Speaker 1: Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick.
Speaker 2: I'm the pastor of Elevation Church and this is our podcast.
Speaker 2: I wanted to thank you for joining us today. Hope
Speaker 2: this inspires you. Hope it builds your faith. Hope it
Speaker 2: gives your perspective to see God is moving in your life.
Speaker 2: Enjoy the message.
Speaker 1: Who love that. I feel like we might fly away
Speaker 1: today if we really get a hold of that, really
Speaker 1: starts singing about that.
Speaker 3: Whoop high five. Your neighbors say, he's that good, and
Speaker 3: there's so you don't even.
Speaker 1: Know what I'm praising him for.
Speaker 4: If you did, you'd praise him with me.
Speaker 1: If you did, you'd get up here higher.
Speaker 4: If you did, you might start jumping.
Speaker 1: You might start leaping.
Speaker 4: It's all right. Get that cardio in.
Speaker 1: Get that gratitude is.
Speaker 5: Say my friend, this.
Speaker 4: Path, I like it.
Speaker 6: Get up, get my brazing you you know you leave
Speaker 6: me the word you good.
Speaker 1: Let everything.
Speaker 7: That half pressed, Let everything everything that's out of.
Speaker 1: Breast from jumping.
Speaker 4: Chump a little more and thrice blow.
Speaker 1: Come on the river walking, know you want to go in?
Speaker 1: Come on, I'm town.
Speaker 7: I need fifty jumpers and Blakeney, I need somebody in
Speaker 7: your living room.
Speaker 4: Get your calf bustles from.
Speaker 7: Work out and get up on your feet and kid God,
Speaker 7: this said right.
Speaker 1: Here last seven.
Speaker 4: Oh God, come on, clap those hands like you love Jesus.
Speaker 8: I'm going right to my message. The spirit of the
Speaker 8: Lord is in this place. I'm going right to my message.
Speaker 8: The spirit of the Lord is in this place. Shain's
Speaker 8: gonna break today because the spirit of the Lord is
Speaker 8: in this place. The annoying thing destroys the yoke. The
Speaker 8: spirit of the Lord is in this place. I'm so
Speaker 8: glad I listened to the Lord last night. He told
Speaker 8: me to get a little extra sleep cause y'all were
Speaker 8: gonna be ready today.
Speaker 1: And I'm so glad I did.
Speaker 8: I was imbedd at eight twenty pm getting ready for y'all,
Speaker 8: and that's an hour earlier than my normal bedtime. And
Speaker 8: now I'm stalling to catch my breath from jumping. Tell
Speaker 8: your neighbor, I'm glad you're breathing. Tell him, I'm glad
Speaker 8: you brushed your teeth. We have a good time in church.
Speaker 1: I said.
Speaker 8: We have a good time in church doesn't mean we're
Speaker 8: not going through rough patches in our lives. But we
Speaker 8: have a good time in Church, welcome you here today.
Speaker 8: All of our guests, all of our all of our
Speaker 8: church family, welcome today.
Speaker 1: So glad you're here.
Speaker 8: Accidentally started preaching a sermon series a few weeks ago,
Speaker 8: and I've been talking to you about when God calls
Speaker 8: your name. I was trying to figure out what to
Speaker 8: call the series, and finally, in my fourth week, the
Speaker 8: Lord told me what to call it.
Speaker 1: It's called called That's what's called Tell your neighbor. I'm
Speaker 1: called called a lot of different things by a lot
Speaker 1: of different people. I'm sure did you enjoy last week.
Speaker 8: When I was talking about Martha Martha, and how many
Speaker 8: of you felt seen when I was showing Holly be
Speaker 8: pulled apart by the demands of life. How many of
Speaker 8: you preached the message back to yourself a little bit
Speaker 8: throughout the week when you felt yourself pulled here and
Speaker 8: pulled there, and just reminded yourself that being present in
Speaker 8: the moment that God has given you is always the priority.
Speaker 8: Presence is the priority, even when your plan changes, even
Speaker 8: when your problems are overwhelming. And let's see, we've done Moses, Moses,
Speaker 8: we did Simon, Simon. These are the ones I've preached
Speaker 8: so far, different people in the Bible that God called
Speaker 8: their name, not once, but twice, just right there together, Moses, Moses, Simon, Simon,
Speaker 8: Martha Martha. Today is Jacob Jacob Genesis chapter forty five.
Speaker 8: And as many sermons as I've heard, or that you've
Speaker 8: heard me preach on Jacob JJ, I've never preached from
Speaker 8: this passage Genesis chapter forty five, first twenty five, and
Speaker 8: then we'll go all the way to chapter forty six,
Speaker 8: verse five. And you say that's a lot of scripture, Well,
Speaker 8: I'm making up for all the Bible reading days you
Speaker 8: skip this week, doing you a favor. Now, hear the
Speaker 8: word of the Lord. The Lord has a word for
Speaker 8: you today. I've been paying back and forth waiting for
Speaker 8: you to get here. I'm so thankful for the way
Speaker 8: that he speaks. Now, a little bit of background. The
Speaker 8: children of Jacob have gone to Egypt, and they found
Speaker 8: out not only is their food in Egypt while there's
Speaker 8: a famine in Canaan, where they live, but that their
Speaker 8: brother Joseph, who they betrayed years earlier, is in command.
Speaker 8: And he has promised them if you will come back
Speaker 8: and bring our father Jacob, I'll take care of you
Speaker 8: everything that you did to me is not going to
Speaker 8: be held against you. I have moved past it, and
Speaker 8: I'll take care of you. So with this message they
Speaker 8: arrived to Jacob, who, remember, twenty two years earlier, was
Speaker 8: told that his son was dead, or led to believe
Speaker 8: that his son was dead, when in fact it wasn't true.
Speaker 8: He'd been pushed in a pit, but he wasn't dead.
Speaker 8: He was sold into slavery, but he wasn't dead. He
Speaker 8: was falsely accused years later and went to prison, but
Speaker 8: he wasn't dead.
Speaker 1: And tell your neighbor somehow I'm still here. Just tell
Speaker 1: him somehow I'm still here.
Speaker 8: That's why I'm praising him. Now we pick up the
Speaker 8: narrative in Genesis forty five, verse twenty five. So they
Speaker 8: the brothers of Jacob, or the brothers of Joseph, rather
Speaker 8: the sons of Jacob. So they went up out of
Speaker 8: Egypt and came to the land of Canaan to their
Speaker 8: father Jacob, and they told him Joseph is still alive,
Speaker 8: and he is ruler over all the land of Egypt.
Speaker 1: And his heart became numb. Isn't that unexpected?
Speaker 8: He gets the greatest news that he could ever hope
Speaker 8: to receive, and instead of his heart being happy, his
Speaker 8: heart goes numb.
Speaker 1: Now after his heart goes numb.
Speaker 8: The writer gives us a little bit of an explanation
Speaker 8: as to why he was unable to receive this good report.
Speaker 8: It said, for he did not believe them. But when
Speaker 8: they told him all the words of Joseph which he
Speaker 8: had said to them, and when he saw the wagons
Speaker 8: that Joseph had sent to carry him, the spirit of
Speaker 8: their father Jacob revived. And Israel said, it is enough, Joseph,
Speaker 8: my son is still alive. I will go and see
Speaker 8: him before I die. Now, Chapter forty six, verse one.
Speaker 8: So Israel took his journey with all that he had
Speaker 8: and came to Beersheba and offered sacrifices to the Lord,
Speaker 8: the god of his father Isaac.
Speaker 1: And God spoke to Israel and visions of the night,
Speaker 1: and said Jacob, Jacob, Jacob, Jacob.
Speaker 8: And he said, here am I. That's presence, Here am I.
Speaker 8: And then he said, I am God, the God of
Speaker 8: your father. Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt,
Speaker 8: for there I will make you into a great nation.
Speaker 1: I myself will go down with you to Egypt.
Speaker 8: And I will also bring you up again, and Joseph's
Speaker 8: hand shall close your eyes. The one you said goodbye
Speaker 8: to is going to be the one who says goodbye
Speaker 8: to you in your dying breath.
Speaker 1: And the final verse I want to read to you
Speaker 1: before we preach.
Speaker 8: Then Jacob set out from Beersheba. The sons of Israel
Speaker 8: carried Jacob, their father, their little ones, and their wives
Speaker 8: in the wagons that Pharaoh had sent to carry him.
Speaker 1: The prophetic word.
Speaker 8: That I've been assigned to preach to you today may
Speaker 8: come across on the surface as very simple, but it
Speaker 8: is really the deepest belief that you could ever hold,
Speaker 8: And it is this.
Speaker 1: The Lord will lighten your load. The Lord will lighten load.
Speaker 8: I know you had a lot on your mind even
Speaker 8: coming in today, but the Lord will lighten your load.
Speaker 8: I know sometimes people take advantage of you because you're
Speaker 8: available to them, but the Lord will lighten your load.
Speaker 1: I know you've done some bad things in.
Speaker 8: Your life and you feel kind of guilty about them.
Speaker 1: But the Lord will lighten your load.
Speaker 8: I know you're trying to make a plan right now,
Speaker 8: and stuff keeps moving, and stuff keeps shifting, and people
Speaker 8: keep moving and people keep shifting.
Speaker 1: But the Lord will lighten load.
Speaker 8: I know you're stubborn and you don't like to ask
Speaker 8: for a lot of help, but the Lord will lighten
Speaker 8: your load.
Speaker 1: I know your shoulders are tense.
Speaker 8: You really need a massage today, but I'm gonna give
Speaker 8: you a message today instead.
Speaker 1: The Lord will lighten your load.
Speaker 8: Turn around and tell twelve people, the Lord will lighten
Speaker 8: your low.
Speaker 1: Put it in the chat. The Lord will.
Speaker 8: Lighten your load. Put it right there in the chat.
Speaker 8: The Lord will lighten your load, and you may be seated.
Speaker 8: You can rest for the rest of the message.
Speaker 1: The Lord will lighten your load.
Speaker 8: Now, I have a love hate relationship with simple sayings.
Speaker 1: Like that the Lord will lighten your load.
Speaker 8: On one hand, I think that the highest degree of
Speaker 8: clarity in communication is simplicity.
Speaker 1: So really, for me, the art.
Speaker 8: Of studying the scripture sure is to simplify the scripture,
Speaker 8: to find one message in the scripture that we can
Speaker 8: all take, whether we're twelve, or whether we're eighty two,
Speaker 8: or whether, like Jacob here in this passage, we are
Speaker 8: one hundred and thirty years old. Did you know Jacob
Speaker 8: was one hundred and thirty years old when the Lord
Speaker 8: told him, get up and go to a place three
Speaker 8: hundred miles away, a place you've never been in, a
Speaker 8: place that you will not recognize, a place that you
Speaker 8: will not fit into, a place that you will be
Speaker 8: tempted to reject. But I'm sending you to Egypt because
Speaker 8: there's a famine where you are, and you have to move.
Speaker 8: And Jacob is one hundred and thirty years old. As
Speaker 8: we step into this moment of Jacob's life, I gave
Speaker 8: a little bit of this away. I intended to save
Speaker 8: it so I could tell the story and keep.
Speaker 1: You in suspense.
Speaker 8: But he is really on the verge of one of
Speaker 8: the greatest moments that he has ever experienced. In just
Speaker 8: a few weeks, he will be reunited with his son,
Speaker 8: the son that he mourned for twenty two years. But
Speaker 8: you can't exactly call it a happy moment for Jacob either,
Speaker 8: can you, Because as we saw in the scripture that
Speaker 8: I read, sometimes you get good news, but you can't
Speaker 8: take it in because of what you've been through. Sometimes
Speaker 8: you can't receive truth because the truth has to work
Speaker 8: its way through the trauma. Sometimes you can hear something
Speaker 8: that actually is factual, but your frustration or your pain
Speaker 8: or your failure will take you into a moment where
Speaker 8: even though you hear the truth, even though you hear
Speaker 8: the word, and even though it's something that you desire
Speaker 8: to believe, unbelief does not unwind automatically through a process
Speaker 8: of coming before the Lord and spending time with the
Speaker 8: Lord and putting yourself in environments like this. Go ahead
Speaker 8: and give yourself a hand for coming to church today.
Speaker 8: By the way, I learned to look at it different.
Speaker 8: I used to think I don't have time to go
Speaker 8: to church if I was busy. Now I've learned that
Speaker 8: when I'm really busy, I don't have time to not
Speaker 8: come to church because I need to be in a
Speaker 8: place where my heart is not numb. I need to
Speaker 8: be in a place where I can be known by
Speaker 8: God and accepted by Him. And so you wouldn't exactly
Speaker 8: call this moment in Jacob's life happy, would you, Because
Speaker 8: he's lost two decades plus two years with his son,
Speaker 8: and he's kind of suspicious that his boys were the
Speaker 8: ones who were up to it, and he's right. But
Speaker 8: at the same time, there is a hope for him
Speaker 8: that maybe, just maybe I'm going to see Joseph. I'm
Speaker 8: going to see Joseph. This is better than going to Disneyland, y'all.
Speaker 8: I'm going to see Joseph. I've been told that Joseph
Speaker 8: has secured a spot for me in Goshen, and I'm
Speaker 8: gonna live off the fat of the land as the
Speaker 8: father of Joseph, who has risen through all adversities like
Speaker 8: a fruitful vine.
Speaker 1: He climbed over every wall.
Speaker 8: They shot their arrows at him, but Joseph's hand remained steady.
Speaker 8: I'm going to see Joseph, at least, he hopes. But
Speaker 8: here is the lesson from Jacob's response to the news
Speaker 8: that Joseph may be alive. When you've been really hurt,
Speaker 8: it is hard to keep hoping. When you have been
Speaker 8: really hurt, it is hard.
Speaker 1: To keep hoping.
Speaker 8: And I promise you'all won't to press you the whole message,
Speaker 8: But I just don't want to bring you in like
Speaker 8: this is some glorious reunion and reconciliation, because if we
Speaker 8: oversimplify and we make it a cliche, the Lord will
Speaker 8: lighten your load. Then what happens when three hours from
Speaker 8: now you get some bad news, or what happens when
Speaker 8: you get to work tomorrow and your boss did not
Speaker 8: get my sermon titled that the Lord wanted to lighten
Speaker 8: your load, Then you get the memo the man of
Speaker 8: God said the Lord would lighten my load. Well, they
Speaker 8: are not the Lord, and they may put more on you.
Speaker 8: Isn't that a dumb cliche? By the way, when we
Speaker 8: say the Lord will never put more on you than
Speaker 8: you can bear, Bible doesn't say that.
Speaker 1: Read the Bible.
Speaker 8: Stop quoting what you heard from your grandma without checking
Speaker 8: it against the Bible.
Speaker 1: She was approximating what she heard one time.
Speaker 8: But the Bible says that no temptation has overtaken you,
Speaker 8: and God will give you a way of escape. It
Speaker 8: doesn't say that God won't put more on you than
Speaker 8: you can bear. Chemo certainly will put more on you than.
Speaker 1: You can bear.
Speaker 8: So you won't get confused and think you're him. That's
Speaker 8: actually God's job security to call you to do things
Speaker 8: that you can't do without Him, so you won't get
Speaker 8: there and be without Him and think you can do it.
Speaker 1: I need the Lord in my life.
Speaker 8: I need the Lord, and I have every six days
Speaker 8: reminder when I come preach to you. And do you
Speaker 8: know that my favorite thing to do that does not
Speaker 8: involve my family is to be up.
Speaker 1: Here and share the word of the Lord with you.
Speaker 1: It really is.
Speaker 8: But if you were to ask me two hours before
Speaker 8: I get up here, are you excited to preach? I
Speaker 8: would have a difficult time. If you hook me up
Speaker 8: to a lie detector. Just say in a straight yes,
Speaker 8: because I am excited. But and please don't tell all
Speaker 8: the Pharisees that want to qute a scripture verse at
Speaker 8: me when they hear this. I'm also anxious. I know
Speaker 8: the Bible says don't be anxious, but that was Paul.
Speaker 8: He's farther along than I am. I'm anxious. I'm anxious.
Speaker 8: Will I say it right? I'm anxious? Will you hear
Speaker 8: it right? I'm anxious? Will I leave the best part out?
Speaker 8: I'm anxious? Will I say something that is not exactly
Speaker 8: correct and maybe lead you astray? Even when I preach
Speaker 8: about this kind of message. Let me tell what makes
Speaker 8: me anxious. I'm scared that you will hear that Jacob
Speaker 8: went to Egypt and use it as an excuse to
Speaker 8: run away from something.
Speaker 1: Hard in your life.
Speaker 8: Because people will even take a phrase that you preach
Speaker 8: on with a good intention, like the Lord said to Jacob,
Speaker 8: don't be afraid to go to Egypt, and they will
Speaker 8: somehow translate that into the Lord saying, quit your accounting
Speaker 8: job even though you have four mouths to feed, and
Speaker 8: open a coffee shop because you like coffee. But maybe
Speaker 8: what the Lord is really saying is drink more coffee
Speaker 8: and keep accounting because you've got a whole family to
Speaker 8: feed and those kids need to go to college. So
Speaker 8: I'm worried about all of that. I'm worried about will
Speaker 8: it be boring. I'm worried about will I say too much,
Speaker 8: say too little? I'm just being honest. So I came
Speaker 8: up with a way to explain it, and I thought
Speaker 8: it might help you. Now, this is a trademark word,
Speaker 8: and this word belongs to me, but you can borrow
Speaker 8: it for the situations in your life where you feel
Speaker 8: excited but you also feel anxious.
Speaker 1: From now on, we call that anxcited. You got anything in.
Speaker 8: Your life that you feel that way about today? So
Speaker 8: if you if you ever asked me before I preach,
Speaker 8: how do you feel, I'm gonna tell you I'm excited,
Speaker 8: and you'll say, Pastor Steven, anxcited ain't a word, and
Speaker 8: I'll say may it may not be a word, but
Speaker 8: it is a reality. The fact is, if I focus
Speaker 8: on getting it wrong, I'm gonna feel completely paralyzed. If
Speaker 8: I focus on pleasing people, I'm gonna feel completely paralyzed.
Speaker 8: If I focus on not leaving anything out, I'm going
Speaker 8: to stand up here like I'm performing for you.
Speaker 1: But the Saint Vegas.
Speaker 8: If I focus on feeding you what God gave me
Speaker 8: for what you're going through in your life, I'm excited.
Speaker 8: So I want you to understand that both options are
Speaker 8: always available. I can be anxious, I can be excited.
Speaker 8: I'm like Jacob. Sometimes I can't really name how how
Speaker 8: I feel. I can't really name the season I'm in.
Speaker 8: On one hand, I'm really happy to be in front
Speaker 8: of you, I'm really I'm really thrilled with the prospect
Speaker 8: of being a vessel for God to use it. On
Speaker 8: the other hand, I'm terrified, and don't look at me judgmental,
Speaker 8: because you don't like to give speeches or hear your
Speaker 8: own voice either. So I'm excited, I'm anxious. I'm excited.
Speaker 1: I don't know how to spell that, but I certainly
Speaker 1: know what it feels.
Speaker 8: Like I'm excited, and I believe there's somebody in the
Speaker 8: room today that feels that way about this season of
Speaker 8: your life. I'm excited. Tell your neighbor, I'm excited. I'm
Speaker 8: kind of shaky in it, but I'm I'm, I'm, I'm
Speaker 8: I'm kind of looking.
Speaker 1: Forward to it.
Speaker 8: I'm kind of relieved that things are changing, and I'm
Speaker 8: kind of terrified that things will never be the same.
Speaker 8: I'm kind of I'm kind of feeling a sense of
Speaker 8: adventure in my life because I got fired, and I'm
Speaker 8: also watching my bank account and is running the wrong
Speaker 8: way from abundance. It's moving in the wrong direction. So
Speaker 8: I'm kind of excited to have free time, but I'm
Speaker 8: kind of not excited. I'm a little anxious about having
Speaker 8: less money because now I'm stretched and I'm stretching towards
Speaker 8: something that i didn't expect, and in this season of
Speaker 8: my life, I'm excited. Somebody asked me recently, what do
Speaker 8: you and Holly feel about being empty nester soon?
Speaker 1: I said, soon?
Speaker 8: Abby as fourteen, why are you trying to run her
Speaker 8: out the house? Just started wearing makeup? Give me a
Speaker 8: few more years. I'm excited about my kids growing up.
Speaker 8: I'm excited about releasing them into the world. I'm excited
Speaker 8: about being in Charlotte. Some of you just moved here
Speaker 8: in the last month. Some of you moved here to
Speaker 8: be a part of this church. How do you feel
Speaker 8: about it. I'm excited. That's an excited praise. That's I'm clapping.
Speaker 8: Sometimes I'm crying. Sometimes i miss my in.
Speaker 1: Austin, and I'm looking forward to meeting new ones here.
Speaker 8: I'm just trying to tell you that sometimes the cliches
Speaker 8: that we use oversimplify the depth of the human experience,
Speaker 8: and to remind you that you will always be both
Speaker 8: anxious and excited. Both look like shaking hands. Anxious and excited.
Speaker 8: Both feel like sweaty palms. Anxious and excited. Both put
Speaker 8: butterflies in your stomach. But whether those butterflies are a
Speaker 8: burden or a blessing.
Speaker 1: Depends on which one you lean into.
Speaker 8: The news reaches Jacob Joseph is on the throne in Egypt.
Speaker 8: He is the prime minister of the most powerful nation
Speaker 8: on earth, and he has sent us with an instruction
Speaker 8: to bring you back. And he said, we don't even
Speaker 8: have to worry about bringing our own stuff with us,
Speaker 8: because when we get there, He's got us. I don't
Speaker 8: know who this is a word for, but when you
Speaker 8: get there, God's got you. Don't overbird in the process
Speaker 8: by overplanning your steps. I said, don't overbird in the
Speaker 8: process by overplanning your steps.
Speaker 1: When you get there, He's got you.
Speaker 8: And the process of God speaking to Jacob is a
Speaker 8: very complicated process because he's already changed his name to Israel.
Speaker 8: In fact, if you read the account in Genesis chapter
Speaker 8: forty six, you are forgiven. If you are a little confused,
Speaker 8: let's read it together again and see why it's confusing. Remember,
Speaker 8: Israel is Jacob's new name. It's not only the nation
Speaker 8: that he fathered, but it is the name he was given.
Speaker 8: It's the name of his strength. Jacob, on the other hand,
Speaker 8: is the name of his weakness. It speaks of his
Speaker 8: tendency to deceive and pipulate.
Speaker 1: And chase and compare.
Speaker 8: So the Bible says in Genesis forty six, at this
Speaker 8: pivotal moment in Jacob's life, so Israel took his journey.
Speaker 8: We're talking about a man whose name has been changed
Speaker 8: with all that he had and came to Beersheba and
Speaker 8: offered sacrifices to the God of his father Isaac, and
Speaker 8: God spoke to Israel.
Speaker 1: New name. God spoke to Israel.
Speaker 8: Strength. God spoke to Israel, which means prince. God spoke
Speaker 8: to Israel, the changed Jacob. God spoke to Israel in
Speaker 8: visions of the night and said Jacob, Jacob. So if
Speaker 8: his name is Israel, why are you speaking to Jacob?
Speaker 8: And I want to give you a principle to take
Speaker 8: with you today into every situation you encountered this week.
Speaker 8: Wherever God calls your Israel, you have to take Ja
Speaker 8: with you.
Speaker 1: It's gonna be good. In a minute.
Speaker 8: Let me work on this word for a minute, because
Speaker 8: you've been confused lately, because some habits have been sneaking
Speaker 8: back up on you that you thought you'd let go of,
Speaker 8: because some sins have been trying to strangle the life
Speaker 8: of you. But you thought you broke the chokehold. Because
Speaker 8: some things you said you never would do again, you
Speaker 8: started doing them again.
Speaker 1: And you're carrying it like a secret in your heart.
Speaker 8: Because somebody got up and told you that if you
Speaker 8: accepted Jesus, you would leave the old U behind. And
Speaker 8: that is true. Positionally, God no longer relates to you
Speaker 8: on the basis of any sin you committed. Every single
Speaker 8: one of the sins that you committed was nailed to
Speaker 8: the cross. Its effect was canceled. Your record is cleaning.
Speaker 8: Your sins have been blotted out. All of that is true.
Speaker 8: You have been delivered from the penalty of sin. You
Speaker 8: have been delivered from the power of sin. Sin is
Speaker 8: no longer your position. Sin is no longer your identity.
Speaker 8: But although you have been delivered from the power, although
Speaker 8: you have been delivered from the penalty, and although it
Speaker 8: is no longer your position, you still have some patterns
Speaker 8: called sin that go with you into your future called now.
Speaker 8: And I want to preach this because you are Israel,
Speaker 8: and you are Jacob, but you are kind of Israel, Acob.
Speaker 1: I'm a preacher till you get honest.
Speaker 8: I'm a preacher till you stop polishing your halo and
Speaker 8: pretending like you didn't cuss once this week. I'm a
Speaker 8: preacher till you stop pretending like you got.
Speaker 1: The right to make comments.
Speaker 8: In YouTube about other people's faith when you know good
Speaker 8: and well, you are not always on a church website.
Speaker 8: When you know good and well, there's some Jacob that
Speaker 8: came with you to chart. Aren't you just giving the
Speaker 8: people permission to sin? They're doing pretty good without remission.
Speaker 8: Ma'am trying to give you power, perspective, and presence that
Speaker 8: when God speaks to your Jacob, you don't run away
Speaker 8: and hide.
Speaker 1: Okay, something very meaningful.
Speaker 8: Always prepare three illustrations for each point, and then I
Speaker 8: try to stand in the room and figure out which
Speaker 8: one makes sense for right now. And usually if you're
Speaker 8: looking at me all stuffy, I'll go to the safe one.
Speaker 8: But today I feel kind of free. One time I
Speaker 8: apologize to Holly because I'm not always relaxed. We were
Speaker 8: on vacation and I said, I know you really liked
Speaker 8: this version of me. It had been three works three
Speaker 8: weeks since I had to work on a sermon, and
Speaker 8: three weeks of not having to be anxcited puts me
Speaker 8: in a very relaxed state of mind.
Speaker 1: Relaxed and lazy, real lazy.
Speaker 8: I get real lazy, I said, I know you love
Speaker 8: this version of me because I'm so men. You should
Speaker 8: see my southern small town charm come out. I'm speaking
Speaker 8: to everybody, holding doors, for everybody buying ice cream.
Speaker 1: For skaters that I used to would have said, their punks.
Speaker 8: But I'm buying ice cream. They smell like weed. I'm
Speaker 8: buying them ice cream telling them about Jesus. It's a
Speaker 8: great state. I said, I know you love this version
Speaker 8: of me. She said, yeah, I do, she said, but
Speaker 8: I love all of them. That was the biggest collective
Speaker 8: awe in church history. You made history today church, and
Speaker 8: that did something for me.
Speaker 1: It did something for me.
Speaker 8: Because I realized that she knew that we wouldn't be
Speaker 8: on vacation if I was never stressed, at least not
Speaker 8: staying indoors with plumbing. That meant a lot to That
Speaker 8: means a lot to a man, It means a lot
Speaker 8: to a woman when you appreciate the fact that the
Speaker 8: parts of me that are not that great come with
Speaker 8: the package, not so that I can continue to be
Speaker 8: a complete schizophrenic before I preach.
Speaker 1: But it unburdened me a little bit. And I'll tell
Speaker 1: you what it was.
Speaker 8: I'm going to give you four things that were a
Speaker 8: part of Jacob's journey today that you can practically apply
Speaker 8: to your wife, your life, or your wife. And the
Speaker 8: first one I've spoken of. But I want to be
Speaker 8: really clear. I want to talk to you about the weight.
Speaker 8: Write it down, please w eight weight, not waits in
Speaker 8: a period of time that lapses before you know a
Speaker 8: conclusion which would be appropriate to twenty two years that
Speaker 8: he has held in his heart the horror of losing
Speaker 8: his son Joseph. So it's kind of hard to get
Speaker 8: happy in five minutes when I've held this twenty two years.
Speaker 8: Have more compassion on people as they change, including you.
Speaker 8: You know how when you drive down the interstate they
Speaker 8: have way stations for truckers. I wish we could have
Speaker 8: one of those in the church for Christians, and we
Speaker 8: wouldn't be measuring whether you're down three pounds or not.
Speaker 8: I would love to know if you carried too much
Speaker 8: into this room today so that we could unburden you
Speaker 8: before you head back out, because you are dangerous with
Speaker 8: too much weight, and you're dangerous with too little weight.
Speaker 8: There are some responsibilities that God has placed on you
Speaker 8: that are the answers to the prayers that you prayed.
Speaker 8: The Lord was telling me one time that I was
Speaker 8: complaining about prayers that I had prayed six months ago
Speaker 8: being answered.
Speaker 1: You follow me.
Speaker 8: In other words, he did it, and then I got it,
Speaker 8: and it was heavy. Nobody ever tells you this. Blessings
Speaker 8: are heavy. Blessings are heavy. Everybody who's praying God will
Speaker 8: give you a baby.
Speaker 1: Blessings are heavy.
Speaker 8: I don't care eight pounds, ten pounds, twelve pounds. Abby
Speaker 8: said the other day she had a dream that she
Speaker 8: came out weighing one hundred and thirty pounds. And the
Speaker 8: truth of the matter is that the weight that Jacob
Speaker 8: is cared and I just want to talk to a
Speaker 8: little bit about today because he's carrying not only his
Speaker 8: own pain and his uncertainty, but the responsibility that his
Speaker 8: name represents an entire nation.
Speaker 1: Talk about weight, talk about heaviness.
Speaker 8: A few weeks ago, I talked about how heaviness and
Speaker 8: happiness sit at the same table, how heaviness and happiness
Speaker 8: live in the same heart. If we wait for the
Speaker 8: heaviness to go away to be happy, we will defer
Speaker 8: our joy and postpone it indefinitely. Waiting on a future
Speaker 8: time to praise God when all of your kids are
Speaker 8: doing well is a trap. Waiting on a future time
Speaker 8: to praise God when all your debts are paid off
Speaker 8: is a trap. Waiting on a future time to praise
Speaker 8: God when nothing in your body hurts is a trap.
Speaker 8: Waiting to praise God, waiting to enjoy your life, waiting
Speaker 8: to be thankful, waiting to smile, waiting to laugh until
Speaker 8: you know how this is going to turn out. Waiting
Speaker 8: until the outcome is clear for you to make a
Speaker 8: commitment to serve Jesus is a trap. And that's why
Speaker 8: Jacob had to set out with a heavy heart. Sometimes
Speaker 8: you have to head there heavy. Sometimes you have to
Speaker 8: move there weigh down. Sometimes you have to take a
Speaker 8: step forward knowing that I don't even know about the
Speaker 8: next one yet, but I will take this one. And
Speaker 8: so the process of coming to the Lord is to
Speaker 8: learn how to take the weight that he gives you.
Speaker 8: But I will remind you today that God can't help
Speaker 8: you carry something that he never called you to. One
Speaker 8: New Testament writer said to lay aside all the sin
Speaker 8: and the weight that easily besets you. Sometimes I think
Speaker 8: we're carrying sins that we won't give up. But other
Speaker 8: times I think we're carrying weights that aren't exactly sins,
Speaker 8: but are taking up the space in our life that
Speaker 8: could be used for trusting God, that could be used
Speaker 8: for creative solutions.
Speaker 1: If the devil wants to destroy you.
Speaker 8: He will get your mind so full of stuff that
Speaker 8: does not matter anyway, to get you moved.
Speaker 1: Off of what you are uniquely called to do.
Speaker 8: And to realize that Jacob in this moment is receiving
Speaker 8: good news, but he is still grieving what he's been through.
Speaker 8: Receiving good news but very excited about where he's going.
Speaker 1: May give you a little compassion for yourself. That I
Speaker 1: have this weight. It's not that my heart is hard,
Speaker 1: it's that it's heavy.
Speaker 8: And as he is considering this, I mean picture, he
Speaker 8: has to decide, am I going to believe that this
Speaker 8: is possible? Just like you are deciding Dove's nest? Am
Speaker 8: I going to believe that my recovery is possible? Just
Speaker 8: like you are having to decide? College student? Is it
Speaker 8: really worth it to live for Jesus? Just like you
Speaker 8: are having to decide in this season of your life.
Speaker 8: Am I going to call a therapist and start to
Speaker 8: work on this so that I don't just carry this
Speaker 8: forth as my template for the rest of my life.
Speaker 8: And as he is trying to decide whether to leave
Speaker 8: what is familiar and walk in what is fearful and
Speaker 8: point himself in the direction of the unexpected pregnant possibility.
Speaker 8: God has answered his prayers that for twenty two years
Speaker 8: lay dormant, not dead. The Bible says in verse twenty
Speaker 8: seven that as he was carrying this weight, everybody say wait,
Speaker 8: come on, say it loud, or say wait. I want
Speaker 8: you to say it as loud as it is heavy
Speaker 8: to you. One two three. Yeah. The crushing expectations that
Speaker 8: you had of yourself, the crushing disappointment of what didn't happen.
Speaker 8: And some of you are like, I'm doing good today.
Speaker 8: Way in next week, we'll check you next week. Something
Speaker 8: could happen between you know, something could get on something
Speaker 8: could get on your truck this week that could make
Speaker 8: you break down in tears and not be so arrogant.
Speaker 8: So never judge somebody because of what they are carrying.
Speaker 8: One side note, one side note. I met a man
Speaker 8: a year ago, and when I met him, I said,
Speaker 8: he is so arrogant. All he did was talk about himself.
Speaker 8: I've never met somebody so arrogant. I walked away and
Speaker 8: thought I have discernment. I saw him him again a
Speaker 8: year later. He said, I wanted to tell you something.
Speaker 8: The first time you met me, you couldn't have known this,
Speaker 8: but I had just received news the day before that
Speaker 8: I lost my job. I had been throwing up in
Speaker 8: a hotel room all night. So I apologize if I
Speaker 8: came across a certain way, and I'm like, you did,
Speaker 8: you did? And isn't it crazy that I couldn't even
Speaker 8: see who he really was because all I could see
Speaker 8: was what he carried. Tell your neighbor, I'm really a
Speaker 8: good person. Catch me at the right time. I'll buy
Speaker 8: you some ice cream. I see the Lord is speaking
Speaker 8: to Jacob while he's trying to move forward as Israel.
Speaker 1: I said.
Speaker 8: The Lord is speaking to Jacob while he's trying to
Speaker 8: move forward as Israel, and he's trying to decide, do
Speaker 8: I believe?
Speaker 1: How would you believe? These boys? Do you remember what
Speaker 1: they did?
Speaker 8: They brought Joseph's coat to their dad and said, is
Speaker 8: this the coat you gave Joseph? They were always jealous
Speaker 8: of him, and they dipped it in blood to make
Speaker 8: it look like he was muled by animals, and he was.
Speaker 8: They were the animals. Now he was on his way
Speaker 8: to Egypt, and God was using all of that sovereignly.
Speaker 8: But in that moment, all Jacob felt with sadness, and
Speaker 8: he kept that coat for twenty two years. It's all
Speaker 8: he had left of his son. And now these same
Speaker 8: boys they've gone down to Egypt. They found out there's food.
Speaker 8: There's gonna be five more years of famine. And Joseph says, come,
Speaker 8: I got you. When you get here, I got you.
Speaker 8: So they go back to Canaan and they say, Dad,
Speaker 8: we gotta go.
Speaker 1: Joseph's alive.
Speaker 8: He's gonna take care of us, and there's hope in
Speaker 8: his heart, and there's happiness in his heart. And the
Speaker 8: weight almost watched this. It almost keeps him from going.
Speaker 8: I love this word in the Bible put up verse
Speaker 8: twenty seven. But when they told him the words of Joseph,
Speaker 8: which he had said to them, now get ready to
Speaker 8: shed a little bit, because this part that comes next
Speaker 8: is really important.
Speaker 1: It was one thing to hear their words, because.
Speaker 8: They've said a lot of things and they've lied about it.
Speaker 1: It is one thing to believe people.
Speaker 8: It is one thing to believe a preacher, But it
Speaker 8: is another thing when God gives you evidence of his
Speaker 8: presence that you can't deny. And I believe I'm talking
Speaker 8: to about two hundred and twenty five people today somewhere
Speaker 8: in this.
Speaker 1: Room at Valentine, that.
Speaker 8: Your heart has been heavy, but you've got evidence that
Speaker 8: God is not quite through with you yet. And now
Speaker 8: the devil would love for you to look past the evidence.
Speaker 1: But watch this.
Speaker 8: The Bible says that he was trying to believe, trying
Speaker 8: to take it in, trying to wake up his heart,
Speaker 8: trying to revive his spirit, trying to convince himself, trying
Speaker 8: to get a move on, trying to make a plan, trying,
Speaker 8: but his heart was numb and he couldn't move my
Speaker 8: verse when he heard the words of Joseph, which he
Speaker 8: had said to them secondhand, and.
Speaker 1: When he saw the wagons.
Speaker 8: That's the second word I want you to write down
Speaker 8: is wagons. Because I got weight. I'm going through some things.
Speaker 8: I've got weight, I've got unanswered questions. I've got weight.
Speaker 8: There are some people who have disappointed me. I've got weight.
Speaker 8: Somebody say I've got weight, But I've also got wagons.
Speaker 8: And this is the part where if you are Pentecostal,
Speaker 8: even by five percent, I want you to look out
Speaker 8: your window today spiritually speaking, and look at all the
Speaker 8: wagons that God has sent to bring you where.
Speaker 1: You're supposed to be.
Speaker 8: Now we've got a choice to make because I'm excited,
Speaker 8: because I'm heartbroken, but I'm hopeful, and the weight is
Speaker 8: trying to get me to stay depressed.
Speaker 1: But the wagons are calling me to move on.
Speaker 8: And I want to know which one is your faith
Speaker 8: in the weight or the wagons.
Speaker 1: Plus, God sent me.
Speaker 8: With a prophetic word for somebody. You'll got wagons waiting
Speaker 8: for you. You'll got transportation waiting for you.
Speaker 1: Hot five everybody you can reach and.
Speaker 7: Say, here come the wagons, Here come the wagons.
Speaker 8: And there is no way, oh feel like, testify, there
Speaker 8: is no way i'd be here. There is no way
Speaker 8: i'd be here if it had not been for the wagons.
Speaker 8: All right, you'll help me get happy about the wagons,
Speaker 8: the wagons, the wagons, the wagons. Jacob's like, I don't
Speaker 8: know if this is true. I don't believe these boys.
Speaker 8: These boys are rascals. These boys are liars.
Speaker 1: Reuben's a liar, Simeon's a liar, Judah is a liar.
Speaker 8: Who can I trust? All my boys are dysfunctional. All
Speaker 8: this weight is too much for me. I've been twenty
Speaker 8: two years in this condition. I don't know if I
Speaker 8: should believe this. And while he's listening to them, he
Speaker 8: is stuck in the weight. But when he saw the wagons,
Speaker 8: when he saw those wagons, when Joseph sent his brother's back,
Speaker 8: he said, take the best wagons that Egypt has to offer.
Speaker 8: Hold on, let me ask my boss, Pharaoh. I gotta
Speaker 8: go get my dad and bring him back. Would you
Speaker 8: let me borrow some wagons? Pharaoh said, yeah, I'm not
Speaker 8: even there. I don't even worship their same God, but
Speaker 8: I will send them the transportation to bring them here
Speaker 8: to eat. God doesn't even have to use the right
Speaker 8: thing to get you where you're supposed to go. Gott,
Speaker 8: Can I say it like I feel it. God's gonna
Speaker 8: use some stupid stuff to get you there. God's gonna
Speaker 8: use some ridiculous things to get you there, some weird wagons.
Speaker 8: What are these wagons? I never seen wagons like this before.
Speaker 8: Aren't these Pharaoh's wagons? Yeah, but they're under God's jurisdiction.
Speaker 8: So I'm explaining how God came to get him with
Speaker 8: the wagons. Because God knew he had a limp, and
Speaker 8: he knows where you're weighty, and he knows where you're wheat.
Speaker 1: And that's what the wagons are. For give me the
Speaker 1: verse again. Ain't that anointed? Mom? I said, ain't that annoyed? Mom?
Speaker 8: If my mom doesn't think it's annoyed, I need to
Speaker 8: shut it down. But when he saw the wagons, are
Speaker 8: you back there justin? Can you circle when he saw
Speaker 8: the wagons? Oh, when he saw the wagons that Joseph
Speaker 8: had sent to carry him. I want you to circle
Speaker 8: carry too, because I think that's the key right there
Speaker 8: for the Lord lightning your load today. I don't think
Speaker 8: he needs to take something off of you. I think
Speaker 8: he needs to put something under you.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 8: The Lord will lighten your load, not by decreasing the weight,
Speaker 8: but by sending the wagons.
Speaker 1: Wow, what are your wagons?
Speaker 8: And why won't you get in them? Why you keep
Speaker 8: not joining an e group? You think the whole group
Speaker 8: has COVID? But you you're gonna go catch nothing from him? Maybe,
Speaker 8: but Jesus might catch some joy, might catch some peace,
Speaker 8: might catch some better habits, might catch some accountability, might
Speaker 8: catch some spiritual discipline, might catch a.
Speaker 1: Dave Ramsey budget makeover. You might catch something good.
Speaker 8: Keep praying about the weight of your financial burden, but
Speaker 8: you won't get on the wagon. Get on the wagon.
Speaker 8: Limp to the wagon. You can get on the wagon. Weeping,
Speaker 8: just get one. You can get on the wagon. Worried,
Speaker 8: just get on. You can get on the wagon with
Speaker 8: all of your weight. These are good wagons. These are
Speaker 8: trustworthy wagons because Joseph sent them, because God sent them,
Speaker 8: and he will help you carry what he called you
Speaker 8: to and nothing that he didn't, which is why it
Speaker 8: becomes so important. I talked about the weight. I talked
Speaker 8: about the wagons. Can I talk for a moment about
Speaker 8: the worship? Okay, this is important. He sets out in
Speaker 8: the wagons. He says, all the wagons are here. That
Speaker 8: must mean it's true. And I use this to illustrate
Speaker 8: all the things that God is sending in your life,
Speaker 8: to convince you that He's with you, in spite of
Speaker 8: all of your feelings saying that he isn't. They are there.
Speaker 8: Sometimes you can't see the wagons through your weeping. So
Speaker 8: he gets on right. And I would love to read
Speaker 8: the whole chapter to you where it lists all the
Speaker 8: people he had to take, because you would start to
Speaker 8: feel how weighty it is, and you would start to
Speaker 8: identify he has to take them their children and some
Speaker 8: grandchildren because he's one hundred and thirty and he has
Speaker 8: accumulated a lot. Now they're on there with animals, They're
Speaker 8: on there with people, They're on there with people that
Speaker 8: act like animals. I did not mean to describe your
Speaker 8: family vacation. But let's make this real. Let's make this live.
Speaker 8: Just leave this in BC. Let's bring it to right now.
Speaker 8: Let's bring this to your life. He's on the wagons,
Speaker 8: but he's still worried. And I think this is the
Speaker 8: part that that maybe can help you Wednesday to worship
Speaker 8: God Wednesday. I don't really I don't really preach with
Speaker 8: the intention for you to worship God's Sunday. I want
Speaker 8: you to worship Wednesday when it's weighty, when.
Speaker 1: You are on your way and you're worried.
Speaker 8: So in Genesis forty six, verse one, it looks like
Speaker 8: they're going straight to Egypt to get the food, because
Speaker 8: that's where the food is. That's where Joseph is. But Israel,
Speaker 8: the better part of Jacob, took his journey with all
Speaker 8: that he had, including Jacob. I'm gonna say it again,
Speaker 8: your silence does not intimidate me from making my point.
Speaker 1: You bring you with you. You bring you with you.
Speaker 8: If you get a promotion, I hope you're a good
Speaker 8: boss because you bring you with you. If you get
Speaker 8: a partner, you bring you with you. If you have kids,
Speaker 8: you bring you with you. And all they are going
Speaker 8: to do is show you you in a funhouse mirror.
Speaker 8: You'll bring you with you. So when it says Israel
Speaker 8: took his journey, and then people say enjoy the journey,
Speaker 8: I hate that cliche. How am I supposed to enjoy
Speaker 8: the journey with seventy jokers that I can't trust with
Speaker 8: the land that I'm headed to that I have never seen, that,
Speaker 8: I cannot research that, I can't even really understand what
Speaker 8: it's going to be like with the sadness of my
Speaker 8: past following me here. So Israel took his journey.
Speaker 1: With all that he had and came to Beersheba.
Speaker 8: Beersheba is on the border of southern Canaan.
Speaker 1: What does that mean? It's right there on the edge
Speaker 1: of going to Egypt.
Speaker 8: If he gets past Beersheba, he's going all the way.
Speaker 8: So he stops there, and watch what he does when
Speaker 8: he stops. He takes some of those animals that were
Speaker 8: in that wagon that would have represented something that he
Speaker 8: accumulated in Canaan. And he offered sacrifices to the God
Speaker 8: of his father Isaac. Next verse and God spoke. Verse one,
Speaker 8: he offered sacrifices and God spoke. He gave God something,
Speaker 8: and God gave him something. I am not saying that
Speaker 8: this is a transaction, but it is a fact. Worship
Speaker 8: is Heaven's strategy to unburden the human heart. Worship is
Speaker 8: Heaven's strategy to see you with your messed up mind,
Speaker 8: to see you with your jacked up habits, to see
Speaker 8: you with your cluttered state of mind, to see you
Speaker 8: in all of your burdenedness.
Speaker 1: And to say, let me lighten your load.
Speaker 8: And when he offered sacrifices, God spoke and said Jacob, Jacob,
Speaker 8: And he said here I am, I'm here, I'm excided
Speaker 8: about this journey. And verse three says then the Lord said,
Speaker 8: I am God. Now aren't you glad that both of
Speaker 8: those are true? You're still Jacob, but he's still God.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 8: I told you I had a word for you today,
Speaker 8: and the word is you need to worship. When you
Speaker 8: feel the weight, pull the wagon over and worship. Uh,
Speaker 8: what do you mean, pastor Steve, I'm driving right now.
Speaker 8: Should I lift my hands? Put your hands on ten
Speaker 8: and two and worship and worship and rehearse the greatness
Speaker 8: of God until you get the frustrations of your Jacob, Jacob, Martha, Martha, Simon, Simon, Moses, Moses,
Speaker 8: I am God.
Speaker 1: I don't care.
Speaker 8: Who you think you are or who you're not. You're
Speaker 8: not bound by any of that. I am God, the
Speaker 8: God of your father. By the way, Isaac made an
Speaker 8: offering in Beersheba too, so did Abraham. This was a
Speaker 8: significant place for Jacob, but he was having to do
Speaker 8: something his father's never did. And when you come to
Speaker 8: a place where you've never seen a model for it,
Speaker 8: when you come to a place where you've never seen
Speaker 8: an example for it, when you've come to a place
Speaker 8: where you didn't have anybody to show you the way,
Speaker 8: when you come to a place and you don't know
Speaker 8: how worship, worship, and the Lord will lighten your load.
Speaker 8: I'm not talking about singing. He didn't sing. He sacrificed.
Speaker 8: True worship is you giving up something that you weren't
Speaker 8: meant to carry. The Lord will lighten your load. Before
Speaker 8: you go forward into this next thing. I see you
Speaker 8: giving up what people think about it. That's worship. When
Speaker 8: you give up what people think about it and you
Speaker 8: get serious.
Speaker 1: About what God has said about it, that's worship.
Speaker 8: Some of us cannot move forward in strength because we
Speaker 8: are too stuck in status. When you give up on
Speaker 8: what people say about it, people think about it.
Speaker 1: Whether you're going to be embarrassed about it.
Speaker 8: When you worship and you say, God, you're so sovereign,
Speaker 8: look at all of these wagons you sent. I'm telling you,
Speaker 8: if you want to get from weakness to strength in
Speaker 8: your spirit this week, start counting wagons instead of telling
Speaker 8: them how much it weighs. Start thinking them for wagons.
Speaker 8: Look at what you've done for me, God, Look at
Speaker 8: what you've brought to me. God, look at how you've
Speaker 8: helped me. And the Lord said Jacob. Jacob, I am God.
Speaker 8: I know this isn't the same way that your fathers went.
Speaker 8: I know this isn't the same strategy that they had,
Speaker 8: but I'm the same God.
Speaker 1: So do not be afraid to go down to Egypt. Now.
Speaker 8: I don't know what you need to put in that sentence,
Speaker 8: but leave it up there. Do not be afraid too.
Speaker 1: There are two.
Speaker 8: Specific times in scripture that God says specifically what not
Speaker 8: to be afraid of. He tells Joseph, do not be
Speaker 8: afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what
Speaker 8: is in her is of me. And he tells Jacob,
Speaker 8: do not be afraid to go to Egypt, even though
Speaker 8: it seems dangerous.
Speaker 1: Even though it seems risky, remember I'm not telling you
Speaker 1: to start a hair salon.
Speaker 8: Egypt does not represent just whateverthing you want to do.
Speaker 8: It is what God has called you to do that
Speaker 8: you are afraid to do, that you are unfamiliar with.
Speaker 1: Do not be afraid to do it.
Speaker 8: Watch the for there in the unfamiliar place, There in
Speaker 8: the place nobody in.
Speaker 1: Your family has lived in before.
Speaker 8: They're in the place where you thought Joseph was dead,
Speaker 8: but he's.
Speaker 1: Actually waiting for you.
Speaker 6: There.
Speaker 1: I will make you into a great nation.
Speaker 8: Verse four, I my self will go down with you
Speaker 8: to Egypt, to the hospital, into your senior years, into
Speaker 8: the ninth grade. I myself, God says, will go down
Speaker 8: with you. In other words, I'm gonna lighten your load,
Speaker 8: because not only do you have weight, and not only
Speaker 8: do you have wagons and Not only do you have worship,
Speaker 8: but when you worship me, the weight lifts, and your
Speaker 8: wagons have wings. And I'm carrying you because I got wings.
Speaker 8: I put wings on your wagons. I put strength in
Speaker 8: your weakness. I put a step in your limb. I
Speaker 8: put power in your spirit. I put wings on your wagons.
Speaker 8: My wagons have wings, y'all. I'm gonna get there because
Speaker 8: He's with me. My wagons have wings. Yeah, I've got
Speaker 8: weight on me. Yeah, I've got burdens about the future. Yeah,
Speaker 8: I'm excited about it. Yeah, I'm still Jacob, but I'm
Speaker 8: not traveling alone. Because they that wait on the Lord
Speaker 8: will renew their strength. They will mount up on wings
Speaker 8: like eagles. I'm going to each of them on eagles wings.
Speaker 1: I'm going on wings.
Speaker 8: The God did not grow weary they start walking.
Speaker 1: I think I'm going in the straight. I'm the glory
Speaker 1: of God.
Speaker 7: My wagons have wings, My wagons have wings.
Speaker 8: I got a hate sooth all around my family.
Speaker 1: My wagons.
Speaker 7: Don't be surprised when I rise a puppet the Lord.
Speaker 1: That's lighten my load.
Speaker 8: My wagons have wings, My tears have intention, my worship
Speaker 8: has purpose.
Speaker 5: I know.
Speaker 1: You're carrying a lie, but you're carried to your wagons.
Speaker 8: Have wings. He's going with you. I don't know where
Speaker 8: you're going. You don't either, but I know one thing.
Speaker 8: He's going with you.
Speaker 1: Give my camera. I speak to your burden soul today.
Speaker 1: He's going with you.
Speaker 8: Well, while back, I was doing ministry with somebody that
Speaker 8: was tag team. I looked over at them before we
Speaker 8: went up. I could see he was so nervous. I
Speaker 8: put my arm around him. I said, you do it already.
Speaker 1: He said no.
Speaker 8: I said why not? He said, I don't know what
Speaker 8: to do up there. I said, I'm not good at much,
Speaker 8: but i'm good at this. The Lord's prepared me. So
Speaker 8: we go up there. I don't want you to worry
Speaker 8: about anything. I'm going up there with you, and if
Speaker 8: you stop talking mid syllable, I'll pick it up and
Speaker 8: say the next syllable like we meant to do it.
Speaker 8: Because I could tell he was carrying weight, so I
Speaker 8: told him, I'll be your wings. I could see a
Speaker 8: tear come in his eye because he was carrying so much.
Speaker 8: I'll be your wingman, That's what I was telling him.
Speaker 8: And then I looked him in his eye and I
Speaker 8: said something to him, And I believe that the Lord
Speaker 8: would say this to each of his children today too. Hey, hey,
Speaker 8: I won't let you fail. And I know every skeptical
Speaker 8: in your bone, is every bone in your body that
Speaker 8: skeptical is screaming right now? Then then why did my
Speaker 8: best friend die of cancer? Then why did the business feel?
Speaker 8: Then why did the marriage feel? Maybe it wasn't a failure.
Speaker 8: Maybe even maybe even when they died, their purpose on
Speaker 8: earth was just getting started. Maybe the business that failed
Speaker 8: wasn't the one that you were called to run. Did
Speaker 8: you think about that? Maybe God's failures or foundations.
Speaker 1: And I want you.
Speaker 8: To let him lighten your load today because I'm gonna
Speaker 8: tell you something, Jacob, if you try to ride in
Speaker 8: that wagon and you let Jacob steer, you won't make
Speaker 8: it where you're supposed to be.
Speaker 1: The word of the Lord came to Israel in the.
Speaker 8: Night to speak to the part of you that knows
Speaker 8: that worship gives me wings and it can be just
Speaker 8: the smallest transition in your life. I'm telling you, I
Speaker 8: know there are people in here today who are carrying weight,
Speaker 8: unimaginable weight.
Speaker 1: But stand on your feet right now.
Speaker 8: And in the presence of your God, the God of Abraham,
Speaker 8: the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, Jacob, Jacob,
Speaker 8: the God of Simon, Simon, God of Martha, Martha, the
Speaker 8: God of Abraham, Abraham, the God of Moses, Moses. That
Speaker 8: God knows your name, knows your needs, he knows your limp,
Speaker 8: he knows your loss, and he wants to give you
Speaker 8: wings on your wagon today. The truth is, if you're here,
Speaker 8: it's because you are carried. Somebody say, I'm carried. That
Speaker 8: verse really spoke to me, Man in verse five, where
Speaker 8: it says Jacob set out from Beersheba. The sons of
Speaker 8: Israel carried Jacob, their father, their little ones, and their
Speaker 8: wives in the wagons that Pharaoh had sent to carry him.
Speaker 8: You know how, I know you can because you're carried.
Speaker 8: Say that out loud as a confession.
Speaker 1: I can.
Speaker 8: Because I'm carried. I can make it through this. I
Speaker 8: can find a solution. I can forgive them, I can
Speaker 8: continue to work through this.
Speaker 1: I can recover. I can say it. I can because
Speaker 1: I'm carried.
Speaker 8: And some people will see that and they'll think that
Speaker 8: your confidence is cockiness. I'm not cocky. I'm carried. I'm carried.
Speaker 8: My confidence is in the fact that God is carrying me.
Speaker 8: Don't you see how his hand has carried.
Speaker 1: You this far? Then why wouldn't you let him lighten
Speaker 1: your load.
Speaker 8: I imagine Jacob getting back on the wagons, and they
Speaker 8: felt a little lighter because he took a few of
Speaker 8: those animals and sacrificed him. I imagine him getting back
Speaker 8: on the wagon and feeling a little bit lighter because
Speaker 8: he was reminded who he really was. I see him
Speaker 8: getting on the wagon. It's a little bit lighter because
Speaker 8: you can't.
Speaker 1: See it, but my wagon has wings. Be prepared. This week,
Speaker 1: somebody is gonna tell you look different. Have you lost weight?
Speaker 8: Tell them, yeah, tell them two things happen. Come on,
Speaker 8: look at your neighbor and say two things happen today.
Speaker 8: Tell them I lost weight and I got wings. Now,
Speaker 8: let's take twenty seconds and worship the.
Speaker 1: Lord for what he did in this place. You'll sing
Speaker 1: a little bit.
Speaker 8: Come on, worshippers, worshippers, where are the worshippers? FU say,
Speaker 8: get your hands off, get your hands up, get your
Speaker 8: wings back, Get your wings back.
Speaker 9: These chapel zuway care the Lord is in these Please
Speaker 9: the Lord is it.
Speaker 1: I'm carrying.
Speaker 4: I'm carrying for me.
Speaker 1: I'm carry I'm carrying this I for sake.
Speaker 8: Cat.
Speaker 10: The Lord is here these place. Flord is here, the space.
Speaker 10: Come fo please speed travel Cat. The Lord is in
Speaker 10: this clip.
Speaker 5: Hold on, get these wings se so you can rise
Speaker 5: Obama and naked. He won't let you nail, He won't forsaken,
Speaker 5: He will not leave you.
Speaker 10: Art this class right here, right now, here's God speed.
Speaker 8: Trivels. Cat.
Speaker 4: Flord is here, the slap Flord is in this.
Speaker 1: That's bowed, eyes closed. God is here.
Speaker 8: He's here to forgive sin. He's here to heal hearts.
Speaker 8: He's here to make new. Right now, there are hundreds,
Speaker 8: if not thousands, of people under the sound of my
Speaker 8: voice who desperately need to give your life to Jesus.
Speaker 1: Today. You cannot carry it any longer. You cannot do
Speaker 1: it by yourself any longer. You were not meant to.
Speaker 8: He died for you, He rose again to give you life.
Speaker 8: It is by grace you are saved through faith. This
Speaker 8: not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not
Speaker 8: of work, so that no one can boast.
Speaker 1: And today God brought you to this place so that
Speaker 1: you could be saved.
Speaker 8: So right now, I'm going to lead you in a prayer,
Speaker 8: whether you're online or in the room, And if you'll
Speaker 8: repeat this prayer after me and believe it in your heart.
Speaker 8: The Bible says that if you confess with your mouth
Speaker 8: that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart God
Speaker 8: raised him from the dead, you will be saved. Right now,
Speaker 8: the hand of Heaven is stretching to you in the
Speaker 8: person of Jesus Christ. Will you receive this gift. This
Speaker 8: is a new beginning for you. This is a defining
Speaker 8: moment for you. God is calling your name right now,
Speaker 8: and I want to lead you.
Speaker 1: In this prayer.
Speaker 8: Whether you're coming to Him for the first time or
Speaker 8: you've wandered in your coming back, this is your day.
Speaker 8: This is your moment. He's calling your name. Call on
Speaker 8: his name and you will be saved. Repeat after me
Speaker 8: as a church family, out loud, Heavenly.
Speaker 1: Father, today is my day of salvation.
Speaker 8: I am a sinner in need of a savior, and
Speaker 8: I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God
Speaker 8: and the Savior of the world. And today I make
Speaker 8: Jesus the Lord of my life. I believe he died
Speaker 8: that I would be forgiven and rose again to give
Speaker 8: me life. I receive this new life. This is my
Speaker 8: new beginning. I am a child of God.
Speaker 1: On the counter of three shoots. Your hand up.
Speaker 8: If you've prayed that one, two, three all over the room.
Speaker 1: That's right, that's right, that's right.
Speaker 8: Zevil you lost another one, and another one, and another
Speaker 8: one and another one into the.
Speaker 1: Family of God, born again by the spirit of grace.
Speaker 7: Let's give Jesus a great sound of brad.
Speaker 1: Glory to God.
Speaker 8: Praise the Lord for all the new lives. Thank you
Speaker 8: for staying till the very end. Thank you for coming
Speaker 8: to church today. Thank you for showing up in the
Speaker 8: presence of God. Campus pastors, you could take it. Did
Speaker 8: you receive a word from God today? If you received
Speaker 8: a word from God, let me hear you make some noise,
Speaker 8: shout hallelujah.
Speaker 1: If you received it.
Speaker 8: I know I've preached along. But you won't even have
Speaker 8: to fight traffic today because you.
Speaker 1: You got ways. I lost weight and I got ways,
Speaker 1: so I can make it.
Speaker 8: Because now unto him who is able to do immeasurably more,
Speaker 8: then we ask big.
Speaker 5: Or imagine to here big glory through Christ Jesus in
Speaker 5: the Church now and forever.
Speaker 1: You're dismissed.
Speaker 2: I love you, Thank you for joining us. Special thanks
Speaker 2: to those of you who give generously to this ministry.
Speaker 2: Is because of you that this ministry is possible. You
Speaker 2: can click the link in the description to give now
Speaker 2: or visit Elevationchurch dot org slash podcast for more information
Speaker 2: and if you enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe.
Speaker 1: You can share it with your friends.
Speaker 2: You can click the share button, take a screenshot and
Speaker 2: share it on your social stories and tag us at
Speaker 2: Elevation Church.
Speaker 1: Thanks again for listening. God bless you.