Speaker 1: Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick.
Speaker 2: I'm the pastor of Elevation Church and this is our podcast.
Speaker 2: I wanted to thank you for joining us today. Hope
Speaker 2: this inspires you. Hope it builds your faith. Hope it
Speaker 2: gives your perspective to see God is moving in your life.
Speaker 1: Enjoy the message.
Speaker 3: Ladies and gentlemen, remain standing and welcome to our epam
Speaker 3: all over the world as you continue to hug your neighbors,
Speaker 3: your friends, your family, and complete strangers.
Speaker 1: It is my great joy to announce to you.
Speaker 3: That today, preaching her final sermon of the year twenty
Speaker 3: twenty five, it's my favorite Verdic, your favorite Fernich, everybody's
Speaker 3: favorite Arnach.
Speaker 1: Y'all give it up for holly.
Speaker 4: Merry Christmas, Merry Christmas.
Speaker 1: Let me just get a good look at you.
Speaker 5: What an amazing time we have had in worship today.
Speaker 5: Feels so good in here. The Lord is present in
Speaker 5: this place.
Speaker 1: Amen. The Bible says that He.
Speaker 5: Inhabits the praises of his people. I think that means
Speaker 5: he's here with us today. And you made it to
Speaker 5: church on the Sunday before Christmas, whether you're at one
Speaker 5: of our.
Speaker 1: Locations or you're joining us online. I know that that means.
Speaker 5: That your heart is expectant today, that you want more
Speaker 5: than just checking off things off your to do list
Speaker 5: this week, that you want to get your heart right
Speaker 5: this week?
Speaker 1: Can you want to be in the presence of Jesus?
Speaker 5: And I believe that God has a word for us
Speaker 5: today and I'm really honored that I get.
Speaker 1: To bring it to you.
Speaker 5: So, okay, real quick, before you take your seats, I
Speaker 5: just want to read our scripture for today. I'm going
Speaker 5: to be reading from Luke chapter one if you.
Speaker 1: Have a Bible.
Speaker 5: And last week Pastor Stephen talked about how God provides
Speaker 5: and he prompts.
Speaker 1: It was so powerful. Were you here? Amazing?
Speaker 5: The sermon was called Mary's Prayer, and so I want
Speaker 5: to pick up today with a little bit more of
Speaker 5: Mary's story and we're going to start reading. In the
Speaker 5: middle of the passage, the Angel has come to Mary
Speaker 5: and he's announced to her that she's going to give
Speaker 5: birth to the Son of God.
Speaker 1: And we're going to start reading right there.
Speaker 5: In verse thirty four, Mary asked the angel, but how
Speaker 5: can this happen?
Speaker 1: I am a virgin.
Speaker 5: The angel replied, the Holy Spirit will come upon you,
Speaker 5: and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.
Speaker 5: So the baby to be born will be holy, and
Speaker 5: he will be called.
Speaker 1: The Son of God. What's more, your relative Elizabeth has
Speaker 1: become pregnant.
Speaker 5: In her old age, people used to say she was barren,
Speaker 5: but she has conceived a son and is now in
Speaker 5: her sixth month. For no word from God will ever fail.
Speaker 5: Mary replied, I am the Lord's servant. May everything that
Speaker 5: you have said about me come true? And then the
Speaker 5: angel left her. A few days later, Mary hurried to
Speaker 5: the hill country of Judea, to the town where Zechariah lived.
Speaker 5: She entered the house and greeted Elizabeth.
Speaker 1: At the sound of.
Speaker 5: Mary's greeting, Elizabeth's child leaped within her, and Elizabeth was
Speaker 5: filled with the Holy Spirit. Elizabeth gave a glad cry
Speaker 5: and exclaimed to Mary, God has blessed you above all women,
Speaker 5: and your child is blessed. Why am I so honored
Speaker 5: that the mother of my Lord should visit me. When
Speaker 5: I heard your greeting, the baby in my womb jumped
Speaker 5: for joy. You are blessed because you believed that the
Speaker 5: Lord would do what he said. Father, would you bless
Speaker 5: the reading of this word today.
Speaker 1: We love you, we want to hear from you. It's
Speaker 1: in Jesus name, we pray. Amen. All right, the.
Speaker 5: Title of my sermon don't sit Downia, don't it Donia.
Speaker 5: The title of my sermon is blessed because you believed.
Speaker 5: On your way to your seat, ask your neighbor, are
Speaker 5: you blessed? So several weeks ago, my husband stood up
Speaker 5: here and he told all of you about how I
Speaker 5: am a terrible liar.
Speaker 1: It's true.
Speaker 5: I don't know why, but I am really just the
Speaker 5: worst liar. And what that means is, don't ask me
Speaker 5: if I like your haircut. Please do not put me
Speaker 5: on the spot like that, because sometimes I just can't
Speaker 5: think of anything to say, and like the best thing
Speaker 5: that I might be able to come up with is like, wow,
Speaker 5: you look so good, and then you won't believe me.
Speaker 1: And I'm you know, I just I'm a terrible liar.
Speaker 5: And what that means, though, also is that my inability
Speaker 5: to lie it also makes me extremely gullible. I'm just
Speaker 5: I'm a believer. Okay, So I am a car salesman's dream, you.
Speaker 1: Know, Like I'm gonna be like yeah, like.
Speaker 5: Oh, a little old lady drove this car. She only
Speaker 5: drove it to church in the grocery store every week.
Speaker 5: I mean, I just I just believe what people say
Speaker 5: to me, and I also believe. I've recently come to
Speaker 5: realize everything that comes into my Instagram feed, and this
Speaker 5: drives my family crazy. Like I will frequently show my
Speaker 5: kids videos and be like, look at this, this is amazing,
Speaker 5: and my kids will look back at me and they're like, Mom,
Speaker 5: that's not real. And so then I find another one
Speaker 5: I want to show. I gotta showsting this baby. You're
Speaker 5: not gonna believe this, and he'll look at me and
Speaker 5: they'll be like, hell, you know that's AI right, Okay.
Speaker 1: So I'm slow.
Speaker 5: I'm learning because I just believe that things are true.
Speaker 5: Like the other day, this video came into my feet
Speaker 5: on Instagram, and I don't know if you guys saw
Speaker 5: this one, but it was ring doorbell footage and which
Speaker 5: means it's true. And there was a cat and a
Speaker 5: baby on a front porch and a bear wanders up
Speaker 5: and the cat hissses and like swats at the bear
Speaker 5: and saves the baby. And when I saw this video,
Speaker 5: I thought, wow, Dad is one amazing cat. And soon
Speaker 5: A couple days later, another one comes into my feet.
Speaker 1: Different porch, different cat, different baby, and I thought, I
Speaker 1: think we need to get a cat.
Speaker 5: So then a third one came, and this time I thought,
Speaker 5: wait a minute, like, how many moms are.
Speaker 1: Leaving their babies alone on a porch? This must be AI.
Speaker 1: You can't fool me three times.
Speaker 5: I recently saw another one of this family of dolphins
Speaker 5: and they were like breaching the water and this tiny
Speaker 5: little baby dolphin like.
Speaker 1: Pops up out of the water. It was the.
Speaker 5: Cutest thing I have seen in twenty twenty five, and
Speaker 5: I was like, oh, wait, maybe this So I went
Speaker 5: to the comments, because you know, in the comments, people
Speaker 5: will let you know if this is AI. If one
Speaker 5: of the first comments that I saw, this woman said,
Speaker 5: if this is AI, don't tell me. I don't want
Speaker 5: to know, And I was like, Amen, it's real.
Speaker 1: How many of you would agree.
Speaker 5: It's getting harder and harder to believe. When I was
Speaker 5: in my twenties, I thought that belief was black and white.
Speaker 5: This is what I believe, this is what I do
Speaker 5: not believe, and I believe that this is what you
Speaker 5: should believe too. I was really fun to be around you,
Speaker 5: would have enjoyed it. As I've gotten older, though, I've
Speaker 5: learned to let go kind of of the black and white,
Speaker 5: and I've had to learn that believing God is so
Speaker 5: much more about who He is than it is about
Speaker 5: what I think he should do. And in our story,
Speaker 5: Elizabeth told Mary that she was blessed because she believed.
Speaker 1: And when I read this, those words just leapt off
Speaker 1: of the page.
Speaker 5: For me, the blessings in my life are directly tied
Speaker 5: to my beliefs.
Speaker 1: What I believe about God has.
Speaker 5: To be at the center of everything that I say
Speaker 5: and everything that I do. And what I want you
Speaker 5: to know today is that God is not Santa. We
Speaker 5: don't grow out of believing in him.
Speaker 1: We grow into.
Speaker 5: Our belief as we walk with Him, as.
Speaker 1: We begin our journey with Him. Well, we begin it
Speaker 1: with salvation, right.
Speaker 5: Maybe you accepted Jesus as a child and you've known
Speaker 5: him your whole life. Maybe you accepted Jesus here at
Speaker 5: elevation you raise your hand and you got one of
Speaker 5: those orange Bibles. Maybe you accepted Jesus online through our ministry.
Speaker 5: We begin by knowing Jesus as our savior, but then
Speaker 5: we get to know that God is so much more
Speaker 5: than that. God never intended for us to stop with salvation.
Speaker 5: The gospel is not about accepting Jesus just so that
Speaker 5: we can go to heaven. That's the beginning and the end.
Speaker 5: But you will be blessed because you believed in Him.
Speaker 5: The Gospel is about believing in God and getting to
Speaker 5: know Him in the middle part, in the time that
Speaker 5: we have here on earth. We get to know God
Speaker 5: when we worship him, when we bring our questions to Him,
Speaker 5: and our sorrows and our disappointments, and when we lay
Speaker 5: them before Him and we begin to grow in.
Speaker 1: Our belief of who He is.
Speaker 5: This February, our church is going to celebrate our twentieth anniversary, and.
Speaker 1: I'm so excited. I just want you to know We're
Speaker 1: going big.
Speaker 5: I've told my husband, I was like, we're doing this right.
Speaker 1: Twenty years is a big deal.
Speaker 5: So I've been coming through old videos and pictures and
Speaker 5: I've just been feeling all of the feelings of what
Speaker 5: it's been like these past twenty years, and I just
Speaker 5: want to tell you it has been the blessing of
Speaker 5: a lifetime. To believe that God could use two kids
Speaker 5: from South Carolina to be able to lead a church
Speaker 5: and a ministry like this. We were twenty five years
Speaker 5: old when we started this church. I don't know who
Speaker 5: wanted to come to a church led by q twenty
Speaker 5: five year old kids, but thank you for coming. And
Speaker 5: I'm so glad that God did actually call us to
Speaker 5: start this when we were young. When we started this church,
Speaker 5: I was so naive. And Stephen tells this story. I'm
Speaker 5: sure you've heard about how we were on our front
Speaker 5: porch in Shelby, North Carolina, and I looked at him
Speaker 5: and I said, it's time for us to start this church.
Speaker 5: And I believed with all of my heart that God
Speaker 5: was calling us to go and to do this and
Speaker 5: to step out in faith and to follow him. But
Speaker 5: I had no idea how much I would grow in
Speaker 5: my understanding of who He is as we walked out
Speaker 5: what we believed that He was calling us to do.
Speaker 5: I want you to know that I have come to
Speaker 5: know God as Jehovah Jirah, because from the moment that
Speaker 5: we took the first step to move to Charlotte, We've
Speaker 5: seen Him provide over and over and over again, every
Speaker 5: person that he put in our path, every resource that
Speaker 5: he prompted someone to give every connection that led us
Speaker 5: to the next step. I've also come to know him
Speaker 5: as Jehovah Nissi, the one who fights our.
Speaker 1: Battles for us. I've come to know him as Jehovah Rafa,
Speaker 1: the God who heals.
Speaker 5: And I've seen him bring healing and restoration to so
Speaker 5: many people across our ministries, families that were put back together,
Speaker 5: marriages that were restored.
Speaker 1: I've come to know him as Emmanuel.
Speaker 5: God with us in the ups and the downs and
Speaker 5: in everything in between.
Speaker 1: I have come to know that God is with me.
Speaker 5: I am blessed because I believed, and you are blessed
Speaker 5: because you believe. And the Christmas Story is about a
Speaker 5: cast of characters who dared to believe that God, God
Speaker 5: was telling them what would come to pass, and that
Speaker 5: it was true. So my message.
Speaker 1: Today is very simple.
Speaker 5: It's so simple that I'm almost embarrassed.
Speaker 1: That this is what I'm bringing to you.
Speaker 5: It's very common sense. And in the time that we
Speaker 5: have left, I want to show you three things that
Speaker 5: I believe about God that I see in this part
Speaker 5: of the Christmas Story.
Speaker 1: And I just want to warn you my parts, my points.
Speaker 5: They're not catchy, they don't rhyme, they don't spell anything
Speaker 5: at the end, so don't be prepared to be in
Speaker 5: awe at the end. We're going to leave that for
Speaker 5: when Pastor Stephen comes back.
Speaker 1: It's just a simple message today.
Speaker 5: Three truths that we can believe about God this Christmas,
Speaker 5: and the first one is I believe that God believes
Speaker 5: in me.
Speaker 1: Let's go back to our scripture, verse twenty six.
Speaker 5: In the sixth month of Elizabeth's pregnancy, God sent the
Speaker 5: angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a village in Galilee, to a
Speaker 5: virgin named Mary. She was engaged to be married to
Speaker 5: a man named Joseph, a descendant of King David. Gabriel
Speaker 5: appeared to her and said, greetings, favored woman, the Lord.
Speaker 1: Is with you.
Speaker 5: Confused and disturbed, Mary tried to think what the angel
Speaker 5: could mean. Don't be afraid, the angel told her, for
Speaker 5: you have found favor with God.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 5: Nowhere in this passage do we find a reason why
Speaker 5: God picked Mary. God didn't pick Mary because she was strong.
Speaker 5: It doesn't say that God didn't pick Mary because she
Speaker 5: was accomplished. It doesn't say that God didn't pick Mary
Speaker 5: because she was experienced.
Speaker 1: She did not apply for this job.
Speaker 5: She did not campaign for this job, and she did
Speaker 5: not volunteer for this job. But one day an angel
Speaker 5: comes to her and he says, you have found favor
Speaker 5: with God. Now, when I think of the mother that
Speaker 5: I would have picked for Jesus if I was God,
Speaker 5: I would have picked a woman that already had a
Speaker 5: full brood of children, a woman whose children were homeschooled
Speaker 5: and responsible, like they had a chure charte that they
Speaker 5: actually used. And a woman who's children were respectful, a woman.
Speaker 1: Whose children like looked after each other.
Speaker 5: And you know, I would have picked a woman who
Speaker 5: knew the difference between croup and pneumonia. I would have
Speaker 5: picked a woman whose house was clean and orderly, and
Speaker 5: especially I would have picked a woman who could cook good,
Speaker 5: home cooked meals for the son of God.
Speaker 1: But God picked Mary.
Speaker 5: And all we know about Mary is that she was
Speaker 5: a virgin who was blessed because she believed that she
Speaker 5: was the one for the job.
Speaker 1: And that's all that God requires of you as well.
Speaker 5: And I wonder how different my day would be if
Speaker 5: I woke up each morning and I set out loud.
Speaker 5: God picked me for this. God picked me for this day.
Speaker 5: God picked me for this job. God picked me for
Speaker 5: this child. Whatever the circumstances were that led me to
Speaker 5: this moment that I am in today, I am going
Speaker 5: to operate under the belief that God believed I am.
Speaker 1: The one for this now.
Speaker 5: I think we all live in the tension of the
Speaker 5: things in our life that we feel called to and
Speaker 5: the things in our life that we might not necessarily
Speaker 5: have chosen for ourselves. Like, there are things in life
Speaker 5: that we go after, right. God put a desire in
Speaker 5: your heart. He gave you a gift and a passion.
Speaker 5: And yes it's hard along the way, and yes there
Speaker 5: are obstacles and things that you have to overcome, but
Speaker 5: you're going after what you feel like you are supposed
Speaker 5: to do. Anybody ever feel that way, And it's wonderful,
Speaker 5: and you should.
Speaker 1: When you feel like you're called to do something, you
Speaker 1: should go after it. But then there are things in
Speaker 1: life that I don't know, it seems like.
Speaker 5: They go after you, right, Like the things that you
Speaker 5: didn't plan for, or the things you didn't expect, or
Speaker 5: the things that you don't feel qualified for, the things
Speaker 5: that seem to have just been like placed in your
Speaker 5: life or in your lap that you did not ask for.
Speaker 5: And I want you to hear from me that God
Speaker 5: believes in you.
Speaker 1: He chose you.
Speaker 5: He chose you to be born at this time, at
Speaker 5: this place, in this family.
Speaker 1: He gave you the children that you have. He gave
Speaker 1: you the opportunities that you have. He chose you.
Speaker 5: God believed in you before you believed in him, before
Speaker 5: the world began. He knew the number of your days.
Speaker 5: You are not an accident. You are chosen and selected
Speaker 5: to glorify God with your life.
Speaker 1: I don't care what you've done or what you have
Speaker 1: not done. The only thing that.
Speaker 5: Disqualifies you from being used by God is believing the
Speaker 5: lie that He can't use you.
Speaker 1: That's it.
Speaker 5: God believes in you. You're chosen even when you don't
Speaker 5: feel capable. You're chosen, even when you don't feel like
Speaker 5: you did deserve it.
Speaker 1: You're chosen.
Speaker 5: And if you wait until you feel ready or worthy
Speaker 5: or qualified or prepared enough, you're gonna miss what God
Speaker 5: has for you.
Speaker 1: You're gonna miss the opportunities that are right in front
Speaker 1: of you today.
Speaker 5: So Mary accepted the calling that God placed on her life.
Speaker 1: She said, I am the Lord's servant. May it be
Speaker 1: to me as you have said.
Speaker 5: It's my favorite verse in the whole Bible. It's the
Speaker 5: thing I want to operate from. Is the way I
Speaker 5: want to live my life. Okay, God, I'm your servant.
Speaker 5: May be to me as you have said. And then
Speaker 5: the scripture tells us that she moved in the direction
Speaker 5: that she felt that God was leading her. So the
Speaker 5: second thing that I believe is I believe that God
Speaker 5: leads me. Now this one is tricky because unfortunately God
Speaker 5: does not always spell.
Speaker 1: Everything out for us.
Speaker 5: Right. He doesn't like write our next steps in the sky,
Speaker 5: but he does strongly suggest what we should do next.
Speaker 1: Look at Mary again. This is verse thirty five.
Speaker 5: It says the angel replied, the Holy Spirit will come
Speaker 5: upon you, and the power of the Most.
Speaker 1: High will overshadow you.
Speaker 5: So the baby to be born will be holy and
Speaker 5: he will be called the Son of God. What's more,
Speaker 5: your relative Elizabeth has become pregnant. In her old age,
Speaker 5: people used to say that she was barren, but she
Speaker 5: has conceived a sun and is now in her six months.
Speaker 5: For the word of God will never fail. And Mary responded,
Speaker 5: here it is I'm the Lord servant. May everything you
Speaker 5: said about me come true, and then the angel left her.
Speaker 5: I want you to know that sometimes what's next is
Speaker 5: what you already know. The angel left Mary, and I
Speaker 5: imagine that she had to sort of.
Speaker 1: Like take in everything that had just happened. She was like, Okay,
Speaker 1: did that just happen? Okay, what happened? And she's replaying
Speaker 1: it in her mind. Okay.
Speaker 5: The angel came and he said I was going to
Speaker 5: give birth the Son of God. But then he said
Speaker 5: something about my relative Elizabeth. Elizabeth is pregnant. Well, let
Speaker 5: me go see if that's true. So verse thirty nine says.
Speaker 5: A few days later, Mary hurried to the hill country
Speaker 5: of Judea, to the town where Zechariah lived. She entered
Speaker 5: the house and greeted Elizabeth. Sometimes the next step is
Speaker 5: the thing that you already know to do, but you
Speaker 5: haven't done it yet. The thing is, God's not going
Speaker 5: to reveal more to you until you do that. Now.
Speaker 5: One of the ways that God leads us is through
Speaker 5: the people that he puts on our path. So God
Speaker 5: led Mary to Elizabeth. But when Mary got to elizabeth
Speaker 5: elizabeth home, she enters the house.
Speaker 1: And the moment she opens her.
Speaker 5: Mouth to say hello, the baby and Elizabeth's womb jumps
Speaker 5: and confirms what the angel said. And Elizabeth says to Mary,
Speaker 5: why am I so honored that the mother of my
Speaker 5: Lord should visit me. God will send you people when
Speaker 5: you moved towards what you know. God led Mary and
Speaker 5: Joseph to Bethlehem because of the census that was ordered,
Speaker 5: and it was there that the baby was.
Speaker 1: Born in a barn. But it was also there.
Speaker 5: That the shepherds came and visited them, and they said,
Speaker 5: we saw an entire host of angels, and we came
Speaker 5: to worship the Christ Child. And in eight days after
Speaker 5: that they took Jesus to the temple.
Speaker 1: It was the custom. It was the thing that they
Speaker 1: were supposed to do.
Speaker 5: It was what you did with your baby when they
Speaker 5: were eight days old. You came to the temple and
Speaker 5: you dedicated them there. And when they were there, Mary
Speaker 5: and Joseph they into two different people, Simeon and Anna,
Speaker 5: the prophetess. And at the temple, both Simeon and Anna
Speaker 5: confirm what God is doing, and they said, they said,
Speaker 5: this is Jesus, and they became, we have seen the salvation.
Speaker 1: Of the Lord.
Speaker 5: The path for Mary was going to be so challenging,
Speaker 5: But I believe that every time that doubt crept into
Speaker 5: Mary's heart when she thought she didn't have what it
Speaker 5: took to be a good mom, and she thought she
Speaker 5: didn't know how she was going to protect her son
Speaker 5: or how she was supposed to provide for him, I
Speaker 5: believe that she could recall what God had spoken to
Speaker 5: her through Elizabeth, through Simeon, through Anna, through the Shepherds,
Speaker 5: through the wise Man.
Speaker 1: And I want you to know that God is going
Speaker 1: to guide you too.
Speaker 5: He's going to tell you what you need to know,
Speaker 5: and as long as you keep moving and what you know,
Speaker 5: he's going to send people to confirm that you are
Speaker 5: on the right path. But it's important to know. Oh,
Speaker 5: God's not gonna reveal the entire plan to you. God
Speaker 5: is gonna show you what you need to see when
Speaker 5: you need to see it. The Angel came to Mary
Speaker 5: and said, the Holy Spirit will come upon you.
Speaker 1: The Angel didn't give her a timeline.
Speaker 5: He didn't say, see, we know the story, so it's
Speaker 5: easier for us, right. But the Angel didn't say to her, Okay,
Speaker 5: first you're gonna have the baby, and he's gonna be
Speaker 5: born in Bethlehem. I know that's weird, but you're gonna
Speaker 5: be there by accident kind of for the census.
Speaker 1: Then you're gonna go to.
Speaker 5: Egypt for two years because Herod's gonna kill all the
Speaker 5: baby boys and it's not gonna be.
Speaker 1: Safe for Jesus to stay in Judea.
Speaker 5: But eventually you're gonna come back and you're gonna settle
Speaker 5: in Nazareth.
Speaker 1: And Jesus' ministry isn't gonna even.
Speaker 5: Start until he's thirty, so you'll have him for thirty
Speaker 5: years with you, and then you're gonna get to see
Speaker 5: him do this amazing ministry and he's gonna perform these
Speaker 5: incredible ministry miracles, and then the things that he's gonna
Speaker 5: do is just gonna blow your mind.
Speaker 1: But then he's gonna die on.
Speaker 5: The cross and it's gonna be awful, but don't worry,
Speaker 5: because he's gonna rise again on the third.
Speaker 1: It's all part of the planet.
Speaker 5: And I think, like, as parents, we want that for
Speaker 5: our kids, Like, wouldn't it be nice if they came
Speaker 5: with a timeline and we were like, it's okay, it's
Speaker 5: all part of the plan. Here's where they're going to struggle,
Speaker 5: here's where they're gonna shine, and this is what you
Speaker 5: should do when this happens. And this is what you
Speaker 5: should do when that happens. And you should intervene here.
Speaker 5: But don't worry here. God doesn't work like that, because
Speaker 5: God is more concerned with you than he is about
Speaker 5: your situation. God wants a relationship with you. A couple
Speaker 5: of weeks ago, Pastor Stephen preached something that.
Speaker 1: I will never forget.
Speaker 5: It was just a small point in his sermon, but
Speaker 5: he did this visual thing that just like I don't know,
Speaker 5: it just like reached into my heart and I don't
Speaker 5: think I'll ever forget it.
Speaker 1: But I don't know if you remember this.
Speaker 5: He said, faith is more like this, and he kind
Speaker 5: of like closed his eyes and he put his hands
Speaker 5: like this out and he said, it's like.
Speaker 1: Grappling in the dark.
Speaker 5: It's like feeling your way around and trusting God with
Speaker 5: each tiny step that you take. He said, it's more
Speaker 5: like this than it is like this holding tight to
Speaker 5: what I thought this was gonna be. And then he said,
Speaker 5: you hold tight to the promise, but you hold loosely
Speaker 5: to the plan.
Speaker 1: Babe. That might have been the most impactful thing that
Speaker 1: you said this year. It marked me.
Speaker 5: It helped me because how many times in my life
Speaker 5: have I thought that faith is not wavering, it's not
Speaker 5: letting go of the original plan. I have to believe
Speaker 5: if I just believe, if I just come to Him
Speaker 5: over and over again, reminding him of my plan, and
Speaker 5: eventually everything will happen the way that I thought. It's
Speaker 5: so hard to let go of what I thought was
Speaker 5: the plan. I don't even want to think about how
Speaker 5: many times I have.
Speaker 1: Said something to God that was of the nature of God.
Speaker 1: This was not the plan. Maybe you feel that way today,
Speaker 1: like God.
Speaker 5: Divorce was not in my plan, sickness was not in
Speaker 5: my plan. Job loss at Christmas time was not in
Speaker 5: my plan. And I'm not saying that God causes these
Speaker 5: hard things to happen to us in life.
Speaker 1: What I am.
Speaker 5: Saying is that faith is remembering His name will be
Speaker 5: called Emmanuel. God with us. His plan is to be
Speaker 5: with me every step of the way. His plan is
Speaker 5: to comfort us. His plan is to guide us through
Speaker 5: the difficulties. His plan is to grow us, mature us,
Speaker 5: and strengthen us in the process. That's God's plan.
Speaker 1: Jeremiah twenty nine to eleven.
Speaker 5: God says to Jeremiah, I know the plans I have
Speaker 5: for you, Plans to prosper you, not to harm you,
Speaker 5: Plans to give you a hope in the future. This
Speaker 5: this verse has gotten me through some really hard times
Speaker 5: because it helps me know that when my plans don't
Speaker 5: go my way, I hold on to the promise that
Speaker 5: He has good plans for me. The plans are his,
Speaker 5: The plans are his. He holds the plans. We hold
Speaker 5: on to him. The very first promise that was made
Speaker 5: to marry was that the Holy Spirit will come upon you.
Speaker 5: And you know you have that promise too. Jesus told
Speaker 5: the disciples this is John sixteen thirteen. He said, when
Speaker 5: the Spirit of Truth comes, he will guide you into
Speaker 5: all truth. The promise that we cling to is that
Speaker 5: the Spirit will guide you. The promise is not a
Speaker 5: map with and by turn directions. The promise is that
Speaker 5: you're taking a journey with the ultimate Guide, who you
Speaker 5: know is going to lead you through the hard parts.
Speaker 5: Belief is not knowing how God will do it. Belief
Speaker 5: is trusting the one who will. We hold tight to
Speaker 5: the promise, not to the plan. I have to tell
Speaker 5: myself this over and over and over again. My job
Speaker 5: is not how man I wanted to be, how I'm
Speaker 5: really good at. How my job is not how my
Speaker 5: job is. Who who do I trust? And who is
Speaker 5: he calling me to be? When the plans aren't working
Speaker 5: out the way that I thought?
Speaker 1: I can't control the plan. I mean, you know what
Speaker 1: I think. We all need to say that out loud.
Speaker 1: Let's stay together.
Speaker 5: I can't control the plan. But you know what I
Speaker 5: can't control me.
Speaker 1: I can control me. I can control what and who
Speaker 1: I go to when I feel disappointed.
Speaker 5: I can control what I say and what I don't
Speaker 5: say when I feel frustrated.
Speaker 1: I can control my attitude. I can control most of
Speaker 1: the time. I can control my responses.
Speaker 5: When things don't go my way, I can do that.
Speaker 1: That's the faith part.
Speaker 5: When things don't go my way, can I release my
Speaker 5: grip on what I thought would happen? Can I cling
Speaker 5: to the one who promised to be with me and
Speaker 5: do the things that I know he has already told
Speaker 5: me to do.
Speaker 1: You don't get.
Speaker 5: The next step until you do the things that you
Speaker 5: know he's supposed to do. So maybe some of you
Speaker 5: the word for you today is attitude. God's like I
Speaker 5: just want you to work on your attitude in this situation?
Speaker 5: Can you have a better attitude? Philippians one six says
Speaker 5: he who began a good work and you will be
Speaker 5: faithful to complete it. You don't have to know the plan.
Speaker 5: You just have to stay close to the one who does.
Speaker 5: You have to stay close to the one who promises
Speaker 5: to be faithful to complete the work that he started,
Speaker 5: not the work that I started, the work that He started.
Speaker 5: And I know that so many of you came in
Speaker 5: here this Sunday before Christmas feeling like you don't know
Speaker 5: what to do next in this situation, and I want
Speaker 5: you to know that God is going to show you
Speaker 5: the next step.
Speaker 1: You don't have to solve the puzzle.
Speaker 5: You don't have to manipulate the situation. You don't have
Speaker 5: to cheat your way into it. All you have to
Speaker 5: do is take the hint, ask God to open your
Speaker 5: eyes to see where he is working and ask him.
Speaker 1: Ask him to stop asking.
Speaker 5: Him to change your situation and start asking him to
Speaker 5: clearly show you what to do next. God spell it
Speaker 5: out for me, make it plain, and I will obey.
Speaker 5: The point is, though, that you're going to him. You
Speaker 5: go to him with your problems. You go to him first,
Speaker 5: and then like Mary, Mary heard from the Lord and
Speaker 5: then she obeyed, and then God confirmed through Elizabeth. You
Speaker 5: go to God and then He might send a person
Speaker 5: to encourage you. He might give you a verse to
Speaker 5: cling to. He might give you a song to sing
Speaker 5: in this season. He might show you a tiny, little
Speaker 5: next step to take. If you believe that He leads you,
Speaker 5: you will be looking for him everywhere you go.
Speaker 1: God leads you believe that. Do you believe that God
Speaker 1: will lead you in your situation?
Speaker 5: The last thing that I believe is that God hears me.
Speaker 1: Oh, this is a hard one to accept.
Speaker 5: I think when most people read the Christmas story, they
Speaker 5: start where we started with the Angel coming to Mary.
Speaker 5: But God, in the book of Luke, he begins to
Speaker 5: Christmas story through Elizabeth, Mary's relative, and her husband Zechariah.
Speaker 5: I don't know if you've ever read the first chapter
Speaker 5: of Luke. It's really beautiful. It tells like this really
Speaker 5: beautiful story that God is weaving. And so in the
Speaker 5: beginning of Luke we find Zechariah. He was a priest
Speaker 5: and his wife, Elizabeth was Mary's relative, and she was barren.
Speaker 5: They had no children in a culture where having children
Speaker 5: was actually like a mark of how blessed you were.
Speaker 1: It was everything.
Speaker 5: And Zachariah and Elizabeth had prayed for a child, but
Speaker 5: God had not answered them. Look at what Luke tells
Speaker 5: us about them. In verse eight. It says, one day,
Speaker 5: Zechariah was serving God in the temple for his order.
Speaker 1: Was on duty that week.
Speaker 5: As was the custom of the priest, he was chosen
Speaker 5: by lot to enter the sanctuary of the Lord and
Speaker 5: burn incense. While the incense was being burned, a great
Speaker 5: crowd stood outside praying. And while while Zechariah was in
Speaker 5: the sanctuary, an Angel of the Lord appeared to him,
Speaker 5: standing to the right of the instance Altar. Zechariah was
Speaker 5: shaken and overwhelmed with fear when he saw him, but
Speaker 5: the angel said, don't be afraid, Zechariah.
Speaker 1: God has heard your prayer.
Speaker 5: Your wife Elizabeth will give you a son, and you
Speaker 5: are to name him John.
Speaker 1: God has heard your prayer.
Speaker 5: Now this prayer, this was a prayer Zachariah and Elizabeth
Speaker 5: had put to rest. They had come to terms with
Speaker 5: the fact that it was too late for them to
Speaker 5: have a baby, and a baby is just it's just
Speaker 5: not a part of our story. They're too old. But
Speaker 5: yet the Bible tells us that they continued to faithfully
Speaker 5: serve God. Zechariah was just doing his duty. He was
Speaker 5: a priest. Burning incense was something that happened twice a
Speaker 5: day in the temple, but this time he got chosen
Speaker 5: to go in and burn the incense.
Speaker 1: You know, I believe that.
Speaker 5: God often does the biggest work in the most ordinary
Speaker 5: parts of my life. I believe that God saw every
Speaker 5: single day that Zechariah showed up and continued his duties.
Speaker 5: Day after day. Zechariah was on duty. He was doing
Speaker 5: his job, and an angel comes to him and tells
Speaker 5: him that his son, the one he never thought he
Speaker 5: would have, the one he had given up on ever having,
Speaker 5: his son, is going to be the forerunner of Christ.
Speaker 5: All this time they had prayed for a child, they
Speaker 5: believed for a baby, and it never came to pass
Speaker 5: until the time was right and God was about to
Speaker 5: place a baby in their laps. Just it wasn't just
Speaker 5: any baby. This was a special baby. This was a
Speaker 5: baby that the prophets Isaiah and Malachi foretold. This was
Speaker 5: the baby that had to be born at this time,
Speaker 5: and God chose Zechariah and Elizabeth to raise this baby.
Speaker 5: You know who it was, right John the Baptist, the
Speaker 5: one who would prepare the way for Jesus. I mean,
Speaker 5: arguably the second most important baby born in the New Testament.
Speaker 5: Right and God chose Elizabeth, but he wanted to use
Speaker 5: her pregnancy in her old age to confirm to Mary
Speaker 5: what was going to come to pass for her.
Speaker 1: The time had finally come.
Speaker 5: I thought about calling this message he heard you the
Speaker 5: first time, because I want you to know that God
Speaker 5: hears our prayers. God hears our prayer. God here's your prayers,
Speaker 5: and just like Pastor Stephen taught us last week, he
Speaker 5: doesn't need our prompts. God has been speaking to me
Speaker 5: so much about prayer this year, about what it is
Speaker 5: and kind of more what it's not. And there's so
Speaker 5: many beautiful aspects of prayer. There's written prayers, there's spoken prayers,
Speaker 5: there's silent prayers, there's private prayers, there's public prayers.
Speaker 1: But what I am learning is that prayer is.
Speaker 5: Mostly about coming into God's presence, however you can do that.
Speaker 1: It's about bringing Him into.
Speaker 5: Your situation and as God's child, as God's children, we
Speaker 5: have so many biblical examples that tell us that we
Speaker 5: can and we should come to Him.
Speaker 1: With our requests.
Speaker 5: That is perfectly acceptable, and you should come to God
Speaker 5: your request. But I want you to know, if all
Speaker 5: you ever do is make requests, you are not going
Speaker 5: to experience the power and the presence of God in
Speaker 5: your life. If God worked like Sannah and you could
Speaker 5: just send them a letter every December and magically all
Speaker 5: your hopes and dreams would come true, there would be
Speaker 5: no faith required in that.
Speaker 1: There wud be no relationship needed in that. It's just
Speaker 1: some guy that you write a letter to. A couple
Speaker 1: of months.
Speaker 5: Ago, I was so frustrated about a situation that I've
Speaker 5: been praying about for years. I mean, I have brought
Speaker 5: this thing to God, and I've asked him to change it.
Speaker 5: I have suggested many ways that I thought he could
Speaker 5: change it. I've even been so good as to work
Speaker 5: out the times that I thought that God would move
Speaker 5: in this situation.
Speaker 1: And I found myself back in that same place of frustration.
Speaker 5: And I hope it's okay for me to tell you this,
Speaker 5: but I said to God, God.
Speaker 1: I can't talk to you about this anymore. I just,
Speaker 1: I just I just can't. I don't, God, I don't.
Speaker 5: I don't even know what to say to you anymore.
Speaker 5: When I pray about this, nothing happens. So I I
Speaker 5: just I'm just not gonna talk about it anymore. I
Speaker 5: feel like God whispered right straight into my heart. I
Speaker 5: feel like he said to me, good, I can work
Speaker 5: with that. Just come into my presence, Holly, Just you
Speaker 5: don't have to talk to me about it. Just come
Speaker 5: into my presence. Just sit in my presence. I heard
Speaker 5: you the first time. Now, Remember, there's nothing wrong with
Speaker 5: being persistent and having the faith to keep praying for
Speaker 5: God to do something in your life.
Speaker 1: The Bible supports that.
Speaker 5: But sometimes you need to exercise the faith that believes that.
Speaker 1: He hurt you and that he's working in.
Speaker 5: Your situation, the faith that believes that He is telling
Speaker 5: a story on this earth that is so much bigger than.
Speaker 1: You and your situation.
Speaker 5: And faithfulness sometimes looks like showing up to the things
Speaker 5: that we know we're called to do, just while we
Speaker 5: wait for the things that we hope for.
Speaker 1: That's what Zachariah was doing.
Speaker 5: There's a lady who's a part of our EPAM, and
Speaker 5: she sent this letter to Pastor Stephen and thank you,
Speaker 5: by the way, to all of the people who who
Speaker 5: send us letters. Your stories mean a lot to us.
Speaker 5: And this story, I just I want to share this
Speaker 5: parts of this story with you because it's just incredibly incredible.
Speaker 5: She writes this, I have been faithfully watching Elevation Worship
Speaker 5: services at nine thirty am Sunday mornings for the last
Speaker 5: six years.
Speaker 1: I wanted to write you for a long time.
Speaker 5: I've wanted to share my testimony with you and let
Speaker 5: you know how you changed this particular chapter in my
Speaker 5: life with one of your sermons.
Speaker 1: And she says, sorry. The next place that I want
Speaker 1: to read, she.
Speaker 5: Says, your sermons continue to bring me hope and comfort.
Speaker 5: And she goes on to talk about how she was
Speaker 5: raised in the church and her husband was raised in
Speaker 5: the church, and they raised their children in church. They
Speaker 5: had three boys and one baby girl after their three
Speaker 5: boys were born, and they raised their children to believe
Speaker 5: in God.
Speaker 1: They raised them in church, they taught them to love God.
Speaker 5: And then she begins to share how in twenty twenty one,
Speaker 5: their daughter became involved with some very bad influences and
Speaker 5: she began to make some really poor choices, and she
Speaker 5: eventually ended up. This is every mother's nightmare. She ended
Speaker 5: up living with a man who was an alcoholic and
Speaker 5: who was abusive to her daughter, both mentally and physically.
Speaker 1: And she says that they.
Speaker 5: Prayed fervently for their daughter, and she says that finally
Speaker 5: one day their daughter came to them and she said
Speaker 5: she wanted to come home, but she said she couldn't
Speaker 5: because she believed that this man would harm her and
Speaker 5: harm her family if she left.
Speaker 1: And the letter.
Speaker 5: In the letter, she says that the situation just felt
Speaker 5: helpless and helpless, and then she says, on July second,
Speaker 5: twenty two, we got a call that she had been
Speaker 5: involved in an accident.
Speaker 1: And she said they rushed to the.
Speaker 5: Scene and they saw where her car was totaled and
Speaker 5: found out that she had been drinking, and so right
Speaker 5: there she was charged with a felony dui and they
Speaker 5: took her to the hospital and they treated her for
Speaker 5: bruises and broken knows in a broken hand. And she
Speaker 5: writes this, She said, she said I had to help
Speaker 5: her in the backseat of the police car. Once she
Speaker 5: was released from the er. She was on her way
Speaker 5: to jail for the night. And initially my thoughts were really, God,
Speaker 5: we gave her to you to watch over her, and
Speaker 5: this is what you allow to happen.
Speaker 1: And then she says, yes.
Speaker 5: I believe he did, because she was able to get
Speaker 5: out of that man's house safely and move back home
Speaker 5: with us. And we know that without his intervention, she
Speaker 5: would not have even survived the crash.
Speaker 1: And she came home, and she spent.
Speaker 5: The next several months in AA and in therapy. She
Speaker 5: was extremely faithful to her recovery, and she made the
Speaker 5: necessary changes in her life, and they were feeling really hopeful.
Speaker 5: But her court date came around, and on February twentieth,
Speaker 5: twenty twenty three, she goes on to say that, to
Speaker 5: their utter devastation, their daughter was sentenced to one hundred
Speaker 5: and eighty days in jail. And she goes on to
Speaker 5: write she says, I was angry with God. I could
Speaker 5: not believe that he would allow this to happen. Now,
Speaker 5: after she had spent so many months turning.
Speaker 1: Her life around.
Speaker 5: Jail, she said, I spent my whole life trusting in God.
Speaker 5: And she says, side note, trust was my word for
Speaker 5: the year, but now my trust was gone.
Speaker 1: This is where it gets good.
Speaker 5: The next Sunday, I was home alone and out of
Speaker 5: habit I think, lol.
Speaker 1: I turned your service on. The songs they sang that
Speaker 1: day were all.
Speaker 5: My favorites, which I didn't want to hear, but they
Speaker 5: made me cry. God was working despite my acceptance, despite
Speaker 5: my anger. The title of your sermon was God is
Speaker 5: up to something upstream. Anybody remember that one. I kept
Speaker 5: telling myself he was up to something, but I wasn't
Speaker 5: having it. You kept giving examples in the Bible of
Speaker 5: how God was always twenty miles ahead of your situation
Speaker 5: or circumstance. He's twenty miles ahead, He's twenty miles ahead.
Speaker 5: I kept hearing it over and over again, and something
Speaker 5: hit me. I grabbed my phone and typed in directions
Speaker 5: to the county jail from my house.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna cry. Guess how far away it was? Twenty miles,
Speaker 1: she said. I dropped to the ground. Tears were flowing
Speaker 1: down my face. God was twenty miles ahead, she said.
Speaker 1: And a week or so later, in our conversation.
Speaker 5: She told me she was having Bible study in her
Speaker 5: cell and teaching and singing elevation music to all the girls.
Speaker 5: She did four and a half months time and the
Speaker 5: day we picked her up was one of the best
Speaker 5: days we have had. God gave us so much grace
Speaker 5: and so much mercy during those months I thought I
Speaker 5: would never make it through.
Speaker 1: Wasn't inner plan.
Speaker 5: She said, Please keep my family and myself in your prayers.
Speaker 5: We have learned to take one day at a time,
Speaker 5: and we just keep praising our.
Speaker 1: Father for all he does. Meant what a story.
Speaker 5: God is so faithful, He's so faithful, He hears us
Speaker 5: when we pray.
Speaker 1: He heard you the first time. He knows things that
Speaker 1: we don't know.
Speaker 5: And we have to trust the one who is working
Speaker 5: in our situation even when it doesn't make sense. I
Speaker 5: love how the letter ended with we just keep praising
Speaker 5: our Father, one day at a time, because I think
Speaker 5: that's it. Maybe if you find yourself in a place
Speaker 5: this Christmas where you're wondering if God heard your prayer,
Speaker 5: where you're feeling like nothing is happening in your situation,
Speaker 5: maybe we can take our cues from this lady who's
Speaker 5: a part of our ephan and from Mary. Because Mary
Speaker 5: didn't prompt God, she didn't list out all of the
Speaker 5: things that God was gonna need to do to work
Speaker 5: everything out.
Speaker 1: For her.
Speaker 5: She didn't remind God of all the things that could
Speaker 5: go wrong. She didn't suggest people who were more qualified
Speaker 5: for this calling. She praised her. She was blessed because
Speaker 5: she believed that God believed in her, that God was
Speaker 5: going to lead her, and that God hurt her prayer.
Speaker 5: She was blessed before she had seen any of these
Speaker 5: things come to pass.
Speaker 1: And Luke tells us he gives us her prayer.
Speaker 5: It's called the magnificat, and she says, my soul magnifies
Speaker 5: the Lord. My heart rejoices in God, my savior, for
Speaker 5: he lifts the lowly, and he has done great things
Speaker 5: for me.
Speaker 1: He hadn't even done anything for her yet when.
Speaker 5: She said that, she said, he has done great things
Speaker 5: for me.
Speaker 1: And I want you to know that praise is a reset.
Speaker 5: It enables you to take your eyes off of your
Speaker 5: situation and place them on your Savior.
Speaker 1: So I want us to follow Mary's.
Speaker 5: Example today, and I want us to magnify the Lord together.
Speaker 5: I want us to bless his name for who he
Speaker 5: is and for what he's done, so that we can
Speaker 5: trust him with what's next.
Speaker 2: Thank you for joining us. Special thanks to those of
Speaker 2: you who give generously to this ministry. Is because of
Speaker 2: you that this ministry is possible. You can click the
Speaker 2: link in the description to give now or visit Elevationchurch
Speaker 2: dot org slash podcast for more information and if you
Speaker 2: enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe. You can share it
Speaker 2: with your friends. You can click the share button, take
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Speaker 2: tag us at Elevation Church. Thanks again for listening. God
Speaker 2: bless you.