Speaker 1: Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick. I'm the pastor of Elevation
Speaker 1: Church and this is our podcast. I wanted to thank
Speaker 1: you for joining us today. Hope this inspires you. Hope
Speaker 1: it builds your faith. Hope it gives your perspective to
Speaker 1: see God is moving in your life. Enjoy the message.
Speaker 1: Before we get into the word, let me mention that
Speaker 1: we're getting really excited about Elevation Nights. We're going on
Speaker 1: tour October twenty sixth through Thursday, November third. Now listen
Speaker 1: out everybody online, put in the comments in the chat
Speaker 1: where you're watching from today, what city, what state? And
Speaker 1: let me tell you where we're coming. It's going to
Speaker 1: be me and I might let Chris Brown come. I
Speaker 1: hadn't decided about it yet. You think I should let
Speaker 1: him come to be? You want to share a bunk
Speaker 1: with him? You want the top bunk. So we'll be
Speaker 1: in Atlanta, Georgia, Nashville, Tennessee, Tulsa, Oklahoma, Fort Worth, Texas, Houston, Texas, Orlando, Florida, Sunrise, Florida,
Speaker 1: and Jacksonville, Florida. If you are within five hundred miles
Speaker 1: of Atlanta, Georgia, Nashville, Tennessee, Tulsa, Oklahoma, Fort Worth, Texas, Houston, Texas,
Speaker 1: or Lando, Florida, Sunrise Florida, or Jacksonville, Florida. We would
Speaker 1: love to see you. That's October twenty sixth through November third,
Speaker 1: and you can go to Elevation Nights dot com to
Speaker 1: get your tickets and information and we'll be there. I
Speaker 1: was thinking today, other people will drive two hundred miles
Speaker 1: for what we have right here in our backyard, the
Speaker 1: presence of this amazing community of believers. And I'm excited
Speaker 1: today when lady told me one time that she drove
Speaker 1: twelve hours to come to church, and she said it
Speaker 1: was on my bucket list. And I stood up and
Speaker 1: told the church, you see what's on her bucket list
Speaker 1: is in many of our backyard. So you just have
Speaker 1: to keep that perspective. God is doing an amazing work
Speaker 1: at all of our locations and all around the world.
Speaker 1: Give God a praise. Come on, Let everything that has
Speaker 1: bread praise the Lord that has a new significance in
Speaker 1: the time of COVID. Right. Let everything that has breath
Speaker 1: that we appreciate more that God gave us another day
Speaker 1: and that we're here to praise him. And we want
Speaker 1: to take full advantage of that. Are you ready for
Speaker 1: the word of God? It doesn't matter if you are.
Speaker 1: I am, so I'm excited enough for all of us.
Speaker 1: I want to share with you from Hebrews chapter eight today,
Speaker 1: verses three through seven. I think I'm done with Joe.
Speaker 1: Thanks Hebrews chapter eight. Pat had a long decay. Hebrews
Speaker 1: chapter eight, verse three through seven. Ready, every high priest
Speaker 1: is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices, and so
Speaker 1: it was necessary for this one, Jesus, to also have
Speaker 1: something to offer. If he were on earth, he would
Speaker 1: not be a priest, for there are already priests who
Speaker 1: offer the gifts prescribed by the law. They serve at
Speaker 1: a sanctuary that is a copy and a shadow of
Speaker 1: what is in heaven. This is why Moses was warned
Speaker 1: when he was about to build the tabernacle. See to
Speaker 1: it that you make everything according to the pattern shown
Speaker 1: you on the mountain. But in fact, the ministry Jesus
Speaker 1: has received is as superior to theirs, as the covenant
Speaker 1: of which he is mediator is superior to the old one.
Speaker 1: Since the new covenant is established on what better promises.
Speaker 1: For if there had been nothing wrong with that first covenant.
Speaker 1: No place would have been sought for another. Back to
Speaker 1: verse five. They serve the high priest in the levitical
Speaker 1: line from the lineage of Erin. They serve at a
Speaker 1: sanctuary that is a copy and a shadow of what
Speaker 1: is in heaven. So this is why, this is why
Speaker 1: Moses was warned when he was about to build the tabernacle.
Speaker 1: They serve in a sanctuary that is a copy. This
Speaker 1: is why Moses was warned. See to it that you
Speaker 1: make everything according to the pattern shown you on the mountain.
Speaker 1: The Lord told me to give you the sermon in
Speaker 1: the form of a warning today, and the warning is,
Speaker 1: be careful what you copy. Be careful what you copy.
Speaker 1: You may be seated. Be careful what you copy. I
Speaker 1: didn't say not the copy. That's dumb. People will tell
Speaker 1: you sometimes don't copy being original. No, you need to
Speaker 1: copy a little bit, right. You need to copy through
Speaker 1: certain developmental stages. Our kids copy, you know, our kids copy.
Speaker 1: That's how they put one foot in front of the other.
Speaker 1: Learn to walk. You don't teach your kidnaw. If you
Speaker 1: don't want to walk on your legs, you know you
Speaker 1: might want to try walking around on your hands. They copy,
Speaker 1: They copy sounds phonetically. It's a part of the developmental
Speaker 1: process to copy. You copy. If you're learning an instrument,
Speaker 1: you would copy the scales. If you were learning a language,
Speaker 1: you would copy the alphabet. You don't make up a
Speaker 1: new alphabet, you just you shouldn't stop with the copy.
Speaker 1: That's the thing write in anything. You shouldn't just stop
Speaker 1: with the copy. So in raising three of my own,
Speaker 1: now I'm sitting here thinking like what do I want
Speaker 1: them to copy of me? And what do I want
Speaker 1: them to cast out. I feel like, since they have
Speaker 1: my genetics, it's my job to help shepherd them through
Speaker 1: some of this stuff, and it's really important that I
Speaker 1: disciple them. As a dad. I want to disciple my kids,
Speaker 1: not through a class. I don't really think they need
Speaker 1: another class for me, especially since I'm a preacher. They
Speaker 1: get to hear my words a lot, but in what
Speaker 1: I do and what I show them, and not just
Speaker 1: about Bible verses. I don't just want to disciple my
Speaker 1: kids and what they think about Greek or Hebrew. In
Speaker 1: a Bible text, the original word is epic. I want
Speaker 1: to talk to him about some other words too, Some
Speaker 1: words that we might not be allowed to say in church,
Speaker 1: especially now Graham's thirteen and Elijah sixteen. One thing I
Speaker 1: really thank God for is I've had the opportunity to
Speaker 1: work out with Elijah the last couple of years, and
Speaker 1: I'm glad that it's going to be at least two
Speaker 1: more years before he can catch me on bench press.
Speaker 1: But I kind of turned the workout room that's in
Speaker 1: our house into a little bit of a seminary study,
Speaker 1: like a laboratory, where I'm not only showing him how
Speaker 1: to do certain exercises. But I don't know if I
Speaker 1: told you this way. I've been taking him through the
Speaker 1: top one hundred rock albums of all time. Right, strain
Speaker 1: up a child and the way that they should go,
Speaker 1: and the way that they should go is led Zeppelin. Right.
Speaker 1: We listen to Grades in the gardens to an old
Speaker 1: church basement, but then sometimes sometimes we listen to other albums.
Speaker 1: Something funny happened to the other where we were listening
Speaker 1: to Jimmy Hendrix Little Wing, one of the greatest guitar
Speaker 1: intros of all time. I learned it when I was
Speaker 1: fourteen and LJ Elijah says to me, this guy sounds
Speaker 1: like Pearl Jam. He thought Jimmy nineteen sixty nine was
Speaker 1: copying Stone Gossard and Mike McCready in nineteen ninety one
Speaker 1: because he didn't know who was coffy a new and
Speaker 1: I said, no, boy, you don't have to grow up
Speaker 1: and be a Christian, but you will know that, Jimmy Hendrix,
Speaker 1: there are some things that are not negotiable. They're coffy
Speaker 1: and Jimmy, Jimmy's not coffy in them. And give me
Speaker 1: that what I handed you before we walked up. I
Speaker 1: disciple him in so many different ways. I'm pretty proud
Speaker 1: of myself. I show him, I show him technological advancements
Speaker 1: that have happened in the field of audio recording. I
Speaker 1: explained to him how like downloading songs or streaming songs
Speaker 1: is a relatively new phenomenon, and that when we wanted
Speaker 1: music from our friends, we had to copy. But where
Speaker 1: it was bad, you would put this cassette tape in
Speaker 1: another cassette with it, a blank one with it. That
Speaker 1: wasn't the problem. The problem was when you had to
Speaker 1: copy a copy of a copy of a copy, Because
Speaker 1: every time you copy a cassette tape, the quality drops
Speaker 1: of the copy in Hebrews, chapter eight, y'all thought this
Speaker 1: was story time. This is a story time I set
Speaker 1: up for my servant. The writer of Hebrews is understanding
Speaker 1: that as generations have passed from Moses, the quality of
Speaker 1: faith has dropped within the religious system of his day.
Speaker 1: He does something kind of crazy in order to bring
Speaker 1: these new believers into an understanding of the process of
Speaker 1: emulating and imitating Christ. He points to somebody that they
Speaker 1: never met Moses to explain about somebody that they never
Speaker 1: personally met Jesus. He talks about a tabernacle. You got
Speaker 1: to remember, these people never saw the tabernacle that they
Speaker 1: carted around the wilderness. It's been many years since they
Speaker 1: were setting up that tabernacle. It's been replaced now, not
Speaker 1: only by Solomon's temple, but that one's been destroyed. There's
Speaker 1: been another temple built. So they are generations removed from Jimmy.
Speaker 1: I like Pearl Jam. I'm a Pearl Jam fan. But
Speaker 1: he realizes that with every generational transference there has been
Speaker 1: a loss in quality, and he says things in Hebrews
Speaker 1: like you need to persevere. Y'all give up too quick.
Speaker 1: He's gonna fuscin at him. So he brings in examples.
Speaker 1: He talks about it in Hebrews chapter eleven, different people
Speaker 1: in the faith who endured, some people who were cut
Speaker 1: in half for their faith. And so he's kind of
Speaker 1: trying to say, like, you think is bad because somebody
Speaker 1: didn't like your comment on Facebook, has been a lot worse, right,
Speaker 1: And if I could talk to you today, I would
Speaker 1: use this subject, be careful what you copy, because what
Speaker 1: happens to a lot of us is we're not even
Speaker 1: conscious of what we're copying in our behaviors and even
Speaker 1: our faith, and even our concept of God sometimes came
Speaker 1: through so many generations who put their own concept of
Speaker 1: God on top of the biblical concept of God. You
Speaker 1: got to think somebody did that to them, who did
Speaker 1: that to them, who did that to them, who did
Speaker 1: that to them? And by the time it gets to them,
Speaker 1: they say, I'm not sure I want anything to do
Speaker 1: with God. But it's not God that you want nothing
Speaker 1: to do with. It's the copy of God, the copy
Speaker 1: of the copy of the copy of the copy of
Speaker 1: the copy of God through all these generations. So he's
Speaker 1: pointing to something that they've never personally seen. Get this
Speaker 1: an experience. They never had this tabernacle that God commanded
Speaker 1: Moses about to build with very specific dimensions. And when
Speaker 1: God called Moses to build a tabernacle, he did it.
Speaker 1: While Moses was on a mountain. He spoke to Moses
Speaker 1: face to face as a man speaks. Well, actually he
Speaker 1: spoke to Moses. But then Moses had to go speak
Speaker 1: to the people. And sometimes when Moses would speak to
Speaker 1: the people what God had said, as he would say
Speaker 1: what God had said, they would twist it and make
Speaker 1: it something else. That has now been happening. In Hebrews
Speaker 1: chapter eight for hundreds of years. See he talks about
Speaker 1: the covenant that was given, the old covenant, the covenant
Speaker 1: of Moses, that God promised to be with his people
Speaker 1: if they kept his commands. But he said, how Jesus
Speaker 1: brought a better covenant, so he didn't tell us to
Speaker 1: build a tabernacle. He became the tabernacle. He was the
Speaker 1: dwelling place of God. And rather than a high priest
Speaker 1: bringing an offering like an animal or a bull or
Speaker 1: a goat to shed the blood of something else to
Speaker 1: a tone for your sin, Jesus shed his own blood.
Speaker 1: He offered himself as a gift. He is a great
Speaker 1: high priest, a better high priest, a better covenant. But
Speaker 1: he understands something about the people that they are attempting
Speaker 1: to copy a lesser covenant, a covenant that depends on
Speaker 1: your behavior, not grace. And let's be honest. They came
Speaker 1: by it honestly because we are all influenced by culture.
Speaker 1: If you don't believe me, I'll say this the same
Speaker 1: way that we sometimes can't even get from church to
Speaker 1: Monday morning. You know how church you can sometimes have
Speaker 1: these mountaintop experiences and Lord, I'm gonna serve you, and
Speaker 1: I'm gonna pray with my wife and I and I'm
Speaker 1: gonna wait on you, And then that message doesn't even
Speaker 1: make it through Monday traffic. You don't even get to
Speaker 1: the office right from the mountain to Monday. I could
Speaker 1: preach about that, how do I get God from the
Speaker 1: mountaintop of inspiration to Monday morning. So he's understanding that
Speaker 1: they're going to need something to help him get there,
Speaker 1: and he understands that you have to be careful what
Speaker 1: you copy. Because when Moses went up to get the
Speaker 1: instructions from God on the ten commandments, remember those come
Speaker 1: on you broke all of them. I know you remember them.
Speaker 1: You have to understand by the time Moses got back down,
Speaker 1: they weren't waiting on the Lord. They were worshiping a
Speaker 1: cow that they made out of golden earrings. He was
Speaker 1: only up there forty days. They would wander in the
Speaker 1: wilderness forty years because after they came out of each
Speaker 1: they couldn't get Egypt out of them. And I'm concerned
Speaker 1: that sometimes we are so controlled by culture. This is
Speaker 1: what God said, see to it. Pay attention is a warning,
Speaker 1: he said. Moses was warned, see to it that you
Speaker 1: make everything according to the patterns shown you on the mountain,
Speaker 1: because when you get down off the mountain, the children
Speaker 1: of is Wyo are going to be naked dancing around jewelry.
Speaker 1: So you have to sew hear from God and know
Speaker 1: what he showed you, and nobody spoke to you, and
Speaker 1: know what He is doing in your life. Not somebody
Speaker 1: else's know what he's doing in your life, not the
Speaker 1: neighbor next door to know what he's doing in your
Speaker 1: life in this moment that you build that so be
Speaker 1: careful what you copy from the culture around you. Be
Speaker 1: careful what you copy from the culture around you that
Speaker 1: keeps you from discovering the kingdom within you. It's fasterphernic.
Speaker 1: I'm preaching. I'm already doing it now. We copy culture
Speaker 1: around us, and what we don't realize, see, we we
Speaker 1: don't realize that we're copying crazy. I know this because
Speaker 1: when I tell people that I don't watch the news
Speaker 1: very much, they look at me like I'm irresponsible. Well,
Speaker 1: just because people want to make money off of twenty
Speaker 1: four to seven news cycle doesn't mean that I have
Speaker 1: to submit my mind to the stress that it cost us.
Speaker 1: You I don't have to. Well, then then you won't
Speaker 1: be informed, but I also won't be insane. Preach to me,
Speaker 1: preach to me, freash to me. I need this, I
Speaker 1: need this. They call it breaking news because it's breaking
Speaker 1: your brain. Breaking news. You can't put out a bird feeder.
Speaker 1: Did y'all see that? It was breaking news on my screen?
Speaker 1: The birds are dying now and we got to take
Speaker 1: our bird feeders down. Well, maybe we do, but that's
Speaker 1: not breaking news about a bird bath. That's not a
Speaker 1: pandemic about it. Did you see this? Did you see? This?
Speaker 1: Is crazy? But we copied crazy, and so if everybody's
Speaker 1: a zombie on the Walking Dead. If everybody's staring at
Speaker 1: stuff and never looking at each other, be careful what
Speaker 1: you copy. Come a golden cow from something that watched this,
Speaker 1: that you got out of the age, so that God
Speaker 1: delivered you from And by the time Moses got down
Speaker 1: the mountain, this is why God warned him in Exodus
Speaker 1: twenty five, because God's telling him thou shalt not kill,
Speaker 1: and thou shalt not commit adultery, and thou shalt not
Speaker 1: cove it. And if you live the way that the
Speaker 1: first come, I tell you too, you won't cover anybody
Speaker 1: else's life, because you'll be so content with your own
Speaker 1: that you won't have to take your neighbor's wife, you
Speaker 1: won't have to take your neighbor's ox, you won't have
Speaker 1: to take matters in your own hands. And by the
Speaker 1: time he gets down talking about contentment, they're dancing around
Speaker 1: a calf. And I can relate so much to copying culture.
Speaker 1: And then I miss Christ because the Kingdom is within me.
Speaker 1: But that's the Old Testament, Pesters, Actually, no, it's not.
Speaker 1: It's in Hebrews, in the New Testament. And he said
Speaker 1: in the New Testament that you need to be warned
Speaker 1: sometime that if you don't build when you come down
Speaker 1: the mountain in your everyday life, what God spoke to
Speaker 1: you in those moments where He touched your soul, you
Speaker 1: will miss the kingdom. By copying the culture, now people
Speaker 1: can twist anything. So some people will say, like, well,
Speaker 1: then you shouldn't have drums in church because you know
Speaker 1: that's from the devil and from the world. You want
Speaker 1: air conditioning in church because that's not in Exodus either,
Speaker 1: That wasn't It's a way of thinking. It's what the
Speaker 1: Bible calls the patterns of this world that we conform to,
Speaker 1: and the world squeezes you into its mold so that
Speaker 1: you start trying to have conversations with two hundred and
Speaker 1: eighty characters, and then the medium becomes the mold that
Speaker 1: we get squeezed into. So we can't know each other
Speaker 1: as people who are created in the image of God
Speaker 1: because we are conversing with each other on a platform
Speaker 1: that was designed by people to get us to argue
Speaker 1: too much too soon. This is point number one. Be
Speaker 1: careful what you copy from culture. I'm not saying you
Speaker 1: have to dress like you're out in nineteen thirty three
Speaker 1: to be a Christian. I'm not talking about external stuff.
Speaker 1: Neither was the writer of Hebrews. He was saying, the
Speaker 1: external covenant is gone. Is the internal one that matters now.
Speaker 1: So our distinction and what makes us different is not
Speaker 1: that we look weird, but that we refuse to conform
Speaker 1: to crazy. Put this in the chat. I refuse to
Speaker 1: conform to crazy. When I say put it in the chat,
Speaker 1: you say it out loud too. It's kind of an
Speaker 1: arrangement we have. I refuse to conform to crazy. Be
Speaker 1: careful what you copy from a culture that has lost
Speaker 1: its ever loving mind and is controlled by the prints
Speaker 1: of the power of the air. Y'all believe in the devil.
Speaker 1: If you don't believe in the devil after the last
Speaker 1: two years, so be careful what you copy. Be careful
Speaker 1: who you envy. Some of us envy people who are
Speaker 1: secretly miserable, but you don't know that. So this is
Speaker 1: my second point. Be careful what you copy from other people,
Speaker 1: because you don't see the full picture. I remember watching
Speaker 1: the documentary last year, and I got so jealous of
Speaker 1: the person that the documentary was about because he had
Speaker 1: won something like sixteen Grammys whole time I'm watching them.
Speaker 1: I don't know if you ever do this. I sit
Speaker 1: there and compare my accomplishments to his accomplishments, and it's like,
Speaker 1: we have a pastor, you touched souls for the Kingdom. Well,
Speaker 1: I want a Grammy too, all right. So I'm sitting there.
Speaker 1: I'm sitting there going I never won one Grammy. He's
Speaker 1: got sixteen or whatever. But then it was like the
Speaker 1: Lord spoke to me in the middle of the documentary
Speaker 1: and said, wikiam So I put him in my Wikipedia
Speaker 1: app and I donate to Wikipedia because they've helped me
Speaker 1: so much with my research every year. And I put
Speaker 1: his name in the thing and I saw, yes, he
Speaker 1: has sixteen Grammys, but he also has had five wives.
Speaker 1: So I didn't judge him. I didn't turn off the documentary.
Speaker 1: I still admire him, but I realized that what I
Speaker 1: had done in the process of admiring his accomplishments, I
Speaker 1: had not considered the cost of those accomplishments. So I
Speaker 1: want the Grammys, but I also want, you know, less
Speaker 1: than four divorce proceedings and no judgment on the guy.
Speaker 1: But isn't that what we do? We crop and copy
Speaker 1: you know, you crop a picture. You know how when
Speaker 1: that person in your life is no longer in your
Speaker 1: life and you crop them out of the picture. We
Speaker 1: do that when we're comparing ourselves to other people, right,
Speaker 1: because we're copying something that's cropped. They're showing you what
Speaker 1: they want you to see. Now you are copying a picture,
Speaker 1: a form, a shadow, a crop picture. So you see
Speaker 1: what they did and you go, well, I'm not doing that.
Speaker 1: I'm not as good as them. I'm not. I can't
Speaker 1: eve accomplish anything like them. And here's what I noticed.
Speaker 1: Some of the people that we want to be like
Speaker 1: are burning out influencers. Influencers that we see on social
Speaker 1: media and after we have bought all their makeup product
Speaker 1: and all their diet product and all their fitness stuff,
Speaker 1: and then we see their post about y'all, I just
Speaker 1: wanted to come on here today. People been asking that's
Speaker 1: how every influencer post I've ever seen starts. And I'm
Speaker 1: not even on social media that much, but I got
Speaker 1: that one memorized. I just wanted to come on here, y'all,
Speaker 1: and I have people have been asking. Nobody's been asking you.
Speaker 1: Two people I ask you. But now they're on a confession.
Speaker 1: Now here's what's crazy. I've been copying somebody who comes
Speaker 1: on and tells me I'm actually depressed, and I've been
Speaker 1: copying you. I actually feel like I'm losing my mind.
Speaker 1: I can't eat, I can't sleep. I was so busy
Speaker 1: envying your bag that I didn't realize that at the
Speaker 1: bottom of it is a bottle of pills that you
Speaker 1: can't function without. Now who I wish I could feel
Speaker 1: the energy y'all are putting on me right now? Is
Speaker 1: it better a river walk? I might come over there
Speaker 1: is not far. Be careful what you copy from another
Speaker 1: person's life, because you don't know what it costs them.
Speaker 1: Remember I told you I told my father in law.
Speaker 1: He's a cool guy, so I get to tell him
Speaker 1: everything I told him. When he said, amen, I'm not
Speaker 1: going to copy this humility though, I'll tell you that
Speaker 1: right now he said, he said, one time we were
Speaker 1: talking about this one pastor, and we were taught different
Speaker 1: people that discourage you along the way from ministry and
Speaker 1: one guy that I met who had traveled the world,
Speaker 1: and when I was like twenty years old, my dad
Speaker 1: had me go to promise keepers with him It was
Speaker 1: actually in Charlotte, so I was in college and my
Speaker 1: dad was still a monk's corner. We met in Charlotte
Speaker 1: for promise keepers, and you had to volunteer behind the scenes,
Speaker 1: and I was running the clock and I already knew
Speaker 1: I was called to be a preacher. So this very
Speaker 1: famous preacher was back there and I walked up to him.
Speaker 1: I said, I don't want to bother you before you preach.
Speaker 1: He said, yes, you do. Apparently you do, because you
Speaker 1: are right now. I said no, I just wanted to know,
Speaker 1: can you give me a piece of advice as somebody
Speaker 1: that I admire. You've written so many books and you've
Speaker 1: shared the Gospel with so many people. What advice would
Speaker 1: you have for me, for somebody who aspires to do
Speaker 1: what you do? He said, you don't want to be me,
Speaker 1: and I thought it was rude at first, but he
Speaker 1: was trying to tell me something. He was trying to
Speaker 1: tell me about the surcharge of sacrifice, that what I
Speaker 1: saw in his books that I admired. I don't know
Speaker 1: who this is for. You have to be careful that
Speaker 1: you don't set the blueprint of your life based on
Speaker 1: the part of somebody else's life that you see, because
Speaker 1: they might be cropping out stuff that you don't want
Speaker 1: to copy. I wish this was inside Elevation because I
Speaker 1: would tell all the pastors in this room there's some
Speaker 1: stuff about Elevation Church. I would not advise you to do.
Speaker 1: This is a great church. To me, it's the best
Speaker 1: church in the world. I love the church I pastor,
Speaker 1: and you can't talk me out of that. But come on, man,
Speaker 1: when we call the event inside Elevation, it's not really
Speaker 1: inside elevation. It's barely inside. It's like lobby elevation. It
Speaker 1: is not kitchen elevation. You're not going to see the
Speaker 1: real mess of it. See, this is what we do.
Speaker 1: We want to copy one part of somebody's life. And
Speaker 1: what happens when we do that is we missed the
Speaker 1: bigger picture. I wonder, have you been missing the bigger
Speaker 1: picture because you've been trying to copy somebody else and
Speaker 1: you saw one part of their life. They got more
Speaker 1: followers than you, but their kids aren't following them anymore
Speaker 1: because they're never there. That's right. I don't do social media.
Speaker 1: I'm not just talking about the platform. I'm talking about
Speaker 1: the thing inside of us. You know what I mean,
Speaker 1: where we we copy somebody who if you could really
Speaker 1: give them, They said, don't do it like that. That's crazy.
Speaker 1: It costs me too much if I depressed all enough.
Speaker 1: The writer of Hebrews, nobody even knows who wrote Hebrews.
Speaker 1: But he's so brilliant because he's showing us Moses. Why
Speaker 1: is he showing us Moses and then Jesus, Because he's
Speaker 1: showing you that Moses could only take you so far,
Speaker 1: even for the children of Israel. I mean, think about it.
Speaker 1: Moses led them to the edge of the Promised Land,
Speaker 1: but he didn't get to take them in. Joshua did that.
Speaker 1: And when God called Joshua, and now Moses was a
Speaker 1: great man, no doubt about it. Moses, Moses was really
Speaker 1: actually gracious with the people that he led. Because God
Speaker 1: said one time, well, I'll just kill him and start
Speaker 1: all over with you and give you better people to leave.
Speaker 1: He said, Lord, don't do that. It'll make you look bad.
Speaker 1: You said, you put your name on these people, and
Speaker 1: your hand was on and bring them out of Egypt.
Speaker 1: So if you kill them, it's gonna make you look bad.
Speaker 1: I probably would go. I probably would vote for you.
Speaker 1: To kill him too. But if we really take this
Speaker 1: into consideration, it's not good for your reputation, God, even
Speaker 1: though it's my preference right now that notwithstanding, Moses was
Speaker 1: so controlled by the focus group that he sent into
Speaker 1: the Promised Land that he copied the fear of the
Speaker 1: ten Spies who said we can't go in, and he
Speaker 1: never got to lead the people. So by the time
Speaker 1: that Moses dies in Joshua chapter one, God is giving
Speaker 1: Joshua a talk about what he's called him to do,
Speaker 1: and he says something kind of cool, because remember, Moses
Speaker 1: really knew God. Moses really knew God. But look at
Speaker 1: this in Joshua chapter one, verse five, after he says
Speaker 1: I'm going to give you this land that I swore
Speaker 1: to the people Joshua one to five, no one will
Speaker 1: be able to stand against you all the days of
Speaker 1: your life as I was with So I will be
Speaker 1: with Now what does that mean? That means I'm gonna
Speaker 1: be present with you like I was present with him.
Speaker 1: But your process, Joshua, will not be like Moses's process.
Speaker 1: And another, his limitations will not be your limitations. Where
Speaker 1: he stopped is where you're starting. Where he stopped is
Speaker 1: where you're starting. You're not gonna be like me. You're
Speaker 1: gonna be better than me. You're gonna be so much
Speaker 1: better than me. You're not Stephen Ferdick's son. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: be Elijah Verdick's dad, Graham Fredick's dad, Habby Verdick's dad.
Speaker 1: Do you understand when God calls you and he puts
Speaker 1: his spirit in you, you are not limited by what
Speaker 1: you've seen. That's not the end of your potential. So
Speaker 1: he tells Joshua, I'm gonna be with you like I
Speaker 1: was with Moses. I will never leave you, nor forsake you.
Speaker 1: Verse six. Be strong and courageous, because you will lead
Speaker 1: these people to inherit the land I swore to their
Speaker 1: ancestors to give them. Next verse be strong and very courageous.
Speaker 1: Be careful. Aha, what's my sermon called? Be careful what
Speaker 1: you copy? So Joshua, listen. I want you to listen
Speaker 1: like God's talking to you. Don't be limited by what
Speaker 1: you saw Moses do. Moses is not your model. God is.
Speaker 1: That's what the writer of Hebrews are saying. See, the
Speaker 1: law could only take you so far. That's why Jesus came.
Speaker 1: The law was good, but it could only get you
Speaker 1: so far. The law was great, but it was fought
Speaker 1: in that you couldn't keep it. There was nothing wrong
Speaker 1: with the law, there was something wrong with me. I'm
Speaker 1: the lead that kept me from going further when the
Speaker 1: law was my regulation. So now what the law was
Speaker 1: powerless to do, in that it was weakened by the
Speaker 1: sinful nature. God did by sending his son, the better
Speaker 1: high priest in the order of Melchizedek, whose blood wets
Speaker 1: more than a million bulls and ghosts and doves. That's
Speaker 1: who Jesus is. He is the arbitrator and the mediator
Speaker 1: of a better covenant. My covenant is not with Moses.
Speaker 1: My covenant is not with my past. My covenant is
Speaker 1: not with others. My covenant is not with my genetics.
Speaker 1: My covenant is not with my depression. My covenant is
Speaker 1: not with fear. My covenant is not with his spies.
Speaker 1: My covenant is not with this staff. My covenant is
Speaker 1: not with Pharaoh. My covenant is with my father. I
Speaker 1: got a covenant, a better covenant. Somebody shall better better better, better,
Speaker 1: better better better. It's gonna be better, better, be better better,
Speaker 1: So be careful what you copy from before when God
Speaker 1: is trying to bring you into something better. Oh, I'm
Speaker 1: so glad that I don't have to do it in
Speaker 1: this season like I did it in that season. He said,
Speaker 1: you're still okay. You know how we talked about copy
Speaker 1: in the world when we started the sermon, all those
Speaker 1: drug dealers and tick talkers and all those evils. That's
Speaker 1: not who the writer of Hebrews was talking to. They
Speaker 1: weren't copying the world. They were stuck in a copy
Speaker 1: of a copy of a copy of a copy of
Speaker 1: a copy of worship that was external. Wouldn't that be hard?
Speaker 1: Like I can't even drive when I go to London
Speaker 1: because they drive on the wrong side of the road.
Speaker 1: That's right, it's the wrong side of the road. It pounds,
Speaker 1: not kilograms too while we're at it, but uh K,
Speaker 1: you know that's hard for me to even drive on
Speaker 1: the other side of the road. They're having to believe
Speaker 1: they never personally saw Jesus. They're having to believe in
Speaker 1: that and let go of what they were always taught
Speaker 1: would bring them to God. So if I can make
Speaker 1: this practical, because I know that's a little abstract. Most
Speaker 1: of what we copy in relationships is not what we
Speaker 1: were taught, but what we caught from the relational dynamics
Speaker 1: that we were around. You know how coronavirus is contagious,
Speaker 1: so is crazy and they don't make a mask for that.
Speaker 1: Yet if they could have been a mask for that,
Speaker 1: how many of y'all will buy at fifty dollars one
Speaker 1: hundred dollars. So one of the first things that me
Speaker 1: and Holly did when we sat down, and this was
Speaker 1: after we had about three or four fights our marriage,
Speaker 1: if we started talking about, well, how did your parents fight?
Speaker 1: How did my parents fight? What are we subconsciously copying
Speaker 1: from the way that we saw conflict handled? That is good?
Speaker 1: And what if we subconsciously copied that needs to go
Speaker 1: based on who we are, based on our personalities, based
Speaker 1: on our calling. Because I honor where I came from,
Speaker 1: and I honor what I saw, But I don't have
Speaker 1: to copy what I saw when it no longer fits
Speaker 1: what I'm called to. I'm gonna give you that again
Speaker 1: because you just missed that FILET Mignon what I say again,
Speaker 1: I don't have to copy what I saw, Huh. I
Speaker 1: can honor it, but I don't have to copy it.
Speaker 1: I can honor the tradition. Thank you Moses. You built
Speaker 1: the tabernacle in the wilderness. Thank you, High Priest, that's
Speaker 1: the lineup area. Thank you for that. There's nothing wrong
Speaker 1: with that. In many ways, it's a continuation of that.
Speaker 1: But are you copying something that you're no longer called to?
Speaker 1: And another thing, this is what happened with the Pharisees.
Speaker 1: You remember the Pharisees and the sad Ducees. They were sad,
Speaker 1: you see, because they esteemed the traditions of men above
Speaker 1: the traditions of God. That's what happened to them. What
Speaker 1: does that mean. That means that as the law was
Speaker 1: given from Moses, the law was good, but as it
Speaker 1: got copied a copy of a copy of a copy
Speaker 1: of a copy of a copy. Now here's what had happened.
Speaker 1: By the time Jesus showed up on the scene. They
Speaker 1: were still preaching God's commandments and copying those, but they
Speaker 1: had lost God's heart to the point where if a
Speaker 1: man got healed on the sabbath, they would say, you
Speaker 1: can't do that. They copied the commandments. Jesus said, sabbath
Speaker 1: was made for men, not man. For the sabbath in
Speaker 1: copying it, they lost the quality of it and out
Speaker 1: of our life growing up. Everybody over thirty makes some noise.
Speaker 1: All right, there's some stuff that isn't bad, but you're
Speaker 1: standing in front of something better. And if you copy
Speaker 1: the way you did it before, and as God is
Speaker 1: trying to bring you better. I'll give you an example
Speaker 1: from Moses's life. He did this one time. The people
Speaker 1: were thirsty one time in the wilderness. Moses is like,
Speaker 1: why God, why, Like you're running carpool in a couple
Speaker 1: of weeks, Okay, why God? Why? Right? And so the
Speaker 1: Lord's like, well, take that staff I gave you and
Speaker 1: strike the rock and then the water will come out.
Speaker 1: And he's like really, He's like, really, I'm gonna show
Speaker 1: the people that I'm God. And he's like, all right,
Speaker 1: So the same staff, remember it I appreciate a few
Speaker 1: weeks ago, parts to sea with it. Well, now he
Speaker 1: strikes the rock with it. Here comes the water, and
Speaker 1: the people drink, and God doesn't kill him, and they
Speaker 1: go on to complain some more. Now you got to
Speaker 1: go all the way to the end, because here's something
Speaker 1: that says in Hebrews. It says in Hebrews thirteen seven
Speaker 1: look at it later. Remember your leaders spoke the word
Speaker 1: of God concerning you and considered the outcome of their
Speaker 1: way of life. Now, when we're looking at somebody's Instagram feed,
Speaker 1: we're not seeing the outcome of their way of life.
Speaker 1: We're seeing the snapshot. Even when you interact with people
Speaker 1: in church, they do not always lit their hands like
Speaker 1: they were doing thirty five minutes ago. They're not always
Speaker 1: so peaceful and so worshipful and so holy. So, so
Speaker 1: don't judge yourself according to that. But the scripture says
Speaker 1: considered the outcome of their way of life. And the
Speaker 1: reason that Moses couldn't lead the people in is because
Speaker 1: in his frustration about the people's grumbling, this is crazy,
Speaker 1: because I think I've done this before. God told him
Speaker 1: the second time they were thirsty in the wilderness, speak
Speaker 1: to the rock and the water will flow out. But
Speaker 1: Moses didn't want to speak to the rock. He wanted
Speaker 1: to do it how he did it before. So in
Speaker 1: his frustration, you've been frustrated lately, and so what you've
Speaker 1: been doing what Moses did? It says he struck the
Speaker 1: rock power that God told him to speak to. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna do it like I did it before. I don't
Speaker 1: care what you say, God, I'm gonna get my way
Speaker 1: right away. I'm gonna do this the way that it
Speaker 1: benefits me. I'm gonna do that. I'm gonna show I'm
Speaker 1: a man, I'm Moses. And he didn't get into the
Speaker 1: promise because he copied the way God told him to
Speaker 1: do it before. What I was wondering while I was praying,
Speaker 1: because I pray for y'all. By the time we get together,
Speaker 1: I've been with you all week. I'm serious, I've been
Speaker 1: with you all week, and I thought about how you
Speaker 1: are praying about some things in your life right now.
Speaker 1: You need water from a rock, water in the wilderness.
Speaker 1: That could be provision, that could be an emotional need
Speaker 1: you have. And if I take it all the way,
Speaker 1: I see some of you trying to do what you
Speaker 1: did ten years ago and it's not working. So you
Speaker 1: are stuck because you are copying the way that you
Speaker 1: struck the rock. And now God is giving you a
Speaker 1: new way to do it, but you won't do it
Speaker 1: the new way as long as I copy the way
Speaker 1: that I did it back then. I got a text
Speaker 1: from a friend the other day and he said, I
Speaker 1: want you to understand. You're in a new season as
Speaker 1: a preacher. Now, I said, tell me about it. He said,
Speaker 1: it's the season of a father. You're no longer a
Speaker 1: twenty six year old church planter, so when you preach,
Speaker 1: step into your role as a father. Now, I said,
Speaker 1: I got people in the church that are twenty years
Speaker 1: older than me. He said, it's not about chronology, it's
Speaker 1: about calling. So God is giving you permission to do
Speaker 1: it different, to do it different. Say it, do it different.
Speaker 1: Tell the person that to do it different. You got
Speaker 1: to do it different. You got to do it different
Speaker 1: if you keep hitting stuff the way you're hitting stuff,
Speaker 1: if you keep doing things out of frustration, if you
Speaker 1: keep trying to copy what you did before, and see,
Speaker 1: this is what gets me. I heard a guy one time.
Speaker 1: He was standing up to preach to his congregation, and
Speaker 1: he said, I wish I could have coffee with everybody
Speaker 1: in this church and share what I'm going to share
Speaker 1: with you today. And I sat there and thought, well,
Speaker 1: you could. The church had forty people in it, so
Speaker 1: you could knock that out by Thursday. If you're really motivated,
Speaker 1: if you do four a day, I'll go math. But
Speaker 1: I think you could do that. He had heard another
Speaker 1: pastor who pastored thirty thousand people say that, and he thought, well,
Speaker 1: that sounds cool. So now he gets up in copies
Speaker 1: in his context what he saw somebody else do in
Speaker 1: a context that is not his context. This is like,
Speaker 1: remember when David put on the armor of Saul and
Speaker 1: he walked around for a moment and he's got to
Speaker 1: fight Goliath, and he's like, I guess he will give
Speaker 1: me whatever the guy wears who fights, and Saul's like,
Speaker 1: here you go, you can wear mine. And David walks
Speaker 1: around in him a little bit and he's like, this
Speaker 1: is heavy, this is weird, and this is not me.
Speaker 1: Right now, I think I would be better off with
Speaker 1: my slingshot, with what God called me to do. I
Speaker 1: know this is how you would fight, but I've got
Speaker 1: to do it different. Some of you, as teenagers, God
Speaker 1: is going to show you you don't have to go
Speaker 1: to every party because at the end of popularity, a
Speaker 1: lot of the people who are so popular are going
Speaker 1: home so miserable. I tell you, I'm a dad right now,
Speaker 1: I'm preaching like a dad and parents, we don't have
Speaker 1: to copy the way everybody else raises their kids. You
Speaker 1: have permission to break tradition with whatever does not fit
Speaker 1: your calling. You have got to build in the valley
Speaker 1: what God showed you on the mountain. In case you
Speaker 1: haven't noticed, we live in a culture that worships our
Speaker 1: kids at the expense of our families. So I had
Speaker 1: moments where when the kids were all playing sports, where
Speaker 1: I said, nobody's coming to your game tonight. We're dropping
Speaker 1: you off and we're going on a date because I
Speaker 1: haven't been with your mom in two weeks. And after
Speaker 1: you leave me, she's gonna be the only one I
Speaker 1: have left in the house. And I'll pick you up
Speaker 1: and you can tell me about it, and maybe somebody
Speaker 1: else to get a video. So what I'm supposed to
Speaker 1: parent them like they're all Serena and Venus like I'm
Speaker 1: supposed to be Tiger. It was that I know culturally
Speaker 1: inappropriate reference. A lot of stuff comes along with all
Speaker 1: of this. Everybody has to do it the way God
Speaker 1: shows you to do it. But what happens is we
Speaker 1: start building according to somebody else's blueprint, whether it's the world,
Speaker 1: whether it's the concept of God that you were handed
Speaker 1: that is not accurate to the scripture. You need to
Speaker 1: read the Bible for yourself. I'm not your professional holy spirit.
Speaker 1: I'm a preacher. You need to get in Hebrews and
Speaker 1: say well, Pastor Steven missed this part. Now, this part
Speaker 1: was the best part. He said that, But that made
Speaker 1: me wonder about that, because if it's just a copy
Speaker 1: of a copy of a copy of a copy of
Speaker 1: a copy, I'm just Pearl Jam I'm not Jimmy. I'm
Speaker 1: not Jesus. Neither is Moses. There are your broke friends
Speaker 1: that you're taking financial advice from, or your unmarried friends
Speaker 1: that are giving you marriage advice. Well, I would tell him.
Speaker 1: I bet you would your imaginary marriage. Feel the spirit
Speaker 1: of Dave Ramsey coming on me anyway, Be careful to
Speaker 1: obey the word that I have given you. Joshua, You're
Speaker 1: gonna go somewhere they couldn't go. You're gonna do something
Speaker 1: they couldn't do. You're gonna break saints that help them
Speaker 1: all their life. Now you do it and be strong
Speaker 1: and courageous. Stop copying crazy because you don't want to
Speaker 1: be weird. I wanna be weird. If what I'm seeing
Speaker 1: in this world right now is normal, God make me weird.
Speaker 1: I wanna be the weirdest one there is, y'all. And
Speaker 1: not let your kids listen to that rock and roll
Speaker 1: music and that rap music. I'll tell you what right now,
Speaker 1: that's bad. They're the devil. I saw all the kids
Speaker 1: that went off after their parents didn't experience anything with them.
Speaker 1: I got to decide how to raise my kid, y'all.
Speaker 1: I put a picture of me on a We might
Speaker 1: take this out before we put it on YouTube. Y'll
Speaker 1: check with me. I put a picture of me one
Speaker 1: time with the kids. We went to see God's team,
Speaker 1: the Clemson Tigers. Sorry, pal, he's got a game caught
Speaker 1: shirt on and I had on the Guns N' Roses shirt. Now,
Speaker 1: all the comments that on the picture said, uh, why
Speaker 1: wearing guns and Roses shirt? That's worldly, not as good.
Speaker 1: You're spending time with your kids like you live in
Speaker 1: a monastery. So be careful what you copy. Be careful
Speaker 1: that you don't copy the condemnation that other people put
Speaker 1: on you. And this is the last thing I'll tell you,
Speaker 1: And then I will just be quiet and I will
Speaker 1: go baptized Graham, and I'm gonna have the best time
Speaker 1: doing it. And I'm baptizing. I'm not in my name,
Speaker 1: in Jesus' name. I want you to do it like
Speaker 1: Jesus did it, because I wanted to tell you one
Speaker 1: more thing that God told Joshua. Be careful what you
Speaker 1: copy in your heart, for it will set the direction
Speaker 1: of your life. You're what he told Joshua. He said,
Speaker 1: meditate on this book of the law that Moses gave you.
Speaker 1: Don't be like Moses. You're different than Moses. But I
Speaker 1: want you to take the same word of God that
Speaker 1: was given to him. What a brilliant thought that what
Speaker 1: I copy in my heart. He said, I want you
Speaker 1: to meditate on what I spoke. Go over you so
Speaker 1: that you can lead these people where I called you
Speaker 1: to go. You see how meditation says direction. And a
Speaker 1: lot of us with what we do with different things
Speaker 1: that we've thought about ourselves, said about ourselves, agreed with
Speaker 1: about ourselves, condemnation, the enemy's putting us, we do a
Speaker 1: copy and paste. So we take something like you know
Speaker 1: that I'm unworthy. We take something like that I'm not
Speaker 1: good enough, that I'll never be that Da da da
Speaker 1: da da da, And so then I copy and paste it.
Speaker 1: I almost did an illustration where I wanted to show
Speaker 1: you what would happen to the screen if you copied
Speaker 1: and pasted that over and over again, it would fill up.
Speaker 1: I'm unworthy, I'm and you know what, apart from the
Speaker 1: grace of God, we are. But you know how they
Speaker 1: say sometimes on like on a walkie talkie, they say,
Speaker 1: copy that, copy that, copy that. What God wants you
Speaker 1: to do is start iditating on his words, not the
Speaker 1: ones that somebody else spoke, and copy it in your heart.
Speaker 1: He said, I'm going to give you a new covenant.
Speaker 1: It's a better covenant, and it's not written on tablets
Speaker 1: of stone because those break. I'm gonna put it on
Speaker 1: your heart, and I'm gonna give your heart a flesh.
Speaker 1: And i want you to take your I want you
Speaker 1: to take your Bible, and I want you to take
Speaker 1: what God has spoken over your life, and I want
Speaker 1: you to copy that. I want you to find out
Speaker 1: what he called you, what he gifted you to do,
Speaker 1: what he put the seat of potential in for you,
Speaker 1: And copy that, and don't get so caught up in
Speaker 1: trying to copy something you're not that you never find
Speaker 1: out who you are. You will have to be strong
Speaker 1: and courageous because you live in a culture that copies crazy,
Speaker 1: and it'll take faith and it'll take focus. But if
Speaker 1: God said that you are his child, copy that. Copy that,
Speaker 1: And when God speaks that I'm going to take even
Speaker 1: the mistakes that you've made in your life and I'm
Speaker 1: gonna whip them up into something that you'll be testifying
Speaker 1: about as a miracle three months from now, then copy that.
Speaker 1: I have these moments where God uses somebody to encourage me,
Speaker 1: and my first instinct is to cancel it out. Oh,
Speaker 1: they just said that because they're being nice. Oh, they're
Speaker 1: just complimenting me, because they're sucking up because I'm the boss. Oh,
Speaker 1: she just said that because she has to live with
Speaker 1: me and she doesn't want me in a bad mood.
Speaker 1: I'll cancel it instead of copying it. Then somebody says
Speaker 1: something mean about me, negative about me, or they don't
Speaker 1: even have to say it. I say it to myself,
Speaker 1: and you want to copy that. So anyway, when I
Speaker 1: baptize you in a minute, can you come up. We
Speaker 1: won't wrestle this time. Yeah, just come all the way out.
Speaker 1: Were y'all here? When I wrestled Graham? This is Graham
Speaker 1: he says funny stuff like how am I so ripped
Speaker 1: in every part of my body? Nobody else in our
Speaker 1: family is naturally muscular. That's good, you know, me said,
Speaker 1: that's so good. But when I baptize you in just
Speaker 1: a minute, maybe after the cameras are off and all that.
Speaker 1: But I almost asked Mom to get you here early today,
Speaker 1: But then I decided just to do it now because
Speaker 1: the Lord told me to end my sermon this way,
Speaker 1: because he would use it to speak to others. Someone
Speaker 1: say it to you. This Bible I started preaching from
Speaker 1: him right after you were born. I had given the
Speaker 1: big One, the Life Application when to Elijah, the one
Speaker 1: that sits by his bed, and he's actually been reading
Speaker 1: it a lot lately, so that's good. And every time
Speaker 1: I preached a passage, I highlighted it and I put
Speaker 1: what I preached, and I've been saving it for you,
Speaker 1: and I want to give it to you today. And
Speaker 1: I wrote you a letter and I told you a
Speaker 1: story and you can read that later. And I marked
Speaker 1: in it where where Jesus was baptized. Even Jesus was baptized,
Speaker 1: you know, he was setting the example, and you're not
Speaker 1: Jesus you're nothing close, and I'm not John the Baptist,
Speaker 1: but when you're going to be baptized as a symbol,
Speaker 1: it's you emulating the depth of Christ and the risen
Speaker 1: the resurrection of Christ and the washing away of your sin.
Speaker 1: It doesn't save you, but it says that you're saved
Speaker 1: and that you belong to Christ. And in the note,
Speaker 1: and I highlighted this for you, and I put it
Speaker 1: all on the letter, but just in case it helps
Speaker 1: somebody else. When Jesus is baptized, a voice from heaven said,
Speaker 1: this is my son, whom I love. With him, I
Speaker 1: am well pleased. I want you to copy that in
Speaker 1: your heart because I'm concerned that the culture is going
Speaker 1: to copy of a copy of a copy of a copy,
Speaker 1: and the devil will try to tell you all kinds
Speaker 1: of things through your life that you're not called, or
Speaker 1: you're not chosener, it's not worth it, or you're missing
Speaker 1: out by following Christ and all that that's not true.
Speaker 1: I want you to copy that because the craziest thing
Speaker 1: is God said that to Jesus before he opened any
Speaker 1: blind eyes, before he multiplied fish and loaves, before he
Speaker 1: did any of his miracles. God said, I love you,
Speaker 1: I'm pleased with you. Copy that it feels awkward. No,
Speaker 1: it's good though. When you go down in that water,
Speaker 1: I want you to know that you can dive to
Speaker 1: the hole. When you come up out of the water,
Speaker 1: you're raised to walk in the newness of life. Copy that,
Speaker 1: stand up on your feet. The scripture says in Ephesians
Speaker 1: five to one, the imitators of God as dearly loved children.
Speaker 1: When you didn't see the model of love, is hard
Speaker 1: to recreate it. When you didn't see the model of acceptance,
Speaker 1: it's hard to recreate it. But the day there is
Speaker 1: a voice from heaven speaking over YouTube, there is a
Speaker 1: better covenant. This is my child. Do you unwill please
Speaker 1: copy that? Father. I speak your word over every man
Speaker 1: and woman today, from the ones that are ten feet
Speaker 1: away from me to the ones who are thousands of
Speaker 1: miles removed. I pray that as your word comes from Heaven,
Speaker 1: like the rain that falls, like the snow that comes
Speaker 1: down and accomplishes its purpose, that your word would replenish
Speaker 1: and multiply the seed that is in our heart. Today.
Speaker 1: We thank you that you are bringing us into something
Speaker 1: better than Egypt, better than the world's customs. We thank
Speaker 1: you that you are bringing us into something better than Moses.
Speaker 1: You're better than we ever thought you could be. When
Speaker 1: your word speaks one thing and our fear speaks another,
Speaker 1: we choose to agree with what you spoke. We will
Speaker 1: copy that in the name of Jesus. I pray Amen.
Speaker 1: Thank you for joining us. Special thanks to those of
Speaker 1: you who give generously to this ministry. Is because of
Speaker 1: you that this ministry is possible. You can click the
Speaker 1: link in the description to give now, or visit Elevationchurch
Speaker 1: dot org slash podcast for more information and if you
Speaker 1: enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe. You can share it
Speaker 1: with your friends. You can click the share button, take
Speaker 1: a screenshot and share it on your social stories and
Speaker 1: tag us at Elevation Church. Thanks again for listening. God
Speaker 1: bless you.