buy it. I don't believe Elijah that you're
Speaker 1: afraid that Jezebel can kill you, because if she could
Speaker 1: have killed you, she wouldn't have sent messengers to warn you.
Speaker 1: If she could kill you, she would send her bailiffs
Speaker 1: to arrest you. But she knows she can't kill you,
Speaker 1: so she's trying to contain you. Don't you know the
Speaker 1: devil found out a long time ago that he can't
Speaker 1: curse what God is blessed. Don't you know if the
Speaker 1: devil could have killed you by now, he would have killed.
Speaker 2: You by now.
Speaker 1: If he could have kept it from raining, he would
Speaker 1: have kept it from raining. If he could have taken
Speaker 1: you out, you'd be out. But since he couldn't kill you,
Speaker 1: and he tries to contain you, so he intimidates you.
Speaker 2: And now Elijah is running. Please catch this.
Speaker 1: He is running from the same reiin that he prayed for.
Speaker 1: Some of us are better at surviving in famine than
Speaker 1: we are at living in blessing. What I mean is
Speaker 1: what I mean. When the rain started, the one who
Speaker 1: ran ahead of the rain started running away from the rain.
Speaker 1: So the message God gave me for somebody today you
Speaker 1: know who you are, is that you are running from
Speaker 1: the rain. You are running from the blessing of God.
Speaker 1: You are running from something that is already defeated. You
Speaker 1: are running from shame that the Cross of Jesus Christ
Speaker 1: has already taken away. You are running from a power
Speaker 1: of sin that has already been broken. You are running
Speaker 1: from situations that God has already worked out. You are
Speaker 1: running from an outcome that you don't have to fear.
Speaker 1: Guess what God's gonna deal with Jessebel.
Speaker 2: Head back in the.
Speaker 1: Right direction and run toward the rain. It's raining now,
Speaker 1: the it is over come out of the drop. It's
Speaker 1: raining now, it's rating. Why would you run from the rain?
Speaker 1: Why would you run from the blessing of God?
Speaker 2: See, when you.
Speaker 1: Run from the resistance, you run from the rain. When
Speaker 1: you run from the battle, you run from the blessings.
Speaker 1: When you run from the problem, you run from the promise.
Speaker 1: When you run from the problem, you run from the harvest.
Speaker 2: Where you're running from.
Speaker 1: You really believe that Jezebel can kill you, after all
Speaker 1: you've already survived. You really think Jezebel has the power
Speaker 1: in her mouth to stop what God is doing in
Speaker 1: your life. No, somebody's said, I'm coming out of the drought.
Speaker 1: I'm coming out of the drought. I've been dry too long,
Speaker 1: defeed it too long to press too long, discourage too long.
Speaker 1: It's a new season.
Speaker 2: In my life.
Speaker 1: I feel the presence of God so powerfully in this place.
Speaker 1: I'm ready for rain. I'm ready for rain. I'm ready
Speaker 1: for rain. I'm not running from it now, I'm ready
Speaker 1: for it. I'm ready for rain. I'm ready for rain
Speaker 1: and all that it brings.
Speaker 2: I'm ready. I'm ready for.
Speaker 1: The storm and an amazing how you can be blessed
Speaker 1: situation and have a dry soul and have rain falling
Speaker 1: all around you. And Elijah ran for his life, and
Speaker 1: he went into a cave in the wilderness, and he
Speaker 1: isolated himself, and a voice came in the form of
Speaker 1: a gentle breeze, which was a whisper, and called him
Speaker 1: out of the cave. See, I don't believe that God, don't.
Speaker 1: I don't believe that God is calling you out of
Speaker 1: the drought today. I believe he's calling the drought.
Speaker 2: Out of you.
Speaker 1: Listen, listen. If this is for you, you'll know it
Speaker 1: when I say it. You've been you've been telling yourself
Speaker 1: you're in a dry season. Really you've just been in
Speaker 1: a dry place. And if you would come out of yourself.
Speaker 1: Do you know what God told Elijah listen to He said,
Speaker 1: you think you're the only one, because Elijah had convinced himself.
Speaker 1: You know how we do when we get inside ourselves.
Speaker 1: Nobody appreciates you, nobody sees you. It's nothing. There's no one.
Speaker 1: God said, I have seven thousand that have not bowed
Speaker 1: their need to beat. You think you're the only one.
Speaker 2: You're not the only one.
Speaker 1: You're not alone. It's not nothing. You're not alone. There
Speaker 1: is a cloud. There is a cloud, but.
Speaker 2: You won't see it in the cave. Now.
Speaker 1: I want you to stand to your feet because the
Speaker 1: spirit of the Lord is passing by it.
Speaker 2: This is going to be such an amazing season of
Speaker 2: faith in our church during this series.
Speaker 1: I trust that you can feel it already working in
Speaker 1: our midst, I said, I trust that you can feel
Speaker 1: at work in already in our midst. Why don't you
Speaker 1: respond by faith to what God has doing in your life.
Speaker 1: I see a few people leaving. I ask if you
Speaker 1: can stay. Please respect the presence of God. I promise
Speaker 1: we'll all be dismissed together in a moment. But for
Speaker 1: those of you who are ready to stop running from
Speaker 1: the rain that God has blessed you with, for those
Speaker 1: of you who have been in a place of watch
Speaker 1: this invisibility. I can't see it right now, insignificance. It
Speaker 1: doesn't matter because it's not much or intimidation. Sometimes God
Speaker 1: can bless you with the very thing that you are
Speaker 1: believing Him for, and you.
Speaker 2: Don't know how to stand in a season of success.
Speaker 2: What I'd like for you to do right now is symbolic.
Speaker 1: I want you to lift your hands to heaven like
Speaker 1: you are receiving the refreshing presence of God, the reign
Speaker 1: of His presence. And when we say we receive your rain,
Speaker 1: let's not picture our situations right now.
Speaker 2: Okay, let's sing it over our souls.
Speaker 1: Maybe you're in a good season, but you're just in
Speaker 1: a dry place inside. The only way to come out
Speaker 1: of the drought is to get the drought out of you.
Speaker 2: You've got to come out.
Speaker 1: Of yourself, out of your self consciousness, out of your
Speaker 1: self absorption, out of your obsession with what others think,
Speaker 1: out of your failures, out of your past, out of
Speaker 1: your fears. Come on, Elijah, the spear of the Lord
Speaker 1: is passing by. You don't want to miss your miracle
Speaker 1: because you are in the cave. Come out. It is raining, now,
Speaker 1: come out. It's raining. Now, receive it. Stop resisting it
Speaker 1: and receive it. Stop running.
Speaker 2: And receive it. I hear the.
Speaker 1: Sound of the abundance of rain. It starts like a whisper,
Speaker 1: and it's welling up. We declare over your life. The
Speaker 1: dry season is over. There is a cloud. The dry
Speaker 1: season is over. There is a cloud. There is a
Speaker 1: well springing up. There is a river who streams. Make
Speaker 1: glad the city of God. There is a cloud beginning
Speaker 1: to swell. Come on, worship and worship, and worship.
Speaker 2: And worship him.
Speaker 1: Worship and worship and worship him.
Speaker 2: Worship.
Speaker 1: Thank you for the rain, God, Thank you for the
Speaker 1: refreshing of your presence. Thank you for setting my feet
Speaker 1: on the rock, giving me a firm place to stand.
Speaker 2: Thank you Lord. I'm coming out of the drought.
Speaker 1: I'm coming out, coming out of myself, coming out of
Speaker 1: my insecurity, coming out of my inadequacy. I can't do
Speaker 1: all things through Christ, who gives me me straight. There
Speaker 1: is a cloud. There is a cloud. Greater is he
Speaker 1: that is in me, that he that is in the world.
Speaker 1: There is a cloud. Come on, release your fear. Receive
Speaker 1: it by faith. There is a cloud.
Speaker 5: There is there is Please, there is there is. Would
Speaker 5: you receive it today? Would you be free today?
Speaker 1: Peace? Would you drink it today? Come out, come out,
Speaker 1: come out, Come out he peace. It's lady is Ray.
Speaker 1: Lift that right head, lift.
Speaker 2: That very heart.
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.
Speaker 2: Thanks again for listening. God bless you.