Speaker 1: Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick.
Speaker 2: I'm the pastor of Elevation Church and this is our podcast.
Speaker 1: Be sure to subscribe so we can get you these
Speaker 1: new sermons every week.
Speaker 2: Hope you're blessed today.
Speaker 1: Grace and anal jests.
Speaker 2: Like you to grab the hand of the person next
Speaker 2: to you or put your hand on their shoulder, make
Speaker 2: a connection.
Speaker 1: No one untouched.
Speaker 2: Father, We thank you for your presence and the permeation
Speaker 2: of your grace in this temporal moment. In these are
Speaker 2: mortal bodies, we invite the fullness of the Godhead in
Speaker 2: Christ flow through us. Now, living water, saturate every parched place,
Speaker 2: quench and phil to overflow every thirsty soul.
Speaker 1: Here's our cup, Lord, We lift it up. Lord, I
Speaker 1: pray for the person on my right and on my left.
Speaker 2: Fill them, feed them until they want no more. We
Speaker 2: declare this done in the mighty name of Jesus, and
Speaker 2: we clap our hands.
Speaker 1: Anticipation of your reign is in our hearts. Ay man
Speaker 1: hed night Lord the God.
Speaker 2: Alright, well, what a special presence of God? How many
Speaker 2: appreciate his presence when He touches you? And nobody can
Speaker 2: touch you like God can. There's no place like the
Speaker 2: presence of God. Amen, no place like home. I hope
Speaker 2: you feel at home here. Those of you who are
Speaker 2: visiting for the first time, those of you who come
Speaker 2: every week, I hope you feel at home here. Those
Speaker 2: of you who are watching online, I hope you feel
Speaker 2: at home here. And so we're excited to bring God's word.
Speaker 2: There is a pop up in La today. He La.
Speaker 1: I'll tell you what, if you could see this weather
Speaker 1: in Charlotte, you'd wish you were here. We get it all.
Speaker 1: It's we could be seventy and seventeen in one week.
Speaker 1: Here we drive in variety, here the forecast.
Speaker 2: Shout out to our pop up, shout out to all
Speaker 2: of our locations.
Speaker 1: I don't take the time enough.
Speaker 2: We have twenty locations meeting all across the region, in
Speaker 2: different parts.
Speaker 1: Of the country, in the world.
Speaker 2: Less thank God for all of them, our evam around
Speaker 2: the world.
Speaker 1: We're all getting ready, so much to prepare for.
Speaker 2: Ask you to stay standing for just a moment, because
Speaker 2: after I get through these announcements, I'm going to read
Speaker 2: my scripture and I want us to stand in honor
Speaker 2: of the Word of God. But I want to underscore
Speaker 2: that our Christmas services will begin Friday, December twenty second
Speaker 2: through Sunday to twenty fourth. There are too many times
Speaker 2: for me to list specific to each location. It gets
Speaker 2: complicated with time zones and building capacities.
Speaker 1: So you'll just go to Christmas at Elevation dot com, Christmas.
Speaker 2: At Elevation dot com like that, and they'll give you
Speaker 2: the times and locations.
Speaker 1: On December thirty first, church will.
Speaker 2: Be online only, and then we'll be back in person Sunday,
Speaker 2: January seventh. Now before we give God praise for Christmas.
Speaker 2: All right, now, before we get to any of that,
Speaker 2: We've got our year end offering next Sunday, December ten.
Speaker 2: Give God praise for that. Come on, we live to
Speaker 2: get got so excited I went ahead and wrote my
Speaker 2: check Thursday and put it in the offering.
Speaker 1: Get it in the ground early in case it rains.
Speaker 1: I want it to be ready and I love doing it,
Speaker 1: and I hope you do too. No pressure to you.
Speaker 2: You can come every week and never give anything we'll
Speaker 2: give to you. But if you believe in this, if
Speaker 2: this gospel saved you, if you want to help us
Speaker 2: get it all around the world, then show up next
Speaker 2: week with an offering and sew it in faith so
Speaker 2: that people far.
Speaker 1: From God can be raised to lie.
Speaker 3: Let's build up the kingdom together. Let's week, Let's lit
Speaker 3: up Jesus together, Holly.
Speaker 2: That will be awesome. It's our declaration of trust. We're
Speaker 2: calling our trust offering. That's the subtitle, our expansion, our outreach.
Speaker 1: It will be amazing.
Speaker 2: And guess what today I want to read you the
Speaker 2: most famous Bible verse on trust in the whole Bible,
Speaker 2: other than Proverbs three to six, second most famous, and
Speaker 2: I want to share it with you. Now.
Speaker 1: This word for you may feel very personal.
Speaker 2: Don't be surprised if it does, because the Lord gave
Speaker 2: it to me, and he knows what you're going through.
Speaker 1: So don't get worried.
Speaker 2: Does past our half cameras in my house when I
Speaker 2: start saying some of this stuff. I don't know what
Speaker 2: you're going through, But God does. He gave me this
Speaker 2: word I believe for you. Actually, before we read Psalm
Speaker 2: twenty three, I want to do it out of order.
Speaker 2: Give me second Corinthians eight one and two. Then Psalm
Speaker 2: twenty three Paul speaking. And now, brothers and sisters, I
Speaker 2: want you to know about the grace that God has
Speaker 2: given the Macedonian churches in the midst of a very
Speaker 2: severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled
Speaker 2: up in rich generosity. Beautiful. Now saal, I'm twenty three
Speaker 2: four and five. Yea, though I walk through the valley
Speaker 2: of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.
Speaker 2: For thou art with me. Thy Rod and staff they
Speaker 2: comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me in the
Speaker 2: presence of mine enemies. Thou anointest my head with oil,
Speaker 2: my cup, runneth over. Clap your hands for that, for
Speaker 2: that promise, that timeless, ageless promise from Almighty God. Now
Speaker 2: let me give you the message title repeat after me.
Speaker 2: I'm going through, but I'm running over. Tell your neighbor
Speaker 2: two things at once. Say I'm going through, but I'm
Speaker 2: running over. Hallelujah. You feel that, say it. I'm going through.
Speaker 2: Tell your neighbor you look like you're going through. You
Speaker 2: look like it too, but you look like you're running over.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah. Bressed out
Speaker 1: shakings again. All right, y'all be seated. I'll be seated. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'll be seated. Be seated. How many married people in
Speaker 1: the house. You better put some enthusiasm on that will.
Speaker 1: How many would agree marriage changes everything.
Speaker 2: It changes everything, and they don't tell you that marriage
Speaker 2: not only changes everything in your relationship to the person
Speaker 2: you're marrying when you commit to be with them all
Speaker 2: the time. But the thing that surprised me about my
Speaker 2: relationship with Holly is how much my relationship with her
Speaker 2: changed my relationship with other things, not just my time, like, oh.
Speaker 1: Well, now I've got to be home, you know, the
Speaker 1: old ball and chain. We don't feel like that. I
Speaker 1: don't feel like that about her.
Speaker 2: At all, But over time, how her preferences have assimilated
Speaker 2: into me, and now her references have become the prism
Speaker 2: not prison prism through which.
Speaker 1: I experienced so much of life.
Speaker 2: And so the way that my wife feels about things
Speaker 2: changes the way that I feel about so many things
Speaker 2: in my life. My relationship with my wife changed my
Speaker 2: relationship with so many other things in my life. I'm
Speaker 2: sure she'd say the same about her relationship with me.
Speaker 2: For the twenty one years we've been married, I've been
Speaker 2: advocating to her that rock music is God's music, for
Speaker 2: the Bible says he is a rock But I wonder
Speaker 2: over slowly from her having the perspective of that rock
Speaker 2: most rock music was annoying, and now she knows it's annointed.
Speaker 2: Her relationship with me changed her relationship with the genre.
Speaker 2: One of the first times I knew that being married
Speaker 2: to this person was going to change me and change
Speaker 2: my orientation towards simple, elemental, basic things.
Speaker 1: Early when we were married, we woke up one.
Speaker 2: Morning and it was raining outside, and I looked over
Speaker 2: at her and she was awakened.
Speaker 1: She was smiling.
Speaker 2: She said, I just love a good rainy day, so relaxing,
Speaker 2: so cozy, and I'm like, oh, you're one of these people.
Speaker 2: Rain to me is depressing. I know it shouldn't be.
Speaker 2: The joy of the Lord is my strength. Pray for me.
Speaker 2: My sanctification process is still in progress. I'm buffering, and
Speaker 2: she's like, oh, what a blessing a rainy day. Now
Speaker 2: we can just you know, relax and all of that.
Speaker 2: So through her eyes, over the last twenty one years,
Speaker 2: I've kind of come to see it. It can be relaxing.
Speaker 2: Rain can be relaxing. I never knew that. So what
Speaker 2: I'm trying to say, just as a basic illustration to
Speaker 2: set this up, is that my relationship with her changed
Speaker 2: my relationship to something as simple as rain, just by
Speaker 2: being with her. It didn't make it rain more or
Speaker 2: less because we're married. It changed my relationship with the rain.
Speaker 2: I saw Larry Brye on a video earlier as he
Speaker 2: in the room.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yea yeah. Remember when it rained early one Sunday.
Speaker 2: About the third or fourth week we had this church yall,
Speaker 2: and the attendance momentum was going good. It rained, The
Speaker 2: attendants dropped by thirty percent. I found out people don't
Speaker 2: need much to stay home from church, and I was
Speaker 2: mad about it, and I went back just kind of
Speaker 2: disappointed in all because in those days we were just,
Speaker 2: you know, really trying to survive week the week.
Speaker 1: This goofball is smiling, just grinning ear to ear.
Speaker 2: I don't know if you know him, but he's just
Speaker 2: a very over the top personality.
Speaker 1: I said, what you're smiling about? Silly?
Speaker 2: Had we had twenty percent? Did you not see all
Speaker 2: those empty seats for the rain? He said, did you
Speaker 2: not see our greeter team? He had bought these umbrellas
Speaker 2: with elevation logos on him and he was waiting for
Speaker 2: a rainy day he got to use his umbrellas. He's grinned.
Speaker 2: He's in the grin and like Mary Poppins, I'm like
Speaker 2: Ebenezer Scrooge, and it's just about you know.
Speaker 1: And really.
Speaker 2: I bring that up because I wanted a simple way
Speaker 2: to say something that's kind of deep and kind of
Speaker 2: hard to talk about. Is that your relationship with Christ
Speaker 2: should change your relationship with adversity. You like the metaphor
Speaker 2: better about the rain, didn't you? The rain was cute? Yeah,
Speaker 2: my relationship with Christ. You know how we say Jesus
Speaker 2: changes everything, true, but needs some explanation. Jesus didn't make
Speaker 2: me sick foot three when he saved me.
Speaker 1: He didn't change everything.
Speaker 2: Jesus isn't fixing this bald spot on the back of
Speaker 2: my head. I'd have to pay somebody in Miami to
Speaker 2: do that. He's not gonna change everything.
Speaker 1: Jesus, not Jesus.
Speaker 2: Jesus changes. Jesus changes the way I see everything. Therefore,
Speaker 2: Jesus changes everything by changing me. And as he changes me,
Speaker 2: having him, knowing him, walking with him, being in relationship
Speaker 2: with him, like my relationship with Holly, it changes the
Speaker 2: way I.
Speaker 1: See the rain.
Speaker 2: When you see these leaves falling off the trees around here,
Speaker 2: if you're the one who has to blow them out
Speaker 2: of the driveway, they're a nuisance. But if you're the soil,
Speaker 2: those are nutrients. Is it a nuisance or is it
Speaker 2: a nutrient. It depends on whether you're the soil or
Speaker 2: whether you're the person who's responsible of lawn maintenance and
Speaker 2: making it look esthetically pleasing.
Speaker 1: Now, Paul says, and I'm finally to the text. I
Speaker 1: want you to know about this church in Macedonia.
Speaker 2: They are amazing, but they are not affluent. They have
Speaker 2: an abundant mentality in a scarcity situation.
Speaker 1: Many of us are the opposite.
Speaker 2: We have an abundant situation, a scarcity mindset, whether it's
Speaker 2: because of our over commitment to all of the things
Speaker 2: that we've done to impress people or get people to
Speaker 2: like us. And it doesn't even really work because the
Speaker 2: moment that you stop doing it, they stop liking you.
Speaker 2: So they didn't really like you, they liked what you
Speaker 2: were doing for them. And now you've run yourself ragged
Speaker 2: for somebody you don't even have a real relationship with,
Speaker 2: and it can leave you feeling depleted.
Speaker 1: Paul says, just the opposite.
Speaker 2: Always thought this scripture was a paradox not a contradiction.
Speaker 2: A paradox a contradiction to things that can't.
Speaker 1: Both be true, can't both be true?
Speaker 2: Paradox doesn't look true on the surface, but dig beneath
Speaker 2: it a little bit, it's true. I'll give you a paradox.
Speaker 2: Less it's more. No, more is more unless it's not.
Speaker 2: And no, that doesn't mean I'm only going to preach
Speaker 2: for twenty minutes this week because less it's more. But
Speaker 2: there are times where your silent presence will mean more
Speaker 2: than your best advice. You know that you ever had
Speaker 2: somebody on what they didn't say was a blacks so
Speaker 2: less was more. That's a paradox. How About the paradox
Speaker 2: of your personality? How About the paradox of your purpose?
Speaker 2: How about the paradox of the provision in your life.
Speaker 2: I'll go through all three of those. Your personality, the
Speaker 2: fact that there are times where you are very outgoing
Speaker 2: and there are times you want to be left alone.
Speaker 2: That doesn't make you a hypocrite, makes you a human.
Speaker 2: How about your purpose? The fact that sometimes you're very
Speaker 2: sure God told you to take that job, and other times.
Speaker 1: You feel the Lord might be in the moving truck.
Speaker 1: Ministry sometime in twenty twenty four.
Speaker 2: Huh, how about the paradox of purpose and then the
Speaker 2: paradox of provision, which is really central to this text.
Speaker 2: Paul said, there was a church in Macedonia and out
Speaker 2: of their poverty. It's unclear in this situation exactly what
Speaker 2: was happening to them, other than it was the effect
Speaker 2: of persecution. Now they're giving an offering to the Church
Speaker 2: at Jerusalem and they don't have themselves many basic needs met.
Speaker 2: Paul says, out of this is a miracle. And I
Speaker 2: believe that one of the things christ enables us to do.
Speaker 2: And I want you to shout or clap or throw
Speaker 2: something at me if you don't disagree with what I'm
Speaker 2: saying too much, is that we should never let an
Speaker 2: event become our identity.
Speaker 1: Ever.
Speaker 2: Watch me work this out now, because I'm talking about
Speaker 2: our adversities and our achievements. No event should become your identity.
Speaker 2: That is a fragile, flawed foundation to build your house on.
Speaker 2: One storm can knock it down. No achievement. It should
Speaker 2: be me in my mind. No achievement, no talent, no
Speaker 2: ability should be conflated with my character.
Speaker 1: As I decide who is it that I am? I
Speaker 1: remember a lady told me one time, I grew up
Speaker 1: in the Low Country where you did. And she said,
Speaker 1: I have a bone to pick with you.
Speaker 2: I said, a bone to pick with me? You are
Speaker 2: from the low country talking like this, let's pick. She said,
Speaker 2: I got.
Speaker 1: A bone to pick with you.
Speaker 2: She said, I listened to your sermons, and you don't
Speaker 2: talk like where you come from.
Speaker 1: She had a deep Southern accent.
Speaker 2: She said, why don't you talk if you're from Monk's Corner,
Speaker 2: South Carolina? Why can't I hear your Southern accent when
Speaker 2: you preach?
Speaker 1: I said, lady, I don't know. I didn't take a class,
Speaker 1: I didn't have it cast out.
Speaker 2: I don't know. I can put it on anytime I
Speaker 2: want to, but I don't know.
Speaker 1: It just kind of fell off along the way. And
Speaker 1: it's a good question, right, Like what she asked me, why.
Speaker 2: Don't you talk like where you come from?
Speaker 1: I got a bone to bid with a lot of believers.
Speaker 2: How our mouths speaks so much about what we're missing,
Speaker 2: and we claim to have Christ as the center of
Speaker 2: our life.
Speaker 1: I feel like preaching.
Speaker 2: In the beginning was the word, and the word was
Speaker 2: with God. And the word was God, and through him
Speaker 2: were all things made that were made. Colossian says, so
Speaker 2: the beginning was the word. The word was Jesus. Jesus
Speaker 2: is in you. If Jesus is in you and you
Speaker 2: came from him, then why do you say you can't
Speaker 2: make it? If Jesus is in you and you come
Speaker 2: from him, and all the fullness of the deity dwells
Speaker 2: in Jesus, not baby g Jesus. I'm talking about reigning Jesus.
Speaker 2: I'm talking about Christ in you, the hope of glory.
Speaker 2: Touch your neighbors, say, talk like where you came from.
Speaker 1: Come on, let's practice.
Speaker 2: Say I'm blessed, I'm highly favor I'm anointed for this.
Speaker 2: I'm absolutely dead smack in the center of God's will
Speaker 2: for my life. He woke me up this morning. My
Speaker 2: cup is overflowing. Hi oe him the praise. You know
Speaker 2: where I come from. And I wonder, did you forget
Speaker 2: where you came from.
Speaker 1: Because of what you went through? Yay, though I walk.
Speaker 2: Through the valley of the Shadow of death, but that
Speaker 2: Psng'm twenty three verse four. We're not there yet. David
Speaker 2: started this whole thing off by saying the Lord is
Speaker 2: my shepherd identity I walk through the valley event. Flip
Speaker 2: the whole thing around and you'll feel better. Flip the
Speaker 2: whole thing around and you'll be able to breathe again.
Speaker 2: Flip the whole thing around and you might be surprised.
Speaker 2: What you see about your situation is that no success
Speaker 2: makes me who I am. No failure limits what I
Speaker 2: can be. Because the Lord is my shepherd, I shall
Speaker 2: not want. We could go home, but we're not going
Speaker 2: to because some of y'all are going through It would
Speaker 2: shock you what someone on your row might be going through.
Speaker 2: I had two conversations in the last twenty four hours.
Speaker 1: That shocked me.
Speaker 2: People I have been around and had no idea what
Speaker 2: they were going through. People I was in regular contact with,
Speaker 2: and I had no idea their family member committed suicide.
Speaker 2: They didn't tell anybody, didn't even tell their pastor didn't.
Speaker 1: Know if they could, felt ashamed about it.
Speaker 2: I had a conversation with someone that I loved very
Speaker 2: much the other day and they made a statement that
Speaker 2: I believe expresses the sentiment of many of us, spoken
Speaker 2: or unspoken. He was in the middle of a spiraling
Speaker 2: emotional state and he said to me.
Speaker 1: I hate myself so much right now. I hate myself
Speaker 1: so much right now.
Speaker 2: I didn't say anything because that kind of statement needs.
Speaker 1: A little bit of space.
Speaker 2: But after he had said it as much as he
Speaker 2: needed to say it, I said, let's say it a
Speaker 2: little bit differently this time.
Speaker 1: Let's say it, but let's say it different. Let's say
Speaker 1: it like we know where we come from.
Speaker 2: Not. I hate myself right now. I hate how this
Speaker 2: is making me feel right now. You see it now
Speaker 2: I'm talking to addicts. Not I hate myself because I
Speaker 2: do this. I hate how this sin change me to
Speaker 2: the me that I don't have to be anymore. That
Speaker 2: is pattern, program based, not potential conscious. I hate this event,
Speaker 2: but the event is not the identity.
Speaker 1: So now I can fight it because I am not it.
Speaker 1: Say this. I am not it. My mama told me.
Speaker 2: Pick the best one, and I.
Speaker 1: Am not it. Give God praise that you're not it.
Speaker 4: I did it, but I'm not it. I'm in it, Oh,
Speaker 4: but I'm not it. It's with me in church this morning,
Speaker 4: but I'm not it. It came with me, but it's
Speaker 4: not gonna get in me.
Speaker 1: And even if it's in.
Speaker 4: Me, it's gonna get out because I'm not built.
Speaker 2: Right. So my relationship with Holly changed the way I
Speaker 2: saw the rain. My relationship with christ then therefore changes
Speaker 2: my relationship with what I'm going through?
Speaker 1: What are you going through? That nobody really knows?
Speaker 2: Don't say it out loud because you won't say the
Speaker 2: real one. I don't need a single one of you
Speaker 2: to put it in the chat because what it really
Speaker 2: is doesn't belong on YouTube, does it?
Speaker 1: What are you going through? Going through?
Speaker 2: My friend texted me this is probably like four years ago,
Speaker 2: and he said that was a great sermon. What are
Speaker 2: you going through? I said, what you mean? He said,
Speaker 2: nobody preaches like that unless they're going through something. And
Speaker 2: that is one thing about adversity, isn't it adversity. I'm
Speaker 2: gonna tell you three things that adversity is. If you
Speaker 2: know Jesus. Okay, if you don't know Jesus, adversity is
Speaker 2: a closed door that you can't get past. If you
Speaker 2: don't know Jesus, it's a Jericho wall you can't get over.
Speaker 2: If you don't know Jesus, adversity is an endpoint of
Speaker 2: a dream. If you don't know Jesus, adversity is a
Speaker 2: reason for you to throw your hands up in disgust,
Speaker 2: feel sorry for yourself, and eat three.
Speaker 1: Gallons of ice cream and let's just get in shape.
Speaker 1: January one.
Speaker 2: If you don't know Jesus, but if my relationship with
Speaker 2: you changed my relationship with the rain, maybe my relationship
Speaker 2: with Jesus can change my relationship with adversity. The first
Speaker 2: thing that it won't do. I'm gonna give you three
Speaker 2: things that it does do. But the first thing that
Speaker 2: it won't do is it wont make you avoid. And
Speaker 2: if it would, then David wouldn't say yay though I
Speaker 2: walk through the valley. You can't avoid certain adversity. I
Speaker 2: should say this through wisdom, all right. And I want
Speaker 2: to let that sink in because sometimes I think, I
Speaker 2: think sometimes in church we glorify adversity as if it's
Speaker 2: always God's first way.
Speaker 1: But sometimes God gives.
Speaker 2: You a command as your first school of learning and
Speaker 2: adversity as your summer school. Does that make any sense,
Speaker 2: y'all looking at me?
Speaker 1: Kind of weird? I can't decide if yeah, it won't
Speaker 1: because if it said yay though.
Speaker 2: I look at the valley of the shadow of Death
Speaker 2: and God.
Speaker 1: Air lifts me out I will fear no evil. Yea,
Speaker 1: though I.
Speaker 2: Glide over the valley of the Shadow of Death, I
Speaker 2: will fear no Well, I bet you won't. You're gliding
Speaker 2: over it.
Speaker 1: Somebodys they go through.
Speaker 2: So when you go through adversity, whatever that adversity is,
Speaker 2: and I don't mean to say that in a generic way.
Speaker 2: The Lord specifically gave me that word adversity, and he
Speaker 2: told me to focus on that adversity in your life.
Speaker 2: The first thing that adversity is when you put it
Speaker 2: in the hands of Jesus, it is an adjuster. Adversity
Speaker 2: in the hands of God serves as an adjuster. Not
Speaker 2: all adversity comes from the hand of God. It al
Speaker 2: must passed through the hand of God. Whatever you're going through,
Speaker 2: it had to go through God before it got to you,
Speaker 2: and before it's over, it has to go through God
Speaker 2: again so he can work it for the good in
Speaker 2: your life.
Speaker 1: Shout about that. Shout about that.
Speaker 2: You should and watch this not all the time, But
Speaker 2: Paul said, sometimes our tendency is to get too high
Speaker 2: to identify ourselves with our achievement. So Paul said, this
Speaker 2: is later in Second Corinthians. I just remember the scripture
Speaker 2: he said. Therefore, to keep me from becoming conceited, there
Speaker 2: was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger
Speaker 2: of Satan sent to buffet me.
Speaker 1: Buffett is not like Warren.
Speaker 2: This sitting a stock in his account.
Speaker 1: It beat me, but it didn't defeat me.
Speaker 2: It was an adversity sent to get me grounded in
Speaker 2: God's grace. Sometimes God will allow adversity even if he
Speaker 2: doesn't send adversity to adjust you in your life, because
Speaker 2: he knows right now you're moving a little fast.
Speaker 1: He knows right now you're looking down on people a
Speaker 1: little bit.
Speaker 2: He knows right now, if I give it to you,
Speaker 2: you'll eat it, you won't sow it. So I've got
Speaker 2: to get you in a place where you can recognize.
Speaker 1: That I'm your shepherd. It's an adjuster.
Speaker 2: God will use adversity to adjust you.
Speaker 1: You still the kids all the time when they were
Speaker 1: very little. Stop growing up. Stop it. You're so cute
Speaker 1: right now, Stay really cute like this.
Speaker 2: Stay at age nine where you think I'm smart, only
Speaker 2: like seven years away from you.
Speaker 1: Thinking I'm an idiot and being right. That's the worst part.
Speaker 1: You're gonna be right. You're gonna think I'm an idiot,
Speaker 1: and you're gonna be right and abby. You say same
Speaker 1: thing every time I say stop.
Speaker 2: Growing up, and she'd go, I can't, but spiritually you can.
Speaker 2: Physical growth you have no choice about. Spiritual growth is
Speaker 2: a choice.
Speaker 1: I'm saying.
Speaker 2: You don't always get to choose what you go through,
Speaker 2: but you have to choose to grow through.
Speaker 1: What you go through.
Speaker 2: All right, three people in the back, I'll come appreciate
Speaker 2: to you. All growth is chosen in the spirit, not
Speaker 2: in the physical. You know, as it relates to our
Speaker 2: height and certain things about our bodies, certain certain parts
Speaker 2: of that are not chosen. But growth spiritually is. So
Speaker 2: I would ask you the question about the valley.
Speaker 1: In your life. Remember, David said, I walked through the valley,
Speaker 1: Paul said.
Speaker 2: The Macedonian Church, out of their severe affliction or adversity,
Speaker 2: welled up generosity.
Speaker 1: They learned how to give through what they lacked.
Speaker 2: They were brought into a place of abundance by their adversity.
Speaker 2: That's the way it works, if you choose to allow
Speaker 2: God to do it through you. Adversity can often be
Speaker 2: an adjuster. The second thing that adversity does, and I'll
Speaker 2: give you a.
Speaker 1: Few scriptures to prove this. It says that the Lord
Speaker 1: is near to the broken hearted.
Speaker 2: It says that God is a very present help in
Speaker 2: the time of trouble. David's said, He's with me in
Speaker 2: the valley. So the second thing that adversity will do,
Speaker 2: it will give you access. Access. Adversity is an all
Speaker 2: access pass to the places in God you can't get
Speaker 2: any other way. Adversity is a like when we go
Speaker 2: out on Elevation Nights, let me stop real quick in
Speaker 2: do an advertisement. February twentyeth through twenty ninth Elevation Nights
Speaker 2: dot com.
Speaker 1: We can't wait to see you there when we go out.
Speaker 2: When we go out, I have do a little advertisement,
Speaker 2: little product placement when we go out. The team that's
Speaker 2: working on Elevation Nights, they have a pass. They can
Speaker 2: go anywhere in the State Farm Arena, anywhere.
Speaker 1: They want to go. If it says access all areas,
Speaker 1: they can go anywhere.
Speaker 2: I said to one of them one time, isn't it
Speaker 2: funny if we tried to come back here tomorrow night
Speaker 2: and just walk in, you know, and Florida Georgia line.
Speaker 2: They don't even play together anymore, do they? Honey to
Speaker 2: update the reference me going to Taylor Swift or something
Speaker 2: like that.
Speaker 1: Hey, I'm here.
Speaker 2: They let me in at the last one on elevation nights.
Speaker 2: I can go anywhere, right, No, no, no, you.
Speaker 1: Got to have a pass for that.
Speaker 2: And the fact that I'm here for this event gives
Speaker 2: me access to certain areas. When you go through certain things,
Speaker 2: you will discover a grace that you only get when
Speaker 2: you go through those things. And even though the thing
Speaker 2: is not what you would have chosen to go through,
Speaker 2: it is going to, I declare prophetically and biblically.
Speaker 1: It is going to give you grace.
Speaker 2: So that adversity is the access point by which the
Speaker 2: extra grace will be released by God. You will go
Speaker 2: through things in your life, and when you get through them,
Speaker 2: people will say how did you get through that, and
Speaker 2: you will only be able to say, I don't know.
Speaker 2: God gave me a grace for it. A grace for it.
Speaker 2: Shout like you know the shepherd, say I got a
Speaker 2: grace for it. Come on, tell your neighbor, I got
Speaker 2: a grace for it. I'm going through it, but I
Speaker 2: got a grace for it. And if I've got to
Speaker 2: go through it, it is guaranteed grace. God will never
Speaker 2: make me go through what He will not give me
Speaker 2: grace for.
Speaker 1: So if you're going.
Speaker 2: Through something that you hadn't been through before, you're about
Speaker 2: to get a grace that you've never had before. I
Speaker 2: feel like preaching You're about to.
Speaker 4: Receive an annointing overflowing like you've never known it before.
Speaker 1: God'll feel you for this.
Speaker 2: Elbow, your neighbors say, he'll feel me for this. This
Speaker 2: is an event. This is an event. This is an event.
Speaker 2: I'm getting through this. This is an event. I'm not
Speaker 2: living here. Don't put this as my permanent mailing address.
Speaker 1: Your one Valley road.
Speaker 2: Don't come visit me in the valley next December, because
Speaker 2: I'm going through this.
Speaker 1: Yay.
Speaker 5: Wow.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm talking about the kind of grace that'll make
Speaker 2: you say yay as you go through the valley.
Speaker 1: Somebody saw yay, got a freach one name. Yay. Nobody
Speaker 1: says yay when the bill's overdue.
Speaker 2: Yay. That's crazy. David said, yay. I know it, manute
Speaker 2: a little different. Let's have some fun.
Speaker 1: Come on, come on, come on, say yay. I wish
Speaker 1: you would confuse the devil this week. He's got you
Speaker 1: in the valley. You know when they.
Speaker 2: Call you and tell you the bad news and you
Speaker 2: just say, hang on a second, mute, yay. You know
Speaker 2: how she broke up with you in October and you
Speaker 2: thought you'd spend.
Speaker 1: The rest of your life alone. I want you to
Speaker 1: go back to October in your mind. Let God anoint
Speaker 1: your head with oil.
Speaker 2: Change the way you think about that thing, and realize,
Speaker 2: if that was meant to me, it would be meant
Speaker 2: to be. If it was meant for me, it would be.
Speaker 2: But if it went away, it couldn't stay.
Speaker 6: Somebody say yay shay, whoa.
Speaker 2: I feel Jesus on this. I feel Jesus on this.
Speaker 2: Jesus got to the tomb of Lazarus. He said he's dead,
Speaker 2: and I'm glad. Somebody shall yay. Well, why would you
Speaker 2: be glad? Because these are his friends and he's about
Speaker 2: to show them something nobody else has ever seen.
Speaker 1: I need you to get happy.
Speaker 2: Not about the valley that you're going through, but about
Speaker 2: the grace of God that is coming to you.
Speaker 1: Somebody shout yay, yay, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2: Whoo.
Speaker 1: I'm not afraid because yeay yay.
Speaker 2: Now I'm telling you this message is real to me.
Speaker 2: I was shouting like this at five forty five this morning.
Speaker 2: I was scared I was gonna wake the dog up
Speaker 2: and happy, said he pete on the couch.
Speaker 1: I think I made the.
Speaker 2: Dog Pius passed because I was walking around.
Speaker 1: My living room at five forty five saying, yay, yay,
Speaker 1: yay goes.
Speaker 2: That's so in tears, we'll reaping joy.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I'm gonna get up now.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 6: Yeah, this is today the Lord today in.
Speaker 1: My shepherdsy so he enables me.
Speaker 2: You can't minimize people's pain like this, pastor Steven. I'm
Speaker 2: not minimizing nothing. I'm just trying to reframe the way
Speaker 2: you see the rain. I'm trying to get you to
Speaker 2: rethink the leaves. Did you have somebody leave you? What
Speaker 2: if that's nourishment for.
Speaker 1: Your next season in the soul of your life.
Speaker 2: I said, I'm going through, but watch this I'm going through.
Speaker 2: Don't let what I'm going through fool you. I'm going through,
Speaker 2: but I'm not dry inside. I'm going through, but I'm
Speaker 2: not without a witness. I'm going through, but God is
Speaker 2: speaking with me. I'm walking through this valley, but I'm
Speaker 2: not walking through it by myself.
Speaker 1: Yay, though I walk, I walk. You notice in the
Speaker 1: text in verse five, in verse five, is this good
Speaker 1: to y'all? The Lord said, ten people will love this message.
Speaker 1: Ten people will love this message. He said.
Speaker 2: In verse five something was running and it was the coup.
Speaker 2: He said, my cup runneth over. But in verse four
Speaker 2: something was walking and that was you. Yay, though I walk,
Speaker 2: I walk, and the cup runs. I need y'all to
Speaker 2: help me today because my voice is a little bit weak,
Speaker 2: and I don't know what I was doing just now
Speaker 2: pushing it because all week, every day I was recording
Speaker 2: my book by audio and.
Speaker 1: I did not hold back. I did not put my
Speaker 1: late night FMDJ voice on this thing.
Speaker 2: This was not boys to men intros like tone level,
Speaker 2: voice level, This is no base in it.
Speaker 1: I preach that thing all seventy thousand words.
Speaker 2: Let me put an advertisement my new book, Do the
Speaker 2: New You, February thirteenth, everywhere Books are Souls pre order
Speaker 2: right now at dothanewu dot com.
Speaker 1: Advertisement. And I did it.
Speaker 2: I did it all week, and one thing I noticed
Speaker 2: when I was doing it, when I would rush, I
Speaker 2: would mess up because you want to get done, because
Speaker 2: you get tired of hearing yourself talk. How many of
Speaker 2: you'd like to hear yourself talk? It's not fun, okay,
Speaker 2: So I do this out of love for you. I
Speaker 2: don't like to hear myself talking more. You like to
Speaker 2: hear yourself talk. And so I'm saying it. Listen myself
Speaker 2: talk for like the second third day, and I start
Speaker 2: trying to a little fast like that, and I'll make
Speaker 2: ten mistakes, and every time it got hard.
Speaker 1: The secret to getting through was to slow down. That's
Speaker 1: why I.
Speaker 2: Said that wait on the Lord will walk. Yea though
Speaker 2: I walk, slow down. You're worried because you're trying to
Speaker 2: get there too fast. You're worried because you're trying to
Speaker 2: do it all in one day. You're worried because you're
Speaker 2: trying to keep up with people who are ten years.
Speaker 1: Older than you.
Speaker 2: You're worried because you're trying to keep up with people
Speaker 2: who are more messed up.
Speaker 1: Than you are. They just hide it better. You're worried.
Speaker 2: Because you're trying to take in all the information and
Speaker 2: the human history all in the same device at the
Speaker 2: same time. Slow down, shut down, and walk through the
Speaker 2: valid you want to get out of the valley. I
Speaker 2: understand well the way through it is to walk. When
Speaker 2: you run to something else to escape it, you don't
Speaker 2: become stronger through it. You can't run over if you
Speaker 2: don't go through. That's the paradox of provision. You can't
Speaker 2: run over and have wisdom to give others if you
Speaker 2: do not go through the weakness.
Speaker 1: With God for yourself. That's what the season has been about.
Speaker 2: The enemy has been lying to you, telling you that
Speaker 2: the valley, the shadow, and the enemies at the table
Speaker 2: represent the end for you.
Speaker 1: They don't. None of those things do for you.
Speaker 2: See there's a cast of characters in Psalm twenty three,
Speaker 2: including a valley, a shadow, and enemies.
Speaker 1: Yay, though I walk through.
Speaker 2: The valley of the shadow of death, I'll fear no evil,
Speaker 2: for thou art with me.
Speaker 1: Thy rod and staff they come from me, aren't you glad?
Speaker 1: God has a rod.
Speaker 2: The staff is how he brings me back. The rod
Speaker 2: is how he keeps everything away that threatened to devour me.
Speaker 2: I need both of those. So then sometimes he'll use
Speaker 2: an event to bring me back to him. Sometimes he'll
Speaker 2: use an event to keep a wolf away from me.
Speaker 2: But his identity is the lens through which I've view
Speaker 2: every event. In my life, not the other way around.
Speaker 2: Once I've decided he's the shepherd. That means I'm settled
Speaker 2: in this and my cup is running over? Well, where
Speaker 2: is the cup on the table? Where is the table?
Speaker 2: We have this misconception that when we get through stuff,
Speaker 2: it's going to get better. Now I'm going through right now,
Speaker 2: but man, I can't wait for twenty twenty four. That's
Speaker 2: gonna be my year. You've been saying that since nineteen
Speaker 2: forty seven.
Speaker 1: Elvis had a.
Speaker 2: Number one song on the chart the last time you
Speaker 2: said that. And then we have this misconception, don't we
Speaker 2: that the adversity that we're going through will prevent us
Speaker 2: from being blessed right now? And I think that's the
Speaker 2: thing I really wanted to put us. The core of
Speaker 2: this message is that it's one thing to say, when
Speaker 2: I get through this, then I will be happy, hole successful,
Speaker 2: reach there I will be when I get through this,
Speaker 2: I will be at peace, amount of.
Speaker 1: Money I'll be secured, and you won't.
Speaker 2: Because it's never there, he said out of their trial.
Speaker 2: In the midst of it welled up a rich generosity,
Speaker 2: and David said, my cup runs over at the table
Speaker 2: in the presence of my enemies in the shadow of
Speaker 2: the valley of death. I want to walk through all
Speaker 2: three of those very quickly. There are three symbols in
Speaker 2: this text of adversity. Each of them represent adversity. Number
Speaker 2: one is the valley. You're in the valley.
Speaker 1: You're going through.
Speaker 2: The valley you are going through. You will not live there.
Speaker 2: You will not live there, you will not die there.
Speaker 2: You will not move your kids and grandkids into that
Speaker 2: spot in the valley. That's why you're going through it.
Speaker 2: They won't have to go through it quite like you do.
Speaker 1: I believe my.
Speaker 2: Dad broke the spirit of suicide off of my life
Speaker 2: by not killing himself because his dad did so.
Speaker 1: Number One, it's a valley, but I'm passing through.
Speaker 2: My friend Brandon Lake was telling me a couple years
Speaker 2: ago he just wrote a song.
Speaker 1: I said, was it good?
Speaker 2: He said, that's just a song about the valley.
Speaker 1: I said some advice.
Speaker 2: Said yeah, valley represents hard things in our life. I said,
Speaker 2: Brandon Lake, you have to explain to me what a
Speaker 2: valley represents in the Bible. You think I'm an idiot.
Speaker 2: I went to cemetery seminary.
Speaker 1: I know about the valley well.
Speaker 2: A valley is a metaphor in the Bible, and it
Speaker 2: means any thing we.
Speaker 1: Go through that we don't quite understand.
Speaker 2: The low moments in a motion said man, I don't
Speaker 2: know what the valley is.
Speaker 1: Same as I know what the valley is. Do I
Speaker 1: really do I really.
Speaker 2: Hadn't gone through what some of you gone through. Do
Speaker 2: I really know the valley? Do I really know the shepherd?
Speaker 2: Until I've really known the valley? Can I really run
Speaker 2: over until I go through and go through and walk through.
Speaker 2: You don't get the cup full lying down? Did you
Speaker 2: notice the whole sermon will be you don't get the
Speaker 2: cup filled lining down? He said, He makes me lie
Speaker 2: down in green pastures, but then I had to get
Speaker 2: up and walk, and then he filled my cup.
Speaker 1: You will go through this. You will go through through
Speaker 1: seasons where you're quite to your sanity. You will go
Speaker 1: through seasons.
Speaker 2: Where you quote train up a child in the way
Speaker 2: that should go in when.
Speaker 1: They're old, they won't depart from it. And you will
Speaker 1: go through.
Speaker 2: Seasons of thinking, well, they're not going to get old,
Speaker 2: so I'm gonna kill them before they get old, and
Speaker 2: then they're going to depart from the earth.
Speaker 1: And you will.
Speaker 2: He said, there's a shadow in the valley, the valley
Speaker 2: of the shadow of death. You won't always see yourself
Speaker 2: correctly Jesus, correctly your situation or your next step.
Speaker 1: Clearly.
Speaker 2: All these people that always know everything God spoke all
Speaker 2: the time, check their medicine cabinet.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna say stuff now, because you know.
Speaker 2: What, when you're really in a valley and people are
Speaker 2: very mountain shouting cute stuff to you about it, and
Speaker 2: you're in the shadows and people are on their turning
Speaker 2: their iPhone light trying to tell.
Speaker 1: You stuff, the valley has a shadow.
Speaker 2: And in that place, listen to me, child of God,
Speaker 2: as you walk through that valley, as you moved through
Speaker 2: that shadow, he said, there's a table, and there's enemies.
Speaker 2: And at this point you want to turn around, but
Speaker 2: you shouldn't, because that adversity valley, that shadow valley, those enemies,
Speaker 2: insecurities and things that you've been going through, whether they
Speaker 2: were launched from Hell or whether they came from your
Speaker 2: own decisions, those things represented in this passage, that valley,
Speaker 2: that shadow, those enemies, they all represent adversity.
Speaker 1: But the Lord showed me something.
Speaker 2: He said, all of those adversities are advertisements. For there
Speaker 2: to be a valley, there have to be two mountains.
Speaker 2: For there to be a valley, there has to be
Speaker 2: the mountain I came from, which is the last time
Speaker 2: God did it for me, and the mountain He's taken
Speaker 2: me to, which is my next testimony and my next
Speaker 2: level of effectiveness. The valley is advertising the next mountain.
Speaker 2: How about the shadow, which is advertising. For there to
Speaker 2: be a shadow, there must be a sun. Since I
Speaker 2: can't stare directly at the sun. When I see the shadow,
Speaker 2: I assume that the sun is where it's supposed to
Speaker 2: be and an object is blocking its path. So every
Speaker 2: shadow in your life, every wicked thing in your life,
Speaker 2: is proving the presence of a God's grace that is
Speaker 2: greater than all your sin. The valley is telling you
Speaker 2: there's a mountain. The shadow is telling you there's a sun.
Speaker 2: And when you see your enemies, look for a table,
Speaker 2: because if there are enemies in your path this week,
Speaker 2: that means this supper time baby your enemies.
Speaker 1: Oh God, He's a very present help in the time
Speaker 1: of trouble. No weapon formed against me. I told you
Speaker 1: I wanted to preach.
Speaker 2: Will prosper so if I've got an enemy, that means
Speaker 2: there's a table.
Speaker 1: If there's a table, that means there's a cup.
Speaker 2: And if there's a cup, it's about to overflow.
Speaker 1: Somebody. I find somebody say, I'm running over. I gotta
Speaker 1: get to this table.
Speaker 2: I'm running over. I gotta get to this miracle. I'm
Speaker 2: running over. I was scrolling the other day. I was
Speaker 2: watching something. I showed it to my kids. I said,
Speaker 2: isn't that great? They said, no, Dad, that's sponsored content.
Speaker 2: I said, what you mean sponsored? They said, right there,
Speaker 2: paid promotion. I said, no, this is a good video
Speaker 2: for fitness. They said no, he's trying to sell you
Speaker 2: a twelve week course for nine hundred and ninety eight
Speaker 2: dollars and some protein powder.
Speaker 1: It's an AD. I said, it's an AD. They said, yes,
Speaker 1: an AD. That's not a class. That's an AD. He's
Speaker 1: just trying to get you. They hide it. They put
Speaker 1: it there where you can't see us. An AD hide it,
Speaker 1: you'll know it's an AD.
Speaker 2: The devil puts suff in a shadow, an adversity, an
Speaker 2: extreme trial, a stubborn child, a breakup, a broken heart,
Speaker 2: something that causes you to think you're going to lose
Speaker 2: your mind. But you won't because the next time it happens,
Speaker 2: you're gonna pray.
Speaker 1: God anoint my head with oil.
Speaker 2: Show me how to see this in a different way.
Speaker 1: Everybody puts your hands out like this. Put your hands out.
Speaker 2: Like this, like you're ready to receive a running over blessing.
Speaker 2: Like you're ready to receive a running over blessing. All right, now, pray,
Speaker 2: Lord fill my cop Well, the Lord said, before I
Speaker 2: can fill your hands, I've got to fix your head.
Speaker 1: He annoints my head with oil so I can see.
Speaker 1: Is this good to you?
Speaker 2: The next time is a valley moment in your life.
Speaker 2: The next time it's a valley low in your emotion.
Speaker 1: The next time you.
Speaker 2: Go, oh, oh God, where's that come from? Realize it's
Speaker 2: an adversity and it's an advertisement. It means that this
Speaker 2: valley is pointing at another mountaintop experience that you will
Speaker 2: stand on and see God's goodness and proclaim his faithfulness
Speaker 2: to another generation. It's an ad The next time you
Speaker 2: see a shadow, realize there could not be a shadow
Speaker 2: if there were not a sun. So God, I thank
Speaker 2: you for the revelation that is ahead of me. And
Speaker 2: the next time you see enemies, get your napkin.
Speaker 1: You're fork. This is the preachy side of the church.
Speaker 1: I'm on the wrong side of the church. The next time.
Speaker 2: You see your enemies, the next time you see your adversary,
Speaker 2: I want you to see an advertisement that he would
Speaker 2: not be fighting you like this.
Speaker 1: He would not be fighting you.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, we're gonna fight him.
Speaker 4: We're gonna fight him, because he wouldn't be fighting me
Speaker 4: like this.
Speaker 1: He wouldn't be fighting you like this. He wouldn't be
Speaker 1: fighting The Lord is my shepherd.
Speaker 2: I so.
Speaker 1: Na one, annoying her mind. Yeah, you over here, over here.
Speaker 2: Annoying her mind, annoying her mind, annoying her mind.
Speaker 1: I don't understand the emotionalism. I'm not going through anything.
Speaker 1: You better save this message on a book mark.
Speaker 2: You better put this message on a favorite cous The miracle.
Speaker 1: The miracle, if you really look back on.
Speaker 2: It, it's not that I went through and then I
Speaker 2: was running over. It's that I was running over while
Speaker 2: I went through. And I don't know how, and I
Speaker 2: don't know how, and I don't know why he did it.
Speaker 2: But I want you to know about the grace God
Speaker 2: gave the Macedonian Church. I want you to know about
Speaker 2: the grace God gave me. When I think about him
Speaker 2: and how He got me through some of the things
Speaker 2: that looked at the time like the adversary had me
Speaker 2: it was advertising.
Speaker 1: How could I get you to see it? That's what
Speaker 1: it's a product placement.
Speaker 2: God wants you to know today that the thing you're
Speaker 2: going through is pointing to what you're going to be
Speaker 2: running over with. Oh God, Oh God, Oh God, I
Speaker 2: need you to fill me in the valley if.
Speaker 1: I get through this. No, no, no, as I go
Speaker 1: through this.
Speaker 2: Right here, right now, and the presence of an adversary
Speaker 2: does not mean the absence of the Lord. You just
Speaker 2: got to do it with anxious feelings. Yay, though I walk,
Speaker 2: you don't have to run. Your cup will.
Speaker 1: Walk.
Speaker 2: Why I got goodness and I got mercy.
Speaker 1: If you have a Hallelujah, this is where it goes.
Speaker 1: O God and I God, nurse.
Speaker 2: Man. God.
Speaker 1: It's gonna help you get your mind right. He's gonna
Speaker 1: annoy your head with oil. I God, stay down like that.
Speaker 2: I like that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, just like that, like a worship, like a worship.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the good sad bird leads me to the ward.
Speaker 1: What's that next part seven, he annoys me. That's it,
Speaker 1: annoys me.
Speaker 5: Lads, they.
Speaker 1: Sing the next one. Chris, now my call? How many
Speaker 1: gotta running off?
Speaker 5: Her heart?
Speaker 1: Hes brothering, No, God, we're thankful today, Hovey, Yeah, I'm thankful.
Speaker 5: Yay.
Speaker 2: Hey, Tabo, I can see it, jee No, but I
Speaker 2: don't fear it.
Speaker 4: Hobby Telfy twelve.
Speaker 1: It's time smoothing, Holly small a little man.
Speaker 3: Let's have some charts now, Holly, Yeah.
Speaker 5: And I got Percy ays right there, right there.
Speaker 1: This is what I pray for.
Speaker 2: You lift your hands, annoyed their head with oil, Lord,
Speaker 2: to see the things in their way as opportunities for
Speaker 2: you to make them better.
Speaker 1: Somebody say, annoy my head. Lord. That's where my real
Speaker 1: challenge is.
Speaker 2: Is in believing you and trusting you and thinking like
Speaker 2: you think. God, I thank you for everything you brought
Speaker 2: into my life. God, I thank you even for the
Speaker 2: things that may leave my life, because I understand this
Speaker 2: valley is an advertisement, this shadow.
Speaker 1: Is an advertisement.
Speaker 2: These enemies are preparing a table for me to demonstrate
Speaker 2: your glory. God, I say the best part for last, Joe,
Speaker 2: look at me second Corinthians four sixteen, give you the
Speaker 2: heart of my message one more time. Therefore, we do
Speaker 2: not lose heart, though outwardly we are wasting away. I'm
Speaker 2: not trying to talk about your wrinkles and saggy this
Speaker 2: or that, or mine or either.
Speaker 1: But I'm going through. But inwardly we are being renewed
Speaker 1: day by day, step by step.
Speaker 2: I see you walking in confidence this week that He's
Speaker 2: with you, because the valley and the shadow and the
Speaker 2: enemies all conspire to advertise one thing.
Speaker 1: He's with me. He's with me, and he is my shepherd.
Speaker 2: And if he advertises himself as a good shepherd.
Speaker 1: There's got to be grass. God is as advertised.
Speaker 2: If he advertises himself as water, there will be a rock.
Speaker 1: God is as advertised.
Speaker 2: If he advertises himself as bread, you will.
Speaker 1: Not go hungry. He is as advertised if he said
Speaker 1: I'm the great, I am whatever you need him to be.
Speaker 1: He is. I'm running over.
Speaker 2: I know you can't see it right now, but I'm
Speaker 2: running over. I know I can't feel it all the time,
Speaker 2: but I'm running over. Might take my emotions a little
Speaker 2: while to get with the program and catch up, but
Speaker 2: God says, I'm running over now with your head bowed
Speaker 2: and your eyes closed that you've heard the message. I
Speaker 2: want you to say the title again. See if it
Speaker 2: feels different. I'm going through and I'm running over. You
Speaker 2: got what you need. Absolutely, you're going through. You follow
Speaker 2: through with this.
Speaker 1: Father.
Speaker 2: I never ever, ever like to make stuff up on
Speaker 2: the spot. I feel like for somebody in this room,
Speaker 2: if they don't give their life to you right now,
Speaker 2: this might be their last chance.
Speaker 1: I pray right now for that person. God, as I
Speaker 1: lead into this moment of invitation, I want my whole
Speaker 1: church praying with me.
Speaker 2: There is somebody who is in here right now who
Speaker 2: God has been speaking to and they have been running
Speaker 2: and today in this message, the Lord spoke to them
Speaker 2: and said it is time for you to give your
Speaker 2: life to Christ right now.
Speaker 1: I want to pray for that person.
Speaker 2: Those people there may be many, I don't know, but
Speaker 2: I want to pray right now. I want our entire
Speaker 2: church to agree with me and to pray out loud
Speaker 2: after me repeat this prayer.
Speaker 1: It's not a magic prayers, not a magic pill.
Speaker 2: But the Bible says that if you will confess with
Speaker 2: your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart,
Speaker 2: God raised them from the dead. You will be saved
Speaker 2: and you will receive His grace. Right now, I'm calling
Speaker 2: you to Jesus to leave your sin, to leave your excuses,
Speaker 2: to leave your past, and to come into his arms.
Speaker 2: They're open wide in this moment. Repeat after me, Heavenly Father.
Speaker 2: I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God
Speaker 2: and the savior of the world.
Speaker 1: And today I make Jesus the lord of my life.
Speaker 2: I believe he died that I would be forgiven and
Speaker 2: rose again to give me life.
Speaker 1: I receive this new life. This is my new beginning.
Speaker 1: I am a child of God.
Speaker 2: If you prayed that with me, lift your hands on
Speaker 2: the count of three, one two degree every location, every location, put.
Speaker 1: Among Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Praise the name
Speaker 1: of Jesus. Praise the name of Jesus. Going through. I'm
Speaker 1: going through, but I'm running over. Clap those hands. If
Speaker 1: you receive the word to them.
Speaker 2: I love him. If you just prayed that prayer to
Speaker 2: give your life to Jesus Christ, please see someone at
Speaker 2: the tents on your way out. We don't want you
Speaker 2: to leave before we have the opportunity to give you
Speaker 2: a Bible. Pray with you. And celebrate your decision to
Speaker 2: follow Christ. Holly, join me on the stage. My love,
Speaker 2: your little rain lover. I got her love in rock
Speaker 2: music now everybody. She still thinks food fighters are better
Speaker 2: than Nirvana, But I'm working on him have his way.
Speaker 2: I got her to love two things, boiled peanuts and
Speaker 2: smashing pumpkins.
Speaker 1: Isn't God good?
Speaker 2: I want your relationship with Jesus to change the way
Speaker 2: you go through your week.
Speaker 1: I do. I want it to change the way you
Speaker 1: see your challenges.
Speaker 2: I wanted to change the way you talk about yourself
Speaker 2: and the way you speak to others. I want it
Speaker 2: to change the way we drive in traffic. We are
Speaker 2: horrible in our cars, y'all. I want it to change
Speaker 2: the way you feel about uncertainty. I want it to
Speaker 2: change it.
Speaker 1: Jesus changes every day everything.
Speaker 2: Say it again, I'm going through, but I'm not alone.
Speaker 1: I'm running over. Now. What you tell your neighbor?
Speaker 2: You look so much better than you did an hour
Speaker 2: ago when he started preaching. You look full now. You
Speaker 2: look kind of empty of an hour ago, but you
Speaker 2: look full now. Hey, everybody, when we bring our offering
Speaker 2: next weekend, let's bring our best online Etham.
Speaker 1: You be a part two. Let's bring our best. Let's
Speaker 1: honor daughter. You never go wrong putting God first. He
Speaker 1: will not be OutGiving everybody leaving. I understand. I ran over.
Speaker 1: That's right, I get it.
Speaker 2: Grab hands repeat after me. The Lord is my shepherd.
Speaker 2: I shall not want. He leadeth me, He maketh me.
Speaker 2: He provides for me, and He is with me. Would
Speaker 2: you hug three people and tell him God is with
Speaker 2: you this week.
Speaker 1: I'll see y'all soon. I love you.
Speaker 2: Have the best week of your life. God is with
Speaker 2: you in the middle of it. Praise the Lord. Everybody,
Speaker 2: look at somebody say yay, yes's God be good.
Speaker 1: I'll see y'all soon.
Speaker 7: Thanks for joining us today. We pray that God has
Speaker 7: spoken to you in a unique and power way through
Speaker 7: the message.
Speaker 2: Well.
Speaker 7: We are in our year in offering season as a
Speaker 7: church where we get the opportunity to reflect back on
Speaker 7: all the ways that God has been faithful to our
Speaker 7: ministry this year, but also to look ahead at what
Speaker 7: we're believing God for in the upcoming year and each
Speaker 7: year as a church. We get to come around a
Speaker 7: special offering and offering that contributes to both outreach efforts
Speaker 7: in local and global cities and as well as the
Speaker 7: expansion of our ministry continuing to reach people all over
Speaker 7: with the hope of the Gospel. And we'd invite you
Speaker 7: to take part and participate in our year end offering.
Speaker 7: To do so, you can go to Elevationchurch dot org.
Speaker 7: Just click the banner there at the top, and then
Speaker 7: you'll be able to see everything that you need to
Speaker 7: be a part of.
Speaker 1: Our year end offering.
Speaker 7: You'll see two options. The first is to begin tithing.
Speaker 7: Maybe you've been wanting to prioritize God in your finances,
Speaker 7: but you haven't taken that step to make a commitment
Speaker 7: to doing so. This is a great place to begin.
Speaker 7: Or perhaps you've been giving consistently in this season, God
Speaker 7: may be challenging you to stretch above and beyond the
Speaker 7: tithe to give a sacrificial gift to our year end offering.
Speaker 7: If you're part of one of our physical lowe you
Speaker 7: can choose your campus there, or if you're part of
Speaker 7: our online ministry, of course you'll choose Epham or online
Speaker 7: and then enter the amount that you'd like to give.
Speaker 7: We are believing for all the ways that God is
Speaker 7: going to stretch our faith in this season through our
Speaker 7: year end offering and we can't wait to see what
Speaker 7: God does through you. God bless and we'll see you soon.