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. Well,
Speaker 1: my name is Chadhampton and I have the privilege of
Speaker 1: being the campus pastor at our Lake Norman location. I
Speaker 1: want to say, what's up Lake Norman. I love y'all.
Speaker 1: Hope you're doing well. But it's an honor and a
Speaker 1: privilege to get to stand up here today and declare
Speaker 1: God's words to you. And I'm always grateful for a
Speaker 1: pastor that would entrust me with this moment, that would
Speaker 1: empower me to stand up on this platform where I
Speaker 1: know such a big price has been paid so that
Speaker 1: this platform could exist. And I don't stand on a
Speaker 1: pedestal today trying to display how good I am, because
Speaker 1: a pedestal displays. But I want to stand on a
Speaker 1: platform because a platform declares how good God is. And
Speaker 1: so He's been good to me, He's been good to you.
Speaker 1: I want you to believe that today. So we're going
Speaker 1: to We're going to go to John chapter four, And
Speaker 1: I believe that God wants to produce a faith in
Speaker 1: you today that is greater than whatever fear you might
Speaker 1: be facing today. So if you'll just lean in and
Speaker 1: you'll receive what he has to say, John chapter four,
Speaker 1: verses forty six through fifty three, it says once more
Speaker 1: he visited Cana and Galilee talking about Jesus, where he
Speaker 1: had turned the water into wine. And there was a
Speaker 1: certain royal official whose son lay sick at Capernaum. When
Speaker 1: this man heard that Jesus had arrived in Galilee from Judea,
Speaker 1: he went to him and begged him to come and
Speaker 1: heal his son, who was close to death. Unless you
Speaker 1: people see signs and wonders, Jesus told him he'll never believe.
Speaker 1: The royal official says, sir, come down before my child dies. Go.
Speaker 1: Jesus replied, your son will live. The man took Jesus
Speaker 1: at his word and departed. While he was still on
Speaker 1: the way, his servants met him with the news that
Speaker 1: his boy was living. When he inquired us to the
Speaker 1: time when his son got better, they said to him, yesterday,
Speaker 1: Everyone say yesterday, yesterday. At one in the afternoon, the
Speaker 1: fever left him. Then the father realized this was the
Speaker 1: exact time at which Jesus had said to him, your
Speaker 1: son will live. So he and his whole household believed.
Speaker 1: Do you believe today? Do you believe that God's got
Speaker 1: a word for you? Because I don't know where you're at.
Speaker 1: I don't know what you're facing today currently. Maybe you're
Speaker 1: standing in this place between hope and reality where you're
Speaker 1: hoping to get to. But the reality of where you
Speaker 1: are currently right now in the two seems so far apart.
Speaker 1: But I've got good news. I want to declare something
Speaker 1: over your life today that help is on the wind.
Speaker 1: I want you to hide my three people say help
Speaker 1: was on the wind. You may be seated. Thank you,
Speaker 1: Worship team. Help is on the way. As I said earlier,
Speaker 1: my wife and I we have the privilege of leading
Speaker 1: at the Lake Norman campus, and so we thought it
Speaker 1: would be fitting, since God had called us to lead
Speaker 1: that campus, that we should live in the Lake Norman community.
Speaker 1: So about a year ago we moved to Lake Norman.
Speaker 1: My wife, jillis is here today. We've been married for
Speaker 1: fourteen years. Fourteen years. I actually have a picture of
Speaker 1: my family. You'll see Jill, you'll see my four kids. Yes,
Speaker 1: I have four kids, McKenna, Ashton, Adeline, and Jude. And
Speaker 1: so we recently moved up to Lake Norman. And I
Speaker 1: don't know if you're like us, but you know, with
Speaker 1: six people living under one roof, anytime, we know that
Speaker 1: we're gonna have company over because we thought to ourselves,
Speaker 1: if we're going to live in this area, we should
Speaker 1: have some people over, get to know some people. That's
Speaker 1: only fitting. And so we're having company over. And if
Speaker 1: you like us, if you know that company's coming over,
Speaker 1: you go into a certain mode that's a little out
Speaker 1: of the ordinary. You start to build this fake house,
Speaker 1: like there's the house that we know exists during the week,
Speaker 1: but then there's the house that you're only going to
Speaker 1: see if you were to ever come over to our home.
Speaker 1: And you know how it is is maybe you're a
Speaker 1: couple and you're getting ready for company and you have
Speaker 1: to make it look like you don't actually live there, Like,
Speaker 1: don't sit on the couch. We can't make it look
Speaker 1: like the couch has been sat on. Push all the
Speaker 1: chairs underneath the table, because it can't look like we
Speaker 1: actually eat at that table. It cannot look like we
Speaker 1: live here. It has to be perfect because for some reason,
Speaker 1: we think people will love us more if our house
Speaker 1: looks lovely. And so we're getting ready to have people
Speaker 1: over to our house, and Jill's doing an amazing job
Speaker 1: working on the inside of the house. So I thought,
Speaker 1: as the guy, I could do my part. I could
Speaker 1: work on the outside of the house. And actually like
Speaker 1: yard work. It's kind of therapeutic for me. So I
Speaker 1: get home from work and I start mowing the lawn
Speaker 1: and I start trimming the bushes. And as I'm working outside,
Speaker 1: I look over at our house that people are coming
Speaker 1: to in about two hours. I look over and I'm like, oh, no,
Speaker 1: you see, We've got this covered porch on the front
Speaker 1: of our house, and there's these covers, there's these panels
Speaker 1: that had fallen down, hadn't fallen on the ground, there
Speaker 1: hanging from the roof right over the front door of
Speaker 1: our house. Now this is unacceptable. I mean, I don't
Speaker 1: want people walking into my home and having to duck
Speaker 1: because of the panels that are falling down. So I'm thinking,
Speaker 1: I got to fix this, and so I find the
Speaker 1: only ladder we have. It's like a three foot step ladder,
Speaker 1: so it's not even a real ladder. And I go
Speaker 1: to the porch and I climb all the way up
Speaker 1: on the three foot step ladder, and I proceed to
Speaker 1: push the panels back into place. But when I realized
Speaker 1: that the reason the panels are falling down is because
Speaker 1: the gutter is peeling off the front of my roof.
Speaker 1: So I think, okay, I could just pull the gutter off,
Speaker 1: push the panels back into place, push the gutter back
Speaker 1: up against the house, and no one will know the difference.
Speaker 1: It'll look as good as new. That's what I thought.
Speaker 1: So I proceed to pull back the gutter, when all
Speaker 1: of a sudden, not only does the gutter start to
Speaker 1: peel off the roof, but the wood, the nails, the shingles, y'all,
Speaker 1: the whole roof starts to come off the front of
Speaker 1: my house. We've got company coming over in an hour
Speaker 1: and fifty nine minutes, and I'm standing up on this
Speaker 1: three foot step ladder and I'm holding this roof up,
Speaker 1: and I'm thinking that all that comes to my mind
Speaker 1: in this moment is, oh crap, Jill is gonna kill me.
Speaker 1: Some of y'all look at me like you don't believe this,
Speaker 1: Like this is a great story to set up a sermon.
Speaker 1: I don't know how john Ford ties into this, but
Speaker 1: I promise this happened. I've got proof, because what do
Speaker 1: you do when you're standing on a three step ladder
Speaker 1: and the roof is about to fall on top of you?
Speaker 1: What do you do? You let go with one hand,
Speaker 1: You pull out your phone and you document this moment?
Speaker 1: How dumb was I? So check this out. I got
Speaker 1: a video real quick. Hey, what do you do when
Speaker 1: you're just trying to make a minor repair to the
Speaker 1: gutter and then the whole gutter falls off the front
Speaker 1: of the house. What do you do? You stand here
Speaker 1: on a three foot ladder and you hold it so
Speaker 1: in that moment I did. I did what any smart
Speaker 1: guy would do. In that moment, I didn't tell Jill,
Speaker 1: and I try to fix it all by myself. So
Speaker 1: I'm standing here holding up this roof, and I know
Speaker 1: this is a silly story, and I'm gonna come back
Speaker 1: to it, and we're gonna talk about John for in
Speaker 1: this royal official I promise. But first thing I want
Speaker 1: to do today is I really want to paint a
Speaker 1: picture because I believe there's many of us here at
Speaker 1: our locations watching online today. This represents an internal posture
Speaker 1: that we're carrying right now, and it's a posture that
Speaker 1: represents us trying to hold up the broken pieces of
Speaker 1: our life right now, and it's getting heavy and I
Speaker 1: don't know how much longer I can hold on, and
Speaker 1: I know I need to reach out. I know I
Speaker 1: need to tell somebody, but I'm worried about the reaction
Speaker 1: of others if I let them in on this struggle
Speaker 1: that's going on in my life. So I'm not going
Speaker 1: to tell anybody. I'm just going to try to fix
Speaker 1: it all by myself. And you know how that goes,
Speaker 1: because that's what I tried to do with the roof,
Speaker 1: and the more I try to fix it by myself,
Speaker 1: the worse and worse at God. But I can't tell
Speaker 1: anybody because it seems like everybody around me is being
Speaker 1: celebrated right now and I'm struggling, and their celebration is
Speaker 1: just magnifying this struggle that I have into And it's
Speaker 1: not just let's be real, it's not just one circumstance
Speaker 1: today that we're trying to hold up. We've got compounded circumstances.
Speaker 1: It's one trouble on top of the next, on top
Speaker 1: of the next. And I'll say it this way, it's
Speaker 1: not just what is happening in our life today, it's
Speaker 1: when it's happening. It's not just the trials, it's the
Speaker 1: timing of the trials. Really. I mean, it wasn't just
Speaker 1: that the roof was falling off, but I got company
Speaker 1: coming over in an hour and fifty seven minutes. It's
Speaker 1: the timing of these trials. This couldn't have come at
Speaker 1: a worse time. This royal official in John chapter four,
Speaker 1: he's a busy guy. He's a man of nobility, he's
Speaker 1: a man of prestige. He's got a position. He's working
Speaker 1: in Herod's government. He's a busy guy. He's got things
Speaker 1: to do today. And now his son is near death.
Speaker 1: Really another burden, another issue, another trial. And as much
Speaker 1: as we're reluctant to reach out for help, help is
Speaker 1: on the way. We've got to reach out for it.
Speaker 1: As much as we're standing with this internal struggle, I
Speaker 1: believe that God can give you the ability today if
Speaker 1: you'll let him, if you'll surrender, I believe that he'll
Speaker 1: give you the ability today to flip the purpose of
Speaker 1: this posture. This can go from a posture of struggle
Speaker 1: to a posture of surrender, from a posture of struggle
Speaker 1: to a posture of surrender, because really, surrender is just
Speaker 1: an outward response to an inward struggle, and surrender looks
Speaker 1: like this today, you responding outwardly like this. Hell, Hell,
Speaker 1: I can't do this anymore. I can't hold on much longer.
Speaker 1: It's getting heavy, it's getting difficult. I need help. And
Speaker 1: I'm here today because I heard this could help. I'm
Speaker 1: here today. I need help because my home is hurting.
Speaker 1: This royal, his home was hurting. His son is at home, sick,
Speaker 1: near death. His home is hurting. He needs help. Somebody
Speaker 1: needs help today. Help is on the way. But you've
Speaker 1: got to flip that posture from one of struggle internally
Speaker 1: to an oward response of surrender. And that word help
Speaker 1: is so powerful, because really it's twofold. When we cry
Speaker 1: out for help, we're acknowledging that we're hurting, but we're
Speaker 1: also asking the question should I keep holding on? Yeah?
Speaker 1: I'm hurting, but is this worth holding onto? In my marriage?
Speaker 1: In that business that God told me to start. Is
Speaker 1: this worth holding on to? Believing that God can heal
Speaker 1: my body? Is this worth holding on to believing that
Speaker 1: God will give us the family that we've been praying for.
Speaker 1: Is it worth holding on to this life? Is it
Speaker 1: still worth holding on to? I need help? So I
Speaker 1: did the thing. I asked Jill for help. After about
Speaker 1: ten minutes and me standing up on that ladder looking
Speaker 1: like a fool, and I swear that Toyota camera is
Speaker 1: driven by three times. At this point, they know I'm struggling.
Speaker 1: They're not helping. And someone posted a picture I guarantee
Speaker 1: it hashtag good luck. And so I'm just I need help.
Speaker 1: So I'm like, Jill, can you come outside? She comes out,
Speaker 1: She's like, what's going on? I'm like, the roof. The
Speaker 1: roof is falling off the house. What the roof is
Speaker 1: falling off the house? What'd you do? There's no time
Speaker 1: to explain, there's no time to talk about it. We
Speaker 1: just we got to do something. So she's like, what
Speaker 1: are you gonna do? And if I can be honest
Speaker 1: with you, I love my wife. I love my wife
Speaker 1: with all my heart. She is my hero. But I
Speaker 1: knew in that moment she's not gonna help me fix
Speaker 1: this because we only had one ladder and I was
Speaker 1: standing on it. It's not even a real ladder. So
Speaker 1: I'm like, she's not gonna be able to help me
Speaker 1: fix this. That's nothing against my wife. I've seen her
Speaker 1: do things of superher real status before, Like like one
Speaker 1: time our girls had these bunk beds, and she took
Speaker 1: the top bunk bed off of the bottom bunk bed
Speaker 1: by herself, all by herself, And then when I helped
Speaker 1: her to put it back on top, I was struggling
Speaker 1: helping her, like how did you do that by yourself?
Speaker 1: Don't She's got like these these these mommy muscles or
Speaker 1: something like God has gifted her with a specific anointing
Speaker 1: and ability. But I knew she couldn't help in this
Speaker 1: moment because she didn't have the resources. But I still
Speaker 1: needed someone to come alongside me. And some of us
Speaker 1: today we're not reaching out for help because we're looking
Speaker 1: at the people around us who're going I don't know
Speaker 1: if they can relate to my situation. I don't know
Speaker 1: if they can fix my problem, So I'm not even
Speaker 1: gonna reach out today. But here's the deal. You don't
Speaker 1: need someone to fix the problem today. You just need
Speaker 1: someone to come alongside of you and say it's gonna
Speaker 1: be okay, you're gonna make it. We're gonna get through
Speaker 1: this together. You've got to reach out for help. Help
Speaker 1: is on the way. And so Ji's like, what are
Speaker 1: you gonna do? I'm like, I don't know. What am
Speaker 1: I gonna do? What am I gonna do? What am
Speaker 1: I gonna? No? Wait, not what? Who? Who? Our question
Speaker 1: needs to shift from a what to who in regards
Speaker 1: to the help we're looking forward. Who who can I ask?
Speaker 1: Who can I call? Who can I reach out too? Who? Who?
Speaker 1: Wait a minute, Scott. I was like, Jill, call Scott.
Speaker 1: She's like, who's Scott. I'm like, I just met Scott
Speaker 1: two days ago at church. This is a real story.
Speaker 1: I'm not making this up. I just met Scott two
Speaker 1: days ago at church, and Scott owns a roofing company,
Speaker 1: and Scott just told me how he just got a
Speaker 1: job in our neighborhood fixing roofs. Scott's close by. Scott
Speaker 1: can help. Help is on the way. So let me
Speaker 1: talk about the royal official. The royal official we know
Speaker 1: in John chapter four that he's in the presence of Jesus,
Speaker 1: and he's asking Jesus for help. Jesus please come down
Speaker 1: and heal my son. But stop. Hold on, How did
Speaker 1: the royal official know that Jesus was close by. He's
Speaker 1: living in Capernaum, Jesus is twenty miles away in cana
Speaker 1: How did he know that help wasn't far away? Because
Speaker 1: I believe he had to start with who he had
Speaker 1: around him. I didn't get the revelation that Scott was
Speaker 1: close by until I first surrendered and reached out to Jill.
Speaker 1: The royal official didn't get the revelation that Jesus was
Speaker 1: close by and Jesus could help until he first reached
Speaker 1: out to those who were around him. God wants to
Speaker 1: get his resource to you through the relationships he's placed
Speaker 1: around you. That's why he's positioned you in a place
Speaker 1: like this today. That's why you're sitting at Melbourne. That's
Speaker 1: why you're sitting at Lake Norman, that's why you're sitting
Speaker 1: in Morrisville. He's placed you in this place for a purpose.
Speaker 1: He's put people around you. You just have to reach
Speaker 1: out for the help. Help is on the way, and
Speaker 1: so this royal official goes okay, Jesus can help. I
Speaker 1: heard that he performs miracles. I heard he can help.
Speaker 1: That's good enough for me. And this is where faith starts.
Speaker 1: Do you see this? This is where faith begins in
Speaker 1: all of us. Because I never saw Scott fix the roof,
Speaker 1: but I heard he could. He owned a company. He
Speaker 1: owned a really nice truck with the name of his
Speaker 1: company on the side of that truck. The royal official
Speaker 1: never saw Jesus heal anybody, but he heard he could.
Speaker 1: Faith comes by hearing. And if you're here today because
Speaker 1: you heard that maybe this could help, I've got good
Speaker 1: news for you today. Help is on the way. You're
Speaker 1: in the right place. Even if you just heard that
Speaker 1: this could help, you're already walking in faith. So stick around,
Speaker 1: keep listening. God's gonna help you today. He's got something
Speaker 1: for you. Help us on the way. Faith comes by here.
Speaker 1: And so this royal official takes his first step out
Speaker 1: of what is known, out of what is certain, out
Speaker 1: of what is comfortable. He takes his first step out
Speaker 1: of Capernaum to cana. Oh. By the way, Capernaum means comfort.
Speaker 1: God often calls us to step away from what is comfortable,
Speaker 1: what is known, what is certain, because I've learned this
Speaker 1: that if I stay in the comfort of my gifts,
Speaker 1: I limit the power of God's grace that is for
Speaker 1: me in my life. This is where we step out
Speaker 1: of our gifts into God's grace. I just made these
Speaker 1: two crates gift and grace on this platform. I don't
Speaker 1: know if you can see it, but we've got to
Speaker 1: step out of our gifts. What we know, what we're
Speaker 1: able to do, trying to fix it by ourselves. We've
Speaker 1: got to step out of our gifts into God's grace.
Speaker 1: Gifts say just do it. God's grace says, let me
Speaker 1: do it. Gifts say just do it. Grace says, let
Speaker 1: me do it. I just got that. Thank you, Holy
Speaker 1: Spirit for that. So we've got to step out of
Speaker 1: what is certain, what is known, what is comfortable. One
Speaker 1: of the greatest lessons that I've learned from our pastor
Speaker 1: is this lesson of courage over clarity. You see, probably
Speaker 1: the greatest prayer request I get from people when I
Speaker 1: ask them how can I pray for you, They'll say,
Speaker 1: I need clarity. Yeah, but what's the opposite of faith
Speaker 1: clarity certainty? You don't need clarity, you need courage. You
Speaker 1: need confidence in the one who called you to step
Speaker 1: out of what is comfortable, to step out of what
Speaker 1: is known, and step into His grace and walk in faith.
Speaker 1: I never saw him do it, but I heard he could.
Speaker 1: That's good enough for me. And so this royal official
Speaker 1: is now walking in faith towards Jesus to Cana, twenty
Speaker 1: miles away to find help for his son, twenty miles
Speaker 1: walking to Cana. And again, this is a man of position,
Speaker 1: this is a man of title. I bet this was embarrassing.
Speaker 1: I bet this was a little humiliating because here he
Speaker 1: is hanging out in Cana and I'm sure people are like,
Speaker 1: what's he doing here? I mean, normally he's here to
Speaker 1: help us, and now he's asking us for help, and
Speaker 1: he's walking around, Hey, can you help me? I need
Speaker 1: to I need to find Jesus. Do you know where
Speaker 1: I can find Jesus? Because help requires humility. I remember,
Speaker 1: just a few days ago, I'm at the grocery store
Speaker 1: with my son. My son asks. He's eleven years old,
Speaker 1: and I'm at the store with him and we're picking
Speaker 1: up food to grill out for the Fourth of July,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, Asta, we gotta go to the store.
Speaker 1: We're gonna get some burgers, we're gonna get some brats,
Speaker 1: and then I need to get a grill brush because
Speaker 1: my grill is filthy. Can be cooking burgers and brats
Speaker 1: on a filthy grill. So I know where the burgers
Speaker 1: and brats are. But then we're going to try to
Speaker 1: find the grill brush at the store. So I get
Speaker 1: the burgers and brots. I'm like, okay, let's find the brush,
Speaker 1: and Ashton's like, okay, why don't you just ask someone
Speaker 1: for help. I'm like, oh, we don't need to do that.
Speaker 1: I know where to find it. I know where this
Speaker 1: brush is. So we're walking around the store. Five minutes
Speaker 1: go by, Dad, why don't you just ask somebody where
Speaker 1: the brush is? No, man, I mean, I just want
Speaker 1: you to see all that this store provides. So that's
Speaker 1: why we're just we're going on this tour fifteen minutes. Dad,
Speaker 1: just ask somebody for help, fine, because help requires humility.
Speaker 1: So you know, I find a gentleman. I'm like, excuse me, sir,
Speaker 1: do you know where the grill brushes are? And the
Speaker 1: response I didn't want over all responses was uh, I
Speaker 1: don't work here. Well, you're wearing the same clothes as
Speaker 1: everyone else that's working here. Tip if you shop at Target,
Speaker 1: don't wear a red shirt and khakis. So I found
Speaker 1: someone that worked there. They pointed me in the right direction.
Speaker 1: I found the grill brush. Ask for help. Help requires humility,
Speaker 1: and so this royal official he finally comes upon Jesus
Speaker 1: because he asks for help. He says, Jesus, will you
Speaker 1: come down heal my son? And look at Jesus's response
Speaker 1: in verse forty eight verse forty eight of John four,
Speaker 1: Jesus says, unless you people see signs and wonders, you'll
Speaker 1: never believe. I mean, kind of harsh, Jesus, this man's
Speaker 1: son is dying. But here's what I believe happened. You see,
Speaker 1: as he's inquiring as to where Jesus is, and he's
Speaker 1: asking all these people. This is the same town where
Speaker 1: Jesus couldn't perform miracles because of the lack of faith.
Speaker 1: So people are going, oh, maybe we get to see
Speaker 1: a show today. Maybe we finally get to see one
Speaker 1: of these miracles that we've been hearing about. So as
Speaker 1: much as Jesus is talking to the royal official, I
Speaker 1: believe he's also addressing the spectators, because one thing I've
Speaker 1: learned about God, he's not as concerned with putting on
Speaker 1: the show as he is with strengthening our faith. So
Speaker 1: he's like, I got to get rid of these spectators
Speaker 1: so I can speak to the one who's here because
Speaker 1: of their faith. And so the crowd disperses. The royal
Speaker 1: official leans in in verse forty nine, he says, Sir, sir,
Speaker 1: help requires humility. Some of us today we're asking for help.
Speaker 1: We're saying, so you're gonna help me. Help requires humility.
Speaker 1: He says, sir, come down before my child dies. See,
Speaker 1: in the royal official's eyes, he had authority above Jesus.
Speaker 1: In his eyes, in his government, he was above the
Speaker 1: person of Jesus. But he humbles himself. He comes under
Speaker 1: the name of Jesus, because at the name of Jesus,
Speaker 1: every needs shell bow, every tongue will confess that he
Speaker 1: is lord. Comes under the name of Jesus and says sir.
Speaker 1: He humbles himself, and he asks for help, come down
Speaker 1: before my child dies. And in verse fifty Jesus says,
Speaker 1: go your son will live. That's it. That's the response.
Speaker 1: I mean, if I could be honest, I might have
Speaker 1: wanted something a little different. I mean, Jesus, I just
Speaker 1: walked twenty miles to find you. I just humiliated myself
Speaker 1: in front of all these people to confind you. And
Speaker 1: you're just saying go, You're just giving me a word.
Speaker 1: Can you at least tell me when my son will live?
Speaker 1: Because I remember when I was up on that ladder
Speaker 1: and Jill called Scott and she told me, Hey, Scott's coming.
Speaker 1: I'm like, good, help us on the way, help us
Speaker 1: on the way. My next question was when, how long?
Speaker 1: When's Scott gonna get here? Because aren't we interested in
Speaker 1: timelines when it comes to the promise of God in
Speaker 1: our lives? But as I look back at that moment,
Speaker 1: I'm so glad that Scott didn't give me a timeline,
Speaker 1: because if you would have given me a timeline, my
Speaker 1: faith and my focus and my confidence would have been
Speaker 1: in the timeline of my help instead of the person
Speaker 1: who said I'm gonna help you. If there's one thing
Speaker 1: I've learned about our God, he is not a god
Speaker 1: of timelines. He's a god of timing, God of timing,
Speaker 1: and his timing is perfect. His timing is everything. Timing
Speaker 1: is everything, And so this royal official it says he
Speaker 1: takes Jesus at his word in verse fifty, he takes
Speaker 1: Jesus at his word and he departs. If you notice
Speaker 1: what it says, he took Jesus at his word. He
Speaker 1: didn't just take a word. He took the word with
Speaker 1: him on his way back to Cana. See, sometimes we think, oh,
Speaker 1: he walked out of the presence of God. Yeah, maybe physically,
Speaker 1: but spiritually, the presence of Jesus was just as with
Speaker 1: him because he had a word to walk on. And
Speaker 1: I love his response how he just departed. He just
Speaker 1: took Jesus at his word. He didn't sit around and
Speaker 1: wait for a different word. He didn't sit around and
Speaker 1: maybe wait for something that he was hoping for. Hey,
Speaker 1: maybe his word is better than my ways. So I'm
Speaker 1: just gonna depart. I'm just gonna take this word and
Speaker 1: I'm gonna begin to walk on it, and I'm gonna
Speaker 1: begin to declare it over in my life. Jesus said
Speaker 1: he'll live. Jesus said he live. So all the way home,
Speaker 1: I'm sure the royal official is saying he'll live. He'll live.
Speaker 1: Jesus said it. So I'm gonna see it. And this
Speaker 1: is where the devil loves to get in our mind,
Speaker 1: and he loves to play around. He loves to say
Speaker 1: things like, I know God said it, but you haven't
Speaker 1: seen it. I know God says you were healed, but
Speaker 1: you don't look healed. I know God says you were free,
Speaker 1: but it's only been a month. Things are gonna get difficult.
Speaker 1: You're going to go right back to what you've been
Speaker 1: depending on. And that's where we begin to declare the
Speaker 1: word that Jesus gave to us over our life. We
Speaker 1: put it in the face of the devil. We say, listen,
Speaker 1: I walk by faith and not by sight, devil. So
Speaker 1: the very fact that you're talking to me right now,
Speaker 1: it's the proof that you're terrified about the word that
Speaker 1: God has given me, because you know, if I begin
Speaker 1: to walk in this word, if I begin to declare
Speaker 1: it over my life, if I begin to believe it,
Speaker 1: something good might happen in my life. Heapens on the way.
Speaker 1: So he's walking home. He's walking home, and look at
Speaker 1: what happens. Look at what happens in verse fifty one,
Speaker 1: verse fifty one. While he was still on the way,
Speaker 1: his servants met him with the news that his boy
Speaker 1: was living. Help us on the way, Hold up, while
Speaker 1: he was still on the way, help us on the way?
Speaker 1: I thought I thought help was on the way. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna I'm gonna sit here and wait for my blessing.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna sit here and wait for my miracle. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna wait for God to move. I love this picture
Speaker 1: when when he asked Jesus to come with him, Jesus
Speaker 1: never moves. Jesus just gave him a word. We're waiting
Speaker 1: on God to move. But his word is enough because
Speaker 1: his word can move in our life. I'm not waiting
Speaker 1: for my miracle. I'm gonna wait on. He wasn't waiting for.
Speaker 1: He was waiting on. Help is on the way. To
Speaker 1: wait for means to sit, to be inactive, to disengage.
Speaker 1: But to wait on means to serve. It means to move.
Speaker 1: It means to trust in this word. Yeah, he didn't
Speaker 1: get the response he was looking for, but he got
Speaker 1: a war. And so I'm gonna serve this word that
Speaker 1: Jesus has given me. I'm gonna wait on the word
Speaker 1: that he's given me. Help is on the way. And
Speaker 1: it reminds me of another passage in Isaiah, chapter forty,
Speaker 1: verse thirty one. It says those who wait on the Lord,
Speaker 1: not those who wait for the Lord. Those who wait
Speaker 1: on the Lord shall renew their strength. And what I
Speaker 1: love about this picture, what I love about this moment
Speaker 1: is this royal official was walking. He was walking home
Speaker 1: on a word that Jesus gave him. He's waiting on
Speaker 1: the Lord. Help is on the way. What I love
Speaker 1: about this picture. Those who wait on the Lord will
Speaker 1: renew their strength. They shall run and not careery. They
Speaker 1: shall walk all the way back home, all the way
Speaker 1: back to Cana and they will not grow weak. Help
Speaker 1: is on the way. I'm not waiting for help today.
Speaker 1: I'm waiting on it. I'm not waiting for help. I'm
Speaker 1: waiting on it today. You're telling me that I just
Speaker 1: need to wait on the word that God has given me. Yeah,
Speaker 1: because that word can become a weapon in your life.
Speaker 1: If you'll use it, if you'll wait on it, if
Speaker 1: you'll declare it over your life, if you'll walk in it,
Speaker 1: I'll never forget. January seventeenth of twenty fourteen, my son
Speaker 1: Jude was two years old at the time, and we
Speaker 1: woke up and Jude had gone into hypobylemic shock. That
Speaker 1: means all the things that were supposed to be functioning
Speaker 1: in his body weren't functioning. And my son was dying
Speaker 1: before my very eyes. I saw him turn gray, I
Speaker 1: saw him get cold, and I'm like, God, Help, I
Speaker 1: can't I can't control the outcome of this obstacle right now,
Speaker 1: this is out of my control. God, What am I
Speaker 1: gonna do? What am I gonna do? When we get
Speaker 1: to the hospital and the doctors have no answers? What
Speaker 1: are we gonna do? What are we gonna do? And
Speaker 1: I remember I got away. I locked myself in the bathroom,
Speaker 1: not because I had to use the bathroom, but because
Speaker 1: I just needed to get alone with God and say, God,
Speaker 1: what are we gonna do? And I remember Psalm twenty
Speaker 1: seven came to my heart. If will hide God's word
Speaker 1: in our heart, we won't sin against him. And I
Speaker 1: just begin to quote that word Psalm twenty seven over
Speaker 1: my life and over my son. I begin to serve
Speaker 1: the word of God in my life in that moment,
Speaker 1: Help is I'm the way. I'm not gonna sit here
Speaker 1: and wait for a miracle. God, I'm gonna wait on it.
Speaker 1: Because I believe that You've already given me the victory.
Speaker 1: If I'll just declare it over this situation, if I
Speaker 1: walk in it so Psalm twenty seven. The Lord is
Speaker 1: my life, then my salvation. Whom shall I fear? The
Speaker 1: Lord is the stronghold of my life? Of whom shall
Speaker 1: I be afraid? I'm not waiting for it. I'm not
Speaker 1: waiting for help today. I'm waiting on it. The Lord
Speaker 1: is my life, then my salvation, whom shall I fear?
Speaker 1: And that word that begin to come out of my
Speaker 1: mouth begin to change the condition of my heart, and
Speaker 1: my faith begin to grow, and I begin to become stronger.
Speaker 1: Some of us were trying to fix the situation. We're
Speaker 1: trying to predict the outcome of God, saying, you just
Speaker 1: need to be strong in this moment. I've been called
Speaker 1: you to be successful. I haven't called you to prosper.
Speaker 1: I've only called you to be courageous and strong. Let
Speaker 1: me take care of the rest. You're waiting to get
Speaker 1: strong before you take the first step. No, just step
Speaker 1: out in the instruction that I've already spoken, and let
Speaker 1: me work in your life. When we speak that word
Speaker 1: out of our mouth, the content of our conversation can
Speaker 1: change the condition of our heart. This man walked on
Speaker 1: a word all the way back home to Cana. I
Speaker 1: believe Jesus told him to go so that his faith
Speaker 1: would grow. I'm not waiting for help. I'm waiting on
Speaker 1: it today, and I love what it says in verse
Speaker 1: fifty two that when he inquired us to the time
Speaker 1: his son got better, his servants said, and servants is
Speaker 1: just another word for help. His help met him on
Speaker 1: the way. His help told him yesterday. Everyone say yesterday. Yesterday,
Speaker 1: at one in the afternoon, the fever left. And wait
Speaker 1: a minute. So the word that God spoke over my
Speaker 1: life yesterday has the same power today. It's just up
Speaker 1: to me to walk in that word. It's just up
Speaker 1: to me to declare that promise over my life. I
Speaker 1: just gotta be willing. I've noticed something about the promises
Speaker 1: of God that they're always first proceeded with an instruction.
Speaker 1: Go instruction, your son will live. Promise. Seek instruction and
Speaker 1: you will find promise. Knock instruction and the door will
Speaker 1: be open. Promise. There's this word that keeps popping up
Speaker 1: in all these promises. Will your son will live? God,
Speaker 1: what are you telling us today. He's saying, I'm a
Speaker 1: God who is faithful. I will always respond, I will
Speaker 1: always answer you. I will always give you the word
Speaker 1: that you need in this season. But you've got to
Speaker 1: have the willingness to obey that word. You've got to
Speaker 1: have the willingness to wait on that word, to respond
Speaker 1: to that word. Help us on the way to wait
Speaker 1: on the Lord. They no d They're not so weary.
Speaker 1: They will walk and not faith sin up on our feet.
Speaker 1: At all our locations here in this place today, some
Speaker 1: of us are waiting for a new word from God.
Speaker 1: He's waiting for us to wait on the word he's
Speaker 1: already given us. They said, I've been coming to church
Speaker 1: for six months now, chat a year, two years. I
Speaker 1: keep coming, keep arriving. But it's time to step from
Speaker 1: arrival to application. Not just arriving, but applying this word
Speaker 1: to your life. Walking out of this place today, some
Speaker 1: of you are going to reach out for help today.
Speaker 1: Help requires humility. You're gonna surrender and say, God, I
Speaker 1: can't do this by myself anymore. I'm experiencing this struggle.
Speaker 1: But as I surrender to you, you'll give me the strength.
Speaker 1: It's the struggle surrender strength. Some of you today, you're
Speaker 1: gonna go back to that word God spoke yesterday because
Speaker 1: it still has the same power today, and you're gonna
Speaker 1: begin to walk in that word. And in that promise,
Speaker 1: verse fifty three. One last thing, Verse fifty three, it
Speaker 1: says the father. The father realized this was the exact
Speaker 1: time at which Jesus had said to him, your son
Speaker 1: will live, so he and his whole household believed. Do
Speaker 1: you notice is being said in this verse the father.
Speaker 1: I don't know if you caught it, but all throughout
Speaker 1: this passage he's been called the royal official, he's been
Speaker 1: known by a position, but he realized in this moment,
Speaker 1: I can't work to help my position any longer. I've
Speaker 1: got to walk on this word. And now he's known
Speaker 1: as the Father because he believed, because he reached out
Speaker 1: for help, because he humbled himself. And some of us
Speaker 1: were trying to help our position. We're trying to protect
Speaker 1: our position, our title. Today God saying I want to
Speaker 1: take you from a place of position to purpose. If
Speaker 1: you'll just believe, if you'll just walk on this word,
Speaker 1: if you'll apply it, I want to give you purpose.
Speaker 1: Maybe you're in this place today, you're watching online, you're
Speaker 1: at one of our locations, and you're going Chad. You know,
Speaker 1: for me, I feel so far off because for me,
Speaker 1: the roof fell down, the boy died in my story, Chad,
Speaker 1: I feel so far off from the plans and the
Speaker 1: purposes and the promises of God. Chatd what about me?
Speaker 1: I feel so far off? Well, there's another story about
Speaker 1: a father and a son in Luke fifteen, verse twenty.
Speaker 1: It's a son who took his inheritance that his father
Speaker 1: had given him and he lost everything. He finds himself
Speaker 1: in a place of shame, place of humiliation, a place
Speaker 1: of sorrow, and he begins to talk to himself. He says,
Speaker 1: maybe if I go to my father, Maybe if I
Speaker 1: go to my father, he can help chat what about
Speaker 1: me today? Because everything's falling apart in my life. I
Speaker 1: want to give you the same instruction that Jesus gave
Speaker 1: the father, the royal official, go home, go home today,
Speaker 1: and go home. Well, all throughout this story in Luke fifteen,
Speaker 1: the son never says I'm gonna go home. He says,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go to my father, because home is more
Speaker 1: of a person than it is a place. Will you
Speaker 1: run into the arms of your heavenly Father today because
Speaker 1: he's calling you home. He's calling you back to him,
Speaker 1: and help is on the way. The verse says, while
Speaker 1: the son was a long way off, you feel far
Speaker 1: off today. While he was a long way off, his
Speaker 1: father saw him. His father ran to him and embraced him,
Speaker 1: gave him a hug, gave a kiss, and said, welcome home.
Speaker 1: Go home today, Run to your father. Every head thought,
Speaker 1: every eye closed in this place. I want to give
Speaker 1: someone the opportunity to go home. To place your faith
Speaker 1: in Jesus in this moment you're watching online at one
Speaker 1: of our locations here at Valentine. If you want to
Speaker 1: say yes to God, say yes to his plan, his purpose,
Speaker 1: if you want to reach out for his help, his grace,
Speaker 1: his mercy. I want you to pray this prayer out loud.
Speaker 1: We're gon we all gonna pray it with you as
Speaker 1: a church family. If you're praying it for the first time,
Speaker 1: or maybe you're coming back to God today, pray this
Speaker 1: and believe it with all of your heart. You're going
Speaker 1: home today. Say Heavenly Father, thank you for sending your
Speaker 1: son for me. I believe that Jesus is Lord. I
Speaker 1: believe he's the savior of the world. I believe he
Speaker 1: died and was raised to life, giving me life, giving
Speaker 1: me hope, and giving me a future. Today, I give
Speaker 1: you my life, Jesus, from this day forward, I'll follow
Speaker 1: you had still boid, I still close. If you just
Speaker 1: prayed that prayer this moment, making Jesus the lord of
Speaker 1: your life for the first time, on the counter of
Speaker 1: three at all of our locations, shoot your hand up
Speaker 1: in the air. One, two, three, if that prayers for you,
Speaker 1: shoot your hand up. Awesome hands going up, People making decisions,
Speaker 1: people placing their faith in Jesus. Come up, church, Let's rejoice,
Speaker 1: Let's wait on this worship. Let's thank you for his help.
Speaker 1: Let's think a mos goodness is worst grace he deserving.
Speaker 1: Come on, let's chant, let's worship it. Well. I hope
Speaker 1: you enjoyed the podcast today. If you did, there are
Speaker 1: just a couple of things I'd love for you to do.
Speaker 1: Number One, subscribe to our show. That way, the most
Speaker 1: recent episode will always be in your feed, waiting for
Speaker 1: you ready when you are. And Secondly, if this ministry
Speaker 1: has impacted you and you'd like to help us continue
Speaker 1: to reach others. You can click the link in the
Speaker 1: description and you can give now and I'll see you
Speaker 1: next time on the Elevation Podcast.