Speaker 1: Holly, and I wanted to say a special hello to
Speaker 1: our Etham, our extended family around the world. You. Hey,
Speaker 1: before we get into the message, let me tell you
Speaker 1: about available. This is a special season for our church.
Speaker 1: It's a tradition for the people of Elevation. Every year
Speaker 1: we gather, we appreciate and anticipate, and we also give.
Speaker 1: This is our yearly time for everybody who receives from
Speaker 1: this ministry to give so that the ministry can go forth,
Speaker 1: and this year we've themed it around the word available. Available.
Speaker 1: That's all God has ever wanted is for us to say,
Speaker 1: here I am, send me, use me. And you have
Speaker 1: the opportunity to do that. So if you've been blessed
Speaker 1: through the ministry, it's good to receive. It's even better
Speaker 1: to give. If you want to make a donation, a
Speaker 1: one time gift or a recurring gift, just be a
Speaker 1: part of what God is doing here. We so appreciate it.
Speaker 1: You can get all the details at Elevation Church dot org.
Speaker 1: I'mosa sat Elevationworship dot Com. I guess you could go
Speaker 1: there too, but the giving is at Elevation Church. What
Speaker 1: you just did, you have Elevation Worship on your sweatshirt. Hey,
Speaker 1: Elevationchurch dot org and you can select available. And we
Speaker 1: use all of these resources to continue to preach the gospel,
Speaker 1: not only in physical locations like this one, but through
Speaker 1: the amazing opportunity God has given us to impact the
Speaker 1: world through technology. And we want to thank all of
Speaker 1: you who are apart. We couldn't do it without you.
Speaker 1: Thank you for being a part of our family. Thank
Speaker 1: you for being a part of this move of God.
Speaker 1: Go to Elevationchurch dot org dot com if you're not
Speaker 1: already there and be a part. This is going to
Speaker 1: be an amazing, amazing season. And Holly and I are
Speaker 1: believing that your best is ahead. Raise the Lord Church. Oh.
Speaker 1: I love singing truth with my church. It feels good
Speaker 1: to declare that this morning. Huh are you ready for
Speaker 1: the word of God? Are you ready to hear from
Speaker 1: God this morning? I've got the privilege of introducing our
Speaker 1: guests preacher this weekend who's going to be delivering that word.
Speaker 1: He is a great friend of our ministry, hailing from Montana.
Speaker 1: He's the pastor of Fresh Life Church. Can you put
Speaker 1: your hands together help me welcome Pastor LEVI. Let's go
Speaker 1: to the poor pitch. Well, let's make some noise for
Speaker 1: Jesus and the elevation man. It is a joy, It
Speaker 1: is an honor. It is a privilege for my wife,
Speaker 1: Jenny and my whole family to be here with you
Speaker 1: at Elevation. We love you like family, honestly, thanks for
Speaker 1: having us. It's a joy to be here. Pastor asked
Speaker 1: me to come preach into the Available series. I was
Speaker 1: excited and humbled by the chance. I got a message
Speaker 1: that God gave me specifically for this this weekend, and
Speaker 1: it's from Acts chapter nine. We've learned about being needers,
Speaker 1: being feeders instead of needers. We've learned about how to
Speaker 1: say the second yes, and we now know why. And
Speaker 1: this weekend we want to try and figure out what
Speaker 1: to do when we're in a holding pattern. How do
Speaker 1: we handle what do we do with? What about the
Speaker 1: holding pattern? Acts chapter nine, And we're going to begin
Speaker 1: in verse thirty six in what I consider one of
Speaker 1: the most important movements in the Book of Acts. I
Speaker 1: realize that's saying a lot, because there's some great stuff
Speaker 1: in the Book of Acts. If you haven't read it,
Speaker 1: the Bible's awesome. You should check it out sometime. It
Speaker 1: is really good. I mean, even just Acts nine opens
Speaker 1: with the saving of the Apostle Paul. Even the Apostle
Speaker 1: Paul at one point didn't know Jesus. So no matter
Speaker 1: who somebody is, no matter how far from God they
Speaker 1: seem to be, he hated Jesus more than anybody until
Speaker 1: he met him. And he's like, turns out, I love
Speaker 1: green eggs in him. It's crazy as saying. Love the guy.
Speaker 1: And he spent the rest of his life preaching the Gospel.
Speaker 1: So when I say to you, in a chapter that
Speaker 1: includes the salvation of the guy who wrote thirteen books
Speaker 1: of the New Testament, if in fact he didn't write Hebrews,
Speaker 1: and if he did, it's fourteen. If he didn't it
Speaker 1: is thirteen, that's still a lot of books of the Bible.
Speaker 1: How many books of the Bible have you written? So
Speaker 1: I just said to you that in a chapter that
Speaker 1: includes the saving of the Apostle Paul, we are about
Speaker 1: to read the story that I consider one of the
Speaker 1: most important movements in the Book of Acts. We should
Speaker 1: be giving our endivide attention. When the text says at Joppa,
Speaker 1: could someone say at Joppa, and now the rest of
Speaker 1: you at Joppa, there was a certain disciple named Tabitha,
Speaker 1: which is translated Dorcas. This woman was full of good
Speaker 1: works and charitable deeds, which she did. But it happened
Speaker 1: in those days that she became sick and died. When
Speaker 1: they had washed her, they laid her in an upper room.
Speaker 1: And since Lyda was near Joppa and the disciples had
Speaker 1: heard that Peter was there, they sent two men to him,
Speaker 1: imploring him not to delay in coming to them. Then
Speaker 1: Peter arose and went with them. When he had come,
Speaker 1: they brought him to the upper room, and all the
Speaker 1: widows stood by him him weeping, showing the tunics and garments.
Speaker 1: Someone say, tunics and garments which she Dorcas, had made
Speaker 1: while she was with them. But Peter put them all
Speaker 1: out and knelt down and prayed, and turning to the body,
Speaker 1: he said, Tabitha, arise, and she opened her eyes, and
Speaker 1: when she saw Peter she sat up. Yeah, that's the
Speaker 1: appropriate response. Really. All weekend long, everyone's been playing it cool,
Speaker 1: like you've seen tons of people get up from the dead,
Speaker 1: But that's a big deal. Then he gave her his
Speaker 1: hand and lifted her up, and when he had called
Speaker 1: the saints and widows. He presented her alive, and it
Speaker 1: became known throughout all Joppa. I'll bet it did, and
Speaker 1: Minnie believed on the Lord. So it was, yeah, that's
Speaker 1: a bigger miracle, actually believe it or not. So it
Speaker 1: was that he stayed many days in Joppa with Simon
Speaker 1: a Tanner and father. We asked that you would speak
Speaker 1: to us something clear, something special, something powerful, so that
Speaker 1: our eyes may be opened, so that we may set up,
Speaker 1: so that, taking you by the hand, we may stand
Speaker 1: up and rise up to do all the things you
Speaker 1: called us to do. And we asked that if one
Speaker 1: person watching on YouTube, listening to the podcast, or here
Speaker 1: with us today doesn't know you as savior, you would
Speaker 1: draw them to yourself. And we ask this in Jesus' name,
Speaker 1: and everyone said together. Traveling comes with its fair share
Speaker 1: of unexpected surprises. You don't get to get on the
Speaker 1: metal tube attached to rockets and travel across the country
Speaker 1: without some things occasionally going sideways. And I think we
Speaker 1: live in an era where we now accept as normal
Speaker 1: what at a previous point in history was deemed impossible.
Speaker 1: Prior to one hundred and fifteen years ago, there wasn't
Speaker 1: an airplane. Thanks Kitty Hawk. Right, Hey, shout out North Carolina. Right.
Speaker 1: There was never such a thing as air travel before
Speaker 1: nineteen oh three, and so we have grown up all
Speaker 1: our lives with normal what never existed for the vast
Speaker 1: amount of human history. For Abraham Genghis Khan, for Abraham Lincoln,
Speaker 1: never did anybody think about, I want to get from
Speaker 1: Cleveland and I want to go to DC, and I'm
Speaker 1: going to do that by hopping on an airplane. It
Speaker 1: didn't exist. It wasn't something you could do. I live
Speaker 1: in an area of the country that was a part
Speaker 1: of the Lewis and Clark expedition. You know, these two
Speaker 1: guys who set out with this band of people to
Speaker 1: go from Saint Louis and end up in Oregon trying
Speaker 1: to find water passage to get first back and forth
Speaker 1: for the trade. And they were sent out by Jefferson,
Speaker 1: and you know that the voyage was pretty great, straightforward
Speaker 1: up to Missouri from Saint Louis until they got to
Speaker 1: where I live. And then if you look at the map,
Speaker 1: there's like, right, yeah, welcome to my life, right Montana,
Speaker 1: everything went sideways, and the Continental Divide and the mountains
Speaker 1: and all that stuff. So it took them to all
Speaker 1: this time, years and years and years to do what
Speaker 1: we can do in an hour. And we're like, yeah,
Speaker 1: but the flight was delayed on the internet was so
Speaker 1: slow there like, of course things are going to go sideways, right,
Speaker 1: and of course no one likes it. Right. There's there's
Speaker 1: there's things that travel that are hard. It comes with
Speaker 1: this fair share of surprises. I was in Louisiana the
Speaker 1: other day and you know, needed to get somewhere. So
Speaker 1: we called an uber and it's already a funny story,
Speaker 1: West Monroe, Louisiana. It was an F one fifty with
Speaker 1: a gun wreck an uber. My wife and I got
Speaker 1: in this thing thing. We someone we need to text
Speaker 1: a friend, leave a note. They may never find this.
Speaker 1: Dig a do do do do do do right? And
Speaker 1: I said to the guy, how's your day going. He goes,
Speaker 1: I'm tired. I'm tired. I go, I go, yeah, he goes.
Speaker 1: I said why. I thought he was gonna sae like
Speaker 1: up all raccoon hunting or something, you know, fought an
Speaker 1: alligator instead, he said, I just got back from London.
Speaker 1: I was not expecting this. That was camo head to
Speaker 1: toe Dirty John deeer hat was not expecting. Just got
Speaker 1: back from England. Said wow, England, that's a long flight.
Speaker 1: He goes, yeah, but they had beer on the plane,
Speaker 1: so I drank till I fell asleep, and shoot, when
Speaker 1: I woke up, we were there. I said. It's fantastic,
Speaker 1: but one of the worst things that can happen on
Speaker 1: a plane. You can feel it before you even hear
Speaker 1: about it, because the captain will come on and tell
Speaker 1: you about it. But I can almost always feel it
Speaker 1: before I hear it. And that is the holding pattern,
Speaker 1: because what happens is I'll be dead asleep and you know,
Speaker 1: like Spider Man's got that what did his aunt may
Speaker 1: call it a Peter tingle. It's like, hey, you embarrassing
Speaker 1: me from my friends. It's a spidy sense, uh Peter tingle.
Speaker 1: I'll feel it. I'll feel that whoo. And for four
Speaker 1: minutes you're in that loop. It's a minute in the
Speaker 1: straight and a minute two hundred and eight degree turns,
Speaker 1: and another minute in the that's right. And I'll say,
Speaker 1: my wife, this is not good to go. What we're delayed?
Speaker 1: What do you mean? Do you feel that? It's the
Speaker 1: holding pattern? And you look out the window, and sure
Speaker 1: enough you're there, but you can't get there. A holding
Speaker 1: pattern is when you're at your destination, you just can't
Speaker 1: get to where you desperately need to be. I could
Speaker 1: see it out the window. How many of you understand
Speaker 1: there's some things in our life we can see it.
Speaker 1: I just don't know how to get there. I'll come
Speaker 1: all this way and I see right there where I
Speaker 1: need to be. But it's that last ten percent. I
Speaker 1: just can't seem to get down into the kind of
Speaker 1: mother I want to be. I see what God called
Speaker 1: me to do. I just don't know how to feel stuck.
Speaker 1: I'm in a holding pattern. A holding pattern is full
Speaker 1: of delays and full of disappointment, and we fear missed connections.
Speaker 1: That's what we equate holding patterns with. I'm in this
Speaker 1: holding pattern, and I'm in my head doing the math
Speaker 1: on how long it's going to take me to get
Speaker 1: to my gate, how much time I have to eat
Speaker 1: up at a certain point. I'm on the Wi Fi
Speaker 1: with United or with Delta, trying to get on another
Speaker 1: fire right, and you missed your connection, You'll know I'm rebooked.
Speaker 1: I'm missing that connection. I'm missing the night I'm afraid
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna get to where I need to be
Speaker 1: because of the I'm in a holding pattern. Is that
Speaker 1: not the mood in Acts nine, all of the dreams
Speaker 1: about this life suddenly cut short by illness. As Dorcas
Speaker 1: has died. Her name is Tabitha. It's the Hebrew equivalent,
Speaker 1: but it's the same meaning Dorcas Tabitha. They both mean Gazelle.
Speaker 1: Now that, believe it or not, was a compliment. Just
Speaker 1: like I call my wife Jenny, my brown eyed girl.
Speaker 1: I when she calls my phone, the ringtone is my girl. Right.
Speaker 1: That was what Gazelle meant in that day. It was
Speaker 1: to say, you're fleet footed, You're beautiful, you're you're you're
Speaker 1: you're quick. This this this compliment, this praise. That her
Speaker 1: parents chose to call her a deer. And in the
Speaker 1: Book of Proverbs, a wife has to be praised, is
Speaker 1: beautiful and graceful as a deer. So to think of
Speaker 1: this woman who not only had that name but lived
Speaker 1: that life, what does the text say, I can't remember.
Speaker 1: She was full of good works and charitable deeds. That's
Speaker 1: the one that's gonna get sick unfairly and die. The
Speaker 1: one who's blessing everybody, the one who's going about doing good,
Speaker 1: full of good works, full of charitable deeds, which, believe
Speaker 1: it or not, is true of every single one of you,
Speaker 1: Every Christian, every person is full of good works. God
Speaker 1: has planned for it to be so. In the Book
Speaker 1: of Ephesians, we're told that we are all his workmanship, masterpiece, poem, painting,
Speaker 1: and He has crammed us full of good works which
Speaker 1: God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. So
Speaker 1: if you could see God, imagine God in his factory
Speaker 1: planning you before the world was framed. He was grabbing
Speaker 1: stuff off the shelf, pouring it in and on all
Speaker 1: sorts of different kinds and varieties and shape and styles.
Speaker 1: But he crammed your destiny full of good works that
Speaker 1: He has been dreaming about since before you were ever born. Now,
Speaker 1: let me ask you this question, why is it if
Speaker 1: every Christian has been crammed full in their destiny of
Speaker 1: good works, why is it that not every Christian is
Speaker 1: living a beautiful life and changing the world like Dorcas did,
Speaker 1: Because so many of us stopped there, but Dorcas did not.
Speaker 1: Dorcas was not just full of charitable deeds and full
Speaker 1: of good works. But the text says she's full of
Speaker 1: these things which she If we don't do the things
Speaker 1: that God has planned for us, we end up full
Speaker 1: of it. A lot of Christians are just full of it.
Speaker 1: Come on, che your neighbors, are you full of it?
Speaker 1: Don't be full of it? You see? The problem with
Speaker 1: spiritual constipation is if you take in but you never
Speaker 1: give out, you just are stuff and bloated and sick.
Speaker 1: So God doesn't just give us the strength for willing,
Speaker 1: He gives us the strength for doing. We must not
Speaker 1: stop at good intentions. Being willing is not enough. You
Speaker 1: can say I'm willing and able, But in the event
Speaker 1: of a water evacuation, someone's got to open that door
Speaker 1: of someone's got to extend the slide out. Someone's gotta
Speaker 1: be there. You gotta do the things He planned for
Speaker 1: you to do. How long are you going to talk
Speaker 1: about that business? How long are you going to talk
Speaker 1: about serving? How long are you to talk about one day?
Speaker 1: I'm gonna give one Nay, I'm gonna do this one Nay,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna write this up. One day, IM gonna write
Speaker 1: this book. Come on, don't be full of it? You
Speaker 1: gotta do it. You gotta rise up and take action.
Speaker 1: Now you say to me, well, how do you asking
Speaker 1: for a friend? How do you how do you do that?
Speaker 1: How do you do what you're full of the answer
Speaker 1: is in your hand. It's in your hand. The answer
Speaker 1: to doing what's in your heart is using what's in
Speaker 1: your hand. It's in the text. Did you notice it? Tabitha,
Speaker 1: change the world, Dorcas, even a Dorcas can change the
Speaker 1: world right through using what's in her hand. We learned
Speaker 1: week one in the series that the big movement for
Speaker 1: being available to availing ourself to a God who's able.
Speaker 1: He's endlessly able. God is able to make all grace
Speaker 1: abound towards you. But why do so many not walk
Speaker 1: in that grace that he's able to make a bound
Speaker 1: towards you. So many don't avail themselves to that power
Speaker 1: because we get stuck on me me me, me, me, me me, me, me, me, me,
Speaker 1: me me, and they never get to sew. So the
Speaker 1: movement to availing yourself to the power that God's able
Speaker 1: to give to you is the movement from me to sow.
Speaker 1: And that's what Dorcas did, because the text says she
Speaker 1: made what tunics and garments. She was a seamstress. Our
Speaker 1: sister had a passion for fashion. And when she had
Speaker 1: all these dreams in her heart of changing the world,
Speaker 1: she looked down and she saw a needle around her
Speaker 1: neck was a measuring tape, and she said, I wonder
Speaker 1: if and so listen to me. To get from me
Speaker 1: to sow, she used a needle pulling thread. Come on,
Speaker 1: don't live your life focused on me, unnamed, I call myself.
Speaker 1: Use what's in your hand. If it's a needle pulling thread, fine,
Speaker 1: whatever God has given you in your hand, he wants
Speaker 1: to use that to unlock and unleash what's in your heart.
Speaker 1: At least that's what Doe Ad, a female deer. Dorcas
Speaker 1: teaches us. Hey, it's a sound of music all up
Speaker 1: in here, all right. So in Dorcas, we have a
Speaker 1: holding pattern, a pattern for how to hold. And you
Speaker 1: can't sew a complicated project if you don't have a pattern.
Speaker 1: How many of you know you got to go down
Speaker 1: to joe An Fabrics, and you got to go to
Speaker 1: Hobby Lobby. You got to get you to Michael's Arts
Speaker 1: and Crafts Supply and buy a pattern and a pattern
Speaker 1: is what you lay out on top of your fabric,
Speaker 1: so you know the shape that you'll cut out before
Speaker 1: you use your thread to sew. So I believe in
Speaker 1: Dorcas we're given a different way of looking at our
Speaker 1: holding patterns by making sure we understand that we have
Speaker 1: a pattern, a pattern for how to hold, a pattern
Speaker 1: for how to hold what's in our hand, so God
Speaker 1: can unlock what's in our heart, for that is God's desire.
Speaker 1: The problem and the disconnect us, there's so many of
Speaker 1: us look at what is in our hand, and we
Speaker 1: see no connection to what's in our heart, so we
Speaker 1: do nothing. Think about a crowd of people and you
Speaker 1: need to you need to feed them. What's in your hand?
Speaker 1: Five of those and new visies? Well, this can't do
Speaker 1: anything for that, Therefore I'll do nothing. What's in your hand? Well,
Speaker 1: freedom for God's people from the Egyptians. What's what's in
Speaker 1: your heart? Rather freedom from God's people from the Egyptians.
Speaker 1: What's in your hand? A staff? If you give God
Speaker 1: what's in your hand a staff, he'll unlock what's in
Speaker 1: your heart. If you give God your loaves, he'll feed
Speaker 1: the craft. What's it? What's in your hand? A cup,
Speaker 1: what's in your heart, rebuilding the city of Jerusalem. Use
Speaker 1: your cup, Nehemiah, use what's in your hand, you give
Speaker 1: it to God. Don't stop, don't stop believing just because
Speaker 1: you don't understand how it's connected. Use what's in your hand,
Speaker 1: Use your needle, use your cup, use your staff, use
Speaker 1: your resources. It doesn't feel like it's enough, But God
Speaker 1: is able to make all grace a bound towards you.
Speaker 1: You just got to get under his plan, get under
Speaker 1: his authority, get under his his reiin and so that's
Speaker 1: that's what Dorcas did. So in her we find a pattern,
Speaker 1: a pattern for how to hold, a pattern for how
Speaker 1: to have a light touch, a pattern for how to
Speaker 1: have a longer vision, and a reason to no longer
Speaker 1: give into the excuses that fill our heart when we
Speaker 1: look at what's in our hand and we barely see
Speaker 1: enough for ourselves, much less for for how God could
Speaker 1: do anything else. We get talked out of using our
Speaker 1: resources to do God's work, don't we We say stupid stuff,
Speaker 1: well like will I give my time so I don't
Speaker 1: need to give my money? You know what I say
Speaker 1: to that? I say, a vela bull, avela bull, aren't
Speaker 1: you glad that Jesus didn't just give us his time,
Speaker 1: but he gave us his blood as money. Come on,
Speaker 1: blood money more precious than gold or silver. He didn't
Speaker 1: come just to give us his time. You know. Margaret Thatcher,
Speaker 1: she used to be the Prime Minister of England in
Speaker 1: the eighties. She said, no one would be talking about
Speaker 1: the Good Samaritan if he only gave time. But he
Speaker 1: had money too. Someone had to pay the bill at
Speaker 1: the end. Someone had to buy the bandages. Someone had
Speaker 1: to give the oil and the wine. Hey listen, if
Speaker 1: we're gonna reach Orlando, if we're gonna reach this country,
Speaker 1: it's gonna take money. Ministry takes money. We need to
Speaker 1: have resources, not just time. Don't don't fall into available.
Speaker 1: I got I got another one. How about how about this?
Speaker 1: How about Well, God doesn't need my money, This church
Speaker 1: certainly doesn't need my money. Look at all this fancy everything, boveyla,
Speaker 1: stay with me, bull. Yeah, God doesn't need your money,
Speaker 1: but you need his blessing. Warren Whersby said, you know,
Speaker 1: a God who paves the streets of his heaven with
Speaker 1: gold does not ever fear going broke. If you don't
Speaker 1: give but you might go broke if you don't, because
Speaker 1: he has promised to bless you as you lean into
Speaker 1: his work. Bless you, he said, I'll open up the
Speaker 1: heavens over you. Just participate. Just trust me. Put me
Speaker 1: to the test. See if I'm not able to make
Speaker 1: all grace abound towards you. You just gotta get from
Speaker 1: me to So come on, don't just live your life
Speaker 1: out for a name you call yourself. Use your needle,
Speaker 1: pull some thread, give it to God, trust him, give it,
Speaker 1: put him to the test. Available bull about how about
Speaker 1: this one? Other people have more, so if I had more,
Speaker 1: I would give more. Availabull You'd be exactly as generous
Speaker 1: with a million dollars as you are with ten thousand dollars.
Speaker 1: You'd be exactly as generous with a thousand as you
Speaker 1: are with the hundreds. It's a hard issue. If it
Speaker 1: don't start small, it's never going to get bigger. I
Speaker 1: wonder if you thought I would take my wife on
Speaker 1: a date, but I don't have enough money. Look, you
Speaker 1: can make your wife feel like a princess at Costco
Speaker 1: getting the samples girl, anything you want Aisle twelve, fourteen
Speaker 1: and nineteen and then you could work your way up
Speaker 1: to a hot dog and twenty out soda combo. It's
Speaker 1: a heart thing. There's a lot of people who can
Speaker 1: afford file at minn and wrapped in bacon, who treat
Speaker 1: their wives like a dog. It's a heart issue. It's
Speaker 1: a romance issue. The most important thing is to give
Speaker 1: her you, and so that's really where it begins. And generosity,
Speaker 1: like romance works on any level, and that's why the
Speaker 1: tithe is so fair and generosity is all over Tabitha's story.
Speaker 1: Three things. Jot them down. She gave what she could,
Speaker 1: which was a lot tunics and garments, but that's misleading
Speaker 1: because tunics and garments actually means cloaks and capes. My
Speaker 1: wife and I just got invited to a black tie event,
Speaker 1: had never been invited to a black tie event before.
Speaker 1: We live in Montana, you guys, and we were like,
Speaker 1: what do you do? We had to of course google it?
Speaker 1: What does that even mean? And can't a lot about
Speaker 1: things that I know I don't want to know about
Speaker 1: cocktail dress versus a formal gown. My wife and I
Speaker 1: went to this store called Rent the Runway where you
Speaker 1: can rent address. You don't have to buy it, and
Speaker 1: I sat to thank god they had a coffee shop.
Speaker 1: You know, I don't know if I would have survived,
Speaker 1: But all these dresses, there's a lot to it. And
Speaker 1: that's the stuff that Dorcas was given out, the stuff
Speaker 1: that would cause a widow to have dignity walking through town,
Speaker 1: because uncovered by a cape, without a cloak, everyone could see.
Speaker 1: No one took care of them. But you take a
Speaker 1: widow and you give her a cloak and a cape,
Speaker 1: she's able to walk through town and feel it just
Speaker 1: as special as everybody else. That was Dorcas's passion. I'm
Speaker 1: going to give every woman dignity. I'm going to give
Speaker 1: every woman the chance to walk through town without anybody
Speaker 1: looking at him. Funny, and so Dorcas had, of course
Speaker 1: to have a lot of money to spend money on
Speaker 1: the materials to make such things, and to be able
Speaker 1: to do that on top of whatever else she was doing,
Speaker 1: bove and beyond how she would give at church, above
Speaker 1: and beyond anything else she was doing. And so I
Speaker 1: would just say to you, you might go, I can't
Speaker 1: afford to give like that. Well, God's not calling you
Speaker 1: to do what she could do. God's calling to do
Speaker 1: what you can do. The great danger on December seventh
Speaker 1: and eighth is not that you won't do what someone
Speaker 1: else can do. It's that you won't do what you
Speaker 1: can do. He's called you to use what's in your hand,
Speaker 1: not your neighbor's hand. He's called you to use the
Speaker 1: resource he's entrusted to you. God never looks at the
Speaker 1: portion of a gift. He will not be looking next
Speaker 1: week and going just the size of the gift. He
Speaker 1: would be looking at the proportion of the total that
Speaker 1: you've been entrusted with that it represents. He looks at
Speaker 1: our contribution and measures it against our capacity. You could
Speaker 1: give one hundred thousand dollars next Sunday, and some of
Speaker 1: you should. Some of you should give more than that
Speaker 1: because the heart and the trust of this ministry over
Speaker 1: the years. Some of you should just really say yes
Speaker 1: to accelerating the vision. But you could give one hundred
Speaker 1: thousand dollars gift next weekend, and God not be impressed
Speaker 1: with it. If it's not something that's going to cost you.
Speaker 1: If it's not if it's like, well, that's what I'll
Speaker 1: spend on landscaping next year. To think of someone who
Speaker 1: could give a seven hundred dollars gift, and it could
Speaker 1: cause God to be pushing the angels over because he
Speaker 1: says that's going to cost them something that was a
Speaker 1: difficult yes, out of what they've been entrusted. That means something.
Speaker 1: So my encouragement to you would be to say, I'm
Speaker 1: going to use what's in my hand to have this
Speaker 1: be weighty. Make sure when you hold that check that
Speaker 1: it's weighty to you, that it's not flippant to you,
Speaker 1: that it's not something you can easily do. Make sure
Speaker 1: it's something that causes you to stretch. I believe so
Speaker 1: much in the stretch. And if this church was going
Speaker 1: to do nothing of the good things they're going to
Speaker 1: do with this outreach, if it was ten twelve percent
Speaker 1: going to outreach, if it wasn't going to be a
Speaker 1: million dollars plus given to charity that is not run
Speaker 1: by the church, Hello homelessness and giving food out and
Speaker 1: beds for the home, all that stuff. If it was,
Speaker 1: it would be worth it, probably just for the stretch
Speaker 1: in our own lives. Because there's a text that troubles me,
Speaker 1: and it says this in the time of the year
Speaker 1: that the Kings went out to battle. David stayed home.
Speaker 1: King David stayed home. He should have gone out to battle.
Speaker 1: Every year there was a time of the year that
Speaker 1: a king was supposed to go fight, go to battle,
Speaker 1: live on the field, not in the palace, live in
Speaker 1: a tent, be hungry, go through difficulty, and that kept
Speaker 1: him on his edge. That kept him, That kept him scrappy,
Speaker 1: that kept him from getting fat and lazy, that kept
Speaker 1: him from getting complacent. In the time of listen, in
Speaker 1: the time of the year that the kings was supposed
Speaker 1: to go to battle, Davids stay home. Do you know
Speaker 1: what happened next? Her name is Bathsheba. Kings become fools
Speaker 1: when they stop going out to war, and we must
Speaker 1: every year stretch ourselves and stay on our edge. Come on,
Speaker 1: it's just just just a sentim what God's calling us
Speaker 1: once again to go all in once again, once again,
Speaker 1: to fight once again. I believe so much in the
Speaker 1: heart for this, this this offering, which is to say,
Speaker 1: let's fight. Let's let's not get into cruise control, let's
Speaker 1: not believe this thing's so big it'll take care of
Speaker 1: itself if no one gives Come on, what if everybody
Speaker 1: thought that way, Let's stretch, Let's fight. Let's go to
Speaker 1: war with the enemy. Let's go to war with with
Speaker 1: with young people being lost to heroin. Let's go to
Speaker 1: war with the generation that's cutting it cell just to
Speaker 1: feel something and reach them with the love of Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1: She gave what she could. She gave while she could.
Speaker 1: Second point, while she could. Did Tabitha know when she
Speaker 1: went to work in her workshop that she was going
Speaker 1: to get sick soon? Did Tabitha have any idea that
Speaker 1: she was in the final stretch of her life? Do
Speaker 1: any of us? Death is a lot of things that
Speaker 1: comes to us a lot of ways, but tragically often
Speaker 1: it's a surprise, and we always must live with an
Speaker 1: awareness of our mortality and therefore the preciousness of whatever
Speaker 1: time is in front of us. What if she had said,
Speaker 1: you know, I've got some things happening with my business.
Speaker 1: You know, I've got this guy, Ralph Lauren, who's going
Speaker 1: to be buying some stuff down the road, and eventually
Speaker 1: I'll have more than I'll do something for the widow.
Speaker 1: Though she did it when God struck her with the idea,
Speaker 1: She did it when God prompted her. She did it
Speaker 1: when God called her. She realized, God's going to clothe
Speaker 1: these widows, whether he uses me or not. Like Mordecai
Speaker 1: said to esther, God's going to do his thing, whether
Speaker 1: without you. Honey, come on, so pony the courage and
Speaker 1: get you before the king. God will raise up another
Speaker 1: church to bless. If elevation won't fight, he'll do his
Speaker 1: work in the earth. He's not dependent on any one
Speaker 1: of us. So there is no question God's going to
Speaker 1: do it. But why not you? Why not me? Why not? Now?
Speaker 1: We have been brought into the kingdom for such a
Speaker 1: time as this last week we learned that Mary poured
Speaker 1: out the oil and Judas said, wey this waste, and
Speaker 1: Jesus said, stop it. She knows what others don't know.
Speaker 1: I'm about to die, and she did this in light
Speaker 1: of my burial. How did she know that because she
Speaker 1: always sat at his feet, and those who sit at
Speaker 1: his feet know things other people don't know. And she
Speaker 1: was paying attention while the disciples were fighting about who's
Speaker 1: greatest in the kingdom, to Jesus saying I'm about to die,
Speaker 1: and she goes, well, if a king's gonna die, he's
Speaker 1: got to be anointed. For burial. So she poured this
Speaker 1: out and anointed his feet. Listen to me, when Jesus
Speaker 1: Christ hung on that cross, his feet smelled like mirth
Speaker 1: because of her. It was the only anointing his body
Speaker 1: ever got. What about his The women came, didn't they? Yeah,
Speaker 1: but he was already risen. So had she not acted
Speaker 1: when she did, he would have gone to the grave
Speaker 1: unannointed for burial. So let me ask you this question.
Speaker 1: Are you going to miss the opportunity of a lifetime
Speaker 1: that's passing in front of you? Because it's only good
Speaker 1: for the lifetime of the opportunity. Come on, let's not
Speaker 1: miss our moment. We were born for this, brought into
Speaker 1: the kingdom for such a time as this. She gave
Speaker 1: while she could. Thirdly, and finally she received more than
Speaker 1: she gave. And so it always is because God will
Speaker 1: not be outgiven. It's just he's too competitive for that.
Speaker 1: I can't put it any other way than that. We
Speaker 1: think we can bless God and we walk away with
Speaker 1: more than what we gave to him. Is that not
Speaker 1: in the story you looked at last week where Owin
Speaker 1: poured out oil on his feet and wiped it up
Speaker 1: with her and walked away saying goodbye. But what was
Speaker 1: in her hair still she smelled like what she poured out,
Speaker 1: and everywhere she went she was able to shift the
Speaker 1: atmosphere and change the smell of the room because of
Speaker 1: what she thought was no longer in her life, but
Speaker 1: now was more a part of her than ever before.
Speaker 1: And so it will be for you. You will give
Speaker 1: saying goodbye to your gift. But things we send to
Speaker 1: heaven because that's what you're gonna do. We don't give
Speaker 1: to the local church. We give through the local church.
Speaker 1: And just like Dorcas's soul went to heaven, and so
Speaker 1: would come back. Because when death interests the equation in
Speaker 1: God's hands, a soul that we say goodbye to, it's
Speaker 1: always see you later. It's always until next time. And
Speaker 1: what's true of a soul is true of a seed.
Speaker 1: They thought it was goodbye to Dorcas, but it was
Speaker 1: until next time. And that's always true with every believer,
Speaker 1: whether God raises us from the dead on this side
Speaker 1: of eternity or not, it's always until next time. You
Speaker 1: might write rip rest in peace on a grave, but
Speaker 1: I'm telling you something in Jesus' name, It's always raised
Speaker 1: in Power's that's what's gonna happen. And when God gets
Speaker 1: his last word. So she received more than she that
Speaker 1: gave because she gave these dresses out. But what does
Speaker 1: she get? I count three things? Number one she got resurrection.
Speaker 1: Would the widows have sent for Peter if they would
Speaker 1: not have been clothed by Dorcas? It says when Peter came,
Speaker 1: they stood there holding these saying, you got a raiser
Speaker 1: from the dead. Look what she did. Who's going to
Speaker 1: weep when you die? How will you live? Like Mark
Speaker 1: Twain said, so that when you die, even the undertecker, sorry,
Speaker 1: you're dead, How will you live a life so big
Speaker 1: and so massive that because of you, while you were alive,
Speaker 1: hungry people were fed, Naked people were clothed. The gospel
Speaker 1: was preached to the imprisoned and to the poor. We
Speaker 1: can live in Jesus' name, such a big, beautiful life,
Speaker 1: that there will be people on this earth who are
Speaker 1: sorry that we died. And she was brought back. And
Speaker 1: how surprised she must have been, because normally you die
Speaker 1: and go to the pearly gates, and who do you see, Peter?
Speaker 1: She left the pearlygates came back to earth, and there
Speaker 1: he was. But it wouldn't have happened had she not given.
Speaker 1: She also participated in revival, the text says verse forty two,
Speaker 1: and many believed all around Jappa her gift occasioned, her death,
Speaker 1: occasioned her resurrection, occasioned the salvation of a city, many
Speaker 1: of them. But that's not it, because there's a third r.
Speaker 1: It's resurrection, it's revival and its relocation. God, it seems,
Speaker 1: was doing something bigger than anyone could understand, as this
Speaker 1: all was a part of a bigger plan to get
Speaker 1: Peter to Joppa, because the text ends with verse forty three,
Speaker 1: So it was that he stayed there in Japa with
Speaker 1: Simon a Tanner many days now. Japa is an interesting
Speaker 1: word because you hear it, you go, wait, that sounds
Speaker 1: so familiar. Why does it sound familiar? Well, if you
Speaker 1: read the Old Testament, you find that it was in
Speaker 1: Joppa that Jonah said, no, God has this thing. Pastor
Speaker 1: mentioned it last weekend about wanting to reach the Gentiles.
Speaker 1: It was never meant to stay Jewish, It was never
Speaker 1: meant to stay in one sect, and never meant to
Speaker 1: stay in one country. He was always intending to get
Speaker 1: it to the whole world, always intending to go global
Speaker 1: with it. I wrote this sermon without knowing that Pastor
Speaker 1: had simultaneously been writing a sermon about getting a message
Speaker 1: to the gentiles, and suddenly God changed him and shifted
Speaker 1: him to Mary, not knowing that this weekend God was
Speaker 1: going to send me to speak about getting the gospel
Speaker 1: of the gentiles. But how did God do something so
Speaker 1: big through a woman who pulled thread with a needle
Speaker 1: in her Listen to me saying yes, she said yes
Speaker 1: to the dress. She undid what Jonah had done, And
Speaker 1: you better say yes, or you'll find yourself like Jonah
Speaker 1: in a different kind of holy pattern, stuck at sea world.
Speaker 1: In her saying yes, she unwittingly played part in a
Speaker 1: plan to get Peter. You keep saying that why was
Speaker 1: it so important to get Peter to Joppa? Oh, you
Speaker 1: don't know about Acts ten. There was gonna be a
Speaker 1: guy named Cornelius, a commander in the Roman army, and
Speaker 1: he was going to be praying, believing for salvation, but
Speaker 1: not knowing if God would have him a gentile. And
Speaker 1: in the middle of his prayer session, an angel would
Speaker 1: show up and the Angel would say, your prayers, Cornelius,
Speaker 1: and your alms have come up. Your alms, your prayers,
Speaker 1: your gifts have come up before God. He has seen you,
Speaker 1: and so now send men. Say it with me to
Speaker 1: Joppa and send for Simon, whose surname is Peter. It
Speaker 1: was all about getting Peter to Joppa. You see, we're
Speaker 1: afraid when we find ourselves in a holding pattern, not knowing.
Speaker 1: I see where I want to be, but I don't
Speaker 1: know how to get there. We think it's about misconnections.
Speaker 1: I came to tell you it's about making connections in
Speaker 1: your holding pattern. God is preparing you for what you know.
Speaker 1: Not come on, we gotta get Peter to Joppa because
Speaker 1: Peter's got the keys, and the guy with the keys
Speaker 1: needs to get brought to the city to meet the
Speaker 1: guy that by the angel. You feel like God doesn't
Speaker 1: see you. You feel like God doesn't know you. But
Speaker 1: you are a certain disciple to him. You are loved
Speaker 1: by him. He's got plans for you. So use what's
Speaker 1: in your hand to unlocke what's in your heart. At
Speaker 1: the death of Tabitha, they saw only death, they saw
Speaker 1: only a grave. But our godsaw garden a garden that
Speaker 1: would extend to Charlotte, a garden that would extend all
Speaker 1: across North Carolina and all across the United States, to
Speaker 1: every tide, every time, every language. So let's lean in,
Speaker 1: let's not miss out, let's participate, let's make ourselves available.
Speaker 1: Come on singing out all across the church. Thank you
Speaker 1: for joining us. Special thanks to those of you who
Speaker 1: give generously to this ministry. Is because of you that
Speaker 1: this ministry is possible. You can click the link in
Speaker 1: the description to give now or visit Elevationchurch dot org
Speaker 1: slash podcast for more information and if you enjoyed the podcast,
Speaker 1: you can subscribe. You can share it with your friends.
Speaker 1: You can click the share button, take a screenshot and
Speaker 1: share it on your social stories and tag us at
Speaker 1: Elevation Church. Thanks again for listening. God bless you.