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.
Speaker 1: Hope this inspires you. Hope it builds your faith.
Speaker 2: Hope it gives your perspective to see God is moving
Speaker 2: in your life.
Speaker 1: Enjoy the message.
Speaker 2: We're gonna have such an amazing day.
Speaker 1: We're already having an amazing day.
Speaker 2: How many feel a little better now that you praise
Speaker 2: God the last thirty minutes. In just a moment, Holly
Speaker 2: is gonna come and preach our message today.
Speaker 1: Let's thank God in advance for the world he's going
Speaker 1: to speak.
Speaker 2: Let's say hello to our EPAM all over the world.
Speaker 2: Come on, Elevation Valentine, lift up your voice and welcome
Speaker 2: our EPHAM. Our campus is all over the world. We're
Speaker 2: glad you're with us today. At the end of the
Speaker 2: message today, there's going to be a year end offering.
Speaker 2: And this is a very special opportunity.
Speaker 1: For each and every one of us.
Speaker 2: How many know that the Bible says you can praise
Speaker 2: God with your lips, but your heart still be far
Speaker 2: from Him.
Speaker 1: That can happen.
Speaker 2: But one thing that I've learned that will always help
Speaker 2: me to draw near to God is through giving.
Speaker 1: Is through giving.
Speaker 2: So when people say I love to worship God, I
Speaker 2: hope they don't just mean I like music about God,
Speaker 2: because the greatest act of worship happens.
Speaker 1: When we bring Him our whole lives in full faith.
Speaker 2: And today you're going to see thousands of people do that.
Speaker 2: I'll cross all of our locations and online. Holly and
Speaker 2: I have our offering ready, and don't get nervous. She's
Speaker 2: not going to preach for forty minutes about money.
Speaker 1: I know you're like I invited my relative today.
Speaker 2: I thought there might be a Christmas sermon about a
Speaker 2: baby in a blanket and the wise man and the Magi,
Speaker 2: and the message today will be applicable to all of
Speaker 2: us around the subject that I know God gave her
Speaker 2: because we both said to each other a month ago.
Speaker 2: That's the word that our church needs to hear on
Speaker 2: our offering weekend. And so the Lord has really been
Speaker 2: aligning this and I'm excited for you to hear it.
Speaker 2: But I want to tell you that for me as
Speaker 2: I bring my offering today for the nineteenth year, remember
Speaker 2: when they used to call me a fly by night preacher, Well,
Speaker 2: I've been flying for a long night nineteen years now,
Speaker 2: and I'm just reminded of what we were singing.
Speaker 1: That was a great selection.
Speaker 2: We didn't work that in events, but you know, the
Speaker 2: Bible says that the gates of hell will not prevail
Speaker 2: against the Church, and actually the opposite happens when we
Speaker 2: proclaim the name of Jesus. The gates of hell start
Speaker 2: shaking when we show up. And I've just seen that
Speaker 2: time and time again, no matter what the enemy has
Speaker 2: tried to bring against our family and our church and
Speaker 2: all of the wonderful people who make up this church,
Speaker 2: that God keeps being faithful again and again. I've seen
Speaker 2: it in seasons of abundance, seasons of plenty, seasons of praise,
Speaker 2: seasons of criticism. I've seen it in seasons where my
Speaker 2: own heart was broken but I was preaching to others.
Speaker 2: I've seen it in seasons when I was on a
Speaker 2: mountaintop with the victory that.
Speaker 1: God is my source. God is my source. And so.
Speaker 2: If you're like me, you probably had to look for
Speaker 2: a check book. I don't write a lot of checks
Speaker 2: these days manually, but I always write this one. Of course,
Speaker 2: you can give online, and there will be instructions about
Speaker 2: that later.
Speaker 1: But really, I don't want you to get so.
Speaker 2: Caught up in the mechanics of what's going to happen
Speaker 2: later on that you missed the ministry and the miracle
Speaker 2: of it. Because I get so many testimonies from all
Speaker 2: over the world. Some of them come from people who
Speaker 2: are just living their lives normally and God blesses them
Speaker 2: through the words and the worship and the ministry that
Speaker 2: comes forth from this house, and some from life's lowest situations.
Speaker 2: Some write me from prisons, some write me after miscarriages,
Speaker 2: some write me as they're going through divorce. And you know,
Speaker 2: whether it's the everyday moments that God uses, how many
Speaker 2: would say that God has used this ministry to reach
Speaker 2: your heart at a time where you needed him.
Speaker 1: And notice I've said God did it.
Speaker 2: If you've ever been blessed through this ministry, it was
Speaker 2: God blessing you. But the thing I love about Jesus
Speaker 2: is that he always involves his disciples. One time, he
Speaker 2: needed to feed a crowd, and he could have probably
Speaker 2: just called down bread from heaven, but he asked them,
Speaker 2: what do you have, not because he needed what they had,
Speaker 2: but because they needed what he had. And when you
Speaker 2: learn this principle, whether today you're beginning to tithe for
Speaker 2: the first time, which is ten percent, or whether you're
Speaker 2: giving what Holly and I came prepared to give an
Speaker 2: above and beyond offering.
Speaker 1: And by above and beyond, I mean it hurts my
Speaker 1: feelings a little bit when I give it. That's how
Speaker 1: I always test it.
Speaker 2: And whatever you're giving today, I want you to understand
Speaker 2: what you're hooking into. We don't give to receive from God.
Speaker 2: We give because everything we have already comes from Him.
Speaker 1: So to all of you who are giving today.
Speaker 2: In just a little while after the sermon, I told Holly,
Speaker 2: before you preach and just absolutely do what only you
Speaker 2: can do.
Speaker 1: Let me look at the people, and let.
Speaker 2: Me look at the cameras for all the people that
Speaker 2: I can't see at campuses like Roanoke and shout out
Speaker 2: Ronoke Elevation, Ronoke Elevation, University City Elevation, Lake Norman, all
Speaker 2: the amazing locations, all of our pop ups, all of
Speaker 2: our watch parties, everybody here at Valentine, everybody watching this in.
Speaker 1: A hospital room.
Speaker 2: I want to look at all of you who are
Speaker 2: participating in this ministry and say thank you, Holly, and
Speaker 2: I thank God for you for another year of amazing
Speaker 2: ministry sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1: And just like you know, you.
Speaker 2: Raised your hand and said, this ministry means a lot
Speaker 2: to me and my family. Maybe you were saved through
Speaker 2: this ministry, maybe you were brought back to God. Maybe
Speaker 2: it's just been there for you in the times of
Speaker 2: your deepest nee.
Speaker 1: Just like you raise that.
Speaker 2: Hand, now you get to stretch that hand and give
Speaker 2: a gift that will be meaningful to God in you.
Speaker 2: And I love it because I don't want to end
Speaker 2: Christmas just consumerism.
Speaker 1: And busyness and all of that.
Speaker 2: I want to stop and say thank you Jesus for
Speaker 2: all You've done for me, and I trust you with
Speaker 2: my future.
Speaker 1: So I want to say a prayer.
Speaker 2: And after I pray, we'll welcome Holly up real, proper
Speaker 2: and strong. We'll clap with cheer, we'll lose our minds,
Speaker 2: we'll let her know we're ready for what God spoke.
Speaker 2: But would you join hands with the person next to you,
Speaker 2: if that doesn't give you germaphobia on the highest level,
Speaker 2: if it doesn't give you a panic attack, to touch
Speaker 2: your neighbor. Grab their hand, because I want to pray
Speaker 2: not only for Holly as she comes to share, and
Speaker 2: for you as you listen. I want to pray for
Speaker 2: the things in your life that you need to trust
Speaker 2: God about. And whether you're giving a financial offering today,
Speaker 2: I still want to pray for you. I want to
Speaker 2: pray that the Lord would order your steps in the
Speaker 2: season to come, that he would bring the right people
Speaker 2: everybody say right people, that he would bring people who
Speaker 2: can bless you and people you can bless across your path.
Speaker 2: I want to pray that God would give you his
Speaker 2: wisdom for all of the difficult decisions that you're facing.
Speaker 2: I want to pray that you would hold on to
Speaker 2: the gifts that He's given you and not give up
Speaker 2: too easily. I want to pray that you would let
Speaker 2: go of distress that you're not supposed to carry anyway.
Speaker 2: Squeeze the hand of the person next to you, Let
Speaker 2: them know that there's still life in front of them,
Speaker 2: let them know that there's still hope inside of them.
Speaker 1: Let them know that it's Christ in us, the hope
Speaker 1: of glory.
Speaker 2: And let's let the world know that we're preaching this
Speaker 2: gospel of Jesus Christ, that we are not a divided church.
Speaker 1: We are a united church.
Speaker 2: We unite under one name, the name that can break chains,
Speaker 2: the name that still makes ways, the name that makes
Speaker 2: the gates of Hell's shaikh.
Speaker 1: We are the Church of the Living God and Father.
Speaker 1: We give you praise today for the word that you're.
Speaker 2: About to speak through Pastor Holly Speak, Lord.
Speaker 1: We're listening in Jesus' name. Amen, clapt those hands.
Speaker 3: Here comes Holly, Here comes the word for your life.
Speaker 4: Well, Merry Christmas. I just have to add to that.
Speaker 4: I love coming to church at Christmas time. It is
Speaker 4: so easy to get caught up in the rush and
Speaker 4: the hustle and bustle. But when you set aside time
Speaker 4: to come to church and take a breath and worship
Speaker 4: God and allow him to recenter your heart and your focus,
Speaker 4: God always shows up and he blesses us. And I
Speaker 4: just have to add I am so excited about today.
Speaker 4: It's a special day at Elevation. We are bringing our
Speaker 4: offerings together today, as Steven said, as JJ said, we
Speaker 4: want to let you know we're bringing our offerings today.
Speaker 4: And I'm so excited because I absolutely love watching people
Speaker 4: worship God by giving. There's no greater way to express
Speaker 4: your gratitude to Him than giving back a portion of Him.
Speaker 4: And like Steven said, we're going to get to that
Speaker 4: at the end. But for to have a word that
Speaker 4: I'm so excited to share with you today. Are you
Speaker 4: ready for the Word? All right, let's read our scripture
Speaker 4: together real quick before you sit down. I want to
Speaker 4: preach today from Romans chapter twelve, verses one and two,
Speaker 4: one of the most iconic passages of Scripture, and I'm
Speaker 4: excited that God is allowing me to preach from it today.
Speaker 4: It says this, Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters,
Speaker 4: in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as
Speaker 4: a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God. This is
Speaker 4: your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the
Speaker 4: pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing
Speaker 4: of your mind. Then you will be able to test
Speaker 4: and approve what God's will is, His good, pleasing and
Speaker 4: perfect will. The title of my sermon today is God
Speaker 4: wants to show you. Let's pray one more time. Father,
Speaker 4: would you bless the reading of your word today? Holy Spirit?
Speaker 4: We welcome you in this place. We welcome you in
Speaker 4: this room, in all of our campuses, wherever anybody is watching,
Speaker 4: Holy Spirit come come into our hearts, speak to us today.
Speaker 4: We are listening. Lord in Jesus' name. Amen, you can
Speaker 4: have a seat. Earlier this month, I sat down with
Speaker 4: a few staff members and we recorded a video where
Speaker 4: we were looking back at all the amazing things that
Speaker 4: has happened in our church over twenty twenty four. My
Speaker 4: favorite part of the conversation, of course, was when we
Speaker 4: all went around and we shared one of our favorite
Speaker 4: messages from twenty twenty four. And when I was trying
Speaker 4: to figure out what my favorite one was, I was
Speaker 4: looking at a list of sermons that our pastor preached
Speaker 4: only in this year, and I was in awe, partially
Speaker 4: because I know how hard it is to prepare one sermon.
Speaker 4: Just so you know, I f only preached three times
Speaker 4: of this year, and he has preached I don't even
Speaker 4: know how many times. But as I looked at each
Speaker 4: title and I thought about the things that God has
Speaker 4: spoken to me throughout the year through the messages of
Speaker 4: our pastor, I was just amazed. I am a church girl,
Speaker 4: you know, I'm a pastor's daughter. I grew up in church.
Speaker 4: I guarantee you I've heard more sermons than anybody in
Speaker 4: this room, and I have heard a lot of bad sermons.
Speaker 4: And I do not take it for granted that every
Speaker 4: single week our pastor brings us such an incredible beast.
Speaker 4: If you don't get something from one of his sermons,
Speaker 4: it is your fault. So the past several weeks have
Speaker 4: been really special to me. I'm not sure if any
Speaker 4: of you noticed, but Pastor Stephen did this sneaky little
Speaker 4: non series series. He never called it anything, but all
Speaker 4: of the sermon titles began with God and they were
Speaker 4: followed by four words. Do you remember? It's okay if
Speaker 4: you don't. I had to look up the titles, but
Speaker 4: I want to remind you of them. The first one
Speaker 4: he did was God can use this too. The second
Speaker 4: one he did was God will work it in. The
Speaker 4: third one was God's got the hard part. The fourth
Speaker 4: one was God gave it to me. And today I
Speaker 4: just want to do a little tag on message with
Speaker 4: this sermon that I have called God wants to show you.
Speaker 4: I love to share memes and funny videos from social media.
Speaker 4: Anybody else like that? I think I have some people
Speaker 4: in my life that are like can't keep up with
Speaker 4: all the things that they're supposed to watch that I
Speaker 4: show them. I love dog videos, I love people falling.
Speaker 4: I love anything that will make me laugh. If your
Speaker 4: feed is full of like politics and I don't know,
Speaker 4: angry people, you would love my feed because it is
Speaker 4: so funny. And sometimes I lay in bed at night
Speaker 4: when Steven has fallen asleep, and I start scrolling through
Speaker 4: my feed and I start giggling because you know, like
Speaker 4: when you're supposed to be quiet and someone else is sleeping,
Speaker 4: and I just start laughing. And I don't know, I
Speaker 4: think things are funnier late at night too, and so
Speaker 4: of course, like it's like, you know, twelve thirty, and
Speaker 4: I just start sending stuff. And the funny thing about
Speaker 4: memes is they show you how what you think is
Speaker 4: the most hilarious thing in the world might not even
Speaker 4: be remotely funny to someone else. So you have to
Speaker 4: be really careful like who you show them to, because
Speaker 4: they can make you feel like really dumb. Right, So
Speaker 4: in my family, I'm not gonna call anyone out, but
Speaker 4: I have learned the hard way. My husband thinks that
Speaker 4: everything is fake or re enacted. He is such a skeptic.
Speaker 4: My boys do not get me. They don't even open
Speaker 4: my memes. I know because I'm like I said, did
Speaker 4: you see that it was so funny? They don't even
Speaker 4: open them. So Abby is my last shred of hope
Speaker 4: in the family. But we haven't let her get Instagram yet.
Speaker 4: So I have a saved folder called things to Show Abby,
Speaker 4: and a lot of days I'll pick her up from
Speaker 4: school and I'll say, oh, I have something so funny
Speaker 4: to show you, and we will laugh together at memes.
Speaker 4: And currently people dancing to songs from Wicked. So in
Speaker 4: our passage today, let me get back to the Bible. Well,
Speaker 4: Paul is trying to teach us that God is excited.
Speaker 4: He has something he wants to show us, which is
Speaker 4: his will. And every person here has something that they
Speaker 4: want God to give them direction on, right. I mean,
Speaker 4: maybe it is a relationship or a job, or a
Speaker 4: change that you think God might be calling you to make.
Speaker 4: Maybe you have something that you want to be set
Speaker 4: free from, or a habit that you know that isn't
Speaker 4: good for you. And we all want God to show
Speaker 4: us his will for our lives. And what I want
Speaker 4: to show you from this passage today is that God
Speaker 4: wants to show you your next steps. He longs to
Speaker 4: show He wants to show it to you more than
Speaker 4: you want to see it. But God is not Santa Claus,
Speaker 4: and you don't get to send him a letter with
Speaker 4: all the grown up things that you want for Christmas.
Speaker 4: You know, like, Dear God, this year, I would like
Speaker 4: to lose twenty pounds, own a home, get married, and
Speaker 4: get promoted at my job. And then on December twenty fifth,
Speaker 4: you wake up and under the tree is a detailed
Speaker 4: plan of all the decisions that you need to make
Speaker 4: and all the steps you need to take in twenty
Speaker 4: twenty five to accomplish these goals. That is not how
Speaker 4: it works, and Paul is giving us instructions on how
Speaker 4: to know what God's will is. But there is a
Speaker 4: very critical step that we cannot skip. So look at
Speaker 4: the verse again. It says, therefore, I urge you, brothers
Speaker 4: and sisters, in view of God's mercy, to offer your
Speaker 4: bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God.
Speaker 4: This is your true and proper worship. Second one, next verse,
Speaker 4: do not conform to the pattern of this world, but
Speaker 4: be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then then
Speaker 4: you will be able to test and approve what God's
Speaker 4: will is his good, pleasing and perfect will. There are
Speaker 4: a lot of things that you have to do before
Speaker 4: you get to that then, isn't there? And I want
Speaker 4: to break that down for us today. Keep the verse
Speaker 4: up there one more time. Look at it. Therefore, I
Speaker 4: urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy.
Speaker 4: You see, if you want to see things from God's
Speaker 4: point of view, if you want God to show you
Speaker 4: the way, you need to go at his speed. And
Speaker 4: I can tell you right now that you're probably going
Speaker 4: too fast. So the first thing that you need to
Speaker 4: do is slow down. I talk to the ladies at
Speaker 4: Reflect about this, and I share with them this story.
Speaker 4: It's too good not to share it with the whole church.
Speaker 4: I'm going to shorten it though, because the ladies that
Speaker 4: Reflect we like long stories, and I've been told that
Speaker 4: that's not appropriate for Sunday morning. So anyway, one time,
Speaker 4: my family took a trip to Pennsylvania and my mom
Speaker 4: had planned for us to go to Gettysburg Military Park
Speaker 4: and we were going to do this guided history tour.
Speaker 4: And I know that might seem kind of strange, like
Speaker 4: my family was really nerdy. We weren't, but for some
Speaker 4: reason at the time, my sisters and my mom and
Speaker 4: I were really into Civil War history. It probably has
Speaker 4: to do it like some I don't know, series of
Speaker 4: books that we were reading, or show we were watching
Speaker 4: or whatever. So we arrived at Gettysburg, and we stopped
Speaker 4: at the visitor center and we picked up our map
Speaker 4: and our brochures and our guided cassette tape. I'm not
Speaker 4: even gonna make a joke about what a guided cassette
Speaker 4: tape is, Abby, I'll show you later. Now, very clearly
Speaker 4: though the INDI instructions, it said that the vehicle must
Speaker 4: maintain a speed of twenty miles per hour in order
Speaker 4: to see the sites that the tour guide on the
Speaker 4: cassette tape was going to be telling us about. Okay,
Speaker 4: so we pop in the tape and we start out,
Speaker 4: and the man starts saying something like, to begin our journey.
Speaker 4: Look to your left, and you will see a statue,
Speaker 4: a memorial statue of Abraham Lincoln in the seis place
Speaker 4: where he gave the Gettysburg address. And I want you
Speaker 4: to know that that was the only historical site of
Speaker 4: Gettysburg that we got to see because my dad, who
Speaker 4: was not really into Civil War history at the time,
Speaker 4: just could not drive twenty miles an hour to save
Speaker 4: his life. He had to have been going at least forty,
Speaker 4: so every time the guy told us to look at something,
Speaker 4: we'd already passed it five miles back. Now I fact
Speaker 4: checked this story with my sister Emily, and she says
Speaker 4: that not only was that true, but she remembers crying
Speaker 4: because there was a statue of a dog that had
Speaker 4: like remained with the injured soldiers or something, and she
Speaker 4: really wanted to see it, and we never got to
Speaker 4: see it because nothing on the tape matched up with
Speaker 4: what we were seeing. And I want you to imagine
Speaker 4: my father in a car full of women who were
Speaker 4: constantly telling him to slow down. And I want to
Speaker 4: tell you today, but if you want God to show
Speaker 4: you his will for your life, you're gonna have to
Speaker 4: go with the speed that he requires. And if you
Speaker 4: want to experience the peace and the presence of Christ
Speaker 4: in your family this Christmas season, you're gonna have to
Speaker 4: slow down. Now. I know that this time of year,
Speaker 4: we all have a million things to do. There's responsibilities
Speaker 4: and obligations and programs that we did not ask to
Speaker 4: have to attend. And I know that some of you
Speaker 4: are working over time because they're gonna be extra bills
Speaker 4: that you're gonna have to pay. But I want you
Speaker 4: to know that what I am learning in the Christmas
Speaker 4: season and really throughout the year, is that the presence
Speaker 4: of Christ can be found in every moment of my
Speaker 4: day if I will slow down and look for it.
Speaker 4: Jesus Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit is
Speaker 4: always present. And God, like that tour guide on the tape,
Speaker 4: is trying to show me things along the way throughout
Speaker 4: my day. He's trying to guide me. But if I'm
Speaker 4: going forty in a twenty, I'm gonna miss the direction
Speaker 4: and the instruction that God is trying to give me.
Speaker 4: I rush because I'm over committed. I've packed too many
Speaker 4: things into one day. I rush because I have things
Speaker 4: that have to get done. There's work and appointments and
Speaker 4: commitments and activities and errands and dinners and homework and chores.
Speaker 4: Anybody with me, And sometimes I feel like I'm rushing
Speaker 4: though on purpose because it keeps me from having to
Speaker 4: feel and from having to acknowledge the things that I'm feeling.
Speaker 4: And I know that if I stay busy, then I
Speaker 4: don't have to think about the things that I'm disappointed about.
Speaker 4: So I put my shoes on at seven am and
Speaker 4: I don't take them off until nine am PM. And
Speaker 4: then I lay my head on my pillow at night,
Speaker 4: and I'm worried about everything that's going on. And then
Speaker 4: I wonder why I'm so anxious and so run down
Speaker 4: and so weary, and why I feel so far away
Speaker 4: from the presence of God. And I don't want to
Speaker 4: feel that way at the end of the year this year,
Speaker 4: and you don't have to feel that way. And Paul's
Speaker 4: writing this letter to Christians and Rome so when he
Speaker 4: says to them, offer your bodies as a living sacrifice,
Speaker 4: they would have automatically understood that a sacrifice was something
Speaker 4: that you place on an altar. So in Biblical times,
Speaker 4: beginning even with the patriarchs in Genesis with Abraham and
Speaker 4: Isaac and Jacob, when something significant was about to happen,
Speaker 4: or something important had just happened, often they would stop
Speaker 4: and build an altar, Like do you remember when Noah
Speaker 4: got off the ark he stopped. He built an altar,
Speaker 4: and the God showed him the rainbow of his promise.
Speaker 4: So by the time we get to Moses and the
Speaker 4: Ten Commandments, God is giving Moses the Ten Commandments. But
Speaker 4: right after that he also instructs Moses to tell the
Speaker 4: people this. Look at Exodus chapter twenty versus, starting in
Speaker 4: verse twenty two, I think, yeah, says this. Then the
Speaker 4: Lord said to Moses, tell the Israelites this you have
Speaker 4: seen for yourselves that I have spoken to you from heaven.
Speaker 4: He's talking about the Ten Commandments. Do not make any
Speaker 4: gods to be alongside me. Do not make for yourselves
Speaker 4: gods of silver or gods of gold. Make an altar
Speaker 4: of earth for me, and sacrifice on it your burnt
Speaker 4: offerings and fellowship offerings, your sheep and goats, and your cattle.
Speaker 4: Wherever I cause my name to be honored, I will
Speaker 4: come to you, and I will bless you. So the
Speaker 4: people that Paul is writing to they understood this idea
Speaker 4: that God was giving this direction in Exodus twenty to
Speaker 4: his children because they were going to be on the move.
Speaker 4: They had just left slavery in Egypt, but their journey
Speaker 4: was just beginning, and God knew that there were gonna
Speaker 4: be moments of great victory and moments of great fear.
Speaker 4: And he knew that they had battles ahead to fight,
Speaker 4: and they knew that He knew that they had giants
Speaker 4: ahead to face. And these moments could not wait for
Speaker 4: a tabernacle to be set up or for a temple
Speaker 4: to be built. That these moments called for an altar
Speaker 4: right there in the place where they were, right there
Speaker 4: in the feelings that they were feeling. And yes, you
Speaker 4: should schedule in time to worship God. Please do not
Speaker 4: let anything come between you and getting to church every
Speaker 4: single week. And you should be in an e group
Speaker 4: where you can discuss what God is speaking to you.
Speaker 4: And obviously you should set aside time with God in
Speaker 4: your house where you pray and you read your Bible.
Speaker 4: But if you think that worshiping God is segmented out
Speaker 4: like that, you're gonna miss so many things that God
Speaker 4: wants to show you in the one thousand moment moments
Speaker 4: of your day. And if we want God to show
Speaker 4: us where to go, we have to learn how to
Speaker 4: slow down in the middle of our day at your desk,
Speaker 4: in your car, in your kitchen, and bring God into
Speaker 4: the situation, bring him into the feelings that you're feeling.
Speaker 4: These are alter moments. God told Moses to make an
Speaker 4: earthen alter. That means that it doesn't have to be pretty.
Speaker 4: It doesn't have to wait for Sunday. It can be
Speaker 4: raw and it can be muddy. You can stop and
Speaker 4: you can celebrate a victory right where you are, or
Speaker 4: you can cry out to him for help. But you've
Speaker 4: got to learn how to slow down and acknowledge your
Speaker 4: feelings right there in the moment. Are you grateful? Are
Speaker 4: you afraid? Are you anxious? Are you excited? Are you nervous?
Speaker 4: Are you angry? Are you disappointed? Are you frustrated? God
Speaker 4: can handle all of that. He wants you to bring
Speaker 4: him in to the moment, and he wants to meet
Speaker 4: you right there. Then the next thing that you have
Speaker 4: to do is you have to make a sacrifice. God
Speaker 4: wants to show you his will, but you can't rush it,
Speaker 4: and you also can't ignore the steps that he wants
Speaker 4: you to take along the journey. So in our passage,
Speaker 4: Poll is saying to the church that God wants to
Speaker 4: show us a new way. He's saying the old law,
Speaker 4: the law of Moses, is done away with, and you
Speaker 4: no longer have to offer a bull or sheep or
Speaker 4: goats to a tone for your sins, because that's what
Speaker 4: they were doing. But the new law says that God,
Speaker 4: in view of his great mercy, he sent Jesus to
Speaker 4: die for our sins. So Jesus is already paid the price.
Speaker 4: And all God wants in return for that great price
Speaker 4: that he paid when he gave his son on the
Speaker 4: cross for our sins is our bodies as a living sacrifice.
Speaker 4: That means he wants all of you. He didn't just
Speaker 4: die for the pretty parts of your life, the church
Speaker 4: parts of your life. He died for all of it.
Speaker 4: He died for your hopes and your dreams. He died
Speaker 4: for your victories and your defeats. He died for your
Speaker 4: pride and for your shame. He wants you to bring
Speaker 4: it all to him. So what does it look like
Speaker 4: to make a sacrifice. A sacrifice is something that has
Speaker 4: value to you. It's a representation of trust. It's a
Speaker 4: symbol that expresses that God means more to you than anything,
Speaker 4: more than anything that you have, or anything that you
Speaker 4: have had, or anything that you want to have. So
Speaker 4: when you slow down and you have this moment where
Speaker 4: you bring God into your situation. You mark the moment
Speaker 4: by giving something back to God that's valuable to you.
Speaker 4: So David was building an altar one time and he
Speaker 4: said this statement, and it's so incredible. He said, I
Speaker 4: will not offer the Lord something that costs me nothing.
Speaker 4: So sacrifice is something that costs you something. Sometimes you
Speaker 4: have to sacrifice to God something that you love. I
Speaker 4: have had so many moments in my life where I've
Speaker 4: had to reluctantly let go of a dream, a dream
Speaker 4: or an idea that I had about my life that
Speaker 4: maybe just hasn't come to pass. And I've had to
Speaker 4: come to a place where I have to release my
Speaker 4: idea of what I thought my life would look like
Speaker 4: by now. I thought I'd be further along than this,
Speaker 4: or maybe I thought I would have a different career
Speaker 4: by now. I thought i'd be married by now. I
Speaker 4: thought have kids by now. We always all have these
Speaker 4: thoughts and dreams and aspirations that maybe haven't come to
Speaker 4: pass for us. And it's really hard at Christmas time
Speaker 4: because we see everyone's beautiful Christmas cards and I think
Speaker 4: when I look at them, sometimes I think, oh Am,
Speaker 4: I falling behind, you know, like we kick ourselves because
Speaker 4: we look at this family in this beautiful car and
Speaker 4: we think God. And if I had started selling that
Speaker 4: protein powder on Facebook to all my friends and family,
Speaker 4: I'd be spending Christmas in e'rerop skiing. Right now, you
Speaker 4: gotta be careful, you gotta slow down. It's okay, acknowledge
Speaker 4: the disappointment. Give it to God. When I'm giving you
Speaker 4: this stream, I'm giving it back. I'm laying it down
Speaker 4: on the altar. And sometimes when I say, I'm like,
Speaker 4: and Lord, if you want to give it back to me,
Speaker 4: that's okay, I'll let But right now I'm letting go,
Speaker 4: and I'm trusting that you are the God of immeasurably
Speaker 4: more than I could ask or imagine, and perhaps you
Speaker 4: have a better dream for me. I can't imagine something better,
Speaker 4: but God, I'm giving you this one because I want
Speaker 4: to sacrifice it to you right now, in this moment.
Speaker 4: Sometimes you sacrifice a person that you love. Maybe it's
Speaker 4: your spouse or your child, or a parent who you
Speaker 4: need to release to God, who you need to stop
Speaker 4: trying to control. And I've had so many moments. Sorry
Speaker 4: to my kids, but you need to know where I
Speaker 4: have come to God, and I have said, Lord, you
Speaker 4: love this person more than I do. I know that.
Speaker 4: So God, I'm letting go of my hopes and dreams
Speaker 4: and expectations for them, knowing God that just like you
Speaker 4: have good plans for me, you have good plans for them.
Speaker 4: And God, I know that you do not need my help.
Speaker 4: I'm available. Sometimes you have to let your disappointments go.
Speaker 4: You have to give them to God. You have to say, God,
Speaker 4: this did not turn out the way that I thought,
Speaker 4: So I'm surrendering my expectations to you. Remember Pastor Stephen
Speaker 4: preached don't let the funeral fool you, and he said,
Speaker 4: he said, you have to have a funeral for your expectations.
Speaker 4: And sometimes we said that that's a sacrifice that we
Speaker 4: give to God because it can be so disappointing when
Speaker 4: things and people don't turn out and don't treat us
Speaker 4: the way that we thought that they would. Sometimes you
Speaker 4: have to lay down a feeling or an emotion like anger.
Speaker 4: I just have to say that I'm afraid that we
Speaker 4: have become an angry generation of people, and every little
Speaker 4: thing that gets on our nerves and we think we
Speaker 4: need to tell everybody you know, Like, anything that gets
Speaker 4: some matters, I'm gonna let you know about it. It
Speaker 4: could be your spouse, or your teenager or a random
Speaker 4: person on YouTube, but you're going to void your outrage.
Speaker 4: And I just want to let you know you don't
Speaker 4: have to tell everyone. If you're angry. You can be
Speaker 4: angry and not say anything. And I know that anger
Speaker 4: is often an indicator of a deeper feeling that we're feeling,
Speaker 4: but I think that most angry people aren't really interested
Speaker 4: in figuring out why they're angry, because it feels good
Speaker 4: to be angry. Right. As long as you're angry, you
Speaker 4: never have to change anything about yourself. You never have
Speaker 4: to accept your own behavior because you just are angry
Speaker 4: at everybody else's behavior. If they do this, or if
Speaker 4: they wouldn't do this, or if they would have done this,
Speaker 4: then I wouldn't be so angry. And I'm not saying
Speaker 4: that there's never a time when you can't get angry,
Speaker 4: but what I am saying is that you can't afford
Speaker 4: to stay angry, because if you stay angry, then you
Speaker 4: will become bitter, and you will become someone that you yourself
Speaker 4: do not even like so put your anger on the altar.
Speaker 4: God can handle it. He can take anything. He wants
Speaker 4: all of you. He wants the ugly and the beautiful
Speaker 4: parts of your life. Sometimes you have to put your
Speaker 4: pride on the altar. Recently, I was having one of
Speaker 4: these slow moments with God. And it wasn't very pretty.
Speaker 4: It wasn't like a, oh, I need to grab my
Speaker 4: Bible and a cup of tea and a candle and
Speaker 4: have a quiet time. I was talking to God because
Speaker 4: I was having a hard time. I was disappointed in
Speaker 4: something that was going on and something that had happened,
Speaker 4: and I was trying really hard to do all of this,
Speaker 4: and I was trying to give it to God. But honestly,
Speaker 4: all that I kept thinking about every time that I
Speaker 4: was praying about it was these stories that I was
Speaker 4: making up in my head about what other people were
Speaker 4: saying about me. And I really was just telling God
Speaker 4: how unfair I thought that the whole situation was. And
Speaker 4: I wasn't making aid progress though, And I realize now
Speaker 4: that I was trying to have an alter moment with
Speaker 4: God without sacrificing anything to him. And it was a
Speaker 4: few days later that I was talking to Stephen. And
Speaker 4: as I was trying to get it out of what
Speaker 4: I was so frustrated and angry about, I realized that
Speaker 4: the maturity of my frustration wasn't actually in what happened,
Speaker 4: like the event, but it was in my pride of
Speaker 4: worrying about what other people were thinking about me, and
Speaker 4: I was just making it about me. And I don't
Speaker 4: want to acknowledge my pride in the situation. I just
Speaker 4: wanted to be angry that it had happened. But it
Speaker 4: wasn't until I began to surrender my pride that I
Speaker 4: began to feel peace about the situation. It wasn't until
Speaker 4: I was really able to be honest with God and say, God,
Speaker 4: you know what, I'm making this about me, and help
Speaker 4: me not make it about me. And when I was
Speaker 4: praying about it, I began to see it from a
Speaker 4: completely different perspective because I offered God the truth of
Speaker 4: how I was really feeling. Paul says, Therefore, brothers and sisters,
Speaker 4: in view of God's mercy, offer your bodies as a
Speaker 4: living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God. This is your
Speaker 4: true and proper worship. That's the real way you worship God.
Speaker 4: When you get honest with him, and he says, do
Speaker 4: not conform to the pattern of this world, but be
Speaker 4: transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will
Speaker 4: be able to test and improve what God's will is.
Speaker 4: Then you will be able to test and approve what
Speaker 4: God's will is. You see, we want to fast forward
Speaker 4: from verse one to verse two. God show me your will.
Speaker 4: Should I move jobs? Should what college? Should I go to?
Speaker 4: Should I keep dating this guy? And God says, that's
Speaker 4: not how it works. There needs to be a commitment here,
Speaker 4: and that commitment is symbolized by my willingness to sacrifice
Speaker 4: to God something that costs me, something that hurts sometimes.
Speaker 4: And in this verse, this is so interesting. The word
Speaker 4: sacrifice is actually translated killing, So if you were to
Speaker 4: make a direct translation, it actually is saying make your
Speaker 4: life a living killing. And Paul is saying to these people,
Speaker 4: he's saying, we're not offering bulls and goats and sheep anymore.
Speaker 4: That was actually easier. You bring it, you kill it,
Speaker 4: it stays dead. But this sacrifice, it's a living killing.
Speaker 4: That means that this thing is gonna crawl off the
Speaker 4: altar every chance it gets. It would be nice if
Speaker 4: we could just sacrifice our anger once and for all
Speaker 4: and move forward. It would be nice if we could
Speaker 4: just surrender our disappointments to God and move on, or
Speaker 4: if we could let go of all of the weights
Speaker 4: that we're carrying. It doesn't work like that. A living killing.
Speaker 4: That means sometimes it's minute by minute, day by day.
Speaker 4: You have to keep doing it. One scholar said, it
Speaker 4: feels like a death, but on the other side of
Speaker 4: it is life, and that's why it's a living sacrifice.
Speaker 4: It's a sacrifice that leads to life. There's life when
Speaker 4: you let go. There's life when you let go. You
Speaker 4: want direction, you want guidance, you want peace about your decisions.
Speaker 4: It begins with a sacrifice. We cannot see God's will
Speaker 4: without doing things God's way. We don't get to skip
Speaker 4: the part where we have to give God something that's
Speaker 4: valuable to us. So we slow down, we build an altar,
Speaker 4: we bring God into our situation, make a sacrifice, and
Speaker 4: then we see our situation in a whole new way.
Speaker 4: That's my last point. See, the more that you begin
Speaker 4: to release your situation to God, the more that your
Speaker 4: mind begins to be transformed. That's when you begin to
Speaker 4: have a renewed vision of what God is actually trying
Speaker 4: to do in your life. Not too long ago, I
Speaker 4: was struggling with the same situation over and over and
Speaker 4: over again. You ever been there, And I'm telling you,
Speaker 4: I built many altars. I kept putting this situation on
Speaker 4: the altar, and when I tell you, it kept climbing off.
Speaker 4: It kept climbing off. And I was so disappointed because
Speaker 4: I felt like God was not listening to me. I mean,
Speaker 4: I had given him so many good ideas about how
Speaker 4: to fix this situation. You could do this, you could
Speaker 4: do that, God make them, do you know? I get
Speaker 4: God lots of ideas, to the point where I got
Speaker 4: so frustrated that I stopped talking to God about it,
Speaker 4: and not in a good way. I was just like, well,
Speaker 4: obviously God's not hearing me, and so I'm just I'm
Speaker 4: just not even gonna pray about this anymore. But God
Speaker 4: is so patient and he's so kind. And one day
Speaker 4: I wasn't looking, I wasn't praying about it, but I
Speaker 4: was reading my Bible and I came across this first
Speaker 4: and it grabbed me. And I went about my day,
Speaker 4: but I kept thinking about it. A couple of days
Speaker 4: went by, I was like, I gotta look that first
Speaker 4: back up. So I went back and I read it again,
Speaker 4: and I realized that it was the exact thing that
Speaker 4: I needed in that situation. So I printed out the
Speaker 4: verse and I put it up everywhere. I mean, it's
Speaker 4: kind of obnoxious that I put it up inside of
Speaker 4: the cabinet where our coffee mugs are, so I would
Speaker 4: see it first thing in the morning. I put it
Speaker 4: up on my mirror, I put it in my car.
Speaker 4: I taped it to a plant.
Speaker 3: And.
Speaker 4: Every time I worried about the situation, God reminded me
Speaker 4: of that verse. Every time I wondered what I was
Speaker 4: supposed to do, I remembered that verse. And I have
Speaker 4: to tell you something shifted in my heart. But nothing
Speaker 4: changed about the situation. The only thing that actually changed
Speaker 4: was my perspective and my attitude. And I'm telling you,
Speaker 4: it felt like God had given me marching orders, like
Speaker 4: he had given me the exact vision and direction that
Speaker 4: I needed for that situation. And I began to have
Speaker 4: peace because now I had a promise. I realize now
Speaker 4: that I wasted so much of my prayer time trying
Speaker 4: to show God what he needed to do God, you
Speaker 4: see this, if you would fix this, if you would
Speaker 4: change them, if you would make them understand and listen.
Speaker 4: There's nothing wrong with asking God to change your situation.
Speaker 4: Sometimes that's the only place where you can start right.
Speaker 4: But what I found is that breakthrough happens when I
Speaker 4: stop trying to show God what he needs to do,
Speaker 4: and I let him show me a way through. I
Speaker 4: feel like I need to say that again. Stop trying
Speaker 4: to show God. Let him show you.
Speaker 3: Now.
Speaker 4: I'm not going to share my verse with you, because
Speaker 4: it's my verse. You got to find your own verse.
Speaker 4: But I want to tell you something. The promises in
Speaker 4: this book they are for you. This is not just
Speaker 4: a book of stories. This book is life. This book
Speaker 4: has power. And when this book says I will never
Speaker 4: leave you nor forsake you, that means you. God is
Speaker 4: with you. So if you feel lost or you feel lonely,
Speaker 4: you put a promise on it. When you read that
Speaker 4: Jesus said peace, I leave with you, that means you.
Speaker 4: So when you feel anxious, you put a promise on it.
Speaker 4: The Bible says that if the sun sets you free,
Speaker 4: then you are free. Indeed, it's talking about you, So
Speaker 4: put a promise over your addiction. You don't have to
Speaker 4: wait for pastor Stephen to tell you about God's promises.
Speaker 4: They are right here. We got free by If you
Speaker 4: don't have a Bible, we got one for you. Pick
Speaker 4: it up and read it, and put a promise over
Speaker 4: your marriage, put a promise over your family. God's promises
Speaker 4: are generational, and they are ours for the taking. Abraham
Speaker 4: built an altar, and he called it the Lord will provide.
Speaker 4: Jacob built an altar, and he called it Mighty House
Speaker 4: of God. Moses built an altar, and he called it
Speaker 4: the Lord is my Banner. Geton built an altar, and
Speaker 4: he called it the Lord is my Peace. God wants to.
Speaker 5: Show you more than you want to see it. It
Speaker 5: starts with a process, Paul says, off of your bodies
Speaker 5: as a living sacrifice. Begin to transform and renew your
Speaker 5: mind and see your situation in the new light. And
Speaker 5: then then and only then will you be able to
Speaker 5: test and approve what God's will is. Slow down, put
Speaker 5: that thing back on the altar, and then put a
Speaker 5: promise over your situation.
Speaker 4: That's where the past. It's right here. But you're going
Speaker 4: so fast you don't even have time to open it
Speaker 4: up and let God speak to you. Today is a
Speaker 4: beautiful day at our church. It's a day when we
Speaker 4: cheerfully bring an offering to God. And we've been telling
Speaker 4: you for weeks to pray about it and prepare what
Speaker 4: God would have you to give, because we want you
Speaker 4: to give, because God has given so much to you.
Speaker 4: And when we give it, we're saying thank you. We're
Speaker 4: acknowledging that this is a place where you speak to
Speaker 4: me God, and so I want to give so that
Speaker 4: someone else can hear the messages that I'm hearing at
Speaker 4: a new campus or online in a different city, or
Speaker 4: maybe even a different country. And when we give, it
Speaker 4: is a beautiful act of worship. But don't forget when
Speaker 4: you give today that is sacrifice is often followed by
Speaker 4: a promise. Don't forget to put a word on your
Speaker 4: offering today. That's just as important. The word is just
Speaker 4: as important as the gift, because as you head into
Speaker 4: twenty twenty five, you're going to go in strong knowing
Speaker 4: that God has gone before you, that he knows what's
Speaker 4: ahead of you, and He's given you a promise to
Speaker 4: cling to in the coming day so that when the
Speaker 4: times get hard, you've got a word from God over
Speaker 4: your life. Everyone should have received an envelope when you
Speaker 4: came in. If you don't have one, an usher is
Speaker 4: going to bring one to you online. There's a link
Speaker 4: in the chat for you to participate, and in a moment,
Speaker 4: we're going to bring our offerings. But I want us
Speaker 4: to go slow today. I don't want us to just
Speaker 4: start singing and come forward and put our offering in
Speaker 4: the little thing. I want to make sure that you
Speaker 4: get to have a moment with God right here where
Speaker 4: you are. Whether you're watching in your home and you're
Speaker 4: sitting in a seat at one of our campuses, you
Speaker 4: can make the place where you're sitting an altar right now.
Speaker 4: I just want you to take a minute. Has God
Speaker 4: been grateful? Has God been good to you this year?
Speaker 4: Are you grateful for that? What does He brought you through?
Speaker 4: Maybe you need to surrender a disappointment to him. Maybe
Speaker 4: you need to let go of a person that you
Speaker 4: love and care about so much. I just want you
Speaker 4: to take a minute to let God show you your
Speaker 4: way forward. Take a minute to think about word your
Speaker 4: promise for twenty twenty five that you're going to put
Speaker 4: on the back of that envelope because when we come
Speaker 4: forward and we give, even if you're not able to
Speaker 4: participate in the offering today, we want you to bring
Speaker 4: your word and we want you to place it in
Speaker 4: the offering. And I want you to know we have
Speaker 4: people who have signed up who are prepared today and
Speaker 4: all week to pray over your word, to believe with
Speaker 4: you what God is speaking over your life for this year.
Speaker 4: So I just want to give you a moment. The
Speaker 4: band's going to come and sing, and then your campus
Speaker 4: pastor is going to come with instructions specifically on how
Speaker 4: we're going to take the offering. But before they do
Speaker 4: all of that, let God speak to you in this moment,
Speaker 4: just pause. Who wants to show you? So let we
Speaker 4: thank you for this word. We just steel it on
Speaker 4: our hearts today. I love you. It's in Jesus' name.
Speaker 1: Amen. 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 Elevationchurch dot org slash podcast for more information,
Speaker 2: 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.