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: A lot of times when I'm up here, I'm welcoming
Speaker 1: the guest who's going to preach, But today, I guess
Speaker 1: I'm welcoming myself because I had the incredible honor of
Speaker 1: being able to preach and bring God's word to you today.
Speaker 1: I'm so grateful that Pastor Stephen would trust me to preach.
Speaker 1: And I'm really excited about this word because God has
Speaker 1: been working it in my heart over the last several weeks.
Speaker 1: He's been preaching it to me so that I can
Speaker 1: have something to bring to y'all. I'm going to stay
Speaker 1: in the flow of our Savage Jesus series. Haven't you
Speaker 1: loved Savage Jesus? In case you're new, We've been looking
Speaker 1: at the life of Jesus through the Book of Mark,
Speaker 1: and I think one of the reasons this series is
Speaker 1: resonating so powerfully with me and with our churches is
Speaker 1: really just an overflow of our pastor's heart. Because I've
Speaker 1: been here for eleven year and I can say in
Speaker 1: every single season, he has always fought to keep our
Speaker 1: focus as a church on the main thing, which will
Speaker 1: always and forever be Jesus. And it's not just what
Speaker 1: he preaches on the platform. It's in the decisions he
Speaker 1: makes behind the scenes. It's in the way that he's
Speaker 1: kind of savage, and how he loves and encourages and
Speaker 1: blesses people that you'll never hear about in a sermon.
Speaker 1: So I just want to thank God for a pastor
Speaker 1: he keeps as centered on the heart of God, which
Speaker 1: is to reach people with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1: And I'm so excited about what God's going to do today.
Speaker 1: You guys can have a seat now. This is a
Speaker 1: significant weekend for me, not just because I get the
Speaker 1: honor of preaching, but anyone who knows me knows that
Speaker 1: I'm pretty excited that there's a new Star Wars movie
Speaker 1: out this weekend. If you're watching this later, Solo came
Speaker 1: out this weekend, and I am just a full fledged,
Speaker 1: unashamed geek. I love anything that has to do with
Speaker 1: a long time ago in a galaxy far far away.
Speaker 1: And it's not just me, I've converted my kids. So
Speaker 1: this is you can see our favorite like post dinner
Speaker 1: lightsaber fight. That's kind of what we do to bond
Speaker 1: as a family. But you know, my kids even have
Speaker 1: a Star Wars YouTube channel called the Three Pos. I
Speaker 1: was pretty impressed with that name. Three Kids, three Pos.
Speaker 1: My wife came up with it. But I'm also a
Speaker 1: forty two year old man who may or may not
Speaker 1: collect Star Wars comics. But that's that's okay. But I'm
Speaker 1: just I'm just a casual collector. I don't hold a
Speaker 1: candle compared to some serious collectors out there. And my
Speaker 1: friend who's on staff, Ryan Monette, he is a legit
Speaker 1: Star Wars, just anything sci fi collector. You go to
Speaker 1: his house and you feel like you're walking into a
Speaker 1: sci fi museum. You got life sized, real costumes and replicas.
Speaker 1: And let me show you how much better he is
Speaker 1: as a collector than me. So this is the prize
Speaker 1: of my collection. This was my R two D two
Speaker 1: when I was five years old and I still have it. Actually,
Speaker 1: one night it just randomly turned on in my room
Speaker 1: as a kid and just felt that it freaked me out,
Speaker 1: but still still kept it. But I love this thing.
Speaker 1: This is this is like the pinnacle of my collection.
Speaker 1: Let me show you the highlight of Ryan's collection. I
Speaker 1: want to introduce that to you really quick. In case
Speaker 1: you missed this, RTD two is on the stage at Valentine.
Speaker 1: I'm living out every childhood dream. My eight year old
Speaker 1: self would be going nuts right now. It took Ryan
Speaker 1: four years to build this. First of all, I've never
Speaker 1: realized R two is this big. I feel even kind
Speaker 1: of short scented next to him. But my thanks, artwo.
Speaker 1: It took him four years to build this because you
Speaker 1: had to get parts from certain parts of the country
Speaker 1: and they're only available at certain times of the year.
Speaker 1: There's this whole R two builders club. And how many
Speaker 1: of you think that the best way Ryan could honor
Speaker 1: his worship pastor after preaching all week and would be
Speaker 1: to let me take this home if you want to say,
Speaker 1: start a petition. So R two, is there anything you'd
Speaker 1: like to say to the people? Oh? Really, what was
Speaker 1: your favorite sermon ins What was your favorite sermon in
Speaker 1: savage Jesus? Oh this is significant. I like that one too.
Speaker 1: Would you like to preach today instead of me? That's
Speaker 1: how I feel too, buddy. All right, you need to
Speaker 1: go because I'll play with R two the whole time.
Speaker 1: I won't preach, So go that way, give it up
Speaker 1: for our two. So that is what a true collector
Speaker 1: will build. And you know, sometimes collections get out of hand,
Speaker 1: and maybe some of you think four years to build
Speaker 1: that is out of hand. I don't I fully endorse
Speaker 1: that and support that. But if you've ever seen Hoarders,
Speaker 1: you know what I have you ever seen that show?
Speaker 1: There's some ridiculous, like gross stuff on that show. But
Speaker 1: what you can see sometimes is that someone starts out
Speaker 1: with an innocent collection, maybe a doll collection that's something
Speaker 1: good that you love, or a book collection. And I've
Speaker 1: seen the show where this woman was trapped in her
Speaker 1: house by the fifty thousand dolls that she collected, this
Speaker 1: tiny house surrounded by dolls, couldn't even move, couldn't function.
Speaker 1: Or this one man who had five hundred thousand books,
Speaker 1: and they're overwhelmed by their collection and they can't even
Speaker 1: live their life anymore. And the crazy thing is they're
Speaker 1: living in denial. They don't even see that they have
Speaker 1: a problem. It takes somebody else to come and show
Speaker 1: them that this collection isn't helping you anymore, it's hurting you.
Speaker 1: So collections can get out of hand. And Jesus in
Speaker 1: Mark Eate talks about a collection that can get out
Speaker 1: of hand and maybe something more important that we should
Speaker 1: collect instead. So this is our passage that we're going
Speaker 1: to focus on today. It's in Mark chapter eight, verses
Speaker 1: thirty four through thirty seven. So let's look at this now.
Speaker 1: It says, then he called the crowd to him, along
Speaker 1: with his disciples, and said, whoever wants to be my
Speaker 1: disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and
Speaker 1: follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will
Speaker 1: lose it. But whoever loses their life for me and
Speaker 1: for the Gospel will save it. What good is it
Speaker 1: for someone to gain the whole world yet forfeit their soul,
Speaker 1: Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?
Speaker 1: So I want to talk to you today about living
Speaker 1: in denial. Living in denial. Turn to your neighbor and
Speaker 1: ask them, are you in denial? So here we have
Speaker 1: Jesus talking. I'd be real curious to know. They answered
Speaker 1: to some of that. Here we have Jesus talking about
Speaker 1: a collection gaining the whole world, and it's meaningless you
Speaker 1: lose your soul and instead taking up something far more valuable,
Speaker 1: which is collecting, taking up across. And so for me,
Speaker 1: I grew up in church. My granddad was a pastor,
Speaker 1: my dad was the music minister, my mom played the organ.
Speaker 1: My aunt and uncle they worked with the youth. So
Speaker 1: I was always around these nice little Christian cliches. I
Speaker 1: heard all these things in youth group and sermon, and
Speaker 1: they would sound great on a bumper sticker, like deny yourself,
Speaker 1: take up your cross, and sounds cute. Right. Can we
Speaker 1: just admit that no one lives like that? No? I
Speaker 1: mean maybe you do, maybe you're way more holy than
Speaker 1: I am. But I'm trying to imagine how the disciples
Speaker 1: must have felt when they heard Jesus say take up
Speaker 1: your cross, because for them, across was not something you
Speaker 1: wore on a necklace. Across was where someone was brutally
Speaker 1: murdered and executed. And the disciples had to be freaking
Speaker 1: out because, honestly, for them, up until this point, things
Speaker 1: have been pretty good. In Galilee. I mean, the crowds
Speaker 1: were growing, they were seeing miracles. Yeah, there was a
Speaker 1: little controversy here and there, but all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: Jesus is talking about taking up across and dying, and
Speaker 1: not just him taking up across, telling them to take
Speaker 1: up across. And so I'm imagining them kind of murmuring
Speaker 1: to each other like wait a second, or we do
Speaker 1: we have to die too. It wasn't what they wanted
Speaker 1: to hear. And what they wouldn't realize until much later
Speaker 1: is that Mark eight. This is the point where everything changes, because,
Speaker 1: like I said, up until that point, they'd have been
Speaker 1: in Galilee doing ministry there, doing miracles, feeding the five thousand,
Speaker 1: and this is the point where Jesus turns and faces Jerusalem,
Speaker 1: and the rest of the Book of Mark is the
Speaker 1: last week of his life in Jerusalem as he goes
Speaker 1: to take up his cross. And so, like I said,
Speaker 1: when I was younger, that sounded nice, deny yourself, take
Speaker 1: up your cross, follow me, And I thought, you know,
Speaker 1: I've got this whole denying someend thing down, Like I
Speaker 1: feel pretty good. I'm in church every time the doors
Speaker 1: are open, but I kind of have to be because
Speaker 1: my granddad's the pastor and my parents work there, but
Speaker 1: that's cool, that should work in my favor. And yeah,
Speaker 1: I watch MTV every now and then, even though my
Speaker 1: parents tell me not to when they're out of the room.
Speaker 1: And if I'm getting really crazy, I'll watch the Simpsons.
Speaker 1: But you know, that's that's okay. And maybe I think
Speaker 1: about Kelly Kapowski a little too much after watching Say
Speaker 1: By the Bell. But I've repented of all this at
Speaker 1: youth camp, so I'm good. I'm good. But then I
Speaker 1: got older and I started to be confronted with the
Speaker 1: depth of my sin, and I started to realize that
Speaker 1: there was a lot of jealousy in my heart when
Speaker 1: someone got something that I thought I deserved. And I
Speaker 1: realized I was pretty selfish in my relationships and I
Speaker 1: wasn't ever really content. I always wanted more. And I
Speaker 1: began to feel really discouraged and defeated because I was like, well,
Speaker 1: I gave my life to Christ. I said, I was
Speaker 1: going to commit my life to following Jesus. But how
Speaker 1: do I deny the sin because it's always right there
Speaker 1: before me? And I feel defeated all the time, like
Speaker 1: I could never live for God because I don't know
Speaker 1: how to deny my sin, and maybe you feel the
Speaker 1: same way. Maybe right now you just hear the voice
Speaker 1: of accusation all around you, saying you're a liar, you're
Speaker 1: an addict, you're an adulter, you're a cheat, you're insecure.
Speaker 1: You're hearing just the voice of your sin right in
Speaker 1: front of you, and you feel like it's impossible to
Speaker 1: deny your sin, and you don't know what it means
Speaker 1: to live for Christ. With that being the case, God
Speaker 1: showed me something in this passage this week that has
Speaker 1: helped me so much. And I've been praying all week
Speaker 1: that would help you in the same way. Because I've
Speaker 1: read this passage for years, for my whole life, I've
Speaker 1: read it wrong. I've never noticed this until this week,
Speaker 1: and I want us to look at it again. Let's
Speaker 1: read it one more time. Then he called the crowd
Speaker 1: to him along with his disciples, and said, whoever wants
Speaker 1: to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up
Speaker 1: their cross and follow me. Whoever wants to save their
Speaker 1: life will lose it. But whoever loses their life from
Speaker 1: me and for the Gospel will save it. What good
Speaker 1: is it for someone to gain the whole world yet
Speaker 1: forfeit their soul, or what can anyone gain in exchange
Speaker 1: for their soul? Did you notice what's missing in that
Speaker 1: passage The word sin. The word sin is nowhere in
Speaker 1: that passage because Jesus wasn't talking about sin this whole time.
Speaker 1: I thought it was about denying my sin. Jesus never
Speaker 1: said deny your sin. He said deny yourself. But what
Speaker 1: about my sin? I mean, that's still a pretty big deal.
Speaker 1: Yet it is a big deal, And that's the whole reason. Jesus,
Speaker 1: when he said this, was about to head to Jerusalem
Speaker 1: to deal with your sin once and for all on
Speaker 1: his cross, on his cross. He was going to deal
Speaker 1: with your sin on his cross. He was going to
Speaker 1: deal with your shame on his cross. He was going
Speaker 1: to deal with your condemnation once and for all. We
Speaker 1: receive his grace because of his cross. But the thing
Speaker 1: that has just been blowing my mind all week is
Speaker 1: that Jesus never told us to take up his cross.
Speaker 1: He said take up yours. You can't take up his cross.
Speaker 1: It's too big of a weight to bear. And the
Speaker 1: good news is you don't have to. He took up
Speaker 1: his cross, dealt with your sin once and for all
Speaker 1: it is finished. You do not have to atone for
Speaker 1: your sin. You do not have to make yourself righteous.
Speaker 1: He made you righteous on his cross, and you can't
Speaker 1: deal with your sin on your cross. Your cross has
Speaker 1: nothing to do with sin. We deal with self on
Speaker 1: our cross. And if our cross has nothing to do
Speaker 1: with sin, maybe it means that there are some things
Speaker 1: that we've never thought of as sin, maybe even some
Speaker 1: good things that we're holding on to that God wants
Speaker 1: us to let go of, that God wants us to
Speaker 1: deny in order to follow him. Because this, I believe
Speaker 1: is the word of the Lord for our church this week.
Speaker 1: And if you're a follower of Christ, your sin has
Speaker 1: been made right because of the cross of Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1: But your refusal to deny yourself will cause you to
Speaker 1: miss out on the power of God in your life.
Speaker 1: We cannot experience the fullness of life in Jesus Christ
Speaker 1: if we do not deny ourself. And His cross was
Speaker 1: done once and for all, but we take up our
Speaker 1: cross daily, every single day. We have to learn what
Speaker 1: it means to take up our cross and deny ourselves.
Speaker 1: In fact, in the Book of Luke, when Luke is
Speaker 1: talking about this same passage. He says, you have to
Speaker 1: take up your cross daily. This is a daily dying
Speaker 1: to self. And I've been asking myself all week, and
Speaker 1: God has been showing me that there are some good
Speaker 1: things that I need to let go of, and maybe
Speaker 1: there's some good things that you need to let go
Speaker 1: of as well, in order to embrace the power of
Speaker 1: God and your life. I know some of you are thinking, well, okay,
Speaker 1: so I have to feel bad about my sin, and
Speaker 1: now I have to feel bad about the good things too.
Speaker 1: That's not the point at all. But Jesus is saying
Speaker 1: that when you take up your cross, you're taking up
Speaker 1: his way of life and his way of life. He
Speaker 1: promises peace, he promises joy, he promises fulfillment, but it
Speaker 1: does require letting go. So a couple weeks ago, I
Speaker 1: have my little Saturday routine with my kids before I
Speaker 1: get ready for church, and Ferris, my wife, she took Sydney,
Speaker 1: our youngest daughter, to dance class, and so I was upstairs.
Speaker 1: I have twin girls that are nine, and I was
Speaker 1: upstairs and I was playing video games with them, which
Speaker 1: is what any good dad would do when alone with
Speaker 1: the kids. And so I'm playing video games, and I
Speaker 1: feel guilty. After a while, I'm like, well, we need
Speaker 1: to go downstairs and go outside. It's a nice day
Speaker 1: and do something productive. And so I'm about to go
Speaker 1: down the stairs. And here's one thing you need to
Speaker 1: know about me. I am addicted to soda. I love if, PEPSI, coke,
Speaker 1: whatever it is. I love it a little bit too much.
Speaker 1: So like none ten soda is a day. I know
Speaker 1: it's it's bad, don't judge me. But this is my
Speaker 1: healthy option. This is ZeVA and so this is what
Speaker 1: makes me feel a little bit better about drinking all that.
Speaker 1: And so I always have one of these in my hand.
Speaker 1: And so we have this long flight of wooden stairs
Speaker 1: at our house. Zv is in my hand and I
Speaker 1: get three stairs from the top. My feet slip out
Speaker 1: from under me. It's like time stands still in this moment.
Speaker 1: And the first thought, I kid you not. The first
Speaker 1: thing I think of is oh no, I don't want
Speaker 1: to spill my ZBA. First thought, second thought is wow,
Speaker 1: that stair hurts my head really really bad. My head
Speaker 1: slams against the stairs, my back slams, and then I
Speaker 1: hit every single stair on the way down. I mean,
Speaker 1: think of the worst scene in a movie you've ever
Speaker 1: seen of someone falling down the stairs. I can't even
Speaker 1: get words out. It hurts so much. It's just like
Speaker 1: it's the sound I made in my mind. I'm thinking,
Speaker 1: this is how I am. This is the worst way
Speaker 1: to go, most embarrassing way to go. I slam on
Speaker 1: the bottom of the floor in the fetal position, and
Speaker 1: I hear adleon Leonna just come to the top of
Speaker 1: the stairs in the rail and they just look down,
Speaker 1: and I kind of like compare about them, like, Daddy,
Speaker 1: are you okay? Once again, I can't like vocalize words.
Speaker 1: I'm just like, ah, you would think my beloved daughters,
Speaker 1: who love me, who are compassionate, who are kind, would
Speaker 1: come and run to the aid of their loving father.
Speaker 1: That is not what happened. They were so scared and
Speaker 1: thought that I was dying that instead of coming to
Speaker 1: help me, they ran to their room, screamed and slammed
Speaker 1: the door and just left me there all by myself
Speaker 1: for like five minutes. I'm there all by myself, and
Speaker 1: then once I can finally move, and then I start
Speaker 1: getting mad at them for running away, forgetting that I'm
Speaker 1: the dad that they're not supposed to take care of me.
Speaker 1: They come down the stairs to check on me, and
Speaker 1: I'm just like, well, just clean up the zvia, And
Speaker 1: so they clean up the zva and then we have
Speaker 1: a nice chat about what to do if mommy or
Speaker 1: daddy actually was hurt. But here's what I realized after
Speaker 1: the fact. If I just let go of the zvia
Speaker 1: and grabbed the handrail, I could have just saved myself
Speaker 1: a lot of pain, a lot of embarrassment right now.
Speaker 1: And I was driving later that day and I was wondering,
Speaker 1: are there any things in my life that I'm holding
Speaker 1: onto that are going to hurt me if I don't
Speaker 1: let go? And in your life, are there any things
Speaker 1: that you're holding onto any zba is that you're just
Speaker 1: refusing to let go of. And God is saying, if
Speaker 1: you just let go of this, not only will it
Speaker 1: save you from getting hurt, but actually have something better.
Speaker 1: And so today I want to talk about three things
Speaker 1: that don't fall in the category of sin, and maybe
Speaker 1: some are even good things that God may be calling
Speaker 1: us to let go of. And I can't preach everything
Speaker 1: about what it means to deny yourself. In twenty minutes.
Speaker 1: But I think these are things that we can make
Speaker 1: decisions on every single day, and I think God will
Speaker 1: bless us if we learn how to have a posture
Speaker 1: of letting go in the first thing is this, let
Speaker 1: go approving yourself right. Let go approving yourself right now.
Speaker 1: Do marriage counseling sometimes and one of the things I
Speaker 1: try to tell the husband's right away this is marriage
Speaker 1: one oh one fundamentalism. Marriage. There are four words, four
Speaker 1: words that you have to avoid at all costs, no
Speaker 1: matter how right you think you are, no matter how
Speaker 1: vindicated you would feel in saying them, no matter how
Speaker 1: justified you think your case is, don't say these four words.
Speaker 1: I have never said these four words because I'm not
Speaker 1: that foolish and my wife would never do anything wrong.
Speaker 1: But fellas, tell me if you if you feel me
Speaker 1: on this, I told you so. It's not worth it.
Speaker 1: Do not do it. Not even if you're putting the
Speaker 1: rowing machine on Craigslist that your wife begged for for
Speaker 1: Christmas and you said, honey, you don't need a rowing machine,
Speaker 1: you're perfect, and she said, no, I'm going to use
Speaker 1: it every single day. I want to get in shape,
Speaker 1: and I'm going to use it every day, and you're like, well, okay,
Speaker 1: I'll go ahead and buy it for you. And then
Speaker 1: she uses it twice and we use it as a
Speaker 1: coat rack in the closet after that, and you're putting
Speaker 1: it on Craigslist, which is exactly what you say, what happened.
Speaker 1: I would never say I told you so if that happened.
Speaker 1: That never happened in the Joy household. That's just a hypothetical,
Speaker 1: hypothetical situation. But we love to be proven right. And
Speaker 1: sometimes it's silly like that. Sometimes it's more serious. I
Speaker 1: listen to a podcast sometimes on potential wrongful convictions, and
Speaker 1: I can't imagine how infuriating it would be to be
Speaker 1: on trial for something that you did not do and
Speaker 1: to be convicted for that. But that's exactly what Jesus
Speaker 1: was walking into in Mark chapter eight. He was going
Speaker 1: to Jerusalem, where within days he would go from celebrated
Speaker 1: miss Pah to accuse blasphemer, where the son of God
Speaker 1: was going to be treated like a common criminal, and
Speaker 1: he didn't fight back. He could have said one word
Speaker 1: and a host a legion of angels could have come
Speaker 1: down and proven his credentials, but instead he was mostly
Speaker 1: silent at his trial. He didn't fight back. Jesus didn't
Speaker 1: try to prove he was right with his words. He
Speaker 1: simply did the right thing. And it's got me thinking
Speaker 1: about all the times I've sabotaged my relationships, not by
Speaker 1: what I did wrong, but by trying to prove that
Speaker 1: I was right, refusing to humble myself. And I believe
Speaker 1: taking up our cross in relationships means laying down our
Speaker 1: needs and taking up the needs of others, because that
Speaker 1: is the heart of Jesus, and we see that in
Speaker 1: Philippians too. Let's look at this. It says, do nothing
Speaker 1: out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility,
Speaker 1: value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests,
Speaker 1: but each of you to the interests of the others
Speaker 1: in your relationships with one another. Had the same mindset
Speaker 1: as Christ. Jesus, who, being in very nature God, did
Speaker 1: not consider equality with God something to be used to
Speaker 1: his own advantage. So have you been wronged? So is Jesus.
Speaker 1: Have you been betrayed? Jesus was betrayed by one of
Speaker 1: his closest friends. Have you been misunderstood? That is part
Speaker 1: of following Christ. Jesus was misunderstood the whole time he
Speaker 1: was in Jerusalem. And this isn't permission to be walked
Speaker 1: all over, but this is a call to value the
Speaker 1: relationship over the argument. I think the most powerful cross
Speaker 1: you can take up in any relationship is the cross
Speaker 1: of forgiveness. That means that instead of reminding your wife
Speaker 1: at the fifty seven other times she did this wrong thing,
Speaker 1: it means loving her and serving her, not reminding her
Speaker 1: of her past failures, but reminding her of her potential.
Speaker 1: It means maybe, instead of focusing on how she needs
Speaker 1: to change, focusing on how you need to change. This
Speaker 1: is the part where all the women are supposed to
Speaker 1: give me an amen. But no matter how much you
Speaker 1: feel like your hurt is justified, God is calling us
Speaker 1: to take up this cross of forgiveness. And it's not
Speaker 1: always when we're wronged, but it's when we're misunderstood as well.
Speaker 1: And I wish I'd learned this in high school, that
Speaker 1: following Jesus means you're going to be misunderstood, You're going
Speaker 1: to be criticized, and it means trusting God that he
Speaker 1: will prove that his way is right in his time
Speaker 1: and he is the one who will make things right.
Speaker 1: And I love how my friend Nico here at Valentine,
Speaker 1: how he lives this out. He's one of our production volunteers,
Speaker 1: eighteen years old. He's been serving since he was fifteen.
Speaker 1: There he is right there action pose, but he he
Speaker 1: just centers his life around serving. So he's serving every weekend,
Speaker 1: every Christmas, every Easter inside Elevation, the live recording serve
Speaker 1: as stacks. He's going to serve it youth x and
Speaker 1: now as an eighteen year old, he's actually training volunteers
Speaker 1: as a youth. But he used to do these camping
Speaker 1: trips with his friends and they were pretty regular. But
Speaker 1: when he got more involved in church and felt God
Speaker 1: calling him to serve the needs of others through his gift,
Speaker 1: he started saying he couldn't do some of those trips,
Speaker 1: and his friends didn't get it. And then sometimes on
Speaker 1: Saturday nights he said he I have to leave from
Speaker 1: this because I get up early for church in the morning.
Speaker 1: And I said, well, just skip church. He's say, no,
Speaker 1: I can't skip church. I love church. This is what
Speaker 1: God is calling me to do. And he was constantly misunderstood.
Speaker 1: And when I asked Nico about it. This is what
Speaker 1: he said. He said, when I tell them why church
Speaker 1: is so important, sometimes they don't understand. It doesn't really
Speaker 1: matter though I know what God has called me to do.
Speaker 1: That's an eighteen year old who has his priorities straight
Speaker 1: and realize that because he is taking up the needs
Speaker 1: of others, the youth that he wants to reach, it
Speaker 1: might mean letting go of the opinions of other people,
Speaker 1: and it might mean letting go of some of the
Speaker 1: things that he wanted to do. And I believe when
Speaker 1: we learned to let go of other people's opinions, when
Speaker 1: we learn to let go of offense, and we learn
Speaker 1: to let go of being misunderstood, that's when we're the
Speaker 1: most like Jesus. And that's when God wants to use this.
Speaker 1: So that's the first thing. Let go of proving yourself
Speaker 1: right now, Let go of living in the past. Let
Speaker 1: go of living in the past. So this one hits
Speaker 1: close to home for me. So Jesus says follow, which
Speaker 1: implies moving forward, looking forward. But you've probably also noticed
Speaker 1: a lot in scripture talks about looking back and remembering.
Speaker 1: I mean, Psalm nine one says I'll give thanks to
Speaker 1: the Lord of my whole heart. I will recount all
Speaker 1: of your wonderful deeds. So looking back can build your faith.
Speaker 1: I mean, I preached about a year ago about how
Speaker 1: God healed my daughters and healed my family, So I
Speaker 1: look back on that a lot to build my faith.
Speaker 1: But sometimes Paul messes me up when I look at
Speaker 1: Philippians three and it says, but one thing I do
Speaker 1: forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead.
Speaker 1: So what is it am I supposed to to forget?
Speaker 1: I'm not supposed to remember? And I get confused. But
Speaker 1: I think Mark eight helps put some of it in perspective.
Speaker 1: Because Jesus was calling the disciples to look ahead towards Jerusalem,
Speaker 1: but there's a cross waiting in Jerusalem that doesn't look
Speaker 1: very appealing. Looking back at Galilee looks pretty nice. That's
Speaker 1: where the miracles are, that's where the crowds are. I
Speaker 1: could imagine them wanting to look that way instead of
Speaker 1: looking forward to Jerusalem. Now, looking back at this can
Speaker 1: inspire your faith to move forward, but that's not the
Speaker 1: direction you need to continue to look. And I realize
Speaker 1: in my life sometimes I'm so focused on looking back
Speaker 1: at the good old days that I miss what God
Speaker 1: wants to do right here and right now. I imagine
Speaker 1: there's some parents out here that you're constantly looking back
Speaker 1: at the days when your kids would run up to
Speaker 1: you and greet you at the door. Your five year
Speaker 1: old would come and be like, Mommy, Daddy, your home,
Speaker 1: And there's nothing like that. And now you have teenagers
Speaker 1: and the greeting is not the same way anymore, and
Speaker 1: you wish things were like they used to be. But
Speaker 1: you're missing out in the last two years you have
Speaker 1: with your teenager when they actually need you the most,
Speaker 1: And you're missing the work that God wants you to
Speaker 1: do now because you're constantly looking back. And here is
Speaker 1: what I'm learning that a momentary glance can be motivating,
Speaker 1: but a constant gaze can be paralyzing. A momentary glance
Speaker 1: can be motivating, but a constant gaze can be paralyzing.
Speaker 1: So here is how I've learned this in my life.
Speaker 1: About two years ago, I felt the Lord call me
Speaker 1: to let go of something that I loved. I'd done
Speaker 1: it for over two decades, and I felt a sense
Speaker 1: of calling. When I did it, I felt so much joy.
Speaker 1: I was passionate about it, and I define myself by
Speaker 1: this for so long, and that was leading worship. For
Speaker 1: over twenty years I was a worship leader. In the
Speaker 1: fact that I got to be a worship leader at
Speaker 1: Elevation Church, the greatest church in the world, was just
Speaker 1: amazing for me, and God used me and it was great.
Speaker 1: But over the years I began to sense the stirring
Speaker 1: in my heart that one day God was going to
Speaker 1: call me to let go of that because he was
Speaker 1: bringing just anointed people to the team, and talented people
Speaker 1: to the team, and people that were honestly better than me,
Speaker 1: and He was showing me that my best use of
Speaker 1: my gift was going to be able to empower them
Speaker 1: and to push them forward so that they can reach
Speaker 1: more people. And I wish I could tell you that.
Speaker 1: I was like, that's awesome. Not so much. I was like, Okay,
Speaker 1: that's great, but I could still lead worship, right And
Speaker 1: I kind of fought that, And then about two years
Speaker 1: ago I felt God saying no, like this is what
Speaker 1: I want you to do, and so I just kind
Speaker 1: of eased into it and I stopped scheduling myself at campuses,
Speaker 1: and like I said, I wish I could say that
Speaker 1: all this peace just flooded my soul, But instead I
Speaker 1: began to see a lot of unk in my heart
Speaker 1: that I didn't realize was there all this pride, all
Speaker 1: this ego, the fact that I wanted people to know
Speaker 1: who I was. I'm just being real, And I remember
Speaker 1: the first time that I was at a campus and
Speaker 1: I wasn't known as Wade the worship leader. Somebody said, hey,
Speaker 1: are you here for the first time. I was like, Oh,
Speaker 1: that's stings a little bit. And what I began to
Speaker 1: realize was that God wanted me to let go of
Speaker 1: That wasn't just about ushering me into a new season
Speaker 1: of ministry. It was about wanting to give me a
Speaker 1: new heart and a new perspective, because for too long,
Speaker 1: I defined myself by what I did, and God wanted
Speaker 1: me to realize that he didn't love me based on
Speaker 1: what I did. He loved me based on the fact
Speaker 1: that I was his child and based on the cross
Speaker 1: of Jesus Christ. And so over the course of several months,
Speaker 1: God began to work that out in me. And now
Speaker 1: I can say, not just because it sounds great in
Speaker 1: a sermon, but I'm more fulfilled in ministry than I've
Speaker 1: ever been before. And it's because I let go of
Speaker 1: something I thought I can never live without God. When
Speaker 1: he calls us to let go, he wants to move
Speaker 1: us in to a new perspective, a new season, and
Speaker 1: sometimes a new understanding of ourselves. Sometimes you're not bound
Speaker 1: by past success, though, you're bound by past pain. And
Speaker 1: you're afraid to trust because of somehow someone's hurt you.
Speaker 1: You're afraid to get involved in church because of a
Speaker 1: bad church experience in your past. And God's word for
Speaker 1: you today is that your destiny is not locked up
Speaker 1: in your past. Your destiny is ahead of you. It's
Speaker 1: in your future. So keep trusting, keep moving, keep walking forward.
Speaker 1: God will honor that. And finally he wants us to
Speaker 1: let go of living, let go of the need for certainty,
Speaker 1: let go of the need for certainty. So one of
Speaker 1: the things that I try to do with my daughters.
Speaker 1: I don't do this all the time, I regularly, but
Speaker 1: I try to do daddy dates and I'll take them
Speaker 1: on a day to like get doughnuts or ice cream
Speaker 1: because I'm trying to teach him to eat clean. And
Speaker 1: and I was taking one of my daughters adlely on
Speaker 1: this date, and she's like our type a Enneagram three
Speaker 1: daughter always wants to make a plan. One time she
Speaker 1: ran into our room at like six in the morning.
Speaker 1: We were going on a trip, and she was like, mommy, Daddy,
Speaker 1: who's going to take care of the dogs. And I
Speaker 1: didn't have the heart to tell her that that was
Speaker 1: the first time I'm Mary, Daddy had thought about the dog.
Speaker 1: So Adley sometimes keeps things together in our house. But
Speaker 1: I do this thing sometimes called ask Me Anything time,
Speaker 1: because I want him to get comfortable talking to me
Speaker 1: about anything. And usually it's who's your favorite avenger? But
Speaker 1: this time she said, she said, daddy. In our devotionals
Speaker 1: the other night it said that we shouldn't like trust
Speaker 1: in our plans. But I'm a planner, so does that
Speaker 1: make me bad? And I was like, oh gosh, this
Speaker 1: is like a real life parenting moment right here. Please
Speaker 1: don't let me screw this up. And I said, Adley
Speaker 1: being a planner is great. Like look through the Bible
Speaker 1: and it talks about how we're supposed to make plans
Speaker 1: and that's a beautiful part of how God made you.
Speaker 1: He's going to use it. I make plans a lot
Speaker 1: with my job planning for the weekend, and we do
Speaker 1: that at church, and so God's going to use your plans.
Speaker 1: But we just can't hold too tightly to our plans
Speaker 1: because sometimes God has a better plan. And I'm thinking
Speaker 1: about the disciples hearing Jesus say we're going to Jerusalem,
Speaker 1: and they're like, well, I thought if we were going
Speaker 1: to Jerusalem, it's because you're going to be king and
Speaker 1: you were going to deliver us. But you're going to
Speaker 1: Jerusalem because of a cross that wasn't part of their plan,
Speaker 1: but it was always part of God's. And they were
Speaker 1: so comfortable in Galilee that I imagine they didn't want
Speaker 1: to risk all of that for a cross. And are
Speaker 1: we so comfortable where we're at sometimes that we don't
Speaker 1: want to make the everyday risks that God is calling
Speaker 1: us to make. And that's where God truly moves in
Speaker 1: our life. It's not the big risk all the time.
Speaker 1: Sometimes if those daily risks to get uncomfortable, So you
Speaker 1: may know you need to volunteer at church, and you
Speaker 1: love technology. You thought about production, but what if I'm
Speaker 1: not good enough and you never go to the tent.
Speaker 1: You talk yourself out of it, or maybe you have
Speaker 1: this idea for your company, and it's going to increase
Speaker 1: revenue and it's going to make things more efficient. But
Speaker 1: you think your boss is going to laugh at you,
Speaker 1: so you never actually make the presentation or the pitching.
Speaker 1: We just settle for status quo because status quo is safe,
Speaker 1: and we're afraid of the uncertainty on the other side
Speaker 1: of a what if. But let me tell you, God
Speaker 1: always moves on the other side of a what if.
Speaker 1: He always moves on the other side of obedience. He
Speaker 1: always moves on the other side of faith. And anytime
Speaker 1: we take the step of faith and uncertainty to let
Speaker 1: something go, God always gives us something greater. Every time,
Speaker 1: anytime we surrender something good, God always gives us something better.
Speaker 1: I've seen it in my life, and we see it
Speaker 1: in the life of Jesus. Here. Jesus, if he had
Speaker 1: stayed in Galilee, could have done more good things. He
Speaker 1: could have healed more lepers, he could have fed more people.
Speaker 1: He could have cast out more dem so he could
Speaker 1: have writed in justice. He could have continued collecting those
Speaker 1: miracles in Galilee. But he let that go so he
Speaker 1: could go to Jerusalem, knowing he'd be persecuted, knowing he'd
Speaker 1: be misunderstood, knowing he'd be falsely accused, and knowing that
Speaker 1: he would ultimately die because his father had sent him
Speaker 1: to collect something greater, something even better. And we find
Speaker 1: that in John chapter fourteen says, truly, I tell you,
Speaker 1: whoever believes in me will do the works I have
Speaker 1: been doing, and they will do even greater things than these,
Speaker 1: because I am going to the Father. So Jesus laid
Speaker 1: down the works he could have continued to do on
Speaker 1: this earth to do an even greater work through you.
Speaker 1: And that is what see what God can do through
Speaker 1: you is all about. It's about taking up the heart,
Speaker 1: taking up the purpose of God, and knowing that God
Speaker 1: wants to do a greater work, a greater miracle through you.
Speaker 1: So when we live in denial, you're not losing, You're gaining.
Speaker 1: When you're living in denial, this is actually how we
Speaker 1: truly live because God has something better, something more fulfilling,
Speaker 1: he actually wants to place in your hands. So when
Speaker 1: we were talking about Nico earlier, Nico said, yeah, had
Speaker 1: to give up some time with my friends. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: had to give up some camping trips. But when I
Speaker 1: saw these guys in my e group actually give their
Speaker 1: life to Christ. To know that they were at Stack
Speaker 1: when I was serving at Stack, and they were there
Speaker 1: on the weekend when I was serving there, and they
Speaker 1: were there on Eastern when I was serving, and I
Speaker 1: know I had some part to play in them giving
Speaker 1: their life to Christ. That is far greater than any
Speaker 1: camping trip. He was not losing, he was gaining. Then
Speaker 1: you've got my man Chris down here, and Chris right here.
Speaker 1: This will be the third year the outreach coordinator here
Speaker 1: at Valentine. This will be the third week you've taken
Speaker 1: a week of vacation to help serve for Lovely. Is
Speaker 1: that right, yes, sir. And so Chris was telling me
Speaker 1: that he did that. He knew he could be spending
Speaker 1: time with his family, but he wanted to set an
Speaker 1: example to his family that this is what it means
Speaker 1: to follow God, and that is to serve people. So, Chris,
Speaker 1: you're losing a week of vacation, but you're game a
Speaker 1: legacy for your family. You're gaining a legacy for your son.
Speaker 1: So once again, when we open our hearts and our
Speaker 1: hands to God, he gives us something better. Elena at
Speaker 1: Lake Norman she's part of our welcome team there and
Speaker 1: at the end of the year for the Waymaker End
Speaker 1: of the Year offering season, she felt called to embrace
Speaker 1: a life of generosity, to open her hands to God
Speaker 1: and get herself uncomfortable and to begin to give. And
Speaker 1: she also began to pray for her sister, Debbie, who
Speaker 1: didn't know the Lord. So as she began to prioritize
Speaker 1: her faith, she began to pray for her sister Debbie.
Speaker 1: Debbie ended up coming to church, gave her life to Christ,
Speaker 1: and last month, Debbie was baptized at Lake Norman. Anytime,
Speaker 1: anytime we open our hands to God, he fills it
Speaker 1: with something far greater than anything we ever let go of.
Speaker 1: And I believe that is God's heart to you today
Speaker 1: to go from this position because God won't bless this
Speaker 1: position to this position, and this position is a position
Speaker 1: and a posture that the Lord will always bless. So
Speaker 1: I just want to invite you to stand at every
Speaker 1: location and I want you to hold your hands out
Speaker 1: like this. Let's close our eyes together. I believe there's
Speaker 1: something I've been sharing God's word today that God has
Speaker 1: put on your heart, that he is calling you to
Speaker 1: let go of that he's calling me to let go of.
Speaker 1: Hebrews twelve says, let us throw off everything that hinders
Speaker 1: and the sin that so easily entangles. Let us run
Speaker 1: the race marked out for us towards Jesus. So maybe
Speaker 1: there is some sin that you need to confess and
Speaker 1: you need to repent of, and you need to lay
Speaker 1: at the feet of Jesus. But maybe there's some good
Speaker 1: things that are no longer right for you in this season.
Speaker 1: Maybe there's some attitudes, some mindsets that are slowing you
Speaker 1: down and holding you back from the fullness of life
Speaker 1: that God has for you. And today as a church family,
Speaker 1: we want to let that go. So in a moment,
Speaker 1: after I pray, we're gonna single come to the altar
Speaker 1: and at every location we're gonna have ministry dreams and
Speaker 1: prayer volunteers at the front. If you want to come
Speaker 1: down and just ask somebody to pray for you to
Speaker 1: have the strength to let go whatever it is that
Speaker 1: you need to let go of, we have some people
Speaker 1: that would love to pray with you. But I believe
Speaker 1: all of us in our hearts can ask God to
Speaker 1: show us what that is. Because taking up your cross
Speaker 1: is an active thing. There's something that God is actually
Speaker 1: calling us to release and then to take up. So God,
Speaker 1: right now we come to you with open hands and
Speaker 1: open hearts, thanking you for the fact that your plans
Speaker 1: for us are perfect and they're far greater than anything
Speaker 1: we could plan ourselves. So we surrender to your ways,
Speaker 1: we surrender to your will, and we trust your heart
Speaker 1: in this place in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, I hope
Speaker 1: you enjoyed the podcast today. If you did, there are
Speaker 1: just a couple things I'd love for you to do.
Speaker 1: Number One, subscribe to our show. That way, the most
Speaker 1: recent episode will always be in your feed, waiting for
Speaker 1: you ready when you are. And Secondly, if this ministry
Speaker 1: has impacted you and you'd like to help us continue
Speaker 1: to reach others, you can click the link in the
Speaker 1: description and you can give now and I'll see you
Speaker 1: next time on the Elevation Podcast