Speaker 1: Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick.
Speaker 2: I'm the pastor of Elevation Church and this is our podcast.
Speaker 1: I wanted to thank you for joining us today. Hope
Speaker 1: this inspires you. Hope it builds your faith. Hope it
Speaker 1: gives your perspective to see God is moving in your life.
Speaker 1: Enjoy the message. I do want to say, welcome to
Speaker 1: our worldwide church family.
Speaker 3: Let's welcome our e fam one time, come on Elevation
Speaker 3: in Valentine.
Speaker 1: Let's thank God for all of those who are joining
Speaker 1: us online.
Speaker 3: Also since his Veterans Day weekend, I want to thank
Speaker 3: all of you who have served our country.
Speaker 1: In any branch of the service. Thank you so much.
Speaker 1: We can do better than that.
Speaker 3: I know you're holding your Bible, but kind of get
Speaker 3: those hands free. I thank the Lord for each and
Speaker 3: every one of you. I'm excited about.
Speaker 4: What he will speak today.
Speaker 3: John seven, verse one through sixteen. The Bible says after this,
Speaker 3: Jesus went around in Galilee. He did not want to
Speaker 3: go about in Judea because the Jewish leaders there were
Speaker 3: looking for a way to kill him. But when the
Speaker 3: Jewish festival of Tabernacles was near, Jesus's brothers said to
Speaker 3: him leave Galilee and go to Judea, so that your
Speaker 3: disciples there may see the works you do. No one
Speaker 3: who wants to become a public figure acts in secret.
Speaker 3: Since you are doing these things, show yourself to the world.
Speaker 3: For even his own brothers did not believe in him
Speaker 3: wow verse six. Therefore Jesus told them, my time is
Speaker 3: not yet here for you.
Speaker 1: Any time will do. The world cannot hate you, but
Speaker 1: it hates me because I testify that its works are evil.
Speaker 1: You go to the festival.
Speaker 3: I am not going up to this because my time
Speaker 3: has not yet fully come. It's a good thing to
Speaker 3: know that you're right where God wants you to be,
Speaker 3: and it's a good thing when you know that not
Speaker 3: to move, no matter what anybody says to you about it.
Speaker 3: He said, my time has not yet fully come. After
Speaker 3: he said this, he stayed in Galilee. However, after his
Speaker 3: brothers had left for the festival, he went also, not
Speaker 3: publicly but in secret. Now at the festival, the Jewish
Speaker 3: leaders were watching for Jesus and asking where is he.
Speaker 3: Among the crowds, there was widespread whispering about him. Some
Speaker 3: said he's a good man, others replied, no, he deceives
Speaker 3: the people, but no one would say anything publicly about
Speaker 3: him for fear of the leaders.
Speaker 1: Not until halfway through.
Speaker 3: The festival did Jesus go up to the temple courts
Speaker 3: and begin to teach. The Jews there were amazed and asked,
Speaker 3: how did this man get such learning without having been taught? Well,
Speaker 3: that's an ironic question. The one who is wisdom is
Speaker 3: being questioned as to where he got it. But verse
Speaker 3: sixteen is where we're gonna begin our sermonic journey today.
Speaker 3: Jesus answered, my teaching is not my own, It comes
Speaker 3: from the one who sent me. I want to give
Speaker 3: you one more scripture from Isaiah, chapter fifty four, verse seventeen.
Speaker 3: In the New King James, no weapon formed against you
Speaker 3: shall prosper, and every tongue which rises against you in
Speaker 3: judgment you shall condemn. This is the heritage of the
Speaker 3: servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is from me,
Speaker 3: says the Lord. I want to talk to you today
Speaker 3: about the war of whispers, the war.
Speaker 1: Of whispers, Father, I thank you for what you spoke.
Speaker 3: Help me to give it to them like you gave
Speaker 3: it to me, not watered down, not weakened, but just
Speaker 3: like you gave it to me, and I know that
Speaker 3: it will bless them because you blessed me with it.
Speaker 3: If there is someone today who needs this word online,
Speaker 3: block out all distractions. I pray that their kid would
Speaker 3: just fall down and take a nap right now so
Speaker 3: they can focus on this word in the name of Jesus.
Speaker 3: If there's somebody who's focused on something else that's going
Speaker 3: to happen tomorrow, we block it out right now. The
Speaker 3: Lord is in this place. We ask you to speak
Speaker 3: a word. We are listening in Jesus's name. Amen, you
Speaker 3: may be seated.
Speaker 1: The war of whispers.
Speaker 3: I want to talk to you from four dynamics from
Speaker 3: this Bible story that represent four different pressures that Jesus
Speaker 3: was under in his life. We will definitely get to
Speaker 3: the first three and the fourth is a ma depending
Speaker 3: on time. I'm going to give them all to you
Speaker 3: right now, so you can fill in the blanks as
Speaker 3: we go along. In this passage, there are four pressures
Speaker 3: that Jesus is under. Jesus, the Son of God, was
Speaker 3: under tremendous pressure as he fulfilled his purpose.
Speaker 1: In the earth, and I think he serves.
Speaker 3: For us as a model of what to do for
Speaker 3: the pressure that we feel in our life. And so
Speaker 3: I'm going to give you all four things, all four pressures,
Speaker 3: as we begin our sermon.
Speaker 1: They all start with the letter A. They will be
Speaker 1: easy to remember.
Speaker 3: Number one amazement, amazement, Number two abandonment, abandonment, Number three
Speaker 3: arrival arrival, and number four if we get there agreement,
Speaker 3: these four pressures and more. I mean Jesus, the Son
Speaker 3: of God, who took on the weakness of sinful flesh,
Speaker 3: not because he was sin, but he became sin so
Speaker 3: that we might become the righteousness of God, who had
Speaker 3: then only three years to fulfill the mission of his ministry,
Speaker 3: which would lead him ultimately to the cross, where he
Speaker 3: would die and pay for the penalty of our sin,
Speaker 3: experienced tremendous pressure, not only on the cross, where the
Speaker 3: pressure was so great that it actually caused his lungs
Speaker 3: to collapse from physical exertion, but even before that, in
Speaker 3: the garden of Gethsemane, as he prayed such a heavy
Speaker 3: prayer that.
Speaker 1: His sweat became like drops of blood. That's pressure.
Speaker 3: And I know you're going through a lot too, But
Speaker 3: your capillaries haven't burst like blood yet, have they? And
Speaker 3: so it helps us in times of our humanity, when
Speaker 3: our weakness is great to know that we have a
Speaker 3: high priest named Jesus who is not unable to be
Speaker 3: touched with the feelings of our infirmity, but one who
Speaker 3: is tempted in all points, just like we are, yet
Speaker 3: without sin.
Speaker 1: Now that's the difference between me and Jesus.
Speaker 3: He was under pressure and I'm under pressure, but he
Speaker 3: always stays focused on purpose, and I don't. I get
Speaker 3: distracted when I'm under pressure. I start reacting rather than responding.
Speaker 3: When I'm under pressure, I start eating things that I
Speaker 3: said I wouldn't eat under pressure, speaking things that I
Speaker 3: said I wouldn't speak under pressure, texting people that anyway,
Speaker 3: in my pressure state, I am often vulnerable. And so
Speaker 3: this moment in the life of Jesus is very interesting,
Speaker 3: isn't it. The Bible says he went to Jerusalem for
Speaker 3: one of the feast, the Feast of Tabernacles, and when.
Speaker 1: He got there, they were amazed at the way he taught.
Speaker 1: They were amazed. I don't know if you noticed that.
Speaker 3: In verse number eighteen, it says the Jews there, excuse me,
Speaker 3: verse number fifteen. They were amazed, and they asked, how
Speaker 3: did this man get such learning without being taught. They
Speaker 3: didn't teach him, so they couldn't understand how he could
Speaker 3: have learned so much outside of their system.
Speaker 1: I told you this a few weeks ago.
Speaker 3: But my son Graham, who wrestled for three years in
Speaker 3: high school with say Dad, when I look back on
Speaker 3: when I used to start wrestling, I'm amazed how much
Speaker 3: you taught me with how little you knew.
Speaker 1: Which is a compliment kind of.
Speaker 3: He means, it's not like you were some kind of
Speaker 3: great wrestler, but somehow you were always coaching me. And
Speaker 3: when you were coaching me in the early days, I
Speaker 3: thought you knew so much more than you did.
Speaker 1: But you were.
Speaker 3: Basically just yelling the same three things over and over again,
Speaker 3: weren't you. And I thought to myself, yes, and that
Speaker 3: is my parenting as well, just to keep saying the same.
Speaker 1: Three things over and over again.
Speaker 3: And there's something about this moment in your life that,
Speaker 3: if you're honest about it, even though there are some
Speaker 3: pressures that you're under in some problems that you're facing,
Speaker 3: it's amazing that you're doing as well as you are
Speaker 3: considering where you've come from.
Speaker 1: How many of you would say Pastor.
Speaker 3: Stephen, you would be shocked how loud I sang today
Speaker 3: if you knew how hard my week has been.
Speaker 1: Wave at me, Well, look at you, just feeling sorry
Speaker 1: for yourself. I'm kidding. I'm kidding. I baited you for that.
Speaker 3: The fact of the matter is, in Jesus's case, he
Speaker 3: came from heaven, and so he had the knowledge that
Speaker 3: came from being at the right hand of God. Eternally,
Speaker 3: he was the word of God. He didn't just speak
Speaker 3: the word of God, and so the knowledge that he
Speaker 3: had reflected the place that he came from. Yet the
Speaker 3: Jewish leaders were very amazed. Keep that word in your mind,
Speaker 3: that he could no so much when he had been
Speaker 3: exposed to so little of their system. It's ironic, I know,
Speaker 3: because in the beginning was the Word, and the Word
Speaker 3: was with God, and the Word was God, and all
Speaker 3: things were made by Him and threw him in fore him.
Speaker 1: We're talking about.
Speaker 3: Jesus, and when they see him, they're amazed at him,
Speaker 3: and they are amazed about the things that they are
Speaker 3: hearing that he is doing. Jesus, at this point in
Speaker 3: his ministry, has been doing amazing ministry.
Speaker 1: In the region of Galilee.
Speaker 3: He has been turning water into wine at weddings when
Speaker 3: his mom told him to do it. Yeah, that's John
Speaker 3: chapter two. When they ran out of wine, he would
Speaker 3: just somehow make it flow.
Speaker 1: That's amazing.
Speaker 3: Anytime you have somebody who can create overflow where there
Speaker 3: was one scarcity, it's amazing.
Speaker 1: Everybody say it's amazing.
Speaker 3: One time a centurion needed a healing for his little boy,
Speaker 3: and Jesus was busy, so he didn't go to his house.
Speaker 1: He just sent his word and healed him.
Speaker 3: He didn't even go to his house, he just sent
Speaker 3: his word and heal him. Maybe the word of God
Speaker 3: is going to beat you home today too and deal
Speaker 3: with some things that you've been going through because of
Speaker 3: the word that you heard while you were here. You
Speaker 3: always make a wise decision when you come to church,
Speaker 3: because God can speak something in one whisper that can
Speaker 3: do more than all of your human wisdom. You could
Speaker 3: spend the next five years trying to figure out something
Speaker 3: God could fix in five minutes if you could hear
Speaker 3: from him.
Speaker 1: That's why I value the word of God.
Speaker 3: That's why when I come to church, I'm not checking
Speaker 3: to see who just buzzed me in my back pocket.
Speaker 3: They can buzz me all they want to buzz me,
Speaker 3: But while I'm in here, the Bible is buzzing me.
Speaker 3: God is speaking to me. I've got a text message
Speaker 3: alert from Heaven. There may be something God wants to
Speaker 3: say to me about why I'm stressed out. God might
Speaker 3: want to speak to me about the root of my
Speaker 3: bitterness so I can let this thing go and move
Speaker 3: on in my life. God might actually want to give
Speaker 3: me a strategy to break through to me my wife
Speaker 3: because maybe we've been going through a difficult time and
Speaker 3: maybe He's going to show me something that I haven't
Speaker 3: been thinking about how I can reach out and bring
Speaker 3: the love back.
Speaker 1: God might give me a date night.
Speaker 3: Idea while Pastor Stephen's preaching. God might show me the
Speaker 3: song to play that's gonna make the silent treatment stop
Speaker 3: when I get home.
Speaker 1: I'm trying to say that God can.
Speaker 3: Speak something in a whisper that is greater than all
Speaker 3: of the human wisdom combined.
Speaker 1: So stop trying to figure everything.
Speaker 3: Out on your own, because Jesus can do something so
Speaker 3: amazing and he doesn't even have to raise his voice.
Speaker 3: He can do it in a whisper. It's interesting because
Speaker 3: I almost had to have somebody else preach this message.
Speaker 3: This weekend around Friday, I woke up and I had
Speaker 3: no voice. I could only speak with a whisper. And
Speaker 3: the Lord said, well, if a whisper is.
Speaker 4: What you've got, then a whisper is what you'll give.
Speaker 3: I took some medicine and my voice feels all right
Speaker 3: right now, and I might not be able to speak
Speaker 3: like I normally speak today. I feel like I'm doing
Speaker 3: pretty good so far, but I am trying to use
Speaker 3: wisdom for this. But sometimes the Holy Spirit and the
Speaker 3: adrenaline kicks in and I forget all my wisdom and
Speaker 3: I just start screaming. But I told the Lord, well,
Speaker 3: maybe I shouldn't preach, and the Lord said, no, maybe
Speaker 3: you should teach them.
Speaker 4: About the whisper.
Speaker 3: The whisper because some of them are making decisions in
Speaker 3: their life right now, and it's so noisy with what
Speaker 3: everybody else thinks they should do.
Speaker 4: But I want to give them a whisper.
Speaker 3: You know, the Lord can give you a whisper and
Speaker 3: save you seven years of a bad relationship. The Lord
Speaker 3: can give you a whisper and show you a new
Speaker 3: way to see the situation that turns the regret into
Speaker 3: a lesson.
Speaker 1: I've had it happen before. I was feeling so bad.
Speaker 3: About something, so down about something, and the Lord just
Speaker 3: whispered a different way to see it, and that little
Speaker 3: whisper that he gave me completely reframe the situation.
Speaker 1: And you know what's crazy. The situation didn't change the.
Speaker 3: Way I saw it did and the whisper God gave
Speaker 3: me reframed the situation, and I went from worry to worship.
Speaker 1: Jesus is going to the festival.
Speaker 3: He's going to the festival and he's going to amaze
Speaker 3: the people.
Speaker 1: With his teaching.
Speaker 3: But his brothers are pressuring him to do something at
Speaker 3: this time that is not appropriate to his assignment. I
Speaker 3: want to say to you today that not everything that
Speaker 3: God has given you to do needs to be run
Speaker 3: by a committee. Not everything that God has given you
Speaker 3: to do will align with what everybody else is doing.
Speaker 3: Not everything that God has called you to be will
Speaker 3: align with what you see reflected in the environment around you.
Speaker 1: They were amazed by.
Speaker 3: His team teaching because he didn't come from their synagogue.
Speaker 3: They were amazed by his teaching because he did not
Speaker 3: teach like they taught.
Speaker 1: He taught with authority. When he spoke, storms listened.
Speaker 3: Jesus's voice was so powerful he could sleep through a storm,
Speaker 3: and when he woke up, he could tell the storm.
Speaker 1: He didn't even have to say a word, just and
Speaker 1: the storm would say, uh oh, Jesus is talking. The
Speaker 1: word just spoke. Peter could holler every cuss word he
Speaker 1: wanted to holler. The storm didn't stop. Cuss Peter cussed.
Speaker 1: The storm stopped because Jesus said, if I could give
Speaker 1: this sermon a subtitle, it would be called.
Speaker 3: So just turn to your neighbor, don't breathe on him
Speaker 3: too much, and say, when Jesus says, the storm shuts down.
Speaker 1: When Jesus says, the wind and the waves died down.
Speaker 3: When Jesus says, everybody else sits down and listen.
Speaker 1: Because he teaches with authority. And it's amazing.
Speaker 3: Somebody say it's amazing. It's amazing. I look at some
Speaker 3: of your lives, and I think about the fact that
Speaker 3: you were in rehab this time last year and you're
Speaker 3: still doing good and you're here today, and I think
Speaker 3: that's amazing. I mean, you didn't even see a path
Speaker 3: for this life. You didn't have this model for you
Speaker 3: I know people sometimes come to church and they're so
Speaker 3: beat down by what they need to change, But can
Speaker 3: we take five seconds and at least be thankful that
Speaker 3: it makes no sense that we're even doing as good
Speaker 3: as we're doing when you consider where we came from.
Speaker 3: Remember when they said that Jesus was from Nazareth, and
Speaker 3: they were surprised, because they said, can anything good come
Speaker 3: from Nazareth? They were surprised that something so powerful came
Speaker 3: from somewhere so small. They were surprised that something so
Speaker 3: wise came from somewhere so remote. They were surprised that
Speaker 3: something so wonderful and so amazing.
Speaker 1: And I think we need.
Speaker 3: To stay surprised and stay amazed, because if you actually
Speaker 3: look at your life, it makes no sense that you
Speaker 3: should be married today. If you actually look at your life,
Speaker 3: it makes no sense you should be in a mental
Speaker 3: institution today. All the weapons that were formed against you.
Speaker 3: It is a wonder that you're paying your bills. It's
Speaker 3: a wonder you're living indoors. It's a wonder your standing upright.
Speaker 3: It's a wonder you're saying. It's a wonder you're here.
Speaker 3: It's a wonder you're praising some of you had a
Speaker 3: health issue and you didn't even know if you'd be.
Speaker 1: Alive to see the end of twenty twenty five. But
Speaker 1: it's amazing.
Speaker 3: Hot five three people say it's amazing. It's amazing. It
Speaker 3: might not mean much to you, but it's amazing to me.
Speaker 3: It might be little to you, but it's a big
Speaker 3: thing to me.
Speaker 1: I pray God for my smile.
Speaker 3: I'm praising God with the teeth that are still in
Speaker 3: my mouth. I'm praising God that I had food to digest.
Speaker 3: I'm praising God.
Speaker 1: Just amazing.
Speaker 3: Now, the fact that it's amazing doesn't mean that everything
Speaker 3: is going great. Jesus is going to a festival, but
Speaker 3: he's in the middle.
Speaker 1: Of a fight.
Speaker 3: It's a festival and a fight.
Speaker 1: In the same passage, I told him I was gonna whisper.
Speaker 1: Look what a hypocrite I am.
Speaker 3: And not only is he going to a festival where
Speaker 3: his brothers are trying to pressure him, but he is
Speaker 3: in a vulnerable moment himself. Pop quiz what comes before
Speaker 3: John chapter seven in the Bible?
Speaker 1: Yeah, John chapter six. So see how amazing that is?
Speaker 1: Look that. Look at that Bible knowledge you stored up.
Speaker 3: And you think John chapter six is a happy chapter.
Speaker 4: And do not even make.
Speaker 1: A six to seven joke right now. I don't even
Speaker 1: want to hear one.
Speaker 3: You will not slow down the momentum of my message
Speaker 3: with that silliness. But he he feed the five thousand
Speaker 3: with a little bit of food in John chapter six. Remember,
Speaker 3: Jesus has been doing miracles, and that's why they're persecuting him.
Speaker 3: Jesus has been working, and that's why they are forming
Speaker 3: the weapon against him. Write this down. No work, no weapon.
Speaker 3: If Jesus doesn't do anything, they don't do anything. If
Speaker 3: Jesus doesn't threaten the establishment, there will be no reaction
Speaker 3: from the establishment. If Jesus is not moving, there will
Speaker 3: be no resistance to his movement. The devil does not
Speaker 3: attack you when you're doing nothing for God.
Speaker 1: The devil attacks you when you're advancing. And so Jesus
Speaker 1: is doing amazing things.
Speaker 3: Not only turning water into wine, not only healing a
Speaker 3: royal official son. He actually healed Peter's mother in law.
Speaker 1: Many scholars believe that's why Peter denied.
Speaker 3: Him doing amazing things. But the big one that's in
Speaker 3: all four of the Gospels that everybody likes talk about.
Speaker 3: He turned a little boy's lunch into enough to feed
Speaker 3: a multitude, and he did that.
Speaker 1: That's amazing. How could he do so much with so little.
Speaker 4: It's amazing.
Speaker 3: How could he know so much when he was exposed
Speaker 3: to so little religious tradition. It's amazing. That's how God
Speaker 3: gets glory out of your life, when he does so
Speaker 3: much with so little. When he takes a little bit
Speaker 3: of oil and fills every jar you bring him, when
Speaker 3: he takes a little stone and knocks down a big giant,
Speaker 3: when he takes a little staff and splits a big seat.
Speaker 3: When God takes the little bit that you do know,
Speaker 3: the little bit of clarity that you do have, the
Speaker 3: little bit of strength that you do have, the little
Speaker 3: bit of time that you do have, the little bit
Speaker 3: of wisdom that you do have, the little bit of
Speaker 3: experience that you do have. When He takes a faith
Speaker 3: the size of a mustard seed and moves a mountain.
Speaker 4: With it, and people say, that's amazing.
Speaker 3: And when he takes a little boy's lunch and breaks
Speaker 3: it and blesses it and gives it to the people,
Speaker 3: and they all go home with leftuilvers, and the disciples
Speaker 3: are like, wow, that's amazing. You know. The Bible says
Speaker 3: in John chapter six that the crowds followed him the
Speaker 3: next day, expecting him to do it again, and he
Speaker 3: didn't because the pressure of being amazing is that you
Speaker 3: have to sustain it. And we all know what it
Speaker 3: feels like to feel like that what we do is
Speaker 3: taken for granted. Yeah, I mean, I don't want to
Speaker 3: call her out, but I think about Holly all the time.
Speaker 1: I think about how amazing it is, just stuff that
Speaker 1: she does naturally for our family. It's absolutely incredible.
Speaker 3: I'm trying to convince her to not cook for us
Speaker 3: for a month just to make us appreciate how amazing
Speaker 3: her food is.
Speaker 1: I'm like, just put us on a fast. Just put
Speaker 1: us on a thirty day fast. We are not grateful enough,
Speaker 1: you know.
Speaker 3: I know that because we invite other people over to
Speaker 3: our house and they're like, Ah, this is amazing, this
Speaker 3: is incredible, and we're all sitting there like, uh, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 3: I guess it is.
Speaker 1: It is amazing. I don't anybody that I'll compliment my wife.
Speaker 1: It's amazing.
Speaker 3: I'll tell you it's amazing, And sometimes it takes someone
Speaker 3: else to come in and taste it to realize how
Speaker 3: amazing it is, especially when the kids bring over somebody
Speaker 3: and their mom doesn't cook. My mom hasn't cooked for
Speaker 3: us in six months, and I'm like, maybe you should
Speaker 3: try that.
Speaker 1: I was thinking that the other day.
Speaker 3: I was like, maybe I should just be a bad
Speaker 3: dad for like a year, you know what I.
Speaker 1: Mean, just like lower the bar for a little while.
Speaker 3: And then they'd be like, Dad, that was amazing how
Speaker 3: you actually texted me back. I think about sometimes I
Speaker 3: should come preach and not study for like a month,
Speaker 3: Like just get up here and go what y'all want
Speaker 3: to talk about today? Y'all talk about the Panthers, y'all
Speaker 3: talk about the Teddy Bears, a Starbucks? What y'all talk
Speaker 3: about today? Y'all not got anything? Maybe we can make
Speaker 3: that a sermon. I'm sure we could preach that. Somebody
Speaker 3: give me a Bible Verse revelation. Let's try something else.
Speaker 3: But see, it shouldn't have to go away to get
Speaker 3: me not to take it for granted. I should be
Speaker 3: mature enough to be able to say, thank you Lord
Speaker 3: for this meal, thank you Lord for this breath, thank
Speaker 3: you Lord for this day.
Speaker 1: But the crowds were never liked that.
Speaker 3: See, Jesus could have, by the way, provided bread for
Speaker 3: them every day.
Speaker 1: He is the bread of life.
Speaker 3: So he didn't refuse to repeat the miracle because he
Speaker 3: was incapable of performing. He refused to repeat the miracle
Speaker 3: because he didn't want them to get.
Speaker 1: Addicted to that particular miracle.
Speaker 3: And so when they came and said, do the bread
Speaker 3: thing again, that was awesome. This time, could you make
Speaker 3: it even softer this time?
Speaker 1: Could you bring butter with it too?
Speaker 3: This time I appreciate the pescatarian miracle, But this time, could.
Speaker 1: We get a rib eye Jesus.
Speaker 3: Could you find somebody with a hamburger and touch that?
Speaker 3: And Jesus said, no, I'm not doing it. Eat my
Speaker 3: flesh and drink my blood, or you have no part
Speaker 3: in me. You came because you had the miracles, and
Speaker 3: you got your fill. But the work of God is
Speaker 3: to believe. And look at one of the saddest verses
Speaker 3: in the Bible. This is one of the saddest verses
Speaker 3: in the Bible. After one of the happiest miracles, John
Speaker 3: chapter six, verse.
Speaker 1: Sixty six, look at this.
Speaker 3: From this time, many of his disciples turned back and
Speaker 3: no longer followed him.
Speaker 1: So Jesus was amazing, but he was also abandoned abandonment.
Speaker 1: As amazing as.
Speaker 3: He was, there were disciples who said, we don't want
Speaker 3: to follow you where you're going next.
Speaker 1: Now, this is the question I want to ask you.
Speaker 3: If Jesus had people leave his life and he was perfect,
Speaker 3: if Jesus had people leave his life and he was
Speaker 3: all knowing, If Jesus had people leave his life and
Speaker 3: he was the savior of the world, how do we
Speaker 3: expect that we're going to make get through our life
Speaker 3: without ever being betrayed, abandoned, rejected. And I know this
Speaker 3: really hurts to put it here, but I felt the
Speaker 3: Lord speaking to me that there is a whisper he
Speaker 3: wants to give you about the people who have abandoned you. Now,
Speaker 3: as I step on this, I tread tenderly, because it's
Speaker 3: one thing to talk about the people who were in
Speaker 3: your life in high school that are not in your
Speaker 3: life now that you're seventy three.
Speaker 1: It is one thing to talk about abandonment in.
Speaker 3: A theological capacity that will help you to understand how
Speaker 3: it relates to God, who will never leave us or
Speaker 3: forsake us. But there are sometimes where the fact that
Speaker 3: people are leaving you. Causes you to feel as if
Speaker 3: God did too. And we don't say that, but we
Speaker 3: begin to feel that way. Think about jez Bread multiplying
Speaker 3: water to wining, healing Jesus who was trying to be
Speaker 3: killed by the leaders. So he's got leaders that are
Speaker 3: trying to kill him. He's being consumed by the crowd
Speaker 3: because they only want what he has to give, not
Speaker 3: what he has to teach. He's trying to be killed
Speaker 3: by the leaders, consumed by the crowd. But verse five
Speaker 3: really got me. It said even his own brothers did
Speaker 3: not believe in him. So he's got a crowd trying
Speaker 3: to kill him. He's got leaders that are trying to
Speaker 3: crucify him. He's got disciples who don't really get him.
Speaker 3: The disciples never fully got Jesus. I'll prove it to you.
Speaker 3: Lazarus died. Jesus said, he's sleeping. I'm going to wake
Speaker 3: him up. He was speaking in code. The disciples said back, well, Lord,
Speaker 3: if he sleeps, he'll get better. And the Bible says,
Speaker 3: then Jesus told him plainly, Lazarus is dead. Have you
Speaker 3: ever had to explain things to people more than you should?
Speaker 3: At this point, that's John chapter eleven. By John chapter eleven,
Speaker 3: I should not have to tell you everything, but Jesus
Speaker 3: has got a leadership team that's trying to kill him,
Speaker 3: a crowd that's consuming and taking from him, and disciples
Speaker 3: who don't get him, and even his own brothers don't
Speaker 3: believe in him.
Speaker 1: So I share it with you like this.
Speaker 3: When I was preparing for ministry, they prepared me to
Speaker 3: preach the Bible.
Speaker 1: And how to take a text and how to get
Speaker 1: the history of it.
Speaker 3: They taught me how to even grow a ministry and
Speaker 3: how to have strategic initiative so that you get out
Speaker 3: ahead of the plateaus and create new growth surges, and.
Speaker 1: You get out of this and you get out of that.
Speaker 3: I even had one professor who took us to a
Speaker 3: church and taught us how to baptize. He made us
Speaker 3: do it in the water. He made us get in
Speaker 3: the tank. He was like, this is important. This is
Speaker 3: somebody's life that's being represented. You don't need to be
Speaker 3: practicing on somebody, So practice on each other. And when
Speaker 3: I did, I did the first one, and I dropped
Speaker 3: the guy in the water, and I never dropped anybody
Speaker 3: again in any baptism because I learned so much that if.
Speaker 1: I'm baptizing you, you are coming up out of this
Speaker 1: one way or the other.
Speaker 3: If I have to knock the tank over, I am
Speaker 3: not dropping you in this water. They taught me how
Speaker 3: to baptize. They taught me how to context your lives.
Speaker 3: They taught me how to theologize. They taught me all
Speaker 3: of that. But one class I do not remember getting
Speaker 3: is this. They never told me what to do when
Speaker 3: the people who are supposed to believe in me.
Speaker 1: Be leaving me.
Speaker 3: No. I used to think that if they left me,
Speaker 3: they were leaving the Lord. I don't think that anymore.
Speaker 3: I think that God moves people along. Also learned that
Speaker 3: sometimes I allowed the fact that they left me. I'm
Speaker 3: going to say, like this, the Lord said, don't let
Speaker 3: them leaving you keep you from believing in me. It's
Speaker 3: significant to me that at this moment in Jesus's life,
Speaker 3: when his brothers are like, hey, you need to go
Speaker 3: do something. You need to show how powerful you are.
Speaker 3: You need to go to Jerusalem at the festival and
Speaker 3: make a show, because you know you want to be
Speaker 3: this big public figure. You want to be a big deal.
Speaker 3: Isn't this something that they're trying to teach Jesus how
Speaker 3: to be a big deal. They're trying to teach the
Speaker 3: Alpha and Omega how to make a statement. They're trying
Speaker 3: to take the one who published the Sunrise how to
Speaker 3: run a pr campaign. They're trying to teach the one
Speaker 3: who was in the beginning with God how to make
Speaker 3: a splash when he gets on the scene.
Speaker 1: They're trying to get the one who chose to descend.
Speaker 3: From a throne to a cross to die for our
Speaker 3: sin how to be more like the people, and how
Speaker 3: to be amongst the people, and how to make a statement.
Speaker 1: They are trying to teach the Word of God how.
Speaker 3: To make a statement, and they do it at his
Speaker 3: most vulnerable time. Remember this, The enemy will come to
Speaker 3: try to push you out of your position at the
Speaker 3: times where you feel lonely and vulnerable, and he will
Speaker 3: use those moments when you feel abandoned to get you
Speaker 3: to feel bitter and to get you to start doing
Speaker 3: things that aren't even you. And if possible, the enemy
Speaker 3: will use people who disappointed you to cause you to
Speaker 3: doubt the God.
Speaker 1: Who never will Who am I preaching to?
Speaker 3: I refuse to just preach this like it was just
Speaker 3: for me and Jonathan Joseph's who am I preaching to
Speaker 3: the other day, we were out on Elevation Nights tour,
Speaker 3: and the Lord really gave me this beautiful picture that
Speaker 3: I wanted.
Speaker 1: To share with you.
Speaker 3: I was watching one of our sermons from back when
Speaker 3: the church was pretty empty during the pandemic, and I
Speaker 3: was looking at how you know, back in those days,
Speaker 3: I felt very abandoned by you during that time.
Speaker 1: You're like, it's your fault. You wouldn't let us come.
Speaker 3: To church, I know, but it was still lonely. And
Speaker 3: yet in the middle of that preaching, I listen, get
Speaker 3: this picture. In the middle of that preaching, I looked
Speaker 3: up there on that stage and I was just going
Speaker 3: for it, like if it was a you know, two
Speaker 3: thousand people in the room, but up on the stage
Speaker 3: was you know, you had Chris and Jenna and John
Speaker 3: sal and LJ and Scottie and all the team.
Speaker 1: And we went out there. We were about to go minister.
Speaker 3: This is crazy, We're about to minister to twenty thousand
Speaker 3: people or fifteen thousand people or however many people were
Speaker 3: there that night. And I realized that the same people
Speaker 3: that were about to go out there and minister with me.
Speaker 1: In that big arena. Were the same people that.
Speaker 3: Had my back in an empty room. Now, the Lord
Speaker 3: really checked me on this because he said, sometimes you
Speaker 3: get so sad about who left.
Speaker 1: That you start missing who's left.
Speaker 3: I know that they left you, but God didn't let
Speaker 3: go of you. I know that they should have treated
Speaker 3: you better, but God has treated you better than you
Speaker 3: could have ever deserved.
Speaker 1: I know that they.
Speaker 3: Didn't give you what you needed or what you could
Speaker 3: have rightfully expected from them, But you have got to
Speaker 3: release that now in order to receive that in this
Speaker 3: season of your life.
Speaker 1: Your wisdom is coming from.
Speaker 3: God, and it's going to be amazing because even though
Speaker 3: many left Jesus, the ones who stayed ended up building
Speaker 3: the church that we're a part of.
Speaker 1: I can't wait to see.
Speaker 3: What God is going to do through what is left
Speaker 3: in your life. I can't wait to see when you
Speaker 3: finally forgive the fact that it's not like it used
Speaker 3: to be, when you finally forgive the fact that they
Speaker 3: were a jerk, when you finally admit the fact that
Speaker 3: you were sometimes too, when you finally forgive the fact
Speaker 3: that they did not stay for the whole journey when
Speaker 3: you finally make peace with the fact that not everybody
Speaker 3: was meant to be in the whole movie.
Speaker 1: Some people were therefore a scene.
Speaker 3: Some people were there for a lesson, some people were
Speaker 3: there for a blessing.
Speaker 1: Some people needed to be released because God has something
Speaker 1: else for them.
Speaker 3: And when you release that, when you let that go,
Speaker 3: when you let God be God, and you just follow
Speaker 3: Jesus with what you have leved, you will realize. The
Speaker 3: greatest truth that I ever realized is that wherever people
Speaker 3: leave as face, God does a miracle. Wherever people leave
Speaker 3: a vacuum, wherever people leave a need.
Speaker 1: God steps in to meet it.
Speaker 3: And I can stand before you today, honestly, by the
Speaker 3: grace of God and say that some of the greatest
Speaker 3: times that I have felt His presence in my life
Speaker 3: is when people were absent.
Speaker 1: Some of the.
Speaker 3: Greatest times that I have felt His favor over my
Speaker 3: life and really experienced this deep thing with Him was
Speaker 3: in the secret place.
Speaker 1: Do you know about? The secret place?
Speaker 3: Is when people stop calling you, and people stop texting you,
Speaker 3: and people stop checking on you, and you can either
Speaker 3: get bitter about it or you can get blessed about
Speaker 3: it and realize that this is a season where God
Speaker 3: is drawing me closer to himself. And when they go quiet,
Speaker 3: he speaks, and sometimes he lets it get real quiet
Speaker 3: so he can whisper. And Jesus says something all so powerful.
Speaker 3: What he says to his brothers, he says, you go,
Speaker 3: I'm good in Galilee. Somebody shout, I'm good in Galilee.
Speaker 4: Oh.
Speaker 3: That's the greatest thing you can ever decide in your life.
Speaker 3: Is that where God has me right now is where
Speaker 3: I want to be. Because if he had wanted me
Speaker 3: to be somewhere else, I'd be somewhere else. If he'd
Speaker 3: wanted me to be someone else, I'd be somewhere else.
Speaker 3: So somebody declared, they say, I like my life.
Speaker 1: I like my life.
Speaker 3: I like all the banged up little things on my car.
Speaker 3: I like all the scratches on my car. I love
Speaker 3: all those little marks all around my house where we
Speaker 3: need to repaint it.
Speaker 1: I like my life. I like my crooked second toe.
Speaker 1: I like my life. I like my male pattern baldness.
Speaker 1: I like my life. I like my grays in my beard.
Speaker 1: I like my life. I like my free time. I
Speaker 1: like my life. I like my busy I like my life.
Speaker 3: Say it.
Speaker 1: I like my life. Tell your neighbor. I like my church.
Speaker 3: Tell him I like my pastor, I like my son,
Speaker 3: I like my wife.
Speaker 1: I like my wife. I love her cooking. It's amazing.
Speaker 1: Can I talk to you for a moment about a rival.
Speaker 1: It's our third point is a rival.
Speaker 3: Because see they're trying to get Jesus to go somewhere,
Speaker 3: but he already is what they're trying to be.
Speaker 1: Look at verse four. Let me teach this. Say I
Speaker 1: like my life. Maybe we'll make that the title of
Speaker 1: the sermon when we put it on YouTube. I like
Speaker 1: my life. Click bait everybody, you know, rage bait them.
Speaker 1: You know, I don't like my life.
Speaker 3: It's easy for you to say if you had my life,
Speaker 3: you wouldn't like it either. You know. People want to
Speaker 3: try to make you be miserable like they are. Say
Speaker 3: I like my life now, Jesus. Jesus had every reason
Speaker 3: not to like his life. Jesus had every reason to.
Speaker 3: Jesus had every reason to feel bitter, but he didn't.
Speaker 3: He he is tempted in every way. Like how you
Speaker 3: get bitter, how you start thinking? Man, that would be
Speaker 3: that's not fair. How they're doing that for me. Jesus
Speaker 3: had every reason to think that too. But he was
Speaker 3: tempted in all points as we are, and yet without sin.
Speaker 3: That's why he's our example. And in verse four, what
Speaker 3: the brothers said to him, I got to show you
Speaker 3: this so powerful how it was worded. They said, no
Speaker 3: one who wants to become a public figure acts in secret.
Speaker 4: Jesus, you need that blue check mark annointing.
Speaker 3: But for real though, the keyword to that, no one
Speaker 3: who wants to become public figure as secret is.
Speaker 1: Not secret, it's become.
Speaker 3: Jesus doesn't need can I can I say it with
Speaker 3: bad grammar.
Speaker 1: Jesus doesn't need to become nothing. He was and is
Speaker 1: and is to come.
Speaker 3: So when you know that you've already got what they're
Speaker 3: trying to get you to chase, the temptation isn't so
Speaker 3: great anymore.
Speaker 1: He's like, no, I'm good, y'all, go, I'm good. Because
Speaker 1: Jesus knew what he was, so he knew what he
Speaker 1: didn't have to do. Jesus knew.
Speaker 3: John's Gospel gives the seven I am statements of Jesus.
Speaker 3: I am the Bread of life, I am the true Vine,
Speaker 3: I am the Gate. I am the good Shepherd. I
Speaker 3: am the Resurrection and the Life. I am the door.
Speaker 1: I am.
Speaker 3: I forgot the seventh one, but y'all can look it
Speaker 3: up later.
Speaker 1: I am. Somebody shout I am.
Speaker 3: But I think one of the most powerful things Jesus
Speaker 3: said in John wasn't one of the seven I am statements.
Speaker 1: It's in verse eight, and I want.
Speaker 3: To show it to you so you can say it too,
Speaker 3: because when you know who you are.
Speaker 1: Jesus said, you go to the festival. I am not going.
Speaker 3: Justin circle that phrase because Jesus said, I am the
Speaker 3: true Vine, I am the good Shepherd. I am the
Speaker 3: Resurrection in the life. I am the Door. I am
Speaker 3: the Way, the Truth, and the Life. I got the
Speaker 3: seventh one too.
Speaker 1: I am all that.
Speaker 3: But since I know who I am, I also know
Speaker 3: what I am not. And sometimes the power of knowing
Speaker 3: your purpose is being able to say, I am not
Speaker 3: going watch this, teenagers, I am not going to that party.
Speaker 3: I know everybody else is going to be at that party,
Speaker 3: but I don't care about where everybody else is going
Speaker 3: because I am not going. Because I am a child
Speaker 3: of God. I don't care if everybody is talking nasty
Speaker 3: on Facebook. I am not going to talk like the
Speaker 3: world when I'm a citizen of.
Speaker 1: The Kingdom of God. I am not.
Speaker 3: I don't care if everybody else is having sex before
Speaker 3: they get married.
Speaker 1: I am not giving something.
Speaker 3: That was blood Boss for something that is Gertie.
Speaker 1: I am not. I am not.
Speaker 3: I know the devil wants me to complain and lay
Speaker 3: down and die, but I am.
Speaker 5: Not going to. I am not going to quit. I
Speaker 5: am not going to give up on this. I am
Speaker 5: not going to bury my dream. I am not going
Speaker 5: to become a cynic. I am not gonna drink a
Speaker 5: pain away. I am not gonna drunk and dumb it
Speaker 5: with another drug. I am not going.
Speaker 3: We can have a whole e group up of this
Speaker 3: one point. Just tell somebody I am not going. I
Speaker 3: am not going. I'm good in Galilee. I'm not gonna
Speaker 3: try to prove it. I'm not gonna try to make
Speaker 3: you believe it. I'm not gonna try to make you
Speaker 3: accept me.
Speaker 1: I'm not compromising my values.
Speaker 3: I am not Oh I feel political annoying, it.
Speaker 1: Not gonna do it. You don't remember that you were
Speaker 1: in Canada. But tell somebody, I am not. I am not.
Speaker 1: I am not.
Speaker 4: Whisper, whisper. He says, sh I'm gonna do something secret.
Speaker 4: Sh I'm going secretly. You know God is doing secret
Speaker 4: stuff in your life right now, don't you?
Speaker 3: You know?
Speaker 4: The Lord sees what you're doing secret? Don't you?
Speaker 3: You know the one who sees in secret rewards openly?
Speaker 3: Don't you You know? You might already be there, but
Speaker 3: you just don't have anybody to tell you how good
Speaker 3: you're really doing.
Speaker 4: So let me be that one today.
Speaker 3: You're already there, and if you were supposed to be
Speaker 3: further along, God would have sent you a faster car.
Speaker 1: You're already there. I know you got a long way
Speaker 1: to go.
Speaker 3: The Bible says Jesus went, but he went when he
Speaker 3: was supposed to.
Speaker 4: He went and he was supposed to, and when he
Speaker 4: got there.
Speaker 6: Look at verse twelve that it says there was widespread
Speaker 6: whispering about.
Speaker 3: Him, and there always is, there always is.
Speaker 1: Some said I like.
Speaker 3: Him, he's a good man, and others said, we've seen
Speaker 3: this show before.
Speaker 4: M hm, he's a deceiver.
Speaker 3: But what's crazy to me is Jesus didn't respond to
Speaker 3: either because both were limited.
Speaker 1: He wasn't a good man, he was the god man.
Speaker 3: And Jesus did not answer to their whispers because he
Speaker 3: walked in his father's will. So what I realize about
Speaker 3: everyone I'm preaching to today is there is a war
Speaker 3: happening in your heart. It's not loud, there's no bombs
Speaker 3: going off. Nobody can see it, and you look really
Speaker 3: beautiful in your church clothes. But underneath that purple sweater,
Speaker 3: underneath that beautiful smile, underneath those lifted hands that you
Speaker 3: raised sincerely because you love the Lord and you worship him,
Speaker 3: there's a war going on and there's a whisper. A
Speaker 3: while back, Hollywood was giving me some affirmations. That's my
Speaker 3: final point. I want to talk about affirmations and agreement.
Speaker 3: You don't need to sit down. If you're standing up,
Speaker 3: it'll just make me think I need to talk longer.
Speaker 3: But something very strange happened to me, and it took
Speaker 3: me a few days to analyze it, and then it's
Speaker 3: taken me several months to process it so that I
Speaker 3: could share it with you. But it came back to
Speaker 3: my mind when the Lord told me to talk to
Speaker 3: you about the war of whispers. You know, when I preach,
Speaker 3: by the way, there are the words that I'm speaking,
Speaker 3: and then there is the whisper that comes after that
Speaker 3: word either moves you from the word that you heard
Speaker 3: or tells you to obey it. Yeah, and if you
Speaker 3: obey it, if you obey the word, peace will be
Speaker 3: the product. But if the enemy whispers it. The Bible
Speaker 3: talks about how sometimes the devil will snatch a seed
Speaker 3: of the word of God that is.
Speaker 1: Sown because the enemy will whisper. And so.
Speaker 3: Cognizant of this fact that as I'm speaking, the enemy
Speaker 3: is whispering, and so is God.
Speaker 1: And it's a war of whispers. See there's two whispers.
Speaker 4: Right. He's a good man, Ah, I don't think so.
Speaker 4: He's a liar. You've got this.
Speaker 6: You might as well give up. It doesn't matter anyway.
Speaker 6: You know, you really could, and you really could confess
Speaker 6: that sin.
Speaker 4: They would forgive you. Yeah, but then they'll think I'm
Speaker 4: weak and they'll take advantage of me.
Speaker 3: It's a war of whispers. You don't say that stuff
Speaker 3: out loud. It just goes on in the night. And
Speaker 3: the reason I know, oh it is because it happens
Speaker 3: to me too. When I finished preaching to you, I
Speaker 3: am in a vulnerable place. Why will you run around
Speaker 3: a room screaming at the top of your lungs for
Speaker 3: an hour, and see how you feel afterwards, and talking
Speaker 3: to people about abandonment and deep issues, and then just
Speaker 3: come off the stage and try to eat a pancake.
Speaker 4: The devil comes in behind it, and he discouraged it.
Speaker 3: So Holly was sharing with me one time, in a
Speaker 3: particularly vulnerable state, some affirmations.
Speaker 1: She was saying things to me.
Speaker 3: That were so kind and so rooted in scripture, very
Speaker 3: soft voice.
Speaker 1: You're man of God.
Speaker 3: You shared what the Lord gave you to share today.
Speaker 3: God is proud of you. Now, as she was speaking,
Speaker 3: I was having thoughts. I believe they were from the enemy.
Speaker 3: I believe they were from the enemy, but they didn't
Speaker 3: sound like the devil's voice. In fact, it was a
Speaker 3: thought that came as the exact opposite of everything she
Speaker 3: was saying to me.
Speaker 1: So she would say, you're.
Speaker 3: A man of God, And while she was pausing to
Speaker 3: let that sink in, the enemy was answering it.
Speaker 1: And everything that would come back through my mind. It
Speaker 1: wasn't an out loud.
Speaker 3: Voice, it was just it was the space between her
Speaker 3: words were filled by whispers from the enemy. So if
Speaker 3: she said you are a man of God. The thought
Speaker 3: would come back that was the exact opposite of that.
Speaker 3: And I won't tell you what those thoughts were because honestly,
Speaker 3: they were so raw and so terrible, I.
Speaker 1: Would not repeat them to you.
Speaker 3: Okay, So they're coming back to me and she's saying,
Speaker 3: God delights in you, and the answer that would come
Speaker 3: back as a thought or an impression or an argument
Speaker 3: with what she just said would be the exact rhythm
Speaker 3: of what she just said.
Speaker 1: It was almost like it was a songwriting session. It
Speaker 1: was like ba ba ba bah bah bah.
Speaker 3: Bada, and it matched it almost exactly, except it was
Speaker 3: the exact opposite.
Speaker 1: And it was intense.
Speaker 3: I've never had anything like this happen before in my life.
Speaker 3: The next day, I was reflecting on it because I
Speaker 3: didn't even know how to tell her what happened, because
Speaker 3: it was it was, honestly so.
Speaker 1: It was so dark to feel something like that, you.
Speaker 3: Know, And I was I was praying about that and
Speaker 3: asking God, what was that like? What was that thing
Speaker 3: that was going on in in in my in my
Speaker 3: mind while my wife was speaking such beautiful words over me.
Speaker 3: After I just preached your words to people, and he
Speaker 3: said uh. It is enemy's whispers, and it's not important
Speaker 3: that you get it to go away. It's just important
Speaker 3: that you never agree with it. It's a war of whispers.
Speaker 3: One is saying God's got you right where he wants you.
Speaker 3: It's going to be okay. Hold on, the others saying,
Speaker 3: you've screwed up so bad. There's no way that God
Speaker 3: can redeem this situation in your life. You might as
Speaker 3: well give up. One whisper is saying, you slipped up.
Speaker 3: Let's get back on track. Come on, we can get
Speaker 3: this back together again. You don't have to go all
Speaker 3: the way down just because you slipped a little bit.
Speaker 3: Another is saying, well, you've already blown it now, and
Speaker 3: you've already broken the street, and you might as well
Speaker 3: just go all the way.
Speaker 1: It's a war of whispers.
Speaker 3: But what was true of Jesus is true of you
Speaker 3: and me, because in verse sixteen, Jesus says, you're amazed
Speaker 3: by my teaching, and you want to know where it
Speaker 3: came from. My teaching is not my own. It comes
Speaker 3: from the one who sent me. Listen to the whisper
Speaker 3: of the one.
Speaker 4: Who sent you.
Speaker 3: Because God, who sent you into this assignment for your life.
Speaker 3: God who sent you to be the leader of that family.
Speaker 3: God who sent you into this city. God sent you here.
Speaker 3: God sent you into this church. God sent you to
Speaker 3: be the teacher in that classroom. God sent you to
Speaker 3: be the manager of that division. The God who sent
Speaker 3: you can whisper to you, and he can whisper to
Speaker 3: you a word that can pivot your whole life.
Speaker 1: It's a war of whispers. Right now.
Speaker 3: They were whispering about Jesus, and they will always be whispering,
Speaker 3: and the voices will always be.
Speaker 1: Speaking opposite things.
Speaker 3: And one voice will always be telling you you're not
Speaker 3: going to make it, and another voice will be telling you,
Speaker 3: come on. God has seen you through this far. And
Speaker 3: it is not important which voice is the lot. It's
Speaker 3: important which one you agree with, and the one that
Speaker 3: you lean into is the one that will lead you forward.
Speaker 3: I don't know who I'm prophesying to right now, but
Speaker 3: it's so strong on me right now, because it's been
Speaker 3: back and forth in your mind, and you're like, what
Speaker 3: is this? And you came to church today and the
Speaker 3: whisper has been there the whole time I've been preaching,
Speaker 3: and you just turned this on and you're like maybe.
Speaker 1: God can speak to me. I don't know.
Speaker 3: It's chaotic in my mind right now. I can't make
Speaker 3: sense out of it right now. And God is saying,
Speaker 3: go with the whisper of the one who sent you,
Speaker 3: the one who knows you, the one who died to
Speaker 3: save you, the one who intricately knit you before you
Speaker 3: were formed in your mother's womb, the one whose words.
Speaker 1: Spoke your life into existence.
Speaker 6: Listen to that whisper, because the whisper now you listen
Speaker 6: to it is the one that winds.
Speaker 3: When I get done in a minute, the enemy's gonna
Speaker 3: whisper to me.
Speaker 1: You shouldn't have told them that story at the end.
Speaker 1: That was too personal.
Speaker 7: I set it for somebody who has been dealing with
Speaker 7: it in your own life.
Speaker 3: Maybe we just thought it called the sermon. God is
Speaker 3: whispering over my life. I cannot afford to get distracted
Speaker 3: by other people's opinion right now. I cannot even afford
Speaker 3: to be distracted by my own shame right now, because
Speaker 3: the grace of God is whispering a better word. I
Speaker 3: want you to stand, and I want you to be
Speaker 3: still in this moment, and I want to be quiet
Speaker 3: so you can listen.
Speaker 1: For the whisper.
Speaker 3: It won't be the only voice you'll hear, because one
Speaker 3: voice is gonna be telling you.
Speaker 4: You know, you know, there's your stomach growling, sh stomach.
Speaker 4: We're gonna eat, We're gonna eat. You're gonna get filled
Speaker 4: in a few minutes.
Speaker 1: But right now I need my soul for.
Speaker 3: It's not important that you get that other whisper to
Speaker 3: go away.
Speaker 1: It's important that you don't agree with it. So Lord
Speaker 1: fill the space.
Speaker 3: Some people that are listening to me preach today, they've
Speaker 3: been left by others because they ate the loaves and
Speaker 3: had their fill, and they left, And now.
Speaker 1: They've been believing the whisper you're all alone.
Speaker 4: Sh I'm not alone. God is with me.
Speaker 1: Say it.
Speaker 4: God is with me.
Speaker 1: That's the whisper you agree with.
Speaker 4: God is with me.
Speaker 3: If I'm feeling me, he's with me. If i'm seeing
Speaker 3: the he's with me. If I can't prove it, he's
Speaker 3: with me. If it doesn't work out, if it doesn't
Speaker 3: get better, he's with me.
Speaker 1: He's with me.
Speaker 4: That's the whisper that I agree with.
Speaker 3: I want to speak to the whisper that's been telling
Speaker 3: you it's too late, too late. Maybe your kids are
Speaker 3: grown now, or maybe you're about to graduate high school
Speaker 3: and you didn't really live for the Lord.
Speaker 1: It's not too late for anything God.
Speaker 3: God can save the best to last, and God can
Speaker 3: give you a fourth quarter, last two minute victory that
Speaker 3: will shock you. God can knock the devil out and
Speaker 3: make the last five rounds insignificant.
Speaker 1: You listen to this.
Speaker 4: Whisper, it's not over. It's not over, not for you.
Speaker 4: You're still breathing while it is still gold. Today. You
Speaker 4: let go of what didn't happen. You let go of
Speaker 4: who didn't stay. God is with you. It's not over.
Speaker 3: I want to come against the whisper that's telling you
Speaker 3: that you'll never change. Who you've always been is who
Speaker 3: you're going to be. I declare over you that greater
Speaker 3: is he that is in you than he that is
Speaker 3: in the world. And not only are you where you're
Speaker 3: supposed to be, you are who you are supposed to be.
Speaker 3: You're not too much or not too little. You are
Speaker 3: just right for this assignment. Somebody say I am enough
Speaker 3: now This week, Lord, we're gonna listen for your whisper.
Speaker 3: We're gonna resist the whisper that's telling us that this
Speaker 3: is all ridiculous. We're gonna resist the whisper that tells
Speaker 3: us we might as well stay down. We're gonna resist
Speaker 3: the whisper that tells us that our past is greater
Speaker 3: than our future.
Speaker 4: We're gonna listen for your whisper.
Speaker 1: Today.
Speaker 3: Lord, I believe that as I'm preaching, you are drawing
Speaker 3: somebody to be saved.
Speaker 1: This is their day to give their life to Jesus.
Speaker 3: I believe that you stand at the door and knock,
Speaker 3: like Revelation three and twenty says, if anyone will open
Speaker 3: the door, you will come in, and you will sit down,
Speaker 3: and you will make your throne in their heart. Right now,
Speaker 3: if you're here today and you've never really given your
Speaker 3: life to Jesus, or maybe you used to be close
Speaker 3: with the life and lately you've been very far away,
Speaker 3: and you hear that whisper, the Lord is.
Speaker 4: Saying, come back to me.
Speaker 3: The Lord's saying, give me your life, Give me the
Speaker 3: broken pieces, give me all the broken dreams.
Speaker 1: I see all of it. I'll make you new.
Speaker 3: I'll turn this broken all this clay in this broken vessel,
Speaker 3: and I'll turn it into something amazing.
Speaker 1: It's going to be amazing in his hands today.
Speaker 3: If that's you and you're ready to give your life
Speaker 3: to Christ, I would love to lead you in a prayer.
Speaker 1: This prayer is not magical.
Speaker 3: But if you'll pray it from your heart. The Bible
Speaker 3: says that if you confess with your mouth that Jesus
Speaker 3: is Lord, and believe in your heart God raised him
Speaker 3: from the dead, you will be saved. It's a promise.
Speaker 3: So right now, as a church family, I want you
Speaker 3: to repeat after me for the benefit of those who
Speaker 3: are coming to Jesus for the first time or coming
Speaker 3: back to God. Repeat after me, Heavenly Father, today is
Speaker 3: my day of salvation. I am a sinner in need
Speaker 3: of a savior, and I believe that Jesus Christ is
Speaker 3: the Son of God and the savior of the world.
Speaker 3: And today I make Jesus the Lord of my life.
Speaker 3: I believe he died that I would be forgiven and
Speaker 3: rose again to give me life. I receive this new life.
Speaker 3: This is my new beginning. I am a child of God.
Speaker 3: On the count of three, if you prayed that, shoot
Speaker 3: your hand up one, two, three.
Speaker 1: I want to celebrate you.
Speaker 3: God.
Speaker 1: Bless you man.
Speaker 3: God, Bless you man, God, bless you, sir, God bless
Speaker 3: you in the fact the black shirt God bless.
Speaker 1: It come on less.
Speaker 2: Thank God for them, Thank you for joining us. Special
Speaker 2: thanks to those of you who give generously to this ministry.
Speaker 2: Is because of you that this ministry is possible. You
Speaker 2: can click the link in the description to give now,
Speaker 2: or visit Elevationchurch dot org slash podcast for more information
Speaker 2: and if you enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe.
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Speaker 2: You can click the share button, take a screenshot and
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Speaker 2: Elevation Church.
Speaker 1: Thanks again for listening.
Speaker 4: God bless you.