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 1: How many are ready for the Word of God to
Speaker 1: be preached? Get up on your feet. Pastor rich Wilkerson
Speaker 1: is in the house. He is my friend. He is
Speaker 1: the only adult who can keep me up after four
Speaker 1: am to talk about the things of God. He pastors
Speaker 1: the Great Bout Church. We love him so much. Come
Speaker 1: on and give God praise Epham around the world for
Speaker 1: Pastor Rich wilker Son. I know. Come on, church, Hey,
Speaker 1: can we go ahead and lift up the name of Jesus.
Speaker 1: Come on all around the world today. Come on, let's
Speaker 1: give Jesus the highest praise. Anybody thankful to be in
Speaker 1: the House of God on this Sunday, anybody in his
Speaker 1: sense that God is moving right now, not just in
Speaker 1: the room. But we're believing that wherever you're watching this
Speaker 1: from the e fam that the same power that's right
Speaker 1: here right now. I'm believing. Come on, the same power
Speaker 1: is right there today with you. Oh it's good to
Speaker 1: be at Elevation Church. As you find your seat in
Speaker 1: the room, we want to once again just welcome everybody
Speaker 1: who's tuning in online. We're so grateful for the way
Speaker 1: that this ministry continues to go forward and just make
Speaker 1: a global impact. And I just got to say, what
Speaker 1: in honor, what a privilege it is for me to
Speaker 1: be back here in Charlotte, North Carolina. And I just
Speaker 1: think the Elevation Church. Come on, anybody thankful that you
Speaker 1: just go to the greatest church. In fact, I was
Speaker 1: here last week for the worship night. I'm a I
Speaker 1: sense a revival coming. Man. This place was jammed packed
Speaker 1: to the right. I mean, I'm telling you what a
Speaker 1: tangible sense of God's presence and we get scared. When
Speaker 1: Brandon Lake just did a full CrowdSurf. I was like,
Speaker 1: I don't know if I got insurance for that, but uh,
Speaker 1: it was. It was a powerful, powerful night. I said,
Speaker 1: I just got up. I got to be in the room,
Speaker 1: and I hope you understand just what you're a part
Speaker 1: of here at Elevation Church. And any chance I get
Speaker 1: to be up on this stage and any chance I
Speaker 1: get to brag and give honor where honor is due
Speaker 1: towards your pastors. I want to make sure I take
Speaker 1: my chance. Anybody thankful for Pastor Stephen and Hally Ferdick,
Speaker 1: come on in the chat right now, just tell them
Speaker 1: that you love them in the chat, real love you, guys,
Speaker 1: So so grateful for both of them. And here's what
Speaker 1: I believe. And I'm a preacher, and so I make
Speaker 1: things rhynd, but I just I believe that alignment is
Speaker 1: even more important than assignment. And I just want to
Speaker 1: make sure that I'm I'm being loud and clear that
Speaker 1: I'm aligning myself with what I think is some of
Speaker 1: the world's greatest leaders in the Body of Christ today,
Speaker 1: because a lot of people miss this in life. A
Speaker 1: lot of people get focused on what they're doing, but
Speaker 1: they miss out on who they're doing it with and
Speaker 1: what God has given you here in the leaders of
Speaker 1: this house is just so tremendous. And the fact that
Speaker 1: you get to be in this soil and in this space.
Speaker 1: I just think that what's on their life, it begins
Speaker 1: to overflow onto our lives. And I'm grateful that I'm
Speaker 1: aligned with Pastor Stephen and Pastor Hally Ferdick. Come on,
Speaker 1: anybody wants some to that verdict. Blessing on you. We
Speaker 1: love you guys so much, and thank you for being
Speaker 1: standard carriers. It's not easy what they do to continue
Speaker 1: to press forward, to continue to see what others don't see,
Speaker 1: to continue to push in. It can be lonely, it
Speaker 1: can be challenging, but they do it with such grace,
Speaker 1: They do it with such they do it with such integrity,
Speaker 1: and it gives so many of us around the world
Speaker 1: a whole lot of hope. And so we love you.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for letting me be here. Yeah,
Speaker 1: come on, we can thank God one more time for them.
Speaker 1: I you know, sometimes as a preacher, it's a labor
Speaker 1: of love as you open up God's word, and it
Speaker 1: can be you're digging stuff out and you're looking for stuff.
Speaker 1: But every once in a while, God just drops a
Speaker 1: word into your heart that it just starts coming out
Speaker 1: of you that you can't write fast enough. However you
Speaker 1: put it together. And the message I have today, it
Speaker 1: kind of came to me like that. Just this last week.
Speaker 1: I just sensed as I was coming here to Elevation
Speaker 1: Church that the word that I bring today. It's not
Speaker 1: gonna be pretty, it's gonna be messy, and I'm gonna
Speaker 1: preach it like I feel it today, which there is
Speaker 1: a fire on the inside of me that I think
Speaker 1: this is an on time right now word for elevation church.
Speaker 1: And so I'm gonna need some help today, not just
Speaker 1: from in the room, but in the chat online. You
Speaker 1: could say amen, you could say I like that. You
Speaker 1: could say preach it, white boy, I don't really care.
Speaker 1: But today everyone is tapping into their inner Pentecostal We're
Speaker 1: gonna all verbally engage. Come on. How many believes God
Speaker 1: loves a loud church? One time this dude was like, yeo, Rich,
Speaker 1: I don't like going to your church. It's just too loud.
Speaker 1: I was like, home, you're not gonna like heaven very much,
Speaker 1: because the Bible tells me that all day long, twenty
Speaker 1: four hours a day, seven days a week, they are
Speaker 1: shouting around the throne room of Heaven. Holy, Holy, Holy
Speaker 1: is the Lord God Almighty. Come on, somebody, We're gonna
Speaker 1: bring Heaven down to earth today. We're gonna make it loud. Oh,
Speaker 1: We're gonna get there. We're gonna get there. We're gonna
Speaker 1: get the Romans Chapter eight. Romans, Chapter eight. I'm just
Speaker 1: gonna read some verses and then I'm just gonna give
Speaker 1: it to you how God gave it to me? Is
Speaker 1: that okay? Thank God? Romans, Chapter eight, verse eighteen. This
Speaker 1: is Paul the Apostle. He writes to the church in Rome,
Speaker 1: and he says, I consider our present sufferings are not
Speaker 1: worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.
Speaker 1: The Creation waits in eager expectation, someone say, expectation for
Speaker 1: the sons of God to be revealed. For the creation
Speaker 1: was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but
Speaker 1: by the will of the one who subjected it. In
Speaker 1: hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its
Speaker 1: bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of
Speaker 1: the children of God. We know that the whole creation
Speaker 1: has been groaning, as in pains of childbirth, right up
Speaker 1: to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves,
Speaker 1: who have the first fruits of the spirit grown inwardly.
Speaker 1: As we wait, someone say, wait, as we wait eagerly
Speaker 1: for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.
Speaker 1: For in this hope we are saved, But hope that
Speaker 1: is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for
Speaker 1: what he already has. But if we hope for what
Speaker 1: we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently
Speaker 1: cow maing No. Patience is not the ability to wait.
Speaker 1: Patience is all about how you wait. In the same way,
Speaker 1: the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not
Speaker 1: know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit
Speaker 1: himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express.
Speaker 1: And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of
Speaker 1: the spirit. Because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in
Speaker 1: accordance with God's will. Sometimes you just read a passage
Speaker 1: and it does all the heavy lifting for you. How
Speaker 1: many sens today that God wants to speak to his church?
Speaker 1: Come on, can you put your hands together? Can you
Speaker 1: give God glory? And can you shame the devil for
Speaker 1: a moment. I've been married to the same woman for
Speaker 1: fourteen years. Thank God. We have two beautiful boys. In fact,
Speaker 1: my oldest son, who's three years of age. His name
Speaker 1: is Wyatt Wesley Wilkerson. He's actually traveling with me here
Speaker 1: today to Elevation Church. And my second born son. His
Speaker 1: name is Wild Wesley Wilkerson. I know these names are
Speaker 1: a mouthful. You know, www are their initials. We call
Speaker 1: them Worldwide Web for short. You know, like, these names
Speaker 1: are a mouthful, and our second born son, we kind
Speaker 1: of we kind of got more than what we bargained for.
Speaker 1: How mean, you know you got to be crazy to
Speaker 1: name your kid wild? And Wild is wild. He's just
Speaker 1: that's his deal. He's he's just totally wild and Wild's
Speaker 1: one and a half. And as he's one and a
Speaker 1: half right now, he's amazing because the day that he
Speaker 1: came out of the womb, this boy has always had
Speaker 1: direct intention. He's always had a clear motivation. I've always
Speaker 1: been able to see that he knows what he wants
Speaker 1: in life. But he's learning right right now. He's got
Speaker 1: a vocabulary like four words, dad, dad, mama. He loves
Speaker 1: to a pool. He's into the pool. His older brother
Speaker 1: loves swimming. He likes swimming. The problem with Wild is
Speaker 1: he don't know how to swim. This is like not
Speaker 1: funny at all. This is like truly scary in my
Speaker 1: house right now because this boy whose name is Wild
Speaker 1: is wild. Literally the kid is a savage. He thinks
Speaker 1: it's funny to throw himself into swimming pools. When you
Speaker 1: pull him out of the water, he is laughing hysterically.
Speaker 1: You're like, you're sick, bro, this is true. Last week
Speaker 1: I take my son Wild to the pool, and what
Speaker 1: this kid does is this kid, he has this whole thing.
Speaker 1: He gets up to the pool deck, he gets on
Speaker 1: his tippy toes, he leans forward, he puts his hands back,
Speaker 1: he puts his butt back, and he looks over at
Speaker 1: me as if to taunt me. Ha. It's like a
Speaker 1: demonic laugh though, and then he hurls himself. The other day,
Speaker 1: he went to a pool deck. He gets over to
Speaker 1: the hot tub, looking over there, he puts his arms back.
Speaker 1: He throws himself into a hot tub, to which I
Speaker 1: have to jump into the hot tub. I pull him
Speaker 1: out of the water. He's laughing hysterically. I'm saying, Wild,
Speaker 1: this is not funny, bro, This is not fun. Surviving
Speaker 1: is fun, living is good. His challenge right now in
Speaker 1: life is that he doesn't have the words to articulate
Speaker 1: that which he wants. And what I'm noticing in my
Speaker 1: little boy Wild right now is that it's not a
Speaker 1: problem of whether or not he's living with expectation. No,
Speaker 1: his challenge in life is that he finds himself unable
Speaker 1: to manage the frustration of getting that which it is
Speaker 1: he's anticipating. And I thought, on this Sunday morning, right
Speaker 1: here at Charlotte, North Carolina, at the Ballantine Campus, and
Speaker 1: all over the world to the Epham, if you would
Speaker 1: give me the next thirty four minutes of your time,
Speaker 1: I want to preach to you today from the subject
Speaker 1: the frustrate of expectation, the frustration of expectation. I suppose
Speaker 1: I just have a basic question, and that is, what
Speaker 1: are you expecting God to do? We've gathered today all
Speaker 1: over we're in our homes, we're in the church, and
Speaker 1: we've come into God's house. I sure hope you've come
Speaker 1: into God's house with some expectation. I sure hope you've
Speaker 1: come in here believing for God to do something in
Speaker 1: your life. I sure hope you've walked in today not
Speaker 1: just thinking that you're just going to stumble into something. No.
Speaker 1: I really believe it's the man of God. It's the
Speaker 1: woman of God who actually comes in with a pursuit,
Speaker 1: a passionate pursuit to say God, I came in today
Speaker 1: because I have an expectation that you're going to do
Speaker 1: something in my life. I got expectation today. I felt
Speaker 1: like saying it this way that the Church of Jesus
Speaker 1: Christ will never just stumble into a revival. You don't
Speaker 1: stumble into revival. Come on, the church praise for revival.
Speaker 1: The church hopes for revival. The church believes for revival.
Speaker 1: The church leans in and declares, there's gonna be a revival.
Speaker 1: What are you expecting. It's important if you're gonna follow Jesus,
Speaker 1: that you live life with expectation. The apostle Paul, he
Speaker 1: writes to the church in Rome, I consider that our
Speaker 1: present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that
Speaker 1: will be revealed in us. The creation waits an eager
Speaker 1: expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. He's
Speaker 1: trying to get the church to get their eyes on
Speaker 1: something bigger. He's declaring out loud that the entire world
Speaker 1: is waiting on the Church of Jesus Christ to rise
Speaker 1: up and take her proper position, her proper place. That
Speaker 1: there's something in us that the world is looking for.
Speaker 1: He's saying, don't let your present pain make you forget
Speaker 1: about your future purpose? Can I say it this way?
Speaker 1: Your current situation is not in charge of your future,
Speaker 1: your destination. Get your hopeself, start believing, start expecting. Expectation
Speaker 1: means to live life with an anticipation that I'm believing
Speaker 1: for more. And I just felt today that that there's
Speaker 1: some people in the room and some people right now
Speaker 1: in the epan that you need to hear today it's
Speaker 1: time to raise your expectation. This word expectation, it is
Speaker 1: the ingredient of faith that truly like, it's impossible to
Speaker 1: have faith without expectation. But how me know, it's impossible
Speaker 1: to please God without faith. And if we're gonna have faith,
Speaker 1: we have to actually have this thing called expectation. I
Speaker 1: remember that story in Acts chapter three. It is a
Speaker 1: good story. It's about this guy who sits outside this gate,
Speaker 1: and the gate's called Beautiful, and he sits there all
Speaker 1: day and he just he asks for people as they're
Speaker 1: coming by the gate, and he asks for money. And
Speaker 1: one day Peter and John are walking by, you remember
Speaker 1: this story, and as they're walking by this guy, he
Speaker 1: just begs and asks them, hey, can you can you
Speaker 1: can you give me some almost because his legs don't work.
Speaker 1: He has no ability to walk or to move forward,
Speaker 1: and so he just begs Peter and John to give
Speaker 1: him some money. It's fascinating. The longer that we tend
Speaker 1: to wait sometimes, the more we can begin to lower
Speaker 1: our expectation. How me know that when I don't get
Speaker 1: my expectation, the temptation is for me to lower my standard.
Speaker 1: Because here's this man that he should be still believing
Speaker 1: and dreaming to walk, but now he's lowered his standard,
Speaker 1: and all he simply wants is some money. But as
Speaker 1: Peter and John come by, they have a bigger dream
Speaker 1: in mind for him. They're believing that something more can
Speaker 1: take place. They look at this man, and this man says, hey,
Speaker 1: can you give me some money? But what does Peter
Speaker 1: and John say back to him? Peter and John, they
Speaker 1: say back in Acts, chapter three, verse four. Peter looked
Speaker 1: straight at him, as did John. Then Peter said, look
Speaker 1: at us. So the man gave them his attention expecting someone, say, expecting,
Speaker 1: expecting to get something from them. Listen, before he can
Speaker 1: raise his feet to walk, he must raise his expectation
Speaker 1: to believe. Look at us, and the man looks up
Speaker 1: with expectations. Isn't it funny As he looks up with expectation,
Speaker 1: My guess is is that he's just expecting to get
Speaker 1: some money. But what God says is God says, if
Speaker 1: you will raise your expectation, I will exceed your expectation.
Speaker 1: I will do more than what you thought. This man
Speaker 1: is just hoping to get some money and a lot
Speaker 1: of us today. I just hope maybe you came to
Speaker 1: church and you're going, man, I really hope that Jesus
Speaker 1: can change my day. But friend, I want you to
Speaker 1: get something deeper in your soul today. Jesus Christ did
Speaker 1: not die on a cross two thousand years ago to
Speaker 1: simply change your day. Come on, we served the God
Speaker 1: who died that he might change your very life. So
Speaker 1: this man just gives a little bit of expectation, just
Speaker 1: a little bit of expectation, probably just hoping to get
Speaker 1: some money. But we serve the God who says, I
Speaker 1: don't need a lot of faith, I just need a
Speaker 1: little bit of faith. It's faith the size of a
Speaker 1: mustard seed that can move an entire mountain. This man
Speaker 1: has faith for something small, but God has plans for
Speaker 1: something big because Peter and John look back at this man,
Speaker 1: and they say, silver and gold we do not have.
Speaker 1: But one thing we do have, we give it to you.
Speaker 1: Get up and walk. You're leaving here today different from
Speaker 1: how you came. Come on, is there anybody out there
Speaker 1: who believes that if we raise our expectation, God is
Speaker 1: going to do something in our midst He's got something
Speaker 1: more for you today. The whole hearth is waiting an
Speaker 1: eager expectation. You're called to live with an anticipation. I
Speaker 1: felt the Lord say to me, to some of you today,
Speaker 1: somebody gotta come back to your first love. You gotta
Speaker 1: go back to the start. You gotta go back to
Speaker 1: the beginning, go back to your early days following Jesus.
Speaker 1: I love Nu Christians. New Christians are crazy. They actually
Speaker 1: believe the Bible, like the whole thing. You ever meet
Speaker 1: a new Christian, they're like early to church. You get there,
Speaker 1: they're like they're in their seat, They're like they're doing
Speaker 1: this stuff. You're like, what are you doing? They're like,
Speaker 1: I'm stretching where she was about to start. You never know,
Speaker 1: you never know. Come on, some of you all remember this,
Speaker 1: Some of y'all remember this. Back when you believed, back
Speaker 1: when you expected God to do things. Pastor gets up
Speaker 1: and says, where were we need some people to serve.
Speaker 1: Oh that's me, that's me, that's me right here. I
Speaker 1: didn't tell you where. I don't care. I don't care.
Speaker 1: What's two in the morning. I love two in the morning.
Speaker 1: I love two in the morning. Remember when you used
Speaker 1: to pray, God, just use me, just use me. If
Speaker 1: you can use anything, you can use me. And then
Speaker 1: God used you. Now you're complaining to God that he
Speaker 1: used you. God didn't it change you change? I was
Speaker 1: here last week. This is just I just fifteen years
Speaker 1: of a ministry that's been touching the world. And if
Speaker 1: you're not careful, you will get so familiar with this crazy,
Speaker 1: out of control, radical freakish move of God that the
Speaker 1: world has never seen before. Maybe I should have come
Speaker 1: to the staff meeting because I walked through that HQ
Speaker 1: and I'm just like, what is this? And there's some
Speaker 1: people that have been around this thing for a long time.
Speaker 1: You've been around here for fifteen years. I just want
Speaker 1: to encourage you today, do not get familiar with this thing.
Speaker 1: God has not changed. He is still the same yesterday today,
Speaker 1: and forever. You gotta get your expectation up. Go back
Speaker 1: to your first love, go back to that beginning days
Speaker 1: when you really believed God. I love Nuchritians. They just
Speaker 1: they build your faith. I walked up to this guy today,
Speaker 1: Steven and this guy and brand new to church. He said, Pastor,
Speaker 1: would you pray for me? I said, yeah, I mean
Speaker 1: that's what I do. You know, I pray for you. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'll pray for you. He said, well, before you pray,
Speaker 1: here's what I want you to pray for. I said, well,
Speaker 1: is that he was pray for my shadow. I said,
Speaker 1: what said, I want you to pray for my shadow?
Speaker 1: I said, okay, why would I pray for your shadow?
Speaker 1: He said, well, there's this girl in the cubicle next
Speaker 1: to me at work and she just got diagnosed with
Speaker 1: terminal cancer and she won't let me pray for her.
Speaker 1: I told her I was a Christian, but she said,
Speaker 1: I don't want you to pray for me. But then
Speaker 1: I was reading in the Book of Acts that when
Speaker 1: some of those apostles walk by, just their very shadow
Speaker 1: touched them. Come on, where are the people of Elevation Church?
Speaker 1: Raise your expectation? Come on? Your shadow is trouble for
Speaker 1: the enemy. Come on, your shadow is a problem for
Speaker 1: the devil. God's getting ready to break out in your life.
Speaker 1: I said back to the mask that maybe you should
Speaker 1: pray for me. Raise your expectation. The world is looking
Speaker 1: for a church. The world is looking for the people
Speaker 1: of God to rise up. The world is looking for
Speaker 1: some people to carry a standard. Who would say, I
Speaker 1: got expectation I want today? Are you in the game
Speaker 1: of faith or are you on the bench of faith?
Speaker 1: Because it's two totally different postures. I know I came
Speaker 1: to get up all in your business today. I know
Speaker 1: it's the month of June. I know there's a lot
Speaker 1: of people on vacation. But we're building a church, and
Speaker 1: the best days for elevation church are still in front
Speaker 1: of us, not behind us, Because how do we know?
Speaker 1: It's a much different posture when you're on the bench.
Speaker 1: When you're on the bench of a game, you're distracted
Speaker 1: with the crowd, you're looking at the audience, you're not
Speaker 1: really paying attention. But the moment you step into that game, baby,
Speaker 1: I'm telling you what you take on a different posture.
Speaker 1: You're ready for the ball to come your way. You're
Speaker 1: eager you're wanting something to happen. My son wild he
Speaker 1: gets up to that pool deck. He's got a stance.
Speaker 1: He gets up on his tippy toes. He puts his
Speaker 1: arms back, he gets his butt back, and he leans in.
Speaker 1: I felt the spirit of God tell me to tell
Speaker 1: some people at Elevation Church, it's tiptoe season around here.
Speaker 1: It's time for you to lean in. It's time for
Speaker 1: you to put your arms back. God get ready to
Speaker 1: do that what you never see them do before. Come on,
Speaker 1: church him a shout of praise. David Glory. I came
Speaker 1: in with expectation. I came in believing there's more. I
Speaker 1: came in believing He's gonna set my family free. I
Speaker 1: believe that cancer can go in the name of Jesus.
Speaker 1: Come on, somebody, it's tiptoe season. Hands back, leaned forward.
Speaker 1: There's a posture to this. There's a posture to this.
Speaker 1: Someone said, there's a posture to this. What's your expectation?
Speaker 1: What have you walked in here with today? Because God
Speaker 1: is calling us to raise our expectation. And I can't
Speaker 1: even teach you the message if I'm not even talking
Speaker 1: to a room that came in believing for something I
Speaker 1: can't even tell you the next part. If you don't
Speaker 1: raise your expectation to believe that your best days are
Speaker 1: still in front of you. So why don't we live
Speaker 1: with expectation? Oh? I know the answer, because every one
Speaker 1: of my expectations comes with this frustration. I know we're
Speaker 1: not going to shout at that part. Every one of
Speaker 1: my expectations is coupled with frustration. You say, Rich, why
Speaker 1: does frustration come with expectation? Because expectation is an anticipation
Speaker 1: to believe for that which has not happened yet. How
Speaker 1: many no where I am to where God has called
Speaker 1: me to be, has this space in between. It's called
Speaker 1: a gap, and fighting through the gap is frustrating to
Speaker 1: say the least. I remember when I was studying abroad
Speaker 1: in my university days. I did a semester of Brodic
Speaker 1: Cambridge and I got to go and visit London and
Speaker 1: I was in the subway system. If you ever be
Speaker 1: into the subway system in London, if there's these signs
Speaker 1: all of the place and it says mind the gap
Speaker 1: and this phrase, what it means is that for every
Speaker 1: platform that's there, there's this space in between the platform
Speaker 1: to the train, and they want you to be aware
Speaker 1: of the gap so that you can get onto the train,
Speaker 1: that you might reach your destination safely and securely. And
Speaker 1: what I want to say to everybody who's watching today
Speaker 1: and everyone who's in church today, is that we're not
Speaker 1: to be afraid of the gaps, but we must be
Speaker 1: aware of the gaps. But we must understand that if
Speaker 1: we're going to live life with expect it will constantly
Speaker 1: and continually be coupled with this word called frustration. See,
Speaker 1: a lot of people have the wrong idea about faith.
Speaker 1: They think faith is wishful thinking. I think faith is
Speaker 1: problem solving. A lot of people think that faith is
Speaker 1: like you know, pie in the sky. Now, faith is
Speaker 1: work in the dirt, and it can be frustrating for
Speaker 1: you to dig up and for you to see all
Speaker 1: the things that God has called you to and all
Speaker 1: the things that God has spoken to you. Look at
Speaker 1: what the apostle Paul says. He says in Romans chapter eight,
Speaker 1: verse twenty. He says, while the whole world is waiting
Speaker 1: for this, the sons of God to be revealed. He says,
Speaker 1: for the creation was subjected to frustration. Everyone say frustration,
Speaker 1: not by its own choice, but by the will of
Speaker 1: the one who subjected it in hope that the creation
Speaker 1: itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and
Speaker 1: brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.
Speaker 1: So what the apostle Paul is doing is he's laying
Speaker 1: out really beautiful theology that we must all understand that
Speaker 1: ever since are great great I don't know how many
Speaker 1: greats grandfather Adam, ever since he sinned, the whole world
Speaker 1: has been frustrated. Ever since that moment, there has been
Speaker 1: a gap from us to God. This is the gospel message.
Speaker 1: This is why we gather. This is why we can
Speaker 1: put a smile on our face even though life around
Speaker 1: us might be really troubling right now, because we have
Speaker 1: this eternal hope that we serve the God that when
Speaker 1: I couldn't get to him, come on, he came to me.
Speaker 1: Anybody thankful that Jesus came and closed the gap. Jesus
Speaker 1: closed the gap. And while my eternity is secure, my
Speaker 1: reality is frustrated. C. S. Lewis that if I find
Speaker 1: in myself desires which nothing in this world can satisfy,
Speaker 1: the only logical explanation is that I was made for
Speaker 1: another world. What if I told you today that frustration
Speaker 1: is an indication that you are living with divine expectation.
Speaker 1: We got a whole bunch of people in the body
Speaker 1: of Christ today that are cursing their frustration. May I
Speaker 1: plead with the people of Elevation Church, don't curse it
Speaker 1: here it, don't curse it. Solve it, don't don't don't
Speaker 1: curse it, fight through it, don't don't don't curse it.
Speaker 1: Manage it, because there's a blessing on the other side
Speaker 1: of your frustration. See, I wish somebody would have told
Speaker 1: me this a whole long time ago, that frustration is
Speaker 1: not a curse. Frustration is a reality, and frustration is
Speaker 1: actually a gift. You say, rich, it's a gift. It
Speaker 1: certainly is a gift. And you need to reframe this today.
Speaker 1: You need to make sure that you start seeing your
Speaker 1: frustration as a gift, because frustration, many times, is an
Speaker 1: indication of the thing that you're called to do. Come on,
Speaker 1: if it bothers me so much, maybe it's because God
Speaker 1: believes I'm the one to solve it. Come on, if
Speaker 1: you're the only person who sees that thing, maybe it's
Speaker 1: because God is trusting you to solve that thing. Come on,
Speaker 1: if you're the only person who cares about it all
Speaker 1: the time, maybe it's because God has trusted you with
Speaker 1: an ability to actually bring communication to the vision. I'm
Speaker 1: not gonna lie. The other day I woke up and
Speaker 1: I was like, man, am I coasting? Like? Am I
Speaker 1: playing it easy? Like? Am I taking the safe path?
Speaker 1: I don't know, I don't know. I just this is
Speaker 1: just maybe you're watching right now, man I am I
Speaker 1: kind of mailing it in? Am I playing safe? Am
Speaker 1: I still dreaming? Are my best days really actually in
Speaker 1: front of me? But then I woke up frustrated and
Speaker 1: I said, oh, I'm still frustrated, And that tells me
Speaker 1: God is not done with me yet. I am still
Speaker 1: becoming who He has called me to become. He is
Speaker 1: still giving me vision, He's still putting expectation on the
Speaker 1: inside of me. My frustration is an indication that I
Speaker 1: still have divine expectation. Somebody, thank God that not all
Speaker 1: of your problems are solved yet. Somebody, thank God that
Speaker 1: you're still believing for more. Somebody, thank God that you
Speaker 1: still have some faith that works. If you want to
Speaker 1: see your expectation fulfilled. You're gonna have to get good
Speaker 1: with managing the frustration. And when I say managing frustration,
Speaker 1: this is where a lot of people get lost because
Speaker 1: a lot of people, what their challenge in life is
Speaker 1: is that they're not they're not managing frustration. They're trying
Speaker 1: to attain perfection. Frustration is not about perfection. Frustration is
Speaker 1: about making progress little by little, day by day, moment
Speaker 1: by moment. I'm closing the gap. See some gaps like
Speaker 1: come on, homi. Some gaps like I can manage, But
Speaker 1: there's other gaps. There's some people that are watching right now.
Speaker 1: You're a first generation Christian, you're believing for your parents
Speaker 1: to get saved. Come on, that's a gap that you're
Speaker 1: gonna need some supernatural power to come and help close
Speaker 1: that gap. But if you make your whole entire goal
Speaker 1: in life perfection, you're gonna find yourself in a constant
Speaker 1: state of frustration that leaves you depleted and disappointed. In fact,
Speaker 1: there's this psychological study it's called the silver metal syndrome.
Speaker 1: I don't know if you've ever heard this before, but
Speaker 1: there's a lot of people today that live life and
Speaker 1: maybe you're watching right now and you're anxious, or you're depressed,
Speaker 1: or you're depleted. A lot of that comes from this
Speaker 1: idea that you have to be perfect. So you go
Speaker 1: through life and you're going, it could have been better.
Speaker 1: How about this should have been better? It has to
Speaker 1: be better. They did a study and what they discovered
Speaker 1: is they discovered that silver medal winners, like in the Olympics,
Speaker 1: are more unhappy than bronze medal winners. You say, why
Speaker 1: is that rich? I mean one one finished further. Well,
Speaker 1: the silver medal winner, he's up on the podium and
Speaker 1: he's sitting in there and going, ah, I was so close.
Speaker 1: I was so close to being perfect. I should have
Speaker 1: been perfect. I should have been first. I'm not first,
Speaker 1: I'm second. But the bronze medal winner like this ain't
Speaker 1: so bad. He's like, it could have been worse. He goes,
Speaker 1: I was so close from nobody even knowing my name.
Speaker 1: But thank god I got myself up on the podium.
Speaker 1: We made it. Come on, somebody, anybody thankful. You might
Speaker 1: not be where you want to be yet, but anybody
Speaker 1: thankful that you're not where you used to be. We
Speaker 1: made it. It could have been worse. It could have
Speaker 1: been worse. Frustration is not about perfection. It's about progress.
Speaker 1: It's about waking up each day with a fight inside
Speaker 1: of you. It's about say, I'm solve this thing. If
Speaker 1: God put me here, he trusted me that I am
Speaker 1: the man for the job. I am the woman for
Speaker 1: the moment. I'm the right mom for this house. I'm
Speaker 1: the right dad for this home. I'm the right pastor
Speaker 1: for this location. I'm the right leader at this job.
Speaker 1: He has put me in a place if he called
Speaker 1: me to it, His grace is gonna get me through it.
Speaker 1: See this is our challenge. I want you to get
Speaker 1: this today because the enemy of your soul, the only
Speaker 1: thing he cares about when it comes to your life
Speaker 1: is your future. One thing I know about following Jesus
Speaker 1: is the future will always be more demanding than the past.
Speaker 1: What's the reward for passing the third grade? Fourth grade?
Speaker 1: It's just one test after another. In fact, how about this, Oh,
Speaker 1: this is gonna make someone really mad with with God. Uh,
Speaker 1: there's there's no like. There's there's no like. He isn't
Speaker 1: great on a curve. It's like pass or fail? Like
Speaker 1: you just how you know? You just keep taking the
Speaker 1: same test over and over again. Ask how he works
Speaker 1: and if you're gonna follow Jesus, He's always got more
Speaker 1: for you, and you're always stepping into more, which means
Speaker 1: you're always facing new frustration because we live in a
Speaker 1: broken world and what the enemy wants to do is
Speaker 1: the enemy he wants to mess up your future. In fact,
Speaker 1: when he said this way, the enemy doesn't care about
Speaker 1: your past, you do. Oh my god, Oh I helpe sobody.
Speaker 1: The only reason he brings up your past is because
Speaker 1: he wants to destroy your future. He doesn't care at
Speaker 1: all about what you did last year. He doesn't care
Speaker 1: about your you care about your past. It's messing with you.
Speaker 1: Look at what first, John says. I love this. This
Speaker 1: is so beautiful, He says, dear friends, now we are
Speaker 1: children of God. And what will be? Someone say what
Speaker 1: will be? And what will be has not yet been made. No,
Speaker 1: you know what that's saying to all of us. That's
Speaker 1: saying that if you are in Christ Jesus, you are
Speaker 1: still becoming and the only thing more important with who
Speaker 1: you are today is who you're becoming tomorrow. Here's why
Speaker 1: I find confidence today. I find confidence that Jesus could
Speaker 1: close my eternal gap. I'm thankful for the Holy Spirit
Speaker 1: who will help me close the gap from where I
Speaker 1: am today and where he wants me to be tomorrow.
Speaker 1: That's why the Apostle Paul says, in the same way,
Speaker 1: the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not
Speaker 1: know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit
Speaker 1: himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express.
Speaker 1: And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of
Speaker 1: the spirit. Because the Spirit intercedes for the saints and
Speaker 1: accordance with God's will. That's a whole lot right there.
Speaker 1: But I'm just telling you that's powerful because when you
Speaker 1: begin to pray in the spirit, and some of you
Speaker 1: got different words for all that. All I'm saying is
Speaker 1: when you say God, Holy Spirit, you feel me. You
Speaker 1: start praying with me. At times you don't even know
Speaker 1: what you're praying. My son wild he doesn't have all
Speaker 1: the words right now. Sometimes he's like, ah, We're like,
Speaker 1: what's up, bro, But he's got an expectation. I'm telling
Speaker 1: you what. You don't need the Holy Spirit just to
Speaker 1: make it to Heaven. You need the Holy Spirit to
Speaker 1: help you get through the supermarket you need the Holy
Speaker 1: Spirit to help you in traffic. Come on, the Holy
Speaker 1: Spirit doesn't make me better than you. Holy Spirit makes
Speaker 1: me better than me, and he helps me close the
Speaker 1: gaps of my weakness. We need the Spirit of God
Speaker 1: our church. We need the Holy Spirit like never before.
Speaker 1: We need to be filled with the Holy Spirit, with
Speaker 1: the evidence of the fruit of the Spirit, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness,
Speaker 1: has self control. The Holy Spirit is not about spiritual superiority.
Speaker 1: It is about spiritual survival. I can't make it without
Speaker 1: the Spirit of God. I'm not going to ever be
Speaker 1: able to fulfill all that He's called me to do
Speaker 1: unless the Spirit shows up. Someone say, mind the gap.
Speaker 1: We all have weaknesses. We don't need to be afraid
Speaker 1: of them, but we certainly need to be aware of them,
Speaker 1: and it's time that the Body of Christ reframes them.
Speaker 1: Frustration is not a curse. Frustration, many times is an
Speaker 1: indicator of what God's calling me to do. As the
Speaker 1: worship team makes their way up here, I want you
Speaker 1: to see this spectation is coupled with frustration, But if
Speaker 1: I manage the frustration well, it always leads to a revelation.
Speaker 1: We get the word revelation from the root word reveal.
Speaker 1: And I'm believing today that everything that you're hoping for
Speaker 1: and everything that you're believing for, that in due season,
Speaker 1: in due time, God will reveal it to you. But
Speaker 1: I want the Body of Christ to understand that there
Speaker 1: is a correlation between me managing my frustration and my
Speaker 1: capacity to receive revelation. Everybody wants revelation, but very few
Speaker 1: of us are willing to walk through the idea of frustration.
Speaker 1: Look at what the apostle Paul says as we get
Speaker 1: ready to close. He says in Romans chapter eight, verse
Speaker 1: twenty two, we know that the whole creation has been
Speaker 1: growing in the pains of childbirth right up to the
Speaker 1: present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have
Speaker 1: the first fruits of the spear grown inwardly, as we
Speaker 1: wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of
Speaker 1: our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. But
Speaker 1: hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who
Speaker 1: hopes for what he already has. But if we hope
Speaker 1: for what we do not yet have, we wait for
Speaker 1: it patiently. The apostle Paul, he likens revelation to childbirth.
Speaker 1: You know, when a woman's pregnant, we say she's expecting that.
Speaker 1: My wife is weeks away from giving birth to our
Speaker 1: third child. Yeah, we can thank God for it. Some
Speaker 1: of you know our story. But we waited eight years
Speaker 1: to have kids. Waiting seasons on God are never wasted seasons,
Speaker 1: and we waited and it makes the miracle that much better.
Speaker 1: But my wife, she just weeks away. July second is
Speaker 1: her due date. We're having a baby girl. You know
Speaker 1: it's gonna be www something. If you've got w name,
Speaker 1: just put it in the chat right now. Just give
Speaker 1: us some names. We need some names. Wein Nona, Winter, Wendy,
Speaker 1: I don't know. How about Wanda Wilkerson. I like that
Speaker 1: right there, just felt the Holy Spirit right there, Wanda Wilkerson,
Speaker 1: Wanda Wesley Wilkerson. What I've learned about women who are expecting,
Speaker 1: women who are waiting for that which is on the
Speaker 1: end side of them to be revealed. What I've learned
Speaker 1: about a woman who's pregnant when she does it the
Speaker 1: right way. How many of you know that expecting a
Speaker 1: child to come and being pregnant is a complete reorder
Speaker 1: to your life. I think many times when it comes
Speaker 1: to us wanting God to reveal the thing that we're
Speaker 1: hoping for, when it comes to us believing God to
Speaker 1: do the thing that we've been praying for, because that's
Speaker 1: what hoping feels like. Hoping feels like waiting. Expectation feels
Speaker 1: like waiting. And you gotta understand that because I've been
Speaker 1: waiting for a long time. I know that's part of
Speaker 1: it that makes it more beautiful, that makes it sweeter.
Speaker 1: But you must understand that there's an order to revelation,
Speaker 1: and if you wait the right way, it's a reorder
Speaker 1: to your life. Because I've learned everybody wants revelation, but
Speaker 1: nobody wants elimination. Yo. The first thing they tell a
Speaker 1: woman when she's pregnant, the first thing, Yo, You're gonna
Speaker 1: have to cut every toxic thing that's going into your body.
Speaker 1: You can't be eight months pregnant smoking cigarettes. You can't
Speaker 1: be drinking at night with nine months being You can't
Speaker 1: be up dancing on the club floor all night long
Speaker 1: nine months. But you can't do that. Why Because the
Speaker 1: thing on the inside of you is so precious, it's
Speaker 1: so beautiful, that you can't risk anything jeopardizing that what
Speaker 1: you're waiting for. I wonder what are you pregnant with today?
Speaker 1: I wonder what are you willing to eliminate from your life.
Speaker 1: God is looking for a clean vessel that he might
Speaker 1: pour his spirit out upon. That you would say, God,
Speaker 1: I'm clean, I'm available. I'm ready to eliminate all that
Speaker 1: you need me to eliminate. I'm ready to stop whatever
Speaker 1: I need to stop in order for you to start
Speaker 1: whatever it is you want to start. Come on, somebody,
Speaker 1: give God some praise. It's a reorder some things I
Speaker 1: gotta eliminate. This is not condemnation. This is just going God.
Speaker 1: The thing that you've placed on the inside of me.
Speaker 1: It's so precious that I have to make a decision
Speaker 1: that I can't keep living that way. That's putting the
Speaker 1: thing on the inside of me at jeopardy. Everybody wants revelation,
Speaker 1: nobody wants preparation. Don't tell me about your expectation. Show
Speaker 1: me your preparation. I wonder to if God fulfills all
Speaker 1: your dreams, would you even be ready for it? Because
Speaker 1: when God comes and knocks on the door of your life,
Speaker 1: you can't say, yo, I'm busy, Come back later. You
Speaker 1: should be living like God is doing what you're believing for.
Speaker 1: You should be living like God is doing what you're
Speaker 1: believing for. If you ever get around pregnant, WM tell
Speaker 1: you what. It's a reorder. My wife isn't this thing
Speaker 1: called nesting. It's real, y'all, cleaning the getting the rooms ready.
Speaker 1: What is she doing? She's preparing for a baby to
Speaker 1: be revealed in the house. This week, our church released
Speaker 1: our very first ever worship project. We look up to
Speaker 1: Elevation Worship and Elevation Church in so many different ways.
Speaker 1: It's a huge miracle and we name the record I
Speaker 1: need Revival. You want to know why, because before we
Speaker 1: as a church say America needs revival or the church
Speaker 1: needs a revival, we have decided in our hearts that
Speaker 1: we would take personal responsibility that before I declared you
Speaker 1: need a revival, how may know I need a revival.
Speaker 1: I need God to do something in me before He
Speaker 1: does something through me. In fact, I got a revelation
Speaker 1: the other day. I'm not praying anymore for revival. I
Speaker 1: just decided that every single day of my life, I'm
Speaker 1: walking into every space. I'm walking into every room with
Speaker 1: a calm confidence, that I am a walking, talking revival. Somebody,
Speaker 1: you're reliable. It's a reorder. Everybody wants revelation, but nobody
Speaker 1: wants frustration. Childbirth is brutal. So I hear holding a baby,
Speaker 1: it's beautiful. How do you give birth? You have to
Speaker 1: keep breathing. You have to keep pushing. You have to
Speaker 1: keep waiting. You have to keep breathing, You have to
Speaker 1: keep pushing. Your frustration is not going to destroy the
Speaker 1: expectation on the inside of you. Keep breathing, keep pushing,
Speaker 1: keep waiting. I felt the spirit of God says, I'm
Speaker 1: up here. If the Lord says it's worth it, it's
Speaker 1: worth it. So live a life worthy of it. Elevation, Church,
Speaker 1: it's worth it. The labor, the pushing, the breathe, it
Speaker 1: is worth it. Live a life worthy of it. Staff
Speaker 1: is worth it. Live a life worthy of it. Campus
Speaker 1: Is it's worth it. Live a life worthy of it.
Speaker 1: You have no idea. All that is being revealed as
Speaker 1: you manage your frustration. I can hear a back of
Speaker 1: hundreds of years before Christ is up on the scene.
Speaker 1: His nation is under siege. He's a prophet, and he's
Speaker 1: looking around and saying, God, When am I going to
Speaker 1: see all that I've been praying for and hoping for
Speaker 1: and believing for. But a back, it says, I heard,
Speaker 1: and my heart pounded, my lips quivered at the sound.
Speaker 1: Decay crept into my bones, and my legs trembled. Yet
Speaker 1: I will wait, someone say, yet, I will wait. Yet,
Speaker 1: I will wait patiently for the day of calamity to
Speaker 1: come on the nation invading us. The pig tree does
Speaker 1: not bud, And though there are no grapes on the vines,
Speaker 1: though the olive crop fails in the fields produce no food,
Speaker 1: though there are no sheep in the pen and no
Speaker 1: cattle in the stalls, Yet I will rejoice in the Lord.
Speaker 1: I will be joyful in God, my Savior. Can we
Speaker 1: just take a five second praise break all of this place.
Speaker 1: I might not have it yet, but I'm believing it's
Speaker 1: on the way. I'm lifting my expectation. I'm raising my expectations.
Speaker 1: It's coming in due season. It's coming in due time.
Speaker 1: My son wild he gets up to that pool deck
Speaker 1: and he gets on his tippy toes, and he puts
Speaker 1: his arms back, and he smiles over at me, and
Speaker 1: he says, Dad, I'm fixing to jump some of you today.
Speaker 1: You might say, Rich, what's wrong with your boy? Does
Speaker 1: he not know that he can't swim? Does he not
Speaker 1: know if he jumps into that water he is going
Speaker 1: to sink to the bottom. I can't explain if he
Speaker 1: knows that or not. What I do know is that
Speaker 1: my son has a revelation that every time he's jumped
Speaker 1: into the deep waters of the pool, his father has
Speaker 1: been right there to rescue him and save me. Come on,
Speaker 1: I came to serve notice on you today that this
Speaker 1: is your season to jump. Come on, this is your
Speaker 1: season to dive in. This is your season to swim.
Speaker 1: Come on, God's doing something bigger, God's doing something better.
Speaker 1: Come on, where are the Saints at today? Go'll lift
Speaker 1: your hands, don't lift your voice. Lift the expectation in
Speaker 1: this room. Maybe I'm gonna jump, Maybe I'm doing into
Speaker 1: the unknown. He'll rescue you. He'll be there. He's never
Speaker 1: failed anyone. He's not gonna start with you. Come on,
Speaker 1: Chris sting it out. Come on, Porson, whatever you got,
Speaker 1: come on from here. Come on, Cordy to his powers working.
Speaker 1: He's small. Did he knows? Oh? Then you ask Steak
Speaker 1: or Benage occord to his pi work in it. He's working.
Speaker 1: He sot to me it's morning. If he hunts, sleep
Speaker 1: jail a cordy to his power working sound smoking, how
Speaker 1: the shoes smarted, steak nage according to his power working
Speaker 1: smart any shop shop jo, You're enough, your enough to shine, shine,
Speaker 1: He's more than enough. He's all that you need. Keep waiting,
Speaker 1: keep breathing. There's a revelation coming. He's about to reveal it.
Speaker 1: What is hope. We don't hope for things that we have.
Speaker 1: We hope for what we do not yet have. There's
Speaker 1: a gap. I know it's frustrating, but you're not quitting today.
Speaker 1: You didn't. You didn't you didn't tune into elevation church
Speaker 1: to quit today. I hear God say, it's time to jump,
Speaker 1: it's time to die, it's time to swim. He will
Speaker 1: be right there to catch sheep. It's worth it. It's
Speaker 1: in the unknown that our God makes himself known. And
Speaker 1: the best days of this house, I just see it.
Speaker 1: The best days of this house are in front of you.
Speaker 1: No eye is seen and no ear has heard what
Speaker 1: God has in store. You're in the right place, at
Speaker 1: the right hour, at the right moment. God has fashioned
Speaker 1: you here. God has brought you here, come back to
Speaker 1: your first love. Stretching season, It's diptoe season, it's leaning season,
Speaker 1: it's arms back season. What's going to happen this week?
Speaker 1: What's God gonna do this week? I know I'm getting
Speaker 1: expectation today, but I'm ready for the frustration tomorrow. It's
Speaker 1: the struggle of today that produces the strength I need
Speaker 1: for tomorrow. I'm leaning in, I'm ready for the fight.
Speaker 1: I'm ready to push in. I'm believing for more, and
Speaker 1: your God is more than enough in that sense. The
Speaker 1: power of the spirit here today. Thank you, Holy Spirit,
Speaker 1: Thank you that you close every one of my gaps.
Speaker 1: If you're here in personally, but even right now online,
Speaker 1: would you just close your eyes? Would you just put
Speaker 1: your hands in a posture to receive. Lots of reasons
Speaker 1: why we raise our hands in church we surrender, But
Speaker 1: a big reason why we raise our hands in church
Speaker 1: is we're saying, God, I give up to give in
Speaker 1: that I might receive all that you have for me.
Speaker 1: I just sink. There's people today that are walking in
Speaker 1: immense frustration, challenged, tempted to lower their standards. The man
Speaker 1: in Act three was meant to be walking, but he
Speaker 1: had been reduced to begging. He doesn't just want to
Speaker 1: change your day, he wants he wants to change your
Speaker 1: life for you here today, and you're struggling challenge today,
Speaker 1: just with your hands up, we just pray for your Lord.
Speaker 1: I just thank you so much for every person in
Speaker 1: this room. I thank you for every person online right now,
Speaker 1: faithfully watching, faithfully participating a part of this house. Lord,
Speaker 1: I pray that the same power that conquered death, hell
Speaker 1: and the grave would transcend right now and meet people
Speaker 1: right where they are. That as we sing this song,
Speaker 1: that you are more than enough. God, I am not enough,
Speaker 1: but you are. And so we believe right now that
Speaker 1: your Holy Spirit is meeting people right where they are.
Speaker 1: And right now today, Jesus, they're being strengthened. They're getting
Speaker 1: a new revelation. Today. They're beginning to see the things
Speaker 1: they've been praying for, the things they've been hoping for. God.
Speaker 1: Today we're ready to reorder our life. God, We're ready
Speaker 1: to change things around. If I got to eliminate something, God,
Speaker 1: I want to start preparing right now. I want to
Speaker 1: manage the frustration I'm breathing I'm leaning in God, Do
Speaker 1: a new thing inside of me. Lord, do a new
Speaker 1: thing inside of me. Strengthen my legs, make me strong
Speaker 1: for the fight. Do a work today, Jesus. Inside of people,
Speaker 1: your heads are bawd, your eyes are closed. If you're
Speaker 1: watching today or here in person, and you've never met
Speaker 1: this Jesus, this God who came from heaven to earth
Speaker 1: that we might have a relationship with him. Here is
Speaker 1: the gospel in a sentence. Jesus Christ came, took everything
Speaker 1: that you deserved so that you could get everything that
Speaker 1: he deserved. And you cannot achieve him. You can only
Speaker 1: receive him. And how do you receive him through belief?
Speaker 1: You must raise your expectation to believe that he is
Speaker 1: who he said that he is, that he loves you,
Speaker 1: and that he's for you. He's not mad at you,
Speaker 1: He's madly in love with you. For God to not
Speaker 1: send his un in the world to condemn the world,
Speaker 1: but to save the world. If he wanted to condemn
Speaker 1: the world, he certainly would have sent a condemner. But
Speaker 1: instead he wanted to save the world. Therefore he sent
Speaker 1: a savior, and he came to close the greatest gap.
Speaker 1: The greatest gap, the most frustrating thing. He came to
Speaker 1: remind you that you were meant for another reality. And
Speaker 1: wherever you're at today, in this room or online, if
Speaker 1: you don't know Jesus on the count three, would just
Speaker 1: be bold? Would you just lift your hand u high enough,
Speaker 1: long enough right there? Online? That's you just that's me
Speaker 1: just in the chat, that's me on the count of three.
Speaker 1: If Jesus is speaking to you now and you want
Speaker 1: today to ask for his forgiveness, to receive his love,
Speaker 1: only count threeould you just let you have ready? One, two, three,
Speaker 1: I that's you. That's me, Richly, that's me. That's me.
Speaker 1: That's me. That's me. That's me. That's me. That's me.
Speaker 1: That's me. Come on, Epham and Elimation Church. When we
Speaker 1: lift our hands fords that if we pray this prayer together,
Speaker 1: we're gonna pray this prayer and then we're gonna sing
Speaker 1: with everything we've gone, pray this prayer out loud and say,
Speaker 1: dear Jesus today, Lord, I surrender. I give in to
Speaker 1: receive all that you have for me. Forgive me God.
Speaker 1: I turned towards you, believing that you have good things
Speaker 1: for me. I believe Jesus you are who you said
Speaker 1: that you are. Today, I wait patiently for all that
Speaker 1: you promised me for. I believe it will be revealed
Speaker 1: in due time in Jesus name. Come on, Elevation Church.
Speaker 1: We put our hands together on can we lift our hands?
Speaker 1: Come on? Can we lift our Thank you for joining us.
Speaker 1: Special thanks to those of you who give generously to
Speaker 1: this ministry. Is because of you that this ministry is possible.
Speaker 1: You can click the link in the description to give
Speaker 1: now or visit Elevation Church dot org slash podcast for
Speaker 1: more information and if you enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe.
Speaker 1: You can share it with your friends. You can click
Speaker 1: the share button, take a screenshot and share it on
Speaker 1: your social stories and tag us at Elevation Church. Thanks
Speaker 1: again for listening. God bless you.