Speaker 1: Well, Merry Christmas. You guys look great. Welcome to everyone
Speaker 1: here at Valentine and those of you who are at
Speaker 1: our campuses are watching online. I am so glad that
Speaker 1: you are with us today. I know that there are,
Speaker 1: like Pastor Stephen just said, a thousand things that you
Speaker 1: could be doing on this the very last Sunday before Christmas.
Speaker 1: But there is no more important place than where you
Speaker 1: are right here today. I love our church. Do you
Speaker 1: love our church? I love this season at our church.
Speaker 1: We've been talking about how last weekend many of us
Speaker 1: participated in our year end offering, and I just love
Speaker 1: watching everybody come and give cheerfully here at Valentine, and
Speaker 1: I know that there were people giving online and at
Speaker 1: all of our locations, and it's just it's one of
Speaker 1: my favorite things to watch because giving is not like
Speaker 1: buying something. It's not like spending money on something and
Speaker 1: you're never going to see that money again. Giving is
Speaker 1: investing in the work of God, and it's sowing a
Speaker 1: seed and believing that you're going to see a harvest
Speaker 1: for the future. And for a church this size, that
Speaker 1: means that we have a lot of seed in the
Speaker 1: ground going into next year. Right so the offering is
Speaker 1: not over. Like you have heard Pastor Steven say and
Speaker 1: Chad said, I just want to say it to you too.
Speaker 1: You can still give. You go to Elevation Church dot
Speaker 1: org click give and God's gonna bless you. And make
Speaker 1: sure that you're making plans to join us for Christmas too.
Speaker 1: It's an amazing opportunity to bring someone. I feel like
Speaker 1: everybody's been saying this on stage. I just want to
Speaker 1: say it too. Don't miss it. Bring your neighbors, bring
Speaker 1: your people you work with. It's always a fun, worshipful
Speaker 1: experience to be here with your family. And so make
Speaker 1: sure you find out the times that your campuses are
Speaker 1: going to have your Christmas experience and when we're going
Speaker 1: to be online and then here at Valentine's. So I
Speaker 1: know our pastor just prayed, and sometimes I feel like
Speaker 1: when he prays like that, I could just go home
Speaker 1: because there's nothing like having somebody pray over you like that.
Speaker 1: And I know that there are a million things on
Speaker 1: your mind right now that you have a running list
Speaker 1: of things that you need to get done. Maybe you're
Speaker 1: stressing about how you're going to pay for Christmas. Maybe
Speaker 1: you're stressing about you know, relationships, certain family members. Maybe
Speaker 1: you still have gifts to buy and wrap and delivering
Speaker 1: food to prepare. And so every time that I preach,
Speaker 1: I just like to give people a moment to just
Speaker 1: acknowledge that all of those things are on our minds
Speaker 1: and just give you a moment to let them go.
Speaker 1: And it just for the next few moments that we
Speaker 1: have together. We just need to give God the space
Speaker 1: that he deserves in the midst of all of the
Speaker 1: chaos and all of the busyness of this season. I
Speaker 1: just want us to remember that Emmanuel's here with us
Speaker 1: in this place wherever you're watching from. God is here
Speaker 1: and he wants to speak to us today. So just
Speaker 1: open up your hands like this. I know we already prayed.
Speaker 1: We're gonna pray one more time, and I want you
Speaker 1: to repeat after me. Lord, I'm ready to receive from
Speaker 1: you now. I want to hear what you have to
Speaker 1: say to me today in Jesus' name. Amen. All right,
Speaker 1: before you take your seat, I want to read our scripture.
Speaker 1: It's not a long one. It comes from Isaiah chapter eleven,
Speaker 1: verses one and two. It says this a shoot will
Speaker 1: come up from the stump of Jesse. From his roots,
Speaker 1: a branch will bear fruit. The spirit of the Lord
Speaker 1: will rest on him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding,
Speaker 1: the spirit of counsel and of might, the spirit of
Speaker 1: the knowledge and fear of the Lord, and he will
Speaker 1: delight in the fear of the Lord. Today I want
Speaker 1: to talk to you about old roots, new fruits. Give
Speaker 1: somebody a hug and take your seat. So I have
Speaker 1: one silly Christmas obsession. I'm not actually a huge Christmas girl.
Speaker 1: Sorry if that offends you. I don't care very much
Speaker 1: for Christmas music. In fact, I can really I really
Speaker 1: only like instrumental Christmas music. Like I'm not a big
Speaker 1: Christmas music fan. Also, I'm sorry. Like I said, I've
Speaker 1: never done elf on the shelf with my kids. I
Speaker 1: know some people really love it and it's great, just
Speaker 1: not me. We also have never gone to a tree
Speaker 1: farm as a family to cut down our Christmas tree.
Speaker 1: Just not into it. But there is one Christmas tradition
Speaker 1: that I love. And if you know me, you know
Speaker 1: that I love Christmas ornaments. Not these kind of Christmas ornaments.
Speaker 1: These these are filler ornaments. Now understand. I have a tree,
Speaker 1: a big tree in my living room, and I call
Speaker 1: it the fancy tree, and it has all of the beautiful, glittering,
Speaker 1: coordinating ornaments and you know, the sticks and all those
Speaker 1: things in our living room. But in our family room
Speaker 1: we have the family tree, and this tree has colored
Speaker 1: lights on it and it is basically a documentation of
Speaker 1: the history of the Furdick family. So every year I
Speaker 1: pick out an ornament for every person in our family.
Speaker 1: Sometimes they get more than one ornament. It just it's
Speaker 1: things that represents something that they love or they accomplished
Speaker 1: in that year. So like I brought a few to
Speaker 1: show you. So this was Elijah's ornament last year because
Speaker 1: he got his driver's license. Okay, and then let's see, uh,
Speaker 1: where's grams? Here's this one's grams from twenty eighteen when
Speaker 1: he won the North Carolina State wrestling championship eighty five pounds. Okay.
Speaker 1: This was Abby's ornament the year that she turned two.
Speaker 1: She loved the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, and she carried this
Speaker 1: ornament around the house the whole Christmas season. She broke
Speaker 1: the ear off. I couldn't get it to it glue
Speaker 1: back on, so it's had tape on it since twenty thirteen.
Speaker 1: That was Abby's This year, Steven he got, but he
Speaker 1: got this because he wanted Grammy this year. Hello, we
Speaker 1: couldn't let that go undocumented. On our Christmas tree. Even
Speaker 1: Bo has an ornament with this little paw print. Okay.
Speaker 1: I also document the places that we go. So if
Speaker 1: I love gift shops when we travel, I am a
Speaker 1: I am a gift shop tourist. And so you know,
Speaker 1: here's here's our ornament from the Holy Land. Here's our
Speaker 1: ornament from Steven and I went to Big Sur for
Speaker 1: our twenty year anniversary. I always write everything on the
Speaker 1: ornament to document the year and everything hold on. Here's
Speaker 1: one from our family vacation Sullivan's Island. You know, all
Speaker 1: of these things are the history of our family. And
Speaker 1: this year, when we were decorating the house, I could
Speaker 1: not find the travel ornaments anywhere, and I checked every tub,
Speaker 1: I checked in the attic for maybe like a missing
Speaker 1: box that didn't get brought down. I checked all those
Speaker 1: places multiple times. And I'm not I'm not proud of this,
Speaker 1: and I can't believe that I'm actually telling you this,
Speaker 1: But I cried because I had convinced myself that all
Speaker 1: of our family memories had accidentally been thrown in the
Speaker 1: trash when we were putting Christmas away last year, and
Speaker 1: that we were basically gonna forget all the places that
Speaker 1: we have been and all the things that we've done.
Speaker 1: And Steven said exactly what he was supposed to say.
Speaker 1: He was like, Holly, I'm sure they'll turn up. And
Speaker 1: I was like, no, they're not going to turn up.
Speaker 1: I've looked everywhere the Furdick family history has been erased.
Speaker 1: We found them, of course, about an hour later, and
Speaker 1: they're all safely on our tree. Our history is preserved.
Speaker 1: That was my Christmas miracle. I know you're relief for me. Okay.
Speaker 1: So in this passage, we don't have a beautiful tree
Speaker 1: with shiny ornaments. We have a stump. And Isaiah is
Speaker 1: prophesying to the nation of Israel, and he's telling them
Speaker 1: that even though they're in captivity and their nation has
Speaker 1: been reduced to almost nothing, he's saying, a messiah is
Speaker 1: still to come. And when this Messiah comes, he's gonna
Speaker 1: rule with wisdom and understanding. He's gonna be the ultimate
Speaker 1: perfect king. When he judges, it's gonna be the perfect judgment.
Speaker 1: And when he comes He's still gonna come through the
Speaker 1: line of David. He says, a shoot will come up
Speaker 1: from the stump of Jesse from his roots. The branch
Speaker 1: will bear fruit. And some scholars believe that Isaiah used Jesse,
Speaker 1: David's father, to symbolized even further how there would be
Speaker 1: a complete absence of royal dignity in the House of Israel.
Speaker 1: By the time that the Messiah comes a stump from
Speaker 1: the very thing that looks absolutely dead, there's a chance
Speaker 1: of life. The Messiah, the perfect King, is gonna come.
Speaker 1: So I was thinking, if Isaiah were here today and
Speaker 1: he were to visit my home and he were to
Speaker 1: look at my Christmas tree, I think he would ask me,
Speaker 1: why why the tree go with me here? Because the
Speaker 1: tree is beautiful and this tree is real. But actually
Speaker 1: this tree is dead, like dead dead, because it has
Speaker 1: been cut off from its roots. But boy, can we
Speaker 1: make a dead tree look good? You know, like one
Speaker 1: trip to hobby lobby and fifty percent off, and we've
Speaker 1: got ornaments, and we've got lights, and we've got a
Speaker 1: little basket thing around the bottom and a tree skirt,
Speaker 1: and we put presents under it and it's beautiful. But
Speaker 1: it is dead, dead, dead, And in about a month,
Speaker 1: this tree's gonna turn brown and it's gonna fall apart,
Speaker 1: no chance of life because it's been cut off from
Speaker 1: its roots. If Isaiah was picking a symbol for Christmas,
Speaker 1: I think he would pick a stump. Guess what, I've
Speaker 1: got one that they're gonna bring out. Okay, so they're
Speaker 1: bringing out my stump. Here comes shout out to Preston
Speaker 1: Wilson from our Gaston campus and also our production team
Speaker 1: here at Valentine. I have no idea how they got
Speaker 1: this thing in here. This is a real tree stump,
Speaker 1: and I think I'm gonna have you guys here take
Speaker 1: my table and I'm gonna use this because I want
Speaker 1: this to be front and center today. Oh here, take
Speaker 1: the basket too. I'm done with that, thank you. Okay, stump,
Speaker 1: don't look at them. It looks dead for all intents
Speaker 1: and purposes. It is dead because everything that represents life, branches, leaves, blossoms,
Speaker 1: fruits have been cut off and thrown away. But there
Speaker 1: is life beneath the stump, because there's roots that are
Speaker 1: alive under the surface. When person said it this way,
Speaker 1: he said, the spirit of Christmas is sentimental like my ornaments.
Speaker 1: But the spirit of Christ is supernatural life where it
Speaker 1: seems impossible. And it was about six hundred years from
Speaker 1: the time of this prophecy to the time of its fulfillment.
Speaker 1: And by the time that the Messiah comes, the people
Speaker 1: of God as a nation look almost extinct. There is
Speaker 1: just a remnant of people who still believe that the
Speaker 1: Messiah is gonna come. And when Jesus enters the scene,
Speaker 1: not as this glorious, shining king, he comes as a
Speaker 1: baby whose birth is so overlooked that he's born in
Speaker 1: a barn, a tender shoot. Isaiah says, this is Christmas,
Speaker 1: not this Christmas is about having hope for the places
Speaker 1: where you feel stumped, your mistakes, your disappointments, the areas
Speaker 1: where you feel like you're failing. Sure, we all have
Speaker 1: wonderful accomplishments that deserve to be celebrated. And I love
Speaker 1: reading people's Christmas cards and their messages on social media
Speaker 1: when they post a picture of, you know, their family
Speaker 1: Christmas picture. I love how people give updates. I guess
Speaker 1: I'm nosy. I like to know what's going on in
Speaker 1: people's lives, so I like when they talk about this
Speaker 1: trip that they went on, or they moved to a
Speaker 1: new neighborhood, or they welcomed a new grandchild and into
Speaker 1: their family, they got a new puppy. All these things
Speaker 1: are wonderful and we can celebrate them. But just know
Speaker 1: that nobody talks about their stumps in their Christmas card,
Speaker 1: and you shouldn't. We don't want you to. But the
Speaker 1: message of Christmas is not about the shiny areas of
Speaker 1: your life. The message of Christmas is that there's hope
Speaker 1: for your stumps. How is this possible? I'm gonna give
Speaker 1: you a quick science lesson. Thank you YouTube and this
Speaker 1: little known channel that I found called Granny's Garden. Okay,
Speaker 1: So Granny had a tree in her garden and the
Speaker 1: tree was not doing well. Most of the branches were
Speaker 1: dead and the dead branches were stealing nutrients from the
Speaker 1: few remaining live ones. But the tree itself was in
Speaker 1: an important location in her garden and its root system
Speaker 1: was keeping a hill from eroding in her yard. So
Speaker 1: she needed to save the tree. But in order to
Speaker 1: save the tree, she had to cut it down and
Speaker 1: grow it back from the roots. So she cuts down
Speaker 1: the tree, knowing that what's gonna happen is that the
Speaker 1: root system is going to spring into action. Because as
Speaker 1: soon as the root system realizes no leaves, no branches,
Speaker 1: that means no growth. So it's gonna draw from all
Speaker 1: the nutrients down underneath the ground, from the farthest tips
Speaker 1: of the roots, and it's gonna push up a tiny
Speaker 1: baby shoot. I have an image of what this looks like.
Speaker 1: This is our Christmas tree. When the thing that has
Speaker 1: been tripping you up, the thing that you thought was dead,
Speaker 1: that actual thing brings forth new life, baby, baby life.
Speaker 1: But first we have to identify the stump. So we
Speaker 1: had some dead trees along our driveway and we had
Speaker 1: to have them cut down. And when the guy came out,
Speaker 1: you know, he gave me some price options and he said,
Speaker 1: you know, I can cut the tree down for X
Speaker 1: amount of money, and it's really expensive to have a
Speaker 1: tree cut down. It's like, I don't want to spend
Speaker 1: my money on that, okay, And then he said, well,
Speaker 1: but if you want me to remove the stump, it's
Speaker 1: gonna cost even more. So of course I was like, well,
Speaker 1: who cares about stump? I chose the cheaper option to
Speaker 1: leave the stumps. The problem became that people didn't know
Speaker 1: that there were stumps along our driveway and they would
Speaker 1: accidentally run over them. Buck is smiling because I'm pretty
Speaker 1: sure it was him that one time I came home
Speaker 1: and he was having to have his car towed. Sorry
Speaker 1: about that, Buck. An unidentified stump will cause you problems, Okay,
Speaker 1: you will. It will trip you up. So we've got
Speaker 1: to go ahead and just acknowledge the stumps in our lives.
Speaker 1: There's there's big ones, there's little ones, but we all
Speaker 1: have stumps. You might have a stump because of something
Speaker 1: that was not your fault, something that was done to you,
Speaker 1: an accident that happened, maybe an attack from the enemy
Speaker 1: to keep you from living out the calling that God
Speaker 1: has placed on your life. You might have a stump
Speaker 1: in your life that was completely of your own doing.
Speaker 1: You know. Right now, I have two teenage boys, and
Speaker 1: I was talking to a friend the other day about
Speaker 1: the difference in the differences between teenagers and toddlers, because
Speaker 1: there's actually quite a lot of similarities. They sleep at
Speaker 1: all the wrong times, they constantly want a snack, and
Speaker 1: you're always trying to keep them from hurting themselves. The
Speaker 1: difference is the stakes are so much higher with teenagers.
Speaker 1: Let me illustrate this. I have a picture. These are
Speaker 1: my toddler boys, and you can see my face in
Speaker 1: the background, like that was the face that I constantly
Speaker 1: had because these little boys were constantly climbing and jumping
Speaker 1: and in danger of getting hurt. And I right there,
Speaker 1: I'm just envisioning us going to the er to get stitches.
Speaker 1: This is what I have. Now I've got another picture
Speaker 1: for you. Okay, Elijah has his driver's license, Graham has
Speaker 1: his drivers permit. When they were toddlers, I was worried
Speaker 1: about stitches. Now stitches are the least of my worries.
Speaker 1: People's lives are at stake, and I tell my boys
Speaker 1: you can take the picture now. I tell them all
Speaker 1: the time. I'm saying, you have to think, you have
Speaker 1: to be aware of the decision that you're making, because
Speaker 1: one dumb decision in a moment can alter the course
Speaker 1: of your life. I'm just trying to keep them from
Speaker 1: getting some stumps too soon in their life. And you
Speaker 1: might have a stump in your life today that represents
Speaker 1: a bad decision that you made in a moment and
Speaker 1: you don't know how you're ever going to recover from it.
Speaker 1: But there's a third kind of stump, and it's perhaps
Speaker 1: the hardest one to understand, because it's when God creates
Speaker 1: a stump in your life. John fifteen. Jesus is famously
Speaker 1: talking to the disciples about the vine and the branches,
Speaker 1: and he tells the disciples that the vine dresser he's
Speaker 1: talking about God cuts off every branch that does not
Speaker 1: bear fruit, the same thing that Granny was telling us,
Speaker 1: the diseased branches, the dead branches, the suckers. Suckers, that's
Speaker 1: an actual gardening term, and it means that the non
Speaker 1: fruit bearing branches are sucking the nutrients from the fruit
Speaker 1: bearing branches. And I know you didn't come to church
Speaker 1: today for a science lesson, but Jesus said it. He
Speaker 1: cuts off every branch in me that does not bear fruit.
Speaker 1: So I came to tell you today, perhaps that relationship
Speaker 1: was a sucker keeping you from bearing fruit. The dream
Speaker 1: that you had in actuality would be a nightmare, and
Speaker 1: God was keeping it from you so that you could
Speaker 1: experience the fullness of life in Christ. So we've got
Speaker 1: to come to terms with our stumps today. And it
Speaker 1: doesn't matter how they're there. It doesn't matter if the
Speaker 1: devil couset, or if you cause it, or if God
Speaker 1: caused it. It's there and it's painful, and it's disappointing,
Speaker 1: and it's tripping you up. The good news that I
Speaker 1: have for you today is out of the stump will
Speaker 1: come a shoot. This prophecy. It's about Jesus the Messiah.
Speaker 1: But it is a truth from God's word for you today.
Speaker 1: One version of Isaiah eleven one says, a new branch
Speaker 1: bearing fruit from an old root. I want you to
Speaker 1: know today that a new fruit is going to come
Speaker 1: from an old root. There's time where you plant seeds
Speaker 1: and you do a new but today new fruit from
Speaker 1: an old root. Jeremiah seventeen seven. This is one of
Speaker 1: the best verses in the whole Bible. In my opinion.
Speaker 1: Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose
Speaker 1: confidence is in him. They will be like a tree
Speaker 1: planted by the water that sends out its roots by
Speaker 1: the stream. It does not fear when heat comes, Its
Speaker 1: leaves always green, It has no worries in a year
Speaker 1: of drought, and it never fails to bear fruit. If
Speaker 1: you are a believer in Christ, today, I want you
Speaker 1: to know that your roots are there. You just have
Speaker 1: to tap them. When the tree gets cut down, what
Speaker 1: are the roots do? They spring into action. It's like
Speaker 1: quadruple time the work that it normally would do, and
Speaker 1: it draws up everything it can. But you know what
Speaker 1: I do a lot of times with my stumps, I
Speaker 1: just pretend like they're not there. I numb whatever it
Speaker 1: is you do to numb. You know, we watch TV,
Speaker 1: or you avoid, you chop, you scroll, And honestly, scrolling
Speaker 1: is the worst thing that you can do because when
Speaker 1: you're scrolling, you're looking at everyone else's beautiful life and
Speaker 1: you start to think like, well, I'm the only one
Speaker 1: that has stumps. But of course they're not gonna put
Speaker 1: their stumps on their Facebook page. And if they do,
Speaker 1: this is really bad. I mean, we don't. Please don't
Speaker 1: put your stumps. But don't compare your stump to someone
Speaker 1: else's tree. Don't ignore it, don't compare it, just acknowledge it.
Speaker 1: And I've got roots. You're like a tree planted by
Speaker 1: the water. You might have been cut down in an
Speaker 1: area of your life, but you're rooted. There's life that's
Speaker 1: still there. So I put together a list of ways
Speaker 1: for you to tap your roots. And none of these
Speaker 1: things are gonna blow your mind. They're all sort of
Speaker 1: common sense. Sometimes you just need a friend to come
Speaker 1: alongside you and s hey, here's you can do this.
Speaker 1: Remember how you do this? And that's my goal today.
Speaker 1: So I'm gonna give you a couple of ways to
Speaker 1: tap your roots. They all start with the letter are
Speaker 1: are you ready? First one is remember? Can you remember
Speaker 1: the past faithfulness of God in your life? I feel
Speaker 1: like I say this every time I get on this stage,
Speaker 1: but maybe like, see me as your mom today. You
Speaker 1: know how your mom tells you the same things over
Speaker 1: and over again, But this time you're gonna listen. Okay,
Speaker 1: this is so important. Sometimes we have to recall the
Speaker 1: goodness when you when you're staring at the stump, recall
Speaker 1: the goodness of God in your life? Can you remember
Speaker 1: a time that He provided for you? Lamentations three says
Speaker 1: that this I will recall to my mind, and therefore
Speaker 1: I have hope. It is because of the Lord's great
Speaker 1: mercy that we are not consumed. His compassions fail not
Speaker 1: they are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness God,
Speaker 1: He's been faithful to you. Focus on his faithfulness. The
Speaker 1: next one is rejoice one of my all time favorite
Speaker 1: pastor Stephen quotes in twenty years of hearing him preach,
Speaker 1: is when he said, my joy is my job. I'm
Speaker 1: not waiting on someone to make me smile. I'm not
Speaker 1: waiting on something good to happen to me. I will
Speaker 1: rejoice right now. I will take time to be grateful,
Speaker 1: not only to look back, but to look around and
Speaker 1: to see the goodness of God right now in my life.
Speaker 1: I can focus on my stuff, what I don't have,
Speaker 1: or I can choose to rejoice and what I do have.
Speaker 1: God has been good to you. To put a smile
Speaker 1: on your face and sing a song and lift up
Speaker 1: your hands because He's been good to you. Rejoice in
Speaker 1: the Lord. And then there's requests. My dad taught me
Speaker 1: when I was a little girl that God's phone number
Speaker 1: was Jeremiah thirty three to three. It says, this call
Speaker 1: unto me, and I will answer you and show you
Speaker 1: great and mighty things that you do not know. I
Speaker 1: just want to say it might be time for you
Speaker 1: to stop talking to people about your problems and present
Speaker 1: your requests to God. He is the one who will
Speaker 1: show you the things you do not know. Cry out
Speaker 1: to him. Tell him what's in your heart. Ask him
Speaker 1: to show you the way forward. The Bible says, knock,
Speaker 1: and I will answer. Make your request to God. This
Speaker 1: next one is kind of counterinto it. Okay, it's a
Speaker 1: little bit harder to hear. Regard. Philippians too, tells us
Speaker 1: that if we are to be like Jesus, we are
Speaker 1: to not merely look out for ourselves, but also for
Speaker 1: the interests of others. Paul says, we must regard others
Speaker 1: as more important than ourselves. I know your situation is difficult.
Speaker 1: I know your situation is painful, but I guarantee you
Speaker 1: that there is someone else close to you who also
Speaker 1: has a great need. You don't need to compare your stumps,
Speaker 1: but sometimes the best thing that you can do when
Speaker 1: you feel like something has been cut off from your
Speaker 1: life is to do something for someone else. It doesn't
Speaker 1: make sense, but just trust me, if you will stop
Speaker 1: staring at your stump and look around. Christmas is all
Speaker 1: about perspective. It's about learning to see and value what
Speaker 1: God sees. A baby in a barn, shepherds in a field.
Speaker 1: Can you regard someone else as more important than yourself?
Speaker 1: Get your mind off of yourself. Then there's the root
Speaker 1: of routine. Now last week, if you were not here
Speaker 1: last week, you've got to go back and listen. I
Speaker 1: know I say that every time I preach too, but
Speaker 1: that's because if you're missing church, I feel so bad
Speaker 1: for you. So Stephen talked about getting his haircut. Does
Speaker 1: anybody remember that? It was a really small part of
Speaker 1: his message, but it spoke very deeply to me. And
Speaker 1: he said that when someone asked him one time, what
Speaker 1: do you do when you don't feel like preaching, and
Speaker 1: he said, well, I get my hair cut. And he
Speaker 1: talked about just doing the next thing that he does,
Speaker 1: the thing that he does every week before he preaches.
Speaker 1: And he told us that we have to learn to
Speaker 1: send a signal to ourselves that it's time to do
Speaker 1: the work that we've been called to do. No matter
Speaker 1: how you feel, no matter what's been taken from you,
Speaker 1: keep your routine. Get up, get going, exercise, take a walk,
Speaker 1: take your kids to school, show up for work on time.
Speaker 1: Do the things of life. Have your song. A guy
Speaker 1: came up to us at a restaurant a couple of
Speaker 1: weeks ago, and he said to Stephen, with tears in
Speaker 1: his eyes, he said, I just want to thank you
Speaker 1: for the song. And I was thinking he was gonna,
Speaker 1: you know, do some like like you know, come to
Speaker 1: the altar, or like a you know, a slow song.
Speaker 1: He said, I just have to thank you for the
Speaker 1: song Rattle. He said, I've listened to that song at
Speaker 1: least every day for the past year, and that song
Speaker 1: has saved my life. Find your song and put it
Speaker 1: on repeat, because it's gonna tell your body, it's gonna
Speaker 1: tell your mind. It's gonna tell the devil that you're
Speaker 1: getting to work now, that you're not gonna be stopped.
Speaker 1: You're not gonna be stumped. Find your verse, keep doing
Speaker 1: the things that you know you're supposed to do. It's simple,
Speaker 1: but sometimes we forget. Life cannot stop because something didn't
Speaker 1: turn out the way you thought it would. And when
Speaker 1: you keep your routine, you're sending a message to yourself,
Speaker 1: and you're sending a message to the devil and everyone
Speaker 1: around you that a shoot is gonna come up from
Speaker 1: this stump. By God, I'm not stopping just because something
Speaker 1: got cut off. I've got roots that go deep, and
Speaker 1: I'm gonna keep doing the things that I know to
Speaker 1: do until I see that shoot come up. The last
Speaker 1: one is remain. I gotta show you Psalm ninety two.
Speaker 1: It says the righteous will flourish like a palm tree.
Speaker 1: They will grow like a cedar of Lebanon. Planted in
Speaker 1: the house of the Lord, they will flourish in the
Speaker 1: courts of our God. They will still bear fruit in
Speaker 1: old age. They will stay fresh and green. Are you
Speaker 1: planted in the house of the Lord. Because I'm just
Speaker 1: gonna tell you, this place is a stream, and every
Speaker 1: week our pastor comes out on this stage with water
Speaker 1: for our thirsty souls. This is fertile soil for your roots.
Speaker 1: And whether you're watching online or you're joining us at
Speaker 1: one of our campuses, the people watching with you, the
Speaker 1: people sitting next to you, the people in your eGroup,
Speaker 1: the people you volunteer with. They are the ones who
Speaker 1: will walk with you through your pain, through your divorce,
Speaker 1: through your surgery, through your recovery. This is the place
Speaker 1: where your roots find a direct source of water. Draw
Speaker 1: from the root. Look for the shoot. Christmas is a
Speaker 1: tender shoot of hope. I have one. It's small, it's vulnerable,
Speaker 1: It comes in unexpected ways and at unexpected times. And
Speaker 1: when I see this shoot, I was thinking of a
Speaker 1: couple who's on staff at our church, and they've been
Speaker 1: trying to have a baby for five years. And she
Speaker 1: told me recently that they've almost finished their home study
Speaker 1: become foster parents. Parenthood has been a stump in their
Speaker 1: lives for five years, and finally this Christmas, there's a shoot,
Speaker 1: a tiny tender shoot of hope. I love the Christmas
Speaker 1: carol that says a thrill of hope when you find
Speaker 1: that tiny shoot and you know God is in this,
Speaker 1: this is the way, this is the way he wants
Speaker 1: me to go. He hasn't given up on you. And
Speaker 1: she told me this week, she said, I never thought
Speaker 1: that this would be my parenthood journey. But God's plans
Speaker 1: are always better than ours. Be careful because the shoot
Speaker 1: may not, but always look the way you think it will.
Speaker 1: When God chose to send Jesus to Earth, he picked
Speaker 1: an unlikely couple. The baby was born in an unlikely place.
Speaker 1: He didn't send his son to Earth descending from the
Speaker 1: clouds as a full grown man. He sent Jesus in
Speaker 1: the form of a needy little baby. And that's why
Speaker 1: Isaiah called him a tender shoot, coming forth from the
Speaker 1: place you never expected. And that's the thing about hope.
Speaker 1: Hope is here, but it might not be the way
Speaker 1: you expected it to be. It's not going to be big,
Speaker 1: not this time. It's going to be small, like a
Speaker 1: baby step to fill out the applications, to schedule in
Speaker 1: a appointment with a counselor. And it's gonna need nurturing,
Speaker 1: and you're gonna have to tend to it, and if
Speaker 1: you're not careful, you might miss it. You're gonna have
Speaker 1: to slow down. And I'm so guilty, especially this time
Speaker 1: of year, filling my schedule so full that I don't
Speaker 1: have time for Jesus. I don't have time for a shoot.
Speaker 1: That's this Christmas tree. The meals and the parties and
Speaker 1: the family and the lights on the house and the
Speaker 1: kids programs and the gifts. All of those things are good,
Speaker 1: but don't let them make you miss the miracle of
Speaker 1: the shoot, the new thing that God is doing in
Speaker 1: your life. Through that disappointment, through that thing that was
Speaker 1: tripping you up, through that failure, there's life in the
Speaker 1: dead places this Christmas Jesus said. Jesus said in John
Speaker 1: eleven twenty five, he said, I think we've got it
Speaker 1: up here. I am the Resurrection and the Life. Whoever
Speaker 1: believes in me, though he die, yet he shall live.
Speaker 1: God is doing a new thing in your life. He
Speaker 1: wants to give you a new name. He wants to
Speaker 1: restore your dignity. He wants to give you a second
Speaker 1: chance at love, a second chance at healthy relationships, new dreams,
Speaker 1: new paths, new fruits from old roots. That's the good news.
Speaker 1: Something good is going to come from that dead spot,
Speaker 1: because that's how God gets the glory. You don't need
Speaker 1: to plant a new seed. You already have roots. Draw
Speaker 1: from the roots that you have, and wait and believe.
Speaker 1: Isn't that the message of Christmas, of the Christmas story?
Speaker 1: Wait and believe that God does his best work in
Speaker 1: my dead places. Amen, let's pray. Lord, you said in
Speaker 1: your word that you came to Earth to set the
Speaker 1: captives free. So she came to comfort those who warn
Speaker 1: that you would give beauty for ashes. And you said
Speaker 1: that we would be called oaks of righteousness, a planting
Speaker 1: of the Lord for the display of your splendor. God,
Speaker 1: would you work in our dead places today so that
Speaker 1: we can be a display of your splendor, so that
Speaker 1: people will say, Wow, look what God has done. In
Speaker 1: your life. Open up our eyes God to see the
Speaker 1: tender baby shoots. Help us to see that hope is
Speaker 1: here right now. It's not there, it's not in twenty
Speaker 1: twenty three. It's here, It's right now. Help us to
Speaker 1: see what you see. Don't let us miss the tender
Speaker 1: shoots that you're pushing up in our lives. God, we
Speaker 1: love you so much. This in Jesus name, We pray Amen. Well,
Speaker 1: thanks for joining us today for the message, and we
Speaker 1: trust that God spoke to you right where you are
Speaker 1: as we're in this year end season. If God is
Speaker 1: speaking to your life and you'd like to begin tithing
Speaker 1: or give above and beyond, we would invite you to
Speaker 1: head over to Elevationchurch dot org. There you'll find all
Speaker 1: of the information available for you to take part in
Speaker 1: the year end offering. If you haven't begun tithing, we
Speaker 1: would always encourage you to start there. Place God first
Speaker 1: in the air of your finances and begin tithing and
Speaker 1: make that a part of your every day life. If
Speaker 1: you already tithe, then would like to go above and
Speaker 1: beyond and help expand the ministry here at Elevation Church.
Speaker 1: You can also do that through the year end offering.
Speaker 1: All you have to do is click the banner at
Speaker 1: Elevationchurch dot org. You can select the campus that you're
Speaker 1: a part of. If you're a part of our online community,
Speaker 1: select online, and if you're part of one of our
Speaker 1: physical locations, make sure that you select one of those campuses.
Speaker 1: Then you can select how much you'd like to give
Speaker 1: and be a part of all the God is doing
Speaker 1: right here at Elevation Church. Again, we thank you for
Speaker 1: being a part of the family here and we can't
Speaker 1: wait to see how God works in and through your
Speaker 1: life as you open up your hands and ask God
Speaker 1: to use you right where you are. Thanks for being
Speaker 1: a part God bless