Speaker 1: Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick.
Speaker 2: I'm the pastor of Elevation Church and this is our podcast.
Speaker 2: I wanted to thank you for joining us today.
Speaker 1: Hope this inspires you. Hope it builds your faith.
Speaker 2: Hope it gives you perspective to see God is moving
Speaker 2: in your life.
Speaker 1: Enjoy the message. Do you ever hear a recording of
Speaker 1: yourself and you think is that me? He said? Oh?
Speaker 2: I sound Should I only send texts from now on?
Speaker 2: And like I walk around even I walk around the
Speaker 2: house preaching, and my kids know sometimes, like Abby is
Speaker 2: the most attuned, and she's only six, but she knows
Speaker 2: when I have left the room, but my body's still
Speaker 2: there and I'm thinking about a sermon, and she'll even
Speaker 2: called me out. She looked at me the other day
Speaker 2: and said, are you working on a sermon.
Speaker 1: In your head?
Speaker 2: And I was so busted because we were supposed to
Speaker 2: be watching this kids show together, this boring, awful television
Speaker 2: show that Abby enjoys, and I was trying to pretend
Speaker 2: to be watching.
Speaker 1: It with her.
Speaker 2: But I was working on something in my head and
Speaker 2: two things at once, And she said, are you working
Speaker 2: on a sermon in your head? And I said, Okay, yeah,
Speaker 2: how did you know? And she said, I watch your mouth.
Speaker 2: I said, so, I talked to myself when I work
Speaker 2: on sermons.
Speaker 1: In my head.
Speaker 2: She said, ish, you make moves, and she started showing
Speaker 2: me how I didn't even realize it. But when I'm
Speaker 2: preaching to myself, I start, I start making moves.
Speaker 1: Did you know that when God is about.
Speaker 2: To speak something, the people who really know Him who
Speaker 2: came to help me preach today, I'm looking for you,
Speaker 2: the people who really know their Father can see when
Speaker 2: God is up to something. Tell your neighbor, God is
Speaker 2: up to something. I know it, not because I feel it,
Speaker 2: but because I.
Speaker 1: Know my Father.
Speaker 2: And there is this unique ability that God will give
Speaker 2: you through his Holy Spirit, the sense when He is
Speaker 2: making moves. That's what I would like to talk to
Speaker 2: you about in this installment of Bars and Battles. I
Speaker 2: want to talk to you about making moves because for me,
Speaker 2: it's interesting to study the contrast between.
Speaker 1: David's destiny and his decisions.
Speaker 2: Have you ever thought about that how in a sense,
Speaker 2: he was anointed as a sixteen year old kid, and
Speaker 2: so he had no choice but to become king because
Speaker 2: God spoke it. So it had to happen. Wouldn't that
Speaker 2: be a good sermon? It had to happen. But there
Speaker 2: was a sense in which David's decisions either supported or
Speaker 2: sabotaged his destiny. And we've talked about shortcuts, but today
Speaker 2: I want to talk about decisions. I think it's important
Speaker 2: that we look at David's decisions. One thing that he
Speaker 2: said at the end of his life in Psalm thirty
Speaker 2: seven twenty three gives us some insight as.
Speaker 1: To how he looked at his decisions. And I want
Speaker 1: to give this to you. In the King James version
Speaker 1: of the Bible.
Speaker 2: Well, it's not necessarily a better translation, it's just the
Speaker 2: one that I've first heard it in. It says, the
Speaker 2: steps of a good man, this is twenty three Psalm
Speaker 2: thirty seven are ordered by the Lord, and he delighteth
Speaker 2: in his way. I love that scripture. How many of
Speaker 2: you love that scripture? I love it because I do
Speaker 2: believe that my life is destined, that there is an
Speaker 2: outcome that God intends, or he wouldn't have put me
Speaker 2: on this earth. I believe that not only when it
Speaker 2: seems like that, but I believe it when all.
Speaker 1: Evidence is to the contrary.
Speaker 2: And you know in a court of law, you present
Speaker 2: the evidence and then the judge.
Speaker 1: Delivers the verdict.
Speaker 2: Well, faith actually works in the exact opposite direction. It
Speaker 2: is that God has already established a verdict an outcome
Speaker 2: for your life, and now, as a child of God,
Speaker 2: you gather evidence to support the verdict of God's goodness.
Speaker 2: Touch somebody say, the verdict is in. I already know
Speaker 2: God is good. I already know He's for me. I
Speaker 2: already know I'm more than a conqueror. I already know
Speaker 2: that God is with me. And I found out that
Speaker 2: usually you will collect evidence to support whatever verdict you've
Speaker 2: already decided to believe in your heart. So David says
Speaker 2: at the end of his life, the steps of a
Speaker 2: good man are ordered by the Lord, and he delighteth
Speaker 2: in his way. What's interesting about the verse is that
Speaker 2: everything in David's early life seems to contradict the conclusion
Speaker 2: that he came to at the end of his life.
Speaker 2: If you think about David's early life after God anointed
Speaker 2: him to be king, he didn't step right into his
Speaker 2: appointment as king. There's always a space between something that
Speaker 2: God shows you and the experience of it.
Speaker 1: And for fifteen years.
Speaker 2: We've been following David over the last several weeks, and
Speaker 2: it doesn't seem like his steps are very ordered. In fact,
Speaker 2: it seems more like Saul is determining his next move
Speaker 2: than God is determining his next move. In fact, it
Speaker 2: seems like he's moving away from the throne that God
Speaker 2: told him he would ultimately occupy. And we find him
Speaker 2: in Second Samuel, chapter two, verse one, in a place
Speaker 2: called zick Lag. It's a surprising place to find a
Speaker 2: future king of Israel because it's Philistine territory. You may
Speaker 2: remember that Goliath was a Philistine warrior.
Speaker 1: How could David be living in the territory of the
Speaker 1: enemy that he defeated.
Speaker 2: But he's on this border between Felicitia and Israel, waiting
Speaker 2: to see what God will do next.
Speaker 1: In his life.
Speaker 2: And he just received news while in zick Lag that
Speaker 2: Saul is dead, which, I gotta be honest, would make
Speaker 2: me want to throw a party, because this is the
Speaker 2: guy who was coming at David's head with spears while
Speaker 2: David wasn't trying to do anything but give him some
Speaker 2: mood music in the palace. This is the guy who
Speaker 2: told him I won't mess with you anymore. And even
Speaker 2: while he was telling him, I'm gonna leave you alone,
Speaker 2: was heading him.
Speaker 1: Off at the next pass.
Speaker 2: And so while we are expecting David to celebrate the
Speaker 2: news of the death of Saul, not only has Saul
Speaker 2: fallen on his own sword and taken his own life.
Speaker 2: Because I got news for you. You don't even have to
Speaker 2: worry about fighting against what comes against you. God will
Speaker 2: kill it when the time is right. Some of the
Speaker 2: stuff you spend your whole life fighting against God is
Speaker 2: gonna kill it on its own sword when the time comes.
Speaker 2: So they tell David Saul is dead, but instead of celebration,
Speaker 2: David goes into a period of sorrow and mourning, and
Speaker 2: he writes a song of lament for his enemy, King
Speaker 2: Saul and his sons, one of whom was Jonathan.
Speaker 1: Who was David's best friend.
Speaker 2: It should have been his rival, but it ended up
Speaker 2: being his partner.
Speaker 1: And when he received the news.
Speaker 2: That Jonathan had died, who was his friend and Saul
Speaker 2: had died, who was his oppressor.
Speaker 1: Because usually if.
Speaker 2: You look right past good news, bad news is right
Speaker 2: behind it, and they come at the same time. Have
Speaker 2: you notice this, I mean, I've gotten to the place
Speaker 2: where I am suspicious of good days. I don't know
Speaker 2: if that's a good thing or a bad thing. But
Speaker 2: for David, it's not a very sweet moment or an
Speaker 2: announcement that brings him joy. And he writes what's known
Speaker 2: in Hebrew poetry as a lament. It becomes a national
Speaker 2: lamit because after he writes it, he teaches all the
Speaker 2: people to sing it. Look at just a few verses,
Speaker 2: a few bars, if you will. In Second Samuel, Chapter one,
Speaker 2: verse twenty five, he says, upon hearing the news of
Speaker 2: Saul's death.
Speaker 1: How the mighty have fallen in battle.
Speaker 2: He's not celebrating good times, come on, he is despairing
Speaker 2: over the death of someone who was trying to kill him.
Speaker 1: That's kind of strange.
Speaker 2: Jonathan lies slain on your heights.
Speaker 1: Remember Jonathan was his guy.
Speaker 2: I grieve for you twenty six Jonathan.
Speaker 1: My brother.
Speaker 2: You were very dear to me. Your love for me
Speaker 2: was wonderful. It's kind of hard with you not around.
Speaker 2: Know you in heaven smiling down watching us as we
Speaker 2: pray for you. Every day. We pray for you till
Speaker 2: the day where we meet again. In my heart is
Speaker 2: where I keep you, friend, members, there's something different on
Speaker 2: the screens.
Speaker 1: I must have switched out of.
Speaker 2: Second Samuel and went into second Puff.
Speaker 1: But that's all right.
Speaker 2: Stay with me, because there comes a shift. Everybody say
Speaker 2: shift where David knows I've got to stop mourning and
Speaker 2: move on.
Speaker 1: And there comes a time in your.
Speaker 2: Life when you must stop mourning.
Speaker 1: Nobody can tell you when that is.
Speaker 2: Only God can tell you when you've cried over Saul
Speaker 2: long enough. That's what the prophet Samuel had to come
Speaker 2: to terms with.
Speaker 1: Then.
Speaker 2: I know you believed in Saul, and I know you
Speaker 2: prayed for Saul, and I know you wanted more out
Speaker 2: of Saul. But it's time to fill your horn with
Speaker 2: oil and beyond your way because your Plan.
Speaker 1: B is God's Plan A. I found a.
Speaker 2: Man after my own heart, and his name is David.
Speaker 2: I think we might have a good time in church today.
Speaker 2: Touch somebody say there's a shift.
Speaker 1: There's a shift that happens.
Speaker 2: When now David has to decide to step into what
Speaker 2: God set him apart for. I'm hesitant to preach stuff
Speaker 2: like this because people will take and twist my words
Speaker 2: and quit their job. This is not a license for irresponsibility.
Speaker 2: I have received so many emails from people who started
Speaker 2: a bagel shop because they like bagels, and I talked
Speaker 2: about Peter stepping out of the boat. That's not what
Speaker 2: the passage is for. Why are you looking at me
Speaker 2: like that. I've seen so many people blame God for
Speaker 2: bad decision making habits, and I get it, but I
Speaker 2: think if God, if God would be it's just a
Speaker 2: theory that I have. Let me read you the scripture
Speaker 2: when David needed to know what to do next, and
Speaker 2: I just want to take a poll at Valentine. I
Speaker 2: wish I could do this at all the campuses. Do
Speaker 2: you have a decision you need to make right now?
Speaker 2: Raise your hand. It won't be as big as David's
Speaker 2: decision to be king. I get it, You're not that epic.
Speaker 2: I'm not that epic. We're not that epic. But don't
Speaker 2: you believe that the principles that governed his epic rise
Speaker 2: and his dynasty are the same principles that God would
Speaker 2: use to govern your everyday life. The principles aren't different,
Speaker 2: the stakes aren't as high, but the principles are no different.
Speaker 2: And I want to watch what David did when it
Speaker 2: came time for him to decide saught was dead. Now,
Speaker 2: how do I step into what God set me apart
Speaker 2: for so many years ago? That's the issue, how to
Speaker 2: get there, when to get there? And any conversation about
Speaker 2: trust must involve a conversation about timing. Trust and timing
Speaker 2: are inseparable. Trust takes time. Trust takes time. Stop giving
Speaker 2: your first state your family history. They have not earned
Speaker 2: that information at this point in the relationship. Keep it
Speaker 2: real guarded for about six months, and then tell them
Speaker 2: about your crazy step mom.
Speaker 1: But not on the first date. Because trust takes time.
Speaker 1: Trust takes time.
Speaker 2: That's why Drake said, no new friends, because trust.
Speaker 1: Takes time.
Speaker 2: Let's get back to the Bible carnality coming on the church.
Speaker 2: The Bible says in this is Second Samuel, chapter two,
Speaker 2: verse one, in the course of time, even that phrase
Speaker 2: would preach.
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna preach it.
Speaker 2: But it's a strange phrase that is used throughout the
Speaker 2: narrative of David's life to signify a shift in the
Speaker 2: course of time. We don't know how long, we don't
Speaker 2: know exactly what period it's referring to, but it's a
Speaker 2: significant phrase because us it took David some time to
Speaker 2: shift and to figure out what God wanted him to
Speaker 2: do next. But in the course of time, David inquired
Speaker 2: of the Lord. Shall I go up to one of
Speaker 2: the towns of Judah?
Speaker 1: He asked?
Speaker 2: And the Lord said, go up? And David said, where
Speaker 2: shall I go? To Hebron, The Lord answered, So David
Speaker 2: went up there, and I'm like, well, yeah, if God
Speaker 2: would speak to me that specifically, I would do it too.
Speaker 1: Wouldn't that be cool? If God would talk to you
Speaker 1: like that. Let's read it again. Shall I go up.
Speaker 2: To one of the towns of Judah, he asked?
Speaker 1: And the Lord said yep.
Speaker 2: And David asked where shall I go?
Speaker 1: And God said to Hebron. Will you love to have
Speaker 1: that kind.
Speaker 2: Of clear insight on who to marry? Would that be
Speaker 2: cool if you were single, sitting over in this section
Speaker 2: and you could look over at that section and say, God,
Speaker 2: should I ask one of them out to lunch today?
Speaker 1: And God would say go ahead, and you could say
Speaker 1: which one? And God would say the cute one five
Speaker 1: four brown hair.
Speaker 2: Would that be amazing if God would speak.
Speaker 1: To you so specifically like this. I think I could
Speaker 1: be a.
Speaker 2: Man after God's own heart too, if he would give
Speaker 2: me this kind of direct information.
Speaker 1: It'd be amazing.
Speaker 2: God would speak to you about the important things in
Speaker 2: your life with this specificity.
Speaker 1: God, should I start.
Speaker 2: Aaron Rodgers and God would just show you the important things.
Speaker 1: Life.
Speaker 2: Write down the word strategy because David is asking God
Speaker 2: for his next strategic move.
Speaker 1: Because he wants to take the right next step.
Speaker 2: I've been running for fifteen years. I don't want to
Speaker 2: waste any more time. But God, I need to know
Speaker 2: my next step. I need to know is the marriage
Speaker 2: over or should I give it a little more time?
Speaker 2: Because I need to know my next step. I hear
Speaker 2: the doctor saying that my kids should be on this medicine,
Speaker 2: but I'm not so sure if that's.
Speaker 1: The right thing.
Speaker 2: And wouldn't it be nice if God would say yep
Speaker 2: lexapro and just tell you yep, ridling.
Speaker 1: How easy would it be.
Speaker 2: You'd go fill the bottle and you'd pop the pills,
Speaker 2: and you'd go to Hebron and you'd be a king.
Speaker 2: But most of us don't enjoy this specificity of connection
Speaker 2: with God, and the people who say they do are weird.
Speaker 1: They're weird. The people who tell.
Speaker 2: You that God told them which color shirt to wear
Speaker 2: to church that day, and they were purple because it's
Speaker 2: the color of royalty.
Speaker 1: Are weird, and they will often.
Speaker 2: Do something that contradicts the written word of God and
Speaker 2: blame it on an impression and call it the.
Speaker 1: Holy Spirit, which messes it up for the rest of us.
Speaker 2: Because now I don't even want to say God told
Speaker 2: me to do something, because I've heard so many people
Speaker 2: use that phrase to pimp their own decision and put
Speaker 2: it on God because now they don't have to deal
Speaker 2: with the outcome. I'm just trying to say that I
Speaker 2: wish it could be this specific. I wish God could
Speaker 2: be more like Google, just being honest with you. Because
Speaker 2: I have a great relationship with Google. Google knows what
Speaker 2: I want to ask it before I finish the word
Speaker 2: the first three letters. Now, Google also knows so much
Speaker 2: about my life. Google also knows my blood type and
Speaker 2: the color of my urine. But that's beside the point
Speaker 2: about information secrecy.
Speaker 1: What I like about.
Speaker 2: Google is Google seems to anticipate what I need to know,
Speaker 2: and God seems to be the opposite. Because I'm begging
Speaker 2: him sometimes to let me know what to do about
Speaker 2: this relationship, about this decision. What did you can invest
Speaker 2: your money with the kind of knowledge with which David
Speaker 2: went to hebrin, What if God would tell you which stock?
Speaker 2: What if God would tell you how to balance the portfolio?
Speaker 2: What if God would tell you which position to apply for?
Speaker 1: Wouldn't that be amazing? If God would order your steps
Speaker 1: like that? What's that Amazon? What's it called Echo?
Speaker 2: Somebody sent us an Amazon Echo recently. I would suggest
Speaker 2: putting it on your Christmas list. It's an amazing device.
Speaker 2: This is not a product endorsement, but it's amazing.
Speaker 1: Do any of you have it?
Speaker 2: It's voice activated because sometimes you can't be bothered to
Speaker 2: have to use your thumbs.
Speaker 1: So I like Alexa. That's her name, Alexa.
Speaker 2: I have a relationship with Alexa where I say her name.
Speaker 2: I say Alexa and she lights up, kind of like Holly.
Speaker 1: When I say her what she's not.
Speaker 2: And I can tell her what song to play, what
Speaker 2: tasks to perform Alexa and she lights up.
Speaker 1: She answers me, she hears me when I call. She's
Speaker 1: like the Lord.
Speaker 2: Well, yesterday I walked in and Graham was doing his homework.
Speaker 1: But I want you to see something.
Speaker 2: I caught it on my video camera because I've never
Speaker 2: seen anything like this before.
Speaker 3: If eighty eight mine is ed equals all right, Alexa,
Speaker 3: what is nineteen plus nine?
Speaker 1: The sum of nineteen and nine is twenty eight? Are
Speaker 1: you kidding me right now? Are you kidding me? Are
Speaker 1: you kidding me right now? About what? How you're doing
Speaker 1: your homework? I am checking, he's checking, checking, check in.
Speaker 2: Tell your neighbors, say, I'm checking, I'm checking. I'm checking.
Speaker 2: I already did the work. I'm just checking.
Speaker 1: I see. I have a feeling.
Speaker 2: When David inquired of the Lord, where do I go next?
Speaker 1: He was already on his way. He was just checking.
Speaker 2: Because when you walk in God's ways, you will know
Speaker 2: God's will.
Speaker 1: All you gotta do is check. Jesus said, if.
Speaker 2: I leave, I'll send you the spirit of truth, and
Speaker 2: he'll show you the ways to walk in. I'm checking,
Speaker 2: I'm checking, I'm checking. See.
Speaker 1: I don't have to ask God about every decision. I
Speaker 1: don't have to stress about God's will. When I live
Speaker 1: my life in God's ways, I have the confidence that
Speaker 1: my steps are ordered.
Speaker 2: Where's my organ My steps are ordered by the Lord,
Speaker 2: because I delight in his way.
Speaker 1: Why aren't you all on your feet?
Speaker 2: I'm trying to tell you.
Speaker 3: I don't have to.
Speaker 2: Worry so much about what when you get throw why
Speaker 2: right when you walk in the ways of God, when
Speaker 2: you submit to him, Because God's strategy is submission.
Speaker 1: And now you can sit down, because you're not going
Speaker 1: to like this part. The other s word is submission.
Speaker 2: And in all of the steps that David took away
Speaker 2: from the throne for fifteen years, into the land of
Speaker 2: the Philistines, into the place of zick Lad, while it
Speaker 2: looked like he was moving away from the promise God
Speaker 2: had made him, he was moving into submission. Submission. The
Speaker 2: steps of a good man are ordered. That's what they
Speaker 2: do in the military.
Speaker 1: Ordered. And I found out a lot.
Speaker 2: Of people will rejoice over the sovereignty of God but
Speaker 2: resist submission. And to believe in sovereignty without embracing submission
Speaker 2: is not faith.
Speaker 1: It's fairy tale.
Speaker 2: If I say my steps are ordered by the Lord
Speaker 2: as a way of excusing my decisions, I have misunderstood
Speaker 2: the implication of Psalm thirty seven twenty three.
Speaker 1: I wonder how.
Speaker 2: Much differently we would respond to Psalm thirty seven twenty.
Speaker 1: Three if we considered the word ordered.
Speaker 2: Because when God David went to God, David didn't give
Speaker 2: God his opinion.
Speaker 1: He asked God for his next order.
Speaker 2: Now, when you live like that, you can have complete
Speaker 2: and total confidence in every move you make, every breath
Speaker 2: you take, and whether you're moving away from your goal
Speaker 2: or toward your goal, you can know.
Speaker 1: I'm in submission, so I'm at peace. Submission brings peace.
Speaker 1: When you try to.
Speaker 2: Get the strategy before submission, you're out of order, and
Speaker 2: it doesn't work. When you say God orders your steps,
Speaker 2: understand what you're saying is not that God will take
Speaker 2: the step for you. It's that He will tell you
Speaker 2: which one to take. So when I asked God to
Speaker 2: heal my relationship with my dad, God did not do
Speaker 2: it until I submitted to the way that he wanted
Speaker 2: me to do do it, which was to humble myself
Speaker 2: and go into my dad and instead of proving how
Speaker 2: right I was and how wrong he was, to find
Speaker 2: a point of connection. But that required submission. And when
Speaker 2: I submitted myself to God's way, I experienced God's will.
Speaker 2: A lot of the things that are not working in my.
Speaker 1: Life are because I'm out of order.
Speaker 2: Sometimes when your finances are out of order, you have
Speaker 2: the money you need, it's just not in.
Speaker 1: I think I've preached us into a funeral.
Speaker 2: It's because God is really not first in your priorities.
Speaker 1: I can tell by your ledger. I can tell.
Speaker 2: Because everybody else gets your first, and.
Speaker 1: God gets what's left.
Speaker 2: When you give God your best, he blesses what's left.
Speaker 2: When you give God what's left, how can you believe
Speaker 2: him for his best?
Speaker 1: You're out of order. The three times that me and
Speaker 1: Holly have fought.
Speaker 2: In fifteen years of marriage. It might be understated, but
Speaker 2: when we fight, it's not because we don't have a
Speaker 2: blessed marriage.
Speaker 1: It's because something is out of order. Something is out
Speaker 1: of order. There's a step I'm skipping.
Speaker 2: See when I talk to my wife and I need
Speaker 2: to work something out.
Speaker 1: The thing I gotta do before I.
Speaker 2: Can explain myself is to empathize, which does.
Speaker 1: Not come naturally to me.
Speaker 2: To listen to your wrong point of view before I
Speaker 2: give you the correct one. But sometimes there's something I
Speaker 2: need to learn about how you see it, so I
Speaker 2: can come over onto your side. That's why we have
Speaker 2: so much racial and religious tension in our nation.
Speaker 1: We're out of order. We're out of order.
Speaker 2: Before we even listen to one another, we're giving a
Speaker 2: lesson to the other, but you can't give the lesson until.
Speaker 1: You're willing to listen. So we're out of order.
Speaker 2: And now we're frustrated because it's not working.
Speaker 1: And we don't know what to do.
Speaker 2: But David's life is a life is interesting how when
Speaker 2: he was in order, how everything had to flow to it.
Speaker 2: The oil flows when you're in order. The Bible says,
Speaker 2: he inquired of the Lord, shall I go up to
Speaker 2: one of the cities of Judah, which was not, by
Speaker 2: the way, the ultimate capital. Because everything God does he
Speaker 2: does in steps and stages. It would be I've been
Speaker 2: in a half more years before David would come into
Speaker 2: the fullness of his calling. But all you need for
Speaker 2: now is the next step. David had been making moves. See,
Speaker 2: he had been working toward this moment where he would
Speaker 2: go to Judah, and he had sent them in of
Speaker 2: Judah gifts and he.
Speaker 4: Was set up now and he asked God, is now
Speaker 4: the time? Because I don't want to move? Do you
Speaker 4: want me to move?
Speaker 2: And in one sentence God taught him his next move,
Speaker 2: because for fifteen years God had taught him to submit.
Speaker 2: If you can receive this message today, and submit your
Speaker 2: desires God will. God will tell you what to do.
Speaker 1: When you delight yourself in His way.
Speaker 2: That's what Psalm thirty seven says, that he delighteth in
Speaker 2: his way.
Speaker 1: I thought that meant I'm so stupid. I thought that
Speaker 1: meant for the longest time. I don't know why we
Speaker 1: can't get this stuff. The first time I thought that man,
Speaker 1: God delights in his way. The steps of a good
Speaker 1: man are ordered by the Lord. Put it up there.
Speaker 2: The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord,
Speaker 2: and he delighteth in his way. I thought that meant
Speaker 2: that if I'm a good man and my steps are ordered,
Speaker 2: God will delight And well, of course God delights in
Speaker 2: the way that he orders.
Speaker 1: I don't make any sense.
Speaker 2: It means that when I delight in his way, See,
Speaker 2: he delighteth in his way.
Speaker 1: Who's he the man whose steps are ordered?
Speaker 2: When I delight in God's way, I will be in
Speaker 2: God's will, and my steps will be ordered.
Speaker 1: And I can stay on.
Speaker 2: This step as long as I need to stay on
Speaker 2: this step, and I can stay in this season as
Speaker 2: long as I need to be in this season. Because God,
Speaker 2: I don't want to go into any greater responsibility or
Speaker 2: influence until you say I'm ready. I don't want to
Speaker 2: come out of this oven until I'm ready. I don't
Speaker 2: want to enter into the promotion until I'm ready. And
Speaker 2: when you say step, I step, and my steps are ordered.
Speaker 1: It's a statement of submission.
Speaker 2: But it's also a statement of sequence, right because when
Speaker 2: you get.
Speaker 1: Her number, not only.
Speaker 2: Do you need the right digits, they need to be
Speaker 2: in the right because if she gives you the right
Speaker 2: digits in the wrong order, you'll be calling the wrong
Speaker 2: girl sounding like a stalker. Hey, remember I met you
Speaker 2: Thursday night.
Speaker 1: She's gonna hang up on you. Because it has to
Speaker 1: be in order.
Speaker 2: David couldn't be a king until he learned to be
Speaker 2: a shepherd because there was something that he needed to
Speaker 2: get at the bottom that would enable him to be
Speaker 2: who he needed to be at the top. Somebody shout,
Speaker 2: my steps are ordered. That means God not only knows where,
Speaker 2: but he knows what, and he knows when. And now
Speaker 2: I can trust him because I'll have it when I
Speaker 2: need it.
Speaker 1: I'll have it when I need it.
Speaker 2: I was thinking about something the other day, how if
Speaker 2: I had known this fifteen.
Speaker 1: Years ago, how good it would have been, and I
Speaker 1: felt that voice in me.
Speaker 2: It wasn't out loud, like David, where God just speaks
Speaker 2: to you in complete sentences.
Speaker 1: It was an impression that God said.
Speaker 2: You wouldn't have known what to do with it fifteen
Speaker 2: years ago. It took fifteen years of your foolishness to
Speaker 2: even respect what I wanted to show you. See, this
Speaker 2: is what I mean when I say my steps are ordered,
Speaker 2: I mean that not only are the ones, the steps,
Speaker 2: the steps that feel like this ordered, so are.
Speaker 1: These and you can't have one without the other.
Speaker 2: To say my steps are ordered means that not only
Speaker 2: does promotion not come from the East or the west,
Speaker 2: but it comes from the Lord. But sometimes the pain
Speaker 2: comes from him too.
Speaker 1: My steps are ordered.
Speaker 2: And God knows which is step three, and which is
Speaker 2: step one, and which is step four. And if I
Speaker 2: start skipping steps, I'm likely.
Speaker 1: I'm likely to.
Speaker 2: End up on my face, which is the next thing.
Speaker 2: David said in Psalm thirty seven twenty four. He said,
Speaker 2: watch this, though he fall, he shall not be utterly
Speaker 2: cast down, for the Lord upholded him with his hand.
Speaker 2: It means that my confidence is not in the stability
Speaker 2: of my feet. My confidence is in the sovereignty.
Speaker 1: Of his hand.
Speaker 2: You want to shout right there, Even when I fell,
Speaker 2: even when I tripped, even when I stumbled, even when
Speaker 2: I missed it, My steps are ordered, and when I fall,
Speaker 2: I fall forward because God's hand.
Speaker 1: Is over my life. Order. Order.
Speaker 2: Everybody say order, It means sequence, sequence that God knows
Speaker 2: what to do and when to do it. There's a
Speaker 2: sequence to things. Do you trust God's sequence? Do you
Speaker 2: trust it? In some seasons he needs to move your
Speaker 2: way some seasons, he needs to move you toward. Some seasons,
Speaker 2: he's gonna use things that you hate. Some seasons, he's
Speaker 2: gonna use things that you love. Are all of your
Speaker 2: steps ordered by the Lord? Are just the ones that
Speaker 2: you like? Because some of you feel like you're going
Speaker 2: down today, but you're still in order. You're still in order.
Speaker 2: God's order isn't like your order. Peter said, Jesus, you
Speaker 2: can't go to the cross yet. You can't let him
Speaker 2: kill you yet. They can't kill you until you establish
Speaker 2: the kingdom. Jesus said, no, I can't establish the kingdom
Speaker 2: until they kill me, because I gotta go down like
Speaker 2: Tuna went down to the belly of the earth three days.
Speaker 2: That's the only way I can rise. My steps are order,
Speaker 2: my steps, shutting my steps, my right steps, wrong steps,
Speaker 2: left steps, right step. I feel like.
Speaker 1: Dancing in here. My steps are order.
Speaker 2: And that's part of the reason that LJ makes me
Speaker 2: so sick. I mean to do this in front of everybody,
Speaker 2: but I'm jealous of his talent because we both play music,
Speaker 2: but he plays it so much better than me. I mean,
Speaker 2: I can play a little bit, but after about ten
Speaker 2: minutes I will have exhausted my knowledge of what I
Speaker 2: know to play.
Speaker 1: This guy he took lessons the right way.
Speaker 2: My mom sent me to lessons, but I didn't learn
Speaker 2: the right way.
Speaker 1: It was my fault.
Speaker 2: It wasn't her fault, the teacher's fault, or anything like that.
Speaker 2: I wanted to learn certain songs. I wanted to learn
Speaker 2: Every rose has its thorn, So I learned it, but
Speaker 2: I didn't learn I didn't learn the theory. I just
Speaker 2: learned right. I just learned how to make the chords,
Speaker 2: but I didn't know how the chords functioned together. That's
Speaker 2: solz problem. He got to be king too soon. He
Speaker 2: didn't have a chance to keep sheep while he was
Speaker 2: waiting to be king. That's the advantage that LJA.
Speaker 1: He learned all the scales and.
Speaker 2: The pentatonic scale and the modes and all the other
Speaker 2: things I didn't pay attention to that I was supposed
Speaker 2: to know. And I just learned a G chord and
Speaker 2: he learned showing a scale or something.
Speaker 1: You see.
Speaker 2: Doesn't that make you sick? How many of you took
Speaker 2: piano lessons? And he makes you sick? Makes makes makes
Speaker 2: me sick. He can just play stuff like, just play
Speaker 2: a few notes, just anything you want to play.
Speaker 1: I don't care. Okay, do it, do it again, that
Speaker 1: same thing. Do it again.
Speaker 2: Okay, m hm, do it again. Do those same notes,
Speaker 2: but do them different, like different order or something.
Speaker 1: Do it again, all right, do it? Do it again.
Speaker 2: Don't change any of the notes. Do it do the
Speaker 2: same notes. Do it in a different order, Maybe switch
Speaker 2: the instrument. Do it like an electric guitar sound or something.
Speaker 1: Like that, some a little more interesting. Yeah, yeah like that.
Speaker 1: Do it do it again?
Speaker 2: Yeah, do it do it again, different different order.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I like that.
Speaker 2: Now go up, go up again, and then back down
Speaker 2: to the first one. You're luck at him right there,
Speaker 2: right there, right.
Speaker 1: There, a little faster minor six.
Speaker 2: Four five and one that sounds like something the same
Speaker 2: notes he was playing before, but now with movement, an order,
Speaker 2: shift sequence order, if you know what you ought to sing?
Speaker 2: Six I'm laughing because the white people are singing the
Speaker 2: police and the black people are singing puffy, but keep playing.
Speaker 2: Those are the same notes he started playing, but when
Speaker 2: he cut him in order. Come on, I feel somebody's
Speaker 2: life getting in order today. I feel somebody's steps getting
Speaker 2: in order.
Speaker 1: All right, stop, it's just an illustration.
Speaker 2: I'm trying to show you that everything you need is
Speaker 2: in your life, and.
Speaker 1: Your steps are order.
Speaker 2: And if I'm going on or if I'm going down,
Speaker 2: my steps.
Speaker 1: Har order. If you know your steps.
Speaker 4: Harder sound right now, every step.
Speaker 1: Every food.
Speaker 2: Sent to your feet up said, I'm gonna take you
Speaker 2: down sometimes and you're gonna fall sometimes. But whether I'm
Speaker 2: taking you down or raising you up, your steps are
Speaker 2: in order. I don't know who is for, but you've
Speaker 2: been going this direction. Who there's something that you need
Speaker 2: down here that God is gonna use. You've been stuck
Speaker 2: on a step, but this somebody say this step, stop
Speaker 2: your foot, say this staff is ordered by the Lord.
Speaker 2: And David says, should I go to Hebron, and God.
Speaker 1: Said, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2: Because when you're walking with God, you don't have to
Speaker 2: fast twenty one days to figure out what he wants
Speaker 2: you to do.
Speaker 1: You'll know.
Speaker 2: You'll know when you walk with him, every step you'll
Speaker 2: know his will. And the Bible says something in verse
Speaker 2: four that got my attention. It says that after David
Speaker 2: had inquired of the Lord, the men of Judah came
Speaker 2: to Hebron, and there they anointed David king over the
Speaker 2: tribe of Judah, where.
Speaker 1: In the place of his next step.
Speaker 2: Often we want God to give us confirmation before we obey.
Speaker 1: That's out of order.
Speaker 2: God said, your confirmation awaits your obedience. God, I'll forgive
Speaker 2: them if you give me the grace to forgive them.
Speaker 2: That's out of order. You forgive them, and then you
Speaker 2: get the grace. It's a decision.
Speaker 4: It's a decision that leads to destiny, and every step
Speaker 4: is ordered by the Lord. In fact, if we're doing
Speaker 4: it our way, we would praise God when he moved
Speaker 4: in our lives. Real praise comes from a faith of place.
Speaker 4: Real faith, says God, I'm going to brace you on
Speaker 4: credit because.
Speaker 2: You've never failed me yet, so I'm gonna take the.
Speaker 1: Next step by faith.
Speaker 2: I'm taking the next step by faith, and my steps.
Speaker 1: Are ordered by the Lord. Give them a great sound
Speaker 1: of praya and watch the walls fall. Gather my great
Speaker 1: soun of praise. And what shall I come?
Speaker 2: Here?
Speaker 1: It comes the morning? Shall I go up? Yeah?
Speaker 2: Go up, God says I'm already there. Your oil is
Speaker 2: waiting in the place of your next order. Father, I
Speaker 2: thank you for the word you gave me today, the
Speaker 2: spirit of Christ that I feel operative in this place,
Speaker 2: touching the hearts of people, meeting the needs of people.
Speaker 2: Lift your hands in the presence of the Lord. He's
Speaker 2: speaking now, be sensitive to his spirit.
Speaker 1: He's speaking now.
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
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Speaker 1: Thanks again for listening. God bless you