Speaker 1: Welcome to the Elevation Church Podcast. Today we have the
Speaker 1: privilege of welcoming Pastor Daniel Floyd from Life Point Church
Speaker 1: in Fredericksburg, Virginia. This is Pastor Floyd's first time preaching
Speaker 1: at Elevation and we're excited for you to hear what
Speaker 1: he shared with our church. We hope you enjoy this message.
Speaker 1: What's up, Elevation, Come on, give Jesus your very best,
Speaker 1: Come on. Great is the Lord. He's greatly to be praised.
Speaker 1: And it's an honor. It's an honor to be with
Speaker 1: you today. I want to welcome all of our locations.
Speaker 1: We're actually broadcasting back to Virginia as well at all
Speaker 1: of our campuses this weekend. And I kind of I
Speaker 1: tell you, it feels like home here, been here so
Speaker 1: many times. I was a text Pastor Stephen yesterday and said,
Speaker 1: I was thinking about two thousand and seven. I was
Speaker 1: trying to plan a church. We didn't know what we
Speaker 1: were doing, really didn't know anything about anything, just knew
Speaker 1: we love people and love Jesus and wanted to make
Speaker 1: a difference. And so somebody said, you got to go
Speaker 1: to Charlotte. There's something happening in Charlotte, and I was like,
Speaker 1: all right, I'll go visit. I need to learn some
Speaker 1: things and walked into Providence High School and blew my
Speaker 1: mind and somehow I ended up meeting Pastor Stephen, and
Speaker 1: I knew then in that moment. I was like, my
Speaker 1: life needs to be aligned with this man, because how
Speaker 1: of you know that alignment comes before assignment? And I
Speaker 1: was saying, I never knew how much that moment would
Speaker 1: impact my life. In this text to him yesterday, I
Speaker 1: can turn back to almost every major turning point in
Speaker 1: our ministry. And it was some phone conversation we had.
Speaker 1: It was some message he preached, like this is the dream,
Speaker 1: or take your seat at the gate. It was some
Speaker 1: environment he created where God gave me a revelation I
Speaker 1: needed for this season ahead for us. And here's what
Speaker 1: I know about environments like this is that when you're
Speaker 1: in them every week, they can become common to you.
Speaker 1: And if you don't know, common is the opposite of honor,
Speaker 1: and you don't intentionally dishonor something, it just becomes common.
Speaker 1: And so can I just encourage you never let this
Speaker 1: environment become common. But more important, more important, never let
Speaker 1: your leaders. Pastor Stephen and Holly become common in your life.
Speaker 1: How you perceive someone is how you will receive them,
Speaker 1: and so I hope you'll always perceive them as the
Speaker 1: gift that they are Fesis force that he gives gifts
Speaker 1: to the body one of those as pastors. God must
Speaker 1: love you because He gave you one of the best
Speaker 1: gifts you could ever get in your leaders. Come on,
Speaker 1: can we thank God for Pastor Stephen and Holly Man?
Speaker 1: We love them. Thank God for them. We're not gonna
Speaker 1: stand the whole time. I mean, I'll see you in
Speaker 1: a moment, you know, if the message is good at points,
Speaker 1: if you feel like you can, you stand if you want.
Speaker 1: I don't care. But we are from Virginia. My wife
Speaker 1: Tammy is with me. She is pastor of the church. Together.
Speaker 1: My little girl Faith is with us. She's ten and
Speaker 1: she's ten going on twenty one. We have four kids, though,
Speaker 1: and it's we call it the greatest show. We don't
Speaker 1: want to call it a circus. That's not very life giving.
Speaker 1: We call it the greatest show. But I have a
Speaker 1: twelve year old son named Owen. Faith is ten. We
Speaker 1: have a two year old named Abigail, which in Hebrew
Speaker 1: means Father's joy. And if you ever meet her, she
Speaker 1: just lights up every room she comes into. And she
Speaker 1: wasn't a surprise. We did that on purpose. Don't ask
Speaker 1: us why. We don't know why. We started over again.
Speaker 1: And then we just adopted. And we have a seventh
Speaker 1: month old little boy named Jonas, and yeah, he's he's sweep.
Speaker 1: And you say, ah, but he's not sleeping, y'all. And
Speaker 1: so pray for that. Pray a spirit of sleep and
Speaker 1: Slamber comes over him. If not, Benadrul may come over him.
Speaker 1: I'm I'm joking. Don't call anybody on me, don't call
Speaker 1: social services or anything. I'm joking. Have you ready to
Speaker 1: get into the word today? I know this is a
Speaker 1: house that loves the Word of God. Let me read
Speaker 1: one verse to you, give you the title the message.
Speaker 1: Then we're going to jump into it. James, Chapter two
Speaker 1: be on the screen for you, beginning in verse twenty five.
Speaker 1: I'm me read verse twenty five and twenty six in
Speaker 1: the same way. Was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous.
Speaker 1: That's the way you want to start your first time
Speaker 1: at elevation reading about a prostitute considered righteous. For what
Speaker 1: she did when she gave lodging to the spies and
Speaker 1: sent them off in a different direction. As the body
Speaker 1: without the spirit is dead. So faith without deeds is dead.
Speaker 1: Some trains us and say so faith without works is dead.
Speaker 1: Faith without activity, faith without action, faith without works is dead.
Speaker 1: If you need a message title today, it's this, work
Speaker 1: it out. Work it out. Look at your neighbor and
Speaker 1: say work it out. On your way to your seat,
Speaker 1: look at your other neighbor and say, work it out,
Speaker 1: work it out. I came from a family of five.
Speaker 1: I have two older sisters. I'm the baby, I'm the
Speaker 1: baby boy. I'm the only boy. I'm the favorite. Come on, somebody,
Speaker 1: mamas their baby boys, they're their favorites. They won't say it,
Speaker 1: they won't speak it, but I know it right here
Speaker 1: in my heart. I'm the favorite. And have of you
Speaker 1: know that. When you got siblings, there is conflict. Come on, somebody,
Speaker 1: there's conflict. And so there would often be conflict in
Speaker 1: the Floyd household and we would go to mom, right
Speaker 1: because Mom's supposed to take sides and solve it. And
Speaker 1: she would say this too, you guys need to go
Speaker 1: learn to work it out. Oh you had that mom too, right,
Speaker 1: come on somebody, Yeah, you got to learn to work
Speaker 1: it out right. And so some would happen at school,
Speaker 1: and my mom was not one of those moms that
Speaker 1: would run to the school and fix everything for me.
Speaker 1: She would go, Daniel, you need to go back to
Speaker 1: school tomorrow, and you need to learn to work it
Speaker 1: out right. And now that I have kids, I have
Speaker 1: for it. And now they come to me with arguments
Speaker 1: and I go, you two need to go work it out.
Speaker 1: We just got back from vacation. We were away for
Speaker 1: two weeks and by the end of the week, I
Speaker 1: was like, one get away from me. And I love
Speaker 1: my kids, but like we've been in two close quarters
Speaker 1: for too long. Come on, somebody, and I'm like, any argument.
Speaker 1: You guys need to work it out. Why Because what
Speaker 1: we're trying to teach them, what my mom was trying
Speaker 1: to teach me, is this is that there's a skill
Speaker 1: set gained, and there is a strength gained, an ability
Speaker 1: gain when you have to figure something out on your own.
Speaker 1: And what my mom knew is that one day she
Speaker 1: wanted me to move out of the house. As much
Speaker 1: as she loved me, and as much as I love
Speaker 1: my four in you know, eighteen years, the last one
Speaker 1: will be out of the house. Theoretically, parenthetically that will
Speaker 1: move out. And I want them to have the ability
Speaker 1: to be able to last in the real world, hello,
Speaker 1: on their own. I want them to have the skills
Speaker 1: to deal with conflict. I want them to have the
Speaker 1: skills to how to reason all the situation. I don't
Speaker 1: want them to have to run. I don't want them
Speaker 1: to spend their life going with it was their fault.
Speaker 1: I didn't succeed, it was their fault that it didn't
Speaker 1: come through. It was their fault. No, I want them
Speaker 1: to take personal responsibility. I want them to learn to
Speaker 1: work it out. Somebody shall work it out. And so
Speaker 1: what some we think, some of us think we should
Speaker 1: do is shelter our kids from that. But rather there
Speaker 1: are some situations we should send them back into. And
Speaker 1: how many of you know that there are some things
Speaker 1: in life as you grow up that you've got to
Speaker 1: learn to work out that there comes some challenging situations
Speaker 1: in life. There comes some difficult things that we all face,
Speaker 1: no matter whether you're here at one of our locations.
Speaker 1: And you believe in Jesus, don't believe in Jesus. We
Speaker 1: all experience life, and I found that life can be difficult,
Speaker 1: and I found that life can throw some things at
Speaker 1: you that are hard. And I found that it happens
Speaker 1: from two different angles. One is, sometimes we do it
Speaker 1: to ourselves. Hello, let's be honest. Sometimes we just make
Speaker 1: some dumb choices and we do it to ourselves. And
Speaker 1: some things happened to us. We had no control over
Speaker 1: the phone call that came and we had no control
Speaker 1: over it. The person that walked out of our life
Speaker 1: and we had no control over it. There's some things
Speaker 1: that happened because we had no control. But there's some
Speaker 1: things that happened because we had control and we just
Speaker 1: caused it. But in either situation, if we assume that
Speaker 1: just because God is good, which he is, that he
Speaker 1: will shelter us from everything, we are going to be
Speaker 1: sorely disappointed because God, instead of sheltering us, will often
Speaker 1: leverage that situation to develop something in us. See. I
Speaker 1: found that whenever we face challenging in hard times in life,
Speaker 1: there's usually three responses. We have one we try to
Speaker 1: fix it ourselves. Right, I can do this. I can
Speaker 1: pull myself up by my own bootstraps. I can try harder.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna do better. It's what we do in January, right, y'all.
Speaker 1: Remember that diet plan you had giving you a moment
Speaker 1: to think about it. Remember that workout. I'm gonna do keto,
Speaker 1: I'm going to get I'm gonna hit the gym. Right.
Speaker 1: Some of you are like, oh, yeah, that's still automatically
Speaker 1: withdrawing from my account. I haven't been in three months.
Speaker 1: Come on, so and so you get. But I can
Speaker 1: do this myself, right. And here's the thing is that
Speaker 1: you'll find is that there's some things in life that
Speaker 1: no matter how much effort you put into them, it
Speaker 1: will not resolve it. Some of us, the next step
Speaker 1: is we go we go to find a solution from
Speaker 1: everybody else around us, and so we we crowdsource counseling
Speaker 1: on social media. Please stop that, by the way, we
Speaker 1: go to every person. In the Bible does say that
Speaker 1: in a multitude of counselors there is wisdom. But maybe
Speaker 1: that shouldn't be step one. I found that some of us,
Speaker 1: if we don't go to ourselfs or we don't go
Speaker 1: to other people, we end up just saying, well, this
Speaker 1: is my lot in life. That I'm just gonna live
Speaker 1: stuck that I've just got to live. I've got to
Speaker 1: deal with this for I think for some of us,
Speaker 1: we somehow have twisted in our mind that maybe the
Speaker 1: life I'm living now and the difficulties I'm facing now,
Speaker 1: I'm paying penance to God for some life that I
Speaker 1: lived previously, whenever I before Jesus. And so now I've
Speaker 1: just kind of deal with this, and I just I
Speaker 1: love this about this house, and I love this about
Speaker 1: Pastor Stephen Is. He is bent on letting you know
Speaker 1: you don't have to live stuck in life, that God
Speaker 1: does have a good plan for your life. Come on,
Speaker 1: that He does have a good purpose for your life,
Speaker 1: and you don't have to live stuck in your current situation.
Speaker 1: Life does not have to be a merry go round
Speaker 1: where you feel like you're dealing with the same thing
Speaker 1: over and over and over and over. The name's changed,
Speaker 1: the situation's changed, but I just can't seem to get
Speaker 1: out of that. That is not God's plan for you.
Speaker 1: And so if it's not, I'll fix it myself. And
Speaker 1: it's not other people can fix it for me. And
Speaker 1: it's not that I'm just supposed to live less than
Speaker 1: life than what is it? Then, these challenging situations, what
Speaker 1: are their purpose? Why? I would say this that they
Speaker 1: can be leveraged for God to increase the one thing
Speaker 1: that pleases him, and that is faith. The Bible says
Speaker 1: that without faith, it's impossible to please God. So the
Speaker 1: one thing that pleases God. Not your performance doesn't please God.
Speaker 1: Not your best day, not trying harder, not I'll do better,
Speaker 1: Not God, Look at me, God, I did the right thing. God,
Speaker 1: I didn't. I didn't lay into that person. I didn't,
Speaker 1: you know, I didn't tell my coworker what I really thought. God,
Speaker 1: didn't I do a great job today? Hello, somebody, I
Speaker 1: know you're also spiritual. Y'all don't do that. We were
Speaker 1: on vacation and I had my little two year old
Speaker 1: and she's a little swimming diaper, right, And there was
Speaker 1: this individual, we'll call it that, by the pool at
Speaker 1: the resort, and evidently in the condos we were staying in,
Speaker 1: evidently there's a rule you can't wear swimming diapers in
Speaker 1: this certain pool, and this one lady made sure the
Speaker 1: people in charge knew that, so they would come to
Speaker 1: us and tell us to get her out. Of the pool.
Speaker 1: So I deemed her the pool Nazi, and I knew
Speaker 1: that I was not walking in the spirit enough to
Speaker 1: go over and have a conversation with her, so I
Speaker 1: asked my wife to I was like, go get her baby,
Speaker 1: and Tammy's got like that southern sweet thing. Hey, how
Speaker 1: are you? What's your name? Like, introduce yourself. I didn't
Speaker 1: went over there and been like, what's your problem? Are
Speaker 1: you trying to kill my joy? Kill my vacation? You
Speaker 1: all with me? I know y'all don't face any days
Speaker 1: like that, But maybe in those moments, God's trying to
Speaker 1: develop something in me. And I heard the Holy Spirit
Speaker 1: go the fruit of me is self control. It's like,
Speaker 1: all right, let's I may need a day or two
Speaker 1: to work on this, Jesus, because if she's at the
Speaker 1: pool tomorrow, I may not have self control. But in
Speaker 1: that moment, God was like, I'm trying to do something
Speaker 1: in you. I'm not trying to do something to you.
Speaker 1: Just so you know the end of the story. I
Speaker 1: took her swimming dipper off. I was like, whatever she does,
Speaker 1: she does, get in the pool, baby, shine, potty Trenia.
Speaker 1: So I just want you to know that those challenging moments.
Speaker 1: It's not that God is doing something to you. Sometimes
Speaker 1: we can go God, what are you doing to me?
Speaker 1: And God's going now, I'm not trying to do something
Speaker 1: to you. I'm trying to do something in you so
Speaker 1: that i can do something through you. But I've got
Speaker 1: to do something in you first before i can do
Speaker 1: the thing through you. I'm trying to elevate your faith.
Speaker 1: And here's what I found is that faith does not
Speaker 1: grow in comfort. That if you want a comfortable life,
Speaker 1: then you may never have faith that has grown or
Speaker 1: elevated to another level. It requires discomfort for faith to grow.
Speaker 1: And without faith, it's impossible to please God. So that
Speaker 1: means God will allow some uncomfortable situations in your life
Speaker 1: so that he can elevate your faith to take you
Speaker 1: to another level. So faith, the Bible says, is evidence
Speaker 1: or faith is substance. Are you with me, say, man,
Speaker 1: faith is evidence. Faith is not a feeling. It's not
Speaker 1: the emotion that you get when elevation worship. Who has
Speaker 1: thankfully written the anthem of generation of a generation? Now,
Speaker 1: I mean amazing, But that's not faith. That feeling you
Speaker 1: get that's wonderful, but that's not faith. It's it's not
Speaker 1: when the hairs on the back of your neck stand
Speaker 1: up in the goosebunska. That's not faith. The Bible says
Speaker 1: faith is evidence. Now I'm no attorney, but I understand
Speaker 1: that evidence is what is required whenever you go into
Speaker 1: a courtroom, that you have to produce evidence to back
Speaker 1: up your case for what you are saying is true.
Speaker 1: So faith is evidence, meaning faith is seen, it's tangible,
Speaker 1: it's observable in something of my behavior or in my speech.
Speaker 1: So I cannot say that I have faith if my
Speaker 1: behavior doesn't follow up what I'm saying. I believe it
Speaker 1: is the evidence. Are y'all following me? So faith without
Speaker 1: let's say it this way works. Our faith without evidence
Speaker 1: is dead or isn't really faith at all. And so
Speaker 1: God will give me the opportunity to produce evidence in
Speaker 1: my life that I have faith so that I can
Speaker 1: please Him. So the challenging situations in my life are
Speaker 1: not God doing something to me. They're God doing something
Speaker 1: in me, and it is strengthening my faith. And the
Speaker 1: muscle of faith does not grow in comfort. So if
Speaker 1: you're in the middle of discomfort right now, you should
Speaker 1: rejoice because God is growing something in you, meaning God
Speaker 1: is about to do something through you. Come on, somebody,
Speaker 1: So how do I work out my faith? Then? How
Speaker 1: do I work it out? Like that sounds all good
Speaker 1: and and that's great, But how do I work it out?
Speaker 1: What does it look like when God is working out
Speaker 1: my faith so that I can grow this faith muscle
Speaker 1: to believe for greater things. And here's I want to
Speaker 1: put this caveat. If I could insert this caveat into
Speaker 1: the message so that you understand this clearly that I'm
Speaker 1: not talking about working out faith for salvation. She need
Speaker 1: to make that clear for you. You are saved by
Speaker 1: faith alone, through grace alone. Are you following me? It
Speaker 1: is not of your work, so that you don't get
Speaker 1: the credit. It's the gift of God. So none of
Speaker 1: us can boast in that. I'm talking about the faith
Speaker 1: to believe God for greater things in your life. Are
Speaker 1: you with me? All right? So I want us to
Speaker 1: look at the story in the Old Testament, Second Samuel
Speaker 1: chapter one, the story of Hannah, and I see a
Speaker 1: couple of things in Hannah's life that helps us see
Speaker 1: how God works out faith. I'm sorry. First Samuel chapter one,
Speaker 1: first Samuel chapter one. What you need to know real
Speaker 1: click cliff notes about Hannah is that she is married
Speaker 1: to a guy. He also has another wife. That's a
Speaker 1: whole nother day, Pastor Stephen, w'clear up all that. But
Speaker 1: he's and she is unable to have children, and she
Speaker 1: she very much desires to have children. So first Samuel
Speaker 1: chapter one, we're gonna start reading in verse three. Verse
Speaker 1: three to be on the screen, it says this, the
Speaker 1: year after year, this man, being Hannah's husband, he went
Speaker 1: up from the town to worship and sacrifice to the
Speaker 1: Lord Almighty at Shiloh, where Hofni and Phineas not Phineas
Speaker 1: and ferb Hello I have little children. The two sons
Speaker 1: of Eli were the priests of the Lord. And whenever
Speaker 1: the day came for Alcana to sacrifice, he would give
Speaker 1: portions of the meat to his wife Pannina and all
Speaker 1: of her sons and daughters. But to Hannah he gave
Speaker 1: a double portion because he loved her and the Lord
Speaker 1: had closed her womb. And because the Lord had closed
Speaker 1: her womb. Listen to this, the other wife, her rival,
Speaker 1: kept provoking her in order to irritate her. This went
Speaker 1: on year after year, and whenever Hannah went up to
Speaker 1: the house of the Lord, her rival provoked her until
Speaker 1: she wept, and she could not eat till she wept,
Speaker 1: and she could not eat. When if you've ever been
Speaker 1: in a place in life where you so desired something
Speaker 1: but it seemed impossible to obtain it, you know, some
Speaker 1: of life's challenges aren't just challenging, they're impossible. They look like,
Speaker 1: how could this ever happen? How could this ever come through?
Speaker 1: How could I ever find a solution to this? And
Speaker 1: I would say today at all of our locations, that
Speaker 1: there's some of you that feel like you're in the
Speaker 1: middle of impossible situations. It's where Hannah was. Her womb
Speaker 1: was closed. She could not have a child. She could
Speaker 1: not control that outcome. You know, life is a lot
Speaker 1: easier when you can control the outcome. She could not
Speaker 1: control the outcome. And not only that, but she had
Speaker 1: an antagonist in the story that constantly was antagonizing her
Speaker 1: and provoking her. Hey, Hannah, you can't have kids. Hey Hannah,
Speaker 1: how's it feel? Hey Hannah, look at it? Could you
Speaker 1: mind the babysit my kids? While I go out constantly
Speaker 1: antagonizing and provoking her and So Hannah was living daily.
Speaker 1: Every day she woke up, she lived in the reality
Speaker 1: of the deficit that was in her life. The deficit
Speaker 1: the gap between where she was and where she wanted
Speaker 1: to be, between what she currently had and what she
Speaker 1: was desperately wanting from God. And there was nothing she
Speaker 1: could do to change it. And I want you to
Speaker 1: notice this that as we would learn to work out
Speaker 1: our faiths, we learned to work out our faith. If
Speaker 1: your note taker writing this down number one is this
Speaker 1: is that the deficit is faith's opportunity. The deficit is
Speaker 1: faith's opportunity. Many of us look at the deficits in
Speaker 1: our life and look at it as the obstacle. But
Speaker 1: it is not the obstacle. It is the opportunity for
Speaker 1: our faiths to grow. It's opportunity for the muscle of
Speaker 1: faith to get stronger so that we can carry the
Speaker 1: weightier thing that God wants to do in our life
Speaker 1: in the seasons ahead. Without the deficit, our faith would
Speaker 1: not grow. The deficit is required for ours, our faith
Speaker 1: to grow. I remember whenever my daughter Faith was Tammy
Speaker 1: was pregnant with her, we went for you know, you
Speaker 1: go for all the ultrasounds around twenty weeks, and so
Speaker 1: we were going for that. We're gonna find out boy
Speaker 1: or girl. We were all excited about that. My first
Speaker 1: one was a son, and everybody thought it was a girl.
Speaker 1: And I told Tammy, I was like, I make men
Speaker 1: at least for the first one, and so it's gonna
Speaker 1: be a boy. First one's gonna be a boy, and
Speaker 1: the second one. I was like, I want of a
Speaker 1: little girl. There's nothing like daddy, and there's the little girls,
Speaker 1: you know, and so I was like, I want a girl.
Speaker 1: So we went in. We were all excited. Everything, all
Speaker 1: the all the visits up to this. We're all healthy,
Speaker 1: I know, everything's great. So they do this and then
Speaker 1: they calls back and they say we need to go
Speaker 1: for a more intense ultrasound. And so we were like,
Speaker 1: all right, that doesn't sound good. We haven't done this before.
Speaker 1: And so we went for that more intense thing. And
Speaker 1: they got done with that and set us down in
Speaker 1: that room and they were like, hey, we found a
Speaker 1: couple of abnormalities, a couple of spots on the brain.
Speaker 1: You know, in those moments where you get that kind
Speaker 1: of news, how it just there's like a rush that
Speaker 1: goes from your head to your feet like it's like
Speaker 1: a mixture of weight and heat and like anxiety, and
Speaker 1: then your mind begins to race, doesn't it? All? Right?
Speaker 1: The brain is pretty important. And so in my mind
Speaker 1: as a dad, I went from from zero to uh,
Speaker 1: will I ever be able to walk her down the
Speaker 1: aisle like that? From zero to will she be able
Speaker 1: to walk like that? There was a deficit that I
Speaker 1: could not control. I can't fix a brain. Yeah, So
Speaker 1: we went away from that appointment. And I'm not saying
Speaker 1: that I'm super spiritual and this always happens, because it
Speaker 1: doesn't always happen. And I'm not saying I got there
Speaker 1: that day. It took me a few days. But I
Speaker 1: just begin every night to put my hand on Tammy's stomach,
Speaker 1: and I just begin to pray and declare healing and
Speaker 1: believe God to touch this little girl's mind. And I
Speaker 1: begin to prophesy destiny over her and purpose over her
Speaker 1: and calling over her, and that God would use this
Speaker 1: and that He would perform a miracle in our life.
Speaker 1: And I just begin to pray and pray and pray
Speaker 1: and pray, and weep and cry and pray, and every
Speaker 1: night and sometimes Tammy be asleep, and I'd wake up
Speaker 1: in the middle of the night and I would put
Speaker 1: my hand on her stomach and I would just begin
Speaker 1: to pray that God, You're going to touch this. This
Speaker 1: is my inheritance, this is not going to go down
Speaker 1: this way. I just begin to decree and declare and
Speaker 1: pray over this over and over and over. But here's
Speaker 1: the deal. If I had not had the deficit, I
Speaker 1: would not have prayed that way. The deficit is what
Speaker 1: brought a new level of prayer up on the inside
Speaker 1: of me. The deficit brought a new level of faith
Speaker 1: up on the inside of me. The deficit in my
Speaker 1: life brought a new level of healing up on the
Speaker 1: inside of me. It caused me to speak as those
Speaker 1: those things that were not were in my life. It
Speaker 1: became the evidence. My prayer became the evidence that I
Speaker 1: believed that my God was a healer, that I believe
Speaker 1: that he would make a way where there was no way,
Speaker 1: that he could open doors that no man could open.
Speaker 1: Though the doctor may declare one thing, I believe my
Speaker 1: God would declare another thing. That prayer was the evidence.
Speaker 1: Because faith without works is dead. You gotta work it out.
Speaker 1: And now she sits on the front row completely fine,
Speaker 1: completely her mind. Okay, But the deficit I needed in
Speaker 1: my life. See, I'm trying to flip your perspective today
Speaker 1: to help you see that the deficit isn't God doing
Speaker 1: something to you. That the deficit isn't God trying to
Speaker 1: get you. No. God, it can leverage it in your
Speaker 1: life if you will allow him to grow a new
Speaker 1: muscle of faith on the inside of you. See. I
Speaker 1: think sometimes we pray counterproductive prayers in our life. God,
Speaker 1: use me, God, grow me. God. I want everything that
Speaker 1: you have for me. Some other good church things we say, God,
Speaker 1: I want to fulfill my purpose God, I want to
Speaker 1: fulfill my destiny in this life. And God's like, okay,
Speaker 1: at your current stage of faith, because we've all been
Speaker 1: given a measure of faith, and it's our responsibility in
Speaker 1: response to God to grow that faith. All right, at
Speaker 1: the certain measure of faith you have, you cannot handle
Speaker 1: the weight of the thing that I want to do
Speaker 1: in your life. So I need to strengthen you in
Speaker 1: your spirit man to prepare you for the thing that
Speaker 1: I have for you. So then all sudden trouble will
Speaker 1: come your way. I'm not trying to depress you on
Speaker 1: this first time with you. But the Bible says, in
Speaker 1: this world you will have trouble. David said this in
Speaker 1: the Psalm one nineteen. He said, I was glad that
Speaker 1: I was afflicted because I know you in a way
Speaker 1: I would not have known you otherwise. I believe you
Speaker 1: in a way I would not have believed you otherwise.
Speaker 1: I walk with an intimacy with you I would not
Speaker 1: have had otherwise. But we begin to pray God use me.
Speaker 1: So trouble comes our way, and then we begin to
Speaker 1: pray God removed the trouble. I rebuke it in the
Speaker 1: name of Jesus. I declare, this is not my day,
Speaker 1: not today, Devil and God's like hold up time out.
Speaker 1: I thought you wanted to be used. I thought you
Speaker 1: wanted destiny. I thought you wanted purpose. I found that
Speaker 1: purpose comes through the conduit of pain, because it is
Speaker 1: in the middle of pain and discomfort is where my
Speaker 1: faith grows. My faith doesn't grow on the mountaintop. My
Speaker 1: faith celebrates on the mountaintop, but my faith grows best
Speaker 1: in the valley moments of my life, where I learned
Speaker 1: that He walks with me and he talks with me
Speaker 1: and he tells me that I'm his own. I've learned
Speaker 1: that in the valley moments of my life, I develop
Speaker 1: an intimacy with the Father that I've never had before,
Speaker 1: so that I have the strength to stand whenever he
Speaker 1: puts me on the mountain. So the deficit is not
Speaker 1: the obstacle in your life. The deficit is faith opportunity
Speaker 1: in your life to grow to another level. If you're
Speaker 1: going to go to another level, you've got to grow
Speaker 1: your faith to another level because you don't want to
Speaker 1: get to a place where you can't handle the weightiness
Speaker 1: of what God wants to put on you. Hannah had
Speaker 1: a deficit. She was desperate for a child. She had
Speaker 1: no control, and so the Bible tells us that she
Speaker 1: would go and pray and she'd call out to the Lord.
Speaker 1: We see it in First Samuel, chapter one, verse twelve
Speaker 1: says this she said as she kept on praying. Notice
Speaker 1: she didn't pray one time. Sometimes we're like God, I
Speaker 1: prayed about that pray one time. And it says as
Speaker 1: she kept on praying, Eli observed her mouth and Hannah
Speaker 1: was praying heart and her lips were moving, but her
Speaker 1: voice was not heard. Can you imagine being so distraught
Speaker 1: over something that when you pray, you can't get your
Speaker 1: voice to engage. Only your lips can move, and your
Speaker 1: heart hurts. So this is where she is. And Eli
Speaker 1: thought she was drunk and said to her, how long
Speaker 1: will you keep on getting drunk? Get rid of your wine?
Speaker 1: Not so, my lord, Hannah replied, I'm a woman who's
Speaker 1: deeply troubled. I've not been drinking wine or beer. She's
Speaker 1: covering it all. I'm not classy, I ain't country, I
Speaker 1: ain't done all that way. I grew up in East Tennessee,
Speaker 1: where straight solo cups. That's it. I was pouring out
Speaker 1: my soul to the lord. Verse sixteen, she says, do
Speaker 1: not take your servant for a wicked woman. I've been
Speaker 1: praying here out of great anguish and grief. Eli answered,
Speaker 1: go in peace, and may the God of Israel grant
Speaker 1: you what you have asked of him. Listen to this.
Speaker 1: This verse is fascinating. She said, may your servant find
Speaker 1: favor in your eyes. And then she went her way
Speaker 1: and ate something, and her face was no longer downcast.
Speaker 1: She is distraught, she's weeping. She's praying to a point
Speaker 1: where her voice isn't even engaging, but her lips are moving.
Speaker 1: Eli says one sentence to her, the Man of God,
Speaker 1: and it says her countenance changes and she's hungry. If
Speaker 1: the deficit is face opportunity, the word is faith's foundation.
Speaker 1: If the deficit is face opportunity, then the word is
Speaker 1: face foundation. The only change in her circumstance from weeping
Speaker 1: and praying to eating and her countenance changing was a word.
Speaker 1: That's it. Now. Whenever you hear that a word, maybe
Speaker 1: you're not used to church and you're like, what do
Speaker 1: you mean a word like like an article D or
Speaker 1: a or like, what do you mean she got a word? Well,
Speaker 1: there's there's the word, God's word, the scripture. God will
Speaker 1: speak to you through. That's why it's that you read it.
Speaker 1: You don't want to just eat on Sundays, although you
Speaker 1: get served some good meals here. You got probably the
Speaker 1: greatest preacher of this generation serving up like file at Mignon,
Speaker 1: Hello every week. But then there's another way. There is
Speaker 1: a word called a ram a word or an en
Speaker 1: seasoned word that is a word. Let me say it
Speaker 1: like this. I know you've been to church here and
Speaker 1: you're like, uh, did Pastor Stephen bug my house, like
Speaker 1: was he following me around this week? Did he have people?
Speaker 1: Because everything he's saying is everything I dealt with that week.
Speaker 1: That is a word that is in season for you.
Speaker 1: That's how God takes the word and gives you a word.
Speaker 1: Are you following me? The difference in the two Are
Speaker 1: you with me? And so Hannah got a word in season?
Speaker 1: May God grant your request? And that word changed everything
Speaker 1: for her. Here's what I want you to notice. She
Speaker 1: didn't get a child, she got a word, and the
Speaker 1: word was enough to change her countenance and to make
Speaker 1: her want to go eat. If you're waiting on God
Speaker 1: to give you the answer to your prayer before you
Speaker 1: start walking out in faith evidence that you believe his word,
Speaker 1: then you may never get to the answer to the prayer.
Speaker 1: God is waiting for you to respond in faith to
Speaker 1: believe Him at his word before he gives you the
Speaker 1: answer to the prayer. Are you following me? She didn't
Speaker 1: get a child, she got a word. I think about Peter.
Speaker 1: Peter's one of my favorite disciples because I just think
Speaker 1: you can build a great church with Peter. He's like
Speaker 1: half hood, half saved, and he carries a knife, cutting
Speaker 1: people's ear off, kind of bold. I just like him.
Speaker 1: He's like, I'd rather ring somebody back than have to
Speaker 1: beat a Donkey'd rather rain back a stallion. Are you
Speaker 1: with me? Peter's like that, you got to rain him
Speaker 1: in a little bit, but you kind of want to
Speaker 1: let him go a little bit. See what he'll do, right,
Speaker 1: And so acts chapter three I think is first chapter three,
Speaker 1: Verse one. Peter is going up to the temple at
Speaker 1: the time of worship, and it says there's a lane man.
Speaker 1: That's how he's identified. We don't know his name. His
Speaker 1: identity is found in his sickness. And so there's a
Speaker 1: layeman at the city gate, called beautiful, and he says
Speaker 1: to him, can I have some money? Because that was
Speaker 1: his expectation. All everybody ever gave him was money. No
Speaker 1: one that could ever give him anything more, So he
Speaker 1: asked for money. Peter said, look at me, And the
Speaker 1: Bible says this fascinating, says the man looked at him
Speaker 1: expecting to receive something. Can I tell you your level
Speaker 1: of expectation will determine what you receive? Can I tell
Speaker 1: you something I hear people say, man? That man service
Speaker 1: was so good today. I'm like, it's good every week.
Speaker 1: Your level of expectation was better this week. Are y'all
Speaker 1: following me? What you expect come in and expecting is
Speaker 1: what you will receive? Said, expecting to receive them, Peter said.
Speaker 1: Look at me, He said, expecting to receive something to him.
Speaker 1: Peter replied to him silver and gold I do not have,
Speaker 1: but what I do have in the name of Jesus,
Speaker 1: rise up and walk. Now. Now, now I think about this.
Speaker 1: That man had been lame from birth, but at a
Speaker 1: word from the Man of God, he decided to put
Speaker 1: evidence to his faith and put his feet underneath him.
Speaker 1: He never done this, never done this, but he had
Speaker 1: to put action. If he'd laid there and said, thank
Speaker 1: you Peter for saying that. That's awesome. Guys, carry me
Speaker 1: back home. Here's what I'm concerned is there's too many
Speaker 1: Christians still laying at the city gate, not living out
Speaker 1: their inheritance because they won't act on they won't work
Speaker 1: out the word that God has given them. God has
Speaker 1: given you so much in Jesus, and all you have
Speaker 1: to do is begin to work it out. We're still
Speaker 1: laying by the gate going I know healing is mine.
Speaker 1: I know deliverance is mine. I know freedom is mine.
Speaker 1: But I'd rather lay by the gate begging for a
Speaker 1: little bit of change. Whenever my daddy owns the cattle
Speaker 1: on a thousand hills and I could have everything that
Speaker 1: Heaven has to offer, but we're still laying by the gate.
Speaker 1: So here's the deal. I don't wait to praise him
Speaker 1: until the baby is born. Hannah gets up and changes
Speaker 1: her She physiologically has changes because of the word. This
Speaker 1: is why it's so important you're in the house every
Speaker 1: week to get yourself in an atmosphere where you can
Speaker 1: receive a word that is on time, that is in
Speaker 1: season for what you're going through, because that word could
Speaker 1: save your life. That word could change your situation. So
Speaker 1: I didn't wait to praise him until faith was born
Speaker 1: in the doctor says everything is okay. I had to
Speaker 1: go in on the weekend, going, God, I thank you
Speaker 1: that she's healed. I thank you that everything is okay.
Speaker 1: I worship you right now. I don't think God is
Speaker 1: impressed when we can worship him when everything is going okay.
Speaker 1: I think he's impressed when I lip into church going
Speaker 1: I'm hurting, I'm not sure about how it's gonna turn out.
Speaker 1: But he's good anyways, and he's gracious anyways, and his
Speaker 1: mercies are new every morning. Great is his faithfulness at
Speaker 1: every location. Why don't you give him praise just because
Speaker 1: he's good? Come on, give him praise just because he's God,
Speaker 1: just because he's faithful, just because the grasp may with
Speaker 1: her and the flower fades. But the word of our
Speaker 1: God will last forever. Here's good. So the word is
Speaker 1: faith foundation. So you may know the story. Samuel was born,
Speaker 1: Hannah stayed with him for two years. Can you imagine
Speaker 1: two years of holding on to the baby. Then it
Speaker 1: says this that she went back to the same place
Speaker 1: where she prayed for him. She went to the Eli,
Speaker 1: the prophet who had gave her the word. That's what
Speaker 1: she said is she said to him, as surely as
Speaker 1: you live, my Lord, I'm the woman who stood here
Speaker 1: beside you praying to the Lord. I prayed for this child.
Speaker 1: Some of you been praying for some things, and the
Speaker 1: Lord has granted me what I ask of him. So
Speaker 1: now I give him to the Lord for his whole life.
Speaker 1: He will be given over to the Lord. And he
Speaker 1: worshiped the Lord there the deficit is face opportunity, and
Speaker 1: the word is faith foundation. Then the sacrifice is faith's test.
Speaker 1: Listen to me. The test was not could Hannah believe
Speaker 1: God for Samuel? The test was once Samuel was in
Speaker 1: her arms, be could she given back to God. The
Speaker 1: test is not whether or not you can believe God
Speaker 1: can put you something in your hand. God can do anything.
Speaker 1: The test is once He puts it in your hand.
Speaker 1: Can you still live with an open one? Can you
Speaker 1: still say the Lord gives and the Lord takes away?
Speaker 1: Blessed be the name of the Lord forever. Because see
Speaker 1: I have found that it is often the last blessing
Speaker 1: of God that is keeping you from receiving the next,
Speaker 1: because whatever is in your hand, God put it there,
Speaker 1: and too many times we get our grip on it,
Speaker 1: and God is going, no, if you'll release what I
Speaker 1: gave you before, I will give again. If you will give,
Speaker 1: I can give, press down, shaken together and running over,
Speaker 1: I can put it into your hand. And so the
Speaker 1: test isn't can I believe God? The test is once
Speaker 1: God gives it to me? Can I say, God, everything
Speaker 1: I have is from you and returns it back to you?
Speaker 1: Can I sacrifice, it the sacrifices faced test. Because see,
Speaker 1: God isn't moving me to just a place of one blessing.
Speaker 1: The Bible tells me He's moving me from victory to victory,
Speaker 1: glory to glory. So the last thing that God did
Speaker 1: in my life is not the last thing God wants
Speaker 1: to do in my life. Is it a series of
Speaker 1: events of things God wants to bless in my life. See,
Speaker 1: God wasn't doing something to Hannah as God doing something
Speaker 1: through Hannah, because it was Samuel that would annoy Saul.
Speaker 1: It was Samuel that would annoint David. It is through
Speaker 1: David Jesus would come. Can I take it a little deeper?
Speaker 1: The whole thing wasn't even about Samuel. Wasn't about Samuel.
Speaker 1: The thing you're going through right now isn't about that thing.
Speaker 1: It wasn't about Samuel. It was about God opening her
Speaker 1: womb because she wouldn't just have Samuel, she'd have five more.
Speaker 1: The thing you're going through right now isn't even about
Speaker 1: the thing you're going throughout through right now. It is
Speaker 1: about what God wants to do beyond the thing you're
Speaker 1: going through right now? Are you following me? The thing
Speaker 1: you're going through right now is the test to see
Speaker 1: if you can handle the blessing that is on the
Speaker 1: other side of the thing that you're going through right now. See.
Speaker 1: I came to declare over you today that the struggle
Speaker 1: you're facing right now, if you will work it out,
Speaker 1: if you will leave with an open hand, that God
Speaker 1: isn't just going to give you a blessing. God is
Speaker 1: going to open your womb where multiple, multiplied blessings will
Speaker 1: flow in and through your life. God is not the
Speaker 1: God of just one blessing. He is the God of
Speaker 1: exceedingly abundantly and above all that you can ask or imagine.
Speaker 1: And if you can live with an open hand, if
Speaker 1: you can say, God, whatever you put into my hand,
Speaker 1: I can release it back to you. God will open
Speaker 1: up your womb and send multiplied blessing after blessing after
Speaker 1: blessing after blessing. Somebody shall work it out. Come on,
Speaker 1: shall work it out, shout work it out. Thank you
Speaker 1: for joining us. Special thanks to those of you who
Speaker 1: give generously to this ministry. Is because of you that
Speaker 1: this ministry is possible. You can click the link in
Speaker 1: the description to give now or visit Elevation Church dot
Speaker 1: org slash podcast for more information and if you enjoyed
Speaker 1: the podcast, you can subscribe. You can share it with
Speaker 1: your friends. You can click the share button, take a
Speaker 1: screenshot and share it on your social stories and tag
Speaker 1: us at Elevation Church. Thanks again for listening. God bless you.