Speaker 1: Welcome to the Elevation Church podcast. Today, Paul Doherty, lead
Speaker 1: pastor at Victory Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma, has a message
Speaker 1: just for you entitled The Master Key. Thank you for
Speaker 1: joining us. We hope you enjoyed this message. Come on,
Speaker 1: let's give God praise this morning. Lord. We thank you.
Speaker 1: You are so good, you are so faithful. Jesus, we
Speaker 1: worship you. We praise you God, Lord. What an honor
Speaker 1: to be here this morning, Elevation Church. It is such
Speaker 1: an honor to be with you this morning. I've been
Speaker 1: watching you for many years and you guys have made
Speaker 1: a huge impact on Victory Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma. They're
Speaker 1: watching this morning, but you guys have changed our church.
Speaker 1: I discovered your church ten years ago during a very
Speaker 1: discouraging season in my life. My father was sick with cancer.
Speaker 1: I didn't know was about to lose my father and
Speaker 1: he was about to pass away. And during that time,
Speaker 1: I was overwhelmed with doubt, discouragement, self doubt, questioning the future.
Speaker 1: And that's why I was so impacted by Demetrius's testimony
Speaker 1: and during the baptism, was that not powerful of just
Speaker 1: seeing the full circle in her life? I can relate
Speaker 1: to her all the campuses out there. But I remember
Speaker 1: going on Google during that time ten years ago, and
Speaker 1: I typed in young pastors to follow. I'm kind of
Speaker 1: a nerd, and I found Steven Ferdick right at the
Speaker 1: top of that list, and I started listening. During that time,
Speaker 1: he was doing a series called Purple People Leader, and
Speaker 1: I remember following that series and then the Dip, and
Speaker 1: then each of the series he did was just impacting
Speaker 1: my life. I began preaching all of his sermons in
Speaker 1: our church, but I was watching you. I just want
Speaker 1: you to know, Elevation, you guys are changing the world.
Speaker 1: I know you know that, but you're changing the world.
Speaker 1: You're changing churches. You're impacting people far and why. And
Speaker 1: I want you to know. We're going to partner with
Speaker 1: you guys to help with those that have been affected
Speaker 1: by Hurricane Dorian. Our church is going to sow Accede
Speaker 1: into your church. Come on, you guys are so generous,
Speaker 1: it's so amazing at what you do, and we want
Speaker 1: to come alongside and help those that have been affected
Speaker 1: by the hurricane. But I told your pastor this. He
Speaker 1: came and preached at our church. A couple of years ago,
Speaker 1: and I said, you helped me find my roar, And
Speaker 1: he said, what do you mean. I said, you know,
Speaker 1: every lion has to eventually find the roar. The Bible
Speaker 1: says the righteous are bold as lions. And I didn't
Speaker 1: have my roar. And when I was listening to your pastor,
Speaker 1: I just could hear his roar, and I was thinking, man,
Speaker 1: he's roaring boldly at a young age. God, if you
Speaker 1: can do it through him, maybe you can do it
Speaker 1: for me and in our church. And I believe some
Speaker 1: of you are here today. You haven't found your roar yet,
Speaker 1: but the world is waiting to hear your roar. The
Speaker 1: world is waiting to see the sons and daughters of
Speaker 1: God revealed. You were born from You were not born
Speaker 1: to cower back in fear or insecurity. You were born
Speaker 1: for more. You were born to lead. You were born
Speaker 1: to rise above the adversity. And you're in an atmosphere
Speaker 1: where there's a roar coming in this place. Just say raw, yeah, Well,
Speaker 1: I know you're gonna sit down here in just a second,
Speaker 1: but I want to give you a scripture for where
Speaker 1: this message is going. In Revelation one, verse eighteen Jesus
Speaker 1: is speaking to John the Disciple, who called himself John
Speaker 1: the Beloved. He was convinced that Jesus loved him. How
Speaker 1: many are convinced that Jesus loves you? Come on, I'm
Speaker 1: convinced he loves me. I wouldn't be preaching on this stage.
Speaker 1: You wouldn't be here today. God loves you so much
Speaker 1: he lets you be in Elevation Church. God loves you
Speaker 1: so much that he gave you an incredible pastor. Pastor
Speaker 1: Stephen and Holly Ferdick are in my opinion, they are
Speaker 1: the example for the world today pastoring this church. But
Speaker 1: I I want to get into this message, and I
Speaker 1: just keep feeling like I need to tell you how
Speaker 1: amazing your pastors and your church is. John was in
Speaker 1: the middle of his worst test of adversity, but he
Speaker 1: was about to experience his greatest revelation of God. Some
Speaker 1: of you are right now in exile. He was on
Speaker 1: the island of Patmos. He was alone, he felt forgotten.
Speaker 1: He was wondering where God was, And in that moment
Speaker 1: God gave him the greatest revelation of his power and
Speaker 1: his word for the church. And he said this, Jesus
Speaker 1: speaks to John. He says, I'm the first in the last.
Speaker 1: I am the living one. I was dead, and now
Speaker 1: look I am alive. We serve a God who is
Speaker 1: alive forever and ever. And I hold the keys. If
Speaker 1: you got your keys with you this morning, just pull
Speaker 1: them out and just hold them up, and just jingle
Speaker 1: them a little bit. Say I got the keys. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Jesus said, I hold the keys to death and haities.
Speaker 1: In other words, I've got the keys over Satan. I've
Speaker 1: stripped him of all authority. I've stripped him of all
Speaker 1: power in your life. Though the weapon might be formed,
Speaker 1: it will not prosper. I hold the keys of authority.
Speaker 1: I hold the keys of responsibility. And I love that.
Speaker 1: Jesus doesn't keep the keys to himself. In fact, he
Speaker 1: says in Revelation three, and I'm opening a door for you.
Speaker 1: I'm giving you the keys. In Matthew sixteen, verse nineteen,
Speaker 1: when he talks about building a church, this so large,
Speaker 1: so expansive, expanding to the left and to the right,
Speaker 1: opening its nineteenth campus. From all over the world watching online,
Speaker 1: a church that the gates of Hell cannot prevail against.
Speaker 1: We are that church, Jesus says in Matthew sixteen, verse nineteen,
Speaker 1: and I will give you the keys to the kingdom.
Speaker 1: And that's what I want to preach to you on today,
Speaker 1: that you've got the keys. So Lord, I pray that
Speaker 1: you would speak to us today and that we would
Speaker 1: leave encouraged, refresh and reminded that we have the keys
Speaker 1: to victory. We have the keys to peace, we have
Speaker 1: the keys to joy, we have the keys to freedom,
Speaker 1: we have the keys to hope. We have the keys
Speaker 1: to see you do what You've called us to do,
Speaker 1: that you can move through us and in us. And God,
Speaker 1: I thank you Lord, we have the keys God. To
Speaker 1: give you praise this morning in Jesus' name. Amen, give
Speaker 1: God some praise. As you're being seated, Tell two people
Speaker 1: you've got the keys. You've got the keys. But you know,
Speaker 1: I think about how keys don't just represent access into something.
Speaker 1: The keys that God's given us are not just to
Speaker 1: unlock doors of what we're called to walk into, but
Speaker 1: to lock doors of stuff that's trying to come into
Speaker 1: our life. Like the keys are not just meant for
Speaker 1: you to access God's presence and to come in and
Speaker 1: have joy, it's also to lock the devil from coming
Speaker 1: into rek havoc on your mind and your marriage and
Speaker 1: your heart. And I came to tell you today some
Speaker 1: of you have keys that you're not using. Some of
Speaker 1: us have keys that we've forgotten are in our pocket.
Speaker 1: And so we're letting depression come in. We're letting anxiety
Speaker 1: and panic and worry and fear and discouragement and self doubt,
Speaker 1: and we're letting the enemy just come right into our house.
Speaker 1: And God saying, come on, I've given you the keys.
Speaker 1: So whatever you bind on earth is bound in heaven.
Speaker 1: Whatever you loose on earth is loosed in heaven. Somebody
Speaker 1: say I have the keys. But when I was younger,
Speaker 1: my dad began to teach me that the keys are
Speaker 1: not a physical thing. They're a spiritual thing. It's not
Speaker 1: so much the keys that we have to drive a
Speaker 1: car to get into our house, to get into our office.
Speaker 1: It's something on the inside. The way the keys work,
Speaker 1: they're activated in the spirit. And so I want to
Speaker 1: give you a few ways to start activating your keys.
Speaker 1: Number One, it's in how you see yourself. It's in
Speaker 1: how you see God, It's in how you see the
Speaker 1: problems that you're facing. In the Bible from the Old
Speaker 1: Testament to the New Testament. God would use this word believe. Believe.
Speaker 1: That's an internal thing to believe that anything is possible,
Speaker 1: to believe. To see where God is about to take you,
Speaker 1: God spoke to Joshua, and Joshua six verse two, see
Speaker 1: I am giving you Jericho. You've got to see the
Speaker 1: victory before you see the victory. You've got to see
Speaker 1: the miracle before you see the miracle. When I was younger,
Speaker 1: my dad took me, my older brother, my two older
Speaker 1: sisters out to undeveloped land in tall So, Oklahoma, and
Speaker 1: he would say, what do you see? I remember standing
Speaker 1: there with my dad, Billy, Joe, my mom Sharon, and
Speaker 1: they were, you know, they were pastoring this large church
Speaker 1: that was reaching all of Tall Sun and was doing
Speaker 1: missions work all over the world. I saw him. I'm
Speaker 1: you know, going, Dad, I don't know what I see.
Speaker 1: I see ants, I see trash, I see grass, I
Speaker 1: see you know dirt hills. He said, no, no no, no,
Speaker 1: not what do you see here? What do you see
Speaker 1: in here? What do you see in here? He said,
Speaker 1: the problem is, Paul, your eyes are open. You have
Speaker 1: to close your eyes to really see. And what we
Speaker 1: learn in the Word of God is that the Kingdom
Speaker 1: is not advanced through a matter of natural sight, but
Speaker 1: through a matter of spiritual site to be able to
Speaker 1: see with eyes of faith. And I remember my dad saying,
Speaker 1: I see a church that's so large, so expansive, thousands
Speaker 1: of people coming, thousands of people getting saved, marriage is
Speaker 1: being restored, families being reconciled. I see us building a
Speaker 1: dream center over here, feeding the hungry, clothing the naked,
Speaker 1: giving people the chance to dream again, changing the crime
Speaker 1: rates in our city. I see a Bible college and
Speaker 1: a camp and a school, and I'm scratching my eyes.
Speaker 1: I'm like, I don't see it. I don't see it.
Speaker 1: He said, well, I see it in here, and it's
Speaker 1: just a matter of time before I see it out there.
Speaker 1: Every single thing that he spoke came to pass. Every
Speaker 1: single thing today there's a dream center, a camp, a college,
Speaker 1: a school kindergarten through twelfth grade, a church, there's missions
Speaker 1: training centers. But he taught me that you have to
Speaker 1: see it in here. Proverbs twenty three says, as a
Speaker 1: man thinketh so is. Proverbs twenty nine says without a vision,
Speaker 1: people perish. If you don't have a vision for where
Speaker 1: your life is going. You're going to cast off restraint.
Speaker 1: You're gonna live with no purpose. You've got to see
Speaker 1: where God wants to take you, see what God can
Speaker 1: do through you. When God spoke to Gideon and Judges
Speaker 1: chapter six, he said, hey, mighty warrior, I'm calling you
Speaker 1: to fight for Israel. I'm calling you to win a
Speaker 1: battle for Israel. And Gideon said, who are you talking to.
Speaker 1: I'm weak. I'm the youngest. I can relate to Gideon
Speaker 1: because I'm the youngest and I'm weak. And so when
Speaker 1: I'm reading the scripture, Gideon sees himself one way, but
Speaker 1: God sees him a different way. And how you see
Speaker 1: yourself and how you see God is the most important
Speaker 1: thing about your life, because we move in the direction
Speaker 1: of our vision. What do you see David when he
Speaker 1: ran out towards Goliath, he saw a giant that was
Speaker 1: too big to miss. But the other Israelite saw a
Speaker 1: giant that was too big for them to conquer. And
Speaker 1: it's all a matter of sight. How you see your life,
Speaker 1: you see your circumstances. Some of you right now are
Speaker 1: facing some goliaths. You're facing some giants. You're facing some
Speaker 1: jerichos and God saying, I want you to see it
Speaker 1: with eyes of faith, that anything is possible. You were
Speaker 1: not born with limitations. You were born with possibilities. You
Speaker 1: were not born to bow down to a spirit of fear,
Speaker 1: to run from Goliath. We were born to chase the lions,
Speaker 1: to slay the giants. When I first started preaching, I
Speaker 1: was so nervous. I peed my pants on stage, no
Speaker 1: for real, and I ran off the stage into the
Speaker 1: boy's bathroom and I cried, and I was so insecure,
Speaker 1: so worried, and God said, go out there and do
Speaker 1: it again. And I had to start changing the way
Speaker 1: that I saw myself because I didn't see myself as
Speaker 1: a preacher. I didn't see myself very good, even though
Speaker 1: I had a passion to do it. When I first
Speaker 1: started preaching in our church and we put our messages online,
Speaker 1: I was excited because people started watching our messages on YouTube.
Speaker 1: And then I looked below the YouTube video and there's
Speaker 1: these thumbs up and thumbs down, and I zoomed in
Speaker 1: on the thumbs down and I was like what. And
Speaker 1: my identity was not wrapped in how God saw me,
Speaker 1: but in how other people saw me. And I began
Speaker 1: to just feel this flood of insecurity discouragement. And then
Speaker 1: I started going on Google to type who are the
Speaker 1: thumbs down people? You can't find them, they're anonymous. I
Speaker 1: was gonna find them. I was like, what do you
Speaker 1: not like about me? What's wrong with me? How do
Speaker 1: I get you to like me? And I heard God say,
Speaker 1: stop looking for other people to approve you when I've
Speaker 1: already approved you. Stop looking for others validation when I've
Speaker 1: already validated you. Their thoughts didn't shape you, so don't
Speaker 1: let their thoughts break you. Their thoughts didn't create you,
Speaker 1: so don't let their thoughts begin to form you into
Speaker 1: who you think you should be. We've got to come
Speaker 1: back to how God sees us. God sees you wonderfully
Speaker 1: and fearfully made. He sees you as more than a
Speaker 1: conquer God sees you as a mighty warrior. Number two,
Speaker 1: The way that we unlock those doors, the way that
Speaker 1: we activate our keys, is they're serving through serving. You know,
Speaker 1: I started serving in our church because when you're a
Speaker 1: pastor's kid, you have to serve. We were free labor
Speaker 1: for my parents, so my dad was like, you're the
Speaker 1: children's pastor, you're gonna work here. And since I was
Speaker 1: the youngest, I didn't have a title or position. I
Speaker 1: just had to serve my older siblings. And so I
Speaker 1: started serving in the children's church, serving in the youth group,
Speaker 1: and I started playing guitar, playing piano, and I tried
Speaker 1: out for our youth worship band. I was so pumped
Speaker 1: to go to auditions and people were sitting behind a
Speaker 1: table judging me. And afterwards they posted the list of
Speaker 1: who made the youth worship band and I wasn't on
Speaker 1: the list. I said, guys, there's a problem with this.
Speaker 1: I don't see my name, and they said, oh, you
Speaker 1: didn't make it. My sister was the worship leader. I
Speaker 1: was like, come on, I'm your brother. She said you're
Speaker 1: not good enough. What you're not good? You know? I
Speaker 1: was getting mad. And she said there'll be another audition
Speaker 1: here in four months. And I go home. I call
Speaker 1: my dad. I'm like, Dad, you need to fire her
Speaker 1: right now. Why. Well, she rejected me. Oh that's good
Speaker 1: that you were rejected. What you need to be rejected,
Speaker 1: you know. But my dad was saying, Paul, you don't
Speaker 1: need a title to serve. You don't need a position
Speaker 1: to serve. Just go serve where there's a need. Find
Speaker 1: a need and need it, see a hurt and heal it.
Speaker 1: Just start serving in the church. If serving is beneath you,
Speaker 1: then leading is above you. If you're too big to serve,
Speaker 1: you're too small to lead. Some of us are waiting
Speaker 1: on a title or a position or a platform, and
Speaker 1: God's saying, start serving where I have you, Start serving
Speaker 1: where I need you. So I tried out again, kept
Speaker 1: trying out, didn't make it. Was greeting, was ushering, was
Speaker 1: serving in other areas. Finally, the fourth time I try out,
Speaker 1: they said, here's the problem, Paul. You got pride and
Speaker 1: we need some humility. I said, what, I'm the humblest guy.
Speaker 1: I know, I'm more humble than all of my friends.
Speaker 1: They were like, just get off the stage. And they said, here,
Speaker 1: we have an opportunity for you to lead worship for
Speaker 1: our nine AM children's church, which was the lowest attended
Speaker 1: children's service. And they said you can lead a connect
Speaker 1: group and you can lead worship as the assistant worship leader.
Speaker 1: And so I remember going into that children's church. I
Speaker 1: was eighteen years old, and I started leading worship. They're
Speaker 1: throwing starburst into my guitar hole and no one's listening.
Speaker 1: It was really sad. I was just like, yes, Lord, Yes, Lord.
Speaker 1: And so I started just serving there every week. Every week.
Speaker 1: Went to college, was serving a children's church. Couldn't get
Speaker 1: a job at college. I had a lawnmowing business, but
Speaker 1: I wasn't making enough to pay for my college books
Speaker 1: and courses. And so the only job that was available
Speaker 1: was to be a janitor at our university. And so
Speaker 1: I started doing the janitor job. I started cleaning up trash,
Speaker 1: did it for three years, started cleaning up the baseball stadium,
Speaker 1: and during that time I was writing these songs. I
Speaker 1: remember writing this song as I was in the baseball
Speaker 1: stadium picking up people's nachos. And no matter where you're
Speaker 1: at right now, God sees you. God sees you when
Speaker 1: no one else sees you, when you feel invisible, God
Speaker 1: sees you. I said, God, this is humiliating, This is humiliating.
Speaker 1: And I heard God say, your humiliation is preparation for
Speaker 1: an elevation. Your humiliation is preparation for an acceleration. See,
Speaker 1: so many people want to jump seasons because we're watching
Speaker 1: other people's stories. We're seeing them get to do stuff,
Speaker 1: and God saying, get your eyes off of everyone else's story.
Speaker 1: I've got a story for you. Start owning your story.
Speaker 1: Start being right here, and even if it feels humiliating,
Speaker 1: this is preparation for an elevation where I'm taking you.
Speaker 1: So I started writing this song as I'm picking up nachos,
Speaker 1: and the song was from John chapter three. I must decrease.
Speaker 1: You must increase, Lord, I want more of you, I
Speaker 1: must decrease. So I'm singing this song and I ended
Speaker 1: up recording it and put it on a CD. And
Speaker 1: one of my friends gave it to our university's Christian University,
Speaker 1: and they were doing a live album and they were
Speaker 1: looking for songs. They found my song, and so they
Speaker 1: called me. They said, we want to put your song
Speaker 1: on the new album. I said, what you want to
Speaker 1: put on? They said yes. The only problem is we
Speaker 1: don't want you to sing because your voice ain't good.
Speaker 1: We want your friend Brad to sing. I was like
Speaker 1: what they said, but you could sing in the choir.
Speaker 1: I didn't even make the choir my freshman and sophomore year.
Speaker 1: Now they want me to sing in the choir my
Speaker 1: junior year. So I remember that night we're recording and
Speaker 1: there's carry job, there's a couple other worship leaders, and
Speaker 1: there's my friend singing my song, and I'm back in
Speaker 1: the choir in the dark. I'm just standing back there
Speaker 1: and he's singing my song, and I'm like, he must
Speaker 1: decrease and I must increase. And God was like, this
Speaker 1: is so good for you. Humiliation is preparation for an elevation.
Speaker 1: And so I kept serving, just kept showing up, and
Speaker 1: finally I graduated from cemetery. I finished all my Bible
Speaker 1: classes and there was an open job at the church,
Speaker 1: and I applied for it. Got the job to start
Speaker 1: working in college ministry, and I was so excited to
Speaker 1: work for my dad. This was about ten and a
Speaker 1: half years ago. I had dreamed of serving my mom
Speaker 1: and dad and working to build the church, and so
Speaker 1: I came to my dad. I said, Dad, I'm ready.
Speaker 1: You know, I got the job, and he said that's great.
Speaker 1: That's great because he didn't want to be the one
Speaker 1: that hired me. He wanted to leave it up to
Speaker 1: the supervisor. I said, Dad, I got the job. I'm
Speaker 1: ready for my Keys to Victory, because that's the name
Speaker 1: of our church. I'm ready for my keys to victory.
Speaker 1: He said, keys, you only need one key. Son. I said, Dad,
Speaker 1: I'm your own flesh and blood. The janitors have more
Speaker 1: than one key. Can I get one key? I was
Speaker 1: a janitor at the college and I had a ton
Speaker 1: of keys. He said no, you only get a key
Speaker 1: to your office. That's the only key you get. I
Speaker 1: was like, Dad, why don't you trust me? Why do
Speaker 1: you need more keys? I just want access. I want access,
Speaker 1: I want authority. He's like, no, no, no, just use
Speaker 1: your key. Just use your key. And fast forward. Our
Speaker 1: college Minis Street started to grow. I was preaching all
Speaker 1: the Stevens sermons and Bishop Jakes, thank you, Pastor, and
Speaker 1: I gave him credit. He actually saw me preaching a
Speaker 1: sermon online and he was like, hey, I saw you
Speaker 1: preaching a sermon. I was like, oh, snap, it was
Speaker 1: one of his. I butchered it. But I remember getting
Speaker 1: a call from my mom. She said, hey, come to
Speaker 1: the hospital. Your dad's up here. I said, who's he visiting?
Speaker 1: Who's he praying for? She said no, no no, no, he's
Speaker 1: up here. And I got up there and the doctor
Speaker 1: told our family that my dad had stage four lymphoma. Cancer.
Speaker 1: And when they said that, I just I lost it. Man,
Speaker 1: I just started bawling. I said, why, he's been nothing
Speaker 1: but good, He served you God, He's done nothing wrong,
Speaker 1: he's had no failures, he's been a good man of integrity.
Speaker 1: Why is this happening? And I didn't realize that my
Speaker 1: faith was built on answered prayers. My faith was built
Speaker 1: on everything going my way. You see, when you face
Speaker 1: a crisis, you find about what your faith is made of.
Speaker 1: Either your faith is on shifting sand, or it's on
Speaker 1: a solid rock, on Christ, the solid rock I stand.
Speaker 1: All other ground is sinking sand. All other ground is
Speaker 1: sinking sand. But in that moment, I was caving in.
Speaker 1: I was losing my faith because my faith was wrapped
Speaker 1: up in him being healed. But as your pastor has
Speaker 1: said before, sometimes you get to see the miracle, and
Speaker 1: sometimes you get to be the miracle. And I remember
Speaker 1: praying for my dad and the night that he passed,
Speaker 1: I was in the hospital room, couldn't go to sleep,
Speaker 1: stayed there through the night watching the EKG monitor, praying
Speaker 1: for resurrection life, and I watched my hero, my pastor,
Speaker 1: my daddy pass away, and I was so overwhelmed because
Speaker 1: I was thinking about the church, and I was thinking
Speaker 1: about our family. I was thinking about my mom because
Speaker 1: I had just gotten married, and I was going, God,
Speaker 1: what's gonna happen. We need him. Our church is not
Speaker 1: gonna make it without him. It was just built so
Speaker 1: much on his voice. He just was a visionary. He
Speaker 1: was such a great preacher, a great pastor, and a
Speaker 1: great dad. And I heard God speak this to me
Speaker 1: in my heart, not audibly, just this impression. And I
Speaker 1: heard God say, your dad finished his race, It's time
Speaker 1: for you to run yours. And then I felt like
Speaker 1: it continued. It was like the voice continued, serve your mom,
Speaker 1: serve the church. I didn't know this, but they were
Speaker 1: about to make my mom the interim pastor for a season.
Speaker 1: And she's my hero because she's a persevere she is
Speaker 1: the definition of perseverance. But I heard God say, serve
Speaker 1: your mom, serve the church, and get ready because you're
Speaker 1: about to be the pastor of Victory. And I thought, no, no, no,
Speaker 1: I'm twenty three years old, I'm the youngest of my siblings,
Speaker 1: and there's so many other great preachers in our church.
Speaker 1: This is not from God. But I heard God say, no,
Speaker 1: serve your mom serve the church and ready because you're
Speaker 1: about to pastor victory. And I know what happens when
Speaker 1: you share a vision too soon, I heard, you know
Speaker 1: what happened to Joseph. He got sold as a slave.
Speaker 1: So I was like, I'm not telling nobody this vision.
Speaker 1: Nobody needs to know this. So I told my wife.
Speaker 1: She said, yeah, let's keep that between us, and a
Speaker 1: year went by. During that next year, I remember many
Speaker 1: nights coming up to our church with my keys while
Speaker 1: my dad was in the hospital. He had given he'd
Speaker 1: let me use his car, and then we had to
Speaker 1: sell it afterwards. But I remember just questioning whether I
Speaker 1: really had the authority, the ability to pastor. And many
Speaker 1: nights I would come to our church just to go
Speaker 1: and pray, just to play the piano, to sing to worship,
Speaker 1: to practice preaching on this stage. My dad had built
Speaker 1: this massive auditorium that honestly was intimidating. It was four
Speaker 1: thy five hundred seats the year before he passed away.
Speaker 1: Because we were a mobile church for thirty plus years,
Speaker 1: we rented out a large building in our city, and
Speaker 1: finally the dream of a debt free church auditorium and
Speaker 1: all of this was built, and then he passed away,
Speaker 1: and I remember many nights trying to get into the church,
Speaker 1: but I couldn't get in because I didn't have the keys.
Speaker 1: So I would have to call a security guard, college janitor.
Speaker 1: They would come and let me in. And it wasn't
Speaker 1: just a physical feeling of not having the keys. It
Speaker 1: was a mental and emotional feeling that I didn't have
Speaker 1: the keys of confidence. I didn't have the keys to
Speaker 1: preach like he preached. I didn't have the keys to
Speaker 1: cast vision like I didn't have the keys to pray
Speaker 1: for people to get healed. People would call me and
Speaker 1: they'd say, hey, can you come pray for my brother,
Speaker 1: he's sick in the hospital, And I would make an excuse,
Speaker 1: not because I didn't care. I did care, but I
Speaker 1: felt like my prayers didn't work. I felt like I
Speaker 1: didn't have the key to that. I was like, call
Speaker 1: Pastor Steve and he can make the sun stand still.
Speaker 1: Call Bishop Tdjakes, call someone who has the keys, because
Speaker 1: I don't. And then the board met with me a
Speaker 1: year later and they said, you need to know something.
Speaker 1: Your dad told us that you would be the next
Speaker 1: pastor of Victory. I said, what he never told me.
Speaker 1: They said yeah, but he said that you were really
Speaker 1: young and the church was so large and so many
Speaker 1: employees that you weren't ready yet. You needed to be developed.
Speaker 1: See a lot of people want God to elevate their platform,
Speaker 1: but they're not willing to let God develop their character.
Speaker 1: And we've got to go through the developmental phase. That's dark,
Speaker 1: that's frustrating, where you want to quit, where you don't
Speaker 1: feel like you have what it takes. And God's saying
Speaker 1: no, no no, I'm pulling out insecurities. I'm pulling out those
Speaker 1: feelings of fear. I'm pulling out those needs of the
Speaker 1: approval of man, those thumbs up that you're looking for.
Speaker 1: I'm pulling some stuff out. There's some junk I gotta
Speaker 1: get out to remind you who you are in Christ.
Speaker 1: And so I remember leaving that board meeting and once
Speaker 1: again just feeling like, man, I don't have the keys.
Speaker 1: So week went by. I went to our church one
Speaker 1: night and I was outside of the building and I
Speaker 1: called our security guard and I said, Hey, could you
Speaker 1: let me into the church? I just want to come
Speaker 1: in and pray and worship. And he said, Paul, I'm
Speaker 1: locking up all the doors at the church. I'm locking
Speaker 1: up all the doors at the Dream Center. It's going
Speaker 1: to be at least an hour before I could get there.
Speaker 1: You're just gonna have to wait. I didn't want to
Speaker 1: wait because I was I was in such a dark,
Speaker 1: discouraging place. I just thought, Man, I've got to get
Speaker 1: in there. So I start trying to break into our church, right.
Speaker 1: I start like hitting the door, and I don't have
Speaker 1: muscles like pastrofredict, so I'm like hurting my hand. And
Speaker 1: then I took my credit card out. I tried to
Speaker 1: shimmy it through the crack of the door and nothing
Speaker 1: was working. And then I thought, okay, maybe I'll take
Speaker 1: this one key that I have and try to shove
Speaker 1: it into the door and then put my shoulder against
Speaker 1: it and open it. So I took the key out
Speaker 1: and I tried to shove it, but it just fit
Speaker 1: perfect into the door. And I thought, okay, okay, uh,
Speaker 1: what's going on right now? And it dawned on me
Speaker 1: I've never tried this, and I turned the key and
Speaker 1: it unlocked the door. I was like, God, did you
Speaker 1: just change my key? No? I seriously was like I
Speaker 1: was looking up at Heaven because you know, the Bible
Speaker 1: says that we're surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses,
Speaker 1: and I could just picture my dad leaning over the
Speaker 1: grand stands of heaven, and I was like, huh. So
Speaker 1: then I walked across to the choir room and I
Speaker 1: unlocked that. Then I walked over to the drum closet.
Speaker 1: Nobody has a key to the drum closet, and it
Speaker 1: unlocked that. I walked into the main auditorium, and that
Speaker 1: was the room that intimidated me the most. And I
Speaker 1: stuck my key in that door and it unlocked the door,
Speaker 1: and suddenly a flood of emotions came over me. I
Speaker 1: was I was weeping because I was like what. I
Speaker 1: was weeping for two reasons. I was like, I've had
Speaker 1: the master key this whole time. But I was also
Speaker 1: weeping because I have the master key. I've always had it,
Speaker 1: but I didn't know it. And suddenly I looked in
Speaker 1: the room and what once was intimidating. I walked on
Speaker 1: that stage and I heard God say, you've got it,
Speaker 1: You've got it. It's Christ in you Colossian's one twenty seven.
Speaker 1: Christ in me is the hope of glory. Christ in
Speaker 1: me is the master key. You see elevation. I came
Speaker 1: to tell you this weekend. You have the master key.
Speaker 1: You don't need a bunch of keys. All you need
Speaker 1: is one key. And you have the master key that
Speaker 1: unlocks the door to victory. You have the master key
Speaker 1: that unlocks the door to be free from insecurity. You
Speaker 1: have the master key that unlocks the door to healing
Speaker 1: in your marriage. You have the key that unlocks the
Speaker 1: door to joy in your heart. You have the key
Speaker 1: that unlocks the door to peace in your life. And
Speaker 1: it's not you, it's Jesus in you. It's Christ in me.
Speaker 1: That is the master key. Suddenly something started to explode
Speaker 1: in my mind and art I started realizing, I've got
Speaker 1: what it takes. Come on, tell someone next to you
Speaker 1: you've got the master key, Say you've got what it takes. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Because at the bottom of this message, that's the real
Speaker 1: question is do I have what it takes. But I
Speaker 1: started realizing that the master key doesn't work unless I
Speaker 1: use it. It had been in my pocket the whole time,
Speaker 1: but I wasn't using it. Some of you have had
Speaker 1: the key to the thing that's in your heart, but
Speaker 1: you have not been using it. You've been questioning, do
Speaker 1: I really have it? I've got to get pastor Steven
Speaker 1: to tell me I've got it. No, No, God's telling
Speaker 1: you right now, you've got it. You've got the key
Speaker 1: to the dreams that are in your heart. Stop doubting yourself,
Speaker 1: Stop questioning do I have it? God saying You've got this,
Speaker 1: You've got this. But I realized that the key is
Speaker 1: not just vision activated, it's not just serving activated. It's
Speaker 1: voice activated. It's in the words that I speak to
Speaker 1: I've been talking so negative because I had been listening
Speaker 1: to this chatterbox of negativity, of discouragement, and I didn't
Speaker 1: know how to turn it off. So I just kept saying, man,
Speaker 1: our best days are behind us. And I heard God say, Paul,
Speaker 1: you have the master key. Change the words you speak,
Speaker 1: change the words you're speaking. So I started speaking, our
Speaker 1: best days are right in front of us. God's not
Speaker 1: finished with us yet. It came one night when I
Speaker 1: was getting ready to preach, and my mom gave me
Speaker 1: a pair of my dad's shoes to remember my dad by.
Speaker 1: I took it a step further. I started wearing his shoes,
Speaker 1: and I started dressing just like he dressed because I
Speaker 1: thought maybe if I wear his shoes and wear his clothes,
Speaker 1: people will like me more. It didn't work. They hated
Speaker 1: me more. They were like, Paul, wear your own shoes.
Speaker 1: And this one night, I was so discouraged to get
Speaker 1: up and preach, and even though I knew I had
Speaker 1: the master key, I just felt like I don't have
Speaker 1: a good word. People don't want to hear me. They
Speaker 1: want to hear my dad. They want to hear some
Speaker 1: other preacher. And God said, change the narrative. So I
Speaker 1: wrote down on this napkin, I'm here on purpose. I'm here.
Speaker 1: I'm here on purpose. I stopped right there. The enemy
Speaker 1: of here is there. The enemy of here is someplace
Speaker 1: else with someone else doing something else. You've been watching
Speaker 1: too many other people's stories. You need to own being
Speaker 1: right here. You are here on purpose. Whether you're a mom,
Speaker 1: a dad, a chanit, or a teenager, a college student,
Speaker 1: whether you can't pay the bills, you are here on
Speaker 1: purpose because you have a purpose right where you are.
Speaker 1: And I want to shout out those who are serving
Speaker 1: in the church on any team. If you serve in
Speaker 1: e kids, or you serve in the parking lot, or
Speaker 1: you serve in any part. Come on, give it up
Speaker 1: for the volunteers that make this place happen. Where you
Speaker 1: are is right where God wants you. You're here on purpose.
Speaker 1: And I started speaking that because the Bible says that
Speaker 1: life and death is in the power of the tongue.
Speaker 1: The Bible says that we can prophesy over our future.
Speaker 1: When I was young, I used to be really wild
Speaker 1: and crazy. I was add and you're like, I'm not
Speaker 1: surprised by that. My dad used to put his hand
Speaker 1: on my head because I'd be like, ah, I was
Speaker 1: like ren and stempy, like crazy. I was like, hey,
Speaker 1: you know, and my dad would put his hand on
Speaker 1: my head and he would say, peaceful, Paul, peaceful Paul.
Speaker 1: And now I'm peaceful. What are you speaking over your children?
Speaker 1: What are you speaking over your future? I want the
Speaker 1: keys to come out because I'm almost done right here.
Speaker 1: But I want you to envision that you're on a field.
Speaker 1: What do you see? Where do you see your life going?
Speaker 1: What do you see that's possible? Because God wants you
Speaker 1: to get a big vision. He wants you to get
Speaker 1: a big You were not born with limitations, but born
Speaker 1: with possibilities, and you have the master key. So start
Speaker 1: declaring that your best days are still in front of you. See.
Speaker 1: I started saying that. I started getting our church to
Speaker 1: say it. They started saying it. I started telling people, Hey,
Speaker 1: everyone in section. See, people woul turn around. There was
Speaker 1: no one in section. See when my dad passed, thousands
Speaker 1: of people left the church, and I had to start
Speaker 1: speaking to those empty seats. I had to start prophesying,
Speaker 1: there's someone in that seat. There's somebody in that seat,
Speaker 1: because I saw this place being filled with people who
Speaker 1: needed Jesus. Can I tell you, Elevation, there's an empty
Speaker 1: seat at some campus that's waiting for somebody's life to
Speaker 1: be changed. Never stop reaching people, Never stop filling up buildings,
Speaker 1: Never stop inviting your neighbors. Somebody's life is waiting on you.
Speaker 1: Don't ever get comfortable with where we're at, because we
Speaker 1: have not seen our best days yet, Elevation. We have
Speaker 1: not seen our greatest miracles yet. You haven't heard the
Speaker 1: best sermons yet. You haven't seen the greatest miracles yet.
Speaker 1: The best days for Elevation Church are right in front
Speaker 1: of her. The best sermons, the best series, the best miracles,
Speaker 1: the best campus miracles. There's gonna be incredible things. But
Speaker 1: the door doesn't open until you unlock it, and you
Speaker 1: gotta start declaring. You could sit down. I promise I'll
Speaker 1: end in just a minute, y'all? Like, is this it is?
Speaker 1: He wrapping it up? No, Popeyes will still be open.
Speaker 1: It may not have chicken sandwiches, but it will still
Speaker 1: be open. Not Chick fil A. It's Sunday. But you know,
Speaker 1: I one night I was walking and we just had
Speaker 1: our second baby. Our finances were in a tough spot
Speaker 1: as a church. Right when I stepped in a pastor.
Speaker 1: I began pastoring in twenty fourteen, just five years ago
Speaker 1: this month, and this wealthy man who had left our church.
Speaker 1: He invited me to his office and he said, hey,
Speaker 1: I left whenever your dad passed, but I'm ready to
Speaker 1: come back, ready to help you with finances. I said,
Speaker 1: praise God, because I had to let go of so
Speaker 1: many people when my dad passed. We couldn't afford to
Speaker 1: pay all these people. And I thought I was gonna
Speaker 1: have to close down the college and the school and
Speaker 1: the camp. And I just felt so overwhelmed. I was
Speaker 1: twenty eight years old, just turned twenty nine at that time.
Speaker 1: And he said, yeah, yeah, I'm gonna help you, but
Speaker 1: I need you to do this, this, and this, and
Speaker 1: he began to list these things, and I heard God
Speaker 1: whisper in my heart. Are you going to trust in
Speaker 1: man's money? Are you going to trust in Jehovah Jirah?
Speaker 1: And I thought this was a test. I thought there
Speaker 1: was hidden cameras. So I looked at the man. I said, sir,
Speaker 1: thank you for being willing to help, because he could
Speaker 1: have financed the whole thing. I mean, he was a
Speaker 1: very wealthy person. But I said, I can't do those
Speaker 1: things unless God tells me. I'm not going to sell
Speaker 1: the ministry that the pulpit is not up for prostitution.
Speaker 1: I'm not going to let anyone buy this church or
Speaker 1: buy the decisions of this house. But there were no
Speaker 1: hidden cameras, and he never ended up coming. And a
Speaker 1: year and a half had passed. We had our second child,
Speaker 1: and one night, I'm walking on this street. I come
Speaker 1: across a bridge. It was dark. I was discouraged, and
Speaker 1: I just heard the enemy whispering, just jump, just jump,
Speaker 1: No one cares. Just in the pain. We're living in
Speaker 1: a time right now where so many pastors are dealing
Speaker 1: personally with doubt and discouragement. So many young pastors are
Speaker 1: trying to fill the shoes of parents, and it's I mean,
Speaker 1: y'all need to pray, always be praying for the church
Speaker 1: out there. So many people. I mean, our world, America
Speaker 1: is on so much medication to try to deal with
Speaker 1: anxiety and depression and discouragement. And I was right there
Speaker 1: on that bridge. And I don't know if I'm speaking
Speaker 1: to someone who's watching this later on that's standing on
Speaker 1: a bridge, but I could hear the enemy just whispering,
Speaker 1: just jump, just in the pain. The church will be
Speaker 1: better off without you. And I felt like I was
Speaker 1: in a basement beneath a house, but I wasn't just
Speaker 1: one floor below. I was five basements below where I
Speaker 1: should have been. That's the only way I can describe
Speaker 1: depression is you're just too far below where you should
Speaker 1: be mentally and emotionally. But I felt like there was
Speaker 1: a rain drop coming from heaven. It was like my
Speaker 1: Dad was just dropping little rain drops. The Bible says,
Speaker 1: train your children up and the way they should go,
Speaker 1: and they will not depart from it. Never underestimate getting
Speaker 1: your family to church. Never underestimate sitting, getting your kids
Speaker 1: and eat kids, getting your youth in the youth group here. Listen.
Speaker 1: There's something powerful about being raised in those presence of
Speaker 1: God in the scriptures. And all of a sudden it
Speaker 1: just started coming on my head. You're more than a
Speaker 1: conquer You're fearfully and wonderfully made. You've got what it takes. See,
Speaker 1: the final point of this message is surrender, because it
Speaker 1: was in this moment of surrender. You can see it,
Speaker 1: you can serve it, you can speak it. But the
Speaker 1: final moment that you activate the keys of the kingdom
Speaker 1: is when you surrender and say God, I can't do it. God,
Speaker 1: I don't know what to do. But my eyes are
Speaker 1: on you. And on that moment, on that bridge, I
Speaker 1: pointed in the darkness, I said, Satan, you lose. I
Speaker 1: refuse to jump. I choose to live. I choose to live.
Speaker 1: I'm getting out of this depression. I'm getting out of
Speaker 1: this anxiety. And I walked away from that bridge. You
Speaker 1: can stand up. I walked away from that bridge and
Speaker 1: I never went back. And little did I know that
Speaker 1: God dropped it in the heart of a man. Just
Speaker 1: right after that moment. God dropped it in the heart
Speaker 1: of this man who came. He said, Paul, I wasn't
Speaker 1: here when your dad was pastor started coming right when
Speaker 1: you started pre and he said, I feel like I'm
Speaker 1: supposed to bless the church. And he said, God told
Speaker 1: me to sow this seed. It was the largest check
Speaker 1: in the history of our church, over a million dollars,
Speaker 1: and then it just kept flowing. I called my mom.
Speaker 1: I said, Mom, we're gonna be okay, we're gonna make it.
Speaker 1: She said, what are you talking about, saying, mom, God
Speaker 1: showed up. Jehovah. Jirah answered, Jehovah. Jirah answered, there's no
Speaker 1: streams of tax, there's no agenda. We're gonna be able
Speaker 1: to keep the school and the college, and there's room
Speaker 1: for more mission. She starts crying. She said, that's a
Speaker 1: harvest on your dad's seeds. That's a harvest on your
Speaker 1: dad's seeds. See, some of you are about to start
Speaker 1: walking in a harvest that your parents prayed for, that
Speaker 1: your grandma paid for, that your grandpa was on his
Speaker 1: knees for. You're about to start picking up harvest in
Speaker 1: the field that you didn't even have to labor in.
Speaker 1: But you gotta see it. You gotta speak it, you
Speaker 1: gotta serve, and you gotta surrender. I want you to
Speaker 1: just bow your heads and close your eyes all over
Speaker 1: this place. If you're here right now and you're facing
Speaker 1: something that just seems bigger than you, and you needed
Speaker 1: this message to be reminded you have the master key.
Speaker 1: Now it's time to start activating. If that's you'll want
Speaker 1: you to raise your hand all over this place. Yeah,
Speaker 1: from the front to the back of every location online. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I want to pray for you right now, and I
Speaker 1: want to pray for those that are here today saying
Speaker 1: I want to surrender to Jesus. I need to surrender
Speaker 1: my life to Jesus. If that's you, just raise your hand.
Speaker 1: Today's your day. Come on, today is your day. Say
Speaker 1: this with me, Say Jesus, I surrender. I'm all yours.
Speaker 1: Help me to see what you see, help me to
Speaker 1: serve where you've called me to be, Help me to
Speaker 1: speak what you've spoken. I surrender. I believe you died
Speaker 1: on the cross for my sins. I believe you rose
Speaker 1: from the grave, and today I declare you are my savior.
Speaker 1: Christ in me is the master key in Jesus' name,
Speaker 1: A man I love you, Elevation 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 Elevationchurch dot org slash podcast for more
Speaker 1: information and if you enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe.
Speaker 1: You can share it with your friends. You can click
Speaker 1: the share button, take a screenshot and share it on
Speaker 1: your social stories and tag us at Elevation Church. Thanks
Speaker 1: again for listening. God bless you.