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: Don't stop no matter so Zach hurt my voice. So
Speaker 1: you're gonna have to bring no. I'm my hen bank
Speaker 1: like bred. Nothing I can do it, ny Y, Yeah,
Speaker 1: stop for real. Come a big show, a big shout,
Speaker 1: a big shout of praise. Ah, Pray for us. We're
Speaker 1: getting happy in quarantine. Pray for us. We believe that
Speaker 1: Jesus Christ is Lord of lords. We came to crown
Speaker 1: him today. How many came to crown him? Take about
Speaker 1: twelve seconds and find the crown emoji. Just let everybody
Speaker 1: in the chat. No, this is what I came to do,
Speaker 1: to worship him, to declare the praises of him who
Speaker 1: called me out of darkness and into his marvelous light. Well,
Speaker 1: I think we've got comments from people saying that right
Speaker 1: now all over the world. In Brazil. What was the
Speaker 1: name of that I missed it? Pasit Pause it Ukraine,
Speaker 1: keep it going. This is where we speak life today.
Speaker 1: We speak life, we speak life, we speak blessing. Posit,
Speaker 1: pose it, pose it, let it roll. I don't see
Speaker 1: any Spain. I see Spain. I see pose it, posit,
Speaker 1: pos it. All right, let it run again. I see
Speaker 1: I see posit. I see Columbia, Columbia with a oh, Chris,
Speaker 1: don't get too happy. This ain't Carolina. This is you
Speaker 1: got to have your passport Columbia. Welcome all over the world.
Speaker 1: Thank you Jesus. It is release weekend. This is the
Speaker 1: This is the day that we declare the life of
Speaker 1: God to every situation. And I don't even care what
Speaker 1: it is. It might stink where you are, just like
Speaker 1: it stunk where Lazarus was. The stink doesn't scare Jesus.
Speaker 1: He is attracted to what others back away from. So
Speaker 1: I know some of you haven't had your shower yet,
Speaker 1: you didn't brush your teeth, But that's all right. God
Speaker 1: doesn't care about your bad breath. Let everything that hath breath,
Speaker 1: minty breath, fresh bread, bad bread. If you got breath,
Speaker 1: if he lets you see another day, shout aladd that's
Speaker 1: my best. That's I'm getting back to bases. I'm getting
Speaker 1: back to basics. Co the hole, tell them all, come
Speaker 1: liey co hey, come live, co author of life. We
Speaker 1: give you praise today. We returned back the breath that
Speaker 1: you gave us as a gift, and we all for it.
Speaker 1: We offer you this breath, We offer you a thought.
Speaker 1: We offer you our hearts. We don't feel like they're
Speaker 1: very worthy, but you said you wanted to live there.
Speaker 1: We don't feel like our praise is very magnificent, but
Speaker 1: you said you wanted to inhabit it. So come and
Speaker 1: do that now. God. Somebody said I'm watching church, but
Speaker 1: they were wrong. They're not watching anything when they worship
Speaker 1: You and the beauty of holiness. You set up shop,
Speaker 1: if it's in a kitchen, if it's on a futon,
Speaker 1: if it's on a porch. Trying to get some vitamin D.
Speaker 1: Thank you Jesus, I speak another vitamin D deliverance. God,
Speaker 1: would you set the captives free today? Do what only
Speaker 1: you can do. I don't know what they need, and
Speaker 1: even if I did, I don't have it to give.
Speaker 1: But you do, Lord. I pray that that would be
Speaker 1: the testimony of every person today when when we get
Speaker 1: into this word, that their spirit would agree with what
Speaker 1: is spoken, come into alignment with your purpose for our lives.
Speaker 1: I thank you for what I feel standing in an
Speaker 1: almost empty room. I feel the fullness of your presence,
Speaker 1: and right now I confer my faith to join with
Speaker 1: my brother, my sister, that they would feel your presence
Speaker 1: in that room, even if it's a hospital room, even
Speaker 1: if they're in a prison cell. God, your word can
Speaker 1: go anywhere. Your word can do anything. Nothing is impossible
Speaker 1: for you, So do the impossible, the unimaginable. We give
Speaker 1: you all that we are. We focus our hearts on you,
Speaker 1: not on the diagnosis, not on politicians or governments or
Speaker 1: bills or people who get on our nerves. We came
Speaker 1: to worship you, and we honor your presence in Jesus' name.
Speaker 1: And everybody in the chat, come on, y'all, break the chat.
Speaker 1: Say amen, Say amen in all caps. I wonder can
Speaker 1: we break YouTube today? I want to? I want to
Speaker 1: see how if we can shut down YouTube today. I
Speaker 1: want to get who owns YouTube? I want to? I
Speaker 1: want huh. I want to get Google out their bed
Speaker 1: to see what happened to our YouTube today? Oh no,
Speaker 1: they're having church. They can't contain us, you know, they
Speaker 1: never could. They can't lock us down or lock us out.
Speaker 1: So here we are here, You are here, I am.
Speaker 1: What's up? How you do? And take another bite of
Speaker 1: your bagel and get ready for the Word of God.
Speaker 1: How many are grateful that he turns graves into garters?
Speaker 1: What else does he do? He turns mourning to dance
Speaker 1: in what you say that you can cry a tear
Speaker 1: but still have a testimony. Absolutely, my tears are my testimony.
Speaker 1: He wept with me. He is the god who sees
Speaker 1: and knows. Y'all need to sit down, feel I feel
Speaker 1: so spontaneous. If y'all don't get a stool, we're never
Speaker 1: gonna get to the word. Welcome to week three of
Speaker 1: a series called Looking Forward to Normal, And I feel
Speaker 1: this one in my bones. I'm already sweating right through
Speaker 1: my limited edition exclusive Graves into Gardens jacket. Don't even
Speaker 1: ask where you can buy it. It is not for sale.
Speaker 1: This is special, This is the pastoral edition, This is
Speaker 1: the founder's right, and we do just want to make
Speaker 1: sure that you're listening to these songs. You know, one
Speaker 1: of the things that I'm gonna speak about today and
Speaker 1: just a moment, go ahead and grab your Bible if
Speaker 1: you have one around, and this would be a good
Speaker 1: time to get one with pages from trees because it'll
Speaker 1: help you focus, and that's going to be important for
Speaker 1: my message today. You'll see. Really, that's what we're talking
Speaker 1: about is focus, looking forward to normal, and what you
Speaker 1: focus on right now determines whether you will go forward
Speaker 1: or whether you're just going to repeat the same old
Speaker 1: dead routines, repeat the same old disgusting stuff. God is
Speaker 1: helping you keep your New Year's resolutions right now because
Speaker 1: you were so busy and distracted. So he said, well, here,
Speaker 1: I'll help you out real quick. What if I just
Speaker 1: unplug all of the other stuff and then we can
Speaker 1: get some things right. And you know, I was praying that,
Speaker 1: like God, what is it that is good that you
Speaker 1: want to do in this situation, because I'm just being honest.
Speaker 1: It made me cry last night to watch our videos,
Speaker 1: which you can go see right now on YouTube shame
Speaker 1: Less plug. Oh yeah, I plug stuff. I believe in.
Speaker 1: I plug stuff with a purpose. Somebody put it in
Speaker 1: the chat, plug it with a purpose, pastor plug it
Speaker 1: with a purpose, pastor touch seventeen people and you know,
Speaker 1: I was watching those videos from the night that we
Speaker 1: recorded Graves into gardens and we sang my test simony
Speaker 1: and available. It's my prayer that my life would be
Speaker 1: an offering. And the spirit of God just swept through
Speaker 1: this room. And you know, our church has twenty physical
Speaker 1: locations and watch parties Danny all around the world, not
Speaker 1: just in Charlotte, but all over the world. Our family
Speaker 1: spans the globe. And it made me so sad to
Speaker 1: think about not being able to beat together and sing rattle.
Speaker 1: I felt like Billy Corgan said, I'm a rat in
Speaker 1: a cage. You know, despite all my praise, I am
Speaker 1: still just a rat in a cage something like that.
Speaker 1: And I just felt like, God, let the people come.
Speaker 1: Why can't they all be together? You know, this is
Speaker 1: our family. I really do love being with my church.
Speaker 1: And yet I found out that a lot of times
Speaker 1: when God doesn't let you out of a certain situation,
Speaker 1: when you want to come out, there's something that He
Speaker 1: wants to bring in to you that can never be
Speaker 1: taken away. So I started praying, maybe this seven weeks,
Speaker 1: eight weeks, nine weeks, ten weeks, however long it goes,
Speaker 1: that we're meeting like this and just finding a way
Speaker 1: to have church. Even if we can't hug each other,
Speaker 1: all we can do is put hearts on a chat
Speaker 1: on a screen or something like that. Maybe God is
Speaker 1: showing us that his presence is not limited to a
Speaker 1: physical location. And maybe the same way we're having church
Speaker 1: in our homes right now, we won't just have on Sunday.
Speaker 1: But maybe this is going to be a training ground
Speaker 1: for us to learn how to just have church anywhere
Speaker 1: we are. God is where you are. Yeah, you don't
Speaker 1: go to a place where God is. How stupid is
Speaker 1: that he's omnipresent? You think God's like keeping a desk
Speaker 1: somewhere in a corner office, like an old college professor
Speaker 1: on Sundays, come by, you know, like God's an old
Speaker 1: man in a nurse and home. I wish you'd come
Speaker 1: see me more. No, God is energy. God is spirit.
Speaker 1: God is a molecular structure that feels all in all.
Speaker 1: That's what it means to say that Christ was from
Speaker 1: the beginning. So since he's eternal and he's not bound
Speaker 1: by time or by location, since he can move with
Speaker 1: the cloud or move with the fire. Since God is
Speaker 1: always moving, that means he can visit and inhabit anywhere
Speaker 1: that we choose to give him praise. Thank you Jesus.
Speaker 1: I haven't read my scripture yet, So now what we
Speaker 1: want to do in this third week? And I don't
Speaker 1: think this will be the final week. I really don't
Speaker 1: think we're going to leave this teaching for a long
Speaker 1: time looking forward to know normal? What if normal is
Speaker 1: not back there? What if normal isn't stressed out, you know,
Speaker 1: like you were three months ago, like you have been
Speaker 1: for the last three years. What if normal is something
Speaker 1: you've never known? What if there is a joy unspeakable
Speaker 1: and full of glory in the Holy Ghost? What if
Speaker 1: people of faith aren't weird? What if we're the ones
Speaker 1: who got it. Right time I turn on the news,
Speaker 1: they're talking about how an invisible virus is shutting down
Speaker 1: the visible world and everything we can see is affected
Speaker 1: by something we can't see. Well, that's what the scripture
Speaker 1: has been saying all along, right, Faith is the substance
Speaker 1: of things hoped for and the evidence of things not see.
Speaker 1: I don't see it, but I believe it. I can't
Speaker 1: point to it, but I know it on the inside.
Speaker 1: And so this is an excellent time go to Philippians
Speaker 1: Chapter one, to pull out some of these scriptures that
Speaker 1: help us to see that the kingdoms of this world
Speaker 1: are meant to shatter. Excuse me, I can't multitask. I
Speaker 1: was trying to turn and talk at the same time.
Speaker 1: The kingdoms of this world and the kingdoms of our
Speaker 1: God do not have much in common. What Romans twelve
Speaker 1: called the patterns of this world the way that we
Speaker 1: get used to doing things. How if somebody offends us,
Speaker 1: we offend back, and then we get offended. Oh I
Speaker 1: got offended. Well that was a dumb thing to do.
Speaker 1: Why would you get that? But they offended me? No, no, No,
Speaker 1: offense is an event. Offended is a decision, So why
Speaker 1: would I make a decision? These are the ways of
Speaker 1: the world. If you offend me, I'm going to be offended.
Speaker 1: The Kingdom of God, the renewing of our mind, says
Speaker 1: you can bring me an offense. One time I preached
Speaker 1: the message where I built a fence on the stage
Speaker 1: and I said, you can either drive it into the
Speaker 1: ground and create separation, or you can drop it. And
Speaker 1: that's really weird to the world until you realize that
Speaker 1: God's ways actually work. Who would have thought he actually
Speaker 1: knew what he was doing when he made you. And
Speaker 1: if you made you a little weird, if he wired
Speaker 1: you a little differently, if you're wired a little different.
Speaker 1: I was telling them. We came out and had church
Speaker 1: before church, and I almost spilled my starbucks all over
Speaker 1: the stage, broke a stool. We were singing rattle, and
Speaker 1: I told him everybody is telling me that the song
Speaker 1: the Blessing makes them cry, and I was like, I
Speaker 1: guess I'm weird because rattle makes me cry. I don't know,
Speaker 1: Mom dropped me? When did you drop me? Because something
Speaker 1: got wired wrong in my head. You're not supposed to
Speaker 1: cry singing open the grave I'm coming out, but I do.
Speaker 1: I cried when we were riding it, and I cry
Speaker 1: when I hear it. And so somebody put in the
Speaker 1: chat I'm wonderfully weird, And don't look at the person
Speaker 1: next to you and say you sure are. If you're
Speaker 1: sitting on the couch with somebody, I don't want any
Speaker 1: strife in the home. But look at this. Paul was weird.
Speaker 1: And what was weird about Paul? He wrote Philippians. What
Speaker 1: was weird about Paul was that he had this ability
Speaker 1: to come unicate uncertainty and confidence in the same breath,
Speaker 1: in the same letter. And that was what was weird,
Speaker 1: because he would say something and he would sound so courageous,
Speaker 1: and then he would say something else about how his
Speaker 1: situation was so unstable. And I want to show you
Speaker 1: a passage that I really love. If I were your waiter,
Speaker 1: I would tell you that this message pairs well with
Speaker 1: a message that I've preached a while back, called choosing
Speaker 1: your change, and it's available for you right now. But
Speaker 1: as I'm finding lately, these messages and these passages are
Speaker 1: taking on a new relevance to me. That's what the
Speaker 1: Word of God is. Alive and active, That's what it means.
Speaker 1: It means like as your life changes, God's word doesn't change,
Speaker 1: but your perspective does. So you have the ability to
Speaker 1: look at a situation that you used to say, man,
Speaker 1: that was unfair. Three years later you're like, I am
Speaker 1: so glad that they'd and keep me around. You look
Speaker 1: at a situation on one hand and go, that was
Speaker 1: the worst week of my life. You look at it
Speaker 1: a few months ago, you go, I learned a lesson
Speaker 1: from that. Oh, I wouldn't trade that lesson for anything.
Speaker 1: And so today, let me give you just one verse
Speaker 1: to start with. I want to read a lot of verses,
Speaker 1: so clear your calendar, Okay, check, and now listen to
Speaker 1: this one verse. And there's really something about it that
Speaker 1: took me by surprise. In Philippius, Chapter one, verse twenty two,
Speaker 1: Paul says, if I am to go on living, if
Speaker 1: I thought no weapon formed against you will prosper Isaiah
Speaker 1: fifty four to seventeen. Paul, didn't you read Isaiah fifty
Speaker 1: four or seventeen? Paul's like, yeah, man, me and Isaiah
Speaker 1: are peers. We both were both writing the Bible. He
Speaker 1: just wrote it a few centuries ago. But yet he
Speaker 1: is introducing now y'all listen. You got to listen with
Speaker 1: your spiritual ears. Because you're physical ear. Drums are blown
Speaker 1: out because we were we were just rocking up here.
Speaker 1: But listen with your spirit he said, if I am
Speaker 1: to go on living, I don't know how this will
Speaker 1: turn out. How many feel that way about something in
Speaker 1: your life right now? I don't know how this is
Speaker 1: going to turn out. It is inconclusive. The ruling on
Speaker 1: the field is under review. They put me in this
Speaker 1: prison for preaching the gospel I didn't sell dope, I
Speaker 1: didn't hurt anyone. I was just trying to help. And
Speaker 1: here I am imprisoned. I believe Paul was under house
Speaker 1: arrest in Rome. That's kind of where his ministry concludes
Speaker 1: in Acts Chapter twenty eight. There is debate about which
Speaker 1: imprisonment that Paul was facing when he wrote this letter
Speaker 1: to the Philippians. But one thing we know is that
Speaker 1: he was in prison, and the other thing we know
Speaker 1: is that he saw a purpose in it. So since
Speaker 1: Paul has this perspective to offer us today, let's ask
Speaker 1: him about what is important to him as he sits
Speaker 1: in a prison cell, and maybe we need to make
Speaker 1: it applicable to us. Okay, we're most of us. We're
Speaker 1: not exactly locked up, but we're locked down right now.
Speaker 1: And I don't even mean whether or not you can
Speaker 1: go get your nails done, or you know, whether or
Speaker 1: not you're allowed to visit your barber, or whether or
Speaker 1: not you're going into the grocery store without wearing a
Speaker 1: beekeeper suit. I'm talking about. I'm talking about the fact
Speaker 1: that most of us are are trapped inside of what
Speaker 1: we don't yet know in this transition. And so since
Speaker 1: Paul is awaiting whether or not they're going to kill
Speaker 1: him for preaching Christ or let him live. I want
Speaker 1: to hear what this preacher has to say. Somebody say,
Speaker 1: preach it, Paul. It doesn't get any better than this.
Speaker 1: The apostle Paul is the guest preacher at Elevation Church
Speaker 1: this weekend. So he says, if I am to go
Speaker 1: on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor
Speaker 1: for me. Yet what shall I choose? I do not No. Wow,
Speaker 1: he doesn't say that much. Did you hear what Paul said?
Speaker 1: You better underline this because you're not going to hear
Speaker 1: him say it much much more. He doesn't say this
Speaker 1: many times he said, I do not know, and I
Speaker 1: wish somebody was honest enough to put it in the chat.
Speaker 1: I do not. No. You think the four words that
Speaker 1: express the greatest faith are God will come through. No,
Speaker 1: that's not it. You think the four greatest words of
Speaker 1: FAI are he can do anything that's for right, for
Speaker 1: he can give you. You think the four greatest words
Speaker 1: of faith are you know, I trust in God. But
Speaker 1: sometimes all of those are fine. By the way, Sometimes
Speaker 1: the greatest statement of faith you can make is when
Speaker 1: Paul said, I'm waiting on a verdict. I'm in this
Speaker 1: quarantine prison, I'm in this I'm in this situation, and
Speaker 1: it's uncertain what will happen. And the church at Philippi
Speaker 1: remembered they love Paul. They love Paul way more than
Speaker 1: Elevation church loves me because Paul was a better pastor,
Speaker 1: and and they love him so much. He started the
Speaker 1: church at Philippi, and now they're having to to make
Speaker 1: it without his physical presence. Yes, they're having to make
Speaker 1: it without the person who taught them the gospel. They
Speaker 1: can't be together. And so he's backing up to tell them,
Speaker 1: let me give you a report on how I'm doing,
Speaker 1: you know with me. Let me give you a report
Speaker 1: on how things are going in the prison Philippians, Chapter one,
Speaker 1: verse twelve. Remember he started the church at Philipi. But
Speaker 1: now things have taken a turn for the worst. And
Speaker 1: it's uncertain. Somebody, it's uncertain in your life right now.
Speaker 1: It's uncertain about when certain things are going to kick
Speaker 1: back in. It's uncertain about whether or not you're gonna
Speaker 1: be able to meet this need. It's uncertain about whether
Speaker 1: or not life is going to get back to normal, y'all.
Speaker 1: I don't know if we'll ever hug people again who
Speaker 1: don't have our last name. I'm hoping kind of not.
Speaker 1: I don't like the hug anymore. But I don't know.
Speaker 1: And that's what Paul says. But listen. The way that
Speaker 1: he models for us confidence in the face of uncertainty
Speaker 1: is a lesson that I think can change your life.
Speaker 1: The title of this lesson is called focus on the fruit.
Speaker 1: You ready, focus on the fruit. And since the message
Speaker 1: starts with focus, if you need to close the chat
Speaker 1: to listen to me, do it. If you need to
Speaker 1: give your kids a shot of niquill early in the
Speaker 1: morning to listen to me, listen to me. Focus on
Speaker 1: the fruit. All over the world, the gospel is bearing
Speaker 1: fruit right now as I speak. The Word of God
Speaker 1: does not return void, No, it never does. It accomplishes
Speaker 1: what He sends it to do. But you've got to
Speaker 1: focus on the fruit. Focus on the fruit. There's no
Speaker 1: title coming up behind me on screen. You are the
Speaker 1: production team today. Put right there in the chat. If
Speaker 1: you haven't closed it, put focus on the fruit. That's
Speaker 1: the word of the Lord today. God. I'm excited about
Speaker 1: it because Paul starts with telling the church at Philippi
Speaker 1: about the events that have transpired since he last saw them. Now,
Speaker 1: remember Paul wasn't able to post this on Facebook, so
Speaker 1: it's going to take a while for them to get
Speaker 1: the correspondence through something that's way slower than the United
Speaker 1: States Postal Service. Paul has to get them this message
Speaker 1: and they have to wait to receive it. The man
Speaker 1: of God is trying to give him a message, but
Speaker 1: they have to wait to receive it. The Man of
Speaker 1: God is trying to give him a message, but they
Speaker 1: have to wait to receive it. While you're waiting, learn
Speaker 1: to worship. It is the worship that you offer God
Speaker 1: while you are waiting that will prepare your heart for
Speaker 1: the word. That's what tills the soil. When I offer
Speaker 1: God praise in my heart while I'm waiting, That's what
Speaker 1: makes me ready and receptive for what he speaks. So
Speaker 1: some of us are so anxious for God to do something,
Speaker 1: but often in those seasons of transition, he's tilling the ground.
Speaker 1: Who is this for? He breaks up our heart and
Speaker 1: heart in waiting seasons as we praise Him by faith
Speaker 1: and Philippians Chapter one, verse twelve, Thank you Jesus says, now,
Speaker 1: I want you to know brothers and sisters. I want
Speaker 1: you to what No, I want you to know brothers
Speaker 1: and sisters, that what has happened to me has actually
Speaker 1: somebody say actually, like you're arguing, say actually what had
Speaker 1: happened was actually what's going on. So there's certain things
Speaker 1: that are a parent. But what if what is a
Speaker 1: parent isn't what is actual? You see what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: I just want to read the Bible slow because I've
Speaker 1: got nothing else to do. He said, Actually, this is
Speaker 1: what's actually happening. Physically speaking, what's happening is I mean
Speaker 1: chains locked up or on house arrest. Physically speaking, I'm
Speaker 1: not able to preach outside of these walls. Physically speaking,
Speaker 1: I'm quarantined. Physically speaking, some things are going on right
Speaker 1: now in my bank account. But actually it has served
Speaker 1: to advance the gospel. If you are a note taking nerd,
Speaker 1: write down that the word advance means to make headway
Speaker 1: despite severe blows. This is the kind of progress that
Speaker 1: isn't pretty. This is like me doing squats. I'm not
Speaker 1: doing it so my face can look pretty. I'm doing
Speaker 1: it so my muscles can grow. So this may not
Speaker 1: be the prettiest part of my life, but by faith,
Speaker 1: I believe it's going to be the most productive. The
Speaker 1: most productive parts of your life will not be the prettiest.
Speaker 1: The greatest miracles in your life will come in the
Speaker 1: middle of the biggest mess. Am I anointed? Or did
Speaker 1: I take too much? CAF mean? He said, actually, what happened?
Speaker 1: And he doesn't go into this long, long, long, long
Speaker 1: list of events, Holly, he doesn't go into like a
Speaker 1: long list of events. Some of us are more verbose
Speaker 1: than others. Like when Holly tells me what happened in
Speaker 1: her day, it takes her more word counts because she's
Speaker 1: she's smarter to get it done. She's like, she's like paragraphs,
Speaker 1: and I'm like sentences. And Paul Paul doesn't even give
Speaker 1: them a sentence. On his condition in prison, food sucks,
Speaker 1: y'all pray for me. It's loud here. He doesn't. He
Speaker 1: doesn't give him a single sentence. I wonder why. I wonder,
Speaker 1: by this point in his life, does he have his
Speaker 1: priority straight to know that what is happening in me
Speaker 1: is always more important than what's happening to me. I
Speaker 1: wonder do I have it straight. Not really not yet.
Speaker 1: I'm still conformed to the pattern of this world. I'm
Speaker 1: still acted upon by external events. You know, if I
Speaker 1: feel it, I believe it. Well, Paul's past that. Paul's like, Look,
Speaker 1: I can sit here and tell you all about prison
Speaker 1: blah blah blah. I've been here so many times before.
Speaker 1: It's not even me worth wasting the papyrus that I
Speaker 1: would write it on. I only got so much scroll,
Speaker 1: and I don't want to take up the time telling
Speaker 1: you how bad my day was. I don't want to
Speaker 1: spend so much time just thinking about and talking about
Speaker 1: and guessing about all this stuff that I can't control.
Speaker 1: So what I want to focus on instead is the
Speaker 1: fruit and what has happened to me get this. Beneath
Speaker 1: the surface, God is growing something greater than our minds
Speaker 1: can imagine. Something's happening in the soil. Something is happening
Speaker 1: in the soil. Something is taking root in your heart
Speaker 1: right now, in this season of my life, God is
Speaker 1: giving me a root system. In this season of my life.
Speaker 1: God is teaching me to focus. In this season of
Speaker 1: my life, remember, I'm looking forward to normal. God is
Speaker 1: pruning some stuff out of my life right now to
Speaker 1: make me ready for what's next. Can I get one
Speaker 1: witness in this room that God is rooting me, establishing
Speaker 1: me so that I can bear more fruit. Well, we
Speaker 1: like the fruit, right, but the roots kind of boring,
Speaker 1: kind of not too sexy, kind of ugly when you
Speaker 1: get down to it. You ever put roots in a
Speaker 1: vase and handed them to somebody for Valentine's Day? Now, one,
Speaker 1: what's on the other side? We all want what's on
Speaker 1: the other side, on the other side of the Red Sea.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna give you praise Lord God. When we get
Speaker 1: back to church. I saw y'all on Instagram. I've been
Speaker 1: going through your Instagram post everybody that tagged me or
Speaker 1: Elevation Worship singing a song. I scrolled through them. Ask Abby,
Speaker 1: ask Graham. We spent three hours last night just scrolling
Speaker 1: through y'all. Some of y'all couldn't sing on key, but
Speaker 1: we still enjoyed seeing you sing these songs. I saw
Speaker 1: so many people say when we get back to church,
Speaker 1: oh man, watch out, well, why wait? Why wait? I
Speaker 1: thought you were church. I thought the Holy Spirit lived
Speaker 1: in you. Jordan, if you were at Riverwalk, you'd be
Speaker 1: standing up shouting me down. Why you need a crowd
Speaker 1: to shout me down? I thought the spirit of God
Speaker 1: lived in you. So now look, we love to shout
Speaker 1: over fruit, but fruit without root doesn't last long. I
Speaker 1: want something sustainable in my life. I want not only
Speaker 1: the blessing of God, but I want him to build
Speaker 1: me up so that I can bear up under it.
Speaker 1: I want to yield my fruit in season in season,
Speaker 1: in season in season. There is a time for everything,
Speaker 1: Solomon said, there is a season to mourn. So if
Speaker 1: you're mourning right now, that's the root. But you will
Speaker 1: rejoice in the morning, that's the fruit. And I'm not
Speaker 1: focused on what I'm going through. I'm focused on what
Speaker 1: God is doing through and focus on the fruit. Focus
Speaker 1: on the fruit, Focus on the fruit. How was your week? Well,
Speaker 1: it depends what part about it do you want to know?
Speaker 1: When I almost strangled my kids or when I hugged them.
Speaker 1: I did both, the part where I was walking around
Speaker 1: the house cussing under my breath or the part where
Speaker 1: I was singing Man. Because from the same mouth the
Speaker 1: fruit of lips that profess his name and the fruit
Speaker 1: that will tell you other stuff too. So listen out
Speaker 1: of this this great season of uncertainty, somebody put put
Speaker 1: again in the chat, I do not know you are
Speaker 1: allowed to say that. I don't know what makes people
Speaker 1: think that preachers know stuff that we don't know. People
Speaker 1: will ask me the weirdest stuff. If a cat dies
Speaker 1: in the middle of the night and the owner went
Speaker 1: to church the day before it, would it get to
Speaker 1: heaven or does it have to pray? I don't know
Speaker 1: about your cat. In the Book of Revelations, where it
Speaker 1: talks about the horse and the Da Da Da and
Speaker 1: the heavens and the earth and decide, I said, I
Speaker 1: didn't break open the scroll. The lamb did that. I didn't.
Speaker 1: I'm not the lamb. I'm a dumb sheep like you.
Speaker 1: You you e w eu insdeed y'all wake up. We
Speaker 1: don't have law. And so knowing that I don't know
Speaker 1: what a powerful what a powerful concept. Knowing that you
Speaker 1: don't know makes you open to wisdom. Knowing that you
Speaker 1: don't know. I talked to Craig Grochelle yesterday about when
Speaker 1: church is going to open, and this and that and
Speaker 1: the other, and all the states are different, and I
Speaker 1: don't know if our governor is ever going to let
Speaker 1: us out the house again or not. But certain states
Speaker 1: in the United States of America open up. Certain nations
Speaker 1: are more open than others, and we're all on different
Speaker 1: ways dealing with coronavirus. If you're watching this in a
Speaker 1: time capsule. In twenty thirty two, things were weird. This
Speaker 1: was not like elevation. Church had a bad growth season.
Speaker 1: We weren't allowed to come okay, But I was like,
Speaker 1: what do you think, man? Another month, another six months,
Speaker 1: another twelve months where we go to church and come
Speaker 1: back to D D D D. And we went back
Speaker 1: and forth, just talking, just burning up our data plan,
Speaker 1: talking to each other. And finally I said, do you
Speaker 1: know what the most small ardest thing that we've said,
Speaker 1: the most smartest thing we said on this whole call
Speaker 1: was when you said, three minutes ago, I don't know,
Speaker 1: that's the smartest thing either of us have said. And
Speaker 1: so here's what's really cool about right now. We are
Speaker 1: all idiots at the same time. We are all equally
Speaker 1: ignorant of what comes next. Nobody's got a crystal ball.
Speaker 1: I know your uncle's cousin's friend worked for the Pentagon.
Speaker 1: Shut up hearing from everybody. When my dad went to
Speaker 1: college with doctor fouche, shut up. Nobody knows. Paul didn't know.
Speaker 1: Nobody knows. Are my kids ever going to have a
Speaker 1: real teacher again? Nobody knows. Then they might send them
Speaker 1: to school, and they might send them back right, Nobody
Speaker 1: knows when is the Nobody knows, Nobody, nobody, nobody, nobody.
Speaker 1: All the depths of the wisdom of the riches and
Speaker 1: knowledge of God, how insearchable is passed beyond tracing out
Speaker 1: who has known the mind of the Lord, and who
Speaker 1: has been as counselor. This is Romans eleven, right before
Speaker 1: Romans twelve, where it says, be transformed by the renewing
Speaker 1: of your mind. He says, Oh, the depths of the
Speaker 1: wisdom of the riches and knowledge of God, how unsearchable
Speaker 1: his pathways? Beyond tracing out? Who has known the mind
Speaker 1: of the Lord? Who knows not me, not me, not
Speaker 1: you not Paul. Paul always had an answer. You know,
Speaker 1: he was one man said he was seldom he was.
Speaker 1: He was often wrong, but seldom in doubt. Do you
Speaker 1: know anybody like that? That was Paul. Paul always knew
Speaker 1: And look you can to see him. He starts this passage,
Speaker 1: he says, I want you to know brothers and sisters
Speaker 1: verse twelve, and then by the time he gets to
Speaker 1: verse twenty two, he says, I do not know, So
Speaker 1: how are we supposed to know if you don't even know? Right?
Speaker 1: I love this because the truth is in the tension
Speaker 1: hermeneutical principle one oh one. The truth is in the tension.
Speaker 1: So the presence of faith does not eliminate uncertainty. In fact,
Speaker 1: it operates by uncertainty. Can I preach like I? Like
Speaker 1: I saw it in the text? He said, I want
Speaker 1: you to know that the Gospel is going forward. That's
Speaker 1: the important thing, And as a result, it has become
Speaker 1: clear verse thirteen throughout the whole palace. Guard Wait a minute,
Speaker 1: Wait a minute. He's talking about clarity, but he's still
Speaker 1: not defining the outcome. His clarity is not about the outcome.
Speaker 1: His clarity is about God's presence in the process. What
Speaker 1: a word. I'm focused on what God is doing in
Speaker 1: me right now. I can't control what politicians do. I
Speaker 1: can't control how long this prison sentence is. There is
Speaker 1: something outside of my control. But this is what I
Speaker 1: told Elijah in the Pound the other day. Graham, I'm
Speaker 1: giving him life lessons, and I think this has to
Speaker 1: be number one. Just if you strip it all away,
Speaker 1: and I don't even need a Bible verse for this,
Speaker 1: but if you strip it all away, this is what
Speaker 1: I taught him. The only thing you can really control
Speaker 1: is your focus. What you're gonna do, make it sonny,
Speaker 1: what you're gonna do, make it rainy, what you're gonna do,
Speaker 1: make people nicer, You're gonna make people stop being crazy.
Speaker 1: What are you gonna do. You're gonna do. You're gonna
Speaker 1: pray away the virus. Look, man, I'm praying just as
Speaker 1: hard as anybody for stuff that I can't control. That's
Speaker 1: all I can do. But what I can control is
Speaker 1: my focus. I can control my focus. Not me pastro feurdics, feuritic.
Speaker 1: I can't control my focus. I'm a ADHD. I'm not.
Speaker 1: I am not talking about physical focus. I'm talking about
Speaker 1: emotional focus. I'm talking about spiritual focus. I'm talking about
Speaker 1: focusing your priorities. Now. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace,
Speaker 1: patient's kindnes, goodness, faithuless gentlemen, and self control. Galatians five,
Speaker 1: twenty two, twenty three. Cross reference for your Bible study.
Speaker 1: The fruit of the Spirit is joy. The fruit of
Speaker 1: the spirit is joy, but the root of the spirit
Speaker 1: is priorities. What you are planted in what matters to me.
Speaker 1: This is Paul's message. He's writing back to the church
Speaker 1: that he founded in Philippi. He led that purple cloth
Speaker 1: dealer Lydia to the Lord, and the city was never
Speaker 1: the same. He got locked up with Silas in prison
Speaker 1: in Philippi for preaching the gospel. Remember that story. Most
Speaker 1: people don't know that he is writing a letter to
Speaker 1: the same people who only have a church in their
Speaker 1: city because Paul was thrown in prison. Did you hear me?
Speaker 1: The only reason there is a book of Philippians is
Speaker 1: because Paul was thrown in prison. The only reason that
Speaker 1: he writes, I can do all things through Christ who
Speaker 1: strengthens me Philippians four thirteen. Mountain was able to do. Wait, No,
Speaker 1: that's Ephesians three twenty Philippians four nineteen able to do
Speaker 1: And that's Ephesians three twenty two. What's the one in
Speaker 1: Philippians four nineteen, No, No. Four thirteen is I can
Speaker 1: do all things? Philippians for nineteen nineteen nineteen, I want,
Speaker 1: I want for nineteen I know what that through your
Speaker 1: prayers and God's provision. No Verse nineteen says, my God
Speaker 1: will supply all your needs. But yet Paul is saying,
Speaker 1: I don't know how this ends. But yeah, he's saying,
Speaker 1: my God will supply all my needs. But I don't
Speaker 1: need to know how it ends. To know that I'm
Speaker 1: going to see the glory of God in the middle
Speaker 1: of it, some things I don't need to know. I
Speaker 1: don't need to know. That is why I am encouraging
Speaker 1: you to limit your intake of the news. You do
Speaker 1: not need to know everything up to the minute. Amen.
Speaker 1: You do not need to know the things that you
Speaker 1: cannot directly affect. You do not need to know all
Speaker 1: the detail to take your next step. Just ask Abraham.
Speaker 1: You do not have to know the ten year plan
Speaker 1: for your life to give God your best today. You
Speaker 1: do not have to know how long until there is
Speaker 1: a vaccine for a virus. To praise God and worship
Speaker 1: God for the life that he has given you in
Speaker 1: this moment and releasing my need to know is the
Speaker 1: hardest thing because I thought that information was the key.
Speaker 1: But yet Paul says, there is a confidence that goes
Speaker 1: beneath knowledge. Let me sit back down because I got
Speaker 1: more to say about this. In fact, I haven't even
Speaker 1: started my sermon yet, Paul said, because of my chains,
Speaker 1: most of the brothers and sisters verse fourteen have become
Speaker 1: confident in the Lord and dare all the more. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna praise him all the more. Oh, thank you Devil
Speaker 1: for challenging my fate. It's gonna make me more grateful.
Speaker 1: Thank you Lord for pruning my branches. It's only gonna
Speaker 1: make me more fruitful. More fruit, more fruit, more fruit,
Speaker 1: more fruit. I don't know who it's for, but you're
Speaker 1: gonna have more fruit, even if you got a little
Speaker 1: less money. Right now, I'm gonna bear more fruit. Somebody
Speaker 1: say more fruit, Come on, bring LB back next week.
Speaker 1: I need some help out here. More fruit, more fruit,
Speaker 1: more fruit in the chat, more fruit. Say it out
Speaker 1: of your mouth, more fruit. Because my roots are going deeper.
Speaker 1: Because I'm humble and I'm open, and where I am
Speaker 1: not a closed system, God can sow the seed of
Speaker 1: his word and bring forth something that my mind could
Speaker 1: never conceive. Now it is true verse fifteen that some
Speaker 1: preach Christ out of envy and rivalry, but others out
Speaker 1: of goodwill. The latter do so out of love. This
Speaker 1: is all the stuff Paul can't control. He's like, yeah,
Speaker 1: some people are talking about me. Yeah, there's some idiots
Speaker 1: out here. Yeah I got trolls too. Yeah. I just
Speaker 1: block them and move on. Isn't it crazy how you
Speaker 1: just focus on the one thing that's against you. Do
Speaker 1: you do this too, or okay, pray for me? This
Speaker 1: is what I do. I focus. I have a thousand
Speaker 1: people say something nice to me, one person say something nasty,
Speaker 1: and I will. I will snuggle up to nasty. What
Speaker 1: am I doing? I'm being immateure that's immature. It means
Speaker 1: I'm not rooted enough yet in love to know that
Speaker 1: God is for me, who can be against me? Paul
Speaker 1: knew that. He knew that. He actually wrote that if
Speaker 1: God is for me, who could be against me? So
Speaker 1: he knew it. He wrote it. He said it came
Speaker 1: from within him. He knew it because it came from within.
Speaker 1: I almost called this message. She hates when I do this,
Speaker 1: She says, just give it one title, don't give it
Speaker 1: the alternate titles. But here's the alternate title for this message.
Speaker 1: Prison sentence, Prison sentence, because we hang up Philippians four
Speaker 1: thirteen in a weight room. I can do all things
Speaker 1: through Christ, who strengthens me. Paul wrote that sentence in
Speaker 1: a prison prison sentence. I wanted to know what's gonna
Speaker 1: come forth out of your life in this season of frustration.
Speaker 1: Prison sentence. I could do a whole series on prison sentences.
Speaker 1: It has a double meaning. I don't know how long
Speaker 1: I'm gonna be here, but I'm gonna bear some fruit
Speaker 1: while I do. I am like a tree planted by
Speaker 1: the streams of water. I don't know how long, but
Speaker 1: I know how high, how wide, how deep, how unsearchable
Speaker 1: is the love of Christ. I know that it is
Speaker 1: beyond my comprehension. I do not know, but I know
Speaker 1: there's more fruit, more favor, more faith. So he said,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna ignore what I can't control. I'm going to
Speaker 1: ignore what I can't control. Yeah, but Paul, don't you
Speaker 1: need to be informed. You think you get informed by
Speaker 1: watching the news. You think you get informed by receiving
Speaker 1: fragmented information. No, no, no, Paul said, focus on the fruit,
Speaker 1: the fruit. You will know the tree by its fruit.
Speaker 1: We should step all the way back real quick before
Speaker 1: we get to this really good part of the passage.
Speaker 1: I still haven't gotten to the good part. Man. I
Speaker 1: just feel like I know something that you don't know yet,
Speaker 1: and I can't wait to show you. But I know
Speaker 1: that you don't know yet. It's so good. It's so good,
Speaker 1: it's so good. But for now, let's go back a
Speaker 1: couple thousand years, real quick, let's go back to normal. Okay,
Speaker 1: everybody wants to get back to normal. Let's get back
Speaker 1: to normal for a minute. Adam and Eve are naked
Speaker 1: in a garden and they can eat anything they want
Speaker 1: and they don't have to uber eat, to do or
Speaker 1: dash it. It's just there, and that was normal. It
Speaker 1: was normal. Some of us are so used to scarcity
Speaker 1: that abundance doesn't even feel normal to us, and when
Speaker 1: God brings it, we reject it because we've never known
Speaker 1: it before. Deeper, God will send someone to love us,
Speaker 1: but if they love us too much, we will push
Speaker 1: them away because we are not used to receiving fully,
Speaker 1: and so we do what Adam and Eve did. Do
Speaker 1: you remember what they called the Tree of the Remember Abby,
Speaker 1: the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, of
Speaker 1: the knowledge of the knowledge. And do you remember what
Speaker 1: the snake told Eve? He said, you eat it, you'll
Speaker 1: be like God knowing the difference between good and evil. Y'all.
Speaker 1: They didn't get in trouble because God didn't like apples.
Speaker 1: They got in trouble because they lost focus of all
Speaker 1: the things God had given them to eat, of all
Speaker 1: the choices that God has given us. Like we have
Speaker 1: a choice, how we spend this time? You made a
Speaker 1: good one today. You know all the crap you could
Speaker 1: be watching on YouTube and you're in church. Give yourself
Speaker 1: a clap hand emoji, just just right now, just to
Speaker 1: thank God. I made a good choice today, a quality
Speaker 1: choice today. I'm gonna plant myself by streams of water
Speaker 1: this week, not by stagnant cons of misinformation and speculation.
Speaker 1: So I'm gonna plant myself today. I'm getting my roots right.
Speaker 1: That's what Holly said to me. She was going to
Speaker 1: the beauty shop. Remember beauty shop. She said, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: get my roots right. Put it in the chat. I'm
Speaker 1: getting my roots right. That's what I'm doing today. I'm
Speaker 1: getting my roots right. I'm getting my roots right. I'm
Speaker 1: getting my mind right, I'm getting my belief system right.
Speaker 1: I'm getting my priorities right. I'm finding out what really
Speaker 1: matters right now, I'm gonna do it in this prison cell.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna see something. God's gonna show me something. The
Speaker 1: gospel is going to advance through this season. We're getting
Speaker 1: our roots right. And yet Adam and Eve they wanted
Speaker 1: to know. They wanted to be God. They wanted to know,
Speaker 1: they wanted to be God. Our need to know is
Speaker 1: what keeps us from receiving. That's what was so bad
Speaker 1: about that tree. Nobody even knows what fruit they ate.
Speaker 1: I hope it was delicious, because it really was expensive.
Speaker 1: He'd had to put her clothes back on. Just imagine Chris,
Speaker 1: how it could have been. I called this message option
Speaker 1: number three. When naked was normal, Adam and even just
Speaker 1: walking around nothing to hide. It is what it is.
Speaker 1: We are who we are. We're loved by God. We
Speaker 1: walk with Him in the cool of the evening. We
Speaker 1: just take pluck what we want, just anytime we want.
Speaker 1: Just you know, naked was normal. Didn't have to hide
Speaker 1: behind fig leaves, didn't have to create a covering, didn't
Speaker 1: have to create a persona, didn't have to create a
Speaker 1: pretension of good behavior and pretend to be somebody that
Speaker 1: you're not. Didn't have to try to bear somebody else's
Speaker 1: fruit with plastics, so you could be impressive to get
Speaker 1: people to like you, just walking around because God made me,
Speaker 1: because God breathed in me, because I am who God
Speaker 1: says I am. When naked was normal, When naked was normal.
Speaker 1: But now it's more normal for us to hide. It's
Speaker 1: more normal for us to hide, cover ourselves, compare ourselves.
Speaker 1: The first thing God asked Adam is the thing I
Speaker 1: want to ask you today. When Adam felt the shame. Remember,
Speaker 1: Shame is what makes you cover. Shame is what makes
Speaker 1: you shrink. Shame is what makes you pull back. Shame
Speaker 1: is what makes you believe, well, maybe I better not try.
Speaker 1: Shame is what makes you start staying up in the
Speaker 1: middle of the night thinking that maybe it's all going
Speaker 1: to catch up with me. But Christ died to take
Speaker 1: away my shame. And yet the first thing Adam did
Speaker 1: when he believed a lie was to hide. And God said,
Speaker 1: and I want to say, who told you that you
Speaker 1: were naked? Who told you that you were naked? Who
Speaker 1: told you that you had to do something else, or
Speaker 1: be something else, or have something else? Who told you
Speaker 1: that it took something extra for you to be accepted?
Speaker 1: Who told you that life has to be perfect for
Speaker 1: you to have a praise. Who told you that what
Speaker 1: you've known is what's normal? Who told you that question?
Speaker 1: Who told you that, yeah, well, I'm just not good
Speaker 1: with money. Who told you that, yeah, well, I'm just
Speaker 1: not very good with I'm just I'm a set, a
Speaker 1: teenager free, I'm just not good with girls. Who told
Speaker 1: you that you could fake some swags so quick and
Speaker 1: have them lined up when the quarantine is over. I'm
Speaker 1: telling you right, Who told you that? Who told you
Speaker 1: that I'm just an introvert? This is the time where
Speaker 1: God is trying to get us to prune ourselves of
Speaker 1: perspectives that did not come from heaven. Who told you that?
Speaker 1: Did it come from God? See? Because in this season
Speaker 1: of my life, I have got the focus on what
Speaker 1: he is speaking, prison sentences. I've got to let his
Speaker 1: word get in my life, my heart, my mind transformed
Speaker 1: by the renewing of my mind, not conformed by my situation.
Speaker 1: Watch this, transformed by my revelation. Situation revelation. Now, Paul
Speaker 1: saw it one way, y'all see chains, I see opportunity.
Speaker 1: Paul saw it one way, y'all see limitation. I see
Speaker 1: an opening. Paul saw it one way. Y'all see captivity,
Speaker 1: I see freedom. I see what God said, and I'll
Speaker 1: speak it over your life. Focus on the fruit. Focus
Speaker 1: on the fruit, not the frustration. He could have spent
Speaker 1: every sentence in Philippius. How would Phlippians four thirteen be,
Speaker 1: I really have a headache right now and I'm sick
Speaker 1: of this. Would you quote Philippians four thirteen if he
Speaker 1: didn't focus on the fruit. He said, no, I'm going
Speaker 1: through stuff, but I can't do. What I went through
Speaker 1: showed me what I can't do because Christ is in me.
Speaker 1: Focus on the fruit. Because Paul said, I don't know,
Speaker 1: I don't know. Isn't it funny how he's so used
Speaker 1: to call him the shots that he's still talking like
Speaker 1: he has a choice. When you've been in charge a
Speaker 1: long time, You know, my dad thought he could beat
Speaker 1: me up. When he was sick in his bed and
Speaker 1: he couldn't move, he still said, boy, I'll whip your
Speaker 1: so and so and stuff like that to me. I
Speaker 1: was I was walking around with muscles and stuff and
Speaker 1: he was laying in the bed. He was so used
Speaker 1: to being bigger and stronger than me. Paul is almost
Speaker 1: like that he's waiting on a verdict do you live
Speaker 1: or die? And then look what he says and are
Speaker 1: you ready for verse verse seventeen. Okay, he said, the
Speaker 1: former christ have sef termpiation. I SI said this spose
Speaker 1: they served tim for me changed? What does it matter?
Speaker 1: What does it matter? What does it matter? What does
Speaker 1: it matter? What does it matter? What does it matter?
Speaker 1: What actually matters? When you get that clear, it'll set
Speaker 1: you free. When you get that clear what actually matters? This?
Speaker 1: One woman told me the best parenting advice is don't
Speaker 1: spend your whole life chasing clean carpet, only to wish
Speaker 1: when your kids went to college that they could come
Speaker 1: back and mess it up one more time. She said
Speaker 1: her biggest regret was she spent her whole life chasing
Speaker 1: clean carpet. What actually matters? Do this in worship? Right?
Speaker 1: I don't care if you hit the note right. I
Speaker 1: care if the note hits your heart right. I don't
Speaker 1: care if we have a mistake. I don't care. I
Speaker 1: don't care. Let me tell you about this sermon. I
Speaker 1: don't care if I'm grammatically correct. Who cares? I care
Speaker 1: if the spiritual fruit As a matter of fact, and
Speaker 1: this is this is probably this is Yeah. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: say I'm say I'm saying. I'm saying, I don't really
Speaker 1: care if you like this message. I don't care. I
Speaker 1: mean I do. I want Okay, I want you to
Speaker 1: like the message. I wouldn't post it on Instagram if
Speaker 1: I didn't want you to like it. That's literally how
Speaker 1: the system works. But I care more if this message
Speaker 1: bears fruit in your life than if you like it.
Speaker 1: I hope you fight me today in your mind. How
Speaker 1: dare he say it doesn't matter this and that he
Speaker 1: doesn't know what I'm going through? No, I don't. That's
Speaker 1: why I'm so glad I called Paul to preach because
Speaker 1: Paul went through the stuff Paul went through that this
Speaker 1: isn't fair. Paul was trying to do right. I don't
Speaker 1: think anybody help people. I don't think anybody was smarter
Speaker 1: than Paul. That's why I was so surprised. You said,
Speaker 1: I don't know. I'm like, what that's like one of
Speaker 1: my kids saying thank you. I'm like, what's happening right now?
Speaker 1: I said, the rapture can only imagine. But he said,
Speaker 1: I know what's important? Do you? Yeah? Most of us,
Speaker 1: don't most of us. It takes our whole life. What
Speaker 1: if this season is fast forwarding us into the correct priorities?
Speaker 1: Would it be worth it? Would it be worth it?
Speaker 1: What if we're going to get fifty years of wisdom
Speaker 1: the fruit of a season of frustration. Can I show
Speaker 1: you something else? Paul said, go to Romans eight. Focus
Speaker 1: on the fruit. Or you can focus on all the
Speaker 1: things you don't know. You can spit ignorance with everybody else,
Speaker 1: conspiracy theories. I saw a UFO the other day. It
Speaker 1: barely even registered because the world is so screwed up
Speaker 1: right now. So you can, you can. You can focus
Speaker 1: on the UFOs, the the unknowable faith outcomes. I'm playing.
Speaker 1: I love y'all so much. I wish all we're here.
Speaker 1: I wish we're here one day we'll get back together
Speaker 1: when I don't know. But in the in the meantime,
Speaker 1: let me speak. Let me speak this over your life,
Speaker 1: because Romans eight, how much do you want? Because I've
Speaker 1: got like ten verses and I got two verses, I
Speaker 1: can do it either way. Let's take a vote in
Speaker 1: the chat on a scale of tend to to how
Speaker 1: much of God's word do you want today ten ten
Speaker 1: two to ten two to ten. Man, you'll ot to
Speaker 1: be sharing this message right now. You ought to be
Speaker 1: sharing this link right now, because see, the gospel can
Speaker 1: bear fruit only if it's sown. You got to share
Speaker 1: this message when it's over. We have other services all
Speaker 1: through the day. You got to tell somebody catch it
Speaker 1: when it comes on again. You need to You need
Speaker 1: to receive this word. That's how we sow the gospel. Okay,
Speaker 1: I only see tens block everybody who said to block them,
Speaker 1: Ban them from the chat, ban them from the chat,
Speaker 1: kick them out the church. So Roomen's eight is really
Speaker 1: good for perspective. I consider verse eighteen that our present
Speaker 1: sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will
Speaker 1: be revealed in us. Both are a focus suffering and
Speaker 1: glory at the same time. What do you want to
Speaker 1: focus on? The frustration or the fruit? I am convinced,
Speaker 1: I am persuaded. I have met aid up my mind
Speaker 1: that what I am going through is nothing compared to
Speaker 1: what is going to come forth from it, because I've
Speaker 1: seen God do it before. Read the verses. Faster verdict
Speaker 1: for the creation waits in eager expectation for the children
Speaker 1: of God to be revealed, for the creation was subjected
Speaker 1: to frustration. But I'm not focused on the frustration. I'm
Speaker 1: not focused on the frustration. I'm not focused on the fear.
Speaker 1: I'm not even focused on the facts. Not of its
Speaker 1: own choice, but by the will of the one who
Speaker 1: subjected it in hope that the creation itself will be
Speaker 1: liberated from its bondage. Somebody shop, God is setting me free, free, free,
Speaker 1: free from the bondage of the kay and brought into
Speaker 1: the freedom and the glory of the children of God.
Speaker 1: You want me to keep going. This is good to
Speaker 1: me because we know, we know, we know some things.
Speaker 1: I just know something. I just know in my soul.
Speaker 1: Some things I can prove from a book, some things
Speaker 1: I can't google. Some things I can't get from the news,
Speaker 1: some things I can't learn from Twitter. Some things they
Speaker 1: can't teach me in a classroom. But I know in
Speaker 1: my spirit that the whole creation has been groaning, as
Speaker 1: in the pains of childbirth, right up to the present time.
Speaker 1: Not only so, but we areselves who have the first fruits. Fruits, fruits, fruits, fruits, fruits.
Speaker 1: Focus on what the fruit, the fruit of the spirit
Speaker 1: is what love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gu
Speaker 1: self control. What God is doing in me right now
Speaker 1: is setting me free from everything that doesn't look like him.
Speaker 1: I got the first fruits, the first fruits, the first fruits,
Speaker 1: first fruits. What you focus on? Focus on the fruit.
Speaker 1: That's why I still tithe in a recession. You think
Speaker 1: I'm not going to bring back to God what he
Speaker 1: gave me. He is my source. And yet there's this groaning,
Speaker 1: there's this tearing, there's this, there's this groaning. He said
Speaker 1: that words can't explain. There's this, there's this tension, there's
Speaker 1: this unsettled there's this it's the three am stuff, it's
Speaker 1: the three pm crash, it's another day of this. It's
Speaker 1: the I'm so sick of these people around me. And
Speaker 1: yet if I focus on the fruit, he said that
Speaker 1: my present suffering isn't even worth comparing to the glory
Speaker 1: that will be revealed. Can I keep going? Not only so,
Speaker 1: but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the
Speaker 1: spirit grown inwardly, as we wait eagerly for our adoption
Speaker 1: to sonship, the redemption of our bodies, For in this
Speaker 1: hope we were saved Hope is a focused people, not
Speaker 1: a feeling. Hope is a focus. Hope is a focus.
Speaker 1: Hope is a focus. I'm focusing on the fruit. I'm
Speaker 1: focusing on the character. Perseverance builds character, Focus on the fruit.
Speaker 1: Look what God is doing in you right now, He said,
Speaker 1: in this we hope even though we don't. We don't know.
Speaker 1: There's an instability in the world. There always has been.
Speaker 1: But hope that is seen is no hope at all.
Speaker 1: For who hopes for what they already have. See, if
Speaker 1: I know it, I don't have to hope for it.
Speaker 1: That's where my faith grows. That's the soil. That's where
Speaker 1: the seed breaks apart. That's where you are right now.
Speaker 1: That's what God is doing in this season, Thank you Lord.
Speaker 1: But if we hope for what we do not yet have,
Speaker 1: we wait for it patiently, the same way the spirit
Speaker 1: helps us in our weakness. We do not. No. Come on, Paul,
Speaker 1: come on, Paul, make it rhyme, make it ring, Come on, Paul,
Speaker 1: give me the facts. Come on, Paul, set it up.
Speaker 1: Come on, Paul, you can preach better than that. We
Speaker 1: do not. No, that's the soil where hope springs forth
Speaker 1: and buds like faith and looks like resurrection. You alone, Lord,
Speaker 1: no if these bones can live. But in the same
Speaker 1: way Verse twenty six, the Spirit helps us in our weakness.
Speaker 1: We do not no what we ought to pray for,
Speaker 1: but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless grounds.
Speaker 1: I don't even know what to pray. God said, I'll
Speaker 1: take it from here. I'll finish the sentence. Paul's in prison.
Speaker 1: God said, I'll finish the sentence. Even if the devil
Speaker 1: started it, I'll finish it. I'll finish it. I'll finish it.
Speaker 1: He began a good work in you, will be faithful
Speaker 1: to complete it. I'm focused on the fruit. I'm focused
Speaker 1: on the fruit because God is helping me and he
Speaker 1: Verse twenty seven, who searches our hearts knows? He knows,
Speaker 1: He knows. You. Remember Jeremiah, they were in captivity to Babylon.
Speaker 1: He said, it's going to be seventy long years. But
Speaker 1: God said, I know the plans I have for you,
Speaker 1: and you're not supposed to know them all. There are
Speaker 1: some things you're not supposed to know, because that's where
Speaker 1: faith grows, that's where hope grows, that's where maturity takes
Speaker 1: truth and the spirit intercedes for God's people in accordance
Speaker 1: with the will of God. Here comes my favorite verse,
Speaker 1: And we know. Have you ever heard Roumins eight twenty eight?
Speaker 1: Oh you can. You can put this anchor down in
Speaker 1: the deepest water and get through the storm. That all
Speaker 1: things work together for the good of those that love God.
Speaker 1: Wait a minute, Wait a minute. That's where people stop.
Speaker 1: Finish the sentence. Somebody say, finish the sentence, like Paul
Speaker 1: in prison. I'm staying I'm not. Do you know that
Speaker 1: when Paul and Silas were in prison, the doors opened,
Speaker 1: but they didn't leave. Why we still got work to do.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna finish the sentence. I'm gonna see the goodness
Speaker 1: of the Lord. Don't let the devil cuts you off now,
Speaker 1: don't let him speak fear while God is building faith.
Speaker 1: Finish the sentence, Finish the work, Be strong and courageous,
Speaker 1: take the land, for we know that all things work
Speaker 1: together for the good of those who love him. I
Speaker 1: don't know much, but I know I love you Lord.
Speaker 1: That may be all I need to know. I know
Speaker 1: I love you, I know I'm called, I know I'm appointed,
Speaker 1: I know you spoken, I know you're Abel. But finish
Speaker 1: the sentence. All things work together for those who love
Speaker 1: God and are called according to His purpose. That's the fruit.
Speaker 1: Focus on the fruit, because if you don't focus on
Speaker 1: the fruit of what God is doing right now, you
Speaker 1: will die in the frustration as you wait. So I
Speaker 1: want to give you a choice, Paul said, I hadn't.
Speaker 1: I hadn't decided yet. What I want to do is
Speaker 1: like Paul, this is not Applebee's. There is no menu, y'all.
Speaker 1: Remember Applebee's. It was an American food chain that existed
Speaker 1: before the plagues. Paul, this is not Morton's. You're not
Speaker 1: deciding steak or chicken. This is prison. Nobody's asking you
Speaker 1: if you want to live or die. Yet, Paul still
Speaker 1: had a choice. You still have a choice. The choice
Speaker 1: is your focus. Focus is always chosen. How are you
Speaker 1: going to start this week? How are you going to
Speaker 1: start this day? How are you going to start tomorrow?
Speaker 1: Where are you going to look at? Focus is chosen.
Speaker 1: That's the only thing you can control. That's the only
Speaker 1: thing that will really create peace. In a storm, Peter
Speaker 1: didn't fall down when he got out the boat because
Speaker 1: the water out wetter. He didn't fall down because of
Speaker 1: strong wind. He fell down because of broken focus when
Speaker 1: he took his eyes off Jesus. Now that's what happens
Speaker 1: when we go by sight when we need to know
Speaker 1: too much. And give me Verse twenty one again, because
Speaker 1: I'm not done with this and I intend to mind
Speaker 1: every drop out of this word God gave me. Focus
Speaker 1: on the fruit. If God is squeezing you right now,
Speaker 1: something productive is coming from it, I promise you it
Speaker 1: is for we know that all things work together for
Speaker 1: the good of those love God. But check this out. No,
Speaker 1: that's not the one. It's maybe twenty two. No no, no,
Speaker 1: it's yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, No no no, go back,
Speaker 1: Go to the one before, Go to the one before. Yeah.
Speaker 1: The creation waits Romans eight nineteen. Is it on the screen?
Speaker 1: The lower third? Read this with me. For the creation
Speaker 1: weights in eager expectation for the children of God to
Speaker 1: be reviewed. The creation waits for a revelation, waits eager expectation.
Speaker 1: What does that look like eager expectation? It doesn't look
Speaker 1: like certainty. The Greek word chunks is three words. Appo, kara, dokia, appo.
Speaker 1: Everybody say appo, not the dog food appo. Listen what
Speaker 1: it means. The prefix means to turn away, ignoring other interests.
Speaker 1: The English word is not trans you can't translate it
Speaker 1: with one word. So they put eager expectation. Because there
Speaker 1: is no way to describe humanly the kind of hope
Speaker 1: that Paul had. You can't put it in just a word.
Speaker 1: He actually made his own word up, and you can
Speaker 1: only find it in early Christian literature. Nobody in the Empire,
Speaker 1: the Roman Empire said the word apple kara Dokia. Paul
Speaker 1: made it up. It was a prison sentence. It was
Speaker 1: something he could only get when he was going through.
Speaker 1: There is some fruit that can only be born when
Speaker 1: you're going through. But you have to focus. Apple's the prefix,
Speaker 1: and I could preach a whole sermon on that prefix
Speaker 1: appo to turn away ignoring other interests. It means I
Speaker 1: have to choose my focus right now, moment by moment.
Speaker 1: What will I look at? Will I look at the waves?
Speaker 1: Or will I look at the one who created the
Speaker 1: waves and the wind? To subject to his word? What
Speaker 1: will I look at right now? If I look away
Speaker 1: from Jesus, I'm gonna fall. If I look at what
Speaker 1: it feels like, I'm gonna fall. If I look at
Speaker 1: what I don't know. I'm going to go crazy. If
Speaker 1: I keep looking at my phone, I'm gonna fall. God
Speaker 1: show me something greater on the inside. Apple Kara Kara
Speaker 1: is simple. It just means head, which is significant, right.
Speaker 1: It's significant because the only thing you really control is
Speaker 1: what goes on in here. That's the only domain that
Speaker 1: I can control. Right now, you can't have my imagination, devil,
Speaker 1: you can't have my you can't have my meditation. I'm
Speaker 1: not going to dwell on sentences of unworthiness. I'm not
Speaker 1: going to dwell on what was spoken over my life
Speaker 1: by people who didn't even like me. I'm not going
Speaker 1: to go off of what the world is saying. I've
Speaker 1: got a new mind. Don't you wish they made a
Speaker 1: mask for your mind? I would buy it, sell it,
Speaker 1: wear it, declare it. I put an elevation logo on.
Speaker 1: I'd make a fortune if I could keep all of
Speaker 1: the thoughts from coming out of my mind. But it
Speaker 1: doesn't work like that. You've got to focus. Watch this
Speaker 1: appo Karadki a Dokia. Dokia is the most annointed part
Speaker 1: to me, because after I've turned away. That's why he said,
Speaker 1: the creation waits in apple Kara, Dokia. The only other
Speaker 1: time this word is in the Bible is in Philippians
Speaker 1: chapter one. That's the only other time it's in the Bible.
Speaker 1: When Paul was in prison, and if he looked at
Speaker 1: the chains that were on his hands, he'd get depressed,
Speaker 1: and if he looked at the situation he was in,
Speaker 1: he'd get depressed. So he said, I can't look at
Speaker 1: that right now. Come on, close your eyes. You've been
Speaker 1: looking around too much. He said, I can't look at
Speaker 1: that right now. Apple, turn away, ignoring what I could
Speaker 1: focus on. I could focus on the pain, but I'm
Speaker 1: focused on the purpose. I could be petty, or I
Speaker 1: could give praise. I'm turning away from what I could
Speaker 1: complain about. I've got a reason to be grateful. Apple kara,
Speaker 1: head mine, Dokia. To stretch forward. Did you hear it?
Speaker 1: Paul said, I'm looking forward. I don't know how long
Speaker 1: I'm gonna be here, but I'm looking forward to my
Speaker 1: fruit on the other side. I'm looking forward to glory.
Speaker 1: On the other side, I'm looking forward to a greater
Speaker 1: annoying thing, a brighter day, a peaceful heart. I'm looking
Speaker 1: forward to a purpose because i know not all things
Speaker 1: work together for the good them that love him. I
Speaker 1: love I've got a purpose. I know he's got a
Speaker 1: plan and I will said times. You better give it.
Speaker 1: Fraggs and potes praising body. He's doing shoo to the
Speaker 1: ra Yes, yeah, please come on in a secret, you two.
Speaker 1: He's doing it right now, in your home, your heart,
Speaker 1: in your mind, You mar your side, you leave. Okay,
Speaker 1: this is the word of the Lord. You are in
Speaker 1: a season where you must focus on the fruit, your fruit.
Speaker 1: He will be like a tree planted by the streams
Speaker 1: of water, which will yield its fruit in season. All
Speaker 1: you gotta do in this season is yield your fruit,
Speaker 1: and you will make it. You will see it now. Caution,
Speaker 1: if you focus on your fears, you can die on
Speaker 1: the other side of something that God had for you. You
Speaker 1: You really can. As a matter of fact, give me
Speaker 1: number thirteen, and I promise, y'all, I'll go eat a
Speaker 1: I'll go eat a scrambled egg or something somebody put.
Speaker 1: Focus on the fruit. Focus on the fruit. Focus on
Speaker 1: the fruit. Focus on the fruit. Y'all can't touch each other,
Speaker 1: but tell each other focus on the fruit. Focus on
Speaker 1: the fruit. Don't touch your neighbor, not at your neighbor.
Speaker 1: Stretch your head towards your neighbor, like Apocara Dokia. Stretch
Speaker 1: your head. Come on, this is the new thing. We're
Speaker 1: going to replace the handshake in the hug with the
Speaker 1: head nod. All right, just head, nod your head right now.
Speaker 1: Nod your head right now. You see me, not not
Speaker 1: you. You You are gonna make it. You are going to
Speaker 1: come through. You are going to see it if you
Speaker 1: focus on the fruit. Because we've been preaching about Egypt.
Speaker 1: Egypt is what they were leaving. When the children of
Speaker 1: Israel were focused on where they had left and what
Speaker 1: they had lost, that generation died in the wilderness. And
Speaker 1: here's why. Look at numbers, Chapter thirteen, verse twenty seven.
Speaker 1: They told Moses, the spies who went into the land, said,
Speaker 1: we went into the land which you sent us, and
Speaker 1: it does flow with milk and honey. Watch this stay
Speaker 1: right here. Here is its fruit. They were carrying a
Speaker 1: cluster of grapes on a pole. It took it took
Speaker 1: Zeke and Brandan to carry the pole. Y'all like, y'all
Speaker 1: are carrying something between you right now, Just walk, don't
Speaker 1: come to close six feet six feet apart. This pole
Speaker 1: is six feet apart, and they walked and they walked,
Speaker 1: and they're telling, here's the fruit. Look at the next verse.
Speaker 1: This is sad. Look at it. It's a focus. It's
Speaker 1: so focused. But the people who live there are powerful,
Speaker 1: and the cities are fortified and very large. We even
Speaker 1: saw the descendants of any there. They were so focused
Speaker 1: on what they had to fight. They were so focused
Speaker 1: on what they feared that they did not even eat
Speaker 1: the fruit that they carried. They were so focused. Duck
Speaker 1: and stop. Now that was excellent, thank you and promptu illustrations,
Speaker 1: quarantine sermons. God said, right now in this season, I
Speaker 1: need you focused on the fruit. Faith comes from focus,
Speaker 1: but so does fear. The land does flow, but you've
Speaker 1: got to focus. There is a flow, the administration of
Speaker 1: the Holy Spirit. Receive it through the screen. Right now.
Speaker 1: There is a flow, but you need a focus. Here
Speaker 1: is it's fruit, but there's giants. But there's insecurities. But
Speaker 1: there's uncertainty. Are you really going to let what you
Speaker 1: don't know become greater than the God that you do
Speaker 1: you know him? Focus on that. God, show us the fruit,
Speaker 1: the grapes, the promises, the blessings enlarge in our minds
Speaker 1: the reasons that we have to have faith and help
Speaker 1: us Like Paul, maybe we can't move our feet or
Speaker 1: our hands like we want, but we can stretch our faith.
Speaker 1: We thank you Lord that in this season, even if
Speaker 1: you are pruning our branches, we will be more fruitful
Speaker 1: on the other side. It's in Jesus' name that I
Speaker 1: pray everybody who receives this word, say amen, I'm focused
Speaker 1: on the fruit. I'm focused on the fruit. I'm focused
Speaker 1: on the fruit. I'm focused on the fruit. I'm focused.
Speaker 1: I'm focused. I'm turning my head away, no distractions. I'm
Speaker 1: focused on the fruit. God is doing a great work
Speaker 1: in you. I don't know if you felt that like
Speaker 1: I felt it, but you can see my voices left
Speaker 1: the building. But I gave it all I had to
Speaker 1: preach that message focus on the fruit. That's easier said
Speaker 1: than done, but we can do it. We can sew
Speaker 1: to the spirit and just on this Bible. And I
Speaker 1: wanted to read you one more verse before we go.
Speaker 1: And Paul prayed one time in Philippians chapter one, verse
Speaker 1: nine that he prayed that your love may abound more
Speaker 1: and more in knowledge and depth of insight. Verse eleven,
Speaker 1: filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus
Speaker 1: Christ to the glory and praise of God. And he
Speaker 1: thanks the Philippian Church for their partnership. You know many
Speaker 1: are just watching and consuming this content, many of your partners.
Speaker 1: You partner with us in prayer, you partner with us
Speaker 1: in the gospel, you partner with us financially. I want
Speaker 1: to thank you for sowing the gospel is bearing fruit,
Speaker 1: like Colossians one says, because of your generosity, because of
Speaker 1: your trust. So thank you for your faithful giving in
Speaker 1: this time, for not holding back, for stretching the tent
Speaker 1: curtains wide so we can keep taking the gospel to
Speaker 1: people in this crazy time. And make sure that you
Speaker 1: sow the seed of the word too. You know it
Speaker 1: really helps when you share the message and you share
Speaker 1: the link on social or even just text it to
Speaker 1: a friend or talk about it. That's one way we
Speaker 1: share the gospel. I want to thank you for your partnership.
Speaker 1: Make sure you subscribe. I want you to get every
Speaker 1: message that we have for you, and we're here preaching
Speaker 1: Jesus Christ, believing God for great things in your life.
Speaker 1: Thank you for being a partner. Love you