Speaker 1: Well, happy New Year. Can I tell you how happy
Speaker 1: I am that you are starting your new year off
Speaker 1: with us? Maybe today you have plans to eat collared
Speaker 1: greens and black eyed peas later. Is that just a
Speaker 1: Southern thing? Because here in North Carolina, our family has
Speaker 1: a New Year's tradition where we eat pork and collards
Speaker 1: and black eyed peas. Supposedly it symbolizes good things for
Speaker 1: the new year. I think collars represent prosperity and peas
Speaker 1: represent good luck. But mostly we just like them and
Speaker 1: we're celebrating a new year together as a family. Whatever
Speaker 1: you feed your soul is way more important than what
Speaker 1: you feed your body. And so no matter what you
Speaker 1: plan to eat today, you are ahead of the game
Speaker 1: because you're feeding your soul. It's so important to pause
Speaker 1: and to look back, and that is what today is
Speaker 1: all about. One of the primary ways that God speaks
Speaker 1: to me is through the messages of this house. Every
Speaker 1: single week, God uses our paths to bring the exact
Speaker 1: word we need to hear. How does he do this?
Speaker 1: His messages penetrate whether you have been a believer for
Speaker 1: five minutes or fifty years, every age, every stage of life,
Speaker 1: there is a word for every single one of us.
Speaker 1: I wonder which messages spoke to you the most this year.
Speaker 1: Maybe one that came at the perfect time. Maybe it
Speaker 1: hit it a moment when you were doubting or anxious
Speaker 1: and the sermon was exactly what you needed to hear.
Speaker 1: I love how God works. I wish we could just
Speaker 1: sit down together and talk about it. In fact, let
Speaker 1: me know in the chat which messages this year have
Speaker 1: resonated the most with you. Today I invited some of
Speaker 1: the people in our church to share about some of
Speaker 1: their favorite sermons from twenty twenty two. We'll be diving
Speaker 1: into our notes, sharing our stories, and then looking back
Speaker 1: at portions of these sermons. My hope is that these
Speaker 1: excerpts remind you of what God spoke to you and
Speaker 1: what God did in your life last year. I want
Speaker 1: us to go into twenty twenty three believing that the
Speaker 1: same God that was with us last year will be
Speaker 1: with us again this year. Of course he will. That's
Speaker 1: why we're calling today new Year, Same God. We've been
Speaker 1: singing that song, Same God over and over this last year,
Speaker 1: and it has been such an anthem for our church
Speaker 1: that the God of Jacob, the God of Moses, of
Speaker 1: Mary of David. The God of your Grandma is the
Speaker 1: same God of you and I, and that is who
Speaker 1: we worship today. He is faithful to see us through
Speaker 1: whatever is ahead, and the best way to stir up
Speaker 1: our faith for what's ahead is to look back at
Speaker 1: his past faithfulness. So I'm going to go first. I
Speaker 1: have to go first. I can't let others share about
Speaker 1: how the message is preached by our pastor my husband
Speaker 1: ministered to them without getting to share how they have
Speaker 1: ministered to me. And I'm pretty sure everyone who follows
Speaker 1: me and shares about their favorite sermon is gonna say
Speaker 1: some version of it. Was so hard to pick just one,
Speaker 1: because it is sometimes I cannot believe the amazing feast
Speaker 1: that Stephen Ferdick lays before us each and every week.
Speaker 1: If you can sit under a sermon by Stephen Ferdick
Speaker 1: and say that God did not speak to you, you
Speaker 1: have a listening problem anyway. Okay, it's so hard to
Speaker 1: pick just one. But back in the spring, Stephen preached
Speaker 1: a little mini series three sermons on the Book of Ruth.
Speaker 1: They were called it Will Come Together, the One who
Speaker 1: seeks fines and blown away. I felt like these three weeks,
Speaker 1: I was like trying to get a drink of water
Speaker 1: from a fire hydrant. Stephen was dropping wisdom faster than
Speaker 1: I could write it down, and God was speaking to
Speaker 1: my heart. So now that I've narrowed it down to
Speaker 1: three sermons, I'm gonna tell you the one that I
Speaker 1: want to talk about. Not necessarily my favorite of twenty
Speaker 1: twenty two, steven sermons are like my children, They're all
Speaker 1: my favorite, but this one, this one really got me.
Speaker 1: It was a sermon called it Will Come Together Now.
Speaker 1: In this sermon, Stephen laid the foundation by talking about
Speaker 1: Ruth and the tragedy that she had experienced in her life.
Speaker 1: She lost her husband and she lost everything that she
Speaker 1: held dear in her life. It probably felt to her
Speaker 1: like her life was over, but as we read through
Speaker 1: the Book of Ruth, in reality, we realized that her
Speaker 1: life was barely getting started on the basis of all
Speaker 1: that God was going to do for her and through her.
Speaker 1: Stephen told us that we don't taste life as a meal.
Speaker 1: We experience the ingredients as they come, and the problem
Speaker 1: with this is that the ingredients themselves can often taste
Speaker 1: bad in isolation. This really hit home with me because
Speaker 1: I love to cook, and I understand that there are
Speaker 1: essential ingredients to almost every recipe that tastes bad in isolation,
Speaker 1: like salt and oil and flour. If you only taste
Speaker 1: those things, you would spit them out. But put them together,
Speaker 1: add in a little bit of baking powder and some eggs,
Speaker 1: and you're on your way to a cake. In my life,
Speaker 1: so often I experience disappointment or frustration when something that
Speaker 1: I asked God for doesn't go the way I thought
Speaker 1: it would. I ask God for this relationship, but it
Speaker 1: feels like we're fighting all the time. I ask God
Speaker 1: for this child, but now I feel like I don't
Speaker 1: have what it takes to raise them. I ask God
Speaker 1: for this new job, but now I feel lonely. And
Speaker 1: when I start to feel these feelings, my tendency can
Speaker 1: be to think that God is angry with me, or
Speaker 1: that maybe I did something wrong, or maybe I wasn't
Speaker 1: meant to have these things to begin with and I
Speaker 1: got it all wrong. And the thing that suck with
Speaker 1: me from this sermon is when he said let God
Speaker 1: mix it. He told us that our prayer should be God,
Speaker 1: I want your will, and I want whatever comes with it.
Speaker 1: Those ingredients that taste bad to me and isolation are
Speaker 1: actually building something good in my life. That relationship that
Speaker 1: feels tense is teaching me humility and the art of
Speaker 1: putting others before myself. That job that challenges me is
Speaker 1: teaching me to depend on God in ways that I
Speaker 1: never would otherwise. That loneliness is causing me to lean
Speaker 1: into my relationship with God and then also to invest
Speaker 1: wisely in the relationships around me. Stephen said, just because
Speaker 1: it tastes bad in isolation doesn't mean it won't serve
Speaker 1: a purpose in the finished product. The good things often
Speaker 1: come with frustration and disappointment and difficulty. That's normal, That's okay,
Speaker 1: And he reminded us in this sermon, if it's not good,
Speaker 1: then God is not done, and that mantra will get
Speaker 1: you through. All right, I've said enough. Now I want
Speaker 1: you to check out this clip so you can see
Speaker 1: what I'm talking about. Whoever walked in the kitchen and
Speaker 1: just use an example. I'm not a cook. Take a
Speaker 1: scoop of baking powder and just down it. Did you
Speaker 1: ever do it? So? Baking powder is bad? Anybody want
Speaker 1: a big, heaping pile of baking powder? For lunch today.
Speaker 1: Raise your hand. Why are you messing up my illustration? Bro? Now,
Speaker 1: this is the message you want, the whole message in
Speaker 1: a moment. This is a whole message, is a whole message.
Speaker 1: This is why you came from Michigan so God could
Speaker 1: tell you. This is why you tuned in online. Just
Speaker 1: because it tastes bad in isolation doesn't mean it won't
Speaker 1: serve a purpose in the finished product. I'm not saying
Speaker 1: that the Bible said that after Naomi had gone so
Speaker 1: low that she said, this doesn't taste good. This doesn't
Speaker 1: taste good. And honestly, I figured out why people in
Speaker 1: church often look so sour when they're in church, because
Speaker 1: what you went through this week didn't taste good. And
Speaker 1: you are trying to praise God with a taste in
Speaker 1: your mouth of disappointment and fear? Am I preaching you?
Speaker 1: I mean it's hard to say Hallelujah when your mouth
Speaker 1: tastes like hurt. Who call me bitter? You might as well?
Speaker 1: Well you might as well and taste good. And yet
Speaker 1: what a strange blessing that they gave. Let me give
Speaker 1: you a little bit more background so I can make
Speaker 1: sure I'm not confusing Graham's my Graham's my guy, you know.
Speaker 1: He he told me the other day, he was like, Dad,
Speaker 1: sometimes you got to slow down with these scriptures. You've
Speaker 1: been looking at them all week and we're just waking up.
Speaker 1: You got to slow down and break it down. So
Speaker 1: even though I can't do it justice, the Book of
Speaker 1: Ruth is beautiful and you could read it in the
Speaker 1: time that you could watch half an episode of Ozark.
Speaker 1: And when we moved through it, we see Naomi a Limelech,
Speaker 1: Killion and Meelan's Ruth's husband orpa is married to Killyon
Speaker 1: And both of those baby names are available, by the way,
Speaker 1: if you want to have an original name for your kid.
Speaker 1: But when they went to Moab, they went to a
Speaker 1: place that they didn't This is important plan to go.
Speaker 1: This message is for somebody who is in a place
Speaker 1: you didn't plan to go. And I'm gonna take it further.
Speaker 1: Sometimes it's a place you hate being there because they're
Speaker 1: from Bethlehem and they're in Moab. Kind of like when
Speaker 1: they went to Egypt. I mentioned it earlier, when the
Speaker 1: Israelites went to Egypt. They didn't go to Egypt because
Speaker 1: it was their dream to go to Egypt. It wasn't
Speaker 1: on their bucket list to go to Egypt. They went
Speaker 1: to Egypt to survive. And we've talked about that a lot,
Speaker 1: because I think a lot of the sin cycles we
Speaker 1: get sucked into in our life are out of survival mechanisms,
Speaker 1: and if we don't deal with it that way, we
Speaker 1: just put so much shame on it. We can't help
Speaker 1: anybody get healed because people won't come to Jesus because
Speaker 1: you don't understand the power of his covenant with you.
Speaker 1: You think Jesus is like other people and that there
Speaker 1: come a point where he'll be ashamed of you and
Speaker 1: he'll go, oh, well that's that's that's too far there.
Speaker 1: I was going to use you, but really you did that.
Speaker 1: You don't understand the power of a covenant. But but
Speaker 1: Ruth did. Because when Naomi said leave me, I've lost
Speaker 1: my husband's i've lost my boys. I've heard there's bred
Speaker 1: in Bethlehem. We've been here ten years. Naomi said, I'm
Speaker 1: not leaving. Make a covenant with you. Whither thou goest
Speaker 1: I go, Your God become my god, and your God
Speaker 1: will often become the same god as your friends. If
Speaker 1: you are around people who worship status and stuff. It
Speaker 1: won't be long till you'll shear shackle to the same
Speaker 1: things they are. But now to touch somebody next to
Speaker 1: you and say, you ought to hang out with me
Speaker 1: a little. While you hang out with me, You're gonna
Speaker 1: have strong faith you hang out with me. Come on,
Speaker 1: deth leopard, if you hang out with me. So so
Speaker 1: they go back together, and Naomi, in this this honest moment,
Speaker 1: she says, call me bitter. I still got the taste
Speaker 1: in my mouth. I'm going back to Bethlehem, which means
Speaker 1: house of bread, which makes it that much more depressing
Speaker 1: when there's a famine in Bethlehem, when there's a famine
Speaker 1: in the place that is named after bread, when the
Speaker 1: joy of the Lord is supposed to be your strength,
Speaker 1: and you are a Christian and you're depressed, and you
Speaker 1: are a Christian and you can't sleep, and you are
Speaker 1: a Christian and you have addictions, and you are a
Speaker 1: I am a C I am ah, I am a
Speaker 1: c h R ST I had but I got a
Speaker 1: A D D A dhd hey d d I c
Speaker 1: t I oh. I'm in the house of Brett, but
Speaker 1: hauk grief. Call me Mara. She said, Real said, I
Speaker 1: was with you when I wanted your son. Now you
Speaker 1: don't have a son to give me, but I'm still
Speaker 1: with you. I wonder who the Lord is saying that to.
Speaker 1: I'm still with you. I don't sell low and by High.
Speaker 1: God is not Warren Buffett. God doesn't trade like that.
Speaker 1: God said, I'm still with you because I made a
Speaker 1: covenant with you. It's not that kind of covenant I
Speaker 1: made with Noah that was limited. It's not the kind
Speaker 1: of covenant I made with Abraham that was limited. It's
Speaker 1: not the covenant I made with Moses that was limited.
Speaker 1: It's not the covenant I made with David that was limited.
Speaker 1: This is the covenant of my blood, made with the
Speaker 1: life of my son, and I am worth you. What's up, y'all.
Speaker 1: I'm Elijah Fredick. I'm Pastor Stevens's oldest son. Now, obviously,
Speaker 1: my dad is a goat of preaching, so I had
Speaker 1: to share one of my takeaways from one of his
Speaker 1: sermons with y'all. The sermon that I'm going to be
Speaker 1: talking about is a recent one. It's called I'm Not
Speaker 1: Dead Yet, and I actually have some insider information on
Speaker 1: the making behind it. A couple of months ago, me
Speaker 1: and my girlfriend started reading through the Bible one chapter
Speaker 1: at a time. It felt like something that God was
Speaker 1: calling me to do because I wanted to get the
Speaker 1: full context of the Bible and everything that God wanted
Speaker 1: us to know. We told my dad what we were
Speaker 1: doing and he said how much he loved it. A
Speaker 1: couple of weeks later, he asked us what chapter we
Speaker 1: were on so he could read it with us, and
Speaker 1: he sent us an application from the chapter that turned
Speaker 1: into a group chat called to Read the Bible in
Speaker 1: four years club, because if we read one chapter every day,
Speaker 1: that's about how long it would take us. We started
Speaker 1: sending a key verse application that we took away from
Speaker 1: each chapter, and obviously my dad's were always the best.
Speaker 1: We came to the Book of Leviticus. We started to
Speaker 1: struggle to find an application for every chapter because the
Speaker 1: chapters get so repetitive and specific, but somehow my dad
Speaker 1: would always find a fire application. Leviticus is tough because
Speaker 1: it's a lot of lists of rules and regulations for
Speaker 1: the ancient Israelites, but we still did our best to
Speaker 1: figure out what we could learn about God from reading it. Now,
Speaker 1: when I look at all the implications that my dad
Speaker 1: had sent in the group chat. One particular one stands
Speaker 1: out Leviticus eleven. Leviticus eleven is a pretty boring chapter
Speaker 1: of first glance. It's all about the kosher laws and
Speaker 1: certain animals that people can't eat. I can actually show you,
Speaker 1: guys the text, but he throws us a couple of
Speaker 1: great points. We pull it out real quick. All right
Speaker 1: here it is, got it prepared. But you know, big old,
Speaker 1: long text. So what's crazy is a lot of this
Speaker 1: actually ended up making it into his sermon. One of
Speaker 1: the things that he talked about in the text was
Speaker 1: how important it is to ask yourself. Do I listen
Speaker 1: when God tells me something that's polluting my heart? Or
Speaker 1: do I only see it in others plank and spect
Speaker 1: type deal. You know. He talked about verse thirty seven,
Speaker 1: which says if a carcass falls on any seeds that
Speaker 1: are to be planted, they remain clean. He uses to
Speaker 1: tell us about the idea of the seed will survive.
Speaker 1: Sometimes a dead thing falls in the seed of what
Speaker 1: God is shying to do, but the seed survives. The
Speaker 1: devil tried to kill the seed of your potential, but
Speaker 1: the seed is still clean. You think it's dead, but
Speaker 1: it's just dormant. He even connected it to how Herod
Speaker 1: tried to kill Jesus, but the seed survived. I already
Speaker 1: knew that had potential, but I had no idea that
Speaker 1: he would turn it into a whole sermon. He was
Speaker 1: able to take the potential of what he told us
Speaker 1: and polish it up a little bit. In the end,
Speaker 1: he used the example of the weasel which the people
Speaker 1: were not allowed to eat, which was specified in the chapter.
Speaker 1: He showed an image of a weasel that was eating
Speaker 1: some eggs before they had a chance to be born.
Speaker 1: He used it to show how you can't let the
Speaker 1: devil pollute the seed of something that God is doing
Speaker 1: in your life. Another one of my favorite points he
Speaker 1: made was when he said, if you have confidence in
Speaker 1: God's promise but not commitment to his process, that's not faith,
Speaker 1: that's just denial. That really hit me because in my
Speaker 1: life a lot of times I don't struggle with my
Speaker 1: confidence in God as much as my confidence in myself. However,
Speaker 1: when I doubt myself, that is kind of me doubting
Speaker 1: the process and doubting that God has put me where
Speaker 1: I need to be to impact people for His good,
Speaker 1: and at the end of the day, I can know
Speaker 1: that the seed of God's potential lives in me. It
Speaker 1: was so powerful for me to hear how he was
Speaker 1: able to take a seemingly boring chapter about kosher laws
Speaker 1: and show us how it applies to us in modern
Speaker 1: day life. If we're not careful, we can make the
Speaker 1: Bible too much about ourselves and forget the framing of
Speaker 1: the story we're reading. However, if we read the Bible
Speaker 1: one way, that treats us like an ancient text with
Speaker 1: no application to our current day lives, and we might
Speaker 1: as well read Harry Potter. So I felt like this
Speaker 1: was such a legendary sermon. He was able to give
Speaker 1: us the full background, context and meeting of the text,
Speaker 1: but also try to help us figure out what the
Speaker 1: chapter is trying to tell us about the nature of
Speaker 1: God and how we can use that information to become
Speaker 1: closer to God. Let me show you all this clip
Speaker 1: real quick, so y'all can hear the sermon for yourself.
Speaker 1: Look at that weasel, little sneaky. That guy is a
Speaker 1: serial killer. I was looked him up. You could get
Speaker 1: in a small place and then Oh, look at it.
Speaker 1: He's got those eggs. Look what he's trying to do
Speaker 1: to those eggs. Look what he's trying to do to
Speaker 1: that thing that hasn't been born yet. Look at that weasel.
Speaker 1: Y'all are on board with Leviticus, now, are you? Because
Speaker 1: you do need to know how to deal with the weasel,
Speaker 1: don't you. You do need to learn how to deal
Speaker 1: with the weasel because you got a weasel called worry
Speaker 1: that while God is speaking his word to you, say
Speaker 1: amen in Portuguese when he gets through on this interpretation,
Speaker 1: because I need to hear an amen. I need to
Speaker 1: hear an amen. That weasel, that weasel, that weasel. No,
Speaker 1: he's not just leaving you alone. He's trying to steal
Speaker 1: what God spoke. Now I know you think I'm out
Speaker 1: of context. It's not talking about that kind of weasel.
Speaker 1: It's talking about everything in your life to try to distinguish,
Speaker 1: like the enemy will plant a seed in your mind,
Speaker 1: right you say, okay, well this is gonna go wrong?
Speaker 1: And have you thought about this? And did you hear
Speaker 1: what they said about that? And it's a recession of recession,
Speaker 1: a recession, a recession of recession of recession, of recession,
Speaker 1: of recession. You have thought about resurrection in about three
Speaker 1: months because all you've been reading about is recession. So
Speaker 1: now that weasel got right in there in your space,
Speaker 1: your little space where God does great things and he
Speaker 1: eats through the potential of what God sneaks. So what
Speaker 1: do you do with the wisel? God said, don't eat it?
Speaker 1: What do you do with the weasel? God said, put
Speaker 1: it off limits? What do you do with those little
Speaker 1: thoughts that come up a million miles an hour? And
Speaker 1: you know that's a good question to be asking. Enemy
Speaker 1: will weasel his way into your marriage, He'll weasel his
Speaker 1: way into your business, gets you to start cutting corners
Speaker 1: and stuff like that. Yeah, I know how he works.
Speaker 1: I'm a weasel expert. Weasel try and keep you from
Speaker 1: worshiping God, usel the Lord. I'm a list a lot
Speaker 1: of things that will multiply rapidly in your life, small things,
Speaker 1: moving things, sorrows, and I'm gonna show you what to
Speaker 1: do with them so I can keep doing big things.
Speaker 1: God still has big things for me. I felt chills
Speaker 1: on my body when I said it. God still has
Speaker 1: big things for me, things that are bigger than my intellect,
Speaker 1: things that are bigger than my imagination, exceedingly abundantly above
Speaker 1: all I ask, or imagine, the seed of God's potential
Speaker 1: lives inside of me. I say it again for the
Speaker 1: people who who really believe what the word of God says.
Speaker 1: The seed of God's potential lives in me. I mean,
Speaker 1: think about it. Here are people in Leviticus who have
Speaker 1: been through Egypt, have been through the Red Sea, who
Speaker 1: started with a man named Abraham. All out of one
Speaker 1: man came millions of people because God said, I will
Speaker 1: bless you and multiply you. And Abram was waiting. We
Speaker 1: preached about him for two weeks a while back. We
Speaker 1: preached about him for two weeks. How he was ninety nine,
Speaker 1: and God gave him the promise when he was a hundred.
Speaker 1: And I preached on keep it a hundred. But can
Speaker 1: I keep it a hundred with you? Abraham said, my
Speaker 1: wife's womb is as good as dead, and so is
Speaker 1: my body. And my body is as good as dead,
Speaker 1: because I'm ninety nine. But then something God inside of
Speaker 1: Abraham and kicked inside of Abraham, because see the seed
Speaker 1: that was inside of him was greater than the limitation
Speaker 1: that was on him. So something got inside of Abraham
Speaker 1: and he looked in the mirror. But then he looked
Speaker 1: at the stars and he talked to himself and his situation.
Speaker 1: But then he talked to God, and God reminded him
Speaker 1: of the promise. And Abram said, I'm old, but I'm
Speaker 1: not dead yet. I think he said it with no teeth.
Speaker 1: All right there yet I'm not teddy yet. I'm not
Speaker 1: teddy yet. I'm not done yet. I'm not teddy yet.
Speaker 1: It's not over yet. I'm not dead. God's not done.
Speaker 1: If I'm not dead, God's not done. Greater things are
Speaker 1: still to come. That. Wow, that was an amazing sermon.
Speaker 1: If you hadn't gone back and watched it, if you
Speaker 1: didn't know, it's on YouTube. Matter of fact, all of
Speaker 1: the messages from pastor Steven you can find on YouTube,
Speaker 1: and so go back watch them. I don't know about you,
Speaker 1: but every single Sunday I actually watched the message two times.
Speaker 1: I watched two times. The first time. I watch it
Speaker 1: for myself as a husband, as a father, just as
Speaker 1: a man. I need to be able to take some
Speaker 1: time to see what does God want to speak to
Speaker 1: my life? But not only that, not only that I
Speaker 1: watch it the second time because I'm trying to figure
Speaker 1: out how am I going to reteach it, how am
Speaker 1: I going to repre And after Pastor preached this sermon
Speaker 1: called Bent Needs Breaks Chains, I went back and I
Speaker 1: began to read over and over and over again throughout
Speaker 1: the story of Joseph, and God just really ministered to
Speaker 1: my soul. I love how Pastor it just gives us
Speaker 1: a fred fresh take on so many stories that maybe
Speaker 1: you've read over and over and over again, but in
Speaker 1: this message, it reminded us that life happens. Sometimes we
Speaker 1: go through things that are difficult. We have loved ones
Speaker 1: in our lives that are struggling, that are hurting, that
Speaker 1: are maybe sitting in a hospital bed, and in those
Speaker 1: moments sometimes you feel helpless. Sometimes I just get paralyzed
Speaker 1: because I feel like there's nothing that I can do.
Speaker 1: What I love about this message, vent Needs Breaks Chanes.
Speaker 1: It reminds me that, yes, God is in control, but
Speaker 1: I'm responsible for my posture. And Pastor in this message,
Speaker 1: he gets right on his knees and he demonstrates that
Speaker 1: it's vent Needs that breaks chains. Now, I will either
Speaker 1: stay chained to the event or I'll make a decision
Speaker 1: to fix my posture. When Pastor said that, it really
Speaker 1: spoke to me because it lets me know that I
Speaker 1: can do something. I can focus, I can worship, i
Speaker 1: can lean into the presence of God. I can get
Speaker 1: some people around me to support me and encourage me,
Speaker 1: and then God will do what only he can do.
Speaker 1: And so here's one of my favorite moments from this
Speaker 1: message that needs breaks chains and Joseph has a decision
Speaker 1: to make and he does it like this, I'm not God.
Speaker 1: And in the moment of decision, he takes a posture
Speaker 1: as the second most powerful man in the land. He
Speaker 1: takes his posture to say, God has been when what
Speaker 1: looked like for you to have this mentality? To say,
Speaker 1: God put me here for a purpose, and I'm submitting
Speaker 1: everything that's happened to me to God. I'm gonna, I'm gonna,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna. I'm gonna put myself in a position on
Speaker 1: my knees before God. I've never come to preach to you.
Speaker 1: If I can help it that I don't do this,
Speaker 1: even if it's for ten seconds before I round the corner,
Speaker 1: because a lot of times the way that I'll preach
Speaker 1: stuff will be just be coming to me to the
Speaker 1: last minute, and I'm literally like, but I try. I
Speaker 1: try every time to take one minute by myself. I
Speaker 1: say God, when I get out there today and there's
Speaker 1: people out there whose parents abandoned them. There's people out
Speaker 1: there who were molested. There's people out there who are
Speaker 1: going through the most scary medical situation in their life
Speaker 1: or their kids are There's people out there who have
Speaker 1: no idea how they're gonna catch up on four months
Speaker 1: worth of mortgage. There are people out there today who
Speaker 1: need you, and I can only meet that need on
Speaker 1: my knees. And it reminds me that if I do this,
Speaker 1: I can do this because see, the power that you
Speaker 1: need is not in me. But if I go to
Speaker 1: the one who has all power and all authority, and
Speaker 1: I get down low and I say God, I lift
Speaker 1: my eyes to the hills, where does my help come from?
Speaker 1: My help comes from you. I know, bit and knees
Speaker 1: can break chains. I know one word from Almighty God,
Speaker 1: one bread from the Spirit of I feel change breaking
Speaker 1: right now. I feel the bird is lifting right now.
Speaker 1: I feel sackle second on present floors at present dolors
Speaker 1: flying open right now. Because when you do this. God
Speaker 1: does that, Braith, Hey, what you did to me was bad.
Speaker 1: What happened to me is bad. What I'm going through
Speaker 1: is bad. But if I blame you, then my blame
Speaker 1: will become bitterness, and my bitterness will become bondage. Not
Speaker 1: your bondage, it will be my bondage. So I either
Speaker 1: get to stay chained to the events or I get
Speaker 1: to make a decision. This is where God brought you to.
Speaker 1: This is why you logged on. This is why they
Speaker 1: sent you the link. This is why you came to church.
Speaker 1: You thought you'd decided to come to church. You're crazy.
Speaker 1: God sovereignly brought you to church. You had ten excuses
Speaker 1: not to come. What didn't fit and I have nothing
Speaker 1: to wear. But here you are. It's a size too small,
Speaker 1: but you can't why for this moment. God wanted you
Speaker 1: to know. You are in an important moment of your life.
Speaker 1: And if you do this, come on. Every athlete knows
Speaker 1: you can't hit a golf ball good if you don't
Speaker 1: bend your knees. That's where your power comes from. You
Speaker 1: can't shoot a basketball right if you don't bend your knees.
Speaker 1: That's where your accuracy comes from You can't do a
Speaker 1: takedown standing up straight. There's no Division one wrestling champions
Speaker 1: that stand up straight time. Why are you fighting your
Speaker 1: battles like this? When God gave you this? This is
Speaker 1: how I fight my down devil. Watch me surrendered to God.
Speaker 1: Cuss been knees break. You can't do it in your
Speaker 1: own strength. If you could, you would have by now.
Speaker 1: But God brought you to your knees cause he's breaking
Speaker 1: subsederational tag. I feel the holy ghosts. Come Lord, Come Lord,
Speaker 1: break ghost change, break it, break it, break it, breaking,
Speaker 1: break it, breaking, break it. Breaking the past has no
Speaker 1: power over you. The blood of Jesus speaks up better.
Speaker 1: I breaking in the name of Jeson. Okay, bent these
Speaker 1: breaks chains. You gotta listen to chat there, go and
Speaker 1: catch that message, because just a clip like that, it's
Speaker 1: not enough. You gotta catch the whole thing. Okay. One
Speaker 1: of the things I love so much that we get
Speaker 1: to do as a church is see how far these
Speaker 1: sermons reach. Now. Back in September, we were able to
Speaker 1: share a story with you about one of our family
Speaker 1: members in the DMV area. Now, I'm sure you remember
Speaker 1: this because all I heard was so many people said, man,
Speaker 1: we love Leon. That message was so good, that video
Speaker 1: is so good, and so today we wanted to bring
Speaker 1: Leon here to share a little bit of how messages
Speaker 1: have impacted him. So we don't have him in the room,
Speaker 1: but we've got him right here. So Leon, thank you
Speaker 1: for joining us. Thank you for being a part of
Speaker 1: Elevation Church. We love that. It's not buildings. We talk
Speaker 1: about that all the time. It's not buildings here at Elevation,
Speaker 1: it's people. And from where you are, you've been impacted
Speaker 1: by messages. So why don't you share with the church
Speaker 1: family a message that has meant a lot to you
Speaker 1: this year. Well, thanks Pastor Chad for having me. There's
Speaker 1: so many messages, of course that resonate with me. But
Speaker 1: there was one particular message that Pastor Stephen preached back
Speaker 1: in April, I believe, and the name of the message
Speaker 1: was the facts aren't final. And one of the things
Speaker 1: that Pastor encouraged us and this message was that most
Speaker 1: of the time, on some of the time, the things
Speaker 1: that we struggle with in our faith actually have nothing
Speaker 1: to do with the enemy and have nothing to do
Speaker 1: with an attack. But it is some things that happen
Speaker 1: with our friends, and some of those things are actually facts,
Speaker 1: and because their facts, they scare us. But he encouraged
Speaker 1: us in this message that as long as we remain
Speaker 1: faithful and continue to believe God, that those things that
Speaker 1: we struggle with, that our facts are not going to
Speaker 1: put a limitation on God. But if we continue to
Speaker 1: worship and we continue to believe, that those things will
Speaker 1: be in to be a blessing in our lives. And
Speaker 1: I'm so grateful for that message. It impacted me because
Speaker 1: I was going through something at that time and it
Speaker 1: really spoke to my heart. Well, leone, you're preaching it,
Speaker 1: you might as well keep going. Okay, No, we're gonna
Speaker 1: share it with you, though the facts aren't final. Take
Speaker 1: a look. It's kind of our junk drawer to say,
Speaker 1: I'm just under attack. Mm hmmm. It's not always an attack, No,
Speaker 1: it's not. It is sometimes it's not always an attack,
Speaker 1: and it's not always the enemy. Because I know the
Speaker 1: devil is a liar, even when I believe him. Something
Speaker 1: in me kind of knows, called the Holy Spirit, this
Speaker 1: is not true. So the devil's lies are one thing.
Speaker 1: But look at the passage with me in verse thirty five.
Speaker 1: It doesn't say that the devil told Gyrus a bad report.
Speaker 1: It says that while Jesus was speaking follow Me, some
Speaker 1: people came from Gyrus's own house, people who worked for him,
Speaker 1: and they told him, your daughter is dead, and then
Speaker 1: they asked him, why bother the teacher anymore? Notice what
Speaker 1: they call Jesus the teacher because to them, that's all
Speaker 1: he was. They didn't believe in him yet. He hadn't
Speaker 1: died yet, he hadn't risen yet. These were not believers
Speaker 1: in Jesus. These were members of the synagogue who were
Speaker 1: still making up their mind about Jesus. So when they
Speaker 1: call him the teacher, they're not lying, but they are
Speaker 1: limiting because if all he is is a teacher, then
Speaker 1: why are you still standing here listening to him with
Speaker 1: this crowd. You need to get home. Your daughter's dead,
Speaker 1: and you are needed for the funeral arrangements, because in
Speaker 1: Jewish custom, there would be mourners that would come in
Speaker 1: two flutes and there would be at least four people.
Speaker 1: If you were poor, imagine how many people were filling
Speaker 1: Gyrus's house at that moment to mourn the death of
Speaker 1: his daughter. And if all he is is a teacher,
Speaker 1: we're wasting time. So when they call him a teacher
Speaker 1: and they say your daughter's dead, notice this. They are
Speaker 1: not the enemy. These are his friends. And this is
Speaker 1: not a lie, but it is a limitation. Now, sometimes
Speaker 1: the devil would just outright lie to you. You can
Speaker 1: feel it when it comes on. You're worthless, your piece
Speaker 1: of crap, you suck. Bad word, bad word, bad word,
Speaker 1: bad word. That's the devil calling you stuff that you know.
Speaker 1: God doesn't see you as that, right, and so then
Speaker 1: you just rebuke the devil. Ah, God, rebuke you, devil.
Speaker 1: You're so crazy. You think I'm gonna listen to this
Speaker 1: trash talk. You think I'm really just gonna drive my
Speaker 1: car into another car right now, feel so bad about myself,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna end my life. Come on, devil, you're crazy.
Speaker 1: I rebuke you, Satan, in the name of the Lord,
Speaker 1: the blood of Jesus against you, Satan, and all of
Speaker 1: these things you can do when it's the enemy and
Speaker 1: when it's an attack. But in this case, it's not
Speaker 1: the enemy, and it's not an attack. It's his friends.
Speaker 1: And it's a fact. Some of the stuff that you're
Speaker 1: fighting with in your faith right now, it's not a lie.
Speaker 1: And that's what makes it so scary. It's a fact.
Speaker 1: I can't just pray everything away by denial and close
Speaker 1: my eyes and wait for the rapture. The facts are
Speaker 1: the facts, but are you feeding more facts to your
Speaker 1: spirit than you are faith to your spirit? I love
Speaker 1: that sermon so much, And if we're all really honest
Speaker 1: with ourselves, we can find a little bit of Gyrus
Speaker 1: in each of us. And what I mean by that
Speaker 1: is maybe you've come through a situation or maybe you're
Speaker 1: currently in a situation where the facts are challenging your faith, Okay,
Speaker 1: And that looks like different things Like we'll ask ourselves
Speaker 1: questions like why am I here? How did I get here?
Speaker 1: Of God? Do you even hear me or care about
Speaker 1: what I'm going through? But the one thing that I
Speaker 1: know can be fact checked is that God is always
Speaker 1: bigger than our circumstances. Okay. And here's the thing. This
Speaker 1: passage of scripture comes from March chapter and it is
Speaker 1: like the gift that keeps on giving because we got
Speaker 1: to hear not one, but two sermons from this passage
Speaker 1: of scripture because just a few weeks later, Pastor Holly
Speaker 1: preached a sermon called Waiting on My Miracle, where we
Speaker 1: got to revisit the story of Gyros. And this is
Speaker 1: such a great story of scripture that talks us through
Speaker 1: several different things. But just maybe you remember, but in
Speaker 1: case you don't, this is a story where Gyros meets
Speaker 1: Jesus and his daughter is sick and he asked Jesus
Speaker 1: to heal his daughter, a thing that we would all
Speaker 1: maybe be looking for. What do you need healing in?
Speaker 1: Is this something that you're willing to come and ask
Speaker 1: Jesus for? But en route to go heal his daughter,
Speaker 1: this other really popular Bible story comes up that you
Speaker 1: maybe know about or have heard about, and this is
Speaker 1: the woman with the issue of blood. And in the
Speaker 1: midst of Jesus going to heal Girius's daughter, well, he
Speaker 1: ends up healing this woman and stopping to address her,
Speaker 1: which is amazing, right, this is a good thing that's happening.
Speaker 1: But in the midst of this miracle happening, the miracle
Speaker 1: that Gyros was hoping for ends up not happening because
Speaker 1: his daughter dies. And here's the thing. We've all maybe
Speaker 1: probably had a dream, a hope, something that we were
Speaker 1: wishing for, something that has died in our lives, and
Speaker 1: I wonder what we do in those moments. If you're
Speaker 1: anything like me, I'm a little embarrassed to admit this,
Speaker 1: but I'm hoping I can be honest with you. I
Speaker 1: get mad, I get angry, I shut down, and I
Speaker 1: don't always handle these situations in the best way. But
Speaker 1: one thing that we learned in this Bible story is
Speaker 1: the example that Gyrus set, and this is what Holly
Speaker 1: preached about, is what should we do whenever we're waiting
Speaker 1: on a miracle? And Holly says it best whenever. She says,
Speaker 1: if you stay close. If you stay close, you'll come
Speaker 1: out stronger on the other side. Holly preached about staying
Speaker 1: close to Jesus in the midst of waiting and then
Speaker 1: seeing what God can do through that, because that's where
Speaker 1: He reveals himself to us. That's where we grow in
Speaker 1: our faith, is in those moments of waiting and walking
Speaker 1: close to Jesus. I feel like I've talked enough about it.
Speaker 1: I would love for us to be able to relive
Speaker 1: a little bit of this sermon, So let's take a
Speaker 1: look at this. One of the greatest things that I'm
Speaker 1: learning about prayer is that I have to hold my
Speaker 1: list the things I want God to do how I
Speaker 1: want him to do it, when I want him to
Speaker 1: do it. I hold my list with a light grip,
Speaker 1: because sometimes God's gonna ask me to let go of
Speaker 1: my list, but hold firm to my faith. May not
Speaker 1: happen the way you thought it would, But my faith
Speaker 1: is not in the list. My faith is in my God,
Speaker 1: who I believe is working all things for my good.
Speaker 1: My faith is in the God who knows the number
Speaker 1: of hairs on my head. My faith is in my
Speaker 1: perfect Father, who knows me better than I know myself.
Speaker 1: All I have to do is stay close to Him,
Speaker 1: no matter how dark it gets, and remember that He
Speaker 1: is with me. You know that there is no darkness
Speaker 1: you can experience that Jesus has not already felt. Hebrews
Speaker 1: four tells us, look at this. I love this passage
Speaker 1: of scripture. Therefore, since we have a great high priest
Speaker 1: who has ascended into heaven, Jesus, the Son of God,
Speaker 1: let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For
Speaker 1: we do not have a high priest who is unable
Speaker 1: to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who
Speaker 1: has been tempted in every way, just as we are.
Speaker 1: Yet he did not sin. Let us then approach God's
Speaker 1: throne of grace with confidence so that we may receive
Speaker 1: mercy and find grace to help us in our time
Speaker 1: of need. Jesus experienced every grief and every temptation. He
Speaker 1: is the true friend, the true empathizer, our heavenly father.
Speaker 1: He actually went to all the schools. He went to
Speaker 1: betrayal school, he went to raise a child with special
Speaker 1: needs school, he went to loneliness school. And you can
Speaker 1: you can come to him. I'm telling you now. You
Speaker 1: can come to him with confidence. And while we wait
Speaker 1: for him to give us an answer, we find so
Speaker 1: much more. We find grace, and we find mercy in
Speaker 1: our time of need. It's in the waiting that we
Speaker 1: get to know him better. We find out that he's
Speaker 1: not just a god who heals, but he is a
Speaker 1: god who is with us in our pain and in
Speaker 1: our confusion, and in our frustration and in our disappointment.
Speaker 1: And he stands by. He never left. He's with you.
Speaker 1: He stands by, ready with the grace that you need
Speaker 1: for each moment. And when I think of the darkest
Speaker 1: season in my life, the seasons of my life when
Speaker 1: you wake up in the morning and for a brief second,
Speaker 1: you forget everything that you're going through. Have you ever
Speaker 1: been there? And then all of a sudden, the pain
Speaker 1: and the realization of what's going on and the fear
Speaker 1: sets in. In those moments, what I remember most from
Speaker 1: those seasons is the tangible presence of God. If I
Speaker 1: didn't stay close to him, I wouldn't have gotten out
Speaker 1: of bed. If I didn't stay close to him, I
Speaker 1: wouldn't have made it through the day. I know I
Speaker 1: wouldn't have chosen those situations and those seasons. But I'm
Speaker 1: here to tell you today, if you stay close, you'll
Speaker 1: come out stronger on the other side. One of the
Speaker 1: sermons that deeply impacted me this year was one that
Speaker 1: Pastor titled my future is My Focus. I honestly believe
Speaker 1: there may not be a better word for us as
Speaker 1: we start a new year than this one right here, Because,
Speaker 1: of course, at the start of another calendar year, many
Speaker 1: of us see this time as an intersection of what
Speaker 1: we're choosing to leave behind in the previous season and
Speaker 1: what we're stepping into in this next one. So the
Speaker 1: passage Pastor preached from was Genesis forty nine and fifty,
Speaker 1: which is toward the end of Joseph's story, and at
Speaker 1: this point the Book of Genesis has covered forty years
Speaker 1: of Joseph's faithfulness. Even though he was mistreated, thrown into
Speaker 1: a pit, even though he was put into prison. Light
Speaker 1: about he didn't let that take his purpose. Pastor said,
Speaker 1: you got to learn to interrupt what the enemy sent
Speaker 1: to destroy you and break it with a butt God.
Speaker 1: I was so inspired by Joseph's determination to not allow
Speaker 1: these things that could have kept him in bondage to
Speaker 1: keep him from his purpose. In Genesis fifty, Joseph's father,
Speaker 1: Jacob has just died, and his brothers are scared that
Speaker 1: Joseph is going to hold a grudge against them and
Speaker 1: pay him back for all the wrongs that they did
Speaker 1: to him. So they come to Joseph, who at this
Speaker 1: point in his life is really powerful, and he's sitting
Speaker 1: in the court of Pharaoh because God's blessed him. But
Speaker 1: his brothers throw themselves at his feet and they're scared
Speaker 1: about his response, and Joseph responds in a way that
Speaker 1: only someone who's chosen to stay focused on their purpose could.
Speaker 1: He says don't be afraid. You intended to harm me,
Speaker 1: but God intended it for good. And I want my
Speaker 1: life to be marked by that same heavenly perspective. And
Speaker 1: so we just prophesied that same over you in this
Speaker 1: new year, that you'll focus on what matters, that your
Speaker 1: focus will be fixed on the truth that Christ is
Speaker 1: in you and that is enough. And when the enemy
Speaker 1: tries to attack you with shame or condemnation, you'll hit
Speaker 1: back with but God, who is rich in mercy, has
Speaker 1: made me alive in Christ. When the same old hurt
Speaker 1: and bitterness tries to fight for all your attention, you
Speaker 1: remember Joseph's words, you intended to harm me, but God
Speaker 1: intended it for my good. In the clip we want
Speaker 1: to show you now, Pastor Stephen has just pulled a
Speaker 1: few of our campus pastors up with him on stage
Speaker 1: to help demonstrate what it takes to keep your focus.
Speaker 1: And I want to show you that now. Telling God
Speaker 1: you're worthless is an insult to the word that he
Speaker 1: spoke over you. And it is the opposite of worshiping
Speaker 1: God to tell him how worthless you are, because the
Speaker 1: focus is on you. So watch this, watch this. This
Speaker 1: is a chain and what it becomes is terrible, but
Speaker 1: it becomes bitterness. And now you got bondage. Walk with
Speaker 1: it for me. In your own life, something bad happens,
Speaker 1: Oh that's horrible. I didn't get to finish because of them.
Speaker 1: They weren't there for me. I mean, if we just
Speaker 1: named everything that's in this room, forget about all over
Speaker 1: the world. If we just named everything that's in this room,
Speaker 1: if we named everything bad that happened in this room,
Speaker 1: I wouldn't get to preach another sermon until twenty sixty four,
Speaker 1: all right. I wouldn't get to preach. And if we
Speaker 1: spent the rest of this day, we would still over
Speaker 1: into tomorrow. And then Yet Joseph, after after everything he's
Speaker 1: been through Genesis fifty twenty, put it on the screen
Speaker 1: you intended to harm me. And that's all he said
Speaker 1: about that. Now that's freedom hold. He wouldn't in denial either,
Speaker 1: because he still wept. There was a process. He didn't
Speaker 1: say it the next day, he didn't say it in
Speaker 1: the pit, he didn't say it in the back of
Speaker 1: a caravan as he's being being sold in chained. But
Speaker 1: at some point his perspective became, but God, so you
Speaker 1: break it with a butt. Let me show you again, y'all.
Speaker 1: I got the I got the remedial class, the summer school.
Speaker 1: In here today, I'm gonna show you again. You intended
Speaker 1: to harm me. That was bad. Now I could blame you.
Speaker 1: I could be bitter about it, and I could spend
Speaker 1: the rest of my life. But God show you again,
Speaker 1: show you again, get back together. Let me show you again.
Speaker 1: Let me show you till you see yourself interrupting what
Speaker 1: the enemy said to destroy you, and you can break
Speaker 1: it with a butt. God, you can break it. So
Speaker 1: so I'm looking now now I'm looking. My future is
Speaker 1: my focus. So I'm looking for everything in my life
Speaker 1: that has me in bondage. And I'm looking to put
Speaker 1: a butt right here to see what God is gonna
Speaker 1: do next. I need thirty of yall. I need thirty
Speaker 1: people in a Hammond B three to brace God, not
Speaker 1: the power to break it. It's in your praise, in
Speaker 1: your perspective, in your purpose. Get together. That's how you
Speaker 1: break a chain. That's how they left me. But God
Speaker 1: has somebody else for me. They hurt me, but God
Speaker 1: healed me. He's healing me right now. Somebody's saying in
Speaker 1: the chat but God, God, but God. I feel like
Speaker 1: preaching in this room today, right, God is breaking says
Speaker 1: I'm serious, Jop, you can break it with a fuck.
Speaker 1: We were dead in our sin, but God, you meant
Speaker 1: it for evil, But Gop. The weapon was formed against me,
Speaker 1: but it didn't prosper because I'm still breathing, living, walking,
Speaker 1: talking ooseh. But God, but God, but God, but God, Bah,
Speaker 1: break that thing. I can break that thing. You break
Speaker 1: it before it breaks you. You hear me. You break
Speaker 1: it before it breaks you. New year, same God. I
Speaker 1: hope that this encouraged you. I hope that today you're
Speaker 1: walking away with a sense of gratitude for what God
Speaker 1: has done in your life and a feeling of expectancy
Speaker 1: for what He's going to do in the year ahead.
Speaker 1: God came through last year. God spoke last year, and
Speaker 1: he's going to come through again, and he's going to
Speaker 1: speak again this year. If you miss any of the
Speaker 1: sermons that we talked about today and you were thinking
Speaker 1: that you would love to see the rest of it,
Speaker 1: good news. They're all up on our Elevation Church YouTube
Speaker 1: channel or also available on the Elevation Church podcast. The
Speaker 1: titles are all listed in the description below. I also
Speaker 1: hope that today you'll take a few minutes to reflect
Speaker 1: on the past year. Yes, it's important to set goals
Speaker 1: for the year ahead, but before you do that, take
Speaker 1: some time to look back at the faithfulness of God
Speaker 1: in your life in twenty twenty two. How did God
Speaker 1: provide for you? Who did God bring into your life?
Speaker 1: Who did He remove from your life? What did God
Speaker 1: speak to you this year? If you'll just start writing
Speaker 1: and reflecting on the presence of God in your life
Speaker 1: over the past year, I know that you're going to
Speaker 1: be overwhelmed with gratitude and excited about what's ahead, or
Speaker 1: maybe I should say excited about who is ahead with you.
Speaker 1: He was with you in twenty twenty two, and he'll
Speaker 1: be with you in twenty twenty three. And I have
Speaker 1: to say thank you to all of you who attend
Speaker 1: a location, who watch every week, who volunteer, and who
Speaker 1: give faithfully to this ministry. Pastor Stephen and I count
Speaker 1: it a privilege that we get to do this every
Speaker 1: single week right alongside you. Let me pray for us,
Speaker 1: Heavenly Father, we thank you for your presence in our lives.
Speaker 1: It is with gratitude that we look back, and it
Speaker 1: is with excitement that we look ahead. We know that
Speaker 1: whatever we will face in twenty twenty three, we do
Speaker 1: not have to face it alone. You go before us,
Speaker 1: you come behind us. You're with us every step of
Speaker 1: the way. God, we surrender our year and our lives
Speaker 1: to you, and we ask that you not only be
Speaker 1: with us, but that you use us for your glory.
Speaker 1: Thank you for our pastor. May you continue to bless
Speaker 1: him and give him the words to speak to us
Speaker 1: each week. Thank you for this church. It means so
Speaker 1: much to us. We love you, Lord. It's in Jesus'
Speaker 1: name we pray. Ama. Well, if you enjoyed today's podcast,
Speaker 1: there are a couple things I'd love for you to do.
Speaker 1: Make sure to subscribe, rate, and review this podcast. You
Speaker 1: can also help us reach others by investing today at
Speaker 1: Elevationchurch dot org, slash give and thanks again for joining
Speaker 1: us on the Elevation Podcast.