Speaker 1: Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick.
Speaker 2: I'm the pastor of Elevation Church and this is our podcast.
Speaker 2: Be sure to subscribe so we can get you these
Speaker 2: new sermons every week.
Speaker 1: Hope you're blessed today.
Speaker 3: Today, I would like to dedicate my sermon to a
Speaker 3: very special group of women. I've never dedicated a sermon before,
Speaker 3: but today's sermon is dedicated to all the mothers of
Speaker 3: teenage boys.
Speaker 1: Well, all the mothers of teenage boys.
Speaker 3: Just lift your hand, hold it up real high in
Speaker 3: the chat. You can even tell us your son's name
Speaker 3: and age in the chat.
Speaker 1: No, I'm serious.
Speaker 3: If you're a mom of teenage boys, I want to
Speaker 3: see your hand. Everybody look around. We need your prayer.
Speaker 3: Keep your hand up high, everybody look pray for us.
Speaker 3: Parenting boys is no joke. Here's a picture of me,
Speaker 3: me and my boys. All right, So that's Elijah.
Speaker 1: On the well, I don't know. I guess he's on
Speaker 1: the right.
Speaker 3: I'm so bad at directions. Elijah's the older one. He
Speaker 3: is seventeen, and he had just finished all of his
Speaker 3: school work this week. He is graduating high school.
Speaker 1: And I just.
Speaker 4: I'm on the stage show.
Speaker 3: I get to say whatever I want. I'm just gonna
Speaker 3: mom brag for a second. This boy is graduating with
Speaker 3: a high school diploma.
Speaker 1: And an AA in business at the same.
Speaker 3: Time, and he's going to be heading off to college
Speaker 3: in the falling. I don't know if I'm sad or
Speaker 3: excited about that.
Speaker 1: I'm both.
Speaker 3: And then Graham is fifteen and he's just finishing up.
Speaker 1: His freshman year.
Speaker 3: Just for fun, here's an old picture of us.
Speaker 1: Keep it up there for a second. Let me tell
Speaker 1: you something about these two little boys. They ate my
Speaker 1: lunch every.
Speaker 3: Day, literally and figuratively. They were wild from the minute
Speaker 3: their little feet hit the floor. They were jumping and
Speaker 3: running and wrestling constantly and taking family.
Speaker 1: Pictures with them.
Speaker 3: It's like this weird form of self inflicted torture. So okay,
Speaker 3: here's another one and one way.
Speaker 1: Here they are today. Not much has changed.
Speaker 3: I was not prepared for the energy of boys, and
Speaker 3: I wasn't prepared that my husband was going to like
Speaker 3: encourage it, and just.
Speaker 1: Just I grew up in a house with.
Speaker 3: My mom and my dad and my two sisters, and
Speaker 3: in our house tears and estrogen ruled. And now those
Speaker 3: wild little boys are young men, and here I am.
Speaker 3: I just have to say that this whole testosterone, weightlifting,
Speaker 3: protein eating situation, it's just enlightening for me. This is
Speaker 3: why we need your prayers. I shared this story when
Speaker 3: we were on tour this spring, but not too long ago,
Speaker 3: our middle son, Graham told me. Came in the kitchen
Speaker 3: and we were talking and he said that he was
Speaker 3: constantly sizing himself up against every person that crosses his path.
Speaker 3: And he told me when he sees someone, he thinks,
Speaker 3: would I win in a.
Speaker 1: Fight against that guy? And then he said, Mom, do
Speaker 1: you ever do that? I'm like, are you a smc?
Speaker 1: A fight to break out at any moment? Is this
Speaker 1: what boys think? This is news to me? And then Graham,
Speaker 1: he kept talking. You said something that really spoke to me.
Speaker 3: He said, And then Mom, I just decide that if
Speaker 3: I wouldn't win in a fight, I pretty much always
Speaker 3: know that my dad could take them. So today I
Speaker 3: want to talk to you about sudden Strength. If you've
Speaker 3: been in church with us in the past few weeks, you
Speaker 3: know that we have been looking at the life of
Speaker 3: David through the lens of Psalm thirty four and the
Speaker 3: events that inspired David to write that Psalm two weeks
Speaker 3: ago we learned about ugly trust, and can I just say, like,
Speaker 3: I don't know if you put two and two together.
Speaker 3: That week, but that particular week, Stephen preached in arenas
Speaker 3: all over the Midwest eight times in ten days, and
Speaker 3: then he came home and continued to pro out some
Speaker 3: thing fresh to us.
Speaker 1: That's when he preached ugly trust.
Speaker 3: And then the next week we learned about delayed praise.
Speaker 3: And on top of both of these insanely amazing messages,
Speaker 3: they were centered around a song that he wrote for
Speaker 3: our church.
Speaker 1: Can we just take a minute to thank.
Speaker 3: God for the feast that our pastor labors to bring
Speaker 3: to us every single week?
Speaker 4: Amazing He pours any pores, any pores, and he ministers
Speaker 4: to me every week, as I know.
Speaker 1: He does to you too.
Speaker 3: So ugly Trust, delayed praise, and now sudden strength, because
Speaker 3: the truth is, sometimes an unexpected fight does break out,
Speaker 3: not a fist fight, but maybe a fight for your marriage,
Speaker 3: a fight for your health, a fight for your child,
Speaker 3: and you find yourself sizing yourself up against what you
Speaker 3: are facing. And today I want to talk about the sudden.
Speaker 1: Strength that can be yours when.
Speaker 3: You realize that you have a heavenly father who is
Speaker 3: backing you up. And when you combine his power in
Speaker 3: you with the weapons that he has given you, you
Speaker 3: can take whatever you find yourself up against.
Speaker 1: Can we talk about this today? All right?
Speaker 3: So turn in your Bible to our passage for today,
Speaker 3: which is First Samuel, chapter thirty. And while you're turning there,
Speaker 3: I want us to slow down and I want to
Speaker 3: bring you up to speed on where we are in
Speaker 3: David's life, because David's story is extensive. David is one
Speaker 3: of the most important characters in the Bible. And sometimes
Speaker 3: we and we dropped down in a passage of scripture
Speaker 3: and we preached you and you don't know, like, Okay,
Speaker 3: I know David, but like, is this before Goliath? Or
Speaker 3: is this after best Shiba? Like where does this come
Speaker 3: in his story? So a little bit of backstory, don't worry.
Speaker 3: I'm really good at giving backstory. Sometimes I've had to
Speaker 3: learn because people don't like the story before the story.
Speaker 1: But I'm gonna give it to you quick, okay.
Speaker 3: So David was anointed to be king when he was
Speaker 3: a fifteen year old boy tending sheep in his father's field.
Speaker 3: Not long after that, he defeated Goliath, and then he
Speaker 3: lived as a part of Saul's court. That's where David
Speaker 3: became best friends with the king's son Jonathan. But then
Speaker 3: the king began to get jealous of David and he
Speaker 3: wanted to kill him, so he had to flee to
Speaker 3: the wilderness. And eventually David has gathered a small army
Speaker 3: for himself of about six hundred men who are following
Speaker 3: him and who are protecting him. And they're constantly on
Speaker 3: the run from Saul his army, and it's getting more
Speaker 3: and more dangerous. So David and his men they settle
Speaker 3: all the women and children in a town called Zicklag.
Speaker 1: And then David, as our pastor told.
Speaker 3: Us, does the next best thing that he knows to.
Speaker 1: Do, and he and his men flee to the.
Speaker 3: Enemy territory of the Philistines to work as mercenaries. And
Speaker 3: that is where Pastor Stephen left us off last week.
Speaker 1: All right, now we.
Speaker 3: Come to First Samuel, chapter thirty, and it says this now,
Speaker 3: when David and his men came to Zicklag on the
Speaker 3: third day, the Amalekites had made a raid against the
Speaker 3: Negeb and against Zicklag. They had overcome Zicklag and burned
Speaker 3: it with fire and taken captive all the women and
Speaker 3: all who were in it, both great and small. They
Speaker 3: killed no one, but they carried them off and went
Speaker 3: their way. And when David and his men came to
Speaker 3: the city, they found it burned with fire, and their
Speaker 3: wives and sons and daughters taken captive. Then David and
Speaker 3: the people who were with him raised their voices, and
Speaker 3: they wept until they had no more strength to weep.
Speaker 1: David's two wives have been taken captive.
Speaker 3: A Henoum of Jezreel and Abigail, the widow of Nabel
Speaker 3: of Carmel. And David was greatly distressed for the people
Speaker 3: spoke of stoning him, because all the people were bitter
Speaker 3: in soul, each for his sons and daughters. But David
Speaker 3: strengthened himself in the Lord his God. All this time,
Speaker 3: David has been running from Saul and living in the
Speaker 3: Philistine territory, and he finally returns home to see his family,
Speaker 3: and he finds that an enemy that he didn't see
Speaker 3: coming has burned their town to the ground and has
Speaker 3: taken his family, and he is devastated, and so are
Speaker 3: his men and the men are looking for someone to blame,
Speaker 3: as we often do when we find ourselves in despair,
Speaker 3: and David it's all alone. Jonathan's not there to protect him,
Speaker 3: Abigail's not there to encourage him, Samuel the Prophet is
Speaker 3: not there to remind him of his calling. And everyone
Speaker 3: near and dear to him is gone, and his men
Speaker 3: are plotting to kill him. We're watching David in one
Speaker 3: of his lowest moments. He's tired, he's depleted, he's scared.
Speaker 1: And what does he do?
Speaker 3: How does he get up and do the next best
Speaker 3: thing again, as we've seen him do over and over
Speaker 3: in his story. Verse six tells us, but David strengthened
Speaker 3: himself in the Lord his God.
Speaker 1: What do you do when you need sudden strength and
Speaker 1: no one is.
Speaker 3: There to help you. Sometimes you got to strengthen yourself.
Speaker 3: So David gathers every ounce of strength that he has left,
Speaker 3: which he doesn't feel like is very much, and he
Speaker 3: uses that.
Speaker 1: Strength to seek God. Look what he does next.
Speaker 3: And David said to a be a, oh man, I
Speaker 3: practice how to say this word.
Speaker 1: You guys. It's Abafar, son of Ahimelech.
Speaker 3: Bring me the ephod so aba far brought the ephod
Speaker 3: to David, and David inquired of the Lord. Shall I
Speaker 3: pursue after this band? Shall I overtake them? David had
Speaker 3: to get his next step from God.
Speaker 1: He didn't have a pity party.
Speaker 3: He didn't avoid the situation by hiding or numbing. He
Speaker 3: didn't go into one of his caves. He didn't turn
Speaker 3: around and blame his men, Well, you guys, we should
Speaker 3: have left someone here to He didn't take a from them.
Speaker 3: He cried until he had no tears left to cry,
Speaker 3: and then when he could, he mustered all of the
Speaker 3: strength that he had, and he took his pain and
Speaker 3: his confusion and his fear right into the presence of God,
Speaker 3: and he sought the Lord.
Speaker 1: When we experience a.
Speaker 3: Difficult situation, we have two choices. We can wonder why,
Speaker 3: or we can ask what next. There is a time
Speaker 3: to grieve and to mourn, and even a time to
Speaker 3: be angry and confused.
Speaker 1: But at some point you have to move on with it.
Speaker 3: And I want to tell you the pain will most
Speaker 3: likely still be there no matter what you do. Stay
Speaker 3: in it, move on. The pain's going to be there.
Speaker 3: But I don't know about you. I find in my
Speaker 3: life when I sit in my pain for too long,
Speaker 3: I get stale, and I get bitter, and nobody.
Speaker 1: Wants to be around me. But when I drag my.
Speaker 3: Pain to the feet of Jesus, sometimes over and over again,
Speaker 3: when I seek God, he answers Now. Sometimes he doesn't
Speaker 3: answer the way I hope that he will. Sometimes he
Speaker 3: says stay when I want to go. Sometimes he says
Speaker 3: forgive when I want to hold on to that hurt.
Speaker 3: Sometimes he says stop. And here in this case, God
Speaker 3: responds to David with a call to action. God said,
Speaker 3: pursue the enemy, David, they're not dead, go and get
Speaker 3: them back. And David set out the Bible tells us,
Speaker 3: along with his six hundred men, to go and get
Speaker 3: them back. There will always be times in your life
Speaker 3: when the only person who can strengthen yourself is you.
Speaker 3: If you want to have big muscles, you're gonna have
Speaker 3: to lift heavyweights, right my boys have taught me. You
Speaker 3: also have to eat lots of protein and sometimes drink
Speaker 3: powdery drinks. No one can exercise for you. The only
Speaker 3: way for you to get strong is to get up
Speaker 3: again and again and again, even when you're tired of
Speaker 3: getting up. So let's talk about tired for a second.
Speaker 1: Because David is exhausted.
Speaker 3: He's been living in enemy territory, which you can imagine
Speaker 3: would be stressful, and he's traveled three days to come
Speaker 3: home to his family, and what do you think he's planning.
Speaker 1: Like this whole three day trip.
Speaker 3: He's planning on feasting and relaxing and hugging his wife
Speaker 3: and playing with his kids. And he arrives home only
Speaker 3: to find them stolen by an enemy that he didn't
Speaker 3: see coming. For so long he'd been running from Saul
Speaker 3: that he left himself vulnerable in another area of his.
Speaker 1: Life, and now he's just blindsided by it.
Speaker 3: And so he wept until he had no strength left
Speaker 3: to weep, and then he got up and he sought
Speaker 3: the Lord, and God tells him to do something that
Speaker 3: I'm guessing he didn't really want to do.
Speaker 1: He wanted God to bring him back. God said, go
Speaker 1: after them.
Speaker 3: He said, you will recover everything that was taken. So,
Speaker 3: on tired legs, David and his men set out to
Speaker 3: get back what was theirs. And they had to travel
Speaker 3: fast because they're having to catch up to the enemy.
Speaker 3: And the story goes on to tell us that they
Speaker 3: were so exhausted that two hundred of the men stopped.
Speaker 3: They're like, we can't go any further. But David had
Speaker 3: to keep going because if he didn't, he was gonna
Speaker 3: lose everything. And so David and the four hundred remaining
Speaker 3: men they finally catch up to the Amalekite camp, not
Speaker 3: to just have a little talk with them, but they
Speaker 3: have to fight now, and they arrive to the battle tired.
Speaker 3: Just wondering, is anybody in this room tired today?
Speaker 1: Raise your hand. It's okay, raise your hand. All right.
Speaker 3: You might be sleepy, you might just be tired of it,
Speaker 3: but look around. Raise your hand again. If you're tired,
Speaker 3: We're all tired. Tired is a part of life now.
Speaker 3: Some of us are stupid tired. Like perhaps you're a
Speaker 3: teenage boy and you stayed up till four am playing
Speaker 3: Fortnite or whatever game of your choice, and now you're
Speaker 3: in church with your mom and you're.
Speaker 1: Trying to stay awake.
Speaker 3: Maybe you're tired because it's May and it's the end
Speaker 3: of the school year and you have all of the
Speaker 3: end of your programs and parties and teacher Gibson final
Speaker 3: exams and making sure your kids cross the finish line,
Speaker 3: and you've way over scheduled yourself this year.
Speaker 1: Anybody on here that kind of tire.
Speaker 3: Some of you are legitimately tired with no end in sight.
Speaker 3: Maybe you're a single mom on Mother's Day with no help,
Speaker 3: and you go every day from the time your eyes
Speaker 3: open in the morning until the time your.
Speaker 1: Head hits the pillow at night.
Speaker 3: It's important to recognize when you're tired and why you're tired,
Speaker 3: and it's important to evaluate your schedule, and even to
Speaker 3: learn and to ask for help when you need help.
Speaker 3: And we need rests in our lives, we do. We
Speaker 3: need times of rest and Sabbath and all of those
Speaker 3: wonderful things. But you know what I've learned in twenty
Speaker 3: plus years of being a grown up.
Speaker 1: I even get tired on vacation. I'm serious. Like for me,
Speaker 1: I don't know what it's like when you wake up
Speaker 1: in the morning, But if I get five.
Speaker 3: Hours of sleep or nine hours of sleep, when I
Speaker 3: open my eyes in the morning, I don't want to
Speaker 3: wake up. I'm still tired, and I don't want to
Speaker 3: sleep my life away. I want to stop being surprised
Speaker 3: that I'm tired.
Speaker 1: Tired is a part of being a grown up.
Speaker 3: It is no longer an excuse to not get done
Speaker 3: what needs to get done. Baby sleep when they're tired.
Speaker 3: Grown up sleep when the day is done. Some of
Speaker 3: the most defining moments in my life happened when I
Speaker 3: was tired, when I pushed through and came out on
Speaker 3: the other side. And perhaps the biggest lesson that I
Speaker 3: have had to learn in my life is that tired
Speaker 3: is a part of it every day. So we've got
Speaker 3: to learn how to fight when we're tired, because if
Speaker 3: you wait until you feel one hundred percent, you're never
Speaker 3: gonna get back what has been stolen from you. Guys,
Speaker 3: David was tired, not fifteen minutes tired now I stayed
Speaker 3: up too late last night. Tired. He was fifteen years
Speaker 3: tired of fighting a physical battle against Saul and a
Speaker 3: mental battle against himself, constantly wondering if God was really
Speaker 3: gonna do what he said that he was gonna do
Speaker 3: through David.
Speaker 1: Or if Saul was just gonna eventually get him.
Speaker 3: There is a real enemy out there, and he wants
Speaker 3: you to be too tired to fight back for.
Speaker 1: The things that he has stolen from you.
Speaker 3: He wants you to give up on the calling that
Speaker 3: God has placed on your life. But you can't stop
Speaker 3: short of the victory that God has for you. Look
Speaker 3: at Ephesian six. I know many of you just finished
Speaker 3: studying Ephesians. This was my favorite part if even six.
Speaker 3: Verse ten says, finally, be strong in the Lord and
Speaker 3: in his mighty power.
Speaker 1: Put on the full armor of God so.
Speaker 3: That you can stand against the devil's schemes. Now listen
Speaker 3: to these verses because they're kind of scary if you
Speaker 3: really read them. For our struggle is not against flesh
Speaker 3: and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against
Speaker 3: the powers of this dark world, and against the spiritual
Speaker 3: forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore, he says
Speaker 3: it again, put on the full armor of God, so
Speaker 3: that when the day of evil comes, you may be
Speaker 3: able to stand your ground. Paul is not talking about
Speaker 3: a fight for us to take new ground. Jesus's work
Speaker 3: on the Cross won the victory against sin and death.
Speaker 3: Salvation is ours. We don't have to fight for that.
Speaker 3: We receive that by grace through faith. But just because
Speaker 3: we receive salvation doesn't mean that there is not still
Speaker 3: a very real enemy.
Speaker 1: And he is going to do everything he can. He
Speaker 1: came to steal, kill, and destroy.
Speaker 3: And we are fighting against spiritual forces in realms that
Speaker 3: we don't see, things that you don't even know about,
Speaker 3: stuff that you would read in a fantasy book. Abby
Speaker 3: demons and spiritual forces that are battling for your soul.
Speaker 3: And if he can't take your salvation, he's gonna blindside you.
Speaker 3: He's gonna take your peace.
Speaker 1: His job is to get you focused on how tired
Speaker 1: you are. You've been fighting for your marriage for years.
Speaker 3: He's going to do everything he can to get you
Speaker 3: to give up on it. He wants you to be
Speaker 3: too tired to get your joy back, he wants you
Speaker 3: to be too tired to get.
Speaker 1: Your confidence back. And if he can.
Speaker 3: Take those things from you, you will live your life saved.
Speaker 1: But in defeat. And he won.
Speaker 3: As believers in Christ. So we're not fighting in our
Speaker 3: own power. That's the amazing thing.
Speaker 1: PAULSA be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.
Speaker 3: It's his mighty power that is at work on the
Speaker 3: inside of you.
Speaker 1: But sometimes you gotta get up.
Speaker 3: If you want to activate God's power in your life,
Speaker 3: you got to move.
Speaker 1: You got to seek him. Again and again and again.
Speaker 3: You got to arm yourself so that you can stand
Speaker 3: against the enemy.
Speaker 1: Don't give in, don't let him win, keep fighting even
Speaker 1: when you're tired.
Speaker 3: So David and his men fought the battle against the Amalekites,
Speaker 3: and the Bible says that it lasted a full twenty
Speaker 3: four hours.
Speaker 1: That's how long they had to fight. And look what
Speaker 1: happened though verse eighteen.
Speaker 3: David recovered all that the Amalekites had taken, and David
Speaker 3: rescued his two wives.
Speaker 1: Nothing was missing, whether great.
Speaker 3: Or small, sons or daughters, spoil or anything that had
Speaker 3: been taken. Every tiny little piece of jewelry that was stolen,
Speaker 3: David brought back all. Look at this one. David also
Speaker 3: captured all the flocks and herds, and the people drove
Speaker 3: the livestock before him and said, this is David's spoil.
Speaker 3: Skip down the verse twenty six. When David came to Ziglag,
Speaker 3: he sent part of the spoil to his friends, the
Speaker 3: elders of Judas, saying, here's a present for you from
Speaker 3: the spoils of the enemies of the Lord. Somehow, when
Speaker 3: you fight tired, you push through the longest battle of
Speaker 3: your life.
Speaker 1: You're gonna came away with spoils leftovers.
Speaker 3: There's nothing Stephen Verdick loves to eat more than good leftovers.
Speaker 1: So when I cook something.
Speaker 3: Good, like I know he loves this meal, I cook extra.
Speaker 3: I plan for leftovers. When you fight for something in
Speaker 3: your life, I'm here to tell.
Speaker 1: You you can plan for leftovers.
Speaker 3: When you fight to get your peace back, You're gonna
Speaker 3: have enough to share with those around you. When you
Speaker 3: feel your joy slipping away and you're tired, but you
Speaker 3: take the time to write in your gratitude journal and
Speaker 3: you stay focused on the faithfulness of God, you better
Speaker 3: bet that you're gonna have joy overflowing to the people
Speaker 3: around you. When you feel you're confidence slipping, but you
Speaker 3: fight back, you find your versus. You put it on
Speaker 3: post it notes. You remind yourself of who you are
Speaker 3: in Christ. You're gonna look up and your middle school
Speaker 3: daughter is gonna be more confident too. You are equipped
Speaker 3: for this fight. The weapons are there, They're in your hands.
Speaker 1: If Phesian six goes on to say.
Speaker 3: I remember Paul said several times put on the full
Speaker 3: armor of God, and he goes on to tell us
Speaker 3: you have the belt of truth, you have the breastplate
Speaker 3: of righteousness. Your feet are fitted with the Gospel of Peace.
Speaker 3: The helmet of Salvation is on your head. And in
Speaker 3: one hand you've got the shield of faith, and in
Speaker 3: the other hand you've got the sword of the Spirit.
Speaker 3: You're equipped for this fight. He's given you everything you need.
Speaker 3: The victory is yours for the taking. You got to
Speaker 3: take it. God said, go back, get what is rightfully yours.
Speaker 3: You have the weapons in your hands, and so David
Speaker 3: went back and he brought back all that was taken
Speaker 3: from him, with leftovers to share. So this week I've
Speaker 3: been talking with Stephen about what I felt like God
Speaker 3: was wanting me to say.
Speaker 1: Today.
Speaker 3: Of course I'm going to talk to Stephen Verdi about
Speaker 3: preaching right. I mean, lives in the house with me.
Speaker 3: So we've been talking about it on and off and
Speaker 3: about David, and I was telling him about you know,
Speaker 3: I just loved this idea of how David strengthened himself,
Speaker 3: and so it was kind of an ongoing conversation. A
Speaker 3: couple days later, he came from upstairs and he said, Babe,
Speaker 3: you are not going to believe what I just read.
Speaker 3: And so he showed me this verse in first Chronicles,
Speaker 3: and I'm telling you, my heart leapt.
Speaker 1: Neither of us had.
Speaker 3: Ever seen this first before I got to show.
Speaker 1: It to you.
Speaker 3: So before I show it to you, I just have
Speaker 3: to say this is in Chronicles. So we're jumping ahead
Speaker 3: to the end of David's life. He's finally become king,
Speaker 3: and he wanted to build the Lord's Temple, but he
Speaker 3: only got to make plans for the temple because God
Speaker 3: had chosen Solomon, David's son, to build the temple.
Speaker 1: So in this passage, David.
Speaker 3: Is giving one of his final speeches to Israel as
Speaker 3: they're king. He's an old man and he turns to
Speaker 3: Solomon and he gives him this charge to build the temple.
Speaker 1: Verset Chronicles twenty eight ten.
Speaker 3: It says, consider now, David says to Solomon, for the
Speaker 3: Lord has chosen you to build house as the sanctuary.
Speaker 1: Be strong and do the work.
Speaker 3: David's looking his son in the eyes, and he's speaking
Speaker 3: to him from experience. He knew that his strength began
Speaker 3: with his identity, that from the age of fifteen, God
Speaker 3: had chosen him and anointed him and equipped him for
Speaker 3: every part of the journey, every battle that he would
Speaker 3: have to fight. David knew from experience that there would
Speaker 3: be moments where Solomon would feel worn out by.
Speaker 1: The burden of leadership, that he.
Speaker 3: Would feel discouraged, and he would feel disappointment, and he
Speaker 3: would feel alone, and that there would be many days
Speaker 3: where Solomon would feel like he didn't have.
Speaker 1: The strength to do what he'd been chosen to do.
Speaker 3: And just as David looked in Solomon's eyes, I want
Speaker 3: to lie get each one of you today, whether you're
Speaker 3: watching from here at Valentine or one of our locations,
Speaker 3: or maybe you're sitting in a hospital room, or maybe
Speaker 3: you're in your bed because you didn't have the strength
Speaker 3: to get up and come to church today.
Speaker 1: Listen to me. The Lord has chosen you.
Speaker 3: Be strong and do the work. He's chosen you to
Speaker 3: raise that special needs child. Be strong in do the
Speaker 3: work He's chosen you to care for your ailing father.
Speaker 1: Be strong in do the work.
Speaker 3: He's placed you in this school or in this apartment building,
Speaker 3: in this job, and there is work to be done.
Speaker 3: Be strong and do the work. All the steps are
Speaker 3: right there. Put the verse back up. Okay, consider now
Speaker 3: just stop. Let it really sink in. The Lord has
Speaker 3: chosen you for what's the assignment? Build the house as
Speaker 3: this sanctuary. Build a temple, Paul said, our bodies are
Speaker 3: a temple of the Holy Spirit who is inside of you.
Speaker 3: You were bought with a price. You don't have to
Speaker 3: live in defeat. You're backed by a heavenly father who
Speaker 3: is strong and mighty, and he has given you the
Speaker 3: power of his spirit inside of your temple. So build
Speaker 3: the temple and be strong. That's the part where you
Speaker 3: talk to yourself when no one else is there.
Speaker 1: That's the part where you coach yourself. Be strong, Holly,
Speaker 1: be strong and do the work. This is my new
Speaker 1: life motto.
Speaker 3: I am going to shout it from the mountaintops, so
Speaker 3: you're gonna see it on my Instagram and my YouTube.
Speaker 3: I'm gonna put it on next year's Mother's Day. Moug
Speaker 3: be strong and do the work. How do I keep going?
Speaker 3: Be strong and do the work. Strength comes as you go,
Speaker 3: So get up, move, get out of bed.
Speaker 1: Do the work that you have been given to do today.
Speaker 1: Take the kids to school, get to work on time,
Speaker 1: go to the soccer game, pay the bills, read.
Speaker 3: Your Bible, play worship music, practice breathing, forgive over, and
Speaker 3: over again. Be strong and do the work. Build your temple.
Speaker 3: The only temple you can build is yours. So stop
Speaker 3: trying to build your husband's temple. Stop trying to build
Speaker 3: your child's temple.
Speaker 1: Build your temple.
Speaker 3: Make it good, make it strong, give it a good foundation.
Speaker 1: Be strong, and do the work that He has chosen
Speaker 1: you to do. Your work, not my work, your work.
Speaker 1: But I'm not strong. Do the work.
Speaker 3: The strength that you're going to need tomorrow is in
Speaker 3: the work that you're doing today. When we go on
Speaker 3: tour with elevation nights, there's a part of the experience
Speaker 3: where I go on stage and I do a little
Speaker 3: welcome and I have to say, this is never easy
Speaker 3: for me.
Speaker 1: I don't know.
Speaker 3: About you, but speaking to ten thousand people at one time,
Speaker 3: it's pretty much the most intimidating thing that a person
Speaker 3: can do. And there are many times that just as
Speaker 3: I'm about to walk on the stage, I think to myself,
Speaker 3: I really don't want to do this. And the first
Speaker 3: night is always the hardest. So this past tour no exception.
Speaker 3: This time I decided that every time I had the
Speaker 3: thought I really don't want to do this, I was
Speaker 3: going to pray a little prayer that my husband taught me.
Speaker 1: At the beginning of this year, he.
Speaker 3: Started writing these little short prayers and confessions and he
Speaker 3: would share them with me and our kids, and one
Speaker 3: particular one that he shared with me really stuck with me.
Speaker 3: I think he might have said it in one of
Speaker 3: his sermons. I know he posted it on his YouTube
Speaker 3: for one of his Basin teachings. By the way, if
Speaker 3: you're not watching those Basin videos, you're really missing out.
Speaker 3: So if you did see it, just for the record,
Speaker 3: he taught it to me first.
Speaker 1: Anyway, here's how it goes.
Speaker 3: It goes like this, I breathe you in Holy Spirit,
Speaker 3: and your strength comes suddenly, and your peace fills me completely.
Speaker 3: So I stood side stage and just as they were
Speaker 3: finishing the song Gyra under my breath, I prayed the prayer,
Speaker 3: I breathe you in Holy Spirit, and I looked out
Speaker 3: at all those people. I said, and your strength comes suddenly,
Speaker 3: and your piece fills me completely.
Speaker 1: And I walked onto the stage feeling pretty good.
Speaker 3: And as I was opening my eyes finishing my prayer,
Speaker 3: my notes were not on the screen. Listen, my last
Speaker 3: name is Ferdic, but my first name is not Stephen.
Speaker 3: And if you think that I get up on the
Speaker 3: stage and.
Speaker 1: I'm like winging it, You're wrong.
Speaker 3: And that black screen was one of my worst fears
Speaker 3: come true. And for eight minutes, do you know how
Speaker 3: long eight minutes is? For eight minutes, I stood on
Speaker 3: that stage and talked to ten thousand people with no notes,
Speaker 3: And let me just say, I don't know.
Speaker 4: You weren't there, so you might not want to clap.
Speaker 3: Let me just say they said that I seemed that
Speaker 3: I was calm, and a lot of people said really
Speaker 3: nice things to me, but I think they were just
Speaker 3: trying to make me feel better. On the outside, I'm
Speaker 3: not sure how I appeared, but on the inside I
Speaker 3: was freaking out, like you know that fight or flight thing.
Speaker 1: I was trying my best to remember what.
Speaker 3: I had planned to say, and I mean I've said it.
Speaker 1: I don't know. Probably this is probably like twenty.
Speaker 3: Four, my twenty fifth time. I say almost the same
Speaker 3: thing every time, but I don't remember what it was.
Speaker 1: So I'm trying to remember, and I'm trying to say.
Speaker 3: The things that I'm supposed to say and the things
Speaker 3: that I felt got it later on in my heart, and
Speaker 3: all the while my mind was screaming, get off this stage,
Speaker 3: abort mission, just pray and leave, just pray in Jesus,
Speaker 3: nay Amen, Holly, just get off the stage. But I didn't,
Speaker 3: and I finally finished. If I mean it was like
Speaker 3: eight hours, I think, and I prayed, and I exited
Speaker 3: the stage and I got off the stage, and I was.
Speaker 1: Physically shaking from head to toe.
Speaker 3: I've never felt like that before. Even as I'm telling
Speaker 3: you about it, I feel nervous in my stomach and
Speaker 3: I feel shaky in my hands, and I just have
Speaker 3: to say to you.
Speaker 1: Strength came suddenly.
Speaker 3: Even though it wasn't exactly the strength that I was
Speaker 3: envisioning when I.
Speaker 1: Prayed the prayer side stage. Here's the crazy part.
Speaker 3: The next night, I was filled with even more fear,
Speaker 3: like I really did not want to get on that stage.
Speaker 1: Like all the money in the world, I did not
Speaker 1: want to get on that stage.
Speaker 3: In fact, they were having to move some stuff around
Speaker 3: in the set list, and I volunteered more than.
Speaker 1: Once for them to just caught my part. True story.
Speaker 3: I was like, just take my part out, it's fine.
Speaker 3: They just want to sing rattle and here from pastors seating.
Speaker 3: They mean me.
Speaker 1: Twenty four hours later.
Speaker 3: There I was doing the work and John Soo is singing.
Speaker 1: Gyra, and I was standing at the steps, and.
Speaker 3: I prayed, I breathe you in Holy Spirit, and your
Speaker 3: strength comes suddenly, and your peace fills me completely. I
Speaker 3: walked up on the stage. I did my work with
Speaker 3: the notes at time. Sometimes every moment is a choice.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna get out of bed today, I'm gonna take
Speaker 1: a shower. Now, I'm gonna take care of my family.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go to work. I'm gonna get out of
Speaker 1: my car, go into my job.
Speaker 3: Remember what David said, I will bless the Lord at
Speaker 3: all times. Listen, just because you have to fight doesn't
Speaker 3: mean you aren't strong, and it certainly doesn't mean that
Speaker 3: you aren't called.
Speaker 1: In fact, the opposite is true. You gotta fight for
Speaker 1: your calling. So be strong and do the work. Be
Speaker 1: strong and do the work. I say it one more time,
Speaker 1: be strong and do the work.
Speaker 3: Just a few weeks ago, Stephen and a few others
Speaker 3: got together and they put that prayer into a song.
Speaker 3: Of course he did, and he told me that we
Speaker 3: could close the message by introducing this song to our church.
Speaker 3: So normally I close my messages with a.
Speaker 1: Prayer and I get off the stage. But today.
Speaker 3: I just want to look you in the eyes as
Speaker 3: best as I can through this camera, and I want
Speaker 3: to tell you, as a mother would to her own children.
Speaker 1: Be strong and do the work. You can do this.
Speaker 3: You're not alone, you're.
Speaker 1: Not unqualified, you're not ill equipped. Be and do the work.
Speaker 1: All right?
Speaker 3: Repeat after me. I breathe you in holy spirit. Take
Speaker 3: a deep breath and your strength comes suddenly.
Speaker 1: Take another breath and your piece fills me completely.
Speaker 2: Elevation Nights is coming your way. It's a special night
Speaker 2: for us to worship our amazing God together and expect
Speaker 2: great things in his presence. I'll be preaching a message
Speaker 2: I bring in Elevation Worship.
Speaker 1: We'll be singing.
Speaker 2: All your favorite songs, and of course Holly is coming
Speaker 2: with me too. We're believing that your faith is going
Speaker 2: to be inspired.
Speaker 1: Like never before.
Speaker 2: Go get your tickets right now at Elevation Nights dot com.
Speaker 2: We'll see you there.
Speaker 3: Hey.
Speaker 2: I hope you enjoyed the podcast, and if you did,
Speaker 2: make sure to share it and subscribe so we can
Speaker 2: get you all of these new messages as soon as
Speaker 2: they're available. I also want to take a moment and
Speaker 2: thank all of you who are a part of Elevation.
Speaker 2: Whether you support us financially, or serve with us, or
Speaker 2: just share these messages, it's because of you that we're
Speaker 2: able to reach people all around the world. And if
Speaker 2: you want more information on how to be a part
Speaker 2: of Elevation, click the link in the description. Thanks again
Speaker 2: for listening. Make sure to leave a review, share the
Speaker 2: message and subscribe. God bless you.