Speaker 1: Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick. I'm the pastor of Elevation
Speaker 1: Church and this is our podcast. I wanted to thank
Speaker 1: you for joining us today. Hope this inspires you. Hope
Speaker 1: it builds your faith. Hope it gives your perspective to
Speaker 1: see God is moving in your life. Enjoy the message.
Speaker 1: You know what the Lord showed us on our campus
Speaker 1: pastor call this week, that the glory of the latter
Speaker 1: house will be greater than the glory of the former house. Well,
Speaker 1: what in the world does that mean? I mean, God
Speaker 1: said that through the prophet to some exiles who were
Speaker 1: coming back and rebuilding the temple. And it was so
Speaker 1: small compared to Solomon's temple, and so plain and so simple.
Speaker 1: It says that the people who saw Solomon's temple started crying,
Speaker 1: and they were crying so much that the people who
Speaker 1: were shouting, because they never had a temple at all before,
Speaker 1: they were like, WHOA, this is awesome, this is amazing.
Speaker 1: This is a house for God. This is the place
Speaker 1: we can meet with him. They couldn't be heard above
Speaker 1: the weeping of those who could only compare what they
Speaker 1: were looking at with what was before it. And so
Speaker 1: God said, I don't want you to look at it
Speaker 1: and compare it to the old Temple. And I believe
Speaker 1: you're saying that to somebody in this room. I don't
Speaker 1: want you to compare what I'm doing in your life
Speaker 1: right now to what I did in your life in
Speaker 1: a previous season when you didn't have a bad knee.
Speaker 1: I'm preaching to the over forty now. I know you
Speaker 1: used to be the star wide receiver and receiver in Villain, Texas.
Speaker 1: But right now, right now, I need you to understand
Speaker 1: it's not what the temple is made of. I told
Speaker 1: our campus pastors. Even as our church is kind of
Speaker 1: coming back, and you know, after the pandemic, it takes
Speaker 1: time for people to come back, and so a lot
Speaker 1: of the buildings they don't look like they did before
Speaker 1: that thing that happened, which I can't say because Indo'll
Speaker 1: take it out the YouTube algorithm. So I'm gonna just
Speaker 1: beep it out, the thing that happened, and then if
Speaker 1: you look at what it is right now and try
Speaker 1: to compare it to what it was, you missed the
Speaker 1: whole point. Because he said the glory of the Latter House,
Speaker 1: what I'm doing right now, He's pointing to Jesus, will
Speaker 1: be greater than the glory of the former house. So
Speaker 1: this is what I told them. Don't look for the gold,
Speaker 1: look for the glory. The gold is the external, that's
Speaker 1: Solomon's temple. Look for the glory. So what God is
Speaker 1: doing right now, He's trying to get you to attenuate
Speaker 1: your mind to what he is filling you with. What
Speaker 1: do you want to be filled with? You want to
Speaker 1: be filled with fear, You want to be filled with depression.
Speaker 1: All you have to do if that's what you want
Speaker 1: to do, it's just do everything you see the world doing. Okay,
Speaker 1: But if you want to be filled with joy, unspeakable,
Speaker 1: full of glory in the holy ghulfs, you can't. Oh God,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna start my sermon right now. Watch this. You
Speaker 1: can't do what the world does and get what the
Speaker 1: word says. So are you ready for the word of God?
Speaker 1: I want you on your feet in the ready position.
Speaker 1: I am gonna pick up where I left off last week.
Speaker 1: Somebody shall copy that, copy that copy that. That was
Speaker 1: the last thing in my sermon last week. So let's
Speaker 1: pick up with the scripture that I mentioned last week.
Speaker 1: But I didn't get to mine it. Hebrews Chapter thirteen,
Speaker 1: verse seven, case your feet hurt from standing, only got
Speaker 1: one verse, then you can sit down. Did anybody come
Speaker 1: to church from over one hundred miles away today? What?
Speaker 1: For real? Where from? Huh? I love that place. That's
Speaker 1: one of my favorite places. I didn't hear a word
Speaker 1: they said, anybody come from over five hundred miles? Y'all
Speaker 1: remember the song from the nineties, I would walk five
Speaker 1: hundred And we're really gonna get YouTube flags the cite
Speaker 1: who comes to Elevation Church. It's a great worship song, right.
Speaker 1: How about all the new songs we've been singing. You've
Speaker 1: been enjoying that hmm. Lately we've been getting in these
Speaker 1: writing rooms and just wanting to single word of God.
Speaker 1: And so you probably didn't hear it if you're watching
Speaker 1: this later, but we just sang a song and it
Speaker 1: goes straight from Matthew five. I'm gonna talk a little
Speaker 1: bit about my dad today in the sermon, and I'm
Speaker 1: gonna talk about him kind of, you know, kind of
Speaker 1: tell you some of the good stuff, but the bad
Speaker 1: stuff or whatever. It's gonna be what it is. But
Speaker 1: one memory of my dad that's really precious to me?
Speaker 1: Is he loved? My mom can tell you the Sermon
Speaker 1: on the Mount Matthew five six and seven. So I
Speaker 1: was thinking, like when we were writing that song where
Speaker 1: we just go through the attitudes blessed to the poor
Speaker 1: and spirit for their kingdom having blessed us and more
Speaker 1: they become, and just singing those scriptures, I was thinking, men,
Speaker 1: the el Tring would love this. He'd be running laps.
Speaker 1: And so it's just exciting. We're gonna be recording again,
Speaker 1: what is it, October sixth, So we're gonna be recording
Speaker 1: some new songs on October sixth, So you're all invited
Speaker 1: for that. Also, you're all invited to Elevation Nights. We're
Speaker 1: gonna take this glory on the road. That's right, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna do it. So if you're in Atlanta, Nashville, Tulsa,
Speaker 1: Fort Worth, Houston, Orlando, Sunrise, or Jacksonville, come on out.
Speaker 1: That's October twenty sixth through November fourth Elevation Nights dot
Speaker 1: com so they don't have to come from five hundred miles.
Speaker 1: We'll come to you. Man. It's gonna be so exciting. Welcome, Welcome, welcome, Wow,
Speaker 1: look at you you walking, talking miracle, you live in
Speaker 1: breathing miracle. The devil is so confused because you're you're
Speaker 1: praising God after all he puts you through. This week,
Speaker 1: he's like flipping out. He's summoning all his little junior demons,
Speaker 1: Like I thought, I told you to a tackle, then
Speaker 1: I got dead. But they ain't just take, They just take,
Speaker 1: They just tame, and they've made it a day. Hebrew's thirteen.
Speaker 1: Hebrew's thirteen, verse seven. Remember your leaders who spoke the
Speaker 1: word of God to you, consider the outcome of their
Speaker 1: way of life, and imitate their faith. Say my title
Speaker 1: one more time to your neighbor. Copy that you may
Speaker 1: be seated, You may be seated. How many have you
Speaker 1: heard the sermon last week? Y'all? Do know they're free online, right,
Speaker 1: so if you ever sleep in or can't be here,
Speaker 1: make sure you catch up. A lot of times it's
Speaker 1: on the second listen that you really get what God
Speaker 1: wanted to say to you, because on the first listen
Speaker 1: you're kind of like judging me, like, you know, if
Speaker 1: I agree with this, if you can do it? There?
Speaker 1: What are those shoes? You know? Just looking at stupid stuff.
Speaker 1: And then sometimes on the second time, it's not the distractions,
Speaker 1: but it goes deeper. It goes deeper. You go, oh,
Speaker 1: this is I got it on one level and I
Speaker 1: got it on the second. Listen. So there's a value
Speaker 1: in repetition. There's there's also a danger in repetition. I
Speaker 1: felt like my sermon last week was a little more
Speaker 1: on the negative side. I'm not apologizing for it because
Speaker 1: I took it from the Bible where God warned Moses.
Speaker 1: It says he warned him, and I was warning you
Speaker 1: make sure or see to it that you build according
Speaker 1: to the pattern that was shown you on the mountain.
Speaker 1: That's where God met with Moses and showed him how
Speaker 1: to build the tabernacle, Holy of Holy's, table of show bread,
Speaker 1: all that stuff he showed him on the mountain, because
Speaker 1: then he had to go down to where the people were.
Speaker 1: I always had these great ideas about ministry until people
Speaker 1: showed up and messed up my ideas of ministry because
Speaker 1: they don't do it like you tell them to, and
Speaker 1: they don't run the first base, then second based in
Speaker 1: third base. See them over there climbing the fence, playing
Speaker 1: in the dirt and stuff. And that's me too, right,
Speaker 1: that's me too, and that's tricky to be a leader.
Speaker 1: How many leaders do we actually have here today? Worship leaders?
Speaker 1: Let's start their worship leaders? Really cool. I want to
Speaker 1: ask that again, but this time I want every parent
Speaker 1: to raise your hand. How many worship leaders do we
Speaker 1: have here today? Whether you want to or not, you
Speaker 1: are teaching your children not only how to worship, and
Speaker 1: some of that, you're teaching them as well. If you're
Speaker 1: kind of a one hand in the pocket hand lifter,
Speaker 1: they'll probably do same thing. But it's also true that
Speaker 1: you're teaching them what to worship every time you set
Speaker 1: the schedule to say, well, we'll go to church if
Speaker 1: we have time. Wow, I just felt an arctic wind.
Speaker 1: It's true. And I'm so grateful that Christy Collins pulled
Speaker 1: out her iPhone and captured this video that I'm about
Speaker 1: to show you because I feel most of the time
Speaker 1: like i'm failing. As to Dad, I'm wired. I'm hard
Speaker 1: wired to be hard on myself and some of you
Speaker 1: are too easy on yourself, and some of us are
Speaker 1: too hard on ourselves, and then we can help each
Speaker 1: other out. But Holly's really good about it too. She's
Speaker 1: always sending me these time hops do you'll do time
Speaker 1: hop where it shows you this is what you were
Speaker 1: doing five years ago, this is what you were doing
Speaker 1: seven years ago, this is what you do nine years ago.
Speaker 1: And so it's just showed me it Charlotte Knights game
Speaker 1: with the boys, just to remind me, good dad, You're
Speaker 1: good dad, and I need that. But what Christie captured
Speaker 1: we were doing our recording with Elevation Worship in Maverick
Speaker 1: City called Old Church Basement. I sat right there with
Speaker 1: my kids on that ledge. Our whole family was on
Speaker 1: that ledge. The building still wasn't fully open. With COVID.
Speaker 1: Tested made this album. It's touched the world. It's probably
Speaker 1: it's probably one of my favorite things I ever worked
Speaker 1: on as a songwriter, as a pastor, as a producer,
Speaker 1: and I'm so thankful for everyone who's involved. But the
Speaker 1: greatest part of the night wasn't on YouTube. The greatest
Speaker 1: parts never are. The greatest part was when we were
Speaker 1: recording the song wait on You, I'll trust in your primis.
Speaker 1: I'm gone on, wait on you gotta do with a
Speaker 1: little growl, I'm going no, you gotta aggressively wait on
Speaker 1: the Lord. Wait when I just couldn't take it anymore.
Speaker 1: And we were about thirty seven minutes into the song
Speaker 1: and I shumped off the ledge and I ran down
Speaker 1: and I couldn't take it anymore. And I looked up
Speaker 1: and Abby was standing beside me. Now, my children are
Speaker 1: very competitive. Last week I baptized Gramma called him up
Speaker 1: on stage. I gave him a speech. I gave him
Speaker 1: a Bible and Abby said that was a that was good.
Speaker 1: When am I going to be in a sermon again?
Speaker 1: So I picked this out because it fit with my
Speaker 1: theme of copy that. Watch this little fifty second video.
Speaker 1: I love this. I like that one. I favorited that
Speaker 1: one on my phone. I could see it in those moments,
Speaker 1: you know those moments. I will interview your wife this
Speaker 1: week and talk about those moments next week. If you
Speaker 1: don't nod your head at me, do you have those
Speaker 1: moments where you need an example, a better example. I
Speaker 1: want to go ahead and beat all the trolls to it.
Speaker 1: I'm not going to be on Dancing with the Stars
Speaker 1: with those moves. I know that I understand that my
Speaker 1: moves are unorthodox. My kids tell me this all the time.
Speaker 1: They keep me humble. But we didn't choreograph that we
Speaker 1: didn't practice, that we didn't have to. I didn't tell her,
Speaker 1: you know, I think I'm gonna do this like this
Speaker 1: wounded eagle, move like an eagle that was shot but
Speaker 1: not killed. I'm gonna come through, and I need you
Speaker 1: to do it with me, so I don't look stupid.
Speaker 1: It'd be cute if you don't. I watched her. I
Speaker 1: realized that there's what I say and there's what she sees.
Speaker 1: When people do what people see. Yeah, the challenge for
Speaker 1: a lot of people I'm preaching to is that sometimes
Speaker 1: you have to be something that you've never seen before.
Speaker 1: When I read my scripture, remember your leaders who spoke
Speaker 1: the word of God to you. Put it on the
Speaker 1: screen again. Because there's no power in my words. There's
Speaker 1: power in God's words. Remember your leaders who spoke the
Speaker 1: word of God to you, who told you I can
Speaker 1: do all things through Christ, who strengthens me, who told
Speaker 1: you God's hand is on you, who told you that
Speaker 1: there's nothing more important than God, who told you that
Speaker 1: if Christ isn't at the center of your life, the
Speaker 1: whole thing will fall apart. Who told you and taught you,
Speaker 1: who preached to you and taught to you that you
Speaker 1: are who God says you are. But in reading this,
Speaker 1: I realized that a lot of the people that I
Speaker 1: preached to never really had someone to speak this word
Speaker 1: over their life. So then they went with what the
Speaker 1: world told them because they didn't know what the word
Speaker 1: said about them. That's uh, what I was going to
Speaker 1: tell you about my dad because one time my mom.
Speaker 1: My mom was so good at this. She would cover
Speaker 1: for his crazy as she'd pulled him to the side,
Speaker 1: and she'd say, you know, he's doing real good. I said,
Speaker 1: he's not doing real good. He's crazy. He's crazy. I
Speaker 1: can't stand him. And he was doing he's coaching my teams,
Speaker 1: he's doing all this stuff. But one day she said,
Speaker 1: did you know he didn't have a dad growing up?
Speaker 1: I didn't know that. I knew he didn't have his
Speaker 1: dad long, but I didn't know that his dad had
Speaker 1: killed himself. I didn't know that my dad had found
Speaker 1: his dad dad on his own birthday when he was eight.
Speaker 1: I didn't know that. I didn't know that he was
Speaker 1: making everything up. So even that one time when I
Speaker 1: said I hated him and I wanted to kill him,
Speaker 1: when I was a teenager, and he picked me up
Speaker 1: from school early and told me we were going out
Speaker 1: to the National Forest and he had two guns in
Speaker 1: the back of the truck and one of us was
Speaker 1: going to kill the other one. Even though that isn't
Speaker 1: necessarily the best parenting tactic, and it's not doctor Philip Roof.
Speaker 1: He didn't have focus on the family growing up. All right.
Speaker 1: I did the best I could. I did the best
Speaker 1: I could. He's doing real good. If you saw, if
Speaker 1: you saw what he never got to see. So when
Speaker 1: the author of Hebrews is saying, here, remember your leaders
Speaker 1: who spoke the word of God concerning you, he's not
Speaker 1: so much talking about their words that they spoke, the
Speaker 1: word of God that they spoke. But then he says
Speaker 1: something really powerful. That's what I want to teach on today.
Speaker 1: Somebody shall copy that. Put it in the chat right now.
Speaker 1: Copy that. That's what they say on a walkie talkie
Speaker 1: right copy that. It means I heard it, I've got it.
Speaker 1: I'm on it. You see these security people around our
Speaker 1: church keeping you safe. Thank God for them. If you
Speaker 1: knew how crazy some Christians are, you'd be clapping better
Speaker 1: than that for the security team. But they say it
Speaker 1: all the time I copy that, go, I assume Row
Speaker 1: four copy that. And I wanted to call the sermon
Speaker 1: that because that which you copy is that what you become.
Speaker 1: That which you believe is that what you become. And
Speaker 1: so when he says, remember your leaders who spoke the
Speaker 1: word of God to you, there are a lot of
Speaker 1: words that were spoken to you and over you and
Speaker 1: about you that have to be uprooted before the word
Speaker 1: that God spoke about you can be planted. Now, remember
Speaker 1: the Hebrews have not been a part of Christianity for
Speaker 1: too millennium like we have, So they haven't had two
Speaker 1: thousand years to get used to the idea that we
Speaker 1: are justified by faith, not worse, it's all new to them.
Speaker 1: They have not had two thousand years to get used
Speaker 1: to the fact that it is by grace you have
Speaker 1: been saved through faith. It's not the blood that a
Speaker 1: high priest takes. And remember I talked about this last week,
Speaker 1: that they serve in a tabernacle that is an earthly
Speaker 1: copy of a heavenly reality. But even Moses, as holy
Speaker 1: as he was, as important as he was, as amazing
Speaker 1: as he was, only Moses could only lead them so far,
Speaker 1: and In the middle of this, he gives them an instruction.
Speaker 1: As he concludes his letter, he says, consider the outcome
Speaker 1: of their way of life and imitate their faith, or
Speaker 1: in other words, copy that can I preach. If y'all
Speaker 1: have had enough, I'll go eat some Keto pancakes and chill.
Speaker 1: But the Lord said to me, first of all, consider
Speaker 1: the outcome. And that hard to do when really what
Speaker 1: you're seeing all day long in people's lives is you're
Speaker 1: seeing just what I called it last week, a snapshot.
Speaker 1: Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate
Speaker 1: their faith. So question I've been thinking about is the
Speaker 1: way of life that I am choosing producing the outcome
Speaker 1: that I desire? Is the way of life that I'm
Speaker 1: choosing producing the outcome that I desire? We need more
Speaker 1: leaders in the world today, less opinions. We need more leaders,
Speaker 1: less influencers. Oh yeah, oh yeah. This is the part
Speaker 1: to my sermon where I am a crotchety old man
Speaker 1: telling you that what you are seeing on your real
Speaker 1: r E E L is not real R E A L.
Speaker 1: This is the God's honest truth. The writer of Hebrews said,
Speaker 1: imitate their faith. But we live in a time where
Speaker 1: we are imitating their faith. So consider the outcome. I
Speaker 1: wonder what happened five minutes after they took that picture.
Speaker 1: I wonder what happened five minutes after they posted that.
Speaker 1: I mean just five minutes, not five years. Let's talk
Speaker 1: about five minutes after one day in church. I was
Speaker 1: so sick of like preachers, always trying to be perfect.
Speaker 1: Me and my family we wake up every morning quote Ephesians,
Speaker 1: pray and sing the Beatitude. And I said, let me
Speaker 1: show you what this family is really like, and showed
Speaker 1: one of our Christmas videos that was so beautiful and
Speaker 1: welcome elevation and made it unto you as a child
Speaker 1: is born and a savior this day in the city
Speaker 1: of David that the Xavier as the country Chrystlier. And
Speaker 1: then I showed the outtakes, and Holly Ferdick was one
Speaker 1: step short of having to be bleeped what she was
Speaker 1: saying to those kids in those outtakes. So watch this
Speaker 1: outcome outtakes. Nobody is showing you their outtakes. You are imitating.
Speaker 1: Now I gotta get this across. I don't careful I
Speaker 1: have to say it every week for then I'll be
Speaker 1: up here seventy five years old, dragging my right leg
Speaker 1: behind me, talking about what you're copying is cropped. It
Speaker 1: is only showing you so much. And a lot of
Speaker 1: the people that we are emulating and imitating and talking
Speaker 1: like and captioning like. And you know what's the weirdest thing.
Speaker 1: I thought we as parents were supposed to set an
Speaker 1: example for our kids. But now I see grown men
Speaker 1: and women trying to talk like a kid, and it's cringey, y'all,
Speaker 1: it's cringey. It's cringey when you're a dad of three
Speaker 1: and you're still trying to show you got it. You
Speaker 1: got game. You know what you got, You got dependence,
Speaker 1: you got bills to pay, you got a mortgage. Grow
Speaker 1: up man, that's over. When I became a man, I
Speaker 1: put away childish things. Now I'm not talking about not
Speaker 1: having fun. I'm the goofiest dude in the world. But
Speaker 1: what I'm saying is a lot of times like Romans
Speaker 1: twelve to two is my favorite verse to explain this.
Speaker 1: It says, do not conform to the pattern of this world,
Speaker 1: but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. So
Speaker 1: a lot of people will make the distinction between the
Speaker 1: pattern of this world and the renewing of your mind.
Speaker 1: But really in the text, the juice of it is
Speaker 1: intwo different words. It's conform transform. Conform is something you
Speaker 1: can change, just like an attitude or a posture. Transform
Speaker 1: is different. Transform is something that has to happen because
Speaker 1: of what's on the inside. So since you have Christ
Speaker 1: inside of you, now remember you're not serving that a
Speaker 1: tabernacle built with human hands. You don't have a high
Speaker 1: priest that was selected from among men. You are not
Speaker 1: serving a shadow or a copy. You have a risen
Speaker 1: Savior who set an example for you so that you
Speaker 1: can copy that. And since that is in you, the
Speaker 1: spirit of God is in you, not the spirit of
Speaker 1: the world, not the spirit of worry, the spirit of
Speaker 1: the world. You get to reproduce that because it's on
Speaker 1: the inside, be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
Speaker 1: So what's in you has to come out. And that's
Speaker 1: why the writer of Hebrew says, remember the word of
Speaker 1: God that was spoken to you, and copy that in
Speaker 1: your heart, and copy that in your life. Oh, I
Speaker 1: forgot to read you the verse after that. I really
Speaker 1: truly forgot. This is not a little thing. I'm doing
Speaker 1: in my sermon. Verse eight says, Jesus Christ is the same, yesterday, today,
Speaker 1: and forever. So, he says, remember the leaders who spoke
Speaker 1: the word of God over you, consider the outcome, how
Speaker 1: it worked out for them. And we use all kinds
Speaker 1: of excuses for bad examples. And so we'll do the
Speaker 1: same dumb things that we saw growing up. And this
Speaker 1: is what we'll tag it with at the end. And
Speaker 1: look at me. I turned out all right, did you though?
Speaker 1: Did you really? Because maybe it just hadn't caught up
Speaker 1: with you yet, Like, well, I don't cost it my kid.
Speaker 1: My dad did it too, and it was good for me.
Speaker 1: I turned out all right. I don't think. I don't
Speaker 1: think you're all right. I'm watching it right now. I'm
Speaker 1: seeing there's a little bit of a wound, just a
Speaker 1: little bit of a wound, just a little something. How
Speaker 1: do you copy what you never saw? And he said,
Speaker 1: Jesus Christ is the same, yesterday, today and forever. So
Speaker 1: like the devil isn't very creative, God is a creator.
Speaker 1: The devil is not. The devil is so uncreative, everybody,
Speaker 1: how uncreative is he? He's so uncreative that he only
Speaker 1: has three temptations. That's the only way he can tempt you. First,
Speaker 1: John says, the lust of the world, the lust of
Speaker 1: the flesh, and the pride of life, lust of the eyes.
Speaker 1: This is the love of the world. I messed that up.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna do this again. The love of the world
Speaker 1: is the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes,
Speaker 1: and the pride of life. Go to Matthew chapter four.
Speaker 1: We said Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever,
Speaker 1: and a lot of time times we think we're facing
Speaker 1: a brand new temptation, but we're not. It's just the
Speaker 1: same devil in a different disguise. I love helping my
Speaker 1: kids navigate their life the best I can, but it's
Speaker 1: tricky sometimes because we didn't have Snapchat, we didn't have TikTok.
Speaker 1: But the same devil that was busy on TikTok was
Speaker 1: busy on doss or the rotary phone or fax machine
Speaker 1: or whatever you did with your messaging pigeon. It's the
Speaker 1: same devil, everybody say. It's the same devil and the
Speaker 1: same three things that you're tempted with that derail you
Speaker 1: and sabotage you and bring you back down and get
Speaker 1: you out of the pattern God, children, noun. It's the
Speaker 1: same three things it's in Matthew. For so Jesus goes
Speaker 1: to the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. Last week,
Speaker 1: when I finished Graham, you remember this is my son
Speaker 1: I love, whom I'm well pleased. Graham is so funny.
Speaker 1: I said, do you want a special meal after we
Speaker 1: baptize you? He said, Jesus didn't get a special meal.
Speaker 1: I'll eat whatever everybody else is eating. Jesuson gets special meal.
Speaker 1: He sisted, all right. So he wasn't saying it because
Speaker 1: he was holy. He just was making a joke. The
Speaker 1: next thing that happened, Matthew chapter four, I say, copy that.
Speaker 1: So the affirmation of the Father and then the temptation
Speaker 1: from the enemy. Okay, this is a pattern that you
Speaker 1: can copy to be affirmed by your Father in heaven,
Speaker 1: so that when you are tempted by your enemy in
Speaker 1: the wilderness, you will have at your core your knowing
Speaker 1: of who you are. So Jesus was then led by
Speaker 1: the spirit in the wilderness to be tempted by the devil,
Speaker 1: and after fasting forty days and forty nights, you didn't
Speaker 1: do that grim. He was hungry, and the tempter came
Speaker 1: to him and said, if you are the son of God,
Speaker 1: tell these stones to become bred. I know you know
Speaker 1: the scripture, but let's just move through, because there's a
Speaker 1: lesson here for today. Jesus answered, it is written, man
Speaker 1: shall not live on bread alone, but on every word
Speaker 1: that comes from the mouth of God. Then the devil
Speaker 1: took him up to the Holy City and had him
Speaker 1: stand on the highest point of the temple. If you
Speaker 1: are the son of God, he said, throw yourself down,
Speaker 1: prove yourself, show everybody what you can do. If you
Speaker 1: got it flaunted, go ahead and show everybody who you
Speaker 1: really are. Go ahead, and you know you got to
Speaker 1: make it happen for yourself, For it is written he
Speaker 1: will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift
Speaker 1: you up in their hands, so that you will not
Speaker 1: strike your foot against a stone. And Jesus answered him,
Speaker 1: it is also written, do not put the Lord your
Speaker 1: God to the test one more. Now we've already seen
Speaker 1: the lust of the flesh turn the stones into bread.
Speaker 1: That's when you try to turn things into things that
Speaker 1: they were not meant to be. That's when you try
Speaker 1: to turn sex into an object to gratify a spiritual need,
Speaker 1: so that rather in the context of marriage expressing your sexuality,
Speaker 1: you express it in places where it spills over and
Speaker 1: contaminates all the places of your life, because it creates
Speaker 1: commitments that are not rooted in covenant, but are rather
Speaker 1: rooted in convenience and pleasure. And so then the enemy
Speaker 1: can rip you out because you turned a stone into bread.
Speaker 1: This is when we go seeking for people's validations, when
Speaker 1: our father's voice is not enough, when we didn't have
Speaker 1: a leader that spoke the word of God over us.
Speaker 1: Then we are open to what the world thinks about,
Speaker 1: and we will change everything until we get the exact
Speaker 1: the exact compliment, the exact affirmation, the exact validation we
Speaker 1: were looking for. That's the lust of the flesh, the
Speaker 1: lust of the eyes, you know, and the pride of life.
Speaker 1: This one right here, I've dealt with this a lot
Speaker 1: in my life. Again, the devil took him to a
Speaker 1: very high mountain verse eight, and showed him all the
Speaker 1: kinds thrown this splunder. All this I will give you,
Speaker 1: he said, if you bow down and worship me. Now,
Speaker 1: I never bowed down and worshiped the devil like that.
Speaker 1: But I have worshiped what the world worshiped. I have,
Speaker 1: at periods in my life, thought that a certain level
Speaker 1: of success would make me a real man. I have
Speaker 1: thought that a certain amount of money would make me secure.
Speaker 1: And it really has to do with worship. I don't
Speaker 1: want to depend on God to be my provider. That's
Speaker 1: too uncertain. So I start worshiping what's in the world,
Speaker 1: plus the fleshless, the eyes, pride of life. All this
Speaker 1: I will give you. If you're about unworship me. And
Speaker 1: Jesus said, away from me, Satan, for it is written,
Speaker 1: worship the Lord, your God, and serve him only. So
Speaker 1: I realize now that I am a leader for these
Speaker 1: three kids, for my wife, and God's made me a
Speaker 1: leader in this church. And now I'm asking myself the question,
Speaker 1: what example do I want to say of what we worship?
Speaker 1: Because I know what the world worships. The world worships talent,
Speaker 1: the world worships sensuality. And here's the weird thing about
Speaker 1: our culture. Okay, I appreciate the United States America shar
Speaker 1: North care Line, wouldn't rather be anywhere else. I'm born
Speaker 1: and raised in the Carolinas, and I'm proud of where
Speaker 1: I'm from. But the weirdest thing about our culture right
Speaker 1: now is the way we worship youth. We don't remember
Speaker 1: our leaders that spoke the Word of God over us.
Speaker 1: They're irrelevant, they're not trendy. We rather go find somebody
Speaker 1: who hasn't even lived long enough that we can even
Speaker 1: know if they make it through their twinies. Huh do
Speaker 1: they even live to be thirty? And we will copy that.
Speaker 1: You're ready for a guest freacher or something like that.
Speaker 1: I'm just stirred up about it because I am watching
Speaker 1: us copy the world and slap a Christian vocabulary on it.
Speaker 1: And there are no different values in the House of
Speaker 1: God than there are in the world. It's not about
Speaker 1: the external stuff. I'm not talking about that. I'm talking
Speaker 1: about the kingdom within you and the culture around you.
Speaker 1: And he said, you need to spend more time remembering
Speaker 1: those who spoke the Word over you, because that's what
Speaker 1: Jesus did every time he was tempted, and that's what
Speaker 1: you copy. You fight the world with the word, you
Speaker 1: fight the spirit of the world with the word. So
Speaker 1: every time the devil said do it, Jesus said, it
Speaker 1: is written. He wasn't making this stuff up. All three
Speaker 1: things Jesus did to fight temptation, to fight hunger, to
Speaker 1: fight pride, to fight a census, and to agree with
Speaker 1: the spirit, all three things he said were already written
Speaker 1: in scripture. So Jesus said, I know what the word
Speaker 1: of my Father is on this situation, and I'm gonna
Speaker 1: copy that. I will not conform to this world. That's
Speaker 1: why I'm glad. He's the same yesterday, today, and forever.
Speaker 1: So it doesn't mean that the world stays the same,
Speaker 1: but my worship stays the same because I understand that
Speaker 1: what God did in my life yesterday it won't look
Speaker 1: like what he's doing today. But watch this, David, the
Speaker 1: same God that delivered me from that will deliver me
Speaker 1: from this. So I speak by the spirit of faith,
Speaker 1: not fear, imitate their faith, don't copy their flass. The
Speaker 1: world is weird and it's not working, and it's broken,
Speaker 1: and it hasn't been since Eve listened to the serpent
Speaker 1: twist the words of her God, and then Adam, instead
Speaker 1: of being a good husband and a leader, blame the woman.
Speaker 1: So in my family, I gotta go through this whole time.
Speaker 1: I gotta weed out the worldly values daily, daily, transform
Speaker 1: your mind. You don't do that one time, you won't
Speaker 1: even get out of church good. Today. It'll probably be
Speaker 1: somebody with elevation sticker in the parking lot that'll make
Speaker 1: you so upset. They'll probably be playing worship music too,
Speaker 1: probably be playing weight on you like quit flying and
Speaker 1: dry right there, right there. It doesn't take long. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna say it again. Stop copying crazy, consider the outcome.
Speaker 1: Where's this taking me? And now I ask that about thoughts? Right,
Speaker 1: some things that are really bad feel really good to
Speaker 1: think really good. And I don't know if you should
Speaker 1: confess this or not. I love judging people. I am
Speaker 1: completely addicted to it. It's so fun. Oh, it's so fun.
Speaker 1: But how it feels the ooh, the outcome, the outcome
Speaker 1: of that thought process. One of my friends asked me
Speaker 1: the other day, how do you want to feel at
Speaker 1: the end of this day? Reverse engineer it with your decisions,
Speaker 1: consider the the what outcome, And to consider the outcome,
Speaker 1: you got to monitor the inputs. Now, we live in
Speaker 1: a time where everybody wants this product, whether that's millions
Speaker 1: of dollars or the kinds of cars or the kind
Speaker 1: of success or the kind of marriage, or the kind
Speaker 1: of life. I want that outcome, but I don't want
Speaker 1: to emulate that process, so we get it backwards. The
Speaker 1: writer and Hebrews said, imitate their faith and consider their outcome.
Speaker 1: We want to imitate someone's outcome, but we don't want
Speaker 1: to invest our faith. So I want what you have,
Speaker 1: but I don't want to do what you did. So
Speaker 1: now I'll put it on a credit card at age
Speaker 1: twenty three to have what you had at age thirty
Speaker 1: two that I didn't want to wait a decade to achieve.
Speaker 1: We need better examples. And I'm not just talking about
Speaker 1: cussing and drinking and chewing and tobacco and all this
Speaker 1: stuff we always love to say, the external stuff. I'm
Speaker 1: talking about the internal stuff too, and I'm talking about
Speaker 1: the values that we model. I told Elijah the other day,
Speaker 1: we have so much good times. Man. He said, one day,
Speaker 1: I wish we could record all this stuff. Me and
Speaker 1: you talk about working out and just put it out
Speaker 1: to be the biggest podcast. I said. I said, well,
Speaker 1: we would all so get canceled. Because we talk about
Speaker 1: everything we talk about Hebrew's thirteen. We talk about other
Speaker 1: stuff too, and we talk about everything because he's sixteen,
Speaker 1: and I don't want him to imitate everything about me.
Speaker 1: I really don't. He started driving recently and I'm like,
Speaker 1: every road rage that I ever showed him is coming
Speaker 1: up behind me in the rear view mirror and I
Speaker 1: see it coursing through my son, and I'm like, don't
Speaker 1: copy that, don't copy that, don't copy that. You know
Speaker 1: how nice to your mom? Copy that? You know, I
Speaker 1: study the order God, copy that, not that, not that,
Speaker 1: not that. But then my kids get mad at me
Speaker 1: because you know, like me and Holly, we do PDA
Speaker 1: stuff all over the house all the time because it's
Speaker 1: my house. Because it's my house. And yes, I will
Speaker 1: walk up to your mom in my kitchen and I
Speaker 1: will kiss her with my whole mouth, right in front
Speaker 1: of you. And if you don't like it, you don't
Speaker 1: have to look. Oh, sexy stuff is only allowed on TikTok.
Speaker 1: I forgot not in the marriage because the world told
Speaker 1: us that the place for that is out of battance.
Speaker 1: But Devil, I don't coffee. You are technological batters. I'm
Speaker 1: not coffeeing crazy. I kiss my wife, I hold her
Speaker 1: hand with taking a nap. We are married. The marriage
Speaker 1: bat is under fire Hebrew's thirteen four. Not kiss her again,
Speaker 1: you go play outside, build a ford, kick a can.
Speaker 1: I don't care, because I want you to know you
Speaker 1: are supposed to kiss your wife and love her more
Speaker 1: twenty years. I'll tell your marriage is dirty and gross
Speaker 1: and nasty, So save it for your wife. What I
Speaker 1: want to emulate something that's where them are dating. I
Speaker 1: don't do it all the time. That's why that video
Speaker 1: meant so much to me because I saw a time
Speaker 1: I got it right, a time where I wasn't you
Speaker 1: know how we hit so self conscious, and I saw
Speaker 1: how she did it even better. She was about to
Speaker 1: start head banging. I don't know if you'll saw it
Speaker 1: because we watched guns n' Roses videos too. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: keep it real with you. So she was about to
Speaker 1: start head banging. Consider the outcome. Where's this headed? Not
Speaker 1: just what does it look like feel like in the moment?
Speaker 1: Where is this headed? If you keep, if you keep
Speaker 1: emulating that, if you keep there's two sides of this, Okay.
Speaker 1: I think you got to think of yourself in this passage,
Speaker 1: thinking about what were the examples that were set for you.
Speaker 1: Because you copy what you saw and you don't even
Speaker 1: realize you're doing it. You don't copy what they told
Speaker 1: you to do. One thing my dad did that was
Speaker 1: so brilliant is he struggled with alcoholism. And he took
Speaker 1: so many times to talk to me about what that
Speaker 1: was like for him, and he said, if you will
Speaker 1: commit yourself early, you can break this. This has been generational.
Speaker 1: He told me about his dad's death. He told me
Speaker 1: about what it was like to grow up in an
Speaker 1: abusive home like that. He said, but you can break it.
Speaker 1: Even though he couldn't break it, he struggled with it
Speaker 1: so long, sometimes victorious, sometimes defeated, but he was determined.
Speaker 1: Watch this to give me permission to break a bad pattern.
Speaker 1: And I don't know who you are, but there's one
Speaker 1: person the Lord said to tell it to. You're a
Speaker 1: good person. You have bad patterns. Now the enemy condemns you.
Speaker 1: You're worthless, you're this, you're that, you're da dah da
Speaker 1: da dah. And then you start to believe that and
Speaker 1: you copy that and you identify yourself with that. You're
Speaker 1: a good person. Christ has made you new. You're a
Speaker 1: new creation in Christ. God made you that way. But
Speaker 1: if you have bad patterns, pattern of their and they're
Speaker 1: new and on your mind. So there are always voices
Speaker 1: speaking over you and to you and about you. What
Speaker 1: are you gonna copy? There's the example that was set
Speaker 1: for you. Even in some cases, there's the season of
Speaker 1: life that you were in and the season of life
Speaker 1: that you are in. What are you gonna copy in
Speaker 1: this season of your life? Jesus knew what to do.
Speaker 1: He said, it is written. It is also written. It
Speaker 1: is written because I am not consulting with my enemy
Speaker 1: for my life strategy. I'm not gonna copy it. I'm
Speaker 1: not gonna I'm not gonna take these thoughts and just
Speaker 1: think them because I know where they lead. Even recently,
Speaker 1: the Lord began to deal with me. He said, I
Speaker 1: want you to stop indulging your insecurities. He said, it
Speaker 1: gives you self pity, and you use that to sedate
Speaker 1: the pain of pressure. I wrote all this down as
Speaker 1: fast as I could so I could remember what I
Speaker 1: was hearing from God's voice. But what it costs you
Speaker 1: is much greater than what it offers you. Consider the outcome.
Speaker 1: Because when you tell yourself lies about yourself and limitations
Speaker 1: about yourself, that do not. Now you do have limitations. Okay,
Speaker 1: so I'm not one of these. Can be anything you
Speaker 1: want to be. I think sometimes you need somebody to
Speaker 1: tell you get a backup career and keep your day job.
Speaker 1: You are not going to make it on Kickstarter. That
Speaker 1: being said, the limitations and the lies that come from
Speaker 1: what you have copied in your heart or what you saw.
Speaker 1: See a lot of times God, like the people in Hebrews,
Speaker 1: He was bringing them. God was bringing them into a
Speaker 1: better covenant. Look at Hebrews eighty seven. I think this
Speaker 1: is the last scripture. IM gonna have time to show
Speaker 1: you today. Are you full? You fool? Did you save
Speaker 1: room for dessert? It just says this, It says Hebrews said,
Speaker 1: for if there had been nothing wrong with that first covenant,
Speaker 1: that's the one Moses got from Sinai. That was the
Speaker 1: law that we broke. That we broke if it hadn't
Speaker 1: been for the limitations of that covenant in that insomuch
Speaker 1: as we were flawed, God is perfect. We are flawed.
Speaker 1: This isn't gonna work. No place would have been sought
Speaker 1: for another. And the other one, of course, is the
Speaker 1: covenant that begins not with what we have done, but
Speaker 1: with what God has done and that we're accepted in Him.
Speaker 1: So this is our new starting place. But the enemy,
Speaker 1: he will take you back to what you saw all
Speaker 1: your life, and even as God is blessing you with
Speaker 1: something better, you will sink back down to the baseline
Speaker 1: of what you saw. Because what you copy in your
Speaker 1: heart the direction of your life. It is written. I
Speaker 1: am not copying the world anymore. I did it. It's exhausting,
Speaker 1: it's depleting, it's depressing. I'm not doing it anymore. I'm
Speaker 1: not going to measure myself how I'm told I'm supposed
Speaker 1: to measure myself anymore. I did it. I barely lived
Speaker 1: through it. I'm not going to copy the way the
Speaker 1: world spends time anymore. Where the proof that you are
Speaker 1: significant is that you are so busy that you have
Speaker 1: no time or margin to consider anything that God might
Speaker 1: invite you to do. So now we're just all running around.
Speaker 1: I asked one guy, when do you take your day off?
Speaker 1: He said, well, I don't take a day off. Devil
Speaker 1: never takes a day off. And in my mind, I'm like,
Speaker 1: are you copying the devil or God? Because God took
Speaker 1: a they are It's in our rhythms, it's in our rest,
Speaker 1: it's in what we receive and what we release. And
Speaker 1: the Lord wants you to release some things that were
Speaker 1: spoken over you by those wrong voices so that you
Speaker 1: can receive something better. And copy that, and copy that.
Speaker 1: Just get it on your mind all week long, and
Speaker 1: copy that, the word of God that was spoken over you. Father.
Speaker 1: I thank you what you gave me today. I hear
Speaker 1: you speaking from heaven right now, and I want to
Speaker 1: hear your children say copy that. I hear you, God,
Speaker 1: I hear you talking to me. Pastor Stephen was talking
Speaker 1: to a lot of different people, but you were speaking
Speaker 1: to me. God. You showed me something on the mountain.
Speaker 1: You showed me something in your presence. You invested something
Speaker 1: in me, and the thief comes to kill still and
Speaker 1: destroy it. So Lord, I want to bring the people
Speaker 1: before you today, such a vast group Lord that you've
Speaker 1: called us to. Pastor, some people just starting out in
Speaker 1: their faith, some people not even sure if they have faith.
Speaker 1: Yet your word says, imitate their faith. We've been copying
Speaker 1: the wrong stuff. Lord, We've been taking fear and just
Speaker 1: living in it and rehearsing it and regurgitating it and
Speaker 1: feeding it and living in it and regurgitating and rehearsing that,
Speaker 1: and so we repent of that. We repent. We want
Speaker 1: to do it different. Gots to say that, God, I
Speaker 1: want to do it different. I'm on to stand up
Speaker 1: on your feet. We're going to pray this together. It's
Speaker 1: not my job to transform your mind. It's your job
Speaker 1: to cooperate with the Holy Spirit of God. So say Lord,
Speaker 1: I want to do it different. I want to do
Speaker 1: it different. I want to do it different. The way
Speaker 1: I've been doing it hasn't been working, and I'm tired
Speaker 1: of it, and I'm weary and I'm heavy laden. So
Speaker 1: I'm taking your yoke today and I'm joining up with Jesus,
Speaker 1: and I'm hooking up with you Holy Spirit, because your
Speaker 1: burden is light. So for all the spirit of heaviness
Speaker 1: that we've been under this week, we exchange it now
Speaker 1: for the garment of praise. We thank you for your
Speaker 1: word that has been spoken over us. Maybe we didn't
Speaker 1: have a person to speak it to us. I pray
Speaker 1: for somebody today who was verbally abused and now the
Speaker 1: trauma of that experience has them trapped. Your word says
Speaker 1: that Jesus Christ is the same, yesterday, today, and forever.
Speaker 1: So it's not too late. It's not too late for
Speaker 1: you to break the pattern. It is not too late
Speaker 1: for you to live. It is not too late for
Speaker 1: you to love. Maybe you weren't loved like you were
Speaker 1: supposed to be loved. Maybe you didn't have leaders, Maybe
Speaker 1: you don't even know what to copy. And now here
Speaker 1: you are, and you're grown, and you're trying to raise kids,
Speaker 1: trying to be something that you never had the chance
Speaker 1: to see. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
Speaker 1: And even if Moses couldn't show you, there's something greater
Speaker 1: than Moses that's here. Oh, not only just an example.
Speaker 1: You have the Holy Spirit inside of you. God has
Speaker 1: seen you as you really are, not as you thought
Speaker 1: you were, and not as you were last year, not
Speaker 1: as you were ten years ago, not as you were
Speaker 1: before this sermon. Today you are changing from glory to
Speaker 1: glory with ever increasing glory. And what God put in
Speaker 1: you is greater than anything but the world can throw
Speaker 1: against you. Now immitate that you know what. Look at me.
Speaker 1: You haven't even seen the blueprint of the true you.
Speaker 1: You haven't even seen it. You haven't even seen it.
Speaker 1: I saw an interview where a man said Steve Jobs
Speaker 1: was walking him around before he died, and he was
Speaker 1: taking him through and he was showing him all this
Speaker 1: stuff that Apple had already invented, but people wouldn't find
Speaker 1: out about un till three years later. He said, And
Speaker 1: we went through this door in that door, and we
Speaker 1: had to put our eye on the thing and the
Speaker 1: other eye on the other thing. And it was sixteen
Speaker 1: security clearances, and there was a table and he said,
Speaker 1: Steve Jobs said, look, he's walking me through. He was
Speaker 1: walking me through, showing me stuff that he had already designed,
Speaker 1: stuff that was already prototype. You know, God can walk
Speaker 1: you into your future and show you who you are
Speaker 1: going to be when you get free. Yeah, that's why
Speaker 1: I worship, because I need God to get me past
Speaker 1: all the security clearance and show me what he sees
Speaker 1: that I'm gonna be that hasn't been released yet. Come on.
Speaker 1: I love the scripture. It says it does not yet
Speaker 1: appear what we shall be. That means no eye has seen,
Speaker 1: no gear has heard, neither has it even answered into
Speaker 1: your heart what God has revealed. But God has revealed
Speaker 1: it by his spirit. Show me, by your spirit, God,
Speaker 1: what you see in me. Show me, by your spirit, God,
Speaker 1: what I am stripped of the stuff that was said
Speaker 1: about me, that I repeated in my heart and helped
Speaker 1: me to take what you see in heaven, and as
Speaker 1: it is in heaven, our Father, who ard in heaven. Hello,
Speaker 1: of your name, you Kingdom. Come, here will be done
Speaker 1: your kingdom. Come, Let the culture go, your kingdom. Come.
Speaker 1: You will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Speaker 1: See to it that you build according to the pattern
Speaker 1: that God showed you on the mountain. See to it
Speaker 1: that you remember what your father spoke to you and
Speaker 1: the baptism at the Jordan, when you're facing that devil
Speaker 1: in the wilderness, and copy that that that that you
Speaker 1: see that victorious Savior risen from the grave. The Bible
Speaker 1: says that as he has risen, so are we risen.
Speaker 1: So I'm coming up too. If he got up, I'm
Speaker 1: right behind him. I'm not staying down. My Savior didn't
Speaker 1: stay down. Happy that I hear you, Lord, And your
Speaker 1: word never returns. Boy, It accomplishes what you send it
Speaker 1: to do. Heads bowed, eyes closed, We seal this word
Speaker 1: now in the soil of our faith Lord, we make
Speaker 1: a pact with you. We make a pact with you
Speaker 1: concerning our purpose and concerning our peace, that we are
Speaker 1: rejecting the world's patterns and aligning with your promise. Thank
Speaker 1: you for joining us. Special thanks to those of you
Speaker 1: who give generously to this ministry. Is because of you
Speaker 1: that this ministry is possible. You can click the link
Speaker 1: in the description to give now or visit Elevation Church
Speaker 1: dot org slash podcast for more information and if you
Speaker 1: the podcast, you can subscribe. You can share it with
Speaker 1: your friends. You can click the share button, take a
Speaker 1: screenshot and share it on your social stories and tag
Speaker 1: us at Elevation Church. Thanks again for listening. God bless you.