Speaker 1: Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick.
Speaker 2: I'm the pastor of Elevation Church and this is our podcast.
Speaker 2: Be sure to subscribe so we can get you these.
Speaker 1: New sermons every week. I hope you're blessed today.
Speaker 3: Oh man, it's good to see you.
Speaker 1: I want to do something kind of interesting today. I
Speaker 1: want to preach off of that song we were just singing.
Speaker 1: I want to preach on trust in God. Would it
Speaker 1: be all right if I expound a little bit on
Speaker 1: what we were just preaching. I'm gonna show you where
Speaker 1: that came from what you were just singing. And that
Speaker 1: is such a great confession to make. I sought the Lord,
Speaker 1: and he heard and he answered. I want you to
Speaker 1: put all of that right now in your heart. I
Speaker 1: sought the Lord and he heard and he answered. And
Speaker 1: if you're watching online, I want you to put it
Speaker 1: in the comments.
Speaker 3: Does anybody have a phone?
Speaker 1: I can pull up YouTube and make sure they're doing
Speaker 1: what I'm telling them to do. Cole, go to the
Speaker 1: Elevation Church YouTube make sure they're following instructions. Welcome to
Speaker 1: our epham around the world. Let's thank God for our
Speaker 1: family all around the world joining us right now. I
Speaker 1: think that that was like a six out of ten welcome.
Speaker 1: I think we could give them a better welcome than that.
Speaker 1: Let's warm it up.
Speaker 3: You got it, you got the comments. There is my
Speaker 3: marketing director right there. He was on it.
Speaker 1: He was ready. Wasn't elevation? Night's incredible cold? Yeah, just incredible.
Speaker 3: Everybody in here is a little salty.
Speaker 1: They're jealous they didn't get to come out to Toronto
Speaker 1: or Kansas City one day. I'm going to load the
Speaker 1: whole church up. You remember how Oprah used to take
Speaker 1: everybody to Australia one day. I'm gonna load the whole
Speaker 1: church up. Take y'all all eight nights, and you're gonna
Speaker 1: have to quit your job and believe God for a paycheck,
Speaker 1: because I'm gonna take you away for two weeks. I
Speaker 1: almost took today off to rest. I just got in
Speaker 1: late last night. But the Lord wanted me to release
Speaker 1: this word today, so I came on to church to preach.
Speaker 1: I know his voice. I've been doing this a long time.
Speaker 1: I know when he wants me to preach, and he
Speaker 1: wanted me in my pulpit today, so I came over.
Speaker 1: It's good to see you. I love y'all. If I
Speaker 1: say anything inappropriate, blame it on the sleep deprivation. All right,
Speaker 1: that's my explicit sermon, moarning like they have on the
Speaker 1: album explicit. Yeah, they're doing it all right, there go
Speaker 1: things cool. I just had to make sure y'all were
Speaker 1: there because this is gonna be very powerful from one
Speaker 1: of the most beautiful psalms in the Bible, Psalm thirty four.
Speaker 1: And hey, I'm doing it in the King James version.
Speaker 1: Uh oh. I just wanted to warn the devil I'm
Speaker 1: coming from King James today so he can go ahead
Speaker 1: and clear the building. This is.
Speaker 3: This is the psalm. I'm gonna give you eight verses
Speaker 3: of it.
Speaker 1: Say it. I sought the Lord, and he heard, and
Speaker 1: he answered, I will bless the Lord at all times.
Speaker 1: His praise shall continually. Don't get ahead of me on
Speaker 1: the scripture, follow the preacher. His phrase shall continually be
Speaker 1: in my mouth. My soul shall make her boast in
Speaker 1: the Lord. The humble shall hear thereof and be glad. Oh,
Speaker 1: magnify the Lord with me. Come on, don't watch me
Speaker 1: like I'm a movie. Magnify him with me. There's no
Speaker 1: popcorn here today. This is not big. George Foreman this
Speaker 1: is a house of God. Oh, magnify the Lord with me,
Speaker 1: and let us exalt his name together. I sought the Lord,
Speaker 1: and he heard me and delivered me from all my fears.
Speaker 1: They looked unto him and were lightened, and their faces
Speaker 1: were not ashamed. This poor man cried, and the Lord
Speaker 1: heard him and saved him out of his trucklebles. The
Speaker 1: Angel of the Lord in campeth round about them that
Speaker 1: fear him, and delivereth them. Oh, taste and see that
Speaker 1: the Lord is good. Blessed is the man that trusteth
Speaker 1: in him.
Speaker 3: I want to talk to you today about trust in God.
Speaker 1: Father. Our faith is in you, our hope is in you,
Speaker 1: our confidence is in you. You will never fail. Right now,
Speaker 1: I thank you that as high as the heavens are
Speaker 1: above the earth, so are your ways above our ways,
Speaker 1: your thoughts above our thoughts. And I thank you that
Speaker 1: you hear every prayer, you pity, every groan, you see
Speaker 1: every need in this room, at our campuses all over
Speaker 1: the world. As this word goes forth, thank you in
Speaker 1: advance for answering the prayers of your people, even the
Speaker 1: prayers they don't have words for, even the prayers they
Speaker 1: put away because they prayed a long time and nothing happened.
Speaker 1: We expect miracles today in your name, in your presence,
Speaker 1: by your word, by your hand, in Jesus' name, I pray.
Speaker 1: Everybody said together, Amen, Amen, you may be seated. I
Speaker 1: trust in God. I trust in God. I love watching
Speaker 1: you worship. I love it. I'm sorry if that sounds creepy,
Speaker 1: like I'm a stalker, but I just it's one of
Speaker 1: the joys of my job to get to see you
Speaker 1: sing to your God, so much so that I spend
Speaker 1: half of my time in my job writing songs for
Speaker 1: you to sing with our team. The song that we
Speaker 1: just put out, called trust in God, was a song
Speaker 1: that came quickly and then slowly quickly in the initial draft,
Speaker 1: slowly in the revisions. But to hear you sing it,
Speaker 1: it was worth every rewrite. It's really beautiful when you
Speaker 1: take something straight out of scripture. And I think I
Speaker 1: told you a few weeks ago, or I don't remember
Speaker 1: if I just said this on one of my basin recordings.
Speaker 1: I do these little recordings that I only send to
Speaker 1: a few people. Sometimes I put them online, but I
Speaker 1: don't remember where I said this, or if you know
Speaker 1: this or not but my job is to put God's
Speaker 1: word in your heart. That's my job. And sometimes it'll
Speaker 1: have a melody to it. Sometimes it'll be nice and calm.
Speaker 1: I just finished making you another one of those tracks.
Speaker 1: I don't know if you'll remember when I used to
Speaker 1: do these hype tracks that you could listen to at
Speaker 1: the gym, like I will fight and I will be confident.
Speaker 1: I just finished this new one. It's lethal you're going
Speaker 1: to be able to do eighty five close script pushups
Speaker 1: when you listen to this consecutively.
Speaker 3: It's gonna be amazing.
Speaker 1: But then when God gives our church a song that
Speaker 1: comes straight from the Word of God, I think that's
Speaker 1: wonderful because if I tell you go memorize these scriptures, you're.
Speaker 3: Like a a lank homework. I'm not good at memory.
Speaker 1: You memorize every single football player that was on your
Speaker 1: pretend lineup, but you can't memorize the Bible. I get it.
Speaker 1: I'm not mad about it. I didn't mean for that
Speaker 1: to come out harsh. I was just try and be funny,
Speaker 1: but it came out real mean.
Speaker 3: But I didn't mean it mean.
Speaker 1: If we put it in a way that you can
Speaker 1: sing it, I sought the Lord, and he heard, and
Speaker 1: he answered, Well, you were singing scripture, so you did
Speaker 1: scripture memory today. So gold star A plus. If you
Speaker 1: don't get around to anything else you were supposed to
Speaker 1: do this week, you did that.
Speaker 3: You memorize that scripture.
Speaker 1: I sought the Lord, and he heard, and he answered,
Speaker 1: he delivered me from all my fear. And this is
Speaker 1: not only a little verse, but it's from one of
Speaker 1: the most poetic pieces of literature that you could ever study.
Speaker 1: You see, Psalm thirty four is an acrostic poem where
Speaker 1: they take the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet and
Speaker 1: each one of the verses is the next letter of
Speaker 1: the Hebrew alphabet. You don't get that from the English
Speaker 1: because we don't speak Hebrew. So I mean, it's still beautiful,
Speaker 1: But imagine how we would be shouting if we really
Speaker 1: got to see how it was written, where it's like
Speaker 1: ooh ooh, technically like every single That's why I once
Speaker 1: called David the greatest rapper of all time. Some people
Speaker 1: think it's pot some people think it's Biggie. I definitely
Speaker 1: think it's David. I mean, who can do this? Every
Speaker 1: single verse is a different letter of the Hebrew alphabet,
Speaker 1: and so there's a technical component to this song that
Speaker 1: is just beautiful enough to let us know that he
Speaker 1: really worked on this. He didn't just throw this together
Speaker 1: or tear a page out of his diary. He really
Speaker 1: took the time to dissect these different elements and then
Speaker 1: put them together where we could learn from them about
Speaker 1: how to trust God in our own situations. While the
Speaker 1: psalm follows the form or the technique of a thanksgiving
Speaker 1: psalm for an individual, it's pretty clear from the form
Speaker 1: that it was written for a whole community, which means
Speaker 1: it wasn't just written through the filter of his own
Speaker 1: personal faith or fear, but rather it came through that
Speaker 1: funnel so it could be passed to us so that
Speaker 1: we could see what does it really look.
Speaker 3: Like to trust in God.
Speaker 1: So whenever this was written, it was not written while
Speaker 1: the author was going through his struggle, because nobody can
Speaker 1: pray in alphabetical order when they're going through hell. You
Speaker 1: don't pray alphabetical prayers when you have three different bills
Speaker 1: looking at you.
Speaker 3: And you can't pay any of them.
Speaker 1: You don't pray alphabetic prayers when your kids are acting
Speaker 1: like they need three different medications. You don't pray alphabetical
Speaker 1: prayers when they start firing people who are more qualified
Speaker 1: than you and you're wondering what if they fired them.
Speaker 1: I know I'm not, so you don't pray that's not
Speaker 1: That's not those King James prayers.
Speaker 3: Is it?
Speaker 1: You don't say words like I sought the Lord when
Speaker 1: you're really going through a difficult storm.
Speaker 3: Maybe you do.
Speaker 1: I don't. I don't say I trusteth the Lord. In
Speaker 1: my low moments. I may go back and look on
Speaker 1: them and say I'm so glad that I trusteth him,
Speaker 1: that I bequeathed my trust unto the divine. But when
Speaker 1: you're going through stuff, you don't say it that fancy.
Speaker 1: So it brings me to the question what does it
Speaker 1: really mean to say I sought the Lord? As I
Speaker 1: reflected on that this week, I thought we should definitely
Speaker 1: study it before I preach it like I feel it.
Speaker 1: Let me teach it just a little bit. When he
Speaker 1: says I sought the Lord, that definitely could mean that
Speaker 1: he went to the temple to pray. There are times
Speaker 1: in scripture where they will say I sought the Lord,
Speaker 1: and it means that they went to the temple offered
Speaker 1: sacrifices and prayed. But based on the context of this psalm,
Speaker 1: it's unlikely that that's what the psalmist means.
Speaker 3: Instead, he is.
Speaker 1: Probably talking about a type of seeking God that doesn't
Speaker 1: have to do with going to a phsy location. But
Speaker 1: it's a particular state of mind. This particular state of
Speaker 1: mind is not a singular state of mind, because he says,
Speaker 1: give me verse four again, let's take it apart. Let's
Speaker 1: break it down. Let's find out what we were singing about.
Speaker 1: It's one thing to sing it, but I don't need
Speaker 1: you just to sing it. I need you to really
Speaker 1: get it in your spirit. Kill those monitors back there,
Speaker 1: because I can hear it. It has given me a little
Speaker 1: slap back, and it's messing with my head. Verse four.
Speaker 1: I sought the Lord, and he heard me and delivered
Speaker 1: me from all my fears. Everybody say fears. It's interesting
Speaker 1: that he's so confident on one hand and so honest
Speaker 1: on the other. He said, I sought the Lord and
Speaker 1: he heard me and delivered me from all my fears. Well,
Speaker 1: if you're seeking God, what are you afraid of? If
Speaker 1: he heard you, what are you afraid of? If you
Speaker 1: trust him, what are you afraid of? This word fear
Speaker 1: has to do with dread. This word fear has to
Speaker 1: do with the anticipation of something bad happening. More particularly,
Speaker 1: it's a certain state of your soul or your thoughts
Speaker 1: that is trouble.
Speaker 3: So the Psalmist is saying.
Speaker 1: I had a troubled thought pattern, and I sought the
Speaker 1: Lord and he heard me. I don't think you know
Speaker 1: how good that was. I don't think you know how
Speaker 1: good that was. He said, I had thoughts of doom
Speaker 1: and gloom, but I sought the Lord even while I
Speaker 1: had the thoughts, and he heard me. So why that
Speaker 1: makes me happiest? Because the psalm started so beautiful. I
Speaker 1: will bless the Lord at all times, and his praise
Speaker 1: will continually be in my mouth. That I almost got
Speaker 1: intimidated when I read it, because I thought, well, I
Speaker 1: don't do that all the time. I don't always just
Speaker 1: walk around praising God.
Speaker 3: I'll bump my toe.
Speaker 1: Oh, praise the Lord for a coffee table to bump
Speaker 1: my toe on. Some people don't have coffee tables. Somebody would.
Speaker 1: Somebody would really be grateful for a coffee table to
Speaker 1: bump their toe on. And I don't say saw it
Speaker 1: When I bump my toe on the coffee table. It
Speaker 1: starts with an ask what I think in my head?
Speaker 1: But it's not sorry? So why I love it? Isn't
Speaker 1: that why y'all come to church here so we can
Speaker 1: talk for real? Because that's so beautiful, the acrostic praise
Speaker 1: of the Almighty God. I will bless the Lord at
Speaker 1: all time. I love it too, It's so beautiful. I
Speaker 1: love words. I love language, I love poetry. I love
Speaker 1: beautiful sounding words, beautiful sounding songs. I love watching you worship.
Speaker 1: You look so pretty when you worship.
Speaker 4: You really do.
Speaker 1: I mean, you have this RBF, this resting blessed face.
Speaker 1: It's just an amazing thing to see, just to watch
Speaker 1: you worship God. And I look around, I'm like, oh, look,
Speaker 1: this is so sweet, so beautiful. Here we are all
Speaker 1: trusting God, and different ages, different stages, different people, all
Speaker 1: just trusting God. I sought the Lord. What encouraged me
Speaker 1: about the psalm was not the first three parts that
Speaker 1: sounded so beautiful, but after he said his praise will
Speaker 1: continually be in my mouth that he went on to
Speaker 1: say that God hurt me when my heart was filled
Speaker 1: with fear the Psalmi says, my faith did not keep
Speaker 1: me from feeling afraid. Rather, my faith in God, my
Speaker 1: trust in God, was enough to get not only for
Speaker 1: me to seek Him in my fear. But he heard me.
Speaker 1: That's why I praise him. He heard me. That's why
Speaker 1: I love him. He heard me. He didn't wait for
Speaker 1: me to say the right words. He didn't wait for
Speaker 1: me to bust it out in King James. He didn't
Speaker 1: wait for me to memorize thirteen more verses. All I
Speaker 1: had to do was holler help. Had he heard me?
Speaker 1: It didn't even sound pretty. I just hollered help, and
Speaker 1: he heard me. I didn't even have much of a
Speaker 1: voice left. I just hollered he. Now I love him.
Speaker 1: I love him. That's why I trust him, because he
Speaker 1: heard me.
Speaker 5: Do you know?
Speaker 1: The Bible says that his spirit will intercede when you
Speaker 1: will have only a groan that you can't get a
Speaker 1: word to go around. Felt a groan and anxiety, a
Speaker 1: torment that you couldn't even name. But you called a
Speaker 1: name that was greater than the feeling that you couldn't name,
Speaker 1: And he heard what you wanted to say that you
Speaker 1: didn't have the words to say. But somehow God intercepted
Speaker 1: and interpreted your grown God. I'll be good. I'm sorry.
Speaker 1: I'm just on that tour energy. Y'all gotta be patient
Speaker 1: with me. Today I called on him and he heard me.
Speaker 1: You know how Alexa can hear you. You know how
Speaker 1: Siri can hear you. You say hey, Siri, and sirih
Speaker 1: starts telling you stuff. Well, you can say, Hey, Spirit,
Speaker 1: Holy Spirit, I need you right now. I'm appreciate this
Speaker 1: just to you. You can say, hey, Holy Spirit, I
Speaker 1: feel dry right now, but I need you to come
Speaker 1: through for me. You can say, hey, Holy Spirit, we're
Speaker 1: in this hospital room and we need a miracle. And
Speaker 1: if you don't give us a healing, we need a
Speaker 1: supernatural piece. You can be preaching your mom's funeral and say, hey,
Speaker 1: Holy Spirit, I need you, and he will hear you.
Speaker 1: He'll hear you from your heart. That's why I trust him.
Speaker 1: That's why I praise him. That's why I can't just
Speaker 1: sit there and charge. Sometimes I gotta throw up both
Speaker 1: my hands and say, hey, Holy Spirit, hear him. I
Speaker 1: high five somebody say he heard me. He heard me,
Speaker 1: And I'm glad because my friends got tired of me
Speaker 1: complaining so I had to stop talking to them or
Speaker 1: they wouldn't be taking my calls anymore. He can take it,
Speaker 1: he can hear me, he can hear me. Like I
Speaker 1: was saying, this is an acrostic song. I got off
Speaker 1: track a little bit there, but y'all come back. And
Speaker 1: it is contrasting the fear that the author felt with
Speaker 1: the response that God gave. And he summarizes this so
Speaker 1: simply that it is almost.
Speaker 3: Deceptive on the surface. I sought the.
Speaker 1: Lord and he heard me and delivered me. I will
Speaker 1: bless the Lord at all times. Remember, he wasn't talking
Speaker 1: like this while he was going through it. So when
Speaker 1: I told you I want to talk to you about
Speaker 1: trusting God today, I wasn't lying to you, but I
Speaker 1: was headfaking you a little bit. And I hope that's okay,
Speaker 1: Just to bring you to this point, because see, there's
Speaker 1: different types of trust. Can we all agree there's different
Speaker 1: types of trust. You trusted the chair to sit down
Speaker 1: in today, that is a level of trust. You will
Speaker 1: not trust the chair to get you home down forty five.
Speaker 1: That is a different type of trust. You will need
Speaker 1: something with wheels for that. You will not trust the
Speaker 1: chair or the car I hope to confess your deepest,
Speaker 1: darkest sins to That is a different level of trust.
Speaker 1: Hopefully you trust me to share with you what God's
Speaker 1: word means to the best of my ability today. But
Speaker 1: that's one type of trust, because it's to the best
Speaker 1: of my ability. Then there is another level of trust
Speaker 1: that knows that God will take what I say to
Speaker 1: you today and apply it to your life in the
Speaker 1: way that only you needed to hear it. That's another
Speaker 1: level of trust. So I don't want to talk to
Speaker 1: you today just about the moments where you totally trust God.
Speaker 1: I want to talk to those of you today who
Speaker 1: are having to trust God in a different way. If
Speaker 1: I were given this message a title which I am,
Speaker 1: it's called ugly trust. Ugly trust. Thankfully, for us, we
Speaker 1: not only have the psalms that were written, but in
Speaker 1: some cases we have records of the specific situations that
Speaker 1: those psalms were inspired by. Such is the case with
Speaker 1: Psalm thirty four. So if you want to know what
Speaker 1: happened in between the space where David said I sought
Speaker 1: the Lord and he answered, make some noise that was
Speaker 1: just above the line of where I feel like I
Speaker 1: should do it. I mean, it was right there.
Speaker 3: But I'm gonna tell you, I'll.
Speaker 1: You what happened with David was that God had called
Speaker 1: him to be a king. But as with anything that
Speaker 1: God promises you in your life, there is usually not
Speaker 1: a straight line between what.
Speaker 3: He speaks to you and when it comes to pass.
Speaker 1: Many of us will be familiar with the name Saul
Speaker 1: from Scripture, who was the first king.
Speaker 3: That Israel ever had.
Speaker 1: It wasn't a very good king. He was an insecure king.
Speaker 1: He didn't ask God what he should do. He did
Speaker 1: whatever he thought he should do, just to make sure
Speaker 1: that he kept what he thought he had. But that's
Speaker 1: the surest way to lose it, because if you keep
Speaker 1: an open hand to God, he can fill it. But
Speaker 1: if you close your fist around what God gave you,
Speaker 1: he will have to pry your fingers off of it.
Speaker 1: So Saul lost the kingdom that way. One of the
Speaker 1: worst mistakes that he ever made was that when God
Speaker 1: sent David to fight battles for him, he tried to
Speaker 1: kill what God sent him to help him. He chase David,
Speaker 1: I mean chase David. One day, David was playing the
Speaker 1: harp for Saul, right because David had this ambidexterous ability
Speaker 1: to play beautiful music, but he was also one of
Speaker 1: the baddest warriors to ever draw breath on the planet.
Speaker 1: He was really cool because he could pick up a
Speaker 1: sword with his left hand, or he could strum a
Speaker 1: harp with his right hand. Now that is multifaceted. But
Speaker 1: one day, as he was playing a beautiful song for
Speaker 1: Saul to get the evil spirit that was resting on
Speaker 1: him to dissipate for just a few minutes, Saul picks
Speaker 1: up a spear throws it at David across the room.
Speaker 1: David's athletic he missed. David's athletics he miss God is sovereign,
Speaker 1: he missed. Not only does David have grateful lexibility and
Speaker 1: catlike abilities to dodge, but also God has supernatural wisdom
Speaker 1: so that he will never allow anything to happen in
Speaker 1: your life that doesn't first pass through his hand. Saul
Speaker 1: hates David so much that he gets his daughter, who
Speaker 1: is one of David's wives, and we won't talk about
Speaker 1: polygamy today.
Speaker 3: The Old Testament kind of vibe on that.
Speaker 1: But he tries to get him trapped and that doesn't work,
Speaker 1: and David takes off running in caves and Saul tries
Speaker 1: to hunt him down. And there's this one specific incident
Speaker 1: that I wanted to tell you about as we talk
Speaker 1: about I Trust in God, where David found himself in
Speaker 1: a unique situation where he has God's spirit and seal
Speaker 1: of approval, but he's having to run from Saul in
Speaker 1: the process of waiting for God's promise to come to pass.
Speaker 1: God sent me to preach to somebody today who is
Speaker 1: having to trust God in between something that you believe
Speaker 1: he spoke to you and something that you are going
Speaker 1: through on the way to what He spoke to you.
Speaker 1: So who's a I need to know who's this message for? Okay,
Speaker 1: here's what David had to do. He had to go
Speaker 1: down to a place called Gath that's in the territory
Speaker 1: of the Philistines. Do either of those ring a bell
Speaker 1: for anybody in the room, just even if it's one person.
Speaker 1: Do you remember a famous Philistine in the Bible that
Speaker 1: David had an encounter with. Starts with Goli, ends with
Speaker 1: f Goliath, the famous giant that David had to kill.
Speaker 1: He was from Gath in Felictia. Now David is running
Speaker 1: from the King that he wants to be serving and
Speaker 1: helping and fighting for him and playing music for him.
Speaker 1: And he has to run to the place where the
Speaker 1: enemy lives that he was destined.
Speaker 6: To kill, to hide for a little while. The Bible
Speaker 6: says that when he got there, they recognized him. They're like,
Speaker 6: this is the dude that killed Goliath.
Speaker 1: This is that little boy who was keeping shit, came
Speaker 1: up with a sling and a stone. Your enemy recognizes you.
Speaker 1: Your enemy knows what you're capable of, sometimes more than
Speaker 1: you do. They said, this is David. What's he doing here?
Speaker 1: He was trying to hide out, get some cover, buy
Speaker 1: some time to figure out what God was gonna do next.
Speaker 1: They said, this is David. And David was like, oh no,
Speaker 1: I'm in trouble. They know who I am. So watch
Speaker 1: what he did to get away. This is in First Samuel,
Speaker 1: chapter twenty one, verse number Yeah, go back to twenty
Speaker 1: one that late one I sent, y'all. I didn't send
Speaker 1: them this, so they didn't have it ready, But then
Speaker 1: I sent it to him, So put it up there, y'all. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I had to.
Speaker 3: Show you what it looks like to really trust God.
Speaker 1: David took these words to heart and was very much
Speaker 1: afraid of Akish. Akish is not a name, Akesh is
Speaker 1: a title. It's like Pharaoh or something like that. For
Speaker 1: the Philistine rulers. He was very much afraid of Akish,
Speaker 1: King of God. Watch what he did. He sought the Lord,
Speaker 1: so he pretended to be insane in their presence. Repeat
Speaker 1: after me. David went crazy. I will bless the Lord.
Speaker 3: At all times. If this is David.
Speaker 1: Blessing the Lord, watch, watch, watch King David. Back up
Speaker 1: on the screen, y'all. He pretended to be insane in
Speaker 1: their presence, and while he was in their hands.
Speaker 3: He acted like a madman, making marks on.
Speaker 1: The doors of the gate and letting saliva run down
Speaker 1: his beard. I thought about acting this out. I prayed
Speaker 1: about it. The Lord said, let them use their imagination occasionally.
Speaker 3: But you get the picture. He's running from Saul.
Speaker 1: And he's seeking the Lord, with saliva running down his beard,
Speaker 1: scratching the door, trying to get out of a situation
Speaker 1: that he really doesn't have an answer for yet. I
Speaker 1: felt compelled to show you that picture for several reasons. One,
Speaker 1: you feel like you're going crazy right now, not everybody,
Speaker 1: but some of you. So when we sing I sought
Speaker 1: the Lord and he heard. You are not yet sure
Speaker 1: about he heard yet, And to be honest, you're really
Speaker 1: not sure if you're seeking him because sometimes you don't
Speaker 1: feel like you're seeking him. Because not everybody that listens
Speaker 1: to me preach has a three hour prayer time every morning.
Speaker 1: Not everybody who listens to me preach quotes the Bible
Speaker 1: in Hebrew across tics. Not everybody that listens to me
Speaker 1: preach goes home and listens to elevation worship as they
Speaker 1: walk around the kitchen, blessing the Lord at all times.
Speaker 1: Even this morning, I was pretty tired, so on my
Speaker 1: way to church, I listened to Metallica. Sorry, I needed
Speaker 1: something to wake me up, just one song and then
Speaker 1: I switched to worship. But I needed James Hetfield to
Speaker 1: get me started. I'm sorry, I just needed energy. It
Speaker 1: was early and I'm low on sleep, and it helped me.
Speaker 1: And I'm telling you that because sometimes we talk so
Speaker 1: fancy about faith. I soaped the Lord, did you? Or
Speaker 1: it's guilty? And me? He's like, you're not seeking God.
Speaker 7: You don't pray enough, you don't worship enough, you don't
Speaker 7: praise Him enough, you don't really love him.
Speaker 1: David's got spit in his beard in enemy territory and
Speaker 1: he's talking about I sought the Lord. So before you
Speaker 1: get ashamed of the fact that sometimes it feels like
Speaker 1: you're losing your mind, can we celebrate the fact that
Speaker 1: at least you're losing it in church. At least you're
Speaker 1: losing it in a room with some other crazy Christians
Speaker 1: on a Sunday morning when it was raining just enough
Speaker 1: to tell you I'm not going, but just said, no,
Speaker 1: I'm going.
Speaker 7: I'm not going crazy without God. Don't you love knowing that?
Speaker 1: Oh? Oh, technical difficulties trying to stop me from preaching today.
Speaker 1: But you know what, sometimes in my life I have
Speaker 1: found that it is when I am in the sloppiest,
Speaker 1: most scramble. They used to say that I preached better jetlagged,
Speaker 1: and I said, I wonder why that is because my
Speaker 1: mind wasn't in the way so much, because I would
Speaker 1: just let it come from the spirit. And then they say, well,
Speaker 1: just let the spirit flow through you. Easier said than done.
Speaker 1: And I think seeking God is like that sometimes, because
Speaker 1: the question becomes when we say I sought the Lord,
Speaker 1: what to sought? Even mean? It doesn't mean just that
Speaker 1: I went to church. It doesn't mean just that I
Speaker 1: sung a song. It doesn't sang a song. It doesn't
Speaker 1: mean just that I quoted a Bible verse. It doesn't
Speaker 1: mean just that I had a wish. It doesn't mean
Speaker 1: just that I made it a prayer request. It doesn't
Speaker 1: mean just that I had a desire. It means something
Speaker 1: very different to David, because he wrote that about a
Speaker 1: situation where spit was running down his beard and he
Speaker 1: had no idea what was next. That's where some of
Speaker 1: you are today, and when you go to pray about it,
Speaker 1: you don't really feel like you.
Speaker 3: Get a clear answer.
Speaker 1: And there are some things that you're singing. I sought
Speaker 1: the Lord, and he heard and he answered, And there
Speaker 1: are some things that you're singing. I sought the Lord,
Speaker 1: and I hope he heard. But right now now I
Speaker 1: don't see any evidence to support the conclusion that he heard.
Speaker 1: Because when Jesus was asleep on the boat and they said, Master,
Speaker 1: don't you care? It lets me know that there will
Speaker 1: be times in my life where it will appear that
Speaker 1: he doesn't hear me, and I will conclude that he
Speaker 1: doesn't care. But in some of these spaces, your seeking
Speaker 1: is defined by what you do in the space between.
Speaker 3: When you seek him and when he says yes.
Speaker 1: So if you are there today and it's not a
Speaker 1: pretty situation, the psalmist wants you to know that one
Speaker 1: of the most beautiful psalms in the Bible came from
Speaker 1: one of the ugliest situations and some of the most
Speaker 1: beautiful testimonies that you will have in your life. Where
Speaker 1: you will be singing two years from now. I sought
Speaker 1: the Lord back in April twenty twenty three, I was
Speaker 1: standing in church singing. I sought the Lord, and I
Speaker 1: was seeking him, but I couldn't see him, and I
Speaker 1: was groping but I couldn't feel him, and I was
Speaker 1: stretching my hands in faith, but I didn't feel it.
Speaker 1: And I sought him, and there was a space for David.
Speaker 1: There was a seven year space. Did you hear what
Speaker 1: I just said, Not seven minutes, not seven months, seven
Speaker 1: years that Saw chased him, seven years that he made
Speaker 1: his home in caves, seven years that he dealt with depression.
Speaker 1: You say David wasn't depressed. He blessed the Lord at
Speaker 1: all times. Thank God, I've got a Bible. I don't
Speaker 1: just have to go off of one little verse. Look
Speaker 1: what David did. One time he ran to the King
Speaker 1: of Death. He lets spit run down his beard, so
Speaker 1: the king let him go. A period of five more
Speaker 1: years elapses, Saul is still chasing him. Three times. David
Speaker 1: has the opportunity to take matters in his own hands
Speaker 1: and kill Saul, but he won't do it because he
Speaker 1: trust in God. Three times he could take him out,
Speaker 1: but he doesn't do it because he said I trust
Speaker 1: in God. He's not saying I trust in God meaning
Speaker 1: I never feel fear. He told you I had fear.
Speaker 1: That disturbed me to my core. It wasn't a feeling
Speaker 1: of trust. It was a decision of trust. It was
Speaker 1: a decision to keep doing it God's way despite the
Speaker 1: evidence that God's way wasn't working. So David has It's
Speaker 1: been seven years he's been running from this guy. It's
Speaker 1: been three times he was close enough to kill him.
Speaker 1: One time he caught Saul going to the bathroom in
Speaker 1: a cave. That is a vulnerable position to be in.
Speaker 1: I don't know, man, for me, I probably would have
Speaker 1: just ended it right there. If I see the king
Speaker 1: who's been trying to kill me, and he's in the
Speaker 1: process of relieving himself. I am going to relieve him
Speaker 1: of his duties as king and kill him so I
Speaker 1: can get some relief from the situation. But David said,
Speaker 1: I trust God. It's got to be his timing. It's
Speaker 1: got to be his way, it's gotta be his route,
Speaker 1: it's got to be his means, it's got to be
Speaker 1: his strength, it's gotta be his power. I'm not gonna
Speaker 1: do this David's way. I'm gonna do it God's way,
Speaker 1: because if it's God's will, if it's God's hand, if
Speaker 1: it's God's favor, then I can have God's strength to
Speaker 1: support me as I go through each season. Trust in God.
Speaker 1: Talk about ugly trust. You're in a cave with a
Speaker 1: king who is defecating while he is trying to decapitate you,
Speaker 1: and you have the opportunity to kill him, but you
Speaker 1: walk away. One time, he stole Saul's water jug and
Speaker 1: his spear just to show him I could kill you,
Speaker 1: but I didn't leave me alone. Why do you keep
Speaker 1: messing with me? Why do you keep doing this? And
Speaker 1: Saul shouts back to him. He says, oh, David, thank
Speaker 1: you so much for sparing my life. You're gonna do
Speaker 1: great things. Nothing like encouragement from somebody who tracked you
Speaker 1: out into the desert to kill you. That'll bless you.
Speaker 1: God's gonna do great things through you, David. And look
Speaker 1: what the Bible says about David who trust in God. Hey,
Speaker 1: I'm trying to bring you into a conversation today to
Speaker 1: let you know that this trusting God thing is trickier
Speaker 1: than it sounds on the surface, and that none of
Speaker 1: us totally trust God all the time like we wish
Speaker 1: we did. That all of us have this back and
Speaker 1: forth battle. If I can't get you to see anything
Speaker 1: other than that, today I did my job because when
Speaker 1: you go into those moments where you toggle between trusting
Speaker 1: God and having a I don't know what you call
Speaker 1: these moments, but I call these moments humanity. I don't
Speaker 1: call these moments moments of weakness anymore. I call them
Speaker 1: moments of humanity. And they don't mean I don't love God.
Speaker 1: And these moments don't mean I don't trust Him. But
Speaker 1: we're in a world where we're having to figure things
Speaker 1: out by step and faith is not always fancy. I
Speaker 1: don't always seeketh him, if I don't always have a
Speaker 1: king James courage. Sometimes I'm caught in conflict this or
Speaker 1: that or the other. Okay, God, maybe it's option. See so, David,
Speaker 1: I just want to bring you up to date with
Speaker 1: what it means when he says I sought the Lord,
Speaker 1: and he heard and delivered me from all my fears.
Speaker 1: When Saul told David after seven years of David running,
Speaker 1: he said, God's going to do great things for you. David,
Speaker 1: You're a better man than me. Thank you for not
Speaker 1: killing me. Look what David did for Samuel twenty seven,
Speaker 1: verse one. But David thought to himself, one of these
Speaker 1: days I will be destroyed by the hand of Saul.
Speaker 1: Read it again, He thought to himself, Saul's gonna kill me.
Speaker 1: The same guy who said I sought the Lord and
Speaker 1: the answer thought to himself, I'm gonna die. What have
Speaker 1: you been thinking to yourself? I am not done with
Speaker 1: that verse. Put it back on the screen. They're trying
Speaker 1: to take me out of this scripture so quick today.
Speaker 1: Let's stay here a minute. I'm not scared of the
Speaker 1: uncomfortable silence, are you?
Speaker 3: Y'all?
Speaker 1: Don't intimidate me looking at me like you always seek
Speaker 1: the Lord.
Speaker 3: I know you don't I know you seek some other
Speaker 3: stuff too, in some other places. Don't make me prophesy.
Speaker 1: I will get specific. The Lord will show me. You're
Speaker 1: seeking some food in the pantry, stress eating at night,
Speaker 1: seeking some comfort on some different websites, stuff too. But
Speaker 1: I want you to know something about all of that.
Speaker 1: I don't say that to shame you. I say that
Speaker 1: to show you that famous David spear dodging. David got
Speaker 1: to a point of seven years of waiting where he
Speaker 1: thought to himself, one of these days I will be
Speaker 1: destroyed by the hand of Saul, and this phrase, Oh God,
Speaker 1: this is why I got up here today. This is
Speaker 1: why I flew in Layton, got up early and listened
Speaker 1: to Metallica to appreciate you. Y'all didn't like that I
Speaker 1: listened to metallic I got. I could tell you a judgment.
Speaker 1: I don't care sought the Lord. Watch me, watch me,
Speaker 1: watch me, watch me. David thought to himself. One of
Speaker 1: these days I will be destroyed. I will bless the
Speaker 1: Lord and Author. David thought to himself, one of these
Speaker 1: days a praise shall continually. It's kind of hard for
Speaker 1: God's praise to continually be in my mouth when this
Speaker 1: God keeps trying to kill me. It's kind of hard
Speaker 1: for God's praise to be in my mouth when my
Speaker 1: life keeps going backwards. It's kind of hard for God's
Speaker 1: prayse to be in my mouth right now? That's okay,
Speaker 1: David thought to himself. One of these days, and I
Speaker 1: know we have a lot of thoughts about the future.
Speaker 1: You know, one of these days this is gonna catch
Speaker 1: up with me. I can't keep doing this. I can't
Speaker 1: keep going like this. I can't keep holding out like this.
Speaker 1: I can't keep I can't keep I can't I'm doing
Speaker 1: pretty good right now, but I can't keep running like this.
Speaker 1: I can't keep pretending like everything's okay. David thought to himself,
Speaker 1: This does not end well for me. How could you
Speaker 1: think that, David, you have the promise of God? How
Speaker 1: could you think that, David, you had the oil of
Speaker 1: the annoying thing from the prophet Samuel that was on you.
Speaker 1: Don't you remember he said he would raise you up?
Speaker 1: How can you think that, David? Because seeking God doesn't
Speaker 1: mean you will never think fearful thoughts. Seeking God does
Speaker 1: not mean that you will never feel like you're going crazy.
Speaker 1: The truth is Nobody knows what you really go through.
Speaker 1: Nobody knows what you really pushed through. Nobody knows all
Speaker 1: the things that you didn't say that would have been
Speaker 1: worse than the thing that you said that you had
Speaker 1: to apologize for. Nobody really knows how crazy it is,
Speaker 1: how close you came to quitting, how much you struggle
Speaker 1: with feeling like enough, how much, how hard it has
Speaker 1: been for you to fight for these fourteen months of sobriety,
Speaker 1: how hard it has been for you to continue to
Speaker 1: go home to a situation where you're underappreciated, at a
Speaker 1: job where you're undervalued. Nobody knows. But he heard.
Speaker 8: He heard when you cry, he heard when you prayed,
Speaker 8: He heard when you said I can't He said I
Speaker 8: can't heard.
Speaker 1: What a word for somebody who has felt like you're
Speaker 1: going crazy. You're not going crazy. You're building faith. See
Speaker 1: you're building faith. You're getting strong in your spirit, You're
Speaker 1: getting strong in your beliefs. You're learning to walk not
Speaker 1: by what you see, but by what God spoke. Jesus.
Speaker 1: I'm trying to find five people who really need this word.
Speaker 1: I'm trying to find five people. Now give me my
Speaker 1: verse one more time and David thought to himself, one
Speaker 1: of these days I will be destroyed by the hand
Speaker 1: of Saul.
Speaker 3: The fear is real.
Speaker 1: When he said he delivered me from all my fear,
Speaker 1: he doesn't mean he kept me from feeling it.
Speaker 3: It was on a loop in his head.
Speaker 1: He thought to himself that the language means he continued thinking.
Speaker 1: If he didn't think this once, he thought it so
Speaker 1: many times that he began to believe that the lie
Speaker 1: was true. Because Saul couldn't kill him, because God had
Speaker 1: crowned him. Who needed to hear that Saul can't kill you.
Speaker 1: God called you.
Speaker 3: You know what the Bible says.
Speaker 1: It says, humble yourself under the mighty hand of God,
Speaker 1: that He may lift you up in due time. But
Speaker 1: it's been seven years and David doesn't see a clear
Speaker 1: path to what God has committed to him.
Speaker 3: So he thought to himself, one day, Saul's.
Speaker 1: Going to kill me. And here's the phrase, the best
Speaker 1: thing I can do. Everybody say that the best thing
Speaker 1: I can do. What this means is David's situation is
Speaker 1: not ideal and yours may not be either. That you're
Speaker 1: looking at a range of options where you really want
Speaker 1: God to do this but it's not happening. So David says,
Speaker 1: the best thing I can do is escape to the
Speaker 1: land of the Philistines. It's not where he wanted to be,
Speaker 1: It's just the place he had to go. For now,
Speaker 1: everybody say, next, I don't know how God is going
Speaker 1: to deal with Saul. Some of you are awaiting legal
Speaker 1: verdicts right now. Some of you are awaiting resolution to
Speaker 1: relational situations. Some of you are waiting to see if
Speaker 1: you're going to have to move or not. Some of
Speaker 1: you are waiting to see what the doctor says in
Speaker 1: three weeks, and you're waiting for that. So I wanted
Speaker 1: to get this in your spirit as a new way
Speaker 1: to look at what it means to seek the Lord.
Speaker 1: To seek the Lord doesn't mean that you will know
Speaker 1: exactly what He's going to do every step along the way.
Speaker 1: David said, the best thing I can do is to
Speaker 1: go to the land of the Philistines and to escape there,
Speaker 1: and then Saul will give up searching for me anywhere
Speaker 1: in Israel and I will slip out of his hand.
Speaker 3: Is it possible that.
Speaker 1: David in this moment isn't even really sure where God's
Speaker 1: hand is working? But all he knows is I've got
Speaker 1: to get out of here. And when he says I
Speaker 1: sought the Lord, he's referring back to this incident where
Speaker 1: he had to go to the Philistines, the enemies that
Speaker 1: he wanted to kill, and live with them for a
Speaker 1: season while he waited for God to do what he
Speaker 1: had promised to do. And is it possible that you
Speaker 1: are in a season right now where you're seeking the Lord,
Speaker 1: but he hasn't exactly shown you what's going to happen
Speaker 1: in a sequence of events that you can logically understand.
Speaker 1: So the word of the Lord for you is what
Speaker 1: is the next best thing for you to do? The
Speaker 1: next best thing? Because for David, what he really wanted
Speaker 1: was to be the leader of Israel. But sometimes you
Speaker 1: can't do exactly what you want to do, and sometimes
Speaker 1: the will that God has for you is still in
Speaker 1: the process of unfolding. And sometimes the person that you're
Speaker 1: supposed to marry hasn't even moved to Charlotte yet. And
Speaker 1: sometimes the job that you're supposed to have isn't even
Speaker 1: opened yet. So you get rejected three times for jobs
Speaker 1: that you think you'd be a perfect fit for. But
Speaker 1: the truth is if you got that job, it would
Speaker 1: become a snare to you for the door that God
Speaker 1: is going to open. I'm talking about trusting him. I'm
Speaker 1: talking about trusting him. I'm talking about I sought the
Speaker 1: Lord and there was a space and I didn't know
Speaker 1: if he heard. So what did David do? The next
Speaker 1: best thing. I would love to be fighting Sauls battles
Speaker 1: right now. I would love to be killing Philistines like
Speaker 1: I did with Goliath. I would love to be taking
Speaker 1: my kids to school every day, but I only get
Speaker 1: to see him every other weekend right now. So when
Speaker 1: I get him every other weekend, I'm gonna make that
Speaker 1: count because that's the next best thing. I would love
Speaker 1: to have somebody to take long walks on the beach with,
Speaker 1: but I don't have somebody and I don't have a beach,
Speaker 1: So I'm gonna get on this treadmill and get a
Speaker 1: podcast and take myself on a walk, because that's the
Speaker 1: next best thing. I would love to have a heeled
Speaker 1: body right now, so I could be in church with
Speaker 1: Pastor Stephen. But right now I can't leave the house
Speaker 1: because I'm confined to this bed. But I'm gonna lift
Speaker 1: my hands because even though I can't get out of
Speaker 1: this bed, I'm gonna do the next best thing.
Speaker 7: I would love to be further along in.
Speaker 1: My finances by now, but I did just say it
Speaker 1: in that season because nobody taught me. But I'm trusted God.
Speaker 1: Can I've ever see.
Speaker 7: The rights forsaken nor seed begging bread. So I'm gonna
Speaker 7: do the next best thing. I'm gonna get.
Speaker 1: In what I'm I can't trust him with one of
Speaker 1: them knocks, I will bless the law.
Speaker 7: That all God, good times bad God.
Speaker 1: As fall in silence. I'd love to be out of
Speaker 1: this prison, but they didn't release me yet. So let's
Speaker 1: do the next best thing. You praise him on the
Speaker 1: first first, I'll raise him on the second. First. You
Speaker 1: sing the chorus, I'll sing the bruise. I'm gonna do
Speaker 1: what he gave me to do with what I've got
Speaker 1: to do with Yes, sir, the next best thing for you,
Speaker 1: that's all you gotta do. You have to figure out
Speaker 1: the next fifty things. That's God's job. He said, you're
Speaker 1: fired from trying to be God. And I just want
Speaker 1: you to think about it. I just want you to
Speaker 1: think about it. What's the next best thing you can do.
Speaker 1: Go complain about it, or praise him like he already knows.
Speaker 1: What's the next best thing. I sought the Lord. Oh
Speaker 1: it wasn't pretty. My fears were terrible. The word fears
Speaker 1: that he uses is only used three other times in
Speaker 1: the Bible. It is a state so intense that it's
Speaker 1: only used three times in the Bible.
Speaker 3: It means horror.
Speaker 1: He said, I was in a horrible place, a lonely place,
Speaker 1: an isolated place. I was talking to a brother yesterday.
Speaker 1: He said, I'm creative, but I can't find anybody to
Speaker 1: collaborate with. I wanted to tell him, well, the next
Speaker 1: best thing is going to be you got to open
Speaker 1: up some kind of app on your phone and just
Speaker 1: start collaborating with your phone. Y'all don't want me to
Speaker 1: teach this because we just want. We want, We want magic,
Speaker 1: wand God.
Speaker 3: We want.
Speaker 1: I sought the Lord any hurt? I saw the herd?
Speaker 1: But sometimes should I do it? Should I do it?
Speaker 1: I can save it. I can save it. I plan
Speaker 1: to be here next week. I can save it. I
Speaker 1: can say that you want to now, you want to
Speaker 1: next week? Do you want it now? Or do you
Speaker 1: want to next week? Do you want it right now
Speaker 1: while I'm freshly annointed with this holy sphory to break
Speaker 1: a saint off of you going I can't go here,
Speaker 1: I can't go there. I don't have a degree. I
Speaker 1: can't start the business. I can't get out of the contract.
Speaker 1: I shouldn't have signed the lease. Why don't you just
Speaker 1: turn the apartment you're in into a habitation of a
Speaker 1: holy God while you wait on another one.
Speaker 4: Because the next best thing for you to do is
Speaker 4: connected to the next thing that God is going to
Speaker 4: do that you don't even know about yet.
Speaker 1: God killed Saul. David didn't have to. Oh, oh, oh,
Speaker 1: it's better than that. You don't even know how good
Speaker 1: God is. Saul fell on his own sword. So you
Speaker 1: do the next right thing. You have integrity, you have character.
Speaker 1: You just move on. You forgive you be bigger than that.
Speaker 1: You look back and forth with Saul. What a word?
Speaker 1: What a word? What a word? It's hard for me
Speaker 1: to preach it to you while the Holy Spirit is
Speaker 1: still giving it to me. I'm just trying to decide, Lord,
Speaker 1: what should be said out loud and what should I ponder?
Speaker 1: Because he said they don't know what they're singing the
Speaker 1: power of it. When they say I sought the Lord,
Speaker 1: they think that's what they're doing only in church right now.
Speaker 1: But this seeking the Lord thing is sometimes gonna look
Speaker 1: like you spitting and scratching. Nobody really knows what it's
Speaker 1: like to be on those tours except Holly. Nobody knows
Speaker 1: what it's really like to look up at an arena
Speaker 1: full of people and go, Jesus, this is wonderful. And
Speaker 1: I'm terrified, except the woman that was back there with
Speaker 1: me two hours before. When I'm saying, it feels like
Speaker 1: razor blades in my vocal chords, and I don't want
Speaker 1: these people to feel cheated tonight. I don't want it
Speaker 1: to feel stale tonight. And I don't feel like I
Speaker 1: have the energy. And sometimes before you preach, you feel
Speaker 1: like you get the flu, but it's not in your body,
Speaker 1: is in your mind. And for her to be with me,
Speaker 1: she'll say come over here, and sometimes she'll just put
Speaker 1: her hand on my shoulder, and sometimes she'll press strength
Speaker 1: into my mind. I know we're supposed to be better
Speaker 1: than that, We're supposed to float on the stage on
Speaker 1: a cloud of Chicaina glory. But sometimes I'm scribbling and
Speaker 1: scratching and spitting, just like you.
Speaker 5: But I'm seeking him. David thought to himself, Saul's going
Speaker 5: to kill me. But he kept seeking God even while
Speaker 5: he was thinking crazy stuff to himself.
Speaker 1: And that's what I want you to do, Church. I
Speaker 1: want you to say, I sought the Lord and I
Speaker 1: saw him again. And I saw him even as I
Speaker 1: thought he didn't hear me, even as the devil told me,
Speaker 1: you're never gonna be free from this. Your dad did it.
Speaker 1: His dad did it, and you will die an alcoholic too.
Speaker 1: Even while you are thinking that to yourself, you do
Speaker 1: the next best thing. That's all you gotta do.
Speaker 3: I promise you.
Speaker 1: I'm giving you a testimony. I saw it in my family.
Speaker 1: I saw it when my dad was dying of als.
Speaker 1: I wanted God to heal him. God didn't heal him.
Speaker 1: I wanted to take care of him. That didn't work out.
Speaker 1: For two years, I couldn't take care of him. My
Speaker 1: mom was taking care of him. He became abusive toward her,
Speaker 1: so we had to put him in a nursing home.
Speaker 1: And he was way too young to be in that
Speaker 1: nursing home. I was crushed the day I walked in
Speaker 1: and he was calling bingo in a nursing home when
Speaker 1: I knew I wanted him down the street with my mom,
Speaker 1: but they couldn't be together. It wasn't safe for her.
Speaker 1: So why were we doing a Thanksgiving dinner in a
Speaker 1: nursing home with my dad while he was dying with
Speaker 1: an uncertain time limit left? And why were we eating
Speaker 1: off of paper plates a microwave meal in a nursing
Speaker 1: home with a man who was in his sixties. That
Speaker 1: wasn't what I wanted. It was the.
Speaker 4: Next best thing.
Speaker 1: That's what it means to seek him.
Speaker 3: It's oh, it's such a good quote.
Speaker 1: He said that faith doesn't show you the whole styse,
Speaker 1: just enough to take the next step, the next best thing.
Speaker 1: My camera operators are usually better in this. I want
Speaker 1: them to show you the stairs. Can y'all not get
Speaker 1: that shot? I'm gonna buy some more cameras before next week.
Speaker 1: Come over to this side. I wanted that illustration. But
Speaker 1: let me do the next best thing. I use this
Speaker 1: side of stairs. Yeah yeah, yeah, just like that, Just
Speaker 1: like that, Just like that, just like that, just like that,
Speaker 1: And watch this, watch this.
Speaker 3: It's gonna be ugly. It's gonna be ugly. Sometimes it's
Speaker 3: gonna be ugly.
Speaker 1: Sometimes every prayer is not gonna be pretty.
Speaker 3: Every prayers are gonna happen in church.
Speaker 1: Every faith experience isn't gonna happen in a controlled environment.
Speaker 1: But the Bible says to humble yourself under his hand,
Speaker 1: because Saul's hand is nothing compared to his hand, and
Speaker 1: one Peter five us. In due time, he will lift
Speaker 1: you up, one next best thing at a time. That's
Speaker 1: how he's going to bring you out. Ugly, trust, spitty beard,
Speaker 1: trust trust in your eyes, but went anyway, tears on
Speaker 1: your pillow, sleepless nights. But I'm not giving up on God.
Speaker 1: Ugly trust. You know what that means to me, ugly
Speaker 1: Put it on the screen, y'all. It means trusting God
Speaker 1: until God lifts you.
Speaker 3: In due time.
Speaker 1: He raised David up, but in the meantime, David had
Speaker 1: to go to a place that he didn't want to be.
Speaker 3: Who is this I'm preaching to that you are in and.
Speaker 9: Until God lifts you, Until God lifts you, humble yourself.
Speaker 1: And seek him.
Speaker 3: Stand all over the room, lift your hands to your father.
Speaker 3: He said, I will bless the Lord at all times.
Speaker 1: When salt spears are flying when my heart is breaking,
Speaker 1: when answers don't come easy, I will bless the Lord
Speaker 1: at all times. This is ugly trust. Some of you
Speaker 1: need to have, you know, they have ugly cry. Some
Speaker 1: of y'all need to have ugly praise. Just say, God,
Speaker 1: this is what it looks like for our family right now,
Speaker 1: even right now.
Speaker 3: My whole family isn't in church with me.
Speaker 1: Even right now, I can't get everybody together, even right now,
Speaker 1: I can't get everything worked out. But my hands are lifted.
Speaker 1: Lift him up, Lift him up, Lift them up, lift
Speaker 1: him up, Lift him up. This is ugly trust because
Speaker 1: he said, I will bless the Lord at all times. Oh,
Speaker 1: magnify the Lord with me. Let us exalt. What does
Speaker 1: exalt mean? To lift him up? So until he lifts
Speaker 1: you up? What do you do? What do you do?
Speaker 1: Lift him up? I want you to begin to lift
Speaker 1: him up right now in your heart. I want you
Speaker 1: to begin to praise him right now with your own mouth.
Speaker 10: I will bless the Lord at all times. I trust
Speaker 10: you God. I trust you with my future. I trust
Speaker 10: you with my family. I trust you with my children.
Speaker 1: God.
Speaker 11: I trust you with this decision. I trust you with
Speaker 11: this economy. I trust you with this move. I trust
Speaker 11: you with this transition. Come on and lift him up,
Speaker 11: Lift him up, Lift him up.
Speaker 1: This is ugly trust. It doesn't have to be pretty.
Speaker 1: It doesn't have to be in an alphabetical order. It
Speaker 1: doesn't have to be King James English. Just say, I
Speaker 1: need you God. I trust you God.
Speaker 10: Here's my life, Lord, here's my dreams, Lord, here's my heart.
Speaker 1: Lord, it's yours. Lord.
Speaker 4: I saw the Lord and the her I sought the Lord.
Speaker 1: That's why.
Speaker 3: Look at me.
Speaker 1: I don't trust him because of how long it took
Speaker 1: him to answer it. I don't trust him because he
Speaker 1: answered it when I wanted him to answer it. I
Speaker 1: don't trust him because he answered it how I wanted
Speaker 1: him to answer it. I trust him because he is God.
Speaker 12: And he is the highest, and he is the greatest,
Speaker 12: and I'm gonna seek him as long as it takes
Speaker 12: is and I'm not letting God of the word that
Speaker 12: he's fall.
Speaker 1: That's why. That's why, just that's why, that's why, just
Speaker 1: because he's solely and hear because he's great. Lit up,
Speaker 1: fine cats fly see thank God for you. Make God
Speaker 1: tell over you.
Speaker 2: Hey, I hope you enjoyed the podcast, and if you did,
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Speaker 1: I also want to take a moment and thank all
Speaker 1: of you who are a part of Elevation.
Speaker 2: Whether you support us financially, or serve with us, or
Speaker 2: just share these messages, it's because of you that we're
Speaker 2: able to reach.
Speaker 1: People all around the world. And if you want more
Speaker 1: information on how to be a part of Elevation, click
Speaker 1: the link in the description. Thanks again for listening.
Speaker 2: Make sure to leave a review, share the message, and subscribe.
Speaker 1: God bless you.