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 you perspective to
Speaker 1: see God is moving in your life. Enjoy the message.
Speaker 1: We prophetically declare that the favor of the Lord is
Speaker 1: upon you and your household. We declare it over not
Speaker 1: only you, but your children, and not just them, but
Speaker 1: your children's children one thousand generations, the blessing of the Lord.
Speaker 1: We bless you today in the name of Jesus. We
Speaker 1: bless you in the mighty name of Jesus. We bless
Speaker 1: you in the name that is above every name. Come on,
Speaker 1: lift your hands right where you're at and receive this blessing.
Speaker 1: You are blessed in the city, in the field. You
Speaker 1: are blessed. In your coming. You're going, you are blessed.
Speaker 1: You are above and not beneath. You're gonna make it
Speaker 1: because you're blessed. You can smile through the storm because
Speaker 1: you're blessed. Allelujah. I just want to minister this to
Speaker 1: you because it's not like a greeting card. Man. That
Speaker 1: is the eternal word of God that we're speaking over
Speaker 1: your life today. Now you receive them. You push all
Speaker 1: that unbelief to the side. You push all of that
Speaker 1: distraction to the side, and you receive it. Put your
Speaker 1: bowl of cereal down and receive it. Those frosted flakes
Speaker 1: are blocking you from receiving the favor of God. Somebody,
Speaker 1: but I'd rather have favor than frosted flakes. Tell Tony,
Speaker 1: I said that too. I'm so excited about it because
Speaker 1: right now as we put the blessing on you, I
Speaker 1: do this for my kids almost every night, and you
Speaker 1: can ask them, they're here, come here, Abbi every night.
Speaker 1: Is that true? Can you see her in the camera?
Speaker 1: Put the camera on. Have you real quick? Come here?
Speaker 1: Do I? Is it true or not that at least
Speaker 1: five out of seven nights, because kids will call you
Speaker 1: out like every night they do not every night, not
Speaker 1: every night. Kids will expose you five out of seven nights.
Speaker 1: We put that blessing on you. We declare that over you,
Speaker 1: that the Lord bless you and keep you, make his
Speaker 1: face shine upon you, and be gracious to you. The
Speaker 1: Lord turned his face toward you and give you Shalon
Speaker 1: it's more than it's not the kind of peace that
Speaker 1: means I don't have any problems, because you're gonna have problems.
Speaker 1: Jesus said, in the world you will have trouble. But
Speaker 1: take heart, I have overcome the world peace. I give
Speaker 1: you my peace. I leave with you, and I do
Speaker 1: not give as the world gives peace. And since the
Speaker 1: world didn't give peace, the dal Jones can't take it away.
Speaker 1: Since my job didn't give me peace, I'm preaching Lucia's
Speaker 1: I'm preaching. I'm preaching. I say, preach your dad, preaching
Speaker 1: march preach of daddy. Anyway, Come here, boy, don't I
Speaker 1: put that blessing on you every single every single night,
Speaker 1: two things we go. Don't go to bed without Rick
Speaker 1: Biotto and the blessing. Now, y'all get out of here.
Speaker 1: I gotta preach. Hey where you going? Hey, Hey, Hey,
Speaker 1: come back, leve you. That's swiggy Lish right there, shwiggy
Speaker 1: Lish and fou flush. That's their code names. What's your nickname?
Speaker 1: Have you got a nickname? If you got a nickname,
Speaker 1: put it in the chat. So I want to I
Speaker 1: want to say also happy while you're putting your nickname
Speaker 1: in the chat, there's like a twenty second delay. Happy
Speaker 1: birthday to my brother today. He turns thirty seven years old.
Speaker 1: His government name. Yeah, come on, guys, they're like pastors
Speaker 1: kind of filter. Let's bring the table and maybe he'll
Speaker 1: read a scripture and settle down. That's right, Thank you
Speaker 1: so much. Amazing, And he turned thirty seven. He is
Speaker 1: about to be a dad, and we're sending love to
Speaker 1: Matthew Lyles Ferdick. His nickname is Maxwell Murder. I call
Speaker 1: him that because of Rancid, but that's not in the Bible.
Speaker 1: You know. Jesus changed names too, but he usually didn't
Speaker 1: do it after punk rock songs. But I call him
Speaker 1: Maxwell Murder, killing him. So happy birthday to my brother.
Speaker 1: I would wish you a happy birthday too. Just let
Speaker 1: me know when it is. I'll get you a gift
Speaker 1: in the mail. What do you want for your birthday? Hey?
Speaker 1: I got another question? And are we welcome in your home?
Speaker 1: This is kind of intrusive. We just showed up in
Speaker 1: your home here. We are just all up in your
Speaker 1: living room, all up in your kitchen. Some of y'all
Speaker 1: are still in bed. It's kind of close quarters for
Speaker 1: coming up in your bedroom. It's kind of unless you
Speaker 1: welcome us. So if we're welcome, let's see, I'm seeing
Speaker 1: some nicknames in here. Some of them look kind of sketchy.
Speaker 1: I'm not going to say these out loud. This could
Speaker 1: get out of hand. In the chat forget, I asked
Speaker 1: that here's the question after we preach today. After we
Speaker 1: preach today, Normally i'd welcome you to church. You're not
Speaker 1: welcome in the church building right now. Never thought i'd
Speaker 1: say that you're not welcome here. You are absolutely not
Speaker 1: welcome in this church. But we're bringing church to you today.
Speaker 1: If that's all right, If you make a little space,
Speaker 1: we want to come in and bring you the Word
Speaker 1: of God. Come on. The grass withers, the flower fades,
Speaker 1: viruses come, things change, things close, but the Word of
Speaker 1: God stands forever. So if you will open your home
Speaker 1: today and your heart, what I want to know is
Speaker 1: what are we having to eat after I preach? What
Speaker 1: are you cooking? If you were here in the South Charlotte,
Speaker 1: North Carolina, where I preach from, or Monk's Corner, South Carolina,
Speaker 1: where you saw an awesome outreach segment, shout out Pastor
Speaker 1: Shawnwood and Freedom Church, All the saints and believers there
Speaker 1: the church in Monk's Corner. But we would cook you
Speaker 1: some boiled peanuts, some chicken bog. It wouldn't be low
Speaker 1: car but it would be a blessing to your intestines.
Speaker 1: So what would you cook if we were coming over,
Speaker 1: if Tiffany was coming over, if Dom was coming over
Speaker 1: with his drum kit and setting up in your living room,
Speaker 1: what would you cook for us? Pot roast eggs sounds good,
Speaker 1: brought sounds good, steaking bread holds post real quick. It's
Speaker 1: coming fast. I'm getting a little sick to my stomach.
Speaker 1: I'm eating too much too fast. Bacon, eggs, hash browns,
Speaker 1: and pancakes. Pasta with homemade Marinera sauce. Amanda says, keep going,
Speaker 1: let's see some more. What else is on the menu.
Speaker 1: I'm going to decide whose house to come to, Zachiah,
Speaker 1: I'm coming to your house. Indonesian noodles. That sounds delicious,
Speaker 1: bow tie pasta, what you want to eat? Ale? We're
Speaker 1: getting many invitations. Cracker barrel, Holly said, is what I've
Speaker 1: got today. Hey, I'm so glad you're in quarantine that
Speaker 1: the Lord gave me a wife that can cook we've
Speaker 1: been eating good. We've been eating good at lockeh Haven.
Speaker 1: Nothing to complain about their barbecue. Now, y'all can't cook
Speaker 1: barbecue like we can cook barbecue. If you don't have
Speaker 1: a mustard based barbecue, I'm not coming. I am not coming.
Speaker 1: Just forget about it. I don't care how much you
Speaker 1: love Jesus. If your barbecue is in mustard bass, your
Speaker 1: experience with the Holy Spirit is limited. I'm not coming.
Speaker 1: Steak tacos, ramen noodles on a budget. Okay, okay, Lord
Speaker 1: bless their bank account. They're offering me the cheapest possible food.
Speaker 1: Sloppy Joe's crab salad. You ever had crab salad skinner?
Speaker 1: Did they make that in Minnesota? Sounds like a delicacy? Gone,
Speaker 1: We'll just do this all day. I was gonna read
Speaker 1: the scripture. But is this making you hungry? Oh? Man? Well,
Speaker 1: I don't know what we're gonna eat in the physical,
Speaker 1: But man, do I have a meal? I got food
Speaker 1: to eat? You know? Not Ally give us the mena
Speaker 1: that comes from heaven. God, give us your words, feed
Speaker 1: us till we want no more. In Jesus' name, I'm
Speaker 1: excited about it. This is part two of a series
Speaker 1: that we started last week. Last week was just the appetizer,
Speaker 1: and here comes the main dish. This new teaching is
Speaker 1: called looking forward to Normal, And no, I didn't get
Speaker 1: it wrong, because I know we're supposed to be getting
Speaker 1: back to normal when they lift the restrictions, or they
Speaker 1: let us go back to work, or let our kids
Speaker 1: go back to school so that they can actually learn
Speaker 1: something instead of pretending to learn something while the door
Speaker 1: is closed, like I'm sure mine are doing. But one
Speaker 1: of the things that's so important for us is that
Speaker 1: we learned the lessons of this season in preparation for
Speaker 1: the next. And I don't know about you, but God
Speaker 1: has really been teaching me some things in this season
Speaker 1: and I can't wait to share the next installment today.
Speaker 1: If you would take your Bible real quick, and if
Speaker 1: you have a physical copy of the Bible, grab that.
Speaker 1: The reason I'm saying that is probably you're watching this
Speaker 1: on your phone, so I don't want you to multitask
Speaker 1: on the same device. Get your physical copy of God's Word.
Speaker 1: If you can't, I'm going to put it on the
Speaker 1: bottom of the screen for you in just a moment.
Speaker 1: But what I'd really like you to do is to
Speaker 1: have your own copies so you can underline and write
Speaker 1: in it, and we bless you today and we speak
Speaker 1: this word over your life. All right, I'll be calm
Speaker 1: down now. Elbe's really happy to be here. He's been
Speaker 1: cooped up in the house. You know what's funny about it.
Speaker 1: I think some people would pay to come to church
Speaker 1: right now. My oldest son, Elijah, he's a business minded guy. Apparently,
Speaker 1: he was like, Dad, I think you could charge for
Speaker 1: tickets when church starts back. He said, that might be
Speaker 1: the new ways. Well, we're not going to do that,
Speaker 1: but certainly is a privilege. I feel like it's a
Speaker 1: privilege to minister to you, and I'm so thankful for it,
Speaker 1: and I want to make the most of the time.
Speaker 1: And even when somebody said, come on, man, get to
Speaker 1: the word. What else do you have to do? Let's
Speaker 1: hang out for a minute. I was actually driving yesterday
Speaker 1: just to get somewhere point A to point B. Don't worry.
Speaker 1: I had my you know, my hasmat suit on and
Speaker 1: I was trying to get to somewhere and people were
Speaker 1: driving crazier than ever, and I was kind of like,
Speaker 1: where are y'all going in such a hurry people riding
Speaker 1: up on me. I'm like, where are you going right now?
Speaker 1: What are you in a hurry for? Unless you are
Speaker 1: a first responder slowed down? The world is over. You
Speaker 1: don't have to speed anymore. But it's just something about
Speaker 1: the pace and the patterns, and it's really hard to
Speaker 1: let go of something that you've never known any different then.
Speaker 1: So like, if you're used to a certain pace, or
Speaker 1: if you're used to a certain set of priorities, or
Speaker 1: you're used to certain principles that you have assumed to
Speaker 1: be true all of your life, it can be very,
Speaker 1: very difficult to embrace something new. And what I was
Speaker 1: saying last week, you'll sit down because I'm going to
Speaker 1: read a lot of scriptures today. But I was saying,
Speaker 1: how when God's people left Egypt in the Exodus, And
Speaker 1: I'm going to pick right up there in Exodus fourteen,
Speaker 1: and then I'm going to go right back over to
Speaker 1: Romans twelve. You're like, that's the same scriptures as last week. Absolutely,
Speaker 1: revelation requires repetition if it's going to become real in
Speaker 1: your life. They say in marketing, you need to hear
Speaker 1: it seven times. So I want to reinforce this message.
Speaker 1: But actually I want to give even more context than
Speaker 1: I did last week, and I want to back up
Speaker 1: to Exitus fourteen, verse five, as God's people were coming
Speaker 1: out of Egypt, and somebody put it boldly in the
Speaker 1: Chat in all calves, I'm leaving Egypt. I'm leaving Egypt.
Speaker 1: You know, Egypt was the place where they went to
Speaker 1: be fed for a little while, but then they needed
Speaker 1: to be freed from the place they were fed in.
Speaker 1: And I think that's a powerful picture, is that for
Speaker 1: certain seasons in our life, certain things meet needs. The
Speaker 1: process of growing in God is the process of releasing
Speaker 1: something in order to receive something. And while that sounds
Speaker 1: really cool because I made it all start with the
Speaker 1: letter are, it is very difficult to do. And that's
Speaker 1: why we really need to walk through this with the Israelites,
Speaker 1: because we're like, come on, Moses led you out of Egypt,
Speaker 1: aren't you grateful? Well, not exactly totally grateful. I'm kind
Speaker 1: of fearful. I'm kind of fearful. And Exodus fourteen, verse
Speaker 1: five gives us some detail. After the people of God
Speaker 1: have left Egypt, remember how many plagues were their Graham
Speaker 1: in the Bible. In Egypt, you had the frogs, remember
Speaker 1: the gnats, all the plagues that God used. Remember, okay,
Speaker 1: it's the same number as the commandments. How many commandments?
Speaker 1: Ten commandments, ten plagues? And God did all of that
Speaker 1: because he said, unless I force Pharaoh to let you go,
Speaker 1: he won't. Certain changes are not embraced. They must be forced.
Speaker 1: They must be forced certain changes. If you want your
Speaker 1: muscles to grow, you can't nicely ask them to grow.
Speaker 1: That has to be forced. And the only way you
Speaker 1: can force a muscle to grow is to bring it
Speaker 1: to the point of failure so that the fibers break down.
Speaker 1: Am I getting this right? Chunks and grow back stronger. Now,
Speaker 1: I'm going to tell you an illustration of that that
Speaker 1: I put on Instagram this week. But after I read
Speaker 1: my scripture, the Bible says in Exodus fourteen, verse five,
Speaker 1: are you ready for the word? I've already started preaching it.
Speaker 1: When the King of Egypt was told that the people
Speaker 1: had fled, that his entire workforce had left the building,
Speaker 1: Pharaoh and his officials changed their minds. Underline, that changed
Speaker 1: their minds. They changed their minds about them because remember,
Speaker 1: Pharaoh didn't want to let them go. But then there
Speaker 1: was one plague, two plagues, three plagues, four plagues, five plagues, six, seven, eight, nine,
Speaker 1: ten plagus. And after the first borns died, the people
Speaker 1: of God left. And I will point this out. It's
Speaker 1: not my message, but I will point it out. What
Speaker 1: represented death to Pharaoh represented freedom to God's people. It
Speaker 1: was the same event, but Pharaoh's plagues became their freedom.
Speaker 1: And the reason I point that out is I think
Speaker 1: we have a choice how we viewed certain things. I
Speaker 1: think we have a decision which side we live on,
Speaker 1: to work with God or to work against God, to
Speaker 1: cooperate with the things that He allows in our lives.
Speaker 1: And someone may ask, well, did God send COVID nineteen?
Speaker 1: Did God send coronavirus? I'll know you have to ask him.
Speaker 1: I am not God's PR department. They'll always ask preachers, well,
Speaker 1: where is God and all this preacher, and they're confused
Speaker 1: because that's not my job. Here's one way that it
Speaker 1: came to me. I don't work in God's PR department
Speaker 1: where I'm trying to spend stuff like, oh, well, you know, well,
Speaker 1: the Lord sent this, so the Lord did that. I
Speaker 1: don't know what the Lord did. He didn't consult me
Speaker 1: on any of this. If he had it, we would
Speaker 1: be a lot different. And he consult you either before
Speaker 1: you get all high and mighty. I don't think God
Speaker 1: puts you on a zoom call either to check with
Speaker 1: you about the last six weeks. Did he. If he did,
Speaker 1: let me know, because we want to get a message
Speaker 1: to you to tell him some other stuff that we
Speaker 1: want him to do instead of the stuff he's doing
Speaker 1: right now. But watch this. Here's the thing I found out.
Speaker 1: I found out that it really doesn't matter who causes it,
Speaker 1: if it's from God or if it's not from God.
Speaker 1: And I don't really know the difference. Sometimes. What I
Speaker 1: know is that through God, through it's kind of like
Speaker 1: his hands. Whatever happens in our lives, it has to
Speaker 1: pass through his hands. So whether it came from his
Speaker 1: hand or whether it was from the enemy is not
Speaker 1: the most consequential thing. The most consequential thing is will
Speaker 1: I partner with what God is doing, even if it's
Speaker 1: not what I prefer? Or will I resist it, or
Speaker 1: will I push against it? Or will I go with it?
Speaker 1: And so the Israelites are being set free from Pharaoh,
Speaker 1: and just about the time that freedom is in sight,
Speaker 1: just about the time that it looks like they're going
Speaker 1: to make it to this landfloon with milk and honey,
Speaker 1: the land of the Canaanites and Parasites and Hittites and
Speaker 1: Jebuzides and Cellulites and all these enemies that we have
Speaker 1: to fight in this modron. That's a real enemy. That's
Speaker 1: a real enemy, the cellulits. Some of y'all are fighting.
Speaker 1: You're fighting the virus of overeating right now. But listen
Speaker 1: to what happened when they got there. It's a serious moment, people,
Speaker 1: you'll quick making light of the word of God. Pharaoh
Speaker 1: changed his mind and said, what have we done? Now?
Speaker 1: Listen to this verse five. We have let the Israelites
Speaker 1: go and have lost their services. We have let the
Speaker 1: Israelites go and have lost their services. So we had
Speaker 1: his chariot made ready and took his army with him.
Speaker 1: He took six hundred of the best chariots. The enemy
Speaker 1: uses the heaviest artillery on the people who are carrying
Speaker 1: the greatest purpose. Y'all won't shout, y'all won't put a
Speaker 1: fire emoji in the chat. And so if a lot
Speaker 1: is coming against you, that means God has put a
Speaker 1: lot in you. And one of the things that God
Speaker 1: is showing us in this season is what he put
Speaker 1: in us. And you know how He's doing that by
Speaker 1: shutting down everything around us. Because sometimes the only way
Speaker 1: for you to see what is within you is that
Speaker 1: everything that is not within you. I put it like this.
Speaker 1: When I preach to a crowd, I sometimes get carried
Speaker 1: by their energy. But when I'm preaching and there's only
Speaker 1: three people in the room, Alejandro on camera two and
Speaker 1: Eric's sitting there like he's doing a job, but he
Speaker 1: really just wanted to get away from his kids for
Speaker 1: a few minutes. Something different has to kick in. Something
Speaker 1: different has to kick in, And so we think a
Speaker 1: lot of the times, y'all stop with the fire emoji's
Speaker 1: calm down for a minute. You're gonna turn down the chat.
Speaker 1: But sometimes the Lord allows something around us to shut down,
Speaker 1: to die, so that something within us can come alive.
Speaker 1: And Pharaoh said, I changed my mind about letting them go.
Speaker 1: The message titled today is called a lesson in letting go,
Speaker 1: a lesson in letting go, And I just want you
Speaker 1: to put that right there in the comments. If you're
Speaker 1: watching this later on YouTube, just put this is a
Speaker 1: lesson in letting go, because there's so much we're learning
Speaker 1: right now. We may not know we've learned it until way.
Speaker 1: On the other side of it, you don't really realize
Speaker 1: life lessons until later. You know that, right, it's later
Speaker 1: that you say, oh, it was good for me that
Speaker 1: I was afflicted because this taught me that. Oh, it's
Speaker 1: good for me that they told me no because I
Speaker 1: didn't want to date them anyway. If I would have
Speaker 1: married them, I would be in therapy right now. And
Speaker 1: it's later that we see the lessons. A lot of
Speaker 1: times it's later that we see the lessons. And now
Speaker 1: we can read about Exodus fourteen. You know, the children
Speaker 1: of Israel while they should have trusted God through the
Speaker 1: Red Sea, and God was going to make away. But
Speaker 1: it's easy to say that. On the other side of it,
Speaker 1: it's so easy to look back and say, well, you know,
Speaker 1: he made away where there was no way. But you know,
Speaker 1: that's when you're looking back. What really takes faith is
Speaker 1: to look forward at something and to believe that he's
Speaker 1: going to make away when you can't see it. A
Speaker 1: lesson in letting go. And God told Moses from the
Speaker 1: beginning that freedom is not going to come easy. Certain
Speaker 1: freedoms in our life have to be forced. That sounds bad, right,
Speaker 1: but it's true. The only way that God sets us
Speaker 1: free from certain things, so he has to take them away.
Speaker 1: And sometimes what God allows to be removed from our
Speaker 1: life is just as important as what He allows to
Speaker 1: be brought into our life. And yet this is a
Speaker 1: season where a lot of us are having to learn
Speaker 1: to appreciate things. Remember, like I said last week, the
Speaker 1: things you were complaining about in February you would be
Speaker 1: praising God for in April, all of the annoying people.
Speaker 1: You just wish you could have a different cast of
Speaker 1: characters than the four you're stuck inside with. And I
Speaker 1: figured out how much people are saying that they're finding
Speaker 1: a rhythm in quarantine is depending on how big their
Speaker 1: house is it's like, oh yeah, man, this is kind
Speaker 1: of cool, or how grown their kids are, or some
Speaker 1: people it's do they have any human interaction? And so
Speaker 1: I've been thinking a little bit about the fact that
Speaker 1: a lot of times in my life, the lesson God
Speaker 1: is teaching me is to appreciate something. Here's what I
Speaker 1: want to ask you and maybe you can answer it
Speaker 1: on chat. What is God teaching you to appreciate in
Speaker 1: this season? Very simple but maybe worth some reflection. And
Speaker 1: I'm going to wait for you to respond, and we say, well,
Speaker 1: God is teaching me to appreciate my livelihood. You know, honestly,
Speaker 1: I had really gotten so caught up in what I
Speaker 1: didn't like about my job that I forgot the fact
Speaker 1: that having one is a blessing that I can't take
Speaker 1: for granted. Sometimes the only way that God gets us
Speaker 1: to appreciate something is to allow it to leave for
Speaker 1: a little while. That doesn't mean that this global pandemic
Speaker 1: is a plague sent by God, but I think God
Speaker 1: can use it to teach us to appreciate some things,
Speaker 1: don't you. I wish they would let us get back
Speaker 1: in this church and sing rattle. I wish they would
Speaker 1: the first time. I'm telling you, the first time Elevation
Speaker 1: Church gets to come back and sing Rattle in person,
Speaker 1: because I've been watching y'all online. Y'all are losing your
Speaker 1: minds online. When we get in a building and sing it,
Speaker 1: you better wear a motorcycle helmet. I wish they would
Speaker 1: let us get I wish they would let us le's
Speaker 1: get back together. Man, we're going to We're gonna really
Speaker 1: have a good time. But you know what, the very
Speaker 1: same thing that we long for today is something that
Speaker 1: we had been living in for so long that God
Speaker 1: is teaching me to appreciate some things. How about you.
Speaker 1: He's teaching me to appreciate some things that I had
Speaker 1: become so accustomed to, accustomed to used to. You get
Speaker 1: used to the things that God gives you to the
Speaker 1: point that you can become used to the people that
Speaker 1: God gives you. You can get used to simple moments,
Speaker 1: things that used to be annoying, You learn to appreciate.
Speaker 1: Don't you What is God teaching me to appreciate in
Speaker 1: this season? Isn't its interesting how the children of Israel,
Speaker 1: all they wanted to do was get out of Egypt,
Speaker 1: Get out of Egypt, get out of Egypt. But when
Speaker 1: they went through the Red Sea into the wilderness, they
Speaker 1: wanted the food that they had in Egypt. He took
Speaker 1: leaving Egypt to really appreciate it. And now God was
Speaker 1: trying to bring them out of it. But there are
Speaker 1: some things that we need to appreciate, and we can
Speaker 1: only appreciate them in season sometimes where we don't quite
Speaker 1: have them in the same form anymore. Does that make sense?
Speaker 1: Because God is teaching me to appreciate some things. He's
Speaker 1: revealing things to me that I did not appreciate enough,
Speaker 1: like things I just took for granted, things I just
Speaker 1: thought would always be this way. And so one of
Speaker 1: the things that's happening in this season for all of
Speaker 1: us is God is not only teaching us to appreciate
Speaker 1: certain blessings, but He is resetting the baseline of what
Speaker 1: we consider a blessing. Can I preach, Lucia? The Bible says,
Speaker 1: let everything that hath a new car, praise the Lord.
Speaker 1: Let everything that hath perfec circumstance, praise the Lord. Sorry,
Speaker 1: it's been a while, maybe I'm rusty on the scriptures.
Speaker 1: Let everything that hath bread. So that's the new baseline
Speaker 1: for being grateful. That's the new baseline. Before God gives
Speaker 1: us a new blessing. He wants to give us a
Speaker 1: new baseline. Did you just breathe? Praise him? Are you
Speaker 1: still here? Praise him? Did he wake you up? Praise him?
Speaker 1: Did he sustain you? You might not like the taste
Speaker 1: of Mena, but if you've got something to eat. Praise him.
Speaker 1: You might not like who you're sitting next to on
Speaker 1: the couch, but praise him that you've got somebody to
Speaker 1: sit next to. Grab that hand and squeeze it and say,
Speaker 1: if you've got a pulse, praise him, if you've got breath,
Speaker 1: If he gave you another day, Why am I screaming?
Speaker 1: There's nobody in the room. My new baseline to praise
Speaker 1: him is just thank you for keeping me alive. You're
Speaker 1: all over me. You kept me in my right mind.
Speaker 1: I should be going crazy, but you did it anyway
Speaker 1: in view of God's mercy, offer your body as a
Speaker 1: living sacrifice. I start with the fact that he kept
Speaker 1: me another day. I start with the fact that he
Speaker 1: did not owe me real estate today. I start with
Speaker 1: the fact that the boundary lines have fallen in pleasant
Speaker 1: places for me. He is my portion, he is my strength,
Speaker 1: he is my rock. And the storm can come, but
Speaker 1: it can knock my house down. A new baseline for praise,
Speaker 1: and then he's not only teaching me to appreciate some things,
Speaker 1: and he's not only resetting some things, but he's teaching
Speaker 1: me to release some things. Uh huh. If you are
Speaker 1: a control freak and you want to stay that way,
Speaker 1: log off right now. If you are a control freak
Speaker 1: and you want to stay that way, you better search
Speaker 1: dance videos cat videos in the YouTube box right now
Speaker 1: and just get off this stream, because right now I'm
Speaker 1: coming for every control freak because I is one. You
Speaker 1: like my English, and God is homeschooling us right now.
Speaker 1: God is teaching me some things about release. Now. I
Speaker 1: promise you i'd give you this illustration because it comes
Speaker 1: back to my mind all the time. Now, Chris has
Speaker 1: been over to the little workout room that we have
Speaker 1: at the house. I'm so thankful for that little workout
Speaker 1: room because I hide there for like six hours a
Speaker 1: day sometimes. Right now, I'm not too proud to tell
Speaker 1: you that's one of my secrets to survival. Right now,
Speaker 1: I'm not even lifting weights half the time. I'm not
Speaker 1: even lifting weights one tenth of the time. Makes me
Speaker 1: feel good to be around some dumbells, though, And honestly,
Speaker 1: like certain sermon ideas come to me when my body
Speaker 1: is moving, and so I kind of try to incorporate
Speaker 1: the two. But I had the flashback the other day
Speaker 1: from when I guess about three years ago, was it
Speaker 1: three years ago, my elbow started hurting all the time,
Speaker 1: and Chunk said, that's called golfer's elbow. Now, he used
Speaker 1: to be a physical therapist. So I'm like, I know
Speaker 1: you went to school for this crap, but I've never
Speaker 1: played golf, so you're gonna have to explain to me
Speaker 1: how I got golfer's elbow. I played golf twice in
Speaker 1: my life with my dad after he had a six
Speaker 1: pack of beer, and neither time did we finish the
Speaker 1: nine holes because it went so bad. So I have
Speaker 1: never ever in my life played golf as a grown man.
Speaker 1: So you explained to me how I have golfer's elbow?
Speaker 1: Is that right? Is a golfer's elbow? Yeah? I can
Speaker 1: never remember his tennis elbow and golfer's elbow, and one
Speaker 1: is one thing, one the other. But the thing I
Speaker 1: wanted to say to you was my elbow hurt. And
Speaker 1: I told him that my elbow was hurting because I
Speaker 1: had been lifting too heavy. You know, isn't that a
Speaker 1: man's way of explaining things. Problem is, I've just been
Speaker 1: lifting too much weights. It's these ninety five pound dumbbells.
Speaker 1: I've just been pushing myself too hard, and he said
Speaker 1: politely because I pay him, right, so he has to
Speaker 1: say this a certain way. But he said, actually, it's
Speaker 1: not the amount of weight that caused the injury. It's
Speaker 1: not how much weight you were lifting. It is how
Speaker 1: hard you were gripping it. I'm coming for the control freaks.
Speaker 1: I'm coming for the people who, even when you pray
Speaker 1: for your kids, you're not really praying. You're just giving
Speaker 1: God a punch list of ways to make them. I'm
Speaker 1: not in his image but yours. I'm coming for everybody
Speaker 1: who had a plan for this first part of the
Speaker 1: year and now you can't really find your rhythm, you
Speaker 1: can't find your groove. And it's understandable and it's completely normal.
Speaker 1: But what Chunks told me this is so powerful, and
Speaker 1: I'm going to say it way better than he said it. Okay,
Speaker 1: but this is how I heard it. I heard him say,
Speaker 1: you could lift a lot more. If you will loosen
Speaker 1: your grip, you can lift a lot more. How much
Speaker 1: time do you'll have today? God said, if you'll hold
Speaker 1: it differently, you can handle it. So here's what I'm noticing.
Speaker 1: If I take it day by day, or hour by hour,
Speaker 1: or moment by moment, I'm good. It's only when I
Speaker 1: get too far out or too far back. Either one
Speaker 1: is a mistake. I can handle Sunday on Sunday, but
Speaker 1: I can't handle Saturday on Sunday. And I can't handle
Speaker 1: Monday on Sunday. But this is the day, somebody say,
Speaker 1: this is the day in the chat, this is the
Speaker 1: day that the Lord has made forgetting what is behind.
Speaker 1: I can't fix that. I got a grip on something
Speaker 1: behind me, and I can't go toward what God is
Speaker 1: put in front of me. But I press toward the
Speaker 1: mark for the prize of the high calling. God said,
Speaker 1: you can get there if you let go. Let go,
Speaker 1: let go, let go. Oh man, that preach is so good.
Speaker 1: Why is it so hard to do? Help? Let go
Speaker 1: and let God? Uh huh, you're gonna pay my light bill? No,
Speaker 1: but let go and let God. Well, God didn't offer me.
Speaker 1: God didn't offer me a rent chet. I know, brother,
Speaker 1: But let go and let God. Okay. I don't think
Speaker 1: it's really about letting go of your responsibilities. I don't
Speaker 1: really think it's about what I think it's about releasing
Speaker 1: is the things you could never control to begin with.
Speaker 1: And all God is doing, and some of our lives
Speaker 1: in this season is showing us how little control we
Speaker 1: had to begin with. I just can't wait to get
Speaker 1: back to normal. What you mean by that? We mean
Speaker 1: by normal? All right? Are you talking about are you
Speaker 1: talking about your point of reference? Are you talking about
Speaker 1: the way things were? And is that what you call normal?
Speaker 1: Because the way things were is not necessarily what's normal. Okay,
Speaker 1: the way that you were raised is not necessarily what
Speaker 1: was normal. That's what you know, But that's not necessarily normal.
Speaker 1: It was not normal for God's peace people to be
Speaker 1: beat and mastered and miserable. But that's what they wanted
Speaker 1: to go back to. Why that's what they knew. Now
Speaker 1: a lot of us, what we know is negative thinking.
Speaker 1: So in a time where we are uncertain, what we
Speaker 1: have to unlearn is what we've known. And I'm glad
Speaker 1: for everything that God teaches me. But one of the
Speaker 1: greatest lessons that I need in the season is not
Speaker 1: what I need to learn, but what I need to unlearn?
Speaker 1: What do I need to unlearn? See, we're addicted to information,
Speaker 1: We're addicted to knowledge. We think, oh, I'm going to
Speaker 1: learn this, I'm going to learn that, and so We're
Speaker 1: not all going back to normal at any point. I mean,
Speaker 1: just try to go outside right now and look at
Speaker 1: everybody that has a mask on and gloves on, and
Speaker 1: tell me that you think in three weeks we're just
Speaker 1: gonna all go back to dapping each other up and
Speaker 1: hugging each other. You go go to hug somebody and
Speaker 1: they're gonna fight you like you pulled a gun on them,
Speaker 1: because we're not going back to normal, at least not
Speaker 1: for now. So now we have to find balance in between.
Speaker 1: And that's where you have to find The balance is
Speaker 1: in between. I'm not in Egypt, I'm not in Canaan,
Speaker 1: and there's something ahead of me that makes me uncertain.
Speaker 1: This is where we have to unlearn our point of
Speaker 1: reference that we've called normal. So now husbands and wives
Speaker 1: are fighting more than ever before, and some are coming closer.
Speaker 1: What determines what becomes your new normal in this season?
Speaker 1: Can I appreciate this real quick? Is not whether God
Speaker 1: changes your heart, but whether you change your habits. And
Speaker 1: that's what I mean by a new normal. I'm not
Speaker 1: necessarily sure about when mass gatherings will be back, or
Speaker 1: what the economy will do next. That's not my specialty.
Speaker 1: But I know that what God is doing in this
Speaker 1: season is trying to at me free from things that
Speaker 1: I never needed to begin with. And I want to
Speaker 1: say this right to your pessimism. You don't need that anymore.
Speaker 1: You don't need that anymore. Certain things that were survival
Speaker 1: skills to you before are a death trap to you now.
Speaker 1: And the only way you die here is if you
Speaker 1: stay here. So we're looking forward to normal, right, Romans
Speaker 1: twelve one and two. Let's go back there for just
Speaker 1: a moment. Put verse one on the lower thirds. Therefore,
Speaker 1: I urge you. You hear Paul, He's like, please, please
Speaker 1: learn this lesson in this season. Please learn this lesson
Speaker 1: of letting go. Now. For the believers, he's talking to
Speaker 1: the church at Rome. There's Jewish believers, there's Gentile believers.
Speaker 1: And there's an old sacrificial system, you know, the blood
Speaker 1: of bulls and goats that took away sin for a
Speaker 1: little while. But now Jesus Christ, who tore the veil
Speaker 1: by his sacrifice and paid the price once and for
Speaker 1: all for sin, who offers mercy freely, is standing before them,
Speaker 1: and they no longer need to make those old sacrifices.
Speaker 1: But it's hard to let go of what you've been
Speaker 1: holding on to for so long, even if it's not
Speaker 1: working anymore. It's really hard to let go. It's like,
Speaker 1: but this is how we're used to it. He's going, No,
Speaker 1: I beg you see it differently. I beg you. I
Speaker 1: beg you to let go. It's not normal. It's just old.
Speaker 1: It's just old. That's just just because you're used to
Speaker 1: it doesn't make it normal. So after he gets done
Speaker 1: telling them that there's a new way, somebody say, there's
Speaker 1: a new way, a new way, a new way. That's
Speaker 1: what he opened by his blood. That's what he opened
Speaker 1: on the cross. That's what he opened along with his tomb.
Speaker 1: He opened a new and living way so that you
Speaker 1: could be watched. This a living sacrifice. How does that
Speaker 1: even work? In order for something to be sacrificed, it
Speaker 1: has to die, right, The old way has to die
Speaker 1: for the new way to come alive. And that's what
Speaker 1: Paul is preaching in Romance. And then comes the verse
Speaker 1: that I really want us to sit with for a
Speaker 1: moment in Romans twelve, verse two, Paul gives a didactic
Speaker 1: or a teaching or a lesson In letting go. He says,
Speaker 1: if you are going to hold on to the old
Speaker 1: way of doing it, and I don't know what that's
Speaker 1: going to mean to you. After I get done preaching this,
Speaker 1: you will have to reflect on that. I don't know
Speaker 1: if it's the way you communicate. I don't know if
Speaker 1: it's something in this season that it actually quit working
Speaker 1: a long time ago. Man, we have like three clocks
Speaker 1: hanging around our house that haven't told time in years.
Speaker 1: I don't know why they're still hanging there. It's probably
Speaker 1: more trouble to take them down. So we rather have
Speaker 1: something that doesn't work on the wall than take five
Speaker 1: minutes and bring it down. And a lot of us
Speaker 1: are stuck in something that is old, and we froze.
Speaker 1: We froze at a point in time where it's like, Okay,
Speaker 1: this is what I have to do. And for those
Speaker 1: of us who are used to doing it a certain way,
Speaker 1: when God brings us a new blessing, it looks like
Speaker 1: a threat and we can't receive it because of what
Speaker 1: we can't release. I feel annointed like I'm seventeen years
Speaker 1: old preaching my first sermon. I love the word because
Speaker 1: he said, I urge you brothers and sisters in view
Speaker 1: of God's mercy, to offer yourself living sacrifice. This is
Speaker 1: your proper and true active worship. So verse two in
Speaker 1: that context says, do not conform write that word down,
Speaker 1: conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed. LB.
Speaker 1: Don't push me. I don't want to preach right now.
Speaker 1: I want to teach. Be transformed. Conform transform now. You
Speaker 1: don't need me to do this for you, but I'm
Speaker 1: going to do it anyway. I'm going to write both
Speaker 1: of those words on a flash card. Come on, we're homeschooling.
Speaker 1: We're homeschooling. We're homeschooling. Graham present, I'd be present, Holly present.
Speaker 1: If you're here, say present. Come on, class is in session,
Speaker 1: Come on, classes in session? Say it in the chat present, present, present, present, present,
Speaker 1: I'm here, I'm here, I'm here, I'm here for it.
Speaker 1: I'm here for it. All right, I'm gonna write this down.
Speaker 1: Last week, y'all were making fun of my handwriting. Somebody
Speaker 1: said that my R in the word normal looked like
Speaker 1: a twelve, and you're exactly right. The question is did
Speaker 1: I do it on purpose? To illustrate the twelve tribes
Speaker 1: of israel I. Guess you'll never know. Yeah, it's just
Speaker 1: two ways of looking at it. One is conform and
Speaker 1: one is transformed. I just wanted to write them down. Yeah,
Speaker 1: please get past my calligraphy and get the point. Okay,
Speaker 1: this is the right way. This is the wrong way.
Speaker 1: And what makes it right and wrong is this one
Speaker 1: conform is the way the world works from the outside in.
Speaker 1: This one transform is the way God works from the
Speaker 1: inside out. And here's how the Lord was showing me
Speaker 1: the other day. He said, in this season, remember there's
Speaker 1: a lesson in letting go. In this season, I am
Speaker 1: teaching you to learn to set your agenda from within,
Speaker 1: to be guided by the Holy Spirit, to let me
Speaker 1: fulfill my purpose for your life. Now that your plans
Speaker 1: have been interrupted. This is really hard because one of
Speaker 1: the things we're having such a difficulty with right now
Speaker 1: is we haven't even had the funeral for what we
Speaker 1: expected this year to be. And now you've got a
Speaker 1: preacher up here talking about having faith for what's going
Speaker 1: to happen next. And this causes me to really sympathize
Speaker 1: with the Israelites. You know, they were leaving Egypt and
Speaker 1: they had to rush out in the middle of the night.
Speaker 1: They had to leave so quickly they never got to
Speaker 1: say goodbye. You're like, well, they didn't want to say goodbye.
Speaker 1: Of course they did, even though it was killing them.
Speaker 1: It was what they knew. So what we're dealing with
Speaker 1: right now is a lot of us. Our plans got
Speaker 1: canceled and we didn't even get to say goodbye. Even
Speaker 1: if it isn't really what we wanted, it's what we knew.
Speaker 1: And when you don't get to say goodbye, you don't
Speaker 1: get closure. So now I'm living in this space where
Speaker 1: I thought I was gonna get to walk down the
Speaker 1: aisle with my daughter and marry or this year. Not you,
Speaker 1: I'm telling somebody else. I thought I was going to
Speaker 1: get to go, you know, be at my graduation. I
Speaker 1: had some momentum in my business. I was working on
Speaker 1: this steal, I was working on that thing. I was
Speaker 1: actually getting my act together. I had this and that
Speaker 1: and the other, and no sooner did the year start
Speaker 1: until you had to bury it and trust God with it.
Speaker 1: And we didn't even get to say goodbye. So this
Speaker 1: is a challenge of letting go, letting go of something
Speaker 1: when you don't even know what you're reaching for yet.
Speaker 1: I mean, if you if you asked me to let
Speaker 1: go of broccoli for briars, I can do it because
Speaker 1: I like what I'm grabbing more than what I'm letting
Speaker 1: go of. But what if it's a miss three bucks.
Speaker 1: I don't know about this yet. I don't know you're
Speaker 1: talking about a new normal. I don't know about that. Now.
Speaker 1: We all have moments of both. We all have moments
Speaker 1: where we're like, man, this is actually kind of nice.
Speaker 1: Everything got canceled. It's kind of nice. I kind of
Speaker 1: needed to get a break. Man. Now it's like a
Speaker 1: forced break on all of humanity. It's like a global
Speaker 1: snow day unless you're sick or someone you love sick,
Speaker 1: or unless something dries up that you were depending on,
Speaker 1: or unless it might So we're going back and forth.
Speaker 1: It's like, I want to get back to normal, but
Speaker 1: I kind of want to go into something new. It's like, man,
Speaker 1: I can't wait for everything to get started back again.
Speaker 1: But it is kind of nice having meals with my family.
Speaker 1: I wasn't doing that before. I kind of need some
Speaker 1: job stability. But you know what, I've been wondering if
Speaker 1: I really even want to work there anyway. I don't know.
Speaker 1: I don't know which one. I'm trying to find my
Speaker 1: balance in between. Now, the lesson of letting go is
Speaker 1: not only that external events cause us to let go,
Speaker 1: but the way God changes us is transformation from the
Speaker 1: inside out. Isn't that really relevant while you're stuck inside that?
Speaker 1: That's the way God changes things, the way the world
Speaker 1: works from the outside end. Oh no, what's the job
Speaker 1: market doing, what's the economy doing? When are they gonna
Speaker 1: lift this? And when are they gonna lift that? The
Speaker 1: way God does it is like you got Paul and
Speaker 1: you got Silas and they are stuck in an inner cell.
Speaker 1: But when they are stuck in a tight space is
Speaker 1: the moment that they understand We've got to give God
Speaker 1: the greatest praise in the tightest space. This is a
Speaker 1: time for more faith, more hope, more optimism. Your anchor
Speaker 1: has really got to grab hold right now because you
Speaker 1: don't know, oh what's next? And that's where God lives
Speaker 1: in the mystery. And yet our our old mind, our
Speaker 1: our our conformed mind, this is the way it's supposed
Speaker 1: to work. Is it possible that God is trying to
Speaker 1: get you to unlearned the way the world works, so
Speaker 1: you can see how he works. What does God want
Speaker 1: me to unlearn? I can't handle it anymore. Sure you
Speaker 1: can if you listen your grip, if you believe that
Speaker 1: He's with you, no matter what the next season looks like.
Speaker 1: You could bench press how much do you bench Chris
Speaker 1: three oh five? You could bench press three ninety five.
Speaker 1: You could lift it if you weren't gripping it so tight.
Speaker 1: You could lift it. You could lift it if you
Speaker 1: weren't gripping it like this. He said, it's your grip
Speaker 1: that's heard you, not the weights. You're actually strong enough.
Speaker 1: Christ is actually in you. You actually have a new nature. Now.
Speaker 1: You just need a new normal. You have a new heart.
Speaker 1: You just need new habits. What's in front of you
Speaker 1: is greater. You just gotta let go of some things
Speaker 1: that you know. And I don't want to do it either.
Speaker 1: I like what I know. That's why I know. I
Speaker 1: mean hamburger steak and green beans from cracker burrel, because
Speaker 1: that's all I avery. I don't even have to ask
Speaker 1: what she ordered me. I like what I know. God
Speaker 1: do a new thing, but make it just like what
Speaker 1: I've known before. And so when we get knocked up
Speaker 1: our balance. That's that's from the inside. That's that's how
Speaker 1: God transforms us. He destabilizes the outside in order to
Speaker 1: strengthen the core. That's what he's doing in my life
Speaker 1: right now. He's teaching me to release. Release. If you
Speaker 1: just do it physically, you could feel what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: Get the tightest script you can right now, right there.
Speaker 1: I mean to the point where you feel your blood
Speaker 1: and your toes cutting off because everything in you is constricted.
Speaker 1: And that's how your that's how your soul feels right now.
Speaker 1: This is how your mind is. You're closed minded. Keep
Speaker 1: the tight grip. Now, this is a this is an
Speaker 1: illustrated point. This is a what do you call it
Speaker 1: when you teach things by showing them? This is a
Speaker 1: an object lesson that's it. That's it's an object lesson grip.
Speaker 1: It's so tight you feel like you can't take it anymore.
Speaker 1: And I release. Release. That's what's going to happen when
Speaker 1: you look around at what you have left, instead of
Speaker 1: dwelling on what you've lost, release what do you want
Speaker 1: me to release? Pastor Stephen? Not the steering wheel. Don't
Speaker 1: release that, just release your need to know, and once
Speaker 1: you release that, look how much strength you have. Look
Speaker 1: how much praise you have. Come on, do it right there.
Speaker 1: I wish somebody would start pressing something right now, forgetting
Speaker 1: what is behind and straining toward what's ahead. It's not
Speaker 1: gonna be easy. Freedom is not easy, he told Moses.
Speaker 1: It wouldn't be easy. He told him, it's not gonna
Speaker 1: be easy when all you've known is bondage. Blessing seems
Speaker 1: strange when all we've known is busy, busy, busy, busy, busy.
Speaker 1: Rest feels like something to be resistant when all we've
Speaker 1: known is worshiping idols. Worshiping the true and living God
Speaker 1: who lives within feels foreign. But God said, you have
Speaker 1: the strength that you need if you will release what
Speaker 1: you can't carry, what you can't control. That's what he's
Speaker 1: teaching me. The lesson of letting go. Pharaoh did what
Speaker 1: we cannot do, is that he changed his mind. Wow,
Speaker 1: did you see that in the text. I never saw
Speaker 1: it in my whole life until just when I was
Speaker 1: preparing the sermon. And I promise you there's a lot
Speaker 1: more inside of me than what I'm going to say
Speaker 1: in this one session. So I'm going to keep the
Speaker 1: teaching going another week after this, at least another week,
Speaker 1: until you are so free from what you can't control,
Speaker 1: until you are so free from the fear of what
Speaker 1: the future holds, until you are able to stand in
Speaker 1: this moment and bear the weight of your calling. Because
Speaker 1: you're shedding everything that doesn't come from Him, You're shedding
Speaker 1: everything that's not productive. You are pruned of everything that
Speaker 1: doesn't serve a purpose in this season of your life.
Speaker 1: So Pharaoh said, I don't want to I don't want
Speaker 1: to let him go. Did you see in verse five?
Speaker 1: He changed his mind and said, we have let them go.
Speaker 1: You know what the Lord showed me, Holly. It took
Speaker 1: ten plagues to get Pharaoh to let God's people go.
Speaker 1: It wasn't easy. Stuff had to be killed, stuff had
Speaker 1: to be eliminated, water had to turn to blood. God
Speaker 1: even had to tell the frogs to start croaking. That's
Speaker 1: how much it took. God even had to bring in
Speaker 1: the frogs to bring his people into freedom. It wasn't easy.
Speaker 1: It wasn't easy for Jesus to die for me. He prayed,
Speaker 1: if there's any other way, let this cup pass for me.
Speaker 1: It wasn't easy. Jesus. Jesus did not purchase my freedom
Speaker 1: at a low cost. It was free to me, but
Speaker 1: it was costly for him. It was not easy for
Speaker 1: him to set me free. But here's the crazy thing
Speaker 1: about it. After the people were free from Pharaoh, they
Speaker 1: wanted to go back. And here's what I realized. It
Speaker 1: was easier for God to get Pharaoh to let his
Speaker 1: people go than it was for him to get his
Speaker 1: people to let Pharaoh go. It was easier for God
Speaker 1: to get his people out of Egypt than it was
Speaker 1: for Him to get Egypt out of his people. It
Speaker 1: is easier for God to change your heart because that
Speaker 1: happens in a moment. You know the Bible verse. If
Speaker 1: anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The
Speaker 1: old is gone, the new has come. It's not God
Speaker 1: making your heart new that is hard. It's making your
Speaker 1: habits new to come into alignment with the new heart
Speaker 1: that He's given you. And God said, in this season,
Speaker 1: I want to shatter the patterns that have kept you
Speaker 1: in prison and set you free in your life to
Speaker 1: worship Me. Not just the three day journey into the wilderness,
Speaker 1: not just out of Egypt, not just out of a location,
Speaker 1: but out of a lifestyle, out of a way of
Speaker 1: doing things, out of a way of gripping things. In fact,
Speaker 1: God is trying to set me free from me the
Speaker 1: worst master of all. How I overthink, overcompensate. God is
Speaker 1: trying to set me free from thinking I have to
Speaker 1: be the center. God is sending me free. And yet
Speaker 1: it was easier, Nats Frogs, All of that was easy
Speaker 1: for God. All he had to do was speak it,
Speaker 1: and it immediately happened. It was easier for God to
Speaker 1: get Pharaoh to let his people go than it was
Speaker 1: for him to get Pharaoh. I messed it up, Chris
Speaker 1: rewind it. It was easier for God. See, this is
Speaker 1: so revolutionary for me. I can barely even say it
Speaker 1: to you because God is just speaking this to me.
Speaker 1: I've never seen it like this before. I thought, you know,
Speaker 1: he will not let you go un less a mighty
Speaker 1: hand compels him. That's external, that's conform. God's gonna make
Speaker 1: him let you go. But what's harder is not God
Speaker 1: making Pharaoh let you go. It's getting you to let
Speaker 1: Pharaoh go. It's getting you to release the thing that
Speaker 1: you thought you needed, and to say, if I have
Speaker 1: God's presence, if I have God's power, if I have
Speaker 1: his provision, I can stand on his promise. I can
Speaker 1: stand on his word. I don't need to pay anybody back.
Speaker 1: God's got me. See, if you're used to being bitter,
Speaker 1: if you're used to getting offended, it is easier for
Speaker 1: God to forgive you for your offenses than to get
Speaker 1: you to start forgiving other people of theirs. It is easier.
Speaker 1: It is easier for God to tell Pharaoh, let my
Speaker 1: people go, than for God to tell his people, let
Speaker 1: Pharaoh go, let it go. We have to let it go.
Speaker 1: I don't mean that we can't take moments and feel sad.
Speaker 1: I don't mean that we cannot appreciate certain seasons. But
Speaker 1: God is teaching me in this season. I can't receive
Speaker 1: what is now when I hold to what is old.
Speaker 1: So God is setting me free in this season. He's
Speaker 1: not telling Pharaoh to let me go. He already delivered me.
Speaker 1: He's not telling Sins let me go. He already delivered me.
Speaker 1: He's not telling Shane to let me go. He already
Speaker 1: delivered me. He's telling me to let Shane go. Why
Speaker 1: would I reach back and pull back down off the
Speaker 1: cross sin that he already died. Why would I try
Speaker 1: to purchase something that is already provided. Let it go
Speaker 1: for I know the plans I have for you. You
Speaker 1: don't know, you don't need to know. I know the
Speaker 1: exceeding abundantly above all you ask or a mechant or
Speaker 1: a plan or propheside. I know the plans I have
Speaker 1: for you. So I'm not going back to normal. I'm
Speaker 1: looking forward to freedom. I'm looking forward to freedom. Let
Speaker 1: me see, I'm getting set free from petty in this
Speaker 1: season stupid stuff. I'm not gonna worry about so much anymore. God,
Speaker 1: if you will just let me out the house, I
Speaker 1: promise you I will be nicer in target. It's so
Speaker 1: crazy how we tell ourselves it's normal. But what if
Speaker 1: it's just old. If anyone is in Christ, he is
Speaker 1: a new creation. The old is gone, the newest come.
Speaker 1: And now God is trying to give new habits for
Speaker 1: a new heart. I don't know who needed to hear
Speaker 1: this today, but it's a lesson in letting go. The
Speaker 1: only way for them to step into freedom was to
Speaker 1: completely leave Egypt. And I just think, in our own
Speaker 1: way and our own hearts, we kind of have to
Speaker 1: have a funeral look, I'm telling our staff right now,
Speaker 1: we are not going back to church as usual anymore,
Speaker 1: and we're going back to Best Buy to purchase a
Speaker 1: cassette tape. We're not going back. I don't know what's next.
Speaker 1: I don't need to know what's next. All I've got
Speaker 1: to do is follow forward, watch this, loosen my grip,
Speaker 1: and press toward what's next. I'm pressing toward us next.
Speaker 1: I'm pressing toward us next. Do I have to tell you?
Speaker 1: Put it in the chat press toward. I'm pressing. I'm pressing.
Speaker 1: I'm pressing toward what's next. And I know that the
Speaker 1: patterns of this world, the way that the world works,
Speaker 1: was already weird. The way the world was wired was
Speaker 1: already weird. If you take the word wired and scramble it,
Speaker 1: you'll get weird. And the way the world was wired,
Speaker 1: the patterns of this world keep playing, is soothing, the
Speaker 1: way this world was wired, and it hastens me the
Speaker 1: way and I got too much to say, so push
Speaker 1: me to close because we got to get the next
Speaker 1: people in the building. Apparently, Oh nobody's coming. The way
Speaker 1: the world is wired is weird. The way the world
Speaker 1: had gotten before this virus was already sick. We already
Speaker 1: didn't know what and who was really important. We were
Speaker 1: already so addicted to celebrity that we even turned our
Speaker 1: government into a reality show. It was already sick, It
Speaker 1: was already messed up. You want to go back to that. Now?
Speaker 1: God is rewiring the way it works in our hearts,
Speaker 1: the way that we talk to each other and speak
Speaker 1: to each other with no civility. How divided we were.
Speaker 1: How if you like this person, then I don't like you.
Speaker 1: And if you support that person that was already weird.
Speaker 1: God is bringing us into something that he sees as
Speaker 1: or more normal, more than normal. What if what God
Speaker 1: is bringing you into is more normal than what you've knowne?
Speaker 1: Would you embrace that? Would you let go of your
Speaker 1: expectations to receive a new grace, a new wind, a
Speaker 1: fresh felling? Isn't it crazy? How for the last couple
Speaker 1: of years, even in our cultural dialogue, we talk about
Speaker 1: canceling people. Somebody says something we don't like, canceled, Somebody
Speaker 1: does something we don't like. Cancel, Somebody says something that's
Speaker 1: out of bounds with what we thought. Canceled, canceled, cancel,
Speaker 1: and now that everything is canceled. It's like, oh, you'll
Speaker 1: want to cancel stuff. Now everything is canceled, And I
Speaker 1: can't help but think about Hebrews that says everything that
Speaker 1: can't be shaken will be shaken, so that only what
Speaker 1: can't be shaken will remain. There are certain things that
Speaker 1: cannot be canceled. There are certain things that will always
Speaker 1: be true. They've been true all along, but have they
Speaker 1: become true to you? God wants to give us some
Speaker 1: new truths to hold to in the season, some new
Speaker 1: things to believe. It's not that the truth is new,
Speaker 1: it's just new to you. Limitations are coming off in
Speaker 1: this season. Thank you Lord. If I let go, if
Speaker 1: I let go of what was limiting me. Sometimes it's
Speaker 1: just a belief. Sometimes it's just a way of seeing another.
Speaker 1: So Lord, I'm letting go of limitations. I'm letting go
Speaker 1: of labels. What do I need to let go off?
Speaker 1: Because I'll never make it to the other side if
Speaker 1: I don't let go. I have to let go to
Speaker 1: move forward. Thank you Holy Spirit for your ministry today.
Speaker 1: It has been so good to receive from you the
Speaker 1: things that you want to speak. We spend too much
Speaker 1: time listening to every other voice but yours, and it
Speaker 1: costs us because you're always speaking over our lives, that
Speaker 1: which is pure, lovely, true, good, report, virtue, and praise,
Speaker 1: always speaking. Sometimes we just need our minds changed. So God,
Speaker 1: there are things we want you to change in our
Speaker 1: world right now. People who are unemployed, we ask you
Speaker 1: to give them a job. People whose bodies are not
Speaker 1: functioning properly, we ask you to give them a healing.
Speaker 1: People who need direction from you, or people who need
Speaker 1: protection from you. Give it God, But while we're at it,
Speaker 1: asking you to change stuff, change us, not just conforming
Speaker 1: our situation, but transforming our minds. I put my mind
Speaker 1: on the altar today. The way I think about others,
Speaker 1: the way I think about the world, the way I
Speaker 1: think about what's normal. Show me your normal, God, Show
Speaker 1: me your normal. Pray that right now. Show me your normal. God,
Speaker 1: Show me your normal. Show me what the garden of
Speaker 1: Eden is like when they were naked and unafraid. Show
Speaker 1: me what it's like to not have to hide behind
Speaker 1: fig leaves. Show me what it means to be made
Speaker 1: in your image. I thank you for your anointing, God
Speaker 1: to bring us into a new normal. Help us to
Speaker 1: let go of pharaoh, for perhaps we've become our own pharaoh,
Speaker 1: keeping ourselves in a mindset that you're trying to deliver
Speaker 1: us from. Give us the miracle of a new mind,
Speaker 1: touch the way we think, new normal, new neural pathways,
Speaker 1: new heart, new habits. Teach us to release this, to
Speaker 1: release that grip on our future, release that grip on
Speaker 1: our weaknesses, release that grip on controlling other people, release
Speaker 1: that grip on things that we can't control, to receive
Speaker 1: the strength that only you give. Heads bowed, eyes closed.
Speaker 1: In every living room and kitchen, hospital room, prison, everywhere.
Speaker 1: You're watching this right now in your car, you may
Speaker 1: want to pull your car over because I want to
Speaker 1: pray right now for somebody to become a new creation
Speaker 1: in Christ. The old has gone, the newest come. Jesus
Speaker 1: Christ died on the cross to save sinners, to deliver
Speaker 1: you from the body of death, to give you a
Speaker 1: hope and a future through his resurrection. Right now, if
Speaker 1: you want to give your life to Jesus Christ and
Speaker 1: let go and surrender your own strength, your own trying
Speaker 1: and receive his grace right now, in this moment, I
Speaker 1: want to pray with you praying out loud right now, Epham,
Speaker 1: all across the world, pray with me for the benefit
Speaker 1: of someone who is coming to Jesus Christ in this moment.
Speaker 1: Repeat after me, Heavenly Father. I am a sinner in
Speaker 1: need of a savior, and today I receive your grace.
Speaker 1: This is my new beginning. I believe Jesus Christ died
Speaker 1: on the cross to forgive my sin and rose from
Speaker 1: the dead to give me life. I receive this new life.
Speaker 1: I am a child of God. I am a new creation.
Speaker 1: Now on the count of three, if you just prayed that,
Speaker 1: I want you to put in the chat. I receive Jesus.
Speaker 1: I receive Jesus. One two three. Type it like you're
Speaker 1: raising your hand. Type it like you're surrendering. Type it
Speaker 1: like you're receiving. Come on a new beginning, like you're
Speaker 1: breaking out of the past, breaking out of shame, breaking
Speaker 1: out of the tomb, and coming out of the grave.
Speaker 1: I received Jesus. We rejoice, we rejoice, we rejoice. I
Speaker 1: receive Jesus. I receive Jesus. I see it flying across
Speaker 1: the chat all over the world. Let it fly, new beginnings,
Speaker 1: Come on, let it be God. Amen to the glory
Speaker 1: of God. Come on y'all to start clapping your hands
Speaker 1: if you can. If you can't jump up and down,
Speaker 1: if you can't jump up and down, wiggle your pinky toe,
Speaker 1: come on and give God praise for his glory. Thank
Speaker 1: you Jesus. I believe I could go ahead and preach
Speaker 1: next week right now. God is so good. God is
Speaker 1: so good. Look at all those people receiving Jesus. Look
Speaker 1: at that hey elevation Church, Epham. That's your giving that
Speaker 1: makes that possible. That's your prayers that makes that possible.
Speaker 1: That's what God is doing through you. The devil is
Speaker 1: a liar. Nothing can stop the Church of Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1: Nothing neither height, nor death, nor angels, nor demons, nor
Speaker 1: the present, nor the future, nor a virus nor anything
Speaker 1: else shall be abl Wow. So listen, I'm looking forward
Speaker 1: to normal. I don't know what it's gonna be, but
Speaker 1: my faith is trained to see God in crazy situations.
Speaker 1: See a red sea, I see a highway, You see
Speaker 1: a wall, I see a ramp, you see a staff,
Speaker 1: I see a water parting Baton. Come on, I dare
Speaker 1: you to stretch your faith with me. We're moving forward,
Speaker 1: step by step. A lesson and letting go. I need
Speaker 1: you to do me a favor in just a moment
Speaker 1: before we leave this room. Don't lug off. Don't lug off.
Speaker 1: Don't lug off. I promise you can heat it back
Speaker 1: up in the microwave. Don't log off, don't lug off.
Speaker 1: I need you to share this message with somebody if
Speaker 1: it blessed you. It's going live again. We're broadcasting this
Speaker 1: message like every two or three hours on this day,
Speaker 1: and if you're watching it later, you can share it
Speaker 1: from the archive. I have a feeling this message is
Speaker 1: going to be relevant for a minute. I don't think
Speaker 1: this is going to expire by next Thursday. So share
Speaker 1: this with somebody. Just tell them here is a lesson
Speaker 1: in letting go, and then let them know God's got
Speaker 1: this and send it to him and see how God
Speaker 1: will move and come back. You know what, Normally I
Speaker 1: wouldn't tell you to come back because we need to
Speaker 1: seek for you. Guess what we got to overflow. You
Speaker 1: can come back and get this again and take your notebook.
Speaker 1: Come on, she knows she's cooking good when we all
Speaker 1: go back for seconds. I believe this is a second
Speaker 1: helping kind of sermon, So get back on either now
Speaker 1: or later. Sit with this word, digest it. Some of
Speaker 1: you run off too fast. You just boom boom boom
Speaker 1: boom boom, eating all that gumboat and then just run off.
Speaker 1: Don't do it, you get a heartburn. Sit with this
Speaker 1: for a minute. Talk to each other. You know. One
Speaker 1: of the great new normals. You don't have to fight
Speaker 1: anybody in a parking lot right now to get out
Speaker 1: of church. You don't have to walk past any hyperactive
Speaker 1: greeters trying to get you to sign up for any group.
Speaker 1: Just sit and say, well, you need to let go
Speaker 1: of now. Listen. If you're doing this with somebody from
Speaker 1: your family, don't say here's what you need to let
Speaker 1: go of. Ask a question, or maybe men, men, get
Speaker 1: your family for a minute, say hey, sit down quitting
Speaker 1: each other, put that down, shut up, one up, shut up,
Speaker 1: put you one up. In the images, here's what I
Speaker 1: need to let go of and set an example and
Speaker 1: talk about the word of God. Let it be on
Speaker 1: your lips, dwell on it, meditate on it. That's how
Speaker 1: you get free. Lord. I thank you that your word
Speaker 1: went forth with power. I felt it. I felt it
Speaker 1: surging through the screen, touching situations, touching mindsets, and recreating routines.
Speaker 1: Thank you for the new paradigm you're bringing us into.
Speaker 1: The premises of this world are broken and limited, but
Speaker 1: your word lives forever. Thank you for it. I know
Speaker 1: it will not return voy in Jesus' name. Amen, somebody
Speaker 1: clap your hands right now, like you receive the reign
Speaker 1: of the Word of God. I just got out of
Speaker 1: the pulpit about forty five minutes ago. Holly and Graham
Speaker 1: and Ivy are waiting for me. I had to stay
Speaker 1: behind for a few minutes because out of what we
Speaker 1: just preached. God just keep speaking to me, keeps unfolding
Speaker 1: about the new normal. Oh man, I hope you're getting
Speaker 1: a lot out of this. This is like changing my paradigm,
Speaker 1: changing my life. I'm so thankful to be able to
Speaker 1: share these messages with you. I'm going to continue this message.
Speaker 1: If God gives me strength. Next week, I'm going to preach.
Speaker 1: I'm telling you, I don't know. Three new messages just
Speaker 1: came to me and I can't wait to continue it.
Speaker 1: I'm really thankful for how God is speaking in this season.
Speaker 1: We need his word more than daily bread. It's our weapon,
Speaker 1: it's our sword. And make sure that you're tuned in,
Speaker 1: locked into what God is speaking. Is my friend always says,
Speaker 1: stay locked in. Make sure you subscribe and like and
Speaker 1: share and comment, all these things to help us get
Speaker 1: the word out. Thank you for your general. Like I mentioned,
Speaker 1: is because of you that are Partner's Etham Church family
Speaker 1: that we can keep this going forward. The Word of
Speaker 1: God is greater than any challenge in the world. And
Speaker 1: I love you. I can't wait to share the next
Speaker 1: part with you. I'm going to have a lot of
Speaker 1: content coming your way in the meantime this week, so
Speaker 1: make sure to follow, subscribe, hit the bell, you know
Speaker 1: what to do. I see you soon. I love you.