Speaker 1: Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick.
Speaker 2: I'm the pastor of Elevation Church and this is our podcast.
Speaker 2: I wanted to thank you for joining us today.
Speaker 1: Hope this inspires you. Hope it builds your faith.
Speaker 2: Hope it gives your perspective to see God is moving.
Speaker 1: In your life. Enjoy the message.
Speaker 3: Boy, how are you thankful for just a place where
Speaker 3: you walk in and doesn't matter what you carried in,
Speaker 3: just a moment in the presence of God, can change
Speaker 3: your perspective, can lift the burden, can give you a
Speaker 3: new look outlook on the day. And how about how
Speaker 3: your church served all those in western North Carolina.
Speaker 1: I mean, how amazing.
Speaker 3: I know you celebrated it, but I just think that's
Speaker 3: the way it ought to be.
Speaker 1: That that when.
Speaker 3: There's hurting, the church ought to show up, that when
Speaker 3: people are in need, and all across the world you showed.
Speaker 1: Up in an amazing way and making a difference.
Speaker 3: You know, you gave a couple of cold water, as
Speaker 3: the New Testament says, in the name of Jesus. And
Speaker 3: I love what they said in the video that we're
Speaker 3: gonna give them some coat.
Speaker 1: We're gonna give them Jesus too.
Speaker 3: We're gonna pray, We're gonna believe with them, We're gonna
Speaker 3: stand with them.
Speaker 1: What an amazing thing. So honored to be back at elevation.
Speaker 3: I love your your pastors, and I know everybody does,
Speaker 3: but I love them on another level. I was thinking
Speaker 3: before we got on the plane yesterday and made our
Speaker 3: way down, I was thinking, I've been coming down to
Speaker 3: Charlotte to set in a room, to set in a
Speaker 3: life recording, to set in a revival, all these kind
Speaker 3: of services for I think about eighteen years now and
Speaker 3: in this place. I know has marked your life, but
Speaker 3: I want you to know it's so deeply marked my life.
Speaker 3: There's been so many turning points, so many moments. I
Speaker 3: know we could all give our own testimony of how
Speaker 3: it was a it was a song, it was it
Speaker 3: was something that carried you in a season. It's something
Speaker 3: that caused you to make a decision. And that only
Speaker 3: happens because two people with a vision said yes to God,
Speaker 3: laid it all on the line. Come on, can we
Speaker 3: put our hands together and thank God for our pastors.
Speaker 3: What a gift they are to the body of Christ.
Speaker 3: Are you ready for the Word of God today? Are
Speaker 3: you ready? Let's go once you have a seat. Tell
Speaker 3: somebody beside you. I'm glad you set by me. I'm
Speaker 3: glad you set by me. I bring greetings from the
Speaker 3: great state of Virginia that is showing off right now.
Speaker 3: It's fall in Virginia. Doesn't get much better. And my
Speaker 3: wife Tammy, our four kids. It's a lot, y'all, and
Speaker 3: we're grateful for them most days. And I'm kidding Acts
Speaker 3: Chapter twelve, verse five. And I was telling chunks earlier.
Speaker 3: The later I get in my forties, the smaller the
Speaker 3: print on my Bible keeps getting. I think someone is
Speaker 3: switching it out. So I have to wear these now.
Speaker 3: Acts Chapter twelve, verse five says this. It says, so
Speaker 3: Peter was kept in prison, but the church was earnestly
Speaker 3: somebody shall earnestly praying to God for him. So Peter's
Speaker 3: in prison, but the church was earnestly praying to God
Speaker 3: for him. I want to bring a message entitled how
Speaker 3: to handle a setback? How to handle the setback? Let's
Speaker 3: pray together, Father, we have our hearts and minds open.
Speaker 1: We pray.
Speaker 3: Holy spirits speak to us. We haven't come just to
Speaker 3: do church. We've come that we might hear from heaven.
Speaker 3: So we believe your word has the power to change
Speaker 3: us and transform us, and so do that in these moments.
Speaker 3: We asked this in Jesus' name. Everybody said Amen. Amen.
Speaker 3: So I was thinking the other day about middle school.
Speaker 3: So you're thinking, why would you do that to yourself?
Speaker 3: But I was thinking about I grew up in East Tennessee,
Speaker 3: and I went to this middle school called Lyndby Middle School.
Speaker 1: And I don't know how it is today.
Speaker 3: It's not like this in my kid's school, so I
Speaker 3: don't know if it is across the board. But in
Speaker 3: East Tennessee, football was everything. Because the town was so small,
Speaker 3: we had nothing else to do, so we might as
Speaker 3: well watch football, all right. And so middle school, while
Speaker 3: I was on Thursday night and after every Thursday night
Speaker 3: football game, there was a dance every home game, and
Speaker 3: uh it was. It was less like a dance and
Speaker 3: more like a standoff. It was like, guys on one
Speaker 3: side of the gym, come onyo with me, girls on
Speaker 3: the other side of the gym, and you just kind
Speaker 3: of stood there and stare at each other.
Speaker 1: There was always a few.
Speaker 3: Brave people that got out in the middle, but that was.
Speaker 1: Not your boy here.
Speaker 3: But there was this girl I had a crush on,
Speaker 3: and I was like, this is the moment, this is
Speaker 3: my moment. I'm gonna go over. I'm going to ask
Speaker 3: her to dance. And that was even a big step
Speaker 3: for me because I grew up in.
Speaker 1: A very.
Speaker 3: Conservative Denomination church and I I was for sure that
Speaker 3: I'd have to go get repentance for the dance. But
Speaker 3: it was worth to try, or y'all try like it
Speaker 3: was worth the experiment. And so walked all the way
Speaker 3: over the long walk, all the way over to the
Speaker 3: other side of the gym, and went up made the request.
Speaker 3: I don't even remember what I said. I think I
Speaker 3: kind of blacked out, and she graciously declined, thank you.
Speaker 1: Thanks.
Speaker 3: A lot of counseling later, I'm over it, but I
Speaker 3: appreciate this sympathy. And so then I make the long
Speaker 3: walk back right to the other side to trash talking
Speaker 3: from guys who realized that I got rejected for the
Speaker 3: dance invitation, and just in my middle school life, that
Speaker 3: was a major setback. Hello, somebody, major setback in my
Speaker 3: social climate, in my personal identity, self esteem, you know,
Speaker 3: all those major setback and how many of you know
Speaker 3: that life is full of setbacks. If you've lived any
Speaker 3: bit of life at all, you know that life is
Speaker 3: full of setbacks. It's moments where you feel like I'm
Speaker 3: take making five steps forward and then it feels like
Speaker 3: sometimes it's eight steps Backwards's I feel like I'm things
Speaker 3: are going well, and then it's the phone call out
Speaker 3: of nowhere and you feel like, wow, there's a major setback.
Speaker 3: It's the relational issue where you felt like, man, we
Speaker 3: were getting traction and now feels like a major setback
Speaker 3: in life.
Speaker 1: And life can be full.
Speaker 3: Of setbacks, and I would propose that the text we
Speaker 3: just read is a major setback in the New Testament Church. Now,
Speaker 3: can we go to Sunday school for a minute? Okay,
Speaker 3: a few of you.
Speaker 1: That's great. A confidence is real high right now? All right,
Speaker 1: So here's.
Speaker 3: What's happening in the context of what we just read
Speaker 3: in Act chapter twelve, verse five, is this is the
Speaker 3: New Testament Church is growing.
Speaker 1: I mean it's gangbusters.
Speaker 3: It's day one, three thousand people come to faith in
Speaker 3: Christ and there's the birth of the New Testament Church.
Speaker 3: What a great launch day, right, I Mean that was
Speaker 3: a great campus launch, like three thousand in one day.
Speaker 1: Here they all are for getting baptized.
Speaker 3: I mean, it's just people are overflow, over overflow.
Speaker 1: It's going great.
Speaker 3: And then the Bible says they're being added to their
Speaker 3: number daily. Wow, I mean not just on Sundays, but
Speaker 3: they're being added to the number every.
Speaker 1: Day of the week. People are coming to faith in Christ.
Speaker 3: This movement is growing, This thing across Christianity is expanding,
Speaker 3: and in the middle of that, it's disrupting and upsetting
Speaker 3: all of the religious social political climate of the day.
Speaker 3: They are not all about this new movement that has
Speaker 3: started called Christianity. And so King Herod, who is the
Speaker 3: current king, decides he's going to start eliminating some of
Speaker 3: the leaders from the church. Now, this is Herod a
Speaker 3: grip of the First. Am I going too far into
Speaker 3: Sunday school. Okay, heard a grip of the First which
Speaker 3: is the grandson of Herod, who was alive whenever Jesus
Speaker 3: was born. Here's all you need to know about the Herods.
Speaker 3: They all crazy, y'all, all of them. They all crazy.
Speaker 3: They all want to kill people. They're just all a
Speaker 3: little off in their mind. This is that Herod, and
Speaker 3: so he gets James, not James, the brother g James,
Speaker 3: the brother of John, and he kills him. So a
Speaker 3: major leader in the church in Jerusalem is now dead.
Speaker 3: And the Jews are really happy because it is disrupting
Speaker 3: everything going on around them. Are off tracking so far, saymen.
Speaker 3: So Harod goes, okay, that grained me favor. I want
Speaker 3: to get more favor with the people, and so he goes,
Speaker 3: I'll go after.
Speaker 1: Peter and I'll arrest Peter.
Speaker 3: Now he arrested them during a week of celebration for
Speaker 3: the Jewish people, so he couldn't bring him up to trial,
Speaker 3: which the trial would just be a sham. And most
Speaker 3: likely what was happened is Peter was going to have
Speaker 3: the same fate as James. And so this is where
Speaker 3: we come into the text. Peter is kept in prison.
Speaker 3: He's kept there because the celebration hasn't ended. But the
Speaker 3: church was praying. This isn't a complex message. When you
Speaker 3: face a setback, prayer is a great place to start.
Speaker 3: But I want to go a little little word nerd
Speaker 3: on you for a moment. I love I really parked
Speaker 3: on the word, but the conjunction. But now I grew
Speaker 3: up in East Tennessee. So language wasn't my strongest suit.
Speaker 3: But I do know this about conjunctions is that they
Speaker 3: bring together two phrases that are in contrast.
Speaker 1: To one another.
Speaker 3: Some would say some won't go this far, but some
Speaker 3: would say in contradiction to one another. Or the second
Speaker 3: phrase is the exception to the first phrase. So that
Speaker 3: means what's happening on this side of but is contradicted
Speaker 3: or contrasted to what's happening on.
Speaker 1: This side of but.
Speaker 3: And we see this in the text that it says
Speaker 3: Peter was kept in prison. And there could have been
Speaker 3: a whole lot of options for the text to say
Speaker 3: after that. It could have said, it could have used
Speaker 3: another conjunction, and it said and.
Speaker 1: The church is depressed.
Speaker 3: It's could have said Peter was kept in prison and
Speaker 3: the church was beginning to plan the funeral, Peter was
Speaker 3: kept in prison, and the church was going under and hiding.
Speaker 3: And sometimes is this not true in our life? That
Speaker 3: the setback comes in our life and our first response
Speaker 3: is not always to go to God in prayer. Often
Speaker 3: it is to go down the rabbit hole of the
Speaker 3: darkest thing that could turn out. I don't know about you,
Speaker 3: but I'm preaching to me today. My mind when I
Speaker 3: get the phone call, when I get the bad news,
Speaker 3: in my mind, I end up going down the dark
Speaker 3: rabbit hole of how everything could go wrong. But the
Speaker 3: church decided to pray. I want to encourage you today
Speaker 3: that when the setback comes, you get to choose what
Speaker 3: is on the other side of the conjunction. That you
Speaker 3: get to decide what is on the other side of
Speaker 3: the butt, that you can go, Yeah, I got the
Speaker 3: phone call and it's not looking good. But I serve
Speaker 3: a God that is greater than any circumstance I'm going
Speaker 3: through that you can get the bad news and go.
Speaker 1: This year may not be going the way I want.
Speaker 3: It to, but I serve the God of the breakthrough.
Speaker 3: You get to determine if you want it to be
Speaker 3: an end or you wanted to.
Speaker 1: Be a butt. The church was prayed.
Speaker 3: They could have gone a whole lot of directions, but
Speaker 3: they said, no, we're gonna We're gonna pray. And the
Speaker 3: Bible says that they were earnestly praying. In other words,
Speaker 3: they went to they went to battle on this thing,
Speaker 3: which tells me that they really believed in the power
Speaker 3: of prayer. They didn't see prayer as the last resort.
Speaker 3: They saw it as the first option that they ran
Speaker 3: to God first. I've been in situations where I've thought
Speaker 3: to myself, WHI I've done everything I know to do.
Speaker 3: Now I'm gonna pray. It's not great for a pastor
Speaker 3: to say, right, but no. They believe there was something
Speaker 3: powerful about prayer. They believe that whenever they prayed, that
Speaker 3: Heaven listened. Evidently, they believe that whenever they prayed that
Speaker 3: God moved on their behalf. That maybe they believe that
Speaker 3: Old Testament verse that says the ear of God is
Speaker 3: not death, that he can't hear your prayers, nor is
Speaker 3: his arm too short that he can't reach down and
Speaker 3: change your situation.
Speaker 1: They believed what all Spurgeon.
Speaker 3: Said, that prayer is what touches the slender nerve of
Speaker 3: omnipotence that begins to move.
Speaker 1: In our life.
Speaker 3: That God actually responds to prayer, That I want to
Speaker 3: shake something up on the inside of you that that
Speaker 3: goes no, no, no no. I may be going through a
Speaker 3: battle right now, but if I'll call out to God,
Speaker 3: God is able to work on my behalf.
Speaker 1: And they earnestly prayed.
Speaker 3: It wasn't It wasn't a nice little prayer. It wasn't acute,
Speaker 3: like well phrased prayer.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm talking.
Speaker 3: About, Like, Lord, we just pray that if you might
Speaker 3: consider please.
Speaker 2: No.
Speaker 1: I have this picture in my mind that it's like
Speaker 1: ugly cry pray. Y'all try it. It's the I'm gonna
Speaker 1: I'm not getting up God until you do.
Speaker 3: Something kind of prayer. There was something that rose on
Speaker 3: the inside of them. I was thinking about this. My
Speaker 3: wife and our kids. We were years ago when we
Speaker 3: called the bigs in the littles there. They're seventeen, fifteen,
Speaker 3: seven and five. Same wife. Just want to claire that
Speaker 3: for everybody. Don't want y'all thinking anything, posting anything.
Speaker 1: Same wife.
Speaker 3: We just took a big break. So our school picture
Speaker 3: this year was senior kindergartener. I will live forever my
Speaker 3: oldest son could bring my grandson to my youngest son's
Speaker 3: high school graduation.
Speaker 1: Let that sink in yell. Some of you are like,
Speaker 1: what were you thinking? I wasn't. I like my wife,
Speaker 1: I wasn't thinking.
Speaker 3: Okay, we were at this water park when the bigs
Speaker 3: were smaller. You called the bigs in the littles whenever
Speaker 3: the big kids were smaller. We were at this water park,
Speaker 3: and which is from the devil in general, going to
Speaker 3: a water park as a family. You don't know what's
Speaker 3: in that water. I mean, I don't care how much
Speaker 3: chlorine you put in it. But we were there. Anybody
Speaker 3: else with me in the House of God, go on,
Speaker 3: I felt the Holy Ghost on some of y'all.
Speaker 1: Are like, yes, I felt that Jesus all right.
Speaker 3: We were at this water park and the kids come over,
Speaker 3: you know, they're just their kids, and they run over
Speaker 3: and they jump on these chairs. And what they didn't
Speaker 3: know is that there was another lady with her kids
Speaker 3: walking towards those chairs. We saw it, and before my
Speaker 3: wife could get out of her mouth, her kids jump up.
Speaker 3: They were already heading towards those chairs. The lady makes
Speaker 3: some smart comment about it. Well, my wife is a
Speaker 3: real Christian. Most days. Before I could get her like,
Speaker 3: come on your talking about for I could be like,
Speaker 3: let's act like we've been here before, something rose up
Speaker 3: out of her comments, came out of her.
Speaker 1: Are y'all following me? They earnestly prayed.
Speaker 3: On the inside of them, came up out of them
Speaker 3: and begin to come out of their mouth. I'm talking
Speaker 3: about a Jacob. I'm gonna wrestle with you until you
Speaker 3: bless me kind of prayer. Did you know that the
Speaker 3: word that is used there earnestly is only used one
Speaker 3: other time, and Luke, the author of Acts, used it
Speaker 3: in the Book of Luke's when it describes Jesus praying
Speaker 3: in the garden against simony. This was that kind of prayer,
Speaker 3: this kind of God. I'm not getting up until you
Speaker 3: touch me.
Speaker 1: God.
Speaker 3: I'm not letting go until there is a breakthrough.
Speaker 1: God. I'm not gonna stop.
Speaker 3: Calling on your name until you move on, my behalf.
Speaker 3: Can I tell you there are some setbacks in our
Speaker 3: life that they don't need some nice little prayer. They
Speaker 3: don't need some nice little patty Cake prayer, some little,
Speaker 3: nice little Paul's prayer.
Speaker 1: They need God. I'm getting on my knees, on my face.
Speaker 3: And until you touch, until the spirit of God shows up,
Speaker 3: until you give me a breakthrough, until I feel a
Speaker 3: release in my spirit.
Speaker 1: God, I'm not letting go. And some of you, instead.
Speaker 3: Of pressing in, you've got stuck because the setback will
Speaker 3: either cause you to lean in or shrink away. And
Speaker 3: for some of us we just accept the lot in life. Well,
Speaker 3: this just must be how life is going to be. Well,
Speaker 3: this just must be how it's going to turn out.
Speaker 3: For me, Well, some of us we believe the life
Speaker 3: of the enemy. This is what I deserve. And can
Speaker 3: I tell you that we serve the God that is
Speaker 3: able to do exceedingly, abundantly and above all that we
Speaker 3: can ask, think or imagine. So here's what that means
Speaker 3: is that if you are if you are only expecting
Speaker 3: what your imagination can create, you are limiting God by
Speaker 3: the ability of your intellect. And my God is not
Speaker 3: limited by my imagination. That's why Paul said more than
Speaker 3: I can ask, think or.
Speaker 1: Imagine.
Speaker 3: So they earnestly prayed. I'm hoping some this sparks the
Speaker 3: spirit of God. Something on the inside of you goes no, no, no,
Speaker 3: I'm gonna less. I'm gonna I'm gonna let that fire
Speaker 3: reignite on the inside of me. God I'm calling, I'm
Speaker 3: I'm gonna lean back in like I've never some of
Speaker 3: you you've just you're like, well, I've just given up
Speaker 3: on the prayer. No, no, no, no, It's time to re
Speaker 3: engage it. It's time to lean back into it and
Speaker 3: go God, I'm not leaving you alone. I'm gonna keep
Speaker 3: knocking and knocking and knocking and knocking and knocking. Well, God,
Speaker 3: what if God does answer after knock ten, the knock eleven,
Speaker 3: knock eleven, I think somebody preests the message one, don't
Speaker 3: stop on six because it may be that next knock.
Speaker 3: It may be that next thing that causes the breakthrough
Speaker 3: in your life. And you know what's powerful about prayer
Speaker 3: is that prayer is get you in agreement with God.
Speaker 1: It gets you in agreement with God. There's real power
Speaker 1: in agreement.
Speaker 3: Agreement means I'm gonna have the same opinion as whoever
Speaker 3: I'm coming into agreement with. And I think one of
Speaker 3: the one of the greatest schemes of the enemy in
Speaker 3: our life is he gets us in agreement with lies.
Speaker 3: He gets because we live out of the agreements that
Speaker 3: we make. And if he can get us agree with
Speaker 3: him about a situation. And I know we're thinking I
Speaker 3: would never agree with the devil. I don't think we
Speaker 3: wake up and we like make this volitional, intentional decision
Speaker 3: that I'm I'm gonna come agreement with what the devil
Speaker 3: is saying about my life.
Speaker 1: But enough lies spoken over our life.
Speaker 3: We begin to adopt that lie and come in and
Speaker 3: we begin to align our decisions and our life with
Speaker 3: that lie. And so a setback comes into our life,
Speaker 3: and we can begin to believe the negative narrative in
Speaker 3: our mind that this will never change. And how do
Speaker 3: you know we come into agreement because we stop fighting
Speaker 3: for the change. I'll never use God can never use
Speaker 3: me that way, God can never love me that whatever
Speaker 3: you want to fill in the blank with. We begin
Speaker 3: to come into agreement with those things, and then we
Speaker 3: begin to live out of that place of agreement instead
Speaker 3: of agreeing with God. And so no longer, no wonder
Speaker 3: we don't see breakthrough in life. No wonder we don't
Speaker 3: see the miracle that we want to see because God
Speaker 3: is still working that way, and God is still doing
Speaker 3: those things in the earth.
Speaker 1: It's because we've come in agreement with the wrong things.
Speaker 1: I would like to break.
Speaker 3: The agreement of the enemy over your life today and
Speaker 3: go The lie of the enemy is not not what
Speaker 3: you should be agreeing with.
Speaker 1: It's the truth of God's word.
Speaker 3: But you may be thinking, pastor, but what I what
Speaker 3: I see and what is tangible and what is front
Speaker 3: of me is not great.
Speaker 1: I get that. I'm not saying I'm.
Speaker 3: Just saying, don't go with what you see, go with
Speaker 3: what God said.
Speaker 1: That you can go with what you see.
Speaker 3: And it's and it's challenging in faith because it's all
Speaker 3: around you, it's right in front of you.
Speaker 1: I walk into that.
Speaker 3: Situation every day, or I wake up every morning with
Speaker 3: that challenge, or I step into that. I feel it,
Speaker 3: I see it. It's all around me.
Speaker 1: I get it. I get it. But there has to
Speaker 1: be a choice.
Speaker 3: In your mind that goes no, no, no, I'm gonna
Speaker 3: come into agreement with what God has said over me.
Speaker 3: I'm gonna I'm gonna break any agreement with lies that
Speaker 3: says this is the end.
Speaker 1: I'm let me give an example.
Speaker 3: You can get the diagnosis and go this is the
Speaker 3: end for me, or you could go, no, I'm gonna
Speaker 3: come in agreement with the word of God that says
Speaker 3: I will live and I will not die.
Speaker 1: Are y'all following me? This is why I think.
Speaker 3: I think this is what Paul was getting at in
Speaker 3: the Phlippians three, whenever he said I'm forgetting what is
Speaker 3: behind me and I'm pressing on. One translation says, I'm
Speaker 3: straining towards that which is ahead of me. In other words,
Speaker 3: I'm breaking away from some things in my past, and
Speaker 3: I'm pressing towards And he tells us towards the upward
Speaker 3: call of God in Christ Jesus.
Speaker 1: So my eyes are fixed on the prize of.
Speaker 3: Jesus, and I'm breaking away from some things in my past.
Speaker 1: Now think about this.
Speaker 3: Paul's in a prison in either Ephesis or Rome when
Speaker 3: he's writing this, and he has some things to forget,
Speaker 3: does he not? I mean, do you imagine how many
Speaker 3: times that he's declaring the word of God or preaching
Speaker 3: the word of God that the enemy's like, yeah, but
Speaker 3: you killed these people. Yeah, but you tried to destroy
Speaker 3: the church in your past life. And Paul goes, no,
Speaker 3: I'm forgetting what is behind me. I am breaking away
Speaker 3: from this narrative in my life. And this may not
Speaker 3: seem very powerful to you, but I want you to
Speaker 3: understand this idea of forgetting. So the biblical idea of forgetting.
Speaker 3: To understand that, you have to understand the biblical idea
Speaker 3: of remembering. Are you go with me? We're not playing
Speaker 3: word gymnastics. I'm going somewhere. Okay, you have to understand
Speaker 3: the Biblical idea of remembered and remembering in the Bible sense,
Speaker 3: isn't being able to recall facts and figures and being
Speaker 3: able to retell a story. That's not remembering, that's been
Speaker 3: able to recall data. If you're tracking with me, say, man, okay,
Speaker 3: that's just being able to recall. The Biblical sense of
Speaker 3: of remembering is this is I dig up something from
Speaker 3: my history, especially where I see the faithfulness of God,
Speaker 3: and I bring it into my present in.
Speaker 1: Such a way.
Speaker 3: One scholar said that it has potency in my current reality,
Speaker 3: or it begins to change my current reality. In other words,
Speaker 3: this would be the example. In the Old Testament, they
Speaker 3: would build ebenezers, they would build stones of remembrance.
Speaker 1: Why because they were an oral tradition.
Speaker 3: They passed down stories of God orally to their generation
Speaker 3: after generation, so they could come back to that stone
Speaker 3: of remembrance and go, oh, let me tell you what
Speaker 3: God did for our family in this moment. And this
Speaker 3: would be told in a moment where they needed faith
Speaker 3: to be built. Are you tracking with me? This is
Speaker 3: how it would work for us? Is that we come
Speaker 3: to some crossroads in our life, or to some setback,
Speaker 3: or to some painful moment in our life, it would
Speaker 3: be us going whoa time out before I spiral down
Speaker 3: the path of anxiety and spiral down the path of depression,
Speaker 3: and spiral down the path of everything is going in
Speaker 3: the wrong direction. It's not gonna work out for me.
Speaker 3: This isn't gonna turn out great. Before that, I'm going
Speaker 3: to time out and go wait, I've been here before.
Speaker 3: The situation looks different, the names are different, and what
Speaker 3: I'm dealing with is different, but I've been in a
Speaker 3: similar place before. And when I was there before, I
Speaker 3: remember that God showed up for me in the middle
Speaker 3: of this storm. That God came through from me in
Speaker 3: the middle of this storm. And I am still standing today.
Speaker 3: And the same God that did it yesterday is the
Speaker 3: same God that'll do it today and the same God
Speaker 3: that'll do it in all of my tomorrows now Here
Speaker 3: is remembering that when that happens, instead of anxiousness, peace
Speaker 3: that passes understanding feels your heart and mind. That is
Speaker 3: it having potency in your current reality. We're believers. We're
Speaker 3: supposed to be different. There's supposed to be a contrast
Speaker 3: to our life that when the world goes how can
Speaker 3: you be walking through hell but you have peace in
Speaker 3: the middle of it. How can you be dealing with
Speaker 3: that tragedy but there is a joy. I'm not saying
Speaker 3: that it's not pain for you. I'm not saying we are.
Speaker 3: We're just like avoiding reality. I say, we're looking to
Speaker 3: a different reality. We're looking to a Kingdom reality. We're
Speaker 3: looking to a word of God reality. And so I
Speaker 3: am walking. I may be walking through chaos, but chaos
Speaker 3: is not in me, although it is all around me,
Speaker 3: because I am remembering the faithfulness of God.
Speaker 1: All right. Put it in opposite, Paul says, I'm forgetting
Speaker 1: what is behind me.
Speaker 3: So any sin of my past, mistakes, of my past
Speaker 3: issues from my past, things that the enemy is wanting
Speaker 3: to shame me of, Paul is going in the same
Speaker 3: way that I remember to have potency in my current reality.
Speaker 1: I forget what.
Speaker 3: Is behind me, and so I'm no longer held or
Speaker 3: bound by the issues of my past, or bound by
Speaker 3: the sin of my past, or bound by the things
Speaker 3: that people have spoken over me. I'm no longer bound
Speaker 3: by when they walked out and said you're not worth
Speaker 3: loving and no one will ever want to be with you.
Speaker 3: I'm not bound by when they spoke death over my life.
Speaker 1: I'm forgetting.
Speaker 3: I am breaking agreement with what is behind me, and
Speaker 3: I'm pressing in to everything that is ahead of me.
Speaker 3: Come on, put your hands together in the House of God.
Speaker 3: There's power in agreement. There's power in agreement. Be careful
Speaker 3: who you agree with. Be careful what word you come
Speaker 3: in agreement with. Just because they said it doesn't mean
Speaker 3: you have to agree with it. Just because they spoke it,
Speaker 3: don't mean you got to listen.
Speaker 1: Hello.
Speaker 3: Just because they posted it don't mean you need to follow.
Speaker 3: Some of y'all need some spiritual amnesia. I need some
Speaker 3: men in black. Google it if you don't know the
Speaker 3: movie Forgetting what is behind I'm forgetting what. I'm coming
Speaker 3: out of agreement, and I'm coming into agreement with the
Speaker 3: word Prayer brings me in. Prayer is aligning my heart.
Speaker 3: And it may not be the first time you pray.
Speaker 3: It may be the second time you pray. But as
Speaker 3: you seek the Lord in prayer, what happens you come
Speaker 3: more and more into agreement. Why do you think we
Speaker 3: want you in e groups? In church and on a
Speaker 3: volunteer team and get plugged into the community of God.
Speaker 1: Here. Why do we want that?
Speaker 3: Because sometimes you need some people around you that go, no, no, no,
Speaker 3: what that's not true. No no, no, no no, You're not
Speaker 3: gonna this is not the end for you. No no, no, no.
Speaker 3: You need some people that when you're like I don't
Speaker 3: even feel like getting out of bed right now, they're like,
Speaker 3: I will come drag you from your house and I
Speaker 3: will bring you to campus. I will come by you,
Speaker 3: I will grab your hand. When you can't pray, I'll
Speaker 3: pray for you. Because you need some people. Why because
Speaker 3: the Bible says in Matthew eighteen, when two or three
Speaker 3: are gathering, they touch and agree. Why because there's not
Speaker 3: only power and agreement with God. There's power when I
Speaker 3: come in agreement with people around me. There's power in
Speaker 3: your agreement. Now here's where we suck the shout out
Speaker 3: of the room, because there would be no reason to
Speaker 3: pray if Paul hadn't have been in prison. It was
Speaker 3: actually the pain of prison that purposed the church to pray.
Speaker 3: So if everything had have been going Rosie in the
Speaker 3: New Testament Church, I propose the church wouldn't have learned
Speaker 3: to pray the way they prayed. Now, I'm not saying
Speaker 3: that God put Peter in because I don't believe it's
Speaker 3: in the character of God. But I do believe that
Speaker 3: God has a way of working all things together for
Speaker 3: the good of those who love Him and are called
Speaker 3: according to His purpose. It was the pain that elevated
Speaker 3: their prayer to a new level. It was the pain
Speaker 3: of prison that gave them a muscle that they did
Speaker 3: not have before in faith. And some of you, you're
Speaker 3: looking at pain right now in your life, going God,
Speaker 3: why are you doing this to me? And I would
Speaker 3: want to reframe the question what is God wanting to
Speaker 3: do for you? That sometimes we put the wrong frame
Speaker 3: around it, and when we frame it wrong, we see
Speaker 3: it wrong. Recently, my wife and I went on we
Speaker 3: celebrated twenty years married, and we went on, Yeah, thank you,
Speaker 3: you should have pulled for her.
Speaker 1: She's stuck with me.
Speaker 3: We went we went on an anniversary trip and we
Speaker 3: were going to the We were visiting these museums and
Speaker 3: we had this guide and uh, the God was taking
Speaker 3: us through and I'm guys, I'm I would like to
Speaker 3: be more cultured and I'm pretty simple.
Speaker 1: Give me some barbecue in college football and let's call
Speaker 1: it a day. Like, I'm good to go.
Speaker 3: But we went into all these art galleries and I
Speaker 3: mean it was it was pretty amazing. But the way
Speaker 3: the the guide was framing it for me like actually
Speaker 3: made me interested in what I was seeing. And so
Speaker 3: she's like, these are one of a kind. You'll never
Speaker 3: see it was Michaelangelo. We're going to see some da Vinci.
Speaker 3: I was like, all right, I've heard those names. And
Speaker 3: so we walk in there and I'm walking slowly. I'm like, yeah,
Speaker 3: look at the use of color. I have no idea.
Speaker 3: I don't know what I'm saying. I mean, who says that.
Speaker 3: I'm like, yeah, look at look at that's that's from
Speaker 3: Renaissance period right there.
Speaker 1: It's amazing.
Speaker 3: Take the guide away, Take the framing away. I had
Speaker 3: to walk through there and been like I've seen that
Speaker 3: at Target. Come on, somebody, anybody else with me. I'd
Speaker 3: have been like, I've seen that before. It was a
Speaker 3: hobby lobby. I don't know who that guy is. Well,
Speaker 3: what happened? She set it up with a different frame
Speaker 3: for me. Are you tracking with me? Can I set
Speaker 3: up the pain of prison in a different frame for you,
Speaker 3: that just maybe what you're seeing as God, why are
Speaker 3: you doing this to me? And that's the language you said,
Speaker 3: why is this happening to me? Why is this thing
Speaker 3: coming to me now? No, maybe God is doing something
Speaker 3: for you.
Speaker 1: Maybe there's a.
Speaker 3: Muscle of faith that God is wanting to build and
Speaker 3: he's capitalizing on what seems like a painful situation in
Speaker 3: your life to grow something deeper on the inside of
Speaker 3: you so that you can handle a more weight. Could
Speaker 3: it be that God sees so much potential in your
Speaker 3: life and see so much for you down the future.
Speaker 3: Because our God is outside of time, you're tracking with me.
Speaker 3: He doesn't have it in a beginning, and he doesn't
Speaker 3: have an end, so he doesn't live within time. He
Speaker 3: lives outside of time, and so he is standing outside
Speaker 3: of time watching the day you were born and the
Speaker 3: day you die at the same time, and.
Speaker 1: He's outside it.
Speaker 3: So could it be that he knows right now, in
Speaker 3: this momentary moment where you are dealing with this pain,
Speaker 3: he's going, Yeah, but six months from now, I'm about
Speaker 3: to do something in their life that will blow their mind.
Speaker 3: But before they get to there, I need to grow
Speaker 3: something in here. I need to grow some care. Could
Speaker 3: I propose that that character grows really good in pain.
Speaker 3: Could I say that faith gets a muscle you never
Speaker 3: had when you're walking through something challenging. Could I say
Speaker 3: that there's something developed on the inside of you that
Speaker 3: just maybe without it wouldn't be developed, and then you
Speaker 3: wouldn't be prepared for the blessing God wants to put
Speaker 3: into your life. It was the pain of prison that
Speaker 3: brought the church to pray. Could we frame it different?
Speaker 3: Could you see it different? Oh, God, you're not doing
Speaker 3: this to me. There's something you're doing for me in
Speaker 3: this because God is moving you from victory to victory.
Speaker 3: The only problem is we don't know how long two
Speaker 3: is victory two. We want it to be victory to victory.
Speaker 3: In my experience, sometimes it's victory to.
Speaker 1: Victory. Come on, somebody. The text goes on to say this.
Speaker 3: Says, the night before Herod was to bring him to trial,
Speaker 3: Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, which is fascinating to me,
Speaker 3: bound with two chains and centuries stood guard at the
Speaker 3: entrance there there were there were actually sixteen guards over him.
Speaker 3: They must have been really scared of Peter, and it said.
Speaker 3: Suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared, and a light
Speaker 3: shone in the cell, and he struck Peter on the
Speaker 3: side and woke him up. Quick, get up, he said,
Speaker 3: and the chains fell off Peter's wrists. And then the
Speaker 3: angel said to him, put on your clothes and sandals,
Speaker 3: and Peter did so, wrap your cloak around you and
Speaker 3: follow me. And the angel told him, and Peter followed
Speaker 3: him out of the prison. But he had no idea
Speaker 3: that what the angel was doing was really happening. He
Speaker 3: thought he was seeing a vision. Peter's like, in that
Speaker 3: moment between awaken a sleep, you know what I'm talking about.
Speaker 3: It's that it's that moment like when your preschooler walks
Speaker 3: in and stands at the side of your bed quietly.
Speaker 3: That's so true. It I'm preaching right now, and you're like,
Speaker 3: I rebuke that devil. Then they're like, Dad, I'm like, oh,
Speaker 3: I'm sorry.
Speaker 1: Theoretically heard that happens.
Speaker 3: They passed the first and second guards and came to
Speaker 3: the iron gate leading to the city and opened for
Speaker 3: them by itself, and they went through it, and when
Speaker 3: they had walked the length of one street, suddenly the
Speaker 3: angel left him. He's like, you got to go from here, Peter.
Speaker 3: This is so interesting to me that the two responses
Speaker 3: to setbacks or to pressure. Think about this. The church
Speaker 3: is under pressure, but Peter is too. He's actually the
Speaker 3: one in chains. The churches is in duress and they
Speaker 3: go to praying. Peter's intress and he goes to sleeping.
Speaker 3: I think they're both great responses to a setback. Yes,
Speaker 3: there is time to lean in and pray, but there's
Speaker 3: also time to rest in the sovereignty of God. Have
Speaker 3: you ever felt that way, that you're stuck between two things?
Speaker 3: Life is never as simple as we make it. It's
Speaker 3: never one issue I'm dealing with. It's it's I'm chained
Speaker 3: between betrayal and unforgiveness. I'm changing, I'm chained between lack
Speaker 3: of direction, and I got friendships that are falling apart.
Speaker 3: It's rarely that we're dealing with one thing and Peter
Speaker 3: is stuck and he's he's chained in between two different
Speaker 3: things and in the middle that the Bible says that
Speaker 3: he's sleeping.
Speaker 1: I mean, think about this, like, like put yourself in
Speaker 1: that situation. I don't think I would be sleeping and
Speaker 1: there was no Xanax.
Speaker 3: There there's no Nike will, there's no come on advill PM.
Speaker 3: Thank you Jesus, the Christian one. I don't take drugs.
Speaker 3: I just go to sleep with ADBULPM. There's none of that.
Speaker 3: But Peter is asleep in the middle of it. I
Speaker 3: started asking myself how in the world was Peter sleeping
Speaker 3: in between two guards chained? Knowing what happened to James,
Speaker 3: he had to know the next morning. This isn't a
Speaker 3: real trial. I'm probably going to be murdered, but he's sleeping.
Speaker 3: Here's what I feel like, the Spirit of God said
Speaker 3: to me, is that why would I be awake at
Speaker 3: night worrying about tomorrow when God was already there. Why
Speaker 3: would I be worrying right now and losing sleep when
Speaker 3: God is in all of my tomorrows? And if God
Speaker 3: is already in my tomorrow, then he's already taking care
Speaker 3: of what I can I just encourage somebody today. Some
Speaker 3: of you got a conversation tomorrow, you gotta have. Some
Speaker 3: of you don't know what you're walking into tomorrow. Can
Speaker 3: I tell you the God that is all places at
Speaker 3: all times, is already in all of your tomorrows? That
Speaker 3: He's already been there, he's already seen the conversation, He's
Speaker 3: already dealt with the situation. And if he can be
Speaker 3: trusted in your today, he can be trusted in all
Speaker 3: of your tomorrows. So why stress? Why worry? Why be
Speaker 3: overwhelmed in the middle of it? Peter was sleeping in
Speaker 3: between two soldiers, because I think Peter was like, God's
Speaker 3: already there, God's already got me. Can I tell you
Speaker 3: God's already got you that? If he knows the hairs
Speaker 3: on your head? Don't you think he's got those things
Speaker 3: that are worrying you. Don't you think he's in the
Speaker 3: middle of the setback that you're facing right now? If
Speaker 3: he can be trusted with your salvation, can he be
Speaker 3: trusted with your finances? If he can be trusted with
Speaker 3: your eternity, can't he be trusted with your child? If
Speaker 3: he can be trusted with the forgiveness of your sin?
Speaker 3: Can't he be trusted? But that roommate situation that is
Speaker 3: wearing you out, worrying you, He's already in your tomorrow.
Speaker 3: Why should I be up worrying about it? Why it's
Speaker 3: the band to come out and join me? So he
Speaker 3: says that he the angel kicks him or strikes him.
Speaker 3: I don't know what he did. I just picture he's like,
Speaker 3: get up, Peter, and then he says, he walks past
Speaker 3: all the guards and he gets out in the street,
Speaker 3: and then he is able to take off by himself.
Speaker 3: I want, I want to point this thought out to
Speaker 3: you that Peter didn't escape, Peter was delivered. There's a
Speaker 3: big difference in the two that if Peter had escaped,
Speaker 3: that would have been Peter's doing. And sometimes when we
Speaker 3: face a setback, that is our approach. I need to
Speaker 3: pay my way out of this. I need to network
Speaker 3: my way out of this. Who can I talk to?
Speaker 3: Who can I see? I mean some of us would
Speaker 3: have been like Peter was kept in prison, and the
Speaker 3: church was lobbying the local political leaders, and the church
Speaker 3: was out talking to everybody, and the church was posting
Speaker 3: about it, and the church was trying and raise awaren
Speaker 3: for I'm not against.
Speaker 1: Any of that.
Speaker 3: I'm just saying their approach was to go to God,
Speaker 3: to seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness,
Speaker 3: and then all these other things that you're worrying about
Speaker 3: will be added unto you as well. But if Peter
Speaker 3: had escaped, then Peter could have end back in the
Speaker 3: situation he was in. But when God delivers you, then
Speaker 3: God will cause you to walk right past the people
Speaker 3: that and change you and prisons you up, and you
Speaker 3: will be Let me say it this way, whom the
Speaker 3: sun sets free is free. Indeed, are you tracking with me?
Speaker 3: I just want you to when you face a setback,
Speaker 3: don't seek to escape it.
Speaker 1: Seek God deliver me out of this. God.
Speaker 3: I want you to do this because if you get
Speaker 3: the chains off of I don't have to pick the
Speaker 3: lock and try.
Speaker 1: To figure it out myself.
Speaker 3: God, if you will get the chains off of me,
Speaker 3: you will open the door.
Speaker 1: If you open the.
Speaker 3: Door, I can walk right past the critic, I can
Speaker 3: walk right past the person that was trying to set
Speaker 3: me back.
Speaker 1: I can walk right.
Speaker 3: Past them all because the Angel of the Lord is
Speaker 3: with me, and I will the scap be delivered, but
Speaker 3: not escape from it. I'm wanting God to move on
Speaker 3: my behalf. And so the end of the story is this.
Speaker 3: He goes back and he talks. He goes and knocks
Speaker 3: on the door where they're all gathering, and they're all praying,
Speaker 3: and the servant girl comes to the door. She didn't
Speaker 3: even open it. She runs back and she's like, I
Speaker 3: heard Peter's voice out there. And they come back and
Speaker 3: they're like, it couldn't be. I just love the humanity
Speaker 3: God gives us. In the Bible, they're praying, these great
Speaker 3: people of faith, earnestly praying, Peter's at the door. There's
Speaker 3: no way God's answered our prayer.
Speaker 1: That's what they're saying. Being couraged today.
Speaker 3: If you feel like you got a mustard seed of faith,
Speaker 3: that's enough. He says, I that can't be him. And
Speaker 3: then they said this, which is telling. They said it
Speaker 3: must be his ghost. Now in that time, they believe
Speaker 3: that that your spirit remained for four days after your death.
Speaker 3: This is why Jesus waited to go to lazarus tomb
Speaker 3: to make sure they knew he was dead dead. They
Speaker 3: believed that. So what they were saying is they must
Speaker 3: have already killed him, and now his spirit has come.
Speaker 3: And then they knock on the door. He knocks again.
Speaker 3: They finally open it, and then they rejoice that God
Speaker 3: has answered their prayer. Here's what I want to leave
Speaker 3: you with, the same God, the same God that got
Speaker 3: Peter out of prison, is the same God that is
Speaker 3: working in your life today. The Church didn't have some
Speaker 3: specific system of prayer that got God to listen to
Speaker 3: them and move on their behalf.
Speaker 1: They didn't have the.
Speaker 3: Right words that they together in the right sentence. They
Speaker 3: didn't have some golden ticket. They just had an earnest
Speaker 3: prayer before God. And God heard their prayers. And I
Speaker 3: want you to know today that if you will earnestly
Speaker 3: pray before God, God hears your prayers, and God will
Speaker 3: move on your behalf because He's a God that loves
Speaker 3: you and.
Speaker 1: Is for you. And the same God I want you
Speaker 1: to hear this, the.
Speaker 3: Same God that part of the red Sea is the
Speaker 3: same God that is working in your life today. That
Speaker 3: our God's arm is not too short.
Speaker 1: To reach into your situation.
Speaker 3: The same God that was cloud by day and fire
Speaker 3: by night is the same God that is working in
Speaker 3: your situation today.
Speaker 1: And the same God.
Speaker 3: That took down Goliath with a little rock is the
Speaker 3: same God that is working today.
Speaker 1: And the same God that said.
Speaker 3: Lazarus get up out of that tomb is the same God.
Speaker 1: That is working today.
Speaker 3: And the same God that caused Jesus to rise up
Speaker 3: from the grave is the same God that is working today.
Speaker 3: And so while you're praying, why don't you get praised.
Speaker 3: That's the same God that did.
Speaker 1: It for them, will do it for you too.
Speaker 3: You can pray and you can praise, but that's the
Speaker 3: same God.
Speaker 1: It's the same God.
Speaker 3: And I don't know what you're facing today, and I
Speaker 3: don't know what you're dealing with. I don't know what
Speaker 3: has you overwhelmed.
Speaker 1: But I do know this that Peter was kept in.
Speaker 3: Prison, but the church prayed, and when the church prayed,
Speaker 3: all of heaven moved. And that same God will do
Speaker 3: it for you today. Come on, do you believe the
Speaker 3: word of God today? Every head bout, every eye closed,
Speaker 3: at all of our campuses. You know, for some of you,
Speaker 3: the greatest prayer you could ever pray is the prayer
Speaker 3: that says, God, I.
Speaker 1: Surrender my life to you. It's the greatest prayer.
Speaker 3: It's the prayer that says, I'm far from you, my
Speaker 3: sin is separated me from you. But I want relationship
Speaker 3: with you. I want to know you personally, not know
Speaker 3: about you, not check a box. I want to know
Speaker 3: you personally. The Bible says, if we confess with our
Speaker 3: mouth at Jesus is Lord. That means I'm done calling
Speaker 3: the shots God. I'm surrendering to you. And we believe
Speaker 3: in our heart that God raised Jesus from the dead.
Speaker 3: That's the resurrection. Then we will be saved. We can
Speaker 3: have a brand new beginning today. And some of you
Speaker 3: today you need to come back to God or maybe
Speaker 3: today you need to begin a brand new relationship with Him.
Speaker 3: We're going to pray in just a moment together as
Speaker 3: a church family for those who are taking this step today,
Speaker 3: and no one prays alone. If you say that's me.
Speaker 3: I need a fresh start today, I need a new beginning.
Speaker 3: The Bible says if anybody's in Christ, they're a new creation.
Speaker 3: God can make you new today. They can be a
Speaker 3: day of brand new beginnings. So let's pray this outline.
Speaker 3: I'll across all of our locations. Are you found, just say, Jesus,
Speaker 3: I need you. I ask you to forgive me of
Speaker 3: all my sin. I believe you died for me. I
Speaker 3: believe God raised you from the dead. Today I'll make
Speaker 3: you my Lord and savior. Thank you for a brand
Speaker 3: new beginning in Jesus' name.
Speaker 1: Amen.
Speaker 3: Amen, Come on, if you made that decision today, will
Speaker 3: you just slip your hand up, come on every campus.
Speaker 3: You're coming back to God today.
Speaker 1: 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 Elevationchurch dot org slash podcast for more
Speaker 2: information and if you enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe.
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Speaker 2: Elevation Church. Thanks again for listening. God bless you