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. Hope
Speaker 2: this inspires you. Hope it builds your faith. Hope it
Speaker 2: gives your perspective to see God is moving in your life.
Speaker 1: Enjoy the message. Oh man, what a what an amazing
Speaker 1: day of celebration.
Speaker 2: And everybody say and make it melodic like that, say and.
Speaker 1: And put it in the comments. Say and.
Speaker 2: I'm beginning a brand new series today.
Speaker 1: You know I'm gonna spoil y'all.
Speaker 2: I just finished a series. I'm starting a series. You
Speaker 2: are gonna get used to this, and you're gonna expect
Speaker 2: me to be organized and systematic from.
Speaker 1: Here on out.
Speaker 2: But the Lord really spoke to me, and I'm excited
Speaker 2: to share what he spoke. We are going to be
Speaker 2: spending the next several weeks. See how I left that
Speaker 2: open ended, the next several weeks as long as the
Speaker 2: Lord leads me to studying about the Holy Spirit in
Speaker 2: the Book of Acts. Many of you know that I
Speaker 2: have a Bible club with my family for about a
Speaker 2: year and a half. In chapter A Day keeps the
Speaker 2: Devil Away.
Speaker 1: And we have somebody's going to make me a T
Speaker 1: shirt that says that now, I'm sure of it. Probably
Speaker 1: already is one.
Speaker 2: But we came upon the Book of Acts recently and
Speaker 2: we kind of move around.
Speaker 1: We're not going straight through.
Speaker 2: We have been in Jeremiah and it gets really, really dark,
Speaker 2: and so I was like, let's do the Book of
Speaker 2: Acts because that's a real page turner and it's exciting.
Speaker 1: So that's what we got into.
Speaker 2: And I asked the family if I could invite you
Speaker 2: into our series, and we're going to do this together
Speaker 2: now as a global church family, from the Book of Acts,
Speaker 2: not the whole book, just you know where God leads us.
Speaker 2: And I even made like an official graphic for this series.
Speaker 2: You know, it's getting serious. Normally I just figure out
Speaker 2: it's a series after the fact, but right now I'm
Speaker 2: ready for you. And we're going to talk about the
Speaker 2: subject of making sense of your story through the lens
Speaker 2: of God's Spirit.
Speaker 1: And the title of the series is Ghostwriter. Yeah, put
Speaker 1: it up there for me.
Speaker 2: Ghost Writer, not like the comic book ghost writer the guy.
Speaker 2: This is ghost writer making sense of your story through
Speaker 2: the lens of the Holy Spirit. This is going to
Speaker 2: be so powerful in your life, I can hardly wait
Speaker 2: to share it with you.
Speaker 1: Today. We're going to begin with Acts, Chapter one.
Speaker 2: I'll read you my scripture, and then I'll seet you
Speaker 2: and we'll begin to learn together how many need the
Speaker 2: Lord to make sense of some things that are going
Speaker 2: on in your.
Speaker 1: Life right now? Oh good, good, good, good good.
Speaker 2: Then we're talking about the right thing here, ghostwriter.
Speaker 1: Acts Chapter one, verses one.
Speaker 2: And two, and then we'll go to verses twelve through
Speaker 2: twenty two for the sake of time today. In my
Speaker 2: former book Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began
Speaker 2: to do and to teach until the day he was
Speaker 2: taken up to heaven after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit,
Speaker 2: through the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen.
Speaker 2: So you'll see the Holy Spirit in the book of
Speaker 2: Acts mentioned fifty five times. Safe to assume he's the
Speaker 2: important character in this story of the early Church spreading.
Speaker 1: Now Jesus has taken up from the disciples.
Speaker 2: They go back to wait for the Holy Spirit, and
Speaker 2: we pick up in verse twelve. Then the apostles returned
Speaker 2: to Jerusalem from the hill called the Mount of Olives.
Speaker 1: Sabbath day's walk from the city.
Speaker 2: When they arrived, they went upstairs to the room where
Speaker 2: they were staying. Present were Peter, John James, and Andrew Philip,
Speaker 2: and Thomas Bartholomew, and Matthew James, son of Alpheus, and
Speaker 2: Simon the Zealot, and Judas, son of James. This is
Speaker 2: not the same Judas as the one who betrayed Jesus,
Speaker 2: as Judas is Scariot. And this guy has a very
Speaker 2: unfortunate name for this time. I think if my name
Speaker 2: was Judas forty days after Jesus was crucified, I just
Speaker 2: go by Jay or something like that.
Speaker 1: But they're all there Verse fourteen.
Speaker 2: And they all joined together constantly in prayer, along with
Speaker 2: the women, and marry the mother of Jesus, and with
Speaker 2: his brothers.
Speaker 1: Now pay attention. In those days, Peter stood.
Speaker 2: Up among the believers, a group numbering about one hundred
Speaker 2: and twenty, and said, brothers and sisters, the scripture had
Speaker 2: to be fulfilled, in which the Holy Spirit spoke long
Speaker 2: ago through David concerning Judas, who served as a guide
Speaker 2: for those who arrested Jesus. He was one of our
Speaker 2: number and shared in our ministry. Parenthetical insert with the
Speaker 2: payment he received for his wickedness.
Speaker 1: Judas bought a field.
Speaker 2: There he fell head long, his body burst open, and
Speaker 2: all his intestines spilled out. Everyone in Jerusalem heard about this,
Speaker 2: so they called that field in their language a keeldema,
Speaker 2: that is field of blood.
Speaker 1: For said Peter.
Speaker 2: It is written in the book of Psalms. May his
Speaker 2: place be deserted, let there be no one to dwell
Speaker 2: in it, And everybody say, and may another take his
Speaker 2: place of leadership. Therefore, it is necessary to choose one
Speaker 2: of the men who have been with us the whole
Speaker 2: time the Lord Jesus was living among us, beginning from
Speaker 2: John's baptism to the time when Jesus was taken up
Speaker 2: from us. For one of these must become a witness
Speaker 2: with us of his resurrection. Let's thank the Lord for
Speaker 2: the witness that he has given us of his resurrection.
Speaker 1: Clap your hands, everybody today.
Speaker 2: The series is Ghostwriter and the sermon is called page Turner.
Speaker 1: Yeah, page turner.
Speaker 2: On your way to your seat, Tell your neighbor it's
Speaker 2: going to be a page turner.
Speaker 1: It's going to be a page turner.
Speaker 2: Amen, Big readers in the room, any big readers in
Speaker 2: the room, Big readers make some noise, not like you're
Speaker 2: in the library. You know, reading something makes make some noise.
Speaker 2: You love a good story, and I need you to
Speaker 2: know when you read an autobiography, usually it's based.
Speaker 1: On a true story.
Speaker 2: And one statistic that I read said, well, over seventy
Speaker 2: five percent of memoirs that we read, if it's a
Speaker 2: famous person, or someone who won a gold medal in
Speaker 2: the Olympics, or somebody who was a former president, they
Speaker 2: will have had help from a ghost writer. And I
Speaker 2: know you know the term, but just so we get
Speaker 2: on the same page, working.
Speaker 1: In my different elmeson my service.
Speaker 2: The ghost writer is someone that the person will bring
Speaker 2: in if they have a story but they need help
Speaker 2: telling it. And so the ghost writer might come along
Speaker 2: and spend twenty hours, forty hours, in some cases even
Speaker 2: a year with the person saying, tell me your story,
Speaker 2: tell me what.
Speaker 1: It was like.
Speaker 2: When you want American Idol, and you know, just because
Speaker 2: you're a good singer and you want American Idol, doesn't
Speaker 2: know and even you know how to tell the story.
Speaker 2: You have a gift to sing, but you may not
Speaker 2: have a gift to right. So you bring in some
Speaker 2: help and you have a story, but you need some help.
Speaker 2: You know, you might have done something really incredible, like
Speaker 2: you you hiked a huge mountain. But just because you're
Speaker 2: good at hiking doesn't mean you're good at grammar. So
Speaker 2: you bring somebody in. You're like, I want to tell
Speaker 2: this story how we almost died, and then I want
Speaker 2: to tell them how I almost eat my brother and
Speaker 2: because we ran out of food. But I'm good at surviving,
Speaker 2: and I'm good at I'm good at I'm good at climbing.
Speaker 2: But I'm not really a storyteller. I need some help.
Speaker 2: I've got a story to tell, but I need some
Speaker 2: help telling him. And that's where a ghost writer comes in.
Speaker 2: And that's where the holy ghost comes in in my
Speaker 2: life and the life of the Disciples that I just.
Speaker 1: Read to you about.
Speaker 2: Because I have a story to tell, but I need
Speaker 2: help telling it. Say amen, somebody, if you've got a
Speaker 2: story to tell, if you got a story to tell
Speaker 2: of how.
Speaker 1: God made a way for you.
Speaker 2: Of how God saved you, of how God kept you,
Speaker 2: of how God blessed you, of how God raised you,
Speaker 2: I have a story to tell and I need some help. Now,
Speaker 2: imagine for a moment that you were one of these disciples.
Speaker 2: Let's say you're not even a main character. You're just Bartholomew,
Speaker 2: and you've just seen Jesus taken from you. The one
Speaker 2: that you were guiding by is gone, the one who
Speaker 2: broke it down and made sense of it for you
Speaker 2: every step along the way. Now Here's why I'm talking
Speaker 2: to this woman by the will. Now Here's why I'm
Speaker 2: feeding people that you want to send away. Now Here's
Speaker 2: why I sent you into the storm so that I
Speaker 2: could show you that I'm lord of the storm. Now
Speaker 2: Here's why I said that in this parable, and this
Speaker 2: is what I meant. All of a sudden, what they
Speaker 2: have been guiding by is gone in their sight. He
Speaker 2: was taken up hidden in a cloud. And they are
Speaker 2: told to be witnesses watch this of the story of
Speaker 2: his sinless life, his unjust death, and his supernatural resurrection and.
Speaker 1: His eventual coming again.
Speaker 2: They were entrusted to to be stewards of the gospel story.
Speaker 2: My brothers and sisters, we are stewards of this same story.
Speaker 2: Do you not know that the same spirit that lived
Speaker 2: in them lives in me? Because I believe in Jesus,
Speaker 2: I have a story to tell. I wasn't there to
Speaker 2: see it firsthand. When he opened Bartimaeus's eyes, I didn't
Speaker 2: see them. Lower the man on the mat through the roof,
Speaker 2: and Jesus said, your sins are forgiven, and oh, by
Speaker 2: the way, get up and walk to Bonus. Scene deleted
Speaker 2: content just because I'm Jesus like that. I wasn't there
Speaker 2: to see it. But I have the same spirit that
Speaker 2: witnesses to me. He said, you will be witnesses in Jerusalem.
Speaker 2: That's where they are Judea Samaria. That's the next circle
Speaker 2: or the circumference of influence, and to the ends of
Speaker 2: the earth. Imagine your Bartholomew. What you have guided by
Speaker 2: is gone, and God has commanded you to go. It
Speaker 2: makes no sense. It makes no sense for many of us.
Speaker 2: Even to praise God today from a sensual perspective made
Speaker 2: no sense because you've been under depression. For you to
Speaker 2: begin to sing from your spirit today and declare that
Speaker 2: God didn't leave me where I was, it made no
Speaker 2: sense because in some ways you're still there. But we
Speaker 2: didn't come to church to make sense of our situation.
Speaker 2: I came to church because I need the Holy Spirit.
Speaker 1: I need the third person of the Godhead. I need
Speaker 1: the one that Jesus said he would send.
Speaker 2: He actually said this, he said, I'm leaving, and you've
Speaker 2: got to go and do this.
Speaker 1: Impossible task now.
Speaker 2: For you, even raising an eleven year old might seem
Speaker 2: like an impossible task. I certainly felt that way at
Speaker 2: each stage of our children's development. Makes no sense that
Speaker 2: I would be a parent while I still kind of,
Speaker 2: in a way feel like a kid.
Speaker 1: It made no sense I would.
Speaker 2: Pastor a church that was several times the size of
Speaker 2: the town that I grew up in.
Speaker 1: None of this makes sense. My story. I'm telling you
Speaker 1: my story. My story what God has allowed me to
Speaker 1: see and do makes no sense without the Holy Spirit.
Speaker 2: I'm like that frog sitting on a fence post. I
Speaker 2: didn't get here by myself. That's my story.
Speaker 1: And I'm sticking to it.
Speaker 2: Is that it's not by Mike, it's not by power.
Speaker 2: It's by the Spirit of the Lord. Oh. I'm excited
Speaker 2: about the Spirit of God because I believe when you
Speaker 2: sit with the Holy Spirit, He's going to help you
Speaker 2: tell a better story. Like what is it like to
Speaker 2: have the Spirit of God as your ghostwriter?
Speaker 1: Bring out my teaching screen.
Speaker 2: I'm ready to break this down, y'all give it up
Speaker 2: for the screen as it comes. Thirty percent of y'all
Speaker 2: did that when I said it? You nonconformist. Aren't you
Speaker 2: just so strong willed you didn't clap? Okay, thank you, fellas.
Speaker 1: Let's see if we can make sense of this line
Speaker 1: by line, verse by verse.
Speaker 2: I think there is an amazing story being told in
Speaker 2: this scripture, how the Gospel will eventually go all the
Speaker 2: way into the Roman Empire, and yet it is starting
Speaker 2: in such a strange place.
Speaker 1: I'd like you to write this phrase down.
Speaker 2: The best stories are born in the messiest moments.
Speaker 1: Isn't that true?
Speaker 2: How'd you get here? Let's go back to your birthday.
Speaker 2: Was it messy? If it wasn't messy, you didn't make it.
Speaker 2: The only way you made it here is through a mess.
Speaker 2: And so it goes again and again. And I'll show
Speaker 2: you this in scripture because you know, I don't know
Speaker 2: if you're really listening or not. There is a pen somewhere.
Speaker 2: I believe it by faith. Well they're all on this side. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: Professor Verdick in the house, I love it.
Speaker 1: I want to show you this scripture.
Speaker 2: In a way where you can see what it must
Speaker 2: have felt like for doctor Luke is writing this book.
Speaker 2: And notice the first thing he says, follow with me.
Speaker 2: He says, in my former book Theophilis, he's writing to
Speaker 2: a patron who is enabling him to tell the story
Speaker 2: of Jesus. Now you may recognize Luke, who wrote the
Speaker 2: Book of Acts, from such blockbuster presentations as Luke. The
Speaker 2: gospel story that he recorded Matthew Mark Luke and John
Speaker 2: Luke was his, and he didn't name it.
Speaker 1: Luke, but we call it Luke because he wrote it.
Speaker 2: Now he's saying, in my former book Theophlis, I wrote
Speaker 2: about all that Jesus and I love this word and
Speaker 2: I hope I can make you love it too, all
Speaker 2: that Jesus began.
Speaker 1: To do and to teach. So what does that mean? Okay?
Speaker 2: If Jesus came and lived a sindless life, died a
Speaker 2: criminal's death, rose from a borrowed grave, and then ascended
Speaker 2: to heaven to send the Holy Spirit. And when Luke
Speaker 2: starts writing this book, he says, I wrote a book
Speaker 2: about all that Jesus began to do. It makes me
Speaker 2: think that he's just getting started and there will be
Speaker 2: a sequel that is not only true of the Book
Speaker 2: of Luke in the Book of Acts. That is true
Speaker 2: for you, that Jesus is just getting started in your life.
Speaker 2: And even if you were only to live a few
Speaker 2: more days, you have no idea the ripple effect of
Speaker 2: what your life will mean to a generation not yet born.
Speaker 2: Because you are a steward of the Gospel story, you
Speaker 2: have a story to tell. It's not just Luke that's
Speaker 2: telling the story. It's not just the writers of the
Speaker 2: Bible that tell the story. The Bible says you are
Speaker 2: a living epistle, not an apostle. That's the people that
Speaker 2: followed Jesus. And an epistle is not the wife of
Speaker 2: an apostle. An epistle is a letter. The Bible is
Speaker 2: basically saying that you are a story that God is
Speaker 2: telling of his gospel power. That means that when people
Speaker 2: meet you, they have an opportunity to meet Jesus, the
Speaker 2: same Jesus who met you in the mess you were in.
Speaker 2: All of the angels can sit this part of the
Speaker 2: sermon out, But everybody who was in a mess and
Speaker 2: met a savior, who was in a mess and made
Speaker 2: a mess and met a savior.
Speaker 1: I want you to understand your life is.
Speaker 2: A story, and here's the really good news, he said.
Speaker 2: Jesus began to do it and teach it until the
Speaker 2: day he was taken up. This seemed like a loss.
Speaker 2: He was taken up. It was a complete change for
Speaker 2: all of the apostles. He was taken up to heaven
Speaker 2: after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles
Speaker 2: he had chosen, and every word of those two verses
Speaker 2: would preach. But for now, maybe I could just talk
Speaker 2: about the fact that the Holy Spirit is going to
Speaker 2: help you tell this story. I see that they're not
Speaker 2: going on a verse here on the screen. I got
Speaker 2: to get over here. The Holy Spirit is going to
Speaker 2: help you.
Speaker 1: Tell your story.
Speaker 2: Because you've been telling yourself some really bad stories. And
Speaker 2: I know it because I do it. And if we
Speaker 2: don't have the Holy Spirit, we will try to make
Speaker 2: sense of our life through our senses, and we will
Speaker 2: keep solving the wrong problems, creating more pain.
Speaker 1: We will keep.
Speaker 2: Solving problems at the level at which they appear and
Speaker 2: never understand the level from which they originate. But the
Speaker 2: Holy Spirit, when he comes, he will help you tell
Speaker 2: the story so that you stop telling yourself Satan's story
Speaker 2: about why you failed so that you stopped telling yourself
Speaker 2: Satan's story about why you blew it. You keep telling
Speaker 2: yourself the story I failed because I'm a failure.
Speaker 1: You edited out ninety nine times.
Speaker 2: You didn't fail that God gave you a victory. You
Speaker 2: took the one that you failed at. You magnified that
Speaker 2: you got stuck in a scene and called it a story.
Speaker 2: But I have help, because the Holy Spirit will help
Speaker 2: me zoom out and see that failure is always an event.
Speaker 1: It is never an identity.
Speaker 2: Telling yourself stories, You've been telling yourself stories about where
Speaker 2: you ought to be by now in your life. I
Speaker 2: should be farther along by now. How do you know that?
Speaker 2: You don't even know how long you have left? How
Speaker 2: do you know you're not as far along as all
Speaker 2: your friends?
Speaker 3: Has?
Speaker 2: Somebody asked me the other day, all of my friends
Speaker 2: are doing great things and I'm not. Do you have
Speaker 2: anything to say to me? And all I want to
Speaker 2: say back is you don't know what your friends are
Speaker 2: going through. You just see your friends through their filter.
Speaker 2: You just see them through the filter. You don't know
Speaker 2: what they're dealing with. You don't know what they are
Speaker 2: farther along. They might portrayed places with you in a
Speaker 2: skinny minute, in a New York minute.
Speaker 1: It's a New York minute. I don't know.
Speaker 2: But the fact of the matter is, even the way
Speaker 2: we measure time is kind.
Speaker 1: Of crazy, you know, has a lot of a She said,
Speaker 1: in a few days, you're going to receive the Holy Spirit.
Speaker 2: Why didn't one of the fellas, Bartholomew, go excuse me, Jesus.
Speaker 2: One clarifying question when you say a few days, what
Speaker 2: is a few to you? Because it's like basketball, right, like,
Speaker 2: hang on, honey, I'll be there. There's only five minutes
Speaker 2: left in the game. That could be three hours in basketball.
Speaker 2: Time depends if they start fouling.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 2: We tell you about our life sometimes, and many of
Speaker 2: you know that, against my will, I was basically manipulated
Speaker 2: into buying my family a dog, a Boston Terrier, and
Speaker 2: we've enjoyed his presence in our home for the last
Speaker 2: two years. I'm gonna tell you more about this in
Speaker 2: a coming week, so just come back and I'll tell
Speaker 2: you the rest. But we realize the other day that
Speaker 2: bo first of all, he is very anxiety ridden dog.
Speaker 2: Something happened on the fourth of July with some fireworks.
Speaker 2: I'm not exactly sure what didn't mean to do this
Speaker 2: to him, but he is traumatized by loud sounds, particularly storms,
Speaker 2: So when there are storms we have to give him
Speaker 2: some medicine and uh, and it's really sad and he
Speaker 2: shakes and my Benadrill Bill is through the roof. Ever
Speaker 2: since I got this dog, I didn't put that in
Speaker 2: a little line on him, but I didn't know I
Speaker 2: was getting such an anxious dog. And then the second
Speaker 2: thing that we just realized he's really triggered by his suitcases.
Speaker 1: But makes sense.
Speaker 2: Because he doesn't know we've been gone for like two
Speaker 2: weeks before going out on elevation nights and you know,
Speaker 2: and he doesn't know.
Speaker 1: It's not like he's smart.
Speaker 2: He's not looking at the size of the suitcase. Oh,
Speaker 2: it's just an overnight trip. They'll be back in no time.
Speaker 2: And he try to make sense of it, like are
Speaker 2: you gone for a day? Are you gone? Is this? It?
Speaker 2: Is this?
Speaker 1: Goodbye?
Speaker 4: Now?
Speaker 1: God, imagine watch this that.
Speaker 2: Since we know the story, we know that Jesus was
Speaker 2: resurrected three days after he died. He was taken from
Speaker 2: them forty days after he was resurrected. Then there were
Speaker 2: ten days, ten days while they were waiting for the
Speaker 2: spirit that.
Speaker 1: He spoke about, and.
Speaker 2: Not only are they going through a storm of uncertainty,
Speaker 2: but they don't know what this suitcase means. Jesus, you're
Speaker 2: leaving and you're sending the spirit to live in us,
Speaker 2: and we trust you. But it's kind of hard in
Speaker 2: this ten day period to know what to do next.
Speaker 2: And these are the moments, my friend, when you need
Speaker 2: the Holy Spirit, because you can do something so stupid
Speaker 2: while you are waiting ten days that it'll spend you
Speaker 2: ten years trying to undo it.
Speaker 1: You will tell yourself a story.
Speaker 2: Have you ever have you ever texted somebody that didn't
Speaker 2: text you back quick enough? And the bubbles came, and
Speaker 2: the bubbles went, and the bubbles came, and the bubbles went,
Speaker 2: and every time the bubbles came in went, you told
Speaker 2: yourself a story about why.
Speaker 1: They weren't texting you back.
Speaker 2: Oh God, they were texting while driving, and they drove
Speaker 2: off the road and the bubbles went away.
Speaker 1: Oh God. And really it was nothing more than.
Speaker 2: The fact that they got distracted and you weren't that
Speaker 2: important to them to text you back right away, But
Speaker 2: you had them dead.
Speaker 1: In your mind because you told yourself a story.
Speaker 2: Now do you see why we need help not only
Speaker 2: telling the gospel story, not only that our lives would
Speaker 2: be a testimony to the Savior who shed his blood.
Speaker 1: For us, but so that we tell ourselves the.
Speaker 2: Right story in the spaces of ten days. I wonder,
Speaker 2: is somebody in a ten days space.
Speaker 1: Between what you.
Speaker 2: Know God promised you and the help that you believe
Speaker 2: that he'll send you, and you need the Holy Spirit
Speaker 2: to make sense of him. So they go back to Jerusalem.
Speaker 2: They start praying, which I think is very important. They
Speaker 2: start praying with their prayer partners, which I think is
Speaker 2: even more important. And then something very cool happens. Luke
Speaker 2: gives us a cast of characters. Since we're going to
Speaker 2: be in the Book of Acts, let's see the opening
Speaker 2: credits for the Church. Now, remember the church is being born,
Speaker 2: and it's a messy moment. And here's what's messy about it.
Speaker 2: The apostles returned to Jerusalem. All they see is a suitcase.
Speaker 2: Jesus is gone. They don't know how long it's going
Speaker 2: to take. He said a few days. Did anybody hear
Speaker 2: him say? Did he say two days?
Speaker 1: No?
Speaker 2: He said, a few days is a few, twenty is
Speaker 2: a few, twelve is a few a year. I mean,
Speaker 2: Jesus to the Lord, to day is a thousand years.
Speaker 2: Thousand years is a day. Holly said something very profound
Speaker 2: the other day. She said, I could go through trials
Speaker 2: easier if God would give me a time clock on them,
Speaker 2: if I only knew it's just ten days. And so
Speaker 2: the apostles returned to Jerusalem from the hill called Mount
Speaker 2: of Olives, Sabbath days walk from the city. When they arrived,
Speaker 2: they went upstairs to the where they were staying. Those
Speaker 2: present were.
Speaker 1: Peter.
Speaker 2: We won't read every name again, I already read them once.
Speaker 2: But notice who's not there Jesus. The last time they
Speaker 2: were in this room, maybe Jesus was with them, he's not.
Speaker 2: Now what they have guided by is gone. And you're like, well,
Speaker 2: Jesus is always with me. I can see somebody clipping
Speaker 2: this right now and saying, Stephen Verdick said that Jesus
Speaker 2: was not with the disciples. I don't see his name
Speaker 2: on the list. He doesn't have a physical body at
Speaker 2: this moment on the earth. They can't hear his audible voice.
Speaker 2: That's what they're used to and all of a sudden
Speaker 2: they're joining together constantly in prayer, along with the women
Speaker 2: marry mother of Jesus's brothers.
Speaker 1: There there, it's about one hundred and twenty of them.
Speaker 1: And we have two elements that are in every great story, okay.
Speaker 2: One is that everything is messy that makes a great story.
Speaker 2: The second is something is missing, something is missing, and
Speaker 2: whenever you see a great story. One of my favorite
Speaker 2: shows that ever came on Netflix or I don't remember
Speaker 2: the original network, but the opening scene of the series,
Speaker 2: you see a pair of khaki pants fly through the air,
Speaker 2: and then the next scene you see a guy in
Speaker 2: his whitey tidies behind the wheel of an RV with
Speaker 2: a gas mask on. And I got to know, how
Speaker 2: did he end up in his whitey tidies, How did
Speaker 2: his khaki pants fly through the air? Who's pants are these?
Speaker 2: Why is there a gas mask? What's going on on
Speaker 2: this show right now? And I gotta watch because it's
Speaker 2: messy and there's something missing.
Speaker 1: Is it possible.
Speaker 2: That the messiness in your life right now, and the
Speaker 2: missing thing in your life right now is the birthplace
Speaker 2: of a story that is just about ready to unfold
Speaker 2: for God's glory in your life. I think so, because
Speaker 2: the Bible says, in those days Peter. In those days,
Speaker 2: Peter stood up among the believers. Now, let's take just
Speaker 2: a moment to appreciate the beauty of the moment that
Speaker 2: Peter is standing among the believers. And maybe you wouldn't
Speaker 2: appreciate the beauty of this moment if you didn't read
Speaker 2: Luke's other book. In Luke's other book, we see Peter
Speaker 2: when Jesus was going to the cross to be accused.
Speaker 1: And condemned and hung and mocked and whipped.
Speaker 2: And as Peter is watching Jesus go to the cross,
Speaker 2: I want to show you this in Luke's other book,
Speaker 2: A Gospel of Luke, Chapter twenty two, verse number Way
Speaker 2: down here, there's a long chapter Luke. There's a long
Speaker 2: chapter Luke where he lets us know that when some there,
Speaker 2: as Jesus is going into the court of Caiaphas to
Speaker 2: be tried, when some there had kindled a fire in
Speaker 2: the middle of the courtyard and had sat down together,
Speaker 2: Peter sat down with them. So, now do you understand
Speaker 2: why it's so amazing that by the time Luke writes
Speaker 2: his sequel, tell somebody next to you wait till you
Speaker 2: see the sequel, because by the time we get to.
Speaker 1: The sequel, the same Peter, I love it too.
Speaker 2: This gives me hope because there's been times in my
Speaker 2: life where I sat down by the fire. There's been
Speaker 2: times in my life where I.
Speaker 1: Compromised my convictions.
Speaker 2: There's been times in my life where I denied Christ
Speaker 2: with my actions, even though my lips said that I
Speaker 2: loved him. But in Endy, good to see Peter, who
Speaker 2: in Luke twenty two point fifty five was sitting by
Speaker 2: the fire. And the Bible says, the Bible says, the
Speaker 2: Bible says, I don't care what your past says.
Speaker 1: The Bible says.
Speaker 2: I don't care what Bartholomew thinks about it.
Speaker 1: The Bible says.
Speaker 2: I don't care what the accuser of the brethren says.
Speaker 2: The Bible says, in those days, Peter stood up among
Speaker 2: the believers.
Speaker 1: So watch this.
Speaker 2: Now we've got the one who was sitting by the fire,
Speaker 2: and now he's standing with the fire on the inside, declaring.
Speaker 1: The word of the Lord. I'll speak a.
Speaker 2: New sequel over your life. I'll speak a new season
Speaker 2: over your life. I speak character development.
Speaker 1: Over your life.
Speaker 5: I'll see someone who was sitting down last night, sitting.
Speaker 1: Down in front of a computer watching porn. But God
Speaker 1: brought you to stand, you up on your feet, to.
Speaker 5: Brace God today.
Speaker 1: That's a story.
Speaker 2: Whyah my story. My story doesn't end with me sitting
Speaker 2: by this fire. My story doesn't end with me sitting
Speaker 2: in this failure. My story doesn't end with me crying
Speaker 2: over who left. My story doesn't end with my weak
Speaker 2: moment causing me to relapse. My story doesn't end with
Speaker 2: the fear telling me to stay out.
Speaker 1: My story has a sequel. Tell if you got a sequel. Bro, Oh,
Speaker 1: this is the sequel. I fought your neighbors.
Speaker 2: Say it's a sequel, Baby, this is a sequel.
Speaker 5: I was sitting in the last scene. But wait till
Speaker 5: you see my sequel. Wait till you see this sequel.
Speaker 5: Because the best stories are born in the messiest moments.
Speaker 5: Give him a messy Hallelujah.
Speaker 2: Give him a hard thought, Hallelujah. Give him a heart
Speaker 2: felt Hallelujah.
Speaker 1: Give him a been through.
Speaker 5: Helen came out on fire, Hallelujah.
Speaker 4: I am.
Speaker 2: I feel the Holy ghost because my mind said it
Speaker 2: was over. But I got a ghostwriter. My mind said
Speaker 2: it was over. But I got a ghostwrider, and when
Speaker 2: the Holy Ghost comes upon you, you will be my witness.
Speaker 5: Stand up. If you're a witness, stand out, Peter, sit down, signing,
Speaker 5: stand up, Peter, stand up, stand up.
Speaker 1: If you got a story, stand up. If you've been through.
Speaker 5: The waters, stand up, and me watched you clean stand up?
Speaker 1: How did he stand up out of that failure? He
Speaker 1: had help. Somebody holler, I got help. Put it in
Speaker 1: the comments.
Speaker 2: I got help. Let me tell you about the helper
Speaker 2: called the Holy Ghost. He's a ghost writer, and the
Speaker 2: Bible says he's a comforter. So if you are without comfort,
Speaker 2: you are not without comfort. Five seconds from now here
Speaker 2: comes to comfort.
Speaker 1: Or somebody say, I.
Speaker 2: Have Helphi give me clarity, because the Bible says that
Speaker 2: he is my God.
Speaker 1: I got a guide. Somebody shot, I got a guide.
Speaker 2: Even though the physical presence of Jesus wasn't there with him,
Speaker 2: and he is not here with us today, we have
Speaker 2: something on the inside that's letting us know he's more
Speaker 2: real than what I can see.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he's a baptizer.
Speaker 2: Anybody been baptized by the Holy Spirit, anybody been immersed
Speaker 2: in his mercy?
Speaker 1: To let you know it's not over.
Speaker 2: He's a he's a baptizer. Oh, I got so much
Speaker 2: to say about the Holy Spirit. He's an advocate. Yeah,
Speaker 2: he's an interpreter. Help you make sense out of your life.
Speaker 2: Help you sit down with stuff and say, God, show
Speaker 2: me my childhood from your perspective, Show me why I
Speaker 2: went through it from your perspective. I know what people
Speaker 2: would say about it. What do you say about it?
Speaker 2: I got a ghostwriter. It's not your story. It's not
Speaker 2: your story. Tell your neighbor. I'm sorry, but it's not
Speaker 2: your story. Now point up and clarify. I say it's
Speaker 2: his story, and he's gonna help me tell it. And
Speaker 2: wait till you see my sequel. Now look at him
Speaker 2: and say, I'm a page turner. Clap your hands. If
Speaker 2: you're a page turning out, blow it a.
Speaker 1: Down in the highest All right, y'all sit down.
Speaker 2: Peter stood up. What did he say? What did he say?
Speaker 2: Peter stood up in front of the whole group. I
Speaker 2: gotta show you this. Oh, this is gonna help you
Speaker 2: because I see somebody today it's like God is doing
Speaker 2: this because he's getting ready to do this. If you
Speaker 2: don't think it's too gross.
Speaker 6: Just do it real quick.
Speaker 1: That put that finger lick emoji thing on the chat
Speaker 1: on YouTube.
Speaker 2: I got one of those, and just just prophetically what
Speaker 2: God is about to do.
Speaker 1: Now watch this, watch this.
Speaker 2: If we did to Peter what the enemy does to us,
Speaker 2: we'd be doing this. But you ain't gonna find God
Speaker 2: back there because he is not here.
Speaker 1: He has risen. You get it, You get it?
Speaker 2: Shall I belabor the point? Don't look at me in
Speaker 2: Luke twenty two. I'm not in Luke twenty two anymore.
Speaker 2: This is the sequel. And I love the Lord because
Speaker 2: he has been preparing Peter for this moment. I mean,
Speaker 2: even Peter's failure was an opportunity for him to receive
Speaker 2: grace so that he could strengthen his brothers. And I'm
Speaker 2: about to show you something that was so powerful. When
Speaker 2: I saw it, I argued with God, Should I preach it? Now?
Speaker 2: A really good word from God will shut you up
Speaker 2: sometimes sometimes make it shout, and sometimes be like, I
Speaker 2: gotta think about that.
Speaker 1: Hmm. Let me see, I don't know about that. Man.
Speaker 1: You're telling me, You're telling me that I can be
Speaker 1: free from this. You tell me, I got to think
Speaker 1: of about that.
Speaker 2: You're telling me that I have the same Holy Spirit
Speaker 2: that the apostles I got. It I got because I
Speaker 2: sure don't feel like much of an apostle.
Speaker 1: And then you got.
Speaker 2: Peter stood up, said, brothers and sisters, now this is
Speaker 2: going to make you mad. He said, the scripture had
Speaker 2: to be fulfilled. That doesn't make you mad. This will
Speaker 2: which the Holy Spirit spoke long ago through David concerning Judas.
Speaker 2: It's bad enough that we don't have Jesus with us,
Speaker 2: and we got to talk about Judas. And Peter's like, yeah,
Speaker 2: let's talk about Judas. We've got to do something about
Speaker 2: the void that Judas left in this ministry. So Peter
Speaker 2: points back to a scripture and he begins to explain
Speaker 2: something about Judas. How Judas served as a guide for
Speaker 2: those who arrested Jesus. He served as a guide for
Speaker 2: those who arrested Jesus. He was one of our number
Speaker 2: and shared in our ministry.
Speaker 1: We don't like to claim him because he betrayed our Lord.
Speaker 2: At this point, there is a period and Luke inserts
Speaker 2: a parenthesis to let us know an important detail. With
Speaker 2: the payment he received for his wickedness, Judas bought a field.
Speaker 1: There he fell headlong.
Speaker 2: His body burst open, and all his intestines spilled out.
Speaker 1: Everyone in Jerusalem heard about it.
Speaker 2: They called that field in their language a caldom of
Speaker 2: that is field of blood. Why did he put this
Speaker 2: part in Because all the best stories are born in
Speaker 2: the messiest moments. And as the Church, the body of Christ,
Speaker 2: is being born, we see the body of Judas that
Speaker 2: burst open. Nowt out to you, because don't you think
Speaker 2: if you had one book to tell the whole story
Speaker 2: of the spread of Christianity all through the Roman Empire,
Speaker 2: you only put in what's important and something he wanted
Speaker 2: us to know. By the way, Luke is a medical doctor,
Speaker 2: so he's into intestines and stuff.
Speaker 1: Apparently he's like, oh yeah, just one, a little thing.
Speaker 1: His intestines burst open and spelled out.
Speaker 2: Because I want you to know that as something is
Speaker 2: being born in your life, something else will be bursting
Speaker 2: out and it will be messy.
Speaker 1: But watch this. This is the word. It's a necessary mess.
Speaker 1: It's a necessary mess.
Speaker 2: Two types of messes in our house, the one Holly
Speaker 2: makes while she's cooking and the one the kids make
Speaker 2: after we go to bed, and we find in the
Speaker 2: morning and find them ten dollars. We have a system
Speaker 2: for this because her mess is feeding us, and their
Speaker 2: mess is completely unnecess Come on, and there's a difference
Speaker 2: between the one who is cooking something and makes a
Speaker 2: mess and the one who doesn't know how to clean anything.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna get off this real quick because my kids
Speaker 2: don't want that side of me to come out in
Speaker 2: the pulpit, and neither do you. Because there are some
Speaker 2: messes that are unnecessary. But the Lord said I would
Speaker 2: be speaking to somebody today. The Holy Spirit showed me
Speaker 2: that we would be speaking in this series about some
Speaker 2: necessary messes in your life.
Speaker 1: That it's a mess right now. But it is not
Speaker 1: because God forgot where to put things.
Speaker 2: It is not because God has left you. It's messy
Speaker 2: right now. Something's missing right now. It doesn't make sense
Speaker 2: right now, but it is a necessary mess for the
Speaker 2: Holy Spirit to come.
Speaker 1: Judas had to go. I will prove it to you.
Speaker 2: Peter says that it was written in Psalms when David
Speaker 2: wrote about Judas, and he mentions how Judas see the
Speaker 2: language served as a guide for those who arrested Jesus.
Speaker 2: Now in our story, the fact that Judas led Jesus
Speaker 2: to be arrested makes him.
Speaker 1: Let's write it.
Speaker 2: Judas is the the villain. Right, you sell Jesus for
Speaker 2: thirty pieces of silver. They take him to the cross,
Speaker 2: just when he's at the height of his ministry. Judas
Speaker 2: is the villain. And by the way, I thank God
Speaker 2: for the Holy Spirit because I was practicing this sermon
Speaker 2: this morning and I was spelling villain wrong, and the
Speaker 2: Holy Ghost told me go get your dictionary app and
Speaker 2: I realized that the a comes before the eye and
Speaker 2: I didn't have to learn it on YouTube. Let's thank
Speaker 2: the Holy Spirit for the ghost writer. I'll tell you
Speaker 2: I wrote it fifteen times. I was practicing this sermon
Speaker 2: and it was like, that doesn't look right.
Speaker 1: I don't know about that.
Speaker 2: Thank you, Holy Spirit, keep me from making a fool
Speaker 2: out of myself. And so he's the villain. But Peter said,
Speaker 2: Peter said something very interesting. He said he served as
Speaker 2: a guide for those who arrested Jesus. Because it's been
Speaker 2: forty five days now as the story is unfolding, Judas
Speaker 2: is the villain. He is the one betraying Jesus. But
Speaker 2: it's been forty five days and Jesus has given instructions
Speaker 2: now and they have spent time with the ghostwriter. Now
Speaker 2: Peter sees it a little differently. He says, it had
Speaker 2: to be it had to be fulfilled. We thought Judas
Speaker 2: was the villain, and from one standpoint, he is. But
Speaker 2: it had to be fulfilled because he was the guide
Speaker 2: that got Jesus arrests, and Jesus had to be arrested
Speaker 2: in order to be accused, and he had to be
Speaker 2: accused in order to be sentenced, and he had to
Speaker 2: be sentenced in order to be sacrificed. And he had
Speaker 2: to be sacrificed in order to be buried, and he
Speaker 2: had to be buried in order to be raised, and
Speaker 2: he had to be raised in order that you could
Speaker 2: be saved. So now what I see? Get ready to
Speaker 2: shout about this? You want to shout about something. Judas
Speaker 2: wasn't the villain. Judas was the vessel. And God says,
Speaker 2: I'm ready now, lorded that what you've been calling the
Speaker 2: villain of your story, the thing that you think came.
Speaker 1: To kill you.
Speaker 5: Oh no, God said, I sit down as a vessel
Speaker 5: to deliver my grain.
Speaker 1: In your life. There is something in your life. Are
Speaker 1: you ready for this?
Speaker 2: Not everybody can handle this level of preaching because we
Speaker 2: need Judas to be the villain. We think everything that
Speaker 2: hurts comes from hell, but some of the stuff that
Speaker 2: hurt me didn't come from hell. David said, it was
Speaker 2: good for me that I was afflicted. Some of the
Speaker 2: stuff that hurt me humbled me. It humbled me because
Speaker 2: God said, if you'll be humble in my sight, at
Speaker 2: due time, I will lift you. So now let me preach.
Speaker 2: It's not a movie. It's an episode. It's an episode.
Speaker 2: You think this is the end of your story, but
Speaker 2: you forgot something. This is a page turner. This is
Speaker 2: a page turner. Get ready for this because in your
Speaker 2: life right now, there is somebody who is waiting to
Speaker 2: see if you're gonna keep going. After you've been through
Speaker 2: what you've been through, there's somebody you know what. Your
Speaker 2: life is a page turner. Your grand babies are waiting
Speaker 2: to see how this turns out. Will you go back
Speaker 2: or will you go forward? Will you stay in Luke
Speaker 2: twenty two or will you stand up by the spirit
Speaker 2: of the God who's saved you. Don't tell me this
Speaker 2: is a fairy tale.
Speaker 1: It's real. In my life, I've.
Speaker 2: Watched people die and praise God with their last breath,
Speaker 2: and the story still wasn't over. I'll tell you about
Speaker 2: an encounter I had in a bookstore with a lady
Speaker 2: named Bianca. She wandered into the bookstore and had prayed
Speaker 2: that morning, I need a sign God, I need a
Speaker 2: sign God. She was leaving her house for the first
Speaker 2: time in weeks. She saw me and I was over
Speaker 2: there in the Christian living section, checking did they have
Speaker 2: my book on the shelf. I wish I could say
Speaker 2: I went to pray for people or learn something, but
Speaker 2: I was on a different mission.
Speaker 1: She walks over and says Pastor.
Speaker 2: I said yes. She said, I don't mean to bother you.
Speaker 2: I said, it's not a bother. She said, I'm Bianca.
Speaker 2: I said, Hi, Bianca. She said, I just kind of
Speaker 2: can't believe what I'm seeing right now because I've had
Speaker 2: I've had a really hard time the last few years,
Speaker 2: and I have all but quit on God.
Speaker 1: And the worst part.
Speaker 2: Is I moved to Charlotte to go to Elevation Church
Speaker 2: and I haven't been since quarantine.
Speaker 1: But today I said, I'm going to get out of
Speaker 1: the house and I'm going to make.
Speaker 2: An appointment to have a facial and I'm going to
Speaker 2: go to the bookstore and I'm going to do one
Speaker 2: thing physical, one thing spiritual. And I said, God, if
Speaker 2: I go out today and I don't get a sign
Speaker 2: that you're still with me, I don't know if I
Speaker 2: can make it.
Speaker 1: Two miscarriages in three years.
Speaker 2: I don't know if I can make it marriage, barely
Speaker 2: hanging on because of how low I am at the
Speaker 2: bottom of these feelings.
Speaker 1: Don't know if I can make it.
Speaker 2: But if God, you will give me a sign today,
Speaker 2: I said, Bianca, what about the sign that you moved
Speaker 2: to Charlotte.
Speaker 1: To come to Elevation.
Speaker 2: And God brought somebody else who moved to Charlotte to
Speaker 2: go to Elevation to this bookstore. I don't want to
Speaker 2: give them by name because they're not sponsoring me, and
Speaker 2: they didn't have my book to this bookstore. And she said, well,
Speaker 2: I came over here to buy a book. Can you
Speaker 2: recommend a good one for me? I said absolutely, I'll
Speaker 2: buy you two. If the first one doesn't work, surely
Speaker 2: the second one will.
Speaker 1: And if neither of them are.
Speaker 2: Good, I paid for him, so you can't complain, Bianca,
Speaker 2: this is your sign, This is your side. This is
Speaker 2: your side, This is your side. I thought it was
Speaker 2: real funny because I bought her a Joyce Meyer.
Speaker 1: Book and signed at Stephen Verdick.
Speaker 2: And then she turned to me before we left and said,
Speaker 2: one more thing. You've done so much, and I don't
Speaker 2: mean to ask for more, but do you have anything
Speaker 2: to say to me that might help me to believe
Speaker 2: that God has not done with me? And I had
Speaker 2: no idea what to say to her, because what do
Speaker 2: you say? You don't say a cookie cutter Christianese raised
Speaker 2: that rhymes and sounds like hickory dickory dot.
Speaker 1: It takes all you got. What do you say?
Speaker 2: I'm thankful that I had help in that moment. You know,
Speaker 2: the Holy Spirit will help you know what to say,
Speaker 2: to say to your kid, to say to your wife,
Speaker 2: to say to yourself, the say to your accuser, to
Speaker 2: say to your shame.
Speaker 1: To say to your mountain. I'll tell you what to
Speaker 1: say to your mountain.
Speaker 2: Move. I don't feel like climbing the day and I
Speaker 2: don't I'm hiking shoes.
Speaker 1: Get it out of my way. Move somebody shall move.
Speaker 1: God's not through with you.
Speaker 2: I reached and grabbed one more book off the shelf,
Speaker 2: and the Holy Spirit gave me something to share.
Speaker 1: I shared it last year, but y'all forgot it.
Speaker 2: I reached and got a book and I just held it,
Speaker 2: and where I held it was about right in the middle.
Speaker 2: And I looked at her and said, Bianca, I'm so
Speaker 2: sorry what you suffered. I'm so sorry how it's hurt you.
Speaker 2: I have no words to say that can make the
Speaker 2: miscarriages go away. I have no words to say that
Speaker 2: can guarantee the next result. I have no prophetic word
Speaker 2: from the Lord. But I feel like the Lord.
Speaker 1: Wants you to know that your life is a story
Speaker 1: he's telling, and you're.
Speaker 2: Only this far in, your only, this far in your
Speaker 2: only tell your neighbor this far in y'all, I preached
Speaker 2: all this and it's just acts chapter one, Your only.
Speaker 2: The devil wants you to think that this scene is this,
Speaker 2: and it's not this. God is just getting started. In
Speaker 2: my former book, Theofholos, come on tap your neighbors say,
Speaker 2: can I call you Theophilis. In my last book, I
Speaker 2: wrote about all that Jesus began to do.
Speaker 1: But he's just getting started. He's just getting started.
Speaker 2: Because when the Holy Ghost comes upon you you will
Speaker 2: have power. When the Holy Ghost comes. He will guide
Speaker 2: you into all truth. When the Holy Ghost comes, you
Speaker 2: will stand up straight where you used to sit in shame.
Speaker 2: When the Holy Ghost comes upon you, He's a baptizer.
Speaker 2: The Holy Ghost is a corrector. The Holy Ghost is
Speaker 2: a comforter, and the Holy Ghost is.
Speaker 1: A page turner. And if your life.
Speaker 2: Is a story God is telling, like Peter's life is
Speaker 2: a story that God was telling, like the Gospel is
Speaker 2: the story that God is always telling, that dead things rise,
Speaker 2: that sins can be forgiven, that new beginnings are possible.
Speaker 2: You look at your life from your point of view.
Speaker 2: You called Judas the villain, heartbreak the villain. You are
Speaker 2: tempted in this moment to close the book and go back.
Speaker 1: But the Holy Ghost, the Spirit.
Speaker 2: Of God, is a page turner who does not leave
Speaker 2: me in Luke twenty two, but brings me to Acts
Speaker 2: chapter one.
Speaker 1: So welcome.
Speaker 2: To the next chapter, Bianca, Welcome to the sequel, Theophilus.
Speaker 1: Welcome Peter, y'all. Peter.
Speaker 2: What touched me so much reading this was to realize
Speaker 2: Peter could have been dead right there alongside Judas. They
Speaker 2: both failed Jesus. The difference between Peter and Judas. Wasn't
Speaker 2: what they did or didn't do. They both messed up.
Speaker 2: It's that Peter was a page turner. Okay God, okay God.
Speaker 1: That happened. That happened. That happened.
Speaker 2: Now, Holy Spirit, I ask you, I I adjure you,
Speaker 2: I commission you, by the grace of God that has
Speaker 2: given to me, sit with the Holy Spirit this week.
Speaker 2: How do I do that? Pastor, I've never done that before.
Speaker 2: It is as simple as you sitting down with the
Speaker 2: page of the scripture. Sit down with the same scripture
Speaker 2: I read today. Take your Bible, open it to acts
Speaker 2: and say, Lord, Holy Spirit, speak to me, show me,
Speaker 2: show me your lens on my life, because I'm looking
Speaker 2: through my lens and it doesn't make sense. I'm looking
Speaker 2: through my lens and I'm a single mom and I'm
Speaker 2: not going to be able to give this child what
Speaker 2: they need to grow up with a strong family presence.
Speaker 1: I'm looking through my lens and I don't have.
Speaker 2: Enough to do this, and yet you gave me the opportunity.
Speaker 1: And why did you call God, God, give me your lens,
Speaker 1: the lens of your spirit.
Speaker 2: Peter, who was sitting by a fire, stood up among
Speaker 2: the disciples.
Speaker 1: In those days.
Speaker 2: In between the space of Jesus the Savior rising from
Speaker 2: the grave and the Spirit of God.
Speaker 1: Come in, not knowing how long they would wait. He
Speaker 1: acknowledged the mess and the uncertainty, and he says some
Speaker 1: very powerful words. For it is written that is what
Speaker 1: is going to tell you what to do next.
Speaker 3: It is written in the book of Psalm, may his
Speaker 3: place be deserted, let there be no one to dwell
Speaker 3: in it.
Speaker 1: That is a direct quote.
Speaker 2: From Psalm sixty nine, verse twenty five. And everybody say,
Speaker 2: and may another take his place of leadership? Wow, So
Speaker 2: he said it was written in Psalm sixty nine to
Speaker 2: twenty five that Judas was going to leave. That's what
Speaker 2: God was talking about all those years ago, and is
Speaker 2: happening in our situation. And see if you stop there,
Speaker 2: May his place be deserted. Let there be no one
Speaker 2: to dwell in it. Hopeless, we don't have what we need.
Speaker 2: We can't move forward. Jesus is gone.
Speaker 1: We don't know. It is the power of this.
Speaker 2: And because Peter said in Psalm sixty nine twenty five
Speaker 2: that says, may his place be deserted, let there be
Speaker 2: no one to dwell in it. But in Psalm one
Speaker 2: oh nine, verse eight, it says, may another take his.
Speaker 1: Place of leadership.
Speaker 2: I prophesy another over your life today, another chapter, another victory,
Speaker 2: another testimony, another one, another, one another, one another one.
Speaker 2: And you don't get this kind of wisdom.
Speaker 1: Unless you're a page turner.
Speaker 2: You got to get in here and start to see
Speaker 2: what God says about you about your life and ask him,
Speaker 2: Holy Spirit, speak to me. That's what I write at
Speaker 2: the top of my notes every time I read the Bible.
Speaker 1: Holy Spirit, speak to me from this scripture.
Speaker 2: Because if I don't, I think Judas was the villain
Speaker 2: when really he's the vessel. I'll think that the rejection
Speaker 2: was a curse, when really it was a blessing to
Speaker 2: make more space in my life for what God has next.
Speaker 2: I'll think that the problem is permanent and the faith
Speaker 2: is temporary, and I will not know that the faith
Speaker 2: was meant to remain and the problem came to pass.
Speaker 2: I'm telling you that God can speak over your situation,
Speaker 2: but you need the ghost writer. So you stop telling
Speaker 2: yourself there's a period where there's a comma, So you
Speaker 2: stop telling yourself that because you're messy, God can't give
Speaker 2: you a ministry, the devil is a liar, and the
Speaker 2: Holy Ghost is true.
Speaker 1: Somebody say I'm a page turner.
Speaker 2: I'm not saying I never sat by the fire. I'm
Speaker 2: not saying I never made a mess. I'm not saying
Speaker 2: I never messed it up. I'm just saying the devil
Speaker 2: starts lying you this week.
Speaker 1: Just go.
Speaker 2: You could do it suddenly. You could do it in
Speaker 2: the conference room. Nobody will even know.
Speaker 6: Just go, because this story is just getting started.
Speaker 1: You're only this far in. Next week, I'm gonna pick
Speaker 1: it up right here. Will you be back. We're only
Speaker 1: this far in.
Speaker 2: But before we close, I want you to stand in
Speaker 2: your sanctified feet, and I want you to plant your
Speaker 2: heels right there on the ground wherever you are and
Speaker 2: put it in the comment say I'm a page turner. Wait,
Speaker 2: I thought God was the page turner.
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 2: God is the one who makes it possible. But you
Speaker 2: are the one that makes it happen. By the decision
Speaker 2: to move forward in His presence, with His power in
Speaker 2: your life, the Holy Spirit will come upon you.
Speaker 1: We will see the gospelill go out in this book.
Speaker 2: But it starts with your decision to know. I'm only
Speaker 2: this far in, and we never would see Peter preach
Speaker 2: on the day of Pentecost if he didn't turn the page.
Speaker 2: And we never would see the man at the gate
Speaker 2: called beautiful jump up on his feet with his ankle
Speaker 2: strong if we didn't turn the page. Your children's children
Speaker 2: are waiting to see how your story goes next. Let's
Speaker 2: show him a good one, so you could tell them
Speaker 2: that defeat didn't have the last word in your life,
Speaker 2: that addiction didn't have the last word in your life.
Speaker 1: I stood up like Peter. I had a story to tell,
Speaker 1: and I had help lift your hands.
Speaker 2: I've come a long way.
Speaker 1: I've seen how you work.
Speaker 2: There's so much goodness and grace, much more than I.
Speaker 5: See, sir, because I know who I am.
Speaker 1: But I can't stay where I'm at. You've come this
Speaker 1: far by say.
Speaker 2: And I just can't turn back because he's not done
Speaker 2: with you.
Speaker 4: Yeah, he's not done with you.
Speaker 1: To lud, Yeah, there's a mass.
Speaker 4: Sorry, he's not done with She wouldn't I'm say, he's
Speaker 4: not going with me, is not dumb with me, He's
Speaker 4: not done, he's not duming me. Yeah, there's a master
Speaker 4: to this story. Come, he's so may stop.
Speaker 1: You're not talking, gets as asshole.
Speaker 6: He's have t.
Speaker 1: Start up, tear the hands off.
Speaker 6: You're not Henry.
Speaker 4: Haven't lifted, Henry head lifted, not talk it be chapter.
Speaker 5: You're not sick, You're having sat Here gives the next steppisode.
Speaker 1: There's as this sure dot to thank you for joining us.
Speaker 2: Special thanks to those of you who give generously to
Speaker 2: this ministry. Is because of you that this ministry is possible.
Speaker 2: You can click the link in the description to give
Speaker 2: now or visit Elevation Church dot org slash podcast for
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Speaker 1: Thanks again for listening. God bless you