Speaker 1: Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick. I'm the pastor of Elevation
Speaker 1: Church and.
Speaker 2: This is our podcast.
Speaker 1: I wanted to thank you for joining us today. Hope
Speaker 1: this inspires you. Hope it builds your faith. Hope it
Speaker 1: gives you perspective to see God is moving in your life.
Speaker 1: Enjoy the message. I want to continue to look at
Speaker 1: something from Paul's life this week, and I want to
Speaker 1: talk to you for a few moments about pressure points.
Speaker 1: This message is only if you've been experiencing some stress,
Speaker 1: or maybe a considerable amount of uncertainty about some things,
Speaker 1: or life has seemed a little too much for you.
Speaker 2: That's the only people that's going to bless today. So
Speaker 2: if you need to.
Speaker 1: Leave now because that's not applicable to you.
Speaker 2: Feel free.
Speaker 1: But the rest of us we're going to go over
Speaker 1: to Second Corinthians chapter four. I think I want to
Speaker 1: do verse five. Yeah, I think I gave you verse five.
Speaker 1: I was trying to decide how much to read. You understand,
Speaker 1: that's the issue you. Every week is all so good
Speaker 1: and I want to eat it all, but I know
Speaker 1: you can only digest so much, and so I want
Speaker 1: to talk about pressure points. But let's kind of get
Speaker 1: into it. Here from Tewod Corinthians four or five, where
Speaker 1: Paul is talking to a church that he has authority
Speaker 1: and responsibility for. He says, for what we preach is
Speaker 1: not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as
Speaker 1: your servants.
Speaker 2: For Jesus's sake.
Speaker 1: For God, who said let the light shine out of darkness,
Speaker 1: made his light shine in our hearts to give us
Speaker 1: the light of the knowledge of God's glory displayed in
Speaker 1: the face of Christ.
Speaker 2: But we have this treasure in.
Speaker 1: Jars of clay to show that this all surpassing power
Speaker 1: is from God and not from us. We are hard
Speaker 1: press on every side, but not crushed, perplexed but not
Speaker 1: in despair, persecuted but not a band and touch.
Speaker 2: Somebody say, I'm not alone. I'm never alone.
Speaker 1: So if you want to roll up on me, you
Speaker 1: need to know before you start anything.
Speaker 2: I got angels all around me. I've got a great
Speaker 2: God down deep.
Speaker 1: Get back to the scripture for Nick, where was I Yeah,
Speaker 1: not abandoned, not abandoned, struck down but not destroyed. We
Speaker 1: always carry around in our body the death of Jesus,
Speaker 1: so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed
Speaker 1: in our body good un too verse sixteen.
Speaker 2: Therefore we do not lose heart.
Speaker 1: Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are
Speaker 1: being renewed day by day. Four our light and momentary
Speaker 1: troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that outweighs
Speaker 1: them all. I can tell we're going to have church
Speaker 1: today because you won't even let me read my scripture.
Speaker 2: Look how excited you are.
Speaker 1: About the glory of God being revealed in your life.
Speaker 2: So last verse I'm going to read for now.
Speaker 1: So we fix our eyes not on what is seen,
Speaker 1: but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary,
Speaker 1: but what is unseen is eternal. And you kind of
Speaker 1: get a different picture here of Paul than you got
Speaker 1: last week, because last week we were hearing Luke, who
Speaker 1: wrote the Book of Acts, describe what Paul did. But
Speaker 1: this is not someone describing what Paul did. This is
Speaker 1: Paul describing how he felt. And the tour really different.
Speaker 1: The tour really different because sometimes someone can make something
Speaker 1: looks so easy that you assume that it is, make
Speaker 1: it look so effortless. Holly makes parenting look so effortless,
Speaker 1: and then every once in a while she leaves them
Speaker 1: with me for thirty five minutes so I can remember
Speaker 1: how much I.
Speaker 2: Need her in my life.
Speaker 1: But she just does make it, just makes it look easy.
Speaker 1: Touch somebody say you make it look too easy. Sometimes
Speaker 1: I think you don't even need faith because you just
Speaker 1: got it.
Speaker 2: And it makes me feel bad about.
Speaker 1: Myself because I look at you and it looks easy.
Speaker 1: That's why I hate working out with Buck makes it
Speaker 1: look easy.
Speaker 2: And I get under that same weight.
Speaker 1: And he got twelve of them and I'm on number two,
Speaker 1: crushing my sternum. But since you asked me for some
Speaker 1: parenting advice, let me get some parenting advice. Actually it's
Speaker 1: kind of life advice. I don't think I ever told you, Holly,
Speaker 1: what Eric Ferrell told me. Eric Ferrell is pastor in Virginia,
Speaker 1: and so I have a lot of ministry advice filed
Speaker 1: away in my mind because I've been preparing for ministry
Speaker 1: since I was young, because I thought.
Speaker 2: This is what I was supposed to do.
Speaker 1: So I took a lot of opportunities at a young
Speaker 1: age to ask people, Hey, tell me one piece of advice.
Speaker 1: You know, if there's only one thing you could tell me,
Speaker 1: and so I was kind of trying to get ready
Speaker 1: for it and prepare for the pressure of ministry. And
Speaker 1: nothing can really prepare you for it, but you know,
Speaker 1: maybe somebody can tell you something that you can.
Speaker 2: Hold on to. Well.
Speaker 1: Eric Ferrell was kind enough he invited me into his church.
Speaker 1: And this was right around the time that Elevation Church
Speaker 1: was starting. Elijah was a baby, and I asked him,
Speaker 1: what do I need to know to make it.
Speaker 2: He's been in the same church for thirty years.
Speaker 1: I thought he could probably give me a little bit
Speaker 1: of insight on how to make it for the long term, which.
Speaker 2: Is the goal.
Speaker 1: He goes, and he's a real fast talker, real fast
Speaker 1: talker guy.
Speaker 2: He goes, pressure.
Speaker 1: Management is all pressure management. You gotta manage the pressure,
Speaker 1: you know, manage the pressure. You go off and you
Speaker 1: know ruin your life and manage pressure. You managed pressure,
Speaker 1: And I said, how do you manage He said pressure?
Speaker 2: He goes play and I thought I heard him wrong.
Speaker 1: Because I heard play, But I thought, sure, he probably said, pray.
Speaker 1: That's what we tell you to do, you know, just
Speaker 1: pray about everything makes everything better when you pray. And
Speaker 1: we're gonna tell you sometimes your mind is so scrambled
Speaker 1: that you can't even figure out.
Speaker 2: What to pray. We don't talk about that. Just pray.
Speaker 2: But he didn't say pray. He said play. He said play.
Speaker 1: You gotta play, he said, especially with your kids. He said,
Speaker 1: when your kids get a little older. When you get home,
Speaker 1: he said, this is what saved my life. That's what
Speaker 1: kept me from having an affair of this is what
Speaker 1: kept me from running off shooting one.
Speaker 2: Of the deacons. He said.
Speaker 1: He said, every day when I got home, no matter
Speaker 1: how bad the day had been, I just got down
Speaker 1: on that floor and played with my kids. He said,
Speaker 1: So do that. He said, when you don't feel like
Speaker 1: I do it. In five minutes into it, you feel
Speaker 1: like it. And I took his advice. I have I
Speaker 1: play with my kids. I think that's really my only
Speaker 1: hobby in life is torture.
Speaker 2: I mean playing with say that I love the most
Speaker 2: recent game that I made up. I'm gonna do this
Speaker 2: with with you, JT. So I'm gonna just just sit there.
Speaker 1: I play games with them that involve pressure and and
Speaker 1: and Holly. Holly has to leave the room because these
Speaker 1: games can get aggressive and for different parts of their body.
Speaker 1: It all started with the calf muscle. And this is
Speaker 1: now I'm gonna tell you the names of these things.
Speaker 1: And I won't spend long because I know they came
Speaker 1: to hear a Bible study. But just so you can
Speaker 1: respect my creative parenting, it started off with this move
Speaker 1: right there where I squeezed that calf. Now, now Abby's
Speaker 1: calf muscle didn't quite like yours, but I squeeze that
Speaker 1: things so tight. That's called and I don't know why
Speaker 1: we call it this. I don't even remember how it started,
Speaker 1: but it's called the Alabama Creamshaw.
Speaker 2: I don't know how. I don't know Alabama Creamshaw.
Speaker 1: Then me and the boys were going to Liberty University,
Speaker 1: so that's in Lynchburg, Virginia. So we've been at the
Speaker 1: Lynchburg like squeeze. By the way, if you ever think
Speaker 1: about sitting in the front row at Valentine, you need
Speaker 1: to know this is like the splash zone.
Speaker 2: At Sea World, and you gotta be willing to participate.
Speaker 2: If you come over here. You fell. That pressure feels good,
Speaker 2: doesn't it.
Speaker 1: We got the h the Pennsylvania poke, the Pittsburgh pinch. WHOA,
Speaker 1: there's some other ones. I'm not going to do I'm
Speaker 1: not going to do the Boston, but Chicago shoulder right there,
Speaker 1: right there feels kind of good. So here's what Grandma
Speaker 1: always will dude, before I get started, He'll go, He'll go,
Speaker 1: wait a minute, what level are you going to do
Speaker 1: this on?
Speaker 2: What level? What level of pressure?
Speaker 1: Because I need to know before I submit myself. Have
Speaker 1: you ever wanted to ask God before I do this?
Speaker 1: Before I trust you on this.
Speaker 3: What.
Speaker 2: Level of pressure is it going to involve?
Speaker 1: And the truth be told, if some of you would
Speaker 1: have known the level of pressure that came along with parenting,
Speaker 1: you would have stay celibate, because, hey, you prayed for
Speaker 1: the baby, but along with the baby came the pressure.
Speaker 2: Write this down.
Speaker 1: With privilege comes pressure, And sometimes I see people who
Speaker 1: want certain privileges but don't welcome the pressure that comes
Speaker 1: with the privilege. When we see Paul and Second Corinthians,
Speaker 1: we are getting a picture of a minister and a
Speaker 1: man who is.
Speaker 2: At that point.
Speaker 1: Have you ever been at that point of pressure where
Speaker 1: it feels like something is unraveling on the inside of you.
Speaker 1: I don't necessarily mean it's a clinical breakdown, but Paul
Speaker 1: is under pressure, he says, from every side let's read
Speaker 1: it again in verse eight, because I think it describes
Speaker 1: something that maybe you've experienced, maybe not on Paul's level,
Speaker 1: because there's levels to it. But one thing that I
Speaker 1: have learned is that pressure is relative. So when a
Speaker 1: sixteen year old gets their heart broken, they don't have
Speaker 1: the wisdom of experience to know that there will be others,
Speaker 1: and so it really does feel like they want to die.
Speaker 1: And a lot of times you minimize other people's misery
Speaker 1: because you have graduated beyond that season. But if you
Speaker 1: could find the compassion to remember there was a time
Speaker 1: when you too listen to Milli Vanilli blame it on
Speaker 1: the rain seventeen times, Oh just me, when Melissa Hydrick
Speaker 1: broke up with you, Oh just me. There was a
Speaker 1: time when the pressure.
Speaker 2: Felt so great.
Speaker 1: Paul said, we are hard pressed on every side, and
Speaker 1: that means it was all of the areas at once,
Speaker 1: all at once.
Speaker 2: And I believe that.
Speaker 1: The times in our life when we are able to
Speaker 1: pick our battles and focus our concentration, generally most of
Speaker 1: us are able to stand up under pressure if it
Speaker 1: is coming from one directions.
Speaker 2: When I can't find any relief.
Speaker 1: On any side, Sometimes when I preach, I'll be preaching
Speaker 1: to one side and and and then I'll turn to
Speaker 1: another side, and then I'll turn to another side to
Speaker 1: see is this helping anybody? And if I can't find
Speaker 1: any love in the middle, on the right, on the left,
Speaker 1: sometimes I just turn around and look at LJ because.
Speaker 2: I pay him to look happy.
Speaker 1: But Paul says it was coming at us from every side.
Speaker 1: Now I understand what this means for Paul, because last
Speaker 1: week we were talking about Paul on an island called
Speaker 1: Malta a little later in his ministry, and he's there
Speaker 1: is a prisoner and he makes it through a shipwreck,
Speaker 1: and Luke gives us a picture of Paul that is
Speaker 1: kind of a heroic portrait be because Luke respected Paul
Speaker 1: so much, and he talks about how Paul got up
Speaker 1: and gave a motivational speech to the other prisoners about
Speaker 1: courage and faith in God no matter the circumstance, and
Speaker 1: how Paul prayed and had a vision and then relay
Speaker 1: that vision to the people to inspire their faith, because
Speaker 1: sometimes somebody is waiting on you to encourage them to
Speaker 1: put courage in them that they don't have right now.
Speaker 2: And so Paul did that.
Speaker 1: And then when Paul got to the shore, he gets
Speaker 1: bit by a snake.
Speaker 2: Remember did anybody listen to the message?
Speaker 1: And watch how cool and calm and collected Paul was
Speaker 1: on the shore of Malta. The snake didn't even seem
Speaker 1: to bother him. He didn't rebuke the snake. He didn't
Speaker 1: cry out to God, he didn't in the name of
Speaker 1: Jesus plead the blood of Christ the lamb. He just
Speaker 1: shook it all so cool. Don't you admire people who
Speaker 1: are like that? By the way, don't you hate people
Speaker 1: who are like that? By the way, Just people who
Speaker 1: never get rattled, Just people who nothing bothers them, Just
Speaker 1: people who shake stuff off. And Lucas telling us, man,
Speaker 1: it was amazing.
Speaker 2: I was there.
Speaker 1: Paul just shook the snake off and in the fire,
Speaker 1: it was amazing. And they thought he was gonna die,
Speaker 1: and he didn't die, and he just stood there and
Speaker 1: they thought he was gonna swell up, but didn't even
Speaker 1: say anything. And he just stood there. And then he
Speaker 1: went to Publias's house and he started healing everybody, and
Speaker 1: it was amazing. And then Paul went to Rome and
Speaker 1: he lived in a rented house for two years, and
Speaker 1: and and and Paul says, way, man, women, it wasn't
Speaker 1: that easy on the inside.
Speaker 2: Because what you saw.
Speaker 1: Was what I did, But you did not see the
Speaker 1: doubts that I had.
Speaker 2: While I was doing it.
Speaker 1: You make it look so easy sometimes that nobody even
Speaker 1: knows that you need to be encouraged because you just.
Speaker 2: You just do that. You just do it.
Speaker 1: You just pay the bills, you just smile at people,
Speaker 1: you just dress well. You just walk strong and walk
Speaker 1: tall and walk proud. But on the inside, Paul said,
Speaker 1: I was so pressured. I couldn't find relief on the right,
Speaker 1: on the left, in the middle, I looked top, I
Speaker 1: looked down, I looked all around. I couldn't find a companion.
Speaker 1: I couldn't find a helper. But I didn't die at
Speaker 1: the pressure. Fore pressure but not crushed. So they have
Speaker 1: sayings that they put out, sayings that they put out
Speaker 1: to encourage you under pressure. And we say that pressure
Speaker 1: makes diamonds. You ever heard that pressure makes diamonds. Raise
Speaker 1: your hand if you've heard pressure makes diamonds. Pressure does
Speaker 1: make diamonds, but it also makes dumb decisions. Hello, for real,
Speaker 1: pressure does make diamonds, but it also makes divorces. Pressure
Speaker 1: does make diamonds, but it also can leave you the
Speaker 1: proud owner of a timeshare.
Speaker 2: Some of the things you do under pressure.
Speaker 1: Pressure, I don't think. I don't think God wants to
Speaker 1: prevent pressure in our lives. Though, I think, let's read
Speaker 1: it again. I think there's a point to the pressure,
Speaker 1: and maybe today you have come to that point. Paul
Speaker 1: describes it. He said, in verse ten, we carry around
Speaker 1: in our body the death of Jesus.
Speaker 2: It means that I feel like I'm dying inside. That's
Speaker 2: the kind of pressure.
Speaker 1: That Paul snake shaker, Paul shipwreck survivor Paul, he says earlier.
Speaker 2: In his ministry, he says, there was so much pressure,
Speaker 2: I thought I was dying.
Speaker 1: And he says that I was hard pressed on every side,
Speaker 1: but not crushed. Now, I always heard people shout about
Speaker 1: that verse, but realize that it's not automatic.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 2: When I read that.
Speaker 1: Verse, some people are like, yeah, hard pressed but not crushed.
Speaker 1: But that verse suggests that pressure can crush you.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, I've met so many.
Speaker 1: People that let the pressure I'm thinking of, Like I
Speaker 1: had a friend whose family had a recycling plant and
Speaker 1: you'd see the cans just crushed into these cubes. I
Speaker 1: have seen people crushed into cubes and melded into a
Speaker 1: little bit of nothing and sent away, and their dreams
Speaker 1: deferred and their.
Speaker 2: Hope crushed because pressure.
Speaker 1: So before you shout I'm pressed, but not crushed, realize
Speaker 1: that if you don't know what to do with the pressure,
Speaker 1: it will crush you. If you don't know what to
Speaker 1: do with the snake, poison will kill you. I'm pressed,
Speaker 1: Paul said, but I'm not crushed. I'm perplexed. That's mental pressure,
Speaker 1: but not in despair. I'm persecuted. That's pressure from other people,
Speaker 1: but not abandoned. I'm struck down, but not destroyed.
Speaker 2: Not see a contrast.
Speaker 1: It is the contrast between what is pushing on Paul
Speaker 1: and what is pushing in Paul. Can I preach a
Speaker 1: little bit. I'm gonna help you today because your pressure
Speaker 1: is trying to point to something, and so many times
Speaker 1: in my life, listen, I'll help you. So many times
Speaker 1: in my life. The reason that I was under pressure
Speaker 1: is because I was full of pride. He said, we
Speaker 1: have this power, this treasure in earthen vessels or vessels
Speaker 1: of clay, an ordinary vessel, and it's an extraordinary power.
Speaker 1: And so I'm an ordinary person with an extraordinary promise
Speaker 1: of the presence of God. But sometimes I get confused
Speaker 1: and I forget that.
Speaker 2: I'm just the pot I'm not the power.
Speaker 1: And sometimes I get so burdened because I put the
Speaker 1: weight of the world on my shoulders and carry across
Speaker 1: that I'm not strong enough to carry that has already
Speaker 1: been married for me.
Speaker 5: So I'm under pressure.
Speaker 1: Sometimes because I'm full of pride.
Speaker 2: And sometimes not all the time.
Speaker 1: Pressure comes into your life not because of what you're handling,
Speaker 1: but because of how.
Speaker 2: You're handling it.
Speaker 1: You forgot your.
Speaker 2: Source and you lose your strength. Pressure.
Speaker 1: Pressure sometimes points to pride in your life.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much, God gave it to me.
Speaker 1: I can't preach anything God doesn't give to me. And
Speaker 1: God gave this to me. And you know, and I
Speaker 1: think that way is so much easier to preach.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna help you. I'm gonna help you. I'm gonna
Speaker 2: help you today. If I don't help.
Speaker 1: If I help three people, email me email me three
Speaker 1: people at Elevation Church dot org.
Speaker 2: Three people that I help today.
Speaker 1: If you're one of the three it's gonna be email
Speaker 1: dress three people at Elevation Church dot org. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: help three people today who are under pressure, because when
Speaker 1: pressure comes, some of us begin to perform to a
Speaker 1: standard that we have projected.
Speaker 2: That isn't even true to our purpose. I saw it
Speaker 2: like this.
Speaker 1: I can't say it again, Mom, I don't even know
Speaker 1: what I said.
Speaker 2: I hope you wrote it down. My mom says, say
Speaker 2: it again. I can.
Speaker 1: I don't know what I said. It just came out,
Speaker 1: but maybe I could illustrate. You know, I've been preaching
Speaker 1: a lot in the last year about the gap. I've
Speaker 1: been preaching this message really all over the all over
Speaker 1: the country, all over the world. I guess about the gap,
Speaker 1: and it's the gap between where I am and where
Speaker 1: I want to be, where I am and where I.
Speaker 2: Used to be. And I've kind of been defining it.
Speaker 1: I think I'm going to keep preaching it because it
Speaker 1: continues to speak to me that there are two gaps
Speaker 1: in my life. One is for my gratitude and one
Speaker 1: is for my growth.
Speaker 2: Got it.
Speaker 1: One is how far I've come. Look back makes me grateful.
Speaker 1: Can't stay there too long, though, because I got to grower.
Speaker 1: I die. But this week I was seeing a different
Speaker 1: gap in my mind, and it's the pressure gap. It's
Speaker 1: the pressure gap.
Speaker 2: Again.
Speaker 1: I'm not saying that all pressure is bad, but there
Speaker 1: is a type of pressure that is rooted in pride
Speaker 1: and manifest in performance.
Speaker 2: And this is it. This is the gap.
Speaker 1: Between who I think I need to be and who
Speaker 1: I believe I really am. Stay right there with me,
Speaker 1: because when you think you need to be something that
Speaker 1: you secretly believe you are not, the pressure is crushing.
Speaker 2: When you secretly believe.
Speaker 1: That you need to have an ability, that you need
Speaker 1: to have a strength, when you secretly think this is
Speaker 1: what I do all the time? Okay, therapy session bill me.
Speaker 1: Holly says, I do it. She says that I got
Speaker 1: it from my dad. He's not here anymore, so he
Speaker 1: can't defend himself. So we talk about this genetic stuff
Speaker 1: all the time.
Speaker 2: But my mom is perfect. She's right over there in
Speaker 2: the front row, she says.
Speaker 1: Holly says, you gotta quit drawing thought bubbles on other people.
Speaker 1: She says, you project expectations on people that they don't
Speaker 1: even have of you, and you disappoint imaginary expectations that
Speaker 1: don't even really exist.
Speaker 2: Can you believe my wife would talk to me like this.
Speaker 2: She didn't read.
Speaker 1: That verse about submit woman, that Bible verse.
Speaker 2: But she's right, it's just right. I do it all
Speaker 2: the time.
Speaker 1: And then guess what I do because of the pressure.
Speaker 1: I'll start blowing up and exploding at people with frustration
Speaker 1: because of projection of expectations.
Speaker 2: That they didn't even have.
Speaker 1: So now I'm mat on the inside and I'm walking around.
Speaker 2: With all this combustible pressure. What do you want from me?
Speaker 2: And people are like nothing.
Speaker 1: Man, One time I was getting up to preach and
Speaker 1: when actually it was when the podium comes up. We
Speaker 1: have some traditions here at elevation chirts that people come.
Speaker 1: My little pulpit comes out, like write at a certain
Speaker 1: moment during a certain song. It's just little things we
Speaker 1: do because it has to get out here at some time.
Speaker 2: So we just put it out there right then.
Speaker 1: And they were carrying the pulpit out and I felt
Speaker 1: this weird pressure to perform. And God spoke to me,
Speaker 1: when you were sixteen, did I call you to be
Speaker 1: a performer? And the moment I realized that I was
Speaker 1: projecting an expectation that was not from the heart of God,
Speaker 1: the pressure left the building and I was free to preach.
Speaker 1: But it was right when that pulpit was coming out
Speaker 1: and they were doing the last song and Chris was
Speaker 1: hitting the high note, and it was a pressure point.
Speaker 1: I wonder what it is for you, the Alabama creamshaw,
Speaker 1: the Buffalo bicep.
Speaker 2: I didn't show you that one. Pressure points, those points,
Speaker 2: those those things.
Speaker 1: And I'm asking the question today, Could it be that
Speaker 1: your pressure is trying to point you to a higher power.
Speaker 1: The enemy will always point to what you don't have,
Speaker 1: what you can't be, what you can't do. But when
Speaker 1: he does point back, when pressure points, point back, I
Speaker 1: want you to point at your neighbor's face, put your
Speaker 1: finger right in front of their nose, and tell them
Speaker 1: you need this message. Tell them point back, point back.
Speaker 1: I see Paulin's Second Corinthians defending himself against the Judaizers
Speaker 1: because they are questioning his credentials for ministry, and they're pointing.
Speaker 2: Their finger in his face. Who do you think you are.
Speaker 1: Preaching that circumcision is of no avail and it is
Speaker 1: a new creation in Christ's accounts. I see a church
Speaker 1: pointing their finger in the face of Paul But what's
Speaker 1: what point Paul does when they're.
Speaker 2: Pointing their finger.
Speaker 1: You know those you know those things, those those points,
Speaker 1: you know, those.
Speaker 2: Those things the devil uses to.
Speaker 1: Make you feel smaller than and less than and not
Speaker 1: enough for and.
Speaker 2: Never enough for and never gonna be. And you never were,
Speaker 2: and your.
Speaker 1: Mama wasn't and your daddy wasn't and you can't be either.
Speaker 1: When he points point back, I have this treasure in
Speaker 1: earthen vessels that the excellency.
Speaker 2: Of the power might be proven to me from God
Speaker 2: and not from me. That's how you turn.
Speaker 1: Pressure into power, pressure into power. Pressure whanted somebody say
Speaker 1: pressure into power, pressure into power. So Paul says, we
Speaker 1: were pressed but not crushed. Maybe he has in mind
Speaker 1: here the garden of Getsemone, you know, the place where
Speaker 1: the Savior knelt down, all alone but not abandoned, struck
Speaker 1: down but not destroyed, headed to the cross, but the
Speaker 1: joy set before him enabled him to endure it. The
Speaker 1: Bible says he knelt down and prayed. He prayed so
Speaker 1: hard that he started sweating drops that were like blood.
Speaker 1: He prayed so long that his cathillaries might have burst.
Speaker 1: He prayed so long with nobody around to relieve the pressure.
Speaker 1: But as he sweat, came forth from the mouth of
Speaker 1: the living eternal word of God. Nevertheless, not my will,
Speaker 1: but yours be done. What happened He turned pressure into power,
Speaker 1: and he did it.
Speaker 2: In a place called cat semony. Get semony means olive press.
Speaker 2: And the world's greatest power.
Speaker 1: Came from the Savior's greatest pressure.
Speaker 2: And whatever you're going through today, I came with an announcement.
Speaker 5: Paul said, we have this treasure, but.
Speaker 1: You don't even know what you have until you're under pressure.
Speaker 1: Pressure points. Pressure points. Pressure comes to call you out
Speaker 1: and to know do you really trust God? The devil
Speaker 1: got up in God's station and said, let me put
Speaker 1: some pressure on job and let's see what's really in him.
Speaker 1: Because you claim to be an orange, but you might
Speaker 1: be a lemon, and I won't know to I squeeze you.
Speaker 1: You might just be painted a certain color. Let me
Speaker 1: find out what's inside by pressure.
Speaker 2: Pressure proves whether you really believe the promise.
Speaker 1: So I want to read the scripture again pressure points.
Speaker 1: Paul has reached that point. Have you ever been at
Speaker 1: that point? Is Paul the only one? Are you more
Speaker 1: spiritual than Paul? Where nothing ever pressured you to the
Speaker 1: point where you wondered would you make it?
Speaker 2: So Paul says, the pressure came verse seven to show.
Speaker 1: That's what it came for. You put verse seven on
Speaker 1: the screen, please. The pressure came to show, to reveal,
Speaker 1: to point out that this power, this all surpassing power,
Speaker 1: this great power that raised Christ from the grave, can
Speaker 1: only be proven.
Speaker 2: After the pressure is applied. So the pressure shows me
Speaker 2: that it's not about me.
Speaker 1: You know how they say God will never put more
Speaker 1: on you than you can bear. That's not true. That
Speaker 1: is a Bible verse, but it's out of context. It's
Speaker 1: talking about temptation as talking about God is not the
Speaker 1: author of evil. But they can't fit all that on
Speaker 1: a bumper sticker, so they just put God won't put
Speaker 1: on any more on you than you can bear. It
Speaker 1: sounds thatter on pinterest, but that's not what the verse means.
Speaker 1: God will most certainly put more on you than you
Speaker 1: can bear, so you will realize that you were not
Speaker 1: meant to bear it, so you can access the supply.
Speaker 2: That was yours all along. You've been under pressure.
Speaker 1: Good, The pressure came to show you where your power
Speaker 1: came from.
Speaker 2: No pressure, no pressure, no pressure.
Speaker 1: If you're not under pressure, you're only going to have
Speaker 1: the power that you have.
Speaker 2: But the pressure came to show you power.
Speaker 1: And provision that you could not have accessed any other way.
Speaker 2: How many get some out of this? Make some noise now,
Speaker 2: he says, therefore.
Speaker 1: Verse sixteen, because we know that pressure produces power. Because
Speaker 1: we know that what is coming at me is not
Speaker 1: greater than what lives within me.
Speaker 2: Because we know that. Somebody say, I already know.
Speaker 1: All pressure, all press, press pressure, pre sure, because I
Speaker 1: am pre sure. God said you gotta fight pressure with
Speaker 1: pre sure you got You've got to know some things
Speaker 1: so deeply in your Therefore.
Speaker 2: We do not lose heart.
Speaker 1: Though outwardly it doesn't look very good we are wasting away.
Speaker 2: I'm not crushed.
Speaker 1: Yet inwardly I got something on the inside greater than
Speaker 1: whatever surrounds me on the outside. We are being renewed
Speaker 1: day by day four our light and momentary pressure troubles, trials, teenagers, bills, aches, pains.
Speaker 2: Yes, I'm not gonna lie. Some people here are under
Speaker 2: horrendous pressure. I'm not minimizing it.
Speaker 1: I'm just saying that a certainty of what I'm about
Speaker 1: to share with you next that Paul. This is what
Speaker 1: Paul knew that he could only learn under pressure. He said,
Speaker 1: I've learned because of what I've been through, and I've
Speaker 1: learned because of what God has done for me. I
Speaker 1: have learned that my light and momentary troubles are achieving
Speaker 1: for me an eternal glory.
Speaker 2: So the pressure that I'm under right now.
Speaker 1: Is pointing to a glory that is going to be
Speaker 1: so much greater.
Speaker 2: How many believe the glory that is on the.
Speaker 1: Other side, It's gonna be so much greater.
Speaker 2: What God is.
Speaker 1: Doing through my life in this season of pressure. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna be stronger. I'm gonna be stable. I'm gonna be steady.
Speaker 2: Next time. I know how to sake it off. Next time,
Speaker 2: I know how to walk right through it. Next time,
Speaker 2: I know how to spend.
Speaker 1: The night in the fiery furnace and come out.
Speaker 2: Without the smell of smoke on my clothes.
Speaker 1: Who is this for?
Speaker 2: You've been under pressure. The pressure has been pointing to
Speaker 2: your end. But God says, I'm putting.
Speaker 1: A glory for the joy set before him in tore the.
Speaker 5: Crow despising his share.
Speaker 6: The glory of the Lord is released and the power
Speaker 6: of God is released through the pressure.
Speaker 1: I'm telling you right now, I know what it feels
Speaker 1: like to feel like there's no way out. I know
Speaker 1: what it feels like to feel like there's no way
Speaker 1: of escape. But when you can't find a way out,
Speaker 1: that's when God makes a way in.
Speaker 2: He's coming in to spend the night with you. He's
Speaker 2: right there with you. In the pressure. I'm pushing to somebody.
Speaker 1: And I'm pointing toward glory. I'm pointing toward glory. The
Speaker 1: enemy will point toward your shame, your failure, your weakness,
Speaker 1: Paul said, I'm pointing.
Speaker 4: To glory. I'm pointing to glory. Come on, let's practice
Speaker 4: when you get under pressure this week. What you're gonna do,
Speaker 4: What you're gonna do.
Speaker 1: We have this treasure in earthen vessels, seeing that what
Speaker 1: the promise of God and the presence of God does
Speaker 1: in my life, it does what they learned how to
Speaker 1: do to the airplane, because if they didn't learn how
Speaker 1: to pressurize the cabin of the airplane, we couldn't.
Speaker 2: Make it to thirty thousand feet.
Speaker 1: Because our bodies were designed to breathe at sea level.
Speaker 1: But our minds conceived something that could fly in an
Speaker 1: atmosphere that we could not retain consciousness in. And that's
Speaker 1: why the cabin had to be pressurized. Why I come
Speaker 1: to the word of God is to pressurize my spirit
Speaker 1: with the promises of God, because I have this treasure
Speaker 1: in earth and vessels, and the pressure is too great
Speaker 1: for me, and my humanity cannot bear the weight of
Speaker 1: the glory of God, because I'm.
Speaker 2: Made of dust, and to the dust I will return.
Speaker 1: And I am weak, and I am poor, and I
Speaker 1: am broken, and without him I can do nothing. But
Speaker 1: when I get my spirit pressurized, touch somebody say, I'm
Speaker 1: pressurized when I get into the presence of God, and
Speaker 1: I am reminded that these light and momentary afflictions are
Speaker 1: not worthy to be compared with the cool I can
Speaker 1: go higher. And Paul said, I made it through it
Speaker 1: because I got above it.
Speaker 2: Lift your hands in the presence of the Lawyer on
Speaker 2: your feet now for everybody who's under pressure.
Speaker 1: This message came to you just at this time to
Speaker 1: reveal to you what the pressure is for, to show
Speaker 1: that this all surpassing power, power, the raised Christ from
Speaker 1: the dead, power, this book the world's into existence, power
Speaker 1: that makes winds.
Speaker 2: And waves still with one word. This all surpassing power
Speaker 2: is from God and not from us.
Speaker 1: Are you at the point where you realize.
Speaker 2: That you can't carry the weight of your calling.
Speaker 1: Are you at the point where you realize that you
Speaker 1: don't have the wisdom you need to guide your life
Speaker 1: by your own intuition and decisions? Have you come to
Speaker 1: that point. We're on the right and on the left,
Speaker 1: to the north and to the south. All you see
Speaker 1: is pressure all around you. The word of the Lord
Speaker 1: this day is that what is within you is greater
Speaker 1: than what's around you.
Speaker 2: And God brought you into his presence this.
Speaker 1: Day to pressure eyes your resolve with the promises of God.
Speaker 1: Lift your hands to heaven. See that that's how we
Speaker 1: point back. When the enemy is pointing at everything that
Speaker 1: I'm not, I lift my hands to point to all
Speaker 1: that God is. Come on in this place, begin to
Speaker 1: clap your hands and praise God. Praise points back. Praise
Speaker 1: points back. Praise points back. When you give him the praise,
Speaker 1: he gives.
Speaker 2: You his peace. Praise points back. Come on, give him
Speaker 2: the praise. If you know the power, the power of
Speaker 2: God is operative in your situation. Pressure points.
Speaker 1: Father, Today, I want to pray very specifically for someone
Speaker 1: who has never surrendered their life to you, someone who
Speaker 1: has never made the decision to give you complete control,
Speaker 1: someone who has been carrying the weight and the shame
Speaker 1: of their sin and never received your grace. Heads bowed,
Speaker 1: eyes close. Spirit of the Lord is in this place,
Speaker 1: and I want to pray a prayer right now for
Speaker 1: those who are far away from God in your heart today.
Speaker 1: The truth of the matter is, he's never far from you.
Speaker 1: He's never far from you, and his presence is in
Speaker 1: this place, and he longs to live inside of you,
Speaker 1: and he longs to roll away the burden that you've
Speaker 1: been carrying. All that is required for you to access
Speaker 1: this grace and forgiveness and new beginning is faith.
Speaker 2: That's it.
Speaker 1: Scripture says that if you confess with your mouth that
Speaker 1: Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God
Speaker 1: raised him from the dead.
Speaker 2: You will be safe.
Speaker 1: So I want to give you that opportunity right now.
Speaker 2: So I've been living my life on my own terms.
Speaker 1: I've been carrying the weight of my life on my
Speaker 1: own and right now I want to invite God to
Speaker 1: be the center of my life and receive the mercy
Speaker 1: of Jesus Christ.
Speaker 2: I want to pray with you.
Speaker 1: We're gonna pray as a church family out loud for
Speaker 1: the benefit of those who are coming to God at
Speaker 1: all of our campuses. Let's pray out loud, Heavenly Father,
Speaker 1: I come to you a sinner in need of a savior,
Speaker 1: and today I confess that Jesus Christ is my savior.
Speaker 1: And Lord, I believe he died to forgive my sin
Speaker 1: and rose again to give me life. I receive this
Speaker 1: new life. Come into my heart, make me new. This
Speaker 1: is my new beginning. Had still vowed, eyes still closed.
Speaker 1: If you just pray that on the count of three,
Speaker 1: shoot your hand up in the air.
Speaker 2: One, two, three. I want to celebrate with you. I
Speaker 2: see you, man, We'll see you guys on every location.
Speaker 2: God bless you, God bless you. Come on, let's celebrate church.
Speaker 2: Put those hands together.
Speaker 3: Give God some grace for what he's doing in this place,
Speaker 3: for his great grace, for his awesome love, for his
Speaker 3: great grace, for his awesome love.
Speaker 2: Come on, thank something seeing.
Speaker 3: Let's celebrate the precessome don see.
Speaker 2: Yes see. Thank you for joining us.
Speaker 1: Special thanks to those of you who give generously to
Speaker 1: this ministry. Is because of you that this ministry is possible.
Speaker 1: You can click the link in the description to give
Speaker 1: now or visit Elevation Church dot org slash podcast for
Speaker 1: more information and if you enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe.
Speaker 2: You can share it with your friends.
Speaker 1: You can click the share button, take a screenshot and
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Speaker 1: Elevation Church.
Speaker 2: Thanks again for listening. God bless you.