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. Hope
Speaker 2: this inspires you. Hope it builds your faith. Hope it
Speaker 2: gives your perspective to see God is moving in your life.
Speaker 2: Enjoy the message.
Speaker 1: I shared a teaching with our staff.
Speaker 2: A couple weeks ago, what was it about two months ago?
Speaker 2: And I came in and taught this teaching called three
Speaker 2: Habits of a Healthy Heart, and several of them said you.
Speaker 1: Need to share that with the church.
Speaker 2: And I couldn't find a good weekend to share it
Speaker 2: because of all of the scheduling and well, when I
Speaker 2: realized we would have to postpone our series for a week,
Speaker 2: I thought, this is the time, this is the window
Speaker 2: for me to.
Speaker 1: Share this with you. So I want to teach you
Speaker 1: a little bit today. You may be seated.
Speaker 2: Thank you for your enthusiasm in God's presence today.
Speaker 1: This teaching.
Speaker 2: Is going to require your full attention, and I don't
Speaker 2: just mean with your mind, I mean your emotional attention
Speaker 2: and kind of while I get set up here to
Speaker 2: teach you today, Three Habits of a Healthy Heart how many,
Speaker 2: No real lasting change has to happen in your heart?
Speaker 2: Talk to me, please, I said, how many? No real
Speaker 2: lasting change has to happen in your heart? Can't just
Speaker 2: be in your behavior. You really have to fundamentally change
Speaker 2: your belief. And that's kind of what the Psalmist is
Speaker 2: talking about in Someone nineteen, verse one twelve. There aren't
Speaker 2: many chapters in the Bible that have one hundred and
Speaker 2: twelve verses. I think Some one nineteen is on record as.
Speaker 1: The longest chapter in the Bible.
Speaker 2: It's constructed grammatically in a specific way that we won't
Speaker 2: go into in this class. I kind of want to
Speaker 2: teach a little bit today, if that's all right, he said,
Speaker 2: all right, if I don't even shout.
Speaker 1: Or holler or anything.
Speaker 2: If you wanted to hear me holler, you should have
Speaker 2: come to the praise party. We had an amazing time
Speaker 2: saying good morning midnight, because we welcome not only in
Speaker 2: new year, but we welcomed our challenges this year, knowing
Speaker 2: that often our calling is contained in our challenges if
Speaker 2: we learn.
Speaker 1: How to see it correctly.
Speaker 2: Everything begins with perspective, and the perspective of the Psalmist
Speaker 2: in Psalm one hundred and nineteen is kind of all
Speaker 2: over the place. I think he's dealing with some inner
Speaker 2: issues and getting beyond.
Speaker 1: The grammar of the song. We can know a little.
Speaker 2: Bit of the intention of it because the Psalmist says
Speaker 2: in one twelve, I incline my heart to perform your statutes,
Speaker 2: forever to the end, Forever to the end.
Speaker 1: I want this to last. I don't just want to.
Speaker 2: See some changes in my life for a few weeks
Speaker 2: in January. Come on, somebody, I didn't hand them much
Speaker 2: membership and sign up for a year just to be
Speaker 2: eaten chocolate by Valentine's Day. I want to see some
Speaker 2: lasting change in my life this year. The Psalma said,
Speaker 2: I incline my heart. It has to happen within, not
Speaker 2: just the behavior, but the belief that drives the behavior
Speaker 2: has to change or the change won't stay. We found
Speaker 2: this out over and over again. Every new year we
Speaker 2: learn it again, and so lasting change is what I'm after,
Speaker 2: and I incline my heart. Interesting choice of works. If
Speaker 2: you incline something that means that it was naturally not
Speaker 2: in that position.
Speaker 1: That means you had to.
Speaker 2: Act upon it in order to orient it in a
Speaker 2: different direction right, So we don't incline something that's already upright.
Speaker 2: Must have meant that his heart was declined. And the
Speaker 2: problem with a lot of us is we go through
Speaker 2: life reclined. That is just however we wake up.
Speaker 1: That's how we stay.
Speaker 2: However we feel, that's how we act. This almost said,
Speaker 2: I act upon my attitude and I incline my heart.
Speaker 2: Did you know you're in charge of your heart? Quit
Speaker 2: saying people broke your heart. They can't break it if
Speaker 2: you don't give it to them. Hey, and so he said,
Speaker 2: I'm setting my heart in the direction of Heaven. I
Speaker 2: wonder is your heart set in a divine direction today?
Speaker 2: Incline my heart. I don't think this is something you
Speaker 2: do like one time. You know, you just incline your
Speaker 2: heart to God when you were twelve at summer Bible
Speaker 2: camp and you never were tempted again. And we want
Speaker 2: it to be that way. I want it to be
Speaker 2: like the infomercial. Do you remember the infomercial with the
Speaker 2: rotissary Show time rotisseriy Oven and the man said, set
Speaker 2: it and and forget it. That's how I want my
Speaker 2: heart to be like that infomercial. Set it and forget it.
Speaker 2: I want my heart to just stay there, you know.
Speaker 2: Just hey, I went to church first Sunday in January.
Speaker 1: That ought to get me by.
Speaker 2: I said it, but the Psalmist said, it's not enough
Speaker 2: to set it and forget it.
Speaker 1: He said it, it's more like you said it.
Speaker 2: You check it, you reset it, you check it, because.
Speaker 1: All through your day and all through your year, your.
Speaker 2: Heart is going to be tempted to decline to a
Speaker 2: default position. And maybe it's a default position of discouragement
Speaker 2: or despair or dysfunction. But when you take charge of
Speaker 2: your heart, touch your neighbors, say, take charge of your heart.
Speaker 1: That's what the writer of Proverbs said. It's not just
Speaker 1: a Psalmist that did it.
Speaker 2: The writer of Proverbs said, guard your heart. It's your heart,
Speaker 2: and that's where the issues of life flow from.
Speaker 1: So before we can.
Speaker 2: Get the windows working, we gotta get our hearts open.
Speaker 2: Hey man, the doctor was fussinate at me a couple
Speaker 2: months ago about my cholesterol. Let's me know, I'm getting
Speaker 2: on up there in age. I never had a conversation
Speaker 2: like this with the doctor before.
Speaker 3: And he just talking talking, blah blah.
Speaker 1: Blah ldl HDL. Try glysseride all.
Speaker 2: This stuff, and I know we could tell he wasn't
Speaker 2: getting through to me because.
Speaker 1: He took a real drastic turn.
Speaker 2: He said, hey, I don't want you to be one
Speaker 2: of those guys who looked real fit on the outside,
Speaker 2: which made me feel happy that he said that about me.
Speaker 2: But then one day you're just outside running and you
Speaker 2: just fall over of a heart attack, and to listen
Speaker 2: to me, And I corrected him. I said, doctor, I
Speaker 2: know you got some degrees that I don't have it
Speaker 2: all that, but you're wrong about that.
Speaker 1: I don't run, so if fall over, it's not going
Speaker 1: to be on cardio.
Speaker 2: But he said, you can be blocked on the inside,
Speaker 2: look good on the outside and be successful and fall over,
Speaker 2: and be sexy and fall over, and be married and
Speaker 2: fall over, come on, get a promotion and fall over,
Speaker 2: be religious and fall over. It has to happen in
Speaker 2: the heart. But it doesn't start with the heart. It
Speaker 2: starts with the habits. Your habits create the condition of
Speaker 2: your heart.
Speaker 1: It is good.
Speaker 2: Every once in a while, you got to stop and
Speaker 2: clap for.
Speaker 1: The word God speaks through you.
Speaker 2: I feel like God is going to help somebody set
Speaker 2: your heart on things above. Get your heart set in
Speaker 2: the right direction. But it's going to require some.
Speaker 1: And they're all right there in the Sawmu. I want
Speaker 1: to read you the.
Speaker 2: Next two verses because my three habits are right there.
Speaker 1: In the verses. Forever to the end.
Speaker 2: I set my heart to perform your statutes. I hate
Speaker 2: this is one thirteen.
Speaker 1: I hate. I hate what's that we're doing in the Bible.
Speaker 1: I thought I was supposed to love everything.
Speaker 2: Now I hate the double minded, but I love your law.
Speaker 1: I don't think we should go on until we talk
Speaker 1: about that. He said.
Speaker 2: I hate this. I hate the double minded. I hate
Speaker 2: It's not a person. I hate, it's I hate the
Speaker 2: condition of double mindedness.
Speaker 1: I hate it.
Speaker 2: And see, the thing about the thing about hate is
Speaker 2: hate is the most powerful motivation to change, not love.
Speaker 2: And so before you start with wanting to reach your goals,
Speaker 2: maybe the first thing for you to do is to
Speaker 2: make a decision and about some things that you hate.
Speaker 2: And it's going to be complicated, because you know, ask
Speaker 2: for me. I have a love hate relationship with some
Speaker 2: of the things.
Speaker 1: I feel kind of like David.
Speaker 2: One time, David's son Absolom died and Joe ab came
Speaker 2: to him.
Speaker 1: He said, your son is dead.
Speaker 2: And David started weeping, and Joe Ab was mad because
Speaker 2: Absolom was trying to take the throne from David, and
Speaker 2: so Absolom had become David's enemy. But David's heart was
Speaker 2: connected to Absolom. So he was crying, and Joe Ab said,
Speaker 2: you need to get it together. You hate those who
Speaker 2: love you, and you love those who hate you. You
Speaker 2: hate what's trying to deliver you, and you love what's
Speaker 2: trying to destroy you. And I feel that way about
Speaker 2: certain things in my life. Certain action, certain behaviors in
Speaker 2: my life.
Speaker 1: I love how they feel.
Speaker 2: For a minute, but I hate the crash and certain
Speaker 2: things in my life I hate how they feel when
Speaker 2: I'm doing them. I hate the plank Exhibit A. I
Speaker 2: mean I was for years. I was one of these people.
Speaker 2: I would tell you to your face, I hate to exercise.
Speaker 1: You can go back and watch my sermon videos from
Speaker 1: three years ago.
Speaker 2: I was standing on the stage and say I hate
Speaker 2: to exercise. You know why I hated it because it
Speaker 2: wasn't to have it. I didn't do it enough to
Speaker 2: love it. I hated it. But you don't have to
Speaker 2: accept your default attitude toward anything. I incline my heart.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna teach today.
Speaker 1: You came out. I'm gonna make it work your while.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna teach today. Get that elevation pen ready.
Speaker 2: We're gonna burn it up today and get a new
Speaker 2: one next week.
Speaker 1: I grew to hate.
Speaker 2: I think the moment of realization for me was when
Speaker 2: I was paying Andy four hundred and fifty dollars to
Speaker 2: come over to my house and let my pants out.
Speaker 1: I hated it. I looked at.
Speaker 2: Andy and I said, I hate this, man. I could
Speaker 2: be using this money to buy new clothes, and I'm
Speaker 2: paying it to you to make my clothes bigger. I
Speaker 2: hate this. And he said, hey, keep eating. It's job
Speaker 2: security for me. That's what my Taylor said. I said, no, man,
Speaker 2: I hate this. I hate this feeling. And sometimes sometimes
Speaker 2: before you can make a change, you have to be
Speaker 2: motivated by I know it's a strong word of some
Speaker 2: very pastoral you.
Speaker 1: Have to hate it. You have to hate it. You
Speaker 1: have to hate self pity.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 1: And the problem with hating self pity.
Speaker 2: Is Ooh, it feels good like a bag of Dorito's
Speaker 2: on your tongue. See, it's not that I hate the
Speaker 2: taste of Doritos. I just hated what it did to
Speaker 2: my waist. This is so good, sounds simple, but it's
Speaker 2: real deep, he said.
Speaker 1: I hate the double minded. I love your law. Before
Speaker 1: I can.
Speaker 2: Do what I love, I have to know what to hate.
Speaker 2: I hate this, I hate the way. I hate the
Speaker 2: way watch watch. I love what it does for me,
Speaker 2: but I hate what it does to me. It's a
Speaker 2: complicated relationship. A bag of Doritos does something for me.
Speaker 2: Am I not doing anything for you. It does something
Speaker 2: for me. I have a long standing relationship with carbohydrates.
Speaker 2: They have been there for me in the midnight hour
Speaker 2: when I couldn't call on anybody else.
Speaker 1: I could call on chocolate.
Speaker 2: So I love it, but I hate I love what
Speaker 2: it does for me, but I hate what it.
Speaker 1: Does to me.
Speaker 2: I hate all this. I hate anger. Oh it makes
Speaker 2: me feel good. It even gets me some results. I
Speaker 2: have a complicated relationship with anger. If you get mad enough,
Speaker 2: you can get people to do what you want, but
Speaker 2: then you're all alone. After they do it, nobody wants
Speaker 2: to be with you. I hate being angry because I
Speaker 2: hate being alone. Somebody shall outcome. I hate the outcome
Speaker 2: of this and that I hate it. I hate what
Speaker 2: it does to my marriage. I hate what it does
Speaker 2: to my relationships. I hate how it disturbs my inner
Speaker 2: peace and puts me in a state of turmoil.
Speaker 1: And it's complicated.
Speaker 2: It's a complicated relationship that I have with complaining.
Speaker 1: I love to complain. Ooh.
Speaker 2: I love to tell somebody you can look at there
Speaker 2: at me when the woman Basil who's doing to do it,
Speaker 2: Bible says, don't do it, but it didn't say it
Speaker 2: doesn't feel good? Hey man, It feels real good to complain.
Speaker 2: It feels like a choice morsel going down. I mean,
Speaker 2: just as it's coming out of your mouth, just to
Speaker 2: unload on them. When somebody says how you doing, Just
Speaker 2: let them know for five minutes, every age, every pain,
Speaker 2: every day, disappointment, every struggle. But guess what, the next
Speaker 2: time they see you coming, they're going the other way
Speaker 2: because it's it's it's the law of diminishing returns. It
Speaker 2: gets you high for a minute. I love to talk
Speaker 2: bad about people I do. I shouldn't say these things.
Speaker 2: I tell myself every week after I finish on Sunday,
Speaker 2: when I'm watching back my sermon verdict.
Speaker 1: Don't say stuff like that.
Speaker 2: People put it on YouTube and use it against you
Speaker 2: as a weapon.
Speaker 1: But I just got to tell you.
Speaker 2: I love it makes me feel really good about my
Speaker 2: dysfunction to spend a little time discussing yours. I love
Speaker 2: to talk about other people's dumb decisions.
Speaker 1: I love it.
Speaker 2: It's just it's a natural high because if I can
Speaker 2: get you down here, then I feel right like I'm
Speaker 2: right here. Only problem is I'm setting myself up for decline,
Speaker 2: and now the next time I see you, I can't
Speaker 2: treat you better than I talk about you, so it
Speaker 2: ruins my relationships. I love what it does for me.
Speaker 2: It does something for me. Come on, how many will
Speaker 2: admit it does something for you to talk about what
Speaker 2: Henry did and what Susie wore, and what they should
Speaker 2: have done and what their kids are like. But by
Speaker 2: the same measure you judge, you will be judged. I
Speaker 2: love the taste, but I hate the outcome.
Speaker 1: I hate it.
Speaker 2: The problem with a lot of our resolutions for change
Speaker 2: is that they are not motivated by a healthy kind
Speaker 2: of hate.
Speaker 1: Healthy hate. Yeah, there is a healthy way to hate.
Speaker 1: I hate racism, I hate.
Speaker 2: Poverty, that's the only thing that will motivate me to
Speaker 2: do anything about it is I've got to hate it.
Speaker 2: I hate bullying. I hate bullying.
Speaker 1: US bullied.
Speaker 2: Tony Wigfall jacked me up against the wall. I still
Speaker 2: remember my head cracking against the wall on my friend
Speaker 2: Hamilton looking at me, saying, don't look at me, man.
Speaker 2: I still remember the view from up there, and I
Speaker 2: can't see somebody being picked on without seeing myself from
Speaker 2: up there, just wondering, there is this guy gonna.
Speaker 1: Break my face. I hate it. I hate it.
Speaker 2: Holly said to me the other day, she said, I
Speaker 2: hate being late. Notice she didn't say I love being early,
Speaker 2: because she doesn't.
Speaker 1: But you got to get to.
Speaker 2: The point we were going to see somebody, she said,
Speaker 2: I don't want to walk in like that. And until
Speaker 2: you hate being late more than you love hitting snooze,
Speaker 2: you won't make the change. Yeah, get that thing on
Speaker 2: your mind, that back of Dorito's, and say I hate it.
Speaker 1: Look at your neighbors, say I hate it, not I
Speaker 1: hate you. I hate it.
Speaker 2: I hate it, I hate it, I hate the double minded,
Speaker 2: I hate indecision.
Speaker 1: I hate it.
Speaker 2: I'd rather make a bad decision than make no decision.
Speaker 1: I hate procrastination. I hate it.
Speaker 2: I did it a lot, but I finally got to
Speaker 2: the point where I hate it now. I hate the
Speaker 2: discipline of preparation too, but I hate the pain of
Speaker 2: procrastination more than I hate.
Speaker 1: I hate it.
Speaker 2: And I actually said to somebody the other day, I said,
Speaker 2: I never thought i'd hear myself say this, and I
Speaker 2: used to hate people who said this.
Speaker 1: I think I like exercise.
Speaker 2: After three years of doing it five days a week
Speaker 2: and finding out what works for me, I think I'm
Speaker 2: one of those people that I used to roll my
Speaker 2: eyes at. I think I like the exercise. I think
Speaker 2: I've reset my heart. I reset, I declare reset. There
Speaker 2: are some things in your life that have been on
Speaker 2: the decline. But God brought you to church on the
Speaker 2: first weekend of the year, and you're setting your heart
Speaker 2: in a different direction.
Speaker 4: Come on, you're gonna love the presence of God this year.
Speaker 4: You're gonna love the Word of God this year. You're
Speaker 4: gonna love the right things this year. Train your brain
Speaker 4: to hate it. Train your brain. I know that's what my.
Speaker 2: Dad was trying to do when he made us eat
Speaker 2: all the food on our plate, when we overfilled it.
Speaker 2: At the Ryan's buffet Vacation Memories.
Speaker 1: He said, you're.
Speaker 2: Gonna eat every bite on that plate. And me and
Speaker 2: my brother took turns causing diversions while the other one
Speaker 2: stuffed our pockets, and we walked out of Ryan's with
Speaker 2: pockets full of food.
Speaker 1: Never forget it.
Speaker 2: He wanted me to have an association, he said, I want.
Speaker 1: You to hate waste.
Speaker 2: Maybe that's why sometimes God lets us get so low.
Speaker 2: So I hate it, so I will despise Egypt, because
Speaker 2: if I didn't despise it, I would be tempted to
Speaker 2: go back.
Speaker 1: Hate the double minded. And I love your law.
Speaker 2: And I know what the hate, and this is healthy
Speaker 2: habit number two. I know where to hide. Do you
Speaker 2: know where to hide?
Speaker 1: You better?
Speaker 2: Because the attacks are going to come, and the missiles
Speaker 2: are going to fly, and the doubts and discouraging thought
Speaker 2: are going to try to set your heart on the decline,
Speaker 2: get you off track, take you back where you've been,
Speaker 2: keep you stuck from moving forward. Do you know where
Speaker 2: to hide when discouragement comes flying past your head? Or
Speaker 2: do you run to the same enemy that is attacking
Speaker 2: you in an effort to hide. I'm not talking about
Speaker 2: physical places, because the hiding places that we create that
Speaker 2: destroy us are usually the ones in our heart emotional states.
Speaker 2: He said, you are my hiding place. Lord, you are
Speaker 2: my shield. That's a powerful thought, isn't it. Look at
Speaker 2: what he says. He says, you are my hiding place.
Speaker 2: And when attacks come, I've learned where to run. And
Speaker 2: the reason that I'm moving forward in my life this
Speaker 2: year isn't because I won't be attacked. It's because I
Speaker 2: know what to run to when I am.
Speaker 1: Help me preach this.
Speaker 2: The expectation of no attack is a.
Speaker 1: Set up for disappointment.
Speaker 2: But the sum is said, I set myself up for
Speaker 2: success because I designated in advance where I would hide
Speaker 2: when the attack came. You can't find the place to
Speaker 2: hide once the attack starts. I'm gonna teach more on
Speaker 2: this in the weeks to come.
Speaker 1: Are you coming back for the series? This series?
Speaker 2: When I say this series is something worth canceling your
Speaker 2: life to make sure you don't miss I mean it.
Speaker 1: I mean it's so.
Speaker 2: What God has shown me is so explosive. I think
Speaker 2: it might even be my next book. I don't even
Speaker 2: want to write another book, but it's so strong. I
Speaker 2: think I might have to because I'm gonna teach you
Speaker 2: in this about the power of making decisions and sticking
Speaker 2: with them. That I'm not going back there. I'm not
Speaker 2: running to that. I can't. I can't. I can't ask
Speaker 2: God to protect me from the enemy that I'm running to.
Speaker 1: Where do you hide when it gets hard?
Speaker 2: Set it up in advance that I'm running to the places.
Speaker 1: Where there's real.
Speaker 2: Protection, not the illusion of protection. Because some of us
Speaker 2: hide in places that seem safe.
Speaker 1: He said, you are my hiding place.
Speaker 2: Elijah went and hid in a cave because it seems safe.
Speaker 2: It was far away from Jezebel, and she was threatening
Speaker 2: his very life. This is an Old Testament story that's
Speaker 2: worth reading if you hadn't read it, because the whisper
Speaker 2: of God came into the cave as Elijah ran from
Speaker 2: his calling. Or you're running from the conflict, or you're
Speaker 2: running into the conflict, because the place of conflict is
Speaker 2: the place of calling. But you have to be comfortable
Speaker 2: hiding in the midst of hardships to know that God
Speaker 2: is your refuge, your strong tower in the battle, not
Speaker 2: from it. And Elijah ran south as far as he
Speaker 2: could go, went in a cave and spent the night,
Speaker 2: and the voice of the Lord went in the cave
Speaker 2: and said, what are you doing here, Elijah? Why are
Speaker 2: you hiding here? Why would you choose to hide in
Speaker 2: the place that would keep you confined when you're calling
Speaker 2: is out there? Did I not protect you on Mount Carmel?
Speaker 2: Did I not send down fire from heaven? You can
Speaker 2: hide in plain sight when you trust in the goodness
Speaker 2: of God.
Speaker 1: I will see the goodness.
Speaker 2: Of the Lord in the land of the living. But
Speaker 2: I want to experience life and dead places, so I
Speaker 2: got to know where to hide. One of the staff
Speaker 2: members that heard this teaching, when I taught it to
Speaker 2: the staff, and to be honest with you, I'm teaching
Speaker 2: it better to you than I taught it to them.
Speaker 2: I had some practice now. She said that her hiding
Speaker 2: place is blame.
Speaker 1: She said, when.
Speaker 2: I'm confronted with a need to change a hide behind blame.
Speaker 2: When we were picturing our hiding place, because I had
Speaker 2: all of the staff members, I could have you do this,
Speaker 2: but I don't want to embarrass you and you might
Speaker 2: be a first time guest. I had them turned to
Speaker 2: each other and say what their hiding place was, and
Speaker 2: they went deep. Some of them said porn, some of
Speaker 2: them said eating, some of them said destructive thought patterns.
Speaker 2: Some of them said this, and some of them said that.
Speaker 2: But they all had a hiding place. Everybody in here
Speaker 2: has a hiding place. In fact, you have multiple hiding places.
Speaker 2: And she said, her hiding place is blame something goes wrong. Well,
Speaker 2: if the kids hadn't, well, if the car hadn't, you know,
Speaker 2: blame just It's a convenient hiding place because it will
Speaker 2: shield you from the inconvenience of change.
Speaker 1: If it's somebody else that needs to change. It's a
Speaker 1: convenient hiding place.
Speaker 2: Yeah, for a little while, but it's a it's a
Speaker 2: paper mache shield. It can only keep you from so much.
Speaker 2: She said, I blame I blame everybody. I blame everything.
Speaker 2: I blame the way I was raised.
Speaker 1: I blame my.
Speaker 2: Parents for being too hard on me, and then I
Speaker 2: blame them for being.
Speaker 1: Too easy on me.
Speaker 2: I blame them if they would have made me stick
Speaker 2: with piano lessons. And then I blame them that they
Speaker 2: made me show up the choir practice. I mean, I
Speaker 2: blame them. I blame I blame what I did get.
Speaker 2: I blame what I didn't get blame. What's her hiding place?
Speaker 2: What's yours? What's yours? Elijah had a cave, she had blamed.
Speaker 2: I wonder do you hide behind low expectations? This one
Speaker 2: is real common because if you don't expect much, you
Speaker 2: can't be disappointed, and so you learn how to hide
Speaker 2: behind this fake smile.
Speaker 1: You don't really have a whole heart.
Speaker 2: You have a fake smile to cover up your half
Speaker 2: hearted interior life.
Speaker 1: And we hide.
Speaker 2: Ourselves from even those closest to us. And we hide
Speaker 2: ourselves because if I hide behind an image that I present,
Speaker 2: I don't have to deal with who I am.
Speaker 1: And the call of God is coming forth.
Speaker 2: Like the voice of the Lord went into the cave,
Speaker 2: the voice of the Lord is coming into your heart today, saying,
Speaker 2: come out, Come out of hiding, Come out of fear,
Speaker 2: come out of low expectations, come out of hypocrisy, Come
Speaker 2: out from the stake spirituality, come out, come.
Speaker 1: Out wherever you are.
Speaker 2: You know when you hide in the shadow of the
Speaker 2: most High, you can abide under the shadow of the Almighty.
Speaker 1: I have a shelter.
Speaker 2: I don't have to hide behind anything, but gosh, I'm
Speaker 2: glad it's snows so I can breach this message.
Speaker 1: What's going to open your heart?
Speaker 2: What good will it do for the windows of heaven
Speaker 2: to be open?
Speaker 1: If your heart is blocked.
Speaker 2: You gotta know where to hide, or you'll be running
Speaker 2: doing your thing this year and just collapse.
Speaker 1: The doctor said, because you.
Speaker 2: Didn't know where to hide. I know where to hide.
Speaker 2: I don't always do it, but I know where. And
Speaker 2: I said, start, I.
Speaker 1: Know where to hide.
Speaker 2: Somebody shout, I know where to hide. My kids were
Speaker 2: playing hide and seek one time and they got locked in.
Speaker 1: The crass space. That's what you don't want to do.
Speaker 2: And sometimes, just like that, you're running from something, thinking
Speaker 2: you're hiding, but you end up locking yourself. I mean,
Speaker 2: you can lock yourself in a pattern, in an attitude
Speaker 2: and an effort to escape something, and what you get
Speaker 2: locked in is worse than what.
Speaker 1: You were running from.
Speaker 2: Reaching to myself on the media's sermon, and you think,
Speaker 2: and you need a better hiding place.
Speaker 1: You got hide somewhere. So memorize some songs, the little
Speaker 1: songs that you like. The little songs will be singing
Speaker 1: the church.
Speaker 2: You can sing them other than Sunday. You can run
Speaker 2: the name of the Lord is a strong tower. The
Speaker 2: righteous run into it. So you might have to sing
Speaker 2: in the shower to incline your heart to keep his commands.
Speaker 2: You might have to hide in a different place. Where
Speaker 2: else are you gonna hide? You're gonna hide and feeling
Speaker 2: sorry for yourself. You're gonna hide in enemy held territory
Speaker 2: and expect to be safe there.
Speaker 1: I know where to hide. I know how to say
Speaker 1: I love.
Speaker 3: You, Lord, and I lift my voice to word you.
Speaker 3: Oh my soul, rejoice they joy my king this old song.
Speaker 3: But it will still work to run the devil off
Speaker 3: when he starts messing with you in the middle of
Speaker 3: the night.
Speaker 1: Why are you here?
Speaker 3: May it be a sweet, sweet sound in your I
Speaker 3: can sing when I'm squeezed.
Speaker 2: I can sing when I'm pressed. I can rejoice. Hit
Speaker 2: and reset on my heart.
Speaker 1: I've set my heart that keep put the man. Come on,
Speaker 1: we're hitting reset. I want you to picture yourself.
Speaker 2: You're playing Nintendo, remember Bill, and you hit reset. You're
Speaker 2: about to go have to start over all your progress
Speaker 2: and you hit reset. The psalm is set. I know
Speaker 2: where to go to reset my heart. It's not that
Speaker 2: the missiles never fly. I just learned how to duck,
Speaker 2: and I know where to hide, and I pointed my
Speaker 2: heart in the direction of my destiny. I know where
Speaker 2: to hide. I know what to hate, and my heart
Speaker 2: knows how to hope. Want you to stand up if
Speaker 2: you have hope, Stand up if you have hope.
Speaker 1: It's good to have hope. I said, it's good to
Speaker 1: have hope.
Speaker 2: If a whole Christmas sermon on we have this hope,
Speaker 2: I hope everybody at every location is standing up because
Speaker 2: you have hope. But the Psalmist doesn't say, in this
Speaker 2: particular instance, I have hope. He says I hope. And
Speaker 2: I'm not sure if I learned this in third grade
Speaker 2: English or fourth But when he says I hope instead
Speaker 2: of saying I have hope, that makes it a verb
Speaker 2: and not a noun. Any English teachers can verify what
Speaker 2: I just said.
Speaker 1: It's not just something I have.
Speaker 2: It's something that I what, is something that I do.
Speaker 1: It's an active hope.
Speaker 2: And you cannot go into another year of your life
Speaker 2: hoping it gets better. Like the lady I sat next
Speaker 2: to on the plane, she said, here's Mulfulow's feet. Hope
Speaker 2: for the best, expect the worst. That's clever, but it's crap.
Speaker 2: Hope doesn't just wish it would. And I'll tell you
Speaker 2: what if you don't know how to hope. If you
Speaker 2: think hope is just when we say I hope in
Speaker 2: your word, that's not a bookmark in your Bible that
Speaker 2: you look at every once in a while or something
Speaker 2: on your coffee mouth.
Speaker 1: It is a way of living.
Speaker 2: I hope somebody saying I hope, I hope, not just I.
Speaker 1: Wish I hope. What does hope do. Hope puts its
Speaker 1: hand to work.
Speaker 2: Hope, not just in my heart, but hope. Look, have
Speaker 2: you put your hand to what you're hoping for? Because
Speaker 2: faith is the substance of things hope for and the
Speaker 2: evidence of things not seen. God wants to open your
Speaker 2: heart this new year to possibility.
Speaker 1: But you're going to have.
Speaker 2: To put your hand to what you're hoping for. In
Speaker 2: other words, you've got to work your window and watch this.
Speaker 2: I don't hope. It's not cold. I wear a coat.
Speaker 2: When I was leaving for church this weekend, Elijah said,
Speaker 2: Daddy is going to be great.
Speaker 1: He said.
Speaker 2: It's going to be record attendants. I said, no, it's not.
Speaker 2: He said, yes, it is. Daddy, have a little faith
Speaker 2: practice what you preache. But I said, boy, let me
Speaker 2: teach you a little lesson.
Speaker 1: About church growth and hope.
Speaker 2: Okay, some of my campuses have to be closed, so
Speaker 2: it can't be record attendants and Charlotte people are kind
Speaker 2: of crazy, some of them anyway, not you' all, but
Speaker 2: some people watching a line.
Speaker 1: And I said, my hope isn't that the rooms are
Speaker 1: going to be full.
Speaker 2: My hope is that God is going to show up
Speaker 2: and speak to whoever calls. That's how I hope. I
Speaker 2: don't hope it's not cold. I put on a cold
Speaker 2: and go outside.
Speaker 1: Anyway, I don't hope it's not hard. I SARTs to who.
Speaker 1: My hope is not in the path. My hope is
Speaker 1: in the promise.
Speaker 2: So the path can look like this, but I'm still
Speaker 2: headed to the promise. I hope in your word, how
Speaker 2: many received something from the Lord today? You tell your
Speaker 2: heart opening enough, you can feel it, you can feel
Speaker 2: God doing something this This is going to be an
Speaker 2: amazing year church. If I were you, I wouldn't miss
Speaker 2: the window. I wouldn't miss it. Next weekend, I'm really
Speaker 2: going to start the series this time, work your window.
Speaker 2: What I feel like today was a little w D
Speaker 2: forty amy on the window on the hinges. We got
Speaker 2: the window crack. We got our hearts open.
Speaker 1: If you feel comfortable, I don't know if you do
Speaker 1: or not.
Speaker 2: Would you just lift your hands like this to the
Speaker 2: Lord to receive what he has for you, hoping your word,
Speaker 2: hope in your promise. Thank you for your presence, Lord,
Speaker 2: I thank you for the expectation of change. We incline
Speaker 2: our hearts. We're set up for success. The windows of
Speaker 2: heaven are open, and so are our hearts. We won't
Speaker 2: be blocked. We've set our hearts. We'll set it again
Speaker 2: and again and again. I will bless the Lord at
Speaker 2: all times, and his praise shall continually be in my mouth.
Speaker 1: Come on say it.
Speaker 2: I will bless the Lord at all times, and his
Speaker 2: praise shall continually be in my mouth. I will bless
Speaker 2: the Lords at all times, and his phrase shall continually
Speaker 2: be in my mouth.
Speaker 1: Thank you for joining us.
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Speaker 1: Thanks again for listening. God bless you.