Speaker 1: Hey, this is Stephen Ferdeck. I'm the pastor of Elevation
Speaker 1: Church and this is our podcast. I wanted to thank
Speaker 1: you for joining us today. Hope this inspires you. Hope
Speaker 1: it builds your faith. Hope it gives your perspective to
Speaker 1: see God is moving in your life. Enjoy the message.
Speaker 1: Come on, everybody feels comfortable, just lift your hands. Everybody
Speaker 1: who doesn't feel comfortable, lift your hands. King of King's,
Speaker 1: Lord of lords. Jesus is your name. We bless you,
Speaker 1: honor you, respect you, admire you, and adore you. But
Speaker 1: really we want you to know that we need you.
Speaker 1: We know that for the things that we encounter as
Speaker 1: human beings that we cannot understand on the level of
Speaker 1: our existence, we need divinity. Would you direct the paths
Speaker 1: of each of the precious people that you assemble together today. See.
Speaker 1: I know that we think we decided to come to church,
Speaker 1: but really you brought us to this place something that
Speaker 1: you want to remind us of, something that you want
Speaker 1: to show us, something that you want to reveal, and
Speaker 1: whatever it is, clear out the debris of disappointment that
Speaker 1: has accumulated in our souls this week a place for
Speaker 1: your glory and your presence to dwell. We are your temple,
Speaker 1: and we reverence you, and we worship you, and we
Speaker 1: praise you in Jesus' name, and the whole church set together. Amen. Amen,
Speaker 1: come on, let's show the Lord that he's important to us. Well,
Speaker 1: look at the person next to you and tell them
Speaker 1: I love you so much. Tell them I love you.
Speaker 1: Come on, tell them I love you like Homer loves
Speaker 1: donuts on the Simpsons. Come on, tell them I love
Speaker 1: you like Kanye loves Kanye. Tell them you're my number
Speaker 1: one with the lemonade. Tell them right now, see if
Speaker 1: they're saved. How many of you are saved delivered on
Speaker 1: your way to heaven? Glad about it? God is so faithful.
Speaker 1: We want to welcome all of our campuses. Let's do
Speaker 1: that right now, Valentine. Let's welcome all of our locations
Speaker 1: all over the Charlotte area Asheville, North Carolina, Greenville, South Carolina, Toronto, Canada, Melbourne, Florida.
Speaker 1: Come on, let's thank God for Raleigh more a man.
Speaker 1: Should we see who's watching on our epam our extended
Speaker 1: family around the world. There's always many different cities in
Speaker 1: states and nations watching somebody pull it up for me.
Speaker 1: Go ahead and pull it up on the Elevation Church YouTube.
Speaker 1: Make sure you go on the Elevation Church one because
Speaker 1: it'll have the most viewers. You go over to Elevation Worship,
Speaker 1: it's not as popular. So good, are you all gonna
Speaker 1: get that new song? You never lost a battle? Are
Speaker 1: you gonna get that on Friday? Make sure you get
Speaker 1: that stream that that's gonna be so good. You can
Speaker 1: just get it stuck in your head all the time.
Speaker 1: Now how many you'll have that song stuck in your head?
Speaker 1: We didn't sing it today, but which seems like a
Speaker 1: strategic misfire that we're releasing it Friday and we didn't
Speaker 1: sing it today. But anyway, it's a good song to
Speaker 1: get stuck in your head. But I promise you your
Speaker 1: wife would rather hear Tiffany and Chris sing it than you.
Speaker 1: You can't sing, So download it, stream it and play it.
Speaker 1: Let the professionals do it. You can sing along. Tell
Speaker 1: me where you're watching from on the comments of YouTube. Oakland, California, Wisconsin, Seattle, Nigeria, Rockwell,
Speaker 1: North Carolina. You have been to Rockwell? Have you heard
Speaker 1: of it? I had neither. Uh Indiana Charlotte supposed to
Speaker 1: be at church. You better have the flu and measles,
Speaker 1: the mumps, the shingles or something. Uganda, Atlanta, Chicago, Pennsylvania, Brazil, Baltimore.
Speaker 1: It's so fast, it's scrolling so fast. Guatemala, Dominican, Indonesia.
Speaker 1: Ask somebody, where did you come from? And what are
Speaker 1: you cooking for lunch? Cannot come over? Ask them that
Speaker 1: real Quie way, hey man, welcome our Epham around the world.
Speaker 1: Let's give out. Let's give out seventeen hunks on our
Speaker 1: way down to our seat? Can we do that? Are
Speaker 1: you ready for the Word of God? Come on list?
Speaker 1: Thank God for the worship team. It's the reason I
Speaker 1: said that I don't know how else to transition them
Speaker 1: off the stage, and I want to have to awkwardly
Speaker 1: you can be seen. I want to talk to you
Speaker 1: about something today that came up. In a creative team meeting,
Speaker 1: I was asked the question about songwriting and sermon writing,
Speaker 1: which one do I enjoy more, to which I responded,
Speaker 1: it depends on what part of the process you catch
Speaker 1: me during, because there are certain times where a sermon
Speaker 1: idea will come to me and I will feel enlightened
Speaker 1: and spiritual and confident, can't wait to preach it, Get
Speaker 1: me a new nine volte battery in my microphone, and
Speaker 1: gather the people. I have something to say from heaven.
Speaker 1: Then five minutes later, I look at the same idea
Speaker 1: and it just seems so ridiculous and simple and basic.
Speaker 1: And I basically tell y'all everything I know every week.
Speaker 1: I'm just waiting on you to actually do it one time.
Speaker 1: Just kidding. You're great, You're growing. I know you're disciple.
Speaker 1: But it's like the process of creativity. It has certain
Speaker 1: points in it. When I was talking about it, I
Speaker 1: called it the sticking points, and as I talked to
Speaker 1: about that creatively, I want to speak about it today.
Speaker 1: That's the title of my message, is called the sticking point.
Speaker 1: Because everything that you love in life is going to
Speaker 1: have a part of the process that you don't like
Speaker 1: and a part that is going to tempt you to quit.
Speaker 1: And it doesn't mean you don't love it. I don't
Speaker 1: know when we started thinking that we have to love
Speaker 1: everything or like everything all the time. You know, I
Speaker 1: quit my job because I wasn't feeling it. Well, were
Speaker 1: you feeling indoor plumbing? Go back to work and pay
Speaker 1: your bills, and I have to love everything all the time,
Speaker 1: you know, because everything that you love is going to
Speaker 1: have a part. I called it the sticking point. It's
Speaker 1: going to have a part or parts that you don't prefer. Okay,
Speaker 1: I can't tell if you're with me yet. Let me
Speaker 1: take this a level deeper. Every person that you love,
Speaker 1: look straight ahead, is going to have some parts that
Speaker 1: you don't prefer. I'm gonna say it that way. It's
Speaker 1: gentler than saying that you don't like or that you
Speaker 1: want to change. Not me. I love everything about him
Speaker 1: you're dating. It's been two weeks. I can tell because
Speaker 1: every person. And there's a parable about this. Jesus said
Speaker 1: that the Kingdom of Heaven is like a man who
Speaker 1: found a treasure and was excited, and so he liked
Speaker 1: the treasure so much that he sold everything and bought
Speaker 1: the field that the treasure was in. So if you
Speaker 1: want the treasure, you've got to buy the field. This
Speaker 1: isn't going good. We want the treasure, not the dirt
Speaker 1: that comes around it. We want the treasure or the blessings,
Speaker 1: or sometimes we want those thosefo moments. But even if
Speaker 1: you love your marriage, there will be sometimes where you
Speaker 1: just want to control the TV without any voting. You know,
Speaker 1: even if you love your kids, there will be times
Speaker 1: where you will secretly google adoption agencies to see I've
Speaker 1: never actually done that. For the record, I'm getting hate mail.
Speaker 1: But everything you love. Even preaching, there's times when when
Speaker 1: I'm preaching that I feel the spirit. And then there's
Speaker 1: times where I look at the wrong person in the
Speaker 1: room and I feel another spirit, the spirit of stress,
Speaker 1: the spirit of Aland even people will walk out sometimes
Speaker 1: while you're preaching, and I called it when I was
Speaker 1: talking to them, the sticking point. It's the moment where
Speaker 1: you start to doubt what you were so secure in.
Speaker 1: It's the moment where your mood doesn't match your mission,
Speaker 1: but you've got to push through anyway because you've got
Speaker 1: something important to do. It's the moment where, oh, I
Speaker 1: didn't know that about you. When I said I'd do well,
Speaker 1: you did, and now you do. The sticking point. For
Speaker 1: a scriptural example, I thought of no better passage than
Speaker 1: the classic Exodus, where God led his people out of
Speaker 1: Egypt through the Red Sea. Did you notice what I said?
Speaker 1: Am I set up through the Red Sea, not over
Speaker 1: it on a boat? But through it on foot. You
Speaker 1: are going through something right now, you are at a
Speaker 1: sticking point. I don't know if it is a state
Speaker 1: of mind, because sometimes we are stuck not in our situation,
Speaker 1: but in our state of mind. Even recently, Holly pulled
Speaker 1: up a picture from a few years ago when we
Speaker 1: were flying home from Seattle and we got stuck in
Speaker 1: Chicago overnight on a layover. We were laughing because we
Speaker 1: were in such a bad mood. We were just remembering
Speaker 1: how late it was. It was probably ten o'clock at night,
Speaker 1: but let's make it two in the morning, just for
Speaker 1: dramatic effect on the story, creative license. But it was late,
Speaker 1: and our bags were checked and we had no clean underwear,
Speaker 1: and we checked into this horrible hotel that American Airlines
Speaker 1: had put on and we were stuck in Chicago, and
Speaker 1: we were laughing about that. We weren't laughing when it happened.
Speaker 1: We were laughing looking at when it happened, you know,
Speaker 1: two or three years ago. And remember that when we
Speaker 1: got stuck in Chicago. Well, why were we stuck in Chicago?
Speaker 1: Technically American Airlines. But if you take it apart a
Speaker 1: little bit more, the city of Chicago is a city
Speaker 1: that we like. We had visited there by choice before
Speaker 1: when I preached for Steve Munsey and Jmatt. We stayed
Speaker 1: over two extra days just so we could shop and
Speaker 1: watch the Cobs. We we had a good time too.
Speaker 1: We ate deep dish pizza. This was in my early
Speaker 1: thirties when I could do it and just plank a
Speaker 1: little bit and it will fall right off. But we
Speaker 1: did some. We had marital enrichment in the hotel room
Speaker 1: on that trip. That was a good trip. So there's
Speaker 1: nothing wrong with Chicago. It wasn't. It wasn't Chicago. It
Speaker 1: wasn't like it was Des Moines. I loved Yll so much.
Speaker 1: You're so triggered my hands from there. When's the last
Speaker 1: time you went to see her? Huh huh. It wasn't.
Speaker 1: It wasn't the situation that we were stuck in. The
Speaker 1: reason we called it stuck is because it wasn't on
Speaker 1: our schedule. You better get to the text. Verdict Exodus,
Speaker 1: chapter fourteen, verse ten. The Israelites are leaving Egypt right
Speaker 1: God heard their cry. They were stuck as slaves for
Speaker 1: four centuries serving Pharaoh, who had taken away their building materials.
Speaker 1: Increasing their requirements while reducing their resources. So they're stuck,
Speaker 1: and God hears them, and God breaks through, and God
Speaker 1: uses Moses to lead them out, because there comes a
Speaker 1: period where God sees you stuck and realizes that you
Speaker 1: cannot get yourself out of the situation. So he said,
Speaker 1: I've heard the cries of my people, and I have
Speaker 1: come down to visit them. And when he chose Moses
Speaker 1: to do it, he knew all about Moses's brokenness, and
Speaker 1: he knew all about Moses' reluctance. And he led them out,
Speaker 1: and he compelled Pharaoh to let them go, not the
Speaker 1: first time, not the second time, but after ten plagues
Speaker 1: of negotiation. You know, sticking point is a negotiation term.
Speaker 1: They talk about it in business. Well, we almost had
Speaker 1: the deal done, but then the asking price was a
Speaker 1: sticking point because they wouldn't let me finance it over
Speaker 1: five years. They wanted me to pay it off in
Speaker 1: three or or they wanted me to leave the septic tank,
Speaker 1: and I wanted to dig it out and take it
Speaker 1: with me. We hit a sticking point. You know, you
Speaker 1: hit a sticking point in your faith, you hit a
Speaker 1: sticking point in a relationship, You hit a sticking point
Speaker 1: in your life, and you've come as far as you
Speaker 1: can come. And then God comes down and he sees
Speaker 1: you struggling, and he does for you what you cannot
Speaker 1: do for you. And then don't shout. You come to
Speaker 1: something that wasn't on your schedule. Exitus fourteen, verse ten,
Speaker 1: when Pharaoh drew near. Wait, what's Pharaoh doing in the picture?
Speaker 1: I thought we were done with him? No, okay? Can
Speaker 1: I preach on half of a verse? Y'all got anything
Speaker 1: to do after this? Or should we just? Okay? Complete
Speaker 1: the sentence? If you grew up in church, complete the sentence.
Speaker 1: Where God guides, he provides. True, let me add to it.
Speaker 1: Where God doesn't guide, he still provides because He's so good.
Speaker 1: Have you ever had God bless you when you were
Speaker 1: going backwards and doing the wrong stuff? There's angels in
Speaker 1: this section over here? Have you ever Elijah in the Bible,
Speaker 1: he was running from Jezebel in the wrong direction from
Speaker 1: his assignment. He lay down and wanted to die, even
Speaker 1: though he had seen God do great things, and the
Speaker 1: Angel made him a cake. He was going away from
Speaker 1: his assignment, and God fed him with an angel food cake. Now,
Speaker 1: don't look at me like the reason that you always
Speaker 1: it's because you were always good. Some of you know
Speaker 1: that you didn't deserve it. You didn't earn it, you
Speaker 1: didn't pray enough to get it. You didn't quote Philipians,
Speaker 1: you didn't always take the right turn or follow the
Speaker 1: north star. But God tracked you down under a broom
Speaker 1: tree and bless you anyway. I need some people who
Speaker 1: are blessed anyway to shout, just ten seconds, just shout,
Speaker 1: because He fed you even as you fled from him.
Speaker 1: So where God guides, he provides. But even where God
Speaker 1: doesn't God he'll still take care of you because you're his.
Speaker 1: And then I wanted to add one more. See if
Speaker 1: you could put this on Pinterest. Okay, because they're leaving Egypt,
Speaker 1: here comes Pharaoh, their enemy behind them. They hear clickety clack,
Speaker 1: clickety clack, clickety clack. That's Pharaoh's Lamborghini's. These are fast
Speaker 1: cheeriots because they're here Pharaoh's best and they're being chased
Speaker 1: down on their way out. And so they turn around
Speaker 1: and see something that they can't go back to, look
Speaker 1: forward and see something that they can't get over. Now
Speaker 1: they got to go through it because where God guides. Now,
Speaker 1: not that one, this one where God guides Pharaoh follows. Wow,
Speaker 1: And so in negotiation terms, they've reached a sticking point.
Speaker 1: Because here's a little business tactic. Okay, I'm gonna do
Speaker 1: a seminar on negotiating right now. I'm not gonna charge you.
Speaker 1: It's not forty nine dollars. You could just listen. If
Speaker 1: someone is holding on to something in a negotiation, that
Speaker 1: means it's valuable. If they don't let it go easy,
Speaker 1: that means it has great worth. I don't know who
Speaker 1: I'm preaching to, but the devil hasn't been letting you
Speaker 1: go easy. You've been trying to shake this for a
Speaker 1: long time. And the reason, maybe the reason, if the
Speaker 1: devil is real, and if destiny is a fact and
Speaker 1: not just a concept or a fantasy, maybe the reason
Speaker 1: that it's been so difficult for it to let you
Speaker 1: go is because what you carry is of such great value.
Speaker 1: I believe this in my core. Some of you are
Speaker 1: at a sticking point right now, and Pharaoh won't let
Speaker 1: you go easy because once you get through this, there
Speaker 1: is great glory after this. If you're ever, if you're
Speaker 1: ever in them stating with someone and they're like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: I'll throw it in. It's nothing. Hey, you can have
Speaker 1: that too, it's nothing. But if they ever pull it back,
Speaker 1: you know, every time you try to get out of
Speaker 1: depression and addiction and you try to stop with the pills,
Speaker 1: and you try to stop with the porn, and you
Speaker 1: try to stop with the complaint, this is a sticking
Speaker 1: point for some of you. You've been flushing it, but
Speaker 1: then you buy it again, and then you've been deleting it,
Speaker 1: but then you put it back, and then you've been
Speaker 1: walking away from it, but then you feel drunk to it.
Speaker 1: And I wanted to tell you that when you get stuck,
Speaker 1: that means you're on the verge of something significant. God
Speaker 1: has his hand on your line. That's the first half
Speaker 1: of the first verse. And Pharaoh drew near where God
Speaker 1: guides Pharaoh follows the proof of God activity in your
Speaker 1: life will often be the increase of resistance. And behold,
Speaker 1: the Egyptians were marching after them, and they fear greatly. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I bet they did. This is not stuck in Chicago.
Speaker 1: This is not this is not We're going to have
Speaker 1: to catch the six thirty five am flight out Central
Speaker 1: Standard Time. This is pulse's pounding panic triggered by the
Speaker 1: trauma of a lifetime of bondage. And so they're standing there,
Speaker 1: and this is one thing that happens. They start arguing
Speaker 1: with Moses. Look at says verse eleven. They said to Moses,
Speaker 1: because they're no graves in Egypt, that you've taken us
Speaker 1: to die in the wilderness. What have you done to
Speaker 1: us in bringing us out of Egypt? So now they're
Speaker 1: fighting the one who's helping them. Parents. Don't worry about it.
Speaker 1: They'll thank you one day, maybe if you don't kill them.
Speaker 1: Mm hmm. Is this not what we said to you
Speaker 1: in Egypt? Verse twelve. Leave us alone that we may
Speaker 1: serve the Egyptians. I never heard them say that. All
Speaker 1: they were doing before they got out was praying to
Speaker 1: get out. Well that's all, admit. Okay, when you get stuck,
Speaker 1: you get stupid. I'm not saying you are stupid, But
Speaker 1: for me, some of the dumbest decisions I made was
Speaker 1: because I got sick of being stuck. So I'm gonna
Speaker 1: just do something. Ah, sick of this? You know when
Speaker 1: you hit send? Oh no, unsend nonsense. Understand understand. I
Speaker 1: might have been the unsend button. But when you get stuck.
Speaker 1: Elijah came in our room the other night, this was
Speaker 1: Friday night, and we were both to sleep. We were
Speaker 1: off duty on parenting for the night and our office
Speaker 1: hours are you know, seven am to five pm, and
Speaker 1: it's off duty. And he comes in the room laughing,
Speaker 1: and we were both asleep, and he's like, you're not
Speaker 1: gonna believe this. He's laughing, and he had Jim Shorts,
Speaker 1: Mesh Elevation youth champion, Jim Shorts, hanging from this bracist.
Speaker 1: He said, get it off, get it off. And I
Speaker 1: was going to write, but I said, first, let me
Speaker 1: get a video real quick, let me show this. Listen.
Speaker 1: He stuck on d you from a whole bras out Jess,
Speaker 1: look broh, because I wish you would look at your
Speaker 1: neighbor and tell them when you get stuck, you get stupid.
Speaker 1: Maybe don't date anybody for six months until you heal
Speaker 1: from the last heartbreak. Because when you get I'm in
Speaker 1: Exodus fourteen, when you get stuck, you reach for stuff.
Speaker 1: You reach for the stuff that you flushed. When you
Speaker 1: get stuck, when you get lonely, when you get hungry,
Speaker 1: when you get tired. When you gets stuck, Ah now
Speaker 1: I got the whole thing hanging out my mouth. Ah
Speaker 1: Now I got a rainbow vacuum cleaner. Ah Now I
Speaker 1: got a timeshare. When you get stuck, I didn't do
Speaker 1: it because I didn't love God. I didn't because I
Speaker 1: was stuck. And when you hit the sticking point, everybody's like,
Speaker 1: come on, rejoice, I can. I'm stuck. I'm stuck in
Speaker 1: a memory. You're miss stuck in a memory. I'm stuck
Speaker 1: in a pattern. I'm stuck in a generational thing that
Speaker 1: started before I ever came to the planet. I'm stuck.
Speaker 1: I get stuck preparing these sermons. It's horrible. I'm not
Speaker 1: playing now. I know I've been showing you, you know,
Speaker 1: like illegal footage of my children and everything in church.
Speaker 1: Orthodontist is gonna kick me Monday. He's a great orthodontist too,
Speaker 1: doctor doctor hull yoshall look him up. He's great. He's
Speaker 1: got to fix that. Tomorrow. I'm gonna have we're gonna
Speaker 1: have some business for him. But when I get to
Speaker 1: prepare these sermons, I get stuck. And it's horrible because
Speaker 1: the sticking point it makes me want to just like
Speaker 1: give up on everything I've worked on. Please don't think
Speaker 1: that I'm preaching to you about preaching. That's too meta.
Speaker 1: I'm preaching to you about preaching because that's where I
Speaker 1: get stuck, and I figured you might get stuck sometimes too.
Speaker 1: I mean, when I go to prepare, it'll just be
Speaker 1: moments where none of it makes sense for everybody that's
Speaker 1: like forty and older, Like when you had antennas on
Speaker 1: the TV and you you could see the station, but
Speaker 1: not fully because you're watching your neighbors A before you
Speaker 1: guys say before b C. It's under the blood now.
Speaker 1: But it'll scramble and I won't even know where to start.
Speaker 1: I'll be like, I don't know what to say. I'm
Speaker 1: preaching about Moses coming through the Red Sea, and I
Speaker 1: already preached about that before, and it was just mea sing.
Speaker 1: You know, they already know they got through the Red Sea,
Speaker 1: so this Swiller alert won't be interesting. So maybe I
Speaker 1: should started with Abraham, because it is Abraham, Isaac Jacob.
Speaker 1: And then Joseph went to Egypt, and you never meant
Speaker 1: to get trapped in Egypt. You went there to get food.
Speaker 1: But sometimes you get trapped where you went to get food.
Speaker 1: And sometimes place where you go to Survior's place where
Speaker 1: you get stuck, maybe start there. But I already preached
Speaker 1: that a couple weeks ago, and to remember that they
Speaker 1: come every week. They don't ever miss. That's about burning
Speaker 1: bush because he went to the the burning bush and he
Speaker 1: was butcher was burning up, but it wasn't burn up.
Speaker 1: It would just burn it burn up. And maybe that's
Speaker 1: like us inside, because when your presence comes and our
Speaker 1: passion stays alive, even though we go through stuff and
Speaker 1: we burn what we don't burn up. And the proof
Speaker 1: of your presence is the fact that we're on fire,
Speaker 1: but we stay on fire even though we go through
Speaker 1: all kinds of hell. He has to do that. I'll
Speaker 1: come up the bricks and the straw, because you know,
Speaker 1: he hasn't really good to be talking about. Holly year.
Speaker 1: Sometimes you have all the mud, but you don't have
Speaker 1: the straw, and so you got to go get your
Speaker 1: own straw. And you didn't have a dad. So you
Speaker 1: try to be a dad and you don't have what
Speaker 1: you need to be what you're trying to be, and
Speaker 1: the devil use that as condemnation, try to keep you
Speaker 1: stuck in a slave as we are. And then after that, man,
Speaker 1: I'm like, oh my god, I need a nap. And
Speaker 1: I would just feel like, I don't know where to
Speaker 1: preach this sermon on Sunday and I'm stuck, and I
Speaker 1: get so stuck. I don't want to say anything. How
Speaker 1: y'all doing praise the Lord? And I figure you get
Speaker 1: stuck too, even if you don't preach sermons. I figure
Speaker 1: you go, you're not gonna have this meeting at the
Speaker 1: kids school, and I want to go down there and
Speaker 1: talk to Principle because I don't think principal is being
Speaker 1: fair to my kid. But I I don't teach my
Speaker 1: kids sometimes that people in fair life sometimes you got
Speaker 1: them go through things. Maybe the need to learn that.
Speaker 1: I figure you get stuck sometimes. I figure you get
Speaker 1: stuck too. Sometimes is a stuckond point. And this is
Speaker 1: not the first time that you've been stuck. And this
Speaker 1: is not the first time Moses was stuck. And that's
Speaker 1: the good thing about it. If he did it before.
Speaker 1: I just want to keep you breathing today because I
Speaker 1: know you've been stuck if he did it before. See,
Speaker 1: we get stuck, not always at the external circumstance. Sometimes
Speaker 1: we get stuck in ourselves, sometimes stuck as a state
Speaker 1: of mind. Chicago is a nice city, but you weren't
Speaker 1: supposed to be in Chicago. Sometimes we get stuck not
Speaker 1: in where we are, but where we were supposed to be,
Speaker 1: in our plan for our life. And so I'm stuck,
Speaker 1: not necessarily in what it is, but in what I
Speaker 1: thought it was going to be. I get stuck in
Speaker 1: supposed to. You have been stuck in supposed to. My
Speaker 1: kid for supposed to be Valedictorians. I was supposed to
Speaker 1: be married still I was supposed to. It can be
Speaker 1: very painful. I was supposed to by now. My retirement
Speaker 1: went out, and oh wait, I was supposed to be
Speaker 1: ready to quit working by now. I was supposed to
Speaker 1: be married. My roommate got married, and she's crazy, and
Speaker 1: I'm good person and I'm a Christian girl, and I
Speaker 1: sing in the choir and elevation Valentine, and I'm supposed
Speaker 1: to be married. Some of us are stuck in what
Speaker 1: we think we were supposed to be and get stuck.
Speaker 1: Didn't get stuck in the season. Every time in fall,
Speaker 1: I start to feel a little drained from the ministry
Speaker 1: of the year, and then depression can come in because
Speaker 1: it's the same same, same, same, same same. And then
Speaker 1: everybody else in the church is feeling the same way.
Speaker 1: And then I got to preach to y'all. So, like,
Speaker 1: you know, I grew up in the Low Country or
Speaker 1: South Carolina. You don't know where I'm going with this yet,
Speaker 1: hang on. They used to take their trucks out on
Speaker 1: Friday night and get stuck on purpose, called it muddon.
Speaker 1: But I found out something now. You don't get stuck
Speaker 1: in anything shallow. If you feel stuck, that means you're
Speaker 1: in the deep stuff. Maybe God is doing something deep
Speaker 1: in your life when you feel stuck. Maybe when you
Speaker 1: feel stuck, you're building strength. I mean that's the only
Speaker 1: way you really build strength, right, is to get to
Speaker 1: that sticking point, to get to that point where you
Speaker 1: can't push through. I know you lift weights all the time, pe,
Speaker 1: how about you bench press five thirty five? All right,
Speaker 1: five thirty five. I'm making this up. I didn't hear
Speaker 1: what he really said, but he's big, and you know
Speaker 1: he's in there. I used to have this spotter in
Speaker 1: high school. I didn't bench press five thirty five, but
Speaker 1: he would stand over me and the moment I started
Speaker 1: to struggle, he would just lift the whole weight off
Speaker 1: of me. I thought, well, man, that's not a good spotter.
Speaker 1: That's not a good God to never let you have
Speaker 1: any weight. That's not a good God to never let
Speaker 1: you have any challenge. How would he grow your faith? No,
Speaker 1: see a good spotter. You're on Rep. Eleven right, five
Speaker 1: thirty five Rep eleven Ah, And I'm just a little stuck.
Speaker 1: And God is standing over your life. I need you
Speaker 1: to know this. And he sees where you're stuck, that
Speaker 1: sticking point, and he says, I'm not gonna take it
Speaker 1: off of you. I'm gonna give you a lift. Have
Speaker 1: you ever had God be your stutter? I declare, the
Speaker 1: God of angel armies is standing over your life, and
Speaker 1: if you feel stuck, he will do what you cannot do.
Speaker 1: He is your strength. He knows how to get me
Speaker 1: past the point where I'm stuck. But now watch this.
Speaker 1: You may not like this. The first sticking point that
Speaker 1: Moses encountered was not Pharaoh. The first sticking point that
Speaker 1: Moses encountered, and maybe the greatest one, is that he
Speaker 1: tried to negotiate with God and he got stuck. He
Speaker 1: got stuck at the Burning Bush before he got stuck
Speaker 1: at the Red Sea. God's like, I chose you. Now
Speaker 1: he's already stuck sheep for his father in law, Jethro.
Speaker 1: He's been doing that forty years because he got mad
Speaker 1: at somebody and killed him. Because when you get stuck,
Speaker 1: you get stupid. And so now he's doing some things,
Speaker 1: doing something that's the consequence of his decision. And then
Speaker 1: the Lord speaks to him. He's like, I chose you
Speaker 1: go to Pharaoh and tell him let my people go
Speaker 1: with the hand motions. You go to Bible school, Pharah Pharaoh, okay,
Speaker 1: And so Moses is stuck. He's like, give me chapter four,
Speaker 1: verse one, Exibus four, verse one, and he showed this
Speaker 1: because you might be stuck in yourself. He said. But behold,
Speaker 1: they will not believe me. But you hadn't even talked
Speaker 1: to them yet, or listen to my voice, for they
Speaker 1: will say. They will say the Lord did not appear
Speaker 1: to you. Know, there's two things about this that are wrong.
Speaker 1: One is on other people, and two it's about a
Speaker 1: future event you can't control either. So he's stuck, and
Speaker 1: he's stuck for good reason. It's because he knows himself.
Speaker 1: He knows Moses, you know you, and to negotiate with
Speaker 1: God is usually like nah, I better not try that.
Speaker 1: So I'm stuck in myself and he's already. Isn't this crazy?
Speaker 1: He's telling himself a story of what's gonna happen. You've
Speaker 1: been stuck in a story of what's going to happen?
Speaker 1: Wake up in the middle of the night sometimes just like, Ah,
Speaker 1: I'm in a king's eze bed. Everything's good, got the
Speaker 1: beautiful woman in the world sleeping next to me. Ah,
Speaker 1: I'm screaming. I'm stuck in a story of what might
Speaker 1: happen tomorrow or what has happened before. You ever been
Speaker 1: stuck in a story? Have you ever been stuck in yourself?
Speaker 1: Have you ever been stuck in a story about yourself?
Speaker 1: I mean, rejection is painful, but Moses takes it to
Speaker 1: a new level. This is not rejection. He rejects himself
Speaker 1: before anybody else has the chance to. This is like
Speaker 1: advanced level. This is prejection. Huh, Well, I'm not even
Speaker 1: gonna try. It's a story of my life. Everything always
Speaker 1: goes wrong. I mean, I see this. I don't want
Speaker 1: to do a dating seminary. We already did a negotiation
Speaker 1: seminar when you ask her out on a date like,
Speaker 1: I know you've got don't mine too. I mean you
Speaker 1: gotta have some confidence to it. Man walk up to
Speaker 1: her like, hey, I didn't know if you wanted to
Speaker 1: go Tuesday or Wednesday. Come on, I'm helping you. Name
Speaker 1: your kid Larry, that's my legal first name. But Moses
Speaker 1: is like, I can't do this. I know me, I
Speaker 1: don't have it. I can't do it. He's stuck in
Speaker 1: a story about himself. Now, the bigger story does not
Speaker 1: revolve around you. Remember that. When we get stuck in ourselves,
Speaker 1: we miss the whole point that God is doing something
Speaker 1: that is bigger than you. It's bigger than what's wrong
Speaker 1: with you. It's bigger than what you didn't do. It's
Speaker 1: bigger than the time you waste it, and is certainly
Speaker 1: bigger than the opinions of others. So God makes this
Speaker 1: kind of like pep talk. He's like, what is that
Speaker 1: in your hand? What is that in your hand? Which
Speaker 1: this wouldn't make me feel any better if I've got
Speaker 1: to lead a whole nation until the most powerful man
Speaker 1: in the world let my people go uh yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: yeah yeah. It's like, what is that in your hand?
Speaker 1: And Moses says, give me the verse a staff. The
Speaker 1: ESV calls it a staff, but technically it's a stick
Speaker 1: for every sticking point in your life. God has given
Speaker 1: you a stick, and you've got one right now. In
Speaker 1: order for Moses to see what that instrument could be,
Speaker 1: he had to release it and throw it down on
Speaker 1: the ground. When he released it on the ground, it
Speaker 1: became a snake. Until you surrender it, you will never
Speaker 1: see what it could be. I'm gonna bridge this thing.
Speaker 1: I'm going home in a minute. But let me tell
Speaker 1: you something right now. If you will release it, if
Speaker 1: you will put it before God, if you will say,
Speaker 1: here's my intellect, here's my will, here's my understanding, here's
Speaker 1: my ability, you will watch it transform. It will transform.
Speaker 1: It became a snake to become a sign because Moses
Speaker 1: needed to know this is really God, because he was
Speaker 1: stuck in himself. And when you need to get out
Speaker 1: of yourself, you have to release what God has given
Speaker 1: you so he can show you what it can become.
Speaker 1: But then he had to do something crazy. He had
Speaker 1: to do something that I would never do. He had
Speaker 1: to do something that you only do if you really
Speaker 1: love nature. He had to pick up the snake because
Speaker 1: when he first released it and it became a snake,
Speaker 1: he ran from it because he was smart, not because
Speaker 1: he didn't have faith, but because he had intelligence. But
Speaker 1: then God called him to reach for what he had
Speaker 1: been running from. I promise you, I feel the Holy
Speaker 1: Spirit so strong right now. And when he did it,
Speaker 1: it turned back into a stick. A stick is something small,
Speaker 1: but it would be that same stick. I need you
Speaker 1: to know this because you've never been through this challenge before.
Speaker 1: You've never been twenty four before. You've never been sixty
Speaker 1: one before. You never been a wife before, you never
Speaker 1: been a mom before. I never been a dad before.
Speaker 1: This is my first rodeo. You've never been through this before.
Speaker 1: This wasn't on my schedule. And I don't feel like
Speaker 1: I'm what I'm supposed to be for what I'm up against.
Speaker 1: Can I tell you what God told Moses by the
Speaker 1: power of the Holy Spirit, that when you stand in
Speaker 1: front of those red seas in your life, God took
Speaker 1: him back and showed him the same stick, the same
Speaker 1: stick that God had changed into a snake and back
Speaker 1: into a stick that same stick, and he told him
Speaker 1: an Exodus fourteen, verse sixteen, I want you to take
Speaker 1: your stick and point it at what you're going through.
Speaker 1: I want you to take your stick, and I want
Speaker 1: you to point it at what you can't get over.
Speaker 1: I want you to take your stick. Keep the verse up,
Speaker 1: because this is right from the Bible, and raise your staff.
Speaker 1: I know as small, it always feels small. I know
Speaker 1: that some of you are visited by the perpetuable spirit
Speaker 1: of a never enough. But it becomes enough. When you
Speaker 1: stretch it. It becomes enough. When you use it, it
Speaker 1: becomes enough. This is the miracle of faith. Why because God,
Speaker 1: God changes things. Say it. God changes things. That's what
Speaker 1: he does. God changes things. He turns mourning to dancing.
Speaker 1: He changes things. He gives beauty for ashes. He changes things.
Speaker 1: He turns shame into glory. He turns crosses into empty tombs,
Speaker 1: he turns graves into gardens, He turns phones into armies,
Speaker 1: he turns sees into highways. And if you will stretch
Speaker 1: what He gave you over what's your going through, You're
Speaker 1: gonna get through that. I declare it, I decree it.
Speaker 1: God said it. That sells it back up Pharaoh. I've
Speaker 1: come it through. Oh, I know it feels small, and
Speaker 1: I know for many of your energy has been diminished
Speaker 1: by what you've gone through. And I know some of
Speaker 1: you feel too young, and some feel too old, and
Speaker 1: some feel too in between, and some feel too Shut
Speaker 1: up and trust your stuff. Don't do something stupid like
Speaker 1: give up and quit just because you feel tired. I
Speaker 1: felt tired from the nine thirty and I came out
Speaker 1: and preached this one, and I had to get in
Speaker 1: a freezing cold shower to wake up. Because you need
Speaker 1: this word. So I grabbed my stick and preached it
Speaker 1: because I can't stop doing what I'm called to do
Speaker 1: just because I'm tired. But you will have to trust
Speaker 1: that it is enough, not that God is enough, but
Speaker 1: that what He gave you is enough for where he
Speaker 1: put you. This is a sticking point, and if you
Speaker 1: sit there and try to negotiate with God, you will
Speaker 1: miss it. Saddest thing in the world is that Moses
Speaker 1: never even went into the Promised Land. He got stuck.
Speaker 1: He hit a rock with his staff, the same staff
Speaker 1: that he raised over the sea, and the water's parted
Speaker 1: and they got through. He took that staff because he
Speaker 1: was tired of the people, and he struck the rock twice,
Speaker 1: and God said, now you can't go in because you
Speaker 1: don't trust me enough. Everything you love will have a
Speaker 1: part of the process that you will not like, including
Speaker 1: following Jesus. Did Jesus love the Father? Then why did
Speaker 1: he ask in the Garden of Gothsemone if there's any
Speaker 1: other way? I don't want to do it, because everything
Speaker 1: that you love will have a part that you don't like.
Speaker 1: I'm so sick of my generation thinking that we always
Speaker 1: have to feel happy to move forward. Sometimes we can
Speaker 1: do it because we love God enough, and we love
Speaker 1: people enough, and we're called and because we have a style.
Speaker 1: I gotta stick I gotta stick it out, I gotta persevere.
Speaker 1: I have a purpose, I have a reason, I have
Speaker 1: a calling. And no, you can't have me back, Pharaoh. No,
Speaker 1: come too far to get stuck here. Some of you
Speaker 1: came from broken homes and broken families and busted situations,
Speaker 1: and God would not bring you out here to drown you.
Speaker 1: He's dealing with your enemies. Stretch your stick and trust
Speaker 1: your stuff and go forward and stand there. It's a
Speaker 1: small thing. And if you trust him enough to stretch
Speaker 1: the small thing over the bigger thing. I don't know
Speaker 1: what that is for you. I'm going slow because I
Speaker 1: need you to imagine and I need you to see
Speaker 1: yourself on the other side of this, what it's going
Speaker 1: to be like when you're helping somebody else and all
Speaker 1: the hell that you went through isn't wasted, but it's invested.
Speaker 1: It's the dumbest thing. But I just saw a picture
Speaker 1: like Popeye or something of you just getting strong in
Speaker 1: your spirit because you're pushing past the sticking point. Now
Speaker 1: you got a spot her and God is not gonna
Speaker 1: let it fall on you. But you got to imagine. Okay, Okay,
Speaker 1: I will rejoice again, I will sing again. Okay, Okay,
Speaker 1: my children are gonna be free because I fought for this. Okay, Okay,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna do it. But but you will have to commit.
Speaker 1: You will have to You will have to walk through it,
Speaker 1: and that means you'll have to walk through something that
Speaker 1: feels like it could collapse on you at any time.
Speaker 1: The story goes that he stretched the staff, he trusted God,
Speaker 1: and God made a Don't you love this? An interstate
Speaker 1: highway through the sea. Who else can do that? Who
Speaker 1: else can turn a sea into a highway, a stick
Speaker 1: into a sake, a great only God can do it.
Speaker 1: So the ability to walk through something that God is
Speaker 1: holding up for you. You can't stick your right foot
Speaker 1: in and your right foot out. You can't hokey pokey
Speaker 1: through the red sea. It's going to mean saying that God,
Speaker 1: I'm going to see this through. Must stay in this
Speaker 1: uncomfortable place. I would rather stay stuck and have you
Speaker 1: deal with what you need to deal with. I would
Speaker 1: rather stay stuck and see your purpose for my life fulfilled.
Speaker 1: Because when you're standing in front of something you've never
Speaker 1: seen before, hold on to what you know. You got
Speaker 1: to stick. You got to stick. And when it happens
Speaker 1: this week, when you hit the sticking point, if it's
Speaker 1: a mood, or if it's a I don't want to
Speaker 1: say this, but if it's a mother in law, or
Speaker 1: or if it's something real, deep and dark that we
Speaker 1: can't talk about out loud, when you hit it, use
Speaker 1: your stick. Small, Trust, imagine, commit and know that spells stick. Small.
Speaker 1: Trust God. It doesn't feel like much, but it's enough. Trust, Imagine,
Speaker 1: commit and know, Father, as your word has gone forth
Speaker 1: today I have experienced such a joy of seeing these
Speaker 1: people receive this personal word, and on the other side
Speaker 1: of the camera, watching through a screen somewhere as someone
Speaker 1: who needed this message, and sitting in this room is
Speaker 1: someone who is at a sticking point, and what they
Speaker 1: do next will determine so much about whether they stay
Speaker 1: stuck or move forward. Everyone's standing at all of our locations,
Speaker 1: no one leaving. Thank you, Lord, Glory to your name,
Speaker 1: Thank you Jesus, Blessed be your name. Holy is your name?
Speaker 1: Worthy is your name? Worthy is your name? Worthy is
Speaker 1: your name? When they got through to the other side, y'all,
Speaker 1: they started singing. But sometimes you got to sing on
Speaker 1: the wrong side. Worthy is your name. Sometimes you've got
Speaker 1: to sing when you feel pain, and you've got to
Speaker 1: offer God the sacrifice of praise. And I wish there
Speaker 1: were about one thousand people in Elevation Valentine, and a
Speaker 1: few hundred at Blakeney, and a few hundred of Gaston
Speaker 1: that would just lift your hands and begin to worship gods.
Speaker 1: Begin to thank him that he turns seas into highways,
Speaker 1: you servles. Begin to thank him that he turns mourning
Speaker 1: to dancing. Your season, to thank him that he steals
Speaker 1: wins and ways only and the things that only he
Speaker 1: can do. Shooter mort It's a dance and the glory,
Speaker 1: and only he deserves you give beauty for his name
Speaker 1: is gret. His one is your shame. Easy and it
Speaker 1: will come to new kid. Shoot cercasy in weodser all
Speaker 1: ho mercy coming to believe that come. I'll say it
Speaker 1: like you bim in long pay so youo Turisey shoot
Speaker 1: tr balls it too, Dorcy Jody, Thank you for joining us.
Speaker 1: Special thanks to those of you who give generously to
Speaker 1: this ministry. Is because of you that this ministry is possible.
Speaker 1: You can click the link in the description to give now,
Speaker 1: or visit Elevation Church dot org slash podcast for more
Speaker 1: information and if you enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe.
Speaker 1: You can share it with your friends. You can click
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Speaker 1: your social stories and tag us at Elevation Church. Thanks
Speaker 1: again for listening, Leshm