Speaker 1: Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick.
Speaker 2: I'm the pastor of Elevation Church, and this is our
Speaker 2: podcast and I wanted to thank you for joining us today.
Speaker 2: Hope this inspires you. Hope it builds your faith.
Speaker 1: Hope it gives your.
Speaker 2: Perspective to see God has moving in your life.
Speaker 1: Enjoy the message. Would you remain standing for just a
Speaker 1: moment because I just think this is the right posture.
Speaker 1: I want to take a moment to honor this house.
Speaker 1: I am grateful for the faith of Elevation Church. I'm
Speaker 1: grateful for the faith of this house that sent riple
Speaker 1: riple waves around the globe and it's reached our house
Speaker 1: in Miami. Our church is stronger because of your faith
Speaker 1: and because of the faith of your leaders, Pastor Stephen
Speaker 1: and Holly Ferdick. How many of you love your pastors?
Speaker 1: Come on, can we put our hands together for them?
Speaker 1: When I think about Pastor Stephen, I think of a
Speaker 1: pastor to pastors, the way that he has led us,
Speaker 1: that he's spoken over our lives in so many different seasons.
Speaker 1: I'm constantly inspired. How when it comes to Pastor Stevens
Speaker 1: walk with God. There's always more, There's more, there's more, hope,
Speaker 1: there's more faith, there's more creativity, and it inspires me
Speaker 1: to dig deep and to believe God that there's always more.
Speaker 1: But I'm also really grateful for Pastor Holly. Come on,
Speaker 1: do you guys love Pastor Holly. She's one of my
Speaker 1: dearest friends in the world. And when she preaches the
Speaker 1: Word of God, she preaches with power and authority. Shains
Speaker 1: are broken. But it's not just what she says on
Speaker 1: the Pulpit's the way that she leads her life. It's
Speaker 1: the way that she leads her family. She's taught me
Speaker 1: what it means to be a great friend, to stand
Speaker 1: with people on mountaintops and in valleys. And I just
Speaker 1: believe the best is yet to come for this house.
Speaker 1: Come on, if you believe that today with you picks
Speaker 1: her hands together with me, I believe it with all
Speaker 1: Oh come on, elevation, I believe it with all my heart.
Speaker 1: And before you're seated, I want to take a moment
Speaker 1: because I'm fully aware that people walked in this room
Speaker 1: or are watching online today and you are hanging on
Speaker 1: by a thread. And I want to speak to your
Speaker 1: soul today that before we even open up the Word
Speaker 1: of God, if you feel like you are stuck in
Speaker 1: the middle of a wilderness, if you feel like you
Speaker 1: don't know what to do, where to go, or how
Speaker 1: to even express the state of your heart today, if
Speaker 1: you feel like, for the first time in your life,
Speaker 1: you wonder if this whole thing is real, I want
Speaker 1: to remind you today. I want to tell you today
Speaker 1: that God sent me here with a message in my heart,
Speaker 1: and that he brought you here because He wants to
Speaker 1: meet you right where you are. If anybody can testify
Speaker 1: that He did it for you, come on pict your
Speaker 1: hands together. We serve a faithful God and he sees
Speaker 1: you today. Hey, why don't you high five your neighbor,
Speaker 1: grab your seat, grab your bibles. You can turn with
Speaker 1: me to Isaiah chapter forty, verse thirty one. I brings
Speaker 1: so much love from Miami and a little bit of
Speaker 1: sunshine for you. Our church VUK church. We started it
Speaker 1: ten years ago and God's been doing miracles. But I
Speaker 1: believe that what God is doing in twenty twenty five
Speaker 1: is unlike anything that's ever been seen in history. He's
Speaker 1: doing a new thing. My husband rich since his love,
Speaker 1: I've got four babies that I adore. Wyat wild Whalen
Speaker 1: and Wolfgang seven, five, three and six months old. Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: oh yeah, big families. We know there's a big party
Speaker 1: when you're a part of a big family. You may
Speaker 1: be wondering where are you actually from, Don Shri because
Speaker 1: that accent does not sound like Miami. I am from Louisiana.
Speaker 1: I am a rage in Cajun. And you also may
Speaker 1: be wondering what kind of name is Don Sherie, Like,
Speaker 1: where did that come from? Well, the story my parents
Speaker 1: told me is that my dad wanted to name me
Speaker 1: down my mom wanted to name me Sharie. And so
Speaker 1: as they were sitting in the hospital room trying to
Speaker 1: figure out who is this girl? The day I was born,
Speaker 1: my mom put the names together, wrote a love letter
Speaker 1: from me and tucked it under the pillow where my
Speaker 1: dad was sleeping on the couch in the hospital. And
Speaker 1: Don Scherie's been my name ever since. That same day
Speaker 1: that they named me is the day that they gave
Speaker 1: me a life promise. And that's the scripture that I
Speaker 1: want to read to you today. Isaiah forty thirty one.
Speaker 1: They that wait upon the Lord, somebody say wait, they
Speaker 1: shall renew their strength, They shall melt up with wings
Speaker 1: like eagles. They shall run and not be weary, they
Speaker 1: shall walk and not faint. I want to talk to
Speaker 1: you for the next few minutes from this thought. While
Speaker 1: you were waiting, Let's pray God, thank you for this moment,
Speaker 1: thank you for this house. Thank you Lord, for what
Speaker 1: you are doing in our hearts. Today. We pause, and Lord,
Speaker 1: just like we sang, we breathe you in. Have your
Speaker 1: way and our heart, Oh God, for you and you alone,
Speaker 1: our souls wait. I pray that I would disappear, and Lord,
Speaker 1: that our eyes would behold your promise, that our hearts
Speaker 1: would be filled with hope. Today. We love you, Jesus,
Speaker 1: We're here for you. Come on, And everybody said, all
Speaker 1: one more time. Everybody said amen. Well. Earlier this year
Speaker 1: in Miami, my husband had his birthday. He turned forty one,
Speaker 1: and we had a family dinner as you do. We
Speaker 1: came back to the house after dinner and we set
Speaker 1: out on our back dock in that humid Miami heat,
Speaker 1: swatting the mosquitoes, just trying to have a calm conversation.
Speaker 1: And on his birthday, we usually have a tradition to
Speaker 1: start telling memories from over the years, and we started
Speaker 1: sitting on that back deck, and we started early in
Speaker 1: the night, and we went late into the night telling memories.
Speaker 1: And somewhere in that conversation it dawned on me, Rich,
Speaker 1: I think that we cele debraded your birthday together. Twenty
Speaker 1: years ago. We were in Cambridge, Cambridge University, we were
Speaker 1: studying together, and I actually think I have a journal
Speaker 1: to prove it. And I ran inside my house and
Speaker 1: sure enough, I went through all my bookcases and I
Speaker 1: found it. And I came running back out on the
Speaker 1: deck almost near midnight. I said, I found it, and
Speaker 1: we started to open it up, and I had so
Speaker 1: many different memories. But as I started to read this journal,
Speaker 1: I was laughing at the frame of mind of my
Speaker 1: twenty year old self. I got to the end of
Speaker 1: the journal from Cambridge and I was coming back to
Speaker 1: Louisiana for the summer, and I had made a list
Speaker 1: of twenty things that I wanted to accomplish over the summer.
Speaker 1: I mean, I brought this journal all the way from Miami.
Speaker 1: Is anybody would anybody want to know what a twenty
Speaker 1: year old college student wishes to accomplish in one summer?
Speaker 1: You want to hear it? Okay, This is about to
Speaker 1: blow your mind. Things I want to do this summer.
Speaker 1: Number one read the entire Bible. Might job Number two
Speaker 1: learn Spanish. Now, God was trying to prepare me for Miami.
Speaker 1: Number three. Go to all the boys' games. Now five boys,
Speaker 1: I mean my brothers. And that may seem like an
Speaker 1: easy feet except for I have five brothers. That's a
Speaker 1: lot of games in the summer. Number four. Become a
Speaker 1: domestic goddess. That was a popular book. Okay, that has
Speaker 1: just been released. Number five Read an etiquette book. Number six.
Speaker 1: Have a good job. We don't want an ordinary job.
Speaker 1: Can I get an amen? We want a good job? Right?
Speaker 1: I do want a good job for the summer. Number seven.
Speaker 1: Visit my best friend from college. Number eight exercise dash
Speaker 1: arms defined. Number nine, Sing in the choir. Number ten,
Speaker 1: Get involved with youth ministry. Hello. Number eleven. Record a
Speaker 1: worship album. Yeah, let's throw that one in. Yes. Number thirteen.
Speaker 1: Surprise Mom and Dad on their twenty fifth anniversary with
Speaker 1: a love song concert with my brothers. Number fourteen. Interview
Speaker 1: my grandpa and my grandma about their life story. Number fifteen.
Speaker 1: Hang out with my great grandfather and my great grandmother.
Speaker 1: Number sixteen, go to the hospitals with my papa to
Speaker 1: pray for people. Number seventeen, make a scrap book of
Speaker 1: the summer. And number eighteen Can I get a drum roll? Please?
Speaker 1: We've got none other than orthodonist. Figure out a way
Speaker 1: to straighten teeth without bracket braces. If you think that's
Speaker 1: a pretty good list, come on, pick your hands together.
Speaker 1: That's a pretty restive list, friends, What was I thinking?
Speaker 1: That is a setup for disappointment. You've got eighteen things
Speaker 1: that you want to accomplish in one summer. That is
Speaker 1: not a list for a summer. That is a list
Speaker 1: for a decade twenty years later to the year. I
Speaker 1: am just now stepping into some of the things that
Speaker 1: I put on that list. I'm just now stepping into them.
Speaker 1: And friends, I don't know if I'll ever be a
Speaker 1: domestic goddess. Like everyone's story, mine has involved years and
Speaker 1: years of waiting. I know that you have your list too.
Speaker 1: We all have our list of what we are waiting
Speaker 1: to step into, waiting not just to step into, but
Speaker 1: what we're waiting to finish. And when we look at
Speaker 1: the story of God, we see that God uses large
Speaker 1: spans of time, not just a single summer to accomplish
Speaker 1: His will in his people and in your very life. Today.
Speaker 1: Come on, if you believe it today, why don't you
Speaker 1: put your hands together. We serve a God that is
Speaker 1: faithful every step of the way. And Isaiah prophesies they
Speaker 1: they that wait for the Lord, They that wait for
Speaker 1: the Lord, shall renew their strength. This is not a
Speaker 1: birth verse. This is a life verse, because I need
Speaker 1: the promise that as I wait upon the Lord, he
Speaker 1: will renew me, not just to start the journey, but
Speaker 1: right there in the middle of the journey and until
Speaker 1: I see him face to face. And I don't know
Speaker 1: about you, but I'm right there in the middle. I
Speaker 1: turned forty this year. You know, scripturally forty represents trials
Speaker 1: and testing. Oh praise God, what a great word to
Speaker 1: speak over my life this year. That's exactly what I
Speaker 1: was going for. But you look throughout scripture and you
Speaker 1: see forty represent trials and testing. You can look at
Speaker 1: the life of Moses. You know, Moses spent forty years
Speaker 1: in Egypt. Then he spent forty years in the wilderness.
Speaker 1: And you may think he was at the end, but
Speaker 1: he has a burning bush experience that then catapults him
Speaker 1: into the most important forty years of his life as
Speaker 1: he leads God's people. And you may be like Moses.
Speaker 1: You may be like Moses, thinking, oh, I'm at the end,
Speaker 1: the great things of God are behind me, when you
Speaker 1: have no idea You're just about to step into the
Speaker 1: very calling and purpose of God that He ordained for
Speaker 1: you before your life began. You have no idea what
Speaker 1: He's prepared for you. He prepared it for you. Or
Speaker 1: maybe you know good and well that you're in the middle.
Speaker 1: You know that you are right there in the middle
Speaker 1: of the story, and friends, you are miserable. Can I
Speaker 1: tell you today that I operated with this perspective for
Speaker 1: many seasons in my life, moving to a city where
Speaker 1: I didn't know anyone, walking through eight years of infertility,
Speaker 1: starting a church. There have been many seasons of waiting
Speaker 1: that I just wanted to fast forward through, that I
Speaker 1: just wanted to get to the other side, though I
Speaker 1: may not have admitted it or even been able to
Speaker 1: articulate it until God got a hold of my heart
Speaker 1: with a game changer. Waiting is not a season. Waiting
Speaker 1: is life. So the question you and I have before
Speaker 1: us is this, will we live in the wait because
Speaker 1: there is life, and life abundantly, not at the finish line,
Speaker 1: not ten years from now, but right here, right now.
Speaker 1: If you believe it today, somebody give God praise. In
Speaker 1: this house we can live while we wait. Waiting isn't
Speaker 1: a curse. Waiting is an invitation. It's an invitation from
Speaker 1: the throne room of heaven. Charles Swindle once put it
Speaker 1: like this. We don't like waiting, but that's when God
Speaker 1: does some of his best work on our souls, some
Speaker 1: of his best work. Hold up, wait, are you serious?
Speaker 1: God does some of his best work while we wait. Well,
Speaker 1: if that's the truth today, then how do we actually wait?
Speaker 1: How do we live in the wait? How do we
Speaker 1: embrace the weight? And if waiting is truly life, then
Speaker 1: how do we live right here, right now? Back in Louisiana,
Speaker 1: I grew up with bonfires. Now I've had to explain
Speaker 1: this to the people in Miami because bonfires are illegal
Speaker 1: in Miami. But I have hope in you today. I
Speaker 1: believe you know exactly what I'm talking about when I
Speaker 1: say a bonfire. This is my favorite Friday night pastime.
Speaker 1: We would pull the trucks up, We would pull the
Speaker 1: chairs out, you get a lot of wood, you light
Speaker 1: that thing on fire, and that bonfire is the center
Speaker 1: of attention. Everyone is facing the fire, and as it burns,
Speaker 1: you make memories and you don't want the night to
Speaker 1: end because you've been looking forward to Friday night all
Speaker 1: week long. Can I just tell you today, we are
Speaker 1: conditioned in culture to live for the bonfire moments. We
Speaker 1: are conditioned in culture to wait for the bonfire moments
Speaker 1: that say, Oh, I'm just gonna wait until I get
Speaker 1: to the other side of this trial. I'm just gonna
Speaker 1: wait until I get through this wilderness. When my life
Speaker 1: is a bonfire, when I'm blazing with the glory of God,
Speaker 1: light me up. I'm on fire. But friends, what if
Speaker 1: your walk with God was purposed to look more like
Speaker 1: smoke than a flame, because you seem I grew up
Speaker 1: with bonfires. I love bonfires. But my husband, when I
Speaker 1: met and when we were seventeen, he loves to burn incense.
Speaker 1: For the last twenty three years, we've been burning incense
Speaker 1: in our house. People walk into my home to this
Speaker 1: day and the first thing they say, they don't notice
Speaker 1: the furniture, they don't notice the decor. They say, what
Speaker 1: is that smell. It's not what they see, it's what
Speaker 1: they sense. It's not anything that they notice with their
Speaker 1: physical eyes, but it's a fragrance that is intoxicating. They
Speaker 1: can't even find out where it is or where it's burning,
Speaker 1: but they notice it from the moment they walk through
Speaker 1: the door. You know, the word incense comes from the
Speaker 1: Latin word incend there and it simply means to burn.
Speaker 1: Do you know? The incense is found throughout the scriptures
Speaker 1: that in the very beginning that God speaks to Moses
Speaker 1: in the books of Exodus, and he tells Moses, he says,
Speaker 1: I want you to set up an incense altar in
Speaker 1: my house, and every morning and every evening, I want
Speaker 1: you Aaron the priest, to bring an incense offering. So
Speaker 1: every morning there would be an altar in the Holy Place,
Speaker 1: and in the Holy Place, Aarin the priest would bring
Speaker 1: the incense and he would pour the incense on the altar.
Speaker 1: And as he poured the incense on the altar, on
Speaker 1: the heat source, that is the altar, an amazing thing
Speaker 1: would happen. A fragrance would begin to rise, smoke would
Speaker 1: begin to rise, and Jewish tradition tells us that this
Speaker 1: smoke didn't just fill the Holy Place, but it filled
Speaker 1: the entire surrounding area up to a quarter of a mile.
Speaker 1: The smoke was so thick that every single person who
Speaker 1: came to worship God, as they worship God, the fragrance
Speaker 1: would soap into their clothes and they would go about
Speaker 1: their daily duties carrying the fragrance of God. The molk
Speaker 1: represents the worship and the prayers of God ascending to
Speaker 1: Heaven every morning and every evening. That as you laid
Speaker 1: down your little what you think doesn't have any worth,
Speaker 1: what you think isn't a bonfire blazing with the glory
Speaker 1: of God. I've got news for you today. All He
Speaker 1: asks for you to do is release what is in
Speaker 1: your hand, and it becomes a fragrant sacrifice that permeates
Speaker 1: the air, touching everything in its midst. You have the
Speaker 1: ability today in the weight to bring your little and
Speaker 1: you can watch it rise. The priests would set their
Speaker 1: incense on the fire, and when they did, it would
Speaker 1: release an aroma and the smoke would lift high towards Heaven.
Speaker 1: Scripture us that our life is like a vapor. It's
Speaker 1: a vapor. It's here today, it's gone tomorrow a lot
Speaker 1: like the smoke of incense. Here's the invitation. Bring what
Speaker 1: you have to God in the weight and watch as
Speaker 1: he transforms it, because the powerful thing is that incense.
Speaker 1: It is not the fire, but when it's placed on
Speaker 1: the heat source, the very chemical components of what is
Speaker 1: laid down transforms into a completely different thing. You are
Speaker 1: looking at your little in the weight, going, this is
Speaker 1: all I'll ever have, God is going, Will you release
Speaker 1: it to me and watch what I can do with it?
Speaker 1: Because they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength.
Speaker 1: They will mount up with wings alike eagles and romans.
Speaker 1: Reminds us. Therefore, I urge you, brothers and so, in
Speaker 1: view of God's mercy, to offer your body as living sacrifice,
Speaker 1: holy and pleasing to God. This is your true and
Speaker 1: proper worship. You're a living sacrifice. You want to know
Speaker 1: how to live in the weight. You gotta lay your
Speaker 1: life down as a sacrifice, because it's only when you
Speaker 1: become a sacrifice that you actually live. You see, we
Speaker 1: want the fire, but God says, I want the surrender.
Speaker 1: We want to receive, but God says, first, you've gotta
Speaker 1: lay it all down. We want to see the end
Speaker 1: of the story. But God says, will you see what
Speaker 1: I want to do right here, right now, in and
Speaker 1: through you come on, If anybody's got a praise in
Speaker 1: the house, why don't you lift up a shout of
Speaker 1: honor to God. He's here right now, He's here in
Speaker 1: the weight, he's here in the wait. It's a slow
Speaker 1: burn for those that wait. I grew up celebrating the
Speaker 1: fourth July with a million fireworks. My brothers and I.
Speaker 1: We jump in the car, we drive down the street.
Speaker 1: Stop it a little set up on the side of
Speaker 1: the road by everything that we could afford. Come back
Speaker 1: to the house and set those babies off. Now, the
Speaker 1: scariest thought is when you light a firework and then
Speaker 1: you step back and you're waiting for that thing to
Speaker 1: pop off, and you go, is that thing lit? And
Speaker 1: what do you do? You don't run up. You tiptoe up,
Speaker 1: cause you know it may be a slow burn, but
Speaker 1: it is burning towards an expected outcome that is gonna
Speaker 1: exchange everything. I want to speak faith to your heart today,
Speaker 1: your life, your faith, your perseverance, your trials, your wilderness
Speaker 1: is not the end game. You are burning towards an
Speaker 1: expected outcome. God has already authored the end of this story,
Speaker 1: and you don't have to wonder if he's gonna carry
Speaker 1: it through, because he comes through every single time. But
Speaker 1: maybe today you're tiptoeing forward and it's not with expectation,
Speaker 1: it's with a heart that has become disappointed in the way.
Speaker 1: Have you ever wondered if your faith was still ignited?
Speaker 1: Have you ever wondered if you actually have what it
Speaker 1: takes to get through the wilderness of the weight, to
Speaker 1: get through the slow burn when life seems to be
Speaker 1: crawling and all you want to do is accelerate and
Speaker 1: move forward. I've got good news for you today. You
Speaker 1: may feel burned out, You may feel like you don't
Speaker 1: have what it takes. You may be asking yourself today,
Speaker 1: is my faith still lit? Good news for you today
Speaker 1: is you're not the fire, and you can get reignited
Speaker 1: every single moment of the journey. All you gotta do
Speaker 1: is get back to that altar and lay your life
Speaker 1: down once again, and the ignition is on. The fire
Speaker 1: starts to blaze, the faith starts to rise. Today, God says,
Speaker 1: I want to light the fire within you every moment
Speaker 1: of the slow burn, Come on giving praise in this house.
Speaker 1: He's with you. He's with you, He's with you. You
Speaker 1: don't want to be the fire, then the pressure is
Speaker 1: on you to sustain it. No, we're not the fire.
Speaker 1: He's the fire. He's the all consuming fire. We just
Speaker 1: bring our little every morning, throughout the day, and every evening,
Speaker 1: and we watched as he transforms it. They that wait
Speaker 1: again and again and again and again. As you find
Speaker 1: yourself surrendering to him, you will renew your strength. But
Speaker 1: what is this offering that we bring? I think it's
Speaker 1: interesting what God tells Moses to bring. Exodus, chapter thirty,
Speaker 1: verse thirty five speaks very specifically of what our offering
Speaker 1: should be. The fragrant sacrifice of incense was to be
Speaker 1: three things, salted and pure and sacred. Friends. If God
Speaker 1: said the offering should be salted, pure and sacred in Exodus,
Speaker 1: I think it's pretty incredible that today that's what our
Speaker 1: very lives should also be. That our very lives, our
Speaker 1: offering is sacred. Friends, There is only one blend that
Speaker 1: was allowed in God's house. You couldn't burn it anywhere else.
Speaker 1: If you were burning in your house, you got cut off.
Speaker 1: But I know when it comes to my offering for God,
Speaker 1: there's a peace in my heart that only belongs to him.
Speaker 1: He is the central focus of my life. That sacred
Speaker 1: space is reserved for him and him alone, and in
Speaker 1: the weight I keep him front and center. It's not
Speaker 1: just sacred, it's pure. See our offering to God. It
Speaker 1: isn't a supplement in the slow burn. It's not just
Speaker 1: a piece of encouragement or a crutch. No, friends, this
Speaker 1: is pure and complete surrendered to God. This is not
Speaker 1: Jesus pless, self help, Jesus pless, horoscopes, Jesus pless this
Speaker 1: or Jesus pless that. It's Jesus and only Jesus that
Speaker 1: breaks the shames, that creates the community of life, that
Speaker 1: frees me from my bondage. It's a pure sacrifice. But
Speaker 1: it's not just sacred, and it's not just pure. It's salted.
Speaker 1: Somebody says, salted salt is actually the ingredient that allows
Speaker 1: it to keep on burning. Salt is a preserver. The
Speaker 1: salt keeps it as a steady slow burn that lasts
Speaker 1: and elongates the fragrance impact. God says that we're the
Speaker 1: salt of the earth. Maybe today in the slow burn,
Speaker 1: you go. I don't know. I feel like I've lost
Speaker 1: my saltiness. Do you know how long salt lasts? In fact,
Speaker 1: let me ask you, when does salt expire? Have you
Speaker 1: ever googled it? I did. Never. Salt never expires. You
Speaker 1: think you're past your prime, You're just getting started. You're
Speaker 1: gonna be fresh at twenty, fresh at thirty, fresh at forty, freship,
Speaker 1: fifty freshed sixty every season of your life, your offering
Speaker 1: is gonna bring a freshness to the world. You were
Speaker 1: created to last because your very life is a preserver,
Speaker 1: and as you lay it on the altar, the fragrance
Speaker 1: is released. Friends, I came to encourage you in the
Speaker 1: slow burn of life. While you are waiting right here,
Speaker 1: right now, there is a fragrance to your faith. Smell
Speaker 1: has saying power. It has in aroma. Did you know
Speaker 1: that your nose has the ability to decipher over one
Speaker 1: trillion different sense and that sent is most closely tied
Speaker 1: out of all your senses, to your memory. So God
Speaker 1: was doing something, wasn't he? With that incense offering. Every
Speaker 1: time you smell that aroma, you're gonna think of the
Speaker 1: worship of God. Every time you smell that aroma. You're
Speaker 1: gonna think of the prayers and the dependence upon the Father.
Speaker 1: There is a fragrance today to your faith. This past month,
Speaker 1: I had some interviews in Nashville. I wrote my first book.
Speaker 1: It's called Slowburn, and I had the title over ten
Speaker 1: years ago, but I've been waiting because it was in
Speaker 1: the waiting that the message was actually written. And I
Speaker 1: was in Nashville doing some interviews for Slowburn and I've
Speaker 1: my youngest son, five months old with me, and we
Speaker 1: got to the airport and I had rented a car
Speaker 1: and I went to pick up my car. It was
Speaker 1: gonna be a nice car. As I opened up the car,
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, this fragrance hit me. Woo. They
Speaker 1: had been burning something and it wasn't incence. I am like,
Speaker 1: oh my goodness. I try to get in that car.
Speaker 1: I'm like, my baby cannot smell this. But I had
Speaker 1: to go straight from the airport to the interviews, so
Speaker 1: I cranked the windows down and I'm driving down the
Speaker 1: street and I'm just like, oh Lord help me. I'm like,
Speaker 1: when I get there for this interview, they're gonna smell me,
Speaker 1: and I'm gonna get out of the car and say, hey,
Speaker 1: I'm here for the interview on my new book. It's
Speaker 1: called slow Burn. I'm sitting in my car. I'm like,
Speaker 1: I don't even know the person who is in this
Speaker 1: car before me. I've never even seen them. They're not
Speaker 1: even with me today, and yet their life is getting
Speaker 1: on me. And today, all of us we can look
Speaker 1: at our own life and we carry the fragrance of
Speaker 1: generational trauma, of labels that people have placed on us,
Speaker 1: on pain and circumstances that were far beyond our control.
Speaker 1: And that person isn't even in our life anymore, but
Speaker 1: the fragrance, the fragrance remains. But I'm so grateful today
Speaker 1: that we too can say, like Paul, thanks be to
Speaker 1: God who always leads us to triumph and through spreads
Speaker 1: the fragrance of the knowledge of Christ everywhere, because it's
Speaker 1: at the name of Jesus that old things pass away.
Speaker 1: Let me say it this way. Old fragrances pass away,
Speaker 1: old labels pass away, old generational curses pass away. And
Speaker 1: at the name of Jesus, you now bear a fragrance
Speaker 1: of faith, of joy, of peace, of forgiveness, of long suffering.
Speaker 1: In the slow Burn You've got a sweet fragrance of
Speaker 1: the strength of Almighty God. Oh, somebody praise him in
Speaker 1: this house. You are marked. You are marked because Jesus
Speaker 1: he bade the ultimate sacrifice. You see this picture of
Speaker 1: the incense offering in Exodus. It's just a parable of
Speaker 1: the reality of heaven. Because Jesus two thousand years ago
Speaker 1: came to this earth. He laid his very life down.
Speaker 1: He didn't offer instance. He offered his own blood in
Speaker 1: the Holy of Holies. And when he said it is finished,
Speaker 1: we know that for every person who puts their faith
Speaker 1: and trust in Jesus, that our life is marked by
Speaker 1: the very fragrance of God. And when you lay down
Speaker 1: your little on the altar, when you surrender your life
Speaker 1: to Him, in the slow burn, in the wilderness, in
Speaker 1: the waiting, while you are waiting, a beautiful exchange happens.
Speaker 1: He will give you beauty for your ashes. You feel
Speaker 1: burned out. He wants to give you beauty for your ashes.
Speaker 1: He will give you the oil of joy for your mourning.
Speaker 1: He will give you a garment of praise for your
Speaker 1: spirit of despair. If you just say, all I have
Speaker 1: are tears today, he says, those who sow in tears,
Speaker 1: we'll reap with shouts of joy. His name is Jesus, Jesus, Jeesus, Jeeesus.
Speaker 1: There's just something of that that name. You're my master.
Speaker 3: Nice save you, Jeesus, like the fragrance after the rain.
Speaker 3: Oh Jeesus, he's my Jesus.
Speaker 1: He's joy Jeesus. Let all heaven under earth pro clue keezay,
Speaker 1: kingdoms shell passit that there's something that that name. You see.
Speaker 1: I don't think it's gonna be what you wear that
Speaker 1: people say there's something about her. I don't think it's
Speaker 1: gonna be your house, or the car you drive, or
Speaker 1: the label that goes in front of your name. I
Speaker 1: think people are gonna look at you and say there's
Speaker 1: something about her. There's something about him. I can't see it,
Speaker 1: but I sense it, and I gotta know what it is.
Speaker 1: Because you carry the fragrance of the hope of the
Speaker 1: risen Savior, and with that out the word, you are
Speaker 1: drawing people to the very life that you have found. Oh,
Speaker 1: given praise in this house. There's something about that name.
Speaker 1: There's something about that name. Today you can make an exchange.
Speaker 1: They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength.
Speaker 1: They shall mount up with wings like eagles. When you
Speaker 1: lay it down, you rise. When you lay it down,
Speaker 1: you rise. I'm reminded that he says like an eagle.
Speaker 1: Why does God say like an eagle, the regal king
Speaker 1: of the skies. When you study eagles, it's really interesting
Speaker 1: that they've got one of the largest wingspans out of
Speaker 1: all the birds, but they don't use those wings to
Speaker 1: keep themselves up in the air for five to eight
Speaker 1: hours without touching down. Yeah, the littler birds can just
Speaker 1: beat their wings trying to stay a flight, But the
Speaker 1: eagle catches wind, the eagle source and that you will
Speaker 1: rarely see an egle beat its wings because it utilizes
Speaker 1: the wind to carry it. I'm talking about the breath
Speaker 1: of God, the wind of God, the ruok Numa. I'm
Speaker 1: talking about the wind that visited the upper room two
Speaker 1: thousand years ago and ignited the local church. That fills
Speaker 1: you and I the day that we don't have to strive,
Speaker 1: we don't have to work our way into the power
Speaker 1: and the authority of God, but we can catch wind.
Speaker 1: Come on giving praise in the house. Are you weary?
Speaker 1: Are you heavy laden? He says, I will give you rest.
Speaker 1: Then I'm not giving you rest by grounding you. I'm
Speaker 1: giving you rest by lifting you. I've got a wind
Speaker 1: that is about to sweep into your spirit and lift
Speaker 1: you up to a higher ground for a higher view.
Speaker 1: So you're not looking up at your mountains any longer.
Speaker 1: You don't feel like a grasshopper looking up at the big,
Speaker 1: big boulders of life, but rather you're looking down going
Speaker 1: the things. They used to be big and intimidate my life. Oh,
Speaker 1: now they're small because I can see the land, and
Speaker 1: the land is mine. You promised it. I'm gonna take it. Oh,
Speaker 1: come on, if you'd say I'm taking it, why don't
Speaker 1: you give away? In this house, he's gonna lift you.
Speaker 1: He's gonna lift you. They that wait upon the Lord,
Speaker 1: wait upon the Lord. In my waiting, eight years of infertility.
Speaker 1: In the middle of my waiting, someone spoke a word
Speaker 1: over me. They said this to me. They said, I
Speaker 1: was in an atmosphere of faith, just like this. I
Speaker 1: was seated in one of the rows, and a woman
Speaker 1: i'd never met sat next to me, and in a
Speaker 1: moment of prayer, she grabbed my hand and she whispered
Speaker 1: in my ear. She said, you are gonna travel the
Speaker 1: world preaching the Gospel with a baby in one hand
Speaker 1: and a Bible in the other. I didn't go home
Speaker 1: and take a pregnancy test and find out I was pregnant.
Speaker 1: I carried that word in my heart for years. I
Speaker 1: tucked it away. I didn't know what to do with it,
Speaker 1: said God, I'm gonna keep trusting you. For years, I
Speaker 1: walked through the weight, wondering, God, is this going to happen?
Speaker 1: And eight years in eight years in God did a miracle.
Speaker 1: God gave me my first son, Wyat Wesley Wilkerson. But
Speaker 1: he didn't stop there, because then God gave me a
Speaker 1: second son. Then God gave me a daughter, Wail and
Speaker 1: Wesley the joy of my heart, lady. And this year,
Speaker 1: at the age of forty, friends, I got the shock
Speaker 1: of my life. Because we serve a God that redeems time.
Speaker 1: We serve a God that is not confined by time.
Speaker 1: It's a tool that he uses, He created it. It's his.
Speaker 1: He can do anything that he wants, any moment that
Speaker 1: he wants. And let me tell you, as you wait
Speaker 1: upon the Lord, he's still doing me the miracles. He's
Speaker 1: still healing, he's still restoring, he's still bringing new life.
Speaker 1: I have to stay true to my testimony. I came
Speaker 1: here to declare to you that God has not forsaken you.
Speaker 1: He has not left you, He has not forgotten you.
Speaker 1: His eye is always on you while you were waiting.
Speaker 1: He's been working while you were waiting. He's been lifting
Speaker 1: you to see a higher view, not just your own life,
Speaker 1: but to see the story that He is telling throughout history.
Speaker 1: And little boy, this is your testimony already. They that
Speaker 1: weigh upon the Lord, it's my life, first passed down
Speaker 1: from Isaiah, and now I pass it to you. They
Speaker 1: that weigh upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They
Speaker 1: will mount up with wings like eagles. They will run
Speaker 1: and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint.
Speaker 1: Come on, if that's the promise for your life, will
Speaker 1: you give God praise. The truth is today that some
Speaker 1: of you in this room you're going don shri But
Speaker 1: that miracle hasn't come to pass for me. Well, I
Speaker 1: want to tell you that I didn't have the revelation
Speaker 1: of living in the wait. Once I held my son
Speaker 1: for the first time, that he met me right in
Speaker 1: the eight years of waiting, and he showed me what
Speaker 1: living looks like. He showed me that I have a
Speaker 1: testimony far before I hold my baby in my arms.
Speaker 1: But just like the maketriarchs and the patriarchs of our faith,
Speaker 1: that they greeted their inheritance from Afar, that they died
Speaker 1: while still believing that they did not hold in their
Speaker 1: hands what was promised, but rather they saw through the
Speaker 1: lens of eternity, and they greeted their inheritance from Afar.
Speaker 1: I read that in the Weight, and the words leapt
Speaker 1: off the page, and I got a picture for my weight.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, my arms were empty. I didn't have a baby.
Speaker 1: But those arms that are empty, they make gray hands
Speaker 1: of worship to wave through the lens of faith and say,
Speaker 1: you've lifted me high enough not just to see this life,
Speaker 1: but to see eternity that awaits, where there will be
Speaker 1: no pain, there will be no tears, there will be
Speaker 1: no sorrow, and there will be no unmet longing in
Speaker 1: my life. Because while you were waiting, he was renewing you.
Speaker 1: And while you were waiting, every step of the way
Speaker 1: towards eternity, you were being lifted on the wings of eagles.
Speaker 1: While you were waiting, you would run, not grow weary.
Speaker 1: While you were waiting, you would walk and not faint. Today,
Speaker 1: the spirit of God says to you, my grace is
Speaker 1: sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.
Speaker 1: You bring your little to me, and you've watched me
Speaker 1: transform you. Right here, right now, Somebody give God praise
Speaker 1: in this house. He's faithful, He's able. Would you just
Speaker 1: stand to your feet in this room and bow your heads,
Speaker 1: close your eyes. There are people in this room that
Speaker 1: would say, don Shri, I'm in the way. You're watching
Speaker 1: online today, Don Shri. I'm in the way, and it
Speaker 1: feels like I'm in exile. It feels like I'm in
Speaker 1: a wilderness. I'm peer holding on. I don't think I
Speaker 1: have the strength. You're right, you don't. But he does,
Speaker 1: and He has brought you to this moment because he
Speaker 1: adores you. Before your life began, he ordained you to
Speaker 1: be filled with the wind of his spirit, to be
Speaker 1: lifted to a higher view above your obstacles and impossibilities,
Speaker 1: and to know that as his child, he will faithfully
Speaker 1: leave you every step of the way until you are
Speaker 1: face to face. Today, I want to pray first of
Speaker 1: all for people in this room who would You're just
Speaker 1: weary you're watching online and you are exhausted with life.
Speaker 1: You've been beating your wings, You've been given it all
Speaker 1: you got, But today you're gonna catch wind. If that's you,
Speaker 1: I want to pray for you. Would you just lift
Speaker 1: your hand, If you'd say, I need the renewal of
Speaker 1: the spirit of God right there in your car and
Speaker 1: your home and your workplace, Just acknowledge God's presence that
Speaker 1: is there with you right now. If that's you, just
Speaker 1: lift up both of your hands. Lord, Today we surrender
Speaker 1: our lives. Lord. Thank you that every day, every moment,
Speaker 1: morning and evening and throughout our days, we can come
Speaker 1: to you, the all consuming Fire and God when we
Speaker 1: feel like we are at our end. Lord, I thank
Speaker 1: you God that you don't snuff us out. But Lord,
Speaker 1: you light us once again with your faithfulness. You fill
Speaker 1: us with the power that conquered the grave, the power
Speaker 1: of your spirit, the power of God. Lord. I thank
Speaker 1: you that right now, as people have their hands raised, Lord,
Speaker 1: you're meeting them right where they are. Lord, You're renewing
Speaker 1: their dreams. You're renewing their heart. God, You're giving them
Speaker 1: a high vision of the situation and the season of life.
Speaker 1: They are in and Lord, through the lens of faith,
Speaker 1: we wave to our inheritance from Afar. Lord. We know
Speaker 1: that we will see you face to face. But while
Speaker 1: we've been waiting, you're shaping us. You're forming us. Lord,
Speaker 1: You're transforming us by your grace. Also, I'd love to
Speaker 1: give an opportunity for people that don't know Jesus. If
Speaker 1: you're watching, you've never made Jesus your Lord and savior.
Speaker 1: You're in this room and you have some other things
Speaker 1: that have first priority in your life. But you say
Speaker 1: today I'm making Jesus my king. On the counter three,
Speaker 1: I'd love for you to raise your hand. One. This
Speaker 1: is between you and Jesus too. Don't fit off a
Speaker 1: decision for tomorrow that God he brought you to this
Speaker 1: moment today to make three. Would you lift your hand.
Speaker 1: You say, I'm choosing Jesus. I'm choosing Jesus. I see
Speaker 1: your hands, I see your hands wherever you are. As
Speaker 1: you acknowledge that God sees your heart, you know what
Speaker 1: all of us are gonna come around. You're gonna we're
Speaker 1: gonna lift our hands together and surrender. Would you pray
Speaker 1: this prayer with me? Say dear Jesus today I choose
Speaker 1: to throw my life into your hands. I'm celebrating your rescue.
Speaker 1: I believe you died for me, that you rose again,
Speaker 1: forgive me of my sin, wash me clean. I want
Speaker 1: to walk with you, I want to talk with you.
Speaker 1: I love you. Lord in Jesus' name, Come on, And
Speaker 1: everybody said, Amen, Amen, come on. Can Jesus give God
Speaker 1: a shout of praise? God bless you.
Speaker 2: Thank you for joining us. Special thanks to those of
Speaker 2: you who give generously to this ministry. Is because of
Speaker 2: you that this ministry is possible. You can click the
Speaker 2: link in the description to give now or visit Elevationchurch
Speaker 2: dot org slash podcast for more information and if you
Speaker 2: enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe. You can share it
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Speaker 2: tag us at Elevation Church. Thanks again for listening. God
Speaker 2: bless you.