Speaker 1: Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick.
Speaker 2: I'm the pastor of Elevation Church and this is our podcast.
Speaker 1: Be sure to.
Speaker 2: Subscribe so we can get you these new sermons every week.
Speaker 2: I hope you're blessed today.
Speaker 1: So good to be in church today. My wife is
Speaker 1: with me, two of the four or with me. We
Speaker 1: have four kids sixteen, fourteen, six and four and yeah,
Speaker 1: same wife, so we think us too. No same and
Speaker 1: we just took a break and took a long break
Speaker 1: in between there. And the two little ones they don't
Speaker 1: sit still long enough to get traveling rights, so they're
Speaker 1: at home. But we're just honored to be here. If
Speaker 1: you're ever in the Fredericksburg Richmond area of Virginia, come
Speaker 1: say hello to us sometime. We would love to host you,
Speaker 1: and I'd love to have you visit sometime. Honored to
Speaker 1: be here, I would be remiss if I didn't say
Speaker 1: at the onset that this house and the leaders of
Speaker 1: this House have made such a difference in our lives,
Speaker 1: as I think all of us can testify to. Moments
Speaker 1: setting over there, hearing a message called take your seat
Speaker 1: at the gate that marked me at an inside elevation
Speaker 1: a moment before service praying together at Providence High schools.
Speaker 1: We all remember Providence that marked me just moments throughout
Speaker 1: where something Pastor Stephen said in a phone call, something
Speaker 1: in a message. I think we'd all have the testimony
Speaker 1: some lyric that carried us through a moment of a song.
Speaker 1: And I just want to say how much we love
Speaker 1: your pastor's pastor Stephen, Pastor Holly. What a gif they
Speaker 1: are to you, but what a g if they are
Speaker 1: to the body of Christ. Come on, can we put
Speaker 1: our hands together and thank God for our leaders today?
Speaker 1: What an incredible gift. Well, are you ready for the
Speaker 1: Word today? Come on? I know this is a house
Speaker 1: that loves the Word of God. And so if you
Speaker 1: have a Bible with you. Judges, chapter six, We're gonna
Speaker 1: get to it and get to work. And I'm believing
Speaker 1: that God wants to say something to you today. Judges
Speaker 1: Chapter six. Start in verse one. Read to about verse six.
Speaker 1: It says again the Israelites did evil in the eyes
Speaker 1: of the Lord. It's a great verse to start with, right, Hey,
Speaker 1: welcome de elevation. Eve Israel did evil. I'm not smart.
Speaker 1: Guest speaker guy says in for seven years he gave
Speaker 1: them into the hands of the Midianites. Everybody shout Midianites.
Speaker 1: And because the power of midian was so oppressive, the
Speaker 1: Israelites prepared shelters for themselves in mountain clefts, caves and strongholds.
Speaker 1: And whenever the Israelites planted their crops, the Midianites, Amalakites
Speaker 1: and other Eastern peoples invaded the country and they camped
Speaker 1: on the land, and they ruined the crops all the
Speaker 1: way to Gaza. They did not spare a living thing
Speaker 1: for israel neither sheep, nor cattle, nor donkeys. And they
Speaker 1: came up with their livestock and their tents like swarm
Speaker 1: of locusts. It was impossible to count the men and
Speaker 1: their camels. They invaded the land and they ravaged it.
Speaker 1: Midians so impoverished the Israelites. One translation says they reduced
Speaker 1: them to starvation that they cried out to the Lord
Speaker 1: for help. I want to bring a message today. If
Speaker 1: you're a note taking typewrite this down. If you're not,
Speaker 1: go ahead and write it down. Called come out of
Speaker 1: the cave. Come out of the cave. Let's pray together, Father.
Speaker 1: Our hearts and minds are open to hear from heaven today.
Speaker 1: We haven't come to do some religious ritual, but we
Speaker 1: believe the Word of God is powerful and alive and
Speaker 1: can change our lives today. So do that, do what
Speaker 1: only you can do in our hearts and our minds.
Speaker 1: We pray this in Jesus' name. Everybody said a big amen. Amen.
Speaker 1: So not too long ago, my oldest owen who's with us,
Speaker 1: he's sixteen, starts driving next month. Everybody pay for my
Speaker 1: insurance bill. Please say a prayer. Add that to your
Speaker 1: prayer list. He comes up to me out of the
Speaker 1: balloon and he says, hey, Dad, did you ever pull
Speaker 1: an all nighter? And I was like, yeah, there were
Speaker 1: several times in college that I pulled all nighters. Anybody
Speaker 1: else in the house, come on, every campus, e fam,
Speaker 1: you pulled a nine nighter. Okay. I don't know if it's,
Speaker 1: you know, justification for my procrastination, but I just kind
Speaker 1: of like to say that I enjoyed all nighters. I
Speaker 1: had all nighters back in the day where you went
Speaker 1: to the computer lab. Come on, somebody, you didn't have
Speaker 1: no laptop in your room with you? Talking about spoiled
Speaker 1: went to a computer lab with my disc Can I
Speaker 1: get an amen in the House of God today, my
Speaker 1: disc put that in the slot, had to wait for
Speaker 1: a spot for all the other procrastinators that were in
Speaker 1: the computer lab, and then I'd work on that thing
Speaker 1: until about seven in the morning, run and get some breakfast,
Speaker 1: head to class, acting like I had that thing done
Speaker 1: for two weeks. So he was like I said, yeah,
Speaker 1: I pulled several all nighters. And at the same time,
Speaker 1: in my mind, I'm trying to calculate weight. I think
Speaker 1: he's trying to get approval for waiting until the last minute.
Speaker 1: Come on, have you know your sins will catch up
Speaker 1: to you at some point in your life and your
Speaker 1: parenting usually trying to get justifications so at some point
Speaker 1: he can put things off till the last moment. But
Speaker 1: I kind of liked the pressure. I kind of enjoyed
Speaker 1: the pressure. Actually I fed off of it. I thrived
Speaker 1: off the pressure, honestly a little bit. I kind of
Speaker 1: think that I'm a little more creative when I'm under pressure.
Speaker 1: I think I write a little better when I'm under pressure.
Speaker 1: I think I perform a little better. Anybody else with me,
Speaker 1: like you kind of like the pressure the rest of you,
Speaker 1: Like I've just triggered something on the inside of you,
Speaker 1: Like you're gonna go to in therapy this week. We
Speaker 1: all need some therapy. You're gonna be talking about how
Speaker 1: like it brought up things of you. You know, some
Speaker 1: of you dream that you showed up to class without
Speaker 1: a paper and it was the nightmares. But I kind
Speaker 1: of like the pressure. And you know, pressure is really
Speaker 1: interesting in life because we all face it, do we not.
Speaker 1: We all go through some pressure. Some of you get
Speaker 1: under immense pressure right now in this moment, the pressure
Speaker 1: to perform. We all face pressure. We face the pressure
Speaker 1: to to to act like we've got it all together
Speaker 1: when we're falling apart on the inside, face the pressure
Speaker 1: of how will my kids turn out? We all face pressures,
Speaker 1: financial pressures, relational pressures. But we all face pressure in life.
Speaker 1: And whether you're tuning in today and you believe in
Speaker 1: Jesus and God and the Bible and all those things,
Speaker 1: or you don't, the commonality of the human experience is
Speaker 1: that we all face pressure. Somebody shall pressure. And I
Speaker 1: found that pressure usually comes from a couple of different
Speaker 1: places in our life. How many of you know, life
Speaker 1: just happens that sometimes it's the choices of other people
Speaker 1: that cause pressure in your life that sometimes it's just
Speaker 1: life circumstances. Just out of the blue. You didn't wake
Speaker 1: up and plant it, you didn't wake up that day
Speaker 1: hoping for it, but just out of nowhere, pressure came
Speaker 1: on you. And how may you know that, if we're
Speaker 1: real honest, sometimes the pressures in our life come because
Speaker 1: of the choices that we made, that we did something,
Speaker 1: we said something, we sewed something so many years ago
Speaker 1: and we're reaping that thing now. And sometimes pressure is
Speaker 1: just let's be real, God didn't do it, your mama
Speaker 1: didn't do it. I did it. Are y'all? Track it
Speaker 1: with me? Comes from a couple of different places. But
Speaker 1: when we read in this story right now, the Israelites
Speaker 1: under immense pressure, and they're under immense pressure from this
Speaker 1: group called the Midianites, this group of people that have
Speaker 1: put the full force and the full weight of themselves
Speaker 1: on Israel. And pressure can be debilitating, it can be overwhelming.
Speaker 1: It can back you into a corner and make you
Speaker 1: feel like I have no other option and I have
Speaker 1: no other way out. This is what pressure will do
Speaker 1: to you. And I have found in life that pressure
Speaker 1: will do one of two things to you. It will
Speaker 1: either refine you or it will confine you. Are y'all
Speaker 1: following me so far, We're going somewhere, we're just building.
Speaker 1: It'll either refine you or it will confine you. You know,
Speaker 1: pressure can be powerful to refine something. I was reading
Speaker 1: this week, Not that I'm a scientist whatsoever. Those all
Speaker 1: nights were not scientific papers. But I found that whenever
Speaker 1: carbon atoms are put under seven hundred and twenty five
Speaker 1: thousand pounds of pressure per square inch and the right temperature,
Speaker 1: they produce a diamond. Seven hundred and twenty five thousand
Speaker 1: pounds of pressure per square inch. That's a whole lot
Speaker 1: of pressure. So that pressure is refining a little carbon atom.
Speaker 1: Now that little carbon atom isn't going. This is awesome.
Speaker 1: I don't know how carbon atom's sake. I just see
Speaker 1: my mind. You know, this is wonderful. I just love
Speaker 1: this person. I love that I'm under pressure and that
Speaker 1: I'm hidden, that nobody can see me, and that I'm
Speaker 1: down in this dirt and all this pressure is on
Speaker 1: top of me. I'm just loving this right now. Thank
Speaker 1: you Jesus for your faithfulness. But I'm under the pressure
Speaker 1: right now. But that pressure is refining to produce something.
Speaker 1: How may you know that? I found that whenever I'm
Speaker 1: under pressure, it feels like I'm hidden because whatever is
Speaker 1: weighing down on me is high me. It feels like
Speaker 1: no one. Whenever you're under pressure, you can feel like
Speaker 1: no one sees you, that no one knows you. You
Speaker 1: wonder if God is even in the building with you
Speaker 1: in the moment? Does God even know what I'm going through?
Speaker 1: But I would propose to you that there are some
Speaker 1: things in your life that can only be developed under pressure.
Speaker 1: I'm not saying that God sends the Midianites into your life,
Speaker 1: but I'm just saying that He has a way of
Speaker 1: working all things together and that if you will allow him,
Speaker 1: the pressure can refine that there are some character traits,
Speaker 1: that there are some faith that needs to be built.
Speaker 1: That you don't see the diamond in you, but God
Speaker 1: sees the diamond in you. And on the other side
Speaker 1: of the pressure. I wonder if I got anybody that's
Speaker 1: been through some pressure in your life, and you can
Speaker 1: testify today that on the other side of the pressure
Speaker 1: there's some greater faith that on the other side of
Speaker 1: the pressure you learn to worship Him like you've never
Speaker 1: worshiped him before that on the other side, because pressure
Speaker 1: will either refine you ord we'll confine you. Pressure has
Speaker 1: a way of molding something on the inside of you.
Speaker 1: Pressure has a way of working out some of the
Speaker 1: things in you that need to get out of you.
Speaker 1: Pressure can refine you. Somebody shout pressure, but pressure can
Speaker 1: also confine you. And this is what's happening to Israel.
Speaker 1: In the text that we just read, the Bible says
Speaker 1: that again Israel did evil in the eyes of the Lord.
Speaker 1: Somebody shout again. If you want a store, if you
Speaker 1: want to overview the Old Testament, can we go to
Speaker 1: Sunday School real quick? Let me give you Old Testament survey.
Speaker 1: God chooses Israel. Israel's happy and worshiping God blesses Israel.
Speaker 1: Israel's living in the blessing of God. Israel's like we
Speaker 1: bless I don't know we need God anymore. And Israel
Speaker 1: walks away from God and starts doing life on their own,
Speaker 1: and they face all the consequences of it, and not
Speaker 1: because God is beating them up. Because when you choose
Speaker 1: your own, God's let go ahead. I'll leave the light
Speaker 1: on for you. I'll be right here waiting when you
Speaker 1: get back, when you figure out this don't work your way,
Speaker 1: when you figure out doing life your way, when you
Speaker 1: figure out having any bad attitudes, living degative unforgiveness, when
Speaker 1: you figure out it don't work that way, I'll leave
Speaker 1: the light on. I'm right here waiting on you. They
Speaker 1: cry out to God, what does God do? Because he's
Speaker 1: a good god, he rescues Israel, then he blesses Israel,
Speaker 1: and then Israel is like, I don't know that we
Speaker 1: need God anymore. I'll start doing in my own way.
Speaker 1: And then they get the consequences of it. Repeat, repeat,
Speaker 1: Are y'all tracking with me? And this is where we
Speaker 1: are in the story right now. It says that Israel
Speaker 1: again again, Israel did evil in the eyes of the Lord,
Speaker 1: And so they're in one of these cycles. Man, this
Speaker 1: kind of sounds like us sometimes, doesn't y'all? Remember the
Speaker 1: old hymn, This is my story, this is my song,
Speaker 1: praising my save. I'm not your pastor out. I can't
Speaker 1: write lyrics. Ain't nobody like him, says praising my Savior
Speaker 1: all the day long. I'm like, no, that's not my story.
Speaker 1: Some days it's praising them all day long. Some days
Speaker 1: it's I think I could do it on my own. Oh,
Speaker 1: we got the saints in the house today, Well just
Speaker 1: for me, for anybody that ain't wearing the saint halo today,
Speaker 1: for me, it's like, no, this sounds like my story
Speaker 1: sometimes Israel that sometimes I'm going all in for God,
Speaker 1: and sometimes I got days where it's like I thank God,
Speaker 1: I can do it on my own. And this is
Speaker 1: the cycle that Israel's in. And so when Israel decides
Speaker 1: to do it on their own, God's like, okay, do
Speaker 1: it your way. And as a result, Midian comes in.
Speaker 1: These Midianites, they come in and they begin to attack Israel,
Speaker 1: and they begin to confine Israel. Because pressure will either
Speaker 1: refine you or it will confine you. You know, what
Speaker 1: I found this week that I'd never seen before is
Speaker 1: that Midian was a thorn in the flesh to another
Speaker 1: follower of God by the name of Joseph. I don't
Speaker 1: know if you know this Genesis chapter thirty seven, it
Speaker 1: won't be on the screen for you. I'm just gonna
Speaker 1: tell you. Have to trust me that I'm giving you
Speaker 1: the correct Bible verse. But the Bible says that Joseph's brothers.
Speaker 1: If you remember this, the cot of mini colors. They
Speaker 1: didn't like him. They threw them into the pit. You'll
Speaker 1: track him with me. They put him into the pit.
Speaker 1: And then whenever there was some Ishraelites came along, but
Speaker 1: they were israel that were Midianite traders. So same group
Speaker 1: of people, same pressure. Joseph determines that no matter the
Speaker 1: circumstance or the situation, whether I'm in the pit, or
Speaker 1: I'm in Potiphar's house, or i am in the prison,
Speaker 1: the Bible says the hand of the Lord was with him,
Speaker 1: and that he rows to the top in the middle
Speaker 1: of every situation because pressure will either refine you or
Speaker 1: it will confine you. Now we get over here to
Speaker 1: Judges chapter six, and we see the Midianites as a
Speaker 1: thorn in their flesh again. And what happens is that
Speaker 1: Israel begins to retreat because when pressure confines you, it
Speaker 1: will shrink you. And when the pressure of life comes
Speaker 1: on you will either say, okay, God can work all
Speaker 1: this together for my good, or you will begin to
Speaker 1: shrink back. And the Bible tells us that physically, geographically,
Speaker 1: the Israelites begin to shrink back. They begin to shrink back.
Speaker 1: It says they they made shelters in caves and in
Speaker 1: the clefts and in strongholds. They physically shrink back. I
Speaker 1: think it's a metaphor for what you and I do.
Speaker 1: Whenever pressure comes on our life, they begin to shrink back.
Speaker 1: They begin to make themselves small. They begin to limit
Speaker 1: their thinking. They begin to limit the possibilities in their life.
Speaker 1: They begin to settle in for what they thought could happen.
Speaker 1: They begin to settle in for what they thought was
Speaker 1: the right solution. In the middle of this difficulty in pressure,
Speaker 1: they begin to shrink themselves. And whenever pressure comes on us,
Speaker 1: we will begin to shrink our dreams. We'll begin to
Speaker 1: shrink our faith down. We'll begin to shrink the possibilities
Speaker 1: down in our life. We'll begin to settle in for
Speaker 1: less than our inheritance as children of the living God.
Speaker 1: We'll begin to believe the lie of the enemy, that
Speaker 1: it's always gonna be this way. We'll never get out
Speaker 1: of this situation, will never be moved beyond this circumstance.
Speaker 1: We begin to shrink ourselves. I wonder, not out loud,
Speaker 1: but if you wouldn't answer inside, what part of your
Speaker 1: life have you shrunk down, because here's the deal. The
Speaker 1: enemy doesn't have to steal your confidence. He just has
Speaker 1: to put enough pressure on you, and you'll give it
Speaker 1: up yourself. The enemy doesn't have to rob you of joy.
Speaker 1: He just has to put enough pressure, enough financial pressure,
Speaker 1: enough relational pressure, enough parenting pressure on you. He doesn't
Speaker 1: have to get The enemy can't come and take anything
Speaker 1: from you. We give it up ourselves because of the pressure.
Speaker 1: And it shouldn't be this way. Israel forgot who they were.
Speaker 1: Shouldn't be this way. The Bible says that they made
Speaker 1: shelters for themselves in caves. It didn't say Minian built
Speaker 1: shelters for them in the caves. When the pressure comes on,
Speaker 1: we will build our own shelters in caves. Israel should
Speaker 1: have been living in wide open spaces. They're the children
Speaker 1: of promise. They're the nation God's chosen people. They're all
Speaker 1: following me. They are God's people. They shouldn't have been withdrawing,
Speaker 1: living below their level, getting up and putting themselves in caves.
Speaker 1: It shouldn't have been that way. But we will make
Speaker 1: caves for ourselves. We will make our own prisons. When
Speaker 1: the pressure comes on in our life. This is what
Speaker 1: Israel's doing, and it shouldn't have been this way. They're
Speaker 1: the children of the Most High God. I mean, how
Speaker 1: much previous in their story. They're a They're a narrative,
Speaker 1: they're a storytelling culture. This is how they're passing down
Speaker 1: things from generation to generation. So this group of people,
Speaker 1: you know, heard about the Red Sea crossing. This group
Speaker 1: of people you know, had to hear about the cloud
Speaker 1: by day and the fire by night. They had to
Speaker 1: hear about the plagues that allowed Pharaoh calls him to go. No, no, no,
Speaker 1: you guys, go ahead and go. I want you to leave.
Speaker 1: Like they had heard the stories of how God was
Speaker 1: working among them. But yet they're making shelters for themselves
Speaker 1: in caves, and it shouldn't have been that way. They
Speaker 1: limited the God that they served, because when you see
Speaker 1: your self as small, you see God as small. And
Speaker 1: they saw themselves as only able to live in caves
Speaker 1: and to back up and to shrink themselves down. And
Speaker 1: when you look at God through the lens of you,
Speaker 1: you always limit God. Let me say that again, when
Speaker 1: you look at God through the lens of you, you
Speaker 1: will limit God. I think about naming, naming The Bible
Speaker 1: says that he went, you know the story, and he
Speaker 1: was going to dip seven times. But when he went
Speaker 1: to the prophet. This verse always gets me. He got
Speaker 1: angry when the prophet said go to the Jordan and
Speaker 1: dip in it seven times, he got angry. And then
Speaker 1: the text says this. It says, I thought he would
Speaker 1: come out, wave his hand over me and speak over me,
Speaker 1: and then I would be healed. The first two words
Speaker 1: in that sentence are his problem, I thought, I thought.
Speaker 1: And then he said how God would do it? And
Speaker 1: what God would do. When we limit God by what
Speaker 1: we think can happen, we bring God down to our level.
Speaker 1: In other words, we limit God to the level of
Speaker 1: our imagination. We limit God to the level of can
Speaker 1: I think it up? Can I dream it up? Can
Speaker 1: I design it up? Can I scheme it up? And
Speaker 1: then go God, can you do this? But I think
Speaker 1: the apostle Paul is the one who wrote, but my
Speaker 1: God is able to do himmeasurably more than I can
Speaker 1: ask think or or what or what or imagine that
Speaker 1: we serve the God that is outside of our imagination,
Speaker 1: and if he's the God that can part the Red
Speaker 1: Sea and if he is the cloud by day and
Speaker 1: fire by night. If he's the God of the Ten Plagues,
Speaker 1: if he's the God that met Moses on top of
Speaker 1: the mouth Sia and I. If he's the God that
Speaker 1: took down Goliath through the Rock of David. If he
Speaker 1: is that God, then why would we limit him by
Speaker 1: the level of what we can think, what we can imagine.
Speaker 1: Israel was limiting God because they had forgotten who their
Speaker 1: God was. In any time we distance ourself from God,
Speaker 1: we forget who God is anytime we put diance. This
Speaker 1: is why it's so important to be in the House
Speaker 1: of God every Sunday. This is why it's so important
Speaker 1: to connect Epam every single Sunday. Why because you don't
Speaker 1: what distance between you and God. This is why time
Speaker 1: and the world is so important every day. This is
Speaker 1: why being on a team, being in an e group.
Speaker 1: Why because it's so important to be around the family
Speaker 1: of God and the people of God that are gonna
Speaker 1: help you seek God whenever it's clouded in your perspective.
Speaker 1: You need some people in your life that no no, no, no,
Speaker 1: no no no. He is the God that brought you
Speaker 1: out before. Then he's the God that did the miracle before. No,
Speaker 1: he's no. Let me remind you. So you've got a
Speaker 1: little bit of amnesia right now, because you'll turn caves
Speaker 1: into prisons. And the Midianites didn't lock them up. They
Speaker 1: locked themselves up. They made for themselves shelters in the caves.
Speaker 1: Midian doesn't need to do it when we'll do it
Speaker 1: for ourselves. We give the devil too much credit. The
Speaker 1: devil didn't do it, just the pressure was great enough.
Speaker 1: Sometimes we do it caves into prisons and stay in
Speaker 1: a cave long enough. Not only he does it turn
Speaker 1: into a prison, it turns into a tomb. The text
Speaker 1: said that in the in the King James, that's what
Speaker 1: I grew up. I'm a church kid. I grew up
Speaker 1: on the King Jimmy somebody the Yea's and the thou Ford,
Speaker 1: and there shall too. If you really get preaching, you
Speaker 1: quote the King James, you feel a lot more spiritual.
Speaker 1: It ain't true, but you feel it. Come on, it
Speaker 1: says it reduced them to starvation. Reduce them to starvation.
Speaker 1: I don't think it does any disservice to this text
Speaker 1: to say that there's a good chance that people died
Speaker 1: in the caves. If you're starving and everything is getting plundered,
Speaker 1: it's it doesn't stretch too much. I don't think to
Speaker 1: say that some people probably died in the caves. And
Speaker 1: I'll be honest with you, I kind of understand. I
Speaker 1: kind of understand because the Bible says that they would
Speaker 1: go out and they would sew crops, and then the
Speaker 1: Midianites would come and wipe the crops out, and then
Speaker 1: they back in the caves, and then they go out
Speaker 1: and try to sew again over this seven year period,
Speaker 1: and then the Midianites would come and the Amelekites and
Speaker 1: all the other Eastern peoples and everybody would come in
Speaker 1: and bring all the caves. And so then they just
Speaker 1: back up again. Why try? Why do it again? It's
Speaker 1: just more comfortable in the cave. I wonder if you've
Speaker 1: ever felt that way, like I'm gonna try to re
Speaker 1: engage that relationship and then you're met with rejection. You
Speaker 1: feel like you get slapped again, and why try? Just
Speaker 1: get back and I just get back to the cave.
Speaker 1: The cave is comfortable. It's not where I'm met to be.
Speaker 1: It's not the purpose of God for my life. It's
Speaker 1: not the calling of God on my life. But it's
Speaker 1: much easier to isolate than it is to try again
Speaker 1: and get disappointed again. So you begin to be generous again,
Speaker 1: and then you're met with some unexpected spence out of
Speaker 1: the blue, and you're like, why am I even trying
Speaker 1: to be Have you ever noticed that that the moment
Speaker 1: you start to really lean into faith and lean into God,
Speaker 1: it's like, where in the world is all this battle
Speaker 1: coming from around me? It's because there are some minionites
Speaker 1: in your life that want you to go back to
Speaker 1: the cave, that the moment you begin to step out,
Speaker 1: the enemy's like, no, no, let me see if I
Speaker 1: can put enough pressure, if I can just push them
Speaker 1: back to the cave. I'm not saying that he can.
Speaker 1: This is into salvation issue, are y'all? Tracking you're saved
Speaker 1: by grace through faith. It's a gift of God, not
Speaker 1: but man, so we can boasts. We don't get the
Speaker 1: credit for you. I'm talking about living life to the
Speaker 1: fullness that Jesus said, I've come to give you life
Speaker 1: and life to the full. And the enemy will put
Speaker 1: enough pressure on you so that you back up into
Speaker 1: a cave and you don't live out the calling of
Speaker 1: God on your life and the purpose of God on
Speaker 1: your life, and you don't experience the blessing of God
Speaker 1: in your life if he can get you to stay
Speaker 1: in the cave. And some of us we got out
Speaker 1: of him, we're so a little seed. We begin to
Speaker 1: restare that we try to step into purpose, We begin
Speaker 1: to move out into gifts and colleingues and exploring what
Speaker 1: God has in our life. And then we feel like
Speaker 1: pressure comes back on us, so we go back to
Speaker 1: the cave. So I get it. I get why they
Speaker 1: would live in the cave. The moment they try it
Speaker 1: gets ruined. The moment they step forward, they get pushed
Speaker 1: back again. And so these caves that became prisons can
Speaker 1: become tombs. And it's easier to stay in the cave
Speaker 1: when you're surrounded by everybody else in the cave. All
Speaker 1: of Israel was in the caves. It's easy to stay
Speaker 1: in the cave when you surround yourself with cave creatures.
Speaker 1: That's what I call them, cave creatures. If you're sitting
Speaker 1: by one, look this way, don't say men right now,
Speaker 1: just keep it forward. Get surrounded by cave creatures. Cave
Speaker 1: creatures are always looking back, never looking forward. Cave creatures
Speaker 1: are always talking about what used to be, never what
Speaker 1: could be. Come on, cape creatures. Those are people in
Speaker 1: your life that the moment you begin to take some
Speaker 1: kind of step, they want to pull you right back.
Speaker 1: Come on the moment that you begin to go, Oh
Speaker 1: you think you're too good. Now, oh y'all know some
Speaker 1: of them, Oh you thank you, too big for your breeches. Now,
Speaker 1: oh you better than everybody else. Now, oh you don't
Speaker 1: go into that church. Now, oh you just oh you
Speaker 1: holier than thou. Now you're a holy roller. They want
Speaker 1: to keep it. Cave creatures are the ten spies that
Speaker 1: came back and spad a bad report all throughout the land.
Speaker 1: Twelve went in Joshua and Caleb came back and said,
Speaker 1: ten said they're too big Joshua Caleb basically, he said
Speaker 1: they're too big to miss. And the other ten, the
Speaker 1: Bible says, spread a bad report throughout the entire land.
Speaker 1: Millions of the people affected by the negativity of ten people.
Speaker 1: Be careful the voices you lead in your life. Ten
Speaker 1: people spread a report. Ten people exaggerated the circumstance. Ten
Speaker 1: people made it look like the Bible says, if you
Speaker 1: go back and read the story, the Bible says that
Speaker 1: they come back and they said, the people are too big,
Speaker 1: and the walls are built to the sky. Ain't nobody
Speaker 1: built a wall to the sky. Because cave creatures exaggerate
Speaker 1: the circumstance. You can never get out of that situation.
Speaker 1: You'll never amount to that. Why even believe for that?
Speaker 1: God would never do that in that way in your life.
Speaker 1: You'll never break through this thing. You'll never come out
Speaker 1: of this generational dysfunction. You'll never break this addiction you'll have.
Speaker 1: Cave creatures just want to keep you in the cave,
Speaker 1: and they want to turn your cave into a tomb
Speaker 1: where dreams die in there, and visions die in there,
Speaker 1: and hopes die in there, and aspirations die in the cave.
Speaker 1: They just made me fine if you stayed in the cave,
Speaker 1: because the moment you step out, they get uncomfortable. Because
Speaker 1: your faith shines a light on their lack of faith.
Speaker 1: Your hope shines a light on their lack of hope.
Speaker 1: Your passion shines a light on their lack of passion.
Speaker 1: Your forward progress signs a light on their inaction, and
Speaker 1: They want you to stay back, not for you, but
Speaker 1: for them, because you are making them uncomfortable because of
Speaker 1: the steps that you are taking. And I believe the
Speaker 1: Spirit of God send me here today to look at
Speaker 1: somebody and say, let me shout over the voice of
Speaker 1: every cave creature in your life and say, get out
Speaker 1: of that cave. I know it ain't looking the way
Speaker 1: you thought it should, but come out of the cave.
Speaker 1: I know it feels like a season, but it's not
Speaker 1: a life sentence. Come out of the cave. I know
Speaker 1: you wanted it to turn out different, but come out
Speaker 1: of the cave. The Midianites are big, but come out
Speaker 1: of the cave. Every seed you sow, they seem to
Speaker 1: wipe it out. But come out of the cave. You
Speaker 1: feel like you've been there for years. Come out of
Speaker 1: the cave. You set up house in the cave. You've
Speaker 1: painted the walls, you've decorated it, you hung pictures of
Speaker 1: the children on it. But it's time to move out.
Speaker 1: Get your U haul ready, crank up the engine. The
Speaker 1: spirit of God is saying, get out of the cave.
Speaker 1: The spirit of God is saying it's time to get out.
Speaker 1: It's time to dream. Again. It's time to believe again.
Speaker 1: It's time to hope again, it's time to build faith again.
Speaker 1: It's time to say I may have been stuck in
Speaker 1: the cave, but this isn't my story, it's not my
Speaker 1: life sentence. I'm coming out of the cave. I wish
Speaker 1: you'd sount if you're coming out of the cave. A
Speaker 1: few weeks ago, I think it was in the message
Speaker 1: cover the spread with every sinny needs to play. It
Speaker 1: was a masterpiece on preaching. Who but pastor said, he said, hallelujah?
Speaker 1: But how I don't know if you remember that, he said,
Speaker 1: Pastor Harley's like, hallelujah? But how do I do that?
Speaker 1: And so I want to give you the hallelujah? But
Speaker 1: how moment? How do I do this? Have you ever
Speaker 1: left church? I know I've left church. You never left
Speaker 1: it here, but I've left church at the time going man,
Speaker 1: I'm fired up, and I have no idea what to do.
Speaker 1: I'm ready to charge hell. I just don't know where
Speaker 1: hell is like, I don't know what to do, but man,
Speaker 1: I'm inspired. I want to give you the how is
Speaker 1: that all right? The how hallelujah? But how? I love
Speaker 1: that I'm stealing that. After I say it three times,
Speaker 1: I came up with it. That's the way preachers work.
Speaker 1: Pastor Stephens said, I once heard somebody say, as I
Speaker 1: always say, just say, y'all know, that's how it works.
Speaker 1: It's a code among preachers. It's okay. Verse seven, it
Speaker 1: says this, When the Israelites client cried to the Lord
Speaker 1: because of Midian, he sent them a prophet. Oh, when
Speaker 1: you need God, he'll send you a word. Let me
Speaker 1: just park here for a one second. This is free.
Speaker 1: You pray and want a solution. But when you pray,
Speaker 1: God sends a word, and when you obey that word,
Speaker 1: it'll produce the solution. There you go, says. This is
Speaker 1: what the Lord, the God of Israel says. God's like,
Speaker 1: let me remind you how we got here. I brought
Speaker 1: you up out of the land of Savory. I snatched
Speaker 1: you from the power of Egypt, from from the hand
Speaker 1: of all the oppressors. I drove them from before you
Speaker 1: and gave you their land. I said to you, I
Speaker 1: am the Lord your God. Do not worship the God
Speaker 1: of the Emirates in whose land you live. But you've
Speaker 1: not listened to me. God's like let's just get this
Speaker 1: straight now. He's like, let's move on to solutions, says
Speaker 1: the Angel. Lord came and sat down under the oak
Speaker 1: of Urfre that belonged to joe Ash the abs A
Speaker 1: bezright where his son Gideon was threshing meat in a
Speaker 1: wine press to keep it from the Midian. I so
Speaker 1: Midian's Gideon is hiding. And when the Angel the Lord
Speaker 1: appeared to Gideon and he said, the Lord is with you,
Speaker 1: a mighty warrior. He's hiding, I mean, just the are
Speaker 1: y all with me. The analogy of this picture, He's hiding,
Speaker 1: and God's like, He's with you, mighty warrior. That's because
Speaker 1: how you see you isn't always how God sees you.
Speaker 1: But Sir Gideon replied, if the Lord is with us,
Speaker 1: why has all this happened to us? Where all the
Speaker 1: one that our fathers told us about when they said,
Speaker 1: did not the Lord bring us out out of Egypt?
Speaker 1: But now the Lord has abandoned us and has put
Speaker 1: us into the hand of Midian and the angel the
Speaker 1: Lord doesn't answer this, but the obvious answer is because
Speaker 1: you chose to do what you wanted to do. And
Speaker 1: the Lord turned to him and said go in the
Speaker 1: strength you have and save Israel out of Midian's hand.
Speaker 1: Am I not sending you? But the Lord getting asked,
Speaker 1: how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest,
Speaker 1: so we're the runt of all the clans in Manassa,
Speaker 1: and I am the least in the family, so I'm
Speaker 1: the run of the runt. I have no gains, I
Speaker 1: don't drink creatine. I've never worked out a day in
Speaker 1: my life like I'm the run. And then the Lord answered,
Speaker 1: I will be with you and you'll strike down all
Speaker 1: the Midianites together. All right, let me give you three
Speaker 1: thoughts real quick. I asked the worship team to come
Speaker 1: join me, because these will sound much more spiritual with
Speaker 1: a keyboard. How many of you know the keyboard advice
Speaker 1: the Holy Ghost does? He spoke to him and said,
Speaker 1: called a mighty warrior. So number one, listen to the
Speaker 1: voice of God. These aren't rocket science. Everybody can do these.
Speaker 1: Listen to the voice of God. The Lord's with you,
Speaker 1: mighty warrior. But let me say this to you. To
Speaker 1: hear God's voice, you're gonna have to turn down a
Speaker 1: lot of other voices. And I don't know what that
Speaker 1: looks like for you. And I don't know how that
Speaker 1: plays out in your life, but there are seasons in
Speaker 1: my life. I'm in one of those right now where
Speaker 1: I'm just if it's not worship or preaching or college football,
Speaker 1: I ain't gonna lie to you up here, it's not
Speaker 1: coming in through this gate or this gate. I'm not
Speaker 1: saying that's for you. I'm just saying you gotta find
Speaker 1: ways to turn down. If the voice of Facebook is
Speaker 1: louder than the voice of God. Okay, just saying you
Speaker 1: may have to turn some voices down. God's with you,
Speaker 1: Mighty Warrior. Number two. You have to start with what
Speaker 1: you got, he says, go in the strength that you have.
Speaker 1: He didn't say wait to get more strength. He didn't
Speaker 1: say wait till you got it all together. He didn't
Speaker 1: say wait to all the stars aligned and you feel
Speaker 1: like you got the and you got the money set up,
Speaker 1: and you got the thing and all that's in place,
Speaker 1: and you've met the people you need to play and
Speaker 1: you got distract. Now, he said, just go in this
Speaker 1: strength to you have. Sometimes you've got to start where
Speaker 1: you are. You just got to take the step where
Speaker 1: you are. I don't know what that step is today.
Speaker 1: But whatever that is, you just got to take the
Speaker 1: step towards towards freedom. You got to take the step
Speaker 1: towards out of the cave. You got to take the
Speaker 1: step towards just go with what you got. God was like,
Speaker 1: just going to strength me, and he goes, I'm the
Speaker 1: weakest of the weakest of Like I'm the run of
Speaker 1: the run of the runt, Like I have no strength,
Speaker 1: and he goes, that's okay, go in the strength that
Speaker 1: you have. I think God wants you to go in
Speaker 1: the strength that you have. So you know it's wasn't
Speaker 1: you that did it, but it was God that did
Speaker 1: it through you. And then finally, trust that God is
Speaker 1: with you. He goes, I will be with you. I
Speaker 1: will be with you. And so at the end of
Speaker 1: the day, it's trusting that God is going with us
Speaker 1: and walking with us, no matter how fearful we are,
Speaker 1: and no matter how trepidations that may feel, and no
Speaker 1: matter how no matter how much out of the comfort
Speaker 1: zone it may feel, it's trusting that God will be
Speaker 1: with us. Our trust is where our faith and God's
Speaker 1: faithfulness converge, and it's at that point that we feel
Speaker 1: the strength of God to help us walk out of
Speaker 1: the cave that we have shrunk ourselves back into. And
Speaker 1: not because we are great, but because God is great.
Speaker 1: And so I'm not saying trust in yourself. I'm saying
Speaker 1: trust in the faithfulness of a faithful God who has
Speaker 1: brought you thus far and will not leave you at
Speaker 1: this moment. He goes, I'm gonna be with you. Can
Speaker 1: I speak to you right now and say God will
Speaker 1: be with you. Can I speak to some of you
Speaker 1: that your heart is pounding and you're like, I got
Speaker 1: some steps to take, but I'm scared. I'm saying go
Speaker 1: scared anyways, But I don't know about the outcome. I'm saying,
Speaker 1: go anyways. I don't know how this is going to
Speaker 1: turn out. I'm saying, trust God anyways. Because the God.
Speaker 1: Can we revisit something that brought the children of Israel
Speaker 1: out of Egypt, the God that was the cloud by
Speaker 1: day and the fire by night, and the God that will,
Speaker 1: the God of the mouse sin I experience, and the
Speaker 1: God that took down GOLLI is the same God that
Speaker 1: is with you in this moment. And can I tell
Speaker 1: you that our God, even if your cave is turned
Speaker 1: into a tomb. He specializes in turning tombs into testimonies,
Speaker 1: if you'll let him. I don't know if you remember,
Speaker 1: but Lazarus had been dead for four days, and Jesus
Speaker 1: walked up on the sea and said, move that stone.
Speaker 1: And he says to you today what he said to
Speaker 1: Lathrius on that day, Lazarus, come out of that cave.
Speaker 1: I'm calling you today, Come out of that cave.
Speaker 3: The same God is speaking to you. The same God
Speaker 3: will be with you, and the same God will sustain you.
Speaker 3: If you've got faith in your heart, why don't you.
Speaker 1: Lift up a shout of praise. Oh, we believe in
Speaker 1: the name. Come on, somebody, shout up coming out of
Speaker 1: the cave. Go shout it, coming out of the cave.
Speaker 1: Let every title in hand. I'm coming out of the cave.
Speaker 1: Not tomorrow, not next week, not when you figure it
Speaker 1: all out. Today, Today's the moment. This is a divine
Speaker 1: moment for you. God puts you here. Somebody shared this
Speaker 1: worship experience with you because it's your day to get
Speaker 1: out of the cave. Will you lift your hands to
Speaker 1: Heaven all over this place in the presence of God Father,
Speaker 1: I pray for every person at our campus is today
Speaker 1: at pray for over our Epham. Today they know in
Speaker 1: their heart that they have shrunk themselves back and limited
Speaker 1: their thinking and their life into a place you never
Speaker 1: meant for them to be. And so today, by the
Speaker 1: spirit of God, we say, come out of the cave.
Speaker 1: May they take the steps in this moment they need
Speaker 1: to take. May your voice rise above the voice of
Speaker 1: doubt and fear of any other voice in their life.
Speaker 1: May they go in the strength they have, not waiting
Speaker 1: for some other day, some other time, some other moment,
Speaker 1: but even in their weakness. May they step out, and
Speaker 1: may they trust that the faithfulness of God will prove
Speaker 1: faithful once again. We'd love you, we honor you. We
Speaker 1: pray this in Jesus's name. Come on, everybody, set a
Speaker 1: big amen. Amen. Amen. Hey.
Speaker 2: I hope you enjoyed the podcast, and if you did,
Speaker 2: make sure to share it and subscribe so we can
Speaker 2: get you all of these new messages as soon as
Speaker 2: they're available. I also want to take a moment and
Speaker 2: thank all all 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.
Speaker 2: And if you want more information on how to be
Speaker 2: a part of Elevation, click the link in the description.
Speaker 1: Thanks again for listening.
Speaker 2: Make sure to leave a review, share the message and subscribe.
Speaker 2: God bless you.