Speaker 1: Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick.
Speaker 2: I'm the pastor of Elevation Church and this is our podcast.
Speaker 2: Be sure to subscribe so we can get you these
Speaker 2: new sermons every week.
Speaker 3: I hope you're blessed today.
Speaker 4: Earlier this fall, we had our annual Ladies event.
Speaker 1: Here at Elevation is called reflect.
Speaker 4: A lot of the ladies were here from all of
Speaker 4: our campuses. We joined together and online and it was
Speaker 4: incredible and I got to share a word with the
Speaker 4: ladies of our church that really ministered. And as Stephen
Speaker 4: and I were talking, we decided that I needed to
Speaker 4: share from that same passage with you today.
Speaker 1: Are you ready for the Word? All right? I am
Speaker 1: so excited.
Speaker 4: God really spoke to me through this passage and I'm
Speaker 4: really excited to share it with you today. Would you
Speaker 4: turn in your Bibles to Acts chapter one, and we're
Speaker 4: going to jump right.
Speaker 1: In with the first verse.
Speaker 4: It says this in my first book, I told you
Speaker 4: Theophilus about everything Jesus began to do and teach until
Speaker 4: the day he was taken up to heaven after giving
Speaker 4: his chosen apostles further instructions through the Holy Spirit. During
Speaker 4: the forty days after he suffered and died. He appeared
Speaker 4: to the apostles from time to time, and he proved.
Speaker 1: To them in many.
Speaker 4: Ways that he was actually alive, and he talked to
Speaker 4: them about the Kingdom of God.
Speaker 1: Once, when he was.
Speaker 4: Eating with them, he commanded them, do not leave Jerusalem
Speaker 4: until the Father sends you the gift. He promised, as
Speaker 4: I told you before, John baptized with water, But in
Speaker 4: just a few days you will be baptized with the
Speaker 4: Holy Spirit. So when the apostles were with Jesus, they
Speaker 4: kept asking him, Lord, has the time come for you
Speaker 4: to free Israel and restore our kingdom? And he replied,
Speaker 4: the Father alone has the authority to set those dates
Speaker 4: in times, and they are not for you to know.
Speaker 4: But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes
Speaker 4: on you, and you will be my witnesses, telling people
Speaker 4: about me everywhere in Jerusalem, throughout Jidea, in.
Speaker 1: Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.
Speaker 4: After saying this, he was taken up into a cloud
Speaker 4: while they were watching, and they could no longer see him.
Speaker 4: As they strained to see him rising into heaven, two
Speaker 4: white robed men suddenly stood among them, men of Galilee.
Speaker 1: They said, why are you standing here staring into heaven.
Speaker 4: Jesus has been taken from you into heaven, but someday
Speaker 4: he will return from heaven in.
Speaker 1: The same way you saw him go.
Speaker 4: Then the Apostles return to Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives,
Speaker 4: a distance of half a mile.
Speaker 1: When they arrived, they went to the upstairs.
Speaker 4: Room of the house where they were staying. Let's pray
Speaker 4: one more time, Lord, would you bless this word today?
Speaker 1: Would you speak through me now? We want to hear
Speaker 1: from you in Jesus name, we pray Amen. I'm not
Speaker 1: sure if it's just me, but.
Speaker 4: Has anyone else noticed how it is getting increasingly hard
Speaker 4: to speak with a customer service representative like an actual person.
Speaker 1: Okay, good, I'm not alone.
Speaker 4: So, as many of you know, we sent our son
Speaker 4: off to college this fall. We filled out the applications
Speaker 4: and we submitted all the required information, and Elijah received
Speaker 4: his acceptance letter.
Speaker 3: Well.
Speaker 4: At the beginning of June, I got an email from
Speaker 4: the university saying that they had not yet received his
Speaker 4: high school transcripts.
Speaker 1: And I thought that was strange, because he got accepted
Speaker 1: into the school. I thought I'd.
Speaker 4: Taken care of everything, but I just found the transcript,
Speaker 4: submitted it, and went on about our summer.
Speaker 3: Well.
Speaker 1: About a month later.
Speaker 4: Beginning of July, I got another email saying the same
Speaker 4: exact same thing. It was obviously an automated email, and
Speaker 4: it was stating that they had not received Elijah's transcripts.
Speaker 4: So I thought, well, I must have submitted it in
Speaker 4: the wrong format, and so I sent it again. But
Speaker 4: this time when I submitted it, I wrote a little
Speaker 4: note and I said, can somebody please confirm that you
Speaker 4: have received this information? And I like, I'm a busy person,
Speaker 4: you know, And I'm one of those people that once
Speaker 4: I send it, it's kind.
Speaker 1: Of like done.
Speaker 4: So I forgot all about it, and then August came around. Now,
Speaker 4: remember we're dropping him off in two weeks, and I
Speaker 4: get the email again.
Speaker 1: So now I realized I.
Speaker 4: Need to speak to a customer service representative here. And
Speaker 4: I don't know if you've ever tried to call an
Speaker 4: admissions office to weeks before school starts, but I don't
Speaker 4: recommend it, And so I waited for thirty minutes for
Speaker 4: someone to answer, only to tell me.
Speaker 1: She's, oh, hello, missus, Okay, let me look that up.
Speaker 4: And she says, oh, well, what appears to have happened,
Speaker 4: is that the form that you have submitted doesn't confirm
Speaker 4: that he has actually graduated from high school. And she said,
Speaker 4: so you need to call his school and have them
Speaker 4: submit the transcript that confirms that he graduated. Now, I
Speaker 4: don't know if you've ever tried to call a.
Speaker 1: School two weeks before school starts.
Speaker 4: I don't recommend it, especially if your child graduated from
Speaker 4: a very large.
Speaker 1: Virtual high school. So I knew it was going.
Speaker 4: To be a few minutes, and I called, and I
Speaker 4: just settled in and I put my phone on speakerphone,
Speaker 4: and I'm like deleting email.
Speaker 1: And cleaning up my office.
Speaker 4: And thirty minutes went by, and the automated message that
Speaker 4: was on repeat like every three minutes was really starting
Speaker 4: to grade on me. So you can imagine my state
Speaker 4: of mind when one hour later, I swear to you
Speaker 4: every bit of this story is true, a very young
Speaker 4: girl answered, and she heard me out, and she said,
Speaker 4: let me transfer you to our such and such department.
Speaker 1: Click.
Speaker 4: I was like, oh god, so here comes the automated
Speaker 4: message again. Twenty minutes later. I'm not sure if you're
Speaker 4: adding all this up. I've been on the phone for
Speaker 4: an hour and fifty minutes. I unleashed on this poor
Speaker 4: young man that answered me. Today, I want to talk
Speaker 4: to the person who feels like they are on hold
Speaker 4: with Heaven. You need to know why, you need to
Speaker 4: know when, you need to know which or how, and
Speaker 4: you feel like you've emailed Heaven. You feel like you've called,
Speaker 4: You feel like you've listened to the worship music while
Speaker 4: you're waiting, and you have tried so hard to be patient,
Speaker 4: but you've been on hold for a really long time,
Speaker 4: and you need someone to answer you ever been there?
Speaker 4: This summer, our pastor brought us the most incredible spontaneous series.
Speaker 1: Do you remember it.
Speaker 4: I think the first message that he taught about was
Speaker 4: the God of also, and then we got the God
Speaker 4: of again, and then we got the God of after,
Speaker 4: and the Holy Spirit was just gushing out of him.
Speaker 4: Every week he kept going, he give us the God
Speaker 4: of already and the God.
Speaker 1: Of a way. If you miss this series, you have
Speaker 1: to go back and watch it. It was powerful for
Speaker 1: our church.
Speaker 4: And so today I was wondering if you would like
Speaker 4: me be fashionably late to the sermons series, because I
Speaker 4: want to talk to you about the God of answers.
Speaker 4: When I was a little girl in Sunday School, I
Speaker 4: remember learning that when you ask God for something, he
Speaker 4: always answers one of three ways. He says yes, no,
Speaker 4: or wait. Was anybody else taught this? And I get
Speaker 4: the sentiment. I understand the concept, but I think I
Speaker 4: took it too literally because as an adult, when I
Speaker 4: started to process that, I was like, wait a minute.
Speaker 4: The God of the universe, who created every language, he
Speaker 4: has a very vast vocabulary and it is certainly not
Speaker 4: limited to three words when we come to him with
Speaker 4: a question.
Speaker 1: So I want to get practical, and.
Speaker 4: I want to look at this story that we just read,
Speaker 4: and I want to show you how to evaluate your
Speaker 4: own situation when you feel like.
Speaker 1: You are waiting on an answer from God.
Speaker 4: In our passage that we've just read, we're coming to
Speaker 4: the very end of Jesus's ministry on Earth. Jesus has
Speaker 4: died on the cross, He's raised from the dead, and
Speaker 4: over the past forty days or so, he's been appearing
Speaker 4: to the disciples and they don't know it, but this
Speaker 4: is actually their last time on earth with Jesus, and
Speaker 4: Jesus is giving them some really important instructions but they
Speaker 4: don't know how important it is because they've taken his
Speaker 4: presence for granted, and they don't know that this is
Speaker 4: their last in person conversation with him. Look at what
Speaker 4: he tells them.
Speaker 1: He says, this is verse four.
Speaker 4: Do not leave Jerusalem until the Father sends you the
Speaker 4: gift he promised. As I told you before, John baptized
Speaker 4: with water, But in just a few days you will be.
Speaker 1: Baptized with the Holy Spirit.
Speaker 4: Have you ever tried to give someone some really important
Speaker 4: instructions but that person didn't see the importance of the instructions.
Speaker 1: Okay, not to compare myself to Jesus, but.
Speaker 4: I did finally get everything squared away with the admissions department,
Speaker 4: with the university, and in August we.
Speaker 1: Dropped Elijah off at college and.
Speaker 4: We were helping him move into his dorm room and
Speaker 4: I was making his bed. You can judge me if
Speaker 4: you want, but putting sheets on his bed was not one.
Speaker 1: Of his chores at home.
Speaker 4: So here I was, hours before leaving him, and I'm
Speaker 4: trying to show him how to make a bed. You know,
Speaker 4: I'm like, Okay, Elijah, this is the mattress cover, and
Speaker 4: it goes on, goes on first, and then this is
Speaker 4: the the one with the old.
Speaker 1: This is the fitted sheet, and he doesn't care.
Speaker 4: He's way more engraced with an engrossed with a much
Speaker 4: more important task, which is setting up his speakers. And
Speaker 4: I wanted to say, hey, you're gonna need this later,
Speaker 4: but I didn't want to. But you know, we're trying
Speaker 4: to like keep a good vibe in the room, and
Speaker 4: you know, like trying to make sure this ends well.
Speaker 1: And so I made the.
Speaker 4: Bed and I decided to let him figure it out
Speaker 4: on his own.
Speaker 1: Should he even decide to change his sheets? I kid
Speaker 1: you not. This boy face timed me two weeks later.
Speaker 4: Because all the sheets and covers had fallen off of
Speaker 4: his bed and he was trying to remake it and
Speaker 4: he couldn't remember how.
Speaker 1: To do it. I sent him a YouTube video.
Speaker 4: I wonder if the disciples would have listened more closely
Speaker 4: if they had.
Speaker 1: Known that this was their.
Speaker 4: Last time seeing Jesus face to face, Like would Peter
Speaker 4: have maybe taken notes, you know, okay, don't leave Jerusalem,
Speaker 4: got it, the Holy Spirit coming, okay?
Speaker 1: And then maybe they would have asked better questions, like.
Speaker 4: Jesus, what does the Holy Spirit look like, do we
Speaker 4: need to do anything to prepare? Should we get everybody together?
Speaker 4: But the Disciples were caught up on this one question
Speaker 4: that they have been asking Jesus for the past three years,
Speaker 4: and Jesus had still not answered it the way that
Speaker 4: they wanted. So they kept asking, and essentially it was this,
Speaker 4: when will you restore the Kingdom of Israel? This was
Speaker 4: the thing that they had been wanting to know because
Speaker 4: they thought, based on ancient prophecies about Israel, that Jesus
Speaker 4: was going to have a physical takeover of the Kingdom
Speaker 4: of Israel, that Jesus would overthrow the Roman government and
Speaker 4: he was going to establish himself as the earthly king, and.
Speaker 1: The Disciples thought they were going to be his government leaders.
Speaker 1: That's why they were always arguing about.
Speaker 4: Who would be first in the kingdom. They weren't talking
Speaker 4: about the Kingdom of Heaven. They were talking about earth,
Speaker 4: and they wanted to know, Hey, Jesus, when you become president,
Speaker 4: who you going to pick for your vice president?
Speaker 1: Who are you going to put in the cabinet seats?
Speaker 4: And so this is their last conversation with Jesus.
Speaker 1: And look at verse six. So when the apostles where
Speaker 1: with Jesus.
Speaker 4: They kept asking him, Lord, has the time come for
Speaker 4: you to free Israel and restore our kingdom? They kept
Speaker 4: asking him like little kids on a road trip.
Speaker 1: Are we there yet, Jesus? Is it time yet? Jesus?
Speaker 4: One version that I read said every time they were
Speaker 4: gathered together, they asked Jesus this. And Here's the thing
Speaker 4: that I've noticed in my life. God is always speaking
Speaker 4: to me. But a lot of times what I equate
Speaker 4: as feeling blocked is actually me not wanting to hear
Speaker 4: what He is saying to me, and I miss the
Speaker 4: message or I ignore the instruction because I'm so focused on
Speaker 4: the answer I want him to give me. I remember
Speaker 4: when I was in middle school, I wanted my mom
Speaker 4: to drop me off at the mall alone with my
Speaker 4: friends so we could walk around. And I asked her
Speaker 4: over and over and over. I was trying to wear
Speaker 4: her down, and my mom was not having it.
Speaker 1: She was like, absolutely not.
Speaker 4: She did not care that everyone else's mom's were dropping
Speaker 4: them off, which probably wasn't true. She did not care
Speaker 4: that I was missing out on all the fun over
Speaker 4: her dead body. Was she going to drop my thirteen
Speaker 4: year old self at Dadland?
Speaker 1: Mall in Miami, Florida.
Speaker 4: And I was so mad. I hit her with everything.
Speaker 1: You don't trust me, you don't think I can handle it.
Speaker 4: I came at her with every angland she would not
Speaker 4: mind budge and I remember saying to her.
Speaker 1: Why won't you answer me?
Speaker 4: And she replied, I have answered you.
Speaker 1: You just don't like my answer. And listen, I don't
Speaker 1: want to diminish anything that you're going through.
Speaker 4: And I want to make it very clear to you
Speaker 4: that as God's child, you can and you should ask
Speaker 4: Him for everything that you want. You can, and you
Speaker 4: should have the faith to believe that God can heal you.
Speaker 4: God can save your marriage. God can provide for your
Speaker 4: every need. God can give you the job, the man,
Speaker 4: the baby. God desires to give you the desires of
Speaker 4: your heart. He is a good father and he loves
Speaker 4: to give good gifts to his children. And sometimes you
Speaker 4: need to have the faith to keep asking, to keep
Speaker 4: visual the thing that you are believing God for in
Speaker 4: your life.
Speaker 1: Be persistent. God, here's you.
Speaker 4: But when you feel like he's not answering you, when
Speaker 4: you feel like he's keeping you on hold, know.
Speaker 1: That he's not ignoring you.
Speaker 4: But as a good Father, he is considering so much
Speaker 4: more than what you want. Sometimes he's making sure the
Speaker 4: timing is right. Sometimes he has to say no or
Speaker 4: not now, because as all the parents in the room
Speaker 4: would agree, just like my mom, who would not drop
Speaker 4: me off at the mall.
Speaker 1: That's not the mark of a good father is not
Speaker 1: how happy his children are.
Speaker 4: The mark of a good father is that he knows
Speaker 4: what is best for his child at the time. And
Speaker 4: sometimes you have to wait because there's something that God.
Speaker 1: Needs to put in you before he gives you what
Speaker 1: you're asking for. Sometimes there's something that he needs to
Speaker 1: work out of you first.
Speaker 4: Sometimes he has something better down the road than you
Speaker 4: could ever ask or imagine. And look what Jesus says
Speaker 4: back to the disciples. He says, the Father alone has
Speaker 4: the authority to set those dates and times.
Speaker 1: And they are not for you to know.
Speaker 4: But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes
Speaker 4: on you, and you will be my witnesses telling people
Speaker 4: about me everywhere in Jerusalem, throughout Judean, Samaria, and to the.
Speaker 1: Ends of the earth.
Speaker 4: I told you that God can say a lot more
Speaker 4: than yes, no, and wait. And in this case, perhaps
Speaker 4: one of the hardest answers to receive from God is
Speaker 4: not for you to know. Stephen was preaching about this
Speaker 4: verse one time, and he said that Jesus was inviting
Speaker 4: them in to the mystery of God.
Speaker 1: This might not be the message that you came to
Speaker 1: church to hear today.
Speaker 4: But if you've been waiting on God for an answer
Speaker 4: about something, especially if your question starts with why or
Speaker 4: when or how much longer, God's answer to you today
Speaker 4: might be this is not for you to know. So
Speaker 4: here's my question for you. If God answered all of
Speaker 4: your questions, when would.
Speaker 1: You need to have faith. I know you want to know.
Speaker 1: I want to know too, but I'm learning that not knowing.
Speaker 4: Is the faith part. If you're taking notes, write this down.
Speaker 4: What if I'm not supposed to know? Earlier this year
Speaker 4: in our Bible reading club, remember I got an initiated
Speaker 4: into the Bible Reading club and I came in in Deuteronomy, which,
Speaker 4: by the way, it is so awesome to be in
Speaker 4: a Bible reading club with Stephen Verdick, and I came
Speaker 4: across this verse in Deuteronomy and I have to show
Speaker 4: it to you. It's Deuteronomy twenty nine, twenty nine. It
Speaker 4: says this The secret things belong to the Lord, our God,
Speaker 4: but the things that are revealed belong to us and
Speaker 4: to our children forever that we may do all the
Speaker 4: words of this law.
Speaker 1: God has secrets. There are things about God. There are
Speaker 1: things about this world.
Speaker 4: There are things about the Bible that we are simply
Speaker 4: not meant to know the answers to if we understood everything,
Speaker 4: that would make us God. And I'm learning to accept
Speaker 4: that there are things in life that on this side
Speaker 4: of Heaven I will never understand. And a huge part
Speaker 4: of walking in a relationship with God is learning to
Speaker 4: trust him when you don't understand.
Speaker 1: I know that you want answers, but can you accept
Speaker 1: an invitation to mystery?
Speaker 4: Can you stand firm on the belief that our God
Speaker 4: is a good God. And if he's not answering you,
Speaker 4: can you trust that he has a reason. When you
Speaker 4: feel like God has you on hold, you've got to
Speaker 4: change your question.
Speaker 1: Will you give me faithful show the verse again?
Speaker 4: The secret things belong to God, but the revealed things
Speaker 4: belong to us.
Speaker 1: Yes, God has secrets. We ask him for the faith.
Speaker 4: To accept the things that we don't understand, But He
Speaker 4: has revealed a lot of things to us, And sometimes
Speaker 4: I get so caught up in the things that He
Speaker 4: hasn't revealed that I miss what is right in front
Speaker 4: of me. And the revealed things are the things that
Speaker 4: enable us to do They're the things that enable us
Speaker 4: to live out.
Speaker 1: The revealed things are the directions. So sometimes you got
Speaker 1: to look for the butt the ladies. I reflect really
Speaker 1: like this point. Let's go back to.
Speaker 4: What Jesus said to the disciples and look for the butt.
Speaker 4: He replied, the Father alone has the authority to set
Speaker 4: those dates.
Speaker 1: In times, and they are not for you to know.
Speaker 4: But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes
Speaker 4: upon you, and you will be my witnesses telling people
Speaker 4: about me everywhere Jerusalem, throughout Jadea, in Samaria, and to
Speaker 4: the ends of the earth. He's giving them the answer.
Speaker 4: The disciples wanted positions, but God wanted to give them
Speaker 4: a different kind of power. They wanted to overthrow Rome,
Speaker 4: but Jesus wanted them to change the world, literally, the
Speaker 4: entire world, to the ends of the earth. The Disciples
Speaker 4: today are not men that we may or may not
Speaker 4: learn about in world history class if we're paying attention.
Speaker 1: These are men that we are still talking about.
Speaker 4: And learning from They're powerful, God breathed Holy Spirit writings
Speaker 4: two thousand years.
Speaker 1: Later, where's your butt? I have a friend.
Speaker 4: Her name is Brandy, and she thought that she would
Speaker 4: be married to the same man her whole life, But
Speaker 4: now she has a ministry to divorce women all over
Speaker 4: the country. She's a coach of another friend who thought
Speaker 4: that he would be a youth minister, but God has
Speaker 4: given him a ministry in corporate America. To bankers, you
Speaker 4: thought you'd be married by now. You thought you'd have
Speaker 4: kids by now. You thought you'd have a certain career
Speaker 4: by now. When you aren't getting the answer you hoped for,
Speaker 4: can you have the faith to find your butt?
Speaker 1: Okay, watch what happens next.
Speaker 4: After saying this, he was taken up into a cloud
Speaker 4: while they were watching, and they could no longer see him.
Speaker 1: And as they strained to see him rising into.
Speaker 4: Heaven, two white robed men suddenly stood among them, Men
Speaker 4: of Galilee, Why are you standing here staring into heaven.
Speaker 4: Jesus has been taken from you into heaven, but someday
Speaker 4: he will return from heaven in the same way.
Speaker 1: You saw him go.
Speaker 4: Jesus gets taken up into heaven right before their eyes,
Speaker 4: and rightfully, so let's give him a little bit of credit.
Speaker 4: They stand there straining and staring, like when you were
Speaker 4: a little kid, did you ever release a balloon into
Speaker 4: the air. I know that's bad for the planet now,
Speaker 4: but we didn't know in the eighties. And I remember
Speaker 4: I have a very vivid memory of letting go of
Speaker 4: a balloon and telling myself, I'm gonna watch it until
Speaker 4: it till it goes away.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna see where it goes. And I watched.
Speaker 4: It become a speck and then disappear.
Speaker 1: And there's what the disciples are doing. Only it's not
Speaker 1: a balloon. It's Jesus.
Speaker 4: And I would I would do if a man went
Speaker 4: up in the heaven.
Speaker 1: I'd stand there and I'd be like, waiting, is he
Speaker 1: coming back? You know what's happening?
Speaker 4: And so God sends a couple of angels and the
Speaker 4: angels go snap out of it, Guys, Jesus has gone
Speaker 4: in the heaven and he is gonna return someday. And
Speaker 4: the disciples look around, and I can just imagine that
Speaker 4: they're all.
Speaker 1: Like, what do we do next? Like what did Jesus
Speaker 1: say to us?
Speaker 4: And what if Peter had really taken notes, and he
Speaker 4: pulled out his notebook and he was like, Duellie Jerusalem, guys,
Speaker 4: we gotta go back to Jerusalem.
Speaker 1: And I'm not an angel in a white robe. But
Speaker 1: I wonder if God sent me.
Speaker 5: To tell you today, stop staring, Stop waiting for the
Speaker 5: pain to go away, stop waiting for an explanation.
Speaker 4: Go back to the last thing he told you. What
Speaker 4: was the last thing that God spoke to you. I
Speaker 4: know it's complicated when we as Christians talk about God
Speaker 4: speaking to us and God doesn't speak to me in
Speaker 4: an out loud voice. And I know that some of
Speaker 4: you are waiting on God to speak to you about
Speaker 4: your specific situation. But might I suggest that while you're
Speaker 4: waiting on an answer, think back and do the last
Speaker 4: thing that He told you to do.
Speaker 1: Things? Remember the secret things. The secret things belong to
Speaker 1: the Lord, our God.
Speaker 4: But the things that are revealed belong to us and
Speaker 4: to our children forever that we may What do you
Speaker 4: remember what it said that we may do.
Speaker 1: The words of His law? What has God revealed to you?
Speaker 4: I told the ladies that reflect that Jesus had already
Speaker 4: given the disciples so many answers right here.
Speaker 1: In just these verses that we read.
Speaker 4: He gave them a place to be, right, He said,
Speaker 4: in Jerusalem, Judeas, Maria, and the ends of the earth.
Speaker 4: Everything God was going to do through them had to
Speaker 4: start in Jerusalem, a familiar place. So if you're wondering
Speaker 4: what the next thing is you're supposed to do, what
Speaker 4: is your Jerusalem? What is the place where you need
Speaker 4: to go and wait? Because I believe that God does
Speaker 4: want to do a new thing in your life, but
Speaker 4: I think he wants to do it in the same
Speaker 4: old place. He didn't send them to a new place
Speaker 4: because I don't think they could have handled it. It
Speaker 4: would have been too much new. He sent them back
Speaker 4: to a familiar place. So maybe what you need to
Speaker 4: do is go back to the place where you have
Speaker 4: been assigned.
Speaker 1: Until you receive further instructions.
Speaker 4: So the job that you have now today is the
Speaker 4: place where God wants you to be. Serve Him there
Speaker 4: with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind,
Speaker 4: all your strength. Their marriage that you're in, the one
Speaker 4: that you're in right now, the family are in right now,
Speaker 4: the neighborhood you live in right now. I know you
Speaker 4: want to move, Okay, I know your house is on
Speaker 4: the market. But the neighborhood you live in right now,
Speaker 4: your church. The power of the Holy Spirit is coming
Speaker 4: to you. There, the last place God told you to be.
Speaker 4: Everything launches from that place. So get yourself back in
Speaker 4: position and serve God there with one hundred percent of
Speaker 4: your heart. He gave them a place to be. He
Speaker 4: also gave them a person to become. He said, you
Speaker 4: will be my witnesses.
Speaker 1: Who is God calling you to become.
Speaker 4: I was reading this book about anxiety and teens.
Speaker 1: Of course I was.
Speaker 4: And I don't know if you ever read parenting books.
Speaker 4: To all the parents out there, I don't recommend them.
Speaker 4: I hate them because every time I read them, I
Speaker 4: get overwhelmed and I feel like, oh, I did I
Speaker 4: did every I have screwed up my kids.
Speaker 1: It's too late, and I don't know. It's too late
Speaker 1: for me. I shouldn't even be reading.
Speaker 4: But this book actually had a line that really helped me.
Speaker 4: It said this, the best thing that you can do
Speaker 4: for your child's anxiety is handle your own.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 4: And I think so many times I get everything backwards.
Speaker 4: I want to focus on who God is calling them
Speaker 4: to be.
Speaker 1: Come.
Speaker 4: Oh, I have so many ideas on who God is
Speaker 4: calling Stephen ferdickt to become. I have so many thoughts
Speaker 4: on who God is calling Elijah, Graham, and Abby to become,
Speaker 4: because when I think about them, I don't have to
Speaker 4: face me, and sometimes I get caught up on them.
Speaker 4: Sometimes I get caught up on what God wants me
Speaker 4: to do, the parts of me that I can see,
Speaker 4: the parts of me that I can manipulate, and so
Speaker 4: I focus on my position, or maybe you focus on
Speaker 4: your character or your title, your appearance, and those things
Speaker 4: are not bad, but they are not nearly as important
Speaker 4: as who God is calling you to become.
Speaker 1: It's not about what God's calling you, is about who
Speaker 1: God's calling you to become. Because if you don't have
Speaker 1: the who, when you get to the what, you won't
Speaker 1: be able to keep it up.
Speaker 4: The parts inside of me that are unseen, you change
Speaker 4: what you see by giving attention to.
Speaker 1: What you don't see.
Speaker 4: And Jesus was moving the disciples from a seene relationship
Speaker 4: with him to an unseen relationship, and that was.
Speaker 1: Going to require a different level of faith. It was
Speaker 1: one thing for the.
Speaker 4: Disciples to believe in Jesus when he was multiplying bread
Speaker 4: and calming storms. But now they're moving into another level
Speaker 4: where they're going to see the whole spirit do miracles
Speaker 4: with their own hands.
Speaker 1: So they're moving from observation. Look at what.
Speaker 4: Jesus did to experience. Look at what the Holy Spirit
Speaker 4: did through me. So who is God calling you to become?
Speaker 4: He also gave them partners to believe with. God never
Speaker 4: intended for you to walk out your faith alone. Let
Speaker 4: me say that again one more time. God never intended
Speaker 4: for you to walk out your faith alone. He took
Speaker 4: the disciples, he gathered them together, He spent three years
Speaker 4: with them, developing a community among them because he knew
Speaker 4: he was gonna leave and they were gonna.
Speaker 1: Need each other.
Speaker 4: And I want to tell you today he has a
Speaker 4: community for you as well. Now, you do need to
Speaker 4: find ones that are headed in the same direction that
Speaker 4: you're headed in.
Speaker 1: And I'll give you a hint. They might be in
Speaker 1: this room.
Speaker 4: So the more you come back to this room, the
Speaker 4: more you're going to find those people.
Speaker 1: And then when you have.
Speaker 4: Those people in your life, you've got to be patient
Speaker 4: because they.
Speaker 1: Have their own stuff, they have their.
Speaker 4: Own people, and their own drama and their own questions.
Speaker 4: But when you allow others in your life into your questions,
Speaker 4: you will find a strength that you didn't realize that.
Speaker 1: You were missing out on all along. I don't care
Speaker 1: how old you are.
Speaker 4: I mean, we all know that our teenagers need positive influences.
Speaker 4: You need positive influences too. Jesus never intended for you
Speaker 4: to give.
Speaker 1: Up on having partners to believe with. Can I show
Speaker 1: you one more Bible passage? I want to back up
Speaker 1: all the way to Matthew eleven.
Speaker 4: Here in Acts one we've been talking about we're seeing
Speaker 4: the final days of Jesus's ministry on Earth. But in
Speaker 4: Matthew eleven, Jesus was in the thick of his ministry.
Speaker 4: John the Baptist, his cousin, had baptized him, and he
Speaker 4: prepared the way, and he introduced Jesus to the world.
Speaker 4: And now Jesus' ministry is in full effect. He's healing people,
Speaker 4: he's preaching in the synagogues, he's calming the storms.
Speaker 1: And meanwhile, somewhere in the middle of all of.
Speaker 4: This, John the Baptist has been thrown into jail and
Speaker 4: he's waiting.
Speaker 1: He's waiting to see what's next.
Speaker 4: For him, while everyone else it seems like he's experiencing
Speaker 4: the full effect of Jesus's ministry. John is rotting away
Speaker 4: in a prison cell, and he doesn't know how long
Speaker 4: he's going to be there, and he is having major fomo.
Speaker 4: He sends his disciples to ask Jesus a question, and
Speaker 4: I want to show you what John. What John the
Speaker 4: Baptist asked of Jesus. It says this and verse two.
Speaker 4: When John, who was in prison, heard about the deeds
Speaker 4: of the Messiah, he heard what.
Speaker 1: Jesus was doing.
Speaker 4: He sent his disciples to ask him, are you the
Speaker 4: one who is to come? Or should we expect someone else?
Speaker 4: Can't you just you can feel the question coming out
Speaker 4: of his soul, And Jesus replied, go back and report
Speaker 4: to John what you hear and what you see? The
Speaker 4: blind receives sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy
Speaker 4: are cleansed, the deaf here the dead are raised, and
Speaker 4: the good news is proclaimed to the poor. Blessed is
Speaker 4: anyone who does not stumble on account of me. And
Speaker 4: while John's disciples leave and go back to him with
Speaker 4: the message, Jesus keeps talking to the crowd, and he says, truly,
Speaker 4: I tell you among those born of women, there has
Speaker 4: not risen anyone greater than John. He's saying, John is
Speaker 4: as good as they come. Yet even John still had questions.
Speaker 4: And I told you earlier that if God answered all
Speaker 4: your questions, there wouldn't be a need for faith. But
Speaker 4: I want to close by letting you know that having
Speaker 4: questions doesn't mean that you don't have faith. If you
Speaker 4: read in the New Testament, you constantly find people coming
Speaker 4: up to Jesus with questions and faith at the same time.
Speaker 1: Right they're asking him for something with faith.
Speaker 4: Sometimes he immediately responds to their request.
Speaker 1: Sometimes he says no.
Speaker 4: Sometimes he gave them more than what they were asking for.
Speaker 4: He forgives them of their sins, and then he heals them.
Speaker 4: Sometimes he answers them with a parable that didn't really
Speaker 4: seem to answer their question at all.
Speaker 1: And I love what Jesus.
Speaker 4: Replies to John through his disciples, because he wanted to
Speaker 4: turn John's attention to what he had already revealed. He said,
Speaker 4: report back to him the blind, see the lame, walk
Speaker 4: the death here. Don't stumble because you feel like you've
Speaker 4: been put on hold.
Speaker 1: Look around you.
Speaker 4: God is alive and present in your situation, and He
Speaker 4: has been so good to you. Don't allow yourself to
Speaker 4: be imprisoned by your unanswered questions.
Speaker 1: Focus your attention on what He's already revealed to you.
Speaker 4: For the past several months, we've been singing a song
Speaker 4: here at church called Trust in God. How many of
Speaker 4: you love that song? I love that song. Aren't you
Speaker 4: grateful to be a part of a church where our
Speaker 4: pastor works so closely with.
Speaker 1: Our worship team to write songs that are biblical and relevant.
Speaker 1: I mean, the scripture is just right there.
Speaker 4: In this song, and every time that we get to
Speaker 4: the part where we say it comes from Psalm thirty four.
Speaker 4: I sought the Lord and he heard, and he answered.
Speaker 4: I don't know about you, but the Holy Spirit just
Speaker 4: takes over whenever that part, and in my mind just
Speaker 4: gets flooded with the memories of how many times in
Speaker 4: my life that God has answered me. I stand right
Speaker 4: down there in my seat and I think about all
Speaker 4: the times that I've come to church feeling weight down,
Speaker 4: feeling burdened, and all the times over the years that
Speaker 4: God has answered whatever it was that I came in
Speaker 4: here worried about.
Speaker 6: And I think about how far I've come. I think
Speaker 6: about the ways that He's provided for me. I think
Speaker 6: about the ways that he's protected me, think about the
Speaker 6: things that I was so worried about that he was
Speaker 6: taken care of.
Speaker 4: And when I focus on those things, I find that
Speaker 4: my faith is renewed and refreshed, and I remember that
Speaker 4: even though I still have questions, I'm worshiping the God
Speaker 4: of answers.
Speaker 1: So as we.
Speaker 4: Close, we're going to stand and we're going to sing
Speaker 4: this song as.
Speaker 1: A declaration of faith for the questions that we are
Speaker 1: still waiting on answers for.
Speaker 4: I want you to sing this song with all of
Speaker 4: your heart and let God remind.
Speaker 1: You of his faithfulness. So, God, we come to you
Speaker 1: right now. I thank you that.
Speaker 4: You are the God of answers, that you have proof
Speaker 4: in yourself time and time again.
Speaker 1: God, you are worth the wait. We love you, and
Speaker 1: Jesus the name we pray.
Speaker 3: Amen.
Speaker 2: Hey, I hope you enjoyed the podcast, and if you did,
Speaker 2: make sure to share it and subscribe so we can
Speaker 2: get you all of these new messages as soon as
Speaker 2: they're available. I also want to take a moment and
Speaker 2: thank all of you who are a part of Elevation,
Speaker 2: whether you support us financially, or serve with us, or
Speaker 2: just share these messages. It's because of you that we're
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Speaker 2: and subscribe.
Speaker 3: God bless you.