Speaker 1: Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick. 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: Let me introduce you to my family real quick. You
Speaker 1: might not know who I am. My name is Tim Summers,
Speaker 1: and I get the opportunity to be the youth pastor
Speaker 1: here at Elevation Church. And that's my beautiful family, my
Speaker 1: gorgeous wife, that's my queen. She got me buzzing. And
Speaker 1: that's my big boy Brodi. He's thirteen years old. I
Speaker 1: know I don't look that old. Thank you, I appreciate it.
Speaker 1: And then I got my little three year old Genesis.
Speaker 1: I know you say that now, and I want you
Speaker 1: to look at you a real quick say, I'm so
Speaker 1: glad I'm sitting next to you. Okay, pick your second choice.
Speaker 1: Look at your second choice. Let them know I'm so
Speaker 1: glad I'm sitting next to you too. Come on you see,
Speaker 1: let them know, let them know you could find your
Speaker 1: way to your seat. So honored to be able to
Speaker 1: be here. It wasn't last week. Absolutely incredible. It was amazing.
Speaker 1: And I know what you're thinking, Bishop TD Jakes, Jim,
Speaker 1: It's okay, it's okay. I'm not judging you, all right,
Speaker 1: but we're gonna be in the Book of Matthew. Everyone say, Matthew,
Speaker 1: this is gonna be very interactive. I'm a youth pastor.
Speaker 1: I understand the attention span. Okay, I understand it. So
Speaker 1: I'm not going to give you four verses today. Okay,
Speaker 1: four verse, says Matthew. Chapter three, verses thirteen through seventeen.
Speaker 1: It says this, Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan.
Speaker 1: Look at your neighbor and say, God's always on the move.
Speaker 1: They don't know what's about to Giddo. Then Jesus came
Speaker 1: from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John.
Speaker 1: But John tried to deter him, saying, I need to
Speaker 1: be baptized by you. Why are you coming to me? Pleyah,
Speaker 1: Jesus replied, let it be so. Now. Everyone say now
Speaker 1: come on, everyone say now it is proper for us
Speaker 1: to do this to fulfill all righteousness. And then John
Speaker 1: consented it as soon as Jesus was baptized. He went
Speaker 1: up out of the water, and at the moment, heaven
Speaker 1: was opened, and he saw the spirit of God descending
Speaker 1: like a dove, alighting on him. In a voice from
Speaker 1: heaven said, this is my son, whom I loved, and
Speaker 1: with him, I am well pleased. I want you to
Speaker 1: look at your neighbor real quick, and I want you
Speaker 1: to tell him the title of my message. I want
Speaker 1: you to say thank you next, thank you next. Now,
Speaker 1: if this was a youth service, i'd hit that ariana
Speaker 1: grande instrumental right now. But since it ain't, I'm still
Speaker 1: going to hit it. Get it, Okay, you stop. I
Speaker 1: can already hear the YouTube comments flying right now online.
Speaker 1: How dare them? You know, the Summer's House likes to
Speaker 1: have a lot of fun. Okay, maybe a little too
Speaker 1: much fun every once in a while, hens you TV,
Speaker 1: But we really like to have a lot of fun.
Speaker 1: And if I'm honest with you, the fun happens around
Speaker 1: dinner time. Okay. Now, we're not this perfect fan like
Speaker 1: every single night at six thirty, it's just glorious and
Speaker 1: confetti and everyone's just happy. No, it's not like that whatsoever. However,
Speaker 1: we do like to have fun. Now, you got to
Speaker 1: understand we've got a thirteen year old and a three
Speaker 1: year old. That is a dynamic. Okay, it's a dynamic,
Speaker 1: all right. And if I'm honest with you, like we
Speaker 1: like to play some music, you know, So we play
Speaker 1: like you know Ariana Grande, like dancing. My three year
Speaker 1: old is like, oh, like his dance move is like this.
Speaker 1: It's like he does this, that's what he does. I
Speaker 1: don't know where he gets that from, but that's actually
Speaker 1: kind of good, I think. Okay, and we'll play We'll
Speaker 1: play songs like Yummy by Justin Bieber. You know I'm
Speaker 1: talking about My son always looks at me and he's like, Daddy,
Speaker 1: you have a lot of tattoos in that video. Y'all
Speaker 1: are smarter than Saturday. They did not get that. He
Speaker 1: thinks I look like just some beaver. He thinks I
Speaker 1: am him. I know. It's cute. It's precious anyways. But
Speaker 1: one of my favorite things that we do around dinner
Speaker 1: time is we always eat and have dessert, Like always
Speaker 1: like we're gonna have a cookie, We're gonna have some candy,
Speaker 1: We're gonna bake a cake by we I mean my wife.
Speaker 1: But you know what I mean. We are always gonna
Speaker 1: have me some dessert. Okay, how many of you like dessert?
Speaker 1: You like some sugar. That's the diet that I love. Okay,
Speaker 1: I love me some sugar. And so we do it
Speaker 1: all the time. So my son realizes he's grown up
Speaker 1: in this, and he's like, all right, what he understands
Speaker 1: is that my wife always makes the dessert first, put
Speaker 1: it in the fridge, put it in the freezer, do
Speaker 1: whatever she got to do, and then she starts the
Speaker 1: main course. Well what begins happing. My son's like, oh okay,
Speaker 1: I see how this works. Hey mom, why are you
Speaker 1: making the dinner? Can I have me a piece of cake? Like?
Speaker 1: She's like, no, son, you got to make a happy plate. Now,
Speaker 1: if you don't know what a happy plate is, a
Speaker 1: happy plate is an empty plate. And if you make
Speaker 1: an empty plate, that's a happy plate. And we'll put
Speaker 1: the cake on the plate afterwards. You get what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: You got to make a happy plate. You can use
Speaker 1: that if you want. All right, it works, it really does.
Speaker 1: And uh like, hey mom, can I have some cake? No? Son, sorry,
Speaker 1: you got to make a happy plate. What are you
Speaker 1: talking about what my son did. He got really smart.
Speaker 1: He's like, Mom, can have some cake? No, you can't
Speaker 1: have a cake. Okay. Cool. He walks across the living room,
Speaker 1: goes upstairs, go to my room, and says, dad can
Speaker 1: have some cake. I was like, yeah, why not? Sure?
Speaker 1: I want some cake? Can you bring up a piece
Speaker 1: for me? Absolutely? It goes downstairs, go get some cake
Speaker 1: and starts eating it. All of a sudden, I'm here
Speaker 1: in a little scuffle. Volume is raising. My wife does
Speaker 1: not yell. I'm like, what is going on. I'm like,
Speaker 1: I walk downstairs. I'm like, what's going on? What is
Speaker 1: happening right now? Like? Well, I thought him he couldn't
Speaker 1: have any cake, and you know he's eating this cake. Now,
Speaker 1: I'm like, what a terrible kid. You're kidding me, Genesis.
Speaker 1: Now we started talking, were like, all right, look, we
Speaker 1: gotta understand. Gotta make the happy plate, then you can
Speaker 1: eat cool. My son comes around, He's like, Mom, can
Speaker 1: I have some cake? No? Dad? Can I have some cake?
Speaker 1: I got you boy? No, Bubba, can I have some cake? Nah?
Speaker 1: Now here's what you gotta understand. He started doing this
Speaker 1: funny thing. Like to this day, I still laugh it's bad.
Speaker 1: My wife's like stop, turn around, do not laugh. He
Speaker 1: cannot see you do that. I mean, it's hilarious. He
Speaker 1: will now start asking and he like like, I don't
Speaker 1: know how he got all these facial expressions, but he's
Speaker 1: very he's very dramatic. He very dramatic. Okay, So now
Speaker 1: he asks and he says, mom can have some cake.
Speaker 1: She's like no, and he goes like this. He puts
Speaker 1: his head down and puts his eyes down and bucklers
Speaker 1: out his lips like like this no, and then he
Speaker 1: side eyed you like, did that work right? Like he's pouting.
Speaker 1: He's got attitude. I don't care. He's three. It's funny
Speaker 1: to me. I'm like, God, that's so cute. And goes
Speaker 1: to me, Dad can have some cake? Nah, Bud, I'm sorry,
Speaker 1: you gotta make apvy plate. No. But he's like this
Speaker 1: tall right goes to Baba, Hey, Baba, can I have
Speaker 1: some cake? Cat? I some candy? Nobuddy, Sorry, you gotta
Speaker 1: make avy plate. No. Have you ever found yourself doing
Speaker 1: this to God? Before God? If I could just get
Speaker 1: that promotion, Felicia don't need it. I need it. I
Speaker 1: need that promotion. I've been working hard. And he's like, ah,
Speaker 1: but I'm working on some things with you, sweetheart. I
Speaker 1: don't think so, not right now? No, how do you
Speaker 1: do that? How do you do a? Side eight to Jesus?
Speaker 1: I don't even know right, Like, if I could just
Speaker 1: find me a man, please come on, give me a man, Lord,
Speaker 1: give me like a we're working on self control right now. No, no, right,
Speaker 1: like you know, a lot of us walked into this
Speaker 1: room today and we're like, man, I'm ready to get blessed.
Speaker 1: I'm talking about I'm excited for church fourteen years. Pastor
Speaker 1: Stephen about to bring the word. Tim Summers walks up. No,
Speaker 1: don't we find ourselves doing this. We think we know
Speaker 1: what's best for ourselves, don't we, As Legendesis thinks we.
Speaker 1: He just thinks he knows exactly what is best for him.
Speaker 1: But if I gave him desert every single night first,
Speaker 1: it would ruin everything, including my sanity. This is where
Speaker 1: John is in this passage because this as in verse fourteen,
Speaker 1: John tries to deter him. In the New King James version,
Speaker 1: I love this one, it says he tries to prevent him.
Speaker 1: He's trying to prevent Jesus to perform a miracle right
Speaker 1: now he's seeing. John says, I need to be baptized
Speaker 1: by you. I need to be baptized by you. I
Speaker 1: don't need to be baptizing you. Why do you come
Speaker 1: to me? John tries to prevent the miracle because in
Speaker 1: this moment, he thinks he knows exactly what's best, and
Speaker 1: oftentimes we can think we know exactly what is best
Speaker 1: for our lives. Have you ever been there before? I
Speaker 1: know I have. I'm raising my hand. Why do we
Speaker 1: think that it is because we think we know exactly
Speaker 1: what's coming up. We're like, no, I know what I'm
Speaker 1: gonna do next. Absolutely, I mean I've got a plan.
Speaker 1: I've got a plan. I'm organized. I'm a visionary. How
Speaker 1: many planners in the house. How many visionaries in the house.
Speaker 1: I'm a visionary. Maybe not much of a planner, but
Speaker 1: a visionary. I'm always thinking about what is next. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna let you know right now, this message is gonna
Speaker 1: be hard for you. This message is going to be very,
Speaker 1: very hard for you to comprehend. But I really believe
Speaker 1: that God wants to speak something directly to you today,
Speaker 1: because in all reality, we have no clue what God
Speaker 1: is going to do next, and I like it that way.
Speaker 1: I never want to limit God to my understanding. I'm
Speaker 1: okay with that. And at this moment, John has no
Speaker 1: clue what Jesus is about to do, because in verse
Speaker 1: thirteen we go back one Versus says, then Jesus came
Speaker 1: from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John.
Speaker 1: Do you think John knew that Jesus was coming from
Speaker 1: Galilee to the Jordan. Absolutely not, absolutely not. Hey, I
Speaker 1: don't know where you are at right now. I don't
Speaker 1: know what situation that you're going through, but I can
Speaker 1: tell you right now, God is on the move. He's
Speaker 1: going from Galilee to your Jordan. He's going from Galilee
Speaker 1: to your marriage. He's going from Galilee to your relationship
Speaker 1: with your kids. He's going from Galilee to provision. He
Speaker 1: is Jehovah, Jirah, my provider. John had no clue that
Speaker 1: Jesus was on the move. John's baptizing people, he's preaching
Speaker 1: the gospel, he's increasing his reach. And what you got
Speaker 1: to understand is from Galilee to Jordan's like a seventy
Speaker 1: mile walk. And they didn't have no tesla's back in
Speaker 1: the day Okay, so this ain't one hour. I'm talking.
Speaker 1: This dude is walking. Jesus is walking. I mean maybe
Speaker 1: he was on a donkey, so like that's a fast walk.
Speaker 1: That's it. Okay, this is a long time. This is
Speaker 1: a couple of days at least, maybe even a week. Again,
Speaker 1: I don't know if you've been in a situation for
Speaker 1: two years, two months, two days, or two seconds. God
Speaker 1: is working on your behalf, whether you know it, see it,
Speaker 1: feel it, or understand end it at all. But as
Speaker 1: much as we think we do, we have minor control
Speaker 1: over what is next. Minor control. Because Jesus replies, let
Speaker 1: it be so now. In the message translation, it says
Speaker 1: do it now. That just says to me that Jesus
Speaker 1: was an eight on the enneagram. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: He said, do it, do it right now. It is
Speaker 1: proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness.
Speaker 1: Jesus is letting John know I know what needs to
Speaker 1: happen next. I need you to focus on what's happening now.
Speaker 1: I know what's happening next. You focus on right now?
Speaker 1: Why Jesus. What happens next is always up to Jesus.
Speaker 1: But what happens now is always up to you. It's
Speaker 1: always up to you. When you look at the verse
Speaker 1: fifteen when it says it is proper for us to
Speaker 1: do this to fulfill all righteousness. Those words right there,
Speaker 1: fulfill and righteousness. These are weighty words in the passage
Speaker 1: on why Jesus needs to be baptized. Have you ever
Speaker 1: thought about this? Why did Jesus need to give baptized?
Speaker 1: Then don't make any sense to me. You created water,
Speaker 1: You can become water if you'd like. What do you
Speaker 1: what do you mean? Why does Jesus need to be
Speaker 1: baptized in this very moment? But what he's helping John
Speaker 1: understand is that I am fulfilling the role as an
Speaker 1: obedient everyone say, obedient, obedient son of God by practicing
Speaker 1: the righteousness of some admitting to God's will. Jesus knew
Speaker 1: I'm gonna get on the cross, I'm gonna die for
Speaker 1: all the sins I'm gonna I'm gonna raise from the grave,
Speaker 1: and I'm gonna change the entire world. But in order
Speaker 1: for me to do next, you right now have got
Speaker 1: to baptize me so that I can help everyone in
Speaker 1: the world understand. This is how you are obedient in
Speaker 1: the righteousness of submitting to God's will. I don't. Oh,
Speaker 1: that's the that's the God I want. I want to serve.
Speaker 1: He ain't cutting any corners. He could have, and I
Speaker 1: don't know if we would have even questioned it. He
Speaker 1: didn't cut a single corner and said, no, this is
Speaker 1: exactly what needs to happen. This is what needs to happen.
Speaker 1: And right now you can start taking out that TV
Speaker 1: real quick, guys, Thank you so much. In verse sixteen,
Speaker 1: it says this, as soon as Jesus was baptized, he
Speaker 1: came up out of the water, and at that moment,
Speaker 1: heaven was opened, and he saw the spirit of God
Speaker 1: sending like a dove and alighting on him. In a
Speaker 1: voice from heaven said this is my son whom I love,
Speaker 1: and with him I am well. Please. Did you ever
Speaker 1: think that John knew that the heavens were gonna crack open?
Speaker 1: Did you ever think that a dove was going to
Speaker 1: descend down to earth? He never thought that. Why because
Speaker 1: he tried to prevent the miracle beforehand. He didn't even
Speaker 1: know Jesus was going from Galilee to the Jordan. He
Speaker 1: had no clue, no clue when have we found ourselves
Speaker 1: preventing God's miracle in our lives? Have you ever thought
Speaker 1: that you've known better for yourself? Nah, this isn't the
Speaker 1: way it needs to happen. This isn't going according to plan.
Speaker 1: John never intended for any of this to happen, but
Speaker 1: Jesus did. Jesus knew a little bit more than John did,
Speaker 1: which can kind of be hard to understand. Oh, Jesus
Speaker 1: knows more than me. That's how we act sometimes, that's
Speaker 1: how we live. I know better than God. I'm stepping
Speaker 1: on toes that hurt. I'm stepping on my toes. I
Speaker 1: can find myself thinking. I know I've got everything ready,
Speaker 1: I know exactly how it needs to go. I know
Speaker 1: exactly what my sons need to do. Jesus is giving
Speaker 1: us insight. We got to be in the now. We
Speaker 1: got to be in the now. When you think about it,
Speaker 1: what's next? As always? Now, you know that God will
Speaker 1: never give you next? He never will and he can't.
Speaker 1: He can't give you next. You don't believe me? You ready,
Speaker 1: what's next? Now? What's next? Now? What's next? Now? What's next? Now?
Speaker 1: He will never give you next? Why do we focus
Speaker 1: our entire life on it constantly. Now, don't hear me say,
Speaker 1: don't plan, don't don't think about next, don't be a visionary. No.
Speaker 1: Do you think our church has a vision for what's
Speaker 1: gonna happen next? Absolutely? You think we think about it
Speaker 1: one hundred percent. Do you think we try and plan
Speaker 1: for some things. Absolutely, but it's not the priority. When
Speaker 1: next becomes a priority, it ultimately becomes prevention. It ultimately
Speaker 1: prevents what God is actually trying to do. We've got
Speaker 1: to understand we do not know what's best. God knows
Speaker 1: what's best. That's why I love our church. That's why
Speaker 1: I love our pastors fourteen years. That's why we can
Speaker 1: come in and spend the entire weekend last weekend, and
Speaker 1: we can celebrate one hundred and fifty thousand salvations, twenty
Speaker 1: thousand baptisms, fifty two million dollars given to outreach, because
Speaker 1: we understand we're gonna celebrate right now one of our
Speaker 1: core values. We will not take this for granted. It's
Speaker 1: about expressing gratitude. That's all we did last week, expressing
Speaker 1: gratitude for what God has been doing in our lives
Speaker 1: and in our church. Like imagine this Jesus rolls up
Speaker 1: and you're in the Lazy River and Jesus comes to
Speaker 1: you and he's like, hey, I want you to baptize me.
Speaker 1: Are you saying what John said? Probably not anymore. After
Speaker 1: you've heard this, I realized, like, well, maybe I would
Speaker 1: have still asked some questions. But now we're reading this
Speaker 1: page and I'm like, no Ah, Jesus coming to me saying, hey,
Speaker 1: I want you to baptize me. I might Oh really me, Okay, great,
Speaker 1: let's do it. Thank you? What an honor. This is huge?
Speaker 1: Are you serious? Okay, grab my hand, I'll hold your nose.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, your hair is beautiful. Wow, I love it.
Speaker 1: Right coming in grateful, I'm coming in with some gratitude.
Speaker 1: Let me tell you something. Our job is thank you.
Speaker 1: His job is next. That's our responsibility, because the revelation
Speaker 1: of next only comes with the realization of now. I'll
Speaker 1: say it a different way, the revelation of next only
Speaker 1: comes with the responsibility of now. We have looked at
Speaker 1: now as something that we can just move to the
Speaker 1: side with. In all reality, that is the only thing
Speaker 1: that God has ever given you is right now. It's
Speaker 1: right now. It's right now. What's next? Now? What's next? Now?
Speaker 1: What's next? Now? That's that's it. That's all we have.
Speaker 1: And for a generation as a society and a culture
Speaker 1: for who always asks what's next? I dare to say this,
Speaker 1: Show me you're now, and I'll show you you're next.
Speaker 1: Show me what you're doing right now, Show me how
Speaker 1: you're praying right now, show me what you're believing for
Speaker 1: right now? Every single one of us has been given something.
Speaker 1: You've been given something. What are you gonna do with it?
Speaker 1: Why compare? What's the chart that you're comparing off of?
Speaker 1: That didn't make any sense? Every single person in this
Speaker 1: room has breath. You have time? Why what's next? Now?
Speaker 1: What's next? Now? In those moments are going quicker than
Speaker 1: you think? What are you doing with right now? Are
Speaker 1: you okay with just coming in and being like I
Speaker 1: attended church? That's good, that's great, I'm fine. You know,
Speaker 1: eleven years in full time ministry. I know I don't
Speaker 1: look that old, but eleven years in full time ministry.
Speaker 1: You've pastor the whole entire time. People will ask me, man,
Speaker 1: how do you how do you get so many teenagers
Speaker 1: apart and coming to your events and wanting to be
Speaker 1: a part of the thing. I was like, teenagers aren't
Speaker 1: the hard ones that's the hard Make a little relevant.
Speaker 1: Talk to them the way that they talk at school,
Speaker 1: and you know, focus on one thing during the you know,
Speaker 1: the sermon, and like you Gucci, Gucci, gang, gutca gang.
Speaker 1: Am I right? Okay? Maybe not, it's the parents that
Speaker 1: are difficult. I could say that'd be why it's same here.
Speaker 1: I have found myself almost allowing things and I'm like, wait,
Speaker 1: that didn't make any sense. Why am I doing that?
Speaker 1: Like we we were gonna put Brody in that picture.
Speaker 1: It was in sixth grade. The dude's a giant, okay.
Speaker 1: He's twice the size of everyone in his class. Okay,
Speaker 1: and he wants to play basketball like this dude no
Speaker 1: matter what, Like you don't even care if he got
Speaker 1: any skill. He's just tall. So it's gonna work in
Speaker 1: sixth grade, okay. Like, man, we want to put him
Speaker 1: in this camp, like we're so excited, like you know,
Speaker 1: he could be the next you know whatever. I'm like, okay, cool,
Speaker 1: let's do it. Awesome. Then I realized it happened on
Speaker 1: the weekends. I say, hey, Bud, I'm sorry, man, I'm sorry,
Speaker 1: you know what my son said. I can't lie. I
Speaker 1: have to tell the truth. He's like, I get it.
Speaker 1: I didn't even have to really tell him the entire reason.
Speaker 1: He just knew, like ye had dad is on the weekend.
Speaker 1: I was like, oh, and like that's maybe like our
Speaker 1: one parent success, you know. I just I'm not the
Speaker 1: hero or anything like that. I just say this is
Speaker 1: one parent parental success. I was like, yes, he gets it.
Speaker 1: He understands the value of every single weekend in church.
Speaker 1: He understands the value of serving out at the youth tent.
Speaker 1: He understands the value of getting into a group. And
Speaker 1: we had to force it for years. But he's looking
Speaker 1: at me like, man, that's exactly what I want to
Speaker 1: do with my life. But ah, I don't know. I'll
Speaker 1: step back and then guess what happened. Six months later
Speaker 1: we found a camp that's during the week But if
Speaker 1: I it would have been like John trying to prevent it.
Speaker 1: I would have never have known. Oh, there's another camp
Speaker 1: that is accessible that will work perfectly with our schedule. Ah,
Speaker 1: this is why I'm trying to I mean, people will
Speaker 1: come up to me parents and they'll be like, oh,
Speaker 1: man Uthex twenty twenty summer camp teenagers. They look so awesome.
Speaker 1: Oh my goodness, Can you convince me why my child
Speaker 1: should go? Are you serious? I gotta convince you. I
Speaker 1: think it's because we don't understand the ROI on the church,
Speaker 1: all right, the return on investment in the church. I
Speaker 1: can send my kid to a basketball camp, I can
Speaker 1: send him to private school. He might gain confidence through that.
Speaker 1: He might, he might get some good friends. He might.
Speaker 1: I'm not saying it. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. Right,
Speaker 1: would we all agree? Yeah, it's not a one hundred
Speaker 1: percent guarantee. The church is a one hundred percent guarantee
Speaker 1: that you are going to get something beneficial in their life,
Speaker 1: in your life, in your marriage. It might take some time,
Speaker 1: but it's the one hundred percent guarantee. Why would I not?
Speaker 1: Why would I not? Right now, right now, right now?
Speaker 1: And the only thing that I realized was either you
Speaker 1: don't understand the concept of next to now, or you
Speaker 1: don't understand the return on investment in the church. It
Speaker 1: baffles me how much access we have and resource that
Speaker 1: we have as a church, and a lot of us
Speaker 1: don't take the most advantage of it. As we can,
Speaker 1: the community that you could have, the friendships, the mentorship.
Speaker 1: I'm like, this is everything. It might not be what
Speaker 1: I planned, but this is everything. I'm like, if I'm
Speaker 1: a I'm if I'm a parent, I'm signing my kid
Speaker 1: up for Utex twenty twenty one hundred percent. I don't
Speaker 1: need to ask any more questions because here's the deal.
Speaker 1: You're ready for this. Well, what I ain't got no money? Well,
Speaker 1: I'm glad you said that. I'm glad you went to
Speaker 1: the table and said you ain't got no money because
Speaker 1: guess what we got scholarships. You see how you find
Speaker 1: out things when you do stuff now instead of like, oh, no,
Speaker 1: there's no way I got no money, and it gonna
Speaker 1: even happen. Like when people say like, all right, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna go to an E group. I go to that
Speaker 1: E group and then like, I don't necessarily like that
Speaker 1: E group. That could happen. You'd be like, oh, that
Speaker 1: egert leader is a little weird, eh, and then God
Speaker 1: starts speaking to you, Well, then why don't you start one? No,
Speaker 1: I'm see, but see how it goes to the next thing.
Speaker 1: It's a one hundred percent guarantee that God is going
Speaker 1: to do something beneficial in your life. There's no if
Speaker 1: ANNs or butts about it. It's a timing thing, and timing.
Speaker 1: When it comes to next, that's up to God. But
Speaker 1: when it comes to now, if the only thing I
Speaker 1: have to worry about is now, that is me. That's
Speaker 1: my job. And when He blesses me, when he takes
Speaker 1: care of me, when he gives me the encouragement that
Speaker 1: I need, when he sends people on my way, what
Speaker 1: do I say? Thank you Jesus, What an honor. I
Speaker 1: knew that if I made this decision right now, that
Speaker 1: you are gonna come to me, that you were gonna
Speaker 1: take care of me, that you are gonna let me down.
Speaker 1: And even though it took two years, I would love
Speaker 1: to be in this position rather than my own plan.
Speaker 1: If I could have everyone standing in this moment. I
Speaker 1: want to give people the opportunity to come into a
Speaker 1: relationship with Jesus Christ right now, because for some of you,
Speaker 1: you've been waiting on what's next. And it's not bad
Speaker 1: to plan, it's not bad to be organized, it's not
Speaker 1: bad to be a forward thinker. But when it becomes
Speaker 1: the priority, you're preventing everything that God has for you
Speaker 1: and wants for you, wants for your family, wants for
Speaker 1: your marriage, wants for your soul, and for your spirit.
Speaker 1: I think there are many people in this room and
Speaker 1: across all the locations on EPHAM right now in online
Speaker 1: who you're saying. You know what. I'm ready right now
Speaker 1: because this is it. What's next? Now? What's next? Now?
Speaker 1: That's all you will ever be given. And when you
Speaker 1: see God do something over and over in your life,
Speaker 1: you'll realize it's because you could steward now. You could
Speaker 1: steward it with every head bow and every eye closed.
Speaker 1: Anyone who wants to come into a right relationship with
Speaker 1: Jesus Christ, I want you to pray this prayer along
Speaker 1: with me, and as a church family, we're going to
Speaker 1: pray it together. And so I want you to say this, say,
Speaker 1: dear Jesus, I thank you for who you are. I
Speaker 1: thank you for who the Bible says that you are.
Speaker 1: I believe that you died on the cross, you rose
Speaker 1: from the grave, defeating all sin. Come into my life,
Speaker 1: make me a new creation, and right now I will
Speaker 1: follow you for the rest of my life with every
Speaker 1: head bow and every eye close. At all locations on
Speaker 1: the counter. Three. If you just pray that prayer right
Speaker 1: now and you're saying, you know what, I'm not gonna
Speaker 1: worry about what's next. I know that in this moment
Speaker 1: is the moment that I want to make the most
Speaker 1: out of it. You pray that prayer for the very
Speaker 1: first time on the counter. Three, I want you to
Speaker 1: raise your hand. One. Don't worry about next. Two no hesitation,
Speaker 1: no doubt, no fear. Three, come on, raise your hands.
Speaker 1: Come on, let's give it up. Everyone raising their hands
Speaker 1: making a decision right now at every location it come on.
Speaker 1: Thank you for joining us. Special things to those of
Speaker 1: you who give generously to this ministry. Is because of
Speaker 1: you that this ministry is possible. You can click the
Speaker 1: link in the description to give now, or visit Elevationchurch
Speaker 1: dot org slash podcast for more information and if you
Speaker 1: enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe. You can share it
Speaker 1: with your friends. You can click the share button, take
Speaker 1: a screenshot and share it on your social stories and
Speaker 1: tag us at Elevation Church. Thanks again for listening. God
Speaker 1: bless you