Speaker 1: Hey, this is Stephen Ferdik.
Speaker 2: I'm the pastor of Elevation Church and this is our podcast.
Speaker 1: I wanted to thank you for joining us today.
Speaker 2: Hope this inspires you. Hope it builds your faith. Hope
Speaker 2: it gives your perspective to see God is moving.
Speaker 1: In your life. Enjoy the message.
Speaker 2: I'm going to continue this series from Matthew chapter six.
Speaker 2: I don't know if I'll preach it all from the
Speaker 2: Sermon on the Mouth, but it's a very good place
Speaker 2: to start, A very good place to start.
Speaker 1: What's that from?
Speaker 2: Let's start at the beginning, A very good place to start.
Speaker 2: What's that from?
Speaker 1: Okay?
Speaker 2: Sound of music? That was unintentional. I don't like sound
Speaker 2: of music. But anyway, we're gon. We're gonna look at
Speaker 2: Matthew six, which I do like. And these profound, powerful
Speaker 2: words from Jesus. And last week's message was intended to
Speaker 2: help you evaluate your values. I was thinking that a
Speaker 2: lot of times, if we play the game, and even
Speaker 2: if we play the game well, but we win at
Speaker 2: things that are not true to our values, eventually we
Speaker 2: will get good at winning. But what are we winning at?
Speaker 2: And what have we won? And so in order to
Speaker 2: try to avoid all of this empty sense of chasing
Speaker 2: after victories that are not meaningful. We're getting into God's
Speaker 2: definition of success, God's idea of what is worth winning at,
Speaker 2: and we're looking at this together.
Speaker 1: And it was cool to me.
Speaker 2: When I was in the airport Monday, I got the
Speaker 2: opportunity to meet one of our new church members. He said,
Speaker 2: I've been coming for a little while. I've been going
Speaker 2: to church all my life, been learning a lot. It's
Speaker 2: been helpful. I said, what did you learn yesterday? I
Speaker 2: put them on a pop quiz and he said, oh, yeah,
Speaker 2: that was good yesterday. When you said shallow values produce
Speaker 2: empty victories. I was like, whoa, You got it exactly right.
Speaker 2: Usually people when they quote back your sermon to you,
Speaker 2: they mess it all up and they don't make it rhyme,
Speaker 2: and they switch the words all around.
Speaker 1: Makes you mad. But he got it just right. Then
Speaker 1: he started preaching other parts, and he said.
Speaker 2: I went home and I told my wife and my kids,
Speaker 2: I love y'all, but leave me alone the rest of
Speaker 2: the day. And he's a successful person in his field.
Speaker 1: His name is Stephen. I knew he was a great
Speaker 1: man of God from that fact.
Speaker 2: And he said I'm really just dealing with emptiness, and
Speaker 2: in that emptiness, I realize it's a lot of times
Speaker 2: because my values are shallow. So I've been listing, I've
Speaker 2: been spending. Just since you preach, he said, I've been
Speaker 2: thinking about my values, not what I think they should be,
Speaker 2: not what I want them to be, but what are
Speaker 2: my values, and then aligning those values with God's values.
Speaker 1: So let's continue the process.
Speaker 2: Let's go right on to Matthew chapter six, verse twenty five,
Speaker 2: A very relevant scripture today that I want us to
Speaker 2: look at together Matthew six twenty five.
Speaker 1: Jesus speaking therefore, I tell you do.
Speaker 2: Not worry about your life what you will eat or drink,
Speaker 2: or about your body what you will wear is not
Speaker 2: life more than food, and the body more than clothes.
Speaker 2: Look at the birds of the air. They do not
Speaker 2: sow or reap or store away in barns. And yet
Speaker 2: I love that, somebody say, and yet.
Speaker 1: I don't deserve the grace of God.
Speaker 2: And yet I don't have the educational background. And yet
Speaker 2: nobody in my family ever broke this barrier. And yet
Speaker 2: I made some mistakes in my life, and yet I
Speaker 2: just like little stuff like that when I'm reading the Bible,
Speaker 2: y'all do what you want to do. I'm stop for
Speaker 2: those little phrases and point them out to you. And
Speaker 2: yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much
Speaker 2: more valuable than they?
Speaker 1: Tell?
Speaker 2: Somebody next to you say, I'm better than a bird.
Speaker 2: I might not be better than you, but I'm better
Speaker 2: than a bird. I'm worth more than a bird. I
Speaker 2: know that much. Are you not much more valuable than they?
Speaker 2: We're gonna come back to that. Can any one of
Speaker 2: you by worrying at a single hour to your life? No,
Speaker 2: but you can take some off, or you can wish
Speaker 2: you were dead, because it'd be more peaceful than being
Speaker 2: in this living hell called your mind. Sometimes so he
Speaker 2: asked a question. Now, I notice how it starts with
Speaker 2: a command, and then it turns to a question. He said,
Speaker 2: do not worry? And now he says, and why do
Speaker 2: you worry? Why do you worry about clothes? See how
Speaker 2: the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor
Speaker 2: or spend. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon
Speaker 2: and all his gucci, was dressed like one of these.
Speaker 1: If that is how God closed.
Speaker 2: The grass of the field which is here today, tomorrow
Speaker 2: starting the fire, we will heat not much more.
Speaker 1: Cloth, you, oh you of little faith, So do not worry.
Speaker 1: Stop telling me that you know.
Speaker 2: The worst thing you can tell somebody when they're worrying
Speaker 2: is what don't worry unless you know something that they don't.
Speaker 2: Because like, I was watching a football game the other day,
Speaker 2: but it was recorded because I missed it, but the
Speaker 2: person that was watching it with me check the score,
Speaker 2: and we were cheering for the same team. So while
Speaker 2: I was watching the game, I was also watching them,
Speaker 2: and when it got a little scary, I just watched them.
Speaker 2: But when they didn't look scared, I didn't get scared.
Speaker 2: So when Jesus says don't worry, I figure he's already
Speaker 2: seen how this thing turns out.
Speaker 1: Come on this early to have church.
Speaker 2: But if you are grateful that the one who knows
Speaker 2: the end from the beginning is already prophesied to this
Speaker 2: current moment and declared that God is faithful, come on,
Speaker 2: give him.
Speaker 1: A shout of praise.
Speaker 2: Don't worry saying what shall we eat or what shall
Speaker 2: we drink? Yeah, yeah, Hallelujah is right. That's the only
Speaker 2: thing you can say when you think about this.
Speaker 1: This is good.
Speaker 2: This preaches itself. I don't need to make a comment.
Speaker 2: I could just read this over and over again for
Speaker 2: fifty minutes.
Speaker 1: We go home.
Speaker 2: So do not worry saying what shall we eat, or
Speaker 2: what shall we drink?
Speaker 1: Or what shall we weare?
Speaker 2: For the pagans run after all these things. These are
Speaker 2: shallow values. This is what the world worries about. Want
Speaker 2: to worry about something, Worry about something worth worrying about.
Speaker 2: Worry about teen suicide rates, You just gotta worry. Worry
Speaker 2: about that, Worry about racism. You want to worry about something,
Speaker 2: worry about that. I want to worry about something. Worry
Speaker 2: about this crazy cycle of fear that we're all living in.
Speaker 2: If you want to worry about something, but don't worry
Speaker 2: about this, for the pagans run after all these things.
Speaker 1: Only Father knows that you need them.
Speaker 2: But seek versus Kingdom and his righteousness, and all these
Speaker 2: things will be given to you as well. Therefore, do
Speaker 2: not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.
Speaker 1: Each day has trouble enough of its own.
Speaker 2: The word God gave me to give to you today
Speaker 2: is reverse your worry.
Speaker 1: Reverse your worry.
Speaker 2: We're going to get this thing turned around before lunchtime today.
Speaker 2: Reverse your worry came in thinking one way, going to
Speaker 2: go home thinking another.
Speaker 1: Reverse your worry.
Speaker 2: Turn to somebody and say it's time to turn it around.
Speaker 2: So why do you worry? That's the question. The command
Speaker 2: is do not worry. And then the question is verse
Speaker 2: twenty eight.
Speaker 1: Let's see it again, why do you worry?
Speaker 2: And at this point, if it was anybody other than
Speaker 2: Jesus asking the question, I would say, down and let
Speaker 2: me tell you. You know, Oh, I got a list.
Speaker 2: You want to know why I worry? Well, where do
Speaker 2: you want me to start? Like, first of all, let's
Speaker 2: start with October in the stock market.
Speaker 1: If you want to talk about worry.
Speaker 2: You want to talk about the first week in November
Speaker 2: you want.
Speaker 1: To talk about if you want? If you want, if
Speaker 1: you want to know why I'll worry?
Speaker 2: Okay, I got I got a thirteen year old, and
Speaker 2: a eleven year old and a seven year old, and
Speaker 2: they have the Internet. That's why I worry, Jesus, because
Speaker 2: something tells me that they are not yet of the
Speaker 2: emotional and mental health and capacity to have all of
Speaker 2: the information in the history of humanity in their pocket
Speaker 2: and I'm worried about what they're going to access.
Speaker 1: And there's no Bible verse about how much time to.
Speaker 2: Give your child on Instagram, if it is, I didn't
Speaker 2: find that somebody send me the scripture this week.
Speaker 1: That's why I'm worried.
Speaker 2: I'm worried. You know, why do you worry? Put the
Speaker 2: verse up again? Why do you worry? And I think
Speaker 2: that's important that we stop and think about the reasons
Speaker 2: that we worry, Okay, the reason that we worry, and
Speaker 2: be really honest about it. Because what I worry about
Speaker 2: more than anything is not what's happening to me, but
Speaker 2: it's whether or not what's within me is enough to handle.
Speaker 2: Is whether what's in me is strong enough to handle
Speaker 2: what happens to me.
Speaker 1: That's why I worry.
Speaker 2: I worry because as a pastor, I am concerned that
Speaker 2: maybe the way that I communicate would be more for consumption,
Speaker 2: and that people would come and hear the word or
Speaker 2: tune in online and hear the word and then.
Speaker 1: Just click off.
Speaker 2: But you know, it seems like more and more, or
Speaker 2: that people are just coming to church for what to
Speaker 2: get out of it, or just you know what, I
Speaker 2: like that preacher or I like that song. But that's
Speaker 2: a really shallow reason to come to church. And I
Speaker 2: worry that if people come from surface motivations, they're gonna
Speaker 2: get surface results in their life. And if people come
Speaker 2: from selfish motives, then they're gonna.
Speaker 1: Get empty, empty results. So why do you worry?
Speaker 2: Let's talk about it.
Speaker 1: Just me and you. Now it's just us. Why do
Speaker 1: you worry? What? What do you worry about more than
Speaker 1: anything else.
Speaker 2: What's the thing that had you up at three point
Speaker 2: thirty this morning and your mind started spinning?
Speaker 1: Because this is what happens. Your mind starts spinning.
Speaker 2: Some of us get up to use the bathroom, and
Speaker 2: then we never quite make it back to a arrested
Speaker 2: state because our bladders and our brains are both on
Speaker 2: demon possession, and so both of them are too full,
Speaker 2: and so we wake up in the middle of the
Speaker 2: night and here we are.
Speaker 1: And this is how it happens. For me. My mind
Speaker 1: just starts spin in, spin in.
Speaker 2: And the way that it is constructed in the original language.
Speaker 2: I've studied this passage quite a bit. I've come back
Speaker 2: to it several times in preaching, is that it says
Speaker 2: do not worry. That's the command or take no thought.
Speaker 2: That's literal, take no thought. Think about that. He's saying.
Speaker 2: A thought that presents itself to you can start you
Speaker 2: spinning in a direction if you take it. But it
Speaker 2: can't start you spinning if you don't.
Speaker 1: Hold on to it.
Speaker 2: I ap preached the whole message one time called hold
Speaker 2: that thought. Hold that thought, and you get a hold
Speaker 2: of a.
Speaker 1: Thought and you let it take you somewhere.
Speaker 2: But where you take that thought, eventually you find out
Speaker 2: it takes you somewhere. And for me, a lot of
Speaker 2: times I end up in this spin cycle. Do you
Speaker 2: know what I'm talking about? Talk to me the spin
Speaker 2: cycle of stress. I've noticed this about worry. Worry is circular.
Speaker 2: Worry is going round and round. It's not being concerned
Speaker 2: about something that's That's not what Jesus means.
Speaker 1: By don't worry.
Speaker 2: This isn't Jesus Bob Marley moment. You know, because I
Speaker 2: was reading it, like look at the birds. You know,
Speaker 2: it almost sounds it almost sounds like Jesus is telling
Speaker 2: me not to not to pay my bills.
Speaker 1: Just look at the birds. Look at the birds and
Speaker 1: the flower isn't beautiful? Isn't God good? Isn't He just
Speaker 1: the best.
Speaker 2: Don't you just love Jesus and his muchness?
Speaker 1: You know? So is not what he's saying, you know.
Speaker 2: You want me to be like a bird, lord is no.
Speaker 2: I want you to observe the birds. I want you
Speaker 2: to consider what they know that you don't. And maybe
Speaker 2: what they know that you don't is because they live
Speaker 2: where you don't at a higher altitude.
Speaker 1: Observe the birds.
Speaker 2: If I could title this message something other than reverse
Speaker 2: your worry, I'd call it look up, because in order
Speaker 2: to consider the birds, you got to stuff looking.
Speaker 1: All around you to make sense of your life.
Speaker 2: You know, because as long as you look around you,
Speaker 2: you've spen.
Speaker 1: Around and around and around and around.
Speaker 2: But when you break the cycle and consider that there
Speaker 2: is a God above you, who has gone before you,
Speaker 2: who lives within you, who is always for you, and
Speaker 2: that you are spoken for and known and named and
Speaker 2: called and chosen and set apart, you see your life
Speaker 2: at a different level.
Speaker 1: Can I freeze a little bit? Because I've been doing
Speaker 1: this a lot.
Speaker 2: It's funny that I just finished a whole series about
Speaker 2: anxiety called Triggered, and here we are back in this
Speaker 2: same idea, still spinning.
Speaker 1: It's still spinning. Worri is is like this. It's around
Speaker 1: and around and around.
Speaker 2: But notice one thing about all my spinning, other than
Speaker 2: the fact that some of y'all are getting dizzy just
Speaker 2: watching me do this, imagine how it feels to actually
Speaker 2: do it. Imagine how it feels for me actually doing it. Well,
Speaker 2: this is what it feels like when you're spinning, spinning, spinning,
Speaker 2: lots of motion, but I keep ending up right.
Speaker 1: Where I started.
Speaker 2: I'm right back here, only now I can't see straight.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 2: That's what it's like to toss and turn over.
Speaker 1: Stuff you can't control.
Speaker 2: Because after you've spent all night spinning, all day spinning
Speaker 2: in your head, and what if they and you know,
Speaker 2: it starts with the most innocent thought.
Speaker 1: It's not the devil. The devil's been at this a
Speaker 1: long time, sweetie. He's not gonna give you a bad thought.
Speaker 2: He's gonna try to give you an innocent thought and
Speaker 2: get you to take it in the wrong direction. A
Speaker 2: scenario that on the surface doesn't seem that bad, but
Speaker 2: it's the way you spin it. It's like, you know,
Speaker 2: Fox News and CNN, it's just it's one story they're telling,
Speaker 2: but it's spinning different ways, and it's how you spin it.
Speaker 1: That determines how you see it.
Speaker 2: I am preaching Matthew chapter six like it's my last
Speaker 2: time today, because when you get in that spin cycle, it's.
Speaker 1: Just around and around and around and.
Speaker 2: Around, and it doesn't make any difference. I'm not kidding anywhere.
Speaker 2: I'm not working on it. I'm not making progress anywhere.
Speaker 2: And the devil gets me so dizzy that now by
Speaker 2: the time that I'm facing my real life challenges, I
Speaker 2: don't have the equilibrium to apply the effort in the
Speaker 2: direction that would create a result. Because I'm so dissy,
Speaker 2: I can't find my balance, and now I don't know
Speaker 2: who to trust.
Speaker 1: I don't know what to do.
Speaker 2: WHOA hang on, I need a minute. I need a minute.
Speaker 2: I've been spinning, by the way. That's why it takes
Speaker 2: you a few minutes when you get to church to
Speaker 2: get your heart in the right place for the caffeine
Speaker 2: to kick in and for you to stop spinning. Yeah,
Speaker 2: Jesus said, look up at the birds, and then look
Speaker 2: at the flowers. The flowers, So when we look up,
Speaker 2: you want me look down. I want you to look
Speaker 2: both and notice something that the flowers don't do that
Speaker 2: your mind has been doing lately.
Speaker 1: He said, When.
Speaker 2: You look at the flowers, notice how they do not
Speaker 2: labor or give me the verse please twenty eight.
Speaker 1: They do not labor or.
Speaker 2: And yet, your father, they don't spin, they don't sew,
Speaker 2: The birds don't store away, the flowers don't spend.
Speaker 1: Yet, look how God does that on that level?
Speaker 2: And if he made you in his image, what makes
Speaker 2: you think that you have to spin out in these cycles?
Speaker 2: You know, these tormenting cycles, these confusing cycles where you
Speaker 2: start thinking, you know, all, oh my god, my kid
Speaker 2: needs bracists and you know it's the littlest things, isn't it.
Speaker 1: It's the littlest things that get you spenting.
Speaker 2: My kid needs Now, your kid's only two years old,
Speaker 2: but my kid's gonna need bracest because the first tooth
Speaker 2: grew in kind of crooked. And now you're looking at
Speaker 2: one crooked tooth and your two year old's got one
Speaker 2: little crooked tooth grown in. Oh my god, they're gonna
Speaker 2: need braces. Embraces with inflation is gonna cost four hundred
Speaker 2: and seventy three thousand dollars, and I won't have any
Speaker 2: money to send them in college so they're only gonna
Speaker 2: have to resort to gang violence. And then my child's
Speaker 2: gonna wind up in prison, and I'm gonna visit. Now
Speaker 2: you're in prison, your kid is too, and your kid's
Speaker 2: still too and you didn't keep them out of prison,
Speaker 2: and they're still gonna need bracests.
Speaker 1: So you've been.
Speaker 2: Going around and around and around in circles. But God said,
Speaker 2: today is your day to stop spinning. If your mind
Speaker 2: has been doing this, I came to preach to you,
Speaker 2: and the presence of the Lord is in this flag,
Speaker 2: and your.
Speaker 1: Father knows what you need.
Speaker 2: So stop spinning, stop worrying about what God is already
Speaker 2: working on, and just worship him.
Speaker 1: Come on, take fifteen seconds.
Speaker 3: I know you can't do it all the time, but
Speaker 3: you're in the right place today. Let's give him praise
Speaker 3: and honor and glory that our needs are met for
Speaker 3: his name.
Speaker 1: It's great.
Speaker 2: That's all worship is. You know, worship is worry in reverse.
Speaker 1: See, worry is.
Speaker 2: When I start with my situation and then I spin
Speaker 2: round and round and round and round and round and
Speaker 2: round and round and round. But God said, stop spinning,
Speaker 2: and instead of starting your meditation with your situation, art
Speaker 2: with your source.
Speaker 1: When you know who your father is it since.
Speaker 2: You spinning in a different direction.
Speaker 1: Come on, I know who he is, I know what
Speaker 1: he's done, and I know what he's gonna do. And
Speaker 1: stop spinning.
Speaker 2: Find seven people, tell him stop spinning. It's not working
Speaker 2: round and running circles like the Israelites.
Speaker 1: For forty three years. Why are you worried?
Speaker 2: I would understand it if it was working. I wrote
Speaker 2: a country song one time. Well, not a whole song,
Speaker 2: just a chorus. Okay, well that's never happened before. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I know it's ambreller Father, bless them in the name
Speaker 2: of Jesus.
Speaker 1: Well, it's like that, you know, like worry is like that.
Speaker 1: It's like the.
Speaker 2: And sometimes it's going off, but you can't you can't
Speaker 2: do anything about it.
Speaker 1: Sometimes it's like that.
Speaker 2: It's like think think about think about the day we
Speaker 2: live in where we're constantly being hit with breaking news,
Speaker 2: breaking news. Trump had lunch, breaking breaking news, and so
Speaker 2: it's almost impossible for us to have priorities because we're
Speaker 2: being fed so much fear. When your father feeds you,
Speaker 2: it builds your faith.
Speaker 1: When you start with who God is.
Speaker 2: You know, when you start with that when you start
Speaker 2: with your source, you end up where you started. And
Speaker 2: if you start with God, you end with God. If
Speaker 2: you start with theater, you end with fear. If you
Speaker 2: start with shortage, you end with shortage. If you start
Speaker 2: with your situation, you'll be like Elisha's servant in Second
Speaker 2: King sixth. This is a great Old Testament story to
Speaker 2: illustrate what I'm talking about, because the servant woke up
Speaker 2: one day and found that the camp was surrounded with
Speaker 2: the Arabians, who were the enemies, and he woke Elisha.
Speaker 1: He's like, oh, my lord, what shall we do?
Speaker 2: That's exactly what the Bible says, and that's exactly.
Speaker 1: What you've been saying. Oh my lord.
Speaker 2: You know, like I'm surrounded, and now this preacher is
Speaker 2: talking about birds and lily's and petunias and chrysanthemums, and
Speaker 2: here I am trying to pay bills and my mom
Speaker 2: has Alzheimer's and this dude's up here talking about birds.
Speaker 2: All right, Well, Elisha could have prayed that God would
Speaker 2: destroy the enemies that were surrounding the camp, but he didn't.
Speaker 1: He didn't.
Speaker 2: He prayed something more powerful. And what he said is
Speaker 2: what I'm praying for. Us in this game Changer series,
Speaker 2: because this is the game changer, not that God takes
Speaker 2: your enemies away, but that he enables.
Speaker 1: You to see beyond.
Speaker 2: Them, not that he takes your problems away, but that
Speaker 2: he enables your faith to see beyond them. Now, the
Speaker 2: first circle is the enemies, and they were real. But
Speaker 2: Elisha prayed Lord open his eyes that he may see,
Speaker 2: that he may see what that there are more with
Speaker 2: us than with them. So the first circle says, I'm overwhelmed.
Speaker 2: The first circle says I'm outnumbered. The first circle says
Speaker 2: there's nothing I can do. And on the surface this
Speaker 2: is the truth. But the second circle, when the servant
Speaker 2: opened his eyes, he saw what had been there all along.
Speaker 1: There was a host of angel armies.
Speaker 2: Surrounding the first circle, and what was on the outside
Speaker 2: was greater than what was on the inside. Whatever is
Speaker 2: surrounding you, God is already surrounding it. And so much
Speaker 2: of our peace is depending on whether we can perceive
Speaker 2: the second circle. When you live in the first circle,
Speaker 2: it's always it's always never enough. If you start with
Speaker 2: not enough, you end with not enough. If you start
Speaker 2: with el Shadai, who is more than enough, you end with.
Speaker 1: More than enough, So reverse your worry. My Father knows
Speaker 1: what I need.
Speaker 2: I had needs, and I don't start with the need,
Speaker 2: because if I start with the need, I'm.
Speaker 1: Gonna end with the need.
Speaker 2: But if I start with a God who knows.
Speaker 1: What I need, I will end with a.
Speaker 2: God who knows what I need. He is Alpha and Omega,
Speaker 2: the beginning in the end, the first in the last.
Speaker 2: So reverse your worry, Jesus says, Look at the birds,
Speaker 2: look at the flowers. You are more valuable than them,
Speaker 2: and yet your father cares for the lesser.
Speaker 1: Will he not much more? Take care of you? Means this.
Speaker 2: If God is doing this level of detail, don't you
Speaker 2: think that he has already determined your expected end.
Speaker 1: If he can do that, surely he can do this.
Speaker 1: If he did that, he can do this.
Speaker 2: So there are some things in my life that God did,
Speaker 2: and if he did that, he can do this. This
Speaker 2: is the second circle, and this is where we've got
Speaker 2: to live. But in order to do it, we'll have
Speaker 2: to reverse it, because when we start with shortage, we
Speaker 2: end with shortage, time, energy, money, any of it.
Speaker 1: Jesus says, here's the game changer.
Speaker 2: One of the most famous verses in scripture, by the way,
Speaker 2: But now that you've got it in context, I hope
Speaker 2: it comes a life for you in.
Speaker 1: A new way.
Speaker 2: He said, if God cares for the lesser, he will
Speaker 2: take care of the greater. If he takes care of
Speaker 2: the little, he'll take care of the lot. You're the lot.
Speaker 1: You're valuable to him. But you.
Speaker 2: Verse thirty three seek first the Kingdom and his righteousness,
Speaker 2: not your own, your own.
Speaker 1: Ideas and appearances. What shall we eat? What shall we drink?
Speaker 1: What shall we eat? What shall we drink?
Speaker 2: Isn't it funny that we're still posting today, two thousand
Speaker 2: years later about the same stuff that Jesus said not
Speaker 2: to worry about in Palestine, what we ate and what
Speaker 2: we wore? It is so circular, you know, like we're
Speaker 2: still worried about the same things.
Speaker 1: How am I gonna make it? How am I gonna pay?
Speaker 1: How am I going to this and that and the other?
Speaker 1: And you know, and I've got my income taxes now
Speaker 1: went up in a bracket, and God blessed me.
Speaker 2: But now I got more taxes or I'm waiting on
Speaker 2: God to bless me. What shall we eat? That survival?
Speaker 2: What shall we wear? That status? And we go round
Speaker 2: in these circles over.
Speaker 1: And over and over and over and over and over
Speaker 1: and over again.
Speaker 2: But if I start with the kingdom, God will give
Speaker 2: me the things seek first His kingdom give them the
Speaker 2: scripture verse.
Speaker 1: I want you to see this. More than see it,
Speaker 1: I want you to believe it.
Speaker 2: If you seek first His Kingdom and his righteousness, all
Speaker 2: these things will be given to you as well. See,
Speaker 2: you protect what you prize, and your peace ought to
Speaker 2: be important to you.
Speaker 1: But the only way to.
Speaker 2: Live in God's peace is to have God's priorities. Now,
Speaker 2: in my life, every time that I have had a
Speaker 2: lack of peace, it was because something was wrong with
Speaker 2: my priorities.
Speaker 1: And the reason that I can prove.
Speaker 2: That now is because it wasn't the presence of problems
Speaker 2: that created the absence of peace. Sometimes in the midst
Speaker 2: of my greatest problems, I had the greatest peace.
Speaker 1: That makes no sense, I understand, but it's true.
Speaker 2: Nonetheless, in some of the seasons of my greatest problems, I.
Speaker 1: Experienced my deepest peace.
Speaker 2: I think that's because sometimes problems help us to clarify priorities. Yes,
Speaker 2: if my priorities, if I don't seek first the kingdom,
Speaker 2: and I'm seeking the things. I will run after all
Speaker 2: the same things that the pagans run after, and it
Speaker 2: will be like I don't even have a god.
Speaker 1: In my real life. Thanks Mom.
Speaker 2: I was like this, somebody give me your phone, Give
Speaker 2: me your phone.
Speaker 1: Somebody with an iPhone? What is it? Now?
Speaker 2: Ten? Super another way for Apple to get my money
Speaker 2: by changing the way I charge the stupid device.
Speaker 1: You're a note taker, Oh thank God for this guy.
Speaker 1: Will you send me these when the sermon's over.
Speaker 2: My notes are terrible. I don't even look at them.
Speaker 2: They're horrible. Your notes are good. Oh I'm gonna ask
Speaker 2: you something. If you left your phone at church, would
Speaker 2: you come back and get it? How about if you
Speaker 2: left your phone an hour away, would you drive an
Speaker 2: hour to get in?
Speaker 1: Two hours? Three hours? This phone is important.
Speaker 2: I'm starting to wonder what you got on this phone,
Speaker 2: some kind of business transactions.
Speaker 1: You trust me a lot, Hand me this phone and
Speaker 1: you come back and get it.
Speaker 2: But I noticed people will leave their peace just anywhere,
Speaker 2: and we would run back. I see some of you
Speaker 2: while I'm preaching. You can't even sit through a fifty
Speaker 2: minute message without reaching for your phone. You breaking out
Speaker 2: rashes coming all up on. You can't check your phone,
Speaker 2: the phone's buzzing in front. But but you leave your
Speaker 2: piece just anywhere, and we would put more importance on
Speaker 2: a possession and we'll go back and get it.
Speaker 1: Oh, I lost my phone. My phone, like you're not
Speaker 1: wearing pants out the house or something like that.
Speaker 2: But you won't even apologize to get your peace back
Speaker 2: and seek the kingdom.
Speaker 1: Come get this phone.
Speaker 2: You got a snap coming through us from AA Steph.
Speaker 1: I don't know who she is, if she's que.
Speaker 2: So somebody shout, I want my peace back, And the
Speaker 2: only way.
Speaker 1: For that to happen is for you to get your priority.
Speaker 2: Straight, friends and family. This is why I teach tithing. Woo,
Speaker 2: A wave of silence visited the church, because when I
Speaker 2: put God first and I prioritize His purpose in my life.
Speaker 2: Don't you see that in any area of my life?
Speaker 2: When I start with God, I end with God. So look,
Speaker 2: it's not some Old Testament principle. It is a principle
Speaker 2: that when you trust God, you invest your treasure in
Speaker 2: the one that you trust. So when I say God,
Speaker 2: this portion has set aside for you. Guess what I
Speaker 2: start My resources spinning in the direction of God's kingdom,
Speaker 2: and then I can trust him to take care of
Speaker 2: my needs. That's why we bring the offering at the
Speaker 2: end of the year. It's about trust. It's about training
Speaker 2: my heart to trust God. Aren't you sick of spinning
Speaker 2: like this? Just like the world's spin? I mean, really, really,
Speaker 2: people of God, if we are if we're gonna worry
Speaker 2: like the world worries, how are we gonna win the
Speaker 2: world that we worry?
Speaker 1: Just like.
Speaker 2: I think the distinguishing mark of the people of God
Speaker 2: and the day that we live in is a supernatural
Speaker 2: peace that will become so attractive to people in the
Speaker 2: world that we won't even have to preach to them.
Speaker 2: They will see our peace and they will want to
Speaker 2: meet the author of the giver of peace, the Prince
Speaker 2: of Peace, whose name is Jesus.
Speaker 1: And so.
Speaker 2: In this season, I've been asking God to start me
Speaker 2: spinning in the right direction, even the way I start
Speaker 2: my day.
Speaker 1: I need to start my day spinning in the right direction.
Speaker 2: You know, I really don't need to read the news
Speaker 2: within the first thirty minutes that I'm awake.
Speaker 1: And by the.
Speaker 2: Way, there are certain people that I don't need to
Speaker 2: talk to for the first hour I'm at work because
Speaker 2: they might start me spinning. Ah, tell somebody stop spinning
Speaker 2: and learn what the flower learned. If I stay planted,
Speaker 2: learn what the bird learned. If I stay above it,
Speaker 2: then my guy will supply.
Speaker 1: All my needs. Let's give him praise for it today.
Speaker 2: Come on, give him a good praise like you think
Speaker 2: he deserves, Matthews, give him the praise you think he's
Speaker 2: worthy of.
Speaker 1: A proved himer Hanger.
Speaker 2: Oh Jesus, Jesus, prassious.
Speaker 1: Jesus, Oh for grace. Now listen.
Speaker 2: How many of you would say, everyone's standing now, no
Speaker 2: one's leaving.
Speaker 1: Please?
Speaker 2: How many would say I am a world class warrior
Speaker 2: like I am an Olympic level warrior. Those of you here,
Speaker 2: if you could stand, I'm about to pray for people.
Speaker 1: Thank you. I'm a wor wave at me.
Speaker 2: If you're a world class warrior like they need to
Speaker 2: write a front page Sports illustrated about.
Speaker 1: Good news. Good news.
Speaker 2: If you are a world class warrior, you have the
Speaker 2: potential to become a world class worshiper.
Speaker 4: Because worship is worry in reverse. Come on, spin around
Speaker 4: one good time. If you know God's got this.
Speaker 2: I'm not looking at tomorrow worried about it. I will
Speaker 2: be confident in this, but I will see the goodness
Speaker 2: of the Lord.
Speaker 1: Come on, take a good spin, man.
Speaker 2: If you can stay, please stay. I want to pray
Speaker 2: a blessing over you. When you start with God, you
Speaker 2: end with God. And the situation that you're facing today
Speaker 2: is not necessarily going to lift or remove. But the
Speaker 2: second circle is what God is already doing. And I
Speaker 2: just thought it'd be good to join our faith together today.
Speaker 2: You know, I really want to treasure these moments to minister,
Speaker 2: and that's why I've been asking, Hey, if you don't
Speaker 2: have to leave, if nothing is like going to burn
Speaker 2: your house or anything like that, while.
Speaker 1: We're in here, please stay with us.
Speaker 2: Because sometimes you hear the word, but you don't seal it,
Speaker 2: and you just let the devil take it, just take it,
Speaker 2: just take it. You just let him take your word
Speaker 2: and snatch it and snatch it. But snatch it back,
Speaker 2: snatch it back. This is a moment for you to
Speaker 2: take your peace back. This is a moment for you
Speaker 2: to take your focus back. And I want to pray
Speaker 2: for that. But peace only comes through correct priorities. It's
Speaker 2: not a feeling. It's a sense of ordering your life.
Speaker 2: Jesus said, if you build your life on the right foundation,
Speaker 2: you can withstand any storm. And I just feel today
Speaker 2: that as I've been ministering, the Spirit of the Lord
Speaker 2: has been translating my feeble attempts to get this message preached,
Speaker 2: putting it in the exact frame where you need to see.
Speaker 1: What God is doing in your life. And I want
Speaker 1: to ask you today if you have.
Speaker 2: Been spinning around trying to solve things in your own strength,
Speaker 2: and you want to steal your heart in the presence
Speaker 2: of God. One thing I love to do is lift
Speaker 2: my hands to my Father in heaven. Would you do
Speaker 2: that right now and close your eyes, Oh you of
Speaker 2: little faith.
Speaker 1: When you have a father.
Speaker 2: Who knows how to feed you, you don't have to
Speaker 2: run to the world for scraps, and you have a
Speaker 2: father who knows what you need, you can trust your
Speaker 2: deepest desires are being met in each moment.
Speaker 1: Greater than the breath that we.
Speaker 2: Breathe, greater than the song that we sing. The grace
Speaker 2: of God is in this moment, Holy Spirit, I thank
Speaker 2: you for this ministry that.
Speaker 1: Has gone forth. Today.
Speaker 2: I asked that you would now enable it to become
Speaker 2: active in our lives.
Speaker 1: Then not only would we.
Speaker 2: Be hearers of the word, but doers also, and that
Speaker 2: this week you would show us how to.
Speaker 1: Reverse.
Speaker 2: Instead of starting with what's wrong, what's missing, what's not,
Speaker 2: what's gone, we would start with who you are, and
Speaker 2: that the peace of God that trenscends all understanding would
Speaker 2: guard our hearts and minds.
Speaker 1: In Christ Jesus, thank you for joining us.
Speaker 2: Special thanks to those of you who give generously to
Speaker 2: this ministry. Is because of you that this ministry is possible.
Speaker 2: You can click the link in the description to give now,
Speaker 2: or visit Elevationchurch dot org slash podcast for more information
Speaker 2: and if you enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe.
Speaker 1: You can share it with your friends.
Speaker 2: You can click the share button, take a screenshot and
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Speaker 2: Elevation Church.
Speaker 1: Thanks again for listening. God bless you