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: Come on, let's get Jesus the best phrase if you've
Speaker 3: been saving it all day.
Speaker 1: Come on, let's lift up the name that's above every name. Wow.
Speaker 1: I'm so honored to be here. And just while you're standing,
Speaker 1: I want to first of all think my friend and
Speaker 1: my big brother, Pastor Stephen Ferdick, not only for this opportunity,
Speaker 1: but you know, God uses people. How many know that?
Speaker 1: Can I get an amen? Somebody? God uses people, and
Speaker 1: God use your pastor to change my life. And I
Speaker 1: am honestly where I'm at today because of his wisdom,
Speaker 1: his friendship, his care and just the way his sermons,
Speaker 1: his songs. And I want to just say to God
Speaker 1: be the glory for a man that is so important
Speaker 1: to everyone in this room, every location, every e fam member,
Speaker 1: to the world. And I want to honor Pastor Steven
Speaker 1: and Pastor Hollifredick today just for the gift that they
Speaker 1: are to all of us. Can we put our hands
Speaker 1: together let them know we love them? Amen, And it
Speaker 1: is such a huge honor to be with you today.
Speaker 1: Before you're seated, find at least three people. Tell them
Speaker 1: it looks like you're losing weight. Come on, tell them,
Speaker 1: tell them it looks like you're All the epham around
Speaker 1: the world looks like you're losing weight.
Speaker 3: You're looking good. All of our locations, you're looking good.
Speaker 1: Wow, wow, wow. I don't know what. I don't know
Speaker 1: if it's keto or oh sim pick, I don't know
Speaker 1: what it is, but you're looking good. Hey, thank you
Speaker 1: to uh. I feel like was that elevation rhythm? I
Speaker 1: don't know? But or am I just old? Am I
Speaker 1: just old?
Speaker 2: Now?
Speaker 1: Where it all looks like kids leading worship, But make
Speaker 1: some noise for that amazing worship. That is wow. Great job, Tim,
Speaker 1: great to see a great job with man. The youth
Speaker 1: ministries just incredible. Let's go right to the word. I'm
Speaker 1: I'm I'm fired up. We're gonna go to First Kings seventeen.
Speaker 1: I got a lot to say, so I want to
Speaker 1: go to the word First King Chapter seventeen. While you're
Speaker 1: turning there. If you don't have a Bible, don't worry
Speaker 1: to come up on the screen. But if you do,
Speaker 1: go ahead and turn with me. I do want to
Speaker 1: bring greetings from Las Vegas. We started City Light Church
Speaker 1: six years ago and God is just really blessing and
Speaker 1: breathing on that work. And I'm grateful. And if you're
Speaker 1: if you're ever in Vegas, don't laugh. Hey, y'all guilty.
Speaker 1: I don't know what happened at every other location, but
Speaker 1: it's a real little naughty smile that just filled the whole.
Speaker 1: I don't know why you come to Vegas. I think
Speaker 1: you come to Street of Angelism. Amen. Uh, you're you're,
Speaker 1: you're all the people with the signs right on the
Speaker 1: strip preaching you reach out to the blackjack dealers, Amen
Speaker 1: and to. I don't know why you come, but if you,
Speaker 1: if you're ever in Vegas, come say hi. I'd love
Speaker 1: to see you and uh to uh love to see
Speaker 1: you in church on a Sunday morning, First King's Chapter seventeen.
Speaker 1: Then the Lord said to Elijah, anybody grateful that God
Speaker 1: speaks Hallelujah, go and live in the village of Zaraphath,
Speaker 1: near the city of Sedon. I've instructed a widow there
Speaker 1: to feed you. So he went to Zarafath. As he
Speaker 1: arrived at the gates of the village, he saw a
Speaker 1: widow gathering sticks there, and he asked her, would you
Speaker 1: bring me a little cup of water? And as she
Speaker 1: was going to get it, he called to her, I love,
Speaker 1: this is the most man move in the Bible. Y
Speaker 1: Already every husband and wife knows this move right here.
Speaker 1: And can you get me a little snack? Jesus gamelo, babe.
Speaker 1: Can you get me a little a little bread, Get
Speaker 1: me a little sandwich, babe? She said, I swear by
Speaker 1: the Lord your God, I don't even have a single
Speaker 1: piece of bread in this house. I only have a
Speaker 1: handful of flour left in a jar, and a little
Speaker 1: cooking oil left in the bottom of this jug. I
Speaker 1: was just gathering sticks to cook the last meal, and
Speaker 1: then my son and I will die. Elijah said to her,
Speaker 1: don't be afraid. Go do what you've said, but make
Speaker 1: a little bread for me first. This is amazing that
Speaker 1: God did not say, make one big piece of bread,
Speaker 1: cut it three ways, and we'll all have a peace.
Speaker 1: He said, make mine first, because when you put God
Speaker 1: first in your life. I have to believe that every
Speaker 1: time I put God first in my life, a miracle
Speaker 1: is happening in the kitchen. So he said, make mine first,
Speaker 1: then use what's left over to prepare a meal for
Speaker 1: you and your son. For this is what the Lord,
Speaker 1: the God of Israel, says. There will always be flour
Speaker 1: and olive oil left in your containers until the time
Speaker 1: when the Lord sends rain and the crops grow again.
Speaker 1: So she did as Elijah said. She and Elijah and
Speaker 1: her family continue to eat for many days. There was
Speaker 1: always enough. Man.
Speaker 3: I love this about God. There was always enough flower.
Speaker 1: And olive oil left in the containers, just as the
Speaker 1: Lord had promised through Elijah. I want to just look
Speaker 1: at verse twelve very quickly, and then we're gonna We're
Speaker 1: going to dismantle a lie that she believed. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: eat this meal and die. And it's here that Elijah
Speaker 1: comes with a different word, faith word, hope word, God word,
Speaker 1: a prophetic word. And I want to come with that.
Speaker 1: I want to I want to contradict the devil. Today.
Speaker 1: I've come to disagree with the demons that have been
Speaker 1: lying to you. I've got good news for you today,
Speaker 1: and I want to I want to speak from this idea.
Speaker 1: It's not over, It's not over. Can you can you
Speaker 1: just maybe elbow who's next to you, make them a
Speaker 1: little uncomfortable, tell them it's not over. Come on, tell
Speaker 1: a come on online around the world.
Speaker 3: Tell him it's not over. It's not over. Do y'all
Speaker 3: believe it today?
Speaker 1: Give the Lord one more shout of praise, and we're
Speaker 1: going to get into this word. Bless your word, Lord,
Speaker 1: in Jesus's name, Amen and Amen. Prophets in the Old
Speaker 1: Testament are called seers, seers see r s. They are seers.
Speaker 1: They see. We think of prophets as speaking, and they do.
Speaker 1: But before they would say a thing, they would see
Speaker 1: a thing. God would take them up into the spirit realm.
Speaker 1: Pastor preached about trainces last week and about Peter getting
Speaker 1: caught up into the spirit. He would he would take
Speaker 1: prophets up into the spirit, and he would say, Ezekiel,
Speaker 1: what do you see, Jeremiah, what do you see? Isaiah?
Speaker 1: What do you tell me what you see? And then
Speaker 1: they would say what they saw. Because it was very
Speaker 1: important for God to communicate that there is more going
Speaker 1: on than meets the natural eye. Oh, I'm trying to
Speaker 1: slow down already, but I'm I already feel like preaching,
Speaker 1: and I just started. He's trying to tell them that
Speaker 1: there's more than the five senses, There's more than the natural,
Speaker 1: There's more than what your eyes can see. There is
Speaker 1: a spiritual realm, there is a spiritual place, there is
Speaker 1: an element called faith. In that place, in the Kingdom place,
Speaker 1: in the God place, nothing is impossible. So he has
Speaker 1: to get them to see that there's more to see
Speaker 1: than what they see, and then they are to say
Speaker 1: what they see in the spirit realm because God knows something.
Speaker 1: God knows that if you can get a vision from
Speaker 1: God and a word from God, you become unstoppable. That
Speaker 1: when I get a vision from God and a word
Speaker 1: from God, nothing is impossible. That though the giants are great,
Speaker 1: I have a word from God, and though the mountains
Speaker 1: are high, I have a word from God. And though
Speaker 1: my kids are acting crazy right now, I got a
Speaker 1: word from God. And though I don't even know where
Speaker 1: my spouse was last night, I got a word from God.
Speaker 1: And though I don't know how I'm gonna pay the bills,
Speaker 1: I got a vision from God. And what I see
Speaker 1: right now with my eyes does not look like what
Speaker 1: I saw in the spirit. But if I can get
Speaker 1: a vision, I can make it. Because without a vision,
Speaker 1: the people perish, They lose control, they lose hope, they
Speaker 1: lose all of their hope. But with a vision, I
Speaker 1: can make it. This is what happened to Elisha and
Speaker 1: second Kings when the enemy surround Elisha and his servant,
Speaker 1: and his servant comes to him and says, my Lord,
Speaker 1: we're surrounded by enemies. And Elisha prays, and Elisha does
Speaker 1: not pray, God help us. Elisha does not pray, God,
Speaker 1: where are you. Elisha does not pray, God, we need
Speaker 1: a vis Elisha prays, not for himself or against his enemies.
Speaker 1: Elisha prays for his servant. And here's his prayer. And
Speaker 1: I don't think his servant was expecting it. Lord, open
Speaker 1: his eyes, because he thinks we have an enemy problem.
Speaker 1: But he has a vision problem. You think you got
Speaker 1: a devil problem. You got a vision problem. You think
Speaker 1: you got a demon problem. You got a vision problem.
Speaker 1: You might think you got a boss problem. Maybe you
Speaker 1: have a vision problem. You might think you got a
Speaker 1: wife problem, Sir, Maybe you have a vision problem because
Speaker 1: once God opens my eyes. I can now see what's
Speaker 1: God open my eyes, so I don't live my entire
Speaker 1: life sing with these but never see what You're doing
Speaker 1: in my life, or I will end up praying the
Speaker 1: wrong prayers, go into the wrong places, hang in with
Speaker 1: the wrong people, singing the wrong songs. But if God
Speaker 1: can open my eyes, I can do everything what God's
Speaker 1: called me to do. I think we ought to give
Speaker 1: God a praise right there, because that's the power of
Speaker 1: this church. That's the power of every song we sing.
Speaker 1: That's the power of doing a new You is that
Speaker 1: I can now see from Heaven's perspective. I remember the
Speaker 1: first time my little daughter realized we were in an
Speaker 1: airplane as she looked out the window and the world
Speaker 1: started to get his own small And she goes, Dad,
Speaker 1: the car the people are small, Dad, the mountains are small.
Speaker 1: And I go they didn't get any smaller, You just
Speaker 1: got higher. I'm telling you, God, God can take you
Speaker 1: somewhere where you see and where you hear, and where
Speaker 1: you say something radically different. And it's here that God
Speaker 1: helps this woman to see. It's here that God helps
Speaker 1: this woman to hear a better word, It's it's here
Speaker 1: that she catches a vision for herself or her family
Speaker 1: and for the famine that she finds herself in it.
Speaker 1: I believe today, this is a vision day. I believe
Speaker 1: God's gonna release sight today. Firstly, you have to see
Speaker 1: your future. You have to see your future. The woman says,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna eat this meal and die. Wow, put that
Speaker 1: on your dream board. Huh, that's a that's an awkward
Speaker 1: Instagram post. But this is what she believed. This is
Speaker 1: what she thought. Let me let me let me say
Speaker 1: the obvious that maybe even ever thought about. She did
Speaker 1: not know that. She didn't know it'd be her last meal.
Speaker 1: She didn't have a weather app on her phone. She
Speaker 1: didn't know if God was in the sin rain tomorrow.
Speaker 1: She didn't know if someone was gonna bring her food
Speaker 1: in the morning. She didn't know she was in the
Speaker 1: presence of a prophet. She had no idea about her future,
Speaker 1: but she was predicting her future based off of the
Speaker 1: worst case scenario. I'm gonna eat this meal and die.
Speaker 1: She didn't know that. And every time we speak from
Speaker 1: a spirit of fear, we are declaring the worst case scenario,
Speaker 1: even though we don't know. See, this is fear. Fear
Speaker 1: is not always frighted. Fear is not always this feeling
Speaker 1: of panic like we think. Fear is it's over. Fear
Speaker 1: is I guess the famine wand Fear is I tried
Speaker 1: and failed. Fear is I guess this is my last meal.
Speaker 1: Fear doesn't feel like what you think is gonna feel like.
Speaker 4: Now.
Speaker 1: I know this because since i'veted our church six years ago,
Speaker 1: I've had three panic attacks. Now, I didn't have panic
Speaker 1: attacks before I planted the church. Before I planted the church,
Speaker 1: I was an evangelist, I preached, I traveled, and I
Speaker 1: lived in Newport Beach, California. Amen, it was just you
Speaker 1: don't have panic attacks in Newport Beach. You just everybody's
Speaker 1: a Christian. The dolphins are saved. You go see them
Speaker 1: out swimming, speaking in tongues, you know. I mean, it's
Speaker 1: like it's anointed. Everybody's smiling, or at least has enough boatox.
Speaker 1: It looks like they're smiling the other everybody's happy, everybody's
Speaker 1: got tan. Life was good. And then I moved to
Speaker 1: Sin City and I planted this church. I thought I
Speaker 1: was having a heart attack. Three times I thought I
Speaker 1: was having a heart attack. I'd go into the emergency room.
Speaker 1: Hi are you good? Good good? I'm good. I see
Speaker 1: a sign in sir, what's wrong. I'm dying. I'm having
Speaker 1: a heart attack. Man, they freak out. They get you
Speaker 1: to the front of the line. I mean it goes
Speaker 1: into code ight. By the way, if you ever want
Speaker 1: to get to the front of an ear no, never mind,
Speaker 1: don't do that. But I was just telling you. I mean,
Speaker 1: they get you. I mean it's like it's twenty minutes
Speaker 1: in Mayhem. They're taking blood, they're putting a little electrical things
Speaker 1: all over. I mean it's they're freaking out for twenty minutes,
Speaker 1: and all of a sudden, boom, they're gone. And there
Speaker 1: I am just sitting there in a in a gown
Speaker 1: for an hour in a cold room. The breeze is
Speaker 1: blowing in places I didn't know I had, and the
Speaker 1: doctor walks in.
Speaker 3: Mister Tavis, I got good news and I got bad news.
Speaker 1: The good news is you are not having a heart attack.
Speaker 1: The bad news is you're having a panic attack. You're depressed,
Speaker 1: I said number one, I am having a heart attack.
Speaker 1: I feel like a like an elephants on my chest.
Speaker 1: I can I can feel my heart. I can't breathe.
Speaker 1: I know because you now you have a panic. All
Speaker 1: the numbers are good grabbing a panic attack, and it
Speaker 1: felt like I was dying. But really I was just
Speaker 1: so fearful of my future that I told myself this
Speaker 1: must be it. But I've come to declare to somebody
Speaker 1: at Elevation Church today, it's not over. This is not
Speaker 1: your last meal. This is not the end of the
Speaker 1: road for you. This is not how it ends, This
Speaker 1: is not your last year. This is not how it
Speaker 1: ends for you. God is still writing your story. Oh
Speaker 1: can I get a good amen? In the House of
Speaker 1: the Lord. See fear lies, Fear lies to you, and
Speaker 1: fear assumes and declares the worst case scenario you. Fear
Speaker 1: tries to predict my tomorrow by the challenges of yesterday.
Speaker 1: She judged her future by the drought that she's been in,
Speaker 1: and she cursed her tomorrow based off of the pain
Speaker 1: of her past. I understand there's challenges in this room.
Speaker 1: I understand there's pain in this room. I understand there
Speaker 1: are very hard seasons in this room, in every room,
Speaker 1: people watching all over the world and you going. But
Speaker 1: you don't know what what I'm going through but I
Speaker 1: want to declare a truth over you. Your past is
Speaker 1: not your prophecy. Oh I felt that, am I sanctified soul.
Speaker 1: Just because it's been one way doesn't mean it will
Speaker 1: always be that way. Just because I've been in a
Speaker 1: season doesn't mean that sea and last. Every season changes.
Speaker 1: The storm can't last forever. Eventually God will make it
Speaker 1: rain again. Eventually, the trout ends. Eventually things can chain.
Speaker 1: Your past is not your prophecy, It is not my prediction.
Speaker 1: It is a real part of my story, but it's
Speaker 1: not the end of my story. It's a chapter in
Speaker 1: my book, but it's not the final chapter of my book.
Speaker 1: Let me tell you some about about the enemy of
Speaker 1: your soul. Let me tell you some about the devil.
Speaker 1: The devil is a is a present devil. Let me
Speaker 1: say it like this. He is. He roams around like
Speaker 1: a lion seeking whom he made divide. He is, he is,
Speaker 1: He's present. This is radically different than the God that
Speaker 1: you serve. They're not in some crazy cosmic battle. They're
Speaker 1: not armor sling for your soul. Don't don't worry about it,
Speaker 1: because because God is radically different. God is everywhere. Oh
Speaker 1: God was, do I have a scholar in the house,
Speaker 1: and he and he is and he is to come,
Speaker 1: which means that God is in your past. God is
Speaker 1: working in your future, and God God is preparing you
Speaker 1: in your present. God is all places at once. Paul
Speaker 1: said about Jesus that he feels time and space, that
Speaker 1: he's here, and he's there, and he's everywhere, all at
Speaker 1: the same time. This is good news because see, when
Speaker 1: the enemy speaks to you, he can only speak to
Speaker 1: you in your present. I'm going somewhere. He doesn't know
Speaker 1: your future. He speaks to you in your today, and
Speaker 1: he lies to you about tomorrow, and he hopes you
Speaker 1: believe it.
Speaker 3: But his guess is as good as yours. So he
Speaker 3: whispers in the woman's ear, this is your last meal.
Speaker 3: You're gonna die. You go listen my last meal. I'm
Speaker 3: gonna die. He don't know that, just like she don't
Speaker 3: know that. This is radically different than God. God establishes
Speaker 3: the end.
Speaker 1: From the beginning. He starts in your future. He doesn't
Speaker 1: guess about your tomorrow. Oh, this is good news. This
Speaker 1: means that when God gives you a promise, he's not guessing.
Speaker 1: Am I helping anybody right now? He doesn't go. I
Speaker 1: hope it works out. I got good plains for you.
Speaker 1: Let's see, he said, as I know the plans that
Speaker 1: I have for you, they are plans to give you
Speaker 1: a hope. Can we get a little rowdy at this
Speaker 1: first service of the day. I'm talking to somebody of
Speaker 1: what God talks to you. He talks to you.
Speaker 5: From your future into your present, and he says.
Speaker 6: Come on over to this side.
Speaker 3: I've got good plans. I've got a good and he's
Speaker 3: not hoping it happens. He knows it'll happen. Oh, this
Speaker 3: is so different. This is the God you serve. This
Speaker 3: is the God who gives you promises. This is the
Speaker 3: God we sing about. He knows exactly what he's doing
Speaker 3: and he's got good plans for you. Jesus talks about
Speaker 3: a spirit.
Speaker 1: In the last Day. He talks about a mentality that
Speaker 1: would fill the earth in the last days. Luke twenty
Speaker 1: one says that the people will be terrified. How you know,
Speaker 1: that's just like the spirit of the world just scared.
Speaker 1: It is the world scared today that it was one
Speaker 1: hundred years ago. I'm not sure. But now we got
Speaker 1: these little phones, y'all know what I'm saying, and you
Speaker 1: wake up in the morning and you turn them on
Speaker 1: and it tells you. That phone tells you the worst.
Speaker 1: So we're terrified because one hundred years ago, they didn't
Speaker 1: know there was a tornado in Nebraska and an earthquake
Speaker 1: in Japan and a war in the Middle League. They
Speaker 1: didn't know. They were just living their life. But now
Speaker 1: we have twenty four hour access to news, and good
Speaker 1: news doesn't sell, only bad news sells. So it's constant
Speaker 1: bad news, and we are feeding and it become addicted
Speaker 1: to bad news. We've become addicted to concern, we become
Speaker 1: addicted to panic, and now we feed on it twenty
Speaker 1: four hours a day. And Jesus said, this would be
Speaker 1: the tone, this would be the spirit, this would be
Speaker 1: the stronghold, this would be the mentality of the world's system.
Speaker 3: That fear would grip us. We would be terrorized, terrified. Oh,
Speaker 3: but there is another spirit. For the child of God.
Speaker 1: I want to declare to you that the opposite of
Speaker 1: fear is not faith. The opposite of fear is the
Speaker 1: Holy Spirit. Ha ha. Because the Spirit of God is
Speaker 1: not a spirit of fear, but he is power, love,
Speaker 1: and a sound mind. And there is another spirit for
Speaker 1: the people of God. At chapter two, verse seventeen, God says,
Speaker 1: in the last days, see this is the last day scripture.
Speaker 1: Preachers don't preach about. But this is my favorite Last
Speaker 1: Day scripture. And by the way, it's the clearest Last
Speaker 1: Day scripture in the Bible. In the last days, i
Speaker 1: will pour out my spirit on all flesh. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: pour out my spirit on your sons and your daughters.
Speaker 1: I've got a plan for your children. I've got a
Speaker 1: plan for families. I've got a plan for your six
Speaker 1: year old, and I've got a plan for your sixteen
Speaker 1: year old. I've got a plan for your mayor. I
Speaker 1: got a plan for families.
Speaker 3: I will pour out my spirit on all flesh, and.
Speaker 1: You will prophesy, and you will see dreams, and you
Speaker 1: will have visions. And when the spirit of God comes
Speaker 1: upon you, he he removes the fear. You will not
Speaker 1: allow it in your soul. God can turn it around
Speaker 1: for you. It's not over. This is not your last meal.
Speaker 1: I want you to see. I want you to see
Speaker 1: your future. I want you to see like God sees it.
Speaker 1: They shall prophesy, he said, prophecy. That's not that's not
Speaker 1: just closing your eyes and speaking in King James English.
Speaker 1: It's talking like God talks. It's getting a word for
Speaker 1: your family. It's getting a word for your future. It's
Speaker 1: getting a word for your business. It's speaking about tomorrow
Speaker 1: like God speaks about tomorrow. Number two, you have to
Speaker 1: see your calling. I have I have instructed, I have
Speaker 1: commanded a widow there. I have I have commanded a
Speaker 1: widow there, I have instructed a widow there. I don't
Speaker 1: know if you if you think about this language, but
Speaker 1: it feels like it feels like Elijah is going to
Speaker 1: walk into the village and and say, hey, I'm here,
Speaker 1: and she's gonna go, omg, it's you. You're the guy.
Speaker 1: I was in prayer and the Lord talked to me
Speaker 1: about you. He's given me an instruction. He's given me
Speaker 1: a commandment. Come on in. I got bread, bacon, I
Speaker 1: got water in the jug. Let's go, come on, come
Speaker 1: in heat. God's been talking to me. That's what happens.
Speaker 1: He walks into town and she has no idea who
Speaker 1: he is. And I think the reason is this because
Speaker 1: this word instructed isn't the best English word, the better
Speaker 1: word from the Hebrew language that it was written in.
Speaker 1: Is I have appointed a woman there, I have chosen
Speaker 1: for special use. I have anointed a woman there, and
Speaker 1: she thinks she's gonna die, but she's anointed. She's given
Speaker 1: up on her future, but she's appointed. She has no
Speaker 1: more hope, but my calling is on her. She thinks
Speaker 1: it's the end for her and for her family, but
Speaker 1: she has no idea that my hand is upon her.
Speaker 1: Some of you are in a very low place right now.
Speaker 1: Some of you think this must be the end of
Speaker 1: the road. I've tried everything, but I guess the drought
Speaker 1: want No, there's an annoying on your light. There's a
Speaker 1: calling on your life. You have been chosen for special use. Hey,
Speaker 1: you don't even know it. Because see, Elijah had an
Speaker 1: anoying on his life that she needed. But listen, she
Speaker 1: had an annoying on her life that he needed. They
Speaker 1: both had oil.
Speaker 7: Why do you always asking me to serve in this
Speaker 7: church because you have oil? Why do I got to
Speaker 7: lead an e group because you have oil? Why do
Speaker 7: you want me serving in the house because you got oil?
Speaker 7: Why are they pushing next year ministry? I don't feel
Speaker 7: I hold in a baby. You got oil? We need
Speaker 7: you in the youth ministry.
Speaker 1: We need we need you in the children's ministry, we
Speaker 1: need you serving in a ministry. We need you using
Speaker 1: your gifts telling. And I know you're at a low point,
Speaker 1: but we need you in the.
Speaker 3: House of God, because there's actually oil that this house needs.
Speaker 1: She thought it was over. God was anointing her. Oh,
Speaker 1: and I've been there. I have been at places where
Speaker 1: I've been so lone, but I said yes to my gift. Anyway,
Speaker 1: one time I was preaching for my friend, and I
Speaker 1: preach preacher preaching. I preach pretty good. I gotta be honest.
Speaker 1: I don't like all my sermons. I like that one.
Speaker 1: And I was in a low place. I didn't want
Speaker 1: to be there. I wanted to cancel, but I preached,
Speaker 1: and we got off. We got off the stage, and
Speaker 1: we went to dinner, and my friend looked at me
Speaker 1: and said, boy, you must be going through it. I said,
Speaker 1: say last, I said no, I said what I said,
Speaker 1: What Why lest I be going through it? He goes
Speaker 1: because you preach good. He said.
Speaker 3: You preach like you were dying. You preach, you preach
Speaker 3: like this was your last servant. You preach like you
Speaker 3: were giving.
Speaker 1: It your all. I said, I am going through it, and.
Speaker 3: I'm so grateful that even in my lowest moments, I've
Speaker 3: got oil on my life. There's a gift on my life,
Speaker 3: and there's a gift on your life.
Speaker 1: And if we need you right now, it is not
Speaker 1: time to quit. It's not time to leave. It's not
Speaker 1: time for you to die. God's oil is on your
Speaker 1: Come on, somebody's out. I'm anointed. Come on, sap somebody
Speaker 1: a high five. Tell them you're anointed. They needed each
Speaker 1: other's annoying to be sustained through the trought I've appointed.
Speaker 1: It was almost like God knew that if she got
Speaker 1: in the atmosphere of the prophetic. Sorry, my pentecostal just
Speaker 1: showed I try to keep it. I know I'm that
Speaker 1: all of a I'm trying to behave right now. That
Speaker 1: organ doesn't help. It's like he knew that if she
Speaker 1: could just get in the atmosphere of the prophet, something
Speaker 1: would come up. And so why I try not never
Speaker 1: to miss church, whether I'm in, whether I'm in person,
Speaker 1: whether I'm have to be online, whether I'm traveling. I
Speaker 1: just tried to be in the house of God, because
Speaker 1: you never know You never know when God's gonna dry.
Speaker 1: You never know when you're appointing and your annoying, it's
Speaker 1: gonna rise up, and he goes, that's for me. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna make it. I got a calling. I remember twenty sixteen,
Speaker 1: sitting right over that. This is the anointed section.
Speaker 3: If there, if the if the rapture happens, you go first,
Speaker 3: because that's where I was sitting, right here with this
Speaker 3: woman pointing at me.
Speaker 1: That's where I was sitting. And I was at inside
Speaker 1: an elevation. I was sitting right there and they were
Speaker 1: doing a conference for pastors. And it was there that
Speaker 1: I got the green light from heaven to plant my church.
Speaker 1: It was there that God said, don't plan an elevation church.
Speaker 1: Don't don't try to be like Pastor Stephen be. You
Speaker 1: go plant that church, go do what. It was there
Speaker 1: that I got permission. It was there that God said
Speaker 1: yes to my dream. I'm just telling you never know
Speaker 1: when you come, Well, there's gonna be a lot of people,
Speaker 1: and there's gonna be a lot of crowds, and I
Speaker 1: don't know, and there's a night of worship. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: have to wait and wait a lot ring a bottle
Speaker 1: of water, ring a protein bought, bring a banana, get
Speaker 1: the get to the House of God, because you just
Speaker 1: never know. And by the way, some of you are
Speaker 1: like when you when you really don't want to come
Speaker 1: to church, that's when you need to come to church.
Speaker 1: My best sermons are the sermons I don't want to preach.
Speaker 1: And my most powerful encounters with God in the House
Speaker 1: of God is when I didn't want to go, but
Speaker 1: I chose to get into his presence, and that appointing
Speaker 1: rows up. Two men I want to tell you about
Speaker 1: very quickly, Victor Frankel and Sigmund Freud. Sigmund Freud was
Speaker 1: a brilliant philosopher. He was an atheist. Sigmund Freud believed
Speaker 1: that the chief end of man, the highest expression of man,
Speaker 1: the thing that every man wants is they just want pleasure.
Speaker 1: That if they can find pleasure and sexual pleasure, they're good.
Speaker 1: That's all they want. And Frankel disagreed, and I disagree,
Speaker 1: And I think you can look at our culture right
Speaker 1: now and disagree, because we got a lot of pleasure,
Speaker 1: not a lot of happiness. So so Frankel said, no,
Speaker 1: I don't I don't think it's pleasure, he said. I
Speaker 1: actually think what people want and what people really need
Speaker 1: is purpose. But if you can't find your purpose, walking
Speaker 1: your purpose, step into your purpose, you will numb yourself
Speaker 1: and medicate yourself with pleasure. And I'm not against pleasure,
Speaker 1: but you can't fall in love with it, because if
Speaker 1: you make pleasure you're god. You'll never have enough. How
Speaker 1: do I know I love it? You can't give it away?
Speaker 1: This is my fifth time here. Can I just be
Speaker 1: a little more? I said, all right? Can I just
Speaker 1: let me just push you a little bit? Get the house,
Speaker 1: drive the car, get the boat. I want you to
Speaker 1: have a boat. I don't want a boat. I want
Speaker 1: you to have a boat. And when I visit Charlotte,
Speaker 1: I want to go on your boat for free. So
Speaker 1: I want you to have a boat, but don't fall
Speaker 1: in love with it. Give it a beautiful female name.
Speaker 1: She won't love you back. You don't get because it's
Speaker 1: not ultimately. Your life is not ultimately about pleasure. It's
Speaker 1: about purpose. Can I say it this way? She could
Speaker 1: have made her bread, and she would have died with
Speaker 1: a full belly and an empty heart. She could have said,
Speaker 1: knock on the next woman's door, and she could have
Speaker 1: resisted her calling, but instead, in the presence of God,
Speaker 1: she said yes. And it was in that yes that
Speaker 1: the miracle began to happen. Lastly, you have to see
Speaker 1: the possibility. See the possibility. The story starts with Elijah
Speaker 1: walking into town and here's his request. Hey, Sis, that's
Speaker 1: how it says in the Hebrew language, he says, Sis,
Speaker 1: in the Hebrew. Y'all need to learn Hebrew. He says, hey, Sis,
Speaker 1: can I have a piece of bread? Can I have
Speaker 1: some bread? And she says, you already, I don't have bread.
Speaker 1: Watch watch And she wasn't lying. She didn't have bread yet,
Speaker 1: but she but she did have the ingredients for bread.
Speaker 1: I don't have exactly what God's asking of me yet.
Speaker 1: I don't have my miracle yet. I don't have the
Speaker 1: answer yet. But maybe I have the ingredients for the miracle.
Speaker 1: Can say it? Can I say it like this? Let
Speaker 1: me say it like this. I preached forever that God
Speaker 1: will never ask you for something you don't have, and
Speaker 1: I still kind of believe that, and I kind of
Speaker 1: disagree with that now because he asked for bread and
Speaker 1: she didn't have it. But maybe what God wants from
Speaker 1: you is not a thing. Maybe he wants a yes.
Speaker 1: Maybe he doesn't need you to have bread, to ask
Speaker 1: you for bread. Maybe you just give it your oil.
Speaker 1: Because this is in this, in this is in this,
Speaker 1: and I want to give God this. I want to
Speaker 1: be all ready and I want to be all mature,
Speaker 1: and I want to have it all worked out. And
Speaker 1: I want to pray enough and fast enough, and talk
Speaker 1: that tongues enough and not cuss anymore, and not that
Speaker 1: I do. Don't judge me over here. I want to
Speaker 1: I want to have every elevation worships song memorized, and
Speaker 1: I see. I want to come into elevation when pastor
Speaker 1: invites me, and I want to come in with bread.
Speaker 3: Oh I'm glad you called. I got a word for
Speaker 3: your church. But I ain't there yet.
Speaker 1: I'm forty years old and I've been preaching for twenty
Speaker 1: years and I'm still not there. Every time I get
Speaker 1: the text, I look at God and I go, God,
Speaker 1: you got a problem. So I walk up See, y'all,
Speaker 1: you might think I walk up here feeling like Elijah.
Speaker 1: I don't. I feel like the widow woman. I walk
Speaker 1: up here, going God, can you do something with this.
Speaker 1: Go ahead, Clay, Go ahead, Clay.
Speaker 3: God, I don't I don't have what I feel like
Speaker 3: I need, but here's my oil. I don't have what
Speaker 3: I feel like I need to raise these kids.
Speaker 1: But here's my oil. I don't know how to run
Speaker 1: this business in this economy, but here's my oil.
Speaker 3: I don't know how our marriage is gonna make it,
Speaker 3: but here's my oil. I don't know how I'm gonna
Speaker 3: start this business, but here's my oil. And God, I
Speaker 3: don't feel like I have what I need to do
Speaker 3: what you're requiring of me.
Speaker 1: But I but I do have some flower, and I
Speaker 1: do have an annoying a And if you'll take what
Speaker 1: I got, I'll just trust you to do something with it.
Speaker 1: See God, God doesn't need what you need to get
Speaker 1: you what you need. Man, God's asking this on me,
Speaker 1: but I don't, So give him a yes. While you're
Speaker 1: waiting on the thing you've told yourself you need, can
Speaker 1: I prove it? Jesus. Jesus shows up to a wedding
Speaker 1: with his with his best friends. They showed to a
Speaker 1: wedding John chapter two, and and uh pretty much immediately,
Speaker 1: pretty much immediately, Mary comes to Jesus and says, they're
Speaker 1: out of wine. Jesasd go, why are you making this
Speaker 1: my problem? I think she's making it his problem. Now, Okay.
Speaker 1: I don't know if this is my sanctified imagination or
Speaker 1: if I've just been in Vegas too long, but something
Speaker 1: in me feels like Mary went. You know, we had
Speaker 1: we had plenty of wine for the wedding until Judas
Speaker 1: showed up and John got a little emotional and Peter
Speaker 1: had to be the life of the party and fix it.
Speaker 1: You know what Jesus does. Jesus does not say, you know, Peter,
Speaker 1: go go grab some grapes from the local vineyards, bring
Speaker 1: them to me. Hey, Judas, you got the money, go
Speaker 1: go go over to Walmart and grab grab some cases
Speaker 1: of wine. Jesus doesn't do that. Jesus says, can I
Speaker 1: have some water? Can somebody get me some water. I
Speaker 1: know nothing about fermentation. I know nothing about red wine,
Speaker 1: but I do know this. I know that this can't
Speaker 1: become red wine. But I ain't Jesus, because if you
Speaker 1: want wine, you need time, and if you want wine,
Speaker 1: you need grapes, and if you want wine you need
Speaker 1: wooden berrels. But if Jesus wants wine all he needs
Speaker 1: his vessels. I'm come to ask elevation.
Speaker 5: Can you see the wine in your water? Can you
Speaker 5: see the super in your natural Can you see God's
Speaker 5: abundance and you're not alone? Can you see what God
Speaker 5: to do through a yes, through a surrender? Because maybe
Speaker 5: God does not need Why do you need to get
Speaker 5: to what's your name?
Speaker 4: Oh?
Speaker 5: I wish somebody would shut right now. I might not
Speaker 5: have greats, I might not have barrels. I've run out
Speaker 5: of time. But God, here's my water, here's my oil,
Speaker 5: here's my flower.
Speaker 6: God, do something with the life. Well, come on, give
Speaker 6: and praise everybody.
Speaker 4: Please passing post all, So who am I to deny anything?
Speaker 8: My Skillo lives up your hands every location de fam
Speaker 8: around the worlds Oh he sound to Heaven to say anything?
Speaker 4: Many please passing in the home?
Speaker 1: Who am to den Come on? Any is possible.
Speaker 4: Any day?
Speaker 5: Or take what the hell?
Speaker 4: Yes, it's for your glory and me take my lossing off?
Speaker 3: Okay, okay, okay, just stay standing. Yeah, thank you Lord,
Speaker 3: I thank you Lord. Hallelujah. Somebody say hallelujah. Somebody shout
Speaker 3: it's not over.
Speaker 1: Nineteen fifty five, nineteen fifty five, nineteen fifty five, there's
Speaker 1: a young preacher, pastor Larry. There's a young preacher name
Speaker 1: Bobby Schuler. Bob.
Speaker 9: Little Bobby was a pastor in Iowa, David, and he
Speaker 9: wanted to come to Orange County, California and start a
Speaker 9: work for God.
Speaker 1: So he wrote a letter to a friend in his
Speaker 1: denomination and said, I feel like the Lord has put
Speaker 1: it on my heart to start a church nineteen fifty five.
Speaker 1: Could you help me find a location I would love?
Speaker 1: Maybe a school, gym, or a Seventh Day Advantaged church,
Speaker 1: maybe a Jewish synagogue, maybe a church that doesn't meet
Speaker 1: on Sunday night. Maybe a movie theater, maybe a drive
Speaker 1: in theater, maybe a school that we could rent. Could
Speaker 1: you help me find a location? And a young Bob
Speaker 1: Schuler's friend wrote this letter back, Boh, this is not Iowa,
Speaker 1: this is Orange County, California. It is impossible to find
Speaker 1: a church location in Orange County, California. Bob received that letter,
Speaker 1: crumpled it up, he threw it in the trash. He
Speaker 1: grabbed a fresh piece of paper, and he wrote down
Speaker 1: these words impossible quotation marks. What an irresponsible word, Bob, go,
Speaker 1: that's gangster Bob and a young Bob Schuler would move
Speaker 1: to Orange County with nothing. He ended up starting a
Speaker 1: church in a drive in movie theater where he would
Speaker 1: stand on the snackshack preached to a microphone, and then
Speaker 1: it would go to all the cars. And that church
Speaker 1: grew in the fifties to two thousand cars a Sunday.
Speaker 1: He would end up buying property all over that Anaheim
Speaker 1: area near Disneyland, with property upwards of over a billion
Speaker 1: dollars of real estate. He started the Crystal Cathedral the
Speaker 1: Hour of Power every Sunday morning. He became the late
Speaker 1: Great Doctor Robert Schuler. Impossible What an irresponsible word. I
Speaker 1: don't know what you're facing, but I've come to declare
Speaker 1: anything is possible. I don't know what the doctor said,
Speaker 1: but I've come to tell you all things are possible.
Speaker 1: I don't know what the school counselor told you about
Speaker 1: your child, but I've just come to tell you. Impossible.
Speaker 1: What an irresponsible word. What could God do if you
Speaker 1: would invite him into your famine? What could God do
Speaker 1: if you would invite him into your drought? What could
Speaker 1: God do if you would give him your water? If
Speaker 1: you would give him your flower if you would give
Speaker 1: him your oil. Can we just say this.
Speaker 6: One more time all over the room and let's the
Speaker 6: clearing with all of our heart.
Speaker 8: Anything, anything is possible, Cliver, Look, anything is possible.
Speaker 4: Anything anything up? Am I?
Speaker 1: Jo?
Speaker 3: You're not done with me? Yeah, you're not done with me? Yeah,
Speaker 3: because there's so much more to the store. You're not
Speaker 3: done with me.
Speaker 1: You're not done with me.
Speaker 3: I dare you to prophesy right now with me? Every husband,
Speaker 3: grab your white's hands. Tell them God's still working on me.
Speaker 3: God still gotta playing park family.
Speaker 1: So you are marine you to this that He's not done.
Speaker 4: You're not done.
Speaker 6: I feel my God is wiving gonads. Just Jo're not
Speaker 6: done with.
Speaker 4: You're not done.
Speaker 7: You're not done with me?
Speaker 4: Whoa you're not doing with me? There's not.
Speaker 1: So Jo're not dun me. I just want to ask,
Speaker 1: at every location which you close your eyes about your heads,
Speaker 1: thank you Lord, every location, even if you can epham
Speaker 1: around the world, would you just settle your heart for
Speaker 1: a moment. I want to ask you the most important
Speaker 1: question you've ever been asked in your life. Do you
Speaker 1: know Jesus? Are you right with God? Do you know
Speaker 1: Him for yourself? I know you know about him. I
Speaker 1: know you know him through Pastor Stephen, but do you
Speaker 1: know him. I know you know him through the songs,
Speaker 1: and I know you know him through this ministry, But
Speaker 1: do you know him? Have you had a moment where
Speaker 1: you've said, Jesus, I need you in my life. I
Speaker 1: need forgiveness of sin. I need to be born. I
Speaker 1: can't not to become a better version, but a brand
Speaker 1: new creation. The scripture says anyone who calls on his
Speaker 1: name would be saved. Anyone who would say, Jesus, I
Speaker 1: believe you died for me. I believe you rose again
Speaker 1: for me. I believe that you are Lord. Anyone who
Speaker 1: would call on his name right now, would you surrender
Speaker 1: your heart? Javon, I'm gonna. I'm gonna work on this
Speaker 1: and I'll come back at the end of the summer. No,
Speaker 1: let me, let me let me stop drinking, let me
Speaker 1: stop cussing, let me let me stop, let me get
Speaker 1: this hatred out of my heart, let me let me
Speaker 1: get off drugs. Let me let me work it out
Speaker 1: with my wife, and then I'm gonna come back and
Speaker 1: we're gonna and I'm gonna make it right with God. No, no, no,
Speaker 1: you can't. If you could, you would have. But you
Speaker 1: you cannot do it. But God can do it. I
Speaker 1: need Jesus. You're about to pray the prayer I pray.
Speaker 1: June ten, nineteen ninety eight, in Del Rio, Texas. I
Speaker 1: was fifteen years old and I gave Jesus my life.
Speaker 1: And when I did, everything changed. All over this room,
Speaker 1: every location, Pray with me from your heart. These aren't
Speaker 1: magic words, I promise you. This is not an incantation.
Speaker 1: This is not this is not some abracadabra say something that. No, no,
Speaker 1: this is your heart. Cry to Heaven. Pray with me,
Speaker 1: say Jesus, I believe in you. I believe you died
Speaker 1: for me. Then he rose again. Forgive me of my
Speaker 1: sins for the things I've done, and make me brand new. Jesus.
Speaker 1: I make you my lord and my savior. I surrender
Speaker 1: all today. Thank you, Lord, Jesus. Keep your eyes closed
Speaker 1: all over this room, all over this rooms, keep your
Speaker 1: eyes closed. I can't call you forward, I can't have
Speaker 1: you moved from your seat. I've run out of time.
Speaker 1: But right where you're standing, at every location and even online,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna want you to go into the chat and
Speaker 1: make a commitment to Christ. But at every location, on
Speaker 1: the count of three, I'm gonna ask you to raise
Speaker 1: your hand. If that was your prayer, Jabin, today, I'm
Speaker 1: giving my life to Christ. Jabin. Today, I'm recommitting my
Speaker 1: life to Christ. I've walked away from God. I've turned
Speaker 1: from God. I got distracted, I got discouraged, I got tempted.
Speaker 1: I went through a trial and a tribulation, and I
Speaker 1: walked away from the Lord. But today I'm coming home. Today,
Speaker 1: I've come back. Today, I'm running back to the God
Speaker 1: who's been chasing me. I'm giving my life to Jesus.
Speaker 1: Or I'm recommitting my life to Christ. If that's you,
Speaker 1: on the counter of three, right here at Valentine and
Speaker 1: at every location and around the world, you're gonna say
Speaker 1: yes to Jesus. Right now, I'm giving my life to Christ.
Speaker 1: Rededicating my life to Christ. On the counter three, I
Speaker 1: want to see your hand one, two, three, shoot your
Speaker 1: hand uf all over, all, over, all over, I see him. God,
Speaker 1: bless you, God, bless you. Hold on, hold on, God,
Speaker 1: bless you, God, bless you.
Speaker 3: God bless you, God, bless you, God, bless you, God
Speaker 3: bless God, bless you guys.
Speaker 1: All back here. God, let me just see your hand.
Speaker 1: I want to see you. God bless you, God bless you.
Speaker 1: If I didn't see your hand, let me see it.
Speaker 1: I see you.
Speaker 3: God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. Here
Speaker 3: all over here, anybody else, I see you.
Speaker 1: God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. God
Speaker 1: bless you.
Speaker 8: Wow.
Speaker 1: Wow Wow.
Speaker 3: Come on, letsten give God praise for all bees that
Speaker 3: are given their lives to Christ.
Speaker 1: Oh, come on, you can do better than that. Let's celebrate. Amen. Amen,
Speaker 1: Thank you for joining us.
Speaker 2: Special thanks to those of you who give generously to
Speaker 2: this ministry. Is because of you that this ministry is possible.
Speaker 2: You can click the link in the description to give now,
Speaker 2: or visit Elevation Church dot org slash podcast for more
Speaker 2: information and if you enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe.
Speaker 1: You can share it with your friends.
Speaker 2: You can click the share button, take a screenshot and
Speaker 2: share it on your social stories and tag us at
Speaker 2: Elevation Church.
Speaker 1: Thanks again for listening. God bless you.