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.
Speaker 2: Hope it builds your faith. Hope it gives your perspective
Speaker 2: to see Gods moving in your life.
Speaker 1: Enjoy the message.
Speaker 3: I am so happy to be worshiping with you on
Speaker 3: this Palm Sunday. We are gathered together to celebrate and
Speaker 3: worship our Savior. And I want to tell you, whether
Speaker 3: you are in a seat at one of our locations
Speaker 3: or you're watching online, guess what the hard part is over.
Speaker 3: You're here and the easy part is ahead because God
Speaker 3: is about to speak to you today. Are you ready
Speaker 3: for another one? All right? Hug a few people on
Speaker 3: your way to your seat. I am so excited that
Speaker 3: I get to be the one to wrap up this series.
Speaker 3: It has been a great one. We have spent the
Speaker 3: last seven weeks walking through my husband's new book, Do
Speaker 3: the New You, and I hope that this series has been.
Speaker 1: Special to you. I know that many of you are
Speaker 1: still reading through.
Speaker 3: The book and discussing it each week with your e group.
Speaker 3: Keep going, keep showing up, keep sharing. I wish that
Speaker 3: I could ask each one of you which mindset has
Speaker 3: been your favorite, which chapter of the book has.
Speaker 1: Spoken to you the deepest. I know I have my
Speaker 1: favorite mindset, and I have my favorite chapter, and I'm
Speaker 1: sure you have yours too.
Speaker 3: But to be able to hold this book in my hands,
Speaker 3: and then to get to wrap up this series you
Speaker 3: may not understand, but it is an immeasurably more answer.
Speaker 1: To my personal prayers. I've shared with some of you
Speaker 1: that at the close.
Speaker 3: Of twenty nineteen, Steven and I had a bit of
Speaker 3: a I don't know, an argument, you could call it
Speaker 3: a conversation, and I told him that I believed that
Speaker 3: he had given up on writing books, and that I
Speaker 3: thought that there was more in him. And I told
Speaker 3: him that ministering to people with his words, whether it's
Speaker 3: through his songs or his sermons and his books, I
Speaker 3: feel like that's what God put him on earth to do.
Speaker 3: And the fact that I felt like he was leaving
Speaker 3: out how God wanted to give people encouragement through him
Speaker 3: in a written form, I.
Speaker 1: Just thought was missing.
Speaker 3: And so he said that he reminded me he had
Speaker 3: already written a book a year before, and it was
Speaker 3: basically rejected, and he said, I'm okay with it, and
Speaker 3: I've just decided that I'm not a writer. And so
Speaker 3: there were like a few rounds of wifely encouragement, and
Speaker 3: I realized that it wasn't being encouraging anymore and that
Speaker 3: I needed to let it go and leave it with God.
Speaker 4: And I testify before you today, and I say, when
Speaker 4: you leave something with God, you better get ready for
Speaker 4: another answered prayer.
Speaker 3: And here we are, just a little over a year later,
Speaker 3: in this book is in my hands.
Speaker 1: And how many of you.
Speaker 3: Would testify that God has spoken to you through the
Speaker 3: message of this book.
Speaker 1: It's amazing.
Speaker 3: And so I'm so honored and excited that I get to.
Speaker 1: Share with you guys today. Thank you Lord. I'm so excited.
Speaker 1: All right.
Speaker 3: So we got to do a little recap of the
Speaker 3: mindsets here because it's our last chance, and I want
Speaker 3: to go over each one of them one more time
Speaker 3: before we get to the last one. So let's just
Speaker 3: say I'm out loud together you can repeat after me.
Speaker 3: We'll start with the first one, Mindset one. I'm not
Speaker 3: stuck unless I stop. Mindset to Christ.
Speaker 1: Is in me. I am enough.
Speaker 3: Number three with God there's always a way, and by
Speaker 3: faith I will find it. Number four, God is not
Speaker 3: against me. He's in it with me. He's working through me,
Speaker 3: he's fighting for me. Number five is my favorite one.
Speaker 1: My joy is my job.
Speaker 3: And finally today we get to talk about the last one.
Speaker 3: And this is the title of my sermon because it
Speaker 3: doesn't get any better than the way this mindset is written.
Speaker 1: So repeat after me. God has given me everything I
Speaker 1: need for the season.
Speaker 3: I'm in Ah right, let's go okay, So turn with
Speaker 3: me in your Bible to Exodus chapter twelve, and we're
Speaker 3: going to start reading in verse twenty nine.
Speaker 1: Are you ready all right?
Speaker 3: At midnight, the Lord struck down all the firstborn in Egypt,
Speaker 3: from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on the throne,
Speaker 3: to the firstborn prisoner who was in the dungeon, and
Speaker 3: the firstborn of.
Speaker 1: All the livestock as well.
Speaker 3: Pharaoh and all his officials and all the Egyptians got
Speaker 3: up during the night, and there was a loud wailing
Speaker 3: in Egypt, for there.
Speaker 1: Was not a house without someone dead.
Speaker 3: And during the night Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron and said, up,
Speaker 3: leave my people. You and the Israelites go worship the
Speaker 3: Lord as you have requested, Take your flocks and your
Speaker 3: herds as you have said, and go and also bless me.
Speaker 1: Pharaoh adds that tag.
Speaker 3: The Egyptians urged the people to hurry and leave the country,
Speaker 3: for otherwise.
Speaker 1: They said, we will all die.
Speaker 3: So the people took their dough before the yeast was added,
Speaker 3: and carried it on their shoulders in kneading trosts, wrapped
Speaker 3: in clothing. The Israelites did as Moses instructed and asked
Speaker 3: the Egyptians for articles of silver.
Speaker 1: And gold and clothing.
Speaker 3: The Lord made the Egyptians favorably disposed toward the people,
Speaker 3: and they gave them what they asked for. So they
Speaker 3: plundered the Egyptians. Let's pray, Father, we thank you that
Speaker 3: you are here with us. You dwell amongst your people.
Speaker 3: You're with the one that's watching in a hospital room,
Speaker 3: in a living room, and you're with those of us
Speaker 3: that are gathered here today at all of our locations,
Speaker 3: saying God, we welcome you into this place. We open
Speaker 3: up our hearts to hear from you. We are eager
Speaker 3: to hear what you have to say to us today.
Speaker 3: Encourage us, Lord, it's in Jesus' name, we pray amen. Okay,
Speaker 3: So fun fact about the Furdig family. We are not
Speaker 3: light packers. When we travel. We just like to have
Speaker 3: our stuff with us. So everybody kind of has their thing.
Speaker 3: Stephen cannot leave home without at least one bluetooth speaker,
Speaker 3: sometimes more than one.
Speaker 1: Abby likes to travel with her full.
Speaker 3: Size bottles of cosmetics, and she's thirteen, so you can
Speaker 3: imagine how.
Speaker 1: Much that is.
Speaker 3: I have this thing with my feet, so I have
Speaker 3: to take slippers everywhere I go. And the boys they
Speaker 3: don't necessarily they're not necessarily like heavy packers, but they
Speaker 3: don't fold their clothes and so they need bigger backs.
Speaker 3: And when we go on vacation, we like to go
Speaker 3: somewhere that we can drive so that we can take
Speaker 3: everything we want. We take our own pillows, we take
Speaker 3: our own bikes, we take our own beach chairs, we
Speaker 3: take our own snacks.
Speaker 1: And when I start to when I pack, I start
Speaker 1: to rest because I just think of all of the
Speaker 1: things that I might need, Like what if I want
Speaker 1: to wear my hair straight, Well, I gotta pack my
Speaker 1: flat iron. What if there's a pool. Okay, so we're
Speaker 1: gonna need bathing suits, flip flops, sunscreen.
Speaker 3: What if we run out of sunscreen, so let me
Speaker 3: pack some extra sunscreen.
Speaker 1: What if it gets cold, we need jackets. What if
Speaker 1: it rains, we need rain jackets. What if we can't
Speaker 1: go outside? Puzzles? What if I.
Speaker 3: Decide on vacation, then I want to work out? Okay,
Speaker 3: I need some running shoes. What if someone gets sick,
Speaker 3: we need a first a kit. And let me just
Speaker 3: tell you, my first eight kit is not just band
Speaker 3: aids and cold medicine. I have some serious stuff in there,
Speaker 3: like things that start with a Z, like zofran and
Speaker 3: a Z pack. Just in case, I brought one of
Speaker 3: my favorite suitcases to show you, just so you can
Speaker 3: like get a visual.
Speaker 1: Okay, here it comes, Here comes.
Speaker 3: This guy has traveled many, many miles with us. It's
Speaker 3: large and in charge and of noxious, and you can
Speaker 3: fit so much stuff in this bag. And I realized
Speaker 3: that in this you know, confession of mine, that all
Speaker 3: the light packers in the room, like all the carry
Speaker 3: on only families are judging us.
Speaker 1: But here's the thing.
Speaker 3: If you need something, you're gonna ask me. I'm the
Speaker 3: one that brought.
Speaker 1: The extra sunscreen.
Speaker 3: So this summer, Graham was packing for wrestling camp. And
Speaker 3: Graham is probably the lightest packer of the Verdicts. He
Speaker 3: likes to shove everything he can into like one backpack.
Speaker 1: And so this particular.
Speaker 3: Camp wasn't super organized and I couldn't find a packing
Speaker 3: list anywhere on their website.
Speaker 1: So I was doing my typical rundown for Graham because
Speaker 1: he's like, yeah, I'm packed.
Speaker 3: So I'm like, Okay, do you have socks, do you
Speaker 3: have underwear, do you have toothbrush? You have a charger,
Speaker 3: do you have a sleeping bag, you have a pillow?
Speaker 1: Do you have a towel? And Graham said, Mom, I
Speaker 1: don't need a towel. I said, Graham, you know, I
Speaker 1: don't know.
Speaker 3: I don't know what the accommodations are going to be,
Speaker 3: and I think you should.
Speaker 1: Take a towel just to be safe.
Speaker 3: I think you're staying in the empty college dorms. And
Speaker 3: he was like fine, So he takes a towel and
Speaker 3: he like shoves it into his bag. So a couple
Speaker 3: of days later, I'm the mom that goes and does
Speaker 3: the pickup and Graham and two other high school wrestlers
Speaker 3: got into my car. You can imagine what my car
Speaker 3: smelled bike after wrestling camp and Graham goes, Mom, I
Speaker 3: was the only one who brought a towel.
Speaker 1: I said, what do you mean? Were you going one?
Speaker 1: He said, Mom? We all three shared my one towel,
Speaker 1: and Mom, we showered like three times a day after
Speaker 1: every session.
Speaker 3: And Mom, the towel got so wet, yet it never dried,
Speaker 3: I swear.
Speaker 1: And then one of the boys was in the car,
Speaker 1: he shimes in.
Speaker 3: He goes, missus verdict, it was the grossest thing I've
Speaker 3: ever experienced. Now listen, when a fifteen year old boy
Speaker 3: tells you is the grossest thing ever, we really need
Speaker 3: to stop and understand how disgusting this towel got.
Speaker 1: And Graham said, Mom, I hope is okay. I left
Speaker 1: the towel. So look today, I have good news for
Speaker 1: you. You don't have to pack light. And I want to
Speaker 1: look at this passage and I.
Speaker 3: Want to show you that even though you don't necessarily
Speaker 3: get to plan your destinations in.
Speaker 1: Life, you do get to decide what you pack. And
Speaker 1: when you're faced with.
Speaker 3: A situation that you did not originally plan for, if
Speaker 3: you were a child of God, you never have to
Speaker 3: go into it unprepared. No matter how unprepared you may feel,
Speaker 3: if you dig a little deeper, you will find that
Speaker 3: God has been preparing you for this season all ah.
Speaker 3: You see, God is not Trip Advisor for your life.
Speaker 3: You don't get to go on Heaven's website and explore
Speaker 3: all the exotic destinations and choose where you want to
Speaker 3: go based on reviews about the accommodations and the restaurants
Speaker 3: for when you get there. God is the travel agent,
Speaker 3: and God is the pilot, and God is the tour guide.
Speaker 1: And when you sign up for this journey called life
Speaker 1: with Jesus, you get.
Speaker 3: To pack your bag and lead where he goes, follow
Speaker 3: where he leads. And the backstory of the passage of
Speaker 3: Scripture that I read.
Speaker 1: For you today is that the Israelites have.
Speaker 3: Been captive in Egypt for four hundred and thirty years
Speaker 3: and God sent them a deliverer named Moses, and Moses
Speaker 3: goes to Pharaoh and he says.
Speaker 1: Let my people go.
Speaker 3: And there's a series of plagues on Egypt. Get how
Speaker 3: many there were? There were a lot. There were flies
Speaker 3: and frogs, and the water turned into blood. And the
Speaker 3: final one that broke the Egyptians was the plague on
Speaker 3: the firstborn, and Moses goes to Pharaoh and he warns him,
Speaker 3: and he says, if you don't let my people go,
Speaker 3: God is going to send an angel of death to
Speaker 3: kill all of the firstborns. And of course Pharaoh is stubborn,
Speaker 3: and he doesn't listen, and so God does what he says,
Speaker 3: and he sends the angel of death. But Israel, God's children,
Speaker 3: they're all protected by the blood of the lamb that
Speaker 3: they put over their doors, and the angel passes over them.
Speaker 1: But the nation of Egypt is wrecked.
Speaker 3: Every firstborn is killed, even every firstborn animal. And the
Speaker 3: Bible said that not one household went unaffected.
Speaker 1: And in the night, Pharaoh calls Moses and he says go.
Speaker 3: And so the Israelites find themselves packing in a hurry
Speaker 3: for the desert.
Speaker 1: What do you need in the desert? Everything? And they're
Speaker 1: in a hurry.
Speaker 3: So they're like, some of them are gathering their animals,
Speaker 3: and the Bible tells us that they didn't even have
Speaker 3: enough time to let the dough rise for their bread,
Speaker 3: so they took the dough with no yeast, and they
Speaker 3: wrapped up their kneading boards into their clothes and they
Speaker 3: put them on their backs. And then Moses told the people,
Speaker 3: go and ask the Egyptians for silver and gold and clothing,
Speaker 3: anything you need. And the Egyptians are so distraught over
Speaker 3: the deaths that they've experienced that they give them anything
Speaker 3: that they ask for. The Bible says that the Israelites
Speaker 3: plundered the Egyptians. That means they took everything of value
Speaker 3: that they wanted and that they could carry, and in
Speaker 3: large droves they head out into the wilderness. They're not
Speaker 3: going to be houses to rent when they get there.
Speaker 3: They're not gonna be grocery stores to stalk their pantries with.
Speaker 3: They have to take everything they can with them. Now, obviously,
Speaker 3: when they get there, there will be things that they
Speaker 3: need in the desert. When there's no water, God's gonna
Speaker 3: supply water from the rock.
Speaker 1: When they run out of food, He's gonna send manna
Speaker 1: from this sky.
Speaker 3: But there was still preparation required on the part of
Speaker 3: the children of God. How do you prepare for a
Speaker 3: wilderness season?
Speaker 1: You take everything you can. You don't pack light.
Speaker 3: God has given you everything you need for the season
Speaker 3: you're in, but sometimes he gives it to you in
Speaker 3: the season before the season. Everything you're going through right
Speaker 3: now is building something in you for your future. So
Speaker 3: maybe you lost your job, but you're learning how to
Speaker 3: manage your money when there's nothing coming in. Maybe you've
Speaker 3: had your ideas rejected, but you're learning humility and resilience.
Speaker 3: Maybe you have young children and you're in a season
Speaker 3: of little sleep but lots of prayer. There's something to
Speaker 3: be God from every situation that you go through. You
Speaker 3: may learn consistency, You may learn discipline, You may learn love.
Speaker 1: Grace, compassion.
Speaker 3: If we do it right, all of these things are
Speaker 3: things that we gain when we choose to grow in
Speaker 3: what we're going through. Israel was going from captivity to wilderness.
Speaker 3: They were trading one hard place for another hard place.
Speaker 3: And I want to tell you today, if you feel
Speaker 3: like your life just goes from one hard thing to
Speaker 3: the next hard.
Speaker 1: Thing, guess what you are normal.
Speaker 3: Life is hard, and yes, life is good and life
Speaker 3: is beautiful.
Speaker 1: But also life is hard.
Speaker 3: I remember when my kids were little, I said to
Speaker 3: this woman who had teenagers that I thought motherhood would
Speaker 3: get easier when my kids were and she looked at
Speaker 3: me and she smiled.
Speaker 1: This is probably the best advice I ever got.
Speaker 3: She said, it doesn't get easier, it just gets different.
Speaker 3: And I just want to say some of us today
Speaker 3: we need to stop waiting for easy.
Speaker 1: And just accept the hard parts of your life.
Speaker 3: I thought marriage would be easy because we love each other. Well,
Speaker 3: it's easy, and it's hard because you love each other.
Speaker 1: I thought parenting would be beautiful because I wanted this
Speaker 1: baby so bad. I thought my new job would be
Speaker 1: more fulfilling than this. I didn't expect to get sick.
Speaker 1: I didn't expect to have a special needs child. I
Speaker 1: didn't expect to lose my marriage.
Speaker 3: And the beauty and the difficulty they're all wrapped up
Speaker 3: together in the same.
Speaker 1: Life, sometimes even in the same day.
Speaker 3: I remember a couple of Christmases ago, I was, you know,
Speaker 3: having a moment where I was overwhelmed with all the
Speaker 3: things that were going on. Is Christmas time, and it's
Speaker 3: a lot, and you know, there's gifts and parties and
Speaker 3: programs and meals and out of town guests and church.
Speaker 3: And I remember thinking one day, if I could just
Speaker 3: get through Christmas.
Speaker 1: Been honestly, wait.
Speaker 3: A minute, did I just say if I could just
Speaker 3: get through Christmas?
Speaker 1: It's the most.
Speaker 3: Wonderful time of the year, and I'm just gonna wish
Speaker 3: it away. Sometimes I let the work keep me from
Speaker 3: seeing that The point is today, there is joy today.
Speaker 1: And John ten ten.
Speaker 3: Jesus said, the thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy,
Speaker 3: but I have come that they may have life and
Speaker 3: have it to the full. The enemy wants to steal
Speaker 3: everything he can from you, and if he can't keep
Speaker 3: you from your calling, he's going to try and stop
Speaker 3: you from enjoying it. And Jesus said, there is life
Speaker 3: to be lived to the full in me. Don't let
Speaker 3: yourself wish away the hard parts so much that you
Speaker 3: miss all the good parts that were.
Speaker 1: Sandwiched in between. You gotta learn how to pack.
Speaker 3: You got to learn how to take everything you can,
Speaker 3: every lesson that you learn the hard way, every joy
Speaker 3: that you experience, from the victories, and you pack them
Speaker 3: up so that you can take them with you from
Speaker 3: this season.
Speaker 1: Into the next.
Speaker 3: I love how God says that he how the mindset
Speaker 3: says that God.
Speaker 1: Has given you everything you need. Everything you need is
Speaker 1: already yours in Christ. Listen to me.
Speaker 3: You don't need more. You need to take inventory of what.
Speaker 1: You already have, and then you pack it up and
Speaker 1: you store it away.
Speaker 3: What are you learning today that you can use tomorrow.
Speaker 3: Maybe you're developing right now the habit of leaning into others.
Speaker 3: You joined a do the New Ue group, and you're
Speaker 3: realizing the power of having other believers in your corner
Speaker 3: who can encourage you and pray for you and simply
Speaker 3: be a place for you to process what God.
Speaker 1: Is speaking to you.
Speaker 3: You got these mindsets, Remember we gave it to you
Speaker 3: on post it notes. God has given us these phrases,
Speaker 3: and you can place them on your mirror at your
Speaker 3: desk and allow God to remind you that He's not
Speaker 3: against you, He's in it with you.
Speaker 1: Work it through. Are you fighting for you? What else
Speaker 1: are you packing? Do you ever have songs?
Speaker 3: Have you ever had God give you a song in
Speaker 3: a season?
Speaker 1: I mean, it is your song. It is your song
Speaker 1: on repeat.
Speaker 3: It's the one that you put on that stirs your
Speaker 3: faith and brings you back to the goodness of God
Speaker 3: when you're just having a moment of doubt. The other
Speaker 3: day I came across this psalm and actually it was
Speaker 3: one that my husband read while he was preaching, and
Speaker 3: he didn't really talk about it that much, but for
Speaker 3: some reason, it just bam. It just really resonated with me,
Speaker 3: and so I grabbed onto her. I was like, Okay,
Speaker 3: I'm I'm gonna print this out. I'm gonna start praying
Speaker 3: this over my family. Because God will give you a verse.
Speaker 3: He'll give you a word for your season. And when
Speaker 3: he does, you don't let it go. You don't let
Speaker 3: it pass. You pack it, you print it, you write it,
Speaker 3: you get it up so that you can see it
Speaker 3: in your everyday life. The day that we released the book,
Speaker 3: Do the New You, Steven and I hosted a live
Speaker 3: event to promote the book and we had some people
Speaker 3: call in and this lady called in and she asked
Speaker 3: a question. I think it was about the mindset I'm
Speaker 3: not stuck unless I stop, And she basically said something like,
Speaker 3: but how do I get unstuck when I feel so stuck?
Speaker 3: And Babe, you gave her the best advice I had
Speaker 3: to pack it away for myself. You told her to
Speaker 3: make a list of every resource that you do have.
Speaker 3: You said anything and everything and anyone that it would
Speaker 3: be a resource to you in this season. And that
Speaker 3: was such great advice because sometimes when you're packing, you
Speaker 3: have to make a list, so you don't forget what
Speaker 3: you have. So what's on your list? What has God
Speaker 3: taught you? What word has He given you? Who has
Speaker 3: He placed in your life that you can call, that
Speaker 3: you can lean into? In this season, God has given
Speaker 3: you everything you need.
Speaker 1: You may need to.
Speaker 3: Reach back and look in your suitcase. You may need
Speaker 3: to take inventory. You may need to say it out
Speaker 3: loud to a friend, because it's not only for here
Speaker 3: and now.
Speaker 1: It's for you in your next season. It's for your future.
Speaker 3: So Israel is packing in a hurry, and Egypt has
Speaker 3: released them from captivity, but they need to hurry because
Speaker 3: they're afraid that they're gonna change their minds. Rightly, So
Speaker 3: you probably know the story, but I just want to
Speaker 3: catch you up.
Speaker 1: A little bit.
Speaker 3: God moves Israel towards the Red Sea. So Pharaoh's released them,
Speaker 3: and God is it's kind of cool.
Speaker 1: He's like directing them by a cloud and a.
Speaker 3: Fire, and so anyway, he moves them towards the Red
Speaker 3: Sea because the Bible says that he knows that they're
Speaker 3: not ready to go to war with the surrounding nations,
Speaker 3: so he has to move them towards the wilderness where
Speaker 3: there is no one, and they camp on the banks
Speaker 3: of the Red Sea, and of course, like you know,
Speaker 3: Egypt changes their minds. I mean, what are they going
Speaker 3: to do without their two million slaves. So Pharaoh gathers
Speaker 3: his men and they hop on their chariots and they
Speaker 3: ride to get Israel back. And the people are in
Speaker 3: absolute panic because they're blocked. They're up against the Red
Speaker 3: Sea and here comes Pharaoh and his chariots. But God
Speaker 3: speaks to their leader, Moses, and he tells him to
Speaker 3: wave his staff over the Red Sea.
Speaker 1: And I'm sure you were remember the story.
Speaker 3: The water's part and the nation of Israel crosses over
Speaker 3: on dry land with you have to imagine how many
Speaker 3: people this is, because it's all their flocks, all their herds,
Speaker 3: all their gear that they've packed up. Not one person
Speaker 3: or child is lost out of two million people who
Speaker 3: are moving across the sea. It's the most epic moment
Speaker 3: in the history of the children of God up until
Speaker 3: this point. And Egypt is hot on their tail, and
Speaker 3: they follow them into the Red Sea, and God closes
Speaker 3: up the sea as soon as Israel crosses over, and
Speaker 3: Pharaoh and all his men drown, and the nation of
Speaker 3: Israel stands on the other side of the Red Sea,
Speaker 3: safe from harm and free for the first time in
Speaker 3: four hundred years.
Speaker 1: Now, I want to look at what they did.
Speaker 3: So we're gonna skip down to Exodus chapter fifteen. When
Speaker 3: Pharaoh's horses, chariots and horsemen went into the sea. The
Speaker 3: Lord brought the waters of the sea back over them,
Speaker 3: but Israel walked through the.
Speaker 1: Sea on dry ground.
Speaker 3: Then Miriam, the prophet, Aaron's sister, took her timbrel in
Speaker 3: her hand, and all the women followed her with timbrels.
Speaker 1: A timbrel is.
Speaker 3: A tambourine, and Miriam sang to them, sing to the Lord,
Speaker 3: for he has highly exalted the horse and the driver
Speaker 3: he has hurled into the sea.
Speaker 1: Okay, I don't know.
Speaker 3: I picked a version that had the wrong word, and
Speaker 3: we wanted to tambourine is what we're going for.
Speaker 1: Okay. So I don't know if.
Speaker 3: You notice that, but it appears that we have a
Speaker 3: few overpackers amongst the Israelites because Miriam packed her tambourine.
Speaker 3: Like let's just imagine, let's go back to the moment.
Speaker 3: Speculation here, Okay, but let's go to the moment.
Speaker 1: Remember they're packing in a hurry.
Speaker 3: Okay, so maybe they they're like somebody quickly writes a list,
Speaker 3: the list person writes a list.
Speaker 1: They're like bread check, okay, no, yease, but it's fine.
Speaker 1: Get the bread bowl.
Speaker 5: Yes, clothes yes, blankets yes.
Speaker 1: Silver and gold yes.
Speaker 3: And the Bible doesn't say if Miriam was married or not.
Speaker 3: But can we just imagine Aaron one of her brother
Speaker 3: brother Aaron or brother Moses looking at her and being like, Miriam,
Speaker 3: you really need your tambourine.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 3: And Miriam looks back at her brothers and she says, oh,
Speaker 3: I'm unpacked, packed my praise. And when they crossed over
Speaker 3: on dry land and they looked across and they saw
Speaker 3: Pharaoh and his army drown.
Speaker 1: Just go with me here. But I can imagine Miriam.
Speaker 1: She goes digging into her bag.
Speaker 5: And she did past the I don't know, the sunscreen,
Speaker 5: and the olive oil and the medicinal herbs, and she
Speaker 5: pulled out her tambourine.
Speaker 1: And you know what the best thing about a tambourine
Speaker 1: is you do not have to have much skill to
Speaker 1: use it.
Speaker 3: It is loud and it gets the people's attentions.
Speaker 1: And when all the women her Miriam's tambourine. Guess what,
Speaker 1: They packed theirs too.
Speaker 3: And they followed Miriam and they went out after her,
Speaker 3: and they led the people with singing and dancing and
Speaker 3: praising the Lord who had triumphed gloriously. They were free
Speaker 3: for the first time in generations.
Speaker 6: WHOA.
Speaker 3: So my friend Ann boss Camp, she was writing about
Speaker 3: this story, and this is what she said.
Speaker 1: She said they made.
Speaker 3: Time to grab their tambourines because they knew that Thanksgiving
Speaker 3: is what feeds your soul with joy in the wilderness.
Speaker 3: When you pack your soul with gratitude, it will not
Speaker 3: miss an opportunity to praise God. And yes, they needed
Speaker 3: to pack for their physical survival, but they needed to
Speaker 3: bring something to feed their souls too. You are packing
Speaker 3: today what you will have tomorrow. And don't you forget
Speaker 3: to pack your praise, don't forget your hallelujah. God has
Speaker 3: given you everything you needed. You don't have to pack
Speaker 3: light when you head into the next season, you take
Speaker 3: everything you can and you move forward. So my friend
Speaker 3: Milli is here today and Milly and Rick, her husband,
Speaker 3: they moved here from Chicago several years ago and they
Speaker 3: became a part of Elevation Milli is my hair and
Speaker 3: makeup artist. So every time I do a Bible study
Speaker 3: or I preach, a sermon comes and she works her
Speaker 3: magic and she helps me feel confident every time that
Speaker 3: I step up to preach.
Speaker 1: And we have spent a.
Speaker 3: Lot of time together and we've gotten to know each
Speaker 3: other really well. We talk about ponytails and children and
Speaker 3: everything in between. And because you know you're close and
Speaker 3: spending a lot of time together, it's not fast to
Speaker 3: look camera ready.
Speaker 1: So a while back, Millie shared with.
Speaker 3: Me that when she was a little girl, her older
Speaker 3: brother tragically died of a burst appendix, and she told
Speaker 3: me how it obviously changed her family, especially her mom Mary,
Speaker 3: And when Mary lost her nine year old son, she
Speaker 3: had to lean into her faith even more than ever,
Speaker 3: because when.
Speaker 1: A tragedy strikes, you kind of have two choices. You
Speaker 1: can lean into God or you can go into yourself.
Speaker 3: And Mary knew that God was the only place that
Speaker 3: she could turn to cope with such a tragic loss.
Speaker 1: So Mary became a woman of prayer.
Speaker 3: And Milly says that it is a memory of her
Speaker 3: childhood to hear her mother early in the morning pacing
Speaker 3: the house and praying and speaking out loud and speaking
Speaker 3: life and faith over her family. Milly says hearing her
Speaker 3: mom say hallelujah was one of the most familiar sounds
Speaker 3: of her childhood because Mary became one of those.
Speaker 1: Women who refused to speak negatively.
Speaker 3: About a situation, and she decided she was going to
Speaker 3: be a pillar of faith for her family. So I've
Speaker 3: got a picture for you just so you can picture them.
Speaker 3: This is Milly and her mom, Mary, who is now
Speaker 3: sixty seven, and about six months ago, Mary suffered a
Speaker 3: massive stroke while she was here in Charlotte visiting her daughter,
Speaker 3: and when she woke up, the speech part of her
Speaker 3: brain was most affected. And I don't really understand how
Speaker 3: this works scientifically, but basically, no matter what she tried
Speaker 3: to say, only two phrases would come out of her
Speaker 3: mouth idio smeo, which means oh my Lord, and the
Speaker 3: one that she says the most, hallelujah. Millie would say,
Speaker 3: She'll say to her mom, Mom, are you cold?
Speaker 1: Do you need a blanket? Hallelujah? Mom? Do you want
Speaker 1: to eat? Are you hungry? Hallelujah? Mom? Can you get up?
Speaker 1: Can you try and walk? Hallelujah? Mom? What's my name say.
Speaker 3: She sent me this video of her saying, Mom, what's
Speaker 3: say say Milly, and her mom goes Hallelujah.
Speaker 1: Here's a picture of Mary just days after her stroke.
Speaker 3: Even when she was unable to communicate, Mary was leading
Speaker 3: her family to praise God.
Speaker 1: She packed her praise so long ago. It was the
Speaker 1: only thing.
Speaker 3: Her mind and her body could do. She had cried
Speaker 3: Hallelujah so many times that it is her default now.
Speaker 3: And Millie, we are believing with you in your entire
Speaker 3: family for Mary's complete healing.
Speaker 1: But in the meantime, I want to follow Mary's lead.
Speaker 1: I want to pack a Hallelujah so deep in my heart.
Speaker 3: That it's what automatically comes out of my mouth in
Speaker 3: every season.
Speaker 1: Don't forget to pack your praise.
Speaker 3: So God's people, the nation of Israel, from this point
Speaker 3: forward in their history, they're going.
Speaker 1: To begin to cycle.
Speaker 3: It's going to go captivity, wilderness, harvest, stray.
Speaker 1: From God back to captivity. And you can read their
Speaker 1: history from the Book.
Speaker 3: Of Exodus all the way to the Book of Matthew.
Speaker 3: God's people are going to move from seasons of complete
Speaker 3: trust in Him and seeing Him move mightily through them
Speaker 3: to seasons of straying and seasons of disobedience. But no
Speaker 3: matter where they were, I don't know does that sound
Speaker 3: familiar to anyone, No matter where they were in the cycle,
Speaker 3: the nation of Israel was never once not called the
Speaker 3: children of God.
Speaker 1: They were always his chosen people that he would bring
Speaker 1: Jesus to the earth through. And this is the cycle
Speaker 1: for us too.
Speaker 3: No one gets it perfect, but we, as believers in Jesus,
Speaker 3: were covered by his grace. He never leaves us. He's
Speaker 3: our perfect father who gently guides us back every time
Speaker 3: we lose our way. With you when it gets unexpectedly hard,
Speaker 3: whatever kind of hard you face, he is with you.
Speaker 1: You might be in a hard season because of a
Speaker 1: poor choice that you made, or you.
Speaker 3: Might be in a hard season because of reasons that
Speaker 3: are beyond your control.
Speaker 1: Like us, everything is hard. Fighting is hard, Harvesting is hard,
Speaker 1: Captivity is hard.
Speaker 3: Did you notice that in this series that we've been
Speaker 3: going through, every Bible character that has been preached about
Speaker 3: was in a hard place.
Speaker 1: Think back last week we learned about.
Speaker 3: Paul in the prison. The week before that, Jeremiah.
Speaker 1: Was in a pit.
Speaker 3: Before that, Pastor Stephen preached about two men who were
Speaker 3: born blind. Rich Wilkerson preached the week before that about
Speaker 3: the woman with the issue of blood, and then week
Speaker 3: one Graham was on the treadmill and his dad turned
Speaker 3: it up to the hardest level, level twelve. God is
Speaker 3: with you in your heart, and he's always trying to
Speaker 3: get a message to you. In the Book of Jeremiah,
Speaker 3: God sent the prophet Jeremiah to warn Israel because they
Speaker 3: were in one of those cycles, and basically it gets
Speaker 3: too late, and so Jeremiah has to tell them, you're
Speaker 3: going to be overtaken by Babylon, and most of you
Speaker 3: are going to die unless you surrender. And the people
Speaker 3: hate this prophecy in these words so much that that's
Speaker 3: how Jeremiah ended up in the pit that Pastor Stephen
Speaker 3: preached about.
Speaker 1: Two weeks ago.
Speaker 3: And in the very end, only a few actually listened
Speaker 3: to the prophet, and so only some of them surrendered,
Speaker 3: and those who did surrender, they were carried off into
Speaker 3: captivity like their ancestors who were slaves in Egypt. But
Speaker 3: this was the remnant of people that God was saving
Speaker 3: so that.
Speaker 1: He could bring them back and raise them up again.
Speaker 3: And finally send them the promised Messiah. And so as
Speaker 3: they're going off into captivity, God speaks to them one
Speaker 3: last time through Jeremiah, and he says this. This is
Speaker 3: Jeremiah twenty nine, verses four and five. Jeremiah says, this
Speaker 3: is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says.
Speaker 3: Do all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon,
Speaker 3: build houses and settle down. Plant gardens and eat what
Speaker 3: they produce. Plant gardens and eat the fruit. Jeremiah is
Speaker 3: saying to them, Hey, you are going into captivity, go
Speaker 3: ahead and unpack. And I feel like God sent me
Speaker 3: here to tell you today that even though your season
Speaker 3: is temporary, go ahead and unpack. I know this isn't
Speaker 3: what you thought. I know this isn't what you planned.
Speaker 3: But this is the season that you are.
Speaker 1: In right now.
Speaker 3: And you don't have to live chaotically digging through your
Speaker 3: unpacked suitcase.
Speaker 1: Unpack it, hang the clothes.
Speaker 3: Up, find your tambourine, and figure out how to praise
Speaker 3: even in the waiting. Build houses and live in them,
Speaker 3: he said. And I want you to hear me say
Speaker 3: today that there can be life in your Babylon, the
Speaker 3: place where you feel like you were carted off to unfairly.
Speaker 1: There can be life there.
Speaker 3: Do not wait for the next season to experience the
Speaker 3: power and the presence of.
Speaker 1: God in your life.
Speaker 3: God wants to move in your life right now, right here,
Speaker 3: no matter how temporary.
Speaker 1: It seems to you.
Speaker 3: So when Steven and I got married, there was this
Speaker 3: evangelist who offered Stephen a job. Well, it it wasn't
Speaker 3: a paying job. Anybody ever had offered a non paying job.
Speaker 3: It was an opportunity. It was a common be part
Speaker 3: of my ministry. And I'll recommend for you to speak
Speaker 3: at any of the events that I can't take that
Speaker 3: kind of job.
Speaker 1: And so we proudly accepted the job.
Speaker 3: And we've moved to the most random place, Shelby, North Carolina,
Speaker 3: and I had just got in my teaching certificates, so
Speaker 3: I got a job teaching fifth grade. And when we
Speaker 3: got there, Stephen also secured a paying job leading worship
Speaker 3: at a local church. Now we knew before we moved
Speaker 3: to Shelby that we were called to start a church
Speaker 3: one day.
Speaker 1: We knew that when we got married, but we didn't
Speaker 1: know when.
Speaker 3: And we figured that we might as well do ministry
Speaker 3: while we were waiting for God to give us our
Speaker 3: next direction, and the church that had offered Stephen the job,
Speaker 3: they understood that we were going to plan a church.
Speaker 3: It was all clear, and they said, it's fine, it's fine,
Speaker 3: it's fine. Just come and minister here while you can.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 3: Shelby was not a necessarily the town that I had
Speaker 3: been dreaming of moving to. But when we got there,
Speaker 3: we found some of the most wonderful people in that town.
Speaker 3: And Stephen Ferdick went to work the only way that
Speaker 3: he knows how.
Speaker 1: He gave that little church everything he had.
Speaker 3: He built a worship ministry, He found and recruited band members,
Speaker 3: He went to colleges, he went to high school choirs.
Speaker 3: He was having lunch with everybody because he had to
Speaker 3: build a praise team and a choir, and he needed
Speaker 3: a drummer. And we got all of us together and
Speaker 3: he wrote songs for that church. We recorded two albums
Speaker 3: in the three years that you were there. With the
Speaker 3: three years that we were there, you've probably never heard
Speaker 3: of those albums. They were called Everlasting and everyone everywhere.
Speaker 1: I'm not sure it's on iTunes, it would be. Their
Speaker 1: songs are great, but they might be a little dated.
Speaker 1: I think I have some footage of the our first
Speaker 1: recording There's Me. We were boldly wearing yellow and orange
Speaker 1: and black.
Speaker 3: And the other day Stephen and I were on a
Speaker 3: little road trip and while he was voice texting back
Speaker 3: and forth about the songs that we were going to
Speaker 3: record here at Elevation in the upcoming week, we started
Speaker 3: somehow talking about Christ's Covenant and those songs, and we
Speaker 3: started listening to some of the songs, and I'm telling you,
Speaker 3: I could feel the presence of the Holy Spirit in
Speaker 3: those songs, just like I can from the ones that
Speaker 3: are coming from our church today. Just because we weren't
Speaker 3: going to be in Shelby forever didn't mean that there
Speaker 3: wasn't time to.
Speaker 1: Plant and harvest some fruit.
Speaker 3: It was in Shelby, North Carolina, that we met Shanson
Speaker 3: Amy and we began to dream out loud for the
Speaker 3: first time about the church that we felt like God
Speaker 3: was calling us to plant, and what it would look
Speaker 3: like and what we would call it. And one of
Speaker 3: the names that we were throwing around was Churchilllive.
Speaker 1: Because it's worth the drive?
Speaker 3: Aren't you glad we've landed on Elevations? But you know,
Speaker 3: I am one hundred percent that the fruit of Elevation
Speaker 3: Church was planted in the soil of Shelby, North Carolina.
Speaker 1: And I want to tell you.
Speaker 3: There are seeds that God wants to plant in your
Speaker 3: situation today.
Speaker 1: I know it's not permanent.
Speaker 3: I know this isn't your forever job or your forever
Speaker 3: home or whatever.
Speaker 1: But you don't know how long it's going to be.
Speaker 1: You don't know, So build the house, plant the garden.
Speaker 3: Jeremiah goes on to get Israel, one of the most
Speaker 3: encouraging verses in the entire Bible. Just a couple verses
Speaker 3: later we find Jeremiah twenty nine to eleven. He says,
Speaker 3: for I know the plans I have for you, declares
Speaker 3: the Lord. He's saying this over Israel, and he's saying
Speaker 3: this over you. I have plans to prosper you and
Speaker 3: not to harm you. Plans to give you a hope
Speaker 3: and a future. And there are things in your life
Speaker 3: right now that you didn't plan for.
Speaker 1: But God is the one.
Speaker 6: Who holds the master plans of your life. He has
Speaker 6: a hope and future for you. You're just the packer and
Speaker 6: the planter.
Speaker 1: He is the planner. So while you wait for the
Speaker 1: next move, God.
Speaker 6: Is saying you today plant the garden, give it everything
Speaker 6: you've got.
Speaker 1: They will be fruit right here in the life that
Speaker 1: you have right here.
Speaker 3: Determine right now that you will get everything that God
Speaker 3: has for you right now in your situation, in your circumstance,
Speaker 3: your pain, your disappointment, your transition, your confusion.
Speaker 1: You get out your tambourine and you feed your soul.
Speaker 3: You stay right here, and you plant your feet in
Speaker 3: the garden of God's word and grow because you can
Speaker 3: know that He's getting.
Speaker 1: You ready for what's next.
Speaker 3: I ask the worship team to come as we close
Speaker 3: and lead us in that new song that we've been
Speaker 3: singing called Always on Time.
Speaker 1: This song has ministered to me in such a personal.
Speaker 3: Way because I feel like it's one of those songs
Speaker 3: that just allows me to reflect on those times in
Speaker 3: my life where I can look back and I can
Speaker 3: clearly see that.
Speaker 1: Even in my pain, and even in my confus and.
Speaker 3: Even in my transitional moments where it felt so frustrated,
Speaker 3: God's right.
Speaker 1: There with me.
Speaker 3: Even in the moments where I didn't feel it then
Speaker 3: he was with me. He's with you, He's guiding you
Speaker 3: every step of the way, and he's with you now
Speaker 3: in this moment, and you.
Speaker 6: Can trust His plan for your life.
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.
Speaker 1: You can share it with your friends.
Speaker 2: You can click the share button, take a screenshot and
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Speaker 2: Elevation Church. Thanks again for listening.
Speaker 1: God bless you.