Speaker 1: Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick.
Speaker 2: I'm the pastor of Elevation Church and this is our podcast.
Speaker 2: I wanted to thank you for joining us today.
Speaker 1: Hope this inspires you. Hope it builds your faith.
Speaker 2: Hope it gives your perspective to see God is moving
Speaker 2: in your life.
Speaker 1: Enjoy the message.
Speaker 3: Come on, clap those hands and bless the Lord.
Speaker 2: The devil never should have let you find out that
Speaker 2: God was for you and not against you. That's going
Speaker 2: to change everything. That's going to change the way you walk.
Speaker 2: It's going to change the way you talk. It's gonna
Speaker 2: change the way you weep. You're not going to sorrow
Speaker 2: without hope because you know that God is not against you.
Speaker 1: It's going to change the way you celebrate because.
Speaker 2: You know that it wasn't your own strength or your
Speaker 2: own might. But if it had not been for the
Speaker 2: Lord fighting for me, how many have a testimony that
Speaker 2: God brought you this far?
Speaker 1: Praise the Lord.
Speaker 2: And as amazing as it is for us to remember
Speaker 2: that God is for us, we also need to know
Speaker 2: that there are people who are also for us. In
Speaker 2: a divided world. There's real power in unity. So I
Speaker 2: want you to make a connection with the person on
Speaker 2: either side of you either grab their hand or touch
Speaker 2: their shoulder, depending on your level of germaphobia and faith.
Speaker 2: If you're watching online, we welcome you. We connect with
Speaker 2: you now by the Holy Spirit. And even if you're
Speaker 2: watching alone, you're not alone.
Speaker 1: There is no distance in the spirit.
Speaker 2: Heavenly Father, I thank you for what I feel in
Speaker 2: this moment, the faith that is rising in my heart
Speaker 2: on behalf of the people that you're going to speak
Speaker 2: to today.
Speaker 1: Lord, I ask now not only.
Speaker 2: That you would speak, but that we would hear, because
Speaker 2: those two have to happen at the same time for
Speaker 2: results to be produced.
Speaker 1: And there may be things that would keep us from
Speaker 1: hearing what you say today.
Speaker 2: There may be distractions, There may be things in our
Speaker 2: mind that are replaying from yesterday that would keep us
Speaker 2: from being in this present moment.
Speaker 1: Now, we just want to do that one.
Speaker 2: Needful thing, and to sit at your feet, to learn
Speaker 2: from you, to be with you, to receive from you,
Speaker 2: to worship you, to praise you, to glorify you. Your
Speaker 2: word says that if two of us would agree concerning
Speaker 2: anything in your name, it would be done. We come
Speaker 2: together two or three twenty thirty thousand, two or three
Speaker 2: million strong, all across the world today, believing for breakthrough,
Speaker 2: believing that anything is possible. And we clap our hands
Speaker 2: and celebrate in advance.
Speaker 1: What you're going to do in Jesus' name.
Speaker 3: Amen, somebody shot, Amen shot, Amen again.
Speaker 1: Glory to God. Good to see you.
Speaker 2: Welcome, Welcome to week four of our series Through the
Speaker 2: New You.
Speaker 1: Let's clap our hands. We made it to week four.
Speaker 2: I want to walk you back through really quickly the mindsets.
Speaker 2: I'll have you say them out loud, and then we
Speaker 2: are going to get into a good one today.
Speaker 1: Got something for you today, But let's catch up. Number one.
Speaker 2: Say I'm not stuck. All right, You're gonna have to.
Speaker 2: I know the devil stole an hour asleep, but you're
Speaker 2: gonna have to. You're gonna have to caffeinate real quick
Speaker 2: or something. Say I'm not stuck. Touch your neighbors. Say
Speaker 2: you're not stuck unless you stop. That in the comments,
Speaker 2: say I'm not stuck unless I stop. Now, get a
Speaker 2: deep breath and say Number two, Christ is in me.
Speaker 2: I am enough. Say it again, Christ is in me.
Speaker 2: I am enough. Number three. With God, there's always a
Speaker 2: way and by faith I will find it. Look at
Speaker 2: somebody say it might be hard to find, but I'll
Speaker 2: find it. Come on, I've looked under the couch for
Speaker 2: things less valuable than this.
Speaker 1: I'm looking for this.
Speaker 2: And today we came to talk about something so fundamental
Speaker 2: and foundational that I pray that it will grip you
Speaker 2: from the inside out by the spirit of God. And
Speaker 2: I want you to repeat it after me, and then
Speaker 2: we'll spend our entire time together today giving a lesson
Speaker 2: on it from the Bible. Maybe hard for you to
Speaker 2: believe this, but you just sang it, and I hope
Speaker 2: that you will begin to live it more and more
Speaker 2: in your life.
Speaker 1: Repeat after me.
Speaker 2: God is not against me, but he's in it with me,
Speaker 2: working through.
Speaker 1: Me, fighting for me. God is not against me.
Speaker 2: Clap your hands like you know, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1: That's the right response.
Speaker 2: Thank you Jesus, and you may be seated, Smile at
Speaker 2: somebody on your way to your seat. I will take
Speaker 2: you now to Jeremiah thirty eight. Jeremiah thirty eight. I'll
Speaker 2: share with you a story that I'll let you decide
Speaker 2: whether it's an uplifting story or not. But it is
Speaker 2: a story that pulled at me in a serious way
Speaker 2: this week, and so I'm very excited to share it
Speaker 2: with you. The Bible says in Jeremiah thirty eight, let's
Speaker 2: drop to verse six. Will be jumping in in the middle,
Speaker 2: but I will give you the backstory as a backfill
Speaker 2: in just a moment.
Speaker 3: Jeremiah thirty eight, verse six.
Speaker 2: So they took Jeremiah and put him into the cistern
Speaker 2: of Malkaija, the King's son, which was in.
Speaker 1: The courtyard of the guard.
Speaker 2: They lowered Jeremiah by ropes into the cistern. It had
Speaker 2: no water in it, only mud, and Jeremiah sank down
Speaker 2: into the mud. But ebed Melick, a Cushike, an official
Speaker 2: in the royal palace, heard that they had put Jeremiah
Speaker 2: into the cistern, and while the king was sitting in
Speaker 2: the Benjamin gate, ebed Melick went out out of the
Speaker 2: palace and said to him, my lord, the King, these
Speaker 2: men have acted wickedly in all they have done to
Speaker 2: Jeremiah the Prophet.
Speaker 1: They have thrown him into.
Speaker 2: A cistern where he will starve to death when there
Speaker 2: is no longer any bread in the city. Then the
Speaker 2: king commanded e bed Melick, the Kushite, take thirty men
Speaker 2: from here with you and lift Jeremiah the Prophet out
Speaker 2: of the cistern before he dies. So ebed Melick took
Speaker 2: the men with him and went to a room under
Speaker 2: the treasury in the palace. He took some old rags
Speaker 2: and worn out closed from there and let them down
Speaker 2: with ropes to Jeremiah in the cistern. E bed Melick
Speaker 2: the Kushite said to Jeremiah, put these old rags and
Speaker 2: worn out clothes under your arms to pad the ropes.
Speaker 2: Jeremiah did so, and they pulled him up with the
Speaker 2: ropes and lifted him out of the cistern. And Jeremiah
Speaker 2: remained in the courtyard of the guard. Say amen, for
Speaker 2: the word of the Lord. Somebody say amen, if you
Speaker 2: know that God has the power to pull you out.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: So I want to speak to you today from this
Speaker 2: subject or this title.
Speaker 1: I want to just call the message this.
Speaker 2: I want to call it instead of uh, rags to riches,
Speaker 2: I want to call it rags to righteous, rags to righteous.
Speaker 2: And as I move further into this talk with you,
Speaker 2: I just want to tell you something that my family
Speaker 2: picks on me about.
Speaker 1: As you settle in and prepare to take notes on
Speaker 1: this sermon. They call me safety Steve.
Speaker 2: The reason is that although I pride myself in being
Speaker 2: somewhat of a risk taker in ministry to reach people
Speaker 2: for Jesus, like doing whatever I need to do to
Speaker 2: get the message across, when it comes to average everyday stuff,
Speaker 2: I'm a little bit of a whimp. I'm a little
Speaker 2: bit fearful. Out of my loving heart, sometimes I go
Speaker 2: a little overboard. I'm not a helicopter parent exactly, but
Speaker 2: I do require bicycle helmets on every bike ride, even
Speaker 2: for Holly. And I'm not saying you'll never catch me
Speaker 2: without a bicycle helmet, but I will usually have on
Speaker 2: a bicycle helmet if you see me, because the shield
Speaker 2: of faith will not stop me from crushing my head
Speaker 2: on the pavement with the way some of y'all drive.
Speaker 1: So I need protection. Everybody say protection.
Speaker 2: How funny thing about my kids is sometimes they confuse
Speaker 2: my protection as punishment.
Speaker 1: I remember clearly one.
Speaker 2: Time we were on vacation and we were getting on
Speaker 2: our bikes to ride, and Elijah was about thirteen, and
Speaker 2: I said, where's your helmet? And he said, Dad, do
Speaker 2: I really have to wear a helmet? I'm thirteen. By
Speaker 2: the way, happy birthday to my newest thirteen year old
Speaker 2: Abigail Faith Thirday.
Speaker 1: Today is her birthday.
Speaker 3: I said, today is her birthday.
Speaker 1: I've now got three teenagers.
Speaker 2: Watch this beard go totally gray over the next few weeks.
Speaker 1: All right.
Speaker 2: So when he turned thirteen, of Liife just said, do
Speaker 2: I really have to wear a helmet? And I said, yeah,
Speaker 2: you really have to wear a helmet? And he said,
Speaker 2: and I quote, but Dad, you're ruining my fit. He
Speaker 2: had exactly dressed the way he wanted and then the
Speaker 2: helmet clashed.
Speaker 1: With the with something that he was wearing. He said,
Speaker 1: you're running my fit.
Speaker 2: I said, son, I don't know if I said it
Speaker 2: this eloquently, but I tried to convey this thought.
Speaker 1: I'm not worried about your fit. I'm worried about your future.
Speaker 2: I would like you to live more than I would
Speaker 2: like you to look good. Somebody say amen, because I'm
Speaker 2: really not talking about bicycle helmets right now. I'm talking
Speaker 2: about God, our father, who is never against us, who
Speaker 2: is always for us. But sometimes what he wants for
Speaker 2: you is so much greater than what you want for you.
Speaker 2: Because God thinks legacy while you think lunch. God thinks
Speaker 2: destiny while you think desire.
Speaker 1: What do I want right now?
Speaker 2: God knows what he's walking you into, and so sometimes
Speaker 2: while you are so worried about messing up your fit,
Speaker 2: God is trying to protect your future. Therefore, we cannot
Speaker 2: assume that when we say God is not against me,
Speaker 2: somebody say it, God.
Speaker 1: Is not against me.
Speaker 2: We cannot assume that that means that God will always
Speaker 2: be in complete agreement with us, any more than I
Speaker 2: allowed Elijah to take off this helmet so it didn't
Speaker 2: clash with his shoes. This is so important as we
Speaker 2: understand the context of the scripture that I read you.
Speaker 2: Because God has a prophet named Jeremiah. Everybody say Jeremiah.
Speaker 2: I'll probably have you talked back to me a little
Speaker 2: bit more today than normal, just to make sure that
Speaker 2: this story, which is unfamiliar, really gets in your heart
Speaker 2: before we finish it today. Jeremiah, of course, was a
Speaker 2: priest who ministered to the southern Kingdom of Judah just
Speaker 2: before they were destroyed, and they were destroyed because of
Speaker 2: their disobedience.
Speaker 1: I want to point that out.
Speaker 2: They were destroyed not because it was their destiny, but
Speaker 2: because they were disobedient. You ever notice how a lot
Speaker 2: of things that we call destiny, really, if we look
Speaker 2: at it, dissect it and take it for what it is,
Speaker 2: and don't deny it, Really, what we call destiny sometimes
Speaker 2: was a series of decisions that we made, and looking
Speaker 2: back at it, we say, that's just the way it happened,
Speaker 2: that's just the way it went, that's just the way
Speaker 2: it unfolded, and there was nothing I could do. And
Speaker 2: yet throughout the Book of Jeremiah we see that what
Speaker 2: we call destiny is a collection of.
Speaker 1: Decisions in many ways.
Speaker 2: In many ways, Jeremiah exists to turn the nation back
Speaker 2: to God, but knowing that they would not turn back
Speaker 2: to God, God sends him as a warning.
Speaker 1: And then after.
Speaker 2: They are taken captive into Babylonian exile. And I know
Speaker 2: I'm covering a lot, but I have to, because you
Speaker 2: have to understand why Jeremiah is in this pit.
Speaker 1: When we pick up in verse.
Speaker 2: Six, Really, Jeremiah's words did not accomplish the purpose that
Speaker 2: he intended them to accomplish.
Speaker 1: Therefore, it would be easy to assume that he failed.
Speaker 1: Yet he did not fail.
Speaker 2: And the Bible says that as he prophesied and told
Speaker 2: the people, you know, you really do need to surren
Speaker 2: and turn back to God. In this particular case, he
Speaker 2: was telling them you need to just go ahead and
Speaker 2: go along with what God is doing. In this particular instance,
Speaker 2: God was sending the Babylonians to take his people captive
Speaker 2: for a season to bring them back to him for
Speaker 2: a greater purpose in the future. God is allowing something
Speaker 2: in their life in order to bring them into alignment
Speaker 2: with Him for their future. Sometimes what God allows is
Speaker 2: for alignment. And when God sees your life getting out
Speaker 2: of alignment with the word that He has spoken and
Speaker 2: the purpose that He desires to achieve, he will allow
Speaker 2: something in your life, even if it feels like an attack.
Speaker 2: God will use the attack of the enemy to bring
Speaker 2: you into alignment with himself.
Speaker 1: Tell me he won't do that.
Speaker 2: Tell me he won't make you put your bicycle helmet
Speaker 2: on and take your phone if you want, because He'd
Speaker 2: rather take your phone than for you to crush your skull.
Speaker 2: And I know this isn't what you expected when we started,
Speaker 2: because I said.
Speaker 4: God is not against me, and yet I'm telling you
Speaker 4: that God is against some of the things that hurt you.
Speaker 2: God is not against you. But he is against some
Speaker 2: of the fake stuff that you call you, that is
Speaker 2: not you, that rots you and robs you of what
Speaker 2: he calls you. Now, now, Jeremiah kept coming to the
Speaker 2: king and saying, I'm telling you you need to go
Speaker 2: with what God is doing. You should have turned earlier.
Speaker 1: You didn't.
Speaker 2: But now if you just surrender, God will say you
Speaker 2: and they still won't surrender. And so these these these
Speaker 2: four officials, these these four cronies of the king, the
Speaker 2: cabinet of the king, uh, the the guys who tell
Speaker 2: him what he wants to hear. They say, you need
Speaker 2: to throw Jeremiah. You need to deal with Jeremiah. Lock
Speaker 2: Jeremiah up.
Speaker 1: Let's put him in a cistern.
Speaker 2: Let's find one of those things that holds water, and
Speaker 2: let's let's throw him in there so he will shut up.
Speaker 2: He's discouraging everybody because he's preaching negativity. He wasn't preaching negativity.
Speaker 2: He was preaching repentance. And repentance is the process by which,
Speaker 2: when you find yourself in a pit, you stop digging.
Speaker 2: That's what repentance is. Repentance is realizing, oh I'm in
Speaker 2: a pit, maybe I should stop digging, Touch your neighbor
Speaker 2: and say stop digging. The best strategy when you find
Speaker 2: yourself in a pit of sin is stop digging. And
Speaker 2: let me just say, if I'm the only one here
Speaker 2: who came to church willing to be honest and vulnerable
Speaker 2: and open today, how many have ever found yourself in
Speaker 2: a pit because of your own sin?
Speaker 1: Let's try that again.
Speaker 2: How many of you have found yourself sinking deeper and
Speaker 2: deeper into something that God tried to get.
Speaker 3: You to stop sooner?
Speaker 2: How many of you waited until the consequence has got
Speaker 2: so bad? How many of you waited until the pain
Speaker 2: became so severe?
Speaker 1: How many of you.
Speaker 2: Waited until the point where now you have to pray
Speaker 2: three times as long because now you've got ten times
Speaker 2: as many issues. You just would have said something when
Speaker 2: you started sinking.
Speaker 3: God is not against me.
Speaker 2: He's always for me, and he's always with me. He's
Speaker 2: always with me, and he's always for me. So now
Speaker 2: we have to answer the big question of Jeremiah thirty eight,
Speaker 2: verse six. Let's go back to that scripture again, because
Speaker 2: now you're really ready for it.
Speaker 1: It says, so.
Speaker 2: They took Jeremiah and put him into the cistern.
Speaker 1: The cistern isn't very big in diameter, only about.
Speaker 2: Three feet, but then it has a bulb at the
Speaker 2: bottom because it's fifteen feet deep, and the deeper it goes,
Speaker 2: the wider it gets. These cisterns were meant to collect
Speaker 2: rain water, not human bodies, and yet in the nation
Speaker 2: of Israel there was not much water to be found.
Speaker 2: The Bible says there was only mud in this cistern.
Speaker 2: Look at it again. They lowered Jeremiah by ropes into
Speaker 2: the cistern. It had no water in it, only mud,
Speaker 2: and Jeremiah sank down.
Speaker 1: Into the mud.
Speaker 3: Which makes sense if Jeremiah sinned.
Speaker 2: I understand sinking when you sin, because I've done it.
Speaker 2: I understand sinking when you're bitter because I've been it.
Speaker 2: I understand sinking in an addiction because I've dealt with that.
Speaker 2: I understand sinking in my own dumb decisions.
Speaker 1: How many of you have ever sunk in stupid.
Speaker 2: It ain't even always sin. Sometimes you just bought a
Speaker 2: time share. It's not necessarily a Bible verse about that,
Speaker 2: but nature reveals seven hundred and sixty two months later,
Speaker 2: you're still sinking, and you've been there three days and
Speaker 2: it's got roaches.
Speaker 1: Now we must ask the question.
Speaker 2: If Jeremiah was speaking for God, if Jeremiah was serving God.
Speaker 1: And not sinning and not stupid.
Speaker 3: And we've all.
Speaker 2: Sunk before because we sinned, And we've all sunk before
Speaker 2: because we were stupid. And when you are sinking in sin,
Speaker 2: you repent. What do you do when you are sinking
Speaker 2: while serving? This is the question that I came to
Speaker 2: have a conversation about today. I'm serving God. I'm not
Speaker 2: saying I'm perfect, but I'm serving God and I'm sinking.
Speaker 2: It would surprise you where some of my sermons come from.
Speaker 1: It would because some of my.
Speaker 2: Sermons, if you asked me where I got them from,
Speaker 2: I would I have to tell you, honestly, I got it.
Speaker 1: From the Mud. Touch somebody next to you and say
Speaker 1: I got it from the Mud.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Some of my sermons that I preached to you, I
Speaker 2: must be honest with you. They came not because I
Speaker 2: was so high, and not because I was so holy,
Speaker 2: and not because I was so right, and not because
Speaker 2: I was so righteous, and not because I was so brilliant,
Speaker 2: and not because I was so bold. But some of
Speaker 2: my sermons that I've preached to you. I got them
Speaker 2: from a muddy place, muddy messages. I know my boots
Speaker 2: are clean at this moment, but some of the stuff
Speaker 2: that I've walked through and that you've walked through to
Speaker 2: be in your seat today would surprise somebody. Some of
Speaker 2: the messages that you get in your life come from
Speaker 2: the mud. Some of the things you help people with
Speaker 2: are from the hell that you've been through that you
Speaker 2: don't want anybody else to go through, And so you
Speaker 2: tell them I've been through this hell, so.
Speaker 3: I could hand you this helmet so I can tell you.
Speaker 1: I said, called a callback, Remember the hell from the bicycle.
Speaker 2: Remember when he was mad because I made him wear
Speaker 2: the helmet, But I told him, I don't.
Speaker 1: Want you to have to go through hell when you
Speaker 1: could just put on this helmet.
Speaker 2: I don't want you to have to suffer the consequences
Speaker 2: when you could just listen to God. I don't want
Speaker 2: you to have to go through sixteen sexual partners.
Speaker 1: To find out that you can't get it.
Speaker 2: From that, And after they're gone, you're still left with you.
Speaker 2: And if you can't be complete in Christ, nobody can
Speaker 2: complete you.
Speaker 1: See, you gotta get.
Speaker 3: This from the mud.
Speaker 2: The people who are praising God on this point have
Speaker 2: been through something. But people who are cute are still
Speaker 2: not climbing out yet.
Speaker 3: But when you've been stuck in something and you finally.
Speaker 2: Take a step out of it, it'll make you jump
Speaker 2: up and holler. Look how he lifted me with nothing
Speaker 2: else could help, nothing but mud in the cistern and Jeremiah,
Speaker 2: God's man is in the mind. What is God's man
Speaker 2: doing in the mud.
Speaker 1: What is a prophet doing in a pit?
Speaker 2: I thought if you worked for God, he would work
Speaker 2: it out for you, working through me. I thought God
Speaker 2: was fighting for you, So shouldn't Jeremiah thirty eight, verse
Speaker 2: six read Duslie.
Speaker 3: So they took Jeremiah and.
Speaker 1: Tried to put him into.
Speaker 2: The cistern, but the angel Gabriel grabbed him by the
Speaker 2: throat and said, touch not mine anointed. So this one
Speaker 2: I'm learning because I talk to people who love Christ
Speaker 2: and have cancer. Because I talked to people who raised
Speaker 2: their kids I You're an admonition of the Lord, and
Speaker 2: their kids still went buck wild crazy, never wore a helmet.
Speaker 1: I could say other stuff, but I pray for me.
Speaker 1: I feel unfiltered right now.
Speaker 2: I don't want this message to get so muddy that
Speaker 2: you missed the heart of it. And the point of
Speaker 2: it is you can do everything right and things still
Speaker 2: go wrong. I release every parent of the parental guilt
Speaker 2: that says if you would have put them in the
Speaker 2: special school when they were two and a half years old,
Speaker 2: if you would have taught them Spanish by the time
Speaker 2: they were four, they would have been doctors.
Speaker 1: They would have been the president. First of all, they
Speaker 1: can't be the president till they're over eighty.
Speaker 2: Apparently, I told you it's getting money, it's getting muddy.
Speaker 2: This is the dirty version I guess today. Yeah, it's
Speaker 2: good to be back home. You can't say this kind
Speaker 2: of stuff just anywhere.
Speaker 1: I can't talk like this.
Speaker 2: In Philadelphia. We're talking about Jeremiah, God's man in the Mud,
Speaker 2: God's man in the Mud.
Speaker 1: And notice how I said that he sank down into
Speaker 1: the mud.
Speaker 2: Now, I'm just going to minister this for a moment,
Speaker 2: because it seems to me very important. Strong people sink.
Speaker 2: Strong people sink, and if we want to get really
Speaker 2: technical about it, the more weighty the object, the more
Speaker 2: quickly and deeply it sinks. Strong anointing means strong attacks.
Speaker 2: Now I see why he was sinking because he was
Speaker 2: saying something. Now I see why he was under attack
Speaker 2: because he was valuable. Now I see why he was
Speaker 2: under attack because.
Speaker 1: He had an assignment.
Speaker 2: Do you understand that about your life, that your assignment
Speaker 2: to glorify God, your assignment to shine a light for Christ,
Speaker 2: your assignment to make a difference in the lives of others,
Speaker 2: will sometimes cause you to sink. So, then full disclosure,
Speaker 2: God is not against me. He's in it with me,
Speaker 2: working through me. Fighting for me was written by me
Speaker 2: one morning driving to this church to preach to this
Speaker 2: congregation whom I love, and the anxiety of standing up
Speaker 2: to preach will often create in me a fear that
Speaker 2: I have nothing to say and I'm not worthy to
Speaker 2: say it. One morning, as I drove up to the church,
Speaker 2: I begin to say to myself, God, I thank you
Speaker 2: today that you are working through me as I preach,
Speaker 2: and that you want me to do a good job.
Speaker 2: In that amazing thought, why would I even have to
Speaker 2: tell myself that? Well, let me tell you. The reason
Speaker 2: I have to say, God is not against me. He's
Speaker 2: in it with me, working through me, fighting for me,
Speaker 2: is because just because God doesn't ever line up against me.
Speaker 2: Just because God is not against me doesn't mean that
Speaker 2: nobody else is.
Speaker 3: There have been times in my life.
Speaker 2: And ministry where people have uttered an unkind word or
Speaker 2: two in my direction. Therefore, if you are not intentional,
Speaker 2: you will begin to assimilate the hatred of peoples, of people,
Speaker 2: the opposition of people, or even the trials of your life,
Speaker 2: and you will begin to think that since they are
Speaker 2: like that, and since life is like that, God is
Speaker 2: not like that. When we say God is not against me,
Speaker 2: perhaps it seems to you unnecessary.
Speaker 1: Perhaps you've never had the thought that God was against you.
Speaker 1: But is it possible that.
Speaker 2: While confessing God is for me, that life is coming
Speaker 2: against you in a way that is making you wonder,
Speaker 2: if God is with me, why is there only mud.
Speaker 1: In this pit.
Speaker 2: I don't know if you noticed, but the one thing
Speaker 2: that was never mentioned in the chapter that I read
Speaker 2: you was the presence of God. It does not say
Speaker 2: that Jeremy I was thrown into the pit, but God
Speaker 2: was with him in the pit. It says that about
Speaker 2: Joseph in prison and the Old Testament, But this is
Speaker 2: a little different.
Speaker 1: This is one of.
Speaker 2: Those moments where Jeremiah must have been thinking as he
Speaker 2: was sinking, where are you God? We know that he
Speaker 2: thought this way because in the Book of Lamentations, I mean,
Speaker 2: think about the name of that book. Jeremiah wrote that
Speaker 2: book lament It means to grief, it means the question.
Speaker 2: And in that book as well as the book that
Speaker 2: bears his name, many times he would speak the word
Speaker 2: of the Lord, but he would also question within himself, God,
Speaker 2: if I'm your man, what's up with this mud? This
Speaker 2: is his third imprisonment for preaching the word of the Lord.
Speaker 3: God.
Speaker 2: If I'm your servant, why am I in this cistern? God,
Speaker 2: you called me to be a prophet. You told me
Speaker 2: before I was born that you knew me in a
Speaker 2: point to me. And yet he's learning, as we all
Speaker 2: must learn, that just because you are appointed doesn't mean
Speaker 2: you'll never be attacked.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna say it again.
Speaker 2: I know you don't want to wear this helmet, but
Speaker 2: I don't want your head to crash on the pavement
Speaker 2: that you think just because you have a purpose and
Speaker 2: a promise from God that there will be no pits.
Speaker 2: Because if I preach this, but I don't tell you
Speaker 2: about the pitstops on the way to purpose. You will smash,
Speaker 2: you will splatter, you will smudge, you will stop, You
Speaker 2: will feel stuck.
Speaker 1: In the moments when the feeling goes away.
Speaker 2: And yet the time to sing, God is not against me.
Speaker 1: That's pretty good.
Speaker 3: God is not against me.
Speaker 2: The time to sing it.
Speaker 1: Is not when you see it.
Speaker 2: Let me tell you when you need to sing, God
Speaker 2: is not against me.
Speaker 1: Singing a minute.
Speaker 3: God is not against me.
Speaker 2: Sing it when you're sinking. Sing it when you're sinking.
Speaker 2: Tell your neighbor. Sing it the next time you sink.
Speaker 2: So this is how it's gonna work in your life.
Speaker 2: When you start to sink into the pit of your
Speaker 2: own problems. When you start to sink, God feel annointed
Speaker 2: to help somebody up today. I see you've been sinking.
Speaker 2: I see you've been going down in it. I see
Speaker 2: you've been going back to past habits that are beneath you.
Speaker 2: I see you've been going into memories that you need
Speaker 2: to leave in a room.
Speaker 1: But they keep coming out.
Speaker 2: I see you keep going into self pity. I see
Speaker 2: you keep going into old ways of processing. I see
Speaker 2: you keep going into despair. I see it keep going
Speaker 2: into suicidal thoughts. I see it keep going back to
Speaker 2: toxic relationships. I see it keep going back to the
Speaker 2: things that break your heart. I see it keep going
Speaker 2: back to the things that pulled you. I'll see it
Speaker 2: keep going back to the things that offer you temporary relief.
Speaker 2: And I see you sinking, but I see you singing
Speaker 2: as you're sinking.
Speaker 3: Love lifted me.
Speaker 1: They doesn't mean I won't sink. It means I won't
Speaker 1: stay there. Yeah, I was about to look for my band.
Speaker 1: I didn't know if y' went to sleep on me.
Speaker 2: But high five somebody and say I'm sinking, but I'm singing.
Speaker 1: Please do not let our songs.
Speaker 2: Confuse you into thinking that we never sink. Of course,
Speaker 2: we have low moments. It's called human experience. It's called
Speaker 2: being born of a woman. It's called having a name.
Speaker 2: Sure that was given to us by Adam, but was
Speaker 2: redeemed by Christ. And when I was sinking, he reached
Speaker 2: down and rescued me.
Speaker 1: I need somebody.
Speaker 3: Who's been rescued to get up and rejoice that he
Speaker 3: rescued you. Then we're getting there. We're getting there.
Speaker 2: We're getting there, We're getting there, We're getting there. I'm
Speaker 2: not rejoicing because the enemy never resisted me. I'm rejoicing
Speaker 2: because when he resisted me, God rescued me.
Speaker 1: And it is never mentioned. Y'all sit down, let me teach.
Speaker 2: It is never mentioned in this scripture that God intervened.
Speaker 1: But I'm gonna show you something. Who Thank you, Jesus.
Speaker 1: Thank you Jesus.
Speaker 2: Never write up it before went to cemetery seminary, went
Speaker 2: to Bible training school.
Speaker 3: You never ride a bouttle.
Speaker 2: I read about Jeremiah, but look what happened.
Speaker 1: When he was sinking.
Speaker 2: And this is what's happening in your life right now,
Speaker 2: whether you realize or not, whether you see it or not,
Speaker 2: whether you feel it or not, whether you believe it.
Speaker 1: Right now, you're just sing i' HIPing peopleup because I
Speaker 1: got to gi himdenergy. And that's what I do on
Speaker 1: Sunday morning. That's not this what I do on Sunday morning.
Speaker 1: This is what I do on Monday morning. This is
Speaker 1: what I do on Tuesday morning. This is what I'm
Speaker 1: do on Wednesday morning.
Speaker 3: This is what I'm doing out in my own.
Speaker 2: Money moment so I can encourage myself in the law.
Speaker 1: Why y'all looking at me like you work security.
Speaker 2: You look suspicious of this, and yet I am telling
Speaker 2: you that I sink.
Speaker 3: Safety.
Speaker 1: Steve is also.
Speaker 2: Sinking Steve, and speaking Steve is authoritative sinking.
Speaker 1: Stephen has to remember, no, no, no, he's not against me.
Speaker 1: Life is, trolls are aging is.
Speaker 2: But God's note. You know what Peter showed me in
Speaker 2: the New Testament. And then I'm about to show you
Speaker 2: something that's gonna blow you away. Peter showed me in Matthew,
Speaker 2: chapter fourteen, verse thirty. I think I gave them the scripture.
Speaker 2: Put it up there if I gave it to you,
Speaker 2: and y'all clap if they put it up on the screen, Mathew.
Speaker 1: But okay, I can say, right, Peter's walking toward Jesus
Speaker 1: on the water.
Speaker 2: Right, walking toward Jesus on the water. He has a
Speaker 2: path toward purpose. Right, he has a path toward purpose.
Speaker 2: And then all of a sudden he saw the wind
Speaker 2: which was against him, and he was afraid and beginning
Speaker 2: to sink. He cried out, Lord save me. That's the
Speaker 2: only verse you need for your sinking moments. That's what
Speaker 2: you need. We'll put it backup, put it back up.
Speaker 2: I'm not doing it yet. He started sinking because of
Speaker 2: what he saw. The wind was against him. Sometimes what
Speaker 2: you see is against you, so you forget what is
Speaker 2: in you that is for you, and beginning to sink.
Speaker 2: So Peter doesn't sound like this when he cries, don't
Speaker 2: go oh, you're not gargling anything. I don't even think
Speaker 2: he was up to his waist. He said, oh, no,
Speaker 2: I'm not going all the way down there when Jesus
Speaker 2: is right here.
Speaker 1: I want you to get that.
Speaker 2: Mentality about your day. I'm not gonna do it after
Speaker 2: I drink, ain't ate glasses. I'm gonna cry out when
Speaker 2: I start to sink. I'm not gonna do it after
Speaker 2: I've already gone off on everybody in my phone and
Speaker 2: ruined all my friendships.
Speaker 1: When I start to sink. Put it up one more time.
Speaker 2: He started to sink, and he said, what do you
Speaker 2: say when you start to sink? God is not against me.
Speaker 2: So you start to sink, the wind is against you.
Speaker 2: Remind yourself, God's not. God's not. They might be God's not.
Speaker 2: It might be God's not. Somebody say, God's not. If
Speaker 2: every demon in Hell is against you, I'm done with
Speaker 2: the verse. Now God's not. God's not done with you.
Speaker 2: God's not fed up with you. God's not gone. And
Speaker 2: I'll show you this from Jeremiah thirty eight. Now we're
Speaker 2: ready for Jeremiah thirty eight, verse seven. He was sinking
Speaker 2: down in the mud verse seven.
Speaker 1: But yeah, you missed a shout. Go to verse six.
Speaker 1: We'll do it again.
Speaker 2: I know, always catch up class. I've been going a
Speaker 2: few weeks, so you don't have my rhythm right now.
Speaker 2: Let's do it again. And he sank down into the mud.
Speaker 1: But let's do it again.
Speaker 2: He sank down into the mud. But I'm not shouting
Speaker 2: about the mud. I'm shouting about the butt. I'm sinking
Speaker 2: into the feeling of anxiety.
Speaker 1: You got it.
Speaker 3: I'm sinking into the old way of doing it.
Speaker 2: One of the best scriptures that you'll ever see is
Speaker 2: we were dead in our transgressions and sins.
Speaker 1: But God, but God.
Speaker 3: And yet the Bible.
Speaker 2: Doesn't mention God in this passage, does it.
Speaker 3: It says he was sinking in the mud.
Speaker 2: But Ebed Melic, baby name possibility right here, Ebed Melick,
Speaker 2: your child will be the only one in class raising
Speaker 2: their hand if your name me bed Melic, Ebet Melik,
Speaker 2: and eat.
Speaker 1: The Olpion says here Kushite. It also says.
Speaker 2: A official in the royal palace, but that's not specific enough.
Speaker 2: He was a eunuch, a eunuch who was brought over
Speaker 2: as a slave and was put in a position of service.
Speaker 2: In fact, the word ebed melick. Ebed means servant, Melick
Speaker 2: means king. But ibad Melick, that's your cue.
Speaker 1: Put it on the screen.
Speaker 2: Voice, But Ibad Melick a kushite, a eunuch.
Speaker 3: The eunuchs, when they were brought over to serve, were castrated.
Speaker 1: The Levinical law forbade anyone who was.
Speaker 3: Castrated from entering the assembly of the Lord.
Speaker 2: So I want you to get the preciousness of this
Speaker 2: partnership and the unlikeliness of this deliverance is that a
Speaker 2: man from Ethiopia, who was brought to a land that
Speaker 2: was being ravaged by enemies, who was serving a king
Speaker 2: who had no courage, speaks up and steps up as
Speaker 2: Jeremiah sinks in a cistern in a pit, he speaks
Speaker 2: up as a servant in the palace. God is working
Speaker 2: in places you can't see. God is working through people
Speaker 2: you don't know about.
Speaker 1: God is working through people who you think don't belong
Speaker 1: in that position.
Speaker 2: I'm pointing it out to you because some people have
Speaker 2: let you down. Maybe some people have been like the
Speaker 2: men in this passage who threw Jeremiah in the pit. Oh,
Speaker 2: thanks a lot. I was just trying to help. But
Speaker 2: while they were throwing him in the pit, God was
Speaker 2: already preparing somebody in the palace to steak up on
Speaker 2: his behalf. So I'm preaching this word to somebody who
Speaker 2: feels forgotten. You are not forgotten. God is just going
Speaker 2: to use something foreign. I said, God is going to
Speaker 2: use something foreign.
Speaker 3: Think how wild this is.
Speaker 2: God needs somebody to move to get Jeremiah out of
Speaker 2: the pit. Who does he choose to use somebody who
Speaker 2: wasn't even allowed to come worship. You're gonna have to
Speaker 2: watch this message twice to get it, because it's going
Speaker 2: to remind you that no matter who betrays you, God's
Speaker 2: always got a butt.
Speaker 1: Ebed melick.
Speaker 2: Yeah, let's pause and give.
Speaker 1: Him praise.
Speaker 2: For every ebed melic. And he not only comes to
Speaker 2: the king, but he confronts the king. This kind of
Speaker 2: courage that you have when you know that God is
Speaker 2: not against me, but he's in it with me, working
Speaker 2: through me, fighting for me. Isn't it amazing that you
Speaker 2: would stand up to a king and he is not
Speaker 2: even considered a true worshiper, not by that culture.
Speaker 1: Is who he wants to use.
Speaker 2: I want to talk to everybody who doesn't even have
Speaker 2: a high school education.
Speaker 1: God uses who he wants to use. I want to
Speaker 1: talk to everybody who's.
Speaker 2: Had an abortion and people try to make you feel
Speaker 2: terrible about it.
Speaker 1: God uses who he wants to use, and he's going
Speaker 1: to give you something in your future to help somebody.
Speaker 2: And so let's turn those tears into testimony so you
Speaker 2: can help somebody, so you can hand somebody a helmet.
Speaker 1: I want to speak to everybody who has been.
Speaker 2: Cast out, cast aside, cast graded and left any crazy,
Speaker 2: that the one who was left out is the one
Speaker 2: who lifted up.
Speaker 1: Sinking in loneliness.
Speaker 2: Right now, Oh, but Ebed Melick, I've been spending time
Speaker 2: with this guy all week.
Speaker 1: The more I studied them, the more I touched me.
Speaker 1: What he did?
Speaker 2: He heard they put Jeremiah into the cistern, and the
Speaker 2: king is sitting in the gate. Now, I want to
Speaker 2: point something out. The King is in the palace, Jeremiah
Speaker 2: is in the pit. God is not with the king.
Speaker 2: God is with Jeremiah. No, no, no, get this, get this,
Speaker 2: get this. The palace does not prove God's presence. The
Speaker 2: pit does not prove his absence.
Speaker 1: Stop looking at the circumstances.
Speaker 2: Every time you get out there, you go, well, it
Speaker 2: must not be God's will. It didn't work out, well,
Speaker 2: it must not be God's will. It's really hard. Well,
Speaker 2: it must not be working. We've all felt that way.
Speaker 2: But if you're serving while you're sinking, and if you're
Speaker 2: sinking while you're serving, know that God has an Ebed
Speaker 2: Melick position in the palace. Verse eight. Ebed Melick went
Speaker 2: out of the palace and said to him, my lord
Speaker 2: the King, these men have acted wickedly, and all they've
Speaker 2: done to Jeremiah the prophet, this is not right.
Speaker 1: They've thrown him into a cistern.
Speaker 2: He will starve to death when there's no longer any
Speaker 2: bread in the city. And the king commanded he bed
Speaker 2: Melik the Kushai, all right, take thirty men from here
Speaker 2: with you. Thirty this is overkill. He be Melick, like,
Speaker 2: I don't really need thirty. No, take thirty, Take thirty.
Speaker 2: Here's what I want to prophesy. When God does lift
Speaker 2: you out, there is going to be more than enough
Speaker 2: strength to do it. Yeah, I'll tell you why God
Speaker 2: is a show off.
Speaker 1: God wants to show his glory.
Speaker 2: God sends thirty men for a task that three could
Speaker 2: handle them. But not only do they have extra resource,
Speaker 2: not only does God have more than enough power to
Speaker 2: pull you out of the pit, but the Bible says
Speaker 2: he told him to take a rope and go down
Speaker 2: there and get him out of the cistern before he dies.
Speaker 2: In other words, he's sinking, but he's not all the
Speaker 2: way sunk. He's sinking, but something stopped him from sinking.
Speaker 1: Did you ever.
Speaker 2: Wonder why God still left you here after all you've
Speaker 2: been through. Did you ever wonder why what came against
Speaker 2: you didn't take you totally out?
Speaker 1: I believe it's.
Speaker 2: Because God has something more for you that he wants
Speaker 2: to do through you. After all, we were singing a
Speaker 2: minute ago. He's in it with me, working through me.
Speaker 2: And I want to ask the question today, not only
Speaker 2: what do you need to be lifted out of, but
Speaker 2: who have you lifted lately? Maybe God put you in
Speaker 2: a position to lift somebody. Did you ever think about
Speaker 2: the fact that maybe the reason you're in your pit
Speaker 2: is because you won't lift anybody else out of theirs.
Speaker 3: I want God to be in my pit with me.
Speaker 2: But what if he is using me to visit somebody
Speaker 2: else in their pit. I want you to start using
Speaker 2: everything you go through for God's glory. The moment something
Speaker 2: bad starts happening to you, I want you to go
Speaker 2: on a counterattack. I want you to say that if
Speaker 2: the enemy is gonna come against me, he's gonna learn
Speaker 2: that it's gonna cost him a little bit. So every
Speaker 2: time you discourage me, devil, just know I'm gonna send
Speaker 2: three texts to encourage somebody else.
Speaker 3: Or you want some Oh, you want some.
Speaker 1: You want to put me.
Speaker 3: Down in the pit?
Speaker 1: Wants me lift somebody else up?
Speaker 2: With the strength I do have, with the gift I
Speaker 2: do have, with the skill I do have, with the
Speaker 2: life I do have, with the opportunity I do have.
Speaker 2: I thought somebody and say I came to lift you up.
Speaker 2: If you don't have faith, borrow mind, if you don't
Speaker 2: have joy, borrow mind, you.
Speaker 1: Can surf on my way for a little while.
Speaker 3: You might be going through something, So hitch on.
Speaker 2: To me and let's get out of this pit to
Speaker 2: get up. I'm looking for a lifter in this house,
Speaker 2: an unlikely lifter. You've been through help, but you're praying
Speaker 2: for other people.
Speaker 1: You're trying to hold.
Speaker 2: Your own life together, but you're a source of comfort.
Speaker 1: After all.
Speaker 2: The famine was affecting the bed Melick too, and he
Speaker 2: found the strength to lift Jeremiah.
Speaker 1: And I got to show you one more thing because
Speaker 1: when I rean in, I thought, what a beautiful story.
Speaker 2: How sometimes life puts us in a pit, and we
Speaker 2: don't always feel God's presence.
Speaker 1: In a pit.
Speaker 2: And sometimes when God sends a person to bring us
Speaker 2: out of our pit, we don't recognize him.
Speaker 1: It's not what we expected.
Speaker 2: And I thought, that's a great story, because everybody in
Speaker 2: here either needs to be more like Jeremiah and don't
Speaker 2: die in the pit, or be more like Ebed Melick
Speaker 2: and come get somebody out of a pit. And the
Speaker 2: Lord said, and he didn't say it like this, but
Speaker 2: the Lord said, dummy, how did he do it? And
Speaker 2: I read about the ropes It said that the King
Speaker 2: told him take thirty men from here and lift Jeremiah
Speaker 2: of the systern before he dies, and Ebed Melick took
Speaker 2: them in with him verse eleven, and went to a
Speaker 2: room under the treasury in the palace, and he took
Speaker 2: some old rags and worn out clothes from there and
Speaker 2: let them down with ropes to Jeremiah in the cistern.
Speaker 1: Now you're Jeremiah.
Speaker 2: You've been sinking, you've been starving, and something starts coming
Speaker 2: down into the cistern, and you've been down here and
Speaker 2: you've been wondering.
Speaker 1: Am I done?
Speaker 2: And we can all relate to this, even if not
Speaker 2: this extreme example, that we are the prophet of God
Speaker 2: to the nation in the time.
Speaker 1: Of backsliding and wickedness. We can relate to these moments.
Speaker 2: In the pit where we do not feel sense or
Speaker 2: discern the presence of God, and all of a sudden
Speaker 2: here comes the rope. But not yet, for the Bible
Speaker 2: says in verse eleven that e bed Melick took them
Speaker 2: in with him, and on his way to the cistern,
Speaker 2: he has to make a pit stop.
Speaker 1: Wat watch off. He stops by the.
Speaker 2: Treasury in the palace, And if you're one of the
Speaker 2: thirty men with him, you are thinking, no doubt, Oh,
Speaker 2: he's going to get some gold or some silver, and
Speaker 2: we're going to buy Jeremiah out of the pit. But
Speaker 2: look at verse eleven. He doesn't go into the room
Speaker 2: where the riches are. The Bible says, he went to
Speaker 2: a room under the treasury. The treasury is where the
Speaker 2: valuables were stored. The treasury was the room that accessed
Speaker 2: all of the spices and all of the relics, and
Speaker 2: all of the valuables and all of the memorials.
Speaker 1: He doesn't go in that room.
Speaker 2: He went to a room under the treasury in the palace,
Speaker 2: a room that he knew how to get into.
Speaker 1: What kind of room is this?
Speaker 2: And why are we stopping on our way to a
Speaker 2: rescue to go into a room under the treasury? So
Speaker 2: he stops. He goes into a room, and he emerges
Speaker 2: sometime later with an unexpected resource. Because this room under
Speaker 2: the treasury is not where they kept the riches. That's
Speaker 2: where they kept the rags. And on his way to
Speaker 2: rescue Jeremiah, God's man in the mud, who has been
Speaker 2: sinking and starving and can't spare another second.
Speaker 1: Put the verse up, please. He goes into the room.
Speaker 2: And took some old rags, some old rags and worn
Speaker 2: out clothes from.
Speaker 3: There, and he let them down with ropes.
Speaker 2: To Jeremiah in the sister and verse twelve says the
Speaker 2: welcome voice of he Bed Melick echoed and said to Jeremiah,
Speaker 2: put these old rags and worn out clothes under your arms. Jeremiah,
Speaker 2: we've come to help you. I'm Ebed Mellick. I'm an Ethiopian.
Speaker 2: I'm not the kind of person that you're used to.
Speaker 2: But God has put me in a position, and he.
Speaker 3: Heard your prayers. And we're here, Jeremiah.
Speaker 2: And I got thirty of my boys, and we're about
Speaker 2: to get you out of this pit.
Speaker 1: I said, we're about to get you out of this pit. Jeremiah.
Speaker 2: We're about to get you out of this pit. We
Speaker 2: got enough power to do it.
Speaker 1: We've got a.
Speaker 2: Heart to do it. It's the purpose we came here for.
Speaker 2: But Jeremiah verse twelve, Please, Jeremiah, before we pull.
Speaker 1: You out of this pit, put these rags under your arms,
Speaker 1: and put these clothes under your arms.
Speaker 3: I know they're old, I know they're worn out.
Speaker 2: But I brought you something, Jeremiah, that you didn't expect.
Speaker 2: But I'm gonna drop it to you now. I'm going
Speaker 2: to drop you these rags before I drop you this
Speaker 2: rope I'm going to These rags came from our house.
Speaker 2: I was on my way out this morning, and before
Speaker 2: I came to preach to you, it crossed my mind
Speaker 2: to make.
Speaker 1: A pitstop because I wanted to.
Speaker 2: Stand in this sermon in the moment and speak to
Speaker 2: everybody who's waiting for the ropes to come, waiting for
Speaker 2: the ropes to pull you out, and knowing that God
Speaker 2: has the power to pull you out of it, every stronghold,
Speaker 2: every wicked thing, every low place, every spiritual demonic force
Speaker 2: that is pulling you down. God is greater than the
Speaker 2: gravity of that, and he asked the power to pull
Speaker 2: you out. But I heard the voice of Ebed Melick saying,
Speaker 2: before you grab those ropes, I.
Speaker 1: Want to give you these rags.
Speaker 2: And I know they don't look like much, and I
Speaker 2: know you don't see the purpose in them. And I
Speaker 2: know that this is something that normally people would throw away.
Speaker 2: But Jeremiah, I brought you a rope, and I brought
Speaker 2: you some rags.
Speaker 5: The rags always come before the rope. The rags always
Speaker 5: come before the rope.
Speaker 2: And I'm saying this because you've been in a pit
Speaker 2: praying for God to provide for you, and he is.
Speaker 2: He's given you rags right now, Jeremiah, I'm gonna drop
Speaker 2: these rags.
Speaker 3: I work in the treasury, and I know about.
Speaker 2: A secret room where they keep the old cloths and
Speaker 2: the old rags and the discarded clothes.
Speaker 1: And I came to bring you something.
Speaker 2: That people would throw away, but that God is going
Speaker 2: to use so that when I drop this rope, it
Speaker 2: will not kill you. So that when I drop this rope,
Speaker 2: when I pull you out of this pit, when you
Speaker 2: take these rags and put them under your arms, when
Speaker 2: the ropes pull you up, when the ropes bring you out,
Speaker 2: because of the rags that I'm dropping now, the ropes
Speaker 2: are going to do what they're supposed to do. If
Speaker 2: I didn't give you the rags, you couldn't handle the ropes.
Speaker 2: So you're praying for ropes. But God has given you rags.
Speaker 2: And it is the same hand of Almighty God. It
Speaker 2: is Jesus Christ, the Alpha, the Omega, the lamb of
Speaker 2: God is the lion. The one who wore the rags
Speaker 2: is the one who holds the rope. And I'm telling
Speaker 2: you this right now because I see God dropping stuff
Speaker 2: into your pit, dropping stuff you took for granted, I
Speaker 2: don't even know what's in this basket, but God does,
Speaker 2: and God is sending it, and God is giving it,
Speaker 2: and God is supplying it, and God is answering, and
Speaker 2: God is giving, and God is supplying, and God is saying,
Speaker 2: when you take those rags that look like nothing, and
Speaker 2: you'll get ready for what I'm about to do. When
Speaker 2: I say, three, Jeremiah.
Speaker 1: Pull you up out of every can.
Speaker 3: I'm to pull you up.
Speaker 2: Oudam generation poverty about to pull you up out of
Speaker 2: despair on bree Let's.
Speaker 3: Praise him for the rags.
Speaker 6: What dude, free the rash, for the rags, for the rags.
Speaker 2: The rag is not the rope. The rag is what
Speaker 2: gets you ready for it. And I feel God getting
Speaker 2: somebody ready for your next season, your next assignment, your
Speaker 2: next endeavor, your next moment, your next move. That's the
Speaker 2: message of the Gospel, not rags to rich, but rags
Speaker 2: to righteous.
Speaker 1: Because he became sin who knew no sin Romans five
Speaker 1: twenty one.
Speaker 2: I hear you calling me, he became sin who knew
Speaker 2: no sin.
Speaker 3: He dropped his rags that I might become righteous.
Speaker 2: And I speak today by the spirit of God that
Speaker 2: the thing you've been overlooking. That's your rag, the thing
Speaker 2: that you've been waiting for it to be over. That's
Speaker 2: your preparation, the thing that you've been praying God to
Speaker 2: take away. That's how he's getting you ready. And when
Speaker 2: you're ready, here, calm the ropes here, Calm the ropes here,
Speaker 2: calm the Roman.
Speaker 1: Touch. Three people say, here come the ropes and the
Speaker 1: rose wrapped in. And you say, but, Beessor Stephen, I
Speaker 1: have no e bed Melick.
Speaker 2: Oh, you haven't met him yet. Be means servant, Melick
Speaker 2: means king. Have you not met the servant king?
Speaker 3: Have you not met our Emanuel?
Speaker 2: Have you not met the one who laid aside his
Speaker 2: crown is king and wrapped himself in the rags of
Speaker 2: flesh to.
Speaker 1: Make you righteous? You haven't e beed Melick. His name
Speaker 1: is Jesus.
Speaker 2: For every pit you've ever been in, Jesus was my
Speaker 2: ebed Melick.
Speaker 1: Jesus was my fourth man. Jesus as my rescuer. Jesus
Speaker 1: dropped these.
Speaker 7: Rags and washed my feet and made me righteous.
Speaker 2: I'm speaking to everybody today who's in a pit, and
Speaker 2: I want you to watch.
Speaker 1: For the rags.
Speaker 2: To the rescue it's going to be the rags. Do
Speaker 2: you understand what I'm saying to you. It's gonna be that.
Speaker 2: You're like, but I don't want that. I want to
Speaker 2: rope and God's like, this will get you ready for that.
Speaker 2: And if it's not that, it's this. So take this sin.
Speaker 1: Get ready because the ropes are coming. The ropes are coming.
Speaker 1: The ropes are coming. The ropes are coming.
Speaker 3: The ropes are coming. The ropes are coming. The ropes
Speaker 3: are coming.
Speaker 1: He has the power to pull me out. What you're
Speaker 1: gonna do with these rags? I know what I'm gonna do.
Speaker 2: I learned it from Proverbs twenty four to sixteen. The
Speaker 2: Bible says that the righteous may fall seven times. I
Speaker 2: might be in the mud seven times, but they rise again,
Speaker 2: they rise again, they rise again.
Speaker 1: So chid to God.
Speaker 2: I just wanted to encourage your heart that God is.
Speaker 1: Not against you. He's in it with you.
Speaker 2: He's working through you, He's fighting for you. Somebody shout,
Speaker 2: God is not against me. God is not against me.
Speaker 3: Now high five.
Speaker 2: Everybody you can reach us, say help us on the way.
Speaker 3: He'll got the rocks, He'll.
Speaker 6: Come the eyes.
Speaker 3: So the cat he's sitting with.
Speaker 6: Me working through working threw me, fight and fall hay, call.
Speaker 3: Me God, it's not a catte. He's hitting with me.
Speaker 2: He's working, droning aroundy.
Speaker 3: Baddy, you already for me. He's got that's all get
Speaker 3: ready already he's.
Speaker 6: Hitting with me. Tell my working through you already there
Speaker 6: fdny fock.
Speaker 3: We got all this out cast me. He'll pull you out.
Speaker 3: He's hitting it with me.
Speaker 1: Don't want the help.
Speaker 3: Work and threw me.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna try not for.
Speaker 3: You're body cat he com he's sitting with me. I'm
Speaker 3: so holdly work you threw me and come, series of men.
Speaker 3: He's not a Cassie. Lift alof you with me, Lift
Speaker 3: about my.
Speaker 6: Left.
Speaker 3: That the day love me guy, he's not the.
Speaker 2: Day offhe.
Speaker 6: He's doing with me.
Speaker 3: You're working roomy. He's fighting for me.
Speaker 6: God, he's not Cassy. He's in it with me. Ready
Speaker 6: for me, God, I gusty.
Speaker 2: Bow your head, close your eyes, say thank you Jesus.
Speaker 1: For being in this pit with me. Oh, your presence
Speaker 1: is wonderful.
Speaker 3: Lord, even more intensified when we don't feel it.
Speaker 1: You are the God of rags to righteousness.
Speaker 2: Thank you for what you've done in our lives. Thank
Speaker 2: you for cleansing us. Now I want to pray for
Speaker 2: somebody who needs to receive.
Speaker 1: The gift of.
Speaker 3: Jesus Christ, the gift of salvation.
Speaker 1: It is a gift you can't earn it.
Speaker 2: In fact, the Bible says that our own righteousness is
Speaker 2: like filthy rags.
Speaker 1: So that means you don't sit.
Speaker 2: Here and say, Okay, God, I'm gonna get my life together.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna be better. I'm gonna stop cussing, I'm gonna
Speaker 2: stop drinking, I'm gonna stop doing all the bad stuff.
Speaker 2: No stop, you're just gonna sink deeper thinking that way.
Speaker 2: You need an ey beed Melick to rescue you. You
Speaker 2: need a strong arm, you need a God. You need
Speaker 2: a savior. Right now, in this moment, the savior of
Speaker 2: the world is in this place, wherever you are.
Speaker 1: I'm not saying just this room. I'm saying wherever you are.
Speaker 2: God knows how to go into the rag room of
Speaker 2: your life and turn it into something wonderful. Right now,
Speaker 2: I want to pray for those who need to give
Speaker 2: your life to Jesus for the first time, or you
Speaker 2: need to recommit your life to trusting in His grace,
Speaker 2: repent of your sin, turn.
Speaker 1: To Him and live and live. I'm going to lead
Speaker 1: you in a prayer right now.
Speaker 2: We're going to pray it out loud for the benefit
Speaker 2: of all those who are coming to God for the
Speaker 2: first time, are coming back to him. You pray this prayer,
Speaker 2: and God will lift you from the pit. You pray
Speaker 2: this prayer. God will hear from heaven. He will turn
Speaker 2: you around. This is your moment, and you know it.
Speaker 1: Repeat after me, Church, family, Heavenly Father. Today is my day.
Speaker 1: I humble myself that you may lift me up.
Speaker 2: I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God
Speaker 2: and the Savior of the world. And today I make
Speaker 2: Jesus the lord of my life.
Speaker 1: I repent of my sin.
Speaker 2: I believe Jesus died that I would be forgiven and
Speaker 2: rose again to give me life. Receive this new life.
Speaker 2: This is my new beginning. On the count of three,
Speaker 2: shoot your hand up. If you prayed that one, two, three,
Speaker 2: shoot him up all over the room, shoot him up.
Speaker 1: God, bless it, God, bless it. Beautiful, a beautiful thing online.
Speaker 3: Just say in the chat I received Jesus, I received.
Speaker 2: From un Let's clap our hands all over the room.
Speaker 1: Let's retoic us all over the room, gloy.
Speaker 3: To God, hallelujah.
Speaker 1: But wow, say it. He's in it with me, working
Speaker 1: through me, fighting for me. Hug. Somebody say, God is
Speaker 1: not against you.
Speaker 2: Let's clap our hands and thank God for his presence
Speaker 2: today Campus fastors.
Speaker 1: Do what you need to do. I'm closing at Valentine's.
Speaker 1: Stay right where you are. Did you receive a word from.
Speaker 3: The Lord to.
Speaker 1: Rags to righteous?
Speaker 2: Keep this purple thing and remember what I told you today.
Speaker 2: When the devil tells you you're not the righteousness of God,
Speaker 2: wave it in his face and say, I know, but
Speaker 2: I have any bed melic.
Speaker 1: I have a savior, I have a redeemer. Just wave it.
Speaker 2: Every time you want to go back to the old way,
Speaker 2: just wave that thing. No, I've gone from rags to righteous.
Speaker 2: If anyone is in Christ, he's a new creation, the
Speaker 2: oldest gone, the newest calm. And look, I hope they
Speaker 2: keep this online because I think this is good. Brag
Speaker 2: about your rags, not about your sin. Brag about what
Speaker 2: God did for you that seems like nothing, not your sin.
Speaker 2: Brag about what He did to pull you out.
Speaker 1: Of your sin. Tell the story and tell your testimony
Speaker 1: that God has the power to pull you out. Thank
Speaker 1: you Jesus.
Speaker 2: It's painful sometimes just because he has the power doesn't
Speaker 2: mean there won't be pain.
Speaker 1: But God is pulling you. You can feel it.
Speaker 2: You can feel him bringing you higher, you can feel
Speaker 2: him bringing you aboveet.
Speaker 1: You can feel it.
Speaker 2: And I'm gonna seal it right now with the prayer,
Speaker 2: join hands one more time. If you hadn't caught something
Speaker 2: from them already, you're not going to. But this won't
Speaker 2: make any difference.
Speaker 1: Now. God is not against me. I want you singing that.
Speaker 2: I want you singing that when it feels like the
Speaker 2: wind is against you. No, no, no, you worship and
Speaker 2: you say God is not a Oh, I'm gonna make
Speaker 2: a choir today.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna make a choir. You want to be in
Speaker 1: the choir.
Speaker 2: Come out next Sunday. We're gonna record some new songs. Sunday,
Speaker 2: March seventeenth, we're gonna be here. That's next Sunday, Chris,
Speaker 2: we're gonna be singing new songs. We're not gonna be
Speaker 2: singing this one that night. We're gonna sing it tomorrow. God,
Speaker 2: God is not Yeah, I'm gonna see.
Speaker 1: Which section believes it the most? Before we close, this
Speaker 1: is your chance.
Speaker 2: Ready three of ten, welcome back to you.
Speaker 1: Said I'm gonna check y'all out. Yeah they did it.
Speaker 1: Watch them in the middle. You won't believe how good
Speaker 1: this sounds. It sounds like professionals against God, not.
Speaker 2: God. Yeah, God, it is not a gas me God,
Speaker 2: it is not a good.
Speaker 6: God.
Speaker 1: It's not a me. I'm gonna join the prise team now.
Speaker 2: And to him who is able to pull you up,
Speaker 2: who is able to do in that than you ask for?
Speaker 2: Imager to a he big lie.
Speaker 1: Through Christ Jesus head the churns.
Speaker 2: Now at whatever somebody's said, come inside.
Speaker 1: Against Thank you for joining us.
Speaker 2: Special thanks to those of you who give generously to
Speaker 2: this ministry. Is because of you that this ministry is possible.
Speaker 2: You can click the link in the description to give
Speaker 2: now or visit Elevation Church dot org slash podcast for
Speaker 2: more information and if you enjoyed the podcast.
Speaker 1: You can subscribe. You can share it with your friends.
Speaker 2: You can click the share button, take a screenshot and
Speaker 2: share it on your social stories and tag us at
Speaker 2: Elevation Church.
Speaker 1: Thanks again for listening. God bless you